Two Blades, One Dagger

Second Rate Sorcerers

That was when all hell broke loose. 

Suddenly, the sky erupted with deep, glowing red. It began to melt away slowly, like wallpaper being peeled from the wall of an old house. Asgard disintegrated around him, along with Loki's bed chambers. He caught one last look at Sylvie before she disappeared in front of him. In a mere matter of seconds, he had gone from sitting with Sylvie on his bed in Asgard to sitting alone on a sofa in what appeared to be an old Midgardian apartment. The sofa was an obnoxious bright yellow, which contrasted with the otherwise gray interior of the room. Loki sat there, in a daze. His mind was working overtime trying to make sense of what had just happened. He had been in Asgard with Sylvie, and everything had been so perfect- too perfect, he realized. Slowly, the pieces began to come together in Loki's mind. Sylvie, or at least what seemed like Sylvie at the time, had been very vague about their situation. However, Loki had been blindsided by an overwhelming rush of emotions upon seeing her to analyze what was going on. He felt a pang of longing. The kiss they had shared the night before had felt so real. It was an intimacy that Loki had never experienced before, and the reality set in that he might never feel it again. 

A door creaked open, followed by the sound of footsteps approaching. Loki whipped around. There was a woman standing there. She was wearing a scarlet red cape, along with a small pair of horns not entirely unlike his own. Slightly behind her stood a man Loki recognized all too well: Strange. 

Loki snarled. So it had been him all along. He'd been conned by this second-rate Midgardian sorcerer! 

"Ah, Strange," Loki sighed. "I would say it's a pleasure to see you again, but that would be a lie."

"Truth? It seems you've turned over a new leaf, Loki," Strange replied coolly. "Then again, I couldn't have imagined love being in your nature either."

Loki was suddenly filled with rage. He had poured his heart out to the only person he had ever loved, only to find out it was a sham! While Loki had been on the raw end of many tricks, this one seemed to be the lowest blow of all. After all, Loki could stomach a beating, but being seen in such a sincere, vulnerable state was a devastating blow. However, there was still a possibility that he could manipulate his way into making Strange doubt the leverage he had gained.

"Love?" Loki scoffed. "Love? What, are you a child now? A desperate young maiden? There is no such thing as love, Strange! I know that better than anybody!"

The corner of Strange's mouth twitched slightly, but he didn't reply. Instead, the woman in the crimson cape spoke. "Loki, you cannot lie to me," she said. Her voice was eerie- it sent a chill down Loki's spine. "I was in your head. You love her- Sylvie- and you long for her to love you too. She rejected you, didn't she?"

Loki snarled. Nobody had ever been able to see inside his head- his mind was too strong. "That's impossible!" he spat. "I cannot be enchanted! I am a god! My memories are mine, and mine alone! Whatever you saw, witch, was not real." Loki shot up off the sofa and lunged towards the woman, grabbing hold of her arm. He would enchant her to prove his dominance as the superior magician. However, the witch made no effort to defend herself, and she stared intently into Loki's eyes as he grasped at her mind. Green sparks crackled from his hands, yet he couldn't take control of her. Her conscious was like an impenetrable stone wall. Finally, he let go of her wrist, not breaking eye contact. The woman's gaze was placid, indifferent. It made Loki feel inferior- like he did not have any leverage over her, yet she held the key to all of his secrets. After a few moments of intense staring, Loki asked a one word question, "Why?"

Strange was the one who replied. "Why what?"

"Why all this- the illusion on Asgard? Why not just pry open my mind, take the information you want, and leave? It seems a like a lot less wasted time to me." Loki replied. "Or are you just cruel, Strange? The world's in chaos, and you can't fix it, so the only thing you can do to amuse your pathetic self is to go into my mind so you can live out some fantasy of yours. Is that it?" He turned his gaze towards the woman with the scarlet cape. "And you," he continued, "I don't know who and what you are, and frankly I don't care. Whatever you think you saw, just know that you're the one under the illusion, not me. I don't know how long you've been working for the wizard over here, but I would like to offer a word of advice. Don't get on my bad side." 

Loki thought his jest was pretty good, but neither Stranger nor the witch seemed impressed. "We don't have time for your games, Loki," Strange said tiredly. "We are on the brink of a multiversal war, trying to fix a mess that you created. You are the only person we could reach who has been in contact with Kang, so-"

Loki cut him off. "Can somebody please tell me who Kang is?"

"Kang is the asshole who is going to wage war against different variations of himself and potentially throw the universe into complete chaos. So I would advise you to pay attention to what I'm saying because it might just save your ass," said Strange.

"Oh, you couldn't save my ass if you tried," Loki laughed.

The cloaked woman butted in. "While simply prying the information from your mind would've been much more convenient, your mind is not that simple. It was fortified so that I couldn't not reach in a extract one memory. Instead, I had to find a weak point, which was your newfound puppy love for the variant of yourself, and enter your mind via that. We need to know everything about Kang that we can because we intend to stop him- all of the variations of him- before he begins his conquest to take control of the universe."

"Perhaps you could've just asked me nicely."

"So you could feed us lies?" Strange interjected. "Loki, I hate to break it to you, but your reputation precedes you." 

Loki knew he was running low on options. He could not let the two magicians in front of him have the upper hand. "And how do I know you're not lying to me?" he inquired. He stood up and strode towards the door. 

"Where do you think you're going?" Strange asked.

"Well, while we're still on the subject of lying, I enjoyed our little chat, but I'm leaving now. Bye." Loki turned the doorknob and took a step outside, but where there was supposed to be a staircase, there was empty space. Different parts of the Midgardian suburb were floating aimlessly in the sky. Houses drifted through the light blue void, occasionally crashing into each other like meteors. Loki panicked and tried to regain his balance, but he began to fall awkwardly. He screamed. Suddenly, all of his momentum stopped, and he looked up to see the witch had caught him in a net of glowing red magic tendrils, which extended from her hands. Loki looked around in shock at the chaos around him, and Strange smiled down at him from the doorway. 

"Welcome to the multiverse, Loki."