Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Marvel Universe, Joss Whedon, and anyone else involved with the movies or comics. I am not making any profits from this writing, it is all for the purposes of fun and creative writing.
Author's note: I'm sorry if things seem a bit OOC, I am just hoping the reactions I am writing for certain characters are believable enough.
Chapter 2
A deafening silence filled the great hall of Asgard and seemed to stretch on for a millennium before Thor finally found his voice and spoke.
" What did you just say Chitauri scum?" He asked in a voice barely above a whisper, not believing what had just passed from the vile, grinning lips of Menkos where the Chitauri mage stood before the throne.
Menkos let out the horrid parody of a gleeful giggle before his grin widened and his spoke.
" You heard me loud and clear oh golden prince of Asgard." Menkos chuckled before he went one.
" All this time you pathetic fools believed your little pet Jotun had gone mad upon learning his true heritage and done so many vile acts, such as attempting to wipe out Jotunheim using the Bi-frost, sending the destroyer to attack Thor when he was but a poor defenseless mortal, or trying to subjugate those little ants of Midgard, when it was all my doing after I bathed in Loki's blood and took his form for my own machinations." The demonic being said smugly.
There was a collective feeling of nauseation that pooled in the stomach of everyone that bore witness to the look of pure joy and pride that filled Menkos's monstrous countenance at what he had just said.
" SHUT UP YOU LIAR, MY SON IS NOT DEAD, LOKI WOULD NEVER BE BESTED BY THE LIKES OF YOU, YOU VILE CREATURE!" Frigga scream as she suddenly lunged forward, her tears of despair giving way to a mother's bright fury. She looked ready to rend the Chitauri creature before her limb from limb with her bare hands even though he towered over everyone, hulking mass.
It was only Odin himself grabbing his wife firm by the arm and pulling her back to his side that stopped Frigga from reaching the object of her murderous rage.
Sif, Volstaag, Hogun, and Fandral were at a complete loss as to what they had just heard. It couldn't be true, it couldn't, the horrid being before them had to be lying to get under their skins, he just had to be. With a low growl Fandral spoke.
" This is all probably some ploy from the Trickster himself, Loki's probably laughing at his own mother's anguish as we speak."
Then looking about angrily Fandral cried out as loud as his lungs could allow.
" SHOW YOURSELF LOKI, THIS GAME IS BY FAR WORSE THAN ANYTHING WE EVERY THOUGHT YOU CAPABLE OF, COME OUT RIGHT NOW AND FACE US LIKE A MAN YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD FACE US ALONG SIDE YOUR UGLY BEAST OF A COHORT!"
" Fandral be silent!" Sif cried in outrage as Fandral's brazen words of disrespect, but her eyes, and the eyes of everyone else darted all over the place while their ears searched out the sounds of a familiar cackle filled with mischief. Frigga took a moment to glare at Fandral before Even she, Thor, and Odin looked about, not out of disdain, but hope that Menkos was indeed lying.
Volstaag felt the bottom of his stomach drop out when all Fandral's words of insult and anger received was empty silence in reply. Hogun let his usual mask of steely resolve slip as as well as he too realized that there was no reply, that there would not be a burst of green magic or a delighted and triumphant Trickster suddenly revealing himself to be in league with the vile creature standing before them.
Instead, there was only the jarring sound of Menkos as the monster through his head back and laughed loud and hard in perverse levity as he crossed his hulking arms over his chest, revealing the dark metal gauntlet he wore on his thick right wrist that held a stone within it that glowed a bright cerulean blue, eerily familiar to that of the Tesseract itself.
" Even now you think he's a party to my plan, that he's somehow orchestrating all this?" Menkos said with mock astonishment, all the while fighting back more laughs as he continued with a savage, hateful glee burning bright in his cold white eyes.
" Rest assured, your little Trickster won't be showing himself anytime soon, not after all of the holes I made in his body." Menkos said with an air of boredom before he leaned in closer, to where the Warriors three and Sif could smell his putrid breath as he continued with glee, his eyes going directly to Frigga.
