It had been almost fifteen minutes and nothing had happened. Amora was once again locked and secured inside the small magic bubble in the middle of their field, though still unconscious. The Avengers were stiff and anxious, ready for the battle and yet dreading it desperately. Tony flew back down from the sky and landed with a dramatic thunk, righting himself and sliding his protective faceplate back.
"You said your brother would be here," he snapped impatiently at Thor.
"I thought he would be. He'd be a fool to waste this opportunity."
"Yeah, well, apparently the gene runs in your family..."
"He isn't a blood relation," Thor tried, but it hurt to say, so he shouted at the team instead. "I didn't see any of you come up with any better ideas!"
"Calm down," Natasha replied in a bored voice. "We all agreed to wait at least an hour."
"Interstellar travel doesn't really take that long when you've got the travel stone," Clint chimed in, still keeping his sharp eyes on their surroundings.
"The gem of Space," Thor corrected, but nobody cared.
Bruce sighed and ran his fingers back through his graying hair, sitting down with a soft moan in the field. He had been more tired than usual, and once again he felt irritated that he was brought along on this trip. He knew that he – or at least the Hulk – would be needed if Loki really did show up. Tony huffed.
"I think it's just about time we..." he started to say, but a huge, exploding beam of violet light landed mere inches in front of him, then began to dissipate into a thin cloud of smoke. From the haze emerged Loki, Lyanne in her wolfish form, and a tall, impossibly broad figure with purple skin, gleaming golden armor and glowing blue eyes. Thanos was with them.
"Hand over the gem of power," he said in a deep, gravelly voice.
The team readied themselves to fight, but another beam of exploding light landed directly to their left. From it emerged a small army clad in gold armor and their old but powerful leader, Odin.
"Not today, Thanos," the king said, slamming his staff down into the ground, making it shake.
The five Avengers, the hidden SHIELD agents in the copse of trees not far off, and a small Asgardian army lead by Odin all faced the trio, weapons readied. Lyanne looked concerned and Loki calculating, but Thanos merely smirked.
"Long have I awaited this day, old man," Thanos said.
"You shall long regret it," Odin replied.
Thanos held up the green gem to use to control them, but Odin was too fast – using his spear, Gungnir, he directed a powerful blast of energy directly at the titan, who flew backwards almost to the treeline. The green stone lay on the ground. Lyanne lunged immediately to grab it, but Tony flew directly into her, carrying them both upwards into the sky. Loki grabbed it, but Thor slammed him in the chest with his hammer and the two began to brawl.
Thanos recovered quickly, grabbing the blue gem and using its power to attack the mind of Odin. The king struggled, able to hold his own against the power of the stone, but just barely. The Asgardian soldiers advanced on Thanos, but he roared and extended his magic, knocking them aside like dominoes with the power of the jewel. He and Odin continued their struggle while Natasha ran towards the green gem.
In the air, Lyanne was beginning to recover, clawing and biting at Tony's helm savagely, digging her talons into the seams around his faceplate and lifting as hard as she could. The piece began to come undone, the hinges and mechanisms giving way beneath her immense strength. Tony turned one of his hands directly at her and blasted a beam of energy straight into her chest. She roared and began to fall from the sky, flailing and snarling. Below, Bruce turned into the Hulk with difficulty, aiming for her falling body.
Thor swung at Loki's helm with his hammer, but Loki ducked and stabbed Thor in the side with his dagger. A metallic clang rang from his armor and he spun around to see Hawkeye reaching for another arrow. Loki concentrated his energy with the purple gem, but Thor swept his leg with his hammer and knocked him to the ground, attempting to wrestle the jewel from his grasp. They rolled along the earth, grappling, then disappeared in a bright flash of light, reappearing in midair directly above Tony and landing immediately on top of him, their combined weight forcing him down to the ground.
Hulk lunged beneath them and caught Lyanne mere feet before impact, unintentionally crushing her against him and forcing the wind from her lungs. She gasped and clawed at his muscular arms, gouging him deeply. He shouted and dropped her, she rolled underneath and behind him and ran towards the brawling Thor, Loki, and Tony. Suddenly, someone struck her hard across the face, and as she twisted around she saw Natasha with her fists raised. Lyanne snarled and lunged at her, barely scratching her back before the Black Widow turned quickly and began kicking back at her. Lyanne was trying to block her, but Natasha was strong. She bared her teeth and roared, spittle flying from her fangs, her eyes narrowed. Natasha nodded and attacked.
