Chapter 30 - Revenge or Peace
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Samael61
Not too sore, are you?
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Hello there,
If you enjoy my stories, you can read up to 15 chapters in advance per story on my Patreon page / patreon.com/Samael61.
Do you like Loki's creations, dangerous experiments, and willingness to challenge enemies that appear above his league? Then you will definitely like Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
The Citadel at the End of Time
Loki began to giggle. It quickly turned into full-blown, unrestrained laughter.
"You think he just went mad?" Sylvie asked her companion, watching their counterpart laugh like a madman.
"Oh," He Who Remains wagged his finger, grinning. "He knows what I am talking about. Come on, champ, don't keep us waiting. What is it?"
"Something I won't share with anyone," he explained. Except Thor when the time came, if it ever would.
"Come on, I've been dying to know it for centuries. At least give me a clue."
"No."
"Okay then."
"Why does TVA exist?" he asked once his laughter was under control.
Asgard was not unknown to his Earth, it just did not exist. Neither the Masters of the Mystical Arts nor the myriad of alien races out there.
He was from another universe.
"Ah, the crux of the matter," He Who Remains said, activating a device on his desk.
His explanation of a multiversal war, caused by his counterparts for dominance, sounded too insane, even by his standards. Yet, he could feel the truth in every word. The chaos caused by the variants was devastating. Even the Emergence of a Celestial seemed trivial in comparison.
"There it is. You kill me, and you set my variants free," he explained crudely.
"Your math is backwards. Humans, from what I have seen, justify killing millions to save billions. Not erasing entire timelines to stop a war," Loki commented.
His counterparts were still struggling to make sense of what they were watching.
"That's the thing. There is a way to stop all of this from happening. All the timelines stay, without the threat of a multiversal war."
"How?"
"Here, let me show you," he said, showing his timeline.
"Once I saw that your timeline could not be erased, I contained it in a finite curve. That way, the TVA did not have to worry about the branches while I continued to research," he said, displaying spiraling lines, each representing a timeline.
Next, he played a recording, showing him against a variant of He Who Remains. In the recording, he punched a hole through the human's chest, and in a second, most of the variants turned to dust.
More screens displayed an increasing amount of the human's variants. Most died, some were spared, and it all happened in an instant.
"Whatever you did to my counterpart there, it killed every single chaotic variant in an instant. A multiversal weapon aimed at a single person," he said, raising his index finger.
He Who Remains clapped his hands. "Here is the deal. We go back to the moment where the war started and you kill all my evil variants. No war means no TVA, and more importantly, none of this ever happens. Except for the ones stuck in the Void, they are going to stay there unless you send them back."
"Why though? You have all this power. You are fate itself," he said. Power was not alluring to him. He wondered if it was the same for the human in front of him.
"I have been doing this for a long time, champ. I am tired. The only company I have is a holographic clock. I want to retire in peace."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
He turned to the variants in love. "As for you two, you will never have been taken by the TVA. You can live your childhood as if you never left," he said, pointing at Sylvie and then to Loki next to her, "and you can go back to escaping."
His mirror counterpart turned to Sylvie, eyes downcast. "Wait, then we'll never have known each other."
"Sorry champ, can't have everything." He Who Remains shrugged.
"Sylvie…"
"I don't think she'll take that offer," Loki said. His female counterpart was still itching to kill the human, and he could not blame her.
"You don't want everything you lost back?" his male counterpart asked.
"She has been seeking revenge longer than she has lived in Asgard. It is all she knows. Throwing it away for a life she does not remember is difficult, almost impossible."
"You think I should just give up?" she scoffed.
He glanced at her for the briefest of moments and reached for his tea. "All I know is you won't be able to kill him."
Sylvie leaped from her chair, a blade in her hand. Before she could get to the desk, He Who Remains held the device on his left wrist up and flicked a hologram. Sylvie was rewound back to her chair, eyes wide.
She slouched on her chair, dropping the blade. "That's it? He does all this and gets his happy ending."
"You can kill him, can't you?" she asked the strongest Loki, but it was her target who answered.
"He can," the sole human in the room said, too giddy for the words he uttered.
He put down the cup. "You have been very forthcoming."
