My Beautiful Monster

Loki/Raina

TrickSeer

Theme Song:

Labrinth – Beneath Your Beautiful

Loki is still masquerading as Odin and holding the throne of Asgard while the All-Father sleeps.

This one's been brewing in my head for ages. Thanks to .kawaii, who was throwing ideas at me and caused it to finally come out… this is what happens when you feed those damn plot bunnies!

"Sire!"

Loki looked up from the Council table, startled. "Heimdall?"

"Sire, I need you to come with me – now."

"You will excuse me," Loki said perfunctorily to the men and women seated around the table. A chorus of;

"Of course, All-Father," followed him as he strode to the door.

"What's going on, Heimdall?" Loki asked quietly as the two strode out of the palace. Heimdall had horses waiting for them and Loki swung up into his saddle.

"There's a problem on Midgard," Heimdall said succinctly as they turned towards the Bifrost.

"Thor again? The Avengers?"

"Someone important is dying."

"Mortals die, Heimdall, that's what they do," Loki said irritably, but he didn't rein his horse in, and they were soon galloping along the bridge. It wasn't until they reached the Bifrost chamber that Loki dropped the illusion of Odin's appearance, though. "So who is this mortal that's so important?" Loki grumbled as Heimdall moved forward, drawing Hofund from its sheath and setting the point of the huge blade to the waiting slot in the mechanism. "And what am I supposed to do?"

"Save her," Heimdall answered. "Your mother told me that she would one day be very important to Asgard. That day has not yet come."

"Frigga…?" was all Loki had time to say before the whirling rainbow of lights sucked him in.

He landed in darkness, trees all around him, a small wooden bridge over a little stream close by. It took a couple of blinks for his eyes to adjust to the dimness, after the bright Asgardian day he had just left and the even brighter lights of the Bifrost. And then he saw her, just a crumpled bundle on the ground, like a pile of rags thrown out. There was no one else close, his senses told him that, no danger, so he knelt and reached out to the crumpled figure, sweeping aside the hood that had fallen over her face.

"Ehhh!" Loki startled back as sharp spines prickled at his fingers. "What manner of creature is this?" He had never seen anything like it, in all his travels and all his research. Roughly humanoid, it was covered in spikes and thorns. "This, Heimdall? Really?" he muttered under his breath, extending his magic, feeling for life. There was a tiny, tiny spark remaining, not enough even to keep her heart beating, but she had no wounds on her at all, and Loki frowned, confused, before sucking in his breath sharply as he realised her life had been stolen, sucked out by some ghastly vampiric ability.

"Poor creature," he murmured, moved to sudden compassion, "no matter your appearance, no one deserves such a fate." She was beyond his minor skills at healing, but Eir might be able to help. In the meantime, he could at least preserve the body, arrest any process of decay. Gently, he set his fingertip against her cheek, on a spot of smooth skin between rows of thorns, and summoned his Jotun ice powers.

Loki did not stop, not even when magic poured unexpectedly back through him. It wasn't until the body was encased in a thin, shimmering layer of blue ice that he lifted his hand and stared at the rune shimmering on his fingertip.

"Seer," he translated the symbol incredulously, stared down at the creature – his soulmate! – in her icy coffin. There was a rune on her cheek where his finger had touched; his own sigil.

"Well," Loki said quietly. "Now I see why Mother thought you were important." He stood staring down at her for a moment before turning his face up to the sky. "Heimdall!"

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Raina blinked her eyes open slowly, looked curiously up at a sparkling blue dome above her face. Above her whole body, as she looked down. And then she opened her mouth and screamed.

"No! No!"

"Hush!" a firm voice said, the dome above her blinked out, and a face came into her view.

"I have to die, I saw it, you mustn't let it happen!" she grabbed at him, got a handful of green cloth. "Jiaying, she's going to kill so many, I have to die so that Skye will stop her…"

"Jiaying is dead," Loki reassured quietly, trying to disengage his soulmate's hand from his cloak, hissing as her thorns scraped at him. "Skye stopped the release of the crystals, Heimdall watched it all. And you did die, but you're back now."

"The drug, the GH-325, you used that?" but Raina's attention was caught suddenly by his face. "You're Loki," she whispered in sudden shock.

"Yes, I am." She was already looking around, taking in her surroundings, the technological equipment so far in advance of Earth's everywhere her huge yellow-gold eyes landed. "And yes, this is Asgard," he continued dryly, before she asked.

"Why am I here? How long has it been?" Raina demanded.

"It has been eleven days, as you would count time. And as for why you are here…" Loki held his hand out towards her, palm forward. "Do you see this?"

There was a strange blue mark on his forefinger, squiggly lines and dots. "Yes, what is it?"

"It means, Seer, in the language of my people." He didn't mention, yet, that the language he meant was Jotun. Conjuring a mirror, he held it up. "There is a corresponding mark on your cheek; my personal sigil. It appeared when I touched you to give you aid after you were left to die."

"I don't understand." The huge golden eyes were vulnerable as she looked up at him.

"You are my soulmate."

Raina looked at him for a long moment, and then she began to laugh harshly, wracking cackles that had more than a hint of a sob in them. "You do not want me," she ground out finally. "I was beautiful once, but now look at me! I'm a monster."

"Then," Loki said quietly, "we shall be monsters together." Slowly, he allowed the magic that held him in Asgardian form to drain away.

Raina stared open-mouthed as he revealed himself, his blue Jotun skin, the whorls and markings on his face. "A blue angel," she whispered reverently.

"Hardly," a dry voice said from the other side of the room, and Raina spun, wincing as she caught herself on her own thorns.

"Who are you?" she spat out.

"I am Odin, King of Asgard," the white-haired man moved forward.

"Here we go," Loki said in resignation. "Please don't compare this one to a goat, Father?"

"A porcupine would seem more apt, my son," Odin smiled a little wryly, "but do not fear, I have learned my lesson as regards Midgardians, especially their women."

Loki sighed and rubbed his hands over his eyes, realising as he lowered them that they were still blue – and yet Odin seemed unconcerned. He'd returned to Asgard with his soulmate's frozen body and taken her to the healers. Returning to Odin's chambers, which he'd been using as his own, he'd been horrified to find his father waiting for him. But it seemed that Odin was not merely refreshed by his long sleep, but that he had also meditated on many things while he rested.

"What is your name, child?" Odin asked quietly, moving closer.

"Raina," she said, somewhat overawed by the aura of sheer power he exuded, but determined not to show fear.

"If you were given a choice between regaining your beauty, or retaining your power of foresight, which would you choose?"

She hesitated. Glanced at Loki, who had resumed his Asgardian form, so handsome, tall and dark-haired. But she'd seen his true self, had heard the honesty in his voice when he told her they would be monsters together. And – she'd learned something important, in the last few days. Learned that there were causes bigger than herself, than the selfishness she'd always found it easy to give in to.

"My gift is too important," she said quietly, "for me to sacrifice it for vanity's sake."

Odin nodded slowly, glanced at Loki with something which looked very much like pride. "There speaks my son's soulmate." Looking back at Raina, he said "I cannot take your gift from you even if you wished it, child. But I can give you that which I gave my son; a guise to walk freely and not be feared by those who cannot accept that raiment does not make the man. Or indeed, the woman."

Raina blinked, bemused, as Odin reached out and passed his hand slowly over her face. And then she gasped as, for the first time since the Mist had changed her into a figure out of nightmare, she felt no pain. No thorns tearing at her insides, snagging her own skin when she moved.

Loki nodded his thanks at Odin as the All-Father withdrew, closing the door quietly behind him, leaving them alone. Raina was touching her cheeks incredulously with her fingertips, running her fingers over her curly black hair, her magnificent eyes wide with astonishment. "Am I truly – did he…"

"It is a spell," Loki shook his head. "A true shape-shift, though, far more complete than the illusions I could cast for you. Odin sacrificed a good deal of power to give you this gift. I can teach you how to control it, to change between your two forms at will."

"Why?" she stared up at him as he came to stand beside her, conjuring the mirror again for her to look at her face. "Why would he do that for me?"

Loki's fingers brushed her cheek, where the blue sigil still remained, the one thing unchanged from her other form. "Because he does not believe that a Princess of Asgard would be accepted by her people if she does not look as they do."

"P-princess of Asgard?!"

"And Jotunheim. I'm not technically heir to either of them, though," he shrugged self-deprecatingly, making the mirror disappear since she showed no inclination to look in it. Reaching for her hand, he took it gently, assisted her in getting down from the bier she'd been resting on. Standing, she barely reached his shoulder.

Raina tilted her head to look up at him. "Princess," she whispered, awed.

"Indeed." Loki raised his free hand. She was wearing a simple white garment, standard garb in the Healing chambers. His powers were more than sufficient to change it to something he thought suited her, a flowing, soft drape in deep lavender that set off her beautiful light brown skin and stunning eyes. "There," he smiled.

"Ohhh," Raina breathed softly, looking down at the gown, swishing the skirt a little to feel the heavy, luxurious fabric drape against her legs. She looked up at Loki with a little smile. "Thank you, it's beautiful, but – please could it have flowers on it?"

He laughed and waved his hand. A delicate tracery of flowers and leaves in golden thread climbed up from the hem of the gown, twisting and spiralling around her slender form. And in Loki's hand there appeared a golden circlet, all flowers and swirling vines. It looked like something Titania might have worn, fit for a fairy queen. Gently, he set it atop her hair.

"Whatever my Princess desires."

Raina's eyes were lucent dark pools as she gazed up at him, and Loki couldn't help himself. He leaned down and pressed his lips softly to hers.

They were both smiling when he straightened up. And then tears came to Raina's eyes as Loki said quietly;

"You're beautiful. But I would still have kissed you even in your other form, because that's beautiful too."

"So is yours," she told him honestly. "My beautiful monster."

I am gonna miss Raina. I thought it was a shame she got killed off, such a fascinating character, and Ruth Negga is so beautiful! I'd thought long ago that she would make an interesting match for Loki (they were a pairing on the very first Poll I made), and I'm glad I finally found the inspiration to write this! Hope you all enjoyed.