answers to reviewers questions or statements:

treyalexander63917: Very true, but attacking also incurs possible retaliation from the Dark Elves. Either way has it's drawbacks and the Asgardians are gonna get the fight they want.

Harbinger of Kaos: When Peter uncovers what happened, things will grow noticeably darker. he hasn't pissed off anyone in the Far East Pantheons like the Hindu or Shinto deities.

CRUDEN: I have a knack for surprising people.

LLHOTF: He'll bee very displeased.

EroSlackerMicha: He could, but the odds of pulling a fast one over Dark Elves with Magic seems pretty low given how proficient they are with it. Plus people bringing them slaves instead of just taking them, they'll know something's up.

superpierce: Zeus may have loved Hercules a lot, but even he has to abide by some of the laws of the universe. Sides, who says Hera hasn't blocked his attempts to either bring him back to life or make him a God like in most stories? Not all of them, some are just giant spiders she can control.

Lilthug: No, Athena and Arachne aren't sisters. Her origin is much the same as in the mythos, she was a talented weaver, she challenged Athena, she incurred her anger and was turned into a spider. This time around though, she was granted godhood after a while by Zeus because the man will do anything for bight ibn a woman's bed, lets be real.

Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC characters seen, mentioned or used.

Peter just knew things were going to go south in the worse way imaginable after going the better part of an hour without running into any trouble.

Despite the supposed size of the Dark Elf population in this stronghold, Peter and the others had yet to see any roaming the vast dark halls. Thor and the Warriors Three seemed unbothered by this, likely believing that the fact they were some of Asgard's best meant the Dark Elves had turn tailed and ran. Donna was too busy studying the Dark Elf architecture, which admittedly was impressive in a dark gothic way while Phil seemed to be looking for something to do that weird claw thing that cats liked to do on random surfaces.

Only Loki and Sif seemed as bothered by the lack of Dark Elves as Peter, if not more so.

'I really hope Loki has a plan to get us out of here' Peter thought as he scanned the darkened corners of the hall they were in 'I really don't want to fight a mob of Dark Elves in this place where you can walk into a room of them and not even realize their there until they start attacking you'

Another thing that Peter hated about Dark Elf strongholds, was how quiet it was. Every footfall, no matter how quiet they were muffled because of Loki's spell, seemed to echo all around them. It also didn't help that the inside of these strongholds looked like some sort of horrific bug hive that was designed by Tim Burton. Which now that Peter thought about it, that sounded like an awesome movie to watch, it could be a sort of remake of 'A Bug's Life' or-

'Ooh, getting off topic' Peter thought with a shake of his head as he and the rest of the miss-mashed rescue team arrived at what looked like the fortress's main staircase, though it looked like an uneven, miss-paved ramp that happened to go up and down the place.

"Which way do we go now?" Thor said as he glanced towards Loki, as did the Warriors Three and Phil.

The dark haired Asgardian blinked at them "Why are you all looking at me?"

"Don't you usually prowl these places in your spare time?" Peter asked as he turned towards the deity "You know, in between figuring out which goddesses' hair to shave off and what kind of animal you want to turn into"

"First of all... I only did those once" Loki said with a glare of annoyance towards Peter before he turned to the rest "And second of all, I avoid Dark Elf strongholds of any type as much as I reasonably can-"

"They'll be held in one of the lower dungeons, likely somewhere close to a mistletoe grove, if they have one, to help better counteract the Vanir magics that the Valkyries employ" Sif revealed as she stared down the darkened 'stair case' with narrowed eyes.

Everyone turned towards the daughter of Tyr with varying looks of surprise.

"Lady Sif, how do you know this?" Thor asked with a raised brow.

"What, you moonlight Dark Elf castles in your spare time?" Peter asked with a snort as he imagined the deadly woman wandering through Dark Elf strongholds when she's bored.

"Know thy enemy and you will always know where to strike" Sif answered as she regarded them all coolly.

Phil made a confused grunt as he looked towards Peter for an answer who responded with a shrug "Hey, beats me what she means by that"

"I think she's implying that she's studied and faced the Dark Elves enough to understand how they act and think" Donna stated, causing Sif to nod.

"Correct" the dark haired goddess said as she eyed donna up and down for a moment "It's nice to see the fabled Amazons of Themyscira possess a wit of intelligence"

"Thank you" Donna said with a grin before it faltered as the rest of Sif's words registered "I think...?"

