Grimmfall: Ragnarok

I do not own Grimmfall or any other franchises or Fanfiction stories that are mentioned in this.

I do however own Carlos Hunter, who is a character of my own making. If anybody wishes to contest this by saying he is the property of Lord Maximus then I invite you to ask him yourself so he can set the record straight.

Once there was a team of four Huntsmen considered to be among the most dangerous in the world. They are a team no longer, scattered on the winds like specs of ash by broken trust and bonds.

Xxx

"Ugh…when did I have carrots?" Charlemagne mumbled as he willed the remaining evidence of his and Control Freak's booze fuelled shenanigans out of the pocket universe he called home. "Welcome back. No Control Freak this time, I'm afraid. He had to get back to work, and so do I."

Creating a cushioned chair for himself as he fell backwards, he sank into its embrace with a sigh. "Three trials. One down, two left and it looks like my progenitor might soon fulfill one ahead of me. So that leaves me with only one recourse: to beat him to Helheim. I've sat idle and mourned over the good Colonel long enough."

Sitting up, he rubbed at his jawline and removed a layer of growing stubble. "I need to get back into the game, really make a show of force and remind the readers that I am here for far more than to inject some badly needed quality into this piss-poor excuse of a magnum opus!" He declared. "But how will I do it? How…"

Struck by a sudden burst of inspiration, Charlemagne babbled and looked around quickly before snapping his fingers and conjuring a tablet. "Don't know how I keep losing this thing." He muttered as he rewinded a video of events from Chapter 11. "Right near the end…there!"

"A great power has been placed across the realm, choking points through space and time that would be used to access it through more…conventional means." Shirley's accented voice dipped slightly. "I can pinpoint where this site is, but if it is not on our world then you will have no chance of accessing it. Asgardian sorcery is far beyond what most are capable of amassing."

"Point us to it." Big Bob demanded, not reacting to the blatant insult he'd been paid moments ago. "We'll handle the rest from there."

Charlemagne grinned. "Hello, carpool lane!"

Snapping his fingers again, he changed his attire to that of a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, sandals and a base ball cap while a cumbersome briefcase appeared with the label 'HELHEIM OR BUST' slapped onto every conceivable inch of surface besides the zipper.

"This is the dashing and insidiously intelligent Charlemagne Hunter: signing off!" He bid farewell and opened a portal. "Roll the chapter!"

Xxx

Chapter Thirteen: Trials of Yggdrasil, Part 2

Infernal

Don't do it!

Kurt, come back! Don't leave!

You did this…

Carlos opened his eyes after plummeting for what felt like an eternity. He was on solid ground for now, surrounded by vast green plains dotted with some…peculiar geographical markers and overshadowed by clouds taking all kinds of cartoonish and outlandish shapes.

"Am I dead?" He felt around himself.

"You're not dead, moron."

"Huh?" Carlos looked around.

"And that isn't the question you should be asking, moron."

Carlos groaned. "Please tell me that isn't my evil clone."

"Hah! You wish!" Upon a moving mass of cloud, a lookalike or Carlos seated in a comfy chair floated down, accompanied by another cloud carrying what looked like a flat screen TV. "He'd rather be watching pay per view wrestling than getting involved with your dumb little spirit quest."

Picking up a remote, the lookalike changed the channel to show a rotund blonde man deliver an uppercut to the tentacle covered face of a green skinned alien. "-and Coop hits him with a left! And a right! Oh I didn't know Glorft could bend that way-"

"Whoops! Spoilers." The lookalike changed the channel. "I'm crazy enough to be part of your stupid subconscious, but spoiling the main story? Noooo thank you!"

"…are you sure you're not just my clone?" Carlos groaned. "You sound just like him."

"Fortunately not, I am just an aspect of your mind constructed within the celestial plane, which has shaped a portion of itself to form a facsimile of what you would consider your subconscious mind." The lookalike stood up. "And let me tell you, it's a disgraceful mess in here. But enough about your mental health, let's talk about your mental health!"

"Great, so you're my spirit animal." Carlos rolled his eyes and turned around. "What am I even doing here?"

"Why you're here to clean up your act!" His doppelgänger moved to his side and clapped his hands onto Carlos' arms. "You need to be worthy of seeing Mimir, and to be worthy you need to do something that he would never accuse the All-Father or any lackey he'd trust to seek out Mimir to be capable of: man up and admit it when you're wrong."

"Wrong about what?" Carlos asked. "I've made my share of bad choices but I never tried to deny they happened or why."

