The Variant's Shadow - LokixOC - ONGOING

* Goodbyes *

This was getting tiring. 

Every breathing moment, Ophelia was expecting Loki’s tree to disappear. Every following moment was filled with disappointment and anger and frustration because it still wasn’t going anywhere. 

She slammed her hand on the glass and walked away, cursing at that awful tree. Casey had brought her yet another tray of food. He’d gotten her an orange this time, along with an entire box of medication for her head. Clearly the migraines were here to stay. So far, only Loki’s idea of drinking coffee had worked. A few sips had managed to keep the pain away for a couple hours at a time, along with Ophelia’s ability to sleep properly. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the coffee or her pointless fight with the tree. She was now sure that the pain would forever disappear if the tree did. 

As she was turning the orange around in her hand, Ophelia looked back at the window and frowned. It had been days. Was Loki even hungry anymore ? Was he able to sleep ? She put the orange back on the tray and went to sit in front of the control screen. 

There wasn’t any radiation anymore. She thought about going down there and shouting at that stupid tree until it replied. Until it went away. Even if it did, she was simply too angry at the man inside the tree to go. All she had to do was wait. If she had something to do with all this, then she’d wait and do nothing until things went back to normal. 

She was rolling her chair to another screen, ready to check on the data OB had been uploading periodically, when she heard the lock from the door behind her. B-15 walked in and looked almost disappointed to see Ophelia still inside the room. 

“You should be eating,” she said. 

Ophelia smiled at her. “I don’t think any prisoner has ever been treated better before. How is it going upstairs ?” She pushed a second chair towards her visitor. “Take a break. There’s an orange if you’d like.”

B-15 sat and sighed. “I get that you’re angry.”

“You should be. You’re working for a tree. Are we gardeners now ?”

“The Timelines and everyone living on them are safe,” she replied. “We’ve decided to monitor threats to the Multiverse so that our purpose remains. We’ll watch over Time, only in a different way. We don’t destroy anymore, we protect.”

“Right,” Ophelia nodded. “So you’re gonna spend your life watching over He Who Remains. Sounds great. I’m glad I’m getting fired. Am I fired ?”

B15 took a deep breath, trying to keep her calm. “He’s not the only one. From what we know now, I think that you, staying here, makes you one of these threats.”

Ophelia laughed, unable to keep it to herself. “You asked me not to go anywhere.” She stopped and leaned forward. “So you’re just waiting for me to get bored and what, refuse to stay here any longer ?”

They were all insane. All it had taken was for Sylvie to tell them that right before turning into a tree, Loki had talked to a future version of Ophelia. Because of course that stupid wound on her forehead had given her away. After that, it had collectively been decided that Ophelia was linked to what Loki had done and consequently needed to do it all over again. 

“It wouldn’t be fair to all the people on the branches to stay here,” B15 insisted, defending their decision one more time. Seeing that Ophelia wasn’t ready to have that same conversation all over again, she left her chair and walked away. Before leaving, she turned back and asked : “Why are you still here ?”

“Because you’ve personally asked me not to leave this room,” Ophelia replied with a snarky smile. 

B15 smiled back at her. “You know this place better than anyone,” she calmly said. “No one’s given you a Time Collar. If you wanted to, you’d be out of this room and we’d never be able to find you. So why are you still here ?” she asked again.