Inside the warship, a gaunt figure stood motionless at the helm, a full-coverage helmet upon his head, connected to a strange apparatus.
The helmet gradually opened and retracted to either side, revealing a pale, emaciated face, utterly devoid of color. The pointed ears and glowing blue eyes made it clear this humanoid figure was no human.
A Dark Elf! One of the evil race who had once wielded the Reality Stone, seeking to plunge the entire universe into darkness. The figure before him was none other than the leader of the Dark Elves—Malekith, who had survived for thousands upon thousands of years.
Malekith seemed to sense something, awakening from the ship's life-support chamber. He stood dazed before the observation deck of the cockpit, gazing out at the vast starry void. He carefully felt for the presence that had roused him—and was instantly seized by boundless ecstasy!
One after another, Dark Elves emerged from their respective life-support chambers, instinctively arranging themselves into orderly ranks. Their bodies were uniformly clad in pitch-black armor. Looking out, the ranks stretched densely, a dark mass as far as the eye could see—a formidable, awe-inspiring sight!
"Darkness has awakened us..."
"Noble king... you have finally awakened!"
"The Aether has found a new host. The Convergence of the World Tree is about to begin again."
"Darkness will soon shroud this world once more. No one can stop the changing of eras. I will return the entire universe to endless darkness!"
Shout after shout echoed through the chamber.
The Dark Elf army, dormant for countless years, was now fully awakened at the moment the Reality Stone stirred.
The standby warship powered back to life. Malekith sensed the Reality Stone's unique energy signature and set course at full speed toward the planet where it resided—Earth.
...
Meanwhile, over in Asgard, Thor had already led the warriors of the realm in quelling the rebellions across the Nine Realms. The heroes had returned to the divine domain.
For ages past, Asgard had stood as guardian of the Nine Realms, and it would surely continue to do so in the ages to come.
Yet at Asgard's victory feast, Thor found himself strangely without appetite. He couldn't even bring himself to touch the ale he normally loved best.
The reason was simple: he had been in such a hurry to put down the chaos because he had long been longing for a mortal woman on Earth.
Naturally, that was Jane Foster.
Having finally finished the war and restored stable order to the Nine Realms, what Thor wanted most now was to return to Midgard—Earth—and see his girlfriend.
Everything else was the furthest thing from his mind.
Ever since Thor had destroyed the Bifrost, Asgard had been cut off from the other eight worlds. This had even led other powers to eye those eight worlds with predatory hunger.
After all, Asgard's reputation had once been too formidable—but now, look at them.
Because the Bifrost had existed, Asgard had never bothered developing starship technology or space-traversal techniques. As a result, with the Bifrost gone, they found themselves utterly stranded.
And after the Battle of New York, Thor had failed to bring back the Tesseract, leaving the Bifrost beyond repair. Odin had thus been forced to expend his own power to send Thor and the Asgardian warriors to the Nine Realms to quell the rebellions—which had only hastened the approach of his death.
"Heimdall."
Thor walked up to the gatekeeper and spoke.
"You're going to see her?"
Heimdall asked, as if he already knew everything.
A faint smile appeared on Thor's face.
"Heimdall, how is she?"
Heimdall should have answered with a smile, but instead he was suddenly astonished to discover that he could no longer see Jane at all.
Heimdall's eyes were said to be able to see through everything—yet now, darkness had deeply shrouded Jane.
Of course, if Heimdall had known where Jane currently was, and that the Aether—an artifact already inclined toward darkness under its previous master's influence—had fused itself into Jane's body, he would not have been surprised in the slightest.
Either way, Heimdall could no longer see Jane.
"I've lost her," Heimdall said gravely.
Thor's expression changed instantly. He immediately went to beg his father to send him to Earth.
With Jane possibly in danger, he couldn't wait another moment.
Odin was displeased, and thought his son a profound disappointment, but he still told Thor of a secret passage from Asgard to Midgard—after all, his body could no longer sustain further expenditure of divine power.
So Thor, more anxious than he had ever been, made his way through the perilous secret passage between worlds and arrived at Midgard.
And then, at last, he saw Jane—Jane, lying unconscious.
Overcome with emotion, Thor rushed forward and embraced her. That embrace, as it happened, was enough to wake her.
"Thor?" Jane said, unable to believe her eyes.
But the very next moment, Jane's expression shifted—and she lashed out, slapping Thor right across the face!
That slap looked like it really hurt!
Thor was completely stunned by the blow. What was going on?
But Jane looked at him apologetically.
"Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were real."
"Alright, Jane..." Thor said, speechless.
But before he could finish, Jane slapped him across the face again.
"Where have you been all this time?! Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you? You promised me you'd come back, but..."
After the slap, Jane's eyes went misty.
Thor had been feeling rather annoyed—he'd come all this way to see his girlfriend, not to get slapped.
But Jane's two slaps had snapped him awake, and her words moved him deeply.
Longing was mutual, it seemed. Thor's efforts had not been in vain.
Before long, Darcy and her assistant found them, finally breaking the awkward atmosphere.
Darcy and Jane embraced, while Thor breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, though the two lovers had forgiven each other, Jane had just slapped him across the face—so things were still rather awkward between them.
Jane was a bit regretful on her end, and Thor, as a man, felt he'd lost face. That was the truly awkward part.
Thor took a moment to explain to Jane.
"The Bifrost was destroyed. War broke out across the Nine Realms. I had to stop it."
Jane understood now that her boyfriend Thor had gone off to save the world, and finally chose to forgive him.
Her tone was calm as she said,
"That excuse holds up. But I saw on TV that you went to New York. You came back to Earth and didn't come see me."
"Uh, there's a reason for that," Tony said awkwardly.
"After all, I had to get Loki back as soon as possible..."
"Right—Heimdall can't see you. What happened?"
Thor asked seriously, partly as a way to shift Jane's attention.
Just as Jane was about to say something, the sound of sirens came from nearby—it was a convoy of London police cars arriving.
In fact, it was precisely because Jane had gone missing that Darcy and the others had called the police.
Of course, Jane emerging from that space again, meeting up smoothly with Thor, and then Darcy and the others finding Jane—all of it had been entirely unexpected.
/-\
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