Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Time Door led Loki and Olivia right back to the TVA headquarters, the locker room to be specific. The alarms were blaring, though neither of them really knew why. Maybe it had something to do with the Charges the Variant had sent away.

"All Minute-Men to the Armory, Protect the Timeline." A warning over the PA system repeated as Loki looked around for the Variant.

"Where did she go?" Olivia asked.

"I don't know, but this place is in danger." Loki replied. Olivia rolled her eyes and glanced back at the red lockers lining the walls behind them. She pinpointed which one belonged to B-15 and opened it with ease. Loki's daggers sat on the top shelf inside. Olivia passed them to Loki, snatching a spare baton for herself as she couldn't use her abilities or summon a weapon. She switched the setting so the end flashed purple instead of orange, not wanting to prune the Variant by mistake.

They carefully crept their way through the halls lines with concrete and posters, unconscious Minute-Men scattered along the path. An old phone hung limp with its cord not quite reaching the floor. It emitted a dull beeping sound.

Olivia could hear groaning and punching noises from down the hall, so she and Loki sped up around the corner. There the Variant stood in front of a golden set of elevator doors, Minute-Men at her feet. Loki flipped his daggers and the Variant produced a short sword.

"Few questions." Loki said quickly.

"Have you really got nothing else better to do?" The Variant asked snidely, the three of them circling each other defensively.

"Rude."

"Are you sure you're a Loki?" Olivia asked.

"You're in my way." The Variant replied.

"You are our way." Loki shot back. The Variant thrust her sword forward, sending Loki stumbling back as Olivia's legs were kicked out from underneath her. "I thought perhaps we could all work together. But now I see you lack vision."

The Variant groaned and turned back towards the elevator doors, Olivia sticking her legs out to trip her. She fell forward, Loki grabbing her before she could hit the floor.

"So either you come willingly or you won't. Either way, that's how we get to meet the Time Keepers."

"Oh, God, SHUT UP!" The Variant screeched as she and Loki held blades at each other's throats, Olivia finally reaching her feet.

"Hey!" The familiar voice of Judge Renslayer called, two Minute-Men flanking her and all with drawn batons. The Variant turned on her heel quickly, putting her sword to Loki's throat, kicking Olivia down again.

"Come any closer and I'll kill them." The Variant threatened.

"Go for it." Ravonna goaded. She started for the small group, but Olivia pulled out the TemPad from the Variant's belt and managed to get a Time Door open below them. They all fell through, landing on a soft surface in a dimly lit room. The TemPad landed a few feet away, the Variant spotting it first and crawling over to it. Loki pulled her back to snatch it himself, dragging each other through the dirt on the ground.

"Get off my leg!" The Variant cried angrily. Loki grabbed the TemPad, but the Variant slammed his face into a nearby tray, grabbing the TemPad from him. "Goodbye, Variants."

"You're outta juice!" Miss Minutes' voice said from the TemPad. It was out of power.

"It's not working." The Variant said, a panicked tone in her voice. Olivia stood up and managed to dodge out of the way of the Variant's sword, teleporting behind her and shoving her aside. Loki groaned and grabbed the fallen TemPad. "Just give it back to me. You don't even know how to recharge it."

"Of course I do!" Loki protested. "You're not the only tech-savvy Loki."

"Don't ever call me that."

"Tech-savvy?"

"No, a Loki." The Variant reached for the TemPad, but Loki just vanished it. It reappeared in Olivia's hands with a green flash. "So, you're just fully a magician then?"

"Fine. For my next trick, I'll make you disappear." Loki hissed, drawing his daggers. The Variant pulled out her sword and Olivia drew her baton. A small, bright light pierced through the roof and landed on the floor.

"Is that one of your powers?" Olivia asked.

"Where did you send us?" The Variant asked her. More whistles could be heard from outside, so the three of them left the small room to investigate. Outside was a largely purple environment with small meteors hitting the ground... and a planet above them a little too close for comfort. "You idiot! You sent us to Lamentis-1!"

"What does that mean??" Olivia asked. A meteor collided with the ground right in front of them, sending rock into their faces.

"The moon that planet is about to collide into and destroy!" The Variant yelled, the three of them running through the falling meteors in hopes of not getting hit. "Of all the apocalypses saved on that TemPad, this is the worst! No one makes it off here! Watch out!"

Another meteor crashed in front of them, a much larger one. They ducked for cover before breaking away again.

"Well, excuse me for not having time to picky when we were about to be pruned!" Olivia argued as they slid under the cover of a large vehicle. "By the way, I thought you wanted us dead!"

"I don't know where you hid that TemPad, but if you blow up, it blows up, and then I blow up!" The Variant replied, pointing to a small shack. "There!"

"So we're a team now?" Loki asked as they once again ran for the new location.

