Chapter 4
“That’s a lot of trees,” Thor remarked as the computer screens flashed with rapidly succeeding images of phenomena that resembled the tree structure of the imprint of energy where that time loom had once been. “How far is it along?”
Mobius hung back in his chair. “About eight percent.”
“It’s been running for….” Where were the clocks around here? Had it been a day or longer since they’d come back from telling Love what was going on? “A long time.”
“It is the multiverse we’re talking about, and only the part we mapped by now.” He pointed at the screen hanging from the middle of the ceiling. “You see those lines?”
It was just a solidly green screen. “No.”
“Exactly, there are so many branches we can’t get them on one screen anymore. Call it infinity.” Mobius stood and straightened his jacket. “Now I’m thinking about it, probably not worth waiting around for. Someone will give us a shout if something sticks.”
“But this computer is going to tell us where Loki is?”
Mobius smiled stiffly. “Maybe. Could be it’s just going to give us a vague hint. Most likely, it gets us nothing.”
“That doesn’t seem very efficient.”
“That’s science for you.”
“There has to be a better way.”
“Probably. You know one though?”
“I’m not a scientist.”
“Well, we got scientists here and they’re doing their best. I told you this would take a while. I can still just drop you off and tell you once we have something. It’ll just be a minute from your perspective.”
“Will it also just be a minute from Loki’s perspective?”
Mobius creased his brow. “Probably not, but who knows.”
“Not me. But if I can make it go faster, I’m staying here.”
“Can you, though? Make the computers run faster?”
“I can look at the scientists.”
“Intimidate them into working faster, you mean?”
“No, but your scientists aren’t getting anywhere. Show me where I can find other people.”
“Other people? We got the two leading experts in our basement. We had everyone with a smidge of knowledge here look at it. Do you think we’re hiding people in the broom closet?”
“This multiverse is very large, is it not?”
Mobius blinked. “In simple terms, yeah.”
“That means that in one of them, there is a scientist or mage that knows what we need to know.”
Mobius blinked again. “You might have a point there, but we can’t just kidnap people from the timeline.”
“But we can ask them questions.”
“Maybe.” Mobius nodded. “I’ll pull up some files, but we can’t go running amok across the multiverse.”
“What kind of harm would that cause?”
“Frankly, we don’t know. Sometimes we had to step in and nothing bad happened. But those were TVA’s people. What we do know is that if we bring something from one reality to another, one or both of those realities can become unstable. Victor could tell you all about it, but let’s not make him. He still has nightmares.”
“So I can’t go to other timelines without causing trouble?”
“Yeah, that’s what I just said.”
“Did the time travel to get the infinity stones cause any trouble?”
“Only for Loki,” Mobius said. “But no, that was inside your own timeline, so no problem there. You can do what you want in the timeline you lived in. Now, the future, that’s iffier. Let’s not do that, just to be on the safe side.”
“For fuck’s sake,” a certain voice echoed through the office. Sylvie had her arms folded, standing in the doorway, wearing a very Loki-like expression. “Go home.”
So, she hadn’t left after all. “Oh hi, good to see you too.”
Sylvie looked like she was choosing whether to stab him or turn him into a frog. “You’re wasting your time here.”
“Time well wasted then.” He threw her an unperturbed smile. “Apart from killing me, there’s nothing you can do to stop me. You want to come see some cool tree-shaped space phenomena? There are so many.”
Mobius subtly hid his mouth behind his hand. “I’ll see what I can find in the way of files.”
Sif further explored the office of time magic. It was oddly styled for a liar of wizards, sorcerers, and likewise. The walls were plastered with a weak and brittle material, pale-coloured, and utterly devoid of tapestries or murals. Instead of braziers and candles, the rooms were illuminated by buzzing, flickering rods of unnaturally bright light. But most striking was that in some rooms, the pale colors had made way for a particular shade of green with black and gold accents. The smell of chemical paint still hung fresh in the air in half of those rooms.
What manner of trickery was that lease-monger enacting now? After deceiving, backstabbing, and betraying near everyone he’d ever met in an attempt to stay on top, he’d suddenly decided to become a benevolent, self-sacrificing god? Of course. And it was pure coincidence that whatever he’d done, it had gained him a large following of sorcerers with mastery of time and space, who are willing to push their powers to unknown regions for his sake.
