We Remember Everything

by Thunderscourge

And I Know, I May End Up Failing Too, But I Know, You Are Just Like Me With Someone Disappointed In You

“I hope I am not too late,” came a cheeky, almost laughing tone.

Body ravaged by the severe beating he received after his defeat and by the battle that left him unconscious, Kael stood in the entrance of the Bifrost after suddenly teleporting inside of it to the surprise of everyone within its walls.

No-one was more surprised than Trixie, who from her position against the wall and behind a thick layer of ice gasped, “K-Kael?”

He was across the room from everyone but Sonata, and while his hands were glowing with magical energy those conscious were not as focused on that as they were the fact he just trapped Trixie.

Luna began to approach him as she felt her stress begin to melt away. It appeared leaving him alive was the smart choice, because despite the heavy wounds he was still sporting the Elf was radiating power, power which was being used to disable the weakened Trixie.

As Luna continued across the room Loki held silent and began to observe the newcomer. Kael was looking past Luna and at Trixie with a smug grin, though after a moment he lowered his gaze and let his eyelids shut. The magic swirling around his palms began to focus and it shone as if it was a mixture of red flame and blue ice.

Luna felt drained by the recent conflict even beyond what the conflict with Thanos had done to her body, if only because of the emotional turmoil, and so she spoke in a heavy voice as she strolled past the halfway point of the room, “I see you have come to your senses—”

Loki opened his mouth to shout right as a torrent of flame and a flurry of ice burst from the Elf’s hands, lashing out two directions as one hand turned to the area between Loki and the nearby Luna and the other pointing to where Sonata stood to Kael’s left. While Loki could deftly avoid the attack as he anticipated it, Luna was engulfed with flames and impaled with the ice with such force that the assault carried her back into the wall far behind her. Large shards of ice embedded in her body to pin her to the structure while the flames twirled around her fur and wracked her body with even greater pain than the objects protruding from her body.

Similarly Sonata was unable to avoid the attack headed her way and she wound up with ice piercing her body as well, her clothes and skin taking the brunt of the flame damage in place of the fur Luna possessed. Her smaller body than the Alicorn let her take less hits from the ice, but the fire had the same effect because the cone of flames still engulfed her completely.

First believing herself betrayed and then realizing that the matter was more complex than that, Trixie yelled out through her ice barrier to her former puppet as he finished unleashing his surprise attack on two of the combatants, “What are you doing!?”

Kael threw down a wall of flame to cut of a rapidly approaching Loki, the flames reaching all the way to the ceiling, as he prepared a spell in the other hand, “You are hemorrhaging power right now because of everything you are doing. Sit this one out for now so you can regain your strength. I will buy you the time you need…one last time.”

Loki halted just in time to not barrel straight into the supernova of heat before him, thankful that its intense heat seemed to go no farther than the actual flame lest it strip the flesh from his bones. Once still he gave his opponent a good look over and realized that Maiev’s damage earlier was obviously taking its toll on Kael’thas: his posture was forceful, as if he needed to focus on not hunching over, and he was sporting a variety of wounds from her savage beating of him while he was unconscious.

They had beat him once as a team, even when he had backup, so Loki was sure they could do so again when he was alone and on his last legs. Kael’s statement seemed to imply that he too knew that he was not in a great position, that this would be a heroic last stand…on the behalf of the person who once upon a time controlled him, and was apparently not doing so anymore given her wild confusion and his sidelining of her being through force.

Loki had not even noticed the confident smirk grow on his face when he was suddenly being called out on it by his foe, Kael scoffing as he finished preparing his next spell, “Oh don’t look so smug. I know what you’re thinking. But Asgard was merely a setback! Did you honestly believe I would trust my people’s future to you blind, self-absorbed monsters?”

Kael lowered his head again to chuckle softly. He raised his palm in the direction of Thor and Celestia and a sphere of flames five meters in diameter formed. It launched as he shook his head amusedly.

“Oh no, no, no. You were all merely instruments, stepping stones to a much larger plan,” the sphere launched forth and began to home in on the two, even moving around the vortex in the center of the room where energy was still being gathered, “It has all lead to this…and this time, you will not interfere. By fire be purged!”

Loki snorted as he came up with an idea to counter the fiery wall keeping him from approaching his foe, “Like a broken record.”

Kael snapped his fingers and suddenly the left shoulder of Loki’s armor burst into flame. The fire seared through it with ease and ripped away at some of the flesh beneath before Loki’s innate coldness countered the flames. The pinpoint strike would have torn through where Loki’s heart was if not for how Loki leaned forward to begin moving.

“I apologize if I use my own lines for once, but I really can’t help but take them back after someone has been using them for me for so long.”

Loki leapt straight through the inferno to the surprise of his foe, though the steam quickly rising from every inch of Loki’s body revealed how he did it: he coated himself with his own ice magic using some of the magical energy surrounding him to fuel the technique. This gave him just enough time to form armor made of ice around him and escape unscathed from the flames,

Being backhanded just as he exited was not expected though, and Loki nearly stumbled back into the flames as Kael finished teleporting right into his charging enemy.

Loki began to assess his situation as he focused on his footing and began to push against Kael’s force as they locked hands, “She manipulated you. Why are you still serving her?”

