They crashed into the chamber at once. Sorcerer, shadow, angel.
Loki had risen and prepared himself for whatever was to come. He looked worn out, exhausted even and marked by fear for his lover's life. She lay there so peacefully, not perceiving the spectacle, Loki thought bitterly.
"Get away from her." Tom growled, pointing a gun at Loki, whom had raised his arms defensively.
"I have not summoned you here to fight." He replied, his voice calm and smooth yet giving a hint of distress.
"Show me where I asked." Xenia retorted defiantly, pushing her way through the tall men framing her. Edward put his arm in front of her, in a holding-back manner, but Loki saw more to it. Of course. "Now do as we say, and maybe we'll kill you mercifully."
"Good to see you, too, Xenia." Loki smirked slightly at her, then returned his attention to Tom, whom he considered the leader of the group. "Caroline's current state is instabile. She has lost a lot of blood."
Loki took a step forward, sending a wave of tension through the room. "We have enough differences, and I will not even pretend I don't want to kill you all. But she needs us, all of us, now. I ask for a truce."
"What is it exactly you need from us?" Xenia questioned.
"Blood first of all. I cannot be her donor, nor can you both." He nodded to Xenia and Edward. "Tom needs to bleed, or she is lost."
"Let me reformulate. What use are you to us in this situation? Why shouldn't we just dispose of you right now, and save her ourselves?"
"Because you can't." Loki cut her off uncompromisingly. "Tom has the knowledge but not the magic, your new accomplice has magic but could never hope to use it correctly. Would you risk it, in her dire state?"
They all knew the answer, Xenia fell silent.
"Tom. You understand best what I am asking of you, and if you be honest, there is nothing left to decide."
And so it happened.
---
"I don't like this, not the slightest bit." Xenia hissed at Edward. "We have him right here."
"Nor do I, but I'm afraid he's telling the truth."
Tom had chosen to stay by Caroline's side, even if it meant constantly seeing Loki's face. The angels had fled into the library for the sake of privacy, but even that seemed insufficient.
"So what did you come here for, then?"
Edward glanced at her shortly, before pulling her out of the library and somewhere more discreet. "I came here to kill Loki. But my appearance and meddling has caused it all to go down like that. She wasn't supposed to fall on that fucking rock, she ran to save me. So now I have to do whatever it takes to save her life. Loki becomes second on the list."
"He's already plotted all our deaths, you do know that?"
"No one knows this better than me."
"Taken a liking to my son I see." Loki had also left the library, with some used cloths on his arm. "Not that it surprises me."
"Go fuck yourself." Xenia hissed after him, but Loki had already dismissively walked down the stairs.
"Hey, let's tone it down. We needed to concentrate." Edwards chastised her sternly, and pulled her closer into his arms. "Don't lower yourself to his level more than absolutely necessary."
Loki had reappeared as fast as he left, with fresh white towels. At the sight of the two angels like this, he actually came to a halt and stared. "You do realize, the 'love' you think you feel is but a manipulation of your brain transmitters by this man?"
"Every love is just brain transmitters. Not that you'd know." She snapped back.
"I am not saying this for provocation, not this time. Look at me, don't you consider me your personal Satan? Well, I am not a fallen angel yet. That might give you an idea along which scale of evil your beloved here moves."
"Your grade of delusion is astonishing, Loki. Thin ice." Edward suddenly spoke up. Loki had hit a raw nerve there, and he knew that.
"Show me where I lied, Araziel." Loki smiled patronizingly, mocking them both. "Funny indeed, the God of Lies, having to tell the truth."
With that, Loki vanished back into the library. Xenia looked up at Edward's face, who suddenly looked much more like an Araziel. Xenia only managed to get a hold of his closed fist before he stormed off, following Loki. This was the exact opposite of concentration.
Tom, who had just bled a full unit of blood, heard their voices. He wanted nothing less than to leave his wife's side, but there were threats bigger than his own loneliness then. He bandaged his arm and exited the chamber.
" - and if you do not take your hands off now, I will kill you first." Tom heard Loki threatening Edward, who had grabbed him by his collar.
"You think my life is some precious thing to me." Edward scoffed, but let go of Loki's shirt.
