Fandral was a beautiful man: sculpted and lean, clean-shaven but for a stylish goatee that reminded her of the Robin Hood movies Sauer had loved as a child. His eyes caught every detail, sharp and penetrating, and he seemed to ooze sensuality with every move, every pose...
And it made her ill. He reminded her exactly of Biggess: Staff Sergeant Biggess with the smashing hands and the leering eyes. Biggess with his hands around her throat. Biggess with a S.C.U.D. missile poking through his chest...
I'm not on board ship...Biggess is dead...I'm not on board ship...Biggess is dead...
She repeated the mantra a few times to clear her head. Fandral was a friend and ally of Thor. She did not want to do or say anything that would alienate the giant who had come to save her planet.
"Sir Fandral?"
"Your given name is Anne?" He wasn't really looking at her; Fandral seemed fascinated by the candies rotating slowly above her desk.
Sauer shook her head. "No. That is a pet name of Barton's, and he is the only one who uses it."
The sculptured man looked down at her for a moment. "A pet name? Are the two of you..."
"No, we are not dating," she told him sincerely. "Agent Barton is merely a friend. Any affection he has towards me is like an older brother."
"Ah," he said, looking troubled. "Where did you get this?" He finally asked, swirling a calloused finger around one of the rotating candies.
She blinked. "Prince Loki made it out of the candies on my desk. He was illustrating the Nine Realms for me."
"Why?"
Sauer frowned. "I presume to help me understand the worlds better. Is there a problem?"
He smiled at her, tight-lipped. "Taken a fancy to our Dark Prince, have you?"
"I beg your pardon?" Sauer's eyebrows went up.
"Oh," he said casually, "I have seen how you speak to him, defer to him, act as if you are somehow friends..."
Sauer's brow crinkled. "You assume too much, Sir. The Prince and I are merely acquainted."
"He seems to favor you..."
"That's his business."
"I am concerned," he said darkly. "I have seen what happens to the Dark Prince's 'acquaintances' before. I would spare you the heartbreak."
"Heartbreak? Really? Sir Fandral, I," Sauer closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Let me see if I understand you correctly. Are you concerned that Prince Loki may try to seduce me?" She gave the Aesir knight a beleaguered look.
"Yes."
"Because I have been polite in speaking with him."
"You make yourself vulnerable when you do so."
Sauer closed her eyes and groaned inwardly, frustrated. "How would you have me speak to a guest, Sir Fandral?" She opened her eyes and looked him square in the face. "Maybe Aesir customs are different from ours, I don't know. But here, someone in my position treats visitors with respect. I am not in a position to revile anyone while at my post, even if they are here as an enemy...or competition...as is often the case."
"You speak like a soldier, Lady Sauer..." He began, giving her a patronizing smile.
"I was one."
Fandral blinked at that. He never would have guessed the diminutive (to him, anyway) woman could carry a weapon, much less use one. "Was?"
She nodded. "I used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D.-Director Fury's military agency. I met his Majesty when he invaded Earth two years ago. He was incarcerated for a while on my ship."
"Then you know how dangerous he can be!" The blond Aesir warrior was starting to inflate, perhaps with indignation. Sauer couldn't tell. "How many of your people has he killed? How much damage has he done to your city, your planet?"
Sauer was getting impatient. "Is there a point to this lecture, Sir Fandral?"
"There is a reason we call him Silvertongue. He is an expert at deceit and manipulation. He will stop at nothing to gain what he wants, be it a kingdom, or a dark victory, or a night in a maid's bed. Do not trust this man. Do not converse more than you must, and forget pretty words. He deserves none." Fandral's bitterness twisted his handsome face, and something clicked inside Sauer.
"Just how passive-aggressive would you have me be, Sir Fandral?" Sauer asked sternly.
It was Fandral's turn to wonder. "I do not understand your words, Lady Sauer."
"Passive-aggressive: cruel in small ways, hostility masquerading as jokes, resentment, and sullenness," she defined the term for him as best as she could. "I find it a cowardly approach when speaking to an opponent. I do not scold, like a scullery-maid, Sir. I was and am a fighting woman. "Only courteous words or hard knocks are my speech," one of our writers has said, and I live by that rule. I don't know what has happened in Asgard in the past two years-and I don't need to know-so don't elaborate." She held up a hand as he started to speak again. "As it is, your quest to protect my virtue smacks on the hypocritical. I know a womanizer when I see one; don't try to deny it. Your eyes give you away. Let me assure you that nothing romantic is brewing between Prince Loki and myself, and send you on your way. I have work I must tend, and you have a war conference in the next room." She stood and began to move from behind her desk, hoping he would take the dismissal and leave.
He didn't. Fandral actually snorted.
"Womanizer," he said dryly. "That explains your unease."
Sauer had reached the filing cabinet by that time and was rummaging in the top drawer for the form she needed. Her head snapped up when Fandral spoke again.
"What?"
"Your eyes give you away too, little maid. You are uneasy around me. One would think you did not enjoy having a man's eyes on you..."
"I don't enjoy being looked over as a piece of livestock, no. I find it insulting."
