Work Text
With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.
- Frankenstein 1818, Ch 5, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Look, the ‘why’s and ‘how’s weren’t important, okay?The whole sordid backstory with all her ill-advised teenage adventures was...immaterial! It was like reading the beginning of Frankenstein: there was a really weird slog through the Arctic and then a bunch of boring waffle before shit got interesting.In terms of Darcy Lewis’s Life Story, she could admit that, y’know, finding out she could revive the dead when she was 10 years old was pretty interesting (her tamagotchi was a small price to pay to save the classroom bunny from a premature death) and then there was the Accident when she was 16 that she didn’t talk about so don’t. ask. …(Cherise may have been a massive bitch but no one deserved to choke to death on their own puke, alright? Even if it had blown the city’s power grid and Cherise had still been a massive bitch afterward.Which had kind of been a relief actually? Because you couldn’t tell if an animal Came Back Wrong or changed or whatever, not really, but you could with humans and Cherise had seemed to be exactly the same.)Anyway, all that was just the Arctic prologue to her personal Modern Prometheus story. Tangentially important to the main action, but ultimately pretty boring to relate.She thought meeting real, honest-to-God, actual not-from-this-world ALIENS was way more interesting.Thor was cool. Maybe not the sharpest weapon in the armory, but he sure swung that hammer just fine (innuendo not intended – Jane would know but she didn’t kiss and tell). She supposed that maybe that had more to do with his unfamiliarity with Earth than anything else; how smart would she look if she was dropped on his planet without warning? Probably pretty dumb.Then there’d been explosions and a giant robot that breathed fire and of course she saved that poor dog!He’d looked askance at her and the wiggly ball of fur in her arms. “Didn’t that dog get hit?”Darcy nuzzled her nose against the little guy’s head. “I don’t think so.”And that had been the end of that. Thor and his buddies had disappeared into the sky and then...nothing for a year.Then more aliens (not the friendly kind).Then nothing again (Jane had been pissed)....Then England happened. (Which...kind of aligned with Frankenstein’s sojourn in England too, huh.)They’d found a weird anomaly, Darcy had lost the car keys (oops), and Jane had disappeared for five freakin’ hours only to come back with some sort of…alien thing inside her.Thor had tried to kidnap her to Asgard but Darcy had jumped on his back like a feral possum and hung on tight as the rainbow lights enveloped them.When they landed and Darcy shook off the vertigo (traveling by Bifrost? Worse turbulence than that cargo plane to Tromsø), Thor frowned at her: “You shouldn’t have come, friend. My father will be most displeased.”“Yeah, well, if Jane frickin’ dies, I need to be here,” she shot back, furious and worried. Jane hadn’t even stirred with their landing.He leveled her with a Look, far too serious for her liking. “...Aye. Follow me.”⚡️“What a fucking DOUCHE! Goats? Goats??? I’ll show him a fucking goat can you believe this -”Jane laughed weakly. “Darce! Darce, calm down! It’s fine.”Darcy shot her a glare from where she’d been pacing in the middle of the room, and she held her hands up. “Alright, not ‘fine’ exactly, but it’s… Yeah, okay, Odin is a dick. But at least he didn’t kick us out.”“Sure, I guess I’ll just put him on my Rosh Hashanah card list then!” she said with enough sarcasm to fell a horse. She sat on the edge of the bed Jane had been installed in and grabbed her hands in hers. “I’m worried, Janey.”“I noticed.”Darcy ignored that. “It seems like every time we get involved with this alien shit, it’s our lives on the line. Sure I can’t convince you to switch to something dull and safe like, I dunno, accounting?”She scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out. “Gross. Not a chance, Darce. We’ll just have to figure this out.”“Deal. But uh...hypothetically. If something happened to you, and we had a way to bring you back – hypothetically of course! – would you be cool with that?”Thankfully, Jane was used to her brand of weirdness and didn’t even question how extra weird her question was. “Sure. But I’m going to be fine, Darcy. Don’t worry.”Bold words for someone who collapsed tiredly back into her stack of pillows, but she was right. She would be fine.Even if Darcy had to blow whatever Asgard’s version of a power grid was to resurrect her.⚡️It turned out Jane wasn’t the one she needed to pull a Frankenstein on.But when the Queen of Asgard and your space buddy’s mom dies protecting you from alien baddies, you kind of feel an obligation, y’know?Especially when Thor turned his heartbroken eyes on her and whispered: “Please.”Darcy shrugged in discomfort, darting a glance at Odin (asshole) but he was understandably preoccupied with holding his dead wife. “...Yeah, of course. Gonna need a lot of electricity though. And we should probably bring her to your doctors first.”Thor nodded and scooped his mom’s limp form up while Odin and Jane looked questions at her. Darcy held herself in a wince of anticipation while she rushed to open the doors for Thor; those questions weren’t going to stay unasked for long and she was right.“What do you need electricity for?”“What are you doing with my wife?”“Things?” Darcy offered, huffing and puffing to keep up with her space bro’s giant, hurried strides.“Darcy is a Necromancer, Father.”Jane stopped dead in her tracks, and Odin’s steps slowed briefly before he very quickly caught up with them and grabbed Darcy’s arm. She tried to yank away because personal boundaries, dude! But fuck, he was strong for an old guy.“Have you ever raised an Aesir before, child?”“Hey! I’m a grown fucking adult, bud! Let go of me!” At least it was better than ‘goats’ but not by fucking much.His grip only tightened, the dick. (She got that he was worried about his wife but geez.) “Have you?” “Ow! Of course not! But I’ve brought back a human, and her personality was the exact same after (unfortunately). Frigga’s gonna be fine, but not if you don’t let me go! I’ve only ever done this a few minutes after death! The brain needs oxygen! So do you really wanna wait around and ask 20 questions?”“Father,” Thor’s voice...well, thundered, startling her and Jane, and making Odin drop her arm. Finally. “Come, Darcy. The healing chambers are just through here.”She rushed ahead to open the doors and Thor barked orders to the healers inside, then reverently laid his mom down on a bed.