Resurrection?
Bucky was quiet, then taking a deep breath: “I was chasing—” There was a shattering, as of glass breaking. Shouts were heard, and Steve, trailed by Bucky, strode to the scene.
“Sorry about that,” Loki apologized casually, “I was hiding from the wizard.”
“Sorcerer,” Strange corrected as he stepped through the portal he had conjured.
“Sorcerer, wizard, it's all the same you know?” Loki chuckled, “you mortals really do make such a big deal over the slightest of differences over the tiniest things.”
“No, there is a big difference between us and wizards, '' Strange began, but Loki interrupted, turning to Steve: “He’s a wizard, just without the hat.” Bucky, behind, chuckled as the comment brought him back to an amicable encounter.
“That’s not the point,” Strange again interjected, “the point is I need to send you back,” But even as he spoke and launched for Loki, the latter springed away nimbly just out of reach, barely escaping the sorcerer’s magic strands.
“Oops, looks like you missed again.”
“Wait,” Steve interved, halting Strange in his response, “what do you mean, send him back?”
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Strange answered, addressing Loki.
“So he just came back to life,” Clint pointed out.
“No, '' Strange raised his voice, “He’s supposed to be dead, for good.”
“You mean, like dead dead?” Sam Wilson, strolling into the room, inquired.
“Yes.”
“Oh,” Loki realized, suddenly becoming grave, “that already happened in this branch too?”
“What!” Strang exclaimed, exasperation and horror, ranging clear in his tone.
“I don’t have control over any of this,” Loki defended, “I swear on Odin’s beard!”
“Do what?” Sam could constrained himself no longer, “What are we talking about?”
“He comes from another universe,” Strange explained.
“Wow!” Sam’s awe was evident.
“Actually I’m just from a different timeline,” Loki explained.
“How are you doing this?” Strange’s tone was commanding, ringing with a threat if lied or unanswered to. Then realizing what Loki had just said: “ Wait, what did you say.”
“ I was just correcting your mistake. I’m actually from the same universe as you, just a different timeline,” Loki began, now quickening the pace of his words, “ you see when the Avengers went back to get the Infinity Stones and messed the job up, I kinda took the Tesseract and escaped to, Odin knows where and messed everything up and got caught by the TVA.”
“The what?” Everyone, Loki excepted, looked at Strange.
The sorcerer didn’t seem to notice, “What?” he merely echoed.
“Even the wizard doesn’t know,” Quill said just to elude the silence he knew would have ensude if he hadn’t.
Strange cast a glaring glance in the speaker’s direction.
Realizing what he’d done Loki realized it was time to stall and back out of the subject.
“ You know you all need to stop asking me so many questions, really talking is exhausting work, and as always I hate any work that doesn’t interest me and that exhausts me out for no purpose.”
He turned to leave, but as he did so he turned again and said, “ Oh by the way I hope that sword is safe, the guys you fought in Sokovia are after it.” He vanished suddenly.
Strange conjured a portal again back to Bleeker Street to see if he could again relocate Loki. His mind was too much occupied with the latter to even care about the god’s last words.
An expression of remembrance crossed Bucky’s face.
“I knew it!”