| 4 |
| . FROM . OUT . OF . NOWHERE . |
The strike came out of nowhere, rattling the aircraft as it hit. Well, as he hit. Bri and Aimee both knew who it was that suddenly decided to make an appearance. Of course, it was Thor and their stomachs dropped because of this fact. He was here for Loki and they weren't surprised. Even Aimee, as doubtful as she had been about Thor appearing in the first place, had expected it of the All-Father to send him here. Now, whether this was a good thing or not, they couldn't be sure. Thor was a friendly, definitely not an enemy to the world, but there was the chance he could jeopardize the mission. If he freed Loki or took him back to Asgard, many things would be lost. The Tesseract was among them, but also Erik and Clint.
They watched Tony hook his mask back onto his face and then pace to the rear hatch. Pressing a small button upon the control panel, the hatch opened and revealed them all to the full force of the lightning storm outside. Thor landed upon the small platform, for a moment seeming to jar it, and he stood. Tony stepped forward to challenge him and instead was pushed back as Thor hit him with his hammer, thrown back into Steve and Bri. The three of them went to the ground quickly and Natasha could only stare as she steered the aircraft. Aimee sidestepped the mess and scrambled to stand protectively in front of Loki as his brother turned towards him.
She only stood to just above his shoulders –barely, but she was nearly as tall as Loki—and such a thing didn't faze her. Her smoky eyes were firm, her position solid. She wasn't going to move. "Thor…"
"Aimee…" He seemed slightly surprised of her defiance. "I ask of you to remove yourself from this position. You do not know what you are involving yourself with."
"Your brother," she spat the word, her volume low, "shattered my femur bone and somehow discovered Carmen. I don't care what I am involving myself in because he is threatening my world and threatening things I love. I am not about to stand by and watch him destroy them." Her tone was harsh, vicious and venomous as she reverted to a much worse side of herself. Carmen's voice laced within Aimee's, but barely, as she was still accustoming to using the wolf's power again.
Thor glanced at Loki, who seemed just as surprised that she was defending him, and then looked back to her. "I am afraid I will have to take him."
He forced his way past her and ripped Loki from his seat. With a harsh grunt, he jumped from the aircraft. Lashing out, she grabbed at his flowing red cape, which dragged her along with them. The wind whipped painfully at her body as she struggled to hold on. Thor didn't seem to notice her presence, which was a good thing for the most part, and they neared the ground at an alarming rate. Her heart pounded in her chest, eyes watering at the speed they traveled. She tried, though, to glance around and see where she could land before Thor figured out she was there. Loki seemed to see her, but his face was gripped by one of Thor's hands.
Aimee muttered something incoherent as the ground approached them, then let go when they were close. She landed hard on her feet, only something to brace with, about fifteen feet from where Thor threw Loki onto the ground. She rolled from there, tumbling over small stones that punctured her skin, leaving small dots of blood as well as bruises. Underbrush clung to her clothes and hair as she came to a stop near the edge of the cliff. The wind had been knocked from her lungs, pulled out like a hair from the head. Her back arched from the ground and she grimaced painfully until she was able to breathe once more.
It seemed like ages before she could regain her senses, but it was only a few seconds until she heard Thor and Loki begin speaking. Loki groaned from where he lay on the ground, having been pushed down rather hard. Thor stood there with a strong stance, a looming threat. "Where is the Tesseract?"
Loki chuckled, "Oh, I missed you, too."
"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" The God of Thunder growled, stalking a tad closer to his brother, a fire in his eyes.
"Oh, you should thank me." Loki said to him, bringing himself slowly to his feet. "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the All-Father have to muster to conjure you here, your precious Earth?" The childish need for revenge could be heard as he spoke.
Thor dropped his hammer in anger, rushing over to his brother and seizing him by the collar. "I thought you dead."
He was silent for a moment. "Did you mourn?"
