Written with knowledge of Loki episode five and previous episodes only.
There's really no explanation for how this comes to pass but let's just say Loki and Sylvie come up with a plan to change the future, probably around episode three.
The character being focused on changes like the wind near the end but I don't think it's too confusing to follow.
Loki smirked to himself as he stepped through the amber door conjured by the TVA TemPad in his hand. That doorway closed behind him and, making sure he cloaked himself from Heimdall, he looked around.
Asgard.
The realm was bright despite the clouds overhead. Loki appeared in a circular courtyard amidst the many buildings. He looked around at the bodies littering the ground and felt a sick twist in his stomach; seeing it in a file/film of Hela's life was one thing, but really seeing it. Asgardians, gods, goddesses, so many… Dead and insultingly left to rot here.
Loki shook his head. Now wasn't the time. He couldn't help them yet, if ever, not with the other pressing challenges he would be facing. If he was right…
Fire broke through the golden city and Surtur rose from the collapse. A mighty roar struck through the air like Thor's lightning and Loki winced, watching as the city fell to fire and smoke.
The God of Mischief looked around again before banishing the TemPad to his dimensional pocket and instead drawing out the time stone from the small pile of infinity stones he'd stolen from the TVA. You expected he wouldn't take a few? They were sitting right there. All but the mind stone and, while Loki had had enough of that particular stone to last a lifetime, he still needed it so he'd made a stop in an earlier time to steal it from a Midgardian group named after a multi-headed beast and using it to enhance test subjects. He had the other stones though, and a backup or two or each just in case.
He has to be quick. He had a plan of course but it wasn't going to be easy. Cast the biggest illusion he'd ever attempted to make the fleeing Statesmen think the realm had imploded and turn back time so Surtur never appears before the realm actually implodes, thus saving Hela, as well as any of her berserkers that he could. He was going to need them for what he wanted. Whether or not he could get the Goddess of Death to work with him without resorting to the mind stone however… That remained to be seen.
Loki took a deep breath. He steadied his seidr and then flung it out around him, willing the vast illusion to appear like a curtain hiding the real thing from the fleeing ship. As soon as that was shakily in place, the god cast the power of the time stone around Surtur and the city. It was difficult, having his concentration split between two tasks as large as this, two different magics needing his attention.
Asgard rebuilt itself, debris flying back to where it originated and settling into the pristine golden city Loki knew it as. Surtur moved in reverse, disappearing back into the vault where his crown would rest for as long as Loki could make it. The only thing not being rewound was Hela. Loki couldn't see her but he knew she was watching the sudden happenings around her and searching for the culprit. He hoped he could finish the job before she found him; he'd seen the power she had in the records of his 'sacred timeline' self and he doubted he could handle the illusion and time stone, and defend himself all at once.
Time finished its rewinding first. Asgard was returned to the beauty Loki remembered it being. The sun was once again shining over the realm and provided a warmth that the god hadn't felt for what felt like forever. Thanos and the Other and the Chitauri be damned, he was Loki of Asgard and the realm and its people were under his protection. Which reminded him, he needed to stop Thanos from killing Heimdall as well… So much to do and who knew how much time he had before someone from the blasted TVA finally caught up with him.
Loki debated putting the time stone away before deciding to keep it in his grasp; he should be able to use it to keep Hela from killing him by constantly looping her back to where she was the way he was kept from escaping by use of Time Twister. Speaking of, he had one of those he could use instead… But then he had to get a collar on the goddess and he had a feeling that she could break it with her own seidr and that was if the collar didn't only work in the TVA.
"You."
Loki tried his best not to flinch as the goddess landed ten feet in front of him, the force of her impact with the ground cracking the stone. Her helmet of horns reminded him of a deer, which in turn reminded him of Stark's infuriating nickname and he had to force his annoyance away.
Instead, Loki gave her a smile and fiddled with the time stone behind his back. "Hela, I presume."
"You should have fled with the rest of the cowards," Hela hissed.
"And you should be thanking me," Loki returned. "Without me, you would be dead and Asgard would be gone."
"And how exactly do you believe you, alone, stopped Ragnarok?"
"Simple," Loki replied curtly, showing her the glowing green stone.
Hela watched him carefully and lifted one shoulder in a half-assed shrug. "Then you make a fair point. However, as I'm alive, you have no use to me other than to hand over the stone."
Loki was prepared for the blade that came hunting his blood. He pushed his will towards the time stone and it complied perfectly, stopping the blade and then Hela was landing in front of him again.
"You." Her eyes narrowed and she looked at him, very much alive and not impaled, and she growled, "What did you just do?"
Loki shrugged and instead replied, "I want your help."
Another murder attempt and Hela hit the ground for a third time, looking even angrier. Loki tapped his foot against the ground as the loop repeated for a minute or two, blades coming at him from different angles each time. Just for show and a bit of humorous entertainment, he cast the illusion of a watch around his wrist and looked at it before looking drolly back at the slowly relenting Goddess of Death.
