The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 120

The ride to Sokovia was tense, as the others didn't truly trust the twins yet. I just retreated into my own world, prepping myself for the battle. That is, until we were a couple of hours out and Thor suddenly came over and stood over me.

"What?"

"You are hiding information from me."

"Yes." Thor seemed taken aback by my answer, and it took him a moment to recover, but when he did he crossed his arms.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"That depends."

"On what? I am your brother."

"In-law. And it depends on what you need to know, not what you want to know and trust me, I know the difference."

"The ring. The one you used to take energy from the Mind stone."

"A relic and an heirloom I inherited all too soon, that's all you need to know." Thor wasn't happy with my response.

"But it's more than that, isn't it? You have been different ever since I returned." I clenched my jaw.

"We must defeat Ultron first for any of my other information to matter, so I suggest you focus on that. After the battle come talk to me and maybe I'll tell you a bit more." I closed my eyes, "But if you're not going to prep, then go away so I can."

When we reached Sokovia, we landed the Quinjet a little way from the city itself. Pietro and Wanda went ahead into the city to start the evacuation. There was one major bridge that led to the main road, and another smaller one that led to unpaved forest trails. Not ideal for the situation. The rest of us followed to help direct traffic–aside from Thor and Banner, who snuck into the facility–the rising sun providing more light as time passed. Since I was less liked, I went to the smaller bridge while Steve went to the primary one. Some people have me an evil eye, but otherwise my identity was ignored.

Everything was going smoothly until hundreds of Ultron bots emerged from hiding, beneath the cobblestones, out of the water, and even a few from some buildings. But they didn't just attack me, they went for the people, generally causing chaos. The primary bridge was within range of my senses, and I could hear combat happening there as well, but those thoughts took a back seat when I engaged the Ultron bots. I began first with my swords, made of strong Asgardian steel, they cut the bots down with surprising ease. I fought with the intention of keeping the road and bridge as clear as I could, and people continued to flee.

That is, until the ground began to shake. My left foot went out from under me and I fell hard on the cobblestones. Pain exploded in my right temple, but I rolled hard to my right to stay on stable ground as the Earth fell away slowly. It took me a moment after regaining my feet to realize that it was the city that was rising, not the ground falling. The new AI confirmed it seconds later, but my first priority was to keep people from leaping to safety.

"Do you see?" Ultron's voice was somehow being projected everywhere, "The beauty of it? The inevitability? You rise only to fall. You, Avengers. You are my meteore, my swift and terrible sword and the Earth will crack with the weight of your failure." The bots were how he was managing it, but for every one that I shot, another took its place, "Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me, it means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal." Not if I could help it.

I made my way over to the main bridge to be by Steve, I was tired of getting shot at from behind and my head was pounding. As I was arriving, a bot crashed into Steve, sending him flying.