You sat on the floor in the corner of the cell between the barrier at the front and one of the walls where you could watch the hallway, though it was empty save the couple of guards in hall, barely within sight. They weren't looking at you or acknowledging you in any way, shape, or form. So you were utterly alone with your thoughts.

Your thoughts sucked.

They spun between wondering what was going to happen next and beating yourself up for how easily you'd been taken. They were spiraling quickly towards depression, which wasn't going to help anything. The thoughts kept trying to convince you that you should have done something to help yourself, though you knew logically that your best strategy had been to comply. Yes, you had magic, and Loki had been teaching you to use it, but it was mostly just everyday spells, nothing useful enough for proper combat, you just weren't trained in combat magic at all. You also knew logically that the Einherjar would have known you were being trained by Loki in magic and they would have been prepared to fight a magician. They had been prepared to fight you. It had all happened so fast, too. You hadn't been able to call for help. If you'd tried they would have attacked you and it had been more important to you at the moment to make sure you were conscious when you arrived.

You knew you'd had no better options.

You knew you couldn't fight them and win.

Hell, you knew you couldn't fight them even long enough to hold your own until help could arrive.

You hadn't been able to call for help.

You knew your magic wasn't good enough to help yet.

You knew you'd been outside in your pajamas just to kiss Loki goodbye.

It didn't make you feel better, especially since your lame ass hadn't even been able to call for help.

You felt so useless and stupid and ridiculous for not fighting

But you would have been severely injured or worse and still ended up here.

Maybe, maybe the team would have heard the fight and come help, or at least arrive to find out you'd been taken.

Maybe.

More likely, you'd have been knocked out quickly and not known even what was going on...

It still didn't make you feel better.

Whatever Odin was up to, he had a week tops. Loki and Thor were staying a week to celebrate their mother's birthday. They'd know you were gone the second they got home. But... no one knew you'd been taken. Sure, they'd know by now that you were missing, but they probably had no idea you'd been taken to Asgard. They would have assumed the other appearances of the Bifrost had been Thor and Loki forgetting something, or suddenly deciding to take you with them. When they noticed you were missing, they'd either look to Hydra or think the boys had taken you with them. When they came back without you. They'd look for you on Earth...

You were fucked.

How long before they asked Thor and Loki why they came back if it wasn't to get you? How long before the boys replied that they hadn't and figured out that you were on Asgard?

You sat alone with your thoughts, feeling more and more stupid and helpless or not fighting, not figuring out at least how to draw a scene and draw attention. It had just happened so fast...

Live to fight another day the first rule of combat. You knew it and knew that you'd been severely outmatched by the Einherjar. It was better to live to fight another day, when you had a chance to survive the fight. For all you knew they may have been given orders to kill you if you fought them. You had a chance if you were in the dungeons of Asgard.

*

You don't know how long you sat unmoving on the floor of the cell. Movement and noise from outside the cell jerked you from your thoughts and you jumped to your feet, pointedly aware that you were still in your pajamas and barefoot. The plan was that you were only going to be outside for a minute to say goodbye to Loki. You hadn't bothered dressing properly or putting on shoes for just a minute outside. There are people who would question the sanity of going outside in the city without shoes. And they would be correct, but you'd grown up in the suburbs where shoes were only worn if you going further than the street. The Bifrost circle was in the equivalent of the tower's backyard. You hadn't thought twice about going out into your backyard in pajamas and no shoes. At least your pajama pants were a normal flannel print and didn't have Hello Kitty on them, and your shirt was a pajama top stolen from Loki's dresser. It could have been worse.

That was irrelevant. What was relevant was that you were now looking up at Odin with only the barrier of the cell between you. And you were in your pajamas. That really made you feel safe.

Not.

"My sons insist that you are sentient and intelligent. I also know your kind to be self-serving and willing to do anything to keep themselves alive. So you are going to help me protect Asgard and in exchange I will allow you to live," Odin told you as if he were being generous. He was also lying. You didn't have Loki's ability to smell lies, but you knew there was no way Odin was going to let you go. Not when you'd go spilling your guts to Loki and Thor the second you could.

"What do you want from me?" you asked him instead of saying what you really felt about the matter. Maybe you did have a sense of self-preservation after all.

"You will be allowing us to study you, telling us everything about vampires, and turning one of the Einherjar," Odin told you. You blanched. He wanted to strengthen his army by turning at least some of them into vampires. Vampires were stronger and faster than the creature they had been born from. He only needed one vampire in order to create a whole army of them. The process wasn't that difficult. He just needed a willing vampire to do the first one and explain the process.

You knew they were going to force you to tell them how. The torture would come. You couldn't stop that. Odin and his minions would do anything to make sure you gave them every piece of information you had. You also knew that they couldn't force you to turn someone.

"No," you told him firmly. Which was stupid, but you refused to turn anyone into a monster like you. You'd been a vampire for four years and you hadn't turned a single human. "I won't turn anyone,"

"You will," he replied just as firmly. "You won't eat again or taste another drop of blood until you agree," he told you and swept from the hall, the matter settled from his perspective.

You could survive a couple months without blood. You'd done it when the Avengers had first taken you into custody. As long as you had human food. And no torture.

You were so fucked.

*

Loki was tired of getting delayed going back to Midgard. The Allfather kept insisting they needed to keep adding days to their stay in Asgard for emergencies that kept coming up. He wondered briefly when going to Midgard felt like going home and smiled when he realized that it wasn't going to Midgard that felt like home, but going home to a certain bubbly vampire. With that loneliness identified, he teleported to the Bifrost, to admit to Heimdall a slight hint of sentiment and inquire as to how you were doing.

