Peter didn't know what to think of it all, but he knew for sure Hela would be happy to hear they knew where her father was. The disease thing, however… That would probably prove to be a tougher subject. He entered his room and found Hela still on his bed, her eyes closed. For a moment he wondered if she was sleeping… but then she turned her head to him, her eyes still hazy but less bad than before.

"Peter…"

"Hela, I think we need to talk. Do you feel up to it?"

Hela forced herself up and nodded.

"Y-yes. You can question me."

It sounded awkwardly formal. Peter sat down and sighed.

"Do you want to destroy the human race, Hela?"

Hela's eyes widened and her lips parted in surprise.

"I…"

"Apparently you are to cause a deadly disease in my school, that would ultimately decimate the human population if given the chance to spread properly."

Hela's dazedness was replaced with shock now. Tears filled her eyes.

"I w-will not ask how you found out… By now I know you mortals hold unusual powers as well."

Peter felt a sting of disappointment.

"So… It's true?"

Hela softly nodded.

"You d-don't know it all. I… it was my task, my only purpose here… But… I couldn't."

"Why? How do I know if you're not lying?"

Hela seemed to shrink at those words.

"That is all we are good for, isn't it? Lies, death, deceit and chaos… All my family has ever been related to. Why would you believe me?"

She looked up and Peter startled at the unrefined pain in her eyes.

"I came here with no one but my father… I had literally not seen a living soul in more than two hundred years! All I remembered of the world of the living was the disgust, the looks, the horror on people's face, the way their noses crinkled from my stench… I wanted them to DIE, Peter! I wanted all of them dead so I would be above them and they would pay for what they had done to me, my father, my family!"

Hela was hysterical now, tears running over her face as she stood up from the bed, trembling on her feet.

"The Aesir, the Jötun, the Chitauri, the humans… You were all the same to me, everybody dies in the end, everybody dies! My father was broken and ill and he begged me, BEGGED ME to do as he had promised his captors, for otherwise they would take him back and subject him to the torture again! I told him yes, because I was furious when I saw what they had done to him, yet another race to wrong and take advantage of my family!"

Now Hela sank back on the bed, her short burst of energy clearly over. Her voice was flat and cold when she continued.

"But then I came here… It was so different from the other realms… it wasn't cold and barren, or dead and lonely… Midgard is so full of life… and I hesitated, Peter. Because do you know what the cost of the task would be for me?"

It was a real question, and Peter softly shook his head.

"If I would do as my father asked me, I would violate the age-old laws that exist between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living. The one that guards the border can only open and close the gate: I am not to interfere myself with the coming of souls. If I would spread the illness, that would be an act of war. The other realms can't wage war on Niflheim, but they can deny me entry to their grounds. I would be banned from all the realms except for my own, convicted to those marble halls you have seen until Ragnarök!"

Hela cried now.

"It's not that I have seen so many other places since I'm the Queen of Niflheim and Helheim… but being here, on Midgard… I felt such sadness, such need for my home, the grounds I had grown up in… Even the frozen homeland of my mother would have been better still than another eternity in that dead nothingness where not even the toughest of plants will grow!"

It shocked Peter that she had lived for so long in a place where nothing could grow, since he knew that Hela loved nature more than anything… The Goddess was at the end of her strength it seemed. She whispered…

"And then you came… You, an obnoxious, persistent mortal trying to make friends with me… And I found I couldn't hate you, no matter how hard I tried. If there was one person like you in all of the realms, then… then perhaps I had been wrong to doom you all."

Hela gave him a maniac smile all of a sudden.

"Isn't that in one of your holy books?"

With a strange voice she quoted

"Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Peter was worried now. Hela looked completely deranged, trembling and rambling…

"Hela, calm down…"

Hela shook her head.

"No, Peter. I cannot calm down. I cannot. You have turned me over, you have cheated Death! Your kindness made me doubt and that doubt meant the end of my family! I couldn't… The thought of losing the only home I've ever known I could barely sustain, but at least I had my father back then… But then I met you, and the thought of losing you was so unbearable it made me lose everything else! I am all alone now, Peter! Are you satisfied?"

Peter wanted nothing more than to comfort Hela, tell her she wasn't alone, that for some reason Loki had been hiding right under their nose all the time, and that either way she could always count on him… But Hela seemed too upset with it all to contain even a spark of reason. She sobbed.

"It was a disgustingly clever plan…a disease is not a fight… so all of the fallen would be denied entrance to Valhalla, all would have ended up in my realm. The army of the dead would have grown to grand proportions once more! But I couldn't. I couldn't give you up, I couldn't give up the possibility of ever returning to my home, and the thought that perhaps I had been wrong in my judgement plagued me at night to no end…"

Peter sat down next to her and tried to embrace her, but she tensed up in his arms so he let her go.

"How can you even l-look at me… I have failed all that cared for me, you, my father, and I have no doubt that Heimdall knows all of what was planned, so I will probably be banned anyway. What does it all matter anymore? If I could die I would kill myself."

Peter knew he needed assistance with this. He could deal with a lot, but suicidal goddesses were slightly out of his area of expertise.

"JARVIS? Please ask the doctor to…"

Another voice interrupted him.

"No need, I'm already here. I thought to keep an eye on you."

Dr Banner gave Peter a friendly smile, and then pointed his attention to the sobbing mess that was Hela. He crouched down next to her and looked into her eyes, which were scared and manic looking. Hela tried to hide her face.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" She screeched.

Dr Banner sighed.

"Hela, you really need to calm down. Sleep a bit, perhaps."

