As the particles of light reassembled, Annabeth formed in the center of a dimly lit room.
"Tell me your name, you atleast owe me that." Annabeth tensed up and swallowed a lump in her throat.
"Thanos... I am the ruler of the Eternals." He smiled menacingly.
"Well Thanos, I do keep my promises... But when and if I find that you have not held up your end, I will kill you without batting an eye. " Her voice was monotone.
"But untill then." She bowed as only a Valkyrie knew how, she slammed one fisted hand across her chest and sent the other one against her back. Her posture straightened as her feet came together.
"Excellent..." he murmured as he examined her.
"Where's your grace?" he asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about, my lord." Anna answered looking straight ahead, still saluting.
"Don't be coy, of course you do. Your people wear your grace along your neck. I've slain enough to know."
"That method has been thrown out, because of such incidents."
"Don't you LIE TO ME" Thanos pounded his fists against the wall.
"I'm doing no such thing" Anna insisted there was no such necklace he was searching for.
Thanos sent his hand flying against her face. Her head stayed turned to the side as her hair dropped infront of her stinging cheek.
"Then where is your grace if not strung apon your neck?" Thanos asked, obviously tired of this superfluous banter.
Annabeth didn't answer.
"Is that so? I'll just have to find it myself" Thanos smirked and laughed as two alien beings, obvious lesser grunts grabbed Annabeths arms and ran her backwards, slamming her back, onto a table.
As they held her down through her struggles, clamps came up, fastening her wrists, chest and ankles to the table. Had she not given her necklace to Loki, she could've easily avoiding getting double teamed by these worthless saps, but this is what she feared, she didn't want her to have had her full power if she would become compromised. Atleast this way he might think Valkyries arnt so all-mighty and give up on her.
"I've prepared so much for this moment, too much." Thanos towered over her with a dagger in hand.
"What could you have prepared." Anna pondered.
"More than you know, I am the creature that lurked in the shadows and desimated your comrades, absorbed their powers, all to secure you."
Annabeth felt as if her heart shattered into a million tiny pieces, one that made her eyes water with sadness.
***********POV CHANGE*********
I didn't like returning to the helicarrier, even though this time I wasn't the prisoner. Thor stood opposite me as the rest of the Avengers sat around the circular table bustling and trying to wrap their tiny little brains around what could happen next.
"How are you holding up, brother?" Thor asked me with sincerity, I just smiled and brushed him off. I wasn't going to tell him that the light of my life was blown out. Or express how much I would flay the man responsible for all of this.
Director Fury settled the super friends down as me and Thor looked on.
"I'm hearing this right? This, man, took Annabeth in exchange for earthly peace, and still sent those giants? Do we have a war on our hands once more?"
"You're not very adept at inferring, are you?" I couldn't help but pipe up, none of this senseless talking was going to get my Annabeth home to be any sooner.
Fury went to retort but was cut off by Rogers speaking up, that national poster boy... ugh I didn't like any of these mortals, why must I even work with them? I'll find her myself.
"Loki you said she was the last of her kind, how did that happen?"
"Ah, the tale of Lady Annabeth~"
"One that's sure to be sang about in the mead halls." Thor faintly smiled and rested his chin apon his hand, ready to ponder what I was about to say.
All eyes shifted to me, and why wouldnt they want to hear what i have to say? I am surperior, am i not?
"Annabeth's mother, Elyanna, was a Valkyrie. The most beautiful and powerful in the land. She commanded brigades upon brigades of Valkyries, leading them into glorious battles, coming home with victory upon victory under her belt. She was fair, graceful and adored by the Aesir people. She oddly fell in love with the Harbinger of the Mage College."
"what was so odd about it?" Romanoff asked.
"I'd get to that if I hadn't been interrupted" I cleared my throat and returned to my tale.
"It was odd because all Valkyrie's only married warriors, but not Elyanna, she perfered the quiet intellegence that was Ralith."
"Oddly how Anna naturally prefered you over me" Thor added with a booming laugh.
I couldnt help by grimmace, Thor spoke truth.
"The rest of that love story is history. But Elyanna and Ralith were slain in the Great War that caused the Schism and that's when Odin took her in. She was a few years younger than us, so we had to always protect her, it just happened naturally. But she didn't need our help, she took to the sword as soon as she could wield it and followed in the footsteps of her mother. But because she had both advanced genes, Warrior and Intellegence from her folks, she was a perfect hybrid. She trained with Thor for battle then we spent the night reviewing her studies. She grew into an amazing woman. A splitting image of her mother, in looks and personality. Always the light at the end of the tunnel. She rose through the military ranks untill she had become a General. But the story that finally wavered Odin into turning her into a Valkyrie was when Sif and her were sent to Ultif to spy on the enemy, they were captured immidently, as their cover was blown.
Annabeth destroyed their entire operation single handedly and carried Sif home on her back, who was gravely wounded. Annabeth was banged up a bit herself, but she still carried Sif all the way to the Bifrost before the planet exploded. Noting her stregnth and bravery, her corination was as soon as she healed. Becoming a Valkyrie wasn't just another promotion, it was a whole new way of life. Valkyrie's had their own headquarters, there were only a very very select few, sworn to protect all the innocense everywhere. They excelled in both swordmanship and information, unparalelled by even the average AEsir. After the countless victories of the Garrison, Anna was showered with medals and honors. She became just as adored as her late mother, some would argue she was even better.
She was eventually promoted to the head of the Garrison. This is where she recieved her helmet of the Gods, it was an ivory white embrodiered with orinate golden designs and trim, its white crest is what made it so intricate. The helmet covered everything besides her crystal eyes. It was accompined by golden flaked wings on either side of it, less fluffy feeling and more of a metal feeling. She was considered the most powerful being in exsistance, aside from Odin himself. She was at his right hand when ever he asked anything of her, she completed the task and then some.
The task that changed her was the one that will live in Infamy to all Asgard and her people. The day the mighty Garrison disappeared. Annabeth doesn't talk about it at all. Only answered questions Odin had. But naturally I had my ears open. She had led her troops onto the planet of Furith to expell the darkness that plagued it. But creatures lurked in the darkness, creatures so dark it'd make the purest being beg for mercy at the sight of it. Annabeth tried her best to fight those, things, off, but it was no use, her women were dropping like flies and she had no idea how or why. Valkyrie's shouldve been able to erradicate the planet easily, but to this day no one knows what it was that wiped out The Garrison. Cut to the day Annabeth was finally spotted by heimdall after he followed a distressed cry, one that cut through wind as it reverberated throughout space, A Valkyrie's cries are distinct, they sound like normal yells, but are accompanied by a frequency so high it can shatter the hardest of materials, depending how much pain they are in. Heimdall had sent the bifrost to her. But she only returned with her best friend, practically sister, Genevieve slung over her shoulder. But this wasn't like when she returned with Sif, where she accomplished what she was asked of with minimal calateral damage to herself. Annabeth was in horrible, horrible shape, almost beyond repair. She was bedridden for a great part of a month. I stayed with her every moment i could, but she was not the same Annebeth she was when she left, not the same radiacting confidence or the natural happiness. Her eyes a bright blue, but held back so much pain and anguish. She watched her sisters die slowly and painfully. Odin recieved so much anger and hate, saying he sent them in without enough information, he ill informed them, and that is why they died. But Annabeth didn't agree, she believed their blood was on her hands, she led them into their death with high spirits of victory and conquest."
"what happened to Genevieve?" Fury asked
"there was nothing they could do to save her." Thor interjected.
"How come Odin just doesn't make more? That seems like the most logical thing to do." Stark seemed a little edgy.
"Make more? What do you think they are? No you cannot just promote those unworthy to the status of Valkyrie. When they are corinated, they are infused with a great deal of power, a power only those pure in will and heart can bare. If the receiver isn't worthy they won't be able to withstand the power, and will pretty much just explode."
"Proformance issues" Stark shrugged and fell silent once more.
"So the universes greatest weapon is in the hands of the enemy?" Fury asked hastily.
"No, she's not at her full power." I said as I toyed with her necklace.
