CHAPTER 11
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters except my own. The characters belong to MARVEL.
CHAPTER 11 Crystal
The wind whipped around, howling in Hel's ears. "And you're sure, this is the place?" She glared at the bare landscape. It looked nothing like any place a goddess might seek refuge in. Not even a goddess of death.
"Are you saying you don't trust my sources?" Val raised a critical eyebrow.
"No. I'm saying this hellscape looks very much uninhabited."
The women stared each other down, neither willing to back down for even a second.
Eventually, Hel just turned her back on Val and stalked forward. If she thinks, Hela is here somewhere then I need to make sure I don't overlook anything.The wind tugged on her clothes. It was almost freezing. Great place to hide for sure. Really feels like home.
Hel heaved a sigh that disappeared into the wind. With the next exhale, she sent her magic into the air, searching for anything living among the bent-over, dead trees. Thin branches reached towards the sky like fingers scrabbling to hold on to something. Not to drown. "Let's hope, your sources were right about this. I'm tired of searching for Hela and coming up empty handed."
"It's not like I particularly enjoy your company either," Val replied calmly. "Besides, New Asgard needs me. Thor is busy with helping the Avengers track down Thanos. One of his teammates is missing, another one turned up out of nowhere. Apparently, she's travelled space and was basically imprisoned by the Kree for years."
Hel furrowed her brows. "That sounds oddly familiar. I might have met her sometime in the past. But it's good to hear that they are working so hard towards our goal. My sorcerers are getting better as well. Father might have a little too much fun with utilising his tricks against them, but Janet is balancing him out somehow."
She took another breath and sent her magic into the ground beneath her feet. "Tactics are still working on gathering the information we need and to take stock of the forces we have available to us, but we're slowly getting the full picture and I have to say," a cat-like grin spread across her face, "I might feel tempted to keep most of them after their job is done."
From the corner of her eye, Hel threw a look at the Valkyrie. Although Val had not done her job in centuries, her hand rested lightly on her sword. "You can certainly try." She turned with a small smile. "You'll see how it goes."
The subtle threat of a fight over people, Val had not even met, just on the premise of her former duty. Hel laughed. "I will keep it in mind."
For the next few minutes, neither of the women said a word. On occasion, Hel threw her magic out into the landscape and ground in search for any trace of Hela. Val at her side meanwhile constantly scanned the horizon for any sign of life.
The wind picked up, whipping their hair around their heads. If this keeps up, we won't find Hela here either. The landscape looks accommodating enough for a goddess or sorceress to disappear into. Still…Hel's thought wandered back to the last time she had seen Hela. The fire had seemed to consume her very being. Surtur sure is a powerful being. But no Goddess of Death could be killed that easily. Hela has to be somewhere.
A soft ripple stopped Hel dead in her tracks. Her magic was calling back to her from a place just below the surface of the planet. Southwards. Val turned towards Hel with a questioningly raised eyebrow but didn't say anything else. Although they hadn't seen each other in centuries, even the Valkyrie knew not to challenge Hel's instincts.
Jerking her head in the direction her magic was calling from, Hel lead Val to a small cave opening. They exchanged a look and slunk to the side of it to make a quick plan how to proceed.
"Do you think she's still in there?" Val whispered close to Hel's ear.
She tilted her head in response. A tingle raced down her back, seeming to originate from her scar. "I can't tell. There are traces of her magic lingering in the ground, but she might have already left."
With a nod, Val signalled Hel how they should go on. And for once, Hel followed the plan without complaint. While Val scouted the surrounding of the cave, Hel slid into the opening, pressed close to the wall with her magic curling around her just in case. We don't need a repeat from last time.Her hand wandered up to touch the scar on her cheek.
It turned out all their caution was for naught. There was no sign of Hela living or even returning to the cave. Hel huffed in frustration. "This was the closest we got and it's still not close enough."
"At least we know for sure she was here," Val replied. "That's more than at the last location. Or the information we had before."
"Are you always this positive?"
Val didn't answer, just smiled at Hel's scowl. I bet she just does it to annoy me. Would be typical for these Valkyries. They always are such a pain to be around.
"Just in case, I found something outside." Val pulled a small object from somewhere on her. "I found it on top of the cave mouth. Looks like some kind of crystal or something?"
Hel snatched the crystal away from her. "What were you thinking just collecting it? It could have been enchanted. It-" She paused when her fingers curled around the cool crystal, her back crawled as if in response to the touch. "It has a spell on it. You alarmed Hela that someone found her hiding place. Great. Now she'll be even more on guard than before."
To her credit, Val ignored Hel's icy stare with cool nonchalance. Not many people had been able to pull that off in the past. Instead, she peered at the crystal now in Hel's grasp. "This looks like nothing I remember from Asgard. Where do you think she got that thing?"
Hel felt sorely tempted to snap at Val to figure it out herself, since she was so versed in magic that she just picked up anything that might have a curse on it. Then again, they were working towards the same goal. And she was less obnoxious than most Valkyries Hel had had to deal with. So instead, she concentrated back on the crystal in her hand.
She's right. Apart from the enchantment I recognised first, there is little to connect it to Asgard. Even before Asgard was turned into a glorified heap of rubble. Where did this crystal come from then?
"I'll take the crystal with me," Hel decided. "Maybe the mortals know a way to figure out where it came from, since it is very clearly not Asgardian in origin."
Val nodded her head once in agreement. Then, she spun on her heel and left the cave at a brisk pace. Hel rolled her eyes and followed the other woman out of the cave. Unlike Val however, Hel wandered up to where she thought Val had found the crystal. Just to be sure she didn't miss anything,Hel told herself. It's not like I don't trust her. Well no, that's exactly the reason. She took the crystal without knowing what it does.
To her surprise, it wasn't hard to find the place the crystal had been in. A small indent directly above the mouth of the cave was laid out with moss and still held a faint whiff of magic. Hel wriggled her shoulders against the unpleasant feeling between her shoulder blades.
Hel looked around. So, she hid the crystal here. To notice anyone entering her cave without her knowing. Clever, I have to admit. Hel rubbed her forehead. Now there's no chance, Hela will come back here. She'd notice immediately that the crystal is missing.At least now Val and I can take this security measure into account when looking for her. Not that Hela might use it again since we found the crystal. She sighed. Two steps forward and one step back.
"So, are you going to get us home or do you want to stare at the dirt for a little longer?" Val called up.
"Why don't you go ahead, and I'll catch up with you?" Hel fired right back. She grabbed a bit of the moss and stuffed it into the pocket with the crystal.
Val shifted audibly. "Very funny," Hel could hear her rolling her eyes, "I seem to have misplaced my power of teleportation unfortunately. Oh wait, I never had any."
"Am I supposed to feel bad about that?"
"You could at least be less snappy. You're not Fenris."
That got Hel's attention. Her back tingled again. She stood to glare at the Valkyrie. Very slowly, she shifted her disguise. Her Jaw elongated, her skin darkened and grew furry. Her eyes shifted to an unhealthy yellow. With an evil grin, she watched Val take a small step backwards, as she had to watch Fenrir appear right on the ledge of the cave. "What were you saying?" she rasped in the wolf's voice.
Val stared at her with wide eyes. Something told Hel that the Valkyrie was sent back to her fight against Hela and her pet wolf, although her illusion looked nothing like that wolf.
"In case you forgot," Hel in Fenrir's disguise jumped off the ledge, "Fenrir is my brother. Hela's lapdog has nothing on him." Within the blink of an eye the illusion vanished, leaving behind Hel wearing an arrogant smirk. "I'm sorry, did I frighten you?"
There was no response. Val just scowled at Hel, hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Her whole body practically vibrated with energy, tension obviously running up and down her spine, leaving her muscles trembling.