“Trixie brought me from the depths of insanity and tethered me to the real world. She saved me from my own darkness,” with his greater overall size and greater mass given his heavier armor, Kael began to overtake Loki’s struggling might and the tips of Loki’s golden helm began to melt as they graced the blazing fire behind him, “Even if it was just so she could control me better. She did far more for me than anyone I can remember, staying with me every step of the way to my full recovery.”

A hammer catching Kael in the chest of his plate armor drove him back enough for Loki to escape his grasp and leave the danger zone of the fire wall, only for it to dissipate as soon as he accomplished this task. The hammer had dented the plate’s breastplate quite heavily and made the Elf gasp as his ribs broke from the impact.

With a piece of his magic Kael was able to restore his body to a more mended state, but healing magic was not his specialty. He could revive, but the most skillful thing he could do medically was cauterize something. He glanced over to see where the hammer was arcing back to, finding Thor not vaporized as was originally the plan. Celestia’s unconscious body displayed horrible scorch marks, but her affinity to fire through her sun powers rendered the attack largely useless on her except perhaps prolonging her unconscious state some more minutes.

Kael fought off the need to wheeze as he began flinging flames at both Loki and Thor, hoping to drive the latter back and keep the former from using his weapon to such brutal effect again, “You would stop us and end our efforts here, which will destroy this facility with all the volatile energy coursing through it that only Trixie can wield.”

Loki sidestepped all of the flames as did Thor, and each used their evasive movements to carry them closer to Kael. Just as Loki reached the Elf, Kael crouched down onto the floor and placed his palms on the surface. Instead of swinging his glaives down at Kael’s head as had been the plan, Loki found himself being hurtled upwards as a tower of flame erupted from the floor beneath him, the only warning being a extremely brief warmness beneath his feet.

Thor was not caught by this as he launched himself along with his hammer this time, though a pillar of flames formed where he had been standing at the time as well.

“The only opportunity to see my people again, to help them, lays in this weapon. With the power of the Sunwell and the Bifrost combined I can wipe away the hatred of the races who would seek to subjugate us.”

Kael drew his own sword and sidestepped the rapidly moving Thor so he could spin and swing the twin pronged blade into the side of the warrior, “With this, I can assure there will be no more tragedies to my kind! For that I will sacrifice the free will of your own, as it really will be for your own good!”

Thor crashed and tumbled into the wall behind where Kael had been standing, unable to stop himself in time because of the sudden change in his momentum caused by him being struck.

Loki back flipped off the pillar raising him to the ceiling while melting through his boots and shin armor, but on the way down he was unable to twist himself out of the way of another torrent of flame. If it had not been for Loki’s Jotun heritage he would have been incinerated. Instead he was harmed no more than if he had touched scalding water, which is quite the downgrade.

As Loki crashed onto the ground without grace, his planned fall ruined by him being swept by the fire, Kael rushed at him and swung his blade at Loki’s prone body. It Loki had not managed to scramble and use his blades to parry the strike he may have been skewered straight through the neck. Instead he diverted the blade enough to the side that it became embedded in the floor.

With Kael disorientated by this, Loki used his bare foot to kick the other man in the gut, further stunning him, and Loki followed this up by bringing his knees into his chest and then launching them straight up into Kael’s upper body and pushing him back while also allowing Loki to roll over after the strike to a standing position.

Kael ripped the blade from the ground just in time to lock it with one of Loki’s, his eyes watching Loki’s second one as Loki fought to gain an opening in the power struggle.

“We are to banish wickedness and give everyone respite from suffering and pain. You may think us wrong in what we seek to accomplish, but that is just your perspective. To each of us this is a fight for what we perceive as right, so keep that mind as you take my life. You are not vanquishing a villain, you are combating a hero!”

Loki snorted derisively as he tried to plunge his spare blade into Kael’s armor, having waited for him to start speaking to leave a bigger opening, “Everyone is the hero of their own story.”

Speaking did not seem to have as much of a drawback to the Elf as it may others though, as he swatted his twin blade down on the second while catching the first in-between the prongs. The second blade was knocked from Loki’s hand as the first was wrenched to the side to pull Loki off-balance.

“How true, but let us look at this from an objective standpoint—”

Kael interrupted himself this time to avoid a powerful beam of magic aimed right at his damaged chest plate, the source of it being a very irate Luna. She surprisingly appeared no worse for wear, her wounds having been healed while her fur was restored where it previously had been marred.

The shot fired had been an illusion though. The real one had been rendered invisible at great strain by Luna, and it curved to slam into the side of Kael and render him off-balance.

“Enough talking! I have had enough of you!” Luna shouted as she prepared to continue her assault, with Loki stepping out of the way to not be caught in the crossfire.

Kael laughed even as the action caused a jolt of pain in his chest cavity, “That actually hurt a little. Too bad for you I have felt much worse…”

He slung magical blast after magical blast to counter Luna’s own in mid-air, the colliding forces effectively neutralizing each other and dissipating into the room’s ever growing vortex of energy. Kael let one slip past him though to collide into Thor though, who had been about to strike at him from behind. The blonde warrior’s armor let out a ring as the magic slammed into him and carried him off his feet once again. Thor was supernaturally tough, but even he could only take so much punishment without being knocked out again.

As Kael matched Luna’s onslaught of blast after blast he kept talking, the action not seeming to distract him at all as he kept up with Luna completely, “I must say, Trixie was quite the terrific actor considering that she was playing two roles at once. With my memories she replicated quite the stellar stand-in for me. I must say I am thankful she did her best to keep me in character, even if I was not the one in control. Being unable to control my own body is preferable to the feeling of having lost one’s own mind.”

