//------------------------------// // You'll Be The Death of Me // Story: We Remember Everything // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: Special thanks to IkioStar, Evilhumour, Amethyst blade, Scarheart, FleetlordAvatar, Killabyte, Cadmium, Ketvirtas, and SilentMech for your comments last chapter. Thank you again, and I hope to continue hearing from you all! Title is from the song "Broken Inside" from Broken Iris. Your thoughts mean everything to me and I would love to hear from you in the comments below! Comments are after all, and I could not get by without them from you all! With Thor wiping out the soldiers on the ground, Hulk trading blows with Algrim, Captain America preventing stragglers from attacking any of the unconscious, Heimdall preventing others from entering the room, and Stark assaulting Malekith with the high powered suit he so loved, Loki felt pretty reassured that things were to go their way now that they had arrived. He had learned just how valuable a little patience could be though, so while he was on his way to fight Malekith he decided it best to allow Stark to test Malekith’s power first. Some Dark Elves in the room attempted to assault Loki as he watched the battle, but they dropped dead without Loki even sparing them a glance as his glaives cut through their armor and flesh. Stark, or ‘Iron Man’ as the Midgardians called him, decided to step up his game. A plate on his armor’s wrist popped up to reveal an array of missiles as he flew past Malekith, who was failing to hit him with his dark magic, “Hey Scarface, catch!” The missiles flew forth from Stark’s suit and homed right in on Malekith, who did not move to even address their approach. The black and red aura flying around him did everything instead. Stark swore under his breath as the high speed missiles stopped in mid air a half dozen feet away from Malekith. He continued to fly as Malekith grew a smirk on his pale, scarred face. “Okay, you caught it. Did not see that coming,” Tony swore under his breath as he watched the missiles turn around to face him instead, “Maybe we could talk this over like—” Moving at a speed far greater than what they were at when fired previously, the missiles rushed through the air to catch up with Stark. While this would only cause minor damage to the armor normally, the dark power of the Aether that sent them back to their original sender allowed them to hit Stark with even greater strength. What would have been explosions instead became explosions of powerful dark magic, and Stark tumbled out of the sky with speed appropriate for such a takedown. As Stark hit the ground hard he was given no time to rest. Malekith sent forth a surge of magic to hit the downed genius. Stark groaned in agony as the blast sent him crashing across the room, even crashing into a few Dark Elf soldiers on the way before finally landing next to Bruce Banner’s transformed body. Iron Man coughed inside his suit momentarily before choking out, “Hulk, tag in!” Banner, the Hulk, turned to face Malekith with a growing snarl. He quickly let go of Algrim, ending their grapple, so that he could rush at Malekith with a violent fervor. The giant green rage monster made it less than twenty feet across the throne room before an explosion of red and black energy sent the green being flying backwards at an even faster pace. Heimdall was forced to dodge Hulk as Banner’s body was tossed out of the room and through the wall across from the throne room. No longer having a giant green rage monster taking up his fight for him, Stark called on his next ally of choice. “Loki, tag in!” Still only watching, Loki found himself shaken from his reverie at the mention of his name. He was only a few feet away from the wrecked Stark, though he made no motion to assist the Midgardian up to his feet. “Tag in?” Loki asked, not sure what the expression in question meant. Stark rolled over on his stomach, revealing that his back’s armor had been horribly charred. The mechanical genius coughed as he tried to get up, only for his suit to begin shutting down as the damage incurred revealed itself to him as a complete system shutdown, “Your turn to get your ass handed to you, oh great god of being an asshole.” Despite being occupied with his own fight, Thor called over to the two to add his own two cents, “He is not far off you know, god of Mischief.” Loki shot his brother a smug glance, not that Thor could see it, “Oh I know,” he turned to give the same glance to Malekith, “And soon he shall too. I am really quite looking forward to this.” Loki approached Stark and patted the red armored man on his mechanical shoulder, “Thanks for testing the Elf out for me. Consider this my…tag in.” The prince ignored the muffled swearing coming from Stark as he finally took center stage again, ready now to fight Malekith with the knowledge that his foe was far greater a threat than had been so long ago. As Loki approached Malekith, the prince began to speak to his chosen foe, “You with the hideous scars.” Malekith had been preparing to attack the downed Stark with a large orb of energy he had been fostering, but Loki’s insult caught his intention instead. Malekith lobbed the energy in Loki’s direction instead, only for a barrier of ice to appear between them and deflect the trajectory of the shot into the ceiling. With his foe’s attention gained, Loki continued to smile at his now dumbfounded