"Oh, God no!"

"Get down!"

Another meteor crashed in front of them, Loki shielding both Olivia and the Variant with some light magical barriers.

"I didn't need your help!" The Variant snapped as they kept running.

"You're so weird!" Loki called behind him. He reached the shack and busted open the door, letting the women in before he shut the door behind them all. They all took a moment to breathe, Olivia slumping down on the floor with heaving breaths. The Variant looked over before approaching the still standing Loki. She reached out and rested her hands on the sides of his neck. A green spark emitted from her hands, but nothing seemed to happen.

"What are you doing?" Loki asked.

"What are you doing?" The Variant replied.

"You're trying to enchant me? It won't work."

"Why, because you're a magician?" The Variant hissed, yanking her hands away.

"Obviously not, I'm right here, remember? You enchanted me!" Olivia cried, standing back up.

"Briefly, there wasn't much I could hold onto. You should consider yourself lucky."

"'Lucky?' Really? You should consider yourself lucky if I don't rip your fingers off one by one!" Olivia snarled back. The Variant pulled out her sword again as Olivia activated the baton.

"Please, please. Are we really going to do this here? Again?" Loki asked.

"Well, what do you propose instead?" The Variant asked.

"I don't know, a truce?" The Variant scoffed before Loki continued. "Listen. None of us are getting off this rock if we can't get that TemPad turned back on."

"Where do you have it hidden?" The Variant pointed her sword right at Olivia, aiming for her chest.

"In my heart." The Goddess replied sarcastically.

"Well, then I'll cut it out!"

"Oh, real nice, lovely. Okay, yes, I do have the TemPad, but we're not gonna get very far if you keep trying to kill us every thirty seconds!"

"Well, you're full of it because you need me to get that thing recharged. That's the only reason you saved me out there."

"Maybe." Loki replied. "I mean, sure, that too. Or we could all just slaughter each other in this abandoned mine shack. What do you say?"

"Good for me."

There was a lull in the conversation, no one really making a move to attack each other. Finally, the Variant spoke up.

"The plan you interrupted was years in the making. Years! And as soon as I get that TemPad turned on, I'm going straight back to the TVA to finish what I started.

"Good." Loki said.

"I'll kill you then."

"Or we'll kill you."

The Variant scoffed and went for the door.

"Where are you going?" Olivia asked.

"There's power somewhere on this moon. We just need enough of it to travel through inter-dimensional time and space. Jeez."

She slipped outside and started for the edge of the crater they were stuck inside. It wasn't the most pleasant experience getting out of it, but the terrain became a little lest hostile once they reached the surface.

"So what's the plan?" Loki asked, the Variant a little bit ahead.

"There's a town near here. And can you shut up? Just because I have to work with you doesn't mean I want to hear your voice."

"Alright, well, slow down, Variant."

"What part of imminent death confuses you?" Loki and Olivia had finally caught up to the Variant at this point. "And don't call me 'Variant.'"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not calling some faded photocopy of me 'Loki.'"

"Good, because that's not who I am anymore. I'm Sylvie now."

"Oh, you changed your name? Brilliant."

"It's called an alias."

"Good, because that's not very Loki-like."

"Yeah? What exactly makes a Loki a Loki?"

"Independence. Authority. Style." Loki listed, counting on his fingers.

"So, naturally you went to work for the boring, oppressive time police." Sylvie shot back.

"We don't work for them. We're more like... consultants." Olivia cut in. Sylvie looked over her shoulder to look at Olivia, trailing two steps behind her and Loki.

"You don't know what you want." She snapped.

"Oh yeah? What about you? Your years in the making plan was to tear the place down, create the ultimate power vacuum, and then walk away?"

Sylvie just shrugged as Loki hung back, the woman having two people behind her now.

"I'd never have done that." Loki added.

"Yeah? Well, I'm not you. Can we get on with this now?" Sylvie said, walking backwards to face the pair before turning back around. Loki and Olivia glanced at each other and sighed, following Sylvie forward. They came upon a small abandoned town, the buildings lining the sandy street cracked and crumbling.

"Looks like everyone's already fled." Olivia observed.

"If they did, it was in vain." Sylvie replied flatly.

"How long do we have?"

"Twelve hours or so. Things are only going to get worse down here. More meteors, gravity quakes, and of course the collapse of society in the face of total annihilation."

"Thrilling."

"Could that charge the TemPad?" Loki asked, pointing to a still somehow lit neon sign in an odd alien language.

"Maybe." Sylvie said, rushing up the small ramp in front of the building with mild hope in her tone. "I'm just checking the coupling. Making sure it can connect."

"Right."

"Okay, hand it over."

Loki chuckled in tandem with Olivia's snort. The Goddess passed Loki the TemPad after producing it in a flash of green.

