To Love A God

Inside The Fire

Loki could feel her, could feel Rika's excitement, now that she was finally able to let loose the well of power that was in her, as he strolled through the streets. He smiled, swinging his staff out to catch one of the aliens in the face, snapping its neck back, he was happy for her, was happy because of her. The butt end of his staff caught another at the feet, tripping it, and Loki brought the end down into the creatures skull.

He could feel the rush from her, the explosion of emotion and energy that erupted from her at the use of her powers. She all but poured it into to Loki, not even trying keep it held back. Rika wanted him to feel it, to know how free she felt.

He shot off a round of the blue energy from the head of his staff at a horde that came charging at him and sent them up in a puff of smoke and what remained was a pile of ash.

They screeched at each other, like insects calling to each other, as they poured out of the chasm the Tesseract had ripped in the sky.

He felt a twinge of guilt at the site of the bright blue light shooting up in the sky, opening a portal to another world, one that would invade with its armies and help take over the planet.

The planet the woman he loved called home, the planet her sister called home. Where was her sister, he wondered suddenly, was she nearby? Was she here, in the city, now? The last time he had seen her was in Germany, when he had abducted Rika. She had told her sister to go home, did she mean home in Germany or home elsewhere?

He stopped and smiled at one of the aliens, projecting his clone out behind it, and stabbing the staff through its heart, then let it fall to the ground in a crumpled ball. Did Rika know? Had she forgotten in the mix of everything that had happened the last few weeks? Would she be looking for her sister, what was her name again, Azure, if she did live here? He just didn't know and was worried to try communicating through telepathy, afraid it would distract her in her battle. He smiled a small, wicked smile, he could win the bet, but no, he would risk getting her injured.

He reached for his Ice Giant powers, feeling the cool of the energy spread through his body, marking him blue. He shot both hands out, sending a raging blast of razor sharp ice shards at a large group of Chitauri that charged him. He smirked, he was not afraid of these things, they were all weak, no match for him in the least.

He was headed toward Stark Tower, where the portal was centralized, just as all the others would be. They had to shut it down to end the invasion, to save Earth. A pang of guilt hit him, hard. This was his fault, all because of his damned pride. If Earth fell, Loki would be to blame, everyone would know it and he would have to pay for it.

Rage filled him.

He would lose Rika if Earth fell. One way or another, he would lose her if they failed to close the damn portal.

He heard the approach of a hover craft, reached a hand up, and was jerked away as he grasped it, bringing himself up onto it. He killed the Chitauri that manned the craft and took control of it, flying toward the portal and blasting any of the monsters that got in his way.

Mid way to Stark Tower he felt a burst of pain in his chest and could not breath for many moments. Then Rika's scream echoed in his mind and he was enveloped in a rage he had never known as she retaliated with the full force of her power. He took a few seconds, seconds which felt like hours, to remember how to breath, regaining his control.

'Rika, are you alright?' he demanded, fear coating his every word.

She hissed in her mind, touching the area that had been wounded, 'I'm just peachy,' she growled the pain obvious in her words, 'One of the surprised me, got me in the chest, but this armor is awesome. I'm gonna have one hell-of-a bruise, though.'