Alis sat in the chair Loki had dumped her in rigid with fear. Her fingers clutched the leather seat so tightly her hands were sweating but she hardly noticed as she watched the Norse god peruse the bookcase leisurely. With his back turned Alis glanced furtively past him to the open door and tried to measure how far it was from her chair.
"Don't try it," Loki warned and replaced the book he'd been examining. "I'll cut your spine in two before you make the threshold."
Alis took another look at the spear with its smooth serrated blade and glowing jewel and believed him. Since she couldn't see inside his head she had no clue who he was or what he was capable of so anything she tried would be a perilous gamble. Until she knew what the score was she would have to sit tight and wait for the answers.
She already had a fair idea of his strength from being subdued single handedly and the ease in which he had done it gave the firm impression that using violence was not a great concern of his.
His outward profile was distinctly human but that didn't tell her much. Most of the evolved bi-pedal species in the universe shared a similar body structure and Alis knew better than most that looks didn't count for much. Selvig had said he was a god but humans were a young species who still explained countless things with divinity.
Deciding he had made her suitably unsettled by his nonchalant manner Loki finished with the bookcase and turned to examine his captive. He nimbly took a hold of his spear and began to pace the room keeping his green eyes locked on Alis.
She was not what he had expected. When the Frost Giant had brought the news that a human female had derailed his plans of torturing Thor's mortal lover he had pictured something closer to Agent Romanov.
Instead he had found a scrap of a human little more than a child. She looked athletic but he couldn't see any muscle that would befit one who had challenged a creature from Jotenheim and won.
He supposed she was attractive with her large eyes and unmarked skin but with her blonde hair soggy with sleet and her clothes crumpled it was hard to evaluate her finer features. Not that it mattered greatly to him, Loki had never placed much value in the physical.
He watched her silently sitting in the chair with her back straight and eyes leveled on him and admitted he was a little impressed. His experience with mortals so far had given him the opinion that they were weak fearful creatures willing to submit at the first sign of danger. This one seemed to have more substance than most.
Inside Alis' head was a whirl of terror and confusion but she knew the importance of maintaining the illusion of control. To look weak before an oppressor would provide them with an excuse to kill her. Her experience with tyrants so far had taught her that they despised the pitiful but would sometimes show restraint towards those with qualities they could respect.
Alis hoped this was one of those times.
"What are you going to do to the townspeople?" she asked and caught Loki off guard. He hadn't thought she would be bold enough to speak.
"Shouldn't you be more concerned with what I'm going to do to you?" he asked with a smirk and stopped pacing.
This could be interesting.
"No," Alis said in a very blasé tone and forced her body to relax. "If you were going to kill me then you would have done it already. You don't strike me as the kind to waste time on theatricality."
Loki observed her loose posture and unperturbed expression and began to wonder. This mortal was either very brave to be showing such disrespect to an omnipotent being such as himself or very stupid. Not that it mattered much, the girl would be dead in a short time so if she was being brave it wouldn't get her far.
"I'll grant you that," he admitted and twirled the spear with his long fingers. Loki was known for staging the occasional theatrical stunt but only when they served a purpose. He smiled to himself as remembered how easily the Avengers had jumped at his spectacle in Germany and swallowed his lies.
Like catching fish on a hook.
Alis watched him smile and tried to decipher if she was endearing herself a little or if Loki was picturing how she would look on the end of his spear. With her telepathy obstructed there was no way of knowing and that had her on edge. For the first time in her life she was truly flying blind.
"I have no great plans for the mortal rabble other than to deliver them to Jotenheim so that my fellow compatriots can utilize them as a workforce," he answered and waited for her reaction.
"Slave labour?" Alis asked incredulously and scrunched up her nose. Loki noted that she was quick on the uptake and allowed her to continue. "That sounds awfully impractical. One of those giants can do the work of ten humans easily. Why waste your time enslaving a species so weak?"
