Kat turned when she felt a disturbance. She left her book behind, and walked through the halls of the palace, trying to find what felt so off. She turned around a corner, and took a few steps forward before she was sucked into the air.

In the blink of an eye, she was distinctly somewhere else. It was cold, the air stagnant.

"Darcy!" 

Kat turned at the voice, seeing a woman standing at the edge of a cliff. Kat teleported behind her, and pulled her back from the edge. "Careful."

"Gah! Who are-" The woman blinked. "You're the Stark girl, aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's me." Kat let go once she was sure the woman was steady and not going to fall. "You are?" 

"I'm Jane. Foster." Jane said, and looked at Kat's odd clothing, but didn't say anything.

"Oh! Thor's mentioned you. Nice to meet you. Any idea where we are?" Kat asked.

"I was investigating something, and then it was like I got sucked up-" Jane said. "What the hell is that?"

Kat turned, and saw the stone pillar. She could feel the power radiating from the red flowing through the space between. "What the hell?" She whispered.

Jane walked closer, and leaned down to get a better look. 

"Wait, Jane, don't get any closer-"

The red lashed out, wrapping around Jane's extended wrist, and seeping into her skin. The pillar crashed down onto it's lower part. Jane gasped, and tried to pull it off.

"Jane!"

Jane looked to Kat, her eyes wide, before they rolled back. Kat caught her body as she began to fall, and lowered them both to the ground. "Oh, crap." She had no idea what to do when a weird red magic thingy attacked your brother-in-law's mortal crush.

Kat felt another disturbance creeping toward them, and wrapped her arms around Jane protectively. The space swallowed them both and spat them back out somewhere else.

Kat easily recognized it as somewhere in Midgard. Yay, not a crazy weird place. Now, Jane just needed to wake up. Preferably okay.

After a couple minutes, Jane groaned and opened her eyes. "What... You...? Oh!" Jane frantically examined her wrists.

"Oh thank the Norns." Kat said. 

Finding nothing visibly out of the ordinary, Jane looked back to Kat, and sat herself up. "What happened?"

"That thing latched onto you, you passed out, I caught you, we got teleported here." Kat said.

"Oh. Thanks." Jane said, and looked around. "This is where I was before... Oh, Darcy's gotta hear about this." She got to her feet and Kat followed her out of the building.

"Jane!" The woman Kat supposed was Darcy, called out, and ran to meet her. "Where the hell were you?"

"Tell me you didn't call the police." Jane said.

"What was I supposed to do?" Darcy asked.

"Not call the police."

"I was freaking out-"

"You call the cops, they call the feds, next thing you know we have Shield all over, Area-51-ing the place-" Jane said.

"Jane-"

"-We had a stable gravitational anomaly! We had unimpeded access! Our only competition was ten years old!"

"Jane! You were gone for five hours!" Darcy said.

Jane frowned. They then noticed the rain. Or lack thereof in a circle around them.

"That's weird." Darcy said. She looked to Kat. "And who are you?"

"Hi, you must be Darcy. I'm Kat Stark." 

"Stark."

"Ahuh." Kat said, and turned around, trying to see whatever magic was at play. 

"Katha!" Thor's voice called out, and he ran over to her, dressed in battle attire. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kat said. "Why're you here?"

"You were missing, Heimdall couldn't see you." Thor said, and slowed to a stop in front of her. He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Where were you? Where did you go?"

"I don't know. Space was weird and then I got teleported somewhere, and then it teleported me and Jane here-"

"Jane?" Thor startled. 

Kat took a few steps back and swung her arms in a sweeping gesture toward Jane. "Jane Foster, you oblivious bilgesnipe." 

"Thor." Jane said.

"Jane. Ah. Hello." Thor said awkwardly. 

Kat looked at Darcy and gestured for them to walk a bit away and give the two some space to talk. Kat made a shield above their heads to block the rain.

"Soooo." Darcy said. "You know Thor? You looked like you know him."