"Pitiful. We're not giving it to you. You're gonna have to try harder than that." Loki chuckled.

"Then don't give me your 'tech-savvy' ideas, either. The TemPad requires a massive energy source, not a night-light." Sylvie brushed past the pair and started down the street again. After even more walking, the trio came upon a lone homestead, a few meteors landing around it. Sylvie ascended the small set of stairs with her sword drawn, stalking the door. Loki pulled her slightly away from it.

"Brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile." He said, trying to step in front of the irritated woman.

"Noted." Sylvie said, before proceeding to kick down the door. She was blown back by something inside the homestead, landing several feet away on her butt.

"It's remarkable that you ever made it as far as you did." Loki said flatly.

"Sorry about that!" Olivia called into the home, choosing to be the voice of reason.

"Don't be! I enjoyed it." A female voice said in response.

"Oh, I did, too. But I can assure you, despite our acquaintance behaving like an animal, we mean you no harm. We are simply weary travelers." Loki replied. Sylvie scoffed at Loki's word choice.

"Sure you are."

Loki glanced inside the homestead through the red-tinted window and spotted a picture frame with two people shown, a woman (who was probably the one inside at the moment) and a man, probably the husband. Loki gave off a small smirk that Olivia managed to catch.

"Loki, please." She begged, but Loki ignored her, shape-shifting into the husband shown in the portrait. Olivia scoffed and stalked over to where Sylvie was, folding her arms petulantly. Sylvie rolled her eyes and gave Olivia a gentle pat on the shoulder.

"Hello, dear." Loki-as-the-husband greeted the woman. She lowered her large weapon ever so slightly.

"Patrice?" She asked. Loki conjured up some fake tears with a nod.

"It... it's been a long time. You're as beautiful as I--"

Loki didn't even finish his sentence before he was blown backwards as well, the illusion breaking as he made impact with the ground. Olivia and Sylvie just looked at him with folded arms and unsurprised expressions.

"Patrice never said anything that nice in 30 years. You're no travelers. You're devils."

"Which one was that? Diplomacy? Or--" Sylvie started with a chuckle.

"Don't. Just don't." Loki replied bitterly. The woman stepped outside of her home, her weapon drawn.

"What do you devils want with me?"

"We just wanna ask you a question. Where is everyone?" Olivia asked.

"The Ark." When none of them seemed to understand what the woman meant, she continued. "The evacuation vessel."

"Something like that would have enough juice to power the TemPad." Sylvie said.

"How do we get there?" Loki asked.

"Train station's at the edge of town. But you'll never get a ticket." The woman said flatly.

"Come on, let's go." Sylvie said, leading Loki and Olivia past the woman's home silently.

Even more walking later and the train station was within eyesight. A lot of people were clambering to get on, but it looked like only a few select, well dressed people were granted entry. The wealthy, Olivia assumed.

"Well, this looks fun." Loki said sarcastically."

"Come on." Sylvie pressed.

"We can't fight our way onto that train."

"Who said anything about fighting?"

"All your plans involve fighting."

"Not this one. I'm going to enchant a guard, have him lead us through the crowd, and if anyone gives us any trouble..."

"Make him start shooting?" Olivia asked. "And then what? Kill every guard and then hijack the train?"

"Whether or not there's a fight is entirely up to them."

"We're doing this one my way." Loki said. He grabbed Sylvie's shoulders and swung around her, changing his appearance so he wore a blue guard uniform instead of his TVA clothes. "How do I look?"

"Like someone with a shit plan."

"It's a great plan!"

"Hmm..."

"Just... follow my lead. Oh, and darling, if you don't mind?"

Olivia took the hint and changed her appearance so she looked a little more high class. Dark green body suit with fluffy white fur on her shoulders, as well as a thick belt that had a patchwork skirt attached to it. She even chose to match the headpiece Sylvie wore on her head to make them seem like a pair. The Variant gave a somewhat impressed humph.

"Do you want me to do you?" Olivia asked.

"I think I'll be fine the way I am, thank you much." Sylvie said as Loki stood between the two women, leading them up the steps past the screaming crowd.

"To Shuroo? This way, sir." A guard said to Loki with a curt nod. They waited for the people in front of them to show their tickets before trying to slide in next to them. The guard in front of the train stopped them.

"Woah, hey!" He protested. Loki straightened his posture and spoke in a robotic, monotonous tone.

"Taking these ones to Shuroo." He said.

"Okay. And their tickets?"

"Orders come from the top to get them on this train."

"Sir, this..."

Sylvie conspicuously reached out and touched the guard's arm, a green spark emitting. He blinked a few times and relaxed.

"Everything okay?" Another guard asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine! Yeah, I just remembered that headquarters radioed in their request for them this morning." The guard said, ever so slightly stuttering. His companion sighed.

