Your Hand To Hold

Chapter Twenty-Eight: City in the Sky

          "Thor," Loki and I cried, darting forward as the reddish-purple android wrapped its hands around his thick neck. Thor gasped and squabbled with the male humanoid, Mjolnir falling from his grip as he managed to fling him away, sending him spiraling through the broken wall toward the windows above the bar where we had gathered after defeating Loki three years prior.

   Just as the being was about to hit the windows, it floated upright to a halt; its naked form peering out into the well-lit skyline in the darkness. Captain Rogers leaped over the railing toward Thor, Loki, and me, his shield poised at the ready as he stared toward the floating man while Thor silently lifted his arm telling the captain to wait. Wait. That seemed to be the only answer for now, but for what I did not know.

   As the being lifted its hand toward the glass, continuing to stare at its reflection in silence, I glanced to Loki. He shrugged but readied his daggers once more. As the humanoid lowered its hand, dark grey clothing began to form over its body; the shape of which mirrored that of our Asgardian leather. The man turned, floating back toward us as the others came down from the laboratory to stand in the sitting area behind us; each gazing at the floating purple man with a different expressions.

   "I'm sorry, that was... odd," the man said, his voice accented similarly to Loki's and of a higher timber than the other men around him. He nodded awkwardly to Thor, thanking him as his shoulders shrugged, a cape just like Thor's manifesting about his shoulders.

   "Why does your 'vision' sound like JARVIS," the captain asked, staring hard at Thor.

   "I can answer that," Stark offered. "We... reconfigured JARVIS' matrix to create something new," he attempted to explain as he walked toward the man.

   "I think I've had my fill of new," Rogers snapped.

   The man turned, his blue eyes settling on the captain. "You think I am a child of Ultron?"

   "You're not?"

   "I am not Ultron. I am not JARVIS. I am... I am."

   There was a long pause before Banner removed his glasses, wiping his hand over his face as he groaned. "Tony, do you have any idea-"

   "Of how cool this is? Yeah, yeah Jolly Green, I certainly do."

   "And what of the implications; how can you be positive that this... thing... can't be corrupted by Ultron."

   "Why don't you just put a pin in it for a second, Cap, and accept that a, I was right, and b, we just created freaking life!"

   "And what happened the last time you meddled with creating life?"

   "You really wanna go there, Cap?"

   "Both of you stop," Thor snapped. "While you squabble like children you are forgetting the real enemy that exists out there," he said pointing toward the window. "Right now, Ultron is Bor knows where holding one of our company hostage and further plotting the downfall of your planet! The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron... Not alone."

   "And that's why you helped create this," Captain Rogers asked, his gaze almost as intense as the sharpness in his voice. "Why you brought back your murderous brother?"

   "Have care how you speak to and of the princes of Asgard," I snarled, pointing the tip of my dagger toward him.

   Thor pushed it down and aside as he held up his hands. "I have done what I can to preserve life; to protect the realms as I have always done and will continue to do so. I cannot do that without the three of them, nor the help of all of you."

   The red woman stepped forward, pushing past Thor as she moved toward the humanoid. "I looked in your head and saw annihilation. How is it that you can help bring peace when that is all I can see?"

   "Look again," the man said softly, bowing toward her.

   "Yeah," Clint laughed darkly, drawing out the word into his chuckle. "Her seal of approval means jack to me."

   "You misunderstand. Their powers, Loki's behavior, and Ultron himself, all came from or were manipulated by the power of Infinity Stones. And the horrors we have seen and experienced are nothing compared to what could be unleashed. With the Mind Stone on our side-"

   "Is it? Are you," the captain exclaimed, jeering at the man.

   Thinking for a moment, the man tilted his head, shaking it slowly. "I do not think it is that simple."

   "It better get real simple real soon," Clint snapped.

   "I am on the side of life. Ultron is not. He will end it all." The hush that fell over us then was deafening. Loki's fingers crushed mine as he tightened his grip on my hand, his fear radiating down his arm as Stark cleared his throat and asked what Ultron was waiting for. "You. All of you." He turned his pale eyes to each of us in turn then, pausing as his gaze fully fell on me; his eyes shifting between mine and the top of my head as my heart rate increased. "You... You are not like them."

