Recompense [Fólkvangr End, Book 1] [Loki Fanfiction]

Chapter Thirty-One

Author's Note: Welcome back my children. I will get to the story straightaway because I left you on a delicious cliffhanger. How I love those. Here, have a lengthy chapter, scientific jargon, and cookies as repayment. Alright, I expect to hear from you cherubs in the comments. I love you. The end. <3

CONTENT WARNING: Graphic descriptions of torture.

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Tony dashes around the room again, itching for a chance to do something productive, to help in some way. But he can't just jump into a suit and blast off after Valkyrie. Bruce is calm at his post, typing differential equations into the computer again and again.

Fury opens his mouth to say something, but Bruce interrupts, "A universal differential equation is a non-trivial differential algebraic equation with the property that its solutions can approximate any continuous function on any interval of the real line."

"English, please?"

Bruce sighs, adjusting his glasses and straightening his back with a slight cracking of bones. "I'm using a differential equation to try and track her isotopic signature on our current plane of existence. But unfortunately, I'm not finding anything."

Fury stares at Bruce blankly again. "That sounds like a hell of a lot of nonsense for no results."

"He pushes a bunch of buttons, puts a series of equations into the computer system that trace her specific level of isotopes—her, her chemical variations, if you will—anywhere in our known universe. The long and short of it is—"

"She's not in our universe," Steve interjects. Tony looks at him with a faint sense of pride somewhere deep inside him.

"Then we have a serious problem, don't we?" Fury frowns, leaning over the table, staring down at the screen in front of him.

"We have to find a way to contact Asgard," Bruce reasons, "because they have a more likely chance of finding her if she is in a parallel universe like Asgard."

"I've been saying, this is what we need an intergalactic justice league for," Tony smirks.

"It's in development."

Tony stares at Fury, "I'm sorry, what?"

Steve pipes up, "Maybe we should just get back to the task at hand. I'm worried."

Bruce looks to Tony as he agrees, "As I am. I can attempt to get a message to Asgard, but it won't be easy."

Tony sighs, "I am too...I just have difficulty coping, alright?"

"Banner, you do what you have to do. S.H.I.E.L.D. is behind your efforts," Fury allows with a nod. Bruce nods in return and cracks his knuckles before setting his fingers to the keys at a rapid-fire pace.

Tony throws himself into a chair against the wall, watching Bruce from a distance. He runs his hands over his face, through his hair and then shakes his head. He whispers aloud, "Hang on, kiddo, please."

"Tony, we have contact!"

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The world is spinning...has been spinning...for hours, days on end. I can't recall the last time I could see straight. Not to mention how bloody difficult it is to even pry my damn eyes open. They are caked, quite literally, with blood, sweat and tears—a fine layer of grime I can do nothing about. I can do nothing but sit and wait blindly in the near darkness, waiting every moment for something terrible to happen again.