"There is no insult in your face, little one," the smirk he wore was maddening, patronizing. His mind obviously ran straight to the gutter. "I make you ill at ease, almost as if..."
"You remind me of someone," she finally admitted.
"Oh," Fandral said, obviously surprised. "An unfaithful suitor, perhaps?"
"No," she replied stiffly, "an enemy." She looked him deeply in the face. "You have his eyes, and some of his mannerisms. I find that...disturbing." She turned to go back to her desk, but found her path blocked by the giant Aesir. Sauer looked up, annoyed at first, but her annoyance turned to alarm when she saw the look on Fandral's face.
For a moment the swordsman reminded her of a very pissed –off God of Thunder. She retreated a step, only to have Fandral close the distance just as quickly.
"I, who have done you no harm, am judged by the memory of another man who was your enemy. Meanwhile, you carry on like a giggling courtesan with the man who tried to enslave your planet. And you have the gall to call me a cowardly hypocrite!"
Sauer's back was to a wall; she had nowhere else to go, and Fandral wasn't backing off. Indeed, the swordsman was right in her face, close enough to block any exit with his bulk alone, close enough for his natural musk to tease her nose. It would have been damned sexy if he wasn't scaring her half to death.
She caught one last look at his face, and then he closed that distance as well, his mouth to her ear as she whipped her head to one side.
"Womanizer," he breathed into her ear, "rake, debaucher, fornicator, libertine, lecher, roué, even satyr and drunkard: you're right, I am all of these things. I have been for centuries, and am unlikely to change."
Sauer felt the muscles in his chest tighten, he was so close. He was solid. His tunic brushed against her cheek, and she desperately tried to squirm away, but his corded left arm slammed into the wall beside her shoulder. She raised her left hand to his shoulder, trying to push him away-even a little-but he grabbed her forearm and slammed it into the wall.
Sauer saw stars. Fandral had grabbed her burned arm, and squeezed it until the blister gave way with a pop and soaked her sleeve.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., get the boss," she gasped, "now!"
Fandral didn't notice her distress. He was still ranting.
"Philanderer am I? True. I can drag you into a spare room and make you bless or curse the day you were born a maid, depending on my mood," he growled. "It, and you, would mean nothing." His face pulled away just a little, so he could see her tear-streaked face. "But for all my faults, the Dark Prince makes me look like a bare-faced, blushing page. Do not trust him, nor underestimate him, nor be fooled by his smooth words and lulled into complacence..." he finally noticed his hand was wet, and scowled. "What is this?" He shifted his grip just a little...
Tearing apart some of the freshly-grown skin. Blood joined the blister fluid on Sauer's sleeve, and her head sagged back, a cry on her lips.
"So easily damaged," Fandral sighed, "all I meant was to warn..."
Fandral inhaled suddenly, and his right hand tightened on Sauer's arm again. Something like ice seemed to zing down his spine, and the giant swordsman stiffened, back arching as if in pain.
It only lasted a second. When Fandral looked down at Sauer again, his irises had disappeared. His pupils had dilated to the point of wiping them out. His breathing hitched once, and his smile had...changed.
"Warn you? Yes, I suppose the humans should be warned." Fandral's voice had changed, too, going down at least 5 octaves until the furnishings in the room shook. "So fragile, so easily broken, so prone to vice. You should have knelt when you had the chance. Humans...so pathetic...galactic vermin compared to the greater races...breeding like rats but with an arrogance that rivals the Aesir." Fandral's left hand went to Sauer's throat, and it felt like ice. "Bow, human, then take a message to your masters. Only then may you die."
Stark Industries didn't allow lethal weapons on the premises, but allowed Sauer to be armed while at her desk. Stark had learned a lot from Obadiah. Sauer grabbed the stun gun she always wore under her jacket, pressed the tip to Fandral's underarm, and pulled the trigger.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Conversation in the conference room had revolved around traditional weaponry, as well as what magical upgrades the Aesir could manage. Thanos was a threat to all the Nine, Odin had decided, and the line had to be drawn at Midgard.
"It's a pity we can't get support from some of these other realms," Fury said thoughtfully. "Do you think we will have time to at least send emissaries?"
"A sensible idea," Thor rumbled. "You will have to find people skilled in tactful negotiations. Perhaps my father can supply translators as well," he added thoughtfully.
"Translators?" Hawkeye asked.
"When doing business in another realm, it is considered polite to speak in the realm's home tongue," Loki said dryly. "Insist that they speak in yours and they may well show you the back side of the Bifrost."
"Your pardon for interrupting, Mr. Stark," J.A.R.V.I.S. broke in, "Miss Sauer urgently requests your immediate assistance in the foyer."
Stark frowned and stood up. "Situation, J.A.R.V.I.S.?" he asked, heading for the conference room door.
"She appears to be having a scuffle with Sir Fandral."
"Damn," growled Thor, slamming his fist on the table and jumping to his feet. Loki scowled and jumped up as well, and the room seemed to clear.