"Yeah. He's family." Kat said. "She looks like she's gonna slap- oh. She did."

"He deserved it, I think." Darcy said.

"Probably." Kat said. "Oh. Did he deserve the second one?"

"I dunno." Darcy said. "So where the hell were you guys?"

"I don't know." Kat said. "We were teleported through space to some weird, creepy place."

One of the police officers started to walk toward them, and Darcy looked back to Thor and Jane. "Oh, they're gonna kiss and we're gonna get arrested."

"Oh no they aren't." Kat said, and hollered out. "Thor! Jane!"

The two startled apart. Kat grinned mischievously and Thor glared.

"We're getting arrested, Jane." Darcy said.

"Hold that thought." Jane said to Thor, and walked over to the officer.

"Look at you. Still all muscle-y." Darcy said to Thor.

"Ah. Yes?" Thor said, and then looked at Kat. "Was that really necessary though?"

"Revenge." Kat said. "You interrupt us, we interrupt you."

Thor opened his mouth to protest, but couldn't figure out what to say.

Kat looked over just in time to see the red burst from Jane's body. She reached out with her magic, trying to expand the space between the police and the blast- but the red power wasn't phased. It overpowered her magic like it was nothing.

"Jane!" Thor ran over, and helped her up.

"What happened?" Jane asked, unsteady.

Kat ran over, ignoring the words of the police. "Thor, whatever that was, it's far stronger than me."

"What?" Thor frowned.

"There was this power, wherever we were, and it latched onto her. It's stronger than me." Kat said.

"Mother and Father will know. You need to return anyway before Loki notices you're gone."

"Wait, he doesn't know?" Kat asked. 

"Not yet. Heimdall came to me first, wanted to avoid Loki's wrath."

"Fair." Kat said. "Let's go."

"Hold on to me." Thor said to Jane, and then looked to the sky.

"What are you doing?" Jane asked.

The Bifrost opened, and the three of them disappeared. 

"Holy shit." Darcy said.

~~~

"We have to do that again." Jane grinned.

Kat spotted something, and burst out laughing. "Thor, you stole a freaking bumper!"

 "Hi." Jane said to Heimdall.

"Welcome to Asgard." Heimdall said.

"Welcome indeed." Loki said, his arms crossed. 

"You-!" Jane said, and marched over to him. "You destroyed New York-"

Kat teleported and grabbed her wrist before she could make contact with Loki's face.

"What- how did you-" Jane frowned.

Kat released her wrist. "Magic."

Loki looked to Kat. "Katha. Where did you go? I tried to reach you-"

"I'm fine. Here." Kat showed him a brief glimpse of the memory- the cavern, the pillar, the red power.

Loki paled. He looked to Thor. "We have to go to Mother and Father." Kat and Thor both recognized how bad it must be that Loki was out of it enough to call Odin by Father. "Meet us in the healing wing." Loki said to Kat, teleporting himself and Thor.

Kat joined them a moment later with Jane.

"Loki, what is it?" Thor asked.

Loki didn't answer, and a few moments of silence passed before Frigga arrived with Odin.

"Why have you brought a mortal here?" Odin asked.

"The Aether."

Odin, Frigga, and Thor all froze. Kat looked just as confused as Jane.

~~~

Kat stayed with Jane while the other four were trying to figure out what to do.

"What are they talking about?" Jane asked.

"Well, from what Loki just told me, you have a very powerful magic artifact in you. If it stays, you'll likely die." Kat said. "They're working on a plan."

"What Loki just told you? He didn't say anything to you after we got here-"

"Telepathically." Kat said. "We can talk telepathically. That's how he knew what it was, I showed him a piece of my memory."

"You can do that?" Jane asked.

"Yeah."

"You're friends with Loki and Thor?" Jane asked.

"One's my brother-in-law and the other is my spouse." Kat said, grinning.

"I'm sorry, what?" 

