Chapter 31

*3 Weeks Later. Third Person POV*

Thor walked into his brother's room and smiled as he saw how much better he looked. Loki's injuries were sever and he was close to death when they had landed back in Asgard, but they managed to get him stabilized and his self healing kicked in. The royal nurses had to lend the God a little help with his healing in the beginning, but after a few hours Loki's body took full control of the healing.

"How's he doing?" Tony asked as he walked into the room. Tony, Thor and Bucky stayed behind while the others went back to Earth and handled things there. Since the threat was no longer around, the armies of Earth were able to stand down. Funnily enough, this threat to Earth was enough to get the leaders talking again and a few new alliances and treaties were being talked about.

"As good as he can be." Thor nodded as he looked at the billionaire. Tony sighed as he crossed his arms and stared at Loki.

"It's been 3 weeks, Thor. We haven't found a solution to saving her yet." Tony softly said as he shook his head a little.

"Loki will. Once he is awake, I know he will find a way to save her." Thor nodded as he crossed his arms. Bucky walked into the room and Tony and Thor both turned and looked at the man.

"Your mom wants to see you." He said as he looked at Thor. The God nodded a goodbye to Tony and Bucky walked in and stood next to the billionaire as Thor left the room.

"How's he doing?" Bucky asked as he looked over at Loki. The God's black hair laid in a mess on his white pillow and his normally angry face relaxed as he laid there. His chest wrapped in a white, blood stained bandage and his body covered with his black bed sheet.

"Thor said as good as he can be." Tony shrugged a little. Loki's brows furrowed and Tony and Bucky both tensed up as they watched the God's head turn from side to side. He groaned a little and then suddenly shot up as his eyes flew open. He winced and touched his chest but quickly ignored it as he threw the blanket off of him and stood up. Thor and Odin walked into the room as Loki reached over and grabbed his torn, bloody uniform top, attempting to put it on.

"Son." Odin demanded he stop but Loki ignored him. He pulled his top down over his wound and let out a harsh exhale from the pain.

"She is still down there." Loki's raspy voice said as he glared over at his father.

"I know." Odin nodded, his voice softer than usual.

"I need to save her!" Loki harshly said as he stared at the 4 men blocking his exit.

"You are still too weak, Loki." Odin argued.

"I do not care!" Loki yelled as he took a step forward.

"You will not leave this palace!" Odin yelled back.

"Father, you can't-"

"We will find a way to save her here." His father interrupted him. Loki's harsh eyes relaxed as he clenched his jaw a little and let his father's words sit with him.

"You are willing to help me help her?" He asked his father. He knew it was unusual for his father to offer him help, especially when it came to humans. 

"She gave her life for you, son." Odin said as he shook his head and furrowed his brows a little.

"And I know you love her. I cannot, in good mind, leave her there without at least trying to help her." Odin added. Bucky uncomfortably shifted from his left foot to his right and looked down as he licked his lips. He knew Loki loved Alex, he also knew Alex loved Loki. It was hard for him but he had to put his feelings aside to help her.

"Where do we start?" Loki asked his father.

"You can have access to my personal room. The first recorded story of Aksel and Svanhild is stored in there. Maybe something in the writings can be of help." Odin nodded as he turned and walked out of Loki's room. Loki looked over at the humans and nodded at Tony before leaving the room, following his father. They walked down the hallway, the other three following behind them, and into the dining hall. Odin took them to the golden door in the corner and began chanting his spell, opening the door.

"I will have to change that now that you all heard it." He said as he glared behind him and raised a brow at the others. Loki pushed past him and walked over to the start of the books lining the walls. He placed the tip of his right pointer finger on the first book and slowly drug it across the others as he walked around the room. He stopped and tapped the spine of a large black book twice before pulling it out of it's spot. He set it on the table and flipped it open, staring down at the writing.

"This is written in the old language." Thor said as he crossed his arms and furrowed his brows.

"Yes, brother." Loki nodded as he drug his finger under the words and symbols, reading them to himself.

