A/N: Ok, so tomorrow we'll be getting a triple feature :) Sadie in the morning, Thor in the afternoon, and Lyssa at night ;) Mondays were always my least favorite day of the week, so hopefully it'll make it a better day all around ;)
~8~
The Avengers Reassemble
Thor followed Eitri as the Dwarf led them through the darkened halls of the forge, having been inspired by Thor's speech and promise of destroying Thanos. There was one project he had been working on ever since he had heard of the attack the Jotuns made on Asgard, how Laufey had tried to kill Odin while he slept. He had been reminded in that moment that Thor would one day become king, even if the rumors said his coronation had been interrupted. A hammer was fine for a prince, but a king would need a far more powerful weapon, which was just what they would need to truly kill Thanos. He'd had the foresight to keep that project well hidden even from his own people, as a result Thanos had not destroyed the mold he'd made for it.
Eitri came to stop just before one of the crucibles, where a box was set up just below it on a pedestal.
"This the plan?" Rocket asked as he eyed the small box with disdain, "We're gonna hit him with a brick?"
"It's a mold," Eitri explained, "A king's weapon. Meant to be the greatest in Asgard. In theory, it could even summon the Bifrost."
Thor smiled at the thought, if this worked it sounded like it would be the perfect weapon to use against Thanos and, what's more, it would give them direct passage back to earth, to Athena, "Does it have a name?"
'Athena' would be a perfect name for a weapon like that, the greatest in Asgard, meant for the king, unstoppable like the Bifrost...
"Storm breaker," Eitri stated.
Thor almost pouted at that, he had been hoping the weapon hadn't yet been named so he could name it himself.
"Yeah...it's a bit much," Rocket grumbled.
"It was meant to be part of a pair," Eitri murmured, looking at the mold with a sad expression, he hadn't gotten a chance to make a mold for the second weapon, "Storm Bringer, for the grey-eyed girl," he looked over at Thor for that, "She IS to be your Queen, yes?"
Thor felt himself smile smally at Eitri's description of Athena, "Aye."
The Dwarves had only met her once. They had been impressed with her knowledge of forges in general, thanks in part to her brother, and had even offered to make her a weapon like his hammer. She had politely turned them down. It appeared Eitri had wanted to make her one anyway, paired with Storm Breaker. The name was fitting, if he had to say, Athena's father was known as a cause of storms on Earth.
"Good," Eitri nodded, "We had a bet going...suppose it doesn't matter now though."
Thor shook his head out of his thoughts at that, giving Eitri a look for that, before focusing back on the issue at hand, how the weapon still had yet to be forged, "So how do we make it?"
"You'll have to restart the forge," Eitri told them, "Awaken the heart of the dying star."
Thor stepped closer to one of the windows of the forge, looking out at the center of the star, how it was just dull and gray and floating there without any life or heat to it. He looked up at the space around it, at the rings that surrounded the star, all of them frozen in place as though they hadn't moved in a very long time. From what he understood of the forge, the star was somewhat powered by the moving of the rings, they kept the energy of it locked in place, and the friction and the force created by the rings passing each other were what started up the star.
He would need to find a way to get the rings moving once more and it should act like a jump-start to the heart of the star.
He quickly took mental stock of all of the assets they had, all of the things they could use to try and get the rings going...when his gaze was caught by the small pod they had taken to reach the forge and he grinned.
"Rabbit, fire up the pod!"
~8~
Athena sat in the pilot's chair of the quinjet, though her back was turned to the main window so she could not see out. The jet had been pre-programmed with Wakanda's location, where Steve had said they would be going. It was operating on autopilot and she wouldn't need to do anything unless she was attacked for some reason. She sat somewhat hunched over, her elbows resting on her knees, her head in her hands, with her fingertips gently massaging at her temples. She was trying to gather herself, gather her focus as well as trying to refresh her energy.
Everything that had happened lately was just taking a great deal out of her. Battling the Hulk on Sakaar, jumping from spaceship to spaceship to stop the guards coming after them as they fled, facing down and Undead Army single-handedly as she tried to protect the Asgardians while they boarded the ship. She had only had a short while to rest at the healers' orders but even then it had been restless and she hadn't been able to calm her mind enough to truly rest as they had likely hoped for her to do. And then there was the spar with the Valkyrie and the attack on the sanctuary ship, landing on Earth without proper preparation from the Bifrost, battling yet another Child of Thanos, and then instantly going into another attack with two more before she could finally finish three off.
