"Find a corner." Ironman heard Hawkeye say into his ear. A clever idea to say the least, so Tony moved his large, mechanical body to the left and led some of Loki's Chitauri around one of the corners of New York and then he swerved his body to the right. They followed just like Tony knew they would, and one ran straight into the wall, crashing into the brick.
Another swerve, another crashed into the ceiling of a shallow tunnel. "Now." Said Tony, more to J.A.R.V.I.S. than to anyone, "What is that tunnel doing there?"
He moved his body again, and again another Chitauri moved to crash. Tony glanced behind him, one more left. Smiling to himself, he moved so that he was flying straight at a row of old townhouses, abandoned by their occupants when Captain America was being made. The soldier behind him was gaining on one of his vehicles and Tony could hear the buzz of his gun as he prepared to shoot Ironman down. So Tony made it so that he flew straight to one of the houses, and he did the classic sharp turn upwards to avoid the building all together. However, the Chitauri flew straight in and crashed.
"Anymore bright ideas?" Tony asked Hawkeye as he flew away, looking down to see if any civilians or Chitauri were getting in the way.
Psyche, underneath, had started hearing the crashes at about 8am in the morning. Shocked and confused, she had hidden herself in the small furnished room to see if she could wait it out. She had made herself a little meal of bananas and grapes while she waited and read and reread Loki's note over and over again. She had stopped crying all together, stopped worrying about Wendy and Missy as well. The only thing she was thinking about, sitting on the bed of the room, chewing absently, was what Loki was up to.
The bangs gave it away.
The Chitauri flying into the basement from the ceiling gave it away too.
Upon seeing that it wasn't a being from earth, Psyche's first response was to be absolutely appalled and confused. This would be the moment of her death, and Loki's attempt to keep her in a safe spot didn't even work. She let out a squeak and ran back into the bedroom to hide under the bed until the monster was gone, but after a moment, of which she was already on her knees, Psyche stopped and listened. The Chitauri wasn't moving.
Ironman had left a large hole that let in the golden sunlight, and Psyche moved out of the room timidly to look up into the bright, somewhat welcoming blue sky. The dust that had been unsettled in the Chitauri's fall fell slowly, gracefully, and it let off a serene glow from the sun, what with a dead alien in the middle of the room. It groaned and the slime from its sharp teeth fizzled in anger; it was dying a very painful death. Its eyes watched her, it wanted to get up and get her. It wanted to kill her, to kill one last human before it's own death, to do one more 'good' service for its leader. If it could kill one more, if it could just reach it's own energy gun and just shoot her, right in the heart. One last kill for the whole lot of them back up in space. But it's translucent, beady eyes shivered, and they rolled back, but his breathing continued weakly.
Psyche swallowed and glanced upwards again. No more were coming. She heard the bangs and yells and screams from the humans, and she saw a few shadows fly overhead, but overall, it was quiet. Comparatively, at least. She even heard a few birds start singing again. She took a few steps into the sunlight, her hair a mess and her clothes had mud stains all over them, but they weren't as bad as the armor on the alien.
"Did you have a family?" Psyche felt the need to ask.
The Chitauri groaned softly from the floor, having no energy to get up and respond like a real soldier.
"I bet they're expecting you back." Psyche whispered, "Back for dinner, maybe? After taking over another world…"
The Chitauri sniffed in his weakness and let out a long, deathly growl.
"It's so ironic." Psyche said to him, "You're so disgusting. But more people will miss you than what would miss me…"
But she got no response this time. Her new friend was dead. So Psyche went over to him and looked at him. He could pop up any moment and attack her, like it was a trick, but he didn't. His chest wasn't moving, and his eyes were staring straight up to the hole in the ceiling. So Psyche slowly reached down and pulled away the energy gun before aiming it at the alien's heart. With a tug of the trigger, it took her a little while to find it, she shot him straight through, for good measure, and in return, the physics shot her back so that she ended up sliding on the floor and hitting the wall. Psyche let out a pained hiss and sat still for a moment, before she got up slowly to look at the gun. It was all black and at the very tip, it shone blue and she could smell the dead human skin that was getting stuck to the front.
Looking up, Psyche decided it was now or never. Putting the gun on a pile of rubble a little above her, she wrapped Loki's scarf around her neck and put the mythology book in her purse before she started to climb, leaving her coat in the bedroom. She would climb a few feet up, then stop to reach down and grab the alien gun, and place it above her head on another ledge. This went on until the gun landed at ground level, and Psyche slowly pulled herself up out of the hole.
