You stared in horror at the spot where Loki had been for an instant longer until your brain kicked back in and decided to function again. You closed your eyes, focusing on your senses and magic. You felt Loki's location in an instant and were summoning power to teleport to him when a hand clamped firmly around your wrist.

"Don't," Thor told you firmly when your eyes snapped open so you could glare at him. You drew a dagger and held it to his throat.

"Unhand me," you snarled at him.

"You do not have enough power left to teleport us both, so I think not," Thor told you firmly, his grip tightening on you. He knew damn well that you couldn't teleport away from him while he kept a hand on you.

"Let. Me. Go. We have to go save him!" you protested with tears in your eyes. It didn't matter that you were swaying on your feet, it didn't matter that your magic was next to tapped. The only thing that mattered was that some piece of walking carrion had stolen your Loki and you had to go save him.

"We will," Thor told you gently. "When we have recovered, when we have regrouped, we will go rescue him. We cannot hope to win when we are half-cocked and unprepared. You are in no shape to fight. This plot was designed to weaken you and Loki so they could sneak you away. Whatever their plot, they want you for it,"

"He let them take him to save me," you protested weakly.

"He did," Thor agreed, his voice was sad, hurt, but still had the gentle caring edge to it. "Loki knew what he was doing, sister dear. He is a warrior and we have been through centuries of battles together. He can and will weather whatever happens until we regroup. They will not kill him. They need him as bait for you,"

"The Aesir can take a lot of pain before dying," you protested again. You had to go now.

Thor inclined his head. "We can," he agreed. "Loki will survive and we will rescue him as soon as we have recovered enough to do so successfully. We all will. He will not want you to risk yourself going after him in this state,"

"I can't- Thor- we have to-" you couldn't string the protests together. Why didn't he understand that you had to rescue Loki now, before they could hurt him or worse? In one movement of Thor's, your dagger was clattering to the ground and you were somehow over his shoulder. "Thor!" you protested, the tears in your voice now as well as your eyes.

"I know. Rest, Lady Sigyn," he told you.

"Thor! Sig! Is she ok? Where's Loki?" Cap demanded when Thor left the ballroom with you to meet up with the others who were still with the children.

"Loki was taken. This attack was a plot to abduct Lady Sigyn. She is uninjured, just drained of power and distraught. Whoever did this knew exactly how to take her and Loki out of the fight," Thor explained. He held you firmly over his shoulder while you protested weakly that you had to go save Loki now. You weren't exactly thinking logically...

"How is she even still here?" Nat demanded. "In this state she should have teleported to him by now,"

"She is too low on power to teleport more than just herself, and she cannot teleport alone while someone else is touching her," Thor explained.

Clint sighed. "This is going to be a long night of babysit-the-healer, isn't it?" he asked.

"We could just drug her..." Tony suggested. You weren't sure if he was joking or not, but you were officially too out of it to protest either way. The adrenaline of the battle was wearing off and your worry over Loki wasn't enough to keep you conscious.

"Thor, get her home. I'll finish up things here. We'll figure out how to keep her at home until we have a plan," Cap ordered. You made a soft protest. Why didn't they understand that you needed to go now?

"Hush, little sister. You can't even stand on your own. Rest so we can rescue Loki," Thor told you. His grip tightened as he swung Mjolnir and soon you were in the air. You determined extremely quickly that thrown over Thor's shoulder was officially your least favorite way of flying and most terrifying. You had even less control than when you could at least hold onto him. It was thankfully a short flight back to the tower.

He didn't set you down until you were in the living room. He laid you gently on your usual couch. "Rest, little sister. You need to recover so we can successfully rescue Loki," Thor bid you. He didn't need to try so hard. Your eyes had closed at some point and weren't opening again.

"Loki..." you murmured as sleep, or possibly unconsciousness claimed you.

You woke multiple times throughout the night, worry, fear, and nightmares breaking through sleep. Someone on the team was always sitting with you when you woke. They told you to go back to sleep, that everything was ok. Tony threatened to shove sleeping pills down your throat if you annoyed him or if he had to touch you to keep you from teleporting away.

You dreamt of your Loki in chains, bleeding, and bruised. He was roaring in anger, pain, fighting against his bonds, his magic flaring even past the bindings they placed on him. They thought they could contain him. And they could, for awhile. But his rage and power would win out eventually.

You needed to rescue him before the pain broke your Loki.

He was finally healing the soul wounds of Odin's treatment of him. He was finally healing from New York. He was finally opening up and happy.

You couldn't let whoever this asshole was break your Loki.

You couldn't.

You shot awake, jumping to your feet. Nat's hand remained clamped around your wrist. "I'm not running," you told her firmly. She let you go with a nod. The team was gathered around the livingroom, still in uniform, making plans. You saw pillows and blankets all over. They had gotten napes in, it seemed. "What have you got so far?" you asked Cap.

"We can't get a lock on his location," he started warily.

"I can," you replied firmly, you already had a plan on how. Cap nodded.

"It looks like they attacked the children with Hydra weapons," Cap continued.

"We're expecting to face a large force," Clint told you, warningly. You glared at him. You didn't care how many people you were facing.

"I will kill every single one of them if that's what it takes to get him back," you told them firmly. "I can't teleport you all. Get ready, this rescue mission leaves as soon we're all armed. Thor, kindly never tell your brother what I'm about to do in that kitchen," you added as you stomped into said kitchen and began rummaging through the drawers and cabinets.

"Sig..." Thor was on his feet following you a moment later. In fact, the entire team had swarmed to see what nonsense you were pulling. "What areyou doing?"

"Something incredibly stupid. But desperate times and all that..." you found what you were looking for and apologized to the poor coffee maker for what you were about to put it through.

