"This is just great." Jane said as she watched Thor with wide eyes. The dragon snaked its long neck around the boulder to where Thor stood, so Thor jumped to the other side of the rock. He reached for the tesseract at the same instant, but the dragon moved it from out of his reach.
Loki knew Jane was being sarcastic, but it was just what he needed.
"No, no this is great. Thor's the perfect distraction. We just need to grab the tesseract, get Thor, and get out of there." Loki said, watching the dragon move around the boulder to try and get Thor.
Loki began forming a plan in his head, but apparently Jane had a different idea. As soon as Loki had told her what he planned to do, she took a deep breath and bolted out into the open.
"Jane! No not yet!" Loki yelled after her. She ignored him and kept running, hopping over any traces of lava that ran between the cracks in the stone ground. Loki watched as Thor snapped his head in Jane's direction, his face becoming determined to stay away from the dragon's flames to surprised and worried that Jane was now bolting towards a towering high dragon. What was she thinking? She always jumped into things without thinking it through, not unlike Thor, actually.
~X~
Thor snapped his attention to someone running towards the dragon unexpectedly: Jane. How did she get there?
"Jane! No not yet!" he heard his brother from the direction from which she came from. How did they get here without the tesseract device? The smaller trinket that he left them could only to Asgard or Earth.
Thor was forced to turn his attention back to the dragon when he felt the intense heat of the flames on his left shoulder. He cried out in pain of the burn and jumped out of the way of the fire. He was about to raise his hammer to throw it at the dragon when he realized something was still flickering along the top of his cape near his head. Thor quickly patted out flames that were spreading across the cloth of his cape and armor. The dragon had already spread its jaws wide to throw more flames at Thor, giving him no time to swing at the beast.
Thor could only dive back behind the melting boulder from which he was once concealed behind. Remembering Jane, he immediately turned his gaze to her, now approaching the dragon. The golden creature must have sense her presence because it snapped its head towards her and opened its mouth, reading for another stream of blazing fire.
"Jane!" Thor yelled, jumping out from behind the rock. He knew there was nothing he could do to help her at this point, but he couldn't just stay there either way. Thor found it very hard to breathe all of the sudden as the he took a notice to the heat and smoke as well as Jane in the path of a dragon's flame. Thor's last breath caught in his throat as the dragon released flames that flickered violently with shades of blue and orange.
He finally exhaled when at the last second; Jane kicked her legs out in front of her, causing her to slide on the ground directly under the stream of flames. She glided under the raging fire towards the belly and back legs of the dragon where the tesseract was.
The tesseract's blue light glimmered off of the shining scales of the reflecting scales of the dragon as Jane reached out and grabbed it from the dragon's grasp. She stood up and began to run out from under the dragon, but the beast swung its tail around itself and towards Jane.
"Watch-" Thor started to warn her, but it was too late; by the time Jane had turned to see the tail swinging towards her, she was already slammed backwards into the air with so much force, she went flying at least twenty feet away from the dragon. Thor hoped with everything he had that she was alright. Even from thirty feet away, Thor could see her limp body in the blue light of the tesseract that she had managed to keep hold of.
Heat suddenly rushed by Thor's left side, so he dove to his right, avoiding the flames of the dragon once again. His leg struck something sharp and hard. As soon as he hit it, rocks tumbled down trapping him there. He felt the rocks poke him, and Thor knew he was probably bleeding. Even though it hurt, Thor yanked his leg out from under the rocks, making them collapse onto the ground with loud clacks.
Thor spared a glance over his shoulder to see the dragon winding up to spray flames at him again. A pang of worry was sent through Thor as he realized that he wouldn't be able to make it out of the way in time. His ankle throbbed as he turned on his back.
Thor pushed himself back as fast as he could but the beast had already opened its jaws. Thor could even see the fire growing in the back of its throat, shining across the rows of lethal pointed teeth. Would he die in the last realm once he came this far? He took one glance over at Jane again and took a deep breath. At least she was slowly pushing herself up. She looked over at Thor, and then at the dragon, her face morphed into hurt and worry. Thor couldn't watch her horrified gaze as he would be killed right in front of her eyes, so he instinctively put an arm over his face to shield his eyes from the heat as the flames filled his vision.
The heat was nearly unbearable, and the fire was almost touching his skin now, so Thor flinched and waited for his death to come.
