Whoop whoop. Moving on along onto the next part. Per usual, here's that fun old disclaimer that I have no rights whatsoever to anything Marvel. So with that being said, hope you enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
When Tessa opened her eyes again, a bright light shined down on her, eliciting a groan from her as she moved a hand to shade her eyes. She blinked several times as she adjusted to her surroundings and found that she was back in the abandoned building, laying in the middle of a barren room, with no signs of Jane, the portal or the red substance she had encountered. She sat up as she assessed her body, having remembered the red fluid latching onto her and seeping into her skin. She didn't look any different, but there was definitely something different stirring inside her. Something that left her feeling tired, yet full of energy. She pushed herself up as she dug out her phone from her pocket. She let out a sigh as she was greeted by the black screen, the battery having died. "Great." She muttered, shoving it back into her pocket before making her way out of the building, needing to report back to Fury.
As she stepped outside though, flashing blue lights caught her attention. There were several London police cars parked next to her own car and she caught sight of Jane talking to one of the officers. "Well, this just keeps getting better." She sighed, not really wanting to deal with the local authorities. She saw Jane look back at the building and as her eyes landed on Tessa, she began jogging across the parking lot towards her. "You called the police?!" Tessa asked her, figuring she would have known better than involve them in something they were in over their heads with.
"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Jane shot back at her as rain began pouring down around them, yet both of them hadn't noticed as they remained dry.
"Do you know how much of a headache this is going to be now?" she grumbled, rubbing at her head where a headache was brewing. "Jane, you don't bring police in on S.H.I.E.L.D. business!"
"Tessa you've been gone for five hours! I was worried! I didn't know what else to do! I was freaking out! What did you expect me to do?" Jane pressed.
"What?" Tessa asked, looking back up at her in alarm. She looked around then, registering the sound of rain for the first, yet feeling no drops on her. Her and Jane looked in confusion at the circle of dryness that surrounded them. Tessa looked up in the sky, yet no barrier hung above them to keep the rain off. It was like it was being repelled by an invisible force. "Well, that's not normal." Tessa commented under her breath.
Is that- is that Thor?" Jane said suddenly, causing Tessa to turn and follow the sudden shift in her gaze.
Sure enough, standing just a few feet behind them, Thor stood in all his glory, looking over at them, the rain pouring down on him. Jane took off towards him as Tessa followed behind. Thor took in Jane's presence in surprise. "Jane?" he asked as she stormed up to him. Without warning, Jane reared her arm back and brought a sharp slap against his cheek. Tessa flinched at the sound of the sharp impact.
"Sorry, I just needed to make sure you were real." Jane said to a stunned Thor. "It's…it's been a strange day."
"I am." Thor told her with a nod before his face was sent flying to the side again as Jane landed another slap, this time on the opposite cheek.
"Where were you?" Jane demanded. "You've been here in Earth, yet you haven't come find me, you-you could at least picked up a phone and called me!"
"I…I don't have a phone." Thor said, not sure if he deserved the Midgardians unkindness.
"You could have borrowed one!" Jane said, throwing her hands up. "What are you even doing here?"
"I came to find my sister." Thor told her.
"Your sister?" Jane asked, confused. She swung around back to Tessa who was standing behind the pair watching amusedly as Thor got his ass chewed out for ghosting the scientist. "Thor's your brother?!" She yelled out at Tessa, taken back by the news. "You could have told me that!"
"I told you it was a small world." Tessa said with a shrug, rolling her eyes at the woman's antics. "What are you doing here?" she asked Thor for herself.
"I told you, I came to find you. Heimdall said he lost sight of you, we feared…." He began, his mind drifting back to the panic he had felt when Heimdall had not been able to find her for the second time in her life. "Where were you?" he asked her.
"I….I don't know." She admitted. "There was a portal and….Thor I think something's wrong with me." She said then.
"What?" he asked, concern washing over him. "What do you mean?"
"There was this pillar and a….like a red energy inside. There were Norse markings too." She said, her eyes moving back and forth as she tried to recall the image in her mind's eye. "I shouldn't have gone near it, but I did and now….I can feel it." She said, bringing her hand up to examine, yet it looked the same as it always did. "Thor, I think it's inside me."
"Wait, what kind of symbols? What did the energy look like?" Thor asked, stepping past Jane, and looking over Tessa worriedly.
"Like the signature of the Bifrost." She told him. "And…and I don't know like this liquid, but it wasn't…. it moved like a creature." She explained.
"Tessa, I think we should take you back to Asgard." Thor said, growing worried.
"Wait, no. Hold on!" Jane protested, stepping in between Thor and Tessa.
"Hey, uh guys!" the other woman who had been with Jane called over to them, rushing up to them, with her jacket held over her head to stop the rain from soaking her. When she stepped up to the group and the rain stopped falling on her, she looked up in confusion. "Well, that's weird." She commented, causing Thor to look around them in confusion as well.
