Two Dead Guys

After a minute, one filled with zero motion on either side, Bloom lets out a snort of amusement - that certainly throws everyone off.

The Wizards, Sibylla, Aurora, and Diana were expecting a lot of different reactions from her - screaming bloody murder, losing all control of her powers, etc. - but just like on Tir Nan Og, she has the most disproportionate reaction they've ever seen to a situation like this and starts laughing. Laughing until she's holding her sides and tears are streaming down her face, which not only confuses but enrages the two beings she's laughing at.

The fire giant yells "You dare laugh at me, Surtur, the harbinger of Ragnarok? Give me the Eternal Flame and I will make your death quick!"

That only sets off another round of uncontrollable laughter out of Bloom. Finally though, she manages to get a hold of herself and look back at the people standing and staring just inside the cave - because it's a pretty safe bet that Bloom will smack them hard enough to make them see double before physically throwing them back inside if they go out to help her. "This is probably worrisome, right? Selina and the Trix calling on two dead guys to try and kill me? So why, for Magix's sake, do I find it so funny that they're calling on the giant my other brother killed before, and a wizard who was beaten twice and died four years ago?"

Surtur goes still, then yells in pure rage, "I recognize that accent…ASGARDIAN!"

Bloom smirks and says "'Bout time someone did. Been around long enough."

Valtor angrily says "I beat you once, I can-"

"No, you used a cheap trick and the Trix to kidnap me. This is a little different. For one, now you're their puppet. Another, I'm not heartbroken, my magic is working right, and I'm just a little harder to fight." All of creation's biggest understatement ever - she's not harder to fight, she's impossible to fight.

She flicks her fingers - a quick little motion, that's all - and Valtor goes flying through a tree. Surtur charges, and attempts to smash her with his club - she teleports out of the way, suddenly two feet to the right, and blasts him hard enough to send him on his back. Unfortunately, Surtur just gets right back up after a moment.

Sibylla whispers "Why does this guy think Bloom has something called the 'Eternal Flame' anyway?"

Loki, who they'd forgotten about until now, grimly says "There is no relic known as the 'Eternal Flame' anywhere in the Nine Realms, but the prophecy of Ragnarok was very specific about an 'eternally burning flame' giving Surtur the power needed to destroy the Realm Eternal. People just took to calling it the Eternal Flame, made enough sense at the time, despite the fact that no magical fire that fits the description was ever found. Until about six years ago, when Bloom awoke the rest of her powers and sprouted wings on her back."

Ogron gives him a confused look, why would that mean…oh. Bloom really has the worst luck then.

Loki gives him an appraising look, and says "You figured it out then, Bloom said you were smart. According to her, the Dragon Flame is what created the Magical Dimension, and may or may not have sparked the rest of creation as well. And, unlike anything else in the Nine Realms, it does not go out, simply gets passed on to the next in her bloodline - making it-"

"Eternal."

"And even if it wasn't the flame mentioned in the prophecy, it would more than likely be an acceptable substitute. Something powerful enough to make a universe has to be powerful enough to destroy one realm. Which more than explains her trouble with her powers once they awoke fully and she discovered the little detail that she was adopted."

Sibylla asks "She didn't know?"

He darkly says "Allfather said not to tell her, as we didn't have any answers that would satisfy her. Of course, that meant that when she eventually discovered the fact, she was more than a little upset about it. That combined with her fully awakened powers that she had no knowledge of…her room destroyed itself around her, and she couldn't make it stop."

Gantlos snickers, and says "Kind of hard to imagine, seeing as she's always been in control of her magic for as long as we've known her."

"Small difference, she knew what she could do by the time you met her. Then, all she knew was that her magic was suddenly acting up and doing things she wasn't trying to do and she had no idea of how to make it stop. Or even why the change was happening."

While everyone at the mouth of the cave talks, Bloom's busy fighting two beings and holding her own easily enough.

Aside from the insults and taunts she throws at them, her fire powers don't seem to work on Surtur - fire doesn't affect him then, fabulous. Oh well, she'll try her Loveix powers after beating Valtor then.

And Valtor himself is proving to be harder than she thought to fight - she can dodge most of his shots, but they quickly discovered they can't physically touch each other. She grabbed his wrist, and black smoke immediately started coming from the spot where their skin met. When she threw him into a tree, she discovered the palm of her hand was burnt - and saw him inspecting the spot where her hand was, there was the same kind of magical burn in the exact shape of her hand and fingers. Fabulous.

Bloom dodges Surtur's club once again, having transformed when the fight really got going, wondering exactly how she's going to kill this guy and make sure he stays dead - both of them, for that matter. Then she remembers the boulders Sibylla's Rustic Fairies once threw at them.

