Loki had thought that his bad dreams were finally getting better. He no longer dreamt as much of the crimes he had committed in his past life. But Loki was a long way from a clean slate. During one particular night, Loki had a particularly disturbing dream. There was darkness all around. Then, a pale grey fog emerged, swirling with what almost looked like the pallor of screaming apparitions. Their screams amounted to nothing more than the sound of wind moving wistfully though a dark valley, echoing off unseen walls.
Through the mist appeared the figure of a woman. Her skin was pale, like that of a corps, yet she was beautiful. Her hair was a midnight black and her eyes glowed green. She wore a helm comprised of dark spires protruding from her head like a malevolent crown. Her robes were of darkest green silk. She spoke to Loki with an eerily enticing voice. "Loki," she whispered, "You have a debt to pay. The favor in which I granted you comes at a cost. Come to my realm and we shall discuss the matter." She held out a skeletal key with a glowing green gem embedded in the middle. She pressed it into his palm and then evaporated to become one with the mist.
The dream dissolved around Loki. He awoke in his bed. He did not realize it at first that he was grasping something in his hand. He pulled his arm from under the covers to reveal the key he had been given by the woman. Loki knew who the woman was; he had had several dealings with her in the past. Most recently of which was when his elder self asked her to erase his name from the book of Hel just before he died. This woman was Hela, ruler of Helhiem and keeper of Asgardian souls in the afterlife. If the legends could be believed, she was also Loki's daughter though Loki knew she had no paternal feelings towards him. Hela was crafty and ruthless, like Loki. Though unlike the elder-Loki, she had honor. Loki would now have to pay her a visit.
Loki examined the key. It seemed ancient, which indeed it was. The glowing gem embedded in it obviously showed signs of magic. It was a key to get him into Hell. I'm not so sure I would need a key for that. Loki Joked to himself. But in all seriousness, he desperately hoped that once he made it to Helhiem, he would be able to return to Midgard.
Loki dressed in his Asgardian cloths for the day. If he was going to meet the Queen of the Dead, he wanted to look his best. Then another thought occurred to him; the Avengers. He was not supposed to leave the tower without one of them. However this mission he must do alone. He had gotten away with the whole pocket dimension thing as a technicality, but this time he was going to have to venture to a different realm. Maybe he could go with just the permission of one of them. Which one of them could he trick into allowing him to go gallivanting off to the realm of the dead. It was not hard to deduct whom.
After breakfast, Loki followed Thor back to his room. "Loki," said Thor, turning to see his brother had come after him, "Do you wish to speak to me?" he asked, a little surprised.
"Thor," Loki began, "I have a task that I must do outside of the tower. I have vowed to uphold the rules that Stark has laid down and therefor ask your permission to carry out this errand."
"What sort of errand would this be?" Thor asked skeptically.
"It is one that puts my honor on the line." Loki widened his eyes so as to play at Thor's sentimentality. "Brother of mine, I ask you to allow me uphold a promise I have made to an old friend. I am trying to be a better person. One who will not let my word be broken." Loki faked an innocent expression, widening his eyes even more so that Thor would get the full on blast of their green glistening cuteness.
Thor's face softened. He looked as though his heart had just melted. "Off course you may go, brother. I will not keep you from fulfilling a promise." Thor put his hand upon his little brother's shoulder. "You do not know how much it pleases me to see that you are trying to do good with your new life." Thor looked as if he wanted to embrace his brother for an eternity.
Before Thor could grab him into a bone-crushing hug, Loki stepped away and said, "You have my thanks brother," and left the room. By the end of the conversation, Loki was starting to feel just as emotional towards Thor as Loki was sure he was making Thor feel. He almost felt guilty. But, after all, he hadn't exactly lied.
Loki went into his room and summoned Ikol to his side. He may need the magpie's wisdom on this trip. Loki held the key up to eye level. He concentrated on the small glowing green gem in its center. "Take me to Helhiem," Loki told it. With a shimmering array of colors that indicated a portal, Loki was sucked into the cloudscape, on the highway to Hel.
Tony just happened to be walking by in the hallway when he saw a bright shine through the doorframe to Loki's room. Tony thought he might have been imagining it. But just to be sure, he knocked on the door and opened it just a smidge. "Loki?" he called into the room. "You in here kid?" No response. Maybe he was somewhere else in the tower. Before he could ask Jarvis, Tony saw Thor coming out of his room and decided to ask him instead. "Hey, Thor?" Tony asked the Asgardian, "Do you know where Loki is?"
"He said he had a task he must do outside of the tower, so I gave him permission to do so," replied Thor, as if it wasn't that big a deal.
"You what?" asked Tony exasperated. "Did he say were he was going?"
Thor looked perplexed. "He… did not say."
