Chapter 3

Loki let Emmeline out of the glass cage. Suddenly everything had changed. Loki sat on the floor in his room and looked at Emmeline, who was sitting on the floor and looking at him as well.

"I cannot use you to obtain the Tesseract anymore," said Loki. "What do you suppose I do with you?"

"What do you want to do with me?" asked Emmeline. Loki smiled at her.

"You can't answer my question with another question!" he said. Emmeline smirked at him.

"Loki, what are you feeling right now?"

"Right now?"

"Right this very minute. What do you feel?" Loki raised his chin, thinking.

"Honestly I don't know what it is I'm feeling. But it is nothing I've felt before. I like you. I more than like you. You are charming and lovely and so I must tell you what I know. I know why I kissed you. I know what I want. And I want you to stay." Loki looked at Emmeline with confidence hiding a secret feeling of nervousness, staring into her eyes for an answer. Emmeline smiled and leaned toward him.

"I love you Loki. And I want to help you get the Tesseract." Loki smiled bigger than he ever had in his whole life.


Thor had found Loki's location in Moscow. He knew his brother had Emmeline, and he was hoping with all his being that he didn't kill her already. Thor's intention was to talk to his brother. Then beat the crap out of him. Thor entered the stolen mansion and stood in the doorway.

"Loki!" Thor called loudly. "I know you're in here, brother!" Loki came downstairs with that same mischievous smile.

"Ah, Thor. How are you?"

"Loki, do not try small talk with me. You know what I came for." Loki approached his brother with his hands behind his back.

"I was simply starting a nice conversation," he said. "I do not have the Tesseract, if that is what you came for."

"No Loki. We have the Tesseract. I am surprised you haven't attempted to take it again."

"Oh, but I am scheming, brother."

"Give up Loki. Even if you do get the Tesseract, we will defeat your army. The people will not fall to you. A war will not fix anything brother."

"Brother, don't you see? The people will go to war anyway! That is what man craves! Every human being has a secret hunger for violence, and it is in their nature to slaughter one another! They need to be ruled Thor; they're meant for it. They need to be humbled. That is how you achieve peace."

"You're wrong, Loki! You will never be king!" Thor swung at Loki and Loki grabbed Thor by his neck.

"You dare to come here and insult me by your own accord," Loki whispered. "Leave here, now! Or I will kill you."

"I came for Emmeline, Loki," said Thor, pulling Loki's hand away from his neck. "I know you took her."

"Ah yes, I did take the girl with fire and ice," Loki replied. "But she is mine."

"Loki I am warning you. Give Emmeline back or I will be forced to call the Avengers and we will kill you." Loki raised his eyebrows.

"Alright Thor," he said. "I will go get her." Loki left the room and came back with Emmeline, dressed in a suit similar to Loki's. Emmeline gasped.

"Thor!" she exclaimed. "I'm so happy to see you!" She threw her arms around him and Loki put his hand on her shoulder.

"Darling, you need to tell him," he said. Thor glared at Loki.

"Tell me what?" he said. Loki laughed.

"Oh, you're going to love this, brother," he said. "…Emmeline will not be going with you." Thor looked at Emmeline. She looked away.

"What have you done to her?!" yelled Thor. Loki put his hands up.

"Nothing, brother. This is by her will. See, watch." Loki put his fingers under Emmeline's chin and lightly licked her nose. Emmeline smiled at him, but quickly looked back at Thor. Thor was devastated. Certainly Loki must have done something to her, and how would he reverse it?

"Loki, can I talk to Thor alone?" asked Emmeline. Loki nodded and left the room, smirking at Thor. Emmeline turned back to Thor.

"Thor, just let me explain myself."

"What did he do to you?"

"Nothing."

"Really? Nothing?"

"Look at my eyes, they're normal." Thor looked into her eyes, and they were still brown. Had Loki done anything to her, they would have turned the blue color of the Tesseract.

"I love him Thor," said Emmeline. "He's sweet, he's misunderstood, he's…broken. And I love him. I don't want to be an Avenger anymore." Thor couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I know you love him too," said Emmeline. "So surely you understand. You know, all he wants is to be great like you. He's always felt inferior to you and tried to live up to you. Your father—"

"—Loki always said that father favored me but it is not true! Loki does not need to prove himself to him!"

"I know. He wants to prove himself to your father, your mother, even you. But mostly himself. He needs to believe that he's worth something, that he can do good for someone. Don't you see, Thor? His whole life, people have put him down, told him he was wrong. And maybe he was, but nobody would build him up. I want to be that person. He needs to be king, Thor. He'll bring peace; he intends to. He isn't evil. All he is trying to do is make his family proud of him…make everyone proud of him."

