After the funeral of the Queen of Asgard, Thor escorts me back to my chambers. I walk in and head towards the balcony. I lean my forearms against the railing and feel my shoulders slump. I hear the heavy footfalls of Thor's boots hitting the stone; I can feel the heat generating off of his body.

"Does it get easier?" His voice rough with emotion.

I turn my head slightly and peak through my hair, "You're asking the wrong person, bud."

He smiles lightly, "You lost your parents, Nikki."

"When I was a child. I have very little to no memories of them."

"You have experienced more pain than every person I know, Nikki. You know pain, you know what it is like to be lost." I put my head down as he talks.

I sigh heavily, and he turns his head towards me, "When HYDRA first took me, I would be locked in a cell or chained to a bed. I would cry for my mother or father to come and save me. Growing up, I had panic attacks because I couldn't control what was happening, and I was waiting for more and more punishments. I still remember all the needles being jabbed into my skin, the chains biting my skin, and rubbing them raw until they bled. I can still feel the cold surrounding me, the pitch-black walls of my cell."

"Nikolina, I had no idea."

I chuckle bitterly, "Why would you? I didn't want anyone to know. They don't even know what happened the last time I got captured."

"When were you captured?"

"Almost four months ago. I was on a mission, I got captured and experimented on me. They did something to me; they wanted me to be stronger, faster, and more ruthless. I escaped, I guess they got what they wanted because I killed everyone there."

Thor's jaw clenched tightly, I see the muscles tick in anger, "Can I see what they did to you?"

I sigh before turning my body to face him; he does the same, soon we are standing facing each other. I look deep into his eyes before I close my own, I feel my teeth elongate, my nails grow out to a sharp point, and I sense my eyes change color. I open my now red eyes and look into Thor's ocean blue. I hear him gasp so quietly that I wouldn't be able to listen to it without my enhanced hearing.

I keep my eyes locked with his, Thor's hand comes up and cups the side of my head ever so gently. His thumb brushes my cheekbone before trailing down my jaw; I feel his thumb run over my fang. It lightly pricks the skin, but he remains unfazed, he heavily sighs before he looks down at my nails.

"Oh, Nikki. I am so sorry. What did they inject you with?"

"Multiple types of wolf blood. They thought it would be ironic seeing that my last name means wolf in Russian."

"They are cruel human beings. They got what was coming to them for what they did to you." He says strongly.

"Yeah." I chuckle slightly, "They made me train with my new powers."

"Come, I want to show you something." I quirk my eyebrow at him, and he smiles gently before taking my hand, pulling on it.

We travel down multiple hallways before we are standing at two large doors. Thor pushes the doors open, and I see numerous weapons lining the walls from shields, to knives, to swords, to bows and arrows. He walks over a chest and flips the top open, he reaches in, and I see the muscles in his arms flex as he grabs something. He walks over to me and presents two beautiful swords.

"Thor?"

He smiles before holding them out slightly, "I had these made for you when I returned home with Loki. You have proven your worth by fighting side by side with my mother. I have told my people about your fighting and how you are a wonderful warrior. Sif has come to admire you greatly; the Warriors Three want to train with you."

"Why would you tell them about me? I am a nobody."

He shakes his head, "You aren't a nobody. You are one of the greatest warriors I have ever fought with; I told everyone on Asgard about you because I wanted everyone to know about the new friend I made. I asked my father if I could have these swords crafted just for you, and he gave me his approval. This is some of the strongest metal in Asgard; these are made just for you."

I grab them from Thor's hand and hold them ever so gently; I ran my hand lightly over the blade. I run my finger over the wolf head on the sword, and I twirled the sword around in my hand, testing the weight. I see a notch on one of them and a spike in the top of the other, I furrow my eyebrows in confusion before looking at Thor.

He gently chuckles at my look, "Here." I hand them back over to him, he slams the two tops together, and I hear a click. I see that they lock together to make one long staff, I grab it back from him in excitement. A smile spreads across my face as I look over my new weapon.

