25
Ghost No More
Thor gasped desperately, clutching his throat as he assessed his surroundings. He was under a pile of rubble and debris, and something was wrapped around his neck. He punched his way out of the rocks and shambled to his feet. He was surrounded by the remains of the Fate's Temple. It looked as if a bomb had gone off around him. He reached a hand to his neck, feeling the thread that was tangled around it. He held his arm to the air and opened his hand.
"Come on, darling…"
A few seconds passed, and finally the rubble split apart, freeing Stormbringer from its tomb. The massive axe flew to Thor's hand, and with a few quick slices, he cut all the thread from his neck.
"Kratos…" He said to himself, suddenly remembering the battle.
He scanned the forest that surrounded him. There seemed to be no evidence of the Spartan anywhere. Birds chirped, the sun shone overhead, and the island was silent.
"Thor!"
Tony came tromping through the woods, still sealed inside the Thorbuster armor. He burst through the treeline and skid to a halt in the clearing.
"Stark?" Thor asked, still disoriented. "What are you wearing? Is that...Asgardian technology?"
"Oh, this? Ah...don't worry about it." Tony said nonchalantly. "Congratulations, you are officially a zombie god. How was Valhalla?"
"If there was one, I don't remember it..." Thor asked, feeling his neck.
"Disappointing, but not surprising" Tony replied. "Looks like you're not the only one. Nebula's alive, so is the raccoon...thing-"
"HIs name is Rodent, I believe..or perhaps Rocco- Wait, what? Who is dead and who is alive? What did I miss?!" Thor asked, growing more confused the more information Tony gave him.
"Everyone." Tony replied. "Everyone is alive."
/
"Brother..Brother! Wake up, you made it!"
Kratos' eyes slowly opened. His vision unblurred after a few blinks. IV bags, wires, computers, everything coloured white. He was lying in a bed, bandaged and splinted.
A hospital. A place of weakness. Kratos recalled the years when he simply walked off such wounds. It's a damn wonder mortals survive the way they do at all. Kratos considered the days when age overtook his godhood.
"Looks like you did it, old boy!" Mimir said enthusiastically. "They found me in the fields of Wakanda and brought me right here. Everyone's back. Even the ones you...ahem...unceremoniously murdered."
"Loki…" Kratos croaked. His throat was dry, and it felt like he had been hit by...well, a nuclear bomb.
"He's outside actually. He said he had some words to say to you. In fact, there's a very long line of angry and confused people who want to talk to you."
"Ugh…"
Kratos tried to get up, but his body was still healing from the Power Stone's damage. His head fell back and hit the pillow with a quiet whump.
"Bring him." Kratos said.
"Right, I'll just hop off this table and grab him for you." Mimir replied sarcastically. "You couldn't have remembered to give me my body back, huh?"
"There was much to remember to do…"
"Ah, I'm mostly kidding, no hard feelings." Mimir sighed longingly. "I doubt I'd know what to do with arms if I had them anymore, anyway. Just use the nurse call button."
Kratos groaned and looked down at his charred hands. In his right hand was a small remote with a red button. He pressed it, and a high-pitched ding momentarily filled the room. The door opened, and in walked a nurse he was vaguely familiar with. One of the on-call medical staff from the Avengers Facility. At least he knew where he was now.
"My son…" Kratos whispered.
"I'll bring him in." The nurse replied, promptly leaving the room.
"Well, at least now we know what happens when you go on adventures without me." Mimir said, trying to fill the silence. "You go absolutely bonkers."
"I did what was best for my son…" Kratos said.
"I'm sure that didn't have to involve killing your own friends." Mimir argued, his voice sounding more and more like a lecturing mother to Kratos' ears by the second.
"The job is done." Kratos replied, not really interested in a moral argument at the moment.
"Yes, true. Heard you killed Thanos twice. He's almost as hard to kill as you are."
"Almost." Kratos replied.
"You're up." Loki said, having suddenly appeared in the corner of the room.
"I am." Kratos replied, turning his eyes to his son.
"I heard what you did." Loki said. "I...I had a whole speech planned. Now, I'm not sure what to say."
Loki left the darkness of the corner. He was dressed in mortal clothes. A suit and tie. His hair was slicked back and he seemed to show no signs of the battle on the fields on Wakanda.
