Family is for all time, always [1]

Making a plan

~~~Loki's pov~~~

I remembered everything.

I remember that day at the park. I remember what I told Linda before I was pruned.

When I was pruned back in 2023, I transferred myself to an alternate timeline's past version of myself. Much like how I can transfer myself into an illusion of myself, except real.

I knew about that timeline because when we went back in time to get the infinity stones, I saw that version of me before he took the Tesseract and disappeared. It wouldn't be possible for me to have transferred myself unless I had made contact with another variant of myself. Which I did. 

That timeline was significantly different than my original timeline.

In my timeline, I wasn't taken back to Asgard. I stayed in the tower and became a part of the team. There I met Catherine in 2016. We were married six months before Thanos, and a month later, we found out about Linda. Thankfully, we weren't snapped. Linda spent the next few years on various assignments with Catherine and me. Including a very long and tiring time travel mission with Coulson's team. Ironic, isn't it? Three months later, we decided it would be a lovely day to go to the park.

It took so long for me to remember everything because the 2012 variant of me hadn't met Catherine yet, and I stupidly chose to take the Tesseract, resulting in me being taken to the TVA, and the memory transfer was left incomplete.

Seeing Linda made a lot of feelings resurface, but because of the 'no magic at the TVA' rule, I didn't remember why I felt that way.

When we were in the time cell, seeing those tears in her eyes when she thought I wasn't going to remember her broke my heart.

...I've been doing this on my own for so long now, I just... You're the person I would go to in times like these, but I can't! I can't because you don't remember me, and I couldn't go to you these past three years because you weren't there...

Her words have echoed in my mind since my memories were restored. Just thinking about all that she must've been through made tears form in my eyes. She was right, though. I wasn't there for her for so long, I'm surprised she didn't lose hope in me returning.

She waited for me for three years, and when I finally did show up, I didn't remember her.

When I saw how long her hair had gotten, it made me realize how long I'd actually been gone for. How much I missed.

"Where are we going?" Linda asked, breaking me out of my saddened thoughts as we headed to where I last saw the group of Lokis.

"To get out of here," I answered, leading her up the hill, her small hand tightly grasped with mine.

"How?"

"By killing Alioth."

"Your plan is to kill a cloud?" She laughed, using her free hand to brush her hair out of her face.

I will say it's nice to hear her laugh again.

"Yes," I nodded, realizing how crazy the idea must sound. "Okay, fine, it's not the best plan, but it's the only one we've got." I relented, not noticing how she was focused on something in the distance.

"Car." She said after a few seconds, pointing to a moving object on the horizon.

"Well, that's not good." I sighed, exhausted from the day I'd had. "Stay behind me," I told her, conjuring up two daggers.

She nodded but took out a small dagger which I recognized to be the one I gave her last Christmas.

"You still have that?" I raised a brow with a confused smile.