Queens of Asgard

She stopped off, briefly, at an assigned meeting place with the TVA. It was another between-space, a minor facility on the outer limits of the facility, where she was powerless.

Of course, if Hela were here, she’d simply TemPad herself out immediately. It wasn’t much use for that purpose - but it was where Sylvie could talk with Ravonna. Slightly proud of her new suit, Sylvie moved forwards.

“I need a better TemPad,” Sylvie said.

“Excuse me?” Ravonna said.

“A working one. There’s a place, on your ‘sacred timeline,’ it’s all I can think of.”

“You think we’ll trust you with a TemPad again?” Ravonna said. She paused. “What’s your plan?”

Sylvie told her. Ravonna paused, reluctantly.

“That… might work,” she said, perhaps persuaded by the slight flush in Sylvie’s cheeks.

“I really wish there was a better option,” Sylvie muttered.

There was an annoying smile on Ravonna’s lips. Sylvie shifted, fiddling unconsciously with the buttons on her suit.

“About our deal,” Sylvie said.

“All current prisoners can survive in a virtual world, outside of the timeline,” Ravonna said. “Including your most recent addition. Try not to do that again.”

“Right. Good,” Sylvie said.

She hesitated. Well that was… something, a fall-back, even if she failed at escaping, or taking the TVA down. At least she’d have ensured some survivals.

Ravonna took Sylvie’s TemPad for a moment; Sylvie didn’t see what she did, but when she handed it back, there was one more set of co-ordinates entered into it.

“There,” Ravonna said. “Happy?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Sylvie muttered.

She turned around, and stepped back through a portal to her room in Hela’s Asgard. She kept her TemPad in one hand, thumb tracing the activation button. She needed Hela in a time and place where she was weaker, and where she couldn’t just portal out.

Save this timeline, and through her deal, be fine. She told herself to be happy with that.

Sometimes she hated having a better nature. Maybe Hela had the right idea with all this - make a timeline, even if one ruled by a monster like her, if that was what it took to keep the TVA from acting.

She adjusted her suit, still remarkably conscious of the fact she had it - she would curse someone if this whole ordeal made her unused to actually wearing things - and walked out through Asgard. Head held high, she walked past the green-flame guardians, finding her way to Hela’s throne room.

Hela hadn’t moved. Sylvie lingered in the doorway, trying to psyche herself up.

“What is it?” Hela said, eyes closed.

Hela couldn’t see into her head. The best she could do, then, was tell a convincing lie.

“So, what have you done?” Sylvie said. “Like, ultimate power, I get that. But what have you done with it?”

“Ruled,” Hela said. She opened one eye, apparently using the stones to visualize the universe around them. “We will conquer more than just the nine realms. I can fight on a hundred, hundred battlefronts from right here. In a century, there will be no world in the universe that recalls a time they were not under my rule.”

“But, er, why?” Sylvie said.

“You ask why?” Hela said.

“I mean, what happens after?” Sylvie said. She took a cautious step closer. “Do you want to do anything once you rule?”

“That, I can think about when I am done,” Hela said. “I - we’ll - receive tribute. Our due honors. And when I have countless worlds that worship me, perhaps then we will have the army we need to destroy our mutual enemies. Is that what you’re getting at?”

Sylvie faltered.

The green flame constructs of Hela’s were no use in the TVA; the flame that animated them was magic, and as empty as the infinity stones themselves were in the confines of the TVA. You’d need an actual army, like the Ultron swarm, or real people.

A universe full of people, united in one goal. That might almost be enough to genuinely overwhelm the TVA.

At the cost of a universe, or more, under Hela’s heel.

But maybe it was worth it, if it meant losing the TVA. Maybe that was a price worth paying.

Sylvie took a step closer. TemPads only had a set range; still, she angled the pad as surreptitiously as she could. She wanted the portal to open close to Hela.

“Please,” Sylvie said, not even needing to act. “Promise that you haven’t forgotten about them. That we will…”

“We will end them,” Hela said. “I promise you that, sister. They will pay for what they have done.”

Sylvie hesitated.

A universe under Hela’s control. Maybe a multiverse, if she kept spreading unchecked. But an ally strong enough to tear down the TVA.

Sylvie wanted that. She wanted that so much.

But she thought of the people in the TVA’s cells, thought of Ava, and froze. She imagined Ava looking at her, imagined her seeing her as she chose to damn a universe in the name of vengeance.

Sylvie flicked her thumb; a portal of light opened in the air. Hela didn’t have time to react before Sylvie threw herself forwards, momentum carrying the goddess the mere inches she needed to travel before they were in another time and place.

Westview. Sylvie had never wanted to go back there. But, as she and Hela both fell to black and white, and the hexed fog set in on their minds, she took solace in the fact that Hela was as powerless as her in the Witch’s domain.

Hela’s timeline would end without her to safeguard it. And hopefully her life in Westview wouldn’t be quite as… intense as before.