"We all did. Our father—"
Loki cut him off icily, "Your father." He broke away from his brother, taking a few steps past him. Aimee scrambled behind a stone, trying to remain out of sight. "He told you my true parentage, did he not?"
"We were raised together, we played together, we fought together," he seemed to emphasize certain words as though to bring back memories, "do you remember none of that?"
His brother snapped, "I remember a shadow… Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss: I, who was, and should be king."
Aimee blinked. I know some of what that's like…
She knew very well what it was like to be undermined, ignored, and shoved aside for a number of reasons. While she'd had Bri by her side her entire life, a support system she found hard to cope without, there was a point in time when neither of the girls believed they could do anything. No one wanted them, either because of their age or because of their attitude, which was quite prominent in their younger years. However, along came a man who went by the name Cobalt. Neither understood why he had that name, other than his cobalt blue fingernails, but they did not judge him upon that. At the time, he had seemed so kind and caring, only wishing to help the two freaks of nature. He told them he could solve their problems, make them worthwhile.
The girls had been overjoyed and they were glad to have a purpose, but it was something they had rushed into so quickly. Bri had always been more skilled at things than Aimee was, especially when it came to healing and weapons, whereas Aimee could only put up a physical fight. Weapons, and healing especially, were far beyond her skill set. She was more suited as an assassin, one to get into things physically than take them out even from a short distance. Bri was praised a lot, though, and while she celebrated for her friend, she was in pain. She only wanted to be recognized that she could do something as well, and her time came eventually.
In the end, though, the pair of them only ended up on S.H.I.E.L.D.s radar in a very horrible way, one neither of them even talked about. Nowadays, they doubted there was a single agent in the division that didn't know of who they were and how they became a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. Sometimes, it could be a gratifying thing, because they were both recognized equally, but it was also a pain to find a decent sparring partner when one or the other wasn't around for the day. They both knew the pain of getting doors slammed in their faces time and time again, living in the shadow of someone else's glory, doing just as much work and deserving just as much as that other person, yet getting nothing out of it. They had come to an agreement, though:
It was the price paid when carrying a demon.
"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor stated. "No, the Earth is under my protection, Loki."
Loki laughed mockingly. "And you're doing a marvelous job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, and why should I not?"
"You think yourself above them?"
He seemed slightly taken aback. "Well, yes."
"Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother." The God of Thunder murmured. "The throne would suit you ill."
Loki snarled, stalking past him, "I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile. I've seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it…"
That sentence scared her. She had the feeling Loki was completely capable of pulling off his little scheme. Something in the back of her mind warned her that no matter how hard any of them tried, they would not be able to stop him. She pushed that voice away, though, refusing to listen to something she didn't want to believe. The Earth was her home and she didn't have anywhere else she wanted to go if it were to be blown to smithereens. Having Carmen within her meant she could have the ability to travel from realm to realm, but with difficulty. The beast had enough power to do so, but that didn't mean she wanted to go anywhere else. She was born her and would stay here until its end. That was her decision, and she wouldn't lose grasp of what she loved.
Thor interrupted, "Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be king?"
"I am a king!"
Thor grabbed his shoulders. "Not here! Give up the Tesseract! Give up this poisonous dream! You come home…"
"I don't have it." Loki smirked a little. Thor grunted and summoned his hammer to his hand, but his brother carried on, "You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off I know not where."
He pointed the hammer, holding it in front of Loki's face. "You listen well, brother—"
As if on some ironic cue, a bright flash of gold and hot rod red whipped by without warning. Thor was taken from the cliff edge and down into the forest, smashing through trees and snapping them in half as he went down. The fire that streamed behind the person's feet only indicated it was Tony, and that he clearly wasn't happy with Thor's decision to steal the God of Lies from his hands. The man was rather possessive of the things he considered his, something Aimee was well aware of. Whether or not he loved his family now, he had always loved his sister and, in turn, her best friend. Tony had forgiven her for the thing she did to them and she appreciated it, but she still found him somewhat protective over two full-grown women that could clearly care for themselves.
