When her eyes opened in her revelation, Dahlia had no time to mourn. Something was in the house, but it wasn't Nightmares. It was something much stronger - possibly even much more sinister. As she bounded to the hallway, something grabbed her by the back of her tank top, throwing her back into the wall behind her. Suddenly, it was as if her body had taken over for her. A fist came towards her through the darkness, and in turn, she snatched it in the air to push it back. Quickly, Dahlia rolled out of the way of the next punch, keeping low to the ground. Yet, as the man attacking her came into the moonlit side of the hall, Dahlia found herself perplexed.
"Thor...? Why...?"
He gave no worded response, only yelled as he would throw another fist down towards her. He had become her friend for months now - or at the very least, an acquaintance she assumed she could count on. Why was he hellbent on killing her now? Had he, too, realized her betrayal?
His armor was too thick to break through without some sort of weapon. With swift reflexes, she dodged under his flying arm and bolted for the stairs. The kitchen would have knives she could use to fight back. He was right behind her as she grabbed a pair of large knives from the block on the counter. As a Valkyrie, her choice of dual weapons would have been much larger, but this was all she had, for now...
She spun around, swinging them at the god as he came at her. She would jump over the counter to avoid him as he, in turn, would grab a chef's knife to pursue to her. She kicked it out of his hand from her elevation, then swung one of the blades, striking him across the cheek.
Suddenly, Thor morphed.
In a flash of green contrast, he was no longer the God of Thunder, but a man with longer, black hair and green and gold, Asgardian attire.
Had her memories not flooded to her so fast, she might have realized who he really was before he showed his true self.
"Loki," she hissed. While she never truly knew the details of his feud with her mother, it came as no surprise that he might pursue her daughter and kill her. "Thor didn't mention his brother was earthbound, too."
"You don't even know the half of it," he would sneer at her, blood trickling from the fresh cut on his face. Before he could strike at her again, Dahlia drove her arm against his chest, pinning him into the counter.
"Why are you after me?" she demanded. At this, he only smirked.
"They said you brought the Mares from Asgard. The only way to get rid of the infestation is to kill the host."
He grunted as she pushed harder on his chest. "Are you sure this isn't a personal grudge?" she demanded. "You certainly don't seem the sort to want to protect a human realm."
Loki paused for a moment, and she realized his hesitation to answer her. Loki might have been the God of Mischief, but he seemed to have been on this realm for a lot longer than she was. She loosened her hold before she would pull away.
"How long have you been here, exactly?" she asked. Loki straightened, and he didn't seem exactly adamant on being clear.
"Longer than I would like, I can assure you."
"Loki!"
A voice boomed from the front door, and soon, Thor would come into the kitchen, hammer in hand. He gave his brother an agitated look. "She is not our enemy."
Our enemy? Were these two allies now? She never thought she would see the day when Loki and Thor weren't at each other's throats for one reason or another.
"I...must have missed something."
Thor had been the one to clarify the events of a lot of things, though Loki did butt in every once in a while when he seemed to feel the need to defend himself as to why he did this or that. She learned about their battle with the Dark Elves, the death of Odin and the bringing of Ragnarok. It was a lot to take in, and Dahlia found herself disappointed that she couldn't have been a part of that last, big battle. The only other Valkyrie that survived had come back to do something great, to help bring down Hel once and for all and help evacuate the Asgardians.
It only made Dahlia realize her own, pathetic self all the more.
It took time and an explanation from a man who called himself Doctor Strange for her to realize that Loki had been right. She had been the one to bring the Nightmares here, even if not intentionally, he had said. They would breed upon powerful, negative emotions such as guilt and chaotic confusion, of which she seemed to possess a lot of.
"Loki was wrong about one thing, though," Stephen explained as he walked about the room of his New York City sanctum.
"And what is that?" Thor asked. He was the one who had brought her here to get more information. It was strange, seeing him in mortal attire.
"Dahlia doesn't have to die to be rid of the Nightmares. We kill them, more keep coming. It's because a hidden chasm has been ripped, probably the same place where she came through."
For a moment, the valkyrie was silent. The Nightmares had followed her through a portal in the cave - one she had happened across by some, unhappy accident. It was shortly after that when Samantha had found and rescued her.
"So, we'll have to go back to Richmond," Dahlia deduced.
Doctor Strange wasn't going to hold their hands through this errand, but he at least told them what needed to be done. An artifact would first need to be found - a stone that was not any of the infinity stones, but nonetheless held great power to destroy and conjure portals when shattered. He specified there weren't many left, as people had taken advantage of them throughout the centuries after they mined them from a realm called Kuraiss. Far and few between, these green stones, called kuraiss emeralds, would not be easy to find.
He was led to believe that Odin may have had one in his possession before he died in Norway.
The plane ride with Thor was an uneasy one. While she felt she had befriended him at this point, Dahlia knew that revisiting his father's death place had to be difficult for him.
She had lost family, too, but perhaps it served her right to feel that loss. She had done nothing to stop it - only watched as her blonde sister fell to the ground, a spear piercing her shining, blood-stained shield.
