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—
Asgard
"I had enough," Thor bellowed, barging into his room.
"What happened?" he asked, coming out of his meditative state. The temporal gate he was about to open collapsed on itself before fully forming.
"Father won't let up with his foolish lessons. I am going to Hel, regardless of anything."
"Well," Loki scratched the back of his head, "the past can wait. Let us go."
—
Niflheim
Hel
Thor stepped out of the gate first, scanning the area. Except for the rocky formations and the stillness of the air, this part of Niflheim appeared to be desolated. It was to be expected from the realm of the dead, neither honored nor dishonored.
"It's clear," he declared. Not that there was supposed to be anything in Helheim except souls.
"Who exactly are we supposed to find here?" he asked. Even if Hel was just a part of Niflheim, it was still too large of a place to explore.
Loki scanned the planet, detecting the sole lifeform in the realm. "There is someone that way."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Thor spun his hammer, creating a small whirlwind, and launched himself away.
He took off in a more controlled manner. The rocky formations and the mist spread all across the realm. It was as if all life and movement had died at some point in time.
"Wait, look, down there," he called to his brother, pointing to the ground. Thor's brows furrowed, and he guided Mjolnir to land.
He had to watch his steps to not disturb the dead. "Skeletons? Here?"
"It makes no sense, unless someone was slayed here. And look at the armors and insignias," Loki said.
Silver armor and with black shields that carried Asgard's regalia. From the shape of the armor and the skeleton horses with wing struts, there was only one possibility.
Thor stepped back, as if he had just desecrated a holy place. "By Asgard, these are the Valkyries."
"They died here. How?" he wondered. How had the terrible battle that destroyed Valkyries taken place in Hel of all the realms?
"I believe the answer lies with the sole living being here," he said, still unable to pierce through the mist.
"I can try something though, something not well-received." It would give them immediate answers at the cost of disrupting the dead.
"I can't think of anything worse than letting the Valkyries rot in this place."
"Let us hope they think the same."
He brought his fist close to his forehead. He slowly pushed his hand forward, his fist spreading into a claw. The blast of seidr latched onto the bones of a valkyrie. They rattled for a moment.
A spirit, draped in grey robes, lurched forward out of the skeleton.
"What? Where am I?" The Valkyrie scanned the area, her eyes snapping left and right.
"Honored Valkyrie," Thor stepped forward, giving a small bow. "We are Thor and Loki, sons of Odin, princes of Asgard. Forgive us for disrupting your rest in Valhalla."
The Valkyrie flew forward, eyes narrowing. "Sons of Odin?"
"Indeed. We have questions regarding the fate of the Valkyrie. We humbly ask you for answers."
"You," she began, continuing after a small silence, "do not know?"
"No." Thor shook his head. "We believe our father keeps it a secret."
"Yet he gave you Mjolnir."
Thor and Loki shared a glance.
"It was Hela, the firstborn of Odin, his general and executioner. We have been sent to stop her, to put her back into prison. You can see how it went for us," she said, raising her hands to gesture to the battlefield around her, where the remains of the Valkyrie and their horses lay.
"Hela?" Loki's eyes widened. "We have a sister?" Not only did she exist, but she was his adopted sister?
He had not seen that twist coming.
She let out a dry chuckle. "Yes. I assume he kept it a secret as well?"
"He has," Thor said, coming to his senses. A sister who had slain the Valkyries. A sister who had been imprisoned in Helheim for longer than they were alive. A sister that his father had kept a secret.
Why?
"Why was she imprisoned?" he asked, starting to pace around.
"Once the Allfather abandoned his conquest plans, she disagreed and staged a coup. She failed. As punishment, the Allfather locked her up in Helheim, but she broke out. You know the rest."
"You must have succeeded then."
"No, all but one of us perished. Even our Commander, Brunnhilde, was no match for her. If she is still imprisoned, then it was most likely the Allfather's work."
"His conquest, you said?" Loki asked. Those two words explained so much, and answered so many questions. "Father always preaches about the value of peace and harmony. Are you saying it was not always the case?"
The Valkyrie burst out in laughter and did not stop for a solid minute. The brothers waited for her to finish. "Your father brought realm after realm to its knees with Hela. His victories were countless, and his foes trembled at the mere mention of his name, yet one day, he decided to give it all up."
Loki covered his mouth with the palm of his hand. Thor looked faint on his feet.
"And Mjolnir?" His brother removed the hammer from the side of his waist, raising it to the Valkyrie.
