sixteen
"smile, darling"

While Thor defeated any Chitauri that got in the way, Lusine held the newly-powerful woman up and helped her to walk as they made their way through the city. Casia needed to rest, but there was no chance she could be left to lean against that car. She'd be torn to shreds before that power inside of her could rise to meet the threat.

Lusine tightened her grip as Casia slumped into her, barely holding on through the fatigue that plagued her, unyielding even as her body screamed.

"Keep your eyes open, Agent," Lusine commanded, jolting her to force her to keep her eyelids open even as sleep seduced with its silky voice and comforting promises of peace and serenity. Lies. Blatant lies wrapped in pretty ribbon, topped with a bow.

"You saved my life," Casia mumbled, voice rasped and a shadow of the constant quips that had come from her mouth hours before. "Thank you."

"It is not your day to die," Lusine replied quietly, knowing her words as nothing but the truth as she spoke them to the woman who, one day, would be able to bring this city to its knees if she so much as wished it to be so.

Casia was only just coming into the powers that had been waiting for her all its life, manifesting from birth and finally ripping away the cloak in her greatest hour of need to rip her from the talons of death herself.

"How do you do it?" She asked, clutching desperately as her muscles began to fail her. "How do you control it?"

"It takes time," Lusine said, remembering her struggles. Not fully convinced she could completely control her power, she shook her head. "You need help. Lots of help. You cannot do this alone."

Casia's head lolled to the side as she looked at Lusine lazily. "Help me then," She responded as if it were the obvious thing for Lusine to offer up. her eyes began to close, but she forced them to remain open as she awaited a response.

The agent spoke as if it wouldn't take months if not years depending on the intensity of that power that raged as raw as a thunderstorm. Untamed, dangerous.

"It's not that simple," Lusine said. Casia didn't know if it was fatigue catching up with her or genuine, but she swore she saw a sadness crash across the goddess' face like a tidal wave. Even a divine presence was not above emotion. "I wish I could."

"My whole life I've been taught to be brave and face my battles head on. I want your help and if you won't give it to me then I will go this alone," Casia said with pure determination lacing her breathy voice as she strained, unblinking as Thor took down another Chitauri in their path. "I have cowered as this power emerged and I will do so no longer."

Lusine finally turned her head to see the woman's face and saw bravery like none other. If she'd had that bravery, maybe she would've been able to heed her father's warnings and not fall into Loki's arms at the sound of his honeyed words and touch of his kiss at her throat.

While she wished, she also saw herself in the glassy reflection of Casia's tired eyes. Knew the battle, knew the war. Knew what it did to you. Gods, she was barely out of the other side and seeing someone else only just beginning their journey through hell and back brought a sour taste to her mouth that made her jaw ache.

"I will help you," Lusine said sincerely as she helped Casia hobble onto the street where Steve fought valiantly.

Lusine was quick as she bundled Casia into a building, asking the civilians inside to care for her and make sure that she rests. When she reemerged from the cafe, the rumbling of an engine could be heard. As she rounds the corner, she finds that a little smile wormed onto her face at the sight of Doctor Banner climbing off a motorbike.

Banner took a moment to survey the damage.

"Well," He said, "this all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," Natasha replied.

"Sorry."

Their interaction was beyond Lusine's interest. If she cared for the relationships between Midgardians, she would have come to Earth sooner and stirred the pot herself. She took the time to recollect herself. To whip up her power once more between her palms, feeling it shudder up her veins and rattle her bones where she stood.

Steve, done speaking into his earpiece, turned to her.

"Everything okay, Lusine?" He asked, watching her carefully as her eyes dissolved from blue to purple.

She gave him a tired smile as Tony rounded the corner, Leviathan close behind him, flying towards them.

"I am going to drink my body weight in wine once this is all over," She replied as she wiped blood from her hands onto the length of her dress, turning her eyes away from him so that he could no longer peer into them as she moulded the power inside of her into a moonlit dagger.

As Doctor Banner began to walk towards the Leviathan, Steve suggested that he really should get angry right about now and the way that Banner's face changed made Lusine feel slightly less alone as a monster the streets of New York.

"That's my secret, Cap," He replied, "I'm always angry."

With a sickening crunching noise, Banner changed into the Hulk. Skin blurring to green, size expanding and clothes mostly falling off his body as they stretched and tore. Lusine watched, wide eyed, as Banner punched the Leviathan, sending it into the concrete.

Lusine masked her surprise flawlessly. Only for that facade to fail as she turned her eyes to the sky to see more Leviathans and Chitauri pour through the opening in the sky.

From the reservoir, she pulled the dagger. It glinted in the light of the moon and stars shining down on her with beaming faces, proud of the woman she had chosen to be on this day. Proud that she had taken the nightly force inside of her by the throat and commanded it like a true warrior should.

On this day, she was no longer a princess. She was a warrior, cut from the purest marble and infused with veins of darkness that bled like rivers through the white, carving the land in storm.

As Steve rattled out his instructions to those who huddled around him, Lusine walked her fine line. Bare foot, ragged rope scratching against the balls of her feet as she drew more power into herself. More and more and more. Letting it run wild in her veins, gritting her jaw as its black web crawled up her neck, over her jaw and consumed her skin, cresting at the rise of her cheekbones.

When Steve turned to her to give a role, the goddess of chaos stared back at him through void-married eyes.

