Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There are also references to canon child abuse and human rights violations along with onscreen violence & character death (unnamed TVA agents). Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: I really thought that I wasn't going to finish this in time for July. In fact, I have only managed it because the forum's July doesn't end for another few hours.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 15); MC4A (Year 4)
Individual Challenges: Best Stories (Y); La Vie Boheme; Fix-It Felix; My Favorite Things; No School MC; Magical MC (x3); Marvelous HP; Criminal MC; LEO MC; Neurodivergent; Rowl in Her Grave; Rian-Russo Inversion (x2); Ethnic & Present (x2); Tiny Terror; Shifter MC; Extraterrestrial MC (x2); Claimed; Hold the Mayo; Gender Bender; Go Fluff Yourself; Colors Galore; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (x2); Marvelous Cinema; Short Jog; Bucket Listing; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 15 – Assignment 02
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [102](Jumping/Surprising someone w/ an attack); 365 Prompts [255](Orange); Scavenger Hunt [46](Gift Fic for a Gryffindor)[Elizabeth]
Other MC4A Challenges: SuB [4D](Orange); AU [1E](Different Family); Chim [Xylit](Protection; Gender Bend); Garden [Chores (Hugging); Flowers (Tangerine); Tools (Ceramic Mug); Companions (Rock/Mineral); Behind Green Eyes (Dagger/Knife); Behind Green Eyes (Rock/Stone); Behind Green Eyes (Magic is Used); Personal Favs (Loki); Fire [x3](Pineapple Fish; Shields Deployed; Backwards Clock); TWT (NB Loki & Trans Sylvie; Trio Era)[Task#4](Yellow)
Representation(s): Genderfluid Loki; Desi & Autistic Fem Harry Potter; Trans Sylvie (shapeshifted); Escaping Fascist Regime
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Bast's Blessing; Creature Feature; No Touchy; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Car in a Tutu); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Eternal Boredom; Larger than Life; Unicorn); Demo 1 (Muck & Slime; Most Human Bean; Bad Beans; Queen Bee; Where Angels Fear; Under the Bridge; Easy Zephyr); Demo 2 (Head of Perseus; Abandoned Ship; Seven Gates; Messing with Morlocks; Call Me Dantes; Sitting Hummingbird; Soul-Like; Hot Stuff; Land of Enchantment; Misshapen Pods)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terrarium); SN (Rail; Intercept); FR (Satisfaction; Gestation); O3 (Orator; Oust); War (Monomania; Orator; Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY (Ntaiv; Kulonbozo; Enfant)
Word Count: 1945 words
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Thief
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Loki caught flashes of things as he tessered away from Stark's tower. It was eerily similar to falling through the Void to the Darkness where he had been captured. Thankfully, it only lasted a few moments before he was plummeting through distinctively Midgardian air again. The soft sand did little to soften his landing, especially with the amount of junk that had been pulled out of the Void in his wake.
He groaned quietly as he picked himself out of the sand. Spotting a small audience that came close to investigate his arrival, he immediately pulled himself up to his feet and ran over to a nearby boulder that jutted out of the sand. Channeling all of the showy arrogance necessary to compete (even a little) with the likes of Thor and Odin, Loki spread his arms wide and made sure his posture was painfully straight.
"I am Loki of Asgard," he declared, using English out of the habit of the last few days instead of relying on the passive magic of Allspeak. "And I am burdened with glorious purpose."
The group of locals just looked at him like he wasn't making any sense. One of them muttered something that he only understand because the Allspeak automatically activated from its usual passive state. He dropped his arms, already exhausted at the thought of relying so heavily on his magic for the next however long it took to pick up any kind of fluency in the language. Before he could even begin to feel sorry for himself, however, strange door-like portal of tangerine orange energy opened near the fallen Tesseract. Seeing several people in black and orange body armor march through and begin circling the enclosed Infinity Stone, Loki hurried over before the idiots decided to try picking it up and accidentally disintegrated themselves.
"Don't touch that," he commanded, pulling on his centuries of marshaling troops and commanding servants to steel his tone so it didn't betray his exhaustion. The three agents just looked at him as if confused about why he was there. Thankfully, they did stop looking as if they were going to touch the glowing cube.
Unfortunately, another portal opened at that exact moment. The single agent stepping through looked more interested in the device in her hand hand than her immediate surroundings. She looked as if she had some rank on her, and given the way that the first batch of agents looked to her for guidance, she quite possibly used it well. The orange letters on her uniform declared that she was B-15, instead using her actual name.
"Branch is growing at a stable rate and slope," she said, not really looking up to the others. She did make a sharp gesture that made the Allspeak whisper in the back of his mind about get on with it. The agents hesitated a moment before they started to move. The device in her hand beeped before it spoke.
"Variant identified," it declared tinny and still flat. For the first time, this B-15 looked up. Her dark brown eyes glinted in the desert sun. She tucked away the device quickly, with the ease of someone who did so often. He made note of which pocket it went into, already planning on nicking it at the first opportunity.
"I beg your pardon," Loki interrupted, prepared to demand answers like his mother would have if she had the palace guards doing something which overstep their purview. B-15 changed her stance in the same way that those same guards would have in response.
"On behalf of the Time Variance Authority," she began. Loki barely managed to keep from reflexively rolling his eyes. Escaping arrest was something he excelled at, but this wouldn't be the first time that he played along to satisfy his growing curiosity. "I hereby arrest you for crimes against the Sacred Timeline."