opponent, “Yes, you. I am afraid we have not been properly introduced. I am Prince Loki, heir to Asgard and lover of the woman over there who your men have brutalized. You have killed my people and caused far more damage than you could ever imagine to me on a personal level. Prepare to die.” While surprised that his foe’s magic was able to withstand the power of the Aether, Malekith was comfortable in the fact that he was only just beginning to tap into the Aether’s potential. He returned Loki’s smug grin with one of his own, though it proved far uglier given his disturbed face. “And I am Malekith, lord of the Dark Elves, and I will remove each and every last piece of Asgardian filth from existence. Prepare to die alongside them!” “Is that so?” Loki tilted his head before preparing his blades for an attack, “That will be difficult without arms. I find you Dark Elves more amenable without them.” Malekith could not move fast enough to even attempt to avoid Loki’s strike, though it proved unnecessary as Loki’s blade stopped a foot away from Malekith’s body. The dark energy swirling around the King in a vortex was what kept Loki from finishing the strike, his glaive deflected to the side and away from the Aether’s carrier. It appeared to Loki that the power source was protecting its wielder, causing a small smirk to form on his face again despite his attack’s failure. He could outspeed this being, for the power Malekith gained gave him that: power. He was no faster it appeared, and so he would prove no true threat so long as Loki avoided his attacks. “The Aether’s energy protects you better than your monster’s hide does for him. Interesting.” A wave of energy blasted Loki back towards the crowd, the Aether lashing out on its own again. He snickered at the thought that his foe was truly the power source itself, not Malekith, who was merely a conduit for its power. It would take a true master of magic to wield such a force, and Malekith appeared to be a bit rusty from his thousands of years not spent menacing the galaxy. Out of the corner of his eye Loki noticed Odin approaching them with a limp, his powerful spear in hand. That spear was the most powerful one known to Loki in all existence, meaning that it could be used in addition to Illidan’s glaives to possibly open up the Aether’s barrier. With this in mind, Loki made sure to keep his footing as the Aether blasted him back. His arms took the brunt of the damage not blocked by his glaives, his first motion having been to block himself. The pale flesh of his skin showed no permanent damage, neither did Loki appear in any particular pain from the attack. After the counterattack subsided, Loki raised his voice so that Odin could hear him, “Father, Gungnir should be able to at least challenge him in terms of power—” “Loki, it’s a trap!” Loki spun around towards the sound of his father’s voice, but instead of it being a few feet away it was coming from across the room. This motion caused the spear shoved into him to impale him from the front, Gungnir’s golden tip burying into Loki’s chest and emerging from the back. Thor, then handing the unconscious Jane over to Captain America after having wiped out the remaining Dark Elf foot soldiers, let out a cry of anguish as Loki sustained what appeared to be a fatal strike. Not as worried was Loki, who shook his head as he dropped his glaives down to the floor so as to free his hands. “It seems that the prisoners have escaped,” Loki stated through a gasp as the ‘Odin’ next to him revealed itself to be none other than Ikol, who was wearing the same grin Loki had moments ago. Ikol twisted the blade that should rightfully be going through Loki’s heart and killing him outright“It wasn’t easy, I’ll admit that, but I managed to convince a fool to let me go. It is amazing what illusions can accomplish!” Ikol moved to remove the spear from Loki’s chest, but the true Loki had already gripped the handle with his own hands to prevent this action, “If I kill you, I not only can take your place—” Loki was next caught off guard by Algrim rushing him and tackling him to the ground. The spear pinned Loki to the floor as Algrim’s giant body pressed down on him, at which point Ikol laughed in sadistic glee. “But, the lord of the Dark Elves willing, join him in the destruction of those I despise so greatly.” Malekith witnessed all of this with mild amusement, not understanding who this newcomer was but completely appreciating that the tables had been turned on this similarly looking upstart, “You Asgardians may all look alike, but if you manage to fell this foe for me I will have a place for you at my side when I destroy this realm.” Ikol bowed to Malekith before approaching Loki and Algrim, the latter of whom was pounding Loki into the ground with powerful punch after punch, “It shall be done.” Algrim hoisted Loki into the air to begin continuing his attack, at which point Ikol joined in by ripping Gungnir from Loki’s chest and using it to slash his fellow Loki, “You do not bleed. I take it that you are in a state between life and death granted where you must have been spending all this time since I left.” “This hardly seems fair…” was all Loki could choke out before Algrim’s massive might landed against his face, the giant black armored monster striking with such force that the prince’s head was removed from its body. It flew across the room before stopping next to a fallen