Chapter 35: AllFather
"The AllFather requests the presence of the slave," said Thor gravely.
Loki, seeing Thor's expression, could not help but panicked inside as all colour drained from his face. If Odin wanted him back to Asgard, it was grave news.
"Did your father say why," asked Steve in his Captain America uniform. After all, the Avengers were getting ready to go on a mission to get Bucky.
"No, but I fear the worst," said Thor with gravity. "The way he worded his request means he wants not only the slave, but that said slave should be accompanied by his master and any other slaves belonging to the same master."
Meaning Steve, Alex and Storm as well. But Steve just got the first lead on Bucky in a few weeks, he could not let it go now.
"Steve, do you want to go to Asgard," asked Tony. "Or do you prefer taking care of Bucky?"
That was an impossible question, a dilemma. Steve, being responsible, should go with Loki, but as a friend, he could not abandon his old pale.
"Why does your father want to see us? See Loki? See me? See the children," asked Steve.
As for Loki, if it was retraining awaiting him back in Asgard, he absolutely did not want the children to go there. He had sworn he would do anything possible to make it as easy as possible on the children.
"I don't know why the AllFather must see you now, but it is of the utmost importance. Friend Rogers, I am sorry, but as Loki's master, you must come," said Thor. "It is not negotiable."
"Steve," said Loki. He knew that by calling him by his first name — especially since he never did —, Steve would understand the gravity of the situation.
"Steve, there is one way," announced Loki. "If a master gave a slave, alone, to another, the link between the slave and his slave family is broken. Meaning, if you gave me to someone else, I will no longer be Alex's and Storm's father in the eye of Asgard. And if you give me up, you could go after Bucky."
He was putting his children first. He was putting Steve first. And Bucky too. It was the only way to solve this situation. He would go to Asgard, alone, with his master, but said master did not have to be Steve.
"It is one way to do things," said Thor. "I was asked to retrieve the slave that goes by Loki, as well as his master and slave family. Not once did the AllFather mention anyone else by name. If you give Loki up now, his new master will come with me."
"I'm not giving up on Loki," objected Steve.
"You are not giving up on me," said Loki. "Please, Steve. We don't know what the AllFather wants, but it's more likely to be a retrial for an offence I don't even know I committed or a retraining. If I still have children, they will suffer along with me, just because they are below five years old. And frankly, I don't want that. I request not to have children anymore, to break the link between them and me.
"And you should go help your friend," finished Loki.
Steve opened his mouth, then closed it. He sighed deeply.
"You would give up your children?"
"If you give me, but not them, they will be protected for what will fall on me," said Loki. "And I trust you with them. I trust you to take good care of them. I trust all the Avengers with my children. By breaking the link, they will be free of me. They will still be slaves, but away from Asgard. Please, Steve, do it for them."
Steve sighted again, then nodded.
"Okay. How do we do that? And to whom?"
"We need to go after Bucky," said Natasha.
"The new master will go to space with Thor," said Tony. "I want to go, really much, but Steve, you are my friend and I will help you. Hydra killed my parents, so I will help you."
"I'll go," said Bruce. "There are too many civilians where you are going. I cannot bring the other guy with you. I'll go with Loki."
Loki looked at Bruce and smiled.
"Friend Steve, you need to clearly state your full name and realm, then transfer your slave to Friend Bruce, but you must make it clear it is only one slave."
Steve remembered what Thor had said the first night.
"I, Steven Rogers of Earth, owner and master of slave Loki, hereby transfer this slave, and this slave only, to Bruce Banner of Earth."
Loki felt it. He felt the bond change and he felt Bruce.
"Did it work," asked Natasha.
"It did," answered Loki.
"Yes, I don't feel Loki anymore," said Steve. "It's strange, like something is missing."
"Time to go then!"
"Yep," said Tony. "We should head out and find Bucky. Friday, tell Pepper to come here, please."
Steve approached Loki.
"Hey, I will take good care of the children. Right now, Pepper would watch over them, but after the mission, I will take care of them, for no matter how long."
Loki was not worried. It was strange for him to leave his children with this group and just completely trust them. He knew Pepper would be a great babysitter.
"You should go to explain the situation to the kids," said Bruce.
oOo
Loki made his way to the playroom where Alex was drawing close to Storm who was playing with some blocks. Upon entering, Loki saw Alex looking at him, so he went to sit down beside his son.
