Author's Note: Hello, readers! Wow, Monday again? Mondays are coming waaaaay to quickly! Anyway, happy President's Day! I hope you guys have the day off! And, I hope you enjoy the chapter. The chapter's writing might be a little weird because at the beginning, I was super-duper into it and everything was just great and coming together wonderfully! Aaaand then I lost my energy and sort of slothed through it. So, yeah...Also, it might be a little intense, after all, Thor movies usually are! But, I hope you enjoy and happy Monday!

Chapter 27: Memories #2

The next few scenes flash by in a blur.

"What is it?" Thor asks a nurse standing by.

Jane is lying on a table with a projection of herself floating above her. You are standing somewhat awkwardly to the side as nurses fuss over you.

"We do not know," a nurse says timidly. "But she will not survive the energy coursing through her," she says, nodding to Jane.

"And her?" Thor asks, nodding to you as you try to slap a object held by a nurse away from you.

The nurse shakes her head. "I do not know either. The energy is the exact same in both women. However, her body seems to compensate the energy. It seems almost natural."

"Natural?" Thor asks incredulously. "How?"

The nurse gives him a look, and Thor can't help but smile: she still doesn't know.

"My words are mere noises to you that you ignore them completely?"

The voice's owner strode into the room, a firm glare on his face that did not betray just how furious he was. By the way the guards follow him and his tone with Thor, you guess that he is Odin.

"She is ill," Thor defends, but he is quickly dismissed by Odin when he says, "She is mortal. Illness is their defining trait."

You're eyes widen before quickly narrowing into a slight scowl.

"And what of her?" Odin asks, waving in annoyance at you.

For a moment, anger flares red hot inside of you, and you let a little bit of power flow into your eyes, sparking them blue, before you quickly gain control. What was that? You may anger, but you never let it control you like that. It is too dangerous with your power. Power. Could the Aether be affecting your emotions?

"I believe that their sickness is intertwined," Thor says, giving you a side-glance. "I brought them here because we can help them."

"They do not belong here in Asgard anymore than a goat belongs at a banquet table," he retorts.

"Wow," you say bluntly in anger.

"Who do you think you are?" Jane asks, sitting up.

"I'm Odin. King of Asgard, protector of the nine realms," he says, his voice smooth.

"You told your Dad about me?" Jane asks softly. Thor looks extremely embarrassed and chooses to ignore Jane. "Something is within them, father. Something I have not seen before."

"Their world has its healers, their called doctors, let them deal with it," Odin snaps angrily. "Guards, take them back to Midgard."

The guards approach you and Jane as you edge closer to Jane's table. Anger burns inside of you again, as you glare at the guard. You could easily…too easily…You suddenly stop. Where did those thoughts come from.

However, before you can do anything, one guard touches Jane. Power bursts out from both of you, banging the guards against the wall. The energy flows over you without so much as moving a hair.

Jane is knocked back against the table, almost fainting.

You brace yourself against the table, your knuckles turning white. You groan as you get control of the energy, drawing it back in.

"Jane!" Thor shouts, rushing over to her and checking her over. He then turns his gaze to you. "Y/N," he says, cupping your face, "Your eyes are glowing red."

You blink, setting your jaw and closing your eyes, forcing control over the energy. You open your eyes, gasping as you feel the energy slowly fade inside of you.

Odin is immediately at your side, holding your chin in his hands as he examines the fading glow in your eyes. Then, he runs his hand over Jane's arm, exposing the swirling red liquid inside.

His gaze flicks between you and her, fear shining in his eyes. "Follow me," he orders, leading you out of the medical room and through the halls.

"Where are we going?" you ask Thor, walking closer to him. He clasps a hand onto your shoulder for comfort. You and he became great friends-one of his past-times on the helacarrier was to tell you old Asgardian stories of his adventures-and he knows how guarded you can be when it comes to your powers.

"There are relics that predate the universe itself. What sickness Jane has, and what lies within Y/N must be one of them," Odin says.

"Wait. What do you mean lies within me?" you ask, not caring that you just interrupted Odin.

"You have control over it. If it is a sickness that does not belong in you, there is no way that you could control it," he says. "Let me explain. Before the light, Dark Elves ruled."

"Mother told us these stories when we were children," Thor says, a soft smile playing across his face.

"Us?" you ask, but Odin continues.

"Their leader, Malekith made a weapon out of darkness called the Aether. While the other relics are stones, the Aether is a fluid. It changes matter into dark matter and seeks out hosts, drawing strength from their life-force. Malekith sought to use the Aether's power to return the universe into one of darkness. But after eternities of blood-shed, my father king Bor, finally triumphed, ushering in peace."

"What happened?" Jane asks, searching the book's runes for more.

"He killed them all," Odin says without remorse.

"Are you certain? The Aether was said to have been destroyed with them, yet here it is," Thor says.

"Not only that, but Jane actually touched it. I was on earth the whole time," you say, remembering that the nurse was watching you for five hours.

"The Dark Elves are dead," Odin says with an air of finality. He's purposefully ignoring something.

"Does your book happen to mention how to get it out of me?" Jane asks.

"Or how it ended up in me?" you ask earnestly.

"No. It does not," Odin says. He, Thor, and Jane walk out of the room, but you are distracted by one of the pictures of the relics that Odin mentioned. Six stones. Six sparks of light. You feel them pulsing inside of you and your blood runs cold.

"Y/N," Thor calls, breaking your concentration. "Come."


You wait behind a pillar, keeping a keen eye out for passing guards. You would really like not to get caught and put under room-arrest again. You feel extremely claustrophobic when Odin confined you to your bedroom. However, this time, if you, Thor, and his friends get caught, bedroom-arrest might seem nice.

"Hurry up, Thor," you growl under your breath. The suspense is killing you. You don't even know what Thor is doing since he refused to tell you. You really hope that this crazy plan to get the Aether out of Jane works.

Finally, you hear the door open, and Thor comes storming out.

Smiling with relief, you rush out. "Thank goodness you are here, I was being driven crazy!" you say.

Then Loki comes striding out behind Thor, and your eyes meet. Your smile instantly fades into a look of disgust. You look back at Thor, who cringes under your gaze.

"No way," you say angrily.

"Do not act so excited to work with me," Loki states.

"Well then I have to work on my acting skills because I am not," you snap. You turn your gaze back to Thor. "What are you thinking?" you hiss. "There is no way that he is going to help us, and if he does, there is no way that we are going to live through it!"

Thor makes a calming gesture at you that manages to make you angrier. "Trust me, Y/N," he says.

"Oh, I trust you. Him, on the other hand," you say, glaring at him.

"I have to agree with her," Loki adds. He gives you a smirk/glare.

Thor sighs. "Listen, both of you. The fate of the entire universe rest on our shoulders, and that is understating it. We have no room for conflict. We don't even have to trust each other, but we have to work together, whether we like it or not. If we don't, Malekith will get away with everything that he has done," Thor says. Loki blinks and looks at the ground, a look of pain on his face.

You look between Thor and Loki, knowing that Thor is right. You have actually not addressed your memories of New York. You stuffed them in the back of your head and buried yourself in work. It seemed like the best way to deal with it was to not deal with it.

You grit your teeth before sighing long and loudly. You look at Loki. "Fine," you say. "I will fight with both of you. Let me make one thing very clear: I am not fighting for you, and I do not trust you. Whether that makes an impact on you or not, I don't care. Just know that if you walk one step out of line, I will freeze you into the coldest ice cube in existence."

Loki smirks. "It appears that we have reached an understanding," he says.


You assess the scene below. Malekith and a handful of his elves plus one Kursed are all next to the giant knife-like ship.

You run the plan over in your head again, and you don't like it. But, like Thor said, you don't have to like it. You just have to make it work. You don't like how you are putting yourself and everyone in Loki's hands. But, you did when it came to the portal, and that had worked, hadn't it? And, worst of all, he had a sense of humor. When he was changing his and Thor's appearance and then his commentary when Thor was flying was funny, but you wouldn't admit that to yourself. You would look at Loki, but he would notice. Why would he help you? What if…you cut yourself off. Don't even go there.

You take a deep breath to calm your nerves. This will take perfect timing and acting. You will have to smother your powers so Malekith will only focus on Jane. And Loki. You have been able to hide the fact that you are also connected to the Aether from Loki.

