Coterie

By: Shadow Chaser

Disclaimer:

All Marvel characters do not belong to me, they belong to Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Comics. Liberties were taken with the Norse myths.

Story:

Chapter 7

"Lady Hel," Thor greeted warily, Mjolnir crackling with unspent and unsteady magicks in his hand. The magicks were unsteady due to the presence of the Queen of the Realm of the Dead. She was never addressed as Queen, seeing that there was only one ruling Queen and it was the Allmother Frigga. Instead, throughout the realms, a ruling female was always addressed with the proper title of Lady. Sif had earned her Lady title by being the 'queen' of all the Asgardian warriors, besting many of them in single combat.

"I've got a clear shot- shit!" Thor looked up to see the man of iron suddenly fall, the repulsors keeping him aloft dying in an abrupt sputter of light. He crashed to the ground with a loud metallic crunch and a pained groan.

"Stark!" Rogers' tried to move to help his friend up when he froze in place, seemingly entrapped in a crackling forcefield of sorts.

At about the same time, Thor saw the tell-tale black blur of an arrow being shot at Hel before it was stopped mid-air as she all but glanced at it. Seemingly oblivious to anything else, she held up he other hand before Thor could even launch a bolt of lightning against her and he found himself frozen, Mjolnir half-drawn, unable to move even an inch. He could hear and see the crackling of magicks that held him in place and tried to fight against it. He tried to push at it, but hissed in pain as his forearm came in contact with the barrier.

"I can't move!" Barton called over the comm.

"I...I can't feel the Other Guy..." Banner sounded breathless, a half hopeful, half fearful tone in his voice, "oh...wait, I feel him...holy shit, what the hell...she put him to sleep?!"

It was as if he had been entrapped in Thanos' immobile spell once more, like what had happened on the Bifrost a little over a year ago. He fought against the magicks, but only served to burn welts on his bare arms and knuckles.

"Please do not fight. I wish not to hurt you," Hel turned to look at him and Thor was struck at how empty her eyes were.

"She's got the same magicks as Thanos?!" Stark asked as he managed to pull himself up, but he sounded pained. However as soon as he was in a crouching position, there was the sound of screeching metal and out of the corner of his eye, Thor saw that he was unable to move anymore.

"Sure as hell feels like it, ow!" Barton had tried to draw another arrow, his hands held immobile when he had released the arrow in his bow seconds earlier.

Thor was shocked at how fast things had moved, and how powerless they all were. The Lady Hel he knew would never do such a thing.

"Then you do not know me as well as you should, Crown Prince," Hel addressed him and Thor frowned, knowing that he had not voiced his silent question until she seemingly smiled her dead smile at him. "I have had this power for a very, very long time. And to entrap your mortal friends is much easier. In fact, I am directing most of my energies at you. Mjolnir is a curious weapon to entrap, but since it is in your hands, it makes my spellcasting much easier."

She directed her dead-eyed gaze to all of them, her glasses flashing a little against the bright sunlight pouring through the smoke and destruction that littered Trafalgar Square. "Again, I ask you do not fight."

"Well, we ain't surrendering so easily if that's what you're wondering about, lady!" Barton snarled.

"I merely wish to be the deliverer," there had been only twice that Thor had ever seen the Queen of the dead; once when he was but a young boy, the other time was during Loki's coterie days. Both times he vaguely remembered her with a regal, if chilling sounding voice. Now was no different, and he shuddered a little at the imperious command of her tone.

"If you think you have defeated us-"

"Still the same after all these hundreds of years, Crown Prince," Hel looked at him again and shook her head, her strawberry-blonde ringlets swishing back and forth as she suddenly laughed, a light airy one if it was not for the wailing of dead souls in her laugh. "Does this bravado not tire you out, milord? Declarations of warriors who would stand in your place should you fall on this day? It is a wonder that the House of Odin still stands to this day."

"I will not-"

"Well, perhaps it has only stood because of at least one clever Prince amongst the warrior-happy ones..." she seemingly murmured to herself, but Thor tensed. He knew exactly who she was talking about and the thought that perhaps Loki had freed her and Jormungandr from their imprisonment briefly flitted through his mind before he discarded it just as quickly. Loki would never-

"Yet he would, would he not?" Hel stared at him again, tilting her head to the side as she asked her rhetorical question. "The things shown to him while he was in the abyss, of what Thanos gleaned from him and put upon him in return for the Tesseract," she blinked, "you think of my words to divide the kinship between the two of you, do you not?"

"Loki would never-" this time Thor voiced the thought that had been within him since her arrival. "You seek to divide us!"

"But why would I?" for a moment he was struck at how alike her words were to Loki's that had only fallen in similar manner from his lips a little over a year ago. It was easy to see where Loki had perhaps developed his resentment from, the little seeds planted so long ago that Thor was struck at how inadequate and unobservant he had been for so long. He shook his head, the tips of his hair crackling and burning against the forcefield holding him in place.

"You lie-"

"I merely know the truth from the tales spoken from the dead. I have no reason to lie when all of those who enter my realm have reached the ultimate truth," she said in a simple tone and he loathed to agree with her.

She was the guardian of the realm of the dead and thus spoke a certain truth. Those who died, even with regrets, died knowing that their lies and truth could not be spoken anymore. He wondered if in that brief moment of death that his brother had achieved, had he spoken to Lady Hel? Is that where he had sought to free her, perhaps knowing that King Helblindi would revive him? But that was impossible and implausible. Loki could not have known that more than he, that much he was certain of. Even he had been shocked at his revival by the Casket of Ancient Winters-

Thor's thoughts screeched to a halt as he realized that Lady Hel had been telling the truth, and in that truth had also weaved her most powerful magicks. Loki had his words as the Silvertongue, but they contained no magicks, relying purely on the manipulation of things spoken and assumptions within a person's mind. He read the truth, falsehoods, and bent them to his will by sheer words alone.

Lady Hel wove magicks into her words, the subtle magicks of manipulation of not the mind, but the heart. As death was to life, so was love to hatred. It was truth that she gleaned the words from those who passed through her realm, but she also wove their souls and magicks to speak to those who were alive. And the only reason why he knew this was because of the thousand or so years of being with Loki that he understood on some level, his clever words, hearing the difference.

His resistance must have shown on his face as her smile widened a fraction and she tapped her lip, "At least the years of being next to the clever Prince has not addled your wits, milord."

"What do you want?" Thor was tired of her idle talk, "if you wish to hold us here while Jormungandr-"

"That is my intention," her dead smile disappeared from her lips as she tilted her head and had a faraway gaze in her eyes, "but it seems that his phobia of water has gotten to him. He is not putting up an effective resistance against Agent Coulson or his team..." She suddenly waved her other hand, her fingers flicking this way and that before Thor saw various portals open, the whispers all converging and overriding each other, a cacaphony of noise that sounded like the wailing of the damned-

And just like that, with another blue-glowing flick of her fingers, the portals closed and the HYDRA soldiers that had been behind their barriers all but gone.

"That should at least bolster some resistance before I go to him-"

"You will not leave-"

She threw him a withering look, so eerily like Loki's that Thor wondered who had learned from whom in those years. Certainly it had to have been Hel learning from Loki, as he remembered his brother's scowl from their younger years, but then again, Hel was the ruler of the realm of the dead and far, far older. Perhaps Loki had met Hel and it was the start of the coterie? He shook his head inwardly, these were questions not for now, but to ask his brother later, especially now with Hel's clear involvement in Jormungandr's affairs.

"Come now, you are all trapped, unless you would all like to suffer burns-"

"Heimdall-"

"Cannot see me, milord," Hel's dead smile was back, "and in such an open battlefield as this, I do not believe he would risk transporting me to Asgard in such a manner. I am still afforded the rights of a dignitary-"

"You are afforded no rights based on your actions here!"

"Entrapping these candle-flamed mortals? Stopping HYDRA's soldiers from attacking you? There are many who would see this as a divine intervention or at least preventing more senseless deaths on both sides."

