That afternoon, Christie was sat on her bed in the comfort of her own quarters again, mulling over the number of significant mission points that had happened in the last 24 hours. A 'mission point' was something she and Coulson had thought of together - they were meant to be milestones that both indicated what had happened so far, and what could possibly happen next in terms of the mission severity. If it was upped to red, Christie would typically take a drastic course of action; whereas if it was still amber, she'd be on high alert.

The girls had decided to reside in Christie's quarters together as they felt as if they couldn't trust anyone in the palace but themselves right now. They had no idea what had happened to Thor or Loki since Sif dragged them away - she told them to scrap their duties and to stay indoors for now - so they had no clue what was happening around the palace at that moment.

Jennie sighed as she flopped herself into the giant armchair opposite Christie's bed, reading a selection of old mythology books to try and get any and every piece of information that could potentially explain a sudden change of character in an Asgardian. Was it possession? Was it normal? She needed answers. Delilah and Renesme were chatting casually amongst themselves whilst starting dinner at the mini stove at the other side of the room.

"Found anything out yet, Jen?" Renemse called from where she was expertly chopping up chillies.

"No, not yet," Jennie frowned back, slamming the book down and picking up the next one from the tall pile. Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on the door. The girls held their breath and glanced at each other worriedly.

"Yes?" Christie finally called.

And there he was - Loki himself.

He opened the door and slipped into the room before shutting the door securely behind him. Renesme and Delilah couldn't even mask their shallow gasps as Jennie bit her lip and attempted to hide the cover of the mythology book she was reading. The girls all stood up and bowed their heads in respect - everyone but Christie, who kept her eyes cautiously trained on him.

"Annerledes," Loki began slowly and deliberately, his eyes boring directly into hers, "Thor has been banished to Midgard."

"He's been WHAT?!" Renesme yelped, dropping the knife so that it clattered onto the stone kitchen counter.

"No," Jennie breathed, slamming her hand onto her forehead. But all Christie did was stare at Loki in silence for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath and nodding.

"Fine. Thank you for letting me know," she muttered cooly. Loki simply nodded and left, but not without that same shimmer of blue flickering in his deep green eyes.

As soon as Loki left the room and closed the door behind him, Jennie let out the groan she was holding in and threw her head back whilst Delilah bit her lip. The room felt a little cold, so Renesme grabbed a fluffy blanket from the floor and wrapped herself in it like a cocoon, absolutely petrified.

Everything within Christie was telling her that she was reaching code red.

"Girls, you need to leave the palace immediately," she muttered as soon as the door shut. It was go time, and she could feel it.

"Wait…what?" Delilah frowned at her. "Leave the palace to go where exactly?"

"Anywhere but here," Christie answered immediately.

"W-w-why must we leave?" Renesme stuttered, her heart filling with fear again.

"Because, it's not safe for you to be here anymore," Christie replied as if it were obvious. Her brain was working harder than it had ever worked before - all those 'emotions' she had untapped were now being overshadowed by logic, as they usually were. She was slowly fading back to the cold hearted girl she knew herself to be…and whether or not that was a good thing, she had no idea.

"Thanks for the heads up! But uh, what about you?" Jennie pointed out, chucking the book on the floor. "Are we supposed to go away and live on the outskirts of Asgard on our own knowing that you're here living with a monster? I think not! We're responsible for each other-"

"That's so valiant of you and everything, Jen, but I'd feel a lot better without you here. I'm not having you around now that the future of the palace is compromised," Christie insisted, those steely grey eyes deadly serious. Jennie rolled her own molten coloured eyes and opened her mouth to argue again - but was interrupted.

"Both of you, hush! Annerledes, we're staying with you. We were ready to go to Jotunheim for you, so you can't get rid of us that easily I'm afraid," Renesme announced boldly, the sudden sound of her usually timid voice startling them all. Christie glared at the girls for a half a second before sighing and dropping her shoulders, unable to try and fight her corner when her head was running overtime as it was, and without revealing her true self. Delilah walked up to her and placed a gentle reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Listen, we'll stay here together. We won't move about and draw attention to ourselves, we can all just live in your quarters quietly. We'll leave the palace only for food through the delivery gates or we'll sneak into the kitchen. What we cannot do is split up - not now," she muttered a little quieter, her voice soothing. Without warning, Christie felt the horrific notion of tears stinging underneath her eyelids and a scream of frustration bubble in her throat - but she shook off the feeling, swallowing them back down and composing herself.

