Christie's mouth dropped to the floor as she helplessly watched Loki get flung around like a rag doll by the big green rage machine, unable to fully comprehend the sight.

"Puny god," Hulk spat once he was done, marching onto the balcony before finally heaving himself off the building to rejoin the Avengers on the city floor.

That was it – Loki had been neutralised.

Christie knew that this was her opening. So she took a few wobbly slow steps forward, attempting to use the shadows as cover whilst shakily fumbling in her pockets for the her trusted dagger, praying that she wouldn't slice her fingers on the blade from her unusually trembling hands. She slowly crept across the expansive living room to where Loki lay bruised and whimpering on the carpet - before suddenly hearing his voice in her head once more.

"Annerledes?" he hummed quietly, whilst his body's empty eyes stared up at her.

"Loki," Christie breathed out loud as she knelt down beside him.

"I can tell you're close. Now's your chance. If this doesn't work-" Loki's voice muttered. His body could only watch on as Christie slowly pulled the dagger from its sheaf.

"Oh Loki will you shut up! It will work, i-it has to," Christie hissed in annoyance. But despite her 'confidence', her hands just couldn't stop shaking.

She needed them to.

"But if it doesn't..." Loki carried on regardless, "I love you more than anything else in the universe…my darling." Christie felt a hot tear dribble down to her chin and shook herself out of it, not even wanting to reply to his words.

Partially because at this point, she didn't even believe them anymore.

"Christie?" came the sudden voice of Renesme through her earpiece.

"Mhm?" Christie responded, straddling Loki's bony hips and fiddling with her dagger as 'Loki' began to panic and groggily attempt to wriggle his way out of her thighs. He was still weak but he was using everything left within him to aid his escape.

"Please make sure you get him in the right place. It has to be done just beneath the joining of his sternum. If you get him there he'll have every chance of surviving the wound. Understood?"

"Affirmative," Christie sniffed coldly, placing both quivering hands over the smooth handle of the dagger.

"Also, you may have to wait until they close the portal, so that no more Chitauri can be sent down to help him," Jennie added in quickly.

"J-j-just tell me when," Christie mumbled, her tears beginning to fog her vision. She was petrified.

"Annerledes just do it! You can't keep my body from struggling forever!" Loki's voice hissed impatiently in her mind.

"Hang on Loki," Christie panted, waiting for Jennie's signal first. The seconds felt like hours, until finally,

"NOW CHRISTIE!" Jennie suddenly barked.

"I copy."

Christie took one final deep breath and tried her hardest to avoid looking into Loki's shimmering blue eyes. She plunged the dagger exactly where she was told with all her might. Then came that awful white noise tearing through her mind mixed with sharp screeches. Her skin began to tingle and her head was pounding just as badly as it did just before she and Loki got together in Asgard.

Then it got worse.

She could hear Loki splutter inside her head, as if he was choking, and out came a large chalky blue wisp of smoke from his physical mouth, which sucked itself into a ball before completely imploding. Then the mental screeching stopped - in fact everything was deadly silent.

So the master was gone. But what of the host?

Christie could only watch on in horror as Loki's already pale skin faded into an almost ghostly whiter paste. There was absolutely no colour left in his cheeks and his pulse had shuddered to an abrupt halt under her trembling fingertips. There was even blue blood dribbling from where the dagger was still sticking out of him, steadily soaking through his armoured suit.

"Oh n-no. Come on, Loki. Come on, come back to me babe," Christie suddenly blurted desperately. She gathered him up, holding his torso close to her whilst desperately waiting for a sign, a noise - anything. Then she vaguely heard a booming thunder clap, immediately telling her that Thor had arrived somewhere nearby.

"Annerledes?" he boomed out, stepping into the living room via the broken remains of the balcony.

"Thor, h-he's not waking u-up a-a-again," Christie cried out, stroking Loki's hair away from his face as her hot tears spilt onto his cold, lifeless face. As soon as the tears hit his skin they froze up, creating small puddles of ice on his cheeks and forehead. All Thor could do was swallowed thickly and kneel down beside her.

"Give him some time. H-he has to wake up," he whispered, staring down at his younger brother's limp body. But Christie began to get a really terrible sinking feeling within. She had already convinced herself that she didn't do it right and messed the entire thing up. The city…in fact the entire planet was saved - but none of that mattered if Loki wasn't. All she wanted to see was his eyes open again.

