Doomsdays

Lamentis-1

2077

"Sigyn is the only good, consistent thing in my life," Loki said as the train plowed on towards its destination.

"Agreed. She's always there, always been there. Or she was." Now Sylvie appeared deflated. "I think about her all the time, every day."

"Did we just agree on something?"

"I guess we did."

This made Loki smile a little. Then the smile fell and he hesitated before asking his next question: "What happened to her, your Sigyn?"

Sylvie shrugged. "I don't know. She was pruned along with the rest of my reality, whatever that truly means. All I know is I lost her, for good. I miss her terribly." Then she looked across the table right at him. "But you, you're an idiot!" She slapped his arm, and hard. "You're always deliberately putting yourself in positions to lose her! How could you do that? Ugh, no wonder everyone finds you so frustrating!"

"Us!"

"You!"

"Us!"

"No, you!"

Ugh - this was going to be a very long trip.

TVA

"I should have more security, this is insulting!" Loki hollered as he and Sylvie were dragged through the seemingly vast halls of the TVA.

The Lokis were separated from there. Loki was brought before Mobius in an interrogation room.

"If your goal was to piss everyone off, it worked," Mobius told him, not looking up from the files he was rummaging through. "Myself, Renslayer, your friend Sigyn..."

"Sigyn, where is she?"

Mobius still didn't look up. "We pruned her."

A beat of silence. Loki's stomach dropped. "What?"

"Yup. She wasn't supposed to help you, and you weren't supposed to escape. And she had been diverged from her own timeline for too long." He spoke with no emotion, his words void of all emotion, which only made what he said all the more chilling.

Loki's voice trembled. "N-No."

"Yes. But don't worry, it sounds like you have a new girlfriend now." If Mobius had been expecting Loki to clap back at this, which he clearly expected, he didn't, perhaps surprisingly. The TVA Analyst had rendered the God of Mischief speechless. He appeared so broken, so shattered - a glimpse of a child who had just lost their best friend.

Mobius sighed and stood, gathering his things. "Cell 55," was all he said.

Cell 55. It took him a while to find it, but a wave of relief hit Loki when he saw her, Sigyn, there. That relief was short lived however when he noticed she sat with her own prisoner collar around her neck, her hands bound.

"Oh Sig-"

"I'm their prisoner now, thanks to you. They think I'm assisting you in some evil master plan."

"Oh Sig, I'm so-"

"What? Sorry? Yeah, I know. Sorry for what? Everything, right?"

Loki knew there was no sense in arguing.

She sighed and continued. "You said we were a team, you wanted to do this together. Or at least that was implied. Then you run off on your own. You always blame us for never paying attention to you, but at the same time, you're constantly pushing us away. You've always based your own self worth on other people's perceptions of you. But have you ever looked within?"

He thought of his recent connection to Sylvie. "Yes, yes I have. But that's not important right now-" Sigyn scoffed. "No, really, we have a bigger problem-"

"What could be bigger?"

"This! They're all Variants, Sigyn! Sylvie told me-"

"Sylvie? Who's Sylvie?"

"Me - well, the other Loki."

"The other Loki is Sylvie?"

"Yes, she goes by that now. But that's what she's been trying to do, for her whole life: take down the TVA and wake everyone up from his nightmare they've been living. It's not real, none of it is."

She took a moment to absorb this. "And you believe her?"

"Yes!"

She thought for a moment. "Odin's beard..."

"Yes. I know, it's a lot. We have to let them know somehow. Let them know that this is all one big lie!"

"And you're sure you trust this Sylvie?" she pressed.

"Yes, I do. I really, truly do. We shared something during our escape, shared a connection of some sort. Mobius thought we fell for each other." Now it was his turn to scoff, though Mobius's words repeated themselves in his head: "But don't worry, it sounds like you have a new girlfriend now..."

Sigyn looked up at this. "Loki, I've always been told you can't really, truly love anyone else until you love yourself..." She trailed off but he didn't catch on. "Loki, you're starting to love and accept yourself - that's amazing! That is so important!"

But before they could discuss any more of this sudden revelation further, the cell door swung open. Judge Renyslayer stood with another hunter and the other Variant - Sylvie. "The Time-Keepers are expecting an execution. But first-" Sigyn wasn't liking the smile crawling up the judge's lips. "There's something I want to show you."

"You okay?" Loki asked Sylvie in a low voice.

She nodded stiffly. "Yeah."

When they entered the screening room, Loki and Sylvie had no idea what was in store for them.

But Sigyn knew. She instantly knew. "No-"

"I heard you watched the playout of your life on our film," Renslayer stated while setting up the machine. "So I thought you might want to finish it."

"What do you mean 'finish it'?" Loki demanded. "I did."

She smirked. "Not exactly."

He looked at Sigyn who looked away.

Then the film started.

She could close her eyes, but she could still hear everything. And even though she couldn't see it, she could, as it was burned into her memory forever:

"All-mighty Thanos, I, Loki of Jotunheim, Prince of Asgard, Odinson... Swear to you my undying fidelity."

"Undying?" chuckled Thanos darkly. "You really should choose your words more carefully."

Loki's voice became strangled as his source of air became blocked. "You - will never - be - a - god..."

Then came the sickening crack of Loki's neck snapping, breaking, the moment of his death - the moment that had haunted her ever since.

"No resurrections this time."

Then the whole room filled with her and Thor's screams.

"Sigyn no!" came Thor's cry as she lunged at the Titan. In the moment, all that had been a wild blur, so it was strange seeing it play out, moment to moment.

"MURDEROUS, TORTUROUS WRETCH! And you'll die for that!"

"You resemble someone very dear to me," the Titian said, his words sending a chill down her spine. She hadn't known of who he spoke then, but now she did: the Stonekeeper, Lady Infinity. "Remind me of her. It almost hurts me to kill you."

"Then I beg you, go ahead,"

"Almost hurts me. Don't worry, you'll join your dearly beloved very soon, Goddess of Fidelity. Besides, you should be used to this by now."

Then he was gone and she was at Loki's side, begging. "Loki? Loki, look at me. Look at me, please. Y-you promised no more illusions, b-but, please, just this once - just one more time-"

It ended with both she and Thor clutching Loki's fallen body, sobbing, never wanting to let go as the ship exploded into nothing around them.

And with that the clip faded, ending for real this time, and the screen went black.

I promised we would come back to this terrible moment :( so here we are!

Sorry to end on such a gloomy note - thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed.