Chapter Text
A strange incident happened while Loki worked for the TVA, that he avoided thinking about too much.
It was another boring day learning about how the agency worked. Sacred Timeline this, Time Keepers that, Miss Minutes’ delightfully annoying voice driving him slowly insane. The God of Mischief, stuck in an office like some stupid intern, in that stupid ugly uniform, rotting his brains out. He hated it.
It seemed like any other normal day until Mobius interrupted his nap on the desk to tell him there was a situation that he might want to know about.
“Did you find something about the variant?” Loki asked, instantly jumping up.
“Were you asleep just now?” Mobius questioned.
“Not the point. What’s the situation?”
“There’s… a woman here. She claims she wants to see you”
“Well, I don’t want to brag but I do have that effect—”
“No, Loki, she’s saying she’s your wife. Her name is Sigyn, ever heard of her?”
Loki’s jaw dropped. His what?
“I-I don’t have a wife” he babbled “Never had, never will have, marriage is a ridiculous waste of time, and you can’t trust anyone, this woman is clearly—”
Mobius took a deep breath and slammed his hands on the desk.
“Listen sweetheart, I don’t care about your depressing love life, but this woman is a variant. She’s responsible for a Nexus event”
He looked around a bit. There were a few people around on the office, but they were too concentrated in their own tasks to pay attention to them.
“She seems…oddly harmless. I managed to convince Renslayer to let us talk to her instead of pruning her right away. We need to understand who she is, and if she can do something for us”
***
Mobius took Loki to a corridor he had not seen yet. It was on another floor – although Loki had no perception of how tall that building was, he had a vague idea that the elevator went up a few floors. It now seemed like they were stepping onto an old-fashioned Midgard hotel, with a stained carpet and tacky wallpaper, badly illuminated by some lamps on the walls.
Room 404. A wooden door, with silver lettering and a shining knob. Mobius tapped his pockets for a few seconds, before finally finding some keys.
“Why do you still use keys and locks? Isn’t it a bit primitive?” asked Loki “For an agency dealing with time travel, the TVA is very nostalgic about 1960s Midgard”
“Well maybe the Time Keepers have a weird sense of fashion, I don’t know” replied Mobius “You’re not in a position to judge them, Mr. Reindeer Tiara”
“It’s a helmet”
Mobius proceeded to fit one of the keys into the lock, but Loki stopped him, slapping his hand before he could turn the handle.
“Isn’t it a bit rude to just walk in? Shouldn’t we knock? I mean, she’s claiming to be my wife, I need to cause a good impression”
“What happened to ‘marriage is a waste of time’?” Mobius rolled his eyes and opened the door.
Loki had no idea what to expect to see in that room, but surely it wasn’t that.
They were standing in a sunny field, with flowers growing all around. Sunflowers, tulips, roses, daisies, lilies, and many others, in different colors, like he had never seen before. In the distant horizon, a city rose from the ground, with wooden buildings and a huge palace in their midst.
Sitting on the grass was a very pale woman with dark brown hair. She wore a light green dress with some golden jewelry, and was staring at the flowers, a distant expression in her face.
“What’s this?” Loki turned to Mobius with a puzzled expression.
“It’s a cell, only in disguise. We use them with more… emotionally unstable guests, this landscape comes straight from her head. Right now, she cannot see us. There’s a barrier right here, see?”
Mobius extended his arm forward, and his hand was suddenly pushed back by some invisible force.
“She was crying all the way here, barely could stand up, screamed and tried to fight our agents… what can I say, I pitied her” continued Mobius “She called some names we didn’t know and then she called out ‘Loki, Loki!’. That’s how we knew she was important. We tried interrogating her, but to no use; all she could do was cry and scream at us, until…”
He paused, looking down at his feet. Loki raised an eyebrow, concerned.
“Until what, Mobius?”
“Until I promised I’d bring her husband to her”
Loki crossed his arms angrily.
