Alone

November 3,514 BCE

Vigrid, Frón Thule

"Your fate was to die! Alone, with no one to save you from the Odinson's wrath. If the All-Father had not taken you in-"

"I would have become as I am now: the monster you tell your children at night, the son of the Godkiller, the Vengeful One, last of the Jotunns. Do not presume to tell me of my fate, Allseer; it has been foretold."

Atreus let loose a cry of rage as he lifted Gram's heavy blade above his head and brought it down on Hofund; the glowing blade bent under the weight of the wrathful blow, then shattered, snapped in three.

Heimdall cast aside the now-useless shard of Asgardian steel and, reaching inside his tunic, withdrew a Bifrost crystal and rammed it into the hard-packed dirt.

Atreus tried to shift into an eagle and fly away from the suddenly-vanishing ground, but hands grabbed at his wings, fracturing the hollow bones and crushing the appendages into a bloody mass of bone dust, meat, and feathers. He shifted back, only to find himself in freefall, the guardian of the Aesir baring a blood-streaked grin of glimmering gold as they plummeted towards a branch of Yggdrasil, Atreus' throat in his hands, and Atreus' on his.

"And this, fool fjándi? Was this foreseen?!"

Atreus could feel the handle of his knife jutting against the small of his back, but he just- couldn't-

Think, boy. You have more power than you know. Use it.

Atreus looked straight at his would-be killer, and, a smile spreading on his purpling lips, wheezed out, "Maybe not, but you should have chosen your last words more carefully."

Power surged through him, streaking across his skin in bolts of red, and Atreus drew his blade, jamming it through Heimdall's neck.

The pressure on his neck only tightened, and something cracked.

Suddenly, he couldn't breathe.

Atreus let go of the hand holding Heimdall, and, his vision darkening by the moment, rammed the knife up into the Aesir's chest at an angle.

The Aesir grunted, his grip finally loosening, and murmured, "You were never one of us. You were never a gaauuggh."

With the last of his strength, Atreus shoved Heimdall's corpse away, and then- he landed.

December 7, 2039

Beacon Hill, Seattle, WA

Atreus stole a glance at his companion.

Ellie had her eyes fixed straight ahead, thumb fingering the hammer of her pistol.

The birds began to tweet in the early daylight, and the crickets rubbed their reply.

"Would be nice to not have to talk to myself like a crazy person," Atreus muttered, nudging Ellie with his hip.

"And you're not?" she said in a deadpan voice.

"If I was, could I do this?"

He snapped his fingers, and presented her with a fresh apple.

Ellie took it from him, turning it in her hand, then sniffed at it experimentally.

"Checking for poison?"

"Aww, you know me so well," she snarked, tossing the fruit behind her.

Atreus held out his hand, and the apple shimmered into his palm comfortably. He rubbed it off, took a large bite, and let out a low moan of satisfaction. "Not the best this side of the Níu Heimar, but nothing can really beat Idunn's fare."

"So say you really are Loki. If you're so powerful, why not just take over the world when you had the chance? Wouldn't you want people to worship you as you rightfully are?"

"First off," Atreus started, chucking the apple core ahead of him, "I'd say it's pretty obvious that even if I'm not Loki, I'm not human. Not entirely, at least. Second, when you've only killed two gods in a lifetime as long as I've had, there's not a lot of power to draw on if you're bent on world domination; besides, that was what that Fiddleson-"

"Hiddleston."

"Right, right. Never could get his name quite right. Anyways, that's what Hiddleston's version of me wanted. I never- well, not necessarily never, but I didn't want Midgard for long. Longevity gives one some perspective, and could you imagine the hassle managing every single person on Earth would be? Not to mention the constant rebellions, the bureaucracy of it all. It would've driven me mad."

Ellie let out a short cough.

"Laugh all you want, but I'm not crazy. Never was."

"Alrighty, then. And the last thing?"

Atreus opened his mouth, when thunder cracked across the sky.

He scrambled towards cover, leaning up against the concrete doorway to a demolished bar, and looked for Ellie, finding her taking a peek across the hood of the car at the barricade ahead.

"I thought you said you'd cleared out this street," she hissed at him.

"Of Infected, yeah. Was planning on raiding the healthcare clinic last night, but guess who decided to show up?!"

"Don't you fucking pin this on me," she whisper-yelled. "You were the one talking all crazy yesterday."

"I'm NOT-"

"Hey, lovebirds!"

They froze.

"Yeah, we know you're there. Come out, nice and slow-like, and toss your weapons, or we open up."

Ellie raised an eyebrow at him. You got a plan?

He raised two knuckles on his hand. Sorta.

She bit her lip, narrowed her eyes. It'll have to do, but it'd better fucking work.

He gave her a wavering upward-angled thumbs-up. 75 to 80 percent sure.

