Disclaimer: Turning Red and it's characters are the property of (c) Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios.

Elements are borrowed from God of War (2018) and Ragnarök, owned by (c) Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment.

C/W: Heavy violence, concussion, injuries

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Ow!"

"Dammit! My back!"

Upon getting pulled into the vacuum of the malice-striker's portal stomach and involuntarily dragged into one of his rifts by mistake, plunging through the gap between realms, all teens found themselves falling through another rift that Nidhogg opened with his claws to try to regain his bearings, only to inadvertently bring the wayward teen demigods along with him and its straight through this new rift opening that the kids landed painfully on the snow-covered ground in a dense forest somewhere in the mountains.

Overcast clouds filled the sky, hiding stars and the like from view below and it was just in the late hours of the morning as the land was starting to receive some daylight, only bringing a drab light gray-ish/blue overtone to the frozen environment's dull atmosphere. Everyone of the teens had a hard landing on the otherwise soft and cushiony ground that was buried 10 feet underneath thick layers and sheets of snow. Stacy and Carter landed on top of each other, both groaning in pain before Moose crash-landed on top of the other two, coming at them like a falling boulder due to his immense weight. Rudolf was lucky enough to have not received any fall damage and everyone else was mostly okay if not a bit overwhelmed by what happened. As for Nidhogg, he was left tumbling away from the group into the trees far ahead, meters away from the group. Kris groaned in pain and involuntarily and expectedly shuttered from the sudden bitter cold clinging to his body.

"Is everyone okay?!" He called out to his friends, hoping that nobody was severely hurt.

"Maybe…" Stacy winced hoarsely from underneath Moose's heavy body, then struggling to wrestle him off of her and Carter. "Get off of me, Moose!"

"I think I….got hit by a…..freight train…." Willow groaned, wincing from the ache in her head from that tumble of her own where she could've sworn to have hit her head on the ground.

At the moment, however, Stig was examining his hands, still reeling from projecting flames with them a moment ago before the portal sucked them all in. And this made him wonder how many other abilities he has apart from shapeshifting into various animals, communicating with animals, casting magic spells and transitioning his gender. Now he can hold fire in the palm of his hands without getting burnt.

Whatever else can he do?

"Brrrrr!" Rudolf, too, shivered from the cold air bristling along the howling winds. "Why's it so cold? And where'd all this snow come from?"

It's only this that they're finally aware of the frigid air and all the snow on the ground in this new location they've been dragged in, wherever they are.

"Are we back in Niflheim?" suggested Roar.

"What's thatat one again?" asked Carter, getting up with Stacy's help.

"That's the land of ice and snow where the dead wait to enter Helheim." Stig explained, getting a full scope of the land and saw that it looked nothing like the realm of primordial ice to him as there were trees nearby whereas Niflheim had none of those sorts, because the trees here were the ordinary ones you'd expect to find back in the mortal realm. Tall oak trees all around. "Maybe we're back on Midgard?"

"Uh…." stammered the nervous Stacy, not feeling even a bit cold on her part thanks to her newfound abilities tied to her ancestor. "Didn't they mention something about,...well, you know, winter appearing out of nowhere on Midgard?"

"Yeah, why?" asked Rudolf.

"Did…I do all of this?" Looking all around at the unexpected winter shrouding the place, it left a sinking feeling in Stacy's gut when she remembered what the gods said about Fimbulwinter befalling Midgard, which she, herself, had unknowingly created when Hel captured her and tortured her with nightmares. It frightened her to think she could be capable of a feat this powerful. That she could change a season into winter in a heartbeat.

"Hey, guys, look!" Toshio cried, pointing outward and bringing an uncomfortable silence upon the group.

"What…?" Kris looked around more closely to try and familiarize himself and when he did, he started to see that they've apparently landed in a clearing next to a gas station by the look of it and with this strange sight brought with it the shock of Kris's life. The gas station, the cars, the streets, the buildings, now it was beginning to make more and more sense to him.

They've been spat back out into the real world.

Not only that, but there were signs written in Norwegian, which meant that they were back in Norway. Kris's home country.

"What's that mean?" Moose mumbled.

"Are we back home? In the, like, the real world or something?" asked Carter, buggy-eyed.

"I think so." breathed Roar, adjusting his glasses.

"But where?!" Willow cried impatiently, still shivering from the cold.

"That's Norwegian." Kris mused, feeling a bit lost in thought. "We're in Norway. My old home country. Apparently, in the Void, this is where the Nine Realms are located. And Midgard is the home of the humans, which means Midgard is connected to this place, which means…"

"Whatever affects Midgard, affects Norway?" Stig surmised with a mere speculation.

"I…." Stacy's breath fell back in her gullet and she could feel her own skin tingling as the pieces formed a grim picture in her head. Her heart rate picked up and it looked like the snow on the ground was eating her feet. Like a runaway truck crashing into a brick wall, the realization hit her so hard it hurt.