Loki's eyebrows rose and he stopped twirling his weapon. He had not expected such a composed answer. Instead he had anticipated an abusive attack or a simpering plea to reconsider but the girl just watched him reservedly awaiting his answer.
He knew he should stop wasting time with the dawn approaching but his cell on Asgard had been devoid of entertainment and the girl was proving to very amusing.
Loki liked to be amused.
"You're quite right but missing the point entirely," he answered as he casually lent on the desk and rested the spear over his thighs to remind her that he could use it any time.
"The purpose of slave labour is to spare yourself the burden of work by having another perform it. The Frost Giants have recently had their largest city destroyed and their king murdered so they are very keen to rebuild and restore order."
Loki left out the finer details about how he had killed Laufey and had nearly destroyed Jotenheim with the bi-frost causing a civil war by default. He was more interested in what this human had to say than in telling stories.
"So what's in it for you?" Alis asked bluntly.
Loki put a hand to his chest in mock astonishment. "You think me self serving?" he asked sounding hurt.
"I doubt this is a good will gesture."
"Why?"
"Because," Alis' voice was almost a growl and the ferocity of it was startling. "Your undisguised contempt for weaker beings is so thick it's smothering. So if you haven't got the slightest shred of compassion for someone like me then I find it very hard to believe that you could help anything as primitive and vile as those Frost Giants without some kind of reward."
Loki was so surprised the smile fell from his face. The girl's eyes had a fire in them now and her jaw had tightened as she tried to keep her fury contained. He could tell that she was frightened of him but she was pushing that aside to challenge him.
He tapped the blade twice against his leg and Alis' gaze unwillingly flicked to it. Loki watched her eye the weapon with concern and was assured that she wasn't prepared to risk her life fighting him.
She had to be killed just right if he was going to get the humans to accept their future of slavery.
"It seems I have underestimated my brother," he conceded and stood to tower over her. "You mortal women are far more resilient that I had originally thought."
Alis looked up at him with a withering expression and waited. She did not prompt him but Loki could tell that she was still waiting for his answer. It didn't seem to concern her that she, an inferior, was demanding answers from him, a god, and he considered severing a finger or two to teach her a lesson in humility.
"Once they have taken their capture back to their world the Frost Giants will be indebted to me," he explained something to his own surprise. He wasn't flaunting his plans and he didn't respect her enough to dignify her with the response but for some reason he felt compelled to tell her.
Maybe he wanted the recognition for his brilliance that had gone ignored for so long.
"So you supply them with the resources they require and they will fight for you in return?" Alis asked and leant back in her chair to consider it.
"Essentially yes," Loki answered.
"Bad idea," she said almost instantly and looked very bored.
Loki's grip on his spear tightened and he felt a hot wave of anger flare in the back his head. His free hand trembled as he stopped himself from hitting the girl across her impudent little face. She wouldn't be anywhere near so cavalier if she had his blade in her gut.
Loki let the anger pass and calmed himself by remembering that this worthless mortal had caused enough disruption to his plans and she wasn't about to foil them further by antagonizing him.
"You think so?" he asked in a condescending tone. "Why's that?"
"Because using a foreign power in your campaigns will inevitably indebt you to them permanently. They will never let you forget that it was their assistance that granted you victory and you will never be seen as a true conquer by those you defeated with your borrowed army."
Alis crossed her arms and awaited Loki's reaction.
"You suggest that I use mercenaries instead?"
Loki decided her would play this game a little longer.
"No," Alis scoffed contemptuously. "That's worse. Mercenaries have no loyalty to anyone than themselves and no fear of god. They will abandon you the second the odds turn against you or will depose you and take the spoils for themselves."
Loki had to admit that she was right. When he had lost his battle for earth the Chitauri were quick to retreat and abandon him to the justice of Earth and Asgard.