He had always heard people say that before near death experiences, they're life flashed before their eyes. Thor wasn't literally seeing all of his memories in front of him, only remembering. It was small things about the people he care about most: his friends and him laughing at the training ground, his mother running up to hug him after he had returned from New York, his father telling him that he was proud of Thor, Jane throwing his arms around him in London, and lastly Loki when they were younger. His brother mischievously smiling at Thor as they ran from the prank they had played on the maids in the palace.
It all flashed by in less than a second in his memory instead of in front of his eyes. The only thing he could think about then was the heat and light of fire. Thor held his breath and waited as he closed his eyes.
~X~
Sif ran alongside Fandral and Volstagg, with Hogan in front of them. A citizen had reported an elves spacecraft near the edge of Asgard, spying on their defenses. When Loki, Thor and Jane had left, it had been their number one job to protect Asgard from the elves when they were gone. Odin had offered for more warriors to go with them, but Sif and the warriors three knew they could handle it alone. If they thought they could just easily step over Asgard, they were so wrong.
"Do we even know how to take out an elven ship?" Fandral asked, nearly out of breath. No one said anything, and Sif knew why. They hadn't had any dealings with the elves before, and no one knew how they worked. She knew they were big on dark magic, but only a few in Asgard could master darkness, including the All Father and Loki.
Sif felt uneasy having Loki traveling with Thor and Jane. Even with a mortal band and shackles, who knew what he could do now. He actually scared Sif a bit: not him specifically but how much he could now do that he couldn't do before. Thor had told her that he had seen realms that weren't even known to them. She knew that Thor was still going out of his way to bring Loki back from the dark side, but Sif knew better. Loki was gone and was never coming back, but she wouldn't tell Thor that. Somewhere deep down she knew that she missed him, but more of her was glad that he was gone. He had tried to kill them and Thor. He had tried to take over both Asgard and Midgard too.
"Sif," Fandral said. It was only then when she noticed that her other friends had stopped. She turned and smiled apologetically.
"Sorry, must be tired." she said, coming to a stop a little ahead of them after she had kept going for a little while. They were standing by a valley of rolling hills and long grass. There were trees that outlined the hills as the sky was beginning to become lighter in Asgard. Their silhouettes towered high, but there was another unmistakable out of place silhouette as well. Thor had described the ship that had invaded Midgard, and this fit its every description.
"What are they doing?" Volstagg wondered aloud. "Do they think they can get information from here?"
"They may be planning to send elves out." Hogun suggested.
"Well either way, they can't be here." Sif said, observing the unmoving craft. She wondered what they were planning. She had always liked the elves swiftness and ability to fight so strongly, but never has she ever been fond of dark elves or darkness over all. It was a complicated business, darkness, and she didn't want to get involved.
"We should scout it out." Fandral said.
"Okay, but these elves give me an uneasy feeling. I'm not getting too close to that thing." Volstagg said. Sif smiled at Volstagg's comment and followed her friends as they quietly ran closer the ship. It didn't look as… "alive" as Thor had described.
Volstagg groaned besides Sif as they got close enough to see how big the ship really was. All of his friends shushed him and continued to look up at the towering structure. The wind blew through the leaves and Sif's hair. It brushed against the back of her arms since she didn't have time to tie up her hair once they were alerted at the palace.
"Sif, you hair…" Fandral complained. She turned to see it kept brushing up against Fandral's shoulder. It was getting annoying now, especially when it blew in front of her face. "Here."
Fandral gave Sif string to tie her hair up for that moment. She thanked him and tied it back.
"I'm getting closer." Hogun said. Without waiting for a response he began to walk forward out into the open towards the elven spacecraft.
"Wait, Hogun!" Sif called out to him, though in hushed tones. She chased after him while still trying to manage to put her hair in a ponytail. She fell in step with him, followed by Fandral. Sif expected Volstagg to come as well, but she didn't hear him approach them.
"Wait…" she whispered. Hogun and Fandral looked confused but they stopped and turned to find what Sif expected.
"Volstagg!" Sif shrilly whispered. He was still concealed in the shadows of the trees where they had stopped before walking closer to the craft. She could see the outline of Volstagg shake his head. Sif groaned as she and Fandral walked back into the trees. She took one of Volstagg's arms as Fandral took the other.
"Come on Volstagg, we can take whatever is in there." He reassured him.
"I- I don't like darkness. I don't want anything to do with it now, or ever." He said, but he let his friends pull him out into the open up to Hogun who was already at the craft's side.
"Let's just go home and call it a day." Volstagg said from behind Sif. She rolled her eyes and looked back at him.
"Volstagg, if you want to go back you can. No one is stopping you." She said with her eyebrows raised. He huffed.
