Chapter 16.
We got off the bus at Seattle Center and walked quickly into the open park as Rush Hour slowly started around us and people started leaving work for the day. We found a bench to rest on in the shadow of the Space Needle, and I collapsed at it as my hands stopped shaking bit by bit. Loki opened the bag and pulled out the last Red Bull and offered it to me without a word, I nodded and sighed as he cupped the drink in his hands and chilled it using his gifts. He opened the can and handed it to me as I took a long drink and handed it back to him. He took a drink of it and grimaced at the taste, handing it back to me as I sat back on the bench and let my head hang back. I stared at the sky above me, the thick layer of gray clouds above blocking out the sun and started wishing for the perpetually blue skies of Asgard. I could not believe that I was actually homesick for Asgard, and I leaned forward and buried my face in my hands.
"What do we do now? Seriously, I am looking for ideas here." I asked him and he sighed as we watched couples take pictures in front of the Needle, oblivious to the world around them.
"I am actually lost myself." Loki replied as I got a sinking feeling in my stomach, SHIELD was aware of him, that was bad enough, but what did they know about me? I rubbed my hand over my sand filled eyes and felt frustration creep into my brain and kick its shoes off to get comfortable as I wanted to scream and throw something, how I managed to keep myself together I don't know.
"Want to just sit here for a while?" I asked him and took another drink from the can and passed it back to him. I put the hood of my sweater up, and slipped the sunglasses out of my pocket and put them on. Trying to hide behind the dark lenses, and hoping my calm did not crumble around me.
"They will find us." He said and I nodded as he drank the last of the energy drink and set the can next to him on the bench. "They will imprison the both of us when they do."
"Your brother's friends are real dicks." I said and he snorted derisively.
"He really is not my brother."
"They are still dicks," I replied. "What do we do now?"
I pulled my feet up into the bench and wrapped my arms around my knees as we sat on the bench together and Loki sighed. He looked at me sadly, and I knew I was not going to like what he said next.
"We surrender." He said and I looked at him incredulously. "Like you said, you are a hostage."
"No!" I said back sharply and he winced as if I slapped him, a couple jumped and stared at us. My sudden outburst startled them as they walked past, and picked up their pace as I glared at Loki.
"Are you completely fucking nuts? Think for five seconds about it, they kill you and I end up their weapon in a box until the end of time. These idiots will pull me out every time someone breathes wrong, do you think I really want that? To just be another nuclear warhead, a pawn in another man's chess game?" I said and stared at him and stood up and paced.
"It would be better than you being dead." He replied and I looked at him and sighed.
"What about you?" I asked him and looked down, pinching the bridge of his nose as he shook his head.
"You are not hearing reason Little Mouse." He said and I crossed my arms and tried not to scream.
"Not hearing reason? Excuse me, but what are you doing? Did you think about me at all? What am I supposed to do without you?" I hissed at him and nearly slapped him as he blinked up at me shocked. "I am not going to let you throw yourself and me away, and I am sure as hell not going to let you sit there and be idle while you indulge your personal L'appel de Vide and walk away from you. I am not everyone else that has come and gone from your life, and there is still fucking hope while you breathe you idiot. I need you, and you need me!"
I grabbed his hand and pulled him up off the bench as Loki looked at me, a mixture of shock and sadness crossing his face as I began walking, angry tears threatening to burst. I stomped on, fighting everything inside me. I nearly dislocated my arm when he stopped and I turned on him angrily.
"I am not everyone else, and I am no giving up!" I yelled at Loki and he stood looking at me dumbfounded.
"Lilly." He said and I stopped before I could cock back for a slap, and he pulled me back toward him. Hugging me as I buried my face into his chest and struggled a bit as he refused to let me go.
"You big jerk." I said and ineffectively hit his arm with a closed fist. "Don't give up, we still have a chance. Just let me think of something.
"I'm sorry." He said, and let me go regarding me as I stood there.
"You are just bummed we didn't steal Stark's car." I said and he chuckled a bit.
"A little bit." Loki said and I looked down at the ground. "I think I will survive my disappointment however. I am just worried about you, I do not want you to get hurt."
"Stop." I said and put up a hand. "The one thing right now that would hurt me the most, would be just giving up. Throwing in the towel is so not an option right now. There is still a chance that we can get out of this mess relatively alive, maybe Thor can bail us out if we get caught."
"If we have to, we will surrender." He said, and I nodded my agreement to him.
"Make them work for it though." I said and laughed as I got an idea, and looked up at Loki and smiled. He raised his eyebrows at me in question and I grinned wider.
"How would you like to scare the shit out of my Ex?" I asked him and he looked at me, a wicked grin crossing his face.
"Tell me, can I hurt him a bit?" I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.
"No, but you can threaten him, and really be scary." I said and he looked somewhat disappointed.
