"Was Heimdall specific in his warning?" Thor asks the All-Father.

Galloping across the Bifrost towards Heimdall's post at the edge of Asgard, Odin glances at his son, the thundering of hooves almost drowning his reply. "It matters not what awaits us. We will deal with it when we arrive."

Thor tries not to grunt at the vague response. On his father's other side, his mother rides with them, although not dressed for war. Frigga makes for an imposing sight in her battle regalia and the fact that she is still clothed in her day dress has Thor on edge. Frigga riding with them at all is a cause for concern, even more so when she is along as a peacemaker.

Behind them, the Warriors Three and Sif are bristling for a fight. They are outfitted for war, as are Thor and Odin, but no guards accompany them, and Thor knows this means that the situation is volatile and the All-Father wants to keep it quiet until they can get a handle on the situation.

At the Bifrost portal, they dismount. Odin dismisses the extra guards at the portal with a wave of his spear. Thor adjusts his grip on his hammer as they approach the portal, able to see two silhouettes inside, one with the tall helmet of Heimdall and one kneeling, a prisoner.

As they enter, Heimdall turns his head only, slowly. "All-Father," he says in greeting, his deep voice filling the portal chamber. His sword is level with the kneeling man's throat. Thor feels a shiver of premonition work its way down his spine. The kneeling man looks up slowly with a very tired smile, green eyes flashing under matter and dirty, black hair.

"Well, hello there, family," Loki says.

Behind him, Thor can hear weapons being adjusted. No one moves for a moment, all taking in the sight of the bedraggled trickster god. He doesn't look like he's in good shape. His skin is smeared with ash and old bloodstains, armor gone, shirt ripped in gaping wounds. He holds himself as though he's dealing with abdomen injuries. Thor hates that his first thought is that this is an illusion Loki has cast to win sympathy and bring their guard down.

Frigga has no such doubts. She breaks free from Odin's side and rushes to her adopted son, Heimdall barely able to get his sword out of the way in time for her to fall to her kneels and cradle Loki's face in her hands.

Loki seems just as shocked by her affection as everyone else. "Oh, my son," Frigga whispers, magic blooming from her hands. It's then that Thor knows Loki wears no glamour. Frigga is a sorceress and she taught Loki all of her tricks. If anyone can see through his facades, it is their mother. If Loki has not healed himself yet, it is because he cannot.

Everyone watches as Frigga heals a deep wound in Loki's torso, pulling up his shirt to reveal an incision that went clean through his body, shredding organs. Loki's eyes glaze over for a moment in pain and Thor relents and comes to stand by his brother's side. Loki watches with wary eyes but Thor can see that the smaller man is too exhausted to protest treatment in front of the All-Father and former comrades. He looks older as well, a heavy burden on his shoulders, responsibility weighing him down.

"Loki," Thor says, "Where have you been? What happened that day?"

Loki's eyes shift from Thor to Odin and his lips press together in a thin line. Odin taps the end of his spear on the ground and Thor straightens under his father's steely gaze. "Heimdall said you came with a warning," the All-Father says in his commanding voice.

Loki looks at the king of Asgard with thinly veiled disgust. He almost looks like he wants to let Odin suffer. But his words come out beleaguered instead of sarcastic. "A warning, yes," he sighs. Frigga has finished her ministrations and he staggers to his feet. He weaves slightly and his mother catches him, worry all over her face. "The goddess of death is reborn."

"Hel is alive!?" Thor asks, voice loud in the portal chamber and Loki winces. "But her army fell and the gates of Niflheim have been sealed."

Loki looks at him in confusion, his words slurring. "Sealed?" He staggers, exhausting carving deep furrows into his cheeks. "How could you know that? I was only expelled from Niflheim moments ago."

Frigga sucks in an audible, shocked breath. Thor's eyes are wide and even Odin looks worried. Loki looks between them, piecing it together slowly. "How long has it been since Hel's army fell on Vanaheim?" he asks his brother.

Thor swallows. "Seven months."

Loki's face shatters. "No, that's not right," he murmurs with fervor, a sort of mad light coming into his eyes. "That can't be right."

"Hel's army fell on Vanaheim seven months ago," Thor says quietly, the shock on his brother's face unnerving him. "Last anyone knew, Jay challenged Hel on the cliffs of Clarrappidium. When they vanished, Hel's army fell into disarray only moments later. The Avengers and the Vanir resistance beat Tyr and Hel's armies back from Vanaheim. We found Tyr's body on the cliffs but there was no sign of you, Hel or Jay. Syvlk and Bjern have set up a council to rule Vanahiem in the absence of the Jay, the queen." A small, dazed smile has come across Loki's face. "Loki," Thor says, dread in his voice. "What happened to Jaycee? We're searched for months but there has been no sign of either her or Hel."

Loki gives a mirthless laugh that has chills racing down Thor's spine. "Like I said," he meets Thor's eyes. "The goddess of death is reborn."

