A/N:
"I wanted to save them all," the god answered, truthfully.
"Yeah, that is beyond question. But your choices where limited in this situation and you chose the lesser of two evils. But if you could choose again.."
After a long moment she finally found the courage to say the next words.
"I told you my name is Sylvie. But that isn't the name I was given at birth.."
There was a pause and the tension and emotion in the room was palpable.
Sylvie almost whispered the next words..
She looked happy.
There had been a lot of emotions the past few hours..it was the hell of a day..she went from anxiety to anger, then excitement..
..and now affection?
..arousal?
His hand was pressed to the branch, holding it so tight that his knuckles already went white.
"I just want you to be okay"
Liar..
No, it was the truth.
There was always a prize to pay and he had payed it. He had payed it for them..for her.
"I want a life..I want to live."
And then something happened that he knew he wasn't supposed to see and it hit him like a dagger in the heart..
He saw her soft, red lips..the ones that had argued with him, pissed him off, the ones that had gotten on his last nerve. The lips he had seen smiling and laughing and trembling..
..the ones that had kissed him.
After the fighting, the arguing, the trembling, the hurt..and the moment she had pressed them against his..he knew he was lost.
That moment he had fallen into the sweetest abyss..he had already known he would do anything and would sacrifice his life for her, even before the kiss..before the void and the talk under the blanket, even before he had sung her the Asgardian folksong during their train ride on Lamentis..maybe he had known it from the very beginning, the first contact, the first time he had looked into her eyes at the Roxxcart hurricane apocalypse.
But the moment she had kissed him, he was truly lost..
"..but nothing ever.."
"..real"
And now she was kissing someone else..
He clinged to the branch like his life depended on it, overlooking that it already crackled unnaturally.
"Did you ever dive so deep you were afraid you couldn't make it to the surface again before drowning?"
There was that voice again.
A voice he couldn't contextualise. A voice that he heard for some time now.
First it had seemed like it was his own.
How ironic it would have been if the only one keeping him company at the end of time was his own voice, echoing in his mind, telling him about past memories and lost opportunities..
"You're like a child, telling his mother that it surely wouldn't eat the cookie before lunch but then grabbing it the first chance he gets."
Was he slowly going crazy? Was this his punishment after all..because the sacrifice he had made wasn't enough to balance out all the cruel things he had done all those years?
His demons coming back to play..
Karma hitting had..
"I thought you had stopped lying to yourself.." the voice whispered.
"But I shouldn't be surprised..god of lies, after all.."
"Enough," Loki shouted into the void with all the force and strength he could manage.
If this truly was his own voice echoing in his head, then perhaps it would stop for a moment..or maybe laugh at him.
Or both..
If this was another being talking to him, there maybe was a chance he would show himself.
And then there was a shadow..or maybe it was a light..emerging between the timelines, going through them. The sinister appearance made him shudder. It was hard to tell if it was friendly or a threat. The thing had no defined form..Not completely dark but not bright, either.
"Nice to meet you, god of stories," the being said with a low but clearly audible voice.
"Who are you?" Loki asked.
"I'm all and I'm nothing," it answered, "I watch and I see"
"Are you here to pose me riddles?" the god asked with a sour undertone.
"I'm here to help," it simply answered.
Loki sighed, "And what makes you think I need help?"
"Why so agitated, god of stories? Seen something disturbing?"
Loki didn't answer so it continued, "You want to ask a question and you want to ask it so desperately that it scares you and you forbid yourself to ask..Because desperation is not included in the glorious purpose. In the purpose there's only peace. But you're not at peace, god of stories..you're far away from peace"
"And what question would that be in your eyes?" the god asked with an annoyed voice.
Great, riddles and lectures from unknown beings and there was no possibility to move away from this place.
"There's tumult in your heart and as long as there's tumult there's possibilies..possibilies for the wrong forces to mess with."
"I don't know what you're seeing from wherever you are, but there's no tumult in my heart"
But the moment he said those words he realized even the dumbest person could spot that it wasn't true..
And then it laughed.
"And here we are with the lying again"
Loki was slowly but steady getting angry. The branches felt it and reacted. They always reacted to his emotions, it was a symbiosis they shared, a bond. He was bound to them and they were bound to him.
