Chapter 1
Having made it past the Minutemen who had tried to stop her, she journeyed down that labyrinthine corridor with purpose, needing no one's authorization but her own to let herself into the room.
"Wh— Seriously?" complained Mobius, for that was the second time he had been interrupted mid-interrogation, exhaling a disappointed sigh at the Minutemen that came trotting behind her after a very unsuccessful attempt to prevent her entrance.
"So—" announced the intruder resoundingly as she stepped inside, crossing her arms over her chest. "I see now why you were being so secretive about this particular variant."
"I beg your pardon?" asked an officially offended Loki after having heard her speaking of him not only like he were an object but also as if he weren't right in front of her to begin with.
"Do you mind? I'm working here!" complained the analyst as he rose to his feet, gesturing towards the subject sitting across the desk, who —still visibly outraged— was glancing between the two. "Why does everyone think they can just barge in here all of a sudden?"
"Oh, that's your defense," the woman scoffed while raising her eyebrows.
At first sight, there was nothing noticeably extraordinary about her, except perhaps the way in which she carried herself: From the moment she had walked into the room, she had been in clear command of it; her back was straight and her head confidently raised, though not forcibly so, exuding an air of genuine confidence. She was by no means unattractive, yet her looks were not necessarily astonishing… there was something about her, nevertheless, be that her energy or her aura or however one would call such a quality, something about her that must have been truly remarkable, thought the God of Mischief, since from the very moment he had laid eyes on her, he became incapable of looking away. Hardly the kind to leave his thirst for prying unquenched, he stared intently at the creature, until at last he had pinpointed what had captivated his curiosity.
"You're Asgardian," he ventured.
The subject in question glanced at him momentarily, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, but said nothing in response, instead posing her attention on the man in the suit once again. While coming to terms with the fact that there was no point trying to delay the inevitable, Mobius exhaled a sigh of surrender and gestured between the two demi-deities before him as a way to kick off introductions.
"Alright, well, you already know who that is," he said to the woman as he once again gestured towards Loki. "Loki, this is… Sigyn."
Once more, she glanced the Prince's way, only out of the corner of her eye and without turning her head towards him, which led him to believe she had acted on reflex and was in fact —he noticed now— very evidently trying to avoid looking his way altogether.
"Another one of your variants, I'll take it," guessed he, visibly pleased with himself for having recognized someone of his kind and admittedly pleased as well to recognize his mere presence was causing some sort of stirring effect in her; after all, she had inspired something similar in himself —not that he would ever admit it— and there were few things he detested more than one-sided sensations.
"More of an asset, actually," Sigyn corrected and the condescending tone of her voice and annoyed faint narrowing of her eyes as she addressed him made Loki's smirk ran away from his face, for he now realized she was not quite as affected by him as he would have liked her to be.
"And how is that any different?" asked Loki, trying to match her tone.
"Well, for one thing, they don't keep me on a leash," she said with a mocking smile, pointing towards the Time Collar strapped around his neck.
"Not a word," intervened Mobius immediately before the God of Mischief could think of a retort, pointing warningly at him. "And you," He now pointed at Sigyn with the same sense of menace. "stop instigating 'im."
Loki shot him a look of wounded bewilderment, as if the idea of him being so easily provoked were truly unbelievable when in reality he had been on the verge of promptly reacting to her teasing.
"Settle down, alright? Both of ya'," he commanded for good measure before he took a pause to pinch the bridge of his nose, for already, despite having only been together in the same room for mere instants, watching them interact was beginning to give him a headache. "Look, Sigyn, we're in the middle of something here, so could you just…?"
"Did you seriously believe you could keep this from me?" Sigyn demanded, cutting him off. "First, you lie to my face and then you go out of your way to keep something like this under wraps?"
Despite having been at a loss from the very second he had set foot upon that strange place, and even though he had already come across proof that everything he had once believed about the universe might just be based on a complete and utter lie, Loki watched that scene unravel, captivated and skeptical all at once, for that had been the most absorbing sight he had encountered yet.
