Nova was sitting on the couch, taking notes on the history textbook she had next to her. She'd spent a lot of her free time catching up on everything that had happened since her imprisonment. At first, Nova had been confident that she had seen everything that had happened through the walls of her prison, but they soon found out that there were huge gaps in her memory. Never being one to stay in the dark about anything, she had set herself to learn about fifty thousand years of history. The 'textbook' was nothing more than a tablet with virtual text provided by Thor and the rest of the Guardians, who were more than happy to fill Nova in on what had happened in the universe.

After Loki had hooked her up with the Guardians, she had taken to talking to them whenever they were free. Whatever they talked about had also sparked her search for her powers, which gave no sign of ever returning. As she learned about the history of the universe and filled the gaps in her memory, she was also constantly searching for anything that would give any hint about her lost magic.

Nova put aside her notebook and rubbed her temples. "This is the fifteenth time Asgard has gone to war with Jotunheim. What in Void's name is wrong with these people?"

Loki looked up from the book he was reading. "Time period?"

Nova looked down at her notes again, and then did some quick calculating. "15806 BC by human time measurements. . . I think. I haven't gotten the hang of this whole 'BC' and 'AD' thing yet."

"Well, be prepared, because they go to war loads more times."

Nova groaned and banged her head on her notebook. "These people are such utter imbeciles! When are they just going to sign a peace treaty?"

"They do eventually, you know."

Nova looked up. "No actually, I didn't." She picked up the tablet and started flipping pages. "What year was it?"

"965 AD. I mean, technically, a peace treaty was never created, but it was the last and greatest war between Jotunheim and Asgard and marked the beginning of peace between the realms." Loki put down his book and walked over to join Nova.

"Hey, wasn't that around the time you were born?"

Loki stopped cold. Oh great, she didn't know. "Yes, it was. . ." he trailed off, but Nova didn't notice.

"Wow, so you lived through this war? It looks pretty bloody . . . although all of it happened on Jotunheim so I guess you were safe on Asgard." She swiped forward on the tablet. "War blah blah blah casualties blah blah blah defensive strategy blah blah blah oh look, the Casket of Ancient Winters. I heard a lot of things were kept on Asgard for safe-keeping, and Thor was saying that it was destroyed because of Ragnarok. Something about an evil older sister named Hela?"

"We-ll. . .I'm sure Ragnarok is covered later in the book."

"Oh hey, you were right about the lack of a peace treaty. Look, it says 'after the war, an uneasy peace was maintained between Asgard and Jotunheim, broken only by the death of King Laufey, which will be covered later in the book.' Interesting."

Loki froze. He had never considered that everything he had done would be recorded down in history as just another part of the intricate story of the universe. It was so easy to ignore and push away all memories of the things he had done in his past, but here, written down, in a history book no less, was irrefutable proof that his actions had caused untold damage.

"Loki sir, there is someone calling you," JARVIS spoke, startling them both.

"Well, I guess I should go."

Nova nodded distractedly, flipping back to the page she had been taking notes on.

Loki got up and headed to his lab. He hadn't used his lab in ages, except for taking phone calls with Thor, since his last experiment with the Space Stone. He had lost his sense of direction, in a way, without any work to do. He had too much free time on his hands, and free time led to thinking, and thinking led in directions he would rather not go.

The lab was just as cluttered as it always was, and Loki saw no reason why he should clean it up, so it stayed that way.

He clicked the green symbol of a phone in the corner of the screen, sighing inwardly. "Hello Thor. What do you want?"

"Am I not allowed to say hello to my brother every once and awhile? You ignored my phone call two days ago."

"I was out shopping."

Thor scoffed. "You? Shopping?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Just because you've never gone shopping a day in your life doesn't mean that everyone else expects things to be brought to them on a silver platter."

"Well, the way Nova described it, she dragged you out into the city to go Christmas shopping and you actually willingly went along with it. You hate crowds, you hate Midgardians, and you hate getting things for other people. Why would you agree to go?"