   Loki pulled me close as Thor stepped before us, an arm held out to shield us as the eyes of friend and stranger alike fell upon me; suspicion and curiosity drawn on all of their faces. Both Thor and Loki knew what I was, they knew that I had masked myself as best as possible, yet I could feel their hesitancy as they took protective stances, preparing to stop any coming threat from harming me. "I allowed you to be created because I saw that you were like us. Eibhlin is on the side of life just as you claim to be-"

   "I am aware of that. Her difference does not make her a threat. Her difference is what is good."

   "Thor, what if you're wrong," Banner asked; "what if he's the monster Ultron meant to make-"

   "He is not."

   "But what if he is?"

   "What if I am," the reddish man asked, turning and shrugging. "What will you do?"

   "We would stop you."

   "Could you," the man asked Captain Rogers curiously. "Could any of you truly stop the other on your own? I think not. That is why you are a team."

   "That thing says she's different. What if we should fear her just as much as it?"

   Loki glared at the blonde man in the simple blue and gray suit. "I would measure your next words very carefully if I were you."

   "You think you scare me? I have seen creatures far more intimidating than your greasy self when I rise for breakfast." The red woman muttered something to him in a language I could not understand, prompting him to snap back in the same tongue.

   "Well, I don't know about them or the rest of you but I trust Jem here more than I do those two right about now," Stark said with a small wink.

   "You don't know her anymore than you know them or it."

   "I don't really know you either, Cap, but I trust you, don't I?"

   "Do you, or do you only pretend to?"

   "Stop it, all of you," I shouted, breaking free of Loki's grasp as he muttered my name. "We are wasting valuable time; time that gives the enemy a better chance of planning to overtake us. I do not know nor care if you trust me, I only care about stopping a being set on infinite destruction from succeeding. Can you not put aside your petty differences and stand together once more for the betterment of your planet?"

   The reddish man smiled softly, a thin little curved line. "I told you her difference is what is good."

   "Eve's right," Banner sighed. "We have to focus on taking down Ultron, just as soon as we can figure out where he is."

   "I can answer that," Clint said as he hurried back into the room beneath the lab where he had been before. "Place called Sokovia," he called. "He's got Nat there too."

   "Great, we have our heading then. Let's just send the Iron Legion to wipe them out-"

   "And Nat in the process when Ultron takes control of them like he has every other machine we've thrown at him? Yeah, not gonna happen, Cap," Banner said, crossing his arms.

   "Then what do you suggest, cause I don't know about you, but I'm not waiting around for a machine to wipe us out when we have a machine right there ready to take him out."

   "If you are talking about me, you are mistaken as to my allegiances."

   Captain Rogers turned to face the humanoid, his jaw feathering. "I thought you said you were on our side."

   The man sighed. "I told you it is not so simple. I do not want to kill Ultron. He is unique and he is in pain."

   "That pain will roll over the Earth though... You know this," I said softly as the man nodded.

   "That I do. And it is because of this that he must be destroyed." A wave of relief seemed to wash over all of us as the reddish man acknowledged this. "Every form he has built, every trace of his presence on the net, all of it. And not one of us can do it alone, without the others. Maybe I am a monster; I do not think I would know if I were one. I am not what you are, nor what she is, nor am I what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me; like her, though, I care not if you trust me because we have to act now. We need to go." He had begun to pace around us as he spoke, coming to stand before Thor's hammer that had been relocated from the floor to a nearby table. With surprising ease, the man lifted it and held it out for Thor; a look of shock crossing his face along with everyone else's.

   Blinking rapidly, as if rising from a dream, Thor took the hammer from the man who sauntered off. He cleared his throat, trying to downplay his surprise as he stood from his relaxed position against a table. "Right. Well done," he said to Stark, patting him heavily on the shoulder, before he followed after.

   Loki and I turned as well as Captain Rogers announced that we had three minutes to get what we needed. Loki hurried after his brother, hissing his name softly in an attempt to get him to slow down; eventually teleporting in front of him as he walked backward while they conversed. "Thor, this isn't our fight. Now we helped you, just as you asked. Eibhlin and I should return to Asgard, back to the work we were doing to clean up the realms."