She felt like she was breaking down, both physically and emotionally and mentally. So many battles, so much fighting, so much loss and heartbreak. She honestly wasn't sure how much more of this she could take without being allowed the time to properly mourn for Thor. She had brought this on herself, pushing and pushing and pushing to make sure that she was keeping everyone else safe. She had not allowed herself any time to stop and she knew she couldn't afford to do so now. The Mind Stone was the last stone to be found on Earth, and Thanos would be coming for it, she was sure of it. If they didn't find a way to stop him with Vision the entire universe would suffer for it.
She just had to last a little bit longer, she just needed to get one shot at Thanos and she would make it count.
And she knew that chance would be coming, sooner than she was probably ready for if she had to be honest. It was why she was sitting there with her back to the main windshield and not watching where the ship was going. She didn't want to know how close she was to Wakanda, because once the ship set down in that country, it would be time for the battle. She didn't want to know just how little time she had left to herself, to try and refocus everything. It would never be enough.
Being what she was, being a goddess, especially one of battle, she had more endurance than an average human, more stores of strength. She would be able to pick her sword up and go to battle after battle after battle without wearing down the same way. Even just sitting down on this trip back from Rome, she could feel her strength returning to her, the knowledge of all that was coming helping to fuel that even more. It was like her body knew a war was approaching and was trying to prepare her for it, the adrenaline that usually built up in a fight had already begun to fill her. It was her mind that was in chaos. She knew she had to be in this battle, no one, not even a single Avenger, would be able to wield her sword but her. But that didn't mean a small part of her didn't wish it was different, didn't want to have to be the one to make this blow.
She just kept reminding herself she was doing this for Thor, she was doing this for him and his people and every other person that Thanos had ever slaughtered on his quest for these Infinity Stones. She was doing this to protect other people, so they wouldn't have to suffer the loss of someone they loved the way she had. She would never be able to say how relieved she had been to hear Banner say that they might be able to extract the stone from Vision without damaging him, without destroying him. Granted she hadn't been on earth very long, she had missed quite a lot since the last time she was there, but she could see just from how Wanda and Vision interacted that they loved each other. She would never want to have to force Wanda to lose the man she loved.
She heard a beeping noise behind her and knew that was likely a signal that she was approaching Wakanda. But she didn't want to turn around. From what Steve told her, he had spoken with the King of Wakanda and gotten special codes that would allow her to pass into the country without any issue. The ship would even land itself, so there was really no need for her to look. If she didn't look she could pretend she had a little while longer before she had to throw herself back into battle.
She swallowed hard and forced herself to sit up a little straighter, her hands leaving her temples and coming to rest on the sword and its sheath as it rested across her lap, one hand on the tip of the blade the other on the hilt. She looked down at the sword, her hands tightly gripped around where they were resting. It had been so long since she had possessed this particular weapon and she both wished that she had destroyed it along with the rest of her family's weapons...and was relieved that she hadn't, for it might be the only thing that could stop Thanos.
She forced herself to look away, turning the chair to stare out the windshield as the ship began to approach what looked like a very high-tech city. If it was a choice between staring at the sword or staring at her approach, she would choose Wakanda. Until her sword was driven into Thanos's beating heart, the only thing it was good for at the moment was a stark reminder of just how terrible she had been during the Dark Days. The fact that she had actually hidden this sword on earth, that she had actually doubted she would stay with her family while they left Earth, spoke volumes to her. She had been the only one of her family to do such a thing. A sound strategy in the moment, but something that filled her with guilt and disgust now.
She stood just as the ship began to lower, able to see the first quinjet, the one Steve and the others had brought her, Vision and Wanda to their base in, already set down. She could make out what appeared to be women in a red suits of armor before she had turned to make her way to the ramp. If this battle was going down she would rather get it over with as soon as possible, there was no time to spare any longer. She waited till the ship made the tell-tale thump of landing, before she pushed a button to release the ramp.
She made her way down to see Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon approaching, with another black man and one of the red-garbed Warriors beside him, Vision and Wanda approached at a slower pace with Banner seeming to be examining Vision as they went.
"Athena," Steve greeted, gesturing to the man who stood beside him, "This is T'Challa, the King of Wakanda. He's opened his home to us to help Vision and also provide assistance against Thanos."
