Disclaimer Haiku?

I don't own Marvel.
I still wish that I did.
I'm bad at haiku.

"At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice."

- Maya Angelou

Chapter Ten

It was well into morning, nearly nine when he woke up. Mord dressed carefully, tucking his pants into his boots and ensuring that they were tightly laced. He needed to get to the woman so that she would, hopefully, lead him to Loki. He would try reasoning with her, as he had no desire to be eviscerated by that wicked fire blade. But if that failed, he was going to be as prepared to fight as he could be.

After a moment's contemplation, he decided that he had time for breakfast. There was no hurry. He set out for Denny's with a spring in his step. Who knew food on Midgard would taste so good?

Loki woke with a smile and a stretch. His sleep had been blissfully uninterrupted, though it was still dark out. Even his usual nightmares had stayed at bay. He rolled over and snuggled Alyssa's warm body against his chest, taking in a deep breath to catch her scent.

He sat bolt upright. There was no reason for the scent of blood to be lingering around her today. She'd been unmarked by even a paper cut when they went to sleep. He rolled her over and found the caked and coagulated blood on her side. It was only emphasized by the slowly fading bruise beneath it.

At least she was still breathing. What the hell happened? He pulled the sheet further off of her body so that he could check for any other wounds. When none were found, he sighed in relief.

He left the room and headed downstairs to get a washcloth and some aspirin, only to stare in shock at the carnage. The sofa was going to have to be replaced. The walls needed patching, or maybe Alyssa would be able to repair them magically. He'd certainly never fixed drywall before, and he wasn't sure his spells would be effective.

The back door looked like Thor had bashed it in and then stuck it back against the wall. A glance out the back window showed a long furrow in the ground from something, though he didn't know what. The sheep were still out there, though they avoided the area of destroyed sod. How did I sleep through this?

The feel of the warm, wet rag stroking her side dragged Alyssa from her slumber. She looked up into Loki's eyes and couldn't help a bit of trepidation at the concerned irritation she saw there. She had to wonder if he was upset with her not waking him for the fight or for not waking him to see to her injuries. She rather hoped it was the former, as she didn't have a convincing argument for the latter. "Good morning."

He frowned at her. "That is debatable. What happened last night?"

She sat up and he moved back to let her, putting a supporting hand against her back when she let out a wince as her body protested the movement. A few adjustments later, she leaned back against the headboard with a sigh. "I woke up to the intruder alarm going off. Went downstairs and got in a fight with a guy that could probably battle his way through Jötunheimr and possibly beat up your brother afterwards. Came back upstairs and collapsed after her left."

"And you didn't wake me?"

She winced, no clarification for which part of this he wanted her to wake him for. "Well, we were both tired from practice yesterday, and I wasn't expecting him to be fast enough to take me. Guys that big are supposed to be slower moving, not as agile as he was. By the time I realized I might need help, he was leaving. And, I was healing fine so there wasn't really any reason to wake you up."

"No reason?"

She cut him off before he could get his stride. "He said he would be back later. So I thought it was a good idea if at least one of us was rested enough to deal with him if he came back before I healed, or to help me get the important stuff out of here. You know, like us and the computer he was after?"

She kept going, not wanting to get into her real reason for not waking him. He'd be pissed if he knew she wanted him kept safe. She hid her mental cringe at the argument that would cause. Men can be far too proud for their own good. And, whether he likes being compared to a human male or not, he is still a male.

He seemed to accept her logic, at least. He left the room for a few moments and brought her a glass of water, which she gulped down after a few tentative sips to ensure her stomach wouldn't rebel. "What do you want me to move and where?"

She sighed. "The computers need to be put somewhere safe. I know I took you to Mustafar, can you teleport to that galaxy if I were to give you co-ordinates within it?"

At his nod, she conjured writing instruments and was noting down the needed information. She continued explaining where to go when he got there. "Okay, the computers are going to a temple there on a planet called Yavin IV. There's a hidden alcove inside the temple..."

Loki teleported to Yavin, the computers tucked into a dimensional pocket to keep his hands free. He glanced around to take in his surroundings and was fascinated by the large amount of flora surrounding the ancient structure. The trees were taller than most buildings, and the flowers and ferns were both huge and beautiful. He could feel and hear lifeforms moving about, although all were of animal intelligence as opposed to human – or humanoid.

The temple itself was interesting, as well. It was a large step-pyramid with vines shrouding most of the stonework. A single entrance was carved into one side, with yet more vines offering concealment. Not that it was the only pyramid he could see, but she had specified the smaller of the three. The larger had been modified and used by others over the centuries, and she wanted him to use the apparently untouched one.

He slipped inside with a minimum of fuss, leaving the vines almost undisturbed. Her directions were fantastic, and he navigated through the confusing maze of corridors with no trouble. The alcove was hidden behind a wall, with a series of stones forming the key to access. He pressed them in the required order and quickly tucked the electronics inside the tiny room.

Closing the door, he promised himself that he'd come back and explore these buildings later. Who knew what interesting secrets they held? He slipped out of the temple, following her warning to use as little magic inside as possible. She'd seemed rather worried that he'd ignore the admonition, as she'd repeated it four times. He took one last lingering look around before teleporting back to Earth.

