Well hello there, humans!
I'm sorry I didn't post earlier but my family and I moved to our new house and I was left without internet for almost 2 weeks... EEK!

But now everything's back to normal so, on with the show!

Lots of thanks to mobidly-funny, Zozeebobs, xxlokixxGJ, AccioVoldemortsNose, Oomara13, Peace and Blessings, Rena, Eldestdurk, Sherlock's-Avenging-THG and ManagerOfMischief96 for your reviews and to all of you who favorited, alerted and/or followed me and/or my story!

Not gonna say much today because you probably want to get on to reading.

The songs of the day are: Eve of Battle by Audiomachine and Dark Menace by Sprint Music (which is Surtur's leitmotif).

ENJOY!


CHAPTER ELEVEN – MOM AND DAD

The global crisis was all over the news as well as the different governments' responses to it which were, basically to send out their entire national armies to defend their countries from the colossal destruction inflicted by the endless army of fire creatures.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s payroll in its entirety was focused on finding a way to stop these creatures but it was useless; they knew nothing about them and therefor, they couldn't destroy them.

"What the hell happened?" Fury demanded to know as Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Bruce Banner walked into the meeting room. They all looked as if they had been caught in a fire which, in the end, was actually true "Our sensors tell us that it all started exactly where you were 'investigating'! Stark!" He turned to face the unmasked man of iron "What did you find?"

"Oh, you mean other than the hundreds of thousands of flammable looking Tinker-Bells shooting out of the earth? Nah, nothing…" Tony replied collapsing onto the nearest chair.

"How do you know they look like… Tinker-Bell?" Fury questioned feeling extremely uncomfortable by using Tony's terms.

"JARVIS has been analyzing the image we got since those things started to come out… look;" Passing the image to the mainframe, Tony started working on the computer and the video JARVIS had gotten from the column of fire suddenly appeared on the screens before them. Tony stood up and pointed at the screen before freezing the image "There! You see? They have two legs, two arms, a head and a body."

"Only that they are made of nothing but pure fire…" Clint added somberly.

"And there are so many…" Natasha said staring at the screen.

"Is that what has been causing the heat wave, Dr. Banner?" Fury asked.

"I'm almost sure… according to JARVIS' data the temperature in the area has dramatically dropped to a more… normal one." Bruce answered as he typed a few things away, corroborating his response.

"Sir," Steve started, referring to Fury but gaining everyone's attention "I believe we should… you know… call Thor."

"Why do you think that, Captain?" The colonel wondered.

"Well… because…"

Before Steve could answer, Coulson came rushing in, with an alarmed expression on his face.

"Director!" He exclaimed, gasping for air.

"What is it, Coulson?"

"There has been a security breach!"

"What? Where?"

"Lawrence County." Coulson said this practically as if he was condemning them all to death while Fury adopted the same alarmed expression.

"Lawrence County? Illinois? What's there that could be so dramatic?" Tony asked.

"Thanos' prison." Bruce, who had helped build the facility which contained the Mad Titan answered.

"What?!" The other four Avengers exclaimed in unison.

"What do you mean by security breach, Coulson?" Steve asked.

"He… Thanos… He's gone."

Everyone in the room exchanged shocked glances while agent Hill worked on the images from the facility in Lawrence County until she found the security camera tapes and projected them onto the larger screen for all of the to see.

All they could see was a woman who didn't look human, fighting and defeating all the guards at the hidden prison and then being followed closely by a man.

"Isn't that...?" Bruce started, recognizing the man.

"Emmanuel Abrahamovitch." Both Clint and Natasha replied.

"What is he doing with that… thing?" Tony asked.

"I believe that thing is a woman, Stark." Fury said as they continued to watch the tapes.

They saw the peculiar looking woman defeat every single guard and then reach Thanos' cell, destroying the vaulted door and releasing the so-called Eternal. In a matter of seconds, after exchanging, what they thought were cordial words and then, they were gone, just like that.

"Did they just… disappear?" Steve inquired, staring at the screen trying to make some sense out of what they had just seen.

"Apparently. I made some research and the local police found a 2001 silver Saturn with plate number 3L4-H8N abandoned a couple of miles away from the facility." Coulson informed.

"Don't tell me… the car is registered at Abrahamovitch's name." Tony deduced and Coulson nodded "Well, isn't that dandy?"

