Disclaimer: Thor belongs to Marvel. Sad, indeed.
AN: So, I just saw Thor today. Pathetic, I know. And let me tell you, I was blown away. Damn, the movie was intense. I freaking love Natalie and Chris and especially Loki. Anyway, hope you like this.
The glowing lights of the Asgardian skyline twinkled like many brilliantly colored nebulae. The cosmic heavens seemed to shine down on the God of Thunder as he traversed across the shimmering Bridge, its rainbow colors melding into one another, forming astounding sights as he walked atop it.
Boots clicking against the glass-like surface, Thor approached the end of the Bridge, his bright blue eyes taking in the sight of the Gatekeeper: Heimdall. Silently, he stood beside the tall golden-clad sentry as he waited for what he knew was to come.
"Heimdall, what news do you bring me of her?" Thor asked, gripping the Mjölnir tightly in his fists. It had been long, far too long since he had last seen her. Recounting that what seemed months to him was years for her, Thor knew that it was, at most, a few months since he had last been with Jane.
He could still vividly recall that moment. Recall holding her close in his arms, feeling her against his body, her shining brown eyes gazing at him. Recall kissing her, a promise that he, in the name of all that was good, would fulfill. He will find a way back to her.
The Gatekeeper, the omniscient being that guarded the gates of Asgard, chuckled. He, too, seemed to know what went inside the God of Thunder's head as well as he can tell what Jane, on Earth, was doing as well.
"My Prince, it seems that your lady is a step closer to you than she was a month ago." Heimdall spoke, causing Thor to swiftly turn to him.
"What? Truly?" He asked, unable to believe such a fact. The Gatekeeper nodded, his hands resting firmly on his sword, bright orange eyes gazing at the cosmos.
A smile breaking out of across his face, Thor trekked across the Bifröst, feeling more lighthearted than he had ever felt since his return to Asgard as he walked back to the palace.
Heimdall, however, was not as joyous. Furrowing his brows for the first time in millennia, he focused on the mortal girl that the Prince Thor had fallen for, trying to glimpse through the cloud that seemed to suddenly envelope her.
Three years.
It had been three years since Jane had last seen Thor. It had been three years since she last watched as he was sucked up by the storm and was transported back to his home: Asgard. It had been three years since she had began this research to look for a way to get back to him.
Three long years of nonstop work, blood, sweat and tears.
And finally, these three years were worth it.
This morning, Jane woke up early, feeling excitement and apprehension bubbling up in her. This day was the day that all her work was now to be put to the test, to see if it all would play out accordingly. If it all went wrong…Jane shuddered to think about it.
After rapidly finishing her breakfast and dressing up, Jane drove her trailer/home/workarea towards the research base built in the middle of sandy New Mexico, where Thor had once, to put it bluntly, crashed into.
The research base, of which Jane had named it "Valhalla 1", came into view as her truck stopped outside the metal fence. Showing the soldiers outside her I.D., the gates opened to let her truck pass.
Upon entering Valhalla 1, Jane was struck with the excited atmosphere. It seemed everyone was giddy upon the testing of their theory. If they succeeded, that would mean Jane could see Thor again. If they succeeded, that would mean that they had taken transportation to a new level.
Jane entered the testing site, which was a mile underground. It would not do to have it above the earth's surface, seeing as that they were dealing with molecules. If anything went wrong, they could cause widespread disaster.
When she was downstairs, Jane was met by Dr. Erik and Darcy. She smiled widely, something she hadn't done in a long while, at the two of them.
"Ready, Jane?" Erik asked, giving her a small smile in return.
"Of course. I've waited three years for this." Jane replied. Beside her, Darcy rolled her eyes and spoke.
"More like turned into a nasty, banshee-like workaholic."
Jane didn't even have the nerve to get angry as she was too buoyed by the testing. Entering the site, they stood silently. Jane watched the researchers, a combination of experts from N.A.S.A. and S.H.I.E.L.D., as they set up the equipment.
