Asgard

Darcy was floored by everything she had seen in Asgard but now she had a job to finish up, she had asked for a brief audience with Odin and was astonishingly invited to the Throne Room that afternoon. She entered and tried to let her very brief and rather forgettable Shield training take control but when she spotted Odin alone on his throne with his spear Gungnir in his right hand it all seemed to vanish from her memory.

She approached Odin who was clearly sizing her up and was clearly very much aware of what she had been sent to do. "You requested an audience with me…" he said with his commanding voice echoing all around Darcy. "I have chosen to meet with you Darcy Lewis as a favor to my son Thor but do not mistake our meeting as more than a show of respect. Heimdall has already informed me of your mission to open trade discussions between Earth and Asgard."

Darcy nodded "You are very well informed your majesty. We just want to foster as peaceful a relationship as we can between the Earth and Asgard." Darcy answered hoping her degree in Political Science would help her win the day.

"There is no quarrel between the Earth and Asgard and there is no reason for one to occur" replied Odin not wanting to spend more time on this topic than what was necessary.

"Not yet your majesty" replied Darcy prompting Odin to stare at her so intently she could have sworn he was looking into her soul. "Loki, your adopted son did come to Earth and start a fight and possibly more than that if our heroes hadn't stopped him."

Odin sighed, Loki once again found himself to be a thorn in Odin's side. Part of Odin wanted to smile since he knew that Loki would certainly be happy to promote such an annoyed feeling in his adopted father's mind but Odin kept his face stern in the face of Darcy Lewis. "A group of heroes that my true son Thor was a part of. The debt owed from Asgard to Earth for Loki's folly was paid when Thor aided your Avengers in stopping him. I am open to working with your people when the situation arises but I wonder what your people are hoping to gain from us aside from a powerful guardian."

Darcy sighed knowing that this was the important part of this whole conversation, Odin would know if she was lying but knowing how long he had been around he would certainly be understanding of her attempting to. "Earth is hoping to learn from Asgard any way that it can. Humanity has just been introduced to a universe that was even bigger than we ever imagined it could be."

Odin stood up and walked down the stairs to stand on the same level as Darcy "Your superiors seek to use Asgard and its position to gather strength and make itself more important than it is ready to be" he said walking past Darcy who followed behind him. Odin already had much to lose in regard to Earth when Loki pulled his stunt and opened a portal to Knowhere from Earth and allowed that human to fall through it and see what was on the other side. More importantly than that was the fact that it was quickly determined that Earth was where the portal originated from and that the little blue planet had quietly been sitting in its own little corner of the galaxy for a very long time. The genie was out of the bottle when it came to keeping the Earth out of the lime light but he must try to protect it as long as possible which meant keeping it a safe distance from Asgardian affairs.

"Perhaps if you were to meet with my superiors you could open up more substantial discussions about possible collaboration between Humans and Asgardians" Darcy said knowing that Odin had been lost in thought and probably heard very little of what she had to say.

Odin opened the door to the Throne Room and signaled for Darcy to go out into the hall "You have tried your best Darcy Lewis but I'm afraid that you and your superiors have wasted precious time and effort on a fool's errand, farewell" he said as Darcy quietly nodded and left the room and headed back to her own.

Svartalfheim

Malekith stood at the ready awaiting for word of Asgard coming to Svartalfheim to stop his invasion of the Earth. He had long awaited his opportunity to claim Asgard for himself and his time was almost here. He would allow his army to distract the forces that Asgard would send while he would sneak away with Kurse and a small detachment and claim the Observatory and wait for his surviving army to join him on Asgard. Many of the Dark Elves would die but taking the Observatory would cut Asgard's military from home and allow him to take the throne and rule Asgard for the rest of time.

Kurse entered Malekith's chambers "My lord we have received word that some monster is rampaging across Alfheim" he reported with a hint of excitement. Kurse had long dreamed of bringing the Dark Elves to Alfheim and making a life there, rebuilding, repopulating and maybe make things better for his people there. Alfheim had always been the goal for the Dark Elves and this monster had cut its way through the Light Elf defenses and was about to do clear out any resistance for a Dark Elf invasion. "The creature is about to attack Ljosalfgard and has already killed Faradei."

Faradei's death caught Malekith's attention, Faradei had long held back previous invasions but with his death Alfheim would be weaker than ever, Asgard would need to send an army to stop him from taking the city and it was an opportunity to take Asgard with even less effort than his plan already called for. Malekith smiled "Sacrifice the weak rabble so that Asgard will be his once and for all" he said in his mind knowing that Kurse would not understand the great mind of Malekith at work.

Malekith turned to Kurse "get all of our ships and men into the air and get us to Alfheim as soon as possible. We shall claim whatever the monster leaves behind" he ordered.

Asgard

Darcy entered her room after what was supposed to be their final dinner on Asgard, they were returning home tomorrow and she was going to have to explain to Fury why Odin had completely shut down any chance of collaboration between Earth and Asgard. She washed her face and wiped it off with a towel and was surprised when she looked in the mirror and saw a man standing behind her.

Darcy was about to scream when Loki's cold hand covered her mouth and he calmly spoke into her ear "Relax, if I wanted to hurt you, I already would have" this seemed to calm Darcy and Loki removed his hand and she quickly turned to face him.

Darcy pulled her taser out and held it up between her and the crazy trickster god who had attacked Earth a few months prior. He held up his hands hoping to get her to calm down but Darcy simply turned up the voltage on her taser. "What do you want?" she huffed out sounding less confident than she had meant to.

Loki slowly dropped his hands "I'm here because I frankly need your help or we are all in grave danger" he said knowing that he did not have the luxury of time, Mangog may very well be approaching Ljosalfgard already and the longer he took to convince Darcy to help the more powerful Mangog would become. "I just need you to pass a message to Odin for me, there is a monster called Mangog attacking Alfheim and it continues to grow in strength if nothing is done soon it will be too late to stop it" he said quickly as realization that he was standing in the proverbial hornets nest.

"Okay?" Darcy said finding herself actually believing the God of Lies, Loki smiled innocently and turned to make his escape when Darcy spoke again. "So how am I, a girl from Earth who knows very little about Asgard or Alfheim or whatever supposed to know these kind of details and make that sound even remotely coherent?" she asked and Loki sighed, the girl was right Odin would never believe her and Mangog would go unchallenged.

Loki turned and approached Darcy "How good are you at lying?" he asked knowing that he had a long night ahead of him.