She's brought a violent winter to an entire country in the middle of summer.

And if she's taking Odin's words into any consideration, does this mean that….she's helped Hel draw the world's end nearer?!

"Stacy? Stacy?" Willow finally noticed the poor girl's dilemma and tried to bring her back to reality. "Stacy! Can you relax, please?"

"Relax?! How can I relax?!" Now she's reached her wit's end, glaring with a twitching eye and trembling fists. "Look around you! All of you! Look at all of this! I caused this to happen! Me! This is my work! The world is coming to an end and I let it happen!"

"Stacy-!"

"Everyone is going to die!" With hot tears in her eyes, Stacy shrieked like a maniac, close to actually losing it. "Everyone! My family, my parents, my brother, everyone! They're all gonna die and it's all my fault!"

"That's not true and you know it!" Roar argued with her. "You're just being a little paranoid, okay? You just need to cal-"

"No! Don't tell me to calm down!" The hysterical girl screamed while the others moved forward to try to calm her down, but she wasn't having it. "You all heard what the old man said! This out-of-nowhere winter, it's the first sign! I'm the reason Ragnarök is coming!"

"What, so now you believe in all that?" remarked Kris.

"YES!"

Then a collective gasp erupted from her friends when she plopped down to her knees on the ground, crying her eyes out. Kris and Willow both made a move to comfort her, but now she began to throw a huge fit. Growling angrily, she childishly whacked at the snow wildly, flinging her arms everywhere, smacking and attacking the snow vitriolically as if blaming it for what she had done. In the process, her fury and hatred at herself was causing the polar winds to intensify and more snow to fall and blow in all their faces, making standing out there in the freezing weather much more hazardous.

While this was going on and everyone fought to get the aggressive girl under control, a familiar figure was leering at them from the trees behind them, snarling.

"Stupid snow! Stupid powers! STUPID EVERYTHING!"

"Alright, stop it! Stacy! Will you just calm down?!" Kris got behind her and lifted her up to restrain her with his arms like you would with a misbehaving little kid, only now she was wrestling against him, even using her powers to ice his hands off of her, but Kris wouldn't relent no matter how cold she made him feel.

"Let go of me!" She protested.

"Just think happy thoughts, Stace!" Rudolf urged her pleadingly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Then she screamed in terror, her anger all but vanished in 1.0 seconds flat the instant she saw him coming at full speed.

Nidhogg charged them from the treeline, snarling and hissing like a rattlesnake ready to swallow meek prey and pounced at them with his fanged maw right open. Any self-destructive anger Stacy held against herself will have to wait for they were now in survival mode once more. While Stacy was busy trying to collect her thoughts and get her shit together, the furious root-gnawer swiped his Bifröst-imbued claws at Kris and Stig with venomous wrath, then punctured the ground with his talons as he roared at them before snapping those claws in their direction, striking at them with cosmic energy like a flamethrower. It took them by surprise and he succeeded in getting them with it, even though they were mostly alright, but Nidhogg would not surrender.

"You dragged me back here, you little runts! Back to your miserable world!" Nidhogg cursed at them, seething with venom dripping from his stinging words as he lunged at Kris to bite down on him, but Kris hurriedly grabbed at his mouth to keep it open while getting a face full of his breath, still hearing the lizard monster's hateful diatribe go on and on. "And here it is that I realize why Hel wants you dead! An insufferable pain! I will have no remorse, chewing you to bits, picking you from my teeth! Now it's time for you to die!"

"Oh, no you don't!" Stig roared as he managed to conjure up more flames, creating a burst much bigger than before as he blasted Nidhogg with his jet of fire, which made the reptile almost lose his hold on Kris and this allowed him to summon volt of electricity to surge through Nidhogg's body, making it writhe and convulse uncontrollably. Then Moose came in with a battle cry and shoved the giant beast to the ground with his own strength.

Stacy had finally snapped out of it when she, too, let out an even louder and longer war cry out of repressed fury and in response, her eyes glowed brightly and large quantities of magic power generated in her white-knuckled fists, making them glow brightly with freezing air, mist and spewing frost.

Thrusting her hands straight at Nidhogg, she fired a powerful blast of winter magic like no other as she created ice.

Dangerously large fractals of ice with sharp, pointed pricks.

More of it Stacy fired at the malice-striker, unrelenting, until Toshio came up with an idea to help as she was backing Nidhogg into the street next to a fire hydrant. Focusing all of his own innate abilities, he was able to bring forth a massive flow of water via the fire hydrant which caused it to burst, spraying and dousing the surprised Nidhogg with water. Then Stacy hit him with another blast of ice, freezing the two-legged monster in place with the water and turning him into a huge ice sculpture in the process.

"Oh my god!" She gasped, blown away by her own magic. How has she gotten this powerful over time? Nevertheless, in spite of her disdain earlier, she's found that maybe these powers weren't all that bad.

