The Asgardian dungeons were dull, quite simply. Even with all the luxuries given to a prince of Asgard. Or a former prince of Asgard, perhaps. Indeed, Loki's hefty stack of books laid read and rejected atop of his mahogany table. The man himself lay on his bed, tossing a metal cup into the air and catching it once more. How he wished there was something else to do. Something that would distract him from his thoughts. He'd had quite enough of those.
As if the Norns themselves had heard him, a girlish yell sounded from the other side of his prison. Curious.
Loki caught his cup for the last time and sat up in his bed. His clever blue eyes settled on the source of the noise. There was a girl. There was a girl in his prison cell. How odd.
He watched as she rose from the floor, adjusted her thick coat and red hat before looking in awe at the flickering gold wall in front of her.
Her red lips parted as she stretched out a pale hand to touch the deadly, electrifying, dangerous, magical barrier that would most certainly throw her across the room or worse.
Loki couldn't have that. Just as things were getting interesting. No, his new toy wasn't dying on him yet.
"I wouldn't recommend doing that," he said.
The girl jumped, retracted her hand and spun ungracefully around to face him, bumping into his table and nearly spilling his books onto the floor.
"Woah," she exclaimed. "Where did you come from?"
"I think I should be asking you that. What brings you here?"
"Car keys," she shrugged, her eyes flitting around the room as if searching for them.
"What?"
"My intern lost the keys. For our car. So I thought I'd go in and get them and now I'm here...wherever here is," the girl explained, rolling her full lips together in thought.
"Asgard," Loki said.
"As-who?"
"Asgard."
"Oh. Like Thor and myer-myer Asgard?"
"The very same. If by 'myer-myer' you mean Mjölnir."
"That's what I said," the girl huffed. "Man, Jane is going to be pissed."
"Jane?" Loki said aloud.
It couldn't be...could it? Could this girl be friends with the infamous mortal that had captured Thor's heart?
He recognised her now; he had seen her before through the eyes of the Destroyer. Out of all the mortals, the Norns had brought him Darcy Lewis.
"Yeah, problem?" Darcy retorted, gaining his attention once more.
"Jane, who?"
No harm in checking.
"Uh, Foster. That alright with you...funky armour guy?" she said after looking him over.
And she did not know who he was. Time to enlighten her, he supposed.
"My name is Loki," he corrected, rising from the bed and to his full height, which was considerably taller than her. "And that is perfectly alright with me, Darcy."
"How d'you know my name? Did you say Loki, because I swear Thor's brother...is called...Loki. Huh. This kinda looks like a prison."
"It kinda is."
Darcy frowned before her eyes lit up in thought, realising fully who was in front of her. "Hey, you owe me an IPod."
"A what?"
"IPod. SHIELD took it because your dad kicked Thor out, which was sorta your fault, so you owe me an IPod."
"It was not entirely my fault," Loki retorted.
"Was too."
"It was not-"
"Was too."
"It was not!" he snapped, in disbelief he was arguing with this human girl. "If anyone owes you an 'Ipod', it is Thor. And is that really the only bone you have to pick with me? I did nearly rule over your world."
"Um...lemme see. No, I think that was all. Um. I should really be going," she said, uncertainty creeping into her voice and expression.
At least the girl had some sense.
"Be my guest," Loki smirked, spreading his arms wide in gesture to the high security cell.
Darcy's gaze swept the entire cell before she muttered a resounding "Crap."
Loki restrained his smirk. "You got in, surely you can get out."
"You'd think, but no."
"What a pity. It seems we will be spending quite some time together, unless the ground decides to swallow you up."
"You know what, I'd like that."
"Is my company so terrible?" Loki said, taking an experimental step toward her. He smirked as she took a step back.
"Stay away from me. I'll tase...damn where's my taser?" she muttered, fumbling frantically in her coat pockets.
His thin lips curled into a grin. "Are you afraid of me?"
"Of course I'm afraid of a crazy alien."
"I am not crazy," Loki frowned.
"That's what Eric said," Darcy replied.
"Selvig? Tell me, how is his mind? It's been a while since I last paid it a visit," Loki quipped.
"It's...it's been better. I mean, he used to wear pants a lot more."
"He's not wearing pants?"
"He wasn't wearing anything at one point."
"Hm." Loki managed to say.
"And he keeps saying something about...uh, something. What was it? The...alignment? No. The-"
"Convergence."
"Yeah, that was it."
Loki smiled. Of course. How had he forgotten about the convergence? Oh that's right; it's hard to keep track of time deep in the dungeons.
