Sanctuary Lost

It was absolute chaos aboard the Asgardian Sanctuary ship.

Athena struggled to haul herself onto her feet, gripping her shield and sword tightly, unwilling to let them go. It was a true testament to just how powerful the attack was and how brutal, that it was all a blur to her. Or at least she hoped it was just those facts and not something else that had put everything so fuzzy in her mind. It had happened twice already, where she had been engaged in battle and didn't notice the world around her. Right now, as she gasped for breath, she felt like that once more. It was as though she had been fighting and all she saw was the battle, but now the battle was over and the world was focusing once more.

She did not like what she saw.

She stumbled and fell to her knee, her one leg throbbing, telling her she had injured it at some point during this battle. She stabbed at the floor of the ship with her sword for more balance and forced herself to look up. She must have been dealt a blow to the head at some point though she couldn't recall when, it felt like the world was still spinning around her. It was hard to focus on the room in front of her, to take in exactly what she was seeing and realize it was not a figment of her imagination.

Blasts from the ship had struck them with full power, destroying part of their sanctuary vessel and setting off explosions within the command center. They had all been jostled around, hitting walls and beams with enough force to injure some of the other Asgardians. Their enemy clearly must have anticipated such a thing, for within moments of the strike happening it appeared as though a teleport of some kind had been activated. Before they could even get there bearings enough to pick themselves up from the jostling, there were other people in the room with them. She had only gotten a brief glance at them before they went on the attack.

There was a slim figure, feminine in appearance, an alien but with humanoid features. She was quick and deadly. Another figure merely stood there, looking around and making some motions with his hands as debris and other materials began to float around him. He was gray skinned, wrinkled, with no nose, and gray thinning hair. He was clearly telekinetic, not needing to touch the weapons around him to wield them. He had taken out a great many of the Asgardians who stayed behind, just by sending debris in their direction. Another creature reminded her somewhat of a Dark Elf, brown of skin, with pointed ears, and a fierce scowl on his face. He used his brute strength to crash through the warriors that surrounded him. There was a fourth with them, a large brute who looked more like a troll than anything. And finally, the one who was clearly the leader, for the four surrounded him and fought hard to protect him. Though she doubted this individual actually needed any sort of protection at all. He was large, muscular, purple of skin, wearing golden armor. He didn't appear to have any hair, though there were lines along his chin as though meant indicate some sort of beard.

What truly alarmed her about the larger man, was the gauntlet he wore on his left hand. She had seen something of the sort in Odin's vault, but it should have been impossible for the man to be wearing it given the fact that Asgard had been destroyed. She could not imagine Hela ever allowing someone to take even the smallest of objects from her while she was in control of Asgard. She had little time to worry about how the man had gotten hold of the gauntlet, as her gaze was drawn to something on the back of it that alarmed her even more. There was a stone embedded in the gauntlet, glowing with a purplish-pink aura.

She and Thor had spent enough time searching the universe for the enemy that had been working behind the scenes for so long, that she instantly recognized what the stone was. It could being nothing other than one of the Infinity Stones, The Power Stone. This was the stone said to embody the destructive force of the universe, it could grant its wielder an enormous amount of energy that could manipulate anything in its path. She knew of only one enemy that had been after the stones...and it appeared he had found it. By placing the Power Stone within a conduit such as the gauntlet he wore, it would allow him to utilize its power without fear of the consequences that could come from it. If her research about the Infinity Stones was correct, the man holding the stone could be their most deadly enemy yet. The stone was said to be powerful enough to destroy an entire planet and it would also increase the man's strength and durability. He would be basically invincible to any attack, which explained why he stood there and merely watched as his four henchmen went after the Asgardians that surrounded him.

