Skin Beneath Feathers

After escaping Sakaar, what will meet Loki, Thor, Valkyrie and Banner when they reach Asgard? Their relationships are frayed, but the brothers are slowly mending.What little they know indicates that Hela has been left to lay waste to the Realm Eternal, with only Odin to hold her off. However, with the Allfather still alive and kicking, how did she escape banishment? Are there more reasons for her sudden attack than 'power hungry maniac'?But far more is at play - Loki's magic is still bound and his Æsir illusion chipping away, he must battle Hela, who is set on taking Asgard for herself. Amongst this, can he keep Thor safe, vanquish his demons and, most importantly, stop the fall of the Realm Eternal? AKA: Ragnarok: But Better 2, Electric Boogaloo. What if Odin was alive on Asgard to face Hela?

Warnings for violence and bad language throughout :) if you're unsure, check the tags. I will have trigger warnings in the notes of each chapter, where applicable.The bottom AN of the last chapter has a main character death list. If you need that for some reason, go look :)This fic is a continuation/sequel to 'A Falling Bluebird', which is the first fic in this series. I strongly advise you read that first, then come back to this one as I wrote this assuming the reader knows what happened in the first one. It's not too long, so you might as well ;) Plus, if you like the premise of this (and angst) you'll like that one.But if you can't be arsed (and for my readers who have read it and need a refresh! welcome back to you guys love ya <3) here's a very brief run down of the Important Things (spoiler alert, duhh):1) Loki was chucked in the Asgard dungeons when Odin broke out of his 'retirement' on Earth. His magic was locked and so was his shifting (stuck in Jötunn form). It was practically torture due to Asgard being too hot to stand without magic and shifting.2) Thor gets him back to help fight Hela. This time when he lands on Sakaar, Loki doesn't screw his way to the top but becomes a gladiator (also, Valkyrie sold him as a sex slave). He's also seeing and talking to Frigga, but spoopily.3) He thinks Thor is dead and discovers time moves differently on Sakaar (years there are thousands of years on Asgard).4) Thor isn't actually dead! They meet up again shortly after Loki gets his pinky finger bitten off by the Hulk whilst they fight. Details about magic, instinctual magic and Frost Giant magic, plus lore.5) Great Escape time. Loki sacrifices a new friend to save Thor and sends the Grandmaster to Hel with Lævateinn. Which is the melt stick but not.6) If you haven't read it, this fic may not make much sense. Plus, you'll miss so much foreshadowing. I put effort into that. You can probably guess a lot of the final fic/part in this story with the foreshadowing I'm chucking everywhere!Beta'd by the lovely deferred_momentum!!