You hung up the phone, delighted with your days work; you had spoken with someone regards assessing your eligibility for an assistance dog. There were a few things you had to alter, such as how you found yourself blinded, after all, SHIELD did not technically exist anymore, so you were forced into a corner and you had to alter the truth, it was still a flash bomb, but now it had taken place at Stark Industries, Tony had okayed and created a back dated report that backed it up, not saying anything of your decision other than asking how he could help. His comment had caused you to think that Loki's comments regarding letting you learn for yourself was somewhat effective, something you were grateful for.
Slowly making your way to the elevator, you entered it when it arrived and directed it to the common room area. All too quickly, the doors opened again and you reached out for the Braille outside the door, when you did not feel it, you stood back in, not trusting it. But the doors did not close again, after over a minute, you became fearful.
"AI?" There was no response. "AI." This time your voice became someone panicked, not knowing what was going on. Slowly, you felt both sides of the doors, nothing was holding them open. "Hello?" You called out. Again there was no response. You begged that there would be some explanation for it. You heard a door open near by. "Hello?" You asked again. "AI?" The silence was deafening, your breathing increased to near panting with fear. "Please." The last word was near a whimper, not meant for anyone to respond to. When you heard heavy and fast footfalls coming towards you, you stepped back until your back was against the elevator, trying to get away from whoever was coming towards you.
A hand grabbed your arm and pulled you forward, in shock and self defence, you went to sink your teeth into it. "Don't." Relief filled you as you recognised Loki's voice and smell. "There is a problem, the power source has been compromised, something is not right. Come on." His voice was low as he took your arm. "Quickly."
"Thor, the others?" You asked, as he half dragged you down the hallway, his far longer legs taking faster strides than you could keep up with naturally.
"Gone, that is why it is so strange, the idiot told me this morning they were going to seek something in a place called New Zealand, I checked a map, it is too far away for them to have returned already, yet it was the soldier's identity details that has caused the failure." He whispered as you continued on.
Terror struck you then. "The elevator, how did it leave me off here so, wherever here is?" His decision to whisper caused you to do so too.
"I am not sure, I saw it stop at a certain floor and I heard you calling out, so I used the stairwell to get to you." He explained.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere I can deal with whoever is here yet stop you from getting harmed." You heard him opening a door, the hollow noises echoing around you told you that you were on a stairwell. A noise down below you caused you to freeze. You listened carefully, hearing multiple sets of boots stomping on the stairs; running upward. Loki seemed to have heard them too, because he threw you onto his back. "Hold on." He whispered. Tightening your legs around his lithe waist and your arms around his neck, you held your breath as he ran upwards also, seemingly taking them two at a time. It was a bumpy journey, but you said nothing, simply holding on as he went up and up and seemingly turning a hundred corners.
When he finally stopped, you were dizzy and nauseous and as he opened a door, you held on tighter, realising you were on a rooftop. "Loki?" Your voice was shaking.
He kept walking and said nothing until you felt him pulling on your arms to get you to get off, so slowly you slid to the floor. He brought you a few steps and began to push you into a crouch, you felt around and realised he was putting you into some sort of a large metal and concrete container, scared and confused, you did what he wanted, and became as small as you could get as he tucked in your feet. "Stay here, no matter what. If you think you hear anything, even voices you know, don't move." He growled lowly. You nodded fearfully. "Midgardian weapons sting and stun Thor and I, but they do not kill us, so even if you think I am hurt, I am not dead, understand?"
"Yes." You nodded.
"Stay hidden." There was a banging of someone trying to break through a door. "No matter what."
You heard him walking away from you, the crunch of gravel under his feet telling you he had not gone too far as the banging on the door became louder and more frequent, telling you whoever was following you, was almost through. With one final loud bang and a thud, the door gave way and you heard several sets of boots on the rooftop and the click of different weapons having their safety removed. "We are taking you in Asgardian."
"I have done nothing but remain in this building." Loki snarled in return.
"We are not going to risk you starting anything again. Stark had no right allowing you in this building."
"It is his building, is it not? So long as he permits it, only he can force me to leave, any issue you have, take it up with him. I may be unarmed, but I am still impervious to your bullets and quite an inept fighter, since I have been trained in hand to hand combats since I was three hundred years old, so put down your toys and leave before I am forced to defend myself."
"You are the attacker, not us."
"I was on my way to get something to eat when you stormed the building, I think you will find that you have this somewhat incorrect as a result; I did not come in search of you."
"ENOUGH." Called another. "Why are we even talking about this, we should just kill him and say he attacked us."
You pulled your hands over your mouth, begging yourself to stay silent as tears and whimpers threatened you.
"Just try it." The God snarled. "I will kill you all with my bare hands if you even try it, and what would make it all the better is that this rooftop is completely covered in surveillance, so I will be able to prove you struck for me first and I acted in, what is it you Midgardian's call it, 'self-defence'." There seemed to be silence after that.
"You cannot be allowed to stay free." The original voice stated.
Loki gave a cold laugh. "You think me free? I am forced to remain here, only permitted in certain rooms, so I can assure you; I am not, by any means, free."
"Boss?" Another called; there was a moment of silence as the lead agent contemplated what to do next. "Boss?"
"Shut up Hodgens." The leader snarled angrily.
"I suggest you listen to my advice and leave, according to the computer system, you tripped some alarm that has sent an emergency beacon, meaning that assistance is already in the building." Loki grinned slyly.
"What are you about?" The leader demanded.
"Are you hard of hearing, you are about to be dealt with by whomever the good Mister Stark has to deal with these situations when he is not here." Loki stated boredly. "So I would suggest running."
