(AN: Almost forgot the chappie for the day because of the review. Here yah go! Enjoy!
PS: I am not gonna include what happened with the general's punishment and just have a summary of it. Just so you know.)
The Bifrost platform lay fractured and scarred, golden stone split by deep, glowing veins where reality itself had once been torn apart.
Workers moved carefully along its edges, repairing what could be repaired, reinforcing what had barely survived.
Above them, the sky of Asgard burned eternal—vast, proud, and watching.
Heimdall stood at the center, great sword grounded, eyes fixed not on the horizon but on the Allfather himself.
"My sight followed Prince Thor across the realms,"
Heimdall said, his voice calm, resonant.
"Midgard stood on the brink of annihilation. An army from beyond the stars poured through a wound in the sky. Prince Thor fought alongside Midgard's champions… and prevailed."
Odin listened in silence, Gungnir resting against his palm.
Beside him, Queen Frigga's expression remained serene, though her fingers were laced tighter than usual.
Nearby stood Sif and the Warriors Three, all of them attentive—some proud, some wary.
"And Loki?" Sif asked, breaking the pause.
Heimdall turned his head slightly.
"Alive. Bound. He is currently returning with the prince by the power of the Tesseract."
The air shifted.
A low hum filled the platform as blue light began to gather—particles spiraling inward, folding space like silk being drawn through a ring.
The glow intensified, brilliant and cold.
In one heartbeat, Thor and Loki stood upon Midgard.
In the next, they were home.
The Tesseract's light collapsed inward, fading into sparks that dissolved against the Asgardian stone.
Thor staggered once, then laughed, spreading his arms wide.
"Asgard!" he boomed.
"Ah, how I have missed you!"
Sif was the first to move, clasping his forearm. Volstagg laughed thunderously.
Fandral smirked.
Hogun inclined his head in solemn respect.
"Prince Thor returns victorious," Volstagg declared.
"As it should be!"
All eyes turned briefly—inevitably—to Loki.
He stood restrained, wrists bound by enchanted cuffs, posture loose, expression unreadable.
No cheers greeted him. No warmth followed. There was only distance.
Except for one.
While Thor regaled them with animated tales of battle—of lightning tearing through flying beasts, of warriors fighting back-to-back—Frigga moved.
Silent. Graceful. Unnoticed by all save one.
Odin's single eye tracked her as she approached Loki, her steps light against the stone.
She stopped before him.
Loki's gaze flicked up, sharp, prepared for scorn or disappointment.
Instead, Frigga reached out and laid her hand against his cheek.
Not to restrain.
Not to judge.
To touch.
"My son," she said softly.
Something in Loki cracked.
For all the sneers, the bravado, the carefully worn mask—this was the one thing he had never truly lost.
His mother's love.
Unconditional.
Unquestioning.
His breath hitched, just once.
And then—
His eyes darkened.
Not with anger.
With remembrance.
Flashback to his first confrontation with Elias
Stark Tower. Smoke. Glass.
The hum of alien machines.
Loki lunged forward—and stopped.
Invisible force crushed around him, pinning him in place.
His limbs refused to move, magic suffocated before it could form.
Elias stood before him, calm, eyes sharp with something far more dangerous than hatred.
He raised one finger and pressed it gently to Loki's forehead.
"No matter how many colors you paint the world with," Elias said, voice quiet, almost thoughtful, "in the end there are only two. Everyone dies. Eventually. Inevitably."
His finger lingered.
"When your time comes," he asked, "which color will you be?"
Loki bared his teeth.
"What does it matter," he spat, "what color you are—when everyone you knew refuses to see that you are the same color as them?"
Elias blinked.
Then laughed.
A genuine laugh—soft, surprised, edged with something bitter.
What does it matter, he thought, if I don't want to be a villain… when the world insists I am one?
Amusement lingered in his eyes as he asked, "If you knew how your story ends—would you still think the same?"
Before Loki could answer, Elias moved.
A whisper of magic.
OBLIVIATE.
The world shattered.
Loki's mind flooded with lives not yet lived.
He saw Thor—brother, enemy, brother, then enemy and brother once more.
He saw Frigga die in his own blunder for giving direction to an enemy to get back at his Father and brother.
And that enemy killed his dear mother.
He saw Asgard burn initiated by him and his brother, all because they have a secret crazy older sister.
He felt the void close around his throat as Thanos snapped his neck because he chose to try and be a hero for his brother.
Death was the result of that choice.
Then—another path.
Escape from all this as the Tesseract found itself by his feet.
Time rushed forward as he saw his life flashed in his head.
He saw himself get captured by the TVA and recruited, he saw a version of himself fighting the very organization who hired him.
He saw multiple versions of himself who successfully did what couldn't.
