flux | loki laufeyson ² [SEQUEL TO SURGE]

one

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FORTY-EIGHT HOURS HAD CREPT BY AS ALEX SAT ALONE IN THE STREETS OF A FOREIGN country. She regretted nothing she'd done in the last two days, but her thoughts finally started to set in. Fears, doubts, and all other emotions filled her head. She first thought of Loki, however, he left her head as easily as he entered it. 

She needed to learn to shut it out. 

Luckily, her anger made it easy. As soon as she thought of the Avengers, the image of Tony's lifeless body feet away from her replaced the sadness. There were moments she began to hallucinate and found herself back on that battleground. When those moments came, she had to shake herself as if waking from a nightmare. Only, her nightmare was never-ending. So, in two days, she learned to just be angry.

Hatred fueled her veins where love once did. 

She made mental checklists of what she could do in order to bring herself to the point of no return. If she crossed the threshold, there would be no room for love. Alex convinced herself that love was the key ingredient in the recipe for heartbreak. 

She loved Tony so much that it broke her to see him die. She loved the Avengers so much that their denouement sent her into despair. She loved Loki so much that she thought she began to lose herself. 

So, in the busy crowds of countries that desperately tried to repair the brokenness of their communities, she destroyed. She did the opposite of what she once said: she was no longer using her power to create, but to demolish. 

After days went by, she did begin to grow lonely. She filled the void with more destruction, taking no care of the mess left behind. She made sure not to stay in one place for too long, for if she sat in silence too long, she would start to think. 

Somewhere else, though, someone was thinking of her. 

He wondered if, hoped, even, that she was warm. And not hungry. He wondered where she was, knowing he couldn't so easily try and project to her. If he could, he knew it wouldn't end well. She was just like him, stubborn, unwilling to let her guard down, and determined when she needed to be. 

He just hoped she wasn't too far gone. 

"Privet!" She heard behind her. "Ty dolzhen zaplatit'!" 

She ignored the vendor's cry for her to pay for the fruit she had taken, simply holding out her hand. Her brow rose as if giving him a second chance. He only held his palm toward her in a gesture for payment. She shrugged, sucking the energy out of him in one flick.

Alex bit generously into the fruit, casually walking down the street. People kept their heads down after witnessing the act, shuffling out of the marketplace with their wives and children. 

"Mind if I take this?" She sweetly smiled at the vodka vendor in front of her. She then chuckled."Oh, I'm sorry, you don't speak English."

She cleared her throat. "Otday mne ili umri."

The man quickly handed the bottle over, his hand shaking in her presence. She noticed but didn't say anything. She simply wrapped her fingers around the neck of the glass, taking a swig. The liquid used to burn her throat once they made contact, but she had recently gotten more accustomed to it.

"Cheers!" 

She chuckled mockingly as she continued down the marketplace, bottle in one hand and fruit in the other. She had been in St. Petersburg for a day and a half and her presence had not gone unnoticed. The authorities had already approached her, and now only half of them still lived to talk about it. 

She stopped walking, looking around her. She had noticed an unusual energy lurking but saw no one following her. She took another bite of fruit, squinting as she looked behind a wooden cart. 

Deciding it was nothing, she kept walking. She took another swig from the bottle and left the marketplace. Her walk was not long, only about a mile and a half. There was a steep incline in the terrain as she neared the abodes on the outskirts of town. Before she headed back to the hostel she forcibly checked into, she walked up a hill to an abandoned building. 

When she reached the top of the building, she sat on the roof. Her legs hung off the ledge as she took in the view of the city at dusk. Two more hefty swigs were gulped down, and she let out a sigh. She thought for a moment as the alcohol began to cloud her judgment. Setting the bottle down, she held her wrist in her hand. 

Alex closed her eyes, letting herself draw energy from her wrist the way she did years ago. She let her subconscious take control, bringing her to a memory against her will. 

"You were my weakness."

"You're my strength. I had no purpose before you. Nothing mattered. Power, maybe, but all that vanished when I met you. You gave me a purpose, and that purpose was to protect you."

Her eyes shot open, anger bubbling up inside of her causing her to throw the glass bottle off the ledge. It shattered loudly, personifying the relationship she had willingly broken. She stared at the shards of glass below her and wondered if the bottle could be fixed. She decided it could not. 

He made her weak. Love had made her weak. She intended to destroy every remaining drop of it from her heart. And she wasn't far from it. 

Dizzily, she jumped down from the ledge and made her way down the hill. The wind stung her rosy cheeks as she smirked. She was heading into bad decisions like they were expecting her, and she was their honored guest. 

Yes, somewhere, someone was thinking of her. And she was thinking of him, but only in order to eradicate him from her mind as if he were a raging cancer. The memories began to fade as if washed away by the downpour of dangerous thoughts in her mind. 

Alex laughed humorlessly as she walked, feeling freer than ever. The weight of being "everybody's favorite hero" quickly morphed into the ease of being "everybody's most hated villain", and she bathed in it.  

The night was at its peak when she returned to the hostel. Stumbling through the door, she forced the clerk to sleep whilst she made her way to her room. Her mind was fogged by her anger and the vodka, entering without remorse. 

The next morning came quickly, with her head pounding and legs stretching against the paper-thin sheets. She let out a deep breath, noticing there wasn't a single trace of the sad thoughts she had last night. 

There was a trace of sunlight, however, reflecting off the metal arm that was draped next to her. 

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𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 (𝗦𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗬 𝗜 𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗚𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗔𝗛𝗛): "𝗛𝗲𝘆!" "𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝘆!""𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝗲."

𝘄𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗼 𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗘𝗘𝗣 𝗘𝗡𝗗

𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘆'𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 ;) 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆'𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼? 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀? 𝗶𝗸 𝗶 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲

𝗶𝘁'𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝗽