Standing outside of Loki's cage, Ella held her hands behind her back as she began pacing up and down. Loki was sat on the cot in the glass chamber, his eyes moving over her as she made the motions. She looked up for a moment before turning on her heel and pacing back down again.
"Do you ever wonder how funny it is?" Ella asked of her brother.
"And what is that?"
"Our titles," Ella declared. "We never use them very often, do we? You are the God Mischief…Thor is the God of Thunder…and I get to be a Goddess of love and fertility, yet I cannot seem to wield my power like you and Thor do."
Loki's brows furrowed as he leant forwards, indulging in his sister's train of thought as he watched her still stare up to the ceiling.
"And why do you say that?" he enquired of her.
"Because I cannot make you stop this," Ella responded. "I love you more than anything and I have no power to stop you from feeling the way you do. Love cannot stop you from wanting to conquer the Earth, yet Thor can summon a little bit of thunder and try to stop you."
"A cruel joke from Odin, perhaps?" Loki sneered.
"Maybe," Ella said, finally standing still to look to Loki. "Even more so considering I have never been in love."
Loki did not entirely know how to respond to that. He only watched on as Ella sank down to the floor, crossing her legs beneath her. He watched on, well aware of how she was acting in such an unbecoming fashion for a Princess of Asgard. Flattening her skirts over her lap, she looked to Loki as he watched her back, seeing a small smile curve on her face.
"Do you know that Thor is hopelessly in love with a human?" she enquired from him and Loki almost felt the need to roll his eyes. "Her name is Jane. Apparently she is a very bright woman, although I think most women are bright compared to Thor."
Loki remained silent as he continued to listen to her, knowing full well what she was trying to do. This was Ella's tactic. She would try to appeal to his better nature. She would try to convince him that she was right; that she knew best. She thought that she could talk him out of his decisions.
"I am trying to persuade him to take me to meet her while we are on Earth," Ella continued. "I feel for him in a way. He will outlive her, yet he truly does love her. I do not know what to suggest he should do."
Loki sneered. "Is this your way of trying to persuade me not to go through with my plan?"
Ella shrugged, not letting her temper get the better of her. She would not give Loki the satisfaction of seeing her angry with him. She needed to stay calm. She needed to be rational. Perhaps he may listen to her then. She could only hope that may be the case.
"I do not know if anything will persuade you," she admitted to him. "All I know is that I would like you to come home. Of course, you know that you would be in trouble. I…I heard how you killed eighty people, Loki…that is not you."
"You do not know me, Ella."
Ella rolled her eyes. "Oh, we are going back to that, are we?" she enquired and Loki blinked. He had half expected her to start to raise her voice, yet it never came. She remained even-tempered. "Back to the talk of how you are not truly our brother? Or perhaps you want to remind us how you are a Frost Giant? Maybe you want to talk about how you are tired of living under our shadow?"
Loki's brows furrowed as he watched his sister. "You mock me?" he asked of her.
"I am tired of this," Ella said. "Do you not realise how privileged you truly are? I have read of people on planets who do not have the freedom that we have. They struggle to survive; yet you moan because you could not rule Asgard? Really? You are becoming boring, Loki."
Loki almost had the feeling of shock at hearing her as she watched him, a disapproving look behind her eye.
"I understand how you feel, but you forget that you have a family who love you and would do anything for you. A lot of people do not have that. Some people have no one and nothing. Look around you, for once in your life, and think about that. You have killed eighty people, have you not? Those people had families. Those people had wives and husbands at home, waiting for them to come home and they cannot."
Loki looked away then as his sister continued speaking, her words trying to cut and pierce him.
"They will never have the chance to hold them again," she spoke. "They will never have the chance to speak to them. They could not even say goodbye because you robbed them of that opportunity. You…my brother…the brother who would have done anything to protect me at one stage."
He looked back to her, his eyes wide as he spoke. "I still would."
Ella shrugged. "Perhaps so," she said, "but that Loki is not the Loki who sits before me now. You are different…"
"I have had to change," Loki replied.
"But you have not changed for the better," Ella responded and pushed herself to her feet, running her hands down her skirts as she stood tall and looked to him. It was another moment before she spoke again, her voice low and dangerous: "If you really would do anything for me…to protect me…then protect me from you. Protect me from fearing that the brother I once loved has become the monster that people think you are. Change this. Make it better…put things right…for mother, if not for father…and for me and Thor."
Ella turned to walk away, leaving Loki in the cage. She wandered back into the corridor, leaning on the wall and letting out a shaky breath before closing her eyes. She wondered if any of her words had gotten through to him. Had he listened to her? Was he even bothered about what she thought anymore?
Moving along the ship, Ella found herself back in the main control room. She almost jumped back at the sight of faces staring at her. Standing still in the doorway, she looked around the room before she noted Thor in the corner, his arm over his stomach as his other hand held his chin.
"Good show, Princess."
Ella looked over to where the voice had come from and she noted the man in the iron suit, but he was dressed in human clothing. Steve was sat around a table while another man in a purple shirt and grey trousers stood at the other end of the table. A woman with red hair and dressed in a black suit was sat across from Steve.
"You were watching?" Ella asked.
"We need to find out what Loki's game is," the man in the purple shirt spoke.
