Ron opened the door to the Lieutenant's office, this time however only after he received permission from inside to do so.
The escort team all looked at Loki with wide eyes since he'd been able to pull off something so scary so effortlessly.
Some began to wonder if they'd already been affected by Loki while escorting him and others wondered if they could perhaps learn his methods, or even if they could learn how to get into that 'special' division that Loki was a part of.
"Lieutenant, could you explain to all of us what you've done? Of course anything that's too sensitive for our ears," Loki said with a pause motioning to the escort team members with his gaze before continuing, "can be hidden, but please be truthful about the rest."
Loki was constantly using the Mentor Of Deceit Characteristics on his person to take control of Lt. Kelming's spirit body threads through the Sefirah Castle to make the man talk as he wished him to.
In the end, Kelming's words were going to form his cover story for manipulating both the muggles at the LCF as well as the Beyonders.
"A secretive terrorist organisation whose members call it the Aurora Order has infiltrated the LCF through its staff. Turning individual members slowly through gradual corruption by acting based on satisfying their greed."
"The terrorist organisation wants to trigger the launch so that they can hold various nations hostage to meet their equally crazy demands of people agreeing to human sacrifices for their Lord."
"...Hmm, and what would've been your role in all this Lieutenant?"
Everyone could see the question slightly 'embarrassed' Kelmings, but he spoke after a certain amount of internal conflict depicted through his mostly wry expression.
"I wished to infiltrate them to understand their modus operandi so that I could prepare a comprehensive report for the higher ranks to avoid the situation."
"....and?" Loki asked after Kelming suddenly paused.
"Unfortunately, after I learnt about it, I lost my sense of composure and fell right into the trap of desire…."
"Hmm…"
The escort force shifted uncomfortably, the stark change in personality a sharp contrast to earlier and a reminder that Loki wasn't as simple as he seemed.
But they were even more shocked and surprised by the betrayal of their well respected Lieutenant!
Meanwhile Ron and Belmont stood truly aghast at how easily Loki had controlled what was very likely a Sequence 5 Beyonder.
'A simple confundus charm?'
Ron couldn't believe it.
He'd seen Fred and George use it several times, sometimes even on him, but each time they did, Ron distinctly remembered being able to break free in case of extreme emotions.
After all, the confundus charm wasn't the Imperious curse, it couldn't make you do what you didn't acquiesce to. One could resist it rather easily, even a mentally strong muggle could resist one from a general adult wizard, hence the specially needed Muggle repelling charm which was stronger and more advanced.
Which was what made what was in front of them all the more wonderful to both Ron and Belmont.
They'd never even seen Loki pull out his wand during the entire time they were in the room previously. Which could only mean that he'd done it wandlessly and silently. Something that not even the strongest of wizards could hope to ever perform without dedicating their entire lives to the mastery of this one spell.
And Loki was just a wee little fifth year at Hogwarts.
He didn't have a grand shiny beard or a dark past that would've let him rise to such power by experimenting on unsuspecting muggles.
He was a bonafide pure Hogwarts student.
'So the only other option for the source of his strength would be…'
House Black.
Both Ron and Belmont concluded.
Ron because he'd heard Sirius telling him several times when he'd met him during the Order of Phoenix meetings that members of the Black Family could see through the true intentions and darkness in the hearts of most people.
Belmont because as a Vampire he'd seen the darker streets of the world that the wizards usually avoided. He knew what weight the Black family name carried in those streets. Offended someone related to the Black? Forget about ever sleeping after that, since the moment you did you'd never wake again. And when someone discovered the body days later, they would only see a shocked expression of terror on their faces.
Clearly the Black family was a master of the mind arts.
It was only after joining the Unspeakables that Belmont learned about the Black family's pathway, the Sleepless pathway, but given their secrecy not much was known about it from the mid sequence beyonder and up levels.
Ron and Belmont sighed silently, looked at each other and reaffirmed each other with a soft gaze that they would never offend Loki even if their lives were being threatened and depended on it.
Loki, unaware of his unconsciously growing reputation, continued 'interrogating Kelming'.
"Lieutenant, could you compile a list of known and suspected spies that you've had a chance of uncovering?"
