Tabula Rasa (Unlike Loki: Book Two)

Chapter 64

(Leolin)

I walked briskly down the crowed New York sidewalk, my pressed gray slacks brushing against each other.

I was on my way to change the fate of the cosmos.

Or at least, that's what I told myself.

I constantly bumped in to strangers and had to fight the urge to sweep them out of my way.

I had to blend in.

I turned the corner, now on the straightaway. I was almost there.

Stark Tower loomed in my vision.

I walked faster, excited. I had been waiting for this moment for weeks.

This was also the place where SHEILD was now being held.

And I was about to destroy them. For good.

Suddenly, my vision blurred, images flashing before me, and emotions taking over my own. I halted, trying to pull myself back together.

Not now.

I shook my head, trying to break the connection.

But it was too late.

I no longer saw the street and people before me, but a different one all together. I saw a tall man with dark hair walk down the street, not a single person looking his way.

Then the vision changed.

Now I was the man.

My hands were pale and my skin was cold. I felt the muscles move under my skin and felt the power roar through my veins.

I felt a deep hatred and a driving determination.

I delved deeper into the man's thoughts and found he was on the hunt to destroy the same people I had been on the way to destroy.

SHEILD.

The man- I - kept walking. I looked around and noticed the date on a flashing screen. I scrunched my eyes in confusion. At least I thought I did.

I was no longer in present day, but a few years in the past, not too long before I was even born (which was technically only 5 years ago).

This had happened before, but not his vividly. I could feel the wind on my skin and every nerve in the body I currently resided in.

I could hold connections to places and emotions. If I traveled somewhere someone else who had a connection with me had traveled, I had visions about their adventure. If I felt a similar emotion, then I saw them experiencing said emotion.

But those had been simple visions, just a glimpse.

This was something else entirely. I felt everything. I knew I shared the emotion of hatred towards SHEILD with this man, but what CONNECTION did I have with him?

I decided to search his mind deeper, hoping to find some sort of information about his identity.

I went back further and saw this man in battle, and then in prison, and then in another battle, then I saw-

No.

Surely not.

It couldn't be.

I was my father.

This was Loki.

Just as suddenly as I had fallen into the visions, I came out of them, gasping for breath. People who passed by looked at me worriedly, but kept walking. I put a hand to my head and tried to collect myself.

Was I really so much like my father that I was able to have such a strong connected vision of his past? A past that basically correlated with my present?

I slowly walked, hoping another wave of visions wouldn't come my way.

I would not be my father.

I would not be weak like him.

I would be strong.

I would be clever.

I would destroy SHEILD for the pest that it was.

I would be invincible.