Her flight enjoyment was short-lived, however. The great beast had them in the confines of Iounn's immediate garden within the hour.
Thor and Fandrall dismounted and Jane followed suit, the air becoming close around them. She felt her brow tickling with perspiration, and she wiped at it. She turned, and saw that her companions appeared to be uneasy, and she swallowed.
"Things are quite quiet here…I do not think that I like that particular omen," observed Thor.
"Is there a harbinger here to be found?" Jane asked.
"Aye," replied the god. "It is deathly still…"
"Well, we are in Hel, after all," murmured Jane.
Thor motioned to Fandrall to follow him, and they ascended a small flight of stairs.
They stood outside of an enormous doorway. The three were apprehensive…Jane looked at Thor. "So…do we just…knock?" she giggled at the thought.
"No need…" and Jane followed Thor's gaze. He was looking at an approaching being. She gasped.
The thing was a woman, or female at least. She had red skin, scaly, and appeared to slither, though she was walking upright. Her back hair was slicked straight back, her eyes were yellow, her lips full, her arms quite long. She was shocking to behold.
The being began to speak, but in a language foreign to the ears of the three.
Thor smiled. "You'll pardon us…I am not my brother, I know not what you say."
The being then returned the smile. "It is no issue…Iounn is expecting you."
Jane thought that her English was good, though a touch broken.
Thor nodded…the goddess was expecting them. That meant that Loki was here.
"Where is the fertility goddess? Is she keeping my brother the King entertained?" he inquired casually.
The thing did not respond. She slithered her way to the back of the palace, round the outside, along a porch of sorts. Jane hadn't the wherewithal to take it fully in, but had she, she would've noted the similarities it had with a French villa, soft and luxurious, but strangely foreboding.
A small wooden door was at the far end of the place, and the thing took them there, opened the door, and left them.
It was a hollow and steep decent, and Jane was shaking a bit…he was near, she could sense it.
The stairs were stone, and seemingly endless. The air was filled with cold moisture. Jane breathed it in, expecting it to be refreshing, but was disappointed in its density.
She held onto the wall for support. Slowly, they made their way…
It had been some time…Jane thought it at least an hour…since they began to walk down the stairs. They finally spotted the bottom.
Her feet sunk into the clay of the floor. Her heart stopped.
Her dream.
She recalled perfectly how she was hindered by a mucky floor, how she heard the cries of Loki through the black of the expanse.
Her heart sped up. She knew that her feet wouldn't follow her heart's example. She began to trudge her way through the slime.
Thor and Fandrall had stamina, but Jane had determination. Her mind was focused on one thing only…her legs began to burn, but still she went on. Her shoulder screamed, but still she went on. Her mind swam from thirst and hunger. Still, on she went.
Her ears were straining to hear any sound in the close cavern, but it was silent but for the suck of the three pairs of feet through the floor's mud.
And then…as though the prayer in her head was suddenly heard, the silent repetition of her words singing their swan song was achingly made real, that splinter of light punctured the black.
And it was then that she found her fortitude. Then that her breath eased, then that her heart leapt and she started afresh.
Closer and closer it came, the speck grew in the expanse of the cave.
She was nearly there…she could hear her companions behind her…their breaths steady and their feet moving more quickly toward the light.
She reached a door, illuminated from behind…enormous and wooden…and she pushed it open.
…and there he was, hanging, standing, his face toward the ceiling of the dungeon, he appeared to be concentrating on something…his hair in disarray…and he heard the door open…and his face found hers…
"There you are," he whispered.
And as suddenly as he uttered it, his face contorted in horror…but before Jane could register what was happening before she could register any change in the surroundings, she heard a shrill screech, and pain…pain…incomprehensible and unimaginable agony in her right side…
And she looked at where her right arm once was, gone from her body…severed by the angry goddess whose visage adorned a scowl so ruthless that Jane momentarily looked away…
Jane Foster fell in shock, her body writhing in its state.
And Thor rushed in, wielding his hammer, to be unleashed on the witch still laughing at her deed.
And the goddess, though weakened, escaped the god's weapon, and ran to Loki's side, her smile wide and anticipatory.
"Do not cross, me, Thor! I have your brother, and I shall act for my own!"
Thor stopped dead. His eyes went to his brother. Loki had been looking at Jane, but then met his brother's gaze. Fandrall went to Jane's side...she was whimpering.
"What is it that you want, Iounn?"
"Release."
"From?"
She smiled. "From this forsaken realm."
"Impossible."
"You are King. You can undo whatever Odin did...and I'd venture that your brother the King would accede to that conceit. He has much to resent Odin for. If you desire peace and equanimity between the rulers of Asgard, you shall set me free," Iounn remained next to Loki, steadily looking at Thor.
Loki's eyes narrowed. He was attempting to let Thor know that he was much stronger than he appeared to be, inserting his thoughts in his brother's mind. "Truly, Thor...perhaps we should listen to the fertility expert."
Iounn then turn toward Loki quizzically. The snake...the serpent of yore...in her haste to deal with Thor, she had forgotten about the snake.
