Pay attention. Stuff happens in this chapter.

Don't blink.

Blink and you'll miss it.

Blink and you're dead.

(Ok, maybe not. I should just stop quoting stuff)

So, work has been keeping me from this, but I have just over a week left of it and then back to University. Been helping train my replacement. Kinda fun.

A crumpled heap was how she landed, not the most graceful of ways. She got up quickly and dusted herself down, looking around to see if anyone noticed. The area seemed deserted, though jungles made very good camouflage. Max let her senses feel out the surroundings. There was some life around. It took a few seconds for Max to filter out the indigenous wildlife and find what she'd figured she'd been sent to do.

Five Asgardian children being chased by several large creatures. Not good.

Max set off at a fast pace, building up her speed as she got used to the terrain. She had a feeling this little trip was Thor's idea. Quite possibly he was leading the group as they headed towards a cliff. Heimdall had picked her up at the right time, this would cut it close. She came into visual range of them just as they noticed the floor drop away and skidded to a stop, turning to face the creatures pursuing them with terror painted clearly across their faces. Thor shoved Loki forward causing him to stumble and fall.

"Do some of your sissy magic and make them stop!" The other four were trying to hide behind each other as if it would help. Loki clambered to his feet and looked his hands. Max doubted he would know anything that would help. Max leapt the final distance, landing between the group and the approaching creatures. Her hands flipped through the signs necessary for an Earth jutsu and she pulled up walls of dirt either side of the group, coming to a point in front of her, to direct the beasts away. There were a couple of faint splashes as the creatures hit the water at the bottom of the cliff.

"Silfr Freki?" Max heard a timid voice ask from behind her. She turned to them, all of them looking a little shocked and awed.

Her ears pricked up as something pinged on her FA radar. She turned back to her walls only to see a larger creature of the same species smash through her barrier. Using her momentum, she charged up her arm and fist with chakra and grabbed its head as it got close enough using her momentum and power against its. It was obvious who won as she forced the beast's skull down its back, feeling most of the spinal column popping out of place from the force applied on it.

There was silence as the animal's momentum finally dissipated and the corpse dropped to the floor in an odd distorted mess.

Max inspected it curiously. She wondered if ripping its head off as a trophy would traumatise them. She almost wanted to give Loki its brain and remind him it's more intelligent than Thor. She settled for snapping off its horns. She hoped the smell wasn't coming from the horns. Or the children for that matter.

Then she froze, realising she had no idea how she was supposed to get back to Asgard. She looked at the children, hoping they couldn't see her sheepish look. They still all looked a bit shell shocked.

It was only a few minutes later Max felt the weird tugging sensation as they were all pulled back to Asgard. A deceptively calm Frigga was waiting for them. Max wondered where Odin was but figured she probably wouldn't get a straight answer. She followed them back to the city, only to get pulled into the Tardis as she passed.

"I've fixed it."

"I'll believe that when we aren't here." Max snarked, perching on the railings ready to watch the next attempt. The Doctor ran around the console, fiddling with bits, the room shuddered, becoming more and more violent before suddenly stopping.

Max looked up curiously after a few seconds, the feeling of something bad happening burned at her gut. She rushed to the door and pulled it open. No big surprise she could still see Asgard. She looked to the grand city and saw no movement, there was no sound. No Heimdall on watch.

Bad.

Max sprinted down the Bifrost, not even letting the Doctor know where she was going. Not that there was anywhere else she could go. People crowded in the palace, forming an almost impenetrable barrier to the great hall.

Max climbed up to the next floor and burst out onto the balcony. It seemed that the entire population of Asgard was present. Looking to the dais Max could see why, her eyes widening in horror. Thor and Loki had grown since she had last been here. They now looked to be mid to late teens. Thor had bulked out in muscle, which he was using to pin his brother, who had remained lanky, to the floor.

That wasn't the worst part. Max's excellent vision picked out the tiny glint of metal, which she realised was a needle, as Thor pushed it through Loki's lips, sewing them together.

Max inadvertently let out a strangled growl as she leapt from the balcony, fully intent on stopping this. She was intercepted by a hammer smacking into her stomach. Thor had been granted Mjolnir then.

The second she hit the floor she was dogpiled by guards. She tried to push them off but they kept dragging her back down, keeping her away from the dais, but not hiding the torture being forced upon Loki. She could see the pain in his eyes, the screaming he wanted to do.

Max managed to wriggle an arm free and reached out for Loki, trying to get her magic to form into something useful and help him. She felt something clip around her neck and trying to use her magic now felt like trying to force a brick through a sieve. It was then she noticed a black binding around Loki's neck, presumably doing the same thing.

She kept up her fruitless struggling, refusing to give up while this was happening. She ignored the armour digging into her back, the spears jabbing at her, scratching her unprotected skin, drawing blood as she tried to free herself. All that mattered was getting to Loki.

After what seemed like hours Thor drew back, his job done. Black lines of thread pulled Loki's lips together, blood dripping from the tiny holes. His eyes were still screaming out, glistening with tears that he was trying to keep back.

It was when a single tear escaped Max snapped. Her vision tinted red as a maniacal grin spread across her face, a pale mist started to form around her body. The thing around her neck started to crack, spider like lines forming until the whole thing was covered.

"Boom," Max whispered. The collar exploded outwards, raining small shards over the guards who had pinned her down. She stood up with ease, as if the guards were little more than plastic toys tumbling to the ground.

"Tell me why I shouldn't destroy this place," Max asked in a mockingly innocent voice. She walked over to Loki and helped him to his feet. Looking at him, at his pain filled eyes she repeated her question. "Tell me if I shouldn't let this place burn, have these people scream and beg for mercy." She placed a hand on his cheek, wiping away the tear that had triggered this. Her fingers moved and traced the black thread, probing them to see how easily they could be removed.

