So much happens in this chapter, guys. SO MUCH. Alatar would like to pull a Rebecca Sugar and shoot plot at you with a t-shirt cannon (she was going to say confetti cannon, but didn't think that go her point across quite as artfully).
I would put more in this note, but spoilers!
Chapter 7
Dean entered the room, stopped, and started.
Gabriel really couldn't fault him.
"You have a shitty DVD collection," Gabriel told him.
"Sam likes Netflix better," Dean said, probably on autopilot, still staring. "Uh…what's going on here?"
Gabriel looked behind him. Sleipnir was sitting on the ground next to the sofa, having reverted to a smaller version of his natural (read: eight-legged) form. Fenris was taking up half the sofa, and Jormungandr was hiding under the cushion on the other half with his head sticking out so he could see what Gabriel was doing.
"I'm looking for bad period dramas to show these guys," Gabriel said. "Obviously."
"I…okay." Dean stared for a few more moments, apparently still struck speechless by the scene in front of him.
Gabriel decided to throw him a bone. "You come in for any particular reason, or did you just want to know where we were?"
"Yeah, uh…" Dean shook his head, seeming to recollect his thoughts. "Your friends are looking for you. Not Coyote. The others." He eyed the kids for a few seconds. "If you want…I could try and find a 'bad period drama' to show them."
"You have DVDs that aren't here?" Gabriel gestured to the collection, more than a few of which weren't even in English, with a thumb.
"I'm sure Sam won't mind if we use his Netflix account." There was a hint of a mischievous grin on Dean's face, probably at the idea of Sam logging in and finding nothing but recommendations for period dramas.
"I knew I liked you," Gabriel said cheerfully, tossing the DVD he was holding onto the shelf. "No worries on ratings. They can handle it." He turned to them, switching to Allspeak. "Dean's going to introduce you to the wonderful world of movies. I'll be back in a bit."
Fenris's ears flattened slightly, and Jormungandr retreated slightly into the couch, but Sleipnir just nodded and looked at Dean expectantly. Dean eyed the three of them, and then casually moved over to the couch to pick up the remote.
"Let's see what we can find, yeah? I'm sure there's something awful enough to make you guys want to watch even more." He paused, glancing back at them. "Even with the language barrier. Maybe something with really bad special effects?"
Satisfied that Dean would make sure things were all right, Gabriel left them to it. He didn't have to ask Dean where his friends were, since he could tell they were in the area directly below the exit. Coyote was elsewhere in the bunker, probably poking around in some of the storage areas. That was probably a recipe for disaster, but Gabriel wasn't going to stop him.
His friends were whispering conspiratorially to each other when he entered the room, in a manner that had all his suspicions rising.
He pointedly cleared his throat to get their attention, pleased when Rhodey jumped at the noise. Natasha simply gave him a bland look, although James did look a little sheepish.
"Dean said you wanted a word?"
"Let's not do this here," Natasha said. "Not with ears listening in."
Considering how likely it was for his kids to actually escape Dean and eavesdrop, Gabriel nodded, heading to the staircase. It was still warm outside, but the sky was slowly pinkening as the sun set, and the trees cast long shadows.
"You don't look like anyone's dying," Gabriel said before anyone else could start. "So I'm guessing this isn't anything bad."
Oh heavens, his friends all looked at each other as if silently asking who should talk. It ended up being Rhodey, who turned to him with an apologetic expression.
"Any idea on how much longer we'll be here?" Rhodey asked. "Because we've got what we came for, right? So we can head back?"
Gabriel didn't immediately answer, eyeing Rhodey and the other two speculatively. "What brought this on?"
"We're just…a little concerned about how the other gods might react. So…maybe we should leave before things get to that point."
That was a legit point. A point that Gabriel had been trying to ignore since he'd talked with Hel in her realm. And, really, Rhodey was right, since they'd come here to get his kids out and succeeded. Only now…
He didn't want to just leave Hel here. There had to be a way he could finagle it so she could come as well.
"Is this about Hel?" Natasha asked. "She seemed like she wanted to come. Surely you can do something so that she can."
"Not without getting someone else to take her place," Gabriel said. "And it'll sting, giving up that throne, even if she knows it's the only way to come with us." He'd always been a little prouder as Loki, and Hel took after him a lot in certain areas.
