Hello my lovelies! So, this is the final chapter of this bit before we move onto Winter Soldier, which holy poop am I excited for! YAY BUCKY! But firstly, I'd like to announce that this story has officially hit over 10K views! I know that's no ground shattering record or anything, but it is to me! It's you guys who make this all worth while! Your love and support for Tessa really just means so much to me! Your reviews, favorites, and follows are the reason I keep moving ahead as I just adore sharing Tessa's journey with you all! SO as a thank you (and considering we could use with a little uplift) the next chapter will contain some good old fluffy fluffiness before we move into the next movie! But I suppose you'll be needing to finish this chapter first, hey. Alright, that'll be all! You may be on your way! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
Tessa and the others gathered the supplies that Dr. Selvig had insisted on. He had been busy constructing devices that he was certain could harness and control the abnormalities, and Tessa had to admit that if they worked, they could come incredibly handy. So, they all loaded up them up into the two vehicles they ended up needing and all made their way towards the University of Greenwich, it having been the closest to the town center that they could come up with. Once they made it to there, they all split up into groups, everyone having been given their own set of instructions to follow. Tessa was helping erect the devices Selvig had created into the courtyard of the university, along with Darcy, when screams caught her attention and she looked up to find Malekith's craft coming right at the them, the tip of the ship cutting into the land like a trowel, sending the people in its path running in terror.
Noticing Darcy right in the path of the monolith craft, Tessa teleported herself through the crowd of fleeing people. She grabbed onto the panicking woman, who had fallen to the ground after tripping on the broken stone, before transporting them both out of the way towards the end of the open lawn. Darcy blinked up at Tessa in surprise before looking back over to the ship as it came to a halt in the center of the lawn. "Thanks." Darcy breathed out, having realized she had been very nearly crushed.
They watched as a red illumination came down the narrow shaft of the ship before the door at the base of the craft slid open and out walked Malekith, stepping out onto the extending ramp, followed by a large group of soldiers. "Get somewhere safe." Tessa told Darcy, looking over at her. Darcy nodded at her with wide eyes before taking off running towards one of the buildings. Tessa turned her attention back to Malekith, finding him looking up at the sky where a large hole had opened up, connecting this world to another.
Tessa drew in a breath before transporting herself over to where Malekith stood. Thor came flying through the sky at the same time, and both landed in front of Malekith, effectively placing themselves between the dark elves and the world they wanted to destroy. Tessa pulled back the door she kept her powers locked under and let them flow freely through her, using her rage to help fuel them. She looked over at Thor for a moment, her eyes beginning to burn unnaturally blue, and the two shared a look of mutual understanding before they looked back over at Malekith, both determined not to fail a second time.
"You needn't have come so far Asgardians." Malekith called over to them, taking a few steps closer. "Death would have come to you soon enough."
"It is only death that will be found here today will be yours." Tessa shot back at him, her and Thor stepping towards him.
"Your universe was never meant to be. Your world and your family, will be extinguished!" Malekith yelled out, casting his arm out and sending the Aether shooting out at them. Tessa brought a shield up on them, blocking the power from making contact with them, but the force had been powerful enough that it still sent them flying backwards, landing roughly on the ground several feet back.
They scrambled back onto their feet as Malekith lumbered towards them. He sent out another blast of dark energy and Tessa let out a blast of her own, sending the dark energy back towards Malekith. He retook control of the energy and sent it out at them again, this time putting more power behind the assault. Tessa transported herself out of the way just before the surge hit her, landing out of its reach. She then reached out with her powers, taking hold of his body with her powers, before swinging out with all the strength she could muster, sending him flying back through the air. He slammed through one of the large stone pillars and disappeared from view, Tessa having sent him flying far out of the courtyard.
"I'll deal with Malekith." Thor told her, swinging his hammer around, preparing to lift off into the air. "You handle these guys." He said before taking off into the air, after Malekith.
Tessa brought her attention around to the group of elves surrounding her as Thor headed off to engage Malekith, and the corner of her lip pulled up in a smirk. "Alright, who wants to play?" she asked them before one of them started firing his weapon out at her. Tessa transported herself out of the way, and as she landed behind him. She sent out a blast, knocking him though the air. She spun around to the two on her right, latching onto them with her powers before pulling her arm back and sending them flying back towards their ship. They slammed into the side of the large vessel and dropped to the ground.
Tessa spun around as another elf approached, but before she could attack it, it disappeared from view, along with a few others. Tessa looked around in confusion, before her eyes landed on Jane, head poking out from one of the university buildings, with the controls to Erik's devices in her hands. "Well, that works." Tessa said before turning to engage with the closest elf who had not been transported out of the area.
She went to teleport herself behind the next elf, but as she landed, she and the elf both were sent dropping through space, having been caught in one of Jane's attempts at helping. Tessa found herself suddenly falling through the air and the breath was forced out of Tessa's lungs when she dropped heavily on the roof of a car, a sharp pain shooting up her spine. The elf who landed next to her, went to strike at her, but she sent a blast out at him that sent him flying through the air and slamming into the brick wall behind him.
