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Thor went silent at Sif's request. Sif—this woman who had faced creatures twice her size without fear, who had never once in his memory asked to be treated differently than any other warrior. She was sacrificing her life in Asgard to accompany him through a dangerous journey across nine realms.
She was completely sincere about it.
"You—no," Thor said. "I cannot grow strong if I have to worry about protecting you everywhere. This is my trial."
Sif shut her eyes and sheathed her sword.
She said nothing.
Thor squeezed her arm. "Thank you for everything."
With that, he headed toward the door, which opened on its own. A palace warrior bowed the moment he noticed Thor.
"My prince. I regret to inform you—the All-Father has entered Odinsleep."
Thor stared at him. "Now?"
"It appears to have been sudden, my lord."
Thor dismissed him with a shaking hand. Odin had halted his Odinsleep for a thousand years. Somehow, it felt less abrupt than Odin suddenly handing the throne over to his firstborn who nobody knew about.
He was already moving before the door had closed, striding through the corridor.
In a few moments, he arrived at Odin's royal chambers.
The room was circular, where the warm glow of ceremonial fire braziers covered the golden walls.
On the raised platform, inside a dome of faint golden energy, Odin lay with his hands crossed and his eyes closed. He looked peaceful… and weak.
Loki sat on one side of the bed and Frigga on the other. Neither of them looked at Odin, lost in their own worlds.
Thor rushed to Odin's side and fell to his knees beside Loki. "Father."
Loki turned and offered a tired smile. He looked relieved in a way. "Brother, you've recovered."
Thor placed his hand over Odin's. "What caused him to make such a hasty decision?"
Frigga's eyes moved to Loki. A whole was conveyed through that look on her face. She looked back at Odin's aged face. "Your father… he has been carrying a great burden. The responsibility of the protector weighed him down. When he passed it… to Hela today, he felt it would be the right moment to enter Odinsleep."
Thor sat there for minutes, holding Odin's hand. After processing everything on his chest, he whispered, "I failed him…"
"Thor, you didn't."
"No, mother. I know what I did." He faced Frigga with a complicated gaze. "I was arrogant. I charged in looking for glory and I accomplished nothing. I stained Father's honor."
Loki put a hand on Thor's shoulder. "Some battles are destined for defeat, brother."
Thor straightened his back. "It ends today. I'll travel the realms my father protected, and I'll grow from this defeat."
Loki showed a look of surprise then revealed a warm smile. "Go make us proud."
Frigga, on the other hand, looked hesitant to say anything, which she usually never did. Not even Odin could tame her fiery spirit.
"Mother."
Frigga wiped the tears flowing from her eyes. "Wait a few days, Thor. I will fall apart…"
"Mother." His voice was gentle but firm. He crossed over to her side and held her shoulders, smiling assuredly. "If I stay, I'll grow comfortable again. I don't want to forget this lesson. I must leave today."
Frigga looked at him for a long moment then pulled him to her chest. When she finally drew back, her eyes were bright but dry. She held his face in both hands. "Return safely."
Loki rose and placed one hand between their shoulders, patting them both tenderly. "Go spend some time together before you leave. I'll stay with Father."
Frigga looked a bit reluctant but nodded at Loki. She took Thor's arm and walked toward the door.
Thor looked over his shoulder as though imprinting this scene into his mind. The door closed softly behind him on its own.
***
Loki's POV
The sound of their footsteps faded down the corridor until the room held nothing but the slow, ceremonial breathing of a sleeping king.
A slow smirk unraveled on Loki's face. "You're stalking the wrong lady. I do not revert to my true form under any circumstances."
It didn't matter whether Odin listened or not. Loki knew Dante would never allow Odin to spend another moment awake. Odin's fate had been sealed the moment he went after Dante.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't a tad bit sad over his father's current state. But that sadness was suppressed by the relief of Frigga's safety.
A flicker of blue energy rippled in the air and Dante stepped through it. The energy was entirely new to Loki.
"Lady Loki, stop being so cocky," he said. "Or I'll make you my wife."
Loki raised both eyebrows slowly. His gaze drifted to Odin's sleeping form on the platform, then back to Dante. To marry the daughter of the king Dante had personally ruined—that was tragic and twisted. It would be a tragedy Loki would take delight in.
"No thank you," she whispered. "I will not reveal my true form to my mother."
"Don't bring it up then. I'll keep treating you like a man."
Loki nodded. "I couldn't ask for more."
Dante reached over and pulled the fur blanket up over Odin's face until the sleeping king was completely obscured. He stepped back with a satisfied expression.
"That's better."
"You truly hate my father." Loki tilted his head. "Which again is entirely justified."
"Talking like you love him." He chuckled. "The Loki of this timeline was going to indirectly cause Odin's death and directly kill Thor. Chaos for chaos's sake. Are you any different?"
Loki's nose wrinkled with genuine distaste. "That is a classless act. No matter how much I revel in chaos, I would never stoop to the level of killing my family."
The throne had never really been the point. The point, always, had been protecting Asgard. To never relive the nightmare of seeing Asgard lay in ruins and smoke. Everything else was secondary.
"Morals," Dante said with a charming smirk. "Don't suit a god of mischief."
Loki rose to his feet and smoothed his robes before smiling. "I can protect Asgard without ruling it. By making questionable deals with dangerous people, the kind your realm would call… villains."
Dante gave him a look of mild disgust. "A real villain would've killed your mother."
Loki found, somewhat against his will, that he had nothing to argue with. Dante had never shown any intent to harm anyone beside Odin. Even the change in rulership came without a single bloodshed.
That was, Loki reflected, not the behavior of a man who enjoyed destruction for its own sake.
