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Loss

Veles grunted in pain, taking a swig of vodka as Val carefully stitched a wound that reached from the left side of his abdomen around to his back for him. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to use your sword? It might be less painful."

"If you don't stop complaining, I might," Val threatened.

Veles took another swig and passed her the bottle, Val taking several gulps before passing it back. After a few minutes of silence, Val finally glanced up at him.

"Thank you," Val said. "I'm not sure I'd be here if you hadn't taken his blade."

Veles nodded, smiling. "Of course. If you died, who'd smuggle in alcohol for me?"

Val smirked, rolling her eyes as she clipped the thread and sat beside him on her bed. He passed her the vodka and pulled his shirt down. They'd been on a mission to a Nexus Event involving an alternate version of Loki impersonating Odin, as Loki was meant to, but then declaring war on the Nine Realms. They'd dealt with the Loki Variant fairly easy, but Heimdall had caught them off guard and had nearly killed Val. Veles had saved her, but not before Heimdall had wounded him. If there had been time, he'd have healed himself by duplicating his cells, as he could do to others to heal them, albeit with much more effort than normal duplications like weapons required, but they'd had to leave before the reset charge went off, leaving no time to heal himself and leading to Val stitching his wound.

"Well, you make a better butcher than doctor, but I appreciate the help," Veles said, accepting the vodka and finishing the bottle as Val opened another.

"Yeah, yeah," Val smirked. "Keep bitching. I'll show you what real pain is at training."

"Sure," Veles snorted.

They continued to drink together for a while before Veles headed back to his room to sleep.


What are we up against?" Veles asked as he quickly pulled his armor on, the others all suiting up around him as well.

"Hela," Val said seriously, making eye contact with Veles. "She killed Thor and Loki on Earth before the Bifrost opened, so we should be able to face her, provided she doesn't activate the Bifrost herself."

"Miss Minutes, any advice based off of what you've monitored during training?" Thena asked.

"It's going to be rough," Miss Minutes said. "All of you will have to fight her together, and you may not be strong enough to win. In the Sacred Timeline, Thor and Valkyrie fought her together, with Thor having reached his peak potential, and they couldn't beat her."

"But they didn't have the ability to Prune her," Veles pointed out.

"That's right," Miss Minutes nodded. "Pruning her will be about the only way to beat her."

"We'll manage," Daredevil said. "What are her powers?"

"Aside from the usual Asgardian abilities like strength and durability, which is stronger than any other Asgardian on the Sacred Timeline, she heals wounds almost instantly and she's able to endlessly generate Necroswords, obsidion weapons that can cut through almost anything," Miss Minutes reported.

"Wonderful," Veles sighed. "Alright, Thena and I will take point, since athena is our most skilled, and I can counter, and hopefully match, her ability to generate weapons. Val will be primary reinforcement, since she's the second best fighter we have, and Daredevil and Requiem will reinforce as needed but will primarily focus on trying to Prune her if the oportunity presents itself. I'll duplicate a Time Stick for anyone who needs it, and Requiem will have the reset charge."

Everyone nodded, and Val opened a Timedoor for them. They all headed through, stepping out of the Time Door behind Hela, who turned toward them from where she'd been busy reanimating Thor and Loki's corpses. Both began to rise, poisonous green energy shining from their eyes, only for Veles to raise a hand, a small cloud of Asgardian spears forming above the two corpses in a flash of greenish-gold light. The spears fell, impaling the corpses and killing them again, and Hela hummed thoughtfully.

"Not bad," Hela commended. "How would you like to serve as my executioner?"

"Interesting idea," Veles mused. "I know who I'm executing first." He flicked his hands out to the sides, producing a pair of daggers.

"I see," Hela sighed, running her hands backward over her dark hair.

It changed as she did into a black helmet extending from her nose and cheek bones backward over her head, formfitting against her scalp, then connecting to the neck of her armored, black bodysuit. Extending from the headdress were numerous enormous, inverted, spider-leg-like spikes or horns. Then, she swung her arms down to her sides, a pair of pitch black swords with jagged blades appearing in her hands, seemingly shooting out of her wrists. Veles swallowed hard as Thena formed herself a shield and spear, everyone else drawing their Time Sticks. Val also drew her Dragonfang, glaring daggers at Hela.

"A Valkyrie," Hela noticed. "I thought I wiped you all out. Well, I'll fix that problem."