“Do you ever shut up?” Luna snarled just before deciding that she has had enough of this fireworks display and would end Kael the more personal way: at the tip of her horn. She teleported right in front of him to impale him right through where a crack lay on his armor, though her natural weapon struck thin air instead.

Kael’s cape swept behind him as he sidestepped Luna’s obvious move, her emotions letting her movements become easy to read.

“I am sorry, are my theatrics growing old?” Kael threw a hand up towards the ceiling, palm facing up, “Here, let me show you an old but still amusing trick.”

Luna felt gravity reverse around her and she cursed as she lost her orientation while lifting into the air, “Damn you!”

Kael did not give her the time to focus and teleport again, instead reversing the gravity so that she sailed away from him at a rapid pace and straight into a wall nearby where Sonata lay, “I am sorry, milady, but I am far more skilled at using my own powers than Trixie ever was. I can use the potential she could not unleash, and with it I will ensure the future that we desire.”

He threw an arm out to the side and clenched his hand around a green glowing blade that had been about to strike him. Kael cast his gaze over to the stunned Loki, who had not expected the blade to be caught and stopped in its tracks.

Kael’s hand began to bleed as he tugged it towards himself, Loki coming along for the ride because he refused to let go of the weapon, “Here’s another old but goody,” with Loki close enough Kael grabbed ahold of the other blade with his free hand, having long since dropped his own weapon to focus on his magic usage against Luna.

Loki watched with frustration as the green sheen disappeared completely from the blades he was holding at such a rapid speed that they went out in what amounted to the blowing out of a candle, all to the amusement of his foe who used the moment to swing his head down and head-butt Loki right in the temple, knocking him back and making him drop the blades as Kael released them from his blood palms.

“I can drain magic. What makes you think using magically powered blades against me is a good idea?”

Loki’s response was a spin, during which he grabbed one of the weakened weapons and at the end of which he hurled it straight at Kael. The Elf only managed to move slightly to the side to prevent it from hitting anything vital, and so it lodged itself deep in his shoulder as it found a kink in his damaged armor.

“Thank you. I almost was beginning to think this was going to be too easy.”

Off to the side Trixie was still watching it all, trapped behind the ice wall she was stuck behind. She had pulled from Kael’s memories a technique to form nearly impenetrable ice that would take great power to remove, both from the outside and inside should it be used as a shield or wall. He had trapped her for the time being, and it would take great effort to free her.

What this meant was that she had to watch as the wounded, broken Elf fought her family fiercely in what would surely result in his death if he kept going. She couldn’t help him, but she could feel just how in-pain he was, and he would collapse if not for the determination he had to see this through to the end.

“Kael, stop it! Do you want to die!?”

The Elf heard her, though he took a moment to reply as he wrenched the blade from his shoulder, “Every day since my actions nearly lead to the destruction of my race. Perhaps now I can give them the aid they need…” some blood dribbled down his cheek as he swung the weapon right as Luna appeared behind him to try and ram him again, the close quarters combat allowing for little to no mistakes, “Even if I do not live to see it…”

The blade swung around to catch Luna in the side of the cheek, just barely grazing the edge of her eye socket as the force behind the twisting strike made her head divert to the side and miss its target, her horn firing off a powerful beam of energy she had intended to send straight through him upon impalement.

“I can make sure of that,” Luna spat, still infuriated by how she had been betrayed by this man twice in a single day: once without his consent and once fully intentionally.

Kael threw a shoulder into Luna’s side as he continued to spin to face her, his next action being to reach out to the side and open his palm. Loki was thrown back as Kael’s sword was yanked from the floor and hurtled into its owner’s palm, cutting harshly across one of Loki’s arms and his armor’s gut mid-flight.

Luna teleported just as the blade was thrust into her side, only a good inch or so of it piercing her before she was free of it and across the room, now next to her sister. She would have let out a breath of relief as well as pain if not for the sudden eruption of pain as she felt a quick but accurate fireball strike her side and combust her fur once again.

Loki moved to try and draw Kael’s attention away from Luna, only to find himself flung back much like Luna had been by a shift in gravity’s direction. He had no way of removing himself from it unlike Luna and was forced to slam into the nearest wall at a speed fast enough to kill any regular mortal, but only enough to keep him off his feet momentarily.

“As will I. We have a score to settle, Elf.”

Kael turned around just in time to catch a blade of ice to the arm, the limb being impaled to save his face. The Elf smirked despite his own pain, amused by how he was not the only one to decide to visit this location at such a crucial moment.

As Loki pulled himself together he noticed who the new arrival was, and while not entirely surprised it did not help remove the ill feeling in his gut.

“Laufey…”

Laufey twisted the knife and followed up his first stab with another strike meant to impale Kael’s neck, but a flare of heat melted the blade before it struck its mark. With a heavy breath Kael lifted his blade up and slit it across Laufey’s gut in a diagonal direction, though the sword’s metal became brittle and nearly broke as it struck through Laufey’s light armor.

Not fazed by the wound, Laufey smashed Kael across the face with such force that Kael was moved partway around, only for the Elf to continue the movement into a retreating maneuver. While he certainly was doing better than Trixie had been pulling his strings, Kael started the encounter on the verge of collapsing from internal injuries. His shins wanted to give out, his knees were cracking with every movement, a hip had been out of place until he forced it back into place prior to arriving, his abdomen was bruised heavily, his arms were nearly broken, and his shoulders were barely in their sockets before he jammed them the way they should be.

