Arc II Dark World - Visiting Asgard

NY, Brooklyn. Thursday. November 14, 2013. Late at night.

Elias, now 16 years old, sat inside his home in Brooklyn and played a song on a ukulele, deep in thought. In the last one and a half years after the Battle of New York, he had no reason to appear before anyone with a sword in hand again. The only hero he interacted with was Natasha, not even Tony contacted him, except for a digital Christmas card he was sure J.A.R.V.I.S. had sent him.

The reason for his deep contemplation however was that ever since two days ago, there was something telling him in the back of his mind that there is something wrong. He looked towards a muted TV and read the headlines of the news.

'Dr. Selvig went insane? Why is he running around naked in Stonehenge?' Elias questioned inside his mind while he kept playing.

"Hey Eli, come see this! One of your mother's sealed letters just opened!"

Elias stopped playing immediately and ran towards the office where Misty usually checked on his mother's business on Midgard...Earth. Nothing ever really required her attention though, his mother was a silent shareholder in a few big corporations and chairwoman of the W.I.B.E. foundation. That combined with plenty of real estate meant they would never ever truly lack money even without them lifting a hand.

Eli could never remember what the acronym W.I.B.E. stood for. Women Improving Basic Expectations? Women's Implicit & Bespoken Equality? No the first one made more sense. Did it? Was it Women I Bewitch Elegantly? No, when he suggested it was that, his mother had grounded him for a month. Though her eyetwitch told Eli he might have come dangerously close of the actual meaning of the acronym.

What he was sure about was that it invested in research projects led by women, handed out scholarships to promising female overachievers and lobbied for fair treatment of women all over the world. It was something his mother worked hard on, not only on Midgard.

"Where is it?" Eli asked with a hopeful edge in his voice.

Misty handed over a softly glowing scroll tied with a green ribbon. Eli opened it and read out loud:

"My dear boy, if you're reading this, it means the convergence is bound to happen shortly and the nine realms are bound to blend together. This is an opportunity for you to travel to Asgard without your bickering fool of a grandfather knowing. I'm sure your grandmother would like to see you. The back of this scroll has a map that may guide you to her. I wish I could be there with you. Remember to get the spell books in my hidden library. Maybe bring back a few of my dresses with you, as a gift for a future daugher-in-law. With all my love, Your Mother."

"Huh, she could have really left some more poetry in there. With her love for...love and how much love she had for you, a letter as short as this feels a little out of character," Misty said with a little frown.

"It's...perfect," Eli said with a little sniffle and moist eyes.

Misty turned to him and shook her head. "You're both weirdos."

"So how do you think you're getting to Asgard thanks to the convergence?" Misty continued with a question.

"Wait, you're not coming with me?" Eli asked, raising an eyebrow.

"With your mother gone, my last tether to Asgard has been severed. Neither she nor my sisters are put to rest there. I will stay and help out that little Helen Cho girl. She reached out to W.I.B.E. two weeks ago with concerns for her safety. I had people look into it, but one team stopped responding yesterday. You go meet your grandma," Misty explained with a shake of her head.

"Oh, well I'm flying to England. I think that's where the effects of the convergence will be most easily observed. I should find a passage there easily thanks to mother's teachings," Eli said as he carefully placed the scroll in an ornate tube he tied to his belt.

"Good luck then," Misty wished with a short kiss on his forehead.

"You too, big sis," Eli winked. Calling Misty 'big sis' was one of the conditions she had put forth, when she learned that was Natasha's contact name in his phone last year.

Eli made sure he had everything packed for his trip and, with his face covered and a few spells to hide him, he started flying towards England. It took him a little over 2 hours at a speed a little faster than twice the speed of sound to reach Salisbury, a town close to Stonehenge.

He concentrated on a spell his mother taught him to find passages between realms and found one in the direction towards Stonehenge.

Still high in the sky, he eventually found it roughly in the middle between Salisbury and Stonehenge, stabilized it with a magic rune formation and stepped through.

What greeted him on the other side of the passage was a view of Asgard that took his breath away. He'd seen it in his mother's memories she shared, but looking at it himself, the capital city bathed in gold, was something else.

"Okay, sightseeing can wait, I should look for my grandmother first," Eli mused as he took out the scroll from the tube on his belt.

On his way, once he reached the palace, he saw a raccoon in a space suit without helmet talking to what looked like a fat and homeless version of his father Thor, but he didn't really pay any attention to them.

Following the map on the back of the letter, after taking in the beauty of the palace, Eli, still hidden from view, saw a figure fly out from the palace after some sort of alarm sounded from afar. Eli scrunched his eyebrows together, but decided to still meet his grandmother first before looking into whatever that alarm had meant.

Eventually, he found her staying on a balcony with a young woman that looked familiar, both looking towards the direction of the alarm with worry in their gazes. Frigga softly grabbed the younger woman's arm and was about to turn around, when she looked towards the still hidden Eli.

