Revamped!


Chapter 68: His Rescue

Manhattan - 3:35 AM

Driving around is easy at 3 AM since there's no traffic due to almost everyone being asleep. Nobody would be awake unless they had a legitimate reason to be. Before Xavier left his apartment, he was hesitating on whether to bring a coffee or energy drink with him to stay awake but decided not since his encounter with Sigyn will suffice as enough power in his system to keep his eyes open. As Xavier drives on the freeway, he hesitates on where he should go first. Sigyn said to save him without any indication as to where he would be. Considering that Sigyn went to him, she would only send him to a place he could go to easily.

That narrows it down to anywhere on Earth. If he's lucky, he can cut off the water.

But there was something about his dream with Sigyn that gave him a clue as to where he should go. Minus the dead forest at the end, the dream played a memory from their past which tells Xavier that maybe he should check out some important places from their teenage years.

Which he dreads.

Xavier is in support of saving people and listening to Sigyn, but he didn't want to go down memory lane now. It will only remind him of the happiness and love he felt for a girl whom he hasn't seen until that dream which will add to the sadness and longing for her that he kept bottled inside of him for seven years.

Xavier's first stop is her old house which was sold to a new family a year after they left for Asgard. He parks down the street and jogs up to the house. He knows who he's looking for won't be inside the house with its new tenants since someone in there would've filed a complaint about an unexpected and unwanted visitor. He quickly peeks over the fence and looks into the empty backyard.

Xavier runs back to his car and sits there with his hand hovering over the ignition. He looks over to the passenger seat where he imagines Britney Braun sitting there, smiling at him.

"Are you going to start driving or what?" Britney asks him. Then he blinks and he sees Sigyn from his dream. "You have to save him…"

Xavier drives again. This time to his old high school. He parks his car and trots onto the football field and he suddenly feels like the striking quarterback of the football team. He looks out onto the bleachers and he sees his sister as a cheerleader, his friends having no idea what football is but still there for support, and his girlfriend wearing his varsity jacket. As she claps her hands and runs over to him, she suddenly turns into Sigyn from his dream who runs in the dark forest which he now takes as the hint as to him being in the wrong place and wasting time.

Sigyn walks up to him. "You have to save him…"

"Then tell me where the hell to go!" Xavier yells back at a figment of his imagination.

She disappears. Xavier grunts in frustration as he goes back into his car and just sits there.

What if none of this means anything? What if that dream with Sigyn was nothing more than just a dream?

Maybe he shouldn't be looking at their past relationship. Maybe he should be looking just in the past. His dream began when he started having a crush on Britney Braun. Maybe he just needed to look back at the start of something else…

-o-

JFK Airport - 5:57 AM

Going through the airport's customs and security early in the morning with nothing but a duffel bag full of random items raises major red flags for the border patrol. Xavier was lucky to have his SHIELD badge on him which helped him just fly right through the process.

With his bag over his shoulder which he's just bringing on board with him as a carry-on, he walks through the airport. A part of him isn't sure if this is where Sigyn wanted him to go but he has yet to see a vision of her saying those five words.

It was also pretty convenient for a flight to his destination to leave thirty minutes after he walked in.

Before he gets on the plane, he texts his team. He hesitates on what to send them since a message like "Hey, Britney came to me in a dream and as a frequent vision so now I'm on a plane heading somewhere and won't be coming in today." His friends might believe it but he doesn't want them to call him crazy like her or whatnot. Instead, he tells them that SHIELD is sending him on a classified operation so they can't ask about it.

-o-

New Mexico - 8:13 AM

When he lands in New Mexico, he rents a car and starts driving. As he puts on his sunglasses, he pulls up a map on his phone and starts following it. There has been no eerie Sigyn appearance since he last saw her which he has mixed feelings about. He's glad not to see her since it tells him that he's in the right place but seeing her gives him so much nostalgic joy and pleasure.

He approaches a small town just before the outskirts and parks his car. Xavier steps out and surveys the town that was now made a tourist attraction due to the appearance of Thor's hammer showing up all those years ago. There's even a neon sign that says, "This way to Thor's hammer!" with a small animatronic of the demigod swinging his signature weapon in that direction.

Xavier's in the town that started Earth's awareness of Asgard. The disturbance in a small town that changed the world.

Xavier goes around to every shop, restaurant, and building possible. He even asks anyone he passes. Xavier asks them if they have seen whom he's looking for and without a picture of him for reference, it's either that nobody has seen him or knows who he's talking about, or worse, they think he's looking for Thor and point him to the attraction. It isn't until the moon has risen and the town emptied that he realizes that it's now dark.

"C'mon…" Xavier mutters, spinning on his heels in the middle of the empty street to find him. Nothing. "Come on!"

"You have to save him…"

Xavier stops spinning around and sees Sigyn standing there. He runs up to her.

"Tell me!" Xavier exclaims to her. "Britney, please…"

She doesn't respond. She only disappears in a cyclone of her magic. Xavier balls his hands into fists but doesn't know what to do with them. He only lowers them in disappointment in himself.

"Dammit…" He mutters to himself.

Xavier lowers his head and starts heading back into town to find his rental car. Where is he supposed to go now? He has absolutely no idea.

He perks up at the sound of a voice in the distance and finds himself walking closer to it. The closer he gets to the Thor Exhibit, the louder the voice it. Xavier approaches the attraction which is supposed to be closed for the day but there is no security around. He sees the actual crater where Thor's hammer landed when it came and the fake hammer replica they put in its place to mimic the event and have people try and lift it themselves. Xavier looks and sees a hooded man crouched beside the hammer. Although he hasn't seen his face yet, he knows that he has found his man.

It can't be, can it? He isn't still dreaming, is he?

"Hey," Xavier says, approaching him. "You're hard to find unless you were trying not to be found."

The hooded man stands up straight, his back still facing Xavier.

"Midgard is so much different than I remember…" He says. His speaking tone is his Asgardian voice which seems to be more natural now than forced.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't remember it as my home."

Xavier pauses. Something about this whole situation makes Xavier feel uneasy and he wonders why he feels as if he should've brought a weapon, or at least his shield. "What do you remember?"

"Not much."

The hooded man turns around to face Xavier and the hood falls. Xavier sees the familiar blue eyes and a full-grown beard. He looks so much more mature, like his father, yet still the same. Xavier can't help but smile at the sight of an old friend's return.

"Welcome back, Apollo," Xavier says.

Apollo doesn't react the way Xavier expected. Instead, Apollo takes a step closer to Xavier and is bewilderedly confused about seeing him.

"Who are you?" Apollo asks him.


[Just FYI, I thought of Apollo coming back with no memory way before Agents of SHIELD did it with Lady Sif. And yes, that episode came out x years ago. I was planning this story for years]. [2020: Make that five years counting the present].