He knew with certainty that this faction of Frost Giants loathed him, that was natural between their cultures, but they were so desperate to rule that frozen waste of a world that they would do anything for his assistance. Once he delivered the humans to Jotenheim they were bound by contract to serve him and if they didn't, he would kill them. Simple.
Or perhaps not.
This girl had raised some interesting points. Using the Chitauri army had been a fatal error and now he was uncertain they would have been satisfied with only the Tesseract as payment. Perhaps they would have enlisted him to fight their future battles or pay compensation for their assistance when Earth had been conquered. His own army would be ideal, put he needed enough power to gain their loyalty first. Vision was not enough.
"Do you normally lecture your gods on the methods of war girl?" he asked in a dark voice.
"No," Alis admitted and scratched the back her head, "but it hasn't exactly been a normal day. Snow in the desert and all."
"Do you hope to change my mind by illuminating the shortcomings of my strategies?"
"No," she answered firmly and sprung to her feet.
The suddenness took Loki by surprise but his superlative reflexes reacted before Alis realised she had caught him out. The razor sharp tip of the spear was now at her neck, her coronary artery tapping it in time with the blood pumping through her veins. She acknowledged the proximity of the weapon silently but kept her eyes locked on Loki's.
"This is a chance," she said clearly and strongly. "A chance to leave and never come back because if you don't I will fight you until my last breath to stop you from hurting these people. And when I die I will chase you through all the levels of hell until time itself ends."
Loki stood amazed at the person in front of him. She was at his mercy, with a flick of his wrist he could cut her throat and she would bleed to death in seconds. Yet she stood there ignoring the closeness of the danger waiting for his decision.
The blade fell from her throat and Loki laughed loudly.
He bent forward and howled hysterically at the whole drama. He, God of Mischief and rightful King of Asgard, was being threatened by a powerless girl with only empty threats for weapons and false confidence for armor.
He couldn't decide what was funnier, the situation or that for a second he had believed her. Imprisonment must have made him soft in the head if he was getting gullible.
She had used an effective ploy, he would admit that. She had him doubting the certainty of his victory by preaching strategic wisdom and making him forget that there was no opposition to face here. Humans he could destroy as easily as ants and if the Frost Giants tried to cheat him he would deal with them the same way.
"You are a stupid girl," he crowed and pushed her back into the chair. He had allowed her too much liberty and needed to remind her that she was at his mercy, not the opposite. "Tell me what you did with the Casket and Selvig and I might let you live."
"What a stupid way to ask for something," Alis spat. She was too furious to fully respect the fact her murder was most likely imminent. "Torture me and I'll lie. Kill me and you learn nothing."
"Oh?" Loki was feeling cocky and lifted the spear, moving it slowly until the point was lightly touching the side of face. "I've found torture to be very effective, especially when it is done slowly."
He ran the blade gently down the perfect heart shape of her face in an almost intimate way. She didn't validate his threat with so much as a flinch and he could see the hatred in her eyes as she waited for the pain to start. Mortals died so easily it wasn't even challenging so Loki always liked it when they resisted, there was a certain satisfaction in reminding them how helpless they were compared to a god.
The skin on her jaw broke with a small pop as the tip of the blade punctured her face with a tiny hole. Alis could feel her skin tingling with hurt but didn't alter her expression an iota. To acknowledge pain in front of this sick sadist would only serve as encouragement.
Alis took a quiet breath in and prepared to strike. Her arms were aching so badly from repressing the energy she had been building in her body the entire time she had to force them not to shake. But as much as she wanted to release the force on the diabolical god she knew she had to do it wisely. She only had one shot and if she didn't take him by complete surprise then she would be in more trouble than she already was.
"You summoned me?" a gravelly voice asked from the door.
Alis and Loki had been so busy maintaining their poker faces neither had noticed the Frost Giant approach. Alis could hear the blue monster's malicious thoughts loud and clear and felt strangely relieved. For her being able to read minds again was like having your hearing restored.
