It took a moment for Ada's eyes to adjust after being faced with the brightness of the sparking portal, but even when they did, she was not entirely sure what she was seeing. For the most part, it seemed to be a large, well-appointed room with lovely wood floors; however, it seemed to be fractured somehow, as though she were viewing it through a broken window.
"Welcome, Asgardians," a male, American-accented voice said from behind her, "to the Mirror Dimension!" There was a hint of mischief in the voice that almost reminded her of Loki.
Ada sighed, carefully trying to shift on her knees to turn towards the voice. She thought she was done with mistaken identities after Asgard. "Not Asgardian," she said, trying to keep any undue exasperation out of her voice, "just a ling…"
She was unable to continue, faced with the spectacle of the owner of the voice. Dressed in a blue tunic that hung to his knees over blue trousers and knee high leather boots, and wearing more belts than was probably necessary, the man smirked knowingly at her. His sharply trimmed beard lent an almost architectural look to his face. A long, high-collared crimson cape seemed to billow about him of its own accord, oblivious to the stillness of the room, and was fixed to his shoulders around a large golden amulet shaped like an eye. All in all, he was an extremely strange sight.
Ada's shock must have showed on her face, because the man's smirk was quickly replaced by a look of mild irritation. "Oh, come on, I've seen how you Asgardians dress," he said with a huff, brushing his cape back with a gloved hand. "This is nothing compared to flying around with a hammer and a horned helmet."
Loki emitted something like a grunt behind her.
"That's enough chit-chat, Strange," Natasha said brusquely, walking past Ada. "The girl's got powers too, I need that spare muzzle."
The man she called Strange conjured a second metal muzzle with a circular gesture of his hands, causing Ada to jump. Who was this guy, using magic but referring to them as Asgardians, as though he wasn't one? Maybe he was another Asgardian descendant?
Natasha plucked the muzzle from Strange's hand and took a step towards Ada, who fell backwards onto her bottom trying to keep her distance. "No, wait, please-" she stammered, scooting herself backwards with her feet, "I don't have- I mean, I do have magic, sort of, but I don't even really know how to use it yet, I mean I've never even had it before and-"
"All the more reason to keep your mouth shut," Natasha cut her off, now approaching her more aggressively. She caught Ada by the front of her shirt and hauled her up off the ground, but was stopped just short of fitting the muzzle by a gloved hand on her shoulder.
"Wait, Miss Romanov," he said quietly, fixing Ada with a cold gaze. "Didn't you say that her M levels before and after her disappearance were vastly increased? Maybe she's telling the truth."
"That's Agent Romanov to you," Natasha spat, briefly glaring at him before turning back to Ada. "And yes, I did measure a big difference on her this morning."
"Ah, my apologies, Agent Romanov," Strange chuckled quietly, withdrawing his hand. "I had gotten so used to calling you Miss when SHIELD was using you as a plant to worm your way into my Sanctum Sanctorum! And you were spying on this girl in London, too? At the same time? SHIELD should really invest in more agents-"
"What can I say, I'm good at multi-tasking," Natasha interrupted. She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes at Ada, silently daring her to try any magic so she would have an excuse to fit her with the muzzle. When Ada did nothing but cringe fearfully in response, she simply dropped her.
Ada yelped as she landed painfully hard on her tailbone for the second or third time that day- she had lost count. "So… now what?" she ventured, wincing as she got back up on her knees. "I mean, I can tell you whatever you need to know so you can understand that Loki's not a threat any more… right now," she added the last part under her breath. Natasha's eyebrow inched up slightly at this, and she instantly regretted her aside. She shook her head and went on. "The point is, like I said, he's here on a diplomatic mission. I heard Odin give the order myself! And I'm just… well, I was just a linguist, but now… well, I guess I'm a bit more Asgardian than I was before I left, for a variety of reasons."
Natasha and Strange seemed to take the information in stride, she placing her hands on her hips and he crossing his arms over his chest. They shared a brief look before turning back to Loki and Ada.
Loki emitted another strangled growl in response.