"No need for me to compile it." Kelming 'said' boldly.
But the escort officers found it appalling and mistook it for defiance as one of them shouted out loud, "Bloody hell Lieutenant! Have some shame for the sake of your time here!! For the command your designation holds!"
But Kelming quietly raised his hand to silence the voice and then turned to the drawer on his desk and opened it.
His sudden movement caused a few members of the escort team to pull out their weapons and take aim, but when Kelming simply opened the drawer slowly and pulled out a notebook they appeared confused for a moment before realising what it was.
Kelming spoke to confirm.
"This contains a list of all the confirmed and potential spies currently in the facility. You can act upon it as you see fit."
He placed his hand on the desk and just when everyone thought that was going to be all, as Chadwick moved to pick up the notebook the Lieutenant spoke up again.
"As of this moment, effective immediately. For colluding with foreign forces and acting against the interests of the nation. I, Lieutenant Kelming Otter, dismiss myself. In lieu, Technical Sergeant Loki Black will be taking over emergency control until higher command arrives."
Chadwick froze.
His eyes widened as he immediately pulled out his gun and aimed it at Loki's head.
Loki frowned and raised his hands, "Would you believe me if I told you that I wasn't making him do that?"
Loki lied.
Not one to know about Beyonders or even wizards, Chadwick turned towards Kelming who was looking at him with a weary old gaze that seemed to say he'd had enough.
"I'm not so weak-willed to have been controlled so easily, Staff Sergeant, regardless of how Technical Sergeant Loki here has been able to suggest my previous actions."
"Bu-" Chadwick started, finding it all very suspicious but Kelming raised his hand again and continued.
"What Technical Sergeant currently did only showed me a mirror of what I had become. And although I failed to do justice to my designation before, I wish to do it right now."
"I cannot be sure of your innocence, or of anyone in this facility for that matter after what I've seen and done. Hence Sergeant Loki will take the lead."
Seeing Chadwick still not lowering his weapon, Kelming gave him a sharp look as he spoke sternly, "Sergeant insubordination is not the answer right now. The answer lies in the names on the book here."
Chadwick stared directly into Kelming's eyes and tried to make some sense out of the whole situation.
What if Loki was still just controlling all this?
But could such deep control be achieved in such a short time?
Something like that would have to be magical if it did and would've been discovered by a lot of people long ago and made a lot of noise.
Still stuck in the frame of view he'd built up until now Chadwick finally sighed and lowered his weapon.
But he hadn't given up completely.
So he quickly spoke.
"My mission to escort Technical Sergeant Loki has not ended yet."
Kelming looked at Chadwick for a few seconds before nodding.
With the matter settled the tense atmosphere in the room relaxed slightly only for it to tighten again when Loki picked up the notebook containing the fates of several people and flipped it open.
Loki scanned through the pages quickly.
While to the others it looked like Loki was scanning through to check its contents and see what it was all about, Loki himself was only verifying the contents of the book he'd created himself, because his next plan depended on it.
When they had walked out of the room earlier after being rejected by the Lieutenant, Loki had already started his plan to parasitise the one using the Lieutenant's body as his host.
But since the Lieutenant didn't have any 'food' in him Loki knew that the Beyonder had fully merged with his body.
Meaning that the Lieutenant would die once the Shepherd left his body and separated from him.
And given the Lieutenant's sudden change in attitude, the 'parasite' was either controlling him through magic or some Beyonder item.
So Loki had no choice but to parasitise or rather turn into marionettes both the Lieutenant and the Beyonder using him as the host just so that when he parasitised the Beyonder the Lieutenant wouldn't explode into flesh once the Beyonder was extracted.
But Loki hoped that things wouldn't have to come to that.
He still had a weaker version of the marionette spell after all, one that simply allowed him to capture control of a person's body without killing them.
Once he left the room, Loki used a tactic similar to the one he employed on Rose Bishops hidden in the shadows, on the Lieutenant's parasite.
He grabbed his attention through a worm hidden under his table that was covered by the grey fog, repeatedly whispering broken contents of the Honorific name of the True Creator.