"Denial." The doppelgänger held one hand up and waved it across the landscape, where the word 'DENIAL' grew out of the ground and formed from clouds in the sky. "Denial everywhere. That's where I come in, my deluded chum. I force to the surface that which you don't want to confront, bring to light those dark corners of your mind that you'd sooner forget and make you stare into the abyss until it blinks."

Slowly inching away from the doppelgänger, Carlos regarded him warily. "Are you seriously a part of me? What aspect of me do you represent in the case?"

The doppelgänger's smile never left his face as he turned his head towards Carlos. "The best of you…the worst of you…" He shrugged. "To be less poetic: I'm you, minus the bull…sugar, was it? Yes, that's it! I'm you, minus the bull sugar you feed yourself every waking second. And you're only leaving this place one of two ways: successfully…or fatally."

He rubbed his hands together. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Xxx

Ingenious

Don't leave!

You need to, Kurt.

This is a fixation!

"Well, you're certainly new to town."

Kurt gasped and crumpled to all fours, his limbs struggling to keep him steady. He felt a familiar carpet fabric against his hands and looked up to see the inside of his own home, the living room specifically.

Ahead of him, a puddle of black liquid rippled as lone droplets splashed down into it. Slowly, a pair of bare, slender feet coated in the oily substance and set themselves flat. Kurt tilted his head up to see a form clad in black and green armour, dented and misshapen by past battles and covered with tattered and burnt cloth of similar colour. It was worn by a woman with fair skin and long black hair, grey eyes surrounded by black smudges and an empty smile which made Kurt feel like she was analyzing him the same way a scientist might examine bacteria through a microscope.

"I don't see many men here, not living ones anyways." Balanced on the balls of her feet, the woman delicately took steps towards him, leaving black footprints in her wake. "Even if they somehow fall into Helheim they never last long, yet you appear to have endured far past where all others fell."

"Yeah, I've had a problem with rules for a long time." Kurt managed to lean on a table. "I'd introduce myself…but if you are who I think you are, then you already know."

She grinned playfully. "What gave me away?"

"Well, I'm in Helheim, so that narrowed the list down…Lady Hela."

Xxx

Infernal

"You seem unusually confident that you have a clean record."

The doppelgänger followed Carlos through the endless expanse of the celestial plane, propped up in his comfy chair on a floating cloud once more.

"I didn't say that." Carlos shook his head, looking for anything to indicate he was making progress to…anywhere. "Everybody has a skeleton in their closet, I just don't know what you want me to fess up to."

"It's not something wrong that you did to someone else, my dear simpleton." The doppelgänger leered down at him from on high. "But something you have done to yourself. Murder, theft, vandalism and genocide are sins against Glob…but a lie is a sin against your own soul. It sinks its teeth in and follows you for the rest of your life until you vanquish it with the truth. Of course, little white lies can be forgiven, but it's the big ones that are fuelled by resentment and regret that must be dealt with. And there's only one real big spot on your record that's keeping you from talking to Mimir."

"Congratulations to all of you. I was watching closely to observe your skills and teamwork."

The fields were gone. Carlos was standing inside an auditorium, on a stage with hundreds of faces staring at him…no, past him, to where the next generation of Huntsmen to enroll at Nevernest Academy were assembled. Four of them stood before Headmaster Sebben, beaming with pride as they were given their official team name and thus marked their first day as a real team.

"Even though some of you have only met, I could swear that you have been long time friends and allies. What matters is that every single team here is unique in its own way because of the skills and personalities that you bring to it." The Headmaster paused as he came to the quartet. "And some…are more unique than others."

Holding up his tablet, Phil turned on an overhanging screen. "Beginning with the team which…besides burning down most of the test area-"

Carlos' younger self snickered.

"Triggering a miniature earth quake-"

Gregor grinned and exchanged a high five with Roberto.

"Inducing a stampede of wild dogs-"

Roberto shrugged innocently.

"And vibrated his aura to the point of turning into a literal walking oven…contributing to said fire." Phil drawled. "They were also the first to complete the test…in record time I might add. Roberto Lupine, Gregor Brobdith, Carlos Hunter and Kurt Malcolm. The four of you shall form Team RGCK under the leadership of Roberto Lupine."

"Hot diggity!" Young Carlos slapped Roberto on the back. "Way to go, Wolfman!"

Gregor laughed heartily and lifted Roberto up in a one armed hug. "Can think of no other more suited to it." He said.

"Congrats, Rob." Kurt said with a nod and a smile.

The scene fell still. Carlos felt his heart wrench at what had been the happiest moment of his youth.