"Hey, hey!" He hurried between them.
"I told you this wasn't gonna work. We need to kill this motherf - " Xenia yelled, not at all helpful.
"You, off to Caroline. Now!" Tom barked at her, more than willingly cutting her off. She seemed to hesitate, but Tom's stare then was intense enough to make her reconsider. She left for Caroline's room, pettily shutting the door with a bang.
Loki chuckled. "Does this amuse you?"
"My dear Thomas, 'tis not what you think. I merely came to realize how much alike we can be."
"I'm not like you, not the slightest bit." Tom snarled back.
"Thomas is a survivor. You are just a coward, slowly murdering everyone you love."
Two pairs of eyes shot at Araziel, who wore the most terrifying expression they'd seen so far. Tom thought nothing of it, considered it a rough stab at Loki, but the latter didn't. There was a hidden undertone, something not right. He narrowed his eyes and turned to his son.
"What did you just say to me?"
"You heard me."
"What the fuck did you just say to me!"
It was the first time Loki ever condescended to curse like mortals. It just showed again how drained and at his wit's end he was. This was the endgame.
A short flash from the Asgardian table interrupted their fighting. A foreign voice suddenly sounded. Loki back off and turned his attention to the forming hologram. It was astonishingly clear.
"Your Grace." The Asgardian guard bowed his head.
Something was off, Loki felt it. There was only one reason why the Crown would attempt to contact him, which was his plea for clemency. The communication had happened through a couple of contact men, as Loki had also been denied the right to directly initiate royal procedures. The entire situation was complicated enough.
If his plea had been rejected, one of his men would have contacted him. If Loki had been granted clemency, surely his mother or Thor would have insisted on summoning him. There was no doubt in that.
"Messenger." Loki greeted dryly. "What brings you to me?"
"A royal message, your Grace."
So it was his pardoning after all!
"When?" There was no time to lose. All he ever wanted seemed so much closer then, just in his grasp, warm and awaiting.
"Yesterday, your Grace."
The eyes of this man were glazed with melancholy, a fresh scar of some sort marred his face.
"Yesterday?" The nerves went through with Loki, he could've saved himself all of this madness if he had known right away. "You waited an entire day to inform me?" He shouted at the guard.
"I beg your forgiveness, your Grace. The salvage of our wounded and fallen, and the preparations for the royal funeral have made it impossible to inform you at once."
"Funeral?" Loki's eyes revealed what his mind feared the most. His impertinent voice fell silent to a breath. "Messenger - " He gulped. "What have you come to tell me?"
The guard raised his gaze for the first time. "The Crown extends their deepest and most sincere condolences. Her Majesty the Queen has not survived the war."
The mansion had never been so silent. Loki had never stood so still. Tom looked at Edward, who returned his look with a knowing, pained expression. The hologram had long faded, leaving the Prince of Asgard staring at an empty table, with eyes even emptier.
"Loki - "
"Did you know?"
Tom was taken aback by the question. No matter what Loki thought of it, he considered Frigga his mother, no less than she was Loki's. He had loved her, through his memories. Tom also knew Loki's self-loathing tendencies, knew how much harder this would turn for him than for Tom himself. The latter was much more stable, capable of grieving healthily, and much more crucially - Tom had no idea that Loki had been behind the Dark Elves' war on Asgard.
Did Loki really think so little of Tom? They hated each other, but their love for their mother was a - if not, the most fundamental - common ground they shared. If Tom had known of her death, hell, if he'd had any power to prevent it, he wouldn't have hesitated.
Tom approached Loki hesitantly from behind, comfortingly. The irony, united in death. Just as he raised his right hand to put on Loki's left shoulder, the prince turned off to the right.
His eyes drilled into Edward's, glazed with tears, blood-shot, disbelieving.
"Did you know?" He repeated, nearly incapable of voicing those words.
The cunning trickster had put one and one together. Edward was from the future, he had to know. It was a question Loki already knew the answer of too well. Two urges drove him to ask nonetheless.
Self-punishment.
"Yes."
Edward had hesitated only the slightest bit. He knew what he inflicted on Loki in that moment. For a split second, he considered it retaliation for all the years to come. Loki faltered back, overwhelmed by the invisible and all-powerful force of Araziel's answer.