"You are well?" Kratos said before coughing up blood and blood spattered onto the bandages on his chest.
"Better than you." Loki replied, eyeing the blood. "I'll get you a nurse."
"I am fine." Kratos said sternly, wiping his mouth with his bandaged hand.
"I...why did you bring me back?" Loki asked, trying to find the right question.
"You were dead. I didn't accept it." Kratos replied.
"You have a habit of not accepting reality?"
"Yes."
"Well...I guess...all evils aside, I suppose gratitude is in order, but-"
"It is not required. You are alive. That is all that matters."
Loki lowered his eyes and nodded his head.
"I don't think I can stay here." Loki said finally.
"What?"
"Asgard is gone. Well, the real Asgard. It's throne is dust. My one goal I have strived for for a thousand years is gone. Without it, who am I? The trickster god of some bygone era?"
"Our godhood does not define us." Kratos said. "Once, my one meaning to exist was the death of my father. After it was done, I had nothing to live for. Had I succeeded in killing myself, I wouldn't have met Faye. I wouldn't have defeated Thanos. Thor wouldn't have had a brother. Your best choice now is to live on."
"Live on and do what?" Loki asked, desperation growing in his eyes. "What if our blood is too tainted? What If...I become like you?"
Kratos sighed.
"I have seen you change, even in the few months we fought together. You grew to learn honor, bravery, and a warrior's spirit. You fought on Wakanda by my side, against Thanos, not with him. You are already better than I am, and you have a long road ahead of you. Your mother would be proud."
Loki looked at the floor. "I'm sure Thor would have something to say about that."
"Thor isn't a monster." Kratos said quietly. "He knows very little of such things. You are not going to become me. You must be better, and you will be."
Kratos looked towards the window. "Hold out your arm."
Loki gave Kratos a look of confusion, then did as he was told. There was a moment of silence, then the Leviathan axe burst through the window into Loki's hand.
"You are ready." Kratos said.
Loki felt the weight of the axe in his hands. "I still have no idea what you mean by ready.."
"It means you've outgrown me." Kratos said. "Where you go now, I cannot follow."
Loki moved to the visitor's chair, carefully stepping over the broken glass of the window. The nurse burst through the door and stared at the window, the axe, and the two immortal creatures in the room.
"Excuse me," Loki said. "Gods talking here. Leave."
The nurse gave the two a distrustful look, and slowly closed the door, leaving the two alone once again.
"If I might interject," Mimir said, "I'm sure the dwarves wouldn't mind some help rebuilding. Perhaps your destiny lies on Nidavellir?"
Loki smirked for a moment.
"I suppose I may as well make myself useful. The universe does need some fixing after all this. Perhaps They'll make me a nice helmet. With massive horns..."
"Thank you, father, for putting your faith in me when no one else did." Loki said, placing the axe on his back and having one last look into his father's eyes.
Kratos nodded.
"Perhaps our paths will cross in the future." Loki mentioned.
"Perhaps." Kratos replied.
"Perhaps you might want to consider taking me?" Mimir said. "I know my way around Nidavellir quite well."
"Um, I think father needs you more than I do." Loki replied. "As a...moral compass if nothing else."
"Suit yourself." Mimir huffed. "Say hi to Brock and Sindri for us."
Loki nodded, and looked up to the sky. In a poof of light, he as gone.
"I think he'll do alright." Mimir said. "He has a lot of potential."
"He will be fine." Kratos stated. "He is a Spartan."
/
"Now, take it easy for a few more days." The nurse said. "You're still healing."
Kratos removed the bandages from his arms and chest. His arms and hands still had the veiny burn marks where the Stone's energy hit him the worst. Perhaps they would heal over, perhaps not. Just another scar for the aging Spartan. He flexed and released his fingers, testing their dexterity. They were stiff but functional.
"There's some clothes for you in the drawer." The nurse said. "I'll leave you to get changed."
The nurse left the room, leaving Kratos and Mimir alone once again. The last couple days, the two had little else to do but talk and discuss the situation. They watched the news, about the return of the planet's missing population, about the adjustment and the sudden demand of the planet's infrastructure. About how the world wasn't ready for three-and-a-half billion people to suddenly pop back into existence.
