Those three words gave me strength. Those three words allowed me to stabilize myself and concentrate my power. Those three words snapped me free of the Mind Stone. Those three words destroyed me.
My only other father figure, gone because of me. Because I was not strong enough to resist my own selfish desires. It was not fair. It was not right that a man who cared for everyone other than himself should be taken, because I cared only about myself. The universe seemed to be laughing at me.
I fell to my knees wailing, not realizing I dropped the pearl and ended the call with my mother. Each tear held more pain than the last in the vain attempt to express how I felt. No one checked what was making that awful, dreadful sound, not with the wailing and moaning of the demons being torn apart by the Sea of Chaos outside. I wanted to join them. I wanted to feel my soul being ripped apart, but I did not believe it would be more painful than how I felt. I was already torn to shreds.
I hugged myself, but it did not bring the comfort or closure I needed. Even though I knew it was the cancer that eventually took him, I blamed myself. He stopped fighting when he was getting better because of me. Another person I loved dead because I am a monster.
Cien once told me not to be afraid of pain, of emotion. I denied it. I said I was not afraid. Why would I be? But I was. I was afraid of being hurt. I was afraid to feel. I was afraid that if I allowed myself to feel I would hurt others. Not any longer. I embraced it all, the emotions I felt, all the pain surrounding me. For the first time since my father died, I acknowledged that my biggest fear this entire time, was myself. For the first time since being a little girl, I allowed myself to feel my own emotions and not suppress them. At the time I saw myself letting go and letting the emotions flow as a weakness, but I know better now.
Standing up I took a shattered breath. Having no more tears left to cry, my eyes were completely dry. I was nowhere near done grieving, but I had to get up and do the next right thing, and that was getting to the TVA. I was free of the Mind Stone, but I was going to carry through with what I had started. My father would not die in vain, my grandpapa would not die in vain. I would finish the job and help others not to feel the pain that was beating in my chest.
In my mind I formulated a plan, a dangerous guilt-ridden plan. Picking up the fallen pearl I stuffed it back in the bag and headed back to the throne room. Set was back on the throne and it seemed that Loki and Titus were having little to no success convincing him to give them the stone.
".... You've been making some valid points and offers, but I'm going to have to refuse," Set was saying and was about to say something else when he saw me.
His smile wavered and a look of shock crossed his face for a moment before disappearing. I mean, I do not really blame him; there I was storming in looking like a battle ready wailing banshee because of the kohl running down my face. I looked pretty deranged and dangerous.
"You've stabilized yourself faster than I had thought. Good for you, I guess. However, like I was telling your friends, I'm not going to be giving you the stone . . . What by my mother's starry elbows are you doing?!"
I half charged, half stomped up to his throne, grabbed him by his neck and yanked him off. He did not deserve that throne anyway (just look up the mythology about it, I am not wrong). Set was a very powerful being, but he did not try to fight back. I think he was more shocked than anything else.
"You're going to give up the stone with no strings attached, you got it?"
Set laughed despite my grip around his windpipe, "This is cute and all, but I have more control of my powers in the Duat than you do. I can easily turn you into sand and blow your parts across existence. I can overpower you and throw you into the Sea of Chaos. There are so many things I can do to make you suffer. With that in mind, what's going to stop me?"
"Listen to me you little wretch," I growled, tightening my grip around his neck, "I just learned that my Grandfather is dead. So if I were you, I'd humor me. You don't want to feel the pure anguish and grief that is trapped inside of me. Trust me. The last person to have the misfortune to feel it is no longer alive to tell how it felt. Believe me when I say you will not survive. I don't care how this might affect time and this dimension. I'm way past caring about the consequences. So, I'll say this again. Give up the stone."
I slammed him against the scarlet floor, putting my foot on his chest to keep him still and from trying to get away. I willed the emotional power inside me to build up and my eyes began to glow. Up until that point Set had been smirking, but when he realized that I was serious he began to hyperventilate and his eyes bulged. Loki and Titus backed away as fast as they could in case I actually did it. Loki knew exactly what happens when I lost control. Evidentially so did Set.
"Alright! I yield! I yield!" He cried.
I let the power ease inside of me calming my emotions then took my foot off his chest. I grabbed him by the neck again and yanked him back to his feet. Set beckoned for a demon and had it go retrieve the Reality Stone. I kept a good grip around his neck and paid close attention to his emotions to make sure he was not up to any tricks. The demon quickly came back with a box inscribed with Norse ruins. Once the demon gave the box to Loki, I finally let Set go.
"Well, to be fair the Reality Stone doesn't really belong to me. I saw some Asgardians bury it and as soon as they were gone, I dug it back up. With every intention to return it, of course. Now if any were to ask after it again, I can put the blame on you three. This is really a win-win. Of course, I need to tell you to get out of my palace this instant. No hard feelings I hope."
"Don't worry," I said, "We were just leaving."
Loki gave me a strange look as we hurried out.
"What? It worked didn't it?" I asked defensively.
"I never said it didn't. Just glad it worked. Now we need the TVA to come along."
"Well, let's hurry them up," I said.
The faster they came the sooner I could grieve...and put in motion my plan motivated by depression.
We put as much distance between us and the Sea of Chaos as possible, before implementing the next stage of the plan. At least what we had planned in advance, most of this had been done on the fly so that the TVA did not arrest us before we wanted them to. Loki made the Reality and Mind Stones disappear into a magical pocket that the TVA could not breach. I gave the Time and Space Stones to Titus who then disappeared. We planned that Titus would think about our exact time and location whilst going through time and space to alert the TVA of our presence there. Also, it served as a way to get the stones away from where the TVA could get them.
No sooner than when Titus had left, we were surrounded by armored time police with all their weapons pointing at our faces. I was both relieved and disappointed that none of the people that had come to arrest us were ones I could recognize from the night of my father's death.
The same woman that had tried to arrest us at the headquarters stepped forwards, "Put all your weapons on the ground and put your hands in the air. This time no funny business, you hear?"
Loki set down all the concealed knives and daggers on his body, and I just laid myself down on the ground.
One guy wearing a helmet that obscured his face asked, "What are you doing? Stand up."
"You said put all your weapons on the ground. I'm a living weapon but you told me to stand up, so it's a catch-22," I said innocently.
I know, I should not have been joking around especially with how much pain I was in. I joked because it hid how broken I was at that moment. (Even if the joke was not good at all, I'm not very funny when I am depressed.)
"No joking around now. Stand up and put your weapons that are not a part of you on the ground," The woman amended.
With that corrected statement, I did as I was ordered. They collected our weapons and patted us down before cuffing our hands behind our backs. I do not know what the TVA used to travel through time and space, but they did whatever they did, and we were promptly taken to TVA headquarters.
TVA headquarters was . . . well it . . . it had . . . it was a headquarters and the TVA worked from it. Look I am sorry, but it was so strange with so many things going on that a single mind cannot wrap itself around it. Forget about describing it. I am great but I'm not that awesome. The most important thing you need to know is that where we were was the TVA headquarters.
Even with how weird and complex the place was I probably would not have paid much attention to the details if I could. Right then walking towards us was him. The man I will never forget. The man who made me feel like a monster for so long. The Justice that had come to arrest and execute my father.
****
Justice Peace's perspective...
I took the latest time criminals to get tried for their crimes. Like always I reviewed their crimes and the most relevant events that led to their criminal activity. Though it was added work, I also reviewed their past, so I knew them better. However, I was only able to look over Loki Friggason's entire life history before I was called to take them. The girl I did not know much about, though the name did ring a bell.
When they came into sight, I was not prepared for what was there to greet me. As soon as she saw me the girl gave me a look of such hatred, such loathing, that it made my skin crawl. I have never seen anyone have such an intense lust to kill someone in their eyes before. She was terrifying with Kohl running in tracks down her face, but her eyes were still perfectly lined with the Kohl, making her bloodshot eyes stand out. I could tell that she normally looked beautiful and still did, but at that moment her face was mauled with hate. She cleared all emotion from her face and eased her stance as if nothing had happened.
Speaking to Loki in a freakishly calm voice she said, "Let me kill him."
"No," he said simply.
"Come on. Not even mostly dead? He won't be fully dead, just mostly."
He gave her a look and she stopped asking. Again, I was struck with a sense of déjà vu feeling that I had met this woman before but could not recall where. I could not dwell on that though. I began the normal procedures marking things off a list I had with me. Well, I say normal but these variants were anything but normal. The woman was not even a variant from the Sacred Timeline but from a different dimension entirely different. Due to impacting a different dimension's timeline, we have to be careful with such criminals. Could not prune them immediately or have them go through the normal process. Luckily the TVA did have protocol for such circumstances. It was annoying, but there was order.
"All weapons detected and confiscated?" I asked.
