The Girl Who Held the Universe in her Hands | marvel [1] ✔

FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE
' YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE TODAY . '

Screaming.

Ash subconsciously let out a groan, the vibrations from her throat breaking down the fogginess of her brain and letting the tidal wave of pain hit her. She let her head drop back, fatigue punching her across the face as information began to sift through the plaque filling her senses.

Black surrounded her, and she could make out dust dancing above her head. Her eyebrows pulled into a furrow. She felt like she was locked away from the outside world, even if the screaming managed to filter through. The ache, she began to realise, radiated from her stomach, and her hand moved down to touch it. A sharp inhale jolted her body as she grasped a piece of stone stabbing into her stomach, feeling thick liquid spill onto her skin.

The sudden realisation of being trapped under layers of stone sent her heart into a wrestling ring with her ribcage. Immediately she tried to push against it, and relief washed through her as the layers began to move.

That was before the weight ploughed down on her, and instead of saving herself, she unlodged the friction protecting her.

Her magic shot out in an instant, she didn't call it, but she did have to maintain it. Everything began to scream, the pressure building on the stone forcing its way through her stomach, and in the end, so did Ash. Her head fell back, her arms cramped, and her eyes welled with tears. "Please, someone help!" she shouted, voice desperate and pleading, but it only echoed back at her. "FUCK! HELP!" Her eyes squeezed shut, a sob escaping through her mouth.

She dropped her head back, panting heavily with the mixture of exertion and panic.

This was it.

This was how she was going to die.

The dust began to tickle her throat, and coughs which morphed into sobs wracked her body. Ash had never been this scared in her life. She had looked death in the face so many times. But that death was by the hands of people or creatures, things with minds and souls, things she could kill back.

You couldn't kill a stone. You couldn't talk your way out of its torment.

Ash was completely under the mercy of something which did not hold compassion, of something which felt nothing at all. It had nothing to gain.

She felt the dribble of blood eject from her mouth as she coughed again, the liquid slithering down the side of her mouth.

She inhaled deeply. "HELP!"

"Astra?"

Her eyes flickered to Noah as he crouched by her side. "I can't-" She gasped in a sharp breath as her body racked with sobs "-I can't."

"Hey, hey," Noah reassured gently. "No one's asking you to do anything."

"Why... Why are you here?"

"Because you need me."

The fatigue reared its head again, Noah's presence letting her mind move from the panic and pain. The magic's hold on the stones loosened slightly, and it jolted downwards, inches away from crushing her. Ash's eyes drooped as she let a gentle breath leave through her lips.

"Astra? Come on, listen to me. You will not die here today. You hear me? You can't die, alright, you can't. Look at me!" Ash forced her eyes back to Noah, fighting just as hard to keep the stone up as to remain locked with his gaze. "You are going to get out of this, only you. No one is coming to help you. You are getting out of this yourself."

Ash looked back at the stone closest to her, adrenaline beginning to pump through her veins and block out the pain and fatigue.

"You're the goddamn Reaper," Noah continued. "And you're not going to die today."

She gritted her teeth, fists clenching at her sides as the stones above her began to groan, dust raining down on her form. A noise of strain built in her throat, and the walls of her prison began to shift. Ash lifted her hands, the stone pulling out of the wound and pushing back.

A speck of light pieced through the darkness, highlighting spiderweb networks of black magic pushing and pulling the jigsaw of rock away from Ash. She lifted into the air, hands tensed at her sides as she created an opening directly at the top. A pool of blood signalled where she lay and became smaller and smaller as she reached the hole before she slipped through. The brilliant light slammed into her, bright enough to still see it when she closed her eyes. Fresh air pushed its way into her lungs, and the unmuffled noise caressed her ears. Her magic released its hold on the stones, and they tumbled to the ground, the colossal thunder shaking through Asgard.

A gasp escaped her, eyes flittering, and she plummeted to the ground. She collided with it, her body rolling limply along the floor and dropping like a discarded doll.

God, she was tired.

"Astrid!" Someone dropped to the floor beside her, their hand gently touching her face and moving it towards them.

Ash blinked, fatigue swallowing her mind. "Don't call me that," she murmured, voice soft and slurred. "My father used to call me that." Her eyes focused, and she registered Thor kneeling by her.

"I need a healer!" he shouted, head moving away from her before he looked back down, shifting to support her head. He gently touched a wound, pushing the hair stuck to her sweaty forehead.

"Who's blood are you wearing?" she continued, unaware of the concerned look in Thor's eyes.

"Who's blood are you wearing?" he countered, seeming to entertain her to keep her awake.

"My own. Who knew stones could do that much damage?"

"You did well, you know?"

Ash hummed, gaze flittering away from him for a moment and to the sky.

"Hey-" Thor snapped his fingers in her face "-Eyes on me, okay? You can't go to sleep."

She hummed again, ignoring his command and letting her eyes slide shut.