"No he will not! Do you honestly think that if Loki wages war on the world it will result in peace? Certainly you do not agree with him! Don't let him turn you into his slave, Emmeline!" Thor was getting angry.

"He won't! Thor, why can't you respect my decision? I'm done being an Avenger and I want to help Loki! He will be king, as he was born to!" Thor let his anger get the best of him and he swung his fist at Emmeline, but it was caught swiftly by Loki, who had stepped in at just the right time.

"Don't you dare," said Loki through gritted teeth. "If you hurt her, I will kill you immediately." Thor looked intently at Loki.

"Do you love her?" he asked. Loki looked straight into his eyes.

"Yes," he replied. He slowly let go of Thor and backed up to Emmeline. "Go, Thor."

"I will ask you for the last time," Thor said. "Come home, Loki. To father, to mother."

"He is not my father! I am not his stolen peace offering. I know what I am, Thor! I am a king! When I come home I will be sitting on the throne of Asgard!" Thor looked at Emmeline. She said nothing.

"I see," said Thor finally, and gave Loki and Emmeline one last look as he left. Loki turned around and left the room, but Emmeline ran up to Thor and grabbed his shoulder.

"I know it's not smart; he's a criminal, I know. He kills and lies and schemes, but…I love him."

"I know," said Thor. "And I can see he loves you. If it means anything, this is the first time I've seen him love anyone but our mother."

"He loves you," replied Emmeline, smiling. Thor looked down. "He does, Thor. You have to believe it. He's told you, hasn't he?"

"The last time he told me, he sabotaged my coronation," said Thor.

"He does though. He can't help what he is." Thor hugged Emmeline.
"I wish you well Emmeline," he said. Emmeline smiled and nodded to him.

"Same to you," she said, turning around and walking away, back to his brother.


"What do you mean she's not coming back?!" yelled Iron Man. He was enraged and upset. "Did you even try to take her back?! I knew we shouldn't have trusted you to fix anything! I'm going down there myself! He probably put a spell on her or something!"

"He didn't!" yelled Thor. "I checked. And she explained everything to me. She doesn't want to come back. She loves my brother, and he loves her. There's nothing I can do." Tony let out a sigh of disbelief.

"But I…we can't just let her go, just like that! He'll betray her, he'll kill her!"

"I know what you all think of him and I know killing is a great part of his past, but I know my brother and I know he loves her. He wouldn't kill her. If she betrayed him, however, I don't know what he would do. His anger drives him and it takes over easily."

"But she wants to help him? Help him?! He's a psychopath! And won't she have to fight us, I just don't understand! Are you sure it isn't Stockholm's Syndrome?" Tony sat down and was silent for a moment. Surely there must have been a mistake. He had such high hopes for Emmeline.

"I'm sorry Metal Man. I know how you feel; I feel the same." Tony sighed.

"It's Iron Man," he said nonchalantly, giving up on Thor getting it right. "Does Fury know?"

"No. I haven't told him. You all are the only ones that know. The only one who isn't here is Hulk."

"We can't tell Banner," said the Black Widow. "He'll lose it."

"He'll have to find out eventually," said Tony. "It will be worse if he finds out by himself. Maybe we can ease him into it."

"Ease me into what?" asked Dr. Bruce Banner, walking into the room at the worst time possible.

"Well crap, we have to tell him now," said Tony.

"You guys, come on. What is it?"

"Okay, Bruce you have to keep calm okay?" said the Black Widow.

"Oh no, it's bad news?" he said, wincing. The Black Widow nodded.

"Okay, um. Let me drink this water and sit down. I'm going to try my best," he said. He took a drink of water and sat down on the floor, crossing his legs. "Alright."

"Thor, you tell him," said the Black Widow. Thor approached Banner.

"Emmeline…doesn't want to be an Avenger anymore," said Thor. "She fell in love with my brother. She really did; he didn't erase her mind or anything. She explained everything. And…Loki loves her too."

Dr. Banner took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Tony could tell he was trying to fight it. The Hulk wanted to come back. Banner flinched and closed his eyes, trying so hard to keep calm. His veins were throbbing green. Thor put his hand on Banner's shoulder.

"Doctor, it's okay," he said. "We can even go talk to her if you want. You don't need to get angry." Banner breathed hard and eventually took a deep breath and relaxed his muscles.

"I'm okay," he said. "I'm okay."

