The Scattering
Chapter 4: The Scattering
“All hands to stations.” A brisk voice called over the PA system.
Lyssa sat up slowly, simultaneously rubbing Aria’s back and murmuring soothingly to her, absently listening to the voice on the PA system. The toddler stopped screaming the moment they landed, thankfully uninjured, but Lyssa’s leg was pinned beneath a heavy pipe. The weight was hardly noticeable to her Elven strength, but it was pinning Natasha down by the leg as well beside her, meaning that Lyssa needed to be careful while extracting them. On Lyssa’s other side, Bruce was writhing on the floor, groaning and grunting. It was clear he was struggling to maintain control over the Hulk, trying to keep from changing from the stress he was under.
“Natasha!” Lyssa called, reaching over and nudging the other woman in the arm.
Natasha came to with a start, groaning and coughing, clearing away the dust that had gotten caught in her throat. “I’m okay.” She said hoarsely.
“Romanoff?” Fury’s voice echoed through Natasha’s earpiece.
Natasha grunted, pausing her attempts to free herself and activating her end of her comm link. “We’re okay.” She said.
Bruce panted, straining against the urge to transform. His body was covered in a faint sheen of sweat, his clothes very nearly soaked through.
“We okay, wight?” Aria asked softly, her voice filled with nervousness.
“Yeah, kiddo. We are.” Natasha said, just as nervously.
But where Natasha was looking at Bruce, Aria was looking at the pipe pinning both older women down.
“Prongslet, I need you to move to the side, please.” Lyssa said, patting the floor beside her. Aria nodded and quickly clambered off Lyssa’s lap, dragging her blanket along with her. Lyssa looked between Natasha and Bruce, seeing the former struggling to extract herself from where she was pinned down while the latter was groaning and trying to keep his transformation at bay. “Doctor?” Lyssa called, carefully lifting the pipe and sliding her leg out from beneath it before letting it go again.
Bruce groaned loudly, his hands curled into tight fists and his teeth clenched.
“Bruce?” Natasha called. Lyssa moved towards her, stopping abruptly when the grating beneath them groaned at the shifting weight. “You gotta fight it.” Natasha said, managing to keep her own composure despite her racing heartbeat. At the same time, she tugged at her leg, trying to dislodge it from beneath the pipe.
“This is just what Loki wants.” Lyssa said. Bruce growled lowly and Lyssa’s eyes instinctively darted towards Aria, the toddler watching with wide eyes while sucking on her thumb. “Bruce, we’re going to be all right.” She said, trying to reassure the man who was rapidly losing control. “All four of us. You, Natasha, Aria and I. We’re going to be okay.” She said, slowly and carefully sliding sideways towards Natasha.
A pair of agents ran towards them, calling out and asking if they were hurt. Natasha frantically waved her hand at them, silently telling them to leave. Both agents, seeing that Bruce was clearly struggling with control but that Lyssa, Natasha and Aria were relatively okay and didn’t need immediate attention, obeyed the silent order and quickly retreated.
“I swear on my life, I will get you out of this.” Natasha vowed, hoping that it would mean something to the scientist. She had been the one to ‘drag him back to the freak show’ as he had put it and she felt responsible, regardless of the fact that she had only been following orders. “You will walk away and never ever-”
“Your life?!” Brue roared in a monstrous voice, cutting Natasha off. He whipped around to look at her, his skin tinted green and his teeth clenched.
“I don’t think that was the smartest thing to say.” Lyssa muttered, her eyes never moving from Bruce’s slowly changing form. She had paused in her act of helping Natasha extract herself from beneath the pipe pinning her leg in favor of turning her attention to Bruce.
Natasha didn’t respond to the quip, her gaze entirely on Bruce as he panted, his back arching backwards. While both Lyssa and Natasha watched Bruce change with a mix of trepidation and fear, Aria was the only one who was calm. Even Bruce, who was continuing to struggle against the transformation, groaning and growling lowly as his body mass and size increased, feared that he could harm them, Aria in particular.
Lyssa reached out and grabbed Aria, tucking the toddler close against her chest while Natasha struggled to pull her leg free. Bruce stumbled, leaping off the grating and onto the floor, landing on all fours and writhing in pain. Lyssa grabbed a piece of debris and hastily transfigured it into a sling, strapping it to her chest and slipping Aria into it, back to chest, securing her firmly in place. She turned to Natasha, sliding towards the still-pinned woman and lifting the pipe carefully. Natasha moved her leg out of the way and Lyssa dropped the pipe once more before helping the other woman to her feet.