"Your uncle Thor came by and I need to go with him. I will be gone for a while, but you will stay with Pepper and the Avengers," said Loki.
"When will you be back," asked Alex.
"I don't know. It might be short, but it might take more time."
"But you'll be back?"
"Yes, I will, but it might be long, okay? So I want you to behave and take care of Storm for me, okay?"
"Okay, daddy."
Loki embraced both his children and kissed them. Pepper knocked at the door and let herself in.
"You listen to Pepper and to the Avengers, okay?"
"Yes daddy."
"Don't worry, Loki, they will be fine," said Pepper.
oOo
So, on the ground in front of the compound, a quinjet filled with the Avengers was taking off as Thor, Bruce and Loki were standing at the bifrost site. In the distance, a raven also took off.
"I did not want to do that inside with the children, but as a slave, Loki needs to wear this," said Thor showing chains and a black drape.
Loki recognised those and dreaded those. It felt like a pang it the stomach so he bowed forward slightly with the shock.
"Why," asked Bruce.
"Slaves are allowed to go where they need to as long as they are taking care of their duties," explained Thor. "But now, Loki is being escorted in front of Odin, in the palace. It is common custom to drape a slave so the free don't have to see a slave who is not working."
So, like the last time Loki had been in Asgard, he was wearing shackles and a drape. He did not like it, but he would accept it for this once. However, he still despite the leash coming out of the chains, meaning that he was to be led by others, like an unruly animal.
Thor then gave the leash to Bruce who looked really shocked, but Thor made him understand with a look that he had to take the leash, even if he didn't want too, and Thor hated himself for doing this.
"Heimdall, open the bifrost," screamed Thor.
And they were off to Asgard.
Travelling through the bifrost was fun, but when one could see nothing, it was another experience. So Loki did not enjoy the ride, though he kept silent.
They landed in the observatory at the end of the bridge. Thor led a fascinated Bruce toward said bridge after greeting Heimdall. Loki, being led by a leash hold by Bruce, just followed them softly.
In front of him, unknown to him, Bruce was walking beside Thor, but kept looking behind to make sure Loki was okay, not that he was there, or even following, but doing okay.
"As a slave owner, you should avoid looking at him. Just ignore him," whispered Thor.
"Ignore him! It's Loki, your brother. How can I ignore him? I spent the last year living with him," complained quietly Bruce. "I was his doctor, I saw him gave birth and I think I might be his friend."
"Yeah, on Midgard, you are really close, but here and now, you are his master. He will follow us."
"He looks like a walking black stone," said Bruce. "He cannot even see."
Well, they were all relieved once they reached the palace. At least, Loki could see a bit in front of him and did not have too much trouble with the stairs. They walked to the throne room where the AllFather was waiting for them, alone with his two ravens sitting on his shoulders.
Thor kneeled on one knee and bow. Bruce did the same beside Thor, trying to replicate the attitude of his friend and not seem too out of place. Behind them, Loki kneeled on both knees, slave style. He let the drapes hung from his frame, not holding it.
"Greeting, my son. And welcome, Bruce of Midgard, in Asgard," said Odin making a permissive gesture to rise.
Thor and Bruce stood up, but Loki stayed like a statue.
"AllFather, I bring before you, slave Loki and his master," said Thor.
"Remove the drape," ordered Odin.
Thor looked at Bruce to tell him he should be the one removing the drapes covering the slave. So Bruce did. Loki was just looking at the ground, unphased. A slave does not speak unless spoken to.
"Bruce of Midgard, are you slave Loki's master?"
"Yes, I am," said Bruce nervously.
"I see the slave has a new master. And the children are not here," observed Odin.
"Steve could not come. He gave me his slave. Only this one," explained Bruce who was not entirely at ease.
"I see," said Odin. "I wish to talk to the slave. Alone. Thor, how about you show our library to your friend?"
Thor nodded — he knew it was a strong suggestion, more like an order — and lead Bruce outside of the throne room. At least, the library would be a good place for Bruce. On the ground, Loki had not moved, nothing had given him a good reason or a permission to move. Odin rose and walked over to the slave.
"Rise."
And Loki did. He kept his sight to the ground and stayed still.
"My son," said Odin. "I must speak to you. You have now been with the Avengers for a year. How do you feel about that?"
Loki took his time to ponder his response.
