Ganglot is Hel's maidservant and Ganglati is her manservant. So, like a bodyguard. Not much of anything is known of them, so I kinda winged it on their appearances.

Helheim has nine different levels, but I couldn't find out exactly what was on each level, so I assumed that each level was a different amount of suffering.

Also, I read somewhere that Hel is Goddess of the Blues. So. That explains the blue.

Chapter 1: "I welcome the queen of the lowest world" ~ Hel - Goddess of the Underworld, Hagalaz' Runedance

For as long as Hel can remember, she's had the same dream.

'Same', as in the fact that she's always in the same place as before. Each night she closes her eyes when she goes to bed and when she opens them she's in a different place than her bedroom.

Instead of the four walls of her current foster home room, she's in her hall, Elivdnir, which is at least the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and sitting on an elegant throne made of smoky marble. The floor is tiled in the deepest black tile she's ever seen, shining like water. The room is rectangular-shaped, with a ceiling consisting of stormy clouds brewing and slate grey walls decorated with bone carvings of tortured souls and bloody battles. Under normal circumstances, that may have been disturbing, but instead she finds that the amount of care and detail that went into them makes them beautiful.

Her throne sits against the back wall, facing the entrance to her hall. The one closest to Hel on her left is golden and engraved with ornate carvings. Bright white light shine from under it and if she listens hard enough she can hear the sounds of laughter and voices. It's Valhalla, where the warriors killed in battle go.

Then there are nine pure white doors with gold doorknobs. Each is a level of Helheim, as Ganglot told her the first time she came here. Depending on the sin each soul has committed in life, they will go through one of the nine doors. Each is a different level of death. The first one, the one on the other side of the Valhalla door, is where the souls who died outside of battle but were innocent went. This went on to the last pure white door, which was where the blackest of souls went.

The one set of gold engraved white double doors across the long room was the entrance to Helheim. It sat directly across the big room from her throne. Hela's never been allowed to leave the confines of Elivdnir, which Ganglot assured her was for her own safety. The only time the entrance to Helheim has ever opened was when a new soul entered to wait for its judgment.

It's the same every night.

When she opens her eyes to the throne room sitting on her throne, she's wearing an odd black dress that almost drapes over her stick thin figure and comes to her knees. She hates it because it shows the damned odd bruised discoloring of her legs. There's a silver crown on her head with sapphires decorating it. It's a small delicate thing, and she loves it. It makes her feel powerful, important.

To her right is her maid servant, Ganglot, in servants' garb, white hair pulled back in a braid and grey eyes blank. On Hel's left is Ganglati, her manservant. He wears dull black and silver warriors armor, his long silver hair pulled back in a leather cord and a sharp sword at his side along with several daggers. Both of them stand at attention, hands behind their backs and blank grey eyes ahead. Neither speaks a word unless spoken to first.

And each night the room is full of souls.

Transparent and listless, they walk forward one at a time to await their judgment. As Hel looks down at them from her throne, she can just know which door they need to go through. So a soul will step forward, she'll look at them once, know which door that awaits them, and then point wordlessly to the door. Then they'll walk to their sentence.

Usually they go without saying a word in protest, but on the occasion that she points an evil soul to the last ninth door, the worst one, the soul will cause a fuss. She remembers on one occasion that a particularly violent soul – a man, murderer and liar, killer of four women – lunged for her on her throne. Before she even had time to blink and register it, Ganglati has moved to fast to see and had swung his sword through the soul. Instead of blood and guts splayed across the beautiful black floors, the soul simply vanished into smoke. It didn't go through it's door. It didn't scream. It ceased to exist.

Hela didn't like the thought of simply ceasing to exist.

But Ganglati had quietly resumed his position like it was nothing, and the next soul stepped forward.

That was how it was each night.

The logical part of her knew that this all was simply a dream, an odd dream, probably spurring from her odd Norse name. After all, why would she dream every night that she truly was the goddess of Helheim? Norse gods didn't exist, but she liked to pretend that each night she truly was the mythical Hel. She liked feeling important, powerful, godly. And when it was all over, she'd stop playing pretend and wake up and return to being her normal human self.

At times it was depressing to hold that much power and then lose it when she opened her eyes. But she had the comfort of knowing that the next night she'd be able to go back.

It was a cycle. Living her normal human self during the day, and pretending she was a goddess by night.

Then, one night, the cycle was broken.

When she opened her eyes this time, the throne room was empty.