“Bwuce.” Aria said softly, meeting the man’s eyes over Lyssa’s shoulder.
Bruce growled, an inhuman sound as he tore through the flimsy fabric of his clothes and his body changed completely. He got to his feet, stumbling for a moment before he caught himself on a furnace tank, creating a massive dent in it. Bruce roared, the sound echoing throughout the concrete and steel chamber.
“We gotta go.” Lyssa said frantically, looking around. “Where can we go?” She asked, holding Natasha’s arm over her shoulders with another wrapped around the woman’s waist to support her.
“Stairs.” Natasha said, grunting in pain as she put her weight on her injured leg. Gritting her teeth, she pushed past her pain with expertise, pointing out the stairs to Lyssa. They led to a partly concealed mezzanine, used for maintenance on the pipes and ducts that ran through the entire Helicarrier.
The reincarnated Goddess wasted no time all but carrying Natasha up the stairs, a fully changed Bruce close behind them. The Hulk roared loudly, the sound prompting Lyssa to move as fast as she could with her two precious cargos. Getting to the top of the first flight, Lyssa let Natasha go and the assassin wasted no time leaping up and grabbing the railing, using it to pull herself onto the mezzanine in a display of death-defying acrobatics. She reached down and grabbed Lyssa’s hand, pulling her up and helping her climb over the railings.
Just as Lyssa’s feet touched the mezzanine floor, the Hulk roared and ripped the stairs free from the landing. Aria whimpered, starting to become afraid whereas she had previously not been so while Bruce had been transforming. She leaned back against Lyssa as much ass he could, gripping her blanket tightly with both hands as Lyssa and Natasha performed a series of acrobatics to avoid the rampaging Hulk on their heels.
“The sun is rising.” Lyssa whispered, ducking beneath the large turbines.
“How can you tell?” Natasha asked in a whisper.
“I’m the Goddess of the Moon.” She replied. “I can feel its path across the horizon.”
“Will it affect your powers?” Natasha asked in slight concern. “The Moon not being up anymore?”
“No.” Lyssa replied, shaking her head. “I am naturally more powerful when I have direct access to the Moon, bathed in its light, but it is not gone. Merely moved to another side of the planet. I am the Moon just as it is me. We are one and the same.”
“Don’t get how that works, but okay.” Natasha muttered.
Heavy footsteps thudded, the sound echoing around them. The two women and one toddler ducked between a set of air tanks, peeking between the metal canisters in search of the Hulk. Not seeing him, Natasha drew her gun and silently stepped out of their hiding place, Lyssa behind her and carrying the spy’s second gun with the same expertise; Lyssa couldn’t risk using magic while they were in such confined quarters, not with all the tanks around them that provided life support to the entire Helicarrier. The risk of destabilizing the aircraft was also too high and Lyssa had the feeling that the Hulk would be as immune to magic like giants and trolls were, if Bruce’s admission of what he had survived was anything to go by.
Lyssa and Natasha walked through the darkened chamber on silent feet, not even Lyssa’s heels making a sound. Natasha looked to the side to find the Hulk peering through the turbine pipes and he roared at her. Aria screamed fearfully, squeezing her eyes shut and leaning back against Lyssa as much as she could. The scream drew Natasha out of her momentary pause, and she aimed her gun up at the oxygen pipe above the Hulk. Without hesitation, she fired a single bullet at it with deadly accuracy, piercing though the metal sheathing.
Pressurized oxygen erupted in a concentrated stream of air, hitting the Hulk directly. He yelled and batted his fist at the pipe, causing it to break apart completely and fill the air with oxygen, obscuring his sight at the same time. Lyssa and Natasha took advantage of the distraction, clasping hands and running in the opposite direction of the Hulk. Natasha led the way through the Helicarrier, favoring her right leg but not letting it slow her down as the Hulk rapidly closed in on them.
He roared, smashing through the glass chambers on either side of the corridor that they were running through. The electrical units and servers that were contained within the rooms all emitted showers of sparks as the Hulk smashed through them without a care, roaring loudly and angrily.