"Such a happy little group of trouble makers." His doppelgänger sighed. "Now one is dead and gone, and the rest of you just drifted apart. But one of them is your brother in law, yet it took him being hunted for you to actually talk to him again outside of when you're expected to. Why?"

"Why?" Carlos' temper flared. "He didn't care enough to come calling either."

"Oh, so focused on what he did to you." The doppelgänger groaned melodramatically. "Woe is Carlos. Poor, poor him."

"Hey, don't you try guilting me!" Carlos pointed. "You want to know why I only just tolerate Kurt? Why it takes us being in a fight with something a lot worse to distract me from that?"

He gripped his doppelgänger by the shirt collar and bellowed. "Because he and I both good as killed Gregor, but when the ashes settled in Northguard…Kurt. Wasn't. There."

Xxx

Ingenious

"It's rude to pry, you know." Kurt said as he watched this same scene.

"It's also rude to trespass." Hela countered, lounged in one of the empty chairs. "You can't blame me for being curious about the first living Midgardians to walk in my realm. Your team was given a very…particular name."

"That isn't lost on me." Kurt crossed his arms as the room faded away to be replaced by the mists of Hel. "So, you wouldn't happen to have a way out of here for anyone who isn't dead, would you?"

"Let me think:" Hela tapped a finger to her chin. "Would the goddess of death have an obvious escape route out of a place designed to contain the souls of the dead?"

"You've been visited before." Kurt said. "By Odin, for instance."

Hela's eyes narrowed and glowed a venomous green. "…never mention that one eye fraud in my presence. Ever."

Kurt held his hands up placatingly. "I get it: you have beef, but it has nothing to do with me or my team. Right now I'm more concerned about one of the Asgardians on Earth, specifically one who isn't supposed to be there. You might know him: youngest son of…he who must not be named, rather resilient against anything but mistletoe."

"Baldur. Daddy's favourite child." Hela sneered.

"I thought that was Thor." Kurt raised one brow beneath his glasses.

"And yet your people remember Baldur as 'the most beloved' of the Aesir."

"Ah, true." Kurt nodded. "I guess every parent has their favourite child...and every child has their favourite parent. He has Baldur…and you had Loki."

"For what little time we had before I was sentenced to rule here for eternity." Hela nodded. "And now I am told my father is either dead or corrupted in some form beyond my reach…you can imagine how that might displease me."

"Actually, I can." Kurt nodded. "My parents were taken away from me when I was barely old enough to remember them."

"Yes, yes, and now you're on an unending quest to find their murderers." Hela sighed. "A tale as old as time."

"So needless to say we have one thing in common-" Kurt began.

"Which is why I know not to trust you, Kurt Malcolm." Hela smirked.

"Smart not to." Kurt nodded. "Not even my team mates are silly enough to trust me."

"Weren't they once?" She asked pointedly. "Years ago?"

"Feel free to poke around in my head if you'd like. Not like I can stop you." Kurt shrugged. "But if you do that, I'd at least like a hint of how to get out of here."

"Awfully demanding for someone with no power to back him up." Hela wagged a finger at him.

"I'm not demanding." Kurt clarified. "…it would just be the polite thing to do. I can't see your grandfather being so accomodating either."

The smile dissolved off of her face. "…well played." She sighed. "Very well. Let's see…"

For a moment silence fell between them, and then Hela slowly chuckled. "Oh…oh…" She shook her head. "Oh dear…such guilt! Such regret…you mourn." She inhaled and tilted her head back. "Ah…they really were foolish. Almost as much as you."

"You aren't saying anything that I haven't heard or said to myself before." Kurt replied sharply. "Now…are you satisfied?"

"Never, but as you said before: it is the polite thing to do." Hela said. "There is a way out of Helheim…a way which grandfather used once. And only once. He hasn't visited me since because a little birdy…" She looked up as the mists cleared to show the same colossal bird Kurt had spotted before leering down at them. "…told him that I laid a trap in it, something to ensure that if the All-Father returned for another pleasant visit neither he or any of his sycophants would never be able to leave."

"Thus dooming them to freeze and die here." Kurt nodded as the mist shrouded the eagle from view once more. "Oddly specific: neither the All Father or anyone supporting him could ever leave through it…yet it sounds like you left some wiggle room."

"Anyone can leave through it. He just couldn't because it would require something entirely beyond him." Hela grinned. "Beyond what most, mortal or otherwise are capable of."

She leaned in close and whispered a cold breeze into his ear. "…admitting when they are wrong. And unless you can come to that point, my dear…then you're right where you belong and simply haven't admitted it yet."

