A/N: Chap 17 review responses are in my forums as normal. Thanks all for reading and reviewing.


Chapter Eighteen: Wings and Hammers

Taylor woke from a terrible dream.

It took a long moment of staring out the balcony to convince herself that the sky was not the burning red of the corrupted Between of her old world. Even when she saw the blue sky overhead, and the striking stars in the distance, still she felt disquieted.

As she rose from her luxurious bed, whose sheets somehow never tore under her wings, she stepped out onto the balcony and looked out to one of the many river walks that ran through the city. Despite the distance, she could still spot Thor in a woolen cloak walking beside a woman with long dark hair.

He stared at her with mooncalf eyes. Worse, she looked just as overcome as he did.

The disquiet remained. She couldn't shake the dream of the red sky.

She washed quickly by habit and she dressed in a light blue gown over leather-like trousers before she pulled on her plate armor that seemed as much fashion as defense. She did not have a sword any more, but she was always armed with her wings.

She left her quarters and walked unimpeded through the palace. She hoped to run into Frigga. However, it was Freyr she found first. To her surprise, he was sitting at one of the many open verandas that ran around the lower floors of the palace. He sat at a table with a strikingly beautiful older woman and three younger Asgardians, all of whom were centuries older than Taylor.

She froze at the edge of the veranda, not wishing to interrupt. Freyr spotted her movement, but as she had come to see, the man had no ill thoughts in his being at all. He smiled joyfully and stood. "Telos! Good morn! Come, join us! Family, this is Telos, whom I have spoken of."

One of the younger of the Asgardians, a man close to Thor's age in appearance, grinned. "You mean the warrior who knocked you on our arse in the sparring pit, father?"

The other man, similar in age, added wryly, "I'm sure you've not mentioned it more than a dozen times."

Freyr laughed. "The same! And think of that last time you and I sparred. If she could do so to me…"

The younger man held up his hands in surrender. "Aye, father."

The woman stood primly and stepped right up to Taylor, taking both her hands. "Well met, Telos," she said with a kindly smile. "I am Gerda, wife to that laughing fool for oh so many centuries. These are my beloved sons, Skirnir and Byggvir."

Skirnir had his father's coloring and easy smile; Byggvir appeared to be the opposite, with his mother's rich dark hair and intense hazel eyes. Still, he nodded to her respectfully.

"And Byggvir's wife Beyla, who has brought many blessings to us by occasionally making my dour son smile."

Bayla was nothing short of gorgeous. Tall, with a Marilyn Monroe body and hair so golden it almost glowed, the woman stood and gave Taylor a curtsy. "Well met, Warrior." She even sounded beautiful.

"Come, break fast with us," Freyr said. "We've not even started yet.

Taylor noticed the table was filled with food. "I'd be honored."

She sat, and then waited expectantly as, instead of eating, Freyr took a piece of meat from what looked like a pheasant, and tossed it into the small flame at the center of the table. "I see my father and my mother, and all those that came before," the man said, as if in prayer. "Let me honor them this day, and all days to come."

No, not 'as if'. Around the table, each of them took a piece of food and tossed it into the brazier. They didn't expect anything of her, and yet Taylor found herself doing the same.

"On my world, I never met my mother's twin brother Freyr," she said. "But I had a vision of the ancient Vanir of my home. I saw my mother and her twin dancing around an endless fire the day before she was to wed Odin. I saw my grandfather Njord of the sea, and my grandmother Nerthus of the Sea. Njord spoke to me in the vision, and it brought me peace."

Freyr regarded her intently, but it was Gerda who spoke. "There is no greater bond than that of blood. My beloved has told me that in another world, you were born to his dearest sister. Until you can find your own, you may call us your kin and be welcome."

"Thank you."

"Now, food!" Skirnir declared. "I'm starved!"

"This is your second breakfast, brother," Byggvir noted.

"I took a turn in the sparring pit this morning! I've worked up an appetite!"

The breakfast consisted of pickled fish, boiled eggs and pheasant, with that almost black bread and butter that made Taylor's mouth water. She listened to them speak about casual things, but also great things. Skirnir was Einherjar, and had been fighting with Thor across the Nine Realms to drive back the various invaders that descended upon the Asgardian worlds after Thor had to temporarily break the bifrost bridge.

For a brief, wonderful moment, it felt almost as if she were back home, eating a meal with her mother and father. She even lost herself in the memory, relishing the thought of Annette Hebert smiling at her and holding her hand.