Alyssa was rather amused at the look on Jane's face when Loki teleported the two of them into her labs. Usually, the two would appear in an alley down the street and walk in so as not to surprise the scientists. Jane's jaw snapped shut quickly and she dropped what she was doing to walk over. "Is something wrong?"

Alyssa settled into a chair, glad for the support. Her wounds were almost completely healed, but they left behind a lingering weariness. "We were wondering if you would let us store some things here as an intruder entered my house last night."

Jane blinked. "Of course, but are you okay?"

Alyssa nodded. "Almost fully healed. I just need a bit of time to recover. We're not bringing the computers here as those were the target, and I don't want to place you all in danger. I just wanted to drop off some items of more sentimental value, if that's all right?"

"That's fine." Jane poured a cup of coffee and brought it to her. Alyssa took a sip and smiled. Darcy must be around here somewhere. "We have a spare room, too. You'd have to share, but..."

Alyssa shook her head. "I have reason to believe that the intruder is coming back tonight, and I have every intention of being there to greet him." She intercepted the look from Loki and added, "With Loki, of course."

"He wasn't there last night?" Jane shot him a disapproving look and Alyssa wondered if the human was foolish enough to think that the Trickster cared about her opinion.

"He was, but I kept him out of the fight. I won't make the same mistake, tonight."

It had taken all of an hour to transport the items Alyssa wanted preserved. It wasn't much. A few photo albums, their clothes, the contents of her office safe and a few mementos of her previous marriage were rather quickly stowed in the spare bedroom at Jane's lab. Loki did almost all of the work – Alyssa evacuated the sheep – but as she'd had to re-break and magically set an improperly healed rib, he didn't mind.

He was too busy being shocked at the six foot long katana she'd had him transport.

He was still cringing that he'd had to be the one to break the rib. She couldn't get the proper angle on her own and Jane was neither strong nor precise enough to do it. Thor outright refused to hit a girl for any reason and almost got one of his lover's fireballs for that response. To take his mind off of what he'd had to do, he'd set up a rather tricky ward on the outskirts of the property that would alert them when anyone not on official business came near Alyssa's house. The hard part had been making the ward recognize that thievery – paid or not – was not official business.

All in all, the work was done by just past seven forty-five in the morning, eastern time. He'd then spent the next twenty minutes chastising Alyssa for not taking proper care of herself with a broken rib. That had neatly segued into a lecture on not realizing that the rib was actually fully broken in the first place. He wasn't sure how to interpret the looks Jane kept shooting him after that, but he thought it might be approval.

As if it was her place to approve or disapprove... Has the mortal even been to bed tonight? It's five in the morning here... He contemplated her relationship with his brother. On second thought, I don't want to know why she's up.

Still, both he and Alyssa had agreed that they didn't want Thor involved in the fight. He had no idea how they'd get answers out of the smear remaining on the ground when the Thunder God finished pulverizing Sabertooth. Alyssa wasn't sure that a battle between the two would be that unevenly matched, but she didn't want to lose her house due to excessive use of Mjölnir. Loki was all too happy to agree that a few hammer-sized holes would do nothing for the building's structural integrity.

It had taken another hour to convince both Jane and Thor that the Thunderer should remain behind as a surprise reinforcement. Which had Thor arbitrarily deciding that his friends would also be in reserve with him, just in case they were needed. Loki could only shudder at the thought of what the hot-headed warriors would do to the previously peaceful neighborhood. The elderly busybody across the street would probably feel that the holidays had come early and were bearing juicy gossip... At least, she would until she was killed in the crossfire.

Now, he was looking over the information that Alyssa had managed to dig up on the large mutant. Her skills as a hacker certainly came in handy, as she dragged out files both publicly available and classified. Victor 'Sabertooth' Creed had apparently worked on both sides of the law at various times, although his activities for the government were 'black bag' at best. Though he'd been thought dead after the Liberty Island fiasco, he'd popped up again soon after. He was currently classified as a terrorist, with a hefty reward for his delivery to the government – dead or alive.

The list of the mutant's supposedly legal activities for the government almost sent Loki to the bathroom to void his stomach, and that was saying something. Thor looked more grim with every word, and Jane actually had gone to vomit when Alyssa had found pictures of some of his kills. Darcy had followed soon after. For all that she seemed calm and controlled, Loki could feel the fury radiating off Alyssa. It was strong enough that even Thor had inched away after a few minutes.

The mortals were – as usual – oblivious to the dark powers twining around his angered lover.

Oddly enough, her rage abated a bit as she read further into his file. The mutant's old commanding officer, a William Stryker, had apparently managed to investigate and document Sabertooth's childhood. There were some glaring gaps in the information, but it was obvious that he'd had a tough life which was made far harder by his staunch protection of his younger brother. A brother whose leaving had ultimately ripped away what little self-control the feral had left. Not all scars are physical...