Loki smiled mockingly at the place his brother had just been, then said, "I'm listening."
Aimee rolled her eyes. Even though he was against his brother, Loki still seemed to harbor some harmless sibling rivalry with Thor when it came to teasing. It was something she knew with her own blood siblings until she was disowned and it had been something she had done with Bri when they had grown up. It was times that she missed dearly, but she could not afford to reminisce now. She got to her feet carefully, stepping out from behind her hiding place in silence. Loki's back was to her and she glanced up, seeing a small dot slowly growing bigger far above where they were, though it was only visible whenever the lightning flashed. She assumed it was either Bri or Steve, though most likely the latter. If anything else decided to attack Natasha and the ship, it needed at least one person to defend it, though she knew they would be fine.
She stared at Loki's back for a few minutes. She only needed to make sure he would not attempt to escape, though he didn't seem keen to do so at all, which confused her. He had the perfect opportunity to run from them, find himself a safe place to remain until he could return to his minions, but he wasn't doing so. She added it to the equation slowly building in her head, setting it alongside why he gave up so easily, something else she didn't understand. It was normal when you were the bad guy and you fought against being captured, whether you succeeded or not. Then there was being captured and having the perfect opportunity to run away and not doing it. Her mind wracked hard, but she couldn't seem to get a decent grasp on the idea. She stopped before she gave herself a headache.
"What is it you ponder so arduously over?"
The voice broke her from her thoughts and she blinked to find Loki watching her, mere feet from her instead of where he had just been. "I think about many things. The brain has an amazing capacity."
He smiled slightly, stepping closer. "Indeed, the brain is quite incredible. What sort of things do you think of in this moment? I seem to have broken your concentration."
"More like confusion. I just wonder why you gave up so easily." She muttered.
"Gave up? Oh, no, it is you and your team that captured me." There was the clear tone of a lie in his voice, something she had little issue detecting. "Now, I do not try to escape for I am aware you are here to stop me from doing such. Besides, there is no point in running if there are enough people around me that are quite capable of killing me."
Aimee frowned, glaring daggers, and didn't move as his face was a few inches from hers. "And yet you are fully aware we will not kill you, because we need you for the cube. I know you don't know where it is, but your, uh, minions," she didn't like calling Clint and Erik such, "are bound to come for you eventually. If anything, we could make a trade. Without the cube, you have no purpose."
He studied her. "No, it is not a possible thing for you to trade me for the Tesseract. Those people have their specific orders and they will execute them. Besides, I cannot be killed by mere might of a human."
"Well, I'm not necessarily human." She muttered angrily, growing infuriated with his indirect answers. She knew he was planning something that would probably tear them apart, but she couldn't tell what. As mentioned before, she was horrible at deciphering puzzles. "Director Fury promised I could kill you the moment we get our hands on the Tesseract. If you are not careful, that moment may come sooner than you or he intend."
Normally, Aimee would not make such a threat, but there was a protective side of her that roared like a vicious flame. It consumed all reason she had like a forest, eating away at the weak pieces and destroying everything it could. It was a part of Carmen and it was a part of her. It was an attribute she had always carried from even before she knew she carried the beast within her, something that came naturally to her. In a way, it was almost fitting that she was the host of a wolf demon, since the females seemed to be particularly protective of the things they loved. Sometimes, though, it could get out of control without warning and would overthrow any sense she did have. Such situations almost always ended in disaster.
The brunette tried to keep her breathing steady. Having Loki so close to her was rather strange, at least this time around, and she couldn't pinpoint why. It gave her an immediate headache to try and figure it out. She felt…pity? She didn't know, but it was an uncomfortable feeling in her chest and her stomach. She was urged to lay him out on the cliff top and yet something held her back from doing so. The feeling was strange. It tingled in her limbs and seemed to pull the breath right from her lungs, leaving her with a sense of floating, like a feather. As odd and uncomfortable as it was, she couldn't necessarily say she didn't like the emotion. It was a new emotion to her, at least in some sense, but she enjoyed it in a strange way.
