The Avengers, all of them, waited nervously as the King of Asgard finally opened his interdimensional portal. Loki was not nervous. He didn't care. He didn't. They all watched as a thin figure emerged from the magical vortex. She was tall and beautiful, but also terrible, with skin as pale as snow in the mountains and eyes and hair as dark as a summer storm. She was glaring daggers at Odin. "Hello, Eyeless," she snarled.

"Hela."

"Decide you couldn't manage without me afterall?"

"Not quite."

"Sister! We need your help!" Thor announced brightly. Odin shot Thor a glare. Hela's eyes flicked to him, then to the rest of the group. Her eyes lingered briefly on Loki's truncated limbs. She frowned.

"Sister, is it? You don't look like him." She looked back at Odin. "You want my help, Allfather?" She asked sweetly. "Beg for it."

Odin glanced at Loki, then back to his daughter. "Please," he said.

"Not on your life." She drew a blade from thin air and hurled it at him. Thor immediately lunged forward and knocked it to the side. So much for waiting for provocation.

"Crap!" Iron Man shouted, as his visor slammed down. Hawkeye and the Black Widow both started firing on the goddess as Captain America took up a defensive position near Loki and Odin. Hela easily caught or deflected every arrow and bullet aimed her way and leapt towards the group, a predatory smile flirting about her lips. Thor threw his hammer, and she knocked it aside. Iron Man fired on her, but she raised a hand to disperse the energy pulse. "Crap!" he shouted again. "Mr. King? Now might be a good time to start the containing-"

He had barely finished the sentence before Loki shoved Captain America aside and directed a powerful blast towards Hela. She paused, absorbing the blow. "Loki, get back!" Thor gasped, trying to pull him back while his hammer flew straight past him into the ground. Loki repulsed him with another wave of magic, then strode forward, blasting Hela again, eyes widening with a strange desperation. This was his fight, he had decided. They were here because of him. He would either take care of the problem or die trying...both equitable options, actually. He shrugged out of Captain America's grip and poured his strength into the next blow. Incredibly, Hela just stood and took it, but she was now watching him with growing interest. She somehow caught his next attack, spinning the magical power down into a brilliant green spark balanced on her hand. Loki stopped even as Odin clapped a restraining hand on his shoulder; this wasn't working.

Hela slightly raised her suddenly empty hands. "Peace," she said calmly. Confused, the humans ceased their attacks. She sauntered forwards, straight towards Loki. He waited, utterly still. She stopped mere inches from him, and stared. Her eyes saw straight through him, but he held himself still. She smiled. "You're a piece of work, aren't you? Who are you?"

"Loki of Asgard, my second son, your brother," Odin rumbled from behind him.

"Adopted," Loki muttered, out of habit as much as anything.

"Ah... My replacement, I think. How quaint. But if so, I seem to be the lucky one. Tell me, Loki second son of Odin, how did you come by this?" She touched a finger to his forehead, and a ghastly terror engulfed the grassy knoll on which they stood. The group seemed to be transported to the edge of a roaring cataract minted of a freezing fire the color of old blood. Beneath them yawned an endless abyss. Behind them, tiny and indistinct, Loki sensed the balmy breeze of Life. Far greater was the current, dragging him down. He looked around to the rest of the group, but though everyone shrank from the fearful darkness and the cold, only Loki seemed to be physically affected. The current passed by the humans' ankles with nary a ripple, but Loki was ready to topple at any moment. He looked at the abyss, the dark thing he had hitherto seen only in his half-remembered nightmares. It was real, and it was calling to him, screaming his name soundlessly. He didn't want to answer, but the thing didn't care, growing more insistent every moment. He stumbled a single step towards the fall, and the current increased. But Hela caught a hold of his arm. Loki wrenched his gaze back to her. She was studying him, still smiling, like a scholar with a new specimen.

"Take us back," he whispered.

"I haven't taken us anywhere," she answered mockingly. "You were already here. I'm just making it visible."

