Chapter 39
“Thor didn’t know when he brought me back,” Hela said, gazing out from the balcony of Asgard’s tallest tower, not turning around as Frigga paused in the doorway to the balcony.
“No, he didn’t.” Frigga confirmed, as she got over her pause and went to stand by her stepdaughter.
“Does it disturb you that I’m here? That my Fenris is in eternal sleep in the crypt, waiting when I can take the eternal flame and reawaken him.”
“I have had a Millenium to acquaint myself that my niece by birth, and my stepdaughter by upbringing was also the one who by killing my father and permanently disabling and disfiguring my mother, started the war my birth realm took centuries to recover from after we lost to Asgard and caused my elder brother to barter my hand in marriage away to Odin.”
“Yet you have yet to take off the black armband of mourning and all say you truly loved him.”
“I love Thor and Loki, and Odin for giving them both to me.”
“And did you know Loki was Alina’s son?”
“Yes.”
“Were you going to tell me?” Hela asked.
“I have forgiven you for the sake of my sons, but do not mistake that for me forgetting your deeds.”
“A Millenium in solitary confinement, with news only once in a decade or so, when I snuck away enough magic to scry what little I could? Was that what you were going to condemn Loki to?”
“Odin would have gone into Odinsleep again within less than a decade, either Thor or I would have taken up the throne and freed him. It was temporary.”
“I did not know Odin Allfather cared for the deaths of Midgardians.” Hela continued thoughtful. “He would not have changed that much. But there is someone who did, and whose power Odin saw enough of that he did so. I learned to kill on Midgard and racked up a far higher body count than Loki, yet Odin merely praised me for my blade work and did not argue when the Midgardians claimed I was the Goddess of Death.”
“You wish to know who that is?”
“Thor obviously doesn’t know, and Odin would have shared everything with you. He always appreciated a confidant who knew better than to talk, first Alina, then you.”
“There were some who said you were Odin's birth daughter with Alina, switched with Princess Sigruna’s stillborn so everyone thought you were his niece and not his daughter.”
“I am curious who informed the younger child of Queen Freya of Vanaheim of that particular rumor.”
“Brunhilde.”
“The half-Vanir Valkyrie who hated her commander’s guts. I remember. She snuck off, used a passage to Nidavellir without knowing how to do it properly, only the one to Svartalfheim is more dangerous, and never returned.”
“My mother died a few years after you were gone. My brother is King now and I would advise you never to return to Vanaheim. With her dying breath, Mother called a blood feud with you.”
“A blood feud would have been with the entire royal house of Asgard.”
“Yes. Contact was blocked off, I was married by then, and to my knowledge, Freyr still holds a grudge.”
“You have yet to so much as insult me. Your house holds a blood feud directly to me.”
“It is no longer the House of Odin, neither are you the heiress of the House of Thor.”
“There are three of us siblings, Thor sits on the throne, and Loki is not true born or even Odin’s or your bastard, and the youngest.”
“The only one whose power Odin ever truly feared is of our house.”
“Our? Odin had another bastard?”
“Another?” Frigga whirled. “What do you mean another?”
“Another. The rumors are far from false. Heimdall has far more influence than you may think, he is only gatekeeper because Odin prefered his alliance to his enmity. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Princess Sigruna died a week before I was born, her son dying with her.” Hela had yet to face Frigga, still gazing out over the realm eternal. “Loki and Thor are both, by birth, my half-brothers.” Hela did not know why she was telling this to Frigga, her stepmother, but she felt as if she owed the Vanir Princess at least that much.
“Both also half from worlds Asgard’s war with you were instrumental in starting.” Frigga said. “Both born first in line for the thrones of those realms as well.”
“Your marriage to Odin left you out of the Vanir succession.”
“No. My brother gave me a choice after Thor ascended. Crown Princess of Vanaheim or Queen Dowager of Asgard.”
“You love not only Thor but Asgard.”
“If Thor lost both his parents, Asgard would burn within the week. You and Loki would help*. I am no prophetess, but I do have a small amount of foresight, not enough that I can see all the future pathways, that would have killed my within a day of life from the overburden of knowledge, but I do have enough that Ican get brief glimpses now and then.”
“The prophecy said the last in succession for the throne of Asgard would cause Ragnarok. It would be either me or Loki.”
“It won’t be Loki.”
“You know something.”
“I did wield Gungnir during his last Odinsleep until I handed it over to Loki.”
“So you saw that which Heimdall sees and even that which is blocked from him byright of royal bloodline. I will admit, that was one of Odin’s wiser enchantments.”
“Yes.”
“Who is she? The more I know the more of an enigma she seems. Mistress of Death, yet a living woman. Uniter of the Hallows, yes, I know them to be real and not mere myth, I have wielded one, yet one was within Asgard at Thor’s show coronation, or at least it’s energy aura. Of our house yet of no relation I know of, or very young, barely into her first century, if I have had no news of her, and she wished for Loki to be imprisoned, caring for Midgard more than for family,”
“Have you considered those are not mutually exclusive?” Frigga asked.
“You mean family on Midgard? Who of our house would… Thor is particularly fond of the realm. Do you mean he has already sired a bastard child there?”
“No. He first went to Midgard a mere eight years ago.” Frigga said. “Think in the other direction.”
“Other direction… Do you mean of your branch of the family? Or that Princess Sigruna’s son survived to father a daughter?”
“No. I do not speak in riddles, Hela.” It was the first time Frigga had addressed her by her name. Hela turned from watching Asgard to meet her stepmother’s gaze. It was kind yet also slightly forced. Hela could see why. “You need to look a little closer to home.”