"It will still be fun. I promise, we are going to take his car though." I said and started leading Loki toward the other side of the park, passing the science museum as we headed for a different bus line.
"We should work on your definition of fun." He said and I grinned back at him shaking my head and feeling a bit nervous to be bringing Loki around Michael, and hoped he would not judge me for what I once dated.
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We rode two different buses to the University District where I once lived with Michael in one of the shittiest apartment buildings known to man. As we climbed the five flights of stairs, Loki looked at the cracking plaster and cringed at the distinct smell of urine and booze in the halls. I wanted to thank the idiot college students for this embarrassment and wanted to abort the current mission. Instead I stayed focused ahead and moved along the dim hall. I shuddered, thinking about how I once could stand living here and tried not to make eye contact with him as I walked, feeling ashamed at my past.
I was also not looking forward to seeing Michael again and tried to play off my nerves, I really hoped Loki didn't get into it with the asshole either. We stopped in front of the door to the shitty apartment, and I took in a deep breath and straightened my jeans, and pulled my shirt down, further stalling by zipping up my hoodie and arranging my shemaugh.
"Nervous?" Loki asked me as I raised my hand to knock, and he gave me a sheepish grin.
"Understatement of the century." I grumped and moved to knock again.
"What exactly is the plan?" He asked and I sighed at the interruption and turned to face him, a woman left her unit and shuffled down the stairs we had just come up and I waited for the coast to be clear.
"I am going to knock, and politely ask Michael is I can borrow his Jeep Cherokee. After that, we will head East and hope for the best. So if you have anything to add, please do so now." I said, Loki tilted his head at me slightly suspicious and I sighed.
"He beat you."
"Yes. Thank you for pointing that out Captain Obvious." I said as I moved to knock again, but Loki stopped me before I could complete the action.
"Can I hurt him?" He asked and grinned, I shuddered at the smile and produced the illusion of a Desert Eagle I had made. He looked at the virtual hand cannon and watched me tuck it down the back of my pants.
"I think, that will do enough mental damage, but if it doesn't work, knock yourself out...not literally, figure of speech." I said and knocked on the door, surprised to see it open by itself swinging free on the hinge inward. Never a good sign when you did what Michael and I did for a living, scared was the understatement of the century.
Cautiously, I poked my head around the door, pushing it carefully with my finger tips and slowly edged into the apartment. I glanced down at the busted jamb and back at Loki. He frowned at me and I pointed at the doorway.
"The door has been kicked recently." I said and Loki nodded. I walked into the main living area, and saw a scene that was total chaos. The coffee table was overturned, and two chairs were busted into kindling. Michael's precious television and X Box were in pieces all over the floor. I looked into the kitchen and swallowed hard, checking blind spots as I walked.
"There also appears to have been a struggle." Loki said behind me and I heard a whimper from the bedroom, we both turned and looked down the hall. Loki pulled a knife, and I waved him back as I took careful, silent steps down the hall. Holding my hand behind me, I crouched down to pick up Michael's car keys off the floor where I found them dropped and started backing toward the door when another whimper came from the bedroom followed by the sound of something heavy shifting. My heart pounded in my chest and I wanted out of that building and fast.
I glanced over my shoulder at Loki and put my finger up to my lips to motion for him to be quiet, and he backed toward the door and I took a cautious step back. I stepped back and put my hand on the wall when the door opened suddenly, slamming it off the wall behind it and I was greeted by David's head goon.
"Raven." The tall slab of muscle said and David's head popped around the man as my stomach fell into my feet.
"Get the bitch." David said, and I screamed.
"Run!" I shouted and turned to move but I was too slow.
Loki moved fast, but the goon was faster and he had his arm around my neck tightly, a Glock was pressed against my head and digging into my scalp as I struggled to breathe. How I managed to hold onto the key, I still don't know. My windpipe was crushed, and the goon shoved the gun tighter into my scalp. It drug along my hairline making me cry out in pain. Loki growled at the man and I put my hands up to stop him from coming forward before my brains ended up all over the wall behind me, I struggled a bit but the gun dug harder into my scalp and I went very still.
"Drop the knife. We have nothing to do with you." David said as I struggled against the goon trying to get air.
"Bullets come out of the gun asshole, stop trying to shove the barrel into my brain." I choked out, and David slapped me hard across the face.
"That was unwise." Loki said and I tried to clear the stars out of my vision as I started to dangle with my feet off the floor a bit thanks to the albino gorilla.
"You have last chance to leave, we need to have meeting with my girl here. You claim the rest of her at the morgue. My associate will give you address." David said and the goon pointed the gun at Loki and I gasped for air as David grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled me into the bedroom.
