The War Room of the Shadow-Stalker.
The round table sat in the center of the war room, illuminated by the rhythmic, emerald pulse of the Time Stone. Loki sat across from Hela, his reindeer helmet resting on the table beside a bottle of weapon oil. He was meticulously cleaning the golden antlers with a silk cloth, his movements calm and methodical—a sharp contrast to the woman vibrating with murderous intent across from him.
Loki was halfway through toasting a thick cigar when Hela suddenly slammed her fist into the table. The heavy Uru-wood groaned under her strength, and the fine oil bottle rattled.
"Sister, please," Loki sighed, not looking up. "A calm mind is a sharp—"
"Quiet, you little brat!" Hela hissed, her eyes burning with a cold, jagged fire. "This meeting should have happened three days ago. You are wearing out my patience, you little monster!"
Loki lit his cigar, blowing a series of perfect smoke rings that drifted toward the ceiling. "I waited to ensure the temporal currents were stable. Precision is everything. Tell me, do you even remember precisely what we discussed for lunch ninety-six days ago?"
Hela snorted, leaning back with an air of practiced boredom. "Chicken, lamb chops, steamed fish, a vegetable platter, and dessert. I eat the same fuel every day at noon. Your point is moot."
"Uh..." Loki scratched his head, his smirk widening. "You're deliberately undermining me, aren't you? Actually, I was going to ask if you drank white wine with that meal."
"I did."
"Sister is lying," Loki concluded, peering into her eyes with the confidence of a man who could read the shifting tides of a soul. "The lunch you mentioned was fabricated. You don't remember the details."
Hela clenched her fist, her teeth gritting together with a sound like grinding stone. "I said I did! Skip this idiotic topic and proceed with your damn meeting now. If you can't satisfy my hunger for progress, I promise you a very miserable death!"
"Alright, alright," Loki raised his hands in a mock surrender. "First, the configuration of our 'Lola Squad.' I am Technical Support and Strategy. You are Combat and Shock Tactics. A team has only one brain; once the operation begins, my word is law."
Hela let out a sharp, mocking bark of laughter. "On what grounds? I have conquered worlds while you were still playing with wooden daggers. Why should the Goddess of Death listen to a viper?"
"Because," Loki said, leaning forward until the smoke from his cigar drifted past her face, "I am insidious and cunning. The fact that you are sitting here, free from your cage without Odin ever realizing you left, is proof of my method. In a parallel world, brute force will only unite the universe against us. We need a surgeon's touch. If we disagree, we discuss—but the plan remains mine."
Hela lingered in silence for a long moment, her fingers drumming against the obsidian scarf around her neck. Finally, she gave a stiff nod. "For now. But if you stumble, I take the reins."
"Agreed," Loki said. "Now, the Rules of Engagement. We are there for plunder and your revenge. But I am setting a 'Switch.' If we encounter the Frigga of that world, or our other selves, we prioritize containment, not execution."
Hela's face turned to stone. "Kill them all. It's cleaner."
"No," Loki said, his voice dropping into a register of absolute gravity. "This is my bottom line. We can destroy a world, but we must respect the fate of the individuals who mirror our own. If we cross that threshold and lose our reverence for the people we once were, we aren't gods—we're just monsters in human skin. I won't lose my soul to the Multiverse, and I won't let you lose yours."
Silence fell over the room for a full ten minutes. Hela stared at him, her mind flickering back to the advice of the woman she had once called Mother: Always maintain reverence, or you become a slave to your own power.
"Fine," Hela whispered. "The Switch remains."
The Leap into the Unknown.
"Sister? It's time."
Loki gestured toward the pocket dimension he had prepared. Hela nodded, dissolving into a stream of black mist and entering the void. Loki opened a "window" for her, allowing her to view the outside world from a third-person perspective as a silent observer.
Loki donned his helmet and slid his hand into the Uru Gauntlet. The raw power of the Time Stone surged through his divine body, making his veins glow with a faint, radioactive green.
"Set sail," he murmured, his voice laced with the excitement of a new journey. "Embark."
The green glow of Time, combined with his Space abilities, tore open a door without a single energy surge. He activated his concealment mask and stepped through.
Norway: 1942.
Loki landed in the soft snow outside a stone church in Tønsberg. He took a deep breath—the air was heavy with the smell of pine and the metallic tang of an industrial war.
Perfect, he thought. I sense it. The Tesseract is here.
He moved like a ghost, entering the church's hidden chamber while the world outside slept. He found the carved wall, triggered the mechanism, and pulled the glowing blue cube from its resting place.
He didn't know that three minutes after he teleported away, a ring of orange sparks would ignite in the nave. The Ancient One stepped through, her brow furrowed. The Space Stone was gone, and while she could sense the thief's landing point, the trail vanished at the smuggling passage to Jotunheim. She was certain the thief was still on Earth, but he was masked by a power she couldn't pierce.
The Duel of Kings.
Inside his storage space, Loki tossed the Tesseract onto the table. Hela stepped out of the shadows, her eyes fixed on the gem.
"Crush it," Loki said. "With the Space Stone, our mobility becomes absolute."
"You forgot the words, little brother," Hela purred.
Loki sighed. "Please, My Lord Sister... crush it."
Hela's hand clamped over the blue casing. With a sound like breaking ice, the Tesseract shattered. Loki embedded the Space Stone into the Gauntlet.
"Based on the technology I saw, this world is a thousand years ahead of ours," Loki noted. "Odin is old. Brittle. But his power will be at its peak. How do we draw him out?"
Hela flicked the ash from her cigarette. "Now is the time to see if we truly have that 'chemistry.' Which plan do I choose?"
Loki smiled, his golden eyes reflecting the azure glow of the stones.
"Naturally," Loki said, "you'll choose to replace the Laufey of this world. We instigate a Frost Giant war, and when Odin leads his army to the front, we ambush him when he is exhausted from the slaughter. We don't just kill him; we take his legacy."
Hela's eyes glowed with a predatory joy. "Excellent. Let the hunt begin."
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