“I will summon a storm for you, friend,” he told her, then kissed his mom’s forehead.Dizzily, Darcy realized she was going to use actual lightning to raise the dead, and a small, hysterical giggle hiccuped out of her mouth. Odin glared at her, but Jane stepped in front of her, blocking his dark look.“Darcy, what is happening here? A – a necromancer? That’s not a thing,” Jane explained gently, as if she’d gone off the deep end, and hell, maybe she had...when she’d signed up for that internship out in the middle of New Mexico.“Janey, remember how we all agreed magic is just science we don’t understand yet? That’s all this is. This is just….electricity and neurotransmitters and cells. I’ve mostly done animals, but I did do a human once. Just trust me, boss lady.”Outside, thunder shook the damn walls, powered by all the desperate hope and grief Thor had in him. The healers were at the standby, shuffling Odin and Jane away from the body so they could jump to work.Darcy took a deep breath and reached for that thing inside her that let her do this when no one else could.Dimly, she wondered if the raw power of lightning would blacken her fingers. If it did, at least she was already in Asgard’s version of an ER.She took the lightning and pushed it into Frigga, forcing it into the electrical pattern of her heart, then through her body’s natural Lichtenburg-like figures, and only then, when the power had tempered a little, did she direct it to her brain.On the table, Frigga convulsed, once, twice, and then there was a lot of shouting and Darcy was shoved out of the way to deal with the afterimages of lightning flashing in her eyes.⚡️“I’m Loki. You may have – ”Jane cracked him across the face. “That was for New York.”Darcy held her breath, wondering if Thor would keep his psycho brother from killing Jane with his mind, but Loki just slowly grinned down at her.“I like her,” he drawled. His eyes flicked to her and she was stunned by how green they were. “And who’s this?”“I’m here to make sure we all make it out of this mess alive. Let’s go.” She tried to herd everyone outside to their transport without drawing anymore attention to herself.Thor, however, felt the need to halt her attempts and sing her praises instead. “This is Darcy. She resurrected Mother.”She winced and Loki stiffened. His leather armor creaked as he turned to his brother. “Resurrected? Explain.”“Can we walk and talk?” she tried, feeling a bit desperate. She shook out her fingers; they’d gone numb again. “Or does no one else feel like we’re running out of time here?”“Malekith killed her, but Darcy was able to resurrect her in time. She is hale, brother; I promise,” he assured, clapping him on the shoulder firmly.Apparently, she was the only one.“I would assert that for myself,” he hissed, jerking out from his hand. “Considering you’re only telling me this now, and not when we passed the healing chambers.”Jane (thankfully?) chose that second to collapse.⚡️Right, so. Something was definitely wrong with her. The whole ‘raising the dead’ thing was just a red herring, clearly, because there was no sane reason why she should’ve found Loki killing (!!!!!!!) those dark elves so hot.But like...the grace and ruthless efficiency and sheer competency he displayed…
Unf.
Also: just because the aether shit had been vacuum-sucked out of Jane didn’t mean she was out of the woods (especially with all the, y’know, dark elf fighting going on) so Darcy really needed to focus....God, he hadn’t even broken a sweat.Anyway. Darcy was safely stowed away behind some rocks nowhere near any of the action because there was no sense being a liability when she didn’t have an active role in their ruse. She was only on this crazy adventure to make sure no one on their side died permanently; she didn’t need to risk her own life.She clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from shouting out when a fucking blackhole bomb went off and nearly took Jane with it. Loki tossed her out of the way and Thor tackled him out of the way and there was way too much self-sacrifice going on for her comfort.And then…And then Thor was getting the absolute shit beat out of him when Loki stabbed the...monster? Guy? Through the chest and she nearly breathed a sigh of relief but then the giant elf was stabbing Loki back and “Oh fuck, that’s not good.”Nearly before Thor screamed out, Darcy was scrambling into a slipshod run (her rain boots were not designed for sand and she was going to break an ankle or something, she just knew it). Most of the elves were dead anyway and the rest were leaving with the aether and shit, that was probably a bad thing but she crashed to her knees beside Loki, where Thor was cradling him in his lap.It looked like he’d just passed, skin a weird mottled gray and face slack.“He said he didn’t do it for him, for Father,” Thor sobbed, and look, Darcy would be so much more empathetic if she wasn’t about to bring this fucker back to life, honestly! But…“Duh, your dad’s a dick. I need a storm, big guy. Can you hook me up? ...Actually…”She scrunched up her face and looked at Loki’s corpse. He didn’t feel right. Or, well, he didn’t feel the particular brand of wrong she associated with death.She shoved two fingers under his collar and against his freezing skin. Her fingers went numb before she felt a pulse, but he still felt weird. Switching hands, she held the side of her finger under his nose, trying to feel a puff of air, but… Still nothing. Huh.“Darcy?”She looked up at her lightning bro, biting her lip. “I dunno what to tell you. I don’t think he’s dead. Not yet, anyway? He doesn’t have a pulse I can feel but…” She looked down at his leather armor, with all the criss-crossing bits and the gaping, bloody hole, and felt for a zipper or something. “Help me get this open, would you?”Thor grimaced. “I think he uses seidr to get it on. It buckles from the inside…?” He slid a stiletto out of Loki’s boot though and carefully slit the leather up the middle.There was definitely something wrong with her. Who ogled a potentially dead dude? Even if he did have a 6 pack and killer pecs and perfect skin. He also had a huge freakin’ hole in him! Blood was still pooling and gurgling but that would be normal, she assured herself; an injury like this wasn’t congealing before he bled out, not without medical intervention.Sweeping her hair out of the way impatiently, she pressed one of her ears against his (gorgeous) chest, and plugged the other one with her finger, straining to hear his heartbeat over her own. It took a second for her to filter out the sounds of her own breathing, her heart, the wind over the sand…
There!