One of them had come at her and, from that point on, her attention had been diverted from the main threat to the one attacking her. That was where her memory began to blur. She could vaguely recall facing down the slim woman, but holding her own quite well. Something had distracted her though, she couldn't remember what it was at the moment but looking at the state of the ship now she could guess it was likely Thor yelling or noticing the last of the Asgardians who had remained behind falling. Whatever it was, the telepath clearly came to aid the warrior she was facing. She couldn't remember anyone standing in front of her attacking, just object after object, weapon after weapon, flying at her from all directions, even behind her. It would explain how she had been dealt enough blows to drive her to her knees, being unable to see exactly where an attack was coming from. The telepath could just stand there and the next thing she would know something could be hitting her, she would have no warning, no ability to guess what his next move would be without him actually moving.

She did her best to ward off the attack, to use her shield and her sword to block the blows and knock away the debris flying at her. Clearly that had been the minion's intent, to keep her away from the main battle or facing the other enemies. She felt a rage bubble inside her when she realized they had succeeded in distracting her.

She would not make that mistake again.

For now...now she could see exactly what her distraction had cost Thor and his people. It seemed as though every single Asgardian who had stayed behind to aid their king was lying on the floor, dead. All of them had fallen in defense of their king and she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault. She was their queen, or intended queen, and she had failed to protect them, too focused on her own battle. Her left hand curled into a fist around the strap of her shield, unable to take her eyes off of each and every Asgardian who rested on the ground. She would not let herself forget a single face of those who lost their lives in this attack, nor would she allow them or their death to be dishonored by not paying them proper respects or attention.

She looked over to the left, hearing a noise, and letting out a breath of relief to see Thor was still alive, as was Loki who was standing further away, surrounded by the four who attacked their people. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Hulk lingering in the shadows and made a subtle motion with her hand to signal him to wait, needing him to resist until the right time to attack. Her attention snapped forward when she heard a pained breath being taken, her eyes narrowing down on Heimdall who seemed still alive, though gravely injured.

Thor was kneeling where the captain's chair used to be, held down by a massive amount of metal, clearly the work of the telepath. His head was bowed, the only sound in the room at the moment being a transmission that was still locked on repeat and broadcast out into the universe.

"This is the Asgardian refugee vessel. We are under assault, I repeat, we are under assault. Engines are dead, life support failing. Requesting aid from any vessel within range…our crew is made up of Asgardian families, we have very few soldiers here. This is not a war craft, I repeat, this is not a war craft."

Athena couldn't help but shut her eyes and bow her head at the words that were stuck on a loop. The Asgardians were refugees, they had just lost their home, they had no means to protect themselves, and yet they had been attacked by the purple monstrosity before her and his deadly minions. She didn't understand why, though. There was no cause or reason for such an attack to take place. They had nothing, literally nothing of any value that could have been taken save their lives. If this monster was truly searching for the Infinity Stones he had even less reason to be there. These people did not deserve the fate they have been given, for the men and women in the room to have been killed so haphazardly, for the others to flee and be separated once again from family and friend, not sure of the fate of their king or their Kingdom, and needing to rely on gladiators and a Valkyrie for protection from that point on.

The only comfort she could take was in the fact that the life rafts had escaped. The ship that had fired on them was still in the same position, facing them, with no other attacks being directed anywhere else. The ones who were clearly in charge had teleported onto their ship, they had not gone after the life rafts, so there was every hope that the other Asgardians had survived. It would destroy Thor to have lost his family and his hammer and his home, in a desperate attempt to save the lives of his people and the rest of the universe...only to have his people destroyed in such a manner.

It made her ill hearing the part of the message that repeated over and over that they were not warriors, they did not have many aboard the craft. Hela truly had seen to that and it appeared that the only ones aboard who actually knew how to defend themselves were her, Thor, the Valkyrie, Heimdall, Loki, and the Hulk with the Sakaaran gladiators. The ones who had stayed behind, were those loyal to their King. Perhaps they had some sort of fighting experience, but they were not actual warriors of Asgard. And yet their enemy still attacked them.

