10—

He ran his hand through the inky substance as it loomed around on his lap. It was crying out in pain, obviously hurt by the demi-god's magic. He was very surprised that Loki had managed to clean Lina of his pet. There was more to the prince than met the eye.

But none of it mattered.

"Shhh, my pet," he cooed, stroking the darkness, "you'll be okay."

"Lord Fayne," a creature croaked, crawling towards the man in the throne. "The preparations have been made. She'll be arriving any moment now."

"Excellent." He looked down at the creature and handed his pet over to it. "See that this one gets taken care of. That demi-god did a number on her and I want her in perfect condition for her new host."

The servant cradled the dark creature in his hands and bent his head towards his master. "Yes sir," he answered.

Fayne watched as the servant crawled away and leaned back in his throne, eyes closed.

+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+

Steve sat in the conference room looking through more files. His eye was still stinging from the confrontation a few days ago that left him not only injured, but without a shield. He flipped through more papers, trying to distract his mind from everything that happened, mentally scolding himself for getting so involved. He should have known better than to interfere. He should have known better than to start having feelings for the agent that was assigned to the case.

Then again, she wasn't really an agent was she?

He groaned and tossed the file in front of him, resting his head against the glass table.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he muttered to himself.

She watched him with a pang of guilt as he rested his head on the table. Lina remembered everything that had happened between them. The laughing, the talking, the dancing; she especially remembered how he fought to protect her. She wished there was some way to make it less painful for him.

"Steve?" she called from the doorway.

He shot up, his eyes locked with hers. "Princess Sparrow."

"Please," Lina replied, putting her hands up defensively, "call me Lina."

Steve's posture relaxed slightly as he sat back down in his chair. He pulled uncomfortably at his t-shirt. "I…um…"

She walked over to the table to join him. Sitting down, she rested her arms in front of her and looked at Steve. "I came to…apologize for everything that's happened here."

Steve laughed to himself as he shook his head. "You have nothing to apologize for. I," he started, leaning back in his chair, "got too involved."

She looked down at her hands, her fingers fidgeting with each other. "I understand why you found comfort in me the way you did," she said. She pursed her lips together, thinking hard about her words so she could convey the right message. "I hope that you find someone one day to bring you that same comfort." One hand reached for the pendant that was hanging from her neck. She looked up at Steve. He was watching her hands, seeing her reach for the pendant.

Finally looking away from her, he gazed down at the papers in front of him. "I understand. And I appreciate the well wishes. And…I hope you and Loki are happy."

She smiled slightly. "Thank you…Steve?"

He looked at her, a slight sadness in his eyes. "Yeah, Lina?"

"I'll always be here to help you out, okay? You need a wingman and bam, I'll be there for you."

He smiled a genuine smile for the first time in ages, causing Lina to breathe out a breath of relief. Laughing, he replied, "Thank you. I'll call you up the next time Tony takes me out for a drink."

She smiled and nodded, then stood up to leave. As she reached the door, she stopped to look at Steve again. "Chin up, Cap."

He nodded and saluted her with a smirk.

+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+

"50 more missing persons brought back to their homes," Fury said to no one in particular. He was sitting in his office with Maria and Natasha going through new files that had come in.

"All of them with the marks," Natasha added, thumbing through a file.

"All of them with missing memories," Maria finished, laying a file on the table in front of her. "And we can't even narrow down the victim profiles. They've been anyone from young to old, male and female, no preference on race or nationality."

Fury's face was still in deep thought, staring at nothing. "That's not what's bothering me."

Maria and Natasha looked up at him, waiting for his words.

"Why isn't anything happening yet?"

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked.

"Loki broke whatever it was that was in Lina. It disappeared and she's back to normal. Why didn't that trigger anything?" Fury glanced from one woman to the other, reading their expressions. "Weren't either of you half expecting for something major to happen now that it's been proven that these marks can disappear from a victim?"

Natasha and Maria looked at each other with slightly worried glances, then looked back at Nick.

"Whoever is behind this must feel very confident about his plans. I'm thinking he or she has some kind of a back-up plan. They have a back-up plan," Nick emphasized. "We don't even have an initial plan!"

+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+

She giggled when she stood in the doorway of the hospital room. Loki was fast asleep in the hospital bed and Thor was dozed off in the chair next to him. It was nice to see the two brothers being brothers again. It was just nice, actually, to remember who they were to her and why she loved them both so dearly.

Regaining all of her memories felt like the best gift anyone could have bestowed upon her. To look at Loki and feel a rush of feelings overcome her was one of the happiest things she had ever experienced. She was happy to be back in his arms after the 1,000 year ordeal had been figured out. Lina couldn't wait to go back home and see Frigga and finally get their lives back on track.

And the wedding…

Bruce tapped her on the shoulder, bringing Lina out of her thoughts. She turned around and greeted him with a smile. "Hey, Dr. Banner."

"As I've said before, just 'Bruce' is fine," he corrected, smirking slightly. He walked and stood next to Lina, looking into the room with her. "He's doing much better. I think it took a lot out of him to help you break free of whatever that thing was. Should be only a few more days in here and he'll be able to leave."

"I can't thank you enough, Bruce," Lina said, facing him.

"For what?" he asked, his hands now hiding in his pockets once more.

"Just…for everything." She smiled at him, conveying everything with unspoken word. Between keeping her well to taking care of Loki, Bruce had done a great deal for them.

