Scion: Ragnarok

by Syreene

It's a rainy night when a Scion of Dionysus, Hatchiman, Heimdall and Tyr enter the diner... and before they leave they're going to discover that Winter is indeed coming... and it's bringing Ragnarok with it. Rated T for Language

36. Schrodinger's Imaginary Cat

"I do, but you may not like it," Odin says. "The future is not barred to our vision. We are gods, and you are our children. If you are willing, I will take you to a place where you can see the future beyond prophecy ... for a price."

"All-Father, they are just coming into their powers," Heimdall says, sternly. "This could break them."

"I can only show them the door. It is up to them if they wish to walk through it," Odin says.

"Hmmn... am I going to have to start looking into fashionable eye patches? Or will the price be different depending on who's asking?" Lya chuckles as the Furies look on with growing concern at their leader.

"You seriously thinking about this, Lya?" Toxic asks as she crosses her arms over her chest.

"You father's visions have been difficult enough on you," Phoebe warns.

Lya sighs. "Well... what do you guys think?" She asks as she turns to Alex and Evie. "If we're not in this together, there's no point."

Sighing, Evie's gaze drifts to the images once more. Saul has put away his phone and is moving through the crowds, trying to keep everything as orderly and sane as possible. Not only may she never see him, again, she may also lose her mind if they go through with this. Or, at the very least, she may not be the same person that used to hang out with him and watch terrible ScyFy Channel movies on their nights off.

However, if she doesn't...Ragnarok ahead of schedule. As one very wise Vulcan once said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of few."

Steeling herself, she looks to Lya, "We need to fully know and understand what is going on if we are going to stop Loki. Every hour that we spend flailing around in the dark is another hour that he gets to keep working at pushing Ragnarok forward. Add onto that, he's a god and we aren't. We need every advantage we can get if we are going to do this."

"In my opinion, if we do this, two of us should go and one should remain behind. That way, there is the possibility that if one of us breaks, the other might remain whole and can carry the knowledge back. If both should break, the one is left behind to rebuild a team with other Scions and continue."

"There is no danger in going to this place," Odin said. "Only in the choices you make once there. But consider - Loki knows of where I will take you, but cannot bring himself to meet the price that is asked of him."

"In the mortal world, there are two ... scientists, is what you call them. A man named Heisenberg and one called Schrodinger. To illustrate a principle defined by the first man, Schrodinger crafted the example of a sealed box containing a small animal. The animal may be alive, or it may be dead. But until you open the box and look inside, it can be said to be both at once," Odin explains. "So, we will go look at the box. It is up to you to decide whether you wish to open it or not. None of the Aesir will think less of you if you decline to do so."

"Oh, crap. Schrodinger's Cat," Evie runs a hand across her face. "I'm not sure I ever really wrapped my brain around that concept back in college. Read about it a bit, but all I learned is the same as what All Father just recapped."

"So, is this sort of like locked points in time in Dr. Who? The cat is both dead and alive (or neither) until we see it. Once we see it, though, it becomes one or the other and is locked into that state? So, what we see becomes the reality?"

"What's the point of knowing the future if it becomes unchangeable once you know it?" Lya scoffs. "That's nothing but a curse. Loki probably refused because he wanted to control his own fate instead of seeing it set out before him in stone."

Evie nods, "True. And, I could be completely wrong. All I know about quantum physics is: the cat might or might not be dead. Everything else, I'm just pulling from my vast supply of useless sci-fi trivia."

"I'm just trying to get a better grasp of things before I make my final decision," she smiles grimly. "I don't know what the price will be so...yeah. I mean, I'll do it if I feel like I fully understand how deep the water is, regardless of the actual depth. I just want to know beforehand. Does that make sense?"

"So what is the price we must pay if we choose to look into the box? And if we look into the box, does what we see become set in stone because we've seen it?" Lya asks Odin. "If so, truly what is the point? I've always believed life was what you made of it. I don't know if I'd want to know a future that I can't change."

"As I said, it depends on the questions you ask and the answers you seek," Odin said. "I asked for very specific knowledge and was charged a not-inconsiderable price. Your price may be different, as may your answers. But you cannot ask the questions here. In fact, the ... guardian of the place may not look kindly upon your intrusion."

"Well then," Lya sighs as she turns to the others. "We've got a testy guardian who has an affinity for other people's body parts when they want specific answers."

She runs a hand through her hair and scratches her head. "So I suppose that leaves us three choices." She raises her hand to gesture with her fingers. "One of us could go, thus taking any potential punishment on themselves and hopefully getting the specific answers we need to stop Loki. All of us could go and hopefully spread the punishment thinner between the three of us. None of us go and we try to do this on our own."

"Knowing you guys, I'll bet you're both thinking about taking all the responsibility on yourselves..." she chuckles dryly, "and granted, you've both got the family background here that might make the guardian a little less testy. I'm not one to back down when it comes to hard decisions though," she continues as she points to herself, "and I also have some experience with dealing with visions."

She gestures with her thumb towards the Furies. "From the evil eye Klepto is giving me I'm pretty sure I know their feelings about all of this... but what do you guys think?"

"Well..." Evie says after a moment of consideration, "I think I still like my plan. Two of us should speak to this guardian. That spreads the punishment out a bit and gives some bit of security. The whole comment about 'breaking us' still has me pretty damn worried. But, considering the clarification that Odin has given, I'm thinking that maybe what Heimdall meant was less 'lose your mind' and more 'can't work effectively.' Still, neither of those definitions make me happy."

"As far as who I think should go, if we send two...I think it should be myself and Lya," she looks to the singer. "You have the gift of prophecy. It's important that you be there to try and match up any answers with the visions that you have had."

"As far as myself...well...I just see well. If this guardian gives us answers in the form of visions, it may be that I can pick something out that Alex or Lya might miss."

"Which, would leave you behind to clean up after us if things do go badly, Alex," she says apologetically.

"But, it's all just planning, at this stage. If you think that all or none of us should go, then I'm behind you."

"I'm just worried that this guardian is going to pick a fight before you even get to that point," Klepto says with a grunt. "It might be best if we all go, and then if the option is presented to us to choose who goes forward, we can deal with it then."

"One would hope that being a daughter of Chaos might aid you with handling such a mental burden," Phoebe adds. "And if not... we will always be there to aid you in whatever way is required."

Lya nods in agreement. "Can't argue with that... what do you say, Alex? You willing to look out for Evie and me if we do this?"

"Somehow, if I let some guardian or mystic carve a piece off you, Lya, 'picking up' is the last thing I'll have to worry about," Alex said. "I agree with Klepto. We go and find out what the price is."

"Also, only Evie and I are Aesir. If this guardian has a history with the All-Father, a parade of Aesir showing up for free peeks may not be on their list. Lya's gift for prophecy may be a point of common ground."

"Alright, then. Let's go find out a bit more about this guardian and his prices. We can make final decisions when we get there," Evie says.

"So, I guess we should decide on what question to ask, exactly, before we get there. If we don't ask the right thing, then we may be giving up something precious for the wrong information."

"So, we want to know Loki's plan. If we know what he's doing and who he's manipulating, then we can put Ragnarok back on the right track. My first thought is to ask about Loki but...that might not be the right track. Perhaps we should ask, instead, how to set things right and leave Loki out of the equation."

"If we get the answer to how to still the ripples, then we should get the answer we need. Maybe?" she looks to the others, waiting to see what they think.

"I agree," Lya says. "We can't kill Loki, because his ultimate fate has been decided by Ragnarok... and knowing his plans is pointless if we don't know how to stop them. The important thing to me is knowing what we have to do to set things right with all the timelines."

"Ironic. We'd love to stop Ragnarok, but we apparently can't do that. Instead, we have to make sure it goes off according to prophecy," Alex says. "You're right, Lya. That sucks."

"Where is this place?" he asks Odin.

"Mount up," Odin says. "We ride."
The All-Father hops into a chariot hitched to two goats - hardly the conveyance one would think suited to a ride across Asgard, or wherever, but this is the god who equipped Hrofgar with a dimension-hopping satchel.

With Odin's chariot in the lead, you ride back down to the Asgard side of the Bifrost, and head down a road towards the mountains. Or, at least you think it's in that direction. Although your horses seem to be traveling at an easy canter, the world starts passing by in a blurry streak. It's decidedly unsettling, though nowhere near as tumultuous as the trip from Loki's castle.

All that's missing is a staccato pulsing sound and a police call box.

When the world resolves around you, it's certainly cold enough to be the mountains. You appear to have ridden far ahead of the day's light, with dark walls of stone rising around you. There's a thatched-roof cottage, and a young woman tilling a small plot of ground.

As you come closer, you see that her face is lined with creases of worry, her brown hair tied back but with stubborn, fly-away strands falling across her face. And a mouth that is set in a hard line.

"Why do you darken my doorstep, Bors' son?" she snaps. "Come in search of more wisdom?"

"I have heroes from Midgard traveling under my protection, Rikke," Odin says. "They would seek counsel at the well."

"I have counsel. Turn back. Look at this old bastard!" Rikke cackles. "He receives a glimpse into the future, something mortals would pay dearly for, and learns it is all to his ruin! And so he comes, time and again, to look for ways around and over and under that which is written and must be!"

She moves to take a closer look.

"So, who would dare speak to Mimir? Do you know what you ask? This one, he handed my father over to the Vanir, and when they did not like his counsel, he cut his head off and tossed it in the well," she explains. "And then he has the temerity, the gall, to come here and seek answers! For this did my father charge the All-Father the price of his eye.

"Has it solved any of his problems? Lightened any of his burdens? No! Now he looks for ways to twist fate to his own liking, loopholes where the ending is the same, but the story is different.

"So, come, 'heroes from Midgard.' Come to the well and be tested!"

Welp. This is going to be interesting, Evie thinks to herself. She considers saying something to Rikke, to tell her that they do not look to change prophecy, but to have it unfold as it should. But, she doubts that the lady will listen. So, she keeps her own counsel and, instead, turns to Alex and Lya.

Turning to the others, she says, "So, we're to be tested. I suppose that means we need to make our final decision, now. Who's coming?"

"I think it's you and me, Evie," Lya answers as Klepto offers her arm and lowers Lya off the horse. "If you're sure you want to do this, I mean. I'm more than willing if you're having any doubts."