Then the grief struck properly.

"I'm sorry Loki, I am so…sorry," she wailed, now beginning to hyperventilate as she buried her face in Loki's bleeding wound, staining her face with his blood. Thor rubbed circles on Christie's back in comfort, feeling just as devastated for what was now the second time. Suddenly, Christie picked her head up and yanked the dagger from the wound with a grunt, handing it to Thor.

"Annerledes...?" Thor asked her quietly, noticing something in her face change.

"Take me back to Asgard and tell your father I killed his son," Christie whispered croakily, her face lacking any expression.

"Absolutely not!" Thor exclaimed in disgust.

"Let me suffer the consequences. What is it? Time in prison? I'll do it. I did this," Christie insisted, her cold eyes now glossed with fresh tears.

"Annerledes, STOP!" Thor thundered expressively, flinging the dagger away as far as he could before she did something silly with it. The sound of it clattered against Stark's underfloor heated tiles whilst Thor pulled Christie into his muscular embrace, holding her as tightly as he could. Her actions seemed so wild and out of character that it sent alarm bells ringing. "Just stop. You did all you could," he murmured into her ear - firmly, but gently. Christie collapsed onto his chest and sobbed her heart out harder than she ever had before.

Her heart felt like it was physically hurting. She was in genuine pain and she just couldn't take it.

"I had one job and I f*cking failed it. I never fail and I did, the one time I needed to win the most," Christie wept in dispair. Thor was about to console her again, but instead found himself distracted by the likes of Steve, Hulk, Tony, Clint and Natasha who had tiredly reentered into the apartment all battered and bruised.

They all fell quiet once they saw the scene in front of them.

"Oh god. What happened?" Natasha muttered to Thor once she approached them.

"I-"

It all happened so fast. Christie opened her mouth to try and explain whilst stealing another distressed glance down at Loki.

Then his eyelids flickered slightly.

And then his fingers twitched.

"No, f*cking, way," Christie breathed out hoarsely, her voice still shaky from the stress. And that was when Loki's eyes completely flew open before growing wide in disbelief to first see Christie, and then all of the Avengers staring down at him.

"If it's all the same to you," he spoke slowly, raising both hands into the air in guilty surrender, "I'll take that drink now."

And his eyes were green.

Deep, sparkling, beautiful mossy green.

Christie felt like she was stuck in a fever dream as she silently observed the Avengers glance at each other in blatant uncertainty, whilst a thick layer of silence coated the room. "Okay…now what?" Tony turned to Steve expectedly.

"I have no idea," he admitted as he lowered his shield slightly, convinced that Loki was no longer a threat. Loki himself had been stood up beside Thor again, but was also carefully ignoring Christie's eye contact - but she just couldn't understand why. What had changed?

Had he forgotten who she was? Did he know who he was?

"I shall take him back up to Asgard," Thor told them firmly, "along with Anner- I mean Christie…if she'll come, of course."

"Me? Oh y-yeah, I'll go back up for a bit," Christie nodded, slightly caught off guard by the mere mention of her name. She tore her eyes from Loki again and cleared her throat. "Um…Thor, can I talk to you for a second?" Thor gave her a short confirmative nod and made his way towards Stark's kitchen, where the beautiful polished mahogany floor was now completely covered in heavy rubble and dust. Christie followed him over as she anxiously chewed on her bottom lip.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly once they were out of earshot.

"Loki's completely ignoring me…why is that?" Christie murmured as quietly as she could.

"I…do not know," Thor winced with a shrug. "He has just been risen from mind possession, so it's not going to be straight away that you fall back in love. It may take time, Annerledes."

"No. If I'm being totally honest, Thor, I don't think he's ever going to fall back in love. Now I'm wondering if he even did in the first place - or if I was his ticket to greater power over Earth or something," Christie muttered scathingly as she pushed her white wispy fringe out of her face. Thor's mouth twisted into a few odd shapes and he gave a tired sigh of defeat as Christie left him to return to the team with a face like death. He couldn't argue a point like that because for Loki, it was totally plausible.