"That was amazing!" Toshio cried, running over to hug her as a congratulations. Though, she gave him a kiss on the cheek in gratitude.

"You were amazing." She mused with a mirthful smile and he blushed madly, sputtering.

At that moment, they all felt as if the danger was finally over. They all laughed and hugged each other in celebration…which unfortunately was premature.

The danger wasn't over yet.

The frozen lyndwyrm statue was starting to crack slightly at first, then the cracks splintered all over and got much much worse before suddenly…..Nidhogg broke free from his icy prison, shattering the ice off of him and roaring into the air with the most anger he's ever felt.

"I've just about had it with you brats! I am not holding back ANYMORE!"

And so he picked up a bulky fragment of the broken ice with his claw and hissing with irritation, chucked it right at Stacy, the one who froze him, to get his revenge. And all though all jumped to either dodge or block it, it flew incredibly fast that none had the chance to act, even if they saw it coming or were ready for it. Stacy screamed and Toshio jumped to try and shield her, only for both of them to get struck painfully by the large ice and they were both send flying back thanks to the reptile's insane immeasurable strength, rupturing against the trunk of a nearby tree and landing right into the thick snow.

Toshio was badly injured from the hit, his legs were weak and ached aggravatingly, leaving him barely able to stand and Stacy, on the other hand, was far less lucky than he was.

She hit the tree harder than him so much that the impact knocked the poor girl's daylights out and she was out cold.

"Stacy! Stacy?!" Toshio screamed and wailed, reaching for her unconscious body, trying to bring her around, but the girl was out like a light.

As for the rest, they, themselves, had little time to react when Nidhogg launched his offense on them. He snapped his jaws at them, swiped his claws, bellowed and roared Bifröst energy in their faces, but they weren't gonna let him get away with incapacitating their friends. They were mad now, especially Kris as he was now deeply regretting ever letting them talk him into joining them on their exploration. He was afraid they would run into an issue like this and he was deadly certain the gods were gonna be pissed at them for wandering off into the night.

"That's it, lizard boy! You wanna play rough? Let's play-!" Rudolf thundered at their adversary before getting swatted away by Nidhogg's tail.

"Shut up!"

"I'm okay!" Rudolf chirped.

Then Roar threw his ax right at Nidhogg's head, turning his attention on him before the boy summoned the armament back and charged the reptile, screaming as he slashed at his head multiple times and even his claws when he tried to grab him. Going for a new tactic, Nidhogg raised his tail and with the sharp point, he stabbed at Roar with it, impaling the ground in a fierce attempt to slice him up, but Roar kept backing away.

"Get 'im, Roar!" Moose cheered him on.

When Roar aimed the frost ax into Nidhogg's face, he got angrier and punctured the ground near him even harder this time, wedging it deep in the earth as a result. With his window of opportunity open, Roar called the ax back and when he let out a roar of his own, the ax generated frost and ice before he stuck Nidhogg's tail so hard, it nearly shattered it to pieces, making the beast yank it back, wailing with anguish.

Carter rushed over to aid Toshio and Stacy while the fight proceeded. Then Moose jumped back onto his head, grabbing onto him with his fists and punched at him over and over again.

"Ya mess wit' my friends, ya mess wit' me, mothahfuckah!" He screamed, landing her extremely hard blows.

"Get off me!" Nidhogg ordered in annoyance, slamming his head on the ground over and over to get him off. Unceremoniously slamming him against tree after tree, only hitting his own head.

"Moose, get him to open his mouth!" Willow demanded, reaching for an arrow. The large boy did his best to comply, Nidhogg was really struggling to overcome the heavyset teen grappling onto his head like a hungry tick. Then Rudolf jumped in to help out, latching onto the monster's bottom jaw. Nidhogg tried clamping his mouth shut to bite at the boy's hands to make him lose his hold, but Rudolf had a tight grip on him.

"Can't touch this!" He bragged as Nidhogg chomped his teeth again, but to no avail. "Can't touch this! Can't touch this!"

"Rudolf, move your head! I need a clear shot!" shouted Willow exasperated, unable to see her target. Rudolf ducked down and used his weight to help Moose hold the reptile's maw open, leaving it exposed.

"Auka!" Then the goth girl fired the air at his mouth to create a sigil inside it that remained even when he closed it. "Stig!"

Upon her order, he shot a Bifröst arrow at the sigil and said, "Blæst!"

KA-BOOM!

The following explosion took him by surprise. Nidhogg was blown backwards onto his back, disoriented. His vision blurred and ringing filled his ears for a brief moment and he tried to make out the figure standing in front of him. Once his clarity returned and he could see better, there he saw Kris standing there with his Draupnir spear and now Nidhogg growled with fury, boiling under his scales. He then lunged at him with his fanged mouth to bite a chunk out of him, but Kris punched him square in the face, keeping him at bay. That punch hurt like hell, thanks to Kris's godly strength, but this still didn't deter him.