"You sent them to Rotterdam-"

"You do not know where I have sent them-"

"You said they would help Jormungandr against the son of Coul and his team-"

She shook her head and laughed, sending an involuntary shudder up Thor's spine as her glasses flashed once against the smoky sunlight, "You want to believe the words coming out of my mouth, out of the magicks that I weave, so badly you would believe it in your heart as so."

There was the sound of something stumbling against rocks before Thor turned his head, the crackle of the tips of his hair burning against the forcefield that held him in place. He saw Dr. Banner lean against the rubble pile he had been hiding behind, freed from the magick prisons they were all held in.

"I...I can't get the Other Guy to wake up," Banner looked at them, his expression warring between sheepishness and being terrified. Thor did not know what would happen if Hel decided to attack the good doctor with the Hulk seemingly suppressed within him.

It was also a second later that he realized there were no forthcoming words of encouragement or an order by Captain Rogers to flee the area and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the good Captain trying to say words, but no sound would come out.

Thor opened his mouth to tell the doctor to flee while he could, but even as he spoke the first word, he could not feel his vocal chords vibrating and realized that whatever spell Hel had used, it had initially allowed him to communicate with her, but that he had been the only one to do so in that time. Now, it seemed that he had been rendered mute while Dr. Banner was able to speak.

"Dr. Banner," Hel seemingly glided over the rubble to stop in front of the doctor who did not run as was probably the most prudent thing, but rather drew himself up and stood firm. His lips were pressed together, tight with fear, but Thor also saw the courage that allowed him to face his hardships against those who tormented him. He would not be cowed by the Queen of the Realm of the Dead.

"No, no, good doctor, it is not your time yet," Hel most likely read an unspoken thought from him as she shook her head and smiled at him. For a second Thor thought he saw the genuine smile from her lips, but realized he was mistaken as the smile looked like her deathly one.

"You are so brave," she stretched out her hand towards his face, but stopped only inches away from his skin, caressing the air in between, "kind, understanding...with a heart...tormented much like him. You remind me of ways like him, foolishly brave, foolishly noble, foolishly doing what would end up breaking him in the long run. Yet...perhaps it is just a facet of the brief candles of lives you all have..."

She withdrew her hand into the folds of her dress, "I look forward to the day I greet you in the gates to Helheim. Valhalla may be closed to you, but you will have a spot of kindness on that day."

"You're going to greet me soon?" Thor marveled at how calm the doctor sounded, yet at the same time how on edge and realized that it was true, even if the monstrous green giant known as the Hulk was contained, the doctor was always angry. He always sought to suppress that anger in a calm facade that belied the truth of his feelings.

"No," Hel drew out her hand again and in it held a bulbous container of sorts, the cork stoppered tightly into the small potion-like bottle. It rose into the air, floating inches above her palm before it traveled over to the doctor, who instinctively cupped his where it dropped neatly into it.

"What-"

"It is what you seek," she said neutrally, "Loki would know what to do with it."

"Loki-"

Thor suddenly stumbled and nearly fell to the ground if not for Mjolnir's crackling discharge that made him straighten as the forcefield magicks all but disappeared. At the same time, he heard Hel's laugh as if it was floating on the wind. He turned to see where she had gone, but knew that it was fruitless-

"Doc! Get away!" Thor turned to see Rogers sprinting towards the doctor before all but shoving him back over the pile of rubble as he threw his shield towards the ground. Thor hear the ping of something bouncing off of the shield before it traveled high into the air where it promptly exploded.

He ducked, holding Mjolnir high to protect himself as he heard the hissing of gases being released above and realized that the Captain had saved them all by virtue of recovering faster than any of them from the release of the spell.

"I'm not getting any particulates raining down- Cap! Steve!" the man of iron's voice turned frantic and Thor lowered his arm to see Rogers go down on one knee, his face greying terribly before he collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap.

"Steve! Captain Rogers!" Banner and Barton both called out at the same time as they leapt towards the fallen soldier and Thor hurried over, wondering what he could do.

"Steve, come on," Stark had already landed next to the fallen soldier and was cradling his head, "come on buddy. Don't die on me..."

"Hah..." Rogers' blue eyes were bright against his grey face as he choked a breath, "not gonna die right now...but I don't feel so well..."