Dark Elf. It was then that Thor roared and assaulted Algrim with a rage outdoing even that of Banner, his hammer slamming down against Algrim’s body and managing to make the dark warrior stumble. His fury gave him a few moments of supremacy against the monster, but Algrim’s invulnerability allowed him to quickly turn the tables and begin thrashing Thor as well. All of this gave time for Loki’s disembodied head to note, “Now that hurt.” The previously dropped body of Loki rose to its feet to the abject horror of Ikol, who watched with fear as it began to walk towards its head. “W-what are you?” Ikol stuttered as Loki picked his own head up and moved to place it upon his own shoulders. Loki twisted his now connected head around to face Ikol with a plain expression, “The father of death incarnate. If that does not scare you, then imagine what fate will befall you after this.” Loki could not terrorize his darker self any more before a rectangle shaped portal tore open at the entrance of the room. This forced Heimdall to jump out of the way as all attention turned to the being emerging from the large portal, who happened to completely dwarf all others in the room. “Am I late to the party? Because it seems I missed a delightful amount of chaos.” Discord stepped out of the portal and began to observe what was happening, a curious look growing on his face as all of the dead and torn bodies across the floor met his eyes. Malekith snarled over to Loki, who was just watching with glee as he ran a hand over his maimed chest, “And just how many allies have you brought?” Loki shrugged, “This one is not from me, actually, though you are one to talk with all of your own reinforcements. Is fighting alone too difficult a concept for you to grasp?” “Is it just me or is everyone having a bad time here? Luna in particular…” Discord shook his head in disapproval before turning his head back to the gate, “Well, let’s change that. Coast is clear, my princesses!” From behind Discord two more beings leapt out of the portal, these two doing so at full charging speed, the quadrupeds running in a DNA spiraling fashion as the crossed the large throne room. The stockier of the two began to charge up her magic while the lankier growled first before following suit, Trixie’s voice calling out as they passed by the passed out Luna. “Princess Luna!” Loki jabbed a finger at Algrim’s direction, the monster being too occupied with beating Thor to death on the ground to notice the new arrivals, “She will be fine, you two, handle that beast!” Trixie and Twilight continued their charge, though now unleashing a torrent of magic at Algrim in addition to their movement. The beast shrugged off the attacks just like he did Luna’s previously, though the fact that they were attacking him did draw his attention and cause him to growl at the duo threateningly while dropping the unconscious Thor to the ground. With Thor saved, Loki next turned his attention to the strongest natural magic user in the room, “Discord, I require your assistance with the greater foe. The one with the dark swirling magic.” Discord floated up into the air, shrugging briefly before cracking his knuckles and approaching Malekith, “Oh alright, I haven’t had a real challenge in awhile anyway.” While Loki and Discord began to confront Malekith once again, Trixie and Twilight began to run circles around the slow and cumbersome Algrim. Their attacks were doing no real damage to him, but they were distracting him from killing the others. Despite knowing that she was not powerful enough to hurt him, Trixie yelled at Algrim with fury, “You’re all going to pay for hurting her!” She had no idea that Algrim had been the one to nearly slay Luna, but Trixie did not care. This foe would be the one who she leveled her fury at. Knowing what she did from her conversation with Hela in the Lady of Death’s own world, Trixie knew that Luna being beaten so terribly was absolutely terrible even beyond how horrible it would be on any regular day. In a spark, Trixie’s magic changed to be the black and green that Twilight knew to be associated with Nightmare Moon, and Trixie’s next strike collided with Algrim with enough power to make him step back a foot. Noticing this occurrence, Twilight stopped to turn to her ally with concern. “Trixie?” Trixie noticed something right behind Twilight just in time to teleport, moving to knock Twilight to the side while yelling, “Get out of the way!” Ikol had decided that if he could not fight Loki on equal footing, he could kill his weaker allies. Gungnir cut down Trixie’s side and barely missed really cutting into her, though the spear’s magic and strength caused Trixie enough pain to wince for a moment. This moment gave Algrim the time to reach her and punch her with all of his might straight into her back, slamming her into the ground brutally and even breaking some of the floor beneath her. “Trixie!” Twilight yelled in horror before trying to use her telekinesis to slow down both Ikol and Algrim. It stopped Ikol for a second, though it only managed to slow Algrim as the latter kicked Trixie in the side and sent Luna’s apprentice tumbling across the room. Twilight shuddered to think what would have happened if she had not slowed the strike, though she was worried enough as it was given the hit Trixie already took. Trixie slammed into a soft surface and crumpled onto the floor, her body aching all over