Xxx

Infernal

"Ah, good old Northguard. Population-at least at this point in the flashback: about ten thousand and five-hundred some." The doppelgänger inhaled deeply. "Ah, feel that memory of nice, brisk Canadian air."

Carlos looked at his now empty hands and then at the burning city around him. "Oh hell no. Don't you-" He turned to see that he was alone in the burning street.

"What's wrong, Mr Hunter? Unpleasant memories? Six-hundred and forty-two unpleasant memories to be exact?" The doppelgängers voice remained, disembodied and coming from all directions at once. "Let's take a look, shall we? What was it that brought you here in the first place?"

"You know damn well it was Kurt who arranged this op!" Carlos snapped, trying to block out the wailing of a child from nearby. "We followed him in like we'd done for two years, and before that every year at Nevernest."

"Ah yes! Another of his- what did you call them? Conspiracy hunts? A lead on a hidden research facility conducting illegal and unethical experiments upon Faunus and Mobians, if our memory is accurate. And you found it, didn't you?"

"We did." Carlos shuddered as the child's cries were cut off with a sickening crack of bone. "…and then this happened."

A colossal figure emerged, stepping through the embers without a care or any sign of even feeling the heat licking at their legs. Carlos recognized the familiar slope of the broad shoulders , the thick dark beard and…those eyes…those empty, soulless eyes.

"GREGOR!"

The giant slowly turned, coming face to face with Carlos as he had been ten years ago: bloodied, bruised and parting the fires around him so that he could take one unsteady step after another towards his team mate. He stopped five feet away and looked up, his chest rising and falling with heavy, shuddering breaths while his mouth struggled to form words. He hadn't known what to say in the face of such decimation, but in a short time he'd settled for just saying anything.

"Why?"

Gregor didn't respond, staring at him with a scowl carved from cold stone.

"Why?!" Carlos had demanded. "Gregor, why did you do this?! All these people- the children! For Glob's sake, why?!"

Gregor's head tilted to one side in a moment of what could be confused for childish curiosity. Then his arm darted out and grabbed for Carlos' head, easily big enough to envelope his skull and strong enough to crack it like an egg. Carlos never let him get close, leaning to one side and then strafing past Gregor, leaving a deep cut along his side. The giant grunted and looked down at the wound, from which flowed back blood.

"Don't make me do this!" Carlos had shouted. "Gregor, I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else, but don't make me hurt you!"

The thing that had once been the jovial, happy giant known as Gregor Brobdith gave no heed to these words. Crouching down, he launched himself through the air, aiming to land atop Carlos who ash-stepped out of the way and repeated this game of cat and mouse between delivering more hits with Warhawk. Once in a while Gregor got a hit in and Carlos' aura would flash dangerously, but the Infernal Huntsman's strangely of death by a thousand cuts eventually began to wear the larger fighter down.

After what had felt like hours but had really been a few short, terrifying minutes for him, Gregor collapsed to his knees and bled from over thirty cuts and stab wounds delivered at carefully chosen areas. Carlos still kept out of reach, but when he saw his friend fall limp and silent he lowered his guard.

"Roberto!" He'd tried to use his tablet. "Roberto, we need medivac to my location. I have Gregor down but he's h- URK!"

He'd stepped too close and Gregor wrapped both around his throat and head where he began to squeeze. Carlos screamed and struggled, igniting his Phoenix Inferno more out of reflex than anything else, mending the damage that Gregor did as quickly as it was made. Carlos tried to dislodge himself by cutting at Roberto's arms, but the giant appeared unmoved by any pain he could cause. The same couldn't be said for the Infernal Huntsman, who finally unleashed his semblance in a blind fury, engulfing himself, Gregor…and everything within a quarter mile, living or not.

It was a great ball of fire that lit up the night sky, visible from over a hundred miles away and even from orbit. Anyone unfortunate enough to look at it while too close suffered having their eyes seared to the point of blindness. Many who had been beyond the quarter-mile point were still immolated on the spot, entire streets caught fire and vehicles melted and exploded.

Xxx

Ingenious

Kurt surveyed the aftermath of that same fight, every detail just as he'd remembered it. The ashes, the silence…and the signs of green slowly but visibly sprouting up from the ground everywhere that had been scorched clean by Carlos. Before long there had been new life sprouting up at the site of the battle, atop the ruins and in every space where it could find sufficient biomass to spring from.

All of it centred on Carlos. He was watching his friend from the same spot as ten years ago: just at the edge of the newly grown garden of life born from freshly sewn destruction.

"Oh no…" He'd whispered. "Oh dear Glob, no."

It wasn't supposed to be anything like this. It had just been another lead, another trail that was close to going cold. And now Gregor was…and Carlos-

A chime from his tablet temporarily snapped him out of it, and he'd picked up. "Sebben!"