"What, I can't just decide to go? I have to have a reason now? Maybe I went because it gave me an acceptable reason to not answer your call."

"I'm not saying it's a bad thing that you went out, I'm just a little surprised," Thor said, backpedaling. "I'm glad that you're making friends."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Loki said, rather indignantly. Thor had no right to go about throwing around phrases like that.

"All I'm saying is that it's clear that you and Nova are getting along really well." Thor held up his hands in surrender, and then changed the subject. "Anyway, are you planning on getting a job anytime soon?"

"No, I'm planning on sitting around taking up space for the rest of my life," Loki said, every word dripping with sarcasm. "Of course I'm planning to get a job. Strangely enough, no one seems to be looking for a psychopathic ex-villain."

Thor sighed. "I'll talk to Tony about getting you something to do."

"No," Loki said quickly. Thor didn't know that he had fought Nova and he didn't need to find out that it was the real reason the Avengers didn't want to employ him.

"Why?" Thor narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously.

Loki fidgeted, struggling to come up with an excuse. He was saved from having to answer that particular question by two figures clothed in black bursting through the door. Loki whipped around, instantly recognizing them from the files the Guardians sent them from time to time. What were two bounty hunters doing here?

"What is going on? Who are those people?" Of course, Thor wouldn't be able to recognize the same bounty hunters that he had presumably spent weeks tracking down. That sounded . . . a lot like Thor.

"Loki, what's going on-" One of the bounty hunters unplugged the screen, and it turned black. The other bounty hunter turned his gun, which was definitely not a Midgardian style weapon, on Loki.

"Where's the girl?" he asked in a rough voice.

Of course, the moment such well known bounty hunters had crashed through the door, Loki had remembered what Nova had said about her release being felt throughout the galaxy, and how there would be people out there who wanted her power. Of course, this was a strange place for his mind to jump. Yes, there were bounty hunters in his lab, but they could easily be here for any number of reasons. Was this not the Avenger's stronghold? Why was his first thought of Nova?

Whatever, there would be time later to deal with that. All he needed to know right now was that 'the girl' obviously referred to Nova, and that the Avengers were currently out on a mission and wouldn't be of any help.

"I'm sorry, who are you talking about?" Loki held up his hands, trying to buy more time. He needed time to think.

The other bounty hunter spoke up in a distinctly feminine voice. "The Tesseract Girl. Don't play dumb with us, anyone who's anyone knows about her, and that she's somewhere in this city, somewhere in this tower."

"What are you going to do with her?" How much more time could he buy? Loki needed a strategy, and he needed on quickly. Where was Nova?

"None of your business." The taller figure shoved him against the wall. "Tell us where she is or we'll kill you."

Loki was tempted to point out no one so far had been able to keep him dead for long, and that there was no way two amateur weirdos in black could kill him. "I don't keep tabs on everyone. I know she's somewhere in this tower, but you already know that or you wouldn't be here. Now why don't you answer my question: what exactly do you hope to accomplish? The rest of the Avengers will be here soon, and then you're going to be punished."

Loki knew he was asking to be punished, and he got it. The masked figure slammed his head against the wall, hard. "If you have nothing of importance to say, don't speak," he hissed. Then he gestured to his partner, who pulled out a taser bracelet and snapped it around his wrist. Also immediately, electricity started pulsing through his veins. He barely managed to keep from crying out, dark spots dancing at the edge of his vision. He gritted his teeth, trying to stay upright.

Well, that certainly didn't go as planned, did it?

"He was rather useless," said the shorter bounty hunter disdainfully.

The taller bounty hunter shoved him into the wall again. Pain exploded through his skull, and he vaguely remembered falling to the ground.

"Where is the girl?" For a second he thought that the figure might still be addressing him, but he was actually addressing the other pain in his head was starting to reach unbearable levels, but at least he hadn't passed out yet. If that could be counted as a blessing. It certainly didn't feel like one.

