lost and found
"Cora?"
"Hey, Brunnhilde, long time no see"
- - -
Two days ago
Cora walked through the gates, the gates that lead her to the magnificently glorious, undying and mystic land, Valhalla.
The heavenly realm was practically infinite, a lot of people were sent there in the daily, after passing the series of trials and errors to determine if they'd be worthy to join the angels on paradise or not, as the realm is always growing in population, it expands itself as it goes.
The place was divided in communes, most creatures stayed with their own species, humans with humans, elves with elves, giants with giants, etc. But every place has its exceptions, there were lots of mixed neighbourhoods, where people detached themselves from what they thought they knew and accepted the rest of their eternal lives, surrounded by beings regardless of their body, only caring for the soul
Cora was making her way towards one of the oldest districts, mostly vikings resided there, plus other creatures who sympathized with the nordic lifestyle.
She finally arrived and hurried towards her favourite bar, 'The Magno', and yes, it was ran and owned by Alexander the Great, or Alejo, for the friends. Don't let it fool you though, after a few centuries of being evaluated he finally passed to Valhalla, leaving behind his old conquering schemes and welcoming a new phase, the one where the only thing that mattered was being the most renowned bar in the neighbourhood, that and his weird and innovative concoctions.
Cora stumbled upon the bar for the first time when her mother died and the crown had fallen upon her, too overwhelmed by grief and the chaos Freya's death had unleashed all around the realms, she drank away her pain and befriended Alejo, who let her crash at the back of the bar for the night, when it was too late in the night to be teleporting.
Since then she made it somewhat of a tradition to visit him once per year, always on Magno's birthday, and that day had already come about that year, so when the man drying cups saw the woman walking through the doors, he didn't know if he should be excited or worried as hell by the double visit he was getting in the same year
"Coralina, what in Hel are you doing? When I was complaining to Lenora I was purely jesting, I didn't mean it for you to literally come here" stressed the man when Cora approached him, worried that he had drawn away the woman from her duties
"Good to see you too man, don't worry, I didn't come here for you" she assured, giving him a quick hug. Alejo feigned hurt at her words, but then furrowed his brows as a way of asking her who she was there for if not him
"Are the Valkyries here yet?" Asked Cora, answering his question. Alejo's face fell as it dawned on him what that day was, he was still proud of Cora for finally spending it with the other victims of the battle, he knew how hard it was for the grey-eyed woman.
"They are in the back, my condolences, my queen" he said softly, she brushed him off with a small kind smile and said her goodbyes before going towards where the warriors would be
Cora had never joined the other valkyries in their commemoration of that battle, their last battle.
Sigrún died, and, at first Cora couldn't comprehend how. You see, Valhalla's royals could only die if it was their choice to do so, most commonly they walked through the Stergne Gate, or 'Door of the Star', residents of Valhalla and royals of the realm could go through it and would become one with the universe, in the shape of a star. Since the royal family had Valhalla's blood coursing through their veins, they didn't go to heaven when they died, because they'd had access to it during their lives. Apart from the door, any other approach would work on them, a bullet, a blade, poison, anything, as long as the person chose their own fate.
For many decades, Cora wondered how her sister could have died during battle, she shouldn't have been wishing to die, she should have been wishin to defend those who were under her protection. It took her many moons of solitude, of regret, of sorrow, before she understood that Sigrún had taken someone's death. Cora looked through uncountable amounts of files regarding the battle, until she finally found the one which reported that her older sister had been impaled by a poisoned sword, it was directed towards one of the other warriors, but she chose to step forward and save her teammate's life.
The sword and poison alone shouldn't have killed her, but given that her mind was set on saving her friend, no matter the price, and that the blade was also greatly contaminated, she ended up fixing her own doom
Sigrún had chosen her fate, thus becoming another bright dot in the infinite of the skies
When Cora finally wrapped her head around it, she couldn't bring herself to see the Valkyries, who all had died and had been brought back together in their after-life, all but her older sister. Even worse, she couldn't imagine seeing the warrior that Sigrún had tried to save.
But finally, she 'grew a pair', as Lenora called it, and joined the women at 'The Magno', where she knew they got together every year, no matter where they were or what they were doing, on the anniversary of the battle.