An alarm began to cry out through the palace. Taylor jerked out of the memory and spun half out of her seat when she saw a billow of black smoke and flame on the furthest edge of the city near the Bifrost.

The ancient Asgardian did not hesitate a moment. "Skirnir, summon the guard. Byggivr, Bayla, take your mother to safety. Come, Telos!"

Skirnir obeyed instantly. Byggvir took his wife's hand, and together they led the elder Gerda from the veranda, while Taylor followed Freyr.

The whole palace shook, as impossible as that should have been. They were running toward the throne room of the king when Taylor saw Queen Frigga. Beside her was the very woman Thor pined over that morning.

The great warrior paused and saw his sister. Glancing back at Taylor, he came to a decision. "You are not a warrior of Asgard. But still I ask. Will you protect my queen and sister?"

"She carries my mother's face," Taylor said. "I would no matter what."

"Then go to her. Stay with her and the mortal child. I must get to my king!"

He rushed off, moving very fast for a man his size and age. He was, Taylor realized, of the same generation of Asgardians as Odin himself. Taylor looked around before realizing she had no idea where the queen went to. She found a running Einharjar and waved him down.

"Lord Freyr told me to seek out the queen. Do you know where she is?"

"The Queen's Solar, four levels up," the man said, before he continued wherever he was running to.

She started running just as, outside, a glimmering golden shield began to rise around the palace walls. She hadn't even made the first flight of stairs when the citadel shook again and the floor under her feet boomed with a massive explosion deep within the bowels of the palace.

Outside, the shimmering shield began to drop just as quickly as it rose. Taylor continued running, using her wings and legs to bound the stairs a flight at a time. She reached the third level of the great hall when the floor and columns in front of her suddenly collapsed. She stumbled to a stop and watched, horrified, as black, blade-like craft sliced through the long, great hall of the king below. Marble columns as thick as the great RedWoods of California came tumbling down in a shower of plaster and stone. Taylor could hear the terrified screams of Asgardians as they fled or were crushed.

Below, the Einherjar quickly gathered before the ship when it finally came to a halt, their shields and swords or spears ready.

Why aren't they firing?

The enemy certainly didn't wait, and they didn't bother with close quarters combat, either. Like something out of a science fiction war movie, creatures in disturbing white masks came spilling out of the ship. Sharp bursts of incandescent power flashed from hand weapons that looked like actual guns instead of archaic spears. Their rate of fire was greater than those of their opposition as well.

The Einharjar were badly outgunned in their own palace.

"Frigga," Taylor breathed. Somehow, with dread pooling in her chest, Taylor felt certain the queen was in danger.

Taylor ran down the ruined corridor to the next flight of stairs. She found the queen with her mother's face in beautifully decorated solar that looked out over the smoke and ruin of the city beyond. The moment she entered the room, though, something began to buzz in the back of her head. It felt as if a swarm of insets flew around her ears, trying to get into her mind.

"Telos, what are you doing here?" Frigga asked.

"Freyr asked me to help protect you," Taylor said. "Majesty, I feel...something…"

She glanced at the startled, worried mortal beside the queen, but the buzzing drew her past the woman. She looked around the solar, trying to find the disconsonance on the edge of her hearing. She found herself drawn to a cleverly disguised closet.

Within, she found the real mortal woman, who blinked at her in surprise. "Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Telos," Taylor said, having grown accustomed to the use of her godly name. "What's your name?"

"Dr. Jane Foster."

"Telos, what are you doing?" Frigga asked from behind her.

"Something in her is calling me," Taylor said, only now realizing what the buzzing was. "There's something inside her. It's calling me. Could it be calling the invaders as well?"

"Possibly," Frigga allowed. "But we can defend ourselves."

Taylor turned to stare at her mother's face. "My queen, I just watched a dozen of the enemy slaughter a hundred Einherjar. Their weapons are more advanced. One of their ships tore through the entire great hall."

Frigga lifted her chin defiantly. "Asgard has fought fearsome foes before, child!"

Taylor turned back to the mortal woman. The buzzing had become a jarring hum in Taylor's mind that made her fingers shake. She made her decision. "Don't take this wrong, okay?"

"What?" The woman seemed completely confused by what was happening. That confusion just grew worse when Taylor placed her hand on the woman's chest. She didn't have to pull or summon. The entity within the mortal recognized a far more powerful host and poured out of Foster in a flash of red light that sent both of them blasting away from each other. Foster collapsed into a heap, while Taylor crashed through a table near Frigga's feet.

"What did you do?" Frigga said. "Child, what did you do?"