Hel notices with a small amount of fascination that the room is really larger looking when its empty of souls. First she turns to her right to look to Ganglot for answers, but her maidservant isn't her usual stoic self. Her grey eyes are wide and nervous while her posture is stiff and her mouth is set in a grim line.

Then Hela turns to Ganglati to see his state. The man servant is clutching his sword in front of him, the tip digging into the floor and hands on the hilt. His face is blank as ever, but his eyes are hard and his jaw is set.

Something is wrong.

A rumble of thunder breaks her thoughts and Hel looks upward at the stormy ceiling. Instead of the usual overcast gray clouds, there's thunderclouds brewing, with flashes of lighting arching through the ceiling and booms of thunder.

Odd, she thought. It's never done that before.

"Ganglot, Ganglati, could you please stand in front of me?"

They obediently do what she says. She sits back in her throne to look at them with a curious gaze. Neither of them look at her. "What's wrong? Something's different."

Both of her servants share a glance.

And Hela gets the feeling that they talk when she's not around. Wait, was that even possible in a dream? To have your make-believe servants gossip when you're not even having the dream?

She couldn't see a big, stout man like Ganglati gossiping with little petite Ganglot. Heck, she hadn't even heard him say a word before.

"Your Highness…"

Ganglot's soft voice broke Hel out of her thoughts and to attention. "Yeah? I mean, yes?" Some goddess she acted like, huh?

Ganglot bit her lip. "…There are things happening in Asgard."

One of Hel's dark eyebrows raised just the tiniest bit. Asgard? Wow, her imagination was more impressive than she thought if it was bringing another fictional realm into this dream.

A deep, gravelly voice said, "The realms are changing, my Queen."

Hel blinked, surprised at the new voice, before she realized just where it came from and her blue eyes zeroed in on Ganglati. "So you can talk."

He gave the tiniest of snorts, still staring past her shoulder.

She felt her lips twitch just a little but remained focused on the topic. "The realms are changing?" This just kept getting better and better…

Ganglot lowered her eyes to the ground. "Yes, Your Highness."

That eyebrow began to inch it's way back up her forehead. "Care to explain?"

Again, her servants shared a look. Ganglot looked back to her. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, but we are sworn into silence on the matter."

Hel resisted the urge to roll her eyes because it wasn't something a goddess would do, right? It was more of something that her fourteen year-old self would do. But she did look fourteen in her dreams, too, so maybe it was okay…?

She sighed. "Of course you can't." Her hand came up to tuck hair behind her ear again. "That's all, thank you."

Once again, her servants moved to their spots on either side of her. And the night was spent listening to the rumbling of thunder.

The next night, things were back to normal.

And it stayed that way for a week. The ceiling still rumbled and flashed with lightning, but the souls returned and Hel handed out sentences each night.

Then she opened her eyes once more to find the room empty save for herself and her servants.

That eyebrow raised on its own accord again. "Ganglot-"

Before she could finished, the double doors directly across from her throne flung themselves open. Ganglati was in front of her in a flash with his sword held high and Ganglot was at her side with small daggers tucked in her hands behind her back. Wait, where did she even hide those?

Beyond the entrance to Helheim was pitch black darkness. Fog rolled in from the darkness.

Then a figure stepped out of the shadows.

Her servants visibly tensed at the sight of the man. He was tall and slim, dressed in what she'd seen in a rock concert once. Or something similar to it. That was a lot of leather and green, either way. He had pale, alabaster skin and slicked back black hair, the same color as Hel's (despite what people at school thought, no, she did not dye it, it was that way naturally). What stood out most was his piercing green eyes that sparkled and his bright smile.

Something niggled in the back of her head that told her she should know who this was.

The man stepped further into the room as the double doors swung shut by themselves. The blue flames lighting the room flickered. Ganglati tensed further like he was going to lunge at the man.

And yet the man just kept staring at her and smiling.

Hel was starting to take her sanity into questioning if this was what her imagination was cooking up.

The man dropped his smile and stopped a few feet out of Ganglati's reach, kneeling down on one knee with one hand on his heart and saying in an almost British accent, "Greetings, Queen Hel."

Hela raised one eyebrow. She was doing that a lot lately. Instead of saying, 'Uh, hi?' like she wanted to, she said flatly, "Hello?"

He cracked a small smile, eyes dancing with amusement and something she couldn't identify. "May I ask that you call off your servants so we may hold a civil conversation?"

She tapped one nail on the arm of her marble throne. "First, who are you?"

The man stood back up and gave a small bow. "I am Loki, of Asgard." Something in the way he said it sounded sour.

