Chapter 14 – Broken Promises
A bleak heaviness settled in Ophelia's chest. An intangible weight pressing down on her with no mercy, slowly dragging her to the depths of paranoia and helplessness. Her body looked relaxed from the outside; her forearms leaning casually on a balcony as she overlooked a courtyard of training soldiers.
But her hands frantically shuffled a deck of cards. The cards passing between her fingers at a furious speed, her tumultuous thoughts shown through the flickering deck.
After their eventful interrogation of Loki, Thor had gone to be with Jane. It was clear to the street fighter that his brother's revelation hit a nerve for the god of thunder. His muted hope of Loki being redeemable again clashed with the anxiety of a new enemy waiting for his moment to strike.
Thanos.
Even his name sent a shudder of unexplainable fear down Ophelia's spine. With Loki unwilling to give any more information regarding this Thanos person, her mind took the liberty of showing her the worst possible scenarios.
"The mind is a treacherous place to be trapped in." A woman called out from behind Ophelia, her long silk blue gown trailing against the marble floor as she approached the conflicted girl. "From my son's descriptions, you seemed the least inclined to brood."
"I have my moments." Ophelia straightened herself at the sight of the newcomer, pocketing her cards and plastering an easy smile on her face, "Even if they are pretty rare, Your Highness."
Frigga inspected the armoured brawler who'd been out on the balcony for the last few hours. Despite the attempted façade, the goddess of magic couldn't be fooled by a mere smile.
"What troubles you so?" The queen came to a stop on the balcony, looking steadily at Ophelia and silently urging an honest answer.
The silence that came from her was gaping, a never-ending canyon that swallowed sound like a black hole. Ophelia could feel, for the first time in months, her powers begging to be used. To be unleashed in a torrent of destruction and death.
"The dark elves, the relics, Thanos." Her voice was rough as she addressed the queen, fixing her eyes on the rapidly twinkling stars in the daylight as they responded to her emotions.
"It's beginning to feel like we're surrounded. That the enemy is slowly closing in. And I don't know what to do to stop them." Ophelia humourlessly smiled at herself, a bitter edge to her voice. "It suffocates me every time I think about it."
"You fear failure?" Frigga inquisitively asked, her voice mild and casual.
"I fear the consequences of my failure. If it only affected me, I could live with that. But if I fail my loved ones have to bear those consequences too. My family, my friends, the people I cherish most." Ophelia gripped the stone barrier in front of her, her jaw clenched to hold back tears. "Cap and Nat are the ones with the instinct for this hero shit. Sometimes I wonder what I'm even doing here."
"You're here because you chose to be. Like every hero before you, you chose to fight for those that couldn't. It may feel like the weight of the world rests on your shoulders alone." Frigga lifted Ophelia's chin to draw her attention from the sky. The ancient eyes of the millennia's old queen bore into her. "But your loved ones can help ease the burden."
"Trust in your comrades. Thor certainly will stand by your side." Frigga gently patted the brawler's cheek. A stark contrast to the cold reception Ophelia was given by her husband Odin. "And trust in yourself. You've barely scratched the surface of your potential young one. In time you will find your true self."
A peculiar look crossed Frigga's face as she examined the street fighter. Like Heimdall, she could feel a keen familiarity when it came to Ophelia. A subtle hum bounced in her head at the sight of her.
"What are your family like?" Frigga asked curiously.
"My mother. She's amazing, you'd probably like her, she's wicked smart and could rule the world if she wanted to." Ophelia welcomed the distraction from her emotional turmoil. "I have my grandpa and grandma too. My grandma seems terrifying but she's a sweetheart. Just don't touch her books. Grandpa is always a little confused about something but he's the best storyteller."
"They sound delightful! Your grandmother sounds like my mother. A rule to live by when I was growing up; never touch a witches' books." Frigga chuckled to herself as she reminisced on her childhood. She was rarely reminded of her early life but welcomed any mention of it.
