Natasha was pleased to see that Gamora had shown up and was rounding up the quickly arriving troops by the time that Thor and Natasha got there, her green skin already slick with sweat and her brown eyes finding Natasha's as soon as the pair of them came into view. Already swarms of the Aesir, Midgardians, and few Vanir that had traversed before the death of Dra'ace were being pulled into the city, sequestered into the shelters that Loki and Frigga had designed for this very day. There wouldn't be much room to fight the Elves, not without severe destruction to the land, but what protective space they could find would be defended. From the corner of her eye she could see Jane struggling to get to them, shoving Darcy away even as the dark haired woman shouted for her. Natasha faltered, calling for Thor to keep going and help Gamora round up those who could fight while she turned back and booked it towards Jane. Her eyes had gone red, glazed over with what Natasha was coming to associate with the Aether.
"You can't come with me!" Jane shouted back to her girlfriend, her head snapping to stare at Darcy, brown hair tied in a braid at the back of her head to keep it from getting in her way. Darcy grabbed Jane by the shoulders, her eyes wide beneath her glasses.
"I'm going to fight with you!"
"Darcy, you need to go be with the others," Natasha added as she got close enough, having to shout in order to be heard by them both. Jane nodded, blinking rapidly to keep from giving in to the Aether entirely. Not just yet.
"I want to help!" Darcy shouted, her voice cracking with frustration.
"You're going to distract more than anything else. And if we fail we have to have some defenders willing to take up arms against those who come after everyone left. Those who cannot fight need defenses of their own-and that needs to be you. Now go!" Natasha said, her voice snapping so hard that Darcy nearly took a step back. Blinking rapidly, she clenched her jaw and pulled her girlfriend in for one last kiss, Jane's hands buried in Darcy's hair.
"Don't you dare let her die," Darcy barked once they'd pulled away, her fury taking Natasha by surprise. That was the last word from her before Darcy took off towards the city, shouting for the other citizens to move faster. She didn't look back. Natasha's hand flew to Jane, and felt her magic spike as soon as her fingertips met the cotton of Jane's shirt.
"You're ready?" She murmured. "If not then I need you to join the others. I can't risk you if you're not-."
"I am."
"You're sure?"
"We'll find out, won't we?" Jane's voice had morphed into a growl, her attention snapping onto one of the ships that flew above them, scouting the area. Natasha watched it go, eyes searching out its weaknesses, before a high pitched hum and a beam of light burst through the hull and forced it to drop into the ground. Tony Stark's Iron Man suit shot through the sky where it had been a couple seconds ago, followed by a slew of Asgard's own ships. They each seemed to be firing similar beams of energy, and Nat sent out a silent prayer of gratitude to whoevers idea it was to let him upgrade the Asgardian tech. She'd have to see if he had any sort of ideas for making communication between them all a possibility. They'd discussed that, as a rallying point, Thor would send up a single thick bolt of lightning, but there just simply wasn't time to pull everyone together and devise a plan, not then. Taking Jane by the arm, it was a mark of how far the woman had come with her training that the force didn't lash out at Natasha as the pair of them ran towards where Thor and Gamora were working to finish assembling whoever they could. Steve and Sif had already gathered, Natasha felt a tremor of relief to see, as had Fandral and Wanda, though two of the original other guards she'd sent hadn't made it. Volstagg and Hogun were there, the pair grim faced, as a handful of mutants stayed behind to join in. Nat came to stop in front of the gathering group, doing the quickest headcount she could as more of the einherjar joined, spears and shields at the ready. Gamora was already assembling a group to track down the larger ship, the one she knew to be hiding and releasing the smaller scouts.
"Their cloaking tech is going to keep it from even Heimdall being able to see them, so if you see an anomaly in the water or on land, or in the sky you point it out and we'll direct the ships there," she shouted over the din of the landing elves and the fire being exchanged between the Asgardian and Dark Elves' ships, Tony's suit whirring overhead again. Some of the Elves had landed on the bifrost, though, piling out of the ships in numbers that Natasha wouldn't have believed possible if she wasn't seeing them all but multiply in front of her face. Her arm reached out and clenched on Thor's once she got close enough.
"We need to find Malekith," she said, leaning up to mutter it in his ears. "Can you buy us some time until we can draw him out? Something tells me it won't be long."
His blue eyes were already glazed with the hints of the same berserker she'd seen on Midgard, darkening at the heady prospect of battle, but she could still see some hints at a question forming. "You're going to take him on alone?"
"Not alone. Jane's going to be there."
She could see it in the way he turned his head to spare the short woman a quick glance that he didn't think it was the best idea. There wasn't time to argue. Nat caught him by the chin and tugged his face closer to hers and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Trust me." Was all she could muster when they pulled away. She had a plan, and she had hope. It coursed through her veins along with her adrenaline, keeping her senses keen. The shouts of their people, the echoing of guns going off-she swore she heard the shields around the palace being activated and sure enough when she turned her head she saw the beginnings of the golden shield arcing from the ground.
"Very well." Thor agreed with little more than a nod of his head. "Loki, and our allies, have been alerted of the battle. Gamora will be keeping the bifrost clear for Heimdall to bring them through."
As if on cue, Natasha heard Gamora's battle cry cut through the air, taking off with the first company, Steve and Sif at her side with swords in hand and they rushed forward to meet the elves head on. Natasha just caught sight of Gamora sliding to avoid one of the shots from an elf's gun as she heard one of their ships come whirring overhead, dropping a couple dozen more warriors just to their left.