Without another word Sif began her descent into the dark catacombs of the Dark Elves fortress with everyone else filing in from behind. It was unnerving, moving through such a dark and silent space to many in the group. Peter and Loki's eyes kept darting from one darkened corner to another while Thor and the Warriors' Three kept firm grips on their weapons, ready to be brought up in a moment's notice. Donna and Phil were the most relaxed of the bunch, mainly due to Donna's inexperience with Dark Elves while Phil couldn't smell or hear anything nearby to warrant notice.

"How far do you think this place goes?" Donna asked as she risked a glance over the edge of the stair case and gazed down into the depths below, her eyes unable to find a bottom.

"For miles in some cases" Peter answered as he fell back next to Donna "Dark Elves prefer living underground if they can. Not big fans of open skies"

"Why? Are they afraid of something that can fly, or perhaps the sun or some other celestial body?" Donna asked.

Peter's response was a shrug "That's just how they developed. Like why ants build their hives underground, or bees in trees"

"That describes the Elves perfectly" Loki chuckled as he suddenly appeared beside Peter, causing the near thousand year old man to lash out in surprise.

"Can you not do that?" Peter hissed in annoyance "Next time you do, I'm punching you off these stairs and into the pit we're above"

Phil let out a low growl of approval as he glared at the Nordic god with narrowed eyes. Loki gave both Peter and Phil amused looks before shooting Donna a sly wink as he suddenly appeared beside Thor, causing the large deity to chuckle and give the slimmer god a brotherly pat on the back. Donna giggled at their antics before she felt a chill crawl up her spine, as if something was watching her.

She made to look for the source of her sudden discomfort when she suddenly felt Peter grab her hand, causing her to blush as he leaned in towards her.

"Don't..." Peter whispered as he gently released Donna's hand.

"What is it?" Donna asked in a equally low tone.

Ahead, she noticed that everyone had grown noticeably more tense as they approached a platform that broke off into a dimly lit hall.

"We're being watched" Peter said as they and the rest left the stair case and entered the hall.

"Is it the Dark Elves?" Donna asked.

"Probably" Peter said with a slight nod as he noticed how tense Phil was and slowly reached over to pat the massive lion on the head.

"If it is, why aren't they attacking?" Donna asked with confusion.

"They want us to go deeper" Peter said in a tone filled with dread "There's really only one way out for us and that's back the way we came and they know that. So, their just gonna let us get deeper and deeper into this place and when they think we're far enough in, than they'll attack. Usually in numbers that ratio out around twenty for every person in our group"

"Rhea..." Donna said with wide eyes.

"Yeah..." Peter said with a sigh "Fun times ahead"

"The Valkyries are just ahead" Loki suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to stop and look at him with varying forms of confusion.

"How do you know that?" Volstagg asked with disbelief evident in his tone.

Loki's response was to point up towards the ceilings, causing everyone to follow his finger and see several green veins growing along the surface.

"Mistletoe" the trickster explained with a grin "Lady Sif was correct in that the Dark Elves will place the former Vanir warriors somewhere were their magics will be rendered useless. And the farther we go down this tunnel, the thicker and more numerous the veins grow, meaning-"

"We're getting close" Hogun finished as he stared up at the vein with vague interest, his grip on his mace tightening to the point his knuckles were turning white "The Dark Elves will attack soon. Likely when we've either freed or located the Valkyries to make fighting them off all the more difficult"

"My thoughts exactly" Loki nodded as he gestured for everyone to follow him "Keep your guard up"

"No I thought I'd let it slip and totally relax now that we're closing in on what we came ere for in the first place" Peter said in a sarcastic tone.

This earned a glare of mild annoyance from Loki as they continued farther and farther down the tunnel. The mistletoe vein above them continued to grow in size and what could only be described as branches began to emerge and hang above the warriors as it were some sort of canopy of trees. Phil paused to sniff at a piece of mistletoe that fell to the floor before he made a hissing sound and batted the branch away with a growl.

"Not your kind of catnip, huh boy?" Peter said as he kneeled down and rubbed Phil's chin.

Phil made a growling sound as he licked at his paw before letting out another hiss. Peter frowned and glanced down to see the paw Phil used to swipe that branch was now sporting a small but obviously deep cut.

'Guess Vanir magic isn't the only thing mistletoe affects...' Peter thought as he glanced back the way they came to see if any Dark Elves following them had noticed Phil's injury.

The last thing he needed was for the damnable things to start brining in mistletoe arrows and spears to use on Phil.

