"You're hurt," Jean pressed her palm into my bare, rune-covered chest.
"I'd tell you that it looked worse than it feels, but you'd know I was lying," I said softly, a small smile tugging at my lips while half of my mind waged war with Lauren.
Great balls of purple flame melded, and dense, rune-covered cores of gravity and telekinetic energy formed within them.
The runes granted form and simulated life to the flaming masses, lengthening and solidifying them into massive winged serpents that lunged at clones in the unending chaos.
"Pushing yourself like this is making you worse, isn't it?" she asked.
"Not as long as I get another large soul injection," I said. "I'll bounce back before my Soul Cohesion even drops by a single point."
"It's a temporary measure at best—only delaying the inevitable. You need to be healed properly, which is what I promised you."
The Phoenix's voice echoed in my head. It no longer filled me with deep, cosmic dread. It was comforting, strangely, in its own way.
Jean pulled back from me and held her hands out. A whirlpool of cosmic fire gathered between them. There were flecks of green, blue, and white in the cherry red. The energy it gave off was frankly staggering. My Chained Sun looked like a heated lamp in comparison.
"Take it," Jean and the Phoenix said together. I swallowed, my Adam's apple bobbing.
"What about Lauren?"
Jean looked across the battlefield and locked eyes with Lauren. "The Devourer's God disciple wouldn't dare," the Phoenix said through her.
"Release your hold on the battlefield and concentrate on recovering."
My eyes met Jean's—and consequently, the Phoenix's—a current of fear running through me, and I did as instructed. My fingers reached out, almost giddy, and I touched the open flame.
DoN't.
Shin's voice rattled space and made me instinctively pull back, but by then it was too late.
My soul exploded, a flash of restorative heat burning through me. I gagged and screamed as notifications flashed across my vision.
Your Mind has received an infusion of restorative cosmic energy, stabilizing the structure of your soul and healing and altering it substantially.
Soul containment has been repaired.
Ancient Rune Magic has been altered. New name pending.
Time Warp has been altered. New name pending.
Promethean Body has been further altered. New name pending.
Your Mind affinity has been greatly boosted.
Your Cardinal Affinity: Anathema Flame has been boosted to High.
Your Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Anathema Flame skills have been altered. New name pending.
+700 to physical stats.
+2000 to energy stats.
The effectiveness of all skills has been restored.
Soul has been stabilized. Full recovery will take approximately 10 Earth days.
Fury's POV
"C'mon, people. Hustle."
The hangar buzzed with activity. Alarms blared overhead, and pilots, technicians, mech-armored agents, and Novan Corp soldiers scrambled to their aircraft and stations.
Hill and I had pushed them for months until muscle memory replaced panic and our people met the galactic standard — which was apparently a thing, according to the Novan military advisor the Ambassador had stuck me with.
"This is not a drill. Get out there and show those motherfuckers what happens when you—"
Something punched through my runic shield and into my back.
The impact was blunt and enormous, sending me stumbling forward before the pain arrived. Then my body understood what had happened and sent the signals up to my brain. My lung had been punctured, and my heart…
My heart was in pieces.
Hill was shouting my name.
My legs gave out, but I caught myself before I hit the ground. My vision tilted, and the hangar exploded with motion. Hill barked orders and codes, and agents pulled their weapons free in neat, organized fashion, looking for my attacker.
They're keeping their heads. Good.
The air shimmered in front of me, and a figure emerged from the distortion.
Loki.
I thought I was hallucinating until Maria took a shot at him.
Loki dodged it casually. He stood, still and composed, in his golden and green leather armor, and looked down at me with an expression nearing satisfaction.
I would've cursed him if my lungs weren't filling up with blood.
Hill and I had nearly run ourselves ragged vetting every member of Dante's team, the Avengers, SHIELD, the Brotherhood, the Novans, and the Asgardians, looking for a traitor. We'd turned their lives around, built up psych profiles, surveilled them, and come to the same conclusion: they all had vulnerabilities the God of Greed could exploit.
However, Loki had been our earliest pick. Second son, destined to spend his near-immortal life in his brother's shadow, he had the most to gain from serving Shin.
Somehow, we managed to underestimate him, crossing him off as the most obvious suspect like a pair of rookies who'd read too many spy novels.
The last thing I remembered was Gwen appearing beside him and cracking him in the cheek with her Adamantium baton.
Captain America's POV
I heard the knife tear through Fury's jacket before I saw him.
A few months ago, I wouldn't have picked up on it, but now I heard everything. Tasted it. Felt it. It had all been overwhelming at first. But then I buckled down and did what I always did: put in the work and mastered myself.
I was in the hangar before the first blaster went off.
It belonged to Maria Hill, who was shooting at a man in golden-and-green metal and leather armor. It was Loki. The so-called God of magic and mischief.
Leaning back, Loki casually dodged Hill's attack and sent her flying with a wave of magic.
No.
Kicking off the ground, I sped up, hand reaching out. The air in front of me folded and popped. Gwen appeared and snatched Commander Hill mid-air, then teleported again, vanishing into the corridor I'd come from. Her voice came crisp across the telepathic enchantment Dante had woven into our armors.
"I've got her, Captain. What's the plan?"
I listened for Fury's pulse. It was fading quickly. Then I looked at Loki, the man who'd hurt him.
There was no doubt in my mind that Shin had struck Fury down using Loki. He was trying to win the war before the battle even started, all because Dante wasn't here.
I wasn't about to let Loki or his patron win, not if I could help it.
Loki swept a small group of charging mech-armored agents away with a wave of magic.
They bounced off planes and crashed into disoriented pilots and staff.
"Get Fury to the healing pods and radio the Asgardians," I sent Gwen telepathically. "I'll deal with Loki."
"Copy, Cap."
I held out my arm, and a shield manifested. It was matte black, and it weighed and looked exactly like my last shield, but it was so much more. Dante had forged it from something he called Arcanite, and if the Asgardians were to be believed, it was second only to the metal Thor's hammer was made of, and covered in twice as many runes.
I'd resisted accepting it longer than I should have, for reasons that felt principled at the time but stubborn in hindsight. It was a masterpiece. I'd felt it the moment I touched it, but hadn't said anything to Dante.
Gwen popped in again, her Arcanite baton swinging in a clean arc aimed at Loki's jaw. It bounced off a thin membrane of magic. The barrier reversed the impact, but Gwen was already gone. The shockwave knocked two technicians off their feet. She reappeared beside Fury, and before Loki could react, she was gone again — and my shield was in his face.
I hit the barrier at full force.
It stopped me dead, predictably, and the barrier began to reverse the force. A slow smile worked its way onto Loki's face.
I triggered the teleportation enchantment on my shield before the barrier finished working. A training room fifty stories down appeared around us. Every inch was Arcanite, covered in durability and energy absorption runes.
Loki's barrier finally discharged, and my shield weathered the storm, drinking in the magic and kinetic energy. I advanced, twisting, and buried the shield into Loki's chest armor, discharging the stored energy.
The smirk on Loki's face had long vanished.
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