The Killing Kind
Chapter 14: The Killing Kind
Stella woke up.
She found herself in an unfamiliar dim room, again. The room smelled too sanitized, again. There was a beeping sound in the background, again. She wiggled her right hand and she felt a needle stuck into her hand, again. She opened her mouth but it was painful. That was new. She feels like there’s cotton in her mouth and she can feel her lips cracking every millimeter she opens. She wiggled her whole body and she felt nausea hit her like a truck. That’s definitely new.
She heard the door open and a bright light illuminated the room. “No…” she faintly pleaded and shut her eyes.
“Ma’am?” A soft voice of a lady was heard. “How are you-”
A tear fell from her eye, a reaction from the sudden brightness. “The lights...” she pleaded again.
Stella heard a woman murmuring and the lights were turned down to the dimmest setting, but still functional for reading. She slowly opened her eyes and saw two figures above her. Everything was still blurry and dim but she could figure out that these two were women because of their voices and silhouettes. One woman introduced herself as a doctor and the other was a nurse. They said their names but she didn’t catch it. Farrah? Louie? Stella felt a hand on her right forearm and saw that it was from the doctor. Her lips were moving but Stella couldn’t figure out what she was saying. She was too focused on adjusting her senses that she forgot to zero in her auditory senses to the doctor.
“It’s okay, it might take time for her to be fully conscious. She seems to be disoriented.” The doctor assured the nurse, who was starting to be agitated.
“What time is it?” Stella whispered, her voice was raspy and it hurt speaking.
“Please get her a glass of water,” the doctor instructed the nurse and she quickly fixed a glass of water on the table. “It’s 3:46 in the morning, Miss Lords.”
“Do you have water?” The doctor nodded as she inclined the upper half of Stella’s bed. Louis assisted Stella with the water. As the water flowed through her, so did the questions. Most of the questions cannot be answered by Doctor Fa..Farrah? Stella’s eyes swept between the doctor and the nurse. “You’re Doctor...Farrah?” She asked the woman with a white hijab.
The doctor smiled. “I’m Doctor Faiza, Miss Lords.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. And you’re Nurse Louie?”
“Louis.” The nurse smiled.
“I’m sorry again.” Stella leaned back and let her eyes rest for a while. Even though the room has minimal light, it still stung her eyes.
“It’s okay. Waking up disoriented after being unconscious for a long time is normal.” Faiza explained.
Stella’s eyes fluttered open. She gawked at Faiza. “Doc, did you say unconscious for a long time?”
Faiza nodded. “You’ve been asleep for a week and a half now. Everyone thought you would be out for a good month but, given that you’re part god I concluded that you’ll recover quickly than a normal human being,” she explained like it was normal for her to have demigods and super-humans as patients.
Stella decided to go on to her next question. “Where’s everybody? Where am I?”
“You’re in the medical bay in the Stark Tower, though this is a bigger room compared to your previous one. Everybody is still asleep but they have been notified through their phones. How are you feeling, Miss Lords?”
“Stiff.” She weakly raised her empty plastic cup. “And my mouth still feels like it’s stuffed with cotton.” Louis immediately filled Stella’s cup and she drank, savoring the taste of water at room temperature. “And I want to sleep again.”
“It’s okay. You can go back to sleep. But before anything else, are you feeling pain?”
“I don’t know.” She brought her left hand to her stab wound and pressed it lightly. Instead of a sharp pain, she only felt a numb pain, and it felt like the wound had completely closed. “This is numb.”
Faiza nodded thoughtfully. “It’s okay. You’re doing great.” Stella slightly nodded, not noticing that she had released her grip on the cup. Good thing it was already empty. Louis removed the cup and walked to the counter on the left side of the bed. “We’re going to draw blood from you to run another test an-”
“Why?” She asked blankly.
“We need to check if your blood levels are back to normal. You lost a lot of blood.”
“Really?” Stella badly wanted to go to sleep. The more she fights it, the heavier her eyelids feel. But she wanted answers, even the partial ones.