This feeling vanished immediately when she saw that the Frost Giant had shotgun spray lodged in its face.
"This cannot get any worse."
Loki pulled the spear out of Alis' face and she quickly put her hand over the tiny incision. She doubted the cut was significant enough to create a glow but she wasn't prepared to risk it. She hastily rubbed her jaw as if she was soothing it mopping up the dribble of blood with her palm where it faded to an unnoticeable pink colour. If Loki noticed there was blood and no mark he would wonder why.
Loki turned his back on her and spoke directly to the Frost Giant, coming to a decision quickly. The girl he decided was worth nothing but what she had told him held some value. Using the Frost Giants was folly, he had been so keen for revenge that he had not given proper consideration to his plan. If Asgard or the Avengers were to stand against him their strength would not be enough.
He would abandon the Casket and the Frost Giants to suffer a fiery death and vanish before the incompetent SHIELD forces detected his presence.
After all, he had more than one force at his disposal.
"I found your instigator," Loki said with a sweep of his arm. "Deal with her accordingly but make sure not execute her until you have the human rabble under control."
Nothing broke a rebellious crowd better than the public execution of their hero.
"I was wrong," Alis thought and jumped to her feet. She knocked the chair over as she went backwards and reached for the window which Loki swiftly barred with his spear.
In her head she could hear the Frost Giant debating whether to rip her limbs off one by one so the crowd could hear her tortured screams or to twist her head off in one deft movement to demonstrate their kind's terrifying strength. Alis wasn't keen on either option.
Escape was her only hope but with Loki blocking her best exit she would have to use the door, which meant getting through three hundred kilos of blue muscle.
Alis moved away from the window and didn't rise to the taunting smile Loki was giving her. She was more concerned with finding a way out than jumping to his bait.
Alis grabbed the desk lamp and brandished it threateningly at the Frost Giant who was stepping closer.
"You should not have killed Thurg," it growled lowly.
"He should not have killed that woman," Alis replied and threw her weapon.
The lamp bounced off the giant's mighty chest innocuously and it slammed its huge hand down on her shoulder. Its frigid fingers tightened and broke her collarbone with a snap. The frozen touch of its skin burned through her clothes and turned the skin on her back black. Alis screamed in agony while Loki watched on with satisfaction.
The sting of the burn made her knees buckle and her brain removed itself from the present as it tried to compute the massive surge of pain in her body. Alis' eyes went glassy and she suddenly saw her life with perfect clarity.
She had been born in a realm far away, had watched her family die, had been stranded in a strange world that she had adapted to, had struggled for years to create a new life she could be proud of and now she was going to die.
In a Walmart uniform.
"NO!"
The light was so bright Loki could feel the heat through his thick leather clothes as he was hurled across the room. It had erupted so suddenly he didn't shield his face in time and had to blink repeatedly before his eyes would focus. When the room dimmed back to normal he saw that he had crashed through to the next room, the wall that had been separating the two now rubble around him.
He groped around for his spear but found nothing. He sat up and saw that the girl was still where she had been a second ago, crouching with her arms out in defiance but the Frost Giant was gone.
Loki made a repulsed face as the smell of charred flesh reached him and he noticed the scattered lumps of smoking meat still had a few blue touches to them.
Alis puffed on the floor locked in place, her arms outstretched and her fingers spread wide. Using so much power after years of repression was making the muscles in her arms quiver and tremble as they tried to settle.
She saw the smoldering corpse of her would-be killer and realised that she had killed it, and with such ease. Her eyes flicked to where Loki was lying and they shared a gaze of disbelief, neither sure what to do next. Then Alis' senses returned and she was running out of the room.
Her legs wobbled as she forced them to move and she felt so strange inside, as if all her organs had turned to liquid and were sloshing around. She came to the staircase and ran down one flight before jumping the next. Her ankles nearly buckled on landing and she almost lost her balance. The red Converse skidded on the polished floor making shrill squeaking noises when suddenly she was pushed hard from behind.