With another pat on Phil's head, Peter stood up and the two followed their Asgardian allies and Donna towards a chamber at laid at the end of the hall. The entrance was blocked by two very large and very tall doors of dark metal, the surface covered in spikes to keep someone from just pushing it open without risk to harming themselves. It was quickly decided that this was where the Valkyries were being held on account the mistletoe above them seemed to converge the most around the doors and likely the room inside.

"How do you suppose we get through this?" Fandral said as he kicked one of the door's spikes with the tip of his boot "Knock it down?"

"Won't that be a little loud?" Donna asked.

"What's the point in secrecy anymore? The Dark Elves know we're here and undoubtedly know why now" Thor said as he eyed the door with narrowed eyes, his grip on Mjölnir firm as he looked for a good spot to hit.

"I'd rather not risk alerting whatever Dark Elves may be inside to our presence and force them to kill the Valkyries" Sif said as she looked for a way to open the doors with a little more tact aside from bashing hem open. She casted a quick glance at Loki and pointed towards the doors "Get to it trickster"

"What's the magic word?" Loki teased before his grin fell at the sudden presence of Sif's blade held up to his throat.

"Now!" the war goddess demanded "It's your fault we're here in the first place"

"Like you needed a actual excuse to come to this place" Loki said with a eye roll as he reached up and pushed Sif's blade away and approached the doors "Give me a minute..."

"Do you think he can open the with magic?" Donna said with some doubt in her voice "If this door is holding the Valkyries, it's likely heavily protected with various spells to ensure they can't get out easily"

"They likely are, but Loki isn't considered one of the greatest mages in all the nine realms for nothing" Peter said as he folded his arms across his chest "Even if I think Odin is a superior mage in terms of skill and knowledge"

Now if only the old paranoid bastard could be as humble and kind as great his power was...

'Maybe he'd be able to keep a wife for longer than a few centuries' Peter thought before he glanced at Loki and Thor and his expression grew more sympathetic 'And they'd have a reason to spend any descent period of time in Asgard outside of gathering supplies in preparation for their next 'adventure''

If people thought Zeus was a bad parent, they hadn't seen Odin in action. The man could make even the likes of Cronus seem like father of the year material in comparison.

"Have you ever met the Valkyries?" Donna asked, drawing Peter from his thoughts.

"Not in person" Peter said with a shake of his head "I try to avoid the Nordic Gods when I can"

"Why?" Donna asked with a confused smile on her face "They don't seem to be that bad"

"Thor and his people aren't, no..." Peter said with a sigh "But the rest of them are"

Donna frowned at this before her attention was dragged back to the doors as they began to groan and shake before they slowly opened, all the while Loki stepped back and gave them all a bow.

"Open says me" he said with a confident smirk.

"Congratulations Loki, you opened a door" Peter said with a snort "Centuries of deep and intensive study under the greatest sorcerers and sorceresses have finally paid off"

"I didn't see you offering any help" Loki said with a scowl of annoyance as Thor and the Warriors Three passed him and entered the room, their weapons at the ready.

"It's like the Lady Sif here said..." Peter replied as he passed the God with a pat on the shoulder with Phil right on his heels "It's your fault, so you have to fix it"

Loki scowled at the man before he noticed Sif was looking at him with a raised brow. With a grunt he followed after the others until only Donna and Sif remained outside for a moment before they too followed their male companions.

The first thing to hit Donna was the smell of the room. It had to be without a doubt the most vile and putrid thing she's ever had the misfortune of breathing in her entire existence. It was like someone took a half rotted whale carcass, mixed it with Troll piss and left it out to rot in a swamp for a few days before they added a few piles of Nemean Lion crap to balance it all out.

'By the Gods of Olympus, was is that smell?' Donna thought with a gag before she saw the source of the undesirable aroma.

Scattered across the floor were hundreds upon hundreds of fingers and toes while entire arms and legs hung from above on barbed chains, still dripping with blood. The walls were covered in half rotted skeletons of what she assumed were previous victims of the Dark Elves, most of whom were missing their arms and legs. And lying chained to the ground in the center of the large room, were nine women with large bird like wings attached to their backs.

For a moment Donna mistook them for harpies.

"Are... are they-" Donna began before Sif answered.

"Yes" the goddess said with a look of displeasure on her face as she stepped on a few severed fingers that crumbled under her weight 'Vile beasts, don't even have the courtesy of cleaning up after themselves'

Unlike many of her fellow Asier, Sif didn't hate the Dark Elves because they were Elves, she hated how barbaric they were. Their fortresses more often than not seemed to double as slaughter houses for whatever was unfortunate enough to become imprisoned there. The smell alone was going to take days to wash away and twice as long for her to look at any sort of cooked meat and not see a dismembered, bloodied, limb of some sort.

Suddenly Sif's back straightened and she turned on her heel to stare out the door they came through with cold narrowed eyes, her hand drifting to the handle of her blade.

As Sif watched the door for any signs of the Dark Elves, Peter made his way over to Loki while the rest of their company moved to free the Valkyries from their prison, though Peter coudlnt help but wonder if any of them were still alive. He's seen corpses without their skin and faces have better chances of recovering than some of these Valkyries did.

"How many were taken?" Peter whispered towards Loki.

"Only nine" the Trickster replied with a frown "Then again, there's only nine, so all of them really"

"So few?" Peter said with a raised brow before he glanced back at the chained warrior women as one by one they were freed by Thor and the Warrior's Three "I really hope these guys make up a lot for such low numbers"

"They do... mostly" Loki responded with a sly grin as they watched Donna and Phil, though mostly Donna, move to help Thor, Volstagg and Fandral break the winged women's chains.

Phil seemed to notice their feathered wings and looked at them in a way that reminded Peter of a cat eyeing a little canary bird. He hoped the oversized lion didn't try to eat one of them, the last thing he needed was all of Asgard calling for his head because one of their supposed ultimate warriors got eaten by a curious mythological feline.

'Just my luck if that happens' Peter thought with a sigh as he watched Phil sniff at one of the chained Valkyries before he shook his head and made a grunting sound that sounded like something Peter's seen him make when offered something green and leafy instead of red and bloodied.

It appeared that whatever the Valkyries were made up didn't seem appetizing to Phil... one potential disaster avoided, at any rate.

"So now what?" Peter said as he watched Thor and Volstagg continued to rip off the chains that held the Valkyries in place while Hogun had joined watching the entryway with Sif while Fandral-

"My, my, my, such a waste to have beauties' such as yourselves locked away in such a manner" the blonde haired God said in what Peter supposed was a soothing tone to the warrior women "Do not fear, for I and the Warrior's Three have arrived with brave Thor to aid thee..."

"First, we shall watch Fandral attempt to woo the Valkyries" Loki said as he and Peter and said Asier try and fail to rouse any sort of interest from the half starved, half beaten women "After that, we backtrack through the way we came and hope that the Dark Elves haven't mustered a large enough force to-"

"YOU!" a snarl echoed from the other end of the chamber.

Peter and Loki turned to see the Valkyrie that Donna and Phil were freeing was up and pointing towards the Trickster God with a glare that could freeze fire cold. Peter took a few steps away from the green eye god as the Valkyrie stomped towards him, her wings fluttering and bits of feathers falling off like dead leaves. She was beautiful once, but her time with the Dark Elves had left her scarred and looking more like a corpse than anything else.

Peter had to hold back a snicker of amusement at the irony of a Valkyrie looking more like a corpse than the souls they were charged to guide to Valhalla.

"Ah Sigrún, how are-" Loki began but was cut off by a viscous right hook to the face that sent him flying to the ground with a sickening crack.

Peter winced at the sound of Loki's skull cracking from both the Valkyrie's punch and the force he hit the ground. Loki made a pained sound as he tried to push himself back to his feet before Sigrún pinned him to the floor with her foot on his chest and a snarl etched on her face.

"It's because of you my sisters and I were taken by these vile beasts!" she hissed, pushing down with all her strength.

"I... may have... miscalculated... on my... plan" Loki choked out as he tired to move Sigrún's foot.

"MISCALCULATED?!" Sigrún all but shrieked before her eyes narrowed and it looked she was about to strangle Loki before Thor was beside her, a hand on her shoulder.

"Hold Sigrún..." the God of Thunder said towards the shaking Valkyrie "At least until we are free of this place. Than you may exact your vengeance upon him"

The leader of the Valkyries turned towards Thor for a moment with narrowed eyes before she removed her foot from Loki and stepped away from the groaning God. Loki looked to be on the verge of a smart comment before Peter shot a glob of web over his mouth to silence him. Last thing he needed was for his, Phil and Donna's only way back to Themyscira beaten to death by a pissed off winged Vanir Goddess.

'Wait, are Valkyries even considered Vanir anymore?' Peter thought while Loki glared at him as he ripped the webbing from his mouth.

"That was uncalled for" he stated.