"How can you read that?" Tony asked him.

"While my barbaric brother was off training for his body, I stayed in my room training my mind. I know all languages, old and new." Loki said as he furrowed his brows and flipped the page. Tony nodded an impressed nod and crossed his arms as Loki continued. Loki's finger stopped and he stared at a single sentence towards the end of the page. 

"What is it?" Thor asked as he uncrossed his arms and leaned one on the table next to the book.

"When Aksel sealed off the entrance to Svanhild's cage, he attempted to offer multiple sacrifices to the Old Gods, giving enough blood to keep them all alive in the process. The Old Gods are said to have rejected the sacrifices because the blood was not pure." Loki said as he read from the top of the page back down to where he had stopped before.

"Pure as in what?" Thor asked as he raised a brow.

"Well, I assume pure as in blood of the Gods. So when Aksel offered himself up, they took it because he was descendant of the Gods themselves." Loki nodded as he stood up straight and licked his lips.

"So...?" Thor asked as he crossed his arms again and looked at his brothers.

"Only the blood of a God can seal the cage again and free Alex." Loki explained as he looked at his brother.

"Well, does it say it has to be one God?" Tony suddenly asked them. Loki and the others looked over at the human and then Loki looked back at he book. He read the page again and then the next one before shaking his head.

"No." He replied as he looked back at Tony.

"So, in theory, you and Thor could both give your blood to save her, keeping you alive." Tony shrugged.

"Yes. That could work. We just need enough to equal one man." Loki nodded.

"They would still die." Bucky argued, causing everyone to look at him.

"Since Asgardian's are basically human-"

"Watch it." Odin harshly cut him off as he glared at the human.

"-....I assume they have about the same amount of blood in them, right?" He asked as he cautiously looked away from Odin and over at Tony.

"Yeah, Thor has about 1.5 gallons of blood in him, normal human amount." Tony nodded.

"How do you know that?" Loki asked, raising a brow.

"It was for science." Tony shrugged.

"Anyway, you're right. It would be too dangerous for them to lose enough blood to equal out 1.5 gallons of blood. That's like half of their blood content each, too much." The billionaire nodded as he sighed.

"And Loki is still weak and not fully recovered." Thor added.

"Right, losing that much blood again could kill him." Tony sighed again as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"What if instead of two Gods, we were to take the blood of three?" Odin suddenly suggested. The group was surprised by this but he did say he would help them save Alex.

"Would work." Tony nodded in agreement.

"But we do not have a third sibling." Thor said as he furrowed his brows.

"I will do it." Odin announced.

"Father, are you sure?" Thor asked, surprise in his voice.

"You would give your blood for a human?" Loki cautiously asked as he furrowed his brows too.

"She is not just a human, Loki. We both know that." Odin said, a small smile forming on has lips. A smile neither Loki or Thor had seen in years.

"Alright, then it's settled. We head back to the planet and do this." Tony said as he clapped his hands together once and smiled at the group. The three Gods nodded and Bucky smiled as he looked at the others. None of them were sure if it would work but it was worth a try.

*On Oskar. Third Person POV*

Alex and Svanhild were now only a few inches away from one another. The beast was fighting back hard against her and, despite the warrior helping her, she was becoming tired. Svanhild had backed her against the wall behind her and inched closer and closer to her over the past few weeks. His red eyes burned into Alex's brown ones and she felt nothing hatred towards him. Her arms sat at her sides but her fists stayed close, holding the earth around the beast.

"It's just you and me, you ugly mother fucker. For all of eternity." She whispered, a devilish smirk spreading across her face. Aksel hadn't spoken to her since he joined her in her body, but she could feel him helping her. Her brown eyes dropped a little as exhaustion began to set in. She suddenly felt a jolt inside of her and her eyes opened widely, thanks to Aksel. Svanhild slowly opened and closed his mouth, periodically revealing his hundreds of sharp teeth to her in an attempt to scare her.

"I hate you." She harshly said.