He smiled, nodded, then turned to walk back to his lab. He was analyzing a sample of the black substance that had been left behind on Lina. It wasn't strong enough to take over a new host, so it was his and Tony's new test subject.

Walking into the room, Lina put a hand on Thor's shoulder and shook him lightly. He woke with a start, his face strong and fearless as he looked around and saw that it was only Lina that had disturbed him. Thor's face immediately relaxed and eased into a smile.

"What is it, Little One?" he asked.

"I came to relieve you of your Loki-Watching duties," Lina explained. "Go get some sleep in a real bed."

He nodded as he looked back at his brother, then back to Lina. "It's good to have you back."

"Good to be back," she replied, smiling.

Thor stood up and wrapped his arms around the small woman. He then pulled back, looked at her again, smiled more, then walked out of the room to his own.

She resumed Thor's place in his seat and took Loki's left hand in hers. She rubbed it with her thumb and took in his features. He looked peaceful as he slept. She couldn't help but smile to herself and allow some tears to stream down her cheeks. She missed him dearly and couldn't imagine what he had gone through to find her throughout those years. Thor had told her a lot had happened, but he wanted her to hear it from Loki.

Resting her head on his hand, Lina took a deep breath, more tears escaping from her eyes.

Loki's eyes fluttered when he woke and realized he wasn't alone with his brother any longer. He saw Lina resting her head down and could feel his hand getting wet with her tears. Without shifting too much, he waved his right hand in the air and conjured the flower that he had pinned in her hair many years ago.

The odor was enough to cause Lina to look up suddenly. She saw the flower first, then looked up at Loki's eyes.

"Why are you crying, my flower?" he asked, his face saddened by her tears.

She tried to smile, but it caused more tears to be pushed out of her eyes. "I'm just," she began, her crying making it difficult to speak. She tried to gather her composure as she took a deep breath. "I'm relieved that I'm with you once again."

He smiled brightly at her as he handed her the flower. "As am I, darling. Come here," he said, pulling his hand away from her and opening his arms to her.

Lina kicked off her shoes and climbed into the bed with Loki, her head resting between his shoulder and neck.

He rested his chin on her hair as he held her close. "I've missed you greatly…please don't leave me ever again." He felt her nod vigorously as she buried her face in his chest. It was a thrill to finally be able to hold Lina in his arms again. The one person who brought him sanity, care, and all of the love he could imagine was finally with him once more. He could breathe easy knowing she was found and well. There was so much to tell her about her absence and about what he experienced. He wanted to bring her home at that very moment so they could lie under the stars of Asgard and exchange all of the missed hugs, kisses, and words that were so much needed while she was gone.

He brought his fingers under her chin and lifted it so he could look at her. Her eyes stared into the deepest parts of his soul, as his did hers. He got lost in them, the nine realms a mere speck to the galaxies he could explore within those bright brown orbs. He smiled as a few tears escaped his eyes and Lina giggled as hers did the same. "I have something for you."

Loki and Lina adjusted so that he could sit up in the bed. Undoing the chain around his neck, he slipped the ring off of it and held it out for her. "This has been missing you for quite some time. Seeing as how you didn't even get to wear it for more than a day, you should be reunited with it again."

She smiled as she held out her left hand for Loki to put her engagement ring on it. The emerald that was sitting in the center looked just as bright as she remembered, if not brighter. Lina looked back up at Loki who was also smiling as he watched her react again to her ring.

"Loki…I love you."

"I love you too, Lina. And I promise to never lose you again." He pulled her into a hug and held her tightly, both finally taking in one another after their long separation.

They were finally happy, but they both knew deep down that their problems were only beginning to unravel from here.

+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+

They brought the body in and placed it on the table in front of Fayne. He walked over and inspected it. "Is she ready?"

"This is everything that we could find and bring back together."

Fayne nodded. "Bring my pet."

The creatures scurried around, telling one to tell another to tell another what their master wanted. Soon, the same creature that had taken Fayne's pet away was bringing it back.

"Is she well?"

"Extremely."

"Good." Fayne took the inky creature from his servant and stroked it like a cat. "Here's your new home, sweetie."

He let the inky creature crawl all over the body of its new host, taking in every nook, curve, and line that it could find. It seeped into her skin and began to wake her up. Her nerves, senses, mind were all the creature's to control. As it settled in, the Asgardian rune made itself welcome on her back.

Her eyes fluttered open, a light red glow around her brown eyes. She sat up, blinking a few more times and taking in her surroundings. Her eyes found Fayne and she suddenly smiled. "I didn't think I'd come back from the dead this way, but it's definitely a pleasant surprise."

"And to think I'd lost you after all this time."

"You didn't lose me," she corrected, kicking her feet over the edge of the table to face Fayne. "You were just too lazy to come get me."

"Until now, I didn't have the means."

"Excuses, excuses. What's the plan?"

Fayne smiled as he walked over to the woman and wrapped his arms around her waist. "To finish the job you started, my dear."

The woman laughed as her mouth curved into a twisted smile. "So tell me…how is my beloved sister, Lina?"

Dreams in Azure: I hope you're feeling better! I was out sick this week too so I feel your pain. thanks for taking the time to review! And yes, you're right on the money when it comes to my stories. I'm glad we think the same :) Of course it's okay if part of the chapter was funny haha. I try to put some humor in there occasionally:D

Can't wait to hear from more of you! Hope you like the story!

With love,
sparrowlina