Tessa let out a groan as she rolled over onto her side, pulling herself out of the metal crater her body had created. "Yeah, that hurts." She complained with a groan as she rolled off the car and landed back on her feet, her back throbbing as she stood upright. She noticed Darcy running across the street in front of her, followed by a group of elves and she teleported herself over to them. When she landed, she placed herself in between Darcy and the elves, sending out a powerful blast that sent the whole group flying back through the air.
"Oh, I could kiss you right now." Darcy told Tessa as she bent over to catch her breath.
"Yeah, let's not do that." Tessa responded, turning towards her. Darcy's eyes suddenly moved up to something behind Tessa's shoulder and her eyes blew wide in fear. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" she bellowed out.
Tessa spun around quickly, expecting to see more elves, but instead she found herself face-to-face with a beast so large and terrible, it was like it had been plucked right out of a nightmare. It stood on four legs, was covered in a dark reptilian like skin, had large teeth, and most of all stood as high as a house. Tessa had no idea what the hell it was….but it looked mad. It let out a ferocious roar that sent a breeze of hot, putrid air towards Tessa and her heartrate exploded exponentially. "That's a problem." Tessa said before turning around. "RUN!" Tessa told Darcy, having no idea how to take on that thing.
They both took off running down the street as the beast tore after them, snarling and snapping it's teeth close behind. "Can't you just like blast it with your Supergirl powers?!" Darcy yelled over to her as they ran down the street, the beast close behind.
"Have you seen the size of that thing!?" Tessa hollered back at her. Sure she could go blasting away at it, but it would take so much of her energy to bring something that big down and Tessa knew she needed to conserve her energy as this fight was just beginning.
"Well do something! I don't want to be alien food!" Darcy yelled out in fear.
They suddenly found themselves stumbling forward as another portal sucked them in and they came stumbling out at Jane and Dr. Selvig's feet. Tessa didn't know where the beast had went, but she was just thankful it was no longer trying to eat them. "Tessa?" Jane asked in confusion as the pair balanced themselves upright again.
"Jane." Tessa greeted, this time having been thankful for her sporadic interference with physics. Suddenly Thor's hammer went flying through the air above their heads, but no Thor in sight. "Mew mew!" Darcy exclaimed as it flew past.
"We don't have much time left!" Jane told them then. "The Convergence is nearly at it's peak, we have to hurry! Darcy, get inside and hide until this is over!" she said before taking off in a jog down the hall Tessa had been involuntarily brought to. Tessa followed after her and Dr. Selvig, but as they stepped back out into the open, they looked up into the sky and knew that they were out of time. The large portals which had opened up in the sky, leading to all nine realms, were coming together as the Convergence came to its apex.
"We're out of time!" Tessa said, knowing they needed to get back to the courtyard. She reached her hands out, grabbing hold of both Erik and Jane before transporting all three of them over to the edge of the courtyard. She dropped her grip from Erik and Jane as they readjusted to their new surroundings. Instead of being able to see into the open space of the courtyard, however, they stood looking at what looked like a wall of dark, red swirling wall of energy that was whipping through the space like some terrible storm. It was like a great red hurricane, and the swirling winds looked nearly impenetrable.
"Thor!" Tessa heard Jane exclaim from behind her, causing Tessa to look over to find her brother joining them, notably hammer-less. "We're too late." Jane said, her eyes falling back on the wall of swirling energy before them.
"The Convergence is at it's peak." Erik said.
"Can those things stop him?" Thor asked Erik, nodding his head towards the last two devices Erik had been carrying.
"Not from here." Erik responded.
"We can't get close enough." Jane said helplessly.
"But I can." Tessa said, looking over at Thor. "This is our last shot at this." She told him, knowing the grave consequences that awaited them should they fail. Thor nodded to her before turning and pulling the devices from Erik's hands. Tessa drew in a deep, steadying breath before grabbing onto Thor's hand and transporting them both into the hurricane-like force.
Once they reappeared, Tessa was nearly knocked over by the sheer force of the wind. She and Thor hunched down, baring their weight down with a grunt to help keep them steady. It was impossible to see anything beyond a few feet within the dark, swirling mass and Tessa found her senses being assaulted in every direction as the strong winds tore around them. She could hardly see, she could hardly hear, and she could hardly breathe. Tessa brought her hand up to help strop the wind from hitting her eyes, desperately trying to locate the shape of Malekith in the swirling mass of dark energy. "There!" Tessa yelled over the loud wind, pointing towards the shadow that could hardly be made out. They pressed further towards the eye of the storm, moving slowly towards Malekith.
As they got closer, Thor called out to the dark elf, garnering his attention. Malekith turned to face them as they came to a stop a few yards away from him. "Darkness returns Asgardians!" he bellowed, his voice distorted with power. "Have you come to witness the end of your universe?"
"We've come to accept your surrender!" Thor called back to him before bringing his arm back and thrusting one of the portal-generating devices through the air. It sailed across the short space towards Malekith, who leaned out of the way of its path and instead caught it in his hand. After a moment, the device started beeping as it was activated, and in a burst, his arm was suddenly gone from the elbow down. Thor thrust out the other device next and it pierced into Malekith's other shoulder, detonating on impact, severing his entire left arm.
