Chapter Text
“Loki, someone is looking for us.” Merlin said. They sat in one of the impossibly tall buildings that Merlin had seen out the window. The room was practically opulent, and Merlin had thought that first two inns were of a higher quality than he’d ever been to.
This was the stuff of royalty, he was sure. Loki had only said when he brought them there that he was looking for a change in scenery. Merlin still isn’t sure he likes being so far off the ground. The building didn’t fly. He didn’t know how they would get out if they had to run.
Merlin whispered another spell, hands on Loki’s face, over his mask. Loki lounged against the head board of the massive bed. He was flicking through his phone. It did more than communicate, Merlin was learning. It had games and was actually quite interesting, and he wanted one.
Do you know spells for finding? Merlin blinked and backed away from the screen in his face. He sat back at the edge of the bed.
“I… can see things in crystals sometimes. I don’t try to. What has that to do with people are looking for us?” Loki nodded and his fingers danced over the letters. The next message had a phonetic spell on it. Merlin smiled wryly at him. “I’ve nothing to find.”
Close your eyes.
Merlin rolled them first but obeyed. Loki tapped him after a moment.
Find the phone. Loki typed, on entirely different phone. Merlin tilted his head at it and blinked.
Slowly he raised his hand and said the finding spell. Then said it again when nothing happened.
It was the same as how he saw when he threw his vision ahead of him, except that he didn’t control the direction. The vision led him under the bed on the other side, and a glowing phone lying on the ground. Then suddenly his vision was normal again.
Merlin walked around the bed and crouched own. The phone was there. “Can I do that with, with anything?”
With enough power, yes. You can find anything, anywhere. It is hard to have enough power to find something far away and under spells of hiding.
“Like we are.”
It would be hard to find us, even with magic. It is unlikely they are using magic as you know it.
Loki smirked at him after Merlin’s eyes stopped tracking the letters; he typed again.
The phone is yours. It will not work long in Camelot, but it will work here.
“…Thank you.” Loki waved a hand flippantly, then gestured for Merlin to sit again.
I reward those who help me. The phone said. Now, watch.
Merlin watched as Loki finished his message, then went to a different view that Merlin hadn’t seen before. He typed again, the word Smith, and pressed another spot—button, he reminded himself—and the whole thing folded up and vanished.
Merlin’s new phone buzzed like a bee and he dropped it. “Ah! Did you cast a spell on it?!” Loki smirked under his mask and held up the buzzing phone. He made sure that Merlin was watching, then pressed the screen. The words ‘Now, watch.’ were on Merlin’s phone.
“How… Never mind. Technology and magic.” Loki nodded. “Can I do that?” Loki nodded again and showed Merlin how to open the messages. From there, it looked the same as what Loki had, and Merlin knew what to do.
“What is Smith?”
A common name. So that it is not known who you are truly speaking to.
Merlin nodded and looked down at the phone in his lap. It was smooth as glass and he found that he like to stroke it like a pet.
“Thank you, Loki.”
Shall we continue? Was the response. That spell and the next didn’t remove the mask either.
_-o0O0o-_
Tony, Pepper, Bruce, and Thor sat around a table with Gwen, Arthur, and Mordred. Arthur still glared at everyone suspiciously, but was surprising civil. Gwen took it upon herself to act as mediator.
“Yeah, I just have one pretty big question.” Tony said and leaned forward. He slid an image of Loki across the table to them. “Was that the guy?”
The three of them leaned over to look, and talked quietly. Gwen admits that she hadn’t been looking in that direction until Merlin was already mostly vanished. Mordred says he was.
“That’s him. The sorcerer. Except.” Mordred examined the picture. “He didn’t look this young or healthy.”
“It is an older image.” Thor said, nodding. “But you are sure? My brother took your friend?”
Tony coughed “Probably shouldn’t tout the family relationship,” into his fist.
“I’m sure it’s him. I was looking right at Merlin when he was taken.” He remembered the look of shock that only lasted a split second, and then he was gone.
Arthur grumbled and slammed his palm flat on the table. Pepper jumped. Bruce sighed. Tony snickered and elbowed Thor in the ribs. “What does he want with Merlin?”
Thor shook his head. “His plans are often murky. Ultimately, I suspect he wants revenge—not against your small man, against the Avengers.”