And then, it was chaos. Hela was spinning and swiping her arms, a massive cloud of Necrosword flying off of her body at them. veles swore instantly, sweeping his arms forward and sending a massive cloud of glowing, green weapons of various types out to intercept the Necroswords. Hela narrowed her eyes, just as Veles and Thena reached her. She spun, grunting in pain as Thena's spear grazed her cheek. She largely avoided it, however, and spun, generating a pair of Necroswords to use up close, and slashed at Thena, only for the blades to graze her shield. Veles flipped behind Hela, Gungnir appearing in his hands, and slashed her across the back. Hela shrieked in pain, turning and deflecting a stab before stabbing at Veles.

Val deflected the blade, slashing at Hela with her Dragonfang, only for Hela to deflect the blade, then spin, mule kicking Val backward into Veles as the same time as she blocked Thena's spear with both of her sword. Her Necroswords shattered, allowing Thena to impale Hela, only for Hela to snarl angrily, shoving a hand at Thena and sending a blade exploding into her ahield, then another stabbing into her upper arm, then another into her shield, hurling her backward. Hela spun, slashing Veles, only for her sword to pass through him a second before Gungnir burst out of the illusion, stabbing Hela in the heart. Hela shrieked in pain, just as both Daredevil and Requiem reached her, Timesticks in hand and Requiem holding her sword in her left hand. Before they could attack, however, Hela waved an arm, a trio of Necroswords bursting out and flashing out at them. Veles hurled a dagger, which immediately multiplied, deflecting the blades from fatal blows, though one of them smashed Requiem's sword, and one of them grazed Daredevil's side.

Veles and Val charged as Hela backhanded both Requiem and Daredevil with a single swipe, hurling them both. Then, she spun, hurling a Necrosword at Veles, who blocked it with an arm blade, only for the arm blade to shatter and the sword to stab into his shoulder, hurling him backward as Hela began to fend off Val. Hela blocked Val's Time Stick with a Necrosword, only for the blade to be Pruned, and narrowed her eyes, deflecting Val's Dragonfang before slashing, shattering the Timestick and breaking it. Val spun, her Dragonfang sweeping around, only for Hela to slam the sole of her foot into Val's chest, hurling her.

Thena leapt into the air behind Hela, driving a spear down through the back of her chest and into the ground, then allowed it to stay there as she spun, forming a sword and stabbing her, only to then form a shield just in time to block a huge, double-edged axe, being launched away again, all of her creations fading. Daredevil lunged, swiping and jabbing at Hela rapidly, only for Hela to smash both of his Time Sticks. She slashed at him, but he spun around her, driving the Time sticks' blades into her back. Hela shrieked in rage, and suddenly, several spears bristled from her back, impaling Daredevil and dragging him backward.

"No!" Requiem shrieked. "Just die!"

She hurled her Time Stick at Hela, but Hela sent a Necrosword flashing through the air to Requiem, where it punched through her chest. Veles, who was struggling to heal Daredevil's wounds already by duplicating his cells, swore. A moment later, Val and Thena were fighting Hela with everything they had. Veles redoubled his efforts, ignoring his migraine and the blood leaking from his nose from the strain. Then, the last of the wounds were sealed just as Hela caught a kick from Val and smashed her into Thena, hurling both. Veles lunged instantly, and Hela snarled, turning and slashing at him rapidly. He didn't bother with his Time Stick. He wouldn't be able to catch her, yet.

She slashed with a Necrosword and he deflected it with a dagger, which smashed. He knocked the blade from her hand and slashed with an arm blade, but Hela leaned back from it, a new Necrosword racing to her hand before she slashed. A shield blocked it, though it was ruined, and Veles traded it for a duplicate of Hofund. The sword smashed through her Necroswords, slashing her across the chest. She ignored the wound, turning and stabbing at Veles, who twisted his upper body and leaned to the side, knocking the blade out to the side with Hofund before dropping it and driving the end of his atime Stick at her. Hela leapt backward, a Necrosword smashing the Time Stick. It restored itself in a wave of light and Veles pursued Hela, forming himself a second Time Stick, forming Thena one at the same time. Together, they struggled against Hela.

Their weapons clashed with hers over and over, Veles restoring their Time Sticks any time Hela broke them, and soon, Val joined them. Any barrages of blades Hela hurled at them, Veles deflected with blade duplicates. Hela ignored any wounds from blades, but avoided the Pruning ends of their Time Sticks. Finally, she leapt into the air, spinning and sending successive rings of blades flying outward from her arms. Thena was hurled backward, Veles was stabbed in the gut, and Val got away with only a couple of grazes. Then, Val and Thena were continuing as Veles was healing himself, Daredevil taking his place with a variety of complete and broken Time Sticks. Finally, Veles was healed and leapt into the air, swinging his arms downward, and a cloud of weapons, Time Sticks, and ice shards raining down at Hela. The others leapt away from her, but Hela dove out of the way. Veles sprinted forward, forming a pair of Time Sticks before a dozen more Veles duplicates formed on all sides of Hela. However, Hela unleashed a roar, a massive wave of blades exploding from her at them all.

