Why wasn't Loki saying anything? Why wasn't he denying Balder's accusations? Even it if was true, he wouldn't want you to believe it. You couldn't believe it was true. Loki could be mischievous and a bit chaotic, but it was all in fun. He wasn't evil. You couldn't believe Balder was right, though. You knew Loki too well, you'd seen his nightmares, felt his soul, saw his joy during the soulbond ceremony. He was so happy with you, with your relationship. You couldn't imagine him betraying you. Even Thor had said he had never seen Loki so happy.

Loki turned and Balder took a step to stay in front of Loki as he continued praising Loki's skills. You watched Loki's stiff movements, heard the faint clatter of chains. He had shackles around his neck, wrists, and ankles, all chained together. Even from where you were bound, you could see the runes in the shackles, binding his magic. Worse, was the metal muzzle-like gag. No wonder he wasn't making any denials. "I am sorry about the bonds, dear little brother, but I can't have that silver tongue of yours telling our new ally any more lies,"

You saw the pleading look in Loki's eyes, begging you not to believe Balder. The emotion was only there for a moment before he returned to glaring at his brother. You knew what you saw though, and you knew you had to trust your heart. Your heart and soul said that after everything you had been through together, Loki would not have lied to you, not like this. Not in any way that would hurt you.

You heart was also quite emphatically saying that you needed to get out of there.

Now.

Loki was in no shape to help you. You weren't in any shape to help yourself, but you weren't going to give up. You looked over your surroundings, and a plan began to form. It was a stupid-ass plan and only 12% of a plan, and would most likely get all of you killed, but it was the only plan you had.

You still had access to your powers, you just needed to get your hands free. You prayed you still had enough power left. That healing had drained you just like Balder had wanted. He had calculated your stamina based on healing Tony.

He had planned for this.

You looked up and over at Loki and managed to catch his eye. You gave him a small nod, signaling to him that you had a plan. You just needed him to keep Balder distracted. Loki gave you a small nod in return. The look of relief you saw in his eyes in that moment was the most heartbreaking thing you had ever seen, and you knew you had been wrong to even consider that he might betray you.

So you got on with your terribly stupid plan.

The clowns had bound your hands with cloth. Cloth was flammable. It just took an incredible amount of effort and concentration to burn through the cloth without being able to use your hands as a focus. If you got out of this alive, you swore to yourself that you'd practice your magic without gestures.

After you'd spent a week unconscious from power drain.

You weren't sure how you were still managing to stay awake and still using magic, except out of pure necessity. You were dutifully ignoring the warning pain in your head and the haze around your vision as you called your powers.

You bit back the scream of pain when the flames surrounded your hands. You couldn't draw attention, not yet, no matter that your own power was burning you.

You still needed three more things for your plan to even have a hope of working.

You only saving grace was that Balder was monologuing about how he had taken control of The Harlequin and her clowns. Loki kept moving just enough to keep Balder's attention on him, distracting his brother from you. It was all he could do bound as tightly as he was.

Once your hands were free, you flicked them to the cord binding you to the chair. You had thought it was chains at first, but it was really a thick cord. That vanished in an instant, which took care of the second item you needed for your plan to work.

Only two to go.

You reached up and ripped the gag from your mouth. Now came the hard part, especially with the splitting migraine that was creeping its way around your skull and down your neck. It was a dire warning that you were getting perilously close to running out of even adrenaline to keep you going. This needed to end really quickly. You could not be unconscious at Balder's mercy. You could not, would not.

Luckily, your audience included the two people whose help you needed and not the one person who would hinder you.

The Harlequin was bound and gagged on a nearby chair, clearly here under Balder's control.

You raised a finger to your lips, looking directly at The Harlequin. She nodded her understanding. You pointed to her mind control staff, which was on the floor nearby. It was what she used to make the clowns do her bidding. She nodded again, grasping your plan. You held up three fingers where both she and Loki could see, then dropped one, then the other.