"You could have saved your energy-"

"I knew...she was going...to...t-try something...l-like that," Rogers smiled a little, his lips thin and stretched tight, "in the m-myths...s-she was L-Loki's daughter...g-gotta have a bit...of the T-Trickster God in y-you...r-right?"

"Thank you, Cap...I...just...rest now, okay? You'll be back to normal in no time," Banner had knelt down next to Stark and was grimacing as Rogers nodded before looking at all of them as if he wanted to desperately memorize their faces one last time before his eyes slid shut.

Thor felt like someone was squeezing his heart too tight as he had recognized what Rogers had done. He had seen it on the faces of warriors who had fallen in battle, but had still been alive when they were carried off to the healing halls. They had looked into the faces of their trusted companions, hoping that their faces were not the last time they would see them and that they would wake beside the warrior when he recovered. Many times, most of those warriors died...

"Director, Captain Rogers is down...No, not deceased, but the poison's got him," Barton stood up and moved away from the small group, his hand touching his ear as he stared up in the sky. Thor noted that the normally stoic archer's eyes were blinking rapidly before he seemingly regained his composure and turned back to them. Or more specifically, Barton was staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Roger that...I...will let him know sir...yes, sir. Understood, sir. Barton out."

Barton's lips compressed into a thin line before he opened his mouth and then closed it, his brow furrowing. He opened his mouth again and said in a tight voice, "There are four Asgardians on the Helicarrier right now. Lady Sif and the Warriors Three was how they introduced-"

Thor swore as he realized what Lady Sif and the Warriors Three's presence meant on the Helicarrier. They were not there for idle moments or anything of that sort, they were on Earth for the sole purpose of bringing Loki back to Asgard to answer the Allfather's summons.

Which meant that Loki had freed Jormungandr, Lady Hel, and probably the others of his coterie from their prison. He did not hesitate as he immediately held Mjolnir aloft and flew back towards the Helicarrier.

Loki kept his hands to his side, presenting a non-threatening target as much as possible, as he looked at Sif. It was not that he did not trust her to impale him with her double-bladed sword that she held by her side, it was that the SHIELD agents behind him were tensing and some had their hands to the butts of their guns. His presentation was more for their benefit than for the Warriors Three and Lady Sif. It would be unbecoming if he was 'accidentally' shot in the back by some enterprising mortal Agent of SHIELD.

He had taken off the earpiece as he had made his way to the hanger bay, even though a part of him craved to try to hear bits and pieces of a one-sided conversation the Avengers must have been having with Hel. Her unexpected presence in London meant a lot of things to him, but the chief reason was that she had willingly left her confinement, or prison, of her realm. There was perhaps the misconception that she, as the ruler of Helheim, was free to leave as she pleased, but that was not the case. She could only be summoned by the Allfather himself to leave her realm. Any knowledge of leaving the realm without permission meant a violation of her imprisonment and would be dealt with swift punishment.

He suspected that if she was in London, she had also shielded herself from Heimdall's gaze, cloaking herself in the shadows of her magicks. Part of her sentence was to not use that particular power and perhaps was one of the reasons why the Warriors Three and Lady Sif had been sent to Midgard to collect him. They had said so as much, that he was accused of treason for freeing Jormungandr and Hel. They believed him to have cloaked her in the shadows and away from Heimdall's gaze with his magicks. But also of freeing Fenrir...that made Loki instantly cautious.

The caution was not borne out of fear, but rather because of Fenrir's strengths and abilities. Fenrir was kept in Lake Amsvatnir, located in the mountainous regions of the flat-asteroid realm that was Asgard. Hidden deep within the woods and warded by several powerful spells and the like, Fenrir's prison was the only one closest to Asgard itself. It was because everyone knew how deadly and powerful Fenrir was during the days of the coterie and the Allfather himself had made sure that Fenrir was close enough to be kept an eye on. The mortals had adapted the adage of what the Allfather had done – keep friends close, but keep enemies closer. And it was literal in Fenrir's case.