Veles swore, seeing that Val was just barely getting back to her feet. Val's eyes went wide, but a moment later, Veles stepped in front of her, a trio of blades bursting from his torso.

"Veles!" Val shrieked.

"Are you alright?" Veles asked, kneeling beside her as the one who'd shielded her faded, the Necroswords clattering to the ground.

Val sighed in relief. "You scared me!"

"We're not winning this," Veles said, glancing around at where Hela was fending off a trio of Veles duplicates and another pair were healing Thena and Daredevil.

"Can't you just flood her with duplicates?" Val asked.

"The more I make, the weaker they are," Veles explained. "These all are barely at the level of Einherjar."

Val swore, pushing herself up as Veles formed them each a Time Stick. However, as soon as he did, a pair of hands landed on their shoulders.

"Leave," Requiem croaked. "The reset charge is breached."

"Shit!" Val swore. "Thena, Daredevil!"

Both of them, having just been able to get up on their feet, looked over as Val opened a Timedoor. Both sprinted over as a fresh wave of Veles duplicates charged Hela as a distraction. However, along with them, Requiem charged, Veles' heart dropped as he saw Requiem's back. The ruptured reset charge had gone off in slow motion, but it was rapidly speeding up. And just before Veles stepped through the Timedoor, Hela sent a dozen Necroswords into Requiem, only for Requiem to grab Hela. And just as she did, Requiem transformed into a reset charge, the wave of Pruning energy spreading from her to both Hela and the ground. Hela shrieked in pain and rage, firing off a wave of Necroswords at Veles, only for all of them to be Pruned mid-flight. Then, Veles ducked through the Timedoor, and it closed behind him.

They all stood in stunned silence for a few moments before all sinking to the ground in silence. Miss Minutes appeared off to the side, only to realize what happened and vanished again. Finally, Daredevil pushed himself up.

"I'm...going to go and shower," Daredevil said numbly. "Thanks for...healing me, Veles."

Veles nodded silently, and Daredevil walked away. As he did, Veles sighed, remaining silent and still for a while before pushing himself up.

"I'm going to go and wash the blood off," Veles mumbled, walking away without looking back.

He headed to his room, stripping his armor off and grabbing a bottle of liquor before walking into his bathroom, showering the blood off of his body while he drank. After finishing the bottle and his shower, he got another bottle, drinking that as well as he stared at the wall. He could barely believe Requiem was gone. They hadn't necessarily gotten close, but she had always been around, and she was an amazing fighter. That she was gone was a shock. And he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. His nightmares would be worse again. Even now, drinking alone in his room, the memories were creeping in. He needed to distract himself. Something to anchor him in the present. He needed Val.

A small smile tugged at his lips, and even before he had decided to actually go, he was heading for her room with a practiced ease. Before he knew it, he was there and knocked on the door. He raised the bottle to his lips, finishing the vodka only to nearly choke on it as Val opened the door wearing only a small, black, bra and a matching thong. Once he'd managed to stop coughing, he cleared his throat, grimacing and ignoring Val's amused smirk.

"Sorry," Veles said. "I didn't mean to bother you while...you...were..."

He blinked in surprise, staring past Val, into the room, where Thena had walked into view to see who was at the door, sans clothing. She made no move to cover her bare body, also gaining an amused smile at his expression and the color suddenly decorating his cheeks from his surprise.

"Uh...I'm sorry," Veles said again, clearing his throat uncomfortably. "I'm interrupting. I'll just...uh..."

He began to turn, only for Val to speak.

"Relax, you're fine," Val said. "Did you need something?"

"It's, uh...It's not important," Veles said. "Sorry."

"You're empty," Val noticed.

"What?" Veles asked.

"You're empty," Val repeated, gesturing to his bottle.

"Oh, uh, yes," Veles said. "So I am."

Val reached off to the size, picking up a gallon jug filled with whiskey. Veles thanked her, accepting the drink, then apologized for a final time before hurrying away. As he did, Thena wrapped her arms around Val from behind, watching Loki flee.

"He lied," Thena noted.

"I know," Val said. "He'll probably have nightmares tonight. He probably wanted to have someone to drink with to try and avoid sleeping."

"Maybe he had hoped to be in my place," Thena suggested.

Val snorted. "Nah. He still...He's not ready for something like that. Even as a one night stand." She turned herself around, stepping into Thena to push her back and closed the door. "Now, where were we?"

Thena smiled, rejoining her lips to Val's as they headed back to the bed.


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