Chapter 25

Maria never imagined her first glimpse of New York City would be from the top of Stark tower, two mind-controlled guards gripping her arms either side of her, about to be murdered.

Imagined or not though - this was the reality.

Loki had been true to his word; Maria had been arranged like she was about to go on a talk show. Her hair had been brushed and smoothed, swirling in soft curls around her shoulders, all trace of blood and injury wiped from her body. Her face was clean again, her procelin skin gleaming in the bright sunshine. Her old clothes were gone, replaced with black leggings and a white loose fitting shirt.

White. That would show off her blood nicely, she couldn't help but think, fists clenched tightly at her sides.

Her jaw was gritted hard as she tore her gaze from the surrounding city, a flicker of movement catching her eye. Loki was grinning as he stepped up closer to her, the staff in his hand glinting ominously in the sunlight. She couldn't help but squirm, though her guards held her firmly captive.

"The time has come, my dear." his silky voice drolled, that blood chilling smirk touching his lips.

Maria tried to focus on the god, knowing he was what should demand her attention, but her gaze couldn't help flittering sideways. To the machine. To the cube. To scientist that tended to it. The Tesseract hummed and shone within the metalic confines, it's deadly promise rolling in waves to the young woman. It was like it was talking to her, taunting at the fate it would bring.

Her breaths quickened a notch.

"You will not be necessary." Loki murmured, moving closer so there was mere inches between him and Maria.

The guard's grips melted from her arms but she didn't have the will to move anyway. Her body was frozen in place as a coldness settled in her bones, something beyond defiance creeping into her orbs at last. A touch a fear.

Her eyes rolled back to the god as his chilled hand palmed her cheek. He gazed down at her with a suprising softness.

"You indeed have the beauty of a queen." he breathed, the tingling air hitting her face softly. "This is your last chance. Join me and save yourself."

His hand peeled from her face and she sensed it open to her, though she couldn't bring herself to glance down to be sure. She could feel it though: the cold oppertunity she'd forever regret. Her eyes weren't seeing Loki anymore as they widened and she fought her instincts. Every fibre of her being was urging her to cling for survival, to accept, to beg if she had to to keep herself alive.

Then her pride dented in and she knew she wouldn't do it. But she couldn't force out the words 'kill me' either.

As the crushing weight of her choice settled, her chest locked painfully and she screwed her eyes shut against the world she was soon to depart. And she did something she hadn't done since she was a girl: she prayed.

"The Lord is my shepherd," she gasped. "I shall not be in want. He makes me lie in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He lead me in paths of-"

The words were silenced from her lips as Loki's sharp hand drew across her cheek, sending her stumbling to the side. She dropped to her knees, mouth hanging open in shock as the burn started to spread over her skin. Her wide eyes darted over her shoulder at the god, and whimpered in her head at his blazing eyes and gritted teeth. The gasps tore from her lungs.

She was powerless as he closed the distance between them and fisted a hand in her collar, hauling her upright again harshly. "I am the only god you need fear now!"

Maria's fingers dug helplessly into Loki's, unable to do anything to resist as he dragged her across the rooftop. The machine - and the cube with it - drew menacingly closer. Her legs kicked out uselessly, scuffling along the ground to try and delay the advance but Loki dominated her effortlessly.

It was mere seconds before Maria was at the cube's side. Her eyes were drawn by it, demanding her attention. She wasn't sure what terrified her the most: the cube itself, Loki's staff in his hand, or the painfully tight grip on her shirt, near lifting her off her feet. Loki forced her forward, till there was no where for her to look but at the cube itself, the blue energy pulsing with power.

Her breaths spiralled out of control, rasping against the inside of her lungs. The strength left her, reducing her body to a trembling mass as she confronted her fate.

"Time for you to fulfill your purpose, my dear."

Loki's voice was dripping with cold blooded intent. She wasn't sure what was icier; Loki's tone, or the point of his scepter on the center of her chest.

This was it.

She couldn't fight the whimper - her lips were too numb to hold it back. It soon morphed into a piercing scream though, as the core of Loki's staff glowed and pulsed as bright a blue as the Tesseract.

And her body burned.

Loki's grasp on her shirt was the only thing that held her up as fire raged through her skin, and beneath it, feeling like it was scorching her very bones! Her legs folded beneath her, her neck arching back. Her wide, glazed eyes stared at the sky.

The strangled cries continued to be torn from her, mouth hanging open in absolute agony. The blows had been nothing. The shots had been nothing. The debris had been nothing. Pain was what she felt now. This was excrutiating! Her mind flashed as the fire expanded. Her limbs felt like they were being pulled apart, the muscle of her body tugging towards her core like it would be ripped from her skeleton. She couldn't be sure it wasn't.

