You were plagued with nightmares that night. This wasn't particularly atypical. You'd been plagued by them ever since the fire that had killed your parents when you were 13. You hadn't had them nearly as often or as severely since Frigga had done healing magic on your mind. They still came occasionally, though, and of course, tonight when you were without your powers, without Loki, and with your mind already worried about him, they came for you with a vengeance.

It started with the fire, as it always did. Though, now, you had your proper memories of events, and not the altered ones you had lived with for years, when Fury had mistakenly thought hiding the fact that you have powers was a good idea.

You had to relive making your way, gasping for air and coughing from smoke, through the fire to try to escape the house. Had to relive finding your parents, tied to your dining room chairs in the foyer, gun shot wounds in the middle of their heads. You screamed for them, crying, begging for them to get up and get out of the fire as you tried to shake them awake. Logically, you knew they were dead already, but you were just a traumatized, terrified, 13 year old girl.

Logic had no place here.

Self preservation kicked in through your horror plagued mind and you knew you had to leave before you died in the fire. You took one last look at your mommy, and saw the wound in her head and just screamed, unleashing a fire tornado in and around the entire mansion as you did. Something crashed. You tried to make yourself lift your hands to ward it off, your adult self knowing what was coming, but you couldn't change the nightmares, only relive their horrors.

A pillar that had held up...something... in the house crashed into you, pinning you to the floor, burning the leg it was on top of. You still had that scar to this day. You tried to push it off, but it was too heavy and you couldn't move it. You knew there was help outside. You felt the ice and water supers attacking your protections. You couldn't scream loudly enough for them to hear and you knew they would never think there was someone alive in here, not with the fire tornado. All you could do was throw extra power into the tornado, strengthen it, try to tell them there was someone in here controlling it when the fire just existed burning nothing.

Tony burst in through the front door, answering your prayers. You waved your hand and yelled for him, desperate as you were coughing from the smoke. Tony rushed over to your side, swept aside the burning pillar and swept you into his arms all in nearly one movement. You begged for him to save your parents too, but after one look at them, he told you their were beyond your help and rushed you outside. Your connection to the flames died when you were outside of their protection and they vanished, leaving only the natural flames behind. You passed out in his arms after he had passed the flame barrier around the outside of the mansion.

The nightmares used to end there, but there were more horrors in your past now for the nightmares to find. The next on the list was when you was raped and your powers were blasted open. You had been drugged to the teeth with something meant to knock out supers' abilities when you were at a classmate's birthday party. A jerk football player who was mad at you for rejecting his advances had set the thing up. There should have been no way for you to use your powers, but either due to their raw strength, or the fact they were blasted open again that night, they were at your disposal in that moment. You had turned the boy who did it into a vegetable when you threw him across the room, your telepathy had burned through his mind. You never learned if he got better, nor were you dying to find out.

You thought the nightmares would end there, but you were wrong.

So very wrong.

You were going to curse the theater troupe for bringing up these memories. You blamed the play for them being so close to the front of your mind.

The scene changed and you and Loki were curled on a couch watching a DVD when intruders broke into the tower. You jumped to your feet and Loki told you to run for safety. You didn't have control of your powers yet and couldn't use them to help him fight so you ran, thinking you were going to a better spot to fight the intruders from.

Instead, Loki stopped in the hallway. He took out two of the intruders, but the other two snuck up behind him with guns. You ran to help him, shouting for him. He turned in slow motion to face the attack as the guns went off. You threw daggers at the attackers, killing them when the daggers went through their throats, and shoved Loki hard out of the way. You had thought you had made it, thought you had saved him, until your legs had fallen out from under you, until you saw the pool of your blood and finally registered the pain in your chest. You had taken the bullets meant for Loki. Loki cradled you in his arms, dumping every ounce of healing magic he had in to you to save your life. It wasn't enough. He'd had to use the soulbond ceremony to tie your souls together. Even then, it had been a close thing for you both to survive, for if you had died after that, he would have too.

Of course, this was a nightmare, and it cut out before you could at least hear him say the loving words of the soulbond ceremony. You thought that was surely the last horror you would have to relive that night. You were wrong. Again. You were quite tired of being wrong.

The scene shifted to a night you and Loki were in your superhero costumes on patrol. You tried to fight it, you didn't want to relive this night either, but the nightmares held you fast.

That theater troupe was so very, very dead for bringing these memories to the surface.

In the nightmare, you found two bad guys and followed them to their hideout. You had walked right into a trap set by Balder. He injured Loki gravely the moment you walked into the hideout. You'd had to use nearly all of your power to save him and while you were drained, still had to fight him and the minions he had acquired. They separated you the moment your fire shield failed. Loki had barely been back on his feet. You should have lost that fight. By all rights you should have been enslaved by Balder right then and there. Luck, and some admittedly quick thinking on your parts, had managed to get you out of it. Loki got Balder monologue-ing while you freed yourself and a supervillain. You teamed up with the supervillain to stop Balder.

The scene faded with Balder's defeat. You could feel the blankets you were fighting against. Could feel warm arms holding you, shaking you, trying to get you to wake, but you weren't quite free of the nightmare yet. Something pulled you back.

This wasn't a memory. You knew that instantly, but you didn't know what it was. You found yourself in a small plain room you didn't recognize. A figure appeared before you: Balder. He looked nearly identical to Thor, but a few years younger with big muscles and long blond hair. He was dressed in battle armor and you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you did not want to be alone with him, even in a dream. He had already tried to enslave you once for his ambitions to take over the Earth. He was physically strong and had magic of his own, and Loki's magic didn't work on him.

"Look at the wonderful present my little brother has wrapped up for me," he purred as he took a step towards you. You reached for your daggers, ignoring that this was a dream. It felt too real. Your dagger sheath wasn't there. Shit. You didn't wear it to bed. You kept it within arm's reach, but didn't actually wear it. So you were stuck facing down Balder, in your pajamas, with no weapons and no powers. Great.

At least you were wearing pants.

That had to count for something, right?

No weapons, no way to effectively fight. That left one option. So you ran, or tried at least. Balder grabbed you in an instant, slamming your back against a wall. He held both of your wrists above your head, nearly crushing the bones in them. You yelled in pain and tried to kick him, to struggle, something, anything. You weren't just going to give up. "Enough, little one, stop fighting," he purred. "There is no shame in surrendering," he added. "My brother left you for me, all bound up," his thumb ran over the metal bangle on your arm "with pretty black eyes and no protections and he left you all alone for me to find. What a wonderful surprise,"

You felt ice surround you, felt cold hands on you, felt cool arms wrap around you to pull you from the dream. You felt yourself fade from the scene as the real world took hold, but not before you heard Balder's voice promise that he would come for you.