"I beg to differ" Peter said before he turned towards Sigrún and the rest of the Valkyries "Are any of you fit to travel? It's a bit of a walk back to where we came through and the Dark Elves are liekly to be fighting us every step of the way"

"We'll be fine" Sigrún answered for herself and the rest of the Valkyries present before she glared at Loki.

"Good..." Thor said with a nod and a grin as he held up his hammer, it's surface crackling with electricity "Once we've dealt with the Dark Elves we can return to Asgard"

"Uh, what?" Peter said as he turned towards the large God with a confused look on his face "What do you mean deal with the Dark Elves?"

Thor gave Peter a confused look "Was what I said not clear?"

Peter shook his head "No, I heard what you said. What I'm trying to understand is, why the hell you want to pick a fight with them in the first place. We have the Valkyries and so far the Dark Elves haven't attacked us yet. We should use this opportunity to get the hell out of here now while we can!"

"And let these vile animals go free after what they've done?" Fandral said with an incredulous look on his face.

Peter noticed a more than a few of the Valkyries looked eager to find their former captives and tear them apart. Hogun's expression was unreadable though Volstagg seemed to be of a similar mindset as Thor and Fandral. Sif, he noticed, was still watching the doorway with her hand resting on the handle of her sword. Donna was watching the entire scene with a confused expression on her face while Phil was looking at the Valkyries like they were an exotic bird he wanted to try and bat around and see what happens since he couldn't eat them.

'Guess I'm on my own at the moment' Peter thought with a sigh before he turned his attention towards Thor while he gestured towards the Valkyries with his hand "Thor, look at them. Half of them look like their one breeze away from being knocked over"

"How dare you!" one of the Valkyries snarled, her once golden colored hair now stringy and pale white. She took a threatening step forward before her leg buckled and she nearly fell face first if not for several of her sisters grabbing her and keeping her steady on her feet.

Peter kept his gaze on Thor "They wont survive this fight Thor. Not in their condition. We need to get them out of here and to a healer"

"We're fine" Sigrún scoffed as she glared at Peter "We are not some weak willed mortals that are rendered useless because of a bit of torturing by these barbaric vermin. We are the finest warriors in all of Asgard and-"

"And yet you still needed help breaking free of the Dark Elves prisons'" Peter interrupted as he pointed towards the chains that bounded the immortal warrior women.

Sigrún's response was a growl as Peter glanced at Thor "What's more important Thor? Fighting a bunch of Dark Elves who aren't likely to be going anywhere anytime soon, or getting the reason we're even here in the first place out of here and to somewhere they can recover?"

Peter watched as the God of Thunder mulled over Peter's words before the sound of a sword being drawn drew his and everyone else's attention to Sif. She was holding her drawn blade tightly as she stared at the doorway with a blank expression on her face.

"Their coming" she said.

"Who?" Fandral asked as he drew his own weapon, as did the rest of the Warrior's Three and Donna.

"Who do you think?" Sif answered with a scoff.

Thor's grip tightened on Mjölnir while Loki simply twirled his scepter while the blue stone within it began to glow brighter. Peter could feel a buzzing at the base of his skull as his hearing picked up the very faint sounds of what he thought was the wings that Dark Elves used to fly and various grunts, growls and the sounds of armor clinking together.

Peter slowly made his way over towards Donna while Phil crouched low to the ground and began to growl, his tail twitching and his teeth barred.

"Stay close to me" Peter whispered towards the Amazon as she and the others could not clearly hear the Dark Elves coming closer.

"I'm more than capable of taking care of myself" Donna whispered back with some annoyance in her voice.

"Yes but if you end up dead or crippled, who do you think will be the one telling your mother and aunt? I don't know about you, but that's a conversation I'd rather avoid having if I want to live" Peter said dryly as he drew his own swords just as the Dark Elves suddenly rushed into the room.

Having never seen a Dark Elf before, Donna wasn't quite sure what to expect from them. Just seeing their architecture, the way they treated the Valkyries and the world they grew up in, she knew they were viscous and possibly even malevolent to some degree.

But she wasn't expecting them to look so... bug like.

They stood around the same height as most of the men present barring Loki and Thor, who not only towered over just about everyone aside from his brother, but possessed more mass than Hogun and Fandral put together. Their skin was a dark grey and even black color with some, allowing them to effortlessly blend in with the shadows of their fortress while their odd assortment of leather, bone and metal armors made them seem larger than they actually were.

"FOR ASGARD!" Volstagg yelled as he held his ax up and charged towards the Dark Elves along with Hogun and Fandral while Thor leaped over them with a yell, his hammer glowing with lightning.

