Poisoned Moonlight
the Twenty-Second Tale
MIDGARD STANDARD YEAR 2200 / LATE NOVEMBER
JOTUNHEIM
Ben-Vell Parker and Eshir Maximoff walked together in cold silence, their bodies bundled with thick clothing to save them from the unbearable cold. They did not acknowledge the others presence in the least. They kept their eyes peeled forward, to the horizon in the distance, or to their side that was free from the others presence, or even down at the snowy, icy crust they walked across. Not a single utterance had passed between them since they left the Thor Odinson Hall of Peace.
That was seven hours ago.
NECROPOLIS
Bruunhilde, once the lead Valkyrie of Asgard, now head of Thanos' mockingly titled Angelux stood naked and alone in her residence at Necropolis, the throne world of Thanos. The room was carved out of rock inside Thanos' palace; it was not elegant, but it served her purpose. Before her, she had laid out all of her armor and weaponry, all in preparation to kill Dani Moonstar.
Something she had waited a long time to do.
A knock at the door brought her out of her devilish daydreams. "Enter," she called, not bothering to dress. There was only one person who it could be administering that knock.
The door swung open and Ikaris entered confidently. He looked around the room, paying attention to the weaponry, paying attention to everything but the Angelux's body, a smile upon his face, "I trust you will not disappoint our lord Thanos?"
"No more than you fail him with every passing day," she replied, meeting his gaze, daring him to look upon her form.
"It is a pity you did not walk around like that when we were … involved," Ikaris smiled without breaking eye contact. "Do you have another lover hidden somewhere in your residence?"
"Why yes, don't you see him?" Bruunhilde smiled coldly. "He is of the Micronaut race, and a much more satisfying lover than you ever were."
Ikaris growled, but didn't respond with a challenge. "I don't know why you waste your time living in Thanos' 'palace' when you could live like royalty among the Eternals. Blood-rock and bone are not the most pleasant of surroundings."
"Have you come here for a reason other than to thrill yourself with a visage of my form?" Bruunhilde replied icily, her eyes, as red as that of Ikaris, flashing wildly.
He held out a parchment of paper to her, "Our spies on Asgard have relayed to us a time to strike at Moonstar."
"When?" The Angelux was now all business, grabbing the paper out of the Eternal General's hands. "And where shall the strike come?" Her eyes darted over the document, devouring the information.
"Sometimes I wonder who you hate more, Bruunhilde," Ikaris asked, his tone reverential, "Moonstar of myself?"
"That is your problem, Ikaris," she responded, folding the parchment, "you wonder when all you need to do is ask."
Ikaris shrugged and turned to leave, "You assume it is more than an idle ponderance, witch. We leave in one standard hour. Decide which weapons you shall need and meet me at the Stables."
He opened the door to leave, then paused without looking back when Bruunhilde asked, "Our information is solid?"
"Our new spy sits in the very heart of Asgard, on Balder's blessed Council. The information is solid."
"Excellent," the Angelux General smiled. "To Olympus, then."
OLYMPUS
"It is not possible!"
Beta Ray Bill, Skrull 4, Moonstar the Valkyrie and Empire stood in empty space, looking at a void. They'd come here seeking to tap the gold reserves of the Council's war chest, to increase the allowance of money each race would receive as allowance to take care of Skrull refugees.
"What isn't possible, Bill?" Empire, the new Earth Ambassador to the Council asked, unaware that anything could be going wrong.
"This," Valkyrie pointed to the space before them, empty save for the loose layer of rocks that floated in place as the crusty bottom of what was once on this place.
"What am I missing?" Empire asked. Dani thought, Od's beard, he's as earnest as Steve used to be.
Skrull 4 answered, his voice low and soft, as it almost always was, "This is where Olympus is supposed to be, but it seems that, somehow, impossible as it may seem, it is … missing."
Empire shook his head, not believing what he was hearing, "I've seen more in my time than I'd ever believed was possible, but the entirety of Olympus … gone? How is such a thing possible? Who possesses that kind of power?"
Skrull 4 and Beta Ray Bill exchanged a quick glance. They both knew that there was only one person who could accomplish this without Asgard realizing what had happened.
Bill answered, "Franklin Richards"* but Empire still shook his head disbelievingly.
* As was evidenced in AGC 20
"Ash'lin and Kovar will never believe us," Skrull 4 mumbled, wondering what penalties his people would have to pay for this occurrence.
"Which is why I shall return to Asgard," Dani announced from atop her winged steed Anthalus, "and bring them back to witness this in person. Nothing else will satisfy their distrusting hearts."
Dani Moonstar kicked her heels into Anthalus to take her leave for Asgard when the shimmering yellow appearance of the Eternals Uni-Mind grew into space on the opposite side of where Olympus should have been. Anthalus reared automatically in place as Dani steadied the horse to a halt.
"Bill," she called back.
"I see it," the Historian replied, his voice tense.
"What is it?" Empire asked.
"It's the Eternals Uni-Mind," Beta Ray Bill answered. "It's a sign that the Eternals are coming together psychically for contemplation and guidance, and ever since they've adjoined with Thanos, they've learned to use it for other purposes, as well."
"Including teleportation," Dani answered from her position, ten strides front of them.
The Uni-Mind flashed bright, then vanished as if the image was sucked suddenly back through a tube. Where the Uni-Mind once stood, now stood four soldiers in Thanos' Death Army …
Ikaris, the Eternal General. Makkari, the Eternal speedster. Reject, the Deviant abnormality. And the Angelux General.
"Bruunhilde," Dani breathed sharply.
MIDGARD - NEW YORK CITY
Angelica Osborn stood amidst the dusty decay of the abandoned Storm Museum, an institution built in the aftermath of the defeat of Onslaught, when New York City mistakenly thought her heroes had died to save the world.
"This was one of the first places to be hit by the terrorist attacks," the Spider remarked to her in the darkness, "back in 2023, after the Abandonment."
Angelica coughed, not wanting to argue with the Spider, but not willing to let her friends' memories go unchallenged. "Where I come from," she replied cautiously, "we do not call it the Abandonment. We call it the Ascension."
The Spider said solemnly, "History is made by the writer." Angelica had no reply, so the Spider continued, "Earth's heroes might have had a greater battle to fight, but they can not be allowed to think their actions did not affect Earth. It did."
Angelica turned her head away to see a statue of Captain America, based on his classic red, white and blue costume, similar to the navy and white costume he now wore as the Cosmic Protector, but still unfamiliar looking to her, who'd never seen him in anything else. She walked to the statue to make out the graffiti that had been spray-painted over the statue's surface, running from thigh to shoulder. The word read …
TRaiToR.
Angelica frowned, turning back to the Spider, "I can't begin to tell you how offensive I find this."
The Spider shrugged, the Venom symbiote rippling uneasily over his body, "But you must remember, to Earth, he is the greatest traitor we have ever known."
"Do you think of him as a traitor?" she asked.
The Spider chose his words carefully, "My descendant, the original Spider-Man-"
"Peter Parker," Angelica interrupted, causing the Spider to pause momentarily.
"You know a lot," he answered, looking at her cautiously.
"There is much knowledge contained in the Histories of Beta Ray Bill. I am an avid student."
"I bet you are," the Spider answered in a tone that Angelica couldn't decide was amused or scornful. "Very well, Peter Parker," he inflected the name purposefully for her, "kept journals once his daughter, May, had taken up the costume. From his writings it appears that he couldn't stand waiting home at night for her, so to keep his mind occupied he wrote a journal of his adventures. Some of these ramblings even found their way into a column in the Daily Bugle, back when they still printed the paper out and sold it on street corners."
"Wasn't he a photographer for the Bugle?" Angelica asked, her mind trying to call up every but of information it had on Spider-Man, wanting, for some reason, to impress this man inside what was, for her, a strange conversation. Ben-Vell, who was also a descendant of Spider-Man as well as Mar-Vell, usually scorned his "spider" origins to the point that most people had to make a point to remember it.
"I believe," the Spider replied caustically, "that he was a photojournalist, yes."
Angelica caught the slight change in tone and couldn't help but try to exploit it, "Photojournalist, photographer, whatever you prefer." She smiled, running a hand through her shoulder-length red hair.
The Spider said nothing in response, but the Venom symbiote again rippled sharply across the surface. "Anyway," he said finally, his annoyance still evident, "what I discovered in his writings was a very childish reverence for Captain America. He blamed neither the Captain nor the other heroes for leaving the Earth behind, recognizing that there were more important battles to be fought. But there is something so unnerving in how much respect he paid to Captain America for me to take him wholly seriously."
"That's because you've never met him," Angelica replied curtly, her anger rising, wondering how someone she had just met could push her buttons so easily. "He is a great man. An extraordinary man."
Spider stared at her and sighed, "You don't get it. None of you do." He came to her so suddenly that Angelica thought for a moment that he was going to attack her, but he stopped directly in front of her. "Though I hate to do this, it is time for you to learn a lesson."
"And how do you propose to do that?" she asked, not backing down. And not particularly scared, either.
Spider pointed to her right and Angelica looked over, through a window, to a skirmish in the distance. Lights flashed in multi-colors and it was clear a battle was going on. She watched it for a few moments, but she didn't recognize any of the people she could make out: a giant woman, a man in a cape casting what looked to be spells (though not any spells she had seen K'Zan attempt) and a woman dressed in what Angelica recognized (from her tutoring lessons as a child from Nanny Annie before she was taken away from her mother) as a French flag, her costume divided into three equal, vertical stripes of blue, white and red.