"Will you yield?" Sif asked, her dark eyes darting this way and that as the other agents who had come out to the hanger bay erupted in murmurs. The other three behind her had also put their hands cautiously to their weapons, but had not draw or activated them. At least they understood the tenuous situation they were in, Loki supposed as he shrugged lightly.

"The Allfather accuses me of treason?" he asked lightly.

Sif chewed her lower lip, "In so many words, Prince Loki." He had never known her to be so formal with him, and even rarely used his title. "He wishes for you to return so that he may question you regarding their disappearance."

"But not treason," Loki countered and Sif reluctantly canted her head in acquisition of her words of error. "Yet I suppose the Court thinks I have freed them...dull idiotic Courtiers, the lot of them."

"Your public perception still needs work," Sif replied a little dryly.

"And pray tell, why should I return at this moment? I am in the middle of highly important things," he waved an absent hand towards the hallway that led back to the laboratory.

"Loki, they have escaped- someone freed them-"

"You think it is I who did such a thing-"

Sif's eyebrows rose up in incredulity, "Everyone thinks it was your doing! Even the Allfather! You...you had associations with them, ran with them for years, while your brother, mother, and father all worried about you during that time and even now!"

"If they worried for me, then they certainly did not show it," he snorted with a shake of his head, "they never cared about who I associated with until I presented them at Court and heard the whispers that they were unnatural, that the Prince was associating himself with unnatural and unbecoming companions who would bring about the ruin of the House of Odin."

"Their magicks were unnatural-"

"Only to your feeble warrior-centric mind, Sif. Their magicks were a thing to behold and admire," he snarled back at her before taking a deep breath and composing himself once more. It would be too easy to take her apart with far nastier words, but at the same time he knew it would only provoke her friends behind her and Loki had no inclination of fighting them and risk SHIELD shooting him from behind should they decide that he was once again, a threat. Plus there was something about ripping Sif apart with his words in such a pathetic setting that unsettled him. He would rather do it in front of the Court itself than in front of these mortals who would probably soon forget the conversation here. The Court had the same prejudices as she had and it would have been lovely to let them all know that magick-users did exist amongst them and would not stand to be trodden upon time and time again.

"I hate to interrupt, but if you're trying to make a case for yourself that you didn't free the three in question, you're doing a piss poor job," Fury's voice broke through as he and Sif turned to see the Director of SHIELD walking out of one of the halls, brushing past Agent Hill who stood at attention.

"I was not 'making my case' as you think," Loki countered, wondering what the Director was going to do. It was superficial at the very least when Fury most likely would say that the Warriors Three and Lady Sif could escort him back to the Allfather. Superficial because Loki knew that the Director had no real authority over him on Midgard; the only thing to be held over him was the geas made – but even that could be circumvented as it was not an all-encompassing one like the one he had made a little over a year ago.

"Still, I'd like to know the specifics of why I should allow Mr. Odinson here to go with you four back to Asgard," Fury directed his one-eyed gaze to Sif and the others, all of whom frowned a little.

"This is a matter of Asgardian-"

"No," Fury held up a finger, "this is a matter that's on Midgard, on Earth, and for that matter, on my damn Helicarrier. You, even if you're from a different world, entered the premises of the rulers here, in the sky. I'm pretty sure that even for all of your advance tech you still have diplomatic rules to follow."

"This matter is of a questioning of one of our own-"

"I dare say that Asgard embraced me as my own-"

"Loki, shut up and let me talk," Fury twisted to look at him briefly before turning back to face the other four. "Now even if it was the questioning of one of your own citizens, I'm pretty sure he came of his own volition, unlike the last two times he was here, and that means he was extended some diplomatic courtesy." Fury held up a finger pointed straight at Loki who blinked, "Ah, don't say another word."

Loki could only smirk and mimed to obey. This had been an interesting development and it actually sounded as if Fury did not want him to go. He could only guess at the multitude of reasons why; more than one reason being that Fury thought he could be used, but in this case, Loki was more than happy to let the Director of SHIELD fight this battle. It was amusing, especially since Fury was not twisting the words, but more like bending whatever diplomatic rules he figured the Asgardians had to follow. He wondered if Thor, on his many visits, had deigned to teach Fury and SHIELD the diplomatic rules one followed whenever they were in other realms other than Midgard.

