This is a story I'm writing for one of the Imagine Loki prompts on Tumblr. It's also on the site Imagine Loki. It won't be as long as my other stories. 10 to 15 chapters, if that. It was just something that I saw and someone requested it, so I began writing it.

Chapter One

Arianna Grace stood on the top floor of the Stark Tower looking out on Manhattan. She hated that she was stuck inside while all her friends were out there risking their lives. Arianna, however, wasn't a field agent even if she was still considered an Avenger. She definitely didn't think herself a hero.

She didn't own a mythical hammer as Thor did, and she didn't have super strength or a prolonged life span; she wasn't a genius as Tony or Bruce was, and she didn't have a man-made suit of metal, and she definitely wasn't a science experiment gone wrong – for which she was grateful; she wasn't even an experiment gone right as was the case with Steve Rogers – or Captain America as she had previously known him; she couldn't handle a weapon like Hawkeye and she couldn't fight to save her life. Natasha had tried teaching her and all that had resulted in Arianna not being able to move properly for a few days.

No, she was mostly there for the aftermath of this disaster because what she could do was something the others couldn't. She could heal the wounded. It didn't matter whether that wound was physical or emotional, she could heal anyone who accepted her help.

She hadn't been kept completely up to date on this latest disaster, but she knew the drill. Thor's brother, Loki, was trying to take over Earth. Loki wanted to be Earth's king and maybe even Earth's god, she wasn't sure on that part. She'd seen a news clip of Loki trying to get people to kneel to him in Germany and most had.

Now Loki was here in Manhattan.

Arianna couldn't believe all of this was because of some stupid power source called the Tesseract and an idiot with a god-complex. She knew the Tesseract was supposed to be a huge source of sustainable energy and that Loki had taken it, which was why the Avengers had been called together, but she didn't know what Loki wanted it for.

Sure, she knew Thor had said something about Loki leading a war against Earth. Supposedly, there was an army coming. The Chitauri, Thor had said. Loki would be able to rule with their help and then . . . then Loki would trade the Tesseract for their help. But would Loki really let go of all that power?

This Loki . . . he frightened her and she'd never even met him. He was an unknown threat; Natasha had warned her about him. He was a master manipulator and he had a way of controlling people. That was what Arianna feared most about this man.

Arianna had only just been called in, so she hadn't been with the others when they'd captured Loki, but from what Natasha had said . . . he was something else. He'd even shaken her a bit by threatening Agent Barton; Hawkeye had been put under Loki's control for a while.

Even though she hated her friends risking their lives, she was glad she didn't have to go head-to-head with any bad guys.

Natasha had also told her about her confrontation with the Hulk, Bruce's alter ego. Natasha had almost been squashed, had almost been killed. It was her physical training that had saved her life.

Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., had placed Arianna in the Tower because she needed to be close at hand once everything was over.

Arianna had been up in the tower for about three hours and everything had been fine . . . until now. Now Loki was standing on the balcony of Stark Tower. Some science type person was on the balcony with him and they had the Tesseract with them. She could feel how powerful it was, and to her it was a good kind of power. She knew that in the hands of Loki and people like Loki . . . it wouldn't be good at all.

Arianna was hiding inside. She was in the living room of the penthouse. She'd flung herself behind the bar that Tony had deemed a necessary accessory to the room as soon as JARVIS had let her know someone had broken in. A security image had appeared and she'd seen the tall, black-haired image of Loki.

She didn't know how long she'd been hiding, but she hadn't been able to move for fear of being spotted. The whole room was faced with windows. The want-to-be king couldn't see her or he would kill her or, far worse for her, place her under his control. She'd rather die than be forced into anything.

She heard doors open and then a smooth voice said, "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity."

What? Had she been found? How had he seen her? She was in the only spot in the room that would've been considered a good hiding spot.

"Um . . . actually, I'm planning to threaten you."

Tony! Loki had been talking to Tony. The doors that she'd heard opening must've been Tony coming in.

"You should've left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage."

The suit had been damaged? Tony was going to face Loki while unprotected by his metal? Was he stupid or something?