" Oh it was so easy holding his puny form down and sticking my favorite blade into him, twisting it as I skewered him like a slab of meat again...and again... and again, making sure no one heard his desperate mewls before I put the little dog out of his misery, just like this."
Menkos grinned like the maniac he was as he stuck out one thick and clawed finger and dragged it across his own throat, a universal gesture that implied a horrifying truth. Then Menkos was laughing heartily once more, the sound of it like nails against a chalkboard.
" You will cease your lies and speak truth foul beast! You could not have gotten past Heimdall's sight!" Odin seethed as he readied Gungnir to attack, his eye blazing with fury and denial.
" Senile old fool." Menkos chuckles before he held up his wrist that wore the glowing gauntlet. " Your all seeing Gatekeeper is not as infallible as you prided him to be, it was pitiful how pliable he became when he met the influence of the Chitauri. One little burst from my stone and he just stood by as I walked past. All memory of that day was replaced by my lie, but seeing as to how I am in such giving mood, I shall return that which I took from good Heimdall. After all, the more the merrier." Menkos grinned before he raised his other hand and tapped on long black claw to the surface of the glowing stone.
The round blue gem flared brightly at the tap, as though a flame had been sparked. Unseen by everyone in the great hall, the moment the flare happened, at the door to the newly rebuilt Bifrost where he had still been standing as sentinel over Asgard, Heimdall collapsed to his knees his head snapping back so violently that his horned helmet toppled off, as if he had just been struck by a massive blow.
" ARGH!" Heimdall cried out in agony, hands grabbing at his head, his skull feeling like it was slowly cracking in half clean down the middle.
Then in an instant the pain was gone, but the relief proved very short-lived as Heimdall's mind was suddenly bombarded by memories that had been blocked off by foreign sorcery for nearly a year and a half. In full, vivid detail Heimdall's mind beheld the awful truth about a day that had in its entirety not been what it seemed, and the brutal crime that had been kept well hidden from all until now.
Before his eyes Heimdall bore witness to the brutal death of the real second prince of Asgard by the hands of Menkos on the day of Thor's botched coronation.
" No...No this cannot be... L-Loki...Loki, my prince." Heimdall whispered in horror as comprehension of the images that were mercilessly assaulting his mind dawned on him in its full and unforgiving atrocity.
As the last of the memories played through his mind, Heimdall screwed his bright amber eyes shut and let out a harsh gasp. From the inner corner of his left eye a thin trail of bright crimson softly trickled out like a perverse tear of despair that carved it's way down Heimdall's cheek and then dropped off the edge of his jaw. A low growl slowly rose up from within the fallen gatekeeper, and by the time it reached his throat the sound became a bitter roar of rage and despair that burst forth past Heimdall's lips.
When he was done screaming, Heimdall fell forward, his head bowed as he gasped loudly, chest heaving hard while the rest of his hunched over form shook violently. When Heimdall looked back up, his amber eyes were clear and shining bright with fury as with gritted teeth he slowly rose to his feet. Taking in a rattling breath Heimdall growled out the name of the one who's blood he now wished to see spilled.
" Menkos." Heimdall growled through quivering jaws.
Heimdall snatched his sword and helmet where they lay on the prism-like surface of the Bifrost and rose to his feet with small grunt. Roughly donning his helmet, Heimdall gripped the hilt of his sword in his hands and concentrated his energy to the task at hand.
He would have run the whole length of Asgard to reach the palace if he had to, but Heimdall had his powers as the gatekeeper to aid him now as he summoned his magic to teleport himself off of the Bifrost. The air around Heimdall sizzled and crackled with energy as he raised his now glowing sword to the Heavens and was swallowed up by a beam of prism-like energy much like the Bifrost itself.
Moments later...
