Lesser Gods

Raeyn woke slowly — her head felt as if it had been bashed inward, her eyes burned at the glance at the ceiling lights. Her body, especially her neck, ached tremendously. All in all, it was not an experience unlike when she woke from being attacked by Chitauri. However, instead of Loki leaning over her protectively, there were light blue streaks of light dancing around her. She pressed her fingers to them, tracing their dancing against the cool glass. As she watched them, breathing heavily, she began to realize that they were not lights coming from her aching head. They were actually real, actually present all around her. Had she died? Was this Valhalla? Taking one last deep breath, she forced herself to sit up. No, this was certainly not Valhalla. The lights surrounded by the glass all around her, they were no longer beautiful nor comforting. With a heavy realization, Raeyn came to terms with the present situation: she was locked in Rogers’ prison cell, and the two men had escaped, possibly hours ago. With them, Thor and Bruce were probably gone as well. And if no one had come to find her, then either Loki and the Chitauri had not realized of the prison break, or… or they were under attack.

Raeyn’s heart leapt into her throat and she jumped up. She had to push the black spots and instant fatigue away, but with this sudden rush of adrenaline, that was hardly a problem. Just as she had seen before, a small outline of a door rested in the glass next to Raeyn. She moved over to it quickly, but hesitated once she stood opposite it. If she tried to open it, would she be electrocuted by the energy running through the glass? Was there a certain way to open it, only from the outside? How had the masked man done it before? Only Loki would have these answers, and who knew in the nine realms where he was now? Raeyn sighed, frustrated and scared to the point of tears, but forced herself to think straight.

“JARVIS!” she suddenly cried, looking around the empty ceiling, praying that his artificial voice would rain down upon her. “JARVIS, please…” she moaned, sitting and burying her face in her hands as her last hope did not respond.

“I am sorry, Raeyn, for taking a moment,” JARVIS finally said out of nowhere. “All of my security was hacked, and I have been quite busy trying to fix it. But by now, it is a bit of a lost cause I suppose.”

Raeyn gave a shriek of happiness, looking up into the blue light towards his speakers. “Oh, thank goodness. Can you tell me how to get out of here?”

Only moments after she asked it, the door inches from her opened. Raeyn stared, half thinking that it was an illusion that her damaged mind was playing. But reaching out, her hand did not meet anything solid, and she was not electrocuted either. “H-how?”

She could practically imagine him shrugging at her. “My security systems are already down. I suppose neither Rogers nor Parker thought about that when they placed you in here.”

Raeyn gave a nervous laugh before picking herself up. “Where are they? Where is Loki?”

“Level twenty two. They are all there. Though, I would suggest taking the stairs if you wish the sneak up on them.”

Raeyn nodded, taking a deep breath. She had a vague idea what she could do, and this vague idea carried her to the staircase and up all those hundreds of stairs like they were nothing. By the time she reached the top, she had changed her appearance into something a little more… stealthy. The door to floor twenty two opened slowly, with Raeyn holding it up so that it would not creak on its hinges. Far down the hall, in what Raeyn could only assume was in Loki’s throne room, the sounds of a battle met Raeyn’s ears. Gritting her teeth, she ran gracefully the other direction towards the weapon vault without a sound. This door did not creak in the slightest, so Raeyn threw it open and closed it behind her.

All sorts of weapons were now at her fingertips. Bows and arrows, lasers, even some large gun-looking weapon that Raeyn would never be able to guess what damage it did. But she skirted around these until she came across the pistols that she was more familiar with. She wrapped her fingers around the butt of one of them, her heart pounding as she lifted it form its case. She could shoot this one, yes, but with what kind of accuracy? If they were fighting hand to hand combat, what were the chances of Raeyn hitting someone on her side? What were the chances of her accidentally killing someone? She placed the pistol back in its place before grabbing two tasers and running.

The closer her legs carried herself to the throne room, the faster her heart beat and the more her mind begged her to turn and run. This was going to be a fight like none other she had ever seen — super humans fighting gods. No matter who won, the consequences would be terribly destructive and horrific. And yet, only seconds later, she arrived silently to the corner next to the entrance of the room — outside stood two men dressed in black; Raeyn assumed that they were meant to take down anyone who left the room that was not one of their own. She took a moment to aim both tasers — thank goodness their focus was more on the room behind them than any oncoming threats, otherwise she would have been dead in moments. Double checking her targets, she did not hesitate to pull both triggers before automatically shielding her eyes from the sight long enough for both men to be knocked unconscious. When she stepped around the corner, both men were on their backs and unmoving. She leapt over the one closest to her silently, and crouching next to the open doorway, she loaded both guns once more.