"Thank you, Thor." I turn the staff back into two swords, and Thor helps me place them on my back in their sheath. We have them put on my back and strapped on when there is a knock on the door.

"Sorry, Your Highness. I have news that Jane Foster is now a prisoner of Asgard." A guard says in a quiet but respectful tone.

I see Thor look at me with anger in his eyes and nods his head. The guard disappeared down the hall and around a corner, Thor tells me he is going to find his father and for me to return to my room. We part ways, and I made it back to my room, I sit on one of the couches that are in there and find a book to read.

I hear a knock on my door, and I get up from my spot and cautiously make my way to the door. My hand on one of my knives, I open the door, and I see Sif standing just outside the doorway. I walk out slightly and greet her quietly while scanning the area.

"Sif, what are you doing here?" She hushes me slightly.

"We are taking the Aether out of Asgard. We need you, meet Thor in the throne room. Jane Foster is already there."

"All right."

We make our way to the throne room when I three voices conversing. "I'm Loki. You may have heard of me."

I reach them when I see Jane bring her hand back and hit Loki right across the face, "That was for New York."
Loki chuckles and turns to Thor, "I like her."

"If you like her, then you are going to love me," I say in a taunting tone.

Loki spins on his heel, a look of horror on his face, "Nikolina Volkov."

"Awe, you remember me." A sickeningly sweet tone in my voice.

"Who can ever forget you?" I smile sweetly before my eyes flash black. He jumps back in fear, trying to put some space between himself and me.

Thor places himself between Loki and me, "We need to move." He turns toward me and whispers, "Not here. Not now." I nod slightly before looking over to Loki.

I hear two voices shout and a bunch of rapid footsteps, "There they are! Take them!" Another soldier says, "On my command."

Thor and I go to take a step forward; I reach to my back to grasp my sword when Sif stops us. We look toward her, and she tells us to get on the ship, I nod my head in thanks as I follow Jane and Thor onto the boat. Jane walks around the center console towards the front of the vessel; I plant myself next to the console on the left side of Thor. A moment later, Loki wanders into the pit and walks up right next to his brother; Thor begins to push random buttons in a hard and rapid fashion.

"I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing." Loki probes Thor while I nod slightly in agreement.

"I said 'How hard could it be?'" Thor shoots back.

I look out the window and say, "Uh Thor, I think we should be moving things alone. Soldiers are surrounding us."

"Well, whatever you are doing, brother, I suggest you do it faster." Loki is beginning to irritate Thor, annoyance writing on the older brother's face.

"Shut up, Loki." I snicker lightly into my hand, listening to them argue.

"You must have missed something."

"No, I didn't. I'm pressing every button on this thing." His hands are running over all the buttons.

"No, don't hit it. Just press it gently." Loki advised his brother while I am on the brink of hysterical laughter.

Thor begins slamming his hands on the console, "I am pressing it gently! It's not working!"

I look up as the lights come to life. I hear Thor's cheer of triumph, "Haha!"

Thor's hands move to the side as he grabs the controls that fly the ship, the engines roared to life, and we began to hover. Thor slowly rotates the vessel and in the process takes out all of the columns in the throne room, I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose as I watch everything crumble to the ground.

"I think you missed a column." Loki and I chime together.

Thor turns his head towards me before looking forward, "Shut up!"

The ship burst through the walls of the throne room and out into the city of Asgard, "Look, why don't I take over? I am clearly the best pilot." I shoot Loki a look as he speaks.

"Is that right? Well, out of the two of us, which one of us can fly?"

I sigh at their sibling squabble before speaking, "Can I try? I would do better than both of you combined."

They both give me an affronted look, I raise my eyebrow at them, and they shake their heads at me. I roll my eyes in annoyance before looking out the window. I see the city of Asgard below us; my attention moves towards Jane when she falls to the ground of the ship.

