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Hermione watched from the side for a moment. The Cursed Warrior definitely had something going for him, probably some kind of anti-magic property. There was no other explanation for how a hammer even the Hulk couldn't lift had just been swatted out of Thor's hand.
Even as Thor took the beating, shock flickered through his eyes.
First time this had ever happened to him. Even his beloved Mew-Mew was useless.
"Move!"
Hermione's voice cut through, cold and flat.
Thor sidestepped on instinct.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A green light punched through the exact spot where he'd been standing, striking the Cursed Warrior dead center.
The Cursed Warrior didn't even scream. His massive body dropped with a thunderous collapse and didn't move again.
Dead silence fell over the entire battlefield.
Everyone froze. Malekith stood with his jaw practically unhinged, staring like he'd forgotten how to blink.
The Cursed Warrior was the Dark Elves' strongest trump card outside the Aether. A terrifying existence that could overpower Thor himself. And just like that, he was gone?
One casual wisp of green light. Done.
"What are you?!"
"Asgard has no one like you!"
Malekith's voice trembled. He had never seen magic like this in his life.
Hermione gave him a brief, unimpressed glance.
"I'm a Midgardian. Your intelligence network needs an update."
She blew lightly on her wand.
Avada Kedavra. The cure-all for flashy nonsense.
Malekith read the situation in an instant. He made his decision without hesitation, flung a handful of pitch-black objects into the air, turned, and leaped onto his ship. The engines screamed. He was gone, swallowed by the sky in seconds.
"Damn — Black Hole Grenades!"
Odin had just arrived. His expression caved the moment he recognized what those things were.
The Dark Elves' ultimate weapon. Each one capable of tearing open a miniature black hole that devoured everything in reach. Thor and the others didn't have the raw power to stop them.
He was already moving, ready to throw up a divine barrier and take the hit, when he realized someone had beaten him to it.
Hermione swept her hand through the air. The Mirror Dimension materialized out of nothing, expanding outward and swallowing all the Black Hole Grenades in one breath.
Inside the Mirror Dimension, they detonated. Space buckled and warped violently, the fabric of it shredding and twisting as if the world itself were being torn open.
Outside, not a breath of wind stirred. Completely untouched.
Thor, Frigga, and Jane stared at the implosion of distorted space inside that contained reality, and felt the cold crawl up through their chests.
If Hermione hadn't reacted that fast, if she hadn't thrown that barrier up in time, every single one of them would have been swallowed. Erased. Reduced to nothing.
That thought sat heavy.
And so did the other one: that she could stop something like that at all.
Odin exhaled slowly, the tension finally bleeding out of his frame.
Frigga walked to him and quietly relayed everything he'd missed.
When she finished, Odin looked at Hermione, and the gratitude in his expression was impossible to hide.
His earlier shift in attitude had been largely the Ancient One's doing. This was different. This was his own recognition, from somewhere genuine.
Her power spoke for itself. And she had saved his wife and his son. Both debts were the kind a man carried for life.
"Hermione." Odin's voice was low, unhurried, and sincere. "We owe you for this. If you hadn't stepped in when you did, the consequences wouldn't bear thinking about."
Hermione waved him off. "Don't mention it. It was nothing."
"Besides, the Dark Elves are enemies of Earth as well."
She said it easily. Odin heard the weight underneath it anyway.
He quietly felt grateful, in the way only a man who came close to making a catastrophic mistake could feel, that he hadn't let a moment of arrogance turn Hermione into an enemy.
...
The Asgardian soldiers picked through the wreckage, every face drawn and hollow.
They'd stopped the Dark Elves. The cost had been brutal. Without Hermione's intervention, they probably wouldn't have kept the Aether, and they certainly wouldn't have kept their lives.
Odin stood in the middle of the shattered palace, surveying the destruction. His voice was quiet and deliberate. "Malekith will not let this go."
"The Convergence is almost upon us. A once-in-a-millennium chance for the Dark Elves. He will come back, and he will use the Aether to drag the Nine Realms back into darkness."
He paused, his gaze drifting to where Jane had been settled some distance away.
"Extracting the Aether is too dangerous. We cannot risk it. As long as we keep this Midgardian woman within our control, the Aether stays contained. Without it, Malekith has nothing."
Thor's head snapped up. Something blazed in his eyes.
"Father. What are you saying?"
"Are you going to stand there and watch the Aether eat Jane alive?!"
Odin's brow pulled together. "Thor. This is the safety of the Nine Realms. Sacrifices must be made."
"Sacrifices." Thor's voice went very quiet for half a second, then broke open. "Sacrificing an innocent person? That's what we're doing now? For the sake of the Nine Realms, we can sacrifice anything?!"
"Actually," Hermione said, "I have a plan."
Her voice was calm. It cut through the standoff between father and son like a clean blade.
Both of them turned.
"What plan?" Thor asked. He was barely keeping the urgency out of his voice.
Odin's gaze settled on her, waiting.
"We take Jane to Svartalfheim," Hermione said. "And we hunt Malekith down." She laid it out in the same even tone. "He knows how to extract the Aether from a host. That's certain. So we let him do exactly that. The moment it's out, we kill him."
"Clean. Simple. Permanent."
Thor's face lit up. He looked like she'd just handed him a gift.
"That's perfect!" He clapped his hands together. "We save Jane and we put that bastard Malekith in the ground!"
Odin frowned.
"No. The risk is too high." His voice carried the weight of a closed door. "I must remain in Asgard in case the Dark Elves strike again. And Thor alone — his abilities are not enough. If anything goes wrong, we hand the Aether directly to Malekith. That cannot happen."
Thor opened his mouth. Hermione spoke first.
"I know." She was unbothered. "That's why we're not using Thor."
"I'll go myself."
Odin went still. He held the silence for a moment, then let out a quiet breath and nodded.
"Very well."
The resignation in his voice was faint, but it was there.
"But Hermione." His tone sharpened slightly. "The Aether must not fall to Malekith under any circumstances. If it comes to it, it would be better to simply..."
His gaze moved to Jane.
The corner of Hermione's mouth lifted. She'd understood him before he finished the sentence.
"Relax, Allfather. I know what I'm doing."
Something I've decided to claim isn't ending up in anyone else's hands.
She turned to Thor.
"As for you, Lord of Thunder — head back to Earth and deliver the news. Tell S.H.I.E.L.D. to get ready. During the Convergence, even without the Aether, the Dark Elves' counterattack could reach Earth."
Thor opened his mouth. Then closed it. He knew staying here wouldn't change anything. Better to follow her lead.
"Fine. I'll go." His voice came out somewhere between resigned and sullen. "Jane's yours to protect."
"One more thing." Hermione glanced back at Odin. "Allfather. I need your approval on something."
"Go on."
"Svartalfheim is too far, and I've never been there. Trying to open a portal blind is asking for it to go sideways. I need a guide, someone who knows the hidden spatial pathways of the Nine Realms. I already have someone in mind."
"Who?"
Hermione said it without blinking.
"Loki."
➤ Next: The Aether Became Sentient
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