Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel
A/N: It's updating time, and in a turn of events that surprised even me, it's in a roughly reasonable timespan! I really wanted to finish this before the semester starts, and I managed to scrape by with a week to spare.
Unfortunately, that also means I start school in a week, and God knows when the next time I'll be able to write for fun will be, so the next update probably won't be for a while (I'm taking at least two labs this coming semester. I'm gonna die). Sorry. This is also a little exposition heavy, to which I also say sorry. I'm gonna try to come back and edit that later. It's just, well, as I said: I wanted to get this out before I went back.
Lastly, a trigger warning: this chapter contains Hela talking about being sexually harassed. It's not all that explicit, I don't think, but it's definitely more directly mentioned than last chapter, so I figured a warning was due. Don't worry though: Thanos and company are going to get what's coming for them. (I'm gonna talk a little more about why I'm writing this as the crux of Thanos's villainy in my concluding author's note, so feel free to tune in there).
Edit 01/18/19: Fixed some capitalization errors and edited a line of Tony's dialogue to make it less clunky
They sent Thor in first, so as not to startle Hela. He woke her gently, assuring her that he and the Avengers would offer her aid, and that they just wanted to ask her some questions to better do so. Hela nodded and agreed, and once she and Thor had settled comfortably against the back wall, the rest of the physically present team was waved in.
While Thor had been waking Hela, the rest of the team had been having a swift argument about who should open the conversation. They'd eventually settled on Bruce - who had made a slightly baffled expression and gave an equally baffled "why me?" - because he hadn't been one of the group that had come down to confront Hela in the lobby, and thus Hela would have no aggressive association with him.
Plus, Bruce's whole meek facade was disarming.
Actually, Clint was pretty sure the meek attitude wasn't a facade at all, but a genuine expression of crippling social anxiety, exasperated by the whole Hulk incident. Which was, ya know, fair.
Of course, once you got Bruce out of his shell a bit, he could be a real deadpan-snarker, but that was beside the point.
Tony and Nat nudged Bruce forward.
"Hey Hela," Bruce gave an awkward little wave. "My name is Bruce Banner, I'm an Avenger. It's nice to meet you."
"A pleasure, Master Banner."
"Thanks. Anyway, we've all agreed that we're going to help you, but we need some information from you to effectively do that. Would you mind answering some questions?"
"Not at all."
"Great! That's great. One more thing," Bruce fidgeted with his glasses. "We've got a handful more team members who aren't here right now. I, uh, don't know how much you know about Midgardian technology, but we could patch them in so they can listen to our conversation. We can even make it so they can only listen, so you don't get overwhelmed with new voices. Would that be okay?"
"...Is this a safe method of trading information? I'd rather this sort of thing not be public..."
"There's no need to worry about that, kid," Tony cut in. "I made this tech myself; it's secure. Nobody on earth—well, Princess Shuri could probably hack in if she felt like it, but one: she's really the only person who could, two: we and Wakanda are on the same side of this stopping apocalypses thing, so she'd have no reason to spy on our team calls, and three: she's a trustworthy kid. No way she'd leak this sort of thing to the public even if she were listening in."
Hela hesitated before nodding.
"If the chances of eavesdropping are slim, and only potential eavesdropper could be an ally to our cause...I suppose I am alright with it. More than anything else, this whole thing is...personal. Embarrassing. I—"
Hela shook herself.
"The gifts began a few years ago. I didn't recognize them for what they were at first; at the time they were small groups of dead, arranged in odd ways that at the time had no meaning to me. Then groups of warriors, their names marked for Valhalla. I thought nothing of these too - the files of those claimed by the Valkyrie are sealed to me. All I do is sign to confirm them dead; the information goes to Grandfather—er, Odin.
"...Apparently I wasn't paying enough attention. The body counts rose - villages, islands, countries, then whole planets' worth of dead were crossing my desk at once. Something was clearly wrong, but still I did not know what or for why. Soon enough, he began delivering corpses and letters to my realm's gates. The letters began asking for my hand, and the longer I ignored them—well, they never got explicit, but they carried the promise of a host of unsavory things."
Ew. Ewewewewew. That's the grossest thing Clint had heard in a while. Hela was what - sixteen? - or at least the Asgardian equivalent.
Fucking pedophiles, preying on teenage girls.
Again: Ew.
"Needless to say, I was deeply alarmed by the whole situation, and began investigating into who was behind it all. Despite the letters all asking for my hand, they never identified a sender. Thanos seems to have expected me to simply know it was him. I'm still not sure if that was poor planning or just arrogance." Hela gave a hysterical sort of chuckle, breathing far too fast, before cupping both hands over her mouth and taking a few deep breaths into them. Thor set a comforting hand on his niece's shoulder, and once Hela had calmed down enough to drop her hands, she gave him a small, thankful smile. "I contacted the Valkyrie to ask if any of those who they had claimed died in ways that fit Thanos's modus operandi. They offered their help in my investigation. I accepted eagerly, and I never should have, because Thanos—"
"He came after them. Had them slaughtered too. I don't know how he has found the power to slaughter the Valkyrie, but he has. One of them, bloodied and desperate, came to my gates to warn me. She lived long enough to tell me his name, and then—"
Hela stopped again to breathe into her hands. The team swapped glances, all unpleasantly tense.
"One of his children struck her down—threw a dagger right through her abdomen. I traded blows with this Son of Thanos, but I was so stunned by the turn of events and… He overpowered me." Hela swallowed hard." He spoke of Thanos's plans for unprecedented destruction with reverence. Then, he grabbed me by the face, pressed a kiss to my cheek, and said: 'from my father with love.'"
