Your Hand To Hold

Chapter Twenty-Three: Dark Elves of London

            The air whipped through my ears as I bounded across the grass, growing as I did from my previous hunched state to that of a full Cú Sídhe. I could smell the fear that came over Malekith as I raced toward him, my howl echoing as I went. I hadn't been able to stop it this time any more than I had the day of my rebirth; yet something felt different about this transformation. I felt more in control, more capable, and more prepared for what I had to do. Protect Thor, protect Loki, stop Malekith.

    My brow furrowed as I snarled, leaping at the elf and knocking him forward as Thor swung his hammer sending him flying back into a nearby wall. I chased after him, turning back around quickly as plasma blasts rained down against my fur. My tail knocked a few of the elves down just as the others disappeared. In the nearby distance, I could hear Darcy yelling that that was awesome. As I turned to focus on Malekith once more, I saw an elf rushing toward her, a sword raised high.

    No, you don't!  A low howl fell from my mouth as I leaped over him, landing in front of Darcy as her scream mixed with a shrieking sound emitted from the gravimetric spike.

    The air rippled around us as we blinked to another location right as an elf fell, landing on the carriage beside us. Scooping her up and onto my back, I searched for a place to put her while I focused on changing back. I knew I could do it if I could get out of fight or flight; if I didn't feel that I was safer in this form. Several more Dark Elves emerged, quickly turning to pursue us as the Convergence continued to build above. Ripples from Jane and Erik's created gravitational anomalies that utilized the energy of the convergence to open mini portals shimmered around us, as the voids above us grew larger; cars and elves alike blipping back into the sky to fall to the ground. The same was the fate of two jets headed our way, quickly disappearing into a portal for the Vanaheim, along with the nukes they carried. This was not going to be the easiest place to change back in.

    "What in the hell is happening? Jane! Jane, come on!" Her fear had me shaking my head as I dodged slithering tendrils of Aether energy as we raced back toward the library.

    Bubbles sprouted up around us, taking pieces of the ground and anything around them as they formed. I dodged them as best I could, wincing as a loud canine whimper quivered out from me as one brushed against my arm, sending Darcy and me flying as a second ripple caught us. We careened to a halt a foot away from Jane and Erik, the Aether's energy returning me to my usual appearance as I held fast to Darcy.

    "Darcy?"

    "Jane!"

    "Eve?" I nodded and whimpered at Erik, clutching my singed arm, thankful that most of what I had endured seemed to have been absorbed by the now torn tunic of my armor.

   "Mew-mew," Darcy cried with a smile, rising to her feet as Mjolnir sailed past us. Several feet away, Malekith and Loki landed, a strange half-troll, half-cat-like creature coming with them. "Uh, Evie, if you could become that giant dog thing again, it'd really be helpful right about now..."

    "Yeah, yeah it would. Except I have no fecking idea how to do it," I laughed anxiously. "Hold tight." Spear in hand, I shot the ends out and raced towards Malekith and Loki as three Dark Elves fell in my path, running from the troll-cat.

    The nearest one met the end of my spear, opening a portal to the Jotunheim for the rest to charge through. Leaping over the portal as it began to close, I hurled a dagger toward Loki who caught it, allowing it to nick his hand as another portal to Muspelheim opened behind him. Utilizing his daggers wrapped in energy blasts, Loki kept the Aether at bay, knocking it and Malekith off balance and toward the opening as the Convergence finalized its placement.

    "We are out of time!"

   "We cannot defeat him," Loki admitted as he blocked another attack, diving moments later as he caught me round the waist and flung me aside as one of Malekith's attacks left a crater where we had stood.

   "We must get the Aether away from him."

   "Perhaps together we can conjurer an illusion to combat his own?"

   I shook my head, as we rolled behind a large chunk of fallen library debris; my breath heavy as I tried to think. "The Aether manipulates reality, we would not stand a chance... We need a way to counter what he creates."

   Loki took several deep breaths as well, peering around the edge before he looked at me. "They are coming. Little Dove... I know this is an inopportune time to suggest this, but perhaps our demons need to play with his chaos." I glanced at him; my right eyebrow raised. "You have been the only thing he seemed truly frightened by..."

   "So you're saying-"

   "I am."

    I exhaled hesitantly, sparing the oncoming seven elves a glance before I looked to him. "Promise me you will never ask this of me again?" He nodded, and with a deep breath, I closed my eyes and allowed the fear to overtake me as I shifted once more.

    Stalking around the edge of the debris, lips pulled back as I bared my fangs I watched as the elves raised their blasters to fire upon me when three suddenly dropped their weapons as a sheet of ice quickly engulfed them before they could finish turning to run. Beside me stood Loki, now at least as tall as Heimdall's eight feet, blue as the right side of Malekith's face, his Jotun markings appearing almost a lavender against his skin as his red eyes narrowed at the Elven Warlord. The stench of fear coming off him then was overwhelming to my senses, my ears twitching with discomfort as I stared the so-called Master of Hounds down knowing I was one hound he had no control over.

    In a swirl of black and red, he used the Aether to hurl his frozen warriors at us, their bodies shattering at our feet as we swatted them away while he attempted an escape. His path was cut off by Thor, who sent Mjolnir straight into his face, his body soaring through the air. Jumping up, I caught the two-toned sorcerer between my teeth, shaking him with a great amount of vigor until his Aether blast had me crying out as I dropped him; the inside of my mouth feeling as if it had caught on fire.

    Gasping and sputtering, I shrank back to my normal appearance, clawing at my throat as the feeling began to spread. Loki rushed to my aide, manipulating his cryokinesis to create snow as he rammed two of his fingers into my mouth, desperately trying to wash the spell away. Malekith laughed as he hovered above us, watching my suffering.

    "You fools; you will never defeat me!"

    Behind us, I could hear Erik calling for Jane. With what little ability I had available, Loki's fingers still in my mouth working to overpower the spell, I could see her racing toward us. She called out to Loki, tossing a bottle of water to him as she simultaneously pressed the button to let the gravimetric spikes ripple off another teleportation burst. Several circling elves were whisked away. Their leader remained and as the Aether began to swarm, I looked to Loki as the ability to breathe normally returned.

    His green eyes widened with realization as I rose, chugging the remaining water as he called out to me. "Eibhlin, don't you dare!"

    "I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice raw and strained with more than just physical pain, before I leaped toward the swirling red and black vortex.

    As the Aether touched my armor, the energy of the Bifróst almost taunting it to come and be absorbed into my pores, Malekith turned, bellowing a no as he fought to recall the Aether to him. Every time he pulled, the Aether tore at me; it felt as if I was being cut by a dozen jagged-edged knives. Having the Aether torn from me was more painful than absorbing it, the cackling sensation sending an almost fire-like feeling throughout me. We stood there, playing tug of war as Jane ripped the spikes from the ground, tossing them to Thor and Loki as she called out that she had a plan.

    "You cannot defeat me, girl," Malekith called, his voice strained as he tried to prove to the weapon he had created that he was the strongest of the two of us, while the shimmering glow of the Bifróst emitting from me begged to differ.

    "You cannot have this world!" I hissed, my voice cracking between a dry, hoarse cry and a snarl-like howl. 

    "Darkness will return. Today, tomorrow, another five thousand years. You will see; there is no stopping the chaos to come and I will laugh as your nightmares become reality!"