Light of a Thousand Stars

17- Calliope

"Ha! A universe based on whatever we do? Sweet!" Loki grinned, cracking his knuckles.

"Ha, not sweet," Lorietta replied, narrowing her eyes at the Asgardian. "You only have one chance- you have to make the world better now, before it's too late, and you're stuck with the same unhappy ending. And even if you guys mess up now, and the future continues to a point where you guys are born and decide to go back in time, you'll always fail. How would anything change? Heck, who knows if this event in history just creates an endless paradox of universes? You have to be careful."

Theresa glanced at the girl. "Uhm, what? An endless paradox of... universes?" she asked nervously.

Eva shrugged, almost laughing. "Hey, girl, don't let it get to you. We handle this kind of stuff every day. Or... it depends what you call a day. Nevermind. As long as we keep Loki from destroying the world himself and you stay on mission, then you should be fine. Oh, and please do stay on mission. We rather like this universe, y'know."

Loki held up his hands, hiding a smile behind his offended expression. "Hey, I promised not to try to destroy the world, remember? I was kidding, goodness..." Theresa rolled her eyes next to him, snickering. Mayday glanced over to the two, grinning, relieved that she had decided to come after Theresa with Loki. If she hadn't she'd be stuck in that other universe, that disaster of a universe.

"Uhm, just a question, but how did we even get into this universe? Like, wouldn't we have to have gone through a portal or something?" Mayday asked instead, glancing back at the girls, who glanced at each other.

"That's what the venom-monsters were. The rifts in time in space that you created by creating a paradox and forcing us into another universe if what brought them here. It's pretty complicated... How about we just blame it to quantum for now?" Lorietta explained.

Eva glanced at her, running a hand through her hair. "Wait, we didn't already explain that? Oops... This time stuff gets kinda disorienting... You never know if your future self has already told someone something that even you don't know..."

Something that Eva said seemed to set off a light bulb in her friend's head. "Oh, Uhm, I think that I mentioned this to a future version of you... don't question it... but there's probably something that you should know. Whatever you do- don't go to the future. If this universe doesn't change too much, then you'll still be born in the future, and there will be different 'yous' in the future. This isn't your home universe anymore- by its theirs."

Theresa glanced at her friend, her eyebrows drawings together. Her friend was watching the sorcerer's apprentices, questions slowly forming on her list. Glancing between them, Theresa spoke up first. "So we can't go to the future so we don't run into our future selves, right?"

Lorietta laughed nervously, glancing away. "Not exactly. I mean, the world wouldn't end if you saw them. But there's no place for you in the future now."

"So basically we can never see our parents, our other friends, or pretty much anyone else we know again?" Mayday asked, words finally finding their way out.

Eva shrugged, also avoiding the girls' eyes. "Well, based on what you do now, some of those people may not exist in the future..."

Loki laughed nervously, glancing between his two friends. "At least there'll always be two of me... the more Loki, the better, right?"