A small arc of electricity cackled out from where Thor's hand, white-knuckled, gripped Mjolnir, causing the rest of the team to take a step back.
"Niece, I swear on my life that will split Thanos's skull - and that of this son. They will never touch you again."
Judging by Nat's expression and Tony's nodding along, they'd happily join in. Clint knew he would. Bruce too—there was a distinct green tinge of the Hulkish kind on his face. Clint couldn't get a good look at Steve from this angle, but he had no doubt there'd be zero persuading needed on that front.
You didn't fucking go after kids.
"Well, you'll have to settle for Thanos only," Hela smirked, and for the first time, Clint saw how she could be Loki's daughter. Low key, a little creepy. "His son is dead. He expected my attacking him after that, but certainly didn't count on the body of a dead Valkyrie attacking him too. They never expect necromancy."
HOLY FUCKING SHIT.
"After that, I only took the time to clean myself up before coming straight here. I knew I couldn't handle this on my own; I needed Asgardian help beyond even the fighting prowess of the Valkyrie and, well, Uncle Thor is my best bet at getting it. Crown Prince of Asgard and all that. Odin would never move to help me alone," Hela made a sour expression. "But in the wake of this last threat—If anyone could convince Odin that this is serious, that mobilizing Asgard's army would be worth it, it's Uncle. I'd really rather not see half the universe dead as some twisted gift for me, and—well, I'd really like to be safe, too."
Thor opened his arms in a clear invitation for a hug, and Hela took it eagerly. Thor gave great hugs; the whole team could attest to that.
The big guy just had a lot of love for his friends and family. Clint could respect that.
"You shall be safe, niece. I promise. Besides," Thor brightened up. "You came to the right place! Not only can I contact Asgard, but my team can offer you security as well. Humans may seem fragile, but they're tenacious and have a great capacity to overcome the odds. You're in good hands."
"I'm choosing to take that as a compliment," Nat laughed.
"It was meant as one! Your species is truly admirable!"
"Besides," Tony cut in, "Even if we weren't, no way are we gonna sit down and let everyone else deal with Thanos after hearing all this."
"And we aren't the only ones who'd want to know about this kind of threat," Nat added. "I'll track down Fury; we all know he still has contacts, and we're gonna need all the help we can get."
"I'll see if I can contact King T'Challa then. No doubt he'd want to know about this sort of threat," Steve said.
"In that case, I'd like to contact Jor—er, Jormungandr. My brother. He's here on Midgard," Hela interjected. "Actually, he was my backup plan if I couldn't get in contact with Uncle Thor. The only thing is he's a pain to find, for someone so big."
"Your brother's the Midgard Serpent, right?" Bruce asked.
Okay, Clint was definitely asking Bruce about that later.
"Yup. He's also really good at hiding himself. I thought I might have better luck scrying for him in closer proximity."
"Hela, do you want me to stay while you hunt down your brother, or would you rather I leave for Asgard immediately?"
"Um, I think I'd rather you leave sooner rather than later. No sense in waiting to warn Asgard's armies."
Thor nodded in agreement.
"Well, it sounds like we have a plan then," Tony interjected. "In the meantime, let's get you," he pointed at Hela, "feeling less like a prisoner and more like a guest. We can start contacting folks over pizza."
A/N: Buckle in for another long author's note, folks.
I mentioned up top that I'd explain why I'm writing sexual harassment of a minor as the crux of Thanos's villainry, and while I'm gonna ramble about it, it can be summed up like this: the way adult men act toward teenage girls is literally the most terrifying part of being a teenage girl. I was lucky enough to be spared the worst of it, but as young as middle school I was aware that my peers were being catcalled at the least.
Think about that. Middle School. That's super fucked up. And this happens to basically every woman and girl (it's also not a cis-girl exclusive experience. Trans girls and people who were/are regularly misgendered as female get this shit too).
The most frustrating part of all of that is the fact that society at large doesn't take you seriously. People are unsupportive at best and belittling at worst. It sucks. So I'm writing Thor and the team of being really supportive (I'm also calling this brand of sexual harassment what it is, which is pedophilia, because folks don't like acknowledging that either), and I encourage you to be supportive of the women+girls in your life too if they come to you about this. As I had Steve say last chapter, it's important for us to know people are in our corner.
As for why it's this story it's being used for, it's because of my pre-Ragnarok headcanon of Hela as a teenager combined with Comic!Thanos's obsession with the entity Death. It hit me that I could use that premise to vent out my feelings of the bullshit I saw and experienced as a teenager (which was not long ago at all), and here we are.
In other story-related news, I drew my version of Hela! You can find her over at my tumblr or my deviantART. She was supposed to be part of a larger reference piece with my designs for all of Loki's kids, but that just wasn't happening fast enough.
I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the moms of Loki's kids (sans, of course, Sleipnir, to whom Loki is the mom), particularly Angrboda. Sigyn and Glod/Glut are definitely showing up at some point, but Angrboda and her giantish heritage are complicating things.
Also, while I mention Nat in relation to Bruce a few times this chapter, they are NOT in or going to be in a relationship. AoU really let me down – I'd been excited to see how they progressed as friends post Avengers 1, with Hulk having attacked Nat and all, and then we got…AoU. That being said, I'm still invested in what their friendship could've been, so they're buds in this.
Thanks for reading!