Chapter 36: The Valley
Originally Inessa planned to leave her body as soon as the doors closed behind them. Nadya was never far from the center of the Valley, and every single door opened there, but she realized very quickly that wasn't an option. Thor continued to shoot up into the sky and hit the lower edges of the vortex. Closing the Valley off calmed the surface winds, but not those higher up. If Inessa left her body, it would drop, and she wouldn't survive. She had no choice but to cling to Thor as they were tossed wildly, buffeted in several different directions, until he finally lowered Mjolnir and attempted a landing. They three crashed to the ground at such a sharp angle that they ended up somewhere Inessa had never been- the lower edge of the Valley's ever-distant rim.
Thor held her when they crashed, kept the worst of the shock and stones away. Inessa felt a scythe blade twist sideways and bite into her reinforced top. Mercifully (and unlike the wooden spike), it just barely connected with one of the reinforced plates and didn't pierce her skin. She needed to add more protection on the sides, like JARVIS' design.
As soon as Inessa knew her body was safe, she reached out to find Nadya's- but something was wrong. They were much too far away. Her friend was a long way off- a couple hours at her fastest run. The Valley was too large and their trajectory too strange. Inessa was going to have to help Thor as a human- she couldn't risk opening a small window to tunnel Nadya through. The other wolves were running to join their leader, but none were close to her position.
Inessa rolled away from Thor, gasping at a flair of pain in her side. Cul was slowly rising to his feet. While he did, she poked at her injured side, tested it. It hurt like hell, but not like it should. Inessa had been skinned before a time or ten, she knew what it should feel like. Damaged nerves or shock- whatever it was holding back the pain, she was grateful, and a bit woozy.
"The doors are closed. If he dies, it's now," she panted as Thor righted himself and summoned Mjolnir from a few feet away. Inessa left the scythes hooked through her belt and let shadows roll down her hands to form long, black talons. She only wished she had Nadya's poison.
Cul was looking around, wondrous. He laughed, but it wasn't a scornful one, it sounded suspiciously like amazement, "Is this your doing, little thing?"
"Yes," she glared, "no more slaves for you to drain. No one to keep you alive."
"Other than you two," he nodded to Thor, "but- how did you find this place?"
Inessa walked around him, away from Thor. She was forcing him to focus on only one target- not that Cul cared. She wasn't anything resembling a threat.
"The Valley is mine to come and go from as I please," Thor couldn't summon lightning here, but he could beat Cul to death- she hoped.
"The Valley?" Cul's wonder grew, "You don't know what this is? Do you?" he shook his head, "That treacherous Barton believed you might have come from this land- a shade infecting the corpse of an infant. Now I wonder too," a lance of mist rolled from him suddenly, headed straight for Inessa. She didn't dodge the mist- something told her not to. She simply let it wash over her.
Thor shouted when he saw Cul's power hit Inessa. If she was taken- if he had to kill her to stop his uncle- but he couldn't kill her! The mist turned black as it touched Inessa. The darkness spread outwards, back to Cul. He shouted in pain and released the power before the black smoke touched him. Inessa was entirely unharmed.
"I don't believe it," his wonder turned to shock, "that imbecile was right..."
"You know this place?" Inessa couldn't hear his words. She was focused on Thor- silently communicating that she was alright, he didn't need to shit himself (if he hadn't done so already).
Cul looked up at the twisting nether in the sky. He stared at it a long time- long enough for Inessa to grow impatient and Thor to ready his swing, "That is all that remains of the bifrost in this realm," Thor froze again. Cul bent down and scooped up a handful of stones. He let them tumble between his fingers as he stood, "These? The pieces left of the Icari'i capitol. The last time I was here, child, the world burned. It looks as if the Jotuns left a ghost or two," he stared pointedly at Inessa.
