A/N: Chap 6 review responses are in my forums like normal. The specific forum is called Infinite and Divine, and also includes the old responses from Theogony as well.
And now, finally, we get to earth. And no, this is not just Telos tagging along as an extra in Avengers who doesn't change anything. Her presence, and her decisions, will have a profound butterfly effect on the MCU.
Chapter Seven: From The Other Side of the Door
"The time is coming," Loki announced.
Swan looked up from her polyphysics treatise at the Asgardian. He appeared even more manic than normal, even perspiring from the dark influence the scepter was obviously having on him. The skin around his eyes looked bruised, but he clung to the weapon as if it were his lifeline. His grin looked more like a grimace.
"You're sure?"
"My pawn has set the stage. The Tesseract has awoken. It will be ready within hours."
"You've told the Other?"
"No."
A strange flutter lingered in her stomach. He no longer flirted with her-not like before. But he still tended to stare, and for him to come to her first spoke of a casual disregard for the order of things in Sanctuary, and thus his life.
"You need to inform the Other," she said.
He hesitated a moment, before nodding and leaving her chamber. She herself left her bed and ordered a servitor to prepare a bath. She dressed quickly after, choosing only a loose robe since she knew other coverings awaited her.
By the time she reached Ebony Maw's laboratory, he was waiting for her. Behind his hovering form, she saw a detailed hologram of a star system. Though he did not face her as she entered, he did glance over his shoulder toward her.
"It is in the changing chamber," he said.
"Thank you, brother!" She rushed to the chamber, feeling a growing sense of excitement. She was going to be in a world out of her father's easy reach with an ally who would betray them all at the slightest push. It was almost too much to hope that this might be her chance to escape, but the hope remained anyway.
All thoughts stalled, though, as she saw her new armor.
Her old armor had a voluminous skirt of neutronium mail weave that hung to her ankles, and the chest plate hung about her shoulders a neutral, boxy shape. It looked heavy, intimidating and dangerous. That was, she knew, the point.
Maw's new design looked completely different. It started with the chest plate. While the neutronium remained the same, somehow Maw had shaped it to be form fitting and thinner, like something Proxima might wear. It looked feminine without losing any of its strength.
The segmented plates hung just before the slight swell of the chest to protect her stomach while providing her maximum mobility. The plates flared slightly at the hips, where a reinforced band connected the armored woven skirt, but then narrowed and hung down to mid-thigh to provide protection where the skirt did not. That was because, unlike before, the armored skirt was open at the front and did not balloon out. Rather, it hung from the back of her waist.
The stand which held it also held the accompanying vambraces which were larger and bulkier than before, knee-high boots, and a headpiece. On a separate stand hung the newly crafted under armor. The fabric felt thick and dense-she concentrated until she could see the neutronium woven into the energy-absorbing Chitauri silk. Even the under armor was, itself, armored.
She stripped off her robe and quickly pulled on her under armor. It fitted her form perfectly, even to her feet. It left her arms bare at the shoulder, as well as her back for her wings, but otherwise she could almost call it a body glove. It moved so naturally that despite its density she barely felt it.
Her plate armor hung wholly open in the back. She lifted the chest plate and saw that it separated from the lower rear skirt. Just wearing the chest plate provided protection for her whole torso. When she pulled it on, she felt it seal around her lower back and about her neck. Pauldrons swerved into place over her shoulders. The armor was actually thicker over her unhealing scar than the old armor.
The skirt hooked into the flared plates at her hips. As it moved, the light overhead flared off streams of gold and quartz that made the black weave shimmer like a field of stars.
For the longest time, she could only stare at herself. The armor looked more like a dress than the huge, bulky war gear she wore before. It conformed so closely to her body that even Gamorra or Nebula would take notice.
The skirt hung to just above her ankles-to ensure it would not snag her footing. With the flap of articulated plates hanging down her waist, it gave solid protection as well as looking beautiful.
She turned back for the final pieces. The boots extended to her knees, with articulated, armored plates over her shins. She moved her foot and confirmed that the boots were loose enough in the ankles, but fitted closely enough over her feet to allow for full, free movement and secure footing.
When she pulled on her vambrace, she could feel the mechanisms within it aligning to her biometrics. Like the old armor, it had fingerless gloves over her hands that flowed into the thicker device that covered her forearm almost to her elbow.
She traced an emitter barrel that sat high enough on the vambrace that it could fire without scorching her hands. She opened the chamber and saw within the particle cartridge and accelerator coils of a Hructurean-style particle blaster powerful enough to even get Thanos' attention.
