Hey guys! Sorry for the delay with my actual story! I've been feeling unmotivated and dealing with other stuff lately. But I'm working on it now! To make up for it, or for when I'm feeling uninspired, I decided I'd make this file for all the scraps of stuff, alternate endings, other POVs, etc for the "Universal" series.
Originally, I had "Universal Headaches" end very differently. It was going to be a whole other sequel, but I decided to change it as the "Headaches" progressed. In my first outline, Sutton didn't follow the Avengers back to their universe, and never really found out what her "potential" that Loki mentioned was.
I didn't actually get to the point of writing the alternate ending, but if I had, it would have gone something like this.
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Six months had passed since the Avengers had finally found their way back to their own universe. Sutton was only just settling back into some semblance of a routine. The fact that she'd only barely scraped by without any long term consequences still kept her awake some nights. And, at least once a week, she found herself digging down into her bottom desk drawer to pull up her picture with them. Just to reassure herself that it'd all actually happened. She did even find herself occasionally missing them. (Loki excluded; the creep.)
But she was moving on as well as one could for having discovered that alternate universes existed. Somehow she'd found that she suddenly had enough money to afford going back to school, and she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. She figured Tony had more than compensated for her toaster, and he was forgiven.
Vicki had come home a week after all the hullabaloo went down and never suspected a thing. Well, actually, the charred living room had concerned her a bit, but Sutton had enough to pay for that too. And the couple upgrades to the house were enough to soothe her roomate.
She really didn't want to know where all the money came from.
Currently, Vicki was in her room while Sutton tried to work on some soon-to-be-due homework. She stood in front of a small video camera and tried to keep up with a random politician's speech playing in the background while she signed. Classes were getting a bit more difficult now and she worked to keep an easygoing expression while she strung together ideas and tenses.
It was a bit hard to concentrate, though, because she was going out to dinner with Vicki later and she still couldn't decide if she wanted General Tso's or chicken tikka masala.
They only went out a couple times a month. This was an important decision.
She was just signing, "America. A nation of endless possibilities-" when everything in the living room suddenly shook.
Sutton stumbled back, blinded by a very bright, very close, light. She could hear her tripod clatter and fall over, taking the camera with it.
"Ahhh!"
Her hands fumbled, fingers finally finding the wall behind her as she tried to blink spots from her eyes.
"Vicki?"
"Guess again."
Sutton's blood ran cold.
"No."
She was still mostly blinded, but she didn't have to be able to see to be afraid. Sutton stumbled back further and tried to scramble away from the direction the voice had come from. The voice tsk'd off to her side and she felt, partially saw, something shift next to her.
"Vicki!"
Frozen fingers gripped at her upper arm and latched on.
"You don't really want to involve her in this, do you?"
Her vision was clearing but it didn't bring any reassurances. All she saw was black and green.
"You-you're supposed to be-"
"Back in my own realm?"
Loki stared pleasantly down at her, and Sutton's now seeing eyes were wide open; the pupil blown wide.
"My dear girl, when one finds a door such as the one that leads here, they would be a fool to ever close it all the way."
Sutton was still frozen in fear and offered no resistance even though her very cells were screaming a warning.
"The Avengers captured you! You were going back to Asgard."
Loki looked down at himself as if in amazement.
"Was I? How baffling!"
"Unless..." But the idea that Loki had fooled everyone the entire time was too terrifying to consider. They'd have noticed if he'd duplicated himself, right? The grin that stretched across his face spoke otherwise.
"Sutton? Did you trip over your tripod again? I heard a crash."
Vicki's voice floated closer from down the hall and Sutton was torn between calling for help and telling her roommate to run. Loki glanced back toward the hall flippantly and readjusted his grip on her arm.
"I suppose it's time to go."
"No!"
Sutton's brain finally snapped through her nerves with a, "run, you fool!" and she struggled in vain for freedom. But it was too late. Not that she'd ever stood a chance to begin with.
Sutton felt a tug, as if a rope had been tied to her body and consciousness itself, and violently yanked forward. Her scream was swallowed up by the void she suddenly found herself in. There was no wind, but Sutton could still feel herself being pulled until she thought she'd be pulled apart altogether.
When it finally stopped, Sutton found herself limp in Loki's hold. They were standing on what seemed like some stony outcropping, but she knew they were no longer on earth. Stars twinkled above her as well as blazing below her. Rocky debris floated carelessly passed their perch and she started sucking in desperate breaths.
How could she breath? She shouldn't be able to breath!
But what caught her attention, more than the fact that it appeared she was in space, was the inky black wall that loomed before her. No stars pierced its curtain. The meteors on her sides swung away from it. It left a prickling feeling in her stomach that burned up into her throat.
"What...is that?"
"Nothing."
Her glare shot up to Loki where he stood smug beside her.
"Don't give me that. It's obviously something."
Loki sighed, suddenly frowning.
"Are all mortals as thick as you?" His voice gave her whiplash as it turned back into a purr. "It. Is. Nothing."
Sutton stood quiet, letting his words sink in.
Nothing.
A chill went down her spine.
"You don't mean...it's actually Nothing? Like, nothingness."
Loki kept his gaze on the Nothingness.
"It can't actually be Nothing," Sutton argued. "There'a always something."
"The universes are filled, overflowing, with somethings," Loki said slyly. "Surely there is one space that there is allowed to be Nothing."
Sutton swallowed forcefully.
"Why did you bring me here?"
"Ah, there's the question."
He hadn't released his grip on her arm, and used his hold to pull her up closer.
"You are going to do something for me," he said. "It won't be too difficult for your feeble mind. And afterwards, I will take you...home."