"Let her go, and I will consider letting you live." Loki hissed and I screamed as I saw what was left of Michael on the floor of the bedroom. Whatever it was may have been human at one time, but what is was now was a horrifying pile of flesh and disjointed bones. They had beaten him to a bloody pulp and I fought back the urge to retch as I looked it him in horror. David threw me back against the bed and I kicked at him as he snapped a pair of handcuffs around my wrists and behind my back.
"David…." I breathed out "Please don't…..you don't have to do this." I pushed back against the wall and he looked at me with a predatory grin. "Just let us go, and no one will get hurt."
I heard a struggle in the hallway and stopped and David listened for a few moments, and I tried to twist my arms around so I could fight him and screamed again when another hand connected with my face. He climbed onto the bed toward me and I went ballistic, I thrashed about and screamed for help. I kicked back, and he fell back a bit but wrapped a hand around my ankle and pulled me back, I kicked at him again with my free foot and he slapped it away with his hand.
A gunshot ripped through the apartment, and I stopped in shock to stare at the door of the bedroom and there was no other sound. My heart hammered in my chest, and I looked at the door as everything in my body went numb and I fought back the urge to cry.
"Loki!" I screamed and David hooked his meaty hand into my belt and pulled me back toward him. I was flipped over onto my stomach and a hand was across my forehead as his other hand unbuckled my belt, and I screamed and thrashed as much as I could, fighting as panic gripped me. Not a cohesive thought filled my head as his hand slipped down the front of my pants and I screamed, primal and raw.
"You may like it Raven." David said into my ear, and I screamed again and I jumped reappearing across the room from David, leaving the handcuffs on the bed under him. I dove for the doorway, but he was faster. He had an arm around my waist and I whimpered again as he turned me to see Michael's remains in a grim reminder of how I was about to end up. His arm coming up around my neck as I tried to scream, cutting off the sound and causing my vision to go gray. I put my hands up on his arm and pulled it away from my windpipe, and the arm moved enough to let me get air.
"Stop this David, you don't know what you are messing with." I warned and he laughed.
"I knew you were freak." He said into my ear and put his hand down the front of my pants again, his arm around my neck tightened and I started fighting more. Suddenly, the arm and hand were gone. I fell to the ground in a disjointed heap that gasped for air as I moved away from him. Rolling in time to see David holding his throat, and blood pouring down his shirt. Loki pulled the knife out of the dying man's throat and he looked down at me as I scooted backwards and across the room until my back hit the wall.
I shook and he crouched down next to the dying Russian, and looked at him calmly. Studying the man as the last light left his eyes. Loki then turned toward me and I shook, my back pressing into the wall. I started to cry involuntarily as he moved cat like toward me. His hand came up to my face, and his eyes softened.
"Don't look at it. He should never have touched you like that, do not pity him and never mourn him" He said, turning my head gently and I froze shaking against the wall, his hand went down to my pants and buttoned them and I snapped and reached out, slapping at his hands.
"No!" Was the only word I could form as I started rocking back and forth on my butt in the quiet room. I fell apart and put myself back together again, only to fall to pieces again in my head.
"Lilliana." Loki said sharply, snapping me out of my fear induced trance, I jerked my head toward him and he pulled the Jeep key out of his pocket.
"I thought they shot you." I said and wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed. He let me have time to pull myself together one last time, and I stayed together and I shook for several minutes before I could finally calm down. His arms around me with his hands resting on my back.
"No," He said, shaking his head and pushed me back. "Did he?"
"No." I shook my head, cutting him off and shuddered, remembering the hand and tried not to sob again. Somehow managing to pull myself together, he may not have done anything to me, but I still felt violated.
"We need to go. Someone will have called the cops." I said and Loki lifted me up and carried me out of the apartment and down the hall toward the stairs.
I had to shut down parts of myself in order to get through the next through moments, the option of collapsing and turning into jelly in that hall was not valid at this point. Loki set me down in the stairwell and I buckled my belt and tried not to let how bad my hands were shaking show as I worked. He watched me concerned and did everything to not turn into an unholy rage monster right there.
I pushed the crash bar on the stairwell to the parking garage and located Michael's red Jeep in the underground garage, quickly unlocking it with the key fob in my hand. Loki got in on the passenger side and stopped me as I started shaking again. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in close, as I broke down. I sat and shook, but no tears came at this point and I let myself fall back into place slowly.
"Are you going to be well?" Loki asked me and I nodded yes into his chest, but my entire body betrayed my lie.
"Yeah….no…..I don't know." I said and looked at him. "I will make a good effort to be though, does that count?"
"I believe it does after a fashion." He said and let me go to sit back up and catch my breath, I started the Jeep up and backed the vehicle up carefully. I put the beast into gear and ascended the ramp, waiting for the roll down entry door to rise patiently. I depressed the clutch and threw the Jeep into gear, releasing the clutch and began to accelerate into the alley behind the apartment building when I hit Fandral.
I may or may not have felt guilt for about five seconds.