"Oh, dear, is she dead?" I hear the insincerity of Loki's voice.

"Jane!" Thor asks worriedly before shifting his eyes to me in a panic. He wanted me to check on her, but I just shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm okay." The meek reply makes it past Jane's lips. We all jolt a little as a blast hits the ship.

Thor swoops a little too close to a building and chops the top of it up; I look over to Thor with my eyebrows raised and move my head in a 'Dude, seriously' motion. Loki goes to open his mouth.

"Not a word out of the two of you."

I look out the window, and I see three Asgardian battleships chasing after us. "Uhhhh, we may have a slight problem."

Loki looks out the window, "Now they're following us."

The sounds of weapons reach my ears, "The slight problem has become a big problem." I tell Thor.

"Now, they're firing at us." Loki begins to annoy Thor even more.

"Yes, thank you for the commentary, Loki, and Nikki, it's not at all distracting!" The annoyance is evident in Thor's voice.

We swoop down towards a tunnel, and the wing of the ship slices through a giant stone statue at the neck, "Well done; you just decapitated your grandfather."

"Dude, you suck at this," I say right after Loki. Thor throws me a deadpanned look before focusing back on flying.

We dodge a couple more shots at us before we drop beside a bridge, "You know, this is wonderful. This is a tremendous idea. Let's steal the biggest, the most obvious ship in the universe and escape in that. Flying around the city, smashing into everything in sight so everyone can see us. It's brilliant, Thor! It's truly brilliant." I can see that Loki words were annoying Thor before he finally snapped, Thor let out a growl, reached over and pushed Loki out of the window.

I raise my eyebrows for a moment before shrugging my shoulders, "Is he always like that?" I point to where he was standing a second ago.

Thor shrugs his shoulders at me, "Fair enough." I say before I walk over to the window. Thor walks over to Jane and lifts her into his arms, and he nods to me, and I jump out the window with him right on my tail.

I land on my feet in a gold Asgardian ship with Fandral steering it; I move out of the way just in time because Thor precisely lands where I was a second ago. "I see your time in the dungeons has made you no less graceful, Loki," Fandral says, chuckling. I watch as the Asgardian ships chase after the Elven one while still firing at it.

"You lied to me. I'm impressed." Loki says to Thor, who is laying Jane down on the bench.

"I am glad that you are pleased. Now do as you promised and take us to your secret pathway." Loki bows his head, and he and Fandral switch positions. I watch Loki with wary eyes as his hands grab the stick, we begin to speed up, and the wind starts to whip around my hair. Thor and I spin at the sound of shots being fired at us; we start making zig-zag motions to try and avoid being shot. Loki lifts the ship into the air, and we begin to fly.

"Fandral." Thor says, said man stans up at Thor's words, "Right. For Asgard." He grabs the rope on the side of the ship and jumps onto the Asgardian ship. He beats up the soldiers and salutes Thor and me, and we nod in agreement.

We move towards a small hole in the mountain, "Loki." Thor says in a warning tone.

"If it were easier, everyone would do it." He speeds up even faster towards the hole.

"Are you mad?" Thor grabs my waist and bends me down underneath him, protecting me, and he places his hand on Jane's arm.

"Possibly," Loki said, he brings the ship into the hole in the wall. I see sparks flying into the air due to us scraping the wall,

I see brief flashes of multi-colored lights before we are transferred to another world. We land in a barren wasteland that was black and grey.

"Ta-da!" Loki says as we fly through the planet.

Thor fixes the blanket on Jane, and he leads me to a bench for me to sit on while we travel. I sit there and look over the side of the ship; I hear Loki and Thor talking about the fact that Jane won't live forever, and Thor will. They begin to fight over the fact that Loki was locked up, and Thor couldn't protect her. Thor shoves Loki against the side of the ship, and I stand up and pull out a dagger, Thor walks away from Loki and takes the knife from my hand and places it back in its holster.

