▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

❛ ᴇᴡᴛʀᴛᴡ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰sᴇᴇᴋɪɴɢ ᴀ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅ
ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ꒱


❝ TO DIE WOULD BE AN
AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE ❞

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

"I'm sorry," Loki said after several long moments of silence.

The trio sat on a cluster of rocks on the outskirts of town where they'd fled after the Ark had been destroyed. Coming to terms with one's fate was never easy, especially when it was staring you in the face. In front of them, meteors were falling around them more frequently and the moon took up the entirety of the sky. 

"I remember Asgard," was Sylvie's response. "Not much, but I remember. My home, my people, my life. The universe wants to break free, so it manifests chaos. . ."

Jimin let the woman's voice fade to the background as her gaze fixed on the heavens, lost in memory of a simpler time.

✧✧✧

"What about Peter Pan?" Katrina asked, holding up a slim, green volume with gold embossed on the cover.

Jimin's nose wrinkled slightly. "A children's book?"

The redhead laughed— a bright, joyful sound that matched the sunlit apartment— and raised the book out of the other woman's reach. "That's an insult to a certain Mr. J.M. Barry."

"Well, he can take it up with someone who cares," the Asian woman said, folding her arms disapprovingly. "Fairytales allow children to believe in a false reality."

"When did you get so boring?" Katrina taunted her. "Come on, I won't read it if you can catch me."

The brunette groaned as her girlfriend took off, her socks sliding on the wood floor as she made a tight turn around the couch. "It's only exercise if I'm doing this by myself!"

With a sigh, Jimin half-heartedly shuffled along behind her, the other woman easily keeping away from her. "Are you happy now?"

"You're not even trying," she complained. "Fine, I declare that you've forfeited. Now you don't have a choice."

The redhead slid over to the couch with unnecessary flamboyance that earned an eyeroll from the other woman. She sat down neatly on the cushions as she fixed an expectant gaze on Jimin. Seeing that she wasn't going to get out of this, she resigned herself to her fate and made the best of it, choosing to sit cross-legged on the floor instead, facing the redhead. Her back was perfectly straight as she watched Katrina attentively with dark eyes. The other woman brightened. "Ooh, the floor! Great idea, Jimmy!"

With that, she slid onto the smooth wood and mirrored the brunette's position before propping the book open on her lap. "'Peter and Wendy,'" she read aloud, "by J.M. Barry. Chapter one: Peter Breaks Through."

Unlike most children, Jimin hadn't grown up being read bed-time stories or being allowed to believe in magic and unrealistic daydreams. The concept was alien to her and she didn't really get it. Why would one want to fool themselves into believing something that wasn't true?

Still, Katrina was the only person who could break her out of the ingrained military shell she'd learned to have and she begrudgingly let her girlfriend read since it clearly made her happy. All in all, the story was rather stupid in her opinion. A non-aging boy that could fly? A girl who didn't want to grow up? When she'd been younger, all Jimin had wanted to do was be older (because maybe then she'd be good enough.)

She kept her comments to herself, though, and concentrated on listening to the redhead's reading voice instead. She took comfort in the steady, confident lilt of her tone that occasionally let her French accent shine through. The brunette could feel her eyes drooping shut due to the contentedness she felt, only to be pulled out of her stupor at the sudden break in the story. "This is my favorite quote," the woman announced happily, "because despite facing a possible end, Peter isn't scared. Instead he only thinks as he always does, focused on the next journey. 'To die would be an awfully big adventure.'"

"That's in a children's book?"

Katrina sent her a smug look. "That's why people say 'don't judge a book by its cover.' Or by its reputation until you read it."

The brunette scoffed. "No one says that last part."

✧✧✧

". . .and that's where I grew up," Sylvie finished her summarized history. "The ends of a thousand worlds. Now. . . that's where I'll die."

"To die would be an awfully big adventure," Jimin murmured, her gaze fixed on the splintering moon.

The blonde woman glanced over at her. "You aren't afraid?"

The Asian woman was quiet for a moment before she answered, "no, I don't think I am. Do you think everyone is destined to lose?"

"Maybe," Loki said. "We may all lose, sometimes painfully, but we don't die. We survive."

"We'll still die in the end, at least as a mortal I will," Jimin pointed out quietly.

"But only after you've overcome so much," the god countered. "You've already done that. From what I've seen of your life, anyway. It's not easy coming out from someone's shadow but you still made a path for yourself— a noble one, at that. You did what was right and not just what was easy. That's something to admire."

"I suppose," she replied noncommittally.

The group fell silent, content to watch the sky fall apart above them as the end of the world neared. Loki's gaze moved away to fall on the brunette woman. He'd never spent much time with them— mortals, that was— but he began to wonder if their race was as weak as he'd thought. Here was one, who'd been running around with gods for however much time had passed and had yet to complain about tiredness or fatigue as he suspected she must be feeling (besides, of course, from the required grumbling.)

She'd held her own against their initial fights with Sylvie and the more recent attacks from Lamentis' guards, clearly skilled in the use of her weapons. She wasn't soft or hare-brained as he'd viewed all of her kind, instead able to keep up with him and even see through his lies— something Thor had never been good at. He'd always liked challenges and riddles, things that ordinary beings wouldn't get right away. He enjoyed the thrill of the chase and the adrenaline that came from solving puzzles or working a particularly difficult piece of magic.

Larger pieces of rock were falling from the sky now and they outlined the woman's profile in a blaze of golden light. Even in the face of death, she sat up straight and held her head up high, unflinching from their certain fate as a dust cloud tumbled towards them.

However, the thing about fate was that it didn't always go as one thought it might.

Just as the two gods and one mortal were accepting their end, three golden portals appeared behind them.

✧✧✧

Jimin walked back and forth in the large, empty room.

It was quite a shock going from coming to terms with one's end on a foreign planet to being held prisoner in a sturdy, solid building.

The brunette had been held captive before, so this was nothing new. She knew that they would come to either interrogate her or kill her and she'd meet the same fate she would have in the apocalyptic world. The difference between then and now was that this was just a longer wait.

But, Jimin knew how to be patient.

And so she paced.

✧✧✧

Not too far away, Mobius and a pair of guards took Loki down an empty hallway. The gray-haired man was done playing games. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"I know you've got some quip you're dyin' to say."

"I don't have a quip," the god retorted. "I've got nothing to say to you."

"Oh, come on."

"By the way, I should have more security than a mere mortal! This is insulting!" he complained, referencing the two soldiers that had taken Jimin away.

"You just can't help yourself," the man chuckled.

"You betrayed me!"

"You betrayed me!" Mobius echoed.

"Oh, grow up."

By this point, they'd arrived in the designated projector room and the T.V.A. employee made for his desk. "You grow up. You know, it occurred to me that you're not really the God of Mischief."

Loki gave a dry laugh. "Oh, here it comes. The folksy, dopey insult from the folksy dope. What am I? The God of Self-Sabotage, yeah? The God of Back-Stabbing."

"Just kind of an asshole and a bad friend," Mobius replied, unfazed. "Yeah, chew on that for a little bit. Alright, he's ready."

This time, the portal glowed red in front of him. "What is this?" the Asgardian asked, struggling between the guards.

"You'll see."

"Mobius!"

The soldiers stilled and the man gave in. "Okay. No, no, no, let him. One last desperate trick from the desperate trickster. Go ahead."

In a last-ditch attempt, Loki quickly exclaimed, "the T.V.A. is lying to you!"

Mobius looked amused. "Put him in."

✧✧✧

"Okay, Loki, you ready to talk?" the new voice caused the god to turn.

They exited the time loop to return to the projector room, taking the two available chairs as the Asgardian spoke, "fancy technology, threatening interrogation tactics. Seems you and I are in a loop of our own."

"Well, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then."

"Certainly has," he agreed.

"Okay, you said the T.V.A. was lying to me," Mobius began, tapping his pencil against the notepad sitting in front of him. "Go ahead, or is it just a cockroach's survival mechanism kicking in?"

"Let me out of this place, stop beating me up and then I'll tell you."

"Cockroach, got it." He jotted a note down. "How long have you been working for the Variant? Was Agent Hui working for her too?"

"Me? Work for her? Please," Loki scoffed. "The mortal just got in the way."

"So if you're not working for the Variant, what is it? You're partners?"

"Absolutely not," he replied, offended. "She's difficult and irritating and tries to hit me all the time. The mortal's only worse, so no. Not partners, no."

"Yeah, I guess you don't do partners," the man allowed. "Unless, of course, it benefits you and you intend to betray them at some point."

"It was a means to an end, Mobius. Welcome to the real world. Down there, we're awful to one another to get what we want."

"Now I gotta have a prince tell me how the real world works?" Mobius' tone was disbelieving. "Why don't you just tell me what caused the nexus event on Lamentis?"

"Let me say this again. I'm not going to tell you just so you can turn around immediately afterwards and prune me."

"I guess we've reached a dead end, then." The T.V.A. worker leaned back in his chair as he observed the god calmly.

"Okay, it's over."

"I'm going to miss these little tête-à-têtes."

"Me too. One guy playing checkers you—" The man indicated the other sitting across from him. "Old Mobius, playing chess. But yeah, give my regards to Lady Sif."

"What— no. What? No, no, no, please, not. . . well, just wait—" Loki protested.

"Yeah?"

With a hint of resignation, he changed tactics. "Of course it was me pulling the strings all along. She came to me on Asgard a long time ago and then she took me to one of her apocalypses. That's where we hatched our plan together."

"Which is?"

"Coming along very nicely, thank you."

"And Agent Hui?"

The Asgardian made an unaffected motion, though the lie left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Doesn't matter, she's just a pawn I happened across." He leaned forward. "Something very, very big is going to happen and when it does, I'll dispose of both."

"Well, we saved you the trouble there. They've already been pruned," Mobius announced before swiftly carrying on, "so assume I do set you free."

"Hang on, wait," Loki interrupted him, his tone taking on an urgent edge. "What'd you just say?"

"What? Assume I do set you free?"

"No, the mortal and the Variant. They're gone?"

"Yeah. Not before they took out some of ours," the man said. "Yeah, they were going to their Time Cells, broke free. Hunter B-15 stepped in and pruned them both, though I will give Agent Hui credit. She was a fighter until the end." He gave a little nod. "You might want to fire off a thank you note to Hunter B-15 because it looks like you're the superior Loki. I would have bet on her, but that's what makes a horse race."

The god didn't say anything for several long moments as he leaned back in his chair with a shrug, his eyes fixed on a distant point. The news of his companions' demise hit harder than he'd expected but in the end, he would always fall back on his plan. "Good riddance."

Mobius began to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Come on. Look at your eyes, you like her."

"What?"

"You like her. Does she like you?"

"Was she pruned?"

He continued to chuckle. "No wonder you have no clue what caused the nexus event on Lamentis. You, someone of chaos and disorder and her, a person so disciplined that someone kicking a rock would set her off. I suppose it's true what they say, though. Opposites do attract. Someone putting the God of Mischief in line would break reality."

"What, the mortal?" the Asgardian asked scornfully. "She wishes—"

"I should have seen it coming," Mobius interrupted him. "Though with you two at each other's throats every fifteen seconds it would be hard to tell. Do you only call her 'mortal' to lie to yourself?"

"Is she still alive?" Loki ignored his question, his tone forceful.

"For now." Before he could stop himself, he let out a sigh of relief. "And infiltrating the T.V.A., was that always sort of the grand plan? Faking hating each other and then pretending you didn't know this other Variant?"

"Oh no," Loki disagreed. "The hate is real but our interests are aligned."

"Overthrowing the Time-Keepers?" the man questioned him, choosing to ignore the lie for the time being.

"Maybe they need to be overthrown."

"I ought to box your ears."

"Mobius, listen. If what we've found out about this place is true, it affects all of us," the god tried to explain.

"Here we go. Now, you've already told me about fifty lies in the past ten minutes."

"I'm not lying this time," he insisted.

"Now, I'm supposed to believe you and your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," he said immediately.

"Whatever you want to call her. Her and the Variant you've hatched plans with—"

"You're all Variants!" the Asgardian shouted. "Everyone who works at the T.V.A.. The Time-Keepers didn't create you, they kidnapped you from the timeline and erased your memories. Memories the Variant, Sylvie, can access through enchantment. So before this, you had a past. Maybe you had a family, a life."

Mobius didn't respond for a minute, seeming to consider his words before he answered, "nice try."

Loki leaned back in his chair and shook his head, defeated as the man continued, "that was good. You three, what a trio! Gosh! Unbelievable. Wherever you go, it's just death, destruction, the literal ends of worlds. Well, I'm gonna have to close this case now 'cause I don't need you anymore. Yeah, or as you might say, our interests are no longer aligned."

The two guards from earlier returned and forced him up. The god still needed to get the last word in: "you know, of all the liars in this place— and there are a great many— you're the biggest."

"Why? 'Cause I lied about your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Loki corrected him again, "but that I can respect. I mean, the lies you tell yourself."