"Do it....kill me.....take your throne!"
"No...."
Before Loki could blink,Sylvie took matters into her own hands by shoving her throat against his sword, slicing it open.
He let go, and the weapon fell to the floor as she collapsed to her knees. Immediately Loki knelt down and gathered her to his chest, hand desparately trying to staunch the flow of blood.
"Nonono.....I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to....Sylvie, please don't die...please...Sylvie...SYLVIE!"
When the light left her eyes, he let out a scream that shook the entire citadel. Tears fell unbidden onto her lifeless body as Loki suffered wave after wave of unbearable grief.
Suddenly, a bright light swallowed everything, and the cycle began again.
"Do it....kill me...take your throne!"
***************
Sylvie ran through the halls of yet another TVA, hoping against hope that this would be the one she'd find Loki in.
The moment she pushed him through that door, she knew in her heart that it had been a mistake. He'd only been trying to protect her, and she'd shoved him away because she couldn't afford to allow sentiment to interfere with her mission....her glorious purpose.
Except it wasn't glorious at all. The minute He Who Remains took his last breath, portals opened up all throughout the room, allowing his variants to step out of them. Sylvie grabbed the time disc off the desk and just barely made it out of there alive. It was only once she was safely ensconced in another apocalypse that she realized one thing.
Loki had been right.
She knew then she had to find him, even if he hated her now, to make sure he was okay.
Sylvie heard voices coming towards her, so she quickly ducked out of sight and hid between the bookshelves in the archives.
"How long do you think that Variant is going to last in that time loop?"
"I'm surprised he's held out this long, to be honest. Was it really necessary to alter the memory to make it worse?"
"It doesn't matter whether it was or not, it's what Kang ordered."
Kang.
That was the alternate version of He Who Remains that had nearly killed her before she escaped.
If he got ahold of Loki........
"I have to hurry!"
Quickly, she stepped out and brandished her sword, causing the frightened analysts to nearly faint.
"Where are they keeping the variant?!"
**************
"Do it....kill me....take your throne!"
"No please, not again...I can't lose you again..."
No matter how he tried to change things, Sylvie continued to die in his arms. At first, he could have sworn this was false, that someone was playing with him, but now....
"Oh Norns, what have I done?! SYLVIE!!!"
******************
Sylvie raced into the time theater and opened up the portal to Loki's prison loop. She was horrified to see him covered in blood, holding what looked to be her dead body. She quickly shut down the simulation before approaching Loki and kneeling in front of him.
"Loki?"
He just sat there, frozen and staring into space.....muttering over and over again that he was sorry.
That was her breaking point.
"Oh Loki," she cried she threw her arms around him, "I'm the one that's sorry. You were right, about everything, and I....I need you to snap out of it and come back to me. Please ástin mín....."
Tears streamed down her face as she rocked him back and forth, despairing at the fact that the man she loves might be lost forever.
Just when all hope seemed lost, a pair of arms shakily wrapped around her.
"Sylvie?"
"Loki....are you okay?"
"I...Is this real? Are you actually here?"
"I'm here,Loki," Sylvie whispered as she kissed the top of his head, "and I promise I'm not leaving you ever again."
He let out a choked sob before squeezing tightly, burying his face in the crook of her neck.
"Well isn't this just the sweetest thing?"
They looked up to see Kang standing in front of them, a menacing sneer on his face.
"You know, normally a princess doesn't do the saving, but you've never been normal, have you, Sylvie?"
"You bastard! I'll kill you for what you've done to him!"
"Lovely sentiment, but I doubt you'll get far with no magic inside of the TVA."
"But we're not in the TVA right now are we?" Sylvie growled as her eyes started glowing bright green,"this little torture pocket of yours is outside of their purview....and this time you won't have anywhere go."
Kang's smile faltered before morphing into a look of sheer terror. He tried to activate his time disc, but it flew out of his hands into Sylvie's, who crushed it into dust. Before he could back up, green tendrils wrapped around his limbs and lifted him into the air. She'd never enchanted someone without touching them before, but her anger was so palpable that she was willing to tear him apart by any means necessary.
Plus she had no intention of letting Loki go.....ever again.
Her power twisted around him like creeping vines. The more he struggled, the tighter the ropes became. Once she had him fully ensnared, his eyes began glowing the same shade of green and his limbs went slack.
"Tell me something....KANG....are you connected to any of your other variants?"
"Yes....we are one....whatever command I give....they...will....follow."
"Excellent," Sylvie said with a grin that was anything but friendly,"You're going to tell them all to destroy themselves. Once that's done, off yourself as well."
His eyes seemed to grow brighter as he acquiesced to her command.
"It is done.They are gone."
Sylvie loosened the snares whilst still keeping him fully enchanted. Once his arms were free, he immediately summoned a sword from an unknown pocket dimension.....
And plunged it directly into his own heart.
The enchantment dissapated and she breathed a sigh of relief as the Conquerer's body hit the ground. She stood up, albeit a bit wobbly, and helped Loki to his feet before opening up a time door.
"Come on,Darling, let's go home."
**************
Home, as it turned out, was a little seaside cottage on the edge of New Ásgarð. Mobius and B-15,along with Thor, were in the living room when she arrived....trying to bombard her with questions about why Kang variants were dropping like flies all across the timelines. When they saw the shape Loki was in, they immediately fell silent, with the Thunder Góð taking his brother into his own arms and carrying him upstairs. He laid the mage on an empty bed and nodded to Sylvie before leaving the room.
Loki had passed out from exhaustion, so Sylvie used her magic to strip his clothes and clean the wounds left by Kang's more 'adventurous' methods. She then removed her own clothing,crawled into the bed, and wrapped herself around him...letting her own weariness take over.
**************
"Sylvie?"
She woke up with a start at the sound of her name, and looked down to see Loki awake and staring at her warily.
"Loki, you're up! How are you feeling?"
"Like I'm not sure if this is real or an extremely clever hallucination."
Sylvie leaned down and pressed her lips gently to his.
"Did that feel like a hallucination to you?"
"No, no it does not," he said before embracing her tightly,"I'm so glad you're okay."
Her eyes began to sting as she snuggled into his chest.
"You get tortured and I'm the one you're worried about...typical."
"One of the many caveats of being in love, I suppose."
"How can you say that after what I've done," she cried, looking up at him with an anguished expression," you should hate me!"
He shook his head fondly and tucked a stray curl behind her ear.
"Sylvie, I could never hate you, and you're not to blame for what happened."
"But I killed He Who Remains when you warned me not to, I unleashed the bastard who did those awful things to you."
"There was no way you could have predicted the insanity of his variants, and it's quite possible they would have found a way out regardless. I just wanted to protect you from being in more pain than you already were, instead I became a source of it....and for that I can never apologize enough."
"Oh Loki," she said softly as she cupped his cheek," you have nothing to be sorry for, and you were never a cause for my pain. You are the most wonderful thing that's ever happened to me, and my greatest source of joy. I'm only sorry I couldn't see that sooner."
"We're terrible at this kind of thing aren't we?"
"We're Lokis, of course we are...but I think we can figure it out."
"Together?"
"Together."