Stolen Stars:
Chapter Eighteen
I'm gonna fight 'em off
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back
They're gonna rip it off
Taking their time right behind my back
(Seven Nation Army – Glitch Mob remix)
0o0o0o0o0o0
Its senses tingled with this new tangible body. And yet it was still not enough. It wanted more, It wanted to stretch Its atoms and encompass the entirety of the universe.
Patience. Everything must be done accordingly.
None of the attendants in the palace spared the two a second glance, but the Snake could feel the prickling of the Gatekeeper's eyes. It quickened Its body's pace.
The Wolf kept abreast of Its master's stride. If it weren't for the Snake's glamour, the fire in Her eyes would have given everything away. They reached the throne room just as the Snake felt the urgency of Heimdall's power as the Gatekeeper rushed to the center of the city in a futile attempt to stop what was about to occur.
It suppressed a grin as It passed a group of warriors. Too late now.
Odin was standing in front of the throne as the two approached. The Snake stopped them a good distance from the steps. With what was about to occur, it was prudent to gain some room before they got started.
"Loki, Lady Tyler," Odin greeted. "You are early."
"Indeed, All-Father. Our appointment was of the utmost importance," It rasped. Odin's brow twitched down, as if catching the unfamiliar cadence. He gave Loki's body a passing over glance before moving to Rose's.
"As I understand, Rose Tyler, you wish to extend your stay here in Asgard. Why?"
"To care for Loki, of course," the Snake mocked.
"Why do you not let her answer for herself?" Odin asked, his eye narrowing in suspicion.
The Snake took a step back, Its lips pulling back into a sneer.
"Because, you see, She only answers to me now."
It raised a hand and snapped Its fingers. The glamour dropped from the expressionless body of the Wolf, and Her burning eyes were revealed.
"What trickery is this?" Odin snapped, his hand welding his spear.
"Oh, I would play more, but Time is of the essence, All-Father. This is no mere trickery. This is real power, Asgardian," It crowed, Its arms spread wide in triumph. The king tightened his grip on his weapon and snarled.
"You are not Loki," Odin stated, aiming his spear at Jorgmandr. With a jerk, he fired off a blast.
The Snake stood motionless, however, as the Wolf stepped in front of It, Her hand outstretched. The fire dissipated into harmless dust.
"Odin All-Father, King of the Aesir, you will bow before Jorgmandr and Fenrisulfr. Give yourself freely," It hissed. "Trust me, it's a lot easier than the alternative."
"Fenris?" For the first time in centuries, true fear flashed through the heart of Odin. The Snake reveled in it.
"Yes. You know the stories," It taunted. "The fall of Asgard. The devouring of the king. The dawn of Ragnarok. It begins now, All-Father."
"What have you done?"
"You really want to know?" It asked. "We two were housed inside these vessels, waiting. We have been waiting for so long."
With a flick of Her wrist, the elder Aesir was yanked away from the throne. He grunted in surprise as his body stopped abruptly, hovering a foot off of the marble floor in front of the Wolf. Odin bared his teeth in effort to break the handless hold She had on him. But it was useless; the might of the Bad Wolf was absolute.
"Time and Space," Jorgmandr snapped. "Chaos and the Void. You helped ensure our release, All-Father. Two parts of a whole. And now it's our turn to be the keepers."
"You cannot do this!" Odin roared. The Snake, unphased, gestured at the Wolf. She tightened Her hand into a fist and the king's eye bulged as he fought to regain his suddenly stolen voice.
"I do what I will, Asgardian. Now, if you excuse me, I have a few more things to attend to before I lay claim to this universe."
"Halt!" a guard shouted, running towards the trio. His sword was held aloft, ready to defend his king.
"Pitiful," the Snake muttered before grasping the attacking Asgardian by the arm and easily disarming the warrior. A twist and thrust later, the guard was crumpled onto the floor, his blood spilling from his belly.
"No…" A strangled whisper was all the king could manage.
Jorgmandr ignored Its captive as It raised Its arms and lifted Its face to the ceiling.
"We are ready, Nornheim. Herald the coming storm."
0o0o0o0o0o0
The waters Goon of the planet Ok teemed with sea creatures. Lightening flashed above her head, and the screams of the drowning rang in her ears as she fought.
There was little more than animal instinct that kept Rose Tyler going. She was tired, so tired. It was like the stroke that killed her the first time, freezing up half of her mind so that it was neigh impossible to grasp the full reality of her surroundings.
It was a nightmare beast that assailed the small ship, purple and mottled red tentacles smashing bones and wood alike. Someone shouted at Rose, but she ignored it. There was only her life to protect and the nagging feeling like she was forgetting an important piece to this nightmarish puzzle, this eternity of suffering.
A panicked sailor crashed into Rose, and she nearly toppled over the side of the ship along with him. With a sickening crunch, the doomed seaman fell into the waiting maw of the beast.
Her gun slipped out of her hand, sliding down the deck as she scrambled to her feet. She caught a patch of water, and fell once more.
