Sorry for the delay in getting this post up, everyone. I've been moving into my dorm room and getting ready for my Sophomore year of college. I didn't really get a change to start writing this chapter until yesterday. Here we go, ladies and gentlemen. It's show time. This is where it all comes crashing down. This is the beginning of the end.
Chapter 11: The Realm Eternal:
Earth – S.A.C.K. Headquarters:
"So the Hellfire Club's new base is on the moon," Coulson summarized as Kairi informed him of the latest report from Loki. "Bit of a cliché, isn't it?" While most of the core group of S.H.I.E.L.D. and C.I.N. Agents were either busy guarding the ongoing negotiations between the Coalition and Earth or catching up with loved ones (Cloud's wife was part of the delegation after all), the small group gathered in this room were focused on a much more serious long term goal. Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, Sora, Kairi, Vanitas, the Rogers, and the Longs had assembled to prepare for their next strike against the Hellfire Club.
Loki's latest intelligence package had confirmed that Maleficent's war with the Unchained Legion had taken a heavy toll on the ranks of her followers. With Malekith's defection, all of the Hellfire Club operatives still loyal to Maleficent were hunkered down in their last remaining base on the far side of Earth's moon. Thor had gone back to Asgard to pass along the information to his father, since with the Dark Elves' resurgence, Odin had formally declared war on Malekith, and had tasked his son with putting together an elite Asgardian strike team to hunt the Dark Elves down and destroy them.
In the meantime, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, the S.A.C.K., and the handful of Coaltion military and intelligence officers stationed on Earth were teaming up to wipe out Maleficent's loyalist faction in a single strike. Ideas were brought up and debated in a constant loop. The Coalition had been able to reverse engineer the Hellfire Club's Dark Corridor nullification technology developed by Dr. Hamsterviel before the battle of Cable Town at the end of the Xehanort War, and Aqua had brought some along with her delegation. But simply hurling missiles at the facility would do more harm than good, as the ground troops would be too busy making sure the roof didn't collapse on them to effectively hunt the surviving agents.
"I've got an idea," Sora suggested after a few minutes of arguing and debating. "We modify the DCNs so that instead of completely blocking the bad guys' attempts to escape with Corridors of Darkness, their Corridors will all end up in the brig of the OHC. That'll save us the effort of having to track down everyone we miss since everyone who tries to escape will only get themselves captured. Those like Iron Man and the Hulk who are better suited for ranged combat will guard the entrances and apprehend every Club member who tries to escape, while those whose skillset leans more towards close quarters combat will lead the teams inside to capture Maleficent and end her reign of terror."
The Keyblade Master's idea was met with near universal agreement, and the meeting was then spent preparing the logistics of the upcoming attack. Battle planning wasn't quite as simple as figuring out a battle plan, despite what some people may think. Once you had a plan of attack, you had to assess which fighters would be ideal for each aspect of the mission and prepare assignments accordingly. Once the squad rosters had been assigned, a strategist needed to determine each squad member's role in relation to both their squad mates and the mission itself. Once the meeting was concluded, the S.A.C.K., S.H.I.E.L.D., and C.I.N. agents along with the dragon and the Keyblade Masters went to brief their respective factions on their role in the coming battle.
The Realm Eternal – Alleyway:
Loki carefully checked his surroundings as he teleported into narrow alley just off the street leading to the rainbow bridge. While his family had reconciled with him, he was still supposed to be treated as an escaped criminal, and couldn't afford to be spotted now. While most of the time, when teleporting, Loki left a duplicate of himself behind to give the illusion that he was there so that Maleficent wouldn't figure out that he was selling her secrets to the Coalition, tonight was another matter. With the Hellfire Club now fractured by the failed extermination of Malekith and his conspirators, both factions were scrambling for leverage over the other. That meant that Asgard would be their next target.
Few knew the true power of the Bifrost's guardian, or where it came from. The number of people who knew that Heimdall's powers were derived from the Soul Stone embedded in the armor he wore as his badge of office numbered in the double digits. And that was without considering the possibility that everyone in the Unchained Legion knew. For thousands of years, the obscurity of the Infinity Stone's location had kept it safe from all who would attempt to claim it. But now, every faction that wanted it would soon be converging on Asgard like bees homing in on a flower. It was only a matter of time before one of them came knocking, and Loki was determined to keep the stone out of all their hands, cover be damned.
"Your concern for my safety is appreciated, my prince," Heimdall remarked as Loki strode silently into the Bifrost gate. Loki didn't bother with his usual banter or quips, or to sarcastically question how the gatekeeper knew he was there and what he wished to speak of. He already knew the answer. Heimdall laughed. "But I have survived ever attack on Asgard," the warrior went on. "And I intend to survive this one as well."
