A bolt of anticipation thrummed through Taylor's body as she stood inside the golden, clockwork interior of the Bifrost. It was tempered, however, with unease. Heimdall had reported, not fifteen minutes ago, that the king of Helheim and disappeared momentarily, only to reappear and begin acting strangely. It was a clear indication that Keziah's apprentice was lurking about in the fire realm, and that they had an influence over the realm's inhabitants.
Dressed in their mission clothes, all of the Avengers (plus Loki) had immediately assembled and prepared to be zapped over to Helheim. They had a good plan and everyone was prepared for a fight, all healed and energized. The only problem was that Taylor had this strange feeling that something wasn't right. All these years without raising alarms, and suddenly Keziah's apprentice was dropping just enough of a hint to lead the Avengers to them?
Taylor had expressed her apprehensions when they'd been forming the plan, a couple of the others had even echoed the sentiment, Steve included. However, as he and Tony had pointed out, sitting around waiting for the apprentice to make the first move wasn't getting them anywhere. It was best to be "proactive" they said, but they'd be cautious about it. Technically it'd be a recon-mission, but everyone was prepared for a real fight. Half the team would take a look at what was happening in the place Helheim's king had disappeared to while the other half would stand by until they got word from the others to move in or fall back.
Loki and Taylor were both on the recon-team. Taylor, because she would be best equipped to deal with the environment in Helheim, and Loki, because he could spot magic from a mile away. He'd be able to detect any barriers shielding the apprentice. At least, that was the hope.
"Never a dull moment," she chirped brightly as the great machine hummed to life around them.
"Leave it to Taylor to find interdimensional space travel to a planet made of fire in order to stop an evil necromancer fun," Clint scoffed.
She widened her eyes at him, eyebrows raised in comical disbelief.
"Do you even hear yourself? When you put it that way—duh! God, we should have our own comic books or movies or something."
A couple of the others chuckled, imagining it for themselves. Really though, who would be interested in their lives? Most of the time it was lounging on the couch or going on standard missions or training. What was so cool about that? Taylor gasped as her thought process went further.
"A TV show!" she squealed, giggling, "Even an animated one. We could do crossovers into other animated TV shows and we'd have action figures and stuff."
Tony snorted, the helmet to his Iron Man suit off for the moment while they were talking.
"What would they even call something like that?" he wondered.
She thought for a moment but eventually shrugged.
"Maybe something like 'Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes'?"
Loki rolled his eyes at her at the same time Clint snorted.
"Imaginative."
She stuck her tongue out at him, placing her hands on her hips defiantly.
"Hey, don't judge if you can't come up with better," she replied.
Thor cleared his throat, calling their attention from their debate. They could discuss the finer points of television later.
"It is time to leave," he informed them, "we must focus."
Steve nodded, adding on, "Thor's right. We gotta keep our heads in the game if we want to beat the apprentice—and no, Taylor, that's not your cue to sing anything from High School Musical. Everyone knows their job?"
At the scattered nods, he turned to Thor, a determined furrow between his brows.
"On your word, Thor."
Taylor was moving towards Loki before Thor even told them to hold on. Travelling through the Bifrost was fun, but falling into the dark abyss? Not so much. She gripped onto his hand tightly, like the first time, and found herself somewhat comforted by the familiar coolness of his touch. Cold temperature was a sensation she was used to—since there was very little that ever outwardly made her warm—but Loki's temperature was noticeably cooler than most people's. At least to her, anyway.
Once more, that somewhat scary, but completely exhilarating sensation of hurtling through space ripped through her stomach, and she squinted against the bright lights surrounding her. Loki's hold on her was firm, comforting as her heart slammed against her ribcage with excitement. Crazy sorcerer and fire demons aside, she was having a blast.
They landed on rough, uneven ground, the color of charcoal and pitted with craters in various sizes ranging from a quarter to roughly Lake Superior. In some places, black clusters of jagged obsidian spires spewed thick smoke into the air. To Taylor's left, a lake of bubbling lava lapped at a glittering shoreline, the sand of which was no doubt another type of volcanic rock and likely scattered with jagged chunks of glass. Beyond the lake, a tall, smoldering palace could just be made out through the haziness.
Taylor gazed around her in awe as a strange feeling crawled over her body and a shiver raced down her spine. Something in her chest shifted off-center and her breath caught in her lungs. Loki glanced at her, noting that her dark hair fit in well with their surroundings, but not her blue eyes.
"Are you alright?" he asked with some concern.
"It's just so…warm here. I can actually feel it."
Sure, she'd felt exterior warmth before, but not often, and not to this degree. It felt…good. Taylor had never noticed the chill that seemed to lay deep in her bones despite the nature of her powers. It wasn't always fire that they manifested as, but it seemed that no matter what, she was simply warmer than everyone and everything around her, even if just by a degree or two.
"Why is it so dark?" Steve inquired, glancing up.
"The thick smoke blocks most of the sky," Thor answered.
Taylor wouldn't have been surprised if even the sky was stained black. She noticed Natasha held a hand out to the soft, grayish flakes that were floating in the air. It stuck to Natasha's palm and she brought it closer to her face, rubbing her fingers together. The particles crumbled and smeared across her skin.