She was launched a few meters into the air then crashed onto the floor face first, the smooth stone tugging at her skin as she skidded. She came to a stop and a second later she was flipped on her back, the bright lights in the roof blinding her before a weight fell on her body.
Loki straddled her hips and bore his full weight down on Alis as she squirmed under him. With one hand he grabbed her chin tightly and made her look at him.
"You're just full of surprises aren't you?" he growled short of breath. The pesky expression he had been wearing before was gone, replaced with a more wicked one.
Alis belted him over the head and he let go of her face to deliver a similar blow. Alis felt her brain rattle in her skull but she continued to fight, bucking her hips to throw him off, kicking her legs to unbalance his position and grabbed a handful of hair to yank him sideways. If you pulled the hair the body would follow.
Loki broke her grip with one hard pull on her wrist and pinned her arms beside her. Sitting above her he looked down to see her face set in defiance with her teeth bared and eyes full of loathing.
Had she looked this beautiful before?
Alis wanted to spit in his face but her mouth was dry. Her chest heaved with labored breaths and she kept rocking her hips hoping to throw Loki from his seat. She felt more vulnerable now than when he'd had his spear in her face.
She had revealed her secret but had failed to get away. Now she was no longer a meddling human but something more, something with great potential.
"It seems that this trip wasn't as fruitless as I thought," Loki had regained some composure and his voice was back to its regular calm. He put his face close to Alis' and she turned away.
She couldn't stand the sight of him.
"You and I my dear," his breath on her ear sent a chill through her, "are going to get much better acquainted."
There was a dull thunk of skull hitting metal and some on the weight lifted from Alis' chest. Not missing the chance she wrapped her freed arms around Loki and rolled him off her. Once on his back Alis rolled on top and slammed her right first into his face three times in rapid succession.
"You. Sick. Fuck."
Someone yanked her off and dragged her backwards across the floor. Loki began to rise and Alis released a blast of orange and yellow light from her hand squarely into his chest. The energy shot him across the floor like a rocket and he disappeared into the staircase with a tremendous crash.
"Alis get up!" Alis noticed how Selvig's accent got thicker when he was emotional.
Behind her Dr Selvig was pulling Alis to her feet with one hand while clutching a steering lock in the other. He had felt enormous satisfaction in bashing it over Loki's head but considering the standard of strength among Asgardians he figured he had surprised him more than injured.
"Come on!" Selvig pulled at her arm roughly and kept his eyes on the hole in the stairs waiting for Loki to spring out.
Alis got up then started to sink again. Her legs just couldn't support her weight anymore with all the energy she had released. It was like being forced to run after finishing a marathon and she just wanted to sleep.
"Alis!" Selvig heaved her up and put her arm around his neck for support.
He then flung his weapon aside and half ran, half hobbled out of the building dragging Alis along. She was moving her feet as they went but she couldn't muster enough strength to hold herself up, letting her head flop from side to side with every pace.
The few yards to the dented truck seemed to take a lifetime to Alis and she didn't protest when Selvig lifted her into the passenger seat and buckled her up like a child. She knew when they were moving by the rattling through the seat but she was barely cognitive of anything else.
Selvig drove with the accelerator to the floor hunched over the wheel to see through the frosted windscreen. The cold engine gurgled and groaned so loudly he didn't notice that Alis had thrown up beside him until she started groaning louder than the truck.
"Are you all right?" Selvig yelled. Everything he said came out as a yell now and not just because of the noisy truck. His emotions were all over the place and his grip on reality was extremely loose.
It hadn't even registered to him that Alis shooting strange orange light at the God of Mischief was unordinary. He was just grateful that she had attacked him and really hoped it had been fatal.
"Got to find Jane," Alis spat a chunk of her lunch off her lip and lent heavily against the seatbelt.
"What?" Selvig yelled.
"Got to help turn the machine on. At SHIELD."
