In A Crowd of Thousands
The parade traveled on
With the sun in my eyes, you were gone.
But I knew, even then…
In a crowd of thousands,
I'd find you again.
"The Variant"
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Loki stared at the blank, beige wall in front of him, rapidly tapping his foot whilst rubbing the thumb of one hand into the palm of the other. He took a deep breath and clenched his jaw—then forcefully relaxed his jaw, shutting his eyes. He could hear Mobius inside, wheedling and cajoling his superior to allow him this chance to take "this" Loki into the field to catch the "variant."
Loki had caught on quickly to most of the jargon here in this maze of cubicles and corridors, but found the language sterile and unimaginative. He would have preferred the word "rogue" or "maverick" or something of that nature. "Variant" sounded like a sheep that had a slight blemish, or a line of tiles that wasn't quite straight.
He stopped tapping his foot, and glared downward. He hated these polished shoes. When he walked quickly on these slick floors, he felt as if he were an inch away from ice-skating into a wall. He missed his well-broken-in riding boots.
Who knew what the TVA had done to them. Or to his dwarf-make armor. Or to his silken cape that drifted along with his every move like a breath of wind…
They'd probably destroyed them, like they did everything else. Nothing was sacred.
Except that precious timeline.
He clenched his jaw again. Was he just supposed to sit here while Mobius convinced this woman—this woman who was doubtlessly prejudiced against Loki, for obvious reasons—with nothing but a strong hunch and the evidence gathered in one experiment?
Loki opened his eyes.
Maybe he could give him more than that.
He stood up, glanced warily at the closed door, then turned away from it and strode down the hallway, back toward the records department—and that absolutely charming librarian behind her tiny desk. As he wove through the halls, if any one of the TVA's uniformed subservients met his eye, he nodded quickly, then carried on with purpose. He had always found that if he walked with complete confidence, pretending to know exactly what he was doing, nobody asked questions.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat and summoned his most charming smile as he leaned an elbow on the librarian's little cloister. The narrow eyes behind the pointed spectacles didn't shift from her screen, and her wiry fingers worked methodically on the keyboard. Loki glanced down at the little bell, but didn't reach toward it.
"Pardon me," he said smoothly.
Still, she didn't move, nor act as if she had heard him.
He watched her. Was this a game she was playing? Or…could she genuinely not hear him unless he rang that thin little bell?
He glanced over his shoulder. Ordinarily, he would be delighted to simply stand there and test her patience, watching to see if her face turned red or her mouth tightened. But Mobius was in there bargaining for the very thing that could save Loki's life. He didn't have time to muck about.
Swiftly, he reached over and clanked the bell.
Slowly, the librarian lifted her eyes to his.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes, I'm looking for anything extra belonging to the Loki files," he said brightly.
"Extra?" she said slowly, nonplussed.
"Yes," he repeated patiently, broadening his smile. "Is there any more? Any…Well, are there any personal effects, any other letters?" He gestured vaguely. "Mobius is currently in a meeting—he wanted me to check again, just to be sure."
The librarian eyed him carefully.
"You've been assigned to catch the current Loki variant, haven't you?"
"Yes, I have," Loki lied smoothly. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. He had been looking into it, as had Mobius. And he hadn't really been given a choice in the matter—so he had technically been assigned to help. If that didn't exactly mean the same thing to her, well, he didn't care.
She watched him for a moment more, her unreadable eyes piercing him, then turned and opened a drawer to her left. She drew out a small brass key on a ring.
"Back wall, strong box number 237," she told him, holding the key out to him. "You may look, but you may not take any of the objects or papers from the vicinity. You have fifteen minutes, then you must bring this key back here."
"All right, thank you," Loki said quickly, frowning. What was this, now? A strong box? Why hadn't Mobius told him to look into it before?
Or, if Mobius knew about it, why was he keeping it from him?
Setting his teeth, Loki maneuvered around and between the towering shelves of books and files—none of which smelled musty or papery, or possessed any of the customary scent at all—and made his way toward the back of the room. He could glimpse it now: an entire wall covered in small, metal doors, each one marked with white numbers.