Athena didn't know how else to respond but to give a strong nod to T'Challa. There are only two kings in her life, and this man was neither her father nor Thor.
"Did you get the weapon?" Natasha came right out and asked, always seeming to be the one more aware of the threats that surrounded them.
Athena swallowed hard, but put her right hand on the hilt of the blade, and pulled it from its sheath to show them, her hand wrap tightly in a cloth torn from the bottom of her small cape, both for protection against the blade, and to cover up the gray splotches.
"...a sword?" Sam asked, glancing between the others, not quite sure what he was expecting but, given all he knew of Thanos, it wasn't exactly something as simple as a sword, "That's the great weapon that's supposed to take down a titan?"
"It has in the past," Athena remarked, turning the blade somewhat in her hold, examining it in the sunlight, "And I'm fairly certain when I say Titan it's something infinitely more powerful than the species Thanos is without the stones."
And indeed it was, the Titans that came before her family were said to be even more powerful than the gods themselves. They were the children of creation, much more connected to that pure cosmic energy than the gods were. When Hephaestus had made her true sword, he had told her that he used one of the weapons the Titans themselves had taken up in the battle against the Gods. He had melted it down and recast it for her and her alone. He doubted that any of the other gods, at least any of her siblings, would be able to wield it against her or wield it at all. She was the child of a Titan, Metis, where her siblings were the children of Gods.
And when the Dark Days had taken hold of them, one or two of the Titans had been released from their prisons and used to distract or to destroy. She had killed one of them herself using this blade and, from what she had observed of Thanos, without the Infinity Stones he was not as hard to kill as a true Titan.
"All I need is one chance," she remarked, "Just one chance to get close enough to Thanos to land a blow, and I'll make sure it's one he cannot recover from."
"You?" the red-clad warrior standing next to T'Challa spoke, eyeing Athena up and down.
She knew she still looked quite a sight, the fact that she still appeared so beaten and bruised and exhausted probably did not lend much to the image of the true warrior that she was. But she was not the goddess of battle for nothing, "If any of you try to even touch this blade, the power contained within it would overwhelm you, and burn you from the inside out," she returned the sword back into its sheath.
"If Thanos is as powerful as you say he is, how can you be sure that it will work against him?" T'Challa asked, though there was a wisdom to his question.
"Because I made sure to ensure that this sword would be able to hold its own against the Infinity Stones."
"How the hell did you do that?" Steve sounded shocked.
Athena looked over at him, "All the Infinity Stones hold the cosmic power of the realms in which they are named, but they're not the only ones who have some semblance of control over them. I begged of my family for their blessings upon this weapon, Zeus, Morpheus, Cronos, Aether, Hades, and myself. It may not be able to overpower the Infinity Stones for long, but it should be able to neutralize their effects for the briefest of moments. And I only need one to land an attack."
"You got the gods of power, reality, time, space, soul, and mind to empower the weapon," Banner spoke as he made his way over to them, "That's genius."
"Goddess of Wisdom," Athena gestured to herself.
"And battle, from what I understand," T'Challa spoke, "And speaking of battle, how big of an assault should we expect?"
The man turned, leading them towards what appeared to be the main palace of the area. Now that they had a weapon, they needed to come up with a battle strategy and, in order to do that, they needed to know exactly what they were going to be up against.
"I think you should expect quite a big assault," Banner answered.
"From what we've been able to determine, Thanos has the largest army that the Universe has seen yet," Athena added, striding along with them.
"How are we looking?" Natasha continued, turning to T'Challa for that, they needed to know the army they would have to stand against Thanos in order to make their new plan.
"You will have my Kingsguard," he listed, "The Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje. And..."
"A semi-stable 100-year old man," someone spoke as they neared the entrance to the palace. Athena looked up to see a man with slightly long brown hair, with what appeared to be a black metal arm approach and smile at Steve.
"How have you been, Buck?" Steve returned the smile...and Athena realized this must be the Winter Soldier.
"Not bad, for the end of the world."
"Come," T'Challa called, leading them into the palace, "Our best scientific researcher is waiting to assess Vision."
~8~
Thor stood on one of the rings of the forge, nearby the pod that Rocket was sitting in. There was a small field around the forge, created by the Dwarves for their survival. In case anything on the outer rings needed to be repaired they would be able to go out and fix it. He was using that to his advantage now as he fixed the pod to the end of a chain, making sure it was secure. His plan wouldn't work if the pod was able to fly away or if the chain broke. He could only hope that the chain would be strong enough to withstand what he planned to do, nothing had been kept in very good shape and he hoped the chain would last long enough to at least restart the forge.
