AN: Hey every body.
The story finished and most seemed really happy about the story and how it ended. How-ever there has been one big question the main story forgot to answer and lots of people has send me PM's and left comments all asking the same question. "Is Loki going to die?!"
So well... To answer that question for you. What is going to happen to everybodies favorite god cat. I wrote this extra bonus chapter and epilogue to assure you what direction Loki will go in moving forward. Hope you'll all enjoy :D
Stephen Strange groaned deeply. In just a blink from his own perspective, five years had gone by!
And yes, before Thanos did the snap, effectively erasing Stephen for five years, he had peered into millions of potential futures. However, he had only looked upon the major events in regards to Thanos and everyone's survival. He hadn't looked much beyond that point. He hadn't been thinking about what would happen after they won.
And Stephen definitely hadn't been thinking about Wong completely taking over his sanctuary. He had changed the rooms and redecorated across the entire house.
Annoyed, Stephen looked at a massive poster featuring Beyonce hung directly over his master bed!
This house had literally a thousand bedrooms, and Wong used to occupy one of the others. But no, apparently the old librarian had seen it fit to just move into Stephens room!
"Why?!" Stephen had asked frustrated.
Wong just looked at Stephen. "Because it's bigger." he simply stated.
Stephen hissed in annoyance as he tore down the Beyonce poster and moved along only to stumble into a new room that had been added, looking for all the world like a small private cinema with a stack of DVD's piled in the corner.
Stephen glared at the stack and walked over to look at the top DVD which read:
"Complete Bourne trilogy."
Stephen closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and turned around to face a middle aged Asian man who just stood there with his normal, permanentlt bland expression,
"Why do you even have this?" Stephen asked holding up the DVD box.
"Because I like watching it." Wong replied.
"Weren't you supposed to be all about being above material goods and so on?" Stephen asked, annoyed yet again.
"When have I ever said that?" Wong asked.
Stephen glared at him. "And where did you put my medical journals huh?" he asked. "They used to be in my study and now they are gone! Where are they?"
"One of the chests in the storage rooms, I think." Wong replied.
"You think?" Stephen asked. "Those are my journals! Some of the most highly ranked medical papers in the world. I have won awards for several of them!"
Wong shrugged. "They are a bit outdated, though, aren't they?"
Stephen glared at the man. "Watch it." he warned.
Just then a knock echoed down the hall and Stephen looked toward the front door, and frowned. Only for the knock to sound again.
"Someone is at the front door." Wong commented.
"Well yes, obviously!" Stephen exclaimed, trying to keep back his frustration. He was now convinced that Wong was just the worlds biggest troll!
They both bloody well knew that someone knocking at the front door was weird! The house was enchanted so ordinary people would never notice it. And the mystics wouldn't be knocking, they would just transport themselves inside the house via portal. The only ones who would use the front door would be Stephen and Wong themselves when they wanted to take walks in the city. No one would knock at the front door!
And then the knock sounded again.
"You should answer that." Wong suggested.
Stephen glared at Wong. "I'll go look. In the meantime get your crap out of my bedroom and find my journals!"
"I'm not your servant." Wong replied and Stephen hissed as he turned to go.
With just one step, the rooms warped around and he found himself several floors down in the entrance hall.
Stephen cleared his throat, fixed the collar of his shirt and hesitated, glaring at the door, only for another knock to sound.
Stephens eyes narrowed and he walked over to the peek hole to look through and saw… absolutely nothing except the street in front of the house.
Stephen frowned as he removed his eyes from the peek hole, and stepping back. After a brief moment of thought, he laid a hand on the handle and cracked open the door to get a look outside but saw nothing.
He should have been looking down, where a black cat easily managed to slip through the slightly opened door and around his legs.
Stephen kept looking outside, out into the front yard and down the street. Finally he opened the door fully and looked around to see nothing.
He groaned as he stepped back in closing the door.
Wong was just fucking with him wasn't he?
Stephen sighed deeply as he turned around and headed to the living room where he plumped down in a soft chair and rubbed his temples. He really didn't need this on top of everything else coming back from the dead entailed. He seriously needed some calming tea and materialzed a warm cup of tea on the table in front of him.
"Oh! Thank you!" A voice suddenly sounded, surprising him, and a slender hand snatched up his tea!
"HEY!" Stephen shouted as he looked up to see a tall slender man with pale skin, black hair and green clothes sitting opposite him, drinking his tea! Stephen practically leapt to his feet!
"You!" he pointed at the man, who clearly was none other than the God of Mischief himself. Loki. "What… What are you doing here?" he asked.
Loki glanced at him. "Rude." he commented. "I just came as a courtesy! To thank you!" he held up his hand showcasing a golden bracelet with green scales. "Thanks to you. I am able to maintain my Aesir form as well as most other forms for up to thirty hours! Isn't it just common courtesy to say thank you?" he asked.
