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The sun turns black, land sinks into sea;
the bright stars scatter from the sky.
Flame flickers up against the world-tree;
fire flies high against heaven itself.
Loki is the first to realise that the world is ending. He doubts his own instincts at first, ignores the three winters, the frozen sun. This is too soon, he thinks, too soon. The prophecies have yet to be fulfilled. He should have been punished first, should have spent an eternity bound to a rock with the great serpent’s venom dripping on his face, Thor should have caught him, caught up with him before Rangarok.
But still he feels the world shifting slightly as Yggdrasil shudders and he hears, softly, faintly, the sound of Heimdall’s horn. He looks around him and sees Midgard for what it is, a rock, floating in space. Sometimes you can’t tell that you’ve been bound until the time comes for you to be set free.
He wipes his eyes, brushing away the venom that he didn’t even know was there and smiles, sadly.
*
“Not in Tadfield this time, then?” Crowley asks with a practiced smile, full of charm and fake cheer. “Good to see that at least Upstairs and Below are learning from their past mistakes.”
He had tried small talk and it didn’t work. There was only so many things you can talk about with someone after three of the Four had paid him a visit. He clutches the Bentley’s steering wheel with tight, trembling hands.
He sees Adam nod slightly from the backseat, and feels a bit better because that’s the first reaction he’s gotten out of him so far. He looks so small, sitting there, and so sick and so human. It makes the demon want to throw up. Or maybe hug the boy.
One thing is certain, Aziraphale will find it really hard to defend his precious Heaven and the ineffable designs after he sees his godson again.
Crowley drives the rest of the way quietly, staring on the road. He doesn’t turn the radio on, or wear his glasses.
This isn’t something that style can fix and he’s so very tired.
*
Thor is the next to know, because Loki tells him.
He refuses to believe it at first, but Loki looks at him and puts a hand on his shoulder, not pushing, not threatening, but gently.
“Smell the air, brother. Feel the earth under your feet.”
Thor smells the burning wood of Yggdrasil and the arrival of the storm of storms. He feels mountains topple, and trees come loose from the soil. He feels Fenrir break free, and the stars that were his chains fade out from the skies. Mjolnir feels heavy in his hand and he lets it fall to the ground.
“Too soon,” he whispers and Loki nods, silent.
It has been a long time since he last saw his brother weep.
*
The gods in America are free to move. They fly and swim and walk and they go home, to die. Shadow sleeps somewhere, with a sprig of holly stuck in his breast. Nobody wakes him, it wouldn't do any good.
*
Aziraphale locks the door of his bookshop, although he doesn't need to, not anymore. He walks across the dark street and enters the car. Crowley is waiting. On the back seat is a body, just a body by now, and he barely recognizes who the body used to be.
“Where will we take him?” he asks, sitting on the front seat.
“Our park, I thought,” Crowley answers lightly, as if it didn’t hurt and as if it didn’t even matter. “Neutral ground.”
Aziraphale nods, stays silent.
Crowley watches the road.
“I tried to save him.”
“I know, my dear.”
The boy who is a man who was more than a man is still. He’s not meant to wake up.
*
“I need to go,” Loki whispers when Odin dies and Naglfar is ready to sail, and their time is done. They have their roles to play and Loki needs to ride with the monsters, and face Heimdall one last time while Thor fights and avenges and slays Loki’s children and bleeds and then, finally, takes his nine steps.
“Maybe we’ll meet again. Before,” Thor says and they both know that they won’t but Thor still lies and Loki can’t find it in himself to crush this final straw that he and his brother can hold on to.
“Maybe we will.”
What else could he say after all, there at the end of everything? What else could he do but lie? Loki Silvertongue, whose last lie was an act of kindness.
“Take care, brother,” he adds because that’s a true wish, a truth and he’d like to end his life with it.
Thor puts his hand on the nape of his neck, holds him close.
“We will see each other again.”
Look at the mighty Thor Odinson, Loki thinks as he tries to smile, ending his life with a lie, all for the sake of me.
Thor lifts Mjolnir. Loki turns his back on him and walks towards the sea.
*
Destruction walks the world, Death takes the people and their gods, Destiny waits for it all to be over. Their brothers and sisters are long gone. Even Despair. Even Dream.
*
There is an angel and a demon sitting on a bench in a park. They are holding hands and leaning close to one another, close enough to make it difficult to tell them apart. They share a look, a word, and they squeeze each other’s hands. They close their eyes. Slowly, their wings fade away, into dust and then the memory of dust and into nothingness.
There are two bodies sitting on a bench in a park. They are leaning against one another and for the first time in years their faces look at rest, peaceful.
Nobody mourns their death. Each took the one person that would with him.
*
Thor is walking to his brother, again, always, and the earth moves to carry him further, help him cover more ground with his limited steps. One step after the other and he’s crossed the world in eight strides before he finds Loki, at last. Heimdall is falling but Loki is too and Thor doesn’t think before he takes one last step. His knees give away and his strength fails him then and the Thunderer falls.
The last thing he sees in green eyes, the last thing he feels is Loki’s hand on his cheek and Loki’s magic engulfing him. He smiles, tries to speak.
The storm stops and the ocean calms. For a second there is quiet and everything holds still but then a scream is heard, raw and painful enough to tear the sky in two. It goes on for a long time but then this, too, stops, when Loki dies.
She sees rising for the second time
the earth from the ocean, ever green;
The world is quiet.
Shadow opens his eyes, brushes the holly sprig away from his chest and sits up.
He stretches and stands, not a shadow anymore but the light that cast it, golden-white and warm. Balder looks at the woman sitting next to him.
“You again,” he says and there’s a smile in his voice. There’s a smile in Eostre’s face too, as she strokes the wings of the small falcon that’s perched on her shoulder. “You wouldn’t know what happened to my pants would you?”
*
The earth breathes.
Adam opens his eyes and blinks at the sudden brightness of the sky, the warmth of the sun. He stands, a boy again, youthful and energetic. There is a woman next to him, with a basket of golden apples and he grins at her.
“Can I have one of your apples Miss?” he asks. “I’ve always been a fan of apples and these look like the best I’ll ever taste!”
Iddun gives him an apple.