There was about a moment before there were several bursts of gunshots, causing you to huddle as small as possible, while clenching your eyes closed and putting a finger in each ear. Heavy thuds told you that the concrete of whatever you were in was taking the fire of the weapons, but still you were terrified, being shot was not fun the first time, and you were lucky to have survived with only one shot, you did not want to test your luck a second time. Not soon enough, the gunfire cease and there were several shouting voices. Terrified, you did as Loki had commanded and did not move one inch, the shouting, though blurred by the concrete and the previous sounds of weapons, continued for close to a minute before it died down completely. Only then did you begin to hear individual voices again.
"You are a war criminal, and need to restrained as such." A voice declared.
"I have been here for some weeks, and only now you care as to my being on this realm. I am doing nothing but serving the punishment given down to me, if you think yourself above the Allfather, I dare you to say such and demand his attendance here to explain himself. Though I suggest, if you were to do so, I would ask you permit my being there, it would be interesting to see you cower in his presence."
"We will not be dictated to by anyone."
"Since Midgard is indebted to Asgard and other, better realms, you cannot really speak on behalf of all your people, think about it. I sent the Destroyer here and everything your people had was destroyed in its wake, only Mjölnir could damage it, Mjölnir pales in comparison to Gungnir, Odin's weapon, you cannot even pretend to be in Asgard's league." The sound of footfalls came towards you again.
"What are you doing?"
"None of your concern." You heard the door open and Loki's scent filled your nostrils, as well as the smell that you recalled from the lab after the attack, making you assume it was from the guns. "Mind your head." Loki's cool hand took your arm again as he assisted you out of the space. "Are you alright?" You nodded, unable to speak. "What is it?" You tried to answer, but you were shaking too badly.
"Who is that?" The person who had been barking orders began to walk over. "Release her immediately."
As they came closer, you backed into Loki, not liking the aggressive manner in which he was approaching; Loki did not back up, allowing you to lean into him. "She is not a captive, ask Stark, she lives here."
"I rather ask her. Miss?" Your voice still had not come back to you, when there was the click of a gun again; you winced and leant further into Loki. "What have you done to her?"
"I have done nothing but try to protect her." Loki growled.
There were several laughs and chuckles around the roof top. "If you think for one moment anyone here is going to believe that you would ever try to protect one of us."
Not a moment later, you felt a hand on your arm, immediately you knew it was not Loki's, the digits were not as long and far thicker, and it yanked you away painfully, causing you to stumble and fall forward to the ground. Before you landed however, you felt Loki pulling you up again, more guns clicking in the background. "What do you think you are doing? How dare you grab her in such a manner." You felt Loki's arm around your waist, holding you against him protectively. "She has just been terrified out of her mind and you go grabbing her in such a manner."
"You have done something to her, her eyes are all glazed over." The man pointed out.
"Her eyes are clouded because she does not possess the gift of sight you idiotic mortal. That is why I had to aid her from her hiding spot, and why I had to aid her in the first place."
"You did it."
"I was not on the realm when it happened, you filthy beasts are the reason she cannot see, you torture your own kind for pleasure and yet have the audacity to call me the monster." All the time you shook against him; from what had happened, from recalling the gunfire of that faithful day in the lab, the voices, and now being grabbed by someone you could not recognise, you felt it was all becoming too much. "As though her afternoon had not been going badly enough with all that has occurred already, you go and grab her. If I was to blame for any of this, why does she seek refuge with me?"
"Is she mute as well as blind?" Another asked.
"She is in shock, check with Stark, she is resident here and she cannot see, I am not at fault for any of that." Loki explained. "Now we are going back inside, part of my having to stay here is because it is impossible for anyone to tell externally if I am within the building, and with your realms despicable requirement to know what everyone else on this pathetic planet is doing, I am at risk of being seen out here, and such knowledge would cause panic, do you think it wise to call such?"
"It would mean you would be taken off our planet again most likely, seems tempting to me."
"Do not count on it." Loki slowly let you out of his grasp, but you refused to move. "Come, we will go back in." You nodded, terrified, but complied, allowing him to bring you forward and towards the door again. Cautiously, you held onto him as he brought you back in. when you heard the elevator moving, you sighed in relief. "Are you able to speak yet?" A small squeak left your throat. "You will be fine. You were injured?" You shook your head. "Good. What floor does this contraption need to go to? What button do you usually press?" He brought you to the buttons, but you did nothing. "Well?" But you had no idea which one was to your floor. "Voice activation?" You nodded. "But of course it is." He sighed in exasperation. "Very well then." The sound of a button being pressed was followed immediately by the elevator responding. When it stopped, Loki gently nudged you forward and out of it.
With the adrenalin coursing through you, your senses were on high alert, it smelt peculiar, like spices, metal and something else, you had no idea where in the building you were and that scared you slightly, you stayed close to Loki the entire time. Finally you ceased walking and he placed you next to a seat, the soft fabric of the chair rubbing against the back of your calves. Gently, you sat down and were startled when you heard him walk out of the room. Scared, you tried to take in your surrounds and assess, coming to the conclusion that you were on the floor that Loki resided on. When you heard him come into the room again you calmed slightly, a moment later you felt a warm blanket around your shoulders.
"You need to rest; I have little doubt that was like reliving your first encounter. Your body is in shock, just try to relax." His voice was calm and assertive
In truth, you had no idea how you were supposed to attempt to relax after everything that had happened. But soon, the stress of everything caused you to become utterly exhausted, and you began to fall asleep.