A Truly Glorious Purpose

Chapter 1

There weren’t many things that Bruce Banner would have considered impossible. He had seen and experienced too much to wonder about things. But it had always been quite a given fact that he had been at least wary of Loki just as the god of mischief better kept his distance when it came to the Hulk. So, it appeared as the possibly strangest oddity, that it were those two who would quite enjoy working together at the Avengers compound. 

Well for others most likely. Loki felt that nothing could ever strike him as odd again. After having been captured by the TVA to learn that his path in life mostly caused devastation and death around him, including himself, having been conned into hunting down a variant of himself who turned out to be a powerful enchantress and the first person in centuries he truly cared for, joining her in a mission to destroy the TVA only to find themselves fighting in a multiversal war against a true madman. If he thought about it, even this short summary sounded like an absolute mess but truth to be told, it had indeed been a mess. 

But if there had been one good thing coming out of it, then it was change. And Loki Laufeyson had indeed changed. To say he had been humbled would have been a sheer understatement. It wasn’t so much his ego that couldn’t bear that his glorious purpose seemed to have been drenched with failure. It was more of a deep regret and sorrow he felt over his own actions and the disastrous consequences. As soon as he realized, there might be a chance to reverse at least some of his decisions, he knew he had to take it. After encountering a multitude of universes with uncounted timelines, Loki understood what he missed and what he wanted back the most – his family, friends and his home. This realization wasn’t solely based on what he had seen in the time theater, what he had read in the files, what he had heard from other variants of his or what he had seen on various timelines. It also were his conversations with Sylvie that they had whenever they had a calm moment amidst the chaos they found themselves in. It wasn’t so much what she said but more her reaction to his stories about growing up on Asgard. The concept of having a home to return to seemed more oblivious to her than it did to him. When the thought of making things right appeared to be more than a vague wish, one of his first intents was to reverse Asgard’s destruction. Not only for himself but for the people and for Sylvie. She deserved a home, one where she could be herself and that wouldn’t be taken away from her. 

Even after they realized that they weren’t meant to be together, they would always care about each other. It had been quite a painful process to realize that loving and being with each other would have always been an attempt to fix themselves. Or as Sylvie put it once ‘I’m okay now, Loki. You don’t have to save yourself through saving me from myself.’  But no matter if and how their relationship had changed, they knew they could trust each other and when Loki had decided what he wanted to do, Sylvie had been the first one he talked to. She had encouraged him to do what she felt was necessary for him even if he sometimes needed a little friendly nudge to do it.

This had been a little more than six months ago and now Loki seriously considered throwing that damn computer out of the window while Bruce fired a range of questions at the god of mischief.

“I’m sorry if I’m annoying you but there’s really an alligator variant of you?” 

“I don’t know if I should find it amusing or precarious that an alligator version of me is the strangest thing to you all.” 

“I didn’t say it was the strangest thing for me, all of it sounds very weird.” 

“It was weird.” 

“Can I ask you something rather personal?” 

“Not sure if I’m going to like this but I’ll take the risk.” 

“Why did you come back and told us what you wanted to do before you reversed certain incidents and brought back those we lost?” 

“Isn’t that obvious?”