She made a fist, then released it. Alright, go.

"Alright," Atreus shouted so that the voice could hear him. "I'm comin' out! Don't shoot!"

He slung the bow and quiver off his back and withdrew the pistol in his waistband, dropping the magazine and quiver to the ground and kicking them away from himself, then walked out, hands held high.

"And the missus?"

Atreus shot a glare at Ellie. "Get up, honey. I am not getting punched fulla holes just 'cause your leg fell asleep."

Ellie stood up, pistol out. "Hey, fuck you, Jay. Who had the stupid plan to bang in the middle of an abandoned Zone? I'm still fricking-"

Another crack, and the pavement between them shattered.

"Shut it, you dumbasses! You want ta get chomped on by a packa Runners?"

"No, sir, w-"

"The fuck did I just say? Get your asses over here, and no funny business, or Mr. Bearfucker gets a bellyful of lead."

They started forward, when Ellie let out a short cry and went to one knee.

"Sig!" Atreus started for her, when the voice warned him off.

"Uh-uh-uh, mister. She drops the gun, or you both get dropped."

Atreus gritted his teeth, but backed away.

Ellie sucked in a quick breath, then stood up, hand clenched around her side, and tossed the pistol behind her.

"Now, get up, and start. Walking."

They started forward again, Ellie huffing with every step.

Ten, fifteen minutes later, they approached the barricade. Atreus nearly felt sick to his stomach, but he held it in.

Ellie, however, promptly voided her stomach of its soupy contents. As she straightened back up, she whispered to him, "You ever seen something like this before?"

"Not by people, no."

Atreus eyed the bags of bones spread before him, noting the teeth marks and straight scraped lines made by knives. They were a mix of different types: leg, foot, arm. But they all had one thing in common scattered among them.

The rounded neurocranium and wide eye sockets distinct to homo sapiens.

"Hey, there they are!"

Atreus fixed his gaze on the man approaching them. At least, he seemed to be a man, Atreus thought as he marvelled at the twisted, almost monstrous visage before him.

The man pulled off his red-tinted shades to reveal a squinting pair of mismatched eyes, one brown, one blue. He looked Atreus up and down, then Ellie, lingering on the parts that… piqued his male interest, tongue darting out to lick at brown-encrusted lips.

"Mmm, good. Fresh meat. Been needing some of that."

Atreus felt his arms being wrenched behind his shoulders, then something smashed the back of his head, and he fell forward, vision blurring and going black as he heard Ellie call out his name.

April 24, 2030

Home for Little Wanderers (BYH1), BQZ, MA

"Tsss. Hey!"

Atreus threw a pebble at the window, hoping that his intended target heard him, and not the guards on the side of the perimeter he was currently trespassing.

The latch on the window wiggled, then lifted up, a wild-haired girl taking its place.

"People are trying to sleep here, asshole! Get the frick back inside and shut the heck up!"

Atreus shook his head, grinning. "I've got something to show you."

The girl's eyes squinted. "No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."
"Nope."

"Yep."

"Nuh-uh."

"Uh-huh."

The girl let out a short sigh, then, taking a look behind her, whispered, "I can't get out. Guards outside the door."

"Then jump," Atreus whispered back, motioning to the open dumpster at the foot of the building, just below the window.

"Are you fricking crazy?! I can't make that!"

"Yeah, you can."

"Nope, no way."

"I'll catch you."

She snorted. "You and what trampoline?"

"Just trust me. Or would you rather I just go?"

He made to leave, when she called out, "No, darnit. I'll- I'll do it."

"Alright. Remember, I'll catch you if you miss."

"Yeah, right."

She paused, then, shaking her head, swung her legs over the windowsill, took a deep breath, and pushed off.

Atreus mapped out the angle in his head, cursing as he realized that she would overshoot the dumpster, and rushed forward, arms outstretched.

She knocked the wind from him as she landed face-first into his chest, knocking them both to the ground. Atreus let out a groan, then pushed at the girl. "Off. Get offa me."

She bounced to her feet, eyes full of energy as she looked around, then up at the window she'd just jumped from. "How high up was I?"

"'Bout one-an'-a-half, two stories," Atreus responded. "Fifteen to twenty feet," he supplied at her blank stare.

"Cool!"

She gave one last look up, then back at him. "So… what were you wanting to show me?"

Atreus pulled a lightly-rusted set of keys out of his back pocket. "You ever driven a car?"

Ellie whooped as the old clunking sedan sped down the stretch of open street, assisted by momentum- and her foot pressing the cracked petal to the worn-out felt of the car floor.

Atreus, however, held on to his seat for dear life, eyes wide, as he felt every upheaval and pothole in the broken-down asphalt rumble into his tailbone.

