Chapter 3 – Rhea
We took the wind rider to the Central Spire. Artemis never resheathed her bow, she just held it in her lap. In this enclosed space, I was feeling a little loopy and was fascinated with Rhea's lips as she crouched in her seat to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling of the craft. That is until my Verr shocked my nervous system, knocking me out of my lustful haze.
The sentient microscopic machines showed me that they had kicked my metabolism up tenfold and my body was burning off the pheromone induced chemical reactions in my body. I warned Arina over our link and after a minute she was looking much more herself, I'm sure she had her nanites follow suit with mine.
We brought her up to my quarters. It was father's favored spot to meet visitors instead of anywhere near vital areas of the citadel. Plus it felt less formal.
We entered and my entry chime sounded. Standing near the seating area were father and mother and to my surprise, Loki. I enjoyed any time Loki would come to visit but pondered upon the reason Father had her come to this meeting with the Titan leader.
She held onto her sanity by a thread, but that madness swirling inside of her, coupled with her intelligence, makes her possibly the most unpredictable and dangerous woman I know. Teetering on the edge of madness, she has come up with technology that has befuddled some of our greatest minds, only Arina seems to understand her innovations.
Artemis stood back in a corner, still holding her bow at her side as I made the introductions. I smiled at father. “Well met father, this is Rhea, ruler of the Titans. Rhea, this is Odin of Asgard, Ruler of the Realm, First Scientist, and Protector of the Innocent.”
She offered her arm in greeting and father opted for the more formal grasping of forearms. I noted the air around him almost sparkling as he said, “Well met Rhea, please address me as Odin.” She looked at him and I saw her heads up display in her eyes as she held onto his arm. After a moment, she raised an eyebrow. Father chuckled. “Valhalla is rendering your pheromones inert for me, the citadel protects me.”
She smiled hugely as she released his arm. I swear she was genuinely delighted at something. She said, “Oh how delightful! Your race seems full of surprises for me.” She stood considering father for a moment longer. His slightly amused gaze never faltered. He is among the largest men of Asgard, only Tyr is taller. They are almost as tall as an average Ragnarok. But this woman still towered over father by over a foot.
I turned to mother. “Well met mother.” I looked up to the Titan. “Rhea this is Geiravor the Spear of Asgard. Odin's wife.”
She tilted her head to rearguard mother then instead of offering her arm like mother was doing, she bent and kissed the back of mother's hand. “The pleasure is mine... and apparently yours too.”
Mother was blushing and I almost stepped forward in anger, nobody manipulates Geiravor! But I stopped when mother rose her chin in a defiant gesture with a sly smirk and said, “Pleasant as I find the effects of your presence, I alone chose who I am attracted to.” And she pointedly took father's arm.
I almost smirked as well, my Verr were showing me that mother's less evolved Verr had accelerated her metabolism as well. I felt like all we were doing here was playing a game.
Then Loki stepped up to her and tilted her head first one way then the other and holding out a scanner as she muttered, “Like puppets on a string. Dancing to the unsung tune. Dancing and spinning and spinning and dancing.” Then she seemed to step out of her madness a moment and said, “I need a larger sample.” And she offered her arm to Rhea, who bent down to bump forearms and Loki grabbed the back of her head and kissed her full on the lips. I was blinking in shock.
Then she quickly released her and stepped away to the counter by our service port and was mumbling off in her own world as she started scanning her own lips. My nanites showed me that her arousal was off the charts. Rhea looked stunned for a moment before she stood. I offered, “That was Loki. She doesn't always follow social protocol.”
Rhea stared after Loki for a moment then looked at me. “She doesn't seem to be affected by my charms. Your race is so full of interesting surprises. Such variety!”
Odin watched Loki and then looked satisfied with something before he turned to Rhea. “Please have a seat and break bread with us and we can discuss what brings you to Ragnarok.”