"Your highness," Heimdall greeted him when he arrived. He wasn't surprised to see Loki, nor was Loki surprised by that. Heimdall saw everything.

"How is she?" Loki asked, looking out onto the starry sky where Heimdall was staring with his usual unstoppable gaze.

Heimdall hesitated and Loki got instantly suspicious and worried. "Regardless of the truthful answer, I have been told to tell you that she is well," Heimdall answered too carefully. He knew better that to lie to the god of lies, and yet, he had obviously been ordered not to tell Loki the truth. "Your Father wishes for you and your brother to remain on Asgard for a time,"

That response made Loki's hackles rise. "How. Is. She?" he demanded slowly, his voice an icy snarl as he demanded the truth from Heimdall.

Heimdall however, had his orders. "She is well," he gave the only answer he could without committing treason. He had warned Loki beforehand, though, that was all he could do when he lied to the god of lies.

Loki snarled in rage and whirled on Heimdall. "You dare lie to the god of lies?"

"I have told you all I am able without committing treason. I cannot go against the Allfather's direct orders, anymore than you can," Heimdall was trying to tell him something and Loki nodded, panicked, and growling, but understanding. Odin hadn't ordered him or Thor to stay yet. If they left now, they wouldn't be causing treason for anyone involved.

"Prepare the Bifrost, Thor and I will be returning to Midgard shortly," he ordered Heimdall and teleported from the room directly to Thor, who was thankfully alone. "Something has happened on Midgard to Y/N. Heimdall has been ordered not to tell me more. We are returning now," he told Thor and grabbed his arm to teleport him back to the Bifrost before he could say anything, though of course Thor would agree. They stopped by ever so briefly to tell Frigga that something was wrong on Midgard and they needed to return, before Loki teleported them to the Bifrost. "Send us back to Midgard, Heimdall," he ordered in a growl, worry over you sharpening his temper.

The Bifrost opened and he and Thor step through. There was no rushing on the Bifrost. Accidents were too possible on the rainbow bridge. They rushed out when they landed however and Loki tried to stay calm while they entered the tower. Surely word would have gotten to him if something too bad had happened. Maybe you just hadn't been eating properly? Hadn't taken proper care of yourself even with the babysitters. But he knew in his heart that that wasn't the case.

He and Thor stepped out into the common room and the entire team, besides you obviously, looked over at the pair and their hopeful wish that you had gone with them shattered and their expressions fell.

Nat jumped to her feet and rushed over to Loki, glaring and looking like she was going to reach for a gun to draw on him. "Where is she?" she demanded of him in particular, but both of the boys.

Loki's worry and rage just sharpened. "She did not come with us. We left her here in your care. Did she not return after she bid us farewell at the Bifrost site?" he demanded, trying to figure out what had happened.

"She walked you two down to the Bifrost and never came back inside," Cap confirmed. "We had hoped she went with you," he added more reasonably than the extremely worried Nat.

"Where did she go?" Loki demanded of Stark, who had the whole building under surveillance because of Jarvis.

"We don't know. The Bifrost shorted out that camera when it opened the second time. You didn't take her with you?" Stark demanded horrified. "We've searched for traces of her everywhere. She's vanished,"

Loki's mind whirled as he thought through what he'd been told so far and came up with a horrible idea that he prayed wasn't true. He reached across the realms in a way that wouldn't be possible if his magic weren't so strong and if his connection with Frigga weren't so strong too. /Mother, can you hear me?/ He asked her telepathically, hoping against hope that the connection would take.

The connection was weak because of the distance, but Frigga replies, her voice faint. /I hear you darling, did you find the trouble on Midgard?/

/My lady is missing. I fear I require your assistance in finding her/ Loki tried to keep his voice calm, but it and he were both panicked.

/I will do what I can of course, but I'm not sure what I can do from Asgard.../

/I fear she may be on Asgard. It sounds odd, but so does this entire story. No one here has heard from her since she saw us off, and then the Bifrost opened again after we left. I do not know why she would be in Asgard, but if she is there, I fear it is not a good thing/

/That sounds highly unlikely given how your father spoke about her last time she was here, but I will look into it. Your instincts are usually spot on, darling. Fear not, she will be found/ Frigga replied in her gentle reassuring manner.

/Thank you, Mother. I will search on Midgard. Hopefully she is here somewhere/ That would cause a lot fewer problems for everyone than if you were somehow on Asgard. /Please let me know if you discover anything./

/Of course, darling/

*

You didn't know how much time had passed, but Odin kept his word. There was no food or blood of any kind. Though he kept offering the blood of the Einherjar he wanted changed. You had eventually told him everything he wanted to know about vampires.

It took all your willpower to refuse to change the Einherjar. To refuse to drink his blood. Even to save yourself.

It took all your effort to open your eyes when the soft footsteps came down the hall. They didn't match the footsteps of any of your visitors which is what drew your sluggish attention. You saw the hem of a golden dress and managed to move your eyes up to see Frigga. She had gotten suspicious when she had been politely kept from a certain section of the dungeons.

Your eyes shut again. Your ability to function spent just by looking to see who had come for you this time. You couldn't even feel relieved that it was Frigga and not Odin or one of his minions.

/Return to Asgard immediately/ Frigga ordered Loki firmly, looking over the horrible scene of your battered, frail, emaciated body in front of her. /She's been found/