He saw the bigger picture, of the he who remains that guards the timeline, no, that maintains one timeline by erasing the rest.
He saw himself found the family he always wanted and the resolve to protect that family.
He saw himself walking the strands of history, guarding those timelines, becoming something more than a prince or a villain.
The words he said to his father, once meant so Odin would acknowledge him, full of arrogance, that he was doing the right thing.
Now it meant a whole lot different, it was selfless, it was sacrifice, it was to protect what was important to him.
"I know what kind of god I need to be."
"For you. For all of us."
He saw himself sit on a throne, a throne he's probably going to be stucked into.
The memories ended.
Loki collapsed to one knee as Elias released him. The subtle control of Thanos gone.
"What… is all this?" Loki whispered.
"Your fate," Elias said.
"In worlds where I do not exist."
He crouched, meeting Loki's gaze.
"Serve me. Be my right hand. And I will give you the power to choose your own ending."
Loki laughed weakly.
"I'm not a fool. I won't trade one chain for another."
"Don't worry, I will not control you," Elias replied.
"I will only call you when I need you. What you do with your power otherwise—I will not interfere. Unless it endangers or goes against me."
Silence.
Loki looked away.
"Why not simply wait? Now that I know… I can escape it myself."
Elias' smile thinned.
"You seem forget how you learned this future."
His eyes glinted.
"What I give," he said softly, "I can take back. And more."
He leaned closer.
"What if I made you… hopelessly in love with your brother?"
Loki froze.
Then—slowly—he nodded.
Elias laughed.
"Not yet. For now, you need to play your part."
A final spell.
Memories locked.
A single key left behind.
His mother's touch.
The flashback ends.
Back on the Bifrost, Frigga's hand still rested on Loki's cheek.
And the lock shattered.
Loki stood silently as Odin pronounced judgment, words flowing past him unheard.
Prison. Chains. Shame.
None of it mattered.
A translucent panel flickered open before his eyes.
[Congratulations!
You have been chosen as the right hand of the Villain, Elias Mercer.
Should you accept, you shall be granted:
• Power from your Lord's Power Roulette
• Authority to command and summon your Lord's forces
• Freedom to act as you desire, so long as it does not oppose your Lord's will
Do you swear your fealty?]
Loki's lips curved—not in mockery.
In anticipation.
Fate, he thought, just became negotiable.
And he knows what'll happen in the future. He clearly needs to prepare for Thanos first.
Then for that one sitting at the end of time, the He-who-remains.
As soon as he was alone in his now prison, Loki did not hesitate.
He knelt.
Not out of fear.
Not out of coercion.
But because—for the first time—the future had opened its hand instead of closing into a fist.
"I swear," Loki said quietly, head bowed.
"By will and wit. By choice, not chains. My fealty is yours, Elias Mercer."
The world, rather the system acknowledged it.
A cold, familiar presence surged through his mind.
[Congratulations on becoming the right hand of the Villain, Elias Mercer!
You will now have:
• Power from your Lord's Power Roulette (awaiting selection)
• Authority to command and summon your Lord's forces.
°2 Yautja Hunters
°Xenomorph (Evolved)
°Facehuggers x2 (eggs)
~minor authority to Generals/No summon
Generals:
•Steven 'Grant' Rogers - Captain America
•Anthony Edward Stark - Ironman
•Robert Bruce Banner - Hulk
•Natalia Alianovna Romanova - Black Widow
•Clinton Francis Barton - Hawkeye
• Freedom to act as you desire, so long as it does not oppose your Lord's will.]
The prompt faded.
Another replaced it—its tone colder, sharper.
[⚠️ WARNING ⚠️]
[Your realm possesses the object of your Lord's first order to his Generals:
The Tesseract.]
[The Generals, acting out of fear and misplaced calculation, removed it from your Lord's immediate reach. They have been punished and sent to another universe to survive.
As the right hand of Elias Mercer, invading your homeworld violates your Lord's will.
You have been given your first task.
First Task:
→ Retrieve the Tesseract and present it upon your Lord's arrival.
Reward: ??? ]
Loki's lips twitched.
Generals? he thought, amused.
So Midgard's champions are his subordinates… too bad Thor ain't part of it.
How foolish they had been.
Elias Mercer was already on Earth.
If he wished to invade, no cosmic cube would be necessary.
A new sensation brushed Loki's awareness.
[Temporal Status: PAUSED
It is higly recommended that you take advantage of this to retrieve the Tesseract.]
This is the optimal moment to act.
Loki scoffed aloud.
"And how, exactly, do you expect me to retrieve it?" he muttered.
"I am quite literally imprisoned."
The system did not respond as if telling him it ain't his problem but Loki's.
Loki frowned at this—then he reached out for the barrier.