"I don't think you get the scientifics here," Rocket called out to him on a small communication device, "These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving, you gonna need something a lot bigger to yank them loose!"
Thor couldn't help but smirk to himself, he hadn't exactly told Rocket all of his plan for how to restart the forge. He had merely said that he was going to use the pod to pull the rings into starting once more. He hadn't elaborated on just how he was going to be doing that. The pod would be able to pull all it wanted if it was fixed to the edge of the ring, but it would take a little bit more force to actually get them moving. That's why he was there too.
"Leave that to me," he called back, moving into the right position and winding the chain around his arm in preparation.
"Leave it to you? Buddy, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a..."
Before Rocket could even finish his statement Thor had yanked the chain back, pulling the pod to him as though it weighed absolutely nothing, which made sense as it was space. But the forge generated its own gravitational pull, which was how he was able to stand fixed to the forge without flying off into space himself. He didn't let the pod hit him though, merely gripped the chain harder and spun in a circle, swinging the pod around as though it were a ball on the end of a string. He could hear Rocket from within, screaming from the force and momentum of it.
A moment later, when he was sure that he had gotten enough force behind it, Thor threw the pod towards space, shouting out, "Fire the engines!" to Rocket, who quickly did as he was told and the engines flared to life.
Thor hadn't quite realized just how powerful the tiny pod was, as he found himself being pulled along by it, losing his footing and being dragged quite literally down one of the rings. He struggled to find purchase, to get a grip of anything nearby, before he dug his heels into the side of the ring. Metal began to give way beneath his feet, piling up in front of him but creating enough of a mound for him to get a foothold and stop.
He let out a strained groan as he tried to keep hold of the chain and not let himself be pulled off the edge of the ring, but it wasn't enough just yet, the rings weren't moving, they were creaking nut not moving, "More power, rabbit!"
A moment later more thrusters went off on the ship and he could feel it, the rings starting to move once more. He held on tightly, watching as the Neutron Star in the center begin to heat up again now that the rings were working. It didn't take much more past that to get the rings aligned, the Neutron Star now blazing in place again.
It was truly a sight to behold.
"That's Nidavellir!" Thor called over the communication system to Rocket. He let go of the chain experimentally, testing the rings were not about to move out of sync again, before he let go entirely, freeing Rocket and the pod.
He nearly let out a whoop of joy, knowing that this would mean they'd finally get the weapon they needed to face down Thanos. They just needed to heat the crucibles, pour the metal into the mold, fix on a handle, and he would be back to Earth and back to Athena.
But then came a cry from Eitri just at the edge of the forge ring, "Damn it!"
"Damn it?" Rocket repeated, "What's damn it?"
"The mechanism is crippled."
Thor turned around from where he stood at the edge of the ring to see Eitri standing in a doorway, just to the side of where the rings opened up and aligned to the heart of the Neutron Star, "What?"
"With the iris closed, I can't heat the metal."
Thor looked down at the metal nearest the Star where he could see a small shutter in the middle of it had shut closed. If they couldn't get that shutter open, they would never be able to siphon off the heat from the Star to melt the metal in the Crucible and make the weapon. He shook his head, he had come too far and he was too close to getting that weapon and returning to Athena to give up now. It was hell to be away from her, to have her thinking him dead broke his heart every time he thought of it. He was not going to allow this to keep him from her, there had to be something he could do.
"How long will it take to heat it?" Thor called over to Eitri.
"A few minutes, maybe more. Why?"
Thor nodded to himself, a plan in place...though he was quite sure that this particular strategy was one Athena would not at all be happy with had she been there. But Athena wasn't there and he was not going to let himself be parted from her any longer, "I'm gonna hold it open."
"That's suicide!"
"So is facing Thanos without that axe," Thor countered, looking down at the shutter once more, before jumping off of the ring he stood on and heading right for it...
~8~
When T'Challa had said they were going to meet his best scientific researcher, Athena had envisioned...well, she wasn't sure exactly what she had envisioned, but she was certain it was not a 16 year old girl. But as she watched the young woman work and examine Vision, using what appeared to be the highest of technology, she was not about to say she was disappointed with what she saw. She had always been one to value intelligence over anything else, and the woman before her was clearly very bright.
