Mortal Considerations: Hela X OC Human Pilot Chapter

Norway

Thor watched with an empty look as his father passed away, turning to a golden wave of energy, before disappearing to the skies.

“So, he is dead.”

Both siblings turned around to face the owner of the female voice, most likely the person Odin had just warned them about.

A figure in glossy, dark, form-fitting garb with green accents and damage in several places stood there, hair dark as night, radiating a feeling of dread and death.

This person was dangerous, extremely so, and Thor was on edge. “Who are you?” he demanded, Mjolnir held tight in his hand, ready to strike should she prove to be hostile.

She merely grinned, reaching behind to pull someone out of the gate, and introduced herself, “Hela, the firstborn of Odin, the rightful heir of Asgard, and so on. I assume you are Thor, and you, Loki.”

Thor blinked, hand wavering for a second as the implications settled in.

A sister?

“You know us?” Loki realized that she was imprisoned before Thor was born, as the knowledge that they had a sister was a recent one for both.

“Yes, I have been informed of your existence, though the exact nature of your connection to Odin was not clear,” their sister smirked, pulling up her companion from the ground, who groaned in discomfort.

From his garb, he was most likely a Midgardian, though how or why he would be with Hela was a mystery.

“We are his sons," Thor was still wary, but his sister—and it felt truly unsettling to say that—had not taken any hostile actions.

He would give her the benefit of the doubt, for now.

“Adopted,” Loki was quick to correct, and Hela’s smirk widened.

“Would you happen to be a Jotun?”

Loki’s finger twitched, and he hesitated. Even after everything that had happened, the number of people who knew he was a Jotun was just Thor and himself, so, “Yes, how did you…?”

“At least you weren’t entirely wrong,” She tapped the Midgardian on his temple with her knuckles, though the mortal was too weak to speak more than a sentence.

“There definitely is a discrepancy between the myths and the facts,” the Midgardian grunted.

“What now?” So far, his father’s worries over Hela seemed to be, while not entirely unfounded, not meeting the severity of his warning.

“I honestly don’t know.” Hela summoned a seat of black metal to sit down. “I had intended to kill anyone in my path and take Asgard’s throne, but I am not sure if I even want it anymore.”

At the least, they would not come to blows over the throne, though there was another matter to solve: “That is relieving to hear, but who is he?”

“My advisor, I suppose,” She waved her hand, looking at the horizon where Odin had disappeared in a breeze of light.

“Hey,” the mortal advisor waved his hand, pale as a corpse.

There was an awkward silence between the siblings, since neither knew what to do or say now.

Hela started by asking how Asgard was doing, scoffing upon hearing how peaceful and prosperous it was under the benevolent rule of the late King Odin.

When she explained that her siblings did not know Odin as she had, the mighty conqueror of the nine realms, both Thor and Loki found it hard to believe that their peace-loving father could be a bloodthirsty warlord.

He had gone as far as to banish his perfect son for almost starting a war with Jotunheim and always strived for peaceful solutions to the quarrels across the Nine Realms.

It had turned into a shouting match between Thor and Hela, and the Goddess of Death was getting angry, which did not bode well for her little brother.

“If I may,” the mortal intervened as the gods were about to exchange blows, and interestingly enough, Hela held her blades back.

“Continue.”

“Rather than standing here to discuss and then come to blows over who knew Daddy best,” the mortal raised an index finger, pointing one to Thor and the other to Hela, “or who the favorite child was, why don’t both of you prove your claims?”

Hela smirked in that unsettling and dread-inspiring way she did, “He is correct. What do you say, little brother? Shall I prove what a liar Odin was?”

“Very well.”

---

Asgard

The second Jason came out of the rainbow bridge, he bent down, feeling his stomach do the entire range of movements a gymnastics champion would, but thankfully, he did not puke all over the pristine floors and embarrass himself.

“Thor, you have returned! Where is King Odin?” A fat, ginger Asgardian greeted them, brandishing a large, double-sided axe in his hands, while the siblings watched as Hela repaired her attire, looking as if she was overwhelmed by something.

Loki quickly figured out that their sister was drawing power from Asgard, something only Odin could do until now.

She truly was his firstborn and heir.

“My father is dead,” Thor’s voice lacked any of the usual joviality, and his friends stopped, still as the statues adorning Asgard’s palace.

“Are you proud of yourself, Loki, for killing your own father?” The fat one gritted his teeth, raising his axe to the deceiver’s neck, and his blonde companion wasn’t far back, raising his sword to match.

Loki raised his hands in surrender, but Hela could see that he had already switched himself with an illusion, “I am not to blame this time.”

“He is correct. It was simply my father’s time," Thor smacked the back of the illusion's head, dispelling it.

“Where is Heimdall? Don’t tell me he has passed away too," how amusing that would be, to hear that Odin's faithful watcher was dead as well.

“Thor, who is your friend? And more importantly, why haven’t you introduced us?” the blonde, suave Aesir gave a light bow with a very charming smile, but the knife at his neck chilled him to the core.