“And what part does Merlin play in this?” Thor shook his head.
“Is there any way that we, all together here, weren’t supposed to work together? Maybe he wanted them to think we took him?” Pepper said. Thor shook his head again. Tony wondered if this was going to be a dizzy and negative day for him.
“Loki is both personal in his vengeance, and doubting in the skills of the mortal man. He would not believe you had the skill to do us any harm, friends.”
“Hell, I bet he didn’t think you would time travel to find him. I know I wouldn’t have thought of that.” Tony said.
“Then what?” Gwen asked. Mordred bit his lip. “What reason could he possibly have for taking Merlin?”
Bruce glanced at Thor, then Tony. “Last time he was here, he had a staff that took control of people’s minds. Well, until you got a good hit on their head. He took people that had the skills to help him complete his plans.”
“He no longer has the power to turn men’s minds.” Thor said.
“But maybe he is still after people with the right skills.” Arthur snorts.
“Then he has grabbed the wrong man. Merlin is a servant. He can’t do much.” Mordred tried not to squirm in his seat and said.
“I don’t think Merlin would help anyway. He is… not as helpful as he used to be.”
“I might not be a matter of choice.” Bruce said softly. “Perhaps he can’t control your friend, but what choice would he have but to help when the alternative is to be stranded in the future, far from home?”
Arthur stood suddenly. “Then help us find him, and you will have your brother, and Merlin will see the alternative.”
Jarvis, the magic talking wall servant, told them when he found some sighting of Merlin. Tony jumped up from his seat and chattered nonsense at the wall. He came back with a small image, like the one of Merlin’s kidnapper.
“This him?” Tony said and slid it towards Arthur.
Arthur lifted it. It was not a clear and portrait-like image like Loki’s but more as though Tony had stolen a moment out of time. It was not too close, and Merlin was turning away. He was dressed differently, and alone, carrying something that Arthur thought looked like a tray of food.
“It’s him.”
“Right, this is from about twenty minutes ago. Ritzy hotel, on—” he looked at Arthur, Gwen and Mordred watching him. “You know, it really doesn’t matter where. I’ll point. Bruce, you want to introduce them to the nice side of the cars they’ve been stabbing?”
“Sure,”
“Right, Thor, you’re with me. I’m suiting up. Pepper—” she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Yes, that. Exactly. You guys. Don’t stab my car.”
Arthur nodded gravely and they followed Bruce down to the garage, while Thor followed Tony to where ever suiting up entailed.
“I’m sorry, I haven’t seen anyone who looks like that.” The young lady at the desk said. She looked a little confused by that fact.
“You’re in the picture.” Bruce said carefully.
“Yes, I, I see that. I guess I should have seen him, but I don’t remember.”
Arthur, leaning against the desk sighed. He leaned to say quietly to Bruce. “I suspect your friend’s brother cast some sort of spell on him.”
Bruce nodded and thanked the woman. “You would have thought they would have found a way to stop the magic.”
“I’ve found that sorcerers stop for very little other than death.”
“Thor won’t have his brother killed.”
“And I would have trouble calling for the death of my sister, no matter what she has done.” Arthur said quietly. Gwen and Mordred looked up as they approached. “The woman can’t remember him.” He said louder.
“He’s not here.” Mordred said. Bruce frowned and looked around the room.
“What do you mean, not here? Not here as in never here, or has left?” He asked.
“I… don’t know. Is Tony here? I can point to where I think he is. Perhaps he can find another, ah, not-painting.” Bruce held up his smartphone to Mordred.
“Say it again? He’ll hear you.”
Mordred glanced around, then said carefully. “Merlin isn’t here.”
“Wow, kid moves fast.” The phone said in Tony’s voice. They jumped and Bruce tried not to smile.
“I can tell what direction he is in.” Mordred said. “He’s uh, ” he leaned back a little and tried to look out the window. “Due south of this establishment. I think.”
“Jarvis, I need you to do an image search of… they are staying in hotels a lot aren’t they? Yeah, those.”
“Of course sir.” Mordred stared at the phone with all its voices. “I have found a matching image.”
Merlin wasn’t there either by the time they arrived.
_-o0O0o-_
“Loki, we are being hunted.” Merlin squeezed his hands into fists and relaxed them again. He made sparks fly from his fingertips.