"What did you see on the timeline that made you so upset?"
"I didn't..there was a kang variant and I wanted to make sure that everything was okay."
The being stopped laughing.
"The variant was already dead for several hours..there was no need to watch the branch any longer. So, I ask you again, god of stories: Whose story did you watch..?"
Loki shook his head and in this moment the crown felt so heavy like it never had before.
"It's none of your business.." the god stated in a low voice, almost not recognizable.
"On the contrary - I think it is. Because you're holding the branches of the whole multiverse in your very hands, Loki Laufeyson."
Loki looked at the shadow again, brows furrowed, "So, what are you getting at? If you watch me like you said, you can see there's no point in questioning my sense of responsibility."
It nodded, "You're right, god of stories. I don't question your sense of responsibility..I question your place on this throne."
Lokis eyes widened before he narrowed them, trying to stay as calm as possible with this offence.
"As I said, tumult brings possibilies for the wrong forces to mess with..at some point you have to ask yourself what it is that you really want.."
"What is wrong with wanting something, Loki? What do you want?"
"I wanted to save them all," the god answered, truthfully.
"Yeah, that is beyond question. But your choices where limited in this situation and you chose the lesser of two evils. But if you could choose again.."
"If I leave, the branches will die.." the god stated, his voice getting louder again, frustration in his tone.
"Maybe they will, maybe they won't..but perhaps you're right. Trying would be a high risk and the best option is to forget about them. Forget her.."
Then the shadow moved, away from him and past the timelines again.
"..seems like she's already on her way to forget about you."
The situation couldn't be more tense.
They were sitting around a table in the town hall. Thors adopted daughter, Love, was already asleep in their house and he didn't want to wake her up.
Valkyrie wanted to join them but Mobius had convinced her that the first talk should be between the three of them- Mobius, Thor and Sylvie.
The enchantress was sitting with her arms crossed and an unreadable expression on her face. Mobius guessed it was a defense mechanism because it was all too much for her.
Thors eyes went back and forth between the two of them, repeatedly focusing on the crown Sylvie now held in her hands, fumbling at the horns to calm herself and her nerves down.
"Who are you?" the god asked again, his voice full of confusion and a bit of anger.
Mobius tried his best to keep his own tone as soothing as possible. The whole atmosphere was overheated already.
"First of all - we mean no harm. We're friends, not enemies."
Thor draw his eyebrows together at that, "I will decide that myself after I heard what you have to say, Mobius..agent of TAV."
Mobius took a deep breath, "We're..I'm an analyst of the TVA - the Time Variance Authority. I know you never heard of us before, because you never needed to. The story I'm about to tell you is a little complicated and I'll try to explain it to you as easy as possible.."
So he told him about the TVA and its mission (well, the mission they had for eons). He told him about the Sacred Timeline they protected and about variants. The more he explained, the more the expression on Thors face became irritated.
"So, you.. pruned these variants because you thought they could do harm, cause trouble..?"
When he said the word "variant" he looked at Sylvie, who was really quiet the whole time, head lowered.
"Yes, we pruned them because we were told so. Every variant and every extra branch was a potential threat in the eyes of the person who really created the TVA - I'll come to that later. But before that, we must tell you something..the most important thing..and this will sound unbelievable to you.."
The gods eyes were focused on Sylvie and on her horned crown now.
When she noticed it she raised her head again and looked at him with green eyes full of emotions.
"Who are you?" Thor asked and his voice was low, almost trembling.
The two of them looked at each other for a long moment and Sylvie stopped fumbling at her crown. She opened her mouth to say something and closed it again for several times..
After a long moment she finally found the courage to say the next words.
"I told you my name is Sylvie. But that isn't the name I was given at birth.."
There was a pause and the tension and emotion in the room was palpable.
Sylvie almost whispered the next words.
"..my real name, the name my parents gave me..is Loki"
The moment she said the name Thors jaw dropped. There was silence for a moment where you could have heard a pin drop.
"What..what did you say?"
Sylvie looked at Mobius nervously who nodded and encouraged her with his gaze. He knew this whole conversation and the emotions that came with it was not her forte..
