There was something poetic, almost, about the scene. Two Titans taking care of a third, dragging his body from the center of a crater. As they reached the edge, they came to a stop.

"The Chinese requested his body. They want him to be buried with honor, they plan to claim he died fighting the machines." Spike glanced at Valkyrie, then at Eyeball, who was still working on getting all of his equipment put away, trying to organize it a bit better than it had been when he found it. Emerald added her crossbow to the crate, tossing it on top of the pile to a frustrated look from Eyeball.

Eyeball turned to look at spike.. and slammed the lid shut, dropping down the hill, sliding. "Do you have any idea what the death toll here was?" He glared at the titan's corpse. "There are millions of people dead because of this nut job. Because the Chinese had a monster on a leash and let it go in the middle of Mexico. I know exactly how dangerous these machines were, But Tai was even more dangerous."

Spike shrugged. "On that, we can agree. no way in hell we should be celebrating this guy, or pretending that he was a hero. But, The choice is either we pretend he was a hero, or we release the truth. and if we release the truth, the Chinese already released their lie. How exactly do you see that playing out?"

Eyeball sighed. "Yeah, I don't see any way this could go well. Worst-case scenario, war with China; and their troops are already right here, with no enemy to fight.So long as ya'll keep your end of the agreement, I get my island, my money, and my pardon, I'll go along with the lie."

He frowned, looking around. Emerald stepped up beside him. "Can I keep the bolt?" Eyeball glanced at her. Tai didn't have a bounty on him, the way that Lightning had. Still... the bolt that killed Tai? That would be a nice trophy, either to keep, or to sell. " Go ahead and grab it."

Spike stepped between them and the body. " Hold up there. I never said you guys could deface his corpse."

Eyeball rolled his eyes. He started to reach for his gun, but of course his vision told him that the absolute worst he could do to Spike was a black eye. That wasn't the only thing his vision told him, however. "The machines don't use crossbows. The bullet hole in the chest makes sense, we need to get the bolt out anyway. Go ahead and grab it Emerald."

As Emerald walked forward; Spike hesitating, but then nodding, allowing her to pass; Eyeball drew his 40mm revolver, aiming it at... seemingly, nothing. He could see, if he fired it a hole into some sort of chamber would appear... or if he aimed it there, there would be blood. "Whoever you are, if I'm looking for you I can see you. you can show yourself now, or you can show yourself with a few holes in you."

***

Apollo had grown increasingly frustrated over the past two hours. He had seen a neat line into the future; Not as precise as it used to be but he believed he had the vague idea down pat. The titan Spike would defeat the machines with the help of his ex girlfriend, and rekindle their relationship. The titan Tai Would go on a mindless rampage, only to be stopped by Valkyrie and Spike.

Spike would be badly injured in the process, not fatally, but enough that In a few years time, Eyeball would be able to finish him off, after he had a few years with Diss; and before the Jotun could do whatever trick they were going to use to turn Spike, and cause him to devastate the earth.

And one neat maneuver, the last of the Titans who they could use to so easily devastate the planet would be gone, before they even showed up. while Valkyrie would be extremely useful in fighting the Jotun, her powers weren't nearly so apocalyptic; unlike Spike, Lightning, or Tai, a few seconds control of Valkyrie couldn't kill billions of people.

Then, suddenly, it had all been derailed. His vision had changed, Eyeball killing the rogue titan instead of Spike. Eyeball and Spike would never be friends, but now eyeball wouldn't end up killing him; and Spike wouldn't be badly injured enough to make that happen.

Apollo had loaded up his chariot, bringing along those who wished to tag along; namely Odin and a handful of the Olympian Guard, there simply to observe; intent on simply causing a plane accident without killing the occupants; and delaying Eyeball from arriving until Spike was forced to do the job. And now? They saw the corpses, and Apollo's plans lying in ruins.

"... Perhaps Ragnarok is inevitable. The changes these past months had given me hope, but I keep seeing things twist back in that direction."

Odin nodded; leaning his spear against the wall... and neatly shoved one of the controls, forcing the chariot; a metal sphere capable of either glowing like the sun, or turning completely invisible, as it was now, closer. "Perhaps I cannot see the future. But I've been around far longer than you; and I've killed a Titan myself, back in the day. We should talk to them. There will be a solution."

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Apollo glared at the one-eyed man. " On every path I deal with the Titan Slayer directly, eventually we come to blows. The results of a fight like that are impossible to predict."

They could see the figures outside the chariot, talking, dragging the body out of the crater. Odin shook his head. "Then you can stay in the chariot. Turn it visible, let me talk to them."

Apollo stepped over to the controls for the mantle of invisibility, blocking Odin from reaching them. "Never. I can't risk revealing us this close to them! What if they turn hostile? Maybe, maybe, we could take on some of them; but there's no way we can defeat them all, or even escape alive if it turns to a fight!"

