Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 1 of As the World Caves In. I want to thank those who have left reviews for this story and who have kept up with my other story that goes with this one The God of Mischief and Lies and the Woman of Many Faces. I'm excited to see how this story turns out and how both Loki and Everleigh get along in this story. I know that this is going to be one bumpy ride for our two main characters. I hope that everyone is ready to join the journey of the bumpy ride into Loki and where we will end up going. We have a long way to go with this story and even to see a reel for both Loki and Everleigh in this story will be fun to show you guys what will end up happening. Without further ado Chapter 1 of As the World Caves In. ENJOY!
Chapter 1
They landed harshly in the sand, and Everleigh landed haphazardly over Loki.
Loki sputtered out the device that Thor had put into his mouth to shut him up while he was in the tower. He pushed Everleigh off of him slowly getting up to his feet and looking around the sandy area where they had landed.
Everleigh huffed, blowing her blonde hair out of her face as she got up to her feet. "You could have been polite and not pushed me off of you."
Loki rolled his eyes, noticing people standing there dressed in much odder clothing than what the blonde-haired agent was wearing next to him. "I am Loki of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."
Everleigh rolled her eyes scoffing a bit as she heard the people talking in Mongolian.
"I…" Loki trailed off, turning his attention to a warbling sound and people walking through a transparent type door. "Never mind." He narrowed his eyes at the man that was reaching down to pick up the blue glowing cube that was on the ground. "Don't touch that."
A woman came through another door looking at the two people that stood before her. She let out a soft scoff, shaking her head lightly. Every time it was one of these which was a bit mundane, but she wouldn't ask for any other sort of violations. "Appears to be a standard sequence violation. The branch is growing at a stable rate and slope. Variants identified."
Everleigh remained silent knowing that whoever these people were, they weren't ones to be messed with.
Loki blinked a few times, befuddled by what was being said to them. What on earth was a variant? "I beg your pardon."
"On behalf of the Time Variance Authority, I hereby arrest you for crimes against the Sacred Timeline. Hands up." The woman demanded looking at the two of them.
The others who were with her powered up their weapons pointing them at the two of them.
Everleigh slowly brought her hands up knowing that there was no reason to argue with authority.
"You're coming with us."
"I'm sorry. Who's "us"?" Loki questioned his brows furrowing together in confusion. He honestly didn't want to go anywhere with these people.
"Last chance, Variant."
Loki let out a soft chuckle shaking his head before sniffing back his anger. "It's been a very long day, and I think I've had my fill of idiots in armored suits telling me what to do, so, if you don't mind, this is your last chance. Now get out of my way."
Suddenly the woman moved to hit him with her baton and Loki began to move in slow motion toward the ground. "You are now moving at 1/16th speed, but feeling all that pain in real-time."
Everleigh looked on with wide eyes as sweat began to bead along her forehead from the extreme heat.
The woman easily snapped a collar around Loki's neck as he groaned after finally moving normally once again. Her eyes then shifted to Everleigh. "And what about you Variant? Are you coming willingly?"
Everleigh swallowed the thick lump that formed in her throat. "What choice do I even have? I don't want to end up like him. But then again his mouth got him where he is. Perhaps he'll learn to control his temper." Everleigh thought before slowly nodding her head. "I'm not going to put up a fight." She said softly knowing that it was the right thing to do.
Loki grunted as he was pulled up to his feet.
The two of them headed towards the transparent door.
Everleigh slowly got closer to the door as Loki turned his head.
"Reset the timeline."
Everleigh took a breath before going through the door that led into some sort of building as a collar was snapped around her neck. She took a breath as she felt the magic that had remained somewhat dwindle inside of her. "Power damping of course. No one with magic can use it while wearing this." She thought to herself as Loki was shoved into her back causing her to stumble.
Loki's hands shot out grabbing her making sure that she didn't fall. Even if he didn't want to be around this young woman. He wasn't about to allow her to get hurt by something so stupid. She had spent so much time fighting against him that it wasn't easy on her magic. He felt his heart clench in his chest and quickly removed his hands from her as if she had burned him. Loki looked around seeing the new place that they were in. "What is this place?"
The woman pushed Loki forward and Everleigh followed willingly to not get on this woman's bad side. "Come on."
"You're making a terrible mistake," Loki grumbled as the guard continued to push him.
Everleigh let out a breath. "We're under arrest and you're complaining that they're making a mistake? We wouldn't be in this problem if you hadn't decided to grab the tesseract from my team and I."
Loki looked over at her out of the corner of his eyes. He was shocked that she thought that it was all his fault.
The woman stopped before the man.
"Hello, ma'am, uh…"
She held out the tesseract. "Log this as evidence." She said, pushing it into the man's hands.
"Oh…" He looked up seeing the woman walk away.
"Can you at least tell me what it is?"
Loki began to be dragged by the hunter that had caught him and Everleigh. "It's the Tesseract. Be very careful with it."
"It sounds dumb."
Everleigh let out a breath and shook her head lightly knowing that the man had no idea what he held. Not only that Loki was causing more trouble than what was needed. Granted she blamed him for what happened, and all she wanted to do was return to her time and be with her friends. She couldn't help but wonder what they were trying to do to find her. Her heart clenched in her chest at the thought of her friends. How was she going to get home? Was she going to be trapped here forever?
Loki panted as the hunter that had caught them both came to a stop. "Know this. You cross me, there are deadly consequences."
The woman's brow raised. "We'll see." She said, pushing him through the door. She then looked at the young woman that stood there. "Am I going to have to force you though?"
Everleigh shook her head. "No," She said, raising her hands in a surrender motion not wanting to cause trouble. "I never wanted to end up here in the first place or be on the wrong side of the law."
The woman let out a hum. "You're more understanding of what we want you to do instead of your friend."
"He's not my friend nor will he ever be."
"Go through the door to begin the process."
Everleigh took a breath and clenched her hands at her sides. She then stepped through the door causing it to warble. She stood before a machine with a worried glint in her eyes. Her heart rammed into her chest.
The machine stripped her down of her uniform that she had worn and the floor gave out from below her causing a shriek to leave her throat as she was put into a TVA uniform.
She blinked a few times in confusion looking at the brown monstrosity that she wore. "They couldn't pick any better colors?" She thought to herself feeling uncomfortable in the uniform. She looked down, seeing a cat purring softly. Her heart melted at the sight of the cat.
"Please sign to verify this is everything you've ever said." The man behind the desk said.
Everleigh's attention went from the cat to the man before her and she moved slowly, grabbing the pen that was on top of the papers and signing it taking a breath through her nose as she signed her name. She let out a shocked gasp as she fell through the floor again landing before a device. Her brows furrowed together in concern.
"Please confirm to your knowledge that you are not a fully robotic being, were born an organic creature, and do in fact possess what many cultures would call a soul."
"What? "To my knowledge"? Do a lot of people not know if they're robots? What if we have a small bit of metal in our body for a replacement?"
"Thank you for confirming. Move through." The man said, looking up at her. "And it won't harm the metal that was used to fix a body part."
Everleigh's hands gripped at her sides as she took a breath through her nose as looked at the machine that was pulsating in front of her. She walked through the machine and looked over at the man. "What's that?" She questioned her brows furrowing together in confusion.
"Your temporal aura."
"Oh…"
"Please, through the door."
Everleigh moved through the door and saw Loki arguing with a man.
"Take a ticket."
"What is this, a deli? No." Loki said, crossing his arms in frustration.
"Take a ticket."
"There's only two of us in here."
"Take a ticket."
"Loki just take a fucking ticket already." Everleigh snapped, narrowing her eyes at the black-haired god.
Loki turned his attention to the young woman and saw the anger burning in her eyes. Loki sighed and grabbed a ticket exhaling the breath that he held.
Everleigh then easily took the ticket next before following Loki.
"This is a mistake! I shouldn't be here!" Loki snapped as he walked.
"It's your fault we're even here." Everleigh pointed out as she walked. "If you wouldn't have touched the tesseract we wouldn't be in this problem now."
Loki rolled his eyes. "Oh, and you would be with your stupid hero friends and my oaf of a brother. Do you have no morals?"
"I have plenty of morals. And one isn't to come down to New Mexico and destroy a town. Try to take a hammer that you couldn't even lift and then come to New York City and ruin many buildings that will cost millions to fix." Everleigh said, rolling her eyes.
Loki let out a scoff. "I shouldn't even be here. It's all your stupid friends' fault."
Everleigh rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she walked.
"Hey there! You're probably saying, "This is a mistake. I shouldn't even be here." Welcome to the Time Variance Authority. I'm Miss Minutes, and it's my job to catch you up before you stand trial for your crimes. So let's not waste another minute. Settle in, sharpen your pencils, and check this out."
Everleigh's brows raised slightly looking at the monitor as it began to play the video that she supposed was part of the whole thing of the two of them getting caught.
"Long ago, there was a vast multiversal war. Countless unique timelines battled each other for supremacy, nearly resulting in the total destruction of… well, everything. But then, the all-knowing Time-Keepers emerged, bringing peace by reorganizing the multiverse into a single timeline, the Sacred Timeline. Now, the Time-Keepers protect and preserve the proper flow of time for everyone and everything. But sometimes, people like you veer off the path the Time-Keepers created. We call those Variants. Maybe you started an uprising or were just late for work. Whatever it was, stepping off your path created a nexus event, which, left unchecked, could branch off into madness, leading to another multiversal war. But, don't worry, to make sure that doesn't happen, the Time-Keepers created the TVA and all its incredible workers. The TVA has stepped in to fix your mistake and set time back on its predetermined path. Now that your actions have left you without a place on the timeline, you must stand trial for your offenses. So sit tight, and we'll get you in front of a judge in no time. Just make sure you have your ticket, and you'll be seen by the next available attendant. For all time."
"Always." The people said over the video.
Loki let out a scoff rolling his eyes. He couldn't believe the hogwash that was being told by Miss Minutes. He didn't believe in that sort of thing. "Time-Keepers? The Sacred Timeline? Who actually believes this bunkum?"
"And that's your way of saying that you don't believe what is being said? You don't believe in a higher power?" Everleigh questioned as she walked. She slowed when she heard a minuteman asking a man who stopped before him.
"Ticket, sir?"
"He didn't give me a ticket. I asked."
"Ticket, sir!"
"I tried to ask that guy for a ticket!"
"Sir…"
"What, you're raising your voice at me, bucket head?"
Suddenly the man brought out a device and lit it up slamming it into the man's stomach causing him to scream and he disappeared into a pile of ash.
Everleigh gripped her ticket in her hand tightly as Loki began to search for his ticket in his pockets pulling it out and letting out a shuddering breath. "Scared now are we?" Everleigh questioned looking at Loki out of the corner of her eyes.
"Thanks for visiting the TVA. Don't hesitate to let us know how we're doing." Miss Minutes said before she disappeared off of the screen.
Loki let out a scoff shaking his head. This young woman was very annoying and he was going to make sure that he would kill her when he got the chance to. His heart clenched in his chest at the thought of killing her. Perhaps he wouldn't do that to her at least not yet. She could still very much be a use for him to get out of here. At least he could only hope.
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This is the end of Chapter 1. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know that a little bit is going on here. But I have to admit I think it turned out pretty well from watching a bit of the show to write this part out. Adding Everleigh into this was rather fun I have to say. I have a feeling that the two of them are going to have a bumpy ride through this story. As much as I'm excited to write this, other Marvel television shows will be in the OG story instead of the side story which is only Loki. God of Mischief and Lies and the Woman of Many Faces will have WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I can't wait to get to that story as well as write this one out. I'm excited to see what you guys think of this. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Reviews help me keep going when it comes to writing stories. I will hopefully update next week with a brand new chapter. Until next time.