The enchantress took a deep breath, "I'm a Loki variant. I changed my name but the first few years of my life I lived on Asgard..a different Asgard from another branch, another reality."
Thor looked at her, still confused but now there was something else in his eyes..maybe it was the mentioning of Lokis name, maybe it was the fact that Sylvie was kind of a sister from another mother..maybe it was a bit of both.
Mobius cleared his throat, "But that's not the big revelation I was talking about..what I'm going to tell you now may sound unbelievable and crazy..but there's a reason we're all still here, a reason we're still alive. The multiverse I told you about wouldn't exist if it wasn't for one person.."
He made a pause, nervous about the next, most important words he was about to say.
"..and that person is your brother..Loki"
Thors eyes widened with shock and for a long moment he just stared at Mobius, paralysed.
A few moments later the god of thunder closed his eyes tightly and shook his head in disbelief.
"No, that's not possible.."
He made fists with his hands and sparks of lightning emerged from them. His breathrate was slowly but steadily increasing.
"My brother is dead. He died at the hands of Thanos.."
When he opened his eyes again there were tears in them..tears of hurt..tears of anger..tears of desperation, "So, Mobius and Sylvie from the TVA, why do you tell me all these lies?! What do you want from me and my people? And it better be a good story because I'm running out of sympathy here.."
Mobius sighed and thought about the right words to calm the whole atmosphere down..
..the right words to convince the god that he wasn't lying.
"You're right, on one side..The brother who was by your side during Ragnarok and the invasion of Thanos was killed. But you remember you travelled through time with the Avengers to collect the Infinity Stones to reverse what Thanos did. You travelled to Asgard..Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers and Scott Lang travelled to New York 2012 to take the Tesseract, which contained the space stone..But they couldn't get it because Loki took it..do you remember that, Thor?"
The analysts voice was gentle and understanding, because he understood. He understood the gods reaction, triggered with past, deeply painful memories and crazy stories about time travel, variants and multiverses..
Thor nodded slowly, his hand now pressed to his mouth, his eyes moving wildly back and forth, his mind processing all the information Mobius gave him, bit by bit.
"..so Loki took the Tesseract and landed himself in Gobi desert, where we, the TVA appeared on the scene and catched him.."
The agent stopped and gave the god of thunder some more time to process his words.
"..what ultimately created a 'variant'. So he is your brother. Not the one you knew the last few years, but the one you knew your whole life until New York 2012."
Thor was nonstop shaking his head absentminded. He stopped the moment when a hand was placed on his arm.
"Thor.."
He looked up and right into the eyes of Sylvie.
"..can I hug you?"
At first Mobius couldn't believe his eyes and ears and he watched his chaos goddess with an irritated gaze. He would never have guessed Sylvie would do something like this, letting her guards down..
But now it was obvious that there was a connection.
A connection considering who she and what her origin was..her being a variant of his brother..
And a connection through the Loki they both knew..
..the Loki they both love..
The first few seconds the god of thunder looked at the enchantress with confusion in his eyes and nobody moved. And then Mobius almost jumped as out of nowwhere Thors strong arms pulled Sylvie to him..
..and into the tightest embrace.
The god pressed the goddess against his chest, his arms wrapped around her slender waist and given the tightness it must have been hard for her to breath.
But all he saw was peace.
The agent had never seen so much relief and peace in Sylvies face. Her eyes were closed and it seemed as if something inside herself had broken free and she finally found something she never expected to find again.
Family.
Not like Mobius or Verity, not like her friends who surely had become the closest thing to a family for Sylvie. But her origin family..her Asgardian family..and with them the brother she had to leave behind when she was a child.
The analyst saw tears welling up in her closed eyes, as she pulled the god of thunder even closer..Thor, her long lost brother from another mother.
When they broke the embrace she smiled, her eyes glimmering with tears of pure joy.
"Family reunion," Mobius said, truly touched and happy for his chaos queen.
God and goddess smiled at each other for a long moment and Thor wiped away a single tear that fell down her cheek.
It was a beautiful, gentle gesture.
The loving gesture of a big brother..
Even if it wasn't blood that bound them together and even if they came from different realities..but all of that didn't matter now, because there was a connection.
And it was beautiful.
Slowly Thor turned and looked at the analyst again, "And..what happened to Loki, agent Mobius? Where is he? Is he..is he alive?"
His tone was nervous now, full of expectation and now full of fear, too.
Mobius nodded, "A lot had happened at the TVA, so here's the short version..the one who created the TVA also designed something that was called the 'temporal loom'. It protected the sacred timeline, but it wasn't enough to hold onto an ever- growing multiverse. It was all very chaotic and there was a lot of trial and error but ultimatively..the situation was so muddled and at some point we thought we reached the dead-end and that we were all doomed to die..and we would have died..if your brother hadn't sacrificed himself."
He made a pause and smiled to himself and to Thor, who listened to his words, that knocked him of his feet, "He stepped out there, went all god - mode, destroyed the loom and created something new..which is actually a version of Yggdrasil, the world tree."
With telling the story to Thor, Mobius felt the pride for Loki again. He saw the eyes of the god of thunder widened as he mentioned Yggdrasil.
"So Loki.." Thor began with a trembling voice. Sylvie placed a gentle hand on his own.
"..saved us all..eyeryone..the whole multiverse." Mobius finished his sentence with a warm smile on his face.
Thors face was a wild mixture of emotions at that point and he was obviously torn between pure joy and complete disbelief.
He shook his head again, "That can't be possible. It's hard to believe that, agent Mobius. My brother, the Loki I knew back then in 2012..he invaded earth with an alien army. He was driven by hate and pain and lust for power..and I think it is possible that he had been tortured by those aliens.."
Mobius nodded and smiled, "You're right, with everything. The Loki during that time..his mindset was rather..egomaniac. When we catched him he was an arrogant, narcissistic wanna- be- king."
Thors eyebrows twisted, "Careful, agent Mobius. You're talking about my brother here, after all."
Mobius smile grew even wider, "I mean no offence, Thor. But you knew him. And fortunately we grew past that very quickly - even quicker than I expected. And at the end.."
The analyst smiled and thought about his words, "..at the end he became my best friend."
The thunderers gaze was even more unbelieving at those last words.
Yes, Thor..you're brother was capable of making friends..sometimes it even shocked Mobius what change Loki had gone through..
How hard must it for Thor to believe these words..
Mobius continued, "And I always admired your unconditional love for him, even after everything he had done..you never lost faith in him..never stopped believing."
The god looked deep in the other mans eyes and there was nothing but pure honesty, "Agent Mobius, it's easy. He was my brother. I never doubted that. From the moment he drew his first breath to the moment he drew his last..I loved him. He might not have shared my blood, but he was my brother, we shared one heart and one soul.."
Mobius saw in Sylvies eyes that she was touched by Thors words, too.
He hadn't seen her this emotional since..no, in fact he had never seen so much emotion coming from her ever. When it came to Loki, she had hidden her feelings very well, from everyone..and most of all from herself.
Until a few hours ago..
Thor spoke again with nervousness in his voice, "Can we..can I..is it possible to go to him? Where is that 'loom' you talked about, agent Mobius?"
"To be honest, we don't know that, Thor. We can't contact him or anything. We have a vague perception where he is but nothing concrete. We know it is some place outside of time and space. We have a special device, called Tempad, which was the only thing that could bring someone to the end of time..but Loki kind of destroyed the castle where the last one in charge sat and with that being destroyed there are no anchor points anymore..but something is happening recently.."
The analyst locked eyes with Sylvie. They both knew what he was talking about.
"You dreamt of him.." Sylvie pointed out with agitation in her voice. "Why didn't you tell me, by the way?"
Mobius looked at her with an apologetic gaze, "I didn't want to upset you..I woke up before I even saw him..last time though.."
He couldn't finish the sentence before Sylvie interrupted him, leaning forward in her chair, her tone challenging, "Last time? You dreamt of him, again?! When? And when did you plan to tell me?"
Mobius hold his hands up in surrender, "Easy, Sylvie, it was just last night. And I wanted to tell you this time. Besides, you weren't in a hurry yourself to tell me about your dream.."
"How do you..?" the goddess started, irritated.
"Loki told me," Mobius answered.
Sylvies eyes widened at his words in surprise..and something else, "You spoke with him? About me..?"
The analyst grinned at her, "We spoke about a lot of things."
The enchantress sat back again, arms crossed, defensive.
With the upset glimmering in her eyes his grin grew even wider, "But the thing you said to Brunnhilde earlier..that is something you have to tell him yourself."
She rolled her eyes at him and blushed at the same time, "Oh, piss off Mobius and get a life of your own.."
He could have been hurt at her words but he knew the goddess of mischief too well by now to be offended. He knew she was just embarassed. He wouldn't bet on who was worse at expressing their feelings - Loki or Sylvie.
Two gods, a thousand years old..fought hundreds of battles..
But when it came to their feelings for each other, they were both idiots, even worse than teenagers.
"I'd love to, Sylvie..but I'm afraid my help is inevitable here with you kids"
He had almost forgotten about Thor for a moment, before he heard the god of thunder clear his troath.
"So, these variants.." Thor looked at Sylvie but it seemed he hadn't been paying attention or had been too busy processing the given information to listen to Mobius and Sylvies last topic.
"..are they the same people? Do they all share the same..?"
Mobius interrupted, smirking at Sylvie but answering Thor, ".. genetic code, DNA? We actually don't know that. We never had to test that.."
He locked eyes with the goddess again and almost felt sorry, but he couldn't leave it at that..it was just too glorious,"..but now I think we'll need to do that."
The first miracle was that Mobius could hold it together with all the triumph he felt, the second was that Sylvie didn't stab him immediately. Thor now looked at her, too, with a gaze of sheer confusion, which made her blush in the most beautiful shades of red.
Mobius grin grew from ear to ear.
"Oh, just save it, Mobius.."
Thor looked back and forth between the analyst and the enchantress, "What does that mean?"
"Sylvie and your brother..how do I put this..they formed a deep connection. First I thought it was pure narcissism, you know, two variants of the same being and especially your brother..but these two are completely different annoying beings," Mobius said, finally offering peace with his smile to Sylvie.
He wanted to step out of this room alive, after all.
"So the one you were talking about to Val when you said you love someone else was.." Thor started and looked at Sylvie, her face glowing now.
"..my brother?"
There were no words coming from her lips so she just nodded. That revelation in combination with the variant - story could cause a lot of reactions..confusion, dismay, fascination, disgust..but none of it was happening right now.
Thor just smiled.
He smiled warm and gently and his eyes were full of joy. After a few moments the smile even became a blissful laugh.
"Well, then, Sylvie.."
"..Laufeydottir," she said, a little embarrassed and still blushing.
Thor nodded with realization, "Of course. Well then, Sylvie Laufeydottir, welcome to the family."
And before she even had the chance to complain and tell him a thousand reasons why this whole thing with Loki couldn't work out..
..the god of thunder had pulled her in another tight embrace.
Catching her off guard, silencing her thoughts and fears.
Held by her big brother.
Notes:
So here's the next chapter of my story, I hope you like it! =) God, I rewrote it so many times and I'm still not completely happy with it..but I'm so glad Sylvie and Thor finally met and that he goes all big - brother on her. She needs and deserves all the love!
But what's that strange shadow that talked to Loki?
I appreciate every Review so please take a minute to comment. It means the world to me! Thanks for reading my story :)
Kelly of the midnight dawn ~ At this point I think Val stands by her opinion. I mean she knows a totally different Loki. But I also think she'll possibly reconsider when she hears about what he did. Oh and you're totally right! Sylvie deserves all the love and happiness in the world 3 Thank you for reading and your Review :)
Mysecretgarden95 ~ Thank you so much for your comments. I'm on the same page with you - I completely understand Sylvies feelings. And I think she's very ambivalent. She misses Loki and she's not really made for this 'normal life', but also needs time to process everything and time for herself.
Yes, Mobius is just the best, isn't he? :D
And I'm so glad you liked the chapter with Frigga. It's one of my favourite and it means a lot to me, that you like it.