Ok, I know. Thor: the Dark World came out two years ago. Better late than never. I came up with this story to get through immunology lecture and got attached to the characters; writing it down was a test run to see if I could get to 50k words.

To orient the reader: This story begins immediately after the events of T:tDW. Obviously it's an AU; the Dark Elves still have their ship and characters are alive who didn't survive in the film. They got a bad deal and I want to give them a fighting chance. Everything that looks like Marvel belongs to Marvel; I get nothing from this but fun and practice.

Shoutout to David J Peterson for his advice on Shivaisith, the Dark Elves language. I can neither confirm nor deny that I named a character after him.

Anyway, enjoy the story. Comments welcome! (Seriously, I want to hear what you think.)

Tifasledhoh

Chapter 1: Into Darkness

Running. Hearts pounding, sneakers hitting the pavement. Stumbling to a halt behind a dumpster.

"Have we lost them? I don't see them back there."

"No. They're still there. Keep going."

Running again.

Why did she have to do it? If Leena had known, she never would have taken the job. If someone had just warned her, if she had only had enough sense… if, if, if. "If" couldn't change what was happening now. It couldn't unsee the image in her mind's eye: Kelly – her brother – lying face-down with a puddle of blood where his legs should have been. He had screamed at her to run, just run, and she had. She hadn't stopped since.

There had been just enough time to collect the cousins, Silas and Violet. Fifteen and fourteen years old, they were too young to fend for themselves. If she left them they would end up back in foster homes, or in juvie.

Her stomach was churning; she swallowed and forced herself to think. Kelly would know what to do – but was he even alive? – and Leena didn't know which of his contacts she could trust. There was nowhere for her to hide; really, there never had been. She could hide her milk-white hair under a hoodie and her grey-rimmed eyes behind sunglasses, but there was always something that gave her away. An aura, maybe, or just a strain of bad luck from her mother. The cousins had the same strange looks, and between the three of them, they stood out like a landmark. Out of breath, they skidded to a halt again.

Silas was doubled over panting. "Haven't we lost them yet?" he gasped. He was fifteen, young enough to ask something like that. Leena shook her head. The sound of a motor in the distance made her jump.

"They're cops," she said. Violet stared at her wide-eyed, the dark grey sclera showing all the way around. Little Violet, Silas's fourteen-year-old sister – all this had been for her. She was the smart one, the gentle one, the healer. If the job had worked out, it would have been enough for a whole year of college, maybe two if they invested it. Violet could have gone on to get an associate's degree and become a nurse; she could have been something. Now all those dreams, all that any of them might have been, were gone, vanished into a puddle of blood and the smell of brimstone.

Think, stupid. Leena jarred her mind away from the reflection. There would be plenty of time later to reel; or maybe there would be no more time for her, which would at least save her the trouble. Right now she had to figure out their next move. They were at the harbor, near the docks, and the area was fairly deserted. It was late; not much activity at this hour. She heard the motor again, getting closer. Cops or civilians? Probably cops. There was probably a drone, too, up past where she could see. There were containers nearby; if they could figure out which ones were outbound, they might be able to stow away. But if the cops were smart, they'd search the place with dogs and scent them out. Given the severity of what Leena and her brother had done, they'd probably put the place on lockdown. They'd never make it out of the harbor.

Get us out of here! Leena never thought to call the panicked cry a prayer. On instinct, she reached up and clutched at her necklace. It was a pendant on a string, a solid lump of black material with a twisting, irregular pattern across it that made it look as if it had been grown, not made. It had belonged to Leena's mother, and she had told Leena that it would bring help if she was in trouble. Rolling it nervously around her hand, she must have squeezed it too hard, because suddenly a small section indented beneath her fingers. She looked down at it and started, tearing it from around her neck and hurling it away from her. It had begun to give off a dull red light, blinking every few seconds.

"What is it?" cried Silas. Leena backed away, pushing him and Violet behind her.

"I don't know. It's never done that before." At least one car was rolling along behind the nearest warehouse. She grabbed Violet's hand and started moving again. "Come on."

They were near the water now, running between the wharves and the warehouses where the air smelled like dead fish and diesel. Leena could hear cars nearby and getting closer. The cops were closing in. If they tried to stow away on one of the ships they would probably get caught. They might be able to hide on the roof of one of the warehouses; but anyone flying over in a helicopter would see them, and Leena didn't think Violet could make it up at any rate. She paused, looking around for another option. There was a humming noise coming across the water. She shook her head, but it didn't fade.

"Do you hear that?" said Silas. He was looking out over the wharves, trying to find the source of the sound. Nothing was moving, on the wharves or the water, but the humming was getting louder. Out beyond the docked ships, something disturbed the water. A line of waves began moving toward them. Leena's first, wildly irrational thought was that it was either Godzilla or a torpedo; she stared at the approaching disturbance, motioning her cousins to get back.

A huge container ship groaned as something invisible pushed it aside. There was the sound of metal grating on concrete, then silence. Waves lapped against the wharves. Then, abruptly, a vast black shape materialized out of the air in front of them.

Silas and Violet both yelled. Leena gaped at the thing that had come to rest in front of her. It was an oblong shape, with the remains of a dull red light fading from its center and bladelike fin sweeping out to one side. There was a vaguely organic shape to it that reminded Leena of her necklace. It stood easily thirty feet high; there was no telling how long it was from side to side.

Aliens, thought Leena. Horrible scenes from a year ago flashed through her mind. There wasn't anywhere left to run; they had cops behind them and an alien in front of them. Maybe they'll fight each other and we can get away.

There was a sharp hiss from the black thing and all three of them jumped. A panel slid open and four figures emerged, fanning out like a guard. They were more or less human-shaped, but their faces were expressionless, mask-like, dead-eyed. They were heavily armored and carried what looked for all the world like rifles.

Leena backpedaled so fast she nearly fell over. Behind her, Silas and Violet clung together, too terrified to make a sound. We're dead, she realized. The cops won't get here in time. There was more movement in the shadows. A fifth figure emerged; it had the same armor and dead expression as the others, but it was taller, and a black cloak swept over its shoulder. It turned this way and that as if looking for something. After a moment it paused, facing the frightened trio. Leena had the feeling it was looking straight at her.

"You! Where is the other like us?" The creature's lips didn't move when it spoke. Some still-rational corner of Leena's mind caught the detail and filed it away. "Speak!"

"What other?" she stammered. We're gonna die.

"The one that looks like us. The one who called us. Where is he?"

We're gonna freaking die.

"Called?" It was Silas who spoke. A second later he pushed forward. "You mean with this? Is this yours?"

He was holding Leena's necklace by its cord. It was still pulsing red light. The alien spokesman became very still.

"You?" There was disbelief in the word.

"Yes." Leena snatched the pendant away from her cousin. "It's mine. I turned it on." Maybe if she acted confident enough, they'd shoot her and the others could escape. The guards stepped aside and the spokesman made his way forward.

"You are älfenää?"

Leena knew what that word meant. She hesitated. "Yes."

Engines rumbled nearby. From the corner of her eye she saw an SUV pull around the nearest warehouse. The alien turned with a swirl of his cloak.

"Come," he ordered. "There's little time."

Cops behind, aliens before. Silas was fidgeting anxiously beside her. As the alien strode away from her, Leena saw a braid of white hair down his back. We don't have a choice.

"Come on." She seized her cousins' hands and pulled them along. The guards closed in as they moved toward the door. Somewhere behind them, wheels screeched on the blacktop. Without looking back, Leena stepped over the threshold and into darkness.

älfenää: Shivaisith for a Dark Elf; what the DE's call themselves. Plural is älfeneel.