Redamancy

Chapter 26

Finding Hope
Ava Maria Safai

Loki POV

Loki woke he was in a forest he had never seen before. He heard a noise not far off, like an animal that was hurt. He felt himself drawn to follow the noise. Following the noise, he walked thru the woods. He was becoming increasingly agitated by the noise as it became louder and as he came around a tree he saw two figures facing away from him. One was a woman dressed in a black cloak, her untamed black hair obscuring her face, holding a tall staff in one hand, and lifting the other by the neck, making the noises that had drawn him. "You will choose the darkness, or the darkness will choose you."

He paused watching, as the dark woman threw the other figure to the ground. As the woman stood up, he realized with horror it was Eloise. She was bleeding from the side of her head and her mouth. She wiped the blood from her mouth, "You're wrong. I am strong enough to not choose." The dark woman let out a frustrated growl and knocked Eloise over, hitting her with the staff. Loki rushed forward, when the dark woman faced him. "Loki, my love," she purred he recoiled in horror, the creature looked like Eloise; her eyes were black, her skin blanched white, her curls darker and wilder but it was undoubtedly Eloise. As the dark Eloise took as single step towards him, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO," rang thru the air.

Suddenly he was sitting up in bed, blood on the sheets, Eloise was no where to be seen but he could still hear the no as if she had screamed it right next to him. He heard a noise coming from the bathroom, he raced in to see Eloise sitting on the counter holding a blood soaked towel to her forehead and rinsing the blood out of her mouth. He could see her hand glowing, realizing she was healing herself. Their eyes met in the mirror. "Fuck." She whispered.

Eloise POV

She had seen him in her dream, she had hoped that he hadn't actually seen it, that it was a ploy from the darkness to try and use her magic to protect him to make a choice but as she saw him take in her blooded appearance and his eyes narrowed at her, she realized he had seen everything, he knew about her darkness. At first he didn't say anything, just coming over and tenderly adding his magic to hers to stop the bleeding and then carrying her to his bed. He wrapped her in his arms and held her against his chest so long she thought he had fallen asleep, til he whispered, "Do you want to talk about what I saw? "

Eloise bit down on her lip, "I'm not sure I can explain it much better. Its one of my nightmares. Telling me to choose between light and dark magic and that if I don't choose soon the darkness will consume me. That is the darkness you saw. But I don't understand what the repercussions are for choosing." "I thought your nightmares were about Thanos. " he murmured, hoping it wouldn't start another fight, "They are sometimes, but he won't hurt me at least for now. He wants to use me as a weapon." Eloise answered bluntly. Loki held her tighter, "I will help you Eloise," Loki kissed the palm of her hand, "You once helped lead me out of darkness, and I promise you I will not let the darkness have you."

Loki POV

When Loki woke in the morning Eloise was gone but he could feel her cheerfulness washing over him, where are you? he thought to her, out for a run she answered, Why? Is something chasing you? he teased, Its a great work out, good for releasing tension, she let him feel the wind on her face, how calm she felt, he could hear the music she was running to, I can think of something else we could do together that would relieve all your tension, he let his thoughts be overcome with desire, filling her thoughts of last night, he felt alarm from her with the sudden image of Eloise falling. Can you not do that while I'm running, she snarled back at him, a slight twinge of pain swirled in her thoughts.

In my defense you left me unsupervised and you know how I get when I'm idle, he felt her amusement at his comment. Do you need help? He thought to her as Eloise suddenly dropped into his lap while holding her ankle in a cloud of green smoke. "Aren't you like 1200 years old? I mean I would expect you shouldn't be able to cause too much trouble just cause I leave you in bed for an hour on your own." She brushed her nose against his, "Good morning," Loki wounded his arms around her and began to kiss her when Thor burst thru the door. Eloise barely turned her head from Loki's lips to say, "Come back in an hour Thor," "Loki, we have to go, Heimdall will be calling us soon..." Thor paused taking in Eloise seated on Loki's lap and Loki's shirt off. Loki sighed putting his head to Eloise's, "Odin has called us back to Asgard for three days. Then I shall return to you. I meant to mention it yesterday but then we fought, and then I got... distracted last night." He explained and then grinned at the last part. "Last night was rather distracting, I'll give you that. Terrible timing though." with that Eloise disappeared out of Loki's lap. "You couldn't have waited a few more minutes?" Loki asked Thor frustratedly. Thor just grinned at him, "I take it you two made up last night."

