Good Intentions
It was the morning after Thor had left with Loki and the Tesseract for Asgard. The Avengers were about to head to the living room after converging in the kitchen for breakfast. They all filed in when they suddenly stopped. Tony, who was completely hung-over, hiding his eyes behind Ruben shades slammed right into Steve's back.
"What the-," he stopped abruptly and stared. There lounging on the couch was a young woman in her early twenties. She had pale skin and ebony hair tumbling down her back in sheets. She had turned to look at them. She had crimson lips and thick eyelashes shading beautiful emerald green eyes. She looked slightly familiar but Steve couldn't put his finger on it.
She stood gracefully, her ivory dress reaching her knees with golden embroidery shimmering as she moved. "Warriors of Midgard," she stated in a lightly accented voice, something old, "I am Lady Hela, Queen of Niflheim."
Steve said incredulously, "But aren't you supposed to be half decomposed?" He never was good around women, even if they're strange women that broke into their living room. All the Avengers turned to look at him in shock. "What?" he protested in annoyance, "They had mythology in the forties!"
Hela had just rolled her eyes, "The myths are highly over exaggerated. They also said that the Allfather's warhorse Sleipnir is my brother, and that my other brothers are a snake and a wolf."
"Aren't they?" Steve asked. He knew he was slightly off topic, and he should be focussing on whether or not she was a threat, but he was honestly curious.
"No, they are shape-shifters, like my father. They simply prefer those forms." Hela informed him.
Bruce stepped in, "I remember this story now, you're Loki's daughter." All the Avengers collectively started to reach for their weapons warily. Steve prepped himself to tackle if needed.
Hela just sighed, "Honestly," her eyes narrowed, "you are some of the last people who should be judging me based on the actions of my family." Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw Tony and Clint flinch. "Besides, your mortal weapons will do nothing to the Queen of the Dead."
"I just came here to offer you some...assistance," she said like it was the best word to pick out of many less than ideal words. "Or at least help to right the imbalance created by my father."
"Why?" Natasha demanded, pointing a gun at Hela. "He's your father after all."
"Yes, and he made a mistake," Hela snapped. "Look, my father was wrong to attack Midgard, but he had his reasons to resent the Thunderer and the rest of Asgard. He shouldn't have taken it out on your planet."
"What possible reason could be good enough to be an excuse for attacking Earth?" Clint demanded.
"I did not state that it was an excuse!" Hela said in a raised voice. "It was not right and I do not need to explain his actions to you! I am here to help so do you wish to have it or not?"
Steve stepped in before the situation could degenerate. "What would you help us with?"
Hela blinked, "I apologize for raising my voice. I would help in reconstruction."
"Okay," Steve said. The goddess of death was here in the living offering to help rebuild New York. He could deal with how crazy that sounded later. "I'll show you to where volunteers are allowed to help."
Hela smiled brightly, with perfectly straight and white teeth, nothing at all like the myths, "Oh, that is sweet, but unnecessary. I have seidr like my father."
She raised her hand and a staffmaterialized into her hand. It was ebony and had silver runes etched into it with a silver crystal on top. She raised the staff above her head and the crystal began to glow with an electric green light, increasing in energy. The Avengers swore and grabbed their weapons. Hela slammed the butt of the staff into the ground and energy spread out like a shockwave and wherever it touched was cleaned and the Avengers all looked to the window where they could see some of the damage. When the green wave passed over it the debris was gone and the buildings were standing tall and straight, looking cleaner than they were before.
"Oh my god," Tony said, his jaw actually dropping. Steve would have remarked on that but his jaw was on the floor as well.
They all turned to look at Hela who smirked and de-materialized the staff. "That should help, should it not?" she said.
"Wow, thank you, "Steve said. He sent meaningful looks at the team and they all mumbled similar gratitude under their breath. "That helps a lot. Is there anything else?"
Hela licked her ruby lips and looked down. "I know that my father took many souls, as I saw them enter my realm. I know that nothing will help make up for what he has done, but perhaps this might aide it." She reached into a seemingly invisible pocket in her dress and pulled out a glowing light, silver with shot through with gold.
The Avengers all stared in wonder at it. "What is it?" Natasha murmured.
Hela looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I cannot do this anymore than this time. The will of the Norns is not something that should be taken lightly, but I owed it to my father to help make this right."
She cupped her hands around the light and blew it gently out of her hands. There it floated out into a clear space and then the light began to expand creating a wispy humanoid form. The mist coalesced into real human flesh and black fabric. Features began to form. There standing in front of the Avengers was the very-not-dead Coulson.
Coulson for once looked almost completely disoriented. He looked around before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. Clint lunged forwards to catch him.
"What's wrong with him?" he demanded while all the other Avengers stared in shock at him.
"He is merely resting. Coming back from Niflheim is a very trying experience. When he wakes he will be fine." Hela said.
Clint laid Coulson gently on the couch, Hela had originally sat on. He looked up, "Thank you." Natasha nodded in agreement while the others said similar statements.
Hela blushed, a faint hint of colour in those pale cheeks. She opened her mouth like she was about to respond when a groan from Coulson interrupted. Immediately all the Avengers hurried towards the couch where Coulson was stirring. No one noticed Hela begin to sneak off, except for Steve.
He reached her in the darkened hallway. "Thank you for what you did," he said to her.
She looked down, "He did not deserve it. My father was not...right... when he launched his attack. I cannot ask you to forgive him, but maybe try to understand why. The myths are over exaggerated, but there is some truth in those stories."
"Why didn't you come before, while Thor and Loki were still here?" Steve asked. It had been bugging him. Why would she not want to see her father and her uncle?
Her gaze darkened, "My father is not yet healthy. He would have viewed my helping as a betrayal. My relationship with the Thunderer is not ideal. He has done some things unforgivable to my family, not just Loki, but to my brothers and I. He...he is not yet mature enough to realize what he had done is wrong. He would have defended himself from my accusations like nothing was wrong, and I would not be able to...it would not have ended nicely."
Steve nodded, "I won't push the issue. Maybe I will see you again."
She smiled, "It will not be for a long while if everything goes well. Just remember, death is not the end, just the beginning to another life. There is a quote from a mortal from Midgard that I enjoy; "The road to Hel is paved with good intentions". I believe you will find that Helheim is not such a horrid place as it is described in your Bible. Farewell, Man out of Time."
She stepped backwards into a shadow and disappeared.
Steve stared at the place where she had vanished, "Bye."
He then walked back to where his team were crowding a now fully awake Coulson. He reached into his pockets for something he had carried around ever since his death.
"Here, I got most of the blood off and signed all of them."
I had been picturing it in my head for awhile and I finally got it written down. Hope you liked it!
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