Natasha was fast with telling the others about her discovery. Many questions where thrown at her when they found out that she had a Soulmate and that it was James, but that's not the important part.
"So wait, the people aren't dead?" Shuri asked and Natasha shrugged
"It doesn't look like it, but what do I know. I know nothing about the stones" She stated with a shrug. Thoughts swirled through her head and the glances she got from Steve every second made her anxious, which is new for her. "Do we know anyone who does?" She asked and the other people in the room looked down.
"I-" Bruce spoke up "-might know someone who does"
—-
Valkyrie gritted her teeth widely as she looked at the goddess that slaughtered her race, had the intentions to kill the people in this very ship and tried to kill her twice just sit there smiling.
"Get away from him" She hissed at her and Hela looked up and met her eyes with a smirk.
"Finally" She burst out and stood up, which caused Loki to wince a little "I thought you would never notice my presence"
"What do you mean, why are you here?" Valkyrie asked and took one step forward still with the sword in her hand.
"Well my baby brother here is in pain and since none of you can touch him I figured I could help" She said.
"Why would you want to help" Val growled now, she was more than mad at the woman in front of her, she was pissed off.
"Well as I said, he's my baby brother. And you can put the sword down Brunnhilde, if I would have wanted to hurt you I would have done it when you didn't know I was here" Valkyrie wanted to argue about it, but it was a valid point so she put her sword back and glared at Hela.
"How did you get here, how did you even survive?!" She continued to ask question's and Hela just stood there, completely calm, with her arms crossed waiting for her to finish.
"Brunnhilde sweetie I'm the goddess of death it takes more than a fire demon to kill me. And look at you, alive and well. It glads me" She smiled and took a couple of steps closer to her, but Val just backed away which caused Hela's smile to drop.
"Glads you? Please, you tried to kill me last time I checked. Twice"
"Well, I didn't want to kill you! Father sent you after me without even talking to me first. It was self-defense!" She argues and takes a step closer. "Do I mean anything to you Brunnhilde? Does our childhood mean anything? Or do you just hide that away as you do with all of your problems" She hissed at the warrior in front of her and grinned when Valkyrie took a step back
"Well, I wasn't the one who killed the others troupe" She hissed back.
"Oh, you say? You and that troupe attacked me! You didn't even hesitate to kill me!"
They both had started yelling now, and Valkyrie noticed that as the argument continued, tears fell from Hela's eyes.
"Well if I was such a moron then why did you continue to be my friend?" Valkyrie yells at her.
"Because you were the only one who didn't see me as a monster! And that's why I love you you idiot!" She screamed back and Valkyrie froze.
"Wh- What?" She asks and Hela's cheeks turned into a light pink color.
Hela turned away and walked up to Loki again, who had started to twist and turn in pain. She put her fingers back on his throat and he immediately calmed down.
Hela sighed "Remember when we where children? And used to play on the flower fields? You were the only one who did it with me. When my goddess Status was revealed everyone saw me as a monster. You where the only one who could see the good inside of me. I knew that I had something real. My feelings grew over the years, but with your Valkyrie training and my royal lessons, I started losing you. The only happiness I've ever known. Then Gudrun came along and slowly won your heart, and I cared enough for you to let you go. When father sent you to imprison me without even talking to me first, and you didn't hesitate to do it, I was filled with rage and anger. It was first when I saw your supposed dead body that I realized what I had done. I basically turned myself in and all the regret came over me in Helheim, where I was left with just my thoughts. When father died and I was freed, I just wanted him to pay for what he had done. When I saw Thor and Loki I took it out on them and banished them so I could make Asgard mine. And when I saw you again, I was happier then I had ever been. But I was too determined to fulfill what I had started to stop myself. Brunnhilde, I used to love you so much from afar, but I realized that you were never mine to have. Still, I loved you, to the last"
Hela looked up and brown eyes met clear blue. Hela's eyes were filled with sadness and pain, and Valkyrie felt something weird in her chest.
"You where mine" Valkyrie said and Hela's head snapped up. "You were mine" She said again and a flash of recognition could be seen in Hela's eyes.
"You are mine" the goddess answered and they both smiled weakly
"Always" The old friends embraced each other after years.
"Come on Brunnie, hurry!" The young raven haired girl yelled at the dark-haired girl behind her
"I'm coming Hela!" The other girl yelled back. The young Hela and Brunnhilde ran up a mountain that the raven-haired had found a few days prior.
