About fifteen minutes later, Steve was feeling a lot less confident in their ability to change Loki's mind. Steve had awoken with a strange, completely unjustified certainty that they really could do something, but he was starting to think it might have been his own Captain America wishful thinking rather than something more concrete. Once Thor released him from the enchanted sleep, Loki was completely back to his testy self this morning, with absolutely no sign of his midnight vulnerability, just his enduring, sarcastic pessimism. He was now huddled on the low couch at the far end of his Avengers-themed suite, still dressed in pajamas. Thor had claimed the spot next to him. Stark was sprawled in the Inflatable Hulk chair, and Steve was pacing the carpet. On the coffee table before them perched a very large raven which Loki had reluctantly lured in with a charm and spelled to use as a kind of receiver for Odin back on Asgard.

"Do you want me to explain, Loki?" Steve asked. Loki shrugged, eyes looking anywhere but the enormous raven. Finally, he gave a curt nod."Okay..." Quickly, Steve summarized the conversation he and Loki had had last night: Loki did not want to die so much as he did not want to go on living in his current mental state and saw no road to improvement in his future. He needed some hope if he was to have a chance to go on living. In fact, he was afraid of the ceremony. He just didn't think he had a better option. The door of death was the only one that remained open to him, all the others barred by indefinable terror or impossible hardship.

Once Steve finished, Thor seemed ready to speak up, but Odin's raven hushed him with a beady-eyed look. Then the bird froze again as the Allfather's voice emanated from its dull, unmoving beak. "I wonder...Loki, what do you hope for in death?"

"The only difference between this miserable life and the next is that one is unknown," Loki muttered bitterly. Then, a moment later, "It can't be worse."

"But you do not expect it to be better, or you would be unafraid," Odin mused "No, hush Thor... No difference... I should have seen it sooner. I'm coming down."

"What?" Thor blurted as the raven fluttered back to normal life with a low croak. "Here? Now?!" He ran from the room.

"Not that damn rainbow again!" Stark shouted, running after him. Odd, Steve had thought him asleep again.

He stared after them for a moment, then looked questioningly at Loki, who rolled his eyes and said softly, "All rise for the King of Asgard."

"Wait, he's actually coming here?"

"What did you think he meant?"

"But Thor always acts like it's impossible for the ruler of Asgard to actually leave Asgard for any period of time."

"That would be a very inefficient system of government, don't you think? Short absences are permissible. Long ones are not."

"Oh." Steve mulled that over for a minute, until a flash of light and a whooshing sound out on the sitting room balcony announced Odin's arrival. Seconds later, Thor and Odin were striding back into the room, followed by a very peeved-looking Tony Stark who threw himself back into his squeaky chair in a huff. Odin made a beeline for the couch and swept Loki into a tight hug. Loki froze in surprise. Steve realized belatedly it was the first time Odin had actually seen his son since the battle, and the new, devastating injury. After a minute or two, Odin released his hold and started murmuring spells, silver magic pouring from his fingertips only to hiss into dark smoke that curled briefly around Loki before vanishing. After a moment, he nodded.

"What was that?" Loki asked. He sounded vaguely affronted, but also curious, and Odin looked suddenly guilty. Loki didn't know that magic, it occurred to Steve.

"Loki," Odin began carefully, "I am not offering you a complete cure, as that would be foolishly unrealistic, but I think I know how to help you..."

"How?" Thor asked excitedly.

Odin shifted uncomfortably, which was odd if he had discovered a way out. "Well..."

"And why didn't you or Mother Dearest or any other healer think of this marvelous treatment last year?" Loki asked, voice laden with suspicion.

Odin flushed. "Well, I was the only one who might have thought of it, and, um, it's been awhile..."

"Spit it out, Allfather," Loki said with a delicate sneer.

"It is very rare for a Death Wish to become so strong as yours in someone who still retains a native fear of death. It is certainly not the natural way of these things. I...well, I think there is something else going on that makes it impossible for you to choose life. If I'm right, even were you completely healed in body and mind, you would still feel the call of the veil. But we would need a Necromancer to be sure. One might be able to...correct...um..."

"What?" Thor shouted, aghast. "How could one of those evil creatures help?"

"Necromancy is a thing?!" Stark cried, completely awake again.

"I second Thor's reaction," Loki commented. "I'm not sure why you would think submitting my animus to enslavement under a Necromancer would be better than taking my chances with you and the Norns...or are you admitting you're an infidel?"

Odin rolled his eyes at both his sons, looking less embarrassed and more the annoyed father. "That's not all they do."

"That's all you said they did!" Thor protested.

"And it's illegal," Loki said. "You've executed every practitioner you've caught in the last millennium. Even if any are left, why would they help you?"