Sif stayed where she was and simply cleaved the first two Dark Elves that approached her clean in two just as Thor landed in the midst of their party and slammed his legendary hammer into the ground.

Before Peter could even comprehend what Thor did, the whole room was covered in a ominous blue and white light followed by a thunderous boom that Peter felt to the core of his very being...

...

Few things Hippolyta worried as much as the sudden disappearance of any of her beloved daughters, this time being her second eldest child, Donna.

The Amazon Queen had wished to have lunch with her and speak of the up coming festival when she was told by Donna's instructors that she had gone off to visit Peter and deliver him a gift sent from Diana. Hearing her daughter was with Peter had somewhat calmed Hippolyta's growing concern a fair bit until the sun began to set and her child had still yet to return from visiting Peter. When Hippolyta had mentioned this to her sister, Antiope had joked that perhaps Peter was getting as acquainted with her as he had with them when he was last in Themyscira...

"I mean can you blame her dear sister?" Antiope said as she laid on Hippolyta's bed with a small glass of wine in her hands "He's the first man she's ever seen aside from Ares, if you want to consider that animal a man in any sense, and after watching Peter take me in the jungle like a whore starved for a good rut, her curiosity likely has got the better of her. Gods knows ours did when we were her age"

"But this is Donna we're talking about" Hippolyta said as she paced back and forth with a worried frown on her face "This is much more akin to Diana and even Cassie to some extent than her"

"Runs in the family, I've noticed" Antiope teased her sister with a grin that Hippolyta didn't return.

The lack of a response caused the white haired beauty to roll her eyes and down the last of her wine before she set the glass down on the small nightstand by the bed and stood up.

"Come now Hippolyta, you don't think Peter would do anything inappropriate to her, do you?" Antiope asked with a raised brow "He had plenty of opportunities with Diana whenever she snuck out to train and spend time with him when she thought we didn't notice"

"Him, no..." Hippolyta said with a shake of her head before she came to a stop and slowly turned towards her sister with growing fear on her face "But there are others out there that would..."

Antiope's brow furrowed at this before her eyes widened slightly "You think Ares may have done something?"

"It's possible" Hippolyta said as she glanced out towards the horizon as the sun began to set "With him now free, and most of his power having since returned to him, it's only a matter of time until he retaliated against us. What better way than to attack one of my children for killing his all those years ago?"

"What makes you think he'll attack one of your daughters?" Antiope asked with a raised brow "They aren't your only children"

"No... they aren't. But Jason's existence is only known to us and those that were there that night" Hippolyta said with a frown "And I made sure those guards were never assigned to watch Ares on the very slim chance they did slip up and he found out about him"

"He'll find out eventually sister. Be it tomorrow or a hundred years from now. Secrets do not stay buried forever. Not these kind" Antiope warned.

"True, but both know he won't risk invoking Hephaestus's wrath by attacking his forges on the off chance he does find out about Jason" Hippolyta reasoned.

Ares was still to hated by many of his fellow Gods on Olympus and attacking anther will be all the reason many will need to cast the bastard into the depths of Tartarus where Hippolyta believed he should've gone long ago.

'But damn Hera and her warped sense of maternal instincts' Hippolyta thought privately.

Admittedly she'd likely have made the same decisions if she and one of her children were placed in a similar situation but they weren't and that was all that mattered.

Antiope watched as her sister returned to pacing, her expression growing more and more worried by the minute. With a slight shake of her head, Antiope turned and made her way tot he door, causing Hippolyta to stop and glance at her with confusion.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm taking Zarda to see just how far Peter and my dear niece have gotten, if they've gotten anywhere at all" Antiope responded as she glanced back at Hippolyta "If all is well, she and Zarda will be back before midnight"

"And what about you?" Hippolyta asked with a raised brow as she folded her arms under her bust.

"I'll be indulging myself with Peter" Antiope answered with a slight shrug before a coy grin grew on her face "And if Aphrodite is generous, perhaps I'll have my lovely niece and her beloved help me. Gods knows you and I on our own were reaching our end while that beast of a man was just starting to hit his stride"

"And here I thought you'd be waiting until the festival of Diana to do so..." Hippolyta said with a shake of her head "I thought we agreed to leave him be until Diana returns and she has a chance to speak with him about her affections for him"

"I remember making no such promise" Antiope answered with a chuckle as she slipped out of Hippolyta's room "Sleep well sister"

"I'll sleep well wen I know the fate of my second eldest daughter" Hippolyta said as she made her way to her bed and sat on the edge and ran her hands through her hair in frustration "Donna better be well Peter... or I'll personally make you regret ever stepping foot on this island"

That was a mother's promise.