"It's ash," she stated plainly.
"It's like snow or rain," Bruce observed, "I wonder if it is a weather condition or perpetual."
Overhead, a familiar, terrible screeching reached the group and they all prepared for battle, but the beasts completely ignored them, if they'd seen the Avengers at all. Taylor straightened from her crouched position and turned as Steve called for their attention.
"Alright, recon team should head out. Stand-by team will be ready if you call."
Taylor and Loki started out with the others at the front of the group. Loki recognized the tricks of the harsh realm and maneuvered accordingly while Taylor sort of wandered along and simply found all the pitfalls and traps. Eruptions of fire, volcanic heat vents, the ground wasn't as sturdy beneath their feet as they'd believed; air bubbles in the ground were liable to fall in, creating more of the craters. Taylor took every fumble in stride, half the time she barely even noticed that she'd have been injured if she were like the others.
They'd only walked a couple miles when Loki took Taylor's arm, making her pause. Their small team stopped as well, tensing in preparation of a possible attack. He slowly reached a hand out into the space in front of him and the air rippled beneath his touch. Recognizing that it was a portal, she poked at it curiously, watching the disruption spread across its surface like ripples over water.
"Neat."
"This may very well lead to another dimension," Loki said, "a dimension between dimensions, like where the Aether was hidden."
Taylor frowned, considering the seemingly empty space in front of her and thinking about their next move.
"We could be walking into a trap, if we leave this dimension," she pointed out, glancing at Natasha, who was in their group, "Call the others or check it out?"
Natasha frowned and crossed her arms, staring dubiously at the invisible rift.
"I say we send a couple in to see what's going on. They don't come out in five minutes, we call for backup," she stated.
Taylor nodded in agreement, glancing at Loki and then Steve, the fourth member of their recon group. They agreed as well and decided Taylor and Loki would be the best candidates to investigate. Together, they stepped through the portal, squinting at the dark, fire-lit chamber that greeted them. Moss grew in corners and crept across the damp gray stone. The room was completely empty, but a doorway faced them, leading into a hallway and choice of going left or right. She glanced at Loki and caught his eye.
"Should we get the others?" she whispered.
"Not yet. Not until we're sure this is the place we're looking for."
So the recon team had split into a smaller recon team. Great. Loki began easing into the hallway before she could protest, and despite her misgivings, she followed him, lighting the way for them rather than grabbing a torch from the wall. In some places it was pitch black, and in others, it was like daylight. Loki told her, quietly, that he could hear something, hence his certainty in the direction they were going. Taylor couldn't detect anything, so she blindly—or in this case deafly—followed him.
"Stop," he whispered after several twists and turns that Taylor was desperately trying to remember.
Obeying, she gave him a curious look and opened her mouth to ask, but he placed his index finger over his mouth and then gestured for her to listen. It was faint, but she recognized the low hum of voices, though she couldn't quite pinpoint which direction they were coming from. A sudden scream echoed along the hallway and she jumped, startled.
Loki gave her an amused look before he began in the direction of the distressed person and she reluctantly trailed after him. A great light up ahead negated the use of the fire in her palm, and she extinguished the flame as Loki peered around the corner. Two fire giants guarded the entrance to a large chamber where the light was coming from, a few desperate cries drifted into the hallway where the hidden duo stood.
Using his magic, Loki knocked the two out, and they stood, plastered to the wall, while he and Taylor slid along the wall to spy into the room. She darted to the other side so quickly, Loki didn't even register the movement until he noticed her shifting slightly in the shadows. Beyond the doorway, a group of people stood lined up in chains, the fire giants, armed and deadly, glaring at them to keep them docile. One of the prisoners laid on a stone slab, chained to the surface as a hooded figure chanted in a foreign tongue over them.
A dark mist engulfed the prisoner's body and he began screaming as the mist trickled into his mouth, nose, ears. Taylor tensed, muscles coiled to spring. She wanted to intervene so very badly, but she knew she couldn't, not this time. If she did, the entire mission could be ruined, and they couldn't chance losing the apprentice, not now. Loki was peering into the room, mentally translating the words in the spell, trying to understand its use in this instance.
On the table, the mist was ebbing away, dissipating, and the prisoner was dead, merely an empty husk of a living being now. Taylor's fist clenched by her thigh, a flicker of light flashing over her knuckles before slithering back into her palm. Her teeth clenched as she glanced at Loki, waiting for his cue that they leave. Their five-minute margin was closing, he needed to decide if this was the apprentice or not.
"Well, are you going to reveal yourselves, or not?"
The voice was the same as that of person beneath the hood, female, husky and smug. The hood fell back to reveal a long plait of corn-silk blond hair, and Taylor ducked back behind the doorway before the woman could turn and see her. Loki met her eyes across the distance, a silent question of what to do next hanging between them.
"Very well then," the blonde woman said after a moment.