"And what if they manage to steal the Stone?" Loki retorted. "To rob you of your ability to see beyond the gates of Asgard? What then?"
"I am sure my king can find other uses for a loyal soldier such as I," Heimdall answered calmly, as if the idea of losing his legendary Sight did not faze him in the slightest. "To be completely honest, Loki, after thousands of years of monotonous vigil, it would actually be a relief to be reassigned from my post. But I would still consider it dishonorable to say so aloud to anyone else. I only tell you because I can at least trust your discretion." Loki nodded in understanding and offered the gatekeeper one last warning to be careful before teleporting himself to the castle.
As he strode through the torch-lit corridors of Asgard's royal palace, he felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Now that he had finally severed his ties with Maleficent, he could stop pretending he hadn't reconciled with his family. He could greet his brother now with warmth and friendship instead of feigning hatred and scorn. With catlike agility, he slipped through the winding corridors of the castle as he dodged the Einherjar patrols while he made his way towards the throne room. He walked into the massive chamber to find his entire family, along with Sif and the Warriors Three, engaged in intense conversation. After a few minutes, in which Loki was able to determine that his loyalty to his family was the topic of conversation, his brother took notice of him from across the room.
"Brother!" Thor called out warmly, and Loki smiled to himself despite his usually sarcastic attitude as he peeled himself away from the shadows along the wall and made his way towards the throne. Volstagg, Hogun, and Fandrall snapped to attention and had their hands on their weapons. Whether it was because of their fears he'd betrayed them once more or caution as to whether he was alone and able to act freely, he could not tell. Sif was more relaxed around him, but kept her hand near her sword just in case. Only Thor and his parents appeared completely relaxed. Even without Odin's foresight, Frigga's faith in him, and Thor's trust, after all those therapy sessions his family members had learned to read him like a book over the last nine years, and they knew that he was here as himself, and not as part of a Hellfire Club invasion force.
"Mother, father," he greeted warmly. "I've come home bearing both good news and bad. Which would you prefer to hear first." Queen Frigga's face quickly slipped into a look of concern with practiced ease. Clearly his mother could ascertain the severity of his news.
"From your tone, I should think we should hear the good tidings first," she replied, speaking for everyone in the room. "That way we can have something to shore ourselves up against the bad news." With a nod Loki continued.
"The good news is I've officially severed all ties with Maleficent's cabal and am now a relatively free man," Loki explained. Before Thor could run up and hug him, he put up a hand to stop him. "I can still go back to my cell if the public demands it once this is all over," he continued. "But after all my spying and espionage over the past two months, I feel I've earned a vacation. More good news, the Hellfire Club's infrastructure has been broken in two. Maleficent's central command remains loyal to her, but their troop numbers are greatly reduced with Malekith's rebellion."
"The bad news, however, is very dire indeed. Both factions of the Hellfire Club are aware of the hiding place of the Soul Stone, and are on their way now to claim it. The Unchained Legion may be on their way as well. I've already warned Heimdall not to let his guard down even for a moment, and came straight here. An attack on Asgard is beyond possible, it will happen. Neither Maleficent, Malekith, nor whoever's in charge of the Legion will stop until they've assembled the Infinity Gauntlet in its entirety." For a moment, the throne room was silent as the weight of Loki's proclamation hit them like spears in the gut. Then their pulses quickened with dawning horror as alarm bells began to ring throughout the city.
"Your Majesty!" One of the Einherjar called out as they raced into the room. "A ship matching the description of a Dark Elf warship has entered Asgardian airspace. Along with a flying Midgardian sailing vessel that is engaging the Dark Elves in combat. Both are sending landing craft toward the city."
The Realm Eternal – Bifrost Gate; A few minutes ago:
Although the people of Asgard generally believed that their gatekeeper could see everything beyond Asgard's borders, Heimdall would be the first to admit that his power had limits. While the power of the Soul Stone, passed down from one gatekeeper to another as a badge of office, was truly infinite, there were a multitude of ways things could be hidden from its sights. Which was why when he heard a engine cutting through Asgard's skies towards the palace despite not actually seeing any ships airborne, he knew that the enemy had arrived. Whirling on his feet, he raced out of the Bifrost gate and charged up the bridge's long metal suspension cables.
