Odin was about to light a cigarette, and Loki's lips curled into a smirk.
"Relax, brother, just a bit more, and the throne's mine," he thought.
Thor, realizing he'd put his foot in his mouth, quickly forced a smile at Odin and then turned away to avoid eye contact.
["It was an accident, I swear," Loki said with a shrug, trying to smooth things over.
The female judge, clearly unimpressed, raised her voice:
"Don't you get it? What they did was part of the plan. But you escaping? That wasn't!"
Loki kept arguing, even offering to consult with the Time-Keepera, but she shot him down without hesitation.
Usually, Loki could talk his way out of anything—his silver tongue was his best weapon. But this time, words weren't enough.
"Since you're so keen on finding me guilty…" Loki began, his confidence returning.
"Then here's the proof!" he announced with a flourish, reaching out with a Dagger aimed straight at her waist.
But the confident grin froze on Loki's face as nothing happened. He tried again—still no dagger.]
Thor burst out laughing. "Loki, you're losing your touch! Retribution for all those times you tried to stab me!"
Loki shot back with a curse, then paused, puzzled. What was wrong with his magic? This was second nature to him—why wasn't it working?
[Meanwhile, Loki's confusion amused his fellow inmates and baffled the female judge. "What's he up to? Is this his idea of a comedy routine?" the officer next to her remarked.
The female judge laughed at Loki's increasingly frantic attempts.
"He's trying to use magic, Mam," the female officer explained to the confused bystanders.
The female judge gave Loki a pitying look. "Mr. Loki, it's pointless. No magic works in this time-enhanced detention facility. You can stop your actions now."
The judge's words rippled through the room like a shockwave.]
"Anti-magic field?" Doctor Strange murmured in surprise.
He'd read about it in the ancient texts at Kamar-Taj, but even there, it was described as nearly impossible to create.
Ancient One nodded confidently. 'No, it's not about any special power.'
'So you're saying that any powerful being who enters this place becomes just a regular person?!'
Strange's eyes widened as he stared at the screen. At the same time, many of the world's most powerful individuals felt a chill run down their spines.
[The female judge didn't say much. She simply slammed her gavel down and delivered her verdict: 'This court finds the defendant guilty, and you are sentenced to reset.']
[Loki's usual composure shattered; he was visibly panicked. His millennia of experience told him that 'resetting' was far from a friendly invitation to dinner.]
[But before Loki could fully grasp his impending fate, a man in a suit with a noticeable scar on his nose stepped in, halting the reset process.]
[The man exchanged a few words with the female judge, which were incomprehensible to Loki.
After their brief conversation, the man escorted Loki out of the courtroom. They walked through a long corridor, and then Loki suddenly froze, his eyes widening in shock as he took in the scene before him.]
[It was an awe-inspiring sight, a cityscape that seemed more futuristic than anything Loki had encountered in even the most advanced civilizations.
Buildings floated above the ground, flying boats hovered at short distances, and light beams zipped through the air.
At one end of this city, three colossal statues stood like sentinels, exuding an ominous presence.]
[These were the Time Keepers of the Sacred Timeline.]
The high-ranking officials of the Nova Empire were equally stunned. They'd been working on a top-secret light teleportation project for a long time, and they believed they were on the cutting edge of technology.
Yet here, in this bizarre city, it was not only a reality but in full operation.
Even more unsettling, the city's layout matched exactly what their engineers had envisioned—a scenario that seemed almost too perfect, like something pulled straight out of the future.
[The man led Loki into a separate room to discuss what would happen next. To put Loki at ease, he introduced himself. 'I'm Mobius, an agent with the Time Variance Authority.']"
Loki listened to the man's explanations with growing curiosity. Finally, he couldn't hold back and asked, "How long have you been here?"
The man scratched his chin, looking uncertain. "It's hard to say, because the flow of time in the TVA is different from other places."
Tony made a mental note of this information, realizing that the TVA's employees might not be bound by the usual constraints of time.
Essentially, they could live without aging, an unsettling thought that weighed on him. His excitement over the new armor had faded, replaced by a deep sense of unease.
