Author's note: the letter ð (eth) is pronounced like the "th" in the word "them"

Well that fucking hurts, Ada thought. That was an understatement; there wasn't a word in any language she knew of that could be used to convey the amount of pain she was suddenly in. It wasn't "hurt" or "pain" or "ow"; it was a ripping, a burning, a breaking feeling, beyond what she thought she even had the capacity to experience.

She was so focused on the feeling of her new wound that she didn't realize she had begun to fall. Everything was moving in slow motion… was it some powerful magic? The Norns perhaps? Ada did so wish she could've met them, although it really almost felt like she had…

As her body descended, she vaguely recognized a pair of flashing green eyes, flickering like candles in the darkening room. Darkening? This was all very strange. Shouts and screams faded in and out around her, along with an odd and rather disgusting sizzling noise. The flames of a fire jotun blazed in her peripheral vision, and slowly burnt out.

The indescribable pain in her chest had become distant, an echo of a feeling, passing through her weak consciousness. Her knees thumped against the hard stone floor and she looked down, somewhat surprised that she had stopped falling. Red was spreading down the front of her gown, her poor, beautiful gown, which was already wet for some reason. Oh, the Well, Ada thought, half a memory flitting through her mind. That was the source of the water… the rain. It was cold compared to the increasingly large area of warm red around her wound. She didn't like it.

"Aðalrun!" a smooth voice cried in surprisingly close proximity. Smooth, even though it was permeated by fear.

Ada raised her head and lowered her bottom, sitting on her feet. It took her a moment to process the image in front of her. Man, golden armor, black hair, pale skin…

"Loki," she breathed with as much of a smile as she could muster. "You're not blue anymore…"

He placed his large hands on her arms… his hands were cold too. But they always were, right? Lots of things were beginning to feel cold. Her feet were tingly…

"No, Aðalrun, my Aðalrun," Loki choked, pulling her to him. "You bastard, you've killed her!" Ada heard him half-growl, half-sob over her shoulder.

"M' not dead," she mumbled into his neck, breathing in the scent of his hair. She closed her eyes and nuzzled him. Closing her eyes felt nice. Maybe she should stay like that.

"It was not my intention, traitor," Heimdall said behind her, his voice firm and flat. "I will allow you to say your farewells before I arrest you for treason."

"We'll see about that," Loki hissed, pulling Ada away from him slightly. His golden armor was now running crimson.

Ada's head lolled to the side. She was rather unhappy about the fact she had to open her eyes again, but she had to do things. Things… what things? "Oh yeah," she slurred, doing her best to turn to Heimdall. "You're wrong, Loki's not a traitor… he saved us. His dagger- ggk!" A stab of pain raced through her entire body and she curled forward in agony.

"Aðalrun, don't, we'll get you to the healing rooms-" Loki stammered, positioning himself to scoop her up.

"That will be a wasted effort Loki, you know how fragile these mortals are," Heimdall rumbled.

Ada uncurled slightly to shoot him a very weak glare. "Shut up, let me tell you," she mumbled grumpily. "Loki's dagger pierced the Well of Urd, he saved Jane and stopped Ragnarok." She had to pause to catch her breath, but she forced herself to continue. "You saw the rooster Heimdall, I know you did. Skuld and Verðandi told me to get between you… I mean, I guess I was technically the one who stopped Ragnarok, but Loki… he didn't do any of this…"

She exhaled slowly. Her cheeks were cold and prickly and her mouth tasted funny, like metal. She leaned heavily on Loki, becoming distracted by the sparkling spots in the corners of her vision. She didn't see the stunned look Heimdall was giving her. "You conversed with the Norns while you were beneath Yggdrasil?" he said with as much composure as he could muster (which wasn't much).

"You can ask her about it after we get to the healing rooms!" Loki snapped, scooping Ada up.

"Wooo," Ada said involuntarily, the sudden motion smashing her extremely fragile equilibrium. Everything spun around her into a blend of gold, darkness, gold, shimmering blue-

"I do not believe we have that long," Heimdall said quietly.

Ada could feel Loki's body jerk as he whipped his head up to glare at the guardian. "If you hold your damned tongue, we may yet!" He spun around quickly and shouted, "BRAGI!", the name reverberating through his chest against Ada.

Her eyelids were very heavy, and it was extremely difficult to keep her head upright anymore. She relaxed into Loki's arms, letting the comforting darkness wash over her.