Tony Stark hit the foyer in time to see Fandral take Sauer by the throat and growl something in her ear. The crowd behind him saw the giant Aesir jerk suddenly backwards and drop to the floor, Sauer's stun gun going click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click as it pumped voltage into the swordsman's body. Sauer, her face tear-streaked and her left arm a dripping mess, sagged backwards into the wall and crumpled to the floor. Fandral's soul-less eyes turned towards the crowd, and his mouth opened as if to scream, before he too went limp.
Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click went the stun gun. Having pulled the trigger, Sauer didn't seem to be able to let go.
"What the hell is going on?" shouted Stark.
People were still pouring into the room. "Annie!" shouted Barton, running to his friend's side.
A blue ball of light glowed momentarily at the spot where the stun gun electrodes burned Fandral's skin, and suddenly the ball moved backward, up the wires, to enter Sauer's gun hand. The stun gun shut off.
"Barton, NO!" Loki shouted. "GET AWAY!"
Barton, crouched by Sauer's unresponsive form, snarled up at Loki. "Don't tell me what to do! She's my..." his sentence ended in an "ack".
Sauer levitated up, her good hand on Barton's throat and her eyes...gone.
"Human sympathies," she growled in a deep voice not her own, "how pathetic. You should listen to your master, little bird. Perhaps I should put you in a cage, and see if you will sing for me..."
Tasha drew her wrist-knives, preparing to throw them into Sauer's heart, but found the blades bending backwards...towards her chest...and she couldn't stop them.
"How typical of arachnids," the deep voice sneered, "dripping with poison, ready to sacrifice their own mates, their own comrads, for their own agenda. Kill my host, will you? Do you think that will hurt me? I, who lived when your ancestors grubbed in the dirt? Learn what power is, and die, little spider!"
Fury grabbed Natasha's flick-knives out of her hands and buried them in the dry-wall. Thanos-within-Sauer snarled, and then threw Barton across the room to smash into them both.
"Have your toys, then, while you can. They will help you naught."
"THANOS," Thor bellowed. "RELEASE THE MAID, AND BY ODIN FACE ME YOURSELF!" Mjolnir crackled in his fist as he stomped towards the possessed woman, the floor shaking beneath him.
He never made it.
An evil leer spread across Sauer's face, and her eyes, soulless before, were absolute chasms now. Her complexion started to darken.
"That's right, Son of Odin: smash what you cannot hope to deal with. You NEVER LEARN!" Sauer's body moved towards the Thunder God, and she raised a twisted hand.
Thor stopped walking suddenly, back arched in agony. He tried to bring Mjolnir to bear, but suddenly dropped it from nerveless fingers and was smashed once, twice, three times into the ceiling, then suspended there, his cape and blond hair dangling.
"Kill my servants, break my Kurse, but know this, blond fool, you cannot take me! Run home to papa, little prince! FOOL! What is the House of Odin but a hut of bastards who revel in debauchery and drink, stealing other realm's women and babes, and slaying family members in their lust for power? What is Odin but an ale-sodden old man teetering on a throne that his brats tussle over?"
The soulless eyes turned to Loki. "Still wearing your pretty skin, I see. My offer still stands, boy. Leave those who would chain you like a dog, or choose to stay and be their hound. Like son, like father! But at least be yourself!"
The hand that had pinned Thor to the ceiling dropped him with a crash, turned to Loki, and made a clawing motion. He changed. Pale skin deepened to dark blue, raised up with tattoo-like runes wherever cloth did not touch his skin, and Loki's eyes turned blood-red. The Dark Prince stiffened with the influx of magic; he resisted the changed even as it ran over him, crumpling to his knees.
"Choose your ways and perish, all of you. All the realms shall burn! Death shall reign in victory, and none shall..."
"ENOUGH," bellowed Captain Rogers, "BE SILENT, AND COME OUT OF HER!"
"Little boy," the creature snarled, "in over your head. Sit back and let real gods deal with the fate of the world!"
"IN NOMEN DE PATRIS , ET FILIUS, ET SPIRITUS SANCTUS , EGO TO ORDER VOS EXSISTO SILENS ET EGRESSUS!"Captain Rogers bellowed.
The Captain was always a courteous warrior, apologetic to a fault, something that had amused Tony Stark no end. There was nothing apologetic about the man that faced down the beast inside Tony's foyer, nothing between him and the possessed woman-not even his shield.
The beast snarled.
Cap made the sign of the cross in the air between himself and Sauer's body.
"EGRESSUS!" he bellowed again.
Sauer's eyes widened even further.
She shrieked once, arms spreading in a mock crucifixion as she levitated higher.
"EGRESSUS!"
Her back spasmed once, then Sauer's body toppled forward and dropped like a stone. Captain Rogers caught her easily, like a doll, and he cradled her like a child.
"What the everlasting fuck was that?" Tony Stark snarled.
"That, boy, is what you don't believe in," Cap snarled back, turning towards the elevator. "She needs a jacuzzi now, hot shot. She's freezing to death in my arms."
"My suite, next floor up," the shaken billionaire said. He turned to the rest of his guests. "Anybody else? I want a drink."