With a roar that echoed through the city Thor thrust the fist holding Mjolnir into the air. The atmosphere crackled with ozone, and the skies echoed with a resounding crack before lightning struck half a dozen of them. It was all that the second force needed to push forward, shields raised so that the beams of energy fired bounced off the polished, bronze surfaces. And still more reinforcements were coming from the city, breaking free from the protection of Heimdall's shield as Natasha tugged Jane away from it all, petrified that a stray shot might hit her before they even got to Malekith. The woman's whole body thrummed with energy, and she stumbled backwards when Nat pulled her away.
"I want to fight," she snarled, yanking her arm back. The Aether thrummed just beneath the surface, shoving at Natasha's own magic. Her skin itched at the contact.
"We have to find Malekith, remember?" Nat said, eyes searching for an opening, for a figure to be leading them. She wouldn't have been amazed if he was hiding behind his forces, waiting for the Aether to show itself, and if the way that it pulsed was any indication then she didn't imagine it would be too long. Find Malekith, kill him, and then his warriors would have no choice but to surrender. She motioned for Jane to follow her, running towards the edges of the city where they would have the smallest chance to wreak havoc on the surrounding buildings. These were weathered by the sea breezes as it was, the gold tinted black with the smoke rising in the air. Natasha felt her heart sink, hoping it wasn't an omen she was supposed to be taking heed of.
A burst of energy shot towards the pair of them, Natasha hearing it before it hit, but it was Jane who shoved her to the ground, landing atop of her. A pale faced figure, with elves flanking him, stepped out of what seemed like thin air, one of the invisible ships having deposited them close by as Natasha had guessed. Jane's body went rigid, her eyes narrowed and hyper-focused on the man striding towards them. Before anything could be said the ground trembled beneath them, an earthquake of sorts that Natasha had never before experienced on the realm. She took half a second to stare behind her, only to see that the carefully crafted barriers that Heimdall had set into motion had begun collapsing in on themselves. Her heart stopped.
"You have something that belongs to me, child." The man approaching them narrowed his eyes as his stare focused in on Jane. Natasha took her by the wrist and moved to tug her behind herself, her jaw clenching. Jane wouldn't move, the corners of her lips turning upwards in a surprised gesture of self assurity that had Natasha's spirits starting to rise.
"It doesn't belong to you anymore." Jane's voice wasn't her own, and her hands had fisted at her sides. "Doesn't want to go to you."
Malekith's teeth set in a snarl, and he thrust a hand forward. The air pulsed around them, a vacuum having gone off between the two, as though something was being sucked from where Natasha and Jane stood, silencing the sounds of the battle that had before filled the air. Jane's feet slid forward a couple inches, but she braced herself against the sensation, toes digging into the Asgardian road, her hands placed out in front of her, clawed as though she was holding on to something that threatened to be tugged away from her. From where she stood Natasha could see the surprise flash in Malekith's dark eyes, but she didn't have much time to deliberate.
"Kill the other, and any Aesir you can find." Malekith snarled to his men, his face setting in concentration as he grew near to Jane, who tensed as he did. Nat's heart froze for half a moment, before her mind kicked into overdrive as she summoned a shield against the energy blasts that rained down. There was a weak point in their armor, just beneath the neck, and it was there that she threw what knives she could conjure while still maintaining the shield. It pulled at her concentration and her strength, already not at her very best. This attack, while anticipated, wasn't expected, and her teeth clenched tight as she felt at her belt and found it empty.
There was little left to her shield, and at least four more elves that she hadn't managed to get from a long range. Malekith and Jane were locked in what looked like a battle of wills and speed, Jane jumping far faster than Natasha had thought possible as Malekith came after her with a sword as long as his arm, the blade singing as it sliced through the air and fabric where she'd just been. She would throw the Aether at him as best she could manage with what Frigga had taught her, but Nat couldn't watch what would happen for long after that. With a shout of pain she felt her shield give way, and instead took her sword into her hand and rushed the nearest elf, slicing its gun in half before sticking the sword through its abdominal armor. With its body in front of hers she used it as a second shield, using it to get close enough to take the others out even as the pulses of energy from the guns bit through the flesh with startling precision. She drew her blade across the last elf's throat, black blood pouring over the already covered blade, when she heard a shriek that made her hair stand on end. Malekith had Jane suspended in the air, the Aether hanging between them. Natasha swore, and picked up the nearest gun to aim at the back of Malekith's head when she was struck dumb by a familiar booming cry far off to her left. Her stomach plummeted, and it caught Malekith's attention as well. Just as his head turned Jane let loose a laugh that contorted her whole face. Her hands, once spread out at her side, slammed together with the force of a stampede of horses, blasting Malekith back as the Aether turned on him. It cut into his flesh, setting upon him, feasting on his body as he lay on the ground and screamed. The flesh was rendered from his bones and his blood splashed over the pavement.
He stopped screaming just as Natasha turned to where the sound had come from. Her heart stuttered as over the crests of Asgard's city a new foe appeared, this one leading a host of grey, armored beings aboard flying, horseless chariots. The Chitauri, from what she'd understood of Thor's description of them, and at their very back she could only imagine was where they'd find Thanos. As the scouts advanced, enormous, scaled, flying leviathans pursued, circling the now defenseless city, and dropping more soldiers from its back.
The bolt of lightning struck some hundred feet from them, the beacon, and Natasha motioned for Jane to follow her as they took off running. The ground was littered with the dead, most of them dark elves Natasha was pleased to see, though they'd taken a fair share of the einherjar that had fought to defend the city. How much more death was necessary, Nat couldn't help but wonder, before the end?
Just one, if she had her say. Just Thanos, and whatever idiots that thought they could stand in her way.
A/N: Alright, so a shorter update than normal but! I am hard at work on the next chapter already. I'm determined to finish this ASAP, I can't lie, so I'm hoping there won't be too many long waits in between updates. Thanks so much for sticking around with me through this!