There were gasps all around, except from Menkos who only grinned further as a deafening bang shot through the great hall, followed seconds later by a bright column of prism-like energy easily recognizable as that of the Bifrost materialized right beside Odin where he was standing at the throne of Asgard.
When the column of colorful light dissipated, it revealed the gatekeeper of Asgard, and he looked ready to kill.
No one had ever seen the look that was now adorning the face of the usually stoic and reserved Gatekeeper, a look so full of anger and hate and it was all directed at the grotesquely grinning Chitauri the Warriors three and Sif were keeping at bay. He looked all the more fearsome with the single thin line of deep red that stained his skin from the corner of his eye down to his jaw.
" So good of you to join us Heimdall. Did you like the little gift I just sent you?" Menkos sneered.
" I shall slice you in half and make you watch as I string up your innards on pikes." Heimdall growled, taking a step forward with his sword ready when Odin spoke.
" Heimdall halt, what has happened to you?" Odin barked.
Heimdall paused and met his King's gaze, feeling his rage temporarily replaced by chagrin at what he was about to confirm.
" All-father, the veil I did not know was around my eyes has been lifted, and revealed to me is a most horrid truth." Heimdall began before he raised his sword with one hand and pointed it at Menkos and spoke, his voice booming for all to hear.
" People of Asgard, not only is that vile creature the faithful dog to a madman bent on destroying all of the nine realms to please the goddess of Death, whom he believes to be his mistress, he is also the murderer of the second Prince of Asgard! Prince Loki is innocent of every crime he stood accused of on this day. Thor's banishment, Jotunheim's near destruction, and the invasion of Midgard were all his doing!" Heimdall yelled as he jabbed his sword at Menkos before continuing.
"Do you hear me Asgard? Prince Loki his innocent, and this sullied beast is the one who butchered him alive!"
" What's one Jotun runt to the golden ones of Asgard? You should be thanking me for I fulfilled my burden of glorious purpose through his feeble little form." Menkos cackled.
" Besides, I grow weary of this melodrama, my master is waiting to welcome me with open arms for all that I have done!" The creature yelled and pure joy as he began to reach for the gauntlet around his wrist.
No sooner had Menkos said these words, an unearthly shriek filled the hall and stopped the Chitauri mage in his tracks as all eyes turned to the source of the shriek.
Frigga.
Where before had stood a dignified Queen reduced to a desperate and terrified mother, there now stood a furious goddess.
The Queen of Asgard was glowing with white energy, her once warm blue eyes had bleached to a fiery white. A sudden, irate wind seemed to pick up out of nowhere and blast through the great hall, nearly knocking some people off their feet. Murderous could not even come close to describing the look that graced Frigga's face as she cried out yet again with the pain and anguish that only a mother bereft of her child could make.
The cry made something break within Odin himself, his own walls crumbled to dust and unleashing the rage he had been holding back. Within moments the All-father was in a state that nearly matched that of his grief-maddened wife, his eye holding a sheen of brightness that promised Hell itself. Though he did not glow as brightly, his fury still radiated from him as Gungnir, still grasped tightly in his white-knuckled fists began to blaze with a golden fire.
This left only the final link in the chain that should have had four, not three. With blue sparks of electricity radiating from Mjolnir and bouncing across his hands and his armor, Thor now stood a true thunderer. His usually crystalline blue eyes were two chips of ice, his face completely devoid of all emotion, as if he were carved from the hardest stone known to the nine realms. It was by far a more terrifying site than Frigga's anguished cries had been. The air around Thor sizzled with both the lightning that was being summoned and the promise of the pain that would follow.
The hall stood silent as all beheld the collective rage of the royal family. It was enough to make the smile finally leave Menkos's repulsive face.
Volstagg, Hogun, Fandral, and Sif all felt pure terror course through them as they beheld there King, Queen, and Prince, but when they all turned to look back at Menkos, the terror quickly turned into grim satisfaction when they saw the way the beast was frowning and subtly backing away. As one the four warriors parted from each other, stepping away and leaving the path clear between the Asgardian royals and the object of their undeniable ire.
