~~~Catherine's pov~~~
"Remind me why Dad isn't here helping us look through this stuff?" Linda asked me from across the room, where she was sorting the various random items that littered the evidence room at the TVA.
It had only been a day since Loki had found us at this past version of the TVA, and we were trying everything to get back to the present one so that we could warn Mobius and the others of what was to come.
"He's trying to gather information," I answered, examining what looked like a jar of dirt. What was that doing here? "We know you said that Miss Minutes told you she was taking you to a past TVA, but we want to be sure she wasn't messing with us. It's kind of her specialty. Did you find anything that could get us back to the present one?
"No, but I did find this weird crystal."
"Really? What's weird about it?" I asked absentmindedly, still scanning the shelves in the room, not facing her.
"I don't know. It looks familiar, but I'm sure I've never seen it before. It's blue and like six inches long."
Her words made my blood run cold, and I quickly turned to see that my five-year-old was holding a Terrigen crystal in her hands.
"Linda, I need you to put that down. Quickly." I tried to keep my voice level, but it was pretty damn hard to in this situation.
What the hell was a Terrigen crystal doing here anyway?!
Her eyes went wide, but she listened. "Okay..." She carefully tried to place it back in the box where she found it but accidentally dropped it.
Shit.
Upon impact with the hard floor, the crystal shattered, releasing the Terrigen mist in a cloud of blue dust.
My heart started hammering inside my chest, knowing what would come next if she was exposed to it. "Linda, get away from the mist now! Don't let it come near you-" My sentence was cut short as a type of liquid rock began to cover her body from her head to her toes, completely encasing her within seconds.
No, no, no. This isn't happening.
She can't turn yet! She's not ready!
"You have got to be kidding me," I murmured, burying my head in my hands before slowly walking over to her, panicking. "Okay, so, um, Linda, I'm not sure if you can hear me, but there is no need to panic. This is normal."
That's true.
"That was a Terrigen crystal. It's what turns Inhumans and gives them their abilities. And I'm definitely not freaking out."
That is not true.
I ran my hands through my hair as I paced back and forth in front of her. "It's just that I don't exactly know what's going on here. I don't remember my Inhuman transition because my mother turned me when I was a newborn, so yeah, I have no memory of that whatsoever."
This is one of those times I really wished my mom would have waited to turn me. Or at least tell someone to do it when I got old enough. I'm sure I would be of a lot more help right now if I remembered my personal experience with it.
That's when I heard a crack from the rock that surrounded her body.
I looked closer and saw that she was slowly starting to break out of the rock.
Thank God.
"Linda?" I called out softly, seeing if she could hear me.
I got no response, but a few seconds later, the rocky chrysalis fell away like it was supposed to. What was not supposed to happen, however, was Linda being unconscious when she emerged from it.
~~~Loki's pov~~~
I've found out a few things since getting here yesterday, one of those things being, that you can use magic here.
I don't know how or why, but I tried to use my magic, and it worked.
My best guess is that this is really a past version of the TVA, and at this point in time, there were no magic blockers in place.
Finally, some good news!
But we still need to get back to the present TVA to fix things. Hopefully, Catherine and Linda found something that could help with that.
I rounded the corner to get to the evidence room and walked in. "Did you two find anything-" I cut myself off when I saw Catherine kneeling on the floor next to Linda, who was not conscious. "What happened?!" I ran up to them, my heart beating out of my chest.
Catherine turned to me in tears. "She found a Terrigen crystal, and it shattered. She turned, and when she broke out of the rock, she was unconscious. Which is definitely not normal-" She started to hyperventilate, her eyes wide with panic.
Even though I was also getting extremely panicked, I tried to keep calm. "Catherine, take a deep breath. I'm sure she's fine. Let's just get her somewhere safe, and we'll go from there." With that, I picked Linda up gently, pressing her against my chest, silently pleading for her to be okay.
After learning that Catherine was Inhuman, we realized that meant Linda was one as well. We hadn't planned on exposing her to Terrigen crystals until she was much older for her safety. Not many young Inhumans went through the transition and survived. There were only a few, Catherine being one of them.
And Linda being unconscious at the moment didn't help my nerves.
We found an empty TVA apartment yesterday while looking for a safe place to hide out until we could get back to the present. So that's where we were heading to figure out what was going on.
Hurrying into the room, I locked the door behind us, for safety reasons, and carefully placed Linda onto the bed positioned against the wall.
I turned back to Catherine, who was panicking, and decided we needed to come up with some kind of a plan or something because we couldn't just leave her like this.