And now they were all in danger as the message had said. It wasn't just the attack, it wasn't just how beaten-down they were at the moment, the blast against the ship had knocked out far more than just causing explosions or destroying part of the ship. The engines had been destroyed, they were stranded, there was no way they would have made it to Earth regardless. But worse yet, the life support systems had been knocked offline which meant the air in that room was all that was left. The heating would be off, navigation would be off, likely the communications systems were off too. If they didn't find a way to get off of that ship there was a very good chance that they would die in that room.

She looked up a moment later, her grip on her sword tightening as she watched the alien with no nose walking among the bodies of the dead Asgardians. The man had no care or concern for any of them, stepping over them as though they were just garbage left lying on the floor. He didn't look at them, he didn't make any move to try and honor or respect them, instead she was quite certain he was just smirking at them, seeming quite pleased to find them in such a state.

It made her sick.

And she would very much like the pleasure of burying her sword into his heart.

"Hear me, and rejoice..." the alien began.

Athena amended her thoughts, she would very much love to cut his tongue out and shove it down his throat till he choked on it first.

How could the man just stand there and tell them they should rejoice over the destruction they had just caused, the lives they had taken?

She felt herself flinch as a memory forced its way to the forefront of her thoughts, reminding her of a time in her past where she had actually done the same. For she and her family had caused enormous destruction and suffering yet still demanded the praise and worship of those beneath them. But this was not her family, and these were not those days. She had sworn never to allow them to happen again, and whatever this enemy was planning she would stop them.

"You have had the privilege of being saved by the great Titan," the alien began to speak once more, and Athena forced herself to look at him, hoping he might reveal something more of their plans that could help her in the end, "You may think this is suffering. No. It is salvation. Universal scales tipped toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile, for even in death, you have become children of Thanos."

Athena's eyes narrowed asshe took in his words. Truly this enemy was either quite stupid to reveal so much of his plans to an enemy of his own, or was so arrogant he didn't care who knew what his plans were. She was not only a goddess of wisdom, but the goddess of battle, what's more the goddess of battle strategy. If anyone could work out an enemy's strategy or plans it was her. And this malicious orator had just give it away everything.

Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice? Clearly this was a man who was setting out to do something not just to other people or even a planet or two, but the entire universe and all the realms. Tipping the scales towards balance for sacrifice, that implied something needing to be even. A life for a death, a death to save a life. Balance. It was the sacrifice part that was truly sticking out to her. Whatever this man's plan was he was clearly intending to sacrifice something or someone in an even amount to save the other half. But that would be impossible, she tried to argue with herself, on a universal scale talk of that sort meant...wiping out half the life in the universe.

Her gaze drifted back to the gauntlet the titan was wearing, Thanos as he had been revealed, already holding one of the Infinity Stones. The only thing that might be able to do what the man planned to do on such a large scale would be to gather all of them together. And he already had one.

She forced her gaze away, flickering to the four minions that surrounded Thanos. The speaking alien had revealed who they were when he had held his arms wide at the four of them, the Children of Thanos. Whether they were truly his children or not meant little to her, the titan hadn't corrected the man. And the proud look on the purple one's face for such a title made her think he truly did view the four of them as his children. That had to make the speaking one Ebony Maw, for she was familiar with the famed and deadly Children of Thanos. Whispers she and Thor had heard on their previous quest. That meant the female was Proxima Midnight, the Dark Elvish one Corvus Glaive, and the brute Cull Obsidian though he sometimes went by Black Dwarf too.

Athena tried to pick herself up once more, managing to take two more steps, before a large piece of debris went flying at her from the side and struck her down, leaving her lying on the floor with a heavy beam resting on top of her. She let out an agonized cry from the sudden weight putting pressure on what she was sure was an open wound on her back.

"Athena!" Thor shouted, struggling within the metal barrier that surrounded him, trying to get to her, trying to check on her, but he couldn't break through.

