If we're following the Loki dies (Thor 1, Thor 2, and IW), then Loki steals the tesseract (Avengers 1, Thor 3, and Endgame) pattern...this is what I'd like to see happen at the end of the Loki series. Like an end-credit scene. (Are they going to have mid- and end- credit scenes in the Disney+ shows?)

Basically, if 2018 Loki's dead, which I think he is, 2012 Loki has to somehow travel to the main MCU timeline, right? 'Cause Thor 4 would seem kinda empty without him. When he does do this, everyone in his timeline will think he died, when really, he just traveled to a different universe.

Yeah, this is just my theory.

Reviews, anyone? Please? *puppy dog eyes*

Loki smiled (kind of, he never really smiled any more; it was more like a sneer).

The spell had worked, the space stone had transported him across universes, and now he was in a whole new world he could torment.

He looked at New York from on top of a building. Well, this universe's New York.

He frowned. This universe was right next to his. It couldn't be that different, could it?

"Oh, this world is very different from the one you came from," a voice drawled out from behind him. His voice.

He didn't turn around. "You're this universe's version of me. I've trapped you in my head and taken your place in this world."

"I'm afraid I'm not anywhere I don't want to be. I'm simply a soul passing through your consciousness."

He turned around then, finding the other Loki casually standing across the rooftop. "So there's two of us here now?"

Other-Loki shook his head. "I never said I had a body, did I?"

It clicked. "I'm dead in this universe."

"I'm afraid so."

His curiosity was piqued. "How?"

"Oh," Other-Loki chuckled darkly, "it wasn't pretty."

Now his curiosity was piqued even more. "What happened?"

"Thanos. He strangled me, broke my neck, and now my body has been floating in the vacuum of space for more or less five years."

A shiver crept up his spine. "Thanos?"

"Oh, don't worry." Other-Loki waved his hand dismissively. "He's dead. Thank Thor for that." He paused. "Or, well, thank Stark for the other Thanos."

"Other Thanos?!"

"The Avengers were idiots, and somehow let 2014 Thanos travel to the future. So, really, there were two Thanoses in this timeline."

Loki blinked. "2014? It's 2013."

Other-Loki looked him up and down. "Perhaps time travels differently in your universe. It's actually 2024 right now."

He pursed his lips. "Why are you telling me all this? You don't seem too keen on taking over the world here."

"Well, I'm dead. Of course I don't care."

"But before?" he inquired.

"Yes, before. Attacked New York in 2012 like you. Faked my death once, temporarily ruled Asgard under Father's guise-"

"Odin is not our father."

"But after everything, I believe I've attained what humans call a 'redemption arc'. At least, that explains why I'm somehow in Valhalla instead of Hel."

Loki blinked. "Your death didn't seem too honorable."

"I suppose not. But the intentions..."

"What intentions?"

Other-Loki crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at him, as if wondering how he was going to take the information. "Thanos has an...obsession with balance. You see, there were only the two of us left on that ship. If I died, then Thor would live. I had to protect Thor."

Loki scoffed. Was he serious? Was this version of him that weak? "Why, when he has wronged us so many times?"

Other-Loki shrugged. "Our brother-"

"He is not-"

"I know, I know. He's not our brother, blah blah blah. Remember, I was you at one point in time." Other-Loki sighed. "Our brother - don't interrupt - he seems to love us, time and time again, no matter how many times we betray him or hurt him or belittle him. It is weirdly...endearing. Touching, really."

"Am I supposed to believe that?"

"Well I am pretty much you, so I'd be inclined to say 'yes'?"

Loki shook his head. "I'm not so sure we're the same people anymore."

"Fundamentally, we are." Other-Loki let that sink in for a few seconds. Loki swallowed; he didn't know what to say to that. Why did he feel like such a child compared to this Loki? "Oh, by the way, once I take my leave, you'll be hit by a deluge of my memories."

Other-Loki smirked. "Do try to keep my reputation intact."

He dissolved into the air, as if he hadn't ever been there.

Loki stared for a short moment before he gasped and crumpled to the ground, holding his head in his hands and trying to hold out against the memories that were his but not his at the same time, memories that could've been his given time.

They flashed one after the other, and he longed to grab at them and slow down the ever-flowing river of lost time.

"And am I not your mother?"

"You're not."

"I didn't do it for him."