"Be strong, Lya," Klepto whispers. "No matter what happens... don't forget who you are."

Evie smiles nervously and shakes her head, "Nope. I mean...yeah. I'm scared...but I'm not stepping down. We're in this together."

For a moment, Evie's brain takes an unexpected turn and she finds herself mentally singing, "We're off to see the wizard!" Suppressing the urge to giggle, she clears her throat and looks to Odin, "I guess we're ready, then."

"My best advice," Lya whispers as she leans over to Evie, "don't resist it or try to ask questions while it's happening. Just let the images wash over you... you can worry about analyzing them later."

"Okay," Evie nods, chewing on her bottom lip nervously. She grins and whispers back, "You know me too well."

"Is this a private tour?" Alex asks Rikke. "Or do I need to make my farewells before you take my friends off to see the wizard, or whatever this freak show is?"

"Ah. You like to watch, do you?" Rikke snorts. "Or are you like the Aesir, all hard on the outside with a chewy, gooey center? Here to protect the women."

Alex glances at the Furies and smirks. "If there are more capable shield maidens than these, I have yet to meet them."

"Hmph. Very well, come along. But not you, All-Father. I will not have you twisting their sacrifices to suit your ends," Rikke says.

She leads you to a door set in the stone. No, not stone ... wood. The thick, gnarled wood of ancient trees and deep roots.

"Regard the ancient ways," Rikke says. "We shall not walk this path again."
You follow the course of a giant root down, down, down ... the power of the place evident and heavy in the air about you.

"Yggdrasil," Alex breathes. "This is the World Tree."

"A hero from Midgard," Rikke smiles. "I thought so. You are Aesir."

"I am. But I was born on Midgard and have not been to Asgard before this," Alex says. "You can take up the All-Father's word games with him later."

"I shall, Son of Tyr."

"Fuck. You've known from the start."

"I have. It amuses me to see what contrivances the All-Father will attempt," Rikke said. "But you are not the Son of Tyr that I have seen in other visits to the Well. And while time is somewhat irrelevant in this place, the All-Father's visit comes later than I expected."

"So everything isn't written in stone?"

"If it is foreseen that I will be visited by a Son of Tyr, a Daughter of Heimdall, and a sister with the sight," Rikke explains, "Then it shall be. Much depends on what you ask."

You come at last to pool. It is deep and dark, but there is a glimmer of light from somewhere far in its depths. And, resting upon a column next to shallow steps leading into the water, there's a man's head. Pale, waxy flesh, because he's dead - though preserved through magic. Eyes open, but sightless.
"Father, we have guests," Rikke says.

"I see them," a voice says. His lips do not move, but it is clear it is the voice belongs to the head on the column. "Lya Bach. I bid you welcome, Daughter of Dionysus. And you, Evie Cartwright, Daughter of Heimdall. And the Son of Tyr. I have been expecting you."

"Here is how it works. You get to ask whatever questions you wish. I will name a price, which you must pay without quibbling, if you wish the answers to those questions. But all prices are unique to this moment; if you decline my counsel and leave, but return for the answers at a later time, the price will have changed, for better or worse."

Lya takes a deep breath and let's it out slowly. "All right... let's do this," she whispers to herself as Toxic grips her shoulder in support.

She then turns to the disembodied head and says "Wise Mimir, I wish to know what actions can we take in order for us to set our timeline back to its correct path free of Loki's machinations."

"Because you also have the sight, Lya Bach, I will give you a choice. Do you wish to pay a physical price for your answer, or receive wisdom unbidden that may be to your benefit ... or be a curse?" Mimir asks.

"Crap. It's Truth or Dare, the game show," mutters Alex.

"Don't look at me, Tyrsson. I'm not the one come begging for answers," the voice retorts with an audible sneer.

"Mimir, since this is a question that we all seek answered, could any of us accept the price in Lya's place? If she hadn't asked first, I would've asked the same thing."

"What is of value to one is not always of value to another, nor do you have the same gifts. If you wish to 'pay the price' for another, then you must agree to a price I name ... in advance of knowing what that price may be," Mimir answered.

Well, shit, Evie thinks. She had hoped that maybe she could carry Lya's price. However, she's not at all surprised that that idea was shot down. No doubt, others before them had asked the exact same thing. Plus, this is the Mimir. He sees that angle and knows how to avoid it.

"Then it's up to you, Lya," Evie says. "I'm sure there will be a follow-up question or two for clarification. I can field that, if you take this one. Or, if you change your mind, I'll take this."

"Which is exactly why I asked it first," Lya replied as she winked at Evie.

"Knowledge of future events is always a curse," Lya replies to the Mimir with a wry smile. "If I chose the physical price I might not be able to keep up with these guys when the time comes."

"You would know what actions you may take to set events aright, free of the machinations of Laufeyson," Mimir states. "And after I show you the future past, then I will collect the price."

"Come, Daughter of Dionysus. Enter the Well of Mimir and find your answers."

"Full immersion," Rikke whispers in Lya's ear. "Your answer will form in the waters around you. You may shed armor and clothes if you wish, but it is not required."

She pauses.

"Not sure I could take seeing that old bastard naked," she murmurs, and you know she's talking about Odin.

You step into the Well. The water is cold and clear and smells of the outdoor and living things, something that would be lost if Ragnarok were to come to pass.

There's a flare of light, and you find yourself shying away a billowing mushroom cloud. It's a visceral image, yet even knowing the destruction a nuclear bomb is capable of, the enormous toll of death and generations-long suffering - man has always had a sick fascination for their ultimate weapons, at first stockpiling them beyond count; then inventing clever ways of killing people but not leveling cities; then smaller, 'tactical' weapons.

But then time begins unwinding, running backwards. Military jargon, launch orders, eleventh-hour pleas for sanity, angry shouting matches at the UN and elsewhere, protests, unrest, headlines ...

... votes on the Senate and House floors Hitoshi? Bob Malcolm. Cloistered meetings of counselors and military officers Colonel Ellison, an Alex North missing his right hand and dressed in an Army uniform and politicians. A president you don't recognize giving an impassioned speech from the Oval Office. More votes, more protests. A state funeral, and a flag-draped casket being led down Pennsylvania Avenue.

The crack of a sniper's rifle, but not the face of the assassin.

Faster and faster, time unwinds ...

But it is not Loki pulling the strings. You hear the snarling of a vicious animal. Gleaming eyes encroach from the darkness beyond, and you have an impression of fangs and vicious, long-held hatred, bone and blood deep. Fenris. There are others, lurking in the shadows. Faces you know, even though you've never met them. Douglas Mason. James Asano. Edward McCain. Eleanor Kendall.

You break the surface.

"You have your answer," Mimir says. "Slay the wolf's pack, and you stay Ragnarok. Now I will have my price, Lya Bach. You seek to right the course of history, but you must choose between gods and humans. Salvation for one is betrayal to another."

"Death, death and more death," Lya sighs in disappointment. "I didn't need a magical disembodied head to tell me that killing them would stop things." She tromps out of the pool and starts wringing the water out of her hair. "Guess I was expecting something more from the Gods."

She struts up to the Mimir. "You and your kind are obsessed with it, aren't you? Always worrying about how to get more time while forgetting to truly live in the time you have. You told me yourself that Ragnarok is inevitable and the time of Gods must come to an end... so I really don't see how saving humanity would be a betrayal to the Gods. Perhaps you all should learn to accept your own fates and look to your children as the way for your legacy to carry on. That's what humans do."

"I am as I was and will always be... a champion for the downtrodden and a guardian of the good the human race can achieve despite all its problems. The Gods created us to live among the humans and fight their battles for them... and now they can accept the consequences."

Mimir's head does not change expression. It has a condescending sneer on its face, as if he knew Odin would be back to seek his counsel after Mimir's beheading.

"I don't believe it," Alex frowns. "I'm not talking about fate or destiny. Loki doesn't ask because it's that goddamn dead cat problem. As long as he doesn't have a hard answer, he can run around hither and yon fucking with whomever he likes, because Loki being the King of All That and Loki and Heimdall strangling each other to deat-"

"Oh, shit," he mutters. "I'm sorry, Evie. I'll shut up now."

Evie waves it off, shaking her head, "No big deal. I've read up on the whole Ragnarok thing since we got sucked into this. I knew what fate supposedly awaits Heimdall." She shrugs and says, "I'm going to die, someday, myself. (Probably sooner than later.) I've lived my whole life as a human knowing that my parents will probably die before me. I face every day as a cop knowing that I or any of my fellow officers may not make it out of whatever situation we find ourselves. This is no different."

She grins and adds, "Though, I am a bit jealous that he gets to be the one to strangle Loki. Maybe I can at least get in a crotch punch before I kick it."

"I'm just sorry that, apparently, you get stuck paying a price for something that we already knew," she says to Lya. She ponders for a second before she adds, "But, let's see...can you tell us details? Maybe there's something in there that we didn't know...or, at least, something that points us towards a new goal."

"Not sure what price I'm paying honestly," Lya chuckles. "I mean we already knew that Ragnarok meant the passing of the Gods. I think all of the Gods know that their time is finite, and that's why they choose to have children... so that their legacy can continue to live on in the age of humans. So I guess to me choosing between humanity and the Gods really isn't that hard of a choice."

She sighs. "Anyway... with the vision... it basically showed us what my previous vision did... but a bit clearer in the details. The big plan is World War III and nuclear holocaust... with Senator Malcolm, Colonel Ellison, and Senator Ryder and General North of all people... yeah don't get me started on that one... arguing either for or against pushing the big red button. The part I didn't see before was the assassination that led up to that point... and the fact that Loki isn't the one with the plan to try and change everything... Fenris is with the help of the people on that list we found so long ago."

She lets out a small gasp. "The funeral was full of pomp and circumstance... could it have been the President?" She starts to pace nervously. "Maybe... maybe instead of having to go on a killing spree ourselves, we just need to stop one very important death from happening. That seems to be the action that sets everything into motion."

"But if we stop them once, what's to keep them from trying over and over again?" Toxic growls. "The only way to be sure is if we take them all out so they can't just pick their plans up again after we leave."