Malekith let out a grunt of pain, but looked over at them, refusing to submit. "You think you can stop this?" he growled out at them, the Aether swirling down and around where his severed limbs should have been, the attack not having done nearly as much damage as they had hoped. "The Aether cannot be destroyed!" He called over to them.
"No." Tessa said, knowing that now that the devices had all been used, it was her move. She let the power flowing inside her wrap around her until her whole body began glowing, her white hair billowing out around her. She pictured Frigga…and Loki…Howard…Bucky…she pictured everything that had been taken from her, and then pictured everything that Malekith was trying to take from her now. And she refused to fail again. She had started all of this….and she was going to end it. "We can't destroy the Aether. But, we can destroy you." She told him before transporting herself over the space, landing just in front of him, releasing from her a blinding blast that consumed the entire area in a massive explosion of blue energy.
Tessa dropped to her knees as the blast dissipated, it having sucked nearly everything out of her. As the light faded away, she was left panting from exertion as the dust settled down around her, the Aether no longer swirling around them in a raging storm. She looked up to find a gaping hole in the side of the alien ship and Malekith was nowhere to be seen. Tessa looked behind her then and found Thor laying across the courtyard, having been caught in the blast as well. Tessa went to push herself up to check on him before a boom shook the area, startling her. A cloud of dust was sent washing over the area again as the ship's damaged area collapsed in on itself, dropping down the rest of it, now unbalanced and nothing keeping it upright. It began falling forward, the metal of it letting out loud graons of protest as it went careening towards Tessa and Thor.
In a panic, Tessa tried pushing herself up, but the exhaustion of her body left her stumbling as she tried running towards Thor. She dropped back down on the ground no more than halfway to him, her legs suddenly turning to lead under her. She could feel the edges of darkness creeping into her vision, and she knew she was very quickly running out of time and energy. She gathered everything she could in her, struggled back onto her feet, and teleported the rest of the way over to him. As soon as her feet touched ground again, she fell forward, falling into the grass next to Thor. The darkness was trying to pull her under is current, but she fought it with everything she could. She drug herself over to Thor, latching onto his arm, needing to get them far away from the crumbling structure that was descending down upon them. She reached down into her core to draw on her power, but she found nothing. There was no more energy in there to use…not even a spark… and as the darkness washed over her vision, no longer having the strength to fight it, she had the terrible realization that she would not be strong enough to save him either.
When Tessa was able to swim back out of the depths of her unconsciousness, she blinked up at the unfamiliar ceiling, and she found it hard to understand how she had gotten there. She looked around in confusion as the last she remembered was being about to be crushed under Malekith's craft along with Thor.
"You're awake." Came a familiar voice. Tessa looked over and found Thor sitting next to the bed she had been laid out on.
"Where are we?" she asked, sitting up, finding herself still feeling drained, but conscious at least.
"We're back at Jane's apartment." Thor told her. "You've been resting for a while."
"What happened?" she asked him, her brows furrowing together.
"We stopped Malekith and then, according to Jane, we were almost crushed under the ship before it disappeared into a portal." Thor told her. "We brought you back here afterwards. I wanted to let you rest before we returned to Asgard."
Tessa swung her feet down to the floor as she ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face as she processed everything that had happened. She was quiet for a moment before her mouth dropped open with a sigh. "Thor…" she began quietly. "I'm not going back to Asgard."
"What?" he asked her in confusion.
"I…I can't." she told him, shaking her head.
"Look, if you're worried about Father-" he began before Tessa stopped him.
"This isn't about Odin." She told him. "I just…" she began, her mind drifting to the family she would never see again. "I don't think I could bare it." She told him, her eyes dropping to the ground. "After everything, I just…." She told him, her voice trailing off as it grew thick, the weight of her emotions falling down around her. "I love you Thor." She told him, looking back up at him, trying her best to give him a small smile. "And I've loved the time I've spent on Asgard….getting to know Sif, Fandral, and the others…but I just can't go back there knowing that Loki and Frigga will never be there waiting for me to return. I…I can't. At least not yet." She said, the tears slipping down her cheeks. "I just…I just want to go home ."
And so, that's exactually what Tessa did. She made a call to Fury, gave him a full run down over everything that had transpired during the flight back to the States, and then went back to her apartment where Steve had been waiting for her. As soon as he seen her, he knew something was wrong. He had rushed over to her, noticing her distress, and as soon as he asked her what was wrong, she broke down. He pulled her into his arms and held her while she cried over everything that happened….over everyone she had lost. She let herself be swept into the comforting embrace of her brother, and let herself feel everything she had been keeping locked away. She cried more than she had in years…as she was left feeling so incredibly broken. She had never thought that she would have ever found her real family. She had thought it a childish hope, nothing more. But she had found them….or they her. And now….now they had been taken from her once again. And it hurt more anything. And it left her wishing she would have never found them again in the first place…if only to save herself this agony.