Loki steps out of the flying carriage—a jet, as Agent Romanoff calls it—and joins the rest of the Avengers as Iron Man lands on the smaller circular outcrop on his balcony. "The cube isn't here," Stark's voice comes through the tiny earpiece Romanoff had given him on the plane as the dais around Stark shifts to take off his armor in a grand display while he walks down the pathway. "Doctor Selvig is up there on the roof with a reactor, but the cube is gone."

"Well, where the hell did it go?" Captain Rogers asks as he looks around, as if he'd find it—

A deafening whine echoes through the sky, and from the roof, a spark of blue sizzles brilliantly. "Found it," Agent Barton says needlessly.

Thor whirls Mjölnir and takes to the sky, and Loki latches onto Rogers—the most durable and temperamentally-stable of the mortals currently in his company—and teleports them wordlessly to the rooftop. The Lady Anna is on her knees, her body crumpled in on itself as blue-white lights sizzle across her skin. The brighter glow of the Tesseract shines from underneath her huddled form.

Loki briefly glances at his brother when he darts to the side, crouching next to the familiar form of an old man—Dr. Selvig, Loki remembers.

"Miss Anna?" Rogers warily calls out, bringing Loki's attention back to the lady. "Are you all right?"

Anna's head snaps up sharply, her body following her motion, and Loki sees that her eyes blazed with the same color as the Tesseract embedded in her chest.

"Thanos is still within her," Loki warns his companions. "We must take care to—"

"Thanos!" Thor yells suddenly, cutting Loki off. "Release Lady Anna!"

Loki expects Thanos to sneer and belittle them, but all that comes out of Anna when her lips part is a low groan, her fingers digging into the sand under her hands as her eyes briefly flash brown, then blue, then brown again.

"She's fighting him still," Loki breathes, deeply impressed at the display of her will. He wonders just what it was that had the lady fighting Thanos so vehemently, what it was that gave her the strength to never break under Thanos's relentless persuasions.

Because—to Loki's chagrin—Thanos had broken him. The mix of mental and physical tortures had taken its toll, and when Thanos offered him a reprieve that last time, he'd taken it willingly, exchanging relief for access to his soul, and therefore access to the entirety of his energy pools—

…oh. Oh, of course.

How had he not realized it before?

He doesn't realize he's moving until both Thor and Rogers have him by the arms, wrestling him to the ground. "Brother, fight it!" Thor is saying.

"Let me go!" he gripes, looking up at his brother. "Thor, release me! I can do it—I can get him out. Now."

"Let him go," Stark says urgently. "Cap! Trust me. Let him do it."

"Brother," Loki intones when Thor refuses to release him. "Look at my eyes. My mind is my own, I swear it." It takes a few long seconds, but Thor exhales deeply and loosens his grip. Loki rushes to the lady's side immediately after.

"You think you can force me out, Asgardian?" Thanos sneers briefly, but then the ugly expression fades just as quickly as blue light gave way to brown, leaving Anna looking up at him.

"Hurry," she grits out, grasping his arm when he pulls her up. "Do it—" Her eyes turns blue once again, and the grip on his arm tightens painfully before she regains control. "Stop thinking and do it!"

"I'm sorry," he tells her, gathering the magic he needed and pooling it in his hand. "You suffer because I made you do this—"

"Apologize later, Jesus!" she grunts, sweat slipping from her brow. "Kill me. Now!"

That shocks him. "Kill—" he splutters. "No. No, I mean to exorcise him—"

Thanos returns, and he laughs at what Loki had said. "Exorcise me?" he scoffs. "Your magic is unstable, princeling—"

"—he's in my body," Anna snaps when she comes back, "my mortal body. Kill him now and he won't come ba—" Her words end in a scream, her back arching as she fell against Loki, body jerking with a pain Loki knew all too well.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" Stark asks, disbelief in his voice.

"No!" Thor falls to his knees beside them, taking one of the lady's tightly clenched hands and allowing her to squeeze his fingers instead of digging her nails into her palm. "You will not die today, Anna Thorsdóttir. I forbid it!"

A strangled laugh escapes her. "I'm not really your kid—"

"—no," Thanos takes over again, "but you loved her dearly and claimed her as your own. Made her a duchess of—"

"—you need to end this," Anna groans. "Please. This is how it ends. This was always the plan, Loki, this is what you sent me here for—"

"—she lies," Thanos hisses. "She was chosen because she was strong. A true warrior of Asg— Ack!"

It takes them a few moments to find the arrow sticking out of her back, and when they do, they look up and see Agent Barton standing tall, bow still poised and aimed in their direction.

"Bar—" Thanos wheezes, "—ton."

"NO!" Thor and Stark's voices boom into either side of Loki's ears, and the whine of Iron Man's weapon sounds before a blast rips through the air. Barton barely escapes, and only Romanoff's body colliding with his saves him from Stark's weapon. Metal-covered feet thud against the floor as Iron Man lands a few paces away, his suit looking better than before.

"Wait!" Barton cries, holding his hands up towards Stark, bow still in his grip. "Fury said Loki can bring her back!"

"Fool!" Thor roars, his anger contrasting with the gentle hold with which he held Anna's hand. "There is no spell to bring back the dead!"

"What!" Barton's jaw drops. "But he said… I only… No." He shakes his head. "No, he said you could!"

Loki shakes his head, looking down at the fatal wound resting right beside the Tesseract. "I cannot."

Thanos starts laughing, and Anna's body began coughing up blood. "So that's the plan," he murmurs, rolling blue eyes in Barton's direction. "You used the magic of Yggdrasil to command your lover to do your bidding."

The statement puzzles Loki until Anna returns, her gaze softening as she stares at the horrified archer. "Clint, m'sorry," she murmurs, wheezing wetly. "I needed—" Another wheeze, "—one last favor."

Thanos's blue eyes returns. "This is nothing," he spits out weakly. "I shall return. Death will never take me."

"Maybe not Death," Anna breathes, turning her gaze to the sky. "But I will." Her eyes suddenly glaze over as she stills, her body slumping limply into Loki's arms.

And she was very clearly, very obviously dead.


"Holy shit, you're Death," Anna exclaims when she sees the cloaked figure that's just suddenly there. Just like the flashes she'd seen in Thanos's memories, all she could see of the covered face were lips and jaw, the skin there white as the sliver of teeth that peeked between pale lips.

Death stood quietly in the middle of the frozen superhero fray, but Anna's not worried about them because she knows exactly who Death is here for.

Unexpectedly, Death has something to say about that. "You should not have killed him," she rasps hoarsely. "I have cursed this being to never know my embrace."

Anna doesn't understand what Death's trying to say, and it's not because she sounds like an old lady on the cusp of…well, death. "Then don't embrace him," Anna says to her. "Just send him off to…wherever dead people go."

"But that would require my touching him," Death…well, sort of complains, "and I have sworn never to do so."

Okay, now Anna kind of gets it. "Are you kidding me?" she demands, ignoring the peanut gallery that erupts in the back of her head that honestly, she shouldn't be taunting Death in any way. "I died so that he could die. You can't just take me and leave him! That's not what I got me killed for!"

"You shouldn't even be dead!" Death spits, her beautiful face twisting malevolently. "You are from the time beyond and have no place to rest! You may have died a hero, but Valhalla cannot take you, nor can you reside in Niflheim! No god, not Odin or Hela, or even Hades or Osiris can give you safe haven!"

Anna might have said something about that if she hadn't noticed Death's neat little sleight of hand, and without thinking of the consequences, she lunges forward and seizes the wispy purple smoke that's leaking out of her body and curling almost invisibly around the hem of Death's robe. Abruptly, the smoke whirls around Anna, wrapping itself around her fingers and hand until it covers the entirety of her arm.

Death shrieks, no longer keeping with the raspy tone. "You fool!" she bitches angrily, her voice surprisingly more melodious now. "Do you know what you have done?"

"Not really," Anna admits a little snappily, "but I'm sure I'll do a better job bringing this soul to where it should go." And she knows just the goddess to give it to, too.

As if realizing what she was thinking, Death's lips press into a sneer, and she stretches her hand towards Anna. "You will never get the chance."

Anna backs away rapidly and makes a split-second decision. "Hela!" she yells, as her feet skid across the dusty ground, pulled forward by an invisible force. "Hela!"

"Fool!" Death hisses. "Hela never leaves her realm unless—"

"Unless it pertains to personal matters." Death actually freezes in place, her lips parting in surprised disbelief. Behind her, the Ruler of Niflheim emerges completely from her spooky black portal. "And this, indeed, is a personal matter."

Anna swallows at the sight of her.

On the outside, Hela is a beautiful goddess with shiny black hair, pale green eyes and moonshine skin. But even with—or maybe even because of—her beauty, she's the only goddess who still gives Anna nightmares years after meeting her. Even now, simply standing in Hela's presence gives Anna the proverbial goose bumps.

"Greetings to you, Lady Thorsdóttir," Hela tells her, and Anna forces herself not to flinch as the goddess steps closer to her.

"Greetings, Queen Hela," Anna replies, careful to mind her manners in front of the ruler of Niflheim. Hela is the one entity in the universe Anna did not want to piss off.

Hela seems pleased with her respectfulness. "We have much to discuss, Lady Thorsdóttir," she declares.

"The Mad Titan shall not pass my threshold. I will never—!" Death starts saying, but the goddess cuts her off.

"His soul has separated from his body," Hela declares, "and I lay claim on his soul."

Death's lips curl in displeasure. "The girl will pay for her crimes against me. I swore never to let this soul know my mercy."

"And you keep your oath!" Hela snaps. "You have not delivered him to me—she has. Now, be gone!" With a wave of Hela's hand, Death disappears in a puff of smoke, and the echoes of her enraged shriek lingers slightly in the air. Anna's then left with an armful of purple smoke with the most terrifying death goddess she'd ever met standing several feet from the still-frozen forms of the entire Avengers team.

Damn it all to…ah. Ahem.

"You didn't think of the fruit your actions would bear, did you?" Hela asks her casually.

"I normally do, my queen," Anna responds cautiously. "What actions are we talking about exactly?"

The goddess gestures to her arm, where the purple smoke still writhes. "You touched a bare soul," Hela reminds her. "It has consequences."

Crap. She hadn't known that. "And what consequences do I face?" she asks guardedly.

Hela smiles thinly. "None that is of my doing, child," she says reassuringly, and that lets Anna relax about three hairs. "May I have him now?"

"Yeah, sure," Anna nods, extending her hand to the goddess. The smoke curls out towards Hela, who opens her cloak and waits until the last traces of purple had disappeared inside the dark fabric.

"You have my gratitude, Lady Thorsdóttir," Hela says. "Now, what payments do you wish?"

"Payments?" Anna shakes her head. "Forgive me, my lady, but I don't understand." And considering the last time Anna encountered Hela, the goddess was being particularly patient with her. It was on the same level of weird as the sight of Odin sitting on the grass and teaching Loki magic.

"By taking the God of Chaos and forcing him to submit to him, Thanos has sinned against the Natural Order," Hela replies, folding her hands together. "By taking a prince of Asgard and mistreating him while under his care, he has sinned against Asgard and its people. By taking Loki, he has sinned against my father, and therefore my bloodline."

Oh, god. This was Asgardian Law 101 all over again. Anna hadn't enjoyed those lessons one bit.

"You," Hela says, making Anna tense in wariness, "saved Loki, and delivered the sinner to me, allowing me to carry out judgment against Thanos as I see fit. For your action and service, I may grant you two boons."

Meaning payments. "I see," Anna nods, thinking it over carefully. "What are you willing to grant me?"

Hela's smile stretches into a smirk. "Anything," she whispers. "Anything your mind can conceive. Anything your body desires. Anything your soul yearns for." Anna shudders as she feels the words weave temptingly around her. "I can give you power. Glory." And then her eyes glance to the left, and Anna's eyes follow her gaze to Clint. "Love."

"No." The word is out before she can even think about it, and Hela looks startled at the outright refusal. "No, thank you," Anna tacks on, panicking as she realizes she might've just offended the death goddess. "I want him to love me, but not if it's because someone made him love me." She's rambling now, and it really has to stop. This can't be a good first impression she's making, and Jesus, it's like their first meeting all over again. "But I do have a question."

Hela straightens up, looking all business now. "Very well, time-traveler," she says. "What is it?"

Organizing her thoughts, Anna starts. "Death said I had no place to go. What happens to me now?"

"You delivered Thanos to me," Hela repeats. "For this, your soul need not waste away, as I've granted you a place in my realm when you pass."