Frigga with her eyes still glowing, stepped forward and spoke.
" You killed my child." She said, her voice a thousand octaves lower and menacing as she took a step forward towards Menkos.
With a snarl Menkos turned tail and made a great leap into the air, flying through the air as if he had been pushed from a spring. When he landed several feet away he grinned and was about to reach for the Tesseract gauntlet when out of nowhere a burning hot, unforgiving, yet surprisingly small hand wrapped around a good chunk of his meaty wrist that wore the gauntlet. Menkos looked down and found the bleached white eyes of Frigga staring up at him, as murderous looking as she had been when she was standing on the dais with her husband and son.
Menkos's milky gray eyes widened comically in that one moment as he watched a snarl of disgust spread across Frigga's face.
" Where do you think you're going swine?" Frigga ask, her voice more a growl than anything else.
Then with an enraged roar that showed her white teeth, Frigga pulled.
There was a wet tearing sound, followed by a low pop. Then the next moment something was flying out of Frigga's hand as she tossed it toward the throne.
When the object finally landed on the shining floor of the great hall, there were horrified screams all around when people realized what it was.
It was the Tesseract gauntlet, except it was still attached to the whole of Menkos's arm, yet said arm was no longer attached to the Chitauri Mage. The disembodied arm lay with clawed fingers twitching uselessly. It had been pulled clean out of the shoulder socket, the dull, gray colored bone sticking out and stained neon-blue from the blood that gushed from the jaggedly torn flesh that still encased it.
A shrill scream of agony filled the air, and all eyes turned to see Menkos clutching uselessly with his remaining hand at the gapping, jagged, wound at his shoulder, where his arm used to be. He staggered around, screaming to his hearts content, the motion causing his blue colored blood to spray all over the place from his wound. When he blindly stumbled into the the crowd, the Asgardians pulled rank instead of dispersing, all fear forgotten as they joined there Queen in anger at this murderer.
When Menkos sort of fell into them, the people as one shoved him roughly back towards Frigga, and then others slowly broke rank to form a circle behind the enraged Queen, to bar any further attempt of the mangled Chitauri swine to flee.
Gasping for breath, Menkos stared wide-eyed at the goddess standing a few feet before him.
" You bitch, I will tear you apart still!" He hissed in pain and hate and moved to lunge at the one who maimed him.
Instead of saying anything in response to the slight, Frigga did something far more terrifying.
She smiled, and then her pale eyes flashed with power. In the blink of an eye, instead of one Queen of Asgard, there were four, and they stood at each corner, effectively surrounding Menkos.
She had multiplied herself, just as the son Menkos had stolen from her had often enjoyed doing. Still smiling coldly, the right hands of Frigga and her copies all started to glow bright red in unison as magic gathered in her palm, forming a swirling orb. One of the four Frigga's spoke.
" You stole someone from me, and now you will know the price of stealing from the Queen of Asgard."
Then with a snarl this Frigga held up her hand and shot the ball of magic in her hand directly at Menkos, much like the bullet from again. The ball careened toward Menkos too fast for the beast to dodge, and when it hit its intended target it exploded in crimson flame, searing off chunks of flesh in the process.
" YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Menkos howled in agony, the flesh of his chest sizzling and bubbling from Frigga's attack.
Before he could register what had just happened, Menkos was squealing once more as his back now exploded in fire-hot agony. Behind him one of Frigga's copies stood with her right hand extended, crimson colored plumes of smoke swirling about her palm and fingers. As Menkos screamed and reached in vain to stood the flesh from literally melting off his back, he did not see the third copy of Frigga raise its hand to fire, aiming lower this time. Menkos went down like a felled tree, his thigh exploding from Frigga red orb of potent magic. As Menkos tried desperately to crawl away from Frigga, three of the Frigga's standing around him flickered and faded, leaving only the true Queen.
Standing silent and immune, the cold smile gone from her feature, her once pristine cream-colored gown now scorched and stained with Menkos's blue blood. Frigga glared down at the pathetically mewing beast she had single-handedly felled. As she stepped forward, her right hand glowed the brightest crimson as she raised it high and let loose the blow. Menkos let out another agonized cry as Frigga slapped him across the face with all her might, her magic burning so hot a large chunk of flesh from his cheek dislodged and went flying clean off his face, revealing the grotesque gray muscle beneath, the wound sizzling but cauterized. Then Menkos's head was wrenching sharply to the other side as Frigga struck him again, this time with her other hand, dislocating his jaw and knocking several teeth out in the process, leaving the flesh charred black. Over and over, Frigga struck Menkos back and forth until he was basically unrecognizable and just one blow away from being finished.
Menkos lay torn and flayed at the Queens feet, gurgling through the charred remnants of his lips, the breath rattling wetly through his ruined chest. Menkos's one remaining grayish-white eye was rapidly glazing over as he stared up at Frigga. Just as said eyes started to roll up into Menkos's head, Frigga seized the mutilated Chitauri mage by his ruined jaw and yanked him roughly onto his knees earning a weak howl in the process. They were now eye to eye as Frigga spoke.
" Do not think that you get to go to death so easily." Frigga growled as the hand she had on Menkos started to glow a deep gold that rapidly spread over Menkos's broken form.
To everyone's shock, they watched as every burn and wound Frigga had inflicted was healed, save for the gaping wound at his shoulder where Frigga had torn off his arm. Within seconds Menkos was whole once more. Before Menkos could make a sound, Frigga yanked him forward by his now repaired jaw so that there was barely a few inches separating them as she spoke.
" What I have just granted to you is not mercy, puny little slug... it's so you are good and fresh for round two." She said with a terrifying smirk as she watched realization dawned on Menkos.
With a noise of disgust, Frigga shoved Menkos away and then looked over her shoulder towards the throne with her eyes glowing still.
" Husband." Was all she said.
The next thing Menkos knew he was letting out a choked cry as a rope of amber-hued magic wrapped tightly around his neck like an unforgiving noose, cutting off a good part of air in the process. Menkos clawed uselessly at the magic noose, and turned to see the grim face of the All-Father from where he still stood at his throne all the way across the hall. The point of origin of the noose was the tip of Gungnir, which glowed angrily, a reflection of her bearer's heart. Then all of Menkos's airway was completely cut off as Odin raised Gungnir high. Menkos made a small gagging noise before he was yanked clean off his feet.
Menkos kicked and thrashed about, choking hard and trying desperately to rip the rope around his neck.
" The one who you murdered my son regardless, Jotun and all he was my boy, you just tasted his mother's fury, now taste that of his father!" Odin screamed for all to hear before he snarled and sent a burst of magic from his hands, to Gungnir, and then through the noose.
" What is that?" Sif whispered as she watch a pure, electric blue energy radiated out of the tip of Odin's spear and then swirl rounded and round the rope of amber magic that hanging a barely conscious Menkos, coiling around it like a hungry serpent fast approaching its intended pray. Menkos gave one last, pathetic attempt at a struggle and then let out a cracked, garbled cry as the blue energy finally found him, and felt like a thousand knives stabbing him in the head, it was so cold.
Everyone watched as the blue energy rapidly spread over Menkos's flailing body, freezing him alive. Menkos made one last yell of agony before he was completely encased in crystalline ice. However, he was not frozen solid and stone dead.
Hogun watched with wide eyes, his face for once belaying the morbid fascination he was feeling as he and everyone else could see that Menkos's gray-white eyes were darting every which way beneath the ice that encased him. And if one were able to listen closely, they could have heard Menkos's muffle moans of pain, frost-bite surely setting in with each passing moment.
