Loki paced relentlessly on the icy balcony of his hidden abode in a secluded mountain range of Jotunheim. He was a king. A king denied his rightful throne upon not one, but TWO realms. First Asgard and now Midgard as well were out of his control. His hands mindlessly turn the Tesseract over and over. He stops pacing and stares deep into the glowing blue cube, his dark brows creasing together in frustration. But his frustration quickly turned to surprise when the glowing swirls of the cube began to turn, slowly at first and then rapidly. The whole Tesseract began to tremble in his hands, burning his fingers with a sudden icy heat. He dropped it to the floor and it slid on the ice toward the edge of the balcony.

"No!" Loki shouted and rushed toward the cube that was glowing brighter and more intensely with every passing moment. Just before he could grab it, Loki was blown back from the Tesseract and slammed against the wall. If it weren't for his immortality, surely every bone in his godly body would have been shattered. He shook his head from the blow and blinked his eyes quickly trying to regain his blurred vision. When he finally could see again, he found a woman standing on his balcony. He blinked his eyes on confusion and hastily pulled himself to his feet.

"How did you get here Jotun woman?" He asked the blue-skinned figure demandingly.

She turned her head to face him, her shoulder-length black hair brushing against her face in the breeze and locked a pair of bright silver eyes on him.

Loki froze in his tracks under her fierce gaze, but when she spoke, he stepped back in utter shock, and un-admittedly a flash of fear. Her voice shook him from the inside out and reverberated with power, "Give me your cloak."

Loki immediately obliged, too stunned to do anything to the contrary and draped his cloak around her bare frame. His fingers brushed against her shoulder for just a moment, and they burned with a frozen shock from the encounter. Who was this creatu-

"I am the Tesseract." She said, "Yes, I can read your mind."

"How can this be?"

"I am the most powerful being in all the Nine Realms. I may take the form of whatever creature I wish."

Loki smirked interestedly, "And what, pray tell, has prompted such a form as this…" His eyes took a moment to appreciate her slender frame and feminine curves which seemed all the more appealing to him given her Jotun like coloration.