"I'll take that as a maybe, we can leave it at that and go back to our separate ways." Hel extended opened a portal for them and lead Val, still watching Hel warily, through.
Hel expected many things upon entering the new lab of her science-lings. What she did not expect was to find Millie curled up in Peter's lap with the teen scratching her ear while simultaneously proofreading whatever he was working on. In another corner, she saw Hank and Groot working on something that looked suspiciously like a laser gun.
"I don't think this is right," Peter called to Shuri without looking up. "The chemical reaction wouldn't work the way we need it to."
"Then I suggest, you change it, so it does," Shuri replied with a grin. She was hunched over a workbench, tinkering away at the circuit of something or other. Hel wasn't able to decipher the masses of wires, circuit boards and remains of metal plates on the table and she honestly felt a headache forming just by looking at it.
Hel strode into the room, her boots clacking softly on the floor. "I'm glad you're making progress, but might I direct your attention to something else?"
That immediately caught their attention. From around the room, Shuri, Hank, Groot and finally Peter with Millie in his arms gathered around the crystal and moss.
"And what do we see here?" Hank crossed his arms over his chest.
"I assume it's a type of gemstone. Those are typically a type of mineral crystal used for jewellery and are highly ordered in their microscopic structure to form a crystal. Their formation may differ between magmatic or metamorphic processes with different conditions under which they solidify into this shiny form," Shuri said, tilting her head to look at the object from other angles.
Peter helped Millie to climb on his shoulders to lean forward. Ignoring Hank's unimpressed look, he continued: "I'd even say this is no crystal found anywhere on Earth."
"And you would be right," Hel intercepted before Hank could growl at the teenagers for explaining something to him he didn't ask for. "This is an extraterrestrial crystal, although I cannot tell you its exact origin. Don't touch it just yet, Groot. An enchantment was placed on it to ensure the owner can tell whenever someone enters the cave it was placed above."
Millie bristled.
"I ensured there was no tracking spell on it and retracted the enchantment in so far as it will not tell the owner when the crystal is touched."
"And what do you need us for?" Hank frowned. "If this thing is magical, shouldn't you go to the magicians and have them check this thing over?"
Hel gave him a sharp smile. "I will, don't worry. I know how to do my job. And I hope, you do too."
Groot tilted his head to the side. Carefully, the tree expanded a single branch towards the crystal. Not touching, but maybe sensing for something. "I am Groot," he finally mumbled.
Neither of the other teens answered him, although Hel had the suspicion they would be able to by whatever unearthly mechanism they found. They are inventive enough to pull it off, plus, Groot has enough of intonation to at least guess the intention without knowing the language.
Millie jumped off Peter's shoulder onto the table. She kept her distance from the crystal, fur standing on end. Clearly, the Flerken was not pleased but also in general unsure about what the crystal was supposed to do.
"So," Peter began, "I guess you want us to find something to-"
"Locate the owner of this crystal, yes."
Shuri looked up at Hel sharply. Her gaze was intense, levelled at Hel as if trying to decide how she should take this order. One of her braids had fallen out of the Leia buns onto her shoulder. They must have worked tirelessly for quite some time for Shuri to not fix it back into her bun. Although it might just not matter to her.
"You want us to locate the owner of the crystal," Hank repeated slowly.
Hel nodded, still looking at Shuri.
"And how do you think we should do that?"
"That's not the problem," Shuri said calmly. "I already have a rough idea."
Peter's face immediately brightened. He almost jumped into the air with how much he bounced on his toes. "What do you need?"
Hel and Shuri smiled. Shuri told Peter what she would need, and he and Groot left the table to assemble the equipment on another workbench. Millie watched them leave but settled down close to Hel and away from the crystal. Her tail twitched in discontent.
"So, whom does this crystal belong to?" Shuri regarded Millie with interest.
Maybe she already deduced something about the Flerken in their time together. Millie is awfully nice to these kids.Hel reached out to scratch Millie's back. "A goddess."
