Disclaimer - I do not own Marvel, Thor and anything else related to the two. I only own my original character Arabella as well as anything else that seems out of place.

In the beginning, there was nothing.

Nothing but eternal space and emptiness. A universe ready to sustain life and allow it to thrive. The silence was deafening, and yet, there was no one to hear it. No one alive.

Then came the thunderous roar of one being. One being that would become the ancestor of all men, Gods and demons alike. With his hands and the hands of his children, Odin, Vili and Ve, they fashioned nine realms or what we know as today as the universe.

The higher tier consisted of Asgard, the realm of the Gods; Vanaheim, realm of the Vanir Gods; and Alfheim, realm of the Elves.

In the middle tier was Midgard, realm of the Mortals; Jotunheim, realm of the Ice-Giants; and Svartalfheim, realm of the Dwarves and Black Elves.

In the lower tier, the tier forgotten by all mortals and not acknowledged by the Gods of Asgard, was Niflheim, the realm of Ice and Mist; Helheim, the realm of the Dead; and Muspelheim, the realm of the Fire-Giants.

The Gods of Asgard, being the most technologically advanced of all the beings in the universe, kept the peace between warring realms and would from time to time, travel to other realms to do so. They did this by means of the Bifrost, a gloriously bright and burning bridge made of several colors of the rainbow, guarded by Heimdall, the Gatekeeper.

Little did the Asgardians know, that the Bifrost was a sought after commodity, and the lower realms wanted it for their own. After many failed attempts, the Fire Giants of Muspelheim decided that if they could not own it, then they would destroy it, cutting Asgard off from the entire universe.

As the silent war went on, the Fire Giants found allies in many other realms, and soon had a spy or ten in every realm, save for Asgard. No matter how they tried, or how Surtr, their ruler, manipulated or threatened, the citizens of Asgard were loyal to the end to the Allfather.

That was, until Odin Allfather created his own worst enemy, in his own son. The end of Asgard was foretold by many generations, but no one would have guessed it would come at the hands of Loki Odinson, the Asgardian God of Mischief and Lies. Adopted son of Odin Allfather and the true heir to the throne of Jotunheim.

The blackness of space, beautiful and mysterious, strewn with a billion stars. Atop a building, a wrought-iron sign – a hammer-wielding blacksmith – spins listlessly in the wind as a swirling breeze kicks up. A hint of what's to come.

A large SUV slowly moves down the main street of the one-horse town of Puente Antiguo, New Mexico, set amid endless flat, acrid scrubland.

The SUV heads out of town and parks in the desert. Suddenly, the roof panels of the SUV fold open. The underside of the panels house a variety of hand-built astronomical devices, which now point at the sky. Jane Foster, a beautiful woman in her late 20's, pops her head through the roof. She positions a Magnetometer, so its monitor calibrates with the constellations above. It appears to be cobbled together from spare parts of other devices.

"Hurry!" Jane yells to her two companions down below.

We hear a loud bang followed by muffled cursing from below. Jane offers a hand down to Dr. Erik Selvig, an older gentleman around 60, who emerges as well, rubbing his head.

"Oh— watch your head."

Selvig gives her a small glare, "Thanks. So what's this "anomaly" of yours supposed to look like?"

"It's a little different each time. Once it looked like, I don't know, melted stars, pooling in a corner of the sky. But last week it was a rolling rainbow ribbon—"

"Racing "round Orion?" I've always said you should have been a poet." He teases her.

Jane reigns in her excitement. She tries for dignity. "Hey, Darcy. Pass up the bubbly and my gloves, will you?"

Jane's intern Darcy Lewis, perhaps around 20 in age, hands Jane a bottle of Champagne and a pair of gloves through the window. Jane passes the bottle to Selvig to hold while she pulls on the old gloves – too large and masculine for her small hands. He starts to unwrap the foil, and she stops his hand with an excited grin.

"Not until you see it!"

Selvig glances down at the gloves adorning her hands. "I recognize those. Think how proud he'd be to see you now."

Jane's grin fades to a sad smile, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"The benefit of the doubt."

The two stare out at the sky expectantly. A long beat passes while they scan the skies. Nothing.

Jane's beginning to get worried. "It's never taken this long before."