A thump. Just one, could be nothing, could be the last…But then, there it was again. She counted off in her head. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Missi – Another one! His heartbeat was freakishly slow, but it was there! Steady even, as she kept listening, kept counting. They stayed 3 and a half Mississippi’s apart, and geez, her ear was cold. Sitting up, she gave the good news.“He’s definitely still kicking!”Relief broke across Thor’s face like the sun rising, before his eyebrows bunched. “But… How?”She squinted one eye at his wound (were those ice crystals forming?). “No idea, but he def needs a hospital. Wait, shit! The convergence!”Thor thought for a second then came to a decision. He ripped his cape off easily, and wrapped it around his brother’s body. “We will take him with us to Midgard. Come.”Jane helped her to her feet and they shared a look.
Okay?
⚡️They met Erik and Ian back at Jane’s mom’s apartment and poor Erik took one look at Loki, still unconscious and being carried bridal-style by Thor, before freaking out.Which: fair. “Nonono, Erik, it’s okay. Erik, Erik, focus on me,” Jane waved her hands to get her mentor’s attention, stepping bodily in front of him.She kept talking, redirecting Erik’s line of sight, while Darcy and Thor (and Loki) sidled past and into the spare bedroom. Awkwardly, she swiped the pile of dirty clothes off one side and debated stripping the comforter, but eesh, it might minimize how much blood got on the mattress? She quickly folded it in half and set a pillow at the top, stepping back so Thor could set his brother down.He did, taking a solid minute adjusting the way his legs and arms sat, making sure his head was properly supported by the pillow and his hair wasn’t in his face.“You really love him, huh?”“Aye. He is my brother. Come. I must finish this Malekith business quickly.”“Right.” Loki still needed medical attention for that gaping hole in his abdomen. Jane had gotten the crazed look out of Erik’s eyes somehow and they quickly came up with a game plan. Jane, Erik, and Ian would go set up gravimetric spikes, while Thor presumably beat the shit out of whatever elves he came across, and Darcy would…“What do you mean stay here and keep an eye on Loki?”Thor and Jane shared a look, before the big guy cleared his throat. “Darcy, friend – "“Don’t you ‘friend’ me!”His face fell and Jane took over: “Darce, we need you to stay with him in case...something happens.”Her eyebrows went up meaningfully and then slid to Erik, and pfffft. She meant if Loki died.“And what if ‘something happens’ to one of you?” she demanded, using finger quotes around the lame euphemism. “What then, Jane? There’s a time limit, ya know!”“...What are they talking about?” the intern asked Erik but everyone ignored him.“No one is going to die, Darcy, I promise.”“We’ll return immediately once Malekith is dealt with.”“No way! This is stupid! I’m coming!”⚡️Darcy kicked the nightstand. “Stupid Thor and Jane. I totally could’ve fit in the car.”Between the three guys, Jane, and all the equipment, it was a miracle the car wasn’t scraping the curb. But she could’ve fit in the trunk!She could still take the subway, she supposed. It wasn’t like Loki was going anywhere. He felt even less ‘wrong’ than he had on the elf planet, so presumably he wasn’t going to kick it any time soon. She wasn’t sure how he was healing, since Thor seemed surprised he hadn’t died, but whatever.On her phone, she pulled up the route she’d have to take to Greenwich, chewing on her bottom lip.In the quiet of the apartment, Loki’s sudden gasp scared the bejesus out of her.Darcy fumbled her phone as she sat up, dropping it on the floor, as he thrashed on the bed. Thor’s cape was tangled and knotted around him and he fought against it like a wild animal, desperate and vicious.“Whoa, whoa, calm down! Calm down; I’ll help you!” Her hands hovered in the air, afraid to touch him in case he lashed out at her, but wow, he was freaking out way more than she ever would’ve expected. “Loki! Hey, listen! You’re on Earth, you’re okay! No one’s gonna hurt you.”His wild green eyes finally landed on her and it took a solid, anxiety-filled second before he seemed to recognize her. His chest heaved painfully, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.“...Earth?”“Yeah! Yeah, we’re on Earth. Can I help you now?”It was another few seconds before he very slowly nodded. Thor’s cape had gotten fully and tightly wrapped around him and it took some tugging on her part and lots of shuffling on Loki’s part to get it loose. By the end, he was panting again, sweat beading along his hairline, and she was seriously worried about his wound. How much blood had he lost now?“Here, let me get you more pillows.” She reached across him and grabbed the two on the other side of the bed, pulling back and tucking them behind him.“My thanks,” he muttered, collapsing back onto the pillows tiredly. “How long was I out?”She stared at him for a sec. ‘Out’ didn’t really cover the fact they’d thought he was going to die. “Uh, I think maybe an hour? Probably closer to two now.”He nodded, grimacing as he shifted again. He pressed a long-fingered hand to his stomach before she could stop him and he swore as blood trickled out between the gap in his leathers.She yanked his hand away and pressed Thor’s absolutely ruined cape to the wound again. “I dunno what you did, but I’m pretty sure that had only just stopped bleeding, dude!”“Ah.” His hands shook terribly (blood loss, Darce!) as he batted Thor’s cape away and peeled his ruined armor apart to inspect the messy and ragged hole in his abdomen. Somehow, he paled. “I need a healer.”