*Author's Note*- It's been a hot minute, hasn't it? I've been extremely busy but now everything is settling down so I've been trying to get my grove back. This chapter gets pretty intense and I do leave you on quite the cliff hanger, so sorry about that lol. This book will be much shorter than 'Imprisoned'. I'm estimating a minimum of 4 more chapters left in this book, possibly more. Then this Loki story will be completely done and I will be focusing on 'Damaged Goods'. Please enjoy this chapter!<3RJ
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"How much longer?" I ask for probably the 50th time in the last two hours. Rocket groans.
"I'm going as fast as we can. Only 20 minutes. My ship's a beauty but she's not a miracle worker," Rocket answers. I nervously nod my head and go back to my room on the ship, only the continue pacing in front of the window. Nebula's bunk is right next to mine so I can see her playing on the iPad again.
"Hey Nebula, what are you doing?" I ask, trying to distract myself. She briefly looks up at me before continuing with her game.
"I believe it's called 'Call of Duty', I very much enjoy having endless foes to defeat and so many different weapons to do it with." Nebula clicks on an item. "What is a marksman rifle?"
"Oh, that's a-" A loud ringing sounds in my head and I clutch to the bunk for support. I briefly see Nebula stand up and reach out to steady me before everything goes black and I'm suddenly on Titan.
My vision goes blurry for a bit until I can adjust but when I do I can clearly see Loki being held in the same painful position as his entire body sweats. Loki is in his Juton form, his beautiful blue skin and the lines adorning his skin are disfigured where his skin and bones were torn or broken. Thanos brings a torch close to Loki's face as he cringes away. Fire is a deadly weapon against a Juton and is one of the only things that can cause him maximum pain.
"Loki," I whisper and walk over to him.
"You will give me what I want!" Thanos orders in a disturbingly calm voice. Thanos quickly redirects the torch from Loki's face to his chest and presses it firmly into his skin.
"Ahhhhh!" Loki screams in agony and I fall to my knees beside his shaking figure as Thanos pulls the torch away. "I will never give you what you want you purple bastard," Loki growls but it's so weak it sounds more like a whisper.
"Loki! Loki, listen to me, just hang in a little bit longer, we're almost here. I'm coming darling please just hang on for me." Loki's groan is followed up by another blood-curdling scream as Thanos jams the torch to his left thigh and burns through the tatters of his pants that were left there. Suddenly the torch is taken away and Thanos slaps Loki across the face. Loki's head lolls to the side and hangs down, he can't even bring his head up and my heart clenches in pain.
"I don't want to hear another scream come from you unless you're screaming for mercy and telling me where that stone is," Thanos practically spits in his face and lifts his hand as magic swirls around Loki's mouth, and before I can see anything else Loki groans defeatedly and a silent tear runs down his face.
I come to. Nebula stares at me in worry and alarm. I blink a few times to clear my vision and realize I'm lying on the floor. I slowly sit up and glance around me in confusion.
"What the hell just happened?" Nebula asks.
"I...I don't know. What did I do?"
"One second you were talking, the next your eyes rolled into the back of your head and you collapsed to the floor," she supplies.
"That's never happened before..." I say to myself more than her. My eyes widen when I remember what I saw. "Oh my god. No, no, no, no!" I chant as I run out of the living quarters and into the cockpit of the ship. "Rocket-"
"We're here," Rocket announces. I look out the large window and take in the red and desolate landscape of Titan. The jewel in my necklace glows and I feel that familiar pull again. We're close. I see a familiar shape in the distance and point it out. "There," I tell Rocket and Quill. "I can feel it." I turn back into the main part of the ship. Valkyrie sits on one of the benches, holding her dragonfang blade in firm hands. "Thor!" I yell. One second later Thor comes bounding down a hallway holding Stormbreaker close, his expression grave. "We're here," I tell him. He inclines his head in understanding and as Rocked lands the ship just beyond the hill hiding Thanos and Loki from us. We all stand at the loading dock, prepared to jump off as soon as the door opens.
