"Don't you dare look out your window, darling every things on fire."
Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars
Tønsberg, Norway
March 1942
The whole village was shaking. Mothers and children scurried into their homes in a last-ditch attempt to save themselves from the inevitable. Tears streamed down the hard-worn faces of men because they failed to keep their families safe from the iron fist abroad. It was particularly frightening once some villagers glimpsed at the symbols on the tanks and cars. A red skull with six limbs told all those within the village that they had finally come for their best kept secret. A brave youth ran with all haste to the main clock tower in a vain attempt to warn the two protectors within. He knew that this incursion was different, simply based on the red symbols marring the metal moving towards the antique building.
"They've come for it!" he exclaimed bursting through the old oak doors and locking them behind him, as if that simple move will keep the intruders out. The tower itself was ancient and riddled with old Norse mythology, but it held one of the greatest secrets on Earth.
"They have before," the Keeper nonchalantly said as he descended the stairs from the upper keep. He himself wasn't worried, having not seen the symbols on the oncoming incursion. He thought that the decoys would be enough to stop them, and if that failed the Guardian would do what they was meant to do.
The youth, struggling for breath and clearly flustered didn't hold the same bravery that the Keeper did. "Not like this," he ground out towards the older man.
"Let them come," he spat out, "They'll never find it." He had a brave face, but it flickered away once the building began to shake and the doors began to bend. Suddenly the stone above and around the door gave way, falling down in a tidal wave of rocks. The youth was smothered under the weight instantly, but the Keeper was able to move out of the way of the onslaught. The Keeper saw a large metal contraption retract away from where the doorway once stood and a handful of men dressed in military garb rushed into the tower. One shoved him to the ground and held a gun to his head while four others quickly made their way to the tomb in the center of the tower. He could tell from the way that they spoke that they were German soldiers under the Nazi Reich.
The Keeper was scared but also relieved. These men began to push at the stone of the tomb while their superior yelled at them to hurry. The Keeper wanted the men to open the tomb, take the decoy, and leave. Many others had done the same and never returned, and if they did the Guardian took them out instantly. None of the men at the moment however were wearing a military insignia, which the Keeper thought was strange. Usually battalions of men would come and parade their alliance like a peacock- claiming the secret for one leader or another and he could guess that the Nazi were no different. These men were plainly dressed in military standard uniforms, but their accents gave them away. The superior kept yelling at them until a figure stood in the threshold and calmly made his way down towards the tomb. The Keeper didn't have to guess hard to know that this man was the platoons superior officer.
"It has taken me a long time to find this place," the figure said walking towards the Keeper. "You should be commended." Once the figure stepped into the light, the Keeper's heart plummeted. On the man's breast and hat sat a symbol that the old Keeper never hoped to see. He had heard rumors of a man who was so deeply invested in mythology that he practically considered himself to be a god. The Keeper knew that this was the very same man, and he also knew that if the decoy and Guardian were unable to stop him then the world had cause to fear. Johann Schmidt had come for the secret, and letting him get it would mean virtual annihilation.
"Help him up," Schmidt snapped at the guards behind the Keeper who roughly hauled him to his feet as Schmidt came to stand before him. "I think that you are a man of great vision, and in this way we are much alike," he said in a mocking tone.
"I am nothing like you," the Keeper spat out.
"Of course, but what other's see as superstition you and I know to be a science," Schmidt cooed to the older man. "You and I both also know about a deep secret that dwells here, yes?"
"What you seek is just a legend." The Keeper's voice was losing its strength and he began to waver under the intense, red-rimmed eyes of the Nazi Scientist.
"Then why make such efforts to conceal it?" Schmidt snapped, removing his hat and moving to stand in front of the tomb. With an inhuman amount of strength he pushed off the ancient stone lid, something three of his inferiors couldn't do minutes before. Gazing up at him through an empty skull was a knight clutching a small blue cube and a old bronze sword. His skeleton was covered in dust coated gold, but Schmidt clearly had his eyes on something else.