“I know! I’m surprised you haven’t died. But Thor said we can’t get you back to Asgard until the convergence ends.” And wasn’t that a bitch and a half. “Look, um… We have a first aid kit? I could...wrap it? If you think that will help. I don’t think we should leave it uncovered like that.”“Agreed. Bring it here please.”She scurried off to the bathroom and came back to find him struggling out of his top. “Loki!”He rolled his shoulders heedlessly, jaw tight and teeth bared. Fuck, he was hot, even with the blood and the gore and yup, something was 100% wrong with her. She rushed to the bedside, dropping the first aid kit on the mattress, and quickly pulling his sleeves down.“You couldn’t have waited?? Or left it on?”“No,” he said shortly, and his hair was wet with sweat now. He was clearly in a boatload of pain. “Bandages.”She flipped through the kit, looking for the gauze. She hoped there was enough… “Wait, what about disinfectant?”“Move.”She stepped back automatically and oh, Jesus fucking Christ, he swung his legs over to sit up properly. “Loki! Are you insane?”He ignored her and took two deep breaths before pressing a hand to his wound again. A green haze spread from his hand and sunk into his skin.“Your back too,” she told him, assuming this was some sort of cleaning spell. “It went through.”He nodded tightly and she noticed green come out of his (sculpted) back. His breath was as shaky as his hands now. “Do you…” He had to stop to lick his lips. “...know how to bandage…?”“Sure.” It couldn’t be rocket science, right?He seemed to believe her since he only braced his hands on his knees and raised an eyebrow expectantly.Right. She pulled on a pair of gloves and quickly unwrapped the roll of gauze. Starting at the bottom made sense, right? Loki didn’t say anything as she got all up in his space, and overlapped the first layer to keep it in place.Just before she got to the opening, he said: “Tell me what happened.”“Oh! Sure. So um, you were stabbed. I’m sure you remember that.” His chin dipped infinitesimally. “Right. You didn’t die, somehow, so kudos to you. I didn’t need to do my thing. Thor wrapped you up and we walked through this cave and somehow ended up back on Earth? It was wild. Not wilder than your way to Svartelheim or whatever it’s called though. I thought I was gonna need a change of pants, assuming we didn’t die first.”He didn’t even laugh, which: he was focused on not passing out so that was fair.“We came back to the apartment to put you somewhere safe, and I got stuck on babysitting duty, and everyone else went down to Greenwich to stop whatever Malekith has planned. I’m sure they’ll be fine. I mean, Jane and Erik are smart and Thor is a good fighter, and they said they’d come right back here so if something...happens, I can fix it, and it’ll be fine.”She was definitely trying to convince herself, and not even Loki’s gorgeous bod could distract her from her worry. Her bandaging skills were...a little wonky, but it was a temp job, right? As soon as the convergence was over, he could see a real doctor or healer or whatever on Asgard. It’d be fine. Even if they were already turning pink.She tucked the end under the top row and leaned back. “Okay. All done. Now lay down, dude.”Loki leaned sideways into the pillows and she helped lift his legs onto the bed. It took a few quick, bracing breaths before he rolled onto his back, shaking. A tear slipped down his temple from his closed eyes and her heart twisted.“I wish we had painkillers for you.” Even if they were compatible with his alien biology, they probably weren’t strong enough for this.“’s’fine,” he gritted out, but she strongly disagreed.“I’m gonna wash my hands and then I’ll be back. Please don’t move while I’m gone.”He grunted in response, and she hurried to the bathroom, stripping off her soiled gloves. She tossed them in the garbage and washed her hands, before soaking a facecloth under the tap. Squeezing out the excess water, she headed back to the bedroom, sparing a quick glance out the window. C’mon, Thor, save the day already. “Oh, good, you didn’t move. Good job.” She sounded ridiculous even to herself but...she didn’t do so great with living people in pain. Death was way easier. “I brought a cloth to wipe your face with, if you want.”He hummed a little, tilting his face her way, and she took that for the invitation it was. Carefully, she wiped along his hairline, gathering all the sweat there and the few tears he’d let escape. He was still shivering, and oh, duh, shock. Thankfully, she had a spare blanket at the end of the bed that he hadn’t bled all over yet. She shook it out quickly and laid it over him.“I’ve got some juice and cookies here for the blood loss,” she told him, twisting the facecloth between her hands uselessly as she perched on the edge of her chair again.His eyes slitted open, mouth turned down.“There’s a straaaw,” she sing-songed cajolingly. “It’s orange juice. Don’t make that face; you need sugar and liquids, c’mon.”He sighed heavily. “Fine.”She held the straw to his lips and he made a face at the first sip but dutifully drank half the glass she’d poured while he’d been unconscious.Grimacing, he turned away. “Processed sludge. What kind of cookies?”“The only kind: chocolate chip. And! I made them myself so they’re way better than the store stuff.”His interested gaze slid to the bedside table where said cookies were stacked on a plate, looking very tempting if she did say so herself. “...Maybe a half?”“Sure!” She broke a cookie in half and then in quarters for easier bites and fed him one piece, totally ignoring how his lips brushed against her fingers because nurses didn’t jump their injured patients, okay? Keep it in your pants, Lewis! “How is it?”He finished chewing and swallowed carefully. “They don’t go well with that juice.”Staring at him for a second in offense, she ended up rolling her eyes. “Yeah, okay, fine. You want the other piece?”