Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf of Earth. We could tear this universe apart.

She’s stranded in Pete’s World, looking for her Doctor, when he comes to her.

There is a green and gold light, cracking through the sky and shooting down and Rose is sent by Torchwood to investigate.

When she finds him, he is broken. His body is torn, his teeth bloodied and he is bitter—so bitter. He won’t talk to her, won’t answer her questions, and he certainly won’t have her feeling sorry for him. He is a god, after all. He pulls no faces (except for maybe an eyebrow twitch) at the gravity of his injuries. He snaps at her. But eventually he tells her his name.

Loki, he says. Loki Odins— he cuts off, looking confused. She takes him by the arm and he doesn’t pull away. Instead, she can feel his tenseness loosen, just a little.

She takes him home with her. He won’t be an experiment, a curiosity, a plaything to Torchwood. She won’t let that happen. Because Rose has seen many things in this world (and the next) and she knows when she seems someone who is waiting to be fixed, and Loki is one of them.

She doesn’t press for details. They don’t come easily to him. They don’t talk much at all, but Rose watches the way he inspects her “primitive” kitchen appliances and she admires the way he has gone through almost every book she owns. It reminds her of someone she used to know.

Sometimes she sees his eyes glisten, when he sits on the couch, his body stiff and his hands clasped together. She says nothing, but she sits beside him, so he knows he isn’t alone.

One night, just like every night since he arrived, they are watching the stars, silent and hopeful.

“Sometimes,” he says, “I think you are looking for more than just the constellations.”

Rose looks at him and bits her lip. “I fell,” she says. “I shouldn’t be here.”

He cringes. “No,” he says. “There is something about you, Rose Tyler, that makes me believe you have seen the stars up close as I have, and you have found them terrible and glorious, as I have.” He looks at her, “And one day, you will find your way back to them.”