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Chapter Text

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2016-05-06 - Leipzig, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB1013, AES0138, SGR0001

The standoff at the airport was broken by a simple word.

"Okay," Steve said.

With that, the tension shattered. Everyone relaxed slightly, as Steve raised his hands in a gesture that seemed to sit somewhere directly between surrender, placating, and all-but-commanding the opposing side to stand down.

"You want to talk, let's talk," he continued. "We've got a lead on the man who really  bombed the embassy, and he's planning to unleash one of HYDRA's old weapons if we don't catch up to him. If we work with you, Bucky gets a full fair  trial, under the explicit understanding that he was being controlled and brainwashed by HYDRA during the crimes he actually did commit. From what I've seen, Ross wants to use him as a scapegoat for all of this, and I will not  allow that. But if you think you can actually swing that, we've got a deal. I don't want to fight you."

The Black Panther shifted uncomfortably. "You have proof it wasn't him at the embassy?"

"Yes," Steve said with such confidence and finality that no one questioned it.

Tony nodded, and stepped forward, holding his hand out. "Deal, even if I have to figure out how to personally throw Ross out on his ass. Always kind of wanted to, anyway."

Steve nodded firmly, and they shook hands.

Then, with a strange screeching noise, two glowing orange rectangular holes in reality appeared, and a small platoon of armoured people stepped out.

The woman in charge spoke, "Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, you are under arrest for crimes against the sacred timeline."

Tony and Steve exchanged the briefest look, clearly conveying neither one had a clue who these people were. Stark's helmet closed back up, and Steve pulled his shield off his back.

A bullet landed in the woman's shoulder, and Barnes launched himself at the rest of the armoured thugs. The other Avengers were too far away to interfere, as something seemed to slow down time itself... it couldn't even pretend to be a fair fight, the three of them were all taken out in a moment.

---

"I thought it was just the two of us who were under arrest?" Stark muttered, glancing at Barnes who was in the room with them. The three of them had simply been shoved in here, and told to 'take a ticket'.

Steve obediently did so, giving the people in charge a vicious glare all along. Barnes had yet to move, and Tony was debating the merits of trying to play along to screw the obvious-bureaucrats over later.

"Assaulting a TVA officer is also a crime," the woman who had arrested them told them coldly.

"Come on, Bucky, this is obviously some sort of misunderstanding," Steve said. "It can't be worse than the Accords, right?"

"Never say it can't be worse," Tony grumbled, taking his ticket, as well.

With obvious reluctance, Bucky did the same.

---

"Variants JBB1013, AES0138, and SGR0001, you stand accused of crimes against the sacred timeline. How do you plead?"

"Wait, where are you getting those numbers from?" Tony asked, perhaps hoping to throw the judge off her game.

If that was his plan, it didn't work. The judge merely rolled her eyes, and sighed dramatically, as if this was a very common question. "Variant codes are designated based on your place in the sacred timeline, in relation to other variants of your identity."

"And in English, that means...?" Steve asked coldly.

"It means, you are the first iteration of yourself to deviate from the sacred timeline, Captain," the judge informed him. "On the other hand, this is the one-hundred and thirty-eighth time Mr Stark has generated a variant like this, and the one-thousand and thirteenth time for Sergeant Barnes. Mr Barnes is our third-highest repeat offender."

Bucky decided to look smug about that. Steve was still a bit baffled by the whole thing.

"And what exactly is  this 'sacred timeline'?" Tony asked.

"You saw the video," the judge told him coldly. "It's the timeline maintained by the TVA to prevent another multiversal war."

"And how did we commit a crime against it?" Tony persisted.

The judge glanced away for a moment, and when she answered Steve got the feeling she was only telling the least important part of the truth. "Your actions today were not in line with the dictations of the Time Keepers. Had the branch been allowed to continue, it would have led to unacceptable consequences."

"So..." Bucky said, derision and dislike obvious in his tone. "Someone else gets to tell us what we should and should not do?"

"It's the only way to avoid another multiversal war."

Steve shook his head. "If your 'sacred timeline' is all about denying people free will, how is this my first time here?"

"Because the sacred timeline decrees that you always take action for what is right," the judge told him, "And that is a calling that you never seemed to want to ignore before."

"So why now?" Steve asked. So far as he was concerned, everything he had done today had been the right thing.

"You wanted us to fight," Tony said suddenly. "Only thing that makes sense. Felt like everything  wanted us to end in a fight today, maybe it was these assholes' sick idea of fate?"

"They want a fight, I'm happy to oblige," Bucky growled, but when he lunged at the nearest guard he found himself back where he started again before he could reach them. This had been happening to him ever since they had been captured, but it hadn't stopped him from trying.

"Enough of this," the judge demanded. "How do you plead?"

"If it's a crime to de-escalate a fight against my own friends and allies, then I guess I'm guilty," Steve declared, defiantly.

"This whole thing is bullshit," Bucky snapped angrily.

Tony scowled deeply. "Why even have a trial?" he asked. "Why not just murder us, the way you claim to have done to the whole other parallel reality our choice today created?"

Steve's eyes widened as he turned sharply to stare at Tony in shock. He didn't fully understand the whole 'timeline' thing, but if Tony's words were true...

"Fine," the judge declared. "I sentence the three of you to be pruned from the timeline."

After that, everything happened so quickly. Three guards stepped up behind them - Steve only saw it coming because he was already staring at Tony. At the same instant he felt something strike him from behind, he saw the same happen to Tony... and the way his body seemed to disintegrate.

The last thing he thought was that he had fought tyrants and monsters, but he hadn't realised what true evil was before today.

---

Chapter Text

---

1945-04-01 - Siberia, Earth
Nexus Event: L0456, JBB0042

Bucky had not expected to survive the fall from the train. He was sadly unsurprised to find himself captured by goddamned HYDRA again, when he did, though.

He was unsure how much time had passed since they found him. It was all a blur of pain and confusion. They kept telling him Steve was dead, HYDRA won the War, he was going to serve them.

All lies... because they had to be.

But this time, when he woke in the operating room again, it was to see a new face peering curiously at him... and just when he'd been getting to know the same ugly bastards and how to piss each one off personally.

"Who are you?" the man asked. He really didn't look like he belonged, here. There was something refined about him. If Bucky was being fanciful, he might compare the man's features to how he pictured the elves when he read the Hobbit. The others here were brutish thugs or slimy scientists.

This man was in charge - perhaps not even of HYDRA, but definitely of something. It was totally incongruous that someone like him would be dressed like an average guard from this facility.

"Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, three two five five seven zero three eight."

"Ah, a prisoner," the man said, frowning as if confused. "Not what I expected," he muttered, before beginning to examine the rest of the room. He looked in cupboards and under tables, as if searching for something small but highly valuable. He seemed uninterested in Bucky, now.

That stumped Bucky a little, but he just glared defiantly at the man. Wasn't much else he could do, strapped down like he was.

"I don't work here, if it helps," the man offered, pausing his search briefly, amusement filtering into his tone. "I was looking for something these people, this... 'HYDRA'... stole from my people. I thought I would find it here, but it seems I was misled."

It wouldn't be the first time HYDRA tried to trick him, but he couldn't just reject the chance that this was real. "What're you looking for?"

"An ancient relic, one HYDRA would consider a power source or a weapon," the man answered, casual as you please. "It belongs to my father."

Bucky frowned at that. "You're kidding, right?"

"Often, but not at the moment," the man replied, shooting a brief flicker of a smile his way.

"The only ancient relic- power source- weapon that HYDRA had was that cube," Bucky told him. It wouldn't be news to HYDRA so there was no harm sharing it if it was a trick, but on the other hand if this was real the guy might be able to hurt HYDRA if he knew more. "I don't know what happened to it, but I can't imagine you've got a claim on it."

The man chuckled, and turned his attention now fully to Bucky, seemingly thoughtful. "I am not of this world. Approximately a thousand years ago, my father and his armies came to this world to defend it against one of our own old enemies. The people then were suitably respectful, to my father's liking - being mistaken for a god couldn't have hurt his ego, he's been using the honorifics and titles your people gave him ever since - so a few centuries later he entrusted them with concealing one of his most prized relics. Then, a few years ago, HYDRA took it."

Bucky snorted. "I really don't think this is the sort of tall tale HYDRA would make up to mess with me. But I can't quite believe it, either."

The man shrugged. "Believe what you will, it makes little difference to me."

The man made to leave, and Bucky called after him, "Hey, if you're telling the truth and want to spite HYDRA... even if I don't know where the cube is, I'm happy to help you, uh, wreak vengeance, or whatever."

The man chuckled darkly. "Oh, now that does sound like fun." He moved over to Bucky's side, and began unfastening the straps across his chest. "As I understand it," the man said, as he worked, "I followed a trail of evidence to find 'HYDRA's greatest weapon'. Instead of the cube, it led me to you."

"That creep Zola keeps telling me I'm going to serve them, but I'd sooner die," Bucky declared, sitting up as the last strap came undone.

His shoulder still hurt from the surgeries where they'd removed the damaged remnants of his arm, but his right side was still good and he was fairly sure either a handgun or a knife would be enough for him to at least do some damage.

"Don't suppose you'd tell me your name?" Bucky asked idly, as he glanced around the room for a good weapon. All he could see was a scalpel, and while it was likely sharp he'd prefer something more substantial.

"Loki," the man answered, handing him a dagger.

It was a beautifully made weapon; long slightly-curved blade with a dull-gold engraved handle and so sharp that it sang when he moved it through the air.

He looked up and nodded, "Nice to meet you, Loki. You can call me Bucky."

---

Loki was in the height of battle focus, when they appeared.

A real threat amidst the weak mortals that ran this forsaken pit of a fortress. He had taken the time to prepare for this infiltration, learning the ways of his prey, so as not to be spotted sneaking around until he wished to be. So he knew these were not from here.

It was a matter of a moment's thought to conjure daggers at their backs and summon the blades towards him so as to impale the five out-of-place soldiers.

He heard the prisoner - Bucky - let out a low whistle at the feat. "Nice trick," he said. It sounded sincere, so very unlike his Asgardian shield-brothers who would criticise the fact he had used a trick, instead of complimenting its effectiveness thus.

"These are not HYDRA," Loki informed him.

"Yeah, they don't look it," Bucky agreed, staying a few steps behind Loki as they both approached the dead soldiers, both still at the ready for another surprise attack. For a man with only one arm, Bucky had fought very well thus far, during their path of destruction through this place.

Loki admired that; he may be mortal but he was good  for a mortal.

Loki knelt down and examined the one unmasked soldier. He had technology beyond this world, and Loki quickly claimed it all for himself. Some of it was obvious: a collar, presumably to restrain prisoners, and a small datapad of some kind. All five of them had baton-like weapons, a deadly spike at one end, an energy-lance of some sort on the other.

He noticed Bucky slide the dagger into his belt, and pick up one of the other batons, examining it thoughtfully. "Okay, I'm beginning to buy the not-of-this-world story a bit more, now."

Loki smirked, standing and examining the datapad. He read aloud as information appeared on the screen. "This man was called Hunter R-89, and he worked for something called the... Time Variance Authority. Hmm, I don't understand all the terminology, but it seems they were hunting someone for... 'crimes against the sacred timeline' here."

"They were coming right for us," Bucky pointed out. "Because believe me, if they'd been going after HYDRA I'd have been cheering them on."

Loki felt his lip twitch upwards involuntarily, yet still he frowned at the datapad. "This details their operating procedure... it appears the 'crime' was to create a branching timeline... and their solution is to destroy it."

"Meaning...?" Bucky asked, tone dubious once more. He seemed to flicker very quickly between deep distrust and 'yeah, sure whatever, I'm game'. Loki found himself liking the duality of it, even if it could get frustrating. It felt familiar.

"Meaning, there is backup on the way." Loki frowned. Bucky may be a mere mortal, but Loki was able to understand the consequences of messing around with time. These people were intent on 'pruning' this timeline... and if they were here when it happened, they would be destroyed with it. "We need to go."

Loki used the datapad to conjure a gateway - his only thought at this point was to return home where he would feel safe - and shoved Bucky through it, before following swiftly.

---

Bucky stumbled out of the glowing orange doorway, into a breathtakingly beautiful  garden in what looked like a classic fairy-tale-style stone courtyard. He glanced back to see Loki follow him through the door, and the door disappeared. "This is getting crazy. But hey, I prefer it to the torture, so I'm not complaining."

Loki chuckled faintly at that. "Welcome to Asgard. Don't get used to it; mortals aren't normally allowed."

Just then, a woman in a gorgeous flowing golden dress - and the woman was gorgeous, too, with long golden hair in elaborate curls and a face like a porcelain goddess - stepped around the corner. Her gaze fell on Loki, and her eyes went wide with... horror.

"Loki, my baby, what have you done?! " she all-but cried, swooping elegantly across the courtyard, before cupping Loki's face and staring deep into his eyes as if reading his very soul. Suddenly, she drew back, taking a deep breath to compose herself. "I'm sorry, Loki. I'm so sorry."

"Mother?" he asked, sounding for the first time since Bucky had met him... weak. Small.

"I will give you what aid I can, my son, but- what you have done, I cannot fix."

Like flipping a switch, Loki went from confusion to anger at that. "And what, exactly, have I done?" he demanded.

"You crossed the TVA," she said sadly. "They will come for us, now. By being here, you create a branch in their precious timeline, and they will come to cut it."

"Why have I never heard of this 'TVA' before?" Loki demanded.

"It is the curse of my visions that I only see certain terrible things when it is already too late to prevent them," she admitted. "I often saw glimpses of a future where you suffered, and I long sought a way to avoid it... but now I understand why I could not. Now I see in you a very different future, and I am sorry but after this you must never return to Asgard."

"Why not?" Loki demanded.

"There are few places to hide, now, Loki," she said gently. "This is not one of them. Come, we have little time. I will arrange supplies for you both."

---

Loki was baffled by the change that had come upon his mother, when she saw whatever vision it was she saw in him. She was no longer soft and kind, she was a force of nature's wrath, as she swept through Asgard's forges and armouries, commanding immediate  fulfilment of her requests, all else be damned.

No one dared question her, as she had unadorned armour customised to fit for both Loki and Bucky; magic employed to speed the work a hundredfold, damn the taboo, damn the expense. They were given swords, daggers, and even a crystal-powered sniper's rifle - not a type of weapon common on Asgard; it had been a trophy, she simply lifted it down from a wall and handed it over to them. Food enough for months, spare clothes and blankets, all thrust upon Loki with that expectant look that he store it away in his dimensional pocket for safekeeping.

"I would have the smiths make you a new arm, had we the time," she told Bucky sympathetically. "This is all I can do for you both."

"I still don't understand, mother," Loki protested.

"I doubt you do," she said sadly. "Nothing remains unstoppable forever, even outside of time. I cannot see everything that awaits you, but if you keep safe, keep hidden, you may outlast them. It is your best chance. I can say no more than that."

"Thank you, Mother," Loki said, his heart breaking at the realisation that this was the last time he would see her. His pride warred with the sentiment, and sentiment won. He hugged her with all he had.

When they finally broke apart, she turned to Bucky. "The best places to hide are where either nothing or everything is happening. Solitude or worlds' end. Keep my son safe."

Loki frowned slightly at that last, but Bucky nodded solemnly. "I'll do my best, but as he keeps telling me, I'm only mortal."

She laughed faintly through her tears, and nodded. "Sometimes that helps. Now go."

Loki hesitated a moment, and it was long enough to see those orange doors open at the end of the hall. His mother turned to face the TVA soldiers as they arrived, and with a gesture of her hand and a wave of magic she ripped the roof down upon their heads. "I can only delay them, my son. I said go ."

Loki seized Bucky's arm, and activated the datapad to open his own door.

"I love you, Mother," he called back.

"And I you. For all time. Always."

---

Chapter Text

---

2015-05-06 - Novigrad Sokovia, Earth
Nexus Event: PDM0002

Hunting an enhanced variant wasn't usually a challenge. Under all but the most exceptional circumstances, only the element of surprise could truly take out a fully-equipped, well-trained team of Minutemen.

But this one was always going to be an exception. Such an exception, in fact, that the TVA had gone to extreme lengths to ensure this moment's success. Hunter P-1 was unique. Like all TVA agents, he was created by the Time Keepers, but unlike the others he had been made specifically for this one mission. It was the only way to be sure they would stop this nexus event.

Oh, he would still have a place in the TVA once the mission was complete, but he had always known his true purpose was to be his first mission.

He was a perfect match for his target. So perfect, he had to be made in his image.

The only difference between the two, on a practical level, was that P-1 had been trained intensively in TVA protocols, tactics, tools and weapons, as well as hand-to-hand combat, while the target had not. Physically, they were identical - it had been the only way for any agent to compete with the target's abilities.

Yet, in spite of all his training, when he stepped out of the portal into the city, he paused. The battle, the destruction, the... the city, these streets, they felt...

But then he sighted his target, and focused on his mission. "Pietro Maximoff, you are under arrest for crimes against the sacred timeline."

"What the hell?" the target asked, shocked. It was understandable. They both may as well be looking in a mirror. The difference was, P-1 was prepared for it.

"You have deviated from the path dictated for the sacred timeline," P-1 informed him. "You were meant to die in battle today."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but these guys are really  slow," Pietro taunted, waving at one of the robots that was swooping around. "I'd almost have to try  to get hit."

P-1 noticed. Of course he did. He had never really planned on confronting his target at normal  speeds. The were both moving faster than any normal eye was capable of perceiving. Even his own Minutemen had yet to step through the portal.