"Okay."

The first guard graciously let the trio pass on board, the inside of the train rather... posh. Loki led the two women inside a small lounge with cool toned lighting, a few people sat inside sipping expensive drinks. Loki removed the helmet of his disguise, nodding at the other passengers.

"Good eventing, passengers. Hi." He said, still in the robotic tone. They found an empty booth and Olivia slid inside first so she was sat in the middle. Sylvie sat to her right as Loki was about to. "Uh... look, I can't go backwards on a train."

"Well, I never sit with my back to a door."

"What? There are doors on both sides."

"Loki, just sit down, please." Olivia sighed. Loki pursed his lips before sitting across from Sylvie, laying the helmet down next to him.

"FYI, that wasn't even a plan." Sylvie said.

"Oh, really?"

"Plans have multiple steps. Dressing as a guard and getting on a train is just doing a thing." Sylvie paused to let out a short yawn as some guards passed by.

"Oh, you a bit tired? Feel free to, you know, get some rest."

"I can't sleep in a place like this."

"You can't sleep on a train?"

"No, I can't sleep around untrustworthy people."

"Oh, right, that's us, isn't it?" Olivia snorted.

"But you feel free to take a nap."

"Nice try." Loki replied impishly.

"I'm not gonna waste my time trying to root around for the TemPad when someone taught you fairly decent magic."

"My mother." Loki replied with a grin. Sylvie returned the smile before glancing around for a moment. She looked back at Loki curiously.

"What was she like?"

"She was, um... a Queen of Asgard. She was good. Purely decent."

"Are you sure she was your mother?"

"Uh, no, she's not, actually, see, I was adopted. Is that a bit of a spoiler for you? Sorry about that."

"No, I knew I was adopted." Sylvie said simply.

"Wait, they told you? Olivia asked, a bit shocked.

"Yeah. Did they not tell you?"

"No!" Loki said, equally shocked. "I mean... I mean, they did. Eventually. Hang on a second. So, tell me about your mother."

"I barely remember her. Just blips of a dream at this point." Sylvie replied, pursing her lips into a sad smile.

"I have no memory of my mother. Or my father." Olivia whispered quietly.

"Yeah, I was meaning to ask. What's her deal? She's not a Loki as far as I can tell." Sylvie jabbed her thumb into Olivia's direction. The Goddess gently pulled off the headpiece that matched Sylvie's and ran her thumb over the middle detail. She sighed and plopped her hands down on the table.

"I suppose you're right, we've never been formally introduced. My name is Olivia, daughter of Iri. Goddess of Dreams and the paramour of Loki. My parents died at war and I was raised by the Asgardian royal family as a sort of ward. Frigga taught me magic as well." Olivia grabbed Sylvie's hand and gave it a firm shake before setting it back down. Sylvie blinked, almost in recognition before giving a nod of acknowledgement.

"Pleasure. Though, I do have to ask how you got mixed up in all of this. A different Variant in a world of Loki Variants."

"I apparently did a few things I wasn't supposed to do which created a branch. Then we stole the Tesseract and created another branch on top of that one. It doesn't matter anyways. I'm here now." Olivia replied, shrugging. Loki glanced at her, then to Sylvie, who seemed like she was staring oddly at Olivia. He chose to break the tension.

"You know, when we were young, my mother would do these little bits of magic. Like turning a flower into a frog or cast fireworks over the water. It all seemed impossible. But she told us that one day we'd be able to do it, too, because... because we could do anything." Loki paused with a sad smile. "You wanna see?"

Loki outstretched his palm and let a small stream of colorful fireworks burst out, all of varying sizes and colors. Sylvie studied them closely, a small smile barely creeping at the corner of her lips.

"Not bad." She said. Loki smiled and let the illusion fade.

"She was the kind of person you want to believe in you."

"Sounds like she does."

"Well, she did."

There was another short lull of silence as the weight of the conversation set in. Olivia broke it, turning to Sylvie.

"So, where'd you learn to do the Enchantment thing?" She asked, reaching her hands up to imitate Sylvie's gesture.

"I taught myself." Sylvie replied proudly.

"You taught yourself that magic?"

"Yeah, I did."

"So, what, do you just... go into their minds and project some sort of illusion?" Loki asked.

"Well, maybe it would be better if I show--" Sylvie reached over to try and make a connection with Loki.

"Enchant me to give you the TemPad so you can leap out of a moving train? No thank you." Loki said, grinning.

"We'll then, don't ask." Sylvie replied, equally impishly.

"Okay."

"Champagne?" A server asked, holding a round tray with three half full glasses of a bubbling gold drink.

"Ah, yes! Thank you very much." Loki said, taking two of the glasses. He passed one to Olivia, who eyed it suspiciously.

"No thanks, I'm good." Sylvie said.

