Chapter 46
Thanos grinned. Terra was so weak, yet it had somehow acquired everything he needed within the last few decades. The chaos was wonderful, and the only person in the universe who could thrive on such more than he could was too far away to do anything.
Thanos, however, did not account for the Primordial's Balance.
He threw Thor to the side, the Might of Asgard barely making a dent within him. Neither did that spider-human hybrid or the metal-armed human, really what was the species getting to that they sent all their most abnormal ones to fight the biggest threat to their planet in ages?
The metal-armed one didn’t crumple like Thanos expected him to, more durable than he imagined but his labored breathing showed he was down, and really, how weak were human lungs?
There was a blast at his back that threw him off balance. “Don’t touch my husband, you alien purple grape bastard.” the woman who had sent the blast at him snarled.
She was vicious, she was angry, and Thanos would readily admit she was powerful. He had to work to fight her off, even as he offered her to join him.
“Fuck off.” she snarled as her only reply. He didn't know the Terran colloquialisms around here, but he did realize very easily that was not meant to be a positive reply.
And then there were two of them, and Thanos was beaten back, and he was beaten back hard. He turned to look, but his ship was gone, his army left as only shes amongst flickering flames.
“Do some research next time.” The second one said in a beyond frighteningly calm voice. “Because some people, if you so much as hurt a hair on their heads, you wish to rot in hell for eternity and then some.”
“Who are you, to command such power with such lack of effort?”
“Haven’t you heard, Thanos death-seeker?” How had she heard of that? “Death chose a mortal shell to rebirth, and the infinity stones power have chosen their wielder. Neither of them have chosen you.”
“Death hasn’t chosen any for eternity, since it’s hallows were lost.”
“These hallows? Here you go, mo-” Ron started, when he was knocked out, blood leaking from his forehead.
Lilith apparated to his side, dropping all pretenses as she dropped her med-kit and let Darcy handle Ron, she stood up slowly, her green eyes burning with fire like never before.
“Nobody hurts my son. She snarled with such vengeance, as her voice rang out over the battlefield, which had otherwise gone silent, everyone one Thanos’ aliens dead as o fit at moment, and even her toughest people staring, shaking in their boots with fear, as she nearly hissed at Thanos, with raw fury in her voice. All the other superheroes who had come out to help were much the same, watching with a mix of fear and morbid curiosity. Tony did his best to stand up to get over to his son, but his suit was broken, his arc reactor dead, and his body gushing blood only his enhanced healing factor spared from killing him.
Thanos was about to say something when he was pushed back by the endless threat of the most lethal curses she could throw at him as she calmly walked towards him, power peaking, fueled by her rage. As she neared, and Thanos started holding his ground, she warped, and grew, and shifted, and a second later, there wasn’t just a dragon sitting there. It was a gargantuan of a dragon, not of any recognizable breed, with the most dangerous attributes of each and way larger than any dragon ever.
The dragon was not only larger due to being a female, and a momma dragon, the most dangerous ones, she was also pitch-black, with green, scarlet, and gold lines bordering her snout and the raging emerald pits of fire where her eyes should have been. She wasn’t just thirty feet long like the Ukrainian Ironbelly, the largest of dragons, from snout to tail she was over a hundred feet long, and about a hundred feet in height when she roared.
And what a roar it was. Everyone who heard it, even the most fearless of champions, even Captain Marvel, who had been tracking and trying to eliminate Thanos for a while, and did not think there was anything she was yet to see, were chilled to their bones. Drax realized that was the meaning of fear, as the hardiest of Ravagers and ex-Hydra killers shivered in fear, teeth chattering.
The only ones who didn’t feel that fear were the few who knew about Lilith’s true best-kept secret. The Toaster, as Ron’s namesake had nicknamed her animagus form. Hermione Stark II fist-bumped the air, as her mom chomped the bad guy in half, then barfed up and current to ashes his minimal remains.
She flew up into the air, spreading her wings for the first time in decades, as she did a few elaborate loops, roared, and shot towards the ground where, inches from the ground, she shifted back in a split second, and walked out, then sprinted towards Ron as if she hadn’t just chopped up the evil space alien of the Millenium.
