Choices

Chapter 140
"JAVIS any sign of the girls?" Tony asked his computer as he did a second loop down around the pool.
"No, sir," JARVIS replied. Tony flew lower into the recess of the dark hole left behind by the pool. He beamed light into the caverns far below but saw no sign of either Seraphina or Cephera.
Above Tyr reappeared cackling in amusement at them all. "You wanted me to help, so I'm helping." He mocked.
Loki turned to face himself, still feeling the rage of losing his wife and hoping that she'd somehow survived the plummet. He pointed Gungrir toward Tyr.
He'd been very conflicted before about the two of them being the same person. Wondering whether or not he could be the same as this man, but not now. This man was far worse than Loki ever could be. He would die for touching his wife.
Tyr could see the anger in his doubles eyes. The hatred set there. His plans had been ruined but he had other things he could do. He was never without a backup plan.
Gungrir shot a beam that Loki extended to the sides in a failed attempted to hit Tyr. Tyr countered using his broken staff and as the beams connected they exploded sending the two men sprawling to the floor.
Suvia regained some of her strength and had managed to get to her feet while Tyr wasn't looking. She stumbled when the blast happened but managed to make it to her husband.
She wasn't quick enough to snare him. He took advantage of her weaknen state and she found herself on her knees. He stood behind her, his hand wrapped in her hair and his body bent to sneer into her ear.
"Why couldn't you have been the proper wife and died with your precious world." He snarled. There was no affection in his tone, not that she expected there to be.
His grip was gone in seconds. Tony Stark emerged from the hole and shot at Tyr who once again disappeared. "The staff is giving him power." Suvia told anyone within range to hear her.
Across to the other side of the hole, Thanos found himself dealing with the Hulk. The two matched in strength, it was like watching an arm wrestling match were neither arm had yet moved.
Back and forth they threw blows that the other easily avoided or countered. The only time Thanos was caught off guard was when one of the others managed to get in a proper attack.
It was hard. The ceiling above them was raining down rubble from the quaking caused by the pool. They had to dodge just to avoid being squat.
And to make matters worse, Chitauri from outside were flying down inside the room, firing their weapons at everybody but Thanos.
Barton took four out in a row. His reflexes grabbing his arrows in quick succession and never missing their targets.
Natasha focused on those that hit the ground but where still alive to fight her. Steve was between using his shield to knock down enemies and fighting along side Natasha.
Suvia was on her feet, but she could feel the shaking of her legs. The edges of the pool reached the surface not far from where she stood and she watched it till it came to a stop.
She reached out and touched the force field. She couldn't fathom what this was. Looking at the shiny liquid inside she honestly was at a loss. She'd never seen anything like it before.
Loki was at her side. "What is it?" He asked as Thor took down a small group of flying Chitauri with his thunder.
Suvia shook her head in dismay. "I don't know." She admitted.
"Loki, Suvia." Loki's head snapped to the side to see Seraphina and Cephera swimming their way.
"You're alive." Suvia burst out both her hands on the invisible surface.
"It's a portal." Seraphina quickly told them.
"When we fell into the pool we sank and saw Midgard, a different Midgard." Cephera added.
"He's trying to escape. He knows this world is lost to him now, he's going to make a run for it." Suvia realized.
"Can we disrupt it?" Loki asked.
"I don't know. It's hard to say when we don't know what magic was used to create it." Loki had already known the answer but had hoped Suvia would have known something.
"Look out," Seraphina warned pointing behind them. More Chitauri were pouring in through the broken throne room doors.
Loki turned and let loose Gungrirs powers. All Suvia could do was watch.
Cephera grabbed her sisters hand and touched the barrier. She teleported them both out to safety. The moment Seraphina got her bearings she ran into the fray where their father had already went.
King Yorin was surrounded by enemies. His body bleeding in more than one spot, but nothing major. He easily crushed his enemy one by one. He was relieved to see his eldest daughter return.
"Your sister?" He asked in the midst of battle.
"Alive," Seraphina replied. Her father smirked before grabbing two enemies and bashing their heads together. "This is chaos. We can't concentrate on Thanos and Tyr with all these enemies." Seraphina complained.
"Reinforcements are coming." He assured her.
"They better hurry," Seraphina replied kicking a Chitauri to the floor and ending its life with the end of its own weapon.
Still over by the pool, with Loki and Thor keeping the enemies at bay, Cephera cupped Suvia's weary face between her palms. "My energy is your energy," Cephera said allowing some of her own strength to transfer to her friend.
Soon, Suvia looked less pale and steadily grew in energy. When she was ready she took Cephera's hands off her. "That's enough," Suvia insisted
Turning their attention to the pool they began trying to release the spell sealing it.
"Impatient ladies?" Tyr said from above. "I always choose the impatient ones." He sighed.
Both Suvia and Cephera fell forward as the barrier disappeared. They watched in horror as Tyr dropped the Tesseract into the pools surface.
