Chapter 22: The Dark World!

November 11th, 2013:

We walk behind Thor for close to half an hour, with a few guards joining us 15 minutes in. We reach the palace and Thor turns to look at us. Seeing me out of my suit, he smiles.

He says, "Good to know you trust Jane, friend Harry."

Jane and Darcy look around, to search for who Harry was, then follow Thor's eyes towards me. I smirk and cheekily wave at them.

"Hey! Where'd Venom go?" Darcy asks, while Jane widens her eyes.

"You.. you.. you.." Jane stumbles with her words.

"Me." I simply say and smirk.

Thor was smiling in amusement, while the guards were stoic.

"Who's he?" Darcy asks Thor. Then looking at my clothes, she asks again, "Hey! He's wearing Earth clothes."

Thor laughs out loud and Jane groans at her. She says, "Darcy! That's Harry Osborn. From Oscorp?"

"Oh hey! Have you seen Venom anywhere? He's about this tall, wears everything black, really cute. Always feels intimidating to be in his presence?" Darcy asks, rambling.

Jane just rubs her forehead at her stupidity. I take pity on her and turn to Darcy. I say, "Oh, I know him alright." And suit up.

Darcy widens her eyes and pokes me in my chest and biceps a few times. "Huh. Did not expect that."

I will my suit off and turn to Jane. I say, "Please don't tell anyone that I'm Venom. I have an image to maintain."

Jane nods and just shakes her head, she says, "It's to early for this shit."

Darcy blinks her eyes rapidly, then smirks at me and says, "Hey, Jane. He's cute. Can I keep him?"

I just drop my shoulders and ask Thor, "Can we go now, please?"

Thor laughs and slaps his hands on my back, and starts going forward, pulling me with him. Jane and Darcy start following us with the 2 guards following behind them.

Within 15 more minutes, we reach the medical bay of the palace. Thankfully, other than the first 2 times she tried to get me to flirt with her, she didn't try again.

I stand to the side, with Darcy, while Thor got the healers to check on Jane. They have her lay on a bed, which is a higher form of a medical scanner, and start scanning her. A holographic image pops up above Jane, showing her body and moving along with her.

"What's that?" Jane asks, itching to examine the equipment.

The healer, Eir, slaps her hand away and says, "Be still."

Thor joins us and watches Jane from a distance, as the healers examine her. He looks at the dark red liquid flowing through Jane's veins, which was not blood.

"What's that? It is not of Midgard." Thor says, furrowing his brows.

"We do not know. But she will not survive the surge of energy within her." Eir says and turns away from Jane.

"That's a quantum field generator, isn't it?" Jane asks, excited.

Eir looks at Jane disapprovingly and says, "It's a soul forge."

Jane raises her eyebrow and asks, "Does a soul forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?"

Eir raises her eyebrow, impressed, and answers, "Yes."

Jane turns to us and mouths, "Quantum field generator." I shake my head at her, while Thor and Darcy smile softly.

I turn to Lady Eir and ask, "Theoretically, if we could get it out of her, but have nothing to store it in, will I be able to store it within myself? Or will the surge kill me too?"

Eir thinks for a moment and gestures me to lay on the other soul forge. She scans me, see's my image, scowls at me, and asks, "Did you know you have a Klyntar inside your body?"

I nod and say, "If you mean the symbiot that lives inside me then, yes, he's been with me for close to 2 years now. It is why I asked if I'll be able to handle the strain of that thing."

Eir studies the result of the scan for a few seconds and says, "I cannot say for sure. Even Thor would have some trouble handling the strain. He will manage it, but it will hurt him. You are strong for a mortal, but not as strong as Thor is. It depends on how much strain the Klyntar can take. It can go either way."

I nod and get off the Soul forge. Odin takes that moment to enter the room, looks around in disapproval and says, "Are my words mere noises that you completely ignore them?"

Thor looks chastised, but answers, "She's ill, Father."

Odin looks at Jane, who's still on the Soul forge and says, "She's mortal. Illness is their defining trait."

Thor argues, "I brought her here, because we can help her."

Odin frowns at Thor and says, "She belongs in Asgard, about as much as a goat belongs on a banquet table."

I shuff out a laugh, because that was a sick burn, but Jane gets scandalised. She gets off the bed and starts approaching Odin, she says, "Who do you think you are?"

Oh crap! I quickly go towards Jane and pull her back. Pissing off the King of Asgard is not a good idea.

"I'm the King of Asgard and the Protector of the nine realms." Odin says, angered.

I get in between the two and web Jane's mouth to prevent her from saying anything else. I then turn to Odin and bow and say, "Allfather. Just take a look at what's inside Jane, and then make a decision, please. It's not of Earth, that much we could tell, even Lady Eir does not know what it is."

Odin looks at me, looks at Thor who's looking hopefully at him, and then at Jane, who was just angry at both me and Odin. Odin nods to Lady Eir who gently pulls Jane back towards the Soul forge, mouth still webbed up, and shows the scans to Odin.

Odin widens his eyes and whispers, "That's impossible." He runs a finger close to her skin on her hands. We all see a red light through her skin.

"It attacked a Law enforcement officer on Midgard when he tried to touch her. The officer got thrown backwards and I felt an energy I have never felt before flow from her." Thor explains.

"It protected her?" Eir asks.

"No. It protected itself." I correct.

Odin looks at all of us and says, "Come with me. The other mortal stays." I and Darcy stay back while Thor and Jane start following Odin.

"You too Klyntar. The girl will stay there." Odin orders, without even turning back.

"Hey!" Darcy whispers indignantly. I shrug at her, tap her shoulders in support, and join with Thor and Jane.

"There are relics that predate the Universe itself. What lies within her appears to be one of them. The Nine Realms are not eternal. They had a dawn as they will have a dusk." Odin shows us an ancient book, and continues, "But before that dawn the dark forces, the Dark Elves, reigned absolute and unchallenged."

Thor opens the book and reads an excerpt from it, " 'Born of eternal night, the Dark Elves come to steal away your light.' They were the stories mother used to tell us about."

Odin nods and says, "Their leader, Malekith made a weapon out of that darkness, it was called the Aether. While the other relics often appeared as stones, the Aether is fluid and ever changing. It changes matter into dark matter and seeks out to host bodies, drawing strength from their life force. Malekith sought to use the Aether's power to return the universe to one of darkness. But after eternities of blood shed, my father Bor, finally triumphed, ushering in the peace that lasted thousands of years."

We all think on that bit of news for a bit. Then Jane asks, "What happened to them?"

"He killed them all." Odin said, in a voice that said, don't question it.

But of course, Thor doesn't listen, "Are you certain, Father? The Aether was said to have been destroyed, yet here it is."

"The Dark elves are all dead." Odin says, in finality.

"Does it say, how to get this Aether out of me?" Jane asks, a little afraid.

Odin snaps the book shut and says, "No it does not." And starts walking away.

We all watch him going away. After standing in the library, for a minute, Thor leads us back to the healing chambers, where Darcy sat, annoying the hell out of the Healers.

"Jane! You're back!" Darcy yells and hugs Jane.

Jane hugs her back tightly, letting the situation sink in and says, "I was gone for 10 minutes, Darcy."

Darcy looks at her in disbelief and says, "And I missed you for those 10 minutes." She then looks at me, looks me up and down and says, "I missed looking at him too."

I just avert my eyes. Damn women! Always making me uncomfortable. First Nat, then Jessica and now her.

We start walking outside of the chamber, with Thor and Jane leading, me and Darcy following 10 feet behind, giving them some pricacy.

"So.. How'd you like Asgard so far?" I ask lamely, after about half a minute of silence.

Darcy raises her eyebrow, at my attempt to make small talk and says, "They really like Gold. Makes me want to take a knife or something and pluck out a brick to take home."

I laugh, because frankly, the temptation was there, "Yeah.. they really do like their Gold. Golden armour, golden walls, buildings. The fucking Observatory." I shake my head.

"Why'd you become Venom, Harry?" Darcy asks, suddenly.

Huh?

"Normally people ask, how. You're the first to ask why." I muse to myself. Fury didn't even ask anything, Peter asked me how I got my powers, the rest of the team didn't even raise their eyebrows. Not even Jessica asked anything.

"Well.. I've seen a lot of people with superpowers, both on the TV and in person. So I just sorta assumed it was either a science experiment, or you were born with it. Both being too invasive to ask. So, Why?" Darcy explains. I didn't actually expect her to have thought this through.

I think for a bit, and say, "No specific reason. When I gave myself powers, it was because I wanted to kill a villain that tried to hurt my friends. But after he was dead? I was afraid that I might start killing people indiscriminately. So what better way to hurt people and do good? Be a fucking Vigilante."