"Keep your eyes open, sweet one, please, just a bit more…" Loki said desperately. It was weird to hear him talk like this, forgoing his well-constructed speech pattern for frantic strings of words. They were moving now, too, and he sounded short of breath. She missed his velvety calm voice.

"Loki, I can't die," Ada wheezed, her head falling back again. "M' not done yet… gotta write up the Proto-Norse…" she trailed off.

Loki said something in response, but she couldn't really hear it. He sounded like he was talking into a pillow. The darkness behind her eyelids was warm, maybe if she could go back to it for a little while, she would feel better… just a little while…

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It was a large room, but the low ceiling gave it a closer atmosphere. Tall windows that stretched the entire height of the walls let the afternoon light in on dozens of well-kept but long-empty beds.

In the days since the Battle of Yggdrasil (as it was now being called), the most gravely injured einherjar that once occupied the beds had one by one been deemed sufficiently healed and were discharged to resume their duties. There were surprisingly few einherjar casualties that resulted from the battle; most injuries were severe burns that the healers could easily treat.

The healers were equal parts terrified and painfully curious about treating the burns to Jane's throat caused by Geðr's dagger, and had the situation been any different, Jane probably would've delayed the process for several hours with questions. As it stood, though, Jane nearly got away with postponing her treatment indefinitely in order to participate in what was a rather antiquated medical procedure by Asgardian terms- a blood transfusion.

She dozed off and on next to the only bed left with an occupant, unable to fully drift off due to Bragi's alternation between incessant talking and heavy snoring in the chair on the opposite side of the bed. She had gotten a modicum of peace when Bragi had been called to testify in Loki's treason hearing, but the god had returned more quickly than she would've liked.

Thor came to check on them as often as he could (which wasn't very often, really- with Odin still deep in Odinsleep, it fell to him to preside over the trial), and tried to encourage Jane to return to their quarters at least temporarily to get some real rest. But every time she would refuse- she wanted to stay by Ada's side until she woke up.

The morning that Loki's verdict was due to be handed down, Bragi was in a particularly chatty mood. Jane was thankful when a healer came by to check Ada's status; their portable soul forges- she had to physically stop herself several times from referring to them as quantum field generators- were a source of endless fascination, though the healers were quite reluctant to let her play with them.

"Still no change," the young healer said flatly, withdrawing the projection of Ada's body back into the oblong and brassy soul forge unit. Ada's chest rose and fell in regular but shallow breaths, the rest of her body frighteningly motionless beneath a thin white sheet. "It may be prudent to prepare yourself for the possibility that she may never wake up. Mortals are so fragile, you know-"

"She will indeed awaken in her own time!" Bragi boomed before Jane got the chance to stick up for her friend. "I shall not abide by such lack of faith in the resilience of my offspring!"

"Easy tiger," Jane said calmly. "She was just filling us in. Now look, you've scared her half to death."

Indeed, the healer looked like she was about to cry. Bragi made a comforting noise and stood, walking around the bed to place his arm gently on the girl's back. "Now now, my dear, I mean you no harm… forgive my sharp tongue, I am simply not accustomed to being in the presence of such beauty!"

Jane rolled her eyes and made a face as they slowly walked off, Bragi's honeyed words fading as they went. One day he was going to run out of healers to charm. She turned back to Ada with a sigh. "Wake up already, will you?" she whispered. "C'mon, Ada, I know you wouldn't mind staying in Asgard forever, but not like this…"

"Announcing the standing Allfather Thor and Prince Loki!" a clear male voice suddenly echoed through the hall, causing Jane to nearly fall off of her chair.

She whipped her head around to glare at the slightly sheepish god. "Thor, I thought we talked about the einherjar introduction? We're the only ones in here, do you really need-" she stopped short when she realized that Thor was not the only one who had been introduced.

A rather haggard looking Loki, wearing the leather armor he had been dressed in the first night she saw him, followed close behind, staring intently at Ada's prone figure with tired eyes. As Thor approached the bed, Loki stayed as still as a statue, barely breathing as he apparently tried to process the sight.

Thor continued to Jane's side and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Not guilty, then?" she tried to keep the suspicion from her voice, but was only partly successful.

Thor avoided her eyes. "On most counts," he said quietly. "Not all. I shall discuss it with you further after-"

"Tell me what's going on," Loki cut in, startling Jane with the intense sincerity in his eyes. "Wasn't the transfusion successful? Why is she still unconscious?"

