Rescue

Thunder

Mostly a filler chapter; sorry, it sucks

Two weeks before school started, Thor showed up. He brought Loki and Brunhilde with him and, suffice it to say, they were surprised at the new child with the Avengers.

"Avengers! We have arrived; sorry we are later than we had hoped to come. Who is this child?"

The Avengers noticed Sy seemed to turn into a different person: while he had just been a happy boy bantering as they trained, he now turned cold and reserved as the Asgardians walked into the room.

"Your Majesties," Thor was a little surprised at the title, but Loki simply narrowed his eyes at Sy.

"You aren't human, are you?"

Sy shook his head. "No, I'm not. Do you remember the Loriens?" he asked evenly.

Thor looked amazed, "You're a Lorien?"

Loki scoffed, "The Loriens are extinct, Thor. Do not be fooled."

"We are not extinct. My parents were off-planet during the annihilation and ten children Garde with their Cepâns escaped in two ships. Or did Heimdell not tell you this? Did he even tell you we were being attacked?" Sy grew more and more hostile as he spoke. The Avengers thought to intervene but Loki shook his head subtly. This was not a matter in which they should interfere.

Thor was shocked and responded, "Heimdell alerted us. We were preparing to aid you—"

"We were your allies!" Sy interrupted Thor, roaring. "Where was Asgard when the Mogadorians invaded?! Where was Asgard when my people were slaughtered by the millions?! Did Odin even plan on honoring our alliance; or did he just want our aid whenever the Frost Giants wanted war?"

Thor looked appalled, "We were amassing our armies! We were prepared to defend you but my father reported to the nation that the Loriens were driven to extinction before we could aid them!"

"Then why didn't you fulfill the terms of our alliance and challenge the Mogadorians?" Sy's tone was cold.

"What would you have had us do, child? Slaughter the entire Mogadorian race?" Loki asked, amused.

"It would not have been unwarranted. Do not refer to me as 'child'; I have been appointed as representative of my people, and you will refer to me as such a position warrants." Sy took a deep breath and exhaled through his nostrils before straightening. "I heard what happened to Asgard. Lorien is in no position to even attempt to rebuild diplomatic relations with Asgard, but the alliance was never officially dissolved. While you cannot expect our . . . relationship to have the same level of cordiality as it once did, we do not wish to destroy our chances at friendship. Both of our peoples lost our planets; we cannot afford to throw away allies."

Thor was stunned. This representative had every right to declare Lorien enemies of Asgard for his father's actions and was instead deciding to remain allies. "I am extremely grateful for your decision, ambassador. I will strive to undo the wrongs done by my father in our relationship. May I know your name?"

Sy inclined his head, "Vintoran Sy, your majesty."

Thor offered, "If I understand correctly, there are twenty others besides yourself. If they require sanctuary, I would be honored to have them stay with my people in New Asgard, here on Earth."

"You misunderstand, but it is no fault of yours. All the Cepâns died more than four years ago, as did five of the ten Garde that escaped. As far as we know, there are only six of us left in the universe." Thor looked pained at Sy's words.

"Six—then I assume your parents . . ." Sy nodded. "I'm sorry. May I ask: how did they die?" The other Avengers looked interested in this, only Natasha knew what had happened. "Thor, let's not get into that right now," she interjected. Sy looked at her thankfully. "We were going to start a movie night after training. Would you care to join us?"