"I'll go to retrieve Loki with Mantis so we can tend to him. You all kill Thanos, he's not worth my time," I replay the plan for everyone one last time and unsheathe my blade.
"Thanos is mine," Thor practically growls. We all stay silent because we know it's what he needs to do. The door opens and we all run out, me leading the pack.
The team engages with Thanos as Mantis and I rush to Loki. As I get closer I can clearly make out every injury on his body with my own eyes. But the most horrifying of them all has to be the stitches sewing Loki's lips together. There is fresh blood dripping down his chin and it joins the blood drying on his chest. A sob gets stuck in my throat at the sight. I swing my blade out and one by one cut Loki down from his magical binds. With the last one severed Loki slumps to the ground and I catch him before he face-plants.
"Loki. Loki, look at me love," I urge him as I gently tilt his head up so I can meet his eyes. His matted jet-black hair falls haphazardly over his face and I brush it away. Loki's eyes peek open and I give him a broken smile, it's the best I can offer him right now. His eyes are the natural blood-red that comes with being in his Juton form and the darkness and pain swirling in their depths feels like a punch to the chest. "Hey, Lohks. We're here, I've got you, you're going to be alright." I can tell he wants to say something to me but the pain from the sutures securing his lips together only allows me to hear a groan of pain. I turn to Mantis. "The med-kit," I order. She dutifully hands over the medkit and I take out the medical scissors. Carefully with slightly shaky hands, I bring the scissors to the thread holding Loki's lips together. I take a deep breath to steady my hands and slowly begin to cut the strings away.
"Alcohol and a cotton swab please," I request from Mantis, and she hastily obliges. I wet the cotton swab with the alcohol and slowly begin to clean around the now cut strings on Loki's lips, he winces and I cringe. "Okay..." I say as I change out the bloody cotton swab with another alcahol-drenched one and conceal it in the palm of my left hand. "I'm sorry Lohks, this is going to hurt. I daintily pull each thread out of his scarred lips, and by the time I'm done, I want to throw up due to the noises that the threads made as I pulled them free of Loki's skin.
Loki sucks in a sharp breath and I go through again and clean the wounds. Despite the amount of pain I know he's in Loki manages a smile meant only for me, it's not much but it's there and I don't need him to speak to know what he's thinking. I shake my head and try to get back to the task at hand. "Pass me the blue tube," I order and once it's in my hand I proceed to apply the cooling cream to the burn marks on Loki's chest and thigh. He inhales sharply through his teeth at the initial sting of it but sighs a second later when the cooling effect kicks in.
The fighting proceeds in the background as I patch up a few of Loki's severe injuries in silence. Mantis and I help him to his feet and begin to walk away from the fight, but not before I see Thanos about to bring down his fist on Valkyrie. In a split second, I'm slashing at Thanos, causing him to stumble back in alarm.
"I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch! And I'm going to enjoy every second of it." I promise him as I land a blow to his right bicep. Thanos roars and backhands me across the face with the gauntlet, sending me flying backward into a pile of debris. I clear my vision in time to see a metal spear of some sort flying in my direction after leaving Thanos' hand. My eyes widen as I prepare for the killing blow but before it can reach me Loki is kneeling in front of me, the remnants of his weak green magic swirling away, a terrified look in his eyes. It takes me a second to realize what just happened and then Loki reaches down to his abdomen with shaky hands and grasps the spear, and with a guttural groan, pulls it from his chest, just below his heart. A single tear spills down my cheek. Loki falls backward to the ground. A pool of dark blood expands from underneath him and appears to swallow him whole as his hand desperately grips mine and I follow his body to the ground.
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*Author's Note*-Dun. Dun. Duuunnnnn! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Prepare yourself for the next one, it's going to be quite eventful. I'm hoping the next chapter will be up next Sunday so fingers crossed. Please vote for more and comments are always appreciated! <3RJ