Before she could protest or argue the doctor had already stuck a syringe in her arm. She looked at him, and her pupils diluted, then shrunk. Her lips parted at the strange sensation, then her eyes became glassy and she collapsed on the bed like a lifeless ragdoll. Peter immediately asked.

"What did you do to her?"

"A fairly strong tranquilizer. The type I used on myself back in the days. I think she was having a bit of a nervous breakdown, sleep should help."

Peter put Hela in bed properly and closed her staring eyes.

"So… Do you believe her?"

Dr Banner nodded.

"I believe her. This type of shock reaction is hard to fake, even for a deity."

"Good. I still can't believe Stark sent SHIELD after her while he had been hiding Loki himself…"

Banner shook his head.

"The mere subject still angers me as well. Tony is impossibly hypocrite and I must say that disappoints me in him. I try to stay out of his way for now, because I can't guarantee he will come out in one piece if the Other Guy gets to have a say…"

Despite the situation, Peter chuckled.

"If JARVIS would let me in the sickbay I would totally go kick his ass myself…"

The AI heard that…

"If I may, Mr Parker… Mr Stark has behaved himself in a most unpleasant manner and I fully support this action of 'kicking his ass' as you refer to it."

Peter grinned.

"JARVIS, you are awesome."

"Oh, I know Sir."

With that matter solved, Peter made his way to the sickbay, leaving Bruce with a heavily sedated Hela. Bruce looked at the sleeping girl and hoped Peter would have a good word with his warden. Actually, it would be too much of a waste to use peanut butter for retribution… Itching powder on the other hand, or dog poop… Or both…

(Pagebreak)

JARVIS opened the doors for Peter, and the boy entered the sickbay with a head full of angry curse words. Then he saw Tony sitting next to Loki's bed. Loki looked terrible, pale and malnourished, and Tony held his hand, a deeply saddened expression gracing his face. Peter felt part of his anger dissipate, but not all, far from all. He approached Tony and remarked.

"Mr Stark, you really are an asshole."

Tony looked up, surprised and confused to see Peter.

"Peter?"

"Why is everyone so surprised to see me today? By the way, you heard me. I think you're an asshole."

"But… How…"

Tony, who usually had no problem formulating counterattacks, was at loss of words. Why wasn't Peter in school? How had he escaped the wrath of Loki's daughter? And why the insults? Peter sighed.

"You're a nice guy most of the time Mr Stark, and don't think me ungrateful for your hospitality or anything, but really. You've cracked the asshole scale today. Why did you assume Hela was out for evil without even asking me?" Peter pointed at Loki. "If what Dr Banner told me is true, that is exactly what Pepper did to you and Loki!"

Tony frowned.

"Those situations are incomparable! I'm an adult, and I knew Loki's true identity when I decided to take him in, that's something entirely else!"

"How could you know I didn't know about Hela's true identity? A simple phone call would have been enough to check it! Plus, don't speak me of adult you are worse than most teenagers, but with more money and a driver's license. No offence."

Tony looked angry too now.

"How could I know you wouldn't freak out and get yourself killed?"

That made Peter even angrier.

"See? You don't trust me! You never trust me, none of you do! No matter how many criminals I capture or how well I keep my grades up while doing so, you still see me as some ridiculous child!"

"Maybe I was worried, okay? Maybe I didn't want something to happen to you! Perhaps, maybe, I just wanted to protect the boy I took in and have started considering my unofficial son!"

That silenced Peter for a moment. He bit his lip and looked conflicted.

"Still. A little bit of trust would be nice. If you can trust the man who threw you out of a window while trying to conquer the planet, don't I deserve at least that much?"

Tony sighed and looked at Loki. He wanted to say it wasn't the same, but perhaps Peter was right. He hadn't trusted his ward and by doing so he had mistreated him and set those SHIELD idiots on his back.

"So… Hela. Did they capture her?"

Peter frowned.

"Are you going to trust my judgement?"

Tony sighed and hoped he wouldn't regret it.

"I will."

"She's in my room. They didn't capture her, she caused an earthquake for diversion and we fled the premises together. When I tried to see if she really had been having the plan to kill us all with a disease, she… Well, believe me that her shock and hysteria were real. Dr Banner had to sedate her."

"Did she deny it?"

"No. She said it was planned, but when it came to it she couldn't go through with it, after seeing Midgard and getting to know the people and stuff. I believe her."

Tony slowly nodded. He opened his mouth to say something, but JARVIS interrupted him.

"Sirs, a certain Justin Hammer has arrived for Mr Parker."

Tony almost exploded again. He jumped up from his chair.

"Hammer? What the fuck does he think he's doing in my house? Don't let him in, JARVIS!"

Peter rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, about that… Justin Hammer Junior is my best friend. I think you would like him."

"WHAT? LIKE him?"

"He hates his father almost as much as you do. And he likes to hack into things he shouldn't. You would like him."

"Shall I let him in or not?"

Tony sat down again, defeated.

"Yeah, yeah, let him in."

Peter grinned when he heard Tony mumble something among the lines of "isn't anything sacred anymore". Then he left the sickbay to greet his friend. He would have a lot of explaining to do…

(Author's Notes)

Yeah, Hela gets hysteric. She's the type that keeps it all inside until the very last moment, a characteristic that apparently runs in the family there... Also, Tony still can't believe Peter made friends so easily with the children of his enemies I think xD I hope you liked it so far...

Please review! I love it when you guys review, it makes my life so much better... Since the success of last time, there will be another "author's gift" when I go over 30 reviews! (Also... sorry jaquelinelittle... -hands brain bleach- blame it on the democratic system...)