I didn't open my eyes for a long time. I was putting all of my focus of the cube. The others kept asking me something, but I couldn't understand their muffled voices as I was completely engulfed in finding Hilde.

"Sammee, are you alright?" Fandral asked.

"What is she doing?" Volstagg questioned as he came over to stare at me as well, Hogun still recovering from the things the Sceer made him hear.

"I think she's trying to use the cube to find the Valkyrie." Sif told them

"She couldn't have done that before?" Volstagg asked in a half grumble, half whine. It was quiet between the three while they watch my veins glow with power.

"Should we stop her, yet?" Fandral asked and scratched his head.

"I don't think we should touch her, especially if she teleports to the Valkyrie." Sif responded, causing both Fandral and Volstagg to look at her with furrowed brows and confusion.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't we want to be touching her if she teleported again? If we aren't, we can't go with her." Fandral pointed out.

"Ya, this whole journey was to protect her and help her find the Valkyrie. We can't do that if she teleports away." Volstagg said and held his hand out to touch me, but Sif stopped him.

"She's going into Sceer territory," Sif told them. Volstagg immediately retracted his hand.

"She'll be killed!" Fandral exclaimed and took a step toward Sif.

"She knows." She said. "I already explained it to her, but she's determined and it looks like Valkyrie is in its territory."

"Then, she's already dead." Volstagg shook his head slowly.

"How do we stop her?" Fandral asked.

"Knock her out." Volstagg suggested. Before anyone could move to act, a wormhole opened behind him and sucked him into it before closing, Volstagg reappearing back inside the palace walls.

"Oh, shit-" Fandral said, sucking in a breath. "No touchy, got it." He nodded. "Where the hel did he go?" He asked Sif.

"Like I have a clue?" Sif hissed at him.

As I continued to focus, I started to feel everything like a living, breathing organism. The cube was connected to all of it.

An Image popped into my head and then moved in fast forward as I searched the forest for Hilde. I was getting impatient. I still wasn't finding her. I searched caves, treetops, waterfalls, meadows, still nothing... until I came across another cave on the opposite end of the forest, in Sceer territory.

The image stopped on the cave and I saw her, laying on the ground with blood surrounding her.

"Found her." I whispered before opening a wormhole and being sucked in... but not before a hand clamped onto my shoulder. The wormhole snapped shut behind us and we reappeared near the cave Hilde was being kept in. I turned just in time to see Fandral vomit his guts up.

"It doesn't get any better." He groaned as he gasped for breath.

""You weren't supposed to come with me." I stated. "I can send you back to the palace." I offered and walked up to him.

"No, no, I meant to come." Fandral assured me. "I'm not letting a pretty face die alone." He smirked pitifully, but I still smiled back.

"You think we're going to die, yet you still came?" I asked and put the tesseract back into the box.

"I know we're going to die, but yes, I did." He told me before leaning over and vomiting again.

"Ok," I sighed and pet the back of his head to help give him something else to focus on other than the nausea. Within a few minutes, he was good to go on.

"So, where is she?" Fandral asked. I pointed in front of us.

"The cave in this giant rock hill ." I told him and handed him the metal box to hold on to, pointing to the large rock formation as I did. "We just need to find the entrance. She's right at the opening." I said and started to walk to the side of the rock formation.

"Why didn't you take us directly to the cave opening?" He questioned.

"I would have, but when you grabbed me I had to change our trajectory. I had no idea what we would be getting into and no idea who grabbed me. For all I knew, it was Volstagg and he would have been sick again. You can't fight if your puking your guts up." I explained to him as we continued walking.

"Oh..." he said awkwardly, "thanks, then."

I didn't answer, but I nodded in acknowledgment. We reached the rock formation and started walking along the wall to find the cave. We walked for a while. I was tempted just to teleport and have Fandral catch up, but that wouldn't be smart. Going off alone is how I ran into the Sceer. Being alone was a bad idea. Leaving Fandral alone was even worse.

"We don't have long until nightfall." Fandral told me. I hummed in response and looked up at the little light shining through the canopy. I couldn't imagine how dark it was when the sun finally decided to go down. "Only about an hour to and hour and a half." He continued. I didn't answer that time and went back to looking ahead.

Another ten minutes went by in silence and I could feel Fandral's nerves as he looked over our surroundings and gripped his sword, not pulling it free of its sheath, yet. We both let out a breath of air when we saw the cave opening, but we sucked another tense breath in when we saw the blood.

"Shit," I whispered and took out two throwing knives.

"Stay behind me." Fandral stupidity said and pushed me behind him.

