Monster Within

He played us. From the start, he played us. He knew we were on his back and distracted us by pulling Mako's family into this. I have to inform Sylvie later.

"Where are you two from, exactly?" asks Mako.

Oh I forgot we are having a conversation. "You might have heard of it. Asgard is where we're from."

"I don't think I've heard of it." says Mako finishing her food.

"Alright, I'm not surprised," I say awkwardly. I forgot father only rules the Nine Realms.

"How did you do that? Blasting things from your hands or grabbing weapons in thin air."

"Um, it's called Magic." I say. "Let me show you." I open my hand and cast a small illusion of fireworks. "My mother taught me how to do this when I was young."

"It's…beautiful," she says, admiring the sparks of green, red and orange fireworks with a tiny sound of explosion. "Is your mother doing alright?"

Mother… I guess it depends on which universe she wants to know. Some alive and some dead. Some even fight against the All Father. My mother didn't die in my timeline but she would if the TVA didn't take me away and her blood would be on my hands

"She's alright. She's in a peaceful place." Rest in Valhalla, Mother. "We should get to your children." I stand up.

I finished two trays of food. I don't know why I get hungrier these days. I barely even finished my food back then. We leave the cafeteria and head to the room where we rest.

When we arrive at the room, we can already hear the sound of Kaje, Kane and other children laughing in the corner. Sylvie's conjured astral projections of a bunny and a puppy and the children are playing with them while the adults are smiling from afar. I can tell children usually don't laugh this happily during the war. For the icing to the cake, I conjure a nature setting around the children with trees, flowers and the sun shining through the fog. Everyone was admiring the view of nature which seems to have been long gone for them because of this pointless war. I glance around the room and find Sylvie's giving me a stare.

"Show off," she says telepathically.

"Well, I taught you this spell, didn't I?"

It's late so we go to sleep soon after. The projection slowly blends itself with the air and disappears. Mako sleeps with her children next to her in her corner, while Sylvie and I lean against each other and sleep.

Out of the blue, I hear someone talking. Who could it be? Everyone is asleep isn't it? I hear a female and male I hear talking to each other. When I peek my eyes, I see Mako is talking with a guy, hiding in the shadows. Who is it she's talking to?

"What do you mean?" asks Mako.

"There's an imposter lurking in the dark. I don't know about you but your visitors seem suspicious." His voice is deep and a little intimidating.

Said the guy is literally lurking in the dark and sounds more like an imposter than we are.

"They saved our lives. I ca–"

"Our patrols have found tropes walking around our area. It seems like they were informed about the location or you got somebody on your tail when you came back here. Thanks to our newly developed camouflage, it can buy us some time to evacuate this place tomorrow."

"But there are your wounded soldiers. What are you going to do with them?"

"If they can walk, walk with us. If they are to the point of dying on their bed. Sorry, we have to leave them." I can sense the anger in his voice.

"You can't do that–"

"We have no choice, Mako."

"If they found them here. They will torture them."

"They will know what to do then."

"General, please."

General? That's the general she's talking to.

"Sorry, Mako. But firstly, we have to be cautious. There might be an actual spy among us. What was the game you played with your children? Monster was it? I've heard you are very good at spotting the Monster. Consider I give you the job to spot one, only this time is life and death. Good night, Mako."

Mako is gasping for air after the general leaves. The pressure he puts on her is quite…big for a person who just lost a husband. There's nothing I can do here. I can't just straight up ask her. It would prove that I was eavesdropping on their whole conversation…maybe not the whole conversation but enough information to understand the situation.

She went back to her children and lay down next to them. Rest, Mako, Sylvie and I will take care of this.

"Are you awake?" Sylvie asks telepathically.

"Yeah, you heard them too?"

"Yes. What are you going to do?"

"Well, we're already helping them. Let's finish the job."

Protecting this family is our top priority. I lost my family, I won't let the same thing happen again with her children. These people are also under our protection. Time to play heroes, brother, like you always do.

The next day, when Mako and her children head to the cafeteria, we head to their general office. Sylvie has to enchant one of the people here to get there. I told her it was unnecessary, since we can ask anyone here but she wants to avoid conversation. We walk through the empty hallway with flickering lights in some areas. Finally, we made it to his office. The door looks thick and sturdy, it seems like merely a tank can pierce through it. I knock on the heavy door and wait for a response. A few short seconds after, he slides the small window on the door open to see who we are.

"You two, what do you need?" His voice sounds like he is being annoyed.

He might still have suspected us for being spies. I understand since ever since we got here, patrols of the government start to poke their noses around this area.

"Do you need our aid on anything?" I say.

"...No," he wants to close the window on us but Sylvie stops him.

"Let us in, so we can talk," says Sylvie, grabbing his hand through the small window.

Sylvie's enchantment commands the general to open the door and lets us take a seat in front of his desk. The room is quite tidy compared to all of the rooms we walked past. The kitchen wasn't as clean and shiny as this room. The files on his desk are well-organised. Even the smallest details like paper clips are sorted from big to small in their boxes. He's so organised and I was impressed. Wait what? Me? Impressed?

"I'm General Paristo. What do you need?" asks the General.

He has a thick brown beard with the end tied as braid. This look would have looked perfect on you, brother. Sadly, Thor refuses to grow this beard. Wait, or he can't grow one? He's wearing a white uniform with a flower panel on his forearms and a gold star pinning on his left chest.

"I'm Sylvie and he is–"

"Loki." Oh you are introducing me? Sorry

"Yes... Is there anything we can help?" Sylvie asks.

"Can you clean?"

"What?" Sylvie confuses.

"Can you cook?"

"Um I'm–"

"Then, no. We don't have any available jobs that you can take."

"Hold on. We can do even more than that," Sylvie protests.

"If you can't cook and clean. What can you do?" replies Paristo.

"We can fight. Better than you is what I would say." This will shut you up.

"I like your confidence, Floki," he says.

It's Loki and you know it.

"Alright, but can I trust you?" You just came here yesterday. Sure you have Mako and her family but sadly not her husband. So, would you like to share?"

I'm not going to share anything with this guy. He already gets on my nerves when he talks to Slyvie like that. Now, I'm considering if I really need your help and intel.

"No, I guess." He leans back and crosses his arms. "There's nothing I can do for you if you decide to not share intel about yourself." He stands up and walks to the door.

He opens the door and gestures to us to leave. This conversation is worse than the conversation I had with Thor about Amora and I were just friends. We stand up and walk out of the cleanest room of this bunker. We don't need his help. No wonder why there are so many male casualties. He underestimated all females here. I believe there would be women here who are ready to fight and protect their family. With them, they will gain more manpower for the war. I'm not sure if this only happens here in this bunker or also other bunkers around this planet. While walking, we heard a siren echo across the bunker.

Mako! I need to get there. Sylvie and I rush toward their room. Mako found out who the spy was already? If so, it's true that she is excellent at spotting the 'Monster' among us. When we got there, no one was in the room anymore. They are evacuating. I need to find them. I leave the room and start following the people.

"It's Mako! This way!" I heard a guard say.

Sylvie and I heard him and switched our destination toward where the guard was heading. They are running toward the main gate. Probably the security breach from the spy. The spy might have sent the signal or somehow destroyed the camouflage, revealing the base to the enemy. When we arrived at the main control room, I needed a short time to process the situation. Mako , you breached the security of the base?