Choices

Chapter 138
All was quiet in Asgard. Everyone in the city waiting for something and yet no one knew what it was they were truly up against. Since Heimdall had seen the outsiders nearing Asgards boarders no one had heard anything else.
Cephera and her family still waited in the back gardens. The Avengers still in their small concealed room. The Warriors three along the walkways extending just outside the throne room, Sif along the roof. Guards stood everywhere looking around and muttering to one another. Loki waited on the throne holding Gungrir proudly but if anyone looked closely they might see the nervous twitch of his fingers.
Thor and Suvia continued to stand guard outside the throne room, but it wasn't down the hall they needed to be looking. Inside the throne room where Loki sat, a mist appeared in the middle of the room.
Loki's attention caught straight away and he stood from his throne readying himself for the arrival of the Titan. But from the mist came not just Thanos but Tyr.
Loki's chests contracted. He realized without a second thought that Tyr was working with Thanos, not against.
Loki opened his mouth to alert the guards, but no sound came out. Tyr's hand raised with magic that made Loki mute.
Thanos approached the throne where Loki stood frozen.
Outside, Cephera began to pace with only Fenrir stopping her, using his large body to block her path. "Calm yourself mother." He told her.
"I cannot." She replied shaking her head.
"Control your emotions or allow your enemies to see you are agitated." Her father chided. Cephera bit her lip and stayed pressed to her sons thick furry leg.
"What's taking so...," Seraphina's words were cut short. A blast from above sent the group sprawling to the ground. As if in sequence cries from all over the city went up. They were under attack.
Confusion swept the group. They hadn't been alerted to Thanos' arrival. Was he even in the palace or was he just attacking anyway?
Fenrir pushed his mother to her feet with his big wet nose. Her father and sister already on theirs. Seraphina threw her curved bladed chakra up at the enemies flying overhead hitting one dead on.
In the west the Warriors three heard the cries first before the walkway they just entered crumbled beneath their feet. The three of them fell down between the spires the walkway spanned and landed in the river below.
Their enemies flying above shot blasts of energies at them, wounding Fandral in the shoulder and forcing Hogun under the current.
Inside the palace, Thor and Suvia were startled when the screams began. Immediately, they turned to rush into the throne room. No one had passed by them, what happened? Where was Thanos?
Thor grabbed the door handle, Suvia's spell washing away, there was no need for it now. The door refused to budge. No matter how hard Thor pulled, the door would not open. "Something's amiss here," Suvia said and for once she sounded worried and afraid.
Thor swung his hammer and when it collided with the door sparks of magic flew from the doors crease. "It's spelled." Suvia realized backing up and beginning a counter spell to unlock it.
Inside the throne room, Loki didn't take his eyes off the Titan as he ascended the dais. "You thought you could betray me?" Thanos mocked his hand snapping toward Loki to grab him, but the young prince vanished and reappeared across the room only to be grabbed instead by Tyr.
Tyr's strength was more than Loki had thought possible. "I'm disappointed. You being me, I would have thought you'd at least know I'd have a backup plan." Tyr laughed. Loki hit Gungrir to the floor with a thud and a shockwave blasted Tyr off him.
He sent a beam at Thanos who merely sidestepped it as if it were a joke. Loki tumbled out the of way and blasted Tyr back away from his once more, bidding him time. The door to the throne room quaked as Thor continued his assault from the other side as Suvia continued her channeling spell.
"Where is the Tesseract?" Thanos demanded never missing a beat as he continued to stroll toward him.
"In a safe place." Loki replied.
"It's no longer in the vault supplying power to the Byfrost, where have you put it?" Thanos demanded again. Loki was bewildered. They hadn't moved the Tesseract.
In the garden, Cephera jumped out of the way of another blast and Fenrir stepped between her and their attackers. In seconds they'd gone from a few in the sky to surrounded on the ground. Jör had taken down an entire group when he hurled a large lake boulder onto the shoreline, crushing them.
Fenrir rushed another group trampling most of them and his tail throwing several to the waters where Jör used his long body to hold them under.
Seraphina and her father took on their fair share battling hand to hand and weapon to weapon. Cephera cast an arcane blast that sent anything above them in the sky falling to the ground.
In the small room behind the throne the Avengers wiped the sweat from their heads. It was getting hot inside and something had made it so they couldn't get out.
Bruce Banner allowed himself to take on his other half and even tried smashing through the wall that only resulted in being thrown back into his companions and knocking them all over.