Once the Beyonder was sufficiently distracted and exposed his spirit body thread, the worm of time slipped into it and flash banged him with information about the True Creator while parasitising him as Loki exploited his proximity to the Beyonder through the Sefirah Castle to turn him into a marionette too.
That was when Loki realised he'd stumbled upon a jackpot, the Lieutenant was host to a Sequence 5 Shepherd.
With that, Loki quickly scrambled through the Lieutenant's memories to form the next stages of his plan.
And that required splitting the team into two.
While Ron and Belmont were useful, Loki decided it was time for them to handle the less dangerous matters, as such, Loki was going to send them to fight the two Rose Bishops that had fully melded into their hosts just like the Shepherd had done with the Lieutenant and other officers who were 'parasitised' too.
Meanwhile, Loki would go around pursuing and 'parasitising' the remaining Hanged Man Pathway Beyonders who had hidden inside the stomachs of various officers.
But Loki was in a rush.
Their group couldn't go too far after the Lieutenant rejected them for the fear of being kicked out of the LF or the whole thing devolving into some bigger mess that required a lot more confounding to do and alerting their enemy into acting violently.
And this meant that he'd have to finish his entire plot against the Aurora Order currently in the Launch Facility before they returned from the lift to the office.
So with no time to write down a grand diary or plan to implicate the names of every officer host to members of the Aurora Order and then frame it for everyone to see, Loki had improvised.
Loki made Kelming pick up a routine performance measuring book that he kept in his desk to keep track of those under his jurisdiction and quickly marked each spot that was a member of the Aurora Order in the memories that he had gathered from the Shepherd with either a question mark or a dot.
He marked them based on if they were hosts carrying Aurora Order members or random people that Ron and Belmont could be distracted with by sending them on a goose chase.
In the end, Loki added two Rose Bishops who had fully melded with their hosts to be killed, one was their handler, Karl, who Loki had failed to notice had been replaced, and the other was an officer in charge of keeping the doors closed in case of an emergency.
Both were on the upper levels, away from where Loki wanted to go, deeper into the Launch Facility.
But Loki also wanted them, Ron and Belmont, to realise that this Rose Bishop could block the Outlast of all the muggles in the area for some foolish ritual, and hence hoped for them to kill him as soon as possible to help them out.
And it was also meant to keep them distracted so that he could take on the bigger fish lower in the Launch Control Facility.
But that still left Hermione, Tonks and the other Unspeakables that had given them a cold shoulder earlier.
For them Loki had a special mission.
Defeating a Demigod of the Hanged Man Pathway.
Loki was almost completely sure that he couldn't take on all the demigods, Sequence 4 Black Knight, in the facility.
Even if there were only about three or four if even a few of them had powers from general purpose ability counter pathways like the Lawyer and the Arbiter it would most definitely make them a nightmare to handle quickly, especially since they were going to be prepared to fight against him while he was going in blind.
He had some information from the memories of the newly captured Shepherd, but Loki wasn't betting on it being accurate or even useful since he wasn't sure that the same Demigods in the Shepherd's memories would appear here.
And so Loki was hoping to rush to turn more Beyonders into his marionettes.
So that if push came to shove they could all pull out an 'Et tu, Brute?' for those Demigods just in case he got his hands on one before the battle even started.
'I know the location of two other shepherds…the only question is if I'll be able to get to them in time without alerting any of them.'
'And also if I can handle those many marionettes…'
"What's in that book Loki?" Ron asked, his eyes keenly studying the expression of genuine trouble on Loki's face.
"...it's not good. There's about fifty people marked here." Loki said, finally showing the book to everyone.
Everyone stood stunned with shock.
Fifty people!?
What was that number!?
Was the Lieutenant trying to fool them!? Waste their time so that they'd be too late to stop something key that was currently happening!?!?
After all, how could a mere terrorist organisation smuggle in fifty thoroughly vetted people pushed through the finest combs of national security offices and forces!?
That was like saying, you were working in a WcDonalds only to find out the next day that during your time cleaning the kitchen before opening for the day, the WcDonalds suddenly turned into a Wc King.
'Are we the true spies?' the members of the Escort teams suddenly asked themselves.
Ron and Belmont were similarly surprised and shocked.
But they were also horrified.
Since that meant that there were more of these strong Beyonders right in here, in this facility!!
Who knows, maybe they'd already been caught and had just been playing into their plans with open hands.
Ron gulped audibly, breaking the silence before Loki spoke softly.
"About thirty of these are unconfirmed spies. Ron, Belmont, I'll leave it to you."
They nodded, immediately.
Loki turned towards Chadwick, "Could you send a few along with them? I don't think we have the time to go through them as a team."
Chadwick quickly looked over the pages of the book and sighed when he reached the same conclusion as Loki. Especially when he saw that even a few of his comrades that he'd served times with elsewhere had been implicated.
The worst part was that the members of the communications department were implicated too, courtesy Loki since he didn't want word of this to get out in any way and turn the situation more troublesome from the muggle end. So they could forget about sending High command any messages for now.
Chadwick couldn't wrap his head around how, but he just knew that he had to get this over with.
With his world crumbling around him, he felt it was his duty to hold it back from being taken over by such a ruthlessly aggressive terrorist organisation.
He turned to Loki and nodded before separating four members from the already small team, leaving him alone with Loki as they separated with Ron and Belmont, leaving with a copy of the list of names with question marks.
"Where do we start?" Chadwick asked Loki.
Loki nodded, "We'll start with the floors nearby first. I'll hypnotise anyone connected to fall asleep until given the command to awaken."
Chadwick's eyes widened but Loki didn't care, he turned towards Kelming.
"If I might ask, Lieutenant, after we reach the lower floor, could you help us get in touch with the Missile Combat Crew Commander?"
"Huh?" Chadwick was surprised, rightfully so since the MCCC was the main guy who had the authority to launch a missile, or one of the few in the facility. "He's not on the list right?" he asked, rechecking the list.
Loki shook his head as he explained, "He is not. But that doesn't mean we can't use him as bait to gather a lot of the spies at one spot before eliminating them all at the same time."
"...how…" Chadwick asked, confused.
So Loki elaborated.
"Simple. We'll just set up a meeting with the MCCC and then make the infiltrators think that we're cutting off their access to the Nukes. Once they realise that their carefully worked plan has been exposed they'll come to us directly since they've seen that we haven't used the communications department first."
"In simpler words-"
"-We know the enemy clearly values their place in this facility very much given how many of them there are here. So we'll just have to bring them to us by using ourselves as bait."
"Ho…" Chadwick exhaled, his eyes gleaming as he found a newfound respect within his mind for Loki.
"Don't be surprised just yet." Loki joked, "After all, there are probably crazier things to come."
Chadwick cracked a smile, "If there are crazier things to come the only surprise anymore would be if someone suddenly told me that magic was real."
Loki nearly choked on a laugh but managed to keep calm as he smiled mysteriously at Chadwick who just assumed Loki was laughing at his joke.
Then his face turned serious when Loki finally said-
"Let's begin."
…
Hermione looked at the patrolling officer they'd been tailing for some time now under a thick layer of the disillusionment charm and the muggle repelling charm after using a confundus charm on the officer to guide them to the next elevator.
It had already been a while since she'd used her confundus charm and she knew she hadn't used a great deal of spirituality while casting it to make sure that the Muggle wasn't harmed in any way.
But she had this strange feeling.
She kept feeling like there was something wrong about the space around the patrolling officer.
It was as if his body mass was occupying a lot less space than it needed.
She acutely felt like the person in front of her should've been a fat merchant given how much mass was stuffed together in the same space his body occupied.
She'd already activated her Spirit Vision several times to make sure if the person she was looking at was a Beyonder or someone Muggle, but the test always turned up empty.
The man was undoubtedly a muggle, through and through.
At least her spirit vision told her so.
But the funny thing was that Tonks, someone who hadn't yet gotten any special spirit vision was also equally confused since her enhanced spiritual intuition was telling her that the person they were tailing wasn't normal.
Hermione and Tonks shared a glance.
Wondering, debating and trying to decide what they should do in this situation.
