Of Two Minds

Chapter 2 Part 1: Time Passes Differently at the TVA

HEADQUARTERS OF THE TIME VARIANCE AUTHORITY - Time Unknown

As soon as Loki crossed the threshold of the portal into the TVA headquarters, he glanced around to get a better view. He stopped and blinked as he continued gazing around him with bewilderment. The entirety of the Time Variance Authority was an anachronistic mashup of retro decor and equipment, but great power and highly advanced technology to drive the outdated equipment. Loki found the discrepancy between them baffling.

"You won't be needing this anymore now that you're here," Mobius said reassuringly, reaching up to remove the dampening collar.

Loki rubbed his bare neck, grateful to be freed from the collar. He pivoted on his heel, pointing to cast a spell to incapacitate B-15 as she still carried her weapon.

B-15 snickered at him when his attempt had no effect. "Oh, you're cute. You really think that'll do anything?"

Frowning, Loki tried again with both hands splayed wide. To his great disappointment, nothing happened this time either... unless you counted B-15's raucous laughter. Loki crossed his arms, scowling at the woman as she bent double and wiped away tears of mirth at his failure to do anything beyond make showy gestures.

"Magic doesn't work here," Mobius whispered and beckoned him down the hall to an empty briefing room already set up for them.

Loki sat down at the table in the small briefing room as Mobius closed the door behind them. He stared in wonder at the old-fashioned reel-to-reel movie projector sitting on the table, another prime example of the outdated equipment still used by the TVA.

Mobius placed two file folders on the table in front of Loki, the second one larger than the first. "Let's start with the key personnel of S.H.I.E.L.D. as you'll likely have to deal with several of them. Open the top folder." Loki complied, opening to a top sheet containing photographs of several men and one woman with names and titles below each individual photograph. He quickly thumbed through the other pages in the folder, each page a single-sided sheet for one pictured individual with a short synopsis of their personal history and their history with S.H.I.E.L.D.

"The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Nick Fury. The scientists and inventors conducting the Tesseract research include Doctor Erik Selvig, Doctor Bruce Banner, and Tony Stark. Stark and Banner are two of the founding members of the Avengers known as Iron Man and the Hulk respectively." Mobius continued with the personnel overview as Loki flipped back and forth through the pages. "Some of the other Avengers are Clint Barton codenamed Hawkeye, Natasha Romanoff codenamed Black Widow, and Steve Rogers codenamed Captain America. In the sacred timeline, your brother Thor was part of their ranks."

"If I'm impersonating an actor," Loki began, "why do you say I'm going to be dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Mobius shrugged. "It's a possibility given the involvement of the Tesseract in this affair." He took the S.H.I.E.L.D. folder back from Loki and tapped the second one. "Now we get to the real work: familiarizing yourself with the man you're impersonating. It's going to take longer for you to work through this."

"Tom Hiddleston," Loki read the name on the cover of the folder. He opened the cover of the file to find a black and white photograph of the subject inside. His emerald green eyes widened at the face that looked back at him. Aside from the light-colored hair, the similarities were uncanny. "I see why you asked me to impersonate him... though I could do so through the use of my magic, even if our features were nothing alike."

"Timeline 2981 is unique," Mobius began, "in that the events of the sacred timeline, the one originally protected by the TVA before the multiverse rebooted, are being told openly as a set of motion pictures."