A comfortable silence fell between the two as Ophelia slowly but surely calmed down. The tense energy fading from her shoulders as she considered the queen's words for a few minutes. Pushing herself off the wall, she joined Frigga for a quiet walk through the palace halls.
"I can see where Thor gets his looks from, Your Highness." Ophelia shot a quick grin at the queen, her dimples showing as she walked backwards.
"And there's the shameless flirting my son was talking about." Frigga kept an ambiguous smile on her face as she spoke, the golden hair that she shared with Thor shimmering in the sun.
Suddenly a sharp ringing echoed in the air, breaking the easy atmosphere that was building between the two. Ophelia looked to Frigga in barely concealed confusion.
"Well, that's certainly not me." Frigga chuckled to herself as Ophelia dung through her pouches. She pulled out her rapidly blinking phone that alerted an incoming call from her mother.
"What?" She breathed out in shock, "How is that even possible?!" Her jaw dropped slightly as she answered the phone and held it to her ear.
"Mama how-"
"OPHELIA VALENTINA DELACOUR, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Georgiana bellowed into the phone; her horror-stricken daughter flinched at the loud volume. "YOU'VE BEEN GONE FOR MORE THAN A DAY, OÙ ES-TU (Where are you)?!"
"Mama I'm in Asgard. I'm literally on a different planet, how are you even calling me right now?" The brawler cried out in disbelief, repeatedly checking her phone's screen in confusion.
"Oh, don't worry about that, I asked Tony for his help and he made a space phone." Her mum flippantly offered while Ophelia's mind ground to a halt.
"TONY?! Why are you on a first-name basis with Tony Stark?!" Ophelia shrieked in horror.
"It's not like that, stop being dramatique (dramatic), you big baby." Georgiana scoffed at the theatrics of her daughter.
"Why are you on a first-name basis with Tony Stark?!" She repeated with wide eyes.
"Well, he is quite handsome..." The older Delacour teased, smirking at the scream of disgust and repulsion that came from her wayward child.
Frigga looked on with amusement at the mother/daughter conversation happening in front of her. Vividly reminded of her enjoyment when she teased her children.
"Mama, I love you very much and I would do anything for you. But if you make Tony Stark my new stepdad, I'm making a trend of killing your husbands and I'm gonna off the goatee wearing Wall-E myself!" Ophelia impressed heavily on her mother, a thousand-yard stare in her eyes that spelled Tony's doom the next time she saw him.
"Maybe not a husband, but he would be nice as a boyfriend."
"MAMA!" The brawler whined into her phone as her mother cackled at the discomfort she was causing.
As Frigga and Ophelia entered the view of Thor and Jane, the god of thunder shot his friend a look of bewilderment as she cried into her phone. His eyes flickering in concern as he introduced Jane to his mother.
"I'm only joking ma chérie (my darling). But on a serious note, how bad is the problem?" Georgiana hesitantly asked with a nervous voice, "How long will you be gone?"
Ophelia's shoulders drooped with tiredness that belonged to a veteran, not an eighteen-year-old kid that was still trying to figure out her life. She hated worrying her mother when she went out on her superhero missions. The knowledge that she was the reason for most of her mum's sleepless nights caused a stab of guilt in Ophelia.
"I don't know how long I'll be gone, mama." Ophelia started to explain but was abruptly interrupted by the deep rumble of a horn echoing across the city, "And judging by the alarm I think it's kinda bad."
"You come back to me Ophelia. No matter how bad it gets, or how long it takes. You come back to me." Georgiana vehemently pleaded to her daughter; her left hand clutching a pendant that hung loosely from her neck. Engraved with the initials LJD.
Louis Julian Delacour.
"Promise me." Strangely enough a low greenish gold glint radiated from Georgiana's skin as her eyes wildly darted. But she was too distracted by her danger-prone child to notice.
"I promise mama." Ophelia whispered; a resolve burned within her to return to her mother. She had already lost one child, Ophelia vowed to never make her go through the pain of losing another.
