Sharon here.

I kind of slipped away while Jack and Miranda were praying, just planning to get something to eat then return. Miranda's theory works, by the way. I think it was my scarf that did it. I'd gotten teleported out of the hotel while I was making myself a sandwich, which is where the knife came from.

I stabbed at him with the knife. He sidestepped and knocked the knife out of my hand, letting go of Ivy's throat. She grabbed his pointy ear a second later, yanking him backward, kicking at the backs of his knees.

"You'll never take over the universe," she said. "There's light. Deal with it."

A blast of red blew us both back. "I will have revenge!" he yelled.

Ivy was on her feet in a moment. "Not while I'm still breathing, you won't."

He grabbed her throat again. The Tesseract blue sparks traveling up and down her body began to increase, mixing with the red. Her eyes flashed between Tesseract blue and their natural shade. Red and blue mixed, battling. Purple exploded from around them. They both blew apart and flew backward. Malekith vanished.

Ivy sat up, groaning, and ran to me. "Are you okay?" She didn't wait for my reply. "How'd you get here?"

Before I could reply, Thor smashed down on the pavement next to us.

Ivy turned and ran.

Ivy here.

I know what you're all thinking. Yes, I am a coward.

When Thor came down next to us, my first thought was that he wanted some kind of revenge. So yes, I ran. It's a useful tactic to use when you're outmatched in a fight. A moment later, Malekith came down into the pavement in front of me. He grinned and grabbed my neck – not quite cutting off all my air, just enough to make it unpleasant. A red glow surrounded us, flickering with purple and light blue.

"The Tesseract power combines with the Aether to cause an incredible reaction," he said. "An explosion, big enough to destroy this pathetic planet."

"I don't have Tesseract power." But Loki had used a Tesseract powered staff on me… maybe a little of it had remained?

I clawed at Malekith's hand, catching hold of his fingers and twisting them. The glowing in my veins grew brighter as I twisted, my heart rate increasing. I caught a glimpse of Thor outside, swinging his hammer against the Aether and bouncing off. If the explosion were big enough to take out this planet, wouldn't it be big enough to destroy the Aether, too?

We teleported suddenly, into the area where the final battle took place.

The blue sparks grew from my skin grew, expanding to the red cloud. The colors blurred purple.

Malekith released me. "How…"

I didn't know, and I didn't care.

Red exploded from around us.

Thor's hammer flew through the Aether. Without me even thinking about it, my fingers closed around it.

It wouldn't matter what happened to Malekith for this timeline. Just that he was defeated. The sparks and energy increased a hundred times, a thousand times. I closed my eyes. Come on, come on… The storm cloud grew.

"You'll destroy this planet," said Malekith.

I kept my grip on the hammer and walked forward. Sharon had described how she'd made it here and why she thought it had worked…

I put my hand into the red and blue. Instantly, the sparks began to spread over me. I thought about the empty Svartalfheim. The pain spreading up my body was intense. I focused all my thoughts on that empty planet.

And then the burning vanished. As did Malekith and the Aether.

The hammer dropped from my hand and I collapsed onto the ground. My skin stopped sparking and began to fade back to its normal color. Everything went black.