"Look! I told you it's beautiful!" Hela said when they were both at the top. And it was.
They stood close to a cliff, and in the distance the sun was going down so the grass and flowers had a soft orange color.
"Wow!" Brunnhilde looked out on the beautiful sight "I've never seen anything like it!"
The girls sat down on the cliff with their legs dangling out into the void.
"Brunnie, father told me something today. He said that I should stop seeing you since I need to go use on my study's and training" Hela looks down and focuses her eyes on a birds nest that is placed on a tree beside them.
"Well, that's just ridiculous. I never want to stop being your friend. Your fun to be with. You where mine" She said with a bright smile.
"You are mine" Hela stated and met her eye.
"Always" They said and hugged
—-
An hour after the meeting, Bruce, Thor and Natasha entered the Bifrost. Thor followed so they could transport quick and he needed his thoughts off, Bruce because he knew the person they where visiting and Natasha because of the mark.
When they landed Thor, who was used to the feeling stood steady on his legs while Natasha and Bruce were laying on the ground.
"You could have warned us" groaned Natasha and gave Thor a death glare.
"Well what's the fun in that?" He asked.
Thor hadn't dared to look at his soulmark, just to see that the blue ink had changed to red. His mark was placed on his stomach, and across the six words was a scar that Loki had given to him during the battle of New York. Loki had later told him that he had done so because of the anger that Thor had said his words.
Thor had only felt sadness when the words were spoken. And you would to if after your soulmate said the words you thought he died.
'I didn't do it for him'
Thor snapped out of his thoughts and looked around. The place ruined, and the few people who were there didn't seem to acknowledge their presence.
"What happened here?" Natasha asks while looking at what used to be New York. The city that Thor used to love to be in was gone, and instead was replaced by a ghost town covered in dust.
"Looks like the snap mixed with the battle against Thanos children had a big impact on this place" Bruce said and started walking towards their destination, the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Bruce carefully knocked on the door hoping that the man they where looking for wasn't 'dead' as well.
"What do you want?" Wong opened the door with an annoyed face before he saw who it was "Oh, it's you" He stepped away and they all entered.
"I've been here before, with another sorcerer. His name was Strange, right?" Thor asks while he looks around on the familiar place. Except for the hole in the stairs, it looks exactly like when he and Loki left it not so long ago.
"What was so strange about it?" Natasha asks him with a raised eyebrow.
"He means Doctor Stephen Strange. And since he isn't here I suspect he's gone as well?" Bruce looked down and gave him a small nod "Very well. What do you need help with?"
"We-" Bruce started but was cut off by them being suddenly seated at a table with some tea in front of them. Thor was a little more prepared, but Bruce was kinda shaken up and Natasha's battle instinct caused her to grab the knife on her belt.
"We were wondering if you could tell us something about the Infinity Stones, or more exactly the soul stone?" Asked Bruce while he and Natasha tried to get themselves together.
"What do you need to know exactly?" Wong asks and Natasha tells him about her mark and Bruce about the theory that the fallen people aren't dead.
Wong was silent for a moment before the transportation happened again. This time Bruce nearly fell over and had to grab the shelf on the library they had appeared in.
"Let's see" Wong mumbles while looking through a book in his hand. "Ah here, the soul stone" He's silence for a minute before putting the book away on its place in the shelf "Just as I thought. The soul stone has a few abilities but the most heard of is the ability to trap people in the so-called soul world, a pocket dimension in the actual stone. The body gets destroyed while the soul is trapped in there. No one has ever been in the Soul world and gotten out, so it's impossible to know what it's inside it"
"But if you destroy the stone, would you be able to free the souls?" Thor's ask's, who's been silent since the news about Strange.
"Theoretically, maybe. Either that or kill them. But there's only one way to do so, and that is by the stones or a power like it. And even if you have anything like it, you need to pay a terrible price. The problem is, I don't know what it is" The three Avengers groan at his words. They were so close to an answer!
Natasha is just about to say something when her phones beeps. She picks it up and gives Thor a look.
"Something just entered the atmosphere. And it doesn't look like it's from earth"
—-
//Hela And Valkyrie's relationship is heavily inspired by the song always by Beth Crowley, and Severus and Lily's relationship from Harry Potter. Please listen to the song it's amazing, and Hela's story is basically the lyrics.