eleven
"lose the battle"

Lusine had barely pulled herself into a brand new dress when the entire heli-carrier shook. With a heavy sigh, she downed the remainder of her red wine and strode from the room, her spear materialising in her palm in a flash of silver light.

This was the moment she had been waiting for.

Guards and agents alike rushed all around her, hurrying to their stations as Loki's plan came to fruition at last. Lusine walked against the tide, as she had always done, as her power rippled against her skin, trembling with every step she took, heeding to her control as she entered her killing calm that had escaped her for too long.

She'd not known how to do it for too long, but Natasha had tested her that day and she had controlled herself. Confident she could do it again, she flexed her fingers around the reins and pressed on.

When she got to the room, two blue-eyed soldiers stood outside, guarding. Lusine smiled sweetly at them, conjuring the white magic in her palm. "Step aside," She commanded, but they did not heed her warning, opting to raise their guns. "Bad idea," Lusine snarled as she unleashed her power, holding steady as it struck them in pulses of raw power and left them empty corpses at her feet.

She stepped over their bodies, into the room where she knew Loki would be.

"Impressive," He noted when he caught sight of her, knowing she would come. There was something about the way the universe worked that found enjoyment in bringing them together, seeing the crash and burn of their love light up the night, white hot fire.

"They were in my way," Lusine remarked, the sharpened tip of the spear grinding against the metal floor as she paced, marking out her prey. "And now all that is left is for me to stop you from getting what you want."

"And you're going to do that all by yourself? Or are your new friends going to help? Because I don't see a single one of them." He grit his teeth. "Stand down, Lusine."

Lusine clicked her tongue. "But that would be no fun." The lilt in her voice was warped with lies as she stopped pacing and turned, snarling.

"As you wish," Loki said, raising his hand and snapping his fingers. Behind him, one of his 'men' illuminated in a wash of white light and strode forward to his side, his form shifting into a womanly curvature, the wrath of the sun in her molten iron eyes. "Meet Cathal, a new ally of mine."

The woman grinned at her, a reflection of that snarl she'd worn for years, that smile she'd worn like armour staring back at her.

"Cousin," Cathal regarded with a mock bow of her head, that grin never faltering as she unsheathed her dual blades, icy hair bouncing in curls at her neck as she lowered herself into that killing stance.

"This is a new low, even for you, Loki. Bringing an exiled cousin to face me instead of facing me yourself? Are you truly that scared of me?" Eyes shuddering to their deep purple, she narrowed them tight and low as she too squared her shoulders and readied herself.

"He is not your fight on this day, Lusine," Cathal dared, chancing another sure step forwards as Loki looked on, watching with those same old sad eyes.

Lusine growled, low and guttural, vibrated through her bones and at her throat. "Yes, it is. It has been my fight from the very day he pushed me away with both hands. And you will not stand between me and my finality. Step aside, little cousin, while I still allow you use of your legs."

Cathal pressed her lips thin, sliding the blades against one another as she advanced, as confident as she had always been.

Of the three sisters, she had always been the most head-strong and that was what had landed her on Midguard, in exile from her home. Lusine had seen the day she'd been cast out coming for years, counted down to it, prayed for it to come sooner. And once she was gone, she never paid her vicious cousin a second thought.

"Brave words for a woman with no control," She taunted as Lusine readied herself to strike, coiling herself back and back as if she were a wolf no more. As if she were the viper that stuck strong and true in the night, sinking its fangs into its target with sheer glee.

Oh, the glee she would feel when Cathal's head was severed from her skinny little neck.

"Brave words for a woman in exile," Lusine shot back, swinging her spear around just in time to block a slice from Cathal as she finally reached her target, her mission. The one she'd been waiting for for all these years and finally the day had come.

Lusine's eyes turned wholly black, but her hands were still firmly gripping the reins. She'd be damned if she let Cathal of all people drag her back into the dark, away from that slither of light, by her ankles.

She would not go quietly.

Lusine grunted as she swung the spear back around, dragging its point up Cathal's stomach as she whirled away. Cathal was quick enough to begin to move away, but not slight enough to completely dodge the attack. Beneath her shirt, blood swelled hot.

Cathal saw nothing but red as she advanced once more, the pain in her stomach unnoticeable through her want to spill Volkov blood.

Lusine took one step back to steady herself, dug the spear into the ground and swung herself around it, sending a flying kick to Cathal's jaw. As she landed, Loki's eyes met hers and she was running towards him in an instant, spear clattered to the floor and twin daggers pulled from her belt now tight in her grip as she made her final move in his game.

But Cathal was quicker than she remembered. Fatally so. Her blade was through the back of Lusine's calf before she could register the movement behind her and she was falling to the ground, hitting it with a thud as her chin cracked against metal. In agony and anguish, she cried out and began trying to drag herself to her feet, begging herself to keep moving, but Cathal was on her now, the wolf above its prey.

The hunter had become the hunted, fallen right at the last mark.