"Who are they?" she asked.
"They are Earth's premier super-team," the Spider answered, trying hard to keep the scorn out of his voice. "They call themselves … the Saviors."
Angelica turned, unable to suppress her smile, "Was that dramatic pause for me?"
The Spider mumbled something Angelica couldn't make out as he turned and left. Angelica smiled at his back as he walked away.
THE PLACE WHERE OLYMPUS USED TO BE
"What kind of trick is this?" Ikaris bellowed. "Makkari, scout!"
The Eternal speedster sped around the empty space where Olympus should have been, finding nothing but dirt particles, then fled, further out, looking for any sign as to what happened to the city of the Olympians.
"Is this Balder's latest trick?" Ikaris asked across the void.
Beta Ray Bill roared in response, readying his hammer, Storm Breaker.
Dani and Bruunhilde locked eyes atop their winged steeds, swords drawn. They didn’t speak, but cried out, raising their swords into the air as they kicked at their steeds, who launched forward. All watched. Though the assembled knew a battle was about to dawn in which they would all put their life into Fate’s hands, they were not about to miss a battle the Everything had waited for.
"For Asgard!" Dani cried.
"For Death!" Bruunhilde responded.
The two winged steeds rushed at each other and their swords connected violently, clanging loudly in the still space that used to be Olympus. Dani and Bruunhilde’s eyes never left the other. The horses continued on, then circled back around. There was no hesitation in their gate and the steeds charged again.
CLANG!
They were mirror images of the other - Valkyrie and ex-Valkyrie, student and teacher, both leaders, both passionate warriors. The horses circled again and both pulled the reins tight, stopping the steeds in place.
Beneath Dani, Anthalus snorted, stomped his hooves. She patted him and dismounted. Bruunhilde did the same. They were forty feet apart. "I thought you were slain!" Dani called out, striding slowly and confidently toward the woman whose place she took.
Bruunhilde said nothing, but allowed herself a smile.
At thirty feet, Dani spoke again, "You are fallen, Bruunhilde, but you can rise again! Come back to Asgard and let-"
"Still thy tongue!" Bruunhilde screamed, her eyes pulsing violently red. "You knew I was not slain!"
"Lost, then!" Dani answered, gripping her sword tighter. "Lost to the temptation!"
Twenty feet.
"What I did, I did for the heart, impostor!"
"You touch me with your wounded pride," Dani responded, mocking Bruunhilde. "Ikaris looks good, Angelux," Dani made the word drip in blood from her tongue, "but I wonder, does he still keep you on your leash?"
Ten feet.
"I will have your soul," Bruunhilde challenged, raising her sword and jumping at Moonstar.
Dani brought her sword up to clash with the Angelux General.
The battle was officially on.
Ikaris led the charge and before Beta Ray Bill could raise his hammer, Empire lunged forward, flying directly at the leader of the Eternals. His cape fluttered behind him and Empire felt, for the first time since his early days as the hero Eagle One, the need to prove himself. Even when the Saviors were formed earlier in the year by the United League of Nations, he didn’t feel the need to impress - those heroes had known him for years and they had elected him to lead.
And when the Americas were united as the United American States, it was he who was chosen among all the American heroes as the one to be the symbol of the Empire. Even in Southern America he was the most popular, most respected hero.
But now, at the moment before contact with Ikaris, he felt the need to prove himself all over again.
He welcomed it.
They clashed, fists pounding, arms grappling for advantage. Empire lunged too quickly, and Ikaris caught him by the back of the wrist and hurled him into the shifting flotilla of rocks below. Empire cursed himself as strongly as he could without actually cursing. He never swore, but a "Damn" almost escaped his lips, forming on the mind but held back by the tongue. He was too willing to show he belonged on Ikaris’ level and it had cost him the first round.
"Is this the best Earth can offer?" Ikaris laughed, his red eyes shining brightly. "What has happened to my former prison?"
Empire didn’t respond as he lunged upwards off the surface towards Ikaris. He would answer in actions, not words.
Beta Ray Bill knew throwing his hammer at Reject wouldn’t win the battle, but it would establish himself as the aggressor. He twirled Storm Breaker and hurled it directly towards the Deviant’s chest. As expected, Reject leapt out of the way. As he did so, he extended his staff and hurled it at Bill.
The Historian didn’t move as quickly as Reject and was unable to move out of the way. The staff connected square on Bill’s chest and bounced harmlessly away. Bill had no time to react, however, as Rejects was upon him, slamming into Bill’s chest with his foot, driving the adopted Asgardian backwards, but not off his feet.
Reject was about to approach Bill again, when Bill held up his hand in a sign of peace. "There is no need for us to fight," Bill spoke slowly.
Reject cocked his head to the side and smiled, but said nothing. Bill began slowly walking backwards and Reject followed him, first slowly and then picking up speed. Just as he was about to leap again, Bill stopped.