We are. I thought this may happen.
“Sorry, I wasn’t fast enough—” he felt magic like lightning try to flee his body and took a breath. Too often he was too slow.
This can be to our advantage. Merlin read. Merlin, you think too linearly. To do a task, you complete it. But there are other ways.
“What, trick your captors into releasing you? Don’t you think they would be wary of that?”
While I don’t think very highly of their intelligence, surely they wouldn’t fall for the same trick for a fourth time. Loki smirked and his eyes crinkled. Merlin tilted his head and quirked an eyebrow.
I have pretended to be caught in order to escape them before. Loki said. What I have in mind is a little different.
“Me?” Loki nodded.
You must escape.
“How are they even coming so close? My spells,” Loki held the phone under his nose and Merlin took a hasty step back.
They work fine. Do not lessen yourself. You are powerful, and deserve to be treated with respect and admiration.
Merlin looked dubious. “I’ve heard that before.” He said quietly. “The man was trying to possess me.”
I have no need to possess you. A Frost Giant body is more suitable to me than the body of a mortal.
Merlin rolled his eyes. “Still, if my spells work as well as you say, how are your enemies coming so close?”
Loki made a very dry expression and held his phone out to the side for Merlin to see.
There is a Man of Iron, and he is very, very annoying.
Merlin laughed despite himself.
Loki quirked an eyebrow at Iron Man when he flew up to hover outside the window, hand out-stretched and glowing. The door flew open and Thor stomped in, looking sad and livid, as usual. He was followed by Bruce Banner and Loki’s other eyebrow shot up. He held up his hands in a peaceful gesture.
“Brother, don’t not cause us trouble. Come quietly—what is that?”
“That’s a phone, Thor. You’ve seen them before.” Bruce said.
“Careful.” Tony’s voice echoed from his suit’s speaker systems. “I saw a Batman movie once where they blew the phone up.”
Bruce walked over and took the phone.
I suppose this means vacation is over?
“Uh, yes. Yes, usually when you kidnap people, then vacation is over.”
“You are speaking through the capabilities of the phone because you cannot speak! I am very impressed at this ingenuity, brother.” Loki leveled a dry look at his brother. He waved a hand for the phone back.
You are an idiot. Bruce didn’t read that one out before handing it back.
“Come quietly, and it will hurt less.” He said. He drummed his fingers on his bicep.
“We’re still gonna be suspicious, though. I mean, wow, what an original plan.”
I am not here to rule you stupid mortals. I just hate Asgard.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “So you kidnapped someone.” Loki sighed melodramatically. The air rattled through his mask.
Why do you think I kidnapped someone? Does it look like anyone else is here?
“We have witnesses, you grabbed some poor sucker and vanished.”
I don’t have the strength for such things as vanishing, much less with another person. Ask Thor.
“He should not…” Thor said dubiously. “But you have been using magic, Loki. You have hidden yourself, and in fact vanished for several buildings.”
I walked, fool. I did not vanish. Bruce apologized quietly for the insult after reading it.
“And you hid yourself with magic.” Tony said. Loki rolled his eyes.
That is not at the same level of skill and strength. Not that anyone here would understand.
“Oh but we have a weird little magician guy we can run that by.” Tony said. “In fact, he’s been listening and he says… Well, okay, he says that hiding yourself is a tiny simple thing, provided it isn’t uh…” He paused, listening. “True invisibility. Which apparently different than other invisibilities. Is there a fake invisible. Are fake invisible people just idiots?”
Thor looked lost and Bruce cleared his throat.
“Yes, anyway, apparently teleportation takes a great deal of magic. And time travel… ” Tony grumbled. “Time travel should have been impossible.”
Loki now looked as lost as Thor. He tossed the phone to Bruce.
Time travel? What in the nine realms are you blabbering on about? Am I to have searched the future for my key to freedom?
Loki shook his head. His shoulders shook slightly from silent laughter.
I want to cause my brother and father trouble. No more. In this state, I prefer their fool faces to those of the Chitauri, if you don’t mind.
Bruce glanced up at the others, offering the phone back to Loki. He shrugged, not knowing what else to do.
_-o0O0o-_
Merlin leaned on the wall outside, bundled in several layers of coat, and a scarf. He typed slow responses on the phone to Loki.