Sutton's stomach churned. It was just her and Loki here. No one in her world could help her. And none of the Avengers had any idea shew was in trouble in the first place. She was utterly alone and at this mad alien's mercy.
"I can't do anything you'd find useful," she tried to remind him. "I'm human."
The ominous proclamation about 'potential' glided through her mind, but she brushed it aside.
"But if you're asking," she continued, "I can't imagine it'd be anything good."
"We'll leave that to me to determine," Loki dismissed. "Will you do it without fuss?"
Sutton hesitated. She didn't even know what "it" was. But she couldn't betray the Avengers, could she? They counted her as part of the team!
"N-no. No, I won't." To her satisfaction, she finished the statement firmly.
"I was hoping you'd say that. I'll be back when you're ready to change your mind."
"Wha-"
Loki's grip on her arm intensified, and he pulled her back only to shove her forward. Sutton screamed, flailing desperately for some kind of hold. The black Nothing grew before her until it swallowed her vision completely.
Her screaming had filled the non-existent atmosphere as she fell into the looming void until it suddenly stopped. Actually, everything stopped.
She couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't even feel the vibrations of her vocal chords anymore. Couldn't even feel the reassuring weight of her own limbs. If it weren't for her thoughts, she wouldn't exist at all.
Sutton tried to hold onto her memories, her ideas and thoughts as well as she could. She reached out in her mind for her mother, but the blackness was starting to creep in to her mind too.
There was no time in the Nothing. Sutton lost count of the seconds quickly, until it seemed as if she'd always been there. The exact shade of blue of her mother's eyes eluded her. She couldn't remember her brother's name.
Had it been years? Had she been born in this black Nothingness? Was she even real at all?
Hallucinations had long since come and gone and left Sutton with a numb emptiness.
Eventually, she became Nothing as well.
The first thing she was aware of, could actually process, was a pressure. It was familiar. What was it? There was...what was the word? Much? No. She was...h-heavy. That was it! She felt!
There was light everywhere; Sutton shrank back, blinking against the harshness.
Seeing! That's what eyes did.
Her body convulsed, once, twice, and suddenly her chest expanded drastically. Sutton felt a sensation rush passed her teeth and fill her up.
It burned!
After the first time she couldn't stop. It was ragged. Panting.
Breathing! She was breathing!
She coughed and sputtered, her body continuing to heave as it readjusted to existing. And then something else wrapped around her and invaded her senses.
"Are you quite done?"
Sutton blinked and her head lolled limply back so she could see upwards. A shape loomed tall above her. It was dark and cold. Sutton shivered.
For the first time in however long, she had some form of motor control and her mouth opened and closed uselessly. The shape above her jostled her a bit.
"Come now, don't be completely useless."
She knew that shape. Words and sensations were filtering back to her slowly.
Colors: black and gold. A creeping unease.
"L...l...lllllll-"
With no effort, she was lifted up and mock stood on her feet. One arm was still pulled high above her head as she was held up.
"Lo-Loki...?"
Her mind was still a jumbled mess, but words and knowledge and memories were trickling back in. Her brain felt like sloshing oatmeal in a bowl.
"Can you understand me now, mortal? Answer me quickly, my patience with you is beginning to wear thin."
"...Y-yes."
"Good. And do you recall the discussion we had before?"
Sutton was silent as she frantically racked her brain for an answer. She could feel a thump-thump-thumping in her chest that was almost painful, and her skin felt suddenly moist.
Alone. Anxious. Questions.
"I-y-you want...yes."
"Are you ready to be cooperative?"
It was like he was taking a wooden spoon to her soggy oatmeal mind. It was hard enough to think simple sentences, let alone come to an intelligent decision for a dangerous situation. There were other people in this world that she knew and they'd be sad if she said yes. She could feel it.
The red and blue man. There was another made of metal. Made of? That didn't sound right.
The woman who looked like her. Mother, her brain finally supplied.
There was a sensation of solidity finally taking effect in her limbs, like her muscles were growing back, and she tested out her own weight tentatively. But Loki was impatient for an answer.
"Sutton Regan," he tsk'd, "stalling will not save you."
"I-I can't," it was hard to formulate the words. What was she trying to say? "I don't-"
Loki hummed in a mock sadness and lifted her fully off the solid ground.
"Perhaps some more time in Nothing, then."
Sutton felt something icy and hot all at once shoot up from her toes into the back of her skull. Her muscles were suddenly not in her control and shivered violently.
"No! No, no, no, no, no! P-please!"
And even though she was blanking on what words would properly describe her state, Sutton could feel a wetness gushing from her eyes, her lip trembling while her body attempted to recoil.
"Pl-ease, no. Not again. Not-not again!"
She would not survive another stay in Nothing. She couldn't stand the loneliness. The intense need to know she existed, to feel, and yet be deprived of it. The loss of hope. And the loss of herself. She wouldn't be able to handle being unmade again.
Loki's grin at her reaction was feral and devoid of any sympathy.
"Then you agree."
"I'll d-do it! Please!"
He lowered her back down then, set her on her feet and brushed his hands over her shoulders gently. It was a cruel impression of someone caring, but Sutton was in no mind to think deeply on it.
"That's a girl," he cooed. "I see your time away did you some good. Now, what I ask of you is simple. You need not even lift a finger."
Sutton turned her tear ridden face up to the once fancied film character. That seemed so long ago now. Before the blackness she was just rescued from. If it could even be called that.
"What I want you to do, is listen to every word I say. And I want you to imagine it."
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You can probably imagine that it doesn't go well for Sutton from here. I think this version would have been a lot more angsty.
But anyway, thanks for putting up with my poor updating habits! Let me know what you think of the alternate ending. And if you have any ideas or requests for something you'd like to see in this category, let me know!
