Revamped!
[I waited till this day to publish this chapter, but HAPPY TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO THIS STORY!
I was rereading some old chapters from Emily's story before I revamped it and one of the chapters I read was Apollo and Britney's farewell. I genuinely hate myself for the evil and sadistic foreshadowing I did.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE'RE BACK IN THE PRESENT!]
Chapter 130: Asgard's Aftermath
Stark Towers - 1:14 PM
All kinds of things happened to them: some they chose and most they didn't. At this point, they can't differentiate. Everything's now decided in advance for them and their actions towards it are attempts to make it happen or avoid it.
Humans have a strong desire to know and understand why things happen, especially when everyone wanted to know what happened in Asgard that resulted in Apollo coming back with no memories and Sigyn with the intent of having Apollo kill her to start Ragnarök. They were curious because there was a seven-year gap between the time the Midgardians last saw the Asgardians. Now that they got the backstory, they wanted to go back to the start where ignorance and curiosity were bliss. They're struggling to absorb this new turn of events and heard the events rather than experienced them.
But with it out in the open, what more is there to say? Fate can change directions. If they ran from it, then it'll chase after them. Apollo and Sigyn tried to outrun it in different directions: he wanted a different end and she a different start. But the faster they ran, the more they lost their way and their minds. They got so tired that delirium put them to sleep.
They've been through too much together for Sigyn to lie, but this was a situation they wish she still could instead of apologizing. Many say that telling one lie results in a thousand more to cover it up, but Sigyn doesn't fall for that one bit. She believes that telling the truth did more damage. Them not knowing what could come delayed a much more dangerous reckoning.
-o-
Nobody knows what to say. There are no words that could be good enough to empathize with them. Some had to take a seat to absorb all that information, Jane was one of them. She and Thor couldn't believe they were oblivious to everything Apollo and Sigyn did for the past few months. They were too busy settling it diplomatically.
Apollo's heart fills with anger as Sigyn uncomfortably shifts her bound hands. He's hurt and disgusted the more he looks at his cousin, but that is nothing to waste a tantrum on. Protective worrying towards Ragnarök, engaging with his mind, taking the dominant role to his fate, and disposing of his mental freedom when she claimed she did is worth having a tantrum.
"In wanting Ragnarök to happen after promising me that we'd find a way to stop it, this has ended up being a selfish act of betrayal," Apollo tells her with a strong urge in his voice. "I thought you were trying to protect me. Your solution was to hide in Asgard or in Hel whereas mine was to fight! Don't blame me for trying because you said you would be by my side, Sigyn. You gave me your word. I thought you loved me like a brother."
Sigyn's face doesn't budge, remaining remorseful and sad. "You forgot to love me like a sister. You wanted to help me find a way out of your destiny to kill me until Ragnarök intervened … and you only wanted to help yourself."
"It was self-preservation!"
"Keyword being self!" If her hands weren't chained, she would've thrown them up in frustration. "If my emotions didn't get the best of me, I would've been dead by now."
Apollo's frown doesn't soften. "I can only hope that we never have to test that theory again because that wasn't the first close call."
"Can we please stop arguing?" Sigyn asks with the tiredness evident in her voice. "We've been at this for the past seven years and it got us nowhere except further away."
"I was letting my anger and pain get the best of me and, honestly, I couldn't care less at that point," Apollo confesses. His face contorts a little. "Anger and violence have come to me quickly now more than ever. My instincts overpower my thoughts, but my instinct to keep you alive is far more powerful than my instinct to kill you."
"I think your biggest instinct is keeping yourself alive."
Apollo sighs, ignoring her. He looks at his friends and his parents. "You want to know another secret? The biggest secret of them all?"
Apollo tries to get it out but his knees buckle and he falls to the ground like a doll. He shakes and starts to tear up. He thought that saying it aloud would make him feel better, but he only feels weak and pathetic. His vision blurs so he isn't sure what everyone else around him is doing, but he doesn't care. Sometimes, even the most powerful adhesive can't put a man back together.
"I'm scared!" Apollo yells. "I'm so scared … I'm scared of killing Sigyn, The Midgard Serpent, and there being no alternative ending. I tried to find a way out, but there's nothing. Everyone expects me to be their strong and brave champion, but I have no idea what to do. Even if I succeed the way Fate wants, Sigyn and I are dead! There are so many people relying on me, people who don't even know they're relying on me, and now they'll die because their hero is nothing more than a selfish coward!"
His vision clears and it's Sigyn kneeling in front of him. He isn't sure how to react to her being so close to him after what she did. However, the way he looks at her now is with steady eyes. He looks to be under control.
"Erasing my memory was never going to change anything," Apollo whispers to her. "Nothing would've disappeared because I forgot about it. Things are worse now, I fear, but that's the life we live."
"Only a coward closes his mind," Sigyn tells him.
