Out of touch (1)

s e v e n

- p a r t  t h r e e -

Anita stared at the piece of clothing in Mobius' hands and shook her head. The mix of brown and beige was ridiculously off putting and though her mind was gone, she still knew what standards were.
Ever since he had recruited the girl and the raven haired man, they had both been allowed out more often. Whilst Loki had to stay and train for the temporary job Mobius had given him, Anita was getting taken out on walks each day, as if she was some new puppy. The analyst would stay close to her and she would try and walk calmly but neither of them were blind to the way she would flinch when they passed the minutemen. They knew she posed no threat to any of them there but it was clear that the girl was still convinced they were out to get her.
Interestingly enough, Mobius found the weirdest thing about her to be that she would flinch most when they walked past a reflective surface. She would see how she looked now and would almost try to hide behind the man in fear of who she had become.
She hated seeing herself because whilst she was starting to get a grip on who she was, she knew that she was still a trained killer and the person she wanted to kill most now was the other half of her. She was only a danger to herself and they all knew it.
"I'm not wearing that" she snaps.
"Come on, I know it's not the most fashionable thing we have here but you gotta wear something proper for going out today"
"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" She asks staring down at the black suit that still hugs her body.
"In all due respect Anita, you've been wearing that for the entire time you've been here, it cannot be sanitary"
She scrunches up her nose at his response but knows he's probably right. She rolls her eyes and sits down to grab at the box that has been living under her bench for a few weeks and pulls out some of the clothing options. She sneers at most of them before she finds a pair of dark trousers and a long sleeved red top. She holds them up to the analyst who nods at her decision knowing it's the closest she'll get to leaving behind her old uniform. He takes her out of the confinement to a room where she can change. She pulls on the clothes once the door is closed and ties her hair into two plaits. She stares down at the outfit and frowns before walking back out. Mobius notices the look plastered on her face and sighs.
"What now?"
"It doesn't feel like me"
"The last outfit you wore wasn't you either"
"Yeah but I didn't know who I was then, and I mean I still don't now but I can make it look like how I want to be, do you have anything else?" She asks desperately and he nods leading her down a corridor to a room full of outfits presumably left behind by old variants.
She scans the racks and finds a black suit jacket with patterns sewn on in golden thread. It makes her smile as she takes it into her hands and slips it on. The material feels heavy on her but she doesn't mind as she continues to look around before finally settling on a holder for her gun that would sit around her waist. She clasps it shut and walks back out stretching her arms out and and doing a little spin to show the analyst.
"You look nice" he smiles and she sends him one back, it was one of the first he had seen from her.
It was comforting.

•••

"Training going well?" Mobius asks as he walks up to Loki, Anita trailing behind him loosely.
"Yeah"
"Is that my Jet Ski magazine? Put it down, gear up" the analyst tells the raven haired man, handing him over a TVA jacket.
"There's been an attack, let's go you two" he continues as he starts to walk away from the pair.
Loki turns to the girl and offers her a smile. She doesn't smile back though. She is still scared of this all. And as much as she wanted to believe her dreams, she didn't know how much of herself was still being controlled. She shakes her head at his attempt of being friendly and follows behind the man she has come to trust. He stands and sighs before following after her, trying to slip the jacket on as he goes.
"Good yeah, smart" Mobius comments as he sees Loki's more reserves appearance.
He smiles as the three of them start walking away, Anita deliberately making sure she was closest to Mobius to show him her loyalty which he silently appreciated as they made their way down the corridor to the rest of the team.

•••

"C-20 and her team went dark shortly after they jumped into the 1985 branch, all signs point to another ambush" Hunter B-15 starts.
The group continue to look at her knowing how quickly they were losing their men.
"We've grabbed enough temporal aura to know that it's our Loki variant, but which kind of Loki remains unknown"
"They're the lesser kind, to be clear" the raven haired man comments making the group look towards him apart from Anita.
"Let me see the back of that jacket" B-15 asks and the god gives her a weird look before turning around.
On the back of the material is the word 'Variant' printed in bright orange colours. It makes the girl laugh louder than she expects and she finds herself quickly covering her mouth as he looks over to her, the rest of the team sniggering alongside her.
"Very subtle, well done" he says turning back around to face them all, his eyes lingering on the black haired girl for a moment.
"I don't want anybody out there to forget about who you are"
"Oh? Your only hope at catching a murderer?"
Anitas blood goes cold and she feels her face pale making Mobius place a hand on her shoulder.
"No, a cosmic mistake"
"That's enough" the analyst says, mainly to stop the argument but also to calm the younger girl.
"Here's the deal, when we get out on the branch, we're not just looking for a time criminal, we're looking for a Loki, a variation of this guy" he points towards the raven haired man.
"A type we should be very familiar with because the TVA has pruned a lot of these guys, almost more than any other variant" Mobius continues as he tampers about on his device to show them all different versions of the man stood a few people round in the circle.
"And no two are alike, slight differences in appearances or not so slight, different powers although powers generally include shape shifting, illusion projecting and my favourite" he is cut off before he can finish and Anitas eyes grow confused.
She has never met anyone with these kind of abilities. She has been subjected to the power of the white man. One world controlled for their own good. It made her wonder how much she had missed out on. How much she didn't know.
"Duplication casting" Loki says.
"Illusion projection"
"No they're two completely different powers"
"How?" Anita asks making him look over to her, it was one of the first times she had spoken to him since they had first met.
"Illusion- projection involves depicting a detailed image from outside oneself which is perceptible in the external world whereas duplication casting entails recreating an exact facsimile of ones own body in its present circumstance which acts as a true holographic mirror of its molecular structure" he pauses before looking to the rest of the group.
"But you already knew that" he smirks.
"Okay take a breath, noted, we're gonna break into two teams including myself and Professor Loki" Mobius teases.
"Why?" Someone at the side asks.
"Because whoever this variant is, we haven't been able to find him so let's bring in an expert"
"That's me!" Loki winks and Anita rolls her eyes as she turns around and starts walking off with Mobius, the god running to keep up with the rest of them.
"Do I get a weapon?" He asks as he sees the rest of the group getting theirs together.
"Nah"
"Do I?" Anita asks and he nods handing her a gun that he's kept the safety on.
"Well, I'll have my magic back, is no one concerned about that?"
"Of what?"
"Me betraying you"
"No"
"Why not?" He asks almost offended.
"Loki, Anita here is a trained assassin and has been taken against her will after escaping, she's more likely to betray us plus you already know we can catch you and how's betraying us gonna get you any closer to the Time Keepers?"
"An audience with the time keepers is on the table?"
"Keep that focus" Mobius says before he starts moving the pair along with his hand on each of their backs.
Anita knows this is a soft gesture though but she can't help her mind from wandering to what Loki had said. Who were the time keepers and why did he want to see them so badly? Was Mobius keeping things from her? She wanted to trust him, she honestly did. But she knew that she had to trust herself and Loki first.