...

"This... is... bull... shiiiiiit!" Peter yelled over the various screeches, moans, roars, yells and booms of thunder as he sent both of his swords clean through a Dark Elf's chest.

The insectoid like being let out a startled grunt of sorts as pale white blood dripped from it's chest before Peter tore the blades through and scissor cut it's head off. Kicking the now headless body aside, Peter frantically searched the room for Phil and Donna, their safety his number one priority. Phil wasn't hard to find, he was busy swatting at a few Dark Elves that were trying and failing to pierce his hide with their crude spears while Donna was in the midst of a fierce duel with a Dark Elf that was using it's ability to fly to gain somewhat of an advantage over the clearly stronger woman.

The young Amazon knocked Dark Elf's spear aside with her shield when it made a jab at her, causing it to drift forward close enough for Donna's sword to find it's way home in it's partially covered gut. With a yell, Donna kicked the Dark Elf off before she turned and blocked another Dark Elf's hammer from caving her head in before she responded with a quick slash across it's throat, spilling white blood on to her arm and her legs before it collapsed with a gurgle. Peter was a bit surprised when she didn't even so much as bat an eye at the dying Dark Elf and quickly moved on to the next one.

While she didn't exactly scream 'newbie' when it came to actual live or die combat, she didn't strike Peter as a ruthless veteran with a dozen battles under her belt. Aside from the Maki not to long ago, Peter couldn't see how she learned to fight so well and be so comfortable with death.

'If we get out of this, maybe I'll ask' Peter thought as he ducked and side stepped several ax swings towards him before he stabbed one of his swords into the Dark Elf's foot before letting go of the handle and delivering a powerful uppercut that sent it flying into the air before a blast from Loki's scepter reduced it to ashes.

Arachne's champion risked a glance towards Asgard's resident pain in the ass and saw Loki blasting Dark Elves left and right, his scepter's gem glowing like a miniature sun while his green eyes burned like emerald flames. It was times like this that reminded Peter that despite Loki's seemingly easy going and mischievous nature, lurked a highly skilled and lethal battle mage.

Though at the rate Dark Elves were dying around the man, butcher seemed more fitting.

'I'm still gonna ick the crap out of him for dragging me out here' Peter thought as he shot numerous web lines towards several flying Dark Elves and pulled them down towards the ground and on to their fellow Elves.

So far, from what Peter could tell, the battle was going... well it wasn't going against them, but they weren't winning either. It seemed for every Dark Elf that was slain, five more appeared to take it's place. Thankfully, at least in Peter's opinion, the Elves seemed more interested in trying to kill Loki and Thor and were thus sending less against the likes of Peter, Sif, the Warriors Three and Donna and Phil.

'Wait, where's the Valk-' Peter thought before suddenly the upper half of a Dark Elf's torso flew past him and slammed into the wall with a sickening 'crack'.

Peter turned to see that some of the Dark Elves had decided to try their luck with the recently freed Valkyries. For a bunch of half starved looking women that looked like they were one strong breeze away from being knocked over, they were holding their own pretty well against the Dark Elves attacking them. In fact, Peter was beginning to wonder if he should be helping them fight the Valkyries instead of the other way around, give the violent bastards a snow ball's change in hell of being even.

"Ah who m I kidding? They'll find a way to win... little cheaters" Peter said as he turned and grabbed a spear thrust by a Dark Elf.

With a flick of the wrist, Peter tore the spear out of the Dark Elf's hands before he slammed the shaft against it's head, sending it spiraling to the ground before he kicked it away from him and right into another several that were rushing towards him.

"AHHHH!"

Peter's head snapped towards the owner of the scream and felt his eyes widen as he saw that it was Donna, clutching her arm which was now dripping with blood from two very deep cuts just below her shoulder. In a blur Peter raced towards the wounded Amazon, punching, kicking, cutting and stabbing any Dark Elf that got in his way until he was beside the young woman. The Dark Elf that wounded her, armed with a cruel looking ax, received a face full of webbing before Peter kicked it in the chest with enough force to shatter it's bone like armor and send it towards Phil who quickly swatted the Elf out of the air.

"Donna, you okay?" Peter said as he turned his attention to Donna and gently grabbed her arm and tried his best to examine it.