Thanos let out a soft chuckle when Thor turned a glare on him, "I know what it's like to lose," he told the Asgardian king, "To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless," Athena panted when Thanos turned his sights to her, "If the stories about you are correct, I imagine you can understand better than him."

Athena glared at him, as though willing daggers to fly from her eyes and destroy the purple monster that stood before her. It was alarming that Thanos seemed to know who she was, her past, but a part of her reasoned it was understandable. She and Thor had been partners for so long, if someone was trying to find any of the Infinity Stones, the chances were they had heard about their involvement with a few of them. Any enemy looking to win would always need to understand the forces against them in order to succeed.

It shook her slightly to know that he seemed aware of the Dark Days though, but even more that he seemed to understand exactly what she and her family had felt during those days. She had only ever explained it in terms of becoming corrupt by the power and hold they had over the humans, only ever described it in terms of being ashamed of reaching that point. But there was always more to it than that. At that point she and her family had thought it was only right that they hold such a role, and in the first few moments of their retreat to Olympus, there had been a sense of failure, that they had been strong enough that they should have seen their plans through. It had faded by now into a deep shame, but the memory of it was still there.

And she vowed...she would do everything in her power to ensure that Thanos failed as well, for anyone who wished to use their power to harm, was never ever in the right.

"Let him go!" Athena hissed at Thanos when the Titan strode over and grabbed Thor by the back of his head. She tried to turn on her side and use all her strength to lift the beam off of her, but her arm was at an odd angle and she couldn't get her full strength behind it, "Loki, do something!" she cried to the trickster to step up.

Thor had told her about how Loki had come back, how he could have used the Commodore to escape and go anywhere in the universe he wanted, but he chose to return to his people and his brother. And, despite being alone with Thor a few times, he hadn't tried to kill his brother or seize the crown since then. As much as she didn't want to admit it, it did give her a sense of hope that perhaps Thor could have his brother back, for she knew how important he was to Thor, especially now that he had lost the rest of his family and his home.

But Loki was just standing there, doing nothing.

"It's frightening," Thanos spoke to Thor, crouching down a little so Thor was in his line of sight, "Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here…or should I say I am."

"You talk too much," Thor muttered though he couldn't help the small grunt of pain that came when Thanos refused to release his skull.

The titan shook his head and turned to Loki, holding out his other hand, "The Tesseract, or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference?"

Athena's attention snapped back to Loki, shaking her head and hoping that the titan was wrong. As far as she knew the Tesseract had been kept in Odin's Vault, she had assumed that Hela had destroyed it. The woman seemed to loathe Odin and had taken enormous pleasure in destroying everything else that the man had owned or created. She did not think the objects in his fault would be ignored. Even if she hadn't, the Tesseract had been in the Vault on a very much destroyed Asgard. But if the Titan was turning to Loki for it, it must mean that he thought the trickster had it with him.

As much as much as she didn't want to believe that Loki had taken it again, a part of her would not put it past him. That had been the entire focus of the Battle of New York, Loki using the Tesseract to open a portal to allow his army in. He had gone to Earth specifically to take the Tesseract...and now she was understanding exactly who had likely given Loki the army he'd used. Somehow Loki had come in contact with Thanos in the past, when he first fell off the Rainbow Bridge. They must have struck up some kind of deal, where Loki would return the Tesseract to him in exchange for the Army to conquer Earth.

But after all that had happened, there shouldn't have been any way for Loki to know Thanos hadn't been defeated by someone else or that their deal would still be in effect. She could guess Loki may have taken the Tesseract from the vault, as a bargaining chip, in case Thanos was still out there and seeking the Infinity Stones. But it still left the question of how Thanos knew Loki was there. She truly did not want to think that Loki had contacted the man, she didn't think it would be possible for him to, especially not on the ship, not with Heimdall right there or the Valkyrie not trusting him. The only thing that made sense to her was that Thanos was tracking it and knew it was on the ship.