"Done," was the response from Justice Love who was sent to apprehend them.
"Health status?"
"Measured, they both seem healthy."
"Any time travel items on their person?"
"Not that we could detect. They sent them away before we apprehended them. We are still trying to find and confiscate them."
"Alright, get them into the prison uniform and bring Deadpool. We will question all three of them then put them on trial," I decided.
"Right away, Justice Peace."
Justice Love tried to move the prisoners, but the woman absolutely refused to move an inch.
"Justice Peace? Really? Peace? To think the man who ruined my life with violence is called Peace. How ironic."
I stared at her dumbfounded for a second or two trying to find her in my memory but drew a blank.
I tried not to show my confusion on my face, but somehow she still knew, "You don't remember me, Justice? I guess you wouldn't. You didn't care what happened to me then, how can I expect that you will remember or care about me now?"
"Move," ordered my partner, Justice Love.
"Well, you will, eventually," she said then finally moved.
As they walked away her hair moved slightly revealing a mark on her neck. Seeing the mark, I realized that things were far more serious than I thought. I had made a serious mistake.
****
'Justice Peace.' I finally had a name for the face, but it did not give me any satisfaction. 'Justice Peace.'
I partially laughed to myself at the irony of it all. Of course, it was Justice Peace, the renowned hero of the TVA. The hero of time marked me as a monster and a murder. That did little for my self-esteem or helped how I felt at that moment.
Loki and I were temporarily separated so that we could change into TVA prisoner jumpsuits. They took away my clothes, and I had no idea where they were taking them. I doubted I would see them again, but I hoped they were not being taken to be destroyed. That armor had been passed down for generations. Strangely they let me keep my owl headdress which did not go with the prison outfit at all. I was glad to have it, nonetheless. I was also able to clean up my face, so it was not obvious that I had been crying.
When I was reunited with Loki, Deadpool was also there. He also kept his head wear, but I have a feeling that he would have found a way to keep it even if the TVA tried to take it. We were marched to three separate interrogation rooms and my hands were chained to a table while my feet were chained to the floor. I say interrogation room but it was labeled as 'Time Theater 26'. I knew it as the place they tried to interrogate me though, so it did not matter what they called it.
I do not know how long I sat there, staring at the blank wall across from me, but I welcomed the silence, the solitude. I was alone since getting the stone from Set, and yet I did not give myself the chance to grieve. I did not know who or what could be watching me and I was not going to show anyone other than myself and those I loved such raw emotion. The TVA did not have the right to see my true feelings. I also figured that it would not be long until someone came in to interrogate me.
I was right, though it was some time before anyone came in. I mean it could have been little to no time at all or it could have been years. This is the flipping TVA we are talking about here. Justice Peace was the one who came to interrogate me. He barely sat down in the chair when a faceless dude came in and interrupted the interrogation before it even began.
Now all you rabid comic readers out there are probably about to correct me on my terminology of the faceless dude, I know that is not what they are called. I just do not remember, and I just don't care. Please and thank you, I will continue calling them the faceless dudes.
Justice Peace looked at the faceless dude, "I haven't even started the interrogation of the criminals yet."
The faceless dude revealed no emotions and just stood there. I think staring at us, if they could stare. I honestly do not know. I also do not know whether or not they can talk. I have not heard any one of them talk yet.
"Alright then," Justice Peace began to uncuff me from the floor and table.
"Something wrong, Justice?" I asked.
"Nothing. We are just going to skip the interrogation and lead you straight to the trail. Maybe you can plead yourself innocent."
****
Loki had no idea where they took Alita, but he was put into a small theater room to just be promptly moved into a dining hall/lounging area of some sort filled with men. All of them were wearing TVA prisoner jumpsuits. There were not nearly as many convicts as there were in the Asgardian prison, but he knew that time crimes were a rarity in and of themselves.
A few looked up at him giving him a variety of reactions but for the most part they kept their reactions to themselves. Once he was uncuffed, he made a search for a specific prisoner. Deadpool was not hard to find. His red mask stuck out like a sore thumb in the crowd.
"Look who it is!" Deadpool cried, "Isn't it the guy who has a crush on the Tesseract himself. Who are you planning to be stabbing in the back today? Probably let the TVA capture you. That was dumb of them," Deadpool looked to the side addressing what seemed to be someone invisible. "If Loki gets captured it's probably because he has something mischievous planned or many mischievous things planned. He has a plan within a plan within a plan. You can never trust Loki or his motives, that's what makes him so fun!" Deadpool looked back to Loki as if that little narrative never happened, "So, why you here Loks?"