The golden barrier surrounding his cell shimmered… and failed.
No resistance. No feedback. No power flowing through it at all.
Time had stopped.
And without time, the enchantment was nothing more than decorative light.
Loki placed a hand against the barrier and pushed.
It shattered like glass.
For a moment, he simply stood there, stunned—then he laughed, soft and delighted.
"Oh, I am going to enjoy this."
The vault doors parted at his command.
Treasures beyond counting lay within—relics of conquest, artifacts of forgotten ages, weapons that had rewritten wars.
Loki felt the temptation.
A crown here. A blade there. A certain gauntlet there.
But he did not stop.
His eyes went straight to the newest addition.
The Tesseract.
Blue light pulsed softly from within its casing, patient.
Dangerous. Powerful.
Loki lifted it, studying its glow.
"So this is what caused all that trouble," he murmured.
With practiced ease, he folded space around it, hiding it within layered illusion and pocketed magic—present, but unseen.
Then he turned.
And froze.
Odin stood before the vault doors.
Waiting.
A few moment ago
The Allfather's eye narrowed—not in anger, but in something far more unsettling.
Curiosity.
Time had stopped.
Again.
This anomaly had plagued the realms for longer than Odin cared to admit.
He had questioned the Sorcerer Supreme of Midgard herself—only to find even she was not responsible.
No backlash.
No temporal consequences.
No resistance to his own power.
And now—
Now his adopted son walked freely through this frozen eternity. Was he the cause?
Odin had watched.
Watched Loki leave his cell.
Watched him enter the vault.
Watched temptation flicker—and be refused.
Watched him take only the Tesseract.
Amusement tugged at Odin's lips.
"Why," Odin asked calmly, "have you taken the Tesseract?"
"And how," he added, "do you move when time itself does not?"
Loki felt something twist in his chest.
Memories stirred—of a final confrontation.
Of falling. Of death.
Of a sister sealed away.
Will he seal me too? Loki wondered.
He considered lying.
It would be easy.
Only his mother had ever seen through his words.
Not Thor. Not Odin.
He opened his mouth—
And the system intervened.
[Your Lord will now bestow your power as his right hand.
Instruction:
→ Introduce your Lord to your Father.]
Loki inhaled slowly.
Then he smiled.
Elsewhere
Elias Mercer watched Clint Barton vanish down the corridor, time still frozen around them.
"Efficient," Elias muttered. "I like that."
A new prompt bloomed into existence.
[Loki has accepted his role as your right hand.
Please initiate Power Roulette to grant him strength to fight for his own fate.]
"So he unlocked his memories already,"
Elias said, amused. "That was fast."
A translucent wheel manifested before him.
He placed his hand against it.
The roulette spun.
Faster.
Worlds blurred—mecha, demons, gods, warriors whose mere silhouettes bent reality.
Then it slowed.
Stopped.
The image sharpened.
Elias burst out laughing.
"Oh, this," he said, delighted, "fits him perfectly."
[Congratulations!
You have acquired: Character Template — Vegeta
Title: Prince of Saiyans
Source: Dragon Ball Super
Conditions:
• Template may only be bestowed upon a subordinate who has sworn true fealty
• Failure results in template override and loss of autonomy
• Subordinate may retain original appearance while absorbing all powers or choose the character's appearance.
Designated Subordinate:
→ Loki of Asgard ]
"As my right hand," Elias mused, "this level of power is definitely appropriate."
He looked away, thoughtful.
"I might finally get some peace. Focus on my shop, maybe even find me a girl and settle down."
A pause.
"…I hope Mara and the others are okay."
Another prompt surfaced.
[Notice!
The retrieval force has been cancelled.
Reason: Target realm is homeworld of your right hand.
Responsibility transferred to Loki of Asgard, however, during retrieval, the Allfather has confronted him.
As his Lord, you are obligated to intervene should Odin, Allfather of Asgard, attempt punishment or any actions shaming your position as his Lord. ]
Elias smiled faintly.
"I guess I'll be talking to his majesty," he murmured. "Wait for me, Loki."
Back in Asgard
Loki straightened, meeting Odin's gaze.
He did not lie.
Instead, he spoke the truth—carefully framed.
"Father," Loki said, voice steady, "I took the Tesseract because it no longer belongs to Asgard."
Odin's brow furrowed.
"And to whom," he asked, "does it belong?"
Loki lifted his hand.
"The one who showed me my fate," he answered.
"And gave me the right to choose another."
Space folded.
Shadow deepened.
A presence entered Asgard that did not belong to any realm Odin knew.
A figure stepped forward.
Elias Mercer stood in front of Loki, no longer in Arthas' appearance.
He was wearing his Dark Jedi robes.
He turned to Odin. "We finally meet, Allfather."
End of chapter