Uniting Asgard [Book Two]

Chapter Ten

Loki sat down in a chair across from Alice's bed as Tony and Pepper stood by her side, observing her. Tony looked over the shield and noticed her veins were glowing the same bright blue he had seen many times before. Loki couldn't even bear to look at her. Her face was pale, every breath she took was labored and short.

"What do I tell them?" Loki broke the silence.

"Tell who?" Pepper retorted.

"The children. What do I say to them? I can't let them see her like this." He explained, trying to keep his emotions at bay.

"We'll tell them." Pepper replied.

"What?" Loki whimpered.

"Tony and I will let them know about the situation. And if you need any help with the children while Alice is...like this, don't hesitate to ask us. I'm certain you'd rather spend most of your days here than see anyone else." Pepper told him.

"Thank you." Loki whispered, trying to smile.

Eir entered the room and greeted the three of them before attending to Alice. When she finished, she took a step back and glanced over the three of them.

"I do not think she will wake any time soon." Eir told them.

"When is 'soon'?" Loki inquired.

"I'm not sure. A few days? A few weeks? I've never handled anything like this. The curse wants her dead and it's doing everything it can to succeed...but Alice is fighting against it. Her body has shut down as a result. She may wake before she succumbs to it or the curse will win and she will never wake again. She is a fighter at heart, Loki. I can feel her energy. She has something inside of her that can take a punch, especially to something like this.

If you can't trust me to help...trust her. None of us can lose hope in this situation." Eir explained to them all.

Loki took in a deep, shaky breath as he finally looked over at Alice.

"What about the baby?" Pepper asked.

"It seems to be doing completely alright for now. It doesn't seem to be affected at all. Her powers are both trying to protect the baby as it was before and trying to save her, but, as I've told Loki this morning, her powers cannot do both. They will have to make the decision for Alice. It's either save her and risk the child dying or save the child and Alice won't survive the birth." Eir explained.

"Make a choice? Her powers aren't some sentient being!" Tony scoffed.

"No, they are not, but they cannot heal both. Alice has had a curse put on her and Hela hopes it will kill her. The curse was placed on her while she was pregnant. Her powers want to save her. They're trying to fight against the curse but if they lose the battle with her, they can hopefully save the child. In the end, no matter what happens, only one person is coming out of this alive."

"Do you think she'll wake up?" Loki questioned Eir.

"In all honesty...I do. We all know how strong she is...and stubborn. She will wake up." She replied.

For the next hour, Loki, Tony and Pepper sat in the room just watching Alice, fearing that if they left, she would be gone.

"If she dies...how can we take him down?" Tony asked.

"We have to bury her as quickly as possible." Loki replied.

"What?" Pepper furrowed her brow.

"If she dies and he finds her body shortly after, he can take her and extract her powers but only if he's quick enough. That's why he wants her dead. That's why he asked Hela to place the curse. That way he can harness the powers of the Tesseract, continue on his quest, and continue to torture me." Loki explained.