"Darcy, this is not a good time." Jane told her, upset.
"Yeah, well, pretty sure we're being arrested….so…" she said, motioning over to the police office who had the man they had come with pressed up against a police cruiser.
Tessa let out a sigh. "I'll deal with that." She said, upset the police had even been called to begin with, though she could hardly blame Jane for doing so. Tessa jogged over to the police officers, gaining their attention as she did. "You know this man?" the police officer who stepped up to greet her asked, nodding over to the man who had been part of Jane's group.
"No. Well, yes, but also no." she told him.
"Well, which is it?" the officer asked, crossing his arms, lacking patience.
"Look, my name is Tessa Rogers and I'm" she began to say before he cut her off.
"I don't care what your bloody name is, you lot are trespassing here and we're going to have to be taking you in for it." The officer said bitterly.
"Yes, well that's not happening." Tessa said, going to pull her badge from her pocket.
"Whoa whoa!" The officer shouted, noticing her movement. He went to reach out to stop her hand but when he made contact with her skin, Tessa felt a surge of energy flow from her and a wave of dark, red energy burst out, sending everyone and everything back several feet. Tessa was left hunched over on her knees, breathing heavily as she tried to recover from the massive amount of energy that had been pulled from her with the blast.
"Tessa!" Thor shouted in concern, rushing over to her. He dropped down to his knees beside her, looking over her in worry. "Are you okay?" he asked.
Tessa brought her eyes up to his, breathing still labored. "I…I told you something was wrong with me." She told him, feeling drained.
"We need to get you back to Asgard." Thor said, helping her back onto her feet, supporting some of her weight.
"Step back and place your hands above your head!" an officer yelled over to them, pointing his gun at Tessa.
"My sister is unwell!" Thor told him, angry that he would dare point a weapon at her.
"She is dangerous!" The officer said, not lowering his aim.
"Oh, you have no idea." Tessa told him, reaching out and latching onto his gun with her powers. She closed her fist, causing the metal to crumple in on itself, rendering the weapon harmless. She dropped her hand, as the officer dropped the distorted metal in fear. She fished her phone out of her pocket before turning back to a stunned Jane. She tossed the cell phone over to her, feeling bad that she had to leave her in such a complicated situation. "Call Fury." She told her, giving her a nod.
"Wait! Where are you-" Jane began to protest before Thor called out for Heimdall and the pair were enveloped in the bright light of the Bifrost. Tessa closed her eyes as they traveled through space, the colors she once enjoyed now making her head spin. Whatever was inside her, her body was not reacting well to it. Once they hit the observatory, Tessa went stumbling and would have probably fallen to the ground had it not been for Thor's grip around her waist.
As the light of the Bifrost faded, Tessa looked over to find Heimdall looking over at her in concern. "Are you alright, my Princess?" he asked her.
"Oh yeah." Tessa told him, standing fully and stepping out of Thor's hold once the dizziness passed. "Never better." She breathed out.
"I fear Tessa has come in contact with something powerful which has made it's home inside her." Thor told him.
"And here I thought you had learned your lesson about messing around with strange portals not natural to the realms." Heimdall said, looking down at her in concern.
"Yeah, well at least this time I came back out." She muttered, knowing it had been foolish to not take precautions while exploring the area.
"Let's get you looked at properly." Thor said, stepping back up to her, wrapping his arm securely around her.
"Ugh. Do we have to fly." She groaned out as he held tightly to her, but knew she lacked the energy to get herself there.
Thor smiled down at her in amusement before spinning Mjolnir and lifting them both into the air and out towards the palace. Tessa pressed her face into Thor's armored chest, squeezing her eyes shut as the wind tore past them.
Once they made it to the palace, Thor brought her into the medical ward, calling out for the healers to retrieve Odin. They guided Tessa over to a private room where they instructed her to lay down on the flat table. Tessa did as instructed and as she did the surface under her began to glow. The healers flitted about the room as they got to work. Tessa could feel a vibration in the table and suddenly orange particles began glowing in beams above her, creating within its path images which the healers could manipulate.
"What is this?" Tessa asked in wonder, trying to crane her head up to get a good look at the strange medical device.
"Be still, my Lady." One of the healers ordered.
Tessa watched in fascination as the healer manipulated the particles and a replica of her body took shape within its streams. Live images of her heart, lungs, and all her other organs could be seen in the orange light, and Tessa found herself captivated. "This is a quantum field generator, isn't it?" Tessa said, looking up at the copy of her body. "Man, what I would have given to have this kind of tech." she muttered to herself, imaging the possibilities.