Thanos was still struggling with Odin when something struck him in the face. He had enough time to realize it was a burning arrow from Hawkeye before the king struck him with his magic, knocking the titan onto his back. Odin leaped at him, pressing his advantage, swinging Gungnir deftly and cutting across his face where the arrow was still stuck. Thanos growled in pain and tried once more to right himself, but Odin was too powerful; he stabbed Thanos's shoulder as he tried to turn away and ran his magic through his weapon, electrocuting him. Thanos was frozen in pain, struggling and gasping – he lost control over his body and his hands unclenched, releasing the blue gem. Odin continued to course electricity through his enemy's body until finally he shuddered and collapsed. He walked over and retrieved the blue gem, but Thanos clutched at his leg. Odin stumbled and fell, but the recovered Asgardian soldiers and SHIELD agents that finally emerged from the trees formed a tight circle around them, aiming their weapons. With a final sneer, Thanos bellowed, concentrated his energy, and disappeared in a powerful black cloud of smoke. He had escaped – but not with any of the gems. Odin turned his attention back to his battling sons.
Thor and Tony had Loki pinned to the ground, his dagger clutched tightly in his immobilized wrist. Thor was about to pound Loki with his hammer, but Lyanne plowed into him with all of her strength, bowling him over and freeing Loki to overpower Tony. Thor tumbled and rolled along the ground, Lyanne looked back to Loki and understood: retreat. She ran forward to embrace him but suddenly stopped in midair – she couldn't move, but neither could Loki; they were both frozen where they stood, reaching for one another. Odin approached from the side, sweating heavily and wielding both the blue and green gems, Natasha and Hulk both lending him strength.
"Enough!" yelled Odin, gasping. "It's finally... enough."
He nodded to Thor, who stepped forward and reached into Loki's armor, retrieving both the purple and orange stones. He handed them to Odin, along with the red gem. Odin had five of the Infinity stones – he pocketed all but the red and orange ones, attempting to use them in conjunction to freeze Loki and Lyanne for long enough to transport them to prisons. When he tried, however, a sudden thick, dark energy emerged from his palms and enveloped them all, making them collapse – it was the same suffocating air that they had experienced before when Amora had tried to use the gem. Odin concentrated with difficulty, but suddenly the red gem in his palm emitted a sickening black glow, cracked, and shattered in a burst of malevolent energy. They all paused for a moment to take in what had just happened.
It was fake.
The power stone was a fake.
Odin sighed and crumpled, and though his hold on Loki and Lyanne faded and failed, they were still drained from the battle. Thor and the Asgardian army leaped forward to capture Loki, while the SHIELD soldiers surrounded Lyanne.
"Take my brother back to Asgard," Thor said, directing for them to take him away. He looked back to Lyanne. "And imprison his lover where no one can ever find her," he commanded the SHIELD agents.
"NO!" she screamed, suddenly flailing and struggling. Loki began to fight as well, overpowering several captors and nearly reaching Lyanne before being restrained once more. Though in her human form again, Lyanne was no less feral; she bit down hard enough on an agent's hand to draw a fountain of blood, he was forced to let go, and she lunged back towards her beloved.
"LOKI!" she screamed, but something hit her hard on the back of the head and she knew no more.
"LYANNE!" Loki howled, struggling, desperately trying to reach his unconscious lover, but someone gagged and bound him with the same magical restraints they had used on him last time. He headbutted one of the Asgardian soldiers, kicking and flailing, but in the end he was restrained, Heimdall's beacon coming to claim him. Loki vanished along with the entire Asgardian army and the weakened Odin, while Thor deactivated the barrier surrounding the still-unconscious Amora and picked her up.
"Friends," he said, bowing graciously to his teammates, "I thank you. We shall meet again soon."
And with that, he and the Enchantress were claimed by the light from Asgard and vanished in a second. The rest of the team sighed in relief, examining Lyanne's crumpled form.
"What should we do with her?" Tony asked in disgust.
"Let us worry about that," said one of the SHIELD operatives. "We'll put her where no one will ever allow her to see daylight again."
The team nodded sadly and set back off to SHIELD headquarters, the agents behind them calling for a small aircraft. Their last look at the monster known as Lyanne was of her being thrown into a heavily barred cage and lifted up into the helicopter above.