Hermione asked her mentally, through her eyes, 'You feel it too?'
Tonks nodded, mentally.
Hermione's eyes widened slightly at the confirmation before she asked, 'Your call, you're the superior.'
Tonks finally nodded and then turned towards the patrolling officer before speaking with Hermione under a soft local muffliato charm that prevented the other patrolling officers from hearing their discussion.
"Let's follow them. He seems to be a Beyodner, possibly using Mid to High Sequence Mystical Items. There can't be any more than one or two of him and his group in a tightly vetted place like this one. So we should be able to handle him just fine if we're able to take him by surprise.'
Hermione looked back at the officer, now identified as a Beyonder, they were tailing and nodded.
"Alright."
And thus began Tonk's and Hermione's new mission.
To isolate the Beyonder and interrogate him. Nothing too spooky just yet, they'd only stop him for some light questioning.
Hermione quickly began to use the Confundus charm once again, casting them on the other patrolling officers to make them change directions, taking surprise turns that they knew would lead to the team getting split up.
The charm was even more light than before so as to not alert the Beyonder of their methods and suspicions.
Taking a page out of the stories from the Gospel of Mr. Error, Hermione even prepared a backup plan just in case things took a turn for the worse by casting an illusion charm.
The large group of eight patrolling officers soon trimmed down to six, then to four and finally two.
It was rather easy.
Hermione and Tonks made sure to make the officers inform their head officers about their upset stomachs and the need to go to the bathroom.
But to keep their target from suspecting anything, Hermione had been weaving detailed illusions using the Error pathway spells. Replacing any missing officers with life like replicas.
'We have him!' both Hermione and Tonks cheered at the same time as they finally had their target down alone to the last person in a dimly lit corridor.
Or so they thought.
…
'Forgive me Lord!! For even I am unable to get these two to step into the shadows!'
The Rose Bishop, currently hiding in the body of his host officer, cursed as he used the shadows around himself to look at the two girls who had been tailing him for a while, looking clever and smirking as if they'd gotten him in a trap all along.
He lamented at his cursed luck that seemed to be doing everything to make sure he was currently absolutely miserable.
He'd long spotted the two witches prancing around the corridors like they owned the place after simply casting a bit of the dirty-flesh repelling charm.
After seeing them target his host, he'd immediately gone on full alert, wondering if these girls were perhaps related to the target they had been lying in wait for all day.
As such, he wished to capture and interrogate them.
But unable to do so directly while merged with his host's body he could only use indirect means such as controlling the shadows around them to launch a surprise attack at the two.
But he doubted even that would work easily since he could listen to the murmurs of two undigested Sequence 7 potions.
They were vague, faint, and ones that only existed at the time of advancement for Beyonders solely for the purpose of making them lose control by giving them excess information.
But he, a member of the glorious pathway of his Lord, had once been a listener, one who could listen to the secrets of the beyond.
As such, currently as a Rose Bishop, he could listen quite accurately to the whispers of their mystical selves and guess their sequence and potion digestion state accurately.
Thus given the time he'd need to exit his host, he needed to land a clean strike to capture them and then interrogate them about why they'd been tailing him.
Was their plan exposed?
Had they failed in the Lord's work even before it had started?
What would the Lord say to such incompetence!?
The Rose Bishop shuddered to even think about it.
And so when the duo led him into a dimly lit service maintenance area, his being lit up with joy.
Shadows! Shadows everywhere!
Now they just had to take a simple step into one of them and then he could ensnare them and sacrifice them to the Lord up above.
But like the entire time they'd come here.
The girl whose hair kept switching colours, a Metamorphmagus, had somehow always keenly stepped only in the light, she seemed intuitive.
So had the other girl with the bushy hair, though her stepping seemed keen and pre-cognitive, as if she could foresee the exact moment he tried to use the shadows for an attack.
Were they playing with him?! Simply infuriating him for some sick twisted pleasure!? Just like he wanted to do to them!?
Well either way, if they thought he was prey and they could enjoy seeing him cornered, they were wrong!
Since there was nobody nearby anyways, he could take his mask off, totally, and beat up these annoying little girls.
---
A/N : Sorry for the delay.