“Yes, and we are going to inject a few medicines into your IV line but since you said you don’t feel immense pain, we’re going to lower your morphine dosage.”
Louis placed a hand on Stella’s left arm. “May I?” She asked and Stella extended her left arm as a response. Louis started to prep her arm for extraction.
“I was on morphine while I was unconscious?” Stella asked Faiza. “How did you know I needed them?”
“I saw your nervous system react to pain.”
“You saw my…what…”
Stella didn’t know, but Faiza could see through her like a CT scan. Since Stella was a demigod, Tony thought it would be best if a human mutant would check on her. Faiza saw Stella’s nerves bursting with reactions because of the pain and many more. She also saw how Stella’s energy gets stronger each day. Though she couldn’t determine whether Stella has the ichor or not.
Stella’s head rolled to the side as Faiza and Louis prepared and administered the medicines. Louis checked on their patient and Stella was just watching them with beady eyes. “I think you need to get some rest,” Louis told her.
Stella let herself succumb to sleep.
Hours after, Stella woke up again to a dim room. She pushed herself up without any difficulty and sat on the bed, her eyes scanning the room. Unlike earlier, this time she feels a little livelier, but her head feels heavy due to the long hours of being asleep. She rubbed the heel of her free hand on her eyes and slowly shook her head to full consciousness. The door opened and Faiza announced herself.
“Good morning, Doc.” Stella said. “Did JARVIS tell you that I was up?”
“Yes, he did.” Faiza stopped next to her bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Weird. Like I don’t want to sleep for the next few days.” She heard her stomach grumble. “And hungry.”
“JARVIS, please send some food for Stella up here. Thanks.” Faiza instructed the AI, to which he also replied and told them lunch will be there in 3 minutes.
“Lunch?” Stella looked around for a clock. “What time is it?”
Faiza checked her watch. “It’s already 4:17 in the afternoon.”
Stella face-palmed. “Ugh. I’m not sleeping tonight.”
“But you need to. Your energy also has not reached a hundred percent yet.”
Stella looked at her in surprise. “How did you know…?”
“I managed to locate your power source within you and since you were healing unconsciously your energy went up to 15%.” Stella crunched her eyebrow, her expression crossing between horrified and curious. “I could see the cross-sections of a patient’s body but I wouldn’t do it while you’re conscious.”
Stella’s eyes widened. “Are you saying you’re a…” She looked at Faiza. “Mutant?” She whispered.
Faiza smirked pleasantly. “Yeah, something like that. It’s quite useful at times. But I’m not here for that,” she said as she checked Stella’s IV and blood bag. “You have reached the normal amount of blood in your system. Allie will be removing this -” she tapped the needle connecting to Stella’s blood bag - “later on.”
“Can I leave this place? I could use a walk.”
Faiza cocked her head, studying Stella. “Most of your cells have regenerated. You have torn a few strands of muscle inside but it’s 85% healed.” She pursed her lips, thinking deeply. The door opened and a young man entered, bringing a tray with a bottle of water and a bowl. He set it upon the table and pushed it to the bed. Stella and Faiza thanked the man as he left and Faiza encouraged Stella to eat. Stella picked up the spoon. It was miso soup with soft tofu. “You can’t have anything solid yet for a week. Your throat was dry for more than a week and you need to bring back the moisture in it.”
“Yeah, it still feels dry.”
“Going back, I think I can discharge you tonight.” Stella smiled. “But you can’t do any physical activity for a month and a half, or until your body has completely healed.” Stella muttered an ‘oh good Lord’ under her breath as a reply. Faiza took a moment of silence to contemplate before starting. “I know you’re after Ares and I know he’s your half-brother.”
Stella paused. “You know Ares?” She suddenly thought if Faiza knew something about Ares, like his whereabouts and who he’s working with at the moment, if he was.
