What If... Love is hate? • One-shots [ENG]

We are Gods [After 2x06]

[Translated without translation correction via DeepL from Czech language.]

"Open your eyes..."

That voice. Her voice.

He'd heard it a million times in his mind, replaying her words over and over. He replayed memories of her, not wanting to forget a single detail of the moments he'd been so happy with her. It was one of the things that kept him at least somewhat afloat, kept him from losing his mind.

"Open your eyes..."

He heard her voice again, so close. It sounded so real. But no, that wasn't possible. He was alone. Alone at the end of time. On the throne he'd coveted for most of his existence, which had become both his purpose and his curse when he'd least cared for it. But it was for her, for all that she had fought for. She could live, she could live for them both.

It wasn't until Loki felt someone squeeze his hand that he finally opened his eyes. He couldn't tell how long he'd had them closed. Maybe years. He looked down at his hand and saw another hand clutching it. His gaze slowly traveled to the face of the person sitting next to him.

"Sylvie?" His voice sounded strange. When was the last time he had spoken?

Sylvie smiled, her face illuminated by a green glow, the glow of timelines that intertwined all around them. She was holding Loki's hand, the hand that had previously held the timelines he kept alive with his magic. But now Sylvie was holding them, keeping them alive with her own magic. They held them alive together.

Was it real? Loki wasn't sure, maybe he was imagining the whole thing, maybe he was delusional. How was it possible that he hadn't noticed she had come? His face showed all his questions.

"Yes, I'm here." She spoke as if she knew what he was thinking.

"How?" How is that possible? It went through his head, but he couldn't get more out of himself.

"You told me once: You go, I go. I'm a little mad at you for going and not letting me come with you."

Loki had so many thoughts, but he couldn't put them into words at that moment. Sylvie stared ahead of her, and for a moment they were both just silent before Sylvie spoke again.

"Do you remember the time you learned to control the time slip? When you brought me back to life after everything started to finally fall apart? You said you could rewrite the whole story and you went for it. But you didn't let any of us have any say in it. That's when my next nexus event happened, that's when a timeline was created that I could escape into. Just for a moment, before it disappeared, but enough to get me where I needed to go - into the past, thanks to Tempad. In that moment, my next Variant was born. A me that remembers everything up to that moment before you started changing things."

Loki stared at her in disbelief. He listened intently to her every word.

"I wanted answers you didn't give me. I wanted to know what was really going on here. And with your ability to go back to anywhere and change anything, it was hard enough to keep up with you. It took me a long time to understand what all had actually happened, what your path was." She smiled so sadly and looked at him again. "No one knew how much time you spent trying to fix everything. But I followed it... at least what I could..."

"But... why?"

Sylvie smiled at his question. "You really don't know?"

He hesitated for a moment before answering. "You wanted a life, you wanted to live..."

"Yes... and that hasn't changed. The me that was near your path in TVA has that life. I have a life because of you. It can live the life I fought for. That you're fighting for. It's like half of my being is somewhere else and here at the same time... but... I have all the memories she doesn't... I know everything she doesn't... I've seen things she hasn't seen... things you've changed... I'm the one you told you didn't want to be alone... and I can't live with the idea that you're here alone and that it hasn't come true that we'll figure it all out together."

Loki's eyes sparkled. He still couldn't believe this was happening.

"I've had enough time to figure it all out. To see things through your eyes. And this is my decision. You're going to have to accept that you won't be alone on your glorious purpose."

"You... you're staying? You want to be here... with me?"

"Yes."

Loki couldn't hold back the tears that welled up in his eyes. Sylvie squeezed his hand, and for a moment timelines around them glowed even brighter than before.

"It could be forever..."

"I know..." she replied matter-of-factly. "But maybe together we can figure out how to make things more pleasant." She smiled, and Loki stared at her in surprise.

"Are you sure about that?"

Sylvie looked into his eyes and nodded. "Yes... I'm actually pretty sure... I've realized one major thing about why it's a good idea to stay here..."

"And... what is it?"

"I want you to be okay..."

♥

I hope this short fanfic makes you feel a little better after the finale. If you were as down about it as I was.