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Loki had always been drawn to the colour green. For centuries now he had managed to integrate the colour into his entire wardrobe, and the moment Loki had learned his magic was green he had been ecstatic. Sif theorized that it had to do with his own vanity, as his eyes were a deep forest green. Whether or not she was right was beyond Loki, all that truly mattered to him was that he found great comfort in the colour.
Despite this, the green clouding his mind was almost anything but that. It was cold and made him feel lightheaded. This green unnerved him, but Loki couldn’t seem to place exactly why it did.
“Are you alright, brother?” asked Thor, placing a firm hand on Loki’s shoulder. “Your head seems to be in another realm.”
Loki blinked the green away, looking up at Thor. “Pardon?”
“I’ve been recounting my last adventure to you for the past ten minutes, and you don’t seem to be completely aware of it.”
Loki grimaced. “Apologies,” he said adjusting his jacket, the familiar leather a welcome change from… Loki furrowed his brow, the green returning as he grew unsure of where his thoughts had wandered to before shaking his head. “Do continue your tale.”
“Right,” said Thor, turning to face the long golden palace hallway before them. It was funny, after his short reign as king, Loki had been so sure that he would never be let inside the palace walls as a resident again, much less accepted into Asgard. It felt surreal, almost as if it was all an illusion.
“The Avengers and I–You remember the Avengers correct?” Loki nodded. He was more than aware of the little group of midgardians Thor had found himself acquainted with. The details of how they had all met remained blurry in Loki’s mind though, perhaps he should ask for a recount of the tale later when his head cleared. “Of course you do. Yes, well we had been working to find that organization you had run into. I believe you had called it the TVA?”
Loki’s pace began to slow as a frown marred his face. “The TVA?” Loki repeated. The green took a moment to clear itself, and a flood of memories came back to the trickster. Yes, how could he forget the organization who had kidnapped him from his own life? The organization who nearly killed him–he had stolen something he shouldn’t have, but what was it?–if it weren’t for the analyst, Mobius.
“Yes, what about it?” he asked, letting his gaze shift over to Thor’s strangely stoic expression.
“We’re attempting to find a way to get into contact with them, to try and eradicate their system.”
Loki snorted. “Good luck with that.”
Thor chuckled. “Yes, thank you. I do believe we’ll need it.”
A silence passed over the two, giving Loki a chance to look around the palace halls. Loki couldn’t quite place it, but something about their surroundings felt off. Vases and paintings he felt like he had never seen before were scattered around them and the overabundance of seidr in the air made Loki’s skin crawl. But above that, the hallway the two had found themselves in seemed much longer than any Loki had remembered.
“You had worked for the TVA correct?”
Loki’s eyebrows furrowed, the green dispersing just a little. He had worked for them, hadn’t he? After his life was showcased before him. After watching himself die.
Mobius had asked for his assistance in looking for a variant, a variant of who he couldn’t remember.
“Yes, I believe I did,” he answered, images of himself and Mobius pouring over case files flitting through his mind.
“Did they let you in on anything?” asked Thor, slowing down until the two stood still in the neverending hallway. “Did they perhaps tell you how anybody could possibly get into contact with them? How they could contact their superiors?”
Loki shook his head. “No, I don’t believe so. They exist outside of time, it’s not like you or your little mortal friends could ever just give them a call.”
“Right, of course,” said Thor, crossing his arms. “But there must be some way for us to access their building. How else could they enter different timelines? How did you return?”
Loki’s mind stilled for a moment. How had he returned? There was a vague memory of a device Loki could barely grasp. A small rectangle that could summon glowing doors…
The tempad. His memories supply.
“Of course,” said Loki, smiling at his brother. “They travel from timeline to timeline using this strange device. They call it a tempad.” Despite the green practically begging him to take it out from within his pocket dimension, Loki decided against it.
Thor looked at him expectantly for a moment, before narrowing his eyes. “Is that how you managed to return to us? With a tempad?”
The green slipped by a fraction.
“Yes,” he said, remembering the orange door he had run though within the dimly lit aisle of a midgardian store. “I escaped using a tempad.” Except Loki couldn’t remember using it himself. Somebody else had, but who?
“Then you must have one on you. Where is it?”
Loki frowned, the memory of a tempad clutched in his grasp appearing before his eyes before he had vanished it with a flash of his own green seidr. The person he had been speaking to hadn’t been pleased.
Who had he been speaking to again?
The green returned.
“It’s being kept in a pocket dimension at the moment,” he said, still refusing the urge to take it out. “Or within my heart to be more specific.”
“Care to bring it out and show me?”
A pause.
“No,” he said without thinking, “I don’t think I should.”
Green sparked in Thor’s eyes for a mere moment. “And why is that?” he asked, taking a step towards the trickster. “You could help us, Loki. You could help eradicate the TVA, give others the chance to have free will.” Thor placed a hand on Loki’s shoulder, his grip a little too firm. “Just give me the tempad.”
Loki’s mouth curved into a frown as green washed over him once more. He wanted to help his brother, he truly did, but something was holding im back. Something was wrong, both with the palace and with Thor. The way his eyes had flashed was his first indicator, but the moment he had gripped Loki’s shoulder for the second time, he had finally felt the amount of seidr flowing from his brother and…
That was much more seidr than Thor had ever wielded.
Without much thought, Loki sent a burst of seidr from himself, sending Thor–if that truly was his brother–flying into the wall behind him, earning a surprised gasp. The world around them flickered. They were in the palace hallway, then on what he recognized as the sanctuary, then in the TVA’s library, before returning to the hallway. Loki felt himself stiffen, watching green eat away at the walls surrounding them.
Loki sniffed.
So it was an illusion.
“Impressive,” he said, casting his gaze over at who he had thought was his brother.
Loki watched as green began to slowly creep up Thor’s muscular figure, not surprised to find out that he too was just another illusion. His gaze never left the imposter before him as they slowly morphed from Thor’s muscular frame into a more petite one. Thor’s long crimson cape remained draped over their shoulders as their armor shifted to fit the illusionist's new–or perhaps true–form. They looked up at Loki, annoyance and confusion in their eyes as their blonde hair began to lose it’s once golden shine and length. The familiar blonde hair fading and losing it’s colour as black roots made itself known. Loki narrowed his eyes, staring at the figure before him.
Their eyes flashed a vibrant green.
He blinked, and his surroundings changed. The seidr that had once surrounded him finally dispersed, and before him stood his variant. Their fingers rested on his neck, and Loki could feel their seidr flicker away as they stared at him with wide eyes. The green had finally taken it’s leave, and Loki was able to momentarily absorb their surroundings. They were back on Lamentis-1, the sounds of falling rubble from outside filling the mining shack, but Loki couldn’t bring himself to care about that. All he could possibly do was consider their situation.
“Did you just try to enchant me?”
His variant frowned. “Why didn’t it work?”
“What made you think you could enchant me?”
“It always works.”
“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but my mind is too strong for any of your meager tricks-”
A growl left the Loki in front of him as she pushed herself away from him. “Why do you have to be so difficult?”
“Well I’m sorry,” groaned Loki as he adjusted his jacket, painfully aware of his lack of Asgardian leather. “Maybe next time don’t go prodding at my mind!”
“Well what else was I supposed to do?” they asked, eyes narrowed. “I need to get off this damned moon before we both die here. You aren’t going to just give me the tempad, so I took matters into my own hands.”
Loki gave a cold smile. “A lot of good that did you.”
“Well what would you have done to get what you wanted? Last I checked you yourself weren’t exactly above using mind control to get what you want.” Loki flinched. Of course they had seen his brief time on Midgard while in Loki’s head.
“That was different and you know it.”
“Right,” they said, turning away from Loki to pace around the shack. “The weak little jotunn royal was forced into world domination by the big bad Titan. How sad.”
“I am far from weak.”
“And you are far from strong. How many times are you going to let people in your head? Didn’t your mother teach you how to put up wards?”
His daggers were in his hands and at his variant’s throat in an instant, anger shooting through Loki’s veins. “Don’t you ever mock my mother.”
“Oh, have I touched a nerve?” they asked, tilting their head with a smile. “I’m so sorry about that.”
Loki narrowed his eyes at them, examining their face from where he stood. The variant’s eyes were flashing with anger and impatience, a want to get this conversation over and done with. To get the tempad and away from the apocalypse they had found themselves on. He could feel sickening green seidr radiating off of them, prepared to strike if Loki made a single move that they didn’t like, which was surprising taking how he had daggers aimed at their throat.
A surprised gasp escaped Loki as the mining shack shook, rubble crashing nearby. He let the daggers fall from his variant’s neck as he whipped his head around, his gaze sweeping one of the windows before them. Loki paid no mind to his variant shoving him off of them, nor to their annoyed huff as they dusted themself off. All he could bring himself to care about was the fact that they needed to get going.
“We need to get out of here.”
Loki notched an eyebrow at his variant. “We?”
“Yes, we ,” they hissed. “We both have something the other wants. I know Lamentis. I know where we might be able to charge the tempad. The tempad you have. If we want to get off Lamentis we need to work together.”
“And you couldn’t have offered this option before you tried to enchant me?”
“Enchantment seemed easier.”
Loki frowned, examining his variant’s face. He should know better than to trust a Loki, but did he really have much of a choice?
Another crash sounded from outside.
No, he didn’t.
Loki pushed himself off his variant and let his daggers disappear in a flash of comforting green seidr. “Alright, fine,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Lead the way, variant.”