"Do you know how to kill a God?" Lya asks with a raised brow. "You've got a point, though... we don't know if the assassination will even be in our timeline."

"That's the biggest problem. We're just running from timeline to timeline, putting out fires. Sure, we stopped WWIII in one timeline, but it'll just crop up in another," Evie frowns. "Sooo...maybe we need to figure out a way to trap Fenris or Loki or whoever in a single timeline...if that can even be done."

"Well... how did you all trap Fenris in the first place? Would he fall for that again?" Lya asks. "If you want to ask if there's another way to set things right without killing them, then by all means go ahead, Evie... but I don't know if there is without it meaning we're just going to be doing this again in the future."

"Or we need to open the box and force Loki into a corner," Alex said. "And I don't mean his going toe-to-toe with Heimdall or offing the bastard before he even starts. There's got to be a linchpin in the middle, like Evie said - some place we can force him to jump, some move he has to make, that puts the skids on everything else. The world may go down to ruin and flames, but it won't be today."

"If I have to cut off a hand and take a dip in your communal bath, so be it."

"Yeah, I want to avoid doing this all over again, ad infinitum. I think we should focus on trying to hold our opponents in one place/time and deal with them that way," she says. "We know it can be done because Fenris was trapped before. So, I guess the next question would be: how to do that again. Which, I'll ask if no one else has other ideas?"

"I asked my question," Lya replies with a shrug. "I wanted to know how to set our timeline right and keep it from getting messed with and I got the answer none of the gods wanted to hear... the only way to truly keep the gods from messing with humanity is to let their time come to an end. It's a hard truth... but it's still a truth, guys. Trapping Fenris and Loki is only going to delay the inevitable... as the Norse gods well know. Eventually they'll just escape again... and we'll be forcing our descendants to be making these same decisions at a later date."

"But if killing Gods isn't on the discussion table... then I say go ahead and ask how we can trap Fenris and Loki. We may still have to kill their minions, though."

"Okay, let's say we decide to just kill the gods. How do you even do that? And how would we kill all of them? Like...every pantheon? Somehow, I think we'd be a little out-gunned. We'd be extremely lucky to kill one, maybe two. But, all of them? I just don't see that even being within our power. At all."

She shrugs and kind of throws up her hands in a hopeless gesture. "I mean...maybe...maybe we could set them against each other and pick off the weakened remainders. But, if we start a God War, that would probably end with the destruction of humanity, as well. I can't imagine us not getting caught in that crossfire."

"But, if we want to consider all possibilities, we do have two more questions we can ask, if each of us asks once. (I don't know that we'd want to ask more than that!)," Evie looks questioningly towards Alex.

"Do you want to take one question and I'll take the other? Doesn't matter to me who takes which."

"Well if we fix things and let Ragnarok happen, that will eventually kill all the gods anyway as well as reboot humanity after fire and flood," Lya shrugs. "If we killed Fenris, then Ragnarok would never happen and everyone would be safe. Then again... if the gods could've done it I imagine they would've. If we trap Fenris, we still have to worry about his kids and their minions. So maybe the best answer is taking out them? That seems like more our scale."

Evie growls, frustrated. Shaking her head, she takes a deep breath, "Okay. No. I refuse to accept that it's all or nothing. Humanity or the gods. There has to be a way to do this that doesn't involve wiping out one side or the other."

Calmer, she sighs, sitting down heavily upon a nearby rock, "But, I don't know what solution that would be." Mirthlessly, she laughs, "Find Loki, strap a cat to one side, buttered toast to the other and then throw him off a building so he spins in mid-air forever?"

After a second of chuckling, she ponders, "Killing Fenris seems like it would be the answer. Like Lya said, killing him means Ragnarok doesn't happen. Unless some other power just moves in to fill that void and picks up where Wolf leaves off."

"Then I guess we need to ask if there's a way to kill Fenris... unless you want to just ask Odin why they never killed him in the first place? That might've been a question he's already asked," Lya says to Evie.

"If Fenris can't be killed, then we know we need to ask how to trap him. If that won't work, we know it's down to removing his pawns."

"So is our question, 'Can Fenris be stopped without killing him, and if so, how?'" Alex said. "I'm not talking to the talking head yet, so don't go quoting prices, please. Oh, if being blown up and being used as a mystical anchor for one of Loki's plots is worth 5% at the register, let me know."

"Yeah I think that should be our next question. Keep in mind though... even if we trap Fenris we will still probably have to do something with his kids in order to stop whatever assassination they've got planned to start WWIII."

"Well, then...I'll ask the next question after we've asked Odin about Fenris. Like you say, if he's already asked, then asking Mimir again is kind of silly."

She turns to Mimir and says, "May I please leave for a moment to speak with Odin before I ask my question?"

"Oh, sure," Mimir says. "I have all day. So many things for a magically embalmed head to get up to."

"You should've been a prophet for the Greeks," Lya winks. "We build whole temples dedicated to ours."

"You should at least get out for Halloween," Evie says, "You'd be a hit with all the cool kids."

With a parting smile, she makes her way back up and out to where Odin waits. Without preamble, she walks over to him and sighs, "So. Fenris. Do you know if he can be killed or is the best we can do is contain him?"

She gives an apologetic shrug and adds, "We figured you might be able to answer that without one of us getting munched on by Mr, Happy down there. It would be stupid to risk Mimir if you might have the answer."

Odin gives Evie a 'clever girl' smile that is more complimentary than condescending. It occurs to her that there is very little difference between the All-Father and Loki; both are looking for loopholes to exploit. Loki just doesn't seem to give a shit about who he has to mess over to get what he wants.

"Ah, Mimir told you killing Fenris would solve things, did he?" Odin frowns. "That may be true, but I cannot ordain or set that task before anyone, as it is linked to my fate more than anyone else's. It is linked to Alex's father, as well. You will get a future free of Loki's machinations, but if 'Fenris kills Odin' is what must come to pass, it will. Another Fenris, another time and place. So, yes - you can kill Fenris.

"The question is, did I put my foot in it when I looked into the future? Or is this simply a wheel within a wheel, and it is your destiny to discover whether this 'cat' is alive or dead at the end of things?"

"Well, no," Evie says. Her face creases with worry as she continues. "Actually, from what Lya has said, it sounds like we have a choice: either side with the gods and let all humanity die or side with humanity and kill the gods. But, to be honest...I'm not sure about that."

"Lya accepted a mental price from Mimir when she went into the pool. I'm afraid that whatever it is that Mimir did to her has tainted how she looks at the world...how she feels and thinks. I honestly think she is completely down with the idea of killing off the gods, now," Evie sighs. "Lya is our heart. She's the one who holds this team together and gives us hope. She's compassionate and wants what is best for humanity. And, in this case, I'm afraid that she sees the end of the gods as being humanity's salvation. If we don't, then we just leave doom hanging over another generation's head down the road."

"And, you know...she's not wrong. If we set things right, then Ragnarok will happen. And, then there will be another set of Scions who will rise up and probably try to stop it because, who wouldn't want to stop an apocalypse?"

"On the other hand, though," Evie continues softly, "...life and death is a cycle. It's something that I have lived with my entire life, as a mortal. You are born, you live and you die and then there is rebirth. It's the way things are. And who is to say that that balance isn't necessary on a scale beyond even the gods?"

She is silent for a moment, pondering things before she shakes her head and runs a hand through her hair, "But, we're looking at the possibility of either killing or trapping Fenris and/or Loki. If we kill Fenris, then maybe Ragnarok won't happen." She shrugs, "It doesn't mean that another power won't rise up and start the death process again, but...it gives us a stay of execution for a little while."

"Our main problem is trying pin Loki down. With him jumping all over creation, from timeline to timeline, dimension to dimension...he can just keep messing with stuff until something sticks. And we can't keep chasing him to put out fires. We need to hold him in one place."

"So, I think those are the next two questions: one for me and one for Alex. How to kill Fenris and how to trap Loki."

"I have no further counsel, Heimdallsdottir, lest Mimir accuse you of asking questions on my behalf," Odin says. "I will be here when you return."

"Of course," Evie nods. "Thank you. One of us may pop back up if we have more questions, but I won't ask anything else, now."

She trudges back down the path to where Mimir and the others wait. When she arrives, she says, "Well, Fenris can be killed. But, Odin didn't want to say anything else and, granddad or not, I'm not going to push him for answers."

"So, I guess our questions are: How do we kill Fenris and how do we trap Loki? Any other ideas before one of us jumps in the pool with Cranky McHeaderson?"

"Loki's been meddling in my life ever since Afghanistan, so that might color what I see," Alex says. "At the same time, Fenris is responsible for tearing off my father's hand. I'll take a shot at either question."

"I'll take the Loki question, then. Maybe between all three answers, we'll be able to form some kind of plan."

Evie takes a moment to straighten her tunic, mentally preparing herself for the task ahead. She's frightened of what the price may be. There are so many things that Mimir could take from her...

"Alright, Mimir," she says, turning towards the magical head. "I'm ready to ask my question. How can we trap Loki?"

"Daughter of Heimdall, the price for the answer you seek is that you will fail in protecting someone you love," Mimir says. "If you will, then enter the Well and learn the answer to your question."

In the end, there is little choice. You shudder as you enter the waters, but only because they are cold. But they are also invigorating in a way you did not expect, as if the Well were being fed by the purest of mountain streams.

You realize that this is exactly so, but it is not a mountain. It is the power of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. It is the power of multiple realities coming together. The Well is where all is possible.

What you did not expect is your faculty of assessing a crime scene to kick in. And you learn something that neither Odin nor Mimir would have told you. Nor Loki, necessarily.

Ragnarok is a cycle. Not just the world's beginning and ending, but everything in between. And Loki remembers all of it. Across incarnations, across realities. He does not know, as the All-Father does, the ultimate outcome, because he has never committed himself to 'opening the box' - he plays games with it, in the hopes of eliciting a meow or a thump that tells him what the box contains prior to tearing off the lid. He does this because he knows his path changes each time, a round-robin of temporal chess.

To trap him, you need to find what he has not - the one move that frees him from the events ordained by Odin's sight.

"I don't trust Odin," Lya whispers. "There must be a reason why they never killed Fenris in the first place... what isn't he telling us?"