She nodded and put her elbow out and Mist took it instantly and led her to the seating area and sat with her. That was getting disturbing to me. Mist did not have the first or second generation evolved nanites, only the original Valkyrie nanites and it seems as though she was falling under Rhea's influence. If a Valkyrie could so easily be manipulated, this woman was even more dangerous than we had believed.
I glanced at Artemis, who was ever vigilant over in the corner. I shot her an apologetic look, we should have listened better to her warnings. I decided that it was just too dangerous to have the Titan in the citadel. I didn't know how much of a hold she had on Mist, one of our most dangerous fighters, but any hold was too much. I glanced over to Father as he sat, but he gave me one of his knowing head tilts, and raised eyebrow looks of warning not to talk. He was up to something.
Arina went to the service port and looked at what Loki was working on and she arched an eyebrow then called up some mead and food. She placed it on the table and Father motioned to it with a hand and said, “Please.”
She looked at the food then at all of us waiting. Her brow furrowed and she sat back. “No please, after you.”
Father snorted as he reached forward and poured a large mug of mead and took a large gulp, then started snacking on some of his favorite meats and fruits. He chuckled. “We'll get nowhere in our discussions if we can't look past our distrust of each other.”
She took a moment to ponder that then tilted her head in capitulation. Then she looked at Mist, “Pet, I'm parched.” Mist quickly poured her a large mug of mead and handed it to her. Rhea smiled broadly at her causing my Second to blush, then took a small sip. After a moment, she nodded and took a more substantial gulp. I hated how Mist was fawning over the Titan, it was unnatural.
Loki was suddenly by father's side, I didn't even realize she had moved. “I have what I need Uncle, I will have a solution on the morrow.”
Odin nodded and Loki started walking toward the door. Father stopped her as he spoke, “Loki, you will need someone to escort you back to your workshop on Earth.” He turned toward the enamored Valkyrie. “Mist, please accompany Loki and see to her safe return to Earth.”
Mist looked torn between doing as father said and staying with Rhea. The Titan narrowed her eyes at father, she knew his game, removing the one person in the room she seemed to have sway over from the equation. Finally, she forced her smile again and looked down at Mist. “It is ok, pet. You have pleased me. Do as your ruler asks of you.”
Mist was smiling as she stood quickly and headed toward the door with Loki. As almost an afterthought, she turned back to the room and said, “Good night all.” Then they were gone.
The moment the doors closed Rhea reached out to lay a hand on Father's arm as she laughed loudly and said, “Well played Odin! I like this game, it is exciting!” Then she timidly sampled a cold-cut sandwich then sat back to consume it with gusto. It looked ridiculously small in her huge, long fingered hands.
Mother spoke, “Why have you been watching us and why are you here Rhea?”
The Titan looked at her then father, most likely trying to figure out the hierarchy here. She inclined her head at mother then answered, “To offer our protection from the Frost Giants.”
I shook my head. “And we told you we didn't require your protection. We have defended our citadel from the Jotunn successfully in Folkvangr and destroyed their vessel. Now we are ridding Ragnarok of the hybrids and other Jotunn defensive systems.
Her eyes snapped wide. “You destroyed a Star Killer? Impossible!” She sat up nervously when we said nothing to that. “Ymir will hunt down your entire race and wipe it from existence for
that affront once the crew returns to Jotunheim!” She... feared Ymir?
I smirked. “There were no survivors, the Uniting of the races battled his nine warriors and I myself dispatched Ymir to the ages.”
She seemed frozen in place for a long moment. Then she blinked. “It was the Ginnungagap you took down?” She swallowed. “Ymir is vanquished?”
Then she threw her head back and started laughing in a delighted manner. “Then the scales have tipped, the balance sways in my favor! We can finally rid ourselves of the Jotunn!”
She looked at me with glittering eyes, I still felt an edge of arousal. Then she said, “I was going to play with you a little more Kara. But you are beyond precious to me now. You had done what we could not since before we created time.”
