3rd Person POV

Alone in an otherwise empty, dark, and run-down cell that was partially filled with water, a figure with their head bowed down was kneeling with their hands shackled in front of them with metal cuffs that completely covered them and were chained underwater to the floor.

Abruptly, a door that was situated a couple of feet off the ground with a ladder leading up to it opened up to allow a guard in to yell,

"Oy! Wake up Pyre!"

A stream of light was cast into the small space to reveal Ash, her hair was cut short, she was wearing scraped together pieces of metal and leather as makeshift armor over her old clothes, and her eyes opened to show they lost most of their previous shine and her marks were still missing, but there was a thin stream of glowing liquid mixed with some of her red-orange blood trickling down from the corner of her mouth down her chin to drip off into the murky water to dissipate.

"Back to the cell room with ya, yer final fight's against the Champion." Two guards came down the ladder to unlock the chains and each grabbed a hold of an arm to escort her from the solitary confinement cell to the main holding area and she provided no resistance.

"Urgh!" Ash grunted in pain as she was all but shoved into the cell area before the guards slammed the door shut behind her.

"A-holes..." Ash muttered as she picked herself up and went to sit against the wall before falling back asleep.

A little while later, another familiar face was also tossed into the cell area and, after talking with two of the fellow prisoners, Miek and Korg, found out an important piece of information,

"Oh New Doug look's like you'll be fighting the Champion with Pyre then so at least you won't die alone!"

"Pyre?" Thor questioned and Korg told him,

"Oh yeah she just got back from solitary confinement before you showed up. I tell ya that girl's been in there more times than I can count.. which is a lot actually..."

Thor walked around the freaky circle, wondering how he could've missed seeing her before, to see a battered and armor-clad Ash sitting against the wall with her eyes closed and he kneeled down to grab her shoulders and gently shake her awake,

"Ash? Ash!"

"I told you Korg I can't weld your falling pebbles back onto yo-" Ash started to say in an annoyed tone as she groggily woke up until she saw who was in front of her and stopped to stare and ask in disbelief,

"Thor...?"

"Yes yes it's me."

She looked like she was about to jump up and hug him when she stopped, narrowed her eyes a bit, and harshly slapped his face.

"OW! What was that for?!" Thor exclaimed, surprised more at how much the slap had actually hurt than at how she slapped him.

"You are real! I'm not hallucinating again!" She grinned before jumping up to hug him and Thor just stood there a bit dumbfounded.

"Glad I could be real? Wait." He pulled her off of him to look her in the eyes to ask, "Why are you here? How did you get here?"

"Well long story short after you left Earth, there was this whole 'Sokovia Accords' situation that basically outlawed me, my people, and the others who didn't sign it, most of us ended up having to stay hidden in Wakanda and, when I went after my old armband power source, some kind of wormhole in the Bermuda Triangle sucked me up and spit me out here on Sakaar."

"How long have you been here and what happened to your marks?" Thor asked, pointing to her face.

"I'm pretty sure you might've noticed by now that time, space, and logic, in general, are pretty warped around here. I got here almost a year ago now but somehow when I arrived I aged backward three years, two years before I went through Tayen and got my marks."

"W-wait, if it's been almost a year after three years before you got them and you actually received them two years ago...? Then doesn't that mean...?" Thor tried to reason but ended up almost confusing himself before Ash answered,

"Yep, I'm going to be going through Tayen again... very soon..." She emphasized her point by wiping the corner of her mouth and showing him the glowing liquid coating it.

"Great..."

"Actually it's the only thing that's been keeping me alive here..." Ash admitted as she wiped her hand on her suit.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm pretty sure you've already met the Grandmaster right?"

"The crazy lunatic, yes, not a fan."

"Yeah well, when I was first brought in by Scrapper 142-"

"She's the one who captured and sold me to that maniac!" Thor interrupted to exclaim indignantly.

"Aaanyway..." Ash continued with a raised eyebrow, "I had just crashed and was trying to figure a way off this planet when she found me and tried to capture me, but I didn't come so easily until she started to shoot at me with that ship of hers. After that, I felt I had no other choice but to self detonate and hope that it would be enough to get me away from her."