"Well, then I'll take hers." Loki grabbed the extra glass with a smile. The server walked away with the empty tray. Loki clinked his two glasses together. "Cheers! To the end of the world."

He took a long drink from one of the glasses so there was about half left. Olivia ran her finger along the rim of her own drink. She picked up the glass and took a short sip, laying the glass back down half-heartedly.

"A pity the old woman chose to die, don't you think?" Olivia asked, not staring at anyone in particular other than the fizzy bubbles in the drink.

"She was in love." Sylvie replied.

"She hated him."

"Well, maybe love is hate?"

"Should probably remember that." Loki said, summoning a roll of parchment and an overly large quill pen. "What was that? 'Love is... Love is Hate.'"

"Oh, piss off." Sylvie said shortly. Loki smiled and vanished the writing utensils away.

"So, on the subject of love, is there a lucky beau waiting for you at the end of all of this?"

"Yeah, there is, actually. I've managed to maintain quite a serious relationship with a postman whilst running across time from one apocalypse to another." Sylvie answered. Olivia wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. The statement didn't quite reach the Variant's eyes.

"And with charm like that, who could resist you?" Olivia said warmly. The bridge of Sylvie's nose and the top of her cheeks went slightly pink, though not enough for either of her companions to notice. "I'm also assuming you had time to color your hair on the run?"

"I once experimented with pink, believe it or not."

"Pink?"

"I'm not proud of it, believe me. It looked like I had taken a highlighter to my hair. It's hard to lay low when your head can be spotted from miles away. I prefer the blonde better. It just felt more... right."

"It's nice. I like it. I'm assuming that postman of yours did, too."

"Well, people are quite willing in the face of certain doom." Sylvie replied.

"I'm sure they are."

"It was only ever to just keep me going. Nothing that ever felt... right." Sylvie took a pause, glancing at Olivia before continuing. "What about you both? Has this always been going on, or were there other possible princesses? Or perhaps another prince?"

Sylvie wiggled her eyebrows before Loki took the lead.

"A bit of both." He replied. "We've known each other since we were children and have loved each other since we could understand the concept. But, see, Asgard isn't as rigid with courtship lines as other places are. After we first came together, we agreed that we could, you know... have a little fun every now and again. We're unwed as of yet, but we always wind up back in each other's arms at the end of the day. So, on occasion, if we desired the embrace of another, male or female, for the night, we wouldn't stop each other."

"Although, sometimes Loki would prefer to spend the day in his female form." Olivia said, grinning. Loki returned the smile, momentarily shifting into said feminine form. She did look a bit like Sylvie, now that Olivia could compare the two. Loki just had dark hair and sharper features. Loki shifted back, Sylvie putting on a smile of her own.

"So, lords and ladies for the both of you?" She asked.

"Indeed, I'd suspect the same as you." Olivia said. Sylvie just shrugged with a lopsided grin.

"Love is mischief, then." She replied.

"Love is strange." Olivia replied, throwing Sylvie another warm smile. The Variant returned the expression, again a little pink.

"Love is something I might need another drink to think about." Loki downed the other glass of champagne.

"Really? Am I that confusing of a lover?" Olivia asked, laughing.

"Well, there was that one blonde belle you saw frequently."

"Éroma was a lovely woman, but I would never leave you for her." Olivia took another sip of her drink and gave Loki a slight side-eye. "What about you and that Bell lad? Theo?"

"I like brown hair." Loki defended half-assedly. "Since when did you have a thing for blondes?"

"Blonde women have a certain charm, sue me. Dark hair, however, is universal." Olivia gently tugged on one of Loki's curly dark locks of hair. "And I'm always in the mood for someone with pretty eyes."

"You mean me?"

"No, obviously I'm talking about Éroma, her eyes could bend anyone to her will."

"I thought you said the same thing about my eyes!"

"I can't see your eyes when they're looking at the Bell lad!"

"Then look closer." Loki's face was inches from Olivia's, their noses practically touching. Sylvie was laughing wildly, holding her stomach as tears streamed down her face.

"You're arguing about something like an old married couple that would normally signal the end of a relationship in other cultures. It's funny." Sylvie wiped her eyes, brushing the felled strands of hair out of her face. Loki snatched Olivia's half empty glass of champagne and downed the rest of it.

"I was drinking that!" She protested, but she was still smiling.

"You do realize we're about to try and hijack the power source to this civilization's only hope?" Sylvie asked.

"I do." Loki replied.

"It's not going to he easy. You should rest up."

"All right, you relax your way, and I'll relax mine." Loki said. Sylvie pursed her lips as the train meandered along its path.