"I keep thinking of an old Star Trek episode, where there's this one guy, and his mirror self, who is crazy. At the end, they lock both men in this gap between the universes, and Kirk says, 'You're going to spend eternity with a madman at your throat,'" Alex says. "And this guy smiles and tells Kirk it's a fair price to keep two universes safe. Maybe it's something like that."

A feeling like nausea combined with that horrible sensation as you crest a roller-coaster sweeps through Evie's gut. Of course that's my price, she thinks bitterly. Anything else I would've paid without a second thought.

Her thoughts drift for a minute...

...playing with Ian in the hot, Nevada summer sun. Rows of action figures lined up, the two of them laughing as they weave an epic story...

...racing against Ricky. Sweat pouring from their brows as they strain to be first over the finish line...

...her mortal father, Jason, under the hood of some old car, singing a goofy song to her as she watches him tighten a screw here, adjust a belt there...

...her mother, Deirdre, carefully tucking a blanket under Evie's chin as she lay in bed, shivering with sickness...

...Saul plopping down next to her on the couch, handing her a big, bowl of popcorn as he laughs, ready to relax after a long shift...

"Fuck me," she mutters angrily. "I'll pay your price." If I don't, I stand to lose them all.

She enters the waters and is engulfed by the vision. Once it passes, Evie emerges, dripping and thoughtful. She wades out, her clothes clinging to her uncomfortably. Finding a place to sit, she plops down and sorts through what she has seen.

"Ragnarok is a cycle, but not just a cycle of life and death. It's...well...it's the cycle of everything. But, Loki doesn't know that. He's never 'opened the box,' so to speak. So, he's trying to figure out what the box contains, like a kid trying to learn what's in the gift box at Christmas."

"What he's doing is running chess strategies. He's trying to find the one strategy that means he doesn't wind up a victim of Ragnarok. I don't think he's necessarily trying to bring about the end of the world, per se. He's just trying to stop the end of his world. He's looking for his loophole and he doesn't care what happens to everyone else."

Evie cocks her head to the side, trying to wrap her own brain around this as she explains, "Loki remembers everything that happens, across all times and dimensions. So, if we are going to beat him, we have to find that loophole. We have to find the solution that Loki seeks."

"The only way Loki can avoid suffering Loki's predestined fate is if Loki isn't Loki anymore," Lya says.

"If he stands still long enough I'll gladly help him with one way to do that," Toxic growls as she grips her sword.

"All right, then, Mimir. The Son of Tyr wants to know how to kill Fenris. Not ifs, buts, and maybes. If it's possible, you know how it happens and who delivers the telling blow. I heal impossibly fast by mortal standards, so we're aware he might well have similar gifts," Alex said. "What price do you ask of me?"

"Hmm. Can't ask you to cut something off, you'll just grow it back," Mimir muttered. "Very well. You must forsake Valhalla."

Alex frowned. More than once, Valeria had told him it wasn't his time, implying that he was destined for Valhalla should he die as a mortal. But he'd been resigned to death on that same day; fear of the grave held no particular power over him.

Still, the wording was vague enough that it didn't necessarily mean his own entry into Valhalla, but the choosing-between-gods-and-humans crap the Talking Head had shoved in Lya's face. If they were going to foil Loki and Fenris both, it might be quite the shakeup.

"Done and done," Alex said. "And if you're fucking having me on, I'll come back from the dead and use you for batting practice."

"Yeah, yeah. One bright morning in the middle of the night, blah, blah, blah," Mimir sneered. "And the Aesir wonder why I don't like them. Enter the well, Son of Tyr."

The water was cold, but it wasn't life-affirming or refreshing to Alex. It reminded him of the grave, even though the little game Hel had played hadn't involved him. Or at least, the 'real' Alex North. Maybe she'd done some dimension hopping of her own, cobbling together a double from different realities.

Soleil Hunter's face came swimming out of the dark waters. Was that coincidence, or had she been set on him by Fenris, and not Loki? Shit. Soleil Hunter. Sun Hunter, meaning she was Hati, the wolf who chases the Sun. There'd be another, then, Skoll - the wolf who chases the moon. The Children of Fenris.

New to the game, then. Put into play when Loki fucked things up by killing Thomas Cardinelli. Put in the paths of Scions like himself, Lya, and Evie. But if they were in human form, might Fenris be also? Trading his natural strength and advantages for a position where he could bring about Ragnarok?

Alex landed a roundhouse punch that would have broken the jaw of a mortal. But his opponent seemed to relish it, a vicious, feral grin on his face as he got back up off the floor.

Gunshots rang out, slamming into Alex, but doing little more than stinging. Amid the shouting and chaos, his opponent holding up a hand to back everyone else off. And in the next moment, launching himself at Alex to land a flurry of blows. They began fighting in earnest, not holding back. Punches tore holes in walls, smashed desks. Someone grabbed Alex's arm. He wrenched it free and saw a man in a suit, a federal agent or part of a protective detail, go flying.

"Death to the Son of Tyr," the man hissed. It was the voice that had spoken over the radio long ago, it had never been Loki. It was Fenris. The next strike wasn't a punch, it was with claws unseen, but which tore through clothes and flesh with a spray of blood.

"Gonna have to do better than that, you son of a bitch," Alex said. "Time we finished this."

The problem with claws is that one had to fight in close quarters, and, this time, it was against a demigod with not-inconsiderable strength and an ability to soak up damage like crazy. Alex heard one of Fenris' bones break, and he pressed his attack. Maybe in wolf form, it wouldn't have mattered. But here, now, Fenris was in mortal guise.

It ended with Alex crushing the man's forearms, then spinning him around into a stranglehold. He capped the man's forehead with one hand and twisted, not only breaking Fenris' neck, but tearing off his head. Maybe he could embalm it and set it up to keep Mimir company.

Alex broke the surface, and knew how Odin must have felt. He'd learned things that changed everything. He'd been shown how Fenris dies. If Loki was seeing alternate realities, he'd have to know about this one, wouldn't he? Or were both so brazen and confident that it couldn't possibly happen to them?

"Crap. I know how it happens and who does it," Alex said. "But I don't know when, 'cause, silly me, I didn't ask. Fuck you, Mimir."

"You're welcome," Mimir's voice laughed. "Now, go commiserate with Odin. Next dip costs you both hands, which would kind of make your whole question moot, yes?"

"You know what? You're not worth it," Alex says. "Fuck off. Oh, wait, that part of you is missing. Go soak your head."

He upends the charger and dumps Mimir's head in the Well.

"So what did we get from this?" Lya asks after Alex comes out of the pool. "We know that Fenris will die by Alex's hands... we know that the only way to fix our timeline is to kill those responsible yet as a result we have to choose between humanity or the gods. We know the only way to trap Loki is to give him what he can't see."

She sighs. "So if we kill Fenris we effectively stop Ragnarok and save the Gods... but does that mean humanity will suffer? It seems like it would be a win-win to me."

"I have to figure out where I've seen this clown before," Alex said. "He was being guarded by a federal agent or Diplomatic Protective Services guy, so he's important. A politician of some kind, at the top of the food chain."

He runs his hand through still-damp hair for a semblance of grooming. "We have some time, though. It felt like I was stronger than I am now, and ... not to toot my own horn, but I thought of myself as a demigod. Guess I move up in the ranks some."

"So I guess figuring out who Fenris is will be a focus when we go back," Lya says. "If he's a high level political figure it won't be like we can catch him on the way to the grocery store. It won't do much for our PR either if you catch my drift... so we'll have to keep it out of the public eye."

She turns to Evie. "I don't know what you want to do with Loki though. You'd think he's support us if it meant he didn't have to suffer his fate... but he might be in it for the benefits of rulership more than freedom."

"It didn't feel like I'd had to sneak up on the guy. It was a public event, a speech or town hall something, where he's out in the open," Alex noted. "It's as real as anything Odin saw, and the protective detail was reacting to me throwing the first punch. It's going to happen."

"Maybe I'll just have to pony up the cash for a fundraising dinner, or finagle an invite to an Army event."

"I'll start saving up the bail money now then, shall I?" Lya chuckles dryly. "That is if they don't kill us all for treason first."

"You know..." she adds as an afterthought as she turns back to Alex. "I almost want to ask one more question now, just to be sure. I'd like to see what happens if we kill Fenris, you know? The things that head told me just don't sit with the thought of everything being fixed for the better for everyone involved if we manage to kill him."

"Well, I'm pretty sure he won't have anything nice to say to me," Alex said. Rikke had fished her father's head out of the well and set it back on the silver charger. "But he seems to like you."

"With Loki, who knows?" Evie frowns, answering Lya. She thinks for a second before muttering, "When is Loki not Loki? I think you may have hit on the answer, Lya. And, the only time I can think of would be the time line when Loki is not adopted by Odin. If he's not adopted, then who does he become?"

"Whoa. Maybe it's even crazier than that. Maybe it's like a game of Mad Libs," Alex said. "We know the story is that 'Fenris kills Odin, etc., etc., and so forth' ... but if Fenris is taken out of the picture, does that mean Odin doesn't die and Ragnarok doesn't happen? Or does someone else fill in the blank?"

Alex looks accusingly at Mimir's head. "So, this is a long shot, but it's no less convoluted than anything else we've heard or seen. Let's say I kill Fenris ... does that mean one of Fenris' children steps up to the plate, or does it mean something I do fulfills the prophecy, Odin dies, and viola!, yours truly forsakes Valhalla, 'cause that's Odin's mead hall, and nobody is about to let Odin's killer in the door."

"So maybe it's not the who we need to change, but the what. Cross out 'kills Odin' and replace it with 'fights Odin' or 'goes over the Reichenbach falls with Odin'. Shit, does that even make sense?"

Lya scratches her head. "You guys are the ones saying that Ragnarok is fixed... and I have to think that if ending Ragnarok was as simple as killing Fenris, then Loki or one of the other gods would've done it themselves... so I guess that's what Loki is doing: looking to change the terms of Ragnarok because he knows he can't stop Ragnarok."

She sighs. "But the head said that I would have to choose between humanity and the gods... so maybe there really isn't an option where everybody wins." She glances back at the pool and gnaws at her lower lip with her teeth. "I think we need to ask the question... we need to see what the fate of the gods and humanity will be if we kill Fenris. It could be our best option is just putting things back the way it was."

