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November 27, 75005 BCE; Asgard

Eve had navigated the hellscape as best she could. A raging battle between the isu and human forces was going on around the outer edges of the great Isu capital of Asgard. It wasn't easy, but she managed to get through. She climbed over the walls and underneath the great Rainbow Bridge in order to cross the gorge that surrounded the city. After sneaking past the great guard Heimdall, it was all just a matter of sneaking her way through the city.

Odin’s palace was hard to miss. The place was massive. Its spires towered into the sky and gleamed like the sun. It was a beacon of the arrogance that the isu held, and they weren't afraid to show it.

But while it was easy to find, it was hardly easy to get inside. Guards were crawling around every corner and window that Eve could see. She wandered the surrounding rooftops, trying to find even the slightest weak point that she could use to slip inside.

She eventually found a spot that only had one obvious guard stationed on a relatively isolated balcony. Not seeing any better options, and realizing that time wasn't exactly on her side, she started making her way over.

She jumped the gap between the rooftop and the palace walls. She caught herself on a ledge and stopped for a moment to regain her bearings before taking a deep breath and starting to climb. She hung beneath the edge of the balcony, staying as silent as she could so as not to alert the guard. In the blink of an eye, she lunged herself upwards with one arm and unleashed her hidden blade with another. The laser blade hit the guard square in the neck, killing him before he had a chance the shout. With him out of the way, Eve hauled herself up onto the balcony. She cursed her luck when she saw that the entry way into the palace was locked with a light wall and connected hand print scanner. She turned towards the guard, and she quickly thought of her solution. She hauled his body over and pressed his hand against the scanner. She heard the satisfying mechanical shut down whir, and the defensive laser wall dissipated. She smiled, set down the body, and sprinted inside.

She paused around every corner to look for guards while at the same time she tried to make it through to the throne room as quickly as she possibly could. She knew it was only a matter of time before Lucifer made his move. If they were going to act, they had to act fast.

She had to take out quite a few guards that got in her way, despite her desire for as much of a pacifist run as she could manage. She hid the bodies as best as she could, hoping to hide the evidence long enough to plead her case to Odin.

Speaking of the king, she eventually found the entrance to the throne room. And of course, it was heavily guarded. Five armed Asgardian soldiers stood in front of the massive door, spears in hand. She watched them from the scaffolding high above towards the ceiling. She cursed her luck. There was no easy way to just walk in. No easy way to fight her way in either.

“Damn…” she mumbled to herself. “How the hell am I gonna do this?”

She stared at the doorway and pondered her next move. But then suddenly, her saving grace came running from down the hallway. A scrawny messenger boy.

“Excuse me, sirs!” he said as he came up to the guards.

“Ah! Hermes. Come to deliver a message to the king?” the head guard asked.

“No actually. I have an urgent message for Michael.”

“Well he's right inside. Go on in, my friend.”

Hermes nodded and waited for the guards the open the massive door and step aside to grant him passage. That was when Eve took her chance.

She sprinted across the scaffoldings towards the door, and she swung on the door frame to the other side. She quickly leapt onto another scaffolding before the door slammed shut behind her. She put a hand on her chest as she let out a sigh of relief. Then she looked up, and she got a good look at the throne room of Asgard’s highest ruler.

The room was massive and drop dead gorgeous just like everything else, with shimmering ivory walls and glowing gold pillars. Every metal surface was perfectly smooth and shined to perfection. Lines of armored guards stood valiantly along the path to the throne, which was also massive and decorated with elaborate gold decor. And there sat the big man himself, the leader of her sworn enemies, the highest king in all of the isu lands: Odin. King of the gods. Ruler of Asgard. He was a strongly built man, with a stature that demanded respect. A huge scar ran across his face and underneath his eye patch. He sat on his throne, spear in hand, watching various holographic screens of war zones. Beside him stood his son, Thor. And on the other side stood Michael, his face just as unamused and serious as ever. Eve dreaded confronting the three of them at once, but she didn't exactly have the luxury of other options.

She made her way as quietly as she could across the scaffoldings, watching as Hermes the messaged approached and bowed to the king. The king flicked his fingers to the left and sent his screens away. He looked down at the man and spoke with a bellowing, powerful voice.

“Hermes. It is good to see you again, my friend. What brings you back to Asgard?”

“I've an urgent message, your highness,” Hermes said, standing. “I've been contacted by someone who seeks an audience with Michael at his earliest convenience.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

Michael stepped forward. “Do you have a name?” he asked.