When Nidhogg readied his fangs again, Kris made his spear vanish and went for his fists instead, socking Nidhogg in the face repeatedly and furiously, actually hurting the reptile with each hard and solid blow.

"You're just wasting your fucking time!" Kris yelled into his face.

"Oh, yeah?!" Now Nidhogg didn't take kindly to that, so he grabbed Kris in his claw and proceeded to bash him into the ground like an action figure. Although Kris received so much bodily pain, he brought forth his spear again and jabbed it into the lyndwyrm's eyes, spurting out blood and causing him to shriek with agony and relinquish the boy. While clutching his bleeding wound, Kris grabbed onto him again and with a yell of determination, he lifted Nidhogg up and flung him behind, sending him flying over next to the gas station where he landed right on top of a car, causing its alarm to go off, blaring loudly into the air.

The sudden loud noise reverberated against Nidhogg's acutely sensitive eardrums, which made him wail and shriek before he started attacking the car to get the noise to stop, tearing apart the vehicle with his claws piece by piece from rotor to engine.

With him distracted, Kris fired more spear copies at him, embedding them in his flesh and pounded the ground to try and stun the creature. Meanwhile, Stig was attempting to focus his powers to try and change shape into something big and strong in order to face off against Nidhogg. He concentrated and concentrated with all his might, tapping into the deepest recesses of his mind. But thinking about the pain and suffering his friends were sustaining at the hands of a monster was beginning to cloud his senses, interfering with the transformation before it finally happened.

And when it happened, nothing in the world could compare to it.

Not even Mingzilla.

It created a sonic blast that sent everyone back, especially Nidhogg, knocking him on his ass just as he attempted to go for the kill. Regaining his bearings, he looked upwards…and you'd be mistaken for thinking he wasn't terrified right now. The pupil of his good eye shrank and he felt meek and helpless, no means of defending himself.

And with that, he knew it was time for him to throw in the towel.

"No. Not worth it." He declared, opening up a rift out of thin air and climbing through before disappearing from sight when the portal closed up, pretty much leaving the teens stranded.

However, this was the least of Kris's concerns, because the wellbeing of his friends was the main priority at the moment. Many of them had most likely gotten seriously hurt from their fight with the gnawer of Yggdrasil's roots since he truly put up one hell of a fight unlike the previous wild beasts they happened across. He remembered poor Stacy as he rushed over to the unconscious girl with the others. Carter cradled her head and examined it for any bruises or critical wounds. The best form of luck they had was that she still had a pulse.

"Stacy!" Kris cried anxiously, hoping and praying with his heart that she'll make it.

"I-Is she okay?" stammered Rudolf, clutching his side.

"She's fine. She's just knocked out." Carter explained, placing her head on his lap while Toshio sat with her worriedly and holding her hand tightly. "However, she most likely sustained some head injury from hitting that tree. Hopefully, the gods will have a remedy for that."

"Will she still remember us?" Rudolf was still worried when he asked that.

"Dolf!" Willow hissed at him.

"We should probably get-" Kris cut himself off when he looked around to eye the gas station, but then whipped his head around to see that their group was a teen short. Stig was no longer among them. He seemed to have disappeared. "Where's Stig?"

"I dunno." Carter shrugged, looking for the missing goth boy as well.

"Stig!" They started calling for him.

Over at the gas station, one individual - a cashier working an early shift based on his uniform - cautiously stepped outside to see if it was alright to exit the building after bearing witness to the Nidhogg skirmish earlier, but then he gasped in horror and ran back inside, shouting fearfully in Norwegian.

"Stig! Oh, Stig, where'd you go?" Rudolf wandered further from his friends to look for him, calling out his name to try and get an answer back from him. He spun all around looking in all directions, until he suddenly felt the presence of something huge. Something was starting to cast a noticeable shadow over the overcasted landscape. Then he was seized by the impulse to look upwards and when he did, he was far too late to react in any way.

THUD!

The ground shook violently when at that moment from out of nowhere, a giant humanoid foot stomped right down onto Rudolf from the up above, quaking the area in the process and making the teens lose their balance and fall into the snow. When it was over, they all looked to see the foot and it came as a big surprise by how humongous it was. The size of it was pushing to that of a two-story house. Then all eyes slowly ascended to see what it belonged to. Slowly, their hearts nearly dropped into their stomachs and the colors drained from their faces the more they craned their necks backwards because it stood huge.

Right above them, standing a billion miles tall, approximately reaching the height of the Matterhorn, was the biggestjötunn they had ever seen. Almost the same size as Skrýmir. It had the longest black hair ever that shaded its head like a curtain and was draped over its shoulders. It was bare-chested with leathers and wool cloths around its waist and torn pants. His arms were adorned with chains that had sharp hooks on the ends of them. On its face was a wooden tribal mask of some sort, though it was mostly obscured by shadows because of the thick hair and it wasn't even looking down at the teens beneath it. It was just staring off into space far off into the distance.