"Alright, you two," Natasha sighed. "Sit tight. And don't try anything stupid. Apparently, even if you do try something stupid, it won't have any effect on the outside world… but it would be awfully incriminating. We'll be back shortly."
She nodded to Strange, who held one hand up in front of him while making a swirling motion with the other. A sparking portal sprung to life, which Natasha stepped through, and he followed.
As the portal began to shrink, he poked just his head back through, nodding to Loki and Ada. "Doctor Stephen Strange, by the way," he said with a smirk. "Pleasure." He withdrew his head and the portal dissipated.
Ada exhaled deeply, hanging her head. "We weren't even back 24 hours, and we're already prisoners," she said into the empty space. She repositioned herself to face Loki, who had evidently fully recovered from his electrocution and was sitting cross legged on the floor. He glowered at her.
"What, how was I supposed to know Katya was a spy?" Ada snapped. "I certainly recognised who she was when she pulled her own face off!"
Loki rolled his eyes as though she shouldn't be shocked by her colleague being a super-spy. He turned away from her, his eyes darting about the fractured room. Ada wasn't sure if he was just assessing his surroundings or plotting a means of escape. Probably both, she thought to herself.
"Hm," Loki said under his muzzle. He jutted his chin out towards Ada. "Hm mm."
Ada looked over her shoulder before turning back to Loki, trying to figure out what he was gesturing at. "Um, I'm not sure what…?"
"Mmmnnnnng," Loki grumbled, rolling his eyes again. He got up to his knees and shuffled in her direction, pressing his cool forehead against hers.
Take this DAMNED muzzle off of me! His voice rang through Ada's mind. She jerked away from his touch in surprise.
"What…? How…?" she choked, looking around to make sure no one had heard Loki's voice. This was an easy task, as there was nobody else in the room.
Loki bumped his head back against hers, meeting her eyes with a determined glare. My magic is so far suppressed that all I can do is talk to you through direct contact. But I cannot stand having this muzzle on a moment longer! You still have command of your magic, use it to help me.
Use it to help me PLEASE, she thought back. The thought must've reached him, as his eyes crinkled slightly from smiling under his restraint.
Please, Loki's voice purred seductively in Ada's mind. She couldn't help but chuckle.
However, his request was easier said (well, thought) than done. It would also be, as Natasha mentioned, quite incriminating. "I'm not sure if that's such a good idea," she said weakly.
At this, Loki's brow furrowed, and his eyes briefly flashed with desperation, something he quickly concealed. Aðalrun, please, he thought, the desperation much more apparent in his mental voice. Please get this thing off me!
The tone and earnestness of his request tied a knot of concern in Ada's stomach. She had never seen Loki desperate… angry and petulant, sure, but never desperate. The presence of the muzzle was clearly not the only problem- it seemed to be the stress of being restrained in general.
A sheen of sweat had appeared on Loki's neck, highlighting the anxiety it was causing him.
"Okay, okay," Ada said quickly, before switching to her internal voice. Okay. Can you tell me how I can magic it off?
His shoulders relaxed slightly at her acquiescence. Talk to it, like you did when you rebounded my spell in Asgard, he thought, grimacing slightly at the memory. There's no one activation phrase to command your magic… which you would've known, had you finished that book I lent you in the palace.
Ada scoffed. Hey, that wasn't my fault! If you recall, we were a bit… busy after you first lent it to me.
True, Loki thought, his eyes crinkling again with an obscured smirk. Ada felt the knot in her stomach lessen at the return of his usual candour. Now, do you remember the appearance of Bragi's magic? See yourself commanding those threads of magic, using them as an extension of your will. A task this simple should not require a great deal of skill, particularly since your goal is to simply break the locking mechanism… and the Nine Realms would be hard pressed to find a race so adept at breaking things as Midgardians.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ada thought as she pulled her face away from his. She squinted at the metal muzzle, thinking through what she should say to get it to release. Open? Relent? What would be most effective? Recalling her use of Proto-Norse when she rebounded Loki's spell, she settled on ólæsa, "unlock".
