12
Sakaar
"Brother, meet Kratos. Your father." Thor said as he stood between the two gods.
"My father...is...the god slayer?" Loki blurted as he scanned the God of War up and down.
Kratos tried to think of something to say but came up short. In all the years mounting up to this, he never once considered what to say. Loki wasn't an obstacle, or an enemy, or even a milestone towards attaining some goal. Loki was just...his son. What, after so many millennia, could he say?
"The one who killed Baldur?" Loki continued. "How could I be the offspring of such a...witless brute?!"
"This witless brute birthed you, so watch your tongue, boy," Kratos said.
"Don't you...DARE...call me boy.." Loki said, pointing his finger in the air, his head cringing to one side with the utterance of the word. "I am a fully-grown god, and I will not be emasculated by such insults."
"This is going well," Thor said to himself, a sarcastic smile on his face.
"A fully-grown god? What fully-grown god would dishonor their mother, a great warrior, by fighting with...kitchen utensils? The weapons of a child. Or a thief." Kratos commented, looking at Loki's knives.
"I...KITCHEN UTENSILS?! I am a master of sorcery and deception, something you couldn't possibly understand!"
"Then perhaps you should demonstrate for me. BOY." Kratos raised his voice in frustration.
"I'll show you a thing or two about what kind of BOY I am!" Loki replied.
The two prepared themselves.
"Oi, oi! Look!" Mimir called out before the two started to lay into each other. The two turned from their confrontation to look to where Mimir was looking. Off in the distance was a figure standing by the cliffside. Thor slowly walked over to the figure. Loki looked to Odin, then to Kratos.
"We will continue this...introduction later. My father needs me." Loki said, putting his knives away.
"Fine." Kratos said quietly.
"Not how you thought it would go, did it?" Mimir asked.
"No."
"Well, you can't exactly walk into someone's life and expect it to be all sunshine and lollipops," Mimir explained. "He's an adult now, he's had fifteen-hundred years to grow up, and you aren't exactly the father type."
"Quiet." Kratos grunted.
"Okay, sorry, just-"
"I said. Quiet."
Kratos looked on as the Asgardians talked by the cliffside. He observed Thor's look of distress and confusion. Loki's look of sadness. Finally, Odin turned his head to look to Kratos. He raised a hand in salutation. Kratos did nothing. They were old enemies. The one who killed his wife, took his child. The one who ruined his life. Now Odin sat, nothing more than a tired old man.
Odin stood up, with help from Thor, and began walking towards him. The murderer of his wife. The god who ruined everything for him. Odin approached Kratos, and the two stood silent for some time.
"You've gotten old." Odin said after a while.
"As have you." Kratos replied.
"Were this meeting to have been made two hundred years ago, I'm sure it would have ended in bloodshed."
"It may yet."
"Fear not, godslayer. My time has come. Soon, I will be nothing but dust."
"If so, then perhaps I should ease your passing."
Kratos looked at this decaying man before him. The titan of war he once knew, barely able to stand on his own. Kratos debated pulling his blades out and decapitating the old man where he stood. He looked to Thor and Loki. To deny a son their last moments with their father...perhaps at another time, he wouldn't have cared. But now, he couldn't risk pushing Loki farther from him, even if it meant avenging Faye. Avenging the time lost with his son, only to lose whatever future he would have with Loki. The blades stayed sheathed. Kratos sighed.
"I-"
"Don't." Kratos said through gritted teeth. Odin frowned.
"Olympian, nothing will change the past. The regretful decisions were made. Allow me to make this last amend."
"Nothing you do now will make amends."
You would know, wouldn't you?
"No. perhaps not." Odin replied. "The war with the Jotunn cost us both. Your wife, Baldur…"
"Do not compare the death of my wife with the death of the lackey you sent to kill me."
"He was more than a lackey, Kratos. He was a son, obsessed with making his father proud. I didn't send him. He hunted you without my blessing."
Kratos paused.
"I didn't…"
"But how could you know? I'm sure you both didn't stop to talk."
Odin looked to Thor and Loki.
"It appears as though we are now family. Imagine that? The Allfather and the Godslayer, Asgard and Olympus, bound together by a frost giant. The world is never lacking in surprises."
Odin turned back to Kratos.
"Loki is under your care now, as he should have been, all those years ago. Watch over them both." Odin said, a look of sincerity in his eyes.
Kratos looked to Loki. Through gritted teeth, he replied:
"You have my word."