She’d considered suggesting to Thor that they’d leave it for the obvious trap it was and keep Loki harmless in that cosmic tree, but she already knew his response. In turn, she’d come up with the response “if he found his way into that tree, he can find his way out”. But that had led to the question, if he did, what would be the next step of his mysterious plot? Ideally, she’d uncover the whole of said plot. But for now, she contented herself with keeping her word and watch Thor’s back on this ill-advised journey through unknown, treacherous grounds. None of this she’d spoken aloud. Some things were better left unsaid.
A hellish ruckus had her divert her path and draw her blade. It sounded like combat, impacts, the clattering of metal, and grunting. As she approached, it became evident only one person was the source of the grunting and the rhythm did not match any manner of effective combat. Still, she kept her blade raised as she entered the circular room with walls filled with tiny windows.
The wrong Loki, Sylvie, was throwing and kicking the chairs and tables around the room for no apparent reason. Not a single piece of furniture remained upright. Sif took a step back and waited until the source of the madness revealed itself.
Sylvie turned her head and conjured a sword. “Well, come on then! Try me! I dare you!”
Frankly, Sif had not expected that. It was unlike Loki to invite a fight if he could weasel his way out of a situation instead. “If you insist.”
“Hey. Hey!” The time wizard Mobius stormed into the room, scarcely swerving around a table in his way. “Put those weapons away. Now!”
Thor followed behind and caught his foot on the leg of a chair, sending it skidding across the room. He gestured, in the manner they’d developed along the years, to Sif that there was no danger or enemy to be fought. She lowered her weapon but did not yet sheathe it.
The wizard stepped right in front of Sylvie, despite entering her sword’s reach. “Sylvie, what is this?”
“Get out!” Sylvie kicked another chair, right at Thor, who caught it and put it upright.
She was clearly still a danger, but not one Sif felt the need of confronting. She urged Thor to leave the room. He gestured back to give it a moment.
The wizard was brave enough to take hold of Sylvie’s shoulder. “Easy. Now, what’s wrong?”
Sylvie dispelled the sword and, by lack of standing furniture, kicked a wall. “Why do I keep ending up in stupid pie land?!”
“Well, maybe the universe is trying to tell you something.” Wizard Mobius put a table and two chairs upright and went to open one of the windows in the wall. Upon second look, there were indeed pies behind those windows. The wizard took two of them and set them down on the table before taking a seat. “Come on, sit down.”
“Fuck off with your stupid pies,” Sylvie snapped.
“That only means more for me,” the wizard said. “But somehow, I don’t think you’re angry at the pies. Come on, sit down.”
Miraculously, the alternative Loki did as told without some sort of display of defiance. “What do you want?”
“For one, not to have the furniture kicked around and having Casey run to me announcing the end of the world.”
“It’s just furniture. It’s replaceable.”
“That’s just Casey’s face you barely missed, which is a little harder to replace.” The wizard began eating his pie. “So, what’s the problem?”
Sylvie grimaced and pointed at Sif and Thor. “They need to go.”
Sif tilted her chin. “I doubt you have the authority to decide that.”
“Sylvie,” the wizard started. “I know-”
“No, I don’t want to see them.”
Man or woman, both versions of Loki were petulant brats with no care for the damage they did. At least this one had not invaded Midgard yet. Presumably. “The feeling is mutual, alas-.”
“Please, just.” The wizard turned to look at them. “I got this.”
Thor pushed Sif out of the room and around the first corner before glancing over his shoulder. “Is it me or did he get her to do what he said, by just saying it?”
“Well, yes. I think so?”
“If I didn’t think him a wizard before, I do now.”
Sylvie was stabbing at her slice of pie and angrily munching on the resulting debris. Mobius had no idea whether that was a good or a bad sign. At least the furniture didn’t suffer any further damage. True enough, no one knew where the furniture came from. It was always just there. If they needed something, it was just magically in storage. No one wanted to risk questioning it.
“I don’t need you to babysit me.”
“Tell that to the furniture and Casey’s close brush with considerable injury.”
“It was just a chair.”
“Look, we can keep talking in furniture and pie metaphors all day if that’s what you want, but I’d rather get to what’s actually bothering you.” There was no imagining the kind of grief she’d been reminded of. He should’ve realized that before innocent furniture had gotten into the crossfire. “Is it that you don’t want him here or that you don’t want to see him?”
“Both.”
“I said ‘him’, not them.” Mobius looked her in the eye. ‘This isn’t about what we’re trying to do, is it?”
“Yes, it is. It’s stupid. You have to stop.”
“But that’s not what had you assault a cafeteria,” Mobius stated. “Sylvie, I’m not going to send him away, but I can try to make sure you don’t have to be in the same room as him.”