With a bark of a laugh, Cathal ripped the sword out and plunged both into Lusine's shoulders, holding her down as she arched in pain. Though her eyes stayed on Loki, brimming with their silver lining as she flattened her palms against the floor, grinding her teeth.

"I've had a long time to prepare for this day, dear cousin," Cathal gloated, beginning to twist the twin blades. "And it is even more glorious than I imagined it would be."

"Loki..." Lusine choked out, fingers curling as the swords pushed through, their tips hitting metal.

He looked at her, face written with lines of turmoil and dread. Yes, Lusine was a threat, but it was only his actions that made her this way, made her want to end his plots and schemes and bring him to his knees. If Cathal released her, Luisne would be up and at his throat in seconds, but if she died... Gods, if she died he didn't know if he'd ever get her out of his mind.

Maybe she'd even come back and haunt him.

"Cathal, enough," Loki said, finality in his voice clear as he made his choice.

"You would deny me my destiny?" Her eyes narrowed to slits, sharp jaw clenched tight.

"I don't-" Loki glanced down at Lusine at his feet and fought the urge to scoop her into his arms, to mend her broken body. "I didn't bring you here to murder her no matter how much you want to. I didn't drag you from your hell to kill her. I don't want you to kill her."

Cathal slid the blades from her back.

"Love is childish. You are no more superior than a child with a crown far too large for his skull, Loki," She hissed, stepping over Lusine towards him, eyes lighting up with ice-cold anger. Cathal pointed the sword right at him. Dared to. "And you will fail."

As silent as the void, Lusine rose to her feet, swayed for a moment and regained herself. The dagger in her hand had never felt so crucial. Never before had it been more than a game when she'd held this dagger with complete and utter control. Between claws of the darkest steel.

"Is that so?" He asked, watching Lusine over her shoulder with a sensation of trust twitching in his bones, eyebrow raised at the icy woman before him.

"Yes," Cathal said, pressing the tip of her blade against his stomach, "either you let me kill her, or you die in her place."

"Is there not a third option?" Loki folded his arms across his chest, amused as Cathal's face twisted with confusion.

"Third op-" Lusine halted her words with a battle cry as she sent all the power she could muster into the blade as she sunk it into the top of Cathal's spine and dragged it top to tail in a rugged line, carving a ravine through her cousin, closing her eyes at the roar that escaped her with the pain that consumed her as she fell to her knees, white magic drifting from the wound.

Lusine withdrew the dagger and drove it in again, aiming for the heart, wanting this over, remembering her brother as she struck true.

"You'd think you would've at least picked up on the very first lesson I taught you, little cousin," Lusine spat into her ear, "always go for the killing blow."

Cathal's eyes rolled into the back of her head as Lusine ripped the dagger from her and she slumped forwards, a corpse between two former lovers.

"She was going to kill me," Loki said, genuinely appearing grateful. "Thank you, Lusine." His words hung between them, heavy but standing tall.

Lusine laughed, letting her head hang loose upon her neck. "Even after all you've done to me, I still couldn't bring myself to let you die."

Her feet betrayed her and she stumbled. Loki caught her, holding both of her forearms without a single hint of hesitation.

"I trusted that you wouldn't kill me," He told her, a soft smile on his pale face. It really hit her then just how exhausted and drained he looked, a mirror of herself. She sunk into him. "I knew it without thought."

Lusine fought to keep her eyes open. "I wish you would've said that sooner," She said quietly as energy marched to its battle grounds ready to fight to stitch her back together, to keep her alive, to keep that black heart beating, "then I would've helped you take Midgard and ruled by your side, ruled as your queen." A bloody hand reached for him, smeared the ichor on his sickly skin as she just held him like she'd always done. Peered right into him, into his soul.

Knew deep down that he would never stop loving her as she would never stop loving him.

Until the end of infinity.

Gently, Loki lowered her to the ground, just as defeated as she appeared as she slumped against the wall, power frayed and fizzling across her wounds.

"You still can," Loki said calmly, but his eyes begged wildly, madly.

Lusine swallowed thickly and shook her head, cringing at the shot of pain it sent rushing through her like an arrow to the chest, barbed and lodged deep. "It's too late for that now."

"Why would it be too late?" He frowned, the action carving each and every one of the features of his expression as he traced his thumb across her cheek.

Lusine's eyelids flickered as her lips curved into a crusted smile. "Because that's not who I am anymore."

The last thing she witnessed before her body shut down to begin the rigorous healing process was Loki pressing a kiss to her cheek, eyes glossed with tears of his own, as he murmured against her, "I know."

-

-

The darkness lapped her up. Gathered her into its bone-thin arms. Threw her onto its shoulders and carted her away, body jostled with every leap and bound, pain shooting around every nerve ending within.

Claws dug into her wounds as she was dropped to the ground with crunch as bones shifted inside her. Face down, she pushed herself up onto her knees as she gazed upon her twin before her.

With a wicked smile, Lycus strode towards her. "You're learning to control me," He commented, circling her. Lusine managed a nod, palms pressing into the blackness that was solid beneath her. "You think yourself in control."