Then again, it was the very reason Loki had aligned himself with Dante. Well, other than the fact that they couldn't kill him or seal him somewhere.
'He is the villain in mother and father's eyes. Yet they are the villains in his eyes. How fascinating.'
Dante turned toward the door. "I'm leaving for Earth."
"Wait." Loki took one step forward and called out in panic. "Stay for a few years, at minimum. Hela does not listen to me."
Hela was a madwoman who was far, far worse than Dante. A woman who made Dante look innocent and sweet. Without Dante to contain her, Loki worried she would lose control and slaughter Odin and all his relatives.
A thousand years of grudge weren't calmed so easily, after all.
Dante frowned. "Loki, how old are you?"
Loki straightened his collar, giving a mysterious smile. "Men should never concern themselves with a lady's age."
The look he received from Dante made him reconsider that answer immediately.
"A thousand years," Loki said, somewhat timidly. "A few years give or take."
Dante was quiet for a moment. "Do you know how old I am?"
Loki gazed at his young and handsome face and considered the question carefully. Dante was from Midgard and looked to be in his twenties, yet he was also one with cosmic entanglements. Death couldn't have been seduced by a young, naive boy of less than a thousand years.
Confidence and charm oozed from his face as he answered, "Several thousand, presumably."
"Twenty-five, or twenty-six, maybe." He whispered the second one to himself, uncertain of his real age. "Why would I spend the best years of my life in Asgard? I have considerably better things to do."
Loki stared at him in silence. The companion of Death and the man who had beaten Thor unconscious and rearranged Asgard's line of succession was twenty-five years old.
He wasn't convinced at all.
Dante chuckled. "You know where to find me if Hela does anything stupid."
He vanished without a sound like he usually did.
Loki stood in the quiet of Odin's chambers and breathed.
'This is not a terrible position.'
The nightmare that had haunted him since childhood was less likely now than it had ever been. Dante as the guardian of Asgard would change everything.
'I must never fall out of his favor.'
The moment that happened, they would lose his protection and become free food to satiate Hela's hunger for revenge. Loki, Thor, Odin, and Frigga—all four of them.
He sat back down beside Odin's covered face.
'Whatever it takes.'
***
Death's POV
Death woke up feeling sore everywhere. The intense lovemaking had left her skin bruised and tender everywhere. Her butt had become numb and swollen from all the spanking.
'Companion is too much.'
She sat up slowly, rubbing her lower back.
Her mortal body was stronger and more durable than any Asgardian besides Hela. But it hadn't been made with the intent to receive such thorough punishment on the bed. What's worse, she had requested everything for his pleasure as her way to reward him.
Having said that, it would be a lie to say she hadn't taken pleasure in every carnal whim of her companion.
Footsteps outside made her pause. She watched as the door opened and her companion stepped through with a happy smile.
"Death~."
The way he said her name made her feel warm. "You are a terrible companion for leaving me alone."
"Sorry." He came around the bed and dropped behind her, folding his arms around her waist. She found herself small and warm in his embrace. "I came back as fast as I could."
She leaned her back into him and savored the moment. She had tried to live a mortal life before, but it had been nothing but suffering and misery. But her companion made it feel like the best thing in the world.
"Where were you?"
He rested his chin on her shoulder. "Had to wrap things up with Hela and Loki."
"It's always these mortal women," she muttered under her breath. Sometimes she wondered how her life would be if she had waited a little more before introducing Dante to a new universe, if she had not given him permission, if she had simply killed them—
Dante pressed a kiss to the side of her face. "Does it still hurt?"
Death shook her head and smiled at his concern. She almost had a thought which would've certainly destroyed her companionship's trust.
"No, I'm fine."
"If you say so." His hand moved to gently rub her belly. "Any change here?"
"I almost forgot." She quickly activated her cosmic awareness and examined her mortal body. What she saw filled her chest with an uncomfortable feeling. "Nothing."
His arms tightened slightly. "It's fine. We can try again."
"No, you don't understand," she whispered, shaking her head. "Not a single one of your sperm survived."
"Huh?"
"It's impossible by law, Companion. It's impossible by the nature of what I am."
Her body had been ready to create life, but her soul was still that of the embodiment of death—the ending of every life. She could warp reality and manufacture a pregnancy, but that wouldn't be natural. That wouldn't be the labour of her companionship with Dante.
That wouldn't be real.
"I got your hopes up and let you down."
It wasn't just about the creation of life—it concerned her companion as well. He had lost his family and yearned to build a new one in this world. She wanted to be the first one to give him that. Now she couldn't.
He pulled her closer and held her. "I'll find a way. Give me time."
Although she couldn't read his mind, she felt a great deal of conviction in his voice. Perhaps Null Repository—a creation of One Above All or someone even stronger—might have something to change things around. Null Repository was only one power in this multiverse without a defined ceiling.
"Forget it for now," he said, rubbing his face gently against hers. "We have a long life ahead of us."
She smiled softly. "Agreed. There is no rush for us without mortality."
They spent some time chatting about Asgard, then the topic naturally drifted to his concern about his loved ones on Earth.
Death extended her awareness to Midgard and saw everything in Manhattan.
Silvija seemed busy watching over Laura and Ava as a tutor awkwardly taught them. Felicia and Gwen hung out at a cafeteria, alongside MJ, at the university. Piotr and the rest of Wild Pack idled around in the camp. Felicia's parents were listening to a classic song track, sharing a warm moment. Gwen's father was idly watching JJJ on the news.
She moved over to check on Dante's friends in Hellmoon Club. Her black eyes flickered the moment she saw Emma.
"Companion, this is bad. Emma Frost is in grave danger."
***
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