Loki had somehow stuck an explosive device on the giant monster and sent him to Hel before dying in his brother's arms. Noelle could feel her heart breaking as Thor gave a scream of anguish when he passed.
How many more people had to die because of her?
She stood several yards away, keeping her distance as Thor's eyes met hers, only filled with grief and despair. She swallowed and started to advance closer before a sharp gust of wind stopped her. Dark, sooty sand blew into her eyes.
"Thor– we have to leave him. There's a storm coming." From where, she didn't know.
The Asgardian didn't move for a moment, and Noelle was worried she would have to say something again, before he gently rested Loki's head down onto the dirt and stood up. She could see his knees shaking slightly, probably from the shock.
She went over to him and touched his arm. "We should head over to one of those caves," she said quietly, pointing ahead. "Until the storm ends."
Thor nodded silently.
Then we have to figure out a way off this rock.
Noelle found a slim entrance to what looked like a deep cave hollowed into the side of the hills. She shivered a little as she entered. She didn't like caves. Most of her memories in caves were bad ones.
Thor was not far behind, although he stood at the entrance, unmoving.
Noelle turned around to make sure he was still there, but continued on her own further to the back just to make sure there wasn't anything or anyone else in here with them. She didn't see or sense anything unusual, so she came back to the front, where Thor was sitting on a large rock. His hammer was by his side on the ground and his hands were folded. He looked worse for wear, Noelle thought. His face had taken on that solemn, serious look it usually did when things were bad, but his eyes...
He was devastated.
She crouched down on the ground beside him. There was a long moment of silence between them.
"You–" Thor started.
"Thor–" Noelle stopped. "You go first."
He nodded towards her shoulder. "You are injured."
For the first time Noelle was aware of the searing pain in her right shoulder. She honestly had forgotten about that until now. So much had happened.
It was dark in the cave so she turned on her lightsaber for a better look at it. It reminded her of a blaster wound– charred, bleeding flesh that stunk. It wasn't anything that wouldn't heal though. In fact, she could probably heal herself right now with the Force. She placed her palm on her shoulder and nodded at Thor gratefully.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Thor offered her a pained smile. "What were you going to say?"
This time it was Noelle's turn to look away. She was no good at this, but she wanted to tell him because she cared. Plus it was the right thing to do. Despite what Loki had done, he was still Thor's brother.
Noelle knew that feeling.
But she pushed away her bad memories. Thinking about Anakin wouldn't bring him back or change what happened.
She made herself look back up at Thor though, who was still staring intently down at her as if he hadn't taken his eyes off her at all. "I– I'm so sorry about Loki..." she got out. "And about everything. None of this would have happened if it weren't for me. First your mother, and now–"
"Hey, listen to me." Thor crouched down at her level, placing one hand on her shoulder, and the other on top of her other hand, which was still grasping the wound on her other shoulder. "I never blamed you, Noelle. My mother and Loki would not have either."
How was it that he was always comforting her when he was the one who had lost everything? He had lost his mother, brother, and had committed treason against his father, losing him and his home in the process.
How was it that he was able to remain so strong after losing people he loved? Noelle had lost so many times, again and again. And every single time she only felt weaker, not stronger in the end. She was the one who should have been comforting him, not the other way around.
Thor's hand went from her shoulder to her neck, and Noelle looked at him, her eyes wide with compassion and sympathy for him and something else...
I should tell him, she thought, even though something was holding her back.
She inhaled sharply. She could feel and hear every breath in the darkness and silence of the cave as she sensed him leaning in a little closer to her face.
"BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!"
Both of them jumped in surprise, and Thor grabbed his hammer. Noelle exhaled in relief, realizing what it was making that noise.
"It's-It's just my phone," she stammered, not meeting Thor's eyes. She pulled it out of her back pocket. Not to her surprise, the protective screen was completely shattered, but it was obviously still working. Considering Tony Stark had given it to her, it was likely an expensive, but sturdy phone. Noelle couldn't read who was calling, so she just pressed the green button and answered. "Hello?" Her voice came out higher than normal.
"Noelle!? Where are you!?"
Noelle stood speechless for a moment. "B-Bern? I've never been so glad to hear your voice in my life. Are you ok? What happened with you and Nick?"
"Forget about me. Where are you?!" Bern demanded.
Noelle sighed. She supposed she did owe Bern more of an explanation than she owed her. "We're on a... different planet," she glanced at Thor briefly, hoping he would know.
"Svartalfheim," he confirmed.
"Svartalfheim it's called," she repeated. "The Aether isn't inside me anymore, but a bad guy's got it, so..."
"So what are you going to do?"