Hank raised an eyebrow.
Shuri narrowed her eyes. "I assume it's not a nice goddess of springs?"
"No," Hel felt the scar on her back prickle. "She's another Goddess of Death. She usurped my place. My father and Thor along with a Valkyrie and an Avenger fought against her and her monstrous wolf and army of undead. Unfortunately, they destroyed Asgard in the process, thus leaving them homeless."
"And I guess, you had no hand in it?" Hank snorted. If he hadn't frowned so fiercely, he might have almost looked amused.
Shuri however shook her head. She looked back at him. "No, Hel might not be our favourite person, but she did give us this dream of a lab to work in. Until now she hasn't shown any allegiance with Thanos." Her eyes snapped back to Hel. "Whoever this other goddess is, if Hel doesn't like her, she is not our friend either."
For the first time in what felt like forever, Hel lowered her eyes. This young woman is looking right through me. Her intellect is unrivalled by any soul I collected over the past almost millennia. Her back hurt.
Peter returned to Shuri's side to pet Millie. He eyed Hel curiously as well. "You fought her, didn't you?" It was formulated as a question, but Peter's look told her that it very much wasn't. His eyes flitted to the scar on her face and back to Millie. "I noticed she doesn't like the crystal."
"Flerkens tend to be very sensitive towards energies. Dark ones are usually met with a hearty feast on whoever it is." Hel grinned slightly too wide. "But she really likes you."
Although all of the mortals were visibly puzzled by the name for the cat, none of them asked for further explanation. At least for now. Hel knew, especially the ones gathered in front of her were incredibly curious about almost everything.
"So, the crystal has a dark energy because it belonged to a goddess that took your power, attacked your family and you." Peter furrowed his brows. "And now you found this crystal and want to find her." He paused for a moment, looking between his companions and Hel before forging on. "Is she connected to Thanos?"
Hel pursed her lips, the grin wiped right off her face. The scar on her back throbbed. For a moment her human illusion wavered. Neither Shuri nor Peter or Groot flinched at the sight of blue skin and sunset eyes. Only Hank paled slightly at the reminder of their very much not human host.
"Her name is Hela. She is the older sister of Thor. She almost killed me when I tried to keep her in her prison after Odin's death." Hel closed her eyes briefly at the memory. She shifted her stance to alleviate some of the tension in her back. "She took my place, some of my power, destroyed Asgard, threatened my father." With every word, Hel bared her teeth more and more. "I know she didn't die, so she has to be somewhere. Crawling and kissing up to Thanos would be just her style. That witch has to pay for what she did!"
"I don't think we will participate in your little revenge spree." Hank waved his hand dismissively. He moved to step back from the table only to find his feet stuck to the ground, Hel snarling at him from across the table.
"She made me cast a spell, so no one would remember me. My own father forgot I existed."
Her words bounced off the walls of the lab. Stunned silence fell over the room. Hank stared at the goddess with fright clearly visible in his eyes. Shuri stepped back slightly towards the tangle of wires while Peter lifted his wrists. Groot grew a few more branches.
Hel breathed deeply. She closed her eyes. Flying off the handle is no solution now. Don't let her get to you. She's out there somewhere. Keep your anger at her contained long enough to unleash it on the culprit herself. These people did nothing to you.
Slowly, she released Hank, who swiftly stepped back from the table and towards his corner of the lab.
"I'm sorry," Hel said, eyes still closed and fighting off the sudden wave of nausea. "That was unwarranted."
A huff was her only response. Hel opened her eyes to see Hank turn his back on her. Without acknowledging any of them anymore, he went back to whatever he had been working on before Hel had entered the lab.
Peter on the other hand stepped closer towards her despite the scene. Carefully, he put a hand on Hel's shoulder. "If it's so important to you, we'll find a way to locate this Hela." He sounded almost as if speaking to a spooked animal. Hel might have complained, only she felt, she had no energy left to protest. "From what you told us, she sounds very dangerous. And um," he paused, "I can't imagine what you went through, I guess."
