Disclaimer: I'm actually only writing this disclaimer thing out of habit. Still don't own the Avengers.
Chapter 16
Once Upon a Helheim
Jörmungand looked around him with a quiet sigh breathing out his lips. Their father was safe now from the immediate danger of another expulsion of magic imploding and exploding from his being, but it was only a fraction of one of the many dangers he has over his head.
He often wondered when the calm would break, where either his brother Fenrir, would bare his teeth and shatter the abysmal silence in space, or their sister Hela, whose realms wouldn't think twice to take up arms and ride into a fierce battle under her name, or he, who could so easily destroy worlds under the coils of his body and bring the destruction so many feared. And even that, he thought grimly, was an understatement compared to what any of them are capable of – with them together, enraged and bathing in their own chaotic force, was a very unthinkable thought.
Fenrir was excused from the containment chamber and had went up the recently burned down common living floor of the Avengers Tower, now restored into its original state, thanks to his brother. He was laughing and chatting away with Tony Stark and the others, leaving him and Hela to do their work.
Compared to him and his sister, Fenrir was a full blown hothead, in part due to his warm blooded shifting form of that of a wolf. Jörmungand knew perfectly well that he was only tempering his mood, because if not, he would destroy his way to find their father's tormentor, regardless of how many lives he tramples on – not that they cared much of it, life and death was just another reality of the universe, especially with their sister as an avatar for Death itself, it almost means nothing to them, except for their father's death, which is a special kind of death that not even their sister could mend.
Speaking of his sister, Jörmungand raised his eyes towards where Hela was and found her back to her foul and dark mood, moving quietly around the perimeter as she neutralized the force and enchanted their father into a deep, peaceful sleep.
She had always been the one to shoulder it for all of them, even when she shouldn't. Hela grew up too fast too soon; she carried the weight of ruling more than one realm at a very young age – and despite having stayed with their father for a bit longer, she had been the one who got the worse when it came into her place of banishment, if you would call it that.
He walked closer over to her, and easily rested his head atop hers, undoubtedly towering over her, which earned him a pinch on his cheek. A rueful smile graced his lips without stepping away, knowing that nothing irks his sister more than being teased about her height against both he and Fenrir – that or calling her a moose, courtesy of her antlered crown or headgear.
"He will be fine," Jörmungand wiggled his chin on her head.
Hela raised her arms up and stopped his head from wiggling over hers, for fear of having a drilled hole on her skull, and replied with mock-sarcasm, "Is that supposed to assure me, or you?"
"Either, or both," He stepped back and rolled his shoulders to rid of the kinks from doing boring manual labour, "If anything, I'm bracing myself for the worse."
"Worse? When did we ever do worse?" Hela retorted.
Jörmungand smirked and ruffled his sister's hair before going back to his own work.
Despite the warm welcome he received, Fenrir thought maybe Hela and Jörmungand are having a better time working on last minute adjustments on the Soul Forge emulator and taking care of their father than he is, because as soon as Tony had chugged down a piping hot mug of black coffee and his first glass of whiskey, the idle chat they had on the way up the common floor was replaced by question after question about them.
"Finley, is that a play on your real name 'Fenrir'?" Asked Tony almost instantly which Fenrir nodded his head to, "So you change into a giant ferocious wolf?"
"Giant is an understatement," He replied nonchalantly, "Ferocious, depends."
"Understatement?" Tony cocked a brow, the question now flooding everyone's faces in confirmation.
"In your Midgardian tales, or as we'll have it, Asgardian gossip and rumours, I will have children that would swallow the moon and the sun," Fenrir elaborated, "But the truth is, there are no children, and Jorge is the one who can perform those feats. I would have indigestion of I swallowed a planet without chewing."
"Wait, what?" That was Steve, followed by Bucky, "You eat planets?"
"No, not really," Fenrir shrugged his shoulders, "But Jörmungand swallowed a dying star that threatened to level the realms Hela reigns over."
Everyone stared wide eyed, some dubiously at him, "I may have devoured the nearby planetoids to keep them from decimating into rocks that would rain down across that universe's region."
"You ate planetoids?" Bucky resounded again, Tony on the other hand asking, "Hela has realms? Planets?!"
"Didn't you know?" Fenrir asked back, confused, "I thought you knew."
"Hela has planets," Tony said again but without the questioning intonation, "She rules fucking planets and she didn't tell us?!"
"If it makes you feel better, they're not all planets," Fenrir said and looked to be counting them in his head, "Nifleheim is the only planet, the rest are moons, planetoids, and colonies on the planet's ring."
"The fact that you left out the numbers is a little disconcerting," Clint said, everyone turned to him, Tony with his 'Bird-Guy-Used-A-Big-Word' look, "But in the myths it said she rules that realm, planet with the hard to pronounce name and Hel."
"Okay, let's go Myth Buster on this," Fenrir grinned and leaned his body forward, his arms resting on his thighs, "Hela was never banished. A very long time ago, a plague diminished the Asgardian population by half, the Norns; those hateful vile creatures told Odin that Hela should be offered as a sacrifice to Death to rid of the disease killing off his people. Odin never liked us to begin with, so he fabricated a lie-"
"Have care how you speak," Thor exclaimed, standing tall threateningly over Fenrir who looked at him without much concern, "It is my father of whom you speak of."
