"Coulson, any updates from Christie?" Fury asked his partner that morning as he swept into the main communications room of the helicarrier, his coat billowing behind him.

"Negative, sir," Coulson briskly replied, crossing his arms at the station he was standing at.

"I'm really starting to think sending her up there was a bad idea," Fury muttered, glancing at Coulson out of the corner of his one good eye.

"Um, sir…this was your idea," Coulson frowned in blatant confusion.

"Yeah, I got that. But it shouldn't be taking this long for her to see something. I thought Selvig predicted chaos? Seems pretty damn quiet to me," Fury continued to point out. He was restless, anxious, and it was clear.

"Sir, we've got a match!" Agent Hill suddenly shouted form across the comms room. Both Fury and Coulson skidded over to the screen that both Maria and another agent were crouched over.

"Is that her there?" Fury turned to Coulson to ask him directly. Coulson peered at the photo of the young woman with long wavy auburn hair and dull green eyes. It was a blurry image though, no real details could be made out - she seemed to be with a larger group of people.

"Hard to tell," Coulson murmured back.

"Enhance and zoom in focus," Fury demanded. The agent double clicked on the photo and it sharpened. Then the image was much clearer. The woman appeared to be running with her hand output in a Spiderman-esque form, whilst what looked like sparks were flying straight from her fingertips. She wore a tight black tank top showing off a lot of her cleavage and dark jeans with lace up boots. "Coulson?" Fury muttered again, suddenly breaking the silence.

"Y-yeah. That's her sir," Coulson gulped.

"We got it, cross-match her and find her location," Fury told Maria briskly.

"Sir, we can't do that - she's still with the Professor and you had a deal remember?" Maria quickly reminded him before he got too ahead of himself. Coulson and Fury exchanged irritated looks with each other, knowing she was 100% right.

"Damnit," Fury hissed under his breath. They were so close this time…and yet so far.

"We've gotta get her soon," Coulson groaned in exasperation, staring at the picture in front of him. "We must recruit Ashley Darmer."

"Do listen to me, Annerledes you must keep close," Loki muttered sharply once they both stepped into the great training grounds of Asgard. It resembled a stadium out of one of those gladiator films that Christie remembered her dad watching on a Friday evening, when she was meant to be asleep. She typically used to crouch on the stairs and peer at the TV screen through the white bars of the banister, staring at those hefty sweaty men covered in dirt and each other's blood, stabbing each other with spears and swords in awe. Her mother would never allow her to watch it, but she was asleep whenever it came on, as was her sister - so they never even knew. Her father could always tell that she was secretly watching from that spot on the staircase though, but he never stopped her. He never even turned round to scold her - he let her sit there for the entire film, and gave her a few seconds to run back into her room before she was 'seen' whilst the credits rolled. Then he'd simply switch off the TV before following suit, never so much as even mentioning it the next morning.

It was like their way of weekly silent bonding between them. Sweet, given the fact that outside of those evenings, they barely so much as glanced in each other's direction.

"Stay close? I don't see how I can," Christie joked lightheartedly, gesturing around the large arena that she was standing in. But she coughed awkwardly when she noticed Loki's serious face glaring over at her. He genuinely wasn't messing around, yet to Christie this arena was no big deal - she had been in worse situations before. "Sorry, I mean sure, I'll…uh…keep close by."

"That's all I ask, thank you," Loki sighed in relief. "Now to find that beloved great oaf of mine-"

"BROTHER!" Thor's voice suddenly boomed as he walked down the stone staircase on the far side of the arena with four other people behind him, like his posse.

"Thor," Loki nodded slightly once he was within closer range. "And the others. This is Annerledes. Annerledes this is Thor, as you know, that's Sif and behind her are the Warriors Three." Christie bowed her head in humble acknowledgement, registering each new face in her head.

"Ah! Aren't you one of the maids in the house?" Thor frowned, trying to figure out where he had seen her before.

"She is indeed, I decided to bring her to lunch on the balconies but I remembered we had training," Loki admitted, looking slightly embarrassed about the lunch situation. The group shared amused smirks on each of their faces.

"Oh brother, then there was no need to show up today! I wouldn't have even cared if I knew you were courting someone!" Thor gave a small smirk, an eyebrow risen as he eyed Christie up and down. "Lucky man, she is a beautiful one." Christie flushed and shrugged her shoulders bashfully, now unsure of where to look.

"Aww, thank-"

"It was just a friendly lunch," Loki snapped, interrupting their little moment. Christie's mouth shut again and Thor looked even more amused than he did before.

