Chapter 5A: Journey into Mystery

Loki gasped awake. Three figures and...an aligator hovered over him as he opened his eyes. To the left, a bulky, dark-skinned man in green-tinted armor wielding a bronze hammer. To the right, an older fellow in a yellow costume adorned in a bronze helmet with two enormous horns protruding from it. And crouched at the center of the trio, a boy in a green leather outfit wearing a horn-emblemed crown, holding a tiny alligator, who was wearing a crown as well.

Behind the three mysterious figures laid a massive city in ruin with collapsed buildings covered in overgrowth, and endless expanse of grassy fields that seemed to go on indefinitely. A nebulous darkness was forming beyond the horizon, an amalgamation of dark clouds looming in the distance, like a controlled storm.

Loki got to his feet quickly, looking around him in puzzlement. "What is this place? Where are we? Who are you?"

The figure in the yellow costume approached him with haste. "This is the Void. That's Alioth. And we're his lunch. Come on!"

The three figures turned away and began fleeing. Loki stumbled to follow them. In the distance the clouds began to form the face of a monster with fangs, letting out a roar that could be heard across all space and time.

***

"Give me the Tempad." Sylvie demanded, standing over a fallen Judge Renslayer.

Renslayer reached into her coat for the device.

Sylvie snatched it out of her hands. "Who's really behind the TVA?"

"I'm as in the dark as you are." She said before groaning painfully as Sylvie pressed against her arm with her boot.

"Poor Judge Renslayer." She spat. "Your whole reality's been destroyed. Tell me, how does it feel..." She said before digging in harder with her heel. "...to be on the other side of it?"

Renslayer cried out again before Sylvie let up her foot.

"This is it, isn't it?" The goddess said, scoping out the room she was in, the courtroom where all of the Variant trials were held. "This is where you dragged me after you stole my life." Sylvie turned to Renslayer as she got to her feet. "A fitting place, then, to take yours."

"And what if I said Loki wasn't dead?" The Judge said. "Not yet, anyway."

"I'd say your lying." Sylvie said.

"Maybe." Judge Renslayer continued. "Or maybe we want the same thing."

"How is he still alive?" Sylvie said. "And how will saving him get us closer to who's realy behind the TVA?"

"It's complicated."

Sylvie brandished her Timestick towards her.

Renslayer held her hands up in surrender. "I'm telling you this willingly."

"Why?"

"Because I wanna know who's at the top of this." Ravonna answered. "I want to know who lied to me."

Sylvie lowered her Timestick.

"When we prune a branched reality it's impossible to destroy all of its matter. So we move it to a place on the Timeline where it won't continue growing." Renslayer explained. "Basically the branched timeline isn't reset, it's transferred."

"To where?" Sylvie asked.

"A void at the end of time." Renslayer said. "Where every instance of existence collides at the same point and simply...stops."

"Why?"

Renslayer produced a look as if to say "beats me" then continued speaking. "I don't know. The dogma states that the end of time is still being written. That the Time Keepers are transforming it into a utopia."

"That's nice. Super believable." Sylvie said amusingly.

"Whatever the real reason..."Renslayer continued. "...nothing ever comes back from there. Now I can help you if you trust me."

Sylvie stared at the other woman without blinking as she reached into her pockets. She held out the Tempad. Renslayer accepted it with a nod.

***

The four Lokis continued their march across the endless fields of the Void.

"I might suggest we take a quick breather, so I can ask a several thousand questions." Loki said, panting hard.

"Can't." Classic Loki responded. "Gotta keep moving so we don't die."

"I can get behind that, but what's your plan?" Loki asked.

"Don't die." Boastful Loki answered.

"Okay understood, but beyond that?" Loki asked.

"Don't die." Classic Loki answered.

"Don't die isn't a plan. It's a general demand of living." Loki protested. "If you're Lokis, you should always have a plan."

A flock of peacocks emerged. Loki stared confusingly as they brushed past him. Suddenly the confusion quickly shifted into anger.

Loki stopped dead in his tracks and screamed. "WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

The other Lokis stopped and turned around.

