Loki

Chapter 4A: The Nexus Event

A young girl in the palace of Asgard sat by herself on the steps, playing with her figurines.

"The dragon swoops towards the palace, the Valkyrie flies over, defeats the dragon, and saves Asgard." She played.

A Time Door opened behind her. Three figures emerged, TVA Minutemen. The Hunter at the lead, a dark-skinned woman with curly hair, pulled out a Tempad.

"There's our Variant." She said. The other Minutemen immediately moved into action to sieze her. "On the authority of the Time Keepers, I hereby arrest you for crimes against the Sacred Timeline. Reset it."

"Wait!" The girl screamed as the lead Minuteman pulled her through the Time Door. The other Minutemen bent down to the toy boat and other figurines and set the Reset Charges, demolishing any trace of them existing.

The young girl emerged through the Time Door with the Hunter. She was walked down to a service desk. To the side, a man was brought in as well. Grunting in pain as he was being strong armed and battered by the TVA soldiers.

"HELP HIM!" The girl screamed.

The Hunter ignored her cries and dragged her off to the TVA screening rooms. After a series of proceedings she was escorted by the Hunter into the courtroom.

"Next case." The judge announced.

The young girl bit the Hunter in the arm, then proceeded to step on her foot. The Hunter cried in pain. Taking advantage of the distraction she escaped from the Hunter's grasp.

"Next case!" The judge demanded.

"Right here!" The Hunter exclaimed but it was too late.

The Hunter looked down at her waist to realize something was missing. She looked up to see that the young girl had taken her Tempad and was already pressing buttons on it. A Time Door emerged. The girl looked back defiantly at the Hunter before eventually running through it.

***

Judge Renslayer took a deep breath in then out as she rode the elevator up as if to calm her nerves. As she entered the room her breath was reduced to a tremble. There they were. Sitting in front of her on their thrones. The Timekeepers.

***

Mobius paced outside of the elevator. Mobius ran to it in a haste as the doors opened.

"What'd they say?" He asked Ravonna immediately as she exited. "Are you okay?"

"No, no, Mobius. I'm not." Ravonna said frantically. "Under the best of circumstances, it's jarring to stand before the Time Keepers. And this is not the best of circumstances."

"Yeah, but they can't blame you." Mobius said.

"They can and do." Ravonna iterated. "The Variant was right here. What if she got to the Time Keepers?"

"I know, but she didn't." Mobius said.

"No, but she got away." Renslayer said. "Along with the Variant that I gave you permission to bring in here."

Mobius averted his eyes.

"Do you have any idea how impossible it is to keep the timeline stable?" Renslayer said. "The Time Keepers are all that stand between us and full-scale calamity."

"And I'm glad they're on our side." Mobius said. "But if they want me to find Loki and the Variant I need access to Hunter C-20."

"I'm sorry, but that's impossible."

"Look, when we found her she kept saying "It's real. It's real." over and over. I need to find out what that meant and what else she saw when she was with the Variant." Mobius said. "Look I know there's protocol but she could have information-"