"Was that…." Loki started, and I slammed on the brakes as a hand came up and braced itself on the hood of the Jeep. Slowly a dazed, curly mop of blonde hair appeared over the edge of the hood, and pulled the rest of the being attached to it up. Fandral stared through the windshield at me in disbelief. He shouted and laughed, pointing at me and making sounds and words that may have formed an actual sentence in his excitement.
"It is, and he is alive. Whether or not he is O.K is another matter." I said in relief as Thor shouted at the two of us and Sif came running around the building at us, Volstagg followed the group and I looked back at Fandral who was recovering slowly.
"Accelerate again," Loki said. "That was amusing."
I gave him a look that told him to behave and he grinned at me and shrugged. I turned off the car and opened the door to the Jeep and stepped down to the paved alley as Loki sighed, annoyed at their being present.
"You were right Thor, we did find the two of them in this city." Fandral said and nearly fell over, having to brace himself on the hood of the Jeep. He reached out to hug me happily and I took a step back, he hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Groaning as he collected himself. Through the windshield, I could see the Norse God of being a Jerk laughing to himself as I blinked at everyone in surprise. Sif grabbed my shoulders as Thor opened the passenger side door and yanked Loki out of the vehicle like a rag doll by his coat, throwing him back against the fender.
"Are you injured?" Sif asked me in a panic, and Loki put his hands up to stop Thor from pummeling him into a tenderized steak.
"I should be well Lady Sif, I have endured worse attacks. Please see to the Lady Lilliana." Fandral said, sitting up and she rolled her eyes, turning her head to glare at Loki.
"I'm fine." I said as Volstagg wrapped me up into a bear hug, and I swore a bit as I felt my ribs and spine rearrange themselves and trade places permanently.
"Need to breathe," I said and I felt my feet plant themselves back on the ground. "Can everyone chill out for five freaking seconds!"
"As you can see, she is well, and she is the one who brought me with her here." Everyone turned and glared at Loki who had relaxed back against the fender and was resting his elbows on the hood of the Jeep as he regarded everyone with disinterest.
"The Allfather is worried about you, Heimdal cannot see you, and we feared the worst Lady." Thor said as he crossed his arms and looked from me to Loki.
"I am concealing her, you asked me to do it. She is being hunted, and the being hunting her can sense her no matter where she is in the galaxy, so I hid her from everyone." Loki replied coolly and turned to wink at me.
"I panicked." I said and everyone looked back at me. "We got cornered, so I decided to make a jump here and it exhausted me. We had to lay low until I was stronger, we stole a couple cars, got shot at, and then you guys found us. I'm still breathing, my brain is not scrambled eggs, and Loki kept his word. Stop treating him like he is the worst being in all of creation."
So sue me, I left a couple details out, but I did not feel like throwing Loki in to the fire from the frying pan.
Sif's face went pale and she grabbed my shoulders and leaned me back against the Jeep, studying me from head to toe. She turned me and looked again, lifting my shirt, unzipping my hoodie, and probably would have stripped me there if I hadn't stopped her immediately by pulling my shirt back down in surprised embarrassment.
"You were shot at?" Thor said, I shrugged nervously and grinned at him.
"Yeah, but it was pretty cool." I said and Fandral groaned again. "Stop hamming it up you big baby, I was not going that fast."
"What of 'im?" Volstagg said, pointing at Loki and I rolled my eyes along with Loki.
"Why is your cheek bruised?" Thor asked, and I tried to turn my face as everyone looked at me and then back at Loki.
"Why do you have a flower drawn on your skin near your naval?" Fandral asked and everyone looked down at my waistband, I groaned and threw my arms up into the air. I zipped my hoodie back up quickly and looked down at the ground as Loki smirked at everyone. I paced for a second before I took in a deep breath before I lost my mind and let it out slowly.
"Can we all just keep up with the conversation for five seconds? Question one: Loki protected me for three days and put up with me, so we are pretty cool. Question two: a guy tried to rape me, and Loki stopped him, I got a bit roughed up in the process. Question three: It is called a Tattoo! I have had it for two years, and would really like it if everyone stopped freaking out about it. Any other stupid questions?" I said and crossed my arms and frowned at a realization I had now that the cognitive dissonance in my head began to settle.
"You guys are here, and Loki is hiding me. How did you find us?" I asked and Thor looked down at the ground.
"We guessed, and it turned out that my assumption was correct." Thor said proudly and I looked at Loki.
"Can whoever is hunting me see everyone else? Could he have followed them here?" I asked and Loki looked at me concerned and I started moving around the side of the Jeep toward the drivers side.
"What do you mean?" Thor said and looked troubled.
"You lead them here Thor, you idiot!" I said and pointed at the jeep. "Everyone in the car. The cops will be arriving soon, and there are a few bodies upstairs!"
