Chapter 25: Arrival and Resolution

Loki directed the ship towards a mountain where there was only a small gap for the ship.

"LOKI!" Thor shouted while protectively holding onto Jane.

Loki had a manic look on his face as he said. "If it was easy, everyone would do it."

"Are you mad!" Thor shouted as they got closer.

"Possibly." Loki replied.

They eventually made it into the small. opening and the invisibility was removed by Seth as they no longer needed it and then they were surrounded in a rainbow like light reminiscent of the Bifrost as they eventually made it through and appeared in the Dark World, at which time Loki said in a sing-song voice. "Ta-da" It actually made Seth burst out laughing before quickly stopping as Thor looked at him.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it." Seth said apologetically.

Just as the group was getting ready to look for the Dark Elves, Seth started groaning in pain. This was real, he wasn't acting it seemed as though the Aether was reacting to being back on the Dark World. Thor, Loki and Jane were watching as the Aether seemed to be floating just above Seth's skin before slowly being drawn back into his body.

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(Meanwhile on the Dark Elves' Ship)

The Dark Elves were conversing in Elvish as the beast elf said it was time to make a move against Asgard. Malekith raised a hand and told them that there was no reason to attack Asgard anymore. The other elves looked confused until Malekith explained that the Aether had found it's way home.

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(Thor and Loki aboard the Asgardian ship)

Thor could see that being here on the Dark World wasn't just affecting Seth, but Jane as well. Where Seth had been having shooting pains in his head, cramps in his body, and dizzy spells, Jane had been affected as well. She felt weak and was having strange visions. She told no one about the visions and she was sleeping it off.

Loki stared at Thor who was clearly worried for Jane and his other mortal friend. Loki just stared at the laying form of Seth.

"What I could do with that power flowing through his veins." Loki said in awe.

"It would consume you." Thor said with affirmation.

"He's seems to be handling it just fine, for now. Better than I'd expect from a mortal." Loki said with mockery in his voice.

"He, has an enhanced senses and can hear you just fine. Dick." Seth said in annoyance.

"They both have strength like you'd never know." Thor said in his mortal companions' defense.

"Say Good-bye." Loki said, clearly not caring that Seth could hear him.

"Not today." Thor said, anger evident in his voice.

"Today, tomorrow, a hundred years from now, it's nothing. It's a heart beat. You'll never be ready. Whether it's the only woman whose love you've prized or your precious friend who is like this because you decided to bring him to Asgard. They'll be snatched from you." Loki said with poison in his voice.

"And will that satisfy you?!?" Thor shouted in reply.

"Satisfaction is not in my nature." Loki says back.

"And surrender is not in mine." Thor said with finality.

"The Son of Odin." Loki said with a smirk, clearly mocking Thor.

"No, not just of Odin. Do you think that you alone were loved of mother? You had her tricks, but I had her trust." Thor argued.

"Trust? Was that her last expression? Trust? When you let her die!?!" Loki said his voice rising.

"What help were you in your cell?" Thor said angrily while walking towards Loki threateningly.

"Who put me there? WHO PUT ME THERE!?!?!" Loki said, anger and sadness in his voice.

"You know damn well, you know damn well who!!" Thor said as he pushed Loki down against the railing of the ship with a fist raised ready to hit him.

The brothers were breathing heavily and Thor stopped first as he took a deep breath and walked away from Loki lowering his fist.

"She wouldn't want us to fight." Thor said as he sighed.

"Well she wouldn't exactly be surprised." Loki said with a genuine smile.

Thor smiled and said. "I wish I could trust you." as he turned away from his brother.

"Trust my rage." Loki said and if Thor had seen Loki's expression, he'd believe him.

The group of four were still flying along in the ship, when they saw Seth get up suddenly and when they saw his eyes, his scelera were black with blue irises. He looked out into the distance and the group saw a ship coming down from the clouds.

"Malekith." Seth said, his voice slightly deeper in octave.

The group then came to a ridge overlooking the landed ship and the Dark Elves leaving the ship. Loki and Thor saw Malekith and the Beast Elf and Thor grimaced, while Loki had a cruel smile grace his face. Thor then saw to his shock that Jane's eyes looked almost the same as Seth's, but were grey with white irises rather than black and blue.

"Jane what's wrong?!?" Thor asked in concern.

"I-i don't know." Jane replied her voice feeling weak.

Loki got his brother's attention as they began making a plan and then eventually stood atop the ridge waiting as Malekith Drew closer.

"Y'know this plan of yours could get us both killed?" Loki asked while then raising his cuffed hands.

Thor didn't do anything and Loki looked up at him and said. "What? Still don't trust me?"

"Would you?" Thor said with a smirk as he un-cuffed Loki.

"No I wouldn't." Loki said as he conjured a dagger and stabbed Thor before throwing him down the hill and rushing after him.

Jane screamed Thor's name in worry and ran down after them as Seth followed closely behind.

"You really think I cared about Frigga? About any of you?" Loki said as he came in front of Thor and kicked him in the face and stomach. Thor then tried to summon Mjolnir as Loki neared him.

"All I ever wanted. Was you and Odin, dead at my feet." Loki said as he cut off Thor's hand that was trying to summon his hammer causing the hammer to fall short of his grasp.

Thor screamed in pain as he grabbed his wounded stump and Jane rushed over to check on him.

"Malekith, I am Loki of Jotunheim, and I bring you a gift. I ask for only one thing in return, a good seat from which to watch Asgard burn." Loki says as he grabbed Jane off of Thor and threw her at Malekith's feet.

The beast elf has a conversation with Malekith, explaining that he saw Loki in the dungeons of the palace in Asgard. Malekith then walks over to Thor's wounded figure and demands he looks at him. Thor didn't move, so Malekith kicked him so he'd be on his back. Malekith then lifted up Jane and there was a small amount of the Aether leaving her body and going into Malekith. it was so fast Thor couldn't stop it, but remembered that the Aether did move to Seth so the Aether must have only kept a small bit still inside Jane as a sort of insurance policy, should Seth die.

Malekith was confused at first as to why he didn't get that much of the Aether from her, but then looked at Seth and saw his eyes and pale face as he was being more and more affected by the Aether.

"You! You have what I want. Come here boy!" Malekith said leaving no room for argument.

Seth decided to have some fun.

"Nah, I'm good. I think I'll stay over here, away from you and tall, dark, and beefy over there." Seth said with a chuckle.

"You think you have a choice? I may not posess all the Aether, but I posess enough to make you powerless to resist." Malekith said, arrogance oozing from every word.

Malekith then raised his arm and he pulled Seth towards him and slowly pulled the Aether from Seth. Loki and the others were slightly surprised at the blood curdling scream that came from Seth.

"Hahahaha. It seems the Aether attempted to bond with you human. But that only makes ripping it from your body, that much more satisfying and painful." Malekith said laughing creepily.

The Aether was eventually fully removed from Seth and he fell from the air, his every orifice dripping with blood and even some of his blood vessels had burst and his veins had been forcefully opened.

As the Aether was floating in the air in front of Malekith, Thor suddenly shouted. "LOKI, NOW!!"

Loki deactivated his illusion magic on Thor and his injuries disappeared and he summoned Mjolnir to his hand. At the same time Loki ran to Jane and covered her with his body to protect her, believing Seth to already be dead. Thor then launched lightning from Mjolnir into the Aether attempting to destroy it.

There was a huge explosion and solid shards of the once liquid Aether were scattered everywhere on the ground. Thor and Loki then looked on in astonishment as the shards started moving towards Malekith and formed back into their liquid state before rushing into Malekith's body.

After every last drop of the Aether was absorbed by Malekith, he looked up from his position of practically bowing and everyone could see a change. When he opened his eyes they were a dark orange color and clouds that were the same color could be seen swirling around in his eyes. He then turned around started walking to his ship.

The other Dark Elves started heading towards the group until they paused as they heard the sound of thunder and dark clouds were forming overhead.

Loki looked at Thor. "Are you doing this brother?"

"It is not me." Thor replied.

"Well, if it's not you, then who the hell is it?!?" Loki shouted back.

"Wait. If it's not me, there can only be one other person." Thor said as the realization dawned on him.

Thor slowly turned around and saw Seth floating in the air, a funnel of wind below him and his eyes fully white with sparks coming off them.

"Don't worry about these small fries Thor. Go kick that bastard's ass." Seth said while also nodding at Loki who was still slack jawed at his power.

Thor started to move towards the Beast Elf and Malekith, but saw Loki was still staring at Seth.

"Snap out of it Loki!! Malekith is getting away!!" Thor shouted, trying to get Loki out of his daze.

"Coming brother!" Loki said back.

Seth then looked at all the Dark Elf foot soldiers who were frozen, not in fear, but by telekinesis.

"I just had the feeling of having all my blood vessels exploding and felt like my blood was sucked from my body so I plan to make you guys suffer more pain than any other creature can endure."

Jane didn't even know what to think at this point. Not only was Thor not even injured in the first place, but Thor's friend who she barely remembered the name of, came back from being nearly dead and seems absolutely fine, despite the fact that he was still covered in blood.

Jane was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a roar of rage from the direction of Thor's friend (who she finally remembered was called Seth), she saw him extend three black metal claws from his knuckles and watched as he lunged from elf to elf just slashing them to pieces and any time one tried to run to help Malekith or the Beast like Elf, he would disappear in a puff of smoke and appear near the elf and slash them apart.

It was very brutal and he fought like a wild animal, but after hearing what had happened to Seth, she could understand his anger. He was practically tortured so he'd obviously have some strong feelings.

