Competition/Challenge Block
Written for/Stacked with:
Monthly Challenges for All (Year 4); Whumptober 2021

MC4A: Fireworks (Spleen to Me; Bang Bang; Kaunaz); Hangman (I); Hunt (Pantry); Garden (Chores (Hugging); Such a Kidder (Family); Whump Fest B (Bandage); Fall Bingo (1C - Cobweb)

Other Challenges: Whumptober Day 8: Coughing Up A Lung | Exotic Illness

Word Count: 854


Sickness to Time

Loki only heard muffled voices around him as he tried to take in his surroundings. His sleeve was torn clean off, his feet were still bare. But it was the feeling in his chest was growing tight, making him feel short of breath and tingly under his skin like his arm that Sylvie was tending to after setting his shoulder back in place. The wound was quite deep, and even with the healing factors kicking in, proper care was still ideal. It was a good thing he was sitting down because something just wasn't right.

"Loki? Are you alright?" Sylvie asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

He didn't respond, feeling his eyelids droop and grow heavy with each blink. The sweat breaking out over his forehead felt strange, like hot and cold fighting with one another. It gave him the chills.

"I… I don't feel well," Loki muttered, body starting to sway.

"Is it your injury? I didn't think you lost that much blood..."

He leaned back into the chair, feeling very lethargic. "Wha-what's happening to me? I feel like I'm on fire."

"You're going through time sickness," the elder Loki said, observing his behavior. "It'll pass soon."

"Time sickness? What does that mean?" Sylvie asked, still trying to tend to the wound.

"It's something we've all gone through. Though it is peculiar you aren't experiencing it," the elder Loki explained. "Time does not move here, and because of that lack of a natural cycle, one's body tends to take a bit of a shock with prolonged exposure."

She turned to Mobius. "He didn't go through this at the TVA?"

The agent shook his head. "No. But he also had been out on the timeline, so it might've neutralized the symptoms."

Sylvie dabbed a clean cloth over Loki's brow, and he slowly closed his eyes at the contact. "You'll be okay, Loki. Rest. I got your arm tended and bandaged, just keep it laying like this over your chest, okay?"

Loki gave a slight nod in understanding, but his brow was pinched from the pain he was enduring. Mobius moved to be closer when Sylvie got up again and put some distance between them, seeming a bit self conscious by the close contact she'd been sharing with him.

"You aren't feeling it?" the elder Loki asked more directly, watching her carefully.

Sylvie shook her head. "No. But I've spent my life traveling through time and dodging near-death experiences. Perhaps I've been conditioned from that."

He gave a slow nod at that, moving toward an outer wall that looked to have food stashed there. She inspected the bunker more closely now that she wasn't preoccupied, taking note of the hatch they climbed through and the large chair the elder Loki claimed to be hiding an escape route. There were two doors on the wall closest to her, but she didn't bother to investigate what were behind them, instead she went for the chair to check behind it just to be certain.

"The others. How likely do they know of this place?" Sylvie asked as she passed the child Loki.

He was crouched by a pool of water with the alligator, seemingly to be cleaning what looked like blood off his teeth. Sylvie wasn't going to ask questions.

"We are completely safe here," the child assured. "The only other who knows of this place that isn't here is the same person who gave us the location of the others."

Sylvie pulled the chair forward some as she listened, glancing at the child who watched with mild amusement. He gave a light flick of his wrist to further move it for her with magic.

"The loud-mouthed Loki?" she asked, hiding her breathy sigh at the action.

"Yes. He's been with us for some time now."

"But is a spy?" Sylvie said more than asked. "How are you so confident he won't bring them here as he brought us there?"

The child's face seemed to have paled slightly as he processed the question. She took the opportunity to shove the chair back into place after being confident that the tunnel wasn't a dead end based on the draft she felt and that also moved the heavy cobwebs littering the mouth of it.

"No," the child Loki responded confidently, standing at his full height now to stare Sylvie down. "He would never. If anything you should thank him. We risked a lot to save your Loki for zero gain on our part."

She sighed in almost annoyance, knowing the child was right. But her attention was pulled back to Loki who was now curled in on himself shivering and groaning. She approached quickly, but stopped when Mobius was already wedging himself beside him in the plush chair, draping his jacket over him before collecting him in his arms. Loki responded by burying his face into Mobius' shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know about this…"

Sylvie heard him utter and wanted to feel jealous at this, but the loud, slamming knock from above had everyone startle. She drew her weapon, and the air seemed to go still.