"Yes," Lusine responded, rising.

Lycus shoved her down again with another crack.

"You'll never be in control. Never," He seethed, spit foaming at the corners of his mouth, a rabid wolf. "You can't control what you don't understand, Lusine, don't you see? You were not saved to shove me down into that cage."

Lusine pushed onto her knees again as she shook her head, vision swarmed with dots. "You're not my brother. My brother is good and kind and loyal. You are none of those. You can never dream to possess any of those qualities."

When his fist collided with her jaw, she turned back to him with a bloody smile, chin dripping black. Lusine caught the next punch that came for her, held the fist in her palm and held tight, grit her teeth against the power she needed to control as it came for her in her weakest hour.

"My brother is dead," She bit out as she rose to her feet, pushing against the pain that threatened to nail her down. Eternal damnation as a being controlled by her darkest tendencies and desires, outshining the desires to make something good out of her life after all the destruction she'd caused to those around her.

All that death.

She would repent until her rebirth. As the tidal wave came crashing over her, she would smile and embrace her death, but now was not her time.

And Lusine knew this as she crushed the fist in her hand, slowly, meticulously, savouring the control and the power as it clicked into place in her once-foggy psyche. It's bones crunched and cracked and bent beneath her will, her brother falling to his knees before her, hissing out in pain.

"You do not puppeteer me any longer. I harness your powers for my own use. I owe you no debts. I control you and you will release my brother, allow him to rest amongst our fallen ancestors," Lusine commanded, kicking her knee up into its chest, knocking it back. In the blink of an eye, she was on top of it, holding it down with knees and elbows, gripping its face with claws. "Let us go."

Spoken like a true Queen, Lusine did not tremble as the power bent to her will and curled beneath her palms, absorbing into her skin.

When it closed its eyes, it opened them again as her brother, shining blue eyes the twins of her own. His throat bobbed.

"Thank you, sister," He breathed, before he closed his eyes for the last time, finding peace at last.

Lusine Volkov sank back from the empty corpse and wept for all that she had lost.

-

-

"Lusine," A voice called through the dark and she groaned in response, fighting to peel her eyes open. "Lusine," They called again, hot hands on either side of her head, holding her up where her chin threatened to roll to her chest.

Lusine's lungs drew in a sharp breath, oxygen flooding her blood as she blinked rapidly, eyes burning for the bright lights that burned down on her. When her irises flickered and remained in their galaxy-lit blue, they focused on the face before her: Steve Rogers.

"What happened to you?" He asked quietly, body blocking the sight of the fallen agent behind him from her sight.

Lusine lifted her hands to wet cheeks, scrubbed away the tears roughly as she dropped her head into her hands. "I couldn't do it," She mumbled, "I couldn't stop him."

"It's not your fault," Steve told her, drawing his hands back. "Look at me, Lusine, none of us could. He got away."

Head lifted, eyes that hadn't been so bright in years boring into him. "I could have stopped him, but my cousin... Cathal..." Lusine craned her neck to look past him, but found the wrong body as her heart dropped at the corpse of Agent Phil Coulson slumped against the wall. "Coulson is dead?"

"He died a hero," Steve confirmed, eyes dropping.

Lusine bit her tongue and began to force her muscles to stand, bracing against the wall for support. Steve was there in an instant, looping her arm around him to help her walk again, though she limped in defeat as she sagged against him, still utterly sapped of energy as she was brought past the corpse of her cousin and the corpse of one of the best men she'd ever met.

"I don't know how much you know about me, Captain, but where I'm from I'm known as a ruthless killing machine who will stop at nothing to defend those she loves, but I am also known as a woman with a heart as black as the far reaching galaxy who lacks control," Lusine began, eyelids heavy.

When he took a moment to peer down at the woman at his side, clinging to him as she clung to consciousness, he saw an individual who had been beaten down by fatigue, who still smiled lazily as she put one foot in front of the other. An admirable soul. A fighter through and through.

"Today I proved them all wrong," She said, "I saved him from death when my cousin threatened his life even when I wanted to hate him. I remained in control the entire time." Lusine stumbled over her feet, but Steve held her firm.

"You did the right thing," He replied, now knowing for sure that she was not inherently evil in her ways. That evil was not born, it was made. Every dreadful action Thor had told them of, she had done but without control of that surging power within her, that power that radiated off her with every step she took. The same power that fizzled and throbbed in agony, in grief, now.

"I let him get away," Lusine countered.

"There was nothing more you could have done in this state, Lusine," He said firmly.

"I chose to stay," She told Steve as they made their way into the medical ward, "He asked me to go with him and I chose to stay."

"You're not a bad person," Steve said as he helped her onto the bed, cringing as she hissed in pain.

"I've made too many bad choices for that to be the truth, Captain," She managed to say as she let her eyes fall shut, her head rolling to the side against the pillow, and she slept with a quiet mind for the first time in years, savouring every moment of it like sweet honey on the tongue.

-

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