Into the void
In the end, Odin ordered Volstagg and Fandral to play nicely with us and assigned each group a raven to keep an eye on us. Nobody talked much as we each stowed a bag and racked our weapons. Because of what Odin had said, I made sure that all of our team members had one of my best blades for a holdout weapon and made Clint some extra-rigid arrow shafts and ultra high-performance tips to his specifications. I was surprised he was going to come, but shit was coming down, and he's always there for that. I offered to make our visitors extra blades as well, but they refused. Whatever. Odin actually rolled his eyes when I told him that I'd offered and they'd turned it down.
Tony and Scott had managed to duplicate the device that allowed the Asgardians' ship to navigate between the realms, which was really fortunate as their ship was pretty small and it would have been a tight fit. they didn't have a problem arriving first, and Odin had shown us the place where we'd have the best chance of landing unobserved. We rode mostly in silence and Clint put us down us safely. We moved out quickly, only to discover that Fandral and Volstagg had gone ahead without us. Idiots. They'd probably be captured. Neither of them was stealthy.
We were about halfway to the citadel, a nice hike, not too difficult, when we were surrounded by a patrol. They relieved us of our weapons (that they could see) and marched us into the citadel.
A woman gowned in green and black sat upon the massive golden throne, and Fandral and Volstagg were on their knees to the side when we were brought in. "Well, well," she said, rising to her feet as we were knocked to our knees. Loki, dressed in black, was standing slightly behind her on her right hand; his face so white it looked a little blue when he saw me. "Are you the best Midgard has to offer in these days?" she asked rhetorically as she descended the steps. Her voice was husky, but cold where you'd expect it to be warm. "A pity. Loki!" She snapped her fingers and after a brief hesitation, he joined her. "Introduce me." He gave her our names, and she stood in thought a moment.
"Those two are traitors to my rule," she said dismissively, and the guards dragged Fandral and Volstagg to their feet and forced them out of the hall. To the dungeons, I hoped. "Now, you are not my subjects. Yet. And I imagine that they implored your help in the hope of finding your companion, Thor. Is that correct?" she asked, spitting the question unexpectedly.
"That's about right, ma'am," Steve agreed.
"Hm." She walked around us in a large, slow circle. "I am feeling merciful, and I have more demands upon my time. I have more game pieces for the Grandmaster, it appears." She walked among us now, the hem of her skirt whispering on the stone floor. "But first--" she struggled, then wrenched the jewel from Vision's forehead. His keening was cut short and he crumpled to the floor, the sound echoing in the suddenly silent great hall. Wanda screamed and the rest of us jumped to our feet, but the fight was over before it could really start. Disheveled, cut, bruised, we were forced back down on the floor still stunned from the casual, violent death of Vision. "What were you thinking, giving an Infinity stone to a construct? You are the merest children, ignorant and unaware." Disdain and anger threaded heat through her voice. "Take the rest to await the Grandmaster's pleasure. Dump this one." She kicked Vision's body.
"Not the one called Emma," she said as we were allowed to rise. A guard shoved me back down. Damn, my knees hurt. She waited until the others had been taken away and Wanda's sobs had died away.
"It is my understanding that you cared for my son well during his captivity." I couldn't help myself; my head whipped around to look at Loki. "Yes, he is my son," the goddess of death said, a hint of amusement in her tone. "I spent some time on Jotunheim..." she shrugged. "Well. The Jotuns are a potent race. When he was born, he was a blue little thing, obviously taking after Laufey. So I left him with his father. I didn't know til later that he was expecting me to care for the infant; he wasn't interested in a half-breed." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Loki's face crumple for a moment.
"Yet he has survived this long, barely into his second millennia." Despite myself, my eyes widened. "You humans. So ridiculously impressed with such a thing as age. You think he is ancient, yet by the standards of Asgard, he is barely a man. He would be--" she paused to do some calculations. "Well, around seventeen of your years. It's obviously not a direct comparison, but you can see that he is too young for the weight of his ambitions. That Thor is no better. Odin is senile to think that such a child is fit to rule in his place." Her lips thinned but I was stunned. Loki's an emo teen? Would everything have been better if I'd just gotten him some My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy and guyliner? She tossed the bloody Mind Stone in the air, then caught it neatly. "In any case, returning this to Thanos will help to erase the debt young Loki owes him." The look she shot her son was poisonous.