Christie was watching on as her team discussed the clean up process, when her eyes fell on Jennie tiptoeing into the apartment with a couple of other S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

"Oh there you are! You did it! Well done, you!" she beamed a little awkwardly. Christie stared at her whilst blinking a few times. "What?" Jennie asked with a defensive frown.

"Nothing, you're just…acting a bit weird," Christie muttered quietly. "Even for you. Anyway, say your goodbyes, we're off."

"No Christie, you're off," Jennie winced, bracing herself for her reaction. Christie's mouth fell open in shock for the second time that day.

"Excuse me?"

"I have to stay here," Jennie sighed apologetically, ducking her head in shame. "I'm sure you'll be-"

"You have to stay? Says who?" Christie frowned, genuinely baffled at her decision.

"Well, says me! For goodness sake, Christie, you don't need to make all my decisions for me!" Jennie rolled her eyes hotly.

"Woah! Relax - why are you getting so defensive over this?" Christie scoffed with her hands risen in the air. Jennie blushed and dropped her gaze once again.

"I'm not, I-I'm sorry. I just don't want to go back to Asgard."

"Fine! I'll let Frigga know and see you when I get back," Christie murmured as she waved her hand dismissively. She had a number of things to think about right now and Jennie's weird, unpredictable change of heart wasn't even amongst the top hundred. Meanwhile, had Fury hopped out from a small helicopter that had landed on Stark's destroyed balcony accompanied by a few more agents of his own, including Renesme and Delilah. They both looked extremely exhausted but somewhat thrilled.

"I take it we're off?" Renesme yawned as she walked up to them to lazily lean her head on Christie's shoulder.

"Some of us," Christie hummed back.

"I'm staying!" Jennie announced to them brightly, flicking her hair over her shoulders. Only then had Christie noticed from the corner of her eye that Clint had his eyes fixed on Jennie from across the room, and only then did she clock on to why Jennie was so adamant to stay.

"Oh for goodness- you know Barton is an entirely newly married man, right?" Christie hissed under her breath, causing Renesme and Delilah to frown at each other. Jennie glanced over at Clint again, her face now riddled with disgust instead.

"Right. Well in that case…looks like I'm going back," she corrected herself miserably. Christie had to physically stop herself from rolling her eyes whilst Delilah and Renesme exchanged more silent looks of irritation - but swiftly wiped it from their faces before Christie could catch on.

"Renesme, we could really use you on the team," Agent Hill suddenly slid over to the four of them, taking Renesme and Delilah aside. "And you, Delilah. With the proper training…you'd fit in with us perfectly. We see good use for you here." Delilah glanced from the Avengers and back to Christie & Jennie again, who were standing there patiently awaiting their decision. When Delilah weighed her options properly, she knew that she and Renesme had been taken advantage of many times in Asgard by Jennie. She had taken the role of Head Maid incredibly seriously and constantly bossed them about, sometimes in the most unintentionally demeaning ways possible. Because of this, Delilah felt like she had no control over herself, but she did now. And Renesme felt exactly the same – the people in S.H.I.E.L.D treated her like an actual individual whereas nobody in Asgard but Frigga knew her name.

So…

"Then we're staying," Renesme decided with a smile, Delilah backing her up with a comforting grin and nod. Much to their surprise, Jennie let out an offended gasp and spun to face them both, eyes ablaze with anger.

"You're staying?" Christie blinked at them too, a little stunned by their decision. "Well I never-"

"Oh don't fret, Christie, and we'll see you when you get back!" Renesme assured her in a rush as she reached for her hand. The last thing she wanted was for Christie to hate her. "Please don't take it personally-"

"Why would I-" Christie began, until,

"Oh it is EVERYTHING personal! We've been working together for years and now you're just dropping everything we had! How dare you?" Jennie snapped at them accusatorially, stamping her foot in anger. Christie stared over at her as if she had completely lost it. She couldn't keep up with Jennie's swaying madness every few moments - it was driving her up the wall.

"Sorry Ma'am," Delilah replied bluntly, staring her dead in the eye.

"Ooooft you know what Christie, let's just go," Jennie cut her off abruptly, still incredibly annoyed. "We don't need them anyway-"

"Wait a minute! So it's fine that you could stay for Barton who barely knew your name-" Renesme began.

But her words were louder than she had intended for them to be, and it accidentally created a stunned silence around them.

"Okaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy Thor – portal please!" Christie shouted quickly, marching over to where Thor was stood whilst dragging a fuming and utterly embarrassed Jennie with her.

"What is she talking about, Clint?" Natasha hummed curiously as Tony's cheeky eyes went wide in pure amusement.

"Yeah Birdbrain, what is she talking about?" he turned to Clint in interest, cocking his head to the side in mock wonder.

"How the hell should I know?!" Clint waved them off airily, causing Jennie to blush an even deeper embarrassed shade of red as Renesme bit back a shameful but very real laugh. Thor busied himself conjuring the repaired Bifrost to open up again from the same balcony and shoving Loki into it. Christie didn't even have to say goodbye to everyone because frankly, she didn't care to - she just gave Tony a massive thankful hug and ruffled his hair, which he returned with a comforting kiss on the top of her head.

Then all Christie could do was to patiently wait for Thor to finish up, with a furious looking Jennie burning away beside her.

"Thank you, Sir Fury," Thor told him solemnly, giving him a firm handshake. "If you need me, you know where to find me."

"I'm sure you'll hear more of us soon. You too Darmer, you know we'll be eagerly awaiting your return," Fury nodded, shaking his hand back. Christie shot him a tiny smile.

…

They landed back in Asgard in silence. The sky was made up of starry variations of deep purples and smooth blues - ever the most beautiful sight. As soon as their feet were back in Heimdall's station, around thirty or so Asgardian guards rushed up to the group and bustled Loki away. He didn't struggle, protest or even slightly attempt to release himself from their grips. In fact, looked so at peace that it made Christie feel sick to her stomach.

Not even a hint of remorse. Not even a little glance in her direction.

Thor took a deep breath in as he watched them take Loki down the now repaired Bifrost, before greeting Heimdall for the first time in a while. "Sir, wonderful to see you again," Heimdall boomed, firmly shaking his hand before bringing him in for a hug.

"Glad to be back, Heimdall," Thor nodded humbly, returning the smile. Jennie gave Heimdall a small curtsy of her own and Christie gave him a warm hug, forcing a similar smile onto her own lips. Then Thor blinked at the girls as if he had only just remembered that he was there.

"Are you both doing well?" he checked with them quietly. Christie ran her fingers through her silky moonlight locks and gave him a cautious nod.

"Yes…" she muttered, her eyes focussed on the glittering floor beneath her. "We should really go and see Lady Frigga, right Jen?"

"I suppose," Jennie smiled back slightly. She seemed fine on the outside, but Christie could tell that she felt a little out of place without Delilah and Renesme by her side. It looked like her hurt had come out as anger at first, but it was now turning into sorrow instead. Christie found herself taking pity on her - so she reluctantly opened her arms and Jennie fell into them gratefully.

Once they broke apart again, Jennie linked arms with her and they both made their down the Bifrost, leaving Thor and Heimdall to catch up.

"How long do you think Loki will get locked up for?" Christie asked slowly. Jennie kept her eyes trained on her feet as they arrived closer to the palace ahead.

"I cannot answer - it shouldn't take that long for him to come back out, since this technically wasn't his fault. Hopefully the court elders will understand, particularly if Frigga's there to fight for him," Jennie attempted to comfort her, nibbling on her pink bottom lip.

"He….he still hasn't said anything to me," Christie admitted lowly.

"Yes, I noticed that," Jennie suddenly frowned. "I wrongly assumed that you two would be all over each other again, after all that you went through on Midgard."

"Yeah, so did I. Hopefully I can speak to him before he's sentenced, I doubt they'll give me access to him in the prison," Christie gave bitter sigh back. A few more minutes of silent walking later, the women finally approached the entrance of the grand palace and stared up at those familiar tall, golden doors. It had been a long time coming, but there they were once again.

It still felt like home.

Christie and Jennie kept their arms interlinked and took a deep simultaneous breath before gingerly stepping up the palace steps, about to request someone to let them in. But they didn't even get that far, as all Christie and Jennie could hear from the inside was Odin booming the words of Loki's prison sentence.

There was no way in hell that this relationship was ever going to work out again, and it certainly did not matter whether he remembered Christie or not.

Because Loki was about to be locked away…for life.

...

about ten chapters left :(

also! made a twitter: sbtroubles - feel free to follow me there to see me whinge to the site creators every time it crashes!