Faiza leaned on the bed. This conversation was veering from doctor-patient to mutant-demigod. “He tried to steal my sword but of course there are only two people in this world who can wield it.”
Stella tilted her body closer to Faiza. “What do you mean by that? Is it like Thor’s Mjölnir?”
The doctor nodded. “Have you heard of the Excalibur?”
Stella gasped. “Wait...wait a minute. Excalibur. You. Ares.” She took a spoonful of soup before speaking. “I remember.” She slowly nodded. “You’re the Excalibur.” Faiza nodded. “He has a huge obsession with ancient weapons.”
“Yeah. Good thing he couldn’t get his hand on my sword.”
“Wait a minute. You’re based in Europe. How did you...why are you here?” Stella trailed off.
“Mr. Stark asked for my help here. Told me that they couldn’t figure out how to treat a demigod.” Faiza has an amused smile on her face.
She took a spoonful of soup with tofu. “Well, they’re not wrong. But how about Loki? He knows how to treat gods. Maybe he also knows how to treat half-gods.” Stella mused. “Oh wait. It’s complicated.”
“How is it complicated?”
Another spoonful of soup before speaking. “He tried healing me using his magic but the Aresian dagger’s residual magic prevented him from doing so. It hurts.”
“This Aresian dagger, is this the one with the crooked blade?”
“Yeah. They have enchanted it with dark magic. Do you know anything about it?” Stella asked.
“No but I have seen some people carry that when I was out on a mission.”
Stella perked up. “Were they friend or foe? And where?”
“Foe. In Europe.”
Stella nodded, trying to piece things together with her fuzzy brain. She placed her spoon down when she realized she finished her soup. She closed her eyes and rubbed her eyes. “God. This is a lot of information to take in.” Faiza told her to slow it down. “Yeah, I am but I can’t help to connect the dots. I am not surprised if you saw people carrying Aresian daggers around in an undisclosed location. Ares was mobilizing his army a long time ago and it’s just now that he made major attacks to Asgard then on Earthrealm.”
“I agree. It is a lot to take in.” Faiza chimed in.
“And I know you’re surprised you got caught up in this complex web.”
Faiza chuckled. “To be honest I am, a little bit. But after defending Great Britain from aliens, super-humans, and whatnot, nothing really surprises me.”
“And that’s from Ares attempting to steal your sword. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would want to steal Thor’s Mjölnir and Steve’s shield. Probably even Tony’s suits.” Stella shrugged. “He was always crazy. Any idea where he is right now?” Stella decided to dive into it.
Faiza shook her head. “That was a long, long time ago. When he found out that the Excalibur was found he immediately traced it to me and threatened me.”
“Let me tell you that that is not news. He even turned his back against Olympus bringing some ancient weapons with him.”
Faiza shrugged. “I wish I could help you but that’s all I have.”
Stella smiled and nodded.”It’s okay. It’s still information, nevertheless. Thank you, doc.”
Faiza smiled back, relieved. She straightened up and ran her hands on her pants, flattening the creases. “So.” she tapped on her watch and a holoscreen appeared. After a few scrolls and readings, she tapped it again and it disappeared. “I’ll go out to call the nurse to take off all the tubes and wires from you. Looks like you’re good to go.”
Stella beamed. “Any idea how strong my energy is?”
Faiza fixed her eyes on her. “Mmm...you’re at 66%. Better than the first day you went dark.”
Stella suddenly remembered the reason why she ended up there. “Do you know what happened? I couldn’t remember how the fight ended. All I could remember was snatching the scepter from Jericho and everything went dark.”
“I’m sorry, I have no idea. Mr. Stark just told me you guys were in a fight and you passed out.”
Stella just nodded and Faiza excused herself. After 30 minutes, she finished her lunch and Allie, the nurse, entered the room to remove the wires and the IV lines from her. Before she left, Faiza dropped by again to give her a black rectangle box.
“It’s a smart watch.” Faiza explained as Stella opened the box. “It’ll determine your blood levels and how many percent of your body has healed. It can also determine your energy levels, but of course you need to help yourself enhance the energy.”
