a/n: sorry for the wait again, i hope everyone who celebrates it had a great christmas, and i hope you enjoy this chapter! more to come soon<3

...

You perch on a sofa next to Loki, refusing to relax, and watch the Y/N and Loki variants interact. It's difficult to watch, because it's so clear that each of the variants from the same universe belong together.

'Resilient Y/N, what was your Nexus Event?'

You look up at Kid Y/N as she asks the question, and the rest of the room falls silent to listen to you.

'I killed someone I wasn't supposed to.'

'Who?' she probes, and Kid Loki rolls his eyes.

'Thanos,' you say, and Classic Loki chokes on his drink.

'Me too,' Boastful Loki says loudly, raising his hand. For some reason this annoys you, and you see TVA Loki smirk out of the corner of your eye.

'Yes, well, it's not a competition, is it?' the male Y/N variant chimes in.

'I'm sorry, I have to ask. Are you..?' TVA Loki asks him, pointing between you and him. The male variant of you smiles.

'I am a Y/N variant, as they say, yes. My name is Nico.'

You can't help but stare at him, and the scar which graces one side of his face. It looks remarkably like the one you'd seen on your future self, back in the time theatre with Mobius.

'What about you, Resilient Loki?' Kid Y/N asks, leaning forward. This time Loki doesn't correct the assumption that you're from the same timeline.

'I stole the Tesseract from the Avengers. The Space stone,' he clarifies, when mostly everyone looks confused.

'The Avengers. I still can't get over how stupid that name is,' Boastful Loki snorts, and everyone apart from you laughs, a twinge of protectiveness materialising in your chest. You stand up, and everyone stops laughing abruptly.

'I'm going,' you say.

'Going where?' Boastful Y/N asks, rolling her eyes.

'Out of this place. Back to the TVA,' you say, already starting to walk away back towards the ladder. You don't need to stick around to see the sympathetic and judgemental looks in their eyes.

'Loki's are as good as escaping as we are at surviving. That gives us a decent chance,' you hear TVA Loki say behind you, and you smile ever so slightly.

'You'll be murdered,' Classic Loki tells you.

'Well, so be it.' TVA Loki says firmly.

'Don't be stupid,' you hear Kid Loki say, and you turn around sharply.

'Have any of you ever heard of a woman Loki variant?' you ask. They all shake their heads.

'No. Sounds terrifying,' Boastful Loki says.

'She is. She's different. She's not trying to take over the TVA, she's trying to take it down, and she needs us,' you tell them desperately.

'You say Alioth is what's keeping us here. You said it's a shark, a living thing. Well, if it lives, it dies. So we're going to kill it, and we could use all the help we can get,' TVA Loki says, moving to stand by your side.

No one says anything. Boastful Loki shakes his head and chuckles, and Classic Y/N looks at you imploringly.

You turn on your heel and walk away, wrenching open the door which leads to the ladder open. Loki follows you.

'Monsters,' he mutters as you start climbing the ladder.

'Cowards,' you correct him as you reach the top of the ladder, shoving the door at the top open upwards with your shoulder, hard. It swings open, and you stare. Another Loki, identical to the one beneath you, looks down at you. He's surrounded by Loki and Y/N variants alike, all staring right back at you.

'What? Why have you stopped?' TVA Loki asks from beneath you on the ladder.

'Uh-' you say.

'Get back down there. Now.' the Loki above you spits. You assume TVA Loki heard him, because he descends quickly, and you follow him.

'Is that your variant?' TVA Loki whispers when you reach the bottom of the ladder.

'No,' you reply quietly, wondering whether you should feel touched that he considered the fact.

'He looks exactly like me,' Loki says under his breath, and you don't reply, unsure whether he had been talking to you or to himself.

You walk back into the main room, hearing the footsteps of the new Loki and Y/N variants close behind you but too nervous to turn around. At least you have your magic out here.

'Ah, you're back. I told you they'd see sense,' Classic Loki says loudly, twisting in his chair to look at you as you re-enter the room. You watch his face drop and then swiftly lose colour as he sees who is entering behind you.

He and Classic Y/N jump up, followed by Kid Loki and Y/N, and Nico. Boastful Loki and Y/N stay seated, watching the new arrivals warily.

'You idiots! You've led them right to our door!' Classic Loki shouts at you and TVA Loki, and you hold your hands up defensively.

'No. It wasn't them,' says Classic Y/N, looking at Boastful Y/N. Classic Loki turns to look at her too, and she sighs and stands up alongside Boastful Loki.

'You betrayed us,' Kid Y/N snarls.

Boastful Loki merely shrugs, and they move to stand with the new arrivals, who have formed a threatening line behind the Loki who looks so similar to TVA Loki.

'Apologies. I have betrayed you... but now I am king,' Boastful Loki smirks, holding out his arms.

'About that...' the new Loki muses, observing his fingernails as he speaks. Boastful Loki turns to stare at him in annoyance.

'You can't be serious,' he says.

'Oh, come on. What did you expect?' the new Loki smirks, holding out his arms as Boastful Loki had just done.

'That wasn't the bargain!' Boastful Y/N protests. 'We gave you their location. In exchange for shelter and supplies, you turn over your army and we take the throne.'

'Okay, but how about this one? My army. My throne,' the new Loki retorts.

In a split second the group behind him have unsheathed their weapons and pointed them at their leader's head.

'About that...' one particularly angry man says, his sword balanced beneath Loki's chin.

'Why you beef-witted, half-faced scrubs,' the new Loki snarls. 'We had a deal. For God's sake.'

At that moment, he spots the alligator on the floor next to Kid Loki's feet.

'Why the hell is there an alligator in here?' he cries despairingly.

'He's a Loki!' everyone behind you snaps in unison.

The alligator, who has been growling low in the back of his throat ever since the intruders arrived, choses this moment to launch an attack. It barrels forward towards the new Loki and jumps an incredible distant to latch its teeth around his hand.

The new Loki cries out in pain and flails about, trying to remove the alligator from his hand. Everyone stands still in shock and awe as they wrestle, until finally, with an awful wet, ripping sound, the alligator comes free from Loki's arm. Along with his hand.

There is complete silence as the alligator hits the floor and the new Loki stares at the bleeding stump on the end of his arm. Then he screams, and all hell breaks loose.

Weapons and spells go flying in all directions, and you get your magic ready in your palms as you watch Classic Loki and Kid Loki go charging into the fray. Someone grabs your arm, and you spin around to see TVA Loki.

You don't need to speak to agree that it's time you got out of here. You give a tiny nod, and a second later you're back above ground, back in the middle of nowhere.

Loki lets go of your arm and you turn slowly, trying to gauge any sense of where you are. You fail. In the near distance, you hear Alioth growling away, making the ground beneath your feet tremble slightly as though it too were afraid.

'So, what's the plan?' Loki asks you, and you look at him helplessly.

'How are we supposed to fight something that can't be killed?' you reply.

'No. It can be killed. I said it before; if it lives, then it dies,' Loki tells you, and his voice is full of such confidence that you almost believe him.

'We have to get out of here,' you say. 'I'll do anything to achieve that.'

'Me too,' Loki nods.

'So... what do we know about this thing? Alioth,' you ask him.

Before he can answer, five people and a crocodile materialise about a hundred feet away from you. One of them is speaking loud enough that you can hear what it is he's saying.

'Damn it. Animals, animals! We lie, and we cheat, and we cut the throat of every person who trusts us, and for what? Power. Glorious power. Glorious purpose! We can't change, we're broken. Every version of us. Forever.'

Classic Y/N reaches out to touch his arm, and presumably says something to calm him down, because his voice gets quieter after that, and you can't make out what he's saying anymore. You turn to see TVA Loki watching you.

'What?'

'Can we trust them?' he asks you.

'Them? Yes. I think so,' you reply.

'Come on then, before they disappear again,' he says, starting forward towards the small group.

'-and whenever one of us dares to try and fix themselves, they're sent here to perish,' you hear Classic Loki saying angrily as you draw nearer to the group, despite his lowered tone.

'That's why we need to get out of here,' TVA Loki says, announcing your presence to the group. Kid Loki and Y/N and Nico whip around in surprise, and you hold your hands up before they can attack you. Classic Loki shakes his head, not even turning to look at you.

'Nothing can change until the TVA is stopped,' you say, appealing to Classic Y/N, who is watching you carefully.

'And you trust her? This woman Loki variant?' she asks the two of you eventually.

'She's the only one we do trust,' Loki tells her.

'She's our only chance of stopping the TVA. I'm sure of it,' you say.

Classic Y/N turns to look at Classic Loki imploringly, and he looks back at her in such a way that it makes your chest hurt so much that Kid Loki and TVA Loki feel it too and wince.

'Okay. Okay, we'll help you,' Classic Loki finally caves, and you smile properly for the first time in days.

'Thank you,' you say, the sincerity of the statement clear from your tone of voice.

'But approaching Alioth is a death sentence. We'll get you to the beast, but that's as far as we'll go,' he says firmly. You nod in understanding, and see Loki do the same out of the corner of your eye.

'Do you have a plan?' Loki asks him eagerly.

'No,' Classic Loki says, turning and beginning to walk in the direction of the horrible rumbling sound in the distance.

'Thank you,' you murmur to Classic Y/N, moving to walk alongside her. She gives you a tiny nod of acknowledgment, smiling ever so slightly.