Mandela Effect: Prologue

Who are you and why do you have my face?

The other Loki raised an eyebrow. "That was an incredibly powerful spell. I could sense its power from the other side of Midgard. But any-"

-----

"Wait," Fury interrupted. "If Loki could sense this spell from the other side of the planet, then why didn't you know about this sooner, Strange?" he asked, gesturing to the sorcerer in irritation.

Steven scowled at him before glancing to Loki. "When did you arrive here, again?"

"I arrive just under a week ago," the god replied, his head tilted in curiosity.

"Well, there's your answer," Steven said, gesturing towards the god. "I was off-world helping an intergalactic police force called the Nova Corps with a group of rampaging criminals/part-time heroes. Apparently they'd busted their talking raccoon out of prison again."

"I'm sorry, you helped who with the what now?" Fury demanded. Loki could clearly see the veins in his temples as they popped out in shock.

"Can we please get back to the current issue?" Loki asked curtly, schooling his voice and expression into those of irritation and resisting the urge to smirk at the director's shock.

Steven gave him a nod, his eyes twinkling in amusement, and Loki continued.

-----

"But any sorcerer could have sent you here. Why are you here?" He pressed the knife closer to Loki's skin, forcing the exhausted god to shrink closer to the wall. "Quickly! I know not if Thor and his band of misfits have the ability to track my magic. I do not have the time to wait."

Loki frowned. "Why would you care if the Avengers found you?"

The other Loki scowled. "I attacked their world with an intent to rule it and subvert their species. Why would I want them to find me?"

And now it all clicked. This man had endured far worse than he. He could hear bitterness in his voice, the same bitterness that had plagued Loki when he had attacked Jotunheim in his own universe, when he had fought under Thanos' thumb, but this man's was amplified, echoing back on itself over and over again through time and space. If he wasn't allied with the Avengers, then they had never discovered Thanos' control. They had never broken it.

Or this version of himself was just inherently tyrannical, but Loki decided to take a chance.

"Loki Odinson," the hand tightened on the knife, drawing a drop of blood, "you were born of Laufey, king of the frost giants, who abandoned you and left you to die. Odin found you and brought you in. Your brother is Thor, although you like to think that he is not. Your mother is Frigga, who taught you magic. When you were a few hundred years old, she even taught you how to fight, how to use your speed and slight build to our advantage. When you were one thousand forty six years old, you attempted to eradicate the Jotuns from the universe, believing that that would solve your problems."

Loki poured as much sincerity into his voice as he could and as he talked, more and more bitterness joined it. He wasn't just talking to another person. He was speaking to his past, which he could never get back and could never fix. He knew that he would live with that regret for the rest of his life.

"You believed that genocide would make Father respect you when he already did. You thought that Thor would finally see you as an equal, though he always had, and that the other Asgardians would finally see you as a prince. It's true, the nobles despised you, but if you had only bothered to remember the poor, the servants and fruit sellers, the farmers and stablemen, you would have remembered the smiles whenever you greeted them and the loyalty and respect that they had shown you. If you had only remembered to think, you would have remembered that you weren't alone. Just a year later, Thanos took control of you. You were tortured," he growled, throwing the words like knives. "Subverted." The other version of him just stared, his eyes just slightly wider than what could have been considered impassive. "And I'm guessing that none of them, not the Avengers, not even your own brother, could tell that you were doing anything less than what you wanted when you attacked Midgard." He glowered at his look-alike. "Now tell me, am I anything less than what I claim to be." Loki dug his fingernails into the concrete under him, waiting for the other man's verdict.