Loki Laufeyson - The Experiment {1}

Chapter Twelve - Stronger Than She Looks

As I opened up my eyes, I saw that I was in a garden, a very fancy one. I looked around me and saw that I seemed to be in the middle of a row of trees which I immediately recognised as weeping willows. I had seen them plenty of times in books that HYDRA taught me with.

I heard the sound of water and turned around my feet making a loud noise on the sandy coloured pebbles under my shoes. In the middle of the garden was a beautifully designed white fountain, water pouring from its multiple layers into the lily-covered water below. I looked past the fountain and saw numerous horses grazing in the garden, their tails flicking lazily in the breeze. One of them snorted as it ate, causing my lips to twitch into a smile. I turned back around and my eyes widened as I noticed a massive gold shining palace in front of me. I stepped cautiously towards it, my feet crunching in the pebbles. I looked down at the ground, amazed at how shiny the pebbles were and noticed that there were beautiful pink and red flowers lining the pebbled path. A cool breeze blew through the garden and lifted my hair off my shoulder slightly. Instantly, the wind refreshed me and I breathed out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding in. The breeze kind of reminded me of Loki's power when he used it to calm me down.

Loki.

I slowly began to remember training with Wanda and Loki. How had I ended up in a garden? Where were Wanda and Loki? Had I hurt them? I began to spin around, looking desperately around the garden for them.

LOKI POV

"She's very strong." I gritted my teeth, trying to keep my fingers on her temple as she began to twitch. I tried to keep the picture in her head, knowing that it was probably the only other way to calm her down.

"It's probably best that you let her go." Came Maximoff's worried voice from just behind me. "She's burning you."

"I'm fine." I replied, clenching my jaw through the pain of Emily's fire licking my skin.

"Loki." Maximoff said. "Let her go."

"No." I shook my head. "I'm not going to let her burn out again." The memory of Emily basically exploding in that HYDRA cell was still fresh in my memory.

EMILY POV

Suddenly, I was calm. All previous thoughts I had disappeared from my head, I couldn't even remember what I had just been thinking. I continued to walk towards the castle, meeting several people along the way. They smiled and nodded at me, causing me to smile in confusion back at them. The sharp sound of barking cut through the air and I looked at the doors to the palace to see a fluffy brown and white down sitting there, it's tongue lolling out and a happy look on its face. I immediately recognised it as a sheepdog and I stood there, frozen. I had only ever encountered dogs at HYDRA, which were used for some missions, but I didn't know how.

HYDRA.

Was this place HYDRA? Was it another one of their bases? Was I here to be hurt? Where the people here to hurt me?

LOKI POV

Maximoff pulled me away from Emily and the dream instantly disappeared from her mind. I looked down at my slightly shaking hands and saw that the finger tips were bright red and peeling. My eyes darted up to Emily and I saw her slumped against the back wall, unconscious. I looked up at Maximoff and saw that her eyes were the faint tinge of red.

"I had to." She said before I could open my mouth. "Whatever you were doing wasn't working."

"Yes it was." I said through gritted teeth, standing up and dusting off my clothes. Maximoff didn't say anything and watched as I walked over to Emily. I slowly reached out and touched her no longer flaming skin and breathed a sigh of relief when I felt that her body had returned to its normal temperature. I grabbed her bracelets and slid them onto her wrists before I carefully picked her up in my arms, not even wincing when I bumped my burnt fingers. Maximoff opened up the door into the main training room and everyone looked at us immediately. I glared at them and strode into the lift with Maximoff, who pressed the button to take Emily to my room.

When we reached my room, I carefully laid her down on my bed and she immediately curled up in my sheets. There was quite a bit of noise coming from the people laying carpet in Emily's room, but it thankfully didn't seem to disturb her. She would be in a deep sleep for a while, from what I had learnt about her so far, using her power seemed to exhaust her quite a bit, but I figured it was only because she didn't know how to control it.

"You should get your fingers looked at." Maximoff said quietly, breaking through my thoughts. I looked away from Emily and held my hands out, healing them instantly with my magic. I could have easily done it before, but it didn't even cross my mind. I looked down at Maximoff and saw her giving me a small sympathetic smile.

"There's something different about her for you, isn't there?" She said and I immediately gave her a glare. She held her hands up in surrender and walked out, looking over her shoulder once at Emily before she shut the door behind her. I waited a couple of second before breathing a big sigh of relief, running a hand through my hair as I slumped onto my chair.

Maximoff was right, there was something about Emily that made me interested in her. Her power was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I had experienced a lot of magic in my life time, but nothing like Emily's. I knew hers was unnatural, having been forced into her genetics, and that may be what was making hers so different. All magic I had seen was controlled by the person who had it, but Emily's seemed to purposely be fighting against her, like it was trying to separate itself from her. I had even seen it in her mind, it was like a separate part of her, rather than being a single body like magic normally was. Magic with a mind of its own could do some serious damage to the person it resided in.

There was only one place I could get answers.