Chapter 2: The Children of Loki
The Children of Loki
Fenrir paced back and forth with increasing anxiety until his sister’s patience snapped.
“If you don’t stop that infernal pacing I will return you to your prison bonds!” she said.
“I’m bored!” he snapped back, “and something is wrong.” He stopped pacing and came to lie beside his sister, “Can’t you feel it, sister?”
“No,” Hel admitted. “Is it Vali?” she asked, attempting to empathize.
“No. Why do you ask?” Fenrir replied appreciating his sister’s effort, some of his tension fell away.
“I had an unexpected visit from Death this morning who suggested we might like to find our younger brother,” she said, taking a tankard of mead and offering it to him. The Great Wolf took humanoid form and sat down at her table. Tankard in hand he drank deeply while Hel recounted her meeting with Death.
“Perhaps Death is right. It would be good to see our little brother,” Fenrir said. Hel said nothing and the siblings sat in a comfortable silence together for a long time. When she did speak it was to announce that they would leave Helheimr to find Vali and meet with the angelic kin of their father.
“Why? The One God believers hate us,” Fenrir lazily observed refilling his tankard with mead.
“Loki asked it of me. Death himself asked it of me. I am curious to learn what is special about this particular angel that two such opposing deities think him worthy of notice,” Hel replied indifferently.
Hel called her servants to her and ordered them to continue accepting those souls Death and his Reapers delivered unto Helheimr. Then, for the second time in her existence and with her brother by her side, Hel left her kingdom of mist and ice to walk amongst mankind.
***
Partnerships only work if both parties are like-minded. Castiel and Crowley may have agreed that opening Purgatory would benefit them both but the limits of that agreement were beginning to show. No more so than when the demon King sent his minions after the Winchesters because they were getting too close to the truth. The angel was furious.
“You sent demons after them?” Castiel confronted Crowley in his new laboratory hideout.
“You kill my hunters. Why can't I kill yours?” The King of Hell replied, unconcerned.
“They're my friends,” Castiel stated. Crowley put down his tools of torture and said in frustration, “You can’t have friends, not anymore. I mean, my God. You're losing it!
“I'm fine,” Castiel said, clearly far from it.
“Yeah. You're the very picture of mental health. Come on. You don't think I know what this is all about?” Crowley said. He knew full well his partner’s problem and it was time Castiel faced facts.
“Enlighten me,” Castiel said.
“The big lie -- the Winchesters still buy it. The good Cas, the righteous Cas. And long as they still believe it, you get to believe it. Well, I got news for you, kitten. A whore is a whore is a whore.”
Crowley had hardly finished speaking before Castiel shoved him against the wall and growled out a warning. “I'm only gonna say this once. If you touch a hair on their heads, I will tear it all down. Our arrangement -- everything. I'm still an Angel and I will bury you.”
“This is not how synergy works!” Crowley shouted as the angel vanished from the room. The demon wiped his hands on his butcher’s apron. If Castiel didn’t want the Winchesters harmed, Crowley could work around that to get what he wanted from his recalcitrant partner.
***
In a corner of heaven Castiel visited to calm himself and regroup, he asked himself what exactly he was doing working with vermin like Crowley. Rachel, his trusted lieutenant, came towards him and it was for her and others like her, those who like himself, didn’t want a second Apocalypse. This was the reson he worked with Crowley. Yet the more Castiel worked towards this goal with Crowley, the more he doubted himself, doubted the purity of his reasons. “If only there was another way,” he thought sadly to himself before rising to meet her.
“If only there was another way,” the voice echoed like a faint whisper in Hel’s mind and the amulet around her neck burned then cooled imperceptibly. She watched as Fenrir and Vali frolicked amongst the tundra like pups. The amulet burned again and this time she felt it. She grabbed at it and it cooled again. The brothers stopped their play and came to stand before her.
“What’s wrong Hel?”Vali asked. Hel released the amulet from her clenched fist.
“What do you know of angels Vali?” she asked her younger brother.
“Phuff!” the little wolf scoffed, “The Christians call them good and think of them as guardians but what I’ve observed they’re just soldiers of this one god. Good fighters but set in their strategies and blindly obedient to their superiors orders. Why?”
“There is much to tell you Little Brother, where to sister?” Fenrir nudged his brother.
part 2