Are you in one piece
Yes, I went peacefully, so they saw no need to harm me. Merlin, they know you are here. I do not know how, yet. Do take care.
Merlin shivered and looked around the slowly darkening skies. He didn’t want to know what would happen to him if he was caught by these people. He had no old bond like Loki had with his brother that might spare his life.
I wont
Find shelter for now. We will see how much can be discovered about this mask.
What will you do once you are free what will you do to your brother
He is the least of my concerns.
Merlin pulled away from the wall and walked down the street. Then he vanished.
Loki watched from inside his glass room. When Stark came in, he held his phone against the glass.
You rebuilt it. Does your Hulk know that?
“He told us to. It’s better than before, did you know that?”
I figured as much. You ants do so love such things.
“Thought we got you over that whole ants thing when we kicked your ass.” Stark said. Loki shrugged.
Not so. What will you do with me?
“Thor’s getting a portal ready for the both of you. You’re going back to Asgard.”
Glad to know you’ve stopped your childish drivel on about kidnappings.
“He’s how we found you, you know. So what did you do? Just scare the kid into bringing you food? Oh wait.”
Loki gave him a dry look. Stark laughed because he could hate Loki sometimes, and he didn’t know why Thor didn’t.
“Anyway, we don’t need you to find him, that’s all.”
I’m starting to think you stumbled upon me purely by accident. How droll.
“I’m thinking of sending Natasha in here though.”
I won’t talk to her.
Stark laughed again and left.
“Does he speak to you?” Arthur said, only a few rooms away. Tony shook his head.
“Nope. Didn’t expect him to. I just like to point and laugh.”
“Your Jarvis says he is finding nothing.” Arthur walked beside him down the halls.
“That’s a little weird, actually. I mean, I already knew that, I just wanted you to know it’s weird.”
“Mordred says he lives.”
“Maybe Mordred and do his point and find magic again.” Arthur shook his head. He and Jarvis had been speaking, trying to find him, but whatever barriers that were blocking Mordred had become very large and covered too.
“It has been no use.” Arthur said.
“Maybe you can use your magic sword.”
“Excalibur isn’t magic. It’s just special.” Tony raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, how is it special?”
“It can only be retrieved by the one meant to rule.” Arthur said, quite proudly.
“Two questions, how’s that not magic, and what do you do once it’s been retrieved? Because that thing’s been swung around be more than just you.”
“Because it isn’t! Blessed, maybe, but not magic. And I never said it can be wielded only be me. I suppose it was more of an omen.”
Tony rolled his eyes. ”Hey, whatever lets you sleep at night, man.”
Mordred and Gwen looked up when they entered. They were sitting on chairs pulled over to the wall, under one of Jarvis’s control panels.
“Sire, there’s been nothing.” Mordred didn’t meet his eyes, as he hadn’t for a while now. Arthur put a firm hand on his shoulder.
“It is no fault of yours, Mordred. You have been nothing but the best of my men since we arrived in this time.” Mordred nodded.
_-o0O0o-_
They plan to bring me to Asgard tonight. Merlin glanced down at his phone and kept walking. The building he made his slow way around was very tall, taller than the surrounding building, but not the tallest he’d seen in this city.
He wandered around it, invisible to passers-by.
Not really any time to find out about the mask then
To my great irritation.
Ill get you now then
Good. I’ll be waiting. Merlin fluffed up his coat and strode inside.
It was somewhat busy on the ground floor. So far as he could tell, it was open to anyone coming off the streets. He headed for the stairs.
The stairs only went up partly so far as he needed to go. He texted Loki.
I have to use the metal box I dont want to use the metal box
The reply he got was not one he’d seen before. Merlin carefully pressed the only option there seemed to be: Retrieve. A tiny image appeared on the screen, like he was looking through a crystal. He thought he might be for a moment, but the visions in the crystals moved. This was very still.
It was a picture of a room. Once he had seen it, he could appear there, Loki had told him. Merlin swallowed. He took a deep breath, and made sure his guards were still up. He closed his eyes and thought about the image, imagined he was standing there. He whispered a spell.
The temperature was abruptly different, and the floor was a little bit lower than Merlin thought and he fell. A hand pulled him to his feet and urged him to continue. Merlin placed both hands on Loki’s shoulders and spoke the spell again. He heard the door slam open and flinched. Then they were gone.
