Revamped!

[Guess who wrote her last exams today and can now update the rest of this arc before summer school starts?] [2020: Meanwhile, summer school exams and midterms are around the corner].


Chapter 122: What Happened in Asgard Part Ten

One Year Ago - Asgard

The spaces between episodes grew shorter while the paranoia and delusion grew exponentially. Days turned into months and months became years. Apollo became oblivious to the outside world, barely speaking to anyone at this point. His body felt like it was breaking down. Sleep was scarce, but when he managed to close his eyes, he had nightmares of Ragnarök. When he was awake, it occupied his mind.

Sanity fled.

He understood what The Norns meant when they said that rejecting one's fate made them go mad…

-o-

Apollo sees a hazy fog around him. A burning smell fills his nostrils, forcing him to sit up. He looks around and sees that he's in a destroyed battlefield. He's in his Asgardian armour and it's worn-out. Apollo stands up, keeping his guard up because here's the thing:

He knows that he's dreaming, but it's not a dream that's in his control.

Apollo takes a deep breath. When he exhales, he sees his breath and watches it disappear. When his eyes flicker upwards, he sees Sigyn in front of him. Apollo jumps back since he didn't hear her appear. She looks the same way he's always seen her: destroyed from battle. She's never armed with anything but her magic. Her face is covered with ash and her hair is a mess, strands clump together with the same blood that also stains her corset and skin. Her face is blank and, although her eyes still glow bright green, they look dead. The only thing about her that's in perfect condition is The Serpent Crown that sits on her head.

Sigyn doesn't move. Her expression remains deadpanned but her eyes never leave him. Then, she breaks into an exhausted but malicious smile.

"Destiny is waiting…" She sings like a childhood rhyme, swaying like a docked boat.

She points at something past him. Apollo turns around and sees The Midgard Serpent mimicking Sigyn's movements like she its puppeteer. The monster snarls at him, piercing its eyes and mocks a bite. Apollo's breath cuts itself off as he steps back. He jumps when he feels something grab his shoulders, even when he finds out it was only Sigyn.

It's unsettling to have the hands that control the Serpent touch him.

Her nails dig into the armour of his shoulders as her head rests there. In his peripheral vision, he can see the glow of The Serpent Crown and her grin as she looks up at The Midgard Serpent. Feeling her breathing next to his head makes him shake.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Sigyn hisses in his ear.

Sigyn walks beside him and lights up her hands. She opens them up and stretches her arms. The Midgard Serpent's body is traced in her power and Apollo staggers back as Sigyn laughs wildly.

"You think you can fight this?!" Sigyn yells.

Apollo tries to catch his breath. He always has to remind himself that this is all his dream. His dream. It has to be in his control because it's in his mind. That sparks an idea. Apollo stretches his hand back and feels his power building in his body, getting stronger by the second.

The environment fills with deep thunder and sharp lightning. Sigyn perks as she lowers her hands and turns to face him. She's scared. Tears fill her eyes as Apollo's axe lands in his hand and his power explodes all around him. She mouths something resembling an apology as she flies back from the impact of his force.

Sigyn and The Midgard Serpent suddenly vanish. Apollo finds himself alone once again.

He holds his axe loosely but tightens his grip again when he feels an eerily cool breeze blow on his back. He turns around, lifting his axe high and ready to slash at whatever's there. He finds himself in the presence of The Norns. Apollo lowers his axe. He knows that they have a reason for being here.

"You can't trust your cousin," the Present Norn tells him.

Apollo isn't surprised to hear that. "She said the same thing a long time ago. I thought she was bluffing."

"She'll to lie to you," Future warns. "She'll plan something that will worsen your outcome."

"But be warned that just because she lied didn't mean she betrayed you," Past says. Apollo is confused by the contradiction.

"You shouldn't protect her," Present says.

Apollo's response is automatic. "I have to. I have to protect us."

"You'll attempt to do so," Future says, "but be warned -"

A swirl of black fog appeared at their feet, working its way up their bodies and engulfing them. When it fades, the Norns are no longer there. Instead, it's someone else. It's a different goddess, one that's a contrasting image of the Norns. This one, despite also being female, was a dark shade of black with hints of grey and green. She wears black spandex that resembles a catsuit but it looked so tight that it could've been her skin. The black stops right at her chest, breaking off into branches that leave her shoulders, neck, and face exposed. Her hair is long, black, and extremely straight, looking as sharp as a blade. She moves her arms up and back as if she would tie her hair but when she bunches it over her shoulders, it turns into a crown that looks like prickled and tangled branches.

Her frame and stance are large yet slender and toned. Although Apollo is more muscular, he feels intimidated by her presence.

"You'll be seeing me soon, Apollo Foster," she tells him.

"How?" Apollo asks. "Who are you?"

She snickers. "Dear Champion of Ragnarök … I'm Hela, Goddess of the Dishonourable Dead and Ruler of Hel. Your soul will be mine if you decide to follow Fate's story."

Apollo's unable to answer. Although this is a dream, it feels so real. Her presence sends shivers down his spine. Did she mean that she will see him because he will die soon?

"What do you want?" Apollo asks.

"To help," she says in a friendly tone which contrasts her appearance.