"Odds favor the house. I wonder if Odin and Loki have come to that conclusion on their own - that no matter how many times you shuffle the cards, the math comes down to Ragnarok," Alex said. "Maybe Odin still dies and Heimdall still kills Loki. But what happens after? What if that's what we're changing?"

"Maybe that's where the choice lies... we can't stop Ragnarok from happening, but we can make choices that effect whether the gods or humanity makes it out in the end. Personally I'm all for changing the fire and flood part that wipes out a majority of humanity," Lya replies dryly. "Our world maybe broken... but it's also beautiful... and happens to be where all my friends live, dammit."

She looks to Alex thoughtfully. "That's probably where your fate comes in too... because if they die, there won't exactly be a Valhalla to go back to." She squeezes his arm gently as she looks up at him. "Are you OK with all that? I'm not like you guys... I don't feel the connection to this place that you all might have, and I'm used to my pantheon going through personnel changes. Doesn't mean I can't be sympathetic, though."

"That's how I look at the law, and why I didn't stay with the DA's office very long. It's not about punishing people - all that gets you is overcrowded jails and kids like Charles Cooper," Alex said. "Justice is about applying the law to all people equally. I know that doesn't always happen. I could have the nice condo and fancy car and country club membership, and be miserable every second."

"I'm not standing here and insisting that we'll make it right, but depending on what we learn, I think we have to try. Even if that messes things up for the gods."

"So, how do we change the terms of Ragnarok?" Evie asks. "Does it go back to what's happening in Hitoshi's timeline? Or do we need to ask Chuckles another question?"

She makes a sour face at that idea. The detective is already right angry with Mimir. In her opinion, she is not the one paying the price for her last question. Instead, an innocent who isn't even aware of the stakes will take the fall. She does not relish the idea of talking to Mimir again.

"It's all metaphysics," frowns Alex. "Odin has been trying to stop Ragnarok. Loki has been trying to escape his fate. They can't, so this happens again and again and again. Someone has to break the cycle and do things differently. Maybe that's us, maybe not."

"Look... you guys have the most to lose from this whole Ragnarok thing really," Lya says with a sigh, "so let me be the one to ask the question if we do it. I don't think we're going to get the happy ending option though. It may be that our actions can only save the gods or the humans... not both. I'm willing to ask the Mimir what actions we need to take in order to alter Ragnarok to keep humanity from being harmed... but I need to know that you guys are with me."

She turns to Evie. "I'm not talking about a killing spree or anything like that, Evie... but if it comes down to having to choose between one or the other through my actions, I know that my heart lies with the people. Are you willing to make that choice if it comes down to it?"

"If it comes down to an 'either/or' choice and there is no other option...yes. I'm with you, Lya. I'd rather that we save everyone but I understand that may not be feasible," Evie sighs. After a moment, she smiles sadly, "Like you, all my friends and family live on Earth. Sure, the Aesir are family too but they are like those distant cousins that you only meet every 5 years at reunions. They're not the ones who held me when I was scared, laughed with me over stupid shit, had picnics and doctor visits..."

"So, yeah. I'm with you."

"I'm with you, Lya," Alex tells you. "Valhalla? Go out in a blaze of glory and live forever fighting some cosmic scrimmage? Not what I'm here for. Go down fighting to make sure there's something left for humanity after the gods are done with their cheese wheel race, I'm there."

"All right then," Lya replies with a grateful smile at the two Scions. "I'm going to ask what actions we have to take in order to alter Ragnarok in humanity's favor then, since it can't be stopped per se."

She takes a deep breath and puts on her best sincere expression as she turns and walks over to Rikke. "Please... I know we've each asked our questions... but I must beg the Mimir for one more. He said I'd have to make my choice between humanity and the Gods, but I'd already made that choice a long time ago. Now we need his help to make sure that our decisions follow through on that choice."

"You have done nothing to offend me, Lya Bach," Mimir says. "You may ask your question, but I will still levy a price. Regardless of what you see and what answers you find, there will come a moment where you will prophesy unbidden, but because of the power within you, you will have no control over the outcome. Your words may turn a friend into a foe, inspire or condemn, create or destroy."

"Enter the Well, if you choose."

Lya lets out a slow breath and nods. "I never know how people are going to take the visions anyway..." she mutters to herself as she walks back into the pool and lowers herself back into the waters.

"I hear what you're saying, and ... you've always been a good friend, Lya, but I can't do what you're asking," Hitoshi says. "I can't go back to ... before."

The vision suddenly goes awry as if a DJ had bumped their turntable.

"Remember who and what you are, Lya," a different voice counsels. Not a vision, but here and now. "Prophecy is a gift. but it needn't be a burden to yourself or to others. All of this is because the Aesir are convinced they have no choice, the All-Father as well as his foster son."

You are floating in time and space alongside Guan Yin. No longer the Earthly physician, she is clad in flowing robes of white - her divine form.

"But we always have a choice, even when we lie to ourselves that we do not," the goddess reminds you. "For the Norse oracle to threaten you with prophecy and helplessness is nothing less than the burden of every parent throughout history - to watch their children grow, and learn. They may make poor choices, but that does not mean they are beyond compassion or hope.

"Gods and mortals alike seek to bind that which cannot be bound. There is no such thing as Ragnarok, only the determination of gods to settle ancient grievances. And, in doing so, strip away the very reason we fight - for the freedom of humanity to grow and thrive.
"You have gifts that allow you to dance through chaos that is not of your making. And it need not be physical. I have shown you how to heal, a gift that is closely linked. You are here at the roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, a source of much power, the life blood of the Nine Worlds.

"Remember what I taught you, daughter. Feel."

You are drifting in the waters, in the faint glow that is said to emanate from Odin's eye. You reach for the connection not to the Well's gift of prophecy, nor for Odin's missing eye ... but deeper. Deeper still. Past the chains of prediction and prophesy and fate and into the same current that is/sustains Yggdrasil ...

Ragnarok is not fate. It's someone else's rules. Binding, cloying, defining. Alex doesn't have to kill Fenris. Evie doesn't have to fail to protect someone. Just as you don't have to choose between gods and humans, because you already have.

It may be that fate and other influences make conflict with Fenris and Loki somewhat inevitable.
And it may come down to the stupid dead cat puzzle. It's not opening the box you and the others need to be concerned with. It's not discovering a dead cat - Ragnarok. It's the living cat that Odin and the others can't see, because they're convinced of the reality of the dead one.

If Loki can go trolling through realities, why can't you?

Lya breaks the surface of the water with a sputtering laugh as she brushes her wet hair out of her face. "There is no cat," she chuckles. "There is no cat..."

"Lya... are you ok?" Orithia asks as she gives Lya a hand out of the water.

"Better than ever, actually," Lya responds with a wet smile as she leans to one side and squeezes the water out of her hair, "because I think I'm finally starting to understand what the gods refuse to see."

"Well color me curious," Toxic snorts as the Furies all gather around her.

"Yeah Lya, what did you see in there?" Evie asks curiously.

Lya takes a deep breath. "Well, it started off with what looked like us trying to get Hitoshi to come back with us... but then... then Guan-Yin appeared before me and told me that Ragnarok doesn't have to happen at all!"

She gestures excitedly with her hands to mime a box. "OK... so we've got the proverbial box of probability where the cat named Ragnarok inside is either dead (Apocalypse) or alive (Peace) and nobody knows for sure because there's equal chance that it could be one or the other until we open the box and thus define it's state... right?"

Alex scratches her head. "Yeah... I'm following so far."

"Well get this... what if there is no cat?" She grins widely as she looks to the others with confused looks on their faces. "Don't you see? They're so obsessed with their belief that whether they're trying to stop it or start it, Ragnarok has to be in there... but there's no cat at all! There's just a bunch of old gods clinging to their anger and determined to believe that their hate couldn't create anything else."

"So the fact that Loki never opened the box isn't helping him, because..." Evie replies, "his predetermined beliefs have him stuck in a self-fulfilling prophecy?"

"Exactly!" Lya nods happily. "They all are!"

"So... how are we supposed to convince them to let centuries of hatred go?" Phoebe asks. "As horrible as Ragnarok is, they may cling to the fate they know rather than accept that there might be something better yet unknown on the horizon."

Lya takes a breath as if to reply and then her smile falters as she realizes she doesn't know what to say.

Evie laughs and catches Lya in a hug. She spins the Scion of Dionysus in a happy, little circle before releasing her, grinning.

"It doesn't matter! We'll figure it out!" Evie says enthusiastically. "We've got this...we can do it."

Still smiling, Evie gazes up at the ceiling, thinking. "Hmmm...maybe...what if we ask Heimdall if we can use his big, ol' TV screen? The one that he used to show us our reality? Maybe we can do some channel surfing and see what we can see?"

She shrugs and says, "All possibilities exist. Maybe now that we know that we are looking for the reality where the cat doesn't exist, we can find it. And, if we can find it, we can start showing the gods that there is another way."

"Since they are always looking for the reality they expect, they're not going to see anything else. We, however, might see what we need."

"That's the thing though, Evie," Lya responds. "The cat doesn't exist... it never did. What we'd need to find is a reality where they actually believed it."

"Forsake Valhalla," Alex says quietly. "Because it's as real as Ragnarok. If you're convinced you're going there, the valorous death becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You become so concerned with going out in a blaze of glory that you don't stop to think about _why_ you're fighting in the first place."

"'Oh, but of course we know why we're fighting,'" he mimics a bad Norse accent. "'We're fighting to ... stop Loki ... from starting Ragnarok.'"

"It exists! Along with all the other realities that we've seen and heard about. The trick is finding it," Evie says, undeterred.

"I've spent a good part of my life looking for things that either people wanted to keep hidden or things that people were unaware even existed. Same thing, here. Just...grander," she grins and leans forward as she speaks, excited. "I'm going to go see if Odin will take me back to the Vantage. If Heimdall agrees, I'll start looking. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be looking for, at first, but I'm sure I can weed through things."

"You see, I believe you, Lya. I believe that the cat doesn't exist. So, I can find it,."

"If anybody can find it it's you Evie," Lya replies with a grin. "If we can have something to show them, that'll be the first step to trying to get them to believe us."

