ATLAS • W. MAXIMOFF

15 - *Oblivion*

Thor had lost enough today.

He refused to lose Ophelia too.

With a deep breath of preparation, Thor charged up lightning from his hammer and hurtled himself at Malekith. Tearing up concrete and dust in his effort to destroy the dark elves once and for all.

"Where is she?!" He grunted, throwing Malekith through a row of cars with savage brutality.

"The fiery one is lost." Malekith announced with his teeth bared, the Aether writhing beneath his skin as he spoke, "Claimed by darkness and never to be found again."

"You lie!" Thor bellowed before launching himself at the dark elf with reckless abandon.

To help the Asgardian, Jane and Selvig used their handheld device to materialise small wormholes that echoed through the nine realms, transporting matter across the Yggdrasil. The convergence blurred the lines between worlds as reality itself bent to the will of the Aether. Eating through everything in its path.

It just so happened that lightyears away from London, in the desolate reaches of space, a single accidental wormhole consumed Ophelia.

And without a bang or whimper. She was gone.

✺

Planet: Korbin

Galaxy: Andromeda

Year: 2014

3 months later

"-biological makeup of the unknown seems to be carbon-based-"

"-day 72 since the unknown first appeared-"

"-keep a steady supply of oxygen on her-"

Ophelia heard snippets of conversation as she slowly came around. Smooth and clear-cut voices that spoke with professional courtesy. A fuzzy, lethargic feeling hooked itself into her brain. Floating her in and out of consciousness as she valiantly tried to bring herself back to the land of the living.

"She's waking up, someone reinforce the restraints." A slightly high-pitched voice ordered.

All of a sudden everything came rushing back to Ophelia. The death of Frigga. Her reckless mission to avenge her. The fight. The explosion.

And the empty nothingness that choked her.

Her breathing quickened sharply as she remembered the feeling of her constrained lungs. Her throat tightened involuntarily as she gasped for air. The whites of her eyes bulging with every laboured breath she took as her vision blurred.

Ophelia blindly struggled on the hospital bed; her wrists cuffed to the sides as she frantically tried to take in as much air as possible. The phantom pains in her chest triggered an unbridled fear that consumed her rationality like a hungry beast. This wasn't something she could fight or blow up, and it drove her mad.

"Increase the oxygen intake. She'll pass out if this keeps going." A faint voice spoke, the heartbeat drumming in her ears was the loudest thing Ophelia could hear.

"That won't do anything if she's chained like an animal and afraid. Release her." A composed baritone ordered.

"But sir-"

"Do it." He repeated firmly.

The restraints were taken off Ophelia's wrists with haste, allowing her to sit up properly and rest her hands on her chest. She desperately tried to calm her breathing, but she couldn't forget the helplessness she felt in the empty abyss. Even as she closed her eyes, she could still feel the black nothingness swallowing her whole.