The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 90

Just as planned, we landed the ship and climbed to the top of the nearest ash hill.  The ship landed and Malekith emerged.
"Right, you ready?"
"I am." I went over to Jane and brushed up against her, but barely got her attention.  Her head jerked, just enough to give me a glance at her unnaturally electric blue eyes, before they turned back to the entourage that had emerged from the ship.  Kurse was on his right, he also had a dozen other elves.  Once his eyes seemed to find us, Loki moved closer to Thor.
"You know this plan of yours is going to get us killed."
"Yeah, possibly." Loki held out his hands, but Thor hesitated.
"You still don't trust me, brother?"
"I don't really trust either of you.  You both keep promising me I'll hear why you lost deliberately to the Avengers but I haven't."
"You think that's a good topic to discuss right now!?" Loki shouted, "We had a deal!" Thor reached forward.
"That we did.  But would you trust you right now?" He released the cuffs.
"No, I wouldn't." Loki struck fast, stabbing Thor in the abdomen in a harmless area, and gave him a good shove, causing him to tumble and start rolling down the hill.  Loki followed after him, his long legs and gravity eating up ground almost as quickly as his brother.
"Thor!" Jane started down too, her dress sending up a huge ash cloud.  If we hadn't had Malekith's attention before, we certainly had it now.  I ran after Jane, catching up with her at the bottom of the hill.
"You really think I cared about Frigga, about any of you?" He kicked Thor across the face, "All I ever wanted.  Was you and Odin.  Dead at my feet!" Thor raised a hand to summon Mjolnir but Loki grabbed him by the elbow and severed his hand.  The hammer flew past him.  Then, Loki turned towards Jane, in full Jotun form, and I took this as my cue to attack.
"You leave my sister alone!" I went to throw a punch, but Loki blocked me easily, grabbed an area where my clothes were bunched at the hip, picked me up, and slammed me to the ground.  I didn't get up, instead faking unconsciousness.  I heard Jane squeal.
"Malekith!  I am Loki of Jotunheim, and I bring you a gift." Jane grunted, "I only ask one thing in return.  A good seat from which to watch Asgard burn."
"He is an enemy of Asgard." A voice I was unfamiliar with spoke, in the Dark Elf language.  Kurse. "He was a prisoner in their dungeons." Malekith didn't speak, but I sensed a relief boost from Loki.  We had succeeded!  I cracked an eye open and saw Malekith lift Jane into the air, her arms stretched out and the Aether began to emerge from her and hover in the air.  When it was all out, he motioned for Jane to be let down back to the ground.  As soon as Jane hit the ground, Thor made his move.
"Loki, now!" He turned, thrust out his hand, and took down the illusion over Thor, who summoned Mjolnir.  In those scant moments, I leapt to my feet, got the container from my clothes, and was about to open it when a tap from Mjolnir knocked it from my hand and cracked the frame.
"Thor!"
"Get down!" He powered up Mjolnir, giving me no choice but the drop to the ground, covering Jane's vulnerable body with my own.  The lightning was blinding but we remained unharmed.  After a few seconds, the scent of smoke reached my nose, followed moments after by an explosion.  That's when I looked up.  The Aether wasn't in the air anymore.  It was on the ground.  In tiny, solid shards.  Like broken glass.  For a few tense moments, nobody dared to move, but I knew that whatever happened next wasn't going to be good.  And I was right.  The shards raised themselves into the air, turned back to liquid, and recondensed.  Then, before I could do anything, Malekith pulled it into his body.  Just like that, game over, end of the line, and failure.  But I wasn't finished here yet.  I leapt to my feet, ready to attack a retreating Malekith, but Kurse threw a black hole grenade, forcing me to change my stance in order to perform a quick grab and deactivate, but an unseen force shoved me back down to the ground.  Loki.  The bomb went off in mid air about, and Loki was unable to put enough distance in.  The singularity pulled him off the ground and towards it.  For a moment, I thought I was going to lose him, but Thor intervened just in time, using Mjolnir to crash into him and out of the gravity well.  The enemies were still retreating, so I shifted into a panther, and was ready to pursue, but Thor threw his hammer, and it was on target to hit Malekith, but Kurse turned at the last second, swinging its arm with enough force to send the hammer off in a totally different direction.  After that, he and all but two of the soldiers present turned around and began advancing.  Malekith was about to reach his ship, so I took that as my cue to charge.  I couldn't afford to waste time by running around the group, so I met them head-on, avoiding Kurse and going after the others.  Two of them were dead in five seconds but now the others were ready.  Three of them had gone off to fight Loki and Kurse had moved off to challenge Thor.  By now, Malekith had boarded his ship and would likely be heading to Earth.  We would have to fake Loki's death and get rid of Kurse fast if Thor had any hope of getting back to Asgard and convincing Odin to send him to Earth. 
