Chapter 18
1972 – Timber island, Canada
Steve Rogers carried armsful of grocery bags into the house. After dropping them all on the floor he took the newspaper he'd been holding under his arm and threw it on the table. "Skyjacker remains at large," he read the headline out loud.
He locked eyes with Natasha and they shared a meaningful look.
"Let it go," Natasha whispered and reached for the bags.
They heard footsteps running down the stairs and Steve narrowly missed being knocked aside when seventeen-year-old Yelena slid into the kitchen. She aimed for the radio and turned up the volume just in time to sing along: "Oh, my darling, knock three times on the ceiling if you want me. Mmm, hmm, twice on the pipe if the answer is noooo. Oh, my sweetness…" she mimicked knocking three times and then laughed.
"Did you hear the radio from your room or did you know the song was going to play?" Steve asked her as the song continued in the background.
Yelena huffed and swept her short apricot-colored hair back. "both, I timed it perfectly," she said eventually and slumped down in a chair at the table.
Steve looked at Natasha again and Yelena rolled her eyes when she saw this. "You are messing with my vibe, dad," she complained, "That was a rad trick."
Natasha stifled a giggle with a fake cough and shook her head. "The 70s, man," she mumbled mostly to Steve and he shook his head with a smile on his face. "Lena, I don't want you talking like the trash on the TV." She instructed the teen. "You are better educated than that."
"Yes, Mama," she sighed and looked out the window. An apple disappeared off the kitchen counter and appeared in Yelena's hand.
"That thing will rot your brain anyway, I don't want you watching too much of it," Steve said as he walked out.
"Why do I get the feeling he's lying about my brain rotting?" Yelena asked as her mother placed a plate and knife in front of her.
"Because you're very smart. You get that from me." Natasha smiled and kissed the girl on the head before pouring herself a cup of coffee.
Yelena shook her head and absentmindedly searched for the knife. A jolt went through her when she touched the newspaper her dad had left behind. Natasha was oblivious and went about her tasks.
Yelena stared at the paper and slowly reached out to it again. A highlight of every event in the paper flashed through her mind as she picked it up. She shuddered and held the paper up, reading the front-page article. She tried to blink away the image of the man that had popped into her brain.
Dark hair, handsome face, perfect teeth, dashing smile. She'd seen it before.
"Is this the Loki person you talked about?" Yelena held the paper out to her mom, showing the wanted sketch.
"You don't forget anything, do you?" Natasha took the paper from her and scanned the rest of the article.
"No. I'm a vault of information," she beamed as she tapped her head with two fingers.
"I wish you'd forget some things," Natasha threw the paper out.
"Me too," Yelena turned somber.
"What would you want to forget?" Natasha frowned.
"The lyrics to 'It's a small world'," she stated simply. "Who's Loki?" she added after a while.
"Just a man we once knew," Nat stated as she attempted to read the article that she'd thrown in the trash.
"In the future?" Yelena prodded.
"It's complicated, don't worry about it, sweetie,"
"I am complicated."
1977 – Timber Island, Canada
With a flash, Yelena woke from a nightmare. Her room was filled with frozen ghostly images from her dream. She got out of bed and walked between the three-dimensional light images, scanning them each in detail.
People in extraordinary armor holding fighting batons up to both her parents. Herself half disintegrating painfully. A few unknown faces, contorted in anger and pain. Statues of bizarre alien folk. A golden face of a strange large ape-man.
The images disappeared and she looked around the room, worried. She climbed back on her bed and sat crosslegged, closed her eyes, and appeared to be having a peculiar trance as she sat and scanned through the future.
She uttered a cry as she opened her eyes. Throwing her hand over her mouth, she sat still, listening if she'd woken her parents. After a while, she closed her eyes again and went into the trance state one more time. She scrunched her face in determination as she moved ideas around in her mind. And she let out a deep breath when she opened her eyes again.
She ran across the room to her desk, wrote a note on a piece of her drawing paper, and dropped it on her bed as it made itself. Her outfit changed from her pajamas to something she'd seen her mom in, in memories and she conjured a weapon into her hand before making it disappear again. She took a deep breath, made a white circle portal, and walked through.
'I'll be right back, Love, Lena,' the note read on the bed as the room returned to dead silence.
2012 - TVA Bridge
"Oops," Mobius uttered as he too looked towards where Idunn had been.
"Oops?" Loki turned on him, "Oops?" he repeated as he threw Mobius against the wall. His rage decreased when he realized he had used magic to throw Mobius.
"What happened?" Loki asked as he advanced on Mobius who was collecting himself.
"I don't know," Mobius said simply
"Where is she?" Loki added. "What happened to her?"
"Loki," Mobius sighed, "I don't know. I didn't know that was going to happen. I'm sorry, okay?"
"You're sorry?" Loki conjured a knife and held it to Mobius's throat.
"Woah, Loki, come one, I'm on your side."Mobius pleaded.
"Not if your plan just killed her," Loki said through clenched teeth.
"I don't think she's dead, Loki, listen to me. If you can use magic, then she must be in control of the stone, we need to do our part of the plan now. Besides, if you have your power back, maybe Adam does too, and it isn't safe." Mobius tried desperately.
Loki stepped back and put the knife away. "I'm still watching you," Loki threatened and dodged an agent's attack, fighting him to the ground.
"Holding cells are that way," Mobius pointed towards the far end of the bridge. "Left, down, then second right."
"Yes," Loki grunted as he brought another agent to the ground.
Mobius sighed and straightened his shirt again. "Meet you back here?" Mobius asked and didn't wait to see Loki nod as he fought off another attack.
Mobius ran past agents and ignored everyone until he reached the filing room.
Loki ran in the opposite direction, glancing over his shoulder one more time before turning out of view. He kicked someone out of his way and then jumped down the stairs.
Mobius ran down the long and high filing cabinets. He reached the corner he was looking for and opened the drawer, scanning through the tags swiftly with his fingers.
He quickly found what he was looking for and pulled out the file.
"Adam variant 005," Mobius mumbled as he scanned through the page. "Ah! Variant 034, a mix of Hulk, Man-ape, and Adam Warlock. Geez, what a crazy combo."
"…ability to harness mystical energies" Mobius read in a hushed tone, "in part due to his connection to the Soul Gem (The soul stone?) — makes him a most formidable mystics… "perfect human" has an impressive repertoire of magical skills, including but not limited to astral projection, exorcism, the ability to resurrect other beings, and portal casting… also immune to soul-draining powers…
Mobius closed the file and ran back to the bridge, only to be stopped short by one of his superiors. Ravonna Renslayer stood in his way as he turned a corner and he barely avoided crashing into her.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Loki descended the stairs and ran down the hall as Mobius had instructed. An explosion up ahead threw him a few yards back and he had to pick himself off the floor. He heard more crashing between the rubble and braced himself for what was coming.
(Disclaimer: Thanks to 661053/marvels-most-powerful-magic-users/ for the Adam info)