"Are you ready?" Thor asks, bringing you out of your thoughts.

"I am," Loki says, a golden light in his eyes.

Thor claps a hand on your back in support, almost winding you. "Yeah," you answer, rubbing your shoulder.

Trying to control your shaking, you stand up with Thor and Loki. There is no backing out now as Malekith sees you.

"You know this plan of yours is going to get us killed?" Loki puts in helpfully.

"Possibly," Thor admits.

Raising an eyebrow, Loki holds out his manacled wrists to Thor. You give Thor a warning look.

"Still don't trust me, brother?" Loki asks not innocently.

"Would you?" Thor asks, giving a rye smile. He unlocks the shackles, freeing Loki. This is the big moment.

"No, I wouldn't," Loki says under his breath.

Suddenly, Loki whips out a knife and thrusts it into Thor's abdomen.

You shout in surprise as Thor tumbles down the hill, Loki sprinting after him.

You break into a full run, leaving Jane far behind; she is weakened by the Aether while it seems to fuel you.

Your vision slowly turns red, and you have to fight to keep the energy down.

Get control.

You reach the bottom of the hill right as Loki slices of Thor's hand, and you have to dodge as Mjolnir flies past you and barrels into the ground.

You skid to a stop next to Thor, ice instantly forming between your hands as you shoot it at Loki. Loki spins out of the way, throwing another blade right at you. The blade hits you like a brick wall, flinging you back onto the ground, knocking the air from your lungs.

All sound is lost in the pounding of blood in your ears. Everything is on fire, except for the blade sliced between your ribs. That is cold as ice. You groan in pain slowly trying to move. You cough, blood dribbling from between your lips. Fear grips you when you see the blood soaking your leather vest and hands, and you have to regain control of your energy. It's not real. It's not real. All of this is not real.

You force your energy down as you feel the Aether leaving Jane. Get ready, you tell yourself.

"Loki, now!" Thor shouts.

Instantly, green/golden light shoots up your body, and you shoot ice at Malekith's guards.

Within seconds, Mjolnir charges up with lightning, sparks dancing over its surface.

Loki grabs you and Jane and uses his magic to form a shield.

Then, lightning crashes with Aether. The red liquid hisses as it burns, burning you too. You scream in pain as you feel Thor's attack. You don't even register Loki's hands on you, trying to see what is wrong.

Then, the Aether explodes, blowing everyone back. The fire stops and you can finally think again. The pain didn't fill your entire body like you thought it would have, but you felt the spark inside of you being attacked. The pain felt both detached and inside of you at the same time. But then, you realize that you feel the spark still. It's not gone.

When your vision clears, you see Loki staring at you with an expression you can't quite place. Fear? Wonder? Surprise is definitely there, though.

Your attention is dragged away when you see small, glass-like flakes floating up from the ground. "Look!" you say, putting a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"This isn't what was supposed to happen," you say as the Aether gathers together into its original liquid form. Then, it latches onto the closest host: Malekith. You feel it soaking into him and you realize that, even when you close your eyes, you can feel it inside of him, just like you could with Jane. If he notices you…

You don't even move as the last of the Aether is absorbed into Malekith. The elf's skin is suddenly dark and his eyes are blood red as he turns them onto you and your friends. Almost smirking, he motions to his guards before turning and leaving.

Two of the guards instantly attack Thor as you turn your ice onto Malekith directly, shooting a spear of ice at him. Almost leisurely, he reflects it with his hand. Like light bouncing off of a mirror, the ice hits you squarely in the chest, flinging you away. It isn't enough to seriously injure you, and you pull yourself back onto your feet just as the Kursed throws a grenade-looking device at Loki and Jane.

In an instant, you scan the distance between yourself and them, ready to throw an icicle to deflect the grenade. But, before your ice forms, Loki shoves Jane out of the way just as the grenade explodes and then rapidly implodes, dragging everything near it into a black-hole. Including Loki.

You ready your ice, but, again, you don't have time to use it as Thor rams into Loki, sending them both clear of the grenade's pull. They both skid to a stop next to you, and they seem to share a telepathic message.