"I'm no coward!"
"Then come on," Sif turned back around to find that Fandral and Hogun were gone. Where did they go?
Sif walked around the entire base of the ship but couldn't find them. Volstagg raised his axe above his head and looked around as well.
"Hogun? Fandral! If you're trying to pull something, it isn't funny!" Sif called out as loud as she could while still whispering. She paused to see if she could hear an answer, but there wasn't one. Now wasn't the time to be messing around. They didn't know how many elves were around, wanting to kill them with any chance they got.
The only sound was the wind rustling through trees and the breathing patterns of Sif and Volstagg. Sif sighed and took a step towards the structure. She instantly stopped though, when she heard a scraping sound coming from directly in front of her. It seemed to be the elven craft, because she saw the wall of the base begin to shift as an opening began forming directly ahead of her.
"Volstagg," she called out to him, but he was already behind her, looking at the doorway that was now fully formed. Sif hesitated at first. Was this how Fandral and Hogun got in? And what if there were still elves in the ship? Would she and Volstagg be able to fight them off alone?
Despite her worries, curiosity got the better of her as it often did. Sif stepped through the entrance with a hesitant Volstagg behind her.
The inside of the ship reminded her greatly of the elven structure they had snuck into on the dark side of Asgard a little less than a week ago. It seemed like much more time had gone by since then than just less than a week. With Thor gone, it seemed the whole kingdom was vulnerable, and this gave Sif the constant lingering worry that they may be attacked again at any time. With the queen gone, Thor gone, and even Loki gone, Sif also worried about the king. He was the only one in the royal family currently in Asgard at a time like this.
"I feel like someone is watching us." Volstagg whispered behind her. Sif looked around to see if Volstagg's hunch was right, but she couldn't see anything. The only things that surrounded them were jagged gray walls and steep stairs that seemed to lead up to something important, though she knew not what. As she surveyed the area, she could hear the familiar scraping sound behind Volstagg. She whipped her head around to find the opening closing in the same manner as it revealed itself to them. Volstagg looked to and took a deep breath. He looked at Sif and to the stairs. She also turned and looked. They weren't going to get anywhere by just standing there.
"Come on," she whispered and started up the steps. She thought that she could sense it now: the unmistakable presence of another. Yet as she turned and looked high and low, no elves were found. She wondered if she was missing out on some detail that could very well save their lives. She didn't let her hesitance get the better of her though, as she kept moving.
As they climbed, she thought she detected a faint red glow, but then again, it could have been only her imagination. They continued higher and higher, and she knew they were nearly to the top of the T shaped ship. Not only that, but she also knew she wasn't just imagining the red glow anymore. It grew more vibrant as they walked up. Whatever it was, it was most likely what was held at the top of the winding steps. Her legs were growing tired of climbing, but she didn't dare stop in fear that it would trigger some elf attack. Sif knew it was much better if they kept moving.
"Stupid elves… Never liked them… I just want to eat breakfast…" Volstagg kept mumbling barely audible things behind Sif, causing her to roll her eyes. She couldn't help but smile, though. She knew Volstagg wasn't a morning person. She turned around and held her finger to her lips to quiet him anyways. It was only then when she did here something coming from somewhere far behind them on the staircase. Sif and Volstagg both froze, not knowing what to expect. The sound had sounded like scuffling, but she couldn't be sure. Everything seemed to echo in the craft. Maybe the sound wasn't actually coming from down the steps, but somewhere completely different?
"We should keep moving." Volstagg whispered. Sif nodded and as quietly as possible, she began to ascend the stair again. The walls around them began to grow further apart as they walked higher, and soon a big chamber was visible. Sif couldn't see the entire room from where she stood, but what she could see was empty. It was obvious that the red light came from the room. In the middle of the room there was a floating object that looked like it was a piece of the ship. There were two slabs of the grey stone hovering parallel to the ground. In the middle of the levitating structure there was a ball of bright red light that cast light around the entire room. Sif had no idea what it was, but it looked like it was pretty important if they built an entire chamber around.
She walked into the room once she knew that no one occupied it. Everything seemed to be red as it reflected off the glossy walls of the ship. There didn't seem to be any other opening along the wall of the chamber, only the wide open room itself. She walked towards the curious floating piece in the center of the room, but turned when she noticed light spilling in. It wasn't the red glow, but light from outside. There was a wide open window that revealed the valleys and trees in front of the ship. It was then when Sif realized that this was most likely the place where the elves controlled the ship. What did a red ball of energy have to do with it, though?
