Of Greater Sires

One hero fell after another. Valiant though they were, they just did not seem to be a match for the army they were facing, nor the God leading them. New York was in chaos; ruins, really, but this was old news.

By now, most of the world was in the same sort of tatters, depending on how they had resisted the Chitauri. The footage shown on the news were the same reruns from the past ten days. The only reason people continued watching was for the names they read off at every waking moment: the dead, the missing, and the refugees. Where were these villains now? Why had they come? And what could we do against them?

Raeyn sat perfectly still as she watched the televisions' replaying the same shots. She had nearly memorized them, yet her eyes still were glued to the screens. All around her, her peers huddled together. A few wept, but most were silent. For college undergrad students fresh out of high schoo, this was unbelievable. Their world, which days before had been just as indestructible as themselves, was now shattering around them. A new species of god come to rule them mercilessly, with the motto being "freedom is life's biggest lie," is the last thing they want to hear. Though Raeyn did not show it, it was music to her ears.

A boy beside her wrapped his arm around her slight shoulder. It must have been an attempted form of comfort, but Raeyn did not need it. If anything, the boy was gleaning more strength from the sentimental act than she. Nonetheless, she relaxed in his grip out of pity more than attachment.

"... and the current whereabouts of this Loki character are unknown, although it is unlikely he is in New York any longer. Where he has gone and why are also unknown, but perhaps we can give a small sigh of relief from his absence..." the new reporter said quietly. Raeyn gritted her teeth absentmindedly. She had not been prepared for him to leave; that was not part of her plan.

The crowded room quickly fell silent. Footsteps -- loud, confident, and ringing down the deserted hall -- could be heard by every living creature in the university. There were only a few left now; all the rest had fled or were missing. A few hundred had cooped up in the library after the Chitauri attacked. Strength in numbers was the plan, but really the only thing these mortals wanted was comfort.

Suddenly, the doors banged open. Every eye was on the group of creatures in the door as they passed through. Every soul seemed too scared to scream, for no Chitauri had bothered them so far and the mortals had hardly prepared for the creatures to bother them now. The breaths of all the students and teachers could be heard; they were increased with their hearts beating -- faster, wildly, as they prepared for what seemed to be an eminent massacre.

After a moment, a single figure stepped forward and out of the Chitauri soldiers. A few people gasped this time -- screamed, even, but the god did not seem to notice. He scanned the room momentarily his eyes passing over Raeyn briefly; her heart stopped as she realized her destination had come to her. No longer would she have to search the world for him.

"I am seeking an Asgardian residing here," he proclaimed loudly, his voice as commanding as ever. "I have not come for violence, so you need not fear me."

There was a brief pause. All the mortals in the room glanced around. Asgardian? Wasn't that what the reporters had called him? Here? No. He must be mistaken.

That was before Raeyn rose slowly, gently pushing the boy's arm off her. "I am Raeyn," she declared just as loudly, rolling her shoulders back out of nervousness. "Of Midgard. I assume that it was I of which you speak."

Loki's eyes fell on her as she stood regally under his gaze. To his amusement, she even lifted her chin a little to meet his eye. A smile spread across his lips, but of course, it did not reach his eyes. If anything, it resembled a smirk more than a true smile. She glided forward towards him, not wavering under his weighted stare. As she moved, her appearance changed quite drastically: gone was the average college girl with short brown hair and doe eyes, and in her place walked a blonde woman, with hair of gold cascading down her shoulders and eyes of jade, twinkling like gems set into her regal expression. Gone were the jeans and sweatshirt, and in their place took a worn blue dress with silver armor covering her chest. Her presence now commanded every eye in the college, because the girl who had taken to the shadows now seemed the push them from every corner of the room.

She stood before Loki now, and only then did she allow her gaze to drop to his feet as she made a small curtsy. "My King," she breathed, looking up into his raven eyes.

"My Lady," he nodded in return, his smirk not having faded. "I have come quite a distance to find you."

"I, too, planned to find you. You are, as far as my knowledge reaches, the only other of our kind residing in Midgard."

Loki's brow rose for a moment questioningly. He said nothing, though, because it could be sorted out later. If things went his way -- and they always did, since he was King -- then they would be seeing quite a bit more of each other.

"Unless I am mistaken, then you are correct. We seem to be the only Gods in this realm of mundanes.” She smiled, but her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as the other had yet to reveal any information yet.

"I would, if you do not mind, ask as to why you have an interest in myself enough to find me so quickly."

