Unbroken

Chapter 76

"Loki... wake up" loki heard Trinity's voice say to him. His eyes opened but he wasn't on the battlefield, he was back in the palace gardens. And Trinity was there. She stood across from him, her green eyes shining like the sun, her black curly hair dancing in the light breeze, her flowing summer gown falling around her ankles. She was beautiful, by in Lokis eyes she always was.
"We need you Loki.." Trinity told him, her soft voice echoing through his mind.
"But I'm right here... I'm here with you" he said back. She tilted her head.
"Are you?".
Suddenly the garden melted around him, the warm sunny air turned to bitter cold darkness. The blue sky turned black, Trinity's light gown turned to armor, the fresh smell of grass was replaced by the stench of death, and the sound of the breeze was replaced with the sound of war and battle.
"You have to wake up Loki. Everyone is in danger, and no one knows the jotuns like you" Trinity said in a More urgent tone as she leaned over Loki. He realized that he was no longer standing, but was now laying on his back. He looked down at his leg and saw blood gushing from the arrow wound and everything came back to him.
"I can't fight. I'll bleed out before doing anything useful" Loki said back.
"You can stop the bleeding" Trinity told him right before an explosion went off a little distance away from them.
"How? How can I fix this on the battlefield?" He asked, he needed her help.
"You already know, just think" she said. Loki looked around, the sound was getting louder and the pain in his leg was getting stronger. Trinity moved to leave but Loki grabbed her arm.
"Trinity I need your help" he said "I don't know what I should do, you're a healer, tell me how to fix it, tell me what to do" he said to her, his mind racing.
"Loki this is all in your head, I can't tell you anything you don't already know. Look around the battlefield, think about your past, and think about things I've told you. But first you have to wake up. You're not good to anyone while you're unconscious" she told him, putting her hand on his chest. He felt like his lungs were being crushed but she was barely touching him.
"Wake up Loki" she said, her voice becoming distorted, like someone speaking through water.
"Wake Up!" She shouted. His ears popped, the world melted to darkness and then all of a sudden his eyes opened sharply, he gasped for air, and he was back to reality. The clear sounds of battle filled his ears, His head was swimming, his leg still had an arrow in it and was gushing blood, and he somehow ended up being hidden behind a boulder. He remembered the last ting he saw before he blacked out, which was Thor running toward him, so he assumed that Thor had dragged him out of the way and hidden him so he didn't get killed. Loki heard an explosion and remembered the more important issue; there was still a battle going on, and Asgard needed his help. but he couldn't walk,and there was no way he could fight while his leg was rapidly draining blood from his body. He tried to think through the pain, he tried to remember what Trinity had told him in his vision when he was unconscious.
'Look around the battlefield, think about your past, the things I've told you'. That wasn't much help to Loki, there was nothing on the battlefield that would help mend a wound. There weren't supplies within reach, how was he supposed to do this? He couldn't give himself stitches, he couldn't bandage the wound, the only things n the battlefield were dead soldiers, weapons and...
"Fire" Loki said out loud but to himself. "Fire... Fire And metal. I can cauterize it" he told himself. He wasn't looking forward to it, but once when he was training Trinity, she gave him a quick lesson on mending wounds without supplies, cauterization was the most effective. Laufey has also used this method when he wanted Loki to get back to work as quickly as possible.
Loki immediately ripped a hole in his pants leg where the arrow was lodged in his leg, he'd need to remove the arrow before he could cauterize the wound, but he first needed to get near a fire. It wasn't too hard, there were fires everywhere right now due to the weapons being used, the issue was finding a place near a fire that wasn't out in the open. If the jotuns saw him, they wouldn't let him fix himself up, they'd just shoot him again.
Loki forced himself to sit up, then rested his back against the boulder, panting. He needed to focus to he could talk to Thor, but it was hard to focus on anything except the writhing pain in his leg, and the feeling of loosing so much blood. He closed his eyes and tried to shut everything out, he only focused on getting his mind to Thor. After a moment his eyes opened and he was standing beside Thor, who had just killed a jotun.
"Loki-" Thor started to talk but Loki cut him off.
"Fire a weapon near the boulder where you left me. I need fire but I can't move" Loki said quickly, he didn't know how long he could maintain this image, and the fact that he was also making himself invisible to anyone but Thor, only made it worse.
"Alright. Are you alive?" Thor asked.