"What are you thinking of now?" His voice was gentle, and his gaze had softened.
Aimee shook her head almost defiantly, as though to force the thought from her head. That was not something she could do, let alone wanted to do. Did she want to do it? Her body seemed to want to, but her mind was conflicted. She couldn't kiss him, even though she felt compelled to do so, and Carmen wasn't objecting to the thoughts in her mind. It didn't add up to her and she was so confused, but she wouldn't do it. She couldn't, as much as she wanted to do so. She hesitated in answering him. She didn't really know how to tell the man who was threatening to take over her world that she wanted to kiss him and that she was thinking of how she was going to stop herself from doing so. She made a mental note to ask someone who knew about this sort of thing later. Clearly, in her forty or so years of life, she had never once had such thoughts. Preoccupations seemed to get in the way.
"It's none of your business what goes on in my head." She snapped, intending to push him away.
Loki raised his eyebrows and lifted his hands in slight surrender, but didn't move from where he was standing. He was curious to see if she would return to thinking and possibly doing whatever she was thinking of. "I understand such boundaries are not to be breached, even if we are enemies. I would not hesitate in using it on your teammates, though."
Aimee furrowed her brow. "Why wouldn't you hesitate invading their minds, which I'm sure takes an ass-load of energy, and not bother invading mine?"
"As odd as it sounds, I am interested in trying something with you." He was pleased with her wary and almost fearful expression. "Honestly, I want to see if I can provoke Carmen to overthrow your control and have her destroy everything for me, but I know the Mutt has more sense than that. Invading your mind would only make her wish to make a pact with you, a treaty that would allow you to get along for a while or even forever, which would put me at a disadvantage. I doubt you two will be getting along anytime soon, so there are things I plan for you. In the end, you may end up ruling by my side."
She growled. "I would love to see you try to get me to rule with you."
"Give me my scepter and I can make such happen."
Aimee scoffed, bringing the fire to her palms as though to strike him and burn his skin, but the eerie silence made her stop. Pausing a moment, she sniffed at the air and found the others were done fighting with Thor. She had been right about Steve jumping down from the place, which meant Bri was still with Natasha. Swallowing the hard lump in her throat, she backed away from Loki and waited patiently as the others came to the top of the cliff to join them. Steve immediately went to Aimee's side, glancing between her and Loki with concern. The sound of the aircraft approaching them over the wind broke the brunette's intense stare. If looks could kill, the God of Lies would most certainly be dead, maimed in the most horrid ways she could even think of.
Thor forcefully shoved Loki back into the aircraft and he was strapped into the seat he had been in before. Everyone else filed on silently, hardly a word passing between anyone except Bri and Tony. His sister reprimanded him for being the usual idiot she often found him to be. Thor and Steve began exchanging small words, though she was sure Steve was rather lost throughout the conversation. Speaking to a person from another planet was difficult to do, considering the differences in just about everything. Aimee was sure the only relation they shared was horses and that was it. There were weapons as well, but even then, there were things that didn't match. It was a complicated relationship, yet the Earth had made it work.
Aimee sat quietly in one of the seats, observing the others with her dull orange eyes, black lining between the orange like the wood in a fire; it was tinged lightly with ashy white. It was simmering, but her emotions were on high and her mind was turning like a windmill. It was one of those moments where a wind could cause her to burst into flame, though only because her concentration was so deep. Her vigil didn't go unnoticed. Steve glanced at her occasionally, which turned a few other heads at some points, though it wasn't minded for the most part. Other than that, the only sound was that of the wind whirling restlessly around the small plane.