"We cannot allow your powers to influence future events, your death today is the only way to ensure that," P-1 explained. "I'm sorry, this is just the way it has to be. So far as the timeline is concerned, you already died saving Clint Barton from a hail of bullets."

"No," the target said, as if imagining P-1 was particularly unintelligent. "I pulled him away from a hail of bullets. Would be pretty stupid to jump into the line of fire when there's other options, don't you think?"

"Your choice to take that action, instead of the one dictated by the sacred timeline, is the crime you are being arrested for, here. This new timeline will be pruned to protect the true timeline."

The target shook his head. "You're crazy. What, are you some parallel-reality version of me? Did HYDRA do the brainwashing thing, like Captain America told me they would?"

"I'm not you, I'm a copy of you created by the TVA to be capable of bringing you in," P-1 answered him.

"TVA?" the target asked. They always ask, or so he'd been told.

"The Time Variance Authority," P-1 answered. "It's our job to ensure the security of the sacred timeline."

The target wrinkled his nose in some degree of disgust. "What exactly makes it sacred?"

P-1 shrugged at that question. He had never gotten an answer to it before, either. "That's just what we call it. It's the only timeline, and our job is to keep it that way, to prevent the multiversal war from reoccurring."

The target tilted his head to the side for a moment, before shaking it as if dismissing whatever he'd been about to ask. "Yep. Crazy. Look, ask nice, maybe I'll not speed when you want me not to speed... but I am not jumping in front of bullets for your cult."

P-1 sighed. "I'm sorry, Pietro," he said sadly. "That's not how this works."

The target tried to run, but P-1 was ready, and he lunged into the target's path. The baton couldn't slow someone like them to normal  speeds, but the strike did give P-1 enough time to get the collar around the target's neck... and that could  keep him in a state where they could control him.

As they both slowed down together, the rest of P-1's team finally arrived. "Got him," he declared, dragging the target back to the portal.

---

The Void

Tony woke up to find a standoff looming over him. A man had his back to Tony, and a freakin' kid  was threatening the man with a knife.

"These are ours. Come on, please back off," the man was saying. Tony swore he recognised the voice, and he focused on the man carefully - shock-white hair, athletic jumpsuit... Sokovian accent.

"Pietro?" Tony asked.

The man turned on him. "Stark." Yes, it was Pietro Maximoff. He flashed a cold grin at Tony, then turned back to the kid. "See? Ours."

Tony focused on the kid now, and frowned as he recognised the theme of green with golden horns. The kid shrugged, eyes darting off to the side, before he disappeared in a flash of green light.

Tony glanced to the side where the kid had looked, and saw two men sprinting flat-out towards them. "Come with me if you want to live," Peitro said, holding his hand out to Tony.

Tony didn't even comment on the obvious quote, just accepted the offer.

---

2011-10-05 - New York, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB1010

The Asset was making his way back to base, after a successful mission, when he happened to walk past an alleyway, and for some reason he stopped. Something about it felt familiar.

Had he been in a fight there, before? Yes. Yes, he had.

It was like opening a floodgate, everything came back at once... agonising reality, after so long detached from it all.

That was one of dozens  of alleyways he had found Steve getting beaten up in.

It only took a moment's thought to decide what to do next. It was late, but not too late. There were still people out and about. He removed his mask, hailed a cab, and threw his gear in the back seat.

HYDRA had long ago begun to trust him with money, for emergencies - if he was ever separated from them, he was supposed to use the most covert means to return to the main base in Washington... including avoiding unnecessary law-breaking (legally purchasing supplies) and public transportation. He gave a hundred dollars to the driver, and gave him an address on the far side of town from the HYDRA base he was supposed to go to.

"Just leave the bags on the doorstep, my friend will pick them up. Thanks."

The driver eyed him like he was a criminal, which to be fair was accurate. He figured the man was just as likely to dump the bags in the nearest trash once he thought he was far enough for it not to be noticed... but he didn't care. Either way, the tracking devices in there were going to start moving away from his true destination, even if the driver didn't do as he asked.

He headed in a direction closer to the temporary HYDRA base he had been sent out from that afternoon, rather than directly away from either there or the false lead he had planted - they would expect someone running from them to move away from both - and laid low for the next couple of days in an abandoned apartment.

He found an old radio that was easy to repair, and spent his time listening in on as much classified chatter as he could find.

That was when he heard it.

A SHIELD agent calling in on an unscrambled channel. "You're going to want to see this, Director. We've found Captain America, and he's still alive."

---

His name was James Buchanan Barnes. His friends called him Bucky. Steve  called him Bucky.

Steve was alive.

He didn't know how that was possible, but he didn't care. He was going to find him.

SHIELD brought Steve to New York.

Bucky easily followed the incredibly obvious trail their agents left, and discovered that they had set him up in an apartment in Brooklyn. It was a nice apartment.

Bucky wanted to contact Steve, but he wasn't sure if he should. What if HYDRA were expecting it?

So he bided his time. Kept an eye on his friend from afar.

He waited for months, before deciding to take action.

When he was ready, he took the time to carefully check the perimeter, and spotted the HYDRA agents watching Steve's apartment. He waited until Steve went out for his morning run to make contact.

It wasn't really fair on Steve to say he looked like he'd seen a ghost. It was too close to true.

Bucky just walked right up to him, in the secluded spot he had staked out for this meeting, and hugged him. Steve didn't argue, but he did ask, "I don't understand, I thought you were dead?"

"A few times I wished I was, but it'll be okay now," Bucky replied, leaning back to get a better look at Steve. He hadn't aged a day, the lucky punk. "We have to go, I've got everything prepared. We need to get out of here before they find us."

"Who?" Steve asked.

"SHIELD. They're just a pretty face; HYDRA never died, they just got sneakier. Used the good things our friends built to cover up their own evil schemes. Come on, I'll tell you everything, once we're safe."

But then, before Steve could think of an answer to that, a glowing orange door appeared right next to them.

---

2012-01-30 - New York, Earth
The Sacred Timeline

"Fuck, that was close," Agent Rumlow muttered, as his team dragged the Asset away.

"Too close," Rollins agreed.

"Those techs better make sure to wipe him properly, every time , from now on," Rumlow grumbled. "Let him think for five minutes, and this shit happens. It's almost like clockwork."

The Asset had approached Rogers' apartment, intent on making contact. Bastard had clearly remembered everything; it showed in the way he'd vandalised the metal arm.

They were lucky he hadn't seen them before they saw him. That would have been a disaster.

---

The Void

Steve woke up to find Bucky leaning over him. "Come on, Stevie, get up. We don't have much time."

Steve complied, but was shocked to see another two Buckys  next to him as he stood. It seemed one was helping the other to stand, as well. All three wore those TVA-issues outfits, like Steve and Tony and the real Bucky had. Steve wasn't sure if any of these three were the real Bucky or not, now... but he would guess it might be the one being helped to stand up, just now.

But then Steve looked up and saw why they 'don't have much time'. He wasn't sure if it was a sandstorm or some sort of monstrous creature in the storm. It acted like both... and it was moving this way.

"We'll explain everything when we're away from the storm," the Bucky who had been helping the other  Bucky stand said, grabbing his other-self's arm and all-but dragging him away from the storm.

"Basically... run," the Bucky who had woken Steve commanded.

The four of them reached a shelter, and slipped inside seconds before the storm would have hit them.

"Welcome," the Bucky who had spoken to Steve when he first got here said, gesturing around the large, crowded atrium. "To the end of the line."

---

Chapter Text

---

When Loki dragged him through the doorway, away from Asgard, Bucky found himself in an small sheltered area, overshadowed by a steep cliff, and overlooking a vast grassy plain. Everything here was a shade of grey or grey-blue; the grass was the boldest colour in the place, and it was sort of a dusty cyan. The sky was pale, the light of the sun distant and cool, even though it appeared clear.

It didn't feel like any place on Earth.

"Where are we?"

"An uninhabited planet," Loki answered curtly. He sounded almost bitter. "One which will never  be inhabited. Besides, it seems, by us. It was never given a name - only worlds people care about get names - but I understand your people call its location, as viewed in your sky, 'the big dipper'. This world was destroyed a few centuries before you were born; I used the TVA portal to bring us back to a time when its air was safe for even your race to breathe. A few million years."

"So they shouldn't find us here, because there's nothing historical for us to mess with," Bucky concluded, more than a little shaken at the idea of being a few million years  in the past. "Like your mom said."

Loki nodded slowly, and walked away from Bucky, towards the centre of the sheltered area. "Try not to wander off. The grass looks toxic, and simply because no other sentient being has visited this place, that does not guarantee it lacks wildlife."

Bucky decided that, while he would abide by that suggestion, the threat of wildlife meant he would need to scout a perimeter around their intended campsite. He found a path up the cliff nearby, and made it all the way up to the top. From there, he still saw nothing moving except the wind in the grass down on the plains.

It was tranquil, but eerily so.

He watched from his vantage point, as Loki used 'magic' to set up camp. Instead of stooping to manual labour, he simply conjured their supplies, already fully set up, where they were needed. Useful skill, even if a part of Bucky's mind really wanted to figure out how it was done instead of just accepting 'magic' at face value.

Sure, he liked the idea  of magic... in fiction.

In reality, it unnerved him slightly. If one person, even an ally, could just bend or break the laws of physics... then so could an enemy.

He stared out across the plains, letting his mind wander over the last few years.

Drafted into the war. Captured, tortured, rescued, fighting, falling, captured and tortured again. Now this.

Everything of his life before it all was beyond his reach, now.

This place, and Loki, were all he had for the foreseeable future.

It was better than HYDRA, but that didn't mean it was enough.

"I see you found the best view," Loki's voice dragged him out of his musings, and he wasn't sure how long it had been. The sun - pale and cold as it was here - had moved in the sky, but it was still daylight so far as he could tell.

"I guess," he said, still feeling a million miles - and years - away.

After a long pause, Loki spoke again. "We will likely have no company, save one-another, for some time. If you wish to discuss your thoughts?"

"That's kind of what I was thinking about," Bucky admitted, with a sigh. "I had friends, a life, before the War. I always liked to imagine I'd go back to it eventually. I guess I also kind of always knew that wasn't so likely. Not that this  was anything I could have anticipated."

Loki chuckled bitterly. "I don't like most people... but I dislike isolation from them even more. I don't think I would call anyone I have known a friend, but the prospect of living alone like this is not appealing."

"Well, you're not alone," Bucky said, glancing over at him. "This place is better than HYDRA, for me. I hope I'm better than no one."

Loki smiled weakly, his gaze fixed out upon the horizon. "For a few decades, at least."

Bucky frowned, confused by that. "What d'you mean?"

"My people live, on average, five or six thousand years, and I am still young," Loki answered. "Yours are considered fortunate to last a century."

"Oh..." Now he understood.

Loki expected this exile to last far longer than Bucky would, even if he had a long and healthy life from here on out... and he was already preparing himself for it.

---

They named the planet Solitude.

It felt fitting. Bucky had jokingly suggested 'Solitary', as in 'solitary confinement', but Loki had insisted on the sentiment of using his mother's choice of words, instead. Bucky didn't argue - his suggestion hadn't been serious, anyway, and Loki seemed to understand that.

There was, it turned out, no native fauna that they could find - and the plantlife was indeed toxic - but the supplies from Asgard were plentiful, and Loki's magic kept them fresh.

They had been there for six day-night cycles of this world - though Bucky was convinced this world's days were longer than Earth's - when Loki announced, "We need to go somewhere else."

"Well, that was inevitable," Bucky agreed.

"I want more information. I propose we visit a library."

Bucky chuckled faintly at the idea. "Okay, but why?"

"The datapad I took from the TVA enforcer tells a great deal about their procedures and methods. It is also capable of identifying when time is deviating from their desired course - you'll be happy to know, we are indeed untraceable here - but it tells me nothing about exactly what  their desired course of history looks like. I chose this planet because I knew of it, but we cannot live here indefinitely without a way to replenish our supplies. We need places we can go, to safely trade or steal what we need."

Bucky nodded slowly. "Makes sense."

"Safe deserted places, by definition, won't have what we need because nobody lives there," Loki continued. "We need to try the second option."

"Disaster zones, where everything's going to be wiped out," Bucky concluded. "No survivors to witness our presence."

Loki nodded in agreement. "Precisely."

"And we need a library, to find the exact dates and detailed reports of those disasters," Bucky concluded.

"Unfortunately, I only know of two libraries," Loki told him. "Asgard and Alfheim. Mother told us never to return to Asgard... and Alfheim is a world that treasures knowledge so greatly its grand library is never deserted."

"New York's public library is closed from six at night to ten in the morning... and Sundays," Bucky said. "I know the place well. I'm sure we can find somewhere on Earth to get supplies, from there."

Loki nodded. "Very well, we shall go to New York. But do not be tempted to venture outside; we must not be seen."

---

The library was just as Bucky remembered it, though Loki had brought them to a later date.

"I used the spatial coordinates you gave me, to track the point of least variance in the timeline, at that location," he explained.

Glancing out the window, Bucky saw a beautiful sunset over an eerily quiet street.

The library had changed a bit. At the front desk, instead of a notice board was a dimly glowing screen, like something out of a sci-fi novel. Posters on the walls were both cleaner and bolder than he was used to.

Yet the stacks and the books were still familiar.

He led Loki to the history section, and went directly for the one disaster he'd read about for himself. Pompeii. From what he could recall, it had been a great cultural meeting place of its time, and should have a good variety of food and supplies.

Loki picked out a few other history books, and instead of taking  any of them, he used his magic to duplicate them, and kept only the copies, carefully placing each original book back where they had found it.

"I love this place," Bucky said quietly. "What year is it?"

"Twenty-twelve, by your calendar," Loki answered. "May sixth, to be precise."

Bucky nodded idly - the date meant nothing to him, beyond 'somewhere in the future' - and wandered over to the fiction section. Loki followed him closely. "It's strangely quiet outside. Normally you'd see people in the streets at this hour."

"Perhaps the patterns have changed? A curfew, or a significant event they would prefer to attend? Perhaps that is why the variance is lowest now?"

"Maybe," Bucky conceded. His fingertips danced over bolder-than-he-remembered spines of hard-cover books, and stopped when he recognised a familiar title.

The Hobbit. "Can you copy this, for me?"

"Of course," Loki agreed readily.

Then Bucky's gaze drifted along to another work by the same author. Three thick books, collectively titled The Lord of the Rings. The cover of the first showed Gandalf, he thought. Sequels? "And these."

"You know I am only obliging these whims of yours because I too require distraction from the monotony of Solitude. I hope you have good taste in stories."

Upon hearing that, Bucky flashed him a grin, and moved along to pick out several more books he found familiar. Not all were to his personal taste, but he thought from what little he knew of Loki, that the other man might like them. Then he made his way to the newer releases - relatively speaking - and skimmed over the summaries there, as well, before picking out several that caught his interest.

"Ought to keep us occupied for a few hours," he muttered, as Loki copied the last of the Discworld series and put it away in his magical hiding place.

Loki chuckled at that. "You aren't completely useless, it seems."

"You're not so bad, yourself."

---

Bucky was quiet company, and a good cook. Two traits Loki realised he had never before befriended in his life... and they were both appreciated. Oh, they still spoke, but only of essential matters; plans to survive or improve their situation, one ensuring the other had what they needed to maintain good health and peak performance, learning each other's preferences so as not to offend.

Both, it turned out, were well-versed in warfare and capable of menial work when necessary, but preferred intellectual pursuits. Both were capable of enduring mean rations, but had more refined tastes.

Bucky also did, indeed, have good taste in stories.

They spent their time between the simple tasks to make their life here more comfortable (Bucky started planning to build a small house to replace their campsite, and Loki aided where he could but did not know that particular craft well; had Loki been alone, he would have simply used magic for construction, but even he acknowledged that magical constructs are never as reliable as true craftsmanship), researching historical disasters on Midgard in preparation of their first supply run, and reading simply for the pleasure of it.

Another thing few on Asgard ever valued, yet this mortal man did.

Bucky told him the Hobbit was one his favourites, so Loki chose to read it first. It would tell him something more about the man, to understand the fantasies he found appealing.

"Real elves have much the same attitude," he explained. "Isolationist, overly haughty in their intellectual superiority, and fair of features. Well, those elves that still lived in my time. In this time, the dark elves are not yet extinct."

"Tell me about them?" Bucky asked, and his curiosity sounded sincere.

So Loki did. Both his own first-hand experiences of meeting Ljosalfar, and the old stories he had heard about the Svartalfar. He compared and contrasted them, and the dwarves of Nidavellir, to Midgardian stories' interpretations. He also promised that next time they visited the library they would get books on the lies Midgardian myth told about himself and his family... clarifying of course that they were lies, and only worth reading for the entertainment value of it.

Bucky equally promised to find books - 'comic books', whatever those were - that told tall tales about himself, in retaliation.

Bucky told him about other mythology he'd read. The Greek and Egyptian myths - he only knew the rough outlines, but what he could recall were entertaining enough fictions. They agreed to look for those books as well.

Very few people had held such deep and enjoyable conversations with Loki before. It soon became habit for them to discuss the books they had both read, for the simple joy of sharing the story with another, and comparing their interpretations.

Loki could imagine himself living comfortably like this, for the foreseeable future. It seemed he had found a rare diamond amidst the dirt of Midgard.

And it hurt to know this wouldn't last.

---

Pompeii perfectly toed the line between success and disaster.

The actual destruction of the city took place over a course of two days, during which those who were wise enough to flee in time had already done so during the first day.