"I don't need you to protect me when I can teleport away. Plus, you have the cube." I scolded him. Fandral stopped his 'sneaking' and stood there for a moment.

"Oh, yeah." He said before moving again. I rolled my eyes at him, but let him go first to make him feel better. At least, until I heard a pained cry and teleported into the cave.

"Sam-"

"Hilde!" I whispered shouted and ran over to her, dropping my blades to the ground. Her wrists were chained together and anchored to the cave wall, There was blood everywhere. Luckily, it wasn't all hers. Three palace guards laid dismembered around the cave, along with a few other creatures.

"No, no, you shouldn't be here. You need to leave." Hilde groaned out desperately and tried to push me away. I ignored her and looked at the wound in her side that poured blood. "Angel, please!" She begged me. I ignored her again as I turned to look for a key to unlock her cuffs. She was already pale and sweating. I wouldn't doubt that her wound was infected.

"Which guard had your key?" I asked while I continue to look.

"Angel-"

"Keys, Hilde!" I almost shouted.

"Leave," Was all she told me, so instead I sat crisscross and stared at her.

"You have two options." I told her. "The first is to tell me which one had the keys. The second is to not tell me and we will all wait right here for our death." I explained. "You pick." I told her and crossed my arms to wait. Hilde smirked.

"I missed you." She said before turning her head and gesturing to one of the guards. "That ugly bastard over there." Hilde told me. I didn't waste time as I moved over to him and looked over his corpse. His helmet was still on, but it didn't do him any good seeing how he was ripped in half. His legs were somewhere away from his top half.

"What happened here?" Fandral asked after looking over the massacre.

"Goblins happened." Hilde told him. "And then the Sceer happened."

"And which did that?" He asked and pointed at her side.

"Don't ask me stupid questions." Hilde winced at the pain.

"Got it!" I said as I stood up with a key ring and a bunch of keys. While I walked over to them, I answered Fandral's question. "If the Sceer did this to her, she wouldn't be alive right now."

"Right," Fandral nodded. "But that means there is still one in the area, so we need to leave."

Like his words spoke it into existence, an ominous feeing fell over us and Hilde yelled out.

"Close your eyes!" She said. All three of us instantly closed our eyes and stopped moving.

We knew immediately when the Sceer was around us. It felt like my soul was dying. Like I was being crushed, or couldn't breath. It was pure panic. I started shaking uncontrollably and was thankful that I was sitting down next to Hilde, who was trying not to gasp out due to pain.

"Sammee?" I heard Loki's voice say. "What the hel are you doing out in Sceer territory? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is out here?" He scolded me. "We need to get you out of here, now!" The Sceer told me using Loki's voice. I hadn't heard his voice up close in so long. It was cruel that the first time I did was an imitation. I missed him. "Keep your eyes closed, but put your hand out, so I can lead you."

It was tempting, but I knew better. I kept my hands down and my eyes shut. I waited for the Sceer to taunt me with something new, but it was quiet. I got increasingly more nervous the longer it was quiet because I could still feel it around me.

"It's gone." I heard Hilde sigh out in pain as her breathing came out shaky. "Let's get out of here before it comes back." She grunted. I went to open my eyes, but the air still felt ominous. I still felt death looking over my shoulder. "Sammee, can you-" Hilde started saying before a blood curdling scream ripped through the air. My hands clutched the keys tightly in my hand as I started to cry. Tears ran down my face, but I stayed silent. I had no way of knowing if Hilde was ok, or if she actually did open her eyes.

After what felt like an eternity, the feeling of death retreated. I still didn't open my eyes yet. I wanted to make sure. When a hand touch my shoulder, I almost screamed.

"It's just me, it's just me." Fandral told me. I let a shaky breath out, but had a hard time convincing myself to open my eyes and move again. "You're alright." Fandral sighed as he hugged me to him and pet my hair. "It wasn't real. Whatever it made you hear, it wasn't real." He said. I finally opened my eyes and hugged him back for a few seconds before remembering Hilde and pushing Fandral away.

"Open the box." I told him while I wiped away my tears and started going through the keys to find the one that fit the cuffs.

With shaky hands, I unlocked the cuffs and grabbed Hilde as she sagged forward. She was heavy, but not as heavy as I remembered her being. Either she had gotten lighter, or my sword training had made me a lot stronger.

"Fandral, come on." I said, waving him over. He took the few steps to get to me and held out the box containing the tesseract. I reached in and closed my eyes with a groan at the power that pulsed through me.

After a second, I reopened my eyes motioned for Fandral to touch my arm or something and, soon as he did, I opened the wormhole and brought us home.