Running up the cables, he pulled out a dagger as he reached the top and leapt towards the sound of the unknown engines. His dagger struck home, burying itself in the hull of an invisible ship, which quickly de-cloaked to reveal the knife-like shape of a Dark Elfe spacecraft. So it would seem Malekith is the first to arrive, then, he mused to himself as he slid down the ship's wing and tossed his dagger into the engine's exhaust port. The ship immediately took a nosedive towards the rainbow bridge leading to Asgard, where it promptly exploded. As he recovered his breath from the sudden rush of adrenaline, he turned around with a look of dawning horror on his face to find Malekith's flagship rising above the waves of Asgard's far edge.
Heimdall could only stand horrorstruck as a swarm of smaller Dark Elf craft launched from the command ship and flew across the ocean towards Asgard. As the Dark Elf ships weaved their way through the spires and towers of the golden city, defensive laser turrets opened fire on the invaders. But the elves were too quick even for Asgardian reflexes, cutting down the turrets with the bladed wings of their ships. Flying patrol boats took to the skies to take the battle to the enemy as alarm bells began to toll across the capital. The patrol boats were able to take out a few of the Dark Elf ships, but were quickly taken out in retaliation within seconds.
Back at the Bifrost Gate, Heimdall thrust his sword into its usual slot in the center of the gate. While normally, this would activate the Bifrost, this time, he used to trigger the palace's force fields. But while the force field was building up towards its peak, Einherjar standing guard outside the actual shield generator within the palace walls were quickly ambushed and killed by a squad of Lorwardians under the command of Nebula. The Hellfire Club strike team entered the room and destroyed the generator, bringing down the force field. While they hadn't intended to aid Malekith, only keep the forces of Asgard distracted, the Dark Elves took full advantage of the opportunity to send a single landing craft careening through the castle's great hall, destroying columns as the ship spinned.
While Odin lead his warriors to engage the Dark Elf forces, Thor, Loki, Sif, and the Warriors Three lead another squad to repel Maleficent's loyalists. Back on the Bifrost, Heimdall could only watch and do what he could to slow the enemy by bringing down any ship that flew close enough to the Bifrost for him to repeat his dagger trick. As he finished brining down another Dark Elf ship, he was struck from behind with a Firaga spell that sent him careening towards the edge of the bridge. As the mighty gatekeeper struggled to pull himself up from the ledge, a robed figure strode towards him from the direction of the gate. While he mentally cursed himself for allowing his guard to drop, the woman approached him and leaned down, revealing her green skin and horned head.
"Well what have we here?" Maleficent asked rhetorically with a menacing edge to her voice. "A gatekeeper who's done a rather pathetic job of guarding his kingdom." Heimdall refused to say anything. He knew from Loki's reports who Maleficent was. Instead, he did something normally uncharacteristic for him. He spat at the so-called "Mistress of All Evil" in disgust, showing her that he had no intention of cooperating with her. Maleficent only smirked in response.
"If that's the way you want it," she replied. "I'll just take the Infinity Stone and be on my way." With a wave of her hand, she cast a Magnet spell just strong enough to remove the Soul Stone from Heimdall's armor without dragging the rest of him up from where he was struggling to pull himself up. While ordinarily, he would have climbed up by now without a problem, his disorientation from the Firaga spell and the fact that Maleficent was currently standing on his fingers made things rather difficult. Once she had finished sealing the stone inside a protective casing, she moved her foot, sending another wave of pain up his arm as the heel of her shoe dug into his hand. Then with one final push, she shoved his now-broken fingers off the bridge, sending the Asgardian gatekeeper tumbling down into the ocean below.
Back in the palace, Thor raced through the castle hallways toward the main hall, his friends hot on their heels. The Hellfire Club forces had been shocked by Loki's defection but had fled uncharacteristically quickly. Realizing that they had this infiltration team was a diversion while they went after Heimdall, Loki teleported out to the Bifrost gate, leaving Thor and the others to hurry back to the grand hall alone. From what they'd heard, Odin and his Einherjar had managed to keep the Dark Elves contained in the great hall, but casualties were growing higher by the minute. Thor raced into the throne room just in time to watch Malekith plunge his blade through Odin's heart.
Thor screamed in rage as he blasted the Dark Elf king with lightning. The Asgardian prince charged forward in a berserker fury as Dark Elves threw themselves at him to buy their leader time to escape. Sensing that his opportunity had been lost, Malekith and his army retreated through a Corridor of Darkness. Thor raced out to find the Dark Elf warship cloaking itself as it flew away from Asgard. Enraged at his father's demise, Thor hurled his hammer at the ship. But it was too late, and the hammer sailed harmlessly through the empty sky as the Dark Elves vanished into the unknown.
