So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.
You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.
Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album listed on my profile page too. (My apologies. I didn't realize FF removed the links. I have corrected the problem in what way I can, so for those who like the visual additions, feel free to check them out.)
DAY FOUR
CHAPTER NINETY EIGHT
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0920 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
AR(NORA)
I felt it, and that's why I didn't kill him. Seeing the hollow metal casing in his skull caught me off guard. so did the bruises where his blood pooled under his skin. It was enough to make me hesitate, but it was the energy I felt in him in the silence that changed my mind.
It was unfamiliar, but I didn't need to know it to know it wasn't supposed to be there. I walked among the Vikings, among humans. Even half a millennium apart, there is nothing different between those humans and the one's populating the planet now. I know what the energy inside a human body is supposed to feel like. I spent several decades closing slashes and sealing broken bones after all.
In Duncan though... it's like the static hum right before a lightbulb burns out. The energy is weak and crackling around the energy, and angry. There's an echo of consciousness in this energy. It feels aware of me. It sparked harder against my energy as I examined his aura, almost stinging in its weakness. It felt full of rage and fear.
I also stopped because I knew I would need him. Loki was transferring his pain to me, stealing my magick to heal himself. That meant two things. He was an asshole, and he was fighting with enemies. There would be more pain.
I needed someone to take care of me when it came, and protect me if the worst happened. I knew I wouldn't be able to predict when the next wave of pain was coming. It would just appear out of the blue and there would be no fighting it. All I could do is feel it, hoped it faded quick and didn't happen in a fight.
That's why I needed him. If the pain hit me during a fight it would steal my chances at victory. Worse still, if I passed out it might guarantee my death. I don't really want that unless I'm sure it will take Loki with me.
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0920 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
DUNCAN AKA ALEXANDER
I don't know why she changed her mind, and I don't much care. I'm just thrilled that she did so easily. I knew I only had half a chance of persuading her, and that estimating it at 50% was aiming high too. Hope is hard to kill, and with her hope seems to be the only thing I really have.
That and the memory and physical presence of her skin against my hands. She said she wanted the knife, so I let her have it. I knew it wasn't like I could keep her from taking what she wanted anyway. Agreeing was just the best way to avoid her kicking my ass again and taking it. Then she demanded my gloves.
I really wanted to say no to that one. The words 'lady, at this point, you can have whatever you want' were running laps in my head though. Reminding me again how much of an idiot I am.
I also understood, or at least guessed why she might want them. I get the impression she believes me, but that doesn't mean I'm anywhere near her trusting me. We probably can't even see that shoreline yet. She is stacking the deck in her favor in case I betray her again. I can't blame her, I'd do it too.
She left them sitting on the tree roots when she held out her hand for me to help her up. Part of me really wanted to go back and pick them up, then other part of me didn't even dare. Not just because she scared me, but those tree roots were all that was left of that tree.
I watched her put her hands on it, and the thing die. The leaves started to turn, like it hit fast forward and skipped to fall. Then went from green to brown and brittle and rained down, forming a giant leaf pile around her.
That's not all that happened to the tree though. I could hear it crackling. It sounded like a damp log in a fire, it just was missing the flames. The wood popped and hissed as it dried. I knew that's what was happening as I watched the bark fall off, from the base to the tip. I backed up at that point, because the small branches were starting to fall too.
I could see the wood underneath form cracks. The moisture in the tree was evaporating, and pulling the wood apart is it shrank! Those cracks let the decay spill out. She was rotting the tree from the inside out! I could see tiny soft splinters of wood rolling out of the openings. Not to mention the stampede of some very terrified bugs mixed in with them. Thats was before we even got to the mushrooms.
Yeah, mushrooms the size of pen caps, and basketball started forming. They grew so quickly they were born and died in a matter of moments, and the next generation was born on top of them. They were born on the back of the tree. I didn't get that until it happened. The tree reached a point in its death that it lost the strength to stand, and it fell in that direction. She guided the fall, she's clearly done this before. Definitely not just a Bloodmage. What the hell are you lady?
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0924 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
AR(NORA)
I absorbed the small tree before we left. I only had enough time to mend the crack in my knee before Duncan knocked me out, not heal. Then in the fight with him a moment ago, the pain welled back up.
Plant life, is life. It falls under the scope of organic material I can affect or use. Earth isn't like Asgard though. On Asgard there is so much 'magick' that the energy permeates the very air you breath. On Asgard I could perform a series of complex surgeries for most of the day before I became exhausted. Here though, I have to depend on energy supply within my own body. That supply is limited. It requires time to recuperate once it's exhausted, unless I steal the energy from life.
I learned that in Norway. When I had to take life, or starve. I wept at first. The animals came to me with curiosity and good faith, and they died in their sleep for it. I wanted to give them a peaceful death, but what I really wanted was to eat. The energy in plant life is less compatible than animal life, but I hate killing so plants are also the method I prefer. The tree gave me enough energy to create a calcium seal in the crack. It's not a permanent solution but it will let me walk without is much pain.