Everyone piled into the Jeep and Volstagg ran for the hatchback as I started the engine and slammed the vehicle into gear. I waited for traffic to clear, and I began merging onto the street and started shaking as I drove.
"Do you want for me to drive, you seem a bit distraught and have been through much." Loki suggested and four voices from the back gave a unanimous "No". I slammed on the brakes to not blow through a red light, turning in my seat to give them a face that told everyone in the vehicle I was in no mood to put up with anything.
"Do not make me come back there." I said and everyone turned to look out their respective windows as I turned and looked at Loki, accelerating along the Seattle streets.
"We need to get to Bellevue, we are going to need Thor's friends. The Kree could be here any minute, and we are going to have a huge problem on our hands when they arrive. Thanks to the blonde in the back, we don't know how much time we have." I said and stopped for another red light.
"I agree Little Mouse, we may not have much left but his friends, as you call them, still hold a bit of ire toward me." Loki said and I turned left, following the signs for I-5.
"I know that Loki, but we need to warn them. Thor can maybe be a character reference or something for you." I said.
"Are we not going ta discuss the fact tha' Lady Lilliana said tha' we are in a dead man's vehicle?" Volstagg said and my shoulders tightened as everyone looked at Loki, I groaned again and slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a stopped car at a red light. Fandral jerked forward and hit my seat and slammed back into his with the sudden motion, groaning in pain as he recovered.
"Mom and Dad are talking, you guys are playing an awesome game known as the 'Quiet Game'. Now look out your windows and count Blue Cars or something. Fandral, put your damn seat belt on before you shove me into the steering wheel." I said as I turned down over the freeway overpass and into the left turn lane and stopped again at the red light and tapped my hand on the steering wheel impatiently.
"Where are we going?" Fandral asked and I turned in my seat and faced them all.
"You really don't understand the 'Quiet Game' do you?" I asked them and he looked at me a bit afraid, a person behind us honked as the light turned green and I growled. Loki put his hand on my leg and calmed me as I settled back into my seat and put my foot down on the accelerator and merged onto the freeway at the Montlake bridge and tried not to scream.
"What do you know about this guy!" I shouted at Loki, and he blinked at me. "I want to know everything and now, what is he and why does he want me. And don't you fucking lie, it is my life you are playing with here!"
He sat back against the door and looked at me, Thor had to hide a chuckle as Loki jerked back from me. He looked at me and I glared at him.
"He is the other half of the soul that created you, he wishes to kill you and take back your half. By doing so, creating a powerful being that cannot be stopped. Right now the two of you are linked by those halves and he is stronger than you thought." He said and I groaned as I let out a breath and glared at him angrily. My hand shot out and I slapped him across the face. He glared at me angrily, but still looked shocked. Thor hid a chuckle behind his hand, and I slammed my hands onto the steering wheel.
"You knew about this and did not tell me? You lied by omission and now they are coming here! Do you realize that people are going to die because someone wants me, and I may not be able to stop him? Why the hell do you think I have trust issues of my own? When all this is over, I am finding a deep, dark fucking cave on a distant planet and am crawling into it before something else awful happens because of me!" I screamed out and merged the Jeep onto I-90 toward Bellevue and looked at him and screamed again, completely loosing my mind and feeling everything in me fracture and fall to pieces.
I slammed on the brakes again, and took in long breaths as I stared forward and looked at the traffic that stretched into the tunnel before releasing the steering wheel one finger at a time. I continued to breathe and try to calm myself down, but nothing was working. A hand from the back seat rested on my shoulder and I looked in the rear view mirror to see who put their hand on me and saw a familiar ship breaking the atmosphere. I turned in my seat, and looked out the rear window, and opened my door and stepped out onto the freeway as everyone in the vehicles around me looked out of their cars with me. Loki shouted at me to get back into the car from very far away, and my eyes closed and I swallowed hard as the vehicle of Asgardians looked with me.
The ship hovered over the city, and I knew what was coming, my heart beat heavily in my chest and I tried desperately not to scream at the impossible ship as it hovered over the city. I got back into the Jeep and closed the door, resting my hands on the steering wheel and I looked over at Loki.
"On any other day, that would just seem weird." I said as everyone in the car looked at me. I ducked as a smaller ship passed over us, somewhat aware in my fugue state, and a thousand miles away it shot the entrance to the I-90 tunnel and brought the plants and dirt over the tunnel crashing down onto the freeway below it. I screamed and pulled myself out of my trance, throwing the Jeep into reverse and hitting a Prius behind me and ran the car over to the shoulder. Flooring the accelerator and kicking up road debris as I sped off the ramp and toward downtown.
The car was protesting loudly. The engine being pushed too far as I skidded around others, I used a pulse of energy to move a bus as I went through red lights. Skidding around a curve and punching through another red light as I fought with the Jeep.
"What are you doing?" Loki said as I drove up over the sidewalk and the wrong way on 5th Ave.