He grinned, realizing that she was not dimwitted. "I have come," he said dramatically, bowing before Raeyn, "to humbly ask for your presence in my residence. I have seen no need for the two of us extraordinary beings to be alone in this realm."

"No," she agreed softly, letting him take her hand to kiss it. "I do not see any need either. However, I feel as if this could not possibly be the reason you have come all this way. Now, I beg of you, reveal what purpose you truly have for me."

"Before you decide to accept my offer?" Loki asked, his expression sincere, but a glimmer of mischief in the depths of his eyes still visible to the Asgardian. He asked as if he were really trying to convince her to join him, yet he had a dozen soldiers at his side to overpower her at any moment.

She laughed coldly. "Yes, because I am sure that I have a say on that matter. But before we leave, I would like to know what to be prepared for once we reach your home."

The other god stiffened a bit at the words "your home" but otherwise maintained his cool expression. "You are brighter than most Asgardians, Raeyn of Midgard. So you must understand that I see you as one of the few remaining possible threats to me, and I do not wish to see you that way. Perhaps we could even become companions. You see, because even though I may have ulterior motives, I still maintain what I said before. There is no reason either of us should be alone in this realm."

She nodded, her only reaction to his speech other than blinking. She had, of course, already known this. By now she only wanted to judge his character, and by revealing his judgment of her so far, she began to trust him little by little. So with her former peers still gawking and eying her, she delicately placed her hand on his waiting forearm before letting herself be guided out of the barely-standing library. The Chitauri followed closely, but by the time the group had scaled all the rubble and debris and reached the outside world, they stepped away. These guards would remain here, then, while the Gods traveled back to New York.

Raeyn glanced down as Loki revealed a spear of some sort. Staggering back, for a moment she thought that he had really come to finish her off. For the first time, a true expression passed over his dark features as he looked up at her, partly surprised and partly apologetic.

"No, no, I mean no harm!" he cried, reaching out to her as she stared at him fearfully. "It contains the magic I must use to transport you back to my home. Please." He offered her his hand, his eyes pleading with her to trust him once more. Slowly, reluctantly, she stepped towards him once more. Her wide, frightened eyes rose from the weapon to his hand, and then his almost-humane eyes. Swallowing, she placed her hand in his, and then they were gone.



Breathing heavily, once Raeyn looked up once more, she quickly realized that this was a place like none other she had been before. Sure, she had seen her fair share of the mortals’ skyscrapers, but none compared to this. Even with a few broken windows and tables and floors here and there, it was quite the nice and expensive home. She released Loki's cold hand, barely acknowledging the fact that she had gripped it for dear life in their travel, and took an amazed step forward. Out of the gigantic windows was the rest of the city -- in tatters, yes, but still quite impressive.

"Would you like a drink?" Loki asked. Raeyn looked up at him, quite surprised. His cool and confident demeanor had slipped, to be replaced by one that almost seemed human. He smirked down at her expression as she gawked at him. "What is wrong with you? Surely this place is not that impressive..."

"No," she said, her brow crinkling in confusion and indignation. "It's you. I do not know what to make of you. One minute you are the new reigning King, the next you are simply another of my kind, and now you are offering me a drink as if we are friends! I do not know how to treat you, for I fear insulting you and as my King, I fear my consequences!"

The god stared down at her for a moment before his lips broke out into a smile -- not so much of a smirk this time, yet not a true grin yet either. He set the glasses he was holding down and began to laugh -- tilting his head back a little and everything. Raeyn, her chest heaving, gawked at him, her teeth jutting out in indignation. "I do not appreciate being mocked," she said lowly, frowning at him.

His smile lingered even as he began to speak. "I do not wish for you to be under the impression that I am mocking you, my lady," he said smoothly as he began to pour the clear liquid for the two of them. Waltzing over to her, he handed her the cold glass before continuing. "But surely you can accept the fact that I must act one way in front of my subjects for them to fear and respect me, and yet I do not have to remain the same way around you. Once again, I do wish for us to be more than King and his subject. You are more than they are."

She frowned, still hardly understanding his reasoning for such things. But then again, she did not understand most things Asgardian and let it slide as she took a sip of the sharp alcohol. Loki sat on one of the many black leather couches and nodded for her to follow his suit.

"I must ask though how you have lived with these mortals for so long and do not seem to have any problem with the destruction of their hierarchy," he began smoothly, trying to cover the true question inside. Are you actually against me? Do I need to be prepared to destroy you as well?