With that, Odin gave a weak smile and slowly trudged back to his sons. Odin struggled to sit as he placed himself between Thor and Loki once again. Kratos looked on as Odin began to glow, then as his body dissolved into particles of luminescent dust. Watching Odin vanish into the air didn't stop Kratos from hating him, but he gave his word. Loki was under his care now. He would not let any harm come to him, no matter how...troubled Loki was. His attention was suddenly drawn to the sky as it began to grow cloudy unnaturally quickly.
"This was your doing." Kratos could hear Thor say to Loki as the sky grew stormy.
"What's that?" Mimir asked as the ground rumbled. Kratos turned to watch as a portal opened up before them. The hole was dark and chaotic, with a green glow emanating from far inside. Kratos could feel the cold of Hel emanating from the green glow, killing the grass nearby and frosting his armor. Thor and Loki abandoned their mortal clothes for their Asgardian armor in a blast of lightning and magic. Kratos drew his blades from his back and prepared for whatever came from that portal. As the three looked on, a slim armored woman emerged from the green glow. Her hair black and windswept, as if caught in a storm for millenia. Her armor was tattered and torn, and her skin pale and weathered.
"So he's gone. It's a shame, I would have liked to have seen that." The woman said coldly.
"You must be Hela. I am Thor, son of Odin." Thor replied, trying to keep the grief from his voice.
"Really? You don't look like him." Hela replied.
"Perhaps we can come to an arrangement." Loki said nervously.
"You sound like him," Hela said, turning to Loki and sneering.
"Not good, this lady is bad news," Mimir said quietly.
"And who are you, pale one?" Hela asked to Kratos.
"My name is none of your concern," Kratos replied, tightening the grasp on his blades.
"I'm sure it is. A friend of Mimir is a friend of mine. I still never thanked you properly for tutoring me all those years ago." She said with a smile, her eyes darting between Mimir's and Kratos'.
"But then you grew up, didn't you?" Mimir said with regret in his voice.
"That, I did. You lost some weight."
Mimir rolled his glowing eyes.
"In any case, I suggest you all Kneel." Hela said confidently.
"I beg your pardon?" Loki asked. Hela smiled and gave a flick of her wrist. From her hand appeared a black blade of ominous design, jagged and sharp.
"Kneel," She repeated, sneering. "Before your queen."
"I don't think so." Thor retorted. He threw Mjolnir straight at her chest. Mjolnir rocketed through the air at her with the speed of a bullet. Kratos followed the trajectory of the hammer as it left Thor's hand, flew across the grassy terrain, and straight into Hela's hand, where it stopped suddenly. The hammer groaned and vibrated as it pushed against her hand, trying to hit its target, but to no avail. Thor looked on in shock.
"What? But…" Mimir started.
"It's not possible." Thor said in bewilderment. He tried to pull Mjolnir back to his hand, but it didn't budge.
"Darling, you have no idea what's possible." Hela bragged. With her one hand, she squeezed against Mjolnir's head until it began to crack. Before their very eyes, Mjolnir shattered, sending a blinding flash of light across the land. Lightning and energy engulfed the group, forcing everyone to stagger and cover their eyes. When the blast cleared, all that was left of Mjolnir was a pile of rock and a wooden handle, lying limp on the ground. Hela slid her hands over her head. As she did so, a spiked crown appeared on her head, shaped like antlers of some demonic elk. She stepped over the rubble and flicked both her wrists, causing two blades to appear in her hands.
"Bring us back!" Loki yelled to the sky in panic.
"NO!" Thor yelled. He began to charge at Hela, but the Bifrost engulfed them. Hela ignored Kratos and ran into the beam after them.
"After her! She can't reach Asgard!" Mimir yelled as Hela disappeared into the Bifrost.
