He couldn’t be gone.  There was just no way that was possible.  Even if Freya had fought them… she hadn’t said she’d killed them.  “He could still be alive… right?” Daehyun asked of his Einherjar as he floated in the space he had stopped in, unable to go further.

                Both remained silent until Youngjae finally offered something.  A lot of things are possible.  To an extent, he explained hesitantly, hands spread wide.

                “She said she’d fought him,” Daehyun reminded them.  “That they had jumped over the edge.  She didn’t say she’d seen their bodies.”

                 But we don’t know how far they fell or if they were injured or not… Zelo reminded him, biting his bottom lip.  Jaeseop had always told him to be realistic about the possibilities and to not live in denial.  He didn’t want to give false hope to the Valkyr, but neither did he wish to help further his possible despair for it was impossible to miss.

                Just as Daehyun could feel their thoughts and feelings, so could his Einherjar, if a bit reduced in potency.  Why would they be speaking with Loki in the first place? Youngjae asked, trying to gain his investigative footing.

                “Why would Loki have been captured at all?” Daehyun proposed for them.  The last he’d seen or heard of him, the trickster god had been in Dalinore and they’d had a slight confusion of commands.  What had he done in the interim to warrant being imprisoned?  Even worse, why would Yongguk approach him at all?  He shouldn’t even know the god…

                Maybe he was being a thief? Zelo tried uncertainly.  What?  He steals stuff for a living.  Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?  It was obvious he had no idea but he was trying to cast his former companion in a better light and Daehyun thought better of them both for it, if only briefly.

                “I don’t know,” Daehyun admitted after a pause during which he shook his head.  He didn’t know why Loki was captured; why Yongguk had been near him in the first place; or what had actually happened to his brothers.  Odin had said they’d been busy with his errands the first time he’d asked but this time they were both present in Valhalla.  Something had to have happened between then and now for that change.

                So… what do we do now? Youngjae asked uncertainly, clearly at a loss for their direction.

                “We…” Daehyun started to answer, but no additional words came as he hoped.  What were they supposed to do now?  Collect other Einherjar who were potential traitors.  No…  Daehyun raised his hand to his chest and made a fist over where a necklace would rest, pressing hard against his plate.  He didn’t believe that Yongguk was a traitor.  There had to be a reason for it.

                Well… Odin did say we needed to find more Einherjar, Zelo offered helpfully, though he doubted it was something either of them wanted to hear.

                And if Ragnarok is still on the horizon, we have less time than we thought, Youngjae muttered sullenly.

                Daehyun felt his resolve waver as he was torn in two directions.  He wanted to know what had become of Yongguk, but on the other side of things, he’d been ordered by Odin to continue his duty as if nothing had happened.  But something had happened.  Yongguk was…  Yongguk had…  No.  “Let’s go,” he stated firmly, clenching his fists and flying in what his Einherjar thought was a randomly chosen direction.

                Even he didn’t exactly know where he was going but considering they had no control over his direction, neither Zelo nor Youngjae objected too strongly.  Traveling, regardless of where, was still better than sitting still.  Truth be told, Daehyun didn’t exactly know where he was going either.  It felt random when he started, but the more he flew and had a chance to realize where he was going, he understood he was flying towards Yongguk’s hometown…

                The time passed by quickly, aided by his wings that helped to speed their passage through the air.  It wasn’t exactly long before they found themselves standing once more within the remains of the village that had been destroyed by the hags’ nest.  Mutely, Daehyun called Zelo and Youngjae out of his person and urged them to silence as he moved ahead, leaving them to their own devices.

                “What’s wrong with him?” Zelo asked, leaning down and closer to the typically more learned mage.

                “I have no idea…” Youngjae admitted with a hesitant shake of his head, tilting his head to the side and looking around curiously when he thought he felt a familiar presence nearby.  His attention drifted from the Valkyr to inspect the surrounding area and he hummed thoughtfully to himself.  What were the odds?

                Utterly distracted by his own thoughts, Daehyun retraced the steps that Yongguk had taken him on the first time they’d stepped down here.  Though it had just been yesterday, it felt so very long ago…  He removed his helmet to see better and carefully made his way through the rundown buildings, feeling nothing of the hags who had infested the area just the other day.  They were long since gone due to their efforts, but sometimes the echoes of the past could be heard in the remains of even villages.

