Chapter 39: Malekith Awakens

Deep within the darkness of Svartalfheim, a large ship known as an Arc floated within the realm, it was a realm devoid of light, the realm the Dark Elves called home.

Slowly the ship begins to power up, its occupants were all under stasis, they had lost a war that occurred previously during the last Convergence, Odin's father, King Bor, and his fellow Asgardian army, had defeated them and taken their ultimate weapon from them. Deciding to leave with an Arc full of his most loyal and devout followers, Malekith abandoned the rest of the dark elves on their homeworld, left to be slaughtered by the incoming Asgardian King and his armies.

Malekith decided to hide within the expanse of Svartalfheim, away from the Asgardian army, their sacrifice would lead the Asgardians into thinking that they had fully wiped out the Dark Elf race. He sent himself and his crew of loyal followers into stasis, he wanted to await the next Convergence, he could then use the element of surprise and finally accomplish his goals

As Malekith awakened, he looked around the room and began seeing his generals also beginning to awaken. A sense of excitement began to bubble within Malekith, he knew the Convergence was beginning, he would have another chance to return the universe to what it once was, a realm devoid of light, to one of darkness.

"The Aether awakens us. The Convergence returns. Come my people, we will find the Aether, then we have Asgardians to kill. This time, will be different. Those pompous Asgardians think we are dead, wiped out by their own hands." Malekith paused as he took his seat on his chair at the helm of his ship, he gave his warriors enough time to gather as they awoke to him speaking.

"The Asgardians will suffer as we have suffered. I will reclaim the Aether... I will restore our world... I will put an END, to this, poisonous universe." Malekith announced confidently, to the cheers of his warriors.

They all knelt before him, they could hardly contain their excitement, they would finally be able to exact revenge for the massacre of their homeworld.

They were the last of their kind, all the others were killed by King Bor, none were spared. The only reason Malekith and his crew escaped was they entered stasis and powered down their ship, allowing it to just drift in space, hidden amongst the debris of a broken planet.

"To your stations, we shall go to the nearest disruption caused by the convergence, the Aether will call out to us, I will feel where the Asgardians have hidden it. We just need to be closer." Malekith commanded as he closed his eyes to feel for the Aether, he could vaguely feel it, but not enough to know an exact location or direction.

Odin's father hid it very well, in fact it was right under their noses so to speak. King Bor had hid the Aether within Svartalfheim, the Dark Elves own realm, he thought the Dark Elves were wiped out, so he found a planet within the realm and hid it away, then banned any travel to the realm moving forward.

The Dark Elves would never believe that the Aether was within their realm, Malekith mistook his ability to feel the Aether due to the Convergence, which connected all nine realms, so he thought it was far away in another realm, not just far away within the realm.

As Malekith and his ship moved closer to an anomaly they detected, elsewhere, on the other side of the realm, on a dark desolate planet, with rivers of lava being the only source of light, Adam was making his way towards the Aether.

Unlike Jane who was pulled by the Aether, it had chosen her as its host, Adam was not pulled in by the Aether. This didn't surprise Adam, this was why he had brought along a deep space probe, after arriving through the portal, Adam had released the probe, it floated up into the upper atmosphere and began to scan the planet. Looking for the energy signature of the Reality Stone.

As Adam waited for the probe to get into position and begin scanning, he did a comms check with Yelena and Jane, he verified that they were not only getting data from the anomaly on the Earth, but also the signal from the probe. As Adam received confirmation from the two that everything was good, he also received the notification of the Reality Stones location.

Flying up high into the air, Adam made a beeline straight to the location.

'Damn, this is one hell of a world, this may be the perfect place for vampires, although it is dead so they may not like this particular one. I wonder if all the planets with the realm are like this, even though we are led to believe that it is. However that guy from that movie Jurassic Park said it best, 'Life always finds a way.' I'm sure there has to be worlds within this dark realm that have life in one form or another.' Adam thought as he looked at the dead planet below, he was trying to think on the vampire issue as he made his way to the stone.

He was looking for life on the planet, but this was a dead world.

'I don't know why I even looked, it's not like Bor would've hidden it on the planet had there been any life on it. The Aether could use even an animal as a host.' Adam said as he continued to fly, but sped up since he knew he wouldn't find anything on this planet, it was more of a prison planet than anything, or more like a tomb since even prisons have food.

It didn't take long for Adam to arrive where the energy signature was originating from, he saw the familiar passageway the Jane had walked thru to get to the containment device.

Using the Space Stone, Adam cut off the containment chamber from regular space, he didn't want to risk the Aether running away. He knew it would be hesitant, but he also knew it was desperate, when Malekith turned the Reality Stone into the Aether, it needed to feed on life force to maintain the mark placed on it by Malekith.

As a Dark Elf his life force was naturally abundant, they could also heal their life force if it was drained, all they needed to do was return to their realm, to the darkness. The Dark Elves were born from darkness, so they only needed to return to repair their damaged life force, even when they died, they weren't buried, they were sent back into the darkness, to nourish their place of birth.

