VALENCIA

From the moment that I returned to Midgard, I knew I didn't belong here. I wasn't the same person that I was when I left. I was stronger, I was fueled by rage, and I was ready to take back what had been stolen from me. This was no longer the home that I remembered. This was no longer where I strived to be, especially because this wasn't the world that I remembered. My life had been flipped upside down when I was robbed of my life all of those months ago.

I couldn't believe that several months had passed since I had seen anyone that I remotely remembered. I missed my family, my friends, my old life, and unfortunately, I had the sinking feeling that I wouldn't be returning any time soon. I had hoped that Midgard would be the same as when I had left, but this was not the world I remembered. I had nothing left here for me. I had nothing to go on even if I managed to find Loki and convince him to return to Asgard, which was a feat that I wasn't expecting to complete. And if somehow, Odin's plan succeeded, what would happen to me after? I was sure that Pandora and Emerald were around somewhere, but they were the reason I was stuck in this mess.

Perhaps I was better off alone.

As I held my head, I sat up with yet another groan. My eyesight was still fuzzy, and I wasn't quite sure how Odin had transported me, but I knew that dark magic had surrounded me. I could still feel it there, wrapping around me like a warm blanket and inviting me in. To be honest, I thought about letting the darkness in and consuming the fury and anger that already made its home in my heart. But one Clint Barton ruined any malicious plans that my subconscious decided on.

I vaguely remembered him asking a question, but I couldn't for my life remember what it was. Instead of simply asking him again, I sat there, holding my head with a confused expression on my face. I was lost, and he could obviously see that.

"Listen miss," he finally snapped, sitting back on his heels before popping back up to his feet. "I don't know who you are or how you got in here, but you can't be here. Director Fury is getting here any minute now, and I need to do my damn job."

Apparently, Clint was snarky when he didn't get answers. I didn't want to be on the other side of him during an interrogation.

At the mention of Fury, however, an idea crossed my brain. There was no way Odin's plan would work, and the Allfather had to know that. Loki would never listen to a mortal woman even if my timing was right and our paths crossed. Nonetheless, I was already developing a secondary plan of my own. I had to stop this madness before it began. I couldn't let innocent people die when I had the power to save them.

"Fury!" I shook my head, getting to my feet way too quickly. I grabbed the railing for support as the black spots reappeared in my vision once more. Apparently, my body was still recovering from being sent through a portal between realms. "I have to talk to him!"

Clint gave me a look that clearly showed exactly what he thought of me. I knew I had to sound completely mental, but I had to try. I had to at least try and stop it.

"Uh," he stammered. "A crazed girl who just appeared in the middle of the SHIELD headquarters? I don't think that's gonna fly very well."

I rolled my eyes. "I slipped, thank you very much."

It was the first lie I told since arriving on my home planet, and it certainly wasn't going to be the last. I folded my arms across my chest and glared back at the archer. Rage was fueling my every movement now, and it was the best feeling I had ever experienced.

"The Tesseract," I carried on. "It has to be shut off." There was a long pregnant pause before I threw my hands in the air. "You have to believe me! Hundreds of people are going to die!"

Clint raised an eyebrow, questioning, "Are you a psychic?" I gave him a disbelieving glance and he snapped his fingers together as if he had figured out some grand mystery. "Did Rumlow send you as a prank?"

I assumed Rumlow was another SHIELD agent, but for the life of me, I couldn't picture him in my mind. Emerald would know.

"I don't even know who that is," I complained, struggling to see around the agent.

However, Clint was very good at his task of blocking me from seeing anything I wasn't supposed to.

"Alright listen," he finally said. "You need to get out of here. I don't know who you are or why you decided to show up now, but you have horrible timing."

I bit my lip as Clint started to turn away from me, gesturing to the hallway that I knew was going to lead to an exit. That wasn't going to happen.

"I'm a scientist," I blurted out, feeding him the same half-truth that I had told the Asgardians.

A pang filled my stomach as I thought about Thor and Odin and the pain that I had caused them. No, this wasn't my fault. They did this to me, they cast me out, causing the same amount of damage as when Thor and now Loki were thrown away like garbage.

I held out a hand for Clint to take, plastering a grin across my face. "Valencia Flint," I introduced myself. When the archer didn't move to take my hand, I dropped it with a clear annoyed expression. I simply continued, "I know of Selvig and I've worked on… things like the Tesseract before. I know what it can do."

Clint didn't budge. "Excuse me if I don't believe you."

"It's the truth!" I exclaimed.

Well, half the truth.

Clint threw me another look that clearly stated that he didn't want anything to do with me. I nearly groaned. I was getting nowhere fast, and time was becoming more and more precious.

"If you don't stop working on the Tesseract right now," I swept on. "Hundreds of people are going to die." I paused, grabbing his arm forcefully as I realized a fact that I had been neglecting to think about sooner.

"Oh my god," I whispered, my eyes widening. "You have to get out of here."

I tried pulling him towards the hallway he had tried to usher me in, but he was stronger than I anticipated. I almost got my arm yanked off.