"Yes brother, if you insist. Let's begin then!" Christie took a few steps back, choosing to sit on one of the many great stone steps that lined the arena as she silently assessed the five of them in combat with great interest. Thor always went for the jugular, being a hefty man. Loki's main skills appeared to be disappearing and reappearing, at one point of the session he even magically appeared next to Christie, which made her jump yet again. It was a fascinating ordeal to say the least - until it took a turn for the worse.

Towards the end of the session, Sif popped over to sit next to Christie as the men quietly argued amongst themselves on who could approach her to 'get to know her better'. Thor insisted that he was going for it, but Loki had quickly stopped each and every one of his attempts. Sif was curious about her, though. Another woman this close to the men she surrounded herself with wasn't what she was used to.

"So, Annerledes is it? Do you know how to fight?" she asked loudly, as if Christie were tone deaf. Christie wrinkled her nose and she blinked at her in confusion, not overly sure whether she was happy with her tone or not.

"How to fight? I…well…somewhat," she nodded carefully, determined not to give anything away. Sif gave a tinkering laugh - which pierced straight through Christie for some reason. It almost made her wince.

"I'm sure you do," Sif hummed sarcastically, although it was barely audible. Christie suddenly found her skin get very hot very quickly - something within her had ruptured and it was only a matter of time before it revealed itself. 'Count to five, Christie,' she thought. 'You can't kick off here. You cannot blow your cover for this disrespectful b*tch - you've come this far, you've come this far. Count to five.'

'1...'

"I mean, you're just a maid, so I shan't expect too much from you. Did you not fall from the sky or something or another?" Sif continued without even thinking. She wasn't even trying to trigger her, she was just oblivious to the effect that her words were having.

'2...'

"Frigga said you looked rather weak when you arrived, anyway. You must be frightened here, and that's absolutely understandable."

'3...'

"In fact next time, for safety reasons alone, I think it's best that you stay in the kitchens. I'm surprised that Loki even-"

'ANDDD SHE'S OUT!' Christie screamed in her head. "Stand up! Get up NOW!" she blurted out loud, leaping to her feet and towering over the baffled looking woman next to her. Sif frowned up at her, still holding that amused look plastered on her face.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, you condescending little b*tch. You're asking for it so let's go! Stand up! I'll show you weak," Christie hissed, getting dangerously close to her now, completely and shamelessly in her face. It's like the entire mission had completely flown from her head. Common sense was clearly not in use and she knew she'd be kicking herself for it later, because she had never lost her cool like this before.

The noise from Christie's shouts began to gain attention from around the arena; Thor and Loki immediately stopped what they were doing and stared over at the commotion, watching Sif's eyes grow worryingly dark as she heaved herself off the steps she was seated on. Her face hardened and her eyes looked like death as she reached behind her back for her weapons.

"You're planning to do this without any weapons? Lady Annerledes, you are making a huge mistake," Sif warned her venomously. Christie raised a sceptical eyebrow, completely unfazed by this 'bad girl' act she was putting on.

"The feeling's mutual," she whispered, before lunging straight at her. Before she could even lay her hands on her neck, Loki had suddenly transported himself between the both of them before any real damage was done, blocking Christie immediately. Thor leapt over and yanked Sif back with the help of the Warriors Three, even though she too was enraged. "LET ME GET HER, GET OFF ME LOKI!" Christie screamed, kill mode now activated. She wanted her blood on her hands. But Loki had firmly pinned her arms to her side so that she couldn't move, even if she wanted to, although he was a little taken aback by her strength. Sif had managed to shrug everyone off but was still lowly growling warnings in Christie's direction, her dark eyes still fixated on the now obvious threat in front of her.

"I swear on everything with all witnesses present, Annerledes - if you ever lunge at me like that again it'll be the last move you ever make in your entire life, 'maid of Frigga' or not!" she spat in disgust before throwing down her weapons and storming out of the stadium. Thor panted heavily alongside the Warriors Three as they all hovered around them awkwardly, somewhat unsure of what they should do next. Christie looked close to tears for the first time in a long time, and she hated that she had allowed someone like Sif get to her so easily and at such pace.

Where was all that hardcore emotional restriction training she had put herself through?

Why did that not apply on Asgard?

Why was everything so up in the air for her, now that she wasn't on earth anymore?

A/N: Sorry I've been gone for so long everyone! I'm back now, the next chapter will be up in the next few days as an apology, because yikes! x