Warning: much fluff and feels
Since I couldn't move much on my own, Frigga and Eir helped remove the nightgown from the top portion of my body so Eir could evaluate my breathing. Loki had reentered the room but was facing the door with his back to us.
"Breathing is good but the heart rate is a little fast. We need to get some food in her."
"I'll go get some."
"No, Loki. I'll go. Come and be with her." Frigga whispered something to Loki on her way out but I was too busy watching Eir as she searched through the bag she had brought with her for something. Loki came to my side and took my hand but kept his eyes straight ahead, refusing to look at me even though Eir had made sure my chest was still covered.
"Is she strong enough for a freezing spell?"
"You mean one that will keep her muscles from degenerating? I'm looking for something that will make her so. Unless, by some miracle, her condition improves substantially, I don't want her on her feet and walking around for at least three days. She's going to need someone to help her. Even when she begins walking again, she must not be allowed to strain herself. I don't want her going into battle for two months and training for one. At the very, very least."
"But then I may never fly again!"
"Which is why I'm going to give you an injection that will strengthen your heart enough to withstand what Loki wishes to do to you."
"And why would that be?"
"I'm going to do the same thing I did for myself when I went into isolation. It will keep you in the same state you are in now, even if you do not train."
"How is that possible?"
"Magic."
"Ah! One more thing. No magic for at least three months and always when wearing the opal. Never, ever use magic without it, your body is already showing very faint signs of addiction to it and they are much like the night flower, once you taste it, the addiction will never go away. There is no spell or medical cure. You're just going to have to wear that necklace at all times. Here it is. Loki, you're going to have to place the spell while I'm doing the injection. That's when the serum will be the strongest." She had a syringe in her hand. Massive, irrational fear radiated from my heart. I had not seen one of those since.....Stucker.
"Eir. That's not a good idea."
"It must be done, Loki. Otherwise she will likely never fly again."
"Is there any way you can numb the pain."
"No there is not Loki, and you know this. Why are you being so protective of her all of a sudden?" He did not reply and she sighed.
"This has to be done." She got out an antiseptic cloth and my heart rat began to pick up.
"Wait!"
"I'm sorry Mira."
"Do it in my other arm! I'm left handed!" My voice was high and shrill, not to mention shaky. I sounded like I was having a nervous breakdown. (me every time I go to the doctor)
"Alright." She and Loki teleported simultaneously and before I knew it, my arm had been swabbed and Loki was leaning over me, his left arm holding my right one at the elbow and his right around my back gripping my shoulder, holding me completely and utterly immobile.
"I'm here for you." I barely heard him. I was already flashing back to the SHIELD lab. The injections had been twice a day, with my meals. The most painful ones were the ones that stimulated my growth.
"Ready, Loki? In three, two, one." He pressed his forehead against mine and began speaking in another language and at the same time, Eir pressed the needle into my skin. Flaming hot pain seared through my veins and I squeezed my eyes shut and whimpered in agony. I felt like I was back in Strucker's lab all over again. In reality, the injection only lasted a few seconds but it felt like years had gone by by the time Eir finally pulled back. The pain didn't stop though, it continued to spread through my entire body, from the roots of my hair to the tips of my wings, to my toes.
"I will return at midday to check on her. In the meantime, help her bathe and make sure she uses that arm plenty. We need to make sure the serum is as uniformly spread around her body as possible." I barely heard her except for the last part, which reignited the fear in my heart. Moving my arm after a shot was just as painful as getting it! I began to cry softly. How could I have been so stupid?! Why hadn't I gone to Frigga? Why did I have to be so stubborn? Now I would be in pain and humiliation for at least a month! What would Odin think of me then?
"Shhh, Kitten." Loki rocked my back and forth. "It's over now. Get some sleep, I will wake you when the sun rises. Odin will want to know what has transpired."
"No! Don't leave me!"
"Mira–"
"Please! I need you here. Send a clone to talk to Odin."
"He will see it as an insult."
"So what?! He will understand!"
"Mira....." He looked at me, more accurately, at the tears streaming down my face and pooling in my eyes. "Alright." I saw a transparent version of him walk straight through the closed door.
Loki's POV
I hated having to fool Mira like this. What she had failed to notice was that the clone I had left with her was in constant contact with her opal, making him tangible as well as somewhat free-minded without me having to be nearby. In her current state, it would take her some time to notice the trick. When I got to Mother's and Odin's bedroom door, I pressed an ear to it to make sure I wasn't going to interrupt an important conversation but stopped when I heard Mira's name.
"She's very weak, Odin. She should not yet be awake. Something I did not inform Loki of is that whenever someone goes into a coma from failing a powerful spell, if they don't burn out right there, is that they never awaken. A sorcerer more powerful than those who know what actually happened replaces their memory, making them think that a freak accident occurred or something else happened in order to make them think that they're dead. Even now, there is a secret chamber in the deepest part of the Asgard where over a dozen Asgardians frozen in time sleep. Some have been there longer than my mentor's mentor can remember."
"Then why did you not wipe Loki's memory?"
"And turn him back into darkness? No. I had to hope, that with the aid of the opal he gave her as well as her imbalanced genetics, that she would one day awaken."
"But you had no solid evidence that it would happen."
"No." Mother admitted, "I did not. I could only hope. I pulled several favors from old, and in your opinion shady, friends and finally got my hands on a potion that would help her. It is the equivalent of smelling salts for the brain. I snuck into her room every night while she and Loki slept and injected it into a vein in her neck, that way it would flow straight to her brain."
"Will there be any side effects?"
"No, this friend has tested the formula before and it woke the victim. Nothing good or bad happened to them because of it afterwards."
"How long ago was this?"
"Several centuries."
"And they are still alive now?"
"No, the average lifespan of their particular species does not live more than one thousand years."
"Do you intend to tell Loki?"
"Perhaps, if he starts to take her for granted." I decided it was time to make myself known.
"I would never do that."
"Loki!" To my surprise, Frigga did not look startled by my sudden appearance. Then it came to me. She had intended for me to hear that.
"I assume you would like an update on Mira's status?" They nodded.
"She's weak. She's so weak."
"We're you expecting something different, Loki?"
"No, of course not but her recovery is going to take a few months and she's going to be in a lot of pain for the next few days."
"Why?"
"Eir had to give her a strengthening injection so I could place an enchantment on her."
"Ah."
"Yes. Where is Thor? Have you heard anything from him?"
"Vanaheim in at a very tensioned peace that he believes will not last the week but the Alfheim royals are demanding his aid to quench a revolution."
"So you do not know when he will return."
"No. He estimates that the situation on Alfheim will take several weeks to sort out and then he thinks he shall have to return to Vanaheim once more. Now return to Mira, she must be getting anxious." I didn't dare to tell my mother that I had left a clone with her.
"I will. Goodnight, mother. Odin." He looked slightly hurt that I had called Frigga 'mother' but him 'Odin' instead of father but he must earn the right to have me call him father again. I could not forgive the one thousand and forty-eight years I had lived believing that I was Thor's equal when he saw me and treated me as inferior. Not to mention him not trusting me with the identity of my own parents! Well, my father. I doubted he knew who my mother was. If my height and hair were anything to go by, she had been human. Mortal. Or perhaps she had been one of the immortal light elves of Alfheim. I would never know.
When I reentered my room, I found my clone sitting inanimately on the side of my bed and Mira's eyes closed. It was all for the best she hadn't been awake to see me open the door. I ended the clone, stripped down to my underclothes, and curled up into Mira, just as I had for the past almost-week. I could only hope that when I woke, she would as well.