"What. The. Fuck?!" Roar shrieked in horror.

"Oh mah gawd!" cried Moose. "What is that?!"

"I think that's…." Willow wondered before her eyes bugged open when she remembered something Freya mentioned before.

"Stig?" gasped Kris, stunned by the realization.

Yes, it was to be known that the gargantuan giant standing over them was in fact Stig himself, having taken the appearance of the biggest jötunn in history to try and scare off Nidhogg, which he had succeeded in the scariest way possible. However, Stig didn't seem to acknowledge them at all. Instead, he started to slowly walk down the path ahead of him, barely noticing anything on the ground where his feet were. He raised his foot up high to reveal Rudolf stuck to his sole like a piece of chewing gum, completely unharmed.

"It's okay, you guys! I got him!" He shouted to them with the lamest confidence.

STOMP!

Stig took his first step, squishing the boy under his foot without realizing it as he was now blind to the world around him. Rudolf was still there when his foot lifted up again.

"Relax, it's all good! I think he's slowing-!"

STOMP!

"How is this even possible?" demanded Carter, freaking out. "There's no damn way anyone can go that big!"

"Nevermind that!" Kris brushed it off impatiently. "Let's just get Stacy outta the cold first! Come on!"

With no time waste, he lifted Stacy up bridal style and rushed over to the gas station with the other teens in tow. Moose and Roar had to help Toshio up and carry him with his arms on their shoulders since he was having difficulty walking due to his injured legs. Despite the thick snow, they made it over to the building and raced inside, feeling the welcoming warmth of the A/C running inside. The cashier cried out in protest when he saw them, let alone Stacy, but Kris spoke to him in his native tongue that she was injured and needed medical attention before setting her on the floor by the windows looking out on the parking lot.

"Stay here with her while we get Stig and Rudolf back." Kris ordered Moose, Carter and Toshio, leaving them in charge, then pointed at Roar and Willow. "You two are with me."

"Okay." Willow nodded as she and Roar followed Kris out of the building, leaving the rest to keep the unconscious Stacy company when and if she woke up.

"Wait, Kris! We don't-! We don't speak the language here!" Toshio tried to remind him, but they were already out the door.

Once outside, the three raced over to get a view of where Stig and the thudding footsteps that only quaked the ground a tiny bit gave them the idea that he was getting further away. Kris finally saw the gigantic slowly retreating form of his brother far off into the distance.

"Jeez, he's moving fast for a big guy." Roar groaned.

"How are we gonna catch up to him now?" asked Willow.

Stig, despite his colossal size and height, was getting farther away from them. One thing was for sure that they needed to catch him and try some way to snap him out of it and get him to change back to normal before he accidentally hurts someone and destroys anything in his path. And worse, the news was going to catch word of this and the military might try to take him down. It could very well happen. But how will they catch up to him at this rate? Finally, Kris noticed a solution.

There was a motor scooter parked there that might be able to hold all of them.

Back with the meandering Stig, the lumbering giant marched through the Norwegian countryside, trudging through the snowy fields with Rudolf still clinging to his foot, unaffected by the footfalls he was taking. Only now he was beginning to get a little dizzy.

"Okay…." STOMP! "...This isn't fun anymore…." STOMP! "...I feel like-Oh!"

Up ahead behind the giant, Rudolf saw in the distance Kris driving the scooter across the field at full speed with Willow and Roar both clutching onto him tightly as they attempted to reach Stig. The scooter had enough fuel to allow them to reach their friend as Stig kept moving forward without slowing his pace.

"How are we gonna do this?" Willow asked.

"We'll just need to get his attention somehow!" explained Kris.

"Fine! Fine!" Roar yelled from behind them, holding onto Willow as tightly as possible. "Not to be a backseat driver, but this doesn't seem like a piece of cake to me!"

Stig's foot came down right dangerously close to them, almost causing Kris to lose his momentum and fall over.

"Woah, watch his feet!" warned Roar with fright.

"Hey, guys! Catch me!" Rudolf called out to them from Stig's other foot as it raised up and when he ripped himself free and haphazardly jumped at the trio on the scooter, but they were unprepared for them.

"No, Dolf!" They panicked, but the boy had landed right into them, knocking all of them off the scooter and leaving the two-wheeler to crash as all four teens tumbled to the ground. When they reclaimed their senses, Willow smacked Rudolf upside the head in anger and tried to throttle him, but Kris and Roar pulled her off of him since there was no time. Looking for a new tactic, Kris noticed the chains Stig had on him.

"What if we climbed those?" He said, pointing at them.

"What?! Are you crazy!?" Willow balked at this idea.

"We have to try!" Kris persisted, then grabbed onto Willow before she could argue. "You first!"

