⚠️ Trigger Warning! ⚠️
Odin makes an appearance in this chapter, so prepare yourself mentally
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
That portal that Strange had sent us through placed us in an empty field with not a soul in sight.
Quickly, I explained the situation to Loki, detailing what Strange had told me about the Kree and how if we were going to prevent the apocalyptic future we had just come back from, we needed to fight. And win.
But when is anything ever that easy?
~~~Loki's pov~~~
Frustrated with the situation, I turned to look around the seemingly endless field of grass. "Well, that's just fantastic." I murmured, annoyed.
Catherine was supposed to be on bed rest. We shouldn't be here about to fight a Kree battalion!
Speaking of which, where's the alien threat that was so pressing that the rest of the Avengers couldn't deal with it later?
"Are we sure he sent us to the right place?" I asked, turning back to Catherine as I spoke, but was met with the sight of a Kree soldier holding a knife up against her neck.
My face fell as I not only registered the situation, but also who the soldier was.
"Hello, Odinson. It's been a long time." Ronan quipped, gripping the knife tighter.
I just keep running into old friends, now don't I?
I swallowed hard and tried to mask my fear as I looked him in the eye. "Not long enough. Last I heard, you'd died on Xandar years ago."
"Much like you, death had great difficulty in claiming me. Although, I doubt she will be so lucky." As he spoke, he pressed the knife harder against her neck.
She looked at me, terror in her eyes as a single drop of blood was drawn from her neck.
"Let her go, Ronan." I said firmly, staring the alien dead in the eyes, hoping to distract him from the illusion I had casted.
While my illusion-self talked for me, I was stalking over to Ronan and Catherine invisibly, hoping to get the jump on him.
"And why would I ever do that?" He raised a brow. "She's valuable. Your soulmate. The mother of your child." He smirked, satisfied with the revelation. "Yes, I'm afraid Maw's message did in fact make it to Lord Thanos."
I stopped in my tracks as I processed what he was saying, my blood running cold and my heart pounding.
Thanos knew about everything..... How long until he'd come to take it all away?
Catherine's breath quickened at his words as well, tears of fear welling up in her eyes. "Loki..."
"And I'm afraid that message will die with you." I smirked as my illusion-self disappeared and I stabbed Ronan in the back with one of my daggers, quickly pulling Catherine from his grasp.
"Did he hurt you?" Concern filled me as she tried to catch her breath.
She shook her head, pressing her hand to her chest, trying to calm herself down. "No, I'm fine. Who was that? And who is Thanos?"
I internally winced at the name of the Titan, the memories of 2012 still quite fresh in my mind.
At this point, I had no choice but to tell her. Her life could very possibly depend on it.
But not now. I'll tell her soon, but not now.
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
"Thanos is... It's a long story." He started, but trailed off as we saw a small army appear from behind one of the hills in front of us. "...Which I will explain once we stop them from taking over the Earth."
Sighing, I got out the dagger Loki had given me, mentally preparing for the fight. "When we get out of this, I am going on vacation and if anyone tries to stop me, there will be murder committed." I said seriously before turning to him. "You ready?"
"Always." He smirked as he used his magic to transform both of us into our battle suits.
Mine had been altered for obvious reasons. My old suit had been too tight for me to wear at almost seven months pregnant. So naturally, some alterations were made.
"Just stay close." He added, a pleading look in his eyes.
I rolled my eyes playfully at his statement. "No, really? I was planning on going solo." I dropped the sarcasm quickly however and sent him a reassuring smile. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be." I held his hand in mine as we stared at the Kree army, ever approaching.
~
The fight was intense, to say the least.
There were hundreds of them and only two of us.
Normally that wouldn't be much of an issue considering our abilities, but I couldn't use any magic for the time being and most of Loki's energy was spent trying to make sure I wasn't being bombarded by the alien horde.
"We need to call in backup!" I called over to him as I slashed into a Kree warrior with the dagger. "We can't hold them off forever!"
Just then, another dagger sailed past my head and lodged itself in the chest of a Kree that had been trying to sneak up on me from behind.
"There's too many of them!" Loki called back over to me from a few feet away, using his magic to make a replacement dagger appear as he fought off his assailants. "I-" He was cut off when a bright column of pure light descended from the sky and landed in the middle of the battlefield, killing a good quarter of the army.
No. It can't be.
I looked over at Loki, perplexed. "Is that..."
He turned to me and nodded, eyes wide in shock. "It is."
And with that, the God of Thunder and his one eyed father stepped out of the light and onto the field.
Odin and Thor were actually here.
What the-
~~~Loki's pov~~~
At this point, I can't tell if my luck is extremely good or extremely horrible.