The scream that left her throat was no longer of pain, but frustration. Rose pounded the wood of the desk with her fist and howled.
She was tired of all of this. Why? What had she done wrong? She did not deserve this cycle of twisted memories. She had done her waiting, her fighting, for years. What cruel god sent her here? After all she had accomplished?
A god. A demi-god. Liar. Trickster.
Rose clenched her eyes shut, trying desperately to gather her thoughts. It was there, just there.
A snap and splintering sound distracted the blonde to the toppling of the mast. Rose swore and rolled out of the way as it narrowly missed her. The mast snapped the slick boards and sea water began to leak through the hull.
The ship was going down, she thought. And me with it. But then it would just end and start again, this time with Donna never turning left, leaving Rose stranded and with the stars going out. Or maybe her mom being disintegrated by the Daleks. Or maybe it would end with Rose watching her father die over and over again as the car spun around a corner…
"No. No. I won't give up," she cried. "I'll make it stop, I've done it before."
Was Loki lost this way too?
Loki.
How did she know that name?
Thump.
The eight-armed monster was reaching for her now, its tentacles edged with talons.
Light, there was light once. A choking mass of poison. He was fighting too, he had to be.
With a shuddering gasp, Rose remembered.
"I've faced the devil, and I've beaten him," Rose Tyler snarled, flinging sea-soaked hair from her eyes as she looked up at the tentacles writhing before her. The old memory of triumph gave Rose strength, but her arms were still shaking as she lunged upwards. Her teeth ground with effort as she staggered towards her weapon. "I can beat Hel, too. You can't take the fight outta me that easily!"
She raised her pistol at it, determination flooding her veins with fire. "I will find Loki, and we're gonna get out of here. So c'mon!" she shrieked at the leviathan in her path. "Gimme your best shot, mate!"
The thing howled at her in animalistic rage, but began to flicker—as did the rest of the ship and the storm around her. It was as if her awareness and memory had stuttered the barrage of demons that had concocted these tortures. Slowly but surely the background images of the sea battle faded, and the Defender of the Earth was left alone once more.
It was grey this time, and she did not recognize her surroundings. The trees were bare, and no life hindered the path before her.
Maybe the gods that controlled this place are finally beginning to run out of ideas, she thought wryly. All that was left was walking, placing one foot in front of the other through the silent, dead, grim woods of an afterlife that she never imagined for herself.
But Rose had something now. She had purpose, she had her memory.
She had to find Loki.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Seidh appeared, all in white, at the broken bridge of the Bifrost. Her image appeared there, but also in every home and hearth of all the Nine. She, too, appeared before the Snake, the Wolf, and the All-Father. In a great voice, amplified and echoing throughout the stars, Seidh heralded the message from the Great Ones.
"NORNHEIM SPEAKS TO THE REALMS, AND ALL MUST HEED," she announced, her pale face smooth and steady. The despair that accompanied the young Norn's words were but specks of fear in the hidden depths of her eyes. "THE CALL OF THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS BEGINS.
"JORGMANDR—THE WORLD-EATER, THE GREAT SNAKE, THORS-BANE—AWAKENS. FENRISULFR—THE BAD WOLF, ODINS-BANE—WILL CONSUME ODIN ALL-FATHER. IT IS WRITTEN.
"RAGNAROK IS UPON YOU, ASGARD. AND THE REALM OF NORN SHALL PREVAIL."
The Snake chuckled in amusement as It heard the shouts of fear and alarm go up around the palace and the reverberation of fear in all the Realms. It turned to the king.
"You knew this day would come," It said. "And yet you were either too blind or too stupid to see its approach. I find it quite ironic, don't you?"
Odin glared down at the Snake, and It sighed.
"No? Oh, well. Let us begin, shall we? Wouldn't want to keep those old bats in Nornheim waiting."
The Snake reached out and brushed Rose's cheek. The golden light of the Wolf grew brighter, and the answering power of Odin began to emerge. The shimmering gold of the Odinsleep enveloped the All-Father, but it became thick and hot.
"And so the Wolf devours the King," the Snake whispered in victory as It gazed upon the golden light that consumed the figure of Odin and the blonde Wolf. With a tentative prod, the Snake slipped a finger into the haze of light to test the absorption of the particles. It was simple enough to gather most of the energy running along the conduit, and It could feel the thrum of Loki and Rose's connection like an artery.
An artery ready to be severed as soon as the brothers were felled like great trees.
"I'll be back for the rest later. There is but one more task left to complete."
"Enough, Serpent!" a voice called from the entryway to the throne room. The Gatekeeper was striding towards It. This one, however, was more cautious than the preceding guard. Runes rippled to protect its caster. "You will not continue!"
"Ah, you are getting old, Heimdall," It replied. "You remember me, don't you?" It grinned. "Oh wait, you don't. Because you allowed me through with the bastard son, all those years ago. A simple souvenir of Nornheim, that's what you thought."
"I know not what you speak of," Heimdall said, his sword at ready.
