Chapter Text
Light returned to her senses, vision sliding back into proper use as she drew back into wakefulness. Pain was distant, under control, her body working out whether it was something that could regrow in part or in whole.
Laying there in the shadow of the great god Fallagor, Sif could make out a green blur opening and closing, a siloette visible as her eyesight focused. Loki? You're never unwelcome, though I'd have been happier to see you during the battle.
And then the siloette brought to mind a memory, something Loki had told her. For this was not Loki. This was far worse.
Raising her hands, Sif curled her fingers and raised her thumbs - not forwards into the poke-in-your-eyes position - no, into the elevated fighting pose. That of ibex. That of goats. That of Loki.
This antlered woman chuckled. "Nice to know someone talked about me. Its never as much fun to introduce myself - less suspence, I find. Still, I'm not here to fight you, I'm here to save you; it was suggested I tell you 'come with me if you want to live.'"
'She is Hela, firstborn daughter of Odin Allfather,' Loki had told her in that warning.
"I am happy to die," Sif stated.
"And thats why I knew the line would be useless. Still, you are coming with me."
"I am needed here. I shall not shi-"
"Shirk your duties?" Hela finished. "You are here so Thor can laugh at what you manage to do. No matter how hard you fight, he will chuckle and slap you on the back, and win without you. Has this not been the way of things?"
"Not always," Sif said. But certainly enough times that she is not lying. "My duty is my duty, no matter how amusing it may be to others."
"And that conviction in your duty, it pleases me more than you know, Sif You would have been a welcome warrior in my army. A shame that the best ones are always taken, or dead." When the Dark Elves broke into Asgard, I used the opportunity to step into the palace. I fought alongside my stepmother Frigga against Kurst...and then the TVA arrived.
Figuring that Sif would be no more inclined to get up right now than Hela herself would be, "I suppose we have time for this," Hela said, and taps a ridge on her cuff. In fast forward, she walked away and a bifrost brought Thor and three of his friends to this world. Thor then thunderclapped down to where Sif lay.
She could hear every word she told him, even though not a word passed her lips this time, not even her wish to enter Valhalla.
"In order to enter Valhalla, you have to have died in battle," Thor said. "Maybe your arm is in Valhalla."
Soon enough, Thor was gone, and Hela was there once more standing there. "You still want to stay here?" she asked Sif in the shadow of Fallagar. "There are other duties your oath permits."