No one else in the hall had moved, her pale aura sending out waves of fear that engulfed them. Flashbacks to ANBU and the Kumar clan interrupted her vision. Images of Yuri, stood in place of Loki who was really there.

"I will not fail you." Tendrils of the mist formed from her fingertips and reached out to the thread, carefully removing it. She smeared the blood as she tried to wipe it away.

In the corner of her eye she saw the Doctor looking a bit stunned, but the second he knew he had her attention he beckoned her and pointed to his wrist where a watch might sit.

"Let this be known Asgardians. Loki is under my protection. If he is to be punished then it will be by my hand. If you disregard this then I will not restrain myself as I have done this time." She turned to Frigga as an afterthought. "Thor could do with some sewing lessons." With this she pressed a kiss to Loki's forehead, slipping him a scroll with some more ninja techniques, and then walked out, the crowds parting to give her a wide berth.

The Doctor didn't bother asking why Max had done that, in fact he was silent the entire way to the Tardis. It was only after they got in he handed her what looked like a glob of jelly and asked her to discharge her energy into it, that he said anything. Max frowned a bit and obliged, feeling strongly light afterwards. Her mind refused to think about what had just happened.

It isn't until the Doctor swore after another failed attempt at escaping that Max managed to even focus on anything. There's only the slightest step up now, each attempt pulling them further out of the Bifrost.

"Go see Loki," the Doctor encouraged, Max was normally first out of the door to go back and he would work easier with no one around Max grudgingly got up and left the Tardis, half expecting to be attacked every step of the way.

She reached the gate unhindered and was met by Heimdall who gave her a stern look.

"The prince stays here." Max blinked, just a tiny bit confused, she nodded in agreement, not quite registering his words.

No one dared stop her as she wandered to the great building. She could feel where Loki was, he was alone in a library. That was her destination. Nothing else mattered.

It took a few seconds for Loki to notice her in the door way. He had grown again, looking in his early twenties, quite handsome. Max was happy that there were no visible scars from Thor's actions in her last visit.

"Silfr Freki," Loki whispered, as if he couldn't believe his eyes. Max smiled.

"Hello Loki." The god rushed over, stopping just short, then hesitantly reached out a hand to touch her face. Confirming she was real, she found herself pulled forward into a hug. Uncharacteristic of any occupant of Asgard but Max was willing to allow the god to show emotions and not question it. She knew the strain of keeping them inside.

"I wondered if you were real," he mumbled. He drew back and looked at her, looking very much like the prince he was. "You appeared when I needed you. I thought you were my imagination. You stood up for me when no one else would. I grew stronger because of you, what you taught be and the techniques you gave me. They've saved me so many times."

"Then I am glad I shared them with you." Loki suddenly moved to arm's length away.

"Are you here for Thor's coronation?" he asked suspiciously.

"Thor's getting crowned? Which dumbass thought that would be a good idea?"

"My father." Loki didn't look upset at the fact she'd just insulted his dad. Max couldn't blame him. "Are you staying for it?"

"No, I will hide if I have to, and leave if I can first."

"Take me with you. Please." Max wasn't sure if the pained look was from the thought of staying, or having to practically beg.

"I can't." Heimdall's words were repeating themselves in her head. 'The prince stays here'.

"I can't stay here. This place is keeping me from growing. We could do so much. Whatever we want." He really was pleading with her. It hurt to see him like this but Max knew there were some things she could not do even with all the power she possessed.

"I really can't." Max turned her head when she saw the pleading look turn to desperation, she couldn't stand that look, she could feel her heart breaking for him. She missed his facial expression changed to rage. A surge of magic blasted her across the library, breaking the shelves she came into forceful contact with.

"I'm not some weak child anymore. I will not be treated like one, like you know what's best for me." Max felt guilty for wanting to make him angrier. It would make it easier to say no. To leave this time and never come back. She knew the Tardis would succeed this time. It was how things always went.

"I should go. You should stay. It's how it needs to be." Max found herself pressed up against the destroyed shelves, a hand slowly crushing her throat.

"Don't presume you know what is best. I am a god." Max chuckled darkly, she'd heard that before.

"God's don't run from their problems. That's what you want to do. Run and hide like a child." The hand around her throat tightened in anger. Max was fully aware she was being a hypocrite. If Loki had been thinking more rationally then he might have picked up on it.

Again, Max felt herself flying through the air, smashing through the window and plummeting towards the street below. She allowed herself a quick eyeroll before apperating back into the library.

"You may be a god, princeling." Max said advancing on the Asgardian, getting close enough to reach out and touch him. He seemed frozen in place, confused by how she got there. "But I am a legend," she whispered. She put a hand to his cheek and tilted his head down. As she had done on every encounter she kissed his forehead.

With nothing more to be said, she walked out of the library, past the crushed shelves. Waiting outside was Heimdall giving the nearest to an approving look as he could give.

"This is your last visit to Asgard." He informed her as he escorted her back to the Tardis. Max nodded, she'd figured as much. "May your conquests be forever fruitful Silfr Freki." Heimdall pressed his clenched fist to the armoured plate above his heart in a warriors salute.

"May your eyes be forever sharp and your protection of Asgard and its people ever plentiful." Max returned the gesture before slipping back into the Tardis. She slumped against the closed door with a tired sigh.

"Just in time Max." The Doctor called over to her smiling, it faltered when he noticed her expression of weariness. "To the next adventure?"

"Why not?"

And that's how you fit a characters development in one chapter.

Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to get out.

Reviews are loved as much as I love the idea of actually getting enough sleep.

I love my sleep.