Darcy looks at me for a while, smirks and says, "No. That's not it. For a while it may have been that, but now? You think you're the bad guy trying to do bad only to bad people. But I saw how you handled the kids in London. You're a good guy trying to do good for the good people of this world."

I stop in my spot. Thinking. Really? I didn't even notice. Huh. Peter mist have rubbed off on me a lot.

I run forwards to join Darcy and smile at her, I say, "Thanks for that. I honestly didn't even notice. I used to do good things to avoid doing bad, now I do good things because I want to do them."

Darcy smiles but says nothing. Just stays like that, holding my left hand in her right. Eh? When'd that happen? I really need to pay attention more. But of course, I'm not complaining.

We look forwards and see Thor and Jane were talking with his mother so run forwards to introduce ourselves to her.

The Queen looks at us, which makes Thor and Jane look at us too. Jane looks at our joint hands and just raises an eyebrow in question, to which I just shrug, telling her 'I have no idea.' While Darcy smirks at her.

The Queen smiles at us, fondly. When they call her the Allmother, they don't kid around. Her smile was so motherly that I get instantly reminded of my mother, from my previous life.

"Mother. This is my friend Harry Osborn. He fought alongside me, both against the Destroyer and against Loki's army on Midgard. He's a strong warrior, and brave. And this is Darcy. She's Jane's friend."

I bow politely at the Queen, while pulling Darcy down to do the same. Darcy bows but then looks at Thor and asks, "Seriously? She's Jane's friend? That the best you could come up with to introduce me?" I and Jane just laugh and shake our heads at her attitude, while Thor backs up a step.

He thinks for a few seconds and says, "Darcy managed to knock me unconscious with her mighty Midgardian weapon when I was dropped down to Midgard 2 years ago. She also helps Jane with her Science. She calls Mjolnir, Mewmew?" Thor finishes lamely.

We all look at Thor, Frigga smiling fondly at Thor's flustered state, and huff out a laugh.

"That's better." Darcy says and nods. She then turns to Frigga and offers her hand to shake, "Hi, I'm Darcy Lewis. Your future daughter in law's Intern and best friend."

Jane sputters, fumbling with words while Thor just looks alarmed, and I laugh loudly at the both of them.

Frigga smiles at her and shakes her hand, she says, "Welcome to Asgard, Darcy Lewis. And you too Harry Osborn."

My Spidey-Sense goes off a little so I turn to the right. Suddenly alarms start going off from the direction I was looking at.

"The prisons." Frigga whispers.

Thor changes his face to a stoic one and says, "Loki."

Frigga looks at Thor and says, "Go, I'll look after her."

Thor hesitates a little, so I say, "I'll stay with them, big guy. You go handle that." Saying that I suit up and bring my Berserker's staff out.

Thor nods and uses his hammer to fly off towards the Prisons, while Frigga leads us towards her rooms. She looks at me, studying me, for a minute and then says, "You did a stupid thing taking the staff. But, you handled the strain very well. I can see why Thor trusts you."

I nod in thanks and say, "The staff did try to make me go Berserk. But I had prepared for it extensively, and only bonded to the staff during a lunar eclipse. The effects were lessened during that time."

Frigga raises here eyebrows, and says, "Impressive. Not many Berserker's had that idea. The ones who did have them though survived the most. Including my husband."

I almost fall on my face at that. "Odin used a Berserker's Staff?"

Frigga smiles fondly and says, "Oh yes. He used one when he was about as young as Thor is now. He even went on a rampage when the strain got too much for him destroying everything in his path. So his father Bor, stepped in to stop him and had the staff melted down to be made into the spear which he now holds. To remind him of his failure in controlling his rage. It is also why Odin is so hard on Thor and Loki. They remind him of himself."

Huh. You learn something new everyday. Speak of the devil. Odin comes our way, giving orders to the guards behind him. He looks at me, Jane and Darcy, in disapproval and ignoring us, turns to Frigga.

"Odin." Frigga greets him.

"Frigga," Odin returns. He says, "It's a skirmish, nothing to fear." He glances at us mortals, and turns to the guards and shouts, "Go!"

Frigga smiles softly at her husband and says, "You've never been a good liar."

Sif takes that moment to walk past us and I wave at her. Still in Venom suit, she recognises me and smiles a little. Darcy and Jane glare at her, which I smile at. The situation was funny alright! They each thought Sif was after someone they liked.

Odin looks at us, turns to Frigga and says, "Take them to your chambers, I'll come for you when it's safe." He then turns to me and says, "Thor trusts you with his life and of his mortal's life. Prove to me that he isn't wrong."

I nod resolutely at him, none of us saying a thing about the Berserker's staff in my hand. Thor probably already told him about it.

"You take care." Frigga tells Odin, softly caressing his cheek.

Odin smiles at her and muses, "Despite all I have survived, my Queen still worries over me."

Frigga shakes her head and says, "It is because I have worried that you've survived." Odin smiles and starts walking towards where the noise was coming from. Frigga smiles at his back and takes a sword from one of the guards. She has an alarmed look on her face, with a tear flowing from her eye.

She looks at us and orders, "Listen to me now, I need you to do everything I ask, no question. Harry take Jane and Darcy through that door. Stay hidden until Heimdall or Odin comes for you. I'll keep an illusion of Jane with me to throw them off."

Jane and Darcy nod immediately, but understanding what she's planning I shake my head and say, "No. Thor and Odin both trust me to guard both you and Jane, and Darcy is a given. Not just Jane. The girls must go through the door while I'll stay here with you. I'm about as strong as Thor is without his hammer. So it'll be a good help."

Frigga tries to argue, but seeing my determined face, she nods. We send Jane and Darcy to the next room, with me giving Darcy one of my Staves, wrapping it in the web, as a last line of defence, telling her to touch the staff only if necessary.

I then go back to Frigga's room and ask, "Is he really that strong? The one you saw?"

I didn't remember the movie much and only knew that Frigga was supposed to die today. If that Dark Elf is as strong as she fears...

"Yes. How did you know?" Frigga asks, smiling and crying a little.

I shrug and say, "The way you got a blank look on your face reminded me of Heimdall. And the tears sort of gave it away."

Frigga nods and doesn't say anything. I think for a bit. If he's even a little stronger than Thor's base strength, I'll die immediately.

"Venom. Bring it out. It's time." I whisper to myself, resigned. I did not want to do this yet. It was supposed to be the final enhancement to be used against Thanos, when he gets here.

Venom obediently brings out a glass vial, filled with a blood red serum. The Extremis. Which Banner had modified and perfected within one hour. I'd already done the compatibility tests, so I know that it would not kill me. But what about Venom?

As soon as I think this, Venom gets off my body, leaving the Vibranium armour on me. I look at him questioningly and he says, "I'd rather not die by burning because of your foolishness. Do it. Then we'll see if I can join into us again. Or I'll just bond with the girl inside that room." I nod at Venom's words, solemnly.

I turn to Frigga, who looks at us in curiosity, but does not interfere. I say, "Please don't touch me during the procedure. I'll be in pain, but if you touch me, you'll burn yourself." And without waiting for her to acknowledge it, I inject the vial into myself.

Pain. Heat. It's the only thing I feel for what it certainly feels like hours. Everything hurt, like my body was destroyed and built again, from scratch. I feel my bones breaking, my tendons being torn apart, my brain rearranging itself, everything all at once. And then it stops.

The pain slowly recedes back, and I start feeling normal, but still breathing hard.

That shit hurt! Thank God, Tony was unconscious during the procedure. Gathering myself, I look around. Frigga was kneeling beside me, Jane's illusion was looking at me in concern, that's a Damn good illusion, while Venom was on the table looking at me curiously. The sounds of the attacks were still loud and coming a little closer.

I stand up and look at the suit I'm wearing. Thankfully it can take extreme amounts of heat, barely, but it does. I turn to Venom and offer him my hand.

Venom slowly raises a strand of himself and touches me with it, inserting a little inside my skin. A pause. Nothing happens. We both breathe a sigh of relief and start to slowly bond again. Venom climbs inside me and settles down. I try bringing out the staff and it comes out without a problem.

So it's successful, and Venom didn't get hurt either. That was good. Good. I'll have to do the rest of the tests when I get home.

Frigga was still looking at me in concern, she asks, "Are you alright? You were in a lot of pain."

I nod and say, "Yeah.. it hurt like a bitc.. um it hurt." Damn those disapproving looks. "My healing factor was already good and Venom can heal me almost immediately though. Also this serum that I took makes it so I can recover from any illness or injury almost immediately. See," Saying this I cut off a finger with the Praedium dagger and show it to her. The finger slowly starts growing back, while glowing orange due to the heat.

Frigga looks at the finger, slowly growing, and then looks at the dagger, "You have a lot of Asgardian weapons for someone not of Midgard. Where did you get the dagger?"