                “Yongguk?” he asked softly, taking one careful step after another.  His booted feet crunched softly in the loose dirt paths that led from building to building while he made his way to one in particular.  Daehyun paused in front of Yongguk’s house, regarding the decrepit structure with critical eyes.  Time had not been kind to it but it was still standing which was saying something.  Hesitantly, he placed his hand upon the doorframe and waited, wondering if perhaps he might feel something.

                He didn’t have the ability to read things like Jongup did.  There was nothing connected to the building that he could pick up on, but still… it felt eerily familiar all the same.  “Show me,” he murmured in a whisper, prying his hand from the decaying wood as he made his way further on, searching for the building that Yongguk had said belonged to him.  There.

                “What are we searching for?” Youngjae asked, interrupting his thoughts.  “If we knew we could probably help you more, you know.”

                “I don’t know,” Daehyun stated simply, keeping his gaze focused on the remains of the house that was supposed to have belonged to the Daehyun Yongguk knew.

                “We’re not looking for another Einherjar?” Zelo asked, looming over Daehyun as the Valkyr approached the mostly broken doorway.

                “No,” the other responded in a distracted tone, pushing the door open carefully and flinching when it creaked loudly, protesting the motion before it pried free from the frame and crashed into the interior, raising a large plume of dust in its wake.  “Leave me,” Daehyun urged them, tearing his gaze from the remains as he focused on his Einherjar.  “Just… give me a moment here.  Alone.  Ne?”

                Zelo and Youngjae looked at the Valkyr and then at each other, confused by the request.  “Did we do something wrong?” the younger of the two asked.

                “No,” Daehyun assured them with as much of a smile as he could muster.  “I just…  I need a moment to myself is all.  Please.”

                “Sure, Daehyun,” Youngjae nodded with a wry smile as he grabbed Zelo’s arm and tugged him to the side.  “Let’s go check out the hags’ nest again.  I bet we find something we missed the first time,” he grinned, poking the taller male in the cheek.

                “Hey!  Youngjae…” Zelo groaned, smacking the offending finger away and glaring at his shorter companion before he rolled his eyes and agreed reluctantly.  “Fine.  But then we come right back, alright?”

                “Of course!” Youngjae grinned, pulling the taller giant after him gleefully.

                Daehyun watched them go, the duo fading into the forest eventually before he turned his focus back to the dimly lit interior.  Streams of light made their way through the remains of the roof, giving him enough of a view into the inside of the structure.  Before he got there, another scene of some fragmented memory played out before him.

                 I-I’m so sorry.  He cringed when he saw what appeared to be a younger version of himself bracing against an expected blow from the individual he’d run into.

                That couldn’t be him.  He knew no such memory.  But…

                His head rang from the slap that marred his cheek, bringing tears to his eyes and making him reel from the unexpected onslaught.  How are you always so clumsy?

                Inexplicably nervous, Daehyun shook his head of the unexpected visions and stared at the entrance again with wide eyes.  His heart racing in his chest, he approached the threshold and stared inside, steeling himself briefly before he took his first tentative step into the interior with closed eyes.

                What if the things he’d been seeing lately weren’t just visions?  What if they were actually memories?  Were they his or were they just those of someone that Yongguk remembered that shared the same name?  Was that even possible?  Or were they only mere transferences of what the Einherjar wished to be true?

                Intensely, Daehyun tried to synch his soul with the village itself, as he would with a soon to be deceased Einherjar, hoping to hear something of its past.  With his eyes closed, he couldn’t help the gasp that slipped past his lips when he actually heard the sounds of villagers while they went about their normal day.  The sounds of peasants crowded his ears with their raucous voices.  There was no happiness here; no children running about and no older people simply talking contentedly.  A miasma of misery assaulted him, pressing against him as weary voices echoed in a dying land, each breath drawn more difficult than the last.

                This place was dead long before the hags had come.  And Yongguk had lived here?  He had lived here?  “Yah…” Daehyun groaned, clapping his hands over his ears as he sank to his knees, hunched low in the debris-filled remains of the empty home.

                Hurry up, Daehyun!  You’ve taken too long already!

                It was a feminine voice.  Someone was mad at him.  He was too slow again.  What was he not able to do?

                Sorry mother!  I’m finished! he cried, hauling a heavy container filled with peeled potatoes into the room, dropping them awkwardly on the floor, sending some of the bare roots scattering over the hard worn slats of the dining room surface.

                Now look what you’ve done, she sneered before a slap stung against his cheek, followed by a sharp pain against the back of his shoulder.

