It's been a while, I know, but I've had a busy few weeks. But here is my new chapter! Enjoy! (Well, I don't think you will thoroughly enjoy it per se but you know what I mean ...)

#42

Every vein in Thor's muscular body tensed into attack mode, his hand itching to take the blade and ram it as deeply into Hela's throat as Nebula had rammed hers into the throat of her father. Beside the Thundergod, Tony, Valkyrie and Steve remained rooted to the spot. Thor could not see Tony's expression beneath his Iron Man helmet but the faces of Valkyrie and Steve were clenched in grim, if slightly fraught, determination.

Loki, however, seemed unperturbed by the blade between them. "Now, now," he mocked, "you made me choke on my own memories for weeks. Can you truly not stand to hear my actual voice for another ten minutes?"

Just as Thor was silently debating on how he could possibly urge his brother to slow down a little, Hela lunged for Steve in a movement so swift that neither of them could react before she had grabbed Captain America by the throat with her left hand, yanking him off his feet. Steve gurgled, struggling against her grasp, his eyes going blank with terror when he realized how strong she truly was.

Loki's lips parted and he held up his hands in surrender but his composure did not slip. "Alright, put him down. We are not finished yet."

"Yes, we are," Hela purred, her eyes lighting up with morbid pleasure when Steve's legs began to kick the air. "If Thor does not kill you as promised, I will crush his throat."

Tony raised his Iron Man blasters at her on pure survival instinct but halted when it dawned on him that he would harm Steve more than he would Hela if he fired his weapons at them. Valkyrie swallowed. Thor's fingers clenched around the Stormbreaker. His chest tightened. Loki's jaw worked, his red eyes flickering desperately.

"You cannot have it both ways," Loki whispered at last. "If you insist on the bargain, you are equally obliged to stick to it."

"Am I now?" Hela giggled. "You have entered my kingdom. I can do whatever I please within in these walls." She examined Steve, whose body was slowly going limp, his lips again a dark shade of blue, and a ferocious grin broke her lips apart as she glared at Thor. "Now, are you going to kill your brother or do I have to—"

"Steve Rogers will go to Valhalla," Valkyrie blurted out without warning before Thor could even finish one coherent thought. "You have nothing to gain by killing him."

Hela hesitated, releasing her grasp around Steve's throat enough for the other man to draw a hectic breath.

"And even if he did not go to Valhalla," said Loki, his voice growing more firm as his linguistic prowess returned, "there is nothing in that damnably righteous soul of his to feast on. If you think that killing him will nourish you, you will soon find yourself starving. Besides, killing him will not change the fact that you still believe Odin's lies."

"Very well," Hela decided after a few beats. She glanced at the blade she was still holding in her other hand and without further warning, she held Steve's body out, chopped off his entire left arm and then threw him at Tony's feet. Steve crumbled to the cold stone floor, his shoulder nothing more than a bloody stump. Tony instantly dropped to his knees and started to seal the wound with his nanotech, mumbling the other man's name, but Steve had slipped into unconsciousness. Thor cried out in horror and shot a panicked glance at Loki, silently asking him whether he could fix the injury with the Reality Stone's help, but his brother merely swallowed. Valkyrie's face screwed up with rage as she sprang towards Hela with an animalistic battle cry and seemingly without any rational thought.

"Valkyrie, no!" Loki screamed as Hela tossed away the blade that she had used to mutilate Steve, sending it clattering against stone. Valkyrie did not listen. She lunged at the Goddess of Death, who was conjuring up a horseshoe-shaped weapon with sharp edges at this very moment. Before Valkyrie had reached her, Hela smashed the other woman's body against the nearest column with the invisible force of magic and flung the weapon after her. It closed around Valkyrie's throat, pinning her to the stone column, her feet dangling a few inches above the ground.

Valkyrie's hands shot towards the object instantly, her legs kicking as she tried to free herself, panting with the effort.

"Leave her be!" Thor sprang towards Hela on impulse but he too was smashed against a hard wall—was it even a wall?—of stone before he could reach her. His thoughts were tumbling over themselves as he tried to not cry out in pain.

Hela merely laughed at the agony she had caused. "You stay still, all of you, because if you don't, well, I very much doubt you even want to know what will happen if you don't," she commanded in a honeyed voice before her gaze traveled back to Loki. "Much to my shame, however, I have to admit that I am far too curious to learn what makes you think that your miserable mind has outwitted Odin before I finish up here," she said to him. "Care to elaborate?"

Loki tore his gaze off Steve's unconscious frame and drew a sharp breath. A wave of nausea washed over Thor when he realized that everything depended on what his brother was going to say next.

"Come on, Hela," Loki began, his voice far too quaky, "you and I both know that Odin was better at deception than any giant, including me, could ever hope to be."

"As if this is news to anyone here." Hela's face was unreadable but she picked the sword off the floor, wielding it for emphasis. "Do you truly think you will gain anything by stalling?"

"Not me personally, no," Loki replied, the strength returning to his words. "As outrageous and ridiculous as this may sound, I am for once thinking of the good of the universe rather than of my own skin, which is why we will have to make sure that you realize you are in no position to decide what is going to happen to either the Realms or the stones."

