Revamped!

[To answer the question about Sigyn and The Serpent Crown, no, it won't turn her into a giant snake. Sigyn doesn't need a crown to do that since she's got all the magic in the world].


Chapter 73: Unwinding in Progress

SHIELD Headquarters - 3:04 AM

Apollo wakes up and is unsure of the time until he gets a look at a flashing clock above the doorway he walks through. Even at this hour, SHIELD is incredibly busy. Thousands of agents are working around the clock, keeping tabs on every square inch of the world.

Apollo should've been sleeping. SHIELD let him stay in a room they leave for correspondents on witness protection. But after countless hours of staring up at shadows on blank walls, he'd finally given up and needed a distraction. Any distraction. One good enough to chase away the thoughts that plague his brain. He doesn't know where he's going since he's unfamiliar with the area and can't find his friends. He knew that at least one of them would stick around because he was here so he decides to ask an approaching agent.

"Excuse me -?" Apollo starts before suddenly stopping himself.

The agent he asks looks up at him and Apollo no longer sees just another SHIELD agent. The uniform disappears in green magic and becomes a matching dress as the agent looks up. Apollo is silent as he sees the agent becomes Sigyn with tears coming out of her eyes and the nearby strands of her hair are damp because of them. She looks empty, as if the life has already been drained out of her. If anything, she looks dead.

"We're both going to have to accept it…" Sigyn mutters to him. "My time is running out."

"No…" Apollo responds.

Again, he doesn't exactly know what he's declining.

"You have to accept it," she continues.

"No!"

He isn't sure why he's yelling but it feels like the right answer.

Sigyn's face is now serious. "You have to remember who the real enemy is."

"Who is it?!" He asks.

"Dammit Apollo!"

Sigyn suddenly becomes angry as The Serpent Crown materializes on her head. Her brows furrow as her features sharpen and her eyes turn opaquely white. Sigyn raises an arm, about to strike him and he squints his eyes shut as he cowers. When nothing comes, Apollo opens one eye to peek at Sigyn but he only sees a scared SHIELD agent with their hand hovering over their holstered gun.

"I apologize…" Apollo says quickly as he scurries off.

-o-

After wandering around for quite some time, Apollo finally enters a lounge where the lights are on. He walks in and sees Xavier sitting on a couch with his laptop. Apollo suddenly stops walking mid-step.

Xavier glances from his laptop as Apollo tilts his head towards him and stares at him blankly. Tears are in Apollo's eyes. Apollo. Crying. It shocks Xavier more than running into him in the middle of nowhere seven years after last seeing him. He realizes that Apollo has changed so much from high school. Apollo was someone who didn't care about anything and would just shrug it off. Now, Xavier sees someone sad and broken and he doesn't know how to help.

What happened in the seven years to cause this? What broke Apollo Foster?

"Apollo…" Xavier mutters. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Apollo replies, looking away. "One moment, I was probably in Asgard and then I was at that exhibit on Midgard with little to no memories."

"You remembered some things."

"Useless things."

"Your parents and home aren't useless things."

"They're because they're not here. You said my father was looking for me, didn't you? And where's my mother? Why aren't they here if my father said I left and probably had no idea where I went?"

Xavier sighs, not knowing how to respond. Apollo puts his hands in his pockets after wiping his red-rimmed eyes as Xavier closes his laptop and puts it on the coffee table. Xavier can tell that Apollo feels betrayed by everything and everyone, including his mind for not having anything in it.

"Couldn't sleep?" Apollo asks, changing the topic to something much more casual.

"How could you tell?" Xavier questions.

"Because you're awake."

Xavier should've seen that coming but frankly he can't keep up with all this anymore. He only shrugs it off. That's something the Apollo he knew would've said and he appreciated it more than he thought he would.

"Why are you still awake?" Xavier asks him.

Apollo shrugs, taking a seat on the other end of the couch before sliding forward on the cushion. He sits back, running a stressed hand through his hair before settling on his beard, wrapping his hand around his jaw.

"I need to know the reasons for my flashbacks, why I don't have my memories," Apollo replies honestly. "I want to know what I forget. I need answers and I need them now. Why can't I remember you or the others? Why was I gone for seven years? Where was I before I got here and who was I with? Why am I so sad all the time?"

Xavier doesn't respond mostly because he doesn't know. He had those questions as well. They all do. Maybe there was something safe about not knowing, maybe there was something Apollo shouldn't know which is why he doesn't remember anything. That would also explain why his family in Asgard seems to be leaving him here, even his parents. The scary question is what could that possibly be and did he want to find out?

"Hey," Apollo says to Xavier, "are we good?"

"Yeah," Xavier replies. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Because I victoriously used my power against your enhanced yet still frail mortal body. You were at an extremely unfair advantage and I apologize."

In all honestly, Xavier forgot that Apollo beat him up and was now never going to go a day without being reminded of that. But he was finally having a normal-seeming conversation with Apollo so this screams that progress is being made in some way. It's like they're just boys again.

"We're good," Xavier says with a grin.

Apollo smiles a little.

"Are you hungry?" Xavier asks.

"I guess."

Xavier gets up and goes into a cupboard. He pulls out a box that's covered in dust. Xavier blows the filth off and rubs off the excess, cleaning his hands on his pants. A bright and animated box is revealed which Xavier rips open to pull out two individually wrapped aluminum rectangular packets. He hands one to Apollo and keeps one to himself. Apollo looks at the strange item skeptically.