Her mouth opened slightly. She didn't believe it, but if it was true- Inessa reached to the mind of Nadya, the sentient shadow with a mind unlike any beast or human, and shared an image of Cul in front of her. The wolf roared- rage and vitriol filled Inessa's mind, and as a group the pack's speed increased exponentially. They moved faster than even they knew was possible. Inessa drew back and stared at him- their reaction was personal. They recognized him. She stared at Cul, stunned, as Thor attacked.
Cul was caught of guard and shouted in pain as the hammer connected with his back shoulder. Inessa was jarred from her stupor as he spun and knocked Thor's legs from under him, then struck the prince mid-chest as he fell. The motions made his head snap back and winded the hero. Inessa dove for Cul- riding the fury she'd felt radiate from Nadya. She lashed at him with the shadowy talons and Cul blindly swatted her away. He looked down at the wounds as they healed, angry. Inessa landed several feet away and smiled- a streak of his hair was turning white. The plan worked. The Valley- whatever it was- cut him off from his slaves on Earth.
Thor didn't take time to make the same observation, he just swung his hammer into Cul's head once again. The two began battling in earnest, but this time Cul was keeping an eye open for Inessa. She couldn't take another hit from him- pure adrenaline and shock kept her on her feet after the strike, but she dove in when she could, slashed and irritated- forcing his body to burn through the reserves of healing energy until- there!
A streak of black shot past her, then more and more. Thor was forced away as Cul screamed in fear and pain. Nadya's pack swarmed him, slashing and ripping at every inch of his flesh. Inessa considered leaving her body to escape the pain and weariness settling in, but she resisted. She couldn't guide the pack in their task, and if Cul was right- if they were somehow the spirits of the world the Jotuns destroyed to stop him before- maybe they deserved to revel in their frenzy undisturbed.
Thor watched until he saw long strands of white hair and Cul's voice had grown feeble and weak. He dropped his hammer and walked over to check on Inessa. She was watching the wolves, pale and weary. Thor lifted her and carried the teen away from the feasting pack.
He was curious, and they couldn't leave until the wolves backed off and they could verify his death. Until they grew bored, there was time to explore. Thor carried Inessa up the slope of the Valley. Like her, he'd believed the far-off rim to be towering cliffs, but standing halfway up one such feature he realized it was only a slope. It was steep in places, but not terribly so. The Valley, impossible as it seemed, was merely a crater in a much larger landscape.
After several minutes he crested the rim at last and set Inessa down to face what lay beyond. In the distance a few crumbling foundations stood, but otherwise it was as desolate as Svartalfheim. Destruction showed clearly- scars on the land from the Jotun's war, things that looked like broken spears or bits of skeleton, the ground was black, but in places angry red rivers of lava flowed, and only darkness in the sky. The reason the light over the Valley was so flat, so dead, was precisely what Cul claimed it to be- the shining, shattered Bifrost. A sun must have shone once, but no longer. Yet the world lived.
Thor attempted to hail Heimdall, but no reply came. It could simply be the stubborn obedience that marked the bridge-keeper, but something else crept into Thor's mind. The destruction of the bridge likely cut the realm off more than anyone could fathom. The Avengers weren't wrong in their earlier guesses about the Valley- it was in another plane. Blasting through the Bifrost, breaking a connection so elemental- it had pulled the entire realm with it to this in-between place. One an erupting experiment into warped particles of light somehow found and formed an unusual connection to through an unusual source- Inessa.
They waited for twenty minutes while the pack fed. Once it was over, only a few pieces were left of Cul. Still, they collected them in silence and, too weary for words, Inessa grabbed Thor's neck, opened the doorway beneath them, and the pair fell back into the night over the farm.
Bucky slammed into Sam and both careened into the rubble. He cursed as he untangled himself from the dazed Falcon. Bucky looked for a way back up to that punk- he was going to kill Steve.
Sam, dazed, rolled onto a fractured wing and winced. Flight was going to be a no-go. Hopefully Natasha had everything covered, because he wasn't making it out of the hole any time soon. He couldn't even see the farmhouse from so far down. Sam tried to focus, he'd seen something important before- "TONY!"