We had backup now, but that backup included a man that I despised more than almost anyone.
I fought my way over to Thor, wanting to speak with him before anything else happened.
Even though Catherine had an illusion over herself so that she didn't look pregnant, I didn't want to chance Thor or Odin finding out about it.
I wanted to tell Thor in person, but under no circumstances did I want the Allfather to know about my daughter.
"It's been a long time, brother. Any reason as to why you're showing up now?" I questioned when I'd finally made my way over to him.
"Midgard was under attack by the galaxy's most invasive alien species." He shrugged, throwing Mjölnir through the heads of multiple Kree. "Of course we came."
I raised my brows at his explanation. "I'm surprised Odin cared enough to show. How did you convince him?"
My brother just responded by rolling his eyes and moved to another part of the battlefield to continue the fight.
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
As I ran my dagger through the side of one of the soldiers attacking me, Odin decided to make an appearance a few feet away.
Oh, the joy.
"You! Midgardian girl!" His voice grated on my ears, but I tried to tune it out as much as possible.
Rolling my eyes, I killed another Kree, my loathing of Odin's existence growing, fueling my adrenaline. "Yeah? What?" My tone was dripping with sheer annoyance.
He did not like that.
"Watch your tone with me!" He snapped, and even though I still refused to face him, I could practically hear his face getting red.
I merely groaned in frustration and proceeded to ignore him.
And he definitely did not like that.
His tone was filled with entitlement and offense as he spoke again. "You dare ignore me?! Do you know who I am?!"
Sadly yes. I do know who you are.
Rolling my eyes, I finally turned to him and saw him in all his one-eyes glory. "I do dare, oh all powerful Allfather. You might be a king on your planet, but here? You kinda just aren't. No one has to be nice to you. You have quite literally zero power here. This is Earth. My turf." I gestured to the land around us, that was free of Kree for the time being. But a new wave was coming fast.
He let out a gasp of indignation, glaring at me heavily. "I could kill you with a wave of my staff-"
I quickly cut him off, not in the mood to deal with his bullshit at the moment. "If you can really do that, maybe use that amazing ability against the alien threat!"
The man was too stunned to speak.
What I didn't see, however, was Loki watching our interaction from a distance, a proud smile gracing his face as he fought to hold back laughter.
~
The fight continued, and wave after wave of Kree soldiers kept coming. It was becoming pretty clear that we were probably going to lose.
At some point during the battle, Odin fought to move through the enemy lines to get within talking range of me.
"Midgardian-" He began, but I cut him off just as quickly as last time.
Sorry bitch, but I have a name. You can't just name people after their most obvious attribute. You don't hear me calling you Piece of Shit, now do you?
"Catherine. My name is Catherine." I spoke firmly as I took down two more Kree warriors.
"Midgardian," This time he emphasized the name, just to piss me off. "There is only one way to win this battle. If the stories Thor has told are true, you possess immense power. Use it to destroy the army while Thor, Loki, and I escape."
I'm sorry, what?!
"And what? Sacrifice myself?" I stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded.
He just didn't see the issue apparently and nodded. "Yes."
My eyes were wide in absolute disbelief. "Um, so, no."
This man has me wondering if there are Karens on Asgard. Because he'd definitely be the freaking king of those entitled snobs.
"You wouldn't kill yourself for the sake of your planet?" He asked me seriously.
"You are such a bitch..." I murmured, still staring at him shock before I returned to normal volume. "You know what? You can make the sacrifice play and Loki, me, and Thor will escape. Use that all-powerful staff of yours and get the job done." I pointed to his obnoxious golden staff that he had threatened me with just a little earlier.
He scoffed. "I have an entire kingdom that relies on me. You have nothing. You are expendable."
Oh, that was the last friggin straw.
Rage consumed my thoughts as I let out a disbelieving laugh. "Alright, that is it! I don't give a shit if you're a king or god or whatever, you don't get to talk to me like that without facing the consequences. And honestly, I've been waiting to deliver some choice words to you for a long, long time now, so shut the hell up and listen!" I was fuming.
The king of Asgard took a step back in shock as I cast a force field spell around us so I could yell at this asshat in peace.
"First off, you are a horrible person." I listed holding one finger up to signify the first item on my list of Odin slander. "Like, I can't even categorize how awful you are. You're in a league all on your own."
I raised two fingers as we reached the second item on my list. "Two, you're a piece of shit father, so I can't even begin to imagine what you're like as a ruler. Especially considering how shitty you treated Loki all throughout his life."
Odin was completely flabbergasted, kind of just standing there in shock. "You stand there defending him, yet you don't even know what he is!"