It was a matter of an hour or so before they reached the Helicarrier, where they each quickly dismounted and stretched out. They were hustled inside and to the meeting table that was centered upon the small platform above the rest of the computers used to control the flying carrier ship. Thor stood to the side, Steve and Natasha sat down, Bri beside her, and Aimee rested in a chair of her own on the other side of Steve. Bruce stood behind them, watching the table as it showed them footage of Loki being put into his cage, a cage meant for the Hulk or even for Carmen if it came to it. Nick demonstrated what would happen if he even scratched the glass.
"It's an impressive cage," Loki said, flexing out his arms as if to gesture at its glass walls, "but not built, I think, for me."
Nick's face revealed no emotion. "It was built for something a lot stronger than you."
He turned his face at the camera. "Yes, I've heard. Of which, though? Of an uncontrollable beast that makes play he's still a man? Or…is it the lovely young woman who carries such a dark force? I am surprised she isn't already in this cage."
"Agent Serasio can handle Carmen fine on her own. She isn't the bad guy here."
Loki smirked. "Not yet, she isn't."
Nick sighed, "You really want to push that woman's buttons? Be my guest. She won't be your friend anytime soon for it. Now, I would appreciate it if you returned the Tesseract to us."
He stared at the Director for a moment, analyzing him. "It burns you to have come so close, to have it in the palm of your hand, and then to be reminded what real power is."
Nick wasn't going to get anywhere, and he seemed to be aware of that. Before he left the room, he muttered, "Well, let me know if "real power" wants a magazine or something."
The screen disappeared before them and there was a moment of silence before Nick entered the room. Then the chatter began.
"Loki intends to rile us up." Steve stated.
Bruce shook his head, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. "I don't think we should be worrying about Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats; you can smell crazy on him."
"Have care how you speak." Thor said to him. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and my brother."
"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha blatantly said.
The God of Thunder seemed to rebuke his statement. "He's adopted…"
Aimee almost smiled. "That being said, we need to focus on finding the Tesseract. In Stuttgart, he provided a distraction for Hawkeye. He got his hands on something."
"Yes," Bruce agreed, "and it's called iridium. What does he need the iridium for, though?"
"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony answered as he strutted into the room, passing next to Thor and patting his arm. "You got a mean swing." Then, he continued as he walked over to Nick's normal standing place, glancing around at the screens. "It means the portal will open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants it to."
"When did you become an expert in astrophysics?" Maria Hill demanded.
"Last night." Tony smirked. "Am I the only one who did the reading?" He covered one eye and tried to look at the screens again. "How does Fury see these?"
"He turns."
"Sounds exhausting." He walked up the steps and began blabbering nonsense about the astrophysics he learned about the night before, getting Bruce to pitch in. "Finally, someone who speaks English."
Steve raised an eyebrow. "Is that what that just was?"
"Dr. Banner, I am a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." He received criticizing glances from everyone else.
Nick chided him, "Dr. Banner is only here to locate the Tesseract. I was hoping you might join him."
"I don't know about how to find it, but I would start with that glowing stick of his." Steve pondered aloud. "It works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"I don't know about that," Nick said, "but it is powered by the Tesseract. I need you to find it as soon as you can. Everyone else is dismissed until we figure out how to get Loki to talk."
"Thor, what's his play?" Aimee asked.
Thor turned to face them. "He has an army called the Chitauri. He intends to use them to take over your planet in exchange, I would believe, for the Tesseract."
Bri nodded. "So, an exchange? A cube for billions of lives, but it doesn't seem right to me."
"I know the feeling. Those of you who want to rest, I suggest you go and get it now while we figure out an interrogation for that monster in there." Nick commanded it like an order.
Bruce and Tony went off into the lab with Bri in close pursuit, Natasha went elsewhere, and Steve stayed where he was as well as Thor. Aimee sighed and retreated through the hallways, heading towards the room she had been issued. Once there, she didn't hesitate to throw herself onto the small bed in the corner. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world –it certainly wasn't her king sized mattress in her cliff-side home—but it was the only thing she had to sleep on at the moment. It would all be over soon, and she rolled onto her back to stare at the drab gray ceiling while she pondered it. How long would it take them to defeat Loki and restore peace? However, what if they couldn't defeat him? At that point, how long would this mess continue to occur?
