Moon Says: So, it has been forever. A part of that has been graduate school, but the other part has been a death in the family. I lost someone who has been like a parent to my dad and a grandparent to me in many ways. There was so much going on there, that I can't even begin to get into it. There, also, was my brother's ex-girlfriend drama. Seriously, you kick someone out of your house (someone you have been kind to let stay with you despite them basically screwing it up and take, take, taking) and then my Uncle dying (and the drama of selfish and greedy family members), not to mention school, I've been kicked and kicked. This is just something to get my mind off things. I will devote myself to Twilight of the Gods next.
Summary: A year ago when he woke up from his frozen sleep, Steve Rodgers rescues a girl captured and interrogated by SHIELD who has lost her memories. Now, after capturing Loki, he calls on her skills with magic to access the situation. Unfortunately for Fury and Widow, this woman has a past of her own, one that has been waiting a thousand years to resurface. A woman who has been forged in fire, changed, and comes out ready for war.
Disclaimer and notes: I do not own any of the characters; although, some of the history and changes are my brain children. There are three songs here, a bit of their lyrics. Fall Out Boy's The Mighty Fall, Phoenix, and My Songs Know What You Did. This is also a weird Oneshot. One day, after my fics are done (that I have started), I will develop this into the full blown story it was meant to be. This is a teaser, maybe, if you will.
Phoenix
"So, Loki has that spear-staff of his, but what is his power?" Steve asked as he tried to get a handle on the situation despite the fools around him joking around.
Those around the table quieted down as they began to realize that they were getting off point.
"My brother uses magic and prefers daggers as his weapon of choice," Thor replied cautiously, confused as to why his brother would be using such a weapon. The first time Thor had ever seen Loki wield a spear like weapon was a year ago when his brother was the temporary King of Asgard—he had used Odin's spear. While his brother did prefer long-distance fighting, Loki had perfected how to fight up close with his daggers.
It was a compliment to someone else…a long time ago. Someone Thor had failed.
"You have no magic users?" Steve turned his questioning to Fury who only shook his head.
"There is a community out there, but they refuse to interact with us "muggles" or "NoMaj": those with no magic; they prefer to keep to themselves, and as long as they can keep themselves contained, then we have no problem."
Steve sighed, "I thought so," before he pulled a phone out of one of his pockets.
"Where the hell did you stick that?" Stark asked, bewildered, but Steve ignored him and punched in a number.
When the call connected, Steve knew there would be no answer only silence. "The enemy is a magic user," was all he said before the blonde man heard a deep breath and disconnecting of the phone.
Steve hung up the phone, put it away, and closed his eyes while regulating his breathing.
Stark raised an eyebrow, "So, you taking a nap because you got ignored?"
Before Stark uttered the last word, an energy picked up in the room. Then, as soon as Steve opened his eyes a moment later, a blonde-haired woman appeared behind him with a sharp crack!
Her hands immediately rested on his shoulders, her eyes swept around the room before settling on Banner. As she considered him, her head titled.
It had seemed like forever since she had seen such a battle ranging inside of someone. Remus, to be honest. She had always told the wolf to accept himself, but he never would.
The Light had destroyed that man…
"How the hell did you find this place?" Fury asked as soon as Stark opened his mouth. The Director had a pressing issue and Stark's mouth was going to make it worse.
The woman standing behind Steve turned her ice-grey eyes at the black man by the monitors. The aura he gave off, along with his one eye, reminded her of Moody.
"We need your help," Steve said, by-passing the others. Her response was only to lean down and rest her forehead on the back of his head.
"Has he used any magic so far?" was the first thing she said after she lifted her head from the blonde man in front of her.
Steven shook his head as he turned around to face her, her hands going behind her back, in a stance not unlike a solider. "The files said he has used mind control on others, but that is was put off as a result of his weapon," he paused a second as he thought about something. "He had illusions of himself before I battled him. He is used to fighting up close with a weapon. Though, I got the impression that he wasn't used to the length of his staff."
The blonde woman looked thoughtful before she asked, "The staff…it wasn't…"
As she trailed off, Steve shook his head. "The staff was more of a sword length. There was a blue crystal at the tip," Cap offered.
She just shrugged, "We haven't used anything of that length since a thousand or so years ago when weapons of that lot were in style."
"You use—" Steve started, but she waved him off as she turned around and headed toward the door. "I'm different. I saw the downfall of my people and learned an old skill."
"Where do you think you're going, missy?" Fury asked as he stepped forward, but Steve cut him off as he took off in her direction.
"I'm going to see this magic user of yours. I can't really help if I don't know anything about him," the woman said off handedly as she was already almost out of the room by the time he finished his question.
Fury turned his eye on Widow and jerked his head toward the girl and Captain America. The red-head nodded as she went off after them. Fury had been wondering where they girl had gone off to a year ago. It seemed she was still with Rodgers. Fury didn't trust anyone, but the fact that she had been with Rodgers all this time, nothing had been heard from her, and Rodgers trusted her, Fury was willing to give her a chance. It seemed, though, her memories had returned…Fury always thought she was a witch. For now, though Fury really didn't like the situation, he had no choice but to put the fact of the word not only in the rag-tag group he assembled, but this unknown girl as well.
When Widow was gone from the room, Fury turned toward Banner and Stark, "You two might want to start working on locating the cube."
~Phoenix~
She popped in her earbuds that Steve got her, the ones that were wireless and wrapped around her neck. It took her weeks to get them to work for her.
As she turned on her music, continuing the song she was listening to before Steve called, she made her way toward the cell. She was surprised that it wasn't actually far.
By the time she had it set up and started singing, she had not only come to the door to the cell but remembered that the song was almost over.
As she opened the door and looked inside, bits of memory came back to her and a smirk twisted on her lips as the ending words of the song just came out.
"Whooooa, how the mighty fall…the mighty fall…the mighty fall…They fall in loooovee," she repeated those words twice before the man in the cage cracked and chuckled.
As the next song started playing and she stopped her singing, the raven haired man in front of her just looked at her amused. "It has been a while since I have had the pleasure to hear your song," his eyes just lit up, but she didn't see them.
Her focus turned to his cell and his armor. In all these years, he hadn't changed at all.
"I never thought you would turn into such a pretty Light bird," Loki teased her.
She only rolled her eyes and replied with her song, "You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start, so dance alone to the beat of your heart…Doesn't it fell like our time is running out? I'm going to change you like a remix. Then I'll raise you like a phoenix…wearing our vintage misery…"
Loki frowned when she got to her last line, "You have changed. Do you no longer care to be the same as before?"
The woman only sighed as she walked closer to the cage. Loki mimicked her movements until the glass was all that stood between them. "After the attack…" her voice trailed off as her face took on a tired, sad look.
"I tried to give you what I could. Did you ever go back to see if the boy was okay?" Loki asked, his voice soft and her face softened in response.
"Once again, you save me. I used everything I had to protect them. I haven't gone back because my memory hasn't been that great," the woman only sighed.
"Was it ever?" Loki teased to which she chuckled.
"Whatever that bastard did, it knocked me around. When I came to, I had no memory of who I was or what I was. Slowly, over the past," she blinked as she came up short on the time.
Steve, from behind her, said in a short, flat voice, "a year."
"My memory started to come back over the past year, but nothing from the past decade. My head was still stuck before the war kicked off. I remembered not Regulus or the time we spent together, though I am told I've called out for him at night."
"To be expected considering he has been your sole reason to live since the end of the war," Loki filled in for her.
"This is so frustrating. Half the time I cannot remember and the other it comes to me. I thought I had gotten over the memory fragmentation. They live, both Regulus and William. I know not if they were hurt, but I would if they were dead. Thanks to a mutual friend of ours, I would know."
Loki's eyes filled with pain briefly before he opened his eyes to apologize, but she cut him off. "You may not have made it in time to save me or my soul then, but you came when it mattered. Both times in this third life of mine, A Chro," her hand raised up to the glass and Loki mimicked her.
~Phoenix~
In another room watching on the screens the exchange between the two was Thor. As he heard those words from her, he whispered, "Sister."
~Phoenix~
To relieve the build of tension in the room, she started to sing again, "My songs know what you did in the dark."
Loki only chuckled before replying, "Do you, now, A stór? You can't even remember your own name."
She only chuckles before turning away from him, dancing a little, ignoring his words, before singing, "Light em up up up, I'm on fire….everything you love then burns to ashes…"
These words stop her as memories come back to her, Loki's eyes harden as he knows what she remembers.
Her head titles, "Who set the world on fire?" she muttered before Steve came forward and held her to him, her back to his front. One arm was across her stomach and the other in between her breasts and neck. Her hands immediately went to his.
"You did," Loki replied, his voice gentle, "Though it was my rage that fueled it," his silky voice only paused before her eyes made him go on. "I felt the fire burning through you. It was all we could do to stop it."
She closed her eyes for a moment before the ice-grey went away and was replaced by a death-green. Not soon after her hair changed as well. She shifted from remembering her dragon to the form she grew up in, before she was cursed with the blood of duty.
"Put on your war paint, little Phoenix. The war is won before it's begun, Release the doves, surrender love," her voice was soft but the two men in the room heard her.
Loki smirked, "That's my war goddess. Are you ready to play with me again?"
Steve's arms tightened against her when another burst into the room. "How dare you, brother! She is not yours to play with as a toy. Nor is she something you just release. If the Morrigan was to come out…" Thor trailed off as he imaged the victory his brother gained.
The woman only chuckled. "No need to worry, Thor. The Morrigan is gone for the moment. Though, considering how I got to this country, she might be coming out. There seems to be a war brewing in my territory, my home, and it needs to be addressed."
Her eyes turned to the left not really looking at anyone as her thoughts were consumed with a need for the death of the one who had tried to hurt what belonged to her.
Loki only chuckled as he leaned sideways against the glass, his eyes only for her. "The dragon is coming out, is she? I cannot wait to see the chaos you bring, My Lady."
Those death-green eyes snapped to the man in front of her. She took in his amused expression, trailed to his eyes before she stopped. Something was wrong. "Why are your eyes blue? Have you changed as well?"
Loki frowned while Thor voiced his concern. "You know, little sister, that his eyes are green just as yours are black and gold—" Thor trailed off as they both turned to him, different eyes then the color he just listed.
Widow, who had been watching silently the entire time off to the side, spoke up then. "The cameras at the base Loki destroyed captured the eyes of the agents he turned. They were blue."
The raven-haired woman only hummed before she raised an eyebrow at Loki. "When did you do this?"
Loki shrugged not concerned about the property damage. "A few days ago."
The woman only sighed. "I wished you have killed someone, then I would have known you were here. Those two are such gossip whores."
Widow actually sputtered. "He killed at least eighty people!"
Steve could feel the annoyance of the woman he was holding rising. Her ice was melting due to the fire of her memories. "Ignore her, darlin'. I really do not want deal with the mess of you killing her. We have more important problems to deal with."
The raven-haired woman only sighed but nodded. "What are you doing on Midgard, Loki?"
"You disappoint me, Aisu-hime. I thought you would have figured that out by now."
"I honestly don't care at this point. Steve asked me to come because there was a magic user he was dealing with. Now that I know it's you…" she turned around and backed up. Steve showed his displeasure in his eyes at the fact that she showed her back to the enemy, but he stayed silent. "My advice is to leave Loki alone. This is a god of magic. He's magic is on par with the Lords of Magic."
"And who are these Lords of Magic?" Fury asked as he entered the room, fed up with just watching the situation. There was too much he didn't know, and these two weren't really revealing anything except that this unknown girl was enough to make Loki feel…and he her. Fury didn't know if she was a threat yet…Thor had called her sister, so maybe she was side against Loki like Thor?
The woman looked bored as she explained. "In my world, we believe that the goddess created magicals to govern and watch over the beings of the world, whether creature or human. There is one for each type of magic. Light, Dark, and Grey. Depending on what my people need, the Grey magic can and does spilt into two: Neutral and Chaos. The Lords of Magic are the most powerful within their certain type of magic. Last time I checked, there were only three. We were missing a Dark Lord."
"Didn't you have one in the nineties?" Fury questioned, not relenting in his quest for knowledge that he didn't normally have access to.
Those death-green eyes hardened. "Yes, and I killed him. We have a new one to take his place, but," her eyes closed and her face showed the pain she held, "he was killed the very night the previous one died."
Fury's one eye widened. "You're Harley Potter."
The woman only sighed. "It is the name I was born to in this third life of mine, but I stopped using it after my parents were murdered. My godfather gave me a new name. One I much prefer over Harley."
"And that name would be?" the red-head asked impatient like.
There was just something about that woman that made her want to kill her. Very rarely did she ever have these desires. She had one with Ronald and look what happened when she didn't kill him.
Her eyes twitched once before she reached down, grabbed a knife from her leg and threw it at the woman. All within a second. Not even Cap had the reflex to stop the knife at the speed it was going.
The knife buried in her shoulder just as Cap called out sharply, "Samantha!"
But the Potter didn't even look at him. Instead, she went straight to the woman and pulled out the knife. With a sigh, she wiped the knife on the red-head's right arm—who was still in shock herself.
Widow knew she had the skills to perceive the attack and dodge it, but the Spy didn't do either of those things. In fact, she barely even saw the other woman move let alone the dagger coming toward her.
No one said anything as Cap grabbed his companion by the upper arms and drug her back toward Loki.
"Now, which dagger of yours did you just use, little dragon?" the Trickster's voice interrupted the shock.
She turned toward him and blinked a few times before she realized what he was saying. "Oh, well, shit."
"Shit?" Stark's voice was heard, and it didn't go unnoticed by any the disbelief in it. "That was inhuman speed right there. Not to mention, your name is Samantha?"
The raven haired girl shook her head, "Christina actually. Steve named me when he found me. I couldn't remember any of my names, actually."
Cap gave her a look and was about to start reprimanding her, but then Widow started whimpering.
Christina titled her head as she looked at the woman. "She's only whimpering, high pain tolerance that one."
Stark, though, couldn't help but snap back. "And what about your? Break a fingernail and you're crying, princess?"
"Actually, I have had a broken arm and a leg shattered, yet I couldn't even feel it," was her short reply before Loki commanded her attention again.
"Did you ever find an antidote for your poison?" the god of mischief was quite curious.
"There was never supposed to be a cure, so no, I haven't found one. She's going to die. How long depends on her..." Christina trailed off before turning fully to look at Loki. "Speaking on people I want to poison, do you know where that bastard is right now?"
Loki raised an eyebrow at her as if to say do I look like a dog? "Maybe William will know. I thought you said your father was developing—"
"He was kind of murdered before he finished it; or if he did, he never told me."
"So there is no way to cure her?" Steve said as his eyes were glued to Widow withering and whimpering. Her whimpers were getting a bit louder as the minutes dragged on.
"If I asked him, he'd make me figure it out. And I probably could, if I wanted too, but it would take too long," she said when she saw Steve's look.
"I can figure it out. Get her back to the lab, I'll take a blood sample…" Stark said as he trailed off, his mind running many possible solutions.
Fury, though, cut him down. "It's magic, you can't figure that out. Only a healer could…you wouldn't happen to be a healer, would you?" Fury turned to Christina.
Christina only sighed. "Yes, I am. How do you think I got my Masteries? I have two in Potions, one in Healing, and one in Runes."
