Glorious Purpose
Loki
Once her body starts to drop to a crouch, it is safe to release the building spell, my seidr has been begging to be used since we've returned to Asgard and I allow the chaotic embrace of her mind to fade safely away. Whoever these morons are have made a mistake challenging me in my home realm.
But they made an even bigger mistake by upsetting my star. Sedir rushes through the room, casting a green huw over their forms. A handful staggered back, gunting…. That's not what's supposed to happen. The one in charge merely looks annoyed with my tactics… Until Addie has pounced.
Flinging herself across the few feet between her and the commander, knives drawn. It's like a dance watching Saint dart behind the commander, still growling. Using his back to shove her forward into Adhara, while he makes his intentions clear to the others. I'm not afraid to bite, it's written all over not just his pose or snarling teeth but snapping jaws at the bewildered back up.
With an arm looped around the woman's neck, Adhara's body flips around, forcing the woman into a headlock and a knife pressed into her cheek. Her excited eyes hold mine, a chilling grin plastered over her face, before I can return it it falters slightly. The only other warning I get before the woman is shoved towards me, the blade slicing down her cheek, is a deep bark from Saint.
The commander crashes into me and begins to grapple trying to gain the upper hand, landing a punch uncomfortably forcing my head to the side. I watch Adhara move between the four foot men. Saint nips at ankles and steps on feet, throwing them all off balance as she continues her deadly dance. One I could never get tired of watching.
A harsh shove sends the woman back, breathing heavily, grunting and hisses of pain fill the air around us, but she only smirks before reaching in her pocket… a strap?
“It's been a long past few days, and I've had my fill of idiots, so if you don't mind?” Gesturing towards the square portal, the woman doesn't give a damn apparently before flicking the strap towards me and it wraps around my neck with ease. As it clicks into place, she produces a staff.. It crackles to life as the collar buzzes… slowing… everything.
“You are now moving at 1/16th speed, but feeling all that pain in real time.” Oh boy is she right… The electricity races up my side in a blinding fury. Happening all at once yet crawling along. Dulling everything yet sharpening the pain.
“Hey!” Her sharp tone reaches me but I can't make my muscles cooperate to look at my beautiful star. Depriving me of seeing what I'm sure is absolute fury on her features. The woman turns, and one of the others stands as the pain continues to spark through me.
“Resent the timeline,” she orders and that warbling noise echoes in the room. Suddenly Adhara is on the commander's back again and Saint’s barks join as the two struggle. My star is trying to slice the knife across her throat and the commander is trying to throw her off. She almost gains the upper hand until the commander jostles her just enough, freeing her own arm to jab the staff over her shoulder, zapping Adhara’ shoulder, faltering her attacks.
In a fluid motion, Adhara is whipped to the floor with a loud groan from both of them. Heaving, she spares a slight glance to the dead footmen, surrounded by smears of blood before looking towards the last one, “Take them all.”
There's a growl, then a whimper, before she turns back to me, that smirk replaced with something more unsettling, her fingers dance over her device before making eye contact, “Your friend is going to regret that.”
Then the world fades to nothing as the collar buzzes to life.
GAH-OOF
“What in the norns?” With a groan, the cold tile leeches into my skin and my body protests against whatever threw me-
Adhara-
Jerking up, a machine greets me and nothing else in this small space…. Everything feels wrong here, we've definitely left Asgard, yet this is not any realm I recognize…
I cannot feel her. Even in Hel I could sense her presence, now there's simply nothing. I cannot feel anyone in this dreaded place.
The blank screen on the machine warbles to life, lighting with a crude face and its arms begin to move reaching towards- “Hey, hey!”
Warbling disappointingly, its features become sad, before tugging at my clothes again
“Absolutely not.” I have to get outta here-it tugs again, now sounding agitated.
“This is fine Asgardian leather.” Though my protest is for nothing, when its features settle.
“Hold very still.” Sighing, I watch the machine wearily as the laser- “N-Now, hang on just a minute!” Stark naked, I cannot bring myself to do much else but stare blankly at the smug machine before another arm appears, forming an ugly uniform over my skin.
Before my protests can continue the machine warbles once more before the floor- “AHHHHHH!”
It's only a few seconds before cool tiles smack into my body… well my body smacks into the cold tile I should- “Please sign to verify this is everything you’ve ever said.”
“What?” Still dazed, yet slowly getting to my feet as something whirrs on the desk and the cat makes its presence known. The portly man snatches a paper and lays it on top of the very large stack in front of him.
“Sign this, too.”
This place is getting stranger and stranger each moment, and the lack of Adhara only fuels my discontent for this supposed agency…. I hope my little star is alright.
“Take a ticket.” A man just inside the doorway prompts, his armor matching the ones who arrested us.
“Where's Adhara?”
But my questions are ignored, and again he prompts me before waving me off towards the queue…. A very empty queue line.
“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….”
The heavy bang of a gavel echoes harshly in the clinical-like space. Pews lined the room otherwise dominated by a judges platform as I was marched down by a handful of their brainless soldiers. The woman sits on her platform unbothered, or at least uncaring there's a god before her.
“Next case, please. Laufeyson. Variant L1130, AKA Loki Laufeyson, is charged with sequence violation 7-20-89. How do you plead?” Her prompting catches my attention, pleading? How pitiful of them.
“Madam, a god doesn’t plead. This has been a very enjoyable pantomime, but I’d like to go home now.” Chuckling, I shake the cuffs around my wrist and take count of the… six soldiers around me, but she's not amused.
“Are you guilty or not guilty, sir?”
Scoffing at her tone, their games are getting tiring, I have things to finish. “Guilty of being the God of Mischief? Yes. Guilty of being very angry at my interrupted reunion? Yes. Guilty of a crime against the Sacred Timeline? Absolutely not, you have the wrong person.” That little cartoon was informational for sure, but I know a load of bullshit when I see it.
“Oh, really? And who should we have?” Clasping her hands, she leans forward on them, posturing, faking her attention to my claims. Though it can't hurt to try…
“I suspect, Thanos perhaps? My companions and I wouldn't have had to time travel if he didn't decide to wipe out half the universe.”
“That’s quite an accusation.” She offers, without any true interest, this agency reeks of suspicion yet imbecility. Flexing my hands, the seidir stays stubbornly lacking, as if being tucked away and kept from making an appearance in whatever realm we are in.
“You speak of Time Criminals? It’s him and his goons you should be after. Perhaps you could provide me with a taskforce and resources, and I could return and eliminate them for you.” I'll happily slaughter that purple behemoth… and then their ridiculous pony show of an agency. All with the lovely Adhara at my side.
“We’re not here to talk about Thanos.” It's a declaration.
“Oh, no?”
“No. What they did was supposed to happen. Your attempts to correct it are not.”
“Right. Uh…Not supposed to happen”? According to whom?” Less and less is making sense, uncomfortably worry builds in the pit of my stomach as to what we have stumbled into.
“The Time-Keepers? She states as if it's obvious, common sense even.
Oh, the Time-Keepers. Right. “Well, perhaps I should speak to these Time-Keepers, gods to gods.” It's a long shot, a last ditch effort to upturn their supposed hierarchy.
“I’m sorry, but they’re quite busy.” She shuffles some parts about, but reaching for her gavel, “the court finds you guilty, and I sentence you to be reset. Next case, please!”
Oh, that doesn't sound good at all….“Reset”? What does that mean?”
They surged forward, grabbing at my arms, trying to pull me off the platform they stuck me on. “Hey! You ridiculous bureaucrats will not dictate how my story ends!
“It’s not your story, Mr. Laufeyson. It never was.” This fucking woman-
“You have no idea what I’m capable of!” They truly don't have the faintest inclination of what Adhara is capable of. There's no dictating her story, there simply cannot be… especially with the Fates’ blindness, what could their silly little agency have to pin against her? Behind me people scuffle and shuffle, some protest but I don't take my glare away from the woman on her pedestal, paying the guards gripping my upper arms no mind either-
“I… I think I might. Have an idea of what he’s capable of.” A man dressed in a gray suit appears to my left, holding a folder, gaze flickering between the judge and I. The judge herself stares him down, as if she already knows his proposition.
“Approach the bench.” She concedes, with slightly nervous steps, he approaches and their whispered conversation begins. With questioning looks thrown my way, she again yields to this man's demands.
“And who are you?” Spitting out the words, trying to get that smirk to disappear from his face but he just continues his nonchalance, waving me on, down the hallways. Briefly it crossed my mind to simply run or overpower this man, but the collar chafing my skin is a stark reminder of the skewed power dynamic I've been put in.
“I’m Mobius and we have work to do.” He relents before ushering me onto an elevator.
“I’m gonna burn this place to the ground.” or Adhara will… either way I doubt this place will survive after crossing our paths. But again, he's not bothered by my statement.
“I’ll show you where my desk is, you can start there.” He offers it as the door slides open. “Have a look,” following his gesture, I find large windows- and I'm baffled to say the least.
“Home sweet home.” I nearly miss his murmured sentiment as I stare out at the sheer vastness of this TVA, countless other corridors and shafts spiral outside the windows in a dizzying array, nearly incomprehensible.
“I thought there was no magic here.” The lack of my seidr only confirms that notion, but what I'm seeing simply isn't plausible. Never have I seen such a sprawling structure.
“There isn’t.” The man- Mobius, affirms, looking over my shoulder I find him rocking back on his heels. Everything is making less and less sense here. I do not like it one bit.
“That’s not real.” I state pointing out the window and the impossible structures.
“It is, and, unfortunately, so is all the paperwork.” With another glance between me and out the window, something passes over his face. Something akin to uncertainty before he turns down the hall. “Good tinder for your fire, though. Come on.”
After a few steps in silence, I voice the question that has been rattling in my head since I regained consciousness. “Where are the ones I was captured with?”
Without pausing he reaches for a door, “Oh? Don't worry about them for now, we have much more pressing things to discuss. Maybe after some cooperation I can find out.” The bargain couldn't be clearer, he knows that it may just be the key to getting information from me. His unbothered nature does nothing to soothe the worry and concern of my companions. “After you.”
“For the record, this really does feel like a killing-me kind of a room.” It truly does, it's dark and empty, only consisting of a table and a set of chairs.
“Not big on trust, are you?” His questioning is echoed by the door thudding closed and his footsteps crossing the hard floor. Trust? He appears not to even trust the institutions he's a part of, at least Mobius is very wary of their intentions, it seems.
“Trust is for children and dogs. There’s only one person you can trust.” A lie, it slips out easily, but my own thoughts are quick to remark; Adhara holds my trust. Nor does he hesitate in his response.
“Yourself? I like it. Slap it on a T-shirt.” Oh how wrong you are Mr.Agent. Absently, my feet carry me into the space, constantly aware of where Mobius stands in the room.
“If the TVA truly oversees all of time, how have I never heard of you until now?” My musings aren’t too strange. Lived over a thousand years and never a whisper about time agency. Though I truly could care less, all I desire is Adhara’s location and to escape this uncomfortable place.
“Cause you’ve never needed to. You’ve always lived within your set path.” The answer seems rehearsed as he plops himself into one of the chairs, making it scrape slightly on the floor.
“I live within whatever path I choose.” I live whatever path keeps Adhara close.
“Sure you do. Okay, come have a seat.” Gesturing across from him, and adjusting himself and the folder, he waits patiently. While all I can do is glare, I'm more than ready to be rid of this entire game. The last thing I want to do is sit, what I need to do is get out of here.
“If looks could kill.” With a dry chuckle, he flips open the folder, skimming its contents… though if I ‘cooperate’ maybe he'll give me exactly what I need…
“What do you want from me?” The question is simple enough as I sit down, it's clear I’m meant to further some agenda for these agents. Just what is completely unknown to me.
Taking a deep inhale, he hesitates briefly, “Well, let’s start with a little cooperation.” Glad we’re on the same page, though we cannot seem too agreeable.
“Not my forte.” Crossing my arms and leaning back into the chair, I play the part he expects. The trickster god, one who only cares for mischief… who I was before that star corrupted my uncaring ways.
“Really?” He hums, before reaching into his pocket and I feel my muscles lock up, preparing for him to activate the dreadful device. “Even when you’re wooing someone powerful you intend to betray?”
Ah, he's not as daft as he seems, maybe this agent has some brains after all, “You don’t know anything about me.” Placing the remote on the table, Mobius then flicks through the pages in front of him before settling his gaze on me again.
“Maybe I’d like to learn.” He states and mirrors my position, “I specialize in the pursuit of dangerous Variants.” Could he be speaking of Adhara? What she was attempting wasn't exactly the safest thing, traveling realms, bargaining with Hela, facing Fenrir… I'm sure she's done more as well. But that's not who I want him to focus on.
“Like myself?” I offered a shit-eating grin in full effect, but he wasn't referring to me in the slightest. Sure, I did a bit of time travel but nothing dangerous, this earned me a scoff.
“Mmm…No, particularly dangerous Variants. You’re just a little pussycat. I have a set of questions for you. You answer them honestly, and then maybe I can give you something you want. You want to know where your companions are, right?” Leaning forward, I can see in his face that he knows he's won.
“Yeah, so we’ll start there. Should you return, what are you gonna do?” Staring down at the papers, this should be an easy question but it's not. How much do they know? How much should they know? If they knew Adhara's intentions would they stop her?
“I'll finish what I started.” This makes him pause, looking at me quizzically.
“Which is?” He prompts… maybe they don't know as much as they claim.
“Finish the reunion, that was quite rudely interrupted. Adhara is quite upset with your agents.” Again, this gives him pause, almost nervously, his scans over a page after flipping past some before reaching back into his pocket.
A whirring fills the air but my focus remains on this strange man.
“Ah, yes. Adhara Coulson or Adhara Morozov..” He trails off, still reading the page, “Among others… she caused quite the trouble when you were arrested. I'm afraid she is going to have to answer for her crimes.” Wait-Morozov as in-
Loud banging fills the air, and a projection flickers to life to my right.
“What is this?” Glancing between the projection and his smug look, neither are reassuring, this whole facade reeks of trickery.
“A sampling of your greatest hits, if I may.” Waving towards the projection, I turn watching… the attack on Midgard. Taunting Stark, the Hulk uses my body like a rag doll, which still sends a slight shudder down my spine. Why do I need to see this?
“And I remember. I was there. Anything else?” Recrossing my arms, I play a disinterested role, yet underneath I'm wary. This man is no ally, no he's a warden, a detective, looking to use me to further his next moves in this new game.
“It’s funny, for someone born to rule, you sure do lose a lot. You might even say it’s in your nature.” His comment drags up a memory from that very day… How in the gods do they know so much?
“You know, things didn’t turn out so well for the last person who said that to me.” But he doesn't stumble, the projection flickers to the very memory-
“Oh, yeah, Phil Coulson.” My haunted and tormented expression then mocks me, sending harsh shivers through my body- a tormenting reminder of what happened to lead me to that invasion, the pain and horrors that stripped so much from me as the spear head thrust through the man's chest.
“Didn’t the Avengers come together to literally avenge him by defeating you?”
“I suspect it was something along those lines, those imbeciles certainly couldn't get on the same page just to save that city.” The projection pauses beside us and Morbius holds my gaze, debating where to strike next.
“Do you enjoy hurting people?”
When I ignore him he presses on….
“Making them feel small?”
All I can see is Adhara….
“Making them feel afraid?”
Her face when she realized the amount of control I wanted to exert over her, the fear racked through her body when I first started to follow her adventures. The look of disinterest tinged with sadness during our initial meeting.
“Your games don’t frighten me.” I bite back… I've messed up in my life, a hundred times over. It's a certainty given how long I've lived. Yet with Adhara I've managed to do all of these things in a matter of a handful of years.
“Making them feel little?” He taunts, but instead of a painful memory, the instance of Adhara's body cradled against mine flashes…. God she was so small, so fragile after those moments on the ice.
I'm still ashamed of my hand in that….
“I know what I am.” I'm a god, a lonely one at that, one who made mistakes, one whose moniker shrouds who I truly wish to be. All I'm known for is my-
“A murderer?” He prompts, and I can't stop my teeth from grinding. Yes, I've taken many lives, many. I don't regret most of them but I'm an old god. Of course regret lingers… But that smirk etches deeper into the man's face. I need to play into his hands.
“A liberator.”
He scoffs and taps his remote, “Of eyeballs, maybe.”
The projection flickers
“Look at that smile. You are enjoying that. Did you enjoy hurting them?” No, I hated every moment, every move made my insides curdle and my mind rage against the shackles placed on it. That was one of the darkest periods of my life.
One Adhara freed me from.
“Let’s talk about your escapes. You’re really good at doing awful things, and then just getting away.” The projection flickers away, morphing into a memory I remember quite fondly.
“What can I say? I’m a mischievous scamp.” Shrugging, I can't help but watch the scene on the plane play out.
“This is one of my favorites.” Mobius comments, but I don't bother to look at him as the film progresses to my jump from the plane.
“I can’t believe you were D.B. Cooper. Come on!” He slaps the table and I give my attention back to the silver haired man.
“I was young, and I lost a bet to Thor. So that had the Time-Keepers’ seal of approval, did it?” He breaks eye contact at their mention, instead focusing on the papers in front of him. It seems these Time Keepers have distrust amongst their troops.
“Well, I wouldn’t think of it in terms of approval and disapproval. That’s sort of a… Let’s get back to escapes…” Wow, I think I've seen children evade questions better than that. Adhara would spin this man in circles.
“What exactly is it that you want?” Though he's gained some of my interest, he's starting to annoy me more than anything…
“I want you to be honest about why you do what you do.”
“Liar.” He didn't even try. No, he wants my help.
“I’m serious. All I seek is a deeper understanding of the fearsome God of Mischief.” No, seidr may be useless here and telepathy somehow has become nonexistent but he's lying… there's a bigger scheme at play. A much bigger one.
“And all I want is to stop being used as a pawn.”
“Pawns? Hmmm, shall we talk about her?” The smug bastard leans back in his chair before looking towards the projection of… Adhara. Her fuzzy image grimaces… gods she younger. To onlookers you couldn't tell, but the subtle differences are there ... .wait is this- “It's when I first met her.”
It continues, showcasing her lithe form darting through the rubble of the city brought on by my forced yet failed takeover of Earth. Jumping to her obvious discontent with a man I recognize easily, Fury. Though now I can see clearly the pain she's carrying, the despair set in her frame and the deadness of her eyes.
I remember all of this….. “Ah, they've sent a child to do their bidding.” The harshness of my tone is nearly jarring but she didn't flinch. Instead she leaned closer, something dangerous, unknown to me before her, danced within her eyes. Something not dead, something that made me want to tear her apart just to get to it.
“You wanted to use her.” He states as her little interrogation plays out, but so don't my own thoughts from that moment. Plagued with the invasion of him and my own toxic interest. But before I can protest the projection changes.
Now showcased is when she came to bring Thor to collect me. Rigidly, she stood beside him, just barely within arm's reach as she led him. Those empty yet fiery eyes had looked over me once more and her fleeting mind brushed only briefly before she vanished from the room.
“Leave the midgardians alone.” Thor courses his arms with a glare as I stare where she once stood.
“That one is not what she seems.” Though my body looks barely held together, Thor’s posture changes, ready to prevent an attack.
“You were going to use her” Again the scene changes to his words. Now showing Adhara… one closer to her age now. Her frame and the way that spark dances within her but I've never seen this place before. Deep colored boulders fill the scene and a sky of swirling colors…. Tears flow freely down her face… “What is this?”
Just now he decides to remain silent as Adhara leans over a cliff edge, hands clutched against her chest and her sobs echo in the room. As her right foot goes to step over the edge, I tear my gaze from it to my damning captor, only to be met with a rather smug expression. “You play to your advantage, anything to rule right?”
I can't bear to look back at the screen as her cry echoes through the room… a few moments later a sickening thud bounces against my ears, fisting my hands I try and grasp onto my last shred of control.
“I don’t believe you. You’re lying. It’s not true.” Adgara cannot die for me to rule. Impossible, I’d never, never her. Not even then, when my mind was not my own.
“It is true.” Still, the thud echoes in my mind, taunting what I-no, I would never. He can't be, he has to be lying. That smug grin never falters as he watches my stony yet charismatic facade crumble slightly.
“That’s the proper flow of time, and it happens again and again and again because it’s supposed to,” Again that harrowing cry and thud, echo but I still cannot bring myself to look away from this formidable agent as he continues his useless tangent, “because it has to. The TVA makes sure of it.”
“Where is she?” But my demand falls deaf on his ears. This has to be a trick, I’d never-
“Now why don’t you tell me, do you enjoy hurting people?”
“I don't.”
“I don’t believe you.” Calmly he places the collar remote on the table and glances at another page within the folder. “Do you enjoy killing?”
“I’ll kill you.” It's true nothing more-well that’s a lie, the only thing I want more than his blood on my hands is Adhara by my side. In a fluid movement I rise from the chair and grab it ready to throw-
“Sorry, the Time Twister just loops on you, not the furniture.” Suddenly I'm on my ass on the floor, the chair across the room and Mobius giving a rather disapproving look. Rising to his own feet, abandoning the remote on the table he paces the small room, letting the projection loop through choice events.
“You weren’t born to be king, Loki.”
Behind him plays the event on Earth that brought the Avengers together and Adhara into my life.
“You were born to cause pain and suffering and death.”
Thor’s pained expression at my betrayal, Mothers falling face at my harsh words, Fathers disdain… yet Adhara’s angst and fear of me that day the scarred man appeared strikes my heart the harshest.
“That’s how it is, that’s how it was, that’s how it will be.”
The faces of those I've killed flash from criminals on Asgard to the agent who tried to stop me. He can't be seri-
“All so that others can achieve their best versions of themselves.”
Though the only being to come to mind doesn't appear in the projection- Thanos. Everyone else appears instead, the Avengers, Thor, Hela, the Allfather, and more. This cannot be what my life is reduced to…
“What do you want-”
The door creaks open, revealing a woman with a contemptuous expression towards us, “What are you doing?”
Yet the gray-suited man takes her questions in stride, “My job. Is it yours to interrupt?”
“We have a situation.” Ah, Adhara, what have you gotten up to?
With a sigh, hands are shoved into his pockets and a glare is thrown my way, “There’s always a situation. Don’t go anywhere.” In quick steps he goes to the door, ushering the woman back into the hall, I catch his words, “It was just getting good. Spirited even.”
The door firmly clicks shut behind him. Trapping me in the room, the projector is still playing various scenes of my “life.” Though this detective has made one small error, sitting ever so unassumingly on the table. The slight black box sits unprotected… Lets see how this TVA enjoys a pissed off god roaming the halls.
Just wait until Adhara gets free, they won't have the power to contain her.