***

It was unclear for how long Sylvie had been asleep, but it was a good long time. Long enough for Loki to have apparently gotten drunk and taught the Lamentian musician how to play an Asgardian drinking song. Sylvie's head eased off of the table as she blinked the sleep away. The people were clapping along with Loki's hijinks... and neither he, nor Olivia were in disguise. Olivia didn't seem to be anywhere near as tipsy as Loki was, but it wasn't any less alarming.

"Jeg saler min ganger! Når hun synger, hun synger "kom hjem" Men traner danser og fossene stanser, When she sings, she sings "come home." When she sings, she sings "come home."" The Lamentian people only sang along with the parts in English. Loki and Olivia sang the Asgardian parts on their own. Sylvie waved them down worridly, Loki enthusiastically waving back.

"Where are your disguises?" Sylvie mouthed, gesturing to her own clothes so the Asgardians could understand over the noise. Loki just popped his collar as he swiveled his hips in tandem with the music. He spun Olivia around a few times before taking her hand in his and resting the other on her hip and guiding her in some kind of square-dance-tango-waltz choreography.

"Jeg saler min ganger! Når hun synger, hun synger "kom hjem" Men traner danser og fossene stanser, When she sings, she sings "come home." When she sings, she sings "come home." When she sings, she sings "come home." When she sings, she sings "come home."" The song continued as Loki and Olivia unfolded themselves in a bout of extra showmanship. Sylvie noticed a man standing up from one of the booths to leave the train car as Loki shushed the rest of the patrons.

"I stormsvarte fjell, jeg vandrer alene. Over isbreen tar jeg meg frem." Loki and Olivia sang quietly, almost intimately. Loki took Olivia by the arms and embraced her tightly as they swayed with the music. Olivia rested her hands on the sides of Loki's neck, their foreheads gently touching. "I eplehagen står møyen den vene. Og synger "når kommer du hjem?""

Other than the fact that Loki and Olivia were out dancing and making themselves larger targets, something else felt... wrong about the scenario to Sylvie. Her face heated up watching the pair have their loving moment. Was she perhaps jealous of their relationship? That could be it, but somehow Sylvie knew that wasn't the whole truth. She seemed more offended by Loki in particular and the loving looks he received from Olivia. The Variant started biting her thumbnail intently.

Sylvie was shaken from her thoughts by a sudden outburst from Loki and Olivia continuing the song.

"Men traner danser og fossene stanser. Når hun synger, hun synger "kom hjem." Men traner danser og fossene stanser. When she sings, she sings "come home." When she sings, she sings "come home."" The song finished with loud applause from the patrons, Loki raising a martini glass with an arm wrapped around Olivia's shoulder.

"To Sylvie, everybody!" Olivia crowed, the crowd cheering. The Variant went pink at the sudden attention... from the Lamentians, to be clear. Loki downed his entire drink in one gulp.

"Another!" He cried, smashing the glass to the ground. Sylvie burst out of the booth, completely fed up with Loki's shenanigans.

"You're drunk." She said flatly.

"No. I'm just full. But, bear in mind, I am very full." Loki said, slightly slurred.

"I'm not either. I've had exactly two drinks." Olivia held up two fingers to emphasize her point. "Here, I'll prove it."

The Goddess summoned a thin dagger, drew it back, then tossed it across the room so it hit the dead center of one of the decorative glass crystals inset in the wall. Some of the patrons applauded the accurate throw, Olivia giving a theatrical bow in response.

"Now, I need you to try this." Loki showed Sylvie a small pastry on a dish. "It pairs very nicely with the figgy port. Who's got the figgy port...? Well, you'll just have to take my word for it."

"Where are your disguises? We're meant to be laying low." Sylvie asked shortly.

"Nobody cares. It's the end of the world."

"I think something's happening."

"Yes. That planet is about to crash into us."

"Don't be an ass. I saw some people looking at you weirdly."

"What?" Loki set the dish down, only for it to clatter to the floor having been good close to the edge of the bar. "When did you get so paranoid?"

"Oh, I guess it must have started when I spent my entire life running from the omniscient fascists you work for." Sylvie replied.

"It's a shame to let that go to waste." Loki gestured to the felled pastry on the floor. "By the way, I've come up with an answer."

"To what?"

"Your question. About what love is."

"Loki, please, we don't have time for-" Olivia started, but Loki had already started explaining. He summoned a dagger.

"Love is a dagger. It's a weapon to be wielded when far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It's beautiful. Until it makes you bleed. But ultimately when you reach for it..."

Loki turned the blade around as if offering it to Sylvie. She reached out for it, but it vanished before she could take it.

"It's not there. You try, but... you can't have it." She pursed her lips.

"Love is an imaginary dagger?" Olivia asked.

"It doesn't really make sense, does it?" Loki asked.

"No."

"Terrible metaphor." Sylvie agreed.