There's an idea…

She mockingly calls out "What's the matter? Big, bad Valtor can't kill the last heir of Domino?"

Valtor tries to blast her, which she simply bats away, ignoring the pain that it starts up on the back of her hand.

"Hm, guess not. I think your losing your touch, Valtor!" Another blast dodged, and she tauntingly adds "Or you've long since lost it, what do I know?"

That's when he really loses it, channeling a good part of his strength into a blast at the girl that's floating in the air - right in front of Surtur, which is who the blast hits when she drops out of the way.

When he drops to the ground for an instant Bloom ties Valtor to a tree, being none too careful about how she does it - he ends up upside down with one hand secured to the same branch as his leg, rather hilariously given everything - and says "Hang around, Valtor, I'll be back."

She's honestly not sure why she was so worried about him reappearing - well, she does know but now it seems really stupid - but she's got bigger things to worry about, literally.

Like not getting smashed to a pulp by Surtur's weapon.

She teleports out of the way, and he angrily asks "Who are you?"

She sarcastically says "What, you don't know? My oldest-by-a-year brother did rip your head from your shoulders, after all."

The giant lets out a bellow of rage, and smashes his club into the ground so hard a massive cloud of dust and dirt explodes into the air. "Wench of the house of Odin! I will take the Eternal Flame from you, and then I will-"

Bloom's suddenly three feet in front of him, and says "Yeah, yeah. You know how many people have tried that by now?" He swipes at her, but it's an illusion and his hand goes right through her.

She's ten feet to the right, and continues "Besides, it's called the Dragon Flame anyway. Didn't they tell you that?" Another swipe, another revealed illusion.

"Reveal yourself, Odindottir trickster!"

"Please, you seriously think I'm going to let you smash me to a pulp that easily? Now where would the fun in that be?" Nope, not her.

"Besides, watching this is kind of fun. Like the Midgardian game…whack-a-mole, I believe it's called." Sorry, try again, Surtur.

Nope.

Another miss.

Not the real Bloom!

Surtur finally lets out a yell of rage, and Ogron suddenly sees something crawling up a tree. It's almost impossible to spot, it honestly looks like the tree bark is shifting.

Bloom? I'm not sure whether or not I should ask if that's you on the tree.

In response, he sees a wave of orange ripple down the spot, and then it climbs up and he realizes it's a small dragon colored like the tree. One wing lifts for a moment - like she's waving hello, only Bloom - and he hears her amused voice in his head.

How did you think I got into Diana's place to find the others? Invisibility is useful, but they might have sensed it and were on the lookout for any trace of my magic.

So you turned into a dragon?!

It's kind of like a chameleon. This breed can change its scale color.

Anagan asks "Where the heck did Bloom go?"

"Look on that tree. The showoff."

Loki snickers, then his face turns to shock and he says "She can transform like that? That usually takes many years of practice to not get stuck at some point."

"And how long did it take you to get it right?"

"Two centuries. And then another two decades to get as good as I am."

They see her climb up to a higher branch, her scales changing colors to match the surrounding foliage - making her impossible to track - until they see a flash of orange magic and she grabs onto one of Surtur's horns with one outstretched hand. He doesn't seem to notice the extra weight - of course not, she's barely a hundred pounds and his head alone must weight five hundred - and keeps swinging his head around to find her.

She makes another illusion to get his attention, then holds her thumb up like she's judging something. "Surtur, I think it's time we part ways. Or rather, you part ways. With your shoulders."

Surtur's just realized the Bloom on the ground is another fake when he looks up to see a massive boulder flying towards his face.

His body crumbles into a massive amount of flames and nothing else, which Bloom quickly absorbs mid-air, and Diana jokingly asks "Can we come out yet? Or are we still at risk of getting hit over the head?"

Bloom lands, having flown up out of the way moments before Surtur's head went flying off his shoulders, and says "Haha, very funny. Come on out, if you want."

They all walk out, and Diana asks "Since when have you been able to turn into a dragon?"

"How did you think I got in without anybody noticing me? I don't usually turn into a dragon, but it comes in useful at times."

"And the illusions?"

"Hey, I learned from the best. Plus I've been doing them since I was five, so I've had plenty of practice."

Loki isn't even trying to hide the proud grin on his face, and asks "So, what are you going to do about him?" He's pointing at the still-tied-to-a-tree Valtor, who's uselessly struggling to free himself.

"Well, killing him apparently won't be enough - they'll just be able to call him back. His Dragon Fire was still burning…" She gets a gleam in her eye and a slow smile forms on her lips.

"What are you thinking, Bloom? I know that look."

Valtor sees it to, and suddenly says "You can't kill me, not really. I'll always be around, my fire still burning."