"And no one wants to be the ruler of the dead," James said dryly. "Guess they're not exactly chatty."
"You don't want to leave her behind," Rhodey said softly. "Yeah, I get that. There's got to be an another option here."
Gabriel looked down, hands in his pockets. The problem was that he couldn't see a way out. Hel had been handed a duty no one else wanted, so how was he supposed to find someone to take it?
"Isn't there another version of her realm in our universe? That's what you said, right?" James asked. "She could, I dunno, share with whoever's already there."
"Ha. I haven't met the Hel in our universe, but I don't get the feeling she's the type to share." Not from the little he'd gleaned after he'd gotten his Grace back that first time. "Besides, the problem's her leaving this realm."
"And leaving the dead without a chaperone," Rhodey noted, nodding. "Bad, okay. But what about…I dunno…" He shrugged, face pensive. "Swapping, maybe?"
"Swapping?" Gabriel repeated incredulously, before he could think of a better reply.
"Y'know…your kid for the one that's in our world… That way both places get a ruler, and your kid gets to come, too." Rhodey looked only a little nervous. "You can do that, right?"
"Convince someone I've never met, who probably isn't friendly, to give up her realm for an alternate-universe version of it to do me a favor?" Gabriel gave him a flat look. "Suuuuure."
"Have you met yourself?" Rhodey waved his hands in Gabriel's direction. "Look, as your best bud, I try not to encourage your more criminal tendencies, but I'm putting it nicely when I say that you could sweet-talk a bank into giving over its account information."
"I…" Gabriel paused, running that sentence over in his head. "Really."
"I'm going to regret this," Rhodey said resignedly. Still, he nodded. "Really."
"As someone who hasn't known you as long, I have to say he has a point," Natasha said, giving a small shrug. "Maybe not to the point of robbing banks, but if you really try, no one actually notices. Most of the time you don't care what happens so you just…"
"Run roughshod over whoever's in your way," James finished.
"Thanks," Gabriel said dryly, but his mind was going even quicker than it usually did, turning the idea over and looking for any obvious holes. It would mean going over to talk with the Hel of that world and then coming back, but if he could do it…
Of course, he didn't know what the Hel of his new universe was like, but he could guess, and if he phrased it the right way and offered the right thing, it just might be possible.
The probability of it working went down when he considered that it would be way too good to be true, but he could hope.
"Are we just going to stand here watching you brainstorm, or could we actually do something?" Rhodey asked. "We might as well go into the town or something, we're already outside."
"Yeah," James agreed. "Staring at you while standing in the middle of some back road isn't exactly thrilling."
"What do you suggest, then?" Gabriel asked, rolling his eyes. They were the ones who had suggested going outside in the first place.
Something odd registered on his senses. Gabriel frowned, trying to pinpoint the feeling. It was something else just barely brushing up against him.
"What?" Natasha asked, having caught the look.
"Probably nothing." Maybe he should ask if Coyote felt it, too.
"Probably? That's not reassuring." James's hand was casually propped on his hip, next to at least three hidden knives.
"You felt that too, right?" Coyote asked, abruptly right next to Gabriel. The other three jumped, Rhodey more obviously than the two assassins.
"Well, at least I don't have to go look for you," Gabriel said. "I was gonna ask—"
"I'm surprised you don't recognize it," Coyote said. He looked almost anxious. "How long have you been away, again? Somebody's coming."
James swore under his breath in what sounded like Russian.
"Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all," Rhodey said, with the air of someone who had long ago reconciled himself to the fact that his life would always be exciting whether he wanted it to be or not.
Gabriel extended his senses, trying to figure out who was approaching. If they didn't want to be noticed—
Oh.
Well, she certainly wasn't trying hard to stay low.
"Kali," Gabriel said, puzzled.
"Kali?" Coyote and Rhodey said at the same time, both much louder.
"Oh fuck this, I'm out," Coyote said, making good on that and vanishing as soon as he'd finished speaking.
"Your ex, Kali?" Rhodey asked at almost the same time.
"Your what," Natasha and James said simultaneously, in identical tones of barely-contained shock.
