Hela woke up when something soft and feathery stroked her cheek. It was a strange but not unpleasant sensation and the repetition of it softly drew her back from the oblivion of sleep. When she finally opened her eyes, feeling warm and comfortable still, a high voice squeaked.

"She's awake! I told you that would work!"

A low voice answered gruffly.

"Yeah, yeah, you told me so. No need to be such a bitch about it Muninn."

"A bitch? Me?"

Hela couldn't help but smile when she realized whom the bickering voices belonged to. Her mind was still fuzzed and it was hard remembering what had actually happened, but she would recognize Odin's ravens everywhere.

"Huginn, Muninn…"

"We're here, Lady Hela!"

The room was strangely light, because someone had drawn away the heavy brocade curtains from the window to let the light enter. Yet still the two birds were exceptionally stealthy against the black background.

"W-what happened?"

"Lady Frigga is still an exceptional sorceress, it seems…"

"Has the Allmother erased my memories?"

Hela didn't understand, but the strange feeling in her head made it rather hard to get angry or anything. It was as if some kind of charm had been placed on her, forcing her almost to feel satisfied and happy for no apparent reason.

"We don't know, oh no."

"Oh yes, we don't know."

"Please don't do that, I'm confused enough as it is."

"We're sorry Lady Hela. Shall we alert the Allmother of your awakening?"

"Yes please. I would like an explanation for this."

The ravens flew out the door, and a little later Frigga entered. She smiled warmly at her granddaughter.

"Hela dear, the ravens told me you woke up. How are you feeling?"

"You took my memories."

Frigga shook her head.

"Oh no, I would never take them from you. They are simply concealed, because they made your mind ill."

Hela didn't know what to say. With no recollection of who knew how long and now the notion that she had gone mental, was she in the position to demand that Frigga would lift the spell?

"I… How long have I slept?"

"A few days. Hela, I… I realize this is difficult. I want you to know that I only took these measures to make sure your sleep would not be plagued by nightmares."

"Allmother… Please give them back. I am the Goddess of the Dead, there is hardly anything in Nine Realms capable of giving me nightmares. I don't sleep all that much anyway."

"Frigga appeared strangely uncertain.

"Are you sure you want this?"

Hela became more and more convinced that whatever Frigga had done to her, it had made her forget something crucial.

"Yes, I am. If you please, Allmother."

Frigga sat next to the young goddess' bed and smiled sadly.

"Close your eyes."

Hela could feel how Frigga's hand softly raked through her hair, and the dark tendrils of her magic trembled under the touch. Even with her eyes closed she saw flashes of things, faster and faster, and she could practically hear the humming of the magic resonating with her being. And then, for a moment, everything was blank and white, completely thoughtless. The next moment she opened her eyes and remembered everything. Frigga didn't stop with the comforting movement as Hela's eyes filled with tears. Foolishly, the goddess wished she had chosen to live in ignorance.

"I… H-he is dead, isn't he?"

Surprisingly enough, Frigga shook her head.

"No, my dear… he became very ill, fever wrecked both his body and mind, until your father managed to break it. Now he is in a deep magical sleep so that their healers can assess the damage."

For a moment it looked as if Hela's eyes were going to pop out of her skull.

"He… he lives?"

"Yes."

"But… how is it possible? How can it be if Death herself…"

Frigga's eyes hardened.

"Please, Hela dear. Don't seek out the reasons, and rejoice that your beloved survived the ordeal."

Obediently as always, Hela nodded.

"Of course, Allmother."

Inside the young goddess didn't even think of obeying. Her mind was set on Peter, and her only thoughts directed to whether or not his mind had been deeply damaged by the fever.

"If you would allow me the privacy to freshen myself up and visit him…?"

Frigga nodded.

"Of course my dear. You know where to find me, would the need arise."

(Pagebreak)

"I'm such an asshole."

"Don't beat yourself up over it, there is no way you could have known."

"Seriously, he was lying there and I just brushed it off as drunken smugness. If this was the friendship test I have royally flunked it."

Steve patted Justin on the shoulder.

"Life isn't a test. We all make mistakes, some big, some small. And something tells me that Peter is not going to mind it when he wakes up."

"If he wakes up."

Steve didn't want to think about that. He looked sternly into the boy's eyes.

"Don't even think about that. He WILL pull through."

"I… I hope so."