Stella wore the watch and pressed a button on the side. With a few swipes she saw her vital stats. “Thanks, Doc. Did you make this?”
“Tony and Bruce worked with me to create that.”
“I should pass by the lab on my way out. Oh, by the way.” Faiza looked up from her clipboard. “I know this is a really corny question but did anyone see me while I was out?”
Faiza smiled. “All of them.”
“Did Loki pass by?”
The doctor pursed her lips. “I’m afraid I have not seen him ever since I arrived here.”
“Huh. Okay.” Stella felt weird. Her stomach dropped but she didn’t let Faiza notice her uneasiness. Maybe he’s mad at me for what I told him before we got attacked? Then she felt ridiculous for expecting him to visit her. We’re just colleagues for crying out loud. But Faiza confirmed all of them visited her. She swallowed the thought as Faiza and the nurses attended her.
After one last round of check up and instructions, Stella hugged Faiza and she left the medical bay. While she was standing in the elevator, she felt tired and told JARVIS to bring her to her floor instead of bringing her to where Tony and Bruce were.
The floor was dim when she stepped out of the elevator. The only thing that illuminated the floor was the afternoon sun spilling through the windows from the common area. She stopped by Natasha’s door and raised a fist to knock, but she decided against it when she felt the drowsiness sinking in. She turned from the door and her eyes rested on Loki’s door. She dragged herself to his door and knocked.
No reply.
She knocked again.
No movement.
She opened the door and surprisingly it was unlocked. She peeked and Loki’s scent hit her: pine, mint, and something musky. “Loki?”
No reply again.
She opened the door wide. The room was illuminated by the sunlight and it was empty. She took a step inside and peeked. Everything looked normal but the sheets were untouched. Maybe he went back to Asgard or somewhere else. She told herself to ask Thor about him. She yawned, closed the door, and proceeded to her room, where she snoozed as soon as she hit the bed.
She woke up the next day with a grumbling stomach. She pushed herself off the bed but she felt nauseous when she stood up. She felt so weak that standing up makes her feel dizzy. She slapped a hand on her watch.
“Miss Lords, your blood sugar has dropped below the normal level.” JARVIS reported.
Stella sat on the bed. “Yeah. I believe so. I’m hungry,” she said as she buried her face on her hands.
“Would you like to have your breakfast sent to your room?”
“Yes, please.”
5 minutes later, a nurse came into her room and placed a tray of soft food, a mug of green tea, and bottled water on the table. Seeing Stella’s weak state, the nurse helped her walk from the bed to the table. The nurse asked her what else she needed and she replied that she needed nothing more, thank you very much. The nurse reminded her of her medicines that were arranged on the counter and left her room.
Stella picked up her fork and studied the fruit bowl. She first pierced a sliced banana and dipped it on the small tub of honey yogurt and ate it. Being unconscious and under heavy medication for quite some time has restarted her senses making the banana taste like...metal. She picked up a table napkin and spat the banana on it. She picked up another slice of banana and ate it plainly. It does taste like metal with a hint of banana.
She stopped chewing and contemplated on her options. She badly wanted to stop eating, but she was hungry. Another option was to stop the medications but she didn’t want to. She wanted to be a good girl and continue eating, trying not to mind the metallic taste on her tongue and remembering the taste of the food before her.
After breakfast, she entered the bathroom and shed off her clothes and placed the watch on the sink. She stood naked before the full length mirror and saw for the first time the damages she has acquired in the past weeks. There were faint bruise marks and cuts of various lengths and depths all over her torso. She remembered being stabbed but she couldn’t remember being slashed all over. Then her eyes rested on the long slash mark on her right side. She traced the scar and put slight pressure on it. It felt weird. It felt like there was something beneath the skin. She dropped her hand to the side and studied herself.