"No?" Hela scoffed. "I am Odin's firstborn! I have every right to—"

"You do realize that this also makes you his first fool, right?" Loki interrupted her with a gleeful grin and Thor's entire nervous system exploded with adrenaline.

"How dare you?" Hela snarled, her fingers curling even tighter around her sword, her knuckles standing out hard and in a ghostly white against her already pale skin.

"How dare I?" Loki echoed. "Let me see. You assume that the rebirth of Nemesis will erase the existence of the universe. You seek to prevent this by taking the stones from us because you think our tampering with the Infinity Stones will cause Nemesis to reappear. While this endeavor honors you, you remain blissfully unaware of two things. One: You apparently do not realize how foolish your plan is in light of the fact that, according to the universe's rumor mill, the reunion of all the stones is going to cause the rebirth of Nemesis. Why would you want all of the stones so close together if the demise of the universe is the outcome you fear?"

Hela's composure slipped ever so slightly. Thor cast a nervous glance at Tony, who was still hunched over Steve's body, and Valkyrie, who was still trapped by Hela's weapon. Every nerve in his own body itched to interfere, to fry Hela with a blast of lightning so fierce that she would burst into flames, but Thor forced himself to remain calm because he knew they would never be able to defeat the Goddess of Death on her own turf and if they failed, Nemesis would be lost to them forever. It was quite possibly one of the hardest things he had ever done.

"And two," Loki continued with a slick smile, his eyes sparkling with malicious humor once more. "You still believe Ragnarok to be real, which gives us all the proof we need that you are still falling for Odin's deceptions even after two-thousand years." Hela was about to protest but Loki did not falter. "Let us face the truth here. There is only one thing we all know for certain and that is that Odin was a ruthless liar and a masterful deceiver. The best in all the Realms, I dare say. He lied to all of us. He lied to you, to Frigga, to Thor, to me, to his counsel; he was never straightforward about matters of this sort. He would have told you anything to stabilize his position as the Allfather."

Hela sniffed. "You're one to talk, Laufeyson."

Loki took a step towards her, his lips curled into a mischievous grin. "Well, let me ask you this: What if the rebirth of Nemesis does not lead to our universe's destruction? Or even better: What if the entire prophecy of Ragnarok was a fiction conceived by Odin himself to keep everyone in check, including you? What if Nemesis has never existed and there were seven stones from the very beginning?"

Hela hissed. "The prophecy foretold—"

"The prophecy foretold a series of events that Odin himself set in motion," Loki reminded her and Thor felt his mouth gape open in surprise. "What better way is there to keep your subjects in line than the threat of certain death? And he found the perfect way to cause just enough disturbance to make them believe it might truly happen, did he not? He took in the abandoned child of his archenemy and raised it as his own while going out of his way to make sure that said child never felt as if it truly belonged. Making sure to fill it with dark thoughts of envy and rage, making sure it would grow into someone that caused just enough turmoil to start whispers among the Asgardians that 'The Tangler' might be real. And if The Tangler was real, so must be the prophecy."

Hela surveyed him suspiciously, her icy blue eyes in narrow slits. "You're bluffing, Laufeyscum. Asgard has fallen. Ragnarok is upon us. The prophecy is real. Whether you like or not."

"Is it really?" Loki asked. "Then how can it be that none of the Gods died the way they were prophesied to die? How can it be that Surtur's fires did not devour all the Nine Realms? How can it be that the three of us are still here? The four of us, if you include the Valkyrie?"

Hela's face had twisted into a deep frown.

"How can it be," Loki finished with a condescending sneer, "that the prophecy you cling to so desperately failed to mention either Nemesis or the most powerful artifact of the universe you assume to have in your possession if it plays such a crucial role in the destruction of the universe?"

Hela said nothing and Thor allowed himself to draw a deep breath. From somewhere beside him, he heard Valkyrie and Tony do the same.

"I tell you why," said Loki. "Because prophecies are just lies told by those in power in order to control the destiny of others. Because prophecies are specific enough not to be discarded and vague enough to associate all sorts of events with it. You knew of The Tangler and Valkyrie did, too, long before I was even born. And let us dwell on that name for a second, yes? What kind of name is that? The Tangler?" Loki gave a silvery laugh. "This could have been anyone. A giant, a sorceress, a seer, a Norn—who knows? Odin did not know at the time but it did not matter. He later found someone he could mold into a Tangler alongside his worthy hero son."

Thor felt like he had received his own hammer throw into the gut.

"I should guess he did not know about the full significance of the stones yet either when the prophecy was first delivered but he fixed that too, by telling you the lie of Nemesis's existence while keeping the stone secret from the rest of the worlds, so that nobody would come for it." Loki chuckled again. He was back in his element now, enjoying himself in a way that Thor had not witnessed in what felt like an eternity. And even though he knew that Nemesis was real, he had no trouble believing his brother's words and, apparently, neither had Hela. "After all, who searches for something that doesn't exist, right? But most importantly, he made sure that you, greedy and war-hungry as you were, would never dare to seek out its power or speak of its existence to anyone, lest Ragnarok consumes you with the rest of Asgard. He knew his little girl was eating the lies right out the palm of his hands."