There was a reason Kael had not arrived right away, and he regretted being unable to fight by Trixie’s side. So the more recent damage was enough to make him nearly collapse in pain, something Laufey took advantage of by summoning forth an icicle from the ground to impale Kael through the gut, splitting apart one of the more cracked pieces of his armor in the process.

No longer under direct physical threat though still in pain, Kael teleported away just as Luna had before. He managed to get towards where Trixie was still trapped, her purple eyes looking on in horror as he kept fighting when he should just fall down and go comatose.

“Kael, stop it, your body can’t take anymore! Please, I don’t want to lose you…” Trixie sobbed from behind her barrier. He was the one person who knew her given how long their minds had been linked, the one person who understood everything she went through. He was her friend, and he was going to die for her, just like her mother had.

The Elf coughed up a mouthful of blood before wiping his blonde hair from his eyes, some of it having become stuck to his cheek where blood had been dribbling from his wounds.

“Sorry…” Kael tried to stand up tall, only to nearly fall and become forced to use his sword as an awkward cane of sorts, “But just as you’ve chosen your own path, I have chosen mine. I’m placing my trust and faith in you because you are the one thing that can—”

His spitting out more blood cut him off, and it was then that Kael’s slowly dizzying and fogging mind remembered he could cauterize himself. He began tending to his wounds to prevent them from impacting his further actions, as he was not done yet. Trixie was well on her way to recovering her strength, but she was far from completely there. With this time he bought her she had restored to about five percent of her maximum, when twenty would be enough to completely annihilate their godlike adversaries.

During this time Laufey had set about approaching Loki, though he made no action to help his offspring get up from his own wounds. Laufey had no way of moving at any speed beyond his impressive natural speed, for he possessed no teleportation, so he decided to group up rather than press the attack for it could just be avoided unless he could corner their foe.

“Stand, son. These fools would take what is rightfully ours.”

Loki’s pride and distaste for his birth father spurred him to react to the order, not because he particularly wanted to work with the man to reclaim their land, people, and the like, but because Loki could not bear to ever face himself if he did not match up to Laufey in any way. His distaste for the man made him want to surpass him, so if Laufey could ignore a normally mortal wound across his chest then Loki could ignore his own aches and pains to rise to his feet and continue fighting right away.

Laufey gave a small nod of approval as Loki rose, at which point the ice giant turned to face the recovering Kael’thas.

“Your partner conquered our people and warped the mind of the Asgardian looking over us to let our plight go without notice,” Laufey levied a conjured dagger at the usurper, “I cannot fault strength and taking what one can with their abilities, nor can I deny the cunning displayed. But now I return to take back what is mine, and I will slay any craven fool who stands in my way.”

As Laufey spoke Loki noticed something to the side: Trixie was beginning to have sparks form around her. The kind that appeared when magic was just bursting forth from someone. Kael had said he would buy Trixie time, and he was accomplishing that quite well.

Loki called out across the room to his wife, who had taken a moment to see if her sister was alive, only to find a faint heartbeat, “Luna, destroy that ice surrounding Trixie! I can see the power radiating from her. If she returns to full strength and we are still in this condition we are finished!”

Kael and Laufey did not seem to pay this much mind, Kael because he knew he could not stop all of them in his condition and was resolved to just keep as much attention on himself as possible while Laufey simply didn’t care beyond the enemy he had his sights on currently, and they each began to approach eachother carefully.

“Fire melts ice. Good luck though. I admire your strength in the face of adversity and certain defeat,” Kael taunted Laufey after he caught his breath.

It was Laufey who went on the offensive, utilizing the momentum of his blade swinging to keep Kael parrying rather than fully utilizing the longer reach of his weapon. Loki backed him up by flanking Kael and assaulting him from behind, only to have a pillar of fire form behind the Elf to cover his back. This forced Loki to swing around to the side, where a fierce elbow to the face was waiting for him as he swung around and caught the bone with his full momentum.

Laufey lunged in at this moment and planted one blade right in Kael’s less wounded shoulder, making Kael almost lose grip of his weapon he was wielding with one arm. A burst of fire enwrapped Kael’s own shoulder as he burnt the wound and cauterized it, his pale skin growing darker as it burned under his own power. This also melted the blade lodged there, but Laufey had already created another to continue swinging with, one in each hand as he forced Kael back towards his own fire.

Kael chortled as he ducked and then teleported away from the fire, all the while spreading the column already there to encase his melee-orientated foe. To escape it now Laufey would have to burst through the flames.

Loki tackled Kael, who hadn’t teleported very far due to a lack of energy. The two dropped everything as they began to grapple on the ground, Loki possessing more skill in the grapple while Kael was able to muster more strength. With the greater strength, Kael managed to dislodge Loki and hurl him away. As Kael started to rise from the ground conflict he was already under assault by Laufey, who had utilized a trick similar to Loki’s to escape the fiery prison at the cost of his remaining magic reserves.

Kael’s movements were sluggish as he backed away from every swing and avoided every jab, though he managed to at least avoid any true damage until Loki entered the fray once more and began swinging one of Illidan’s glaives at Kael again. The glaive struck home and allowed for one of Laufey’s daggers to find a place in Kael’s collarbone right at the tip of his armor.

