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Asgard [2013]
–Heimdall–
It had been so long since he had held this position. The scared position of the Watcher.
The first in the line of Asgard's defences. For all his life that he had given to his duty, there have only ever been two times that his sight had failed him, inside Asgard.
Once, when Prince Loki had somehow smuggled a bunch of Frost Giants into both the Treasury and the Throne room, he had thought that the incident would be the biggest black mark on his record.
The one incident that would never, ever be repeated. He would not allow for it to be repeated. It was a matter of pride and honor for him, to not fail in his duty. In all his years of duty, he had never once failed and even then when it happened, he took solace in the fact that, no matter how severe, the breach had come from within, not from their enemies in the cosmos.
And yet….
And yet, he watched… All he could do was just watch as the Queen, along with the finest soldiers of Asgard were given A State Funeral, befitting their station and sacrifice.
The day the Frost Giants had interrupted the Crown Prince's ceremony, he had vowed to himself that never again would his sight fail the Crown of Asgard. He had vowed on his very soul and he had failed.
There was no other way to say it. He had failed utterly and completely. He had failed his duty, his King, his Queen, and even himself.
He watched as Queen Frigga's soul left this realm and he hoped, to all the Gods he knew, that she would reach Valhalla safely. Because she deserved it and he did not.
He stood at his post, watching over the dearly departed souls of his comrades, along with keeping a watch over all of Asgard on this occasion. He would much rather kill himself than have another incident happen on his watch. To that effect, he had resolved to do something that he had hoped would not happen for decades to come.
He was going to train Axl, in the use of his powers. His sight was a gift, a gift that was given to his forefathers by Asgard itself, a way to protect Asgard and its inhabitants from invaders from the cosmos.
It had always appeared in his lineage and he had been the latest in the line of Watchers, blessed and cursed with the sight, up until little Axl was born. Axl Heimdallson, the one born with the sight.
Axl was special, in the regard that he was born with his sight active. He had to personally request the All-Father to have his sight sealed so that he could have a chance at a normal childhood.
He knew, more than anyone, that as much as the Sight was called a blessing, it was just as much a curse, especially if the bearer of the Sight was untrained and not mature enough to realise the burden of it.
Just getting that power out of nowhere would not instill the respect and fear with which one must treat this power. So, he had resolved to, once the All-Father was done mourning, ask the All-Father to undo the seal on his son, so that he could start his training.
If one bearer of the Sight could not detect threats to Asgard fast enough, maybe another one will help.
His sight never truly failed to astonish him, despite honing it to near perfection over a period of thousands of years. He could see Prince Loki, rage with all his might as he is given the news of his mother's death.
Oh, how he wondered, what he would do if he knew the cause of his mother's death was the Dark Elf he had sent her way. Prince Loki, despite all his faults, was not void of love.
He loved both his parents, in his own way. The passing of Queen Frigga would weigh heavily on him and yet, he could not let that cloud his judgement. He would be keeping a close eye on him and every single one of Asgard's threats. Not a single realm would be void of his sight, lest he let another one of Asgard's enemies slip—
"Heimdall" A weak voice reached his ears, echoing all around him, seemingly coming from every direction.
His eyes snapped wide open as he looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the calls he was getting. It had been several weeks since he first heard that same weak call for him.
One of the other times that his Sight failed him. No matter how hard he tried, he could not, for the life of him, track down the source of that call. It was weak, yet not feeble. It was as if the call was being muted by something, something that was blocking most of the strength behind the call. He had scoured all of the nine realms in his search for the source of that call but he had yet to find anything remotely similar.
The voice itself was odd. If he focused on a single area for long enough, not only could he see the area, but he could hear as well. And the voice he had been hearing, it bore a strange resemblance to the fallen warrior known as Jack Sullivan, Green Guardian of Midgard.
His deeds had been truly heroic. Armed with powers beyond anything that Midgardians should possess, he became someone who sought to protect, instead of destroy.
Midgardians had such short, feeble lives and yet, they lived those lives very vibrantly, perhaps, more so than most Asgardians. They knew that their lives were short and so they made the most of what they had.
And even among them, there were extraordinary ones who rose above the rest, towering above the masses, sometimes protecting and sometimes destroying. And yet, he saw how Jack Sullivan, of Midgard, fought with the Chitauri, an army from outside the Nine Realms, an Army that heralded the arrival of someone far worse than just Prince Loki.
He had truly lamented the death of someone so young, so strong, so early in his lifespan. Alas, such was fate. Being intermingled with energies from multiple Infinity Stones would spell certain doom for even most Asgardians and maybe even Prince Thor, let alone a Midgardian, however powerful they may be.
"Heimdall,"
"My King!"
"Any news on the Dark Elves?"
"No, My King. I have a request in that regard."
"Hmm. What is it?"