Loki and Bucky arrived early on the second day, and found people just setting up their shops as normal, ignoring the ash in the air falling like snow, and the blackened sky lined with red, in the manner one might mere poor weather. They sheltered when it seemed bad, but failed to see the true danger of it, even when larger stones fell from the sky. They thought it would pass them over, if they simply waited it out.

They didn't know, or didn't believe, that the second wave - the heavy rush of gasses and heat from a second eruption, the real threat of the volcano - would soon begin rushing down the mountainside towards them, and no one would survive that.

"Didn't these people believe in a whole pantheon?" Bucky asked, past a simple cloth mask he wore to protect his lungs from the growing amount of dust in the air. Loki, who had no need of such protection, nodded. "Did none of them think one of those gods might be smiting their town, to make the sky look like that?"

"Those who did likely fled," Loki answered with an idle shrug. "People will believe what makes them feel safest, even if it endangers them. What makes many people feel safe is often the familiar routine of their lives."

They acquired all the supplies they needed, including building materials and tools. Loki traded tangible illusions of gold for all the provisions they could carry out of the traders' line of sight... and then promptly squirrelled it all away into his dimensional pocket before finding a new trader to deal with.

Loki relished the game of bartering with experienced dealers, and Bucky clearly enjoyed the scenery and chance to be around other mortals even if he could not speak their language.

Once all the goods were acquired, they visited a bathhouse, and then bought cooked food from a street vendor and ate together under a shade - normally intended to block sun, yet today it helped keep the falling ash at bay instead - watching the people milling around them. It was bitter-sweet, to see such perseverance, and wilful illusion of normality... in the face of something so utterly unstoppable.

The final seal on Pompeii's fate was recorded in history to reach the city walls shortly before midday. The pair were prepared to leave an hour before it.

All in all, Loki felt it was an enjoyable outing... even if, though Loki would never admit it, they both felt slightly guilty that they couldn't help any of these people.

But then, as they had been making their way to a secluded location to portal away, they spotted another version of Loki himself.

Loki, who had never been to Pompeii before, assumed he was out of his rightful time just as they were, and made to approach him... but Bucky pulled him back at the last second. "Read the room," he hissed in Loki's ear.

Loki looked more closely, and realised this other Loki was wearing an anachronistic jacket with the TVA logo emblazoned on it, and he was arguing with another man.

"Oh, Mobius, you make even the end of the world sound boring!" while all the emphasis of a yell was behind the words, they were still a hushed whisper, and even Loki had to strain to overhear his other-self speak.

"Listen!" the other man - Mobius, presumably - whispered right back. "We're not meant to be here. Anything we do can impact the course of history. Do you get that?"

"Yes," the other Loki said. The word itself wasn't a lie, but the placating tone certainly was.

"So we're going to start with very small disturbances," Mobius explained.

The conversation descended into even softer whispers, that Loki couldn't follow, for a moment... until the other Loki got bored and ran over to a nearby cart, chased the animals out of it, and stood up upon said cart, as a vantage point to start raving about the imminent volcanic eruption.

Mobius looked on in blatant shock, until the volcano did in fact unleash the second, deadlier wave, just as history had recorded. Unlike the ash cloud of the first, which had covered the sky the previous day, this wave stayed low to the ground, and visibly rushed down the mountainside towards them at great speed.

People did, finally, begin to panic.

The other Loki sauntered cheerfully over to Mobius, asking, "How did we do?"

"I don't believe it. Zero variance energy," Mobius replied, stunned. "No branching in the timeline."

"The TVA would never even know we were here," the other Loki declared, proud of himself. "If it were me, this is where I would hide."

Mobius nodded, agreeing. Then glanced up at the approaching wave of fiery death, and opened a portal for the two to leave.

Loki knew they had only minutes to get away, now... so instead of discussing this new information there, he opened their own portal back to Solitude.

"I would never..." Loki all but snarled, indignant at what they had just witnessed, as they returned to the campsite.

"Well, obviously..." Bucky retorted, with a hand-gesture back towards where they had portalled in. He didn't finish the sentence, but its continuation was clear: well, obviously some version of you did.

"Perhaps it's a long game, to undermine them?" Loki asked. Wanted to believe, because the alternative was too cruel.

"Well, do you think we've got any chance of safely finding out?"

"Not especially," Loki admitted. "But if they are hunting a variant in an apocalypse...?" They would need to be more careful, from now on.

"Who's to say it's us?" Bucky asked. "Maybe there's others?"

"Potential allies," Loki said, thoughtful now. The danger they knew themselves to be in had just increased, yet so had the potential for other positive outcomes.

"Exactly."

---

Chapter Text

---

1991-12-15 - Siberia, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0797

The Asset read the file. He hesitated on the target's name. Howard Stark.

"I know him."

---

1991-12-16 - Washington, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0798

The Asset approached the car, and heard the man desperately plead. "Help my wife."

Collateral damage was expected on this mission, but... he had never enjoyed it. He glanced over at the far side of the car. They said no witnesses. If she was unconscious, maybe...

He hesitated.

---

1991-12-16 - Washington, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0799

The Asset approached the car, and heard the man desperately plead. "Help my wife."

No. No witnesses.

He grabbed the man's hair and forced him to raise his head.

Their eyes met. He seemed familiar, and not merely because he had seen the photograph in the file.

He frowned. "Who are you?"

---

1991-12-16 - Washington, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0800

He grabbed the man's hair and forced him to raise his head.

Their eyes met. He seemed familiar, but maybe it was a trick of his mind.

"Sergeant Barnes?"

"Do I know you?"

---

1991-12-16 - Washington, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0801

"Sergeant Barnes?"

Who?

"Howard!" the woman called from the far side of the car. She sounded pained. His purpose wasn't pain, it was a clean death. He raised his fist to strike, but then he saw something in the man's eyes... something beyond the fear there.

He hesitated.

---

1991-12-16 - Washington, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0802

"Howard!" the woman called from the far side of the car. She sounded pained. Her pain would end soon.

He struck, and once he started he couldn't stop.

The man was dead - blunt force trauma, easy to blame on the crash.

"Howard!" the woman cried again. He looked up. Why was that name familiar?

He met the woman's gaze, and suddenly he felt small.

This was wrong.

---

1991-12-16 - Washington, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0803

The man was dead - blunt force trauma, easy to blame on the crash.

"Howard!" the woman cried again. He ignored her, and positioned the body in the car, so it should look as though the steering wheel had dealt that killing blow.

He walked around the car to where the woman was... and glanced down at her.

He met the woman's gaze, and something in him broke.

This was wrong.

---

1991-12-16 - Washington, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB0804

He walked around the car to where the woman was, and reached into the car to wrap his hand around her throat.

He tried not to listen, but the sounds she made as she slowly choked...

Something in him broke. He let go, backed away. Let her breathe.

He remembered.

The target. The man. Howard Stark.

His friend.

What had he done?

---

The Void

"Welcome," the Bucky who had spoken to Steve when he first got here said, gesturing around the large, crowded atrium. "To the end of the line."

As Steve looked around, he saw dozens  more Buckys, almost all identical except for some distinctive clothing or hairstyles... along with Tony Stark and Pietro Maximoff both standing near the entrance.

"Or as the less nihilistic of us like to call it, Bastion," Pietro informed him bluntly. "As in last bastion of hope."

"Pietro?" Steve asked, because the 'many Buckys' thing was just too much, and this at least might have a simpler answer.

"TVA pruned me for pulling Barton out of the line of fire, instead of jumping into it myself," Pietro said curtly. "Because I didn't feel I needed to be a complete  idiot. Apparently, my abilities would have destabilised their precious timeline, so I had to die before some big thing they wouldn't tell me about later."

Steve gaped at him.

"He brought me in here," Tony said, nodding to Pietro.

"Normal humans can't outrun that thing," one of the many Buckys clarified. "We've been using Pietro's speed to rescue civilians, since he got here."

Steve actually took the time to look around the room properly, now... and sure enough not everyone here was a Bucky. He recognised SHIELD agents Maria Hill and Phil Coulson standing nearby, but the other unique faces were unfamiliar to him. Except... off in a corner, as if trying to keep out of sight, he spotted... "Loki?"

"You know him?" the Bucky who had spoken last asked.

"Yeah, we've met," Steve said with a glare in Loki's direction.

"Our latest good intel on the sacred timeline was from January, twenty-twelve," that same Bucky said. "Pietro's world politics was woeful, to be polite." Pietro flipped him off, but he ignored it. "And most of those from later in the timeline... well, I guess you'll see later. Once we started figuring out what was going on here, we set up a system to help us cope with the chaos. Since it was one of me who founded this refuge, that also includes the rule that the highest-numbered incarnation of me is the leader... unless someone with more useful information shows up. Which - aside from Loki, who rejected the offer - hasn't happened yet."

"Nothing good comes from my leadership," Loki said bluntly.

"So right now," that same Bucky continued. "I'm in charge here: TVA numbered me ten-ten."

"I'm ten-thirteen," one of the three that had been outside with Steve said. 1013 - that was his  Bucky.

Most of them had that bland TVA-issued uniform, which made it more difficult to tell some of them apart. 1010 was distinctive by the fact his hair was cropped back to WWII military short, and his metal left arm was painted roughly in red-white-and-blue, the star in particular neatly recoloured white.

"Yeah, well they don't always 'prune' us. They try, but sometimes they just straight-up kill us," 1010 said.

"So what's Loki doing here?" Tony asked.

"In the year your current mortal calendar calls nineteen-forty-five, I discovered that someone on Midgard had stolen one of Odin's treasures. I attempted to recover it," Loki informed them.

"The Tesseract," Steve said, eyes wide.

Loki nodded. "Indeed. Like a fool, I followed a trail of evidence, rather than using my magic to track its energy signature... and that trail led instead to him." He indicated one of the many Buckys - this one looked the least haunted, as if perhaps he had gotten away from HYDRA before they had gotten around to the serious brainwashing. His hair was longer even than the others' and had braids in it, he was outright missing his left arm, and his clothing honestly made Steve wonder if he'd picked it up in Asgard, given the similarity in style to what he'd seen of Thor and Loki. "I learned then that they had lost their previous 'greatest weapon', and he had been intended to become their next. I sought to deprive them."

"Zero-zero-four-two," that version of Bucky told Steve, with a nod. "I'm the lowest number of me here, but by the time we arrived, there were already a dozen of me in this place." He indicated Loki when he said 'we'.

"And far more of me," Loki murmured darkly. "I always knew I was a spiteful creature, but the mirror is far crueller in person. I decided I preferred this company to my own."

1010 snorted, shaking his head, and stage-whispered to Steve and Tony, "They're a couple. It's only slightly less creepy than most of our other options."

"How come you didn't arrive in order?" Tony asked, curious.

"We generally don't," 1010 said. "We arrive in the order the TVA picks us up, which is not the same as the order we deviated from their timeline."

"That, and we spent some time evading the TVA," Loki answered, a slight nod in 0042's direction as he said 'we'. The way those two almost mirrored each other was unnerving, in Steve's opinion.

"Can't agree on how much time, though," 0042 added. "Time travel isn't as fun as we always thought it would be... and other planets have different day-night cycles, like eleven days on Xandar is only nine on Earth; doesn't make the math easy."

"At least a decade," Loki informed them. 0042 shook his head slowly and emphatically at that.

"How come there's so many of you?" Steve asked, still a bit shocked.

"The stupid sacred timeline," one of the other Buckys said bitterly.

1010 nodded, and began to explain. "Their plan required we remain HYDRA's attack dog until some point after my time."

"Twenty-fourteen," Steve's Bucky - 1013 - said. "I was sent after Steve, and he snapped me out of it."

A few of the others exchanged looks at that, some murmurs of surprise, as well.

"According to both HYDRA and the TVA, we were an awful disappointment," 1010 told them, grinning bitterly. "Almost every mission, without fail, at least one variant would spring up. A few times during downtime out of cryo, too."

"We had seven variants in a span of ten seconds, during the nineteen-ninety-one mission," one of them said quietly. This one had an unsettlingly fresh-looking burn mark on his face, and the hand of his metal arm was ripped off at the wrist, with wires exposed. Just the sight of him made Steve feel sick at the thought of what must have happened to cause those injuries. "I still don't understand how we managed to go through with it." The way he spoke, it sounded like he was still shaken and in shock about the whole thing. Steve would bet almost anything he was one of those seven.

"What happened in nineteen-ninety-one?" Tony asked, frowning in confusion.

Steve and 1013 exchanged a tense look. "December sixteenth..." 1013 answered, wincing slightly in anticipation of Tony's reaction. The silence at those two words drew out for several painfully long seconds. Then...

"FUCK!" Tony yelled, when he made the obvious connection. Steve wasn't sure if it was pure shock, or if there was also some hate and rage as well. Probably both. He didn't seem inclined to take it out on any of the Bucky variants, though. That was something, at least. Instead, he seemed to crumple in upon himself, as he tried to process this new information.

"The longer HYDRA had us, the more resilient we got to both their methods of control and any external threat," 1010 explained. "As a result, more variants showed up, and we were more likely to make it past the storm up there. We haven't lost a Bucky variant to the storm in a hundred branches."

"Don't know what happened to the numbers in-between," one of the others spoke up. "We're guessing they took a suicide run at the TVA... because we've all considered it."

Tony sat down shakily, lips pressed tightly together, face pale and eyes wide. He looked on the verge of tears.

"The kids almost always make it past the storm, too," one of the Buckys added.

Steve had no idea what 'kids' they were referring to, but no one other than him and 1013 seemed surprised by the mention of it. Tony was in too much shock to listen, and everyone else here must already know these 'kids'. It had already been said that no normal human could outrun it. Steve assumed these 'kids' must be enhanced.

Even Steve felt this was all too much, right now... but there were still so many unanswered questions. He took a deep breath. "You said there were a lot of Lokis here?"

"They're not very communicative, so all we know about the universe beyond Earth came from our power-couple over there," 1010 said.

"Oh, they love to talk," Loki grumbled, sounding quite bitter about that.

"And stab people," one of the other Buckys said. One of the many that had shoulder-length hair and the standard TVA outfit, so Steve couldn't really pick him out from the crowd. "If they weren't so much stronger than us, it could be fun."

"It is  fun," 0042 retorted.

Steve positively choked. "I can't believe you and Loki..." he said.

0042 shrugged. "I've dated worse. Remember Helga?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "That was not a date, it was an act of war. Literally."

Several of the Buckys laughed. "Damn, we've missed you," one of them said, wistfully.

"But yeah, the Lokis," 1010 said, bringing them back on track. "If it weren't for the storm, they'd be our biggest problem in this place... but the storm is indiscriminate, so they're scared of it too."

"I have always been chaotic, by nature," Loki explained. "The TVA seeks to maintain order. So far as I can tell, half the times I get bored and have a crazy idea, it spawns a variant."

"Only half?" 0042 asked, smirking.

"I've done some wild things, without invoking the TVA," Loki admitted. "But there seems to be a line I cannot see, which they very much do not wish me to cross. In this place, there are three Loki factions; the child-king, the politician, and the reaver. They all have their own agendas, and every subordinate is plotting to take over their respective group. I have a few spies among them, but I doubt they tell me the whole truth. One thing I do know is that the child is by far the more powerful."

"Now that  kid is a menace," Pietro grumbled.

"And what, exactly, is this place?" 1013 asked.

"The Lokis call it the void," 1010 said, "And while it doesn't feel very void-like to us, it is where the TVA dumps everything they 'prune' from the timelines."

"And that storm consumes them?" 1013 concluded.

"That's what it looks like, yeah," 1010 agreed.

0042 spoke up now. "The TVA datapad we had when we were on the run says pruned timelines are sent to 'the end of time', and devoured by 'Alioth'. We thought the name sounded dumb and didn't want to dignify the TVA's opinion, so we just call it 'the storm'. The Lokis are a lot more superstitious, though."

"We are not superstitious, we are simply open to more esoteric explanations," Loki replied sharply. "Alioth is the name I found on the TVA datapad for a creature that devours timelines. The storm does  devour the timeline remnants sent here, there is no doubt of that. There is evidence it thinks, even if only on the level of a simple predator, therefore it is likely the same entity. Nowhere on the datapad did they suggest it was a demon or other creature of myth."

"Doesn't change the fact it's a dumb name," 0042 told him, his tone falsely sage as he nodded slowly.

Loki laughed, held his hands up in good humoured surrender, and admitted. "No argument there."

---

Chapter Text

---

2012-01-30 - New York, Earth
Nexus Event: JBB1010

"Come on, I'll tell you everything, once we're safe." Bucky said, reaching for Steve's arm, presumably with intent to lead him away somewhere.

But then, before Steve could figure out how to respond to this crazy situation, a glowing orange door appeared out of thin air, right next to them.

Because things weren't already crazy enough? No, this was surreal, and completely beyond anything Steve had even the least frame of reference for.

An unfamiliar man stepped through the door, and looked directly at Bucky. "You are both in danger, and not merely from HYDRA." He glanced at Steve, and added. "I can help you there."

"And why should we trust you?" Bucky demanded, defensive.

"I don't work here, if it helps."

Bucky blinked, stunned, as if recognising those words... and now from them this man. "Oh no, I don't-"

But the man moved too fast - even Steve's enhanced senses barely managed to follow it - as he grabbed Bucky's wrist and dragged him through the door in one fluid movement.

Steve did what he always did, when something happened to Bucky.

He followed.

He took a deep breath and charged through the strange door...

...and emerged in a wholly unfamiliar place. He couldn't easily describe the eerie, muted world, but the first thing he spotted was an incongruously colourful little cottage, at the base of a cliff... towards which the strange man was dragging a still-resisting Bucky.

