In Another Life

"Dance with me." Scout commanded Loki as she stood from the couch and held out her hand.

"I do not know how to dance."

"You're royalty. You must know how to dance. Don't you have elegant balls or something of the sort."

"Yes. I did not attend them though. I was taught to dance when I was a young children. I cannot recall any of it."

"Why don't you go?"

"As I have told you before, I am not well liked amongst my kind."

"Well, I like you and I am ordering you to dance with me. It's nothing at all. Would you like a slow song or a fast song?"

"Slow." He figured that would be easiest. He'd make less of an ass of himself. She walked over to her record player and turned it off, turning on the MP3 dock instead. Plugging in her iPod, she played the first slow song that came to her mind. Sparks by Coldplay.

"Come here." Loki listened. Standing from the couch he walked straight over to her and stood awkwardly. She couldn't help but laugh at him. "This is one of my absolute favorite songs."

Grabbing one of his hands, she placed it on the middle of her lower back, bringing her body into his. She took his other hand in her own, then placed her other loosely around his middle. Taking a tiny step forward, so closed the space between them and rested her head beneath his collar bone. The song played as they swayed back and forth, taking incredibly small baby steps. "I'm so happy that I met you, Loki." She whispered.

Loki's mind was brought back to reality as he took his last few breaths. He had heard stories of your life was suppose to flash before your eyes when you died, but that was not what he expected. He honestly believed he was going to see flash backs of his entire life from when he was a child and so on. That's when he realized, that moment was when his life truly began. Holding Scout closely in his arms as she confessed her happiness of him being with her. She brought Loki to life.

"I will tell father of what you have done here." Thor's voice full of sadness for his dying brother.

"I didn't do it for him." And then, Loki was gone. Thor felt himself grow even more angry towards Malekith. He was more determined to destroy the Aether and end this war. Unfortunately, Thor had to leave Loki's body behind. Him and Jane were in search of a way out of Svartalfheim to carry on their mission. It didn't take too long before they found a portal hole that led back to Earth.

But unknown to them, Loki wasn't dead at all. It was all apart of his plan. His illusion. It amazed Loki how well he could still fool Thor. Did he still not know any better? Loki departed from Svartalfheim disguised as a common Asgardian guard. His plan now was to get back to Asgard and overthrow Odin, taking his rightful place on the throne.

Upon his return, he headed straight to the throne room where he knew the Allfather would be at that time of the day. Loki was a great actor and he approached him with a look of sorrow clear on his face.

"There were no signs of Thor or Jane, but we discovered a body."

"Loki.." Odin responded softly, but it was loud enough for the woman standing in the shadows to her. Scout had come to talk to

Odin, to apologize, but that was blown to hell now.

"What?" Her voice almost a whisper, as she came out for behind the wall. "Where is Loki?!" She shouted at the guard, who coincidentally was Loki. He didn't speak.

"Calm down, child."

"Do not call me a child!" She yelled at Odin. He stood from his throne and took the few steps down to be face to face with Scout.

"This is all your fault!" Her face read anger and frustration but her heart felt nothing but sorrow as tears fell from her eyes.

"Guard, take her to the Bifrost. See to it that she is sent back to Midgard."

"You did this to him! You are dismissing me just as you dismissed Loki his entire life. Why wasn't he ever good enough for you? Why couldn't you just say him the appreciation and love he deserved? Why can't you just fucking give a shit for once?! Even with him dead, you still don't care! Loki was never the bad one. It was always you and I will see to it that everyone knows of your true nature." Loki didn't know how much longer he could let this gone on. He knew how much Scout was unnecessarily hurting. While making his plan to fake his death, he forgot the impact it would have on her. At the moment though, he felt quite impressed with her. He hadn't fully realized how loyal Scout was to him until now.

"You are nothing more than a Midgardian whore that Loki had the displeasure of getting himself wrapped up in. Now I have to take care of another one of his misdoings. Guard, change of plans. Take our dear Scout down to the dungeons, where she will spend the rest of her days locked away in Loki's cell."

Loki made a move to grab her but she quickly moved away. "Don't you dare fucking touch me!" She shouted at him before marching away. He chased after her and took a hold of her arm, spinning her around to face him. "What are you doing!?" She struggled against him. He transported himself and Scout into his chambers. Loki could now see the fear in her eyes once she became aware of her surroundings. "Who the hell are you?" She asked.

As much as he wanted her to know his true identity, he couldn't risk it. "I am sorry for your loss." Scout's eyes for into a glare as she shoved him towards the door.