Loki glanced back and noted that the Statesmen was out of sight. If his memory of what he saw of his destined future was correct, the realm of Asgard could no longer be seen from the ship at this point either so, with a soft sigh of relief, Loki released the illusion of Asgard's destruction and let his seidr retreat back into his core to replenish for when it would surely be needed later.
"Are you almost done?" Loki asked, crossing his arms. "Do you need an illusion of me to spear instead?"
"Might help," Hela replied with a sweet smile though her eyes displayed her rage. She didn't summon another blade to try and kill him, and her horned helmet slowly retreated to release her long dark hair. "Alright… Little brother, what do you want from your queen?"
Loki raised a brow, "No. No no no, you're not my queen. Let me be honest, I'm not even from this timeline, so I've never even met you."
"Yet you come to me for help?" Hela scoffed, crossing her arms. "Say I believe you. What could you possibly want from me then?"
"Killing Thanos." Hela blinked and Loki continued, "I'm from the past but I know the future, the… rightful future. Oh, you'll love this but free will? Doesn't exist. Every action by every living being is all decided by these great and powerful Time-Keepers in the Time Police. Well, Time Variance Authority but you get the idea. Anyway, I'm not supposed to be here, I'm creating a nexus event on their big sacred timeline, and I want to change the future."
Loki held his hands out, a sort of 'you understand?' gesture. Hela stared at him for a long moment before she started laughing, truly laughing. She doubled over and laughed, loud and exuberant, and Loki heaved a long sigh.
"Alright, fine. Fine, you want proof?"
He walked closer, time stone still in one hand, and summoned the baton he'd grabbed from the TVA. He quickly figured out the settings on it and set it to decelerate rather than disintegrate, and reached out to poke the cackling goddess with it.
A smirk quickly rose to Loki's lips as Hela instantly slowed. When you were watching it, it was rather amusing. The Goddess of Death was trying to straighten up, her body unbended from being doubled over, but it wasn't happening as quickly as she would have liked and Loki was enjoying every second of it.
He bent down to her level and grinned, "You're now moving at one-sixteenth speed. Proof enough for you?"
Loki stepped back and watched as the effects wore off, returning the baton to his dimensional pocket once again. Hela slowly resumed a normal speed, her glare levelling on him.
"Fine," she said, "I'll believe you about this… Time Variance Authority—"
"TVA," Loki interjected helpfully, unblinking at the glare he received.
"At least it explains what you're wearing." Loki looked down at himself—his dress shirt, tie, pants and TVA-given jacket—and frowned but Hela continued, "And you say you want to kill this… Thanos?"
"Mad Titan?" Loki said, raising a brow and trying to find any spark of recognition in her eyes. "Wants to use the infinity stones to wipe out half the universe? No?" At Hela's lack of reaction, Loki sighed. "Alright. He captured me. Tortured me for I don't even know how long. Used me to invade Midgard. He wins in the end. He wipes out half the universe and that's going to last about five years. Even if those Avengers save the world again, I don't like how it happens."
"No?" Hela said, starting to feel bored and instead moved to plotting ways to kill the god.
"No." Loki didn't notice. "Look, I'm apparently meant to create pain and suffering wherever I go. However, I'm going to choose who I inflict that on. I'm not going to let anyone write my story and as much as I hate to admit it, the bloody Avengers are needed in the universe."
"Hmm?"
"Yes, Stark especially, as much as I loathe to admit it and— You're not listening, are you."
"No."
Another necrosword comes stabbing towards him from behind and Loki sighs, using the time stone to reverse the goddess back a few seconds.
"Seriously, this again?" he asks, hands on his hips. "I can have you falling through the abyss for half an hour instead."
"You talk far too much," Hela returned with an irritated glare. "Get to the point."
Loki scowled but complied. "Gather a few more friends, appear at the final battle, destroy Thanos and his army, save everyone, stop a few deaths, and look heroic while doing it. Are you in or not?"
Hela stared at him and hummed, pretending to think over it. "Hmm… No. Am I allowed to go back to conquering the nine realms yet?"
"No," Loki returned. "Because you should have died back there. Like it or not, you're a Variant now, you're not supposed to exist. If you don't come with me, the TVA will eventually show up and prune this branch of time that was never supposed to exist. So really, it's either you help me, or you cease to exist because trust me, you can't fight or escape them. Well, unless you're a Loki, which you're not, and even that's not forever."
"So where are they now then?" Hela sneered.
Loki smiled sweetly, "I have a friend keeping them on a wild goose chase for the time being. Even she decided, maybe we aren't supposed to exist but we can try and help the ones who are. Supposed to exist, that is."
Hela only glared. This was getting nowhere, trying to appeal to her will to not be disintegrated or whatever it was the TVA did. So that meant he had to try something else.
Loki sighed tiredly and wiped a hand down his face. "Look, you were Odin's executioner, right? You killed so Asgard could gain."
Slowly, Hela shrugged and nodded, "Very roughly put, but I suppose so. What, are you going to try and convince me by letting me be your executioner?"
Loki's brows furrowed and he frowned, "No. No, I was going to convince you by persuading you to fight for Asgard again. Someone once said 'Asgard isn't a place. It's a people,' and those people—our people—are still alive, Hela. You can still fight for them—I'm still trying to fight for them—not to gain anything, but to hold on to what little we still have. I mean, you should see the sad little town they make on Midgard, they even call it New Asgard."
"Seriously?" Hela cut in. She frowned and studied the miniature illusion Loki cast on the ground between them of the town he remembered seeing in the life-story files he'd studied. Then the goddess let out a huff, "Sentimental, I suppose, but New Asgard? Really, that's the best they could come up with?"
Loki chuckled, reminded of his own reaction, and shook his head. "Odin's saggy left ass-cheek, Thor even lets himself get fat."
Hela's jaw dropped slightly and she laughed, a real laugh. "I might just go along with your horrible plan just to see that, brother."
Loki tensed at that, hiding a grimace. "I'm not really your brother, you know."
"Because you're of Jotunheim?" came the snarky response. "Please, birth place doesn't dictate your homeland. You were raised here on Asgard, were you not? Odin took you in, you're part of the royal family. Like it or not, brother, you're my brother. I'm the one who read to you and the one you threw up on countless times. Yes, I was there for your baby years, don't look so shocked. Believe it or not, family is important to me."
"You just tried to murder me, not to mention Thor before that," Loki retorted disbelievingly.
Hela rolled her eyes, "And you'd then go to Hel and, being the Goddess of Death, I have the ability to pull your pathetic little ass back out. However, no one gets to send you there but me."
"Wait, so sacred timeline me is in Hel?"
"Do you die?"
Loki was unprepared for the darkness that entered Hela's eyes. Her expression became stern and furious and for the first time, Loki felt hesitant in answering her.
"Yes?" It came out more like a question and Hela's lips twisted into a snarl so Loki hurried to explain, "Thanos attacks the ship they just escaped on. Kills the people on board, including Heimdall, and then sacred timeline me. Really kills me, my file ends there."
Loki winced as Hela's seidr exploded with the force of a bomb. He instinctively closed a fist around the time stone to prevent it from being flung away as his body was blown back. He hit the ground with a hiss and quickly forced himself up, unwilling to be unguarded around the goddess. Hela was furious. Her eyes were dark with her rage, her hair dancing in the wind surrounding her.
"Alright, brother," she growled, "I'll help with this terrible plan of yours on the condition I get to make this Thanos very sorry for daring to touch the royal family of Asgard."
Loki studied her, using the mind stone behind his back to determine that she was indeed telling the truth. He frowned slightly, surprised, but hey, he'd take what he could get. That's one down, two more to go.
With a grin, Loki held out a hand, "For Asgard."
Hela shook his hand and smirked, "For Asgard."
•••
"This plan sucks."
"Well I didn't ask for your opinion now, did I?"
Natasha Romanoff, taken from a time stone rewind of her jump from the soul stone's cliff, scowled and crossed her arms. She looked around the grand, golden room of what she could only call a war-planning room. There were maps on three of the walls, the fourth only tall pillars that acted as doorways to a large balcony looking over what she assumed was a training courtyard. There was a long table in the center of the room, lined with chairs and covered in a few more maps and what looked like a projector. In front of each pillar was a black guard, all of them armoured, skeletal and looking straight ahead with softly glowing, green eyes.
The god now known to her as Heimdall was sitting in a chair next to the head of the table. That throne-like chair was occupied by who the former assassin learnt was Thor's older sister and on the floor behind her lay a ginormous black wolf, sleeping soundly like a puppy. On the goddess' other side, across from Heimdall, was her apparent saviour, the God of Mischief and Lies. An younger version from 2012 where Tony and Scott had apparently failed to acquire the space stone.
Knowing them, Natasha didn't want to think of what they decided on as a back-up plan.
"So let me get this straight," she said from her place far enough away from the gods that she hoped she would have a chance to defend herself if it came to it. "Loki's from twenty-twelve, discovered some TVA time police organization, escaped and now wants to help?"
"Overly simplified, but essentially," Loki replied with a shrug.
"And why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't," Loki and Hela both answered, only to look at each other and smirk.
That certainly didn't help Natasha's hesitance or trust.
Heimdall only sighed tiredly and looked at her. "Miss Romanoff, I understand your reluctance. However, I can promise you that despite their hard shells, the prince and princess do mean to help. I watched them grow up and I know when they mean what they say."
"Hey," Loki said, looking affronted, "Don't give away my secrets, Heimdall."
Heimdall raised his hands in surrender but there was a smile on his lips that said he wasn't truly sorry. Natasha watched them, looking back and forth between them. The god that invaded New York didn't look that threatening; he looked like just another man, in fact his current actions reminded her of Tony. A little over-extravagant with pure intentions yet not quite sure how to go about fulfilling those intentions.
Natasha heaved a long sigh, "Fine. I'll help. Just promise me you don't mean to take over anything or anywhere."
Loki gave her a huff and crossed his arms, "I don't have to do this, you know. I could just take over anywhere I wanted right now but here I am, trying to help you and your Avengers and this is the thanks I get." The ex-assassin found a small, amused smile on her lips. She supposed that was the best she was going to get but the god surprised her by continuing, "For what it's worth, I promise that I have told you all my intentions. I want to rewrite the future and break free from this controlled fate. I refuse to be merely a tool of suffering."