Steve ran after them, and tried to lunge at the man... who simply stepped to the side and out of Steve's path, as if it were no effort.

"You should be thanking me, Captain," the man said. "Far worse than HYDRA would have come for you, had I not reached you first."

"You keep saying things like that," Bucky said, wrenching his arm in a way that caused the metal to make an unsettling creaking sound. The other man chose to let go, rather than cause damage. "Other than - worse than - HYDRA. I've been HYDRA's prisoner for over sixty years! Explain 'worse' for me, because I can't see it."

"They call themselves the Time Variance Authority."

Steve's head snapped around towards the door of the house, where those words had come from... only to see another  Bucky standing there. He looked relaxed - happy and healthy, except for the missing arm. So unlike the pained echo of his friend who had first approached him in the park.

"Let's go over the science, because it sounds science-fiction, but you need to hear it," the Bucky in the doorway told them, calmly. "Basic multiverse theory: for every choice you make, the alternative plays out in a parallel reality. The universe is theoretically infinite; infinite choices, infinite parallel realities. Then some idiot decided to try to conquer more than just their own universe, but the whole multiverse. Which, seriously - infinity - not actually possible, but whatever. The TVA was created to control the timeline, so that doesn't happen again... but in the process they eliminate free will and destroy any new parallel realities that crop up."

"We got lucky," the other man continued. "When we deviated from their preferred timeline, we were prepared for a fight, for other reasons."

"We were carving a bloody path out of a HYDRA base at the time," other-Bucky added, smirking. "Loki here-" he indicated the other man. "-was able to eliminate the TVA agents who came after us. We made off with their technology, and have been trying to find more people like us - what the TVA call 'variants' - since then."

"How are we 'variants'?" Bucky asked dubiously.

"We don't know what their timeline is meant to look like, beyond the point we left it," Loki admitted. "But we do have the means to track deviations from it, and you-" he pointed at Bucky. "-are definitely a 'variant'. You, not so much," he added, to Steve. "You just followed whatever changes he made. He's the one the TVA will blame here if they catch him."

"But from what we've seen," other-Bucky continued. "They don't really care about catching variants quite so much as 'pruning' the deviated timelines before they reach a critical point. If they can't find you, they'll probably assume you got 'pruned' when they use the reset charge."

"Pretty words," Loki growled. "They do not 'reset' the alternate timeline, they destroy it. The use of the word 'reset' implies somehow rewinding it back to the point it deviated from, without causing harm, and merging it back into the main timeline. That is not possible. 'Pruning' is very much what it sounds like - as you might a plant, so they do the timeline. Everything on the severed branch dies."

"Assuming any of that is true..." Bucky said dubiously. "Why come for us?"

"Potential allies against the TVA," other-Bucky answered. "You were the first we were able to trace, but we're hoping to find some people that aren't... well, me. No offense, but this is probably as weird for me as it is for you."

"I doubt that," Bucky grumbled darkly.

Steve looked between the two of them. "How did you survive, Bucky?" He wasn't entirely sure which one he was speaking to.

"Well I'm not entirely sure, to be honest..." other-Bucky began.

"I know," Bucky cut across him. "Zola was trying to recreate the super-soldier serum, back at Azzano. I was the only survivor of those experiments."

"I remember the experiments," other-Bucky admitted. "But I didn't know what they were for."

"I'm surprised; Zola wouldn't shut up about it," Bucky replied bitterly.

Other-Bucky shook his head slightly. "Loki rescued me from HYDRA shortly after they found me, after the train. All I had time to hear Zola gloat about was that I was going to serve HYDRA."

"He was right," Bucky said bitterly. "It was against my will, but they had me for over sixty years, and they used machines to force me to forget who I was. Forced me to obey."

"I'm sorry," other-Bucky said softly.

"This is the TVA's fault," Loki observed, a sly darkness and calculation to his tone. What he was saying may or may not be true... but Steve could read his intent to turn them to his cause, clear as day. "If their 'sacred timeline' did not wish you to be imprisoned for so long..."

"They took our life," other-Bucky added, with conviction. He was clearly fully on-board with Loki's vendetta.

Bucky and Steve exchanged a look, and Steve saw the way Bucky slightly shifted his posture - straightened his spine and taking on an air of certainty, as he turned back to the other two. "Revenge isn't the point... fun as it might be."

Steve nodded in agreement. "If you can back up what you're saying, we'll help you. To protect people from the TVA."

"You wouldn't be seeing it that way, if you lost someone to them," other-Bucky said coldly.

Steve frowned, and the message came across clearly. Assuming all this was true... that meant the timeline this other-Bucky was from had been destroyed.

And so had his version of Steve.

"Maybe not," Bucky said. "But do you care about our motives, if we're on your side?"

Loki chuckled. "Not in the least," he declared, holding a hand out to Steve.

Steve nodded and held out his own hand. Loki clasped his wrist rather than his hand, but the intent of the gesture was the same.

---

1943-11-02 - Kreischberg, Earth
Nexus Event: AZ0012

In order to prove the truth to Steve and his own future-self, Bucky carefully chose their next target.

It was a nexus event at the prison camp Steve had rescued him from, during the war.

He wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen - he knew what the 'sacred timeline' looked like at this point, but not what this deviation would be - but the plan was to keep out of sight and observe, not interfere. To show the others the TVA in action... and frankly, so that he and Loki could also get a look at their standard operating procedure when Loki or his mother weren't slaughtering the bastards.

They found themselves in the lab where Bucky had been experimented on - Bucky's past self appeared unconscious, and they were alone. "I know we could rescue him, but that'll just break the timeline again, and  ruin our opportunity to learn more," he told Steve and his future self, while Loki cast illusion spells to conceal the four of them. "Just stay back here, and watch."

Reluctantly, Steve nodded.

To Bucky, this was a deeply uncomfortable situation, but he felt it was likely the best way to prove the truth to the others. Seeing himself like that, remembering how it felt. It was... sickening. It caused a visceral physical reaction to the memories, so very close here. He could barely focus on the mission, now... and he imagined it was at least as bad for his future-self.

Thankfully, they didn't have long to wait before something happened. Unfortunately, that something was that Zola entered the room, and began working at the lab table next to Bucky. Only a few minutes passed, as Zola pottered around, and it took all of Bucky's self-control to stay put... especially as Zola began injecting things into his past-self. He couldn't imagine how Steve was feeling, watching this.

It was moments after those injections that the orange doors appeared, and a team of TVA soldiers - much like the ones from the other HYDRA base - stepped out.

The woman in charge held her datapad in front of her, scanning first Bucky's past-self, then Zola. "Variant identified," she declared. "Arnim Zola, you are under arrest for crimes against the sacred timeline."

Zola spluttered and postured and threatened, as he was dragged away, but he was in no position to put up any sort of fight.

"Reset the timeline," the woman commanded, and one of her soldiers placed a strange device on the ground. Bucky had read about the reset charges, but this was the first time he'd actually seen one. When the TVA agent pressed the button on top, it started making an ominous beeping that both did not actually sound like, yet still put Bucky in mind of, a countdown.

As the last of the TVA soldiers left, Steve tried to lunge across the room towards past-Bucky... but Loki dragged him away, and back through their own portal.

"We can save him!" Steve protested as they returned to Solitude, struggling against Loki's grip... even as both Bucky and his future-self followed them without any sign of the same complaints.

"No, we can't," Loki said, holding Steve in place with no apparent effort. "The nexus event was most likely his death. The TVA arrived the moment his heart stopped."

Steve deflated at that. Defeated.

Bucky glanced at his future-self. Both shifted uncomfortably at the realisation that, while the TVA may have enforced their imprisonment... it had also ensured their survival.

"These guys mean business," Bucky's future-self said, bitterly. "Whatever's so great about their 'sacred' timeline, they're going to extraordinary lengths for it."

"Come on," Bucky commanded, gesturing towards the small house he and Loki had constructed for themselves in this place. "It's lunchtime."

"Time in an illusion," Loki retorted, letting Steve go and heading inside.

Bucky followed, chuckling lightly at his words, and glanced over his shoulder. "You boys have quite the reading list to catch up on."

Bucky's future-self and Steve exchanged a look, then followed as well.

---

"What are the odds of us being the first ones you found?" Bucky asked what he still wasn't fully convinced was really an alternate version of his past-self. He'd go along with the story for now, but he was keeping his eyes open for holes in the story.

"To be honest... I was looking for Steve," the double admitted. "We needed allies to fight the TVA, and I couldn't really think of anyone else. Loki could  have gone looking for his brother, but he seems to think it's a bad idea. That he'd be even harder to convince of the truth."

"Well, your story is a bit... out there."

"We searched all along my history, trying to find a variant of Steve, but... all the breaks were me- us, I guess-" he gestured to Bucky as he said that. If the story was true, it was going to take a lot of getting used to, to imagine the idea of more than one version of himself, like this. "Not to mention, most of them were before the serum - before the War. After that, we tried reading the history books, but they said we both died..."

"And then SHIELD found him... so you found us."

The other-Bucky nodded. "Basically, yeah. We weren't expecting you to be there, too."

"Why send Loki, instead of going yourself?" Bucky asked.

"He's more capable in a fight, in case the TVA had been there. Also, I was supposed to be dead; showing up like you did probably gave him the shock if his life, and I had intended to break that news here, rather than somewhere public where - again, the TVA could have shown up."

"Makes more sense than most of this, I guess," Bucky admitted. "So who exactly is this Loki guy?"

"Oh, sure, let's add fuel to the crazy fire," the other-Bucky laughed. "He's an alien. I believe it; he's far stronger and more resilient than even Steve with the serum. He also hasn't aged a day, though we've been here for almost a year - he claims his species live for up to six thousand years, and his father inspired ancient Norse mythology. Also, apparently, that cube thing the Red Skull used... originally belonged to his father, and that's how he found me."

"I remember that. I thought it was some sort of hallucination, or trick HYDRA were trying to play on me."

"I guess that was my nexus event. I asked him to free me, so we could wreak vengeance on HYDRA."

Bucky smiled faintly. "Well now I'm jealous. Vengeance sounds fun. I didn't believe him, I didn't speak to him, after he told me that tall tale."

---

Steve eyed Loki dubiously. "What's your goal, here?" he asked, glancing across the small plateau to where both versions of Bucky were talking to each other.

"I was minding my own business, when the TVA attacked me," Loki answered.

Steve raised an eyebrow dubiously.

"I was merely helping your friend escape-" Loki hesitated as Steve deliberately made his expression even more disbelieving. "I was murdering HYDRA agents because it was fun," Loki snapped, irritably. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Not really," Steve admitted.

"Good, because that was also a lie," Loki admitted, arms folded defensively now. "The truth is, I was seeking an artefact HYDRA stole from my family. I found him, instead. He was their prisoner, and by his account they intended to force him to serve them. It seemed both the right thing to do, to free him... and satisfying revenge for both of us to destroy the place on our way out."

Steve nodded slowly. "That, I believe."

"The TVA appeared, when we were halfway to the exit, and my instinct was to kill them. It was fortunate I did; their technology is formidable, yet they appear so mundane. I could easily have underestimated them, under less violent circumstances."

"If what you're saying is true," Steve hedged tentatively. "They're indiscriminate. Doesn't matter if you were doing good or evil, if it wasn't according to their plan they'll come for you."

"That is our conclusion as well," Loki nodded in agreement. "We're not sure what your nexus event was, but it was something your version of Bucky chose."

Steve nodded. "He came looking for me. After all he'd been through with HYDRA... I can't believe HYDRA are still around."

"I'm afraid your Bucky is our only source of information on them, for the time-being."

"You two seem to work together well," Steve admitted, glancing over at the pair of Buckys once more.

"We were caught together in exceptional circumstances. I doubt we would have chosen each other as companions otherwise," Loki told him bluntly. After a brief pause, he added, "That would have been a mistake."

Steve glanced up at him, only to find he was also staring at the pair. The emotion in Loki's eyes was clear as day to Steve, but he didn't say anything.

"I'm going to need more proof that the TVA are as bad as you say," Steve admitted. "But I want to believe you... because he does."

---

Chapter Text

---

The Void

"I hate the TVA," Steve declared bluntly.

Everyone in earshot turned to stare at him. Steve Rogers did not hate  lightly. He'd been disgusted by the evil of many of his enemies, but never actually hated  them, simply worked to stop them because it was the only right course of action.

Hate - real hate  - simply was not in his usual range.

"No, I mean it. It wasn't bad enough that they wanted a timeline where my best friend was tortured and brainwashed by HYDRA, where we lost each other over and over again, where I apparently was supposed to burn every bridge for him even when I didn't need to. They did all of this, as well; all of you, fighting them as well as HYDRA, every step of the way... and I never knew to. And that's just where it's personal; there's still what Tony said about entire universes slaughtered to keep time going in just one neat line. I hate them."

"Oh, we all agree," 0042 offered. "We just can't find a way to get at them from here, or we'd have done it by now."

"Incoming," someone called from above. Steve looked up, to see there was a watchtower of sorts, presumably to keep an eye out for either Alioth or any other survivors. The man up there wasn't a Bucky, but he also wasn't anyone Steve recognised. "Tens, what is  that?"

1010 quickly ascended the watchtower, and promptly appeared dumbstruck. "No idea."

Steve joined him, and saw why.

It looked like a bolt of fire blazing across the sky. The storm took a swing at it, but missed by a long shot.

"I don't think Loki can do that; try and signal it," 1010 instructed.

The man in the watchtower pressed a few buttons, and a flare went up overhead.

The jet of flame turned, and headed their way, its speed vastly outstripping Alioth. In fact, it moved very much the way one of Tony's suits might, except it appeared to be entirely on fire.

Steve watched in shock as the flame landed right in front of the entrance to their sanctuary, and melted away into a familiar human form.

Steve scrambled up to open the door, and Pepper Potts stepped inside... completely naked, and not appearing in the least uncomfortable or embarrassed about that.

"Someone had better explain to me just what the hell is going on," she demanded, all the authority she usually wielded in a sharp business suit still present even now.

Tony's head snapped up, and he stared at her in shock. "Pepper?"

"Tony?"

"How?" Tony asked weakly.

Pepper rushed over to hug him. "It's been the strangest day, Tony," she declared.

"Let me guess," Pietro offered. "Arrested by some creepy organisation called the TVA. Kangaroo court claiming you defiled their 'sacred timeline'. Sentenced to be 'pruned', and you wake up here?"

Pepper nodded numbly.

"When are you from?" 1010 asked her.

Pepper frowned slightly. "December twenty-eighth, twenty-twelve."

"That was when I neutralised Extremis for you," Tony said.

Pepper shook her head. "I refused. I'm stable, Tony. I can control it. But then the TVA showed up, and... I tried to ignite, to fight them, but they used some sort of time-altering technology. They were too fast. Got a collar on me before I could get hot enough, and once the collar was on, well that was it. I couldn't use my powers... until I arrived here."

"How did you get past the storm?" Tony asked.

"It was amazing," the man from the watchtower said. "A bolt of fire across the sky; she didn't hurt the storm but she did seem to startle it... and had the common sense to move away from it, as well. She flies like you, Stark."

"Who are you, exactly?" Tony asked the man.

"Antoine Triplett. Friends call me Trip. I worked for SHIELD, until I figured out my CO was really HYDRA, in twenty-ten. Apparently, I wasn't supposed to."

Tony seemed to dismiss the man now, and his focus returned to Pepper. "You fly like me, huh?"

"Well, I observed the suits' aerodynamics," Pepper admitted, somewhat sheepishly. "And when used right, Extremis can operate just like jet fuel."

Tony nodded quickly. "I- I need to tell you something, Pep; after Extremis, I promised I'd stop with the suits, and... I couldn't keep that promise."

Pepper shook her head. "I kept Extremis, so I could keep up with you, Tony. I figured you stopping wanting to save the world was unlikely, even if you tried."

"In twenty-fifteen, you sort of broke up with me, over it," Tony told her.

"Well, according to the TVA, I'm not that Pepper... and what happened to you?" she asked, reaching up and wiping tears from his face.

"It's a long story."

"I'm not going anywhere," she answered, before glancing around the room. "Except perhaps if we go there together, and it has clean clothes for me."

Tony chuckled weakly, nodding and holding her hands tightly like his whole universe depended on it.

"I'll show you to a room," one of the many Buckys offered.

---

1013's eyes were on 1010's painted metal arm, as he all-but whispered, "I remember you. After they caught me, they got far more enthusiastic about the mind-wipes."

"Not surprising," 1010 admitted. "You must have gotten very close to Steve."

"Literally knocked on the door of his apartment."

"HYDRA were watching him," 1010 explained. "I waited until he went on his morning run, then made contact."

1013 frowned, shaking his head as he understood what he'd done wrong. "Stupid mistake."

"The TVA seems to like those," 1010 offered, as if it helped. "Just look at Pietro. And then... do you remember Loki?"

1013 glanced over at Loki. "Uh... I think so."

"Forty-two called after him; offered to help him get back at HYDRA."

1013 smiled faintly. "Damn."

"We had so many opportunities... and it turns out, we took all of them," 1010 told him sadly.

---

"Loki, you need to talk to that kid," Pietro grumbled, returning from the surface. It felt like twenty minutes had passed, since Pepper's arrival... maybe. There were no timepieces here, to check with.

"He doesn't approve of the company I keep," Loki replied coldly.

"He took all the twinkies from that superstore that spawned, five minutes ago. All the twinkies! " Pietro complained.

"Insert Zombieland joke here," Trip said idly.

"I've seen that movie, too," Pietro retorted.

