Scream: Curse of Carnage #3 (2020)

In the skies over 6th century Denmark, Thor Odinson battles the symbiote dragon known as the Grendel. Snaring the God of Thunder with its tail, the Grendel begins constricting him, but Thor manages to break free and smashes Mjolnir into the monster's head. The Grendel crashlands on the shore of a lake and Thor flies away, victorious and oblivious to the presence of a second symbiote dragon. Rising from the depths of the lake, the enraged red symbiote dragon shrinks itself to a smaller size and attacks Heorot Hall, killing several Vikings - including Aeschere, King Hrothgar's best warrior - in retaliation. In the present day, Detective Henley surveys the bloodbath that had taken place at the F.E.A.S.T. Center before approaching Andi Benton - the sole eyewitness - and asking her what happened. The Scream symbiote warning her not to trust him, Andi tells the detective he wouldn't believe her even if she told him. Abruptly, one of the corpses sits up, its jaw distending as an eel-like symbiote offshoot emerges from his mouth, hissing to Andi that "Mother waits for you below." As Andi stomps on it, Detective Henley asks what it was; Andi retorting that trouble follows her. Later, Andi stands on a pier in Red Hook, mentally asking the Scream symbiote why they can't work with the police. The Scream symbiote retorts that Andi doesn't need a gallant prince or white knight to save her, and that a massive symbiote presence is lurking under the water, warning her that it's a trap. Andi replies that this "massive symbiote presence" attacked her first, so now they're bringing the fight to it. Diving into the water, Andi sneers at the Scream symbiote using the phrase "gallant prince", remarking that it reminds her of when her mother used to read Rapunzel to her. Quoting the fairy tale, the Scream symbiote covers Andi, transforming her into an amphibious form with a tail and webbed digits. Marveling at her new form, Andi panics as she feels fluid in her lungs, the Scream symbiote assuring her that it will help her breathe underwater before asking her if the fairy tale reminds her of her mother. Swimming deeper, Andi replies that -- unlike kids who only remember the line about Rapunzel letting down her hair -- she can't forget the beginning, telling the Scream symbiote that it starts with a man stealing rampion from the garden of a witch to satiate his pregnant wife's cravings. Caught, the witch agrees to let him go and give him all the rampion his wife desires in exchange for their firstborn child. Swimming towards a shipwreck, Andi mentally berates Rapunzel's parents for giving up their daughter like that, before sympathetically stating that all the witch wanted was to be a mother. Abruptly, Scream is accosted by another undead symbiote-monster impersonating Andi's mother, snarling that this time she isn't falling for its lies as she rips it apart. A feminine voice welcomes Scream home and calls her daughter, Andi turning to see the humanoid form of the red symbiote dragon - Grendel's Mother - towering over her. As Grendel's Mother grabs her, Scream snarls that she is not the monster's daughter, Grendel's Mother retorting that she is the mother of all dead things. As Scream struggles to break free, Grendel's Mother admonishes her to stop squirming before remarking that both the Scream symbiote and its host know that Earth's time is running out: Knull is on his way to Earth and will slaughter every living thing on it, but she intends to ask him to let her keep Scream for herself. Scream snarls that she cannot have the symbiote or Andi, Grendel's Mother laughing before saying that she only wants the former and couldn't care less about the latter. Scream breaks free and tries to garrotte Grendel's Mother with her hair, the symbiote dragon summoning her army of undead monsters to defend her. Scream is overwhelmed, Andi panicking as the undead monsters attempt to rip her symbiote off. Lashing out with thorny tendrils, Scream rips the undead monsters apart, shouting that Grendel's Mother is not her family and that she is Scream. Paraphrasing the tagline for Alien, Grendel's Mother spits a torrent of blue flames that blasts Scream across the seafloor. As the Scream symbiote reels in pain, Andi desperately begs it not to leave her. Blacking out as the Scream symbiote separates from her, Andi wakes up in her old bedroom in Philadelphia. Confused at not being able to sense the Scream symbiote, she hears voices talking in the kitchen and steps out to see her father and her mother affectionately telling Flash Thompson about how stubborn and determined she can be. As Flash greets her, Andi's drowning body slowly sinks to the bottom of the ocean; Grendel's Mother restating that when Knull arrives he will grant her permission to claim the Scream symbiote as her daughter.