Eli slowly floated down towards her, lifted his hiding spells and raised his arm in surrender, lest his grandmother mistakes him for the one who caused the alarm and attacks him.

"Who might you be?" Frigga asked with a raised brow. After her question she saw his pendant that was mostly hidden under the scarf that hid the bottom half of his face. She gained a knowing smile and mist started to gather in her eyes. Thor had told her that he had found her missing sword, but she knew all along who had it and discouraged him from getting it back from the boy.

"Amora sent me. Though truth be told, I wanted to meet you for the longest time...grandmother."

The young woman, Dr Jane Foster, looked at him with bulging eyes. It was her first concious day in Asgard and already she was surprised again and again. She remembered him, the young blonde man with a green scarf that defended New York. It turns out, apparently, he wasn't even from Earth. The fact he might be related to her boyfriend, Thor, didn't even compute yet in her mind.

Eli landed a good distance away from the two women and touched his earring. The scarf turned back into the flag showing his face.

Well, now, Jane was truly feeling like fainting once his face was revealed. The young man looked almost like a carbon copy of Thor. Younger, with a cleanly shaven, chiseled jawline and shining green eyes instead of Thor's blue ones. Other than that, he looked almost exactly the same. Even his hairstyle, with a few more braids than Thor, looked almost exactly the same.

Frigga stepped forward to carress the young man's cheek with tears in her eyes.

"My boy, what is your name?" she asked with a motherly smile.

"Elias Collins, though I suppose that's my Midgardian name. Elias Thorson, son of Thor and Amora. Please call me Eli grandmother," Elias introduced himself, his eyes too slowly misting over.

"What of your mother?" Frigga asked after staring into his face for a few long moments. She looked at his face as if trying to etch every detail into memory forever.

"She died, a little over two years ago... right around the time Thor came to Earth for the first time in centuries," Eli choked up as he explained.

Frigga enveloped him in a tight hug and caressed his head, reassuring him that he was going to be okay. It felt nice, he knew now why his mother had liked her. Well like was a bit much, she respected his grandmother was more appropriate to say.

"Tell me my boy. Tell me of your life on Midgard," Frigga asked.

And so he explained, about his caretaker that lived with him, though hiding her true origins. About his home in New York. His love for music, the battle in New York. His mother's magical teachings and lastly his mother's foundation that gave him a life where he lacked nothing.

Jane who didn't think anything would surprise her anymore, was once again shocked. She had been one of many who had been granted a W.I.B.E. scholarschip after all. To think the money came from this young man's mother, she was after all a mystery to the world and had never shown her face after creating the foundation in 1975.

The alarms kept ringing incessantly so eventually, reluctantly, Frigga turned to Jane and they left towards Odin to learn what is happening.

"Will you not join us? Are you sure?" Frigga asked with one last look back to Eli. She took off one of her bracelets and threw it to him. "To make sure nobody mistakes you for an enemy."

"I'll be close, no worries grandmother. I just... I'm not sure I should stand before Odin or Thor just yet," Eli said with a sigh as he activated his earring and cast a spell to once again turn invisible.

"Come then, Jane," Frigga said with a sigh of her own. Her family truly has more drama than love going around. Now, more than ever, she wondered where it all went wrong.

Eli floated up and followed along as he kept a save distance from Frigga and Jane.

He watched from outside the palace as they talked to a few guards, met Odin, stole a sword from an Einherjar and went on their way to Frigga's personal quarters.

While this was happening, he saw a ship crash into the Bifrost bridge followed by several other ships suddenly appearing in the sky. All Hel broke loose once the first ship appeared.

In Eli's first impression, these enemies felt several times more powerful than the Chitauri, so he stayed hidden for the time being. Asgard might be his true origin, but this was his first visit and he didn't feel like risking his life for this place just yet after they had cast out his mother. Even if he knew it was a reasonable exile after she had abducted and mind controlled their crown prince no matter her reasons.

The palace's shields were slowly coming up like a runic curtain of golden magical energy. Several ships crashed into the shield before they changed course to wreak havoc upon Asgard. Then, while it was still raising up, it suddenly started swiftly receding back down after Eli heard an explosion from inside the palace.

Moments later, one of the Dark Elves' ships crashed into the gigantic throne room of the palace, followed by several others reaching past the shield. Powered by his invisibility magic and with his sword in hand, Eli began intercepting some of the ships that were flying past his grandmother's quarters.

Concentrating on the changes in the air, he heard Frigga send away Jane to a neighboring chamber. He cut another two ships that swiftly crashed after which he turned his attention back to his grandmother, he heard footsteps coming her way.

He lowered his height to the quarter's balcony and saw his grandmother wink at him, signaling to stay hidden. He also saw Dr Jane Foster with her, but he knew his grandmother had sent her away, so this was most likely an illusion.