"So if you give up in the belief that Ragnarok has to exist then there's no need to fight... and if there's no need to fight, there's no need to have an afterlife like Valhalla for fighters," Klepto says. "I doubt they'd like giving up their longhouses and mead."

"I've had plenty of reasons to fight in my life," Toxic scoffs, "and until we met Loki he didn't have anything to do with them."

"Maybe we don't have to get them to give up fighting all together," Lya theories. "Maybe it's about giving them a different reason to fight in the first place."

"That might be a little easier for them to swallow than telling them their whole religion is based on a lie," Orithia chuckles.

"But what about Fenris?" Phoebe adds. "Alex saw himself killing him... will that not still come to pass?"

"Well, if that asshole is determined to start World War III, there may be no other option," Lya replies grimly. "Same with Loki and Fenris' daughters... we may still have to fight him when it comes down to it... but it doesn't mean it has to have anything to do with Ragnarok."

"Right... so we need to focus on stopping Fenris and Loki's plans, but now we also need to convince the Gods not to let it start something even worse,"Toxic replies.

Lya chuckles and slaps a hand on Toxic's shoulder. "Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy, hon... and a world without Ragnarok is worth a hell of a lot."

"I suppose it's a bit of semantics. If I end up fighting Fenris, I am fighting to stop Ragnarok ... only in a much different way than we thought," Alex says. "I think we're done with the Well, though. When it comes to someone believing in Ragnarok and making sure it comes to pass, here's the guy who fed the line of bullcrap to the All-Father in the first place."

Rikke moves to stand between Alex and her father's head. "You will not."

"I don't have to," Alex told her. "It's all been a shell game. It's about personal investment in the outcome - whether it's because Odin gave up an eye, or some other metaphorical price that's supposed to hit us where it hurts. If there's no Ragnarok, Odin tore out his eyeball for nothing - so of course it has to be true."

"Alex, you are a genius! That's where I need to start looking - a reality where either Loki and Odin never visited Mimir or a reality where Mimir doesn't exist. If they don't drink the Kool-aid..." she trails off with a grin.

Lya looks at the disembodied head for a long time and then glances back at Alex. "You know... in an odd way, I kind of understand why the Mimir did it... leading them on to believe that Ragnarok is the inevitable end... because it's an end," she finishes with a sigh as she looks to the ground and kicks a pebble with her foot.

"I mean imagine if a group of nigh immortal people found out I had visions and decided to cut my head off so they could keep it alive for eternity all to answer questions at their whim." she gestures with a hand to her heart before letting it fall to her side. "I'd be so angry with all of them... so full of rage... but over the centuries of enslavement and barely existing I would realize that all I really want is the peace that death can bring. The only power I would have to bring that about would be my words to the other gods... so I would have to twist and manipulate them in order to guarantee that someday the gods would die, and take me with them."

She walks over to the Mimir and looks at him with sadness in her eyes. "If you so wished it, I would end your pain quickly, Mimir," she says quietly. "Whatever your decision...these lies about Ragnarok can't continue."

"Wait," says Alex. "You can't, Lya. But maybe I can. When Loki had the Einjhar crash your performance at the Westview, I saw Valeria grant him release.

"I can't just snap my fingers and send you on your way, but if you're willing - I can free you from this binding. Your soul would go wherever it's destined to go."

"I have been waiting for you for eons, Alex North," Mimir says quietly. "I saw my own fate, just as the All-Father saw his, that I would be freed by the blood of Tyr. Ragnarok.

"You are the blood of Tyr. Through this, you will forsake Valhalla, as I prophesied. You will make an enemy of the All-Father the moment he becomes aware of this. I ask only that you protect Rikke from his wrath, that she not become an unwilling oracle as I have."

Alex looks at Lya. "Will that work?"

Lya gives Alex a weak smile. "Sounds rather fitting to me. He's been doing this long enough."

She turns to the Mimir. "The Furies and I could probably sneak Rikki out of Asgard with us... but what about the Well? I don't want this to just happen to someone else all over again, you know?"

Orithia sidles over to Rikki and sizes her up. "I think I know what she's got in mind," she tells the woman as she starts unbuckling the straps on her armor. "You're about a size 12, right? I think you'd fit my clothes."

"All right, then. We do it," Alex says. "And quickly, before Odin learns about it. Rikke, make your farewells."

The woman nods and blinks back tears, but she does not wail or lament. "Goodbye, Father. Go to your rest, now."

"Do as you have promised, Son of Tyr," Mimir says. "I am willing."

Alex takes a deep breath. He knows the power is there, it has to be. He had seen a Valkyrie before he even knew he was a Scion. He's seen ghosts and spoken to them. He's been in Hel's realm, where the goddess herself spoke of his encroaching upon her domain.

He remembered what it was like to make his first summation in court.

"If you stammer or fumble for words, you'll lose," his professor had told him. "The jury needs to see you being confident. You're the voice of reason, the one to guide them and assure them of the facts they'll be taking into consideration. You want to be friendly, but you also want to be a voice of authority."

"I release you, Mimir. Be free of the chains binding you to this world," Alex said quietly. "May you find the peace you desire."

"Thank you," Mimir's voice answers. He chuckles. "There is no cat. How glorious!"

And though it is a tired metaphor, there is a soft sighing sound that marks the Oracle's release and passing.

"Drink from the Well ..." his voice says as it fades upon the wind.

Phoebe crouches down next to the well and dips her water bottle into it before handing to Lya. "Care to do the honors?" she asks with a smile and small laugh. "You seem to have the better luck when it comes to drinking unidentifiable fluids."

Lya chuckles and takes the water bottle. "Bottoms up!" she declares before taking a drink and passing the bottle over to Alex. "A little warm, and there's a taste of wood and lichen to it... but all in all I've had worse."

Alex takes a long pull from the bottle. "Hmm. A bit like mineral water. Not too metallic, though. Wonder what it's supposed to do?"

Alex starts to hand the flask to Evie, but she puts up her hand and shakes her head, "No. That was for you and Lya. I'm not the one who freed Mimir or the one who sympathized with his plight. Once Lya brought it up, I certainly agreed with her and with the decision to let him pass. But, this is entirely for you."

"So, what now? We need to get Rikke out and to a safe place before we talk to Odin, again, I think," Evie has already turned her attention to other things. " He may not immediately recognize her in Orithia's clothes, but he can count and will notice if we have an extra person, unless someone is staying behind. And, if someone stays...I'm not entirely certain that we'll be able to get back to retrieve them."

"Beats me, " Lya shrugs. "but at least it's water."

She looks over to Orithia and sees her finishing with the buckles and straightening Rikki's hair as she disguises her in the armor.

"When we leave here, if we manage to get Rikki past Odin we're going to be staying in Asgard on borrowed time and will need to be able to get home as soon as possible." She walks over and puts a reassuring hand on Orithia's shoulder. "Soon as we get home I will summon you to my side with my staff. Keep your head down, and try to stay out of sight."

Orithia offers a half smile as she chuckles. "If I hadn't known you'd have a plan, I wouldn't have volunteered."

"I'll track down Hrofgar and see if he can give us transport back home. I don't know if you've got anything else you need to do here, Alex... because I don't know if they're going to welcome us back after today. I imagine you'll want to talk to Heimdall, Evie?"

Evie smacks her forehead, "Derp! I'm so used to you guys always being around that I completely forget that you're all magical and summonable." She chuckles and shakes her head.

"Yeah, I definitely want to talk to Heimdall. If nothing else, I want to be near him when the news hits about what we've done. Aside from wanting to watch his big screen, I want to know his feelings about Mimir. I imagine that Odin is not going to be happy, so I'm hoping that Dad will have our back."

"She just can't bear to part with us," Toxic chuckles.

"Also wouldn't hurt to make sure we have a back-up plan to get home... considering Hrofgar's satchel was a gift from Odin and all," Lya replies.

"No, I don't have anything else I need to do. I mean, it's interesting, and I don't doubt I could have an epic adventure or two ... but I'm not from here, Lya," Alex says. "Even my military experience is from a different world. To be honest, I fight my battles in the courtroom."

"I feel ya," Lya replies with a laugh. "I doubt they have many punk concerts on Mt. Olympus, let alone have anywhere for us to plug in our amps."

"All right... so when we head out, I suggest Evie talk to Odin and try to keep him distracted while the ladies and I head back to find Hrofgar. Rikki, you stay in the middle with the Furies and try not to make any eye contact." she looks around to everyone and takes a deep breath. "So... we ready to do this?"

Klepto wraps an arm around Rikki and smiles. "You'll like Earth, and we've always got room for one more at our place. Do you play an instrument by any chance?"

"I'm ready. I'll just tell Odin that I have some ideas and need to consult Dad. I'm not going to indicate that we are actually done. I figure since I've already come up to ask questions once, he won't be phased by me coming out to ask more," Evie says. "I don't want to outright lie to him. I'm afraid he would catch that. So, vagueness and omission are my friends!"

After a moment of thought, Evie adds, "You know, you may want to have Rikki stay with Arky. I don't know exactly how pissed Odin will be. I mean...I don't think he would actually go hunting her down. If anything, I think he would only strike out at her is she was right there in front of him, but...".

"...Lyman used Alex's aura to hide what he was doing. What's to say the same thing won't work for us? Maybe the aura of another Scion will keep Rikki at least semi-hidden?"

"I don't know if he's still living in the tunnels back home. I may have to see if I can look him up when we get back, though. Family, and all that," Lya winks.

"Good thinking. And she's another Oracle," Alex said. "Apollo was the patron of Delphi among other things. Although, depending on how badly the All-Father's knickers get knotted, we might be hearing from other pantheons as to how there still needs to be the cosmic gunfight at the OK Corral."

"Only the Norse Gods would be pissy at finding out they all don't have to die in a battle that destroys the world..." Lya mutters.

"Some people fear a boring life more than an exciting death," Rikke replies sagely.

"It's better to burn out, than to fade away?" Lya jokes.

"Exactly."

"I'd rather focus on living," Lya scoffs. "But if they still want to settle their cosmic differences after all of this, I'll gladly show them how to play Rock Paper Scissors."

The party returns to the surface, whereupon Orithia makes a dismissive gesture and stomps off to the cottage.