"Is this-" Volstagg started, but he was interrupted by footsteps coming from what sounded like above them. As Sif stopped and listened more closely, though, it seemed that the noises were coming from down the steps. Whenever Sif thought she knew where the footsteps were coming from, they seemed to sound like they were coming from a different direction. She wondered there were actually multiple footstep sounds or it was only the strange echo of the place.
Sif turned to face the large spread window with Volstagg at her side. No one seemed to be outside the ship either. The footsteps had begun to fade away and soon there was nothing but the silence that filled the ship.
Sif reached down and gripped the hilt of her sword. She felt the leather wrapped end of the weapon and began to slowly draw it out of where she held it in her belt. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Volstagg get a better grip on his axe as he straightened it at his side.
Sif waited for someone or something to jump out suddenly. She hated waiting for whatever lay beyond; it made her feel like hunted pray. She wondered if her and Volstagg were the ones that should be going to look for anyone else in the ship to attack. Maybe they should make a run for the exit? No, they were Asgardian warriors; they never fled before knowing what they were up against. But it had been at least three minutes of silence now and Sif was getting impatient.
Finally making up her mind, Sif was about to turn to suggest they went and found Fandral and Hogun. Before she could, a hand grabbed her shoulder. She shrieked as she whipped her sword around to someone she wasn't quite expecting: Fandral. He ducked under her sword, missing it by inches.
"Woah, hey." He said holding his hands out. He smirked at Sif, just making her more infuriated. "Didn't mean to scare so much." Hogun was standing behind him, and even he was smiling just a little. Volstagg took a deep breath and seemed to recover from also being nearly scared to death; he hadn't shrieked so loudly, though.
"This is no time for games." Sif grumbled, putting her sword back. "Where were you anyways? I turn my back on you for thirty seconds and all of the sudden you are gone!"
"The opening revealed itself to us so we just walked in. We didn't know it would shut behind us. I think it can sense when someone is waiting outside by it." Fandral said defensively. Sif sighed. She shouldn't be mad: it was her who let her fear get her.
"Ok, I'm sorry I snapped." she said. Fandral swiped his hand in the air, waving away her apology and telling her it wasn't a big deal. "So where have you two been?"
"Searching the entire ship." Hogun answered while he walked to the large window revealing the landscape of Asgard out in front of them.
"So what did you find?" Volstagg asked anxiously. Sif found herself getting nervous again as she remembered the footsteps and other noises. Had they been Fandral and Hogun or someone else
"Nothing. It was completely empty." Fandral said, making Sif relieved of her worries. "The ship is all ours."
~X~
The heat around Thor grew and got hotter when Thor thought it not even possible. Only two seconds had gone by since the flames began to stream towards him, but those two seconds felt like an eternity as he could nothing but wait for his death to come.
Just when Thor's vision was nothing but orange hot flames, the heat lifted almost instantly. He wondered if it was just death coming to take him so soon. Thor looked down at his armor and arms to find that there were no burns with the exception of his shoulder where he was burned earlier. He looked around him and to his surprise, flames still completely engulfed him. It wasn't until Thor looked more closely when he realized that there was a dome of sorts that surrounded him. The fire seemed to almost bounce off of the bubble around him protectively. The temperature around him was cooler than Muspelheim itself, and Thor couldn't help but feel utterly confused.
Finally the flames lifted to reveal a muddled dragon, and Loki holding his hand out towards Thor. His eyes immediately flew to his brother's wrist to unveil what he was expecting: no mortal band. How did that happen? The only people who knew the chant included him, his father, and… Jane. Why had she removed Loki's only restraint? Didn't she understand how powerful he truly could be?
"Thor!" Loki yelled. With a wave of his hand the protective dome was gone. "Come on, to Jane." He said running by Thor and helping him up in the process. Together they made it past the confused dragon before it could take a swipe at them with its claws or spit fire once again.
Jane was already hidden behind a giant, thick slab of rock. It curved so that it concealed her on three sides as well as above her. It was in a position so close to the edge of a mountain that the dragon wouldn't be able to fit in front of the only open area in the little hiding place she had found. The only way the dragon would be able to get them from where Jane stood would be if it melted down the rock into nothing. Unfortunately, Thor knew that it wouldn't take the beast very long to do that.
Once Loki and Thor were at Jane's side, Loki leaned in close to Thor to whisper something to him.