"So the poison is in Potions?" Loki asked as he actually thought about it. He never really bothered with her projects before. It was her way to coping with the kidnapping and torture.
Something triggered in her at that moment. Her eyes snapped to him as she read his thoughts—on the premise that he might know something about her poison that could trigger something in her own mind. Her face frozen in shock and a bit of fear as what triggered was not about the poison. "I am going to kill you."
Loki only blinked at her threat, "Why would that be?"
"You know damn well! The spell in that stone…you know exactly where it came from," she growled at him before she turned and marched toward the red-head. Right now, it would be in Loki's best interests if this woman died, Christina had read it in the back of Loki's thoughts, so Chris was going to put a small amount of force into saving the woman. As she knelt down, Loki's eyes never left her body.
Christina put her hand over the heaving chest of the woman on the ground before her and released a stasis spell. When she was done, she turned to Loki, tears starting to form, "The very bastard who kidnapped me, tortured me, and then, almost forced someone I care for to rape me. That's who."
"I was not aware of his involvement. If I had known, I would have killed him." Loki was not happy at her insinuation.
"Even if it exposed me?" she replied quick as lightning.
Loki's eyes hardened as he stared at her, refusing to answer such a question.
Christina only sighed as she turned back to the woman next to her. "I had wondered if a muggle could actually be infected by the poison. She's burning up, so it must be the other one," she sighed as Christina unbuttoned her robe revealing the corset, lowcut as it was, underneath. With a quick bite to her thumb, she trailed a line from her neck down to the top of her breasts.
Everyone felt some type of pressure as a tattoo of sorts became visible around her neck and down. It was solid black in color, like a choker that hung down. After a few seconds the lines moved and revealed itself to be a snake. The head was the part that was next to her breasts.
The Snake wasn't big around, no bigger than the palm of her hand, but it was between four and five foot long. The snake was almost pure black if it was not for the line of ice-blue that interwoven with the black around the entire length.
When it rose off her skin, coming to life, it hissed, "Took you long enough to free me. I was so bored. What have you got yourself into now?"
Christina rolled her eyes before replying in the same language. "I poisoned the woman next to me, and the blonde over there? I own him and he wants me to cure her."
"Your poison?" was the quick reply.
Christina nodded, and the snake left her body and went to the other woman's.
"Talk me through what you did, and maybe we can come up with something," Stark said, his voice was insistent.
"I took two incurable poisons from the Queen and King Snakes—of the magical kind. One kills you quickly and freezes your insides while the other does the opposite. What I did was take the two, found a few ingredients that stabilized them, and combined them. Now it depends on how the infected person mixes with the poison for it to go either way. You can't isolate them and try and cure them separately, because they have no cure. Together, they have no cure."
"What about the binding? Can we neutralize that?" Stark immediately put out.
Christina shook her head. "You take away the binding, and she gets infected with both. The problem with that is that they will attack each other. That was why combining the two poisons was a miracle because they destroy each other. And they don't neutralize them either because they will end up destroying each other and not in a curing kind of way," Christina interjected seeing Stark try and butt in.
"You could cry," Loki suggested.
Christina looked at him dully. "My tears do the opposite, thank you very much. How do you think I was able to bind two deadly, incurable poisons together?"
"I thought with your magic."
"So your magic and these tears are the stabilizing agent?" Stark quickly deduced.
"Magic makes the world go round, and so does blood for that matter."
Christina closed her eyes and tried to figure this out. "If I take away the stabilizer, it fucks up. To get to C, you have to combine A + B with something special. That is how you get C," she muttered.
"What if you changed it? You changed the poisons to get one that combines, yes? Can you do it again? Change it into something that can be cured?" Banner, who had entered when no one had been looking, suggested.
Christina didn't reply, instead she focused on her familiar who was finished with his analysis. "The theory of you two-leggers that everyone has magic is right. This one has enough to give her life but cannot access it. But it isn't enough for the poison to be feeding off the magic. Our venom feeds on magic…that is why sometimes mine takes less than the other one. You cannot make her immune to my venom like I have done you.'