Vision was laying on a table with the young woman, Shuri, T'Challa's younger sister, standing over him, scanning him with a device on her wrist. When she reached the Mind Stone in his forehead it glowed briefly, before she turned her wrist over and held her hand out, a 3D projection of the Mind Stone hovering just over her palm.
"The structure is polymorphic," Shuri determined, murmuring to herself, sounding both surprised and impressed.
"Right," Banner agreed, "We had to attach each neuron non-sequentially."
Shuri gave him a look that Athena could only described as being confused by something that should have been so obvious it didn't make sense to her why someone would say such a thing, "Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?"
All eyes turned to Banner as he seemed to stutter, actually looking like he was at a loss for words at the suggestion.
"Because...we didn't...think of it?"
"I'm sure you did your best."
Athena felt herself starting to smile for the first time in a long while at Shuri's words. It reminded her something of when she and her siblings would sometimes get into mock battles, or arguments, or if one of her siblings wanted to invent something new. Often they would agonize over it for hours, or years, trying to work out how to do something or what move they should make next, and, very often, it was usually her that had made some sort of comment or offered a suggestion on what they could have done differently that had them realizing it would have been better and faster and easier had they done so. Usually she was the one thinking of answers no one else seemed to realize, she could relate very much to Shuri in that moment.
"Can you do it?" Wanda spoke from where she was standing near the window, watching the scanning of Vision intently.
"Yes, but there are more than 2 trillion neurons here," Shuri warned them, "One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures," she glanced over at T'Challa, "It will take time, brother."
"How long?" Steve asked.
"As long as you can give me."
"Is there anyway you can use that time blessing to give her more of it?" Banner looked over at Athena, gesturing towards her sword.
She only shook her head, "If I use the blessing now, it will make the sword, and myself, susceptible to Thanos using the Time Stone against it later."
"Assuming he's gotten it from Strange," Banner argued.
"It's better to assume he's coming at us with all of the stones except for Vision's, than to assume he only has two and be surprised later."
"...good point."
A small beep sounded and Okoye, T'Challa's general who was standing beside him, held out her hand, a 3D projection of its own appearing over her palm as she read the report, "Something's entered the atmosphere."
"Hey Cap, we got a situation here!" Sam's voice rang out over the communication system and they quickly moved over to the windows and looked out.
They could see something in the sky, heading straight for Wakanda, either a ship or some sort of bomb they couldn't tell what it was, looking as though it was meant to drop right in the center of the city. But just as it neared it, it hit into some sort of force field that caused it to explode.
"God, I love this place," Bucky muttered over the communications as well.
"Don't start celebrating yet, guys," Rhodes warned them, "We got more incoming outside the dome."
They turned their attention to the edges of Wakanda, seeing more of the same sort of ship setting down within the forests just outside of the dome that had been created with the force field. It was almost as though they were trying to surround the city, but we're making a half circle round the front of it. They crashed down, destroying trees and wildlife that lived there. While they couldn't actually affect the city, it didn't mean they couldn't destroy its surroundings.
"It's too late," Vision grunted as he tried to move to his feet, "We need to destroy the stone now."
"Vision, get your ass back on the table," Natasha ordered.
And T'Challa nodded, "We will hold them off."
"Wanda, as soon as that stone's out of his head, you blow it to hell," Steve turned the woman.
"I will," Wanda swore.
Steve looked over at Athena, "You ready for this?"
"I'm ready for this to end," she remarked and he nodded, understanding.
"Evacuate the city," T'Challa began giving orders as he strode out of the room, "Engage all defenses..." he paused and pointed back over at Steve, "And get this man a shield!"
Athena swallowed as she looked out of the window one more time, noting the ships that set down, how many there were, whether there were any others that had followed. She took a deep breath, wringing her hands together...the battle was about to begin.
A/N: Oooh, only two more chapters left! O.O But now they have a secret weapon and Thor is working his way back to them for another advantage :) Though, I wonder how the battle will go with Athena on the field...I wonder how Thor's entrance will go too ;)
Some notes on reviews...
I have a one-shot planned for this story, about Thor's time on Olympus, and I can say there will be a moment during it where he actually talks to someone about the Dark Days and gets a more in-depth look into what Athena and her family turned into during them :'( But it may take a little while to get up, I want to try and plan that for a midpoint between finishing this story and when the next Avengers movie comes out, so probably around early December ;)