"Wait… does this mean Abrahamovitch has been working with gamma radiation to open a portal? Is that why we detected high levels of it at his office?" Clint asked.

"To help his buddies cross over to Earth?" Natasha added.

"What buddies? The female thing?" Tony said.

"No, if there had been a portal, we would have known by now, besides, he doesn't have the required materials to stabilize it." Bruce reasoned.

"Wait... Natasha, you said something about this creature crossing over to Earth… from where?" Steve asked.

"I believe you were suggesting we summoned Thor, were you not, Captain?" Fury intervened, making them turn to him "I agree."

"Sure! Can't wait to see big buddy and Em again but… there's one thing…" Tony said "How are we supposed to bring him back?"

The team turned to Fury and saw him give a coded look to which the agent nodded and marched out of the room.

"Oh, I love it when mom and dad include us in their chats!" Tony joked feeling exasperated for not understanding.

"You'll understand soon enough, Stark." Fury said and headed towards the door "Follow me, Avengers."


Emma and Thor looked up with fear as they heard the Fire Demon Surtur howl and roar terrifyingly above them.

"Are you alright?" Thor asked Emma who could only nod as they both turned towards Tyr "Tyr, what have you done?"

"What have I done? I think you should be asking that to Loki." Tyr replied almost mockingly.

"Loki? What do you mean? What do you have to do with this?" Thor questioned his brother who did nothing but stare at Emma "Loki! Answer me!"

"He freed Surtur from his prison in the meteor. You do remember when father put him there, do you not, Thor?" Tyr taunted.

"You released him? Why?" Thor repeated.

"Revenge, Odinson, revenge." Surtur replied with his coarse voice which sounded like an echo in the deepest of caverns "And that is what I have brought upon your family."

"Thor! Emma!" They suddenly heard Fandral's voice behind them and as they turned they saw the Warriors Three and the Lady Sif running into the cadaveric-soldier swarmed throne hall but came to a screeching halt as they saw the scene before them "What in the name of Valhalla is this?"

"Thor!" Sif called and then gasped covering her mouth with her hand as her eyes fell upon Loki "Loki? We thought you dead!"

"For the umpteenth time, that is." Volstagg muttered under his breath.

"Tyr has betrayed the All-Father." Hogun sentenced unsheathing his sword and pointing it at the god of war; Volstagg, Fandral and Sif followed suit.

"Release the All-Father and surrender, Tyr, if you desire to live!" Sif exclaimed.

"Let me think about it…" Tyr pretended to ponder Sif's words and then burst out laughing "I do not believe I will, insolent wench!" Odin's army started arriving but Tyr was not threatened at all "Kill them all!" He commanded to the corpse-like soldiers "But spare Thor and Odin's little bastard… they are mine."

Thor turned to Emma and grabbed her upper arms "Emma, you need to get out of here; I will hold them off as much as I can but you cannot stay in Asgard. Go to Heimdall, he will take you to one of the secret passages."

"Secret passages? What are you talking about?" Emma asked glancing over at Loki from time to time.

"There are more ways to travel across the universe than just the Bifrost or the Tesseract; there are passages, portals hidden across the continent. Heimdall knows where they all are, he will take you to…"

Before Thor could continue, one Hela's soldiers grabbed him and started fighting with him.

"Thor!" Emma shouted and attempted to run to his aid but he stopped her.

"No, Emma! Run! Go! Get out of here!" He yelled as he fought several soldiers off.

"I won't leave you!"

"I'm right behind you!" He reassured her but she knew he was lying "Emma, you have to go!"

With tears in her eyes, Emma scrambled to her feet and rushed to grab a discarded sword she had spotted on the floor but as she stood up, she saw Tyr towering menacingly over her.

"Going somewhere, dearest princess?" He asked her with a wicked smile on his face.

"Tyr, you don't have to do this… we all care about you… Odin, Thor… even I… please… I beg of you…" Emma tried to reason with him but to no avail.

"I love to see you beg, Emma… that is what I want… for all of you to beg… to beg for mercy and eventually for death…" Tyr replied.

"Why can't you leave all this behind? Whatever happened, you have a family… you… you are my brother and I'm your sister, doesn't that mean something to you?"

