A/N: Me, sternly to myself: stop posting chapters you'll regret it when you hit a writing slump.

Also me: *reads all your comments about how you can't wait for the next chapter, knowing the pain of a reader having to wait for chapters* Oh, go on then...

...

You and Loki appeared between the refugees and the Draugr on the Bifrost. Skurge looked a bit put out when he saw the two of you.

"Hello Skurge." Loki said, speaking loudly to be heard over the engines of the retreating Commodore. There were screams and yells from behind you as Fenrir started to run, and the sound of gunfire emanated from the Commodore.

"Attack." Skurge said flatly, pointing his axe towards you. The Draugr advanced past him with a hundred times the enthusiasm of their leader, obviously having been waiting for the order eagerly. You and Loki were joined at the front of the crowd by a handful of terrified but determined looking Asgardian warriors, and your resolve was strengthened tenfold as you unsheathed your sword. These people needed you, and you weren't going to let a single Draugr get past you to them.

You braced for impact, and then with an upward swing your sword made first contact with the first Draugr's weapon. They were skillful warriors, and not as easy to strike down as you'd imagined, but you were more than a match for them with your sword and your magic. After about a minute of fighting there was a surge in the crowd, unhelpfully pushing you towards the Draugr.

Push them back, now!

You and Loki sent powerful explosions of magic ahead of you simultaneously, blasting all of the warriors within thirty yards of you backwards and off of the Bifrost. More were running towards you.

"Where are they coming from?" you asked incredulously, gesturing ahead of you with your sword: there were hundreds of them. Loki had turned around to see what had caused the surge backwards, and you turned too to see Hulk dragging Fenrir off of the Bifrost. Before you had time to worry about Bruce the next wave of Draugr were almost upon you, but now the crowd of refugees you were defending were making progress towards the Observatory, no longer blocked by the monstrous dog.

"Go, please." you said to the warriors who hadn't moved with the crowd but stayed to defend their people alongside you and Loki. They didn't need to be told twice, retreating quickly towards the Observatory.

Shall we stay here or move back with them?

Stay here, we're buying them time.

"Okay." you said, more bracing yourself for the oncoming army than anything. Time didn't exist on the battlefield, so it could have been five minutes or an hour before Loki spoke to you in your mind again.

Korg's here.

To say that you relaxed would have been a lie, but you certainly suddenly felt a lot more hopeful of the situation than you had previously.

"Y/N, Loki." a familiar voice greeted you, and then Heimdall was by your side, wielding the Bifrost sword.

The Draugr were relentless; they were pushing you backwards slowly but surely towards the refugees and the rescue ship. You were beginning to tire and had sustained a few injuries, but nothing life threatening. Yet.

Your concentration had been such that you didn't noticed the skies rapidly darkening and the electricity crackling through the air until Heimdall said "Look!"

Raising your head wearily your mouth fell open as you saw Thor flying through the air encompassed in an actual lightning bolt, heading straight for the centre of the mass of Draugr. You paid for your three seconds of ignorance, feeling a white-hot pain suddenly lance through your side. A cry of pain left you as you swung wildly at the Draugr that had maimed you, hardly touching it as it dodged your blade. A split second later its head was on the floor and Loki was in front of you.

You looked down to assess the damage: the wound was fairly deep, but nothing you couldn't manage.

You okay?

Just a scratch.

You grit your teeth as you returned to the fight, not allowing yourself to be distracted by anything else, not even flying gods in lightning bolts. Loki was staying closer to you now than before. After a few more minutes the last imminent Draugr had been slain, but now a much greater threat stood before you. Hela was stood at the end of the Bifrost, seething.

"Heimdall, go and make sure everyone is on that ship and then get out of here." Thor instructed as he walked towards you, one side of his face caked in blood. Heimdall bowed and hurried off.

"Everyone okay?" Thor asked as Valkyrie approached you, looking worriedly over her shoulder for Hulk.

"That nerd was the big guy? Plot twist." she said to you. You nodded, unable to speak you were so out of breath. A look of worry spread over her face as she saw you were hurt.

"You're missing an eye." Loki observed, squinting at Thor's face as he moved towards you to look at your wound. He'd lost his helmet. You stared at Thor; Loki was right, one of his eyes was gone.

"Stop it. I'm fine." you told Loki as he tried to start healing you. He correctly interpreted this as 'save your strength' and took his hand away reluctantly. The four of you looked towards Hela as she started walking menacingly towards you.

"I think we should disband the Revengers." Thor said seriously.

"Hit her with a lightning blast." Loki said, pointing at Hela.

"I just hit her with the biggest lightning blast in the history of lightning blasts. It did nothing." Thor shot back.

"We need to hold her off until everyone's on the ship." Valkyrie said.

"It won't end there. The longer Hela's on Asgard the more powerful she grows; she'll hunt us down. We need to stop her here and now." Thor replied, looking over his shoulder at the refugees, half of which still weren't on the ship.

"What's the plan?" you asked.

"I'm not doing get help." Loki told Thor, looking at him in concern.

Thor seemed to be having an epiphany.

"Asgard's not a place, it's a people..."

Valkyrie frowned at you, and you shrugged. Loki was now watching Thor intently.

"This was never about stopping Ragnarok... it was about causing it." he said, turning to Loki.

"Go to the vault. Surtur's crown. It's the only way."

Loki opened his mouth, then a look of resolve settled across his face and he closed it again.

"Bold move brother, even for me." he said. Then he turned to look at you. You were speechless.

"Have you gone quite mad?" you asked Thor. "You've lost a lot of blood, maybe..."

"Y/N, he's right." Loki told you, drawing you away from Thor and Valkyrie.