“I am Hela, the Goddess of Death, and if you speak to me in that manner again, I’ll tear your tongue off.”

Thor raised both hands, stopping the oversized Aesir from attempting anything, and gave Hela a very pointed stare, “Peace, sister, Fandral is harmless.”

---

Learning that Heimdall, the faithful watcher of Odin, turned fugitive because he was accused of treason by Loki while impersonating the king was certainly an amusing turn of events.

“You wanted proof of Odin’s past? Here you have it,” Hela grinned, launching her summoned swords to the ceiling. Jason was quick to backtrack to avoid the falling pieces from the top, and beneath the glimmering murals of tea parties and treaties, a far more horrific truth was revealed.

Hela and Odin slaughtering their way through multiple battlefields, leading the mighty armies of Asgard to bloody victories. 

Workers, possibly slaves, were whipped by Einherjar to build something, while a gigantic black wolf watched over them all.

In the middle of it, Odin, holding his spear, Gugnir, with the black thorns of Hela’s helmet behind his golden one, showing just how much he valued his daughter as a weapon.

Once, long, long ago.

“That’s not possible,” Thor turned around on the spot, feeling his head spin as he saw Odin. 

“How little you know,” Hela chuckled, feeling immense pleasure from breaking her naive little brother’s view of Odin, “I was his weapon in the conquest that built Asgard’s empire. One by one, the realms became ours. But then, simply because my ambition outgrew his, he banished me, caged me, and locked me away like an animal.”

“Odin, so proud to have it, ashamed of how he got it.”

---

The revelation shook Thor, and the God of Thunder was sitting on the steps of the throne, unnaturally quiet and still, looking at the throne as if it was a monument to thousands of years of blood and lies. The blood that was shed for it must be astronomical, and it made him sick.

“What now? Odin is dead, but Asgard needs a ruler," the God of Mischief, however, seemed to be more concerned about the succession crisis.

“Not you,” Hela shut down her adopted brother before he could make his bid.

She had nothing against his status, only against his personality.

“Why? Because I am a jotun?” the boy’s tone was bitter, and his smile did not reach his eyes.

“Because you, from what I heard, are too much like Odin, only you are a terrible liar, while he was the greatest of them all," Hela opened her arms wide, gesturing to the rubble covering the floor of the throne room, the remains of Odin's lies.

“That can’t be entirely accurate.” Of all the times he had been compared to Odin, lies had never been a subject of it.

“She is right,” the mortal advisor intervened, much to Loki’s irritation. “I mean, even the myths of Earth tell that you are a liar and a deceiver, but Odin’s lies were only revealed after his death, and there is not a thing anyone can do to him now.”

“When you say it like that, I can’t disagree. Will you take the throne then, sister?” Loki conceded quickly, for the sole fact that Hela was not like Odin.

One mistake, and he had no doubt she would kill him on the spot.

It was best to reconsider his approach.

Hela ran her finger across the armrest of the throne, her face blank like an empty canvas, “Once, I would have killed you both for even thinking of sitting on it, but now? Now I don’t truly care.”

One year, and the human had done what neither Odin nor centuries of imprisonment could.

Made her reconsider her life choices.

“Thor doesn’t want it either,” Loki glanced at Thor to see if his brother would refute, but the God of Thunder just shook his head, “No, I don’t.”

Hela left the throne, looking down at her mortal advisor, “Since you are my advisor, do your job. Advise me on how to solve this conundrum.”

“Well, we have a claimant that wants it, but the people would revolt if he ascended as king.” Jason gestured at Loki, already having an idea formed in his head due to just how people treated him, “another that the people would love, but does not want the throne,” Thor was still looking at the murals. “And then there is you, the one people don’t know at all.”

“And?”

“And I believe you should take the throne, at least for a while, to see if you actually want it or not. If you decide that you don’t, then it is no longer your problem, and you can spend the rest of your possibly immortal life discovering what you want to do.”

It was the entire basis of their discussions in Helheim, that Hela had only one life, and did she truly want to spend it conquering the galaxy because she was still stuck in the past as Odin's general and executioner.

“You would take the advice of a mortal?” on such an important matter as the future of Asgard, no less.

Loki found the sharp edge of a sword at his neck, and his throat bobbed, feeling the cold metal touch his skin.

It was too fast for him to reach, but fortunately Hela put down her sword after Loki raised his hands in surrender, “A mortal that is the sole reason you are not dead or kneeling before me.”

“So be it,” Hela took a step, passing near Thor on purpose, who merely glanced at his sister. “I shall take the throne,” she decided, finally seating herself. 

“Great. Now if I may ask, Your Highness, can I get clothes to change into? I’ve been wearing the same attire for who knows how long, and they are about to fuse with my skin.”

Hela rolled his eyes, instructing Loki to summon servants to see to her advisor’s needs.

---

Once Jason had taken a bath and changed into the only available clothes, which were silk robes and garments, he was brought back to the throne room, where the siblings were sitting in silence.

“Tell me, Midgardian, how did you find yourself with our sister?” As the revelations regarding their father’s past and newfound older sister settled, Thor had one more question in his mind.

