His Little Shooting Star [2]

Recordings and Revelations

~~~Catherine's pov~~~

I furrowed my brows. "Where did you get these?" I asked, inspecting one of the Tempads that Mobius had just revealed.

The Tempad was extremely old. Decades by the look of it. The outside covering was scratched and the paint was peeling.

How would Linda have these? The TVA replaces them every few years with a new model. And we've only been here for three. It wasn't possible.

"While I was looking for Linda in the analyst area of the library, I found a small hole in the wall behind one of the shelves. It contained five Tempads. Three of them looked new and recently used. The other two looked decades older. Definitely too old to be something that she could have used. Before you appeared here, I was on my way to see what recordings might be stored on them." He explained, motioning to the projector behind him.

"Alright then, let's watch them." I sighed, walking over to the projector on a small table in the middle of the room. "Which one should we put in?"

"One of the older ones," Loki suggested, stepping toward me. "I'd like to see what's on those."

I nodded and inserted the one I was holding into the device, and the projection came to life.

I assumed the worst thing I could possibly see was some old TVA files or recordings from past prunings. I had prepared myself for every possible situation.

What I was not prepared to see, however, was the face that appeared on screen once the recording had started.

The familiar young woman took a deep breath, glancing at the floor before mumbling something. "I can't believe I'm about to do this..." She then spoke up and faced the camera. "Hey, Dad. Hey, Mom."

It was Linda. From 2043.

I quickly turned my head to look at Loki, only to see that he was also staring at me, wide-eyed in shock.

We weren't expecting to see her again. At least, not until our Linda grew up to become her. And that was twenty years away.

"So, um, if you're watching this, that means little me just teleported you back to the present TVA. And that Mobius found my Tempad stash I had in the analyst area where I would keep all my recordings." The adult version of my daughter spoke on the tape.

I furrowed my brows. How could she possibly know all that?

As if she could read my thoughts, she continued. "In my timeline, this happened the exact same way. A future version of myself made recordings and sent them back to me once the time was right. So, I'm just playing my part in continuing the loop. Well, hopefully, once you and the Shield team get here, you'll find a way to break at least one of these loops."

Wait, so, she recorded this before we got there with the Shield team?

"I know that by the time you watch this, you'll have gotten back from 2043. And with any luck, when you got taken from the park, the Earth wasn't cracked apart. Sadly, in my timeline, I didn't just run into the street to grab my necklace. I ran into the street to make sure my necklace didn't fall through the ginormous split in the road. Now, back to the important stuff. I can't tell you too much, because even though you guys technically got rid of He Who Remains, I can't afford to mess up the timeline. I just need to make sure little me doesn't experience any more trauma than she's already supposed to." With that, she looked down sadly. "And if you didn't manage to change what happened in 2018, she's destined to go through a lot more..."

My heart was breaking for her. I saw what happened to Loki and me in her future. How we both died. And I know that Loki's death hit her especially hard.