True, she had multiple scars from her battles and missions before this but her wounds were immediately treated by Apollo or Asclepius. The wounds would disappear upon their touch. But this time, she’s on her own and these scars are here to stay. It now reminds her of the warriors’ bodies during the ancient period, worn out and scarred from the multiple battles they had to face.
It was not a sight to see, she knows that. But she shrugged it off since the scars were inside and no one else could see them. But she thought of buying a scar oil she saw her mom was using on her surgery scars when she was still a kid. She might buy one if she gets the chance.
She stepped into the bubbling tub and closed her eyes as she settled. Unlike her gustatory sense, her olfactory and tactile sense have not altered. She enjoyed the strawberry scent of the bath bomb and the cold water around her.
Despite thinking she couldn’t fall asleep again, she woke up and stretched. The water has gone mild. She drained the tub and finished her bath. Then dried up and grabbed some clothes - she chose a grey loose shirt, black straight cut jeans, and her black DMs. She grabbed her amethyst necklace, her watch, and pill organizer from her bed stand and checked herself on the mirror, applying light makeup, before heading out of her room.
Since she managed to doze off in the tub, she thought of grabbing lunch before seeing any of them. She asked JARVIS to bring her to the ground floor. She passed by the SI employees, clad in business attires. She could easily be pinpointed among the throng because she’s the only one who’s wearing casual clothes. Anyway, it was a great day to head out and have Korean food for lunch. She knew there was a Korean restaurant a few meters from the tower’s door and she headed there as soon as she stepped out of the tower.
After grabbing fish cake soup for lunch (although it still tastes like metal for her), she headed back to the tower and told JARVIS to bring her to Tony. A few minutes went by and she stepped into the floor of Tony’s lab. She stopped by the door and waited for JARVIS’ signal before she entered the lab.
Tony looked up from his work table as she entered. “Hey, Stella! Glad to see you up and about now.”
“Long time no see.” She sat across him.
Tony dropped the tools he was holding and sat on the stool. “Yeah. I actually didn’t expect you to get up from that bed after almost 2 weeks. We were thinking you’ll wake up after a month. I was surprised last night when Doc Faiza told me about it.” He removed his safety goggles. “How are you feeling? Your band told me that you left the premises. Well, not that you’re not allowed to leave, you can go anywhere. I was just worried you might faint and you’re out there alone.”
“I’m fine, Tone. Don’t worry. I’m here in one piece.” She raised her hands as if presenting herself.
“Yeah-” he nodded, trying to shake off the anxiety building inside him - ”yeah. So, how are you?”
“A little light-headed -”
Tony crossed his arms on his chest, disappointed. “And that’s why you can’t wander out of the tower for so long. What if you faint and Ares’ demigod kidnaps you?” Stella raised her left wrist, the one where the band is attached. “They can destroy that.”
Stella chuckled. “Thanks for this, by the way. Doc Faiza told me about it.”
Tony smirked and pressed some buttons on the screen. “If it weren’t for Faiza, we wouldn’t figure out how much energy you have.” Her vital stats and energy appeared on screen. Her energy is now up by 67%.
“I haven’t tested my energy yet. Though I can conjure simple things.” she opened her palm and a pen appeared. She gave it to Tony for him to confirm if it’s real.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t tire myself out.” Tony gestured at her healing percentage. It was still at 54%.
“But 67’s already a good sign, right?” She said as she wiggled her fingers. She then concentrated, imagining fire on her fingertips. A second later a blue flame appeared on her hand but was extinguished immediately, causing her to stumble. Good thing she held onto the table and Tony rushed to her side.
“What I told you,” he quipped. “And your healing capacity went down.” Stella checked the holoscreen and her healing capacity became 53%.
“Oh dear. How I wish I could translocate to Athens. I need Athena and Apollo. Or Loki, he can help me figure it out.”
Tony gulped as he heard her words. Last week they talked about how to break the news to Stella once she woke up. How would you tell your teammate that she killed her ally accidentally? They thought of the question and they realized it was a hard situation even for them. Especially for Tony. When he started working with the Avengers, he vowed to protect everyone. No one should die under his watch.
