Maelstrom|Book 5| A novel in the Blue Moon series| An Avengers fan fiction series|

60- Do It for Ace

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Chapter Sixty

We get back to Minotaur- all of us. For so long, for so many of these weeks, I'd thought that maybe we wouldn't all survive this. And we haven't all survived. Thor is gone, and Loki has the responsibility of being king of Asgard on his hands. As I walk through the halls of Minotaur, I realize that I miss my uncle's loud, booming voice and his occasional cluelessness. We'd grown apart, but now, when it's too late, I want to grow back. Too late.

Over the next few things, three things really happen. First, Loki leaves Minotaur almost as soon as we get there to take the American rondayven- which Peter and the others had found and filched in the nick of time. We'd only lost two rondayven out of twenty-five, and if that's not an accomplishment, I don't know what else is. Neidra is useless with two rondayven, so it's safe to say that the Earth is safe from her for now. After the incident at the warehouse in California, Neidra and Caomh had disappeared, apparently not wanting to take us all on without much help. We haven't heard from her since, although I think Loki is doing some looking in Asgard. I honestly doubt he'll find much.

The second thing that happens is that Jack and Videl steadily get better. Of the two, Jack had been hurt the least, probably because Caomh thinks Videl is some sort of dog toy he can just play around with and taunt. But Jack is fine by the day after we get back from California, and he joins me in visiting Videl.

Videl's wounds are a little more serious, especially because those knives had been poisoned. I'd panicked at first, thinking that he might be suffering the same as Max, but that's when he told me that Velah are as immune to the deadly effects of the poison as Asgardians. It's still extremely painful and like Loki, he sometimes experiences periods of agony as the poison is flushed from his body.

He gets a lot of company though. Angelique and Victoire hardly ever leave his side, like two guardian angels. While Angelique sometimes gets up to let Videl rest, or to eat or rest herself, Victoire steadfastly refuses to leave her uncle. She'd been petrified by Caomh, and it seems like only Videl can comfort her. She drifts in and out of sleep curled up next to him, and no matter how much she whimpers or cries in her sleep or clings to his arm unconsciously or consciously, Videl doesn't snap at her once. I think he'd been too relieved when Peter had handed an exhausted and sleeping Victoire to him when we'd all gotten back to Minotaur to be cranky to her.

The third thing that happens is Max gets worse.

He collapses the morning we get back from Minotaur, falling in a confetti of papers he'd been carrying to the commons. Nobody is there to catch him, and it's Jack and Sidney that find him on the ground, struggling with himself, hardly breathing, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth.

He hasn't been up since.

Even when, two days later, Videl is standing and walking around almost like normal, Max is half-buried in blankets in his tiny room in the bedroom hallway. Instead of celebrating our success with the rondayven and the fact that Neidra has temporarily vanished, I begin to spend my time pacing back and forth in the hallway. Sometimes, I go in and see Max, but that makes me even more upset because he's so... hollow.

His breathing is heavy and raspy, like he's trying not to drown, and the inky black lines along his veins are so dark, they're almost protruding. His skin is coated in sweat, and beads of it trickle down his face. He's scorching hot, and everytime I take his hand, it feels like he's on fire. He's delirious, and pulls away from me more often than not, not knowing who I am, or any of us are.