She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind, focusing on the word and willing her tongue to produce Proto-Norse rather than something filtered through the Alltongue. "Ó-læ-sa," she said, focusing on each syllable. "Ólæsa!" She leaned closer to Loki and spoke the word with authority, her mouth only milimeters from the metal. "Ólæsa!"
A spark leapt from the muzzle to Ada's lower lip, causing her to squeal in pain. She pressed her lips together, frowning at the device, before putting her forehead back to Loki's. What was that? She mentally asked. Is this thing electric?
It seems as though it was modelled on the Asgardian muzzle Thor placed me in before he… escorted me from Midgard last time, Loki thought back. Perhaps electricity is being used in place of enchantment?
Ada frowned. I can only just barely do magic, I really can't do electricity, she thought.
There is no difference, Loki thought in reply, impatience creeping into his mental voice. It can be broken just like anything else.
Ada hummed quietly and pulled away again. She imagined the circuit board that must be governing the muzzle and pictured white threads of magic working their way in and around the microchips, disrupting the current. The threads flowed out of the electronics and onto Loki's face, pushing the restraint off and away. "Ólæsa," she breathed, feeling the word move across her lips and flow as the magic threads did.
With a small buzz and a pop, the muzzle fell away.
Loki recoiled backward in response. "Grah!" he exclaimed, shaking his head violently. He opened and shut his mouth several times before closing his eyes and heaving a sigh of relief. Ada watched him with interest.
"Thank you, Aðalrun, thank you," he said softly. "When I was… between realms… before New York, when I was taught to use the sceptre…" His mouth twisted into a smirk, but his brows knitted, giving his face a look that was almost as disjointed as the room he and Ada were in. As he slowly opened his eyes, swirls of icy blue rolled across his emerald irises. "Let's just say the muzzle was a bit too familiar for comfort," he said in a velvety voice that sharply contrasted with the situation.
Ada swallowed hard, feeling her knot of worry return with a vengeance. "Loki, I'm… sorry, I didn't know…" She spoke hesitantly, unsure of the right thing to say. "I knew you were influenced, controlled, but—"
"Ah, but! But you have freed me, using very delicate magic I might add!" Loki chuckled, his smirk morphing into a smile that finally lifted his furrowed brow. His eyes were pure green once again. "I must compliment your work!"
Ada gave him a lopsided smile in response, both relieved and somewhat concerned at the sudden change of subject. She was proud of her work, but wished that she could've practiced her powers when not handcuffed and under pressure. "Yeah, well, breaking things…" she trailed off. She watched a new crack shimmer across the upper wall and another fade from across a table, which suddenly looked much less like it was out of a Dali painting.
"Speaking of which, what is this? Doctor Strange called it the Mirror Dimension?" she asked, finally able to take in the whole room. She hadn't noticed it before, but the cracks seemed to be appearing and disappearing at semi-regular intervals, and in a vaguely circular direction.
"I will spare you any deflection, pet, and confess that I have never seen anything like this," Loki said quietly, but with reverence. He cast his gaze about as well, following the cracks. "The magic that surrounded that man… it was unlike anything I've ever seen in any of the Nine Realms. And this place… wherever it is, I'm not certain it lies within Midgard, or even our universe."
Ada gawked at him. "Ah," she gave a withering sigh. "Of course. After coming back from an alien world and being given the responsibility of housing a royal fugitive, why would I ever expect anything more than 24 hours of peace before being shipped off to a different universe and held prisoner by a spy and a wizard? What kind of sense would that make?" She forced a laugh, and the noise that came out was colored with more than a hint of madness. She twisted her wrists in her cuffs anxiously.
Loki grinned at her. "I do apologise for this, my sweet, but I must say I am not surprised by the speed at which we were captured. And I did, of course, warn Odin of this very possibility, although he saw fit to ignore me." He narrowed his eyes slightly. "However, the wizard was somewhat unexpected."
Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is late! I aim to update every Tuesday, but sometimes life gets in the way. Thanks for all your likes, kudos, and comments! It really means a lot! I hope you enjoy where this story goes!