"Do you think we did the right thing?" Mimir asked. "I mean, we brought them all back, but...famine, disease, pollution are all back with a vengeance...and the planet was chugging along just fine without us."
"We did the right thing." Kratos said confidently. "I was not…'chugging along just fine' without you."
"Fair," Mimir commented. "Well, get changed, we have a few people to have a chat with."
Kratos sighed heavily and opened the drawer. Jeans and a tee-shirt.
/
Kratos opened the door to the room his was cooped up in the last couple days. Finally. Freedom.
"Kratos…"
Kratos closed his eyes in aggravation, and cocked his head to look at the all-too familiar voice.
"Thor." Kratos grunted.
"You killed me." Thor said.
"You got in my way."
"We could have helped one another!"
"You came to the temple to stop me."
"The raccoon told me about your incident with the Krylorians, what were we supposed to think?!"
"They, too, got in my way. They, too, are alive once again."
Thor smacked his palm into his forehead.
"You're a madman!"
"Thanos is dead. You are not."
"I...I really don't know what to think."
"Would you rather I left you dead?"
"Of course not."
"Then do not complain."
Kratos turned away to head for his own room, leaving the befuddled Asgardian standing there.
"Ghost to the head office, immediately." Steve's voice said over the intercom.
Kratos rolled his eyes and trudged his way to the office hall.
The door opened to Steve's office, and there stood the Captain America, with a reluctant look on his face.
"Ghost." Steve said.
"Captain." Kratos replied.
"You did it." Steve said. "With...strangely...minimal casualties."
"No thanks to you."
"When you came here, I didn't know what to think of you, whether you'd be a boon or a hindrance." Steve continued. "I still have absolutely no clue."
"Absolutely none at all." Came a voice from the corner.
Fury stepped out from behind the door and placed himself next to Steve.
"But, you got the job done, if not through...unorthodox methods." Fury continued. "Because of you. I'm here, and able to give you this."
Fury held out his hand. Kratos approached Fury and looked in his hand. It was an Avengers insignia.
"Fury seems to think you earned it." Steve said.
Kratos looked at the insignia for a moment. The room was deathly quiet. Kratos thought about his past 5 years. Sure, he saved people, but he killed people too. Did it balance out? Was he deserving of the title of Avenger? Even without Athena breathing down his neck, whispering poison into his mind, he still couldn't shake her words.
"I cannot." Kratos said.
"You accomplished the mission, and saved my life." Steve said reluctantly. "Take it."
"The job got done, and you saved a lot of people." Nick said. "That's the Avenger mission statement."
Kratos backed away from Fury. "My vengeance is ended. Thanos is dead. The cause I joined you for died with him."
Fury looked down at the emblem in his hand, then calmly closed his fingers around it and placed the emblem in his coat pocket.
"So, what, is it finally retirement time for the mighty Ghost of Sparta?" Fury asked.
"Not yet." Kratos said. "There is still much to do, but not here."
/
"Did you want anything? I'm going out to pick up those bulbs we need for the bathroom...Wong?"
Strange approached Wong, who was sitting at the reading a book at his desk and waved his hands in front of the oblivious librarians face. Wong gasped and pulled the headphones from his ears.
"What?" Wong asked impatiently.
"Did. You. Want. Anything. While I'm out?" Strange repeated himself condescendingly.
"If you could grab those lightbulbs for the bathroom, that'd be great." Wong said.
Strange thought of saying something, but decided it wasn't worth the effort.
"Yup. Great. I'll do that." He said, holding back his irritation.
"Awesome, Thanks boss." Wong said before putting the headphones back into his ears.
Strange turned and headed for the stairs. As he made it halfway down, there was a knock on the door. A heavy, brutish knock, not from anyone normal, with any sense of manners of decorum. Strange flicked his hand, and materialized a blade of light, which he hid behind his back as he cautiously opened the door.
"What do you want?" Strange asked.
There was a metallic thud as the Blade of Abaddon landed at Strange's feet.
"You wanted this back." Kratos mumbled.
"Oh! Uh, yeah. Thanks for that. Right." Strange said, eyeing the demon blade at his feet.