"How am I supposed to know? You're the one who had definite information that she was here, go find her yourself. I'll stay here and guard the prisoner."

"Hey you void-cursed idiots, leave my friend alone!" He recognized that voice . . .what was Nova doing here? He tried to sit up to see what was going on, but any kind of movement only hurt more, so he stayed where he was.

"Who are you?" The bounty hunter's voice was filled with confusion. "We were told that the only people here would be him," he said, kicking Loki for emphasis, "and the Tesseract Girl."

"What, you don't recognize me?" Loki tried to sit up again, and this time succeeded. Nova appeared to be brandishing one of the swords from the training room. Loki didn't have the heart, or the energy, to tell her that a sword against those laser blasters was never going to work.

"Leave this place. Now!" Nova pointed her sword at the bounty hunters threateningly. She probably thought she looked dangerous, but the t-shirt she'd borrowed from Maximoff had a picture of a cute owl with glasses, and her jeans were so long that she had had to roll them up. Her hair had hastily been pulled back, and a part had escaped and kept getting in her face. The only part of her that looked 'threatening' was her long trench coat-like jacket, which just added to her odd look. She looked like the polar opposite of a powerful, space-warping, thousand year old creature, which explained why the bounty hunters were having trouble placing her.

The bounty hunters smirked at each other, and then simultaneously raised their weapons. Using her free hand, Nova pulled out a small device. Loki had seen Stark fiddling around with it for the past few weeks, but he had no idea what it did. She pushed the button just before the hunters pulled their triggers. A clicking sound echoed around the room. Loki braced himself for the shot, for it never came. The bounty hunters looked at each other in confusion.

Nova laughed. "It's a tech blocking device, if you were wondering. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it does, and I guess that's all that matters."

By now, Loki's head decided it was time to commit suicide, and he only remembered bits and pieces of what happened next. He remembered Nova hitting one of the bounty hunters with the blunt end of her sword, and knocking the other one out with the hilt before they even knew what was going on. Then he fell unconscious, hitting his head for what had to be the third time in as many minutes.

The next thing he remembered was Nova shaking his shoulders. "Hey, are you okay? Hello? Earth to Loki."

He sat up suddenly, stabbing pain shooting through his skull. "I swear, my head is trying to kill me."

Nova helped him up. "I took off that taser thing, by the way. And tied up those guys." She pointed to the bounty hunters, tied up in the corner with an odd assortment of rope, handcuffs, and iron chains. He didn't even know that they had iron chains. "Are you okay?"

Loki stood up unsteadily, one hand against the wall to keep him upright. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

Nova studied him for a few moments, as if she could tell he was lying, and then seemed to realize that Loki had caught her staring. She turned pink and looked down, studying the floor as if it might hold the secrets of the universe.

"Um, anyway-"

"Thank you. For rescuing me. I really appreciate it."

Nova blinked a couple of times. "It was nothing. You should have just told them where I was. Save yourself a lot of unnecessary trouble."

They both stood there awkwardly. Nova reached up and undid her hair band, running her hands through her hair. Loki reached over and started straightening up his desk space, which was totally unnecessary since one, it was already quite neat, and two, he had been fine with it ten minutes ago.

Nova had grabbed the sword she had been using, and turned it over in her hands. "I really wish I had a better weapon," she said, probably just to break the silence. "Imagine what I could do with a properly balanced, finely crafted sword."

On one hand, Loki felt terrible. He was going to get a massive headache. There were two bounty hunters tied up in his lab. Thor was going to kill him for ending their call, and then kill him again for almost getting himself captured. He had no idea why Nova was being so weird around him, or why he was being so weird around her. On the other hand, though, at least he had an idea of what to get Nova for Christmas.

ENDNOTES: I'm much happier with this chapter than the last one. What do you think of the story so far? I'd love to know where you think this is going! Also, thank you for all the likes and comments :)