The Call [Loki x Siren Fanfiction]

Chapter 48

Loki pov

I can't see the little witch anymore, so I'm just focusing on staying afloat. Treading water is more exhausting than I remember it. I adjust the bag on my shoulder and switch up my rhythm to try and get some relief for my aching muscles. If these ridiculous bracelets weren't practically embedded in my skin I could just wait on the ocean floor, but I don't blame Serendipity for not taking them off after what I've done to her.

I only remember bits and pieces after I took the staff, and a lot of them, I've come to learn, are altered. I do know of many of the things I did to her because I have had Thor, and Natasha, and Fury on my case, yet another group of people forming the 'I'll kill you' line.

Now that they're out of my head, I am never touching that cursed stick again. It took too much. The price of power has always been high, but the one thing I can't pay for it with is her. I have to get away from that part of my life, I need to-

I shout as something grabs my foot, pulling me under the water in a fraction of a second. Under the water, I'm in the air bubble with the little witch, and I exhale a heavy sigh of relief.

"It's just you, what in Odin's name are you doing? You scared me half to death!" I cry, trying to calm my heart.

"Yeah well, someone's about to get that other half," She says anxiously.

"What do you mean?"

"That ship is S.H.I.E.L.D"

"It's what?" I shout at her. She nods, looking towards the bottom of the ship that we can barely make out. How did they find us, they don't have magic, and there's no way they have cameras out here, the only other thing they could do is-

"They're tracking us," I murmur, pulling the bag off my back and digging through it. I come to the gun stuffed into the bottom. The little witch's eyes widen, and I roll my eyes as I check all the crevices.

"I'm not going to shoot you, I told you already. There is a tracking device somewhere on us, and I'm thinking it could be-" I cut myself off as I pull a tiny, pulsing bead out of a crack in the gun.

We stare at each other in horror, how could we be this stupid?? One of us alone, sure, but both of us!

Serendipity sighs, thinking, before turning to me.

"Don't make me regret this," She relents, before removing my bracelets. I feel my magic come coursing back into me, making me feel more alive. I kiss her forehead, amazed at how much she trusts me after all I've done.

"I won't."

"We have to go, now," She says, pretending nothing happened. I watch as she takes the gun, stuffs it in the bag, and throws it all in the direction we just came from. I barely have time to nod before she's grabbed my arm, dropped the air bubble, and we're back on our way.

--

After what I think was around an hour of swimming, we come up on a small sandbar, as the little witch said we would. The moment I can walk on the sand, she lets go of me, absolutely exhausted. She tries to deny it, but I doubt she could get on the sandbar much less change back. I'll carry her to where she needs to be, it's the least I can do after all she's done for me.

I walk back into the deeper water, which isn't very deep compared to where we've been, and scoop her up as I've done many times before, trying to not tell her how heavy she and her tail are.

"You don't have to do this," She says quietly.

"I know." I tell her, making my way to a shallower spot. I set her down gently, as she's already asleep.

I don't know how I lived before I had her. I wish I wasn't so desperate for power that I almost threw it all away. I don't deserve my little witch. Walking a few feet from her to the shallowest spot, which only has a small layer of water, I lay down as well. I don't intend to sleep again, but the sun is warm and the water feels refreshing, despite how much salt is in it.

--

We're both startled awake by the sound of a lot of things splashing all at once. I sit up before Serendipity does, and I realize that we're surrounded. By S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. I'm instantly on my feet, grabbing her again, and I manage to get her into deeper water where we switch off so that she's helping me, but it's no good, we're still trapped, and now we're just wet.

"Serendipity and Loki Odinson," Someone calls out, we don't know him, or at least don't recognize him.

"You are both under arrest," He announces, and before we can discuss what to do, my little witch jumps into action, pulling the water around us to shield me. Then they open fire, and suddenly everything is happening so fast. There's bullets whizzing past our heads, barely missing, and only because she has the water up to guard us.

As some of them start to get closer, I hear her start to raise her voice against them. I've known her so long I can recognize the tone in her song, and this one scares me. She's scared. The woman who has lived over 700 years, who has escaped dozens of death sentences and horrors, is scared.

Serendipity is singing, I'm doing what I can to distract everyone, but it's difficult to do anything in the water with this much going on. Some of the closer ones start to dive, already succumbing to her song, but the others press a button on their helmets and continue on.

"Loki!" She screams, pulling up a wall of water in front of me to stop a hail of bullets I never saw coming. In the split second before I can thank her, she screams again.

This time in agony, as two bullets rip through her chest. It's a heart-wrenching cry and she collapses, sinking in the water with her blood spreading out in the shape of a twisted flower. At her scream, everyone except me is left convulsing in pain, even the ones who had technology to block her out.

"No!" I scream, tears already streaming down my cheeks. "No, Serendipity!" I get to her and manage to drag her back to the sandbar now that the shooting stopped. The blood keeps coming, and I can see that the bullets ripped straight through her. Her eyes are fluttering, desperately trying to stay open. I watch as her wounds try to pull themselves together, but the scales never rise, and the flesh only weakly pulls together before letting go, leaving the gaping holes in her perfect chest.

I cradle her head in my lap, pulling her beautiful blue hair out of her face. She stares at me, her eyes get me. Her deep blue eyes, the eyes that I've gazed into so many times. The eyes that have laughed with me, the eyes that cried for me, my beautiful little witch who has gone so far for me. I watch as her eyes close for the last time.

**I am so, so sorry. I've cried just as much as anyone else has. As long as everyone is still crying, please proceed to the next chapter. The very last one.**