Beautiful Chaos

{part five | chapter four}

"Brother," Thor grumbled, "This is your doing." Lilith felt the hair on her arms stand up and the sound of thunder fill the air. Before she knew what she was doing, her arm was outstretched, palm open, and Thor's hammer -still disguised as an umbrella- was flying through the air towards it. She felt the familiar rush of electricity in her veins as she had earlier as it smacked against her waiting palm.

"Don't even think about it," She said, moving towards the brothers. She thought breaking up another family feud would be the least of her worries until a sound like the Earth breaking open sounded through the meadow. She turned, wide-eyed, to the source of the noise and when she saw it, she began sprinting across the field.

"What the hell is that?" She yelled as she thrust the umbrella into Thor's hands. They all stared at the doorway that had appeared fifty feet away from where they all stood. It looked like a gateway to hell, and it looked like someone was making their exit through it.

"That would be our sister," Loki said, his tone worried as he wrapped his arm around Lilith's waist and moved her behind him and Thor.

"Sister?"

"Hela, Goddess of Death," Thor answered.

"Oh, great. She sounds pleasant."

A pallid woman with raven black hair and a suit of black and green Asgardian leather emerged from the doorway.

Thor was struck by lightning and suddenly his jeans and t-shirt were traded in for his silver and red armor; the hammer now in its true form. When Lilith looked at Loki, his suit was transforming into green and black Asgardian garb. She looked down and found her outfit had changed too, a new garment had replaced her jeans and ACDC t-shirt. The outfit Loki had chosen for her consisted of black leggings and a matching long-sleeve under a leather jacket; thigh-high boots in the same charcoal-colored leather had replaced her beloved combat boots.

"Here." Loki waved his hand in Lilith's direction and the familiar weight of two swords strapped to her back appeared, as well as the tightness of two dagger holsters materializing around her thighs, "In case you need to fight."

She reached back with both hands and touched the handles of both blades, a smile forming on her lips. She could hold her own in a fight against any of Earth's deadliest assassins without a weapon, but the goddess of death was an entirely different story. She was glad to know she had some way to defend herself if things went sour.

"So," Hela said, her tone dark and her eyes full of malice, "He's gone? Such a shame, I would've killed to have seen that."

"You must be Hela. I'm Thor, son of Odin."

"Really? You don't look like him."

"Perhaps we can reach an arrangement," Loki tried to negotiate.

"You sound like him," Hela said, a smirk spreading itself across her sharp features. The atmosphere was tense. The death goddess glanced at Lilith briefly, but the singular second of eye contact was followed by a chill running up the mortal woman's spine and the frightening flash of images through her mind; the compound, a battlefield, a golden gauntlet, and a flash of light. They were there and then gone in too little time to process, but they left behind a feeling of dread.

"Kneel," The goddess demanded.

"Beg your pardon?" Loki raised his brows in surprise.

"You have got to be kidding me," Lilith groaned.

"Kneel," a pitch-black blade appeared in her hand, "before your queen."

"I don't think so," Thor said and spun Mjolnir until it was barely more than a blur. When he let it go, it flew across the field to deliver a detrimental blow.

Or what would have been a detrimental blow, had it hit its mark.

Instead, Hela was holding Mjolnir in front of her, the head of the hammer pressing against her palm. Thor reached out to call the hammer back to him but the weapon stayed put in Hela's grasp.

"It's not possible," Thor mumbled.

"Darling," Hela drawled and Lilith cringed outwardly at the goddess's use of Loki's name for her, "you have no idea what's possible."

With that final statement, the hammer split and shattered into pieces, sending a wave of energy across the field. It hit them with a force that had Lilith stumbling backward slightly. Hela ran her hands over her hair and as she did so, a terrifying battle headdress. Thor seemed to have no reaction, so stunned that he couldn't move. Loki, however, began to panic. He reached for Lilith and brought her close to his chest, one hand around her waist, one cradling her head.

"Bring us back!" Loki shouted towards the sky, summoning the Bifrost.

"No!" Thor cried out, finally coming back to reality. As Hela charged towards them, she was picked up into the Bifrost with them. Lilith held tight to Loki.

"Hold on, Darling, don't let go." She felt Loki's embrace leave her and forced herself to look down. When she did so, she saw two daggers strike but not impale the goddess. Hela was rapidly growing closer to the pair and Lilith was frightened. She screwed her eyes shut and held tighter to Loki.

"Brother, look out!" Thor's warning came seconds too late and Hela collided with the pair and sent them crashing through the Bifrost and forcing them out of the other's grasp.

Lilith screamed as she fell. She had been expecting the lethal cold and lack of oxygen that space possessed to kill her immediately. Instead, she fell fast, plummeting towards nothing, unable to find Loki as she frantically searched the atmosphere around her.

"Loki! Loki!" And she kept screaming, reaching towards the empty space above her, desperately trying to find something to grab hold of. As she fell, the sky turned from pitch black freckled with starlight to the vibrant blue of an afternoon sky. She assumed she was falling back down to Earth, to the field.

She knew she'd be hitting the ground soon. It would be nice, she thought, to die in the meadow. Her meadow, Loki's meadow, their meadow.

She closed her eyes and braced herself for impact.

She only hoped it would be quick.