Loki and Ingrid 18 (I think...?)

A Nova and an Aura

Loki agreeing to help is brother save Jane and destroy the dark elves, a secret passage off of Asgard in a stolen ship, a crash-landing on Svartelheim, Loki and Thor arguing over their mother, the plan…Loki slaying the best, “See you in hell, monster.” And I still can’t believe all this happened in one afternoon.

---

“Ingrid come on, we have to go!” Shouts Thor, dragging a half-conscious Jane, now free of the Aether back onto his ship.

          “Good luck!” I shout, because I don’t care. Nothing matters anymore. Then again, last time I thought Loki was dead, he wasn’t, just captured. By Thanos. But I don’t want to think about it.

          “Come on, Ingrid! Or you’re staying here! I Don’t have time to argue with you!” and in an instant, the ship is gone. We are alone. And I won’t believe that it is just me. I can’t leave, and now I am stranded here…

“Once came a man from realms untold,

To tell a tale both new and old,

About the battle, conquest great

The warriors, and of their fate

But most importantly of all

He told “Pride doth come before the fall.”

With a whoosh and a bang, my body is no longer on Svartelheim, and my mind is scrambling before everything goes black.

---

“Don’t you know a different song, Ingrid?” I can hear Loki’s voice now, shouting through what feels like a cosmic void.

          “No! My mother—” Oh, why did I say that? “Where are we?”

          “No idea!”

          I slowly pull myself up and realize that I am in some sort of cave.

          “What are you doing here?” I blurt, still dazed, “How are you alive?”

          “How are you still here? I thought you were returning to Midgard with my brother!”

          “I wouldn’t just leave you! —”

          “Shh,” says Loki, “Be quiet and get down, NOW!”

          “What?”

          “Just do it!”

          “Hello. This is your great destiny.” I hear the voice above me, sinister, and eerily familiar. “I wasn’t just going to let you die, Loki, because Master wants you alive. No, we haven’t given up yet. Where. Are. The. Stones?” The voice gets louder and more urgent with every passing second, and then I know who it is.

          Loki breaks the silence, then, confirming my fears. “Nova?”

          “It is I. The intergalactic bounty hunter for Master Thanos. I am on a mission—”

          “Ingrid—NO!” I am upright faster than I can be, attacking Nova with every ounce of my being.

          “That’s what you get for trying to kill me!” I spit, kicking her in the face, her half-lip bleeding profusely.

          “It’s nothing,” says Nova, spitting blood, “Because I have backup.”

          A beautiful woman, clad all in gold, with a sheen to her dark skin, her darker hair, slicked back, almost sticking to her face. “I am Aura. The eldest of Thanos’ daughters. And if you ever thought you were the favorite, Nova—” says Aura, gesturing toward Nova’s half-metal face, expressionless as always, “Well, I’m about to prove you wrong.”

          “Yes, sister,” says Nova, calmly backing away in submission, “Anything you require.”

          “Ah. Your job is very simple. You will bring me Loki. I want him alive. And I shall deliver him to Master Thanos.”

          “I was here, first. He’s my bounty.”

          “If you break oath—”

          “Right sister, whatever you say. I shall bring him to you, alive. If you promise to spilt the reward. I have to deal with his antics.:

          Aura waves her hand dismissively, “Ah, you can hardly expect that of me, Nova. Do you not understand that I require Thanos’ ultimate favor?”

          “As do I, sister. I will make you a deal.”      

          “Yes,”

          “I will bring him to you and you shall take the bounty. If you promise me something in return.”

          “What do you desire, sister?”

          “Your greatest possession. The Amethyst of the Dying Star.”

          Loki gasps as Aura accepts. “Very well, sister. It shall be yours. Only when you keep your end of the bargain.”

          “Thank you, sister. Go tell Master Thanos.”

          Aura turns to leave, then swings back around with a wicked grin, “Oh, and one more thing. Kill the girl. She is useless to us.”  Aura closes the door on us, as Nova approaches, silently.

          “Time to kill you. I want that amethyst.”

          “Tell me,” I whisper, “What does it do?”