"I'm going to go talk to her," said Tony.

"No Stark, she'll just tell you the same thing she told Thor," said the Black Widow. Tony picked up his coat and walked to the doorway. He turned around.

"I need closure," he said. He walked out, leaving the rest of the Avengers silent in the meeting room.


"Where is the Tesseract?!" hissed the Chitauri commander in Loki's ear. Loki's scepter had teleported him to Asgard, in the Chitauri realm. He used it to equip his golden armor as soon as the saw the Chitaur commander. "You said you would have it! Do you want our army or not?!"

"I will get it when I get it!" snapped Loki. "You have no way of obtaining it yourselves; therefore you are at my mercy. I will give you the Tesseract when I have taken it into my possession."

"Our offer is running out of time," said the commander. Loki glared at him.

"I will give it to you when I give it to you!" he snapped again, and the Chitauri commander put his hand on Loki's neck.

"You better hope you do, or else my army will come for you, and we will shatter every bone in your body!" The Chitauri commander swung at Loki, but he used his scepter to teleport himself back to Earth and to remove his armor.

"Mewling quim," said Loki to himself. He wanted to find Emmeline. He walked through the halls of his stolen mansion and found her in the study room, setting things ablaze and freezing them back.

"Your power is alluring when you manipulate it like that," said Loki, walking into the room.

"You love manipulation don't you?" she asked, smiling.

"Oh yes, I love it. Mmm, you look ravishing." Emmeline unfroze a cushion on the floor and walked over to him. She put her hand on his neck.

"You wish," she said, breathing on him. She walked out and Loki looked back.

"Damn you," he said, smiling and letting out a breath. Emmeline smiled at him and started to walk away.

"Wait," said Loki, with an earnest expression forming on his face. Emmeline turned back to him and he walked up to her.

"I have a lingering question for you," he said. "…Do you really love me? Truly?" Emmeline gave him a confused look.

"Loki, of course!" Loki looked down and back up at her.

"Why?"

"Because I see through the anger. I see the son injured by his father's lie. I see a man that is sensitive and wanting so much to prove himself. I see you Loki. And I can't help but love you." Loki looked at her sadly, with tears welling up in his eyes. He slowly put his arms around Emmeline and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"I love you," he said. Suddenly, a beam hit Loki and he was blasted to the other side of the hall. He sat up, stunned, and looked with surprise at his attacker. Emmeline looked in the same direction, to see Iron Man. He extended his hand to blast Loki again. Emmeline froze it.

"Tony stop! What are you doing?!" she yelled angrily. Tony's iron mask retracted, revealing his face.

"Trying to knock some sense into you!" he said.

"Well then knock it into me, not Loki!" Loki got up and ran back to Emmeline's side.

"What do you want, you sniveling pillock?!" said Loki, harshly. "You know what, I don't care." Loki swung at Iron Man but he blasted him again into a window, glass breaking and cutting into his skin. Loki quickly retrieved his Chitauri scepter from the next room and created an illusion of himself in front of Iron Man. When he tried to swing at him, Loki brought him to the ground with his scepter. He was about to stab him and kill him, but Emmeline froze Loki's scepter and Iron Man in place.

"Loki, don't." Loki sighed in frustration and looked down at Iron Man.

"Take note of how easy it was for me to get you down. Get out of here," said Loki. "And you should pray never to see me again, because when you do, I will kill you."

"I want Mrs. Hot and Cold back!" said Iron Man.

"How many times do I have to tell you no?!" yelled Emmeline. "I've already talked to Thor, and that's it! Get out of here Tony, before you get hurt. I've just saved your life, and you can thank me by leaving. I'm sorry." Iron Man looked at her with horror. Emmeline unfroze him and stared at him to leave. Iron Man gave her one last look, full of sorrow, and turned around, leaving. Emmeline sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Why does this have to be so hard?" she said. Loki put his hand on her neck and looked at her with sweetness. She grinned and kissed him. She let him place his arms around her and she put hers on his chest. Loki loved kissing her. He hadn't kissed a lot of women in his life. He busied himself with thoughts of taking the throne and world domination. In fact, he'd never even loved a woman. Not this way. He loved his mother Frigga, but that was different.

Loki caressed Emmeline's figure and kissed her for a long time, their mouths coordinating together with every movement. He let go of her and smiled.

"I can just see us," he said. "Ruling the world together. All the people of Earth and Asgard kneeling before you and me. You will make a lovely queen."

"Oh Loki I love you," said Emmeline, kissing him again.