_-o0O0o-_
Arthur stood by Mordred, neither knowing what to do. They stared at the spot where Merlin had vanished with Loki.
They were nearly thrown into the room when Thor charged in. Bruce came in after and helped Mordred up. Arthur leaned against the wall and accepted Gwen’s worried hand numbly when she followed Bruce in.
The glass panels of the cage were cracked so thoroughly that they were opaque, and bowed outwards.
“He has escaped.” Thor said very loudly.
“Merlin is helping him.” Arthur said. He shook his head, squeezed Gwen’s hand, and stood up straighter. “Loki is controlling him some other way than the spear you spoke of.”
“Loki might just be tricking him,” Bruce said. Arthur shook his head.
“I’m sure he possesses him, or something to that end. Merlin did some spell that vanished them into the air.”
Thor stalked around the room and came back to the group. Bruce raised an eyebrow. “You think he’s doing his magic through your friend,” Arthur nodded, looking grim. Gwen looked distress and glanced at Mordred. She frowned at the look on his face. “Thor, is that possible?”
“I admit, I do not know the limits of my brother’s skills. Surely, though, if he knew how to do this, he would have done it before?”
“Well, he has done it now.” Arthur said.
“Sire…”
“We must catch him and free Merlin.”
“Arthur,” Gwen put a hand on his arm and looked at Mordred. Arthur looked down at her and followed her gaze.
“Mordred. Have you information on this? Have you heard of the like?”
“I. Sire, I think we should sit down?”
“This is not my place to say. I swore…” Mordred shook his head, trying not to look at all the faces around him and think how Merlin, who didn’t seem to trust him before, would ever trust him now. “This is for our safety. We shouldn’t go in not knowing.”
“Mordred, get on with it.” Arthur growled. Gwen stepped on his foot.
“Merlin is being tricked, I think. Into helping. Because he is powerful.” Mordred said. “With magic. He is,”
He didn’t know how powerful, only that he was enough that there was a prophesy about him. In Mordred’s weaker, angrier moments, he entertained the thoughts that he was more powerful, and that Merlin looked at him like that because he feared him.
He knew better most of the time. “He is lonely.” He said. “Powerful and lonely, and that is not a good combination.”
Arthur blinked at him. The first words to come to his mouth were you must be joking. But this was not a time to joke, and Mordred was rarely much of a joker anyway. He didn’t let the words leave.
The second words were Lonely?! How in God’s name is he lonely, surround with friends and family? But that wasn’t important right now. Arthur ended up sitting in silence, watching Mordred while he thought until Mordred started to squirm and Gwen stepped on his foot again.
“With magic, you said.” Arthur said abruptly. “Powerful, with magic.” Mordred nodded, looking much more his young age than usual. “Is he so lonely that he would use it against us?”
“He is loyal to you above all else.” Mordred said. Arthur felt a twinge in his heart.
“Then we must let him know that I am here.” Arthur said.
_-o0O0o-_
Merlin frowned, eyebrows furrowed. Loki paced the dim room, clenching and unclenching his hands. His eyes shone with the feverish intensity that Merlin had thought was gone.
He checked his enchantment again, but Loki should have been the right temperature. He wasn’t without the spell so long that he should have gotten very sick again. “If you sit, I’ll have a hand at your face.”
Loki didn’t stop or look at him. He didn’t have a very humorous relationship with Loki anyway.
“If you show me pictures of places far away, surely it would be impossible to catch you.”
Loki paused long enough for Merlin to read his phone. We do not leave the city.
“Right. No, that would be too easy.” Merlin said. His tone was lost on Loki. He sighed. “Sit, let me try again on your mask.” Merlin sat up when Loki paused. “Here, sit.” He nudged a chair forward with his mind.
Finally, Loki turned to look at him for a very long time. Merlin patted the chair. “Sit, you great idiot.” He sat.
“I know you’re thinking of doing something stupid.” Merlin said. His voice was quiet, his eyes and hands focused on the mask. “I know you… I know that there was a lot of wrong done to you.” His eyes glowed hot and gold for a moment. The mask remained unchanged. “Don’t confront them… When you are free. Just, leave, maybe.”
