Chapter 2
Loki came into the glass room frequently to give Emmeline food and blankets. Sometimes he even talked to her. On the fifth day he came in with a paper cup. He sat on the floor next to Emmeline and sat the cup in front of her.
"I want to see what you can do," he said. "Show me your unique abilities." Emmeline looked at him and he was looking at her in anticipation. She placed her hands over the paper cup and it burst into flames. Loki gasped and looked at her. She put her hands back over the cup and formed a thin layer of ice over it; extinguishing the flames.
"That is astonishing," he said. "How do you do that?"
"I don't know," said Emmeline. "I just…do it. I feel the energy of the heat or ice and force it through my hands. That's the only way I can explain it."
"You will do nicely helping me retrieve the Tesseract," said Loki. Emmeline stood up.
"What? No! What makes you think I would help you?" Loki stood up and looked at her sternly.
"What choice do you have?" He said this as if it was a command, and walked out of the room, his black and green cape brushing her leg. Emmeline let out an exasperated sigh and sat on her blankets. She was sick of being in that room. She was sick of being here. She wanted to go back to the Avengers. She missed Tony, and Thor, Hawkeye and the others. She was very lonely.
As Emmeline sat by herself, thinking of her friends, she began to cry. She missed them all, but she was stuck in this glass room with no one but Loki every once in a while. But why hadn't they found her yet, or even come to get her? Were they even looking? Surely they would know that Loki had taken her.
Emmeline tried to stop crying and lied on her blankets but it was no use. She was lonely and sad; she didn't know how long she would be here or if she would ever get out. She started to hear footsteps down the hall and tried her best to quiet her crying. But Loki heard her. She saw him through the window and turned to her other side; her back to him. He walked in slowly. She looked at him quickly and then looked away, giving up trying to hide her tears. Loki stood there for a moment and left again.
It was about half an hour before he came back again. He walked into the glass room and kneeled down to Emmeline. He handed her a little white rabbit. She looked at him in bewilderment as she took the rabbit. She couldn't help but giggle.
"Why did you give me a rabbit?" she asked. Loki laughed and smiled at her.
"Because you were crying. It's cute, see? Women love rabbits, correct?" Emmeline nodded. "What is your name?"
"Emmeline," she said.
"Emmeline," Loki repeated to himself.
"Loki, what is so great about the Tesseract that everyone has to have it? Why is it so important?" asked Emmeline. Loki got very serious.
"The Tesseract is an object of infinite power and energy. It is very powerful and very dangerous if put into the wrong hands. My hands are the wrong hands." He smiled. "It opens a portal between Asgard and Earth, and powers my Chitauri scepter. I need it to get back to Asgard and return it to the Chitauri. Then they will give me their army."
"You're not afraid to tell me any of this?" Loki stood up and grinned at her.
"It's not a secret."
"Okay then, why do you want their army?" He smiled at her again, mischievously as always.
"So I can rule the people of Earth and Asgard. I will bring peace to the worlds, and I will take my rightful place as king."
"What if Thor stops you? You have fought with him a lot, and I sense a pattern."
"Ooh, I like your confidence! I am much more powerful than Thor. I have an army. He has a hammer."
"What are you going to do with the rest of the Avengers?"
"Make them my servants."
"What about me then?" Emmeline stood up. "Why haven't you made me your servant already?" Loki stood up as well.
"Because I like you, Emmeline. You have rage inside of you, I can feel it. It is the same that I have. I know you agree with me. You just refuse to accept it."
"Oh? Well what if I never do? What if I don't like you?"
"Then you would be burning me up right now. Why don't you? Why don't you place your hands over me and let me burn into nothing right here, I know you can do it!" He smiled and widened his eyes at her as he spoke.
"I know what you're trying to do Loki; I know you are trying to make me want to. You're trying to make me unleash all my power so you can see what I can do and manipulate it. You want what I have."
"You're smart," Loki replied. "But not smart enough." He smirked at her and left the room.
Loki was right. Emmeline did like him. She liked arguing with him and she knew he did too. But what did he mean when he said there was rage inside of her? She decided to push it aside. Loki was manipulative and he loved to fight. Those were terrible qualities, but Emmeline liked them. She began to worry about herself.
But even though he was a criminal he was sweet in a way. Loki just came in and gave her a rabbit because he saw her crying. She hated to admit it, but that was a really sweet thing to do. He had this charm about him. He wasn't afraid to say exactly why he did something; exactly how he felt. He wasn't afraid to show his humanity, when there was any. And really, he just wanted what everyone else in the world wanted. He wanted love. The love of his father, the love and respect of his people. He had been looked down on his whole life; living in Thor's shadow, and all he wanted was to be what his brother was. That was not evil. That was humanity. All the hate and revenge took over this insecurity. And Emmeline found that intriguing.