“Protego.” Lyssa cried desperately, waving her hand over herself, Aria and Natasha. She prayed that the defensive spell wouldn’t interfere with the electrical systems surrounding them, magic and electricity already a volatile combination without adding their heightened emotions to the mix.
Reaching the end of the corridor, the Hulk caught up to the two redheads and the toddler. He batted them to the side, both women being thrown towards the far wall. Lyssa managed to unfurl her wings and catch herself before she could hit the wall but wasn’t able to catch Natasha in time. The spy hit the wall and fell to the ground with a thud, grunting as she landed on her injured leg.
“Natasha!” Lyssa cried in alarm landing in front of her and retracting her wings.
“I’m okay.” Natasha gasped, sitting up.
Trusting her to know her body, Lyssa turned around to face the Hulk, standing protectively in front of Natasha. At the same time, the Goddess unstrapped Aria’s sling, setting it and the whimpering toddler beside Natasha, never moving her gaze from the green giant.
The Hulk growled, stepping towards them with his hand raised. Lyssa held her hands out in front of her, silently casting a shield spell around herself, Natasha and Aria. “I will not let you harm them.” Lyssa growled protectively, staring up at the Hulk with a fierce expression on her face.
The Hulk growled, his gaze going from Lyssa’s determined and fierce expression to Aria’s whimpering and fear-filled form. Natasha, despite groaning and gasping in pain, curled her arms protectively around the toddler, holding her close as much as her battered body would allow.
Before the Hulk could make a move, he was hurled into by a flying figure and thrown through the wall, into the Hangar Bay on the other side. Once the pair rolled to a stop and the dust cleared, the figure was revealed to be Thor, prompting Lyssa to let out a sigh of relief.
“It never fails to amaze me that man’s timing.” She muttered, turning her attention to Natasha and drawing her wand. “Okay, I need to run some scans on you.” Lyssa explained, crouching in front of the injured woman. “I need to know what I’m healing, before I can do any healing.”
Natasha nodded and uncurled her arms, letting Aria slip away from her. While Lyssa began running her wand over the injured woman’s body, murmuring all the while, Aria began babbling to Natasha. With the way Aria was looking through the hole made in the wall by Thor and Hulk, it was clear she was regaling the women on the status of the battle occurring on the other side. Neither Lyssa nor Natasha particularly understood what Aria was saying but let her continue with her stream of babble as it kept her occupied and more importantly, away from the battle that she was witnessing. If her tone was anything to go by, she clearly thought it was similar to the sparring matches she had witnessed on Asgard and not an actual fight where Thor was desperately trying to get the Hulk to regain his bearings.
Natasha hissed quietly as Lyssa began casting healing spells on her. She could feel each of her wounds one after another become extremely hot, then just as cold before settling back to her normal temperature.
“We’ve got a perimeter breach! Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Call-outs at every junction.” An agent called over the PA.
Natasha and Lyssa exchanged looks but stayed where they were, the witch continuing her task of healing the injured woman.
“We have the Hulk and Thor on Research Level 4. Levels 2 and 3 are dark.” An agent called over the comms, his tone indicating he was speaking to whoever was with him rather than the still open comm links.
“Escort 6-0, proceed to Wishbone and engage hostile.” Hill’s voice ordered over the comm.
“What does that mean?” Lyssa asked in concern.
“Don’t get too close.” Hill cautioned.
“Copy.” An agent replied in response.
“They’re trying to get the Hulk’s attention.” Natasha replied. “He’s gonna tear this place apart in his rampage. A fighter jet is going to fire on him to draw his attention and stop the rampage.”
“I don’t think it’s going to go that well.” Lyssa said with a frown. “Bruce said that the Hulk spat out a bullet fired in hismouth.” Lyssa reminded her. “I don’t think even magic could stop him and if the sound of the fight is any indication, I think even Thor’s having a bit of trouble. Though that might have more to do with him trying not to hurt the Hulk.” She added thoughtfully. Thor wasn’t known as the Giant Slayer for nothing; he was well aware of how to fight bigger, stronger and larger opponents than he, of which the Hulk was all of the above.
Natasha’s eyes widened, realizing the truth of Lyssa’s words.
“Target acquired.” The pilot called. There was a pause, Lyssa and Natasha waiting anxiously. “Target angry! Target angry! Target angry!” The pilot shouted in alarm a few seconds later.
“Well, duh.” Lyssa muttered dryly, rolling her large, moonlit silver eyes.
Natasha shivered, wrapping her arms around herself as her body adjusted to the spells used on her. Lyssa wrapped her arms around the other woman, Natasha leaning into her embrace and the warmth her body provided. Aria covered Natasha with her blanket, determinedly tucking the edges in, her tiny tongue sticking out between her lips in her concentration, before curling up on the woman’s other side.
Unlike ordinary spells, wanded healing magic used the recipient’s magic in addition to the caster’s to heal the body. But with Muggles, who had very little to no magic at all, the spells took a toll the same way any form of healing would, leaving them tired, wrung out and feeling as though they were fighting off a fever.
Suddenly, the ever-present hum of the engines, which had reduced following the malfunction in one of them, reduced further. Natasha lifted her head from Lyssa’s shoulder and exchanged looks with her, wondering what was going on.
“Engine 1 is now in shut down.” An agent announced over the PA as if in response to their confusion.
“Uh oh.” Aria chirped around her thumb that she had been sucking on for the past several minutes.
Through Natasha’s comm, they could hear agents clamoring as they frantically tried to restart the engine. The Helicarrier tipped to theside, falling from the sky without the engines keeping them in the air.
“We are in an uncontrolled descent.” An agent called over the comms.
“It’s Barton.” Fury said briskly. “He took out our systems. He’s headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?”
Natasha straightened up, removing the blanket from her still shivering form.
“Natasha?” Lyssa asked in concern.
Natasha looked at her, never breaking eye contact as she reached up and activated her comm. “This is Agent Romanoff.” Natasha said. “I copy.”
“You are in no condition fight.” Lyssa argued in frustration. Natasha’s actions were similar to James and Sirius’ had been as well as the other Marauders and even Lily. Even the Asgardians had a tendency to ignore their body’s needs in favor of continuing the fight. “Your body is still healing itself and you are suffering the side effects of healing magic being used on you.”
Natasha sighed softly. “I have to do this.” She said softly, her light green eyes filled with an emotion that Lyssa couldn’t understand.
The Goddess sighed. “Very well.” She said, seeing that there would be no arguing with the determined redhead. She picked up the sling and strapped it to her chest once more before settling Aria into it, the toddler’s back to her chest just like before. “I’ll go to the containment room to check on Loki.” She said.
Natasha nodded. She picked up Aria’s blanket and handed it to her, receiving a bright, toothy smile in response. Natasha smiled back at her before turning on her heel and briskly walking away. Lyssa followed her, easily keeping pace and unfazed by the spy’s sudden briskness.
They quickly reached a junction and stopped. “Containment room is down the hall.” Natasha said, pointing in the mentioned direction. “It’s the only door on the left.”
“Got it.” Lyssa said briskly, nodding. “Good luck.” She said.
“You, too.” Natasha replied.
Without a backwards glance at each other, both women split up and hurried down the opposite ends of the hall. Lyssa reached the containment room just as Thor did from the other side. They both spared a single second to run their eyes over each other, Thor sighing in relief at seeing with his own eyes that his beloved and their daughter were unharmed, before entering the containment room.
The cage door slid open with a quiet hiss and Loki turned to it, a smug smirk on his ethereal features.
“No!” Thor shouted, running up to the cage with Lyssa half a step behind him.
Loki crouched defensively in the cage doorway. However, Thor flew right through him and into the cage as Loki’s form flickered before disappearing entirely. The golden-haired prince landed on his front with a grunt, Lyssa landing on top of him with Aria stuck between them both as the door slid closed behind them, trapping them. The toddler gave a cry of annoyance, not happy at being squished between her parents and the couple hurriedly got to their feet, both shaking off the disorientation at the unexpected action.
“Are you ever not going to fall for that?” Loki asked curiously, looking at Thor. The Trickster was standing calmly on the other side of the cage, his hands clasped gracefully behind his back. Thor growled angrily while Loki turned his attention to Lyssa. “And you had always been able to see through my illusions, my gazelle-eyed sister. What happened this time?” Loki asked curiously.
“I’m still assimilating and processing all my memories and powers.” Lyssa said defensively. “Give me a break. It’s a lot to go through and it hasn’t even been a year since I began regaining them.” As she spoke, she tried disapparating out of the cage.