Hel racked her brain, trying to remember all the facts she'd dug up on Norse mythology. Loki? God of Mischief, Lies, and fire. Father of several kids, one of which included-

Oh.

Herself.

She blinked. Well, now what? Keep up her roleplay and give the guy a hug and act like he was her dad? Pretend like she knew nothing of it? Jesus, what if she screwed up in her own dream by picking the wrong choice?

"All I ask from you is a little of your time. I promise I will not harm you."

Hela stared at him hard, trying to figure out if he expected a hug from her. Then something in that sentence registered in her head. "You promise? Aren't you the God of Lies?"

Instead of answering her question, he tilted his head a little with a…hopeful look? "So you remember me?"

She shook her head. "No, I've never met you before. I just know that from Google." Oh, screw it. She just got out of role. Goddesses don't use the Internet.

Loki seemingly didn't even hear that last part as a disappointed but resigned expression crossed his face. Then just as quick as it appeared it was replaced by a blank mask. Again he gestured to the still hostile Ganglati and Ganglot. "I am a man of my word, my lady, and I promise not to hurt you." A small wry smile appeared on his face. "That is the last thing I would even imagine doing, I swear."

Hela still felt wary, but part of her knew that he was telling the truth and that he could trust him. Just like she knew where each soul was destined. With a small sigh, she said, "Ganglati, Ganglot, it's fine. There's no threat."

Her servants glanced at each other but made no indication that they were moving. She wondered if they had some sort of telepathic connection. Figured.

A little more forcefully, she ordered, "Return to your posts, both of you."

Reluctantly, they did.

When they were back at her side, Loki stepped forward with a hand held out. Ganglati tensed again and the God of Lies shot a glare at him. Returning those green eyes to her, he offered her a small smile. "Would you like to go for a walk, my lady?"

Hela stared at him. Walk? Where? They were in a rectangular room that only had one door they could go through without dying, and it was forbidden from her. But maybe she could go outside with him?

So with piqued interest, Hel took his cold hand and let him help her down the three marble steps from her throne.

Instead of letting go like she thought he would, he let her to the wall directly behind Ganglot. Loki touched the wall with one glowing green hand and like a mirage a silver door appeared. Hela gave it a wary look. Another freaking door. She looked up to Loki. "So where does this one go?"

There was still a small smile on his lips that looked almost affectionate. "This hall is not the only part of this realm."

She barely had time to think 'What?' before he opened the door and pulled her through it.

Hela blinked.

They stood in a long hallway that was basically the same as her throne room. Shining black floor, slate grey walls, blue torches hung on the walls to light it up. The only difference was that it was a hallway and that the doors lining the hallway were wooden oak.

Loki let go of her hand almost reluctantly and looked at her expectantly. "You have never been here before?"

She shook her head, at a loss for words. She was going to have a talk with Ganglot about this later. It was her realm and she hadn't even known it existed. Leave it to her imagination to keep things from her.

Hel snapped out of her train of thoughts when she felt herself being stared at. Loki continued to look at her expectantly, hands clasped behind his back. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Um. So about that walk?"

He smiled.

It was actually a lot more fun than she would have thought at first. Once they had walked for awhile she got more comfortable and began actually talking to Loki. They walked aimlessly through the halls while talking quietly.

He asked her to tell him about herself, and Hel found herself telling him about not just what she did here in dreamland but her real life, too. How she had lived with foster parents her entire life and had only one friend because she usually scared everyone away. How she knew nothing of her real parents. How she'd more than once been shunned and had holy water flicked at her by one Catholic foster parent couple a few years ago.

Something about him made her just trust him. She didn't feel threatened or in danger. She felt…at ease. It was odd. She was used to only feeling that way with her best friend Bobby and here in the dream, where she didn't have to worry about losing control on her emotions or being judged. And besides, it was a dream, so what was the worst that could happen if she spilled her thoughts to a figment of her imagination? This was better than a therapist.

Throughout it Loki simply remained silent, asking a few questions here and there.

As they walked, she felt her eyes grow heavy which was a sign that her dream was coming to an end. Instead of returning to the throne room, they stopped in front of a door at the dead end of one hall. Hela stopped talking in favor of eyeing the door. "Why'd we stop here?"

Loki hummed. "Well, I thought you might be tiring as this night is drawing to a close. Is it not?"

Without answering Hel opened the door and stepped inside. It was a large bedroom with a four post bed that had dark grey velvet drapes hanging from it. There was also a small beside table with a silver goblet and wooden desk against the wall. The bed looked awfully tempting.

So she kicked off her almost Greek-like sandals without any ceremony and plopped down on the edge of the bed. Damn, it was soft.

