Scream: Curse of Carnage #4 (2020)

Confused by her parents and Flash Thompson suddenly being alive and well, Andi is initially overwhelmed with the hope that the past several years of her life have been a nightmare, but realizes this can't be true. As Andi states that all three of them are dead, Flash tells her to let go and join them. Andi admits to herself that no matter how much she may wish it was real, it isn't; the room flooding with water and her parents decaying into skeletons. Realizing she's drowning, Andi asks herself if this isn't what she wanted - to die and reunite with her family. Just as Andi gives up, the Scream symbiote rebonds to her and urges her to keep fighting, telling her that as long as they're together she'll never be alone. Andi regaining her resolve to keep fighting, Scream attacks the undead monsters; the symbiote telling Andi that while her demonically-augmented rage nourishes it and makes her a potent host, there is something even greater inside her than wrath: love. Grendel's Mother abruptly grabs Scream and slams her into the seafloor, scornfully chastising the lesser symbiote for clinging to a weak mortal host like a child does a safety blanket. Transformed into a massive feminine beast intermediary between her dragon and humanoid forms, Grendel's Mother snarls that only Scream's "Big Mother" can see her true potential and help her realize it. Scream snaps that the symbiote dragon isn't her mother, but Grendel's Mother snaps that she's older than time itself and intends to show Scream just what kind of mother she can be. Scream snaps that Grendel's Mother knows nothing about love, but Grendel's Mother counters by saying she felt ineffable rage when her counterpart, the Grendel, was struck down by the hero called "Beowulf," and that she nursed her wrath across centuries after being sealed away. She admits to having been awed by the splendor of the modern world after she was unleashed, but that she came to her senses and realized that nothing had changed after discovering that the warrior who had vanquished her and her "son" - Thor Odinson - was revered as a hero, rekindling her hatred. Grendel's Mother states that discovering Scream filled her with a burning warmth, licking the lesser symbiote's face and asking her if that isn't a mother's love. Admitting that their kind usually care nothing for love and family, Grendel's Mother reiterates that Scream has given her something other than hatred to cling to and that she has no intentions of sharing the symbiote with its "piffling trifle" of a host. Grendel's Mother attempts to rip the Scream symbiote off Andi again, slamming her into the seafloor and snapping that when Knull arrives the Earth will belong to the symbiotes and all life on it will be reduced to dust. As bones wrapped in tendrils of living abyss bind Scream to the ground, Grendel's Mother states that when that happens Scream will realize her true potential as a demigod, fit to rule in service of the King in Black. Several symbiote-infected crabs burrow into the Scream symbiote, Andi revolted that she can feel them crawling across her body. Breaking free, Scream shouts that they are not family, absorbing the crabs and sprouting mandibles and four arthropod legs from her back. Remarking that unruly children always think they know better than their parents, Grendel's Mother swipes Scream with her talons and sends her careening into the side of the sunken ship. Wrapping her hair-tendrils around the propeller, Scream states that family isn't just bound by blood and that the symbiote's bond to Andi is stronger than its ties to the rest of its kind. Hurling the propeller, Scream quips that she's officially cutting herself off from Grendel's Mother side of the family. Enraged, Grendel's Mother roars that Scream knows nothing of birthrights or lineage, charging towards her with her wings flared. Sprouting fin-shaped wings of her own, Scream takes off - Andi panicking as Grendel's Mother gains on them. Reaching the surface, Scream hovers over the water - Andi openly admitting for the first time that the symbiote is the only family she has left - in turn, the Scream symbiote promises Andi that as long as they are bonded Andi will always have a family and never be alone. Before Scream can fly away, Grendel's Mother's hand erupts from the ocean and grabs her as she says that letting go is one of the hardest things in life, and that change is never easy. As she drags Scream back down into the depths, Grendel's Mother mockingly offers to tell Andi a "bedtime story" before "tucking her in" and saying "goodnight." In sixth-century Denmark, Thor Odinson lamentingly carries out the bodies of those slain by Grendel's Mother the previous night, helping the mourners bundle them into boats and send them off down the river. His heart full of vengeance, Thor treks through mountains and forests until he comes across the body of a deer half-crushed by a massive taloned footprint, and a gruesome ritualistic display made by those who worshiped the symbiotes. Coming across a fetid lake at the base of a waterfall, Thor realizes he's found the symbiote dragons' lair. Brandishing Mjolnir, Thor ventures into the half-flooded corpse-strewn cave behind the falls. Again attempting to rip the Scream symbiote off Andi, Grendel's Mother states that the stories told of her kind were intended to make the mortal vermin of Earth fear them and to herald the arrival of Knull. Rebuking the Scream symbiote for bonding to a mortal host, Grendel's Mother states that doing so has polluted its majesty and sapped its grandeur. Ripping the Scream symbiote away a second time, Grendel's Mother states that when Knull arrives she will show both her progenitor and the Scream symbiote itself what it is truly capable of. Just before their bond is severed, the Scream symbiote urges Andi to escape. Desperately swimming for the surface, Andi realizes she's too deep to make it, but refuses to give up this time. As Andi pushes herself to the breaking point, Grendel's Mother rises up beneath her, opens her jaws, and swallows Andi whole.