Sam's shout made Bucky turn. He saw Sin making her way to the dead suit and ran for her. She saw him coming and braced for a real fight- maybe this one would be more of a challenge. Bucky caught two throwing knives with his metal hand and launched them back at her.
A blast blocked her from his sight as she dodged the blades. Something exploded and Sin went flying across the crater. Two Iron Man suits hovered nearby. They opened fire and within moments Sin was splattered across the far side of the crater.
"Reboot complete," JARVIS' cheery voice emitted from the suits- as if their appearance didn't make it clear enough. "Mister Barnes, please assist Master Stark, his oxygen filtration system has been deactivated and the Suit is airtight. I must assist Miss Romanoff and the others." the suits flew off. Bucky scrambled for Tony. His rage abruptly melted away and, more than anything, he felt ashamed.
Sam clicked on his comms, "JARVIS, if you see Clint- the guy with him is his brother. Last I heard we were friends with him."
There was a momentary pause, then JARVIS came back on, "His body was recovered with Miss Romanoff's. Both are significantly injured but in stable condition. Is the third party an ally as well?"
"Negative," Sam was emphatic, "terminate with extreme prejudice." There was a loud booming and the farmhouse exploded above them, "Too much prejudice."
"There was a gas leak in the house, that was not my doing." JARVIS sounded defensive.
"Sure there was. Good cover."
Bucky got a grip on the face plate and ripped it away. Tony gasped in the fresh air like a man drowning. He looked up at Bucky, then around as best he could at the crater, "The hell happened here?! Don't answer that- get me out of this damned thing first!" He noticed the red splatter on the still-smoking crater wall, "Please tell me that's who I hope it is."
"Where do you think you're gong?" Steve saw Morris between the farmhouse and the barn, retreating hastily at the sight of Cul, Thor, and Inessa vanishing into the sky. He followed, abruptly unconcerned with that bastard Bucky.
Steve kicked Morris in the back and he fell with a hiss, "What, are you going to kill me? Mister Perfect? Don't make me laugh." the Wraiths, sensing defeat, fled- useless cowards.
Steve's rage didn't vanish with them, he was fueling his own temper now, "I went to war because I thought if my presence could end it a fraction of a millisecond sooner, I had an obligation to," his voice was low and slow, eerie, "I gave up my body, my identity, my best friend, the woman I loved, even my damned life to help people," he slammed a foot into Morris' hand as the man tried to stand, breaking most of the bones. "I was dragged out of the grave, thrown into a hell of alien armies, gods, and metal men," he slid his foot up to Morris' wrist and slammed the steel fence piece through his hand, pinning it to the earth. Morris screamed with pain- his enhancements did nothing to help.
"I fought, like always, so others wouldn't have to," Steve lifted his foot and slammed it down again, this time onto Morris' knee, shattering it, "I fought the friend I lost. I thought I could save him, bring myself back from the dead too," he crouched down and slowly applied pressure until Morris' shin snapped. "But first Dennisson. Then you. You won't let me stop. You never will, will you? You, Loki, Hydra, everyone like you. Fight. Eat. Fight. Sleep. Fight. Repeating over and over again until I finally die. Then you'll find a way to drag me back again. Well, maybe not you specifically." He didn't care that his prey was screaming too much to hear him. He didn't care that the farmhouse behind him exploded.
Steve stepped aside and put his foot on Morris' throat next. The man grew abruptly still, "Do it," he said simply, "my master will only do it slower if you don't. Do it."
"Master?" Steve shook his head in wonder, "See? Another one in line already." he stomped down on Morris' neck. His foot went clear through to the other side. For good measure, Steve leaned down and pushed his shield through Morris' face- cutting it in half vertically. He pulled a small grenade from his pocket and tore out the pin, then quickly nestled it in the neck cavity and jogged a safe distance away.
Morris was the one who wanted overkill. Steve was happy to give it to him.
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