Sinbound: Armageddon

Part 12

I walk into my bathroom the next morning to find Beth brushing her teeth at the sink. We smile at each other, and I grab brush to smooth out the waves in my hair.

"Eh lek ha nehw hay bah th waeh" She says with a mouth full of toothpaste. I wheeze, laughing so hard.

"Uh... what?"

She spits her toothpaste out in the sink and points to me with her toothbrush. "I said that I liked your new hair, by the way!"

Oh right, I changed when I came back. I wonder if my eyes are still slightly red. I look at her to see if she'll notice, but she doesn't say much. I feel like she would have said something by now if they were different. I check my reflection, and they seem to just be a darker blue, but almost as if there's another color trying to push through underneath. Colored contacts is a huge possibility if it doesn't last. It must have changed when I came through to Earth from Asgard.

"Thank you!" I say, trying to keep things light, "I wanted a change. I know black is a huge difference from my blonde, but I feel... good with it." I lie. The less she knows, the better. It's for her protection and state of mind. If I'm alive now, no need to tell her I was dead for a while.

She leaves and I finish getting ready. When I walk downstairs, there's literally no one, not even Loki. That's weird. I walk around, roaming the tower before I finally find someone. "Fury!" I call out. The tall man with the eye patch turns around after halting in the middle of the hallway.

"You must be Ayça Beckland."

"Yes I am, where is everyone?"

"Assembling." He says in a dark tone.

My heart sinks. Oh no, what is it now? "Assembling? Like, as in the Avengers?"

"I don't have time to explain. You're sister has already been admitted to our witness protection program, and you better not track her down. It will only put her in danger."

"W... what? Witness to what?" I question as he begins to proceed down the hallway. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"Then keep up! No time to brief you on the situation now. You coming, or not?" He shouts from further down the hall without turning around. I grumble to myself under my breath and jog to catch up to him.

We enter a room with no windows and I see the Avengers sitting around a large round table. They all look... distraught. I take a seat between Loki and Natasha.

"Hela has escaped from her prison. Turns out she had made alliances on the inside before she was taken captive. Now, she threatens to bring an army to lay waste to Asgard, and Earth next." Fury starts.

'Why Earth?" Steve speaks up.

"Because there's something here she's after. A weapon." He says, looking at me dead in the face.

"Me?" I ask weakly. Last time I went up against her I died, and I'll do it again if it means I don't have to join her. Well, I can't die, not anymore, but... ugh. "This is madness!" I say, "I'm not a weapon, she can't just use me! Look, I know I've done some questionable things in the past, but..."

"We trust you, Ayça. You know we do. But we have to be prepared for what could happen." Fury cuts me off.

"What exactly are you insinuating?" Loki growls at him, feeling protective over me.

"Look at her, man!" Fury says, shaking his hands at me, proving that something's obviously off.

"Alright, that's enough. Ayça has proven herself more than once. It's time we give her a chance." Natasha tries to interject.

'Last time that happened, she gained control of an army she left unattended."

"I sealed a gate before I left! What, you think I would just let them roam free?" I argue.

'Well, that gate is broken because of Hela!" Fury says, smashing his fists on the table. I flinch, and Loki holds my hand under the table.

"Look. Loki and I will return to Asgard. We will fight alongside Thor and take the city back!"

"You sound like Thor." Loki remarks, slightly smiling to himself.

"Yeah, and a good thing she does, too!" Tony says, standing and furrowing his brow at Fury. "Look, we can fight and try to save New York if it comes to that. But you've gotta give the kid a chance."

I look around the room at everyone's faces. They all look at me confidently, as if they really do believe in me. I lastly look at Fury, who simply nods once. "The Avengers stay assembled until this is over. Ayça, report to Asgard with Loki. This war has just begun."

-----------------------

I'm in my bedroom, preparing for the journey back to Asgard. I open the top drawer of my dresser and shift around the socks to find an envelope I've hidden at the bottom. I shake it, and I can still here the small pendant rattle around against the paper. I slip it out into my hand and rock it back and forth, letting the light shimmer off of it.

It's a pendant my mother gave me as a child. She was a history teacher and, when we starting learning about Vikings and Norse mythology, she noticed I took a liking to it. It kind of became my niche, so she gave me a necklace with a small round, gold pendant with a rune carved into it. I was too young to understand what she was trying to tell me, but now I do. She must have known this entire time.

The rune was the same one that was etched into the wall the day I first created the plasma energy between my hands, the rune for evil and chaos. If she were around to see how much I've conquered it, I wonder if she'd be proud.

I close my eyes and sit on the edge of my bed. I hold the pendant to my chest and take a deep breath, then see a flash of white light. I open my eyes to see my younger self at the kitchen counter in my childhood home. Hela was right, after all. There is more power to me than I know already. I watch my mom come in through the garage door and hand me a little box with a gold and black ribbon tied around it. I open it, forgetting about my homework. It's the necklace, and she helps me put it around my neck. I remember loving it, and feeling a connection with it somehow.

I open my eyes to see Loki walk in. He notices the chain hanging down between my fingers from my balled fist, and walks over curiously.

"What's this?" He asks, holding out his hand.

"A necklace my mom gave me a long time ago." I show him, and he smiles but almost... in a sad way. He picks it up by the pendant and surveys it.

"She knew you well. Do you miss her?"

"Yeah." I say quietly. I stand and turn around, pulling my hair over the front of my shoulder. "Put it on for me, will you?"

"Certainly." He says comfortingly. I see one of his hands reach around with one end of the chain and hand it to the other. He clasps it, then traces his hands down the sides of my arms. He kisses my neck, and I turn to face him. I kiss him lightly, hesitating before pulling away.

"I will protect you, Ayça." He says softly, petting the sides of my head and playing with my hair.

"And I will protect you, Loki."

We say our goodbyes to the Avengers, and I ask that someone check up on Beth and my dad. We haven't spoken in a while, but I wanted to make sure he was protected during all this.

We depart quickly thanks to Loki's magic, and in minutes we are back in Asgard.