They rushed into the Throne Room, throwing the doors open. Livamjo was waiting for them, sitting on the Queen throne. The statues had left their places on the corners of the room, and were standing near the king, facing the door, with their weapons ready.
"Are you not getting tired of this fighting?" he said. He spoke aloud, but he was only addressing Hela. "You know, that's the problem with living things. They need food, air, rest. But the dead, the dead don't have needs. They can keep going on and on. They make the perfect army, as you'll soon find out when everything around you dies, and you'll be left, standing alone against an endless army of the unliving, your arms too tired to rise, your feet too sore to leave the ground. Do all of us a favor and surrender now. I promise it will not hurt. Much."
"I see words are leaving your mouth." Hela frowned. "Too many words, actually, but altogether they really have no meaning."
"Foolish child!" he shouted. "I just try..."
"Blah blah blah..."
"...to bring about the glory..."
"Blah, blah blah, blah blah blah blah..."
"... of this Realm and you're only..."
"Blah blah, blah blah blah..."
"...setting it back. Why are you mocking me?!"
"You started the mockery, of your position and this Queendom. Why shouldn't I play along?"
"You could have served me! Together, we could have made this Realm the most powerful in existence, yet you are nothing but a spoiled brat, so unfit for ruling it's painful to look at. You covet for nothing, you aspire to nothing but mediocrity! I couldn't leave Hela's Realm in your hands just so you could push it to the greyness you seem so fond of!"
"This is what it mess is all about, isn't it? Your wife?"
"Leave her out of this!"
"You brought her into it! Of course I'm not her! I know what her ideas for this place were, and they were ridiculous! This is a Realm of rest, not of war!"
"What do you know of that?! She was ambitious, yes, but for Helheim! She had the most glorious future for us in mind! She was, above all, powerful and oh so intelligent! But you, you are nothing but a pale shadow of her greatness!"
"I may be dumber but I hit harder," Hela muttered. She blurred and appeared next to Livamjo, punching him in the cheek and throwing him out of the throne.
The statues moved forward, three attacking the Geste and Asgardians and one running toward Hela.
"Running away already, Livamjo? Of all the things I could accuse you of, I never thought being a coward was one," Hela dived between the statue's legs and sprinted for the king.
He scoffed and teleported, putting the statue between them once again. "Discretion is the better part of valor, child. I'm still too old to best you in battle. And besides, why would I fight you, when I can have my guards do that instead?"
She appeared next to him and slashed with her sword, but he was already gone. "Still, here is what I don't understand." She jumped away from a sweep by the statue. "Let us suppose you actually succeed here, and you kill me. Then what? Another Hela will be born, and she won't be revealed before you die of old age. Then Helheim will remain without a ruler until she's old enough to reign. Is that what you truly want, leaving Helheim by itself with no guardian to take care of it?"
Livamjo sensed Hela behind him and teleported away. "Every time you speak, child, I am more and more convinced you may be well traveled, but you still don't know the first thing about the universe."
"What, have you found a way to make yourself young forever?" She climbed the statue's arm and jumped behind it. Livamjo just grinned. "You think you can," she answered herself, staring at him. "I hate to be the one to tell it to you, but nobody can interfere with time."
"Not somebody, but something."
Hela's eyes widened. "It's impossible. The Stone's lost."
"So it seems. Oh, but I'm so excited about this plan I've already spoken too much. I will have to leave you now."
The statue grabbed the still-stunned Hela and flung her across the room. Livamjo's scepter glowed blindingly for a second and then stopped abruptly.
"Enjoy your new companions," he said as he rose and left. All around the room, slowly, several lights started to shine, taking humanoid shapes and resolving into people from across the realms. They looked dead-eyed and hollow.
"Oh, damn. Everybody back off!" Hela shouted. "Back to the Hall! Quick, quick! He's unleashed souls on us!"
The souls under Livamjo's spell launched forward, tearing those near them with their bare hands. Swords, arrows and shields barely stopped them.
Fandral and Hogun urged everyone through the doors and attacked with their long-ranged weapons, while Thor, Volstagg and Sif remained behind, covering the retreat as best as they could. Hela was in the middle of the battle, her scarf ripped from her waist, using her powers to keep the souls at bay.
"Hela!" Thor shouted. "Come with us!"
"Just go!" she answered. "I'll teleport!"
The Asgardians tried to advance to her, but the remaining Geste pushed them outside the door.