She didn't know which was worse, the thought that Loki had intentionally contacted the man to draw him to the ship or that, by taking the Tesseract in the first place, he had led the man right to them unintentionally.

"Oh, I do," Loki smirked in response to Thanos's question, briskly waving his hand, "Kill away."

"No!" Athena screamed when Thanos turned the gauntlet to press the Power Stone right to Thor's temple, causing him to scream in pain. She struggled as hard as she could to move the beam, pressing her hands flat on the floor and trying to use them to lift it off her back, by forcing herself up with it. It seemed to be working, but not as fast as she would have liked, and Thor's screams were getting louder and more agonized.

So much so that Loki himself even seemed affected by it, calling out, "Alright, stop!"

Athena glared at the titan as he released Thor, "You are going to die for that," she warned him.

"I'll be sure to cower once you're free," the titan taunted her, smirking at how she was still trapped under the beam.

"We don't have the Tesseract," Thor cut in, if only for a way to draw the attention away from Athena. He could handle whatever pain the titan could bring him, but he would be damned if he let the man lay a hand on Athena, "It was destroyed on Asgard."

"It was in the Vault," Athena reminded him, "Where Surtur's Crown also was."

Thor seemed to realize what she was trying to imply and turned his attention to Loki, "Oh brother, you didn't..."

Loki merely pulled the Tesseract out, the cube resting on the palm of his hand and casting a light blue light on the room.

"You really are the worst, brother," Thor murmured, his voice laced with other disappointment.

But Loki gave him a smile, "I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again."

Thanos scoffed, "Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian."

Loki smirked, glancing over at Athena, and giving a subtle jerk of his head towards the shadows where the Hulk was still waiting, the green man able to see her from the angle he was hidden at but not Loki. She returned the gesture with just a careful flick of her eyes to the side, turning her head carefully to make it look as though she were trying to work a way out from under the beam.

"Well," Loki turned his attention back to Thanos, "For one thing, I'm not Asgardian. And for another...we have a Hulk."

Athena quickly swiped her sword arm out, the tip of her blade pointed at Thanos, all the sign the Hulk needed to attack, and attack he did. He emerged from the shadows and dove straight for Thanos, managing to tackle him off to the side and land a swift punch. Athena could see Ebony Maw reach out to stop Corvus Glaive from interfering. Which only served to make her more concerned. She knew the Power Stone would make Thanos quite strong, but she could hope that Hulk's strength would be enough. The fact that Thanos's children were not stepping in to protect him did worry her.

"Let him have his fun," Ebony Maw spoke.

Athena ducked down when the Hulk went flying across the room from a punch from Thanos, knocking the beam off of her. But she stayed down for a moment longer as the Hulk had thrown himself back over her to try and hit at Thanos once more. The Hulk managed to land quite a few blows on Thanos and Athena tried to use that to her advantage, rushing at the man while he was distracted, managing to knock over two of his children on her dash toward him. But with one quick blow dealt to the Hulk, the titan managed to send the green man flying right into her, sending them both across the room and into a wall before she could maneuver herself out of the way.

She groaned and punched her shield arm into the ground, using the pain of it to fuel her into standing once more, turning and lifting her shield and sword to protect the Hulk for he was clearly down and the children of Thanos were moving in to finish him off.

"Forefathers…" she could hear Heimdall speaking and her attention snapped to him, the man weakly reaching out towards her and Hulk, "Let the dark magic flow through me one last time..."

"No!" Athena cried when she realized what he was doing. She tried to take a run towards Thor, the man still trapped, but she was too late as the Bifrost opened around her and the Hulk, sucking them into it.

"Athena!" Thor shouted, struggling even harder in the barrier that held him when he saw her being pulled away from him, not knowing where Heimdall had sent her, but infinitely relieved that she was at least out of this danger.

Thanos shook his head and just strode over to the fallen Asgardian, "That was a mistake."

