#34

Thor was on his feet in an instant, his heart threatening to leap up his throat and out of his mouth. The only thing he could think of was the same frantic thought he had clung to earlier. Wh-what? Why is she coming now? I still have time! The conversation they had just had seemingly forgotten, Valkyrie drew closer to him and thereby not only signaled her loyalty to him but also shielded Loki from whatever threat was looming ahead. She even reached for Thor's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze that reaffirmed the affection she had for him despite their discords. Thor inhaled deeply as he recalled the first time he had laid eyes on his sister on the coast of Norway and how he and Loki had immediately joined forces against her in some sort of silent agreement even though Thor had been ready to claw his brother's eyes out for causing Odin's death only moments earlier. It was a peculiar kind of déjà-vu that was both incredibly soothing and deeply unsettling.

Valkyrie gulped once more, reminding him once again of what she had lost to Hela.

"Is she here?" Thor asked, his voice almost failing him as he shot frantic glances around him. This cannot be how this all ends. I cannot have made such a mess of things. I am supposed to be the protector of these Realms! I am supposed to—

"I don't know," Valkyrie whispered. "But her magic … Can't you feel her magic?"

"I can," Thor admitted. "But are you sure it's her magic? Or is it Nemesis?"

"I'm still not sure if I know who Nemesis is, exactly," Valkyrie replied softly. Her eyes too were sweeping over the Avengers lawn, her every muscle strained as if she were a lioness on the prowl.

"She is controlling everything," Thor replied, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. "She called out to me in my dream. It wasn't Loki. He never called to me for help … It was Nemesis. She is … I felt her magic on Hélgidomur and I realized that it was the same magic that reached out to me when I thought I'd heard Loki and … this is somehow all her doing and I …" His voice broke and he could feel his chest tightening once more, squeezing the air from his lungs. His vision went blurry, his tongue started to throb and then his throat and mouth went numb.

"What?" Valkyrie whispered.

"I-I … messed up," Thor conceded in a small voice, a stab of sharp panic jolting through his body. Everything was falling apart around him and the pressure on his chest became so unbearable that he was sure he was going to suffocate.

"Now that's unprecedented," Valkyrie scoffed but ceased her taunts instantly when she looked at him and saw the distress in his eyes. Her voice softening, she whispered, "What did you do?"

"I swore an oath to her," Thor answered and despite the fact that he feared her judgment—feared everybody's judgment—he was glad that he could finally relieve himself of the burden he had placed upon his shoulders. "It was reckless and stupid but I figured that I would find a way to get out of it and that I would—"

"Have you forgotten that an oath sworn by a God is binding?" Valkyrie asked, echoing the ancient laws of Asgard, and the look she gave him made it more than clear that she was calling his sanity into question.

"No but I … I had enough time and I thought that Loki would be able to concoct a scheme to get me out of it but then the Infinity Stones happened and everything went to Hel and I … It's only been three days, Val!" He tried to swallow but the tightness in his chest and the numbness in his mouth made it almost impossible to force some saliva down his throat. "How much can go wrong in three days?" Thor cried out, his voice reminiscent of a child's pathetically helpless wail.

"Thor," Valkyrie whispered, her eyes suddenly flaring with alarm. "She is watching us."

"How very astute of you, Brunnhilde," Thor heard the honeyed voice of his murderous half-sister purr even before a spectral apparition of Hela took shape in front of them, materializing from a black-greenish mist. She was clad entirely in black and flashed them a vicious smile as she stepped forth, unruly, greasy strands of black hair framing a face as fair as polished alabaster. She fixated Valkyrie with her ice blue, smoky eyes. Next to Thor, Valkyrie gasped and then narrowed her eyes at the malicious being that had taken everything from her. How in all the Realms could I have ever chided her for Sakaar? Thor thought desperately, his thoughts escaping in all directions. Why did I ever—

"I have to say," Hela began as her gaze traveled from Valkyrie to Thor, "I am disappointed in you, brother. I will not pretend that I did not see this coming—I knew you were never going to kill him—but I am disappointed nonetheless. The Norns once prophesied you to become the greatest of all the Aesir and who would have ever thought that the Norns could err?" She cackled and every ounce of blood in Thor's body seemed to freeze at the sound. "I certainly believed in them, as I think we all did, but when I look at you now, cowering beneath my feet like a wounded animal, I seriously doubt their judgment. I mean, look at you. Just look at you, Thor! You do not have what it takes to be a God. You do not have what it takes to be a King of Asgard. You barely have what it takes to be a man. The only thing that sets you apart from all the powerful Gods you walked amongst," she continued with a disparaging glance at Loki, "is the ludicrous soft spot for the abomination lying at your feet." Hela snorted once more. "And despite everything he put you through, despite everything you endured because of him, you choose to remain blissfully unaware that your affection for this sleazebag is what brought you to this point and that your loyalty to him is also what is going to ruin everything else for you in the future. And not only for you."

Next to Thor, Valkyrie's face was twisting into a grimace of involuntary concession.

"See?" Hela chirped cheerfully, her spectral hand landing on Valkyrie's shoulders. "Even Brunnhilde agrees with me."