"Listen to her!" said a Gest with blue hair. "The Queen can handle this, it's souls! That's what she does! But we'll be screwed if we fight them! We cannot damage them, but they can hurt us!"
"I can't leave my niece fighting alone!"
"The Queen's locking the doors now!" a Gest by the door shouted.
"Hela, don't!"
"I'll be fine! Go to the Hall and find Father!"
The doors slammed shut.
o.o
Loki found a suitably dark corner by the Council Room door and settled to wait. The portal was already closed, and a teleportation blocking spell was in place. It just wouldn't do if Livamjo tried to escape before they had their little chat.
He could hear the battle faintly echoing down the stairs, and the tiny flickers of Hela's magic as she jumped from one place to another. He considered running up to help, but everything seemed under control.
Until he felt the shiver in reality.
He tensed, trying to decipher what it was. It seemed that thrice-damned man was using souls again, this time to attack his daughter's forces. Loki was about to fling open the door and run to help, but it was being already opened, so he stepped back and waited.
Livamjo entered the room and walked briskly to the place the portal was, but instead of walking through, he crashed against the wall. His face contorted in fury and he smacked it.
"I do not think beating the wall would re-open the portal, never mind how hard you hit it," Loki said pleasantly.
Livamjo spun around. "What an unpleasant surprise. Still, I think I should thank your daughter, first by telling me where you were hiding, and second for bringing you here in a silver plate."
"You make it sound like we didn't plan it step by step."
"Lies. I damaged your soul to get you here, and you didn't see the attack coming."
"Do you mean that non-fatal attack that's already healed? Oh, yes. It was most unexpected. I never thought you'd be stupid enough to attack Odin in the middle of Asgard."
"Tell me, how long has Odin been dead? When did you kill him?"
"How could I kill him when I'm dead myself? Everyone knows he's healing from the wounds you inflicted on him."
"But will Asgard believe you?"
"Of course not. But they will believe their eyes, and their beloved Prince and his companions. And although Hela's my daughter, she has a reputation for brutal honesty, like most Dwarfs."
"Well, little will Asgard's opinions matter when my hordes burn it to the ground."
"Do you mean the hordes Hela is sealing into the Throne Room as we speak? I do not think they'll be going far any time soon."
Livamjo focused on the upper floor. "A minor set back," he said and pulled out a sword, tar black from tip to hilt. "It just seems I will have to hurry to take you before Thanos."
"You have figured it out. Congratulations." He clapped slowly. "But also, congratulations on setting back Thanos' plan by keeping me here. Do tell, did you bother to speak with him before you started this half baked idea of yours?"
"I will offer my army of souls and your pitifully mangled body to him, and he will grant me my wish!"
"Yes, as you say. Or maybe he'll mangle your pitiful body for interfering with our schedule. Did you honestly think he didn't know where I was?"
"You hid from him because you failed, you filthy, disgusting viper."
"The Chitauri were stupid and of little value, so how is sacrificing them to get a man, who I must add knows the place, near the vault where the Tesseract and the Gauntlet are kept, a failure?"
"No! No, you lie! I'll hand you over and he'll grant me use of the Stone!"
"That's a common misconception, I use twisted truths at appropriate times. But in this case, it's neither. Midgard was a diversion, while I was brought back to Asgard in broad daylight, near the Tesseract and the Gauntlet. In exchange for them, I got to keep Asgard to myself. But then, you appeared with your crazy dreams of conquest and ruined everything."
Livamjo howled and launched forward, wildly lashing with his sword and scepter. He was so blinded by rage that Loki had little trouble avoiding his attacks. He just twisted and turned around Livamjo. Then he caught a tiny movement of the door, and quickly maneuvered away, trying to keep Livamjo's back to it.
"Will you take much longer until you begin fighting, Livamjo? I grow bored," he announced, loud and clear.
Livamjo snarled and lunched forward again, only to stop in his tracks. His scepter fell to the floor with a hollow thud and his left arm hung uselessly at his side. He slowly turned around.
"You."
"I'm terribly sorry for interrupting, but I can't let you go on while your troops tear my Realm apart," Hela said, pointing her sword at him.
"It will never be yours!" Livamjo answered, swinging his blade one more time.
Many things then happened simultaneously. Loki summoned a knife and threw it at Livamjo; Hela raised her arm to parry the slash and dove in for the former king's throat, but the Soul Blade skidded along her dagger and caught her hand. The dagger fell and clattered on the floor. Livamjo just smiled and readied another slash as Hela's sword pierced his neck and Loki's knife pierced his skull.
