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Do you like Loki's creations, dangerous experiments, and willingness to challenge enemies that appear above his league? Then you will definitely like Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Void
He could feel the turmoil in the time. This was a moment where everything came to an end. Fitting that it was called the void.
Judge Renslayer was screaming her head off about the void. As she had proven to be useful, he sent her back to TVA, seeking his variant.
His senses spread, trying to detect any living beings.
It had the unfortunate side effect of alerting the trans-temporal entity. The dark clouds took the shape of a serpentine maw. He raised his hand, freezing the entity in time. Lightning bolts froze mid-strike, and the maw ceased all movement, a first in its existence.
Detecting his variants had proven to be easy. Amid all the different signatures he felt, five motes of seidr stood out underground.
—
"That's alligator for growling and saying 'liar' at the same time." Those were the first words he heard once inside the bunker.
An older version who seemed to wear his undergarments outside; a child version; a muscular one with a hammer; an alligator; and the final one who looked exactly like him, minus the scuffed suit he was wearing.
"Well, well, well. I have been looking forward to this moment for a long time," he said, inspecting each variant.
"Not your illusion, is he?" the old one asked the carbon copy, unable to sense anything from him.
"No. That's just another variant. Wonderful." The doppelganger shook his head.
"You have weird tastes if you thought coming to this place was a good idea," the hammer Loki said.
"I can return whenever I want. I simply wished to meet my variants," he said. They all lurched from their seats, but it was the mirror Loki who spoke first.
"What do you mean you can return? Do you have a tempad?" his look-alike asked.
He waved his hand, opening a portal back to Asgard. The eyes of his variants, even the alligator, almost popped out. They charged at the portal, but he closed it before they could even take the second step.
"How?" the old Loki asked, eyes wide.
"Temporal manipulation."
"You can do that? How is that possible?" the mirror Loki asked, holding him by the arms.
"So it is true. You are only capable of conjurations."
"I think there is much we need to learn from each other," the old Loki said, guiding him to a seat.
—
Each Loki was silent, except the alligator, who was growling in low tones.
"Why wasn't your timeline pruned like ours were?"
He glanced at the kid Loki, dangerous thoughts swimming in his head like a leviathan. "I have no idea. I suppose I will learn once I discover who created the TVA."
"I cannot help but ask, how did you acquire such power?" the old one asked. He understood the curiosity came from scholarly interests and not a desire for power.
"Experiments at the beginning. Then I studied how the Celestials controlled matter and energy. Then I created what I named the master seidr particle. It allows me to do whatever I want."
"Incredible."
"You messed with the Celestials?" The hammer Loki jumped from his chair. "You are either a fool or crazy."
"Neither, since I killed two."
Their heads snapped at him so fast he thought they might break something. "You killed Celestials?" All four shouted at the same time, and even the alligator roared.
"First the nascent one inside Midgard. It was close to emerging, so I killed it. The second one was slightly after one emerged and destroyed the first Asgard."
At their confused look, he explained his little trip back in time to discover the truth of how Asgard they all knew came to be, conjuring the moments ranging from Buri's arrival in the space station to the destruction of Asgard as a Celestial emerged.
His fight, or rather, feast, as the Celestial attacked him, terrified his counterparts.
"I cannot say if it is the same for your timelines, but that was how Asgard I grew up in came to be."
He felt parched, a more mental feeling than a physical one, and brought out a synthesizer from his pocket dimension.
"What is that?"
"A synthesizer. It creates basic needs through pure energy," he said, ordering a mug of Asgardian mead.
"Did you create it?" the mirror Loki asked, touching the machine.
He held his hand out, and they crowded the synthesizer, each one ordering something different. "Yes. Every family in Asgard has one."
The kid Loki looked at the stew, one he knew his mother prepared with her hands on special days, and locked his eyes on him. "I don't understand. Why did you turn out so different from us?"
"Assuming the TVA simply didn't prune any Lokis that were not villains? You all cared more about competing with Thor than improving yourselves," he said.
The existence of an organization claiming control over the timelines, erasing the ones that did not fit their vision, could have only one beginning as long as he lived.
His counterparts cast their eyes down. "I can't argue with that. But have you never tried to, you know…?" the mirror Loki muttered, silent towards the end.
"Kill my brother? The family member I trust and love most? Why?" he asked. Even if his father's less-than-stellar child rearing had affected him, he at least understood Thor was genuine in his feelings. He just had a hard time articulating them correctly when they were younger.
If his counterparts were not as forthcoming as him, it could have led to bad blood.
"I suppose it all began for us when we learned we were adopted," the hammer Loki said.
He chuckled. "Did you know the Midgardian seers have a wide range of beliefs about us? Including the fact that they knew we were Jotun, though they saw us as Father's bond brother rather than adopted son."
His counterparts furrowed their brows in the same way, displaying the exact reaction to confusion he did. So wildly different, yet so similar.
"We… did not."
"Also, Father has brown hair, Mother is blonde, and we have black hair. The eyes don't match either. It really did not take much to discover it, though, I will admit; there were other reasons I can't share that gave me clues."
Though, he would admit, had he not possessed the memories of his old life, perhaps he would not have investigated this matter.
"What now?" The kid Loki looked at him.
"Now? I bid you goodbye since I still have to find TVA's creator. You may keep the synthesizer."
"Alioth, the cloud outside, can consume all matter and energy. I don't know how strong you are, but I do not think you are immune to it," the older one said.
"I already froze the entity in time. It is not a danger anymore."
"Oh."
The hatch on the ceiling groaned, a green glow of seidr forcing it to open. He glanced at his variants, who were readying themselves for a fight.
An uninvited guest then.
Another variant, a carbon copy of him and his suit-wearing counterpart, dropped down, followed by a motley crew of variants.
The new addition had smaller horns, similar to Kid Loki's, and had a badge of Loki for President on his jacket. He chuckled at the idea of a presidential version of himself.
"Which one of you bastards led the wolves to our door?"
"We prefer snakes to wolves."
"I've eaten both. They die just the same."
"Apologies, my liege. I betrayed you, and now, I am the king."
"About that," President Loki said, his little army turning their weapons on the hammer Loki, who stiffened in response. "You can't be serious."
"Come on. What did you expect?"
"This is ridiculous," he grumbled, lowering the hand covering the upper part of his face. His eyes flared.
Twin green beams swept over the intruders, leaving nothing behind, breaking each one down into seidr particles to absorb.
In the blink of an eye, the hostile Lokis were gone.
"As for you." He turned to the treacherous counterpart, raising his hand. The boastful version tried to plead, but it did not save him from annihilation.
"I would wish you all good luck, but you are more likely to betray one another to death, so I will not."
He blinked out of the bunker, leaving his counterparts frozen on the spot.
—
With everything he had learned from his counterparts and Renslayer, all he had to do was to find the true creator of the TVA and have his answers.
Of all the lifeforms he detected, the most likely one was the Midgardian inside Alioth.
He felt like laughing at the ingenuity. The human had hidden himself in the eye of the storm. Unless all other options were spent, who would even consider looking for him there?
He launched a black hole, tearing a hole in Alioth, ready to confront the one who had played god on countless timelines and lives.
"Hey, wait," his carbon copy shouted, running after him with a tagalong.
"You, along with a female variant?" he asked, seeing a new counterpart.
She glared at him. "What about it?"
"Nothing," he smiled. At least this one had a spine. "Just the first time."
"You found him? The person behind all of this?" she asked.
"He is inside Alioth," he said, seeing the hatred brimming in her.
His mirror counterpart held the female variant back. "We have business with him too."
"You will wait your turn. Once I am done, I don't care what you do."
"Fine," she spat out.
—
The inside was not lit at all. Whoever the owner was, they certainly enjoyed the darkness.
His counterparts walked in silence, blades drawn, waiting for an ambush. He knew better, though, that this place did not contain any defensive measures.
He floated through the corridors towards the sole lifeform inside the castle. He stopped, reaching the door, as did his counterparts.
The elevator door rang and slowly slid aside, revealing a human sitting on the leather chair. He was of African descent, with short, curly black hair and a beard, dressed in a ceremonial tunic with a purple robe.
He also had an apple in his hand for some reason.
The human got up, genuinely smiling, as if he were expecting this moment. "This is wild."
Seeing as how he wasn't frozen in time, Loki understood his temporal manipulation capabilities were more than just erasing timelines.
"Three of you, the same person. I mean, it's… it's a little unnatural, but… whoa."
"Wild," he said after a moment.
Loki raised his hand, a black hole forming to not even leave a single atom behind.
"Wait, wait," he raised his hands, though that infuriating smile did not disappear at the sight of danger. "I have a lot to tell, and you will want to hear it."
"Why should I bother?" He could just as easily learn everything he needed from his memories.
"Because you are a curious individual. You can kill me, even take my memories, but it wouldn't hold the place of a conversation, would it?"
He reabsorbed the black hole, gathering his hands at his back.
"Your name."
"I am He Who Remains."
"Ostentatious."
"Miss Minutes was going to make a grand speech about me and my offer, but then you stopped time. I had to get some of the systems working but didn't have the opportunity to fix her."
"Come on," he gestured. "Come on, let's talk in my office."
Loki waved his hand, teleporting them to the office rather than take the slow elevator ride.
His counterparts and He Who Remains found themselves on chairs, while he created one for himself, waiting.
"Go on, speak."
The human raised a finger, getting up to take the teapot, filling a cup for each with two sugars, exactly as he liked it.
"Been a long journey for you, hasn't it? A lot of running, a lot of pain. And you," he turned to the male Loki, blowing a raspberry, "are a flea on the back of a dragon.
He snickered. "But you did manage to hold on tight." The human nodded, humming. "I guess that counts for something."
"I am not quite sure you understand the situation. You lost. We found you," the mirror Loki said, pointing at the human with his sword.
"Duh."
"And you," the mortal finally deigned to address him, a screen appearing next to him, showing moments from his life, "are the greatest Loki to ever exist. Destroyer of Svartalfheim, slayer of Celestials, creator of wonders. A Frost Giant who became a god. Truly inspiring."
His counterparts went slack in their seats.
"You have been watching." Given the man had possessed the technology to monitor the timelines, he shouldn't have been surprised.
"How can I not? For the first time as long as the TVA existed, a Reset Charge did not prune a timeline but reset the day instead."
He leaned forward, grinning. "Do you want to know how?"
His female counterpart took the chance to strike, but he raised a hand, stopping her just before the blade could touch the mortal. He Who Remains winked at Sylvie, ignoring the blade inches from his face.
"Sit down and wait until I am done," he ordered, sending her back to the seat.
"It took me a while to figure it out. The most fun I had in," he tilted his head, "I don't even remember how long."
He sighed. "Get to the point."
"You are aware how different time lines exist. Such as one where you are a female and an infinite amount more."
"Yes," he said. The information he received from his counterparts filled the blanks on what he had heard the TVA agents discuss all those centuries ago.
"What I, and I wager you as well, did not was the existence of other universes."
"What is the difference?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"At first, there was none. Most people, even me, use them interchangeably."
"Until you," the human said, pointing at him.
"I managed to locate what caused that one-day time loop. I tracked it for centuries to find where that energy signature you carried came from."
Loki rose to his feet, dismissing the seat and walking closer to the screen depicting two different energy waves. "An energy signature I carried?"
"Yes. Something so foreign, when the Reset Charge interacted with it, the results were something I never saw before."
"Do you know what I found once I broke through the barriers I never knew existed?" he asked, almost jumping in his seat, gesturing to the holographic barriers on the screen. They all existed in a state he had never seen before.
He gazed at the Midgardian, waiting for an answer.
"An Earth. One with no Avengers, no aliens, nothing unnatural. It was ordinary in the truest meaning of the word."
The words struck him like lightning.
—
Midgard
"You, what realm is this?" Thor slurred, feeling the world around him spin. He stumbled around, trying to regain control of his body, but the female before him yelped, firing something at him.
A kind of pain he never felt before spread from his chest. He convulsed, losing the last vestiges of his consciousness, and saw nothing else.
—
In the next chapter:
"Why not send me a message? I would have come," he said. An invitation would have gone a long way to keep him from resorting to violence.
"You consumed a planet and two Celestials. Trying to open a Timedoor in Asgard was like trying to pierce through a steel block with a wooden needle."
"And now," he spread his hands, "is the time to make a decision. Your temporal manipulation is beyond mine on a personal scale; you can kill me. Alternatively, we shake hands. You two can return to the moments you were taken; you kill my variants, and everyone gets a happy ending."
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