At that point, Tony and Pepper returned. Pepper was dressed, bizarrely, in a floaty yellow summer dress, so completely unlike her usual tastes that it stood out more  than when she'd been naked... because at least that had had a rational explanation of Extremis lighting her previous clothes on fire.

"So we're all agreed; the TVA are the root of all our problems?" Tony asked bluntly, to the room at large. His voice was hoarse and tight, as if he had been crying, but he stood tall now.

Several of the Bucky variants exchanged cautious looks. All of the ones who did so clearly blamed themselves for what happened to Tony's parents.

"No, I see that look," Tony pointed at one of them. "It was either the TVA or HYDRA. Pick one. I may not know you as well as Cap does, but I know enough. I don't believe a version of you could exist that willingly  obeyed HYDRA. The TVA wanted  us in-fighting over this, so I refuse! " His voice cracked slightly on that, but his determination didn't waver.

Steve felt a ripple around the room, as if collectively everyone had been holding their breath to see how Tony reacted, and now they were letting go of that tension at his latest words.

"Okay. Now I have questions," Tony declared, approaching 1010 with determination. "Why the trial? They've already decided we're guilty before they even show up, so why?"

1010 looked around the room, but no one else seemed to have an answer, so he shrugged.

"And why send everything here, why not just destroy it?" Tony continued.

0042 spoke up at that. "The datapad we had said destroying all matter in the branches is impossible, so what they can't destroy they displace to here."

"We don't actually believe that," Loki added. "The fundamentals of magic cover matter creation and destruction, and it should in fact be easier  to transfer the energy cast off from such disintegration than it would be to transfer the matter itself."

There were plenty of confused looks exchanged around the room, but Tony seemed to understand whatever Loki had just explained, and nodded. "So they're going out of their way  to send the broken timelines here. Do you know what I think? I think they need to keep that thing out there fed."

"It obviously can't eat the world we're standing on," a young woman with white-blonde hair offered. "Or it would be able to reach us down here."

"Yeah, and I saw my tower out there," Tony added pointedly.

"No," Pietro said, shaking his head. "That out there is a version of your tower that was bought by something called 'Qeng Enterprises'." When Tony and Steve stared at him, he just shrugged. "I went exploring," he admitted.

"But that means this is a version of Earth," Tony clarified. "And not too far in the future, at that."

"It didn't look that much like twenty-first century New York to me," Steve said. "Not even accounting for the damage."

Tony shook his head. "No, but cities are always changing and growing, you could attest to that." Steve nodded, accepting that to be true. "Given the structural integrity of my tower, I always figured it'd last at least a thousand years... assuming no one tried to knock it down."

"Long estimate?" the blonde girl asked.

Tony shrugged. "With proper maintenance, Theseus could keep it standing indefinitely."

"Theseus?" one of the Buckys asked.

"Read Greek myths," Pietro retorted.

0042 raised his hand. "I got that reference."

"So we're on a version of Earth," Steve summed up. "And for some reason, everything else that appears here gets devoured by that creature, but not anything native  to this version of Earth?"

"That's seems to be the gist of it, yeah," the blonde girl nodded.

"And we've no idea when  we are," Tony continued. "But I always kind of figured the End of Time would be quite a long way after the heat death of Earth's sun and the destruction of our planet, so this is a bit disappointing if I'm honest."

"We've been as far forward as the year ten thousand," 0042 said. "But the TVA tech didn't like going beyond that. Maybe this is...?"

"Only ten thousand years? That's cheap," Tony all but whined. But then he shook his head. "No, it simplifies things. Painfully so, but still. The TVA had to have originated somewhere between our time, and now. It's very likely they only maintain the timeline up to the point of their own creation, because that'd be how they'd know what they'd think is the proper way of things - their own timeline becomes sacred. After that, who cares, as far as they're concerned? They exist, they rule, so there's nothing more to fix, right?"

"That makes sense," the blonde girl nodded, with the tone of one just beginning to grasp a new concept and loving that feeling. "There must be a way we can use that."

"I'm sorry, and you are?" Tony asked her.

"For clarity's sake, best call me G-six," she said. "Seeing as there's two more of me here, and it's easy to get mixed up. Six is the number the TVA gave me."

"That's another thing, these numbers," Tony said. "If I'm number one-three-eight, how come I'm the only one of me here?"

1010 shook his head. "We only got Pietro recently. Every time the TVA arrested you, the storm got to you before we could. When they pruned a timeline you were in with your armour, you fought it to the death."

Tony thought for a second. "Yeah, that sounds like some of the stupid shit I'd do."

"How exactly does this timeline thing work, anyway?" Steve asked.

"I'm just guessing here, so if any of you spot a mistake let me know," Tony started, glancing at the others before beginning to explain. "The theory goes that the universe is infinite. Then the multiverse is created in the form of a new branch for every possible different choice anyone makes in it, thus the multiverse is also infinite. Somehow, this TVA claims to have been able to destroy all but one of the multiversal plains - literally infinite entire universes massacred - so they could keep just one going the way they liked it."

"It has always been more than just those of us who make it this far," Loki agreed.

"There have been a lot  of pruned branches where I died because I resisted HYDRA and they got overzealous trying to control me," 1010 added. "They don't count me as the variant in those circumstances, they count the HYDRA agent who killed me, instead."

"And I'd bet anything that there'd be a branch out there were I become benevolent dictator of Earth... because I once did the calculations to prove I could, and I fantasise about it every time I have a meeting with some asshole like Ross," Tony offered.

"If there was, there'd also one where I killed you for doing that, because it's HYDRA's playbook," 0042 added brightly.

"It's Loki's, too," Steve retorted.

"Not always," Loki replied blandly.

"Twinkies, Loki," Pietro grumbled darkly. "Evil child-king of stealing my damned twinkies! I had called dibs!  Yes, you're always trying to conquer other people's shit."

0042 opened his mouth to speak, and Loki quickly silenced him with a hand over his mouth.

Tony stared at the couple for a few seconds, before shaking his head emphatically. "I'd really like to pretend I'm hallucinating, right now," he muttered, aside to Steve. "It'd make so much more sense."

Steve couldn't help but nod in agreement.

---

"What do you think they're doing?" Loki asked his king.

The boy shrugged, and picked up another of those vile sugar-cakes. "The same thing they always do. Play hero."

"Captain America is with them now," Loki insisted.

"Who cares about him?" the prideful one demanded loudly.

Loki shook his head. "We've never seen him here before, not even in a pruned branch. He's something new, and that is always of interest."

"If you're interested, go ask," the king told him idly.

"Such a warm welcome, I'm sure to received," Loki growled bitterly. He still remembered the fight against those so-called heroes so very well, even after all this time.

"I'll tell you what," the boy-king said. "Bring them these." He levitated a small pile of the still-wrapped sugar cakes in Loki's direction. "Tell them it's a peace offering."

"As if they would believe it," Loki grumbled, but he accepted the sweets all the same, and began preparing for the journey.

The king shrugged, watching him carefully now. "Only one way to find out."

---

Chapter Text

---

977-11-10 - Valaskjalf, Asgard
Nexus Event: L0018

Loki chose this nexus event for their next move.

It was one of several in his own history that he had been able to trace, during the year they had had access to the TVA datapad, and he knew exactly what was about to happen. He had been doing a lot of self-reflection, since they had gone on the run from the TVA, and the more he thought about it, the more he realised exactly what  the TVA had written out of his life.

It was kind of depressing, really, how predictable it was in hindsight.

He ensured the four of them were already invisible when they arrived in Asgard, and they remained concealed, as a young Thor raced down the hallway.

Hot on his heels, Loki's younger self followed.

They were both twelve. It was one of the earliest clear memories Loki had of such a nexus event. Not the  earliest - no, and there were a few more memorable, but he had deliberately chosen a less violent moment, so as not to disturb his current allies.

"I'll tell Father, and then you'll be in trouble!" Thor yelled over his shoulder.

"No! Thor, wait! You misunderstood!" young Loki shouted after him.

Thor stopped and turned to face young Loki, who skidded to a halt a few feet from him. "What, precisely, did I misunderstand, Loki?"

Loki remembered what he had said here; 'I didn't mean to call you a troll. I mean to call you a massive blundering incompetent troll! '

"I- I'm sorry, Thor," young Loki stammered instead. "I was upset because you broke my practice sword. I shouldn't have called you a troll."

Thor hesitated, startled by the apology. Even so early in his life, it had already become unexpected. Yet, Thor actually listened.

"And I'm sorry for turning your  sword into a chipmunk."

"Is that what it was?" Thor asked with a frown. "I thought it was a rat."

"Chipmunks have nicer tails," young Loki retorted. "I can help you catch it and turn it back, if you want?"

Thor nodded, smiling that too-bright smile. As if he were not merely destined to be called the God of Thunder, but of all weather; that infectious smile reflecting a sunrise as surely as his wrath drew out a storm. Loki had always wanted to punch that smile, even when he appreciated the sentiment behind it.

"I'm sorry for breaking your sword, Loki," Thor said, and then the two boys turned to head back the way they had come.

Behind them, the TVA doors appeared. Loki's illusions stretched out to conceal those doors from the boys, and a much more malevolent curse filled the air around them. The TVA team fell into a deep and unnatural sleep the moment they stepped through. They would not wake until Loki cast the counter-curse.

There were five TVA agents, and four of them. They stole the uniforms, weapons and technology from the four who appeared to be subordinate, and Loki used his illusions to make himself and his companions appear in their prisoners' likeness. These spells were not active magic; they altered the body of the subject on a genetic level - it was as thorough a change as a Skrull's abilities, and just as effective against all known scanners - and would need to be deliberately undone later. Bucky had theorised that to maintain such power for so long, the TVA may have a way to negate magic - Bucky was unnervingly curious about the idea of negating magic, considering how much Loki relied upon it - and so now they took no chances.

They even went so far as to check and learn the identities they assumed. Loki became Hunter T-7. Steve was now Hunter D-10. The incarnation of Bucky that Loki had known for the last year became Hunter C-12. The other Bucky became Hunter B-15.

Then Loki opened a portal to Solitude, and they pushed the slumbering prisoners whom they now impersonated through.

Once they were all prepared, he woke up the leader and they allowed her to guide them.

The team leader apprehended young Loki with ease, not needing the backup of her team. The boy yelled and protested about how his father would hear of this, yet posed no real threat to the trained TVA agent. She commanded they set a reset charge, before simply leaving through her own portal, without a glance behind her.

Loki did as she ordered, in spite of the shocked look Steve sent him. "Really? But what about this world?"

"They will learn of our plan sooner, if we do not," Loki answered. "And they will come back to finish the job, either way."

Steve shook his head, appearing both disapproving and disgusted, but he restrained himself from arguing with Loki's logic. They simply used the 'return home' setting on the portal-door to reach the TVA.

"What took so long?" the team leader asked, glancing at them dubiously.

"The other boy tried to fight us," Loki answered. "He was no trouble."

The team leader nodded. "Okay. You two, process this one." She indicated Steve, and the version of Bucky that Loki possessively considered his own. "I have to check in with archives." Then to Loki and the other Bucky, she added. "You two, report to debriefing."

They all nodded in answer, and once her back was to them, they exchanged wary looks, before splitting up as ordered.

Once they were alone in a corridor, Loki proceeded to lead the newer Bucky to an archive level, instead. "Your other-self was right, my magic doesn't work here," he whispered to Bucky. "We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way. You start with the end of time. I'll look for the founding of the TVA."

---

Bucky felt disgusted with himself for having to be the one to escort a child  through this terrible place. Young Loki didn't make it easy on them, either. He kept asking questions, mostly about why they were doing this.

He imagined Steve was coping even worse with this than he was.

The only bright side of the whole ordeal was the fact that the datapad had given them enough information to correctly guess what they were supposed to do here. Like any bureaucracy, there were signs everywhere, and while it was a maze within a maze, it as still possible to find their way if they paid attention.

The signs instructed them, at one point, to guide young Loki through one door, and to proceed themselves through another. A few minutes later, they met up with the boy again in a waiting area, and it was unnerving to see that his fine silk clothes had been replaced by a plain and drab uniform that seemed to match those worn by others being processed here.

"Take a ticket," a man nearby commanded the boy, who glared up at them as he did so.

While they were expected to stand to one side and observe, the boy was told to go up to the front desk and present his ticket to the person there.

On the way, there was a movie.

Bucky decided he deeply disliked the falsely-sweet Miss Minutes, for how she painted this whole thing as so normal and acceptable when of course it damned well wasn't.

At one point, he had to put his hand on Steve's shoulder to help him calm down.

It reminded them both too much of how the Nazis had acted like it was just okay to process people like cattle, during the War.

Steve shook his head, glancing at Bucky. He couldn't do this. They had to get out of there, before Steve's saving-people thing kicked in. Bucky shook his head slightly, to try to tell him no, that was a bad idea. But he could see Steve wasn't going to accept that.

Then they were called to lead the boy before a judge, of all things.

"Variant L-zero-zero-eighteen, AKA Loki Laufeyson, is charged with sequence violation two thirteen eighty-four. How do you plead?"

"That's not my name," the boy protested. "I'm Loki Odinson ."

The judge glanced down at her paperwork, shrugging dismissively. "You were adopted."

Loki shook his head, visibly distressed. "No. This is all wrong. This is insane! You had no right to take me from my home without my father's permission, and you have no right to try a child in a court like this without their parents present! I demand to be allowed to see my father, immediately!"

Bucky blinked. Kid knew his legal rights really well for a twelve-year-old. Then again, he was supposed to be a prince of Asgard, so maybe he was already learning the responsibilities that entailed.

"This court is beyond the jurisdiction of Asgard," the judge told the boy, which seemed to shock him. "You stand accused of deviating from the dictations of the sacred timeline. How do you plead?"

The boy frowned. "What did I do? Was it the chipmunk? I apologised for that!"

The judge's face flickered briefly, almost sympathetic for a moment. "Yes, you did. And that was your crime."

Loki shook his head. "Mother said I should always-" he hesitated for a second, eyeing the judge dubiously. Clarity and calculation showed in the child's eyes, in a way that made Bucky slightly uncomfortable. "I'm sorry for apologising, M'Lady."

"Do you sincerely regret your actions?" the judge asked. Young Loki nodded contritely. "Do you understand the video we showed you earlier? The reason we arrested you?"

"Something about averting a war?" Loki asked. "Father says we must always prepare for war, but try to avoid it where we can."

The judge nodded. "Your father's a wise man, Loki. If you were able, would you choose to undo your actions, for the good of the timeline?"

"Yes, M'Lady," the boy answered. Bucky had no idea if he was being honest or not. The elder version of Loki that he knew was a very good liar, but he hadn't realised it had started so young.

The judge nodded. "Very well." She banged the gavel. "You will be taken before the Time Keepers. They will decide your fate."

Steve made a move to stop them, but Bucky held him back. The boy was led away, and Bucky saw a calculating look in his eyes as he followed without resistance.

"Next case!" the judge called.

A strange man - whose skin was literally blue - was dragged forwards. "Variant TK-zero-one-zero-six, AKA Taryan Kasius, is charged with sequence violation one eighty-three sixteen. How do you plead?"

"You will all be destroyed!" he yelled at them. "The Kree Confederacy will rule this galaxy!"

The judge rolled her eyes, "A simple 'guilty' or 'not guilty' will suffice."

The man crowed darkly. "I am guilty as all sin, and you will burn to prove it!"

The judge banged the gavel again. "You have pled guilty and show no remorse. I sentence you to be pruned from the sacred timeline."

A guard stepped up behind him, and hit him with one of those batons... disintegrating him on the spot.

Steve glanced at Bucky, and the pair left the courtroom together, promptly.

"Kid didn't get executed on the spot, that's the only good news," Bucky muttered darkly under his breath, once they were alone in a corridor.

"But what will they do with him?" Steve demanded. "And this place - it's pure evil, Bucky, you've seen the closest our world has come to it before."

Bucky nodded slowly. "Keep your voice down, surveillance tech's improved since our time."

Steve scowled. "We have to find that kid, and try to save him."

"We have to get to the bottom of this place and figure out how to stop them for good, or this will just keep happening."

Steve turned, and headed down the corridor with purpose. He caught up to the guards who were escorting the boy, and fell into step with them. They didn't argue with that, so Bucky joined them as well.

"What happens when someone is taken to the Time Keepers?" Steve asked.

The other two guards gave him a very dubious look, as if this was a completely out of place and unacceptable question, but then they both shrugged. "No one's ever come back to tell," one of them answered.

"So it's just an extra step, instead of killing them right there in the courtroom?" Steve demanded coldly.

"Hey, calm down," Bucky told him, beginning to panic. He knew this attitude in Steve, and there was no deterring him... but he had to try.

"You're out of line, D-10, " the other guard told Steve.

Suddenly, Steve attacked, taking the nearest guard by surprise, but the other one was faster. It wasn't even a real fight - in a real fight, Bucky would have had time to jump in and help. No, within two seconds Steve was on the ground... dead.

Not incapacitated, as he'd expected they might do to their own people. Dead.

While the TVA seemed to favour using their batons to disintegrate their enemies where possible, the guard who had struck Steve had instead run him through with the spiked end, instead.

Right through the chest. There was no doubt, no question.

He was dead.

It was surreal, just how suddenly it had happened. Steve - Captain Goddamned America - just taken out in a single decisive blow, by a lowly guard of this insane organisation.

Young Loki stared in shock at the body on the floor, yet still made no move to resist his captors. Since the trial, he had been perfectly obedient and docile, and frankly it made Bucky suspicious.