from the strike she took from Algrim. The equine groaned long in pain as her body went from mild numbness to complete agony. “Okay, not going to lie, that really hurt. Like, my back feels broken,” she paused to rub her still movable her against the soft thing she had hit, “This pillow was nice and squishy though.” Looking up, Trixie found herself dumbfounded by the fact that she had hit her new student/servant/partner, Kael. The Elf had only recently awoken when Trixie had slammed into him and knocked him off his feet again, hitting him once again into the pillar he had already been slammed into. Trixie, instead of noting the fact that her hitting into him probably saved her life, gave him a scowl as she lay limply on top of his prone body, “Student, what are you doing here? I told you to stay safe.” “You did…” he coughed, not making any further comment as her weight was crushing his broken ribs. Trixie noticed this and weakly rolled off of his chest, still facing him with a disapproving but worried face. “What are you not doing by being here?” Trixie asked rhetorically. With a weak smile Kael answered, “Staying safe?” “Staying safe,” Trixie repeated, her face deadpan as she looked at him. How could she teach him anything if he went and got himself killed. Sensing that she was angry out of worry, the elf tried explaining himself despite how much his chest hurt, “I wanted to help save the princess you claim to be your mother…” Trixie coughed up some blood before weakly rising to her hooves. She was beginning to feel a second wind after the first was violently punched and kicked out of her. “And you are too kind for doing so,” she coughed up more blood before continuing with a smile, “She is my mother, and that shirtless man over there may one day be considered my father. I am not going to lose them as well as my personal student and servant all at once.” Trixie patted the Elf on his bare forehead with a smirk, “Now go get some rest,” after taking a sniff of the air, Trixie gagged, “And take off what remains of that dreadful armor when you can. It smells bad and is quite irritating on the eyes.” Kael weakly agreed before passing out entirely, his body crumpling in his shattered Night Elf armor. Trixie began to limp away from him only to notice that Twilight just had shot Ikol in the gut with enough magic to knock him off his feet. Algrim was similarly disposed, though that was more a result of Discord having opened up a portal of a much small size. The result was a powerful and focused beam from Princess Celestia, who had been charging up her power for this one action ever since she realized she needed to send Discord in her stead. She could not afford to be hit, nor to truly exert herself, but she could afford lending a powerful blast to disable a foe. Cadance had luckily been present too and, using an ancient Alicorn technique, lent her own power to Celestia to make the blast truly formidable. Given that Algrim was seemingly unconscious and stuck in a wall, Twilight smirked over at Trixie as the blue mare left her Elf behind. “I have no idea who that is, but you are so going to marry him.” Trixie visibly blanched, her whole face seeming to jump in revolt at the very thought. This done, she bopped Twilight lightly on the forehead and shook her own head, “Eww. No. Bad Twilight. Bad.” “Oh come on, your teacher likes an alien too—” Said alien yelled across the room to both Twilight and Trixie, “Save the arguing for later! We’re not done yet.” Loki and Discord had been attempting to attack Malekith with their combined magics, but even the god of chaos was not able to penetrate Malekith’s shield. Even attempting to change or alter Malekith in any way was met with failure for Discord, for the power source that could end the universe if harnessed correctly was not something Discord could prove to be stronger than. Every passing moment seemed to make Malekith more powerful as he became more and more able to access the Aether’s power. Trixie and Twilight nodded, but before they could get more than a step another fight interrupted them. The six armed man and Hela had been fighting on the sidelines, away from the main action, during this whole time and thus had not attracted the attention of the others in combat. The almost impossible to follow fight between the fast Hela and her equally agile foe had since spilled out into the main arena of the brawl, though it appeared to any who watched that each was holding back some of their power. “Sister, we have the power to end this conflict! There need not be any more tragedy!” the six armed Asgardian man cried out to Hela, who continued to swipe at him violently with her scythe without aiming for anything too vital, “Why must they suffer as you have? What purpose does that hold?” She gave no response, though her unmasked face revealed a growing expression of pain and anger as she continued to listen to him while he parried her attacks, “You know our bargain! You may not touch these souls. Return what you have stolen this day and I will return to them their lives.” When she did not listen to his words, her brother grabbed her scythe with two hands, her arms with another two, and her shoulders with his last two. Caught off guard by him stepping things up a notch, Hela found herself winded as one of his knees buried itself in her stomach. Having caught her off guard now completely, her opponent wrested her scythe