I think and say, "When we fought the Destroyer on Midgard, I found out that I was hilariously unmatched. So after Thor broke it, I took a few pieces of the metal left behind, and searched for more of the metal that was on Midgard. Because I suspected someone must have left something in the past. I found the staff in 3 pieces there and this dagger in a cave, which was closed off from everywhere."

I pause and then say, "There was a corpse of an Asgardian Soldier, who had killed himself with a steel sword, and he had this dagger in a box, dug under the soil. I gave the soldier a burial, because I had accessed the cave only because of Venom, and couldn't bring his skeleton out, and brought the dagger with me."

Frigga nods, and is about to say something when we simultaneously turn to the door. I immediately go on my guard, suiting up in my Vibranium Venom suit, holding my staff in my hand. What I assume to be a Dark Elf enters the room, opening it with a slam. Jane-the-illusion walks back to the wall, while Frigga and I stand in between The elf and Jane.

Frigga holds her sword in front of her and orders, "Stand down, creature. You may still survive this."

The Dark elf sneers at her, ignoring me and says, "I've survived worse, woman."

"Who are you?" Frigga asks him.

"I am Malekith, and I will have what is mine." He starts walking closer and Frigga interrupts him, attacking with her sword. She manages to hit him in the face, the sword glowing from her power.

Malekith takes out his own sword and tries to attack her. Frigga uses her sword and parries him away, while at the same time, relieving him of the sword. They fight for only a few seconds, but Frigga completely overpowers Malekith and holds the sword to his neck, immobilizing him.

I see a bigger elf slowly walk in the room and towards her so I jump in and kick him away. The big elf stumbles backwards and looks at me. Probably astonished that I managed to do that much. He walks towards me and starts attacking. He was bigger and way stronger than me. But he's also slow.

I duck under his punches and hit him on his chest. His chest was stronger than even Abomination was. It was hard!

I hit him with the staff on his head, which knocks him back, only a few steps.

Seeing that I had it handled, barely, Frigga turns to Malekith and stabs him in the stomach with her sword. He stumbles and drops down, feeling dizzy due to blood loss.

My Spidey-Sense tingles, warning me of an attack. I turn towards the big Elf and see him running towards me. He picks me up by my legs and throws me towards the open door. I gather myself and see that he's about to attack the Queen. So I gather all my strength and web the big Elf towards me, readying the staff, charging it with Venom blast.

Thor comes there at that moment and seeing what I'm about to do, throws his hammer at the elf.

My staff charged with my Venom blast and Thor's hammer charged with his lightning, both hit the elf at the same time, sending him crashing back inside the room with a big boom. I fall down because of the shockwave.

Thor helps me stand back up, and we go inside the room, almost running. Frigga was on the ground, laying still, and the big elf was carrying Malekith, getting ready to jump out of the window. Thor see's his mother lying there and simply loses it. He cries, yells and throws his hammer at the two elves, almost knocking Malekith out of the bigger one's hands, but the big elf handles it and jumps away with Malekith. Thor follows after them, but they jump on a ship and retreat.

I go towards Frigga and see that her chest is moving. Breathing a sigh of relief, I yell out, "Thor! She's alive! Just unconscious."

Thor, who was crying by the window comes back running to his mother, and sees that she was alive. He too breathes a sigh of relief and wipes his eyes.

Odin comes inside the room, wielding Gungnir, and points it inside. Seeing us beside his wife's fallen body, he almost breaks down. But Thor smiles at him in reassurance and says, "She's alive. Only unconscious."

Odin nods and looks towards me, and orders, "What happened?"

I nod and say, "The Queen asked me, Darcy and Jane to hide in a room, she wanted to confront whoever comes in, alone. I refused and sent the girls to the room, giving them a Berserker's staff as protection. A Dark Elf calling himself Malekith entered the room and tried to go towards the illusion of Jane that the Queen had made. They fought with swords and the Queen won. I could not have interfered for fear of hurting her." I mention the last part at his glare.

"Then another creature entered the room, this one bigger, stronger and uglier. He started going towards the Queen so I interfered and fought him. The Queen seeing I had the big elf handled, stabbed Malekith in his stomach and threw him aside. I managed to pull the big elf outside, towards where he had thrown me, and me and Thor attacked him together. The elf got thrown back inside. Next we know, The Queen was unconscious and the big elf was escaping with Malekith." I explain. I see Jane and Darcy had entered the room, and were listening to the story, both horrified.