"Axl, My King. His sight is stronger than mine. Maybe, he could–"
"Heimdall, Asgard has not yet fallen so low as to require the sacrifice of a child's childhood for its protection. We are not going to do that, Heimdall,"
"As you wish, My King,"
____xx____
He watched as Prince Thor left for realms unknown, for some quest that the All-Father had given to him. The death of Queen Frigga and Prince Loki must have weighed heavily on both him and the All-Father. This might do both of them some good.
Prince Thor spending some time away from Asgard would help dull the pain and the All-Father had to do something, to show that he was not letting Prince Thor get away with crimes that would have most likely brought an execution on the poor person who had destroyed the statues of the forefathers.
It had been a sad time for Asgard, as of late. They had lost their Queen, one of their princes (All-Father had not stripped Loki of his title as Prince of Asgard), and the Crown Prince as well, who had left the Golden Realm for realms unknown.
"Sir Heimdall," He acknowledged the royal messenger who had arrived at the Observatory.
"Yes?" He turned around and asked him.
"The All-Father has summoned you, Sir Heimdall," The messenger said as he bowed his head, in deference to his post.
That was odd. All-Father knew the importance of his post and what it meant when he left his post at the Observatory. That had seldom happened when they were in peaceful times, let alone now when they were on high alert. Despite Prince THor's testimony that the threat of the Dark Elves was truly gone now, he still could not rest easy knowing that there were threats out there that could have survived Asgard coming after them at its strongest.
He would not let Asgard be caught off guard, especially when it was at the weakest it had ever been. Queen Frigga might not have been the raw powerhouse that the All-Father or even Prince Thor was, but she was someone who could have killed even the All-Father, given enough preparation. She was the Witch of the Nine Realms, after all.
"Very well," He sheathed his sword and followed the messenger back to the Palace. When he focused on the Palace, he was surprised to see that the court was in full session, with all the nobles and vassals present.
Unsure of what was going to happen and more than a little wary about the oddness of the situation, he went on inside the palace once his name was announced.
"All-Father," He bowed down on one knee.
Right then and there, he received the biggest shock of his lifetime as the All-Father went on a long winded speech, thanking him for his lifetime of public service and "rewarding" him with a nice retirement.
A lifetime of etiquettes kicked in as he gracefully accepted the dismissal from his post and exited the palace after thanking the King profusely for the reward, going right to his humble abode.
He needed something, something stronger than mere ale, to quell the storm in his heart.
_____xx____
Xandar
–Nova Prime–
"Nova Prime, we have reports confirming the death of K'ehmbe and his group of mercenaries," Her eyes snapped open at that piece of information as she immediately focused on the person delivering the information.
She beckoned him with one hand as she willed for the Nova Force to flood her body, almost failing to hold back a groan as the lifetime of pains were alleviated by the vitality now coursing through her body.
Her eyes skimmed over the reports, depicting the way the entire encounter had gone. Someone had the bright idea of threatening Tivan Taneleer's precious mining syndicate, and they were wiped out as a result of that. That much was not surprising. What was surprising was the fact that none of Tivan's regular contacts had responded to his request this time.
She followed the trail as to why that was and found that he had failed in his quest to obtain something from the Mad Titan, Thanos. Truly, Tivan's greed knew no bounds. Trying to steal from Thanos? She wondered how he got the courage to do so.
Now isolated from all his regular muscle and his enemies circling around him, waiting for an opening, Tivan showed them all something truly eye opening.
An Earthling? From the looks of it.
One of the weakest species in the galaxy was not what came to mind when she saw the scenes in the report. A lone Midgardian, garbed in Green taking out K'ehmbe would have been one thing, astonishing as it was.
Someone coming out on top, despite being hit by K'ehmbe's full powered strike, one that sensors showed to be the highest ever recorded, was a whole other thing.
"Do we have any bloody idea who that is?" She snapped at the closest person, next to her, prompting a flurry of activity around her. People with powers such as this do not just pop out of nowhere. Tivan's sheer wealth and legacy were such a pain in the arse to deal with, if he had the full strength of this person behind him, he might just start raiding empires to further his "collection".
The energy readings behind those constructs of him were incredible. They didn't have anything resembling that in their records. She had to get to the bottom of this.
They had been this close to a peace treaty with the Kree. She had barely been able to exploit a small loophole in the logic centres of the Supreme Intelligence, convincing it to see that the long time war would only deplete the Kree of their best genetic pool. She carefully nudged it to see that pausing war, even for the time being, could help the Kree regain the genetic diversity it so desperately needed for the Kree to finally "evolve".
The word "evolve" had done the trick, prompting the Supreme Intelligence to pull back most of its forces, all in preparation for a peace treaty signing. She said most, because Ronan the Accuser, had seemingly gone rogue, with the Dark Aster to boot.
"Found him!" Her attention was once again brought to the present as one of the people nearby shoved a report into her personal holo desk. God, old age had nearly duller her once formidable mental prowess. In her heyday, she could have destroyed a dozen Ronans, all at once. Now, all she could do was watch as he went after civilizations, destroying them planet by planet.
She looked through everything as the information kept pouring in, the Intelligence agents scouring the primitive central network that Earthlings used.
Her guess was correct. He was an Earthling, going by the name of Jack Sullivan.
