Stars Have Fallen - A Loki Love Story (Marvel/Avengers)

3

Tony looked around in desperate frustration. "Damn it," he muttered.

"Where'd she go?" Steve wondered aloud.

Thor was the only one who didn't look completely baffled. He looked toward a shadow cast by a tall pile of building, squinting his eyes. In the shadow, he spotted a small glow. It was the girl, hiding in the shadows, watching them; Thor, specifically. There was a look of recognition in her eyes that made him curious. But she showed no signs of intending to come out.

Thor looked away from her and sighed. "She couldn't have gone far," he insisted, "we should split up to cover more ground." Steve and Tony walked off, but Thor remained, successfully having gotten rid if the other two.

He turned back toward the girl with a kind smile, in hopes of easing her fear. Thor slowly approached her. "It's alright, small glowing woman," he assured. The girl remained still. "It's just me now, see?"

The girl slowly began to show signs of her own curiosity. "..You are not like them," she muttered in a quiet voice that Thor could just barely hear. "You do not come from here."

Thor smiled a bit brighter. "You're right," he agreed, taking slow steps forward. "I am Thor Odinson of Asgard, a realm far different from this one," he explained. Finally, he was in the shadows as well, just a few feet from the girl. "You don't come from here either, do you."

The girl drew her eyebrows inward and down. Her mind was a jumble from whatever had just happened earlier. "...I.." she answered, a look of deep though crossing her face, "I cannot remember..."

Noticing her beginning to stress again, Thor quickly insisted, "that's okay; that's alright." He watched her glow subside until it was so subtle that he could barely notice it. Stepping closer, he asked cautiously, "what can you remember?"

• • •

"So you sent us on a wild goose chase?" Tony asked in irritation. He stood with Thor and Steve in the crater still. The girl was standing, hiding behind Thor in shyness, still refusing to leave the shadows.

"Yes," Thor replied stongly. "She has no memory, and was frightened."

Thor turned around to look down at the woman. After gaining her trust, he'd managed to get her to tell him what she could remember. "Go on," he coaxed, "tell them what you told me."

She hesitantly stepped out from behind him, hands clasped infront of her. "I wanted to leave...I was looking for something.." She spoke quietly.

"Leave where?" Steve prompted carefully.

"She doesn't know," Thor clarified. "Though, she can sense a person's exsistance, it would seem," he went on, "she knew I was different from you."

There was silence for a moment. Storm clouds began to gather in the sky, darkening the world. The girl relaxed at this. Finally, Steve suggested, "we should get her back to the tower."

Thor nodded and Tony beckoned the others to follow him. He watched the girl step out of the shadows of the broken building. Her body became slightly less visible, even her suit. Grabbing tightly onto Thor's forearm, she began to walk. She was not willing to let him out of her sight, being that he was the only one she trusted so far.

As the four walked back, rain began to drip gently from the sky. And by the time they reached the caution tape, it was pouring. The girl, who's name was still unknown to the Avengers, glowed brighter to light the way. At the sight of the many men outside of the crater investigating, she froze in place. Thor had to remind her in a soft voice that everything was alright.

The same man who'd let the Avengers in stood on the other side of the tape, a safe distance away. Tony shouted over the sound of the rain, "nothing nuclear, just a pressure build up."

The man, holding an umbrella over his head now, stepped up to the tape line. He nodded his head towards the glowing girl. "A pressure build up?" He repeated, obviously not buying the lie.

Tony frowned, annoyed that his story was seen through so easily. Though, he should've expected that, travelling with a girl that glowed white. "Okay, point is, it wasn't nuclear," he insisted, "but, still...probably leave this place sectioned off. Lot's of, you know, dead bodies."

The man cringed a bit, but nodded. "The people are going to want answers," the man told them as they stepped over the caution tape.

"And they'll get them," Steve assured, then added, "in time."

The girl clung unintentionally tighter to Thor's arm, nervous at the amount of people around. But soon, they were all ushered into a car and taken back to the Avengers tower. There, they would begin to figure this girl out.

• • •

"Here we are," Tony welcomed as the car pulled up into the tower's garage. "Home, sweet home."

The girl cowered in her seat between Cap and Thor. She seemed nervous to be in the bright building. And when she stepped out of the car, it became apparent why. As soon as her body entered the light, she became almost completely invisible. She clung to Thor with a death grip, scared by her own near-invisibility.

Thor gritted his teeth as her fingernails threatened to break his skin. "Is this..new?" He wondered, gesturing to her transparency.

The girl shook her head. "No," she responded quietly, not giving any hints of planning to elaborate.

Steve raised his eyebrows in shock, but remained silent. Tony was once again mesmorized by the fact that her clothing changed with her body. He wanted to get a DNA sample of her, and of her suit. If he could domesticate the cells, perhaps he could help her to become visible all of the time. After all, it was obvious how much being invisible scared her. The girl looked like only a spirit, but her facial expression was fear of herself.