And then, she was tossed up high into the air with the use of the boy's strength like a shotput and she managed to grapple onto the huge chain. Afterwards, Kris ran and ran, then jumped until he was able to leap higher than normal until he was able to grab onto the chains himself along with Willow.

"How about a warning next time?!" She growled.

"Well, sorry!" He hollered back at her. They both started to climb the chains as best they could without slipping and falling.

"Why chains?" Willow had to ask.

"How the fuck should I know?! Besides, it's Stig, remember?!"

Then they yelped when they saw they were swinging right at the trees and hurriedly climbed higher up the chains to avoid getting knocked off. Up ahead, Kris saw that they were getting near a town over yonder, which terrified Kris with the thought of Stig mowing down innocent people in his way and causing indescribable amount of damage, which gave Kris all the more reason to try and stop his brother soon before he gets too close.

Back at the gas station, the boys were trying their best to try and bring Stacy around. Then the cashier noticed someone strange appeared outside. At first, it was in the form of a falcon before it suddenly changed shape.

"Stacy, come on. Wake up. Please don't do this to me. Please." Toshio pleaded with her, nearly on the verge of tears.

"We should probably get 'er to a hospital." Moose suggested.

"How?! I don't even speak Norwegian!" Carter complained, annoyed at their current situation. "I don't have money to pay anyone here!"

Suddenly, there came a loud, harsh rapping at the window beside them, cutting off their incoming argument. They looked and all three of them froze in terror when they saw that it was Freya standing on the other side of the glass, staring back at them with a maternal glare and fists to her hips.

Realizing that they were now in deep trouble now that the gods have found them, all the boys could do was smile nervously.

Kris kept climbing and climbing the chains until made it onto Stig's arm. It was almost like mountain climbing. Scaling the side of the rocky wall with unshakeable determination and focus while gripping onto it without letting go lest you risk slipping and falling to your death. All he needed to do was not look down. Now he grabbed onto his hair strands and climbed it like a rope until he was just in front of his face. The wooden mask he was wearing had a peculiar design to it. Like it belonged to an ancient Nordic tribe. Perhaps the Picts or rather.

Either way, Kris fought down the heaving feeling in his stomach that threatened to interfere with his progress of climbing onto the wood of the mask until he was hanging on one of the eyeholes. He looked inside to see a huge eye staring back at him, though even this didn't arouse Stig from his mindless amble.

"Stig!" Kris desperately shouted to get his attention. "Stig! Stig, wake up! Hello!"

Now matter how much or loud he yelled, Stig didn't snap out of it nor did he notice the small form clutching onto the eyehole of his mask for one second.

He seemed to be in a trance of some kind.

"Damn it, Stig! I'm not kidding! I know you hear me!" Kris was getting angry at the lack of response and as he looked back, they were getting closer and closer to the town.

In fact, down on the ground, people started to notice the heavy footsteps shaking the ground of their local streets as the giant was nearing their hamlet. One person in particular was driving a snow plow through the road, shoveling all the snow off the pavement when he looked into his rearview mirror and saw the towering form of Stig in the distance slowly and menacingly approaching.

At this point, Kris was running low on options. There was only one thing he could think of and he had to do now or risk the casualties of innocent lives.

"Stig, don't know if you can understand me, but…..sorry." He took a deep breath and generated lightning with his hand and then without a slight of hesitation, he fired a powerful bolt straight into Stig's eye while hoping this didn't do any permanent damage.

This worked, however, in stopping the giant in his tracks finally. And at the same time, the force of the blast knocked off his balance and Stig was sent falling backwards toward the ground. Roar and Rudolf saw this and realized they were directly underneath and they both screamed, running in opposite directions for cover. And then Stig fell flat right onto the ground, creating a huge earthquake. Kris fell off of his mask and Willow lifted herself off the ground and everyone saw the massive jötunn laying cast out on the ground before it suddenly started to shrink, then glow brightly.

Shielding their eyes, all four rushed to the scene and there they found Stig passed out on the snowy ground as they ran to his aide. Thankfully, there wasn't a scar over the eye that Kris had struck.

"What was that?" Willow bursted.

"I didn't know what else to do." Kris admitted before trying to bring Stig around. "Stig? Stig, can you hear me? Stig! Come on, man!"

"WAKE UP!" Rudolf screamed, making them all wince.

At last, to their relief, Stig stirred and moaned as if awaking from a deep sleep.

"Tell me you didn't just hit me in the face with a lightning bolt." He moaned, annoyed.

"Sorry about that. You gave me no choice." Kris apologized while his brother lifted himself up and tried to make sense of the sudden events.

"What just happened to me?" asked Stig, utterly confused and terrified.

"You grew, man." Roar answered plainly. "You grew into a giant and almost trampled a bunch of people."

"For real?" Stig was taken aback and flabbergasted. "Holy damn, that is fucked up. But also kinda amazing."

"Ahem."