But Bucky was in no position to fight, now - he was acutely aware of how great a tactical disadvantage he had against these two guards, especially given his left arm was a mere trick of Loki's magic and he could not in fact use it, in spite of the fact Loki's alterations meant it would pass for real to any scanners.

It took all his self-control - and lying to himself that that hadn't really been Steve, because his own Steve was already long gone before he'd even met this one - not to visibly react for the guards to see.

"Hunter D-10 just attacked us, while we were escorting variant L-eighteen from processing," the guard who had dealt the killing blow reported, on his communication device. It looked like a radio, but Bucky didn't think it really was. "I had to kill him in self-defence."

The guard looked slightly shaken at having been attacked, but resolute that he had acted appropriately. He had no clue what he had really done.

Young Loki shot one last confused frown at Bucky, before allowing the guards to lead him away. There was a command in his eyes; much like the Loki that Bucky knew, he could read Bucky's expression - his pain and horror at his friend's death, even if young Loki couldn't know the context - and the command was simply 'no'. Don't try to save me. Don't make the same mistake.

The moment he was left alone, Bucky turned and ran.

---

Loki had failed to find anything about the actual founding of the TVA - he found a great deal more detail on its internal propaganda, but the more he read the more he realised the people working here probably thought they were doing good.

The files gave the impression that they believed 'reset' meant what it sounded like, rather than the death sentence it certainly appeared to be, to Loki's understanding. 'Pruning' was a punishment for the unrepentant time-criminal, and those they arrested who showed remorse would be 'reset' as well.

This place was the deepest sort of evil, as Loki understood it; that which plays at a noble cause, which pretends even to itself that it is good, yet does such unspeakable things in the name of its goals. The ends justify the means. Perhaps some - or even most - of its servants believed the pretty lies that they don't even cause real harm, as well. That always makes it far easier for those in control.

When his new partner in crime returned with little of value, as well, he was just preparing to seek out the other two and leave... when his  Bucky raced up to them, looking distraught.

"What happened?" the other-Bucky who had been with Loki the archives asked.

Bucky's gaze turned on Loki, some fear in his eyes. "If it helps..."

That was enough to allay any of Bucky's fears that he had the wrong person. "We have to leave," he said bluntly.

The other-Bucky shook his head. "Where's Steve?"

"He tried to save the kid. They killed him. We have to go, now ."

Loki cursed under his breath, but obligingly opened a doorway back to Solitude.

The newer Bucky kept his composure precisely long enough to step through the doorway, then he broke. It showed how strong he was that he managed to keep himself together that long, however the moment he considered himself to be safe - for whatever worth that word ever held - he fell to his knees and started shaking.

Loki wanted to fix this, but could think of no way to help. The least he could do was reverse the spells that had made them look like the enemy, and so he did that.

His Bucky knelt next to the other one, repeating again, "I'm sorry. I tried to stop him, then to help him, but they were too fast."

Loki turned away from the pair, as they mourned. He couldn't help the feeling that this was his fault. He had chosen too sympathetic a victim. He had known about Steve Rogers' innate calling to protect the weak, he should have found a nexus event where Loki himself was the villain, and thus deserved whatever the TVA wrought upon him. There were likely to have been enough of those, but he had never wanted to look for them.

"I'm sorry," Loki said softly.

His Bucky looked up at him, and there was something harsh in his eyes. "This wasn't your fault. Don't you dare apologise."

"You did," he observed.

"Because I was there . And because there's a difference between expressing regret that it happened, and feeling like I caused it. The TVA started this. They did this . It's their fault ."

Strangely, Loki found it easier to believe from Bucky's words than when trying to deny his guilt within his own mind.

---

Chapter Text

---

The Void

"So what are we supposed to do here?" Steve asked.

"Not much we can do, except survive," 1010 told him bluntly. "This is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with a giant monster devouring anything that stays aboveground for more than ten minutes. All we've been doing is not-dying, this whole time."

"I still say there has to be a way to restore the timelines," G-6 spoke up. "Some of us are from alternates beyond  the branches of the sacred timeline; there has to be a way back there."

"Surely there is no 'beyond'?" Tony asked. "Just a divergence really  close to the beginning of time."

G-6 shrugged, in a way that conceded he could be right but she didn't buy it. "I'm not sure how that explains some  of the alternates."

"We've been over this," 1010 said with a sigh. "The other timelines were destroyed, not just blocked off."

"And my boys are working on it," she replied. "Some of our theories suggest time is cyclical, in which case we could actually reset everything, and not just the way the TVA means when they say 'reset'."

"Your boys like to pretend this is goddamned Neverland," 1010 retorted suddenly angry at the persistence.

"And there was always a way home from Neverland, Tens," she replied, softly. "All you needed to do was learn the route and believe."

"One of your boys is literally a pig," 1010 snapped. "I'm surprised none of the Lokis have eaten  him, yet."

"I've been tempted," Loki offered unhelpfully.

G-6 folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air. "I don't know why you don't trust my boys, Barnes. Unless you're jealous they're winning the silver medal."

1010 shook his head, and didn't argue or reply to that. He did look upset about something, though.

"Who are - or is, I guess - your boys?" Tony asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Peter Parker," G-six answered. Tony choked in shocked recognition at the name.

"Or Peter Porker, in one notable case," Loki offered brightly.

"One of you is an alligator, you don't get to throw stones," G-six sniped at him.

"And why are they 'yours'?" Steve asked, curious.

"Well, we're all spider-bite mutations. So as far as we're concerned I'm part of the pack, even if the TVA disagrees. My real name is Gwen Stacy, but like I said, there's three of me here, so..."

"What was your turning point?" Tony asked her, curious.

"The TVA calls them 'nexus events'," Loki put in.

"I got bit instead of my 'verse's Peter," Gwen answered. "Somehow, they decided to blame me, instead of the spider. Not that I'm complaining; it gave me a headstart on the storm, which I wouldn't have had if I'd been pruned along with the rest of my timeline. It goes for the big spawns first, so whole timelines get eaten quick. Individuals - like variants who get a trial - get time to run if they're fast enough."

"I still want to know the reason for the trials," Tony muttered with a scowl.

G-6 shrugged. No one here seemed to know that, and it was beginning to bother Steve as well.

"Perhaps an illusion of due process makes them feel their cause is just?" Loki offered.

Steve folded his arms and glared at Loki. "And what would you know about that?" he asked coldly.

Loki slowly turned to face him directly. "You do realise that whatever I did to offend you in the sacred timeline, I - as a variant from half a century before it - had nothing to do with it, don't you?" he asked him dubiously.

Steve looked away, and didn't answer. He was still working on accepting the whole alternate-timelines thing. It would take time for him not to look at this Loki and see the one who invaded New York, but he was aware that - assuming everything he'd heard here was true - it wasn't actually fair of him to compare them like that.

"What did I do?" Loki asked softly. He sounded almost afraid to hear the answer. "Most of my variants here predate Tens, and those whose dates I don't know are openly hostile."

"You brought an invading army to New York City," Tony answered bluntly. "You personally made a speech about world domination in Germany, and threw me out a window in my own tower."

"That'll do it," 0042 muttered, smirking at Steve faintly.

"Ah, a typical play for power. How dull," Loki said with a sigh. "Is that all the Time Keepers wanted of me? It seems one of the few pastimes I can get away with. Do you know, I've looked back over my history, and come to the conclusion that there were perhaps hundreds  of simple little ideas I had, that might have actually ingratiated me to other sentient beings, but for some reason I never acted on them. I wonder where they could have led."

"We got hunted because you tried to rescue me," 0042 pointed out. "That's also on the 'ingratiating yourself to others' side of the equation, just so you know."

"So we can agree that we all have good reason to hate these Time Keepers, right?" Tony asked bluntly. "They stifle Loki. They tortured Barnes. Without them, my parents would be alive in at least what - what number are you?" he pointed to the Bucky with burns and a missing hand.

"Eight-oh-four."

" EIGHT HUNDRED AND FOUR PARALLEL REALITIES!  And that's just you, not counting all the other people out there trying and failing to exercise their free will, who could have helped! They have no right  to decide our fate like that! I say we give the girl here a chance, and figure out how to tear down the TVA!"

"I agree," Steve said. Unlike Tony, he wasn't shouting, but his voice carried anyway.

1010 sighed, tiredly. "If we could figure out how, we'd have done it long ago," he explained.

"How long have you been here?" 1013 asked.

"We don't know. Time doesn't seem to exist here," 1010 admitted. "It feels like years, but there's no day-night cycle to measure by, and none of us have aged. Eight-oh-four hasn't even healed from his burns, and he can't have been here less than a month. We've got accelerated healing; normally that'd be gone in a day."

"What happened to him?" Steve asked, concerned.

"I broke my hand off... to stop myself from using it," 804 answered, his tone dull and seemingly still in shock from his experience. "There were security features to prevent self-sabotage. That's how I got burned."

"Even after all that," one of the other Buckys said. "We all saw him make the run to escape the storm. Like Tens said, we're resilient even when broken."

"This is all so fucked up," Tony all but whined.

"Guys," G-6 said. "We all have the same end goal. Defeat the TVA. Let me introduce you to the boys."

---

Tony was in a state of shock when he entered the labs. They were three levels down from the atrium, and this was where all the Peter Parkers seemed to be.

"Mr Stark!" one of them shouted, causing almost all of them to stop and turn to stare at Tony.

"Wait," another Peter asked. "When are you from?"

"Leipzig airport," Tony answered.

Several Peters slumped with disappointment. One seemed only to be eight years old - that one smacked the nearest disappointed-looking one on the arm. "Don't sulk! He's still Iron Man."

Another kid approached - there were a few of him here, too - and politely said, "Don't mind them. The sacred timeline may have a lot wrong with it, but it made you a good role model for them. I'm Miles - MGM-zero-zero-two-eight. The timeline wanted me to be Peter's successor as the Spiderman, when- well, you don't need to know exactly why he moved on, it wasn't anything bad happening to him."

"I thought Tens said your group didn't have future intel?" Steve asked.

"Well, we were children when a lot of it went down," Miles said. "I knew there was an alien invasion, but with all the other weird stuff going on we didn't keep up."

"We recognised Loki," one of the Peters offered, gesturing to a couple of the others as he did so. "But we didn't want to turn everyone else against him, seeing as he's from half a century before all that happened."

"Yeah, we were a bit focused on getting home," another Peter called out.

"We could use a fresh perspective," yet another one said. "Mr Stark's a whole different person, that'd be really useful."

Tony nodded, tears welling up in his eyes, but he forced them down. "Yeah, of course."

---

"Here's the thing, Mr Stark," one of the many Peter Parkers said, as they poured over the data available in this lab. It was mostly stuff they'd learned about the TVA from the collective survivors, but some of it was just pure science theory as well. "In the timeline I'm from, you invented time travel , so the potential's got to be there even if you're from before it happened."

"Why would I invent time travel?" Tony asked. Not how. Why.

Peter didn't answer, in fact he stared off to the side like that was a very sore subject.

"No, nevermind," Tony said with a shake of his head. "It had to be bad, I wouldn't invent time travel unless I wanted to fix something unspeakably huge. Did someone blow up the Earth? No, don't answer that. But it wasn't the TVA, or you'd have said that."

"So we thought, if we could figure out time travel the way future you did- will... tenses are hard."

"This is the end of time," Tony said nodding slowly. "So the way out is actually really simple; we go back," The teenagers gathered around him all nodded. "Okay, let's get started."

---

"What is he wearing? " Loki muttered darkly under his breath, as one of his variants approached their sanctuary.

"You try scavenging reasonable clothes in this place," Pietro retorted. Both were watching the variant with caution. He was one of the boy-king's faction, but not one whom they had ever dealt with directly before.

The variant was much older - he looked perhaps close to his sixth millennium, by Loki's estimate - and held his hands up in a gesture not of surrender but of peaceful intentions. Loki didn't buy it for a second, but when the variant produced the 'peace offering', Pietro predictably caved in.

"What?" Pietro asked, already chewing on one of his treasured twinkies.

Loki just shook his head in disgust, and stepped outside to greet his variant, rather than inviting them elder man in.

"I notice you have new allies," the elder said.

Loki shrugged. "It's not as though we don't get new enemies to indulge our self-loathing just as often."

The elder snorted. "Captain America?"

"Yes, that is new," Loki admitted. "Variant zero zero zero one, you don't hear that very often."

"Did you know, our own first was the day Odin found us?" the elder asked.

Loki shook his head. "How do you know that?"

The elder shrugged. "When you speak calmly and reasonably to the TVA, they tend to tell you your life story before 'pruning' you. It was very informative, and I was happy to waste their time... such as it exists in that place."

"How did you survive to be so old?" Loki asked.

The variant smiled weakly. "Cowardice. The one time the TVA wanted  us to be brave and heroic, I hid and fled to a barren world, where I remained for millennia."

Loki nodded slowly. "Solitude," he said softly. "One of the two places you can actually hide from them."

"I wasn't trying to hide from them," the elder corrected. "I did not yet know of them. I was trying to hide from myself - metaphorically, not this-" he gestured to Loki with a vague chuckle.

Loki rolled his eyes. "And you're approaching us now, why?"

"I have a feeling things are changing, or they're about to."

Loki glanced away for a moment. "The circle closes when she reaches the end."

"Oh dear, do we have a cryptic prophecy?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Do they know about it?" the elder glanced at the doorway.

"One of them does," Loki admitted.

"Is there more to it?"

Loki shook his head. "It was more of a promise than a prophecy. I'm still not sure it's true."

"Ah. Not related to the Avengers, then."

"No. They are merely further victims of the TVA."

"And the girl on fire?"

"Pepper Potts; lover of Iron Man. I doubt she is the one they were talking about. But I suppose it's possible."

"Hmmm. Well, my king has no ill will towards your group, at this time. Perhaps we will speak again."

Loki nodded. "It was a pleasure to meet you. You're much more reasonable than the others of us that I've met here."

"Age breeds patience." It was a veiled threat, but not likely a serious one. No more so than merely existing as a variant of Loki in this place, anyway.

Loki nodded. "Safe travels."

The elder bowed more formally. "Fair winds."

Traditional old Asgardian platitudes. They meant little; mere formalities to prove they were both better than the rest of the rabble here.

The elder turned to walk away, but a voice nearby stopped him. "Wait."

Loki looked to see one of the children from the base - Peter Parker, though he had never learned to tell the variants apart - standing just outside the door.

The elder glanced back at the boy with curiosity, and the boy straightened up. "I've got a plan, but I need more Lokis to help," the boy explained. "Well, technically I need magic users at least as powerful as our Loki, but same difference here, I guess."

"And what might this plan be?" the elder asked.

"To kill Alioth."

---

Chapter Text

---

Solitude

It was a strange feeling to literally hold another version of himself, like this. Bucky didn't think he'd like it, even if the circumstances were better. Even if they hadn't been in this awkward position, just the way his future-self had fallen to his knees and broken down. Even if he didn't feel like maybe that metal arm was going to bruise a rib, with how tightly his future-self latched onto him when offered the least touch as comfort.

It was all too strange, but he didn't let go, because he knew his future-self needed it.

He carefully shifted so he was sitting, instead of kneeling, and pulled his future-self closer, running fingers through his hair in a soothing gesture, while he listened to his future-self's broken words. How much he had gone through, hoping all the while to get back to something familiar, something good . How happy he had been to find Steve. All of it echoed painfully with his own experience, even though everything from the moment he met Loki had been so very different.

He had the benefit of distance. He had already mourned his own life, and everyone he had loved in it. It still hurt, but ever-so-slightly less. Enough to make him need to be the strong one, here... which he kind of resented.

What he really wanted was to be able to break down like this, and let Loki comfort him.

But Loki walked away, leaving them alone.

After a while, his future-self gradually stopped crying... stopped shaking... and he finally spoke. "You know the best way to fix this?"

His future self jerked slightly, and looked up at him with anger for suggesting it could ever be fixed. He understood, but continued to speak regardless.

"We destroy the TVA, free the multiverse, and go steal a Steve from a timeline where we died. The more you think about the infinite nature of the multiverse, the less this'll hurt, because it's like having unlimited chances to get it right."

His future-self looked away, pulled away slightly, wrapping his arms around himself now instead of leaning on him. "It's not the same."

"I know that. I've been mourning Steve for a year, now, since the TVA destroyed my timeline. This is the only solace I've managed to find. It's what I was trying to do, when we found you, y'know - steal him. I didn't know you'd survived."

His future-self snorted, somewhere between pained and derisive. "I'm going to burn them to the ground," he growled. It didn't sound so much like he accepted the advice; more like he wanted revenge. Both were good enough motives... he only hoped their goal was possible.

"And we'll help you do it."

---

Loki checked on their prisoners, while the two Buckys worked through their immediate pain. When they found him, he was prepared for the interrogation.

"Allow me," he offered. "You are clearly emotionally compromised. We're more likely to get what we need from them if we pretend to be reasonable."

Both Buckys snorted at that, though his seemed notably less angry or distressed.

Unfortunately, the interrogation only proved that his theory was correct. These people believed they were doing something good for the safety of those in the timeline they maintained - claimed to 'protect'. They spouted the propaganda Loki had read with sincere conviction... and they had no new information on their organisation's weaknesses. They were mere cogs in the machine.

By the end of it, the other Bucky had stormed off, and so when Loki rendered the prisoners unconscious again he was left alone with his own incarnation of Bucky.

"This feels like a dead end," Bucky admitted.

Loki glanced after the other one. "Do you think he will recover?"

"No," Bucky answered bluntly. "I still haven't." Loki had no idea why it hurt to hear that. He wasn't used to feeling this way about another person. He wanted nothing more than to fix this pain, somehow.