“Please.” After he finished with that piece, he declined any more and he closed his eyes again. “What happened with my Mother?”“Oh! Um… The whole palace was under attack, I guess? And apparently Odin somehow forgot about me and Jane so your mom ended up protecting us. Malekith was after Jane, and Frigga pretended to be her when he showed up but they started fighting, and she was really holding her own, y’know?” It had been hella impressive and Darcy was totally envious. “But then that big guy with the uh, horns? The one you stabbed? He grabbed Frigga and when she wouldn’t give us up, Malekith um...killed her. Odin and Thor showed up a little too late.”She winced with the telling; it sounded awful like that (and it had been worse to witness, helpless on the sidelines), but Loki only dipped his chin. “You resurrected her.”“Yeah. She’s okay. We did it in the healing center or whatever you call it, so she got medical attention right after. She was sitting up when we left to get you,” she assured, so grateful this story had a happy ending. She didn’t think Loki would be half so civil if his mom had died, or would even...be...alive…? Thor had thought he was dead. If she hadn’t had a reason to come along, would anyone have checked to see if he was breathing? Or would they have left him there to deal with the convergence?“Good. ‘m grateful.”His words started quiet and turned barely there and she leaned forward, alarmed. She pressed her fingers under his (sexy as fuck) jaw, feeling for his pulse. It was weak again.“’m fine,” he muttered, turning his chin as if to dislodge her hand. “Tired.”And if he wasn’t still bleeding out and incredibly injured and was in a hospital with real nurses and doctors and a triage staff, that’d be fine by her. But none of that was true and all he had was her, and she was useless unless someone had kicked it.“Loki, I need you to stay awake! Please? Thor should be back soon, c’mon. Just hang on!” she begged, panic lighting up all her nerves and pumping adrenaline to her limbs. “Hey! Don’t you want to see your mom again? You gotta stay awake for that!”His eyes peeled open, not entirely focused but not totally hazy and out of it either, thank frick. “Tell her – ”“I’m not telling her jackshit, dude! Stay awake! Do not make me bring you back!” she shouted, putting as much of a threat in her tone as she could manage. Resurrecting him would be completely useless with this much bodily damage. He needed a fucking doctor and she sent an angry prayer Thor’s way, hoping he hurried the fuck up with his world saving.He didn’t reply and furiously, Darcy shook his shoulders. “Don’t do this to me! Thor will be so upset! Loki!”A furious hammering on the front door made her swear and drag her arm under her eyes. “Fuck! I don’t have time for this…”“Darcy, open up! It’s us!”That was Jane’s voice, muffled by the door and strained, her fist still banging on the wood, and Darcy glanced one last time at Loki before hauling ass.“Loki just passed out aga – oh shit!” Thor was propped up between Ian and Erik, completely unconscious with Mjolnir hanging limply from one wrist.That’s one way to lift it, she thought hysterically, quickly moving out of the way as the guys dragged him into the apartment.“Is he okay? What happened?”“He killed Malekith. He’s still breathing but we need to get him to Asgard, ASAP.”“Yeah, take him to the balcony, then come back for Loki.”“What happened here?”“He woke up for a bit but then passed out again. He’s dying.”“Fuck, okay.”Erik refused to help with Loki which a distant part of her understood (trauma was a bitch) but damn it, she was too short to prop him up and it took her and Ian way too long to zombie walk him out to the balcony and set him down beside Thor. Both brothers were going, feeling less right by the second, and she could maybe bring back Thor without issue (there were no visible injuries but who knew what he looked like on the inside?) but Loki? Absolutely not.With her heart in her throat, she grabbed hold of Thor and Loki, Jane did the same, and then she screamed to the sky: “HEIMDALL!”The rainbow lights came crashing down on them as if the gatekeeper had been waiting for their call.⚡️Darcy could feel them slipping away as they traveled.There was electricity in the Bifrost, she could feel it, could use it, but what would that do to their travel? Would the bridge collapse and leave them mid-space? That helped no one.She wrapped her hands more firmly around both of the brothers, willing them to just hang on, we’re getting you help, don’t go, not yet… They landed hard and Darcy swore she’d be limping for the next week, but healers were there, waiting for them, oh thank God. Someone tried to politely usher her and Jane away but they didn’t expect Darcy’s absolute feral response; she wasn’t going to leave her charges, not when they might still need her! Words spit and hissed out of her (none of them nice) as she fought against his barring arms. Another healer finally just scooped her up into the skiff with the rest of them, and Jane was there too, suddenly beside her, looking as scared as Darcy felt and trying to make herself small and out of the way.Darcy had no such compunction. She was right back to clinging to Loki and Thor’s hands like her touch alone would keep them alive and safe, and the healers simply worked around her. She couldn’t make out any of what they were saying, her blood rushing in her ears; Loki was just barely still alive.