Then he and Hela fell to the floor.
"Hela!" Loki jumped over Livamjo's body and fell to his knees next to her.
"I'm fine. I'm... I'm fine." Her voice sounded shaking and breathless and her eyes were closed. "My hand... urgh... hurts, though." She lifted her left hand, tightly holding her wrist with her right one.
Loki carefully took it and tried to put his body to block the sight. Her pinkie and ring finger were missing, and half her middle one was scraped to the bone.
"It's, ah, it is alright. Just a nasty cut. It will be fine, I just need some bandages. I don't have bandages." He raised his head and looked frantically around.
Hela waved her free hand and dropped some on his lap. "Is he dead?" she asked, her voice tight.
"Who's dead?" Loki put pressure on the wound, his hands shaking slightly. There was too much blood and shredded flesh.
"Livamjo. I can't see him from here." Her voice was stained. Tears were starting to fall down her face.
He applied some magic too and lifted his head slightly. "You almost decapitated him." He went back to tending to the wound. There shouldn't be this much blood.
"Good." She nodded tiredly. "A bit anti-climatic."
He applied more magic and more pressure, gritting his teeth.
"Sif has healing stones." She sniffed.
Loki made a clone and it teleported out of the room and into the Hall.
o.o
They were in the middle of battle, trying to keep the skeletons at bay, when those twice-damned things rattled and fell to the floor, unmoving.
The Geste cheered and chanted, throwing their weapons to the floor, relieved the fight was finally over.
The Asgardians let their shoulders sag and smiled a bit, until Thor turned around and headed up the stairs.
"Thank Yggdrasil," Fandral said, walking right behind him. "I thought we were never going to be done with those creatures."
"So damn insistent. Worse than Sif when she insisted we visited that inn in Vanaheim when we were dealing with that dragon," Volstagg replied.
Sif snorted. "I'm sure you don't regret it now, do you, my friend?"
"Absolutely not. Such soft beds, such tasty roasted ingelshtraps!"
"The best beer in Vanaheim, too," added Thor as he reached the top of the stairs and walked to the Throne Room doors. He tried to push them open, but he failed. He tried pushing harder.
"They're not budging," he said as his companions joined him.
"They're still locked?" Sif asked.
"That's not good." Volstagg started kicking the doors.
"Hela! Hela!" Thor pounded on them. "Are you there?! Hela, answer me!"
"Sif!" A frenzied shout echoed up the stairs.
"That's Loki." She ran, meeting him halfway down the stairs.
"Hela needs a healing stone," Loki told her and turned around. "Follow me."
"What's happening?" Thor bellowed.
"She killed Livamjo, but got hurt." Loki raced through the Hall and pointed at a tapestry. "Behind it there's a door leading to the Council Room. We are there."
"Who are you?" Hogun asked.
"An illusion."
The Asgardians turned to Thor, who nodded at them and lifted the tapestry. The illusion flickered out of existence, and Thor opened the door.
Loki and Hela were in a heap on the floor behind a table, and Livamjo's body was laying further away. There was blood splattered everywhere, and Hela's strangled sobs echoed in the room.
"Just a little longer, darling. I know it hurts, but just hold on a bit more," Loki was saying, holding his daughter's wounded hand in one of his and caressing her hair with the other.
Sif pushed a stunned Thor out of the way and knelt next to her, pulling a healing stone out of her pouch. She took Loki's hand away from the wound, glancing at it. She grimaced, crushing the stone over it. Then she frowned and crushed another and then another, as Thor placed his hand on Hela's shoulder, and the Warriors Three quietly entered the room. The stones slowly began to work. Shakily, Hela raised her free hand and untied her scarf.
"You're still too weak, Hela," Loki warned. "Don't do this now."
"It's the only way it'll heal completely," she replied, trying to hold back her sobs. She placed the scarf on the floor.
As her transformation began, her tears subsided. She scrubbed them slowly from her face, but her appearance didn't improve. She took a long look at her wounded hand, now completely healed, and moved her fingers. The middle one barely twitched. "I lost half my hand. And a nice piece of my middle finger. It's... not good."
"You have been wounded while saving your Realm. It was brave, and honorable," Thor said, and smiled at her.
"You will be a most excellent Queen, darling," Loki smiled at her too.
"I was talking about the practical part of this wound. But really, thank you." She stood up and glared at Livamjo's corpse. "There's still a lot of work to do," she clapped her hands and doubled over in pain. "That was a terrible bad idea," she muttered through clenched teeth.