Hey, look! I'm back! Let me know what you think, suggestions, ect. Enjoy!

Lana was once again sitting on the roof. The ambient noise of the streets far below calmed her, and she certainly needed some calming thing in her life in that moment. She also was sitting on the edge of the roof again, which was a risk with Loki around, but an acceptable one. For the time being, anyways.

When she was around everyone else, she didn't make much trouble or show to much thought regarding the recent events. Stark had just told her off moments before for not being afraid enough. She had shrugged it off. But in reality, she was scared. Not scared in terms of being scared of a bad grade or dropping an iPhone, but scared of the monsters in night, like she was as little girl. In fact, she was terrified of what was coming, because she cold feel it, deep down in her gut. Something horrible was going to happen and she was going to be at the center of it.

I really hope it doesn't involve fire. Stark's right; I am kind of human flambe.

The wind ruffled her hair as a strong gust blew, obscuring any other noises. She held her knees under her chin, rocking back and forth, staring into the void, thinking rapidly. What was the sludge? What was anything anymore? It was so hard to believe that only yesterday morning, she was asleep in her own bed, her own apartment.

"I thought I had warned you about the top of this tower yesterday." Damn the goddamn god. She clicked her tongue in annoyance at him, once again, disturbing her quiet time. She released her knees and re-situated herself right on the edge with almost the entirety of her legs hanging off.

"You're really good at sneaking up on people, aren't you?" She was met with silence. She was in the process of turning around when she was practically lifted off the ground. She shrieked and started kicked behind her. She heard a sigh of exasperation as she was returned to the ground, and spun around.

"Haven't you ever heard of a personal bubble? I already have bruises from yesterday." she hissed at him as he let her partially go, keeping hold of one wrist, surprisingly lightly.

"That," he gritted his teeth, "was the fault of your own."

"It's kind of funny. Generally speaking, people can actually control the movement of the hands, as well as ignore things." He scoffed at her, looking above into the cloudy night. She subconsciously rubbed where his hand had been the night prior. Luckily, Stark and the others weren't aware of the entire story, and she intended to keep it that way. She already had to share a room with Natasha; she didn't need to have a body guard at all times to protect her from Loki's potential outbursts.

"The wind is quite strong tonight." The god said suddenly, looking over to the edge. If she had looked over the edge with him, she would've seen the void.

"I'd kind of noticed." she looked behind her at the ledge that had moved a couple of feet, due to her sudden movement inward. "Is that supposed to be a threat of some sort?"

"Do you interpenetrate it as one?" he smirked. His face was truly slap-able, and to be quite honest, a bit unnerving.

"Yes." She gritted her teeth and looked away from him momentarily, thinking of all the ways she could probably get Clint to kill him. Oh-so many ways.

"Then I suppose that is should be a reminder to you to not do anything... reckless." he finished precisely, each word carrying a not-so hidden threat.

"Reckless? Me? What ever gave you that impression?" he didn't respond, but she didn't really need a response; she knew she had been becoming more and more reckless. She swallowed, and spoke, "I'll bite; what do you want?"

"To know what occurred." she let out a quick breath and laughed, making to walk away.

"I already told the others." he the reached out and grabbed her left shoulder, which was blessedly not injured, in an iron gasp.

"Why are you so goddamn hands-y?" she practically shrieked as she tried to make him let go, to no avail.

"Because if I'm not, you might take the opportunity to escape." she stopped struggling. He looked quite serious when he said that.

I guess he's still not used to getting everything he wants. Poor little prince.

"And that would be a bad thing because..." She waited for his response, not getting a response for almost a minute. His response was very sudden. And disturbing.

"I could end your miserable life." He really could. So easily. Just like her brother. Just like Alex.

"But I, unfortunately, won't be given an opportunity to do so in the near future. I would be put in irons before I disposed of your body." It was actually rather sad that he was so upset that he couldn't kill her. " My only option is to discover the motive of this entity." The motive of this entity? What about the motives of Loki?

"You're just so pleasant, aren't you?" He gave her a look of mockery before releasing his firm hold.

"Fine." She wanted him to leave her alone desperately. She would rather be spending her free time with Stark. "I woke up. There was smoke and fire. As I was leaving, the smoke turned... life like." she shuddered, remember the dark and the smoke. "And that's it."

"And you're certain of that?"

"As certain as I am that if I don't get off this roof soon, I'm jumping." she poked him in the sternum. "And you're going to be the one that gets in trouble." From the corner of her eye, she could see his hand twitching, as if it were about to grab that finger and shatter it. What felt like a gale force wind blew across the surface of the roof, bringing along with it snow. She shivered hugging her arms to her torso.

"I'm going in. If you grab me again, I'm calling Stark. I hear he has a robot that needs testing." she said, turning away, and was unobstructed all the way to the door. But then a thought came over her and she whipped around to Loki.

"It would have been anyone's room that was on fire. Why did it choose me?" It was a valid point. Out of everyone in the tower, she had been the one targeted. Her. The one who didn't have powers, or an enormous wealth, or extreme importance.

"I'm not certain."

"No one is." she bit her bottom lip. "I take it you don't like not knowing?" her question remained unanswered in the cold air. "I take it that was a stupid question then." she said, turning away once again, before a sudden burst of wind washed over her, one very different from the oncoming storm.

"I was looking for you." An accented voice said, the sound appearing out of thin air. She groaned. Another annoying thorn in her side. He, after the meeting, had followed her literally everywhere. When she went outside, when she went to get something to eat, even when she went to get an update from Banner. Something told her in the back of her mind that his sister had gotten him to stick to her like glue. She already was dealing with a malicious god; she didn't need a watch dog, too. She snapped at him.