"They don't know," Jane answered curtly... probably a bit too curtly. She shook her head to clear it. "As far as I know, everything went well, but they can't figure out why she's still asleep. I mean, I can't say I'm surprised, given Asgard's inexperience with mortal medical treatment, but I really thought they'd at least have an inkling of what's going on with her."

"I thought as much," Loki said, the exasperation evident in his voice. He took a hesitant step towards the bed, but continued with a more determined gait until he reached Bragi's empty chair. "Healers rely entirely too much on their soul forges, often neglecting to examine what is right in front of them. They should've allowed me to stay by her side, this would've gone much more smoothly." He narrowed his eyes at Ada, looking at something neither Jane nor Thor could see.

"Well, if you hadn't almost caused the end of the world-" Jane started, but was silenced by Loki suddenly holding up a hand. Her cheeks flushed with rage and she opened her mouth to say something in response, but was distracted by Thor's hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and he gently shook his head.

"Ah, you see!" Loki said, flipping his hand for further emphasis before moving it to just above Ada's chest. He pinched the air and drew his fingers up in a straight line, releasing whatever he was holding a good distance away from Ada's body. "She just needed a catalyst, her new blood is still resisting being fully incorporated into her system. She should be awake in a matter of hours."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ada was, of course, completely unaware of any of these events, or the fact that she was supposed to wake up in a matter of hours. So her eyes popped open the moment she became conscious of Loki's voice and she drew in a huge lungful of air, startling everyone around the bed.

Loki all but fell into Bragi's chair and clasped her hand, his mask of stoicism forgotten. "Aðalrun, Aðalrun," he repeated in something between a laugh and a sob.

Ada regarded him with a great deal of shock but without much recognition. She narrowed her eyes, memories beginning to tickle the back of her mind. She slowly turned to look at Thor, who was wearing a jubilant smile, and Jane, who was almost vibrating from excitement.

Ada's eyes widened as the memory floodgates were opened and she turned her whole body back to face Loki, snatching her hand out of his in order to push herself up in bed.

"Loki…?" she said hoarsely, wincing as she sat up straight. She blinked and shifted back to face Thor and Jane. "Jane! God, are you ok? Geðr was going to kill you, and I… holy shit, I died…" she trailed off in confusion, maintaining eye contact with Jane.

"Not quite," Jane said, her voice full of joy and relief.

"Loki, you carried me…" Ada said, turning again to Loki. She squeezed her eyes shut momentarily before fully taking in the sight of him- all the turning back and forth was making her dizzy. When she slowly opened them again, she was taken aback by his expression. It was some strange, incongruous mixture of trying not to cry from happiness and trying to conceal pain. He was doing better at the not crying than the concealing pain; his brow was knitted into a severe peak. Ada lifted a shaky hand in his direction and he took it eagerly, her touch apparently resolving whatever conflict was raging within him.

In turn, the coolness of his skin on hers somewhat soothed the anxiety she felt at not knowing what the hell happened or where she was. She smiled at him weakly, feeling guilty that her emotions were apparently not as strong as his.

"You had pretty much bled out by the time you got to the healing rooms, and Loki suggested a blood transfusion, which confused the heck out of the healers," said Jane with a laugh.

"Blood… transfusion…?" Ada repeated. She raised an eyebrow. "Whose blood?"

Jane raised a wrist and pointed to it. "Type O, universal donor!" she proudly exclaimed.

Ada chuckled. She was feeling more herself the longer she was awake, but there were still so many questions… "Thank you," she said with sincerity and a smile.

Jane suddenly looked bashful. "Well, I'm not the only one you should thank…"

"You are a Bragisdottir after all," Loki clarified. When Ada turned to face him, she was relieved to find the raw emotion gone, replaced by a calm but uncharacteristically honest smile. "We had to take your heritage into account when the procedure was initiated; Bragi was, for once in his life, useful, and contributed some of his own blood to maintain the ratio of mortal to Asgardian blood within your body. And indeed, I am proud to say that my calculations for the mixture appear to be perfect."

"So you didn't do that blood replacement thing you talked about a while ago?" Ada asked with an air of suspicion. "I'm more or less the same?"

"Possibly less…" Jane muttered under her breath.

Ada looked quickly from Jane to Loki, who was glaring daggers at her friend. "Possibly less?" she said with an edge to her voice.

Loki shifted his focus back to Ada, though he avoided her eyes. "This procedure has never been done before, and while it was obviously successful, I did have to account for a few unforeseen variables…"

"Like the fact that you started the transfusion with Bragi before you had completed your calculations?" Jane finished his sentence for him harshly.