"Of course I am, but I won't be for long if I don't find a heat source. And I can't-" Loki wasn't able to focus anymore, his image shimmered into nothing and he was back by the boulder. He sat there for a moment, waiting. Waiting for Thor to give him the fire he needed. Finally after a few minutes of only hearing the sounds of battle from a distance, he heard a much closer sounds of gunfire. The ground shook as a blast of flame hit the ground very near loki. Loki didn't waste any time, he took out his dagger and shoved it into the fire so that only the handle wasn't engulfed in flames. He then got himself ready; he ripped off part of his pant leg and twisted it into a rope, then tied it in his mouth like a gag so he'd have something to bite down on. He then grabbed the arrow that was still going through his leg, broke off the head, and pulled it out quickly. He bit down in pain but didn't scream. Not yet. He looked over at the dagger in the fire, by now it was almost red hot, so he grabbed the handle and pulled it out. He didn't give himself time to rethink anything, he just took a deep breath, bit down hard, and put the knife in the wound, burning the skin to stop the bleeding. He screamed in his throat and bit down hard on the gag. His face beaded with cold sweat as he burned his own wound closed. it didn't take long to close the wound, but it felt like forever. He was dizzy with pain, but the arrow went all the way through his leg, and he was forced to do it a second time to mend the exit wound. So he repeated the process, feeling like he was going to be sick and then pass out. He didn't care how loud he was, he screamed in pain until it was finally finished.
"Loki" Loki heard Thor's voice come around from behind the boulder just as Loki took the dagger out of the wound.
"What are- Loki what in the world?" Thor said in shock when he saw what loki did to himself. Trinity soon followed behind Thor.
"Loki..." she said as he knelt down next to him and untied the gag in his mouth.
"You both have to get back to the battle, I'm fine, I can take care of myself" Loki told them shakily, though his face was chalky white and he was dripping with sweat even though it was freezing.
"Loki you can't fight like this, I'll get you to a facility where we can take proper care of you" Trinity said. They had a small medical camp set up as a place to make temporary fixes (like what Loki had just done), but he needed an actual facility to get real help.
"No I can keep fighting. I know the jotuns better than anyone. if you want to win the battle, you need me out there" Loki said, hearing the chaos that was going on on the battlefield. Thor and Trinity exchanged glances, Loki was right, he was a valuable asset to the Asgardian army. But he was badly injured and there was a strong possibility of him being killed or captured.
"Thor listen to me. you remember what I looked like when I first came to Asgard right?" Loki asked. Thor nodded.
"Of course I Do" Thor said.
"And when I looked like that I was still able to fight battles. That was the condition I lived in for a thousand years, and I fought in Laufey's arenas and won. Laufey spent my whole life training me to fight through agonizing pain" loki said. "But neither of us are useful if we waste time here talking, so get back to the fight, I'll be right behind you. Go" Loki said in almost a commanding tone, Thor almost said 'yes sir' but he didn't, he just turned to Trinity.
"Get back to your camp and help your other patients, if anything happens to Loki I'll bring him to you" Thor said, Trinity didn't argue, she knew Lokis strength. She just nodded and ran off, back to her own fight.
"I'll be right behind you" Loki said. Thor nodded and grabbed his weapons again, then got up and went back to the battle.
Loki went back to focusing on his wound. He needed to protect it, so he tore off part of his shirt and wrapped it tightly around the burns. Then he grabbed his daggers, took a deep breath, forced himself to his feet, and went back into battle.
=*****=.
The battle lasted all night, both armies were shrinking because of soldiers falling. Loki had managed to remain in the battle umtil the end, but Asgard was not holding up against the invasion.
"Thor... this isn't going anywhere" Loki told Thor as the sun was rising "they're fighting with an unbeatable determination" loki added. Thor looked angry.
"So what are you suggesting? That we let them invade?!" Thor asked him.
"They'll invade either way. if we retreat  now we might have an army to fight with tomorrow, but if we keep fighting we're all going to end up dead, and they'll invade over our dead bodies" Loki told him.
"I won't run from a fight!" Thor yelled. Loki grabbed his arm.
"Retreating now wouldn't be cowardly, it would be strategic and smart. Continuing the fight guarantees nothing but the loss of all our men" loki told him "do the smart thing and save them" he added. Thor looked angry, angry that loki was right. The frost giants brought more power than was expected and the Asgardian army suffered from it, the jotuns refused to give up control of the gate sight, and now the Asgardian army was forced to retreat. Thor gave the order, and their men pulled back, giving the frost giants access to the gate and the realm. Asgard had lost the first battle in the new war, and Jotunhiem had successfully invaded.