"Look at her!" I shout, even though I haven't really done it myself. I've held Alex, but never focused on her small, broken body, drenched in blood lying on the table. I don't know that I could recover if I did.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you", Loki says instead, refusing to let his eyes wander to her.

"Look at her!", I shout again, and finally join him in grief, letting tears loose. It's when he feels this connection that his eyes follow my own. Slowly he walks toward the table and I see his shoulders sag.

"My baby", he whispers, "What did they do to you? What did they do? YOU did this!" He points a finger at me.

"I loved her! Being intimate was inevitable. We didn't know this would happen..."

"I told you! I told you not to! You didn't listen!" he booms.

"You're not exactly the world's foremost expert on truth, Loki. Maybe if you'd shared more details, we might have", I say. "Besides you got what you wanted, the twins."

"I don't have them yet", he growls.

He touches Alex's cheek and her hair, which has had to go 9 months without dyeing and is now 7 inches of green and 4 of pure black that matches his own.

"I saw you cry when you gave Alex up. You love your children. You love Sam. But it's different with Alex...you carried her. You gave birth to her. I know you love her", I insist.

"If I did", he says, wiping away a tear, "It makes no difference. I'm not going to kill myself so you can get some kind of revenge for it, baby Frey."

"I'm not talking about revenge, and I'm not talking about killing yourself. You need to go to Hel and talk her into letting Alex go. I'm talking about getting her back...she's your child", I say.

"You know how many of my children I've lost!", he booms, "One of my sons turned into a vicious wolf, then he murdered my other son before my very eyes and his mother's. Tied up for millennia with ropes made out of my child's innards! One child doomed to the bottom of the sea, my daughter the ruler of the underworld with none but the dead to speak to because she was too ugly for the venerable eyes of my brothers and sisters. Fate, nor the other gods, have been particularly kind to me or mine..." He rubs the scars on his lips where they bear the evidence of being sewn together as punishment for telling lies.

"I know all this, Loki, and I grieve for your pain, but I'm in pain too", I insist. "If you can save one of them, you must."

"Hel wouldn't understand the favoritism, she wouldn't cooperate", he says.

"She wouldn't give Balder back because Odin asked. If her father asked, she would, if you traded yourself for Alex, she would!"

"No", he says.

"Loki! You owe her!"

Loki stares at her, and moves a bloody strand of hair off her face.

"Alexander, your father did not obey me", he says, "I told him that he was to treat you like the miracle you are. That your stepmother was not to interfere. And he threw you out, he hurt you...for being like your grandfather. And for being like me."

"Loki, we have to find a way...we have to go to Hel together...", I insist.

"For being like me..."

"Loki...hurry, we have to go..."

I don't get very far. I yell and Sam lets out a scream as Loki picks up a surgical blade and plunges into his chest.

"Dad!", Sam rushes forward to grab him as he slumps toward the floor.

"That wasn't what I meant for you to do", I insist.

"But it was what you wanted", he groans out. "Promise me two things. First, that I can be in my grandchildren's lives in any way I still can...promise me..."

"Lord Loki..."

"Promise me!", he shouts.

"I promise", I say. He's a dying man, what harm can it do.

"And promise you will take care of my baby", he says.

"I'll take care of her, and our babies. I promise you that with my whole heart", I respond.

"Magnus!", Mallory shouts, and motions to Alex. Her eyes flutter open.

"Alex!" I run over to her and gather her in my arms. I scoop up her frail body and hold her close enough to feel her heart beating again.

"You're getting blood all over you, Beantown", she snipes.

I hold her face with both hands and look into her eyes—one brown, one hazel. "Thank the gods! I love you, I love..." I kiss her a million times and she kisses me right back.

"I love you too, Maggie."

"You were dead", I say.

"I knew I was going to die, all along, I mean I hoped...but I knew it would happen. I had to have the twins though, I wanted to give you the children, I..."

"I love you." I hold her tight.

"I love you. How am I here?", she asks, then sees Loki slide to the floor.

"Loki...Mom?" She jumps up.

"Don't strain yourself!", I shout.

"I'm fine", she insists, though there's blood all over her. Her wounds seem to be healed.

"What happened?", she asks.

"The only way to save you...a blood relative who loved you had to trade places with you...", I confirm.

"Who loves me. But Loki hates me."

"Lok...Mom, why did you do this?", she shouts, sitting on the floor next to Loki, who is slowly bleeding out. "You hate me."

"Hate you?", Loki asks, drawing a finger down her face.

"Alex...I...", he coughs.

"I haven't been who you wanted me to be", Alex says, fiercely wiping away a tear, "I'm not who anyone wants me to be. I'm defective, don't you know that? You have no business dying for me."

"Defective? I would say unique", Loki says, wiping a tear off her cheek, "Don't cry for me, mi amado."

At that, Alex bursts into tears. "No..."

"I carried you, I gave birth to you, I love you, and I'm sorry your life wasn't what I wanted it to be", Loki says. Alex takes Loki's hand.

"Sam...", he says, and Sam takes his other hand. "I love you both...promise me...and I know you will have children, Samirah, promise me, you will both tell your children about me, that I can be as big a part of their lives as I still can..."

"I promise", Sam says.

"I promise too", Alex says.

"No, Mom...no", Alex cries as he slips through her arms flat onto the floor.

"Dad", Sam sighs, closing his eyes.

"I'm so sorry", I say.

"He had no right to do that", Alex fusses.

"He had every right", I correct her, "He was a parent who chose to die for his child. I know I would for you or the twins in a heartbeat."

Alex rushes into my arms, then hugs Sam. "I need my kids", Alex sighs.

I charge out of the room, and find the doctor clutching them in the hallway.

"She's okay, Alex is alive", I tell him.

"What?! How? Nevermind...", the doctor rubs his head, and I try not to laugh.

I take them from him and carry one in each arm into the room.

"I still think they look like Smurfs", Mallory complains.

"Do not call my children Smurfs, Mallory Keene!", Alex shouts.

"Hello", she croons softly to each baby as I lay them in the crook of her elbows. I've never seen Alex so gentle, or so mesmerized. "Hello, babies, I'm your momma. I may be kind of...confusing sometimes. I'm usually a woman, sometimes I'm a man, but I'll always be your mother, and I'll always love you. With my whole heart, for my whole life."

"With my whole heart, for my whole life", I repeat, kissing her forehead.

I wipe away a tear.

"With my whole stomach, I want to vomit on both my shoes", Halfborn mocks, barging in the room. "Sorry, guys, I couldn't find Mr. Fierro, I tried..."

"It's okay, we didn't need him", I answer, "Loki helped."

"Loki?", he asks, skeptical. "Helped? Loki helped? I mean, Alex does look fine."

"Better than fine", she corrects, back in fighting form already.

Mallory rushes to his side to hug Halfborn, then hits him. "Why can't you say things like that to me?"

"See what you do!", he says, pointing at me and Alex.

"Yes. He did the right thing", I say, nodding, ignoring the two of them. And if that message from Odin's throne was right, I may be able to do the right thing too. My kids may be down one grandparent, but they might get another back.

"Do you know what you want to call them?", Mallory asks.

"Well we have been a little busy...for instance, I've been dead", Alex mocks, "But I did have some ideas."

"Me too", I say.

"Nobody said you could offer ideas", Alex insists.

"They're mine too you know. Couldn't have done it without me..."

"Oh yeah...I died in childbirth, no biggie, we couldn't have done it without you." She sticks her tongue at me.

"But first thing's first", I insist.

"First thing's first?", Haflborn asks.