Odin watched grimly before his eye met the still glowing once of his wife where she still stood across the hall before his brow grew wrinkled with anger once more and he let out a small noise of disgust and promptly wrenched Gungnir to the side. The effect was instantaneous as the amber rope swung sharply to the side as well, sending Menkos's frozen form careening toward one of the great stone pillars that held of the roof of the hall. There were shrieks and shouts as people scrambled to get out of the way as they realized what was about to happen.
The entire hall shook to its foundation as Odin mercilessly smashed Menkos into the thick stone column, shattering the ice cocoon into millions of shards. Menkos crashed off the pillar and back down onto the floor of the great all with a chilling crunch. He had time to let out a plaintiff groan before he was being yanked up once more by the noose around his neck. Odin repeated this cycle of stringing Menkos up and basically blast freezing him a good five times, each time sending Menkos into a pillar that was closer and closer to the throne, before he finally relented, knowing there was a final round to be had.
Menkos's barely breathing, broken wreck of a body fell to the floor before the throne of Asgard, almost literally at the All-Father's feet, dead weight as the noose around his neck abruptly disappeared. As Menkos began to take his final gasps, Odin stretched out his hand, his palm glowing gold like Frigga's had done earlier.
" You still have to face the son you left bereft of his brother, you whoreson." Odin said in a deceptively calm voice as he healed Menkos up for the final round.
A clap of thunder rang out so loud it knocked several people over and cause hundreds more to cower and cover their ears. The sky outside had gone from merely unhappy clouds, to the blackness that mirror the Thunderer's rage and devastation.
Menkos sat up and caught sight of his dismembered arm lay just a few feet away. Desperate like the coward he was, Menkos scrambled to his feet and ran towards the arm that still wore the Tesseract like gauntlet, and a chance to escape when a low, metallic whistling sound caught his ear. No sooner had he heard the sound, Menkos screamed as he felt like the entire force of Asgard hit him in the dead center of his back.
Menkos flew forward, feeling his legs go numb, the jagged feeling of bone beneath his flesh letting him know that his spine had most likely just been broken in half. As Menkos fell, Mjolnir gave another low whistle as it left the Chitauri mage and flew back to her keeper's waiting hand. Thor's face was completely devoid, by far the most terrifying out of the three enraged royals of Asgard. The Thunderer mechanically made his way down the steps of the dais, the air around him humming with electricity as each heavy fall of his booted feet seemed like the drums of death as he slowly walked to where the broken-backed murderer wriggled on the floor, trying to drag himself towards his severed arm with the arm he had left.
" You enjoyed yourself so thoroughly when you said you stuck your knife into my brother over and over again, and when you slit his throat and tossed him away. Well, I will do worse unto you for the pain you have wrought. You will wish you had never been born. Where is your great master to save your wretched skin?" Thor said, his voice pure ice and filled with the promise of misery.
Then with a roar the Thunderer raised Mjolnir high and swung her down hard, right over the hand Menkos had stretched out towards his severed arm.
The faint-hearted looked away, while those of more sturdy composure watched on as Thor smashed Menkos's hand to nothing, Mjolnir sinking into the floor of the great hall, leaving a blood crater and a screaming Menkos in her wake as Thor roughly pulled her up and raised her again, this time aiming for the bastard's legs. In rapid succession, Menkos's knees met the same fate as his hand, leaving to bloody craters and two dismembered legs to stain the floor and bright blue.
Eying Menkos with frightening detachment, Thor stepped away from the utterly crippled beast. Thor walked till he was a few feet away from the mewing mess before he summoned his lighting to Mjolnir. With a mighty roar coupled by another loud clap of thunder, Thor hoisted Mjolnir above his head and let the sparks of pale blue electricity gather before he let it all fly in a terrifying downward swing.
Menkos's screams reverberated through the hall while his body convulsed and burned from Thor's attack. Over and over, Thor kept raining down blow after blow of lighting across Menkos's ruined back till the creature mangled spine was visible amidst the flesh that had not been burnt away from the blows.