"I saw." Sebben had said grimly. "Kurt…I'm sorry."

"I need to get Carlos out of here." Kurt was already planning six steps ahead. "Sebben, I need that safe house online and secure transport-"

"Kurt."

"If we hurry we can get ahead of this before someone tries to pin it all on him-"

"Kurt!"

Kurt clamped his mouth shut. "Sir?"

"You aren't done yet. I'm sorry, what I ask will be difficult but it must be done…and Carlos and Roberto must not know about it. I wouldn't ask this of you if I wasn't completely certain that anything to the contrary would almost certainly lead to even greater calamity than what you have witnessed."

Xxx

Infernal

"So then he just…ran off." The Doppelgänger gave a 'tsk' as he shook his head, now by Carlos' side again.

"He didn't just run off." Carlos closed his eyes to the sight of himself, kneeling broken among the flowers. "I found out later where he went…after a transport from that lab. They'd lost their lab and materials in the chaos. It put them back a decade at least, but the mind behind it was set to fly off…and Kurt went after them first."

"Then came your internment, the protective custody, the months of being labelled a monster until Sebben was able to put together a case which proved you and Roberto weren't to blame." The doppelgänger nodded. "But that wasn't enough, was it?"

"Gregor Brobdith was my friend. He was the jolly giant, the big teddy bear who would never hurt a fly. I saw him volunteer to play Santa at the mall every Christmas. I helped him get over Patty Jenkins cheating on him. We all stood by him when he finally stood up against that supervisor who would always treat him like shit when he worked as a boat cleaner." Carlos' eyes grew hot as he recalled those days. "…and when Kurt's crusade ended with him being turned into some monster…into being remembered as a monster, all Kurt did was keep chasing his precious ghosts!"

Xxx

Ingenious

"Carlos always was slow to forget a slight, real or not." Kurt rubbed his eyes as the garden dissolved away. "But…I couldn't blame him for thinking that."

"Of course you couldn't." Hela snaked an arm around his shoulders. "What else could he think…when you only ever used your so called friends for your crusade?"

The events of several years shot by before his eyes. Less than a month into their first year he'd roped the team into helping him sneak into one place or another: the school archives, a Satyra safehouse, once even a hidden nest of Grimm that had somehow gotten under Grimmfall with the guidance of some lesser Fallen- the whole operation had been too sloppy to have Sammael's blessing. No matter where or what it was, trouble followed them and escalated until Team RGCK soon acquired a reputation for it.

Because he'd kept poking the hornet's nest.

Because he'd kept dragging his team mates…his friends…into his business; every time he used them as distractions, decoys, proxies and pawns.

And the thing about Chess was that pawns always fall first.

Xxx

Infernal

"But that isn't the summation of your relationship, oh no." The doppelgänger denied. "You see, Carlos, you're perpetually in a state of being known as…what was it again?" He snapped his fingers. "Oh right: self-pity!"

"Here we go." Carlos closed his eyes and breathed in while counting to ten in his head.

"You fixate only upon the details which are relevant to your suffering or that of those closest to you, and seek to demonize Mr Malcolm with a painfully tailored narrative." The doppelgänger shrugged. "But who am I to blame someone with the emotional maturity of Justin Beaver?"

"Aaaand ten." Carlos exhaled. "Alright, if what you say is true and you already know everything: why bother asking anything when you could just show me?"

"I can only show you so much, Carlos, and I can't understand it for you as well." The doppelgänger groaned, rubbing his face. "Glob, if stupidity was a super power we'd be Major Glory. Let's start where every shitshow starts: that first meeting."

Then Carlos fell in a ditch. "Son of a-"

Standing at the top of the newly manifested shallow ravine, the doppelgänger put his hands on his hips. "And three…two…one."

"Someone get in my WAY-"

CRASH!

The same younger version of Carlos from the original vision shot down like a comet and crashed into the exact same spot occupied by the current version. The impact itself didn't caused further harm as the two passed through one another, but the older version was still flung back up to the top of the ditch as a result.

"Ugh…now it's coming back to me." Carlos groaned, laying on his back where the inclination to roll over and die made itself known now just as it had half a life time ago.

"Hey, are you alright down there?"

The Young-Carlos opened is eyes to see a hand being offered. After working up the strength he grasped it and was pulled out of the crater he'd made.

"Yikes, rough landing." Young-Kurt said, adjusting a set of tinted goggles as he observed the Carlos-shaped indent. "The old man really should'a given us more of a heads up."