Her screams were silent to her own ears, but she heard the hum of the machine as clear as day. Something was happening.

Her back arched as the scepter drew back from her skin, taking the impossible pull with it. The pressure diverted outwards, as if her heart was being seared from the very cavern of her chest.

Her wide eyes were locked on the sky, powerless to stop it as a bolt of blue shot into the air above the tower.

"It's working." she heard Loki hiss in her ear, feeling his sinister sneer by her skin.

She longed to pass out. More than anything. Unconsciousness was a dark, safe haven compared to what she endured and she felt like she would have traded her very soul to attain it. Her eyes rolled in their sockets, but the energy pooling in the sky forced her mind to stay painfully aware.

The energy swelled in the sky, opening like a disc. The center darkened black as it grew above the tower, the portal opening the fragile world to the deadly forces beyond.

Maria didn't care. She really didn't. She just wanted to die - anything to stop this feeling! She wasn't sure how much longer she could bear it, futilely wondering if her mind would break before her body would.

God!, she screamed in her head, the blue portal flashing before her eyes. This is too much!

A dull noise started to echo in her ears, something new and unfamiliar amongst the powerful hum of the machine. It so faint and distant, breaking on and off like someone was flicking a switch, she coudn't help but think she was losing her sanity already. She still questioned herself, even when Loki flickered his gaze up.

She wasn't imagining it. It was real. And it was unplanned.

Maria couldn't think of what was good for her or bad for Loki anymore. All that she could think of was the pain coursing through her body.

And there was more to come, she realised. The portal wasn't big but it was poignant, impossible to miss in the sky. Impossible to fit a whole army through at once though.

Tears broke the barriers of her eyes at the thought of the agony going on. Through the blurs though, she caught the dark flash of something shooting through the portal. Multiple somethings. Another scream ripped through her, searing straight through her torso with it's intensity.

When it died, the strange noise was still there. And she wasn't the only one to notice it.

Her body felt like it would shatter like glass as the pull ceased and her cells seemed to ooze painfully slowly back into their rightful places. Loki's scepter lowered. The flow of energy ceased being drawn from her body as the forgein noise grew more significant. Maria was only numbly aware of it. Her chest heaved with breaths as the black dots that had fringed her vision started to clear, her mind horribly vivid. Her body slumped, every ounce of strength sapped from her.

The quiet blaze was unmistakable and Loki turned - dragging her with him - to see the form of Tony Stark flying over the city in his iron suit. Loki's hand clenched tighter, before he released Maria.

She dropped to her knees, falling against the machine for support.

"I'll deal with you shortly." was the last curt words she heard Loki speak before her mind started to swim.

Her fingers gripped the metal of the machinery, as if clinging her to consciousness. It probably was. Her body thumped numbly, every cell of her being screaming and trembling for shut down. Maria's stomach twisted as her head exploded, the dull ache of the pain settling deep into her bones, shuddering her to her very core.

Suddenly, the roar in her ears was deafening and her mouth fell open in a silent gasp, her eyes wide.

"Shut it down, Dr Selvig." Tony Stark's metalic voice demanded.

Stark, Maria gasped in her head, recognising the noise to be the jets in his armour. It didn't make it any more bearable though; her hands rose to clamp over her ears, curling against the machine.

"It's too late!" a new voice shouted over the noise. Maria's eyes caught the small puff of dust as the scientist shuffled steps in the direction of her and the machine. "She can't stop now. She wants to show us something...a new universe."

A breath fled from her lips, the words and sound still creeping painfully through her fingers. She half envied the mad scientist; his mind wasn't his own, as if he didn't know what he was doing. That blissful unawareness, so far thinking he was right. While Maria hunched all too connected with her real, fragile thoughts, feeling like her soul would shatter from all the emotions that tore through her slowly recovering body.

It couldn't be stopped, her mind drew from the people around her. Loki hadn't even finished using her yet, and the Tesseract was already unstoppable! It couldn't be shut down once it was open. Not without Loki.

But it wouldn't open wider until he came for her.

For a moment all she could hear was the sound of her own rapid breathing. Then a high pitched whine reached her ears.

"Okay."

Sparks exploded around her. The machine hissed and cracked, the pressure of the small blast closing down on her. Her hands moved to cover her head, clawing at her hair, waiting for the searing heat to touch her skin, for the machinery to crash down on her tiny body and crush her. She waited for her doom, a quiet whimper escaping her lips

Then slowly, her eyes peeled open.

Dusty ground. Her unblemished leggings. Smooths silver of the metal that her body cowered against.

She was alive. Untouched. She didn't even feel the heat wave of the explosion. Her head peeked out from her protective eyes, just in time to see the sphere of blue energy that surrounded her. The breath hitched in her throat.