"Consider it my apology for the trouble TVA caused you and the whole mess with Laufey."
"Why not send me a message? I would have come," he said. An invitation would have gone a long way to keep him from resorting to violence.
"You consumed a planet and two Celestials. Trying to open a Timedoor in Asgard was like trying to pierce through a steel block with a wooden needle."
"And now," he spread his hands, "is the time to make a decision. Your temporal manipulation is beyond mine on a personal scale; you can kill me. Alternatively, we shake hands. You two can return to the moments you were taken; you kill my variants, and everyone gets a happy ending."
"Except for the lover boy," he added, winking at the mirror Loki.
"Or you three leave and things continue as they were," he offered as a final option.
He glanced at Sylvie and the counterpart next to her. "You will have to choose. Peace or revenge."
He couldn't imagine himself in her place, no matter the fact they were the same person.
"If you kill him and every other variant, then I won't have to."
He Who Remains raised a hand, displaying more screens. "But not all of my variants are evil. Some have done great things, saving lives, being heroes, and all that glamorous philanthropism."
Loki crossed his arms, eyes locked on the table.
—
Midgard
Thor opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. The memories of the last couple of hours rushed to his mind. The face he saw brought him to reality.
"Hi. Just taking a little blood."
"I would prefer it if you did not," he said, stopping the human gently. He needed to leave immediately.
"It's just a routine procedure."
"I am well. Where are my clothes?" The gown he was wearing revealed too much for his liking.
"Sir, you were hit by a car and were tased afterwards. You really should lay down."
"I would like to leave now."
"Well, we can't keep you if you are insistent. I will give you privacy to dress."
Once the healer left, he rolled out of the bed, quickly dressing to find a way back home. Heimdall was unlikely to respond to him in his current state as an exile. His parents did not know that Midgard had progressed much since the time the Aesir were last on the planet.
He would not have known it either had Loki not informed him of his travels.
His mother would have found a way, but she must believe he is not in danger. Which only left his brother to help him, and he had no idea where he was.
He had to return to the location where the Bifrost had deposited him.
His musings stopped when he saw the female that had assaulted him with a strange weapon. Any other time, he would have made an issue out of it, but now, he had to avoid attention.
—
Sneaking out of the healing hall was all the more difficult since he could not read the language. Once he followed other Midgardians and left the building, he felt like cursing.
He had no idea where to go.
Tall structures as far as he could see with no idea where he might have landed. His only option was to ask the group that had brought him to the hall, but the idea soured his tongue.
He remembered Loki's words on seidr. It was a natural part of him, like another muscle. His father was mighty enough to strip that part off of him but not enough to transform him into a Midgardian.
He just had to rebuild that muscle or find a way to reclaim Mjolnir. Even if his powers had not been taken away, he could not summon it realms apart.
A plan formed in his mind. He had to be away from the Midgardians to call for Loki and hope his brother hears. If not, make a camp and survive until Loki discovers he was exiled. Making camp in this desolate biome was not easy, but he would make do.
He left the town, searching for shelter. All those days spent in the Tenth Realm's survival areas would come in handy. At least he hoped.
"I should stop hoping and start doing," he grumbled to himself.
As the sun set, he felt the temperature drop sharply. If he had his powers, it would not have affected him, but now, he was vulnerable to the elements. His choice of shelter was a hole in the ground. He checked the inside with a makeshift torch for venomous creatures. Closing the entrance with foliage to keep the cold out, he settled in for the night.
—
His hunger woke him up.
Crawling out of the hole, he dusted his clothes. The sun was rising, warming the air once more. He searched the area for water and anything he could hunt for food. There was no water in sight, but he saw an animal on the ground, running. It almost looked like a bird.
Choosing a sharp, flat stone, he launched it at where the bird would be. His aim proved correct, and the animal went down. It was small but would be enough for now.
He had to pluck and clean the animal with his bare hands. Cooking it over the rolling weeds he caught, Thor ate the tasteless meat.
Admittedly, he should have had better self-control, but his father could not handle the truth either.
Leaving the thought of Asgard aside, he decided to seek water. There was green foliage across the road paved with black stone. Taking his chances, he crossed it, finding a small puddle. He drank first and cleaned his hands second before washing his face.
Sated, he thought about what to do. Lost in thoughts, he barely heard a loud, ear-scratching sound, followed by something impacting him at great speeds. Just like the previous day. Getting to his feet with a snarl, Thor was about to give whomever it was a piece of his mind.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I swear I am not doing this on purpose," the Midgardian female said, her eyes wide.
The same Midgardian female who had struck him with her vehicle and taken him to the healing hall, along with her companions.
She was earnest in her apology, and his fury washed away. He sighed, rolled his left shoulder, and walked away.
"Wait, wait, please." She ran in front of him, raising her hands. "Can we talk? You came out of the Einstein Rosen Bridge, right?"
He considered keeping silent, but if his father did not want him to give clues to the Midgardians, he should have not sent him to this realm.
"If by an Einstein-Rosen bridge you mean the Bifrost, then yes," he said.
"Bifrost?" She froze for a second, trying to remember where she had heard the word from. "The one in the Scandinavian myths? Asgard, Odin, Thor, and all that?"
"I am that Thor."
The older male shook his head. "He is obviously out of his mind. We should take him back to the hospital."
"I am quite sane, Midgardian." Though, without any way to prove it, he knew coming across as mad was inevitable.
"Can you do magic?" the female wearing glasses asked, hand still on the weapon she had used on him.
"I can not. My father stripped me of my powers and banished me to this realm."
"You know what, why don't you be our guest? Consider it an apology for, you know, hitting you with our car. Twice," the redheaded female said, raising two fingers at the end.
"That is awfully trusting of you."
—
"So, Asgard is real," Jane said with a flat tone. He did not need to be wise to know she did not believe it.
She had immediately launched a series of queries as to the nature of his arrival on this world, and he was hard pressed to answer.
"Yes."
"And you were banished to Earth because you and your father had a fight?"
"Basically."
The other female, Darcy, snorted. "Why Earth, though?"
"I don't think he is aware this realm has developed so much." And Midgard was the only realm that did not know his status as a prince of Asgard.
"That sounds extremely irresponsible," Selvig said, rubbing his temples.
"Believe me, it is nothing compared to half the things he has done in the past."
"Like what?" Jane asked.
"Going on a conquest of the Nine Realms and beyond. Turning our sister into a bloodthirsty warrior bent on continuing where he left off. Hiding my brother's true parentage. Trying to gather six of the most devastating artifacts in the universe. And of course, his willingness to let Ragnarok happen rather than do something about Hela."
"Wait, Hela is your sister?" Darcy said, reading something off the device in her hand.
"Your beliefs concerning Asgard are extremely wrong. As my brother, Loki, explained it, the Midgardian seers ingested too many magical mushrooms. I heard some of it. The part concerning Sleipnir was especially amusing."
He had teased his brother so much that one day he had woken up with horse ears and a tail, courtesy of a very persistent spell.
"He is not your brother's, you know…" Darcy said, trying not to sound insulting.
"That horse is older than both of us combined."
The man, Erik Selvig, muttered something to the female, Jane, while the two kept glancing at him. He could guess what it was about. They had no reason to believe his claims. He must appear like a madman to them.
He squeezed his fist, focusing to draw out any sliver of seidr left in his body. It was akin to squeezing blood out of Uru ore. Yet, he succeeded.
A bolt of lightning, one that wouldn't kill anything larger than the bird he had hunted this morning, flew out of his hand, going through the open window. His hosts saw the bolt clearly, turning to him with wide eyes.
He felt something trickling down his nose.
His fingers came back bloody. His head ached and the world spun once more.
—
In the next chapter:
He came into existence in his room, tired. While he could never be physically tired unless his enormous reserves somehow ran out, the ordeal weighed heavily on his mind. He left the room to join the lunch. He had time traveled to three days after he had left just to not have to deal with Laufey.
With the TVA gone, everything should be fine now.
"Loki? You returned?!" Sif exclaimed, stopping her pacing.
"Yes, Sif, I have."
"Quick. You must convince the Allfather to lift Thor's exile."
He blinked, eyebrows rising to his forehead. "I am sorry, what?"
Curious about the next chapter? Please consider supporting me on Patreon.
If you enjoy my stories, you can read up to 15 chapters in advance per story on my Patreon page / patreon.com/Samael61.
Do you like Loki's creations, dangerous experiments, and willingness to challenge enemies that appear above his league? Then you will definitely like Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
The Citadel at the End of Time
Loki began to giggle. It quickly turned into full-blown, unrestrained laughter.
"You think he just went mad?" Sylvie asked her companion, watching their counterpart laugh like a madman.
"Oh," He Who Remains wagged his finger, grinning. "He knows what I am talking about. Come on, champ, don't keep us waiting. What is it?"
"Something I won't share with anyone," he explained. Except Thor when the time came, if it ever would.
"Come on, I've been dying to know it for centuries. At least give me a clue."
"No."
"Okay then."
"Why does TVA exist?" he asked once his laughter was under control.
Asgard was not unknown to his Earth, it just did not exist. Neither the Masters of the Mystical Arts nor the myriad of alien races out there.
He was from another universe.
"Ah, the crux of the matter," He Who Remains said, activating a device on his desk.
His explanation of a multiversal war, caused by his counterparts for dominance, sounded too insane, even by his standards. Yet, he could feel the truth in every word. The chaos caused by the variants was devastating. Even the Emergence of a Celestial seemed trivial in comparison.
"There it is. You kill me, and you set my variants free," he explained crudely.
"Your math is backwards. Humans, from what I have seen, justify killing millions to save billions. Not erasing entire timelines to stop a war," Loki commented.
His counterparts were still struggling to make sense of what they were watching.
"That's the thing. There is a way to stop all of this from happening. All the timelines stay, without the threat of a multiversal war."
"How?"
"Here, let me show you," he said, showing his timeline.
"Once I saw that your timeline could not be erased, I contained it in a finite curve. That way, the TVA did not have to worry about the branches while I continued to research," he said, displaying spiraling lines, each representing a timeline.
Next, he played a recording, showing him against a variant of He Who Remains. In the recording, he punched a hole through the human's chest, and in a second, most of the variants turned to dust.
More screens displayed an increasing amount of the human's variants. Most died, some were spared, and it all happened in an instant.
"Whatever you did to my counterpart there, it killed every single chaotic variant in an instant. A multiversal weapon aimed at a single person," he said, raising his index finger.
He Who Remains clapped his hands. "Here is the deal. We go back to the moment where the war started and you kill all my evil variants. No war means no TVA, and more importantly, none of this ever happens. Except for the ones stuck in the Void, they are going to stay there unless you send them back."
"Why though? You have all this power. You are fate itself," he said. Power was not alluring to him. He wondered if it was the same for the human in front of him.
"I have been doing this for a long time, champ. I am tired. The only company I have is a holographic clock. I want to retire in peace."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
He turned to the variants in love. "As for you two, you will never have been taken by the TVA. You can live your childhood as if you never left," he said, pointing at Sylvie and then to Loki next to her, "and you can go back to escaping."
His mirror counterpart turned to Sylvie, eyes downcast. "Wait, then we'll never have known each other."
"Sorry champ, can't have everything." He Who Remains shrugged.
"Sylvie…"
"I don't think she'll take that offer," Loki said. His female counterpart was still itching to kill the human, and he could not blame her.
"You don't want everything you lost back?" his male counterpart asked.
"She has been seeking revenge longer than she has lived in Asgard. It is all she knows. Throwing it away for a life she does not remember is difficult, almost impossible."
"You think I should just give up?" she scoffed.
He glanced at her for the briefest of moments and reached for his tea. "All I know is you won't be able to kill him."
Sylvie leaped from her chair, a blade in her hand. Before she could get to the desk, He Who Remains held the device on his left wrist up and flicked a hologram. Sylvie was rewound back to her chair, eyes wide.
She slouched on her chair, dropping the blade. "That's it? He does all this and gets his happy ending."
"You can kill him, can't you?" she asked the strongest Loki, but it was her target who answered.
"He can," the sole human in the room said, too giddy for the words he uttered.
He put down the cup. "You have been very forthcoming."
"Consider it my apology for the trouble TVA caused you and the whole mess with Laufey."
"Why not send me a message? I would have come," he said. An invitation would have gone a long way to keep him from resorting to violence.
"You consumed a planet and two Celestials. Trying to open a Timedoor in Asgard was like trying to pierce through a steel block with a wooden needle."
"And now," he spread his hands, "is the time to make a decision. Your temporal manipulation is beyond mine on a personal scale; you can kill me. Alternatively, we shake hands. You two can return to the moments you were taken; you kill my variants, and everyone gets a happy ending."
"Except for the lover boy," he added, winking at the mirror Loki.
"Or you three leave and things continue as they were," he offered as a final option.
He glanced at Sylvie and the counterpart next to her. "You will have to choose. Peace or revenge."
He couldn't imagine himself in her place, no matter the fact they were the same person.
"If you kill him and every other variant, then I won't have to."
He Who Remains raised a hand, displaying more screens. "But not all of my variants are evil. Some have done great things, saving lives, being heroes, and all that glamorous philanthropism."
Loki crossed his arms, eyes locked on the table.
—
Midgard
Thor opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. The memories of the last couple of hours rushed to his mind. The face he saw brought him to reality.
"Hi. Just taking a little blood."
"I would prefer it if you did not," he said, stopping the human gently. He needed to leave immediately.
"It's just a routine procedure."
"I am well. Where are my clothes?" The gown he was wearing revealed too much for his liking.
"Sir, you were hit by a car and were tased afterwards. You really should lay down."
"I would like to leave now."
"Well, we can't keep you if you are insistent. I will give you privacy to dress."
Once the healer left, he rolled out of the bed, quickly dressing to find a way back home. Heimdall was unlikely to respond to him in his current state as an exile. His parents did not know that Midgard had progressed much since the time the Aesir were last on the planet.
He would not have known it either had Loki not informed him of his travels.
His mother would have found a way, but she must believe he is not in danger. Which only left his brother to help him, and he had no idea where he was.
He had to return to the location where the Bifrost had deposited him.
His musings stopped when he saw the female that had assaulted him with a strange weapon. Any other time, he would have made an issue out of it, but now, he had to avoid attention.
—
Sneaking out of the healing hall was all the more difficult since he could not read the language. Once he followed other Midgardians and left the building, he felt like cursing.
He had no idea where to go.
Tall structures as far as he could see with no idea where he might have landed. His only option was to ask the group that had brought him to the hall, but the idea soured his tongue.
He remembered Loki's words on seidr. It was a natural part of him, like another muscle. His father was mighty enough to strip that part off of him but not enough to transform him into a Midgardian.
He just had to rebuild that muscle or find a way to reclaim Mjolnir. Even if his powers had not been taken away, he could not summon it realms apart.
A plan formed in his mind. He had to be away from the Midgardians to call for Loki and hope his brother hears. If not, make a camp and survive until Loki discovers he was exiled. Making camp in this desolate biome was not easy, but he would make do.
He left the town, searching for shelter. All those days spent in the Tenth Realm's survival areas would come in handy. At least he hoped.
"I should stop hoping and start doing," he grumbled to himself.
As the sun set, he felt the temperature drop sharply. If he had his powers, it would not have affected him, but now, he was vulnerable to the elements. His choice of shelter was a hole in the ground. He checked the inside with a makeshift torch for venomous creatures. Closing the entrance with foliage to keep the cold out, he settled in for the night.
—
His hunger woke him up.
Crawling out of the hole, he dusted his clothes. The sun was rising, warming the air once more. He searched the area for water and anything he could hunt for food. There was no water in sight, but he saw an animal on the ground, running. It almost looked like a bird.
Choosing a sharp, flat stone, he launched it at where the bird would be. His aim proved correct, and the animal went down. It was small but would be enough for now.
He had to pluck and clean the animal with his bare hands. Cooking it over the rolling weeds he caught, Thor ate the tasteless meat.
Admittedly, he should have had better self-control, but his father could not handle the truth either.
Leaving the thought of Asgard aside, he decided to seek water. There was green foliage across the road paved with black stone. Taking his chances, he crossed it, finding a small puddle. He drank first and cleaned his hands second before washing his face.
Sated, he thought about what to do. Lost in thoughts, he barely heard a loud, ear-scratching sound, followed by something impacting him at great speeds. Just like the previous day. Getting to his feet with a snarl, Thor was about to give whomever it was a piece of his mind.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I swear I am not doing this on purpose," the Midgardian female said, her eyes wide.
The same Midgardian female who had struck him with her vehicle and taken him to the healing hall, along with her companions.
She was earnest in her apology, and his fury washed away. He sighed, rolled his left shoulder, and walked away.
"Wait, wait, please." She ran in front of him, raising her hands. "Can we talk? You came out of the Einstein Rosen Bridge, right?"
He considered keeping silent, but if his father did not want him to give clues to the Midgardians, he should have not sent him to this realm.
"If by an Einstein-Rosen bridge you mean the Bifrost, then yes," he said.
"Bifrost?" She froze for a second, trying to remember where she had heard the word from. "The one in the Scandinavian myths? Asgard, Odin, Thor, and all that?"
"I am that Thor."
The older male shook his head. "He is obviously out of his mind. We should take him back to the hospital."
"I am quite sane, Midgardian." Though, without any way to prove it, he knew coming across as mad was inevitable.
"Can you do magic?" the female wearing glasses asked, hand still on the weapon she had used on him.
"I can not. My father stripped me of my powers and banished me to this realm."
"You know what, why don't you be our guest? Consider it an apology for, you know, hitting you with our car. Twice," the redheaded female said, raising two fingers at the end.
"That is awfully trusting of you."
—
"So, Asgard is real," Jane said with a flat tone. He did not need to be wise to know she did not believe it.
She had immediately launched a series of queries as to the nature of his arrival on this world, and he was hard pressed to answer.
"Yes."
"And you were banished to Earth because you and your father had a fight?"
"Basically."
The other female, Darcy, snorted. "Why Earth, though?"
"I don't think he is aware this realm has developed so much." And Midgard was the only realm that did not know his status as a prince of Asgard.
"That sounds extremely irresponsible," Selvig said, rubbing his temples.
"Believe me, it is nothing compared to half the things he has done in the past."
"Like what?" Jane asked.
"Going on a conquest of the Nine Realms and beyond. Turning our sister into a bloodthirsty warrior bent on continuing where he left off. Hiding my brother's true parentage. Trying to gather six of the most devastating artifacts in the universe. And of course, his willingness to let Ragnarok happen rather than do something about Hela."
"Wait, Hela is your sister?" Darcy said, reading something off the device in her hand.
"Your beliefs concerning Asgard are extremely wrong. As my brother, Loki, explained it, the Midgardian seers ingested too many magical mushrooms. I heard some of it. The part concerning Sleipnir was especially amusing."
He had teased his brother so much that one day he had woken up with horse ears and a tail, courtesy of a very persistent spell.
"He is not your brother's, you know…" Darcy said, trying not to sound insulting.
"That horse is older than both of us combined."
The man, Erik Selvig, muttered something to the female, Jane, while the two kept glancing at him. He could guess what it was about. They had no reason to believe his claims. He must appear like a madman to them.
He squeezed his fist, focusing to draw out any sliver of seidr left in his body. It was akin to squeezing blood out of Uru ore. Yet, he succeeded.
A bolt of lightning, one that wouldn't kill anything larger than the bird he had hunted this morning, flew out of his hand, going through the open window. His hosts saw the bolt clearly, turning to him with wide eyes.
He felt something trickling down his nose.
His fingers came back bloody. His head ached and the world spun once more.
—
In the next chapter:
He came into existence in his room, tired. While he could never be physically tired unless his enormous reserves somehow ran out, the ordeal weighed heavily on his mind. He left the room to join the lunch. He had time traveled to three days after he had left just to not have to deal with Laufey.
With the TVA gone, everything should be fine now.
"Loki? You returned?!" Sif exclaimed, stopping her pacing.
"Yes, Sif, I have."
"Quick. You must convince the Allfather to lift Thor's exile."
He blinked, eyebrows rising to his forehead. "I am sorry, what?"
Curious about the next chapter? Please consider supporting me on Patreon.