Valkyrie's face darkened. She tried to slap Hela's hand away but her fingers went right through the projection. "What do you want?" she enquired grimly.

Hela's apparition threw back its head and laughed devilishly. "What do I want? You are enraging the very magic that is keeping us all alive. You are—"

"And you aren't?" Thor cut in as he straightened as much as his tight chest would allow him. "You cannot hope to control the stone you carry. It carries the conscience of all creation and you are no match for it."

Hela gave a bright laugh. "And after all your failures you think you are?"

"That isn't the point," Thor mumbled.

"Wherever you go, you leave destruction in your wake," Hela spat. "You will be the downfall of everything you care about!"

"Now, that's rich coming from the Goddess of Death," Valkyrie pointed out sourly.

Hela smiled at the other woman, her eyes flickering with rogue blitheness. "I court death, yes, crave it even. It is in my nature, after all. Yet, despite my appetites, I have never craved the destruction of the entire universe. I am no fool. If the universe were to perish, none of us would continue to exist." She fixated Thor with her cold stare once more. "If I had been able to foresee that you would try to disrupt the order of the universe with Loki's help, I would never have given you a month's time. Do you not see what you are doing? Do you really think you of all people will be able to right an intergalactic wrong?"

Thor opened his mouth to speak but Hela's vicious chuckle silenced him instantly.

"Your tampering with the Infinity Stones is going to bring forth Ragnarok," Hela spat. "The real Ragnarok. Not the destruction of Asgard you foolishly assumed to be the extent to the prophecy." Her heavily painted eyes narrowed to slits. "If I have learned anything since our paths have so unfortunately crossed, it is this: You cannot be left unsupervised."

Thor swallowed when he remembered Bruce's words. If there's any moral to your little history lesson, it's probably that Asgardians, Gods or not, are better not left unsupervised. He glanced at Loki, who was still resting on the ice floe beneath the protective shield created by Wong, his chest barely moving with his shallow breathing. He remembered his father's words to him—Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war—and his words to Loki during his brother's trial, which Thor had only witnessed from afar—Wherever you go there is war, ruin and death. Thor tried to swallow once again and, once again, it was in vain. His entire body remained so taut that his skin began to hurt with the every effort to stay focused.

"Which is why," Hela continued with a deathly sweet smile that barely registered with him, "I see no choice but to revise the terms of our bargain."

Valkyrie tensed beside him and there were so many thoughts assailing him that Thor could not hope to grasp a single one of them. His chest was still so very tight and his breath was coming in such frantic gasps that he feared he would drop dead any time now, slumping to the ground beneath his sister's feet like the pathetic loser that he was.

"I will not let you risk the fate of all the Realms any longer. You have twenty-four more hours to bring Loki and the glove to me in Niflheim. If you fail to do what was promised, I will come back here and claim the souls of all your mortal friends." She smiled pleasantly. "And you both know that you cannot defeat me without the Lord of Fire by your side. Have I made my terms clear?"

"An oath given to one God by another is binding," Valkyrie stepped in before Thor could rashly agree to anything. "You cannot just barge in here and revise the terms of the bargain you made with him!"

"Oh, can't I?" Hela purred, another devious smile breaking her lips apart. She raised her spectral hand and as soon as her black magic began to sizzle around her fingertips, Loki gave a soft moan of pain in his sleep.

Thor's heart gave a lurch and Valkyrie swung around, her eyes landing on the protective barrier. "How is that …"

Her voice faded from his ears as Thor was sensing a subtle wave of magic pulsating between the air molecules, stabbing into his head like a migraine. Help me …

Hela's gruesome laugh echoed through the morning air, drowning out the faint murmur of ancient magic. "In case you inconsequential morons forgot, I am the Goddess of Death. Loki only walks among the living once more because I allowed it. Yet, until the bargain is fulfilled, his soul remains mine to command, and I gazed deeply into its abyss. I can make him relive his greatest nightmares anytime I choose." She flicked her translucent fingers with a feral glint in her spectral eyes and Loki's face convulsed in a grimace of pain.

Valkyrie's lips parted.

"Stop it!" Thor howled, a thousand thoughts forming in his mind but immediately dissolving again before he could get a hold of any of them. The magic started throbbing through his head more violently, nearly setting his brain on fire. You must free me and you must make haste, Odinson, or else the universe will soon bear the full damage of your father's passing.

"You want me to stop?" Hela asked with an eerily predatorily smile on her face. "Then you will agree once more."

Nemesis? Thor asked inwardly. Curiously, even his inner voice was trembling desperately when he asked the same of the ominous being that it had asked of him. Help me …

I cannot help you unless you free me, came the reply. Make haste!

"Twenty-four hours," Hela repeated, locking eyes with Thor. "Or else everyone you care about will forever be at my mercy." She balled her illusionary fingers into an illusionary fist and Loki, eyes still closed, yelped in terror. "Do you agree, brother?"

"I—" Thor's throat was so tight that he could not utter a single word more. Everything he had decided upon recently had only brought more misery, more destruction, and more pain upon those he loved. How could he possibly trust himself to make another decision? How could he possibly condition everything on Loki's well-being again when there seemingly was so much more at stake than he had been able to fathom until now? How could he possibly—

Loki groaned out in pain once more.