"It burns!" Donna hissed out through clenched teeth as sweat began to trickle down her face.

"Crap..." Peter said with dread in his tone as he reached up and cupped Donna's chin and turned her head slightly to see her skin was starting to turn red "Double crap"

"What's wrong?" Donna asked as she started to find it hard to breath.

"Oh nothing" Peter said as he released Donna's chin and quickly scanned the battle for Loki "It's just you might've been poisoned and are about to go into shock and die not long after"

"WHAT!?" Donna said with wide terrified eyes.

"Don't worry, I have an idea!" Peter said as he spotted Loki in the midst of the fighting and quickly shot a web line towards the Trickster when he saw a opening.

Loki let out a less than dignified yelp as Peter yanked him towards himself and Donna. The fact Loki had slammed into several Dark Elves was purely a happy coincidence as far as Peter was concerned. When Odin's second son landed with a faint 'thud' Pete quickly pulled the God to his feet and gestured to Donna and gave him a quick run down of what happened to her and her symptoms.

"So, got anything that can help her?" Peter asked as he turned and shot more web bullets and web lines towards the advancing Dark Elves, pinning them to each other and the floor, making them easier targets for Thor and the others.

"Yes, we kill her and offer her entrails to the Dark Elves as a form of trade" Loki said with a serious expression on her face.

Peter gaped at the answer while Donna paled and looked to be on the verge of fainting before Loki broke out into a fit of laughter.

"I'm jesting, yes I have something that'll help with the poison" Loki said as he brought his scepter up as the stone it held began to glow.

Donna swallowed nervously as she watched Loki's eyes begin to glow green with small runic like veins appearing along his eyes and around his mouth as h began to mutter in a language she never heard before. Then she felt a cold icy sensation fill her arm a d begin to travel up towards her shoulder before it began to spread throughout the rest of her body. Before Donna could say anything, her eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed into Loki's arms. Peter glanced back to see how Loki's treatment of Donna was going and gaped at the sight of the young Amazon being cradled in Loki's arms.

"The hell did you do to her?!" Peter asked as he slammed his fist into a Dark Elf that tired to impale him on a crude spear.

"I flooded her body with the waters of-" Loki began before he shook his head "I healed her and the spell I used requires she be passed out for it to work"

"What kind of spell is that?!" Peter demanded before he was tackled to the ground by a Dark Elf that was trying to bite his throat out.

Peter brought his armored arm up and placed it between himself and the Dark Elf's jaws, causing it's teeth to bite into the enchanted metal rather than his neck. With a grunt, Arachne's champion rolled them over so that he was lying on top of the Dark Elf and began to push down until he heard and felt a 'crack' in the Dark Elf's jaw.

"The kind that'll work" Loki said as he gently picked Donna up and looked towards Thor "Brother, if you'd be so kind to clear us a path! We need to leave, now!"

Thor paused in bringing his hammer down on a beaten and bloodied Dark Elf and nodded at his brother's words before he turned towards the doorway the Dark Elves were still pouring through and began to spin Mjölnir around by the small leather strap attached at the base of the handle. The result was a powerful vortex of wind that blew through the horde of Dark Elves, sending them flying in various directions and creating a opening large for the Asgardians and their Olympian based allies.

"Run!" Loki said as he mentally took command of his scepter and had it hover around him and shoot at any Dark Elves that drew to close.

He quickly rushed through the opening that Thor was able to make and out into the dark halls with Donna held securely in his arms.

"Asgards greatest warriors do not run from a fight!" Sigrún yelled as she snapped the neck of a Dark Elf before she brought her heel down on it's head after it slumped to the ground, crushing it's skull and sending brain matter and bone fragments flying.

"Well your gonna be Asgard's greatest corpse if you and your gal pals don't get moving!" Peter said as he raced over to Phil and pried him off a Dark Elf he was feeding on and dragged him after Loki "Come on Phil, time to leave!"

Phil's response was a growl of disproval as he licked his lips clean of the blood of Dark Elf before he reluctantly followed after Peter. Sigrún watched the man in black armor depart after Loki and the dark haired girl before she glanced at her sisters and gestured for them to follow, loath as they were to leave before they finished killing their former captors. Sif noticed their departure and quickly finished off her opponents and followed after them while Thor and the Warrior's Three covered their escape.

But if the distant howls and screams were anything to go by, the battle to escape Svartalfheim was just beginning...

...

And done.

Next chapter, Diana and Betsy meet with Doctor Strange while Peter and co. find escaping from Svartalfheim is easier said than done...