It was amusing in a way to see Fury apply some of those rules and common courtesies to the pathetic mortals of Midgard. Faendral was right when he had spoken about how they used to go to Midgard, throw some 'lighting' and other sorts of things and make the mortals worship them. In the many years, they seemed to now think themselves equal to the other realms, that they were indeed ready for a higher form of war and thus deserved such diplomatic courtesies when paid a visit from the heralds of Asgard.

How very wrong they were...but, Loki would not tell them, not yet at least.

"Even if he was responsible for freeing Jorumungandr, Hel, and Fenrir from their prisons," Fury tilted his head a little, "it still means we get priority in questioning and arresting him."

"The Allfather's rule-"

"May be in control of all the realms, but then again, you've never really paid much attention to the realm of the mortals until now, haven't you? So why should we, little briefly-candled mortals as you probably see us, be submissive to the Allfather's rule? Think about it. Our trial and prosecution of Loki here, if he did do it, mind you – we do have a little thing in the United States, and most of the major countries that oversees SHIELD, called due process. Innocent until proven guilty."

Sif's frown deepened, "And you believe him innocent of this crime?"

"I believe in the freedom of information and where I can get all of my information from. There are many sides to a story. Something I think you and the rest of Asgard are known to retell in your feasts."

Loki was a little impressed, though by not much considering he knew that Fury was a very shrewd negotiator, especially when making geas contracts now. There was also the matter that Fury had somehow convinced the Avengers during the first Chitauri invasion that Agent Coulson had died and that they needed to 'avenge' him. Instead of twisting the words like himself, Fury used those words, turning what Loki had intended as insults into a self-depreciating play on the plight of the inhabitants of this realm.

"Like I said, our trial and prosecution of Mr. Odinson here would be brief. Probably just a blink of an eye in your lifespans. So the fact that you're demanding his return here means that you're depriving us of a method of our justice. Plus, you forget. Jormungandr and Hel are attacking Midgard. Not Asgard. Midgard. So please, forgive me if I think that your half-assed attempts to be threatening is probably just bunk. You're gonna have to threaten a lot more effectively and also, probably convince his brother that you can take him into custody."

No sooner than those words left Fury's mouth that Loki heard the distant electrical charge and buildup of Mjolnir before Thor landed unceremoniously near them with a heavy thunk. The timing could not have been coincidental as Thor stalked over, and Loki wondered if Fury had used his chance of talking to delay any further action from the four against him until Thor arrived. He had to give the mortal some credit for being very observant considering that Thor would probably do everything to prevent him from going to the Allfather unless it was he, himself who dragged him to the Bifrost landing site.

"Thor," Sif acknowledged with a brief small smile.

"Sif," Thor replied, "what proof does the Allfather have of Loki's involvement in their escape?"

"I was not privy to that information," Sif shook her head, "but the Allfather has commanded us to take him back to answer to him."

Thor seemed to war with something within him before he turned and stared at Loki who still kept his hands to his side, showing a non-threatening pose as much as possible.

"What explanation can you give, brother, of Hel's appearance in London? You said that Jormungandr-"

"I only speculated that Jormungandr's fear of water would put him in London more than Rotterdam," Loki replied back, keeping his voice mild and light and saw Thor frowned.

"Your play on words is not convincing-"

"Why should I convince you, Thor," he threw a withering look at Thor and at Fury, "the Director here may have put up a valiant effort to stall for time until your arrival, but it was because he knew how you would react if I so happenstance been whisked away by these four."

"The temptation to let them take you is great," Thor rumbled back, eyes narrowed, and tone low.

"Sarcasm does not become you brother," Loki rolled his eyes before looking at Fury again, "and what is it for you to break the contract if I am to be taken by them? For all you know, the Allfather would have imprisoned me and thus you would not be able to fulfill your side of the agreement by handing over Jormungandr."

