Jötunheim

Epilogue: Cycles
~BlackRoseRaven

Jötunheim had been pretty fun. Antares and Innocence were even able to enjoy a day and a half with Luna and Scrivener afterwards, exploring Yggdrasil, wrestling stone giants, then zigzagging wildly back and forth across marvelous, untamed lands all day and night, having the time of their lives.

Then Luna and Scrivener had been called back to duty by Morgan, and Antares and Innocence had been left to explore Jötunheim on their own for a few days, revisiting places they hadn't been able to fully enjoy, and making the most of their time in this weird and wonderful realm.

Although the nights got cold, and lonely, and they spent too much time questioning themselves, the people they loved, and whether or not they could really make any of this okay.

But goddammit, one way or the other, Antares was determined to make things work out okay. Not just for him, not just for his family, but everyone he could possibly save: he wasn't going to let himself be left out of the loop any longer, and come hell or high water, he was going to help his parents and brother solve the problem of the drifting, rotting worlds whether they liked it or not.

Sin was pretty smart, after all. And he was pretty good with his hooves. That had to count for something, right?

After a week of wasting time and accomplishing absolutely nothing, they managed to find their way to a ferry across the Stjarna Flow, the ephemeral river that separated Asgard from Jötunheim. Prestige was already waiting for them at the port where they disembarked, and as always, seeing her washed away Antares' anxiety and frustration, and reminded him of why he fought so hard not just for his friends and family, but for the purity of simply doing the right thing.

Another week spent with his marefriend, his girl, his not-wife, where he talked with her and made love to her and maybe cried a little, too. A week that Innocence spent tooling around Asgard, poking her nose in where it didn't belong and raiding Valhalla's libraries and spying on dignitaries.

And when the week was over, Antares and Innocence left – or were kicked out, depending on how you looked at it – and were sent back home by dimensional rift in spite of the fact that a hundred years ago overuse of, rifts were what had caused such a weakening in reality that Loki had been able to put his plans into motion in the first place.

Antares lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling as the house wandered slowly through the Everfree Forest, in a world that no longer really felt like home, where he couldn't do anything to help, where he felt as if he had retired. He lay naked, his crystalline wings outstretched, his front hooves behind his head as he thought about how he was still such a goddamn child: all these promises that he was going to leap into action and save the world...

And here he was, laying in bed, doing nothing.

It was made worse by the fact that he knew something was happening out there. And worse than worse because he knew this was partly his own fault. Why hadn't he made a snit in Heaven and gotten himself sent to Clockwork World instead? Why hadn't he demanded to talk to Thorn through a scrying mirror or something? Why had he just... let himself be sent home?

He was still the same person he'd always been, and that was why, he supposed. Good at talking a big game. Terrible at standing up to his own family.

He hated that. And he regretted not fighting harder... not fighting at all to at least find out what was up, because he knew if they were left to their own devices, Thorn and his parents would do what they felt had to be done. They would do what was correct, and what was safest for the universe, without giving a second thought to what that meant for the people caught in the crossfire.

Even if that included everything he loved.

Amazing that Mutt had been the one to teach him all those years ago that there was no shame in cheating your way out of a shitty deal, only for her to try and 'nobly sacrifice herself' in one way or another again and again over the years.

But he got the feeling that a lot of parents were terrible at taking their own goddamn advice.

He just wished, perhaps uncharitably, that Thorn would be a worse son, so maybe his dumbass parents would just give up and try to live long happy lives for once, fixing everything they could, instead of trying to take responsibility for everything they couldn't. They had done enough for this universe, after all.

It wasn't their fault things were broken.

And it wasn't fair to Thorn, who after a century was still trying to make up some imagined mistake, who behind that big beefy tough guy facade was a little kid trying to make his Mom proud.

Horses of Heaven, they were all such dumbasses.

Antares closed his eyes... then opened one curiously as he heard a hammering at his door before Innocence shouted: “Yo, Tarry! Stop jerking off and get out here!”

