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Setting right her mistake or their mistake as Loki called it, had become a rather tedious task. Not because of the constant jumping between timelines across the multiverse or facing countless variants of Kang, not even the dead hours of waiting for another anomaly to show up. It was about the teammates.
For most of her life, Sylvie had been alone, worked alone, and survived alone. Loki had been a gift, a hard one to earn and keep, but she was grateful he was by her side. In fact, if it wasn’t for him, she’d probably never had gotten mixed with so many… heroes.
At first, it was just the two of them, she and Loki, when Strange found them. Alongside the sorcerer supreme was Wong and the young boy, Peter. Then came the guy with the metal wings and the shield with another who Sylvie thought was his boyfriend, he had a metal arm; Sylvie couldn’t remember their names as she hardly ever crossed words with any of them. There was also Shang Chi, the guy with the rings on his arms, and his friend, what was her name? She couldn’t remember either. As for Wanda, both were intrigued by the other’s magic powers but neither had reached to talk yet. Sylvie felt curious about Yelenna too, she didn’t talk that much and was very straightforward when stating her thoughts. And there was Pepper too, she was always kind to everyone, even to Sylvie. Pepper wasn’t a hero per se, there was an issue Sylvie didn’t quite catch about her dead husband but she knew almost everyone there and visited often with her daughter. So there were the kids too, Wanda’s twins and Morgan, Pepper’s daughter. Perhaps there were even more people around but Sylvie didn't know, there were far too many people already and she barely talks with any of them.
She wandered along the halls of the sanctum sanctorum, looking at the relics, the pictures on the walls until she reached the stair to the main hall. She leaned over the rail and looked down. Everyone was there, in small groups, chatting and laughing. She didn’t want to join, she didn’t feel like she belonged. Still, Sylvie knew that this was how it’s supposed to be, how teams work, how families work. From all her years jumping from one apocalypse to another, she had never belonged anywhere, it didn’t matter to her, the place was going to perish anyway and no one would ever remember her. Even if she had had a family at the beginning, it had been so many apocalypses ago that she feared she would never be able to form that kind of connection again. She had Loki, of course, and Mobius, but that was only two, not the crowd gathered down on the hall.
The kids’ yelling echoed down the corridor and a few moments later, the three of them came running to the stairs, laughing and panting from their race. Billy was the first to run down the stairs, Morgan ran after him and Tommy was the last, but only for a split of a second when he decided to run down at full speed passing beside them. The violent gush of wind unsteadied Billy and Morgan and they missed their next step, starting a free fall directly to the ground. Sylvie reacted fast, in the blink of an eye she was at the top of the stairs, she wouldn’t reach for the kids in time, so she went for the telekinesis stretching her hand, holding Billy and Morgan at mid-falling. Still, her magic wasn’t that good yet and she struggled unable to put them down. Sam came in an instant and picked up the kids on his arms, putting them down safely
“Good job, enchantress,” he teased her with a kind smile. She didn’t react and walked down the stairs just as Wanda and Pepper gathered.
“Enough running,” Wanda nagged at her twins.
“And definitely not running on the stairs.” Added Pepper. They thanked Sylvie and Sam for their aid and left to their business.
The kids shifted on their spot uncomfortably, with pressed lips and sad faces.
“So the games are over,” said Sylvie behind them, and when the three turned around to look at her, she extended her palm casting colorful fireworks and the kids dropped their jaws in awe.
“Our mom has magic too, but she’s never done that!” Said Tommy excited, the lighting of the fireworks glistening in his eyes.
Remembering the words Loki told her once, Sylvie extended both of her hands together and after concentrating a moment, she managed to cast a very realistic but small green frog that croaked faintly. The kids cheered and Sylvie approached Tommy, signaling to extend his hands too. He did it and the frog leaped from Sylvie’s hands to his. The boy gasped in excitement and his smile grew wider.
“I want to hold it,” said Morgan next to him, extending her own palms. The boy turned to face her and when their palms were close enough, the frog leap again this time onto Morgan’s hands. The kids screamed again and soon was Billy’s turn to hold the frog.
“Can you make another one?” Asked Morgan.
“I can try,” answered Sylvie unsure.
While Billy was still holding the frog, Sylvie concentrated her magic again but as a second frog appeared in her hands, the first one that Billy was holding disappeared into a green shimmer. The kids yelped in surprised and even looked a bit disappointed.
“Loki is better than me at casting illusions,” Sylvie answered a bit embarrassed.
“Will he show us?”
“Where is he?”
“I’ll go find him!”
The air ruffled around them when Tommy rushed at full speed looking for Loki all around the Sanctum Sanctorum. The group remain speechless, blinked a couple of times, looked around clueless and Tommy was back suddenly.
"He was talking with Mr. Strange, but he said he'll be here soon."
And he did, as soon as Tommy finished his sentence, Loki appeared next to them in a green flash.
"What's going on?" He asked, but the kids were already squealing at his magical entrance.
"I was showing the kids some illusions."
"She did the fireworks!"
"And a frog!"
"Oh! Can I see?" Asked Loki gratefully surprised.
