"We're in Midgard" Sylvie says checking her TemPad, they walk around a river that dwindles into a cave. A woman leaves the cave wearing a traditional Norse apron dress and jewelry from Asgard while carrying a golden bowl with snakes engraved into it.
"Sylvie" Loki stops her from walking any farther as he watches the woman exit the cave "What time period are we in?" They had to have travelled back in time to the 11th century, there was no way that a woman would wear an apron dress and traditional Asgardian garb in the common era.
Sylvie checks her TemPad again "The year is 3001, it appears that we are in the future"
Loki watches as the woman empties the bowl into a hole in the ground, the contents sizzling as they make contact with the earth. The ground beneath them quakes and the woman calls to someone in the cave, hurrying back inside with the bowl in hand.
"I must speak to this woman" Loki pats Sylvie on the back before following the river's path into the cave, he peers inside of the cave noticing a naked man with black hair splayed atop of some rocks, entrails bind him in place with seiðr and the woman kneels beside him, cupping his scared face as she holds a bowl above it. He notices now that the gilding on the brass bowl has begun to wear off along the edges of it and that above the bowl, in the nooks of several rocks hides a snake that opens its jaw wide as venom drips out of it into the bowl.
"It's alright, I'm here my love" The woman says to the man as the bowl catches the poison, Loki notices some scarring along her fingertips and some scarring along the man's face presumably from when the bowl overflows or when she was not there to catch the poison for him.
"The bowl is full now, I must empty it" The woman says as she rises from her kneeling position "I will be right back here my love, just you wait" she curtesy's as the man remains stoic, bearing his punishment in silence.
The woman carries the bowl, emptying it into a hole in the ground when she's finished Loki comes out of the shadows to get a better look of her, she turns around and they make eye contact, the woman lets out a yelp of surprise dropping the bowl on the ground.
"Loki… my husband- how did you get out of the binds? Has Ragnarok arrived already?"
Loki wonders for a second, Ragnarok? He then recalls the words of the Nornir in the Vǫluspá Edda:
Then did Váli slaughter bonds twist:
made farily grim were those fetters of guts.
One did I see in the wet woods bound,
A lover of ill, and to Loki like;
By his side does Sigyn sit, nor is glad
To see her mate: would you know yet more?
Loki begins to speak but is stopped by Sigyn as she looks behind her at the clone figure of her husband splayed upon the rocks.
"By Odin's beard, what game are you playing?" She hisses "I have born witness to enough suffering on my husbands behalf; I have no need for the torture of mind games." She huffs picking up the bowl before carrying it back into the cave as the ground beneath her quakes.
"Sigyn, wait- please" Loki runs to her as she returns back to her husbands side, holding the bowl above his face, she uses the hem of her apron to wipe from poison from his scarred cheek, Loki notices a scarred white sclera along that cheek, blinded by the poison.
"I have no time for games, be on your way Aesir or Vanir and take your seiðr with you, I will not leave my husband to suffer alone."
"I am your husband but from another timeline"
"Go on then" she says looking up from the bowl momentarily before returning her gaze to it so that it does not overflow.
"Fair lady Sigyn, I am but a man who sees you and your husband suffer, a stark comparison to myself, perhaps if I may" he reaches up to the snake, pulling it from the rocks above, Sigyn gasps as the entrails around Vǫluspá Loki's form disintegrate freeing him at long last and the snake falls to the ground deceased.
Vǫluspá Loki stretches while Sigyn places the bowl down next to them ready to embrace her husband, he puts his hand up, stands, sinks into the water to clean hundreds of years of poison and grime off of himself before grabbing the clothing which was folded in a pile beside the rocks.
"Loki, my husband, we are free, we can leave this place, forget-"
"Ragnarok? After all Odin and the Aesir have taken from me? From us Sigyn?" He cups her cheek "I must go to war, I am sorry my love."
"I understand" she says curtsying as he leaves "I will not join you but I will hope for your victory and the least amount of blood shed possible. Please dear husband do not lose yourself in vengeance; please return to me, I beg that of you." But he is already on his way.
"Fair lady Sigyn" Loki says, he leans on the wall with one leg bent behind him "You may come with me and Sylvie if you wish, this saga does not end well for your husband and there is nothing you can do-" a wolf runs into the cave and Loki runs in front of Sigyn guarding her "Stay back!" He reaches for a dagger in his belt, arming himself.
The wolf lowers its head whimpering.
"Kind sir, that is my son, Narfi" She kneels in front of Narfi patting his head "There is no reason to kill him, the seiðr which had made him feral has worn off now that Odin's power and hold on the nine realms is dwindling."
"So will you come with me? Narfi can join us."
"I am afraid that I must stay, perhaps my husband will come back to me." She sits on-top of a rock and Narfi rests his head on her thigh as she strikes his head. "Goodbye."
"I will come back for you" Loki says as he bids her farewell and returns to Sylvie.
"Who was that?" Sylvie asks.
"Sigyn" a look of familiarity crosses over Sylvie's features "When does this world end?"
"25 days."
"We shall return then"
The two of them teleport back to the TVA.
-25 days later-
Loki and Sylvie teleport back to the river in front of the cave, the trees around them which were frozen and covered in snow are now burning as soot and smoke fill the air. He sees Sigyn and Narfi waiting for Vǫluspá Loki to return to them, the river in front of them has dried up and the ground below it has disappeared revealing the lava falls of Helheimr and Muspelheimr beneath them.
"Lady Sigyn" Sylvie introduces herself "I am Sylvie Laufeydottir and bear bad news; your husband was slain by Heimdall in the battle between the Aesir and the Jotuns and the undead."
"You may come with us now if you would like" Loki says reaches his hand out to her.
"There is no point in me staying in this realm any longer if my husband has passed" Sigyn looks up at the sky "I will go with you, other Loki and Sylvie of Jotunheimr." She takes his hand and Narfi follows her, Slyvie takes out her TemPad and they teleport back into the TVA.
"By the gods" Sigyn clutches her chest "Look at all of these books and papers, why I haven't been to a library in hundreds of years."
"Halt who is this variant." A guard stops Sigyn before she can grab a book from a shelf.
"Sigyn of Asgard" Loki says "There is only one of her, we checked she is the goddess of Fidelity and because of that did not drift off from her fate. As for Narfi we are unsure. Their world has been destroyed and they have no where else to go."
"We'll the TVA welcomes you then."
"I will take them to get dressed" Sylvie says, Sigyn dresses into a standard TVA uniform while Narfi is given a vest which attaches to a leash "Unfortunately he is an animal and must be kept on a leash, I apologize for the inconvenience."
"It is alright" Sigyn says "I'm just glad to be reunited with one member of my family, even if he is an "animal" as you say." The two of them walk to the mess hall, Sigyn sniffs the air "Ahhh food, how I've missed it, I haven't eaten in hundreds of years." She finds Loki at a table and sits across from him and Sylvie, placing a plate of steak on the ground for Narfi and a bowl of Macaroni and cheese on-top of the table for herself.
"Oh where are my manners" Sigyn chides herself "May I get you anything?" she asks Loki and Sylvie pushing her chair back in ready to grab them anything from the cafeteria if they so please.
"No we're quite alright" Sylvie says sipping her water while Loki eats a chocolate chip cookie. "Please sit down, you do not have to serve us, the TVA has people with that job already."
Sigyn sits across from them and begins to eat her plate of Macaroni while Narfi bites into his steak happily, they discuss the TVA and then head off to bed ready to fight another day.