She peered into the room, and just as quickly as she was poking her head in, she had darted back and her golden hair hung where she had momentarily been. Her eyes were now wide, her heart surely beating fast enough for the world to hear, and her hands twitched. In the few seconds she had seen, she was already petrified. There were a couple Chitauri soldiers, who were fighting other men and women dressed in black, but that was all she had seen. Her husband must be further in the room, fighting his brother, Rogers, and the masked man. Surely they would not have released the Hulk so high up… or at least, so Raeyn hoped. Taking a deep breath, she tried to clear her mind. How would she feel if Loki lost this battle, and she had simply been hiding away? No, that would not happen. Though she was no match for the men Loki battled, she had already proved that she was quicker and more agile than the mortals. And with that, she twisted out into the doorway, and keeping low, shot the two men closest to her. The Chitauri they had previously been in a shooting match with looked rather confused, but otherwise ignored Raeyn as she dashed further into the room.

Dressed in black, she must have been overlooked by the mortals as one of their own at first. Dodging Chitauri running here and there and occasionally flying lowly under the high ceilings on their strange machines, Raeyn came upon a lone mortal; though he would not have admitted it, his hands wrung nervously as he quickly realized that none of his species were near him. He swallowed loudly, the noise registering in Raeyn’s mind as a weakness. His eyes flicked from side to side and he wet his lips with a flick of his tongue — finally, his eyes found Raeyn’s and he gave a nervous smile and a nod in her direction — the man was relieved, thinking that she was one of his. He must have quickly registered the blood lusty look in Raeyn’s jade eye, but he was far too late. The gun was raised, and in the next moment, he was writhing on the floor before becoming quite still. Raeyn did not tear her eyes from the sight until she was quite sure he would not be rising any time soon. And then, she stepped over him on cat’s feet, giving him a halfway pitying look. I mean you no harm, she thought as she crossed his still body, but you are threatening my home. My husband, my family, and my future. I cannot let you do that.

And with a deep breath, she continued. The room, though she had only been in it a few times before, seemed suddenly foreign to her. Had this been where Cayenne died? Or was she not even close to the center of the room — she had yet to see anyone but the Chitauri, their bodies, and the few and far between mortals she took down. But she could hear them… Thor’s loud pleas for Loki’s surrender, Rogers’ patriotic sayings about freedom, and more than anything else, the masked man’s sarcastic remarks. Her husband’s replies were far too quiet for her to hear, if he even chose to respond. But Raeyn continued, a sudden merciless drive sending her into a warrior like state she had never visited before. Were these her motherly instincts kicking in? Perhaps, but this is not where her thoughts lingered; her mind only wished to destroy, in order to better her chances at the survival of her happiness. She dared not think about what would happen if the remaining Avengers won this battle.

Behind her, a Chitauri soldier fell solidly to the ground. Closing her eyes and sharpening her hearing, she estimated where the mortal stood based on his breathing and the click of his gun. Popping the safety, Raeyn spun on the man, the gun pointed at his heart. The man, taken aback because surely this woman opposing him was simply mistaken for she looked so mortal, did not even have his weapon raised. Had Raeyn not looked twice and simply pulled the trigger, the man would be electrocuted and out of her hair. However, staring at the middle aged agent from the butt of the gun, her jade eyes widened in shock. Suddenly, the merciless blood lust had drained out of her and she was replaced by a feeling so human, she could not bring herself to pull the trigger.

“Agent?” she asked, her eyes wide with desperation. She wished so badly it wasn’t her old friend, the man running the underground rebellion; then, she could simply dispose of him and try to forget the reminder of the past. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. The masked man, his sarcastic remarks, and his familiar voice — he was the secret weapon. These people weren’t just a rescue mission, they were the rebellion Raeyn had once taken part of. This man, Agent, the head of it all, would surely be here in the middle of the fight. And slowly, the gun fell out of Raeyn’s grasp and onto the floor with a clatter. Agent stared at her in disbelief — one moment, he thought this woman was his ally, the next she turns her gun on him, and finally she’s surrendering? Surely he knew not what to make of it.

Raeyn blinked slowly, and instead of explaining, she let her godly features blend into those of the face known as Ramona. Agent’s brow rose a fraction, trying to hide his true shock as Raeyn’s face snapped back to its natural state. He swallowed, and slowly raised his gun to her chest. Her jade eyes widened further — surely, after her surrender, he would not kill her? Her breathing quickened and she wrapped her arms around her belly protectively… as if that would help her child if she were shot dead. But Agent did not pull the trigger — instead he moved forward carefully, his gun still pointed, but a pitying expression across his face. It was as if he were trying to approach a wild animal — at any moment she could dart away, and he would be forced to lodge a bullet in her heart. Slowly, he took her limp arms behind her back, and cuffed them together gently. And in the madness around them, no one took any notice.