Loki watched Nataku as she slept, breathing softly on the bed as she lay beside Lilith. Thoughtfully, he stroked her hair. She looked far different than she did earlier. It was as if they had unleashed a great deal of anger. She looked like the Angel of Death then but now, she just looked like an angel. Loki permitted himself half a smile as he stared at her, thankful that she was alive. It was ironic that she was now sleeping soundly beside Lilith, the so-called Preventer Valkyrie whom she was trying to kill and vice-versa earlier.
“Are they going to be all right?” Loki asked out of the blue.
“Yes, but no healing spell will do.” Odin said thoughtfully as he walked towards his brother, handing him a cup of hot coffee and holding Mercury in another. Odin took a sip, paused for a moment and said, “They have to recuperate on their own. The energy from the Sealing Runes took a lot out of them.”
Loki looked at his reflection on the dark coffee before sipping it and setting it down on the side table. He paused for a moment and thought, patching up the events together. Laeding was in Nataku’s body. Dromi was in Esmeralda’s. He was trying to make sense out of it when Son Goku spoke, “That was just the tip of the iceberg.”
“What?” The brothers chorused.
“That energy Nataku unleashed.” Goku spoke again, “That wasn’t even Gotterdamerung.”
“Gotter…damerung…” Loki asked beneath his breath.
“The power to annihilate everything…” Son Goku sat down on the floor, “…Even gods.”
But the brothers did not seem like they were taken aback. Somehow, they already knew. Loki frowned and both looked away. Odin started towards a small chair nearby, putting Mercury on a smaller stool. Son Goku eyed each of them in disappointment. Were these two gods? They looked stupid and embarrassing. Odin felt horrible. He had asked to search for the Sealing Runes knowing that Nataku was the one to be sealed. It was weird but he did not know why he made such a proposal. But why did Nataku join the search if she had the Rune all along? And why did Esmeralda turn into Lilith? Why did she have Dromi?
Odin’s head began to ache.
And why does thinking about Esmeralda make his head hurt?
“You’re thinking about Esmeralda again?” Loki asked Odin who winced.
“Aesirs tend to forget an awful lot…” Son Goku commented thoughtlessly as he stretched.
“It’s stupid but I don’t remember much.” Odin tried chuckling a bit.
“It’s because of that rain of sparkling light that only Nataku could see.” Loki replied seriously, “She had powers far greater than Asgard, powers that were slowly breaking out, allowing her to see what normal Aesirs were not able to see and dispel what the Queen Mother and the Jade Emperor had cast.”
“Father and Mother tampered with your memories.” Loki was frowning now as he reached for the coffee cup and sipped, paused and spoke again, “That sparkling light affects the memories – adds to it and erases parts of it.”
“What for?” Odin asked no one in particular. It was ironic that he was the God of Knowledge yet he was the one who was asking questions whose answers he already knew. Insulting and embarrassing as it may seem, Odin had to ask because he wanted to – had to – hear an alternate answer, any answer except the truth.
“To sustain their place in defiance to the Weaving of Life.” Loki looked at Odin and said, “But I was wondering… What was Laeding doing in Nataku’s body?”
“The Divine Couple… embedded it… in her body… and soul.” Mercury said between moans as he got up slowly, “It was to seal Nataku’s excessive power.”
“But if they implanted it in her body, why did they have to let us find it?” Odin was raising an eyebrow.
“Nataku was sent on this trip so that Laeding could break.” Mercury said again, a hand rubbing his head.
“That doesn’t make sense.” Loki replied, setting the cup aside and straightening to face Mercury, “They implant the Rune to seal her and wanted it broken?”
Son Goku grunted and Mercury paused for a moment. Loki wanted to slice his anticipation with a knife. It was then that Odin gasped, “I think I understand.”
“Three runes exist in order of capacity – Laeding, Dromi and Gleipnir.” Odin began, “The power called Gotterdamerung undergoes stages – the Effluence, the Omega and the Ragnarok. Laeding seals the first stage, Dromi the second and finally Gleipnir. However, the seals are activated one at a time. For as long as Gotterdamerung has not evolved to its next stage, the next Rune will not be activated.”
Loki nodded, encouraging him to continue.
“Laeding was weakening and it was inconvenient if it broke at a random instance.” Odin continued, “So Asgard thought of breaking it during a time when they could seal it as well.”
“And they used an innocent soul for that…” Loki growled.
And then silence.
“It had to be done.” Odin said softly, flatly – hurt – as he hung his head away from Loki whose eyes grew wide in a wide array of words and thoughts that Odin did not want to know. And yet, Loki would speak his mind.
“Had to be done!” Loki stood violently as he stared at Odin, “Does Esmeralda’s soul mean nothing to you!”
“Esmeralda’s soul means everything to me.” Odin muttered lowly, not even turning to look at his brother.
“Then why?”
“It… doesn’t matter…”
“Doesn’t matter!” Loki blasted, taking violent steps towards Odin, grabbing him by the collar and slamming him onto the wall, “What about Esmeralda’s soul? Her torment? Doesn’t that matter?” Son Goku got up slowly, bothered by the beginning of the exchange between the brothers. Mercury was still groggily getting up, faultily hovering.