"No? Then let me remind you," It hissed. "The medallion Loki brought home from Nornheim. The bit of strange metal that you thought so long and hard on as the prince absorbed it into his body. That whisper, that needling curiosity. Loki didn't learn that kind of shielding from his feeble tutors, you know. Pity I was just teasing you, One-Who-Sees-All. I would have rather loved to see you try to rip me out of Loki's body. Do you feel dishonor, Heimdall, that a mere Midgardian woman was able to see what you could not?"
Heimdall curled his lip upwards in anger, but did not strike. He wisely assessed the power of the Snake before him.
No matter, It thought smugly. It could feel him now, the one that would make Its transformation complete. The righteous son, the heir to the All-Father. Charging now to his unknowing demise.
"Leave my brother," Thor barked, Mjolnir held aloft. Jorgmandr cackled.
"Your brother is long gone. Banished, as he should have been long ago, to Hel. Do you really think you can stop this, Odinson? You are a pawn in this Ragnarok, nothing more."
"Thor, no, this is what It wants!" Heimdall shouted, gesturing plaintively at the prince.
"Don't listen to the old man," the Snake crooned. "I've been waiting for you, Thor Odinson."
"By killing you It will have complete control," Heimdall warned. "It already has the power of your father. Leave It to me and get out."
"Oh, but you are skimming the good part," It jeered, Its smile looking particularly twisted on Loki's face. "This body must die, too. Loki and Thor, two brothers destroying one another. The opening of the gateway along the bond between myself and the Wolf. I will take the Wolf's power into mine and I will no longer be bound to physical form. The fall of the Realms depends on it."
"I will not allow you to take this Realm or any others," Thor stated, his countenance grim.
"I truly tire of you Asgardians and your futile gestures. Let's end this now, shall we?" With a cry, the Serpent lashed out at the God of Thunder with a cord of power. Thor barely dodged the attack before It was on him again. A ribbon of red ripped across the god's shoulder, and Thor hissed in pain.
Thor swung Mjolnir to meet the Snake's conjured whip, and the clash blew out the windows of the Great Hall.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Rose did not know how long she had been walking. Hours, days, weeks—her usually apt notion of time had evaded her and she was beginning to feel the pangs of despair.
"C'mon, old girl," she muttered to herself. "You just need to find who's in charge, and you can get out of here."
Just as she was beginning to think that the colorless forest was simply endless, Rose swore that the foliage was thinning. She quickened her pace, eager to see what lay before her, eager to finish this and understand what the hell happened with Loki and the thing that had possessed him.
At the edge of the grey oaks and the endless starless night, a black gate rose high above the treetops and stretched into eternity on either side. A daunting sight to be sure, but Rose was so concerned with moving forward and seeing something that was neither a memory nor dead foliage that she moved towards the latched portion of the metal gate.
Rose peered through a gap in the swirling ironwork, and saw nothing but black. No shadows, just a void of shadow.
"Hello?" she called, her voice quickly lost into the black on the other side.
Silence.
"Listen, I'm lookin' for directions. And a god. So if you could help me out, you know, quick as you like."
Nothing, not even the whistle of a breeze.
Bullocks, Rose growled internally. She stepped away to move further along the gate to examine the climb-ability of the thing. But even as she looked up and away from the gate, a high screeching of unoiled hinges rang into the silence.
Rose stared dumbly as the gate slowly made a gap large enough for a human to squeeze through. Not daring to pause for another moment, she ran through and into the darkness.
It was like being in a cave; Rose's eyes wanted to adjust to any minute source of light, but there was no lantern, not a lick of pale starlight. So she moved blindly forward.
"You have come a long way, Midgardian."
Rose stopped, attempted to turn towards the voice in the darkness without falling over. The disorientation was frustrating, and she was certainly not in the mood for games.
"Who's there?" she snapped.
"I have had fathers, sons, lovers, wives, mothers, warriors, the living, and the dead attempt to breach my walls. Sometimes they get what they come for," the voice—it was vaguely female, but Rose couldn't be sure, "Sometimes they don't."
Was it a trick of the eye, or was a corner of the black starting to turn grey?
"You are something new, Rose Tyler, I will give you that. But will you find what you seek?"
No, there was certainly a door opening, faint light like a balm on Rose's strained eyes. The voice came from that direction, so Rose took a breath and followed.
The door opened up to a small thatch cottage in the middle of a clearing of willow. The homely building could have been located anywhere in the south of Wales, but for the vacuum of stars and planets that twinkled below the island of rock suspended in space.
Her pulse quickened in fear, and Rose scuttled away from the edge.
"Over here, Rose."
The blonde turned around to the opening of the cottage to see a fairly unassuming woman standing on the threshold. She couldn't have looked a day past thirty, but her brown eyes contained an age that surpassed the Doctor, the Face of Boe even. The woman's skin was smooth ebony, but there was strange slivers of silver mist that slowly passed over her arms and face. Her tunic was dark grey, and her hair had been neatly woven into a dozen or so braids.
"Who are you?" Rose asked carefully.
"Hel," the Queen answered with a small smile that could have been amused. "Come inside, please. We have much to discuss."