Strange bent down to pick up the blade.
"Anything else?"
"You protect the Blade?" Kratos asked. "And the stones?"
"For now, until Bruce can send them back." Strange replied.
"When you return the stones to their time," Kratos started, "Ensure the Ancient One knows to give that to me when I come to her temple."
"Sorry, you're asking me to willingly tell whoever goes back to tell her to give you the Blade of Abaddon, so you can lose it on Xandar, so it can get flushed to Sakaar, so Abaddon's massive army of cultists can bring him back from the pit we banished him to? Is that what you're asking me?" Strange asked, confused.
"Without that blade, things may not have been set in motion for me to defeat Thanos. It may be necessary." Kratos replied sternly.
"This is ugly. I don't like it." Strange said, looking down at the black leather sheath.
"It is. But this is how it must be." Kratos replied.
"Well, if she gave it to you...Fine." Strange said reluctantly. "You want anything? Tea?"
"No."
"Then you'll have to excuse me, I have to put this back into the vault." Strange said, turning around and mumbling to himself. "You go out to get lightbulbs, you get a demon sword..."
Strange's voice trailed off as the door slowly closed on Kratos' face. The door clicked, leaving Kratos alone on the busy New York streets.
"Next on the list?" Mimir asked.
/
Natalia sat in her chair, using her leg to spin slowly in the seat. She reached into her popcorn and pulled out a handful, placing the entire clump into her mouth at once. The hairs rose on the back of her neck. Her first instinct was to spin around and pull her Glock from the compartment on the arm of her chair, but every man has their distinct musk.
"Are you ever not going to sneak up on me when you wanna talk?" Nat asked.
"You will lose your skills if you do not use them." Kratos replied, moving out from the shadows of Nat's living room. The two sat in an awkward silence for a couple seconds.
"What?" She asked, shrugging at Kratos as he stood there, hoodie and jeans clothing his pale figure.
"I have spoken with Clint. About Vormir."
"We're not talking about this."
"We are."
Nat scoffed and spun around in her chair to face the TV. Kratos heard the sound of a hand wading through a popcorn bag.
"Natasha…"
"Fine! You wanna talk? Who did you throw off that ledge?!" Nat said, spinning her chair back around and staring Kratos down.
Kratos looked into Nat's eyes and sighed.
"A woman."
Nat's eyes looked to the roof, and her shocked smile desperately tried to hide her horror. She cleared her throat and composed herself.
"How could you?" Nat said, barely hiding her emotions behind her disciplined composure.
"I did what had-"
"What had to be done?" Nat finished his sentence. "It's our job to sacrifice ourselves, it's our job! You threw an innocent to her death!"
"She chose her path. I threw no one."
"After you dragged her to the pit."
"...Yes."
"Why would she do that?"
"She did it for her daughter."
"My God, Kratos…"
Nat turned her head away from the Spartan in her living room and wiped the two single tears coming from her eyes.
"You threw a mother-"
"Her daughter was a servant of Thanos."
"Yeah, you think having a dead fucking mom helped with that maybe?!"
"Thanos would have killed Nebula's mother and taken her for himself. It was always her destiny to become Thanos' servant."
"Nebula's mother?" Nat asked, now only becoming more confused.
"Yes."
Nat sat back in her chair and processed all the info she was given.
"Her death was inevitable." Kratos said quietly.
There was a long pause, the tick of the clock on the wall the only thing breaking the silence between them.
"I was going to do it." Natasha replied. "I was going to throw myself off that cliff. Barton has a family, it was an easy choice. Did you know that it was Nebula's mother when you brought her there?"
"No."
Nat gave Kratos a shocked smirk.
"You kill an innocent mother, then you defend it with knowledge you gained after the fact. Leave my house."
"Nata-"
"Out!"
Nat threw her empty glass at Kratos, which hit him in the shoulder. Kratos looked down at the broken glass on the carpet floor, the few drops of red wine leaking out and absorbing into the fabric.
"What did the Red Room make you do?" Kratos asked.
There was a silence as the TV continued to play on.
"That's not me anymore." Nat replied.
"Humans tied to posts as target practice." Kratos said.
"Don't you dare make this about me."
