Lost Before The Dawn
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Warnings: Some violence. (This is Loki we're talking about, my dears…)
Chapter Playlist: 'String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor D: 804, "Rosamunde": I. Allegro ma non troppo' by Schubert and 'Subjugation' from 'Avengers Assemble'.
'Is it better to be loved rather than feared, or vice versa? The answer is that one would prefer to be both, but since they don't go together easily, if you have to choose, it's much safer to be feared than loved.'
- The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
Königsstraße, Stuttgart, Germany
The sound of a string quartet reached Jane's ears, as she walked through several deserted corridors at Loki's side, her skirt swishing against his trouser leg.
She was still reeling from the events of the past few minutes. She had stopped him killing that security guard. He'd willingly given in when she had asked him. He'd allowed her to influence him.
She almost felt giddy at the knowledge, but she sternly told herself not to pop the cork on the champagne bottle yet. One security guard, that was all.
It wasn't like she had persuaded him to give up this whole planetary domination thing. No, one security guard did not a redeemed person make.
But she felt a small surge of warmth inside of her, and tucked it away, refusing to dwell on it all.
The evening was still far from over.
The violins grew louder, as they passed from what looked like staff areas into the main exhibition areas of the building, and Jane's supposition that they were in a museum was proven correct.
"Tell me, Jane," Loki broke the tense silence between them, and she looked up, the sound of his cane clinking on the marble floor before them. "If I were to ask you whether it is better to be feared or loved, how would you answer?"
"Loved," she replied instantly. "I would rather be loved."
"So quick to answer, my dear," he chuckled. "A foolish, if idealistic, sentiment."
"Why?" she asked. "Fear keeps you alone, stops anyone from trusting you, or you trusting them."
"Ah but fear at least is safe. Love is fickle and untrustworthy as a snake," Loki replied. "All too often, it changes like the wind. Surely the pain of such a change is not worth such a paltry risk?"
"It doesn't always change," she retorted. "And not all change is bad. Sometimes, it can make it stronger instead of weaker. And like I've said before, respect founded on fear won't last. We will always fight."
They emerged onto a long gallery as Jane said those words, and with a sinking feeling in her stomach, she saw below them a glittering array of people, all gathered around the steps at the other end of the gallery, on which a man stood, talking in fluent German.
"We shall see, my sweetling," he smiled, almost indulgently. He released her hand and she eyed him nervously.
"What are you going to do? Why are we here, Loki?" she asked warily. He smiled, reaching out a hand to her face.
"You look beautiful tonight, Jane. I will ensure tonight, that even as mankind will fear me, they will love you as you desire," he whispered, as his fingers caressed the curve of her cheekbone. Despite herself, Jane felt her eyelids flutter as his cool palm pressed against her cheek, his thumb drifting over her lower lip. "You will be safe. Don't be afraid."
"I'm not," Jane opened her eyes, looking up at him entreatingly. She didn't know what he was going to do, but she dreaded it. His eyes flashed green. "You don't have to do this, Loki. You don't."
"I do," he replied, ensnaring her hand and kissing it once. Jane felt a flare of cold air against her back, and almost jumped out of her skin when she turned to face a double of Loki, watching her intently, before spinning to face the original. "Never fear, my dear. I'll still be on hand to keep you out of mischief."
"I'm thrilled," Jane muttered sarcastically, as the real Loki turned and walked away. She moved to the gallery balcony, peering down and over, feeling Loki's double move with her.
Heart racing, she gripped the cold marble railing, as she glimpsed Loki walking between pillars, towards the stairs leading down to the lower level. Loki's double pressed close behind her, hedging her with its arms, and she shivered.
"What are you going to do?" she asked. His lips caressed her ear, his breath warm against her skin.
"Like I said on the plane, dearest Jane. Business and proving a point," he murmured. She glanced over her shoulder at him suspiciously, quickly pushing aside thought of what had just passed. "Watch as the humans fall before me."
"You and your inferiority complex," Jane muttered to herself. "Nutcase."
Loki's double chuckled against her hair, before he gestured to the scene below them. She looked down with a renewed sense of dread.
She watched as Loki emerged from the archway, flipped his cane over in his hand and as the security guard turned towards him, he knocked him down with a lethal blow to the head.
Pandemonium ensued.
Jane watched, horrified, as Loki grabbed the speaker, hauling him across the room to an altar carved to resemble a bull's head, and flipped him onto its surface. He pulled an odd metallic contraption from his coat pocket, and flicked it on, three small blades beginning to rotate with a sinister whirr. He plunged it into the old man's eye.
Instinct made her cry out, as everyone screamed. "No," she cried, spinning and looking up entreatingly at the double who watched her piercingly, and she knew Loki below would hear her too. "Don't do this. You're killing him."
"I won't kill him. He will live, granted he receives medical attention soon," the double replied coolly. "Keep watching, Jane."
Trapped between the railing and the double's body, she was forced to turn back and watch the sickening display below. As people screamed and ran, she watched the slow, sly smile grow on Loki's face, his eyes glowing with anticipation, his eyes never looking bluer than they did now.
"See how they run," the double whispered in her ear. "Your precious humanity. See how they run from me. Not so brave now, are they?"
Jane's hands clenched into fists, and tears blurred her vision. For a moment, it was like something else spoke through Loki, and she shivered.
"What are you?" she breathed, turning to look at him, at those cold blue eyes. The double wavered and disappeared, and she span back to meet Loki's eyes as he left the old man for dead.
"Come with me, Jane," he called. "The evening's festivities are not yet done."
Jane rushed down the gallery, and down the stairs as Loki walked away, his entire body glowing a bright shade of gold. Glancing at the retreating God, Jane hesitated and then rushed over to the prone security guard, unhooking the radio from his belt.
Ignoring the steady flood of German coming from the earpiece, she rushed back to the man Loki had injured, and struggled not to throw up as bile rose in her throat at the sight of him, his left eye seemingly mangled beyond repair. She checked his pulse, still there, just.
"I need an ambulance here!" she called into the radio. "Two men are injured. Send an ambulance."
She heard an explosion outside, and a squeal of tortured metal. Loki.
She dropped the radio and rushed outside.
When Jane made out of the museum, she felt her heart pound with fear and shock. Loki's elegant suit had disappeared, replaced by gleaming golden armour that she had never seen him wear before. A shining golden, horned helmet sat proudly on his head and the Sceptre was fully extended in his hand. Before him, dozens of people knelt, eyes downcast, many shaking as Loki conjured doubles to hem them in, like cattle in a pen.
He turned and smiled when he heard her run up, panting, hair dishevelled and eyes wide with tears and fear.
She stopped, staring at him, as he turned back. "Kneel before me. I said, KNEEL!" he shouted, so loud and deafening that Jane flinched from the sheer menace and command in his voice.
"Do you not see, Jane?" he called to her, holding out his hand to her. "Do you not see how frightened your people are, how easily they bow to me?"
"Stop this now, Loki!" she shouted, suddenly enraged beyond comprehension. "Enough!"
He shook his head, as she took a step back from him, his doubles ensuring that the people before him did not move. "You disappoint me, Jane," he murmured, almost seductively. "My sweet, stubborn little mortal. Will nothing shake your faith?"
"I've seen the best of humanity, and the worst. I see it every day. Making a bunch of people kneel in a square like a playground bully won't change that!" she snapped.
"How you fight and rile against what is inevitable, my dear," he shook his head, swinging his hand out wide to encompass his hostage audience, all watching the two of them fearfully. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state?"
"No," Jane breathed, as he drew close, and she refused to walk back from him any further. He eyed her intently, and despite all she had witnessed, her body was on fire.
"It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," he murmured, so seductively that Jane felt her knees weaken. Anger raged inside of her, but he oozed seduction and sincerity, the contrasting, juxtaposing elements effortlessly mixing in his voice and eyes, silvery blue and shining with madness and power. He spoke only to her, but the entire crowd was spellbound. When he spoke next, he spoke like someone enticing a reluctant lover, and Jane fought the urge to nuzzle into his palm when he cupped her cheek. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made…to be ruled."
Jane shut her eyes as he bent his head and kissed her forehead, his lips lingering on her skin, before he drew back and looked down on her, almost pleadingly. "In the end, you will always kneel, Jane. Accept me as your King, as your lord and master," he murmured.