Kratos ran into the beam. The light engulfed his vision as he was shot upwards. He looked up through the multicolored light show above him and saw three figures farther up. He watched as Loki shot a knife at Hela, who grabbed the knife and sent it back with twice the velocity, hitting Loki and knocking him into the wall of the Bifrost. Loki disappeared from sight as the wall broke and reformed. Kratos was catching up with her, but not fast enough to save Thor from also being knocked out into the void beyond the Bifrost's protection. Hela looked down and smiled as her next challenge caught up with her. Kratos swung his blades through the air, slicing through the Bifrost as they streaked for Hela's neck. Hela pulled a blade from her hand and blocked the attack, then countered with a volley of knives. Kratos used his other blade as a shield against them, spinning it fast enough on its chain to slice apart the knives as they tried to pass through. Kratos swung again, sending both blades towards Hela. One blade was blocked, but the other slashed her arm. The armor tore, but seemed to grow back. Finally, Kratos was within arm's reach of her. Kratos stabbed at her stomach, but Hela quickly pulled another blade out from her hand and blocked. Hela threw another volley of knives, hitting Kratos' leg armor, penetrating enough to puncture his skin. Kratos groaned in anger and slashed at Hela with a torrent of flame and metal, enough to knock her weapons from her hands. Kratos grabbed her neck and stabbed her repeatedly in the stomach with his red-hot blades, only for her to heal instantly. Hela grinned as Kratos watched his work undone within seconds. As he aimed a blade to decapitate her, Kratos felt Hela's foot push against his stomach. Kratos flew through the wall of the Bifrost and into the void of space.
Nebulae and stars flew past him faster than he could process as he hurdled through the cold emptiness. Eventually, he saw a planet appear in the distance. The flames that engulfed him as he entered the atmosphere was a relief from the cold of space, but his relief was cut short as the surface of the dingy planet quickly approached him. He braced for the impact, hitting a pile of garbage hard enough to send dust and debris flying in all directions. He staggered to his feet and looked at his surroundings. Garbage surrounded him, and more was falling from strange wormholes that peppered the sky.
"Well, I can honestly say falling out of the Bifrost was not one of the items on my bucket list." Mimir commented, coughing as the dust settled.
"Nor I." Kratos replied, allowing his cuts to heal. "Who was that woman?"
"That was Hela, firstborn daughter of Odin. Goddess of death and a monster in her own right. She led Asgrad's forces across the cosmos, conquering the nine realms and killing anyone that stood in her way. If she made it to Asgard, then no doubt she will try to take over and begin where she left off, and she won't stop at the nine realms this time."
"My only concern is to find Loki." Kratos announced.
"But brother, she could come for Earth."
"And where is Earth from here?" Kratos asked, raising an upward hand to the sky. Mimir sighed and stayed silent.
As soon as the conversation ended, a hovercraft approached them. It landed a few meters away, and immediately erupted with a horde of cloaked figures. Some armed with guns, some with sticks, some with nothing at all. Kratos stood to meet them. One removed his mask and approached the demigod with hunger in his eyes.
"Look boys, this one has plenty of meat on his bones," He said to the others. "No rotten garbage tonight!"
The others laughed and cheered as they began to flank Kratos.
"You do not want this fight, reaver." Kratos warned, pulling the blades from his back.
"Oh, I think I do. You'll feed my children for a week!" The leader said, pulling out a knife from his robes.
"So be it." Kratos replied, activating his helmet.
The reavers closed in. The leader swiped with his knife. Kratos ducked then slashed, cutting the reaver in half. Blood soaked Kratos' face as the reaver's body fell in pieces to the ground. Another reaver came from behind. Kratos sidestepped and turned, decapitating the man with ease. As the group of reavers closed in around him, and quite frankly not interested in taking his time, Kratos let his blades loose. The two blades spun around him like helicopter propellers, lopping off arms, heads, legs and other body parts. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air. It took 3 seconds to kill 30 of these poor souls, but Kratos didn't care, he had a mission, and these raiders were getting in the way. The blood on the blades evaporated away, leaving dried red spots on the metal. The charred bodies around him settled. Only two reavers remained, and they took off and ran for the hovercraft as soon as Kratos' eyes set on them. Kratos shot a blade at one, which stabbed through the man's stomach. With a flick of his arm, a wave of flame erupted down the chain to the blade, causing the reaver on the end of the blade to vaporize in fire. The other reaver was hit with the wave of flame and body parts and was knocked over. Kratos approached the fallen raider, who was desperately trying to crawl away from the fast-approaching madman behind him. Kratos picked him up by his leg and held him upside down above the ground.
"P-p-please don't kill me, I have children!" The reaver begged as his robes began to soil.
Kratos took a blade and slowly held it to the reaver's leg. The reaver started praying to his obscure alien gods as the heat of the blade singed his leg hairs.
"Can you fly that?" Kratos asked, nodding his head towards the hovercraft. The reaver looked over, then nodded violently.
"That city," Kratos said, looking to the skyscrapers in the distance. "Take me there."
In the distance, from one of the thousands of wormholes that spewed never-ending streams of garbage onto the planet, a sword came through, black and angry, the demonic script on the sheath glowing red, calling for its master, calling for someone to find it, to bring it home, to destroy everything.