“What for?”
“I think you know, even if flipping tables is easier than admitting it.”
“Furniture is replaceable.” She kicked the table leg for good measure. “People are not.”
“I know, but it’s got to bring back memories.”
“I do not know that man.”
“You know better than me, but does that kind of grief ever really go away?”
She rammed the fork into the remnants of lemon pie. “Wait long enough and you’ll know. You’re not going to succeed. You will never see him again. Gone. Might as well be erased from existence.”
“I’m only trying to help. No need to go in swinging.”
“When did your attempts at help become so misguided?” She got off her chair and walked away.
New York, 2012. Timeline 616. Ex.Dev.01(LegV80.) Composite 12B.(Imm.Stable.Dis)
This guy sure loved to hear himself talk. Even if it wasn’t a ruse to snatch the emergency bracelets, he needed that drink just to sit through this demigod’s yapping.
Loki stopped right at the beginning of a sentence and frowned at the ground, pointing his scepter in the same direction. “What kind of trick is this?”
“Something wrong with the floor? Loose tile? We just put them in.”
Loki rammed the scepter into the floor. When he brought it back up, there was a red snake with bioluminescent white lines squirming at the tip. “Oh, Thor. Nice try.”
Tony looked at the floor. He was pretty sure that hadn’t been there a second ago. “Where did you pull that from?”
“Whom of you unproficient mortals masters the art of invisibility? I know for a fact Thor does not.”
“I don’t know. We don’t usually do invisible snakes.” No, seriously. Who put them there? Tony would thank them for it, but who was it? Also, that was assuming Loki was the intended target and not himself, since ya know, this was his house. Also, how did being unproficient and mastering something go together?
Loki lifted the snake and crushed its skull between his fingers. “Who would’ve known he could be this sly? This snake’s venom, it’s harmless to every single being on this planet, except me. The cure for which can only be found on Asgard. But he must not have realised that a single bite cannot.” He scrunched up his face and slammed his scepter into the floor, conjuring up a green floor-cloud. A dozen more snakes fluttered into existence, all having their reptile faces aimed at Loki. Loki’s eyes had a mad -more so than before- glint to them as he viewed them closing in on him. “As you wish, Thor.”
Tony didn’t go on the word of a madman and climbed the counter just to be on the safe side. He could only hope there weren’t any invisible snakes there. However convenient under the current circumstances, he did not appreciate his new tower being made into a mystical surprise herpetarium with light effects.
Something as fast as lightning blew the snakes into powder. But not lightning. That would mean it was Thor, and that would make sense. At the end of the day, a brother stayed a brother and you’d rather had those locked up than killed by a snake. That was assuming Loki was jumping the gun with naming the culprit and Thor was not an evil genius disguised as a godly version of a Shakespearian golden retriever.
But instead, Tony glimpsed some guy lurking in a dark corner. “Hey, you! What’s the deal?”
The person seemed to… materialize further. Also, that corner wasn’t supposed to be dark. Dark corners were not his style, so he had none of those around his tower. Impeccable lightning.
The face was hidden by an obsidian mask. The rest was wrapped in blankets, hobo-chic style. He was wearing a glove on the right hand, but must’ve lost the one for the left hand. That left hand was the only indication it was a human being in there. But when they spoke, the soft and low whisper of a voice boomed with echoes and static, arguing against it being a human. “This one came prepared.”
Loki jabbed his stick in the masked guy’s direction. “Identify yourself.”
The masked guy lifted his left hand and motioned as if to snap his fingers. He froze when -yeah, really- an orange doorway popped up in the middle of the room. A woman in leather armor jumped out, brandishing a machete.
“Kang! Where are you!” Her gaze eventually locked onto the masked guy and her jaw dropped. “You? How?”
The masked guy lowered his left hand to fidget with the right. “Go.”
The woman lowered her machete. “I don’t understand.”
“Go.”
“No, get into that portal.” She angrily pointed at said portal. “Now!”
The masked guy did what she asked without uttering another, booming, echoing word. The woman followed and the portal closed.
Loki squinted at where the portal had been. “Did you just see that too?”
Before Tony could decide to answer, the portal returned. The woman stepped out, looked around, and stomped her foot. “Asshole!” She stormed back into the portal, which promptly disappeared. Again.
Tony nodded. “I sure did. What was that about?”
“No idea. Now, where were we?” Loki proceeded to poke him with the mind control glowstick, but seemed to be running into some performance issues. Did he seriously not notice the metal structure under his shirt where there should’ve been skin instead?