Loki's fist slammed against the thick glass of his cell. Romanoff jumped back, fear clear on her face.

"I won't touch Barton," Loki spat, "Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull."

Natasha turned away from him in disgust, her curled fists shaking.

"This is my bargain you mewling quim!" he finished venomously.

Gentle sobs came from Natasha.

"You're a monster," she whispered.

"Oh no," Loki said, laughing cockily, "You brought the monster."

As if someone had flipped a switch, her head shot up and she turned on Loki, not a single tear staining her face. Oh, she was good.

"So Banner," she realised, "That's your play."

"What?" Loki asked, genuinely confused.

The Black Widow strode purposefully towards the door, her hand going to the intercom to inform everyone of Loki's plan. I jumped hastily out of her way, careful not to make a sound. She thanked him smugly before exiting the chamber. Loki turned away from the glass, a snarl of pure unadulterated anger ripping from his lips.

"Are you going to stand there all day or actually speak to me?" he asked roughly.

I let the light flow normally around me, taking a step towards him.

"I'll speak to you when I don't feel like I'm talking to a spoilt little rich boy who didn't get his way," I said sternly.

Loki's shoulders sagged heavily as he turned back to face me. Even though the man in front of me looked like my Loki, I knew in my heart they were not the same person. Out of everything about him, it was his eyes that gave it away. I couldn't see it before, but he had dead eyes, with no spark of life within them. That saddened me more than anything else. Also, where they…blue?

"Forgive me, Eden," he said. "These Midgardian whelps annoy me no end."

"A Midgardian whelp like me, you mean?" I asked, getting seriously pissed off at all this.

He cringed slightly at my tone. "Not you, love," he whispered, "Never you."

I shook my head sadly. "Tell me what happened, Loki," I said, walking up the catwalk to stand directly in front of him. "What made you like this?"

"My so called family, that's what," he said, anger beginning to lace its way in to his tone once more. "Did you also know I was a frost giant, a Jotun? Was I the only one not to know?"

"I found out about an hour ago," I confided. "But that doesn't change who you are."

"Of course it does," Loki snapped. "It all makes sense now. Don't you see, Eden? All my life I have lived in Thor's shadow, and now I realise why. Odin could never have a frost giant sitting on the throne of Asgard. The Jotun's are monsters, destroyers of lands. Who could ever call on his son?" He bowed his head, so much bitterness rolling off him it was palpable. "Who could love one?"

"Well, I'd be the expert at that," I said quietly.

"What?" he chocked, barely able to get the word out.

"I still love you, Loki," I said, looking him square in the eyes, "You, the supposed monster." I stepped closer to the glass, resting my hand against it. If there were no glass I would have laid my hand on his cheek. "I guess that's the beauty of the emotion," I rambled. "That no matter what the other person does, if it is true love it won't matter one little bit. I don't think I'll ever stop loving you, Loki; not now, not ever. In fact, I -"

- Never managed to finish that sentence due to Loki's lips on mine. We clung desperately to each other. This was the first real contact we'd had since Loki landed here. The kiss was ferocious and passionate and everything I'd craved in our long time apart. Teeth clashed, tongues battled and lips pulled, trying to get as close as possible to the other. Maybe it was the thought that I could save him from himself. Maybe it was that I hadn't seen him in a year and missed him like hell. At that moment, I couldn't have cared less.

After what felt too short a bliss we had to pull away for air, out lungs burning. Loki pressed his forehead to mine, looking me deeply in the eyes. That was the first time I saw any glimpse of my Loki, the loveable trickster who was just misunderstood – with thankfully green eyes again. Maybe it was a trick of the light. We stood there for a few moments in silence, just enjoying the sensation of being in each others arms, the one place we both truly belonged.

"How come you're on this side of the glass?" I asked eventually.

He chuckled gently, "As if a puny wall of glass can hold me?"

I joined his laughter. "Fair point," I agreed. "But how come there's a lack of alarm bell and S.H.I.E.L.D agents swarming the place with guns?"

"A little trick you taught me," he said, looking over his shoulder.

To our right there were identical copies of us, made purely of light, stood as if we were having a real conversation. There weren't any tell tale flickers, either.

"My, my," I said, smiling up at him, "You have been practicing."

"There are plenty of other things I'd love to show you…" Loki murmured, kissing his way down my neck. I place my hand on his chest, gently stopping him.

"Not here," I said, breathless at his attentions.

"Then where?" Loki pleaded, "When?"

I sighed and rested my head against his chest.

"I don't know Loki," I replied honestly. "You're trying to take over my planet. It's going to make it a little hard for us to see each other on a regular basis."

"I don't suppose there's any way of convincing you to come with me?" he asked.

I shook my head. "My commitments are here, Loki," I whispered. "To my home, my people."

I felt his hands curl to fists at my back. I pulled back and looked at him, concerned. The man who stood before me was the mask Loki so often wore these days, his face contorted in silent fury. It was no trick of the light, for once more he had shining blue eyes.

"How can you stand by them?" Loki asked. "Even now they argue amongst themselves like petulant children."

Loki made a sweeping gesture with his hand. The air before us rippled and I was shown a scene in the laboratory Bruce and Tony were working in. All the Avengers were present, and tensions were rising. Looking closely at the various screens around the room, I saw blueprints for what looked like weapons. Was S.H.I.E.L.D using the Tesseract to forge weapons? What were they, idiots?

"It is a signal to the other worlds that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor was saying.

"A higher form?" Steve asked.

"You forced our hand," Fury defended. "We had to come up with something -"

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony summarised, "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury snapped, quickly loosing his patience

"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck deep -" Steve began.

"Wait, wait, hold on," Stark said, "How is this now about me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Steve said, "Isn't everything?"

I groaned aloud. Guys…

"I thought humans were more evolved than this?" Thor muttered.

"Excuse me?" Fury said, "Do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

From then on the arguing increase and got worse and worse. I swiped my hand through the image, embarrassed that I associated myself with those people. Give me a squad of demigods – even with Drew in it - any day over these so called 'superheroes'.

"You see what I mean?" Loki said gently in my ear. "You should not be standing with these people. You are so much more than they could ever hope to be." He began to gently run his hands up and down my sides, causing me to shudder. "Come with me," Loki coaxed. "Be my queen. Together we could rule -"

"At what cost?" I asked suddenly, stepping away from him. "Loki, even though they're a shambles I cannot turn my back on my people. I love you, and don't you dare ever doubt that, but this is my home. I don't know what happened to you, but I need to go to my team and sort them out."

I went back to him and pressed a gentle, chaste kiss to his lips.

"And don't you dare think that this is finished," I warned him.

I focused on my irritation at my so called 'team', just so that I could get over the feeling of my heart tearing into little pieces.

So that's that! Loki and Eden's relationship isn't really going well, is it? And the rest of the Avengers arguing probably isn't helping, either... Still, R&R! And, if I don't update before Christmas, happy holidays and have a fabulous New Year! Fronk x