The first time he saw her was right after Thor tossed him into the abyss. He had only seen glimpses of her face, her skin was fair and her hair was lighter than his brother's, she had looked concerned, weary. But he heard her voice as clear as day, "Stay calm, I know it hurts, but this is what has to happen for you to grow. For you to become stronger." The soft, melodic voice sounded and echoed inside of his head as he fell further and further into the darkness.
She reached her hand out for him and said it would all be okay once it was over. At that moment he was convinced that she was an angel, though possibly a demon, he couldn't tell. He had been told that both could manifest themselves as beautiful beings. He wouldn't succumb though to this temptress, if he were to take her hand he would surely die. This girl, or whatever she was, was there to reap his soul. Or so he thought.
He screamed at her to go away, and with that loud yell of anger she disappeared and he fell through the wormhole. After that incident he had figured it to be a hallucination and didn't give it a second thought. That is, until he saw her again a few months after his exile while in Sanctuary, the second time though in a much fuller capacity. She was a lithe girl in her late teenage years that stood to be just above five and a half feet tall. Her straight blonde hair covered her breasts, he couldn't stop but think how soft her hair looked, but cursed himself for thinking of such feeble things in a moment as potentially dire as that one.
Her piercing blue eyes looked straight through him, as if he wasn't there at all. She was in Midgardian clothing; dusty white sneakers, blue jeans, and a dark green hoodie. If she were to be from Earth, how was she there? Alive? If she were to be there in that state she shouldn't be alive. He ordered her to look at him, but she didn't react. His anger began to rise when he requested the knowledge of her name, but again she ignored him.
"Feeble mortal." He had growled, attempting to grab her throat, but his hand phased straight through her. His head tilted slightly in confusion as he sliced through her with the Scepter, but found himself under the same results. She didn't flinch, didn't jerk, didn't whimper or scream. By Odin her face didn't even show that she saw him.
"What do you want!?" He had screamed, running through her. He blasted the Scepter, but it blew up a large boulder behind her, causing more large stones to fall as well. He took a deep breath and set his jaw, gripping the weapon tight.
His head snapped to her when he finally heard her make a noise, a whimper as she apologized to an invisible person in front of her, "I didn't mean to, I'm so-" She stopped short as her head snapped to the side, she held her cheek, it looked like someone had slapped her, "I'm sorry, daddy." She whimpered, tears streaming down her face.
He wasn't sure why he was seeing her, if she was using magic similar to his to make it appear she's somewhere they're not. If she even knew she was doing it because she wasn't acknowledging him being there. But why would she make herself appear to him? He had never seen this girl before in his life, so why was he seeing her?
He watched as she picked up a lamp and threw it at what he could only assume to be a wall. She screamed out a curse and fell to her knees in sobs. Normally he would have been overjoyed to have someone on their knees before him, but all that was on his mind was what might have happened between her and her father. What had she done so wrong? Whatever it was he was sure it hadn't been worth striking her. She seemed genuinely upset, guilty and grief stricken.
Perhaps she had made a life shattering mistake, maybe what she had done was truly terrible to the point not even her own father could forgive her. He sneered down at her, this puny mortal child was Incompetent, incomparable in strength to him. This girl may have the power to manifest herself before him, but her power was nothing compared to his.
She looked up with bloodshot eyes, once again looking straight through him. He furrowed his brows as the terrified look on her face, "Daddy, please." She cried, standing to her feet, "Please don't make me leave, I'm sorry." She was struck again, much harder this time as he saw her lip split and blood trickled down her chin. She fell to the floor, clenching her fists.
When he saw her bow her head in defeat he asked, "Who are you?" For the first time she looked at him, her head snapping in his direction for a split second in shock and panic before she disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.
The third time he saw her he was convinced he was going crazy, or the much more likely option, being messed with. He had been sitting on the large rock structure, watching Thor and Iron Man go at each other. She had abruptly appeared sitting next to him. He startled and yelled at her, "What do you want with me?" When she just wiped her nose with her sleeve he tried to touch her, get her to look at him, but his results were the same as last time. Futile.
Then wasn't the right time to be bothered by this petulant mortal. He had so much going on at that moment, too many things that were happening, going to happen. He had too much on his mind to also have to deal with her presence. He had to endure being in the custody of his unintelligent older brother and the Midgardian nuisances. He had to allow himself to be caught and locked up so that he could complete his mission, win the war and conquer earth. But earth was just the beginning, once he was their king he would go after the rest of the world.
She bit her lip and looked over at him. No, not at him. She was looking slightly in front of him with a worried expression, "I'm scared." She spoke softly, quiet in a way that she might be afraid of being heard. Like she didn't want to be found or caught.
"Of what?" He couldn't stop himself from asking, but growled at himself for the weak move. He has no reason to show kindness to this child. No matter how frightened she looked, how broken. No matter how much of a pull he felt toward her, almost like he was supposed to be there at that moment, watching her, listening to her. Learning as much as he could for as long as he was able to see her.
He shook his head, that was utterly ridiculous! He had no relation to that quim, no endearing thoughts or feelings, she was nothing but another ant under his boot. She was just another human that he wouldn't hesitate to squash if necessary, if she got in the way. Part of him screamed he wouldn't be able to, that she was special, unlike the other humans. But he pushed down, repressed those thoughts. Those were the feelings of a fool, he was no fool. He would end her miserable little life if given the chance, he knew he would.
She looked down at her lap before looking forward, "It's beautiful." She whispered, "The trees, the birds." She laid herself down on the ground beside him, "The blue sky and the puffy white clouds." She looked over at him as her forehead crinkled, "Why can't life be as peaceful as this place? As beautiful and calm?"