"You've got the blue stick of destiny." Tony was now behind the bar as well. He barely glanced at her, but he did see her, she could tell. "Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything."

What scared Arianna the most right now was how calm Loki sounded; he was so sure of himself. She could tell that not only did he want to take over the Earth . . . he believed that he should, that he deserved it somehow.

"No, no, no! Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves. Sort of like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give ya that one. But let's do a head count here."

Arianna didn't know Tony Stark that well; she'd only met him on two other occasions, but she liked him enough to not want him to die. She hoped he wasn't doing something stupid.

Tony stepped away from the bar and went around; Arianna was sure that was an attempt to keep Loki from her.

"We've got your brother, the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend that kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella . . . you've managed to piss off every one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a hulk," Tony said.

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

So they were missing the one person that could actually probably defeat Loki? This was going great.

"You're missing the point. There's no throne; there's no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

There was a tense moment where Arianna wanted to know what was going on. Really! She was tempted to peek and would've had she not realized how stupid that would've been.

"How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?"

There was a ping and then another ping and Arianna felt tears fill her eyes. She'd understood that threat. Loki was going to control Tony and use him for destruction – and Tony knew where she was!

You can stop this! She thought. You know you can!

"This usually works," Loki said, and for the first time Arianna heard something other than smugness come from him.

"Well, performance issues, you know . . ."

There was a thud and Arianna knew that was Tony falling to the floor. If she turned her head to the left she could see Tony's body. He was able to move so he couldn't be too hurt, but if she could see him then he could see her. If Tony could see her then Loki would be able to see her if he went for Tony – and she knew he would.

A few seconds later, Tony was being thrown through a window and over the side of the building.

She couldn't help it; she screamed, alerting Loki to her presence.

Before the lunatic could get to her, however, a red pod looking thing shot out of the elevator in the front of the penthouse and sped out the window after Tony.

Mere seconds after that Tony – or now Iron Man – was back and firing shots at Loki, who actually fell over.

Arianna knew she had to move now before Loki got his bearings. The trouble was . . . where could she go? If she went toward the front door, Loki could get her, but the same thing would happen if she went for the window. She knew Tony would fly her to safety, but . . .

There was a terrible BOOM! What the heck was that?

"Right. Army!" she heard Tony say. "Arianna, run!"

That set her in motion and she scrambled to her feet. She motioned for Tony to go; the world mattered more than she did. As long as she could make it out of the penthouse –

A flash of blue light hit the wall right in front of her, effectively messing up her escape route.

"Stop!"

She knew that was Loki and she really had no choice but to listen. The exit was now blocked.

"Turn around."

She obeyed. She noticed the pleased expression on his face. His smile would've been beautiful if he hadn't looked – well, criminally insane.

"Were you there the whole time?" he asked, moving toward her.

Arianna didn't know how Loki was still standing after being shot with what had been a missile, but he was.

"I – I was." More boldly, she said, "Why are you destroying my world?"

"Destroying it? I don't want to destroy it, Midgardian. I want to rule it."

Loki was so close now that he was towering over her. She had to bend her head back to meet his eyes. His eyes were another thing that would've been beautiful if they didn't seem maniacal.

Her breaths became pants and she found she was trembling. Men like Loki scared her. He could be charming, she was sure, but he could also be cruel. That was a deadly combination.

"Look at you. Lost, alone, frightened . . ."

The way he spoke, he sounded disgusted with her, and to be honest she was disgusted with herself. She was not this little shell of a person. She may have been once, but not anymore. She shouldn't let Loki get under her skin, but he did and she couldn't help it.

"Loki! Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it!"

Thor! Arianna had only met him hours earlier, but she would recognize that deep authoritative voice anywhere.

It got Loki away from her, at least.

"You can't; there is no stopping it. There is only the war."

Okay, so let me know what you think. Also I'm not really an avid Avenger girl, so I don't know everything about it. I just know I thought Loki was a horrible person until I watched Thor and then . . . I still think he's got serious issues, but not he's not just a villain in my eyes and can be redeemed if he'd allow himself to be.