Thor raised his great hammer to deliver the final blow when he just stopped. When Thor stopped, it was like everything else stopped to, even the storm that was raging outside. The hall was so utterly silent, you could have probably heard the voices of ancestors long since past on to Valhala.
From where he stood, Volstaag felt a heaviness settle into his very bones as he realized that Thor's jaw was quivering where he stood with Mjolnir raised. The Prince's chest heaved with each breath as he just stood there and stared at his brother's killer. Then in a move that left many a jaw hanging on the floor, Thor slowly lowered Mjolnir and let her hang loosely in his boneless fingers as he stiffly turned to face the All-father.
" Father, as much as want to end this miserable piece of shit, we much keep him alive, and you know why."
" Yes my son, I know why." Odin said with a nod as he walked swiftly down the steps of the daïs and walked past Thor to where Menkos lay weeping in agony.
Without mercy, Odin grabbed Menkos by the bloody stub of his remaining arm and lifted him from the floor.
" YARGH!" Menkos cried out as a sudden burning sensation spread through his whole body, to the extremities where limbs had once been.
Everyone else watched as all of Menkos's wounds were cauterised, but not healed this time. He lay mangled to the point of being unrecognizable as the arrogant and gleeful creature that had presented itself to all, but was no longer bleeding to death.
" Guards!" Odin called loudly.
The members of the royal guard who had not been injured by Menkos's earlier attack scrambled at Odin's beck and came forward.
" Yes my king." One of the seniors among them said.
" Take this thing and toss it into the deepest and most protected cell in the dungeons, he is to be kept alive, for a purpose that has yet to be fulfilled still remains, and death is one mercy he is not to receive from us. Let the healer make sure that his wounds do not fester, but that is all. Any who give aid, even inadvertently to this vile rogue shall share in his fate." Odin said solemnly before he tossed Menkos towards the guards, who all stood by and let him fall roughly to the floor at their feet.
" Your will is our command." The senior guard said before he and his fellows roughly grabbed at the tender parts of Menkos's decimated body and dragged him away.
An unsettling silence filled the great hall, with no one knowing what to do, or what to say. It was just total silence.
Then a low, pained moan filled the air and all eyes turned to the source of it.
Frigga, who had collapsed to her knees, no longer the goddess enraged, now once more the mother devastated as she clawed at her face and hair in anguish as tears gushed from her once again blue eyes.
" Mother." Thor whispered brokenly as he let Mjolnir slip from his hand and fall to the floor, the thud reverberating through the hall as he ran past his father.
In quick strides Thor crossed the distance and felt to his knees before he mother, his arms going around her like a vice. As he did so, Frigga started wailing with wild abandon, letting all hear her torment and grief as he seemed not to notice that Thor was holding her.
" Brother." Thor whispered as tears filled his eyes. With a sob of his own, Thor bowed his head, burying it into his mother's shoulder as he let her devastation wash over him and mingle with his own.
A hand on his shoulder had Thor looking up from Frigga's shoulder, and through the blur of tears he could see Odin standing beside them, utterly silent.
What could he possibly say anyway?
Thor would have thought his father made of stone, until he noticed the way that Odin's weathered hand was trembling against his armored shoulder. To Thor's horror, he watched as a single tear broke free from his father's one eye and carved a bitter train down the All-father's face.
" Loki." Thor whispered before he buried his face into his wailing mother's shoulder one more.
Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstaag could do no more but stand where they were, transfixed and shell-shocked as they watched their King, Queen, and Prince fall apart as one.
From where he stood beside the throne, Heimdall bowed his head in defeat and clutched at his sword so tight he hilt nearly bent out of shape, wishing he could destroy his eardrums to stop hearing the screams of his Queen, and also cursing his sight for he was also reliving the memories he had been made to forget.
While the people of Asgard stood silent and bore witness to the aftermath, outside the dark cloud that swirled about the sky finally broke, releasing a great deluge upon the whole of the realm eternal.
All of Asgard would weep with Thor on this day. All of Asgard.