She would take that secret to her grave, and that grave should have already been made for her and filled.
In hopes to find some distraction from her regret, she finally asked him the question that had been itching at her for weeks.
"Why did Loki really want me dead?"
Thor, who had been looking through the window beside him in silence, did so for a few moments longer before he would look at her, as if he was trying to figure it out for himself. "He and Freyja didn't get along very well," he confessed. "Their feud never made much sense to me," he said, "but he always accused her of...well...many lewd things: Vanity, and a great amount of promiscuity. He even accused her of sleeping with her brother."
She could only imagine. Her mother had been the goddess of lust, after all. "Oh..."
"Theft was on that list, too, but knowing my brother, he may have had a hand in setting her up." He shifted in his seat for a moment, seemingly uncomfortable. These chairs weren't exactly the most relaxing. "If I were to guess, I think he was just angry that he couldn't get his hands on her."
"That's a silly reason to hate someone," Dahlia muttered.
"Loki may have grown soft these past years, but he thrives on his pride. He always has."
"Well..." she began, then sighed. "I'm nothing like my mother."
He gave her a half-smile - one that suggested he knew this.
The cliffside provided a cool, ocean breeze that picked up the salty smell of the air. She had never seen the ocean before. It was quite beautiful, though solemn, knowing that this was where Odin took his last breaths. Thor was uncomfortably silent, but Dahlia tried not to disturb him, even as they sought the tall grass for this stone.
The thing was green. How on earth was she supposed to find it when it would most likely be camouflaged into the ground?
She resorted to crawling, muttering to herself about how ridiculous a task this must have been. Thor, while he also kept an eye out, seemed too distracted to really poke fun at her method.
However, as a glisten of light flashed against the sun's rays, Dahlia found herself scooting faster across the earth. She reached out to grab it only for her fingers to grab a boot that had suddenly appeared in its place - or actually, had stepped upon it before she could grab it. Blinking, Dahlia looked up. In alarm, she realized that Loki was standing over her, looking more or less amused that he had foiled her search.
"Looking for something?"
"Loki," Thor warned. "Let her have it."
As he reached down to grab it, it was all Dahlia could do not to just kick him in the face as he was leaning over. Yet, ever since she had learned that he and Thor were supposedly on the same team, she only felt obligated not to bash his face in.
Watching as he would hold the stone between his fingers (it was really no larger than a baseball), he analyzed it in curiosity. The bright green reflected on his face merely by the angled light of the sun. Then, suddenly, he tossed it to her. She caught it with both hands, her heart in a brief panic that if she dropped it, it might break, though she realized it was probably silly to assume it would.
"Doesn't it make you wonder why father didn't use it to return home?" he asked Thor.
That was actually a valid question, she supposed - one that none of them seemed to have an answer for.
Dahlia called Sam once they had gotten off the return flight in Richmond. She was somewhere in the airport, ready to take them both to the area where she had first found the deity. Dahlia herself couldn't recall the location - she had been far too disoriented at the time. Thankfully, Samantha had been more than willing to help, and she would drive the two of them to the river bank beneath the bridge - about twenty minutes away from the airport.
She was really kind of giddy about meeting Thor, too - though her husband had worked with him on a couple of occasions, she never had the pleasure of his company until now. For the first time in what felt like ages, Dahlia felt a strange warmth, and it was emanating from Sam as she sat behind the wheel. It took her a moment to realize what it really was, and in a way, it bothered her to know that her friend harbored some rather intimate thoughts about Thor, even if she was married.
Night had fallen by the time they reached the location, but perhaps that was best, as the stone was chemically designed to glow brighter as it came closer to an existing portal. Save for a doe that had quickly retreated to the woods upon their arrival, it was quiet. Dahlia held the stone, unsure of which direction to really start. She couldn't even be sure how long she had walked before she was found. How long was she even on earth before Sam came to her rescue?
She resorted to following the deer's tracks in the snow. Samantha, bundled in a heavy, pink coat, followed close behind Thor as he would follow Dahlia. The stone gave no response at first, but after passing through the first row of dead trees, she felt it pulse in her palm. They were getting closer, and the green light within the crystal was just barely noticeable, like a dying flicker.
She followed it like a broken compass at first. Then, as the light would grow brighter, it seemed a little easier to narrow down where the source of the power was. They were at the mouth of a cave, but she knew that she once she passed into it, somehow, she would no longer be earthbound. She had to be inside of it in order to shatter the stone and destroy the portal - to keep the Mares from breaking into the world.
"You two stay," she insisted to Thor and Samantha, but the God of Thunder was firmly shaking his head.
"It might be dangerous in there. You have nothing to defend yourself with."
"What about Sam?" Dahlia asked, looking at her friend. The woman gave her a smile.
"I'll wait here. I'll be okay. It's just cold, is all."
Dahlia was reluctant to leave her behind, but with Thor close behind, she let the cave's gaping chasm swallow her into the darkness.