They were already leveling the particle range and the electromagnetic force being generated by the Hadron Collider. In truth, it was not the only equipment being used.
Jane's theory was that, by combining the power of three or more colliders, alongside a vacuum device, may, in theory, create a wormhole powerful and long enough to travel across a distance of fifty light years.
So it was then, three years later, that three Particle Cannons were built: one in an underwater science administration base in the Atlantic; one in the cold highlands of Alaska and, finally, one in New Mexico, of which the cannon was literally atop the site where Thor had been sucked up.
The vacuum device, called the PortalMaker, would then be strapped to a small shuttle. When the shuttle blasted off the Earth, it had to be in a certain distance where pressure and temperature must be in a relatively proportional state. Once it achieved that equilibrium, the three Particle Cannons, powered by the Hadron Colliders, would then fire its beams at the shuttle. Upon impact, the PortalMaker would then release the massive electron hive inside it and cause it to collide with the protons. Upon collision, a wormhole-like eruption would occur, causing the shuttle to travel across space at the speed of light.
When Jane had presented the idea, the entire staff refused, almost to the point that they would have her arrested for potentially causing catastrophic damage. They said that the Proton Cannons in itself was a threat to mankind itself.
But, she had proved to them that it was only a one way ticket. Upon firing its beam, a Particle Cannon's internal engines would come down on itself, rendering the thing useless. So, in essence, the government really had nothing to fear about.
Especially with the fact that Jane's research was supervised by the FBI and the Interpol.
As Jane watched on, a female automatic voice, dubbed as "Freya", spoke.
"Countdown to collision is four hours."
"Miss Foster, we're ready for you." Jane turned to see one of the researchers speaking to her, gesturing to a room. Jane nodded and turned to Erik and Darcy.
"Well, wish me luck." She said, even when the two faces turned pale.
"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Erik asked, always concerned for her. Jane nodded and smiled, though her heart was beginning to beat faster. The doctor strode forward and enveloped her in a hug.
Next was Darcy who, at that moment, chose to break down and embraced Jane tightly. "Don't you dare die, you hear me? You have to bring back your Thor and his six-pack, got it?"
Jane, her throat tight, nodded tearfully and returned the embrace in kind.
She had volunteered to be the test subject inside the shuttle for the experiment.
Everything from there on blurred as she was asked to change into an astronaut's PPE, exchanging her simple shirt and jeans for what N.A.S.A. deemed to be "appropriate space outfit". When Freya announced that there was three hours remaining, Jane was now being transported into the small space shuttle that was already set to launch, hood pointing upwards.
It was just a small shuttle, no bigger than a bus and fit to accommodate only one person: her. Now, set inside the shuttle, a small communications video blinked to life and the shuttle controller's face came into view.
"So, Jane, in about two hours, we will be launching the shuttle. You better get buckled up now." Jane nodded, buckling herself to her seat with the many hooks and leather straps there was around it.
"Now, you don't have to do anything, 'kay? All you have to do is sit tight and calm down. We will be monitoring your progress and the controls of the ship, all right?" The man said, as Darcy and Erik stood in the background.
"I know, I know." Jane said, her voice steady for someone who knew that a mistake meant death. If anything went wrong, if one of the Particle Cannons malfunctioned, that would mean the calculations would be disrupted, thus causing an error in the distance and speed of travel. It could very well mean being stuck in space.
Or, if the PortalMaker were to not open, then the beams would incinerate her to death in seconds. This would have terrified any sane person. But, then again, Jane believed in magic, didn't she?
Another communications video blinked to life, and a woman from the Alaska base: Valhalla 3, appeared. "Miss Foster, the Particle Cannons are at optimum conditioning. Molecular levels are at equilibrium and cannon angle is set."
Jane nodded and turned back to the New Mexico base, "Yes, Jane, our cannon is up-to-go. You got nothing to worry about."