"They're not expired if that's what you're worried about," Xavier tells him. "I'm sure that the expiration date is there just for shelving and health reasons."

"What are they?"

On a normal day, Xavier would be stunned that Apollo said that. But given his memory's state now, he's forgiven. Basically, every statement is now fragile.

"Pop-Tarts," Xavier tells him with a small smile.

Apollo gasps as if all the air has been sucked out of him. "I haven't had those in years! That's another question I have. Where were the Pop-Tarts in the past seven years?"

Apollo rips open the package and shoves the pastries in his mouth. He groans in delight as he takes the rest of the box for himself. Xavier laughs a little as he takes a bite out of his.

"So, you remember Pop-Tarts instantly but not any of us?" Xavier jokes.

"I think my memories are prioritized," Apollo responds with a small laugh.

As Apollo enjoys his artificial-sugar induced euphoria, he can't help but notice something uneasy with Xavier. He stops eating for a moment.

"Are you alright?" Apollo asks him.

Xavier scoffs a little. "You're the one who came back from Asgard with no memory and has fallen unconscious at least ten times in the span of 24 hours and you're asking me if I'm alright?"

Apollo nods. Xavier looks at him for a bit before sighing and sitting on the countertop.

"I feel as if I've been coiled up for seven years and I'm just unwinding now," Xavier confesses.

"Why?"

"A girl."

"Who?"

"Britney Braun."

"You mentioned that name when I first came."

Xavier nods surprised that Apollo remembered that.

"Do I know her?" Apollo wonders. "Is she a friend?"

Xavier shrugs. If Apollo doesn't know Sigyn what are the chances of him knowing who Britney is?

"May I see a picture?"

Xavier is hesitant at first because of what Angela said about him not remembering who Sigyn is exactly but he decides to show him a picture. It's a picture from their senior prom, where Xavier stands with Apollo and Britney is in the middle of them with Apollo's date beside him, his arm wrapped around her waist and draping down her hip. They're laughing and smiling. Apollo looks at the photo and -

"I'm so proud of you!" Britney exclaimed, tugging on Xavier's arm. Her voice had a hint of sarcasm in it.

Xavier pulled her close. He looked down at her with so much passion and love as the plastic crown sitting on his head glows in the light.

"I'd say that crown is something," Apollo said to Xavier, standing on Britney's other side so that she was sandwiched in. "Maybe it'd be more meaningful if it was authentic and not from the dollar store."

Xavier scoffed. "I thought you were going to compare it to your future Asgardian one."

Apollo laughed wholeheartedly. "Now that would be impolite."

"And insulting this crown is a good mannerism?"

Apollo laughs.

"I want a crown…" Britney muttered.

She reached up and took Xavier's crown from his head. Before she got the chance to put it on herself, she - morphs into Sigyn and sighs with satisfaction knowing that The Serpent Crown is now in her hands.

Apollo shudders a little as he comes back to reality. Now, he can't help but think that Sigyn infected his memories as well which is really all he had left at this point - so could he trust what he thought seemed reliable?

"Britney looks like Sigyn," is all Apollo can say. "Like a more alive version, if that makes sense."

Apollo traces Britney's face in the photo, trying to take in that memory as his own but he can't without a glimpse of Sigyn with the Serpent Crown peeping through. Xavier looks at Apollo, hoping that his statement solves itself but it doesn't. Sadly for Apollo, he only sees Britney as a girl he doesn't remember at all.

Xavier doesn't say anything but when he takes a second look at the photo and thinks back to the Sigyn he saw in his dreams, he agrees. Sigyn's a dead version of Britney while makes his stomach churn. One of Britney's prophecies was that Apollo was destined to kill her. There's the chance that she died in the last seven years.

"Aside from Britney," Xavier says, "do you remember who your date is?"

Apollo looks at his date in the photo. A dark-haired beauty in a red dress, linking arms with his own. Then he realizes that he has no beard in the photo which strikes him as odd since his beard feels like an extra and vital limb to him. He almost doubts that he's the one in the photo standing beside the dark-haired beauty.

"Anything?" Xavier asks.

"She's Asgardian," Apollo says about the beauty. "That's the first thing to pop into my mind."

Xavier nods. "James, Daniel, and I were all blown away by her."

Apollo smiles. For a reason he doesn't understand, that makes him feel proud.

"You don't remember Freya, do you?"

"I don't," he replies, only assuming that the dark-haired beauty is Freya. Not knowing anything about her saddens him for reasons he doesn't understand beyond looking so happy in that photo.

Xavier sighs. "You will eventually. Maybe you just need to see her again."

"I think the same applies to your Britney."

Xavier scoffs.

"You will find each other," Apollo tells Xavier from the bottom of his heart. "Although I don't remember her now, I know that you will find each other because she's the person you're meant to be with."


[Sigyn will be coming back in the story and be more than just flashbacks and creepy hallucinations. As for now, put her on the back burner of your mind. Just imagine Xavier's reaction when he sees what's happened to her.

As for now, the next chapters will be some story arcs where someone else will be coming back. She was in the story earlier. I didn't even realize how long ago it was until now].