I'm Listening

Chapter 14 - Hydra

They might be invisible, but Loki still feels better keeping his back pressed to the wall as he and Stark inch their way through the hallway, headed towards where Loki can feel the seidr emanating from the scepter. The energy is so powerful and stifling that Loki is mildly surprised that normal mortals can't sense it, though to be fair, unlike them, he has seidr. And he's also spent a lot of time around seidr and magical objects.

"How much further?" whispers Stark as Loki uses his seidr to soundlessly unlock the door ahead of them.

"There should be a computer up ahead," Loki answers, just as quietly, as the door opens. They dart through before anyone has a chance to wonder why a door opened by itself. There have been a number of security officers inside dressed in all black, and Loki is getting bad vides from them. Something strange is going on, and they need to discover what that is. "You can hack that, while I proceed to the next chamber which should contain the scepter."

Stark nods, following the unspoken rule to keep talking to a minimum. It was almost too easy for them to infiltrate the building, though that's probably because mortal technology is incapable of detecting or stopping Loki when he's invisible and using his seidr to conceal his presence. He thinks it's a good thing that he wasn't so badly brainwashed by Thanos that he tried to conquer Midgard willingly. Short of killing him, nothing could have slowed him down.

Pushing those dark thoughts from mind, Loki points towards a computer terminal which is turned off and sitting innocently on a desk. The room has a window for what seems like observation purposes. It's almost as though whoever took the scepter – provided someone did, in fact, remove it from SHIELD custody without anyone realizing – has been studying it. That can't be a good thing.

Stark silently moves to the terminal and begins working to get access to the files within so he can download them. Loki, meanwhile, peers through the window to the room beyond. The scepter is lying in a glass case on a table. He walks to the door leading to that chamber, using his seidr to deactivate the separate alarms before entering. Before they broke into the facility, Loki had remotely taken all the security offline. By the time the people here realize that their systems were tampered with, he and Stark will be long gone.

Looking at the scepter, Loki can't suppress the shudder that runs through his body. He loathes the Mind Stone and everything which it represents. Despite the time he's spent trying to recover from what happened to him, despite the support which Thor, Stark, Rogers, and Banner have given him, it's not enough to erase the past. Truthfully, there's nothing which can heal the damage Loki suffered, except perhaps time.

Steeling himself against the memories which he knows will surface, Loki opens the case and lifts out the scepter. He can still remember the day when Thanos put it into his hands with orders to go down and conquer Midgard before bringing him the Infinity Stones on the Realm. Thankfully, that plan had failed... but what if it hadn't? What if Thor hadn't listened to Loki that night? He shakes his head slightly, twisting his wrist to store the scepter in his pocket dimension. The nearness of the Mind Stone is already affecting him, which isn't surprising. He needs to get it as far away as possible and fast.

"Are you done?" Loki questions, leaving the room and returning to stand next to Stark.

"Nearly," the man replies, shifting impatiently. "I'm not sure how long it will take them to realize that their computer system has been hacked, and I don't want to tempt fate. JARVIS is going to stall them somewhat, but I can't guarantee that it'll be entirely foolproof. I mean, they probably will never figure out who did it –"

"Actually," Loki interrupts, "It'll be easy for them to determine the culprit because whoever took the scepter is presumably the same who tampered with their system. We need a way to hide the Mind Stone from their scanners, especially since I have no intentions of keeping it hidden with me."