"You're kidding right?" he commented. "This is my job."

"Do you value your life?" I snapped, already done with playing games.

Clint shrugged. "Sure, but I value the safety of others first, which is why I'm supposed to be here with Fury and instead I'm babysitting you. Which is why you need to leave and come back when he's not here."

I opened my mouth to retort something sarcastic, but the ground underneath my feet shook and my kneecaps buckled. I immediately grabbed the railing to keep myself from tumbling off the balcony. I had figured out by now that I had ended up on the top floor of the headquarters, the same place where Clint was surveying the scientists below.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded, and the archer gave me an equally worried glance. I could tell that this wasn't the first time this had happened.

Time was definitely running out.

I could tell the voices below us were getting louder as if they too were becoming concerned with the events that were to come. Except I was the only one who knew exactly what was coming for all of us, and I was the only one who could stop it.

"Where's Agent Barton?" came a loud proclamation from the main floor, causing Clint to throw an exasperated look in my direction.

"Look what you've done," he said. "I'm not doing my job." He glanced back and forth between the ground floor and my stern facial expression. There was no way he - "Stay here."

I didn't even have time to protest before he latched an arrow on the side of the balcony and ziplined down to the ground floor. I ran to the railing that I had all but clutched onto earlier and peered over the side. I wasn't completely able to make out shapes, but I could put the pieces together. Fury. Selvig. Clint. And soon to be, one furious god of mischief if I didn't do something quickly.

I closed my eyes and tried to guess how many floors down it was. Adrenaline pumped through my system as I calculated the distance in my head. There was no stairway or hallway that looked promising nearby, and I was running out of options. Clint's zipline was still at the edge of my vision. I took a deep breath, trying to control the fear that threatened to control me.

No.

I wasn't. I wasn't a weak mortal anymore.

I didn't hesitate a moment longer before I hoisted myself over the railing and latched onto the zipline, catching a ride to the main floor. I landed with a loud thud as my boots hit the tiled ground. In an instant, at least ten pairs of guns were trained directly on me.

Holding my hands in the air, I flashed Clint an apologetic look. The glare he returned was not as friendly as I would have hoped.

"Director Fury." I turned my undivided attention towards the man in question. "I'm very sorry for the rude interruption, but this couldn't wait."

The director narrowed his eye as he examined me. "And just who the hell are you?" he demanded, making no sudden movements for the agents surrounding me to lower their guns.

"Valencia Flint, I-"

"She claims she's a scientist," Clint spoke up, earning the curious stare of Fury.

He raised his eyebrows in clear surprise. "You've met her before?" he questioned to which the archer shrugged.

"We met briefly," I spoke up before Clint had the chance to rat me out. "I'm a scientist from Detroit, and I've worked on… mysterious cases, and I heard about the Tesseract technology being tested here."

Fury paused for a long moment as I explained my fabricated story, and only when the silence became uncomfortable did he motion for the agents to lower their weapons. I flashed him a grateful glance, one that he too did not return.

"Detroit?" the director echoed after the moment stretched on for what seemed like eternities. "I've never been."

I chuckled. "Nor should you want to."

I hated making small talk, especially when I knew our time was running out. However, I was intelligent enough to figure out that if I jumped to conclusions with Fury, it would backtrack us even further. There couldn't be any more delays.

"How do you know about the Tesseract, Miss…"

"Flint."

I was running myself into corners that I wasn't sure I could talk myself out of.

I took a deep breath before continuing, "In my line of work, we specialize in the foreign, the unknown. While it's never completely said, it's not hard to figure out that some of these objects I was studying were not from Earth." I paused for a moment, struggling for a connection.

When I laid eyes on the scientist busying himself in his work, however, another lightbulb went off in my head. "I've been studying Jane Foster and Erik Selvig's works for a long time now. I know about New Mexico last year."

Okay, that much was true. The amount of times I had seen the movie Thor was probably considered to be an examination.

That, at least, earned Selvig's attention. He stopped what he was fiddling with and took a slow saunter over to Fury and Clint's side, staring at me curiously. Apparently, I was the specimen of the day.

"Oh," I concluded, a smirk crossing my face. "And did I mention that I have a degree in computer programming as well?" I folded my arms across my chest. "I must say, you need better firewalls."

Fury and Clint exchanged a glance before they simultaneously pivoted around to stare at Selvig, who shrugged his shoulders. It seemed no one knew exactly what to make of me, but that was progress.

"And you came here to what, just warn me of what the Tesseract is?" Fury finally sighed. "We are quite aware, Miss Flint."

I tilted my head to one side. "You see, I don't think you do," I said, gesturing to where the Tesseract was sparking and definitely malfunctioning again. I wasn't sure how much time was left. "Your facility, from the quick glimpse that I saw, is very capable of withstanding and holding the Tesseract in itself. Your doctors and scientists are the best in the world. So why is it malfunctioning?"

Selvig ambled back over to the Cube and examined it once more, making sure not to get too close. "No one has tampered with it," he interjected, and I nodded.