Before Thor can ask what he means, a crackling sound draws everyone's attention to the dais in the centre of the room. Lightning arcs from the platform in spurs, illuminating the walls, throwing shadows across the gathered party's faces. "Heimdall?" Odin inquires. The gatekeeper is no where near the platform, his sword in hand at his side. The Bifrost is opening by itself.

Heimdall tries his best to make his way to the platform but the lightning storm in the room intensifies and they all have to back up, even Thor. The edges of the room start spinning, a vortex of rainbow light shimmering at the walls, reality bending around them. Instead of pointing out towards the cosmos, the tunnel pointing from the portal shifts to point straight up. The coruscating rainbow light narrows to a pint and then rebounds outwards, unleashing a massive electromagnetic pulse that slams everyone off their feet to fly across the physical rainbow bridge. The portal chamber itself shatters as a tunnel of rainbow light pounds straight downwards from the heavens.

As the smoke clears, a silhouette can be seen in the rubble of what once was the Bifrost portal chamber. Thor picks himself up as the Warriors Three and Sif untangle themselves. Loki helps Frigga to her feet, his body now pocked with new bruises from having shielded their mother. Only Odin is standing tall, facing the new threat emerging from the dust.

A small woman walks towards them, a ragged dress flowing around her body. Her white and black hair ghosts around her face, hiding her eyes from view. Starlight winks around her. Her hands are bone, her ribcage on the outside of her torso, feet bare. Thor can see that this is not Hel and he gets the dreadful feeling that this is something far worse.

"Who are you, to dare and breach Asgard's borders?" Odin roars, challenging the newcomer.

The woman stops her approach, her dress stilling, no longer moving like a living thing. Her hair moves lazily away from her face and Thor gasps in horror.

"I am your downfall, Aesir king," Jaycee Strong's lips say, her eyes a luminous green, the voice Hel's death rattle. "Welcome me, the goddess of lost souls."

Thor staggers towards her and her head whips towards him. Her mouth cracks into a hideous sneer. "God of Thunder," she purrs, voice raspy and vengeful. "Does this body not suit me well?" Thor raises his hammer, ready to slam it home into the goddess of death. The dark goddess wags an admonishing finger at him. "Oh no, dear," her voice changing to Jay's husky alto. "You wouldn't want to hurt your dear friend, Jaycee, now would you?"

"Who are you?" Thor demands, anger and grief fighting inside his throat so that his voice comes out choked.

The goddess smiles. Her eyes turn towards Loki, slowly, savoring the moment. Her eyes lower slightly, her gaze sultry and taunting. "True. You wouldn't know since I barely gave the trickster enough time to fill you in on the details." She twirls a lock of white hair around her fingers. "Let's just say that Jaycee and I are the same person now. Her body, our souls. She just didn't count of my soul being the stronger of the two."

"No," Loki says, desperation on his face. "It wasn't supposed to be a fight. When your soul and hers rejoined, you were supposed to be balanced." Thor tries to process everything, understanding dawning as he looks at the creature before him. This is what Jay sacrificed. He does not know the whole story but he can understand that Jay and Hel merged somehow in the aftermath of the battle in Clarrappidium.

Hel/Jay shrugs. "She miscalculated. Her fault, not mine," she smiles, "Now if you don't mind, I have important business on Asgard. You bright Aesir need a lesson in what made Vanaheim so powerful when the galaxy was young."

Heimdall is the first to attack, his sword flashing towards Hel, his instinct to protect the realm guiding his blade. She sidesteps, faster than the eye can blink, pushes the heel of her hand and hits the guardian so hard under his chin that he crumples to the ground, out cold.

She licks her lips. "Next?"

The Warriors Three and Sif charge her. She brushes imaginary lint off her shoulder and cracks her bony knuckles, unnerving as everyone can see the bones popping.

Volstaag swings down hard with his axe. Hel/Jay slips underneath it, pushes two quick palm strikes into his solar plexus and is already kicking Fandrall's legs out from under him before Volstaag collapses. Fandrall's rapier doesn't get anywhere near her before she has him flat on his back, using his chest as a spring board to launch herself at Hogun. For a moment it looks like his spiked mace will connect with her body, before she twists unnaturally, grabbing the handle of his own weapon and pushing it hard into his thigh. Sif swings her double-bladed sword for Hel/Jay's head, but she has already moved and as a sweeping kick lands between Sif's ribs, Thor realizes with shocking clarity that she is reading their minds, using Jay's telepathy in way that Jay never would have. It gives her an edge they cannot combat.

Despite his reluctance to hurt Jay, because that's all he can see, Thor winds up his hammer, getting ready to call a lightning strike down that will hopefully incapacitate her long enough for them to sedate her and rein in her powers. But before he can get even a couple of rotations, she reaches out towards him, and pushes hard telekinetically. He goes flying backwards, struggling to right himself.