James gave Gabriel a look that suggested he better start explaining, which made very little sense until he recalled that James was best friends with Steve and knew a lot about Steve's inner workings.
"Okay," Gabriel said, putting his hands up. "Before you start worrying about Steve's feelings, it wasn't like that." They'd just sort of fallen in together and eventually figured out that neither of them actually loved the other enough to be in a relationship. "It was sex. Mostly. And a fun relationship. More friends with benefits—"
"I'm gonna stop you there before you start going into detail," Natasha interrupted.
"I can censor myself when I feel like it, thank you, I know where to stop." Gabriel ran a hand through his hair. "How 'bout we go somewhere nice and wait for her to show up?"
It was less of a question and more of a suggestion, since he didn't wait for a response before whisking them off to somewhere that wasn't as close to his kids and two volatile hunters.
"Would it kill you to give us a warning?" James asked, long-sufferingly.
"Probably not," Gabriel said airily, dropping into a seat. He'd picked the nicest place he could find on short notice that was more on the fringes of Lebanon, on the opposite side of town as the bunker.
"You're going to make the hostess lose her job," Rhodey said, giving Gabriel a disapproving look.
"No, I won't." Gabriel casually drummed his fingers on the tabletop, arching his eyebrows.
Rhodey groaned, eyes flicking from Gabriel's fingers to his face and to the front of the restaurant. "You are ridiculous."
"If this is news to you, then you won't last very long," Kali's voice said. A second later she slid into the space next to Gabriel, arm sliding over the back.
Gabriel didn't stiffen the way his friends did. He did lean back, pretending to casually lean against the floor-to-ceiling window that provided a stunning view of more shops. Then, turning his head, he grinned at her. "Make yourself at home, sweetheart."
Kali didn't smile back, though she slowly raised an eyebrow. "I plan to."
"Wait." Rhodey looked between Kali and Gabriel. "This is Kali?"
"What were you expecting?" Gabriel raised his eyebrows, glancing at Rhodey without turning his head.
"Someone a little less likely to bite our heads off?" Rhodey's shoulders slumped. "Oh, who am I kidding? She's exactly up your alley."
"Speaking from experience?" Natasha asked, eyes on Kali.
"Less than you're thinking of," Rhodey said.
Kali appeared to be completely ignoring the other three. "You've caused a lot of trouble in a very short time span," she said, eyes on Gabriel.
"Call it a talent," he said. "You didn't come by just for small talk, Kali."
"Last I saw you, you were dead."
"Someone hasn't been paying attention. I've been back here before."
"I know." The words were quiet, Kali's tone sober. "And you were gone before I could find you."
Ah. "Looking for me, then? Thought you would've wiped your hands after the affair at the hotel."
"I felt it happen." Kali didn't need to specify what she meant. "It was only minutes after you sent us off."
"Remind me, how long was that after you tried to kill me?" Gabriel's voice hardened.
"You know why I tried," Kali said. "You expected it."
"I know gods. And I know you." He understood why, that didn't mean he liked it. But hey, better him than some random angel snatched off the street and killed to make a point. He'd known what he was getting into. "It'd have been better if you hadn't tried, y'know." He drummed his fingers against the table. "But you're not here to rehash old times, are you?"
"That was part of it." Kali glanced briefly outside. "As I said, you've caused a lot of trouble. Asgard is practically rioting."
"That's nothing new. From what I've seen, they could use the intrigue. I bet it's been boring over there."
"It's strange," Kali said softly. "For everything you said about what happened last time, I wouldn't have thought you'd try again now. Not after what happened the last time you were here."
"Wait…" Gabriel gave her an incredulous look. "Are you thinking that I'm going to kick off Ragnarok?"
"It was prophesied," Kali said in the tone of voice that meant she didn't give a shit.
"And I'm the kind of person who'd actually play along with that?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. "You know me so well." He put as much sarcasm into his voice as he could.
"You didn't have to tell me for me to figure out who you really were," Kali said. To someone who knew her, the confident tone was the equivalent of a billboard with "smug" written on it in neon with spotlights shining down on it. "That counts for something."
"I'll give you a point." Gabriel bumped his feet against Rhodey's as he shifted. "And maybe another if you decide not to buy into what Asgard's selling these days."