   "Midgard is part of the nine, Brother, or have you forgotten that?"

   "I did not swear-"

   "Swear to what? Uphold the treaties of the realms, to protect each one regardless of our allyship with its leaders; tell me, Loki, are you a prince and possible future king or simply a man solely focused on his own desires."

   "This is not our fight!"

   "Yes, it is," I piped up, their eyes turning to me. "This is our fight, Mo Chroí. We swore to protect the realms, all of them. Midgard may not have forgiven you for New York nor New Mexico, but this is your opportunity to prove to them that you are not the monster they see you as. Show them what you have shown me, what you have shown the Alfheim, Asgard."

   Loki stepped up to me, his eyes stern but his face was soft. "How can you trust that I will not betray you all again?"

   "Because you trust me. That is enough for now."

   A hiss-like sigh escaped him then as he threw his hands down. "Fine. Fine. We will stay and fight. I swear though, if one hair on her head is out of place-"

   "You act as though I cannot take care of myself."

   "Darling, I know you can; but this is not an enemy we have had a chance to study, nor land we know."

   "Has that ever stopped me before? I had never been to Midgard before I came to bring you home."

   Loki took my hands, his eyes pleading. "This is not like that... I never would have allowed them to hurt you. I don't have control this time."

   "With all due respect, you did not have control last time either." He released my hands, his whole body seeming to shrink before me as I sighed and lifted his chin back up, Thor gave me a soft look before stepping away. "Loki, I understand your fears but I trust Thor, I trust the others, and above all else, I trust you."

   He lifted his beautiful, pale green eyes, sighing softly as he took my hand and brushed his thumb over my knuckles in the same soothing fashion he always did. It was almost our ritual now; whenever things became too much for either of us, one of us would be holding the other's hand and running our thumb over their knuckles. "You know... I have always wondered what it is that makes you trust me so effortlessly. I mean, I wouldn't trust me... To be honest, if time travel was possible, I would probably go back in time simply to sabotage myself, perhaps adjust a few pranks..." I gave him an unamused look as he shook his head, getting back on track. "The point is, you do trust me, even when I don't deserve it. Normally, I would say you are a fool to do so, and yet, I've never taken you for one as I have Thor."

   "I'm not sure if I should feel flattered by this admission..."

   "Well, flattery has never been-"

   "My way; yes, I remember. Yet I wonder if that is perhaps because any flattery I have received has always been under the cruel guise of a joke."

   Loki opened his mouth to say something but closed it, thinking better of it. With a heavy sigh, he released my hand as Captain Rogers and Stark walked past us on their way toward the stairs that led to the roof. "No way we all get through this. If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. It's gonna be blood on the floor."

   "I got no plans tonight, how about you three?" I shook my head as Loki rolled his eyes.

   Tony rolled his neck from side to side, sniffing as he did. "I get first crack at the big guy. After all, Iron Man's the one he's waiting for."

   "That's true. He hates you the most," the humanoid man said as he pushed past us and started up the stairs. I pursed my lips, stifling a chuckle as Tony gave a bewildered look before we all headed off to the hangar.

   As we took our seats inside the quinjet, the captain stood in the center of the bay and addressed us. "I know this isn't what a lot of you were planning on doing, and I won't lie, there is a very real chance some of us won't make it. Ultron knows we're coming. We'll be riding into heavy fire; like it or not, that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia? They didn't. So, our priority is getting them out, safe and unharmed."

   Several people nodded as I reached down, discreetly taking Loki's hand as he glanced at me peripherally. This was the second time now the possibility of death had been mentioned. I couldn't help but worry that as I was likely one of the least experienced individuals here, it may be me... My heart quivered as I glanced at him, barely turning my head to do so as the realization that the last time I had told him I loved him was over a year ago and it had been the only one of two times. I feared that if I didn't say it again, and soon- even just in case- I may not be able to.

   Captain Rogers continued his speech as my mind rambled. I snapped back to attention as he mentioned Nat. "We find Nat, and we clear the field; we keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him; it's about whether or not he's right." As I began to roll my thumb over Loki's slender knuckles, all I could do was hope that we truly could prove Ultron and everyone else wrong.