“Oh, there’s no point in trying to apparate.” Loki said silkily. “This cage is reinforced against magic, done, I believe, by a rather powerful wizard.”
“Great.” Lyssa muttered sarcastically under her breath. Nevertheless, she stopped trying to apparate because she would only risk splinching herself. She could also feel her powers being suppressed and knew that there weren’t just Anti-Apparition wards in place but Magic Suppression ones as well.
Thor, meanwhile, banged the reinforced glass with his hammer, letting out an angry roar. To Lyssa’s surprise, and Loki’s, a small crack appeared in the reinforced glass, proving that it wasn’t stronger than the mighty Mjølnir. But as a result of Thor’s action, a large clamp slotted into place on either side of the cage, a failsafe in case the occupant ever succeeded in getting free without authorization.
Loki chuckled in amusement. “The humans think us immortal.” He said conversationally, walking towards the control console. “Should we test that?” He asked.
“We may be immortal, but Aria definitely isn’t!” Lyssa snapped, her arms curled around her daughter. “She’s two!”
“Twee!” Aria said adamantly, a frown on her adorable face.
“Almost three!” Lyssa corrected herself without losing her previous indignation.
Before Loki could respond, a grunt caught their attention and they turned to the sound. It was Coulson, carrying a massive gun in his hands that he was aiming at Loki. At his feet was the guard, unconscious from a well-placed blow to the head.
“Move away, please.” Coulson said in his ever-polite tone. Loki froze in front of the cage’s control console, his hands up and looking at Coulson, his gaze darting between the man and the gun being held in his hands. “You like this?” Coulson asked calmly, gesturing to the gun. “We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer.”
“Thor, this was my vision.” Lyssa said in alarm, her gaze never moving from the sight in front of them.
Thor wrapped his arm around her, holding her close while they watched helplessly, trapped inside the cage. Aria had tears streaming down her beautiful face, her cherubic cheeks stained with old tear tracks.
“Even I don’t know what it does.” Coulson admitted, unaware of the momentary by-play between the couple. He and Loki slowly walked towards each other. Coulson powered up the gun, the gentle hum filling the room. “Do you want to find out?” Coulson asked curiously.
He gasped in pain, groaning as he was stabbed through the chest from behind. It was Loki.
“NO!” Thor and Lyssa screamed in unison. Aria began crying in earnest, her wails filling the room while Thor banged on the reinforced glass that contained them.
His efforts were useless and they could only watch helplessly as Coulson groaned again. The image of Loki that he had been talking to faded, revealing it to have been an illusion while the real Trickster pulled the scepter free. Coulson fell to the ground, slumped against the wall panel beside him.
Thor panted heavily, his eyes filled with rage and anguish at being helpless. Beside him, Lyssa struggled to calm Aria down, only to fail as they watched Coulson struggle for each breath. Blood poured from his wound and dripped from the corner of his mouth, trickling down to the floor.
Loki calmly walked past him, shooting Thor and Lyssa a smug grin. The Trickster’s eyes were a bright, pale blue, the same color as the brightly glowing jewel at the top of his scepter. Loki went back to the control console, pressing a button. The floor beneath the cage opened, revealing the open sky beneath them. Wind whipped around the room, air whooshing and billowing through the folds of Loki’s armor.
Thor and Lyssa stepped back from the glass. Lyssa curled her arms around a sniffling Aria while Thor put his arms around them both, holding them protectively. Both Lyssa and Thor looked at Loki, neither about to let him have the satisfaction of seeing them turn their faces from their possible killer. Despite that, they both made sure that Loki couldn’t see Aria, at the same time keeping the toddler from seeing her would-be uncle. They could at least protect her from seeing the hatred in Loki’s eyes.
Loki’s gaze never moved from the trio in the cage. However, for a brief moment, his eyes flickered from blue to green and his hand wavered over the console. But, before it could be noticed, his eyes turned blue once more and he pressed another button.
The clamps holding the cage in place released and it dropped down through the cylindrical channel, out into the open sky. As they hurtled down to the Earth below, Thor tucked both Lyssa and Aria against his chest, protecting them as much as possible as they were tossed around inside the cage.