Having backed himself into a wall, to give himself space Kael summoned his blade to himself again and swung it forward at a downward angle to force the other two back while keeping them from lunging underneath it, “Ice Giants aren’t as tall as one might think.”

This sweeping motion done, Kael utilized a little more of his magic to push Laufey forward right onto Kael’s long, outstretched sword. Laufey would have been able to strike at Kael and drive the still embedded dagger in deeper had he had a little more reach, but he couldn’t actually get to Kael from his position on the sword. Laufey coughed up blood as he tried one last swing at Kael only for it to come up many inches short, at which point he was kicked off the sword.

Loki plunged his own weapon into Kael’s broken breastplate, but the blade deflected off of something buried beneath the shattered covering. This prevented his would-be kill strike from finishing the job, and gave time for his foe to disarm him and knock him away with the butt of his sword.

“Perhaps if your reach was better you would not have fallen upon the funeral pyre we all shall share today,” Kael remarked weakly, his strength fading rapidly as he started to walk past his two prone opponents. Across the room Luna was shooting magic blast after magic blast at Trixie’s containment cell, but she wasn’t close to breaking through. Kael had remembered the technique from a past life, and it would grant Trixie her victory in the end.

For him though, he was ready to collapse, so he stumbled past Laufey and Loki without doing anything to finish either of them. He feared if he lowered his body to assault them, he would not be able to rise.

A bright light ten feet in front of him made him stop though, the blinding nature of it keeping Kael from looking up for a good half minute until it faded. When it was over he drowsily rose his gaze up to see that the humanoid form of Sleep Near stood, a scowl plastered on the grown foal’s face showing his obvious displeasure.

“And the prodigal son returns. Come to rescue your parents or your deranged sister?” Kael taunted as he fell to one knee. He had an idea, but he needed to actually get the chance to fight Sleep Near, which he was afraid he would not get the chance to do because of four figures that accompanied Sleep Near out of the blinding light that was undoubtedly the gateway to Valhalla, now closed.

Two were Humans seemingly dressed for the cold environment, with thick furs, clothes, and capes that would do them great service in the land of Jotunheim. Kael could sense no magic emanating from them, at least not in any amount beyond that of a common Human, but the blades held by each revealed why they were here. Humans without magic but martial skills would prove useful in fighting someone who could drain magic to empower himself.

The other two were a blonde wolf with blue-grey eyes and a dark brown, nearly black eagle with an eye of the same color and a mismatched blue eye. Kael remembered them from Trixie’s intensive studies the past year: the guardians of Valhalla, the gatekeepers to the greatness that was the other world.

Kael would be honored if they were not about to try and kill him.

Sleep Near turned his back on the dying Elf as he surveyed the area and noticed where Trixie was encased and where Hela was. He waved a hand to those accompanying him, “I will handle my sisters. Kill the Elf. I had to break a lot of rules and use a great deal of power to do this, but there are times when the fate of one’s family and the universe matter more than rules concerning life and death.”

Four enemies? Only four? Kael almost felt insulted. He weakly rose to his feet and had his blade raise up into a defensive stance. He could power through a minute or two more of pain if it meant he could just get to Sleep Near.

“It was five on one the last time I was truly defeated, and twenty five on one the time before that. I do not think numbers are on your side. And an Eagle and a Wolf, really? You are to loose your pets on me?”

Sleep Near ignored the obvious jeer and began to use his own power to assist Luna in freeing Trixie, so that he could then defeat her and end the conflict. The fact that he too was helping with his far greater power meant that Kael would have to hurry and defeat the Humans and animals before it was too late.

As Kael moved to engage the final four opponents in his path, Loki began to rise from his defeat. He was having trouble standing ever since that fire engulfed his lower legs and charred the skin there, which made his agility based combat far harder than it would otherwise be.

“I can not even remember her face…”

Loki looked down to see that Laufey was speaking in a faint whisper. His lungs and heart had been impaled, and he was not long for this world. Curious, and seeing that Kael was preoccupied and things were finally going their way, Loki took the time to inquire since he wouldn’t be able to later, “Whose face?”

Laufey’s eyes flickered as he tried looking up at Loki, trying to get a good look at the Asgardian’s face, “Your mother,” he coughed and wheezed as he tried to keep talking, “I know that a long time ago I was foolish though. Foolish enough to believe that I could be happy.”

Loki blinked. Was this the tale that Laufey did not elaborate on when they were in Hel, the one about Loki being half-Asgardian?

“You are not the only one smart enough to slip through the realms, but Asgard wisened up over time,” Laufey tried to say with pride, only for it to come out weak and soft, “One time while I was spying there I was caught by some commoner. I don’t even remember how, but…”

Laufey let his head hit the ground, his neck losing strength as he went on, his voice now pained not only because of his damaged lungs but because of his distant memories, “I do know that she was weak. So weak that when she bore you, she died, leaving me with the half-breed runt who had taken her life.”

Loki felt himself freeze up as he was given a piece of his history he had never known, nor wanted to know.

“I wanted to kill you, for I had for once felt attached to someone and you took that from me,” Laufey coughed and wheezed, his eyes shutting as his body grew numb.

“I couldn’t though…even in my hatred I could not kill you outright, so I left you to die…That man…Odin…found you it seems. He took you, after I abandoned you, with the idea that one day he could bridge peace between our people.”

