Chapter Text
You tried to steel you heart as the door shut and locked behind you. They led you to a table in the middle of the room, two chairs on one side and one on the other.
You were, or are, a goddess. The worshipers if your society died out a long time ago and was so small that no one even knows of your kind’s existence. No stories tell of your linage, nothing on how your parents helped create the world along with the other gods of the universe, no evidence that you ever existed. you live alone in a forest shielded away from the other mortals of earth, no longer having any sway over their lives.
Father was a sun god and king, not having control over the sun but rather used the sun's energy to support life. You just happen to be his only child. Officially, goddess of the moon, knowledge, and wisdom. The last two kind of go together but in having knowledge you must have the wisdom to use it. Mother was the goddess of love and beauty. As the humans soured the earth long after our prime she grew ill and weak. No longer able to rely on the energy from the beauty of earth she fell to sickness and died. On her deathbed she gifted you her titles and her power, her magic.
“Wield them well, my daughter, use your new gifts to fix it.” She had said referring to the destruction the humans had brought upon the earth's beauty.
Your father, ill stricken with grief, stopped using his power to keep our little world healthy and it too started deteriorating. He stepped down as king and retreated into his grief leaving you all alone with a goal you didn’t yet understand, but you was desperate to keep your mother’s word.
You stepped out of your forest in search of making her proud.
You had been roaming and doing what I could for years, spreading love amongst people where you could and helping to protect what little of earth's environment there was left. You were a stranger to the humans but they welcomed you into their arms as a friend without knowing who you truly were.
There was a woman, walking with her child in the direction of a park. You were heading in the same direction looking for somewhere calm to think when suddenly, your usually dormant magic had pulled you towards them, taking your feet faster to them. A car came screeching down the road and you knew then what you needed to do. You had ran to them as fast as you could, too fast for a human, mind you, and pushed them out of the way. The car crashed right where they would’ve been, just inches away from your feet had landed. The mother thanked and thanked you and you had played it down and sent her on her way. You watched them leave and started walking in the opposite direction, you didn’t want to be around when authorities got involved.
You had taken exactly one step when these transparent rectangles appeared in front of you and people, in black outfits and long metal looking sticks with tips that seemed to glow, stepped out of them and started examining the wrecked car.
“Just another sequence violation.” One of them said “alright let’s wrap it up.”
He walked over to you and eyed you up and down
“Variant identified” his said almost bored as he looked down at a device in his hand. “Branch is growing at a stable rate. On behalf of the Time Variance Authority, I herby arrest you for your crimes against the sacred timeline.”
You hadn’t said a word, something in you was telling you to run; the urge overwhelming your senses. You took a step back and turned to run when suddenly your body was put into slow motion and a collar appeared around your neck making you feel trapped as you fell to the floor. You had no time to react as they picked you up and hauled you through the transparent doors.
You were pushed through doors where you were stripped from your clothes by some yellow robot that smiled the whole time. You fell through the floor and into some god awful tan suit. The room you were in now had a man was telling you to sign a giant stack of papers to “confirm this is everything you ever said” you didn’t know what that really meant but as you started to flip through the stack you found exact conversations you've had over the years. Then you stopped yourself because why are you actually looking through this. You signed it and fell through the floor again.
You went through some metal detector type looking thing and then into a long queue with a few people going through.
“Take a ticket” one of the men with those glowing sticks said.
You hadn’t said a word this whole time. Too shocked about how your seemingly normal day has taken a turn. Maybe this is a consequence for saving the kid. Maybe because you saved him he’s now going to grow up to become the world’s worst murderer.
There was some animation playing on the tvs around ypu. Apparently you had committed a traitorous crime and was about to stand trial. You didn’t pay much attention to it, sounded like some sort of propaganda, and unable to avoid it, your time spent as an imortal had made you a little cocky when it came to danger. As the video explained that you could’ve started a multiversal war you became more and more aware of the fact that maybe that car hit and somehow killed you. Maybe this is where gods go to die. Gods who die of mortal causes or soemthing, some weird queue that you might be stuck in for the rest of your existence.
Eventually, you were being dragged into a type of court room, one of those glowing sticks to your back, threatening. There were a few people in front of you and as the line moved and you got closer to the front you noticed there was no one in the audience except two men sitting next to each other looking over something you couldn’t see, from your point in line. One with pale hair and a taller man had inky black hair, his profile from what you could see seemed eerily familiar.
There was only one person in front of you and your nerves were starting to make themselves known. As person after person was sentenced to be reset and taken out of the room were you promptly heard screaming. You noticed in the corner of your eye that the two men were no longer talking amongst themselves but instead were watching intently at the events playing out in front of them.
Your named was called and you stepped up glancing nervously at the people in front of you.
“You’ve been charged with sequence violation 5-89-50. How do you plead.” The judge said.
“Um, not guilty?” you replied still confused on how you had gotten to this point in your life, “I have done not wrong, in fact I saved two people, a child.”
“Which was something you weren’t supposed to do.” The faces carved into the wall behind her were slightly intimidating as you tried to hold your ground. You did nothing wrong so why should you feel nervous.
“The court finds you guilty and I sentence you to be reset.” She annunciated her words with the bang of her gavel.
Icy fear gripped your heart and you closed your eyes and tried to teleport yourself out of there. Your power wasn't very effective at teleporting and can’t take you far but it would be far enough for you to find a way to escape. You hadn't felt the familar pull of your magic and as you opened your eyes you found that you were still there in front of those people.
“What the hell” you muttered
“Magic doesn’t work here, your powers will do you no good.”
The people, guards probably, started to grab me and started to haul me to the doors off to who knows where.
“Wait stop, please. I’ll do anything don’t kill me.” you pleaded
Just then the pale haired man stood up followed by the other.
“Actually, she might just be able to help us.”
“Mobius approach the bench” the judge said.
He walked up to the podium and talked in low whispers that you couldn’t hear. You noticed in the corner of your eye that the black haired man was looking at you but you kept my gaze forward, noting to yourself that on the back of jacket outfit the word “Variant” was written in orange, barley sticking out agaisnt the boring beige Interesting.
Now you were trailing behind the two, walking along dull walls until we passed a window that showed the whole interior of the place. It was huge with tubes and spherical buildings and floating vehicles. The complexity of it reminded me of an ant tunnel, and almost organized chaos.
You guess the white haired man doesn’t like silence because as soon as we stepped into the elevator and the doors closed he introduced himself.
“I’m agent Mobius, and this here is Loki.”
“Loki” you said offhandedly, trying to remember where you had heard the name before.
“Yes, you may know him as the guy who attacked New York.”
His comment about New York left me a little confused, but you chopped it up to you not really knowing the affairs of humans. Then suddenly you remembered.
“Oh, prince Loki.” You stopped dead and bowed your head slightly in respect. You were basically his equal, but in the world of gods but the Norse, Greek, and Egyptian gods outrank all the others when it comes to power over humans. So although you were a princess, you were no where near the capabilities of Loki in terms of rank.
“You don’t have to do that” he said uncomfortably.
“I know you, you’re Loki prince of Asgard and god of mischief. I’ve met you before… when we were young during the last conclave the gods had.” You said suddenly realizing who was before you. “You’d probably know my father more than me, Lord Solgice.”
“Ah yes, I recall, you’re the daughter of the sun god.” He replied
The elevator doors opened and the white haired man, Mobius, stepped out patting Loki on the shoulder. We went down winding halls and into a dimly lit room guarded by more people in black armor and glowy sticks, which Mobius also had in hand. In this dreary room you found a round table with two chairs on one side and the other, clearly your chair, on the othe side. On the table there a little orange sphere shaped thing on it and a screen on the wall opposite the door.
The collar was digging into your neck uncomfortably and you tried to adjust it as you sat down, but it only made you feel more caged. Foolishly, you had let your guard down a little upon hearing the name of someone familiar. The Asgardians do not care for anyone but themselves. He is not a friend and you do not know his intentions, nor the other man who has produced a soda from his pocket and cracked it open.
“Why am I here?” You questioned the two men sitting across from me. “Why are you here.” You said looking towards Loki.
He didn’t answer at first only stared and Mobius watched the whole interaction while taking sips of his drink.
“You’ve done something that alters events.” Loki started to explain. “Those two people you saved were supposed to die.”
“What is there some big consequence to letting them live.” You said almost laughing.
“There could be.”
“What? you captured me because something bad could happen? How does that make sense.”
Mobius stepped in then “The sacred timeline cannot be strayed from, and you did. So, that’s where we come in.”
“Why kidnap me then, why not just take them.”
“Because you varied the timeline. You are a variant.” Loki cuts in.
“So, you also committed some great crime against the sacred timeline then too huh.” You said snarkily. “How come you haven’t been ‘deleted’.
“Because I helped keep the order of the sacred timeline.”
“What do you want from me then.”
“How about a little cooperation from you. We have some questions.”
You nerves were getting to me and you felt your usually calm demeanor slipping away. The need to flee overwhelming your brain yet again.
“God of mischief.” You spat out feeling defensive. “How do I know this isn’t one of your tricks. Although, I couldn’t imagine the great prince of Asgard being ordered around by someone.” You glanced over at the other man who was watching us converse.
At this point this random conversation is getting absolutely no where and you need to start thinking of a way to escape this hell hole if I could. That little device that Loki seems to have left stupidly in reach seems to be the thing that controls everything. If I can get to it then I can open the door and get this collar off.
“I’m not really in the mood for playing your games just return me to my home.”
You needed time to think this through, surely the goddess of wisdom can think of a way to get out of this little predicament. With that device you can open up a door and get out of here and try and get this collars off too, you just need to make a grab for it and get outta here. They were both staring at you, they didn’t seem particularly on edge about this situation and they didn’t seem aware of how tense you were. Mobius took another sip of his drink and you made your move.
Your hand shot out and quickly grabbed the device and started jamming buttons. Loki was frozen in disbelief and Mobius sputtered on his drink. Was it the best idea to just start jamming buttons like your playing some video game, no, but you couldn't really come up with a better one. Although maybe you should’ve tried thinking this out just a little more because now, once again you were falling through the floor through a portal that opened up under you feet.
Now you found myself flat on the floor in the hallway right outside of the room we were just in. The guards were shouting and the doors opened as Loki and Mobius ran out. You scrambled to your feet and fled for your life, because you could be.
You just need to put a good amount of distance between them and yourself and then you can open up a portal into some place where you can use your magic. The fabric of this suit is so scratchy and you cannot wait to get out of it. You slid a little as you sharply turned a corner, maybe you should focus more on running and less on your current outfit. The footfalls of your captors were quiet so you pushed a button on the device you had clutched in your hand and ran straight through, and thankfully not fell, into another room of the TVA.
This place was quiet with workers who didn’t seem to even notice you. They all milled around doing their thing without a care in the world it seems. With your heart still racing you poked around an empty desk, the oblivion of the people around you making me feel slightly calmer than you probably should be in this situation. There was that same little device that you had gripped in your hand on the table and you picked it up, underneath there was a list titled empty worlds. At first glance, the device, ‘tempad’ I read, had all of the locations presaved. Your lucky day you guess.
That was until the elevator doors behind you let out a little ding and opened to Loki. Fight or flight set in and you chose flight. I had no choice but to open a door (portal?) from on of the presaved locations. Loki immediately sprinted towards you and as you ran through the door, so did he.