"Is she...making coffee with an energy drink instead of water?" Tony demanded, impressed.

"I am," you replied grumpily, reaching for Tony's caffeine pills to crush up in the bottom of the carafe.

"Hey! Those are mine!" he protested. You glared at him.

"I'll buy you new ones," you growled. He held up his hands in surrender.

"Why are you suddenly resembling Tony on a project?" Bruce asked gently. He was Bruce and the only one you wouldn't snap at. "Only I've seen him drink that stuff. The results were not pleasant and Pepper has banned him from ever making it again,"

"It's a shortcut that we are never telling Loki I took, because he will kill us all for it. It's an artificial power boost. They're torturing him and I will do everything and anything in my power to get him back before they break him." You weren't telling them that the artificial power boost came at a price, as did everything when it came to magic. You set another pot to start as soon as the first one had finished. "Get ready, guys, we leave the second I have finished drinking this pot of coffee," you told them as you held up the carafe. Thor turned automatically and summoned Mjolnir. The rest of the team looked incredulous, but you blew ice on the carafe to cool it, a trick Loki had taught you. You lifted the carafe like a mug of ale and started downing it in a manner that they had only seen Thor do with the aforementioned mug of ale. The rest of the team scattered to get ready, finally figuring out that you really weren't joking. You shuddered and were sure your heart had skipped at least two beats when you set the carafe down. "Blargh, that stuff tastes awful," you complained and shuddered again at that much caffeine hitting your system at one time.

Rule #1: Do not make monster-coffee.

Rule #2 If you break rule number one, do not drink the entire pot in one gulp.

Rule #3 Do not piss off the healer enough to make her break the first two rules.

Your heart skipped another beat, but you felt the power flare. You smirked as you dumped the second pot into a thermos and vanished it. You would need it later. You dug your phone out of your pocket as you stormed to the elevator. "Strange, incoming. The entire team is coming. We need a portal and a locator spell, I have the focus for the locator spell. We'll be there in five minutes tops. I'll explain when we get there," you told Strange without greeting the second he answered the phone and hung up before he replied.

The rest of the team met you at the SUV in the garage a minute later, armed to the teeth. "Where are we going?" Cap asked as Nat climbed in the driver's seat.

"Doctor Strange's sanctum," you answered. Nat peeled off. She didn't bother asking for the address. She knew everything.

"Do you have a plan for when we get there?" Tony asked hesitantly. He didn't trust your mood. None of them did. You didn't care. Thor seemed to understand your mood at least.

"We're portalling directly to Loki. I'm sure he's guarded, which is where you come in. I'll rescue Loki. He's in a right state and I'm the only one he won't kill first and ask questions later. Thor, don't give me that look, you know he'll stab you. We get out of there as soon as we have Loki. We don't know how many of them there are or if we can take them all. They have to know we're coming, especially as I haven't shown up alone yet," you told them as Nat drove. No one commented on how your plan wasn't so much a plan as 12% of a plan. They also weren't arguing. They all knew you would go without them if they did.

"We will rescue him," Thor promised.

"I know we will," you told him with a malicious glint in your eyes.

"Don't piss off the healer," you heard Clint murmur so softly you knew that you weren't supposed to hear. It was excellent advice nonetheless.

"Do not make an Asgardian Lady fight for what she loves. Our Ladies are cherished. We protect them and they are generally not warriors, not because they are weak, but because they are more vicious in their rage," Thor explained with...pride? in his tone. He raised your hand to kiss the back of it. "We will rescue him," Thor reassured you again.

Nat parked in front of the sanctum and you all piled out. You led the way inside without bothering to knock. Strange was waiting for you. "What's going on?" he asked, getting straight to business.

"Loki has been abducted. We're going to rescue him," you told Strange simply. He nodded.

"You said you have a focus. You know you can't use Thor's hair, right?" he asked. Thor stiffened at the implication that you were going to harm his hair, but steeled himself.

"You may-" he started.

"It wouldn't work," Strange cut him off before he could make the offer. "It only works with something of his or that of someone biologically related," Strange explained quickly, looking for you for the focus you promised.

You nodded, already reaching up to undo the lovelock braid in your hair. "I know," you told him. Your fingers moved quickly and you undid the braid. You hated giving it up, since Loki had given it to you, but it was the only way to get to him right now. He would forgive you for losing his token. You held out the lock of Loki's hair to Strange. "This will work,"

"It's-?"

"Loki's," you confirmed.

Strange took the lock of hair from you. "Yes, this will work." His hands started flying with gold magic flowing between them. You drew a dagger as he worked. The rest of the team armed up around you. "Ready?" Strange asked.

"Yes. Keep the portal open," you confirmed. He nodded. He would keep your escape route open, though that meant he couldn't join you for the fight.

An instant later the portal opened in front of you. You, Thor, and Cap ran through with the others following directly behind. Thor and Cap took point with you a step behind, just in case this was an ambush.

There was a flurry of movement in the large warehouse-like room. You ignored it. Your eyes were on the solitary figure, chained kneeling in the middle of the room.

Loki.

Your poor Loki.

He was blindfolded and chained so securely he could scarcely move.

That wasn't the worst thing.

He was raging and fighting his bonds.

That wasn't the worst thing.

His power flared around him as he fought the spelled bonds.

That wasn't the worst thing

He was beaten, bloody, and bruised.

Even that wasn't the worst thing.

No, the worst thing brought tears of rage and grief to your eyes. Your anger and power flared as disbelief settled into pure, undiluted rage. They hadn't just taken your Loki. They hadn't just bound him. They hadn't just hurt your love.

They had tortured him

They had sewn Loki's mouth shut