The irony in his own mind made Laufey want to laugh, if only he could, “I would call him foolish, but I had the same idea once. Only, it was by marrying the woman I had taken back with me from Asgard of her own free will. War after war would only bring negative things to both of our races, but I gave up when I let my heart grow cold.”

Opening his eyes one last time, Laufey looked up at the shocked Loki with a determined scowl.

“I do not seek your affection, mercy, pity, or anything else positive. I only wish to let you know what I know of…”

As the King of the Frost Giants passed away, Loki found himself nearly as numb as the deceased man who gave him life. Family was always a sore spot for him, and being confronted with it in such a way left him feeling hollow.

Across the room, Kael had been in a three way sword fight as a Wolf occasionally attacked him as if it was a gale of wind, no singular strike dealing life threatening damage but each being quick enough he could do nothing about them. The Eagle assaulted him just as well, using cunning angles to prevent Kael from retaliating with his magic.

The swordsmen were very skilled, though one of them greatly outstripped the other. Sleep Near had spoken of the effort it took to bring them all here, and he was not lying: what lived in his realm was not supposed to leave, so it took a great deal of power to even allow these four willing souls to come through and risk their very existence in stopping the rampant Trixie and her Elf partner. An army of the most powerful of Valhalla would have been welcome, but unfeasible.

The less skilled swordsman was actually Kael’s equal in terms of skill, the Elf being quite trained and capable, but not naturally gifted with the blade like he was magic. The man’s long, dark hair reached down to his shoulders, and he seemed to be trying to protect the others with his movements. Fitting of a man from Valhalla, Kael supposed, but it also meant he was slightly getting in their way and so Kael was doing his best to not finish him as it meant he would have a better chance against the others.

Kael, even wounded, was fasted than the two Humans because they were not highly empowered gods like the other combatants present. This allowed him to actually block one and then the other, though he resented the strikes of the more skilled one not because they were all nearly kill-shots, but because the man’s greatsword was so powerful it actually would make Kael stumble and leave himself open to move attacks from the Wolf.

Seeing the four on one scenario made the already crying Trixie continue to cry out, not caring that both Luna and her little brother were focusing on her because of the peril faced by her partner, “Stop it, you don’t need to die for me!”

Caught up in the moment, Kael could not respond to her just yet, but his focus rewarded him as he ignored the growing gashes, tears in his armor, and talons aimed at his face. His two-pronged sword locked with the greatsword that was as tall as some men, and the blade became stuck and under Kael’s governance.

“That is a nice sword you have there,” he wrenched their swords downward, easily taking control by taking a hand to grab the other man’s sword since the power of the weapon came from its downswing and not the actual strength of the Human, “I think I’ll take it!”

In the same movement as he jerked it Kael forced it from the other man’s hands, used this movement to spin himself into the position that the other swordman’s strike would not be lethal, grab ahold of the greatsword in place of his own, spin the rest of the way now with two hands on the powerful weapon, and then finally land it in the neck of the man he had just disarmed.

The better swordsman fell limply to the ground, his dark brown hair and grim face now coated in blood like his own blade. Kael took a breathe before clasping his arm down on the blade that had been driven into his side during his maneuver, trapping the second swordsman’s only weapon as Kael took the moment to smirk to himself.

Lifting the greatsword with one arm, something nearly impossible for a mortal like them to do, Kael drove it into the eyesocket of the remaining man. After a twist to make sure it had done its job, Kael tore it back and threw the other man onto the ground.

Looking at his two defeated foes, Kael let himself gain some respite even as the Wolf finished gnawing through his shin armor and the Eagle slashed him across the eye.

“That’s no way to get ahead.”

Kael looked down to the Wolf now burying its fangs deep into his shin and ripping away at flesh, forsaking its careful strikes before for more ferocious ones, “You should have run when you had the chance,” he noticed that the Wolf and Eagle each slightly gave off the same look at Luna’s ethereal hair, in that they seemed to exist without fully being there. Perhaps they could not harness their true strength or fully exist in a realm outside of their personal domain, something Sleep Near seemed to have overlooked, “I will not hold back from phantoms.”

The Elf swung the greatsword to the side and it slammed into the Eagle, knocking it aside as Kael summoned up a fifth wind for the sake of his people, and for the sake of his only friend and companion, “Trixie may have forced me to serve her, but for the first time in years I was not submerged in my sorrow.”

With a lumbering stab downwards, Kael just missed the Wolf as it dodged out of the way. These beings were unstoppable pillars of strength and ability in their world, and he loathed to think what it would be like if he was fighting them on their own terms. Kael had no magic left to use on his enemies, so he was forced to continue and try to hack away at them as he fought on, “With the bond forged between us she nurtured me back to a place of sanity, from which I was able to regain who I was even if I could not control my own body.”

The Eagle returned and forced Kael’s next hit to miss the Wolf, at which point the Wolf tackled him to the ground. Now able to reach it, it lunged for his neck, but Kael’s gauntleted hand slammed into its face and knocked it away.

The Eagle swung down for a coup de grace, but Kael did not allow for it to happen. Draining the slightest bit of power from the nearby Wolf, Kael used his other hand to toss a lance of ice point blank at the Eagle and impale it.

