Chapter 15: Loki's Farewell
Sylvia sensed the protection around the room being broken and knew that she could go down to help. She Apparated instantly to the Rainbow Bridge and threw herself into battle.
People were already fighting for their lives against the dead warriors that Hela summoned from the deeper dungeons. Dr. Banner jumped down from the spaceship and turned into hulk in order to fight the giant wolf called Fenrir.
She didn't know why she would choose to fight face-to-face instead of doing magic that could do a lot more. Maybe because she didn't want to harm innocents while on the narrow bridge that was definitely not for fighting.
She slashed the rocks at the warriors when a huge shadow appeared from the fog in the sky. In the middle of that shadow, standing there, was Loki.
"Your savior is here!" He shouted to the crowd and jumped down from the shadow that appeared to be a large spaceship. Sylvia understood at once that it was for evacuation.
She caught the rock knife she summoned from a falling warrior's body and then threw that to another warrior beside from her position.
Then, the round spaceship landed on the far end of the bridge and Valkyrie came out to begin the fight with her nearest enemy.
Not long after, a great lightning hit the balcony of the palace where Thor and Hela were fighting, and the rocks fell down with the Goddess of Death while Thor came down flying with lightning and thunder. He fought his way with flashing lights and came to them where the other three people gathered.
"You're late." Thor said to Loki.
"And you're missing an eye." He responded.
"This isn't over." Valkyrie warned them.
"I think we should disband the Revengers." Sylvia didn't waste the time in wondering what the Revengers was.
Most of the dead warriors were dead, and nearly all of the people were evacuated to the spaceship. However, Hela was still alive, somehow.
"Hit her with a lightning blast." Loki suggested when their enemy came nearer.
"I just hit her with the biggest lightning blast in the history of lightning," Thor said in disbelief, "it did nothing."
"Can she even die?" Sylvia wondered out loud.
"We just need to hold her off until everyone's on board." Loki said, having a serious plan for the first time.
"It won't end there." Thor retorted, "The longer Hela's on Asgard, the more powerful she grows. She'll hunt us down. We need to stop her here and now."
"So, what do we do?" Sylvia asked, not getting the point.
"I'm not doing 'Get Help'." Loki said.
"Asgard is not a place, it's a people." Thor continued, knowing what to do, "Loki…" he turned to his brother, "this was never about stopping Ragnarök. This was about causing Ragnarök." He said this very quickly, "Surtur's crown, the vault. It's the only way."
"Bold move, brother." Loki knew what he had to do, "Even for me." He ran off to the golden spaceship without another word to drive it back to the palace.
"Shall we?" Val asked Thor.
"After you." He responded. The remaining three started to fight Hela.
She was far too strong, but they had three people against one. Sylvia used air to stop Hela's swords from harming any of them and threw sharp ice pieces at her.
Even so, the three couldn't hold the Goddess of Death off for long.
"Hela, enough!" Thor shouted from where he landed, threw by Hela, "You want Asgard, it's yours." He knew that Loki has probably made it to the vault.
"Whatever game you're playing, it won't work." Hela said coldly, "You can't defeat me." She said triumphally.
"No, I know." Thor looked like he was mad, "But he can." He smiled at the fire giant rising from the middle of the palace, destroying the golden castle.
"No." Hela stepped back in fear. The giant destroyed more buildings with his huge fire sword.
"Tremble before me, Asgard." The giant growled, "I am your reckoning!"
"People are safe," Sylvia said to Thor in a kind of reassurance, "that's all that matters. We're fulfilling the prophecy."
"I hate this prophecy." Val said, watching her home being burned.
"So do I, but we have no choice." Thor sighed, "Surtur destroys Asgard… he destroys Hela, so that our people may live." He looked at Surtur, "But we need to let him finish the job, otherwise…" He didn't get to finish when Hulk jumped out from the sea below and onto Surtur's face.
"No!" Thor shouted, "Hulk, stop, you moron!" Surtur picked Hulk up and threw him down. Luckily, he landed on the bridge.
"Hulk, stop." Thor tried to explain, "Just for once in your life, don't smash."
"Big monster!" Hulk complained.
"Let's go!" He shouted and Hulk took them all to the leaving spaceship.
They all watched Asgard being destroyed and the foundations exploding into thousands of pieces of earth.
Asgard, haven for all people and aliens of the universe, gone.
Sylvia sighed. She knew it had to be this way. It was history. Hers and theirs. She couldn't reverse it, otherwise it would cause time to be strangled.
But still, she had emotions to Asgard, even if she couldn't remember anything about it until this day.
She sat in a small room on the spaceship, thinking about the future-history again. She just got into the timeline in her head when a huge thing shadowed over them.
Thanos' spaceship. Coming for Asgard.
"Get ready to -" She didn't have the chance to finish the warning when Thanos' children were already attacking the ship. She only had time to take a few people under cover and get herself ready for a fight.
