The Soulmate Initiative: Book 2

6. Alone

LOCATION: MUSPELHEIM

Tasia had been out in the universe trying to learn everything she can about the infinity stones. She had unfortunately been captured by Surtur, a fire demon, who Odin had trapped many years ago. Tasia is lying, all wound up with chains, in a cage, hanging from the rock ceiling of a huge cave, lava far below her. She's bored, lonely and exhausted. In the cage with her is a skeleton, who she's started talking to after being up there for hours with it "Now, I know what you're thinking. Oh no! Tasia's in a cage. How did this happen? Well, sometimes you have to get captured just to get a straight answer out of somebody. It's a long story, but basically, I'm a bit of a hero. See, I spent some time on Earth, fought some robots, saved the planet a couple of times. Then I went searching through the cosmos for some magic, colorful infinity stone things. Didn't find any. That's when I came across a path of death and destruction, which led me all the way here into this cage, where I met you." The skeleton's jaw falls off and Tasia asks "How much longer do you think we'll be here?" 

Suddenly a chain starts rattling and the bottom of the cage opens up, causing both of them to fall. The skeleton drops to the ground while Tasia drops almost to the rock floor below, but the chains stop her a few metres in the air. Surtur, who's sitting on a huge throne, chuckles deeply as Tasia starts to slowly turn his way "Tasia, daughter of Odin." "Surtur, son of a bitch. You're still alive. I thought my father killed you a half a million years ago." "I cannot die. Not until I fulfil my destiny and lay waste to your home." "It's funny you should mention that, because I've been having these terrible dreams of late. Asgard up in flames, falling to ruins. And you, Surtur, are at the centre of all of them." "Then you have seen Ragnarok, the fall of Asgard. The great prophecy-" "Hang on." Tasia interrupts his speech, as the chains turn her too far round to see him anymore "Hang on." She wiggles, trying to turn herself quicker "I'll be back around shortly. I really feel like we were connecting there." 

Once she can see him again, she smiles a little "Okay, so Ragnarok. Tell me about that, walk me through it." "My time has come. When my crown is reunited with the eternal flame, I shall be restored to my full might." As he gets more passionate, the low flames on his skin start getting more powerful "I will tower over the mountains and bury my sword deep in Asgard's-" Tasia is turned too far again "Oh, hang on. Give it a second. I swear I'm not even moving, it's just doing this on its own. I'm really sorry." Surtur sighs deeply.

Once Tasia is facing him yet again, she goes on "Okay, so let me get this straight. You're going to put your crown into the eternal flame and then you'll suddenly grow as big as a house?" "A mountain!" "The eternal flame that Odin keeps locked away on Asgard?" "Odin is not on Asgard." Tasia looks confused "Okay, so where is it? This crown?" "This is my crown-" He points to his head, that looks like two horns right above his eyes "-the source of my power." "Oh, that's a crown? I thought it was a big eyebrow." "It's a crown." "Anyway, it sounds like all I have to do to stop Ragnarok is rip that thing off your head." Surtur laughs as he rises from his throne "But Ragnarok has already begun. You cannot stop it." 

Surtur takes out his red-hot sword and drags it along behind him, as he approaches Tasia. He grabs the chains Tasia is dangling from and pulls her closer to his face "I am Asgard's doom and so are you. All will suffer, all will burn." "Oh, that's intense. To be honest, seeing you grow really big and set fire to a planet would be quite the spectacle." She chuckles "But it looks like I'm gonna have to choose option B, where I bust out of these chains, knock that tiara off your head and stash it away in Asgard's vault." "You cannot stop Ragnarok. Why fight it?" "Because that's what heroes do." She opens her hand, that's behind her back and waits for Mjolnir to come to her, but when nothing happens, she sighs "Wait, I'm sorry. I didn't time that right." A distant thudding can be heard and Tasia grins "And, now!" 

Mjolnir breaks through the chains and flies past her, she grabs onto it as it does so, landing a good 10 or so metres from Surtur. Surtur holds up his sword "You have made a grave mistake, Odinsdottir." "I make grave mistakes all the time." A large creature growls from the shadows "Everything seems to work out." Human sized creatures start to approach from every direction, Tasia starts fighting them off with her hammer and some even just by kicking and punching. She leaps into the air and summons some lightning, then strikes the ground with it, throwing them all backwards and angering Surtur. Surtur points his sword at Tasia and lava bursts out of it, but Tasia spins Mjolnir incredibly fast to protect herself. Then she flies towards him and knocks him on the head, he is much taller than Tasia, even taller than the frost giants, but that doesn't scare Tasia. Tasia keeps fighting, until she is able to knock the crown off Surtur's head and he crumbles into ashes. 

Tasia uses some of the chain off the ground to attach the crown, which is almost the same size as her, to her back. She then turns to see many more of the human sized creatures are running her way "Heimdall, I know it's been a while, but I could really use a fast exit." Nothing happens. The bifrost doesn't come "Heimdall?" When Tasia realises it isn't working, she has to fight the  creatures off. The large creature roars and she flies herself up at the ceiling, thankfully bursting through to the surface of the planet above. She raises her hammer in the air "Heimdall, come on!" Just as the large creature bursts out of the earth, the bifrost arrives and transports Tasia to Asgard.