from her hands and tossed it aside. This done, he pulled her into a tight hug, one of his hands raising up to the back of her head and stroking her hair gently. “Return to your world, sister. I will be along shortly.” Her eyes began to tear as the tall woman began to sob silently into the even taller man’s chest. Any frustration in his face disappeared as he lifted her chin up with another hand. “Hela, do not worry. I am not upset with you. We can still make this right.” Distraught but understanding, Hela nodded solemnly. In a puff of black smoke and magic she disappeared from his arms. She reappeared next to her scythe before disappearing again and reappearing hunched over next to Luna. The princess had since woken up again, barely conscious and about to segue back into being passed out, though the chilling aura of Hela kept her awake enough to attempt to threaten the mistress of death, “Get…away…from…” Hela’s brother cleared his throat as he approached them both, “Hela, that includes your own soul. It is time to break this cycle in at least one world. Give it back in penance for the lives you have wrongfully taken this day. Then, after you have returned the others, we will be even.” Hela grew a disgruntled look, though she remained mute. A glowing blue orb appeared in the palm of her hand, which she lowered down to Luna’s stomach and it disappeared into where Luna’s womb lay. This done, Hela summoned forth dozens of other orbs which scattered across the room to find their homes of the souls she was not supposed to reap that day. Everyone is supposed to have a place and time, and this was not when they were supposed to go. She was among those who was supposed to be slain, killed before being born, but her brother’s duty to preserving life made her begrudgingly agree to even bring back that one in particular. This time when Hela disappeared she did not reappear. After she left her brother knelt down to Luna’s side as blue magic glowed from his pale hands, “I apologize on her behalf.” Luna looked up at the newcomer with confusion. He looked like Loki, but wasn’t Loki. He also had very dark blue hair that had a certain familiar ethereal quality to it. Given what just happened, Luna was confused but not stupid. “Who are you?” she questioned before coughing. Blood did not escape her lips this time, but the sight of her coughing worried the man. His magic in his hands grew as he spoke. “Refrain from talking and exerting yourself until I have finished healing you.” Luna could feel the familiar feeling of her own magic on her skin. This Loki-esque man was using her magic, after fighting a woman who looked like Luna herself, and he had told the Luna lookalike to return her own soul to Luna. Every piece of the puzzle made it more and more obvious who this was, but Luna wanted him to confirm it. The man, who Luna was almost absolutely sure had the name Sleep Near, scowled as he continued to observe Luna’s damage, “This damage is severe…” he sighed as he realized that this was the reason for his own condition, “Giving life is harder than taking it, and healing magic can have its own adverse side effects. This will take a minute.” Luna smiled as she looked up at the future. Was this why she had been bleeding earlier down her legs? She could not help but admire how handsome her future son was, as he had inherited all of Loki’s Asgardian qualities. His arms concerned her, but the fact that he was alive was testament to the fact that everything would be fine. The princess tried bringing a hand up to touch his cheek, “You…” He caught her hand gently and lowered it to her abdomen, his voice soft, “Rest.” Sleep Near turned his attention across the room to Malekith, who was simultaneously fighting off Loki, Trixie, Twilight, and Discord while all of the others confronted the Night Elves who had come to reinforce those in the throne room. The giant Asgardian-Frost Giant being gave an icy look to Malekith as the madman blasted all of his foes back with the powers of the Aether. The tall man shapeshifted into an equally large horse, one larger than either Celestia or Nightmare Moon, and began a charge straight at Malekith. The king of the Dark Elves was so busy fighting off Discord’s powerful magic that he did not notice the giant horse with eight legs and a black coat charging in his direction. By the time he did notice, Malekith found Sleep Near bursting through his magic and shapeshifting once again. With powerful telekinesis, Sleep Near ripping one of Illidan’s glaives from Loki’s hands and gripped it mid transformation. Malekith rose his hands up to blast his newest foe back, but he failed to do so as the glaive burst through his barrier and impaled his chest. “The Aether will leave your body if you prove to no longer be a viable host,” Loki and Luna’s son claimed before tearing it from Malekith’s abdomen and twisting it around to sever both of his foe’s arms. Malekith howled in pain before a punch to the jaw sent him reeling, the attack having more power from its velocity than its actual strength. Malekith quivered and stumbled back from the Asgardian whose face was a million forms of ‘not amused’, “You…cannot…stop…” Sleep Near took a step forward to approach his foe to finish the job, but a powerful black, green, and blue blast flew under his arm to crash into Malekith’s torn chest. Loki was watching all of this with various levels of confusion. He only