“How close? Thor would know in an instant if she were on Asgard.”
“If he looked. Thor isn’t like you, Hela. For him, a mystery is something he doesn’t care much for unless it affects him directly. You are more like Loki in that regard, curious, insatiable. Never satisfied. Sometimes too much so.”
“You don’t want me to go looking for her.”
“Unlike Odin, when I keep secrets, I know just why. Especially now. I saw her when she didn’t notice, and I am the last person to know my father’s secret method of scrying. I keep tabs on her, for if she moves on Asgard we are doomed. This is not a moment you want to approach her.”
“Then what would you have me do?”
“Wait. Your connection to death is still strong. I know her, from watching her where Heimdall cannot. She will come to you, Heka, and when she does, know this. She has come far from when you saw her last.” Frigga said.
“Cryptic seers.” Hela muttered.
“There is no better way to say it, Hela. For now, I apologize, I must leave. Thor is growing with his knack for politics, but he is still naive, and I am wary of leaving only Loki to guide him, what with his thirst for chaos and aching the people will be unprepared for. Last week, Thor was turned into a frog by Loki simply for the sake of it.” Frigga chuckled at the incident, as she swept away, leaving Hela to ponder her words.
A/N: Enter Wakanda.
“Baba, do you truly think all of them will sign?” T’Challa asked his father.
“I will stand by my hope, as you must, for they are the Avengers, I trust they will know what is right and sign.”
“Baba!” Sheri exclaimed, running into the throne room. “We just got pinged!**”
“Pinged?”
“Or rather, hacked.” Shuri said. “We just got hacked, and I can’t even trace it?!”
“What information do you have? What did they take?” T'Chaka asked, worried.
“They didn’t. There is a message buried in our servers.”
“What does it say?” T’Challa asked.
Shuri pulled up the message on a holoscreen. “The Order of the Phoenix sends warm greetings from Hell. Come and visit, bring your international oppression handbook with you, we haven’t seen one yet. The superhero registration act will not go through, and if you push again, the power of death itself will come to your land. - The Dragoness. The hacker handle reads as Skyenet.”
“Baba, what does it mean?”
“It means some cannot see the right thing.”
“Or that they can also see it is wrong.” Shuri said, crossing her arms. “Am I the only one who sees that registration and oppression based on fear is bad? Baba, you of all people, you were the Black Panther for decades. Would you have T’Challa register?”
“T’Challa will stay within national borders therefore allowing only my supervision as Wakanda’s head of State, as per the Paris Accords.”
“And what of the rest? Baba, I am not naive or oblivious.”
“What do you mean by that, Shuri?” T’Chaka asked.
“I mean that my technology does not come from within a vacuum, neither is it produced entirely from Vibranium. There are not only bad people outside our borders. And those people do not deserve what the Accords would do to them.”
“Then would you rather that they be given free reign? That Wakanda would be rocketed into the sky, and then set back down again, with no consequences, and with nobody knowing what happened?”
“That isn’t entirely true, Mother.” Shuri said. “There is a little bit I managed to dig up. The Avengers were failing, so the Order of the Phoenix sent in one of their own. The Avengers handled evacuation and the city, as well as the malevolent sentient AI causing the whole thing were destroyed by whoever the Order sent in, and the large energy pulse, from whatever weapon they used, sent out a hyper-magnified EMP that destroyed all the technology nearby that could have reported what was happening with a lack of people.” Shuri said.
“How did you find that out?” T’Challa asked. “And who are this order of the Phoenix?”
“Logic, from the bare minimum of facts. I’ve been curious about the Order since the first time they were even so much as spotted 3 years ago. I know they’ve been operating for longer. I don’t have much else, but I do know they’re not evil, they’re like us, they stand for their own.”
“Shuri, stop speaking in riddles.” Ramona admonished.
“Is that not how you taught me to speak, as a proper courtly princess? When you said, Shuri, no you cannot become a Dora Milaje Commander when you grow up, there are more powerful weapons than spears. Words, technology, and the mind.” She said. “Well my mind is telling me this is wrong.”
“Shuri, it is the right thing to do.” T’Challa said.
“According to those laws, if any of my weaponry, or if anything that was even, made of so much of a speck of Vibranium was taken out of Wakanda, that would be international charges for me, and a stay in the raft for an indeterminate period of time without a trial. Don’t you see what this can do?”
“Who added the part about the Raft?” T’Challa asked, “Bab, please tell me that was not you. If there’s as so much as suspicion, anyone could be carted off to that bominable place without even any proof if the right people wanted them away. Shuri is right, managing superheroes might be necessary, but these Accords are wrong.”
“T’Chaka, please listen to reason. The children make a point.” Ramona said. “It would not even be for the right people. If anyone outside our borders found out about Wakanda as more than a poor third world country, they could claim our weaponry breaks the Accords, that T’Challa went outside our borders with the Black Panther suit, or that you did, or that I took Vibranium out of our borders, or they could simply steal it, and they could have our entire family away, or even the Dora, and Wakanda would be ripe for their taking. All of the Vibranium, all of our technology, everything would be gone in an instant, and it wouldn't even be illegal. You have seen how the USA is expanding. Or to be fair, any other country.”
“That is…. I did not realize that. I must warn the rest of the United Nations.”
“Baba, you know they won’t listen.”
“Then what can we do?”
“We can start by thanking the Order of the Phoenix for their wake-up call.” Shuri said.
“Shuri, how did they find us?” T’Challa asked.