"Ow…thanks." Young-Carlos rubbed his head. "Eh, to be fair: my big mouth got me into a lot worse trouble before."

"That makes way too much sense." Young-Kurt nodded. "Anywho, he said the first person we make eye contact with is our partner so…"

"Well technically it's not eye contact yet with those things." Carlos tapped the goggles. "What are they for anyways?"

"My eyes are super sensitive." Young-Kurt defended.

"They still look weird. Might want to try some sunglasses." Young-Carlos began to climb out of the ditch. "C'mon, we don't want to be last."

"We don't lose anything if we're last." Young-Kurt clambered after him.

"Yeah, but the big hairy guy sassed me, and I'll be damned if I'm second fiddle to him now!"

Carlos watched the two teens climb out and dust themselves off. Reliving this

"Oh, wait, almost forgot." Young-Carlos stopped and turned mid-step. "Name's Carlos. Carlos Hunter."

"Huh, unusually convenient surname, but cool." Young-Kurt nodded and shook an offered hand. "Kurt Malcolm."

Young-Carlos looked at the hand like it was about to turn into a snake and bite him, but then cautiously grasped it.

Xxx

Ingenious

"And you were so glad that you had the loud mouthed powerhouse for a partner."

In a vision of the same exact event, only seen from the opposite ledge of the ravine, Hela held Kurt's shoulders. "For who else made a better patsy?"

"That's not true." Kurt denied and shrugged her hands off.

"Isn't it?" She challenged. "You didn't go to Nevernest to become a Huntsman."

"But I didn't pick Carlos." Kurt argued. "Did I ask him for help a lot after that? Yes. But I also helped him out a lot when he got into stupid situations."

Kurt's plans hadn't been the sole cause of Team RGCK's reputation. Carlos, Roberto and even Gregor had their own issues and agendas which had ended up drawing the whole team in.

Fights with members of some crime syndicate Carlos used to run with in England.

Dealing with Roberto's Satyra-aligned uncle trying to pressure him into joining the cause.

Even Gregor being targeted by bullies for his soft hearted, jolly giant disposition had somehow found a way to blow up.

And on the side they still found newer, more creative ways to get involved with mayhem where it reared its head. But along the way not one of them had ever complained, hesitated or backed out…until after Northguard.

In the aftermath, when Kurt finally saw Carlos again, things had been tense but not out of control. It was the slightest mention of Kurt going to chase down a lead which had suddenly caused Carlos to explode.

It was the last thing he'd said before walking out that had struck hardest.

'We aren't children anymore Kurt, and this isn't some game to play on the side! Gregor's dead and you're carrying on like you don't care! Hell, I don't think you ever cared. So the next time you want help with your ghost hunt…call Sebben, because I'm done.'

After that it took Kurt and Sarah's marriage to get him into the same room as Kurt. Carlos hadn't been hostile or aggressive, but he hadn't smiled the way he used to or laughed even once. After that their relationship had become…episodic.

Work would take them away for weeks or months, they'd occasionally cross paths out there or back home and talk, reminisce on old times, make some new memories…

But Kurt knew that things had never been the same after that night, and while Carlos' attitude had occasionally thinned his patience…he still had some share of the blame for things devolving the way they had.

"You wanted me to admit something? Truly admit it? Sincerely?" Kurt demanded. "Fine, here's what this stroll down memory lane managed to make me realize: I should have told Carlos why, instead I let him walk around for ten years with Gregor's blood on his hands and not one word to explain why it happened. Sebben gave me every reason not to…but he's supposed to be my oldest friend and he deserved better than that."

Hela's smile vanished. "…oh." She sighed in disappointment. "And what will you do with this revelation if you live to see Carlos again?"

Xxx

Infernal

After the trials, after meeting Roberto and Gregor and being declared a team, after they'd finally had time to settle, Carlos had found Kurt sitting alone in their new dorm's rec room. The blinds were drawn, making the only light whatever managed to drift in through the door's window.

Choosing to invite himself in, Carlos lightly kicked the door open. "Hey Mal, what're you doin' cooped up alone in here?"

Kurt jumped in his chair a bit. "Geez! Ever heard of knocking?" He covered his eyes and added hastily. "Don't hit the lights!"

Carlos' hand stopped near the switch. "Oh, right. Sensitive eyes." He nodded. "Sorry."

He closed the door behind him. "So what're you up to?"

Able to open his eyes safely again, Kurt turned back to the table and held up his goggles for Carlos to see. "My goggles got cracked during that last stretch of the entry test. Probably when Roberto thought up that plan where Gregor used you and me as baseballs."