"N-n-now e-e-e-ease o-off the g-g-gas," he stuttered, voice stuttering as they bumped along. "P-p-put on th-the b-b-b-brake."

If she heard him, she made no indication, the car rocketing along the asphalt like Roadrunner.

"S-s-seriously, E-E-Ellie, s-slow d-d-d-down."

"Stop being such a scaredy-cat, Ethan! We're doing great!"

He spotted a shadow ahead of them, rectangular in shape, and his heart clenched in fear.

"S-s-stop! We-we're g-g-gonna-"

The sudden flood of light caused him to shut his eyes in pain, and he heard Ellie cry out as the car swerved out of control. He felt the cool night air waft over his face, heard the crunch of metal, and his eyes flew open to see the sedan wrapped around a lamppost.

"Oh, no. God, please, no. Not again."

He started towards the crashed vehicle, when a beam of light started sweeping over the street. He ducked into cover behind another car, then peeked over its broken windshield, to see an officer approaching the car, sidearm and flashlight drawn. The officer shined the flashlight inside the car, then, face going pale, yanked open the passenger-side door and surged inside.

The beam sweeped over his car yet again, forcing him to duck down; when he brought his gaze back up, he saw the officer carrying Ellie's limp body towards the light, and away from him. He saw Ellie start, one eye wide and bewildered as she looked around, the other closed against the stream of blood oozing out just above it, and he shifted his ears into a panther's, just in time to hear her say, "Wha-where's Ethan? He was right here. What'd you do to him? Where is he?!"

A single tear slipped down his face as he shifted into a bat and flitted away, the sounds of Ellie's sobs growing ever fainter.

December 7, 2039

Beacon Hill, Seattle, WA

"Hey. Trey. Get up."

The voice was fuzzy, but familiar. "Whaa-"

"Damnit, we don't have time for me to drag you around, man. Wake up!"

Something poked at his side. Something sharp.

Atreus sat up, teeth hissing at the line of fire that drew down his ribs, and looked to his side, to find Ellie, eye blackened and lip swollen, grinning at him.

"Hey, you," he muttered.

"Hey, yourself." She folded the switchblade back into its handle, then nodded her head at the open door. "We gotta go, man."

His tongue felt thick, but he forced himself to say, "How'd you get past the hunters?"

She pursed her lips, eyes leaving his, and his heart sank. "Ellie-"

"Pissed my pants, then took a whiz in their water supply and set it to boil."

He let out the breath he didn't even know he'd been holding in. "What?"

She gave him a small smirk, her eyes ablaze with mischief. "Want me to repeat it for all the town to hear?"

"No, just- euggh."

"It's not like you haven't done something similar."

He held up two fingers in a mock Scout salute. "On my honor as the Last Son of Jötunheim… I have."

She let out a short chuckle, then her face shifted into a more serious tone. "Honestly, though, we need to go. Those guys will probably be looking for me by now, if they haven't turned yet."

Atreus bared his teeth in what he hoped was a smile, and not something akin to a grimace. "Leave that to me."

Ellie pulled him to the side when they reached the park on the other side of the street, across from the building. "Okay, seriously, how did you do that?"

"A bit of seidr spellbinding and the Allspeak? Oh, that's small potatoes. You should've seen me when I was younger."

"Maybe I should've." She paused, then took his hand in hers. "Why'd you have to go?"

"I- I-"

"It was so- so hard after you left. I was the runt of the new group, the freak. They called me-" She sucked in a breath, then let it shudder out. "They called me Screwer, Freako, other names. After the reports came out, the rumors- the older kids thought I'd been sneaking off for some 'nooky' with a Firefly. The younger ones thought I'd been scratched by a Runner, demanded to see what other 'dirty scars' I'd gotten out on the 'outside'." A halfway-sob, halfway-laugh caught in her throat. "And they just stared. Just stared and stared and stared. Finally got so bad that I knocked a girl's teeth in for even daring to make some stupid dick joke. Got thrown in iso for that one."

"I'm sorry." Atreus drew her in, held her tight. "I'm so, so sorry. I just- I froze."

She scoffed against his chest. "Great; freezing puns. Really living up to your name there, Loke."

He smiled, pressed a kiss against the top of her head, then let her go. "Not quite, El. Not quite."

She sighed, then looked left, then right. "Well, you're here now. Might as well make use of you."

"How're you planning on doing that, little missus?" he asked with a grin.

Something dark fell over her, and he nearly shuddered at the look in her eye.

"We're taking down the Stem of Columbia, right here in Seattle. C'mon, let's find a place for the night and I'll show you."

Author's Note: Well, here's Chapter 2. Now, excuse me while I go and cry in a corner from Infinity War.

Also: Frón Thule equals Iceland and fjánd equals bastard in Old Norse, for anyone who was wondering.

-Nate