"AllFather, the Avengers are my betters and I now see how better than me they are. I though the Midgardians as ants, bu they are noble, more than I ever was. They have my respect and my loyalty," said Loki.
"A year is both short and long. Looking back on the last year, what can you conclude?"
Did the AllFather just made Loki come here to discuss one year in his life?
"I have learned and changed a lot in that year, AllFather. I now have two children that I loved and I served the Avengers to the best of my abilities every day."
"But as of today, they are no longer your children. Tell me exactly why."
"My former master, mister Steve Rogers, had other pressing matters to attend to, and he gave me to master Bruce Banner. Only me," said Loki, but he wanted to tell the whole truth. "Because I offered him to, I asked for it. I feared I would be retrained and I did not want that for the children."
Loki could have twisted the truth, but he decided to say it as it was. He did ask for it.
"I asked master Steve to give me to mister Bruce, breaking the link between me and my children. So my children may be free, may be left out of the retraining. If I am here for a retrial or retraining, I will accept it and not resist, but I do not want the children to suffer through it because of their filiation with me. And master Steve needed to go help his friend."
"So you put others in front of you. You knew Steve Rogers is far better at pleading your case that Bruce Banner or even Thor is. But you choose to come before me with an advocate like Bruce Banner."
"The Avengers were needed elsewhere to help a friend of theirs. I am not worth the trouble."
"So you put the well-being of others before your own. Tell me, Loki, are you responsible?"
"I would like to think that I am. I do the work assigned to me the best I can. I take care of my children and I make sure they are okay."
"You have money now, because of your work," said Odin.
And that cause Loki to look at him, briefly, on shock, before looking back at the ground.
"I beg your pardon, your majesty," said Loki barely audible.
But Odin did not react to the slave's misstep, he, however, commented on Loki's comprehension.
"My ravens had always been observing you," said Odin putting his hand on Loki's shoulder. "I know all that had transpired on Midgard since your arrival there."
Loki just nodded. This was the reason Odin had called him in Asgard. He should have expected as much. Of course, Odin would not have trusted Loki to behave approprely. So their whole plan of waiting for one raven to be gone had failed since the beginning because of the hidden presence of the other. And now, Loki would be sent to retraining for never acting like a proper slave. But he was not even sad, just relief his children were not here now. They would not suffer with him.
And those ravens, those spies. Loki should have known, or at least expecting it. Heimdall could observe him at anytime, but he was used to it and knew the bifrost keeper had other matters to watch upon. But the ravens had been there since the beginning and Loki had never even realised it. But he was not angry, not even at the ravens.
"I know you use your money only for your children, but I wonder why."
"Because there is nothing I need. A slave should only long for the happiness of his master."
"While this is true, you longed for the happiness of your children more than the happiness of your master," said Odin. "And I admire you for it, Loki."
Then, Loki was surprised. Where was this conversation going?
"You admire me?"
"Yes. Come with me, son."
Odin led Loki toward the balcony behind the throne room. On his way, Odin picked up a parchment that Loki recognised as a sentence. Most likely his sentence. Odin rolled open the parchment and read a segment of it.
"I wish for you to put the well-being of others before your own, to learn humility and responsibilities. I wish for you to learn to respect others and to know they are neither better nor worse than you. I wish for you to learn to respect not only asgardians, but jotnar and midgardians and to accept everyone without judgement. I wish for you to accept things you cannot change and to know the power of responsibilities. I wish for you to learn when it's time for mischiefs and when it's time to obey. I wish for you to learn discipline and control over yourself. I wish for you to repair what you have broken."
Odin stopped his reading once they reached the balcony. Odin laid out the parchment on the balcony and now, they were just standing side by side, like equal. A king and a slave. The higher and lowest of this realm.
"So, my son, can you tell me which part you have accomplished so far?"
Loki was astonished. He had forgotten much of his pronounced sentence and had not remembered that particular passage in a while because he knew he would never live up to it. But…
"I put the well-being of others before my own, I am less selfish and self-centered. I have learned humility. Because of the children, I have learned responsibilities. I respect the Avengers and the midgardian in general," said Loki, then he read out loud, "know they are neither better nor worse than me. It is true, they had treated me like their equal."
"You have come a long way, Loki. Continue," encouraged Odin.
"I respect asgardians, mainly Thor, and midgardians, but I don't think I respect the jotnar."
"Why not?"
"I did not have contact with Jotnar in the past years. I did not have opportunities to learn to respect them," said Loki. "And they don't want me as their slaves."
"It is not true, Loki. You have been with two half-frost-giants. And a Jotun as well."
Himself! His children were half-frost-giants because he was a frost-giant.
"Me… But…"
"Because you breastfeed Storm, you had to accept yourself, to accept your original form. Now, do you respect yourself?"
"Yes. I have learned more about the Jotnar because I am one of them," said Loki.
"You have learned to respect that part of yourself," said Odin. "This is a big piece of your identity and you have accepted it. Continue."
Loki read the next part of the sentence.
"I have accepted that there are things that cannot be changed," said Loki. "And I know the power of responsibility now. I am responsible for my children and I have power over them, but I used it only when necessary."
The next sentence on the parchment was "I wish for you to learn when it's time for mischiefs and when it's time to obey," which brought a smile on Loki's face.
"I do obey the Avengers, but your ravens might have told you about the mischiefs I caused."
"They indeed did," said Odin barely hiding a smile.
"Well, I cannot cease to cause mischief, but only when it's time. So, yes, I have learned that part too," said Loki.
The next part was: "I wish for you to learn discipline and control over yourself."
"I am more disciplined than I was. But I was always disciplined in the art of magic and combat training."
"But you had to do work you never had to before. You learned how to do things the midgardian way. And you learned control over yourself. You had tried to use your magic a few times, but you control yourself mostly."
"You know about my tantrum, the one because of which I got a few days in the cell," said Loki sadly.
"Yes, I know all. But that incident only occurred once. You have control your emotions since then. And you are calmer now. Read the last sentence."
So Loki read it out loud. "I wish for you to repair what you have broken." And he stayed silent.
"I haven't."
"How come," asked Odin.
"I cause destruction to Midgard, to New-York. I killed people. I have not repaired anything yet," said Loki.
"No, you have not. But there is one thing you have broken and repaired. Can you guess?"
Loki thought really hard. The list of things he had broken was very long, so to find one thing was not easy.
"Thor," said Odin after a moment.
"Thor? What of Thor?"
"With your scheming and betrayals, you've broken his trust in you. You broke the friendship between you two. He was ready to kill you. He accepted you were no longer the brother he knew. And he saw you as a slave — just a bit, but still. Now, have you repair that?"
And Loki pondered the question.
"Yes, I think so. He came for my birthday and I think we are closer now. We put our differences aside. We are not brothers anymore, but I think we are friends."
"And are you friends with the Avengers?"
The simplest answer was just:
"Yes," said Loki. "I think of them as my friends. And I think they do too. We are living together. I am not an Avenger, I am not part of the team, but we are as close as a family."
Odin pointed at a part of the parchment and read:
"I doubt your sentence will ever change, but I also wish you could prove me wrong," said Odin. "You had proven me wrong, Loki, because you changed. I phrased this part that way because I was hoping you would prove me wrong, and you did."
"But I have not done it all," said Loki. "I have not repaired all the damages I caused. I have not repair what I have broken."
"No," said Odin. "And this is why I won't change your sentence during my reign, but I hope my successor might have the chance."
"You want Thor to change my sentence," realised Loki.
"You are not ready yet, but I know you will be. And you know you are not ready to get your freedom, but you will, one day, once I'm gone. Now, I know you have learned a lot from the midgardians, I just hope Asgard will learn from their way of living. There is so much more for Asgard to learn and an alliance with the midgardians will be worth it."
"You send me on Midgard to form an alliance," realised Loki.
"No, it was not part of the plan, it was mostly a consequence of the plan," said Odin, "but it is worth it. You know more about the humans than most of our citizens, I just hope you could share it eventually."
Loki did not know what to say about all of this.
"Loki, you are my son. I am sorry for what I had to put you through."
That is what released Loki's anger that he had kept contain for so long. So he just let it out.
"What you put me through? I was tortured, I was raped, I was humiliated, forced on my knees. I never wanted to have children and I was forced to be in my Jotun form. You send me on a foreign land. And you did that to my children as well. They are innocent, no children should suffer that way."
But Loki had to calm himself down and not let his emotions about what happen to his children get the best of him. So he took a deep breath.
"Are you angry," asked Odin. "Why?"