"Look. It's been a very, very, very, trying past few days." Loki said before questioning. "Months? I don't even know how long it's been since New York. All I know is, I got pruned and I woke up here, and now I'm surrounded by Variants of myself, plus an alligator, which I'm heartbroken to report I don't even find all that strange. And now we're running from God knows what to God knows where, when what I NEED to be doing..."

The amalgamation of purple clouds in the sky invigorated as Loki's volume increased.

"...is trying to find a way back to the TVA-"

Kid Loki cut him off off in an instant. With a flick of his wrist he conjured a golden short sword, sending Loki falling backwards on to the ground in a moment.

"Stop wailing or you will signal Alioth." Kid Loki said, keeping his voice firm despite being barely above a whisper.

Loki paused to breathe before saying. "You mean the monster in the sky?"

Kid Loki rolled his eyes before dissipating the sword with another flick of his wrist. He extended his newly freed hand to Loki and brought him to his feet.

"Thank you." Loki said.

Kid Loki gestured around him. "This is the place where the TVA dumps its rubbish. Everything they prune." Kid Loki explained, before pointing to the cloud monster." And Alioth, he ensures none of it ever returns."

"It's a living tempest that consumes matter and energy." Boastful Loki chimed in. "They send entire branched realities here that are devoured in an instant-"

"We're in a shark tank." Classic Loki interrupted. "Alioth is the shark."

The alligator growled.

Classic Loki bent over to it. "Oh, there's no such thing as an alligator tank. Besides it's a better metaphor." Then turned to Loki. "He's overly sensitive like the rest of us."

"Hang on," Loki said, pointing to the gator. "You're telling me that thing's a Loki to?"

"Oh yes." Classic Loki answered.

Loki looked up to contain his bewilderment for a brief moment. "Okay, fine. Willing to accept that. Why are there so many of you?"

"Because Lokis survive." Classic Loki said. "That's just what we do."

"Great." Loki said. "So how do we escape?"

"We don't." Classic Loki said. "All of us were arrested by the TVA and pruned, just like you. And just like you're doing now, we all stood around making bad plans that went nowhere."

"Yes, but we could use a Tempad." Loki responded.

"Oh, the one thing that could easily get us out of here, yes. They're all over the place, right guys?" Boastful Loki said.

The three Lokis snickered. Alligator Loki glanced around skeptically.

"Fine. What about causing a nexus event?" Loki said.

"The TVA doesn't care what happens here." Boastful Loki stated blatently.

"Surely there's something to do." Loki protested.

"There is." Classic Loki said. "Survive. That's all there is. All there ever was."

"WE'RE DONE talking. Let's go." Kid Loki asserted. The two other Lokis began to walk again. Kid Loki turned to Loki before joining them. "Just do what you want I guess."

The thunder rumbled in the sky. Loki paused to look at it before quickly running to catch up with the Variants. "Okay, wait, wait, wait. Why do you wear the horns? You let a child command you?"

"You'll do well to respect the boy." Classic Loki warned. "This is his kingdom."

"Right." Loki questioned. "What was your nexus event, your Majesty?"

Kid Loki stepped towards him. "I killed Thor."

The party of Lokis continued onward until they reached the hatched door of an underground bunker admist a decayed warhead and a ruined airplane. Using magic, Classic Loki opened it, allowing himself and the other Lokis inside. The door opened up to reveal a ladder extending down several feet.

At the bottom the Lokis rallied. The bunker looked like a repurposed bowling alley, with pins scattered around everywhere, as well as a track leading all the way down to a makeshift throne with a giant 'L' above it, surrounded by two huge candy cane pillars.

"So, why do you want to return to the TVA so badly anyway?" Classic Loki asked.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"You leave your glorious purpose there?" Boastful Loki asked.

"Something like that." Loki said.

***

"Miss Minutes, I need you to remote access a series of restricted files from the archives.

"Ooh, doggy!" She said. "On what?"

"The beginning of time." Renslayer said. "The founding of the TVA."

"Right away." Miss Minutes answered.

"Wait." Sylvie stood up. "What about the end of time?"

"It's just a void." Renslayer replied.

"What if The Void isn't the end?" Sylvie asked. "What if there's something beyond it?"

Renslayer turned and nodded in affirmation to Miss Minutes, who semi-nervously began scanning though a cycle of orange holographic files. She settled on one of them, opening it up to reveal a gridlike structure with a line resembling a heartrate monitor running through it.

"Hiding in the shadow of apocalypses obscured me from the TVA because I couldn't create a diverging branch there, right?" Sylvie inquired.

Renslayer nodded in confirmation.

"So if all of this is still being written, whatever happens is just a new timeline." Sylvie said, gesturing towards the hologram. "It would be impossible to start a nexus event there. You could be completely undetectable."

"That's it." Renslayer concurred. "That's the only place they could be."

"So how do we get past the Void?"

Renslayer gestured in surrender. "It's impossible. There's nothing for the Tempad to lock onto, no destination."

Sylvie nodded. "Then we go through it."

Renslayer looked at her in shocking disapproval. "That's suicide."

"Then I guess my need for you has passed." Sylvie said, stepping towards Renslayer while readying her Timestick.

"Wait!" Miss Minutes exclaimed. "What about the Void spacecraft?"

Renslayer turned over to Miss Minutes with widened eyes. "... yes, the prototype."

"Great." Miss Minutes said. "I'll get the file."

Sylvie looked at Renslayer.

"It's a spaceship designed to withstand the temporal Void." Renslayer answered sheepishly. "It could concieveably take us to the end of time."

"Find Loki."

"Find the man behind the curtain."

"And kill him."

"Together." Renslayer said, nervously extending her hand.

Sylvie looked down at the hand skeptically before accepting it with her own. Renslayer looked over to Miss Minutes before Sylvie tugged to bring her closer to her.

"Miss Minutes, where are the files on this timecraft?" Sylvie asked.

"Still lookin' hon." Miss Minutes said.

Sylvie paused for a moment before asking. "Nothing?"

"Buried pretty deep..." Miss Minutes answered meekly.

Renslayer smiled uneasily. "It's highly restricted. I might not even have clearance."

"Oh no, I think you would. If it's real." Sylvie said, her voice radiating dangerously.

"How long..." Renslayer asked.

"Any second now." Miss Minutes replied.

"Go, go, go!" Voices shouted behind the door. In seconds a team of Minutemen came barging in through the door.

"Whoa!" Miss Minutes yelped as she disappeared.

Sylvie snatched at Renslayer, quickly shoving her aside and jumping up behind the Judge's bench. The Minutemen grouped up with Renslayer.

"You hurt?" D-90 asked.

"I'm fine, but she took my Tempad." Renslayer said, then called out to Sylvie from the other side of the pedestal. "Sylvie? Not thinking of going on the run, are you? We know where you hide. Sooner or later we'll catch you. It must be so exhausting."

"I'll admit you had me fooled there for a minute." Sylvie said back. "Or did you get a little real? Did Judge Renslayer really feel betrayed by her beloved TVA?"

"Why don't you come back out and we can talk about it?"

"Sure..." Sylvie said sarcastically. "Just tell everyone else to piss off and we can settle this between us."

"Works for me." Judge Renslayer said, quietly motioning for the Minutemen to advance.

"What happened to finding the man behind the curtain?"

"Tell you what." Renslayer offered. "You come out with your hands up and I'll put you in a time loop. Something not so bad. You can live out your days in a good memory...do you even have any good memories?"

"Just one really." Sylvie quietly uttered to herself.

Stuffing the Tempad in her pocket, she stood up at the podium for everyone to see, grabbed the Timestick and positioned it towards herself, then plunged it into her chest, disappearing into a rain of sparks. The Timestick clattered to the ground as she was vaporized.

All of the Minutemen looked back at Renslayer curiously.

"She self-pruned?" D-90 said in puzzlement.

"Good." Renslayer said. "Then she's dead too."

***

Smooth jazz played on the speakers of the bowling alley bunker. An opened carton of Roxxcart box wine sat on the table. Classic Loki poured a waterfall of red wine into Alligator Loki's opened mouth before setting the chalice to the side.

"So, after I vanquished Captain America and Iron Man," Boastful Loki said. "I claimed my prize. All six Infinity Stones."

Alligator Loki growled.

Classic Loki translated. "That's alligator for growling and saying liar at the same time."

"Well at least my nexus event wasn't eating the wrong neighbor's cat." Boastful Loki shot back with a stern look.

Alligator Loki snarled even louder, before jumping out of the kiddie pool and latching onto Boastful Loki's arm.

"Gah!" The god groaned as the gator bit. Both of the other Lokis got to their feet immediately, struggling to get the creature off of him. Kid Loki snickered from atop his throne. Eventually they managed to pry the beast off of him, flinging it back into the pool. The Lokis sat back down.

"Tell them your story Loki." Kid Loki suggested.

"Me?" Classic Loki questioned. "Nobody wants to hear about that."

Loki bent over in interest. "I would, actually. Um...It's just, I've been wondering, because I'm..." he said gesturing towards Classic Loki. "Well, we're supposed to die, right? Thanos kills us after Ragnarok."

"Thanos." Classic Loki practically scoffed. "In my timeline, everything proceeded correctly, my entire life, until Thanos attacked our ship."

"So you, you didn't try to stab him?" Loki asked.

"No, certainly not." Classic Loki chuckled. "Take no offense, my friends, but blades are worthless in the face of a Loki sorcery. They stunt our...magical potential."

"But they look awesome." Boastful Loki chimed in.

"Oh, yes. Especially when they clatter to the ground just before your neck is snapped." Classic Loki gibed before turning back to Loki. "I cast a projection of myself so real...even the mad Titan believed it. Then hid as inanimate debris. After I faked my death, I simply drifted in space. Away from Thor, away from everything. Thought about the universe and my place in it and it occurred to me that everywhere I went, only pain followed. So, I removed myself from the equation. Landed on a remote planet and stayed there in isolation, in solitude for a long...long time."

Loki looked down in contemplation. "How did the TVA find you?"

"I got lonely." Classic Loki answered, then scoffed. "To tell you the truth, I missed my brother and I wondered if he missed me, if anybody else did. As soon as I took my first steps to getting off the planet the TVA arrived. Because we, my friends, have but one part to play, god of outcasts. Nothing more." He said, taking a sip from his wine before lifting it up in ceremony. "The God of Outcasts." Kid Loki raised his juicebox. Boastful Loki took a sip of his wine.

Loki looked around him then shook his head in refusal, setting his glass of wine down and standing up. "I'm going."

"Going where?" Classic Loki asked in protest as he and Boastful Loki stood up as well.

"Out of this place, out of the Void, back to the TVA." Loki said. "We may be good at surviving, but we're also good at escaping. That at least gives me a decent chance."

"You won't do either." Classic Loki said. "You'll be brutally murdered."

"Well, so be it." Loki said. "That was my destiny to begin with."

Kid Loki stepped down from his throne. "You're different. Why?"

"No. I'm not, you see." Loki replied. "I'm the same, really. I'm the same as all of you. Have any of you met a woman Variant of us?"

The other Lokis shook their heads. "Sounds terrifying." Classic Loki remarked.

"Oh, she is." Loki said. "That's kind of what's great about her. She's different. She's not trying to take over the TVA, she's trying to take it down. And she needs me."

Loki turned to Kid Loki. "Now you said Alioth is what keeps us here."

Kid Loki nodded in agreement.

"You said it's a living thing." Loki said to Boastful Loki, then to Classic Loki. "You said it's a shark. Well if it lives, it dies. So I'm gonna kill the shark. I'm gonna kill Alioth and I could use all the help I can get."

Loki paused as he waited for a response from his alternate versions. A silence fell on the area for a brief moment before the other Lokis burst into all out laughter. Boastful and Classic started initially before Kid joined in shortly after. Alligator's eyes glared inquistively.

"Yeah, baby! Yeah!" Classic Loki jeered.

Loki shook his head and made his way towards the exit ladder. He was halfway up before muttering to himself. "Monsters."

Loki got all the way up the ladder and opened the hatch only to reveal a group of several figures looming over him. At the center was an exact spitting image of himself dressed in a suit and tie with a button pinned to it labeled "Loki for President.". Looking around him he could see that all of the other individuals surrounding him wore the same button while also wielding several different armaments.

"Ahhh." President Loki said with a sneering smile on his face. "Which one of us are you?"

Loki paused before muttering to himself once again. "This is a nightmare."