Thor slammed Mjølnir against the glass as they were tossed around, trying to break through it. The crack he had previously made became bigger.
“Do it again!” Lyssa shouted over the rushing wind, the shoreline getting ever closer.
“Hold tight!” Thor shouted back, adjusting his hold on Mjølnir. Lyssa obeyed, wrapping her arms around his neck while keeping Aria pressed between them. For once, the toddler didn’t express her usual annoyance at being squished, seeming to know that it wasn’t the time for her antics.
Thor let out a mighty yell as he pushed off from one side of the cage, aiming Mjølnir at the cracked glass. He smashed through it just as the cage hit the beach with a resounding crash and an equally massive dust cloud. With Aria still pressed between them, Thor and Lyssa hit the ground with matching groans, skidding several feet before stopping in a field surrounded by flowers. Mjølnir landed several feet away.
“Okay, that hurt.” Lyssa said with a groan, dropping her head on Thor’s chest.
He just groaned in response. Aria huffed and wriggled out of her sling, crawling over Thor’s head and onto the flowered ground. She tugged on her blanket and freed it from the sling, wrapping it around herself securely.
“Do not stray too far.” Thor said, turning his head to look at her.
Aria hummed in response, playing with the flowers that surrounded her, the bright morning sunlight glinting off her tiara that was still on her head. When getting her dressed, Lyssa had cast mild Sticking and Preservation Charms on Aria’s clothes and accessories, fully aware of the toddler’s tendency to get her hands dirty while playing and exploring.
Slowly, Thor and Lyssa got to their feet, shaking off the residual effects of their fall. While neither were injured, it was more the shock of the fall and resulting crash that had them disoriented, combined with witnessing Lyssa’s vision come to pass. Both were reeling from the helplessness and anguish at being unable to aid Coulson, despite knowing that there wasn’t anything they could have done for him with the way they had been trapped.
Thor slowly walked up to his hammer, holding his hand out to it. Before he could pick it up, he froze and clenched his hand into a fist. Lyssa looked at him in concern, watching the emotions play on his face, the hesitation, the fear, the nervousness. Everything that had happened over the past few hours had shaken him to the core, particularly the news that SHIELD had worked with the Tesseract because of him. No matter what Lyssa had said in his defense, Thor still felt responsible for Loki’s anger and rage. He was the elder sibling; he was the one who should have consoled Loki after being subdued by the Allfather and drawn from the Crown’s Madness. But he didn’t and instead, Loki’s grief turned to anger, anger at the one he felt was responsible for Anera’s death – Thor. Because it had been Thor who was supposed to be protecting Anera while she prepared the spell needed to vanquish their opponents. But rather than doing so, he had joined the battle itself, believing himself capable of doing both tasks simultaneously. He hadn’t been able to and when the killing blow had landed on Anera, just as she finished the spell, he had been too far away to save her. He had only been able watch helplessly as Anera was struck from behind and using the last of her strength, activated the spell that vanquished the enemy.
“You will never know if you continue to hesitate.” Lyssa said softly, walking up to him with Aria following behind her. Lyssa put her hand on his upper arm, her tiny limb dwarfed by his bulging muscles. “I may not remember everything, but with what little I do know, I do not blame you.” She said softly, repeating the same thing she had told him on many occasions over the past year.
Thor looked at her, his striking blue eyes meeting her moonlit silver orbs. Just as it had been every time that she had previously told him, there was no lie in her eyes. Whether it would change the more she remembered, Thor didn’t know. Because for all that she didn’t blame him, she could not forgive him for something she didn’t fully remember nor could he plead for it until she did. All he could do was pray that when the time came, she would be able to forgive him for his failure in protecting her.
Aria tugged on Thor’s trousers and he looked down at her. “Up.” She demanded firmly, holding her hands out to him, her blanket trailing over one tiny arm. Thor obliged, picking her up and perching her on his hip. Aria cupped his face, her tiny hands being completely dwarfed by his beard alone, and looked at him directly in the eyes, striking blue meeting emerald green. “Daddy, I lovey. Mummy lovey. G’an’ma an’ G’an’pa lovey.” She told him firmly. “No more sad. No more scared.”
“She’s right you know.” Lyssa said softly. Thor looked at her, Aria dropping her hands from his face at the same time. “We love you. More importantly, we believe in you. Now the question is, do you believe in yourself?” Lyssa asked him.