He hadn't made it in time. They could see, outside the craft, Eyeball suddenly looking at them; pointing the barrel of a gun and the glowing red orbs mounted to his chrome helmet their way. Odin smiled. "I like this one. My valkyries have told me amusing stories of the times they almost collected him."

Apollo sighed. "Fine. Go alone. Keep me out of it."

Odin laughed, and clapped him on the shoulder. " Fine. Drop me off, I'll find my own way home. I've been meaning to talk to this Valkyrie woman for a while anyway."

***

Eyeball was surprised when the figure in heavy, rune-carved armor stepped out, spear on his back... and with a face that everyone who'd paid attention to the Pantheons could recognize. Odin. One of the oldest, greatest, warriors ever born, a metahuman who had only been seen publicly in battle once in modern history, during those dark days when the Jotun had tried to overrun the earth; and whom might not be a Titan but clearly came close.

Whoever was the source of the blood that could have been found should his armor-piercing shell found its mark wasn't this man; and the hatch behind him vanished, as the craft simply flew almost noiselessly into the sky.. Eyeball unconsciously following it with his gun until it was out of range... before holstering it, and nodding to Odin.

"I seem to recall the legends calling you Grey-beard, All-father. That doesn't seem to be accurate."

Odin brushed the thick, dark beard with one hand, chuckling low. "Ahhh, Titanslayer. Faced with Odin himself and you're making jokes. That's a reference to my age, not the actual color of my beard; though at times it does get stained so heavily with drink much of the color is lost."

While Eyeball was at least feigning calm, the others ranged from sheer nervous panic, on the part of Spike to curiosity on the part of Valkyrie; she hadn't known Valkyries were a real thing when she chose her own code-name, and had never had the cause to speak to Odin, or any of them.

Emerald, at first, had no idea who the stranger with the eyepatch was; but with Eyeball so comfortable speaking with him, she simply decided to step up and lean against his side in support; with Eyeball stretching an arm over her shoulders and smiling down at her... only, once again, to remember nothing could be seen through the helmet.

"My apologies for threatening you, All-father. I have no quarrel with you."

Odin nodded. "No, no, of course not. Nor I with you. Honestly, the stories I've heard of you have brought great laughter to the tables of Valhalla."

Eyeball blinked. "...Oh. Why are you here?"

He stepped closer, and settled a hand on Eyeball's shoulder; before turning to look at Spike. "I'm here because for millenia now, it was destined that, in a few years hence, a Titan would cause a great cataclysm, devastating the people of earth, weakening it for the inevitable invasion of the Jotun."

Eyeball took a step back, grimacing. The aborted invasion of earth years ago had been short; more of a raid by a few rogue ships rather than a concerted assault; but the Jotun were large, strong, tough, and, at the time, had greatly advanced technology over that of humanity; its results had been devastating, and if not for the efforts of Titans and other elite metas, earth would have fallen. "They're coming back?"

"Of course. And in far greater numbers. They have a master of their own to whom they owe tribute, and intend to take Earth as such. For thousands of years now, we believed it inevitable; that the best we could hope for was to devastate their armies and ensure that, even if earth was lost, some humans would survive to escape; and the Jotun themselves would be crushed by our fall."

Spike looked down at Tai. "Is... Tai the one causing it? Did we stop it?"

"Oh, no. We didn't know who, at first. Only once Eyeball here emerged on the scene did we discover that it would be Lightning that would've done it; running across the ocean at lightspeed, unleashing a Tsunami to devastate the earth. And after he passed... it would be you."

Spike blinked, pressing his hand against his chest. "...Me. Seriously? I would never do that."

"Do you believe in magic, Titan?"

"...Yes. We have files on it. We know that some metahuman powers are related to it, which make certain barriers helpful for controlling them. It has something to do with.. souls. Or life force."

Odin tapped Spike in the center of his chest with two fingers; Spike instinctively increasing his mass in response, not backing away. "The Jotun have a variety of sorcerers and artifacts. Among them is one known as the Shackles of Eternity. He wields a mighty device, a blend of sorcery and technology far beyond earth, that, once each Jotun year... or about once every three earth months... allows him to take control of the mind of any single person; even a Titan, who would normally be impervious to such things. Even of me. If he'd been here with that raiding group, he could have taken control of Lightning then and there, and that tiny raid would have been a victory, with humanity too busy picking up the rubble to fight back."

"If you are here, and alive, when the Jotun invade? They will sieze control of you. You will increase your density so far that it will be as if you were in a black hole, and a massive chunk of the earth will be crushed, turning this continent into a new ocean. Then, you will decrease your density so that the resulting shockwave kills you, taking you out of the picture."

Spike backed away, horrified at the image... and knowing it was something he was fully capable of.

"The only hope for our victory in Ragnarok, the final war for the survival of earth... is for you to be dead before that day arrives."