Author's Note
STOP!! PLEASE READ THIS FIRST PART OF MY NOTE!
I have decided to stop writing this series. I have multiple reasons for doing so but the biggest ones are that I really can't figure out how to get from this point in my series to the ending that I came up with, I'm really losing motivation to write right now and at this point writing this feels more like a chore than a hobby, and I've gotten rather busy lately and haven't had very much time to write even when be I do sort of feel like it. I'm sorry, I know I said earlier that I wouldn't discontinue this series unless I felt like it really sucked and there was now way to save it, and I guess in a way it has gotten to that point. Not in the quality of the writing, I think the writing itself is pretty good, it's just the plot that I can't figure out. I might decide to come back to this later, but I wouldn't count on it. Here's the last chapter I'm probably ever publishing for this fanfic, I hope you guys like it, and I'm sorry that it's incomplete and Silvie's section ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.
Review responses:
(I guess you don't have to read this part if you don't want to)
Miranda Rose Clairmont: thanks so much for the review, it really means a lot to me. For your first question about Sylvie, I hadn't really thought about whether all of the Sylvie variants would be female or not, but no, they're all female. All of the Lokis and Sylvies encountered in this series will look like the originals because the reason their variants are variants is because of the different scenarios that went down with He Who Remains, not because of different physical features. The fight with He Who Remains was the split into all of these different variants. Picture it like a thread that's fraying out into a billion little pieces at the end. The thread is their path up to that point, and the fraying end is all of the different variants and timelines that ensued.
Sundance Lokidottir 11: thank you! I'm glad you think the previous chapter was worth the wait. I'm so happy you liked it. The review put a big smile on my face, which goes to show that a review doesn't have to be super long to be helpful and show the author that their work is appreciated.
"Hello?" The word echoed through the citadel. Loki seemed frozen with his forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth while the other Sylvie was standing with an alert expression on her face and looked to be trying to decide where in the building the sound had come from.
Sylvie stood too, her chair making a loud grating sound as she pushed it back. She cringed at the noise and the other Sylvie glared at her. Loki stood up and motioned for them both to follow him over into the corner of the room.
As soon as they were over there, the tingling feeling of a spell falling into place came over her and she panicked for a second, thinking that they were attempting to pull some nasty betrayal on her, but then she realized that it was just an invisibility spell and relaxed a little. She noted with surprise that there were now three identical copies of them sitting at the table eating breakfast.
Loki called out, "who's there?" The voice that replied said, "Hi, I'm James, I'm not sure where I am, could someone please explain to me what the hell is happening?" What could that mean? He didn't know where he was? Then how had he gotten here?
After a moment of pondering the situation, she decided that either he was faking confusion and helplessness in an attempt to get them to let their guard down, or he was genuinely confused and had no idea where he was, in which case, he was probably sent here by someone else as a guinea pig to see if anyone else was here and what kind of resistance they would face if they wanted to take control of this place. She had to admit, it was a smart plan. If they tried to bring him back to wherever he was sent from and found that they couldn't, then that would mean something happened to him.
Who could be behind this though? Her mind immediately went to the possibility that it may have been one of the variants of He Who Remains, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions now and be taken by surprise later, so she decided to keep an open mind.
"Well, I think I should be the one asking 'what the hell is happening,' you're the one who barged into my home uninvited." Loki shouted.
"Hey! It's not my fault. One second, I'm sitting at my desk thinking about the possibility of other universes. The next, poof! I'm sitting on the floor in the middle of an unfamiliar castle talking to a stranger I can't see!" James called back.
This really did not seem like the time dictator she had previously known. This guy was more humorous, a little more dramatic, and was more easily confused. She decided to tuck that bit of information away for later.
The other Sylvie and Loki stared at each other for a few seconds and seemed to come to a conclusion.
"I'll send an illusion down there and bring him up here, well decide what to do with him after he's told his story," Loki whispered. Both Sylvies nodded in agreement and the illusion of Loki at the table disappeared. Loki briefly explained that they would each be able to control the illusions of themselves and then they all went silent.
After an excruciatingly long five minutes, James and Loki's illusion of himself entered the room. James was similar in appearance to He Who Remains, but James was shorter and his hair had a few streaks of white. He seemed quite nervous.
The illusion of the other Sylvie invited him to sit down and eat and James quickly accepted, though he didn't actually eat anything once he had sat down.
*I'm going to refer to the illusions as just Loki, Sylvie, and Other Sylvie for the next few paragraphs. There will be another short note telling you when I stop doing this*
James sat for a few seconds in silence, and then looked over at Loki and asked, "are they twins?" While looking at the two Sylvies.
"No," Sylvie said before Loki could respond. She raised both eyebrows and continued speaking "and they're perfectly capable of speaking for themselves,"
She hated men who would talk about others like they weren't sitting right next to them. She supposed it could be expected because of the time period he was from and the fact that she was a woman, but that didn't make it right.
James' face went bright red as he realized that what he'd done had been offensive and quickly stuttered out an apology.
"So, James, could you describe to us exactly what happened to bring you here?" Loki asked in an attempt to salvage the conversation. Ever the peacekeeper. This Loki really didn't like conflict of any sort.
James–grateful for the chance to redeem himself–immediately began describing exactly what had happened.
"I was laying in my bed, thinking about how other universes could possibly exist, when all of a sudden the lamp next to my bed went out and everything went dark. When I woke up, I was standing in the foyer of this enormous… building."
"That's all?" Loki asked.
"That's it." James said matter-of-factly.
*Switching back now*
"Really?" Sylvie said, standing behind him with a knife from her plate pressed against his throat.
"Didn't you say just a few minutes ago that you were sitting at your desk when you were 'sent' here?"
James' face had gone completely white.
"Where–where did you come from?"
"Nowhere," she responded with a feral grin on her face.
"Put the knife down and we can talk this out," James said in a slightly desperate voice.
"You have ten seconds to start talking before I kill you,"
She pressed the knife a little harder against his throat.
"W-w-wait! I can explain! I-I was–I've been teleported to places multiple times!" He managed to stutter out
"You're going to have to do a little better than that." Sylvie said.
"Wait! Please!"
"You know, you are probably one of the worst liars I've ever had the displeasure of meeting." She was tired of this. Sylvie removed the knife from James' throat.
"Thank you so–" she pressed her fingers to his temples and pushed into his mind before he could say anything else."Alright," Mobius said tiredly, "What do we do now?"
Loki looked around, "I have no idea," he admitted.
"You could start by bandaging the stab wound in your arm" Mobius suggested. Loki had almost completely forgotten about it. He had been through a lot of pain, it almost didn't bother him at all anymore. Almost.
Loki wordlessly used his magic to stitch the wound shut and wrap his upper arm in a bandage. The whole process took him under thirty seconds and left Mobius standing in surprised silence.
"Okay," Mobius said, contemplating again what the heck they were going to do now. "Do you know what timeline Sylvie is in?"
"No, I don't," Loki said, lost in thought about what had just happened and how he could possibly find Sylvie. Well actually the problem wasn't finding Sylvie, the problem was finding the right Sylvie.
"Well that's not very helpful," Mobius said, "do you at least know a place she might be in? That would narrows down or options by a lot,"
"My best guess is the citadel at the end of time,"
But even if they did find her, how would they know it was really her? How would the know it wasn't another Sylvie that was pretending to be the one he was looking for? Or one that legitimately believed that she was the one they were looking for? The whole thing seemed hopeless.
"Mobius, do you know of a device that can find people of the same timeline?" He asked. Loki sat up and focused on Mobius, an idea forming in his mind.
"Not that exact function, but there is a machine that can tell you what timeline a being is originally from,"
"Where is it?"
"The boss had it destroyed a few weeks ago," Mobius said. Loki let out a groan of frustration, then looked up quickly as he realized that if there was one of those here, there was probably another in a different timeline. He just had to get his hands on one of those, figure out the timeline he was from, and find the Sylvie from the same timeline. It would still take forever but it at least seemed possible now.
"Come on Mobius," Loki said as he punched in a random timeline number with the same location as their current one, opened a time door, and stepped through.