"Alright, let's review what we know." I let out a breath. "Obviously, this isn't how we planned for this to happen, but there's no going back now."
Catherine finally seemed to snap out of her overly worried trance and nodded. "Right. Okay, so in 1983, when I met my mom, she told me that in our bloodline, the Inhuman women always get black magic and sometimes an additional power. Like how she had the black magic and also the ability to age extremely slowly. But there's an exception if the father's genes are dominant and override it. And seeing as you are a literal Norse god, I'd say your genes were the dominant ones here."
Makes sense. "Meaning she'll have not just one, but two completely random abilities?"
"Yes. And even though she's not conscious right now, there are a few known abilities we can rule out. Not invisibility or any other kind of physical power. It would've already been showing by now. However, that leaves the more dangerous abilities. Like Daisy's quake powers. Or Kora's ability to manipulate light and energy."
"We also need to keep in mind that when we saw her in the future, she wasn't demonstrating any kind of power. Not even when I saw her fight the Kree. She used her dagger and her magic, and that was it. So, whatever her ability is, I don't think it's anything that can be weaponized." I reasoned, thinking back to that day over five years ago.
Her eyes widened. "You're right. I forgot about that."
"You said you read the Afterlife ledgers, right? The different Inhumans Jiaying and your mother came across and their states when they turned? Did any of them come out of the transition unconscious?"
After thinking about it for a moment, she nodded. "There was one... It wasn't in the ledger, though. It was something Daisy told me about that woman we met in 2043. Robin. Apparently, she turned when she wasn't much older than Linda. And when she broke out of the rock, she was unconscious as well."
"Meaning one of two things. Either that's just normal for younger Inhumans or-"
She sighed, running her hand through her hair. "Or Linda has the same ability as Robin. I mean, it's possible..."
I was about to say something else when we heard Linda say something from her unconscious form.
"No, Grandpa, don't. Stay with Rhodey. You'll be safe with him..." She mumbled, shaking her head on the pillow.
I barely heard her, she was basically whispering, but I could make out some of the words.
Catherine looked over at me, perplexed. "What did she say?"
We both walked over to her bedside so we could hear her better. Maybe this was a sign of her Inhuman ability.
"Ultron, Strucker, Maximoffs... All connected... All have someone in common, but not anymore. Ultron got rid of Strucker..."
I furrowed my brows, recalling the events she was describing. "Is she talking about the conversation we all had the morning after the party?"
"The one Ultron crashed? I think so." A look of realization washed over her face. "And we never told her about that. So that means..."
Sighing in disbelief, I nodded. "She got Robin's ability. But it looks like instead of seeing the future, she's seeing the past..." It was then that I noticed that she was showing seizure symptoms. She was shaking, her body rigid, and breathing irregularly.
Not good.
I turned to Catherine quickly, recognizing the symptoms. Thankfully, my mother had taught me a thing or two when I was younger, and I knew what to do in this situation. "Catherine, I need you to run to the infirmary. Now."
She looked at me, confused. "Why-"
I hurried over to Linda's side, checking her pulse. "No time. She's showing seizure symptoms. Run and grab an emergency dose of Carbamazepine."
Her eyes went wide, probably thinking up a thousand more questions, but understood the severity of the situation and ran out to get the drug.
I turned back to Linda and tried to calm her down as much as possible because whatever she was seeing must have been scaring her and bringing it on. "Linda, I don't know if you can hear me, but I need you to take deep breaths. Try to calm yourself down, even if it's just a little bit."
Her facial expression changed, but instead of being calmer, it looked like she was anxious, scared even. "Uncle Thor... Frost Giants... Wait! Stop!" She started shaking her head even more at this. "Not a monster... Not. A. Monster!"
What on earth could she be seeing? Something about Thor?
"Dad, don't go down there! Don't touch it! Casket of Ancient Winters..."
That's when it hit me. She was seeing the moment I discovered... No. She can't.
Despite my denial, she continued. "Don't listen to him! Dad, don't listen!"
After that, she went quiet, and I thought the worst of it was over.
I was wrong. Nothing could have been worse than what she saw next.
"Dad, don't let go. Dad! Thanos... Maw..." Her face went white as a new past vision unfolded in her mind.
This really got me panicking because I knew with absolute certainty what came next, and I would never want her to see that. "Linda, listen to me! It's not real! It's not real!"
But not even I could snap her out of it.
She let out small cries of pain, leading me to wonder if she could feel what was happening in the vision. Because if that was the case, I needed to get her out of it before the worst could happen.
"Don't give in, Dad, don't. He can't get the stones!" With that, she screamed out in pain. "Stop! Stop it! You're going to kill him! No! No, no, no! Stop it!"
Tears ran down my face, knowing exactly what she was seeing and experiencing. I couldn't take it anymore. It felt wrong to just sit by and let her go through all that. And there was nothing I could do but watch.
This is surely what Hel feels like.
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
After a minute, I found the Carbamazepine in the infirmary and ran back to the room.
She's going to be okay. She's going to be okay.
When I entered the room, I saw I wasn't too late and handed the seizure drug to Loki, who took it and immediately injected it into her arm.
Within seconds, there was a noticeable difference. She was fully relaxed, and color had returned to her face.
I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God..." I turned to Loki and noticed that his face was wet with tears. I furrowed my brows. What the hell did I miss? "Loki, did she say anything before she started seizing? Any hints as to what she might have seen?" I asked him quietly, not knowing exactly why he had been crying.
Loki rarely cried. I think I can only count a few instances where I saw him get teary-eyed, and even less that he actually cried.
He took a deep breath before answering. "She started talking about Thanos. She kept calling out to me, telling me not to give in. I can only imagine that she saw..." His voice wavered at the end as he closed his eyes tightly.
I gasped quietly. Oh my God... She saw...
"She saw what happened before..."
I was on the verge of tears, thinking of how horrible it must've been for Linda to have to watch that. I mean, Maw showed me what happened before New York. How he tortured him...
He showed me all this during the battle with Thanos in 2023. I never told Loki that I knew, though. I wasn't meant to find out about it like that, and if he ever wanted me to know about it, he'd tell me when he was ready.
I can't even begin to imagine what Linda went through just now. Or Loki. He had to watch her reaction to it...
"She saw what happened before New York." He finished my sentence, seemingly trying to compose himself. "It's the one memory I never let you see, and I hoped I'd never have to tell her about it. But she just saw it and..." The tears came back. "And she could've died because of it. This is all my fault-"
Oh, no. No. He is not blaming himself for this one.
I shook my head. "No. No, it's not your fault. I should never have brought her to the evidence room with me. It was too risky without knowing exactly what was in there." I placed my hands on his shoulders to make him look at me. "You know she would never blame you for this, right?"
What he said next made my heart ache.
"Maybe she should. I mean, all I do is hurt her."
"That's not true!" He doesn't get it. He doesn't get how much he means to her.
"Catherine, she suffered for years here, and that's on me." His eyes held a look of extreme guilt.
"Yes, she suffered for years." I nodded tears in my eyes. "She did. But do you want to know what got her through it? You. You did. The hope that you would come back. There is no way that her being stuck here was even remotely your fault." I spoke firmly, trying to get through to him.
He needs to understand.
But he still wasn't getting it, despite what I just said. "It is. When we were sent to 2043, and I talked to her, she told me not to go to the park with her on July 20th, 2023. But I did it anyway."
Now I was getting mad. "You thought the loop was broken! We all did! You couldn't have known it would still happen after we changed the timeline!"
"Catherine-"
"No!" I cut him off, tears falling. "You don't get to take the blame! This is my fault! You may not have been here, but I was. And I didn't remember anything! And I feel like somehow that's worse. I wasn't there for her. Even when I thought I was, I wasn't." The tears flowed heavier now. "I forgot you. I forgot Linda. I forgot everything! She went through all that pain for years, and I wasn't there for her. I had no clue what she was going through. I-" My voice broke, and I started sobbing.
The sobs persisted, even when I felt Loki's arms around me, trying to calm me down.
"Hey, hey. It's okay." He spoke softly, tightening his hold on me, knowing I needed to feel safe in that moment.
"If I was just a little bit faster... Stopped them from pruning you... I should have been able to stop it! Why didn't I?" I cried into his chest, my own guilt coming to the surface.
"You didn't know what was happening. None of us could have predicted what happened next." He rubbed my back comfortingly. "But you stayed with Linda these past few years. You fought the memory erasure enough so that you didn't forget her. Maybe you forgot some details, but deep down, you still knew that she was your daughter and that you couldn't afford to forget her." He put his hand under my chin to make me look up at him. "You were there for her. Maybe not like you would have been if you remembered, but you were still there."
I sniffed back more tears. "But I'm the reason she's in this situation. I should have never taken her to the evidence room." I protested, but he wasn't listening.
"No. If I'm not allowed to blame myself, you're not allowed to blame yourself, either. For any of it. Not the park, not what happened with the Terrigen crystal, none of it." He insisted, wiping the tears off my face. "That's not what she needs right now." He shifted his gaze to look at Linda, lying peacefully in bed.
He's right.