The street was mainly empty. The Chitauri hadn't gotten this far yet, the house being just outside the perimeter that Captain America had prescribed. But Psyche knew that it wouldn't last long, so grabbing the gun and her bag, she turned right, and travelled through the city.
She could see more and more aliens coming from the sky, right above Stark Tower. And she figured that where they were, Loki was bound to be as well.
Overall, the stroll terrified her, but it was jaunty to say the least. There were no people running around, no one was trying to sell her something off the street, all the music that the annoying family down the street had ceased. It was calm, just Psyche and New York.
But it didn't last long. There was a low grumbling and it made Psyche fall down. She glanced up above her and watched as a Leviathan flew through the sky, following Ironman. It weaved and curved and Psyche pushed herself against one of the walls, like it would actually stop and attack her. From its sides, a few dozen Chitauri jumped off it, and they landed around the street. Immediately, they pointed to cars and buildings and started to shoot, causing the entire street to ignite on fire in a matter of seconds. Terrified, Psyche pulled the alien gun that she had stolen from her back and pointed it in front of her protectively, her back pressed against the wall.
This action gained the attention of a nearby Chitauri, and immediately it moved to attack her, bearing its slimy, piercing, sharp teeth at her and screaming out. Psyche knew that the only way to kill it would be to kill it with its own weapon, and she pointed the gun straight at its heart and prepared to shoot.
But she couldn't. She looked into his slime green clear eye, as the Chitauri stopped to aim, and she just couldn't. This wasn't his fault.
She closed her eyes and waited for him to shoot instead.
But he didn't. After a few moments of silence and Psyche's heart beating so loud that she was sure the local radio station would pick it up, she opened her eyes again and saw the Chitauri had disregarded her. They had shot their noses up, and though she was, what they thought, human, something about her made it so that she wasn't do to be killed.
She stared at them, all of them, as they nonchalantly turned away from her and went about their destructive business. Confused beyond any type of belief, Psyche lowered the gun and watched them. Was it possible that they heard her speaking to their comrade as he died? And they taken pity upon her in the same they she took upon them? Did they have a metaphysical ability to sense human intentions? It didn't matter at the moment. She needed to get moving before they changed their mind, so Psyche reached up to tighten Loki's scarf, and she walked on.
Psyche noticed that wherever she went in the city, the Chitauri ignored her in the same way that the first few did. They just walked on, carried on, killed on, without looking at her. So when Psyche got closer and closer to Stark Tower, walking through the alleyways in a stressed jog, the peculiar feeling that she had in her gut didn't leave her. If anything, it made her run faster.
She saw almost all the Avengers in her journey. Captain America ran past her, Thor was on one of the large aliens, Ironman flew above her, but she ignored them. She knew where she needed to go and whom she needed to speak to. And in turn, since none of them had known about her, they ignored her just as well.
And though Psyche had become used to seeing Stark Tower in her New York, it looked all the more intimidating when she walked out of the alleyway and looked up at it. With a portal going into outer space and an army of aliens coming out from the sky, it didn't help her stomach plummeting. Looking around her, Psyche waited until the coast was clear before she walked up to Stark Towers.
Now how was she going to get in?
Psyche looked around herself, at the war that was ensuing. Her hair was even more ruffled but she was unscarred. For the moment. More people flew around her, more Chitauri ignored her, and the only thing that stood between her and her goal was Stark Tower. Most notably, J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark's computer and alarm system. But sighing loudly, Psyche said more to the building than to herself or anyone around her, "Well. We are at war. Sorry about this…"
She took a few steps back and pointed the energy gun straight at the window in front of her. With a swift squeeze of the trigger, it blasted through the window and broke right through. Psyche smiled, for a moment, before she realized that a shower of glass shards were flying right to her. Ducking down, only her side got a few cuts, but they still hurt. Biting her lip, Psyche looked around herself to see if anyone had noticed. And no, no one had. Even in the middle of a war, with her breaking in to Tony Stark's house, she was ignored.
Sulking slightly, she stepped forward and took a few timid steps into the room that she had blasted in to. The power was out on the bottom floor, so the only thing that she could rely on for light was the sun that was ironically gently beaming through the windows. Psyche went over to the corner of the room and gently laid the gun down on the floor, before she went to find a staircase. Now Tony Stark designed this building, and he was a smart man, and thus he had an emergency staircase that was used only when needed, but the elevator was his preferred way of travel. Psyche had to open at least ten doors in the mist of the noise and clatter before she found one that would take up upstairs. And then she began to climb.