Well, they had had his attention before, but now they've had his focus. Calling something sacred screamed of religious overtones at the very least. As a Trickster, it was his nature to make people question their beliefs in general. This whole situation stank of a cult, which was all the more reason to sow chaos and let the universe reap the benefits.
After all, that more than anything was his glorious purpose.
So Loki allowed himself to be arrested and manhandled. He put up a token resistance, of course. The collar the woman placed on him was concerning, especially with the lack of other restraints. But it was still relatively simple to slip the control device out of the woman's pocket under the cover of a small illusion. She didn't even notice the flare of magic.
The hallway beyond the door was just as orange as it had been. Honestly, the decor looked as if a variety of tangerines and oranges had been massacred for it. The next room was not much better. There were benches lining the curved walls that matched the bowl-like desk in the center. The man in the center of the desk was sipping from an orange mug while chatting with yet another agent in body armor.
The agent gestured in frustration towards something behind him, drawing Loki's attention to the small form hunched on itself as if trying to make a smaller target. B-15 dropped the Tesseract on the rim of the bowl-desk and patiently waited her turn to address the clerk. Another agent yanked yet another person through a different door. That person was complaining loudly about privatizing the agent's job in order to fire him. The additional raised voice made the small form curl even tighter around itself.
The shouter broke free from his arresting agent and swung angrily on him. He missed by an embarrassing amount (honestly a good thing, since he would have broken at least one finger had he connected) but used the momentum to shove past the agent. Said agent sighed heavily before using a clicker very similar to the one that Loki had lifted to teleport the man back into the room. Undeterred the man took the second chance to try to punch the agent.
The agent twisted his staff to turn the glowing section orange before tapping the man in the middle of his chest.
The man dissolved into a shower of orange and yellow sparks.
There was a brief lull in the argument happening at the desk, but no one objected. Loki turned his gaze towards the small hunched figure, who was now staring at the space where there used to be a person. Only then did he realize that it was a child sitting there. She had inky curls, sienna skin, and the greenest eyes he had ever seen outside of his own.
Her hand still shook slightly as she gently rubbed over a lump in the purple sweater she had on under a thin navy blue windbreaker. Water dripped from her curls to the floor like the tears she showed no sign of releasing. As if in slow motion, she turned to look at Loki. A darkening bruise surrounded a small nick on her cheek.
Her expression was not frightened as he had expected. Nor was it begging. He still recognized it too well. He had seen that expression on so many of the others who had suffered beside him in the Dark Order's dungeons. He had seen it on his own face when he had broke under the torture and felt the Other's power wrap around his mind like a choke chain.
The child was resigned to death.
That was unacceptable.
Loki slipped his stolen clicker from the pocket he had hidden it in. The tiny knob in the center twisted just a bit as he pressed it down. He reoriented himself to suddenly being three feet closer to the door than the desk. B-15 was turning and reaching for where she had placed the clicker before Loki had lifted it from her. He watched her confusion shift toward understanding as he shifted the bit on the side and his collar loosened completely.
He ripped it from his throat as if it had personally offended him. Instead of throwing it to the ground like he wanted to when she had put it on him, he snapped it around her neck and moved the locking mechanism back into place. B-15's face morphed into a battle snarl before another twist of the knob made her teleport back to the hallway.
His magic refused to answer when he went to slam the door shut on her face.
No matter.
Another gesture had a pair of daggers springing into his hands. He had others hidden in small dimensional pockets but accessing them required magic. These were just in sheathes hidden under his bracers. Centuries of fighting at Thor's side had taught him to always be prepared. He was already spinning into motion, as merciless as he had been accused of being.
These agents apparently had no qualms about killing their captives in the name of their little cult. No matter how they dressed it as a legitimate agency, at the end of the day, that was what it was, too. There would be no true trial with potential for forgiveness or rehabilitation. At best, what waited for anyone who cooperated was a kangaroo court with the verdict already decided. The outcome had clearly already been decided, and the punishment which awaited was oblivion.
And they had arrested a child for crimes against their precious doctrine. They had kidnapped her from her home, with even less benevolent motives than when Odin had stolen him. They had already hurt her, even though she was so much smaller than any of them.
He would make them pay for every mark they had placed on her.
B-15 crumpled under a sharp blow from the pommel of one dagger. The next agent took a full blade to his heart before he could even draw his staff let alone power it up. A sharp flick of his hand had one of the daggers in the far agent's throat. Loki turned his gaze towards the clerk who was trapped by his desk and had his hands raised on either side of his head.
"Don't even think of sounding the alarm until after we've left," Loki threatened. The man nodded his head frantically in agreement. Keeping an eye on him, Loki crouched beside B-15 and relieved her of the device she had out when she had arrived in the desert.
With it in hand, he rose again. It appeared to be rather straight forward to use. Loki had another orange door glowing beside him within moments. If he hadn't misunderstood entirely, it should led them back to Earth roughly where he had been.
Only then did he turn towards the little girl who still had not moved. She was just watching him with wide green eyes. The lump in her sweater had shifted enough that a fuzzy gray and white head was poking out of the neckline. The cat's eyes were a startling shade of blue that reminded him of his mother.
Loki gestured for the girl to come to him, and she nearly tripped over herself to do so. Once she was close enough, he picked her up. She was lighter than he was expecting, even for a human child. Careful to not squish her passenger between them, Loki cradled the girl against his chest. She was stiff for a moment before wrapping her thin arms around his neck in a desperate hug.
He left the Tesseract on the desk as he carried the child through the open portal.
Some things were infinitely more important.
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To Be Continued
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