Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 66

Loki's eyes widened as he watched. "Father?" Peter asked from next to Loki. Wanda gasped at the greeting from the strange woman who had walked through the portal on Asgard. Peter looked up at Loki. "You didn't say you have a sister,"

Loki shook his head, just as shocked as the others, just as shocked as Thor appeared. /I don't that I know of/ he told the teens in their minds. He watched the scene closer. It appeared frozen, though Loki knew it was just shock. The portal had closed behind the woman after she had stepped through. She appeared to be an older lady-Loki in looks, pale skin, black hair. She even wore black and green like Loki did. Something about her indicated that she wasn't his biological sister, despite their similar looks.

It was Frigga's expression that sold the story that she really was Odin's daughter. There was a mix of emotions there that most wouldn't have been able to read. Loki could. He was closer to Frigga than anyone, except maybe Odin. He saw the surprise, the shock, in her expression, but he also saw the joy and relief in her eyes. She was glad to see her daughter home, despite whatever happened to keep her from there, despite current events, she was glad to see her daughter was there, alive and well.

Loki's mind was going on overdrive as he tried to figure out who this woman was and how she'd been hidden from him his entire life. He thought he knew all of the palace's secrets, all of his parents' now. Apparently, he'd missed a major one. He didn't like secrets, except his own of course. He was usually much better at ferreting them out and it irked him that he had a secret older sister.

Thor, as usual, blasted through the shock with his oafishness. He looked between Odin and the woman, between Frigga and the woman. He didn't have Loki's skill at reading Frigga, but he understood well enough. "Father? What do you mean? Who are you?" Thor demanded, his grip on Mjolnir tightening. He thought this was a trick. Clearly he was too used to dealing with Loki. This woman obviously wasn't Loki, but Thor was treating her with the same wariness as he did a mischief-bound Loki.

Loki had to admit that it was a good tactic. Maybe his idiot brother had learned something from being related to Loki after all. Maybe.

The stranger glanced at Thor and saw Mjolnir in his grip. She turned her attention back up to Odin. "Keeping more secrets again, Father? Why am I not surprised?" She asked coldly. "It wasn't enough that you banished me, but you erased all memory of my existence while you were at it?" Her expression, her very being were cold and angry. Loki understood that cold anger all too well. He'd felt it every day until Peter had come into his life.

"Hela..." Frigga said placatingly, pleading with her daughter to understand through that one word. At least Loki and Thor now had a name to attach to their surprise sister.

Hela turned to Frigga and gave her a gentle look. "Hello, Mother. I've missed you too, in my exile,"

"I never meant- I tried-" Frigga said, heartbroken over what her daughter seemed to have gone through. Frigga hadn't been able to protect her from Odin. Like she hadn't been able to protect Loki.

The team was wisely remaining quiet while the Asgardians dealt with their family drama.

Odin banged gungnir to get everyone's attention back on him. Which was a stupid-ass decision in Loki's opinion, but as it was a stupid-ass decision in Loki's favor, he was electing to ignore it.

"I know, Mother. He gave you no choice," Hela said fondly before she turned her attention back to Odin. "You, however, had plenty of choice. You banished me for being just like you. You banished me because I had the capacity to be stronger than you, a better ruler than you, if only you'd given me the chance and proper instruction-"

Thor paled at those words. Hela had been banished?

"You were banished," Odin interrupted, his voice angry and full of power. "Because you were power hungry and corrupt," he snarled at her.

"And now," Hela continued as if Odin hadn't interrupted her. "You torture my baby brothers. And Loki had been through enough without you making things worse," she growled at him, power glowing around her. Her power was green, but not the same green as Loki's. This was more menacing, darker, deadlier. "It was bad enough that you kidnapped him from Jotunheim, held him hostage here as part of the peace treaty. Held him hostage against Jotunheim's good behavior. It was worse that you never told him where he came from. It was even worse that you were going to kill him for the war with Jotunheim that Thor started-"

"No..." Frigga said, horrified.

Loki paled. It was true. It was all true. For one, he couldn't smell a lie in her words. For another, he'd seen the peace treaty when he'd become king. He knew that his life was tied to Jotunheim's good behavior. His parents had left him in the temple for safety. Odin had brought him to Asgard as a hostage. His life was forfeit if Jotunheim attacked Asgard for any reason, no matter how provoked they were.

Thor looked horrified at the implication that he had nearly ended Loki's life.

That he had ended Loki's life.

Loki had let go of the scepter that day on the Bifrost. He'd killed himself so he would face death on his own terms.

"He came to my realm, Father," Hela spat. "When he realized his life was forfeit. He faced that battlefield and chose to die on his terms. Which led him to me," Loki didn't remember that, but he had a vague recollection that Hela was the goddess of death. "I granted him the boon of sending him back. Though I couldn't control where he landed. And now you continue to torture him for crimes he didn't commit, for not being a miniature you, like Thor!" She spat.

"Enough!" Odin roared, banging gungnir again. "You were banished, Hela. You were banished to Helheim to live out your days there. And you will return there now!" He started to gather his power.

A wicked gleam filled Hela's eyes.

"Yes, father, I will. Though I won't be the only one. You've hurt my favorite brother and you will pay for that," she snarled and rushed up the stairs to the throne to face Odin. She summoned two long black blades and a horned helmet as she did.

Loki remembered something. Something he'd been far too young to remember, but he remembered it all the same. He remembered looking up at Odin as he lifted him from the cradle in the temple. He remembered the pale man smiling down at the blue infant. He caught the image in Odin's mind of another infant, one he'd failed, his daughter. The image of her had filled the tiny Loki's mind and the illusion he'd donned to please the pale man had been made in the image of his first child, of the child he'd lost. Loki had been Odin's second chance.

A second chance he'd failed so miserably.

The fight was vicious, though short. Hela had clearly been honing her skills in her realm. She'd gained power there, while Odin was weakened by age. "Hela, no!" Frigga called, though Thor wrapped his arms around his mother to keep her out of the fray and safe. The team stood by Thor's decision and stayed out of it.

It was over before they could have acted anyway. Hela ripped gungnir from Odin as he was down on the ground and tossed it to Frigga. "Asgard is yours, mother. Rule it better than he did. The bar is not high," she said and grabbed Odin by the throat as the black and green portal opened again. "Father and I have some catching up to do," she strode into the portal before anyone could stop her, back into the land of the dead, dragging Odin with her.