Hermes shook his head. “No, sir. I'm sorry. The message was anonymous. All I know is that they said that they had old family matters that needed to be dealt with.”

Eve felt a catch in her throat. She knew who sent that message. She hoped her timing was right.

“Did they say when they'd want to meet?” Michael asked, his hand instinctively moving towards the hilt of his sword.

“He'll be here in just a moment!” Eve called down from the ceiling. Just as all the guards whipped out their weapons, Eve dropped down from the ceiling and landed right in the spot between the guards and the king. The king who did not seem pleased by this sudden intrusion of his privacy at all.

“What is the meaning of this?” he bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the room.

“You!” Michael scowled as he drew his sword. “You dare come in here and-!”

“Oh shut up, Michael,” a new voice boomed in. Suddenly there was an eruption of glass as a window was shattered and a figure came busting in. He flew straight over to Eve's side and stood tall beside her, keeping his wings out behind them as a makeshift shield.

“Gabriel,” Michael said.

“Hey bro,” Gabriel joked back.

“I demand to know what the meaning of this intrusion is!” Odin boomed.

“I am Eve, Mentor of the Assassin Brotherh-”

“I know who you are, rebel! You and the traitorous bastard!”

“I'm right here you know,” Gabriel pouted.

“Silence!”

“Yeah okay.”

“I must say,” Thor told the Assassins as he stepped forward. “I'm rather impressed! None have ever breached our defenses before.”

“Well, I'm the one who actually put effort into my entrance,” Eve nervously joked. “Gabriel just kinda, you know, busted in.”

Thor laughed. “How smashing!”

“Must you joke with the enemy?!” Michael scolded. “We should just kill them now and end their pathetic existences!”

“Always such a stick in the mud, aren't you, Michael?” Thor laughed. Michael grumbled and tightened his grip on his sword. The archangel ejected his wings out and launched into the air. His sword started glowing and crackling with electric sparks.

“Enough, Michael!” Odin shouted, slamming the end of his spear into the floor.

“But… but sir!”

“I said enough! Obey your king!”

“I… yes sir…” Michael lowered his sword, but remained airborne.

“You have ten seconds to explain what drives you to dare invade my home!” Odin declared to the Assassins. “Have you come to kill me? Are you that daring?” His spear crackled with its own sparks and light as he slammed it down again.

“No no!” Eve pleaded. “We have come to parlay! We've come to talk!”

“Come to surrender then?” Thor laughed as he crossed his arms. “I must admit, I'm rather disappointed. I would've loved to end this with a fight to the death. A glorious battle to see who-!”

“We've not come to surrender,” Eve said.

“Then what do you want?” Michael asked. “If not to surrender and not to die, then what?”

“To discuss a truce,” Gabriel said.

Michael laughed.

“We're serious!” Eve begged. “Something big is coming over the horizon! Something that can and will destroy isu and human alike if we don't do something!”

“I don't see what that has to do with us,” Odin said, still unamused.

“Because he will destroy you too. I don't care how far up your ass your head is, all of you. We've taken the biggest risks of our lives to come here and warn you, and I feel like even you three are smart enough to realize you should hear us out.”

“And just who is this destroyer of species?” Michael scoffed.

“Lucifer,” Gabriel said. “It's Lucifer, Michael.”

That caught Michael off guard. “I… what?”

“Lucifer. You know, tall, dark, kind of a dick with a giant ego. The guy that you put in charge of all the technology that controls the fabric of reality itself and is now hell bent on using it to bring this reality crumbling into a wintering ball of nonexistence.”

“I-”

“And don't try to pull the crap where you say you don't believe me. You and I both know that Lucy's completely capable of going that far off the rails. He's always been the black sheep, always been a pain in the ass. So look me on the eye and tell me you don't think he'd do it.”

There was a moment of silence as the two brothers stared each other down, each just as stubborn.

“We need both of our forces combined to take him down,” Eve said. “I don't like it and I know none of us here do. But I know all of us also don't want that bastard to destroy us all. He's probably on his way here right now to try and recover some of the tech we damaged during his last attempt. If we don't act soon, all of us will die.”

Odin simply sat in silence as he stroked his beard in thought. Michael looked at his king in shock.

“Your Highness!” he said, floating down to his side. “You can't possibly be considering this?”

“They make a valid argument, Michael,” Odin said.

“Valid argument! Sir, these two have been the cause of every problem we've faced for the past five years! These rebels and their idiotic human cause have-!”