"You released the wolf and the snake," Kali said. "Should we expect the sun to be eaten sometime soon?"
"You'll have noticed that the Earth's still in one piece despite Jormungandr no longer being wrapped around it." Gabriel gave her a sharp look. "I don't abide by prophecies anymore. They're rarely ever true unless the people involved make it happen."
"You're calling the end of the Norse world a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"And you're blaming Fenris for the supposed actions of another wolf, with that talk about the sun," Gabriel retorted. "Maybe we're both wrong. I doubt I am." Maybe angels had enormous egos (he'd be the first to admit that this was completely true), but they had egos for a reason. "Either way, what happened to the whole 'if the world ends, you'll do it and nobody else'?"
"What about our conversation suggests that I've changed my mind?"
Rhodey was staring, looking like he was fascinated despite his better judgment. Natasha and James were both staring blankly, which meant neither of them trusted Kali a bit.
They were absolutely right not to, of course.
"It's been awhile since we last met," Gabriel said evasively. "Lots of things have changed." Mostly him, but he wasn't going to say that.
"And you think I have?" Kali looked amused, which for her was more along the lines of "no longer obviously frowning."
"Well…"
Both of them noticed the newcomer, and they turned simultaneously to try and see who had shown up. Rhodey made a surprised noise, but Gabriel's attention was on the woman by the doors.
She wasn't by the doors for long. As soon as she realized she'd been spotted, she was by the table in an instant, snapping a chair over to the empty spot at the end and sitting down angrily.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded.
Gabriel could feel his fingernails biting into his palm. He gazed coolly back. "Nice seeing you too, Frigg."
"Don't pull that," Frigg snapped, ignoring the reactions of the three humans at the table. "Answer me, Loki, what are you thinking, releasing them—"
"Freeing them," Gabriel retorted, refusing to let her finish.
"They were put there for a reason—"
"They were put there because a witch told Odin what she saw and he got paranoid," Gabriel hissed, leaning forward abruptly and slamming his hand onto the table. Kali was eyeing him warily. "For someone so smart he sure as hell acted like he'd never heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"You don't know that it wouldn't have happened anyway," Frigg shot back.
"After that it was a hell of a lot more likely!"
"Then what are you planning?"
"It's called being a nice person without having ulterior motives," Gabriel said. "I doubt you've heard of it."
"I don't need a repeat of your stupid little stunt in Ægir's hall," Frigg said coldly. Gabriel knew at least two people at the table were making a mental note about the "stunt" and filing it away to ask about later, but at the moment he really didn't care.
"I don't need you here and yet…" Gabriel gestured expansively towards Frigg.
"If you didn't want to deal with us then maybe you should have considered not breaking into our realm." Frigg very visibly collected herself and sat up, ramrod straight, in the chair. "I want to know what you're planning. Cut the crap, Loki."
"You first." Gabriel leaned back upright slowly. "You're here because you want to know what they're planning. None of them have any designs on Asgard."
"I find that a little hard to believe."
"Maybe it would be easier if you hadn't spent so long convincing yourself that you were the good guys," Gabriel said acidly.
"You didn't seem to have a problem with our supposed lack of morality when you were involved."
"When I was involved you didn't chain up kids."
"Do you care when children are involved, or just your children—?"
"How dare you—"
"Enough!" When Kali slammed her hands down on the table, it shook – and so did most of the windows in the restaurant. The humans went about obliviously. The three at the table had been very still for a while and appeared to have adopted the "if I don't move, they probably won't notice me" method of camouflage.
Frigg and Gabriel looked at her, furious but wary.
"Enough," Kali repeated, deadly quiet. "If you must have this argument, have it somewhere where I am not stuck between you. You—" She stabbed one finger at Frigg. "If you could take three seconds to think, you'd know the last thing he would do is let his children anywhere near you. I wouldn't be surprised if he spirits them off to wherever he's been hiding all these years. Are you finished, or do I have to leave?"
Gabriel could practically see Frigg's internal struggle between continuing to try and rip him a new one and heeding Kali's (fairly kindly given) warning. No matter what pantheon a god was in, nobody liked to mess with Kali, and barely anyone was stupid enough to do it on purpose.
"If I so much as hear of anything—" Frigg began darkly.
