Starting Over #2 - Loki

6) Loki Cures Bucky

James Barnes was a mess, if Loki was totally honest. 

That wasn't to say that Loki wasn't at the best of times, but Barnes was an extremely special case. Barnes was a good-looking man with straggly brown hair and a tortured face. He had a metal arm which enabled him to use superhuman strength. Steve was heartbroken.

Yes, he'd just been reunited with his best friend of over half a century, but that friend hadn't remembered him for the large majority of that time.

"Bucky," he whispered.

He seemed torn between giving the man a hug and staying back but soon recognised that staying well back was a good tactic when faced with such a deadly opponent.

"How will you cure him?" he asked Loki, his eyes never leaving his friend.

Loki shivered slightly, knowing that what he was about to do was challenging, even for him.

"I'm going to get into his brain, and remove the brainwashing. It's a delicate process. I have to preserve everything else while removing the codes used to control him. The alternative, if I was being quick and hasty, would be to wrench out all elements of brainwashing but his memories and brain function would not be left intact. That is a method to be used against enemies; my method is one to be used on friends."

"What do you need?" Tony questioned, recognising, for once, the gravity of the situation.

"I need you all to leave," Loki said, turning to face the others. "You can watch on the CCTV footage, if you would like, but it will look like I'm asleep or unconscious."

"When should we intervene?" Tony asked, brow furrowing in concern.

"Never," Loki replied briskly. "Interruption risks irreversible damage, not just to Barnes, but to me as well."

Tony gulped. Clint looked pale. Natasha, stoic as always, took in this information without flinching.

"Good luck," she said, and her momentary hand on his shoulder was the only sign that she was worried.

The others murmured, "Good luck," as well, and then trudged out. Loki would not be surprised if they all watched from outside. There was nothing else more exciting to do when actual magic would be taking place in this room.

As for Loki, he levitated Barnes' unconscious body onto the floor and then sat crossed-legged next to it. It would look like he was meditating, as indeed he would be, but meditating wasn't usually a life or death situation.

Taking a deep breath, he placed a finger on Barnes' forehead, closed his eyes, and felt his way towards Barnes along the branches of Yddrasil, the space between realms. A finger was all he needed - he was now immersed. Yddrasil became his reality, with black clouding his vision. He was reminded, uncontrollably, of the Void, and struggled to avoid shaking. He crept slowly towards the red glow that was Barnes' brain and stole inside.

Where Yddrasil had been cold, a comfortable temperature for a Frost Giant, Barnes' brain was roasting hot with fury and pain. Loki manoeuvred through the branches of memories and brainwashing and, where he saw the tendrils of control enforced, he wrenched the burning strands away with his bare hands and forced them to disappear into the farthest pockets of matter.

The heat was becoming unbearable, but Loki still had places to search. He couldn't just hope he'd removed it all; he had to check and make sure. He had to do this for Steve, for Barnes, a man who had been deprived of his youth, normality and freedom. But he couldn't hold on forever.

Loki forced his blurring eyes to scan faster, and his blistering hands to pull out tendrils quicker. Everything was beginning to shake: his vision, his hands, his grip on reality and consciousness. He removed the final strand and felt Barnes begin to reawaken. He had to leave before Barnes awoke, or he might unravel. 

Barnes wouldn't remember the experience, if Loki left as soon as possible, but if he did remember it, it wasn't something mortals could undergo and survive. He crawled towards the exit, towards the inviting blue and black of Yddrasil, away from the burning, fiery mess behind which was roaring, furious it had been released and taken away from its rightful owner and host.

The burning was intense but, as the fire threatened to consume him, he fell back into Yddrasil, through the stars, the Void and closed his eyes. Barnes had been saved. Now he just had to get out of Yddrasil... But that was too much effort. Everything was getting dimmer, he was losing his grip on reality, everything was going...

"Loki!"

Loki dragged himself towards the voice. He could do this, he could make it.

"Come back to us. Please."

Loki took one final step, one giant leap for a small, spiralling god, and the black hole closed behind him.

He was back.

*

When Loki came to, he came to slowly, clumsily, wearily. He was on his back and his head was pounding. Tony's worried face swam before him.

"You said we shouldn't interfere but you'd collapsed... I thought that, by taking your hand away from Barnes, the link might be broken. I thought giving you my hand might bring you back."

Loki's vision eventually sharpened, and he sat up with Tony and Rhodey's help. He realised his head had been lying on Tony's lap.

"You did the right thing," he whispered, the roaring still coursing through his ears. "I was losing."

"Did you do it?"

This time it was Steve. He was holding Barnes' hand, with the man still unconscious, but his face contained both hope for his friend and worry for Loki.

"Yes," Loki replied, smiling weakly. "It's gone, all of it."

When he closed his eyes, the red roaring fury and the depth of the Void beckoned, and when he opened his eyes, Tony was still kneeling next to him, concerned. No human could ever understand Yddrasil, or what it looked like. Not even Tony. It would blow their minds.

"What did you see?" Tony asked quietly.

He saw what the others did not.

"Nothing," Loki replied, and it scared him more than anything. "I saw nothing."

The Void was nothing and the epitome of everything Loki feared. But he was back. Back to reality and away from the demons. And the time would soon come when he could let those demons go.

*****

A.N. Thank you for reading and please comment!!!!