Home | Loki [Book Two]

Chapter Seven

A few days later, Loki and I were sitting in the old coffee shop when my phone started ringing. 

"'Be right back," I said to Loki, who nodded dismissively. "Yes?" I answered once I stepped out the door. When no one answered, I hung up and was about to go back inside when a man I didn't recognize stopped me. 

"Excuse me," he said, "are you, by chance, Delta?"

"Yeah. Wait, how did you--"

"Dr. Foster, I've found her." The last thing I saw before I was knocked unconscious was a Hydra badge on the man's jacket. 

Take it from me: helplessness is no fun. Being unable to do anything is the worst feeling in the world. I've only felt helpless three times in my life. This was the first. 

I was confined to a medical table, blood pumping out of my veins, staring at the Hydra symbol on the ceiling. I'd seen the restraints before. They were meant to drain one's strength and prevent escape. 

"I wish this could happen differently," a voice I vaguely recognized said. 

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"I wish that science did not come a such a big cost, Delta."

"Do I know you?"

"We've met. You saved my life." She turned my head so I could see her. "I'm Jane. Jane Foster."

"Now I get why Sif hates you." With quite a bit of effort, I managed to turn my head to the ceiling again. "What do you need with me, anyway?"

"I need to find out more about Asgard. I may find the secret to prolonged life. I could develop new super soldiers to defend Earth. There are so many possibilities!"

Mad scientist, much? I thought. "How are you going to go about this supposed world-saving?"

"I need your blood."

"How much blood are you taking?" I was already having trouble breathing.

"All of it."

"I don't see how killing me for my blood helps you in the grand scheme of things."

Jane tapped one of the screens. "It doesn't, but killing you was the only thing Zeke wanted in exchange for using all of the Hydra tech."

"What will you do with my blood? If you're going to kill me, I'd like to know what's going to happen to me once I'm dead." When did talking get so hard?

"Your DNA can become part of human DNA, and immortality will be just around the corner." 

"Asgardians are not immortal." I was breathing way more quickly than usual.

"Yes, but you're really close. 

Jane was still blathering on when I heard a sort of disconnected voice. 

"Mayhem, I know you can hear me." Loki? "If you're alive, just hold on for a little longer. We're on our way."

My thoughts were starting to become foggy, but I guessed that since Mayhem, and therefore me, was an all-seer or something like that, I was able to communicate with other people.

I decided to stall for time. "Am I going to die for real this time?" I asked, slurring my words together and sounding more cheerful than the situation called for. 

"That's what I've been saying." She looked exasperated. 

"I can't feel my arm. Or my legs. Is that bad?" I could feel my limbs just fine, but Jane didn't need to know that.

"Yes, that is very bad." She frantically started checking the containers of blood. "I don't have enough."

"Enough of what?"

"Croissants."

"Really?" I should act more often, I thought.

"No, you idiot! Your blood. What else?"

I closed my eyes, feigning unconsciousness. "Good night."

"No, you have to stay awake." She removed one of the needles from my hand. 

"Ow." I was starting to lose feeling in my legs for real this time.

"Dr. Foster," a voice on the speakers said, "we have a situation."

"What is the situation?" she half-yelled.

"A crazy man broke into the base." Thor. 

"Eliminate him, then." She shut off the communication line. 

"Who was that?"

"You ask too many questions."One of the walls exploded with a bang loud enough to break anyone's eardrums. 

I coughed from the smoke and removed the now-useless restraints since the power had turned off. I was too weak to do anything else other than keep breathing, which had become a conscious effort.

"Jane Foster?" I heard Loki say. 

She only cursed in response. I don't think she was too happy that her boyfriend's brother had caught her trying to murder me, although the jury was still out on whether she would succeed. 

"What are you doing with Delta?"

"Saving humanity from death and aliens like you. I am saving more lives than you know!"

"It looks more like murder to me," Loki said as I began to remove the various needles and monitors through my wavering vision.

Thor broke down the door at that moment, creating more dust for me to cough on.

"Jane?" 

"Thor? What--why are you here?" 

"Delta is in trouble and--" he caught sight of me coughing silently on the medical table. "Jane, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to save my people!" I noticed her sidestep to hide the containers already full of my blood. "Don't you do the same thing for Asgard?"

"Not like this!"

"Brother," Loki warned, "we're here to rescue Delta, not fight."

"Then get her out of here," Thor said, not taking his betrayed eyes off Jane. 

Loki glanced once more at Thor and Jane before running over to help me. "Are you alright?" he asked. 

"I've lost too much blood." I motioned to the containers to the side. 

His eyes narrowed.

"I did this for you, for us!" Jane was saying. 

"Jane, you don't get to do this. Delta is as important to my brother as you once were to me."

"We need to get you back to the tower," Loki said quietly. 

"That would be best. It looks like it's about to get ugly." I started to swing my legs over the side of the table, but Loki stopped me. 

"You're only going to hurt yourself more," he said. I was too tired to argue, so I wrapped my arms around Loki's neck and let him carry me away from the argument that had ensued between Thor and Jane.

"How did you get in?" I asked.

"Thor did the punching. I made sure we were going the right way."

I felt a sharp pain explode in my legs. "Loki--"

A dagger whizzed by, a scream marking when it hit its target.

"Where did he shoot you?" 

"Leg," I said, my voice trailing off. I was vaguely aware of being set down and Loki wrapping a cloth around my bleeding leg. 

"Delta?" he asked, picking me up again. 

"I'm a... alive..." I tried to stay awake, but I quickly lost the battle.