Chapter 6

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Loki's POV

       "Tony, her pulse is getting fainter," Rogers says, calm in the face but angry in tone. Eliza keeps blinking, clearly trying to stay awake. Her bright blue eyes suddenly snap shut, and she screams again. We heard the first one from down the hallway. It's a haunting sound, someone else's pain. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so pale. Even though I barely know the girl, I'm concerned. How did they let something happen to her in a matter of hours?
          "What did you do to her?" I hiss at Stark, who completely ignores me and keeps checking something on a screen.
          "St-Steve," she whispers faintly, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her chest rises and falls quickly like each breath hurts. "I-"
          Something beeps loudly, causing Stark to curse loudly and roughly sort through drawers.
          "It's okay, it's okay," Rogers mutters to her before turning back around. Tony, she's lost consciousness!"
          "You think I don't know that?"
          Finally, I can't take it anymore. Gathering all of my strength, I shove Thor to the side and run my fingers up her arm, trying to get a sense of what's actually happening. Maybe my weak magic will be able to help.
          "Loki!" Thor roars, but I ignore him, too concentrated on my own task. The faint life inside of her cries out to me, almost like her own screams, but this time only I can hear them.
          "Her cells are mutating in some way, very quickly. If they don't stop, her brain won't be able to keep up and she'll be dead in minutes. You need to sedate them," I order Stark, who stares at me. "Do it!"
          He glances at another screen. "Antlers may be onto something," he mutters, running back to us and plunging a syringe into her arm. Whatever it is causes her to stop shaking so severely. I let out a slow breath, one I didn't know I was holding. "Levels are returning to normal."
          "Thank God," the captain says. "Is it safe to lift her?" He's careful about everything, a trait I have to admit I admire, no matter how much I hate him. Stark nods, so he gently puts his arms underneath her and stands. I know she isn't, I can feel the feeble life inside her, but she looks dead.
          "Bring her to her room, we can get any medical supplies we need in there soon. For now, she'll be fine." He leaves and Stark sinks into a chair, putting his head in his hands. I find it hard to feel pity for him when this whole thing is his fault.
          "Care to explain why we all came down to find the kid half dead on the floor and you trying to deal with it alone?" Barton's question comes out ruder than I thought the man could ask it. I reach out to his mind, trying to figure out why he's so protective of her. A little house flashes in my head, with children running around it and him kissing a woman. Ah. A family. He hasn't told anyone about them, either. Secrets are more common here than I thought. He folds his arms and waits for an answer. Thor and I both rise. No one seems to care that I practically saved her.            "None of us even knew you were down here, someone could have died!"
          "Bruce and I- we've been working on this experiment for a while now. It's supposed to heal cells, knit them back together." Knit them back together? What does this have to do with her?
          "But for what purpose? Why work on something unnecessary? You have no need to do that, most mortals cannot withstand cells with that much damage..." My words die out as I realize what they tried to do. "You wanted to fix Banner." I'm not familiar with his mutation, but a serum like that would be potentially strong enough to cure him.
          "Banner?" Barton snaps. "That's what this is about? You two call in his little sister to try some miracle cure because you're too important to inject yourselves with it?" Color floods Stark's pale face.
          "Idiot, we called her in because the trials were working. Bruce wanted a biologist's opinion because we really had no idea how it would affect the human body. She agreed that the formulas would work, but said that neither one of us could try it because of various medical reasons. So she did."
          "And that happened? That was careless, Stark, even you have to admit it." Thor's voice raises louder than the rest, but I'm not sure Stark even hears him. He's still too shaken. So the man of iron does have a conscience after all. I was wondering.
          "We need to get some sort of doctor or medic. Banner won't be helpful right now, the only smart thing you did today was getting him out of the lab," Barton says pointedly. I privately agree. A rage monster would certainly not have been helpful today. "Let's have JARVIS call S.H.I.E.L.D. and get them to send someone. She is one of them, after all. Fury'll take care of her."
          Stark immediately starts to shake his head. "No, no one knows about this. No one can."
          "Why?" Thor asks, confused. I know he's not going to tell, so I reach into his thoughts.
          "Because he didn't tell anyone they were doing this. This whole experiment was a secret.      Am I right?"
          He, unlike Eliza, doesn't notice my presence in his mind. Stark seems to come to a solution, standing as he does. "Let me make a call. I met someone a year or two ago. I needed some patching up after a malfunction with the second suit. He's a doctor, lives in New York, I think he'll be helpful and discreet."
           "Good. You do that, I'll go check on Steve. Thor, go find Banner and Natasha. Hopefully, she won't need backup, but you never know. Loki's coming with me." I raise my eyebrows at Barton, who only shrugs. "You did something. Whatever you did helped her, but we're still watching."
          Rolling my eyes, I follow him out the doors.
          "JARVIS, contact Steven Strange."
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Happy 4th of July!

Chapter 5!!! It's a little shorter than usual, but there was a good amount of action, I think, considering Eliza almost died. Tony and Loki saved the day ;) we love them, don't we?

I also mention Dr. Strange at the end of this chapter. He's one of my favorite Marvel characters, and I can't wait to introduce him into my story. It's important to know that I'm not following the Dr. Strange movie timeline. In my story, he has his powers and knows Tony through an operation he conducted after there was a mistake in one of the Iron Man suits.

Please leave comments, I'd love to see what you guys are thinking! Thank you for reading this far :)

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