"Is that little Cora I see there?" Gasped one of the warriors, the first to see her approach the table, Kára, a dirty blonde with pale skin and a scar that went from her left eyelid to her jaw, Sigrún's best friend. Everyone on the table turned their heads following where Kára's eyes were fixated
"Hey" Cora sheepishly waved at the women at the table.
All the confidence she usually had when she was in Valhalla, being queen, was gone the moment she realized she'd have to, actually, talk to the warriors. The ones who saw her go from pink pigtails, to her rebellious 'only dark colours' phase, the ones who were always around her sister, the ones she always felt intimidated by.
Being in front of them now, after a thousand years, made her feel as if she was back to being only 100 years old, tailing behind her sister and friends after watching them practice on the training grounds.
Hildr, a black skinned woman, with one eye a warm hazel and the other a cold teal hue, the oldest of them all, got up from her seat and walked towards Cora, who watched her as she moved, not being able to do so herself, until she felt strong arms around her and the woman's raspy voice
"Thanks for coming, it means a lot" whispered Hildr as they broke the embrace
She made her way back to the table and gestured for Cora to join them. She did and soon everyone was engulfed by friendly chatter, mostly telling stories of their fallen friend.
Cora didn't sulk anymore, after a few centuries had passed she learnt to deal with the fact that she had no family left and instead of mourning, she was washed over by a feeling of indifference. But now, for the first time, she let herself feel, and still not be sad by the remembrance of Sigrún Freysdottir, having a slight feeling that that was exactly the way her sister would like to be remembered
A couple of hours had passed when Cora suddenly realized that of the usual 22 Valkyries, there was one missing, apart from Sigrún
"Um, where is Brun?" Asked the grey and purple haired woman after counting and working out who wasn't there "Does she not take part in these gatherings?"
"What do you mean, Cory?" Questioned Gondul, the sweet ginger that was directly in front of her, eyeing the others who looked confused by the question as well
"Honey, Brunnhilde is alive..." informed Hildr softly, as if speaking to a ticking bomb
"W-what? No, no, they-" she started, "you, all of you, died, she's not- where is she?" mumbled Cora laughing lightly in disbelief, looking around, waiting for someone to call bluff and say it was a joke
"Cora, dear, Sigrún saved her, before the battle ended she fell, we haven't heard from her since then, but she hasn't showed up around here, that's for sure" explained Golma, the bald woman sitting right next to the queen
"We didn't mention it because we naturally thought you knew, given you're the queen of all this" added Skuld with an apologetic look, waving her hands around to give emphasis
Cora got up from her seat after a minute of pure silence, "Sorry, it seems my visit will have to be cut short, i'll see you again sometime soon, bye" she said in a hurry not looking back as she left the bar, throwing a kiss at Alejo before teleporting away from there
"Man, that woman has some unresolved trauma, doesn't she?" yelled the ex-emperor bartender to the group of female warriors, who hummed in agreement and worry that all that Cora had bottled up during the years, would end up coming to bite the queen when she least expected it to
- - -
"Why didn't you tell me, you big bronce son of a bitch?!" Scolded angrily the woman as she fell through a portal in front of Heimdall, inside Himinbjorg, the gates of Asgard
"You never asked?" Answered the man, as if it were obvious
"Are you actually- Forget it" stuttered Cora, trying to gather her breath after running out of the bar "tell me where she is" demanded the woman, her lungs now calm, but her eyes a deep purple filled with anger
"She's in Sakaar but I must let you know that-"
"Shove your warnings where not even you can see" she snarled, "you're a bad friend, and i'm not bringing you peanut butter cookies next time i'm around" and with that she walked - or stomped - through the newly made portal, not letting the man finish his warning, something she'd deeply regret soon.
- - -
She landed in what looked to be a dining hall, she most definitely was in the Grandmaster's palace, or as she liked to call him, Jeff, who knows why, Cora said that 'Grandmaster' was too long and that he looks like a Jeff. It also sounded silly when scolding him
Talking about Jeff, there he was, walking, or jogging, towards her with an indecipherable look, as was the usual case with that man.
