The Timekeeper nodded.
"Yes, Chief Justice."
Then he vanished.
Only the Chief Justice remained in the lonely office, rubbing her temples in frustration, her face full of exhaustion.
Too many variables.
Loki and Lady Loki were already giving her a headache—and now even more Lokis had appeared.
Old Loki. Kid Loki. Alligator Loki. Boastful Loki. Black Devil Loki.
None of them were easy to deal with, and all of them were desperately trying to escape the TVA's grasp.
"Damn Leo… I'm not even looking for trouble with you, but you keep causing problems for me. Damn it!"
She was almost furious enough to explode.
According to her plan, by subtly guiding Loki, she could lead him and Lady Loki to slowly uncover the true nature of the Time Variance Authority.
Loki was the face on the board—the overt player—while she operated in the shadows.
Before the mastermind behind the TVA could notice, she'd expose his secrets.
But Leo's side of the timeline was going too smoothly.
It was like his personal playground—he was doing whatever the hell he wanted.
That kind of large-scale temporal disruption was going to attract unwanted attention.
She had to slow him down. The balance couldn't be broken.
"Just you wait… once I'm free, I'll throw you into the Doomsday Timeline," she hissed through clenched teeth.
Her plan couldn't afford any more problems.
In a certain 1973 timeline—one of many abandoned branches—events were already shifting.
The Days of Future Past timeline was on a countdown to collapse.
Inside a plane, a fierce argument was unfolding between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr—Magneto.
"Where are your powers?" Erik demanded.
"The serum for my spine affected my DNA," Charles replied flatly.
"You sacrificed your powers just to walk?" Erik's face twisted in disbelief.
"I sacrificed my powers to get a good night's sleep," Charles said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Magneto stared at him, stunned. Charles had given up his powers—and for this reason?
"What do you know?" Erik snapped. "I sacrificed a lot too!"
Charles shook his head. "Save it, Erik. You can't make up for what you've done."
Magneto sneered. "You have no idea what I've done."
"I know you took away what was most important to me," Charles shot back, eyes narrowing.
"No. You have no idea what I'm going to do," Erik roared.
Charles's gaze hardened.
"Perhaps you should have protected them better," Erik said coldly.
The words struck a nerve. Charles jumped up, rolling up his sleeves like he was ready to throw down.
"If you want to fight, then come on!"
Charles, shaking with emotion, grabbed Erik's collar, shouting, "You abandoned me! You took her, and then you abandoned me!"
Erik didn't flinch. It was the quiet before the storm.
He met Charles's glare and spoke each name slowly, like a blade cutting into the air.
"Angel. Red Devil. Emma. Banshee."
With each name, Erik's voice grew louder, the pain building.
The plane began to tremble violently as his magnetic field flared.
"Our mutant brothers and sisters… they're all DEAD!"
Tears streamed down Erik's face as the plane rattled under the weight of his power and grief.
"And countless others—experimented on. Disemboweled."
Charles was tossed around by the turbulence, eyes wide with fear.
"Erik!!" he shouted, trying to reach him. The plane was seconds from losing control.
But Erik was lost in his rage.
"Where were you then, Charles?!" he roared. "We were supposed to protect them!"
"When your people needed you, where were you?!"
"You and Hank hid!"
"You pretended you weren't mutants!!"
Charles struggled to keep his footing, his mind spinning from the onslaught of accusations.
"You're the one who abandoned all of us!" Erik finally screamed, his voice cracking under the weight of grief and rage.
Then, slowly, the fury bled away. Silence settled over the cabin as Erik's power receded. The plane stabilized.
Charles stormed off like a man fleeing a battlefield.
Wolverine released his death grip on the table and exhaled.
"Erik… you and I are both survivors in the future," Logan muttered. "And maybe… clean up your mess while you're at it."
The plane went quiet again.
Paris.
In a luxurious club, music and laughter drowned out the world.
A Vietnamese general was drinking, laughing, and embracing women on both sides.
The war had ended. They were celebrating—and plotting what to do about mutants.
That was when the general noticed a beautiful blonde sitting alone at the bar. His greed got the better of him.
He walked over like a hunter… but this time, the hunter was really the prey.
Back in his room, he poured her a glass of wine, grinning lewdly.
"Then let me see more, baby. Take it off, let me see… hehehe!"
He laughed, completely unaware of how close death was.
The woman opened her coat slowly. Her skin rippled—turning blue. Scales spread across her body.
His smile froze.
Mystique. The shapeshifting assassin. A ghost in the dark.
Mystique tilted her head with a wicked smile. "What's wrong, baby? Don't you think I'm beautiful like this?"
She moved like lightning. One high kick struck his neck.
Then she stomped him down—hard.
The general's eyes bulged. He struggled uselessly. And then he went still.
Mystique plucked his ID card off the floor and smiled.
The mission had begun. She would stop these men from experimenting on mutants—starting with him.
The next day, Mystique, disguised as the Vietnamese general, entered a large conference room.
Bolivar Trask—small, sharp-eyed, and dangerous—stood at the head of the table.
He lifted a small, sleek device.
"The mutant detection system can lock onto a target from 800 meters away," he explained.
"It only activates when it confirms the target. With this, collateral damage will be a thing of the past."
"For example, if I turn it on now, the system won't activate."
But the moment Bolivar powered it on—beep—the device chimed.
"Unless," he said softly, "there's a mutant here."
Everyone's faces changed.
Mystique's cover was about to be blown.