This man was suffocating, drowning, shot from just a pathetically short word forced into his head. He was the master of words. Now they were poison.
Revenge.
"Loki, no - "
Under any other circumstances, Tom would've welcomed this opportunity. Tom and Loki's son, united against a common enemy, the fight that would end it all - but there was his wife, who lied just a floor above them, dependent on their blood, care, collaboration.
Tom's love for Caroline was mightier than his murderous rage. Loki's love for Frigga, and the sensation of coldblooded betrayal accompanied by self-reproach had pushed him way beyond reason. There was no thinking then, only pain.
Loki hurled his elbow back into Tom's face, interrupted the latter's attempt of holding him back. The affect unlocked strengths in Loki no one thought he possessed. Thor would've been proud - but he was busy mourning their late mother, whose blood stuck to Loki's hands. The blow sent Tom to the ground. It had been brute, brain-shaking, surely bone-breaking. It kept him down.
Without looking back Loki lunged at Edward. While usually calm and graceful in fighting, he used both his hands at once, firing a massive energy blast. It cast the sorcerer through the thick wall and out of the mansion. A hole gaped where once a shelf stood, granting sight at the rose garden outside.
It had been planted and cultivated for Caroline. Edward landed and turned over and over, ripping out dozens of roses in the process. Likewise overwhelmed but conscious at least, he pushed himself up in an instant. Thorns pierced into his palms.
Loki stood steadfast in the unsightly hole of the wall, glaring down. His powers reached their absolute maximum, so vast and consuming they made his eyes glow. Not the usual green flare Caroline knew of him, this was his godly blood coloring his pupils an intense gold.
"You're a monster, Loki." Araziel exclaimed. "Always have been."
Loki fired at him again, only this time, Araziel shaped a shield in front of him. His legs stood firmly against the ground, the impact shoved him backwards and drilled his feet deeper into the ground.
"I've waited so long." He panted. "Waited all those years, for someone sensible to end you already. Until one fateful day, when it dawned on me I had to become this someone."
Araziel absorbed the remaining energy and sent it back to Loki, who redirected it. A pillar of the mansion took the impact and broke down. Loki didn't reply to the taunting, there was no room left in his mind to generate words. He let himself fall to the ground, light-footed yet frightening.
"You always think you're right."
It was so much easier then for Edward. Without Loki playing with his mind, with his voice and his words and every manipulation faded, it was so much easier. He became just another opponent to take out.
"But your actions haunt you. Every despicable decision haunts you."
They lunged for each other. Araziel, too, was trained with daggers. It was the first occasion in a long time that Loki had to battle another sorcerer. He was blind and numb with rage and grief, which allowed Araziel to fight back. Red and gold flared up every now and then, painted a picture of death and hatred, garnished by the flashing of their blades.
A deafening shot sounded, accompanied by the tone of a projectile sharply flying past them.
Tom stood up there in the hole, where Loki had been only moments ago. Blood streamed out of his nose, and probably his right eye, too. He could have made this shot count - he had staggered over to where his gun lay, released it, pushed himself to the opening, all the while the lights danced around him, his vision coming and going - as if in a dream. He had aimed at the golden glow.
What did they aim for when they missed your heart?
The God of Mischief extended his hand to shoot back at Tom, likewise missing slightly as his son reflexively thrust against his arm. The vibration of the impact made Tom lose his balance and fall nonetheless. This was the split second Loki's attention was scattered, Araziel went for it. His free arm shot forward, stabbed Loki in the back - in the truest sense of the word.
Or so he had imagined.
No, Loki's free arm shot backward and intercepted the blade before it could cut. Twisted Araziel's wrist, disengaged the dagger, turned around and thrust it back. Araziel blocked not a moment too soon, but too weak. The angle was most unfavorable, and Loki in his current state was so much stronger.
"I'm one of those decisions." Araziel spat once again blood and raised his hand to the dagger plunged in his upper chest. It hadn't touched his heart. He grimaced and groaned, but pulled it out in one motion. "I'm no more mortal than you. Not anymore."
So there they stood, father and son, no one would back down. Loki's eyes, his golden glowing eyes scanned Araziel for the next striking point, all in fractions of a seconds, before the enlightenment overcame him.