"Why should I trust you?"

"You were born in my Realm. I protected you and your mother from Amora." Hela relaxes her shoulders when Apollo doesn't respond. "The Norns are right. You can't trust or protect your cousin because she'll do whatever it takes to get Ragnarök to happen."

"I sensed that," Apollo replies. "I can stop her."

"You can't. Protecting her is causing her to rebel. She's against Ragnarök but not in the same way. It's in her nature to lie…"

"What does that mean? How can I stop her?"

"Bring her to my realm. I will protect her as I once did for you and your mother."

On instinct, Apollo almost accepts the offer but stops. He was born in her realm. Hela is the one who will send her army to the Realms when Ragnarök starts and she will also take their souls if they die the way Fate tells them to.

"No," Apollo states. "I'll never enter your Realm. I didn't ask to be born there nor go there after I perish."

"Let me tell you the real story, darling. The most dangerous girl is the one who knows her mess of a mind too well. She carries too much death in her bones to be considered a damsel. She will distress the monster instead, try to wake it ahead of its schedule - ahead of your schedule. Listen to the Norns if you trust their angelic appearances, and don't protect her. Why does she deserve it? She's a sorceress with a wild mind and too much power at her fingertips. Sigyn isn't fragile like a flower, dearest Apollo, she's fragile like a bomb."

-o-

Apollo wakes up in a panic although nothing spooked him back into reality. He's grateful that he's alone in the centre of his bed. If he fell on the floor, he wouldn't like that. The odd part is that Apollo doesn't remember anything in his dream causing him to wake up. Not even that conversation with Hela made him so scared to quit dreaming. It ended and he's still shaken.

It's in moments between sleeping and waking that he finds his thoughts drifting to his destiny, to the war and fighting that surely waits. He wishes that it will never happen, but he knows deep down that he can't escape. Either he kills Sigyn and sacrifices himself to The Midgard Serpent, or the Midgard Serpent eats Midgard and Asgard burns. Either ending sounds like a loss.

Apollo calms down after a few deep breaths and sits up. Instantly, he's looking into a pair of glowing green eyes. When a hand glowing the same colour with magic illuminates, Apollo sees Sigyn sitting cross-legged at the foot of his bed. She looks the same as she did in the dream, down to The Serpent Crown but without the dead features.

Thanks to her magic contrasting the darkness, he sees her grinning as if she enjoyed watching him have a nightmare. Maybe she could see what was happening in his mind. Or maybe she controlled his dreams…

"You think you can fight the Serpent when you can't even gain victory in a dream," Sigyn mutters bitterly. "You still whimper even when it's not real. Here's a battle tip - maybe get the Serpent to care about you."

Apollo lifts an eyebrow in confusion as he sits up, leaning against his bed's headboard. "Are you so dense to believe that I can get that monster to care for me?"

"It will care once you're lodged in its throat. Maybe it will regret swallowing you and spit you out on Asgard's flames."

Apollo's throat clenches. Sigyn's face doesn't budge. Maybe it was dead of emotion and not life.

"Why are you here?" Apollo asks.

Sigyn leans forwards. "To tell you this: no matter what we do, Ragnarök is up ahead and will stay there. Ragnarök is tough, relentless, merciless, untiring. It's not something we can control once it's begun and it already has. It's a power way beyond us - beyond you - so all we can do is accept it. You may be afraid of killing me and I may be afraid of dying at your hand, but you're more afraid of sacrificing yourself."

"Do I look like a man-made to suffer? For I shall suffer, no doubt about that because I already am. You're not making it better for me."

Sigyn leans back. "You have to trust yourself a little and let go of some control you think you have. We don't have any say in what happens. No matter what choices we make - solo or together - the ending is the same. We die. You have to choose between what's good for you versus what's bad because it's amazing.

Apollo shakes his head. 'Fate doesn't make us powerless, Sigyn. They made us the most powerful beings for that one battle. Not being in control means that we'll have to exercise our powers differently.'

Sigyn scoffs. 'All nonsense aside, you should consider yourself fortunate. Unlike me, your death has meaning. You're Ragnarök's champion while I'm just another corpse whose soul will have a ball in the pits of Hel. Being the most powerful sorceress in all the realms is a stupid title in that sense, isn't it?'

Sigyn isn't fragile like a flower, dearest Apollo, she's fragile like a bomb.

'What are you planning, Sigyn? Revenge against me because I refuse to let The Midgard Serpent win?'

The corner of her mouth rises a little in a smirk. 'Revenge isn't in my plan. You'll screw yourself over on your own.'

Sigyn isn't fragile like a flower, dearest Apollo, she's fragile like a bomb.

Before Apollo could respond, Sigyn snaps her fingers and disappears. Apollo leans back, lying back down on his bed. He pulls the sheets up to his face as if that would protect him. The Midgard Serpent was a monster in real life in the centre of Midgard, not underneath his bed (although past hallucinations would say differently).

But now, it's silent and lonely.

Which is probably how Ragnarök will be.


[That flower/bomb quote is my absolute favourite quote.

For those of you who are interested, I have two new stories up. One is a Cloak & Dagger one-shot and the other is a humorous Avengers: Endgame AU/Prequel based on Clint Barton].