"The prisons," Frigga said, gazing with worry at the blaring alarm.
"Loki." Thor uttered in realisation. He turned to meet Ophelia's eyes as she nodded in affirmation.
"I love you." She said one last time to her worried mother before ending the call. She tucked her phone into her pouch and flicked her gauntlets to their full spiked forms.
"Go, I will look after her." Frigga assured regarding Jane. Thor who was now fully transformed into his armour, and Ophelia bolted to the open terrace.
While Thor used the momentum of his hammer to carry him through the air, Ophelia took one great leap up into the air. Sailing above buildings and flying ships, she nudged her gravitational field in the direction that Thor took. Softly landing at the entrance to the prisons next to the blond Asgardian.
"Let's beat these ugly bâtards back." Ophelia muttered as the two partners jumped down the entrance and landed in front of a horde of escaped marauders. Ophelia's gauntlets shined menacingly as she held her fists up.
"Return to your cells and no further harm will come to you. You have my word." Thor declared, unfortunately, a rogue prisoner took that as an opportunity to land his fist on the Asgardian's face. "Very well, you do not have my word."
A new round of fighting was triggered at his words and Ophelia threw herself into the fray. She ignited her gauntlets into their usual red-orange glow and cocked back her fist, slamming it into the nearest escaped prisoner. As the prisoner went flying into a cell barrier, the brawler attacked the enemy from all sides.
Slashing her spikes through their faces, Ophelia cut and smashed and burned her way through the belligerent crowd. Wrapping her hands around one of the prisoner's necks, she spun the grown warrior in a giant circle like a demented hammer thrower before launching him at a charging group of prisoners.
Soon enough Ophelia found herself back to back with Thor again.
"You can fly?" Thor asked casually as he swung his hammer into a plethora of prisoners, downing them in one fail swoop.
"Not yet, it's more falling with style at the moment." Ophelia replied, using her right gauntlet to melt her opponents' weapon before sucker punching him in the face, "I'm working on it."
The collective efforts of Thor and Ophelia quickly dwindled the advancing enemy until finally the last prisoner was brought to his knees. Ophelia stretched her back as the beaten prisoners were escorted back to their cells.
"That was a good workout." Ophelia mildly said as she raised her arms in the air for a big stretch.
"Something doesn't feel right." Thor muttered as he glanced around, purposefully avoiding Loki's cell.
"Please don't jinx it, bro."
On cue, a deafening boom thundered from above the prisons. Dust and mortar fell from the ceiling as a continuous sequence of loud detonations rumbled from above.
Thor turned to her and pointed to the ceiling as if to say, 'I told you so'.
"Impeccable timing." Ophelia sarcastically mumbled as she followed Thor out of the dungeons to see what was happening.
"You're just mad I was right." Thor teased lightly.
"Yeah, yeah. No need to be an ass about it." Ophelia grumbled to him.
As they jogged past the fallen bodies of Asgardian troops their expressions sobered up. A brief flicker of grief appeared on his face as he witnessed his fallen comrades. Some of those people had fought by his side in previous battles. And now their bodies laid forgotten on the ground, side by side with the bodies of the invading dark elves.
"Thor if something happens to me. If it takes me a little too long to come home. I need you to promise me something." Ophelia abruptly said as she ran to the sounds of clashing weapons.
"Anything." Thor gravely spoke.
"Check up on my mum." She said with a sombre edge to her voice. At Thor's nod of assurance, Ophelia shot him a quick smile as they entered the royal chambers.
"NO!" Thor screamed in anguish.
They arrived in time to see Malekith order his soldier to plunge his sword into Frigga's side. She gasped in sudden pain at the intrusion, her face screwed in agony at the attack. The fatal wound painted her torso red as she collapsed limply to the ground.
Thor let loose a blast of lightning at Malekith's face, blackening his skin to a burnt and cracked visage. Ophelia stared at the body of Frigga in muted horror. Just minutes ago, she had wrangled a promise out of Thor to look after her mother. And now his was gone.