Pale and silent they sat next to Peter's bed. The other boy looked sick, pale and emaciated although it had been only a little while, as if something had exhausted him completely, both mentally and physically. It was not a pleasant sight…

(Pagebreak)

Tony woke up first, confused to have fallen asleep in one bed and wake in another. That dream dimension thing was seriously confusing him. Loki lay next to him, curled up in the engineer's arms. He looked troubled, while usually sleep granted him reprieve of his sorrow… Tony gently patted his hair and kissed the god's forehead. Loki slowly opened his eyes to that.

"Good morning my love…"

Loki smiled when hearing Tony's words. He crawled a bit closer to the man, clearly reluctant to get up. Tony wasn't so eager either…

"Have you slept well?"

It was a stupid question, he knew Loki's sleep had been fitful and plagued by nightmares, even though the dream dimension had protected him from the worst of it. He received a fitting look from the god. If anyone would ever make a dictionary of facial expressions depicting whole sentences, Loki would be the perfect model. This one said "Really, Stark, really?"

"Sorry. I didn't know what else to say.

"That's a first…"

Tony chuckled, but it quickly died out. He didn't feel like laughing too much…

"JARVIS, how much time has passed?"

"Approximately 36 hours, Sir."

"Wow. Shit. We should go…" He stopped in the middle of the sentence when he caught Loki's eyes. The god didn't want to be reminded of that just yet, and his look seemed to beg for a bit of extra time. "…Get breakfast."

(Pagebreak)

Peter felt as if he was slowly rising up after spending an eternity on the bottom of a pit filled with something thick, warm and viscous. Thinking was hard; his thoughts were as slow and pasty as the world around him felt. It wasn't unpleasant, actually… Something in his mind, a strangely tempting voice, urged him to stay where he was, to sleep a bit more. He was very sleepy… Yet there was also the feeling of alarm, of having forgotten something important, that overcame the tempting little voice and made him come up from the depths of whatever that was. His eyelids were heavy and he managed to force them open only the littlest bit…

(Pagebreak)

Hela's head was full of thoughts, suspicions and possibilities… and it was so tempting to consult Death, seek out her Mistress' advice. Somehow Hela knew though that whatever Death had done, She would be full of unholy glee about it and not very likely to disclose Her secret to her.

She hadn't put on her Midgardian clothes, instead she had chosen for her royal robes, black silk, leather and brocade, a heavy decorative belt of dwarven silver on which her sword hung and her crown, not her favorite one but one that would allow her to pass through doorways without trouble. She had meant to give herself confidence with it, but now she sat at Peter's bed in the sickbay, stared at by Justin and Steve and generally completely out of place in the modern environment, she felt even worse. Peter looked indeed as if Death had touched him, more than touched him even, quenched her thirst at his life force was a more adequate description. It pained Hela more than anything to know that she was ultimately the cause of it all… Finally Steve and Justin couldn't bear the tension anymore and left the sickbay. It was of course exactly that moment that Peter chose to make a sound.

"Mhhhmm…"

"Peter?"

She took his hand, which was unpleasantly cold.

"Peter, please… please come back…"

(Pagebreak)

"Please… please come back…"

Peter struggled to open his eyes further, so he could see where the voice came from, that voice… When he finally managed, the sight of a woman clad in black, emanating such familiar power, caused him both fear and delight.

"Y-you…"

He had trouble focusing his eyes…

"Peter, please look at me. Please!"

The voice urged, so he tried his best. He could sense her, her soft tendrils curled around his hand in a loving touch…

"S-so terrible… s-so b-beautiful…"

He didn't see how Hela's eyes became dark with sadness.

"Oh Peter… My dear Peter… What has She done to you…"

(Pagebreak)

"Mr. Stark, Mr. Laufeyson, the young Mr. Parker has apparently awoken from his coma."

They had just finished a light breakfast, when JARVIS announced the news. Loki jumped up even before Tony could.

"Who is with him?"

"Your daughter Hela is with him, but she appears to be rather distraught."

They hurried to the sickbay to find a staring Hela holding Peter's hand while the boy didn't quite react to her. Loki put a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"Hela?"

Hela looked up. For a moment Loki had feared she was lost in her mind with sadness, but as she looked at him he saw it wasn't the case, her bright green eyes were as clear as always.

"Father… Death has… she has… He doesn't see me, father!"

Even though Hela's expression didn't show much, her eyes spoke volumes concerning her sadness. Loki mused that the house ghost had to be very perceptive to have seen that….

"It is the magic that put him to sleep, Hela. He needs normal sleep now to shake off the effects. He will feel much better after that."

"Y-you think so?"

"I know so. Don't you see how tired he looks? The spell I cast on him did little for his exhaustion, it served to calm his mind and free it from your Mistress' influence."