"What makes you say that?" Fury asked raising an eyebrow.
"This right here is an Amulet of Elyanna, named after her mother, This is what holds a Valkyries Grace and their celestial power. She still has some little tricks, but this is the big kahoonah. It permanently locks onto the wearer and only they can take it off."
"So why do you have it" Romanoff asked.
"Annabeth gave it to me, she said to keep it safe, I'm assuming it was a precaution in case she gets compromised. And I'd say it was a good call..."
*******POV CHANGE*******
"Listen, bird, it's in your best interest to tell me where it is, otherwise I'm going to have to cut it out of you." Thanos pinched her cheeks together which prompted Annabeth to spit in his face. To which he angrily wiped it off and smacked her once more.
"Have this Nightengale strung up" he motioned to his little thralls. Who wisked her off the table and into what appeared to be another room. The whole place was too dark for her to make out much. It was the same darkness she had dealt with those months ago. With a shutter she felt her wrists bound above her head. A single light was turned on directly above her. The room she was in gave her the sense she was in someone's spacecraft. The creatures had stripped her of her armor and anything that could've been in Thanos' way.
Thanos came through the door after a few moments brandishing a small dagger, one she had seen before.
"You see, you misinterpreted my goal. I don't need you, I need what you're harboring. And once I get that, I'll have your body ripped apart by savage beasts.
He took the knife and gracefully cut across her Collerbone which prompted her breathing to get fiercly heavy as her chest beat up and down. She didn't cry out, infact she forced her mouth to stay closed as she looked away from the man who was about to carve her like a holiday ham.
"It's a shame though, I should have expected you to act this way. Why should you give me anything I want? am I right?" he asked
"I would die before I reveal anything to the likes of you. You've misinterpreted my loyalties." Anna looked down Thanos, almost showing him she wasn't afraid of him, or the slightest bit intimidated.
"That can be aranged, my sweet."
Thanos dug the blade into her side, reopening her previous gash. It wasn't deep enough to kill her or hit anything vital, but still felt as if her skin was on fire, burning away at her muscles. She had never felt such physical pain before, this was a pain she didn't know was even possible.
He slashed and cut away. Carving gash after gash into her stomach. Annabeth couldn't hold in the whimpers that scampered out of her drying lips. But that wasn't enough satisfaction for him, with a single swipe he sliced over her eye, leaving a verticle strip of blood that followed the curved of her cheeks and forehead. Thanos didn't let up, next he move to her arms, which he snapped as if they were twigs. Letting her body dangle solely by her muscles and tendons, keeping her arms connected to her.
Annabeth could tell this wasn't the first time Thanos had tortured someone, he was too precise, too aware of how to make her endure pain but not kill her.
"I must say, your friends gave up a lot sooner than this." Thanos shoved the blade into her leg.
With an agonizing cry, the room shook.
Thanos pulled the blade out of her leg, then jammed it in the other one.
Annabeth mimicked the scream once more as the room shook even more noticibly.
***********POV CHANGE***********
"So if Annabeth was so perfect and happy for you, what the hell happened last month? Why would you come here with blood in your eyes?" Romanoff asked me as I locked my hands behind my back.
"I fell Into a black hole, I dealt with mornings I couldn't wake up to her smiling face, moments I couldn't hear her reassuring me that I wasn't a lesser being. I was consumed by what I didn't have, the throne, a throne, power, that I had forgotten the love I had. Annabeth never truly forgave me for letting her believe I was dead. I was told she mourned more than my own mother. And when she heard I was on Midgard causing chaos, she had no choice but to treat me as the enemy. Valkyrie code dictates that. The enemy is the enemy, it is simply a black and white manner. But how wrong that codex is, there is always a gray area."
"Sir! We have a problem!" One of the simpletons at their computers called to Fury. How does he get to be called Sir? he's so weak!
"What is it?" Fury asked folding his arms.
"9 point Earthquakes" the lacky shouted back.
"Where?" Fury asked.
"EarthquakeSS?!" Romanoff pointed out.
"That's the thing, Sir, everywhere."