"You shut up now," Hela growled yet, even though her voice was trembling with rage, her body had gone entirely still, as if some unknown force was holding her back.

"But then he banished you, of course, which made you not only furious but also a little suspicious of whatever he told you before he so recklessly discarded you, am I right?" Loki shrugged his shoulders. "And then, even when he knew you were going to come back, he did not bother to tell us about the stone because he knew how it was going to end. He knew that Thor would be powerless against you but he also knew that Thor was going to destroy Asgard and save its people before he let you rule it."

Thor laughed incredulously. "He was the one who suggested to me that we should evacuate our people and destroy Asgard when he appeared to me in a vision."

"See?" Loki giggled. "He knew that after he banished her, Hela would go right after the one thing that he had told her not to touch and that, if you killed her—which I suppose he trusted you to do—she would carry it with her, deep into abyss of Nilfheim, never allowing anyone else to learn of its existence."

"That's enough!" Hela growled, swinging her blade into Loki's direction. "I'm going to rip you apart, you little turd of Jotun dung!"

Loki ducked her blow in one swift motion, that slick smile still playing upon his blue lips. "He knew you well enough to be sure that you would greedily take the stone; assured that you have finally prevailed over him. Assured that, now that he is dead and you are in possession of it, you would think yourself the most powerful being in the universe."

Hela stood frozen, aghast.

Loki straightened his posture and smiled a venomously sweet smile. "The mighty Hela, Goddess of Death, finally holding the key to prevent Ragnarok in her own hands, controlling the fate of the entire universe. I must say, that is quite an omnipotence fantasy you are nurturing there." He giggled. "The only problem is, Ragnarok is just a prophecy and you are nothing but Odin's fool."

"This can't be," hissed Hela but she was clearly under the spell of Loki's silver tongue.

"Oh, it is. Believe me when I say, we have all been there. Well, I certainly have," Loki assured her in a voice dripping with feigned empathy. "Odin was a master deceiver. He had everyone enchanted. It truly is not your fault. But it is never too late to free yourself of his influence," Loki continued, the glint in his eyes having her visibly mesmerized. "To forsake the path he laid out for you."

Hela's face articulated a thousand question marks. Thor held his breath in suspense when he finally realized where his brother was going.

"But I guess that is not what you want, is it?" Loki sneered. "To finally be free of him?"

"Why would you say that?" Hela spat.

"Because you are still holding on to the one last thing that he used to control your actions,'" Loki pointed out. "That seventh stone," he emphasized with a sardonic smile, "is basically a token of your subjugation."

Hela growled like a hellhound. Loki took a step towards her. "Don't you want to be rid of it? Don't you want to be rid of your shame?"

She growled again but Loki had her trapped as if she was an insect caught in a spider web and then his form shifted in shimmers of red and green. His blue skin turned white and wrinkly and a light gray beard grew around his chin. His black hair faded away into the same color and grew to shoulder's length, two thin plaited braids appearing behind his ears. His green cape turned ruby and his black armor golden, the four royal Asgardian disks glittering in the faint light reaching them from the throne room. His red eyes turned white with gray-blue irises, a golden eye-patch materializing around the right one.

"Let go," Loki whispered almost seductively in Odin's deep voice. It was both lulling and threatening, just as Thor remembered it, and he felt a sharp stab of bereavement in his chest. "Let go of your past shame," Odin-Loki continued. "Let go of my hold over you, daughter."

A bone-chilling growl escaped Hela's mouth. "I will destroy you!" she bellowed as she discarded her sword, sending it clattering onto the stone floor once more. The seventh stone appeared between her thumb and index finger, its magic sending a crackle through the air that sounded like the angry hiss of a venomous snake.

Loki's Allfather face remained expressionless even as it became clear that Hela was about to unleash the stone's pure malicious energy against him. Now brother, Loki commanded Thor through some sort of magical thought transference he had never deployed in his presence before.

But there was no time to dwell on that. There was only one thing Loki had instructed them to do before they had entered Niflheim and that had been to seize the stone the minute she unveiled it. Thor did not think twice about complying with his brother's instruction. He shot to his feet, sprang forward and rammed his body into that of his accursed half-sister with full force, sending them both toppling to the cold, hard rock beneath their feet.

The stone tumbled out of Hela's hand and rolled onto the floor. She reacted with lighting speed, tearing away from him and crawling towards it on all fours but Thor grabbed her by the ankle, yanking her back.

Before Thor knew what was happening, Tony was standing above them, firing a blast from his armor at Hela, who startled ever so briefly when the surge of energy hit her. Thor hurled himself onto her, ramming his armored knee into her neck, savoring the noise of crunching bones, and then crawled forward, stretching out his hand to grab the stone.

Behind him, Hela rose with a furious cry, but his fingers were already curling around the stone. He dimly heard Loki screaming in protest in Odin's voice but he whirled around nonetheless, commanding Nemesis to release her magic against the Goddess of Death. Pure energy shot out from his fingers in flashes of gleaming black and, then, his mind went dark.