With a raised brow, Natasha studied him and nodded. "Alright. I believe you."
"Excellent," Hela drawled as the redhead walked over to sit next to Heimdall. "Now we can begin to—"
"Ah, not yet," Loki interrupted sheepishly. He smiles apologetically at Hela's glare. "We're still waiting for someone. You'll like her, you and Miss Romanoff."
"We'll see."
"Yes, I guess we will."
At the new voice, the room spun around to face the new woman appearing through an amber door in the corner of the room. Her clothing was dark, blonde hair short with a small headpiece that reminded Natasha of the helmet Loki wore during the New York invasion. A black cloak hung from the newcomer's shoulders, sweeping through the air as she turned in a slow circle to look around the room. The strange doorway closed behind her and she strode closer.
"Long time since I've come to Asgard," the woman mused, her accent easy for the ex-assassin to pick out. "Was it always this gold?"
"As long as I remember," Loki replied. He stood to greet the woman with a brief hug, a mere clap on the back. "How'd your side of The Plan: Part One go?"
"Easy," she replied, sounding rather dismissive. "I've set dozens of reset charges all to be activated and sent out at different times close enough together to keep them busy for days. So, these're your friends?"
Loki grinned widely, "Ah, yes. You know Heimdall, right? Our older sister, Hela, the Goddess of Death. And the fighter I told you about, Natasha Romanoff. You should get along swimmingly."
"Brother, who is this?" Hela asked, eyeing the woman suspiciously.
"Sylvie," she introduced herself. "A version of Loki from another timeline destroyed by the TVA."
"You're Loki?" Heimdall asked in interest.
"A version of me," Loki replied, hands on his lips. "She's not me though. She's her own person and she's amazing. She ran circles around the TVA for years, and she taught herself enchantment!"
"Stop giving away all my cards," Sylvie growled, elbowing him in the side and making him yelp.
To Natasha, Loki gave her a look like a scolded puppy and she further lost the image she had of the god. Sylvie rolled her eyes and moved forward to take the seat Loki had occupied. Loki followed her with a complaint that was quickly shot down and, scowling, he took a seat next to the goddess.
Hela rolled her eyes but gave the blonde a small smirk. Sylvie returned it and looked curiously at Natasha before clasping her hands and saying:
"Let's get this planning done. We don't have forever."
•••
Natasha ducked under the swing of a sword and then rolled away at the kick aimed for her ribs. She retaliated with a swipe of the dual swords she'd been surprisingly given from the goth-queen Hela. The blades were an alluring black with rich green edges, exactly the style the goddess would use and coincidentally, the type Natashsa favoured. However, what the ex-assassin loved most about the unexpected gift was the fact that the blades would return to her the way Mojolnir returned to Thor.
She was still getting used to them, but hey, that's what the current training was for. As good a fighter as she was, Natasha could use all the training she could get and learning from the Asgardians would be a privilege, no matter how… demanding the teachers could be.
"You're good," Sylvie said, swinging her sword again. Hela had given her her own set of blades, as well as taught her to suspend them in the air with seidr. "Someone's taught you well."
"Are you self-taught?" Natasha retorted, genuinely curious. She smoothly ducked a spear from a nearby sparring match between one of the berserkers and one of the Einherjar warriors Loki had rewound back to life, and continued attacking her opponent. "You fight a little differently from Heimdall."
"I lived on my own for most of my life, so yes, self-taught," Sylvie replied. "And you? I don't know many Midgardians but you're good."
"Training," Natasha found herself saying as she held out a hand to call for one of her new swords. "Grew up in a place that trained assassins like me."
Heimdall frowned, orange eyes studying her from his place on the sidelines. "It was a cruel place, was it not, Miss Romanoff?"
Natasha glanced over at him and hesitated, which gave Sylvie an opening that she didn't miss. The goddess lunged and the two women went down in a tangle of limbs. Then suddenly Natasha was in the Avengers compound. The living room was sunny and the other Avengers lingered around the place. The Black Widow's eyes narrowed on the one out-of-place figure staring at her.
"This is your enchantment," she stated.
Lounging on the couch next to the oblivious Tony Stark, Sylvie nodded, "It is. I draw on memories and usually make it seem like you've known me all along, that we're somewhere comfortable and that I'm someone you trust. Someone you'd spill your secrets to."
"So people fall right into your trap and you can control them or get whatever information you need," Natasha finished. She looked around the room. It felt so real to her, the same scents, sounds, temperature. "It's so life-like…"
"You miss it."
The Black Widow nodded. "Yes… But the illusion… It's amazing."
Natasha didn't miss the slight widening of Sylvie's eyes, or the small smile that graced her lips as she replied:
"Thank you."