"Lusine?" He asked cautiously and took a step towards her with an outstretched hand, seeing through her power to the woman beneath.

Lusine took it, her head tilted to the side as she gave him a smile.

"This city will not fall," She told him, gripping him tightly. Her breath was cold as she exhaled, letting it roll from between her lips. "I will fight for as long as my power holds out."

"Thank you," Steve replied. Lusine dropped his hand and he watched her stalk away, black coils of magic wrapped around her forearms.

"Who woulda thought Cap has a thing for bad girls with anger issues?" Tony commented, not quite believing what he'd seen.

The way that woman walked radiated power and yet she was ready to channel it all for the good of this city because she'd been dragged back into the light by a man dressed in stars and stripes.

-

-

Lusine planted her feet on the concrete, squared her shoulders and delved even deeper into her power. Coaxed it from its wolf's den with a handful of blood-drenched flesh.

Oh, how it would heed her call for a little taste of chaos. A drop of honey on the tongue. Blood against gold, vibrant and kitsch. Mortal blood. Fear the last thoughts to grace the minds before they were warped beyond repair, bodies ripped into pieces by the rapid and unfaltering dark fore that came for them.

The Goddess did not stumble or sway as she brought them to their knees before her. Empty eyes and parted mouths kissing the ground at her feet as they crashed lifelessly, decapitated or worse.

And she hoped Loki saw it all.

Hoped he watched as she tore his army apart as she could have done to him if she so much as wished it. For a brief time she had, but had been too weak to reduce him. Her power was not hers back then. She was not Lusine Volkov.

That woman had been trapped, locked in a cage while the wolves circled, awaiting her death. They did not know that they could be tamed by the prisoner until she had them by the scruff of the neck, bearing down on them with a toothy grin and wild eyes.

She had not known such a short amount of time in such a different environment could change her all over again.

The first time she changed, she became a monster. The second time, she became a honed weapon controlled by only her own hands, no one else. Certainly not a silver-tongued God.

The thought made her grin slice her expression in two as she dragged her dagger down the front of a Chitauri, its interior becoming exterior as it collapsed before her.

Her body heaved for breath as she lifted her shoulders and wiped the blood on the dark cloth of her dress, ignoring the lines upon her hands beneath the ichor.

Vaguely, she was aware of Natasha and Steve conversing a short distance behind her as she took another warrior by the throat and squeezed her fist tight, sending a flurry of magic into its system to slaughter it from the inside out.

She released it, spinning to face the pair before it's body hit the ground just in time to see Natasha take a run up to jump from Steve's shield up to where the Chitauri flew.

Lusine watched her fly off, dispatching one of the Chitauri warriors with ease and taking control of the flying craft.

The rest of the battle became a work of motions for Lusine. Muscles working in rhythm with one another as she defended the city with every ration of power within herself, using raw strength when it flagged and needed time to reforge. She kept close to the captain, shadowing while he organised civilians to safety, having his back when Chitauri appeared to challenge their stance.

When it all came down to Iron Man and the missile, Lusine found herself watching as more Chitauri poured in from the opening in the sky. As Tony came into view, ploughing through the sky with the missile on his back, it was as if, for a moment, the entire world slowed just to watch him on his final mission, on his one-way-trip as a hero of the city, an avenger.

He disappeared into the portal, a tiny spec with a giant's responsibility on his shoulders.

Moments later, the Chitauri and Leviathans collapse, lifeless, to the ground. Her entire body sagged with relief as they dropped and allowed her body to release the grasp on the power, letting it run between her fingers into the lake once again. Left to simmer while she walked as Lusine once more, the veins beginning to retreat from their vantage at her cheekbones.

"Close it," Steve said into his earpiece as they all stared at the portal above.

Lusine admired him for making the tough call, but knew it wasn't the first time he'd ever made a hard decision from the way his expression lay across his face.

She still admired him for it even as Stark reappeared, cutting through the sky in his descent. Lusine squinted her eyes as she looked closer, realising just as everyone else did that he was definitely not slowing down.

As much as she found distaste on her tongue at the mention of Stark, she was grateful when the Hulk caught him in his fall and crashed to the ground before them. Thor and Steve run over to his body where he lay lifeless upon the dust and concrete, locked inside his suit of armour.

Lusine watched his mask be removed and even smiled a little when Hulk roared in his face, jolting him back into consciousness, much to the relief of all around him.

The captain glanced over his shoulder to where Lusine stood and gave her a thankful nod of his head, which she returned stiffly. He found a sense of pride in himself when he met her eyes and saw them to be blue once more, the bolts of black that had once lined her face and much of her body now retracted only to her hands and wrists as she folded her arms and let them have their moment of victory.

The only thing left to do was bring Loki to justice. Lusine kept her expression level as she looked down upon him leaned against a stair, defeated and bruised, but still able. If they'd taken a little more time, she was certain that he would have gotten away despite being thrown around by the Hulk.

Even after it all, he wouldn't even look her in the eyes, but Lusine's lip curved into a smile as she silently told herself that she didn't need him anymore.

And while Lusine knew she would always love him, she just didn't want him anymore.

-

2365 words
29.5.18
this was edited whilst on a lunch break from revision -also I've been thinking that I maybe want to do a q&a between part two and part three to give a little break between the conclusion of avengers and the beginning of Black Heart pt. 3... let me know what you think