Tony Stark was in his study room with his supercomputer, looking at the Tesseract. It had begun to move and send beams of light through its containment unit. The screen on his supercomputer beside it read "UNSTABLE".
"How's the rock?" asked Tony's assistant/girlfriend Pepper.
"It's unstable," he said. "It moves as if it's trying to get out of its containment unit. But I don't know what to do about it."
"I think you should call Nick," said Pepper. "You can't keep it here. Loki knows where it is and we need professionals to look after it."
"I'm not a professional?" said Tony sarcastically. Pepper giggled.
"You're a genius, but we need scientists."
"I know. But I don't know if Nick will take it back."
"He has to. The only place that is safe for it is S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters. I'll call him if you want." There was a knock at the door.
"Hold that thought," said Tony. He opened the door and Nick Fury was standing there with three of his agents. "Never mind, he's here right now. We were just talking about you."
"There is no time for jokes Stark; we need to take the Tesseract back to Headquarters." Tony looked at Pepper and she smirked at him.
"Alright, but my computer says it's unstable."
"That's why we're here. We need you to disconnect its containment unit so we can extract it and place it in the case. One of Fury's agents came in with a silver metal suitcase and opened it in front of the Tesseract. Fury walked toward it and carefully took it, placing it into the case.
"Come with us," said Fury. Tony looked at Pepper.
"Will you hold down the fort?" he said.
"You know I will." Tony put on his Iron Man suit and followed Nick Fury and his agents to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
When they arrived, the rest of the Avengers were waiting there; all except Thor and Emmeline. They were all gathered around the Tesseract's containment unit and Nick Fury inserted the Tesseract, making sure it was secure.
"The Tesseract is unstable," he told the Avengers. "We need to find out what is going on."
"Where's Hammer?" asked Tony, referring to Thor.
"Right here," said Thor, walking in. He wore a long brown cloak instead of his armor.
"What about Red?" Nobody said anything. Nick looked up from the Tesseract.
"No one has seen her?" he asked. Thor looked at Tony.
"Rogers? Romanoff? …Barton? I haven't seen her since Loki came for the Tesseract," said Tony.
"I thought she was staying with you," said Thor.
"I thought so too, but when she didn't, I thought…" The Avengers looked at each other, silent.
"Oh no," said Thor. "I know where she is."
"Loki?" asked Tony. Thor nodded.
"What are we going to do?" asked Natasha.
"Well we have to go get her!" said Tony.
"We have to have a plan," Thor said. "I don't know what Loki wants with Emmeline or what he intends to do with her, but he will expect us. We have to be careful." Tony spoke up.
"What's the deal? Let's just go in there and take her back!"
"We can't! We cannot afford to underestimate Loki's power!"
"Well we don't have time to sit here and think! He could have killed her already. No plan. Let's go."
"No!" said Thor. "Not yet."
Emmeline was not bored in Loki's glass room, because she was having a crisis. She couldn't deny it to herself anymore that she liked Loki. She didn't think of him as an enemy. She thought of him as misunderstood. And what was worse was that she almost wanted to help him. All he was to her was a son that felt inferior to his brother and wanted to prove to everyone that he could be just as good or even better. Sure, that would come with his taking over of Asgard and Earth, but to her, that didn't sound so bad. He wanted peace; his intentions were good.
But she knew that she must be wrong. Thor knew Loki better than her, and she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind the best she could. Loki was the enemy. But he was sweet too! He gave her a rabbit, he fed her and brought her blankets, and he hadn't hurt her at all. Emmeline was very mixed up.
Later that evening, Loki came into Emmeline's room to give her food and carrots for her rabbit.
"Loki, you said you liked me. Why?" Loki kept a serious expression.
"You have heart," he said. "You have heart and ambition. And I like that." He looked at her for a split second and then left. Emmeline sighed; she had figured it out. Loki was the enemy. He wanted to rule two worlds and have everyone kneel before him. But she didn't care. She liked him. His intentions were good in his eyes, and if she helped him and they did it right, peace would come as he said. Loki had been right all along; she did agree with him. But not with his plan.