“Please, please, please,” she mumbled under her breath, praying to she didn’t know who.She’d already brought back someone today, and she’d never done a two for one… Was there a limit? Would there be repercussions? The influx of electricity had always numbed her fingers and left her seeing bright spots for hours after but could it be worse? She didn’t want to find out but she would if she had to, if…She gasped, face crumpling as she felt it. “He’s gone. Loki’s gone. Loki – ”The healer nearest snapped to look at her, then at Loki. She barked something at her partner and quickly grabbed at Darcy’s shoulder. “Wait, Necromancer! Do not resurrect him yet!”“What? I’m not waiting!”“You must! He is not healed enough; he’s lost too much blood. If you bring him back now, he’ll be forced to die again! Do you want that?”Horrified, she shook her head quickly, and the healer continued. “Then wait. As soon as it’s safe to, you can resurrect him, I promise.”Everything in her rebelled at being made to wait, to not act now to save him, but the healer was right. She couldn’t bring him back just to die again; it was too cruel, too horrific, but to sit still and watch as they worked on dead flesh…Wind whipped at her hair as the skiff raced through the outer city toward the palace. Thor was still hanging on; his pair of healers were running scans over his torso and she thought maybe his organs had been damaged in the fight with Malekith, but she didn’t know. They did something then and the scanner started beeping incessantly and -“NO!” Thor was crashing, heart slamming to a stop, and she was not letting her friend die. She refused. She was bringing them both back, and damn the consequences. They were at the palace now and the skiff rose in the air, up to the medical floors. Behind her, Jane sobbed her understanding, and this was not how today ended, abso-fucking-lutely not.Myueh-myueh sat between the brothers and Darcy yanked it toward her, shoving it skyward. It wasn’t at all as heavy as she’d thought it would be.Help me, she begged it, and unleashed lightning into the sky.It arced out from the hammer, high into the clouds, and splintered, crashing back toward them.Reaching inside herself, Darcy took those streaks of light and power and split them into the brothers.Directing it though two bodies simultaneously was hard; the electricity wanted to race through everything, to lick at the other, living, bodies aboard, to return to Mjolnir or the sky, but she grit her teeth and forced it to her will.Slow, slow now, first one heart, then the other. They restarted with a kick. Then into their nerve pathways, careful, so careful, don’t fry them. The lightning wanted to leap from Loki’s wound, to make a break back to the sky, but she snarled and brought it back under her power. Down through the legs and back up, alongside the circulatory system, branching and wrapping around the spinal cord, and then… So delicately up the brain stem and into the brain itself, lighting it back up before neurons could die.Loki and Thor convulsed, the lightning faded, and Darcy’s eyes rolled back⚡️When she woke up, Darcy felt like she’d licked an electrical socket and been run over by a truck. Grimacing, she tried to sit up, squinting one eye open tentatively.The room was dark, and she opened her other eye, blinking to adjust her vision. Unlike an Earth hospital, there were no machine lights burning in the darkness or constant beeping or chatter in the halls. And the linens were a lot softer too. She moved to pet them with her hands and found them bandaged into uselessness. Making a face, she tried wiggling her fingers. They shifted a little but they were numb and she shrugged to herself. Figures. She was just trying to figure out if there was a call button of some kind when the door opened silently.“Frigga!”Hastily, she tried to get out from under the blankets to go to the older woman, who probably definitely shouldn’t be moving around yet, unless she’d been unconscious for a couple of days. Shit, had she? How would she know?“None of that now, dear. Stay put or Healer Eir will be quite upset with us both.”The queen glided into a chair set beside her bed and Darcy relaxed. “Is everyone okay? What time is it? What happened?”She chuckled at her onslaught of questions. “Thanks to you, everyone is perfectly fine. It is oh… after midnight now, I believe, and you’ve been asleep for several hours now. You pushed your skills to their limit saving my sons, Darcy. I understand survival was uncertain for a moment.”“Yeah, the healer wouldn’t let me bring Loki back right away and then Thor – ”“I meant yours, child.”“...Oh.” She…didn’t know what to do with that. She’d never really considered her own mortality before, despite the crazy hijinks Thor kept inadvertently roping them into. She decided it could wait until morning. “Well, it looks like I pulled through okay! How are you, Your Majesty? And Loki? You said he was fine but that wound was really bad.”Frigga smiled softly and clasped her wrist above her bandages. “You are kind to ask. I am well, as is Loki. Our healers are very good at what they do. He hasn’t even scarred. He and Thor are both under observation for the night but they will be released in the morning.”“Oh good.” A weight lifted off her shoulders and she slumped back against her pillows (were they down? Whatever they were, she needed to smuggle some home). “And me too, right?”“Ah, I believe, since you’re human, Eir wants to keep you under observation longer, to ensure there are no lasting effects.”Darcy pouted, but she did still feel like a semi had rolled over her so maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. And the healthcare here was definitely better than back home. Cheaper too. “I guess that makes sense… Is Jane okay? Where’s she?”