The water gurgled and splashed around like a sea storm. Not knowing what could happen, the Hulk managed to through Thanos into the swirling glimmer waters.
"Well damn," Tyr sighed rubbing his temple. "You had to go and do that." He wasn't really concerned. It hadn't been ideal to have company, but it was too late now.
With the Tesseract inside activating the pool, Thanos was sucked down in the waters with no hope to swim back. He fell through the bottom and into the new world.
"We can't let my husband enter that pool." Suvia warned.
"Leave it to me," Thor responded taking his fight upward.
Without the Tesseract in his clutches, Tyr could no longer teleport like he had been. He was forced to take on Thor hand to hand. Thor's hammer crashing against the half staff Tyr held.
"How do we close it?" Cephera asked Suvia.
"We'd need to extract the Tesseract, but it's too late for that. We can't go in there." Suvia replied clutching her hand into a fist. "We need to end this battle and figure out how to close it later. We simply don't have time right now."
Through the front doors burst the backup King Yorin mentioned. They'd been lucky to have brought over his people before the Tesseract was taken as the Byfrost was closed without it.
Mechanovians crowded the room never hesitating to engage in battle. The room soon was diminished to more allies than enemies as Tyr struggled to fight off Thor.
Twice he made an attempt to plummet to the pool, but Thor cut him off. Loki used his freedom to aim Gungrir up. He charged the staff and fired.
The beam made a true shot. It hit the broken Gungrir from Tyr's hand which fell into the pool below. Tyr seemed to lose whatever magic he was using to fly and began to fall. Thor easily caught him and instead of falling to the pool, Thor pinned Tyr to the floor.
There was quiet for a moment.
"If you let me go, I'll tell you where Frigga really is." Tyr offered and smiled.
"Frigga's dead." Loki growled.
"Is she? A well made illusion can trick anybody in the most convenient of circumstances." Tyr replied. "She's alive, and well."
"Always another way out for you." Suvia growled.
"I'm never without another plan." He admitted with a smirk.
"Tell us where mother is." Thor threatened, pulling Mjolnir over his head as if he meant to pound Tyr's face in with it.
"Let me go, and I will." Tyr bartered.
"No. Don't do it Thor. If we let him go, he'll destroy another world and another. Your mother wouldn't want to see that happen for her sake." Suvia pleaded.
Thor knew Suvia was right. It was a sons aching heart that made the offer tempting, but Thor was no longer a young fool.
"Loki," Cephera said but she wasn't looking at her husband. She was staring at Tyr. Tyr looked as surprised as the rest of them that she called him by his true name. "Loki, tell me no lies, where is Frigga?"
Tyr cringed as he felt the truth being pulled from him unwillingly. Damn his other half for creating that damned anklet. He should have stolen it off her when he had the chance.
The magic from Cephera's anklet forced words to the surface. Afteral, he was Loki. The bracelet was bound to him.
Tyr couldn't pull his eyes off Cephera's as he struggle to fight the urge to spill his guts. Soon it became painful as he bit his tongue. "In an invisible room between the weapons vault and the dungeons." He roared his answer in anger.
With the truth finally out he could close his eyes and he did. The magic of the anklet was no good without eye contact.
"We must get him to a prison," Thor said pulling Tyr to his feet.
"No prison will hold me for long." Tyr sneered and gulped when his wife put a blade to his throat.
"Indeed. When I came here I decided that death was the only answer, so death is what you'll get." Her hand shook.
Now that she was at this point she felt the fear of everything run over her. She'd never took a life in cold blood before. It was harder to follow through then she thought. Her hand fell away and she dropped the knife.
"You were always weak Sigyn." Tyr mocked.
"She's strong. If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be captured right now. Not everyone can kill another person, but it takes a great deal to plot against your own husband," Natasha said after carefully making her way around the pools edge.
"It's not always the ease to kill that makes someone strong, but the strength to allow their enemy to live even after all they've done." Seraphina added.
"Blah, blah, blah," Tyr mocked them once more. His eyes moved to pool and paused. "Interesting," he said making them all look.
The pool had a light shining up through it in one spot and that spot began to bubble furiously. Everyone prepared themselves for battle expecting Thanos to come out.
But it wasn't Thanos that emerged. Out of the pool, sent flying through the air, was a skinny dark haired man.
Through the distraction Tyr made a copy of himself. He left the copy in Thor's grasp while he himself made sure he was far from them. "Until we meet again," he said, not being able to help alerting them to his freedom.
"No!" Suvia yelled as the copy disappeared from Thor and Tyr jumped into the pool.
Suvia ran and just as she was about to jump in herself the entire pool shattered. The shimmering water broke and became just muddy water washing them all off their feet.
A second unknown person was sent flying through the air. Everyone was left soggy on the floor, confused and disheartened. The Tesseract was nowhere to be seen.

Notes