"The Tesseract was the jewel of Odin's treasure room," he said reaching in an grasping the small cube from the skeletal fingers. He suddenly dropped it and allowed it to shatter into a hundred small fragments at his feet. "It is not something one buries. But I think it is close, yes?" he asked the Keeper as he slowly moved to stand before him once more. The Keeper was reminded of a snake. They slither and at the last moment move to strike so fast that if you blink you'll miss it. Schmidt reminded him of a snake recoiling and getting ready to pounce.
"I cannot help you." The Keeper was unable to hide his fear anymore. Usually the decoy worked and the intruders would be on their way claiming victory and singing songs of future victories that would never come. He'd seen this with the First Great War, but it seemed that the fates were not on his side during the Second Great War.
"No, but maybe you can help your village?" The Keeper's heart plummeted again. His thoughts were racing as he was thinking about the fate of his beloved village where he was born and planned to die. From the baker that bakes his bread to the cobbler next door who fixed the sole of his shoe just last week, the Keeper was beginning to crack under fright. "I have no need for them to die." With those final words, the Keeper's resolve shattered into a hundred fragments, just like the decoy. He could only hope that at this point the Guardian would be enough to stop them.
As if answering the Keeper's silent prayer, a dark body dropped silently from the rafters onto the ground behind the Nazi soldiers. With much practice and well-placed hits, the shadowed figure began to take out the smaller soldiers one by one before any of them could fire a bullet. The bodies dropped to the ground in heaps as the figure continued to lithely move, covered from head to toe in black with a large cloak.
A soldier took aim at the figure and was about to pull the trigger before Schmidt cried out telling his men to hold their fire. Schmidt quickly pulled a small gun from his belt and fired two rounds at the figure. One found it's mark and the red dart stood out against the black shoulder. The Guardian stopped for a minute and let their guard down, but recovered quickly and landed a swift punch to the current soldier's face. They turned to face Schmidt and stared him down from behind the hood of the cloak— their face completely hidden.
"Ah the Guardian," Schmidt exclaimed with more happiness than necessary. With his soldiers littering the ground around him, he was more than excited to see the strong contender. With two more trigger-pulls, Schmidt fired two red darts into the figure's stomach. They wavered for a moment before falling to their knees with a hard thud. The Keeper rushed to their side and kept the Guardian from falling completely to the ground.
Schmidt strode towards the two and grabbed the collar of the Guardian's cloak and pulled them from the floor and the Keeper's arms, causing the hood to fall back. Instead of the imposing face of a bird like he was expecting, he gazed into the green-blue eyes of a young woman. Her brown hair was in a long braid down her back and her delicate facial features were marred with smudges of dirt and blood. Disappointment and anger took over the happiness on Schmidt's face and with a swift punch to her jaw, he sent her to the floor and shot two more darts into her side for good measure. The Keeper was horrified and when he saw the Guardian crumple to the ground he knew all was lost.
"I will ask you again, good Keeper," Schmidt said as he hovered over the crumpled young woman on the ground. "Where is the Tesseract?" The Keeper could no longer find the words to speak. His eyes briefly flashed over to a wooden carving on a wall and Schmidt didn't miss his small movement. Following his gaze, Schmidt couldn't help the smile that formed on his face. "Yggdrasil, the tree of the world." He came to stand in front of the carving and analyzed it from top to bottom, resting his gaze upon the snake that coiled around the base of the tree. He pressed the eye of the snake and released a hatch that sprung out a dark wooden drawer. The delight on his face was hard to miss as he pulled out the box and opened the lid, emitting a light blue glow.
"You have never seen this have you?" he asked the Keeper that was still bent over the young woman.
"It is not for the eyes of ordinary men," he choked out in reply. His fire was gone and was replaced with true resignation.
"Exactly," Schmidt snapped closing the box. Turning to a soldier by the threshold Schmidt pointed to the tanks outside. "Give the order to open fire. Bring the girl."
As Schmidt made his way towards the exit, the Keeper has a last-minute surge of bravery at the idea of his village being decimated. "Fool!" he exclaimed. "You cannot control the power you hold! The reign of Asgard will fall upon you! You will burn!"
"I already have," Schmidt replied nonchalantly as he fired a bullet into the head of the Keeper. Watching his men come into the tower and lift the woman up, he couldn't help but smile at his success.
Italics is another language
I don't own anything except my rendition of Sian