Loki pulled away, just enough to nod downward and direct Merlin’s tension to his phone. A new spell.
Merlin sighed. “I’m serious. Just, just, don’t. When you’re free, I have to go home. I have an idiot king to take care of.”
Your king would burn you.
“One day, he won’t. He’ll choose not to.”
Is he not just like his father? Merlin smiled and shook his head. He gave the new spell several tries before he answered.
“No. No, he isn’t. He still thinks that he should be. But he isn’t.”
If you return, you’ll die.
“It is my destiny to be at Arthur’ side. You can’t convince me otherwise.” He took a deep breath. He didn’t want to see the same expression of resolve on Loki’s face.
He looked down and saw the phone blinking up at him again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you.”
Have you ever cast a spell that was not words, but will?
“That’s, uh, actually the only sort I knew how to do for the longest time.” He told the phone.
I want you to do that. Pour you will into the mask. Use no words, force it to submit because you are the stronger. Because under your will and magic, nothing can rebel.
“Pretty.” Merlin snorted. “Really, fine words, but I don’t think that will work.”
Do it. Merlin sighed. He put his hands back on the mask, tried not to grab Loki’s face. He tugged at his magic, urged it, like he did with the spells, but tried to funnel it with no words, like he did when he was young.
When he wanted something to move, it moved. Be it person or object. Time stilled for him. He swallowed and looked up, eyes gold and bright as the sun. Loki looked back, a poisoned, angry man, full of despair and loneliness and enough like Merlin that it physically hurt. He held the mask a little harder than he meant to and pushed.
_-o0O0o-_
Merlin was curled up on a bed. He blinked. New hotel, maybe. He didn’t recognize the room.
Then he remembered Loki’s mask, disintegrating in his fingers. He remembered the feeling of bewilderment and serenity when he understood just what made it tick, and how to destroy it or remove it or create it. Then he passed out.
Loki must have put him in the bed. “Loki?” He asked. No one was there. He felt with his magic, thankfully it didn’t seem to be any less or different, and felt no one.
Merlin cast the finding spell Loki taught him then, and held himself up on the bed as his sight was whisked out the door and down the hall and out of the hotel, through the air and stopped at the Stark tower. He saw Loki laugh and drop a chunk of building on a dark haired stranger, then his vision snapped back to his head. He ran out the door staggering into walls without waiting for his balance to recover.
Merlin rushed to the tower. His magic made him lighter and he almost flew. “Stop!” he yelled. Loki ignored him. The giant blond man he was fighting ignored him.
The blond man swung a massive mallet down, crackling with magic. “I said stop!” He yelled a shoved the man into the wall. Loki turned to him and grinned. It was interesting to see his whole face.
“Thank you, Merlin.”
“I’m not helping you with this,” He said loudly across the distance.
“Then go home.”
“No! Stop this—” His words dies in his throat as he watched the wall buckle then explode out towards Loki and a giant, some green behemoth come barreling out, roaring like nothing Merlin had ever seen. Loki had a moment to look alarmed before the creature’s massive green fists crashed down on him.
There was a moment of shocked still silence, then Merlin let the magic flood out of him. “NO!” The green giant was the heaviest thing he had ever tried to move, but move it he did. It went crashing into the hole the blonde man made in the wall.
“That was very good.” Loki said into his ear. Merlin jumped. He hoped petulantly that he head-butted Loki.
“You prat! I thought it had killed you!” Merlin hissed. Loki turned him back towards the fight.
“It’s called The Hulk. In just a moment, I want you to teleport us over there.”
“I told you I’m not helping with this.’
“You will find this particular action is one you want to take. Ready?” There was a roar and the Hulk came charging out of the rubble. Merlin’s heart leapt into his throat. “Now.” The Hulk leapt into the air and they were gone.
Loki stooped down and picked up a long metal pipe from the decimated bit of Stark Tower. He smiled at it and it transformed into a long and ornate spear. The blond man flew out of the pile beside them, sending lightening and debris into the air. Loki dodged the blow of his hammer and clubbed him hard over the back of the head with his sudden spear. The man skidded forward.
“That, Merlin, is my brother, Thor.” He spat.