He tried to decipher what was happening from the one side of the conversation he could hear. It sounded like she had done something terrible that caused her to be cast out of her home by her father, he could relate to the conflicting feelings of that. He was showing remorse for her once again, gods, what was it about her that made him that weak? He could not relate to this worthless child, he felt nothing for her, not in the slightest. He hated her and the fact that she wouldn't leave him alone to enjoy watching those fools fighting below.
She appeared to be terrified of something, perhaps her father or the prospect that she might be alone now. But who was she talking to? What was that person saying back? He found himself wanting, no needing, to know what was going on, what was happening. He hated himself for that. She had nothing to do with the battle that was about to ensue in New York, nothing to do with him taking over Earth, so why should she matter? She doesn't. She doesn't matter in the slightest.
She didn't seem to get the desired response as she sat up and pulled her legs to her chest, "Am I a monster, Daniel?" So she was sitting with a man. Why did that fact matter? Why did it bother him? Before anything else happened her face took on horror as she stumbled back, away from him. No, not him, he had to remind himself. This Daniel person, whoever he was. She was afraid of him.
She screamed, "No!" As she scrambled to her feet, "You were dead." She whimpered, "You're dead, goddamnit!" She yelled out in a mixture of confusion, anger, fear and sadness. He saw all of those emotions flood her features, body language, all at once as she slowly took a couple steps back.
Before he could figure out what was happening she was running. He had no idea what came over him at that moment, but he took off after her. Determined to get to her, find out what had happened. But before he could get very far he was grabbed from behind by Thor.
"You're not escaping, brother." The god of Thunder said as he held onto him tightly.
He flailed against his older brother, "No! Let me go, she needs help!"
"Who reindeer games?" Tony asked, looking around unamused. Why were these petulant fools doing nothing? She had screamed, she had been loud, what by the bifrost did he mean "who"?
"The girl." He panted out, looking to where he should've been able to see her. But she wasn't there. She had disappeared yet again. Why in the gods' name was this happening to him?
The fourth and final time he saw her was right after he had escaped from the helicarrier. He had been in the car headed to his final destination when she appeared next to him. She had the same hurt expression on her face, she had large bags under her eyes and appeared to be exhausted.
"It's not too late to go back?" She growled, looking over at him with a glare. Once again he knew that she wasn't looking at him, but that didn't stop the pang of hurt inside of him at the utter hatred and anger coming from her eyes. Why did it bother him, though? Why under the nine realms did this girl get under his skin like she did? Why did he care? And why could he not make himself believe that he didn't?
"It was too late the moment you killed my father." That statement stung more than her face had. All he could think about was his brief reign as king of Asgard and how he had not cared about his father's possible demise, "It was too late the moment you sunk your blade into Daniel's heart, the moment you tried to kill me. Stephen, it was too late the moment you died." There was a brief pause as she got a response from the man beside her, "Because you fucking made me!" She screamed, "I didn't want to, but you… you tried to…" Tears came to her eyes as she tried but failed to get out her thoughts.
What had this man done to her? Had she killed him? Or from his presence there with her, attempted to? Was she in trouble? What had that man done to her?
"No you don't fucking get it! You betrayed me, you took advantage of me. I didn't have a choice." She whimpered, "I wanna go home."
She was silent for several minutes, but he never took his eyes off of her, never stopped observing every little expression and reaction she made. He had been so tuned into her that when he looked up he wasn't in his car anymore. No, he was in a completely different one. It appeared to be what the mortal's called a pickup truck. They were driving down a highway filled with other cars.
He was in the backseat and could finally hear both sides of the conversation, "What I did was unforgivable, Kynleigh, but you have to try and understand why I did it." The man with the short dark cut hair pleaded.
"So that's your name." He said quietly from the backseat, mostly to himself.
As soon as he spoke her head snapped back and for the first time met his eyes. She saw him. She could hear him, "Not again." She said, "God-fucking-damnit. I'm going fucking insane."
"What are you talking about?" Stephan asked, looking back, but not seeing him in the back.
"I know you don't see him." She puffed out a hard air, "I don't even know why I do."
"I don't either." Loki agreed. He was just as much at a loss for what was happening as she was. He had just assumed that it was her doing it, but it appeared she had as little of an idea on what was going on as him.
Her brows furrowed, "You can hear me?" She said barely above a whisper. He nodded, and the moment they locked eyes again time stopped. At least for everyone around them. Stephen stopped moving, the world outside of the car looked like a picture. Nothing was happening.
She turned completely around in her seat, sitting on her knees, "I can." Was his simple response. Under normal circumstances who knows what all he would say, but his mind went blank and he had no idea what to say. He felt drawn to her, it was overwhelming. He wanted nothing more than to be closer to her. Why did he feel like if he didn't touch her he'd die?
But he resisted, waited for her to climb into the back seat beside him, hopefully feeling the same tug as him. She just looked into his face for a minute, as he did hers. He held out his hand for her and watched her closely as she resisted for a long moment before slowly reaching out her arm and putting her hand in his.
As soon as her skin touched him the world turned white. But he wasn't worried, all he could focus on was how soft her skin felt, how much she smelled like all of his favorite fresh fruits from back home. All he could focus on was running his hand through her hair, which was even softer than he had imagined, and holding her close to him.
In a split second he was back in his car with Clint behind the wheel. But he wasn't alone this time. The girl from his visions was in his lap, straddling him with her arms wrapped around his neck. Her grip was vice as her face was buried in the crook of his neck.
"Kynleigh." He said her name for the first time, loving the sound of it as it slid off of his tongue with ease. She shakily pulled away from his neck and looked at him with the same blue eyes that had caught his attention the first time he saw them, "You're safe with me."