“Is that what this is about?” Gabriel shouted, getting mad. “Really Michael? That's why you don't want to help us? Because of who we are?”

“Gabriel, I know there is no convincing you of the error of your allegiance, but-”

“No! No! Shut up right now!”

“Excuse me?”

“I said shut your mouth! Right. Now.”

“How dare you?”

“Oh how dare I? How dare you? You're honestly just gonna sit here and scoff as we come rushing in saying that the world is on the brink of getting destroyed? Are you that arrogant? Are you that bigoted? What would dad say, Michael? Huh? What do you think he would say?”

“Gabriel…”

“You spent your whole life trying to impress dad and it was never enough. You were always the perfect little soldier, but it wasn't what dad wanted. You kept going and going thinking that if you just went higher and higher in the ranks, dad would finally change his mind and be proud of you. But here's the thing, Michael: he didn't care about the military like you do. He didn't care about the metals on your chest or the body count you raise. You know what he cared about? People. All people. He spent his whole life trying to preach peace and unity for everyone, including the humans. Hell, he knew the truth. He knew that they're better than us in every way.”

“Enough!” Michael snapped. “Our father-”

“Was misguided? Really? You gonna go and say dear old dad was misguided? I know you don't have the stones to say that about him, Michael.”

“The humans are animals! Pathetic copies of our kind! They're weak and stupid! They're flawed!”

“Damn right they're flawed. But they have two things that we don't. They admit it. And they try. Not like us. We just sit on our thrones and call ourselves gods. We ignore every single one of our own flaws because we are the isu, the masters of the world! But not them. They see the truth. The humans see their mistakes and learn from them. They band together in love and do everything they can to find harmony with one another. They feel and cry and laugh together. Do they mess up at times, yeah. But in my personal experience, they do a lot more good than evil. And us? Well we produce people like you. People who don't try.”

There was another moment of silence. Not even the guards dared to move or make noise.

“So we'll say it one more time,” Gabriel eventually said. “Either get your heads out of your asses and help us save the world, or we'll go out there ourselves and die trying.”

Thor looked at Odin, who in turn looked at him. They both looked over at Michael, who for the first time ever, looked shattered, looked defeated. He sheathed his sword again and bowed his head. That was enough for Odin.

“Very well, Assassins,” he said. “We shall form a temporary truce in order to stop the scoundrel Lucifer. Once the world is saved from that threat, we shall resume the war as usual.”

Eve nodded. “Thank you, Odin.”

“Indeed. Now, if we are all done squabbling, I believe our first order of business should be to find the snake.”

“Um… that might not be too hard…” Gabriel said, pointing towards a window.

Eve raised and eyebrow and walked over to look out the window. She gasped. Far on the edge of the city, she saw the defensive walls start to crumble to the ground. The Rainbow Bridge twisted and shattered as hordes of war machines came plowing into the city, kicking up smoke and screams alike. In the chaos, she saw a single glowing figure streaking ahead of it all. A dark figure with ragged mechanical wings.

“It's him…” she gasped. “He's on his way! And he's got an army!”

“Then there's no time!” Thor declared, grabbing his hammer. “We must move!”

Eve nodded and she rushed to follow the others as they sprinted out of the palace with a swarm of royal guards.

“Got any plan?” Gabriel asked Eve as they ran.

“Umm…”

“Great.”

“We'll figure it out. We can do this.”

“I hope you're right, Eve.”

“So do I…”

They made their way down the Asgardian halls, grabbing weapons and equipment as they did. Eve watched as the walls warped and glitched around her. She saw the pillars collapse into the empty glowing void. The sounds of battle outside faded away until they were nothing but the icy wind and the crashing waves. The glow started to fade away again. Her vision was cleared and her mind returned to her. Arktalaki shook her head as she came out of the experience. She sighed.

“And just as things were getting good,” she pouted to herself. She stowed the artifact into her satchel once more, and she laid down on her back to look up at the stars. They were beautiful. Thousands upon thousands of twinkling lights lighting up even the darkest nights. How could anyone ever want to see this gone? How could Lucifer be so insane? How could Michael be so arrogant? To let reality crumble, to let all the people who watch the stars with you just disappear in a painful poof… truly it takes something dark.

She watched the stars as they twinkled brightly, fading away with each shine. They all disappeared one by one, right alongside the sounds of the wind and sea. A mechanical whir took their places, and she felt herself being stretched and pulled in both mind and body as she floated in the void of the Animus. She floated back through the centuries, through the millennia, until she finally found herself back to the present.

Back on Animus Island.