Thor nods, solemnly, saying, "I thought.. I thought, she was dead, so I ran after them. But they managed to escape in a ship."

Odin nods, then picks Frigga up and carries her to the healers. Thankfully she only had a concussion, after being hit and thrown aside by what I now know to be a Kursed Elf. Odin then has Jane guarded at all times, almost like a prisoner. He was going to mount a defence on Asgard itself and wait for the Dark Elves to come back. Thor was trying to argue him against it.

"You overestimate the power of those creatures." Odin sneers out at Thor, right in front of me and Darcy. Darcy was not leaving my side, after she heard what had almost happened to Frigga.

"No, I value our peoples lives. I'll take Jane to the Dark World and draw the enemy away from Asgard. When Malekith pulls the Aether from Jane it will be exposed, vulnerable, and I will destroy it and him." Thor argues.

"If you fail, you risk the Aether falling into the hands of the enemy." Odin simply states.

They argue for a while and Thor tries to get Odin to agree to take the fight to the Dark World, but Odin stubbornly disagrees.

Thor sits down, to wallow in grief so I leave him alone to think a bit, taking Darcy with me.

"Harry?" Darcy calls out to me,

I was distracted, so it takes me a second to answer, "Hm? Yes, Darcy?"

"Will Thor be okay?" she asks. Thor was really upset with Odin when we left, so it's understandable to be worried.

I nod and say, "Oh yes. He'll be fine. It's Odin I'm worried about."

"Why?" Darcy asks, looking at me.

I humm and then answer her, "Odin's wife just got attacked, by a person who he thought dead, from a race he thought extinct, in search of the Aether, which he thought destroyed, all since about 5000 years, when the last Convergence happened."

Darcy nods in understanding and says, "So, like his whole life was lived under a lie? Or so he thinks. I think I understand his fear. But don't you think he's overconfident in his forces?"

I nod at her, smiling at her inquisitiveness and say, "Obviously. You rule a kingdom for 5000 years and you start thinking no one can defeat you." I smirk at her, then continue, "He's making the biggest mistake a ruler can do, he's thinking of the good of the realm, but not the good for the people."

We go silent for a while. Just walking, while holding hands, no longer uncomfortable. Darcy suddenly asks, "Harry? Will we be okay?" now worried, a lot. All signs of her playfulness and flirting gone.

I stop and gently press her hand. I turn her to look towards me and say, "If we keep Jane on Asgard and wait for them to attack us? Probably not. We might win, but the destruction will be too much for us to handle. Thousands will die, and that's just the innocent lives. Even more soldier's will die to keep the rest safe." I pause for a second, to let it sink in.

Darcy has tears in her eyes, and she asks, "And if we take her somewhere else? Like this Dark World that Thor was talking about?"

I think about it for a minute, playing scenarios in my mind and say, "Less lives will be lost on our side, no civilians. Thor says we can destroy the Aether but I don't think something like this can be destroyed, or else Odin's father would have destroyed it, instead of hiding it away."

I pause and then say, "If we focus on killing Malekith and the Kursed, we can defeat them in this Dark World itself. But we aren't even allowed to go there, unfortunately. So no use thinking about it now."

Darcy cries at that, all hope lost. I hug her, to reassure her, even if I'm also the one that needs reassuring. I hadn't written much about this movie. Other than Convergence, Frigga's death, the fight on Dark world and the fight on Earth. It was frustrating, not knowing stuff.

I hear Darcy control her breathing and slowly separate her from myself. She wipes the tears out of her eyes, and looks up at me. I smile at her in reassurance.

Suddenly I feel her warm lips on mine, meeting in a soft kiss. I get shocked for about a second, and don't react to it. So Darcy pulls back, wipes her lips and says, "Sorry about that. I was emotional and I didn't want to die without doing it and.."

I shut her up by pulling her close to me and kissing her, straight on her lips. She gets out of her shock and presses herself against me. I hold her tightly on her hips and deepen the kiss.

After about 2 minutes, we slowly move our lips apart, but keep our foreheads touching.

"I've wanted to do that, since I saw you in the factory." I tell her and smirk. Both of us were breathing hard, our faces red.

She smiles at me which I return. We slowly close in the distance between our lips, one more time, when suddenly..

"Ahem." A voice behind me interrupts, making us jump apart. I bring out a Praedium katana and point it towards the voice.