"Yes," said Loki calmly. "Not because of what happens to me, I deserved it, I earned it. I am angry because it was you who sentenced me. I am angry because my children are innocent.
"You knew I would be raped and you knew I could bear children. You planned for it, didn't you? You wanted me to have children so I could see them suffer. You wanted me to see up close what the consequences of my actions would have on others, on my children."
But Loki stood still. He did not attack like he would have before... before all this. He truly was calmer. Maybe he was just not that angry after all, or he accepted his fate.
"Now you know about the weight of the responsibilities of being a father," said Odin wisely. "It is a heavy mantle and I am proud of you, my son."
"I am not your son," said Loki so calmly. "I am a slave."
"At this moment, are Alex and Storm your children," asked Odin.
"Yes, they are and always will be," said Loki, but then he realised the truth. "They are not, we broke the link. They are parentless at the moment because I convinced Stev— my former master to give me to someone else."
"But you still consider them your children because the love between you still exist. One never ceases to be a parent," said Odin. "They are your children just like you are my son, Loki. And I love you."
Loki looked at his father and smiled. A true smile. His father was proud of him.
"Let me ask you this. Do you treat Alex the same way you treat Storm?"
"Well, no. Storm is still a baby. Alex is a little boy."
"Let me rephrase, do you treat Storm the same way you did Alex when he was her age?"
Loki did not have to think too much.
"No. I would love too, I consider them equal, but they don't have the same few years of life. Alex was born in captivity. As for Storm, I can actually encourage her to speak, to develop as a free child since the beginning," answered Loki.
"All children are different and unique. I knew you were different from Thor. I never treat you equally, but I always gave you equal chances. Do you remember the magic lessons you got when Thor was still learning how to control his powers? Different individuals, equal chances."
In that moment, he understood he had become a better person because of his children, he understood his father had found a way to punish him and to make him learn so he would have a way out of his misery. By not sentencing Loki to the death penalty, like so many expected, Odin had given Loki an opportunity to not only learn from his own mistakes, but from others' mistakes as well. Odin's plan had worked to perfection.
"Thank you, father," said Loki.
"You did it yourself. And I am so proud of you. I was expecting you to grow, to change during your sentence. I was worried when you took longer to complete your training, but once you start to understand, you changed. I was not expecting you to change so fast once on Midgard, so I am proud of you, very proud.
"Being a father is not a title, it is a responsibility," said Odin. "Same with being a king. Being a king is a heavy job. As a father, you need to put the well-being of your children first, not necessarily their desires. As a king, you need to put the well-being of your people first. You can be so much more, and I know you can be good at whatever you choose to be."
"Now, there is information I need to transmit to both of you and Thor," said Odin.
He shook his arm upon which a raven was still perched. The raven took off and flew away.
Said raven flew out of the throne room and into the hallway. It flew to get to another wing of the palace into the library. There, the raven landed on Thor's shoulder and peaked in his ear.
"Listen Bruce, I am needed in the throne room. How about you stay here and continue studying all this," said Thor clapping his big hand on Bruce's back.
Then, Thor, accompanied by the raven on his shoulder, headed toward the throne room.
Thor entered the room, but did not see his father at first. The raven took off and headed to the back of the room, where Thor followed and met his father and brother standing side by side.
"My son," greeted Odin. "I need to speak to both of you."
Thor joined them at the balcony, looking in the distance, toward the end of the realm, the waterfall down which the souls of the fallens leave the realm of the living.
"I am tired," said Odin. "My time has come. The time for me to join your mother. She would have been proud of both of you. But you should be warned, Ragnarok is upon us now."
"But, no," said Thor. "I stop it, I put an end to Surtur."
"Ragnarok has already begun. She's coming," said Odin.
"Who are you talking about," asked Thor.
"Goddess of death. Hela. My first born and your sister. I imprisoned her, but she would arrive once I am gone."
Sister?
"We can stop her," said Thor.
"No, she will be unstoppable," said Odin. "Together, you might be able to stop her. And you have an Avenger with you here. Thor, as king, you will need a very good advisor to rule, but I know you will make the right choice."
Odin let the silent sit in for a moment.
"I love you, my sons," said Odin.
Then, Odin disappeared, he just evaporated and the particles flew away, toward the waterfalls surrounding Asgard.
Thor looked at the spectacle. He felt a huge wave of sadness and then, he felt the mantle of responsibility. He was king.