"Well, whatever you're doing, stop it," he hissed. He couldn't stay here. He would become insane and crumble to pieces. Already, he felt the current's insistent tugging loosening the binding of his false foot, and his chest growing tighter as the mechanics of his lung seized up. Hela cocked her head to one side, and lifted her hands away from him. They were instantly back in the real world. Loki fell to his knees, hard, though Odin caught him before he fell forward too far.

Hela knelt before him. "This is why you released me, Allfather?" She asked, never taking her eyes from Loki. "It is an interesting case, I'll grant you. But why should I help?"

"If you can save him, and agree to remain peaceful, you can be free, Hela," Odin said softly.

She grinned. "Now that I am free, you won't trap me again in any case, idiot."

Loki barked a joyless laugh. "She's got you there, Allfather."

"You can come back, if you want to."

"Just don't count on having quite the same status as before," Loki commented wryly. "Believe me, I know."

"Another problem child, are we?" Hela asked.

"You could say that, I suppose, though it seems an understatement."

"He is prone to understatement in these things, if I recall."

"You have a good memory."

"Will you help?" Captain America interjected.

Hela glanced at him. "Who is he?" she asked Loki.

He grinned at the Captain. "My mortal task-master for the morning, and a do-gooder."

"Ah. I suppose I might... it's been so long..." She sounded suddenly wistful. Loki could sympathize to a degree. He was a creature of magic as well and had been imprisoned for a time. Hela presumably had been unable to exercise her skills for millennia. Loki shuddered. He hoped she didn't actually remember all of her imprisonment in real time.

"What was that place?" Thor asked as he came up beside them.

"The border of Life and Death," Hela answered as she seated herself more comfortably on the ground in front of Loki and brought his spell-ball back out. From the stolen strands of Loki's own magic and dark threads drawn seemingly from the air, she began to weave a kind of shroud in the emptiness between them. It was bewitching, a kind of magic Loki had never even read about before. "Normally, the border is closed within a living individual." She regarded Loki. "Even in those possessed of a Death Wish. In Loki, though, some force has ripped open the dam. Think of the river you saw as a measure of life force. In someone young and healthy, it pools on the side of Life, creating a source of energy and vitality from which the individual draws throughout life. It is replenished with things like good food and good memories. It is diminished by physical and emotional stresses. As people age, the dam wears down. The pool shrinks. Upon death, the dam bursts. The lake becomes a river and empties." She flashed a grin at Thor. "Loki is interesting. In a way, he is alive, because his body and mind are alive. His heart beats. He breathes. He thinks. He speaks. He even fights. For those of us who can see the soul though, it is clear that he is dying. As a matter of fact, I would have said you were dead, if not for the fact that you are speaking and so on. You must have horribly hurt in body and mind to acquire such a tear in your soul as well. This cannot go on though. Soon enough, that current would sweep your conscious mind under, and you would truly be dead, whether you decided it or not." Her expression turned thoughtful. "I believe the human expression for it is 'vegetable.'"

"He would turn into a carrot?" Stark said snarkily.

"No, I would become comatose," Loki said. "I told you so."

"Quite. But this will help." Hela held up her completed work, an impressive veil of sparkling green on one side and shifting shadows on the other. Loki studied it skeptically. "It's basically a patch for the dam. Your magic will hold up the Life side, appropriately enough, while mine holds the Death side."

"Brilliant," Odin murmured. "I didn't know you were so skillful, Hela."

She looked at him askance. "You came to me."

"Yes, but I never saw you work so effectively with someone else's magic before."

She rolled her eyes. "Just because I followed you to learn fighting arts doesn't mean I never watched Frigga and the healers as well." With a final sly grin, she reached out and touched a hand to Loki's head again. The magical veil flew through her arm and hand and fingers and into Loki. Loki felt like his insides had suddenly caught fire, banishing the habitual cold he had barely even noticed until now. A great pressure rose within him. If at all possible, he felt worse than before. He was so weak he could not even speak, could barely lift his eyelids. He found himself lying on the ground and couldn't figure out how he got there. He allowed his eyes to close. Maybe she had just killed him after all. Alas, and oh well. Thor would have to take care of it. Loki surrendered, listening to the beating of his heart, waiting for it to stop.

Author's Note: Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Brother John, Brother John? Morning bells are ringing...