Not now, Christie.

"Fine, whatever you say. I'm going to find Loki again, I have a few questions for him. And I'm going alone so stay here this time," she told them coldly, before giving a loud sniff, grabbing her white cloak and sweeping out of her room without another word. Delilah, Renesme and Jennie all stared at each other in the suffocating silence she left behind.

"Well, I guess all we can do is wait," Jennie sighed, picking up the book again.

…

Meanwhile, Christie knocked on Loki's dark oak door. She waited for the sour 'come in' which never came - so she took her chances walked in anyway, unsure of what she would see. Taking a deep breath, she cracked the door open to see Loki sitting on his bed, eyes fixated at the ground. "Loki? Can I come in?" she asked softly, trying to keep her cool.

"Well you're already halfway through the door, are you not?" Loki muttered bitterly without looking up.

"Well, you never said I could enter and it's polite to ask."

"And yet here you are." Christie took this as an opportunity to walk in, shutting the door behind her and leaning against it.

Step one: complete.

"How are you?" she asked carefully.

"Fine."

Step two: complete.

She walked over to where he sat slowly and plonked herself next to him, noticing him flinch ever so slightly.

"Please don't lie to me Loki. You're definitely not fine, you're acting really odd," she mumbled uncomfortably. "And it's actually killing me to see you become like this. It's…freaking me out."

"I'm sure it is. You and all of your little friends must be beside yourselves with worry," Loki mocked with venom practically dripping from his tongue. This wasn't good. This wasn't the man Christie knew.

"Excuse me? What the hell is wrong with you?" she scoffed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and staring at Loki for an answer of some sort. But he hadn't looked up once.

"Why does it matter-"

"You're breaking," Christie answered straight away. Loki still didn't say anything. "Loki? Please. Y-you're…you're scaring me."

"Scaring you…like the monster I am, right?" Loki chuckled darkly, suddenly standing up and turning to face her.

"Oh god. It really was you that orchestrated that whole thing, wasn't it?" He said nothing, just continued to stare at her. "Loki, I don't know what your game is but please, please don't do this," Christie continued to beg, sensing that awful feeling of tears bounce back into her eyes yet again. "Please-"

"I WILL DO WHAT I PLEASE!" Loki suddenly barked at her.

"You WILL NOT!" Christie shouted back. Oh, it was all coming out now. "NOT WHEN MY FRIENDS ARE INVOLVED!" Loki gave her a cocky smirk, which wound her up to no end.

"Oh, I won't?"

"You won't," Christie repeated firmly before standing up so she was face to face with him. She was looking at him dead in the eye now, and she wasn't flinching. "You have no, idea what I'm capable of. There is no way I will let you get away with hurting any of the people in this palace. Over my dead body, Loki." Loki raised a semi-amused eyebrow at her.

"Interesting choice of words. GUARDS!" Christie stared at Loki's stony expression in blatant disbelief as the palace guards quickly burst into the room. "Take the serving girl away. Lock her up. Do it now. Now!"

"Lock her up? On what grounds?" the head palace guard Viesall spluttered in disbelief. He knew Christie well, as did most of the guards, so Loki's sudden request baffled them all.

"The charges can be dealt with later. Right now I would like her out of my sight." Christie shook her head in horror as the guards grabbed her by her slender shoulders and began to lift her out of the room.

"LOKI I SWEAR ON EVERYTHING, I HATE YOU! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE MET YOU ON THOSE STUPID PALACE BALCONIES YOU FREAK!" she screeched with her limbs flailing as they marched her out, far too strong for her to fight back.

Loki watched them leave without another word until they were out of sight. Once he was satisfied that they had gone far enough down the palace halls, and the screaming protests of Christie turned into nothing but echoing calls of pain, he finally released the shaky breath that he was holding in and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Forgive me, my beautiful girl," he whispered, a single tear falling down his cold cheek before it dried up on his skin, and the blue shimmer returned to his eyes once more.