"I have a plan!" I shouted as Thor watched the sky over us out his window. I blew through another intersection, swerving around panicked people and made a left that almost tipped the Jeep and slammed on the brakes outside Columbia Tower.
I ran from the Jeep, leaving everyone behind as two fighter jets screamed across the sky. Missiles shot out and a ship exploded above me, raining parts of a ship down onto us. I ran hard toward the lobby of Seattle's tallest building. Down the street, a drop ship deposited Kree soldiers into the street, and they immediately began firing on the people as they ran in fear. None of them asked for what had come and was running for their lives, seeking shelter from the monsters that had come to kill them to get to me, and I was tired of running and hiding from a fate that would catch up with me eventually.
I ran into the lobby and slammed my hand onto the up button for the elevator and a set of hands turned me roughly, pinning me back against the cold elevator doors.
"I need to get to the roof." I said to Loki as he looked at me, and I gasped in a breath of air. The doors to the elevator opened behind my back, and I stepped back into the steel coffin and he looked at me. I could see him struggling to remain calm as Thor and his group joined me in the box.
"I have to fix this. And I need to be higher up." The windows behind Loki blew out and I screamed and ducked from the flying glass as he stepped into the elevator and I pushed the button for the top floor. I clenched my fists and watched as the doors closed and I felt the first waves of panic grip me as sweat trickled down my spine. I managed somehow not to throw myself at the door, clawing and screaming at them, impressing myself as I thought over and over in my head about the plan I had like a mantra.
I breathed in and out as we ascended, and I felt Loki glare at me but I ignored him as I stood in the elevator. He could glare all he wanted to, I had a few more words for him about lying to me.
"What is your plan?" Thor asked as Mjolnir hung casually from his wrist and I smiled at my own reflection in the elevator doors.
"I am going to overload the engines of the ship and blow it up using a controlled burst of Electromagnetic Energy." I said and everyone looked at me concerned, Sif put her hand on my shoulder and I stared straight ahead ignoring her.
"That does not seem like a very wise plan." Sif said and I turned and looked at everyone.
"I have to agree with that," Loki said.
"You could be killed." Thor said and I crossed my arms and laughed sardonically.
"I said I had a plan, I never said anything about it being a good plan in any way shape or from. So, if anyone has any good or better ideas, now is the time." I said as the elevator doors opened on the top floor, and I whirled away from them before anyone could say anything and bolted for the stairs.
I heard everyone behind me running to keep up as I ran up the stairs toward the roof access and used a pulse of energy to knock the door open and burst through onto the gravel rooftop, I then found the stairs to the Helipad on the roof of the building and ran up them two at a time. More fighter jets screamed over us and a red and gold suited man shot across the sky over us as we stood there looking up at the ship. I prepared to jump when a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and pull me back and I nearly fell off balance as I prepared again to jump.
"No! You are taking too much of a risk doing this!" Loki shouted over the noise, and I concentrated on the bridge of the ship. "I will not let you do this."
I then focused my energy and let myself go, jumping toward the ship. Before I left him I managed to say one thing in case it was a one way trip.
"Goodbye."
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I reappeared in the darkened corridors of the ship and pressed myself against the wall behind me to give myself a moment to let my eyes adjust to the dim light. I flattened myself against a wall and squeezed behind some conduits as a Kree walked by. I held my breath as my heart hammered in my chest as he passed me, oblivious to my presence. I slipped out of my hiding spot and followed him as quietly as I could and watched as he turned into a room with several cylindrical objects built into the floor of the ship that stretched high above.
I watched him for any signs he had seen me, and pulled the rapid Release knife from my boot. Ficking it open with a twitch of my wrist and moved quickly behind him pressing the blade against his neck.
"Engine controls motherfucker." I hissed out and he tensed. "Where are they?"
He grabbed my arm and swung around on me, pushing me back and causing the knife to go clattering off somewhere in the darkness. I put my shoulder into his stomach and grabbed behind his knee as I used my inertia to throw him to the ground in a crash. The Kree grunted, but recovered and I wasted no time searching the darkness for my knife. He grabbed my hoodie, swinging me around and slamming me into a wall. Stars filled my vision, but I managed to shake the attack off quickly and used a bladed hand to catch him hard in the nerve bundle below his ear.
Usually, a hit like that would drop a full grown man, but this guy staggered back a bit and shook it off as if it were just a mosquito bite. He rushed up on me, and I ducked between his legs quickly, missing his groin by millimeters with my head and scrambled across the floor when my hand landed on the knife. I closed my fist around it, and swung at him with a wide arc, and he feinted away from me so I followed with a stabbing motion as he dodged to the side.