“Esmeralda…” Odin still wasn’t looking at Loki as he replied, enduring the sharp headache that came as he spoke the name and choking a bit from the way Loki held him, “…is a Valkyrie now. Her name… is … is Lilith.” Ah, the tears were now beginning to come and yet Odin continued to speak, “Gods… are not allowed to… fall in love… with… mortals. You know that. I should be happy. She’s no longer a mortal.”
“Happy?” Loki shook his brother in a tone as if a command to face him, “She doesn’t even remember how you met, why you met or who she was when you met her! Are you telling me that she is happy with how she is now, with her memories erased and tampered upon!”
“You’re just saying that because yours didn’t work out well!” Odin glared with an angry raise of intonation at Loki, somehow struggling from the grasp with his sudden stirring.
“You think I’m in vain?” Loki growled, pinning Odin harder, “I pity you and I pity Esmeralda, especially her who had only been the victim.”
“I’m doing what’s best for us.” Odin replied.
“IDIOT!” Loki shouted again, his fist landing on Odin’s face. The God of Knowledge threw to the side, falling on the floor with a thud from his unbalanced form. Mercury gasped, unsure how he was supposed to come between the two if ever. Son Goku, who was still obviously bothered by the exchange, was shifting his glances from Loki to Odin. Loki was looking at Odin still on the floor.
“You’re doing what’s best for yourself!” Loki spoke, his voice loud in emphasis, his eyes wide in anger, and his body shaking in emotion as he looked at his brother who had not been moving from his posture on the floor.
Myself… Am I not ever allowed to think of myself?
More silence.
No, I’m not thinking of only myself.
“Sacrifices have to be made.” Odin spoke, sitting up from his fall, rubbing his cheek. He winced a little from the throbbing. He wanted to hit Loki back but it was not his place in this world to be hitting his brother. It would not be him anymore. And besides, Odin found that reason for him to commit such an act of violence – a small one it may be – a waste of time and effort.
“You call the diminishing and tampering of one’s memories and character a sacrifice!” Loki advanced to pick up his brother probably to hit him again. Mercury shouted his name and it was at this point that Son Goku came between them by means of holding Loki back. “I don’t believe you’re saying this rubbish!” Loki pointed at Odin, “Shame on you!”
Call me whatever you want to. This time I’m doing what I want.
“Loki, please, enough.” Son Goku muttered to Loki, his golden eyes looking up to him. Loki closed his mouth and relaxed his shoulders as his emotions made his chest heave in breathing. He looked down to the side, his face away from Odin. Son Goku looked at Loki as if he understood, rubbing his back gently.
And the sparkles from his eyes came again.
Son Goku bit his lip.
“I can’t believe you’ve been turned into this…” Loki shook, tears streaming on his cheeks and Odin blinked in partial surprise as Loki continued, “What… Who… turned you… into this…? You don’t know… how much… I… I pity you… my own brother.”
“Despicable!” Loki yelled, energy of darkness sweeping outward as wind from him. He turned violently and headed for the door. Son Goku sighed, trailing after the God of Darkness. Mercury faultily flew towards Odin and asked him if he was all right. The God of Knowledge continued to sit on the floor nodded absently as he saw only the back of his leaving brother.
Horrible.
Odin was horrible. Loki continued to tread angrily away from the pod. He had never thought Odin would be so self-centered. Sure, he, himself, was once like that, but enough was enough. Had Odin not learned enough from the experiences of others? If experience was the best teacher, and it probably was, Loki felt sorry for Odin that he wanted to learn from it himself. Loki finally came to a stop, finding a boulder in his height in his way.
“Despicable!” Loki clenched his fist, aiming and poising to strike at the rock when Son Goku’s Nyoi-bo stretched to hinder him. Loki growled, glaring at Son Goku who was standing a good distance to his right.
“Personal reason doesn’t justify venting your anger on nature.” Son Goku murmured.
Loki dropped his thought of argument. It wasn’t as if the rock could relieve him of the situation anyway. He relaxed his shoulders and threw himself on the grass as Nyoi-bo resized itself to normal. Loki closed his eyes and opened it again, looking at the blue sky.
“You have issues, huh?” Son Goku started towards Loki.
“Odin does not understand properly and that’s just sick.” Loki said thoughtfully, his mind as if lost in the clouds as they passed by.
There was silence and then Goku spoke, “You and Nataku… You’re… uh…”
“I love her.”
“Really?” Son Goku was half-smiling with a raised eyebrow, “Because by the way you move around her, I would have never guessed.”
“Nataku is my wife.”
“Well, that’s just…!” Son Goku exclaimed as he sat down beside Loki, “Well, by the way she moves around you, I would have never really, really guessed.”
“If you promise to shut up and let me do the talking, I’ll tell you.” Loki said thoughtlessly and Goku nodded with sparkly eyes eager to know.
“Nataku… used to be… a mortal.”