Meanwhile, Lerena spat in disgust as she stepped over the fresh corpse of the Einherjar guarding the vault beneath the palace. Her cream and violet armor – standard issue for the Vulpeus guild in the months leading up to the Keyblade War – glistened in the light of the torches lining the corridors. On either side of her, similarly armored Unchained, all wearing the same armor in the colors of their original guilds, held a defensive formation as they made their way toward the vault doors. Lerena grinned triumphantly as she unlocked the door and undid all of Odin's protective spells with a simple wave of her Keyblade.
The detachment of Unchained made their way into the vast chamber without resistance. The Einherjar were no match for an army of immortal Keyblade Masters. And even if the Destroyer was still intact, it would have fallen beneath the might of the Unchained Legion. Lerena, Aurilam, and Skuld were unconcerned with the outcome of the battle raging in the skies above them. While the Hellfire Club splintered over the Soul Stone up on Asgard's surface, they were after things that could not wait until later. While a squad of her best assassins guarded the door, Lerena examined the items all around her in the vault as she crushed the false gauntlet beneath her feet.
With a breath of relief, Stick approached the pedestal containing the Tablet of Life, which contained the formula for an elixir the Fallen Ones has used to enhance their own power prior to their banishment, and knocked it to the ground. The pedestal shattered into a thousand useless pieces with a satisfying crash. Another squad carefully lowered that damned Tuning Fork into a protective case with custom foam padding to keep it from banging around. If it made any noise whatsoever, eve just from accidentally striking the walls of its container, the barriers keeping the Fallen at bay would weaken enough to allow them to return.
Once all objects relating to the Fallen Ones had been removed from the vault and taken back to the Ava, Lerena and her team turned their attention to their real targets. With gentle care, Lerena moved the Warlock's Eye off its pedestal and moved it into a protective carrying case of its own. Once all the items they needed to take had been looted from the vault, Lerena pressed a button on her wrist comm signaling to Aurilam and Skuld that it was time. Seconds later, the High Praetor and the Novus Imperator appeared in the room as if melting out of the air. The two Unchained leaders walked briskly towards a single spot in the room while Stick walked over to another pedestal and picked up the Casket of Ancient Winters.
This was going to be a challenge. The Unchained Legion had made three attempts to extinguish the Eternal Flame over the last eight thousand years, but to no avail. This time was going to be different, however. With a nod from Skuld, Stick activated the Casket, and two dozen Unchained, their magic partially amplified by the Casket of Ancient Winters, cast Blizzaza at once. A thick layer of ice coated the floor of the vault as the Eternal Flame flickered and died, slowly choked by the intense drop in temperature. With that accursed Flame extinguished at last, the entire world began to shake.
The Unchained scrambled to their feet as the realm rocked and buckled with the force of an Earthquake. Up in the streets, Asgardians were panicking that it was a sign of Ragnarok, the fated "Twilight of the Gods", but the Legionnaires down in the now empty vault knew better. The eight realms under Odin's rule, barred from rejoining the rest of the world fragments, were finally beginning their long delayed journey home. As the shaking began to subside, Skuld and Aurilam opened a corridor of light right in the middle of the room. They quickly marched through the portal with Lerena and Stick at their heels. Once the remaining members of the High Council had returned to the Ava, the rest of the Legion filed out squad by squad, until nothing remained behind them but an empty vault.
Yes, Aurilam and Skuld just mimicked Loki's teleportation technique and that will be more important later. Much more important. Don't worry, Heimdall's still alvie. Heimdall's section based on the Dark Elf attack on Asgard in Thor: The Dark World. And since I intend to keep Frigga alive for now, I realized that for the purposes of future story ideas, Odin had to be the one to bite the dust this time.
So Maleficent's base is on the moon. I've had this in mind for a while now, and I'm excited to finally see this all play out. The basic idea of a strike on the villains' lair before the final battle has been around since I came up with the storyline for the Acolytes of Chaos saga. To be honest, my ideas for this storyline have changed and evolved so much over the years that once I finish writing Kingdom Hearts 6, I'm going to have a two part postscript: one part as a general "thanks for reading", and a second part just to go into detail on how my story has grown and evolved from some basic and in retrospect simplistic and not very original ideas to the complex, interconnected story you're reading now.
A long running theory I've been hearing in regards to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's interpretation of the Soul Stone is that it's basically embedded in Heimdall's armor as a way of explaining 1) his golden/orange eyes, and 2) his ability to see people beyond Asgard a la The Force. In Thor: The Dark World, he talks about being able to see trillions of souls throughout the nine realms, so having the Soul Stone as part of Heimdall's armor provides a neat explanation for his abilities while also tying it in to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline.