Chapter 26: The Hours Before The End Of The World, Part 1
It had to be at least more than three hours for Anubis to regain his consciousness. When his eyes finally opened, he wished all of this was a nightmare. He was lying in a bed in a chamber, but after further inspection, he realized it was the same chamber of his childhood, where he used to sleep lonely nights and play with Isis when nobody else wanted to. The golden beauty it was looked nothing besides darkness that tried to beautify ruins. The tapestries that depicted his work as the god of mummification now reflected Seth's ambitious goals: the death of every firstborn and rebels getting their throats ripped off by Seth's monsters. Anubis jumped off the bed, only to see that while he was unconscious, someone had taken the liberty of ridding him off his clothes and replacing it with a dark full-body armor with red motifs of jackals and hieroglyphics. Only the Eye of Ra was untouched, which meant that Seth had yet to fulfill his purpose.
A groan alarmed him and he found Marion barely awakening on a lounge chair. "Marion!" He rushed over to shake her awake. "MARION!"
"Anubis… What happened?" Marion got back to her senses and sat up. She freaked out when she saw that someone had changed her during her sleep, only this time in a Rapharion red dress, black cuff bracelets on her arms and wrists, a matching Egyptian necklace, and strange cuffs that emitted red lights on her ankle. "Why do I look like a harlot?"
"I… don't want to know why Seth went through Hathor's closet." Anubis shook his head and helped Marion get up. They made a run for the door until Marion screamed. Anubis saw a burning system injuring Marion's skin, courtesy of the cuffs on her ankles and immediately put her back on the lounge seat. The burning ceased, but Marion was in pain. "Fragments of the Eye of Ra…" Anubis recognized the magic. "If we run, he'll hurt you."
"I'd see it more as an excuse to convince both of you to stay." Seth appeared by the door, a tray of food and drinks at hand. "You'll have to forgive me, but I enchanted all the doors. You can't run off without my permission."
"I get the message, Seth…" Anubis stood in front of Marion, acting as her shield. "Spare her…"
"Already did." Seth put down the tray and immediately went on to pour nectar into the three cups. "Quetzalcoatl and Kali thought I was going to resort to kidnapping and blackmailing, the typical 'I hold your loved ones captive' shenanigan, but I'm trying to create a dynasty here and a homicidal evil being like Kaïra Lokisia was the ideal candidate for a symbolic plague. Try to see it less as captivity and more as house arrest for the whole family."
"You're sick on all levels…"
"I was sick. Sick of the neglect." Seth shoved the first full cup of nectar into Anubis' hands before holding up the second one to Marion.
"Are you trying to poison me? Everybody knows that nectar of the gods rips of mortal bodies from within!" Marion slapped the cup off Seth's hand, only for the god to summon the cup back in his hands before it could hit the ground. Nectar refilled it instantly.
"Not if it's offered directly by a god. You should taste it…" Seth offered again. "Mortals offered nectar and ambrosia by the gods get to feast on it for the rest of their lives. Immortality, my dear!"
"You're insane! It's been banned to give divine food to mortals ever since the Tantalus Scandal!" Anubis was faster at smashing the cup, but to his frustration, it rematerialized in Seth's hands. "You are NOT menacing my friend with fake poisoning attempts in order to convince me to help you!"
"I'm not menacing your friend, my son. I'm inviting my new daughter-in-law to the family." Seth decided to just drink from the cup while the two were beyond speechless by his statement. "What? You should compliment yourself, son. Mortals are repulsive, cruel, and useless, and you were generously supported by one who fit none of mortals' flaws. No need to worry, I'm almost done with the plans. In 24 hours, we'll unleash the final plague and kill all the firstborns, thus starting the Dark Dynasty of Seth. The world will be rebuilt to match my vision of the new empire, and I have already planned a ceremony to take place at the end of the week."
"The ceremony to commemorate your insanity?" Marion snapped.
"You're humorous. The ceremony where you and Anubis are conjoined and declared my successors. I do plan on going into the afterlife at one point and make Anubis the next pharaoh, so he'll need a queen. I do hope to see some grandchildren before I pass…"
"You're a madman!" Anubis raised his hands. "In what universe do you think Marion and I would be interested in expanding a megalomaniac's vision of tyranny?"
"Don't sound so surprised. Forced marriages date back to the first civilizations, so don't be surprised if I'm forcing you." Seth pointed at the cuffs on Marion's ankles. "I should make myself clear, though. I think you chose well, son, but I won't hesitate to use the same methods I applied on your mother on Marion." Whatever he had of cordial hospitality turned into severe blackmail for five seconds. Anubis lowered his hands. "I have a surprise to show you. Both of you."
Seth snapped his fingers so that the three of them were teleported by enchanted black sand into the throneroom. Quetzalcoatl was tending to an open dark sarcophagus before stepping aside upon their arrival. Seth ushered his captives to have a better look at the person sleeping in the sarcophagus. At first perspective, it looked like a grey scale woman in Rapharion armor with feathers growing from her arms and blades resting in her hands in the typical mummy pose. From Marion's perspective, she had to hold back the gasps as she recognized the human face, but Anubis, who dropped on his knees, was heartbroken by what he saw.
"You turned my mother into the final plague?" Anubis whimpered.
"I've made it obvious that I wanted to make my last two plagues more of a symbolic representation than an abomination release." Seth patted Anubis' on the head. "Kaïra Lokisia is already a walking plague for Loki and his offspring, thus why the American capital is bound for its last epic snowstorm before we strike. But for the last plague? I wanted to represent the downfall of the mortals' empires and the restraining divine organizations so that we will give rise to a newly resurrected dynasty! And what better plague to do it than by declaring Nephtys, my wife and the goddess of mourning, as the final judgment that will smite so many! And once she succeeds in completing her task, I'll be able to properly untether us all from the Eye of Ra, surrender the Soul Stone to the one who generously freed me, and Earth will be spared and heading to a better future under our dynasty! Imagine it! Pharaoh Seth, Queen Nephtys, Crown Prince Anubis and Crown Princess Marion Romanson! You two will be great as regents when I retire!"
"Do you even hear yourself?" Marion was horrified. "Do you even not see what you're doing?" She gestured at Anubis, who was clinging to the sarcophagus. "You murder his mother, you cause him to flee and nearly destroy everything he loves, you caused a global situation that made him man-hunted by everyone, you brainwashed innocent people, you toyed with everyone, you want to kill billions of people, you try to force us into your delusional dreams, and now you use the body of Captain America's girlfriend to host your wife in order to create a plague without even thinking if the Avengers and the others will harm her! Why can't you see how fucked up this is?"
"Humanity has a bigger record of being 'fucked up', as you call it, than I ever will." Seth shrugged it off. "I might kill every firstborn on the planet to prevent a mad alien warlord to do a similar thing, if not faster, but between my imprisonment and my release, humanity has killed in bigger added numbers. Who knows how many random folk were murdered when the ancient civilizations spread their claims all over the world? How many baby boys were murdered by the Pharaoh and the King of Israel when they wanted lives of Moses and Jesus without knowing who they were? The number of monotheists, pagans, heretics, gypsies, and innocent girls that the Christians murdered just because they were different? The number of tribes that were exterminated while conquerors enslaved the rest of them? The numbers in wars that took the lives of soldiers, civilians, and random folk spited by the enemies? And of course, the endless slaughter from within, when people feel the need of using violence to express justice? Humanity is worse than I ever will be."
"She's almost ready." Quetzalcoatl managed to break the tension. "We just need the blood samples of firstborns to fuel her up."
"And you're part in all of this?" Anubis snarled at the snake god.
"Primarily regenerating your mother's characteristics onto the human host. Her wings were long dissolved, so I had to use my own feathers."
"Relax, you'll see your mother again after she completes her work tomorrow night." Seth grabbed Marion and Anubis by the arms and dragged them out. "Come. We got matters to take care of."
"Human sacrifices?" Quetzalcoatl asked in a tone that was nearly begging.
"No, the ceremonial clothes and cake flavors!" Seth rolled his eyes as if it were obvious while Anubis and Marion looked uncomfortable in his grasp. "I'm thinking we either go for a Turkish delight cake sculpted like a pyramid or maybe something similar to ghorayiba. What do you think?"
"That you got better priorities…" Quetzalcoatl sighed.
Back in DC
While Seth was fawning over the future, the Avengers got to DC in time to see the depressed team. Lack of options led to Spiderman tagging Reptil along while the latter's friends went back to Jersey City. GAMA was clearing the scene to avoid civilian panic, but it was obvious that Thaddeus Ross was keeping his eyes out. They landed on the green strap of land that covered most of the National Mall. Ishara was tending Horus's injuries, Hera comforted an upset Isis, and Loki just let Aaricia lash out her frustration by grilling the grass with thunderbolts.
"Please don't tell me Anubis fell into their hands," Iron Man demanded. "Reindeer Games, you couldn't even stop the Ms. Hyde Junior?"
"Oh, go put your helmet in the balls of a Frost Giant!" Aaricia snapped.