"Right, your point being?" Mobius challenged her, seemingly approaching the boundaries of his patience.
"What gives you the right…?"
"What gives me the right?" the man punctuated her. "You'd be dust right now if I hadn't stepped in, that's what gives me the right, and the only reason no one's stepping in to prune you right now is 'cause I haven't given the order yet."
"Infuriating, isn't it?" Loki took the liberty of asking her in a hushed voice since the analyst had already used that fact against him just moments before her appearance.
"Don't talk to her," he warned him. "And you, don't look at him," he warned her. "Look, I didn't wanna say anything because I knew how you were gonna react—"
"Choose your next words very carefully," Sigyn threatened him, generously extending him the chance to change his mind had he been about to use terms such as 'emotional' or 'hysterical'.
"I don't mean to impose," interrupted Loki serenely, slightly leaning forward as if he was poking his head into the conversation.
"Then why are ya'?" wondered Mobius, now turning to him.
"I'd certainly appreciate some enlightenment on this whole situation," argued the variant. I
n spite of his request, Mobius responded only with an exasperated sigh. Sigyn, meanwhile, had at last gathered the courage to gaze at him longer than a few mere seconds at a time; when he gazed back, Loki wondered if the smugness with which she had addressed him earlier might have been but a mechanism of defense— he himself was far too familiar with such a practice, certainly enough so as to recognizing it in others.
"Do you really not know who I am?" she asked. Loki did not answer; instead, he glanced sideways at Mobius, the only person who had been able to answer any of the questions he had been posing since his arrival at the TVA and, therefore, the only person he could turn to in terms of who that perfect stranger was.
"As far as he's concerned, you don't exist," the analyst replied for him.
That answer had not sufficed, Loki soon realized, for Sigyn was still looking at him fixedly, appearing to be waiting for a proper response still. On second thought —or rather after having watched her a little more closely— what she seemed to exteriorize was not dissatisfaction but denial, as though she were refusing to give in and accept facts for what they were, yet another feeling to which he himself could relate.
"Sigyn…"
"What?" she snapped, glancing at Mobius at last.
The analyst shook his head, visibly regretting despite their little altercation being the bearer of bad news, or at least having a hard time announcing them out loud. Even though her eyes were no longer upon him, Loki could still distinguish in them the glimmer of forming tears and for a moment he could have sworn he had seen her bottom lip quiver for sorrow. A second later, however, the woman had swallowed her sentimentality with enviable easiness, once again adopting an apathetic demeanor.
"He really doesn't know who you are," Mobius insisted.
Perhaps he had been having a particularly strange and trying day, having undergone a number of awakening realizations and the revival of emotions he had until then believed were locked deep within his frozen heart for good; or perhaps in between all of that uncertainty and unfamiliarity, he couldn't help empathizing with a fellow Asgardian— whichever the reason might have been, Loki took himself by surprise upon feeling genuinely sorry for Sigyn, seeing —or projecting, since he was interpreting her expressions from the point of view of his own experience— that she was concealing heartache, and maybe, just maybe, even longing he could be of any consolation.
Sigyn left the room as swiftly as she had entered it. Mobius watched Loki watch her walking away, immediately clearing his throat as he looked down at the file open before him, wanting to draw his attention back to the case at hand as quickly as possible before he thought any further about what had just transpired.
"Is there anyone in this place you get along with?" teased the God of Mischief as he eyed the agent, for so far every time he had seen him interact with anyone else, the conversation always appeared to be argumentative in nature.
"You're one to talk," argued Moebius as he took a seat once again. "When's the last time anyone liked you?" He cleared his throat. "Anyway, where were we?"
Loki tried several times to pose questions about his latest acquaintance, encountering nothing but a negatory on Mobius' end. Once he had finally gotten around explaining everything about the variant the TVA was actively hunting, the reason why he had secured him as his mischief expert to being with, he sent him away, speaking not a word on any other topic.