If looks could kill the Nord would be lying mangled and bleeding by now. Something has upset her and he wanted to know why. Was it cause of the sketchbook?

"I thought you and I have become companions over these past few days. Now you have become cold and angry, have I upset you?" her eyes met the padded floor. "Talk to me Tabitha." this time he came off aggressive. Her eye softened as her gaze came up back to his.

"Nothing I'm fine Loki."

"You can't lie from somebody who has perfected it." He raised a hand gesturing it to himself. Loki was very stern he wasn't going to give this up. He placed a hand to his hip leaning on his staff. "Have I upset you? Was it somebody else?" she shook her head slightly and fixed her eyes back to the ground.

"You and I are a lot alike and in many ways we are very different. The pass few days with you here have been interesting and to be honest I do see you as a friend. Looking at you sometimes I see a double of myself." she let out a small sigh. "That sketch book has a lot of memories in it, some i want to remember forever and some are...reminders." The last word came off sorrowful. "Nobody knows about it or my drawings except Kale. I only told you because, well like I said its like another me. When I saw the page it had fallen to I tensed up. I was mad and I threw it on you. I'm sorry I didn't mean to." Those brown orbs were glossy; she was filled with a lot of emotion. He knew what it was like to be protective of something and then when someone was to touch it you attack someone you don't mean to. Frigga popped into his mind, his mother loved him to no end and he has yet to ever apologize for all his outburst against her.

"Do you mind if I ask who the man was?" Her fist clenched and she grit her teeth then in a instant it was gone.

"My father." That left him with more questions. Why was he that way? Why did he look so menacing? Is he a memory or a reminder? They stood there in silence; Tabitha reached over and grabbed another staff spinning it in her palm. "If you want to know more." the pole slammed into ground" you'll have to beat me first" her voice was cheerful again, almost as if the little talk didn't happen. "I saw some news clips of you and your glowing scepter, you should do fine with just that."

"How come you know so much of me but nobody else seems to recognize my face?"

"I told you, you have to beat me first if you want more answers."

"But it's completely unrelated?" her stick came slamming down towards his head. The god stopped the attack before it made contact.

"As far as you know it is."

'How is this any way related?' Her attacks were relentless they kept coming down on him. He could hardly throw in a hit. He watched for a miss step a weak spot, nothing. Her blows appeared so conditioned like if this was second nature to her. There! The god swiped the stick below her ankles then tossing it back over his shoulder to plant it on her side. Just as he spun she was in midair, his plan failed. He found himself pinned with the staff against his neck.

"I win" the man below her smiled and then faded into nothing. "What!?" She was then pushed flat onto the mat her arms stretched out spread eagle the staff just a few inches from her face. The nord stood at the other end grinning at her. "Loki! You dirty rat! Magic does not count!"

"The deal was I win I get more answers, you didn't specify how." Fair is fair, rules were not specified on the agreement. She should have thought of that beforehand. She let out a loud huff throwing her head to its side. "What is that on your neck?" a thick red line almost looking like the end of a root caught his eye. It started just at her hair line near her spine and it looked to continue down wards. She snapped back to face him. "Tabitha?"

"Okay you've one, you can back off now and I'll tell you everything." The weapon was withdrawn as she pushed into a sitting position facing away. "Let's go back inside, please?" the nord watched her stand, her shoulders hunched gripping her forearms and crossing them over her stomach. The room seemed to dim, everything became grey around her. Nothing was bright and vibrant when she was like this. The sky appeared saddened and looked ready to let all its emotions onto the ground below. She tugged hard on the door entering in. Just as Loki stepped in the wind picked up and everything the heavens held fell to the world. "Where do you want me to start?"

"From the beginning." He sat back into the love seat, kicking a leg over an arm. "I thought I was getting a good understanding of you, but evidently I don't. Now I want to know everything." She sat there hanging her head between her knees playing with her fingers; staying silent, listing to the low taps of the rain falling outside.