Thor looked between Lyssa, Aria and Mjølnir, for several seconds, that was all he did, his expression pensive as he debated his answer. “Yes.” Thor said finally, with complete and utter certainty. “I believe in myself.” He said strongly.
Setting Aria down, he reached out and picked Mjølnir up with the same ease as he had over the past year since the Worthiness Enchantment had been placed on it. He thrust it up into the air and electricity crackled around him, the previously sunlit sky becoming covered with rolling grey clouds as a bolt of lightning shot down and struck Mjølnir. The portions of his armor that he had previously removed began reforming.
Lyssa grinned and closed her eyes, her body glowing just as it had the previous night. Slowly, the glow became brighter until she was completely obscured. Her dress changed into her battle armor, the folds of her skirt billowing in the wind caused by Thor’s own change.
When the bright light settled and the lightning faded, Thor and Lyssa stood in their armor, both ready to fight to protect the Earth. Just as she had the previous night when she was in her armor, Lyssa was glowing gently as though the moonlight was shining from beneath her skin.
“Yay!” Aria cheered delightedly, clapping happily. It never failed to delight her at seeing her parents change into their battle forms. She didn’t have armor of her own just yet, being too young for it, so she remained in her dress and tiara.
For the Asgardians, who were all Gods and Goddesses, the armor wasn’t just a suit to protect the body during battle but was specifically designed for each individual, enhancing their power and divine designation. In some cases, like Lyssa, it also helped contain her immense power because it was far more dangerous for her to lose control in the midst of a battle than it would be at any other time. The feature had been added over the past year as she began regaining her past self’s memories and powers, still learning to control in her new body and life what had previously been instinctive.
Lyssa and Thor had discussed the possibility of Aria being given armor of her own because even though she wasn’t a Goddess, she was still a very powerful individual. To that end, they had spoken with the Asgardian smiths who made the armors and were told quite frankly that while no one had any objection, they couldn’t take the risk of creating a set for her only for it to inadvertently stunt her magical growth. There was a reason armor was only gifted once the divine designation was revealed as it gave the smiths something to work with. Aria’s magic was currently only limited by her imagination, and her temper.
Though, despite not being able to craft the armor for her, the smiths had worked in conjunction with the seamstresses and tailors to create garments for Aria that worked as a means of protection. The clothes wouldn’t protect her from everything, but they would help balance the playing field slightly whenever she played with the other Asgardian children. For all that everyone was careful, the children did sometimes forget themselves and their superior strength when compared to Aria. The smiths had also forged the various accessories that Aria wore, like her tiara and earrings, but rather than using real metals and gems, they had made artificial versions similar to what was found on Earth; they had gotten the idea from Lyssa after she had made a comment regarding her worries over letting Aria wear the real jewels when she was often playing and exploring her new home, getting dirty and often misplacing her accessories in the process. With most of the smiths being parents, along with the seamstresses and tailors, they were quite happy to come up with an alternative that was met with quite a bit of excitement among the population, particularly those with still relatively young children.
“Come on, you little spider monkey.” Lyssa said with a laugh, picking up the sling. She strapped it to her chest while Thor lifted Aria. He set the giggling toddler into the sling and secured her in place, making sure that there was no chance of her getting loose in the midst of the battle. He also folded her blanket and wrapped it around her chest and looped it through the sling’s straps before tying it tightly to keep it in place.
When he was done, he stepped back. “Ready?” He asked, looking down at the two most important females in his life
“Yeth!” Aria exclaimed excitedly,
“Just one thing.” Lyssa said.
“What?” Thor asked with a small frown.
“This.” She said. Without warning, she curled one arm around his neck and pulled him down to her height and pressed a kiss to his lips.
Thor responded immediately, curling his arms around her waist and molding their lips together in a chaste yet passion-filled kiss. Both of them were still mindful of Aria between them, babbling away to herself excitedly.
They pulled apart and locked gazes. For a single moment, neither spoke nor did they make any declarations of love, he only sound being Aria’s babbling. Instead, they let their gazes express everything, their love for each other and their desire for the other and Aria to survive the battle.
They stepped back a single pace from each other. Thor spun Mjølnir and thrusted it into the air while Lyssa unfurled her wings, both launching themselves into the sky.