The knife blade sunk into one of the cylinders, and he looked at me wide eyed and then back at the cylinders. His body language gave away the answer to my question and I pulled at the stuck knife as I let the energy start building in my chest but he grabbed a fistful of the front of my hoodie and lifted me off my feet. I was eye level with him and he smiled triumphantly as his other hand turned my jaw and looked at the birthmark on my neck.
"The weapon has come to us." The Kree said and I went completely limp as the energy built up stronger in my body, the hairs on my arms began to raise up with the power.
I slipped out of my sweater by raising my arms above my head, and scrambled between his legs again as he looked at the empty garment dumbly. I jumped off the floor, my feet kicking and launched myself toward one of the cylinders and wrapped my arms and legs around it like midget Velcro. The Kree advanced on me, and I opened my eyes and saw his confusion as he approached to pull me off the control. I smiled at him and let the pulse of energy surge into the ship and along delicate conductive filaments toward the engine, and felt it overload with everything I gave it.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Loki felt her leave and he stared blankly at his now empty arms, her last word echoing through his mind as his eyes focused on the black ship hovering in the distance. He wanted to scream in rage at her for her sudden defiance but he would not do it now. She would return, she was stubborn and willful, but she was a survivor.
She would return. She had to.
Thor gripped Mjollnir, and everyone looked at him as he stood up and minutes ticked away, becoming eons as they stood on the building and watched the ship. Sif looked at Loki and he let his facial expressions betray nothing of himself, but inwardly he was falling apart and each second became an eternity.
With no warning, the ship rocked and a large light appeared at each end, spreading through out the hull, working and gaining speed toward the inner core, the initial shock wave from the explosion rocked the building and made it shudder as it spread and grew.
"She did it, she blew up the ship!" Sif shouted and they turned toward each other as the ship began blowing apart in the distance, and the seconds ticked on. Each heartbeat a drum in Loki's ears as she failed to appear again.
"Goodbye."
Her words continued to echo, and the entire building suddenly rocked as the center of the ship became a fireball and the shock wave from the explosion ripped through the city blowing out windows and echoing off the buildings, eventually traveling down to the streets. They waited, and she still did not appear in front of them. Loki sank to his knees slowly and looked at the falling wreckage as it fell into the water of the ocean, finally sinking below the waves. The group on the roof watched silently and a tear fell from Sif's eye as the last of the hull vanished from sight.
"Lady Lilliana." Fandral said and they all stood quietly. Loki turned quickly, and Thor caught his arm before he could move further.
"She is gone, we will mourn her. Let us finish this battle in her honor." Thor said and Volstagg smiled as he ran through the empty doorway, followed by Sif. Thor stepped back from Loki as Fandral drew his sword and joined the chase.
"For Lilliana." Loki said as he and Thor ran toward the doorway, and he paused as he looked at the calm water of the ocean she called Puget Sound a last time.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Presence stood on the hard asphalt street and watched as the chaos unfolded around him, suddenly above his head, the ship exploded and he smiled, knowing in his core the girl had done it. The Asgardians were correct on traveling to his planet, she was here and so very close.
But she was so powerful now, there had to be a way around that.
He reached out with his mind and found Loki, sensed his sorrows at losing the girl, concentrating and found her in the din of minds and voices that surrounded him. He stepped over a fallen lamp post, and let his mind stretch into the Earth itself, down to the center and smiled at what he discovered.
Such a fragile world, floating pieces of land and sea over a molten core, so easily disrupted and waiting to tear itself apart.
His mind formed a new strategy and he concentrated on the animal that kept her hidden, reveling in the sorrows and rage he felt at the loss of the girl. He would cut the being into pieces slowly, but for now he had to bring her to him, willingly.
A lamb coming to him for the slaughter.
He knew where she was and he stretched out his power to interrupt the Bifrost, to prevent her or the Asgardians from escaping into the safety of their home world.
Loki's mind seared with anger as the perceived loss of the girl and he felt the suicidal fury the bastard fought with. So much anger, but the girl still lived, it made The Presence smile at the overwhelming feeling that surged through him.
How much pleasure it would be now to force Loki to tear her apart, to betray such trust as she cried and begged him to stop.
He stepped down the street and vanished into a mist as the warriors fell out into the street, and began fighting his fallen army. He would bide his time, and claim what was his, he would rip the soul from her body and leave her in a coma if he had to.
The girl still lived, and she was so very close.
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Eric Williams bent over the seismograph monitoring all of the Pacific Boundary Plates, and hefted a new drum of paper into one labeled for Mt. St. Helens. Twenty eight years with the United Stated Geological Survey had taken its toll, he had a permanent paunch brought on by too much lab time and too little field work. His receding hairline was another victim of the stress caused by his job, and now he was thinking of an early retirement thanks to the lottery ticket in his back pocket. His back strained as he put his pen into his mouth and groaned as he worked, placing the drum of paper into place before adding ink to the stylus that would indicate and record any seismic activity.