"I'll be sure to imagine various painful fates," Gabriel cut her off.
"Oh, you'd wish we were only as imaginative as the dwarves."
Gabriel jolted up out of his seat with a scowl, Frigg's parting comment being the last straw of what he could take from her right now. Frigg vanished with a snap of magic, and Kali shoved him back into his seat.
"You're welcome," Kali said, staring him down, "for helping you avoid a fistfight. Stay."
Gabriel crossed his arms and turned away from Kali to look out the window. "Wouldn't have been much of a fistfight," he muttered. But punching her would have felt more satisfying than just snapping his fingers. There was something about the physicality of the action that was better than the metaphysical nature of using Grace.
"You wouldn't risk them like that." Kali gave the three humans sitting at the other end of the table a meaningful glance.
Jaw tightening, Gabriel didn't respond beyond a sharp inhalation. Any fight between him and Frigg would have doubtlessly brought the restaurant down, putting every single human here at risk. No matter how good punching Frigg might have felt, it wasn't worth that risk. "You didn't show up here to stop a fight," he said eventually, the words curt. "Did you really just stop by to check if I was going to start Ragnarok?"
Kali's lips thinned, her eyes glittering suspiciously briefly before she blinked. "I had to be certain. You angels are difficult to read."
"Not that difficult when you get right down to it." Gabriel carefully flexed his fingers, working the tension out. "You think you could've done anything if I had been intending to end the world?" The words were wry.
Kali just looked at him, eyes inscrutable. There was a slight prick at his elbow, barely noticeable unless one was paying attention.
Gabriel gave her a flat look, lips thinning. "The same trick doesn't work twice on me. You want to try that again, Kali?"
"Nothing, then." Kali looked away, hands still in clear view. There was no sign that she had just tried to take a drop of Gabriel's blood again. He didn't want to know what would have happened if she'd succeeded with this particular vessel, since this was actually his body.
"No, you're not that fatalistic." Gabriel leaned in closer, knee bumping against hers. "You had a reason for coming here and it wasn't just to check up on the status of Ragnarok."
"Because you died," Kali hissed, head snapping around to glare at Gabriel. "You died and came back, even though angels don't. And then you were gone again, somewhere I couldn't see you. So when I could finally locate you, I wasn't going to let this chance go."
"And use it for what?"
Kali didn't respond immediately, her mouth turning downward as she met Gabriel's eyes. "To see for my own eyes that you really were alive. We had something, Loki. Something like that isn't easily brushed aside."
Gabriel arched an eyebrow. "You didn't seem to care much when you tried to kill me."
"Because you lied," Kali hissed. "And something had to be done."
"For the record, killing an archangel isn't the best way of trying to go up against another archangel, especially since I wasn't trying to hurt any of you. None of what we had was a lie, Kali."
"You were a lie."
"Nah." Gabriel gave her a lopsided grin that was slightly feral at the edges. "I'm Loki, Kali. Regardless of who I was before and who I am now, that won't ever change."
A moment passed before a slow bitter smile crossed Kali's face. "Your way with words hasn't changed, but you have. Humanity is all around you, Loki."
Gabriel glanced over at his silent friends before meeting Kali's eyes again. "Is that so bad? I regret a lot of things, but that? I don't regret being a little human."
There was a distinct wave of "damn right" that came from his friends, though none of them actually said anything.
Kali's eyes flickered between him and the others, something like resignation settling in them. "You aren't staying."
Gabriel shook his head minutely. "This place isn't home anymore. I came here to get my kids, and I'm leaving with them. Asgard can fuck off."
"And what of your friends?" Kali challenged. "You had a life here."
Gabriel ignored the twinge in his chest. "Had," he repeated. "It's been a while. Things have changed. I doubt I have many friends left other than the ones that aren't from here."
Kali side-eyed the three he'd brought along. "And they're worth it, over trying again here?"
"Absolutely."
Rhodey looked ridiculously pleased. Kali side-eyed the group of humans harder, looking for all the world like she thought if she could stare hard enough the mystery of Gabriel's fondness for them would answer itself.
"If you're sure," she said, mistrust clear in her tone
When she left, she left behind a humid breeze just on the far side of too hot, and the faintest scent of something that Gabriel had only ever smelled around her. Maybe it was perfume, or some kind of flower. He'd never figured it out.