You flew to your feet, ignoring that your hands were still cuffed together. You couldn't fix that right now and it wasn't hindering anything. You threw a fireball at The Harlequin's wooden chair. It splintered under her. You would have been sorry for the way you'd freed her had you had time, but you didn't. Also she was a villain, even if there was a temporary truce between you. You threw a circle of flames up around Balder, stalling for time while The Harlequin freed herself from the remains of her bonds and grabbed her mind control staff.

"Get them to free Loki!" you told The Harlequin. You prayed against all better judgment that she would help you. You knew better than to trust a villain, of course. It was against everything you were ever taught at the tower, but you had no choice now. She was your only ally until you got Loki free. She hesitated, self preservation and greed warring against the debt she owed you for freeing her. She finally nodded and raised her mind control staff.

You stayed where you were, focused on the flames, on keeping Balder contained. He roared as he burst through them, rushing for you. You pulled a dagger from the magic sheath Loki had given you and threw it at him, grateful for a weapon that didn't require using your magic. It grazed Balder's side and he slowed. You needed to incapacitate him. You couldn't do that with any of the powers you had gotten from Loki as they wouldn't work on his brothers thanks to Frigga's enchantments. Fire wasn't working. Telekinesis wouldn't help.

That left one option and it wounded your soul to even consider it: telepathy.

"She was supposed to be incapacitated with that amount of healing!" Balder roared at one of the clowns. That answered your question of who had told him about your limits. You'd been spied on. That's why the clowns had appeared, attacked you to see what you would do, and then just vanished all summer.

This was Balder's plan.

Loki was finally free and you got to change your plan. You didn't have to take a soul wound for this fight. /Loki, distract him/ you threw the thought at him the second he was free. Loki's powers wouldn't work directly against Balder, but his illusions and teleporting were great distractions. You ran for where Loki had been standing chained and gathered up the chains.

Loki and Balder were deep in battle, Loki's daggers against Balder's huge sword. Both of them wielded magic, though it didn't affect the other. You rushed toward them with your burden of heavy chains. You threw the chains toward Balder, flicking your hands once they were in the air so you could use telekinesis to guide them in to place. He roared and fought and swung, but between your powers and Loki's distractions, you got all of the shackles in place. It didn't stop him. He backhanded you hard and you flew across the room. You crashed heavily, only barely avoiding cracking your skull open.

The Harlequin came to our aid, her clowns surrounded Balder and wrapping him in more and more ropes and chains, until he was writhing and snarling helpless on the floor.

You sighed in relief when it was finally over.

You managed to get to your feet and limped the few steps necessary to reach The Harlequin. "Thank you," you told her. She produced the key to the handcuffs on your wrists and removed them.

She made sure his mask was firmly in place before she replied. "We shall never speak of this. My debt is repaid."

You nodded your understanding and agreed to her terms. She hadn't had to stay and help you. "You escaped. I had no way of stopping you," you added. It was her turn to nod and she left the warehouse with his clowns. She got a pass for helping you.

You looked for Loki, who was panting in effort from his battle, standing near the bound Balder. He was safe. You were alive. Somehow you had survived this. Balder's magic was bound too. You were safe. The threat was over.

It still didn't seem real.

You went to them, then, somehow still on your feet, though you was bruised, bleeding, and beyond tapped magically. The adrenaline was wearing off. You'd have to succumb to how badly you'd overtaxed yourself soon. You were running on pure stubbornness at that point.

You heard footsteps pounding down the stairs and whirled, pulling a dagger in one hand and lifting your other in warning, though you couldn't make a flame now if you had tried. Your vision was darkening around the edges. There was no way you could survive another fight. Loki stepped up next to you, daggers in hand. You would go down fighting together.

Fury and all of the supers came storming down the stairs, powers blazing. It only took Fury a second to assess the scene before he announced: "Stand down, soldiers. The battle is over. You won."

Loki caught you before you hit the floor, his daggers clattering to the ground. He lowered you to the ground gently, making sure you were cradled in the safety of his cool arms. He was in barely better shape than you was. Finally safe, you let the darkness wrap around you, pulling you into unconsciousness.