Sinbound: Variants

Part 13

We rush to the weapons vault amongst the wreckage of the palace. I keep close to Valkyrie, needing something real. 

"What happened on Midgard?" She asks as we round a corner.

"It's... gone. When I changed the timeline, I think I must have triggered the worst in me to come out instead of separating. It took over my humanity, and eventually my mind. I was a what, not a who. Now I know this time, though, to let the things that are supposed to happen, happen. Otherwise, literally all hell breaks loose."

"I'm sorry you've had to experience this twice now."

"Thank you, Valkyrie." I say, pausing to look at her.

"Are you doing alright?" She asks meaningfully.

"I'll get back to you on that." I say while I furrow my brow. The true answer is no, absolutely not. But if I let myself admit it, I've already failed. I have to keep my shit together.

We make it to the armory and, to my surprise, another Valkyrie is in the room. She's young, she looks about my age. "Hello?" I ask as we descend the staircase. The woman turns around, and I skid to a stop, my eyes wide with disbelief.

"Mom?" I ask, running up to the warrior. 

She hugs me tight. "I knew you'd come back around. You're looking for something, aren't you?"

"Yes but, how are you young? How are you even here?"

"This is your mother?" Valkyrie asks, pointing to the young blonde woman in front of us.

"Yes!"

"How is that possible? I've known her almost my whole life we... we helped defeat Hela during the upbringing of Asgard!"

"Mom's got secrets, that's for damn sure."

"And you've made on hell of a mess, if I do say so myself. I had to come to Asgard, that I was sure of. I knew I had to wait for you."

"How did you even get here?" I ask, confused, since the last time I saw her I figured it would be my last.

"Your mother is not as useless as she makes out to be. Did you really think I couldn't get out of that chair at the home? Well, I'm glad my illusion worked, since I fooled my own daughter!" She says, squeezing my shoulders and laughing a little. 

I look lovingly at her, as if I'm really seeing her as a person for the first time instead of just my mom. Then I look over to the infinity gauntlet, hoping that Jarvis was right about the timeline loophole.

"Oh my god..." He was right. There it is.

"So it's real? I always thought it was some dingy piece of tin." Valkyrie says, taking it out of the armor and tossing it in the air playfully.

"What better place to hide something than in plain sight, I guess. Fucking Loki..." I say, shaking my head and smiling at the thought of him switching everything out at one point and being the only guy on Asgard who knew. Well played, Loki. Well played. 

Valkyrie hands the stone to me, and I feel like I can finally breath again. "So that rock is going to fix everything?" She asks me.

"No... but it will reset things back to where they should have been. I have no idea where I'm going to start over, but I'm doing everything I can to fix things when I go back. I promise."

"Yeah, she-devil doesn't really suit you." She scrunches her nose at me, and I scrunch mine back at her. Then I turn to my mom, who's getting ready to pull me in for a hug.

"Buttercup, I know you've learned so much in your short journey. When you're done, please come visit me? And bring that Loki of yours. It will be good to see him."