Raeyn gave a small shrug. "I have seen many empires rise and fall. I do not see this as anything more than a more superior version."

Loki hardly even blinked in response to her answer. Instead, he posed another question. "And why is it that you have lived here your entire life?" His tone added the question: 'When there are so many better places to live, such as the realm in which you belong?'

Raeyn sighed, letting her cool demeanor fall as well. She rested her head in her hand, and in one gulp, finished the vodka. "I am sorry that it isn't stronger," Loki said softly, his half-smile implying that he, too, was in a mood to want to forget.

She smiled appreciatively in return before beginning. "My parents were in the last Great War -- both of them, yes. My mother was one of the few female warriors of her time, but she did not brag. Few actually know of her. But they came here to defend the worshipping mortals from the envious Jotuns, and they apparently fell in love with this realm. As soon as they received their leave, they came here and married. A few years later, I was born..." Raeyn paused running a hand through her now-long hair. "The mortals, they knew of us. They knew we were of their Gods, and for many generations there was not a problem with that. We lived to see many of their tribes’ leaderships passed down, yet eventually they turned on us. My parents -- they pitied the mortals and refused to fight them until it was too late. They saved me yet were overwhelmed by their numbers and could not save themselves. I... I was only a child. I have been alone since, and this is the only home I have known."

She ended her story just as suddenly as it began, and she did not glance up at Loki for his reaction as he would have guessed she would. He was, to say the least, shocked. Never had he guessed this reason to her lifestyle, not if he had been given a million tries. Two Gods, killed by mere mortals? Not the modern ones either, but the mortals who lived hundreds of years ago ever-so primitively.

There was a short silence in which Raeyn interested herself in the carpet quite a bit. Never before had she told anyone of what happened to her parents, because before now she had been in hiding. Even as the centuries passed and mortals became less primitive, one thing would always stay the same: they would hunt until they no longer drew breath those creatures superior to themselves. Not until now had it been safe for Raeyn to reveal her ancestry, and Loki realized that as soon as she had told her story. Sighing, he gave her a look of pity and comfort. She however, missed it, and as soon as it was there, it had vanished. He stood finally, and announced that he could show her to her quarters if she would like.

She gave a small nod of agreement, and he offered his pale hand to her so she could stand. Still she didn't say anything more as he led her to an elevator and pressed the button to the floor directly above the one they were currently standing.

"This is the floor where I live," he said conversationally, as if trying to keep her content with small talk instead of an actual apology for the horrors she had witnessed. In all honesty, he had not an idea of what to say to her. Had she been any other girl who he didn't care about, his silver tongue would have easily created some empty words of comfort with manipulation hidden under the layers of kindness. But Raeyn he did actually care about a tiny bit, only because she wasn't disposable like the women in Asgard. It was to become companions with her or with nobody, because she was the only other immortal on Midgard. "The floor above this is where you may stay. This is the bottom level, where you may leave, and most of these are rooms that Stark used for experiments. Needless to say, I have my own scientists working in there at the moment..."

Raeyn's gaze snapped up at the mention of the former owner of the building. "Tony Stark... Stark Tower. I should have known," she said quietly. She had seen quite a few shots of the skyscraper on the news, the one sticking in her brain at the moment was the tragic moment when Thor, the other Asgardian prince, had met his doom here. He had fallen, and then literally fell off the terrace and crashed into one of the rooms through the window to never reappear again. Still, it certainly hadn't been the most gruesome. Captain had fought until even his super-human stamina was lacking, and he was taken down by simple numbers of Chitauri. Blood was everywhere, and by the end of it his body was mangled and featureless. The only other deaths that there was footage of was the archer, who had actually survived the ordeal, but once he had been captured and placed on his knees before Loki, he took the poison that must have been in all agent's suits -- the pill caused him to die within minutes. The woman followed his lead seconds after.

Taking a deep breath, Raeyn tried to push these things from her mind. Why was she so sad? After a thousand years, she was no longer alone. After searching for companionship, she had finally found it, and so why was she not celebrating? Yet she couldn't bring herself to more than merely thank the god as the elevator opened and he directed her to the fully furnished living quarters which would become her new home. And then he was gone, the elevator having swept him back down onto his own floor and out of hearing range of Raeyn. Briefly she thought about taking the elevator back down herself, but she realized that as King of Midgard, he surely had many things he needed to accomplish without having to worry about herself. So instead she took to the powder room, and took a nice long and steamy shower to break in the new house.