Christina nodded. "I know. If I do that, even if I could, it would be attacked by the Basilisk venom. Honestly, I am the only one immune."
"What did the snake say?" Stark said, then stopped and couldn't believe he just said that.
"I am immune to one of the venoms because of this snake. We are connected; he is my familiar." Said snake hissed before she nodded, "Forgive me. I am his familiar. But if even if I could make her immune to one, the other would attack. After the civil war amongst the magical snakes, any familiar of the King or Queen are instant death targets of the other. My Master was able to fix that through his own familiar, but I'm not exactly sure how."
"What do you have in common with your master?" Banner questioned.
Christina shrugged, "Blood. He is my grandfather through a thousand years, but my father through blood adoption. My timeline is screwed up, so I can't tell if this was done before or after I was blood-adopted. Honesty, if there is a cure, my father knows it."
"But you said he is dead. Which father are we talking about?" Stark sassed.
Loki was the one to answer. "Only one of them was a Potion Master. That was the Prince heir, yes? Slytherin was more into Runes and Transfiguration. I would suggest a balance of sorts. If you can, the cure would lie in neutralizing the new poison which, while made up of the poison, is held together by your magic and tears. The properties of both of them overrule all. They come first then mix with the poison, but they are in charge. It is they that direct and control the poison."
Christin frowned. "But if I get rid of the stabilizer, it turns the poison in on itself, causing the two to attack each other."
"Not if you do it right," Loki cautioned as he shrugged. Honestly, the man was bored. It was the only reason he was helping; through, to be honest, if the Spy died, Loki would not care in the least. it wasn't like she was a true threat against him.
This only caused Christina to throw her head back against the railing and groan. "Why are you so complicated? Why can't you be stupid?"
Loki only chuckled. "If I was ignorant, then how could I work with you or understand you at all? You are a genius, a prodigy among you kind. You need someone to talk to that understands."
Christina pouted, "You only know because you've read my mind."
"Hold up! Loki can read minds?" Stark started freaking out.
Christina shook her head. "Just mine. I'm special. If I have a connection with someone, then I can link with them. It's handy in a battle."
With that she stood, patted off her pants as if there was dust or dirt, Christina made her way back to Steve. "If I am to cure her, I will need the opposite of what I used to bind it. Or the opposite of her, I suppose. I don't know. There is still too much I don't know. I don't have time for it either."
"If you had time to infect her, you have time to cure her. I need one of my best agents. In case you haven't noticed, your boyfriend is about to start a war with this planet," Fury commanded.
Ignoring him, Christina turned toward Loki who gave her at timeline. "We do not have much time. The portal will be opened, that I cannot stop nor what follows. There is power at play here that even goes beyond you, my Lady."
"Are you one of them Lords of magic?" Fury asked, "If so, you need to defend your people. Didn't you say they were created by the goddess to govern and protect? Your boyfriend is trying to invade your planet."
Christina does not even look at Fury. "I am the Grey Lady, the Lady of Chaos. While it is in my nature to protect, it is also to destroy. So be careful when you ask me to play this game."
"This isn't a game! Lives are a stake!" Fury growled before he turned to Cap, "You brought her into this."
Cap sighed. "Director, I only asked her to come for information not to fight."
Fury turned toward Thor, his desperation high, "You call her a sister, do something."
"Even with the Morrigan on your side, the cost is high. That is what it means for chaos."
Christina, though, was ignoring them all. Though, a apart f her heard them as well. A part that was so tried. A part that just wanted to sleep. Her eyes were locked with Loki. "I'm tried," she whispered. "Why am I always the savior? The Chosen One?"
Loki gave her a small smile that was quite tender—it surprised everyone but his brother. "Well, it is a good thing that I changed you like a remix, and I raised you like a phoenix, yes?"
Chris' eyes lit up and changed briefly to an ice-blue as she was reminded of her purpose. "Put on your war paint, one last time, yes?"