Then Natashsa was back in the courtyard, on the ground, being straddled by the goddess, and surrounded by various sparring matches between berserker and Einherjar alike. Fenris was sprawled out next to Heimdall and the god didn't seem to mind giving the wolf a small pat every now and then. It was strange, Natasha decided. She'd heard from Bruce about the fighting that had erupted with Hela's return but now? It was like there was no rift between the goddess and the Asgardians. Strange but she supposed it wasn't the first time a larger war had joined two opposing sides.
"That's absolutely mad."
Sylvie let the former assassin up and helped pull her to her feet as the Asgardians princess and princes appeared at one entrance to the courtyard. Hela was in the lead with an amused smirk, two different Lokis following at her shoulders, one in that same dress shirt, tie and beige jacket she had seen before, and the other in deep blue leather armour with a flowing cape, bright yellow on the inside.
"That's what I thought when they first arrested me," Loki, the 2012 one, replied. "But it's all real."
"So why bring me back?"
"Because we need you, brother," Hela said simply. Timeline Loki gave her a questioning look so the goddess continued, "We need all the help we can get. Your counterpart may be the mastermind but he is still from the past and therefore not as knowledgeable as you."
Natasha didn't find it hard to remain relaxed as the trio stopped in front of them next to Heimdall and Fenris. She questioned her own mind at that, wondering why she wasn't more concerned at being around the company she was in. It confused her but she couldn't pin down why. Still, she sheathed her dual swords in the belt on her waist and watched as the trio stopped.
"Sylvie, I presume," Timeline Loki said, holding out a hand for the goddess to shake.
She did, giving him a calculating stare that made him appear vaguely uncomfortable.
"You know more about Thanos," added the other Loki, returning to the conversation. "We were both tortured by the Other and made to invade New York. I am you, with all your experiences, up until the Avengers stopped us."
"Where Stark allowed you to escape with the tesseract," Timeline Loki finished. "And now you want to save the Sacred Timeline Stark and stop Thanos instead of just letting everything play out as it should?"
"You can't say it's a terrible idea," TVA Loki replied with a knowing smirk.
"It is!" Timeline Loki snarled and his counterpart's smirk dropped. "Killing Thanos ourselves when his death is already decided? It seems pointless."
"You're a Loki," protested the TVA version of said god. "We don't give up and we survive. You tried to kill Thanos before! I know you, we—"
"Never presume that you know me," the older Loki hissed, jabbing a finger as the younger, who took a step back, hands raised in surrender. "You may have seen the horror we're meant to face, maybe you felt an echo of the pain, but I lived it. I fulfilled my glorious purpose and I accepted my death. And you bring me back just to keep fighting."
TVA Loki didn't seem to have a response to that, Natasha could see the shock in his wide eyes. It appeared he'd never thought that convincing his counterpart would be difficult and it looked like the others didn't know what to say either, so she did.
"You're tired," Natasha said, drawing all attention to her. She didn't falter at the many eyes on her though and continued, "Honestly, I am too. All the fighting for a world that will never remain safe, for people that will never understand what it's like to be you."
"Wh— You can't be comparing me to yourself."
"We're not that different, Loki." The god opened his mouth to argue and Natasha held up a finger to cut him off. "You've done everything you could for your people. Maybe not with the best methods and you've been pretty selfish at times, but you still did your best to save Asgard. We need you to do that again. Maybe not for the last time, but for the most important time. We both know Thanos won't stop, this time not until the universe is under his control."
Loki fiddled with the edge of his bright yellow cloak, seeming to gnaw at his lip as well. He looked unsure, frustrated and defeated. After a long moment, he sighed heavily and growled:
"Fine. Fine, I'll help. I'll play the saviour again, but I want part of the credit, and it's on the condition that you, Hela, admit it: you missed me."
The goddess rolled her eyes but allowed the smallest of smiles to grace her lips. "Maybe I missed you a little bit, brother. You are much more bearable than our overbearing brother after all."
Both Lokis chuckled at that though both were weak and half forced.
"Well," Natasha said, "Now that we're all here, let's rewrite a future."
•••
Thor fought with all the strength he could muster. He was tiring though, looking around at the many bodies littered around him. He fought near Steve, the onslaught of Chitauri, Outriders and Sakaarans seemingly endless. The quantum tunnel in the van was destroyed and the dam was cracked and Thor was beginning to lose hope.
Then there was a bright light. A familiar light and Thor turned towards it so sharply he almost fell over. The bifrost landed in bright pillars all across the battlefield and warriors of the Einherjar came forth wielding spears and shields and fury. The God of Thunder tensed as he spotted the black and green of Hela's berserkers but when he saw how they charged alongside the Einherjar, he realized:
"Asgard is with us!"
A final stem of the bifrost and out loped the large form of the wolf Fenris. Hela was perched on his back, two more women behind her. And on either side of the great wolf were two very familiar figures. A figure that had haunted Thor's dreams for years. With their horned helmets on, both spread their arms and victoriously shouted across the battlefield:
"Your saviours are here!"
Thor felt the large grin breaking out on his lips. While confused, he didn't let that stop him from raising Stormbreaker with a loud battle cry that the many Asgardian warriors returned.
"I thought you said Asgard was destroyed!" Steve yelled from nearby.