Her gaze lifted, searching for Stark in the sky, but there was nothing. Was he even there to begin with?, she started to wonder through her dazed mind. Yes, he was. He must have been. Her eyes darted to the side and saw the choas, the scientist 'Dr Selvig' tossed against a short pillar. Blood trailed slowly from his hairline.

Oh god, she gasped in her head. Please don't be dead.

Her knees shook as she staggered to her feet and stumbled over to the limp body of the man. She dropped down beside him, hands on his shoulders easing him onto his back.

He groaned and shifted weakly.

Thank god for that, Maria sighed silently with a fleeting smile. Her fingers were shaking as she leaned over him, eyes scouring for any other injuries. She couldn't find any. A small voice in her head quesitoned why she was helping him, helping the man that armed the Tesseract to tear her body apart. He didn't mean to, she answered in her head. He was under Loki's control. He didn't know what he was doing.

It was these thoughts that drove her on, watching unafraid as Dr. Selvig rolled over and staggered weakly to his feet.

She followed on trembling knees. "What happened?" she gasped more to herself than him, the scientist staring around him with a frown and a confused expression. An alertness Loki's other drones didn't possess.

Hope flittered in her chest as he turned back to her. She wasn't even sure if Selvig had heard her question let alone if he was going to answer it, but she didn't really care. He probably wouldn't if he was under Loki's spell, she thought. It wouldn't concern him. The human glint in his eyes though, dark stabs of guilt and regret...

"You're part of the cube now." he gasped, his voice softer than she'd heard it before. His eyes were still scouring his surroundings. "It can't be touched and nor can you. The field of energy... " he gulped hard. "It applies to you too."

Maria's heart stopped. She couldn't be hurt. Not while she was on the rooftop with the cube. A small, relieved smile flickered her lips.

Then she corrected herself: one person could hurt her. The one person who controlled the cobe - Loki. The smile died, and dread washed through her system. Her torment wasn't over yet.

A flash of crimson red rained from the sky, dropping past the edge of the building in the space of a heartbeat. Maria flew to the rooftop edge, hands gripping the sides as she leaned over. She knew that colour. Her heart positively soared soared with hope. A smile gasped over her face again, glistening eyes fixed on the balcony - and the red caped, blond haired, hammer weilding god that stood upon it.

Thor.

She watched him face Loki, exchanging words she couldn't hear. Then Loki launched himself at Thor and she body tensed like ice.

The smile died, heart in her mouth as the two gods fought below. Staff clashed with hammer, crashes and battle cries drowning out her inner screams of panic. Thor had the power advantage - but Loki was quick and nimble, his staff jabbing too close for comfort sometimes against Thor's body. She couldn't help but think that if it kept up that way, it wouldn't be long before Loki landed a blow.

The pair grappled and Maria gasped when Loki shrugged Thor back, abandoning the battle for a second to fire at a hovering aircraft. Thor threw himself at his brother, laying into him with everything he had.

Loki's staff edged between them, barring Thor's hammer from landing a hit. She watched, going insane at not know what was going on, not knowing what they were saying. The stillness was killing her.

Then Loki's arm drove forward and Thor doubled over.

Maria's body twitched an inch further over the egde of the building, eyes wide with horror. "THOR!"

Her heart stopped, body going so numb there was a real risk she would slip from the rooftop as she watched. Get up, she willed, tears stinging the back of her eyes. Get up! There was no sense of relief though, even when he did.

The hammer fallen from his hand, Thor threw his fist at his brother, fighting on in a way that both reassured Maria and terrified her at the same time. Her heart thudded into a mad rhythm as she drank in the battle. Thor wasn't going down. Even attacked like that, he was winning. Hope lit up every inch of Maria's body at the realisation, tears of absolute reprieve slipping uncontrolably down her cheeks when her god lifted Loki high in the air and crashed him down again.

Loki couldn't beat Thor. Her god was too good. She wanted to smile. She wanted to laugh at the portal as if to mock it, to show it didn't stand a chance with Thor on her side. But she couldn't tear herself from the edge of the building, paralysed.

Loki rolled off the balcony, disappearing from view.

For once, she didn't care about Loki at all, eyes locked on Thor. A thankful smile washed over her face, her eyes rolling briefly to the Heavens. If someone had heard her prayers of strength before, she hoped they heard her ones of utter gratitude now.

She watched Thor. He pulled out something from his abdomen and tossed it to the side as if it were nothing. To him, it probably was.

Her mouth opened to call out to him, what she would say still completely unknown to even herself.

Then a Chitauri ship shot past and tore him with it.

The battle for Earth had begun.