She sighed and rubbed her hands over her face, rolling to the side and stuffing her cheek into the pillow. Clenching her jaw, her brow furrowed angrily, not wanting to do what she was considering even doing. Something Loki said to her earlier had made her think and she really did want to know if it would work. After all, life would probably be a hell of a lot easier if she and Carmen actually got along. Besides, the fact that he said it would never happen made her want to desperately prove him wrong. She was competitive and really hated losing, especially to someone like him. Easily, she was able to make up her mind.
Aimee closed her eyes and slipped into darkness.
The darkness was like an impenetrable fog. No matter how hard her eyes strained to gather any source of light there could possibly be in the area, she could find none and it greatly frustrated her. It was almost suffocating to be in such blackness, but she persevered and walked forward into the nothingness. This was something along the lines of her inner conscience. It was technically the place Carmen was trapped within her, and it wasn't a place so easily escapable. There was really no end to this area of her mind, so unvisited, and it was no wonder the wolf loved it most. However, the last time she had been here, things had not gone so well.
There was a soft glow ahead and she went to it, the light quickly enveloping and blinding her. As she opened her eyes to blink away the stars she was seeing, before her was a vast field with trees around the outer edges. A lone buck rested in the center of the field, gnawing on the grass at its feet and clearly oblivious to her. There was a gentle wind that rocked the grasses back and forth. There were few clouds in the sky and the sun was shining behind them. It was warm, something she expected of Carmen, and even the breeze was warm. The creature craved warmth as though it would run out tomorrow. Maybe this was the reason for her slightly elevated body temperature.
Aimee didn't make any move to startle the deer and paced over to a nearby boulder, sitting down upon it and crossing her ankles patiently. There was a silky yellow dress wrapped around her body, which would probably be a good thing, since the last dress she'd been in while here was flaring red. There were many stages to Carmen's wrath, but she only knew red to be the worst and yellow to be the calmest. She assumed it worked the same way as her eyes. When there was truly no regaining her, the only color there was red, and when she was completely calm, the color was ashy grey. The latter meant the fire had gone out and there was little hope of revival unless you took a match to it.
Eagerly, she watched a dark figure emerge from the trees. It was a wolf of massive proportions, much taller and of far more girth than the buck she was stalking. The ebony fur was decorated with various tribal-like symbols that were red in color. They looked like blood from this distance, as did her eyes. Carmen's eyes were always that fiery red hue, something that made her extremely intimidating. In several swift and almost invisible movements, the wolf took down and killed the deer with a carefully placed bite to the neck. A sense of exhilaration swept through Aimee, something she often felt when she was on a hunt of her own. Being here, though, the pair of them were connected to an extreme point rather than when she was outside this place.
Leaving the carcass where it was, the wolf didn't hesitate to stalk over to Aimee. In this stage, she was about ten feet tall and a little longer, but she was just plain massive. There were little restrictions to the amount of just how much there was of her. It was rather incredible, really, and even now, this wasn't even close to the biggest she could get. At her full size, Carmen could probably reach several miles high. If it had to be said easier, she could crush half of Manhattan by lying down on her stomach. That was the power of gods and goddesses, though, and it still amazed her to no extent. Calmly, the wolf sat down in front of the girl and wrapped her tail around her paws.
She scrutinized her for a moment. "You have questions, child."
"Yeah, I have a lot of questions." Aimee chuckled a bit, trying to keep the situation calm, unknowing of when the beast would turn into a raging monster. "Loki said something to me…about how we would never get along and how that would be the downfall of the world." When she received nothing in response, she continued, "I have always seemed to hate you, always seemed to believe your sins were my fault when they weren't, and it's gotten in the way."