"That was an experience," Natasha said. James snorted a laugh, one hand coming up to cover his mouth as if on a reflex.
It was like he'd broken some kind of tension. The three of them relaxed, sitting marginally more casually in their seats. Rhodey gave Gabriel a Look.
"I didn't understand half of the conversation that just happened but I'm pretty sure I should be thanking somebody that neither of those two did anything to us," he said.
"You're below Kali's notice, by her reckoning," Gabriel said, turning to look out the window. Two gods – two old ex-friends – was two more than he was willing to deal with. Especially when one of them had been Frigg.
It wasn't like he'd forgotten everything he used to like about his old pantheon. But he'd put it behind him. For a reason, he reminded himself. Whatever his relationship with them had been, before, he'd had a reason – a good one – to put that all aside.
"Tones?" Rhodey questioned, and the old nickname pulled Gabriel out of his thoughts.
"I'm good."
"Uh-huh," Rhodey said, in his yeah-sure-you-are voice that he'd had years to perfect.
"I dunno about you," James said, "but I'm about ready to head back. I've been sitting here getting silently menaced by a goddess, I think that means I deserve a rest."
Back to the bunker, or back to the right universe? Gabriel was still reluctant to go, if it meant leaving behind even one of the kids with no guarantee that the idea from earlier would pan out.
He got up anyway. "Fine by me. I only came here to talk to Kali anyway."
He snapped his fingers.
All three of them were making the same kind of face when they landed back in the bunker – the kind of face that suggested they were both fed up and mildly nauseous.
"Really?" Rhodey complained. "We just went over this, Tony."
Gabriel faked a grin that vanished as soon as he turned around, meaning to go find somewhere private or possibly see how the period-drama adventure had gone with the kids. Natasha didn't seem to want to let him leave without giving them answers.
"Who's Ægir?" She asked. Gabriel didn't quite stop in his tracks.
"A god," he said eventually, turning back around. "Rán's husband."
"Rán? The sea lady?" James said. "Huh. Wouldn't think she married."
"It would have been weird if she hadn't, back then," Gabriel said, half-hoping to derail the conversation Natasha had started.
"You ever meet him?" Natasha asked.
"I knew of him more than I knew him."
"I can't imagine him being super close to anybody if he's down at the bottom of the ocean with Rán," Rhodey said. "Except for her, maybe."
James nodded sagely. "Doesn't seem too sociable."
Gabriel made a vague shrugging motion. He didn't have much of an opinion on Ægir. One memorable incident at his hall didn't mean he'd known the guy very well. "Maybe he's a private guy." He turned back around again and left before anyone could ask anything else.
He found an unoccupied, private room that was fairly far down in the bunker, but it didn't stay private for long; he'd hardly tried to hide his return, and Fenris had apparently figured out doorknobs even in wolf form. He padded over to Gabriel, not bothering to close the door, and curled up in a large furry ball, half on Gabriel's lap.
"Get bored of socializing?" Gabriel asked, scratching behind Fenris's ear. Fenris made a low rumbling noise that wasn't quite a growl, evidently pleased by the attention.
Gabriel closed the door with a snap of his fingers (on the other hand). Even without reaching out his senses to check, he could guess what the others were up to: looking up Ægir, no doubt, or something along the lines of "stories with Loki and dwarves."
He'd rather avoid that fallout as long as possible.
His temper was still simmering from the altercation with Frigg, but around one of his kids Gabriel was more inclined to try and keep it in check. Not that he liked Fenris more than he did Rhodey or any of the others, even though parents were probably allowed to be biased, but none of them had gotten this close so fearlessly.
And Fenris had dealt with enough. Gabriel didn't want to snap at him for something Frigg had done.
Fenris didn't try to talk to him, although that was most likely because he still hadn't worked out how to talk while in wolf form. He did make a whiny noise whenever Gabriel stopped petting him, which spoke volumes about his priorities.
Gabriel could feel scars, underneath Fenris's fur, where chains had dug in for centuries. His fur was more ragged in some places, lighter in others where it hadn't been bound quite as tightly. Some of it was too old for Gabriel to have fixed, though his attention had…wandered a little, when he'd first gotten Fenris out. He'd been so fixated on Fenris he couldn't concentrate well enough to heal Fenris.