          “No, it is not an infinity stone, sadly,” says Nova, reading my look, “Only an extremely valuable relic…with the ability to raise the dead…see into the future…anything really.  But that is all irrelevant.” She has me now, pushing down on my chest as I struggle to breathe, her metal arm choking me.

          “Stop!”

          Loki is standing, just a few inches away from Nova, as her grip loosens slightly. “Come with me, to Thanos. Then I will let her go. Only if you come with me. Fight me and she will die. If you say another word—”

          I struggle against Nova, as Loki looks between me and the wall, looking for an escape. Little does Nova know, Loki knows the whereabouts of a third stone, the Aether, and cannot give them to Thanos.

          “I don’t know about the stones! Kill me and let her go!”

          “Alive, Loki,” laughs Nova, bitterly, “He wants you alive. For some experiments.”

          I gasp for air as I begin to black out, Loki planning his move, running short on options. “Tell me why you want the amethyst? I see you want power. Unlimited power? But what for?”

          Nova drops me, as I hit the floor, breathing the air that I’ve been craving for minutes, a lifetime. Nova looks once, twice, at Loki, at her arm, herself, then at me. “So, I can destroy him!” She screams, “I refuse to serve you, Thanos!”

          I sit up, still soaking in the dank air from the cave, then stand, to face Loki and Nova. “Great, then let’s—”

          It doesn’t take long as everything happens in slow motion. Nova’s arm reaches for her throat, as her very being fights it, and begins strangling her, as it had done me. “It’s rigged,” I say in disbelief, “Thanos rigged it to kill her if she went against him! —”

          She falls to her knees, her remaining arm trying to grasp onto the floor as she is still falling. “Nova!” shouts Loki, catching her, “Nova, it’s okay! You have to breathe!” She gasps, struggling as she finally breaks free of the bond. “There, just try to relax,” he holds onto her arm, trying to keep it from misbehaving, but it seems to have given up the fight.

          “It’s all on him,” she whispers, “He destroyed me—the plan—”

          “Shh, Nova. It’s okay. You need to breathe!”

          “He warned me, if I ever stepped out of line—I never was the favorite—I never knew love as you did—”

          “You need to stay with me—you have a whole life ahead of you! Find love, happiness…”

          “It’s too late,” replies Nova, “I knew all along that he wouldn’t let me live—”

          “No, Nova! Don’t talk that way!”

          “The damage is done. It’s only a matter of time now. I don’t want to be a part of this! —” she reaches for the metal half of her face, her eye staring up into Loki’s, “Please.”

          Loki pulls off the metal encasing, fused to her face, red and scarred beneath, her true eye swollen. “Does it hurt?”

          “No,” whispers Nova, “It doesn’t hurt. I—”

          “Hold on! I can save you!” Loki begins to wield the sorcery, the healing magic he used on me, but nothing comes. “It isn’t working! Ingrid!”

          “This whole infrastructure prohibits the use of magic!” I shout back, still mesmerized by the scene before me.

          “No…no!”

          “Thank you—Loki—”

          “No!”

          “Don’t let—don’t let—” Her head hits the floor with a soft thud, that manages to echo throughout the room.

          “No…I’m sorry, Nova!”

          “Loki,” I whisper, reaching my hand out, “Loki, we have to go.”

          “It’s my fault. I should have just done what she asked.”

          “No,” I whisper back, “We’re talking about half the universe here.”

          “You don’t understand—I understood her—I was her! Abandoned—unloved…!”

          “No, Loki,” I say, patting him on the back, “That’s not true. A lot of people love you, your father, Thor, even Sif—and I.”

          “I miss Mother.”

          I hear a resounding scream from across the room. “NOVA!” It’s Aura. “NOVA!” She screams, turning to Loki and I. “WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU KILLED HER!”

          “No, her arm—it was rigged by Thanos,” I try to explain, to no avail, “He tried to save her, but because of this stupid place—banishing magic!”

          “NO! I WISH IT WASN’T SO EASY.” Aura turns back towards us, “I DON’T THINK I CAN WAIT FOR THANOS TO BRING YOU JUSTICE! IT’S DONE! SHE WILL BE AVENGED!”