Loki pulled the chair out from the desk, placing it beside the bed and sitting down while Hela ran her hand across the soft cotton sheets of the bed. A bitter taste entered her mouth when she noticed how much the bruise coloring of her legs stood out amongst the stark white sheets. It was so ugly, so unnatural.

A soft voice asked, "Is something wrong?"

Hela looked up and felt the world tilt on its axis. Loki was looking at her with an almost worried look. When was the last time someone besides Bobby had looked at her that way? A memory of her foster home agent came up, the woman's face crinkled as she stared at Hel and tried to figure out why she'd been rejected by yet another foster family. And she didn't think the woman was worried about what would happen to Hel but rather how it would affect her job.

Hel suppressed a shudder. It was a weird feeling, knowing someone was worried about you.

Then a thought struck her. Oh, God. Did he really think she was his daughter?

While that would be awesome, being a real goddess and daughter of a god and all, she couldn't help but feel more than a little uncomfortable. But why?

It was then that she realized she'd just been staring back at Loki, and she nearly blushed. Nearly.

"Nothing, it's just that… Well, um, you know… My legs." She gestured to the weird coloring.

The God of Lies barely glanced at the discoloring, unlike most people who stared. "And what about it? Does it ail you?"

Hel guessed he was asking if it hurt. Come on, who said 'ail' anymore? "Um, no, not really. It just… It's not natural." It's ugly.

Loki smiled, but it wasn't mocking. It was more… Something between amused and comforting. It almost made her want to smile back, like they were sharing a private joke. "Natural?"

Hela nodded as her hands smoothed out the hem of her dress. "You know, a natural skin color." She gestured to the pale skin on her arms. "Like this."

He sighed with a faraway look in his eyes. After a moment, Loki asked, "What if I told you that there was a way to hide it?"

"If you mean covering it up, I've already done that. I don't swim or wear shorts and I have an F in gym because I don't dress out in the ridiculous uniforms-"

"I mean with magic."

Hel stopped, torn between laughing or crying. Maybe she could do a little of both. Leave it to her imagination to dangle false hope in front of her face.

Without even waiting for a reply, Loki did some weird gesture with his hand, almost like pulling something from the air, and suddenly he held a small golden bracelet.

She stared. "Woah. Holy shi- Even for a dream, that was pretty impressive."

He chuckled softly. "Thank you. That was a mere party trick compared to the true extent that my magic can reach." A pause. "Do you really believe that this is a dream? Right now?"

Hela nodded absently as she focused on the little bracelet. "Yeah, weird as it is. I have a really screwed up imagination." She hesitated. "Can I… Can I see that?"

If she had been watching, she would have seen the small broken expression that crossed his face. It lasted for only a second before being replaced by a mask as he dropped it into her palm. "Of course. It is for you."

She froze in her examinations of the bracelet. "Um, that's okay, I really couldn't-"

Loki met her gaze evenly. "If this is truly a dream as you say it is, then why refuse a gift that does not even exist?"

The teenager didn't know what to say to that. So she focus back on the bracelet to chase away the spooky feeling that came with the implications of those words.

Despite being made of what she assumed was real gold, it was relatively light weight. The small links sparkled in the blue torchlight of the room. Dangling from the chain were four small golden charms. The first one was a howling wolf, the second a coiled snake, the third a skull, and the last a ball of fire.

That annoying feeling of recognizing something but not knowing from where took over again. She didn't particularly like that there was a charm of fire on there – she had a completely irrational fear of fire – but reminded herself that it wasn't real and that it couldn't hurt her.

Biting her lip, Hela carefully pulled the chain around her wrist and clasped it. No sooner than her fingers had left the clasp, she felt a tingle shoot over her skin from her wrist.

She blinked. Well, that was weird.

Then she saw her legs and all the air left her lungs.

Instead of the ugly bruising there was smooth, pale skin.

"What. The. Hell."

Bobby would have been making some corny joke about her cursing her own name right now.

Loki hummed, not meeting her eyes. "Do you like it?"

Hel stared at him. "Like it? I love it. Jesus." She ran her hands over her skin lightly like she was afraid it was just makeup and that if she brushed too hard it would rub away. "Thank you. God. Thank you."

The God of Mischief smiled a little at her awe. "You are very welcome." For a few moments he let her revel in the gift a little longer before he said in a soft voice, "I believe our time here together has come to an end, my lady."

Hela looked up at that. The flash of disappointment she felt in herself surprised her. She swallowed thickly, still fingering the bracelet. "Well… Will I see you again?" What a stupid question, this was a dream…

He smiled a little wider, green eyes sparkling. "Yes, I plan on making it happen."

