Revamped!
[This is the last chapter of the Asgard arc. This has been a lot]. [2020: That is an understatement. This arc fucked me up the first time].
[Also, I'm excited about the Black Widow movie!] [2020: Keep being excited].
Chapter 129: What Happened in Asgard Part Seventeen
Weeks Ago - Hel
Sigyn hasn't been through this before but she knows Apollo has: being aware of being in the middle of a dream.
She's Amber, running through a meadow city, searching for help. She looks down at a puddle on the ground and gets a glimpse of her reflection: her golden blonde hair drapes down her white nightgown. Her hands start to shimmer with magic. It boils past her control and she appears in a backyard playground.
She's older and taller. She's Crystal. She looks out from the top of the playground set and runs across it. She goes down a slide that goes on forever. She screams as she accelerates. Her magic streams out of her hands until she feels herself shoot into water.
She's underwater. She can't breathe. She can't swim.
She stays in one spot, holding her breath.
In the distance, a spark of light appears and disappears as fast as it came. She tries to swim for it but her arms and legs aren't coordinated in the water. Frustrated, she screams and doesn't care about the wasted air that's now leaving her lungs. Locks of her hair gravitate to her field of vision and her golden locks turn black.
The water drains she's standing again. Her body is as dry as a bone and she looks like she's in Hel's forest. She checks her hair and it's Courtney's dark hair. She takes a few steps and sees a mirror. The closer she gets, the more she should see her reflection - but it isn't there. Instead, she sees Loki and Amora, her parents, standing with their arms linked. They both grin evilly at her.
In response, she spins the mirror around. On the other side, she's someone else. She's wearing a cheerleading uniform with a high school varsity jacket and a football in her hands. She spins on the heel of her high tops and looks in the mirror. Sigyn looks forwards and is surprised at her reflection. She doesn't see Sigyn but Britney Braun. She sees more colour in her face because Britney Braun had more of a will to live.
"Our romance was an adventure and you were the reward…"
She hears his voice and turns around. Shivers run down her spine as she looks at her wrist. Sigyn doesn't see her charm bracelet there and she starts to shake. Hela took it and she still didn't give it back. Who is she without it? Britney Braun in the mirror hears that voice too and smiles so happy. When was the last time that Sigyn smiled like that?
Sigyn raises her head again and sees Apollo struggling on Midgard. He's surrounded by shadowy figures. They're unsure of what to do. Sigyn can infer who they're supposed to be but she doesn't think too much of it because her focus is on Apollo. She looks down at her outfit and sees that she's in her black and green Asgardian corset set. This only tells her that Sigyn Lokisdottir did all this, not Britney Braun or any of her other past identities.
"Where is she?!" Apollo yells.
Sigyn jumps back. A guilty tear rolls down her face. She knows that he's talking about her but after she took his memories away, she knows that he doesn't know. She wants to comfort him, let him release his anger at her because she deserves it. She did this - but only because she has to or else everything dies. At least … that's what she's telling herself.
Sigyn feels a sudden rush of heat coming from behind her. She turns and sees The Midgard Serpent slithering behind her. Sigyn steps back, keeping her hands prepped with magic. She has to keep telling herself that this is a dream and, although everything that happened before was, this is foreshadowing. This is Ragnarök and it'll happen.
She walks backwards to keep her eyes on The Midgard Serpent. She notices something in her peripheral vision and turns to the side. She's at the end of a line with Amber, Crystal, Courtney, and Britney. All of them wear The Serpent Crowns and gazing at The Midgard Serpent before turning to look at her in sync.
"What are you doing?!" Sigyn yells at them. "Run!"
"Listen to yourself, Sigyn," Amber starts, sounding like a Norn.
"It's getting worse in your mind," Crystal says. "You're making the environment in here toxic for us."
"You're giving into your fear by wanting it to happen," Courtney follows. "That will do nothing but worsen it."
"Fear can acquire a life of its own and take yours away," Britney concludes.
The four of them turn away in sync and return their gaze to The Midgard Serpent. They open their arms to welcome it. Sigyn lowers her hands and forces herself to do the same no matter how wrong it feels.
Maybe everything dies but maybe, somehow, everything that dies comes back. The world will end but it will inevitably begin again.
Humanity owes its existence to a bit of Asgardian whimsy. To a giant snake.
-o-
Sigyn shoots awake and has to force herself to breathe. She falls off the fallen tree trunk she was sleeping on but remains seated. She looks around Hel and can't help but think that she hasn't had such intense nightmares until now. She remembered the Norns saying that those who refused their fates often lost their minds but she wanted Ragnarök to start and happen the way it was supposed to, so why was she losing her mind if she was accepting it?
"Fear can acquire a life of its own and take yours away."
Her fear is Apollo and he's already a life. His fear is The Midgard Serpent and it's already a life. Both their goals were to kill them.
Sigyn raises her hand to run it through her hair and comb through some tangles, but she stops mid-way. She notices something shining on her wrist - that flicker of light from her dream - and she sees her charm bracelet. Sigyn should smile because she finally got it back in perfect condition but she can't help but wonder why Hela would give it back to her now, especially since she just woke up from that dream.
Sigyn gets up and starts to run. She doesn't know where to go but she has to be moving. She doesn't want to be stagnant when Hela appeared.
"Take back what's rightfully yours!" She hears Hela's voice echoing from somewhere.
Sigyn, so exhausted she could barely walk, stops and leans against a tree near Hela's empty throne to catch her breath but she continues. Her corset is covered in dust, its hems torn from thorny branches. While running, she has to fight her way through overgrown yet dead tangles of vines. She reaches a clifftop and measures the distance from the top to the bottom. There are jagged rocks below. If she didn't leap with enough momentum, she would still make it.
Dust flies into Sigyn's eyes and she can't see. While running, she crashes into something that came at her. Sigyn flies to the ground, rolling for a bit. She rubs her eyes clean with one hand and holds her magic out with the other for self-defence. When her eyes are clean, she looks over and sees him. Him with a SHIELD uniform and patriotic shield.
Xavier Rogers is here.
The adrenaline starts kicking in and she can't breathe. Sigyn can't hear anything that's happening. Her head spins and her heart hurts more than ever. It's burning. Her guilt pumps through her veins and starts to eat her alive because from her one mistake came multiple lies. Too much has been going on and it's spiralling.
She feels her power coursing through her, flooding her mind with terror. Her heart pounds in a fanatic rhythm like a bomb ticking down to explode. Her heart pounds in a frantic pace. Cold sweat forms on her brow.
She failed Asgard, Apollo, and now Xavier and her friends back on Midgard.
A wild, gibbering panic slashes her chest. She can't breathe. She wants to run and hide but seeing Xavier tells her she can't. She's stuck here just like she's stuck in her fate. Everyone back on Asgard was right, Midgardians can't know about Ragnarök. Looking into his beautiful eyes makes the words disappear from her lips.
He looks so happy to see her. She can't understand why she doesn't feel as happy to see him.
She can no longer process this. She gives up.
"Britney?" He questions in surprise.
-o-
No matter what they did, Ragnarök was coming. They were planning to fight fate, to stop a cataclysmic event that had been foretold. One would think that because they knew about this in advance and how to win, they'd have the advantage.
But no.
The worst pain is knowing what's coming. The most painful pain isn't physical pain at all. It's fear. Without it, there would be no sensation of pain. And fear is what causes pain. Ragnarök's coming for them. They'll be executed to save the Realms. They've been warned. The problem is, what would happen if Ragnarök started and they weren't ready when they thought they were?
Heroes are scared and they'll lose because of fear. Their world will end because they don't know what to do.
[And now you all know what happened in Asgard. In terms of the story's timeline, the next chapter for this would be chapter 93 (when Xavier is in Hel with Sigyn)].