He had the convergence to thank for Darcy's appearance. He was relieved it was her and not a Bilgesnipe. That would not have been pretty.
"Do you know what the convergence is, Darcy Lewis?" Loki asked, stepping forward until he was right before her, ignoring the discomfort on her face.
"Not...exactly," she mumbled.
"It is when the worlds align creating a pathway that anyone is able to cross. You, me, an all manner of dark creatures that could rip your world to shreds. And once the worlds pass, the pathway is closed."
"For how long?"
"Only about five thousand years."
"So I could be stuck here for five thousand years," she dead-panned.
"Of course not. You would be dead by then."
Loki smirked at her horrified expression.
"The hell am I staying here," she said, inching past him to walk to the opposite side of the cell, past his bed and to the golden barrier which she was careful not to touch.
"Hey!" she shouted into the corridor, "Anyone out there?! I'm not supposed to be here, I'm American! I have rights!"
Loki chuckled behind her, causing her to turn around and glare at him.
"What're you laughing at?"
"Nice try, but you are not going anywhere."
"And why not?"
"How can they release a girl that isn't here?" he questioned, grinning at his trick and at her confused expression.
Eventually, Darcy caught sight of herself as she raised her hand to adjust her hat once more, finding that her hand wasn't there. Nor were her legs, or her coat or any part of her.
"Oh my god. I don't have hands. I don't have legs. What the hell," she panicked.
Loki laughed, thoroughly enjoying her distress at her new found invisibility.
"You did this?" she demanded, shock written across her features. "Okay, that's pretty cool, but I still need a body, Loki."
"If you insist," he replied, casting another spell. He was secretly pleased that she found his spell 'cool', which he took to be positive.
Darcy looked down at herself, thoroughly amazed as she watched skin and clothes materialise from thin air. After which, a hand and arm appeared, but they weren't her own, though she could control the movements as if it were.
"Hey, what have you done? This isn't...is this your hand? Woah, this is really weird," she mused, studying the hand in front of her. "You have nice hands," she added, before she transformed fully into Loki.
Loki frowned. This wasn't how people usually responded to his tricks. Usually, they would get scared or annoyed and would certainly not pay him complements. He continued to watch her as she examined his illusion. He watched as she found an item in her pocket that allowed her to view herself, which then caused her to laugh as she pulled faces with his visage.
She put the item away and turned her attention to his books. She picked them up one by one to read the titles, still charmed to look like Loki.
"'The history of sorcery in Asgard'," she spoke, running Loki's pale fingers over the cover. "Hey, can I do magic now I look like you?"
"No," Loki responded simply, approaching the table. "Be careful with that," he warned.
"Why?"
"It is not mine."
"Then who's is it?"
"My mothers," he said. If he could still call her that. If he was still her son after all he had done. And if she were still his mother after all he had discovered.
Darcy huffed, missing the melancholy mood that had settled over him, "Is everyone on Asgard magical?"
"You are not," Loki smirked.
She gave him a sideways glance as if to hit him for his remark, but thought better of it.
The smile lingered on Loki's face. It was uplifting to tease and joke with someone so easily who was not wrapped up painfully in his past. However, this could not go on. She would need to leave and he would need to go on with his punishment.
Loki clicked his fingers, letting his illusion over her slip.
He knew she should leave now, before he wound up getting attached to the girl.
"Aw, I was enjoying that," she whined, having lost his image.
He ignored her statement and strode over to his table where he picked up the silver cup he was twirling previously. He turned it over in his hands before tossing into the corner of the room Darcy first appeared from. Instead of clattering against the hard surface, it disappeared through the floor.
Darcy gasped, "How did you do that?"
Loki turned to her, "It was there the whole time. You best go before the worlds pass," he spoke.
In actuality, the worlds were far from passing as the convergence had only just begun, but he chose to leave that out.
Darcy looked up at him with a slight smile on her red lips. "Thanks," she said, making her way over to the invisible portal.
"Y'know, you're not that bad really," she said before she turned and vanished.
Loki frowned once more. What a strange girl. He sat back down on his bed, where he was before all this started, musing that he was no longer bored. Darcy had distracted him from this dreary place and even put a smile on his face.
A few minutes passed before he heard a clatter. Loki's eyes rose to see his cup rolling across the floor. He walked over and bent to retrieve it, wondering why it was sent back. After turning it over, he frowned in puzzlement, seeing a set of numbers scrawled across the surface.