Selvig had no clue what Alis was talking about but getting to the SHIELD facility sounded like a good idea to him. They had huge barbed wire gates and even bigger guns. The truck bounced into the slushy desert and they left the dark town behind.
The rumbling of the truck roared through the silent desert as it bounded in and out pot holes and over rocks. With the suspension destroyed the driver hit his head on the roof several times and the passenger swung loosely in her seat. There was no GPS and no time to find a map so Selvig just drove as straight and as fast as he could while keeping an eye on the side mirror for any pursuers.
When he saw a glimmer of artificial light in the East he swung the wheel to the right so hard Alis bashed her head on the side window. Selvig didn't offer an apology though, he was too desperate to find safety to observe pleasantries.
Alis noticed the car slowing and roused slightly from her daze. With her night sight she could see two armed guards with their weapons aimed at the vehicle. She groggily lifted her head to see the base humming with activity behind the cyclone fences with infantry running past and armored trucks racing around.
"Step out of the vehicle sir!"
Selvig squinted at the torchlight shining in his face and held up his hands.
"It's all right!" he said loudly and groped around in his jacket for his ID. "My name is Erik Selvig, I work for Director Fury."
There was a click as the soldier replaced the safety catch on his rifle and opened the driver's side door.
"I remember you Doctor Selvig," the young man said recognizing his accent. "I need to escort you to Doctor Foster and her team, they require your urgent assistance with her project."
"Yes, yes," Selvig said hastily and started to climb out of the truck. He was nearly on the ground before he remembered his passenger. "My friend needs a doctor first."
"We'll see to it," the SHIELD soldier assured him and took a tight hold on Selvig's arm to guide him away. He nodded to his partner who opened Alis' door and checked her pulse before radioing for a medical team. When he saw no visible injuries he patted her knee reassuringly before running into the base to rejoin the mayhem.
Alis sat still for a few minutes longer then unbuckled her seatbelt. She leaned out the door then fell in a heap on the ground getting a mouthful of dirt. Then slowly, like a sea creature taking to the land for the first time she arranged her limbs and pushed herself up.
She was exhausted, cold, dirty and in horrible pain but still she walked. She passed through the gates unnoticed and wandered amongst the frenzy of SHIELD staff who were running around panic stricken. Some were arming themselves and giving orders while others hammered away at computers and machines Alis didn't recognize.
The whole scenario was moving too quickly for her to understand the details but the collective feeling of anxiety and alarm beating like a drum around her made the situation clear.
Jane's invention was not working.
Alis dragged her feet in the direction of the three mind signatures she knew fondly and encouraged the faint flicker of energy inside her to grow.
"Run the generator again!" Jane ordered to the engineer operating a switch panel across from her.
"I can't!" he said desperately and tried to get the machine to function. "We've drained the power."
"Get lost flunkie," Tony Stark rudely pushed the other man aside and started punching numbers so quickly his fingers blurred. There was a hum as the generator revived and Jane hit the command key on her computer.
The scientists had set up a ring of computers up in a wide circle around Jane's faithful truck which had her device strapped to the roof.
Jane's invention was a series of three rings inspired by the Stark arc reactor which shone white and hummed with electricity. There were numerous cables of varying size running across the ground up into the device and about a dozen different computers sending commands into it but after three hours the machine had done nothing but glow.
The device was able to work, Stark's analysis of her math confirmed that, but so far no amount of power could generate a reaction. When Jane had done the blueprints and hypotheticals for her artificial bi-frost she had always worked under the impression that she would have SHIELD's state of the art equipment to conduct the test with.
However this impromptu attempt had her hooking up any machine more sophisticated than an iPad to build a wormhole.
There was a whirling noise as the device glowed brighter and the truck started to rock from side to side.
"Come on," Darcy whispered at Jane's elbow.
