"I really can't do it myself."
Loki spread his hands at Lynn's question. "I must remain on this throne, maintaining the proper flow of the timeline."
"Just like the machines of the Time Variance Authority… I've turned myself into a single screw holding the timeline together."
"At some point in the future—because of Sylvie, because of you all, because of everyone—I had no choice but to accept becoming that kind of god."
"But the price is that I can never leave this throne."
He took a long breath, then looked at Lynn with a familiar, gentle smile. "Mr. Lynn Hall, I know your personality. I know the kind of life you want."
"But if we don't act now, then someday—maybe fifteen years from now, maybe only a few—the universe will be destroyed by Victor Von Doom… also known as Doctor Doom. Quite a catchy yet dangerous name if I say so."
"He wants to save the universe, but not if it means sacrificing our universe."
"So I have to prepare things in advance. And the first step… is you."
Loki's tone grew serious. "Lynn, you wouldn't want to enjoy only a few years of peace, only to have Doctor Doom destroy everything—every form of life in the universe—leaving you immortal but trapped alone in a shattered void of darkness."
"Believe me. That feeling—of having no concept of time or space, no light at all, only endless darkness and a loneliness so deep it drives you to madness—you do not want to experience it."
Hearing Loki describe that future, Lynn only had to imagine it for a moment before his scalp tingled.
If that was his ultimate fate, then immortality wasn't an ability at all—it was an eternal curse.
Still, Lynn remained suspicious.
Before becoming the God of Time, Loki had been the God of Lies and Mischief.
Finding people's weaknesses and manipulating them was practically his hobby.
Just as Lynn was thinking this, Loki tossed him a golden, oval-shaped gem.
"What's this?"
Lynn caught it and rolled it in his hand. It felt eerily similar to an Infinity Stone…
But none of the six stones were this color.
"The Ego Stone," Loki said. "Also called the Ego Gem. It's the seventh Infinity Stone, formed when the goddess of vengeance, Nemesis, split herself apart."
"It has its own consciousness—and it can influence the mind of whoever holds it."
"Of course, it poses no danger to you. In the future, it will actually become your greatest ally. Consider it my reward for asking you to intervene."
The Ego Stone glowed warmly in Lynn's palm, radiating a strange sense of closeness to him.
Lynn lifted his gaze, studying Loki with even more suspicion. "First you threaten me with some catastrophic future… then you tempt me with the Ego Stone."
"Loki, whatever you want me to do must be very dangerous."
"It's not that dangerous."
Loki paused, then said, "I need you to save Howard Stark and his wife. They are absolutely essential to my plan for the future."
Lynn frowned.
Save Howard Stark and his wife?
Natasha's words echoed in his mind—the vision she'd seen of a future where Lynn fought side by side with Howard Stark.
And now it was happening...
"Don't worry," Loki added. "Saving Howard Stark and his wife won't damage the timeline or alter the future. I've already accounted for that."
As he finished speaking, the office door opened and Mobius from the TVA stepped inside.
"Mobius, did you prepare what I asked for?"
"Of course."
Mobius nodded. "Though it's still hard to imagine… if what we're about to do can really break that horrible, disgusting loop the other universe is trapped in... sigh.."
Mobius led Lynn out of Loki's office.
Just before the door closed, Lynn glanced back and saw Loki once again sitting on the Time Throne.
Loki nodded at him, silently mouthed a single word.
Lynn read it clearly: "Please."
Inside the Time Variance Authority—
The entire place was in motion. Staff rushed about making arrangements, while squads of TVA soldiers escorted in captured time offenders one after another.
Among them were Stephen Strange, a female Peggy Carter, and even a noisy, restless Thor.
"These are all people who shouldn't exist on the timeline."
Seeing Lynn's curiosity, Mobius smiled and explained, "Their existence would split off a branch from the proper timeline, and that branch would eventually disrupt the normal development of the universe."
He led Lynn to a transparent glass chamber.
Inside it lay the bodies of Howard Stark and his wife, completely still.
The bloodstains from the night they were murdered were still visible on their clothes and faces.
"These are the bodies Sylvie and I—well, Loki's variant and I—retrieved from another parallel universe."
"That universe started out fine… but after a meteor fell, the superheroes who should have saved the world all turned into zombies."
Hearing that, Lynn spoke immediately. "So Loki wants me to save the Howard Stark and wife from this universe, and then the TVA will use the bodies from the other universe to replace the ones who died?"
"Exactly."
Mobius nodded. "Bucky Barnes is the one who killed them. You just need to rescue the couple from him."
"As for everything else, the TVA will handle the scene."
Just as he finished speaking, "Bucky Barnes" walked into the room. "Mobius, is everything ready? Is he the one Loki asked for?"
"That's right, Sylvie."
As Mobius finished speaking, the Winter Soldier's form shimmered and shifted back into Sylvie's true appearance.
"Hello, I'm Sylvie."
"Hello, Hall, Lynn Hall."
They shook hands, and Lynn tucked the Ego Stone away. "So what are we waiting for? The sooner we handle this, the sooner I can go back."
"Even now, I still don't understand any of this."
That last sentence was pure acting—Lynn had to pretend he didn't already know parts of the future.
After all, none of this had happened in his timeline yet.
At Lynn's urging, Sylvie and Mobius exchanged a brief glance.
Sylvie pulled out a temporal device, adjusted the time coordinates, and a frosted-orange Time Gate flickered open before them.
"Let's go. The first chess piece of the final act is about to fall."
With that, Sylvie stepped through the Time Gate first.
Mobius followed, and Lynn walked in right after him.
A moment later, the three of them materialized on a snowy road...
The night of December 17, 1991.