"You closed my mind. Throwing an axe is in the mind and that's why you tried to fix mine."
Sigyn nods. "I know. I'm repulsed by my actions. I was giving myself more and less time at once because I wanted to tell myself that I'm brave when I'm not. We were both trying to act tough."
Her cheeks are streaked with tears and she leans forwards to hug him the best she can with the chains around her wrist. The moment her arms figure a way to lock around his neck and his hands go on her back, she beings sobbing in his arms. Some days, she blamed Apollo for her actions. The days in Hel were when she blamed herself. But after retelling what happened in Asgard, she realizes that they both deserve the blame: her for the games and lies; him for getting his damaged mind to start them.
"Everyone thought that it was only you going crazy…" She tells him. "I tried to take control: I took your memories and tried to get everyone killed to give you the motive to kill me. I thought that separating myself from everyone would help my plan handle itself but it didn't. I lost myself. It took hearing the name Britney again to realize what I was doing."
Sigyn keeps her arms around Apollo but looks up to make sure that she's looking at not only Thor and Jane but her friends as well.
"I love you all," she says. "This is probably the best time to tell you since I don't want you to hate or fear me for what I've done. From the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry."
Apollo pulls apart from her and holds her by the shoulders to look at her directly in the eye. "Speaking on behalf of us, you have nothing to apologize for."
-o-
After that tense moment, Thor and Jane pulled both Apollo and Sigyn to the side to have a family talk about what they just revealed. Apollo and Jane stand beside one another, facing his parents. Out of everyone who heard the retelling of the past seven years on Asgard, they were the most distressed because it was their children who were in trouble and although they were adults, Thor and Jane still saw them as kids. To them: they were kids who tried to solve a big kid problem on their own and ended up getting into more problems than desired.
"I'd rather see humanity's extinction than your deaths," she confesses softly. She looks up at them with hot tears in her eyes. "You're more than any bad decision you've both made. Apollo said he would save you, Sigyn. He promised and kept it."
Sigyn shrugs. "Humanity owes its extinction to a giant snake."
Apollo shakes a little. "Mother, can we continue this conversation back on Asgard? I want to go home."
"Seriously?" Sigyn asks. "After everything that's out in the open and all the time you spent with our friends, you want to go home?"
Apollo nods. Sigyn doesn't need to question anything more because she knows now that Apollo has his memories back, he still fears The Midgard Serpent. And now that they're on Midgard, he wants to get out. Sigyn can't blame him. After hearing the whole story herself, she wants to run off as well but in the opposite direction.
"I'm staying here for a bit," Sigyn tells them. "I'll return soon but I got here and this is overwhelming."
"Of course," Jane says. "Just answer this, during your time in Hel, did Hela tell you anything?"
Apollo shakes his head. "She made Ragnarök with the Gods to prove all life was useless. The Midgard Serpent is her pet. That's pretty much it. She was very contradictory."
"Kind of like me," Sigyn says. "She constantly changed her mind whether she was supporting Apollo's desire or mine. I made a promise with her that I would do anything for Apollo's life and she said was fight."
Jane looks at Thor to see if he has an explanation for that. Thor is as stumped as they are.
"I know I changed in Asgard…" Apollo mutters. "I learned a lot about myself and what I want. This time, no matter what, I'm getting it."
"We'll see…" Sigyn says with a small smirk.
Apollo nudges her a little as he walks off with his mother. Sigyn turns around and smiles to herself as she watches them go. She assumes he'll tell the others he'll be back soon and not hide on Asgard for another seven years. Sigyn looks at Thor and holds her hands up as high as she could. Thor taps his hammer on her chains, releasing her. Sigyn cheers to herself as she rubs her tense wrists.
"I may have been angry at you and I had a right to be, but what you did to Apollo helped him," Thor tells her.
"How so?"
"You made Apollo aware of his actions and showed him the lengths you would go to tell him the consequences. For the first time in seven years, he's aware of himself more than just his ego. Erasing his memories put a reset on his mind. Forgetting all that was another form of remembering."
-o-
Once Apollo and his parents returned to Asgard, Sigyn walks down the hallway of Stark Towers. With each step, her magic stretches across her body, changing her outfit to a pair of black leggings and a black tank top with a jean jacket and sneakers. She enters the living room where her friends are. They look at her with a spooked expression. She can't tell whether they're haunted by the Asgard story or her suddenly casual behaviour and appearance. Her guess is both. Sigyn holds her head up high as she takes a seat on the couch, crossing one leg over the other and folding her hands on her knee.
"So," Sigyn starts, clapping her hands once to get their attention. "Since you haven't kicked me out, I would assume that I'm still somehow in your little social circle althought I tried to kill you?"
"Yeah," Merida replies monotonously with a deadpanned expression. "It wouldn't be the first time."
Graduation.
"And we've all tried to kill each other before," Daniel says as casually as her outfit. Iqadi raises a brow to that.
Graduation. Maybe some other events Sigyn doesn't know about.
Sigyn can't help but notice how much they've grown since she last saw them. She's changed as well but she got to look at her reflection daily. Her friends may have the same faces more matured, but they're adults. They're all adults. They have uniformed jobs and the obligation to pay taxes. They're freaking adults. Throughout the years, even if they've drifted apart a little and faced barriers, they can always pick up right where they left off. Keeping secrets is bad but holding grudges never helped anyone either. They're best friends and although they might not have had a choice in that, they like each other.
"I can tell what you're thinking about," Iqadi says, taking a seat beside her on the couch. "I know what it feels like to have betrayed everyone. That's why I recently showed up as well."
Sigyn nods. "I know about your contingency plan. My section was tested on me the moment Hela evicted me from her realm. I don't intend to demean your actions but my betrayal makes yours look like a simple white lie. My plan would've worked if I never saw your faces, but I brought you there so I was setting my plan up for failure."
"Just like I did," Iqadi confesses.
Sigyn takes a breath. She never expected someone to sympathize with her on this but it was heartwarming to have.
"You guys have been quiet the whole time Apollo and I were yelling at each other," Sigyn says. "I forgot you were here."
"We were speechless," Angela tells her.
"Or because this is all bullshit!" Merida says. "I'm not saying you and Apollo were lying because this has gone too far for it to be fake, but what the fuck?!"
"What are we supposed to say about a giant snake below us?!" Xavier screams. "I get that's why Apollo left but, seriously, what are we supposed to do?"
Sigyn shrugs. "The Midgard Serpent has been dormant this whole time, to my knowledge -"
Sigyn cuts herself off because she notices something. Her friends' eyes keep darting back and forth between one another. They're cautious, debating silently whether or not they should say something. The current climate in the room means that they should either say what they're hiding right on the spot or save it for another time.
"I know that you know something," Sigyn says.
They're shocked into silence.
Sigyn stands up. "I won't take your pity. All of my and Apollo's decisions have been our own and we may or may not still be convinced that they were the right ones. Our story may still have holes but maybe you could help us fix them."
"It's about The Serpent Crown," James informs her.
Sigyn didn't expect that but remembers Hela telling her they found it. "I know that Thor came to get it from you guys. I'm responsible for having an obsession with that crown. My guilt tried to heal me through self-torture."
"When we were getting The Serpent Crown, something happened," Emily tells her, fidgeting with her engagement ring with her other hand. "The moment James or I would grab the crown, something like an earthquake would occur. At first, we didn't think much about it but after your story, it may have been The Midgard Serpent awakening."
"Not a big deal," Sigyn says calmly to put them at ease, "only Apollo can start Ragnarök."
"But after we got the crown, you showed up in our dream and told us to get Apollo."
Sigyn balls her hands into fists and her magic borders around them until she loosens them. She rubs her hands at her sides and runs them through her hair, wanting to grip it and yank it out. Instead, she looks up in defeat.
"Oh, crap…" She mutters. "I made the mistake of sending Apollo here because what if that's been starting Ragnarök this whole time?"
Angela starts to weep. "No … nothing this bad is supposed to happen. We're finally all together again."
"I'm regretting all this…" Sigyn mutters. "The person I was in Hel would be proud."
"Maybe the Serpent went back to sleep," Iqad suggests.
"Maybe I can find a way out of it?" Daniel offers.
This is the only time Sigyn remembers doubting his intelligence. Even the others look at him with disbelief whereas Merida and James are about to start laughing.
"What?" Daniel questions, being serious about his offer. "I'll do all the thinking so you won't have to anymore. You may be the most powerful in all the realms, but my science trumps your magic. You'll see."
Sigyn smirks. "Can't wait."
"Besides, I have faith in Apollo," Emily says. "He has muscles on top of muscles."
Sigyn lights up a little. "Good point." She tries not to think about how those muscles on top of muscles will kill her.
"And for all we know, that snake went back to sleep," Merida reasons.
They nod because, if there's something humans love during a crisis, it's rationalization.
"I'm scared to ask," Iqadi says slowly, "but when is Ragnarök?"
Sigyn shrugs. "Should've asked Apollo … but if there's one last thing I can say about him, it's that he has the strongest heart of anyone I've ever known."
James interrupts. "Hey, can I just say something we should've said when we first saw you?"
"What?"
"Welcome back."
[Okay, guys, I'm going on a hiatus again because I honestly haven't written the next part. I haven't written a chapter for this story since December. I know what happens next, have some parts planned, but it doesn't exist. I'm also pushing back the ending and prolonging the story because I couldn't bear to end it where I originally had it planned.
Thank you to anyone who has read up to this point. I will be back!]