"Killing your fellow students...for good grades."
"I told you to get out!"
"All that death. Imagine how quickly you would return to it, should your child require it of you."
"The Red Room made me barren, so I'll never know, thanks for reminding me."
"Now, imagine you had already lost one child before. And a wife..two wives. Imagine then, what you would do for your last surviving child. The lengths you would go."
"Nothing you say will make this better. Nothing. You let your personnel file define you, Ghost. You're nothing more than a monster to me."
Kratos stared at the chair facing away from him, nothing more than the red hair of the Black Widow peering over the edge. He took one last look, and left through the front door, slamming it behind him.
Natasha's thoughts were overwhelming. She paused her show and stared out into her back porch, at the night sky. The vehicle sounds were back to normal. Sirens. Dogs barking. Traffic lights. And she hated that she was around to see it.
/
Kratos sat on his bed, the avengers facility strangely quiet these past few days. Everyone was visiting family, taking well-deserved leave. But not him.
"Owner of Stark Enterprises, Anthony Stark has announced that he will step down as CEO of all Stark affiliates, saying that his focus will be on his family and on samaritan work. A press conference will be held on Tuesday to announce his replacement…"
The TV continued to exposit the events of the past week. Kratos sat and listened as he looked down at the Blades of Chaos, sitting quietly in his hands.
"Thinking of throwing them away again?" Mimir asked.
"Into the sun. Yes." Kratos replied.
"Can't keep throwing away your past, old friend. It has a habit of coming back to haunt you anyway."
"Perhaps it is time to accept that." Kratos said, standing up and throwing on a parka. "For now, we call on Eternity for his favors."
"It's June, and you're putting on that? What's our next errand?" Mimir asked.
"You mean when."
"When?"
/
"Hush, child. Shhh…"
Faye walked up to the cradle and picked up the crying baby hidden within. She hummed her lullaby, the magic lullaby that could soothe even the most angry Spartan. Her humming fell on Atreus' ears, and the child quickly fell asleep. Faye heard the door open, followed by the heavy steps of her husband. The gust of cold hit her back.
"How is he?" Kratos asked.
Faye smiled.
"You are home early. It was an easy hunt?" She asked.
She turned around, and her smile instantly turned cold.
"You are not my husband, who are you?" She asked, reaching her hand out for the axe in the corner of the room.
The axe shot into her hand, and she took a position between Kratos and Loki's crib. Kratos placed a finger on his lip and slowly reached for the Greek blade strapped to his back. Faye's brow furrowed in confusion as the blade's outline reached her senses.
"Husband?" She asked, lowering the axe to her side.
"Faye." He said, all of his strength holding him back from embracing the woman before him.
"You are older. When are you from?" Faye asked.
"Very far in the future." Kratos replied. "You are not safe here."
Faye looked into Kratos' eyes and placed a hand on his temple. Her expression changed with every memory she took from his mind. Her own death, Odin, the millennia of loneliness, Loki's death, Thanos.
"You should not have come." Faye said, pulling her hand away from Kratos.
"You know your fate." Kratos said. "How can you say such things?"
"Because this is the way it must be!" Faye replied, looking back at her son. "It is my destiny. The universe requires it. Without my death, we can never know if these evils you will face are defeated."
"They can be." Kratos replied, placing his finger and thumb on Faye's chin. "Without you, I am lost. Loki is lost."
Faye chuckled.
"It only took you two thousand years to agree with my choice of name." She replied.
Kratos huffed with a small amount of amusement. "Yes."
Faye turned to check on Loki. He was fast asleep, ignorant of the winter chill that surrounded him.
"Faye, Odin has found you. He will be here within the week. You must flee. Loki needs his mother. He needs his father. Odin will keep his true identity from him until it is too late."
Faye looked at the baby in the crib and ran her fingers through his hair.
"You are confident your friends can defeat the evils they face without you? This 'Thanos'?"
"It can be done." Kratos replied. "We must do what is best for our son."
Faye sighed.
"Where do you suggest we go?"
"Far away. The deepest forest, or across the ocean." Kratos said. "The mountains, the desert, it matters not, just away from here."