Jason shrugged. He had already explained it to Hela and still didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know. I fell asleep after arriving at my home and woke up in Helheim.”

“Could it be because of the Convergence?” Loki knew that several humans had disappeared due to the anomalous effects of the Convergence, and this human could be one of the unfortunate ones.

Jason did not know what Loki referred to, but the literal meaning of the word did not inspire anything nice: “The what now?”

Thor and Loki shared a look. “Right, you would not know the exact cause. It was an event where the nine realms aligned, and your world was affected as well. In fact, one of your cities, London, I believe, suffered several anomalies and damage as a result of the battle between me and Malekith.” Unless the mortal was living under a rock, he should have been aware of the events caused by the Convergence.

“I am sure I would remember if something like that happened. What year was it anyway?” Jason would certainly remember magical bullshit causing anomalies across London, one of the most important cities in the world.

Meaning it must have happened after he had somehow arrived in Helheim.

“I believe the year 2013 by the Midgardian calendar, four years ago,” Thor explained, taking a couple of seconds to remember the dates in Earth’s time.

Now it was Jason’s turn to look at Thor and Loki as if they had suddenly turned green. “That can’t be possible. It was the tail end of 2025 when I went to sleep and woke up in Helheim.”

His words confused the brothers, but there was a possible explanation for it as well.

“Could you be from the future?” Time travel wasn’t something Loki had dabbled in, but perhaps whatever or whoever meddled in the mortal’s life might be 

Jason sat down, hands tangled through his curly brown hair, a sign that he was frustrated. “I don’t know.” 

Even if he had time traveled to the past for some unknown reason, that did not explain the whole about this Convergence.

“What of the Avengers? Surely, you must know them?” The mention of the heroes had Loki twitch in his seated position, as the memory of that giant brute using him to redecorate the Stark Tower’s floor came unbidden.

“Who?” Who the hell were the Avengers? An emo boy band?

“The Avengers? The heroes that saved the world from the Chitauri invasion five years ago?” Thor knew something was definitely wrong now.

“What invasion?!” Jason was aghast, because he sure as hell did not remember an alien invasion on Earth.

What the hell was going on?!

---

The discrepancy between Jason and Thor’s knowledge of Midgard, which included the convergence, the Avengers, and the Chitauri invasion, had stumped them all.

Until Jason realized what was happening, and a great weight settled on his stomach, dragging him down, “I think this is not my Earth.” 

“I beg your pardon?” Loki didn’t know what the mortal meant by not his Earth, because there certainly was only one planet with that name where humans lived.

Unless they were wrong on a galactic scale, of course.

“Do you guys know what the multiverse is?” The theory must not have existed in Asgard, because they looked at Jason as if he had grown a second head.

“Basically, there exist an infinite number of universes in parallel to each other. For example,” he gestured to Thor, “let's say that in this universe, you are a male, and in another, you are a female.”

Loki chuckled at the thought of a female Thor, a tall maiden with muscles like sculpted marble and a thunderous voice, forced to wear dresses by their mother.

Which made him miss Frigga.

“You believe you are from another reality? Where we possibly did not exist, or existed as your myths described us?” because as far as Hela was concerned, these myths were worse than this reality by far.

Her being brothers with Fenrir and a serpent the size of a planet, all born from the same mother as children of Loki?

Ugh, even the thought of it made her nauseous.

“How are we described in the myths? I am not familiar with Midgardian beliefs regarding the rest of the Nine Realms.” Loki had been on Midgard two times, once to fulfill his end of the dare with Thor, and the other for the failed conquest; as such, he did not know much about how the mortals saw them before learning that Asgard actually existed.

Thor, looking at the Midgardian in their midst, had an idea on how to mess with Loki: “Yet you wanted to conquer and rule Midgard.”

His brother’s eyes widened in worry, because if the human had as much influence over Hela as he thought, then he might just be in trouble.

“You what?” Jason hissed like an agitated serpent. He was definitely in a different dimension now, but that didn’t mean he was going to ignore the fact that this bastard tried to invade Earth.

“Oh, he was the one leading the Chitauri invasion against Earth,” Thor grinned as Loki glared at him.

Jason turned to Hela. “Any chance we can bind him to a rock and let a snake drip venom in his eyes?” because this bastard deserved nothing less.

Loki tensed, ready to flee should Hela actually decide to punish him, but she just waved her hand.

“My, you Midgardians are certainly creative,” Hela remembered Jason’s tales of Midgardians that worshipped the Aesir, who believed Loki’s cries of pain were the causes of earthquakes.

Cute.

“Ignoring his failure in taking Midgard, you said he commanded the Chitauri?” Jason had told her about the futility of such an action, because the humans would sooner destroy their world than let anyone else have it.

Every time Hela called Thor and Loki "brother," it was done as mockery, but this time, her tone was serious.

Thanos was trying to recover the Infinity Stones once again if he had sent Chitauri to Midgard, and once the Titan learned Odin was dead, he would not wait any longer.