 Kat laughed at her expression. "I'm sure you can guess which is which."

Jane frowned. Thor had kissed Kat's head, but he had almost actually kissed Jane... But maybe it wasn't so simple? Maybe she didn't know everything about the circumstances? Thor had been gone for a while...

Kat realized Jane was stuck, and that was only mean to leave her hanging. "Loki. I'm married to Loki." 

"Why?"

"He's not actually a bad guy, Jane. It's complicated to explain, but it wasn't really him doing that." Kat said.

"You married a god?"

"Yep."

"But... Won't you get old?" Jane asked.

"Oh. No. I'm a goddess too."

"But you're Stark's daughter?"

"Again, it's complicated."

~~~

The Dark elf pushed open the door, and Jane hurried to get behind Frigga, further into the room.

"Stand down, creature, and you may still survive this." Frigga said.

"I have survived worse, woman."

"Who are you?"

"I am Malekith." He said. "And I will have what is mine."

Frigga made the first slash, and in only a few seconds she had Malekith pinned with her blade at his throat. But the armored creature grabbed her wrist and then her throat. Frigga couldn't escape it's grasp.

Malekith walked toward Jane. "You have taken something, Child. Give it back."

Jane didn't speak as Malekith approached her. She pressed her back against the wall, unable to add to the distance between them. Malekith touched his hand to the side of her face.

The illusion faded from her visage, revealing Kat instead. Malekith turned to Frigga. "Witch! Where is the Aether?"

"I'll never tell." Frigga said.

"I believe you."

Kat summoned her Haladies as she swung, both blades sinking into each side of his ribcage. It was a fatal wound, and his body began to fall the moment she withdrew her blades.

But Kat saw beyond Malekith. The creature had driven it's own blade into Frigga's side. 

As Frigga fell, Kat heard Thor's roar and the crackling of lightning. The bolt didn't miss, and Thor threw Mjolnir in a follow up attack. The creature's body hit the wall, very much dead.

Kat ran to Frigga's side, Thor a few steps behind her. Kat reached for what little healing magic Frigga had taught her, but it had no effect. She was gone. Kat tried again. She failed. 

"Wake up, Mother. Please, wake up... Please..." Thor whispered.

The pain in his voice was the breaking point. She screamed, and her power responded. Time slowed down, until it wasn't slowing, but reversing. 

Golden Ichor began to trail from Katha's nose, but she didn't notice. She watched the blood slowly return to Frigga's body, and then the wound vanished, mending itself from the inside out. Even the tear in her gown. 

Loki and Jane walked into room, just in time to catch the last few moments. They saw, along with Odin and Thor, a shimmering around the two goddesses. It looked like many mirages, collapsing in upon themselves and new ones unfolding.

Katha couldn't hold onto the power any longer. It evaporated in an instant, and she stared at Frigga's body as she herself was gasping for breath. Odin and Loki closed the remaining distance.

Odin fell to his knees beside Frigga, and drew her into his arms. Loki sunk to the floor beside Katha. The seconds felt so much longer than they should have, as they waited. Frigga's eyes opened first, and then she wheezed in a gasp of air.

Katha reached a wavering hand towards Frigga, and the queen, just as disoriented as Katha, reached out too. They grasped hands, and through weak grips, they conveyed more to each other than words could ever.

Odin reached a hand to Katha, resting it against her head. It was a genuine smile he gave her. Odin retracted his hand to gingerly hold his wife.

Loki turned Katha's gaze toward him, and wrapped an arm around her. He said something, but she couldn't hear. She couldn't even think to read his lips. Her vision was out of focus. Loki started to clean the two trails of Ichor from her face before she passed out in his arms.

Jane approached Thor slowly, and slipped a hand into his. He held it tighter, and then looked her over, making sure she was unharmed. He held her in his own embrace, unable to draw his eyes away from his mother for long.

A/N

a 2022 word chapter, posted on new years eve/news years 2022

weird