Loki involuntarily squeezed Ada's hand in anger. "Yes, like that," he hissed in Jane's direction, still avoiding Ada's eyes.

Ada had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and pressed her lips into a thin line. She finally caught Loki's eyes and frowned. "What exactly does that mean?"

Loki sighed. "I'm not sure yet, sweetling," he said smoothly. "But I assure you I shall remain by your side to tend to whatever side effects-"

"Hey, what's with the language all of a sudden?" Jane cut in, raising her eyebrows in confusion. "Suddenly you're feeling well enough to speak Proto-Norse?"

"What?" Ada said with a grimace, facing Jane. "No I wasn't."

"You totally were," Jane insisted. "Trust me. I may not actually know Proto-Norse, but I can only assume, given the situation-"

"Thor," Ada interrupted, "Could you understand us?"

"Of course, Aðalrun!" he laughed. "I do not know why Jane is claiming to hear such things!"

Jane scowled up at Thor, who apparently immediately regretted disagreeing with her. However, pieces were slowly beginning to fall into place in Ada's mind, and she ignored them to turn back to Loki, her eyes alight with excitement.

"The Alltongue! Is this the Alltongue?" she exclaimed with a bright smile, taking his hand in both of hers and lifting it up. "Did the Alltongue come from Bragi's blood? Oh my god, this is incredible, I can't wait to-" she choked to a sudden halt as something occurred to her. She slowly and stiffly faced Jane, most of the color gone from her face. "Jane, do me a favor… say something in French," she said haltingly.

Jane stared at her blankly. "What?" she asked, her voice flat.

"Look, I know you don't speak much French, but you know a little, right? Just say anything, say "My name is Jane" or something," Ada rambled, becoming increasingly frenzied.

"Uh…" Jane started, casting her eyes to the ground as she tried to think of something to say. "Cheese omelet? The library?"

"No, in French," Ada insisted. "What even is a cheese omelet library?"

"Ada, that was French," Jane said, arching an eyebrow.

Ada's expression hardened into a frown, and she pulled one of her hands away from Loki's to cup her chin. "I'll gain something, I'll lose something…" she muttered, staring at the lumps of her feet under the covers. She fully released Loki's hand to cross her arm over her stomach.

Loki cocked his head at her reaction. "What is it? Are you not pleased with your new ability? I must admit, I did not factor your acquisition of the Alltongue into the projected outcome of the procedure. Though it does make sense, given the nature of the enchantment." He smirked. "I imagine your Midgardian colleagues will be extremely jealous."

Ada whipped her head up to glare at him. "I can't be a linguist if I can't hear the difference between the languages I'm studying!" she snapped, quickly going back to staring at her toes and stroking her chin.

"Ah…" Loki said, casting his eyes away. "I suppose that would cause you some difficulty…"

"Oh Ada, I'm so sorry," Jane said with concern. "Maybe it'll fade after a while?"

Before Ada even had a chance to begin to hope that Jane was right, Loki answered. "No, once the enchantment has entered her system, it is impossible to separate without fully eradicating the Asgardian blood from her body."

"And that apparently tends to kill people," Ada finished with a groan. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. When she opened them again, she put on a forced smile and hoped nobody would be the wiser. "But at least I'm not dead, right? And the world didn't even end!"

"My darling fighter of a granddaughter!" Bragi's voice suddenly rang out from across the room. He was quickly at her bedside, practically pushing Loki out of the way to get to her. "I am truly overjoyed to see that you have rejoined us! I am terribly sorry I was not at your side when you returned to consciousness, I was required elsewhere temporarily-"

"With a healer?" Loki cut him off, looking him up and down with disgust. "Really, have you no sense of decorum?"

"Wonderful to see you out of chains, Loki!" Bragi responded with a wide grin.

Ada covered her eyes with one hand. As Bragi and Loki engaged in increasingly unfriendly banter, she dragged her hand down her face to look at Thor and Jane for assistance- only to find them talking quietly to one another with worried expressions.

(Somewhat) alone with her thoughts for the first time since she woke up, Ada felt overwhelmed. She closed her eyes with a wince and inched down in bed, wishing she could just go back to sleep. And despite her churning mind and the verbal war beside her, her body was soon more than happy to oblige.

PS- Omg I'm so sorry I missed an update! I feel particularly horrible given last week's cliffhanger! I love you all, thanks for sticking around x