The last piece of the armor was the dedicated headpiece. It rose like a crown over her forehead, with a stylized bird in profile. Black, back-swept wings formed the sides of the crown, and like her armored skirt it was woven through with lines of gold and veins of quartz. The winged sides slipped through her hair, almost like combs, until lacing together in a locking mechanism in the back of her head.
The moment it locked, she saw the air before her shimmer as a heads-up holographic display appeared. When she lifted her vambrace, a targeting reticule appeared.
But where was…?
She didn't see it at first because it was propped up by the door. The thruster pack of her new armor was larger than the old. She felt its weight when she lifted it, and a quick examination revealed heavily armored fusion power cells instead of the old direct thrust drives of her old system. Though it was heavy, it was only centimeters wide to fit between her wings.
Carefully, she held it over her head until it latched into the back of her armor.
Fully armored, she drifted back to the mirror.
The door to the chamber opened behind her; the whole space seemed to shrink as Thanos filled it. She spun to face him, and her treacherous heart surged at the look of approval on his face.
"Maw is wise," Thanos said. He clutched something in his hand, but it was his eyes that held her attention. "He pointed out how the Asgardian treated you. You proved your loyalty to me in how you responded to him, but it made me realize that you are not a child any longer. You are a powerful, beautiful woman. Let all others see my daughter as she is."
He stepped to her, and then held out her new sword. Unlike her old, massive weapon, this new version was shorter by twenty centimeters. The difference in length changed it from a two-handed great-sword to an arming sword. Instead of being mounted over her back, this weapon rested within an ornate, jewel-lined scabbard, which itself hung from a neutronium weave belt.
She took it from her father and secured the belt over the coupling over her skirt. It hung low about her waist, just over the top fold of where the rear armored skirt hung. She turned and studied herself again in the mirror.
"The armor is gorgeous," she whispered. "I feel inadequate in it."
"Maw also told me you would say that," Thanos said. He knelt beside her, a massive hand resting on the pauldron of her shoulder plate. While the armor left her biceps bare, the pauldrons did make her shoulders look wider than they actually were.
"When I first saw you, you were broken," Thanos said. "One wing was snapped, your limbs were shattered. Your eyes were burned from your skull and you were covered in black blood, bruises and burns. And yet I knew that you were a being of strength and beauty. You have fulfilled the promise I saw, daughter. And it is right that the whole universe know that Black Swan, daughter of Thanos, is a being of magnificence. But for when that magnificence must be hidden, this armor contains a holosuit."
She looked at him in the mirror, then studied her vambrace until she saw the controls. It came loaded with five separate suits ranging from Xandarian and Kree fashions to full invisibility in the form of a light cloak. "Maw truly outdid himself."
Her eyes betrayed her as they grew moist at the power and sincerity of his words. Her chest hurt not just from the storm of emotion from his praise, but also the dark knowledge that he had shaped her not for her beauty, but to be a weapon of destruction and genocide.
"Thank you, father," she managed to say.
"Come. The Asgardian grows irritating. We best get him on his way, no?"
She laughed at the joke, using the opportunity to wipe her eyes. "He is rather frenetic, isn't he?"
"If he does as he promised, we can let him play with his mortals all he wants. For now, you will be my Word on this world he seeks to claim. It will be you, Daughter, who brings the Tesseract to me."
He led her out into the main lab. Maw turned and looked, nodding in approval. "Yes, much more fitting for a daughter of Thanos," he said. "The armor and weapons shall avail you well."
"Thank you, Maw," Swan said. "The armor is even more wonderful than I could have hoped."
"Of course. Be worthy of it, and I will count myself paid in full. Good hunting, little sister."
"And to you, brother," she said as she nodded toward the star system on his holographic display. It appeared he had a mission after all.
They found Loki pacing across the paver stones of the promenade outside the palace. The nebula from the Chitauri's burned out star lit the sky behind him. The Other stood droning away at the Asgardian of their plans. Swan's hive ship had jumped to open space half a galaxy away from Midgard, ready for Loki to open the door into the protected planet's atmosphere.
Loki did not appear to be listening. His eyes darted all around as he paced, until finally he saw her and Thanos approach. His steps drew to a stop as he watched her walk onto the promenade with her father behind her.
"Loki," she said with a nod. "Revered Other, the coordinates for the hive ship?"
"Sent to your vambrace, Daughter of Thanos," the Other said, relieved to have someone actually listen.
"My thanks. I will ensure the portal is opened in time. Are you ready, Prince of Asgard?"
Loki came back to himself, and then bowed to her with extravagant grace. "I am, Daughter of Thanos. Come and stand behind me. The passage will be...interesting."