Bloom rolls her eyes and says "As big a liar as always then, you monster. Whatever. I happen to know of one way to fix that."

"No, you wouldn't dare!"

Bloom honestly looks annoyed and dumbstruck at the same time, and incredulously asks "Why do people keep saying that? Do you honestly think you'd be here now if I 'wouldn't dare' to do something? Or if I wouldn't dare kill someone? Didn't they tell you who and what I am now?"

He goes at least five shades paler, and mutters "Those damn witches…"

"But I'd be in desperate need of a very long soak that I don't have time for now if I went to your core and put your fire out there, so I think I'll try something else." She stares at her palm for a moment, then at his wrist, then gets out a bottle of water and cracks it open.

"What, you're going to pour some water on me?"

"You wish." She puts a finger in, and orange starts leaking into the water.

Once it's about mostly orange with her magic, she then summons her fairy dust pendant, opens it, and puts the open end of it inside the bottle.

After a good minute, she puts the heart-shaped pendant away and seals the bottle back up, and shakes it so fast they can't track it.

As she does, Ogron eyes her carefully - this is definitely one of the worst ways he's seen her, bruised, her hair is messed up from the fight, and she's got painful-looking burn marks where Valtor managed to hit her with his magic. But she's also got a gleam in her eyes that he only ever saw on Pyros a few times - they'd get her talking about the place or magic or flying and why she loves it, she wouldn't stop for hours.

When she pours a little of the now-magical water onto her hand, she hisses in pain for an instant but then smiles when her hand turns back to its normal color. "Your screwed, Valtor."

He lets out a laugh, one that's almost not tinged with nervousness, and asks "Your going to pour some water with a little of your magic and fairy dust on me? Hope I disintegrate?"

"No, I think I'll be a little more direct then that." Her body suddenly catches fire, and her voice is laced with magic and power when she says "Burn away this shell and reveal your truest form."

Valtor's body catches fire, and it burns away to reveal a purple flame floating there - Bloom makes a bubble of her magic around it before he can escape.

Aurora blanches and asks "What did you just do?!"

"The story goes that Valtor was originally a piece of corrupted Dragon Fire the Three Ancestral Witches found. They shaped it into the form of a man, called him Valtor, and sent him off to Domino after a year to help them attack and destroy it. This is what the Witches found all that time ago."

They look at the fire that's trapped in her bubble shield, it's really hard to believe that was a man a few moments ago - despite watching the transformation.

Bloom makes a small hole in the top of the shield, just big enough for the top of the water bottle, and sticks it in with the lid off. The purple fire inside turns to nothing but smoke and steam, they're all so glad she's not looking to kill them.

She'd manage, no matter what it took.

Then, she throws Surtur's head up in the air and hits it with a few shots from her gun. "I knew this thing would come in handy eventually!"

Aurora asks "Do we even want to know where you got that thing from?! Just how many weapons do you have?!"

"On me at any given time, or all total?" Bloom's smirk says she's only half-joking, but before anybody can say anything she says "I've got a knife, sword, fighting staff, this gun, and my limbs on me at any given time, and a whole chest of weapons back home on Asgard. Mostly ones I don't use anymore, as I prefer the ones I have right now, but I've used them before. As for the gun, I got it from a Dark Elf's corpse the night after they attacked Asgard for the Aether."

Judging from the way she doesn't go into any details about why she took the gun, Loki's suddenly closed-off expression, and what they know of her background before they met her, that would be the day their mother died. So, needless to say, she wasn't thinking quite clearly about anything other than finding and killing the Dark Elves - both to avenge their mother and to keep them from destroying the universe somehow.

AN: Hey, all! Next chapter, the BIG SHOWDOWN is up! Hope you all liked Bloom whipping Valtor's butt as well! Another reason she didn't go to his core and extinguish his fire there is because her body would technically be dead until she went back and she didn't really want to freak Loki out quite that badly. And if anybody was wondering, Surtur's head was in the Weapons Vault before now - Thor was flying around the Nine Realms like a madman keeping threats to the Realms under control with Sif and the Warriors Three while Loki was keeping most everybody in Asgard thinking Odin was still around, and one threat he dealt with was Surtur. Who'd have expected Selina to be able to bring people back to life? Who'd have expected Selina at all? At any rate, enjoy! Hope you all loved Bloom taunting and, frankly, humiliating Valtor! PS. started a new story - I know, I need to stop, its an addiction with me! - called 'Psychic Watcher' - a Pillars of Eternity story. Just so you all know, if anybody's interested. Don't think I'm giving up on this story though! Infinity War comes out in theaters in less than three weeks, and I'm so excited! Real shame they're making us all wait nearly a whole year for the next one though. Enjoy! Please review! Possibly read 'Psychic Watcher' at some point!