"Aaricia!" Bacchus exclaimed at her choice of language.
"You got another way to define this SPECTACULAR failure! Send me your condolence greeting cards once we're all in the afterlife!" Aaricia based angrily. The demigods looked up and noticed that the sunny sky turned dangerously cloudy.
"It's not over yet." Thor gently placed his hand on Aaricia's shoulder. She retaliated by grabbing his arm and throwing him into a bench 40 feet away from her.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Aaricia screamed. Thunder began to boom in the clouds above.
"Aaricia, I know you're pissed off, but you need to calm down." Maui calmly raised his hands. "You're getting a power spike…"
"Who cares, Maui?" The blonde teenager snorted. "For all we care, everybody's waiting for me to destroy everything so that Ross can have another super-powered freak to ship to the Raft! I'll be spending the next years of my life in a cell just like I spent six months of my childhood in the Grey House! Oh, right, I forgot, who cares? Especially not the Flying Goldilocks, who couldn't even be bothered that one of his descendants was being purposely butchered by the Norns! Too busy shedding Jotun blood and trying to make daddy proud! And you guys never bothered to tell me anything!" Aaricia pointed accusingly at Bacchus and Maui. Along with her thundering anger, her tears were causing it to rain. Now the Avengers were actually getting scared of her potentially causing a hurricane, but Scarlet Witch took the first move. She just walked up to Aaricia and gave her a hug.
"It's not worth it." She shook her head. "I've been there."
Aaricia continued crying. The thunder disappeared and the rain progressively dried away, as did the tears. Scarlet Witch let Aaricia breath a bit and gave her gentle pats in the back. "I'm OK…" She breathed. "I'm fine."
"So… what happens now?" Reptil asked. "From the way I managed to understand, there's a giant Snow Queen on the loose and a guy who wants to kill everyone?"
"We don't give up," Captain America said. "We know Seth will unleash the final plague in the Straits of Gibraltar."
"Which will enhance the plague's capacity to spread all over the world and kill all the firstborns." Thor got up and brushed off the wood debris from his cape.
"On what scale though?" Reptil's question got the attention of everyone. "I watched the news back when Ultron tried to turn Sokovia into a meteor using vibranium. Obviously, the strongest metal in the world could give a meteorite a shock wave strong enough to kill all life on Earth, but a Biblical plague? Seth wants to kill all firstborns with a plague and give it all it needs to cover the world, but what are the limits? Plagues can't just spread in one day, they need contaminated hosts to further expand. It's not like in one day, Seth is just going to kill a bunch of people in Spain and Morocco."
"You think there's a system?" Spiderman suggested.
"Think of the dinosaur's extinction, Pete. Asteroid crashes, a tsunami flooded most of the surfaces, a Supervolcano erupts, clouds of soot and debris cover the sky, darkness covers the Earth for years, temperatures go nuts, erosions and deforestations come crashing in, vegetarian dinosaurs die, the carnivorous dinosaurs run out of food, and a lot of species get buried alive while the small rats survive. What I'm saying is that it's a chain reactions."
"Of course! The pinpoints further expand the plague…"
"And the pinpoints happen to be fueled up by an enchanted stone… and you happen to have found a serum that saved the hosts of plagues…"
"What, you think that if I fabricate a serum based off the whole 'sheep's blood stirred away the plague'…"
"And you use a fragment of the same power level, use it on the different pinpoints, it will clog the plague's capacity of globally spreading, THUS giving an open field for a side team to finish off the final plague before it's too late!"
"And Anubis let GAMA borrow some extracts of the Eye of Ra for experimentation! My God, Humberto, you're the biggest genius in the universe!" Spiderman's overexcited compliment earned a cough from Iron Man. "Excuse me, you're the other biggest genius in the universe!" Another cough from Iron Man and a head gesture indicating Banner. "Fine. You're the biggest genius from Jersey City to Queens."
"This is fantastic news!" Thor beamed. "We must tell Tiresias immediately!"
"We'll need to get Dr. Hazelfields back to the lab. She's got more expertise on the power we'll need for the serum," Spiderman pointed out.
"Good call, kid." Iron Man agreed.
"But what do we do about…" Loki began talking until Reptil suddenly transformed into an Ankylosaurus and stood before him. He swung his clubbed tail at something coming from the sky, causing it to crash on a nearby food truck. But rather than burning up, the food truck froze. Ice began spreading all over the streets in the National Mall, converting it into a massive ice skating rink as Kaïra Lokisia revealed herself.
"You CAN'T be serious!" Aaricia exclaimed. "You can't catch a break, can you?"