"Ah, Francis, so long, it's been so long, what a delight- Hey topaz! look who it is, the supreme one!" he called to his guard, who just gave him a bored nod, and he turned his attention back to her unexpected guest "What you doing here? It's been... what? Two billion years?" he pondered looking to the sky, "or maybe just ten, i'll never understand the universal time measurement system, I decided to just call it 'pupkins', it's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it? 'Pupkins'. It's been 20 pupkins since you've last visited" the man ranted enthusiastically as he guided her towards the principal table in the whole room
When they arrived and sat, he shut up for a second, giving Cora the opportunity to answer his first question, before he went on about the planet's time organization
"Hi, Jeff, and, well, I'm looking for someone and I got word she's been hanging around this pretty dumpster..." She said while shoving something that resembled pancakes, but with sakaarian ingredients, into her mouth, and they were good
"Mmm, well, we've got a lot of people coming from a lot of places, need some more details, sweets, although I hope you weren't looking for Carlo, you know, my cousin, 'cause I had to you know... pardon him" he said with a grimace "so, yeah, it was a really heartbreaking moment, I also had two crashing down yesterday, brothers apparently, I sent one to fight, the other is-" his rambling was interrupted by Cora who tried to keep her patience during the long and fruitless speech
"Her name is Brunnhilde, know her?" she said, showing the palm of her hand where purple mist revealed a hologram-like image of the valkyrie. The grandmaster shot up from his seat and started clapping cheerily
"Oh, yes, si, groot, oui, Scrapper 142, she's the best..." he started before he trailed off, and his energetic smile got changed by a frown "Sorry Cora, she's a gem, can't let you have her" he said menacingly, "but it was so fun having you here, are you staying?" He finished, going back to his bubbly demeanor in a second
Cora pondered for a second, she thought about striking a deal with him, but something told her she'd need to pull that card out later, so, she decided to fake being disappointed, but tricked him into giving her information about what Brunnhilde, or scrapper 142, did on her daily basis, and left shortly after.
Apparently there had been a fight the night before, and every time the 'Grand Champion' fought, 142 would train him the next day. So she made her way towards what she found out was the champion's chambers, in hopes of running into her sister's old friend. Clearly when she turned the corner and saw who the alleged champion was, she almost had a heart attack
"PURPLE GIRL!"
The Hulk.
"HULK? What the hell? I left for one fucking day and this happens?" Cora questions no one in particular, since she knew Hulk wouldn't give her an useful answer, she looked through the room and saw that one of the windows was broken and sighed
"Okay buddy, i'm gonna need you to explain to me what happened" she said calmly, even if her brain felt like it was on fire and little brain people were running around in panic
"AVENGERS FIGHT. BANNER. QUINJET. HULK COME OUT. CRASH AND LOST" said Hulk while doing different hand gestures to sort of describe what had happened
"The Avengers were in a fight, Banner was in the Quinjet, then you came out and somehow crashed here?" The Hulk nodded in confirmation at the woman's interpretation of his words "Well, what about if we let Bruce come back, huh?" She asked hoping to persuade him into changing back
"NO BANNER ONLY HULK!" he growled, not earning a flinch from the queen, but an eye roll at the uncooperative beast
"Okay, okay, then tell me, what happened there?" Cora questioned pointing at the shattered window
"TINY AVENGER. BAD FRIEND" he yelled angry and sad, Cora felt her eyes widen the second she heard Hulk's nickname for Thor, one she had heard one too many times before, it was obvious the god and the beast had unresolved businesses, and it showed in the hostility between them any time Banner's friend made an appearance
"Thor is here?" She asked even though she already knew the answer, Hulk nodded and Cora felt her heart rate speed up like crazy, if she thought she was panicking before, this would be considered a colossal nerve wreck, what the hell was she going to do?
"Hulk, honey, you have to go and find him, okay? Find tiny avenger, and do not mention to the idiot that i'm here" she ordered, the last part particularly sternly.
He nodded and jumped through another window, instead of the already broken one, and made his way, hopefully, towards the god of thunder, as she had instructed
Not a second after the green beast had jumped off, another figure made itself present in the chambers by the sound of a bottle shattering, making her turn around to face the source of the disruption
"Cora?"
Upon seeing such a familiar face, so out of its familiar surroundings, she gulped down her nerves before greeting the woman her sister had supposedly given her life for
"Hey, Brunnhilde, long time no see"