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Loki climbed up the ladder and out of the bunker, risking a glance back as she opened the ceiling hatch as quietly as she could.
The bunker was large, a few broken chairs dotted to one side facing a makeshift throne, many trinkets adorning the living area, as souvenirs they were souvenirs and not just pieces of rubbish that had been found.
As soon as the click of the hatch reached her ears, Loki turned back and left the bunker, climbing out into the cold.
Old Loki, The Boy-King and even the alligator had been good to take her in, even if she was one of them, but she couldn’t stay here; there must be a way out.
Sylvie needed her back at the TVA, and Loki had gone and gotten herself pruned. She had to get back.
She went for a walk to clear her mind, although it was sure to do anything but.
There were so little stars in the void.
It was a cold night, and the moon was lucidly hung behind dark clouds, a few stars sprinkled here and there across the vast sky. It was almost scary, Loki would have thought, if she thought of things like that.
But to feel fear she’d have to care about her own wellbeing first.
Loki walked with her hands in her pockets, climbing over ruins and other strange decrypt objects scattered across the grey dirt ground.
But then, the smoke of a bonfire reached her. Wondering who (or what) was hiding out in the cold to camp, she followed the grey stream of smoke for a while, trying to find the source.
Soon, a slim, hooded figure came into view, hunched over the flames and trying to warm themselves.
“Hello?” Loki called as she neared the stranger. “Who’s there?”
The was a gasp and the hooded figure turned quickly, the flash of a blade rising in defence. Loki quickly held up her hands in surrender.
“I mean you no harm!” She called.
“Who are you?” The voice was soft, stern and quite possibly female. “Surely not a Loki variant? You don’t even have horns.”
“I am actually.” Loki tried not to snap. “And I did not have a choice in my clothing.”
“Oh really?” The voice was a little warmer now, slight amusement in the tone, and Loki sagged a little in relief.
“Well, you sure sound like a Loki variant, even if your wearing one of their uniforms. You must be new here.” The stranger beckoned Loki towards the fire. “Come sit down.”
“Who are you?” Loki echoed the stranger’s question as she complied, closing the distance between them and taking a seat on a nearby rock. Now she had a closer view of the stranger, she saw the good and cloak she wore was of the darkest green.
Cautious hazel-green eyes watched Loki from over a dark scarf tied over the lower half of the stranger’s face. She wore fingerless gloves.
“I’m Sif.” She said quietly, turning back to tend to the fire but keeping an eye on Loki.
“Lady Sif?” Loki questioned in surprise, somehow managing to keep at least 90% of her excitement out of her voice. She had wondered if she’d see a version of the shieldsmaiden around here but had long since lost hope.
“Yes?” Sif replied, not sounding surprised by Loki’s excitement. “Do you know a version of me?”
“Oh yes.” Loki replied, her voice just above a whisper. “I do, indeed.” Far too personally.
“Huh. I knew a version of you too, of course. But he was usually a man.” A dark eyebrow raised as she gestured vaguely at Loki.
“Oh, well,” in a fluid motion, Loki shifted into male form. “I’m both. It depends on my mood.”
“Fascinating. Most of your kind around here are.” He couldn’t tell if she’d said it sarcastically or genuinely, but her eyes watched him intently.
Shifting back to her preferred form of the current moment, Loki tilted her head at Sif curiously. “What are you doing here?” She asked.
Sif grunted. “Same as you. Trying to survive.”
“How did you get here?”
“You really aren’t too bright, are you? We all ended up in the void for the same reason. I was pruned, Loki.”
“Alright, alright I get it. You don’t want to talk about it.” Loki waved her hands around in surrender to hide the slight blush at the way Sif had said her name. It has been so long.
She wondered where her Sif was at this moment, if she was alright.
“I didn’t say that.” Sif replied. “I have, after all, invited you to my fireside. Firesides are for talking, you just have to ask the right questions.”
Loki raised an eyebrow. “What was your nexus event, then?”
“Ah, now that’s a question I’ll consider answering.”
“Will I have to wait very long?”
“What, is there somewhere you need to be here at the end of the world?” Despite the banter, there was a slight sadness Loki didn’t miss at the end of her words.
“My nexus event,” She said, to change the subject. “Was stealing the Tesseract. But I was pruned whilst attempting to defeat the Time Lords. Can you best that?”
Sif laughed. “I think the word you lay far too little emphasis on is attempting, dear. None of us would be here if you’d succeeded.”