"When I pass?" Anna echoes. "You mean I'm—"

"You are in limbo," Hela tells her. "Your soul has parted from your body, and yet Death has not taken you. Truthfully," she adds, "this should never have happened to you, but I sense that you wished for this end."

Anna nods. "Loki said the only way to stop Thanos for good was to kill him," she explains. "That's probably why he sent me to free his past self, so that Thanos's soul would be separated from a body, leaving Death free to take him."

"But Death refused to take him, giving him the chance to seek refuge in your body," Hela concludes knowingly. "And so you were forced to wait for an opportunity such as this," she sighs, gesturing to Anna's still-frozen death scene.

She shrugs. "I actually didn't know if it would work," she admits. "I just…went with it."

"Then you were fortunate in your efforts," Hela says. "Not many could have accomplished the feat you've performed."

…wow. She just got a compliment from Hela. "Thank you," she stutters awkwardly. "That's ah, very kind of you, my queen."

Hela nods regally. "What is it you wish then, Lady Thorsdóttir?" she asks, bringing them back to the topic at hand. "You may choose to stay here and live out the rest of your days however you wish, under the conditions you and my father had agreed upon," she offers. "Or you may even choose to return to your time, though I must warn you, traveler," she tacks on, "your actions now have changed much, and to return to your time now would mean the end of your continued existence. Or," she adds, her expression turning sly, "you can come with me to Niflheim now. I will have to put you to work though," Hela warns her. "Though I openly welcome you into my kingdom, your soul no longer has a place in any of the Realms of Eternal Rest."

Color Anna intrigued. "What kind of work would I be doing?" she asks, 'cause really, Hela was a death goddess. The hell could she do for someone like that?

"Well," Hela muses. "I suspect Death may be a little upset with me for taking one of her toys away." Her green eyes dart to Anna. "I'd need someone to ferry my dead to me."

Anna's eyebrows rose high on her forehead. "You want me to bring your dead to you?" she echoes. "Like…like Death?"

"Not just 'like,' Lady Thorsdóttir," Hela smirks. "Should you arrive at the gates of my realm, you will become one of my agents. Death may be incarnate, but she is not the only entity who wields the power she personifies."

…motherfucking hell, did Hela just tell her she was going to be Death when she died? Anna feels like her mind just had been fucked with once more.

No. No, she honestly couldn't think about that shit right now. It was…

It's too much to deal with after everything she'd just been through.

Anna shakes her head. "You said something about two boons?" she asks, already knowing what she wanted more than anything in the world. "May I ask for one now?"

A sad smile appears on Hela's face, as if she'd guessed what Anna wanted too. "Yes, Lady Thorsdóttir, you may."

"I want the first option," she says, thoughts of her father sitting at the forefront of her mind. "I need to make sure my family doesn't fall apart." She swallows. "I wanna live."

"And your second wish?"

As Anna thinks about it, her eyes fall upon the frozen superheroes, on the Tesseract still stuck in her dead body's chest, and she realizes she'd forgotten something pretty important.

Today, April 11, 2011, is the day the world was exposed to the definite existence of extraterrestrial aliens.

Today, April 11, 2011, is the day that a group of able individuals fight off an alien invasion.

Today, April 11, 2011, is the day the Avengers are formed.

But without the invasion, none of that would ever happen. Everyone she loved would never know what it's like to have each other to lean onto. Uncle Rhodey and Uncle Steve might never meet and be friends, her mother might never strike up that happy rapport she had with Uncle Thor, and Uncle Bruce might wander off, forgotten until the world needed saving once more. Despite the estrangement that happened to her and her family, she loves them still, and if she couldn't have them as her family, then they could at least be family to each other.

"The invasion has to happen," Anna murmurs, swallowing heavily as she met Hela's gaze. "The portal has to open. The Chitauri have to come through. They have to fight together, become Earth's mightiest heroes. Become the Avengers."

Hela nods understandingly and holds her hand out, and Anna takes a step back as a particularly ominous-looking black and silver magic began to form. "So you have wished," the queen murmurs, and the magic shoots straight toward Anna from her open palm, "so it shall be."

Anna manages to think, 'Oh, motherfucking shit!' before the world is washed away with darkness.