          “Ingrid!” Shouts Loki, turning back to me, frantically scanning the room. “You have to get out of here, got it? The tunnel on the far wall! —”

          “What?” I shout as the Loki throws a stray rock at a switch on the wall.

          “NO!” screams Aura, “NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” A panicked look in her eyes, she drops the gun she was holding to Loki as she scans for an exit.

          The ceiling begins falling in, slowly, as the rocks pile up. “INGRID! GO!”

          I don’t wait, I run for the tunnel, Loki hurrying me along, “Get out of here! Go!” The rocks begin to pile up as I ascend the steep tunnel, sweating and out of breath, determined not to stop as I the rocks fill the tunnel. I strain for the top, and push. I’m through, and the daylight is blinding. “Loki?” I shout, turning around. He’s still in the tunnel the rocks still filling in. I reach for his hand as I try to pull.

          “Ingrid,” says Loki, staring straight at me, “Ingrid, you really have to go! This place is on a timer!”

          “What?” I scream, as the entire cave explodes, and I am thrown back onto the jagged rock.

---

My head. That’s all I can think about, my head and my back, bleeding from the impact of the rocks. Where am I? I sit up to see an unfamiliar rocky landscape. I am no longer on Svartelheim, that’s all I know. Then I remember the cave, Nova, Aura, everything. “LOKI!” I shout, trying to look around the red, rocky landscape. Nothing. Then I remember one of the comms Thor gave me, to call Asgard at any time. I pull it out of my back pocket and begin calling. “THOR?” No answer. “Thor, Thor! Do you copy?” Nothing. Right, he’s probably on Midgard with Jane right now. I try again, screaming, “HEIMDALL, OPEN THE BIFROST!”

          “Oh, he’s not going to.” Someone has picked up on the line, and I breathe a sigh of relief, slowly realizing.

          “Sif?”

          “Yeah, I was bored. So whadaya need?”

          “Sif!”

          “Is this Ingrid? What are you doing? A distress call?”

          “Yep.”

          “Is Loki okay?”

          “Look, he died twice, okay? The entire cave blew up—”

          “What cave?”

          “Look, I don’t know where the hell I am, what planet I’m on, what’s going on, and I have a lot to explain, but no time! I don’t know where I am, and I need to get back to Asgard!”

          “Look, I don’t know. Do you have a ship?”

          “No, Thor and Jane took it, I don’t know where I am—”

          “Thor and Jane? Why did they leave without you! Where are they?”

          “They’re on Midgard—look Sif, I gotta go!”

          “What?”

          “The planet—”

          “Send me your exact coordinates.”

          “I got them. I’m actually quite tech savvy for an Asgardian warrior. What?”

          “Tell me where I am,” I say, leaning in the shadow of one of the rocks. “Please hurry.”

          “A planet—one created by a Tanos? Thanos? Planet Nova?” Nova. He named a planet for her. I can’t I just…

          The ground begins splitting beneath me, as the rocks break apart, “The planet’s on self-destruct!”

          “What? I’ve never heard of it! But I’ve got the coordinates!”

          “Get Heimdall! Now!”

          “I can’t! You three were forbidden to travel! —you enlisted Loki’s help.

          “Loki is dead!”

          “Don’t count on it! I saw couple armed guards a few minutes ago!”

          “What?”

          “Heading straight to Odin.”

          “Oh no, is he—”

          “I don’t know! If he kills his own father! —”

          “He wouldn’t do that! Get Heimdall!” I begin to lose my footing as a shower of rocks and debris comes down me and I narrowly dodge, running.

          “I can’t!” screams Sif, over the com, “But I can get to the Bifrost?”

          “What?”

          “I’ll be there in a minute!”

          “I don’t have a minute!”

          “Okay! Thirty seconds!”

          “The planet’s gonna blow!”

          I continue to run, as I hear Sif running on my coms, “Got it!” I can feel the motion of the Bifrost grabbing me, just before the entire planet Nova explodes into space, never to be seen again.