He looked away. "I could have chosen a less sympathetic victim."

"I could have punched Steve in the face and knocked some sense into him." That was a lie, but it felt good to hear the humour however bitter. "If these goons aren't going to give us anything useful, we need to do something about them."

"I was planning to remove their memories of us, and return them," Loki admitted. "If they simply disappeared, the TVA may go looking for them."

"I was thinking more along the lines of trying to prove they were wrong, and turn them to our cause," Bucky admitted.

"You were here when I interrogated them, do you think that possible?"

"Not really. Would still feel wrong trying to just... get rid of them," Bucky admitted, shifting uncomfortably at the thought. "And what about D-10? they think he's dead."

"Ahem," another voice called from nearby.

Loki spun to face the source, and immediately cast a force-field spell to contain the man there. Then he took the time to recognise him.

"Oh, ouch, that's not comfortable," Mobius said, not so much struggling to free himself as squirming to try to avoid the discomfort such a spell inevitably caused.

"How did you find us?" Loki snarled.

"Oh, it's your standard ontological paradox," Mobius explained, too casually. "You told me where to find you, now I'm telling you that you told me."

"You work for the TVA, why would we trust you?" Bucky demanded.

"Well, I suppose tenses are important," Mobius admitted, still squirming against the spell. "There is  a me relatively now, working at the TVA - and I'm not a variant of him, either, just his future - but I've recently tendered my resignation, so to speak."

Loki and Bucky exchanged a look. "And why, precisely, are you here?" Loki asked, loosening the grip of the spell slightly, to make it less uncomfortable. Not enough to give him a chance to free himself, of course.

"To burn down the TVA. I've recently learned of a very good reason for me to want to, but I guess you two wouldn't know it yet. And probably shouldn't, because you seemed not to know it the last time I spoke to you, either."

"Meeting out of order is a basic expectation of time travel being a thing that exists," Bucky observed, much that Loki wished to assume Mobius was lying.

"Exactly!" Mobius agreed. "Look, I can take D-10 off your hands, you can go ahead with your existing plans. All I really needed to do here was tell you this one thing. There is  a way to stop the TVA. Last I knew of the plan, it was going relatively smoothly - y'know, considering the scale of things - but it requires going through the End of Time. You'll get there when you get there, no need to rush."

"And why should we believe you?" Loki growled. He was in no mood for these cryptic games, even - especially - because they were his  territory.

"Why would I come here, otherwise?"

"To rescue your soldier," Loki suggested.

Mobius shook his head. "D-10 was reported dead before I joined the TVA... for however much the relative passage of time exists there. I can't take him back there, even if I wanted to. Yes, okay, maybe - it would be nice to save that one life. Right now, any cheap win against the system would feel good. He won't be going back there, though."

"We weren't planning on killing him," Bucky said coldly. "That's not our style."

"Funny," Mobius said, glancing between the pair. "Two of the greatest mass-murderers on the sacred timeline, and you're actually telling the truth there, aren't you?"

"I believe those constraints on our actions were your people's doing," Loki hissed bitterly.

"Well, yes and no," Mobius admitted. "The TVA enforced the timeline in which those choices were made... but a version of you did  make those choices."

"I never-" Bucky began.

"Not consciously," Mobius cut across him calmly. "You never actually chose  to obey . But... when you're trapped that way, you've got moments of resilience and weakness - times when you fight and times when you can't. When those times occurred varied, and it was all in how much you fought one time, leading to being unable the next... and that  is what led to so many branches in your timeline. Of course, you always wanted  to fight, and that's what makes it so awful, isn't it?"

"How-?" Bucky asked, shaken by the truth in those words.

"I used to be an analyst at the TVA," Mobius admitted. "It was my job to know all about individuals who created dangerous variants. You two... well, let's just say I spent some time trying to hunt you, but you were always a few steps ahead. Will be, I guess."

"What changed your mind?" Loki asked.

"I found out why the TVA hold trials for variants," Mobius answered. "I'm sorry, I'm not telling you any more than that. All you need to know is it really shook my belief in the system, so here I am. Rebelling."

"Where will you take D-10?"

"If all goes as planned, the TVA will fall, so then I'll take him to a branch where he can... let's say find himself."

Loki and Bucky glanced at each other again. Bucky shrugged. "I don't think he's lying."

"I don't think he knows how to tell the truth," Loki retorted.

"It can be both," Mobius offered, brightly.

Loki chuckled weakly at that. "Fine. One wrong move, and I'll burn you  to the ground." With that, he released the spell.

Mobius shrugged and shook his head, before taking one slow and broadcast step forward.

"Alright then. We'll just be going now." He gestured to D-10, and Loki levitated the unconscious soldier roughly in Mobius' direction, so the pair fell over together. "Oof, lovely manners, there, Loki," he grumbled. "Just remember this: the circle closes when she  reaches the End. That's your window of opportunity." With that cryptic remark, he dragged the soldier away through one of those accursed doors.

---

"So there's something in these trials," Bucky concluded. He had buried his pain under rage and an unhealthy dose of the Winter Soldier's cold and soulless protocols, so that he could at least pretend to function.

He could see the way the other two looked at him, like he was a ticking time bomb. They were correct.

"As I understand it, there are three sentences issued by the judges," Loki told them, far too damned calm. "Pruning - known to be a death sentence. Resetting - considered a kindness, but probably also a death sentence. Or being sent before the Time Keepers - this is the least common, and only offered to those who show true repentance."

The other-Bucky nodded. "Loki's younger self was painstakingly polite to the judge, apologised for breaking the timeline, and got sent to the Time Keepers."

"You mean he was up to something," Loki retorted bluntly.

"Obviously," other-Bucky agreed.

"So that's how we get at these Time Keepers," Bucky insisted.

"But arrested variants wouldn't be able to get a weapon past processing," other-Bucky said, shaking his head. "They're restrained and disarmed."

"Not literally, I don't think," Bucky said coldly, holding up his left hand, flexing the cold metal fingers, before clenching the fist. "We want to get a weapon in the room with the Time Keepers... I'm our best weapon."

The other two obviously didn't like the plan, but they didn't have any better ideas, either, and Bucky would not be deterred... so, to give him his best shot, Loki did something to the TVA agents' memories, to make them forget having been captured and vaguely understand that they'd just caught a rogue variant... and then sent them and Bucky through to the TVA.

The agents quickly figured out what they were supposed to do, pretending they'd meant to all along, to avoid embarrassment. He didn't resist as they 'processed' him, and he was proved right when they didn't take his arm. He made it all the way to the judge, without showing his real hate and loathing for this entire organisation.

He tamped it all down under those ruthless protocols HYDRA had given him. This was the first time he had ever appreciated the monster they had made him.

"Variant JBB-ten-ten," the judge announced. He recognised his initials, but had no idea where the number came from. "Is charged with sequence violation seven oh-nine forty-one. How do you plead?"

"What did I do?" he asked, forcing his voice to that neutral, docile tone that HYDRA used to like to much... even if they usually didn't like questions like this.

The judge glanced at her paperwork, before answering. "You evaded capture both by HYDRA and  the TVA. The first was a crime against the sacred timeline, as you were meant to remain in their custody for the time being. The latter is just frustrating and inconvenient."

Bucky frowned, bowing his head. "Why did I have to stay with HYDRA?"

"The future of the timeline relied on you escaping at the right  time," the judge answered.

He looked up at her, slightly surprised by that, but didn't argue. "I didn't mean to break time," he said. It was true - at the time he really hadn't known the consequences. It wouldn't have changed his actions, but he wasn't technically lying... yet. "I just wanted to see my friend."

The judge's face took on a sympathetic look, and he knew he'd won. "If you could, would you undo your actions, for the good of the timeline?"

"Yes," he lied.

The judge nodded slowly. "You will be taken before the Time Keepers; they will decide your fate." With a strike of the gavel, he was led away.

He followed the guards, without protest... and when they led him to a set of golden doors and told him to go through, he obeyed.

There were two possible outcomes here; either he killed the Time Keepers, and got the vengeance he wanted... or they killed him. There was no downside, here - not now that Steve was gone.

There were no guards in this room. He knew that should have been a warning sign, but he was long beyond caring. He barely took two steps towards his targets, when he ran into some kind of energy field... it paralysed him and felt like it was burning him up.

He knew he had failed... and closed his eyes, embracing his death.

He was disappointed to wake up again, in the barren wasteland that he would later learn was the end of time.

---

"Do you think he'll succeed?" Bucky asked, as he and Loki watched the sunset on Solitude, the evening after his future-self had left them.

"Not really, but he would not be talked out of it. We had to give him his best chance," Loki answered, sounding distant.

"Do you think we'll know, if he did kill them?"

"If Mobius was telling the truth, it will be some time before we find out."

"And if he was lying?"

"Anything is possible."

"That's not as reassuring as people think it is," Bucky grumbled bitterly.

Loki chuckled darkly. "The next time we see Mobius will be as an enemy. Whether he was lying or not."

Bucky nodded slowly. That made sense. "I wish we hadn't gone looking for Steve."

"Then that version of him would still be gone, when they destroyed his timeline."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have had to watch him die. Is that selfish?"

Loki shifted closer to him, placing one arm around him. "Sometimes it's okay to be selfish." Bucky leaned against him. This was also selfish, he thought, but Loki wasn't complaining.

"I loved him," he admitted, barely more than a whisper.

"I could tell."

"I don't want to keep fighting them, I want to just stay here where it's safe... with you." He could feel Loki turn to look at him, but he didn't raise his head from Loki's shoulder. "I don't want to lose you, too."

"Good luck trying to get rid of me," Loki retorted, the turn of phrase shattering some of the tension and misery in the air.

Bucky relaxed against Loki's side, and allowed himself to take comfort in what he had, because it was better than thinking about what he'd lost.

Little did he know that one night of selfishness would lead to something they would both come to call love.

---

Chapter Text

---

The Void

The boy wanted five Lokis.

It wasn't a matter of 'five times the magical power of this one Loki he knew'. No, it was five individuals with at least that power each. The elder could easily make up that power level alone, but as the boy outlined his plan he understood the reasoning.

The plan required they simultaneously cast five different spells... from five different specialities even.

While the Loki from the heroes' faction sent messages to his two spies in the politician's camp, the elder went to find their fifth. Only one other Loki here was both magically powerful enough and capable of being reasoned with... relatively speaking.

The Reaver.

In terms of raw magical power, the elder was easily the most powerful Loki in the void, yet instead of managing his own faction he had chosen to support the child-king. The child had the benefit of tens of thousands of years  experience surviving in the void, as well as the sheer intimidation factor of his nexus event.

But the Reaver... his power was one that none of the others here had ever even attempted, nevermind mastered as he had. No one quite knew his nexus event, but there were theories. The elder firmly believed that the Reaver had learned of his sister at a young age, and followed in her footsteps.

He was a necromancer, and quite the terrifying one at that.

If it died in the void, and Alioth didn't eat it first, it served the Reaver. Sometimes he killed purely because he wanted the victim for himself. Even the grass around his fortress was dead, though given the nature of the void it didn't decay.

The only living being in the Reaver's faction was his consort, who he had by all accounts rescued from Alioth personally. The waif-like woman was one most Lokis recognised from their own timelines, but had never interacted with... Sigyn, a sorceress from Asgard who had been a few years behind Loki, in the same magic class.

Honestly, it was possible she could serve the needs of their plan, but it was not likely the Reaver would allow it... yet, he might choose to help, himself.

As the elder approached, he was flanked by guards that unnervingly reminded him of Hela's undead army during Ragnarok. They brought him to the Reaver's throne room, and he bowed to show respect.

"Why have you come here?" Sigyn asked, from her place standing at the Reaver's left hand.

"There is a plan to slay Alioth," he said without preamble. "It requires your aid."

"And why would we aid you?" the Reaver asked - his voice sounded like one imagined a corpse's might. While he was alive, he had a pallor that seemed unhealthy, and the throne upon which he sat resembled something Hela would have liked - very ominous and spiky, and... was the seat made of blades...?!

The elder shrugged. "Alioth threatens everyone here, even you. And besides... you can have the remains."

"Why would you give me that?" the Reaver asked coldly.

"The dead don't eat." It was simple, but true. The real threat of Alioth was that he devoured all he touched. In spite of Midgardian myth, only the living actually consumed in any real way; vampires and zombies weren't dead , they just passed for it to mortal eyes.

The Reaver laughed, and it echoed through the hall. "And how swiftly will you betray me?"

"I don't require your trust in the first place," the elder retorted.

"Only my magic, hmm?"

"It's not my plan."

"Whose is it?" Sigyn asked.

"Peter Parker's."

The two exchanged a look. "The spider-child has no capacity for deception," Sigyn counselled.

The Reaver nodded. "But I do." He looked up at the elder. "I will aid this plan, but any who cross me will join my army."

"I had already assumed that stipulation, yes," the elder agreed amiably.

As he left the Reaver's territory, a simple paper note appeared before him in the air, before floating down to the ground. He picked it up, and read.

'A distraction is needed for my spies to slip away.'

Well, that shouldn't be too difficult. Everyone loved a coup... maybe he could get rid of that dreadful boor in their court at the same time. He folded space to return to the court, and speak to his king of such plans.

---

It was really disconcerting to have been thrown into this scenario without warning, but Bucky thought he was coping fairly well with it all. He'd understood the theory (previously science fiction, but still) of the multiverse before, and now that they'd explain what the TVA had actually done, he understood the whole situation for the most part.

At least, the basics of it, at any rate.

But he did notice a few of his past-selves acting strangely.

1010 was angry all the time, more so than he could ever remember willingly showing like that, even at his worst.

0042 was downright aloof... except when he was deliberately trying to unsettle people with the fact he was dating the God of Mischief.

The really interesting thing was that, while the others seemed to just work together in acceptance of the fact that crazy was their life now, those two avoided each other, as if they'd somehow offended each other. Oh, they could contribute to the essential conversations together, without showing it to the casual listener... but the dislike was clear in their body-language.

But then... "What's wrong?" Steve asked, suddenly at his side.

"You mean besides this whole situation?" he asked right back.

Steve shook his head, grimacing. "You've been staring at forty-two." He seemed to hesitate - not something Bucky had ever known him to do before, but then he understood when Steve asked, "I didn't know you were..."

Bucky looked at him. Both of them clearly weren't sure how to word the question, but knew the intent either way. "I think the modern terminology is 'bisexual'," he said.

Steve glanced away, evidently uncomfortable with the subject, though whether it was from disapproval or the ingrained self-doubt of one raised to believe something they felt was wrong, Bucky couldn't tell - it was definitely one of those two, though... and he was afraid to ask which.

"Uh, well, yeah. I am," Bucky admitted. He wasn't going to lie, now that it had been brought up.

Steve snorted weakly. "You hid it well." There was a long pause, then he seemed to change track. "You know, from what I've seen here, forty-two's a high number already."

"Hmm, I've been thinking that, too... and I think I know why."

"Yeah?"

"There's a lot of times I could have told you... y'know..." he vaguely nodded in 0042's direction, rather than outright saying it.

Well, this was a painfully uncomfortable conversation.

But then when he glanced at Steve, he saw a faint smile on his face. "I wouldn't have held it against you."

In hindsight, that made sense - Steve had never been like most people of their time; he'd never looked down on anyone  for something innate about them, even - maybe especially - when everyone else did. Bucky had always hesitated to admit the truth, though, because back then they'd been told it was a choice, and an evil one at that. And he had  made the choice never to act on it, back then, too.

He was drawn out of his musings, by Steve taking his hand. "I think I am, too. I mean, I never... but, I've thought about it, and..."

Okay, suddenly this all made perfect sense, in Bucky's mind.

And there was only one right way to shut him up, wasn't there?

---

Tony had no idea how long he and the spider-family (that was what they called themselves) had been working on the time travel problem, when he called a break to clear his mind and stretch his legs.

He wandered through the base the survivors had built here, adapted from an old building that had fallen down but had a really nice basement. The fortifications up top had looked like mere rubble at first glance, but in hindsight, knowing what he now did about the storm up there, they were clearly designed to deter it, and leave only one path of approach - easy for a refugee to race along, completely absent tripping hazards or other impediments, yet equally it left a clear line of sight for those stationed in the watchtower to spot an enemy approaching.

Obviously all built out of actual rubble from this version of Earth, so as to withstand the storm.

It was a really clever setup, when he thought about it.

He found Pepper in the room the survivors here had designated as a cafeteria. She was talking to one of the Peter Parkers, nodding along as he seemed to be explaining something technical to her.

He clammed up when he spotted Tony, and made an excuse to leave... which felt really weird and awkward, but he chose wilfully to dismiss it, and sat opposite Pepper instead. "What was that about?"

"He was telling me about his timeline," she answered. "Apparently you and I lived on a small self-sufficient farm, with a lab in the basement."

Tony wrinkled his nose, wondering why on Earth he'd choose to live on a farm, but shrugged. He must have had his reasons. "Sounds lovely," he said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

Pepper laughed at him for it, and shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. It sounded peaceful."

"Hmm."

"We had a daughter, too," she added.

"Not so peaceful, then," he retorted, smirking. "When was this?"

"Twenty-twenty-three," she answered. She sounded wistful at the thought.

"Hmm, I suppose that's a reasonable timeframe," he admitted. He sure wasn't ready to settle down and have kids right away, but he wouldn't deny the possibility of it ever  happening.

"So how's the time travel thing going?"

"I'm missing something, I know I am," Tony admitted. "All our theoretical models fail on the first step, like it's really obvious and right in front of me, but I just can't seem to see it."