And for that reason she couldn't explain, she smiled back.

As Hel felt herself sinking back into consciousness in the plush bed in her dream, she could've sworn she felt something cold just barely brush her temple. Then she opened her eyes to her bedroom in her current foster home.

Blinking away the sleep, she sat up and touched the spot on her temple that tingled. Sitting still for a moment, her mind sorted through the tangled mess of memories from her dreams. Well, that was out of the ordinary.

Suddenly something banged on her door and Hel jumped. "The bus gets here in fifteen minutes, Helen. Wake up and get ready for school."

The teenager scowled at her bedroom door even though she knew her foster mother couldn't see it. That wasn't her name- Without warning some dark emotion grasped her heart and squeezed. Hela's fingers twisted in the sheets of the bed and she shut her eyes, taking deep breaths.

After a moment the anger passed and her fists unclenched from the bed sheets as cool emptiness flooded through her.

Hel sighed. She really should take her medication. But she knew she wasn't bipolar, that was just how her emotions worked, only no one besides Bobby listened to her and they all made her think something was wrong with her when there wasn't anything wrong. They all tried to change her, change her name, her appearance, her self-

Stop.

Hela bit her lip hard to stop the urge to smash something.

Setting her thoughts on autopilot to stop another episode, she swung her legs out of the bed and set her feet on the floor to ground herself. Same as every morning, her eyes traveled down to her discolored feet-

And stopped.

Because her skin was a normal, pale color.

Hel's blue eyes zeroed in on the very real bracelet on her wrist.

Later that day after school was out, Hel practically dragged Bobby in her foster parent's house. Without even giving him a warning, she opened her bedroom door and shoved him inside and slammed the door shut behind her.

And the whole time he talked a mile blue streak. "You're scaring me here, Hel, really you haven't said anything all fucking day, and while I know chatting isn't really your thing, you at least say something, tell me to shut up, call me an idiot or a jerk, but-"

"Bobby," she said as she tossed her backpack in the corner, "shut up."

He ran a shaking hand through his dark blonde hair, face twitching and fingers tapping an odd rhythm on his leg as he plopped down on her unmade bed. "Sorry, no can do, you know how I am when I'm nervous, and you're really making me nervous-"

Hel threw an old towel she'd used three days ago at him and it landed on his head. "Don't look, I'm changing. If you look, I'll castrate you." But even without the threat she knew he wouldn't.

"Wow, would you believe me if I said I didn't know what that means? But it sounds unpleasant, so I'll just sit here. Why couldn't you do this, like, in the bathroom, again? Unless you're putting on some kind of sexy outfit to give me a lap dance, then I am totally okay-"

Hel smirked just the tiniest bit as she started pulling off her clothes. "I'm not, but I can staple that towel to your forehead."

"You're a scary chick, you know that?"

"Yeah."

"Good, just thought I'd remind you." A pause, then, "Jesus, Hel, do you wash anything? This towel smells like mildew." Another pause. "You gave it to me for that exact reason, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"I hate you."

"You love me."

"True. They say addicts love what hurts them. I'm probably a masochist in that respect."

"Probably."

"You done yet? I think there's mildew growing in my lungs by now."

Hela tightened the strap around her neck. "Yeah, I'm done now."

Bobby pulled the towel off his head, sucking in a dramatic breath. "Sweet, wonderful oxyge-" He stopped, staring at her. "What."

She gave him a bright smile, wider than her usual ones, with her hands on her hips.

Her best friend slapped a hand over his eyes. "Christ, I was kidding about the lap dance, Hel. What are you smoking?"

Hela rolled her eyes and pulled the hand off his eyes. "It's just a bikini that my foster mom bought me last year, Bobby. Get over it. Besides, you're missing the point." Again, she smiled and gestured to her legs.

It took it a moment to register, but she saw it when his dark green eyes widened. "Holy crap. Holy crap. What the hell. What the fuck happened to-"

Hel sat beside him, running her hands over the smooth pale skin of her legs. "Call it a…"

"Miracle?"

She looked up, a small smile playing on her lips. "Call it a blessing. From a god."

Yep. So. You're introduced to Hel.

And any questions you have will be answered in the near future. Can't wait? Ask me I guess and I'll see if I can clear things up without giving anything away…

NEXT CHAPTER: Fast forward to a year later when Loki tries to take over the Earth, Hel recognizes him on TV, and things happen. Like SHIELD. And the Avengers. And other things. :)