Loki felt something inside him. He felt sadness, but also love. But there was something else. The slave bond was changing for the second time today. The palace does not have slaves — because they could afford to pay the servants —, all slaves belong to their owner, but also to the king. So Loki used to belong to Odin, but by dying, Odin had made Thor king. Therefore, Loki now belonged to Thor as well as his new master Bruce.
Suddenly, a portal opened and a dark figure entered. Hela! Who made a sword appeared in her hand.
"Oh, this feels good," exclaimed Hela. "So he's dead. Not a moment too soon."
"I assume you're Hela," said Thor.
Oh, how Loki long to have his daggers at the moment. Then, Thor did the only thing he was used to in order to solve a problem, he threw his hammer at Hela. And she just caught it like it was normal. Then, she threw it at Loki and knocked him off.
Thor was shocked and looked at his brother on the ground.
So Hela used the diversion and threw herself at Thor and attacked him. They fought and fell from the balcony. Loki got up and turned around to see the fight, but they at least seemed to both hold their ground. For the moment.
Loki then ran away. He needed to help Asgard, to help the people. If Ragnarok had begun, then, they would need all the help they could get. A good king put his people first and at the moment, Thor was taking care of Hela. So Loki, as a former prince, tried to help at best he could. He arrived in the library and went straight to the only other Avengers on Asgard.
"Bruce, we need your help. Hela, she is trying to take over the realm. We need to save Asgard," said Loki.
But there was a big flaw to that plan. If Bruce released the other guy, Loki would be left without any access to his magic. Thor was busy fighting Hela, but he could have ordered Loki's magic. Bruce could, but not the Hulk. So Loki would be left in the middle of the fight with no way to use his magic.
oOo
In the courtyard, Thor was fighting Hela. The fight was strange since they both could control mjolnir. She had somehow managed to resurrect her dog and Hulk, once he landed on the courtyard, started wrestling with it. All around, an army of resurrected Einharjars were fighting and the warrior three were barely holding their own. From the doors, Asgard's living army were pouring, so dead and alive Einharjars were battling all around Thor and Hela, with Hulk in the background and a raven flying in circle above the battle. In other words, the situation was desperate out there.
oOo
Loki ran toward the armory. The only way he could be of use in battle was if he had weapons. He could not understand why a raven was following him, the raven usually obey only Odin, so why was this one following Loki now? Odin had not retract his order to stop spying on Loki.
"Look, if you want to help, then ask Heimdall to organise an evacuation. Worst case scenario, Asgard get destroyed. But we need to protect the people. So go to Heimdall and help him," said Loki to the raven.
Neither of the ravens ever listens to Loki, so why should it be different now? But the raven left, so Loki just hoped the raven was going in the right direction.
In the armory, Loki took some daggers and some kind of armour that was not his own and then, he headed out. But, on his way, he was ambushed by this woman.
"Tell me what's going on out there and I won't slice your throat," said the woman.
She had Loki in a throat grip with her dragonfang. Wait, what? A dragonfang? And that sign on her wrist…
"You're a Valkyrie," said Loki.
"That's not what my question was about. Now answer or you will find out how sharp and lethal a dragonfang really is."
Yeah, the traditional Valkyries' swords were called dragonfang. There were mystique and truly beautiful.
"Hela, goddess of death, is out there," said Loki. "And if you really are a Valkyrie, you should want to help."
"No, thanks, I don't want to die today," said Valkyrie removing her sword from Loki's throat. "She will kill us all. I fought her once before, I do not have interest for a second round."
"Asgard is in danger, we need to defend her," said Loki.
"If you want to die, it's your choice. I won't stop you."
Loki knew the Valkyries had all found a gruesome death, he just did not know it was at Hela's hand. But apparently, one survived.
oOo
Back outside, the warrior three had fallen. Hela had somehow pushed Thor so far away that he landed at the entrance of the palace, right in front of Loki who just came out. Further, Hulk was still fighting with Fenrir. Civilian from all over the realm could be seen heading toward the bifrost.
"Loki! We need another plan. We cannot fight her," said Thor.
"She looks terrifying," observed Loki.
"She is. Loki, listen, we need to protect the people," said Thor.
"On it. You said you put an end to Surtur, didn't you? Where? How?"
