Shadows and Lies

Chapter 22

Loki and Katarina were able to stay out for most of the day, and honestly loki felt like he could breathe for the first time in a long time. Everyone in the palace kept a close eye on him, which made sense since he was still a criminal and was known to be manipulative, but it still made him feel on edge. He also felt that other than Thor, Katarina was the only person he was even slightly comfortable talking to, she didn't try to provoke his temper, or taunt him with authority. She didn't try to put him in his place like the guards did. She was nice to him. He still didn't let her in very much, but he didn't feel as guarded today and it was refreshing.
"We need to get back" she said when the sun started to go down. Loki noticed how late it was getting and knew they needed to go, though he was dreading going back to the palace where people would be breathing down his neck.
"What time do we have to be back?" He asked, hoping he could talk his way into an extended day out of the palace.
"The king said-" loki cut her off.
"Just call him Thor. He's my brother, it's weird to talk about him so formally" he told her, laying back down in the grass and clearly not intending to get up any time soon.
"Well to me he's the king, and I respect him, so I'll address him respectfully" she retorted, nudging his arm with her foot and then motioning for him to get up. She did sympathize with his bitterness toward Thor, but that didn't mean she'd partake in his bad attitude.
Loki surprisingly didn't argue or get mad about it, he just sighed dramatically and got up. Katarina didn't know if his silence was because he knew she was right, or because all the medication she'd given him earlier had worn off and he was in too much pain to get into a fit over it.
"Were the two of you ever close?" She asked when they gathered everything up and started walking back, trying to break the silence.
Loki nodded a bit but kept his eyes on the road ahead.
"Yeah, we used to be really close" he told her, trying and failing to walk without a shooting pain up his leg. It was clear he was hurting, his limp was bad and he winced every time he put his foot on the ground and added weight.
"So what happened?" Loki sighed in annoyance, he'd already gone over this with Thor and he wasn't interested into delving into the past for a second time.
"The short version is that I redirected my anger with Odin toward Thor" Katarina came over to help loki walk easier, she slid under his arm and let him lean on her a bit.
"And what's the long version?".

"Private. The long version is private" he said a bit curtly. Katarina backed off a bit, there was no reason to pressure him into talking.
"Sorry. I've pestered you enough for today. no more questions, I promise" she assured him.
She was hoping he'd say never mind and be willing to tell her, but he stayed quiet.
Once they got back to the city Loki stopped talking entirely so he could keep an eye on the people they were passing. He could tell that a few of the people they passed would've jumped him and beat him to a pulp if Katarina wasn't there as a witness.
"Relax Loki, Nothing is going to-" she didn't get to finish. Katarina heard the cracking sound of an electric current and then Loki's entire body tensed and he collapsed to the ground, shaking aggressively. Someone had activated the electric device in his neck and he was being badly electrocuted.
"Loki!" Katarina was startled and not sure what to do. She made sure she hadn't accidentally activated it and when she was sure it wasn't her, she tried to hurriedly think of what to do. She couldn't stop the device here, she couldn't drag him back to the palace, and she couldn't leave him here alone.
But it wasn't stopping, he'd been on the ground convulsing with the current for several moments now, he felt like his nerves had been replaced with hot wires and someone had flicked the on switch, it was like he was being burned alive from the inside out, and the longer he laid there helplessly the worse it got.
Katarina could see him struggling to move, to speak, to fight the pulses of electricity running through him, but it was hopeless, the only sounds he got out were pained groans and whispers of pain. Finally Katarina got up.
"I'm going to get help" and she ran off toward the palace, she knew she was leaving him in danger by leaving him alone, and she knew she could get in a lot of trouble for not staying with him at all times, but she didn't really care. He needed help and Thor was the only person who could do that.
Somehow Loki stayed awake longer than a few moments, once Katarina was gone he knew how vulnerable he was, he was able to move his eyes and see people looking toward him and he knew they weren't friendly. his mind was racing, he wanted to move out of the middle of the road but his muscles were contracting without his doing, he wasn't in charge of his own body, the most he could do was co tort his face in pain. The last thing he saw before blacking out was people on the streets starting to gather around him.

Katarina raced back to the palace as fast as she possibly could. As soon as she got back to the palace she approached the nearest guard.
"Where is the king?" She demanded urgently.
"He's busy-" the guard tried to shut her down but she didn't have it.
"Where is the king?! I don't care if he's busy I need to tell him that Loki is dying in the street!" She barked at him angrily. She knew what kind of pain Loki was in, not to mention the physical harm he'd suffer, and she didn't appreciate the guard trying to deter her from getting help.
"What's going on?" Thor luckily walked in and Katarina didn't have to fight the guard to let her in.
"The device in Loki's neck was activated and you need to turn it off or he could get seriously injured and it's already been too long so someone shut it down!" Her previous notions about needing to respect the king had gone out the window, she knew Loki was still convulsing in the street and that he was probably taking a beating by now as well and she was mad that it was taking this long To get help.
"What? What are-" Thor was confused but Katarina didn't let him finish getting his question out.
"Loki is being electrocuted in the street and you need to deactivate the device before it kills him!" she said simply so he stopped asking questions and got to actually doing something about it.
"Where is he?" Thor finally had a sense of urgency and was hurrying  toward the exit behind Katarina.
"Does it matter? You have a switch, shut it down from here" she insisted, but they went to the stables nonetheless, knowing they needed to get him back as soon as possible.
"I have to be close to use the override switch" Thor told her. They got on a couple of horses and Katarina led the way to where she left loki. It was much faster getting back to him and they were able to make it in just a few minutes. Loki was easy to find because of the swarm of people that were crowded together in the middle on the street. Katarina And Thor both jumped off the horses and shoved their way through the herd of people.
"Get out of the way!" Thor shouted. He had a loud deep voice and it got everyone's attention and they cleared a way through to Loki. Thor felt his stomach drop when he saw Loki's unconscious body shaking with the electric pulsed that was still coursing through him. He got down and took out the off switch and shut it down. Loki's body stopped violently shaking, but his neck was burned where the device had been active, his ear was bleeding, and the broken blood vessels in his neck and face were visible.
"Loki... Loki come on..." Thor put a hand on his chest to see if he was still breathing. He still had a heartbeat but he looked dead and Thor felt horrible knowing g that it was one of his security measures that out Loki in so much pain and danger.
"He's been here for a while, we don't know what happened" one of the bystanders told him. Thor turned his head and glared at the crowd.
"But someone took the chance to take a swing at him" Loki's lip was swollen and bleeding, and his eye was turning purple, so at least one person had pounded on his face.
"Is he going to be okay?" Someone else asked. Thor didn't want to deal with them right now, he was worried about Loki and wanted to know who set off the device.
"Your highness, we need to get him back to the palace quickly so I can tend to him." Katarina said, but Thor was already pulling Loki off the ground to bring him back to the palace. The rushed home as quickly as they had rushed out and were able to get Loki back to the palace relatively quickly.
"I'm taking him to the healing room. Make sure everyone who has a switch for the device gets it taken away. Whoever did this wanted him dead and they could set it off again" Katarina told Thor when they arrived at the palace and a group of other healers came to help her get Loki stable. Thor just nodded and did what she said. He didn't Know who tried to kill Loki but he wasn't going to let it happen again.
"As soon as you're sure he's safe, remove the device from his neck. I don't want this happening again" She was glad to hear it, she never liked that thing in his neck, the guards had abused their authority and shocked Loki for fun in the past, and after they attacked him in his room it really wasn't that surprising that they'd try to kill him that way.
When Katarina got Loki to the healing room she laid him down on the table and got to work treating the burn and removing the device.
"Please be okay..."