"Ah yeah, good times." Carlos grinned and reached into his jacket pocket. "I might have something that'll work better."

"Don't know how that's possible. I need these to filter out different light levels at all times-" Kurt stopped as Carlos set an open glasses-case on the table, revealing a set of pristine sunglasses. "Sunglasses? These'll break in five minutes of combat."

"Not true." Carlos sat across from him. "My mom was in MI6's Huntsman Division back when she was around. These are Tac-Glasses. They'll do a better job than those goggles and they won't crack under pressure as easily."

"No way." Kurt held them up and cautiously set them over his eyes before Carlos pulled the shades, flooding the room with light. "Hey!"

"You see?" Carlos asked with a grin as Kurt looked around.

"Actually, yeah…they do!" Kurt pulled out his tablet and used the camera to get a look at himself on the screen. "They look better also. The goggles did look a little weird."

Reaching into a lunch bag he'd set by his side, Kurt pulled out something in a wrapper and offered it to him. "Thanks man. Want a Klondike bar?"

"What's that?" Carlos accepted the offering and looked it over. "Huh, icecream sandwich. Don't know why they'd call this a bar if-" He stopped after taking one bite. "…Kurt, my man, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Watching all of this unfold before the scene dissolved, Carlos felt his eyes burning.

"Nothing to say?" His tormentor asked with a smirk. "No justifications? Defences? Arguments? Raging? Oh come on just let it out, I'm sure you'd like nothing more than to punch your way out of this dream by now-"

"I was wrong." Carlos whispered.

The doppelgänger froze and looked up from his newly remade chair. "What?"

"I said…I was wrong." Carlos wiped one hand across his eyes. "Kurt…he ain't perfect. Glob knows he's too much of a smart ass sometimes, and I still say he's fixated…but I let one bad day wipe out all the good times we'd had and treated him like he was a walking bomb from that point on."

"Now this…" The doppelgänger uncrossed his legs and stood up. "Is a surprise. If you survive the next few seconds…what will you do when you see him next?"

Xxx

Ingenious

"What I should have done years ago." Kurt resolved.

Xxx

Infernal

"I'll walk up to him, man up, and say what needs to be said." Carlos could feel the dreamscape crumbling around him.

Xxx

Ingenious

"Because he's my friend."

Xxx

Infernal

"Because he was family even before he married my sister." Carlos shut his eyes as darkness swept in from all directions.

Xxx

Ingenious

"And because he deserves to know the truth, no matter what might follow." Kurt said as the mist around him was lifted, leaving him standing by the base of the great spire in the heart of Helheim, in the shadow of the great eagle at the top. "And I'm not going to let being in the Realm of the Dead keep that from happening."

"Aw…" Hela mocked, seated upon a throne of black stone. "How touching."

"What just happened?"Roberto shivered, standing at Kurt's side. "It went dark for a minute there."

"I think I just got us a way out of Helheim." Kurt responded, glancing at Hela. "Did I?"

"The doorway requires only one to open it. Your ill-trimmed friend may accompany you." The Goddess of Death motioned dismissively as more of the mist around them cleared away, creating a safe passage to a set of stairs near the spire's base. "You'll find it at the top of this spire. I trust that you mortals still know how to use stairs."

"Thank you, Lady Hela." Kurt said wit ha slight bow of his head. "Come on Roberto, we should-"

Before he could say another word, the sky lit up with a blinding bright light and the eagle shrieked and spread its wings.

Xxx

Infernal

"Is he dead?"

"Doesn't stink enough to be dead."

"Awwww!"

Carlos felt a soft, cushioned surface beneath him. "…am I dead?"

"Pretty sure if you were, you wouldn't be looking on this beautiful mug." Leslie answered, sitting by his bedside with a wooden mug in hand.

"Oh Glob, I'm in Hel." Carlos groaned and threw an arm over his eyes. "I know I wanted to get here somehow, but preferably alive!"

"Ha. Ha." Leslie poured the cup of water over his face.

"Ah! Cold!" He sat up. "Alright, alright! I'm awake!"

"Good." Leslie refilled the cup from a jug. "You've been asleep all day."

And that had to be equal to several weeks back home.

"Did you and Dracon get through fine?" He asked, accepting the cup.

"Did it without blocking out like you did." Leslie nodded. "Next time, wait to see how much of the magic elf drugs you're supposed to drink."

Carlos found that he had been relocated to a small hut, one of many constructed by the refugees of Tyr's Temple as temporary dwelling. When he first emerged many elves groaned and bags of what sounded like coins changed hands. Dracon, who had been flying patrol out around the island to fend off several dark elf raiding parties, made the time to fly down and congratulate Carlos on not being the first human to defecate himself to death in Alfheim. Kara, Carita and Einar were glad to see him in good health, though he wasn't sure if that was because they actually liked him or because they'd been in on the betting pool.