"My sons."

"Yeah. Perhaps it's best that we don't ever see each other again."

"It's what you always wanted."

"Your savior is here!"

"With the Eternal Flame, you are reborn."

"Maybe you're not so bad after all, Brother."

"The tesseract or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference."

"Alright, stop!"

"The sun will shine on us again."

He curled up on his side, trying to battle through the alarming amount of grief and loss and other emotions he'd gone through in a matter of seconds.

He touched his face, and was surprised to find tears there. (He didn't remember the last time he'd cried.)

He stayed like that for a long time.

He opened his eyes to see the night sky, to see the stars. He had to rub out the grit that had built up in his eyes. How long had he been asleep?

He rubbed a hand over his face, vaguely registering the dried tears there.

He frowned. Sentiment, that was all. It was sentiment. He thought he'd have a second chance here, he thought...he thought he'd have an actual family here, a world where he hadn't messed up so badly and destroyed everything, pushed people away because that's just who he was, and regret, was that regret speaking? Sentiment and regret? And grief. And loss.

Mother. He looked up at the sky. Was she watching him right now? Was she watching her pathetic excuse for a son wallow in his own tears on a rooftop in a world he didn't belong in?

The last thing he'd said to her...no. The last thing this version of him had said to her...he let out a miserable sob. "I'm sorry," he whispered up, though he didn't really know what he was sorry for, or if he was even apologizing to the right person, because this Frigga was certainly not his Frigga.

He wanted to go back. No, he needed to go back, because the Dark Elves could be attacking Asgard right now and he - he had to go save Amma because if Amma was dead, he didn't know what he'd do. Except he couldn't go back; this had been a one way trip. He couldn't go back, couldn't go and fix things now that he knew a version of him had moved on.

He groaned, burying his face in his hands. He always destroyed everything, didn't he? Asgard wasn't even here anymore, and he couldn't go back to save his Asgard (for reasons unknown to him) because he couldn't even enter that universe as of now, and why had he thought this was a good idea in the first place? Why had he assumed his life would be better here?

His mother was dead (She was surely his mother, right?) and his father was dead and it was all his fault, too. The guilt tore at his heart for some reason and made it hard to breathe, because he hadn't done any of that. His parents (Why had he so quickly accepted them as his parents after so long?) were still alive, oblivious to his turmoil. His parents were, presumably, safe and sound in their palace.

This Loki had been the one to mess things up. Surely he couldn't blame himself.

But they were the same person, weren't they? If he had stayed in his world, he would've surely messed up, too.

He needed...needed...Thor, a part of him whispered. Thor, who was still alive, but who had a slightly larger form than before (Loki was being kind with that description) and who was still grieving him, still grieving this version of him, and he had ruined that too, hadn't he?

Thor still loved him and still grieved him even after all the times he'd hurt him or supposedly died.

He didn't deserve it, and yet, he still needed his brother. (This Thor, at least, didn't hate him. He wasn't so sure about his Thor.)

He wanted to leave and go to him, go to wherever he was with those Idiots of the Galaxy, because centuries of instinct had won against a year or two of hate, instincts telling him Thor was safe. Thor was home. And that, if he just had Thor, everything would be okay again. (Pathetic sentiment.)

He wanted to go to his brother, but what was he supposed to say?

Hi, Brother. I haven't actually called you that in a while; it sounds kind of weird in my mouth. Guess what? I'm not dead. He winced. Well, I haven't ever been dead, actually. I've just been...I'm - I'm Loki. Thor would say, I know, with that furrowed brow of his and a perfectly confused expression. Hopefully, he wouldn't be bawling or something (though, from this Loki's memories, he was a huge sentimental oaf, so it was probable). Loki would swallow, looking down at his shoes. He could never really lie to Thor.

I'm not your Loki, he'd blurt out. I'm not the Loki you know. I'm from another universe, the one where I escaped with the Tesseract. I'm sorry I'm not your Loki, I really am. Your Loki's got it all together; your Loki seems great. I'm still broken; I'm your brother but from a point in time where I'm still broken. But I'm here, and I'm Loki, and that was enough, sometimes, right? When we were little, and one of us couldn't sleep, just being there was enough, right? I'm not your Loki, but I'm who you have right now; I'm not your Loki, but I am a Loki, and that's enough. That's enough, right?

Right?