"Are you…guys okay?" you ask, quickly diverting the question to Thor.

Loki's eyes flick to your ice in your hands before you extinguish it, and you guess that he might have known what you were going to do.

Thor ignores your question as he flies off to battle the Kursed.

Great, you think as you help Loki up. He gives you a strange look, which you return with a scowl.

When you look around, several dark elves are circling you, their…guns? are trained on you.

Loki covers your sixth while you form ice, eyeing the elves in front of you.

"You take the ones on the left, I take the ones on the right?" you ask teasingly.

"I doubt there will be much time for debate," Loki says, unsheathing a knife.

"I agree. Let's start off with a bang, shall we?" you ask, shooting your ice. It explodes in the middle of two of them, encasing one and blowing another into it's neighbor. You instantly attack, pulling out all of your training.

Your fighting style was made to work with your ice. You and your ice flow together, effectively taking out several elves at once.

You encase one of the gun blasts in ice before grabbing the elf's gun, kicking it in the chest, and firing at another elf.

You start to go more on the offensive as they all start to fire on you. You pull up a sheet of ice, giving you time to throw a look over your shoulder to see that Loki really doesn't need any help. But, then you catch a glance of Thor flying across the field and into a rock column.

Shoving your ice sheet forward, it rams into the other elves.

"Loki!" you call, gaining his attention as you create a large, ice staff to fend off the elves. "Go help Thor!"

You extend your hand out towards him, two icicles forming on either side of him and striking the elves away, giving him a clear window to escape.

With your ice staff, you smack one elf away, a bit like using a fly-swatter. "So, you guys up for some witty banter?" you ask.

One shoots at you, which you flip backwards to dodge. "Guess not!" you say, sweeping your hand to the side. A large plane of ice suddenly appears under the elves' feet, causing them to trip and their aim to go awry. You suddenly remember that there are elves behind you too.

You whirl around just in time to see…not the elves, but a large spear slice through Loki's chest. All of your air is sucked from your lungs as everything stops. Ice brims your vision but you are frozen. When you blink and come to, you look around to see every single Dark Elf encased in a huge column of jagged ice. There is a large sheet of ice beneath you, red and blue energy pulsing through it.

Ignoring everything, you run as fast as you can, pushing yourself to go faster towards Thor and Loki.

Then, the Kursed seems to collapse in on itself, becoming nothing, but you barely even register that.

Thor is already holding Loki by the time you reach them. You skid to your knees, frost coating your hands as you look at the gaping wound in his abdomen.

"Oh man, oh man," you breath, holding your own chest as though it has the wound. "Thor, what can we do?"

Jane slowly reaches over and gently holds your shoulder, pulling you away. You stumble back with her, biting your knuckles. Once Jane has pulled you a few feet away, you sit back on the ground. Your mind is whirling so fast that you just don't know what to think. You run your hands through your hair, your eyes sticking to Loki. You don't realize how fast you are breathing.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Loki gasps, groaning as a wave of pain hits him. His eyes flick to yours and you see…

You can't believe it.

Remorse?

"Shh," Thor tries calming him, but he looks just about ready to break. He is holding Loki tightly, afraid to let him go. Loki clings to Thor, fear evident on his face.

You feel so horrible that you want to vomit. Loki looks so scared. No one should ever have to be that terrified. You realize that Loki doesn't know what death means, and he doesn't know what will be on the other side.

"It's okay," Thor sobs. "It's all right. I'll tell father what you did here today," he says, a smile slightly breaking through.

Loki starts relaxing as numbness spreads through him, and gray cracks appear on his face and hands. "I didn't do it for him," he says. He closes his eyes before going completely limp in Thor's arms.

You hear a sob come from somewhere, and you feel shock as you realize that it was from you.

Thor screams in rage and pain, holding his forehead against his dead brother's.

Loki is dead…

You rock back and forth, so many emotions raging inside of you that you feel that you are going to be ripped apart. One emotion bursts forth from the others: rage. You grit your teeth, wanting to scream, cause ice to explode everywhere, do something! You feel so helpless that it is tearing at you from the inside.

But you are going to do something: you aren't going to let Loki die in vain. You all worked too hard for that to happen.