"They wouldn't be helping me, they'd be helping you...and I'd promise to be lenient..." Loki and Stark both snorted at that. Odin sighed. "You're right, they don't exist anymore. Asgard has been very successful at hunting them down. The art is basically extinct. But...there is one that we imprisoned, rather than executed."

Everyone else looked skeptical, but Steve was the one to ask, "And why was that, your Majesty?"

"Ah...She was too powerful. She had utter control of the border of life and death. Imprisonment was the only option..."

"Why haven't I heard of this?" Thor asked. "Was it so long ago?"

"The edict to ban necromancy isn't that old," Loki said dismissively. "Barely two thousand years. I looked it up once in The Authoritative Chronicle of Asgardian Law."

"I'm not going to ask why," Odin said sardonically. He looked down. "Her name was stricken from all records. With good reason. Her power was too terrible." He looked up and took both sons' arms. "She was your older sister."

"There's another one?" Stark moaned.

"And she's an evil Necromancer you've imprisoned for... how long?" Steve finished. Magical gobbledegook was not what he'd had in mind for the morning...

"Probably two thousand years," Loki grunted, pulling away from Odin's grip.

"She's not evil," Odin protested. "She's just... ambitious. And unrelenting. And a little vindictive..."

"Typical Odinspawn," Stark chuckled.

"I have a sister..." Thor mumbled, tasting the words.

"And what do you expect her to do, assuming she doesn't just attack you or vanish immediately?" Steve asked, finally finding a chair.

"She won't attack first," Odin said with some certainty. "She never does. She waits until she's provoked."

"And imprisonment doesn't count as provocation?" Stark asked.

"Well...not to her. Probably. She will talk, then she will attack."

"Oh, that's so much better," Stark interjected again.

Odin glared at him. "With support, I should be able to contain her if needed. If we can enlist her aid, then she should be able to pull Loki back from the brink, as it were. By analyzing the interface of the vekjalarbj-... Aahh... Look, it's hard to explain if you don't have any understanding of death magic theory. But if anyone can correctly diagnose and correct, um, how do I say this: 'a tear in the veil,' it's Hela. She has the ability, I'm certain."

"Hela," Thor repeated softly, wistfully. Loki rolled his eyes at his brother, but didn't comment. He probably didn't really care at the moment what was decided on his behalf, Steve thought.

"That's not much to go on," Steve commented after a moment.

"Yeah, I mean, what's the plan? Sneak into Asgard's deepest dungeon, spring her, and hope she cooperates? Then what?"

Odin grinned. "Not at all. We shall borrow some of your fastest Midgardian transport to a small island off the coast of Greenland, where I shall open the portal to her prison dimension. Then we shall hope she cooperates, and with any luck she can join us for a family dinner in Asgard this evening. I will say we are fortunate it is summer. Else we would have to dig for her through the ice." He glanced around at all the confused and startled looks and smiled guiltily. "Midgard is a... most effective prison for powerful sorcerers and objects. Set in the very trunk of Ygddrasil, the causal nexus is particularly stable here, almost immutable except to Innates and other natural foci. Even then...er...my apologies for the jargon, Captain Rogers. Suffice it to say that Midgard has proved itself more suitable to the purpose than any other place in the Nine Realms."

Loki snorted wryly. "So that's why you sent Thor here of all places."

"Well, yes. Look, I'll explain more fully on the way, if everyone is willing...?"

Thor nodded enthusiastically. Steve met Stark's eyes, and they both shrugged. Steve was just playing things by ear at this point, since the vague magical discussion went completely over his head. Hela couldn't be worse than Thanos, at least. They could always veto the plan later. Everyone turned to look at Loki, who shook his head.

"If your dear Hela does not go along with your plans, Allfather, the results will be catastrophic, from what I've read. It's not worth it."

"Yes you are!" Odin cried. "You are worth the risk, my son. And so is she. I've done wrong by her as well as you."

"Then approach her on your own time for the right reasons, Allfather. To revenge herself on you, she might attack now, or she might seem to agree and just kill me while she's rummaging around in my soul and make me into the first of a draugr army that will destroy you. That's certainly what I would do. I don't want you to endanger yourself and these people and all of Asgard and probably all of Midgard just to possibly fix something that might be making my state worse. If it's all the same, I'd rather just die in a couple weeks and save you a war, at least. Leave well enough alone."

"No, Loki," Odin said simply. Loki grimaced.

Stark cleared his throat in the awkward silence that followed. "How likely is what Loki said going to happen?"

"Very unlikely," Odin growled. Thor looked uncertain, though, Steve noticed.

"Then it's settled. I'll call up Hawkeye and the Quinjet, and we can be there in a few hours... Where are we going exactly?"

Author's Note: indeed, the last chapter became too hefty, so I split it up a bit.