"No!" Thor yelled when Thanos lifted his sword and stabbed it straight through Heimdall's heart. And, just like that, one of his oldest and dearest friends died before his eyes like so many others had, "You're going to die for that!" he repeated Athena's threat.

Thanos scoffed, "Promises, promises."

Ebony Maw picked up the Tesseract from where it had fallen and held it up to Thanos as though offering a gift to a god, "My humble personage…bows before your grandeur. No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility, to wield not one, but two Infinity Stones. The universe lies within your grasp."

Thor watched in mounting horror as Thanos crushed the Tesseract with just one hand, opening his palm to reveal the Space Stone, a blue glowing rock, hidden within. The titan admired the stone for just a moment before turning to drop it onto the gauntlet beside the Power Stone.

"There are two more stones on Earth," Thanos remarked before glancing over at his children, "Find them, my children, and bring them to me on Titan."

Proxima Midnight bowed deeply, "Father, we will not fail you."

"If I might, interject," Loki spoke as he stepped over to the small gathering, "If you're going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that arena."

Thanos snorted at that, "If you consider failure experience."

"I consider experience, experience. Almighty Thanos..." Loki continued, moving closer and closer to the man, "I, Loki, Prince of Asgard," he glanced over at Thor meaningfully, "Odinson, the rightful King of Jotunheim, God of Mischief," and slowly began to lower a dagger from his sleeve and into his hand so only Thor could see, "Do hereby pledge to you, my undying fidelity..."

Loki quickly darted his hand out, moving to try and stab Thanos in the neck, but the titan quickly grabbed his arm to stop him, expecting the move, "'Undying.' You should choose your words more carefully."

Thor struggled once more to free himself from the barrier holding him down, seeing the titan grab Loki with his other hand by the neck, choking him and lifting him above his head as he did so.

With his final breath, Loki managed to ground out, "You…will never be…a god."

Thanos shook his head and, with one final squeeze, broke Loki's neck and tossed him on the ground in front of the Thor, "No resurrections this time."

"No, Loki!"

Thor could only stare in horror at the body of his fallen brother as Thanos and his children teleported out of the ship, leaving him alone. He didn't need to see behind him to know that the ship that had attacked their sanctuary was powering up, he could see the lights of their blasters illuminating the room moments before it exploded with him still inside.

A/N: I cried in this chapter :'( I also agonized over whether I wanted Athena with Thor or on Earth, and she fought to stay with Thor, but then Thor and Heimdall ganged up on me and were both in agreement that they'd rather her safe and not in the soon-to-be exploding ship but on Earth because if Thanos was going to go after the Stones, they would need someone as powerful as Thor to be there to help guard them :'( Thor was more 'if I'm going to die, I don't want to take her with me, I want her safe' :(

Some notes on reviews...

Athena and Thor were definitely separated here :( And she's certainly going to have a big part to play in this story, I hope you'll enjoy it :D

It's very sad, I hated myself for tearing them apart like this, but that was also something I'd noticed for a while, they usually are always together or at least know the other is ok while they are apart. Here they're pulled apart and neither will be 100 percent sure if the other is even alive :'( Makes for a way to view how they are on their own :(

So far the AU stories are on hold till I can get my main 5 stories current and updated :( I can't say when they will be resumed, but I'm going to try to update them here and there when I can though :)

The gray is definitely something to watch out for };)

I was debating whether to hold off IW at one point, since it's still out in theaters, but I felt like I just couldn't wait lol :) But thank you! I'm really glad you've enjoyed the stories so far :') Lol, Tony's nickname sort of goes right over Athena's head since she won't be paying full attention to him, but it'll be there ;) And Korg! I loved him, I couldn't bring myself to kill him, the Asgardians would need more protection than just one Valkyrie after all, no matter how BAMF she is ;) Oh the ending, I am zipping my lips about that };) But I can say the wedding will be a very important thing in the series ;)