Description
November 27, 75005 BCE; Asgard

Eve had navigated the hellscape as best she could. A raging battle between the isu and human forces was going on around the outer edges of the great Isu capital of Asgard. It wasn't easy, but she managed to get through. She climbed over the walls and underneath the great Rainbow Bridge in order to cross the gorge that surrounded the city. After sneaking past the great guard Heimdall, it was all just a matter of sneaking her way through the city.

Odin’s palace was hard to miss. The place was massive. Its spires towered into the sky and gleamed like the sun. It was a beacon of the arrogance that the isu held, and they weren't afraid to show it.

But while it was easy to find, it was hardly easy to get inside. Guards were crawling around every corner and window that Eve could see. She wandered the surrounding rooftops, trying to find even the slightest weak point that she could use to slip inside.

She eventually found a spot that only had one obvious guard stationed on a relatively isolated balcony. Not seeing any better options, and realizing that time wasn't exactly on her side, she started making her way over.

She jumped the gap between the rooftop and the palace walls. She caught herself on a ledge and stopped for a moment to regain her bearings before taking a deep breath and starting to climb. She hung beneath the edge of the balcony, staying as silent as she could so as not to alert the guard. In the blink of an eye, she lunged herself upwards with one arm and unleashed her hidden blade with another. The laser blade hit the guard square in the neck, killing him before he had a chance the shout. With him out of the way, Eve hauled herself up onto the balcony. She cursed her luck when she saw that the entry way into the palace was locked with a light wall and connected hand print scanner. She turned towards the guard, and she quickly thought of her solution. She hauled his body over and pressed his hand against the scanner. She heard the satisfying mechanical shut down whir, and the defensive laser wall dissipated. She smiled, set down the body, and sprinted inside.

She paused around every corner to look for guards while at the same time she tried to make it through to the throne room as quickly as she possibly could. She knew it was only a matter of time before Lucifer made his move. If they were going to act, they had to act fast.

She had to take out quite a few guards that got in her way, despite her desire for as much of a pacifist run as she could manage. She hid the bodies as best as she could, hoping to hide the evidence long enough to plead her case to Odin.

Speaking of the king, she eventually found the entrance to the throne room. And of course, it was heavily guarded. Five armed Asgardian soldiers stood in front of the massive door, spears in hand. She watched them from the scaffolding high above towards the ceiling. She cursed her luck. There was no easy way to just walk in. No easy way to fight her way in either.

“Damn…” she mumbled to herself. “How the hell am I gonna do this?”

She stared at the doorway and pondered her next move. But then suddenly, her saving grace came running from down the hallway. A scrawny messenger boy.

“Excuse me, sirs!” he said as he came up to the guards.

“Ah! Hermes. Come to deliver a message to the king?” the head guard asked.

“No actually. I have an urgent message for Michael.”

“Well he's right inside. Go on in, my friend.”

Hermes nodded and waited for the guards the open the massive door and step aside to grant him passage. That was when Eve took her chance.

She sprinted across the scaffoldings towards the door, and she swung on the door frame to the other side. She quickly leapt onto another scaffolding before the door slammed shut behind her. She put a hand on her chest as she let out a sigh of relief. Then she looked up, and she got a good look at the throne room of Asgard’s highest ruler.

The room was massive and drop dead gorgeous just like everything else, with shimmering ivory walls and glowing gold pillars. Every metal surface was perfectly smooth and shined to perfection. Lines of armored guards stood valiantly along the path to the throne, which was also massive and decorated with elaborate gold decor. And there sat the big man himself, the leader of her sworn enemies, the highest king in all of the isu lands: Odin. King of the gods. Ruler of Asgard. He was a strongly built man, with a stature that demanded respect. A huge scar ran across his face and underneath his eye patch. He sat on his throne, spear in hand, watching various holographic screens of war zones. Beside him stood his son, Thor. And on the other side stood Michael, his face just as unamused and serious as ever. Eve dreaded confronting the three of them at once, but she didn't exactly have the luxury of other options.

She made her way as quietly as she could across the scaffoldings, watching as Hermes the messaged approached and bowed to the king. The king flicked his fingers to the left and sent his screens away. He looked down at the man and spoke with a bellowing, powerful voice.

“Hermes. It is good to see you again, my friend. What brings you back to Asgard?”

“I've an urgent message, your highness,” Hermes said, standing. “I've been contacted by someone who seeks an audience with Michael at his earliest convenience.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

Michael stepped forward. “Do you have a name?” he asked.