Loki’s magic reserves were brimming over the top. The chaos was glorious, but then it stopped. He froze at the roar,staring out to the center of the battlefield whose edges he was on. The dragon was fearsome and in that it was glorious. Then he did a double take. Those scales around its eyes, and the eyes, and when it shifted back, he knew exactly who that was, she bent over a young adult whose bleeding quickly stopped, as he sat up, and rubbed his head.
She hugged him, crying, as he swiped off her tears and Loki froze for a second as he heard what the man said, “I’m fine mom, I really am.”
“Good, where’s your sister?”
Mom. Sister. The words echoed around Loki’s head. He was too fucking young to be a grandfather.
He chose to neglect processing those facts, or even the fact he didn’t know them yet.
Instead, he made his presence clear. “So how have you been?” He asked his two daughters.
“Perfectly fine, thank you very much, this is a family matter, you weren’t invited.” Lilith said, in the pleasantly cordial voice of a society wife, though with an underlying layer of bitter venom.
“Oh? And did you suddenly forget your lineage?”
She pulled to his attention a nearly complete magical working, a very in depth enchantment. In a split second, before he could prepare himself, she anchored it to him.
“Yes, I did.” She said, as she only gave a slight hiss of pain to show for the insurmountable pain of burning blood that Hela had said came with disownment, much less self-disownment.
Lilith’s eyes burned an even brighter green as the black faded from her hair, leaving a burning scarlet, although neither of her children changed, obviously looking like their father much more than her, or inheriting her maternal traits instead.
“It took me 36 years to come up with a way to scourge my bloodline of you without ridding me if the magic that keeps me as more than an animated corpse. Entirely worth it.”
Darcy fidgeted nervously, but didn’t follow. “You’re the guy who killed thousands of people in New York. Not a chance in hell am I related to this guy.”
“No way in hell.” Lilith said, pronouncing it with a satisfied smirk. “I’ll give you two minutes for the bifrost to suck you up, otherwise I will make good on my threat and we will go to war with both Asgard and Vanaheim. And someone will be at a disadvantage and it won’t be Earth.”
“You’re running from your past.” Loki noted. “And your birthright.”
“You can fuck off with one of your join me and we will rule the galaxy together speeches,”
“Not that you’d get the Star Wars reference.” Darcy chimed in.
“I mean what I say,”
“And I say what I mean, come on, Doctor Seuss reference.” Darcy said.
“Not now, Darcy. I’m not running from my past, Loki Odinson, and I don’t fear you. Lilith Lokidottir died on May 16th, 1996 at 16 years old, everyone who knew or loved her either dead or gone.” She said, firmly, calmly, and with a glare to match. “But I am here, and you can forget about me and my family, you did it quite effectively when I was ten, or you can have you, both your worlds, and everyone and everything on them be decimated quite effectively. Your choice.” Lilith said. “And a minute left.”
“You forgot that we’re prophesied to bring around Ragnarok, didn’t you?” Darcy asked. “Tools, weapons, a means to an end before you were first in line for the throne of Asgard with your own world to boot. I’m not going to come crying back to daddy after a genocidal spree because daddy didn’t hug me enough as a kid. That’s what you did. But I’m better than you, and I don't need a paterfamilias to live my life. I don’t need you, so you can go fuck off. You’re not the only one with the ability to place puppet rulers on thrones.” Darcy said. “And closure does mean the end.”
Loki apparated out.
“Are we good? Defeated the bad guy, told another one to fuck off and got rid of him for good?” Darcy asked, as Bucky put a cool arm around her shoulders.
“No.” Lilith said.
“Why?”
“Because it’s impossible to apparate between worlds. I jinxed it, didn't I?”
“Lils?” Darcy asked, clarifying.
“Gear up for war. We’ve got a hell of a thing coming.”
“Chaos feeds him.”
“Then it’ll just have to feed us more. I lied. I spent 40 years designing that working. We still have our birthrights. Just not his blood in our veins.”