"And it is my sister's unfortunate fate that I tell of, one that was orchestrated by your ill-meaning father," Fenrir replied with icy conviction, "I will have you speak to the Norns if my sister has not already claimed their putrid souls."
Fenrir snarled at Thor and mock-threateningly added, "If your Asgardian tales were true, I would have made an appetizer of Odin for what he's done to my family, however, I'm not an uncouth being like you overbearing Asgardians."
Hela and Jörmungand just got off the lift that moment and found Fenrir and Thor exchanging heated stares, ready to pounce at each other.
Jörmungand rolled his eyes and jabbed at his brother, "Are you ever not going to talk to others without instigating a fight, you domineering mutt."
"Indeed, maybe we should put a muzzle on him, keep him on a short leash," Hela added with humour.
"The worm and the moose talks!" Fenrir exclaimed exasperatedly, leaning back on the couch with a plop, crossing his arms over his chest, "That would be the last time I would stick my neck up for you two."
Hela and Jörmungand exchanged looks of mischief and walked over to their brother, taking a seat on either side, his younger brother teased, "That was what you said the last time."
Hela nuzzled her cheek against Fenrir's, "Oh, don't be so harsh on him now. Look at him! He looks like a kicked puppy!"
They both laughed and Fenrir fumed with a cry of insult, grabbing his siblings into a chokehold.
"Mercy! Mercy!" Jörmungand shouted in between laughs, Hela simmering into giggles and called out, "We're sorry, we couldn't help it!"
Thor back down and moved towards his seat, watching his brother's children tease and make fun of each other in good nature. He remembered himself being the same with his brother, the last time feeling like it was centuries ago but it was only a few meagre years just before his coronation that he and his brother had poked fun at each other. He wondered why he and his brother has gone so far to hate each other, to the point that they threatened to kill each other – no, that's not right, Loki never once threatened to kill him, it was just a question looming in his mind that he made out to be the truth. Perhaps, he was caught up in the moment and he thought his brother was already beyond reach. The guilt swelled up in once again, Loki had been by his side ever since and he neglected that; he pushed back the thought that Loki had lost his children too soon, that there were others who were dying just to be with him, and he still neglected his presence. How can he be so stupid?
The three siblings all looked at Thor and simmered down, Hela the first to speak, answering his internal question, "You were too caught up with your own selfishness and vanity to even care."
"You handled our father like an accessory," Jörmungand piped in.
Fenrir snorted a laugh and said, "You're just naturally dumb."
Thor looked at them confused; the others a little lost if they missed an exchange but were sure they didn't. Thor hasn't spoken since he sat back down.
"I already explained it to Barton," Hela said noncommittally.
"We can taste and smell emotions and can loosely translate thoughts," Jörmungand answered for him and Fenrir.
Natasha raised a brow with piqued curiosity; those abilities would certainly work great during operations, she mused.
"So you're not telepathic?" Bucky asked.
"We are, but we mostly only use it on each other," Fenrir answered, "It's annoying to hear people talk to themselves; you don't even know how crazy it sounds."
Tony held out a hand to silence everyone, his face beginning to turn scarlet; everyone lost count how many glasses he's down since they started talking.
"Point-Break, stop interrupting people when they're talking," the irony of Tony's words crept up in everyone's expressions, "Please continue the story."
Tony waved his hand in gesture to prompt the story where it left off, Fenrir indulging him and went on, "Odin fabricated the lie that Hela would be Queen of Nifleheim, but it turns out Nifleheim was teeming with pirates and criminals, leaving the souls the roam the physical realm of Nifleheim without peace. The point is, Hela was left on a very dangerous planet teeming with vicious aliens from every corner of the universe to die, and need I add she was only the equivalent of a thirteen year-old Midgardian at that time."
"Your father left little a girl to live alone in a place like that?" Clint looked at Thor incredulously, "Seriously, I'm saying this now, and again. No wonder Loki went batshit crazy!"
"It turned out quite alright," Hela held a cool, nonchalant face, masking her discomfort about the topic. It was darkest point in her life after all, and made light of it, "I got rid of the villains, acquired their riches and used it to build the realms from the ground up. Now, only an idiot would dare cross my realm without permission. Oh! Like those vile Norns. They trespassed on Nifleheim and tried to collect a piece of Helheim's soil. They really were so stupid…"
"What the hell are you?"
Hela looked up at Tony and smiled devilishly, "Queen of the realms of Nifleheim, Harbinger of Ragnarök, Goddess of Death, Rebirth, Pestilence, and Disease, Creator and One-True Ruler of the dimension of Helheim, need I go on?"
"You could say that's she could be megalomaniac, but it's all true," Fenrir laughed.
"She's purposefully leaving out that she's one sadistic fu-" Hela jabbed an elbow on Jörmungand's side before he could continue.
"You have one big, stretchy mouth," Hela grumbled.
After hearing all that, Tony decided to stop asking questions before he acquires PTSD from all the tales those siblings could share with them and left everyone else to steer the topic on neutral ground, on things that didn't involve intergalactic planets and sadistic rulers.
Author's Note: Two chapters in one day! Yay! Damn puns. Hahah.
Thanks to Xtyne for reviewing the last chapter, always so quick on the review button! I've decided to from now one, I'll give a shout out to those who leaves me a little message on the review box, because, let's face it, who doesn't love reading reviews from their readers?
I guess that's it for today. Don't forget to fave, favourite and review! And check out my profile too, I have some surprise there for everyone, in case it was missed in the last chapter.