I see Lady Sif and Jane, both smirking at us. Jane was looking very smug, while Sif just looks mischievous. I reabsorb the sword back into myself and ignore Sif's curious look at that.

"Umm.. How're you out? Weren't you like kept a prisoner?" Darcy asks, still blushing.

Jane, still smirking, just waves her hand towards Sif and says, "She just broke me out. Didn't even tell me where we're going."

Sif just shakes her head, gestures towards where we came from and says, "Walk and talk? We don't have much time, and stay silent."

She starts going forwards and we all follow her. Sif explains, "Thor has a plan."

I interrupt, "It's a stupid plan."

Sif glares at me for interrupting her and says, "Thor has a plan, a stupid plan, but a plan nonetheless. We're going to be taking Jane to the Dark World, where we'll destroy Malekith and the Aether. We're meeting the rest a few minutes walk away."

Darcy raises her hand and says, "No offence, but that sounds like more of an aim, than a plan."

Sif glares at her too, so she says, "Right. Shutting up now."

I press her hand in support, making her smile and say, "The point is valid. But we don't have much of a choice. What Thor and Lady Sif are doing classifies as treason. So we'll go with the plan for now. We can think up the rest later. And who else is joining us?" I ask the last part to Sif.

Sif answers without turning around, "Thor, Volstagg, Fandral, Hogun and... Loki."

We all gulp nervously. He's a real piece of work. Given enough time and warning he can kill anyone he wants to, he's so dangerous. Damn!

Within another minute of silent walking, we reach a corridor, where we see Thor and Loki, who was in handcuffs, standing together. Just by looking at him I could tell he could have escaped but didn't.

"You're..." Jane says and starts walking towards him.

Loki smirks and says, "I'm Loki. You may have heard of.."

Jane cuts him off with a slap to the face, and considering she's human and he's Asgardian, and the slap still hurts him, it must have been hard.

"That was for New York." Jane says and comes back towards us.

Loki turns to Thor and smirks at him, he says, "I like her."

He turns back to us just in time to get kneed in the balls by Darcy. Damn. I wince and cover my own balls and see that Thor was doing the same, while Loki was on the floor, wailing silently.

Jane raises her eyebrow at Darcy and says, "Darcy! What the hell?!"

"What?" Darcy asks, not even caring that she just hit a Prince of Asgard in the nuts, "He deserves it."

She looks at me, still covering my crotch with my hands and says, "Oh you don't need to worry about that." She leans towards my ears then and sensually whispers, "I won't be using my knees to touch you there."

I gulp. Damn! She scares me. More than Natasha or Jessica ever did.

"Darcy? Seduction later please." Jane says from beside me. Almost completely used to her behaviour.

"I so don't like her." Loki mumbles out, gathering his wits.

"Yeah, no one cares Lokes." I say waving my hand at him.

We suddenly hear voices coming at us, guards. One of them sees us and says, "There they are! Capture them!"

Sif looks determined and says, "Go. I'll keep them busy."

Thor nods and I smile at her in support. We all turn to go towards the opposite direction, but Sif stops Loki and holds her sword to his neck, "Betray him and I'll kill you."

Loki chuckles and says, "It's good to see you too Sif."

Loki, still in handcuffs starts following us, me keeping an eye on him at all times, with Darcy now running beside Jane.

We didn't even know where we were going, just following Thor blindly.

Oh. So that's where.

There was a black space ship, probably one of the Dark elves'. And near the ship was Volstagg.

Volstagg and Thor do a forearm shake and he says, "I will give you as much time as I can."

Thor nods and I pat Volstagg's shoulders, saying, "Good luck." And we all enter the ship.

This time Volstagg stops Loki and repeats the warning Sif gave him.

"You'll kill me? Apparently, there's a line." Loki jokes and enters the ship behind us.

The ship was way advanced. Even compared to Asgard standards. The controls were few, but they were complicated.

Loki looks at Thor, who was pressing every button he could see and asks, "You said you could fly this thing?"

Thor shrugs and continues his work, says, "How hard could it be?"

We all normal humans look in horror as Thor activates and deactivates many functions in trying out different buttons.

We see the guards approaching us and Loki says, "Well whatever you are doing, you better do it fast, brother."

"Shut up Loki." Thor grits out.

He finally manages to turn the ship on after pressing a button, gently because Loki asked him to and make it fly, destroying 3 of the columns in the room, in the process.

"I think you missed a column." Loki says, dryly.

