Echoes in Time

Betrayal

"I'm glad to see you waited for me..."

OB looked on in utter horror, his eyes filling with tears and his heart with dread.

Standing in the doorway, hands on hips and looking triumphant, was a battered and bruised Sygn. Despite looking like she had been in a war, she stood defiant and as arrogant as ever. She grasped a shred of what looked like Elli's jacket in her left hand. Seemingly unaware of it until he stared, she glanced down at the still smoking strands.

"Oops!" She smiled and dropped it onto the floor, wiping her hands on her trousers. "Now," she straightened her jacket and ran her hands through her hair, "time to go back, I think."

"Where... where is Elli? " OB pulled his mind into some kind of order and tried to look beyond her into the void. Sygn moved, blocking his view. "Sygn... Where. Is. Elli?" he repeated slowly, deliberately.

She crunched her way across the debris and held out a hand. "Come on, do your thing. Get us home." Her expression was one of triumph, OB's one of utter despair. Poor Elli. It had all gone so horribly wrong. He'd never anticipated her being killed, not really. But then he'd never anticipated Sygn's involvement at the end, either. Now? Now she was gone, and this... this... creature.... was about to inherit her world. Her love. Loki.

"I... I'm not sure the Tempad is working..." he stammered, playing for time. He pretended to press a few buttons, but she grabbed it out of his hands.

"You're in shock. Give it to me. What are the coordinates?"

"09.02.19.81." He said quietly.

"Nice try." she smiled and entered the numbers. "Now, what's the rest."

"Rest?" he sounded as innocent as he was guilty.

"Yes, the rest. There are 10 numbers in the code. Don't play games with me, OB, or I'll leave you here." She rounded on him angrily, snarling into his face.

OB looked at her. Should he lie, change the last set of numbers? Should he send her somewhere else? What would be the point. She would still have the tempad, and he would be stuck here. She'd work out how to get home eventually. Him, on the other hand? He'd be marooned at the end of time.

He decided the choice was there was actually no choice.

"43" he said quietly, "it's 43". His head drooped. She could see he'd been beaten.

"Thank you. Now, come on. It's time to go back." she dialled the last number, and the doorway opened. She smiled a cold, calculating smile that made his blood run to ice. What was she planning? He dreaded to think what she would make Loki do next, for if ANYONE could make him do anything, it was her.

She indicated for him to go first, holding out her hand like some kind of evil usher. OB sighed and nodded. With a final glance to the doorway to the void, more in hope than expectation, he walked across. "Let me have the Tempad Sygn..." he asked gently, smiling at her. She frowned.

"Why the Hel would I do that?" she retorted, "How do I know you wont send me to some god forsaken place and wait here for HER?" she shook her head. "No, I keep the tempad. You do what I say. That's how this is going to work." She paused "But 10 out of 10 for trying! Now, come on, my future awaits."

With that, they walked through the portal and it closed behind them with a gentle whoosh.

The fight on the loom's bridge had been short and painful, the two women barrelling into the energy ribbon as it surged and exploded above their heads. Sygn had been thrown unconscious to the ground, Elli on top. She'd scrambled off, grabbed the loom and the wayward strand, a pain unlike anything she'd ever known surging through her. As the world around them collapsed, she screamed and screamed. Every memory she possessed flooded her mind, images flashing before her. Her Grandmother, waving to Loki, Grant picking her up and taking her to safety, Mobius and OB, all raced across in front of her in milliseconds.

She briefly had that "moment of clarity" when she knew this was it. With her life flashing before her eyes, she didn't have much time left. With the last of her strength, she summoned the face she knew she wanted to die seeing. Loki. His long hair streaming in the wind, his eyes trained on hers, standing in his full Asgardian battle armour, the God he was. The God she'd had wanted to make hers. As the pain built and the loom and strand pulsated harder, she drew them together, holding them tightly with a final scream that almost tore her in two, they fused. A final explosion of light and stars and she was thrown clear. The fully bonded - and boosted - timeline now retreated and merged back into the main loom.

Ellie lay on the ground, broken. She was dying, alone and so very afraid. "Oh Loki..." she whispered, "I love you... I always loved you... be happy my love... I love....." her eyes closed and she said no more.

On the other side of the multiverse, Loki heard someone call his name. Before he could respond, it was gone. Carried on the wind.

For a moment, the little work room was completely still, only the humming from the void breaking the silence. The gentle glow of the loom flickered and danced in the dark, the timeline stabilising even more. Elli had done her job. Occasionally there was a small eruption but it was quickly absorbed and the glow was never in any danger of becoming explosive. If someone had been there to see it, it might have reminded them of the aurora that lit up the night sky on Midgard. If someone had been there to hear it, it might have sounded like the hum of a billion conversations on a million worlds.

Someone was there to see it.

Someone that had opened her eyes, gasping a breath in as she woke. Someone who crawled, broken and bleeding, along the bridge on hands and knees, eyes blinded by tears the whole way. Someone who was desperate to get back and stop what - who - they knew was coming. Someone with the courage and strength of a millennium of life lived for this very moment. Someone like Elli.

She reached the room, collapsing in the doorway, exhausted. She lay for a moment, catching her breath. Her chest burned with the pain of a thousand breaths, her arms and legs with the pain of a thousand cuts and bruises. Her heart with the pain of losing her love. For now, as she saw the empty room, she knew she'd been beaten. Sygn had won.

She sat up, leaning against the desk. Ironic wasn't it, the very thing she'd saved would be her undoing. Time. She would lose her mind because of it. Sitting here, at the end of the cosmos, just waiting alone to die. As she became hysterical, she started to cry again. Picking up a shard of glass, she started to slowly and carefully cut her wrist. It was blunt. The bloody TVA had bloody safety glass.

"Fuck!" she screamed "FUUUUUUUCK!" hurling it away, she sat back and banged her head against the desk. She couldn't even die on her own terms. She slithered down onto the floor and curled into a ball. "Loki... please my love... don't let me die alone... I don't want to be alone...."

As she closed her eyes and sobbed, there was a flash of light above her. She didn't move, it was only a branch recalibrating. As she lay she heard his voice, clear as day beside her. Keeping her eyes closed to prolong the dream, she heard Loki whisper.

"Oh Elli, my darling girl, whatever made you think I would leave you to die alone? It's time to come home."

Hands pulled her up, arms enveloped her gently and the voice whispered in her ear. Elli smiled gently, she could even smell his leather armour. It was just her mind, calming her before the end. A beautiful dream of a beautiful God.

Or so she thought.