                Gasping, Daehyun opened his eyes and looked around, fully expecting to see a woman standing over him, ready to hit him again.  “Your Daehyun lived here?” he murmured in disbelief, his gauntleted hand hovering near his cheek protectively while he pushed himself to his feet and traced his fingers tentatively over the rest of the main room.  It was comprised of a living area and the dining room with two separate and closed off areas delineated by doors barring the way: bedrooms.

                Daehyun opened the first he came across, noticing a sizeable and crumpled in bed large enough for two.  It was in the middle of the room, partnered with a handmade dresser nearby and a small side table at the side of the bed.  A piss-pot, dusty and long since unused, remained sequestered at the foot of the bed.  “A master bedroom.  His parents.”  That was not where he was meant to be.  There were no memories there.  Not for him.

                Clenching his fists tightly, Daehyun stepped back out and made his way stoically to the other room, pushing the door open with the same results of the front door.  It fell off the hinges and crashed against the floor, scattering debris and dust everywhere, obscuring his vision briefly.  He fanned his hand in front of his face, coughing as the dust tickled the back of his throat, and stared when he finally had a chance to see again.

                Large enough for a single person, completely decrepit and no longer fit for a human to live in; it barely qualified as a room.  Dust and debris covered the floor from the open window where Daehyun distinctly remembered Yongguk standing just the other day as he showed the place to him from the outside.  He could see him even now, standing right outside the window.

                Hesitant feet stepped towards the bed, following the lingering image of the Einherjar as he stared at him in front of the window.  He remembered the expression perfectly.  Yongguk had seen something in him that day.  That was undeniable.  His hand descended gently to press against the dirty and rough fabric of the blanket still covering the bed.  It was worn and threadbare but whole and unchanged.  It hadn’t been used in years…

                “What did you see, Yongguk?” he asked, feeling his throat close with emotion he couldn’t explain.  “Show me what you saw that day.”  He closed his eyes and struggled to separate his own thoughts from what he might find in the remains of the house.

                At first, there was nothing but his own thoughts crowding out everything else; how he’d met Yongguk and the troubles and confrontations they’d experienced up to this point.  But as those moments faded away and fell behind him, a new voice took over in his thoughts.  Something else he hadn’t expected and the young tone of another threaded into his mind.

                The image of the necklace he’d seen in Freya’s hand, hanging around a pale covered chest.  Someone lying in this very bed.

                His heart jumped when the windows in his memory were shoved open and he saw a familiar visage bearing another necklace like his own.  It rested open and bright in the brilliant moonlight of that night.

                It’s not safe for you here anymore.

                Why?  I want to know.  Daehyun’s thoughts latched onto the deep voice that resonated so familiarly with his own recollection of Yongguk.  He felt strong arms lift him up, hauling him out of the window.  Voices called behind him, loud and angry… but not at him.

                Stop!  Stop you!

                Keep going.  Don’t stop.  We must get away!

                His heart raced in his chest as he watched another version of himself pulled from the window by a younger Yongguk.  He stared in longing as the boy, almost a man then, clung to his small frame held protectively against his chest and ran.  Where are you going?  Wait…  Take me with you!

                Gasping for breath, Daehyun opened his eyes and retracted his hand from the bed, feeling very much as if contact with it had burned him.  “You were trying to save him.”

                Chocolate eyes flickered to the open window as Daehyun saw the remnants of the image fading into the woods.  They fled into the forest.  You carried him away…  Where did you take him?  Where…?   I want to be there…

                “Youngjae!  Zelo!” he called shrilly, hopping over the bed and out the window, hearing another voice shout through memory once more.

                Get after him!

                 Keep going…  You have to keep going.  It was the only thing he could think as he followed the phantom fragment of a memory, racing after the image of a specter he shouldn’t feel attached to in the least, and yet… he did.

                “Daehyun?” Youngjae called aloud, running into view of the Valkyr as they started jogging further into the woods on foot.

                “Wait up!” Zelo cried, shoving the mage to get him moving, making sure to keep pace alongside him so he wouldn’t fall too far behind.  “Hey!” he yelled again when the Valkyr didn’t seem to hear him.

                The voices of his Einherjar faded into the background as Daehyun lost himself in the memory that he followed.  It caught his awareness and wrapped him fully within the strands of what had happened.  Ghostly images of Yongguk and himself… a younger version of both of them flickered in and out of his awareness, teasing his senses and taunting his mind with what was and what couldn’t have been.

                Then let’s run away from here.

                Where?  Where would we go?

                Anywhere but here.