The third communications video opened, and a man from the Atlantic base spoke. "Particle Cannon 2 is top notch, Miss Foster. We're ready when you are."
"Countdown to collision is one hour, twenty minutes, sixteen seconds and counting."
Freya's robotic voice spoke through the shuttle and, from the reactions of the people on the video boxes, through all three bases.
That was it then. In twenty minutes, the shuttled would be off the ground now. She can already hear the men below, clearing the ground. The ladder to the shuttle was now backing up and Jane's entire control board was whizzing into life, the electronics blinking.
Everything was keyed to the A.I.'s system, so the researchers could do nothing. Only Freya had the options to fire the cannons and launch the ship.
"Goodluck, Jane." Erik's voice broke through the transmissions device, causing tears to sting her eyes.
"Thanks, Eric. Goodbye everyone." Her voice just cracked a little bit before she turned her gaze back to the screen. She was facing the noon sky, it being a majestic blue not unlike Thor's eyes. It could almost seem like he was watching her as she—
Something moved behind her. Alarmed, Jean turned her seat, but not without alerting Freya.
"Subject's distress levels are high."
"Jane, what is it?" Erik's voice asked.
There was nothing that greeted Jane besides the equipments. Everything was normal. Her eyes flicking back and forth, Jane slowly turned her seat around and back to the control board.
"It was n-nothing. Just thought I saw something move." She admitted, wiping her face. The excitement and apprehension inside her must probably be at eruption-point now, if she was beginning to think of things moving inside the shuttle.
"Are you sure? We can call it off, if you want." Erik reasoned out.
Jane knew they could, but it would be a tremendous waste of energy. The Hadron Colliders sapped power like a thirsty man would to a bottle of water. Not only that, it would put her entire effort to waste since the Particle Cannons would exhaust itself if it was kept up in a high, charged state for too long. And the thought of delaying seeing Thor was something Jane never wanted to think again.
"No, I'm fine. Let's get this started." Jane said with conviction, almost glaring at Erik. The man nodded, looking wearier and older than she had ever seen him in her entire life.
"Countdown to collision is one hour, thirty seconds. Shuttle will launch in thirty seconds and counting."
With that, Jane felt the shuttle shake as the engine began to start. She could feel the thing shake, softly at first before trembling more violently the longer it got. Grabbing her helmet and buckling it below her neck, Jane gripped the chair's arms tightly as the shaking got more violent.
"Shuttle launch in ten, nine, eight, seven, six…"
Jane closed her eyes and muttered a quick prayer.
"Five, four…"
Jane thought of Thor and his smile and his antics and his manners.
"Three, two…"
Jane thought of their kiss as she opened her eyes and Freya's machine voice spoke. "LAUNCH!"
With a powerful thrust that pushed Jane back her seat, and made her chest feel a thousand times heavier, the shuttle launched from ground zero.
The shaking was so violent; Jane thought that her neck might get broken from snapping back and forth, up and down. It was so, so, so hard to get a breath as turbulence caused her to sway like a rag doll thrown around by a petulant girl.
God, she was going to die if she kept this up. Why did she even think of volunteering? Thor be damned, this was not worth it. She had half a mind to press the eject button and escape when the initial turbulence faded and the shuttle was smoothly gliding upwards.
It then occurred to her that the fuel tanks were now slowly being disengaged from the shuttle.
It made its way up the atmosphere in a slow glide, the tanks bursting with fuel as it burned upwards. Jane was beginning to feel the calmness, the kind of calm that preceded a storm when Freya's voice spoke.
"Subject is entering mesosphere; altitude eighty-one kilometers earth-minus."
Jane ignored the voice as her eyes took in the crystal blue sky and the gray clouds that were more like cotton candy than gases. She took in the twinkling stars that shone more brightly now that she was near approaching outer space.
Oh Thor. I wish you could see what I could see now.
But then, she reminded herself that, from what Thor told her, Asgard's sky was booming and blazing with colorful nebulae. That was something she wanted to see.