Darcy hadn't left her boss' side since they had fled town. She had swung between various states of hysteria, anger and misery as Jane and her team ran around assembling the device. Every time the machine seemed about to work her hopes soared then crashed when it failed.
She needed this to work. She needed Thor to save Alis.
The generator died and the bi-frost device faded again.
"I'm gonna try hooking this baby up to the Iron Man suit," Tony ran a hand through his messy hair and looked around at their crude open air laboratory searching for another solution.
What he really wanted to do was to suit up and meet the blue meanies for himself but it had been made abundantly clear to him when Doctor Foster's battered old truck had pulled up that they were going to need any technological help they could get. If Iron Man was killed by a frozen monster then Tony Stark wouldn't be able to help either.
"That chest piece wont generate enough energy by itself," Selvig shook his head at Stark. "It might turn the device on but it will burn out before you can stabilize it. We need to find another power source."
"Where?" Jane demanded exasperatedly and shook her hands at the crappy computers around them. "We're in the middle of the desert Erik!"
"Maybe we combine the two," her mentor suggested.
"No go buddy you're mixing water with vinegar there," Stark said.
"Alis!"
Hearing Darcy speak so loudly after hours of quiet mumblings stopped the science debate and they all turned to see what she was yelling at.
In the distance they saw Alis staggering towards the truck stepping over cables and wires. She put her foot on the back bumper and started to climb up to the roof rack.
"Bad idea baby!" Tony yelled out. "That thing is running hot. Get back here!"
Selvig grabbed Darcy by the arm when she ran past him and pulled her into a tight hold. The untested machinery was unpredictable and with all the power they had pumped into it the device was likely to blow up at the slightest provocation.
Alis didn't hear any of them as she moved across the car roof on her hands and knees. Her ears and eyes were hardly working now, no longer registering anything happening around her.
Inside, her body was rushing with hot energy that was rising with every breath. Her blood was boiling under her skin and her heart was hammering a tattoo inside her rib cage. The time, situation and circumstances were all irrelevant now as she retreated into her mind for things long ago.
"The energy is a part of you," she could hear her father's voice as clearly as if he was beside her. "It heals you, supports you, cares for you. It is a power to be nurtured and respected. Channel it and you can protect yourself and the ones you love. There is nothing more important than that."
Smoke rose from Alis' hands as they burnt on the hot rings of Jane's invention but she could not feel the skin scorching. The power running wild in her system had blocked any external stimuli and the sorrow she felt thinking of her father conquered any physical pain.
"I couldn't save you," she thought and took a long breath in. "But I wont let it happen again."
The power flew out of her system and into the machine in a single rushing wave. The truck shook violently as a tunnel of energy shot into the sky opening the heavens and bridged two universes together. All the colours of the rainbow danced in front of Alis' eyes as she held her grip and pushed everything she had into the bi-frost.
SHIELD staff scrambled for cover and screamed into radios as the violent tornado created by the active device sent equipment and people flying. The scientists held their ground in the fury of the gale and watched in wonder as the open wormhole screamed through the night sky.
"It's working," Jane gasped in disbelief as she saw her life's work completed. "The crazy bitch is doing it."
Alis' biceps bulged from holding on so tight and she clenched her teeth in determination. The roaring wind and raw energy blocked out any mind waves and tried to throw her backwards but she held fast. This was the last chance to end the chaos, to stop the Frost Giants, to stop Loki.
If her friends died then she would truly have nothing. The power she had was meant to heal and protect and if it only took her life to save them then it was more than worth it.
Suddenly there was a slam on the truck roof so heavy it threw her loose. Her open hands flew out to stop her fall but they closed empty. Alis thought she saw someone reach for her but her eyes were already closing from exhaustion.
Alis' world stared to fade away as she fell through the air but the warning that surfaced from her memory was clear in her head. This voice was familiar but it was not as tender as her father's. It rang of grim wisdom and cruel reality.
"Your face will changebut not your heart. Reveal it and you will die."