Loki, meanwhile, was waiting at the top of Stark Tower. Second guessing himself would be futile. He had already told Thor that there was no turning back, and even though Loki couldn't help but scold himself over and over again at how he only stabbed Thor in the side and not his heart, he knew that killing Thor off would only set everyone off worse. It was better to be 'gently' reprimanded by Thanos than to be killed by the Avengers.
He went over to the window that wasn't there any longer, since he threw Ironman out of it. He watched as his army surged on, and for a while, the Avengers were fighting them instead of worrying over Loki. He could finally get a bit of a breather in before tonight, when it would all be over, and he would be able to rule over earth. He glanced at just outside of Captain America's perimeter and wondered what Psyche was thinking of the entire ruckus while she was below the city.
"Loki…?"
Or behind him. Whichever.
Loki turned around and looked her over. She was covered in dirt, and there was a sheen of sweat all over her brow, and a few cuts on her cheek from the window. The dress she was wearing, a long sleeved dress for the coldness of the morning and night, was clinging to her small frame, and her shoes were gone. She had his scarf around her neck, but her hair was completely tussled and the golden curls were knots, falling down her back.
"You're supposed to be in the hideout." Loki almost snapped, before leaving his post in front of the window, thus ignoring the entire war, and walking over to her.
Psyche was breathing heavy. She had run up the entire flight of stairs as fast as she could, and she wasn't a demigod. It took a lot out of her. But she shook her head between breaths and said, "You knew I'd try to get out. You knew it all along."
Loki sized her up, but said, "Yes. I suppose."
"Why?" Psyche asked. "Why would you protect me?"
Loki shook his head at her, disappointed, "I thought you knew human behavior."
"Yes, but not demigod behavior!" Psyche yelled, and it was the first time Loki had ever heard her be so angry. He raised his eyebrows at her in surprise but didn't move towards her. She continued, "Loki! You're trying to take over the world! How could you?"
Loki made a sound that was between a hiss and a growl before he turned around to look out the window briefly before turning back to her, "It's complicated."
Psyche looked him up and down. She took in his golden armor, his helmet, the scowl that he had that he had never shown to her, the pure power-hungry malice that were in his eyes. He was hard, he had been hit hard, right in the gut, by something in his past.
Psyche whispered to him, "What are you trying to prove?"
"I'm here." Loki started, a little more tense than he had hoped for the day, "To achieve something glorious. I have a great, humanitarian plan, and I wanted you by my side."
"Not that." Psyche said, and she shook her head at him in her heavy breathing, "Not this. I don't mean this. I mean what are you trying to prove in your heart?"
"Do not-" Loki snapped, before pointing his finger at her in warning, "Do not think that you can psychoanalyze me. I am not a guina pig, or a dog, or a young child, or even that man from 1984. I'm not human, Psyche, don't you understand that? I'm more advanced, I'm a king! You can't just ruffle up my humanity."
"Then what will you do?" She asked, her voice coming up to a high shrill, "When instead of being betrayed by everyone you love, you're forsaken?"
"I expect not to feel it." Loki said stonily.
"Well I hope you feel it now." Psyche said, and Loki watched in horror as she walked up to him, her face red and tears falling down her face dramatically. She stood before him, more bold than he had ever seen her, and she ripped off the scarf from her neck. She made a face of anger at him and balled it up before throwing it at him. It hit him in the chest, but Loki didn't move. He only watched her with sharp eyes as she turned from him and started to walk away, intending to abandon him. Only this time, unlike his family that hadn't meant to cause him pain, she was fully intending to make him feel as much pain as possible. And she was very good at it. If Loki wasn't the very one she was inflicting pain upon, he'd applaud her.
Loki watched as she glanced back him once more before shaking her head and running down the stairs. Then Loki looked down at his scarf, held out his hand, and it floated up to its master. Loki let his fingers run through the soft fabric quietly, thinking, when suddenly something clicked. Loki then ran to the door and yelled down, "Psyche! Come back—take the scarf-!"
But it was too late. Not because Psyche was already gone, but because the Hulk had just entered the Tower.
So it's official. This story has gotten the most reviews and the most alerts of all my stories. That means a lot, but makes me extremely nervous on how this story is going. And we're not even close to being done, here, either. So thanks SO much for reading, it helps; the good and bad reviews. Know that I do not disregard advice and critique, so long as it's constructive. Thanks again for reading! xxxxxxx