"So, that's what she meant by breaking the fourth wall," Loki muttered under his breath but Deadpool managed to hear him.
"Oooh, there's a she now. Who is she?"
"An ally of mine who happens to be here too. We were arrested together, but you wouldn't know her. Her name is Alita Renate, but I'm not here to talk about Al. I'm here because I need the Soul Stone."
Deadpool did not seem to hear the part about the Soul Stone and cried to someone all the way across the room, "Hey Gregg! Shaun's daughter is working with Loki! The TVA just arrested them both!"
Several heads popped up, but one guy with a tattoo that said 'bite me' on his bicep hollered back, "You for real? Little Al? Bring the Asgardian over here. I have some questions for him. I want to know how he was able to manage it."
"What are you doing?" Loki hissed, "Did you not hear what I said? I'm not here for ideal conversation. I'm here to negotiate for the Soul Stone."
"Oh, I know, and I'll give it to you, but first you need to entertain me and my acquaintances," Deadpool said cheerfully. "And I do know about Al. Never met her, but I met her daddy along with several other people here. We are special cases see, not your normal variant. All of us not only managed to mess with the oh so Sacred Timeline of this dimension, but messed with someone else's as well. And no one has messed with multiple timelines and dimensions as much as Cien and her family does, and they do it with style. Most of us are here because of them. They guys would be very interested in how you two got involved with each other."
Loki wanted the Soul Stone as soon as he could, but Deadpool did not seem to want to follow his schedule. Loki knew he would have to be patient. He let Deadpool guide him to the other side of the room where a group of men were huddled around a set of grungy couches.
"This here is Gregg. He knew Al's father better than anyone here. He has also been here the longest or shortest, time isn't really a real concept here," Deadpool indicated to the man who shouted earlier.
Gregg scratched the stubble on his chin, "Was sentenced to be blasted by the retroactive cannon. It's basically a weapon that blasts you out of existence from every reality, universe, dimension... you name it. You cease to exist. You never have existed, and you never will. It's a brutal sentence. I was bothering the TVA enough that they were really tempted, but I managed to weasel my way out of it. Instead, I'm sentenced to be here until I die. Much better than being erased from history ay? Word to the wise. be careful to not tempt them to use it on you. There is no return from the Ret."
"I have no intention to be erased from time," Loki said.
"Smart move, but how do you know Al?" a man with a magnificent goatee asked. "How did you both get arrested?"
"I was just thinking that. I mean you would have to pull out some pretty big stops to convince Alita to leave her dimension," Gregg agreed
Loki smirked, "A mix of her lust for revenge and the power of the Mind Stone."
"Nice," One guy said appreciatively.
"For the most part, she wanted to leave. She wanted to make the TVA pay."
"I didn't realize that she had such a hate for the TVA. It must be pretty powerful if she was willing to leave her dimension with the danger it puts her in. The TVA placed a very secure stay at dimension arrest on her and her family. They don't have the right to do it, but they did it anyway. To leave and come here would have put her at risk for the TVA to use the ret cannon on her," Gregg said.
"Wait, what?" Loki was shocked, "What do you mean put her at risk?"
Gregg did not seem to hear him. He was looking at the very far end of the room focusing on something not a single of them knew about except him. Deadpool, while Gregg was occupied, tried to get more personal information from Loki and details of his crimes and exploits. The other inmates became more aggressive with their questioning and their challenges that he mostly refused. The reason why they were imprisoned by the TVA quickly became apparent. Several of them were completely deranged, and more and more people kept coming and increasing the numbers in their group. Deadpool kept on bringing more people in the group making it pretty rowdy.
He said to Loki in a low tone so that only the two of them could hear, "This is how you are going to get the Soul Stone from me. You're going to help me start a prison riot."
He went up behind a cyborg and said pointing to Loki, "See him there? That's Loki and guess what he just called you? He called you a-"
Deadpool said several choice words that are not to be repeated. It caused the cyborg to fume and sparks seemed to fly.
"What did you call me?" the cyborg demanded.
Loki smiled knowing exactly how to play him, "You heard the man, but I guess what they say about light is true. Light travels faster than sound, which is why you seemed bright until you talked just now. Even a deaf man would know what I called you, if they had paid enough attention."