"Damn. I really thought I had something there." Loki sighed. The doors on both sides of the car slid open, a few guards pouring in from both sides. The man from earlier pointed in Loki's direction in particular.

"Stay cool." Sylvie whispered.

"It's gonna be okay." Olivia reassured.

"Sir, can I see your tickets?" One of the guards said.

"You again! Hello! Tickets. Right. Yes, of course. Here they are." Loki said, a mild panic in his tone. He opened his hand to hopefully summon some copies of the tickets. Instead, he produced a small fireworks display in the palm of his hand. "Oops."

"Tipsy son of a--" Olivia muttered.

"Still, it looks lovely, don't you think?" The guard grabbed Loki by the shoulder, dragging him away to the door. Sylvie and Olivia were both grabbed as well, being led in the opposite direction. "Look, is this really necessary? There's a reasonable explanation--"

Another guard put his arm out and connected it with Loki's chest. Loki gave a noise of annoyance as he reached out to touch the guard's chest. They swapped hands around for a moment before Loki punched the guard right in his helmet, sending him stumbling back. The guard holding onto Loki got an elbow to the face. The patrons were led out of the car as Olivia and Sylvie also started to fight back against their guards. Sylvie slipped her headpiece off and stabbed the guard with the unbroken horn. She tossed it to Olivia, who jammed it back into the guard's face that had her in a headlock.

Loki blasted one of the guards with a burst of his green magic, sending them stumbling back into one of the booth seats. Olivia pulled out the baton she had stolen from B-15's locker earlier and switched it on, knocking one of the other guards back. She switched the setting and pruned the felled guard, flipping the baton in her hand afterwards. One of the guards had Sylvie pinned in their arms, the Variant grunting and fighting to get away. Loki drew his hand back and threw a dagger in her direction. It jammed into the wall next to her face.

"Awful throw!" She commented. Olivia directed a blast of her own magic and hit the guard holding Sylvie. Loki kicked one of the guards out the window with a happy little wave after them. Two more guards then grabbed him and tossed him out through the window.

"TemPad." Sylvie reminded herself. She grabbed her sword out from the bar it had been jammed into. She grabbed Olivia by the hand and they both lept out of the moving train, landing in the dark sandy ground below. Loki walked over, missing his Variant jacket, and pulled Olivia to her feet. She herself discarded her blazer and helped Sylvie up.

"Well, that's not ideal." Loki said, gesturing to the train speeding away towards the city.

"Give me the TemPad!" Sylvie snarled, holding her sword up to Loki's neck.

"Alright, alright, alright! Okay." Loki opened his palm to reveal the TemPad... at least what was left of it. The small device had broken into several pieces, black smoke emerging from it. "Well, I did take quite the tumble."

"You asshole!" Sylvie shrieked.

"You've killed us!" Olivia added.

"Why are you taking her side? Look, maybe we can fix it." Loki tried to squish the pieces back together in vain. The frame and screen just shattered even more, the rest of the pieces falling to the ground.

"You're not a serious man." Sylvie growled.

"You're right. I'm a god."

"You're a clown. You got drunk on the train!"

"I'm hedonistic, it's what I do!"

"I'm hedonistic. A lot more than you, I assure you. But never at the expense of the mission."

"Oh, the mission? The mission. What, your glorious purpose? Give me a break, you can't beat them."

Sylvie stalked away, proceeding to let out a massive scream. Her fingers glowed green and a small shockwave burst out once she had run out of breath. Olivia looked over at Loki, lightly shoving him in the shoulder before going over to sit next to Sylvie on a nearby rock.

"Did the scream make you feel better?" She asked.

"It did. You should try it sometime." Sylvie replied.

"Oh, believe me, there have been many times when he gets on my nerves. I just need to walk away when that happens." Olivia pursed her lips. "So what now?"

"I don't know, your circus freak broke the TemPad and that planet is about to crash into us."

"Well, yes, but--" Loki interjected, walking over.

"Yes, but what?"

"Well, the entire moon is destroyed, right?"

"Yep. And everyone on it is killed."

"Including us?"

"Yes, including us."

"Well, what about the Ark?" Olivia asked.

"The Ark never leaves because it's destroyed." Sylvie huffed.

"Never had us on it." Loki said.

"So, what? We just hijack the Ark and make sure it gets off this moon?"

"I mean, it sounds like a good idea to me."

"Okay." Sylvie stood up and started for the direction of the city just on the horizon.

"Wait, really?" Olivia asked, getting up after her.

***

The walk was longer than expected, the city still a good distance away after at least a half hour of walking. Loki rolled up his sleeves, Olivia having already pushed hers up.

"You know, I don't think I've ever walked this much in my life." Loki said, glancing around.

"Sounds like a nice life." Sylvie said sarcastically.