The bird fell to the side, giving Kael time to collapse fully, his eyes shutting for what he was sure would be the last time, “For that, I will be forever grateful…there is but a single person who cares for my existence, and for them I would gladly die…”

It would have been, if not for the efforts of Luna and Sleep Near. Using their combined strength they had cracked through the ice protecting Trixie, all that stood between them and ending the conflict, but the crack gave Trixie the ability to re-establish her bond with her dying partner. Pouring just a fraction of her godly energy into him, she stabilized him and let him recover his strength, while his wounds lessened slightly.

“Kael…”

Now having their link re-established, Kael could feel the warmth of his friend’s presence, and with it he once again fought through pain to do what he thought was best. The Wolf had begun to retreat, taking the body of the Eagle and the two Humans with it to a blinding portal it seemed to will into existence.

This left Kael with Sleep Near, Luna, and Loki. Sleep Near noticed the change in situation, and after cursing himself about damnable perseverance, the massive man moved to fight Kael.

“Six arms, huh?” Kael drew the sword he stole again and prepared himself to stall once again, “Let’s see about fixing that.”

Sleep Near’s movement was nearly unnoticeable to everyone in the room it was so swift, but it mattered not. When he gripped Kael with all six arms and began to literally pull him apart in anger for his part in defeating Hela, Kael gripped Sleep Near’s limbs and smiled.

Almost instantly Sleep Near realized his mistake wrought by anger, a trait inherited from his mother despite his normally cool temperament. He and Hela were on a level of their own in terms of power, and that included massive amounts of magic.

He had just grabbed a magic sponge.

Kael laughed as he quickly stripped nearly all of Sleep Near’s power from him, weakening him enough to force the man to drop him and then give the newly rejuvenated Kael the opportunity to grab him again, this time by the face.

Luna turned her attention from Trixie’s barrier to Kael, ready to attack him for daring to harm her child, “Get your hands off of my son!”

Despite drained of his magic, Sleep Near recovered enough to shove Kael off of him and strike him with fists faster than Kael could see coming. The counterattack drove Kael off enough for Sleep Near to regain his composure, “Mother, finish removing this barrier. I will handle this wretch.”

Luna glanced over to Sleep Near and Kael as they began to exchange blows too quick for her to catch without focusing fully on them, and with her attention split she was forced to look back at Trixie so she could focus on freeing her. If she freed and defeated her, they could go back home. They could make everything right, they could forget any of this ever happened…

A look at the still deceased Twilight made that last thought ring hollow in Luna’s mind. Even if they succeeded, then what? So much had been done…

“Once upon a time you were to join those in Valhalla and live amongst the most noble of souls. You fell from grace, only to redeem yourself. Now you and your co-conspirator are cursed, never to join the heroes of Valhalla nor suffer in the pits of Hel. I have seen your path and I pity you,” Sleep Near chided Kael off to the side as they continued to fight.

“I don’t need your pity,” Kael snorted, only to then warp his voice into an even more condescending tone, “But your remaining magic will do nicely!”

Luna glanced to check on Loki, who she hadn’t seen in the recent fight. A look at him revealed the King to be solemnly looking down at the deceased Laufey, an emptiness coming from his eyes showing that the death of his actual father was all the worse given that he had finally found some connection to him. Like Trixie, Loki would be deprived of the chance to ever look into that bond. For Loki, it wouldn’t be the first time, as Odin was still deceased, his soul torn apart so terribly that he could not pass on as there was nothing to pass on to the next world.

Luna spared another guilty glance at the Sleep Near-Kael confrontation at the cost of stopping her assault on Trixie momentarily…the reason being she was too shocked to continue channeling her magic.

Sleep Near had just been struck point blank by the attack Kael had used on Celestia, though without her resistance it had bore a hole straight through him. His magic would have protected him, but it being stolen was what allowed Kael to use the attack in the first place.

“It was intelligent of you to bring notable warriors without magic I could drain, but your fatal weakness will be your own magic’s strength!” Kael pushed the suddenly unconscious giant over onto the floor as he let out a content sigh, “You will be joining your abominable sister. Rest, and let our will be done.”

The Wolf had returned just in time for the final blow, and it rushed to its master’s side as Kael spoke with some actual concern, “Take your master back before I decide to finish him. Right now his soul may not pass on without Hela to reap it, but I can still drain it and his life force and turn them to energy if I so please.”

Luna had been so shocked by the sight of her son having a hole blasted through his stomach that she had completely frozen. The sight of her children in danger spurred her to action, the sight of them very well dying…

Suddenly Loki placed a hand on her shoulder. How long had she been frozen in place as she watched the Wolf drag Sleep Near back into their own realm?

“I can hold him off for a moment, you had best finish this task with extreme haste,” Loki stated, his voice emotionless as he narrowed his gaze at Kael. It was through sheer persistence that the Elf stood up still, and Loki was determined to end that.

Luna had been holding back to some degree because she feared what would happen if a defenseless Trixie was struck by the entirety of her power…but now Trixie’s power was radiating from her, and the barrier was nearly depleted. But at her previous pace Luna wouldn’t be able to finish before Trixie busted her own way out, or the juggernaut who was using his own opponents energy to sustain himself finished them off.

“But…” Luna hesitated. Could she ever forgive herself if she actually harmed Trixie? If she killed her?

“Crack that open and defeat Trixie before she recovers any more! It is our only chance to end this!” Loki chided before rushing away from her side to confront Kael, who had finally managed to will his broken body to start stumbling their way.

“If I use my full power she may—”

“Luna, now is your last chance! Finish her!”

“I…”

“Now! For Sleep Near and Hela!”