It was almost eleven in the morning, when Alyssa's reading lead her to the files of James Logan "Wolverine" Howlett. He spent a while watching her, and was not shocked at all to see the wheels turning in her head. He knew, even without asking, that she was pondering ways to restore the man's memory. He wondered if she was planning to use it to her advantage or if it would be her 'good deed of the day.' It could go either way, depending on her mood.

He was contemplating asking her, when his ward triggered. He settled a hand on her shoulder. "We have company."

At eleven thirty-one, the pair reappeared in Alyssa's living room. They quickly settled themselves down in front of the television, with dozens of small weapons secreted in various spots near them. They didn't want their intruder to know that they were aware of his presence, and so appeared to be caught up in and discussing a random documentary.

Alyssa was commenting on the difference between kosher and regular hot dogs when there was a knock at the front door. They glanced at each other and she rose to answer it. Sabertooth wouldn't consider her a great threat considering their earlier encounter and they wanted to catch him at least slightly off guard. Having an unknown answer the door wouldn't achieve that.

She blinked, however, at the young man standing before her. He had short cropped black hair and icy blue eyes. A small smirk played across thin lips set in a pale face, and the posture of his wiry body indicated a feeling of control over the situation. He reminded her quite a bit of Loki, though his face was a little rounder. "Sorry, we're not buying anything."

She started to close the door, and the man's hand shot out to hold it open. She had just a second to acknowledge that his scent resembled the frosty smell of her lover before he let go of it again and spoke. His voice was a bit raspy. She had to wonder how often he used it. "We need to discuss a mutual friend. Please. I have no desire to fight with you."

She frowned at him. The Force indicated no lie in his words, but there was an odd shimmer around his body. There was also a definite pleading look in his eyes. She sighed. He's wearing a glamour. Dammit. And, no doubt he's the one that tripped the wards. At least there's too much of a size difference for a glamour to cover, so there's no chance he's Creed. "All right."

She stepped back from the door to let him in. The angle as he stepped past her was such that she almost missed his face paling at the sight of Loki standing in the living room with fire hovering over one upturned palm. Almost. He started to back up but she'd already shut the door behind her. The snap-hiss of her lightsaber igniting behind him was quickly followed by Loki's threateningly calm voice. "Identify yourself."

There were many things in his life that Mord had been sure of. Some had been accurate, some had not. He was – for a very long time – certain that his father would kill him before his next birthday. When he'd been dragged to see the king, he'd been sure that he'd been terrified. Now he knew the two assertions to be false. He could see the spectral feminine form of this world's Death hovering in the background.

The Endless smirked at him and he knew, without doubt, that one wrong step here would kill him.

His options lay before him. He could attack and probably die. He could withdraw and hopefully escape successfully. Or, he could throw in his lot with the Prince. Laufrey might kill him for it later, unless he managed to spin it correctly. Allying with someone didn't exactly mesh with an assassination attempt. Not to mention what the All-Father would do if he found a Frost Giant runt lingering around his disgraced adopted son...

He would need a substantial amount of luck to survive beyond the next few months. And there was no one with luck like Loki.

His decision clear, he dropped to his knees. The blade of the mortal's fire sword rested a fraction of an inch from his ear. The heat was excruciating, but he kept his voice steady. "My Prince... Master... I am Mord Geirrson, and I've come on orders to kill you or die trying. But, I would rather live to serve you."

Bonus Interlude: Where'd The Sheep Go?

It was a bit of effort to do what she was about to do, but she felt it would be worth it. Slipping through a rip to either a different place or a different time was a simple matter. The math for the first was only fifteen or so equations. The math for the second was about seventeen. Doing both at once, though, required the completion of almost seventy-five different calculations – including mass ratios, time in transit and even air temperature differentials.

Most scientists would be quite jealous to realize that she could do all that math in her head... in less than a minute.

Failure to accurately complete them would – at best – leave you in the wrong place and time, cause a significant explosion on arrival, or leave you lost in the Void between worlds forever. If the mistake was too glaring, the rip could expand to the point where it destroyed the two worlds interconnected to it. The worst case scenario called for the destruction of universes.

There was a reason she was teaching Jane instead of letting her blunder around with this on her own.

As it was, she dragged the sheep through to a time and place before she met Sephiroth. He and his friends were still alive at this point – the degradation hadn't yet taken its toll on Genesis. She hadn't intended to land in a supply closet in the Shin-Ra Department Of Administrative Research, but she supposed it was appropriate. Let the Turks – most likely Reno – take the blame for the chaos that was about to ensue.

She resisted the urge to see her husband, alive, for one last time. It wouldn't do to change history and she knew Seph hadn't seen her before that first meeting. Still, Seph had never outright told her that he'd never seen a tiny blue sheep. Besides, she'd give anything to see the look on Hojo's face when he tried to discover where they'd come from.

She sent them out in a small stampede of baa-ing fluff, and then warped herself quickly to the blessedly empty security office to set a thumb-sized device so that the relevant reaction images would be transmitted to her on command. One last glance around and she gated herself back to Earth.

ToRestOrRange: /drools/ Pecan PIE! Yum!

DismalAbyss: Working on it... Real life is being a pain.

At least we get to see Loki this chapter!