"No." His cold voice answered as Emma noticed his grasp tighten around the hilt of his sword.

"Tyr, look at Odin; look at your father…" She softly told him and he did so, looking over his shoulder to Odin's throne, where the All-Father sat bounded with ropes which seemed to be made out of black smoke. The elder continued his struggle to get free but it was all futile "Tyr, you know, in your heart that, even when he made so many mistakes, he loves you, we all do…"

"You are incredibly sweet, Emma… so pure-hearted and kind… I see what Loki saw in you… you bring light into the dark; you are, after all, a Vanir." Tyr's voice sounded almost sincere "You defeated Fenrir back in Midgard; I never thought it would be possible, you did not remember who you really are, you could not control your powers and yet… you defeated him… but he was just a small part of the plan, you see…" Emma widened her eyes as the god of war continued "Losing my hand was a very small price to pay but it was the only way to convince everyone that I had had nothing to do with Fenrir's escape…"

"What are you talking about?" Emma questioned, feeling short of breath and slightly dizzy as she felt the fever rising and the sweat beginning to dew her brow "You were Fenrir's guard! Everyone trusted you to keep him locked up!"

"Yes but we had so much in common, you see… throughout all those years in which I fed him and cared for him, we got to know each other a lot better… we had both been rejected since birth; we had both lost our family; we were both pariahs in some way and we both coveted power; the power that Odin had… after he bit my hand off, everything was easier… tracking Thanos and making a deal with him… retrieving the Infinity Gauntlet from Odin's vault… of course, neither of us expected Loki to sacrifice himself for the sake of Midgard… in a way that was Fenrir's fault. He should have killed you all those years ago, before Odin sent you to Midgard… but, there is no use of dwelling in the past, is there, my dear? In the end I have succeeded; with the help of Hela's army and Surtur here and with Surtur's army, Hela and Thanos in Midgard…" Tyr saw Emma's face go paler than in was and her green eyes widening even more in pure surprise "Oh… I forgot… you forsook your 'home-planet' to come here, leaving it completely helpless and now Hela has freed Thanos…"

"Midgard is not helpless…" She threatened behind gritted teeth, leaning on the sword for support.

"Ah, yes… the famous Avengers… but tell me, Emma, what use are they against the mightiest creatures in the universe?"

"You don't know what they are capable of… perhaps you shouldn't underestimate them so easily." Emma warned and then glanced at Loki "If you don't believe me, why don't you ask him?"

Tyr turned around and smiled at Loki who stood there immobile staring at them and listening to their conversation.
Emma decided to take advantage of the moment and charged against Tyr with the sword but Tyr was wiser than that and spun around just in time to deflect Emma's attack with his own sword, sending her flying away to the nearest wall.

"Is that all you have got, princess? Is that all you have to defend your beloved Asgard?" Tyr laughed and then looked at Loki "Come, Loki… show me whose side you are on. Prove you are loyal to me and I will give you what you have wanted all your life: power."

Loki remained silent but nodded as he unsheathed his sword and started to walk menacingly towards Emma.

"Enjoy yourself." Tyr said before walking away and leaving Emma's life in Loki's hands.

"So this is how you've decided to return to me." She said breathing heavily while Loki's unwavering eyes continued to bore deep into her own.

"Did you ever truly wish for that to happen? For me to return to you?" Loki finally spoke.

"How can you even ask me that? After all we've gone through!"

"Why did you not stay in Midgard? So that you could start a life with Thor here?"

"Thor? You think… you think I came to Asgard for Thor? You think I deserted everything I knew and held dear to come here… for him? Oh, you are so wrong, Loki and so blind… you always were… even when we first met… when you called me a 'talentless little Vanir'." She snapped back and he only stared at her with surprise.

"You… you remember?" Emma nodded at his question "How much?"

"Everything… I remember everything from our past life together and I have prayed every night since you left me to be able to see you again…"

"You are lying… you are lying!" Loki exclaimed and started attacking her but she returned his every strike with even more ability "I saw you! I saw you kissing Tyr! I have seen the way you look at Thor… just the way you looked at the soldier!"

"Steve? Thor? Tyr? Who else are you going to blame for your mistakes, Loki? I have loved none the way I have loved you and still… you cannot see it… and God help me, I love you still…"

"Emma…" Loki's voice came out almost in a whisper.