Luna clenched her eyes shut and shook her head, unable to look Trixie in the eye as she made her decision.

If Trixie succeeded in her plan, everything would be for nothing. A deranged, damaged mare would be in control of everything and everything that existed. While she claimed to have noble intentions, could she be trusted to carry them out? Luna knew Trixie better than to doubt her normally, but her mind had broken and become warped beyond true reason.

“I’m sorry…”

In that moment Luna summoned every ounce of magic she still held within her body to unleash the most powerful attack of her life directed at one of the people she loved the most.

The room flashed brightly with the attack, and everyone was blinded in the process.

When the light faded, Trixie’s prison was gone…

“Kael…”

…and in front of it stood Kael’thas with his body outstretched as a shield. The majority of his outfit and armor had been torn from his body as the energy had overwhelmed him, and it was only through absorbing some of the incoming energy that he was not entirely disintegrated by the attack. Instead, he had skin cut away in some places, was bleeding profusely, and finally lost all of the strength he had.

Trixie rushed forward from her previous position to kneel down beside him as Luna began to break down as she realized what she almost just did, while Loki began to step back and plan what to do next.

Kael weakly rose a hand to his partner’s cheek, stroking soft fur as she took on her equine form, “I’m just glad this body of mine could do one last thing for you…” his hand fell down and his whole body fell limp, “Forgive me though…I need to…”

Trixie nuzzled her head against the now unconscious man’s head. So long as they shared this bond, she could try and keep him alive. His skills were perfectly suited for a battle of attrition and stamina, but it left him in this broken state and that weighed heavily on the already mentally damaged Trixie.

“Rest. I will finish what we have started…When you wake, we’ll have the whole world to ourselves…” to thank him, Trixie gave him a soft kiss on the forehead, “Just you and me…”

It struck Luna and Loki then that, even though they were fighting, there was truth in what Trixie and Kael had said. They all wanted what they thought was right, what they thought would be best for the world. Just because they were opposed did not mean their foes were heartless, and in fact this all was because of the very opposite implication.

That did not, however, mean that a pony’s snapped brain was fine.

Trixie rose from her position low on the ground to look up at Luna. Her face was stoic as she stared intensely.

“You.”

A glance to the scorch marks left by Luna’s attacks revealed what was on Trixie’s mind.

Her mother had very nearly just struck her with something powerful enough to kill, and the only reason it didn’t was because Kael could absorb magic…though not fast enough to spare himself the brunt of the attack, only enough to keep it from annihilating him.

“Trixie…”

Nothing Luna could think of could make her feel better about what she just did. She knew it was for the best, and she had dearly hoped it wouldn’t truly harm Trixie, but she had taken that risk…she had placed the good of everyone over her own love for her daughter.

“You really could have just killed me,” Trixie noted as her horn began to glow, her voice cracking with mad laughter before shifting into a dark tone of anger, “Now let me return the favor!”

Luna had no magic to fight back with or to teleport, leaving her wholly vulnerable as Trixie prepared an attack of similar proportion to what Luna just unleashed, “Wait, Trixie—”

“Hulk, smash.”

Trixie’s attack ended up firing up into the ceiling and ripping through it as a large green fist slammed into her and spun her partway around upon the command of a calm man’s voice Luna could identify as Captain Rogers’.

Luna did not know how they had managed to arrive, but she was beyond pleased by the sight of Dr. Banner’s anger made manifest, Captain Rogers in his red, white and blue outfit, Stark, and even the two Human assassins who had previously been left behind, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

Despite the brutal hit from Banner, Trixie bounced back quickly and teleported as close to the vortex in the center of the room as she could without actually being within it. Its movement made her fur all sway with her mane.

Trixie did not seem to have high regard for the newly arrived crowd, as she smirked at them and shook her head with amusement, “Oh, so the vultures return to scrape away at the glory of others. Go home, I don’t have time for insects like you, not even big green beetles.”

The Hulk roared at Trixie in response, but Luna placed a hand on his side worriedly. He was nigh-invulnerable to most things…but Trixie wasn’t most things anymore, “Banner…”

The giant green rage monster looked down at her as he seethed, and despite her efforts Luna could not keep him from charging in at Trixie. No longer surprised by a rapidly approaching green being, Trixie used her magic hanging around the room to sent him swirling around the room at higher and higher speeds until she let him go and just let him crash through the wall nearby where they entered. Her running out of power before had made her personal domain lose its more interesting properties, but now that she was back up and running she could have everything bend to her command once more.

With the Hulk temporarily displaced, Trixie turned to the others with a haughty look beneath her custom armor now shaped to fit her equine form, “What do you flies think you can accomplish?”

Stark took flight and his suit’s “eyes” began to glow menacingly, “I wouldn’t sound so haughty, and believe me when I say that means something coming from me. I’ve been studying all your so called magic, and I’ve managed to make a few trinkets the past few months. Couldn’t get them to work for the longest time, but the time in your castle let me study your books I had been too prideful to glance at until then.”

Trixie snorted, not caring about whatever he had discovered. He was just an insect in armor compared to her, on a level so far below her she really ought not to even pay him a any notice, but her ego pushed her to spread her wings out and take flight in mirror of him, “You are not the only one with flight.”

Luna looked over to Loki, who had seized the opportunity to help his brother to his feet.

They were about to enter the last leg of this conflict, for better or worse, but they both would be damned if they let the latter occur.