                But you don’t know what the world outside is like.  You can’t know.  It’s harsh and cruel… full of people that want to take advantage of you.  It is no place for children…

                “Daehyun.  What’s going on?” Zelo asked, finally catching up as he dragged Youngjae with him, the mage floundering and gasping for breath as his taller companion led the way.

                The Valkyr didn’t hear those on the outside.  He couldn’t hear the concern or inquiry of his Einherjar who followed him loyally.  All he could see was the memory that resonated almost painfully with his soul.  Why was this so familiar?  Why?!

                You’re shivering.

                Daehyun stopped, realizing he was.  When had that happened?

                “Are you cold, Daehyun?” Zelo asked, resting his hand on the Valkyr’s shoulder, establishing the barest of connections with Daehyun who seemed to realize he was there at last.

                “No.  That way,” he pointed, watching the ghostly images dancing in front of his eyes.  Belatedly, he realized the Einherjar couldn’t see what he saw.

                You can always count on me.

                I’ll hold you to that.

                “But where are you now, Gukkie?” he murmured so softly the other two almost missed it completely.

                “What are you talking about?” Youngjae grumbled, annoyed by the game of follow the leader they were obligated to follow.

                “This way!” Daehyun called, running after the opaque images, tracing the pair that moved too fast for him.  No matter his speed, he couldn’t catch them.  The two stayed one step ahead of him at all times, but always moving in the same direction.  “Where…?”

                “Daehyun!” Zelo yelled at the shorter male.  “Hey!  What are you doing!?”

                The question fell away as something he heard from a distance; acknowledged but not worth answering immediately.  Yongguk and Daehyun were moving this way.  He had to follow; he had to know where they were going.

                What do you suppose those are?

                No.  Don’t go there.  Daehyun flinched when he realized their direction.  Not there…

                Let’s go find out.

                No!  A field of flowers filled his waking view as Daehyun walked into a valley filled with Sleeping Lilies.  He knew these flowers…  Knew what they could do to a mortal.  They had to get out of there.  Now!

                Do you suppose this is what Asgard looks like?

                No!  It’s not.  Don’t stay here.  Daehyun reached his hand to the pair in front of him, aware that Youngjae and Zelo were behind him, speaking words that were deaf to his ears.  All his attention was on the two before him.  Yongguk and… himself…

                You should not say such things.

                “Run you fool!” Daehyun yelled at the image of himself kneeling in the flowers, smelling the poisonous blossoms under the lunar light.  “Run!  Move!” he cried while tears streaked down his face, making it hard to see as waved his hands through the image of his younger self.  “Go you idiot!”  His cries became more desperate and the Valkyr fell to his knees in the white flower filled field, buds closed to the afternoon light of his reality, but open and brilliant in his mind’s eye.

                Daehyun.  These flowers.

                “They’ll kill you!” Daehyun growled angrily, furious with himself for not listening… for just sitting there.  He stared at the boy and watched as Yongguk tried to make him move too, but even then he did not listen.  “Get up,” he pleaded now, crying that the image of his own personage simply knelt in the flowers, content with his fate.  “Get up you fool!  Get up!” he sobbed, falling to his hands beside himself while Youngjae and Zelo approached behind him, confused by what he could see and they could not.  “Move!”

                No matter how hard I try, I’m never good enough.

                “Don’t say that!” Daehyun yelled, clasping his hands over his ears as he tried to close his eyes to the spectacle, but the image… the memory refused to dissipate.  It remained vivid behind closed lids, taunting him with the memories of what had happened before.  “Don’t give in!” he hiccupped, bending low over the ground so that his forehead pressed against the surface.  “You can’t leave him…” he groaned, his words lost amidst the flowers as his tears mixed with the dirt.

                I’ve always thought you were good enough, Daehyun.

                “Gukkie…” Daehyun cried into the ground, his hands gripping tight to the strands of hair bereft of a helmet, tugging at the roots with a pain he hardly felt for it was no match to the ache in his heart.

                You made my miserable existence bearable.

                “Damn you!” Daehyun cursed, ramming his fist into the soft soil of the lush ground in front of him, pounding several Sleeping Lilies into restful oblivion.  “You idiot!  Don’t you do it…  Don’t…” he begged, his head hanging low even as he knew what was going to happen next.

                Then stay with me, Daehyunnie.

                Yes!  I want to stay.  Yongguk!  Don’t you give him up!  Don’t you dare!

                Would it be so bad to forget, Gukkie?