still had suspicions about this man’s identity, but the fact that he was able to overcome Malekith so easily was what was shocking. What added to the surprise was the familiar looking blast that caused Loki to look back at its source, “What?” Now standing right behind Loki, Luna appeared to be gathering her breath. She was healthy now but exhausted, her equine horn glowing from where she just shot Malekith, “Get…” she fired another shot into the Dark Elf’s ripped open chest cavity, “Away…” with a final blast she knocked Malekith off his feet and onto the broken throne he had destroyed earlier, “From my family!” At this point the black and red energy that had been surrounding Malekith began to instead leave him, even as it began to slowly reform his missing limbs and pieces of his body. Malekith groaned on the ground as the power of the Aether began to flow from him and into the air, the process slow and agonizing. “It’s leaving him just as planned—” Discord commented, only to be cut off by Loki. “—and now it needs a new host. Why can’t this just be easy?” Loki complained. Amused by her lover’s annoyed state, Luna transformed again and stepped beyond all of the others and towards the growing mass of energy in the air, “Dark magic is dark magic. We can decide how to get rid of it another time, but I’ve wielded such magic within me before unlike you all.” Loki gripped her shoulder and tried to pull her back, “No, not you. You cannot in—” Luna shoved him back, and to Loki’s surprise Sleep Near moved to stop him with a nod. Loki became resigned even as Luna began to retort, realizing that Sleep Near must know something that he did not. Luna waved a hand down at the recovering Malekith, who then was almost done recovering his limbs and damage, “He’s healing, now is not the time to argue! I’m not going to risk that this bastard goes free!” The magic of the Aether began to snake around Luna and enter her body, surrounding her in an aura much like it had Malekith. Just as the last energy left him and joined her, the King of the Dark Elves recovered the last of his damage but remained on the ground defeated. He was still weak from the damage he had sustained, the magic of the glaive having cut through all of his magical defenses and dealing unrestrained damage to his body. As Luna finished integrating the last of the energy into her own body, she felt it leaving her. As if someone was literally sucking it out of her body and draining it. She turned around in confusion, worried that something bad was about to happen, “Wait, who is—” While Luna was used to accepting a giant power source into her own being, her apprentice was not. Trixie tackled Luna out of the way completely and began to accept the Aether into her own body. This process was excruciating for the mare as she had never done something of this kind before, and the massive surge of energy was causing sparks to fly from her body as it tried to process to unrefined power. “Trixie!” Luna yelled as she turned to face her student, not regaining her footing quickly due to her exhausted state and general sluggishness. Loki made no move to stop Trixie, but he grew a concerned face of his own as he watched he begin absorbing the Aether’s power, “The fool, it could kill her with how unstable that energy is right now.” “I…couldn’t let…you—” Trixie choked out as he body shook and violently jerked as the Aether entered her, “N-Not in…your…condition.” Luna did not know if Sleep Near wanted to announce his origins, but she was not about to let the fact that he resembled Loki so greatly go unmentioned, “Man who resembles Loki, help her at once! My daughter requires your assistance just as I did.” Sleep Near snorted as he made note of a technicality, “I already helped your daughter,” he approached Trixie and leveled a hand at her as the Aether finished entering her, Trixie’s body still shivering in pain from the event, “I suppose I could assist this one as well.” Luna crossed her arms and frowned at her son’s bad joke, “You had better, young man.” After a moment of healing, Trixie was left still on the ground and no longer shaking even as sparks continued to leave it. Sleep Near turned to the others who were watching the healing with varying levels of concern, “She is in no danger of dying now. You best find a way to remove it from her soon.” “You…stupid…mewling…quim!” The group’s attention left Trixie and refocused on Malekith, who had slowly risen to his feet. His face’s rage was only restrained by the pain he was in, his upper body hanging over weakly and blood dripping from various points on his body. His eyes were focused on Luna, who had been the last to strike him. He had noticed her transform, and he did not care if she was a horse or not, she had nearly slain him. Luna, mad about this whole day’s events and not having been able to really let go of that stress, rolled up the sleeves of her dress, “I have no idea what those words mean, but I am going to assume they are offensive in whatever language you are speaking and will proceed to beat you to death over them and for what you have done to my family.” Malekith’s anger quickly transformed into fear as Luna approached him with glee mixed with rage. Her fists began to rain down on him and beat him down into the ground violently as she let a fit of laughter escape her lips. Twilight moved to confront Luna, but Loki blocked her path. The younger prince