Birthright

Waiting.....

Asa sat dejectedly on the floor of the holding cell. Resting her head on her knees, she breathed deeply, trying to control the urge to cry. Her shoulder throbbed. She felt sick,  and really, all she wanted to do was sleep.

She groaned and sat up.

"For Gods sake, Asa, get a grip!" She scolded herself out loud. "You're a bloody Valkyrie! You don't give in!"

The guard at the door, a weasely looking little Dark Elf, even smaller and more ugly than the rest - if that were even possible - turned his head sharply. "You have speak?" He said brokenly.

"I said... Malekith is an arsehole and you are all blind sheep to follow him." She smiled sweetly, and he nodded, smiling back with blackened teeth and seemingly not a clue what she'd just said.

"You should make quiet." He warned, hand raised at her, and she suddenly got the uncomfortable feeling he understood more than he let on.

Amusement over for the time being, she went back to working out how in Hel's name she was going to get free.  They'd shackled her ankles, believing her shoulder injury would prevent her from making any rash attempts at grabbing anyone. 

They were, unfortunately, right.  Every time she tried to move, the pain shot through her. Sitting still, though, she could at least plan.  She propped herself up against the wall, watching the door. It was 'just' a forcefield, it seemed. If she could find a way to deactivate it, she could at least make some kind of run for it.

She paused. Run for it? Since when did Valkyrie RUN for it? What had she come to? Injured that's what, she tried to justify to herself.  Tried and failed.

She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she just ran away. She had to try to take Hela down, or at least, find a way to neutralise her.

She was lost in thought when the alarm started to sound throughout the ship. Someone was attacking. She jumped up, regretted it, took a deep breath or three, then walked towards the door, trying to see into the corridor.

Her guard was still there, although now, he looked more than a little anxious.  He was anxiously scanning up and down the corridor, his weapon raised.

"Attack?" She said to him over the din.

"Yes. Attack. Asgard." His initial scowl had turned to a look of fear. "You attack?." He wavered slightly. "You kill Malekith?"

She nodded. "I want to." The guard seemed to pause. Then he raised his weapon and fired. She shied away, expecting the worst.  Instead, the panel beside the door exploded, and the door shield fell.  For a second, she paused, stunned by his actions. But only for a second, her training kicking in.

"Thank you." She said as she stepped free and into the corridor. The guard looked at her.

"Please. Kill arsehole?" He smiled crookedly, and she nodded. "Go. Now."

He handed her his weapon and drew a dagger. Motioning her to leave through a door to the side, he moved to block the way at the other end of the corridor.  "Aethelred," he pointed at his chest.

"Asa."

They parted with a silent nod.  Not all were convinced by Malekith and Hela, it seemed.

Loki and Thor emerged from the Bifrost onto a barren tundra. Nothing alive as far as the eye could see. No features in the landscape other than gravel, stones, and rocks.  Farther to their left, a range of hills.  An extremely unattractive and unwelcoming world.  Made even more so by the glowering black space ship resting to their right. Malekith, and more importantly, Hela.

"You ready, brother?" Thor asked him quietly as they appraised the situation. "You know what to do, dont you?"

"Yes, of course! I'm not an..." Loki snapped. "Sorry. Just..." he sighed and closed his eyes, gathering himself.

Thor slapped his shoulder agreeably. "It's ok, I'm the same about Jane. It takes a bit of getting used to, doesn't it?"

Loki side eyed him. "Used to WHAT exactly?" He asked suspiciously, self-preservation kicking in. It was new territory this... feelings.

"Oh, you know." Thor grinned. "Being more concerned with their safety than your own? Wanting to tear into anyone that hurts them?"

Loki smiled.

"Maybe so, brother. Maybe so." He took a breath.  "When we get in there, the prime objective is to find Hela. Attach a dimensional detonator to her and ...." Loki made a "puff" motion with his hands. "Away she goes to another dimension. Permanently this time."

"That's the plan anyway." Thor said as they trudged towards the ship.  He didn't sound particularly confident.  For once, Loki let him have the last word.

They trudged in silence for a few minutes and then stopped.  From nowhere, a burst from a plasma weapon landed only feet away. They'd been spotted.  An alarm sounded somewhere inside the leviathan in front of them.

Thor and Loki flung themselves behind some rocks and flattened out as much as they could. 

"Well, we have the element of surprise, then I see!" Loki's natural sarcasm couldn't be dimmed, even under stress. Thor looked at him from where he crouched. 

"Don't ok? How was I to know they had posted guards on their own ship on their own world?" He shrugged and started to summon up lightning, his fingers crackling.

Elves started to swarm out of the craft's main door. Scarily LARGE numbers of Elves.

"Well, whatever you're doing, brother, I suggest you do it faster! Here they come!"

Thor stood and hit the first wave with a blast of lightning.  Loki sent a shower of daggers. Elves fell like sapplings in a hurricane, replaced almost instantly with more. 

The brothers looked at each other. "If ever there was a time we needed Volstagg..." Thor shouted across.

Loki shook his head as he stabbed another handful of the pale, malevolent creatures. "I disagree, Volstagg was great and all, but we have something better." He smiled as he retrieved his personal weapons from the corpse of another defeated enemy. "We have a Valkyrie."

"That's the spirit!" Thor cried out as he sent Mjolnir to dispatch more to Helheim.

The brothers fought hard, and as they tried to make their way to the ship, it was proving harder than they ever anticipated. 

After twenty minutes, they'd gotten as far as the ship doors.  Now, it seemed, the waves of footsoldiers stopped.  There was an eerie silence, even the alarm having stopped.

They crept into the ship. Where was Malekith? Where was Hela? And, Loki thought with no small degree of fear, where was Asa?