She chuckled again and sat back into her couch with a supremely and genuinely pleased look on her face and reached for more food. “Eat,” she prompted. “There will be time for discussion after we celebrate.”
So we did. Arina, Mother and I were ravenous, with our metabolisms artificially boosted, we needed fuel. We chatted about our battles with Ymir and his ship, the Ginnungagap. Didn't that indicate great grassless gap or void? We held back on certain details like the Star Killer vessel's prior damage before we met it in battle in space, and how my Verr figured out how to disable the power systems in Jotunn armor.
In turn, she shared how the Titans took most of the Olympian race away from the Frost Giants to battle for them instead. But all the new hybrid and defense systems the Jotunn had developed after their race split into two factions negated the advantage. They were always at parity, no matter what either side tried.
When the meal was over, we sat back and I asked, “No more games Rhea. Why are you here?”
She took a matter of fact tone as she said plainly, “Originally it was to take your races from the grasp of Ymir to try to use you to tilt the scales in our favor. But now I know the scales are already tipped, we can win this war at long last. You have given me a gift far greater than your lives. With you, I can finally be free of the Jotunn.”
Father raised a warning hand at her. “The Asgard will not fight for you, it is not our way.”
She chuckled again and checked her wrist console and said absently, “That should be enough time.” Then she narrowed her eyes at him and said, “You cannot stop me from taking what is already mine little man. This has been delightfully fun.”
Then there was a huge bright flash from her wrist console that took even my Verr by surprise and we were all seeing spots. Artemis and I were the first to recover and we saw the doors closing behind Rhea. We ran into the corridor with Inatra and Kate right behind us, to see Rhea diving into an elevator just as an arrow sliced cleanly through her arm and through the outer plasti-crete wall. Blueish blood spattered all over the wall, and I heard Rhea hiss in pain. “Artemis! What are you doing? She hasn't committed violence,” I said.
She growled back as we jumped into another elevator. “It is just like before. You don't understand!”
I called Tyr on coms to have him send Einherjer to make sure Rhea didn't endanger anyone. He seemed confused and really out of it. Kroth! I tried to puzzle out what Rhea was up to and her cryptic words before she dashed. I didn't understand why she was even running, she wasn't our captive.
When the elevator doors opened, the workers of the Central Spire were blocking us from getting out of the elevator, arms linked. They were mostly the men of the four races with a few Asgard women sprinkled in their mix, I could see Rhea's head above them all heading toward the main doors. I snapped out, “Make way for the ruling caste!” The people didn't move an inch.
I growled and just vaulted over the closest dozen or so, the others following suit. As soon as we landed we were surrounded by the workers. The largest Ragnarok among them, grappled with us, impeding our progress. Odin's beard, has everyone gone mad? I was assertive without harming our innocents and forced my way outside.
The moment we made it clear, we saw a Vanger man leading Rhea onto a wind rider. He was looking at her with adoring eyes. Then it hit me as I looked around, so was everyone in the crowd that was gathering around the wind rider. I could feel the distortion in the air as Artemis drew another arrow back. But the largest Ragnarok men near the wind rider stepped between Artemis and Rhea, blocking her line of sight.
The Olympian made a frustrated sound then she was leaping almost ten feet into the air and spinning and let lose an arrow in mid twist at the apogee of her jump. It sliced through the closing door and through the floor of the wind rider and embedded itself in the plasticrete landing pad below the vessel as it took to the air. She started tracking the ship with another arrow and I laid a hand on hers and had her lower her bow. “Hold Artemis, innocents may be harmed.”
She looked at me for a long moment then exhaled in frustration and nodded. We forced our way through the citizens blocking our path to the best of their abilities and loaded up in another wind rider and gave chase to the main gates.
There were hundreds of people in the courtyard at the gates. We had to jockey for a landing close to the gates because there were men lying on all of the landing platforms, trying to prevent our landing. When we got out we saw Rhea striding purposefully toward the gates and the hundreds of men gathered around and some Asgard women were following her.