"Do you know who you are talking to?" the cyborg growled. "I am Malevolent, all others who portray such evil traits are named after me. I am why that word came to be. I have leveled cities with my bare hands! I'm the monster that makes children fear to sleep! I would have ruled my universe were it not for those pesky TVA. So what makes you so special that you feel like you should challenge me?"
"Well first of all, I am god and a king. Second, I was not insulting you, I was merely describing you."
Malevolent's nostrils flared and he looked absolutely livid, "If you are such a powerful god, a king then prove it to us. Show us what you are worth. We all know what you truly are. You are a fraud, Loki Friggason. You're a measly small Frost Giant trying to pretend to be an Asgardian. Pretending to be a king. Pretending to be a god. Pretending to be something you're not. We all know what you are!"
Malevolent charged at Loki causing the crowd around them to back away for the fight to commence. Loki sidestepped the cyborg's charge and grabbed him by his nonmetallic arm. Swinging Malevolent around and snapping his arm, he did not even have a chance to land a punch on Loki. Loki kicked where the light does not shine, then slammed him to the ground. However, the cyborg was not that easily defeated. He landed a punch against Loki's jaw with his metal hand. They wrestled back and forth with Loki mostly taking the lead and causing the most damage.
Once more Malevolent tried to charge Loki. But when he hit Loki, he was not there. Instead Loki had been waiting for him to charge into his illusion so that he could trip him up. Malevolent could not stop, could not turn and fell into Loki's trap colliding with the floor hard. Loki in one graceful move pinned him to the ground and brutally ripped off Malevolent's metallic arm and left foot. Dropping the robotic limbs, he placed his foot on the cyborg's chest keeping him down.
"I'm a god you dull creature, and I will not be treated lesser by pitiful vermin such as yourself. Learn your place, before I have to teach it to you again," he picked up the detached arm and showed it to Malevolent. "If I have to teach you that lesson again, it will be a bit more lasting and painful."
Loki removed his foot and looked around, it looked like Deadpool had riled others to fight each other. TVA agents swarmed the room trying to create order. Two of them yanked Loki away from Malevolent while the rest either tried to calm the inmates down or carried Malevolent and his parts off to the medical bay.
The TVA agents who grabbed a hold of Loki marched him to a cell with only a cot, toilet and sink. They left him there leaving him to wonder how exactly he was supposed to get the Soul Stone now. After some time Deadpool came into Loki's cell with no sign of an escort.
"Well that riot is keeping the TVA busy for a little bit but they will be here any second so I'll have to be fast," Deadpool said. "See I know I told you that I would give you the Soul Stone after you helped me start the riot, but I need more than that. You need to help me with one more thing."
"Listen here Deadpool, you said just the riot and that has made my chances of escaping much harder. I have no idea why you wanted it but I do not care. I upheld my end, now you uphold yours."
Deadpool looked to the side again talking to someone who was not there, "What Loki does not know is, I have slipped the Soul Stone in his pocket ages ago. Let's see how long I can drag this out before he realizes," Deadpool looked back at Loki with a smirk in his eyes.
"You . . . You do realize I heard everything you just said, right?"
Deadpool said some choice words, "This place is so annoying! Usually when I break the fourth wall and talk to my adoring audience everything else freezes around me."
Loki pulled out the Soul Stone from his pocket. First checking that it was indeed the actual Soul Stone, he stored it in the same space pocket as the other Infinity Stones.
"I got what I came for. Thank you, for your cooperation."
"Well I had wished this would be more of a mutual relationship, but you had to end it quickly didn't you? Well I got news you are not going to like to hear. You know Alita? According to some inmates that have been here for a while, her sentence has already been decided, in fact it was decided before she even set foot here. She is sentenced to death by the Ret."
"You must be wrong. Al cannot be killed. It's impossible. I need her to live. I need her...."
Loki did not know what else he was going to say. As the months had passed, Loki needed Alita for more than his weapon. He viewed her as more than that. He knew she was more than that. He had grown attached to her. She had become his friend. Someone he cared about, but he did not want to admit it to himself. He could not admit that he truly cared for someone. It would just hurt him, like it hurt him to ponder how his mother felt when he abandoned his family. Like it hurt him to fight Thor. He could not afford to care for someone even if it was as a friend. And yet he still felt for her.
He thought back to what Al had said about how one would have to get the Soul Stone from Vormir, a soul for a soul. They may not be on Vormir, but the Soul Stone was going to take its price. It was going to take what he cared about most at the moment. It was going to take Alita from him.