I ignore the two brothers and web Darcy and Jane to the ground by their feet. The web was week so they could easily tear it if they want, but it was strong enough to keep them fixed if the ship does crash.

About a few seconds after we start flying away from the palace, Jane falls down to the floor, suddenly weak. I can feel she's alright, but a lot weaker than before. The Convergence must be having an effect on her too.

"Oh dear. Is she dead?" Loki asks making Thor look back.

"I'm okay." Jane reassures Thor and sits down. Thor, because he was looking at Jane, grazes a building and breaks off... Something from the ship.

Darcy glares at Thor and says, "Hey! Eyes up ahead."

Thor apologizes to Darcy and me and continues driving the ship. A few of the smaller Asgardian Chariots start following and firing at our ship, which Thor maneuvers out of the way of.

Loki helpfully commentates on the goings on, distracting Thor more. Taking pity on Thor, I web Loki's mouth shut.

Loki looks at me, surprise evident in his eyes and pokes a hole in the web, tearing it away. "You." He simply says.

"Me." I answer.

He turns forward, and we both see the ship cutting the neck of a large statue.

Loki snarks, "Well done, you just decapitated your grandfather."

The smaller ships continue to follow and fire at us as we fly over Asgard.

Loki continues talking, "You know this is wonderful. This is a tremendous idea. Let's steal the biggest, most obvious ship in the universe and escape in that. Flying around the city, smashing into everything in sight so everyone can see us. It's brilliant, Thor! It's truly brilliant!"

Suddenly Thor pushes Loki off the ship, Thor then picks up Jane, turns to me and says, "Jump down after me." And jumps off the ship.

I quickly remove the webs on Darcy's legs and carry her like a bride, "A little early for this, don't ya think?" Darcy jokes but holds on to me tightly.

"Yeah, doesn't hurt to try though, does it?" I smirk and let my hand roam a little.

Without waiting for her answer, and ignoring the way she moved in my arms, I jump down the ship and land on an Asgardian chariot, which was being flown by Fandral.

I let Darcy down on her feet and look at the others, Loki was still talking, Thor was standing there ignoring Loki, while Jane was still weak, so she was laying on the floor.

I see Loki take the controls from Fandral. He turns the ship around and more chariots start following us. Great.

"Fandral." Thor says.

Fandral nods and says, "Right. For Asgard!" saying that he jumps of the chariot and lands on our pursuers ships.

Loki starts flying towards the Asgardian mountains, gaining speed. I bring Darcy down and hold her tightly.

"Loki!" Thor warns him.

Loki smirks and says, "If it was easy, anyone could do it."

"Are you mad?" Thor asks in disbelief.

Loki shrugs and says, "Possibly."

Thor holds Jane down, to protect her, the same way I did to Darcy. Loki continues driving the chariot, towards the mountains, not slowing down. Closer and closer.

Suddenly, instead of crashing into the mountains, we pass through them, it felt like travelling through the Bifrost, but different, a little bit rougher than the Bifrost.

We come out on the other side of the Portal and into an open land with red skies. Everything was red and dark, and gloomy. No wonder they call it the Dark World.

"Ta-da!" Loki says, enthusiastically.

Which no one else returned.

I look at Thor and say, "Thor, buddy. I like you, but if you plan something like this again and not even tell me, I'll kick your ass." I pause and say, "Or at least I'll try really hard to."

We get off the ship and onto the land, thankfully the air was breathable. The world looked familiar.

"Hey! The skies! They're red! Just like the video! So the portals from the factory led here?" Darcy suddenly exclaims from beside me.

I look around, and sure enough, it looks an awful lot like the images I recorded. Taking the phone out and checking the feed again, I see that the colour matches.

"Huh. You're right. So somewhere on this planet is a cave with your car keys in them." I say to Darcy.

"Yay! How exciting!" Darcy mumbles out, totally not excited.

Thor slowly rests Jane on the ground and caresses her face. I sit right there, because there was nothing we had to do until the Dark Elves return.

Correction, there was something I could do, I think again as Darcy sits down on my lap and hugs me. The situation must have finally sunk in. We were on an alien planet, waiting for said aliens to come to attack us, so we could destroy them instead. Joy.

I hug her back and just rest. Thinking. How will I get the aether back from them? I don't want the Reality stone to end up in The Collector's hands and later get stolen by Thanos.

What to do? What to do? Let's just get through this first. I think and just decide to take a nap. Thor will keep an eye on both Loki and the skies. I haven't slept a bit since yesterday.