We ended up flying to an empty field and exit the ship, Loki leads us up a hill, and we follow after him with Thor behind all of us. Thor and Loki walk ahead of us, I stay behind and guard Jane. I grab the swords that Thor gave me and pull them out of the sheaths, I point them at Loki when he throws Thor down the hill, I go to lunge at him, but he kicks me down the mountain.

Jane runs down the side of the hill towards Thor while I manipulate my weight and land on my feet. I sprint towards Loki when I see that he cut off Thor's hand, I run towards him and stand by Thor's side and point the sword at Loki's face. I see fear creep into his eyes, and my eyes turn red. He throws his dagger into my shoulder, and I fall to the ground, Loki grabs Jane and hands her over to Malekith, he lifts Jane into the air by using his powers and begins to extract the Aether from Jane.

Jane falls to the ground once the Aether is out of her body, the scientist yells to Loki, and the illusion falls, Thor's hand is still attached to his wrist, and the dagger isn't in my shoulder. Loki runs and tackles me to the ground and covers both Jane and me with his body as Thor raises his hammer and electrocutes the Aether. There is a loud boom, and the loud explosion shakes our surroundings.

We are slowly getting out of our crouch when we see the Aether slowly piecing itself together. It returns itself into its standard form, and then it enters Malekith. After it all absorbs into Malekith's body, he slowly raises his head to look at us. I see his eyes are the same as Jane's are, he turns to his fugly looking minion and nod before walking away. As Malekith turns his back to us, the rest of his minions move towards us with their weapons raised.

Thor walks forward and swings his hammer, knocking it into the soldiers. The biggest minion throws a weird-looking grenade at us, I receive a shove from Loki, and I take that as a sign to run. I grab Jane by the collar and drag her with me as I run. I spin around in time to Loki being sucked up into a hole, but Thor saves him, and they crash into the ground.
"NIKKI!" I turn to see Thor nod to the soldiers, and I bow my head in understanding.

I grab my swords from my back and begin to make my way towards the elves. As one approaches me, I swing my sword to the side, causing him to lean to the left to avoid being hit, but it left him wide open for my other sword; I bring up my left hand and jam my sword into his torso. I rip my sword out in a rough motion, and the body flops to my feet. I am greeted by two other elves running at me, I swing my left hand, and it makes contact, but I get hit by one of their swords in my ribs, I groan in pain before I swing my arm around my head and slice off both of the elves' heads.

I look around to see Thor being beaten by the weird horn creature, and Loki and I make our way over to him. Loki slams a sword through the monster's body, and in retaliation, the monster picks up Loki and impales him too. I gasp, and I grab my sword and plunge it into his abdomen before dragging it upward through his whole body and out his shoulder.
Loki is thrown to the floor, and I am shoved beside him, "See you in hell, monster." Loki says, and soon the creature is enveloped into a hole created by the bomb Loki set off.

Thor runs over to Loki and pulls Loki into his arms, "No. No, no, no. You fool. You didn't listen."

"I know. I am a fool. I am a fool." Loki gasps through the pain of his abdomen. I kneel over him and place my hand directly over the hole and apply pressure.

"Stay with me, okay?" The desperate plea of Thor rings through the air.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." a gasping Loki says. Thor holds him ever so gently, "Shhhh. It's okay. It's all right. I'll tell father what you did here today."

The desperate gasps of air, "I didn't do it for him." Those are the last words of Loki. I watch as his skin turns a dark blue, almost black color, and his eyes slowly close as his head falls gently back.

"NO!" I can hear the anguish and the grief ringing loud and clear through Thor's voice. He continues to hold his brother in his arms even as Jane walks up to us. We all make eye contact before Thor lays his brother on the ground and stand up. I stay kneeling for a moment and take out a small dagger and cut a piece of Loki's hair off.

I get up from my crouch and stash the hair away, I turn around and begin walking away. I peek over my shoulder one last time before I follow after Thor and Jane.

We still have another fight that's coming. And we need to be ready.