Everyone was running, pushing towards the main entrance while the walking-stick-man pulled the man who was making a speech, whose name I could still not remember in the panic surrounding me. He pulled out my eye scanner, the original and more barbaric one, and forced it on his eye. I was taken aback for a moment; I had never seen it used by anyone but my colleagues. While everyone was terrified, I was calm. I couldn't even begin to be terrified. Why, I didn't know. I knew it wasn't comfort from my guards rushing around me, no. I found it brought more attention to me. But I was fine, serene even. The moment was paused in time and I wished it would go on forever.

"Move!" One of my guards pushed me from behind and started to run, forcing me with him. I made a mental note to remember his disrespect to yell at him for it later.

Two of my other guards that were able to catch up with me at first were lost in the crowd by the time we got outside. Left with two and the crowd still surging forward, we ran with the flow, faster.

I stopped for a moment and looked over my shoulder, and I realized that walking-stick-man was coming for us. It shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. He was walking casually, or at least it appeared so, but somehow keeping up with us. His clothes, whatever they were, were fading into some kind of armor of gold and green with black leather and a golden helmet with huge horns curling from the top. He was smirking still, watching us scatter like ants. My guard pulled on my arm to make me start to run again.

We got down to the street and made it to about the middle of the crowd when I heard a crashing sound. Everyone slowed down, if not stopped, to look behind them to see a car flipped over and started running on its front bumper. Whoever was in there was most certainly dead, seeing the blood covering the windows. This is why we wear seatbelts, people.

Our eyes went from the car to the attacker almost at the same time. Everyone began to try to run again. No one got far; a bright blue light surrounded us from the stone in the staff and a couple more men identical to the original attacker appeared in the corners. Then, who I guessed to be the real one since the other ones were flickering, the man started to talk.

"Kneel before me." He commanded. His voice was loud, but he wasn't yelling… Merely projecting, I guessed. His voice was clear, enunciating each word with an accent I had never encountered before, and I had encountered most. No one kneeled but ran around screaming or tried to hide. I stayed rooted in my spot staring at him as best I could from the flurry of people, directly in front of me but a car's length away. His eyes scanned us with a perfectly chiseled stony face.

Once the crowd calmed down, figuring out they could not escape, he stepped forward a step and said, "I. Said. KNEEL." The last word ripping out of his throat harshly, his dark eyes brightening with rage.

They were frightened into silence, everyone slowly kneeling. Some having to be forced down to their knees by others, myself being one of them. One of my guards was the one to push me to the ground. I finally felt some sort of emotion from this action, but it was rage at being forced to kneel and the rage was directed not at the attacker but at my guard. I tried to say something or to stand, but was distracted by the sound of staff man's voice.

"Is not this simpler?" He started to walk slowly through the crowd in my general direction with his arms spread wide as if embracing us all. "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power." His voice was energized and smooth, as if a child talking about a subject they so loved. He was slowly inching closer to me. "Your identity… You were made to be ruled."

I was so sure he wasn't coming for me, just trying to keep attention on himself, to make a pretty speech, but as he got to two feet in front of me, he put the tip of his staff under my chin and lifted my head. My head was already held up; I refused to look down at the ground like the pathetic people around me acting as if what he said was true. My eyes were drawn up to look at him, but he merely pulled my head up a little further so that my neck was craning. He looked at me square in the face, into my eyes. I think… I think he noticed. That I wasn't afraid. A ghost of confusion crossed his eyes but he recovered and another look replaced it just as quickly as the confusion came and left. He half kneeled down to me for only a moment, brushing hair off of my face that fell from my high black bun to behind my ear, his hand traveling down to my neck to the chain that hung there and the amulet.

It was the Eye of Horus. Antique and gold, it was two inches wide, the long necklace that came down to just below my breasts. He picked up the Eye in his hand without taking his eyes from mine and flicked them down to study it for a moment and dropped it heavily looking back at me. He rose to his feet not taking his eyes away from mine until he started to walk again a moment later.

"In the end, you will always kneel." His soft voice caressed me. His words were harsh and frightening, but his voice one you would use for a scared animal... And not one you would want to hurt. This was not the voice of a crazy man. He was standing right behind me, separating me from my guard, who I then realized that neither he nor the one in front of me tried to protect me. Which was their job. What a good fucking job. You'll all be fired by morning.

There was a small flurry of excitement caused by an elderly man standing and speaking to the staff-man. Staff-man said something about making an example of him, but I wasn't able to absorb what was happening. He was so close… He just touched me with the staff… Was he going to kill me? Hit me like he did the other men? Or is he one of those guys with the philosophy of never hit a girl? Ha. Most men have no romantic ideas about who not to step on when they climb their way to the top. And he seems like a control freak. He was going to kill the older man and me. This is it. But I still wasn't scared. Just… Intrigued.

There was a strange sound and then a bang and staff man flying over my kneeling form in front of me, landing on his feet with one hand on the ground now kneeling like the rest of us. Another deep voice said something to staff-man and staff-man seemed to 7recognize the owner of the voice behind me.

"The solider," he laughed getting to his feet. "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time." It was Captain America. It sounded like an arrogant movie line. How the hell did they manage to get him out of his little hole?

Another whoosh came behind me and I tuned to see my plane materialize above and a bit behind us, stationary. A large gun came from the bottom pointed at us. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't tell in my dazed state.

Oh so staff-man has a name.

They started to fight, Captain America and "Loki". I caught a glimpse of red before I was whisked off, pulled by my elbows through the crowd running to a big, black sleek car.

I realized too late that the hands were too forceful even for my own men and looking up saw that they weren't mine as I had thought.

I was being shoved into the car when everything went black.