Reject stopped, too, curious as to his opponents’ strategy.
Half a second later, Storm Breaker returned, smashing full force into Reject’s back.
Bill turned to look for Dani and saw that she was in trouble. Bruunhilde was a better swordsman than Moonstar, and though Dani held her ground, all her movements were defensive. The Angelux fought hard, pressing her advantage, driving Dani back.
To his left, Empire and Ikaris fought and in that battle as well, the forces of Thanos were winning. Ikaris blasted away with energy from his eyes, keeping Empire off-balance. Time and again, Empire tried to bring Ikaris to the surface, but Ikaris only laughed, baiting Empire off the ground and into the air.
‘For a hero who has the ability to fly,’ Beta Ray Bill thought, ‘Empire does not look comfortable in the air. I wonder-‘
Bill’s thoughts went unfinished as Reject’s arms wrapped around Bill’s throat, squeezing with incredible force. Bill’s hands clawed at Reject’s grip, but he was unable to free himself from the Deviant. In horror, Bill watched the end of the Bruunhilde / Dani battle.
The Angelux had backed Moonstar into a position of unbalance and with a final double-chop blow from her sword, she knocked Dani onto her back. Dani fell hard, but kicked quickly out, hoping to trip Bruunhilde off her feet.
It didn’t happen.
Bruunhilde, ready for the maneuver, side-stepped the swinging legs, lunging forward to stomp her boot down on the wrist that held Dani’s sword. Pinning Moonstar to the ground, Bruunhilde looked down at her former student.
"Your time is over, pretender," she whispered and drove down hard with her own sword.
Unwilling to give Bruunhilde any victory, even in this, Dani’s moment of defeat, Moonstar refused to cry out as Bruunhilde’s sword pierced Dani’s rib cage, pinning her into the ground. Blood sputtered up and out of Dani’s mouth as Bruunhilde twisted the sword, causing Dani’s body to spasm upwards.
Still, the Angelux held her sword in place. Now, the twisting of the Valkyrie’s body was doing all the damage.
Across the void of the place where Olympus used to be, Beta Ray Bill lost control. He jerked his body to the side, causing Reject to spin off of him. Though quick to recover, Reject could not avoid a hammer blow that knocked him through the crust beneath them.
Where there was only void, there was now wind, hard whipping, swirling wind. Empire struggled to maintain his footing, but the sudden storm had bought him a respite from Ikaris, who now looked to Beta Ray Bill.
The alien-cyborg said nothing as he twirled his hammer faster and faster. The wind whipped harder, faster and Bruunhilde looked at him, shooting daggers with her eyes.
No one noticed the unconscious body of Makkari float in.
"Twirl your hammer all you want, Beta Ray Bill!" Bruunhilde sneered. "Nothing shall bring your precious Valkyrie back to yo-"
CRAKA-BOOM!
Beta Ray Bill had called down the lightning.
A large bolt obliterated the rocky crust and the concussive force knocked Bruunhilde from her feet, freeing Dani. Still the wind howled. Bill’s face betrayed no emotion.
"Impressive, alien!" Ikaris boomed through the gale. "But your light show will not bring Moonstar back to life! And now that she’s dead, we have no need to remain behind!"
"You shall pay for this!" Empire boasted.
Ikaris looked down with a smug grin, "Doubtful, Earther! Know this, Beta Ray Bill, a traitor sits on the Council! How else could we have known where Moonstar would be this day? Who betrayed her, Bill, who?"
ASGARD
Ash’lin of the Shi’ar, Kovar of the Kree and King Balder stood in the center of the Golden Realm, catching Captain America up to date on the Council’s decisions in his absence.
Steve nodded, glad to see Earth involved more directly in the Eternal War, because whether they wanted to admit it or not, they were a part of this. Thanos would not let Earth stand unaffected.
"Your time at the Fantastic Colonies went well?" Ash’lin asked, glad to have a moment with the Cosmic Protector without Moonstar’s interference.
"It did," Steve replied, willing to tell them much, but not all of what he experienced at the FC* and then with the Ro’nin on Ondurra.**
* AGC 14 - 16: Fantastic Mystery
** AGC 18 - 20: Avengers Without Consent, Mother Goblin, Ondur'ra
Further discussion was stilled as Beta Ray Bill descended from the sky. "America," Bill’s voice broke, looking at Captain America’s back.
Steve turned, "Bill, good to see-"
In Beta Ray Bill’s arms, the bloodied body of Dani Moonstar, leader of the Valkyrior, holder of Steve Rogers’ heart, hung limply. "There isn't much time …"
Beside Bill stood Empire, who spoke solemnly, "We have a traitor on the Council."
To the notice of King Balder, Skrull 4 was nowhere to be seen.
End Poisoned Moonlight
Your time is over, pretender.
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