Taylor's eyes drifted up to the queen, and she saw the Truth of her. She saw an ancient, powerful soul filled with eons of love and loss; of triumph and sadness. The woman's soul was breathtaking! Glancing around, she saw the spirits of the air within the solar exciting themselves under her red-tinted attention.

Within her, she felt power flowing again. It filled the lines of her runic protections, running over her body until it hit the scar at her back. Even now, with this exhilarating power, she could not heal her back or restore her mother's blessing.

The queen drifted closer and asked again: "Telos, what have you done?"

"Whatever was in the mortal called me," Taylor said. "It pulled me, but...it's like I have my magic back! I can see the truth of things again. I can see the spirits in the air around us. I can feel my magic!"

She spread her wings and let the power lift her off the floor. "I don't understand, but whatever was in her gave me back my power! It's brilliant! I could do so much for Asgard now!"

Frigga must have heard something behind her. Making her decision in moments, she conjured illusions of herself and the mortal girl before lifting Foster easily in her arms. She rushed out of the room, motioning for Taylor to follow.

Behind them, Taylor heard a door open and a deep, chilling voice speaking. Despite the queen carrying Foster in her arms, she retained the presence of mind to have her illusion speak and act, distracting the intruder.

They had just moments to go before they turned a corner into a hall where both Thor and his contingent of Einharjar, and Odin himself, converged.

"Frigga, are you well?" the king demanded.

"Thor, take Jane," the queen commanded. "Odin, it's Malekith himself!"

"Yes," the ancient king said. "Untouched by time."

His one eye turned to Taylor. "What have you done, child?"

Taylor couldn't help but beam at him. "I've got my magic back! Whatever was in the mortal girl, it's returned my magic."

Odin glowered at her. "The power it holds is real enough, child, but it is not yours. You hold within you a relic from the time before the universe-a singularity shaped into a source of infinite power and destruction. For all our sake, stay back."

Anything else she would have said was interrupted by the shattering of a nearby wall.

The creature named Malekith had a long, sharp face with equally long, pointed ears and cold, ice-blew eyes. He rushed into the hall screaming, "Witch!"

He came flanked by a massive horned beast and a dozen of his long-eared Dark Elf soldiers.

"Ljostra!" Freyr shouted to his men.

The gathered Einherjar turned as a single unit, brandishing shields and spears, and this time didn't actually wait to die first before firing. Bursts of powerful golden energy slashed across the hall. Malekith danced around the fire as if they were moving through molasses. The burning creature behind him ignored the fire.

The other soldiers, though? They withered under the fusillade of Asgardian weaponry. Two of the Einherjar rushed toward the burning giant, but the creature struck one so hard his head pulped as his helmet was crushed, while the other went flying forty feet down the hall. With a roar, Thor flew into the air with Mjolinr, only for the creature to somehow knock the hammer away and Thor with it.

Freyr stepped to the front line as Malekith burst forward, moving fast enough that he almost blurred. Despite wanting to scream in horror at the idea of this wonderful man dying, in fact Freyr himself blurred in response. His blade sang as he countered Malekith's strike.

He had no answer to the giant, though.

The elves, in their rage and impatience, made a terrible error. They attacked when Taylor had access to her magic. With a flap of her wings, she flew like she was back on earth, and slammed the horned beast down into the floor. She followed with wing strikes, but even with all her strength and magic, her blows just pushed the giant down further toward where Malekith fought Freyr.

His skin was like that of Behemoth-an obsidian shell that resisted her strongest blows.

The creature retaliated by reaching up and catching her right wing and punching it right at the first joint.

If her protections had not been broken, he would have failed. Though he was nearly as strong as her father, her protections would have stopped him from breaking anything. But with her protections shattered, she could feel the bone of her wing snap just like it did when Scion struck her.

Despite the agony, she pulled the broken wing from his gasp and spun to strike with the other. She followed with her fist, using her newly restored power to control her inertia to make the blow even more powerful. The blow made the air shake and the floor beneath them tremble.

Somehow, this creature matched her strength. He took her blows and returned them, getting one burning rocky fist to the side of her head so strong she heard a ringing in her ears. She stumbled, stunned, just in time for Thor to slam his hammer directly onto the beast's head, as if playing whack-a-mole.

Fighting an urge to throw up from the ringing in her own head and the throbbing pain from her wing, Taylor turned to see Freyr, Odin and other warriors continuing to hold Malekith at bay.

The giant roared in fury, grabbed Thor's feet, and slammed him onto the ground over and over again. Mjolnir fell from the stunned Asgardian's hands.