Mjölnir flew high above the thunder god's head at her distraction. Just as the storm rose, the Garm came charging into the chamber, seizing Thor's raised arm in its jaws. The Hel hound clamped down, and Iounn raised her hand above her, summoning the serpent down from its height. Thor screamed, and Loki, who had been silently working on the manacles, freed his left hand, the right still locked to the wall. He grabbed the goddess by the throat just as Jörmungandr descended, confused from Loki's spell.
And from the floor, Jane sat up, Fandrall went to Thor's side, stabbing the Garm with his sword, releasing the god from its grip.
And Jane, one armed, took her own small Midgard sword in her left hand, and ran to the serpent. It was dazed, and Jane used it to her advantage, severing its head from its body. She dropped her sword, reached for her taser, and went to Iounn.
"You fucked with the wrong mortal," and sent a jolt into her side the strength of which could power a sizable Midgard home.
It wasn't enough to kill her, so Jane rushed to Thor's side...
"Thor...pick up your hammer..."
The god crawled over to the weapon and picked it up. The lightening crashed against the witch, and she fell in a heap on the floor.
Jane sighed. "Is she dead?"
"No. But she won't be up for a while..." and Thor looked at Jane. "Oh, my lady..." and his eyes went to her side, bleeding profusely, and armless.
Jane blanched, and retched on the floor.
"Jane..." a whisper came from the wall.
She had fallen to her knees in her agony. Fandrall was binding the gape just below she shoulder.
Finally, in the middle of the ministrations Fandrall was administering, she looked at Loki, shirtless, bleeding, with his right hand still in its restraints, but slowly becoming undone.
She steadied herself to her feet.
Jane Foster smiled weakly. "Hi..." she forgave her lack of eloquence given that she currently had but one arm.
His right hand finally fell, and Loki collapsed, never taking his eyes off of her.
Jane went to him, and dropped in front of him, tears falling in earnest.
"By the gods, Jane...you are a vision," he choked the words, and she wrapped her left arm around him. "I can fix this..." and he pulled away, looking at her stump of a right arm.
Thor went over. "Loki, we need to leave...you'll need you strength to keep her here...an enduring spell to ensure her prison..." Thor thought of the trek out. "Can you bring us outside? Have you the strength for all of this?"
Loki helped Jane to her feet..."I do...Jane, have you your necklace?"
She took it from under her suit and handed it to him.
He squeezed it tightly, and stood over Iounn. Tiny strings pulsed their way down upon her in a baptism of light. The dungeon was filled with the energy emanating from Loki.
He turned. "She will not be leaving this palace for many centuries."
He went over to his liberators. "Shall we?"
And though he was weak indeed, the four found themselves outside of the palace, about half way through the garden, for that was as far as he could manage.
"I'll hold this for the while, love," and he opened his palm with her gem inside of it.
Jane laughed and nodded. "You need water, and so do I. Do you still have your stores?"
Loki nodded and conjured some water and food for his brother, himself, and Fandrall.
And they all sat on the grass of the enormous garden, and ate a bit and drank...Jane unable to eat, her stomach still churning from the gruesome wound on her side...
Fandrall had wrapped Thor's arm where the hound had sank his teeth. "How long, my King, until you have the strength to repair our fellows?"
"Allow me rest, Fandrall...soon..." Loki collapsed on his back, breathing in Hel's air. "We cannot tarry long...this garden is rife with unknown terrors..."
Jane looked at Loki, unable to believe that he was alright, that they had escaped, that she had no arm.
Tears fell down her face, and he touched her cheek, pulling her down to him, and kissing her mouth. "Oh my love," his hand smoothed her hair. "I did despair...please forgive me..."
She laughed. "This was my fault...all of it all of it..." her head shook with affection. "I'm so sorry..."
"Your arm..."
"Yeah...but it was already completely a wreck...I dislocated my shoulder..." and Jane suddenly felt the full pain of her wounds and ailments...and her resolve cracked, and her mind succumbed to the situation, and she fainted.
A movement...a flutter...a soft tone...prickles like when a limb falls asleep...a gasp...
Jane opened her eyes. They met a face she knew...a face, angular and pale, eyes blue but swam with slight verdant...that face, burned on her being...and it smiled ruefully.
She returned it. "Loki?" Was this a dream?
"Hello, Jane," and he held out his right hand.
And she grabbed it with her right hand...and suddenly she remembered, and marveled at her restored limb. "It's back!"
"It is. And what are these curious marks along your shoulder?" His finger traced along her stitches from surgery.
"Oh! That bird carried me and I dislocated my shoulder...and I was on earth and they patched me up."
"Patched is an apt word," Loki observed.
Thor was standing...Loki had healed him as well. "Well, Loki...can you get us beyond the ice? That is where the BiFrost entrance is...we can talk about this in Asgard."
They all looked at Loki, and he nodded. His right hand grasped the gem hard.
"Wait!" exclaimed Fandrall. "The apple...? The reason for all of this?"
"Oh my god," said Jane.
"For all that's holy," said Thor.
"Waiting for us in Asgard..." smirked Loki.
And the rush of water was felt behind them.
"Heimdall!" yelled Thor...
And Jane fell against Loki in the BiFrost, he was still weak as of yet to transport them all...and she suffocated in his embrace...and her mind left the pain and the worry and the guilt, the fret, the doubt, behind in Helheim.