Chapter 38 – Heart

[2013 – October]

[Asgard]

While being bested in a duel by the Asgardian woman was a rather embarrassing matter, Malekith didn't care about such superficial things like honor or pride. His only goal being to use the Aether and restore the Universe into a state of eternal darkness under the Dark Elves' rule.

What did it matter that the Asgardian queen had managed to defeat him, when she was now at his mercy, held back by his loyal Kurse-turned subordinate Algrim?

Still, when he noticed that the mortal, who was in possession of the Aether, turned out to only be an illusion, his calm vanished.

A spark of rage ignited inside of him, as he saw the mocking smile of his royal hostage.

"Where is the Aether?", he asked as he quickly suppressed his anger at being fooled. He was a thousands of years old warrior and King, so he had long since learned that anger, and emotions in general, would only dull his mind.

"I'll never tell you.", the Asgardian queen said in defiance and Malekith knew her words to be true.

"I believe you.", he answered.

Having killed countless people, it was easy for him to recognize the conviction and truth behind her words. Of course, if given enough time, he was sure that he could break the spirit of this woman, but that was something he severely lacked at the moment.

Still, the queen had proved herself to be the greatest obstacle to his plan in quickly gaining back the Aether, so it was only logical to eliminate her

Malekith didn't even have to order Algrim to kill her. After fighting side-by-side for centuries, this subordinate of his was clear on his way of doing things.

*SHING*

When instead of the Asgardian queen, Algrim became the victim of someone's weapon, shock and surprise crossed Malekith's face.

*THUD*

A warrior wrapped in blue fire, with an abyss-black spear in his hand, appeared behind the headless corpse of his closest confidant.

Clad in all-black clothes and half his face covered, the crystal gaze of the man bore into Malekith's own.

That piercing glare, colder than the icyest winters on Jotunheim, was the last thing Malekith saw before his own head was seperated from his torso by the black spear, whose body glowed with an ethereal blue light.

…

[Xandar – Woods surrounding the Maximoff Residence

Looking at the hooded man, of whom she could only see two crystal-coloured irises, Jane could practically feel the danger radiating off of him.

Especially since she had personally witnessed, how he had just shrugged of the redish-black pulse of energy, she had given off in a panic. As he had appeared before her and taken her through a blue glowing portal, causing them both to appear in a small clearing surrounded by trees.

"Who are you? Where did you take me? How did you bring us here, some kind of portable gravitational field generator?", Jane asked, unable to stop her scientific curiosity from showing, despite the danger of her situation.

"My name is Pietro Maximoff, or Silverfire if you prefer, and I am going to help you get rid of the Aether. If you behave yourself and don't cause trouble, you will be back at Thor's side in a few hours or I can take you back to Earth, if that is your wish."

Icy fear gripped Jane's heart as her brain registered the stranger's words, the name Silverfire ringing in her ears like an explosion.

Every other human from Earth would probably relax knowing the person in front of them was world-wide known Superhuman, who had saved hundreds of people at the Stark Expo and brought down the Abomination. According to Erik, he was also the one to stop Loki's plot of an alien invasion.

Still, Jane felt nothing but trepidation, as she knew the man before her was the same one who had crippled Thor in a fight and cut off one of his arms.

Silverfire was sure to know of her relationshsip with Thor, so if he was willing to do such a thing to a flesh-made god, she could only imagine what he would be willing to do a powerless human like her.

He didn't even have to mention the consequences of her misbehaving or refusing to cooperate, her imagination was more than enough to fill in the blanks.

…

As I watched Wanda use her Chaos Magic, supported and amplified by the Mind Stone, to extract the Aether from Jane, I couldn't help but feel relieved.

With the Reality Stone in hand, more and more pieces of my admittedly very vague plan fell into place. The only stones not in our possession now, were the Power Stone, Time Stone and Soul Stone.

As Wanda pulled more and more of the Aether from the levitating Jane Foster, I once again marvelled at her incredible potential and power.

In a few years, maybe earlier, Wanda would be perfectly capable of going against even the most powerful beings in this universe with relative ease, as such was the power of Chaos Magic. Even destroying an Infinity Stone may very well be within her capabilities.

Though one of the reasons, why it was so easy for Wanda to extract the Reality Stone from Jane, was that the stone in its current form drew power from its host. And with Jane being a mortal, it couldn't draw enough power to fend of Wanda's magic.

Also after her magic had taken hold of the nebulous Reality Stone in Jane's body, the first thing I told her to do was cut off its connection with Jane, so that the scientist wouldn't die by having her life force overdrawn by the Infinity Stone.

The rest of the procedure was relatively easy, as the most significant trait of Wanda's Chaos Magic was its flexibility and adaptability.

Her magic followed her intentions and could thus be used in ways that the Asgardian Magic could not, which was why they had problems with figuring out a way to extract the Aether from Jane.

The Dark Elves on the other hand were a totally different case.

As far as I understood it, they had sacrificed their own people in droves to forge some kind of connection between their race and the Reality Stone, thus turning it into the Aether and allowing Malekith in the original timeline to extract the Aether from Jane, with but a wave of his hand.

Sadly for him, I didn't give him the chance to come in contact with the Aether and directly seperated his head from his shoulders.

The rest of the Dark Elves also didn't fare any better, as without Malekith's and/or Algrim's orders, the Asgardian Einherjar, spear-headed by Thor, decimated the remaining attackers.

Thor's rage about me taking away Jane was impressive to watch, which I did through a small portal while Wanda had begun working her magic a few hours ago.

Looking over, I saw that Wanda's work was coming to an end, as Jane was slowly lowered back to the ground, still in an unconcious state caused by the Mind Stone.

The Aether was meanwhile floating in a cage of Chaos Magic, no longer trying to escape Wanda's hold.

"Can you remove the Dark Elves' ritual magic from it?", I inquired, while walking up to Wanda and gently wiping the sweat from her brows.

Evidently, concentrating for hours on her magic had taken its toll on her, though it was just some accumulated fatigue, nothing serious.

"Easily, now that it isn't attached to a host. The Aether's parasitic tendencies come from the Dark Elves blood sacrifice, which wasn't a very intricate magic, as far as I can tell. They used a quantity over quality approach to subdue the Reality Stone. As long as the Aether changes back into its original form, as one of the Infinity Stones, the magic would natrually lose its effect and the enchantment would break automatically. And I can do that easily enough.", Wanda said confidently with a gentle smile on her alluring lips.

A simple wave of her hand and the Aether started to compress and collapse in on itself rapidly.

Moments later a shining red gem floated in the air, while I seemed to have heard the unwilling shrieks of millions scattering into the winds along with some red ashes.

I didn't need Wanda to explain to me that these ashes very probably the destroyed medium – most likely blood – with which the Dark Elves had weaved their magic into the Reality Stone.

Not waiting any longer, I took a delicately forged object, from a space pocket I had created some time ago.

Wanda didn't need my instructions, as she used her magic to guide the red gem into a small dent on the object.

As if coming to life, the metal started to flow and twist, encapsulating the Reality Stone perfectly, before finally taking the form of a red glowing heart.

'Finally.', I thought, as an involuntary smile appeared on my lips.