Darcy calls up from the front seat. "Can I turn on the radio?"

"No." Jane says with a slight edge to her voice.

Selvig gives her a sympathetic glance, "Jane, you can't keep doing this."

Worried, Jane heads back down into the vehicle.

The SUV is bathed in the glow of high-tech monitoring equipment and laptops, some looking like they're held together with duct tape. Jane opens a well-worn notebook of handwritten notes and calculations. Selvig watches the frustrated Jane with sympathy.

"The anomalies are always precipitated by geomagnetic storms." She shows him a complicated chart she's drawn in the book, tracking occurrences and patterns. "The last seventeen occurrences have been predictable to the second... I just don't understand."

"Jane, you're an astrophysicist, not some storm chaser."

"I'm telling you, there's a connection between these atmospheric disturbances and my research. Erik, I wouldn't have asked you to fly out here if I wasn't absolutely sure."

Something catches Darcy's eye out the driver's side mirror. She adjusts it. In the distance, odd glowing clouds form in the skies over the Northeastern end of the desert.

"Jane?" Darcy's voice has a slight worried tone to it.

Jane shushes her as she leafs through her notes. The bottle of champagne begins to vibrate.

"There's got to be some new variable... Or an equipment malfunction..."

The lights and equipment in the SUV begin to flicker around them. The computer monitors squelch with static.

Again Darcy's worried voice floats back to her. "I don't think there's anything wrong with your equipment..."

The champagne bottle starts to rattle noisily now as it shakes more violently. Jane and Selvig notice. They watch it curiously, pressure building up inside it, when the cork suddenly explodes out of it. Champagne goes spewing everywhere – over equipment, over Jane.

"Jane?"

"What?!" The woman snaps at her intern.

"I think you want to see this." Darcy points out the window.

Jane and Selvig look out. Over the desert— massive clouds of rainbow light churn in the sky. The three stare, dumbfounded.

"Holy. Shatner."

"That's your "subtle" aurora?!"

"No— yes! Let's go!"

Moments later with the roof panels still open, the SUV races towards the strange event. Jane, amazed by the sight, stands with half her body out the roof, taking video of the light storm before them. The SUV hits a bump and Jane nearly flies out. Selvig grabs her, yanks her back in. Jane grins, thrilled, pumped with adrenaline.

"Isn't this great?!" Then a thought strikes her. "You're seeing it too, right? I'm not crazy?"

"That's debatable. Put your seat belt on!" Selvig orders the woman as the SUV lurches.

Winds howl around the SUV now. Up ahead, spiraling down from out of the clouds comes— an enormous tornado suffused with the strange rainbow light, roaring like a thousand freight trains as it touches down.

Selvig looks up through the still-open sunroof at the enormous glowing funnel cloud with wonder. Jane clambers into the front seat, beside Darcy. She leans way out the window, taping the storm.

"You've gotta get us closer so I can take a magnetic reading."

Darcy laughs, "Yeah, right! Good one!" She looks over at Jane's face and realizes, "Oh God, you're serious..."

"You want those college credits or not?"

The SUV tears across a field towards the tornado, Jane leaning out the window, taping the event. The SUV disturbs two ravens perched on a cactus as they race past. The birds take flight, when— KRAKABOOM! A huge bolt of lightening strikes down through the center of the funnel cloud before them with a terrifying intensity. The SUV rocks from the blast.

Darcy's had enough, she turns the wheel and starts to head away. "Keep the credits. I'll intern at Burger King."

"What are you doing?!"

"Saving our lives!"

Jane grabs the wheel, jerking it hard the other way. They struggle for control, when the headlights fall on— a man, directly in their path, stumbling through the winds. Darcy slams on the brakes, Jane turns the wheel hard to avoid him. The SUV swerves— but too late.

The side of the SUV slams into the man with a thud, sending him flying as the car skids to a stop. Jane, Darcy, and Selvig trade shocked looks, breathing hard. They peer through the dust clouds, unable to see through. After a paralyzed moment they all leap out of the car, racing from the SUV with flashlights. Jane spots the man lying on the ground. He's dressed in tattered clothing, charred and blackened.

"I think that was legally your fault."

"Get the first aid kit."