"Get out."

He obeyed her command, but not without hesitation. Loki knew he had to take down Odin before allowing Scout to become aware of his plan. It physically hurt him to do this to her. Scout spent that lonely night crying herself to sleep.

The next morning, Thor came into the room without knocking and awoke her. "Care you join me on a trip to Midgard?" He didn't want to her be swallowed by the darkness. Loosing Loki was hard on him, but he couldn't imagine how you she. It destroyed her.

"Sure." She mumbled, sitting up.

Before Thor left allowed her to get ready, he had to get something off his chest. "I take full responsibility for Loki's passing."Don't blame yourself, Thor. It won't do any good."

"I would say that his time away, him and I fighting, was a complete waste, except during then, he met you. Loki died not only attempting to avenge our mother, but to protect you."

"I really don't want to talk about him, Thor." She stopped him from continuing. It wasn't because she didn't care, but how much it hurt. She didn't want to think of him as dead. "I'll be out in a minute."

Thor exited the room and waited outside the door. He wasn't going to argue with her or force her to face Loki's death. He remembered the emptiness he felt when he thought Loki dead the first time. What she was feeling must have been double. Although Loki was his brother, Scout was in love with him. It was entirely different and he wasn't going to down play her feelings. They made a quick journey over the rainbow bridge, to the Bifrost, but not before stopping to have a word with Odin. Scout felt herself become slightly nervous facing him after the words and actions exchange the day before.

"Where are you two headed?" He asked.

"Midgard, father."

"To return Scout?"

"Yes."

"I do want to apologize to you for my unkind words. It was never my place to make such judgements against you. Meeting you was the greatest thing that had ever happened for my son. You will always be welcome in Asgard."

Scout was nearly taken back by his words as it wasn't what she expected him to say at all. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Why was he being so kind now? She took the apology and offered one herself. Odin then asked to speak to Thor alone, so she excused herself and waited outside the throne room.

Back on Asgard, Jane, Darcy, Ian and now Erik, picked up the pieces of what had occurred nearly a week ago. Jane could only assume that Scout was safe on Asgard still. It worried them all. Except Erik. He didn't even know her. What worried them most was the accident that happened with Tony Stark? After him being attacked again and nearly killed, they knew Scout would be freaking him she were here.

Sounds of thunder erupted outside of Jane's small home and she could only think of one thing. Thor.

Scout and Thor parted ways once they were on Earth. She returned to her still half unpacked home, and Thor went straight for Jane. She would have went with but was in no mood for any sort of visits. Time went by much quicker on Earth then in Asgard. What was a week for Earth, was a mere day on Asgard. A lot had gone on since her departure. Not only what happened in London, but what happened to Tony back in America.

After checking her emails, voice mails and messages, Scout panicked. Instantly, she called Pepper. It heard to say who was more alarmed when she picked up. Scout was basically missing which caused Tony to completely loose his mind. Once she explained to Pepper all that happened, they decided it'd be good for Scout to come back to the States for awhile to put Tony's worried mind at ease. Pepper hung up and alerted Tony of what happened. Which of course led to Tony calling Scout and telling her he was on his way to London as they spoke so he could she hear.

He arrived the next day, no Iron Man suit in sight.

"So, explain to me again, what happened?"

"Oh my God, how many more times must I repeat myself?" The initial shock of Scout's return eventually wore off and now Tony was back to his normal annoying self.

"Once more."

"No. Shut up. Let's talk about something else."

"Okay, how are you holding up with what happened to Loki?" His tone serious.

"I don't want to talk about that."

"When will you?"

"Never." She turned away from Tony and went back to unpacking boxes. Loki was the last thing she wanted to talk about. Which didn't make sense to Tony and only led to him worrying about her mental stability.

"Okay..." He sighed.

They spent the day together unpacking. It was weird to watch Tony doing manual labor of the such, but according to Pepper, since Iron Man's departure, he had became more down to Earth. Which didn't make sense to Scout and only led to her worrying about him mental stability. Standing inside Scout's five bedroom castle, were two humans on the verge of a total mental down, not allowing a single person to help them. It was just something they were going to have to work out on their own.

Tony stayed in London with Scout for a week and a half. He was scared to leave her alone but knew he had to get back to business. Even with all that happened, he still had a company to run. Jane and Darcy made frequent visits to her now completely unpacked home, with Thor in tow, but she never said much. She allowed herself to become consumed in darkness. No one knew how to help her. A month went by since Loki's death but still, nothing. Scout was no longer the same.