"And… did it work?"

"We will soon know."

They looked at the bed and saw Peter had indeed fallen asleep, looking strangely peaceful. Tony, who hadn't wanted to intrude on the father-daughter moment, now remarked.

"Does anyone feel like… you know, watching a movie or something? Anything that isn't worrying, really. Everybody is tense as hell and if I don't get a bit of a release I'm going to spontaneously self-combust."

Loki and Hela both raised an eyebrow, sharing uncanny similar expressions.

"Spontaneous what?"

Tony rolled his eyes.

"I just mean that I am sick with worry and I need to get my mind off it for a moment."

They agreed to watch a movie in the large living room. Hela however didn't follow through; she snuck to her room and softly called for the ravens of Odin.

"Huginn, Muninn?"

"Yes, Lady Hela!" The twosome cawed.

"Could you perhaps bring a message to Niflheim for me?"

"Of course milady, what is your message?"

The two ravens looked at each other as Hela took one of their quills and wrote a short note in runes, which she signed with her full title, carefully folded and imprinted with her own magic seal. She handed it to Muninn, and whispered.

"The scent of Death is rising from the ground already. Let those obligated prepare for glory..."

"Lady Hela…"

Huginn sounded concerned, but Hela shook her head.

"You have the message. Please, do this for me."

The ravens cawed, and left with the message. Hela sank down on her chair. If hundreds of years in her Mistress' service had taught her one thing it was that it never hurt to be prepared.

(Pagebreak)

Finally, Peter woke up. After all the fuss around him, the waking up part went over without too much trouble. He was clear-headed when he woke up, and most of all his memory of the events was rather vague. He remembered how strange he had felt the morning after having sex with Hela, he remembered falling asleep, and then there were just remnants of nightmares, no real memories, until the moment he opened his eyes to pose that cliché question all people waking up from comas appear to use. Loki had explained what had happened, how Hela's true form had unwillingly unleashed a certain kind of magic on him that had made him ill, and how he had been in a coma for a while until Loki had managed to remove the bad spell. It wasn't an unlikely story…

At first they fussed a bit over him, wanting him to use a wheelchair and stuff, but Peter proved quickly enough he had no lasting physical damage of his encounter with Hela's magic. Only a week later he was walking around again as always, and also his Spiderman-abilities hadn't suffered under it.

There was a difference with before though. At first Hela had been next to his bed all the time, a constant, silent presence… but as soon as he was able to walk again she started avoiding him again. Peter guessed she felt guilty, but that didn't take away his worry and slight annoyance at it…

(Pagebreak)

"She's avoiding me."

"Is it any wonder? She almost made your first time your last!"

Peter angrily poked his friend.

"It's not funny. Whenever I see her she looks awful but she always does that disappearing-in-smoke thing whenever I try to approach her."

"Dude. Chill out, she'll come by!"

"She's immortal, Justin. I've been told immortal people tend to take their time to come by."

Justin didn't really know what to say. He was happy that Peter had survived he bizarre ordeal relatively unscathed, but the trouble with Hela bothered him too. Peter was his best friend, he found that Hela, goddess or not, at least owed him an explanation of what had happened.

"I could try to ambush her and make her talk?"

"That wouldn't help… I tried to talk to Loki instead, but he's being weird as well. And Tony keeps throwing me these looks of pity, as if I'm a terminal cancer patient on the brink of death. It's seriously uncomfortable."

"Ah well, at least you're okay. I suppose that once Tony realizes you're not going to drop dead any time soon he'll get over it… and as for Loki and Hela…"

"They'll take their time."

Justin chuckled.

"You have gotten yourself one fucked up family, mate."

"And you haven't?"

Peter jested. It was unofficial, but they had kind of adopted the young Hammer into their "family". Justin blushed at the remark, nevertheless happy to change the subject.

"I'm still waiting for the cops to come and get me, to haul me back to my dad."

"We would never let them." Peter nudged his friend a bit. "You know that, right?"

Justin smiled.

"Yeah. I know that."

(Author's Notes)

YES! FINALLY! BLOW THE HORNS, BRING OUT THE MEAD, ROAST THE BOARS! QP HAS WRITTEN ANOTHER CHAPTER!

This story, and its painful incompleteness, have bothered me for a very, very long time. 42 days to be precise. And now I'm BACK! And I promise I'm back with regular updates!

PLEASE REVIEW! If I hadn't gotten some reviews in those 42 inspiration-less days, I don't think I would have managed to write another chapter. So please, Please, PLEASE with a cherry on top, REVIEW!