Darcy heads back inside the SUV as Jane, concerned, kneels next to the man. Selvig hovers, protectively. She gently turns his head to the light, and she sees him clearly for the first time. He is magnificently handsome, long blonde hair flowing around his classically sculpted features. She cups her hands around his face, as if willing the life back into him.

"Come on, big guy. Do me a favor and don't be dead, okay? Open your eyes and look at me."

Suddenly, he groans, and she's startled, then relieved, as his eyes flutter open. She looks deep into his confused, azure eyes, which at last focus on her own. Locking onto them. For a moment, they each forget to breathe. The connection is broken as Darcy returns with the kit. She freezes when she sees how gorgeous the man is.

"Wow. Does he need CPR? Because I know CPR."

A flustered Jane smooth's her hair and sits back on her heels. She looks up at Selvig. Back to being a scientist.

"His eyes—"

"—are beautiful." Darcy says dreamily.

Jane shakes her head, "—are dilating. That's a good sign."

"We still have to get him to a hospital."

Jane looks up at Selvig hopefully. "After we get a reading on the storm?"

"Immediately, Jane."

Jane sighs and nods, regretfully watching the storm evaporate above their heads. A thought strikes her. "Where did he come from?"

They exchange puzzled looks, as they stare up into the last glowing remnants of the storm.

Tonsberg, Norway, 965 A.D. "Once, mankind accepted a simple truth, that they were not alone in this universe. Some worlds man believed to be home to their Gods. Others, they knew to fear. From a realm of cold and darkness came the Frost Giants, threatening to plunge the mortal world into a new ice age. But humanity would not face this threat alone. Our armies drove the Frost Giants back into the heart of their own world. The cost was great. In the end, their King fell. And the source of their power was taken from them. With the last great war ended, we withdrew from the other worlds and returned home to the Realm Eternal, Asgard."

Somewhere far above the Earth stands a lone figure. He watches as Earth spins slowly before him, his voice, deep and resonant – the voice is Heimdall, Gatekeeper of Asgard.

"Questions, they've always asked questions – this race called man, on this planet they call Earth. Passionately longing to know how they are connected to the heavens."

As we pull away from the planet, widening, past other worlds, cosmic debris – leaving first our solar system, then our galaxy.

"In ages past, they looked to us as Gods, for indeed so many times we saved them from calamity. We tried to show them how their world was but one of the Nine Realms of the Cosmos, linked to all others by the branches of Yggdrasil..."

We pull back until we see it – Yggdrasil. Immense, sprawling, like a quasar or a nebula twisted into the vague shape of a tree, its branches of glowing energy stretching out into the black void of space.

"...the Worlds Tree. Nine Realms in a universe of wonder, beauty, and terror that they barely comprehended."

We move in through Yggdrasil, until we reach what looks like a galaxy, slowly spinning before us.

"But for all their thirst for knowledge, they let our lessons fall into myth and dreams. Where did he come from? He came from us, the proudest race of warriors the Worlds have ever seen. He came from this – the greatest Realm the universe has ever known."

We move through the galaxy's mists and astral matter, then over and up, through a band of prismatic color to reveal what's on the other side:

"He came... from Asgard!"

Beautiful beyond imagination. We fly over the magnificent landscape of the Realm, through the gleaming capital city, modern yet timeless.

The Palace rises countless stories tall, gleaming with an other-worldly majesty, towering high above the Realm sprawled out before it.

"Here we remain as a beacon of hope, shining out across the stars. And though we have fallen into man's myths and legends, it was Asgard and its warriors that brought peace to the universe."

Odin explains to his two young sons Thor and Loki, as they stand before the Casket of Ancient Winters, the power of the Frost Giants.

"But the day will come, when one of you will have to defend that peace."

"Do the Frost Giants still live?" Young Loki wonders.

"When I'm King," Young Thor says placing a hand on his chest. "I'll hunt the monsters down and slay them all! Just as you did father."

"A wise King never seeks out war, but… He must always be ready for it."

The brothers smile at one another before they run to catch up with their father each taking one of his hands.

"I'm ready father." Thor says.

"So am I." Loki counters.

"Only one of you can ascend to the throne. But both of you were born to be Kings."