Unexpected

XXIII

Nina woke up on a ceiling.

You heard it right. It was on a ceiling. She was laying on the hard ground and there were at least 6 SHIELD agents, now under Loki's control, around her, waiting for her to make a move. Her head was throbbing, and as she moved her hand to place it where she had been hit, she felt the dried blood stuck on her hair. She was covered in it. Her hands were bloody, her shirt was covered in it, and so was a small part of her face. Her light brown hair now had patches of red all over it. She looked around, and she discovered exactly where she was; the STARK tower.

"I apologize for that, Miss Jones," she head a deep voice say. Loki suddenly appeared in her vision. "I had told my minions to attack whenever they saw an "Avenger", as you so affectionately call yourselves."

Nina slowly stood up, making sure not to fall down from dizziness as she did so.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She practically screamed, flinching when the SHIELD agents took their guns out and pointed at her. Loki approached the scene.

"Stand down," he told them all. They were left all alone. "There is nothing wrong with me, Miss."

"Oh, but there certainly is," Nina contradicted. "This is a planet, not your bloody doll house. You can't just barge in, expecting to take over everything."

"Well, you see, it's gotten to a point where I don't have a choice anymore," he admitted to her. For some reason, Nina felt like he regretted doing all of this for a moment. Nina didn't expect herself to be able to pity a man who wants to open a portal through New York.

"Of course you do," Nina told him softly. The last thing she wanted was to make him angry again. "You can just leave everything here and run away. You can't go back to Asgard, they're probably waiting in line to kill you, but there are so many other amazing and beautiful planets out there. Chose one."

Loki frowned. Why did this simple human girl know so much about the outer universe. She was definetly special.

"You're not form earth, are you?" He asked, a frown on his face. Nina smiled gently.

"Of course I'm not," she admitted. "But I've put a lot of work into it."

"And that is why you were able to take the Tesseract in your bare hands without letting it's power consume you," Loki guessed. Nina nodded. "Where are you from, then?" He asked. Loki immediately regretted asking her that, seeing the look on her face. What was he doing? Why hadn't he killed her, took control of her mind. Why was this girl so special to him?

"I.. you probably don't know it. It's gone," she told him. Her whole planet was gone? Her people? He didn't want to make her cry or anything, but he was really curious.

"What?"

"My whole planet. Exploded, gone in a war," she said. "But it was a long time ago."

Loki searched his memory for planets who were simply gone. He tried to remember what big wars had happened, and the Time War came into his mind.

"Gallifrey," he realised. Nina immediately took her eyes off the ground and stared right at his. Loki watched her green eyes shimmer with tears under the sunlight. "I am so, terribly sorry for your loss," he said honestly. Loki knew about the Last Great Time War, and how the Time Lords had battled the Daleks for the sake of all creation. It resulted as both species gone, desapeared form the face of the Universe. With only one apparent survivor, who was standing in front of her.

"I have already lost one planet," she told him. "Don't make me lose another." Loki wished he could. He wished there was nothing stopping him from just dropping everything and running away.

"I can't, I told you," he repeated. "They're making me do this, and if I don't they'll kill me," he admitted. "See the bright side. At least this is earth."

"What do you mean?"

"Being a Time Lady, you must agree they are bare ants compared to us," Loki said. Nina frowned. She couldn't believe her ears.

"Oh, I think they're giants," she whispered. "You don't know this, but the Humans are one of the longer lasting species ever. The survive everything, they keep on fighting, they don't give up. This is what makes them human. So don't you think they'll just kneel at your feet because you're slightly stronger than them," she told him.

"Again, no choice," Loki said. As he started to walk away from her, he suddenly turned around with another smug smile on his face. "You know, all that blood looks great on you. It really brings out your eyes."