"We agree," Valkyrie suddenly declared. Thor shot her a frantic glance and saw that her jaws were clenched tightly.

Hela's illusion smiled at her before her spectral head jerked in Thor's direction. "You know I have to hear it from him."

Thor glanced at Valkyrie for her final approval and when she gave a hesitant nod, he too agreed, his voice nothing more than a faint, broken whisper.

Hela chuckled. "I can't hear you."

"I agree," repeated Thor, his intestines clenched in fierce agony.

"Good. Then I will see you soon, brother." The Goddess of Death flashed them both another vicious smile before her apparition dissolved in front of their eyes.

"What the," Valkyrie was murmuring but the racing heartbeat thudding inside Thor's ears drowned out her words as he rushed to his brother's side. He stretched out his hand but as soon as his fingertips touched the protective barrier, his skin started to corrode and he flinched back.

Valkyrie exhaled a heavy breath and an eerie silence crept over them.

"W-why did you," Thor began when it became clear to him that she would not speak. "Why did you agree?"

"Why did you?" Valkyrie asked back, her voice vibrating with both disappointment and disbelief. "If I understood correctly, you swore an oath to kill your own brother in order to free him from the claws of death? How paradoxical is that? What in all the Realms were you thinking?"

"I …" Thor felt as if everything that had, if only barely, cohered the single parts of his existence until then was suddenly coming apart and he slumped to the ground, a violent sob tearing through his chest. Tears started to spill out of his eyes. "I-I don't know but Nemesis … She wants me to … She told me to … Hela isn't … Maybe we still …" He greedily gulped for another breath but his throat was still too tight.

Valkyrie slid down beside him and squeezed his hand. "Hey, you need to calm down, okay?" she whispered and he could hear the fear and desperation in her voice.

"You know, I-I once saw this woman on TV," Thor told her when the recollection hit him out of nowhere, "who t-talked about how she'd tried to commit suicide because she ha-hadn't seen a way out. And I remember how I w-watched her and thought how stupid this was. I remember that I thought, 'What are you talking about? There is always a way out. There is always something you can do.' But … wh-what if there isn't? What i-if you really hit a dead end and there's really nothing you can do and e-everything is just doomed to fail and you can't possibly i-imagine that—"

"Hey, hey, hey," Valkyrie said softly as she cupped his face between her palms, concern flickering across her eyes. "Thor, please."

"Hela is right," Thor gasped out. "I have nothing t-to show for myself. I brought nothing but—"

"Shhshh," Valkyrie murmured, her fingers tracing across his cheek. "Everything's going to work out fine."

Thor barked a desperate laugh. "This is e-exactly what I said to Loki before Thanos attacked us and look where we are now. Just look what I—"

"We still have twenty-four hours," Valkyrie said with such confidence that the tightness in his chest began to release its hold a little at last. "We will think of something, okay?"

The Thundergod nodded and silence swathed them once again.

"Why did you agree?" Thor repeated when he could finally draw his breath again. "You made it clear only moments ago just how much you disapprove of him. Why would you risk the lives of all our friends to …" His voice trailed off, words still eluding him.

"I don't know," Valkyrie replied tonelessly. She turned her head, fixing her gaze on Loki. "I always thought his act was nothing but a giant scam—no pun intended—but there is probably more to him than I ever cared to imagine. And I know what it is like to be bedeviled by Hela's machinations and I …" Tears started glistering in her eyes and she squeezed them shut to keep them from spilling. She cleared her throat before she continued with, "You are a good person, Thor—a hopeless fool, yes, but a good person—and if you still believe in your brother and think that he might be able to cheat Hela out of her bargain, well, maybe you are right."

Thor searched for her eyes. "D-do you really think that?"

Valkyrie looked at Loki again and the shadow of a reluctant half-smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "Let's face it," she whispered with an unmistakable edge of long suppressed pain in her voice. "It's not as if we could ever hope to defeat Hela and reclaim Nemesis with the strength of our powers alone. She proved that to us more than once and, even though I will not pretend that I have any genuine affection to spare for Loki as of now, I just realized that if anyone can vanquish the Goddess of Death by something other than physical force, it has to be the God of Mischief. Because I, for one, am at my wit's end when it comes to that bloody-minded hag."

Thor smiled through the tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Come here," Valkyrie said and pulled him into a hug. "I promise you everything will turn out fine but you need to rest first, okay? Everyone is asleep right now and you need it just as much as they do, if not more."

"We need to tell them though," Thor whispered, a new wave of dread washing over him. "I need to tell them what I did; how I betrayed them so that Loki could live."

"Yes," Valkyrie conceded softly. "But not before you …" She startled when an exasperated crackling noise came from behind them. Thor squirmed himself out of Valkyrie's embrace and they both turned around to watch countless magical veins of sanguine color pulsate to life inside the protective shield created by the last remaining Master of the Mystic Arts. The waves swirled around Loki's helmet and armor and his skin paled from blue to white.

Valkyrie drew a breath to speak but before she could utter a single word, Loki's eyes snapped wide open.