Taylor pulled, sensing the hammer's magic just as she sensed the magic of Asgard itself now, and the hammer came to her in her need to defend her new home. Screaming her anger despite the agony of her wing and her head, Taylor jumped into the air, and with both hands and every ounce of newly recovered divine power, slammed the unbreakable hammer down onto the giant's head.

The explosion that followed sent her flying back with a stunned cry. She slammed into, and then through, a column of stone.

"Algrim!" Malekith's cry of rage and loss lasted only a moment.

Taylor managed to look up from the rubble she lay in to see Odin himself brandish his spear Gugnir. She felt an incredible drain, as if the king had reached into her chest and pulled at her heart, as the distilled power of all of Asgard burned at the tip of the weapon and slashed out.

The beam struck the dark elf in a blinding flash. Malekith screamed his rage and agony, before he too exploded.

The silence that followed felt almost painful, but that silence did not last long. Boat-shaped skiffs fell upon a massive, black crucifix-shaped vessel that hung in the air beyond the open balconies of the palace. It began to fade into a cloak, but other weapons added their fire to the vehicles, quickly overcoming the craft's defenses until it lost power and sank like a dagger into one of the outer rings of the palace.

The floor shook violently from the collapse.

Slowly, Taylor regained her feet and directed her new magic into her wing. She felt the bone knit together instantly. They'd won, though she still didn't understand what was happening. Who were these creatures?

Abruptly Odin stood before her, looking pale and exhausted. "What have you done?" he snapped.

She didn't understand why people kept asking her that, or why he was angry with her. "I...I have my magic back."

"It is not your magic!" He roared the word. "It harms the very fabric of Asgard. Just now, I had to wrest the Odinforce from you just to defend my kingdom! This...this aether you took within yourself does not stop! It consumes all power around it. Expel it! Now!"

"But…" The idea of going back to just being empty again felt unbearable. "It's not bad. It can let me heal again! To fly again. I can feel the spirits! Please, don't make me…"

"Child, you will destroy Asgard," Odin said. He'd lost his anger, and now just sounded tired. "This power you've claimed is opposed to the eternal flame that drives this land. If you cannot give the Aether up, then you must leave."

"You...said I could stay."

"And Telos the physical being could. But Telos the Divine cannot. Even now, child, you weaken the bonds that hold my land together. I see now that you acted out of courage. I do not judge you. I do only what I must to protect my people. Give up the Aether, or leave Asgard forever."

Taylor looked about her, at Freyr's worried face and Frigga's settled one. From the far end of the hall, Sif and Gna and other Einherjar came, though they appeared shocked at the carnage. Taylor thought then of the previous evening with Gna and Sif. Of the singing women and the meat pie seller who was five thousand years old and had honed flavor into his own unique magic.

"I don't want to leave," she whispered. Her eyes stung from the pain of the ultimatum. "But I don't know how to get it out. Can you help me?"

Odin stepped up to her, standing at a height, and placed his hand high on her chest, just over her collar bones. "Frigga, Tyr, Freyr, together."

Those he called came. The ancient Asgardians all placed their hands on Taylor's shoulders. With the touch came an unbelievable surge of power. The power, though, didn't come just from those touching her. Through their touch, Taylor felt something else. Something far older and far more profound.

A domain, from the dawn of existence. And at its heart an eternal flame. With the connection made by the Asgardians touching her, Taylor reached for the flame itself and pulled. She couldn't see how those around her stepped back as the winds of Hel erupted around her. The cold blue fire burned all around and through her, a power driven by the souls of every Asgardian who fell in battle for the past million years.

With that terrible, ancient power, she faced the borrowed divinity within her. Only in that moment did she realize it was not hers, but rather had opened a window to a far greater power. The essence of it tried to surge away from her mental reach, but she hemmed it in with her will and the eternal flame the Asgardians granted her. She condensed it, squeezed the flowing aether away from her own body. With a final effort, she screamed and forced the ether out of her chest.

The air chimed with the sound of a crystal striking the floor.

Taylor fell back from the others, and then sank to her knees as once more her body felt heavy and wrong.

"Odin!"

"Father!"

Taylor looked up in alarm as the king stumbled and clutched his armored chest. "You drew too much, child!" he gasped.

"I'm sorry," Taylor said.

No one answered as the Asgardians rushed the fallen king away.


A/N: The Aether takes the past of least resistance, and Taylor's entire body is one giant circuit waiting for a magical charge. This means she has a vastly different relationship with the Infinity Stones than other MCU characters.