Autumn Leaves

To Hel, and back.

'We must go, brother,' Thor muttered.

'Never. I shall never leave her again.'

Loki was fully aware of how deranged his words sounded, but he was too far gone to care anymore.

'Then bring her with you. It is not sensible for you to spend the night here.'

'Yes, brother,' Loki replied meekly, all of his stubborn pride suddenly drained from him.

Savannah's body was brought to the Tower, and laid carefully in a room specifically prepared. But, instead of staying with her lifeless corpse as Thor had expected, Loki disappeared, a grim and determined look on his face. It took a few seconds for Natasha to realise where he'd gone, but as soon as she had, she leapt to her feet, sprinting as quickly as she could to Tony's room. The others soon followed, slightly confused. Natasha burst into Tony's room, in time to see Loki holding Tony by the neck and doing what looked suspiciously like crying. Clint was the second to realise what was happening, and he let off an arrow in Loki's direction. Loki switched Tony to a different hand, and his hand flew up, and effortlessly caught the arrow, without even looking. Still not paying heed to the other Avengers, he glared viciously at Tony.

'Why?' he managed to choke out, 'Why did you kill her?'

'Brother,' Thor boomed, 'Savannah would not wish for you to do this.'

Loki released Tony, and he fell to the ground with a thud, rubbing his neck, and complaining loudly. Then Loki turned to the others, and they were taken aback with how haggard he looked. And then, a look of absolute elation flitted across his pale face. Without another word, he disappeared.

They didn't see him again for the rest of the day.

Loki was in Hell. Quite literally, although technically it was spelt Hel.

Death, or Hela, to her friends, was sitting on her throne. Actually, she was lounging lazily upside down, long dark hair partially obscuring her face.

'Hey Dad,' she said, cheerfully, 'Wassup?'

'I do wish you wouldn't use such colloquial terms, dear.'

'Whatever. YOLO.'

'You do know what YOLO means, don't you?'

'Of course. But although You Only Live Once, I can make you wish that you'd never died at all.'

'That's my girl,' Loki said proudly, 'Are you still working on Thanos?'

'Yep.'

'Enjoying yourself?'

'Of course, Dad. D'you wanna see?'

'Maybe another time,' Loki said, 'Have you, by any chance-'

'Yep!' Hela said, 'I have Savannah. But why didn't you introduce us sooner?'

'We were a little busy, sorry.'

'But she got to meet Jörmungandr,' Hela whined, 'That's favouritism, y'know.'

'I know better than to bestow favouritism upon any of my children, Hela. We needed Jörmungandr's help.'

'But I could have helped,' Hela said, 'Why didn't you ask me?'

'Because,' Loki explained patiently, 'You aren't the Loch-Ness Monster.'

'Oh!' Hela said, 'So you're discriminating now, are you?'

'Hela, do you have magical scales?'

'No, but-'

'Jörmungandr does.'

'Nya-a-ah,' Hela said, and Loki frowned at her.

'Did Savannah teach you that?'

'Maybe?'

Loki sighed.

'You are the most-'

'Loki!' Loki's possible father-rant was interrupted by an over-excited dead person rocketing towards him, and literally leaping into his arms. He catches her, although he staggers backwards a few steps. She peeks up at him shyly.

'Hi,' she says.

'Hello, Savannah.'