“She is sleeping in the room next to you. Before you fret, she is perfectly well. She had a thorough check up and is merely sleeping off today’s excitement.”Excitement was one word for it. She would’ve gone with an adrenaline fueled nightmare, but to-ma-to, to-mah-ta. It was nice of Frigga to pop by and give her all these updates but why was the queen of Asgard doing it? Shouldn’t a healer be here instead? Before she could come up with a way to voice her suspicions without offending the monarch, Frigga proved her right.“You saved my life today, and that of my sons, Darcy. Our family owes you quite a debt.”She made a quick face and waved the whole idea off. “Nah, don’t worry about it. I didn’t do it so you’d owe me anything. That’s stupid.”Frigga smiled tightly. “Be that as it may, we are royalty. You have saved the queen and both heirs. Odin owes you a debt and he will offer a boon to you as soon as you are declared well, Darcy. You may, of course, ask for anything and if it is within our abilities, we will give it to you, but I must ask you to use your boon on my behalf. I will owe you two-fold, and will grant you whatever you wish, but please, you must agree.”Desperation rolled off her and it was seriously freaking Darcy out. “What? What is it?”“Save my sons.”⚡️Frigga really hadn’t been kidding. Darcy had barely been declared free to go by Healer Eir before she was summoned to the throne room, escorted by two guards with dumb helmets. She felt like the short little horns were prime grab-and-toss material but what did she know about close combat? She used a taser, like a civilized broad.Inside the obscenely gold throne room, Odin sat on his throne and beside him sat Frigga, looking even better than she had in the middle of the night. At the base of the dais was Thor and the big guy stepped forward to greet her once she was close enough.He scooped her up in a hug that left her feet dangling, though it was gentle for all that. “Darcy! It is good to see you up and about!”The healers had kept her for two whole days and everyone had come to visit, which was nice. She’d even received a stilted thank you note from Loki, which had been sweet if kinda awkward. He’d been dragged back to his cell as soon as Healer Eir had cleared him, which hadn’t sat right with her, but no one cared about her opinion.Behind them, Odin’s spear/staff/scepter thing banged against the floor and Darcy rolled her eyes as Thor set her back on her feet.“Darcy Lewis.” He stared down at her for a long moment, while she tried not to make faces back. “It appears I owe you a great deal. Single-handedly, you have saved the life of my wife and that of my son and heir.”He didn’t mention Loki and she glanced at Thor. His mouth was pursed unhappily.“When you and your companion arrived here, I said that you were not welcome. That you should have stayed in your own realm.”“You also called us goats,” she muttered, because she wasn’t letting that bullshit go. Dick.Either Odin hadn’t heard her or he was pretending not to, which was probably a good thing considering what she’d agreed to ask for.“And perhaps if you had, none of this would have happened. My wife and son would not have died in your protection.”“Excuse you?” “Father!”Odin dismissed their outbursts with a wave of his hand. “Or perhaps they would have been lost regardless and without your talents, I would be bereft.”Frigga’s smile had frozen in place beside him. How she could stay married to this colossal asshole was beyond Darcy.“I, Odin Allfather, King of Asgard, owe you a debt, Necromancer Darcy Lewis of Midgard, and as such, I will grant you a boon. Ask anything of me and I will grant it.” he declared grandly, and Darcy thought about asking him to eat shit. “Choose wisely as this opportunity will not arise again.”He was a war-mongering idiot and had raised two sons to be incredibly self-sacrificing. She was pretty fucking sure this exact ‘opportunity’ could happen again next week.Still, Frigga had asked and Darcy had agreed so…“I want Loki’s life sentence commuted to Earth,” she declared to a ringing silence.Odin stared down at her, considering her motives, but she stayed unbothered. If he turned her down, it was no skin off her back.“He will betray you at the first opportunity,” he said, and wow, he sure had a great opinion of the kid he raised, didn’t he?“Which is why Thor here will have to come with us to make sure that doesn’t happen,” she countered with her most winning grin, patting Thor on the arm. “You can keep him in check, can’t ya, buddy?”“Aye.” He was trying not to look too hopeful but he was over-correcting into severe. Which might still work in their favor…Odin stood, slamming his scepter down on the step below him. “You could take away my only heir and best warrior? You would leave my realm without a successor?”Darcy winced at his bellow, but still noted how he didn’t say son. Was Thor just a tool to him too? Yikes. No wonder Frigga had seemed so desperate.“Thor can come back whenever you need him. He’ll still be your heir. But that’s what I’m asking for.” She met the king’s glare with her chin tilted up defiantly. “I saved your family, and in exchange, I want Loki and Thor on Earth.”There was a long, drawn-out moment where he tried to intimidate her into backing down but she wasn’t scared of him, even if it would be smart.Odin broke first, looking away with a muscle ticking his jaw. “Fine.” He tapped his spear on the floor, lighter this time. “I grant your boon, and my debt is cleared. Bring Loki. All of you will leave by sundown.”