By the Nova Force! He was a child in Earthling years and he was already so powerful.
Wait. He was last seen fighting against the force of Chitauri, having died in an energy storm that was felt all the way over here. So how did he reach the Collector? And what had happened to this Jack Sullivan, for him to seemingly turn from good, fighting for justice, to evil, working for a man like Tivan?
Perhaps, he was unaware of the true nature of Tivan and had taken the assignment because K'ehmbe was clearly more evil, at least on the surface of it.
"Do we have any way of contacting him?" She asked even though she knew the answer to that question.
"No, Ma'am,"
She took in a deep breath as she thought of all the ways this could go wrong. Someone of that calibre coming in the way could jeopardize the peace treaty, if Tivan did something.
"Triple the security. I want every single thing we can find about him with me yesterday. Go to Earth if you have to, but we need something to stop this guy if Tivan ever shows his ugly face in Nova Empire," She snapped out a couple of orders before retreating to her personal chambers.
She had a couple of important calls to make. Most important of which was to King Odin, the All-Father of Asgard.
No matter how urgent it was, she could not order her agents to barge into the Nine Realms without consulting the ruler of it.
So, she waited, as the call rang. It was a special magical device gifted to her when she went to Asgard, all those years back, to establish diplomatic ties with Asgard. She was laughed at by most of her councillors for even trying but Asgard respected strength and she was admittedly high on her strength back then.
It all worked out as she was given a way to officially contact the King directly and she returned with her head still attached to her shoulders. Even standing in King Odin's presence back then was so difficult, with her sensitivity to power. He was like a raging inferno of powers as he did seemingly nothing but speak.
"Hmm?" She murmured to herself as the call was never picked up from the other side. Unperturbed, she tried again.
And again.
Again.
Again.
At some point, she had simply lost count as she just sat there, pressing the call button over and over again. There were multiple colors on the rectangular block of techno magic that no scientist on Xandar could make heads or tails of. The colorful lights indicated the status of the call and more.
Through them, she could see that the call did indeed manage to cross the vast distances between Xandar and Asgard, and the call did ring, but it was simply never picked up.
Was Odin ignoring her? She thought with narrowed eyes, some of the energy leaking from her body as she thought of the crucial engagement that was underway between Kree and themselves, and how it could be completely destabilised by a subject of ASGARD!
She took a deep breath and tried to reign in her emotions but the mere possibility that a war that had resulted in the outright extinction of multiple species, the collapse of a dozen different civilisations along with billions of sentient lives lost, not to mention the loss of habitable worlds, her emotions went haywire.
She just threw the calling device on the ground, her enhanced strength creating hairline cracks in the ground but never even denting the damned thing made up of exotic materials enchanted with Norse runes.
Fine! "I'll do it myself," She muttered to herself as she went out of her personal chambers and gave the order for a landing party to head to Earth, to gather information about him and if possible, look for something or someone who could convince him to return to Earth as soon as possible.
She was sure that no matter how volatile his actions could be on Earth, they would never have the significance required to affect things on a galactic level like the Kree peace treaty signing.
She just hoped that King Odin wouldn't take slight against her actions. After all, he was the one who had ignored her calls a dozen times.
____xx____
Asgard [At the same time]
–King Odin [Loki in Disguise]--
Hmm. What to do? What to do?
He thought to himself in giddiness as he firmly held onto Gungnir. Sure, the damned thing refused to recognise him and was as good as a block of solid Uru right now but it was not as if he had someone who could check if he was acknowledged or not.
As far as the rest of Asgard was concerned, he was Odin All-Father, King of Asgard, and ruler of the Nine Realms. None would dare try to ask him to identify himself.
The mere thought of someone replacing Odin would be akin to Blasphemy on Asgard.
All he had to do to secure his reign was to get rid of a couple of hurdles and he did just that, very easily in fact. Thor was way too drowned in grief to notice anything as he all but exiled him to realms unknown.
Heimdall…he had to admit that Heimdall was the only one left who could see through him but thankfully, he had spent quite a lot of time in his youth developing his stealth to a point where even the Watcher himself could not see him.
"Retiring" him of his duties after centuries of hard work was such hogwash that he had to pat himself on the back for getting through the entire speech with a straight face.
And lo and behold, Asgard was effectively his to rule, a Frost Giant's to rule.
Now, once again, what to do? He had already commissioned a giant statue of himself in commemoration of his valiant sacrifice.
What more could he do to celebrate himself?
Ah! He knew exactly what he could do. A play should do-
Hmm? He looked to the side as some sort of buzzing noise, similar to the irritating ones that Midgardians made all the time, began buzzing all around him. He spent an hour looking for the noise as it kept on buzzing in his ears, even as he cast spell after spell to insulate his ears.
He would have grown mad with the noise, thinking that somehow, Odin had got one over him, but the buzzing noise stopped.
He stood still for a couple of seconds before sighing in relief as the noise didn't return.
Now, about that play, who should he cast as himself?
Word Count - 3395
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