You spent what felt like days in a fevered haze. Even Loki's ice skills from his frost giant heritage couldn't ease it. The powers you'd been infected with weren't yours and weren't meant for you to use. Your magic was flaring uncontrollably as your body fought against the invasion of the foreign magic.

"Darling, please wake up," Loki begged some indescribable amount of time later.

You managed to get your eyes to open and look at him. He was so worried and you saw the fear etched in his eyes.

"Are you hurt?" you asked him, your voice a hoarse croak. Your first response to that amount of worry and pain was that someone was injured. You were a healer before anyone else.

Loki managed a weak smile. "No, nor have I been the last five times you have woken and demanded that of me. You must wake up, this time, though," he urged you gently. You worked to sit up. It took so much effort and you fought the power spike again, as well as the wave of nausea that came with it. "Are you awake?" he asked. You nodded. "The servants have been talking. Your powers are so far out of control that Balder wants to bind them. If he manages that, we will never get out of here. I'm sorry, darling, but we are out of time. If you have any plans in that wonderful mind of yours, now is the time for them."

"I have one. It is a stupid-ass plan, though," you told him, finally focusing on the trouble you were in. It was hard with your brain fuzzy and the world spinny and nauseous.

"I think we will have to take the stupid-ass plan. We are out of time," Loki said apologetically, though he stumbled over the word 'stupid-ass'.

You nodded and stood. "I mentioned this is a stupid-ass plan, right?" you asked him as he got to his feet and joined you, moving to hold you steady. He nodded, looking even more worried. "Good, because this is really dumb. Don't yell at me for it either. Or tell your Mother,"

"If it works, I will not yell," he promised while you dug under the mattress for the knife you had stolen from dinner the other night. You'd had a feeling it was going to come down to this. "Kat-"

"No yelling," you reminded him firmly.

"Can't I help?" He asked desperately.

"You will. I am stealing every ounce of power you can get for this," you told him. You held the knife firmly, noting that it wasn't one of your daggers, which were better suited for this stupidity. It took more effort to make the deep slice across your arm than you would have liked. You hissed in pain and spoke the word of power that flared the power from the soulbond as you called all of your anger and fear to the front, purposely flaring the powers Balder had shoved into you. With all of that power and blood to make it stronger, you sped through the recitation of the portal spell and forced it open through all of Balder's shielding. You were amazed when it actually sprang to life. It shouldn't have. You shouldn't have had enough power, not on your own. Or you would've done that sooner. "C'mon," you grabbed Loki and shoved him through the portal before you went through.

You were in the throne room in Asgard an instant later, the portal slamming shut behind me.

The world was black around you. You had drained way too much magic way too quickly with that stunt. Your blood was running freely down your arm to the floor. You caught the dazed Loki and somehow lowered him carefully to the ground. He was ok, but you had drained his power too to get him home.

You managed to stand again and somehow looked up at Frigga's throne and announced: "Lady Mother, I have completed your mission and returned your son home safely."

With that done, you dropped like a stone into unconsciousness.

*

There was light shining in your eyes when you next came around. You groggily forced your eyes open, fighting through the haze of healing spells to manage to do even that. "My children were getting quite worried you would never wake," Frigga's voice said gently from next to your bed.

You looked over at her and sat up slowly. "Is Loki ok?" you demanded, more worried about him than yourself.

She gave you a small smile. "Healers are all the same," she said gently. "Yes, he is just fine. He is doing much better than you are. You completed your task and brought him home safely. He recovered a few days ago. I am sure he will be beating down the door shortly to come see you." You sighed in relief at her words. You had worked so hard to get him home safely. "He also was very vague about telling me what happened and all of my children seemed to have conveniently forgotten certain pieces of the story. Would you care to enlighten me on what happened?" Her tone left no room for arguing, even though she was so perfectly polite about it.

You sighed hating being cornered into giving answers that would get you in even more trouble "How much trouble am I facing?" you asked her before you'd being.

She just laughed, an uncontrolled laughter you'd never heard from her. She was usually so formal and polite. "You are indeed Loki's soulbond if that is your question when cornered. I have heard that question from him so many times while he was growing up that I lost count years ago. I will tell you the same thing I have told him all of these years: I cannot guarantee that your actions will have no consequences, but I can guarantee you that if you tell me the truth, I will do everything in my power to make sure the consequences are as light as possible,"

You sighed again, but told her everything that had happened from the moment you were attacked in the school cafeteria all that time ago. You didn't lie to her and didn't skip the blood magic you had used or the less than honorable ways you had fought, or the massively stupid things you had done to get both of you away from Balder. "Please don't punish any of the others. All of the decisions were mine," you finally finished.

"None of you will be punished," Frigga finally said. "While your methods were not the best, you did not break any rules, since you did only use your blood, or ask for permission first. I will send some additional books on blood magic and all of the rules and regulations that go along with it to your suite. I do not approve of its use, but at the same time, I accept that there is no such thing as fair when it comes to protecting your life or the life of someone in your care,"

You saw from the horror in her eyes that she knew you shouldn't have had the power to get you and Loki out of there, even with blood magic involved.

You sighed in relief. "Thank you, Lady Mother," you replied formally.

"Thank you for bringing your son home safely. I know what it cost you," she indicated your bandaged left arm that you had sliced open. Your right had soulbond marks from both Loki and Balder. The marks from Balder were red and angry and looked like blood.

"Mother, you cannot hide your soulbond from me," Loki's voice was outside the door, only barely not banging it down.

"I was not hiding her. She has been here for days already," Frigga called back lightly. "You may enter, though," she added kindly. The door opened and instantly Loki was at your side, holding you tightly.

"I was so worried about you," he whispered into your hair.

"I was worried about you too," you told him, wrapping your arms around him. "I thought I'd lost you," you whispered. You had been terrified when he broke the soulbond and every moment since. "If you ever break the soulbond again, I will kill you myself," you told him with tears in your eyes. You both knew you didn't mean it.

"I will not, darling. I promise,"