“Well, I’m not her husband, so that was just a cruel lie, Mobius. And I am not just some pretty object to be used in your negotiations either, I am a god and…”
“Just shut up and behave, okay? Whoever she is, she clearly cares for a Loki, and it might even be the one we’re looking for, so don’t screw this up”
Mobius took a step forward, carefully crossing the invisible barrier, and gestured for the god of mischief to follow him.
“Sigyn? It’s me, agent Mobius. I was talking to you earlier today, remember?”
The woman turned her head to him. Her nose was reddened, and she seemed sickly. She did not give much attention to Loki.
“Yes, Lord Mobius. Good to see you again” Sigyn said, her voice sounding as fragile as her looks.
“I promised I would bring you your husband, and well… here he is”
Loki waved awkwardly. He had never seen that woman in his life.
“Hi. I’m Loki of Asgard”
Sigyn squinted.
“No, you’re not”
“Why do you say that?” he inquired.
“The real Loke has hair like fire. And is much slimmer”
Loki felt insulted. Did she just call him fat? Also, him, a ginger? Disgusting. What would the god of mischief look like without his beautiful dark hair?
“Well, your Loki might be a redhead, but this Loki is not” Mobius carefully said, walking closer to the woman.
“What do you mean? I know my husband” Sigyn replied, her look turning from curiosity into distrust.
“This is where things get complicated” murmured Loki.
Both men sat down next to her. The god of mischief quietly cursed the grass for prickling him, and he felt like a child sitting in his mother’s garden ready for a lesson, but lady Sigyn did not look very welcoming at that moment, even if she was very pretty.
“You see, Sigyn—” Mobius started, but was quickly interrupted.
“Lady Sigyn. I am ásynja and I expect more respect from midgardians like yourself”
“My bad. Lady Sigyn, I am very sorry to tell you, but the world is more complicated than you think. In fact, there are many different worlds, all of them with different ramifications of actions, and not all of them are fit to exist”
The woman seemed even more confused. Loki sighed. If she as Asgardian as well, maybe he could be of help.
“My lady, think of this: there are many different worlds other than our own. Like Yggdrasil holds the nine realms, there are countless other trees, holding countless other realms, in the unimaginably bigger forest that we call The Universe” he said “Sadly, most trees have been poisoned, and must be cut down from the garden. All of its realms and worlds will be destroyed, in order not to poison the healthy tree”
Loki smiled to himself, proud of that brilliant analogy. Sigyn was still not convinced.
“You are mad men, and liars. There is only one Asgard, and I know only one Loke. And you are not him because…” she paused for a bit and grimaced “Because he’s gone. Ragnarök came for us”
“Oh” Loki murmured.
Mobius rubbed the bridge of his nose, clearly tired of having to deal with so much Old Norse nonsense for so many years.
“Listen, my lady, I know this all may seem very confusing, but are you absolutely sure that your husband is dead?”
Sigyn paused for a bit again, as if deciding if she should be hopeful or not.
“If you are asking me if I saw him die, then no, I am not sure if he is dead. But Ragnarök destroyed everything…except for me. And I did what I did to try and stop all this madness, so if you have seen my Loke, I would be incredibly happy to know it”
Loki and Mobius exchanged a worried look. So far, Mobius thought that her Nexus event had been hiding and surviving Ragnarök. What had she actually done, then? They should be incredibly careful, Mobius thought, something about that small lady made him think she was far darker than they imagined and—
“What are you talking about? What did you do? How did you survive bloody Ragnarök?!” Loki blurted out, throwing all discretion out the metaphorical window.
“I do not want to talk about it” Sigyn replied, crossing her arms, and turning her back to them. When she spoke again, her voice was shaky “I’m done with questioning. When, or if you have my husband, let me know”
Loki opened his mouth to speak again, but the look Mobius shot him made him give up. He was terribly curious now, maybe morbidly so. What kind of horrible world did she come from?
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll come back later” Mobius finally said and got up.
The god of mischief lingered a little longer, staring at Sigyn for a few more seconds, before deciding it was best to leave her alone.