"My fath-... He isn't my real father. I was taken in by him and who I think was his wife and other daughter." Quickly the god was interested in this father figure. "I'm not sure how old I was, an infant maybe. They raised me until I turned five then I was told I wasn't any part of their 'family' anymore." she shook her head. "Anyways he was a ex mercenary kind of cool you would think but not him. The problem with that was he lived and breathed it. No emotions, No love, nothing that shows weakness was permitted in what he called home." She shifted laying her back into the cushion. "I was allowed to go to school for some years in New York. This is where I met Kale; he was a ward of the state but we connected, we sent letters anyway we can when we weren't in school, then training started. "He sat back getting comfortable were he sat.

"I ran miles on end, lifted things that weighed more than me, starved, and tortured. If I cried I was punished, if I slowed down I was punished, if I fell, got hurt, complained, anything...I was punished. Teachers started to question my bruises and cuts that's when I was taken out of schooling. Before I left I told kale, if I didn't return in a week or if I don't respond to his letters... I begged him to keep count of how long iv been gone. I promised him I would see him again. Then I disappeared from the face of the earth." Her body chilled as she spoke of the ordeals. " my training continued, I was locked indoors at all times. He wanted me to be like him. Ruthless, brainless, only knowing blood and pain. His daughter just forgot that I ever existed. The woman showed me kindness; she did it without words. Water and food would be snuck into my cell and she would mend my wounds. A word never passed between us. Then he made a mistake one day, after a punishment session he left his blade on the edge of the window seal. I was ready to end everything at that point." Her hand rose up and the sleeve slid up a bit, another scar marred her pale skin. "It was so close but the chains he had on me were so tight. The weights he had on them were so heavy and I was so tired. I reached further I was so close. Then he came, maybe it was the rattling or my groans I don't know but he came back. So long I held back, I never caved in I wasn't going to let him win." the hand fell back to her side. "I snapped... I don't know what happened, but he was lying below me. I snatched his keys I released myself and I ran. The daughter watched wide eyed while I ran for the door. Then who I knew as mother was before me, she held a knife against her. She was going to stop me too. I was so close to freedom, and I...I...I didn't mean too." She clenched the fabric. "I killed her too; I was enraged she was trying to stop me too. I wasn't going to stay in hell. Then the walls around us collapsed. The building was collapsing falling down taking everything with it. I don't know much after that. I just remember bleeding and hurt and kale found me. After so many years my best friend found me. Or maybe I found him somehow, I forgot. I moved in with him here, Roy Washington and worked for him at his bar, now here I am. And thankfully the people here care little of the news or television. Or else you would have been attacked and possible killed by the town's folk. You were plastered everywhere around the world." This woman before him was raised to be a killer? A murder for hire? He looked at her form shivering then he caught her eyes. "Thank you." she was thanking him?

"For?"

"I know I killed the woman but I wasn't sure if he was dead. The day I escaped was the day you attacked New York. I know his body had to have been crushed. If he were still alive I would be livening every day in fear." She grew silent again while she reached for her booklet handing it to him. "My fighting is conditioned into me; it just kind of stuck after. My art work started cause of Kale, bought me my first one a month after moving in. It helped me mentally but I was scared of what people would think. So I became very defensive about them." Loki opens the front cover, first image was a girl tucked in a corner bleeding. The second was a image of chains and cinder blocks laying around a solid floor. The third was different it was a landscape photo, a large valley covered with little daisy's and a small lake. "Kale was the only one who saw them, now I'm showing you." he was listing to every word she said while examine every sketch. Each one told a little more about her and her pain and ordeals. Then the man who caused her pain came up. "I drew him because he was still haunting my dreams. That's what I saw after every practice fight. I always thought he would choke me after every match." She got the feeling perfectly on the page. He looked up at her. "When I said it's like looking into a mirror when I look at you... it's because I can see the pain in you. I know you did things you didn't exactly mean to do and I see the sorrow in your eyes too."

"Tabitha?" her name sounded heavy on his lips.

"See alike but different in many ways."