"No. You're not going into that vault. You... we can't just destroy Asgard! What have we been fighting for this whole time?"

"It's how we stop her. How we get them to safety." Loki said, looking towards the refugees.

"Then I'm coming with you."

No.

Then you can't go.

I have to. And fast.

You knew he was right.

I'm coming with you.

I'm asking you to stay here. Please. I promise I'll be okay.

You were running out of time, Thor was making his way towards Hela, followed by Valkyrie. You wanted to punch something.

Loki kissed your forehead, his cold hands on your shoulders.

If I die you can say I told you so.

That's not fair.

No, it isn't.

He let go of your shoulders and cocked an eyebrow, smiling at you before disappearing, having teleported to the Commodore which Valkyrie had crash landed near the Observatory. Some Draugr had snuck past your defense by climbing underneath the Bifrost and were now making their way towards the refugees.

You didn't give yourself time to worry about Loki, running straight towards them.

By the time you'd slain the last one, every single Asgardian was aboard the rescue ship.

"Go!" you shouted to a heavily injured Heimdall, who had been the last to get on after Korg.

He nodded, and you started to make your way back down the Bifrost towards Thor and Hela. Your side was really starting to hurt now; you'd lost a lot of blood. The ships engines roared to life and it began to take off, but then a giant black spike shot out of the water and impaled it, preventing it from rising into the air any further than it already had. You watched in horror as Hela halted your only escape route, and then hundreds more Draugr were racing towards the black spike and the refugees.

The only thing stood between them and all that was left of the Asgardian population was you. And you were bleeding out.

You cursed the universe as you unsheathed your sword yet again, wincing as you did so.

As they reached you, you apologised silently to everyone on the ship above you. There was no way you were strong enough to hold an entire army off by yourself, even when you weren't injured and exhausted. But you had to try. You held your own for about thirty seconds before the first of the Draugr got past you. Then another, and another.

"No!" you grimaced, blasting the Draugr which had made it on to the spike with your magic, only to narrowly avoid getting kebabbed by a massive spear another of the creatures was wielding. You stumbled backwards, allowing even more Draugr onto the ship; they were everywhere. You thought you could hear Thor shouting your name.

All of a sudden there was a burst of gunfire from above you. You looked up in shock to see several Draugr flying out of the entrance to the ship. Then there was another short burst of gunfire and some more of the creatures were sent flying backwards, landing hard on the Bifrost. A few seconds later your savior revealed themselves to be none other than Skurge.

He came flying out of the ship as it broke away from the spike and began to rise into the sky, and relief rushed through you. You watched as Skurge landed on the Bifrost and blasted a few more Draugr, before yelling Hela's name.

For the second time in the last two days you watched silently as Hela turned on Skurge, wanting to help him but not knowing how. He was dead in an instant, a blade from Hela going straight through his unprotected chest.

You waited until Hela had turned her furious attention back to Thor before advancing down the Bifrost towards them.

"Enough!" Thor shouted, and appeared to be surrendering to her.

"You want Asgard? It's yours." he told her.

You stopped walking and dropped your sword. You were all going to die here. The people were safe; you'd done what you needed to do... but now you were going to pay the price. You wished Loki were with you.

"Whatever game you're playing, it won't work. You can't defeat me." Hela scorned.

"No, but he can." Thor said, pointing towards the palace.

Hela turned around just in time to see an enormous Surtur exploding through the roof of the palace. Your breath caught in your throat, waiting for the crushing sensation Loki had described to you so many times before to take hold of your chest, but it didn't come. He was alright, for now. Or was he?

"No, no!" Hela shouted, watching Surtur destroy the palace with the massive sword he was wielding. And he was growing. Her attention was somewhat diverted as Val appeared from nowhere and drove her sword right through Hela's chest.

Before Hela could retaliate Thor yanked Val from her clutches and blasted his sister with lightning. You stumbled backwards and fell to your knees as the section of the Bifrost where Hela had been stood cracked and broke, crumbling into the sea, sending her flailing down into the water below.

"Y/N, are you okay?" Thor called across the gap. You nodded mutely, unable to tear your eyes from the destruction Surtur was causing. Ragnarok was happening before your eyes.

Loki should have been back by now.

Thor and Val were talking, so they didn't notice as Hulk pulled himself up on to the Bifrost next to you, dripping wet.

"Friends safe?" he grunted, poking you.

"The people are safe." you said, pointing back towards the refugee ship which was about to reach the lower orbit of Asgard.

Hulk looked at the retreating ship, and then seemed to spot Surtur for the first time. His eyes widened.

"Hulk... no- Hulk!" you yelled, getting to your feet as he crouched down and then launched himself with immense power at Surtur.

"Hulk no! Stop it you moron!" Thor yelled as he spotted Hulk flying towards Surtur.

Incredibly, the shock of Hulk's impact caused Surtur to take a destructive step backwards. Hulk was pounding his face, and then proceeded to try and yank one of the fire giant's horns off of his head. Surtur reached up, grabbed Hulk and hurled him back down to the ground.

He landed hard, smoking and seething with anger, but before he launched himself back at the giant, Thor shouted "Hulk, just for once in your life, don't smash!"

"But... big monster!" Hulk complained.

"Let's go!" Valkyrie said. With an almighty huff, Hulk turned away from Surtur and picked Thor and Valkyrie up. You picked your sword up as he hopped over the gaping hole in the Bifrost and scooped you up too.

"Can you make it?" Thor asked.

"Wait... Loki." you said, twisting around with a grimace of pain to look at the palace. It was all but gone. There was a very loud silence before Thor said, "Let's go."

"No..."

Hulk crouched down and launched himself up towards the refugee ship with astonishing power, landing gently in the open side door of the ship.