"It should have been!" Thor called back. "We can ask later, but this is our time to win!"
Steve went to reply but another voice caught the attention of the avengers. A strong cry that carried across the battlefield, a figure with red hair at her roots and platinum blonde at the ends, and a vicious look that was signature to the woman they thought was gone.
Natasha Romanoff leapt from the head of the wolf and into the fray with a cry of, "Whatever it takes!"
The shout and sentiment was echoed across the battlefield by the fighters. Spirit was renewed and the Black Order fell even faster than before. It wasn't long before Natasha found Clint amongst the fighting and it took an even shorter time for the two to fall into their fighting style together, watching each other's backs, deadly and efficient.
The 2012 Loki watched the fighting around him, eyes searching. Hela and Sylvie had disappeared to get a chance to pummel Thanos and his counterpart had begun to make his way towards Thor. If Loki knew himself, it was to be able to berate the God of Thunder as soon as possible for allowing himself to squander the gift of life his counterpart had ensured Thanos left the god.
"You're like a cockroach."
Loki turned to find Tony Stark having appeared at his back and returned, "So I've been told. However, you are the one who allowed me to escape with the tesseract."
The god delighted in the way Tony's eyes widened and he gaped. "You're from twenty-twelve. How even—? What are you doing here?"
"Rewriting the future. Now really, Stark, giving your past self a heart attack? How cruel of you."
"How do you even know about the time-travel?"
"You can smell the cologne of two Tony Starks," Loki replied simply, waving a hand. "Now, I have a purpose to fulfill, so if you'll excuse me."
And then Loki slunk away. He cloaked himself in his seidr to become invisible and slipped through the fighters. He could hear Hela roaring, "Where is the one they call Thanos?!" and he could see his counterpart standing within hands on his hips in front of a guilty looking Thor. The glow of the infinity stones wasn't easy to spot among a variety of other glowing weapons but he would have to manage, unwilling to pull out his own stolen stones for risk of losing them across the mess of a battle.
If time followed what it should, then the infinity gauntlet should be near Thanos, Tony, and a supposed Captain Marvel. However there was no guarantee it would still be there, not with the new forces Loki had introduced into the battle. Still, he decided (cursing himself for not remaining near Stark in the first place), it was worth a shot.
Loki turned around and began to head back the way he'd come. He had to deflect a number of stray blasts, blades and more on his way, and he caught a bullet in his bicep that he was too slow to dodge, but for the most part, his journey was smooth and unhindered.
He found the titan being relentlessly attacked by Hela. Her necroswords nor the dual blades she wielded never let up, leaving Thanos with no choice but to remain defensive. Loki could see him trying to deflect a sword or two back at the goddess but she either ducked away or vanquished the sword before it could reach her.
Tony was panting nearby, being helped by Steve and Thor. Captain Marvel was nearby as well, watching Hela and seemingly trying to find an opening to attack herself despite the infinity gauntlet claimed at her feet. Sylvie was next to her, a bored look on her face as she argued against getting between the Goddess of Death and the source of her anger. Timeline Loki appeared to agree, his eyes drawn to Hela's moves as she worked with Fenris against the Mad Titan.
Loki slunk over to Sylvie and his counterpart, dropping his cloaking spell. It was with a barely noticeable inclination of his head that Timeline Loki confirmed that his part of the plan was successful as Loki thought and a smirk rose to his lips.
"Are we going to let her kill him?" Sylvie asked, not seeming to be bothered with either outcome.
"I don't see why not," Loki replied. He glanced over to where Tony, Steve and Thor were coming closer and sighed, "Here we go."
"I already explained some of it to Thor," Timeline Loki said with a small shrug. "Stark and Captain Rogers have likely already worked that information from him so it's not everything they need to be filled in on."
"Like how exactly this happened," Tony cut in. "The space stone doesn't travel through time, so it doesn't explain how Reindeer Games from the past got here. Or how you saved Natasha, which despite you being you, I am grateful for."
"You're going to have to wait, Stark," Loki replied. "There's still a battle to win." He let out a whistle and called out, "Hela! Down girl, don't forget the plan!"
While he received a glare that made a shiver run down his spine, Hela begrudgingly ceased her attacks with one last sword at Thanos' shoulder as the titan deflected. As she and Fenris slunk back, Sylvie chuckled and kicked the gauntlet from in front of Captain Marvel so it rolled to land at Thanos' feet.
Loki couldn't keep from laughing loudly at the bewildered look on the titan's face, as well as the shocked protests that rose from the Avengers.
"The hell are you doing?!"
"Of course we couldn't trust you!"
"Brother, why?!"
He merely held up a finger and gave them a sly grin. The four protesting heroes fell quiet, some suspicious while others made guesses at what was happening. Then Loki turned his attention back to Thanos just as he picked up the gauntlet.
"Do you expect me to be grateful?" the titan mused.
Sylvie smirked, "No. I expect you to miserably stew with the thought that you lost to us for the rest of your life and in whatever afterlife lets you in."