"I know a place, an old cottage surrounded by forest. Plenty of game, water..." Faye replied, quickly pushing away from the crib and pulling a bag from a hook on the wall. "I will place a concealment spell around it, Odin will never find us."
"Faye."
Faye stopped scurrying around the house and turned to face Kratos. Kratos approached the Frost Giant and wrapped his arms around her. Faye gasped with surprise, then wrapped her arms around him.
"I have missed you." Kratos whispered.
Faye said nothing, but tightened her arms around this husband from another life.
"You should go soon, my love. You will soon return from the hunt. I have to think of a reason for us to leave. He...you...will not understand." Faye said.
Kratos released Faye from his grasp and let her continue to scurry around the house. He took one last look at the child in the crib and turned towards the door.
"Thank you, wife." He said before opening the door, and strode into the cold.
/
Kratos stood over the pyre, upon which Faye's body burned. It was cold, and his leather pelt provided very little protection, but it gave him a distraction from his anger, and from his grief. Sadness he never learned how to show. Sadness the boy didn't need to see on his face. It was a long journey ahead, and Atreus was not ready for it. He would need all the strength Kratos could give him.
"What are we hunting?" Atreus asked, scampering up to Kratos and tugging on the bowstring in his hand.
"You and hunting deer." Kratos replied sternly.
"Which way?" Atreus asked after an awkward silence.
"In the direction of deer." Kratos replied bluntly.
Atreus shrugged with frustration.
"Okay, uh...this way." The boy said finally as he began to move into the snow-covered forest around them.
Kratos took one last look at the form of his wife before the body burned away forever. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something.
He thought he saw...himself.
Kratos turned his head to look, but the figure was gone. Kratos scanned the treeline, but no sign remained that anything was there.
"You coming?" Atreus called out.
Kratos grumbled with concern, then moved to catch up with his son.
/
"Poor sap doesn't know what he's got." Mimir whispered as the two hid behind a frozen tree. "Treats that kid like a chore."
"He is not yet me, head." Kratos replied quietly. "He will come to understand. They will learn to work together, eventually."
Kratos waited until Atreus and his younger self were out of sight, then he closed his eyes, opening the portal Eternity gifted him. He stepped through, back into his room at the Avengers facility.
"Too bad you didn't ask Eternity how it turns out." Mimir noted.
"It is their path, not mine. They must walk it alone."" Kratos replied, unzipping the parka and tossing it on the bed.
"How stoic of you."
Kratos sat down on his bed and sighed.
"What?" Mimir asked.
"After all my efforts...Faye still-"
"I'm sorry, brother. Perhaps it is just her destiny. You did your best."
The two sat and lamented Faye's death for a minute or two. Kratos didn't know how to feel. She had been dead two thousand years already, and he had already hardened from the grief it caused him. Her death aside, his son was safe, whether it was an alternate timeline or not. All that was left was to hope it was the right decision.
"You said you had two favors Eternity had to cough up?" Mimir asked.
"Yes."
"I assume you have a plan for the second one?"
"Yes. There is still two more people to save."
/
Kratos left the facility, dragging all his belongings behind him in a suitcase. The warm summer breeze caught his skin, and for once, he could truly feel it.
The roar of Fury's chopper rang overhead, landing down in the grass a few meters from the facility's front door. Fury jumped out and strode up to Kratos.
"You leaving?" Fury yelled as the chopper's engines shut down.
"Yes."
"I can't make you stay, but I have a -did you get a tan? Anyway, I have a deal for you. Stay on my payroll. You'll get to work alone, pick the jobs, and it'll be black ops. No HR, no media attention. You get to do the jobs...the way you do things. I'll even set you up with a nice place, I'm talking Meditterannean mansion here, anywhere in Greece. How does that sound?"
Kratos looked at his suitcase, then at Fury.
"Well...we are homeless right now…" Mimir said.
"I will work alone, and I will be able to say no." Kratos said after some internal deliberation.
"We both know retirement doesn't suit you, so I doubt you will." Fury replied. "Best deal you'll ever get."
"The home will be big enough for a family?"
Fury was taken aback by the question.
"Big enough for seven families, if you want. Why do you ask?"
Kratos looked down at his skin, its native olive pigmentation shining in the summer sun. For the first time in two thousand years, Kratos smiled.