Suddenly, a new, but very familiar voice caught their ears and they jolted their heads around to see a stern-faced Odin standing there with a furious glare with Huginn and Muninn on his shoulders. They were all terrified, but Kris knew in hindsight that it was going to come to this.

"Having fun?" He asked sarcastically.

Nobody said a word, because they didn't have the nerve to do so since they all knew they were in big trouble now.

"You all have got some explaining to do. Right now." hissed the All-Father.

It was truly a mess. The gods saw how bad the teens' situation was based on their injuries and it was fairly obvious that Nörthfölk, including Ratatoskr, had to explain the whole thing to them after Nidhogg sucked them up in his rift. After rejoining the others at the gas station, everyone was sent back to Asgard with the help of Odin's ravens, no doubt for a good stern talking-to. And they have every reason to be frowny with them. After all, they snuck off into the wilderness in the middle of the night, recklessly fooled around and got themselves in danger several times, almost got themselves killed and it was only far worse than that when and after Nidhogg came into the picture. Stacy and Toshio were taken to Eir to be treated for their wounds while the others were in Valhalla with Thor, Sif, Thrúd, Freya, Loki, Hermod, Hodr, Týr, Mímir and the Nörthfölk.

"We tried to warn you." Stefan shook his head at them. "You kids are just lucky to even still be alive after all that. Nidhogg could've killed all of you. Do you think anyone wants that in our hands?"

"Let us do the talking, please." demanded Sif with a fiery look, arms crossed.

"But we were the ones who-" Hrafn tried to interject, but Thor slamming his hammer furiously on the ground forced him to shut up.

"Hey, Kris…" Thrúd meekly said to her descendant since this was the first time they saw each other in a long while during his second time here in the Nine Realms. Sif just glared at her at this supposed attempt at light conversation and she clamped up.

After what felt like an eternity, Odin came bursting through the doors with Frigg, so not happy at all. Neither of them were.

"Are they okay?" asked Kris, scared for his friends when the stone-faced king and queen of the Æsir approached.

"The boy's alright." Despite his anger, the All-Father gave his answer with a spine-chillingly steely tone. "Eir's will be working on his legs and as for the girl, she's mostly fine. No heavy cranial damage, but she'll be out for a long while, which undoubtedly concerns me. But what really concerns me most of all and what led to it to begin with."

"Now we can definitely explain tha-" Too bad for Roar, he was interrupted.

"What were all you thinking?" Frigg interrogated, talking down to all of them like a headmistress. "Wandering off into the night like that. Don't you realize that you all could've been killed?"

"But we had our powers and our weapons!" Rudolf argued.

"Not the point!" Odin thundered. "Your actions almost got all of you seriously hurt. Nidhogg almost made you into mincemeat and worst of all, Stig here was steps away from leveling a whole town."

Stig looked around nervously.

"Not only that, but while you were gone, Hel freed Sköll and Hati from their cave and now it's only a matter of time before darkness falls upon us all. Ragnarök nears while you teens choose to fool around like children on a playground."

"Who are they?" asked Carter, lifting an eyebrow.

"Fenrir's children." Mímir explained somberly. "As we speak, they're chasin' the sun an' the moon. The days 'r goin' by faster 'til they swallow them both. 'Tis gonna be dark soon wit' no light t' be shone."

"Mímir…" Sif moaned strictly.

"And I had expected you, Kris, to be more responsible than this." Odin jabbed a finger at the boy, making him frown.

"It's our fault, sir." Willow stepped in to defend him. "We were the ones who wanted to have fun and we talked him into joining us. We tried warning us-"

"This is not a joke and it's not a game." Thor fumed. "Everyone you know and we know will all die unless you all start getting your heads in the game."

"Stacy already blames herself for helping start Fimbulwinter." Roar reasoned sadly. "The poor girl was a mess about it, too. You really should've seen her. The way she freaked out."

"Irregardless, we are in no position to be seeking joy and pleasure when we are in the midst of a serious crisis." Týr bellowed. "And the wilderness around the Realms are no place for kids your age. Powers and prowess or otherwise, rooting around in an environment littered with wild creatures is dangerous and beyond foolish."

"Hey, we're not little kids who need our hands held!" Stig was about to fire back while Willow grabbed his arm to calm him down.

"Watch your tone, young man!" Freya hissed back. "You're only making this worse! And you're just lucky that Stacy is even still alive!"

"Ya mean you're lucky she's still alive?" Moose retorted with a glower. "None of us even asked to be dragged int' this situation in the first place!"

"That excuses nothing!" Höðr raised his voice, slamming his staff on the ground.

"You kids are our only hope, you understand?" boomed Hermod. "What if you all had been killed? Hel would've succeeded! We need to start working together! We need to help us help them!"

"With the sun and moon almost gone, Ragnarök is not a moment away." Odin chastised.

"Then maybe you should spit it out already!" Kris boldly declared, shooting up from his seat and eyed the All-Father deep into the eyes with fiery hate.