The All-Father nods sagely, as if such is routine. You wonder if he's dragged others here before to prise additional tidbits from Mimir's visions. Still, if he has any inkling as to what actually transpired, he's keeping it under his hat.

"So. You return. I trust old Mimir wasn't too hard on you?" he chuckles. "Regardless, you all seem to be whole and healthy. Come, tell me what you learned!"

"Well, it's hard to say," Evie gazes thoughtfully at Odin as she speaks.

I can tell him the first three prophecies and still be truthful. It's the fourth that he need not know about, just yet. And, of course, Mimir's death. At least, not until Rikke is clear.

"You know the first prophecy. We'll have to choose between man and god. We know that Alex will most likely kill Fenris. And, we know that, to beat Loki, we have to find what he is looking for ourselves." She looks to the All-Father and continues, "That's why I would like to go back to the Vantage and speak with Heimdall, again. I think he may be able to help us in our search for Loki's lost reality. I'm not sure if the others are up for traveling, though."

She looks back to her companions, giving them the option to come or go as they wish, "As you know, speaking with Mimir can be...taxing. I can always catch back up with them and tell them what I have found."

"Nay, if we ride out, we do so together," Odin says. "It would not be right to leave any of you here at the roots of the World Tree. And Bifrost is as good a place to take you as any, for you may depart to Midgard from its span."

He looks at Alex. "It is fitting that you be the one to kill Fenris, to avenge your father's misfortune. I trust this comes to pass before the Wolf pays me a visit?"
"It appear so," Alex replies. "I do not imagine Fenris would stoop to meddling further with Midgard if he had already assailed Asgard and the All-Father."

"The future and the past are incredibly similar," Lya adds. "They both can tell you a lot if you can manage to look at them without bias." she laughs and shakes her head. "Unfortunately for us, that's pretty difficult... right? Everything we see we can't help but interpret, because we've seen it. The hard part is letting our beliefs go and accepting what is."

She gestures with her thumb over her shoulder. "I can't leave from Bifrost without my peeps... and it looked like Orithia wasn't feeling too good which is why she went back to the house. Couldn't we just leave with Hrofgar?"

At first, it makes you wonder if Odin's upbeat manner is a trick - and then you realize it's 100% genuine, because he has no reason to think you would work against him in this matter. In fact, you asked him about Ragnarok, so why wouldn't you be working to his advantage?

There's a repeat of the ride to Yggdrasil, a whirling blur of motion. In some ways, it's like being a child again and watching cars slow down and move 'backwards' on the freeway. In others, it's every last trip where you didn't feel well - from being car sick to flying with a head cold.

The All-Father is still beaming as you arrive at Bifrost. A round of cursory, "My Lord Odin' and you're on your way to the Vantage. Heimdall's back is to you, and he is scanning the Nine Worlds as is his burden.

"You return," he says quietly. "Know that I have seen as you have, but it is not yet a thing that is done."

"It will be a glorious thing long desired," Odin opines, not twigging to the double-meaning.

"The question remains as to where you wish to begin," Heimdall tells you. "You may go in search of your friend, as his fate is still closely linked to your own. Or, you may ride where you must, and trust that Hitoshi will find you in the proper time. But it is a decision only you can make."

Evie nods, feeling the taut coil of unease unwind from her chest. Heimdall knows. He knows what they seek and what they have done, but he is not tipping the hand to Odin.

"Dad, you know what we're looking for. I would ask if you could find it, but I know that you have a huge job to do, already," she gestures out across the Vantage, indicating his constant vigil over the worlds. "Would it be possible for me to borrow a spot here, for a little while, to search myself?"

She looks to the rest of the group, "If Heimdall is okay with me staying, then I will do this. But, what about Hitoshi? He needs to be warned that he's being manipulated, if he doesn't already know.. (And he might.) Plus, is it his reality where Alex will meet Fenris?"

She walks up to stand beside Heimdall and gazes at the starry expanse below her. "Your eyes do indeed see much Lord Heimdall," Lya replies and then continues in a soft whisper for Heimdal's ears alone. "More than others are willing to see."

She turns around and speaks to the others. "What do you guys think? I did see Hitoshi in my vision, so there is that. Do we have any leads if we go back home to our reality?"

"Well, if we go back home...we might be able to catch Lyman off-guard, if we still need to confront him at this point. We know what he was hiding with the explosion and what he plans, so it means that we're a step ahead of him, there. And, we know that at least one child of Fenris is in the mix, there, as well. It might be worth going back," Evie looks to Lya who stands on the other side of Heimdall. She can't say anything to her friend without alerting Odin, but she hopes that she is giving them a good excuse to go back and hide Rikke. After all, who knows where Arky is or who he may be in Hitoshi's reality?

"It's ironic that Hitoshi went to the castle by himself to ... I don't know, take the burden on his shoulders, but in doing so, he's become caught up in a express lane to hell," Alex frowns. "I can't see leaving him to twist in the wind, but I think he's further down on our to-do list. But it's probably the fact that he's still in a reality where Ragnarok - um ... what's the right way to put it? - goes according to prophecy, maybe. Loki and Fenris can use that to drag it all back and drop it into our laps."

Evie sighs, "Then we need to find Loki's reality...quickly. There are countless realities that they could be (and probably are) massaging to line everything up in their favor. We can't be everywhere at once."

She then looks back to Heimdall, "May I stay, please?" Evie awaits her father's answer. After all, whether she stays or goes affects the group's plans. If she stays, then whether to try to help Hitoshi, hide Rikki, or both falls squarely upon Alex and Lya's shoulders. At least, for a bit. Evie has no plans to abandon them. It just means that, like her time spent researching on the databases back home, she'll be a little occupied before she can get back to them.

"Good intentions and all that," Lya chuckles. "Before you know it your intentions are controlling you... not the other way around."

She runs a hand through her hair and thinks for a moment. "Ok... so if we leave Hitoshi in the hopes that he can handle things on his end, what's the plan?" Lya asks the group. "We know Loki is trying to corrupt Ragnarok for his own benefit, but we don't know whether he's in our reality or another right now. Same goes for Fenris and his kids."

She snaps her fingers as her eyes brighten and she turns to Heimdall. "You could show us Fenris in our reality, couldn't you? We only caught bits about him in the visions... knowing who he is pretending to be might give us a place to start."

Heimdall's tone is part stern guardian and part indulgent parent. A 'Take Our Daughters to Work' T-Shirt, and he'd be all set.

"Yes," he says to Evie. "You may look."

As Evie moves to the Vantage, Heimdall looks at Lya. "I will not speak over much of what Laufeyson and Fenris are up to, in this reality or any other, lest it color your perceptions."

Another sly reference to letting the notion of Ragnarok predispose the Aesir to a military solution. Lya imagines it must be interesting - to be able to see across the Nine Worlds and yet have a liege lord who believes that he sees with superior acumen.

Evie doesn't flinch as she steps up to the Vantage. Heimdall's role is no different than that of any law enforcement officer - not the sensationalized accounts in the media, but the officers who sacrifice to watch over their towns and cities and states.

"Fenris," she breathes. "What are you up to in our world, our reality?"

The vision uncoils like the wolf you are hunting ...

"Do you know who I am?" raged the man. "I am a United States Senator! I dem-"

"You are a tool," comes the answer. "I will make you President."

"I'm listening," the Senator said.

"No. I am the one who will listen ... for now," said Fenris.

Of course. It's like Colonel Ellison. A substitution. A doppelganger who can do what needs to be done, with no allegiances, past or present, to complicate matters. A doppelganger who will become President of the United States ...

"Just because we know the truth doesn't mean they won't still destroy the world in order to prove their lies," Lya mutters angrily. "Might as well change my name to Cassandra."

She glances over at Evie who's eyes have glazed over as she stares into the ether and sighs before glancing up at Heimdall's towering form. "I've kept my mouth shut out of respect for my friends as this is their home, but it's eating me up inside. How do you do it?"

"Both Evie and Alex work in law enforcement," Heimdall said. "Evie goes where the evidence leads her, even if that path is to truths that prove uncomfortable for herself and for others. Alex also pushes past what is accepted to find what is just and fair. You could not ask for better friends in your quest, Lya Bach."

"I cannot see the future as you do, because I am not you," Heimdall said. "I am written into the fabric of Ragnarok, and you seek to change not merely a thread or color, but the tapestry as a whole. If I could not govern myself to stand and watch, then I would be taking up arms against you. You see an alternative we cannot, and possess the courage to seek it out, embrace it, in a way we never can."
"If anything, it is I who should stand and marvel at what you do."

"If you guys are determined to die in battle then that's your choice and I won't stand in the way of that," Lya replies. "I will, however, fight till the end over the belief that you have a choice and no one can take it away from you. Not Loki... not Fenris... and not Odin."

"But I have made a choice, Lya," Heimdall says quietly. "I saw what you did for Mimir, and what you are doing for Rikke. And I have not told the All-Father about your choices. Oh, he will learn of it in time through his own sources, but I trust Evie will learn what she needs to and that you will be on your way before Odin is in a position to interfere."

Evie's vision clears, resolving back into the Vantage and the others who stand, talking quietly as they await news.

The detective shakes her head and steps back, moving to Lya and Alex's side, "He's going to use the same ploy in our world that he was in Castle World. Fenris is going to use a doppelganger to replace the president. The man who will be put into power is a senator."

"I didn't get a look at Fenris," she continues, "but I did recognize the senator. He's a moderate from Montana. His name escapes me, though. Give me a minute and I can look him up...if we get wifi at the Vantage."

Evie digs into a small pouch she had bought back in the village, rattling around her keys as she digs out the phone. There's still just a smidgeon of a charge and she's not sure it'll work, here, but...no harm in trying!

"Thank you, Heimdall... you are an honorable man," Lya whispers before turning to respond to Evie.

"Well that gives us somewhere to start I guess. Do we go back and try and track him down? Maybe see if we can find the original? I doubt we'll be lucky enough to find him frozen in a hotel this time around."

"I think that's a good starting point. You'll need to do everything that you can to slow down Fenris' plans. I have no idea how long it will take me to sort through everything and find what we need. The good news is that once I do find it, I can easily get back to Vegas from here."

