A/N: I am sorry I haven't updated for such a long time. I really hope I can update more frequently from now on, but I'm not sure since school's quite busy. A big thank you to everyone who reads/favorites/follows/reviews this story! (:

Chapter 6

They followed Straples to one of the lowest floors of the SHIELD headquarters. "What exactly are we hoping to find there, Thor?" Jane asked, sighing slightly. She didn't really like how her time with Thor was going so far. She had pictured her reunion with Thor in another way. Of course she understood that his brother was important to him, she really did, even though she didn't feel the same about it. Yet there was something itching inside of her. He was more important to him than she was.

"The sceptre, or not," was Thor's short answer.

"But he couldn't have stolen it, right?" Darcy asked. "That room must have one hell of a lock and is probably watched over constantly, isn't it, pretty boy?" she said, and she pinched Straples, who wasn't as amused as she was and kept his face as long as it had been all day.

"No one could have gone into it. The computers haven't registered anything."
"Computers?" Darcy asked. "No human eyes involved? You're having this super-magic-y thing watched by computers?"
Straples shrugged and ignored her further comments on the modern-day management.

They reached the room five minutes later and Thor looked as if he was ready to storm in, but Straples shook his head and stuck his card into one of the screens at the side. It bleeped on and the room was showed from four different angles. The sceptre was in the middle, as if untouched. A quick test ran over the room and in less than thirty seconds it was fully screened, showing the sceptre as the only alien material in the room. As real material.
"See," Straples said, a bit relieved. "Perfectly normal. He didn't take it."
Thor bowed his head into a frown while Jane voiced his exact thoughts. "Then how did he escape?" Straples didn't answer. "Darcy, what are you doing?" The girl was staring at the screen with her eyes fixed.
"I don't know, it's just like, there's…" Finally she released her fix and her face broke into a small smile. "I see a shimmer. It's not yellow, but it's there."
"Darcy, your mind is imagining things, there's no shimmer," Jane said.

Darcy eyed her, annoyed. "Fine, I will prove it to you. There's something there and I don't care if you don't believe me, I am going to find out what it is." Determined she grabbed the card from Straples and put it into the door. It opened, and she slid into the room before anyone could try to stop her. The door closed and Darcy felt as if a whole storm came over her. The light was extremely bright and for a moment she forgot where she was. Then she knew exactly where she was. She had been right about the shimmer, and even though she wished she had been, she now wished she hadn't been. Where the room had appeared white on the screen, the ground was soaked in blood and it made the white walls look a few shades darker. Yet that wasn't what horrified her the most. That was what was lying in the puddle of blood, in the middle of the room. She could hardly tell, but every inch of her body told her that it was in fact Loki. She could distinguish his black hair, but the rest of his body looked as if it had literally been torn apart several times. His arm wasn't lying in the right angle and he looked as if there was no life left in him. Yet he twitched. Every now and then, there was a sudden, small movement, and it seemed to put him through more pain than she could ever imagine having in her whole life. He clutched to the sceptre, but didn't seem to want to hold it at all. For a few moments Darcy just froze on spot. What was she supposed to do? She could do first aid, but she knew this was well beyond that. This was well beyond anything she had ever seen, and she couldn't help her mind starting to run. Who had done this to him? Who had hated him more, even more than SHIELD and half of humanity did? Slowly, she forced herself to move in his direction. She didn't know what exactly she was going to do, but she couldn't just let him lie there. He would die. She had never been certain if gods could die, but this made her certain. She didn't know how he could ever survive this. Being in this state, getting any more of whatever he had been getting. He was Thor's brother, and he would never forgive her if she came out without him. Neither would she.

OOO

"What has happened? WHAT HAS HAPPENED?" Jane panicked.

"I don't know," Straples said, unsure. It had been a few minutes since Darcy had simply walked off their screen, into the room.

"Magic is blocking the true view," Thor murmured. "We need to get inside," he stated to Straples, daring the mortal to refuse his command.

"We can't, the girl's got the key. We need to…"

"GET ANOTHER KEY, YOU IDIOT!"

Thor grabbed Jane's arm lightly, trying to be some sort of comfort, but miserably failing. He didn't dare to think of what was happening in that room right now.

OOO

The Chitauri were gone. He knew. He could sense their presence with every cell of his being, and they weren't there. For now. They would be back. He knew it. They had gone before, but they had always come back. Just when a little hope found its way into his mind, they came back.

He heard the door open, but refused to acknowledge it. It was just his mind playing tricks on him. The Chitauri didn't really use the door, and no one from SHIELD would see a reason to go into this room. Magic neatly cover up the slaughtering, and who would expect that he would still be in SHIELD after what they probably called his escape? No one would. No one. No one was coming for him. They were looking for him, because he was a criminal on the run. But they didn't care. Thor told him he cared, but how could he ever love someone like him? How could he ever care about a Frost Giant, the race he had wanted to end with his bare hands? If he died here, he'd only make them happy. And even though he didn't wish to do that, he wished to die. Right now, at this moment. The pain was becoming unbearable and with every small movement it felt as if his body and his soul were ripped to shreds until he couldn't find the strength to breath anymore. He would die anyway. The sooner, the better.

He felt his grip on the sceptre tighten, and he heard the voice inside his head.

Useless, failure, slave, the voice hissed in his ears, making him want to clutch them with his hands while not actually finding the strength to do so. I wished to feed you to Lady Death, but I can see you now, you hideous snake. You do not even deserve death. You're not worthy. That shouldn't have been a surprise for me, though, should it? You never were. The words echoed through his head and made him want to rip himself apart. They made him want to scream with the voice he couldn't find and made him want to tear his hair out, but he couldn't even tell where his head and his hands were anymore. A voice appeared as if out of nowhere. It wasn't the raspy voice he had become so used to. It was a woman's voice, a kind voice. This must be a trick, it couldn't be any different. He stiffened when he felt something touch him and he tried to huddle away from it, but he couldn't. He felt a tear on his face that couldn't be his own, and suddenly wondered who the voice was supposed to belong to.

OOO

She laid her hand on one of his shoulders, but he hardly seemed to notice. He didn't move, or couldn't move, as she moved closer and kneeled beside him, ignoring the blood soaking her trousers. "Can you hear me?" she whispered, not daring to speak to loudly. His eyelids stayed closed, yet he felt him stiffen when she softly brushed her finger over his shoulder. Was she hurting him? She drew back her hand and couldn't help the tears welling up in her eyes. This was wrong. This was wrong on so many levels. She didn't like him. She knew what he had done. But he didn't deserve this. No one could ever deserve something like this. "Please, wake up," she spoke softly, nearly begging. She laid her hand on his bloodied cheek. Silently she wondered why he ended up like this, and while she wondered, she didn't see the figure approaching behind her. Before she could even think of crying out, she felt a hand silencing, and then everything went black.

OOO

He felt a hand on his cheek. It burned, but the soft humming of a voice made the touch a bit sweeter. It was nice to hear a voice, even though he was probably imagining it. He couldn't hear the words that were spoken, but they comforted him anyway. Where had he heard that voice before?
Suddenly the wall broke. He could feel the magic whimper for a bit. They were there again. He could feel it. But they weren't coming for him. Why weren't they coming for him. He heard a soft sound, and the touch was gone. As was the voice. He forced himself to open his eyes. He needed to know. He threw a quick glance at his surroundings and saw a woman he recognised, though he couldn't immediately place it. She was pushed to the side of the room, while another creature towered over him. "Have you missed us, little princess?" a voice - much unlike the voice that belonged to the woman – screeched.
Then everything went red.

OOO

Thank you for reading this chapter! Please review ^^.