Loki Laufeyson - Saviour {2}

Chapter Fifty Seven - Crashing Down

We landed harshly on the carpet of my room and stars danced in my eyes from the impact. I groaned as my ears rung, desperately trying to get my bearings. I scrambled upright and my eyes flicked straight to Loki's still body.

"Loki." A sob tore free from my throat and I could feel the whole world spinning around me as I dug my hands into his blood soaked shirt, trying to keep myself upright. "Loki, please. Say something."

The words choked in my throat and I could feel my throat beginning to close around itself, the whole world spinning and crashing down around me. His chest was rising and falling so weakly, his breaths raspy and uneven. My hands shook as I tried to find the embedded bullets, knowing that if I could take them out, he may be able to heal.

"JARVIS." I sobbed out, tears finally beginning to spill down my cheeks. "Get someone, please."

"They're already on their way." The AI replied, his voice soft.

"Loki, please stay with me." I whispered as his body shuddered under my bloodied hands. "It's okay. They're going to help. You'll be okay."

His eyes were shut and his already pale skin had lost even more shades. Sweat was spotting his hairline, causing his hair to stick to his forehead. His hands were trembling softly from where they were splayed across the bloodied carpet of my room. Blood was trickling from the corner of his colourless lips and I instinctively rolled him over, praying that none of the bullets had managed to puncture his lungs and cause him to breathe in the blood.

The door suddenly burst open and I managed to look up through my tunnel vision to make out the blurry shapes of several people rushing in. I shakily rubbed at my eyes, trying to clear the burning tears out of my eyes but only ended up smearing Loki's blood over my skin. Bruce crouched down on the other side of Loki, helping him to lay more comfortably on his side. Someone gently grabbed my shoulder but I immediately shrugged them away.

"Emily, you need to let Bruce help." Steve murmured softly from behind me, reaching out to grab my shoulder again but I shoved him away roughly, trying to keep my hand on Loki's ruined shirt as I focused on his weakly thumping heart beat.

"Emily, it'll be okay." He tried to pry me away again, gripping my wrist hard enough not to hurt me but enough to free my weak fingers from the bloodied fabric. "Come on."

"Let me go." I choked out, tears streaming down my face again as I desperately thrashed in his strong arms as he began to pull me away. "Please."

His arms loosened; I knew he hated the idea of having to restrain me. I stumbled towards Loki and desperately held one of his limp hands as Bruce began to try and pull out the bullets with a pair of tweezers. My hands dug into his shirt as I unintentionally tried to pull his limp body towards me. Another pair of hands began to untangle mine from the shirt and I thrashed around as the much stronger grip began to pulled me away.

"Emily." Bucky murmured, his metal arm cold against my skin. "You have to let him help."

"Let me go." I choked out again, but unlike Steve, he refused to let me go and kept holding me against his solid chest. "Let me go!"

"Emily, stop it." He grunted as my limbs flailed around weakly, landing several blows on him.

"You need to get her out of here." Tony's voice spoke up in the distance through the pounding heart beat in my ringing ears. "She's only going to get worse."

"I can't leave him." I sobbed as I felt Bucky scooping me up into his arms, despite my thrashing. "No!"

I pulled up the fire still tumbling around in my stomach and heated my skin up enough for him to tense against my back, but he still didn't let me go. He began to walk out of the door with me and I gritted my teeth as I drew it up as much as possible. He cursed under his breath as flames began to lick at my skin, twisting his and leaving him no choice but to drop me back down onto the floor. I tried to pull the flames back, knowing I wouldn't be able to touch Loki again if I was burning hot, but the flames were spiraling out of control with my emotions. I could feel them dancing over my skin more and more, sapping at what little energy I had left as I clutched at my aching head. My face was damp with Loki's blood and my tears, but it felt like it was covering my whole body. The ringing in my ears got louder and louder until it felt like that would be all I would ever be able to hear.

I knew it wouldn't be long until I burnt up all of my flames, but I didn't care because at this point, being able to peacefully surrender to the darkness seemed like a better choice than having to face what was happening around me. So when the darkness did finally start to overwhelm me as I struggled to take in a single breath, I didn't hesitate to let it take over.

-{+}-

BUCKY POV

"She's out." Steve murmured from where he was crouched down next to Emily's cooling down body, the previously leaping flames slowly dying down.

I could see the guilt written all of his face, he couldn't bear the thought of hurting her and I knew that he hated the fact that he had to hold her back before, which is why I didn't hesitate to hold her back the second time so he wouldn't have to do it again. I wasn't a big fan of having to pull her away from Loki's unmoving body either, but I knew that I had to in order for him to be properly looked after.

"I can take her back." Natasha spoke up from where she was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed as she took in the scene.

It was quite confronting, I would admit. One moment, most of the compound, apart from me and Steve who were already up training, was fast asleep, and next JARVIS was sending a piercing message through the speakers telling us that Loki and Emily were injured.

I was expecting the worst when I first heard the message. I thought HYDRA may have somehow gotten into the compound and tried to get to Emily, injuring Loki in the process. I was expecting her injured, if there are all, and Loki not much better off. But I never thought that it would be Loki looking half way to death's door with blood splattered across the carpet. I didn't know would have been worse though, seeing Emily in such a distraught state or seeing her beaten bloody like HYDRA normally did.

"No, its okay." I spoke up, moving back towards Emily's softly twitching body. "I'll take her, she still might be warm."

"You shouldn't injure yourself even more." Steve tried to stop me but I shook my head, not even wanting to look at the blistering burns all along my flesh arm.

"I can handle it." I scooped up Emily's light body before any of them could protest.

I looked down at her face, lines of pain and fear still creasing the soft skin, but she wasn't crying out in that gut-wrenching voice anymore. Blood was smeared across her cheeks and hairline, but as my eyes flickered over the rest of her body, I knew it wasn't hers. She didn't seem injured, apart from emotionally, and that provided the slightest relief in the otherwise harrowing situation.

My heavy footsteps carried me towards my room and I carefully pushed it open, trying not to jostle her fragile body but also trying not to get anything from my burns on her. I gently laid her down on my unslept bed, pulling up a couple of pillows and blankets from the floor. I grabbed a damp cloth from my bathroom and carefully wiped away the blood from her face as best as I could before I rinsed it and started on her hands. I wouldn't be able to get the blood out from under her fingernails, but I at least would be able to make her a little less distressed now when she woke up and saw her mostly clean hands.

I tried to rub some of the blood out of her hair with the damp cloth, but I didn't want to pull on it too much and wake her up, so I settled for just carefully moving it out of her face. I carefully pulled the blanket up to her chin and tucked it in around her, but not too tight that she felt trapped.

I sighed and carefully sat down on the edge of my bed, watching her sleep peacefully. I wanted her to stay like this as much as possible, just so she could be at peace for once. I wanted to stay here with her, but I also knew that I would have to help in the clean up and possibly help to hunt down whoever had hurt Loki.

"Sleep well." I murmured softly, tucking in the blanket a little more before I slowly stood up and carefully shut the door behind me.