"I had thought to provide him with some companionship, perhaps supply him with a concubine, but that was before I learned of his deal with Thanos. And in any case, you aren't...sufficient for my son. You'll have to go along with your companions to the Grandmaster. But I do feel a slight sense of obligation. Keeping in mind that you will be going to the games and that nothing will forestall this, have you a request?"
"Yes, Ma'am," I said demurely. How do you address a goddess? "That you send the weapons we arrived with along to the Grandmaster." She looked at me and laughed.
"Very well, you may have your little weapons. They may help to prolong your life a little further in the games. Say goodbye, Loki. There is much to be done."
Loki came over and helped me to my feet. He bent to kiss my cheek. "Thank you for your kindness, Emma," he said, shooting a furtive look at his mother, who was talking to a guard captain. "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused. If you see Thor again, tell him that," he whispered, and I nodded.
"One of the ravens is here," I breathed to him, and he looked at me sharply, understanding that Odin was aware again.
"Enough," Hela snapped. "The Grandmaster has been notified, and he will be sending for them soon." She gestured, and a guard took my arm, pulling me down the hall. I was taken down long flights of stairs, through stone corridors, and down a long hall fitted with golden cells that looked quite a lot like the one we'd built for Loki. They halted at one; a guard at the end opened a portal and I was shoved through. My friends were there; Steve rose from the floor immediately and engulfed me in a hug so tight I thought he'd break some ribs. I never wanted him to let go. But eventually, of course, he had to, and we sat down on the floor.
Natasha had Wanda's head on her lap and was stroking her hair. "They gave her a sedative," she said bitterly. "They didn't want to have to listen to her."
"What happened up there?" Tony asked, subdued. He barely looked up.
"I got some information," I said quietly. "I don't know if it's going to be any use, but it fits things together a bit more. Hela is Loki's birth mother." That got everybody's attention but Wanda's. "She abandoned him to Laufey, but he didn't want a mixed-race kid. He was probably left to die when Odin found him.' I frowned. "Did you know that Loki, in terms of our lifespans, is still a teenager? Thor isn't that much older, so he'd be the equivalent of a few years older, early twenties, max, seeing as how they were raised as children together." This was discussed a bit. "She granted me a very small favor, seeing as how I visited Loki in his cell, so we're going to get to take our weapons with us. She thinks it might help us survive a little longer in the Grandmaster's games, so there's that, at least." Nobody had much to say about that. I think we were all still too stunned and saddened. Later, some sort of meal was brought in; we ate and drank mechanically, then the main overhead lights were dimmed. We took this as a signal to sleep; I sat between Steve's legs and leaned against his chest, his arms around my waist and my hands covering his.
I slept better than I'd expected to. When they came for us, I was sound asleep. They pulled us out of the cell, put collars around our necks, and herded us out of the hall. A chain was threaded through rings on the collars and we were pushed into a rough circle. Our weapons were tossed into the center of the circle, and the guards stood back. A bright light shone, cycling through the visible light spectrum once before returning to white, then it abruptly cut off. There was a painful pull on my cells, and I didn't register anything until I felt a firm surface beneath my feet again. I swayed, dizzy and nauseated as a less intense light turned on and a slight figure whipped the rope through the collar rings so that we were unconnected again.
An unimpressed voice spoke. "Gift from Hela, the sitting queen of Asgard, to the Grandmaster. Race: human. Genders: two. Number in gift: eleven, eight male, three female. Weapons provided." A pause. "Do you prefer single or group combat?"
"Group," Steve spoke quickly.
"Noted," the voice sighed. A large, heavy door opened and brighter light flooded in. A large figure stood in the doorway.
"Pick up your weapons," a voice boomed, and I turned to the center, finding my knives and Nike again. They hadn't found my urumi on Asgard and I still wore it. There hadn't been a reason or opportunity to use it. "The Grandmaster, En Dwi Gast, welcomes you to the Battlerealm and the Contest of Champions. The opening matches have just begun. Your skills will be assessed and you will be put in brackets with other teams of similar level of ability. You will fight, although not to the death in this round. The rules and procedures will be made clear to you in the next few cycles. What you must know now is that those collars that you wear will kill you if you try to escape. Follow me." The figure turned and retreated; we followed him into the sunlight.