Loki had not yet retrieved the Tesseract. He hadn't tried to. His plan was that he would get Emmeline angry at him; unlock the rage she possessed inside of her and manipulate it toward the Avengers. This way they would be busy fighting her and he could take the Tesseract and rule both worlds before they even knew what was going on. Then he would take his revenge on his brother. It was brilliant. And all he had to do was blow in the fire. Loki knew exactly how to do it, too. He found out certain things about her past from observing Thor and his Avengers. Loki's past was similar; therefore he knew she had the same rage he had. Such rage was easy to manipulate; easy to fall out of control and into the control of the antagonist.
When Loki went to Emmeline's room that afternoon, she was sitting in a chair, looking at him.
"You've been expecting me," he said, raising his eyebrows at her as he entered the room.
"Shouldn't I?" Emmeline stood up and walked over to him and Loki smiled mischievously.
"You see, a little Thunder God told me a story about you." Emmeline's facial expression became very serious. "Yes, a tragic story. A daughter, who loved her parents, and wanted to show them what wonders she was capable of. She just knew that they would be thrilled for what their daughter could do, and they would be proud of her for being such a success." Emmeline's expression changed to angry. Loki smiled. "But tragically, the parents of this child didn't see her powers as wondrous as she did. They saw them as dangerous and embarrassing. And oh, here is the sad part. I think you know it. Why don't you finish it?"
"What are you doing Loki?!" said Emmeline angrily. "Did you just come here to push my buttons? Why are you doing this?"
"Finish the story, Emmeline." She slapped him hard, and it forced him to hit the wall. He liked her even more; he was actually attracted to her. He looked at her sternly.
"Do you know what they did Emmeline?!" he said, raising his voice. His plan was working. "They drove out into the street and they dumped their little girl with nothing! Isn't that sad? And she waited there! She waited there for them to come back and take her home, but did they? No! They never came back for their daughter because they didn't want her!" Emmeline lost it. She forced her ice powers at him and froze his entire body except his head in position on the wall. He glared at her.
"You know what Loki?" she said, tears in her eyes. "That reminds me of a tragic story I know! It's different than yours, because yours has a happy ending. The little girl finds people like her that appreciate what she can do and encourages her to use it for good! But this story I'm about to tell is not happy. In this story, a little baby is born of a monster. And a great god comes and finds that baby; abandoned and outcast by its own kind, left to die. But the god takes the baby and raises it as his own, next to his own son that he favored above the monster's baby. The god thought that if he took the baby, it would unite the clans. And the god's real son grew up to be a great hero, big and strong! And the adopted baby grew up to be a puny bastard. The real son was greater, and loved by his father. And the adopted son was weak and thrown into prison by his adoptive father, while the real son was proclaimed king. The adopted son thought it was his birthright to be king," Emmeline stood so close to Loki, he could feel her breath on his neck. Loki was upset. She had turned the tables on him and become the antagonist. His plan had backfired. The memories of his "father" rushed back to him. He was not born of Odin; he was the son of a Frost Giant. He was a monster, taken to be a unity token and nothing more. The pain burned a scar in his heart, and he couldn't look at Emmeline as she whispered the end of her "story".
"…but his birthright was to die." Loki looked at her with rage and screamed as loud as he could. In his rage he burst the ice around his body and grabbed Emmeline by the neck, slamming her against the wall.
"It hurts, doesn't it?!" she said, trying her best to speak with Loki's hand around her neck. She tried to pull his arm back. "That's why you kill!" She used her powers to burn Loki's hand and he threw her down. She got up and stood in front of him, gritting her teeth. "Because with every man you kill, you feel it again. And you keep trying to feel it, because maybe if you feel it enough, it will go away. …But it won't, Loki. All the rejection and dishonor, all the hate and manipulation placed upon you in your life. All that pain won't go away no matter how many times you feel it. And you like this. You like me saying this to you, because it hurts you. My saying this to you makes you feel it again. But you like it, Loki. You're sensitive to everyone and everything but yourself. You can't feel anything because your heart is so broken and the pain is the only thing you can feel. You like to feel pain."
Loki didn't say anything; he couldn't say anything. He just looked at Emmeline in disbelief that she just said that to him. She looked back at him with a superior demeanor. There was power in her eyes.
"You're right," he said quietly. "And you're the only one that can break me."
Loki put his hand on the back of Emmeline's neck and kissed her with all the passion he had.
He had never felt this before. He had never felt passion or love for a woman. The only woman he had ever loved was his mother Frigga and that was entirely different from this. He felt like he wanted to pull Emmeline inside of him, he wanted her that close. Suddenly he felt some of the pain go away.
Loki let go of her and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as he looked at her.
"Why did I do that?" he said. Emmeline looked at him intently.
"Just do it again," she said. Loki shrugged and smiled at her.
"Alright," he replied, and he kissed her again.