Loki does not attack, and Frigga stays at his side, even though they can both defend themselves. But the All-Father will not stand for this type of threat to his dominance and he levels his spear at the goddess.

Odin stabs his spear towards her, the spearhead flashing in the starlight, the blade deadly sharp, having seen battles across the cosmos. For a second Loki thinks that strike will land. The goddess smiles.

Hel or Jay, or whoever she is now, grabs the spear as it slices across her palm. She closes her bone hand around the blade, metacarpals clicking against the metal. Standing upright, she grins at Odin and snaps the famous spearhead off between the fingers of one hand.

The one-eyed king of Asgard is speechless. The Warriors Three all have their jaws on the bridge, Thor stunned, hammer limp in hand. "Impossible," Volstaag gasps. The rest of the spear dissolves into fragments, nothing more than a broken relic.

The dark goddess flicks shards away with nonchalance. "Not that this isn't diverting, All-Father," she says, flicking pieces of his broken weapon from her dress. "But I have business to attend to."

Rainbow light swirls around her and with a flash, the goddess disappears into a portal. "Did she just conjure the Bifrost?" Fandrall asks incredulously. "That's not possible."

"Where did she go?" Hogun snarls, his mace in hand, scanning the skies.

There is a flash of rainbow light on the horizon and they can all just make out the silhouette of the goddess as she descends towards the Circlets of Sigyn.

"Oh, her poor lost soul," Frigga whispers, only loud enough for Loki to hear. "Her mind is scattered and vengeful."

"Thor," Loki demands. "A lift?"

Understanding his meaning, Thor grasps Loki's forearm and takes off, dragging his brother through the air behind him. They shoot for the Circlets of Sigyn, zooming in to land next to the dark goddess wearing the face of a former friend.

She turns to look at them, bare feet tracing the patterns in the stone platform. "It's fitting you should watch this," she says, sentimentality, or something fake and similar creeping into her voice. The Circlets move above her, the rune marks on the ground glittering in response to her presence. "You were here when Sigyn set this in motion."

"Jaycee," Thor starts but the goddess snaps at him, her dress whipping around her.

"I am NOT Jaycee," the woman snarls. "I am better than she ever was. Stronger, more powerful. She was too weak to use her gifts, but I am not."

Before he can warn Thor, a telekinetic burst, fringed in rainbow light rips from the dark goddess. The force of the blast sends Thor spiraling to hit of the panels of the Circlets with a definitive gong. The god of Thunder hits the ground hard, struggling to get back up.

Loki watches her, struggling to control his own horror and grief. When she accepted Hel's soul that day, seven months ago, she thought she was balancing their souls, righting a mistake from the history of Vanaheim. Instead Jay and Sigyn are smothered by Hel, the goddess of death slowly killing the two women he loved.

Either sensing he's no threat, or saving him for later, Hel/Jay focuses all of her energy on the ground of the Circlets. She closes her eyes, hair rippling in a breeze only she can feel. Rainbow light glows across her arms, up through her hair, winding outwards from her, towards the stars. She looks like the heart of a nebula. Loki doesn't even understand what he is seeing. Jay's telekinesis and telepathy with Hel's control of the Bifrost is a terrible combination of powers and he is seeing it manifest.

The power gathering around her expands and then collapses into her body and she slams her hands into the ground.

The Circlets of Sigyn, the platform and the runes explode outwards in a shower of stone and magic.

Loki and Thor are thrown into the sea below, chunks of masonry puncturing the water around them. When they surface, there is a faint misty residue in the air and Jay/Hel is shimmering with what appears to be stardust. She has landed in the citadel to the west, unscathed from the blast, hair ghosting around her. Loki and Thor make their way towards her, Thor flying there, Loki forced to swim.

As Loki pulls himself from the ocean surrounding Asgard, he sees Thor go flying backwards, straight through the doors of a great hall, bystanders screaming and fleeing the scene. Hel/Jay spins around, her mind finding his presence. He has no weapons, and he is standing before one of the most powerful goddesses he has ever seen.

She cocks her head at him, walking towards him slowly, sinuously. He tries to conjure an illusion, knowing that it is mostly pointless as she can read his mind. Still he tries but she walks through the fake body double as if it is smoke, under his guard, her face alight with cruel fascination.

Her bony fingers wrap around his neck, tight up on his jaw. She smiles cruelly, pearlescent eyes glowing with malice. One-handed she lifts him up, his legs swinging, her dress moving around her in a frenzied wind. Unable to process what he's seeing, Hel pulls him closes, the goddess of the dead wearing Jaycee's features. "Hello, beloved," she purrs. "Miss me?"

And then she throws him hard into the wall, his spine screaming in pain at the impact. A rainbow portal opens behind her and she steps backwards into space, a gleaming smile on her face.

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This chapter was mostly written to the song, Something Wicked by Hidden Citizens (feat. FJORA). Give it a listen.