"Yes! Yes!" Celebrated the kids. "Show us again!"
Blushing slightly, Sylvie cast again the colorful fireworks and then the tiny green frog.
"You've been practicing," said Loki amused.
"Only a bit. I can't cast more than one frog."
"Oh, we can't have that!" Loki complained playfully, shaking his head. He raised one hand in the air, with a twist of his wrist, ten small frogs appeared from a green mist and jumped around the kids that screamed in surprise. They rushed to try to catch one, and when they touched it, the frog disappeared just for two more to appear right next to it. As the kids laughed and squealed, playing to catch the jumping frogs, soon the hall was filled with them, croaking and jumping around.
"You think you can turn them into flowers?" Loki suggested Sylvie in a whisper.
She didn’t answer, but focused on the frogs jumping at her side, looked at them intently, and concentrated her magic. She made a move with her hand, one frog turned into a small daisy, then the one next to it, and even a third one, but when the fourth frog transformed, they all vanished into thin air. The kids were shocked at the sudden disappearance. Sylvie huffed in frustration.
“It’s okay,” Loki rushed to speak. “There we have it again,” and with a similar move as before, he made the swarm of frogs reappear in the hall.
“I’m no good with illusions,” Sylvie complained crossing her arms on her chest.
“Maybe you could use a little help?” He asked offering his hand. Sylvie hesitated for a moment, but the kind smile Loki was giving her managed to soften her mood and she accepted his offering placing her hand into his.
“We better sat down,” and they did.
Sitting on the first step of the staircase, holding hands, each of them stretched their free hand and a green shimmer lighted on their palms. The frogs started shining, they grew in size and suddenly the main hall looked like a meadow covered in daisies. The kids screamed and kneeled on the floor to touch the flowers.
“Turn them into something else,” he encourage Sylvie, and she did. With another twist of her wrist, the flowers seemed to levitate and then turned into butterflies. The kids were hysterical looking at the multicolored bugs winging around them.
“What about…” Said Loki transforming only half of the butterflies into bubbles.
“Let me,” intervened Sylvie and she took half of those bubbles and turned them into frogs again.
The kids were laughing and screaming happily, jumping to pop the bubbles, trying to catch the butterflies or the frogs. And every time one was caught, they would giggle as their transformed back into flowers in their hands.
“I knew you could do it,” whispered Loki by her side.
“Because we’re the same?” She mocked at him making him laugh.
“No. Because you’re amazing,” he said with soft eyes and a prideful smile.
They looked at each other fondly, forgetting for a moment where they were, forgetting the kids, the illusions, the people, and even the war. There were only the two of them there. And that single moment, was enough for Sylvie to feel her chest filled with a strange feeling, something she have felt so few times before but Loki had summoned it up more often these days. His constant presence, support and, reassurance confirmed Sylvie that nothing would ever matter, nor the wars or the wandering around timelines, nor the people she might find or lose on the path, not even the enemies she might face. It didn’t even matter the place or the time, as long as she had Loki by her side, every place, every timeline, and every moment, she’ll feel at home. As for Loki, the way his own eyes flickered mirroring Sylvie’s gaze, she knew he felt the same. Their hearts beat at the same peace while they drown in each other’s eyes.
The crack in the fabric of reality made the Sanctum Sanctorum tremble, all the magic users felt the disturbance. Sylvie and Loki rose up releasing their hands and breaking their bond, but it was too late, the cracks had already begun to spread. Everyone jumped on their feet, watching in despair as the cracks opened, giving ways to other dimensions and spaces, dragging away all the illusions on the hall into another dimension through the cracks. A soul-sucking-wyvern tried to cross from another dimension and Shang-Chi quickly punched it back, but it was Wanda who stepped into the middle of the disaster invoking her chaos magic and quickly healing the cracks; Just as Strange arrived.
“What happened?” He roared demanding an answer, but there was only silence. “Someone messed with reality, everyone felt it. I bet it was you two!” He said glaring at Loki and Sylvie. They stuttered trying to come up with an answer but ended up just frowning. “We’re supposed to keep reality and timelines safe until the multiversal war, that you two provoked, is over. But we can’t do it if you keep messing with it.”
Rage arose inside the accused and they glared back at the sorcerer with vile in their eyes.
“Stop nagging them, Strange. They didn’t mean to,” said Wanda stepping forward.
“Yeah, the guys were just playing with the kids,” added Yelenna and the rage inside Sylvie began to subside.
“I’m sure they’ll be more careful from now on, right?” Asked Wong lightly.
“Right,” answered Loki with gritted teeth, forcing his own rage to subdue.
“Fine,” was Strange last word before turning around to leave the hall.
“Is he always so cranky?” Asked Shang-chi.
“He’s been under a lot of pressure lately,” said Peter.
“Just like the rest of us,” complained Bucky.
“It's fine guys,” Wanda reassured them. “Don’t take Strange too seriously, and thanks for playing with the kids. It’s been a while since they had so much fun.” She offered them a kind smile and walked away with the twins.
Teamwork is hard, Sylvie thought, and maybe these heroes weren’t that bad. She may even begin to talk to them.