⚡️And that was that, apparently.Loki was brought up from the dungeons and he looked at her wonderingly as his guards led him past to Odin’s audience chamber. Their meeting was offensively short and he came out blank-faced and shut down, before being led to his rooms to pack the single trunk Odin was allowing him.Thor didn’t even get to see his dad again; the deadbeat refused to see him before they left and Darcy nearly shoved past the guards to chew him out. Wisely, Thor merely banded an arm around her middle and hauled her off down the hall.“Leave it be,” he told her, hand heavy on her shoulder and sorrow in his voice. “He has made his choice.”“And it’s a fucking shitty one!”“...Thank you, friend. But you have done enough.”Frigga saw all of them off, hugging each of her sons for long moments with tears in her eyes. Then she hugged Jane and finally, even Darcy.Against her ear, she whispered: “Thank you, Darcy Lewis. I owe you so much.”“Pssh, it’s fine, Frigga, don’t even worry about it.” She meant it too; she hadn’t done any of this for anyone to owe her anything. “Are you gonna be okay here alone? I mean… You could come too.”But the queen smiled, unconcerned by what she wasn’t saying. “I will be perfectly fine, dear. You are too kind. Call on me should you need anything.”“Will do.”⚡️The Bifrost dropped them back in London, right where it all started and Darcy looked around the balcony. The sun was all but set and it was raining of course; at least that should wash the blood away before Jane’s mom got back and asked awkward questions. Speaking of…“Hey, mister magic man. Can you help me get your blood out of the mattress?”Thor was just removing the magic-dampening cuffs from his brother (god, she knew they were a good idea but also fuck Odin with his own spear) and both of them looked up at her. Loki glanced at Thor, as if for help, then shrugged minutely.“If you want.”“I think you mean ‘if you want’. It’s where you and Thor are crashing til we head back to New Mexico.” Jane squawked out some protest but she wasn’t having it. “Nu-uh, no way are you and your boytoy hooking up every night while Loki and I duke it out over which of us is stuck sleeping on the couch. You and I are sharing, boss lady.”She may not have planned on housing two extra people for the foreseeable future but she was going to make it work, damn it.“...Yeah, alright, that’s fair.”With that settled, she moved to head to the spare bedroom, but Loki caught her sleeve carefully, stopping her. “There is no need for anyone to share. I can split the bedroom in two. Or…” He grimaced, releasing her sleeve. “If you feel safer further from me, I understand.”Oh. She probably should feel that way, huh? He’d done terrible things. She’d seen him brutally murder those elves, and she knew he’d done the same to more than a few humans. It’d be smart to be afraid of him.But...she...wasn’t? …Something was definitely wrong with her, but oh well. What else was new?“Actually, that’d be hella convenient, dude. Oh, but can you put it back when we leave? We’re kinda, uh, borrowing the place from Jane’s mom and she didn’t sign on for a remodel.”He nodded. “Of course.”“Great. C’mon.” She led the way to the spare room and instantly felt queasy seeing it again. That was...so much blood. And the smell seemed to bypass her nose entirely to hit her in the back of her throat til she nearly gagged on it. “Oh god…”“What is it…?”As soon as he saw the inside of the room, Loki stepped neatly around her with a slight push to her waist. He slashed a hand down and the stench dissipated instantly. Before she could express her relief, his fingers danced through the air, drawing all the blood out of the blankets and mattress. She watched with wide eyes as it evaporated into thin air, and then the bed split into two smaller versions of itself. With a few more hand movements, Loki had created two very small bedrooms with a thin, but solid wall between them.“It will be tight, but we shall each have our privacy,” he said when he’d finished. “And neither of us will have to listen to Thor’s snores.”She would’ve snickered at that but she was kind of still in awe over his clean-up job. “Wow… You just…” She made a gesture that was similar to his. “And then…! Holy crap, magic is awesome! Thanks!”A crease appeared between his eyebrows. “...You do not need to thank me. I should be thanking you. You resurrected my mother...Thor...myself, and you freed me from my imprisonment. I quite literally owe you my life.”Darcy just shook her head. “Is this a cultural thing? You don’t owe me anything. None of you do! I was just in the right place at the wrong time.”He fixed her with a dubious look. “Be that as it may… I would repay my debt to you. However I can make myself useful, whatever you may need, simply ask it of me, Darcy, and I will do it.”She pursed her mouth to the side, frowning. The whole ‘debt/repayment’ stuff was definitely a cultural thing so he was probably going to do...this...whether she agreed with it or not. What was a good compromise?“I’m not comfortable with carte blanche, dude, so how about this: you take me out to dinner sometime and we call it even?”Surprised, he repeated the word slowly, as if tasting it: “Dinner?”“...And dancing,” she decided. She’d seen him fight; he’d be a fantastic dancer, and she liked to boogie. “At a club. No fancy ballroom stuff, unless you teach me beforehand because I do not want to embarrass myself in front of a bunch of snobs.”A smile fought its way across his face. “Dinner and...dancing. That seems a small price to pay.”“Are you calling me a cheap date?”He actually laughed, rich and bright and swoon-worthy. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Dinner and dancing… You have a deal, Darcy Lewis. I look forward to it.”