Thanos stood with his arms crossed and watched as Loki closed his eyes and began whispering. For all her senses, Swan could not understand what he said, but she could feel a strange, alluring power about him as he reached out with his magic toward something a galaxy away.
"It answers me," Loki said with his eyes closed. "It's eager. Good."
The air before them began to shimmer before, abruptly, a portal opened. Swan expected to see somewhere on Midgard, but all she saw was an unfamiliar starfield. "Grab me, Swan," Loki hissed. "Don't let go until we're there."
She gripped the back of his elaborate armor, and then met Thanos' eyes.
He nodded to her, and it was the last thing she saw before existence was torn asunder in a streaming flash of light, sound and confusion. She fell, pulled after Loki through what looked like a scintillating, impossible tunnel of blue-violet light. She heard voices—untold voices speaking in more languages than rocks in Sanctuary-as they pierced through space and time.
Abruptly, in a shocking transition, she and Loki were somewhere else. Her muscles seemed locked at first as she stared out across an open, interior space. She saw residual energy flickering off both Loki and herself from their passage, almost like ethereal blue flame.
It looked familiar, for some reason.
Facing her were humans in various states of alarm and dress. They had primitive equipment spread across the floor with hoses and other machinery. In their midst, shining brilliantly, she saw the Tesseract.
Her skin tingled as the alien, beautiful energy that carried them across the cosmos expanded and boiled up with the potential to destroy everything in sight. The energy Loki unleashed to bring them there was unstable.
"Use your weapon to gather those mortal servants you need," she whispered to him. "I'll distract the rest."
"As you wish," Loki said with that same manic grin he showed in Sanctuary.
Swan stepped around him, and then moved slowly down the ramp with her hands hanging empty at her side.
"Ma'am, I need to ask you to stop right there and put your hands over your head!"
The human spoke the same language Vers did—English. He was of average height, with skin the color of Ashoran vorshk trees. He wore a patch over one eye, and his bald head glistened under the overhead lights. Others around him had hair, but he did not. Was his bald skull a status of rank, like the Other's dual thumbs?
"Do you speak for this world?" Behind her, Loki stood and stepped down from the platform. He seemed to understand that for this, she would be his shield.
"I do. Who are you?"
"I am Black Swan," she told him. "And I bring you glorious news. My father, Thanos, has seen fit to gift this world to Loki of Asgard. This should bring you relief and happiness."
One of the mortals rose to his feet and stared at Loki, obviously recognizing the name.
The bald one didn't seem to care. "And why is that?"
"Because if Thanos wished this world for himself, I would be tasked with destroying your militaries and slaughtering half your population. But since it was gifted to Loki, I don't have to kill you all. Just surrender, accept his rule, and the majority of your people can live on in peace."
Loki spotted his first target. He surged forward, faster than any mortal. The man pulled a hand-held weapon with impressive speed, but then froze when Loki claimed him with the staff. The other mortals reacted with predictable violence. They did not have powered weapons, and instead fired slugs that bounced off even Asgardian armor.
Swan did not even bother with her own weapons. She spun into action with her wings and fists alone, sending the bald man flying back into the startled arms of his minions. She drew the fire away from Loki as he continued suborning the mortals to his purpose.
Some of the braver men tried attacking her physically—she tossed them away with no effort. Two she actually tossed to Loki to suborn. He soon had them under his control as well, their minds twisted to serve him and him alone.
More men arrived as Loki's new servants grabbed the tesseract from its cradle and stored it in a briefcase. They left the room, with Loki in their midst, while Swan easily drew fire to herself. When they were safely away, Swan turned to study the residual, unsteady energy from the portal. She understood then why Loki said he would need time to prepare a larger portal. A portal large enough to land an invasion force would likely end up destroying the whole world without preparation.
Something tapped the back of her head, accompanied by a loud bang.
She turned and saw the bald dark-skinned man staring at her with one wide eye. He fired his projectile weapon again, almost in her face. She turned her head so that the bullet could crumble against her helm before she took the weapon from his hand. She slowly crushed the weapon in front of his face before lifting him easily from the floor with her off hand.
"Tell me, mortal, would you die for your fellow mortals?"
"I'm here, aren't I?"
She realized that, just as she distracted the mortals for Loki, the bald man distracted her so those of his people that remained could flee. She heard more gunshots in the distance, but had no fear for her colleague.
Though he was weak, she recognized in the bald mortal the same courageousness and willingness to sacrifice that she saw in Augullux the Brave. She knew she should kill him-he certainly wouldn't hesitate to do the same.
But he was defending his world, while she was the attacker. Just like Augullux.
She put the human down and stepped back. Around them, the floor was littered with broken humans, but she could see them moving weakly. "The energy of the portal is unstable. You don't have much time to get your people to safety."