Now, it looks like the responsibility of breaking the news to Stella is on him.
“Where’s Loki, by the way? Haven’t seen him since I came back to the land of the living.”
Tony blinked. “He’s not here at the moment.”
“Oh.” Stella said casually. Tony avoided her eyes and picked up another tool, trying to go back to what he was doing before she entered the lab. “By the way, what happened that night?” She started. Tony’s throat dried. “I don’t remember the last part of it. How did we capture Jericho? I blacked out after holding the scepter.”
He looked at her. “You blacked out?” Stella nodded. “Huh.” He slouched. “Okay. You blacked out.”
Stella was looking at him, eyes wide in curiosity. “What happened?”
“Uh...you blacked out and…” Tony looked at her and released his breath. “You fought us.”
Her lips parted in shock. “I fought you?”
He nodded. “We don’t know why and how, but Loki said it must be the scepter.”
Stella remembered the events during the Battle of New York and watching Loki through the orb in Asgard’s war room and then the feeling she had when she held onto the scepter that night. “Are you saying I was under the influence of that?”
Tony pressed his lips tightly together and nodded firmly. “As per Loki, yes.”
“Where’s he? I need to talk to him about it. Something like this shouldn’t happen again.”
He wrapped an arm around him and covered his mouth with another before speaking. “The thing is, he can’t come back.”
Her brows furrowed. “What do you mean? Is he in Asgard?” She frowned. “Did Odin finally decide to bring him back there and imprison him? Out of the blue?”
“Stell.” Tony leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table.
Stella became nervous all of a sudden. His tone of voice was not desirable. She waited for him to continue.
“I wish there was an easy way for telling you this, but it looks like there isn’t.” He bit his lower lip.
“Tony. What happened that night? Tell me,” she demanded.
Tony’s face crumpled and he pressed a button on the screen. The footage from that night played between them. Stella watched in horror as she saw herself fighting them and using the scepter against them, her eyes blue. She gasped when she watched herself stab Loki with the scepter. Tony pressed a button and the footage disappeared.
“I...I killed Loki?” She said in a small voice.
“It was not you, Stella.”
“No...it was...it was me. My body.” She choked on her emotions. “Does Thor know?” Tony nodded and she hissed a curse. “I’m dead.” Tears started to fall and she didn’t care if Tony saw her cry. She killed Loki. Odin will hear about this. Athena will, too. Also Zeus. Despite if it was an accident, she still feels accountable for his death. “I’m dead,” she muttered as she started sobbing.
“No, you’re not. Thor said nothing will happen to you.”
“What about Odin? I killed a prince, Tony! A prince! That is crime against Asgard!” She covered her trembling lips with her hands. “Thor wouldn’t do anything but Odin will.” She stood up and started pacing. “I’ll also be sentenced in Olympus.”
“Stella, it was an accident.”
“No! They wouldn’t see that as such. Olympus has seers, just like Asgard has Heimdall.” Tony tilted his head. He doesn’t know what a Heimdall is, he mentally noted to ask Thor about that. “Loki didn’t attack me or do anything to endanger my life. He just stood there and talked me out of it and I stabbed him.” Stella stopped on the window overlooking the city. “He should’ve taken it by force.”
Tony’s chest felt heavy. “He didn’t want to fight you. I didn’t want to fight you either.”
Stella turned to him. “You should have! Like how you fought him years ago.”
He took a sharp breath. Stella’s statement hit him differently.
Stella started to feel dizzy so she walked back to the stool and sat. A soft beep caught Tony’s attention and he opened the red exclamation mark at the right side of the screen. It was Stella’s medical notification along with a message from Faiza asking how and what she’s doing. Her heart rate was going on 139.
“Stella, I need you to calm down,” he softly said.
She forcefully wiped her tears. “I can’t. I’m scared.”