"Wh-what are you telling me? You blew yourself up?!" Thor questioned incredulously.

"Pretty much, but I didn't consider how exhausted I was going to be afterward and it weakened me enough to where she captured me, brought me here... I've been fighting for my life ever since then..."

"Then why are you always sent to solitary confinement?"

"Because I fight for my life, not kill for it." Ash stressed before explaining, "I get put in solitary for not finishing off my opponents after I beat them, but the Grandmaster already knows what I'm capable of so he's been putting me in solitary hoping it'll break my spirit enough to get me to finish off my opponents but it's been a year already and after this next match with the Champion, even if somehow we manage to beat him, I'm not killing him so I'll be dead either way."

"What do you know about the Champion?"

"Nothing, I get sent to solitary every time I refuse to kill so I never got to watch a match with him in it and everyone around here is too terrified to even mention his actual name let alone tell me what or who he is."

"Then it looks like we'll be winging the match..." Thor frowned before saying, "but first there's something I need to do..."

Thor got up and looked around the area before gathering up small bits of splintered wood and leather armor laces and putting them in a little pile on the edge of some stones before grabbing two rocks and started clacking them together.

"What are you doing?" Ash asked as she kneeled down next to him and watched him with her head tilted curiously.

"Mourning my father..."

"Your father died...?"

"A lot has happened since we last met as well... I found out Loki's been alive this whole time, I have an older sister who's the goddess of death who also destroyed my hammer and was released from her interdimensional prison after my father died, and now I have to find a way back to Asgard to stop her from taking over and destroying all nine realms."

"Wow..." Ash went wide-eyed with surprise before her attention was turned back to the matter at hand and she told him, "I'm sorry..."

A few moments of clacking later, Thor was growing impatient so Ash placed a hand on his and told him,

"Here let me, I can't spark up enough to escape from here, but I can give a little." She hovered a hand over the small pile of kindling and let a few sparks out to light a tiny fire a little bit bigger than a candle before the Obedience Disk on her chest activated, preventing her from giving any more as she clutched at it painfully.

"Are you alright?"

"It's fine... as long as I don't use my power too much outside of the arena." She assured him before standing up to say, "I'll let you pay your respects..."

Before he caught her arm to say,

"You can stay... you may not have known him, but we are family." Thor put a hand on her shoulder before tousling her hair to make her laugh, bringing some of the light and joy back into her eyes.

"Thank you..." She kneeled next to him and closed her eyes while bowing her head as Thor started to eulogize,

"Odin, I bid you take your place in the halls of Valhalla... Where the brave shall live forever. Nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death..."

They heard another voice join in at the end and they turned to see Loki there, Ash looking like she was already tired of his very presence even though he had just arrived.

"It hurts, doesn't it? Being lied to. Being told you're one thing and then learning it's all a fiction." Loki spoke as Thor sat back down with his back against the wall but Ash stayed standing with a narrow-eyed look on her face even as Thor picked up some stones from the ground and tossed them at Loki to reveal it was only an illusion of him as he spoke again,

"You didn't think I'd really come and see you, did you? This place is disgusting."

Thor just threw another stone through Loki's illusion as he continued to speak,

"Does this mean you don't want my help?"

Even as Thor continued to toss stones at him,

"Look, I couldn't jeopardize my position with Grandmaster, it took me time to win his trust. He's a lunatic, but he can be amenable. What I'm telling you is, you could join me at the Grandmaster's side. Perhaps, in time, an accident befalls the Grandmaster, and then..."

Loki made hand gestures for 'we take over' but Thor just kept throwing stones at him looking extremely disinterested,

"You're not seriously thinking of going back, are you? Our sister destroyed your hammer like a piece of glass. She's stronger than both of us. She's stronger than you. You don't stand a chance. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

Thor just scowled in response,

"Fine. I guess I'll just have to go it alone. Like I've always done..." Thor smirked, making Loki more annoyed, "Would you say something? Say something!"

Thor finally looks up at Loki and spoke curtly,

"What would you like me to say? You faked your own death, you stole the throne, stripped Odin of his power, stranded him on Earth to die, releasing the Goddess of Death. Have I said enough, or do you want me to go further back than the past two days?"