of Asgard felt a small snort leave him as he spoke, “Let her have this. If she does not let off this steam now she will find some other way to, and I rather leave him to deal with this raw emotion than anyone else.” Everyone watched in a mixture of horror and wonder as Luna continued hitting Malekith over and over. Blood and pieces of the Dark Elf King began to fly as Luna’s great strength tore into him punch after punch. This time there was no Aether to keep him alive and regenerate, and it was safe to assume that the mess of organs and broken bones left after a short while of this was no longer alive. At this point Loki tapped Luna on the shoulder, considering the battle to have ended given the lack of fighting now going on, “Luna, it is done. It is time to calm down. We are done here.” Of course as soon as he made this claim, the roar of Algrim bellowed through the room. He made a rush at Luna and the remains of Malekith, intent on murdering the woman who slew his master. “Beast, do you not know when to quit?” Loki quipped quickly as he moved to get in the way of Algrim. To his surprise, this defensive maneuver was never needed. A giant beam of black and red energy far larger than any other displayed thus far in the battle enveloped Algrim completely, the stone looking monster quickly being overwhelmed and blasted into the wall again. “What the hell was that?” Loki questioned before turning to see the answer. Algrim weakly howled as he tried to dislodge himself from the now wrecked wall, though before he could manage this another’s voice howled even louder. “I WILL KILL YOU!” the now standing and enraged Trixie screamed, her eyes glowing white with the power she absorbed. She horn was completely invisible underneath the large orb of power she had formed atop it, and the very next moment it shot out and repeated what it had done before to Algrim. This time, however, it did so with even more power. The mostly invulnerable being had no time to react by the time his body completely disappeared in the attack’s glow. When it faded moments later there was nothing left, leaving all in awe at the power of the Aether being channeled through Trixie. Luna gasped as she saw Trixie’s eyes stop glowing, revealing that they were unfocused as if she had lost her mind. To further worry Luna, Trixie began to let out a laugh that slowly built up, “Haha. Hahahaha. Hahahahahaha…” Killing was not something Luna thought Trixie capable of for the most part. Sure, she slew the Ursas who threatened them, but she had no choice at the time. She had come to defeat them, of course, but that could be done without killing. This time she completely slew her foe who did not need to technically be killed, which is what worried Luna. They had already defeated him and there was no way he could pose a threat, so murdering him like that was sickening even to Luna as she noticed Trixie’s crazed expression. “This power is overwhelming…” Trixie noted to herself, though none of those gathered directly by her had a chance to respond before a snarky voice interrupted them. “Did a small horse just wreck the guy that could kick our asses?” Loki turned to face Stark, who had finally managed to crawl out of his broken armor and get up, “Do you want the answer to that question, billionaire philanthropist playboy?” “No, I don’t,” Stark responded before bringing a hand up to his beard, “We have an alien and a giant green monster on our team. Is there any rules against equines? I can’t remember.” “You already had one,” Luna noted before kneeling down beside Trixie and bringing her into an embrace. “And two is better than one,” Stark laughed before looking around at the various Avengers in the room, “Anyways, you owe me for this, princey. Do you know how hard it was to get all these guys instantaneously?” Twilight nodded to that sentiment, having had to do something similar, “I had to make Celestia order Discord to come. That’s why it took us so long.” “See you in Hel…” The voice so much like Loki’s made the prince twirl around to see that its source, Ikol, was still alive. Despite this, Ikol was still on the ground by where he had been felled by Twilight. He had fallen next to a Night Elf though, who happened to have on their belt previously one of those black hole grenades the Elves had used to invade so effectively. That grenade’s current location was in-between Loki and Luna, the latter of which did not even notice it and the former who noticed it too late to do anything about it. Someone who had noticed it just a second in time was Odin, who had approached them all in his battered state when they were focusing on Algrim. He had not known what to say what with Loki, his estranged son, being back and as such had not said anything to them yet. Actions always spoke louder than words anyways though, and when Odin tossed Luna out of the way and pushed Loki back from the grenade the latter yelled in confused worry. “Father!” The momentary black hole tore the area open, Luna being forced to drag Trixie away from it as she herself stumbled back from Odin’s toss. The others all managed to escape in time, though at the center of it all Odin was not able to. In a flash it was over, and with it the King of Asgard. Shocked by this, Loki twirled around to try and think of something. He had not known of these devices when he arrived, and he had not planned for such a possibility. His eyes darted around