He stood next to her and placed a hand over her hand. “Your heart rate is going beyond normal. It’s not good for your body. The more you hurt yourself, the more your healing capacity goes down.”
“I don’t care.” She pushed herself away from the table and left the room.
Tony wanted to stop her but the good part of him made him stay. “JARVIS, track down Stella’s movement and vital stat. Keep your eyes on her,” he said when the door closed behind her.
“Will do, sir.”
Stella didn’t want to see anyone else that day. When she entered the elevator, she asked to be brought to the rooftop. It was not a common destination for people to hangout to and for Stella it was the perfect place to be alone. A cool breeze hit her once she opened the door. She strolled to the edge and leaned on the concrete barriers. Her tears had dried up this time and she felt nothing.
She brought her hands up and took a good look at them before she concentrated. She could slightly feel her energy running under her skin, feeling like a feather. A faint blue mist appeared but she knew it still wasn’t strong. She pressed the button on her watch. Her energy was still at 67% but her healing capacity was down to 50%.
She climbed on a flat, cemented structure on the rooftop and sat, hugging her knees to her chest. She knew the mission was still active but right now all she wanted to do was to be alone and forget everything just for a day.
Tony called everyone as soon as Stella left the floor. Natasha was the first one to arrive. When she saw Tony, she already knew what happened. She sat on a bar stool, waiting for Steve, Bruce, and Thor to arrive. When they did, Tony stopped pacing and faced them.
“You told her?” Steve asked first. Tony nodded. Steve sighed. “How did it go?”
Tony looked at Natasha. “As you expected.”
She nodded. “We couldn’t avoid this from happening. She will find out once she wakes up. Where is she and what did she say?”
“Rooftop.” Tony replied. “She’s scared of Odin and Olympus. She said she’s doomed to be sentenced for life.”
“I won’t let that happen.” Thor told them.
“So there’s a possibility that your father will punish her for that?” Bruce asked.
Thor’s lips crunched and he tilted his head to the side. If he was to be asked for his opinion, at this point he wasn’t even sure if their father would avenge Loki’s death. Time has proven that Odin cared less for his younger son. Ideally, the king would avenge his son’s death. Stella would be punished for it. But Thor was sure Odin would let it pass.
As for him, he was mad his brother was killed. He would definitely avenge his death. But he would not hurt Stella. He will find out who made her do it. If it is Ares, he will make sure he will die on his hand.
Natasha started to worry when Thor was unsure of what would happen to Stella. The room stood still. No one knew what to say. Natasha didn’t know what to expect and what would happen next. Will demigods from Olympus show up in the tower to pick Stella up?
“I think it’s possible for us to defend Stella. She didn’t do it consciously.” Natasha began.
“How? We’re just mortals.” Bruce replied.
Natasha shifted on her seat. “I think Athena can be reasoned with.”
“How sure are you Athena will listen to us?” Steve interjected.
“Do you know who Athena is?” Natasha tilted her head to Steve. “If things worsen, then Athena can help us save Stella.”
Tony sat on his chair, trying to figure out if Natasha was joking or not. Thor, on the other hand, is slowly being convinced by her proposal.
“How are we going to talk to Athena? Stella can’t teleport to Athens.” Steve said. Natasha raised her eyebrow to him. “Oh, are you saying we use the Quinjet?” She nodded. “Then you have to convince Stella that Athena can save her.”
“Now that I think about it,” Thor interrupted, “I think Athena won’t let it happen to Stella. I believe Athena can convince Zeus to spare Stella.”
Natasha raised her hand to Thor, as if saying ‘see, he gets it.’
“What do you say, Stark?” Steve asked.
Tony jerked when he was called. He zoned out at one point during their discussions. “For me, let’s just see what will happen in the next few days. It’s not easy to hypothesize something when we don’t personally know the parties involved,” he explained. “Yes, we know Stella, but we don’t know how Athena or Zeus will react to this.”
Everyone agreed. And that’s it.