The Aether needed to feed on a life force to strengthen the mark, to call out to Malekith, so Adam was counting on the desperation it currently has, a desperate animal will throw caution to the wind, the Aether didn't want to lose its form, if it did the will within would disappear.

He had to give the Aether no other option, this was why he didn't allow anyone to enter, although they would've entered together, the Aether would've separated him from whoever else came. Thus endangering the life of whoever it used as a host, calling out to Malekith in the process, making Adam's plans for the Dark Elves and Malekith go astray.

As Adam walked up the stairs that led to two large pillars, one atop the other, as if smashing something in the middle of the two, a red light began to glow brighter as he approached. Ancient runes and symbols covered the pillars and walls.

"Alright little guy, come to papa." Adam said as he reached out his hand, but the red fluid remained in place, the dark fluid ripped and swayed but remained in place.

As if it was hesitating, trying to decide whether to run and hope to find a host in time, or to make an attempt at using Adam to find another host.

The will inside the Aether thought of its options, it could pretend to be cleared away, play dead so to speak, use the last of its power to shield itself within, protected from the other stones. As soon as another host was available and within range, it could lash out and attach to the new host, escape using its abilities, then it just needed to wait for its master to come get it back.

Adam just waited patiently, he didn't want to force a decision unless he had to, just like a hunter who has cornered his prey, the hunter doesn't strike first, he waits for his prey to make their move first, then they strike.

Adam didn't have to wait long, a few minutes later the Aether dashed forward, and like a symbiote it latched on to Adam's outstretched arm, Adam smiled as he felt his suit absorb the liquid and store it within a specialized container within the suit.

He didn't plan to take possession just yet, he still had to signal Malekith into a trap, he was greedy for Dark Elf technology. Their stealth technology was top notch, even able to hide from Heimdall's eyes for the most part, it wasn't till they literally had begun to pass right by him that he finally detected their assault on Asgard.

Not only that, but Adam knew that Malekith's ship held so much more, there was a reason that Malekith chose to escape aboard the ship, for the same reason it was called an Arc. Within the ship contained all the accumulated knowledge of their civilization, not many Arc ships were built, they were costly and took a lot of time. Within the Arc, not only was all Dark Elf knowledge stored, but DNA records of every plant and animal from their homeworld.

An Arc was exactly that, a vessel that could be used to restart the Dark Elf civilization. Much like the UNSC Colony ships, the Arc was made to be salvaged once the new colony is built, its engines and reactor used to feed power to the new world, allowing them to expand the colony borders quickly.

Adam wanted Malekith's Arc, he would be able to increase his own stealth technology, as well as having access to a ship built to colonize worlds within their realm. It would make finding the vampires a new world much easier, after he had copied all the technological data as well as the genetic data of all the plants and animals that survived in such a dark realm.

If he found animals similar to house cats or dogs, he could make a killing, even if they looked hideous, rich people had a thing for the exotic. All through history, the rich and powerful used exotic pets and animals as a show of their wealth and reach. Even in modern times, restaurants and people did the same, walking into a restaurant, house or place of business, you could find large tanks of exotic fish and corrals.

Or perhaps a hunter, who would show you his wall of stuffed trophies, he would have a story for each one, location they killed it in and the adventure they had on the way there and back.

So Adam wanted to use the Aether to bring Malekith where he wants him, where he is ready and fully prepared, he wanted minimal damage to his soon-to-be new ships.

After sending a signal to the probe to leave the planet to begin scanning and searching thru the realm of Svartalfheim, he hoped to at least have a few potential planets located by the time he meets with the Vampires, Adam initiated the Space Stone within his suit, this allowed him to portal from his location back to the abandoned warehouse.

Adam's actions had notified Malekith, but not in a bad way, his connection was severed as soon as Adam contained the Aether within his suit, so that weak connection he was feeling before completely vanished.

"Quickly which realms just came out of line!" Malekith shouted to one of his subordinates.

"Your highness Jotunheim, Nidavellir, Asgard and Midgard all just lost alignment just now, we are still showing the others connected currently."

Malekith sat on his captain's chair, no, his temporary throne, and pondered his options. He felt the connection lost, so he figured it had to be in one of the realms that were no longer aligned.

A vicious smile crept across his face as he spoke, "Asgard. King Bor would never let the Aether from his sights, after attempting and being unable to destroy it, he wouldn't allow it far from his sights. He knows the power of the Aether. Ready yourselves, our retribution is at hand. We will slaughter the Asgardians, raid their vaults, destroy their golden city, take back the Aether, then go to Midgard to enact the final blow to Asgard, bringing about the darkness back into the universe." Malekith ordered, his eyes burning with rage and desire.

The dark elves rushed to their stations, some heading to their Harrow ships that were scattered within the Arc, that way, they could be deployed upon arriving and begin their assault immediately. Like Malekith they were thirsty for Asgardian blood.