Hermes shook his head. “No, sir. I'm sorry. The message was anonymous. All I know is that they said that they had old family matters that needed to be dealt with.”

Eve felt a catch in her throat. She knew who sent that message. She hoped her timing was right.

“Did they say when they'd want to meet?” Michael asked, his hand instinctively moving towards the hilt of his sword.

“He'll be here in just a moment!” Eve called down from the ceiling. Just as all the guards whipped out their weapons, Eve dropped down from the ceiling and landed right in the spot between the guards and the king. The king who did not seem pleased by this sudden intrusion of his privacy at all.

“What is the meaning of this?” he bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the room.

“You!” Michael scowled as he drew his sword. “You dare come in here and-!”

“Oh shut up, Michael,” a new voice boomed in. Suddenly there was an eruption of glass as a window was shattered and a figure came busting in. He flew straight over to Eve's side and stood tall beside her, keeping his wings out behind them as a makeshift shield.

“Gabriel,” Michael said.

“Hey bro,” Gabriel joked back.

“I demand to know what the meaning of this intrusion is!” Odin boomed.

“I am Eve, Mentor of the Assassin Brotherh-”

“I know who you are, rebel! You and the traitorous bastard!”

“I'm right here you know,” Gabriel pouted.

“Silence!”

“Yeah okay.”

“I must say,” Thor told the Assassins as he stepped forward. “I'm rather impressed! None have ever breached our defenses before.”

“Well, I'm the one who actually put effort into my entrance,” Eve nervously joked. “Gabriel just kinda, you know, busted in.”

Thor laughed. “How smashing!”

“Must you joke with the enemy?!” Michael scolded. “We should just kill them now and end their pathetic existences!”

“Always such a stick in the mud, aren't you, Michael?” Thor laughed. Michael grumbled and tightened his grip on his sword. The archangel ejected his wings out and launched into the air. His sword started glowing and crackling with electric sparks.

“Enough, Michael!” Odin shouted, slamming the end of his spear into the floor.

“But… but sir!”

“I said enough! Obey your king!”

“I… yes sir…” Michael lowered his sword, but remained airborne.

“You have ten seconds to explain what drives you to dare invade my home!” Odin declared to the Assassins. “Have you come to kill me? Are you that daring?” His spear crackled with its own sparks and light as he slammed it down again.

“No no!” Eve pleaded. “We have come to parlay! We've come to talk!”

“Come to surrender then?” Thor laughed as he crossed his arms. “I must admit, I'm rather disappointed. I would've loved to end this with a fight to the death. A glorious battle to see who-!”

“We've not come to surrender,” Eve said.

“Then what do you want?” Michael asked. “If not to surrender and not to die, then what?”

“To discuss a truce,” Gabriel said.

Michael laughed.

“We're serious!” Eve begged. “Something big is coming over the horizon! Something that can and will destroy isu and human alike if we don't do something!”

“I don't see what that has to do with us,” Odin said, still unamused.

“Because he will destroy you too. I don't care how far up your ass your head is, all of you. We've taken the biggest risks of our lives to come here and warn you, and I feel like even you three are smart enough to realize you should hear us out.”

“And just who is this destroyer of species?” Michael scoffed.

“Lucifer,” Gabriel said. “It's Lucifer, Michael.”

That caught Michael off guard. “I… what?”

“Lucifer. You know, tall, dark, kind of a dick with a giant ego. The guy that you put in charge of all the technology that controls the fabric of reality itself and is now hell bent on using it to bring this reality crumbling into a wintering ball of nonexistence.”

“I-”

“And don't try to pull the crap where you say you don't believe me. You and I both know that Lucy's completely capable of going that far off the rails. He's always been the black sheep, always been a pain in the ass. So look me on the eye and tell me you don't think he'd do it.”

There was a moment of silence as the two brothers stared each other down, each just as stubborn.

“We need both of our forces combined to take him down,” Eve said. “I don't like it and I know none of us here do. But I know all of us also don't want that bastard to destroy us all. He's probably on his way here right now to try and recover some of the tech we damaged during his last attempt. If we don't act soon, all of us will die.”

Odin simply sat in silence as he stroked his beard in thought. Michael looked at his king in shock.

“Your Highness!” he said, floating down to his side. “You can't possibly be considering this?”

“They make a valid argument, Michael,” Odin said.

“Valid argument! Sir, these two have been the cause of every problem we've faced for the past five years! These rebels and their idiotic human cause have-!”