There was a short moment of silence before Loki spoke again,

"You know, I haven't seen this Beloved Champion he talks of, but I've heard he's astonishingly savage. I've placed a large wager against you and the child tomorrow. Don't let me down."

Thor picks up a bottle and throws it to the wall where the illusion vanished before Korg came running over to kick the wall and yell,

"Piss off, ghost! He's freaking gone."

"Which means you both can stand down now." Ash finally spoke up as she motioned to Miek who still had his blade hands drawn up.

"I know Pyre, he's just so freaky every time he comes here..." Korg muttered as he walked off with Miek chattering in agreement from next to him.

"Loki's been down here before?" Thor questioned as Ash sat down next to him to explain,

"How do you think they found out my name used to be Pyre...? The Grandmaster thought that if they used the name that villainized me back on Earth then it would make me seem more intimidating, make my opponents want to take me down all the more... and it did... but over time I grew to beat them all, but I would never take their lives since... they're still just like me... just... trying to survive..."

"Well don't you worry anymore..." Thor pulled her into a side hug as he assured her,

"We're going to defeat the Champion, get off this horrible planet, stop my sister from taking over the realms, and then I'll find a way to send you back home to the others back on Earth."

"Do you think you could show me some of Asgard before you send me back?" Ash asked with a hint of excitement in her voice.

"I'll be sure to give you the grand tour." Thor smiled down at her before messing up her hair again.

"Hey!" Ash whined and tried to do the same to him and it dissolved into a playful kitty fight before she stopped and dropped down as if she was shutting down.

"Hey what's wrong, feigning defeat to-" Thor's high-spirited counter was cut short as Ash suddenly started to convulse and she sharply raised her head back up to show that her eyes started to glow in sync with the liquid dripping from her mouth.

"Agh!" Thor stumbled backward in surprise, he had heard from the others about how bad it was when Ash had gone full-on Tayen rage mode after Wanda had mind whammied him and the others two years ago, but nothing could have mentally prepared him to see his little sister figure with a vengeful look in her blank, glowing eyes, broken and jerkingly uncoordinated movements, and glowing liquid dripping from her mouth and nose.

"Aww crap... not again..." Korg moaned with more annoyance in his voice than worry, even as Ash leaped up to try and tackle Thor, but he managed to dodge by throwing himself to the side and Ash stayed on her hands and knees breathing heavily as though she were choking on the very air around her.

"What do we do?!" Thor exclaimed panicked.

"Hold on, we just gotta find the bucket." Korg replied casually as he started looking around the freaky circle for said object with no rush.

"How are you not freaking out more?!"

"Oh this has been happening so often the past few weeks we just don't freak out anymore." Korg shrugged nonchalantly as he found a bucket but overturned it to find it empty.

"AAGGGHHH!" Ash let out a pain-filled cry as the Obedience Disk activated and caused her even more pain, making her ram into the walls back and forth to try and dislodged it but was only succeeding in scraping her skin off.

Frantically, Thor grabbed onto Ash from behind and kept her in a tight hug to keep her from hurting herself anymore, but she kept struggling as he yelled,

"Hurry up!"

"Oh here it is." Korg found another bucket and ran up to the two of them before-

*Splash!*

The bucket of questionable looking water was emptied right into Ash's face and she was now drenched with her eyes and mouth pinched up in disgust before she sharply blew some air out and told them,

"Thanks guys..."

"Nah don't mention it." Korg tossed the bucket aside and went back to where Miek was still sitting down.

"Well that was intense..." Thor sat back down against the wall but Ash stayed standing as she spoke flatly,

"It's about to get a lot worse..."

"Why do you say that?"

Thor's question was soon answered when the door to the cell area was opened and guards came in to grab each prisoner and drag them out, one coming over to Thor and Ash before hauling her away, despite Thor's protests as he too was caught and led away and the guard holding Ash sneered in her ear,

"Time for yer final fight..."

AN- Sorry if the first chapter's not as eventful as you might have been expecting but the next one with the battle against you-know-who should be a little more epic... once I finish writing it that is... ^^;