"Excuse me?!"

"Kris!" Sif gasped at the boy's audacity. "How dare you!"

"What's the meaning of this?!" Freya shrieked.

"You can't just-!"

"You fucking heard me!" Kris screamed, face turning a frightening shade of cherry red and fists clenching hard until they turned white. "All of you! Just fucking tell them already! Tell them why Hel is so desperate to kill us all! Huh?! Why don't you enlighten them, All-Father, on why the end of days is really upon us! Because if you can't then I will!"

"What are you saying?!" Willow barked with horror.

"Now listen here-!" Odin was about to scold him, but Kris wasn't finished.

"This…..!" Kris aimed a finger at the old man, silencing him and the other gods in the hall with his resounding furious voice. "This cold-blooded old man reigned terror on all the realms all because he was told giants would rise against him and took it the wrong way! Pretty soon, all the giants were dead thanks to him and him!"

Thor froze with his feet cemented in place and Kris gestured to him very harshly, feeling his palms getting sweaty.

"And Hel?! He had her banished to the land of the dead all because of some scary dream he had! He chose to kidnap the moment she was born and has been lying to her about seeing her parents again and instead chose to cast her into the underworld, leaving her all alone with nothing but dead people around her! Hel had to grow up with no parents, no friends and no one to be even near her and now it's thanks to all of you that wants Ragnarök to happen! It's because of you that she wants us all DEAD! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE AND IT'S ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT!"

His voice echoed everywhere and all was quiet after his rant.

Everyone stared toward the boy gobsmacked, their breath robbed from their lungs. Nobody could've expected this. A mortal boy ranting and raving at literal gods, cursing them out and blaming them for everything, even the apocalypse. Even though he made a ballsy move attacking them like that, the glaring fact was that he was not even a tiny bit wrong and the gods knew it. Kris's friends couldn't believe that it truly escalated into this.

While no one noticed, Loki's face morphed into a face that one would find unseemly from the God of Mischief. One of…..remorse.

And on Odin's face, the exact same expression.

Kris panted and wheezed, trying to steady his breathing after unloading so much. With his righteous anger spent, he was sure that he'd made the situation worse. But then the old king looked like he was about to cry.

"It's true." He peeped, surprising them all, even the teens. "It's all true. I was the one who banished Hel to Helheim. It was only because I was afraid. I was afraid of what she would become. Of what she would do. My dreams of this scared me so that it blinded my judgment. I only did what I thought was the only thing to do to ensure Asgard's safety. But Hel never did anything wrong. She…she was just a scared little girl who never knew her parents. She could've had a life with them. But I took that all away from her and gave her a life that she never wanted. And now she's in cahoots with Surtr of all people trying to end us all."

"I…..I…" Kris was at a loss for words. Meanwhile, Loki covered his face and marched away before anyone could stop him. The teens didn't ask why. They were still shocked by Kris's outburst to come up with anything to say.

"We all are to blame." Thrúd explained as soon as Loki was gone. "Loki is Hel's father. But he also had human children. Human sons, which….I had murdered in cold blood just to earn my grandfather's approval and respect. But they never asked for that. They didn't deserve to die."

"You what?" Willow scoffed.

"And there's one other thing you need to know, Kris, that we should've told you before." Frigg stated, meandering over to Kris. "Hel's tricked Surtr into thinking that she can help him be with his wife again….if he….kills you."

Kris's blood ran cold when she said that and his throat ran dry and his heart pounded his chest.

"WHAT?!" All his friends screamed, horrorstruck.

"C-Can she even do that?!" exclaimed Kris, terrified.

Without the strength to utter any more words because they had been caught in her throat,...Frigg shook her head.

Realizing the fact that anything happening to Midgard happening to Stacy really rattled her to the core and who could blame her? And that she was giving the power to make Fimbulwinter happen because of Hel felt even worse. Stacy never asked to be involved in this Ragnarök business and it's easy to see how much she blames herself for it. And the fight with Nidhogg has only gotten worse to the point were few of them are getting seriously hurt in the process, making them experiencing the worst realistic aspects of battle and combat. It's only after Stig turns into a giant that Nidhogg finally decides, "Screw this, I'm outta here".

But it's because of his fear of his friends getting hurt that clouded his mind when in Jötunn form.

And wouldn't you know it, the gods are not happy with them for sneaking out. But Kris is quick to call them out, especially Odin, for being partially the reason for why Ragnarök even happened long ago and why it's happening again. Because of this being thrown in his face, Odin is regretful since he was the one who banished Hel to Helheim. But it goes from bad to worse when Kris learns that Surtr has been tricked into killing him.

Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Next Chapter: Loki admits his guilt in letting Hel get taken away. Meanwhile, Hel frees Garm, Nidhogg goes crazy, Sköll and Hati eat the sun and the moon and Surtr gets impatient.

Next Update: Sept. 22, 2023