Sinbound: Variants

Part 20

Author's note: First of all, sorry for the kind of short chapter. You know me and cliff hangers! Secondly, things are about to get WAY more interesting. Also, no Loki in this chapter, but where there's no Loki, there's Bucky! He will be in the next chapter though! After all, this is a Loki fanfic (;

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"This place is so cute!" Says Fleur as Bucky holds the door open for us to a sweet little coffee shop on the corner of the street. He drove us to the city while letting us play whatever music we wanted. Fleur and I both decided that 'Dick' by StarBoi3 and Doja Cat was the perfect song. Bucky thought otherwise.

Café music plays from a little speaker in the corner, and you can hear low chatter from groups of people scattered around. Some tables stand empty with no seats, while others are over-crowded with a larger group taking up every inch of table space they can. Spoons clank against the ceramic cups and coffee brews from behind the counter. It smells earthy and fresh, and a little like sugar. 

We walk over to the counter and I get Fleur and I the same drink. Bucky orders his, and holds his hand out gentlemanly as I reach for my wallet, while simultaneously handing the cashier his card. 

We grab a table with three chairs while Bucky offers to stay at the counter for the drinks. Fleur and I sit next to each other and settle in. We glance around a little, her longer than I do. I rest my gaze on the back of her head while she studies a picture hanging on the wall beside us. I'm getting used to having an identical me but with black hair around. It's weird that I don't really see myself in her, but rather see her as her own person, even though we are two of the same soul. We are exactly the same, but also completely different. When she's not feeling threatened, she's actually very tranquil. She's dormant until something happens.

"Fleur?" I say to get her attention. Her soft, full head of dark charcoal hair flows over her back as her bright, Jolly Rancher blue eyes meet mine. a little 'hmm?' escapes from behind her lips, turning her attention to me. For the first time, I actually feel a little taken back by how pretty she is. I don't think I'm that much to look at, but Fleur, for some reason, is.

"I've got to ask, you and Bucky?"

She giggles, looks down at the table, then back up at me. "Is it obvious I kind of like him?"

"Yes, and weird. I thought we were more the Loki type?"

"We are!" she confirms, "But since you have Loki, I feel really kind of lonely. Bucky was there for me, and never found me scary or threatening. After all, he's the one who swooped me up on his bike and brought me to the compound where I was safe. He watched over me. we talked, got to know each other. I know he keeps to himself a little, but I really do like him."

"Gross."

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding! Look, if you're happy, I'm happy. Literally. And I'm glad you found someone to connect to, I'm sorry how things must have seemed to you in the beginning of all this." We smile at each other, and right as Bucky's name is being called for the drinks, a pair of people in black uniforms and helmets holding weird rod things walk into the coffee shop. They don't hesitate to effortlessly guide themselves to our table. One of them pulls out a small gold device about the size of an iPhone and flips the screen up. 

I stand up aggressively, guarding Fleur. These people are obviously not from around here, not from this regular Midgardian realm. Bucky rushes over to us, stepping now in front of me.

"Step aside, Mr. Barnes."

"How do you know who I am?"

"This isn't about you." She says, then turns to the other one holding the weird phone device and nods. 

He speaks into the device saying, "Variant of Ayca Laufeyson identified. Seems like a standard sequence violation."

"I beg your pardon?" I shout at the one with the phone, my eyes turning red and angry as I knock it out of his hand. He tries to restrain me, but I bend his arm back and escape from under it. Bucky screams at everyone to leave the shop, and they rush out alarmed and screaming. Fleur is defenseless, so Bucky grabs her by the waist and pushes her against the wall while fighting the woman.

I go to fight the man who is targeting Fleur. She's still tethered to me, so I have to be careful not to sever it. "Who are you?" I growl at him while kicking him in the chest. He gets up and takes my arm, twisting it and pinning it against my back. He slams me into the wall, saying nothing.

I let my skin get hot, my fingertips turning black and my blood boiling. He yells in pain from his burnt skin, and I spin around with glowing red eyes and blast him back across a table with a purple shot of magic. He crashes to the floor, and I run to Fleur.

"You have to get me out of these chains!" She yells, gesturing to the cuffs suppressing her magic.

"Can I trust you?"

"Yes!" She says desperately. My hands are on her shoulders as we look into each other's eyes. The woman gets punched in the gut by Bucky's metal arm, flying towards the ground. The man who I had knocked over chokes him from behind, and before I can continue the thought of releasing Fleur from her bonds, I rush to help Bucky. The woman, getting up from behind me trying to pull the guy off of Bucky, has an open charge to get to Fleur. She screams for me, and I turn my attention to her. 

"On behalf of the Time Variants Authority, I hereby arrest you for crimes against the Sacred Time Line. Hand up, you're coming with-"

She's cut off my me hitting her across the back of her head with a chair. Bucky holds her down just long enough for me to unbind Fleur from her cuffs. She twists her wrists, smiling devilishly. She waists no time blasting the same purple color of magic towards the man, who finally gets knocked out against the wall. I grasp her hand tightly, but Bucky can't hold the woman down any more. She elbows him in the face, and I can hear the crack of his nose. Soon, there's blood all over his face.

"Bucky!" She yells for him as I push her out the door. We run down the street, hand in hand. "We can't leave him there!"

"He'll be fine, we need to get out of here!" I yell at her, running through traffic to make it harder for those people to catch us. Cars honk and screech to a stop, flipping us off and sticking their heads out the window to curse at us. A golden, translucent door of some sort appears in the middle of the sidewalk, and the woman from the coffee shop walks out of it, blocking out way.

"Stay the fuck away from her!" I yell at her, blasting her with magic. She dodges it as we try to run away again, but another golden portal door opens and we are surrounded by people dressed in the same armor. One of them somehow manages to punch my in the jaw, and I fall to the floor on my hands and knees. They wrap a collar around Fleur's neck, and I can't help but feel bad for her. She had only really been free for a moment.

I reach out to her, calling after her. She's being led on both arms by people in black armor, twisting her head around to look at me. Her eyes are full of tears, and her yelps for help are pitiful, almost painful to hear. I leap up, ripping one of the people guiding her off of her arm and try to pull her away from the other. Before I know it, we are both yanked through the golden portal on the sidewalk in the middle of New York city, then completely out of sight.