“Is that what this is about?” Gabriel shouted, getting mad. “Really Michael? That's why you don't want to help us? Because of who we are?”

“Gabriel, I know there is no convincing you of the error of your allegiance, but-”

“No! No! Shut up right now!”

“Excuse me?”

“I said shut your mouth! Right. Now.”

“How dare you?”

“Oh how dare I? How dare you? You're honestly just gonna sit here and scoff as we come rushing in saying that the world is on the brink of getting destroyed? Are you that arrogant? Are you that bigoted? What would dad say, Michael? Huh? What do you think he would say?”

“Gabriel…”

“You spent your whole life trying to impress dad and it was never enough. You were always the perfect little soldier, but it wasn't what dad wanted. You kept going and going thinking that if you just went higher and higher in the ranks, dad would finally change his mind and be proud of you. But here's the thing, Michael: he didn't care about the military like you do. He didn't care about the metals on your chest or the body count you raise. You know what he cared about? People. All people. He spent his whole life trying to preach peace and unity for everyone, including the humans. Hell, he knew the truth. He knew that they're better than us in every way.”

“Enough!” Michael snapped. “Our father-”

“Was misguided? Really? You gonna go and say dear old dad was misguided? I know you don't have the stones to say that about him, Michael.”

“The humans are animals! Pathetic copies of our kind! They're weak and stupid! They're flawed!”

“Damn right they're flawed. But they have two things that we don't. They admit it. And they try. Not like us. We just sit on our thrones and call ourselves gods. We ignore every single one of our own flaws because we are the isu, the masters of the world! But not them. They see the truth. The humans see their mistakes and learn from them. They band together in love and do everything they can to find harmony with one another. They feel and cry and laugh together. Do they mess up at times, yeah. But in my personal experience, they do a lot more good than evil. And us? Well we produce people like you. People who don't try.”

There was another moment of silence. Not even the guards dared to move or make noise.

“So we'll say it one more time,” Gabriel eventually said. “Either get your heads out of your asses and help us save the world, or we'll go out there ourselves and die trying.”

Thor looked at Odin, who in turn looked at him. They both looked over at Michael, who for the first time ever, looked shattered, looked defeated. He sheathed his sword again and bowed his head. That was enough for Odin.

“Very well, Assassins,” he said. “We shall form a temporary truce in order to stop the scoundrel Lucifer. Once the world is saved from that threat, we shall resume the war as usual.”

Eve nodded. “Thank you, Odin.”

“Indeed. Now, if we are all done squabbling, I believe our first order of business should be to find the snake.”

“Um… that might not be too hard…” Gabriel said, pointing towards a window.

Eve raised and eyebrow and walked over to look out the window. She gasped. Far on the edge of the city, she saw the defensive walls start to crumble to the ground. The Rainbow Bridge twisted and shattered as hordes of war machines came plowing into the city, kicking up smoke and screams alike. In the chaos, she saw a single glowing figure streaking ahead of it all. A dark figure with ragged mechanical wings.

“It's him…” she gasped. “He's on his way! And he's got an army!”

“Then there's no time!” Thor declared, grabbing his hammer. “We must move!”

Eve nodded and she rushed to follow the others as they sprinted out of the palace with a swarm of royal guards.

“Got any plan?” Gabriel asked Eve as they ran.

“Umm…”

“Great.”

“We'll figure it out. We can do this.”

“I hope you're right, Eve.”

“So do I…”

They made their way down the Asgardian halls, grabbing weapons and equipment as they did. Eve watched as the walls warped and glitched around her. She saw the pillars collapse into the empty glowing void. The sounds of battle outside faded away until they were nothing but the icy wind and the crashing waves. The glow started to fade away again. Her vision was cleared and her mind returned to her. Arktalaki shook her head as she came out of the experience. She sighed.

“And just as things were getting good,” she pouted to herself. She stowed the artifact into her satchel once more, and she laid down on her back to look up at the stars. They were beautiful. Thousands upon thousands of twinkling lights lighting up even the darkest nights. How could anyone ever want to see this gone? How could Lucifer be so insane? How could Michael be so arrogant? To let reality crumble, to let all the people who watch the stars with you just disappear in a painful poof… truly it takes something dark.

She watched the stars as they twinkled brightly, fading away with each shine. They all disappeared one by one, right alongside the sounds of the wind and sea. A mechanical whir took their places, and she felt herself being stretched and pulled in both mind and body as she floated in the void of the Animus. She floated back through the centuries, through the millennia, until she finally found herself back to the present.

Back on Animus Island.