"Two-three-seven," he muttered, scanning the numbers. "Two-three-seven…"
He paced to the right, finding himself amongst the 100's and growing higher. Then he found the 200's, and slowed down. 230, 231, 232, 233…
"Two-three-seven." He stopped in front of a box that stood at eye-level to him.
And for a moment, he just stood there. A strange thrill of unease rippled through him. He always put up a nice front for Mobius and the TVA brawn who marched around this place…
But he secretly found it eerie and unpleasant to constantly be talking about himselfas if he weren't himself, but instead was split into hundreds, if not thousands, of different people who had no actual agency or free will.
What would he find here, behind this little locked door?
Well, whatever it was, he had less than fifteen minutes to find out.
He stepped up to it, pushed the key into the lock, twisted it, and pulled.
The metal door swung open easily. Light spilled into the small, square alcove.
Loki frowned sharply.
Then, that thrill of unease transformed into one of cold, sickening disbelief.
There, on the plain metal of the shelf, as if it had been unceremoniously tossed there, was a small, oval-shaped stone.
A small, violet stone that, even in this antiseptic light, glittered with an unfathomable depth, as if an entire galaxy had been captured, condensed, and locked within. Though neither he nor it moved, it twinkled of its own volition—secret and knowing and silent.
Loki sucked in a breath. It tore through him.
How…HOW…had this gotten here?
With a trembling hand, feeling disconnected from his body, he reached up, and gently plucked the stone out of the vault. It was cold, and didn't spark at his touch, as it always had before. Its magic had become paralyzed here, just as his own had. He held it in his palm, staring at it, numb and reeling. It was only after several moments of holding his breath that he realized that the stone had not been alone in its cell.
A long, brown envelope leaned against the side.
Loki stared at it sideways for a long time, his chest and teeth tightening, feeling as if it were a snake about to bite him. But at last, he couldn't bear it any longer. He reached out and snatched it.
The envelope wasn't sealed. He opened it instantly and pulled out a single piece of folded paper that had been stamped several times with official red seals. It was what he had learned to recognize as a "case file," but it only had one page. It seemed to be a report summary—all concise, surgical language.
THE FOSTER VARIANT: Case #509
Pertaining to: Loki Laufeyson-Odinson
-Deviated from Sacred Timeline May 6th, 2011 upon breaking of Asbru bridge
-This timeline remained hidden from TVA sensors until November 16th, 2013, due to a tesseract anomaly
-Key variant events of this timeline: 1. Marriage to Jane Foster 2. Invasion of Earth by the Skrull, led by Victor von Doom 3. Birth of Jotun/human/Aesir hybrid female named Aurora.
-Loki Laufeyson-Odinson's personal memory/shielding/communication stone of a violet coloring confiscated upon clearing of anomaly cloud on November 16th, 2013.
-Stone filed in TVA records office in strongbox 237
-Timeline then trimmed at the source and erased.
"What?" Loki's face twisted in confusion as he read and re-read the words, as if they had transformed into a language he couldn't understand. "What?"
Jane Foster? He knew that name.
She was that pretty little Midgardian woman Thor had become infatuated with several years ago during his banishment on Earth. Had Thor married her in this timeline?
Wait. If that were the case…
What was this Jotun/human/Aesir hybrid named Aurora?
An eerie, bewildering, icy sensation traveled all through Loki's body.
He was the Jotun, not Thor.
Which meant…
Loki stared at the final line of the report.
Timeline then trimmed at the source and erased.
He swallowed hard. He glanced over at the clock on the wall to his right. Mobius had mentioned that time worked differently here. He could have sworn he still had five minutes—but he was already down to one.
He had to take the key back to the librarian.
Setting his teeth, he folded the report, stuffed it back in the envelope and replaced it in the vault. Then, he shut it and locked the door. His head down, he marched back to the front desk, set the key on it and gave the stoic librarian another smile.
"Thank you. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything useful," he said lightly, and left the records department.
But the stone was still clenched in a death grip in his hand, inside his jacket pocket.
And if they found out, and wanted to take it from him, they would have to kill him.
To be continued…
Ehehe…I'm back for a bit, my friends. Having fun yet? I am. Let me know what you think…
Oh, and also, I've published a novel you'll love about Loki and Thor and all our favorites. It's called "Bauldr's Tears." Check it out!