With that in mind, I wasted no time finishing off the rest of the Dark Elves.  After I was finished with them, I shifted back to myself and found that Loki had taken care of his own adversaries as well.  But Thor was still struggling with Kurse, the abomination as knocking him around, he had several scrapes on his head, and those were just the visible injuries I could see.  Loki and I met up before we approached Thor.
"Loki, this is it."
"What?"
"Kurse has a black hole grenade on his belt.  You go up to him, stab him with that," I nodded at the Dark Elf sword he'd taken off one of his attackers, "Get yourself stabbed, and use those moments to activate the device."
"Let it consume him and 'die'. He finished, "I trust your acting skills are flawless?"
"You mean can I pretend you really just died?  Oh yeah." That seemed to be good enough for him.
"Go get Jane." He gave me a push towards where she was still lying dazed on the ground where I'd landed on her.  I rushed to her and knelt down.
"Hey, you ok?"
"Huh, yeah.  I think so."
"Just take it easy." I pulled her to her feet and we began making our way towards Thor.  He was currently being pounded into the ground by Kurse and Loki was still sneaking up behind them.
"Thor!" Jane let go of me and broke into a run.  As soon as Loki saw us, he made his move, surging forward and stabbing Kurse in the back, ensuring that it went all the way to the hilt.  As I ran through the ash after Jane, time seemed to slow down.  Kurse straightened up, Thor's defensive position laxed, and Loki stayed where he was.  Running through the ash was like running through sand, my feet couldn't find secure purchase and so my speed was a fraction of what it could have been.  Then, Kurse slowly turned, glaring at Loki.  Then, quick as a mousetrap, it grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him into a deadly hug.  The blade was so long and Loki was so thin that it went completely through him as well, a good six inches emerging from his back.  Thor roared in anger and I screamed in anguish.  Not all of my pain was imagined though, our Bond was open and I could feel the blade in Loki's body as clearly as if it were in my own.  But despite his pain, I could see his hand move, activating the device right as Kurse threw him off and onto the ground.  At least the wound was somewhat clean, right in, right out.  Fairly simple to heal, it just depended on what was punctured.  Once Loki was on the ground, Kurse advanced, the blade still sticking out of its body.  Loki said something snappy that made it look down at its belt and panic.  Kurse tried to shut the device down, but was too slow as it exploded and engulfed him in a ball of red.
I quickly lost my patience with the ash, sprouted a pair of black wings, and quickly passed a stricken Jane.  When I reached them, Thor was already kneeling beside Loki.
"You fool!  You didn't listen."
"I know.  I'm a fool.  I'm a fool!"
"Stay with me, ok?" I reached them and collapsed beside my husband.
"I'm sorry.  I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"Loki, you have to hold on.  I can't lose you again!"  Just seeing how much effort he was putting into his act was making my emotions come to the surface with surprising ease, he was struggling for breath and was using his sedir to make his skin slowly become gray and cracked.
"Can you heal him?"
"I have to try." I went to begin, but Loki clasped a weak hand around my wrist.
"No.  You and I both know this wound is fatal.  If you try to heal it–"
"But I'll die anyway!  Three years, Loki.  At most!  That's all I'll get."
"It's alright.  I'll tell father what you two did here today."
"I didn't do it for him." I snapped, but Loki's words were a mere whisper.  When I looked back at him, his eyes had closed and the hand around my wrist had released its grip.  Loki was 'gone'.  Thor began to bellow again and I collapsed to the ground, deliberately getting ash in my eyes so the tears came easier.  It wasn't long before I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders.
"Oh, Arista.  I am so sorry."
"I didn't say goodbye.  I didn't tell him how much I love him!"
"Shhh, he knows.  He knows."
"But I didn't say it!"  As if the land sensed the significance of this moment, the wind picked up, stirring up a huge cloud of ash.  If it continued building at its current rate, it would seen be comparable to a sandstorm.
"We must leave." Thor said after a minute or two.
"No."
"Arista–"
"I won't leave him!  None of this would've happened if you'd just followed my plan!  What the Hel were you thinking?!" That struck him silent, "If you want to stop him, go to Earth."
"How?"
"I don't know!  With any luck, Heimdal already has the Bifrost powering back up right now!"
"That is a risk we cannot take.  Come, we must find shelter."
"You must.  I'm staying with Loki."
"Sister–" I swatted his hand off my shoulder.
"Go."
"You must–"
"I SAID LEAVE!" I leapt up, shifted back into a panther, and roared.  When Thor tried to come near me, I swiped at him with my front paws.  Then, I went over to Loki, standing defensively over his body, all the while snarling and snapping when Thor tried to come near me.  After half a dozen failed attempts, Jane approached.  I didn't attack, but I still flinched away from her touch.
"You really think we can beat Malekith without you, even though he has the Aether?"
"I know you can.  Have a little faith in yourself."
"Only if you promise to visit this time."
"Twice a month until I am too weak to travel."
"Is it true, what you said?" I looked away from her eyes and she began to cry.  I let her stay for a few moments, but then I gave her a push towards Thor.
"Take care of her.  I'll see you when this is all over."