Jane was cut off from her musings as the AI voice spoke.
"Subject entering thermosphere; altitude ninety-four kilometers earth-minus." The voice was less clear now. It seemed like she was nearing the collision point. Already was the communications video beginning to distort into black and white feed. She could barely make out the New Mexico base's space control operator.
Then, as the shuttle was rising from the earth, turning ninety-four kilometers to one hundred-twenty and turning it from one hundred-twenty to two hundred-ten did Jane glimpse the black cosmic blanket of the universe.
Only a moment was she allowed to appreciate the sight, before the AI's voice spoke.
"Countdown to collision in ten seconds."
"WHAT!"
Jane's eyes widened as she listened to the AI's countdown. Her heart was beating in her chest so fast and so hard she feared that it might stop altogether.
"Six, five, four..."
Dear God, if anything went wrong, and she died today, let her see Thor for just one second. That was all she thought as the numbers dropped and she felt her entire heart rise up in her throat.
"I love you, Thor." Jane whispered to the empty cockpit, with only the AI's voice and the mechanical clicks of the machines to greet her.
Down on Earth, a large, cylinder-like, machine rose out of the Atlantic Ocean. It was big and massively long, almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty. It slowly rose out of the water, and with a quiet machine-like humming, turned itself into a northeastern angle.
Similarly, two other cannons rose out from an Alaskan base and a New Mexico base.
Then, a female mechanical voice resonated from the machine.
"Countdown to collision in ten seconds."
When it did, the machine began to hum with energy as the many wires and tubes attached to it, as large as buses, began to shake and glow. The water around the cannon was beginning to heat and bubble, and fishes, boiled to death from being to near the very hot machine, floated around it, lifeless.
"Three, two, one. Particle Cannon number three, FIRE."
Then, along with the other two:
"Particle Cannon number one, FIRE."
"Particle Cannon number two, FIRE."
And, like blasts of light from the ground, three separate beams burst upwards, aiming for the skies. When these blasts left their cannons, the machines slowly rotated down, dead and useless.
"Two, one, FIRE."
Jane neither felt nor heard anything as the countdown reached zero. It was quiet, deadly quiet. There was nothing. She was beginning to lose hope, to realize that something went wrong and that she couldn't see Thor again, when an shrill alarm sound began to start.
"Warning. Warning. Incoming targets."
Jane turned, flicking her eyes to the glass screen behind her. She saw the Earth, blue and majestic and its land fertile with life when blinding green light enveloped her and the shuttle.
Her scream of terror went unheard.
"Space Patrol to Shuttle 461, do you copy? Space Patrol to Shuttle 461, do you copy?"
Only the quiet answered the questions of the Valhalla 1 Space Control Operator. Behind him, the pale faces of Erik Selvig and Darcy Lewis shared a look, one filled with horror and despair, before turning back to the now blank video screen that, up to a moment ago, held the smiling face of Jane Foster.
It was nighttime in Asgard, and most of the denizens were asleep by then. But Heimdall was not most of citizens. No, the eternal Watcher did not sleep as he continued to gaze upon the cosmos, always guarding the gates of Asgard from all harm.
As he stood there, hands firmly on his sword, Heimdall's eyes widened in surprise.
"But—how?" Were the only words he spoke before a slow smile spread across his face. The Thundergod would be delighted.
And as he spoke, something like a shooting star streaked past him across the Asgard skyline. Only thing was: it was no star.
Yes, Prince Thor would be delighted. Indeed. He could already imagine the expression of the blonde God. Heimdall thought this as he heard the telltale crash of something that just collided with one of the palace walls.
Thor, along with Sif and the Warriors Three, came down from the palace in one swift run. Awoken harshly from what seemed like an explosion in one of the palace's eastern wing, Thor thought it was another attack, most probably from the Jötuun and, equipped with Mjölnir, ran down to meet the foes head-on.