"Trust me, on that front you very much can," Hel replied with a weal laugh. "Snapped to dust and transported into the underworld while separated from your family… it can get very lonely, so I'm happy Millie is doing her job as companion."
"Mrrow," Millie said. She stretched and rubbed her head along both Hel's and Peter's hands with a content purr.
"I don't want to ruin the moment, but we kinda have work to do here," Shuri interrupted.
With another huff, Hel remembered some silly little thing she had once heard in Midgard. "Road work ahead?"
Both teens grinned brightly and delightedly surprised at her as they replied in unison: "Sure hope it does."
The meeting had already started when Hel strode into the room. Her designated tacticians were huddled around a huge table with maps strewn across it and certain diagrams hefted to the walls. Even Bucky was there, standing next to Sam with a serious look on his face.
Fury was at the head of the table with Hill at his right side. Currently, he was explaining what information they had gathered from the battle plans they had drawn up from each fight they had amongst themselves with Thanos. He paused to look up at Hel. "So glad, you decided to join us."
Hel gave an arrogant smirk. To her delight, Bucky stepped aside to let her slide in between him and Sam at the table. "I had an assignment to deliver to the lab. Shuri sends her greetings as do Peter and Groot." She looked between T'Challa and Starlord. Then she turned to Hope. "I need you to go to the lab to aid in the project after this meeting is over. Your father is being stubborn."
"I assume you did something to warrant that behaviour," Hope shot back.
"Nothing I haven't done before." With a carefully neutral expression, Hel turned to look at the maps on the table. One of them caught her attention. It looked like a map of the battlefield of Wakanda. On it, the lines and waves of enemies as well as tactics employed by the Avengers and Wakandans were marked in different colours. With just one look at the labelling, Hel could tell the other maps documented the attacks in New York as well as on Titan.
When Hel looked up, she found all assembled staring at her. Some had anticipation written all over their faces like Starlord and Sam, while others, especially Fury, regarded her with caution. "Does Thanos always prefer to attack in two waves or is it just his tactic for the army?" she asked. "Assuming he does not solely rely on the sheer number and force of his alien soldiers that are mainly under his influence and are almost mindless, vicious creatures."
Fury leaned forward, resting his hands on the table. "For not being there, you do know an awful lot about his battle tactics."
"It's not hard considering I am the Goddess of Death and have dealt with his nonsense for a few years by now. My father has first-hand experience with Thanos' tactics, so it is actually not a huge leap on my part," Hel replied evenly. "Apart from that, your maps are quite impressive given the relatively short amount of time you had to assemble them." She pointed to the diagrams on the walls. "Those are great as well, I am sure the more data we have to analyse his tactics, the better equipped we'll be by the time we have to face him again. Even more so, if we can relay the thusly gained information to the living remainders of the Avengers."
Around the table, the humans shifted uncomfortably at hearing her praise their results as well as pointing out the work that still needed to be done with one thorough look at their data.
Finally, Starlord tilted his head. A slow grin spread across his face. "So, how do you plan to get the plans to the living world?"
"I don't think we need to worry about that," Sam replied calmly. "She is the Goddess of Death, as she keeps reminding us. I don't think it'll be a problem to get the information between the realms."
"Personally, I would be more interested in why you didn't stop Thanos before he started his hunt on the Infinity Stones," Fury cut in.
"Simple. As long as he doesn't play with the balance of Life and Death it is none of my business, what mortals get up to." Hel shot a quick glance at Bucky. "I might choose to intervene on a small scale or to help single groups overcome certain struggles, if their fates allow it. However, it is entirely out of my hand and not without consequences for me to intervene with fate and their plans for mortals in every other aspect. My playing field is a limited one."
That got her considering looks from Hill, Fury and T'Challa as well as Hope. It was nothing she hadn't expected before. After all, her inclusion in the mess was a curious one to begin with. Of that Hel was very aware of.
