Summer and Frost

Thor

I walked away from the meal that I shared with my mother and father. The Warriors Three and Lady Sif managed to return shortly after me, before Loki opened the Bifrost again to destroy the Jotunheim. In such a short span of time, I lost the people that mattered the most. Nina was dead, and Loki too, having slipped into the abyss beyond the Bifrost. And with the Bifrost destroyed, Jane was lost to me.

Odin followed me out onto the balcony, though I wanted nothing more than to be alone with my thoughts.

“Son, please don’t withdraw from those who love you,” he said, but his rich voice was not as comforting as it had once been.

“She died because of him, father. Part of me wants to hate Loki for what he has done. Nina loved him. She would have done anything to save him from himself, and it only got her killed. Part of me wants to hate him for her, but mostly I just wish he were here. I wish he were different.”

I excused myself, walking to the ravaged remains of the Bifrost, where Heimdall still stood watch.

“How is she?” I asked. I asked every day since the night I destroyed my only means of reaching her.

“She searches for you. Loki once said that there are other ways to travel between realms. Perhaps there is hope yet for you and Jane. But there is something else I must tell you.”

“What is it?” I asked, my heart clenching.

“Nina still lives. Fire cannot kill her, but Loki nearly did. She tried to stop him again before you arrived her. She was mortally wounded and sent back through the Bifrost. I do not know much of her whereabouts, but I know she is alive.”



Nina

I awoke to a rather annoying beeping noise.

I was cold, my back on frigid metal, a bright light making my vision a dull red blanket behind my eyelids. They fluttered, and my bleary eyes began to focus.

It looked as if I were in an operating room. The walls were cold, sterile and white, and bright overhead lights lanced through my eyes, making my head throb. I heard a noise to my right, and my body reacted before I had a chance to think.

Something rolled away from me, blue and red gleaming in front of my eyes as fire shot from my hands.

“Well, who needs the Human Torch when you’ve got her,” a voice said from behind me.

I turned and stared into a single eye. A man in all black stood next to the table where I had been lying, an eye patch covering one eye. My eyes darted back to whatever I had just attacked, and a man rose from the corner, holding a shield in his hands. His blue eyes studied me with genuine interest. “Well, I haven’t seen anything like that before,” he commented in a faint accent that told me he was from Brooklyn. My time in Midgard made me familiar with most of the differences in Earthly speech.

“Where in the nine realms am I?” I asked.

“Yes, how rude of me not to introduce myself,” the man with the eye patch said with a laugh. Something told me he was not at all sorry about keeping me in the dark. “I’m Nick Fury, and this here is Steve Rogers, more commonly known as Captain America.”

“I am Nina of Asgard,” I said holding out a hand for Rogers to shake. He stared at it, his expression worried. After all, he had just seen fire shoot from my fingertips. Eventually, he dropped the shield, extending his hand to shake mine.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” I said. I was not about to be distracted from the answers.

Nick Fury smiled at me as if he could already tell I was going to be a problem. “Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D.”