"You could say that, and then some." Loki got up and pulled out his asgardian outfit. "Last night, Eloise confirmed that Thanos is after her, he intends to use her as a weapon but there's something else. I slipped into her dreams last night, her magic is more unstable than she let's on. It looks as if she has to choose somehow between light and dark magic. Have you ever heard of such a thing?" Thor listened solemnly, "No, I have not." " I'll need to do some research then while we are back on Asgard, we need to discover what she is so we can help her. I fear for her if she were to turn to the darkness she showed last night. " Loki shuttered, remembering how dark her eyes had been. "Come brother. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can return."

Eloise POV

Eloise watched Steve making pancakes while sitting at the kitchen counter between Bucky and Tony, "So Rudolph is taking a little trip for a few days, what should do while you have your freedom?" Tony wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "How about we try and keep it a little tame?" Eloise grinned at him, tossing a strawberry at him. "Tames not my game baby."

Eloise thought about it as Steve started serving up stacks of pancakes to everyone, while Bucky handed her a glass of orange juice, "Well at least can we get your better half up here? I miss Pepper and frankly you will be better behaved if she's here." Tony gave an exaggerated sigh and pulled out his phone, "I'll give her a shout and see if she is interested." Thor and Loki sauntered into the kitchen, back in their asgardian robes, Eloise dropped her fork back on her plate staring at Loki, he looked stunning in leather and a cape, that was just wholy unfair. Loki smirked he read the tone of her thoughts and stood behind her, snagging her fork to steal some of her pancakes. "Hey get your own." She tried to steal her fork back but instead Loki decided to feed her instead.

After a few more bites, she scooted the pancakes over so Loki could eat them and relaxed, watching Steve, Tony, Bucky, and Thor have a pancakes eating contest. "My money is on Tony to puke first," she theatrically whispered to Loki, who chuckled. "Ouch kid, my feelings." Tony replied, starting to look a little green. "Sorry, gotta call them as I see them and you are trying to out eat two super soldiers and a literal God, you did not stand a chance." Eloise said trying not to smile as Loki wrapped his arms her, placing his head on hers. "Will you come with me for a moment before we leave?" He whispered in her ear causing her to shiver. "Yes."

Loki POV

He led her outside, near where they planned to call Heimdall from. He took both of her hands, staring into her eyes, "Promise me you'll try and be safe." She seemed think about it, "I dunno, Tony promised me chaos so I wouldn't even notice you were gone." She teased him, he sighed and pulled her close to him, "I'm serious." She pulled him tight against her, her hands on his hips, "I know and I will do my best to be safe." Kissing her forehead, "I'm going to try to find out what you are so that I can help you, and I will find out what that amethyst is. " "Thank you, and please don't cause too much mischief while you are gone." She stood up on her toes trying to kiss him, "I adore you." He whispered into her ear.

"Hey keep it PG-13 kids," Tony said walking up with Thor, "Shove it Stark." Eloise vehemently, hungrily pulling his face down to hers for a kiss, "First you bet against me in the pancake wars and now this, I'm beginning to think you don't like me Princess Sparkles." Tony gave her puppy dog eyes, Eloise rolled her eyes, releasing Loki. "Thor keep him out of trouble please." Thor grabbed Eloise in a big hug. "Fear not, dear sister, we shall return in three days." The brothers stepped back away from Tony and Eloise. "Heimdall, open the bifrost." Thor called and in a blinding flash of light, they were gone. Tony sighed dramatically, "The lawn crew is gonna give me hell for this." Eloise giggled grabbing his hand, "Maybe you should build like a pad for them to leave from so they wouldn't keep ruining the grass."