Antares absently made the bed rock and whined loudly: “But I'm almost done my third-”

Innocence blasted the door open with telekinesis, Antares staring as Innocence grinned at him, and then the stallion remarked moodily: “If I had actually been touching myself-”

“I would have been embarrassed for you. Hellbutts, Antares, three times in one day? I know you don't have much of a fuse but you've only been up here for an hour...”

The stallion glowered at her, then asked grumpily: “What do you want?”

Innocence only winked, then spun around and trotted off, and Antares groaned before he mumbled under his breath as he hopped out of bed and followed sulkily after her.

He frowned, his curiosity getting the better of his annoyance as he headed down to the den and found Innocence waiting for him, a sheet of paper rolled out over the floor, covered in mystical symbols she had sloppily painted over it. He stopped outside of this, and Innocence gestured at him impatiently from where she stood inside, complaining: “Come on, come on, get in here, give me your damn hooves.”

“I'm going to regret this.” Antares muttered, stepping into the ring and grimacing as he awkwardly let Innocence grab his front hooves in her claws, and he opened his mouth-

The entire world became a bleeding mess of color and sound, Antares squawking and throwing himself against Innocence to cling to her in shock as the mare cackled as they seemed to rocket through space and time together before suddenly coming to a halt. For a moment, they seemed to be rising through the vast cosmos together, Innocence grinning proudly, Antares staring in disbelief and confusion as Morgan passed slowly by them in the opposite direction, smiling, serene, upside-down...

Upside down?

Then everything went streaking by again for a moment, Antares staring wide-eyed at the cacophony that filled his vision before they were suddenly... in the sky?

In a hazy sky, of reds and blacks, floating above a dark world made of neon lights and endlessly churning machinery.

A clockwork world.

The Clockwork World, Decretum.

Antares stared in awe, and Innocence said cheerfully: “I figured it out! I'm badass! I combined a scrying spell I stole out of Heaven's archives with a bit of astral projection magic, and... voila! You can let go now. Just don't step out of the magic circle. It'll suck.”

Antares winced as he realized he was clinging to his sister, then he cleared his throat and hurriedly straightened, brushing at himself as he said awkwardly: “Just uh... was keeping you. Safe. Yeah. Safe. Don't ever tell anyone about that. For uh, your own sake. I'll kill you.”

“I'll kill you!” Sin shot back, then she leaned to the side, careful not to pass over the glowing orange line that neatly encircled them. “I think once I have enough time to figure this out, I can actually phase us anywhere we want to go. Fucking dimensional phasing! That'll show that asshole Thorn, I can do anything his technology can, but better!”

Innocence grinned, and Antares looked at her and smiled a little, saying before he could stop himself: “You're pretty amazing, baby sister.”

Innocence blushed and smiled honestly for a moment, before she frowned when Antares asked hesitantly: “Did you see Mom?”

“Huh?” Innocence stared at him, and then she spun lazily in a circle, looking quickly around before shrugging and saying: “I don't see her anywhere. Did you see her?”

Antares thought for a moment of what he had seen: how their eyes had met for that fleeting moment, that knowing smile of a mother, that mix of indulgence, and encouragement, and hope that he had felt from her. He chuckled a little at the bizarre thought that crossed his mind, then shook his head and said softly: “Let's worry about that later, my head is still spinning. For now...”

Antares grinned, winking at Innocence. “Let's see what Thorn is up to, then let's scare the hell out of him.”

“I mean, we can't do that yet, but we totally will be able to.” Innocence said positively. “But we can definitely spy on him. Figure out what that dumbass is doing.”

“And figure out how to help him, whether he likes it or not.” He paused, then added at the pointed look his sister gave him: “But our way. Because Thorn doesn't need help with a lot of things, no, but I think he could use a little bit of brotherly wisdom, and sisterly...”

“Buttkicking.” Innocence supplied.

“Buttkicking.” Antares agreed with a slight smile.

With that, the two turned their eyes towards the city, and their dedication to showing Thorn that anything was possible, and that they were ready to fight both beside and against him to prove they could save the realms, and everyone in it.

Including Luna and Scrivener, whether they liked it or not.

Better to try and fail at the impossible,

Then never try at all.