Emma broke their eye contact as she heard Thor's cry of pain and as she turned to her side she saw that Tyr had nailed his sword deep into his abdomen.

"No! Thor!" She yelled and tried to rush to where her brother was but was unable due to Surtur's massive sword cutting her way.

The fire demon tried to attack her once more but she created a force field around herself though it took most of her energy to do so as she was still very weak.
As it used to happen before, a thread of deep red blood started to run down from her nose and the might of Surtur's sword against her shield made her fall to her knees.

Just as she thought she couldn't hold it any longer, another's sword clashed against Surtur's, breaking the attack on Emma.
Looking up, Emma saw Loki standing in front of her, between the fire demon and herself in a protective manner.

"Loki…"


"What's with Fury and his secrets? I think his eye-patch has secrets!" Tony exclaimed in a hushed tone as they walked down a steel covered corridor.

Fury had taken them to the deepest levels into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Tower but had given no explanation as to why and the team could do nothing but to follow and wait.

"And what secret might that be?" Clint ventured asking.

"Well, I don't know… maybe he curls his lashes and wears mascara…" The multibillionaire suggested and while Natasha and Clint chuckled at the idea, Bruce and Steve limited themselves to smile silently "Hey, Nick! Where are you taking us? We've been walking down these corridors for hours!"

"It's been fifteen minutes, Mr. Stark and we are almost there." Fury retorted "Oh and by the way… I do not wear mascara." The colonel added making it clear that he had heard Tony's comment.

"Sure you don't…" The very childish man of iron mumbled making Clint and Natasha laugh quietly.

Suddenly, the director and his most trusted agent stopped walking and the team of heroes echoed their actions.
They had halted before a large vault-like door (one very similar to that of Thanos' cell) and after doing the protocol-ritual to unlock it, the steel gate opened revealing a large room with tall ceilings and the walls covered with concrete.
As they followed Fury and Coulson they saw that only a desk at one corner and a machine very much alike that one which stabilized the Tesseract were in the room.

And there, standing beside the machine was a person; a woman. A blonde woman who was leaning over the machine, doing some calculations, for what it seemed.

The team stared at their surrounding and at the woman but dared to say nothing until the blonde woman acknowledged their presence and lifted her gaze from the machine.

"Director? What…? What is this? What are they doing here?" She asked, her voice showing her clear anger and frustration, almost as if scared "I thought we had agreed that…"

"I know, Dr. Caine but this is matter of national, nay, international security and we need you and your machine." Fury spoke up, cutting her off.

"What do you mean?" Dahlia asked.

"Wait, I know you…" Natasha started as she analyzed Dahlia's face "You are the woman in the picture! The one from Abrahamovitch's office! Dahlia Caine."

"I thought you said they knew nothing about me…" Dahlia turned to Fury with a mixture of annoyance and anger.

"They found your picture in Abrahamovitch's office. Agent Coulson was kind enough to block every piece of information we have about you so that they wouldn't know." Fury explained.

"Fury has this way of making everyone around him feel extremely uncomfortable. Hello, my name is Tony Stark, but you probably already know about me…" Tony introduced himself, taking Dahlia's hand and shaking it as he smiled widely at her, checking her out, of course.

"Avengers, this is Dr. Dahlia Caine; she has been working with us for a few…"

"Four." Dahlia interrupted and corrected the colonel and he rolled his one eye at this.

"She's been working with us for four months now; trying to find a way to… well… why don't I let her explain it to you?"

The five Avengers shifted their attention from their boss to the woman in front of them. She rubbed her hands together and walked back to the side of the machine.

"Well… this is… how to call it? This is a space-time regulator, or at least that's how I like to call it. It uses gamma radiation to create Einstein-Rosen Bridges or what you might know as…"

"Interspatial Portals." Bruce said in her stead and she nodded.

"Exactly. I was hired by S.H.I.E.L.D. to build a machine that could actually create these portals at will and when necessary, apparently, and I quote, to bring back the Norse god of thunder…" Dahlia still sounded incredulous to this.

"You are making this to bring Thor back?" Steve asked surprised.

"That's what the director says… wait, you believe in that non-sense too?" She asked the team.

"Oh, but they are no non-sense." Clint said with a bit of irony in his voice.