Tony hit his forehead in frustration. He could not believe how naive Thor was. Loki probably used Thor's naivety in order to go wherever the heck it was he went.
Thor just looked at Tony questioningly. "Should I have not let him go?" Thor asked, starting to feel a little worried.
"Gee, Ya think?" exclaimed Tony.
The colors of the portal shot past Loki with amazing speed. With an abrupt halt, the colors dispersed. In their place stood the gloom that was Helhiem. Here it was forever night. Fog clung to the air and swirled here and there with an unseen wind. Pits were scattered across the realm with ghostly figures in them. The more recent ones to leave the land of the living looked almost as they had at their death. The souls who had been here longer seemed as if they had decayed over time. Behind Loki there were fires blazing, though their heat did not reach him where he stood. Those flames were of the land of Hell: a land where the common folk went after death. The Asgaridian's went to a place far colder.
At the center of Hel stood Hela's Fortress. A black marble structure, its magnificence seemed to emit an aura of darkness. Loki started to walk up the steps to the fortress when he heard a large growl. Loki turned to see Garm, the giant she-wolf that guards the gates of Hel. Garm stepped forward to inspect Loki, who was petrified where he stood. Surely Garm would not tear him to shreds. She was only there to keep the dead from escaping, not to keep the living from entering. Garm sniffed the air around Loki. Upon realizing he was a living soul, she turned and walked back into the shadows. Loki let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding in. He continued into the home of Hela.
The Queen of Hel sat upon a black marble throne in a dark, yet grand, hall. She looked just as Loki had seen her in his dream. What he had not realized before was that her right hand was missing, leaving behind only a stump. From what Loki remembered of the death goddess in his previous life, Loki grasped that this must have been a recent development. On the right hand side of Hela stood a girl whom Loki knew not. The girl looked as if she could have been Hala's daughter. Her skin was pale like Hela's and she had bright green eyes. Her hair was a cascade of darkness, pinned back by hair needles that might have been made from bones. She too wore a dark green dress; only it was more conservative than the illustrious gown that Hela wore.
"Ah Loki," Hela greeted with the slightest hint of a smile. "I am pleased to see you have come. Though you look much younger than you did when last you were here."
Loki bowed in respect at the foot of her dais. "Hela, it is a pleasure to see you again as well," he said with intended politeness.
Hela simply looked down on Loki, as if inspecting him. She then said, "I do not believe you have met my handmaiden," Hela said motioning to the girl on her right. "Loki, this is Leah." Leah just stared at Loki, an unreadable expression on her young face. "Leah is my handmaiden. I mean that both figuratively and literally because she both serves me and is the embodiment of my severed hand." Hela brushed her left hand against the stump on her right.
Unsure of what to say next, Loki decided to continue the introductions. "And this, my fair Queen, is Ikol," said Loki, gesturing to the magpie perched upon his shoulder.
"Ikol," said Hela, pondering the bird for a moment. "Tis an interesting anagram."
"As is Leah," replied Loki.
This time Hela did smile. The expression was not long lasting, though. "Let us get down to business Loki. I agreed to strike your name from the book of death as a favor to you. But, as you well know, my favors come with prices. I have a task for you."
"Please, tell me what it is you would have me do," replied Loki.
"You must help me to heal my severed hand," said Hela simply.
"And how must I accomplish this?" asked Loki, perplexed.
"Alas, that is something that you must figure out how to do," replied Hela. "However, Leah will assist you until you have fulfilled your dept."
At these words, Leah turned to her mistress and began to protest, "But my Lady-"
"Silence Leah," Hela held a hand out to Leah. "I have spoken." Leah did not look at all pleased.
Loki was a little shocked at this. Apparently he was going to be bringing a girl home to meet the Avengers. This should be fun. Then again, maybe it really would be fun. Leah looked about the same age as him. Perhaps they could be friends. "Don't worry, Hela," Loki smiled. "I'll take good care of her. I have the perfect place for us to stay." Hela simply nodded her head in acceptance. Leah, on the other hand looked positively livid.
Back at the Avengers Tower, Tony, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers were trying to figure out where on Earth Loki had run off to. However, It was becoming more and more apparent that he might not even be on Earth.
"Jarvis, play the video back again," ordered Tony. They were in the living room, watching on the giant flat screen TV a security video from Loki's room. The kid just held out what looked like some obnoxious old key in front of him, mumbled some words that Thor said may have been a spell, and went through what appeared to be the kind of portal Thor uses to travel through space.
"This is ridiculous," said Clint.
"He's obviously not on Earth," said Natasha.
"What were you thinking?" Steve asked Thor, who already felt plenty guilty. "You gave him permission to leave without asking where!"
"He said it was a matter of keeping an oath to someone," retorted Thor.
"That could mean practically anything," said Bruce, who was trying not to let the anxiousness of the group get to him. Thor put his face in his hands. He would not forgive himself if he had led Loki to harm.