Fenris made a high, inquisitive noise, and Gabriel belatedly realized he'd let his hand fall to the side while his mind wandered.
"Sorry, kid."
Surprisingly, Fenris shook his hand away when Gabriel tried to keep giving him scratches. He sat up, giving Gabriel a narrow look. With a movement like he was shaking off water, Fenris shifted into his human form, still sprawled over Gabriel.
"What happened?" he asked, sitting up to curl up against Gabriel's chest, leaning his head into the dip of Gabriel's shoulders. "You're upset. And you smell like Kali." There was a slight hesitation, as if he also smelled Frigg but didn't want to mention it.
"Yeah, I had a visit from her. Wanted to be sure I wasn't about to start Ragnarok or anything." Gabriel wrapped an arm around Fenris's torso, pulling him in more tightly and pressing his cheek into Fenris's hair. "Went pretty well, actually," he added a moment later. "We both lost our temper a little, but nothing was destroyed."
"She's not telling anyone, is she?" Fenris sounded worried.
"Nah, kiddo. We'll be fine." Gabriel tightened his grip reassuringly. "In any case, Asgard's aware of what's happening, but that's not going to be an issue now either."
Fenris tilted his head up, eyeing Gabriel curiously. "Did you scare them off?"
"I wish." Gabriel's lips twisted as he remembered Frigg. "They're not happy, but everything's fine. They're not getting you guys, I promise."
Tucking his head back into the crook of Gabriel's neck, Fenris slumped into his side. "Okay," he murmured. "I trust you."
After how badly he'd messed up, Gabriel couldn't even begin to express how much it meant that Fenris could say that so easily. Chest painfully tight, Gabriel pressed his lips into Fenris's hair.
The least he could do now was figure out how to get Hel home as well.
Thankfully no one actually walked up to him the next day and started asking questions about what they'd found out regarding Loki and dwarves or anything else about deep sea gods. Gabriel wasn't too sure how he would've handled that, but it was easy enough to ignore the sidelong glances and Rhodey's lips occasionally twitching before he looked away.
Sure, he'd gotten up to some weird things back in the day, but it wasn't like the Avengers were any different regarding their everyday lives. Or some of the villains they faced.
They had a villain called Batroc the Leaper who regularly went up against Steve trying to out-jump him. Which always failed miserably since Steve could go circles around him and had done so before finally bagging him and taking him to the proper authorities.
If they wanted to go even further into Norse mythology, they'd come across some not-so-good things that he also had no desire to explain. Things had been different back then; he'd been different, and he'd gotten tired of having to justify his actions to a group of humans with a completely different moral compass.
In fact, he was at the point where he didn't care anymore and just didn't bother with it. They didn't think the same way, so there was no conceivable reason that they'd understand.
What Gabriel did do was make sure the three kids had food before stealing some potatoes from Rhodey's plate and saying, "So, I've got a plan."
"Does this plan involve you not stealing more of my potatoes?" Rhodey asked, tugging his plate closer to his chest. "I will use the mayo."
Gabriel made a face. "What – ugh. Don't do that."
"Then stop stealing my potatoes, man." Rhodey poked his hand with a fork when Gabriel tried again. "Mayo."
"What's the plan?" Natasha interrupted.
"Well, it's not a whole plan yet." Gabriel shrugged. "It involves fast talking, but it also depends on that Hel's temperament. Whole thing could go down the drain if I don't approach this right."
"Why don't you just toss her in a bag and then drag her over here? You're good at that shit," Dean said.
"I'm not saying I'm not tempted – because I am – but that wouldn't solve anything except to have two goddesses pissed off at me. That kind of transfer of power needs to be done willingly, even if it is just basically relocating from one Niflheim to the other."
"It sounds a lot more complicated than that," Sam said slowly.
Gabriel shot him a wry look. "You want me to get into the nitty-gritty details about how the whole thing works? English doesn't have all the words I need for this, and it involves concepts you can't wrap your head around since you don't have an understanding of what it entails. So the simplified version that you guys can understand is 'Hey, let's move! Here's my stuff and there's yours. Let's swap places.'"