His father, Odin, was awake as well as he reared Gungnir in a war-like fashion.
Thor, flying fast past through the hall, skidded to a halt when he realized what met him. Standing there, past a large gaping crater in one of the palace walls, amidst charred and broken machinery, surrounded by Asgardians soldiers, was something in a once-pristine white suit.
It was slightly tinged and darkened as it sprawled across the ground. One of the guards made a move to touch it, but Thor raised a hand in warning.
"Beware, friend. We know not what it is. Best be most cautious." And, immediately after he had spoken these words, the…figure moved, or rather, twitched.
Everyone in the vicinity took a step back. This was certainly no Frost Giant. Perhaps this was a Vanir or even a stray monstrous-like soul creature from Niflheim. If it was, then Father really needed to have a talk with Hel.
Walking towards it, Thor kneeled down by the creature's side, and with his Hammer, laid it lightly upon its chest, forcing it to lie still. When he looked towards its head-like appendage, Thor started when his own reflection stared back at him on the glass-like surface.
He suddenly recalled a distant memory: Jane and Thor were eating breakfast when she showed him a picture of humankind's first step on the moon. He recalled the white suit the men wore, and the almost reflective glass screens on those helmets that they wore…
Eyes widening in epiphany, Thor grabbed Mjölnir in one fist, raising it high and ready to pummel if this was some deception, and with the other fist, grabbed the helmet and pulled it off.
Buckles snapping wildly before breaking, the helmet came off and a mixture of a cry and a gasp escaped from Thor. There was a moment of silence as the onlookers watched the God of Thunder still for a moment. Odin himself was ready to cast a blast of magic at the white thing when the Mjölnir was suddenly dropped from Thor's hand.
"That's it." Odin raised the Gungnir high and started calling forth energies into the spear when he was struck still by the sight of Thor embracing the white figure into his arms.
Odin was puzzled and angry and was about to bellow at his son for such a display when the creature's head lolled back, and a beautiful, female face came into view. It didn't take a genius to recognize who this was. Judging from Thor's reaction, Odin realized that, certainly, Bifröst wasn't the only way to enter Asgard.
Jane's eyes fluttered open when she felt like she was being crushed. She thought she was dead. If she was, she wasn't supposed to feel pain, was she? But then, she noticed the gleaming edifice before her and, more importantly, the being that was close to her, embracing her.
Turning away from the shining nightsky that looked like an explosion of stars, Jane found herself staring into the most crystal blue eyes she had ever seen.
Her breath stopped in her lungs. No, it couldn't be. She was dead. She couldn't be…
What if it worked? What if…?
If this was some twisted version of Hell, Jane was certainly not enjoying it. To be stuck in a haze of confusion as to which is real and which is not. If only she could ascertain that sh—
"Jane?" The blue-eyed man's voice was even like his! Dear God, this was pure cruelty.
She stared into his face, into Thor's sun-kissed like countenance, and then, into his blue eyes. It suddenly dawned on her: this was no illusion.
"T-Thor!" Jane half-sobbed, half-gasped before she was suddenly enveloped in…Thor: in his scent, his arms, his entire being. Then, without hesitation, both wanting to assure the other that they were real, that this is real, that they could be together, Thor's hot lips met Jane's chapped ones.
Around them, the people cheered and reveled. Odin and Frigga stood back, smiling, watching their firstborn son united with the one he loved.
In the joyous celebration, none noticed the flash of green light that appeared by the forest a little far off. No, no one even glanced as a tall, pale man with dark hair and sad, bitter green eyes watched their happiness.
In a quick turn, Loki patted the scorched clothes he wore and set off on his own, away from a people that never thought much worth of him. The mortal woman had served him well. He was now back in Asgard.
But at the cost of eternal solitude?
AN: So, I hope you like it! Don't take all the science stuff seriously. I just mixed and matched things from Angels&Demons and Red Alert. LMAO. Anyway, R&R!