Loki paced in that damned cell that he had been captured on. Thick walls of glass surrounded him, beams of metal and steel towered even above his head. And yet, without even so much as a tad bit of comfort, he had a dark smirk plastered on his lips. Ah yes.. things were going just as he planned them to. Are they stupid enough to believe that this cage could contain him? Ha! What primitive beings, mortals were! Where were they hovering? He knew that he was on some sort of.. Midgardian air craft. Flying over some sort of distant sea near the ends of their world. He was curious to know if Midgard was in fact that.. or round. Everyone thought him to be stupid. Of course it was round! They would scoff, but he still wondered. Asgard was flat. There was an end. Where the Bifrost teetered off the edge. He should know. He fell from it. He sunk down briefly onto the hard metal cot placed near the back of the cell, rubbing his long, nimble fingers along his hairless jaw. Thinking.

The aircraft jerked and shuddered like it had ran into something. Out here? In the middle of the sea? That was to hit? A cloud? Loki's brows furrowed as his head snapped upward, wincing in distaste as an alarm began to blare, starting him from his daze. His green eyes flickered up toward the light that flashed overhead, out of his cell, the awful noise whining in his ears. He pressed his palms to each side of his head, in hopes to drown out the insentient blabbing. And then, it stopped. His hands slowly dropped to his lap, and agent Natasha Romanov burst through the door, blue eyes wide and angry.

"What did you do?"

She snarled instantly. Loki's eyes widened, not with false innocence, but in clear confusion.

"What are you talking about? What am I to do?"

He snapped back, gesturing around him with his hands. Natasha hissed in annoyance, and began punching a few buttons on the control panels of his cell. No doubt trying to see if he had been able to get out, or work something so alarm would have gone off.

She had no such luck. Eventually, she found nothing wrong, and she scowled, looking at him. "Tell me exactly what you did. It felt like we were hit by something, then nothing was there. All the systems are malfunctioning."

Natasha began pressing a few buttons, when the lights flickered above the both of them, then went off. She groaned, and smashed her fists against the useless array of buttons.

"See? This is what I'm talking about!"

With an idle wave of his hand, his palms glowed with enough light to sustain the both of them, and for her to see he had done absolutely nothing. She tightened the skin around her big blue eyes, and she groaned.

"Great, what? Is the ship just going crazy? Or are we?" She rubbed her temples with taut fingertips, eyes closed, lips pressed into a tight line.

"I will be back with flashlights. Don't move."

Natasha turned, and fled the room, body jerking as she broke into a fast jog. Was she afraid of the dark? Loki snickered briefly, sinking back down on the cot, fingers carefully fanning out the backs of his leather trench coat, so he could sit down fully. The bluish light faded from his hands, since it had grown quite tiring after a while of doing so. Pitch blackness swallowed him. It was so thick, it was hard to take in any sort of deep breaths. He grimaced, shifting his eyes downward when he was suddenly able to see, quite clearly, his breath. Seeping from his lips in an icy sort of cloud. Was it cold? He could never really tell. Being the wretched monster he was. Nothing was cold. Nothing was hot. Nothing was nothing. His eyes flickered around his dark cell, feeling a twinge of uneasiness for once. What was happening to the ship? Eventually, he actually began to worry for his own safety. Loki chewed the inside of his cheek, head jerking abruptly to the left when he heard a noise.

A small sort of laugh. A cackle. Movement fluttered outside of his glass cell, and he twisted his fingers against the hem of his leather robes so tightly, his knuckles blanched white. His green eyes narrowed as he boldly shouted,

"Show yourself!"

His voice was unwavering, which he took pride in, since he was frightened to death on the inside. He raised his chin, eying the glass. The lights flickered on briefly outside of his cage, and there stood a woman. The first thing he noticed about her, on an instant, was her hair. Her hair was as black as his, blacker than night itself. But it.. moved. It curled around her neck and shoulders, shivering and writhing like snakes, yet fading at the very tips, like smoke. Her skin was pale like the bone, eyes large, and a seductively dangerous red. Red? It looked red.. well, now that he looked closer, her eyes were more of an amber. The tips of her fingers flickered and faded, like the ends of her hair had. Her full lips twitched into a smile. And wow. Despite how petrified he was, Loki had to admit, the woman was.. very stunning.

He was shaking, his green eyes wide in anxiety.

"Who.. who are you? Why are you here?"

The woman did not answer, just stood there, her violet gown covering down to the tips of her toes. Framing her full hips and high breasts nicely. Who was she? She didn't speak, which made things a whole lot creepier.

"Speak, damn you!"

Loki demanded, rising to his feet, yet not advancing toward the side of his cell, just remaining near his cot, his muscles rigid. The woman offered him another cackle, the eerie sound floating through his cage and the large room. Bouncing off the walls, repeating itself, before fading. Loki grimaced, before eying her more closely, dropping his voice into barely a whisper,

"Speak to me, sweet apparition.."

The woman cocked her head at that, then raised her chin, grinning at him.

"Apparition? No. I am not a ghost, Loki of Asgard. Hardly."

Loki snorted in exasperation, ignoring the fact that she knew who he was.. for now. He moved closer, glaring at her darkly, lips pulled back in an irritated snarl.

"Who are you then? Speak!"

The woman laughed again, leaning against the glass wall, glancing around the room with calm, reddish amber eyes.

"Why do you wish to know who I am?"

Loki smashed his fist against the glass wall, making her jump, skid away from him with an outraged expression. Loki glared at her, daring her to say anything else to him in that aspect.

"You filthy, defiant quim! How dare you question me! How dare you question my motives! You being here upset my plans to escape this wretched aircraft! Now I demand to know just who you are, and who sent you!"

Everything happened so fast. One moment, the ghostly woman was flickering outside of his glass containment cell, the next, she had him pinned by his throat against the wall. Standing inside his cell.. solid. Not fading. Warm, eyes narrowed, her black nails digging into his throat. His feet didn't touch the ground. He gasped for air, and struggled, clawing at her hand, looking at her in startled outrage. The woman sneered up at him, hair writhing faster. Like snakes who had been angered.

"I have long looked for my equal in this universe, Loki, and I have found you, and I must admit, you disappoint me. You want to know who I am? I am Eris. The goddess of discord. The being of chaos."