"It belonged to Hela. A weapon made for conquest."
He lowered it back, gazing at it with slumped shoulders. "Yet he charged me with it to protect the Nine Realms."
"The dead who reached Valhalla after our time spoke of how the Allfather changed. I simply did not believe it until now."
"I can't believe this. He lied to us, to everyone," Thor raged, looking for something to smash to dust.
"Why didn't he kill her?" Loki asked. Objectively, an isolation for over a thousand years in this dead realm was a worse punishment.
"Hela draws her power from Asgard, not as much as the Allfather does, but enough. I do not think he could have done so without weakening himself."
"That is, if he could have brought himself to strike down his daughter," she added as an afterthought.
"I… thank you, honored Valkyrie. May we learn your name?" His brother's question made him realize they had not even asked her name, too.
"Sigrun, my prince."
"Thank you, Sigrun."
"Before I leave, may I make a request?"
"Whatever you want."
"It might be daunting, but would it be possible for you to carry our remains out of this place?"
Loki nodded, spreading his seidr. Each skeleton of the Valkyries levitated and lay in wooden ships with weapons and horses. He moved them to his pocket dimension until the funeral.
"We shall lay them to rest with highest honors."
"One last thing, our commander, Brunnhilde. Is she not at Asgard? Her remains are not here, and neither is she in Valhalla."
Thor's eyes widened, a glimmer of hope. Perhaps not all Valkyries had vanished?
"No, she is not," Loki said, realizing what his brother was thinking.
Sigrun closed her eyes. "Then she might yet be alive."
"If you find her, tell her that it wasn't her fault."
"We shall." With the promise, he released the hold on her soul as she faded back into Valhalla.
—
He held out a small cask of ale to his brother. "Here."
Thor took it, downing it in one go. "Thank you," he said, wiping his lips. He still sat on a rock, where the remains of the Valkyries lay a short while ago.
"All the pieces fit together now."
"Hmm?"
"Hela returns to Asgard after Father is dead. She attempts to resume the conquest of the Nine Realms and the realms beyond. We fail to stop her since she draws her power from Asgard and destroy our home, so she does not go on a bloody warpath and kill countless innocents," Thor said in one breath.
"I agree." His brother's analysis was spot on, exactly what he considered.
"What do we do now?"
"Do we have any other choice but to speak to her?"
"I suppose not."
—
Hela's prison was close to the battlefield.
It was a golden, transparent dome, keeping her locked inside. Even at a glance, he understood what it was.
"I can't believe this. Father is burning his life force to keep her imprisoned."
"If by 'father' you mean Odin, then yes," a low, smooth voice spoke. From the shadows, a figure clad in a black and green leathery suit stepped out. Her icy blue eyes were a parody of Thor's, cold and deadly.
She stood like a wolf ready to pounce on her prey.
"You must be Hela."
"And you two, my little brothers."
With her black hair and slender body, she looked more like Loki's sister than Thor's.
"I am Thor."
"Loki."
"How precious," she smirked, walking away. "He cages me here like an animal and then goes to have you two."
"I am adopted," he said.
"Adopted?" Her head whipped around. "He adopted a child when he left countless orphans?"
"Yes."
It was difficult to imagine his peace-loving father as a bloodthirsty warlord bent on conquest. Had he not heard it from Sigrun, and now Hela, he might not have believed it.
"Ah, Odin. How the mighty have fallen."
She spread her arms. "I am Hela, the Goddess of Death, and the rightful heir to Asgard's throne."
"Yet Father seems to think otherwise," Thor muttered, sizing up Hela in return.
Her lips quivered. "Once he is dead, what he thinks will not matter."
"He dies, you leave your prison, we bring down Ragnarok, and Asgard is destroyed along with you," Loki repeated what Thor had said earlier. Even this small conversation was enough to confirm what they had considered.
"What?"
"Uh, why are we telling her that?"
He leaned close. "Because unlike our Father, I can and will kill her should she prove to be a danger to Asgard."
No matter how much power she drew from Asgard, Loki could outmatch it. Even now, he could strike her down with his seidr singularity, reducing her to nothing but identical particles. She could not return from that.
"We have been investigating the truth behind the prophecy of Ragnarok. It led us to you," he explained.
Thor glanced at his sister, smirking at the look she gave them. "Not a prophecy, it seems, but the clue to stopping you."