A bright light appeared in the middle of the room, causing all of the Avengers to momentarily jump in their seats. With a rainbow of colors, what they realized was a portal, opened up and deposited two figures in the center of the living room. Thor looked through the light as it dimmed to find his brother standing there. "Loki!" he exclaimed, running over to pick his brother up in a bone-crushing hug."
"Thor… can't… breath," Loki gasped out. Thor took note of this and released his brother who then took in air sharply.
"Loki, where the hell did you go?" asked Thor exasperatedly. He looked and sounded like a mother whose child had run off and gotten lost at a grocery store.
"Actually, Hel is exactly where I went," Loki said smartly.
"Wait, what?" asked Steve incredulously. "You went to Hell?" After all this time working with Thor, Steve still clung to his religion. Though he had been on missions that paralleled legends of Nordic Mythology, Steve still did not see the Asgardians as 'gods'. But the mention of Loki going to Hell captured his attention.
"Hel with one L not two," corrected Loki. "It is the realm of Helhiem, where Asgardian souls go when they die."
"And what the Hell were you doing in Hel?" asked Tony. If he realized the redundant mention of the word in his question, he did not let it show.
"I have a debt to pay to Hela, queen of the Asgardian underworld," explained Loki. "In case you have forgotten, I had her do me a favor with the whole not dying and reincarnation thing. A favor like that cannot go unpaid."
"Did you pay your debt then?" asked Natasha.
"I'm working on it," Loki admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "In the mean time, I'd like to introduce you to someone." Loki stood beside Leah and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Everyone, this is Leah. She is the handmaiden of Hela. And when I say handmaiden I mean literally. She is the embodiment of Hela's severed hand."
The avengers stared at Leah, a mix of shock and confusion on their faces. Leah simply fixed gazes with each of them, a look of complete boredom and lack of interest on her face. Either that, or she was very good with hiding her emotions. She seemed to remind Tony of a Goth kid.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Hela," greeted Steve at last.
Leah just stared at the captain with uninterested eyes. "I take no pleasure in being here," Leah said bluntly and honestly.
"Leah, be nice," scolded Loki playfully. "You'll have to excuse her, she doesn't come from a very… kind place," Loki apologized. Then he wrapped an arm around the girl and gave her a sort of friendly half-hug. "But I'm sure were going to be B.F.F.s."
Leah looked shocked for a second at the sudden show of affection. She glared at Loki while pulling away from his embrace. "What's a B.F.F.?" she asked puzzled.
"I'll tell you later. For now you have to see some of Midgard. I'm sure Hela never let you out before."
"That sounds like a great Idea, Loki," said Steve. "I'd like to get out of the tower for a bit, myself. Do you kids want a bite to eat? I know this place that serves the best milkshakes down on Washington Avenue."
It didn't take much convincing for Steve to get Loki to come along. Hela simply followed Loki out of the tower with no opinion on the matter. The three of them walked into the dinner on Washington Ave. and sat down in a booth by the window. A waitress came up to them once they were seated.
"Why hello again Steve," greeted a redheaded waitress who appeared to be in her early fifties. "The usual I assume."
"Hello Brenda," Steve greeted politely. "Yeah, the usual for me, but this time my friends and I want some milkshakes."
Brenda stared at the two children seated beside Cap. She took in their strange clothing then asked "And who might these cuties be?"
"Oh, they're Asgardian. Relatives of Thor," Steve explained. He and the Avengers had dined here before as a group.
Brenda pondered this for a moment, then said, "Well children, I promise to get you seconds on anything without you smashing any of my dishes. Does that sound OK?" Brenda's tone was kind, but it was obvious she had dealt with Thor's smashing of cups on the ground while demanding 'another'. Loki and Leah both turned to look at one another questioningly.
After they had ordered, Brenda brought out the milkshakes with cherries on top for Leah, Loki, and Steve to enjoy. Loki sipped happily on his strawberry shake. Leah stared at hers for a while before asking, "What happened to the cow to render the milk so?"
"It was horrible. You don't want to know," joked Loki. "The poor thing." Leah put the straw to her mouth and started to drink.
"Well, how do you like it?" asked Steve.
Leah continued to sip. "It is satisfactory," she said. To Steve, the milkshakes here were the best in the city. He was sure she was only understating it. Leah was beginning to drain the glass while still on her first sip.
"Er… Leah?" Loki commented. Leah continued her single extended sip.
"Slow down kid, you're gonna give yourself a brain freeze," was all Captain America could say. In no time at all, Leah was now sucking the last contents of the milkshake glass dry.
"I think I like this shaken milk," Leah stated after finishing, she showed no signs of a brain freeze. Steve looked at Loki questioningly. Loki simply shrugged and continued to enjoy his milkshake.