"You're the one who got them hurt," he noted sharply.
She activated a vambrace with a thought and blew a meter wide, two-meter-deep hole in the concrete all behind them. "If I wanted them dead, they would be dead. Get your people to safety while you can."
With that, she turned and fled the room as fast as her feet would take her. She followed the sounds of gunfire, listening to the echo of past shots to direct her steps, until she emerged into a vast, low-ceilinged ground vehicle bay. Humans were running all around in a panic, trying to help those who fell to Loki or his servants while simultaneously evacuating the doomed facility.
In the far distance, she heard more gunfire.
Humans shouted at her, but she ignored them as she flapped her wings and activated her thruster pack and null grav. The power of the new thruster surprised her and sent her ripping through a steel rafter. She fought back an embarrassed blush as she lowered the power and adjusted her wings as she flew through the low-ceilinged area.
Ahead, she could see Loki sitting like a pet in the bed of a cargo vehicle, surrounded by his servants. Four other vehicles followed, though Loki's scepter made short work of one of them. Swan surged forward, moving between two of the remaining vehicles. She flew ahead just enough so that when she hardened her wings and deactivated her null grav, twelve hundred kilos of armor and sword instantly pulled her down. Her wings sliced through the engine blocks of the vehicles and set both to somersault.
She grabbed the roll bars of the vehicles they flipped, bringing both to a complete stop while upside down.
The stunned, disoriented humans fell from the vehicles onto the ground with startled cries, which allowed her to toss the now destroyed ground cars aside without having to kill anyone. The last vehicle had been pushed by her attack into a pillar, and the slim female behind the drive wheel stared at her with a stunned expression.
With her job done and Loki's vehicle safe, she launched herself forward again.
She emerged into a dry night sky. Tiny wisps of clouds obscured a field of stars that seemed to stretch almost as far and deep as if she were back in Sanctuary.
Loki's vehicle left the paved path and began driving over a dirt pathway. In the distance, a cumbersome, primitive rotor-driven aircraft lifted off and began to approach. With a turn of her wing, Swan left her partner and flew toward the aircraft.
She fired her vambrace at a tenth its normal power-the blast sheared the rotors away from the aircraft. It began dropping like a stone until she flew under it and halted its fall a few feet from the ground. She laid it out sideways before launching herself once more into the night sky.
She caught up with the ground vehicle moments later. The ensorcelled humans stared at her in awe-their wills were suborned, but their intellects had to remain intact to be of any use to Loki. For his part, Loki stared up at her with a smirk.
"You were much more gentle with them than I would have expected from the Butcher of Ahl-Agulla."
If not for her thruster pack, Swan would have fallen when his words hit. He grinned up at her with that same manic expression he wore on Sanctuary, knowing full well what his words would do. When the shock passed through her, only anger remained.
He had only a moment to look alarmed before she swooped down, grabbed him by his armor, and then used the vastly more powerful thruster pack to send both hurtling into the air. A hundred feet up, she threw him forward like a toy.
The mortals below brought their vehicle to a halt as their master went flailing through the air until he crashed into a low, shrub-crowned hillock. Swan flew down moments after.
Loki turned his scepter on her, only for her to bat it easily away with a wing and grab his neck. "Twice I've saved your life, you worm," she hissed. "I plucked you from the void, and then I talked my father into sparing you. And this is how you repay me? You cast insults at me?"
"You jeopardize the mission by treating them too softly," Loki said as he dangled off the ground. "Would your father approve?"
"My father sent me to make sure you don't betray him, not slaughter the population. Remember that, Asgardian. If you even think of betraying my father, I will crush your skull with my bare hands!"
"Ohhh, lovely and violent," he said still with that brazen smile. "My brother will love you. He'll come soon enough. And I promise you, Black Swan, if you treat Thor of Asgard with kid gloves, you will be crushed into paste."
Still shaking from her anger, she dropped him to the dirt. "Do not call me that again," she demanded. "I may not be able to kill you, but I can cut a limb off and you can still serve your purpose."
The mortals drove closer. One, a heavy set older man, stumbled out of the vehicle. "Loki? We need to go soon. They'll be tracking us."
"Are we done playing?" Loki demanded.
Swan had no idea what he meant, but was sure it was an insult. "For now. What next?"
"First, we find a place to hide and begin work," Loki said. He smiled at her again. "I have to tell, you, dear, you are not going to fit in very well with those wings."
With a touch of her vambrace, she activated the holographic infiltration suit in her right vambrace. She felt the air cool slightly as a shimmering hologram hid her wings completely. Loki blinked, then bowed his head. "Very well. Let's get moving, shall we?"