“Loki, come on. There are far more of them than you.” Loki just grinned like a madman and ran back at his brother. The Hulk was up again and swatted both Thor and Loki down the road before Merlin could smash him into another wall. He ran down the road and tried to grab Loki and forcibly vanish them both. The ground exploded and a strange, loud, and oddly melodic noise echoes around them.
“Wow, talk about lessons not sinking in!” A floating, glowing red suit of armor said. Merlin rubbed his eyes.
“I’ve gone mad.”
“I’d blame the education system, but the system was us and we’re awesome.” He aimed a beam of blue light at Loki and Merlin set him on fire.
“Merlin,” Loki walked over to him. Thor bought down lightening from the sky. They both threw up their hands at the same time and deflected it. Merlin was breathing hard, not from exertion. His eyes were wide and he didn’t know whether to be scared or very, very angry. “You do seem to be helping quite a lot for not helping. Don’t be dissuaded. I appreciate it, my little magician.”
“Loki, don’t.” Merlin said lowly. He tried to grab for Loki, but passed right through him. He tossed the sudden handful of moths to the ground and made an irritated noise.
He stayed purposefully and petulantly out of the way after that, hoping that a couple blows would knock some sense into Loki. He still tried to keep the Hulk away, until the angry giant hurled a large chunk of building at him. He felt two pairs of hands on his shirt and arm drag him out of the way. “Thanks—” He blinked at Loki standing next to Arthur. Loki looked curiously down at Arthur. “How… did… you…”
“We’re going home.” Arthur said in his quietly angriest, most serious voice. Merlin swallowed.
Loki swatted him away with a wave of his spear. “Perhaps you should ask, fool king.”
“Loki!” Merlin yelled. The Hulk came back, and Loki ran off out of the way. Merlin grabbed Arthur and yanked him out of the way.
“I’m fine Merlin, I—Stop fretting!’
“I’m sorry, I’m,”
“Shut up, there’s a battle going on.” Arthur stood and shoved Merlin behind him. He drew Excalibur and glared down the road at Loki.
“Arthur—”
“Stay behind me. We will speak about this later.” Merlin huffed and swung his head to the side. The metal man flew into a building. “Merlin.”
“Sorry.”
“Stay here, don’t do anything.” Arthur said.
“I can’t— Arthur!” Merlin yelled after him. Merlin sat heavily on a chunk of rock and tried to fathom what was happening anymore.
Arthur was the best knight he had ever seen. He fought Loki, putting him quickly on the defensive. And though Merlin did his best to keep the Hulk out of the fray, Arthur still had several allies on his side.
But Loki was a trick inside a trick, and soon there were ten of him. Merlin stood, paced at the edge of battle. The Hulk was gone, he noticed suddenly. Replaced by a much smaller man holding up his pants and watching the fight with the same intense look Merlin was. Ready to transform again at a moment’s notice, he realized.
Merlin saw it before the Hulk did, and Arthur saw it before him. “He’s is trying to separate us!” Arthur called up to the metal man.
“I already have, fool king.” Loki hissed, for his ears only. “How loyal do you think Merlin will stay to you when you are dead?” He knocked Arthur back with his spear and a patch of ice suddenly on the ground. Arthur’s back hit the wall and Loki stabbed forward with his spear.
Arthur saw surprise in Loki’s eyes before he saw the reason for it. He felt, instead of a blade in his gut, a hand hit the wall beside him, bracing the man suddenly in front of him against the blow. He heard the breathing, abruptly there and loud and harsh.
Loki blinked, surprised and still. His eyes were almost childlike, confused and busy trying to make sense of the scene in front of him. Then they were bright and angry and as wild mad as Morgana’s.
“You are a fool Merlin.” He snarled and drove the blade of his spear up and into Merlin’s chest. Merlin choked. “A fool.” He yanked the blade out and Merlin sagged. His hand slipped from the wall and he fell into Arthur’s arms.
Loki wasn’t in front of him any longer. Arthur didn’t know where he was. “Merlin,” He said. Merlin’s eyes were closed. He didn’t move. Arthur rushed to move him levelly on the ground, and he held a scrap piece of metal to Merlin’s lips. “Come on, you’ve survived worse than this, Merlin.”
He felt hot, sticky, wet blood over his hand where he tried to keep pressure on the wound. Merlin didn’t twitch. The metal didn’t fog.
_-o0O0o-_