"Ebony Maw." She seethed at the Voldemort-like alien, "What business do you seek with us gods?"
"Perhaps a little balance." He smiled.
The fight was dark indeed. Half of the Asgardian people were slaughtered without mercy, leaving the other half on the floor, bleeding and grieving for the dead.
Thor tried his best to get a message to the nearest spaceships, but nothing answered back to them.
"Hear me and rejoice." Thanos started his speech, "You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No. it is salvation. Universal scaled tip toward balance because of your sacrifice.
"Smile. For even in death, you have become the Children of Thanos.
"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right… yet to fail, nonetheless. It's frightening. Turns the legs to Kelly.
"But I ask you, to what end? Dread it, run from it… destiny arrives all the same. And now, it's here. Or should I say… I am."
"You talk too much." Loki complained. He was one of the few still standing.
"The Tesseract." Thanos turned to him, picking Thor up easily by his head, "Or your brother's head." He placed the glowing purple power stone at the God of Thunder's temple, "I assume you have a preference."
"Oh, I do." Loki replied, "Kill anyway."
Thanos activated the power in the stone and Thor yelled in pain. Sylvia nearly thought of killing this hateful Titan right here with the Killing Curse but thought better of the future-history. She knew this was not out of human emotions, but she knew she had to let all of this happen.
It's alright, only seven more years to get a revenge.
She still couldn't stop herself from feeling sorry for the two brothers, especially for Thor. He has lost everything in this. His hammer, his people, and sooner or later, his brother. The king of Asgard has his head in the enemy's hands, being tortured for Thanos' further plans.
"All right, stop!" She was glad when she saw Loki came into reason and shouted.
Thor looked like he was dead for a moment when the people light faded away on his head. He recovered a little until he could talk, "We don't have the Tesseract." He told Thanos, "It was destroyed on Asgard."
But Loki glared at his with sorrow and raised his right hand to reveal the glowing blue Tesseract magically.
"You really are the worst brother." Thor sighed in defeat.
"I assure you, brother…" Loki looked at him, "the sun will shine on us again."
Sylvia remembered reading this phrase in his diary, knowing that he meant he would come back alive.
"Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian." Thanos mocked and took the space stone to place it on his Infinity Glove.
"Well, for one thing, I'm not Asgardian." Loki said seriously, "And for another… we have a Hulk." He backed into the shadows when there was a loud bang.
Hulk appeared from nowhere and punched Thanos as soon as he saw the Titan. The two giants fought but Hulk was defeated in the end. Heimdall used his sword to send the green giant to Earth via Bifrost, and it was his final move of his life. Thanos took the Gatekeeper's own sword and struck it right through his body.
Ebony Maw said some rubbish stuff to his "father" about having two Infinity Stones. The alien used metal pieces to hold Thor up when Thor tried to speak, he did a shushing motion and stuffed his mouth.
"Almighty Thanos…" Loki kneeled to the Titan, showing his loyalty to keep his life. Sylvia saw a slight flash of a knife's blade in his left hand, hidden in his arm. "I, Loki, prince of Asgard… Odinson… the rightful king of Jotunheim… God of Mischief… do hereby pledge to you… my undying fidelity." He finished the words and pointed the knife to Thanos' throat, attempting to kill him.
But Thanos was quicker. He used the Space Stone to stop the knife and grabbed Loki's throat.
"Undying?" Ebony Maw frowned, "You should choose your words more carefully."
Sylvia already had a metal piece on her wrist to keep her on the wall, but she still had a free hand. She couldn't bear this anymore and slashed out her wand with a bright green light shooting at Thanos.
However, Ebony Maw wasn't standing there to do nothing. He lifted a rock to block the curse and the rock blasted into pieces. He glared at her and used another piece of metal to tie her other hand to the wall.
"You… will never be… a god." Loki struggled to get the words out with his last breath. His struggles stopped and his whole body was lifeless.
"NO!" Thor shouted with his voice muffled.
"No resurrections this time." Thanos checked whether Loki was really dead or not and left with his "children".
All the magic on them were deactivated when Ebony Maw left them in nowhere in space. Sylvia slid to the floor, her heart aching.
Thor crawled to his dead brother and gave him the hug he owned him.
"No. Loki…" Thor whispered.
Even though she knew that Loki wasn't really dead. He might have discovered a way to create a real illusion of himself with magic. Even though she knew that Loki would come back to them in the Endgame, helping them to win the final battle against Thanos, she still couldn't help grieving the God of Mischief.
She sighed, knowing what to do next when her mind came back to the serious thing she was on. She should get back to Midgard and see to the things and make them happen in the ways they should be.
She Apparated to London, where Heimdall has sent Hulk.
She feared for the worst when she landed on Earth and people were running away for their lives.
Thanos' "children" were already here. She saw Mr. Stark, Dr Strange, Dr Banner and Wang facing…
Ebony Maw and Black Dwarf.