"You and that stupid other Loki." She added as she clenched her jaw. She wasn't sure if her Loki survived his injuires, but knew Thor would have done everything in his power to help him and that brought her some comfort. Svanhild attempted to close the gap between them but Alex tensed her body and pushed the earth together and then back, pushing the beast a few feet away from her.

"Aksel, is there any way to kill him?" She asked as she laid her head back against the wall. Her question was met with silence.

"I guess not." She sighed.

*Meanwhile. Third Person POV*

Odin, Thor, Loki, Tony, Peter, Bucky, and Bruce all met up at the bifrost, preparing to head to Oskar. Tony had called Bruce and Peter for help with the medical part of the sacrifice.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Heimdall asked the three Gods but he was mostly talking to Odin.

"Yes." Odin nodded.

"Can you see her?" Loki asked the gate keeper. Heimdall stared off into the distance for a moment and then looked back at Loki and nodded.

"She is alive." He added. Loki and the others felt relief wash over them and Odin nodded, telling them it was time to go. Heimdall sent them off to Oskar and they landed right outside of the cave. The other Loki's guards and men still lay dead from the fight.

"Was it a great battle?" Odin asked as he followed his two boys into the cave and through the dead bodies.

"It was okay." Thor shrugged, causing Loki to roll his eyes.

"I thought it was pretty great." Peter whispered to Bucky. It was the first real life threatening battle they had both been in. Normally they had some control or strategy to their battles, but this other Loki put them through the ringer.

They walked into the main cave room and Loki glanced over at the other dead him. He clenched his jaw and looked away as he walked towards the center of the room. He stood on the outside of the runes and crossed his arms as he waited for the others.

"Such a shame for a Loki to die like that." Odin scoffed a little as he looked over at the body.

"How should he have died?" Bucky asked as he looked over at the body as well.

"A true warrior's death. This..." Odin gestured to the rock impaling the body and shook his head in disappointment.

"...this is just sad. Meaningless. Everything he did is going to be undone. His choices and actions made no lasting impact." He explained as he looked over at Bucky.

"He destroyed worlds and concurred universes, I'd say that those choices and actions made a pretty big impact." Peter argued as he crossed his arms.

"You humans do not understand our ways and reasons." Odin waved the pair away as he joined his son by the runes. Bruce and Tony set their medical kits down on the ground behind the Gods, knelt down, and opened them up, revealing needles and IV tubing.

"Alright, here's how this is gonna work." Tony started off as he stood up, unraveling an IV tube.

"We're gonna poke your veins and just let your blood drain into the circle." He said as he stretched the tube out fully and looked over at the Gods.

"That is it?" Odin asked as he raised a brow.

"Yeah." Tony nodded as he bent down and grabbed a needle. Peter walked over to Thor and motioned for him to extend his arm out, so he did, and Peter began cleaning it off. He moved on to Loki and Bruce pulled his glove on before tying a tight band around the arm and feeling around the inner elbow area for a good vein. Once he found it he stuck the needle in and Tony hooked up the IV tube to it. They did this routine with the other two, Loki having to remove his top because his sleeves were too tight to pull up.

"This is really it?" Odin asked as the open end of the tubes sat inside of the circle and the blood slowly drained and mixed in the middle.

"Yeah, why?" Tony asked as he closed the medical kit up.

"No reason." Odin responded as he shrugged.

"Just a bit lame." He mumbled as he looked at the circle. Their blood was draining extremely slowly and hadn't even reached the first rune yet.

"Tell me about it." Thor mumbled in response to his father.

"These ones are docile creatures. They always pick the safe and easy way first." Loki whispered.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Tony scoffed.

"Did you want something more exciting? Should I have slit your wrists or throats or something instead??" He added as he crossed his arms.

"That would have been more exciting, yes." Loki shrugged.

"Yes, but what is done is done." Odin nodded as he looked over at his sons.

"Alex?" Loki called out as he looked down at the circle. He wasn't sure if she could hear him, but he still wanted to try.

"We're going to get you out of there." He sternly promised.

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