To be honest, I just didn't care to intervene as long as it didn't affect me and my Golden Hearts directly. Until then, Thanos was little more than a nuisance to be dealt with in due time by someone or other. But now? Now it's personal. And I am not backing down until I tear Thanos apart limb by limb.
Bucky and Sam both, as if by prior arrangement, shifted closer towards Hel. They bracketed her in at the table while simultaneously presenting a united front for the others around the table. If that was their aim was anyone's guess though, since Hel was relatively sure, Sam didn't think too fondly of her after their initial meeting.
As if on another cue, the door burst open and Peter stumbled into the room. His hair stood up in odd angles and his eyes were as big as saucers. "Hel! We found a connection for the crystal."
Immediately, Hel shifted to get to the young man. Sam and Bucky shifted away from her, all eyes following her way across the room. She ignored them. Her focus solely on Peter. The prospect of finally finding a proper lead on Hela was too alluring.
"What did you find?" she asked and pulled Peter more into the room. "Can you locate Hela's whereabouts?"
Peter shook his head. "No, not yet. Shuri's still working on that. We found a signature on it. Hel, the crystal is not only Asgardian. It comes originally from Titan."
"How did you find that out?" Starlord interrupted. "You don't have any of our technology."
"We cross-referenced particles we found on my suit, which I wore on Titan with the crystal and those matched up solidly. No doubt, both the crystal and my suit have been on Titan. Hela might even have been on Titan herself."
Hela was on Titan. Thanos' homeplanet Titan. And she was there. Maybe the witch is even working together with him. It would certainly suit his arsenal to have a Goddess of Death by his side to kill whomever he wanted without having to resort to the Infinity Stones. How could I not think about this possibility? I need to get in contact with Val, we have to warn the others, get her on the radar for both searching and tactics. Nothing could prepare them properly to fight against her – no, only I should fight her. Death against Death. But for that I need to find her. Could she still be on Titan?
A hand landed on her shoulder, making Hel jump. Bucky immediately took a slight step back just in case. "Sorry, I didn't want to startle you," he said. "You just looked so deep in thought and we need you here."
Hel's noticed her breathing was elevated, short gasps of breath without ever seeming to breathe out. Her fingers were twitching, her magic rippling in the air around her. Small sparks raced through her hair like electricity. Hel couldn't focus her gaze on one single point. My back hurts. Why does my back hurt? My back hurts.
A face appeared before her. Someone called her name. Over and over again. Hel pressed her hands over her ears. Too much. Too loud. My back hurts!
"What happened?"
"I don't know. She's having a panic attack?"
"Give her room. I'll see if I can calm her down." That voice. Something in Hel recognised that voice. Soothing somehow. Hel turned towards it blindly, among the flashed of pain in her back.
"My back hurts." Had she just said that? Was that her voice whimpering? It sounded pathetic.
"Her back?"
"Everything will be alright, Hel. Just listen to my voice. You need to come back. Deep breaths. Breathe with me. In and out. In and out. Come on. You can do it."
Hel focused on the voice. She tried matching her breathing to the words and air she felt on her face. Slowly, very slowly, her breaths evened out to a slower rhythm. Her vision returned to focus. The first things she noticed were Bucky and Peter standing closer to her than the rest with matching worried eyes.
"Hey, you totally blacked out there on us," Peter mumbled. "Do you want to maybe sit down?"
It spoke of Hel's constitution that she just nodded at the suggestion and allowed Bucky to lead her to one of the chairs and place her in it. She looked around the room, noting the worried looks everyone was wearing but trying to disguise under a forced neutral expression.
"What was that?" Starlord mumbled.
"A mild panic attack," Hel replied weakly. "Peter, I gave you the short version. Bucky, I'm sure I told you about it as well. Would you two please fill in the others on Hela? I'll fill in any blanks later. I need a break."
Without waiting for a reply from either, she opened a portal beneath her that transported her right into her chambers.