Heimdall intervenes in a fateful encounter.

Heimdall found himself in the icy depths beneath the corpse of Thamur.

'I cannot believe that of all the things I'm doing I'm stuck looking for Thor's sons right at the spot where he intended to crush a village with a giant. Why would he even 'plan' for that to happen anyway?'

Heimdall could see their footprints, but the sounds of battle where much louder he could hear them off in the distance started to run toward them, on the off chance his brother was right.

"Odr Brodr Blinder!" It was the voices Magni and Modi and the telltale shout of their 'snowblind' attack with the sound of a storm soon being heard afterward. The clamor was getting closer and closer as he kept moving toward it.

The storm had seemed to let up and it was followed by another clash of steel and the vague sound of what could be arrows. Picking up the pace Heimdall was confronted by the sight of Magni and Modi in battle with 'them'. The one's he could see in those memories of his brothers, past and somehow future.

Sunshine looked the same as usual, brooding with a stoic rage underneath and wielding an axe, but the kid looked different from what he had seen. He seemed younger, more afraid but also angrier. They were each clashing with one of the brothers, the foreign god with Magni and the child with Modi. The battle had taken a turn for the worst for Magni was just struck by an axe and was about to be struck by another.

Heimdall's hand had reached for Hofud, and time began to slow to a crawl for everyone but him. Rushing quickly Heimdall shot a bifrost blast from his sword. Heimdall could see the lips of Mimir's head move.

'So that's why I saw that traitor's head. Then why is he alive?' Kratos had stopped and began to slowly move, barely getting his shield open to catch the bolt of energy as time returned to normal.

"Uncle?" Magni managed to say, despite his wounds. Kratos turned his shield and ax raised but kept his guard up taking a step back with Magni in mind. Heimdall could see he was hesitating as he could see he was more concerned for his son then continuing his fight with his nephew.

"Get out of here Mangni, your father sent me here, that includes you too Modi." The fight between these two 'children' soon ended.

"So you're here too, here look over your shit stain nephews?" Mimir hissed.

"Head!" Heimdall tried not to chuckle at how far the old goat had fallen, being a literal accessory to some exiled god.

"You always did have a tendency to get ahead of yourself as always, Mimir. Yes I'm here for them, but I want to know why Baldur would think you're so special." Heimdall looked into the eyes of all three of them."

Looking at Sunshine, he saw many things briefly, even this Jotunn that was his wife, her last request was to spread her ashes on the highest peak in all the realms? And Frigg? Frigg was helping them too? This God felt many things; irritation, shame, uncertainty, but right now his mind was focused on fighting them.

The boy was like his father, irritated, uncertain, but also he was much more rash, not disciplined like his father at all except there was him wielding the ax and stained in the blood of Dark Elves. All he wanted to was bring those ashes to the mountain but felt conflicted about fighting. Some Giant he was, and Baldur thought the runt might actually be special.

Mimir only showed tortures from his own father that were truth be told were horrible to witness, and being revived by Frigg. Sunshine and her must have made a deal of some sort, Mimir has lost Freya trust years ago, even if only said it few times he could remember the anger in her head each time she saw him, after things between her and the All-Father turned sour.

"You have caused a lot of trouble for some ashes." Heimdall's tone was laced with indifference, masking the shock at how ridiculous such a small thing could cause so much trouble.

"What does Odin want with us?" The foreign god's gruff tone was just as clear here as it was in Thor's mind.

"It seems my brother was looking for someone, and believed you were them or that your runt was."

"Shut up!" The child's voice sounded almost bird-like to him.

"Boy, calm yourself." Heimdall had noticed Kratos had given a quick look to his son, before keeping his eyes trained on him. Smart, but if he was truly smart, he would have surrendered in the first place.

The god gripped his axe and readied his shield.

"You should listen to your father, 'boy'." Father and son both glared at him, as Heimdall only smirked "But we have no quarrel with you."

"Uncle!" His red haired nephew gave him a look of disbelief. "After what he did to Magni, we are just letting them go?"

"Yes." Disgust crossed the watchman's face, but he had a plan. "Your father tasked me with trailing you two. Not fighting him." Heimdal pointed in Kratos' direction knowing that the god was not going to strike him rashly. "Get your brother out of here!"

"Then Thor is here? Will he pose a threat to us?" Sunshine definitely was sharp, asking the question that really mattered.

"My older brother has been acting strange of late, so who can say. I cannot say the same of Baldur."

"Thor's been spouting the same bollocks to you too? Is he speaking the truth, or is he just cracked?" Mimir said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure myself." It was a lie, surely his brother must make some sense, and it seems he tried talking to Mimir once before. If nothing else his ramblings might allow them a chance to finally take advantage of a way to access Jotunheim. All they had to do was wait for those three to do the work for them.

"Uncle." Magni said grunting in pain from the wounds on his arm and side. "What are we waiting for? We can take him."

