Special Agent Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 22

Loki closed his eyes as the healers began to examine him. Gibbs watched curiously. Loki was lying on a bed in the middle of the room, and the healers were using what appeared to be magic to examine the god of mischief.

After Loki briefly explained about the headaches, one of the healers used magic to bring what Gibbs supposed to be Loki's essence or energy out of him and hold it in suspension above his body. When Gibbs asked what it was, they told him it was a soul forge. Whatever that meant.

As the healers looked over the image of what was inside Loki's head, Gibbs could feel their attitude shift. Their voices lowered and their expressions grew concerned and slightly baffled.

As they finished their examination, the head healer, a brunette woman, summoned Gibbs to the side. "He has a foreign energy source located inside his head, with tendrils encircling and branching out through his entire brain. It is centered in his cerebrum, but communicates with the other lobes and areas via the tendrils, which resemble axons and synapses. It is especially connected to the cerebellum, causing him to involuntarily commit certain actions and controlling how he feels about certain situations."

Gibbs nodded. "That would explain his lashing out at my agents."

The healer tilted her head. "Agent Gibbs, lashing out at others is a trait Prince Loki is known to have."

"Without a reason?" Gibbs asked.

"He doesn't have to have a reason for anything he does, it seems."

"Still explains it," Gibbs pointed out. "Can you remove this energy source?"

The healer hesitated. "Yes and no."

Gibbs frowned. "What do you mean? Can you do it, or can you not?"

"We could," the healer answered. "But there would be severe consequences to his mental state. It's like...removing one of your mortal tumors. There's a certain stage where you can't remove it without causing more harm than good. That is what would happen if we were to attempt to remove this source from his head."

Gibbs looked over at Loki, lying there as still as if he were dead. Inwardly flinching the thought, all of Gibbs' being rebelled at the idea of letting one of his agents die. Even this agent. "Will it kill him?"

"I don't know," she said sadly. "It seems to be feeding off of itself, mostly, but it is so entrenched in his brain that it would be almost impossible to remove without causing significant, irreparable damage. And he can withstand a great deal more tampering than, say, you, Agent Gibbs."

"You don't know?" Gibbs repeated. "Well, can you find out?"

The healer looked at him for a moment. "In a couple days, I might be able to begin to understand the nature of this essence."

"Good," Gibbs said. "You got five hours."

The healer looked flabbergasted. "Five hours? I just told you it could take days!"

"Yeah," Gibbs said. "And I told you, you got five hours." After a moment of the healer staring at him in stunned indignation, he added, "You might want to get started."

The healer, looking like she might go into shock, turned back to the table and began to study the image of the energy source, shaking her head at Gibbs' demand.

Gibbs stood in the background, also staring at the image. He was running over options in his head, trying to figure out how to best help Loki. He now wished he had brought Ducky and Abby with him as well. He wanted them to see this.