CHAPTER 2
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters except my own.
CHAPTER 2 Loki of Jotunheim
Thanks to her very own personal portal, Hel found herself in Svartalfheim a few moments later. "Oh my," she murmured to herself. "That must have been quite the fight." Around her were black craters with left-overs of whatever had impaled the earth there. The formerly green landscape lay vacant and black and empty before her. "My my, Dad was very thorough this time. Not a single tree left."
"That was not your father, Lady Hel," a foreign female voice interrupted. "Malekith is the source of all this. A stray portal sucked a Midgardian in and she got in contact with the Aether. This resulted in some … unfortunate events." Hel turned around and came face to face with a Valkyrie. The woman wore her normal silvery armour, blue cape and edged short sword. Hel narrowed her eyes. She was not overly fond of this team of female warriors. They tended to steal the most interesting souls for themselves. If a Valkyrie is here, then there are more souls to collect… What if my father decided to join them? He has fought long enough already.
"Good day," Hel responded calmly despite the doubt nagging at her mind. "I'm afraid, I didn't catch your name." The Valkyrie half smiled: "That may be because I didn't give you one."
"It only seems fair for me to know your name, since you already know mine," Hel replied silkily. To her utter dismay the other woman merely chuckled at her. Green eyes narrowed to slits. Breathe Hel. She means no harm, she's just doing her job. No need fighting any more of them.
"Lady Hel, it is not my place to bore you with such ordinary little facts." The Valkyrie inclined her head ever so slightly. "Well then, perhaps you'd like to enlighten me with some details of what happened here?" Hel cut in before the warrior could say anything else. "As you wish," the warrior responded. "The Dark Elves were resurrected after a Midgardian came in contact with the Aether. It resulted in constant destabilisation of the borders between the nine realms. Your Uncle freed your father from his prison to go against the Allfather. Trickery really must run in the family." The sneer on the other woman's face obviously ruffled Hel's feathers. Her green eyes hardened. I really tried to play nice. But no one insults my family except myself.
"Do you fancy your face?" Hel questioned. "I think it is quite pretty."
"Are you threatening me?"
"Depends."
The Valkyrie smiled bitterly: "They warned me it would not be easy to talk to you." Hel felt her lips twitch into a wicked grin. "I love a good reputation." She knew, in this moment, she resembled her father more than ever. "Now, if you would be so kind as to let me pass? I have urgent business. Or do you intend to follow your, how many were there? Three? More? Doesn't matter. Do you intend to follow your sisters to wherever you go after your second death?" Hel didn't really expect the Valkyrie to move even the slightest bit. On the contrary, the young goddess expected the situation to escalate into battle. "My sisters told me you might provoke a fight." The Valkyrie looked her over critically. Hel shifted her weight on one leg, choosing to stand provocatively casual. "Oh, I am not provoking a fight. Yet. I only want to collect my souls and be on my way. Besides, my father surely is waiting for me. He hates waiting." If he hasn't decided to stop fighting and go to Valhalla., a tiny voice in the back of her mind piped up. "Yes, your father is awaiting you." That surprised Hel. "You are not going to fight me over whom his soul belongs to? I heard he fell in battle, yes?" Her opposite nodded her head in confirmation: "He already declined coming with us to Valhalla. Said he was waiting for you to come and get him." The young goddess didn't miss the undertone of mockery and subtly flared her aura in the direction of the Valkyrie. I can't control emotions for nothing. It's good for the souls to follow me, but it's even better to ensure no one ridicules me. Or my father.
Suddenly the warrior looked nervous although Hel had, outwardly, not moved a single muscle. "If you follow this trail," she pointed at a dark patch in the scenery, "It'll lead you right to your father, Lady Hel." With a curt nod she turned in the pointed direction and walked. In walking, she changed her appearance back to the humanoid version she preferred if there was no one around to intimidate. Hel didn't look back. She never looked back. What was behind her was behind.
Loki was indeed awaiting her at the place of his death, which was already cleared out of any other souls. There he sat, the great trickster. His form see-through and shining with an inner green-blue light, sat upon the bloody chest of his corpse. Not that it mattered. "Dad," Hel greeted him. Loki's head shot up, green eyes focusing on his daughter immediately. A relieved smile raced over his lips: "You've come." Hel crossed her arms over her chest as she stopped three paces before her father's ghost. "Well, what did you expect me to do? Leave you to these pseudo-angels in their pretty dresses?" You considered I might not come. Well, that makes two of us.
Loki sensed that she was not in a good mood. He owed Hel his life multiple times by now. "Look, little one, this time it was necessary."
"Sure. Uncle Thor's girl from Midgard stuck her nose a little too deep in things she had no concern with. It resulted in the reawakening of a very fierce enemy plus the destruction of Asgardian propriety. Being the wise one, Thor decided to solve the problem – after the Dark Elves already had taken your mother in an attempt to get whatever the mortal had – he needed to free you from your prison and sail here. I've gotten the report, yes."
In her anger, Hel almost missed her father's eyes widening in shock. "Mother died to protect her?" he whispered, breathless. Loki's ghost gaze turned away from her and the reality he saw around him. Oh no, Hel's eyes softened slightly. He didn't know. No one bothered to tell him beyond the fact she was dead. How cruel.
In an attempt to soften the blow, she let herself sink to the ground before her father and smiled warmly up to him as she did when she was younger. "If it helps, she is not with me. So she must be in Valhalla and feasting upon the grand table. I bet she is the most exciting person anyone there has ever met. Queen Frigga is a generous and kind soul with the heart of a lion and the will to protect her own no matter the cost." Her father nodded his head slightly, but did not respond otherwise. Hel observed him for a moment longer, trying to decide, if it was safe to put him back into his own body just now or if he'd just kill himself again.
Finally, Loki looked at her – with his mad smile in place. "Tell me, little hellspawn, does his human come to you?" he asked his daughter. Hel's lips twitched into a smile to match his own. "She's all yours as soon as I have her," she promised. "As long as Uncle Thor is able to still see her, when he comes to visit her. If he comes to visit her." For a second it looked as if Loki might pout or complain to her, then he merely grinned broader while nodding his head. "Now, back on track: How often am I supposed to save you?" Hel demanded to know, getting up from her crouch. "I caught you when you fell after the Bifrøst collapsed. I patched you up after the Chitauri tortured you with no regard to your survival whatsoever. I gave you some space and fun with the new companions of dear Thor just when you were about to go mad in your cell. And now?" she shot him a look and from now on her voice gained in volume with every word. "Now you die being a hero. What every daughter would love for her father to do. Honestly, I'm so proud of you for doing this – if it wasn't for the fact that I have to rescue you once again."
By the end of her rant Hel was breathing heavily, pacing in front of her father. Her green eyes were ablaze with fire, a deep crease between her eyebrows and her fingers constantly twitching at her sides as if she was barely resisting the urge to tug at her long tresses – or her father's ghostly throat. Loki watched her blank-faced. "Are you done?" With a low hiss, Hel whirled around to him. "No. I am not," she snapped. "Do you have any idea how scared I am whenever they tell me you died? Do you have any idea what I would do if you decided to fall in battle like the hero you are and decided to simply go to Valhalla? What would I do without you? Please do tell me, because I have no idea what I'd do then."
Angrily Hel blinked away the tears that had gathered on her lashes. Her father looked at her strangely. His eyes, for once, were not sparkling with either mischief or insanity. Slowly he got up from his own corpse and stepped closer to Hel. "I'm sorry", was the only thing he said, the only thing he could say, before his daughter threw herself into his arms and buried her face in his ghost-chest.