"This isn't loyalty. You can intimidate us all you want, but we will never be loyal to you," she murmured brokenly, shaking her head.
For a moment, a single shining moment, something broke through the icy blue of his eyes, an emerald shine, and his face softened from its insane mask. "Jane…" he breathed, so quietly she could barely hear him. She was so immersed in the green of his eyes, pleading, entreating, that she watched it suffused by mad, eerie blue, as the jewel in the Sceptre glowed, and something clicked.
His face hardened, and his voice dripped with anger and menace. "Kneel for me now, Jane," he growled. "I have won."
"No," Jane replied, quietly but equally as firmly. She took a step back and lifted her jaw. "I'll never kneel to you, Loki. Never."
Silence fell, thick and tense, and Loki raised the Sceptre. Jane didn't flinch, just met and held his eye, as he paused. Her heart stopped, and the world seemed to slow to a standstill.
She thought of all she had seen and learned and guessed in the past few days, and that knowledge burned brightly inside of her, particularly when added to the knowledge she'd gleaned only seconds ago.
He wouldn't hurt her. Some part of him, some part buried deep within, would not allow his madness to harm her.
Loki's eyes burned green. The deadly tip of the Sceptre wavered, began to lower…
"Hey! Move away from the girl!" an unfamiliar voice cried, and both Jane and Loki looked round to see a man in a blue, red and white jumpsuit stride through the crowd. He threw a large, concave shield towards them, just as he shouted. "Get down, Miss!"
Instinctively Jane threw herself to the side, rolling until she hit a flowerbed, groaning as her ribs complained.
She looked up, to see Loki driven down to one knee, before he looked up with a snarl at the newcomer.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," the newcomer called, almost tauntingly as Loki stood, lethally graceful and Jane almost shouted a warning at him. Loki was not to be trifled with.
She dimly remembered summers spent at her grandparents, and her Grandpa telling her stories about a war hero who used a shield like that. Captain America.
"The soldier," Loki laughed, hefting the Sceptre. "The man out of time!"
"I'm not the one whose out of time," the Captain replied, just as a jet dropped from the clouds, one Jane vaguely recalled as a quinjet.
An unfamiliar female voice rang out across the square as a gun slotted down from the hull of the jet. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."
Loki didn't hesitate. He fired off a bold of energy at the jet, forcing it to veer sideways to avoid it. The Captain threw his shield, hitting Loki in the face.
The Aesir didn't even flinch.
Jane watched in horror as the two fought back and forth, becoming increasingly clear to Jane that while the Captain was strong and agile, he couldn't match Loki.
Loki forced the Captain down, and pinned him with his Sceptre. "Kneel," he growled.
"Not today!" the super-solder snarled, forcing the shaft off his neck and spinning into a kick.
Frantically Jane looked around for some kind of help, hell she'd even take Barton, before rock music suddenly began playing and she stopped, looking up as something she'd only ever seen on the news fly in from between two buildings and fire two shots from the repulsors in its hands.
The Iron Man. Tony Stark.
Stark landed, glancing at her, as she watched him warily, before glancing at Loki, sprawled out across the steps of the square.
"You alright there, lady?" he asked, and she nodded, before he turned away, raising his hands again as the Captain recovered his shield and both advanced on Loki.
"Make your move, Reindeer Games!" Stark called, raising his hands as compartments opened on his shoulders, revealing an impressive arsenal of weaponry, all aimed to Loki. Loki raised his hands, his armour disappearing in a flash of gold to reveal his usual ensemble, his eyes fixed on Jane intently, making her shiver as she stood, clutching her aching side. She almost thought she glimpsed concern in his eyes. "Good move."
The Captain rushed across to Jane, and helped her stand. "You ok, Doctor Foster?" he asked.
"I'm fine."
"Mr Stark," the Captain turned and inclined his head to the Iron Man, who inclined it back as he retracted his arsenal, and the quinjet circled round to land.
"Captain."
While the two exchanged curt greetings, Jane couldn't take her eyes off Loki. His eyes lingered on her, first on her ribs, then on her face, the colour of his eyes changing like quicksilver.
She shivered, and wondered why instead of a defeat, this just felt like exactly what Loki wanted.