"When I am out of here, you two will die first," she hissed, and they both knew she meant it.
However, he was not inclined to take her seriously. "You can't even break out of this prison. I do not think we have anything to worry about."
"And you think you can?"
Loki winked out of sight.
"Yes," he whispered into his sister's ear. She turned around with speed he had only seen his father possess. A dark blade cut through the shadows, but he was gone, standing on the other side of the dome once again.
"Are you certain it is you he adopted and not this blonde buffoon?" she asked, letting the blade in her hand disintegrate.
Thor rolled his eyes.
His skin turned blue, eyes bleeding into a red. "Laufey, the King of the Jotnar is my birth father."
"You look short for a giant."
"I was abandoned for being a runt."
She chuckled, narrowing her eyes."Tell me, how is Asgard?"
Thor was unwilling to interact with Hela anymore, leaving him to talk to her. He started with history, narrating the war between the Jotnar and the Aesir. She had found the idea of Odin adopting the abandoned son of the frost giant who took his eye amusing.
Before he continued, he wanted her to speak as well. His father was one part of the story, and Hela was the other. Since his father chose to keep it hidden, he wanted to hear her tale.
Raised to be Odin's general and executioner, she knew nothing but war her entire life. Her identity depended on fighting. In peacetime, she was nothing.
It only highlighted a point concerning his father.
He did not know how to raise children.
Hela was a bloodthirsty conqueror. Thor enjoyed battle and adventure more than ruling, which his father was intentionally blind to while raising him to be the king. He still understood the duties of a king thanks to him simplifying the lessons his father tried to teach.
Loki was a scholar, though; that had more to do with his mother.
Technically three potential heirs, neither was what his father sought in the future ruler of Asgard. Hela did not know the meaning of peace, Thor did not have the patience for politics, and he simply did not care for ruling at all.
He should definitely get him a book on child rearing.
A subject that opened was Fenrir, Hela's mount and companion. She had burst into laughter upon learning how he knew of the wolf's existence.
"They believe he was your son with another Jotun?"
"As they believed you were my daughter."
"Me too? These Midgardians are certainly amusing. Perhaps I shall keep a few as court fools."
She was intrigued by the Tenth Realm and the simulation rooms.
"A realm inside a computer? Intriguing. How did you build it?"
"With centuries of research and mastery of seidr."
"How vast is it?"
"The size of a true planet, but it can always be increased."
He offered her a chance to live in the Tenth Realm. She could fight and conquer to her heart's desire without worrying over the consequences.
She refused.
He shelved the idea for later, instead asking her about her mother. The name she gave was Fjorgyn. She did not remember much of her mother, as she had died relatively young.
Loki clicked his tongue. Perhaps Hela could have been a different person with a mother around.
In the Midgardian beliefs, she was Thor's mother, the personification of earth, which is tied to life. It was a poetic twist, a goddess tied to life giving birth to the Goddess of Death.
"I shall be certain to visit. For now, here."
He waved his hand, and a synthesizer he had kept in his pocket dimension dropped next to her, charged with more than enough seidr to keep it working for centuries.
"What is this machine?"
"It creates basic necessities, food, clothing, and anything else you might need."
"How generous. Are you trying to win me over with this?"
"I am simply giving you a chance, that is all."
—
Asgard
Thor was on a warpath.
He stomped to the throne room, ready to demand answers from his father. His lies, his hidden past—it would all come to light now.
"Thor, stop." He held his brother by the arm.
Thor tried to shrug him off, but Loki did not let go. "No. No more lies."
"I understand how you are feeling. I am furious too. However, confronting Father will not do anything."
"Everyone will know the truth. That is more than enough."
"I am not saying people should not know the truth. I just want to give him a chance to reveal it himself."
"Why?" His bellow echoed in the empty hallway. "Why does it matter?"
"Because your judgment is clouded. You will regret putting him in a difficult spot."
"I… I sometimes hate how sensible you are." His shoulders slumped, all steam gone. "What then? Do we just keep it a secret until he has a change of heart?"
"No, only until I can change Hela's mind."
—
In the next chapter:
He appeared away from his father's location. Hiding the energy released from the gate was difficult. A younger Odin with two infinity stones in his grasp would detect it easily.
"The stone requires a sacrifice, regardless of who you are," an alien, skin blue as the darkest of sapphires, roughly Aesir-like in shape, rebuffed his father.
"What kind?"
"A soul, of course. Of who keeps the greatest place in your heart."
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