"Sorry, sweetie. This time, I'm taking advantage of the hours I got left. Seth's plague won't take the firstborn of Laufey, I WILL!"
"Keep dreaming!" Iron Man shot a blast at her. As if to taunt him, Kaïra merely whistled a small breath of air that froze his blast. It easily fell to the ground.
"We don't have the time, Mr. Stark!" Spiderman said. "Whoever can work on the serum should go back to GAMA while the rest of us deal with Kaïra!"
"Good call, kid. You, me, and Banner…"
"And me. You'll need a deity to handle the extracts." Isis volunteered.
"More room for us then!" Scarlet Witch used her telekinesis to throw a taxi at Kaïra while the four escaped. Kaïra dodged the taxi by skipping onto the frozen streets and went on to ice-skate around the National Mall, dodging the attacks that the Avengers and allies tossed at her. She kept shooting ice at Loki, only to fail when she realized that he used his illusions to elude her.
"Not enough room for one giant!" Ant-Man shifted his size so that he could crush the half-Jotun entity with his massive fist, nearly creating a crater onto the street. It was no match, unfortunately, when Kaïra suddenly grew into a massive size big enough to grab Giant-Man with just one hand and fling him at the Potomac River. Water exploded everywhere, nearly soaking most of downtown and carrying away some of the fighters. Reptil managed to transform into a Mosasaurus to help the Avengers and the others grab onto to him until the water stopped flooding.
"I hate doing this, but we got no options!" Maui swung his fishhook around, summoning all the water into a massive column of water. "THOR, NOW!" The god of thunder shot a massive quantity of lightning at the water column, creating a thundering hurricane that the Nordic god and Polynesian demigod threw at Kaïra. She merely petrified the thundering water column with severe ice coating all by flicking her fingers at the waters.
"You realize that you actually bore me?" Kaïra snapped.
"Enough!" Thor demanded. "You're a mere personality of my niece, you crave to murder Loki out of spite for what you endured through Kory, and you resort to brutal forces to bring an end to him without even thinking of what you can lose in a matter of hours! How are you any different from the monster you think your father is?"
This did not help things. At all. They lost track of the amount of times Kaïra gritted her teeth, twitched her eyes, and clenched her teeth. Even the frozen water began cracking. "Uh, brother?" Loki chuckled nervously. "I think you forgot what happened the last time you provoked a Frost Giant…"
"The same thing that got him banished?" Hawkeye guessed accurately.
"Did you… compare me… to that BUCKHEADED, SELF ADORING JACKASS?" Kaïra roared and clenched her fists. The iced column broke out to reveal ice duplicates of Kaïra, armed from head to toe, and numerous enough for 2 clones to take on one foe. They all charged, but when Kaïra aimed to strike at Loki, Aaricia blocked her with her sword.
"LET ME KILL HIM!" She snarled.
"NEVER! MY REAL SISTER WOULD NEVER KILL HER FATHER!"
"I'D RATHER BREAK HIS SKULL THAN SAY I TOLD YOU SO AS HE BACKSTABS EVERYONE HE KNOWS! YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THAT!"
"THEN ENTERTAIN ME ON HOW YOU PLAN TO GO OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Aaricia grabbed Kaïra and tossed her in the air with lightning. She whistled for Fjordson to carry her into the sky.
Thor got to Loki after destroying some ice clones. "This is madness!"
"That my daughter's evil rogue personality is craving bloodlust or that we just witnessed the female equivalent of how our relationship went sour?" Loki asked. While Captain America swung his shield to break apart the clones, Horus and Falcon were flying around to shoot off their portions. Vision actually had a good shot at using the Mind Stone to melt off the clones until one of them threw a frozen hydrant at him, knocking him out. Black Widow shot down some until Hawkeye shoved her aside and found his right leg pinned to the ground by a chunk of ice. Because Aaricia had thrown Kaïra at such a distance, they could see lightning and snow moving around Capitol Hill.
"If anyone has any genius idea on how we can defeat this hooligan, somebody do something!" War Machine shouted as the remaining ice clones surrounded them all. The clones raised their arms, transforming their perfectly sculpted anatomy into axes, machetes, and maces, ready to chop off some heads. They prepared to attack, when all of a sudden, the clones' bodies dissolved into snow that floated away with the breezes. They all looked in confusion until they saw that the one who casted the spell was none other than Kory Ikolson herself.
"I can't leave for a few days to pray and this is the garbage I witness…" She shook her head.
"KORY! THANK THE GODS!" Bacchus and Maui ran to hug her before she forced them off her.