until they landed on Sleep Near, who Loki gripped by the chest. “Time traveler, you can restore life, right? Bring him back now!” Sleep Near averted his gaze, being silent for a moment before stating, “I restore life to bodies. My sister manipulates souls. Together we can do such a feat, though…” he cleared his throat as a tear fell down his face, “I am afraid restoring something from nothing is not something in my capabilities, vast as they may be.” When Luna hit the ground after she was pushed over, she felt her exhaustion return. She had not seen just what happened, but she could hear Loki’s choked up emotions and wanted to have them addressed, “Loki? What happened? What was that?” Seeing Luna on the ground, Loki shook his head while forcing his voice to remain neutral despite the tears running down his face, “Nothing. Just…rest.” “You’re lying…” Luna noted as she looked at his back, Trixie having left her arms to go laugh over in the corner of the room, “I don’t like it when you lie…” “I will tell you when you finish resting. Even healed, you need to rest,” Loki snapped, his emotions coming out from behind his façade. Luna closed her eyes, accepting this bargain since she was too tired to continue arguing, “When I wake up, you’re making good on your promise. Both this and the one from before you left me.” “Of course.” “Don’t leave me again…” her voice trailed off as she fell into unconsciousness. Everyone else turned to look at Loki and see if he was okay, though Loki himself turned to Sleep Near with a similar worry. “Will she at least be okay?” Given his appearance and actions, Loki had a good clue that this was his son from the future. Sleep Near nodded to his father sorrowfully, not wanting to have witnessed what just happened, “I came back to ensure that. Our timeline would have it that today went as it otherwise would have. The Dark Elves would have caused Hela’s death, I would be malformed, and our father would be lost.” “This time Hela came to torture you all, unlike our own time, so I came too,” Sleep Near continued with exasperation, “Hopefully this affects your own timeline in a positive fashion.” “So you come from a different reality?” Loki questioned. “Yes, though it is similar enough that Hela seems to have mistaken this one for our own in her fury,” Sleep Near snarled, regretting just how insane his sibling was. This made Loki snort out of pure indignity, “Out of infinite possible realities, she chose this one to torment in particular? Am I so lucky?” Sleep Near moved to leave the others, “I should go and tend to her. She likely is going to have a breakdown after today’s events, and the task falls to me to keep her in line,” he paused before saying two last things before disappearing into thin air, “I will be seeing you soon, one way or another. Make sure Luna is prepared to have twins, one in equine form with extra appendages and the other an Asgardian with issues regarding speech.” The next time Luna awoke, it was in Loki’s bed with the covers over her. She felt as if her power was considerably lower, as if something had been taken from her, but the Asgardian body beside her calmed her. Everything was going to be okay now. What woke her up though was Trixie, who no longer seemed to be having a mad fit and now was nervously asking permission with her face to get up on the bed. “Trixie?” Her apprentice looked down at the ground sorrowfully, “I’m sorry…” Trixie sniffed as she thought about what happened to Luna, and how she had not forewarned Luna about her pregnancy despite knowing, “I didn’t think…I didn’t know that you would—I knew that you were…” She paused as she tried to explain why she didn’t say it before, “I just wanted to be your...” Luna nodded for Trixie to come up and make herself comfortable, “Come here.” As Trixie got up on the bed nervously, Luna brought her arms around her dear apprentice to calm her. She stroked Trixie’s side gently as the apprentice joined her underneath Loki’s soft covers, “I know why you must be nervous. I don’t blame you for not telling me. You always will be my daughter, even if I have one of my own womb.” “You know?” Trixie blurted out softly, trying to keep her voice down so as to not wake Loki in the middle of the night. Luna nodded softly as she embraced Trixie, “That future boy…the one with extra arms. He was my son, wasn’t he?” “I believe so.” “That makes Lady Death my daughter…” Luna kissed Trixie on top of her head, “Listen Trixie, I would have done the same thing in your position. If I was focused on my coming family, I would have less time to focus on you. You would feel replaced.” After pausing a moment to let Trixie return the embrace, Luna nuzzled her head with Trixie’s, “I promise that won’t happen. You are as much a daughter to me as anything I could have brought into this world.” “I’m sorry…” Trixie apologized. Even in the dark, Luna could see that her lover was across the room sitting on a half broken chair and staring into a shattered mirror. Seeing his isolation gave Luna a pang in her heart, and so she called out to him, “Loki? Please join us. Something is eating you, but I just want to rest with my family.” She paused before adding, “All five of us.” With this Loki made his way over to the bed, wrapping his arms around Luna and taking a moment to pat Trixie on the head before the prince drifted off to sleep. The battle was finally done. They were all back together.