He carefully calibrated the delicate instruments and glanced around at the rest of the seismographs as he readied to leave the room, one flash of detail came into his view as he went to close the door behind him and he turned, his mouth going dry and opening to drop the pen to the floor with a click that was impossibly loud in the room.
Shaking, he approached the seismograph marked "Cascadia Zone of Doom." And squinted at the machine, three weeks ago, the Subduction Zone had gone into a Slow Slip Event, and was currently one of the most watched plate boundaries in the world next to New Madrid. He looked at the seismograph and checked it to see if it had not malfunctioned and frowned as he carefully removed the drum he had just put in and replaced it with another. It never failed to try a reset of equipment if something had stopped working properly, and this was pretty much a geologists version on a soft reboot.
He restarted the machine, and frowned at it as he stepped back and went down his ass hitting the tiled floor hard as the pen he dropped rolled under his foot. He groaned as Terry walked into the room and laughed at him when she saw him, her brown curls bouncing as she shook her head.
"I heard a seismic event in here, I figured it was you Eric." She said and helped the man to his feet, and he groaned and stretched his back gingerly. Doing his best to not show his co worker he was injured badly.
"I'm fine, seismograph for Cascadia went down though. We need to get it back up, can you call Vancouver for me and see if they can send us their feed from the fault in the meantime?" He asked her and she nodded that she would, damn government cutbacks were killing funding for all the sciences, and now one of the more important pieces of equipment was broken during the most dangerous phase for one of the most dangerous plate boundaries in North America. A few years ago, the seismograph for the Yellowstone Super volcano started acting up. It caused a huge panic among his staff, leaving them all thinking the massive caldera under the park had ripped open and the end of the world was on them. Thankfully, it was just an equipment failure caused by a couple of humping buffalo, but it was still scary as hell.
"We really need that one working right now." She said and looked at the monitor with concern. "I'll call them right now, maybe you could use some of your duct tape genius to get it working again."
Terry left the room as Eric fished out a screwdriver from a tool kit and began taking apart the possibly malfunctioning seismograph, removing the cover on the side of the machine and looking in at the wires and connections that ran between the delicate circuits. He sighed and blew some dust out of his way, finding nothing wrong. Sitting back on his haunches, he looked up at the computer on the desk and plugged it into the port, running a diagnostic on the instrument and sat back rubbing his sore ass and back.
"Come on you piece of shit, we need you running." He said as he tapped away at the computer and looked at his screen, frowning as he saw a diagnostic pop up showing nothing wrong with the instrument itself and frowned deeper.
He ran a hand over his head, thinking of what part of the network could be malfunctioning, opening another window he checked the calibrations of the monitoring stations themselves finding all of them responding and rubbed his weary eyes.
He sent out a ping to each submerged monitor under the ocean and waited patiently, sitting back in his chair and waiting to see what would happen next. He waited and watched the screen as each monitor responded, and he cursed under his breath at the results that came back to him one at a time. Not one monitor was down, and the link between the hardware and the software was good.
"God damn shitty equipment!" He shouted and slammed his hand down on the table next to the computer. "Every time that bunch of idiots in Washington decide the budget needed trimming, this department is the first to feel the pinch."
Sadly, he thought this would continue until someone with half a brain took over and decided that the USGS was a valid science, but that would take some time and a blood sacrifice to the Gods before that happened. He heard Terry return and he did not glance up from the computer monitor as he watched the information in front of him, she made a sound in her throat and he still ignored her as he watched the feed continue showing everything as normal.
"Terry, you may have to get one of those tech geeks up here, I just push rocks and dirt, this shit is all beyond me." He said and threw his hands up above his head. "You get Vancouver to send us a feed of their monitoring station?"
He looked up at the woman, and she stood there silent and pale, it was a strange sight against her naturally olive complexion. She shook her head and he looked at her a bit longer, narrowing his eyes.
"Terry, what is it?"
"Vancouver says they are experiencing the same thing we are, the fault has gone completely silent." She said and Eric sat back nervously in his chair and tried not to scream.
"Have you tried California, Los Angeles my have something..." He said but her face stopped him and he looked at the drum as it rotated, not even a twitch of the needle.
"Los Angeles actually called Vancouver with the same issues minutes before I did, everyone is freaking out. Please Eric, tell me this it an interruption like Yellowstone. Just another equipment failure caused by whales or something."
"I wish I could, I really wish I could. This is one of my worst nightmares incarnate Terry, Cascadia is completely silent and it may be gearing up for a rupture on a massive scale." Eric told Terry, and she nervously looked around the room and back at him.
"Eric, I have family on the Oregon Coast. I need to tell them to leave before anything happens." She said and left the room.
Eric sat forward and began typing furiously, sending out a memo to anyone who would listen. Hoping that finally the government would take him seriously, and hoping that he would wake up in his bed in a few moments.
He hoped this was all just a bad dream.