She leaned across the table and placed a hand on his arm reassuringly. "I know you'll figure it out, Tony. You always do."

He smiled weakly at that. He knew he was a genius, but he'd never had as much faith in himself as she did.

He hoped she was right. Everyone here was depending on him.

---

Steve was startled when Bucky kissed him, but to be honest it was what he'd wanted... he just hadn't known how to admit that out loud.

He was mortified a second later, when someone let out a loud wolf-whistle. They broke apart to see Agent Hill standing nearby. She was the one who had made the sound, but everyone else was staring, too.

"Coulson owes me fifty dollars," she told them, unashamed. "I knew you-" she pointed to Bucky. "-had a thing for him." She pointed to Steve. "It's kind of hard to miss, around here, whenever anyone says his name."

"It has been forbidden to refer to dollars as 'bucks', in this place," Coulson told them, appearing at Hill's side, and handing her the cash. "I'm still convinced that a true love for the ages is perfectly capable of being platonic. I thought Barnes was straight-" The way he said that held no condemnation, even though a part of Steve had really expected it to. "-and the fact Loki is a shapeshifter was kind of important."

"It sure doesn't hurt!" 0042 shouted across the room.

Steve stared in shock, as Loki actually did shapeshift for them all to see, striking a sultry pose to add to the effect... and, well, she was stunning. She only remained that way for a moment, before returning to his usual form.

"We all hate how cute a couple you are!" Trip yelled back at 0042. Where one SHIELD agent was in this place, the others generally weren't far behind, like their own little clique.

0042 flipped him off, unrepentant. "Well, then you're gonna hate those two even more, soon enough."

The conversation was interrupted by a call from the watchtower. It was one of the other Buckys up there, at the moment.

"New arrival! Looks civilian."

"Peitro," 1010 called immediately.

"On it!" Pietro's voice resonated oddly, because he was already running out the door while speaking.

It only took a few seconds for Pietro to return, towing a slightly dishevelled looking man in a brown suit, with a neat greying haircut and moustache.

"Mobius?" 0042 asked, as he and Loki joined the group clustered around the new arrival.

Tony, who had just wandered into the main atrium with Pepper startled. "That's it!" He snapped his fingers at the revelation that must have passed through his mind.

More than one Peter Parker noticeably flinched at the gesture.

"It's a Mobius strip!" Tony declared as if that explained anything.

Meanwhile the man who appeared to be named  Mobius, was giving 0042 and Loki a wary look. "You two."

"How'd you get pruned?" Loki asked, oddly smug about it.

"Defending one of your variants from my boss," he answered bluntly. "And maybe I also told said boss that she was delusional and dangerous, and the whole TVA is a sham, but mostly it was the first thing."

"Quite the sudden change of heart," Loki pointed out.

Mobius shrugged, glancing around the room. "Wow," he said quietly. "There's so many of you here. Weird how the TVA thinks it's infallible, then lets the people it thinks it killed survive like this. More proof they're wrong in every way."

"Another new arrival," the Bucky on the watchtower called. "This one's a Loki."

"Is he wearing a TVA suit?" Mobius asked.

"Looks like."

Mobius nodded. "That one's my  Loki."

---

Chapter Text

---

The Void

Mobius left as soon as the storm was far enough away to make it safe.

Pietro offered to go with him, just in case, but he politely declined. "No, I don't think they'd take too kindly to strangers, right now," he said by way of explanation.

While Steve took a turn manning the watchtower, he was able to observe Mobius' progress as the man found and managed to hotwire a pizza-delivery car. "Is that car native, or from a pruned timeline?" he asked.

Trip joined him to see what he meant, and nodded. "Native. Smart move, if he wants to travel here."

Steve glanced at him briefly. "So you worked for SHIELD?"

"I'm a legacy," Trip replied, smirking faintly. "You knew my grandfather."

"Gabe Jones?" When he actually looked, the resemblance was far more than just the colour of his skin.

Trip nodded, and was about to respond, when they spotted something else out there. "Those two are Lokis," he told Steve, raising his voice to be heard below, as he pointed out at the two approaching men. They didn't look like Loki, to Steve.

"Which ones?" Loki called up from the atrium.

"One has red hair, and... shit, I don't know, they both look like something out of Mad Max. I'm only even convinced they're Lokis by the cheap knock-off horns."

Steve glanced down to see Loki rolling his eyes. "I shall meet with them."

"The Mad Max lot are with the politician," Trip told Steve quietly, while Loki went to see what his variants wanted. "It's weird, suddenly they're all interested in talking..."

Steve looked over at where the three Lokis were now speaking to each other, outside. It looked like a tense negotiation, but it also looked like something they all agreed was important somehow. "I wonder what they're up to."

---

Tony knew something was up, when Pepper went topside to speak with the three Lokis. He knew it was something he'd soon regret, when a Peter Parker also joined them. The other Peters tried to distract him with the time travel problem, but he just told them, "Inverted mobius strip," and shrugged them all off.

"It will be soon," he heard the Loki from their base saying to the other two.

"Are you sure about this?" the Loki with bright red hair asked.

"I don't like it," the third Loki - who was wearing an obviously-from-Earth leather jacket with way too many spiked studs on it - grumbled. "If the boy is wrong..."

Peter nodded. "It'll work, I've run all the simulations."

A few others from the base were appearing behind Tony, now, including Steve, the Barnes from their timeline, and 0042.

"What self-destructive games are you playing now, love?" 0042 asked.

"It was Peter's idea," Loki answered, slightly defensive.

The other two Lokis pulled disgusted faces. "It's bad enough he picked a mortal," the red-haired one grumbled. "But did it have to be the most annoying one?"

"We just have so  much in common," 0042 told them, grinning and speaking loudly to be sure he was heard.

"Match made in hell," 1013 muttered, elbowing Steve.

A loud crack of what sounded like thunder in the distance startled everyone - the Lokis especially - and Tony looked to see the storm was closer now... and it appeared to be moving in on two people down on the plains.

"Is that the new one?" leather-jacket Loki asked, leaning slightly towards the red-haired one.

"I think so," the red-head replied. "And a woman."

"Finally, one of us has good taste."

"What are they doing?" Pepper asked, frowning.

They watched the spectacle play out together, no one particularly interested in looking away even to stab anyone else in the back. Just as it looked like the couple on the plains were about to be caught by the storm...

At first Tony thought it was another pruned timeline coming in, but no... he'd seen those, and this looked different. It appeared, not all at once out of thin air, but gradually building from the ground up with a flicker of familiar green light around the edges. An illusion, like the ones Loki created, but on a massive  scale.

It looked like an entire city, combining classic stone architecture and, well, honestly, the main building looked like the Emerald City all by itself.

While everyone else was completely stunned by this new appearance, he heard one of the Lokis whisper, awed, "Asgard..." So at least he had an idea of what illusion being conjured over there was of . And maybe it only looked emerald because it was Loki-magic... he'd heard Thor call it the 'golden realm'.

The storm turned on the illusion, as if it really was an incoming timeline, giving the two on the ground the chance to do whatever they were trying to do.

"Does anyone know what they're up to?" Peter asked cautiously.

No one answered.

Several long seconds passed, the storm railing against the illusion... and finally the storm won. But a moment later, it froze, a flash of green light ricocheting up through it and freezing it in place.

"I think they stunned it somehow." Tony glanced to see that that was their Loki talking.

"Perfect," Peter declared, his voice suddenly commanding and full of authority and determination that Tony had never heard in him before. "We need to act now."

"We're two short," the red-head protested.

"No, you are not," a harsh cold voice spoke from behind them. The tone was low; quiet but dangerous, and impossible to ignore.

"Shit!" leather-jacket literally whimpered, hiding behind the red-haired one, who looked just as terrified.

Tony turned to see another Loki dressed all in black (no green or gold), pale as death, with a small blonde woman on his arm. Tony got a serious Hades and Persephone vibe from the new couple... the Loki just needed blue hair dye.

"Oh, grow up," the woman told the two Mad Max looking Lokis, pointedly.

Goth Loki grinned, somehow even colder and more predatory than anything Tony had seen during the Invasion of New York. "Let us begin."

Pepper stepped forward, and Tony tried to protest but Peter grabbed his arm to stop him. "This is the plan. It's safe, I promise."

"As safe as anything with four Lokis involved?" 0042 put in unhelpfully. He even had the nerve to intone it as a question.

Peter just shrugged.

"You all know your parts?" their Loki asked.

The woman and the other three Lokis all nodded, and together they moved to stand around Pepper. It looked unnervingly satanic, the five of them forming a circle like that... and goth Loki's aesthetic didn't help. Then they each cast a spell on her, simultaneously.

Which, no. Just no.

But Tony always forgot Peter was super-strong... and the kid's grip on his arm was unyielding.

Sooner than he liked, the spells were done, whatever they had been... and Pepper ignited, soaring across the sky towards the storm.

---

"Should we-?" Steve asked.

"If Parker started it, it's a good plan," 0042 told him and his Bucky quietly. "I've never seen Reaver or Sigyn in person before, but Ginger and Spike are my Loki's spies. They've got a lot to gain from our patronage, so they're unlikely to double-cross for something like this."

"Do they name themselves or was it a group effort?" his Bucky asked dubiously.

"They usually name themselves... but there have been death matches over popular aliases," 0042 said, far too casually.

Then Pepper took off, and soared across the sky towards the storm.

Her aim was like the parabolic arc of a missile, but she stopped several feet off the ground right in the centre of the magic that seemed to be holding the storm in place, and...

It looked like a nuclear detonation.

"Pepper!" Tony cried, fighting against Peter's apparently super-strong grip.

The detonation let out waves of multicoloured - presumably magical - light as well as the raging fires of Extremis, and the storm evaporated  in the explosion. Only when the fires died down did Peter let Tony go, and then they were all racing out onto the plains.

Steve desperately hoped that hadn't been a suicide mission for Pepper - they had no right to ask it of her.

When they got there, they found three things.

The ground was covered in ash that seemed to glow unnaturally, and Reaver paused to collect some of it.

There was a golden helmet lying on the ground, and Ginger picked it up, staring at it in shock. "Old man did the heroic sacrifice..." he said, as if unable to believe it.

And Pepper was standing in the middle of the blast radius, naked. There were some black smudges on her skin likely from her dress burning up, but otherwise she appeared unharmed… and Tony didn't stop running until she was in his arms.

"What the hell?" Tony demanded of Pepper, as soon as he had ensured she was well.

"It's a simple equation, in my time," Peter told him, looking a little bit nervous. "The Sorcerer Supreme taught me essential magical theory, after... nevermind what after. Extremis is raw power, but it's uncontrolled. A one-way shielding spell to channel it outwards and protect her from the backlash; a common form of reality-warping. Magical accelerant to reduce the risk of Alioth regenerating; energy beings are particularly vulnerable to time magic. An expansion spell to increase the blast radius, because previous Extremis detonations were far too small to take out something that size on their own. And, well, the two Death Magic spells to destroy its mind and soul - very important, when it doesn't have a traditional body. The Sorcerer Supreme vehemently denies that part of the equation has anything to do with Harry Potter."

Tony choked at the last part, but seemed too relieved that Pepper was safe to argue.

"It worked," Reaver said, examining a handful of the dust with evident amusement.

"So did the reality-warping do that, or...?" Bucky asked, pointing to the gaping hole in the air, which looked like it led to a stereotypical creepy castle.

"No, that was already there," Pepper said. "I saw right before I detonated."

"I guess we ought to investigate?" their Loki suggested, though he sounded extremely reluctant.

The other Lokis looked uncertain, but Sigyn spoke up, "Yes, we should." She stepped past Pepper, waving her hand as she did so, and suddenly Pepper was fully clothed in her preferred business suit style. Pepper smiled at Sigyn, who nodded back at her.

Reaver shrugged. "Where my Lady goes..." he said, and followed.

---

Sylvie felt broken. Her world shattered.

She had won, but how much had it cost?

She hated Loki. She wanted him back.

Then she heard footsteps approaching. Of course there was a stairwell, why hadn't they seen that? And the first out through it was Loki.

But not her  Loki.

She stood, drawing her sword, but he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, and she began to realise the others filing in behind him weren't more of his variant... they were mortal, or close enough to it.

Okay, so there were a few more Loki variants, but mostly mortals.

One of the Lokis took a step towards the dead body of He Who Remains... but the pretty young witch gently grasped his hand, and said, "Not that one."

Sylvie frowned at the oddly affectionate interaction, the way he deferred to the girl's judgement. It was so very unlike the other Lokis she had met.

One of the mortal men then ran forward, and started looking through the papers on He Who Remains' desk. "Oh, this is interesting!" he declared to the others.

"Who are you people?" Sylvie demanded.

"Survivors," the first Loki who had entered told her. "And you?" he asked.

She held her defensive stance, even though she was completely outnumbered now. "I'm a Loki variant," she admitted reluctantly. It was an accurate description, even if she hated the name. "But I prefer to be called Sylvie."

That first Loki nodded. "That-" he gestured to the man at the desk. "-is Tony Stark, a mortal genius. These-" he indicated several variants of another mortal man, and single  very different man that those mortal variants seemed to choose to flank as if he were their leader. "-are some of Midgard's greatest heroes, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes." He made it clear with his hand-gestures that the single man was Steve Rogers, and the variants Bucky Barnes. "The woman is Tony Stark's lover, and a most impressive pyromancer. Where is the boy?" he glanced behind him.

A teenager peeked out from behind the mortal variants. "Uh, hi!" he said.

"That is another mortal hero; Peter Parker."

"Heroes..." she said distantly. "And why would you  associate with them? "

The lead Loki shrugged. "I felt inclined to be benevolent. It was the reason the TVA hunted me."

She frowned, looking away. Was that really all it took? Perhaps she didn't need to be told her nexus event, after all. She distantly remembered the moment the TVA had come for her... she had been playing 'the Valkyries save Asgard'... she had thought perhaps to be one, when she grew up. She felt a distant smile flicker onto her face at the memory. It would have infuriated her brother, but that wouldn't have detracted from it being a good thing . "No good deed goes unpunished," she said softly.

"Uh, guys... Peter, come here and look at this," Tony Stark called.

Peter obeyed, and stared in awe at what Tony showed him. "The TVA weren't lying about their motives, just their methods," he said quietly... fearfully.

"This shows the history of the multiversal war," Tony told them, words tumbling out rapidly. "How and why it happened, why it's gonna happen again now the victor's dead." He glanced at the body in the chair behind him. "Not that he didn't deserve it, he chose to destroy entire universes to control his own. Gwen was right, the timelines are resetting... and he's coming back."

Sylvie's eyes widened. Loki had been right.

And she had pushed him away for it... because she couldn't see past her need for vengeance. And what had it gotten her? A hollow, pyrrhic victory... and one that wouldn't last for long, at that.

"How do we stop him?" Steve asked.

Tony scanned the data in front of him. "It won't be pretty. The lesser evil's still pretty evil, guys."

Almost everyone around her frowned as if that offended them - even two of the four Loki variants - but then they all nodded to prompt him to continued.

"This guy's name is Nathaniel Richards, born in the early thirty-first century. We track the timelines where he exists... and if he makes a Big Damn Villain Speech, we swoop in and stop him. It's pre-crime, totally uncivilised, but our only shot of stopping him before it's too late. We turn the TVA's own technology around to go after its creator. No resetting timelines, just remove this one offender from them."

"And what, lock him up?" one Loki scoffed.

"We could kill him," another commented, his voice felt like nails on a chalkboard.

"The sheer resources we'd need to do either..." Tony said, facial expression zoning out as he likely contemplated that problem.

One of the mortal variants that Loki had identified as Bucky Barnes stepped forward. He was distinctive from the others by the way his metal arm was painted. "We have over a hundred variants of Earth's greatest assassin right here. I volunteer."

A few of the others like him nodded, stepping forward as well. "We've been doing nothing else but surviving here," one said.

"Got nothing much else to fight for, may as well be the entire damned multiverse," another agreed.

Tony watched them all grimly. Steve looked unhappy with the whole thing, but wasn't voicing any opposition, likely because he knew the alternatives were even more unspeakable.

"If you're sure," Tony said. "Try to come back in one piece, though, because just hundreds isn't even close to gonna cut it, you're gonna be going after this one guy for the rest of your natural life-spans, and that's assuming you only age while you're out there and not here. And I wouldn't expect you all  to go; volunteers only. We aren't the TVA, and we sure as fuck aren't HYDRA, here."

The variant of that man nearest the lead Loki - the one missing his left arm entirely - pointedly took Loki's hand, and the look in his eyes said 'I'm not going anywhere'. The one next to Steve did almost exactly the same thing.

The others all volunteered, without hesitation... even the ones who hadn't stepped forward at first did so now. Frankly, Sylvie felt slightly intimidated by their stoic determination; it was beyond anything she had seen from the TVA agents, even when she knew they had been lied to and told their cause was just - even then, they had felt simply as if they were doing the job, not embracing its cause.

This man was willing to walk through hell for the good of others, and she had an eerie feeling he already had done so before any of these variants branched from him.

She watched as Tony set up the TemPad which He Who Remains had offered to her and Loki... she frowned, and stepped forward. "You're not just going to take over, sit on the throne for yourself, are you?"

Tony positively scoffed, and the Bucky holding Steve's hand said, "That chair sure doesn't look comfortable to me." She saw Steve squeeze his hand, as if he had implied it was a source of suffering, rather than power.

But what surprised her more was the lead Loki's reaction.

"There is no throne here," he said simply. "There never was."

The man with the painted arm nodded. "Only the mission."

---