Thanos chuckled in disbelief. "Lost? Stupid girl, you've handed me the gauntlet. I can create a new universe and I think I'll make you into a nice little slave, just like I had made of the great God of Mischief. With this, I've won."
"Then by all means," Sylvie spread her arms with a wide, goading grin, "Try it."
And try it he did. Thanos slipped the gauntlet onto his arm and Loki could hear the small bolts of lightning that crackled along Thor's skin as he tensed. Tony, Steve and Marvel crouched into fight-ready positions, only for Natashsa to appear with Clint and hold out her hands.
"Don't do anything," she said. "It'll be fine."
"Fine?" Tony demanded. "You and I clearly have different definitions of fine."
"We have a plan," Natashsa gave as an explanation.
Tony looked hard at her. He opened his mouth to argue that whatever plan she had seemed to be going to shit, but the sound of Thanos snapping grabbed his attention and he paled.
The titan was grinning in triumph and the infinity stones glowed brightly, so bright he had to look away for a moment. As he did, Tony tried to look for any fading fighters, anyone disappearing into dust or any other anomaly.
There was none.
Loki's laughter cut through the tense silence around the group. Two Lokis worth of laughter in fact, both of them doubled over and cackling. Confused, Thanos tried snapping again, several times in fact, but still nothing happened.
"What is this?" the titan growled.
No one answered him, either confused or unwilling to explain. Finally, Timeline Loki got a hold of himself and he straightened up, a large smirk still on his lips.
"Oh, that was very much worth it just to see your expression," he said, his breathing heavy in an effort to catch up from his laughing fit. Still, he held a hand up and the six infinity stones appeared floating in a circle above his open palm, "Looking for these?"
"What—?"
Tony's eyes widened as he looked between the two sets of stones, just in time to see the set in the gauntlet disappear with a green glow.
"Illusions!" Thor cried with a grin. "Brother, that's brilliant!"
"You think that will stop—"
Thanos started forward, only to be stopped by sharp spikes of black rock that erupted from the ground around his feet and caged him in. Hela waved her hand with a droll look, tightening the circle until the titan couldn't move.
"Let's skip to the destruction of the army," the goddess said, not taking her eyes off the titan. "The sooner this scum is dead, the better."
"Very well," Loki said. He looked at his counterpart as said counterpart stored all but the reality and power stones back into his dimensional pocket. "Shall we?"
Timeline Loki nodded. "We shall."
The stones floating above his palm sparked wildly and a wave of power erupted from them. It tore through the air in a blast of wind, dirt and small pieces of debris being thrown around to collide with anything in their path. Somewhere in the noise rushing past his ears, Tony heard screaming. His heart pounded, eyes snapping back to where the two Lokis stood. The 2012 one had taken the other's free hand in his, the rage of the power stone's… well, power tearing through both of them and twisting their expressions into twin grimaces.
The blonde woman—Tony would need to get her name later so he didn't have to merely call her by her gender—slowly reached out to place a hand on yellow-cloaked Loki's shoulder and it was clear to the man of iron that she took on the stone's power as well. Her jaw clenched but she never cried out. Nor did the Goddess of Death when she also joined what Tony decided to call their freak revelry.
With a shout of "Brother!" Thor surged forward to help. Tony watched as the five Asgardians—assuming the blonde woman was also Asgardian—took the force of the two stones. The sharing of the power confused him but as he looked around and the Black Riders disappearing in flashes of red, Tony understood.
"They're using the reality stone to destroy the Black Riders," he said, fascinated, "And the power stone to amplify the reality stone. Not using all the stones so it won't hurt them as much as all of the stones would…"
"Eh, the power stone alone hurts like a bitch." Tony looked down to see Rocket now standing nearby, the others gathering with them as their opponents were vanquished. Rocket continued, "If just one is that powerful, all six surely would've killed the user if they're not a giant purple grape."
"We can still help—"
"Don't move." Tony stopped as Natasha raised her sword against him. Before he could question her, she continued, "This is all so you don't die, Tony. Sit this one out. If anyone has a chance against even two of the stones, it's five gods."
"Natasha, what's going on?" Clint asked. "You died. I saw you. You owe us an explanation at least."
"And you'll get one," the former assassin replied. She looked apologetic but didn't back down from the stares of the Avengers around her. "When this is over, you'll get one."
It was minutes later that the stones ceased their power. The five gods were panting and looked terribly weak, but each had a look of satisfaction on their features. The battle was over, the enemy was destroyed and it looked like they'd won. The only hostile still around was Thanos, and Hela's cage still entrapped him, though it was clear he was trying to break free. With a wave of his hand, Timeline Loki sent the two infinity stones back to his dimensional pocket with the other four.
Natasha sheathed her blade and went to help steady the dizzy-looking Thor, addressing the other four, "All according to plan, huh?"
"Indeed, Miss Romanoff," Hela replied. She recovered quickly, already looking unbothered by the weight of power she'd just dealt with. "Except one more thing…"
With a wave of her hand, she summoned one of her blades and lunged forwards before anyone could stop her. Loki reached a hand out but missed grabbing her and no one else had even anticipated the move. The blade sunk into the titan's chest and the goddess snarled:
"You don't screw with the royal family of Asgard."