Jane was so mezmorized by the massacre in front of her, she didn't notice what he was doing with his other power he showed. She saw in the distance, lightning strikes were falling from the sky everytime Malekith or the beast got close to hurting either Thor or Loki and there were also many large tornadoes surrounding the Dark Elves' space ship. Malekith was very frustrated as no matter how many tornadoes he got rid of with the Aether, two more would take it's place not too mention the lightning strikes that are constantly striking him.

Thor and Loki are fighting the beast elf and Loki's strikes aren't doing enough damage. Thor has been getting smacked around by the beast and Loki was smacked far away by it.

As Thor was on the ground being pounded over and over again in the face by the beast, suddenly, a sword is pushed through the beast from behind and Thor sees Loki made it back.

Loki smiled in triumph as the beast turns around, but that smile fades as the beast grabbed Loki and pulled him against itself impaling Loki through the chest with the very sword Loki stabbed him with and proceeded to toss him to the ground. Loki looked up at the beast and smiled as he heard a mechanical humming sound.

"See you in hell monster." Loki says as the beast sees one of it's grenades were activated.

The grenade exploded and opened a mini wormhole that sucked the beast into itself while burning it in the process.

Thor then runs to the injured Loki. "No, no, no, no. You damned fool, you didn't listen."

"I know.... I'm a fool, I'm a fool." Loki said as he groaned in pain and his skin was becoming paler by the second.

"Stay with me okay?" Thor said, tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Loki said breathlessly.

"Shhh... It's okay. It's alright. I'll tell father what you did here today." Thor said trying to calm Loki.

"I didn't do it for him." Loki said as his breath finally stopped and his eyes loat the life inside them.

"NOOOOO!!!" Thor screamed in pain and anguish as Jane walked up.

Meanwhile, Seth had finished killing the foot soldiers and was fighting Malekith. He had been teleporting all around Malekith and slashing him with his claws over and over all the while sending lightning strikes at him over and over making Malekith more and more angry.

"FOOL, YOU CANNOT DESTROY THE AETHER." Malekith said in rage.

"You're right about that, but I don't need to destroy the Aether. I just need to destroy you."

Seth then created a force field inside Malekith and expanded it until the lower half of Malekith's body exploded. As the Aether was trying to reform Malekith, Seth floated up into the sky and used his telekinesis, paired with Magneto's power to lift the Elven ship above his head and a gaint bolt of lightning getting ready to strike down.

"Let's see you come back from this you pointy-eared son of a bitch" Seth said as he launched the ship down onto him and the bolt of lightning fell right after, exploding the ship.

Just after the explosion, Thor ran over with Jane. "Caedos, where's Malekith?!?"

"Oh him? He went down with the ship." Seth said as he chuckled to himself.

Thor didn't understand why he found what he said funny, but then again, he didn't understand much of what mortals define as comedy.

Thor then walked over to seth and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you for your help my friend, you have saved Asgard, as well as the Nine Realms. I am sorry to say that the realms may never know of your bravery." Thor said gratefully.

"But we will. So thank you." Jane said as she looked between Thor and Seth.

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(Asgard Throne Room)

"You once said there would never be a wiser King than me. You were wrong." Odin said as Thor knelt in front of him.

"The alignment has brought all the realms together. It is sad that they will never know the man who saved them all from destruction. Asgard's walls will forever remain open to him should he ever need it. You have also proven yourself worthy of the throne. So what can Asgard offer it's new King?" Odin continued.

"My life. Father I cannot be King of Asgard. I will protect Asgard and all the realms with my last and every breath, but I cannot do so from that chair. Loki, for all his grave imbalance, understood rule as I know I never will. The brutality, the sacrifice, it changes you. I would rather be a good man than a great King." Thor said with determination.

"Is this my son I hear, or the women he loves?" Odin questions.

"When you speak do I never hear Mother's voice?" Thor answered.

Odin sighed as Thor continued. "This is not for Jane, Father. She does not know what I came here to say. Now, forbid me to see her or say she can rule at my side it changes nothing." Thor finished as Odin sat upon the throne.

"One son who wanted the throne too much, and one who will not take it. Is this to be my legacy?" Odin said as he thought deeply.

"Loki died with honor. I will try to live the same. Is that not legacy enough?" Thor said, as Odin nodded silently.

Thor then tried to give Odin back Mjolnir, but Odin merely raised his hand and said "It belongs to you. If you are worthy of it."

"I will try to be." Thor said with a smile.

" I cannot give you my blessing, nor can I wish you good fortune." Odin said.

"I know." Thor said, nodding as he turned to walk away.

"If I were proud of the man my son has become, even that, I could not say. It would speak only from my heart. Go. My son." Odin says as Thor turns back to him.

"Thank you, Father." Thor says as he walks out the throne room.

After Thor got a certain distance away, the form of Odin slowly disappeared, only to be replaced by Loki as he said. "No. Thank you."