"Well, you're lucky you missed it. Here's an idea. What if you enchanted me and you walked for both of us? I take a nap in my subconscious and then you could just wake me when we arrive?" Loki offered. Olivia rolled her eyes with a soft scoff.

"Yeah, that's not how enchantment works." Sylvie said.

"Alright, how does it work?"

"Doesn't matter."

"You know, I feel like we've told you so much about us. We really don't know the first thing about you."

"Thanks for the tactical advantage."

"Ah, so you're going to use that tactical advantage to kill us when the TVA shows up?"

"Worried, are you? Besides, your head is on the chopping block way before hers." Sylvie jabbed her thumb over to where Olivia was. Loki ignored the comment.

"I just need to know if I can trust you."

"Okay, fine. You wanna know how enchantment works? I have to make physical contact and then grab hold of their mind." Sylvie explained.

"How?" Olivia asked.

"Eh, depends on the mind. Most are easy and I can overtake them instantly. Others, the stronger ones like yours, it gets tricky. I'm in control, but they're there, too. In order to preserve the connection, I have to create a fantasy from their memories."

"That explains why I was in the library back home all of a sudden." Olivia said. "On the sofa in front of the fireplace with that bowl of cashews."

"Exactly. Your happy place."

"And you call me a magician." Loki said.

"That young soldier from the TVA, her mind was messed up. Everything clouded. I had to pull a memory from hundreds of years prior. Before she even fought for them."

Loki and Olivia stopped dead in their tracks.

"What? What did you just say?" Loki asked.

"Before she joined the TVA?" Olivia added.

"Yeah. She was just a regular person on earth. Loved margaritas." Sylvie said simply.

"We were told that everyone who works for the TVA was created by the Time Keepers." Loki said.

"That's ridiculous. They're all Variants, just like us."

"They don't know that!" Olivia said, alarmed, immediately remembering Mobius. It raised the question: who was he before he was taken? And Casey? B-15? Did Renslayer know? Was she a Variant before, too?

An announcement from the nearby city shook Olivia from her thoughts.

"That's our ride." Sylvie said, gesturing her companions forward. They continued towards the city, hearing riots and commotion from inside. The trio passed through a duct into the heart of it, the Ark shining in the middle. "Do we trust each other?"

"We do. And you can." Olivia replied.

"Good. Cause this is gonna suck."

They moved into the rioting crowd, Loki standing up onto a piece of machinery to see above the sea of people.

"Five minutes until launch." The intercom said.

"They're gonna let these people die." Loki observed, watching a gate up ahead close.

"We have to get on that Ark and make sure it gets off." Sylvie said.

"How?"

"We go 'round."

Sylvie pulled Loki off of the machinery and led him and Olivia down an alleyway through the crowds of people. Bright neon lights and signs were all over the place, making for a very dizzying run. There was a small clearing, several people swarming the gates despite the blue clad guards trying to send people away. Loki, Sylvie, and Olivia braced for the swarm and ran with the crowd. They moved only a few steps before the planet above them cracked in half. It sent even more meteors hurtling to the ground.

One of the falling rocks landed right in front of the trio, sending them flying back. Olivia's ears were ringing so she could only barely make out the intercom reporting the four minute window. Loki pulled her to her feet, Olivia helping Sylvie upwards after.

"You okay?" She asked, the three of them running towards an open restaurant type of building.

"Yeah." Sylvie replied in a slight daze. A guard ran up and grabbed her by the cloak she wore. Sylvie threw it off, kicking the guard away. More streamed in through the entry-ways, Olivia and Loki sending out bursts of magic to stave them off. "Let's go!"

They all exited the establishment after the guards were all knocked out or dead on the floor. They ran through the streets even more, having to dodge out of the way of guards, meteors, and other people. Olivia pulled them all over to another place with cover for a moment to wait out another shower of rocks. They ran away again, avoiding falling towers and fires that had started burning.

"Watch out!" Olivia called, a particularly large building about to fall on top of them.

"I've got it!" Loki said, stopping the falling building with only his telekinetic abilities, righting it back upwards from where it came.

"Come on, let's go!" Sylvie called.

"We can still make it!"

They were so close to the gate, only a few more steps. It was heavily guarded, so each of them had to take on several guards at once. One guard started pulling Sylvie back, Olivia having to blast them back with more green energy. Sylvie in turn threw the body over to the guard that had Olivia trapped.

"Sylvie, come on!" Loki called, the gate within reach. The Ark started up its engines, moments from launching...

...Before a meteor crashed right into it, sending the top half flying away in a burst of flames. The entire city went quiet, realizing what had just happened. Loki, Olivia, and Sylvie all stared up at the destroyed Ark in disbelief. Olivia dropped to her knees as Sylvie walked away, resigned to their fate. Loki only continued to stare at the destruction, out of breath and full of dread.

They were too late.