Stephen looked at him. "A thank you card would have been plenty." he stated.
"You wound me." Loki sighed, crossing his legs as he took another sip of the tea.
Stephen groaned deeply as he sat down again, his head ache was only increasing. "You're not here just to say thank you. Don't bullshit me. Why are you really here?" he asked.
Loki glanced up, his green eyes looking at Strange.
"Looking for power? A way to extend your own life?" Strange asked.
"Examining possibilities." Loki stated. "There are a thousand ways I could extend my own life, I could list many off the top of my head. My big question now is which way invovles less risk."
"So you admit it." Stephen stated.
"Thor needs me." Loki replied. "A cat only lives ten or twenty years. That's nothing for an Aesir like Thor. I need to make sure that Thor keeps it together for the next thousand years at least so he can guide the Asgardians that rely on him."
"So… It's for Thor you say?" Stephen asked while lifting a questionable eyebrow.
Loki smirked. "It is also not in my nature to just lie down and admit defeat." he admitted. "However, the way I see it, we could benefit from each other. I don't ask you to help me for free. I have knowledge, lots of it. We could exchange."
"I don't know." Stephen commented with narrowed eyes. "What exactly is it you hope to find here you can't find anywhere else?" he asked.
"Your way of performing magic. It intrigues me." Loki said. "On Asgard, we perform what we call seidr crafting. Aesir and some other races of the Nine Realms have a power inside of them which we call Seidr. We draw on this power, within ourselves, to create magic. The type and strength of seidr is inherent. We are born with it, and we can learn to control it through teaching and much practice. Some elect not to learn at all and it usually becomes dormant. Others train extensively and generally become more powerful over time. But basically, when we create magic we are releasing this seidr into the world." he explained. "You however, do not do that. You open yourself up to the universe and use yourself as a conduit to pull on the energy already released into the world, and even power from other dimensions interlaying with this one. This means that inherent seidr is meaningless in your magic. It all comes down to practice… Of course, it also means that you have become dependent on different tools to perform specific spells. Still, I must admit I am impressed by the ingenuity." Loki commented looking at an object in the palm of his hand. A brass ring all the mystics wore which helped them open portals and creating their shields.
Stephen's eyes were drawn to the ring in Loki's hand. "Could you please put that down? That doesn't belong to you."
Loki pouted. "But you had a whole box of them just laying around! Can't you spare one?" he asked.
"No. Put it down." Stephen repeated and Loki sighed as he put the ring on the table.
"No need to be so rude. I helped saving the world didn't I?" Loki asked. "If it wasn't for me, things could have been so much worse."
"I realize that." Stephen replied. "And it's because of that I gave you that bracelet as a gift and allowed you to go home with your people. Surely that's enough."
Loki tilted his head as he looked at Stephen. "You should consider my offer." he said. "I could be a very valuable ally. To you and to earth."
Stephen closed his eyes as he sucked in a deep breath. "Mr Loki." he said as he finally looked up. "Yes, you did help safe the world, but you also attacked New York. How could I in good conscience hand you so much power?" he asked. "You're here because you can't rely on the way you used to perform magic. If we taught you our ways, you would become too dangerous. I can't do it in good conscious."
"Doctor Strang. I am going to figure this out one way or another." Loki said. "I am offering you the chance to work with me, instead of me becoming a constant nuisance sneaking inside and stealing your books. If you work with me, I will be in your debt. I will be your ally. If you honestly think you can stop me from learning, I'm sorry but you are a little foolish aren't you?" he asked as he opened his hand and revealed a second brass ring.
Wong stepped in looking at them two. "An annoying nuisance who keeps sneaking in where he isn't supposed to be and stealing books through portals. Now where have I heard that one before?" he asked.
Stephen glared at Wong. Then back at Loki. He was surprised though to see how honest Loki looked.
"Please." Loki asked. "I need to be able to help and protect Asgard. I need to be able to aid Thor! I can't do it the way I used to."
Stephen was silent, he glanced down at his hand which like always was covered in black gloves hiding scarred hands, fingers stiff and barely able to move on their own. He understood that sort of need, and the lengths a desperate man would go to overcome.
Then he looked back up at Loki and he groaned. "Fine."
Loki blinked, looking honestly surprised.
"I suppose it's better that I know exactly what you are doing instead of you sneaking around." Stephen sighed deeply. "And it may not hurt having you as an ally."
Then slowly, a smile spread on Loki's lips and he beamed. "You won't regret it!" he promised and stood up. "I'll just go to the library. Thank you!" and he turned around and walked only to vanish - probably towards the library.
"HEY!" Stephen shouted. "We need to agree on what books you are allowed to look at!" he shouted as he vanished to leaving Wong behind.
Wong knew better. Telling people there are books you can't read…. That never worked. Never ever.
Well, hopefully they would both remember to read the entire book and not just the summary like some people out there.
