"Damn.." Coming out of the bar, Tony Stark stretched his arms.
"It's becoming pretty clear. The Mandarin invested in Killian, and Killian used that money to develop Extremis."
He flipped through the documents Mrs. Davis had given him. "Look—these are Killian's experiments on disabled veterans."
Lynn's gaze went straight to the AIM logo printed at the top.
Good lord. He'd never noticed it when watching the movie in his previous life—AIM had been Killian's real financial backing.
Which made perfect sense. Developing Extremis required an enormous amount of funding.
And the Mandarin was just an actor.
He opened his mouth to warn Tony— Woosh!
But the next second, the air in front of them rippled.
A circle of green energy spun into existence, forming a portal.
On the other side, a person all too familiar sat on a throne, green timeline strands branching out behind him.
"..Loki?"
Seeing Loki wearing his antlered crown, Tony instantly tensed up.
In his mind, Loki was still the villain who led the Chitauri invasion of Earth.
"Don't be nervous, Tony Stark. I mean no harm," Loki said through the portal.
"Oh really? And you expect me to believe a single word out of your mouth?"
Tony angled his head slightly, giving Lynn a subtle wink—his universal signal for be ready in case this guy stabs us.
That's how Thor got skewered, after all.
"Hello, Mr. Hall, I am Loki—Loki from a very, very distant future. I need your help with something."
"As for Tony Stark's problem… trust me, he can handle it just fine."
Lynn frowned at the sight of Loki sitting on the Time Throne, radiating the unmistakable aura of the God of Time.
"I don't think there's anything I can help you with."
"You can. In fact, you're the only one who can."
As Loki finished speaking, the time portal in front of them suddenly expanded and wrapped around Lynn.
Before either Lynn or Tony could react, Lynn vanished along with the portal.
"Hey! Bambi, where did you take Lynn?"
Tony lunged forward, fists clenched, ready to fight to the death if he had to.
"Stark, you'll thank me one day."
Loki gave Tony a maddeningly calm smile—and a second later, the portal blinked out of existence.
"Hey—!"
The world returned to normal as if nothing had happened… except Lynn was gone.
Tony reached forward instinctively—and grabbed nothing but air.
"FUUCCCKKKKK!"
He hissed the curse through clenched teeth, planting his hands on his hips. "Damn it."
Time Variance Authority—inside an office.
"Please, sit."
Loki, curly hair draped over his shoulders, gestured gracefully for Lynn to take a seat.
Lynn pulled out a chair and sat across from him. "Aren't you worried I might attack you? The Battle of New York just ended—not long ago, you were our biggest enemy."
"Battle of New York…"
At the name, a faint nostalgia flickered in Loki's eyes. "It feels like it was yesterday… and also like it was ages ago."
"Back then, my idiot brother hadn't turned into a big fat man yet, the Avengers were all still alive, and even my mother was still alive."
He gave a self-mocking smile, then looked at Lynn again. "Lynn, allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Loki, the God of Time."
"The Loki you know is still locked in an Asgardian prison. I'm from the future. I'm not the same Loki from your timeline."
With a wave of his hand, an image materialized in the air.
In it, the Loki from Lynn's timeline lay in an Asgard dungeon, one arm behind his head as a pillow while the other idly tossed a wine glass into the air and caught it.
As if sensing the gaze on him, that imprisoned Loki caught the glass mid-air and glanced toward Lynn and the Time God version of himself.
But the imprisoned Loki merely shook his head and went back to tossing the glass lazily.
"This is the me of your timeline—me at your current point in time."
With another small wave, the image dissolved into nothing.
"Now.." Loki turned back to Lynn with a quiet smile. "I come from the future. I once longed endlessly to become a true god."
"But when I finally became one… I found myself envying my life in Asgard."
"Do you know what my favorite pastime is now, sitting on the Time Throne? Watching my childhood over and over again."
He let out a soft sigh. "If only I hadn't been blinded by jealousy back then."
Lynn frowned, staying silent.
He knew what Loki had become—and how he had become the God of Time.
But he still couldn't understand why Loki was looking for him.
Noticing Lynn's confusion, Loki continued, "The universe isn't singular. I've seen countless parallel universes. Take Tony Stark, for example."
"In some of them, Tony Stark is Iron Man—a superhero who saved half the universe."
"In others, Tony Stark is a tyrant—a scoundrel who sparked a war between mutants and ordinary humans, profited off it in the final moments, then used viruses and engineered bacteria to wipe out countless lives, eventually becoming Earth's ruler."
"And of course, I've also seen Tony Stark as a hopeless alcoholic… who later turned into a zombie."
Loki looked at Lynn, his expression uncharacteristically serious. "But here's the thing I'm most grateful for: across the countless universes I've witnessed, you are the only one who is unique."
"That means everyone else in the multiverse has variants.. including me. But you do not."
Lynn raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me that across the entire multiverse, I'm the only one without a variant?"
"Not exactly."
Loki thought for a moment, then shook his head. "There is also a little girl. But she isn't like you."
"How is she different?"
"If she dies, she's dead," Loki said. "But you… you cannot die."
"My point is—although I don't know why you have immortality, that is exactly why I chose you."
Hearing Loki openly acknowledge his immortality, Lynn leaned back in his chair.
"You're already the God of Time. You're telling me you can't handle this yourself? You really need me?"