The reaction was immediate as Fury doubled over a little before holding up a hand to ward off the sudden crescendo of guns being readied and all now pointed at him. The mortal took several deep breaths before slowly righting himself. "I did promise, didn't I," Fury spoke through tightly clenched teeth as his body slowly relaxed, "but for all we know, you can't deliver on the means to the cure if the Allfather imprisons you."

But Loki was ready and let the brief pull of pain from the contract pass through him, his eyes only crinkling a bit as the pain spiked before he soothed it with a mental assurance that he would fulfill his side of the bargain. He could easily ready the frustration and disappointment in Director Fury's eyes even though his expression betrayed nothing. There had been the hope that Fury tried to convince him that he should be more cooperative, but Loki knew that the mortals did not understand. All of this...all of this nonsense was just that – nonsense. As long as he did not step outside where Heimdall could see him in open air, then he would be fine.

"Thor, this is ridiculous. Let us take Loki back. If he is to be imprisoned, then we will explain to the Allfather the geas contract he has made with this mortal and see it fulfilled under strict supervision in the Healing Hall on Asgard," Sif shook her head, as she looked at Thor before looking at Loki.

He could see her trying to plead with him to see reason, at least just this once, that it was to be fair that the Allfather's summons could not be ignored. There might have been a time, long ago, where Loki knew that those summons could not be ignored, but that time had long passed and he answered to no one. He was the Allfather's advisor, not even the favored Prince and thus had no obligations-

The roar of the quinjet settling down in the hanger bay drew everyone's gaze to it as Loki saw the ramp open and Dr. Banner hurry out, one of his hands clenched. Surprisingly his clothes was not in tatters as Loki had been led to believe whenever he turned into the green monster, but rather was still pressed, if a bit wrinkled from the hours in the lab. Did Hel's presence in London have anything to do with it, he wondered.

Behind the lead quinjet, two others made their approach and landed with wounded SHIELD agents pouring out. A couple sported grisly head wounds, their faces half covered in bandages, nearly making them unidentifiable except for the tags they wore. But he paid them no mind as he saw Banner run past Thor and up to him, stopping before him with his hand outstretched.

"I...got the cure...at least I think it's the cure. Hel said...it was," Banner huffed several breaths as he opened his hand and Loki stared at the small bulbous bottle in his palm.

He gently picked up the bottle, holding it delicately in between his index finger and thumb as he stared at it. His thoughts swirled as he tried to make sense of the gift that Hel had obviously given. There was no use spelling it, since he recognized the bottle and design as one to prevent such things from happening. It was the same ones he had used during his time in the coterie, specially made by their mutual teacher. The only way to know what was inside was to open it and Loki knew better than to risk everyone's health by opening such a bottle. There was also the fact that Thor was still too close and if it was the same poison and he could not contain it...he did not want to finish that thought as he stared.

"So...is it the cure? Does it have Jormungandr's venom in it? She said it was something I needed, so that's the only thing I could think of, that or the cure, but it couldn't be that easy, right?" Banner was mostly talking to himself now, "why would so do it?"

Loki shook his head a little and palmed the bottle into his own hand, "It will have to do." He did not know what Hel's motivations were for giving such a thing to Banner, but he did know that if she had said it was something Banner needed, then it was truly that – something he needed. She was not like him, no lies, no trickery, no wordplay. Her words were fueled by the magicks within her and they were always the sting of truth.

He spun on his heel and made a beeline towards the entrance that would take him back into the bowels of the Helicarrier, Banner following behind him.

"Loki-"

"I will return to Asgard when the cure is finished. Not before then," he called back forcibly.

Just before the doors closed behind him and Banner he heard Fury shout, "All right, what the fuck is going on? Thor, Stark, Barton, briefing room now. Get Rogers to the infirmary."

Loki shook his head as he gritted his teeth in frustration as the doors hissed closed. When he finished and returned to Asgard, he would prove to the Allfather that he had nothing to do with this. He broke the coterie and he would gladly do so again.

Author's Notes:

Wishing my readers a Happy late Thanksgiving and early Happy Holidays. Updates will be sparse around the holidays since I will be busy with work. Anyways, Hel is an interesting character to write as her motivations are basically summed up thusly: it's complicated. The others, not so much.