Victory and Defeat
The Goddess of Death was imposing, but Eden was determined not to be imposed upon. This wasn’t going to be like that man hitting her on Sakaar. She was the Goddess of Life, and she would be able to protect herself. She was sure of it.
“Model walk, LED catsuit, antlers like Imogen, and far too much black eyeshadow,” she whispered to herself. “I can take her.”
For her part, Hela seemed equally amused. “When the Valkyrie fails you send… a human in loungewear?”
Eden lifted her chin. “I’m not a human.” Well, not entirely. “I’m Asgardian.”
“Like those useless courtiers who are currently abandoning you on this planet?” Hela intoned, gesturing toward the ship. She shrugged. “Child’s play.” She carelessly flicked her hand. Quicker than thought, black blades flew from her—
And bounced harmlessly aside. There was a golden aura growing, glowing around Eden. She began to smile.
Hela frowned and tried again, throwing the deadly spears with far more force.
They clattered aside or shattered on impact.
“Who ARE you?” Hela snarled.
“I’m Idun,” Eden answered.
For the first time, Hela seemed afraid.
---
“Come ON,” the Valkyrie growled, dragging the wounded Thor toward the ship.
“No—EDEN!”
“She’ll be alright!” the Valkyrie insisted. “She tamed Fenrir—she knows what she’s doing!”
“She--?” But now he could see Hela and Eden facing off on the bridge—Hela’s spears bouncing casually aside.
“Now come on!” The Valkyrie dragged him up the gangplank, and the ship began to rise into the air.
They were abandoning her.
Thor scrambled back toward the gangplank, tried to climb out as the ship left the Bifrost behind, but he collapsed again onto the floor, his vision growing dark from pain and blood loss.
“Get him to a side room!” the Valkyrie ordered.
“No!” he panted. He couldn’t make them go back for her, but at least he would watch her until the end.
---
Hela grew more furious, more wild in her attacks. But no matter how thick, how sharp her blades, no matter whether she attacked Eden from in front or behind, nothing seemed to land.
“Death cannot destroy life,” Eden murmured.
Hela glanced up at the sky. “It seems your friends are abandoning you,” she pointed out. “Leaving you locked in an eternal battle with Death. Perhaps I should persuade them to stay?” She threw one hand out toward the ship, but Eden raised her hand as well, and a golden flash stopped the huge black blade that had sprung out of the water to impale the ship.
“I won’t be locked in an eternal battle,” Eden answered.
“You can’t kill me,” Hela snarled. “You are Life, not Death! Your powers are all defensive—you cannot attack.”
“Death, be not proud,” Eden recited with a grin. “I don’t have to kill you. We have someone else for that.”
“What?”
Loki sped past in the party ship and nodded at her. There was a crash, a roar, and Hela turned toward the palace. Surtur, grown nearly as tall as the mountains behind him, raised his flaming head above the streets, above the palace, swinging his sword of fire, destroying everything in his path.
“No—” Hela murmured…
Eden gave a whistle that made the Goddess of Death jump. “Fenrir!” The huge black wolf cocked his head. “Sic.”
Fenrir leapt forward, snatching Hela’s headdress in his mouth and racing toward the palace, toward Surtur. Hela shouted in fury, but Fenrir plunged on, straight into the fires of Asgard.
“Death, thou shalt die,” Eden murmured, and turned back toward the ship. It was so high, so far away, but… If there was one thing she could do, Eden thought, it was jump.
She braced her feet, took a short run down the Bifrost, and leapt—
—landing neatly beside Thor. They closed the doors, and they were away—while Asgard burned below them.
---
A couple of Asgardians half-supported, half-carried Thor to a side room, Eden hurrying after them. “You’re not hurt?” he asked hoarsely as they deposited him on a bed and removed his bloody cuirass.
“No, I’m fine,” she answered swiftly, placing her hand over the jagged rent between his shoulder blades.
He cried out, his back arching as pain coursed through him.
“Sorry—I’m sorry,” Eden was saying, her other hand gentle on his shoulder. “I have to stop the bleeding quickly.
“It’s alright,” he managed breathlessly as the pain lessened. Cool relief came after, as she healed the stab wounds in his back and forearm, the slash in his side. Very few weapons could so wound an Asgardian, but his sister’s blades had nearly killed him. Death no longer seemed quite so close, though he was still exhausted and sore.
She touched his right cheek, her hand beginning to glow as it had over his other wounds. “I don’t know that I can—” She bit her lip. “I don’t think I can restore your eye.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He was alive; that was enough.
She covered it with her hand, and he saw a faint golden glow through his good eye. “There,” she said at last. Now—”
There was a flash, and they both looked toward the observation window—as Asgard exploded in a cloud of light.
In a moment, Thor saw it all. The throne where his father had sat, where he and Loki and Hela had all sat, deciding the fate of their people. The room where his mother had died. The courtyard with the pear tree, where he and Loki had played together so many times…
His home—gone. All of it, gone forever.
He was sobbing, shaking with grief. Eden’s arms were around him, holding him, rocking him. “What have I done?” he gasped.
“What you had to do,” she answered, her voice unsteady, and he realized she was crying too—whether for him or for the home she had never known, he didn’t know. “You did it to save your people. You saved us all.”
It was a long time before he could do anything but weep, but at last he had cried all his tears. “Come on,” Eden said gently, “you need to rest—and I need to see to the others.”
She helped him pull off his boots and the rest of his grimy and blood-stained clothing and pulled the blankets up over him. He closed his one good eye as he felt her place her warm hand on his brow. “Rest,” she whispered, and then, as the darkness closed over him, he thought he felt a soft kiss on his forehead. “Rest, my love.”
---
There were many injuries to see to, but luckily, none of them was as serious as Thor’s had been, and at last Eden sat down—on the floor, with her back to the wall. She rolled her shoulders and sighed wearily.
“Long day?” a voice said, and she craned her neck to see Loki standing over her.
“No shit.” She closed her eyes tiredly. “I’m hungry. Do we have anything to eat on this ship?”
“I’m not sure. But I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
She opened her eyes again and frowned up at him. “What do you mean? We’ve got hundreds of people to feed!”
“I found something while I was in Odin—” He paused, and went on, “—our father’s treasure chambers. I think it belongs to you.” He held out a small, carved wooden box.
Eden took it gingerly and opened it up. It was full of what looked like tiny drops of gold, glowing slightly in the dim light. They were thrumming with some kind of energy, some—life. It seemed to call to something deep inside of her. She picked one out and held it up to get a better look.
It was an apple seed.
A broad smile spread across her face as she looked up at Loki again. “I think you may be right. It isn’t going to be a problem.”