A word that Taylor did not understand and then the fire giants were free from the wall and grabbing hold of her. Their hands were not as sharp as the rest of them, but rough, and hot, and Taylor frowned disapprovingly as they unceremoniously dragged her into the chamber. She was not quite putting up a fight, but just enough resistance that she could give a toddler throwing a temper tantrum a run for their money. Loki was being more comparatively more cooperative, sauntering along as if they'd not just gotten themselves in a rather unfortunate situation.
The blonde woman was perfection personified, Taylor thought, and it was kind of unfair. Witches and sorcerers were supposed to be hunched over and old and semi-toothless. That woman with her chocolate brown eyes and beautiful golden hair and youthful, practically glowing skin could pass for a supermodel any day. Then again, Taylor corrected herself, glancing at Loki, attractiveness was turning out to be a common trait among those magicians.
"My, my," she purred, looking between the two, "what do we have here?"
"Hi, we're with the Census," Taylor began with a completely serious expression.
Loki rolled her eyes, but caught her angle nonetheless. Stalling for time it would be.
"You're Sigyn," Loki cut her off, "You're Keziah's apprentice?"
"That I am. And you are Loki Odinson of Asgard," she turned and tilted her head at Taylor, "and you are Taylor Cadence, of Midgard."
Taylor did not like the look blondie was giving either of them, but her especially. That feeling of doom stirred again and she glanced at Loki, wondering if he felt it too. Unfortunately, he wasn't looking in her direction at that moment—he was glancing around, apparently trying to find something.
"The one and only," Taylor bluffed, turning back to Sigyn and mustering up a winning smile, "well, I imagine there are other people named Taylor Cadence, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with super powers. Wouldn't that be confusing though, if there were two Taylor Cadences with super powers. You probably don't have that problem. I mean, I doubt Sigyn is a very common name. Then again, I'm no cultural expert, so it could be pretty popular. Like Stephanie, or Brandon, or John. I went to high school with four Megans. That was confusing…"
Sigyn's eyes narrowed, just slightly, at Taylor and her rambling. They were coming up on the end of their five minutes. Pretty soon, the Avengers would be storming the place and the fight would be a little more even.
"Charming," she commented, and Taylor somehow doubted she meant it, "I think you can be our first volunteer."
The fire giant holding Taylor began manhandling her onto the table, but she was putting up a hell of a fight, and it was having a terrific time trying to get a good grip on her once her skin had lit to fire and she was squirming. It was just finally beginning to secure her when the rest of the heroes exploded into the chamber—literally. Rubble and a cloud of dust erupted from the doorway, blasting those closest to the floor. Taylor, noting Sigyn getting to her feet, bolted and tackled her again.
They were grappling on the floor, Sigyn was better than Taylor had anticipated, but Taylor was better trained, leaving them easily matched. It helped that Sigyn could barely get the start of a spell out before Taylor was aiming a punch for her face. Fighting and talking weren't possible, Taylor had learned that through experience.
"I will do what your stepmother never had the strength to do," Sigyn snarled, gripping onto Taylor's throat and forcing her onto her back.
Taylor didn't notice that Sigyn's hands were glowing subtly, but her response to the comment was absolutely feral—profane enough to make a sailor blush bright red—and her skin began to burn at a painful temperature. Sigyn was forced to release her or else be injured further. A couple fire giants pounced at that moment, and Taylor was caught up in the rush of battle. A punch, a kick, a powerful bolt of energy, a deep slice in her thigh that was making it difficult to move, and then it was suddenly all over, and she and her friends were left alone in an empty chamber.
Silence settled thick over their group as they stared at each other, exhausted. There was no clear winner, but every one of them felt as though they'd been beaten. Taylor couldn't remember a time she'd ever fought so hard, between the Sigyn and the fire giants, plus dodging the Hulk in the process, she'd had to expend more energy than she ever had before, and she hurt.
"Is everyone alright?" Thor asked raggedly.
"Bucky. Where's Bucky?" Steve said suddenly, looking around.
"He's here!" Natasha called, "Still alive, but badly injured. We need to get him back to Asgard."
Thor stalked over to the two, not too badly injured to carry an unconscious Bucky over his shoulder. The other painfully collected themselves, prepared to get moving.
"Loki, can Heimdall reach us here?"
"No, we'll have to return to Helheim first."
Taylor glanced at Loki, smudged and marked from an apparent battle between himself and Sigyn. Sensing her gaze on him, he turned, noticed her favoring her leg, and approached to aid her in walking while the others began filing through the blown doorway. She accepted his help thankfully, gritting her teeth as each movement ripped through damaged muscle.
"We were way under-prepared for this," she murmured to him with a grimace.
"Yes. The fact that we made it out alive is a miracle at all," Loki replied with a frown, "I can't help but feel as if there is a particular reason for it."
She agreed with him, but she didn't have the heart to say aloud just yet. Fatigue and pain were setting in fast, but they had nearly reached the gate. Ahead of them, their friends were already disappearing through the wall. Together, they stumbled through the portal, and were met with the army of Helheim. Taylor groaned loudly, voicing each of their thoughts.
"Can't were ever catch a break?" she demanded.
"Never a dull moment," Loki replied.