She gives Lya a knowing look and adds softly, "And I'm going to be working as fast as I can. I don't want to be here too long."

No one wants to be here when Odin finds out what we did...

"From what Evie described, it sounds like Fenris is going to interrogate the real Senator, wring him dry, and then take his place. Classic Cold War Hollywood spycraft," Alex says. "The only reason it's feasible is because we're talking Scions and whatever the Fenris Wolf is. A supernatural creature."

"Midsummer recess. Senate's on break for several weeks, so he doesn't need to be on Capitol Hill. He could disappear to a ranch, a cabin by the lake, whatever ... and when he comes back, it'll either be a double or someone who has been made compliant, like Soleil Hunter did with the DA's office."

Evie's cell phone lights up and shows full coverage.

"A benefit of the office," says Heimdall. "Who do you think places those calls to the anonymous tip line?"

Evie's eyes crinkle and a soft chuckle escapes her lips. It's not that the situation they are in is funny but...it's kind of comforting to know that Heimdall takes an active hand in things, even if it is simply making a call now and again, You are awesome, Dad!

Turning her attention back to the phone, she does a quick search, "Okay...here he is. Senator Justin Holliwell. He's a moderate. Been under fire for a lot of his views by more conservative peers. But, that may actually be a good thing as far as votes. There are a lot more people who are middle of the road, I think. It's just that the crazy extremes tend to be louder. If he can balance everything well, he could win by virtue of being less insane than any other candidate."

She turns so that Alex and Lya can see the picture before she continues her searching, "Let's find out where this guy lives...what his hobbies are...which pies does he have his fingers in...

"I'm not sure how I feel about us splitting up the group even more," Lya says as she worries her bottom lip with her teeth. "Especially since our welcome here is going to expire soon." She sighs and looks at Evie. "I can't argue with the benefits, though."

She stands in front of Evie and pokes her. "If I find anybody here hurt you while I'm gone, I swear to all that's holy they'll learn what it's like to suffer Dionysus's wrath. So do us all a favor and take care of yourself, OK?"

Evie laughs and catches Lya in a hug, squeezing her tightly. "Don't you worry about me," she says as she lets go. "I'll be safe here."

More softly, she says, "I'm sure Dad will watch over me while I search. And, I'm going to get you what you need to convince everyone. I promise that I will work as fast as I can and get back to you."

She grins and pokes Lya, "So you stay safe! I'm afraid my powers of persuasion consist of the "are you blind?" and "you're a dumbass" techniques, which would probably go over like a lead balloon."

"We're a team. We look out for each other," she smiles warmly. "I'll also keep an eye on you from here, if I can. If I see anything that I can warn you about, I'll call or text, okay?

Lya chuckles and winks. "You better! We don't have a good track record when we split up, so I am trusting you to break the trend."

"Trust me, I'd rather not split up, either. But time isn't on our side. We need that info and you need to slow things down in Vegas," Evie lets her eyes slide briefly to 'Orithia' and the message is clear. You also need to hide her before Odin finds out.

"In the words of Ah-nuld, 'I'll be back!" she adds in a truly terrible Schwarzenegger impression.

"Hey, it's the guys who have the bad track record," Alex laughs. "And first thing I need to do when I get back to Vegas is get some new clothes. I can't go running around in my Asgardian best, and if Lyman blew my house up, well, that's that."

Evie eyeballs Alex and opens her mouth as if to say something, then shuts it again, changing her mind.

Saul has an extra set of clothes at her house that might fit Alex. She had been about to offer them up, thinking that Saul wouldn't mind. But, then...maybe he would mind if he found out. She's disappeared and suddenly a guy shows up at her place taking clothes...

Evie decides that Alex is more than capable of replacing his own clothes.

Lya laughs. "All right then... if we can leave from here, then I guess it's time to say our good-byes and till laters. Keep us informed, Evie, and I'll do my best to throw a wrench in Fenris' war machine."

"If you can stand the estrogen, you're more than welcome to camp at Casa Chaos, Alex," Lya offers as Klepto chuckles at the name.

She offers to shake Heimdall's hand. "Can't say it was a pleasure, sir... but it was definitely an honor. Your daughter does you credit."

"I still have my old office to crash at. It'll do," Alex says. "Done it enough while pulling all-nighters. Or I could see if there's a unit where Chris Clemens lives and shove it all in their faces."

He turns towards Evie and Heimdall. "Find out where this senator is. Maybe we can stop Fenris from taking his place or working whatever head games he has in mind."

"Lya, what else do we need to nail down at home? Can we work with Hitoshi's people, or is the Board of Directors going to close ranks and shut us out?"

Lya sighs and scratches the back of her neck with one hand as she pulls out her wallet with the other. She opens it and hesitates for a moment before pulling out a folded letter that was once crumpled into a ball and shows it to Alex.

"Well... according to this letter that Hitoshi left me when he disappeared, I'mthe new CEO," she explains with obvious distaste. "Not that I want to run a company or that they'd welcome me with open arms..." her hands form into fists as a sly smile crosses her face. "but if it means getting to tell one of those Fenris bitches where to stick it I'll put on a suit."

"On it," Evie nods and turns back to the Vantage. She might be able to look up where Holliwell lives on the internet, but the Vantage can give them an idea of where he is at this very second.

"I'll pay good money to see that," Alex says. "You telling one of Fenris' whelps where to get off, not 'Lya in a suit.'"

He takes a closer look at the letter. "Where did this come from? Hmm. Westview letterhead. No date. It looks like his writing. And it sounds like him. Didn't he become CEO by acquiring shares through an agent?"

"I imagine his fingerprints are on it. There's nothing to say it isn't genuine. A court would likely rule in your favor."

"I dunno. Lya in a suit would be hawt!" Evie grins and quips over her shoulder as she prepares to find Holliwell.

"You know I rock the pinstripe," Lya chuckles in response to Evie's quip before turning back to Alex. "When we were in Castle World, Hitoshi's mom and I both received letters that he left for us before he disappeared into the castle. I don't know if it'll hold up in court, but it's sure to shake up their plans at least. I can keep them focused on preventing a potential take-over while we figure out how to stop their plans."

She smiles sweetly as she turns to the Furies. "Of course, this means that you guys are going to have wear suits too, you know. I think Phoebe will make a great executive assistant while Klepto and Toxic can be my bodyguards and Orithia can be my driver."

"And the power already goes to her head," Toxic chuckles.

"Drive?" Rikke asks in confusion. "I don't..."

"Oh... I meant my friend Orithia, Rikke," Lya quickly explains with a comforting smile. "First things first, when we get home we'll bring Orithia back and call my friend Arky to see if he can help you with a place to stay away from prying eyes."

"Heimdall? How do we get from here to Vegas? I mean, the Bifrost is the bridge between Asgard and Midgard, right?" asks Alex.

"It is, Tyrsson. It is not something a mortal can hope to do," Asgard's warder tells you. "Only Aesir, or another of divine blood can direct their steps. A mortal would be swept away as if they had stepped into a raging current.

"When you are ready, simply set your mind to your destination. Absent the intent to bridge realities, you will return to the world you left," Heimdall says. "Or, rather, the world you belong to, since you came here in a somewhat roundabout manner. Broaching realities is not a thing of accident, as storytellers would have it, but of deliberate action and, sometimes, malice."

As Evie waits to get started working, her thoughts drift. Seeing Saul mere moments before makes her consider, once again, calling him. She wants to allay his worry but...his fears are more well-founded than he knows. And, nothing has changed. If the enemy is monitoring her loved ones, then contacting them would only draw dangerous attention.

With a soft sigh, she once again puts her phone back in her pocket.

"Okay then... so I just click my heels and think of home. Got it," Lya replies with a smile. "Guess we're ready when you are, Alex."

"Hey Evie," Lya adds as she spies Evie's wistful look at her phone. "you... want me to send word to anyone for you when we get back?" She chuckles. "I've got lots of ways to get my message across if you're worried about them."

Evie blushes, not realizing that she had been quite so transparent. Despite that, she smiles gratefully before shaking her head, "Nah. I appreciate it but...I'm afraid it all would just take too much explaining!"

She chuckles, "I mean, how do you explain all of this..." and here, she waves her arms to indicate it all...themselves, the gods, Asgard..."...and not sound like a lunatic?"

"Besides, any other explanation that would be believable would make hiiii ...them...worry just as much as not knowing," she clears her throat and scratches at her cheek. "Don't you have Fenris stuff to do? Shoo!"

Evie blushes furiously and waves at the others to be off, still grinning.

We're off to see the Wizard ..." Alex begins, skipping a couple of steps. "Just kidding. I suppose we should beam down to Casa Chaos, since we're all dressed up in our medieval best."

"If anybody asks it's just dress rehearsal for our comeback show," Lya chuckles. "Let's do this. Are my roaming charges going to be ridiculous if we text?"

Alex digs his cell phone out of a pocket. Surprisingly, it had survived the ordeal of a fight with a troll, a trip to Hell, and a whirlwind tour of Asgard. He glances about, turns so part of the Bifrost is visible behind him, and motions for the others to gather around.

"Pics, or it didn't happen!" he shouts. Maybe the light show of Bifrost won't turn out as anything but a blur. And maybe it will be a crazy souvenir to share with the grand-kids in a world free of Ragnarok.

Evie laughs and jogs back over to take a place beside Alex. She stands beside him, waving Lya and the others over. Glancing over her shoulder at the Bifrost, she chuckles, "Anyone who sees this picture is going to think we were at some sort of crazy medieval disco...which isn't far-fetched for Vegas!"

Lya crouches in front of Alex and Evie and flashes the devil horns with both hands as the Furies gather around flexing arm muscles and grinning widely.

"Everybody say cheese!"

The photo is made even more spectacular as you realize Heimdall's stern profile is visible off to one side, gleaming armor and helm more fantastical than anything that's come out of Hollywood.

"Enjoy such moments when they happen," he says quietly. "And may your vision pave the way to a future with many more."

Evie nods and smiles at her celestial parent, "Hopefully so. It's what we're aiming for."

Turning back to Alex and Lya, she gives them both one more hug before parting ways, "I'll text as soon as I find anything out that will be helpful! And, I'll be right behind you. You guys stay safe."