Hel/Jay has Steve by the throat, floating in space. The eyes are manic green, but Steve can see Jay fighting in there with everything she has to remove her own bony hands. That fight alone gives him the strength to kick Hel in the ribs.
The maelstrom of her Bifrost energy keeps the Avengers at bay, battering at a bubble of rainbow light that surrounds them.
She howls but doesn't let go, a furious scowl on her face, lines between her eyes like she has a massive headache. Rainbows explode under her fingers and Captain America feels Jay's telekinesis squeeze her hands tighter shut around his trachea. Jay screams silently in his head at him to hold on, but Hel's hold on Jay's telekinesis has the metacarpals of her hand contracting on Steve's throat. Jay swears colorfully in his head, urging him not to give up but he can feel her losing the battle to Hel. "No," Jay screams as his vision darkens.
Then there is a crack of raw power and a blast of the Bifrost that sends Hel/Jay spinning backwards across space. Somersaulting in reverse in a tangle of fabric and light.
Steve coughs hard and looks to his side.
Loki sweeps a mocking bow to him. "I've come to rescue you, fair maiden," he says with his signature smirk.
Steve can't help himself. A mixture of hilarity and odd relief at seeing the trickster has him laughing so hard that tears come to his eyes. Loki grins at him and holds out a hand. Despite all that has happened between them, Rogers takes his hand and they land on a branch of the Yggdrasil.
Hel looks at Loki with pure venom, landing on a branch of Yggdrasil above them, crouched there like a spiteful ape, looking ready to pounce with her double blades. Rarely, her eyes move from green to grey and the shift looks like rage to hope, anger to satisfaction. Loki meets her eyes in one of the brief moments where she is Jay and nods slightly.
Tony, Clint and Thor land next to Loki and Steve on the branch, all looking up at the chaos goddess getting ready maul them. "Not that I don't appreciate the save," Rogers says, eyes narrowed on Hel, whose green eyes have been solidly emerald for several moments now, no grey flickers left, "but did you manage to bring anything useful through the cosmos to help us out?"
Loki smiles and calls out, "Enter, stage right!"
A blast of rainbow light engulfs the Avengers and transports them high into the leaves of Yggdrasil. When Steve hurls on his shoes, Loki does not even try to hide the smugness from his face.
"Apologies for the abrupt portaling," Heimdall says to them once they have recovered. "But Loki was adamant we needed to the element of surprise and I hate to agree with him." They are safely ensconced on a high bough of Yggdrasil, the fighting going on below them, Hel nowhere is sight. The mass of Darkness that is Athronei unleashed is uncoiling to their right and they can just make out two specks of blinding light weaving around the shadow. It is impossible to tell if Neona and Verdandi are making any headway containing their errant sister.
Thor grasps Heimdall's forearm in a brotherly grip. "You got the Norns' message I take it."
Heimdall nods, "That I did. But we need to regroup quickly. I fear Hel will quickly locate us and teleport here as well. Hopefully Jaycee can hold her telepathy away from Hel long enough that we can formulate a plan to get close to her." Heimdall looks to the trickster. "Loki?"
Surprised to see Heimdall addressing Loki as a comrade and giving him the proverbial floor, Thor looks at his brother. Then realization dawns.
"You did it," Thor says in wonder, looking at Loki's carefully shuttered face. "You found her soul, didn't you?" he asks his brother.
YOU ARE READING
Havoc and Retribution
FanfictionThe struggle between Hel, former goddess of death, and Jaycee Strong, mortal telepath and great-granddaughter to Sigyn of Vanaheim, is only just beginning. This is the final book in the Jaycee Strong series, which started with "Psych the Avengers O...