This "god-like" power was growing increasingly disturbing.
Mobius, however, didn't seem to share Tony's concerns.
[He calmly walked over to a projector and started fiddling with it, giving Loki a brief opportunity to try something.
Loki, always the opportunist, attempted a sneak attack, but in the blink of an eye, he was back where he started, his face a mix of frustration and resignation.
The time collar around his neck ensured he couldn't go anywhere without Mobius's approval.
Mobius, looking utterly composed, cracked open a can of soda, took a sip, and then spoke up. "I want to propose a partnership."
Loki, in typical fashion, immediately dismissed the idea. He still viewed Mobius with disdain.
"My specialty is tracking down dangerous time criminals," Mobius explained, his tone casual.
"Like me?" Loki replied coldly, with a touch of arrogance.
"No, no. You're more like a kitten compared to the ones I'm after," Mobius said with a faint smirk, which only irritated Loki more.
Mobius's demeanor was so relaxed and confident that it nearly provoked Loki into attacking again, but he held back. The calmness of Mobius, however, did encourage Loki to keep talking.
Ten minutes later, Mobius sensed the timing was right and activated the projector, showing a video of the Battle of New York—the moment of Loki's defeat.
"It's ironic," Mobius commented, almost mockingly, "You claim to be a natural ruler, but you fail quite often, don't you?"
Mobius was in control, and he showed Loki's embarrassing moments one after another on the monitor.
Loki, who usually had a cool demeanor, started to lose his composure and snapped back, "I don't need to keep talking to you. I'm a god."
Mobius smirked and replied, "What kind of god? The god of mischief? With all due respect, I'm not seeing much mischief here."
Mobius thought of something and became slightly excited, "Oh, wait, there's one trick you pulled off."
He then played a scene showing Loki's audacious scheme where he swindled a million dollars from an airline using a briefcase with a fake bomb.
The scene was reminiscent of a classic heist movie.
"DB Cooper's case can be taken off the unsolved list," Nick Fury said over the phone, shaking his head in disbelief.
Loki was notorious for causing chaos, and now it was confirmed that he had pulled off one of the most famous heists in history.
Fury couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Asgardians just can't stay put. Instead, they come down to Earth and rob people."
He remembered when he was just a Level 6 agent; this case had been one of the biggest unsolved mysteries. He never imagined that the criminal's disappearance was literally a disappearance.
Mobius then started a new round of verbal torture, replaying clips to break Loki's defenses. When Loki was nearly worn down, Mobius played a clip from Loki's future, a future that could have been different if not for his actions.
The scene that drove Loki to the edge was when a dark elf, misled by Loki, ended up killing Frigga, the goddess and his adoptive mother.
"Impossible!" Loki screamed, his voice filled with a mix of fury and disbelief. "This is absolutely fake! I don't believe you!"
He was either in denial or too scared to accept the truth.
"But it is true!" Mobius said sharply, not backing down. He pointed at Loki, his eyes intense and his voice cutting through the air, as he tried to force Loki to confront his role in shaping his own future.
"The flow of time is inexorable, and events will always repeat!"
"Because that's the way it must be!"
"Because there's no other choice!"
These words, spoken by Mobius, were like a chilling wind, cutting through Loki's heart and leaving countless people in the Marvel universe feeling as though they'd been plunged into an icy void.
Mobius had revealed the harsh truth about the world, a truth many had refused to accept.
But Mobius continued with words even more terrifying:
"You weren't born to be a king, Loki. Your birth caused pain, suffering, and death!"
"As it is now, so it has always been, and so it will always be!"
And what truly broke Loki's heart was Mobius' explanation for his tragic destiny:
"Because only through your suffering can others become their greatest selves."
Meanwhile, in the projector, images of the Avengers' most iconic heroes filled the screen. Their faces were resolute, their eyes full of confidence, and their skills unmatched—they were beacons of hope.
Outside the screen, Loki looked up, but the brilliance of those images was almost too much to bear.
He felt a sense of powerlessness as if his eyes could barely withstand the light.
****
Support me on my ko-fi account and read upto 15 early chapters,
https://ko-fi.com/aayume