Outside they could hear the fighting and there was nothing they could do to help. "JARVIS, what's happening?" Tony had set his computer to view Asgard through the tech he'd set up around the palace.
"It seems we were ambushed, Sir." The computer replied.
"Do you have eyes on Thanos? Loki? Anyone?" Tony insisted.
"None sir. The throne room is shrouded in a mist I'm unable to penetrate, and it would seem all the ways in have been sealed by magic. The Lady Suvia is working on breaking the spell." JARVIS replied.
"Well that's something," Steve said wiping the sweat from under his nose.
"If we don't cook in here first." Natasha fanned herself off.
"The Captain Kabob, the Widowed Steak, Hawkfry, and the Incredible BBQ," Tony said in his usual cheeky tone.
"And what are you?" Hawkeye asked as he continued to rearrange his arrows. It was as if the heat didn't affect him at all
"The Iron chef." Everybody groaned.
Suvia herself was also sweating though the Avengers couldn't see her. The spell she was channeling was combating magic she knew all too well. The signature strong and unyielding. "My husband has somehow freed himself." She told Thor.
"Tyr is in there?" Thor asked.
"Most likely." She replied her voice wavering. She was running low on energy. After this spell she might not have energy for anything else.
The spell on the door was slowly giving away.
Inside, Loki smirked. He could use this mystery against his other self. "Why not ask him where the Tesseract is. He's the one with the secondary plans." Loki nodded toward Tyr who had climbed to his feet.
Loki refused to let go of Gungrir no matter what. Tyr would not get his hands on his prize.
Tyr grinned as he was simply playing. Thanos was never endgame for him. Thanos was a pawn he needed off the chess board. He didn't lie when he said Thanos was only in his way and that he'd help get rid of him.
Tyr was enjoying himself immensely, but his fun was soon up. His wife was moments from unsealing the door and with it the Avengers.
Casting a spell, the broken staff of Gungrir from his world appeared in his hands. Loki was startled by the sight and knew it meant trouble.
"You might want to brace yourselves." Tyr told them and slammed the broken shaft into the marble of the floor.
"I'll deal with you momentarily." Thanos warned Loki and turned his attention to Tyr.
The Warriors Three struggled to get to shore. The blasts from above stopping their exit. Fandral was bleeding into the waters and the rocks he kept hitting didn't help. Volstagg did at one point managed to grab him and almost hoisted him to shore before another attack sent them back into the water.
Finally reaching her friends, Sif jumped from a balcony high above the palace. She'd been rushing along the rooftops following her friends decent through the river. She launched herself onto one the of invaders, a Chitauri warrior.
Even though their mothership had been destroyed, they hadn't all been extinct. She ran the alien through with her staff and threw him from his vehicle.
Flying it at full speed behind the others she shot them down one by one. Coming to attack from behind she swerved back and forth, biding time as her friends found their way out of the water.
Fandral groaned, his shoulder radiating pain and his good fighting arm was numb. Hogun coughed up water and Volstagg groaned as he snapped the kink from his back.
More enemies arppoached them from the ground. Rushing them.
None of them had weapons. They were lost to the struggle in the water. Volstagg used his shear size to barrel into a small group of them, knocking them down and taking their weapons.
The slim arcane shooters were not what any of them were used to, but they made due.
Across to the other side of the palace, Cephera and her family nearly fell over as the ground began to shake and tremble. Looking upward, stone began to fall off the palace walls. Cracks forming along the foundation.
"What's happening?" King Yorin asked as if they'd know more than him.
"Nothing good. We need to get inside." Seraphina replied.
"Get on." Fenrir spread out on his belly during this brief moment of peace. They'd dispatched their current attackers. The family climbed onto his back and in a few short strides of his powerful legs they were up to the palace in no time.
Inside, Suvia struggled to maintain her hold on her spell. Though the door was now weakened, it still hadn't given away. Cephera rushed to Suvia's side and the older woman grunted. "Help me channel," she said, her tone weary.
Cephera didn't hesitate. She placed one hand on Suvia's shoulder and spread the other out to join her in releasing the spell.
Tyr's hold on Gungrir, though it was broken, made his spells more powerful than any one person could combat. They could only hope they could get in the throne room in time, for inside, the floor was crumbling and falling into a dark pit below, and something was coming up though the darkness forcing Thanos and Loki to push their backs to the wall and watch.

Notes