"I took his crown, send it to the vault," answered Thor. "Wait, this was never about stopping Ragnarok, it was about causing it."
At that moment, Valkyrie arrived and saw the damage.
"Did she cause all this destruction," asked Valkyrie.
"Yes," said both Thor and Loki.
"Who are you," asked Thor.
"She's a worthless Valkyrie that won't help Asgard," said Loki.
"But all Valkyries die," said Thor.
"All but one," said Valkyrie smiling proudly.
"Loki, we need to act now. I will distract her, you go down to the vault and resurrect Surtur. Valkyrie, if you want to help, you help the people to the bifrost and get them on another realm."
"Which one? There are eight more of them," asked Valkyrie.
At that moment, the raven that had been observing Thor since the beginning of the battle landed on the king's shoulder, like he was waiting for instructions.
"Midgard, the Avengers' Compound," said Loki to both Valkyrie and the raven. "There would be some place to foster everyone."
Then, Loki went running toward the vault. Once down there, he just took Surtur's crown and ran toward the eternal flame. But on his way, he saw the tesseract and ponder whether to take it or not. But, hey, it's the tesseract, so Loki just took it. Asgard is about to be destroyed, who would be stupid enough to just let that infinity stone behind? Then, Loki threw Surtur's crown into the eternal flame.
oOo
From the eternal flame, Surtur grew back, but this time, as big as a mountain and he planted his sword into the ground. Down there, Thor and Hela were still fighting, but Surtur was changing things. And Hulk smashed the final blow to Fenrir, who fell down loudly.
Far from there, at the bifrost, Heimdall and Valkyrie were guiding the people to Midgard.
"Move it people," screamed Valkyrie.
She had to fight with a lot of Hela's army of resurrected corpses and was a bit tired. At least, the ravens were helping… A bit. Picking out the eyes of the undead was not the best way, turn out the zombies can still fight even blind. Creepy.
Loki got out of the palace, looking for a way to get to the bridge fast when he saw Hulk attacking Surtur.
"Hulk, stop," ordered Loki.
But he doubted Hulk would listen to him.
Well, in the heat of the moment, Loki did not see it as a slave giving orders to his master, because that beast was not his master, but still, close enough.
"Big monster," said Hulk pointing at Surtur.
"Hulk, don't smash for once in your life," said Thor. "We need to go, now."
Hela was now fighting Surtur, but he had set the whole palace on fire by then. So Hulk looked back, then took Loki and Thor in his arms and jumped far away, to the bifrost.
Oh, Hulk jump was definitely the least favorite mod of transportation of Loki, but it would do the trick for now.
Once on the bifrost, Thor saw Loki had the tesseract.
"What? If the bifrost get destroyed, it would be our only way of transportation," defended Loki. "I'm pragmatic."
Thor looked at the tesseract, wondering what to do with it.
"Look, brother, the tesseract is the most powerful element of the weapon vault, best to take it with us," said Loki. "And I know of someone who might be after it."
"What?"
"I'll explain back on Earth," said Loki. "Trust me, it's better to know of its location than to leave it drifts off into space."
"So now, we just let Surtur destroy all Asgard," asked Valkyrie, "just like that?"
"Asgard is the people. We have saved the people. So yes, we are leaving the rest to get destroyed," said Thor.
"Time to go, my king," said Heimdall.
"Wait, no," exclaimed Thor. "We need to close the bifrost in order to not destroy the compound. Loki left the bifrost opened once in order to destroy Jotunheim, I won't let anyone try to do the same to Midgard. Someone needs to stay behind and close it."
"You are quite right," said Heimdall, "and this is a sacrifice I am willing to make for the good of the people."
"There is another way," said Loki. "If I open a portal with the tesseract, we can go to the compound without the bifrost."
Thor thought for a second, then he decided.
"Do it, brother. Heimdall, close the bifrost," announced Thor.
Heimdall turned his sword to close the bifrost once and for all. Then, Loki used the tesseract to open a portal to Midgard.
"After you, my king," said Loki.
"No, after you," said Thor with a smile.
"Oh, well, if you cannot take decision, I'll go," said Valkyrie walking through the portal.
She soon was followed by Heimdall, then Hulk. Thor and Loki looked back once last time, seeing Surtur and Hela still fighting, but Asgard about to collapse. They took each other's hand, Thor holding mjolnir and Loki holding the tesseract, and jumped through the portal.