Rage, unlike anything she had ever felt before washed over the brawler. Her entire suit burst into a dark orange glow; her face twisted in malevolent hate as she glared daggers at Malekith. The sun flickered violently as a response to her emotions, the planet's temperature rising drastically as she slowly lost her grip on her finely crafted control.
As Thor threw his hammer in blinded rage at the fleeing dark elves; she bounded to the balcony's edge and threw herself in their direction. Boosting her speed with an enhanced jump she recklessly followed the retreating enemy to their ship.
Thor looked up in defeat from the royal chambers as the dark elves' ship vanished from view. Taking Ophelia with them.
✺
"MALEKITH YOU WASHED OUT TARGARYEN BÂTARD, FIGHT ME!"
Now it couldn't be said that Ophelia was taking the death of Frigga very well. Instead of crying or stoically staring at a bonfire in silence, the brawler adopted the punch first think never strategy.
She bulldozed her way through entire platoons of dark elves that came to the defence of their leader. Battering their bodies against the ship walls and blasting them away with reckless abandon as her eyes darted wildly in search of Malekith. Her teeth bared in animalistic fury as she cut through everything in sight.
Leaping up a platform level of the mothership, she landed with a tremendous boom. With no regard to her surroundings Ophelia let out an enraged scream as she unleashed a wave of scorching hot nuclear energy. Reducing the entire level to nothing but molten lava, the bodies of dark elves piled up around her, some partially burned. Others completely melted.
"Such callous brutality." Malekith spoke up from a platform above Ophelia. His face permanently scarred by Thor's rage. "You'd make a fine soldier of mine."
"I'd rather shove my gauntlets down your throat." She grunted with malice.
But just as she was about to launch her attack, a giant hand roughly grasped the back of her neck. Throwing her viciously against the metal grating of the platform. The soldier that killed Frigga raised his foot to slam into Ophelia, but she rolled away at the last minute. Slashing the edges of her gauntlets at his foot and leaving deep gouges.
And yet the soldier never faltered.
He advanced towards Ophelia without a single misstep while black blood trailed from his foot. She launched herself at the demonic entity, letting loose a flurry of fast-paced kicks and punches that all landed perfectly. She chipped away bits and pieces of his armour and dug into his flesh, causing rivulets of black blood to flow from his body.
And yet the soldier never faltered.
Ophelia sent beams of burning hot nuclear energy at him, putting all her power into the blasts to defeat him. And for a moment it looked like she would triumph. His body began to melt at the extreme temperatures she was directing. Molten dripped from his body as the heat ruined his armour; a tortured scream escaped his mouth.
But with all her attention focused on the soldier, Ophelia forgot to keep her eyes on the leader.
Abruptly, a black hole detonator was thrown at the wall behind the brawler. Collapsing the ship's integrity and sucking everything out into deep space.
The soldier was able to dive to the side just in time to avoid the vacuum, but Ophelia had nothing to hold onto. Her body was dragged with a brutal force in the direction of the vacuum. Her hands grasped the edges of the hole desperately as she tried to keep herself in the ship.
"Know in the deepest reaches of your heart, that darkness will always prevail." Malekith marched to the wide-eyed hero with vacuum-sealed armour on, an apathetic look in his eyes as he surveyed her.
"If the last thing I hear is your corny ass, I'm melting your face." Ophelia sneered, a mocking grin on her face as she held on to the ship for dear life. For the first time in his life, the dark elf's face twitched in barely concealed annoyance, the impotent brawler striking a nerve for him.
Malekith drew back his leg and landed a devastating kick on Ophelia's body, dislodging her hold on the ship as he sent her careening into the cold and empty abyss.
A/N: It's from here that we begin to diverge from Thor: The Dark World and go into the short original portion of Ophelia's story. The good news is after the original story we'll be one chapter away from Age of Ultron and finally meeting Wanda. The bad news is, this story is going to be a very emotionally painful one for Ophelia. Thanks for reading!