                Unable to stop the images, Daehyun could only shake his head in denial.  “What are you saying!?  You can’t forget him!  You can’t!” Daehyun howled, beating the ground with his fist uselessly as he relived the final moments of Yongguk’s lost love… of himself.  “You fool…  You stupid coward!” he choked, forcing himself to look up… to stare straight ahead.  There was something there.

                I won’t believe you want to forget me too!

                “I don’t want to forget,” Daehyun sniffed, swallowing harshly as he crawled forward on his hands and knees, shaking off both Youngjae and Zelo who followed along on either side of him worriedly.

                “Easy, Daehyun,” Zelo urged, keeping his hand resting upon Daehyun’s shoulder.  “It’s alright.  We’re here.”

                “Calm down, Daehyun,” Youngjae soothed, brushing his hand against the Valkyr’s head to no effect.  “Just calm down!”

                “You don’t understand,” Daehyun gasped plaintively, crawling until he reached a certain point where he started digging into the soft soil, tossing flowers and dirt alike behind him.  “It’s here.  I know it’s here.  I haven’t forgotten,” he stated over and over again as the layers fell away, revealing more dirt and soil until…  His gloved hands scraped unceremoniously against stone as Daehyun panted and stared at his handiwork.

                “Is that…?” Youngjae trailed off while he peered over Daehyun’s shoulder and stared into the self-dug hole.

                “It’s me…” Daehyun stated in a shaky voice, reaching to place his hand against the stone slab that covered what was meant to commemorate him…  “It’s me.”

                “But…” Zelo started to say, his hand reaching to press against Daehyun’s shoulder questioningly.

                I will remember you always.

                “I remember.  Yongguk.  I remember,” Daehyun breathed, his chest heaving as he did recall what the Einherjar had meant to him.  As he focused on that memory and what it meant, everything it meant, whatever was inside him, keeping those thoughts bound or corralled, slowly started to fall away.  “I remember!  I remember everything!”

                “Daehyun?” Zelo and Youngjae asked at the same time as both Einherjar reached towards the reacting Valkyr and were repulsed by a massive surge of energy that pulsed from his figure, knocking them back and making it impossible to approach him.

                Daehyun screamed as he clutched at his chest.  The phantom image of another necklace interlaced itself over his awareness, burning against his flesh as memories returned in a deluge of thought.  Everything… he remembered everything from this lifetime and… the one that included Yongguk.  Where they were both humans and little more than boys in love…

                Everything from that life assaulted his mind so that he bent over his knees and curled into himself as small as possible. Desperately, he clasped his hands over his ears, forehead pressed into the ground as he tried to block out the sound of voices that bypassed his useless barrier.

                He recalled his life with Yongguk as a mortal; the trials and tribulations they faced.  He remembered how he had felt with his parents and how they tried to sell him.  He remembered how Yongguk had tried to save him and how he had died.  “Gukkie…!” he groaned, curling in on himself further as the memories continued to come, flooding beyond his past with Yongguk and overwhelming him with those of the lifetimes before.

                “Yah!” he cried with an agonized shriek, voice swallowed by the ground in front of him as his Einherjar backed away, clinging to each other in fear.  There was nothing they could do as Daehyun continued to scream with each new revelation for each new wave of power drove them back.

                “What’s happening?” Zelo shouted into the deluge of sound.

                “I don’t know!” Youngjae responded, clinging to the taller male in an effort not to be swept away.

                Daehyun pounded his fist into the ground, seeking to alleviate the agonizing feel of several lifetimes of memories flooding back, taking root in his awareness; drowning him anew with the feelings of love… loss… pain… happiness… sadness… everything!  “No!” he shrieked, his voice resonating painfully… reverberating in a strange echo of dozens of lives crying the same denial at the same time, threatening to deafen Youngjae and Zelo who crumpled to the ground with their hands over their ears, cringing as their eyes were shut tight in a vain attempt to block out the terrible sound…

(a/n: So this one was entirely Daehyun centric but a lot happened in his mental state of mind.  And it had a large part to do with this image:

This is generally what Daehyun saw when Freya showed him the necklace that Yongguk had been wearing.  Maybe it was a bit shabbier, but overall, this is pretty much the design that he wore.  As mentioned in the update, it is a happy love and good friendship charm in Celtic/Norse mythology.  And the problem you may have realized so far is not that Daehyun has remembered his life with Yongguk in particular, but that all of his memories are returning.  At the same time.  With no filter whatsoever.  Uh oh...

Yep.  I think you probably have an idea of what that could mean so I hope you'll stick around for the next update to find out for sure.  Thanks for reading so far and I hope you really do look forward to the next update!  XD)