Is he really going there?! Oh, now I'm pissed!
"The most wonderful man to ever exist? My soulmate? The love of my life? Father of my child? The list goes on. Now, I have so names I'd like to refer to you as, but I'll contain myself for now. Out of respect for Thor. Because for some odd reason, he seems to respect you!" My voice was no longer composed, but full on rage filled yelling.
"He is a monster!" He retorted, his tone just as drastic. "He led an army against your planet, you imbecile!"
He did not just say what I think he just said.
"And you are an absolute f*cking piece of shit for saying those things without knowing even the half of the hell your 'son' went through!" I screamed back, my emotions taking over entirely.
"If you were even a fraction of the man Thor has said you are, you would know that Loki was tortured and mind controlled to attack Earth. But your f*cking neglectful ass couldn't put two and two together and banished him from his home." Hot tears pricked my eyes as I continued my rant.
"So, by all means asshat. Let your guard down and let one of these Kree kill your sorry ass. I'll be cheering from the sidelines." I let out a breathy laugh, beyond disgusted with the 'king' in front of me.
"But first, I need you to understand something." I pointed straight at him, the tears now rolling down my face. "Loki deserves all your love and more. You claimed to love him all those years, you called him your son, and he believed you. All he has ever wanted was to make you proud. To earn the title of being your son. And nothing was good enough for you. You don't deserve to have a son like him. And you certainly didn't deserve a wife like Frigga either."
~~~Loki's pov~~~
I watched from a distance as Catherine took down a force field she had put up around herself and Odin and returned to the battle.
What could she have possibly said to him? What was so important that she'd used her magic again, despite knowing the risks?
I shook it off and returned my focus on my Kree opponent. I would have to ask her about it later.
~
The tides of the battle shifted and it looked like we could win. There were only four major groups of the Kree left, with only a few in each.
I had just finished off my last group of warriors when I heard Thor yell over to me.
"Loki! Help him!" He looked over at Odin who had been stabbed in the stomach by one of the Kree on the other side of the battlefield.
Thor was too far away and preoccupied with the Kree that were attacking him at the moment, so I was the only option.
But then a few seconds later I heard Catherine.
"Loki! Help! I can't hold them off!" She was barely holding her own as at least fifteen Kree swarmed her. She was moments away from being killed.
I didn't hesitate and instantly teleported to her side, killing her assailants with my magic within moments.
I wasn't going to let anything happen to her. Especially not because of my brother and Odin.
Speaking of which, my former 'father' was less than pleased with my chosen course of action.
"Traitor!" He yelled out, holding his stab wound in pain as he bled heavily. "I raised you, and you choose some Midgardian girl over me?!"
I promptly ignored him and turned to Catherine, scanning her for any injuries she may have obtained during the fight.
"Are you alright?" I asked her, beyond worried.
She swallowed hard, still shaken up, but she nodded. "Yeah, I'm... I'm fine." She was clearly exhausted, barely able to stand as she spoke.
"We have to get you out of here. Fast." I put my arm around her to help her stay up and turned to see that the last of the Kree had been defeated.
Odin had apparently taken Catherine's advice and used Gungnir to obliterate the last of the warriors.
But it came at a cost.
Evidently, the sword that had stabbed the old man had been laced with poison. As was proved by how he began to burn and melt from the inside out until he was nothing but ashes in the wind.
(Brief pause for celebration-
🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊🎊🎊🎊🎊🎊🎉🎊🎉🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
ODIN IS DEAD!!!!! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!
Brief pause ended. 😊)
I'll be honest. I'm not sure how to feel about this...
Thor however, was sure and stormed up to me and Catherine, absolutely furious.
"This was your doing!" He pointed at me venomously. "You killed our father!" Electricity crackled around him as he yelled.
"Is this the wrong time to point out that he was technically never my father?" I asked her seriously.
"Yeah, probably."
I'll take her word for it.
Before I could say anything further, I took a step in front of Catherine, just incase Thor got violent. Which was likely.
"Brother, I did not kill him. I had to make a choice." I said calmly, trying to defuse the tension.
"Then you should have chosen the one who gave you a home. A family." He argued, making me chuckle.
Little did he know that I had done exactly that. Catherine had given me a home. And we were about to start our own family. So really, I made the best possible decision.
"That's odd, I didn't see Mother here. Who are you talking about?" I raised a brow, naming the only other person who had ever done anything close to what he was suggesting.
"Uh, Loki..." Catherine nudged me, her gaze focused on something in the distance.
Confused, I followed her line of sight and saw what looked like a cloud of green and black mist.
Oh, what now?!