I yelled out, “Rhea!” She turned and froze as we started pushing through the innocents toward her. All of the Ragnarok men in the crowd moved to intercept.
Then Artemis raised her bow and Rhea said loudly to the Vanger standing beside her that was tying his shirt around her arm wound to stem the bleeding, “If she shoots, kill yourself pet.” She handed him a knife that she had hidden somewhere in her dress. The man nodded and put a knife against his own throat without hesitation. By the Tree of Ages!
Artemis loosened the pull on the bowstring a bit, hesitated and lowered it slightly before raising it again and pulling back yelling, “I cannot allow you to do this again!”
Rhea cocked an eyebrow and laughed. “Oh, how precious, you think you have a choice here.” Then she called out, “All you big brutes out there, if she fires on me, kill everyone.” The Ragnarok men started smiling viciously as their gaze turned to the sea of men that just kept growing. Artemis hesitated again then dropped her bow.
Rhea smiled in a predatory manner. “There, now see how much easier it is when you do what you are told like my other pets here?” Then her eyes narrowed at Artemis, “That is twice you have committed sacrilege by shooting me with your accursed arrows. You need to be punished.” Then she looked down at the Vanger man whom she dwarfed and said casually, “Be a dear and kill yourself pet.”
Artemis screamed and my blood ran cold as the man slit his own throat without hesitation. The sickening thing is that he was smiling lovingly at the Titan as he collapsed. Rhea bent down and retrieved her knife and said, “Eww.” She wiped the blood off the blade on the shirt of an Asgard woman standing next to her.
Then she turned, like she was dismissing us and walked through the secondary gate shield, her thralls following behind her. I was stunned, I didn't know how to fight this battle, we couldn't lose more innocents like this. It had to be her pheromones, somehow she had spread them through the immediate area. Then an awful thought hit me as we pushed our way through the secondary shield and toward the line of Einherjer at the gate. The MEN at the gate! Tyr had sounded confused earlier!
As Rhea approached them, the men turned and pulled their sidearms, Tyr at their center. Rhea tilted her head back and laughed a silvery laugh and then said, “Oh please pets, lower your weapons.” My heart sank as the line of Gate Guardians lowered their sidearms.
Tyr half dropped his and stared at it like he didn't understand what he was doing. Then he looked at Rhea and raised it half way then with an effort he aimed at her again. He was sweating profusely. About a third of the line looked between Tyr and Rhea and then raised their weapons again. As we closed the distance between u
s, I smirked as I thought, “What now Rhea?”
The Titan cocked an eyebrow at Tyr, her eyes twinkled as she smiled widely. “Oh my. You, I like.” She stepped up to him and he kept his gun trained on her. She reached out a hand and seductively ran a finger along his arm and then his collarbone teasingly as she walked around him. She was only twelve inches or so taller than him. His hands were shaking as he held his weapon pointing forward as she stepped around him.
She purred, “You would make a fitting prize.” She leaned down as if she were going to kiss Tyr but then he shook his head once as if to clear it then he snarled, “Not if you were the last female alive!” And shoved the sidearm against her chin before she could kiss him.
She just laughed again and stepped past him giggling. “This is going to be such fun!” She left him quaking and looking down at his weapon then back toward her. Now she was between the outer shield and the men at the line. Finally, I had her, I knew what to do! I reached my hand out in front of me palm up and made a grasping motion. My Verr showed me the command was accepted by the citadel.
A moment later Rhea went to step out and slammed into the unyielding shield. I had put the gates on lock-down, none could pass through either shield. This locked out most of the men and few women following her out. There couldn't have been more than four or five hundred between the gates with us. She spun and eyed us, blood on her face from the impact. She screamed in outrage then locked eyes on me as I smirked. She hissed,“You irritating flea! Even the stupidest animal can be trained if a punishment is repeated.”
Then she yelled out to the men at the gate, “If she doesn't release us by the time I count three, kill everyone here!”
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