"He has an army waiting," Ella declared, moving around the room until she was stood by her brother's side. "He told me that he intends to bring an army known as the Chitauri to Earth."
"The Chitauri?" the woman with red hair enquired.
"I take it they are not from around here?" Steve asked.
"I'm going to say you assume correctly, Cap," the woman responded.
"Do you think you can get anymore out of him?" the man in the purple shirt enquired of Ella and everyone looked back to her. Thor glanced down to her, seeing how she folded her arms over her chest and shrugged her shoulders. It was another moment before she shrugged.
"I do not know," she admitted.
"She tried," Steve said. "She maybe got further than any of us ever could."
"That guy's mind is scrambled," the man in purple spoke.
"Be careful how you speak," Thor said before Ella could even interject. "Loki may have committed crimes, but he is still an Asgardian. You should allow me to take him home."
"No can do," the man who, Ella deduced was overly cocky, spoke. "He has the Tesseract. We need that before you can even think of taking him anywhere. Until he gives us the Tesseract back, he is going nowhere."
"Agreed," the woman said. "And he has one of our own under his control."
Standing up, she moved off and Ella wondered what she was talking about before the man in purple and the other man began to speak. They spoke confusing words and Ella watched on as they moved off, agreeing to go and try to figure out what was going on with Loki's sceptre. Thor moved off then too and Ella knew there was no point in trying to stop him. He needed time to think and gather what was happening.
Sitting down in a seat, Ella buried her head into her hands as Steve remained seated.
"What is going on?" Ella enquired from Steve. "Who were all those people?"
"Oh, yeah," Steve said. "The man in purple with the glasses was Bruce. He is a scientist. The one he left with was Tony Stark. Natasha was the woman. Loki has someone called Clint under his control and Natasha is his friend. Plus he has a doctor…Erik Selvig…under his control."
"Selvig?" Ella asked, knowing that the name meant something to her.
"Your brother said he knew him."
"Of course," Ella said. "He does know him. They met when Thor was exiled to Earth."
"Exiled to Earth?" Steve echoed and Ella let her lips quirk, realising how strange that must have sounded to him.
"I'll explain another day," Ella said to him. "So what is this? What are all of you?"
Steve looked down, his own lips quirking then. "We're all just…people trying to stop Loki."
"No offence," Ella said, "but you all seem like you are very different, not like an army in Asgard who would fight someone like Loki."
"So, you come from a different planet and you think we are odd?" Steve checked and Ella did let out a gentle laugh then, nodding her head.
"That does sound strange," she responded to him. "Perhaps I need to brush up on my reading about Earth."
"Perhaps so," Steve said.
There was a moment of silence between them and Ella moved to her feet as Steve did the same. She looked around the bridge, wondering exactly what was going on. She had expected things to be different. Her brother had told her that Earth was nothing like Midgard. She could see that now. It was only as she peered over the edge did she hear someone call her name.
"Ella, isn't it?"
A man dressed in black wearing an eye patch was walking towards her. Turning around she nodded her head as the man stood before her.
"Pleasure to meet you," the man said. "I'm Nick Fury. Your brother just told me what you said to Loki. Do you think that you can get him to talk anymore?"
"I do not know," Ella said.
"Want to try?" he asked from her.
"Of course," Ella said. "But I do not know how much more I can do. I do not know what more I can say."
"Anything," Fury said to her. "Anything is worth a try."
"Then I will try again," Ella sighed.
Fury nodded his head once. "Natasha is just talking to him now. Give it ten minutes then head back. I will tell the guard to expect you."
Letting out a sigh, Ella caught Steve's eye before she saw Thor over his shoulder. Moving towards her brother, she gave Steve a sad smile as she passed by him and then walked besides Thor, sensing that there was something on his mind. He stepped into a room off the corridor and Ella looked around it. There was a bed and what looked like some type of bathroom in the corner. Sitting down on the bed, Ella leant forwards, doubling over as Thor closed the door and she finally felt the need to vent her frustration.
"What is he doing?" she demanded from her brother as he sat down besides her, his hands on his thighs. "Why does he want to do this?"
"He wants vengeance on me," Thor responded. "This is nothing to do with you, Ella."
"Yes, it is," Ella said, looking to him as she sat up straight and turned to face him. "Thor, this is as much to do with me as it is you. He is hurting both of us."
"I do not know how to make it stop," Thor shrugged. "I always thought that I understood Loki. I always thought that I knew what he wanted…but now…now I do not know, Ella. I do not know."
"I understand," Ella responded to him. "He is hurting all of us, Thor. He is harming all of us and none of it makes sense."
"So what do we do?" Thor wondered. "Ella, I cannot make him talk. I cannot be the one to make him talk."
"And you think I can?" Ella wondered, her hand on her chest. "I tried, Thor. I have tried numerous times to reason with him. I have tried here and on Asgard. I have not succeeded and yet I keep trying. It feels like a waste of time. There are only so many times I can beg him."
"Yet you told Fury you would try again."
"Then call me a fool," Ella shrugged to him. "I feel like a fool for doing this."
"Loki has made us all feel like fools," Thor responded to her.
"I just don't know how to make it stop."
"Maybe we can't." Thor said. "Maybe we can't do anything this time."
Ella shrugged. "I don't want to believe that."
"Why do I sense a but?"
"But," Ella drawled, "it might be true."