"Remember when you asked me to warn you not to make Jane too mad in Alfheim?" Loki asked Thor. Thor nodded, remembering how Loki had made fun of Thor while Jane was possessed and trying to kill him. "Well consider this your reminder."
"What the hell was that?" Jane loudly asked Thor. "You can't just leave us in Niflheim and go to Muspelheim alone! You were nearly killed!"
"I- I just didn't want you getting hurt!" Thor argued back. He knew she was right, but he had a good reason for doing what he did.
"Well you would have died right there if Loki wasn't here to save you!" Jane angrily snapped back.
"Not to mention you wouldn't have the tesseract without Jane as well." Loki added. Thor shot an angry glance at Loki and returned his attention to Jane.
"Why is Loki's band removed anyways? You agreed not to remove it unless it was an emergency." He argued.
"You led me to do it! If I hadn't, where would we have gotten the power to supply the tesseract trinket to get here? No where. And you would have been dead by now!"
"Jane I-" Thor was interrupted when a boom sounded from the stone that they had their back's pressed against. Even on the thick stone, Thor could feel the vibrations of the impact. The same came again, and Thor realized the dragon was ramming its head against the small nook that the three of them were concealed in.
Thor was about to start trying to calm Jane again, but a scolding heat emanated from the stone. They all jumped forward, loosing contact with the rock: the dragon was trying to melt the stone down as Thor had suspected. He could even see the light of the fire creep around the edges of the stone arch. He knew that they had to hurry this along so he started with Jane again.
~X~
Honestly, Loki hated it as Jane and Thor fought. Out of everyone, he thought those two would be the last to get into a fight at a time like this. They were being hunted by a dragon, and Thor was starting up again.
"I'm sorry. I realize it was stupid, but this is my quest!" Thor argued.
"And now it's all of ours! We are all in this!"
"I don't want anyone else getting hurt!"
"So you'd rather die instead?"
"STOP!" Loki finally yelled. "Don't you get it? We are done! We've been to all of the realms! We could go home! Now's not the time for your pointless bickering!"
Thor and Jane both turned to look at Loki in surprise at his sudden outburst. They had stopped fighting, though, which was what Loki was going for anyways. Loki saw the realization of his words form on Thor's face in the mix of the light from the tesseract and the flames that still rained down on their temporary shelter.
His brother sighed and turned towards Jane, but didn't look at her. "It's set to Earth because Asgard is too far off. From Earth we can get back to Asgard." he mumbled.
"Okay," Loki said, glad to be talking about something else. "Now how do we get out in the open to transport without the dragon burning us all to crisps?" He watched but only saw that neither Thor nor Jane had an answer to that. They were in a pretty tough situation being trapped with a dragon ready to kill any movement at the first glance less than ten feet away from them.
Loki jumped when Thor suddenly gasped. His brother was staring at something outside of the stone shelter on the ground with wide eyes. It wasn't a startled gasp, but more of an excited one. Loki followed his gaze to a spot on the ground that seemed to be moving. Loki understood that it was a spot in the ground where a steamy geyser was about to burst. He instantly knew what his brother was thinking.
"Conceal ourselves from the dragon with the steam just long enough to transport?" Loki asked Thor. His brother smiled and nodded at him.
"Get ready to run out with the tesseract and Jane. I'll set of the geyser." Thor said, already running to the edge of the stone wall. He took one glance around the corner, but immediately retracted with a stream of flames following him. Once they died out, Thor turned back and nodded at Loki, so he took Jane's wrist and led her right next to Thor. She held out the tesseract device for him to take one end and be ready. Loki did, and at that moment Thor hurled Mjolnir at the sensitive spot on the ground.
The stones cracked around Mjolnir, and with no time to spare, white steam sprouted up violently from the ground. Loki jumped out into the open air where there were no stone ceilings above them. He only took one quick second to make sure Thor was close to them with Mjolnir in his hand before turning the handle on the tesseract.
The bright light filled in around them and Loki let himself feel relieved: finally they were going home. As of that very second, it was last gruesome moment on their harrowing journey through the nine realms.
A/N: Sorry this one took really really long time. I just took a short break to get myself together.
Tricky-Loki- Thank you so much for the review, the PMs, and all of the news on Thor 2! It's great to have someone to talk to!
Saramagician- I'm so glad to here that you read through the whole thing! And I hope I can make it that long with it still being good. I hope I can because it's the only thing that's helping me hold on!
lwolf- Thanks! I will always remember you, being my first reviewer and all.
2008- Hahaha, sorry the cliffhangers are like a habit that I have. Sorry the update took a while, the next one will be quicker!