“Are you going to tell me yours?”
For a moment, there was silence. When Loki opened her mouth to fill it, Sif spoke.
“I was there in time to stop you throwing yourself from the Bifrost.” She watched Loki closely for a reaction.
Loki was careful not to give one.
“I jumped off after you and grabbed hold of you. You were so shocked, you teleported us away from there and to safety. But apparently me saving your life wasn’t something the universe had planned for us. The TVA came to collected us both.
“At first, we planned an escape, broke out of our cells, found each other and tried to get a tempad. We let out all the other inmates in the process, hoping that would buy us time.” Her jaw tightened at the word time.
Seems to be our worst enemy in every case. Loki thought.
“There was a fight.” Sif continued. “I was pruned. I don’t know what happened to you.
I’ve been here ever since.”
Swallowing, Loki looked to the ground. “You should have let me fall.” She said quietly.
“Oh, shut up.” Sif replied, somehow lifting herself from her gloomy reverie again.
“That was what my Loki said too. It wasn’t your choice to make. I’d do the same again.”
“You would have been free, Sif.” Loki said quietly. “You could have had a life away from this TVA madness, you could have been happy! You could have lived.”
She hated the way she choked on her words. “No version of me would have been worth this.”
“Yes you would.” Sif replied instantly, and didn’t elaborate. Eventually, a soft smile touched her lips as if remembering a distant memory. She was very pretty when she smiled. Loki decided every Sif variant must be stunningly beautiful.
“Did you fall off the bifrost too, in your timeline?” Sif asked.
“Yes.” Loki replied softly.
Sif’s eyes narrowed. “Where was I?! Don’t I exist in that timeline? I figured I did, when you said my name in such shock.”
“Of course you exist. You…weren’t there. You were on Midgard.”
“At a time like that? What was I doing there?”
You betrayed me. “You were saving Thor.”
“By the Norns, you two both required rescuing at the same times!?” Sif tutted disapprovingly, a smile in her voice. “What would you do without me?”
It was hard for Loki not to return the smile. “Aye, we’d barely make it past being adolescences I’m sure. What…where was Thor in your timeline when this happened?” She asked. “Wasn’t he banished to Midgard? That’s how all of it started after all…”
“Oh, yes, he certainly was.” Sif grumbled. “But you came to your wits and brought him back to us after I advised you too.”
Could so many things have been different if Loki had just listened to Lady Sif when she came to him in the throne room all those years ago? Loki suppressed a shiver. She didn’t want to think about it.
“Thanks.” She said. “For falling for me.”
To her surprise, Sif grinned. “It’s a surprisingly easy thing to do, love. But I was happy to do the literal one for you too.”
They sat there talking and tending to the fire for a long time, before eventually they both fell asleep under Sif’s coat.
The next morning (or perhaps a hundred later, Loki thought dryly, as time was so inaccurate here) Sif offered Loki a ration of dried meat she had with her and Loki graciously refused in more then little disgust.
Covering the signs there had been a fire, Sif packed up her things. “I have to move.” Sif said, just as Loki expected she would. “Not safe to stay in one place for too long around here. Where will you go?”
“I want to get back.” Loki said quickly. “Out of the void, I mean. I…I left someone behind at the TVA. I promised I’d help them defeat the timekeepers.”
Sif chuckled. “Ooh, you’re gonna defeat the timekeepers after you ‘get back’ are you? You’re an ambition one. Heh, they never learn.”
“I will get back.” Loki said determinedly. She was going to say you should come with me, but she knew Sif well enough to be certain she’d refuse. She wondered about the variant of herself that had been saved by Sif, only to be brought along into the next hell and dragging her along with it.
Sif gave a wry smile. “I don’t suppose you’ll join me then? You seem very loyal to the idea you have a say in what happens to you next.”
“I don’t believe in fate.” Loki said firmly, shoving her hands in the pockets of her ugly brown jacket. “And if I am being controlled by a predetermined force, then no more. I’m going to change it.”
Sif looked at her for a long time. Then she leaned forward, kissing Loki’s cheek gently. “I don’t think you can change fate.” Sif whispered in her ear, and Loki felt her heart drop.
“But,” She added. “You sure as Hel can try.”
Loki watched her walk off into the ruins of decrypt objects scattered across the grey dirt ground that was the end of the world.
Turning around, she headed back the other way.