Noelle looked at Thor again, and she saw in his eyes what she had hoped to find in herself: the same kind of determination. "We're gonna get it back," she said to Bern.
"Good," said Bern. "Also let me know how you managed to get cellular service on another planet."
Noelle glanced up in realization. "How am I–?" There was only one thing that made sense.
They were close to home.
"What are you thinking? What's going on?" Thor asked, picking up on the excitement in her voice. Suddenly he stepped on something loud and crackly. He bent down to pick it up and held it up to show Noelle.
She grinned. It was a plastic water bottle.
"We're near the portal!" she said.
"Portal?" Thor asked.
"Portal?" Bern asked over the phone.
Noelle kept going further and further back into the cave as he followed her. "Yeah, before I found the Aether, these kids at the warehouse were showing us how they made things like that water bottle disappear. They were tossing them through a portal between Earth and somewhere else–"
And suddenly, they were back in London.
Noelle and Thor stood momentarily in shock, as Noelle glanced around trying to make out where exactly in the city they were.
"Noelle? Are you still there?" came Bern's voice. "Where are you?"
"Yeah... I'm still here. We're uh, in London now– don't ask me how."
Bern was silent on the other end of the phone for awhile. "Alright. Well where are you in London? I'll come pick you up."
"I could fly us there," Thor spoke up.
Noelle glanced at him. "I don't even know where we are," she said to both him and Bern. "It's easier if you just pick us up, Bern."
She could practically see Bern rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone. "Kinda hard for me to come get you when you don't even know where you are."
It was dark and hard to see, but she did know they at least weren't back at the warehouse. They were somewhere in the city of London, or so she thought by the looks of it. It seemed like they were in some kind of back, lesser traveled street.
"Can you at least give me the name of a road?"
"We're in front of a pub called The Wandering Owl," Noelle replied. "Does that help?"
"Yeah... I'll figure it out," Bern said. "See you soon." Then, she hung up.
Noelle sighed, and putting her phone back in her pocket, she slumped down onto the edge of the nearby sidewalk. She folded her hands together.
What now?
Malekith had the Aether– the Reality Stone, an Infinity Stone, and she was currently powerless to do anything about it. And then there was her vision she had twice. Once of the Reality Stone consuming Asgard, then a second time where it consumed not only that, but Earth and the rest of the Nine Realms. Saying they were going to stop him was one thing, actually accomplishing it was another.
Also, how had they even gotten here? Fury had sent her here initially to learn what the cause of these portals was, and since then she had gotten nowhere with that information. She decided to voice her thoughts aloud, hoping Thor might know the answer. The amount of knowledge he actually seemed to have intrigued her.
"I wonder how we got here."
Thor had sat down beside her. He still looked worse for wear unfortunately. Beaten and scratched up, and his forehead was bloodied, she just noticed for the first time. Also the pain was still masked under his eyes.
Raindrops started to fall in light droplets.
Thor exhaled a deep breath before he answered her. He sounded exhausted. "The Convergence," he replied quietly. "The Alignment of the Worlds occurs once every five thousand years where all the Nine Realms are aligned, and it causes the borders between them to become thin so to speak. I am not well-versed in the technicalities of it, but that is the basics of what it is."
Noelle was stunned. That surely would have been a useful piece of information to know earlier, and it explained her vision. That was how Malekith would be able to unleash the Aether on all Nine Realms. It made perfect sense, as the only other way would have been the Bifrost. She wondered if that was what the random "falling stars" she had been seeing over the past few weeks were from.
"Thor..." she whispered. "I-I had a vision. Malekith is going to use this event to unleash the Aether on the Nine Realms."
Lightning flashed briefly, as Thor's eyes widened. His voice took on an immediate earnestness. "What did you see?" he asked, grasping her shoulder. The rain poured down heavier.
Noelle took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady. She felt like she could panic– but she also had been through enough to understand that it was important to remain calm in every situation. Fear only made things worse. "I saw the Aether consuming all Nine Realms when Malekith extracted it from me. I don't know if it was the Aether showing me the future, or the Force, or if somehow Malekith's mind was linked to mine and he showed me a glimpse of his plan. Either way– we need to do something about this now."
"I agree," said Thor, swallowing. "We have to stop him as soon as possible."
Noelle's eyebrows creased into a frown. For all they knew, Malekith could be preparing to unleash the Aether as they spoke. She didn't know what to do, or where to even begin. "I just don't know where to start," she whispered.
Thor reached forward and placed his hand on top of hers, gripping her knuckles gently. "Neither do I," he said. "But we'll figure it out together."
_____
A/N: The reason I skipped out on writing Loki's death scene is because no thanks to Thor: Ragnarok, I can no longer watch that scene with a straight face. So I am sorry. 😖