Sam made a face, but he didn't demand the details, which was an acceptable compromise.
"Is this something you should be talking to this universe's Hel about?" Natasha asked. "She is pretty closely involved in all this."
"I'll drop her a line or something." He was pretty sure Hel had vanished back into her realm, but he could work something out. He'd gotten into the realm of the dead once before.
…Maybe he'd just send a superfast letter or something, this time.
"But other than that, we're pretty much done here?" Rhodey finished hopefully.
"Yeah, yeah. We've got everybody, I just needed to figure some stuff out with them first." Gabriel waved a hand dismissively.
"Hel's coming?" Sleipnir asked hopefully, making the other two (who probably hadn't understood a word of the conversation) perk up.
"If I can manage it," Gabriel replied, switching to Allspeak. "And you know me, even if it doesn't work out I'll keep trying until I can manage it."
That pulled a grin out of Sleipnir. Jormungandr had bolted his food and then curled up in a snakey pile with his head resting on the table, but he probably would have smiled, too.
"But not now?" Fenris asked, looking like he was hoping he might be wrong.
"I don't think so," Gabriel said apologetically. "It's more complicated with Hel than it was with you three. But nothing's stopping me from coming back here, if I need to."
Fenris looked only slightly mollified. "Are we leaving now?"
"Not if you don't want to."
"It's still awkward only getting half of a conversation," Rhodey muttered.
"No one's stopping you from learning Norse." Gabriel gently elbowed him. "Time to expand your repertoire, maybe?"
"If I tried to learn Old Norse, you'd insist on teaching me," Rhodey replied. "And no offense, but that's never happening."
"Rhodey, you wound me!"
"You tried to teach Bain from MIT a couple phrases in Italian," Rhodey reminded him. "Remember how that went?" He made a face.
"I was sixteen," Tony protested.
"Don't remind me. What did you even see in her?"
"Wait," Dean said, looking interested, "what happened? You don't mean Sunset Bain, do you?"
"Don't," Tony warned, twitching slightly at the memory of her.
"I wasn't going to," Rhodey retorted. "You think I want to tell that story either?"
"Now I'm really interested," Dean said.
"You're not increasing your chances of being told," Tony informed him. He stood up, making Natasha's attention sharpen. James, who might possibly have been asleep the whole time, flinched like a guy getting elbowed into waking up. He didn't make any noise, though, which was impressive.
"What can I bribe you with?" Dean leaned across the table towards Rhodey. Sam snorted.
"I'd tell you if I hadn't gotten involved in that whole fiasco, too," Rhodey sighed. "Can we end this conversation?"
"You're the one who brought it up, sweet cheeks," Tony said, grinning at Rhodey.
The grin faded when thunder rumbled outside. It sounded like a storm had broken directly over the bunker. Everyone at the table looked up, nearly in sync.
Everyone except Jormungandr, that was, who had bolted out of his chair and wound himself around Gabriel's legs.
"A thunderstorm?" Sam frowned at the sky – or rather, the ceiling. Dean was frowning at the hurriedly-vacated seats where Fenris and Sleipnir used to be.
Gabriel leaned down to gently disentangle Jormungandr. "Keep an eye on your brother for me," he said, handing him over to Fenris.
"Gabriel?"
"I'll only be a minute," Gabriel said, and turned towards the door.
Rekha Sharma is Kali, as that was her actress on SPN. I really wanted to put Kali in Redemption, but it just didn't work out. Anyway, that convo is pretty much what I would've wanted to have in there if I could've fit her in. But since it didn't fit in that story, it fit in here! They deserved one last talk after what happened in Hammer of the Gods.
Also...Sunset Bain...is not a character in MCU as far as I know, but she is one in Marvel comics in the 616 canon. And she's an asshole. Tony's still freaked out by her in comics, even years later.
And a word from Alatar:
Do I have a song for Kali? No, but I have a pretty cool song from a Bollywood movie that I listen to to get into the right mood to write her. It's called Silsila Ye Chaahat Ka; YouTube has a couple pretty good videos, but I think the best one can be found under my 'bollywood' tag wizard-fallen-angel (I swear I don't mean to keep promo'ing my blog, that's seriously the best video I've found).