A dark elf opened the chambers and stepped inside.

"Stand down, creature. And you may still survive this," Frigga said to the white haired elf while moving a gasping 'Jane' behind her.

"I have survived worse, woman," the elf said without interrupting his walk towards the two women.

"Who are you?" Frigga asked, readying the sword in a backhand grip as she too stepped closer to the elf.

"I am Malekith. And I would have what is mine," Malekith declared.

Frigga turned one last look towards 'Jane' who proceeded hide behind a pillar.

As Malekith was about to step past Frigga, she swiftly cut upwards surprising the dark elf. What followed was a short fight between the King of the Dark Elves and the Queen of Asgard that the queen was winning with apparent ease.

Her sword style was swift and left no room to counter, her every move overpowered the elf who had lost his cutlass in his first move. Eli was fascinated with the power and decisiveness his grandmother showed. It was no wonder that she was once considered one of the leaders of the Valkyries before Odin had asked for her hand in marriage back during his father Bor's reign.

The fight ended with Frigga holding the sword to the king's throat, but from behind her a dark elf twice the size of the king with bony protrusions all over and haunting grey eyes overpowered Frigga who noticed the newcomer too late.

Eli, too, noticed him too late, too caught up in the beauty of his grandmother's fighting style. He was about to move in to save her, but decided to wait a bit and prepare a spell. Something to make sure he could preserve her life if he failed to overpower the two strongest dark elves of the enemy forces.

Malekith turned towards 'Jane' as the cursed dark elf giant kept Frigga in a chokehold with her own blade pointed towards her heart from the back.

"You have taken something child. Give it back," Malekith demanded as he stepped closer to the frightened 'Jane'.

He reached out his hand to the young woman from Midgard, but that just dispelled Frigga's illusion, the figure slowly vanished from their eyes.

"Witch!" Malekith screamed in anger as he turned back to Frigga.

"Where is the Aether?" his voice betrayed no urgency only fury. He strolled towards the Queen of Asgard as if he owned this place.

"I'll never tell you," Frigga spat with a defiant smirk on her face.

"I believe you," Malekith said a short moment later and nodded towards the elf standing behind her.

The giant was about to drive the sword into her heart from the back, but a green whip made out of energy materialized next to him and yanked the sword away from Frigga's body core.

The unexpected deviation of the sword's path still cut deeply into his grandmother's left side and ultimately even cut off her left arm as the sword moved away from her.

She shortly screamed in pain, but muffled the sound immediately.

Eli jumped in with a stab of his own sword and pierced the dark elf giant in a less protected spot at the giant's armpit. It drew blood and the elf dropped his grandmother who groaned in pain, followed by losing consciousness before even hitting the floor.

The elf shoved away Eli with a body slam and he was about to deliberately stomp on the queen's head, but Eli aimed a throw of his sword towards the elf's unprotected neck. The big elf moved out of the way, deflected the thrown sword so it landed on the balcony with a clang and decided to concentrate on the intruder instead.

As the giant was about to complete a mighty swing with Frigga's sword, all three conscious combatants heard a mighty shout.

"NOOO!" Thor screamed as he released a fully powered lightning blast towards Malekith who had picked up his cutlass in the meantime and was about to stab downward and end Frigga's life.

Malekith who had turned around to see who was shouting received the lightning blast, and it burned half his face. He stumbled to the ground and the big elf swiftly moved to pick up the king to flee the scene.

While failing to dodge a flying Mjolnir, the two elves fell off the balcony. They landed on a dark elf ship that was hidden under the balcony and fled the scene.

Eli, still hiding his face with his scarf, moved next to Frigga and started healing her. However he wasn't powered by 'Loki's Scepter' and Frigga was vastly more powerful than Natasha, so all his spell did was stop some of the bleeding. He didn't dare to close the wound on her left side anyway, for fear it would complicate the healing process later on.

While Thor kept trying to hit the dark elf ship the enemies fled in, Odin stepped inside the chambers and saw his queen lying in her own blood.

"Who are you, boy?" Odin asked the masked blonde youth next to his gravely injured wife.

"I am Elias, son of Amora. Frigga found me as I had entered here thanks to the convergence," Eli explained as he lifted one arm with Frigga's bracelet on to prove his words.

"Please, call for more competent healers. All I am doing is lowering the amount of blood she loses," Eli said, he sounded desperate.

Nothing more mattered to Odin right now, who had frowned when he heard Amora's name. Not even that Amora's son would hide his face in his presence, or that he didn't see the boy before he entered his eyesight. He called for the healers and started to use his own magic to close the wounds.

"Thank you boy, it seems for now you have saved her life," Odin said as he held the unconscious queen in his arms.

Thor, too, moved next to his mother as healers rushed by the real Jane who stood in the doorway.