If it was the latter they did a damn good job of hiding it.

"Now that you've survived the Trial of Mimir, you will be able to approach him safely." Einar explained over a light lunch to help replenish Carlos' empty stomach. "Dracon proved very helpful in scouting the area out, so we will be able to lead you to it as soon as you are ready to go."

"No time like the present." Carlos said before munching on an apple. "Mmm. Gotta bring a few of these home. You don't get fruit like these on Earth."

"It turns out that there are many things which we don't get on Earth that wound up in one of the other realms." Dracon said. "Including mistletoe. I inquired on the off chance that we ever need to face Baldur again. It turns out his mother was thorough even in this realm."

"Even if she wasn't, wouldn't removing it be bad in the long run?" Carlos looked between him and Leslie. "Ragnarok? End of Asgard? Pretty sure they're some of our best allies in a pinch."

"That remains to be seen after everything we've heard." Dracon said grimly. "Odin…is not as benevolent as I once believed. The elves have told us things that he did in the past…terrible things done in the name of protecting Asgard."

"And adding that to what Tyr told us…I'm pretty sure if Odin had a chance he'd kill you to remove the risk of you burning the curse out of Baldur." Leslie cautioned. "That's why we need to be consider all options, Carlos. If Odin was willing to treat the elves, dwarves, giants and other races of the Nine Realms like crap to save his kingdom…what would he be willing to do if someone from Earth became a threat to that?"

"Well geez…I'll bill you for the sleeping pills I'll need after this." Carlos mumbled. "And like that: my appetite is going, going: gone. Let's focus on getting Kurt and Roberto back to the land of the living, then we can talk to Sebben back home and figure out a long term plan."

"Maybe if you're lucky, he will have forgotten the 'eye' comment." Dracon suggested. "Though I sincerely doubt it."

"Aw crap, that's never going away."

Xxx

"Dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun, dun!" Charlemagne hummed, holding up a tablet depicting the previous scene. "Finally."

He tossed it aside, causing the tablet to bounce off of Big Bob's head where he was held in place by the roots of a nearby tree.

"After thirteen chapters of pointless, boring schlock with no character development," Charlemagne walked past Rouge the Bat…who was presently frozen as a statue with the word 'YOLO' written on her face in bright red marker, "we can finally get to the meat of this story! To the real stuff that the readers came for!"

He stepped up onto the platform outside of Tyr's Temple where Shirley was hanging by her robe from an animated asgardian statue's spear tip. "A story of heroics, epic battles! Light verses dark. Good verses evil. Hero…" He stopped in front of Shirley. "Verses villain."

The canine mobian looked up at him, unimpressed. "Good guys verses stupid guy, you mean."

"Said the discount sorceress." Charlemagne turned and grinned at the sight of a pillar of light rising from the Bifrost circle. "Thank you for doing the hard work, by the way. Magic and I never do really agree. Heck, I'm just lucky that this chapter's budget wouldn't cover Tyr's cameo."

"Hrn…gonna rip you apart with my bare hands when I get out of this." Big Bob seethed.

"Oh hush now, buffoon. I have a proposition!" Charlemagne walked towards him, unaware of a small shape which darted out of some nearby bushes and into the Bifrost beam, vanishing with a barely audible 'cluck' which would have translated to something along the lines of..

'Eat my feathered ass!'

"You run from one place to another for the ones sitting at the high table in return for their table scraps." Charlemagne told the bound mercenary. "Wouldn't you like to be the one at the high table for a change? To set your own destiny instead of living someone else's?"

"Supposing for one second that I care…what exactly do you have in mind?" Big Bob's eyes narrowed behind his mask.

"An alliance, a partnership on equal terms." Charlemagne had the roots unwind and release him. "You want something more out of this life than working for those Illuminati posers. You want influence, power and wealth, the kind that people like you and I are regularly denied or given with strings attached. I propose this…you and your aerial accomplice help me get what I want…"

He offered Big Bob a hand. "And I help you break the table and make it anew…with you at the head." Charlemagne flashed a pearly smile. "Do we have a deal?"

Xxx

End of chapter

Just to clarify for anybody curious or forgetful: the scenes did not actually happen parallel in real time. From Kurt and Roberto's perspective barely any time has passed since they were flung from Earth, while from the others' perspective it's been several days on Earth and one on Alfheim…which adds up to several weeks on Earth again.