Prologue. " You ridiculous Bureaucrats will not dictate how my story ends!"

At the edge of his perception Reeve could hear a faint continuous rhythmic beep, it sounded like a whistle, having a high trill that died down as fast as it came only to go up again.

He felt cold and the darkness around him seemed to writhe and bleed in. His mind felt dead, no longer able to multitask, it seemed to only want to focus on the beeping sound.

He could feel the struggle as his brain pulled desperately towards the sound as if life depended on it. So he willed himself to help.

The bridles were clear now, though familiar Reeve was having a hard time identifying where he knew them from. He gave himself what he hoped would be the last push, extremely curious of what he would find on the other side.

His eyes shot open.

Momentarily blinded by the luminosity in the room Reeve groaned.

"what t--" He exclaimed lifting his right hand to shield his twinging eyes only to be met with resistance. Frowning he looked down at his wrist where aluminium alloy cuffs clamped, tying him on the side rail.

Confused, he scanned his environment.

The walls of the room were a blinding gold, propped on his right were comfortable leather chairs while large arched windows were situated on his left. Opposite to his bed was a large screen Tv ( it had a 70s vibe to it) where a looped cartoon of an orange clock was playing.

Realizing he was in some kind of hospital room, Reeve pushed himself up and tried getting off the bed completely forgetting the cuffs.

The moment his naked feet touched the cold institutional tile floor the bed exit alarm rang and Reeve knew someone must have heard it.

In a matter of seconds the large mahogany doors shot open, to reveal a young woman standing on the other side.

She was flanked by two men in black combat gear and a helmet.

" You shouldn't be up, your body is still weak" She explained carefully placing her hand on the boy's shoulder and pushing him back to bed.

" I have to leave" Reeve argued only to have the men flaking the young lady tighten their grip on the black beating sticks that Reeve hadn't noticed before.

" you haven't fully recovered, and honestly there isn't much left where you were" She spoke mechanically as she sat by Reeve's legs.

Reeve wondered why she meant by 'not much left'. Propping himself on the pillow to sit up, he decides to ask " what is that supposed to mean?" he questioned.

" Ohh simply that your timeline has been reset" she answered, swiftly perusing through what Reeve assumed was his file.

"what do you mean by reset" Reeve questioned hoping to bring this confusion to an end.

"Ahhh, The 21st century; honestly the best of all the centuries if you ask me, too many technological and scientific advancements" The young lady spoke choosing to ignore him entirely.

" 21st century? Lady, what you on?" Reeve questioned wondering if the lady in front of him was on drugs. As an answer she only smiled and stood up, signaling to her guard dogs to help Reeve up.

He was dragged out of bed forcefully and freed from the cuffs. " Take him to be processed and bring him to court," she said sternly looking at the men behind the teen, before leaving, her heels clicking on the tile floor.

And just like that Reeve was dragged away.

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" sign to prove this is everything you have ever said" after he had been dragged Reeve was forced to change his clothes into a beige anstaltskleidung and now he was standing in front of a bored-looking man with a graying mustache.

" what?" Reeve asked wondering if he had heard wrong. This man was asking him to sign to prove that the stack of papers in front of him contained all the words he had ever uttered since he was born?!

As if to answer him a new paper was printed and the old men added the newly printed paper to the stack and surely it had 'what?' typed on it.

Reeve sighed and quickly signed the utmost paper, trying his hardest to not add more papers to the load. Thank heavens he only had to sign the most recent.

A short while later he was escorted to a waiting area where he was asked to pick a ticket, which he did like the line in front of him was filled with people, well creatures because he was sure he saw a talking raccoon somewhere but at this point, Reeve was convinced he was dreaming so he didn't even bother.

" You must be asking yourself, what am I doing here?" a cheerful artificial female voice rang through the rather silent hall, as the retro-TVs plastered around the waiting area turned on. Revealing the cartoon-like clock Reeve had seen when he had woken up.

" Am miss minutes and welcome to the time variance authority" she introduced before going on and explaining that there were some kind of gods that averted a multiversal war by condensing all the timelines into one( the sacred timeline as she called it) and that Reeve and the other creatures in the hall, variants if Reeve recalled correctly, had left their pre-determined path and created a branch in the timeline that when left unchecked would lead to more branching and then lead to another multiversal war.

Reeve had to admit this dream was getting more weird and elaborate by the second, it made him wonder if it was really a dream but then it was too wild to be anything else but a dream.

After handing in his ticket, he was again forcefully lead into a courtroom, where he was made to stand in front of the lady he had seen when he woke up.

" Reeve, Reeve Warlock. You are being accused of crimes against the sacred timeline, how do you plead?" the lady asked without even sparing him so much as a glance.

" um, not guilty your honor?" Reeve answered doubt evident in his voice as said accuser had not stated what crimes he was being accused of.

" So, you didn't escape the plaza bombing?" she glared defyingly and Reeve thickly swallowed before answering.

" what--" it was as if he was pulled back, the memories of the last 24 hours flooding his mind, he remembered running late for work, running towards the run-down building that served as a chick-fil-a only to have the place blow up in his face and sending him flying miles away.

" that's right, you were supposed to die in that accident, if you hadn't been late things would have gone as they were meant to" The lady chastised.

Reeve was speechless and horrified at how little these people valued human life. He remembered the bomb, the pain, the fear he felt as he soured in the air before painfully hitting the asphalt and passing out.

This wasn't a dream

" For the crimes against the sacred timeline, Reeve Warlock is found guilty and is sentenced to be pruned." the lady declared and Reeve could only look at her, mind blank.

" Loki, Loki laufeyson..... " the lady stated as Reeve was being escorted outside, the name rang a bell, wasn't he the dude that brought aliens in New York. As Reeve passed the man, they made eye contact and he was happy to see the other male was confused, at least he wasn't the only one.

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" He is to be pruned immediately," one of the people holding him said before forcefully pushing him forward and effectively getting him out of the trance-like state he has been in since the sentence.

" What do you mean by pruned?" Reeve asked looking around the small golden room he was in.

" you will know soon" one of the men chuckle darkly and Reeve cowered.

A black lady that wore the same uniform as the man who has been parading Reeve around approached predatorily, her baton shining and fizzing on the top with golden energy. The moment the stick made contact with Reeve's smooth skin, he felt himself disassemble.

The pain was unbearable, yet Reeve was having a hard time finding his voice to scream, so he just shut his eyes and hoped it would end soon. And it did.