"I'm fine, thank you for wondering! What the hell happened when I was gone?"
"Oh, the usual." Reptil shrugged. "Kali took the stuff that made me bloodthirsty and used it to untether Kaïra from you, Kaïra recently delivered Anubis and his girlfriend to Seth…"
"They aren't dating yet," Hera corrected.
"Who cares? So they're stuck with Seth, and Kaïra is trying to murder Loki before it's the end of the world."
"That would explain the migraine I had when I went to Jerusalem." Kory rubbed her temple. "I no longer have my tri-conscious… I no longer feel her pain because she's no longer strained to mine. If I get killed, she doesn't."
"How do you feel?" Loki cautiously approached her, only to get a hand gesture motioning him to stop.
"Less like brutally hurting, but not ready to talk to you yet. Where's Aaricia?"
"Brutally hurting with Kaïra." Falcon pointed at the newest explosion of lighting and ice. "Coordinates indicate that things are beefing up at Union Station."
"How ironic. Aaricia and I both hate trains."
"Uh… is this normal?" Black Widow pointed at the ongoing explosions, only now it looked like the lighting bolts had turned more massive, more rainbow-colored, and so powerful enough that an empty Amtrak train was thrown right into the National Mall, where it crushed to bits.
"Oh no…" Kory ran to the site.
Later
When they reached the site of the train station, they were taken aback. People were running away screaming, trees were burning, Union Station was basically in ruins, and smoke was growing everywhere while ice spikes grew everywhere. There wasn't even any sign of human artillery or military force, so the worst guess was that even soldiers were too terrified to get near the clash. When they got inside, the damage was worse: stores and restaurants destroyed, broken glass shards spread all over the iced floor, staircases and escalators broken, and the burned odor that came from the destroyed ceiling. Pinches of rainbow hues were exposed on nearly every area that was torched.
"OK, so I know your creepy evil personality is dangerous and your cute sister is a badass, but they… did a lot of damage… Like, Pompeii damage." Reptil was horrified by the site.
"Kid, I'm a Greco-Roman god!" Bacchus was speechless. "Those two make the eruption of AD 79 look like a baking soda eruption in a dumb science fair!"
"We'll need to use a better tactic," Captain America cautiously stepped on the ice. "Defeat Kaïra and calm down Aaricia, otherwise the entire city will be nuked."
"That might be difficult," Loki pointed out. "Kory's evil twin will keep tormenting us until she has my hide and she isn't on the same scale as Hela. And Aaricia is suffering an case of Asgardian growth spurt…"
"You can't be serious." Rhodey shook his head under the helmet.
"No, he's right." Thor agreed with Loki. "Asgardians generally get their growth spurt in adolescence and powers can get overwhelming until properly controlled. It's what happened when I got lighting and Loki got his magic. Sure the circumstances were different, but Asgardians dealt with the growth spurt faster than humans. And Kory got her growth spurt the way demigods do."
"Traumatic experiences? Thank you for reminding me!" Kory snapped. "But whatever blood link Aaricia has with you, it's been diluted by generations of mortals mating with your descendants! The percentage of Asgardian blood left in her isn't even bigger than your one eyeball, and that's saying something because thanks to Odin being Odin, my sister also happens to be THE LAST DIRECT DESCENDANT OF THE HOUSE OF ODIN, SO THANK YOU FOR EIGHT YEARS OF PRESSURE!"
The wall exploded and they ducked to avoid the MARC train wagon, which had been used against Kaïra. The entity crushed the wagon with ice and viciously growled as Aaricia stepped out of the dust, surrounded by a halo of rainbow lightning bolts.
"Kaïra!" Loki waved his arms as he exposed himself into the open. "Don't hurt her! It's me you're after!"
"GEE, WHERE WAS THAT SENTIMENT OF YOURS WHEN I NEEDED IT?" Kaïra threw her ice at him, but Loki turned into his own Jotun form and shot ice as well. They managed to keep the magical collision blast even until Kory decided to use her own magic with her father against the evil entity, who progressively weakened her hold as the other demigods, Aaricia, Scarlet Witch, and Vision amplified the blast against her.
"I WILL NEVER YIELD! I'LL HAVE HIS HEAD! I'LL HAVE HIS… AAH!"
Nobody planned this out, but Reptil had just turned into a Velociraptor and bit Kaïra in the leg. While she screamed, the small red fluid that had untethered her was inserting itself through the skin of the dinosaurs. Veins were glowing red and Kaïra didn't get the chance to make an escape.
There was nothing the Avengers and the others could do as Reptil devoured Kaïra Lokisia alive.