"You cannot possibly be serious? I thought you all were grown-ups!" Dahlia exclaimed.

The ground started shaking ever-so-slightly and they knew they couldn't waste any more time.

"Look, Caine, there isn't time to explain this to you on a more… scientific level. We need you to use the machine and open a portal for us right now." Fury said.

"What? But… I haven't even tested it! Who knows what it could do! I mean… I could bring the Devil himself if I don't calibrate it properly!" She rambled as she tried to make her point clear.

"We don't have time, Dr. Caine." Coulson insisted.

"Please, doctor." Steve told her and after a moment of thinking silently, Dahlia nodded "Thank you."

"You might want to step aside, just in case." She warned them and all, but Bruce abided.

"What can I help you with?" He offered and after looking over at Fury for reassurance and receiving a nod as response, Dahlia turned to Bruce.

"Set the thermostat to fifty and type the coordinates of our current location." She instructed and he obeyed "You better hold on to something."

And then, hitting a large green button on the console, a large wave of yellow light filled the basement to then, in a second, gather in the center of the machine and shoot forcefully upwards, towards the concrete ceiling, causing waves of this same yellow light to apparently open and reveal a dark blue night sky.

"Oh my God…" They all heard Natasha murmur.


"Is this why you released me from my cold, secluded prison, Loki? To fight me?" Surtur challenged Loki as the god of mischief stood between the demon and the woman he loved.

"You will not harm her." Loki stated with conviction while Emma looked at him with some sort of awe "You will have to kill me first to get to her."

"Such strong and valiant words you speak, son of Laufey and yet you forget you are the one who brought us all here." The demon of fire said.

"Loki." Emma spoke his name and saw his eye shift to her for a split second.

"Get Thor and get out of here." He told her "Find Thor and get out of here!" He repeated and after giving him a quick nod, Emma drowsily stood up and ran to where Thor was.

But being her usual stubborn self, Emma stopped right between where Loki stood and where Thor stood; calculated her aim, extended her arms at both directions and suddenly shot an energy projection at each side, one hitting Tyr and sending him flying away from Thor and the other hitting Surtur, having the same effect on the fire demon.

Loki snapped his head at Emma and saw her stumble, losing her balance and ran to her side, surrounding her waist with his arm, holding her in place.

"I've got you." He told her and she nodded, to then look over at where Thor lay "Come on."

"Thor… Thor, c'mon, look at me." Emma pleaded once she had kneeled next to him and analyzed the wound as the battle continued around them "Thor, open your eyes…"

"Emma…" Thor managed to mumble as he fluttered his lids open "Go, save yourself."

"There's no way in Hell I'm leaving you here." As Emma said this, she looked over Loki's shoulder and saw Tyr rushing to them, ready to charge against Loki "Loki, watch out!"

It had been in time for the god of mischief to dodge the blow and attack Tyr in return.

"We have to get out of here…" Emma muttered looking around, trying to find a way out but there was nothing, until a large column of yellow light appeared a few yards away from where they were and as she looked into the column she could see Steve, Tony and the others and she knew what they had to do "Loki!"

"What?" He called as he continued to fight Tyr off.

"It's a portal! We have to go now!" She shouted and saw him nod.

"You are not going anywhere!" Tyr yelled grabbing Loki by the collar of his tunic, ready to inflict the same wound to him as he had done to Thor.

However, he couldn't. A lightning bolt hit Tyr square in the chest, making him release Loki and sending him towards the opposite wall of the hall.
Loki looked at Thor and nodded in appreciation as the latter did the same to then lose all consciousness.

"Quick, Loki!" Emma insisted, calling him to her side and as he did so, they saw Surtur heading their way with menacing roars "Oh, no, you won't!"

Emma then built a force field around the three of them and then, herself and Loki practically dragging Thor to the portal, threw themselves into it as the column of yellow light disappeared, before their enemies' eyes.


Dun dun duuuuuuuunnnnnnn...

So, what do you think? Good? Bad? Great? Awful? LOL

Hey, do you guys know that The Avengers 2 will come out on May 1st 2015? If you didn't now you do! LOL

Anywhooooooooooo... thanks again and I'll be seeing you very soon!

Lots of love!

ASSEMBLE!

Angie.
xoxoxo