"What are you trying to say?" Her voice was almost calm and welcoming, something that could be heard normally, but just refused to be heard. However, there was always a hint of readiness. That readiness could be for anything.
She hesitated. "I am saying that…I want to be your friend, not your enemy or just your vessel. I want to be able to work with you. I want to know your story, but it's not something I can do right now. When this whole mess is over, I would love to hear it. I need your help with something first."
Her heart pounded erratically in her chest. She wanted nothing more than to be friends with Carmen, something she had felt a very long time ago before she was forced to believe other things. At first, she hadn't seemed like such a bad creature, especially when getting over the initial shock of her even being there. Then, things had begun to go south and it destroyed a foundation that would never be repaired. She was out on a limb now, trying to build a new foundation on top of the old one. That was a huge risk for her. As much as she acted to be in total control of Carmen, the wolf still had power and Aimee feared her for it.
If the wolf didn't accept the advances, she believed she was as good as dead.
Carmen smiled some, the corner of her maw lifting to show some of her white teeth. "I have only been so difficult with you because you rejected my friendly advances long ago, but I understand. It was when that man had his talons in you."
Aimee grimaced, but there was a relieved breath escaping from her lips. "Yeah, him. I would prefer never to remember that bastard ever again. I do apologize. I came to this conclusion when I saw the other day Bri was still getting along with Tabitha. She shifted into her and attacked Loki."
"Yes, but Tabitha is far different than I. You will need to accept that I have not always been a good being and that will be difficult to change, even for you, but we are both willing to attempt it." She paused a moment to allow it to sink in, allow the truth in her words to make their impact. "Now, what do you need my assistance with? Do I get to come out and sink my teeth into someone?"
"Not yet, but the time will come when that is necessary, especially if Loki manages to get his army here." She replied. "He won't tell us what we need to know. We need to interrogate him, but we don't know how. Natasha is good at interrogation and I don't doubt she can get what she needs from him. It feels like he is the only person who wants to be on the ship."
Carmen allowed things to fall silent and she hummed, making her chest rumbling comfortably as she pondered. Aimee noticed the dress had changed to an ash-gray color, which calmed her nerves considerably. There were no flecks of orange or red, which would normally indicate that Carmen was in a barely restful state. The dress was a warning device for her, something that the wolf could never keep out of her miniature worlds. She created it as a part of her deal with Odin. If she were to lose control, then at least her vessel had some heads up and obtained the chance to escape before things got out of hand. She couldn't be killed here or physically harmed, but it would do mental damage.
"I believe you need to go talk to Loki."
"What?"
Carmen seemed to nod to herself. "Speak with him. I know of your urges earlier in the day and I have suspicions about them. Your body generated them on its own, but I felt the same reaction in that irritable boy before he provoked you to fight him. I believe he cares for you. It is not something he would ever admit and I know this. I spent a lot of time being his and Thor's jungle gym alongside my siblings. I know the pair of them about as well as their mother does."
Aimee was confused. "I don't understand…why would he care in the slightest for me? I'm his enemy and I've threatened to kill him multiple times."
She laughed, a deep sound that seemed to reverberate through the area. "Child, you seem to misunderstand what this kind of love is. Loki may be a monster, but inside, he is still a young child craving the attention he never received."
"Are you implying he loves me?"
"I am implying it is a possibility." She corrected. "I believe he sees something different in you that he can relate to. Even monsters have someone to love. I do."
She thought about it for a moment, then smiled at Carmen, "Oh, and who is it you love?"
Carmen snorted lightly, lowering her head to the brunette's level. "That is a story for another day. Now, do as I have instructed of you and all should go well. We will see what kind of information we can get out of him. Be bold, young one, for it may be your saving grace."
"I hope so." Aimee stood as she said it, then leaned over and kissed the wolf's nose. "Farewell for now, Carmen. I will keep in touch."