I could see what Tony meant as I approached; the Tesseract placed on a rocky outcrop with a shield of 'pure energy' surrounding it and several Chitauri moving to stand guard with their weapons ready. They knew what the weapon in my hands was and they knew what it would do from experience. But unlike their comrades they did not back away from the sight of the sceptre and instead remained strong, not even bothering to wipe the rain from their faces.

"Did you really think that you could beat us?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as The Other made his appearance, not at all threatened by the bizarre alien though I felt Thialfi stiffen as he stood next to me and guessed I shouldn't be fooled. And although I couldn't see his eyes, I could tell that The Other was looking over the sceptre and instinctively gripped it tighter.

There were a few moments of tension filled silent before his attention was taken over to Thialfi who once again stiffened under it.

"Once again you betray us," said The Other, starting to make his way over but stopped when I pointed the weapon at him in warning. The Chitauri held up their own in response but he warned them off with a wave of his hand. "You would protect this traitor? Do you know who he truly is?"

"Loki," I said, in a tone which warned him not to speak down to me. "And yes I will defend him."

I could feel Loki's gaze on me and saw out of the corner of his eye that he dissolved the illusion and went back to being himself. Again there was a shuffle as those surprised raised their weapons and were again put down.

"He is the God of Lies on your planet, a master manipulator and has several times tried to kill you," began the Other, taking a few steps forward. "And yet you would protect his back and hope he does the same? It won't be long until you feel the cold blade of a knife slip between your ribs human and then you will see the error of your ways."

"As you pointed out he already did," I replied pointedly. "Although the first time his actions were being influenced and the second he had no intention of killing me."

"And what makes you believe those lies?"

"Well the first time his eyes were blue- and I know for a fact they're green," I explained. "So he was at least partially not in control of his actions."

"And for the latter?"

Here I looked at Loki, whose face was blank and showed no signs of confirming or denying my actions and I turned back to look at The Other.

"The second time he slit my stomach, however the cut was relatively shallow compared to what it could have been and made it easy for me to live seeing as Thor was there and could take me straight away to Asgard."

Whether I was right about his intentions or not I had no clue, but I felt confident saying them and watching the moments hesitation as he considered my words.

"Have you grown fond of this mortal, Trickster?" he asked. "She who's world showed you the truth about your future and made it so you can never be happy again?"

That was a shocker- Loki had been to my world? When he fell through that wormhole had he arrived in my world and it was that which showed him he was nothing more than fiction? Was my world the reason for his actions?

"I must admit that she intrigues me," Loki replied coolly. "And why would I want to kill so unique a specimen? A mortal, after all I've done, who would still trust me and who would treat me as an equal."

He didn't sound too pleased with the latter half, and I wondered if this looking down on mortals things was because he hated the idea of us making his future for him.

"You've become weak- just like your brother," said The Other and for a moment it looked like Loki was ready to grab the sceptre from me and shove it down his throat. "And all because of a mortal female."

Yes, because Thor stabbed Jane and treats her like she is beneath him. The worst that guy ever did to her is a put a dent in her truck and steal all her Pop Tarts.

"Do you feel a kinship with her? Her struggle to be seen as an equal in the eyes of her fellow mortals but looked down upon because she can never truly be one of them? Her history making it impossible for her?"

Since when was I struggling to be 'seen as an equal'? Most of the time I was struggling not to strangle Tony for calling me Crazy Chick and being a general pain. But that wasn't the point that most appealed to me and there was no way I was going to remain silent this time.

"It's not impossible," I interrupted and both of them looked at me. "Sure he thinks it is because of our stories and whatnot. But as any writer knows the story is told by the characters and in the end it is them who decide their future."

Seriously, when I wrote my fanfics I used to have a good plot and ending in mind which would always end up changing because the characters had their own ideas about how it was going to go.

"And right now this character is taking the Tesseract and going home," I said, then fired a blast at The Other who ran away and let his lackey's take the hit for him.

Now they were all swarming on us and we both fought valiantly as I made my way over to the Tesseract, ignoring the shots as they skimmed me and Loki, who stood at my back as we fought.

"Any time now would be nice," He said loudly, over the sounds of the battle and in the quick reprieve from battling I shoved the sceptre at the Tesseract and watched in mixed horror and frustration as it simply bounced off.

"We've got a bit of a problem," I informed him and tried again so that he could see what kind of problem that was.

"Well solve the problem," snapped the Trickster.

I looked down at the sceptre, then at my hand as a sudden thought hit me. Loki said I had magic, right? And magic was energy? So if my magic- that felt odd to say- was close enough to match the Tesseract's then shouldn't I be able to reach through the barrier?

It was a very small chance that I happened to have magic on a similar frequency to the Tesseract's, but if I was right then that was why the portal had appeared in my bedroom of all places. So I took a deep breath as I prepared for what was likely to be a very painful experience and shoved my hand through the barrier, grabbing hold of the glow cube.

The pain was intense, it felt as though the energy was frying my hand and I could have sworn I smelt burning flesh. I thought for a moment that I was going to go the way of the Red Skull, but instead it was like a more painful version of my first meeting with a portal. The energy lapped up my arm, the Tesseract beginning to glow more violently as my hand approached it. Pouring molten metal through my skin would have been less agonising pure energy surging up from the Tesseract as I grabbed it and tried to pull it from its home.

I collapsed to my knees from the pain but still did not release the Tesseract, although it was probably not entirely possible that I could, and heard a voice shouting at me.

"Let go of the Tesseract!"

I couldn't tell who it was, whether it was friend or foe, either way I was going to ignore it. We needed the Tesseract, we needed it to stop the Chitauri, we needed it to get home and no amount of pain was going to stop me from getting it. I gritted my teeth. Took a deep breath. And pulled. The Tesseract flew free of its prison and fell with me as I collapsed to the ground. The pain slowly faded away. I lay there for a few seconds, watching as Loki knelt over me with a frown on his face.

"What just happened?" I asked, but he ignored the question and instead pulled me to my feet.

"I think we'd best save the questions until we get away from this place," he said and I nodded with agreement.

"Time to go," I said, grabbing hold of Loki as I used The now calm Tesseract to teleport us other to where the Avengers were, Thor was with them now- and the Hulk.

"I see you've got our ride," said Tony cheerfully as he used his unibeam on advancing forces. He didn't act particularly bothered, but his armour now had several dents and sometimes the eyes flickered ever so slightly. "And Loki- so let's go already."

So I activated the Tesseract, knowing on instinct how to do it- Loki's hand on my wrist as he transferred me the knowledge through magic- and within seconds that familiar blue light was rushing past us as we made our way home. I could have sworn I heard The Other's shout above the noise and allowed myself a smile as it faded.

It looked like this time I had got a chance to be a hero.