"At least, not from this side," I said slowly.

Fury crossed his arms, narrowing his eye in my direction. "This side?" he questioned.

"The Tesseract is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" I started to say, but I never got the chance to finish. I knew the quote from the movie, and I must say, it did come in handy.

Clint, however, had just realized what I was saying.

His eyes had grown wider in the last minute of my speech, and he instinctively reached for his sidearm. "Doors open from both sides," he murmured.

The Tesseract glowed bright blue as the archer finished speaking and began sparking again. A loud humming noise projected throughout the room, and I winced, resisting the urge to cover my ears. The building shook around us as all of the agents sent worried glances up towards the ceiling. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it caved in on us. I wasn't sure what to expect anymore.

"You have to shut it down!" I all but shouted, but I knew I was too late.

Everyone tried to scramble, but the convulsions that the Cube was giving off was too large to stop. I knew what was coming next, but it was like I was frozen, unable to stop the events from changing even if I had tried. If only I had more time, I could have.

A large beam of energy shot directly out of the Tesseract before anyone could move and created a portal larger than anything I had ever seen before. Everyone, including myself, was frozen, helpless to do anything except watch as a man materialized out of nothing. Except it wasn't a man. I knew better than that.

The rest of the events were a blur as I tried not to hear the sounds of the people shouting and screaming as they were murdered right in front of my eyes. I tried not to see the damage that was being done, the blood being spilled, the first of many to come. I tried not to think about how I could have stopped all of this from occurring if I had just been quicker, more persuasive perhaps.

It was like I was watching the movie all over again but a thousand times worse. Seeing it with my own eyes, playing out in front of me, was so much more haunting and despairing as anything I could have imagined. It was like I was rooted to the ground, forced to watch the broken god resort to such violence. I didn't even move when the agents were either lying dead on the ground or had glowing blue eyes.

I didn't even flinch when Loki stood directly in front of me, his green eyes meeting mine. I was still frozen when he pressed his scepter to my heart wordlessly.

I waited for the numbing effect to take me over, completely controlling my every movement, my every thought – but it never came. I could sense the frustration behind the god's carefully masked face as he released the tip of the spear and tried to wipe my memories again. However, it seemed I was immune.

That shock, and only that shock, was the factor that I needed to snap me out of this numb frozen state I had succumbed to.

"Loki," I breathed out, his name just spilling out easily from my lips.

He frowned, retracting his scepter to his side and tilting his head towards me. "How do you know of me?" he questioned aloud, his voice smoother than I ever would have imagined. "Where do you come from, sorceress?"

I shook my head, finding myself unable to breathe in his presence. "Not a sorceress," I corrected. "I'm just as confused as you are."

I had a sneaky feeling why his magic wasn't working on me. I wasn't from this world.

"But," I hastily spoke up again before Loki could kill me too. "I'm not one of them. I don't work for SHIELD." There was a pause in which I could tell I confused the god. This was my only chance. "I don't hail from Asgard, but I resided there after the Bifrost was destroyed. I was sent here by the Allfather to… they want… they need you to come home."

Loki's face immediately darkened, and I knew the plan had failed. Worse, I was pretty sure Loki was starting to put the pieces together on who exactly I was.

"They know nothing of what they desire," he all but snapped. "They used me and then they cast me out, just like they did to you. If they were naïve enough to believe that I would willingly-" He broke off, letting out a tiny dark chuckle. "No, they wanted you gone too. The bigger question is, why?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"You know, mortal, I would."

My breath caught in my throat as I stayed under Loki's gaze for even longer. This was not going to end well.

"I recognize your pain," he noted, barely taking notice of what I was trying to say. "I see the hurt in your eyes from your past, your family, no your companions. They betrayed you, left you. Being alone is something I have come to know."

"How do you do it?" I found myself blurting out, forgetting for a moment that I was casually having a conversation with a murderous god.

Loki only smirked and held out his hand towards me. "I can show you."

I froze where I stood, disbelief flooding my system. I was nothing, I was a mortal, and yet Loki saw something in me that no one else had. He saw a future.

Knowing exactly what would happen if I accepted his offer, my heart continued to pound in my chest as I stared at his outstretched hand. I would become a criminal, a terrorist, condemning hundreds of people to die. Could I really live with myself if I did that?

But the look on Loki's face was different than I remembered.

Images kept floating back to the forefront of my brain, making hesitation seem less and less appealing. I had nothing left to lose. Everything had been taken away from me, and I was completely alone. Even if I found a way out of this building, I had nothing. I couldn't face Emerald or Pandora again, and I had no way home.

Loki was giving me a second chance. He was giving me hope for a new life.

Suddenly, world domination didn't sound like such a bad idea.

I met his green eyes again, determination shining behind my own. It felt like he was staring into the depths of my soul, capturing each and every emotion behind my skin. It felt right.

The moment I slipped my hand in his, all regrets flew from my brain. I could feel his icy skin soft against mine as he squeezed my hand and pulled me closer to his side.

It was time to embrace my dark side.