The mark of time, black and unforgiving, scarred Edward from wrist to throat. It traced his veins up his neck just to show ever so slightly from under his maltreated shirt. Nothing went unnoticed by Loki's eyes then. A hint of a smile played around his mouth, it was then that the fighting was done.
The God of Mischief stepped back. He did not have the time stone, nor any other infinity stone. But perhaps, at the unchained peak of his powers, he might just suffice for one small, decisive act. Loki closed his eyes, summoned all the might he had. The markings of time appeared on his skin, covering him whole - his arm shot out, palm facing Araziel.
"A man out of time." Loki spoke smoothly, for the first time. "Dies by time."
It was in his eyes what was on his mind. The markings then rose from his skin and started spinning all around. He tilted his arm slowly to the right. The air seemed to vibrate around him, charging the atmosphere all around. Leaves started floating up in the wind.
Edwards let out a pain-stricken loud groan, his hands shot to his throat. The lines on him expanded suddenly, engulfing him, scarring him. In an instant, they switch from jet black to a burning gold.
Light flooded the entire place, bathing it in white. Edward lost sensation of his extremities, the numbness progressing slightly but surely. He attempted desperately to shield himself, to fight it off, but this Loki was too strong. He had pushed him too far. Tom cried out his name with what little consciousness remained him.
Time had caught up with him, and now it would take Edward Araziel back.
---
Tom uncovered his eyes, it had been too blinding. His head hurt, but felt differently. So much more... capacity. He looked up, saw a shaking Loki on his knees. The golden glow still framed him. There was no sight of Edward.
"Loki..." Tom pushed himself off the ground. His balance was back suddenly, he remember how he couldn't even take a close range shot just moments ago. But everything seemed back to normal now, except for the dull throbbing somewhere deeper in his face. Loki didn't respond, Tom approached cautiously.
He had no magic, just the strength and the mind. The rose garden blemished, almost completely destroyed where they had fought. Tom stared at the ground, something rang wildly in his mind. His gaze stuck to some ripped out roses to his feet - they had withered to a brownish, dried out shape.
He turned around, back to the mansion's likewise blemished facade. The lowest part of it was glassy, it was where the main living room was - Tom remembered punching through that glass once. The intact part reflected back at Tom.
He knew, more surely than anything, that Loki had knocked him unconscious. It had broken his nose, if not more. The fall from the second floor had cut his face. His skin was perfectly intact.
Tom turned to Loki, who had slowly risen from his knees but still turned his back.
"What did you do?" He already knew. "You bastard, what did you - "
Loki turned to him, faster than thought possible, firing a blast with a deadly amount of energy at Tom. The shadow raised his arms reflexively, no time to step aside. The hairs on his arms and neck stood, perceiving the change in energy very well. An invisible shield had formed in front of Tom, directing the energy safely past him.
"Your magic is powerless against me." Tom reminded him, almost triumphantly. It was true, part of his powers was a certain resilience.
A cry tore through the silence. Both their heads shot up - it was Caroline's scream.
"Not lethal, but not quite powerless either." Loki hissed, and aimed at Tom once again. "An ancient spell, but quite unbreakable."
Loki started reciting a poem-like spell, Tom recognized it immediately.
"No!" He lunged forward at the sorcerer in the prime of his magical power. Loki fought him off, just long enough to finish.
" - Petrosiam."
Loki took a step forward and pressed his palm against Tom's chest, right over his frantically beating heart. The touch felt freezing cold at first - then hot as cast iron. His heart, was it ripped out of his ribcage, torn in two pieces? As the sound of tearing flesh reached Tom's eardrums, the horrifying realization sunk in. He grabbed Loki's arm with both hands, only to notice they petrified the moment he made contact.
Tom pushed against it, tried desperately to move as his muscles grew stiffer and stiffer. Loki wasn't covering him in stone or whatever this was, he was turning him into stone. It sunk into every layer of tissue, through his veins and arteries, it was atrocious.
"I cannot take your life with magic." Loki whispered wryly. "But by Odin, can my hands crush you."
---
Inspirations for this chapter:
(all rights to their respective owners - all pics found on Pinterest)