"Yes, but we are not going to. This man is not who Baldur thought they were. If it were not for me, you would be dead." Heimdall looked at his more fortunate nephew. "Modi help me get him up and let's go."

"Fine."

Modi grabbed Magni by his good arm and lifted him up, and the three Aesir had begun to leave through the way it seemed the god, his son, and Mimir had come through.

"Father, why did you let them walk them off." The words of this 'Loki' were distant to others, but they were clear to Heimdall's ears.

"They did not wish to continue to fight when it had no value. There was no point in continuing to fight a now needless battle."

"But what if they come back? That Modi was a jerk, and I just want to-."

"Boy, you must temper yourself, and not lose sight of our goal." Heimdall had heard the agitated shuffling of unsteady feet "But you are not wrong to be cautious." The shuffling stopped. "Just because they ended this conflict now, does not mean we should let down our guard."

"Fine, but I don't get it, aren't we just mortals?"

"Lad, Gods can be fickle, especially the Aesir, I suppose we-."

'He doesn't know?' Heimdall was shocked by that part of an unknowingly not-so private conversation he could still faintly hear, that he did care to process the rest. They were gods, Sunshine truly must hate himself that much understandable given that the stories of that monster. Yet why would he leave his son in the dark? Did he hate him too, or what he could become.

"I know Uncle Baldur hasn't seen straight in years, and father has been acting strange lately, but you? That Jotunn and his runt couldn't do a damn thing against you if they wanted to!" Modi shouted at his uncle.

Heimdall was admittedly surprised by that display, usually Modi revered his irritation toward his brother or people below him. But it was also annoying because there was so much he could not tell him if they could even believe it. Pinching the bridge of his nose the Watchman of the Aesir turned back toward his nephews only to be met with his nephews both having similar concerns.

"Yeah. Why didn't you stop him?" Magni winced in pain, but still seemed eager to speak his mind.

It seems Heimdall accomplished a rare feat. He managed to get Magni and Modi to agree with one another.

"They really are out on this journey to just spread some ashes on top of Jotunheim, while they don't have a way to Jotunheim, but they are looking for one. If we really want to complete this mission without your uncle's 'problems', then we are better off waiting."

"Well, Uncle might disagree. He seemed impatient just having to deal with us two." Magni was grunting in pain between each sentence.

"Your Uncle is rash, a century or more of not having to feel pain or anything at all has done that to him." Heimdall still remembered Baldur's stubborn insistence to tame Dagsetr, even after being burned to what should have been a crisp. "Especially if he hopes he can find someone or something to remove that curse."

"Why would Frigg take away his ability to feel anything? All because she went to the Norns, and heard that prophecy. I'll never understand why Grandfather married a Vanir witch like her."

Heimdall considered answering Modi's question, but shuddered being able to see the All-Father and what his lovers were thinking was not something anyone needed to know.

"Frigg was doing what any parent would do to look after their own child. Even if what she did was extreme."

"Hmph. Is that why father sent you?"

"Come on, brother, do you have to doubt everything?"

"Don't give me that Magni, don't you think something strange has been going on?!"

"You don't need to yell brother, I'm right here."

"Then why are we just walking away, I thought Baldur was mad when he faced someone who could hold him off, this stranger comes and defeats both of us? Just who is this man, and why was he able to almost kill you. Didn't the prophecies of the Jotunar say we would survive Ragnarok while our father would not?"

'Maybe I was wrong to think Modi an idiot, or maybe even an idiot would think there is something wrong with this situation, but I'm starting to think some of the things Thor is saying is true?'

"This warrior is not a Jotunn, he is something else, he is a stranger from a far away land. We will have to tell Baldur, and your Father about what happened. Speaking of which he is cautious about this warrior."

"Almost like he knows him." Modi said, quietly but Heimdall was able to hear it choosing not to respond.

It is not like his nephew was wrong, even if it should be impossible.

The trio proceeded through the rest of the of the caves, but despite his brother not being dead, Modi couldn't help but remain uneasy and not because this was a close call

'What does any of this mean, why would we fight some stranger and his kid, and why Mimir was with him?' 'Did Father already know about this? What is he hiding from us, and why?'

So this is a brief chapter. I hope no one minds a change of POV and also hope I got Kratos and Atreus down well. This is my first time writing Kratos that isn't basically lines from the game, so I hope I got him down pat. Well that, and I want to do some of Heimdall's advanced senses some justice.

I hope it doesn't come off as being underwhelming, again I don't want to undermine or cut the growth that both Kratos and Atreus undergo, it does help that that thankfully interactions between Kratos, Atreus and the Aesir in GOW 2018 are few that all I really need to do is keep Atreus development on track is make sure three events happen roughly in the same order. As for Heimdall he could soundly beat Kratos at this stage, because it is before he even has the Blades of Chaos back, to say nothing of not having Draupnir, I have to give him a reason to hold back. Although I never really expected to find myself writing too many potentially clashing agendas when I started this story, I also hope I can pull that off.