"Seriously? Can't I get a break?" Pietro gave her a questioning, affronted look, as he leaned against the door way and crossed his arms. He then raised an eyebrow, almost questioning her. She shook her head at him for missing the obvious, and pointed behind her.

"I was just talking to..." she looked around to where the trickster had been before. Not even a foot print in the fast falling where he had been existed. She shook her head. "No one."

"What do you want?" she asked as a practiced face of indifference covered her features. A tinge of fear showed through her eyes, however, Pietro taking notice.

"I wanted to know where you went off to. The old man lost the crazy god again."

"Doesn't surprise me." she said, reaching for the handle of the door.

"Are you all right?" Concern was written all over his face.

"I'm fine." She said, trying to smile, but only being able to manage a small quirk of her lips.

"Are you - "

"Maximoff. I'm fine. I'm gonna go see the science geeks now." she mono-toned, leaving the for once still speedster behind her.

"I scoured the bodies." Banner said, gesturing to the large number of black body bags lining several tables. "There was nothing. It was like they were cleaned, like your room, actually." She leaned back against one of the few body-free tables in Stark's massive lab.

"So there's no sludge?" she asked, thinking of what he had found on her and in the hallway.

"No sludge." he confirmed.

"So it could be connected, but it might not be?"

"Yeah. Another thing. It looks like these bodies were moved separately to the alley. It's a bit weird, too, that they were all together."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. I thought normally they were spread across the city."

"They are. Just not this time." Lana shook her head, both in disgust and in tiredness.

"Where's Stark?" Lana droned, wondering why the billionaire wasn't in the room trying to tack on a pun at the end of this news.

"He said something about security."

"You should have gone with him. He's going to make a mess." Two days she had been in this tower, and too many messes she had seen already.

"No, it's all on the cloud. Nothing for him to break." Suddenly alarms went off, causing Lana to put her hands over her ears. Banner hastily put his pad down.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to do that!" was Stark's voice over the intercom. A few seconds later, they mercifully ended.

"You were saying?" Lana raised an eyebrow as she slowly lowered her hands, almost daring the alarms on the ceiling to go off again.

"I'm going to go see what he's up to..." Banner trailed off as he practically darted to wherever Stark was. She snorted and pushed herself up from the table, looking around the massive room for something interesting to do.

She ended up sitting at a cold, metal desk, and leaned her head down for what felt like a moment onto the cold surface. She then heard a clatter across the room. A glint of light bounced off her eyeball, and she looked to the direction of a corner where a small metal box caught her eye. She slowly got up from the chair, walked towards it just as slowly, realizing what it was; a lighter. She finally reached it, and picked it up, examining the small silver box in her hands. She popped the lid and made to light it. The flame burst from the end, dancing around, oblivious to the world, just like Lana.

She heard a crinkling sound behind her. She squeezed her eyes shut, and hoped to whatever deity there was that the crinkling noise she was hearing wasn't from on the table behind her. A loud 'zip' sounded in the room, almost echoing as multiple zippers were zipped open. Shit. She bit her lip, and with eyes still shut, and turned around slowly, opening her eyes at the very end of her 180 degrees. And of course, the bodies on the tables following suit of the lighter, and were beginning to become ablaze.

She screamed at the ceiling. "FRIDAY! FRIDAY!" She was met with no response, and she realized that what had happen before was happening again, except this time, she realized, looking around her at the smooth, grate-less walls, she couldn't get out through the ventilation system if the door wouldn't open. A thud brought her attention back to tables, and she let out an inaudible whimper at the sight.

The bodies rose out of their bags, still aflame, and started slowly moving towards her. She ran to the exit and slammed the doors with all her might, to no avail. She spun around, her back pressed up against the glass as the bodies neared. Behind them, fire was creeping its way up the metal. Stark had assured her earlier that this metal couldn't melt very easily, much mess catch fire. Stark was wrong, apparently. Very wrong.

Smoke began to fill the room, and the bodies stopped just short of her, arms outreached. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at the grotesque, burning, once human, bodies in front of her. They were faceless, the only identifying feature was their mouths, which were gaping, black, and empty. Smoke waved into her view, obscuring the horrible mouths. All except for the ceiling, that was, which was now roaring with flame, looking almost like rows of corn, on fire. The heat from that alone was unbearable.

She felt something touch her arm in the darkness, and she lashed out, all the while feeling searing pain. Something, almost tentatively, touched her face, causing her to howl in pain as the fiery surface burned her cheek. In her confusion, she fell to the side, disconnecting her face from the fiery object.

She couldn't see. She couldn't breath. She couldn't get out - in her panic, she dropped the lighter, and the fiery lab vanished, to be replaced by blackness. The blackness was short lived, however, as she shot up from her position in the chair that she had apparently fallen asleep in, her cheek formerly being pressed into the cold metal.

She continued to sit there for an unknown period of time, thinking of nothing, until Bruce shuffled in, his eyes connected to a pad. He glanced up at Lana, before taking in her directionless stare and physical appearance.

"Lana! What happened to your face?" At Bruce's urgent words, Lana reached up and felt both sides of her face. She cried out in pain when one hand came into contact with a burn. A burn that shouldn't have been there. Nothing else was there; why was the burn on her face? She gulped, and tried breathing slowly before kicking the lighter across the room in disgust, the lighter that shouldn't have been there, she realized with horror, and ran out of the room, not giving the confused and concerned Bruce an explanation as to why the blonde had a hand print burned onto her face.

Yea! She's going crazy! Or is she?