I scared the crap out of Duncan with it. When I turned and held out my hand for him to help me up I could tell. He was wide eyed and slack jawed, if his mouth was open at least. I knew that expression. A couple centuries ago the look would have been followed by kneeling and chants. Praise from people saw a goddess and not a 17 year old girl.
The sight of a 'space whale' casting its shadow over our heads broke us free from that moment. There was no time for amusement and reverence.
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0925 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
DUNCAN AKA ALEXANDER
"I don't suppose you got any idea what those are, do you?" I asked the question knowing the answer was probably 'no'. I got the impression that Loki only told her the details necessary to manipulate her. I doubt the specifications on an alien army were among those. I'm really just asking because talking helps distract me. It keeps me from focusing on the fact I have her arm around the back of my neck, and my hand on her waist.
After I helped her up neither of us missed the way her limp was going to slow us down. I made myself man up, after asking her permission, and trusted her with my life again. I only have to do this until we find a car. Why is it so damn hard to find a car? It's NYC during an alien invasion, and no one ditches there car in Central Park? Come on!
"He just said they were his... ngh..." That sound caught my attention. The painful groan has her all but doubling over is she barely manages to hiss out the rest of "...his allies."
Releasing her to get a better vantage I watch is she lets her own weight crumble under some kind of pain. She did this earlier too, screaming and coughing up blood for no reason. "Hey, you okay kitten?"
"I AM NOT A SMALL ANIMAL!" She all but growls is her face shoots back up with a snarl.
WHOA!" Instinct has my hands up in surrender and shifting back a little at her anger. "whoa, whoa, whoa, bad habit, course your not, your big beautiful jungle cat, okay? Better?" I realize too late that those words might not be any better. When she drops her face back down with a breathless chuckle though I breath out a sigh of relief. That's before she goes back to trying to hug the pain out of her stomach.
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0925 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
AR(NORA)
"What's happening to you?" He finally asks when he bolsters his courage again, and gently rests his hand on my shoulder. "I think... he... got kicked by a horse." I manage to breath out past the pain in my torso.
"What?!" Then I remember that my answer would only confuse him. He wasn't there when Loki did this to me.
"It's the mark." I sit a little straighter, half with determination, and half with the fact the pain is lessening. I find it amusing that he tries to avoid looking at the mark in question. Loki left a triangle opening in my dress to expose it, something I'm sure only was half to do with comfort. Propriety and self preservation on the other hand are what motivates Duncan's respect. "The marks where the pain comes through." He doesn't bother asking the next question because it's predictable. "Loki linked us."
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0925 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
DUNCAN AKA ALEXANDER
Loki linked us. She is kneeling here in pain with a mark on her chest that makes me thing I took LSD, and says 'Loki linked us'. The pain she is feeling is from his. "Your people can do that? That piece of shit!"
She huffs softly at that and nods before she resumes her careful breaths. She's trying a new tactic to work past the injury that's not even hers. "What else can it do?" Her eyebrows are drawn tight in confusion is she lefts her face to spare me a glance. "Can you send stuff back?"
Its an idea that both pleases and disturbs me, but it might be worth considering if its possible. If she can send Loki pain with whatever that 'link' is, maybe we should try it. That means she has hurt herself though.
"I think it's a one way street." She answers after a pause. Then she shifts her weight forward on her hands and pushes herself back up to her feet. I help with the effort is I wrap my hand around her forearm and hold out the other for her to take.
"You think?" Then I ask the stupid question, her movement freezes in place and stops mine with it. "IT DIDN'T COME WITH A MANUAL!"
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0926 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
AR(NORA)
His hands pull back to hold themselves up in surrender, or at least one starts to. My fingers wrap around the hand that was holding mine, making the other stutter in hesitation. "Okay, sorry." His apology is quick and defensive "You don't know what it can do, got it." and wrong. That's not why I grabbed his hand.
"Nora?" He realizes that too is he notices the frightened look sinking into my eyes. "Nora, what's wrong."
"He's looking. I can feel him..." It's like a rubberband in my head. I can feel it stretching. The vibrations traveling through it is it pulls tighter. The rubberband might be a metaphor but I hate to think of what might happen if 'it' snaps. "...he's looking for me!"
I want to kill him for what he did to me, but I'm not ready. He has an army now. I can't fight an army! it's just me and Duncan! Loki can control my magick. I'm not ready!
FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012
0926 HOURS
CENTRAL PARK
W 72ND ST
DUNCAN AKA ALEXANDER
Yep, that's panic setting in. Hers isn't alone, because I am scared of running into the guy again too. I just broke two sets of control, and all it would take is him poking me with that staff again to bring one of them back. But I'm also trained to deal with scary is hell situations.
"Hey..." I let her continue to hold my right hand, and use my left to catch her other one and her attention with it. "...hey, hey, hey! It's okay. Close your eyes." She looks confused behind that desperation, but I don't have time to stop. "I'm gonna carry you. Don't kill me."
She's clever and looses her confusion after that, switching from scared into see no evil mode. She even trusts me is I slip my hands under her legs and scoop her up like a bride. She said she doesn't know what this bond can do, so we are not going leave him a visual road map right to us.
Now we really need a damn car!