She gave the blade a sharp twist and pulled it free, watching as the life drained from Thanos' eyes. A sneer rested on her lips the entire time, one hand on her hip and the other twirling the sword soaked in the titan's blood. The black spikes retreated back into the earth and Thanos' body fell limply to the ground. Hela looked down at it disdainfully and then turned away, turning her gaze to Thor.
"Odin's hairy ass, brother," she said, sweeping him with a critical eye, "What could ever warrant such blatant refusal of personal hygiene?"
"Hela," Sylvie scolded lightly, clicking her tongue. She looked at the gathered original six Avengers (the everyone else having dispersed to begin the cleaning of the battleground or returning to their own homes to deal with issues there) and extended a hand, "Sylvie. No, I'm not another sister, I'm Loki from another timeline."
Loki, the TVA one, smirked as Tony choked in shock and asked, "You're Loki?"
"In all technicality," she replied. "However, I have never been him."
"So you are but you aren't?" Steve asked in confusion.
"That's the explanation," Natasha started. "We weren't wrong about time travel having no effect on the future, but we didn't quite have the whole picture either."
"And this is where 2012 Loki comes in," Bruce guessed. "Some form of time travel allowed someone to go back and take you from your death."
"And enter the TVA," Loki cut in. He waved a hand and cast an illusion on the ground between the Avengers and the Asgardians. A single white line appeared in the air. "Let's see… How to explain this… There are timelines, universes made up of different choices that split and branch apart."
"A new universe for every different choice made," Clint said, getting a nod.
Loki continued gesturing to the illusion. "There's one main timeline, the so-called Sacred Timeline. This is the way things are meant to be, the story written for us all. Free will doesn't exist. Except sometimes, people verge from their written destinies. They create a nexus event and that creates a new branch of time that was never meant to exist. Then the TVA shows up. The Time Variance Authority, meant to prune and destroy these branches and arrest the offending Variant."
"You weren't supposed to escape with the tesseract," Tony realized. "This Time Police arrested you. And you changing things means this was never supposed to happen either."
"No," Sylvie agreed. "In fact, you, Stark, were meant to die."
"Me? How?"
Instead of answering, the response was an illusion cast of the end of the endgame. Five pairs of eyes were locked on the illusion, five faces paling in horror and realization of what very nearly could have been.
"And you decided to intervene?" Steve asked slowly. "Why? So you can take over instead?"
Natasha sighed and whispered, "He was controlled by the mind stone, Steve. Just like Clint or Selvig. In a different way, but he was controlled. Thanos confirmed it; 'I'll make you into a nice little slave, just like I had made of the great God of Mischief.' He's made it clear there was no ulterior motive."
"I don't believe that," Clint sneered, eyeing the two Lokis.
"Look around you," retorted the green-clad god. "Thanos and his army are dead, Stark and Miss Romanoff are alive, all of Asgard is alive. Yes, Thor, I stopped Ragnarok and made it look like it commenced, our home is alive and well. If I had some motive to rule, I would have done it by now. Especially with the infinity stones, the TVA uses them as paper weights so I stole some."
"Wait, there are two sets of infinity stones here?" Bruce asked. In response, both Lokis revealed the twelve stones, looking careless while the scientist's eyes widened, "What if that causes some sort of error in time? Two of the same object together—"
"In case you haven't noticed, Banner," Timeline Loki interjected, vanquishing his set of the stones, "I am standing next to myself from the past and we're perfectly fine."
"Loki!"
The 2012 God of Mischief tensed at the furious roar. The Avengers around him saw the armed group that was appearing through amber doorways a fair distance behind the god and despite their exhaustion, they tensed and prepared to defend their new ally (despite how hesitantly he had that title).
Loki however, without turning around, sighed and gestured for them to stand down. "I know them. That's the TVA I just told you about."
"These are the people keeping the universe in line?" Tony asked with a raised brow. He studied them and decided, "We could take 'em."
"No, you could not," Natasha argued. "One hit and you're done for. Doesn't matter how powerful you are."
Tony scowled, "So we just let this timeline and all of us get pruned and whoop, kiss our existence goodbye?"
"No," Loki replied. "I have a plan."
"Oh, do you?" Tony snarked. "Is anyone else concerned that Past Reindeer Games is the one in charge of our lives?"
"He just saved your life," Steve interjected, still seeming unsure himself. "And Natasha's."
"And all of Asgard," Thor added, shooting Hela an unsure yet delighted look as she says the exact same thing in time with him.
The same voice that had yelled before—a man in a brown jacket with a rather fond look of annoyance and standing at the head of the TVA group—speaks again. "Loki, do you have any idea what you've done? You've created more nexus events than any other Variant and that's not including the hundreds that Sylvie set up as a distraction."
Seeing his brother's sheepish, hesitant look, Thor started forward. Hela held an arm out in front of him and the God of Thunder stopped, looking between her and the minutemen unsurely. Then Loki put on his infamous, charming smile, turned around with his arms spread open, and happily shouted out:
"Mobius! You made it! Welcome to the party!"