"It's a soul forge." The older healer said, looking down at her. "It runs on magic. I doubt you would have any comprehension of its mechanics."
"Well does a soul forge entangle two fields of molecules within each other and then take the energy occurring on one particle and transfer it across an otherwise transmutable plane to replicate that energy into the opposite field of molecular particles?" Tessa asked her with a raised brow.
The healer paused to look down at her in surprise. "Uh…yes."
"I think I could comprehend it." Tessa rebutted before smiling up at Thor, feeling satisfied with herself that she had proven the older woman wrong. Thor returned the smile with a forced one of his own, but Tessa caught the look in his eyes. "What?" she asked him in concern.
Just then the door burst open, and Odin came striding in, looking over at Tessa in concern. "How is she?" he demanded. One of the healers rushed up to him, talking lowly so that Tessa could not hear.
"Oh, for Heaven's sake!" Tessa said, sitting up. "I'm right here you know!" she said, not liking them keeping her in the dark like a child.
The healer looked back to Tessa, startled. She looked back up to Odin before clearing her throat and beginning again. "We don't know what it is, but the energy inside you is too strong for your body. It has already begun to attack your cells. I fear you will not survive if it remains." The healer said solemnly, not being able to look at Tessa.
Tessa looked from the healer, over to Odin. "Can you get it out?" she asked in worry.
The healer shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, My Lady, but it seems to have attached itself to your very core. I fear if we try to remove it by force, it will tear you apart in effort to protect itself."
Odin stepped forward, reaching out a hand towards her. "Let me see your arm my child." He said gently.
Tessa, never having heard Odin speak so softy to her, raised her arm at his request. He brought his hand down, but kept it from making contact with her skin. He let it hover in the air above her flesh as he trailed his hand down the length of her arm. She could feel the entity inside her reacting to Odin's proximity. The dark, swirling energy began burning under her skin, reacting in a protective response. "It's impossible." Odin muttered out, watching the red power flow within her veins. "Speak, now. Where did you come across this power?" Odin demanded, suddenly serious.
"I…I don't know." She told him. "There was a portal and some dark cavern."
"She said there was a marking made by the Bifrost." Thor said from behind Odin, his arms crossed as he watched, helpless to do anything. "Father, do you know what ails her?" Thor asked.
"I fear I do, though I wish it were not so." Odin said. "Come with me." He then said. "There is something I must show you."
Tessa and Thor followed Odin through the palace, down into its depths, to a place that Tessa had never seen before. As they came out into the large room, what looked like the cosmos hanging in the air, Tessa looked around in amazement. "There are relics that predate the universe itself." Odin said as they walked deeper into the strange room. "What lies within Tessa is one of them. The Nine Realms are not eternal. There was a dawn, as there will be a dusk." He explained as he walked up to a book laying on a single raised stand. He opened the pages and Tessa watched over his shoulder as the golden pictures came to life before her. "Before the dawn of the universe, the dark forces, the dark elves, reigned absolute and unchallenged." He said, flipping the page over to an illustration of the dark creatures.
"Born of eternal night, the dark elves come to steal away the light." Thor read from the manuscript. "I know these stories." He then said, looking over at Odin. "These are the same stories you would read to us as children."
"Their leader, Malekith, made a weapon out of that darkness and it was called the Aether. While the other relics often appear as stones, the Aether is fluid and everchanging. It changes matter into dark matter. It seeks out host bodies, drawing strength from their life force." Odin explained as Thor and Tessa locked equally worried eyes on each other as he turned the page. "Malekith sought to use the Aether's power, to return the universe to one of darkness." He told them and Tessa watched as the image before her bled from gold to black at his words. "But after eternities of bloodshed, my father, Bor, finally triumphed, ushering in a peace that has lasted thousands of years." He finished, moving his hand over the pages.
"And what happened to the dark elves?" Tessa asked in worry, not familiar with the story like her brother was.
"We killed them all." Odin told her.
"Are you certain?" Thor asked him. "The Aether was said to have been destroyed with them, and yet here it is."
"The dark elves are dead." Odin said resolutely.
"So where does that leave me? If it's truly draining my life force, then we need to get it out." Tessa said, growing panicked. "Does your storybook happen to say how to get it out of a host once it's taken root?"
"No." Odin said, looking over at her helplessly. "No, it does not."
"So, what do we do?" she asked him, voice growing higher.
"I….I don't know." Odin admitted.
"So that's it? Is my fate truly sealed?" she asked, wide eyes moving from Odin, over to Thor. Suddenly wishing she had never said yes to Fury's request.
"No." Odin said sternly. "I'm going to consult with the realms. Surely someone will have the knowledge we seek. We will not let this take you. I will not loose you again." Odin vowed. Yet, Tessa found little solace in his words. She looked up at her brother and realized with cold wave of terror that she was dying.