Loki sat down. He hadn't bothered to get up.

"You." Sif said for probably the twentieth time. "You conniving, craven, pathetic worm."

"Sif please. Please, please, no more. Please, I beg you." Loki said with a sigh. "I'm a horrible person. I get it. I really am."

He turned himself around slowly and sat on his knees, looking up at Sif. His tone was painfully sorrow as he spoke.

"I cut off your hair because I thought it'd be funny."

He looked at her like a puppy would look at an owner when he did something wrong that he knew he'd be punished for.

"And it's not."

Sif looked down at him with a glare, unappreciative of his manner.

"Uh. I crave attention..." Loki gave a small sigh. "Because I'm.. I'm a, I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's... It's because I'm scared of being alone."

He looked at her with apologetic eyes and Sif sighed. She held out her hand to help him up.

Loki looked at it for a moment, then took her hand and pulled himself up. When he went to let go of her though, she gripped his arm tighter and brought him closer to her face.

"You are alone." She stated. "And you always will be."

She pushed his hand off of hers and marched off, leaving Loki in a stated of pained acceptance that he didn't deserve whatever Wanda or Sylvie gave to him. He would just be in this endless loop forever. He deserved to be alone, being abused and told he deserved nothing for the rest of his days here.

Then Mobius walked in through the entrance that Sif usually came in from.

"Okay, Loki."

Loki turned his head to Mobius, unsure if this was real or not or if his imagination was the only thing left going for him.

"You ready to talk?"

A red door portal spawned and Mobius walked through it, glancing at Loki to join him as he did.

Loki hesitated, but figured whatever he was about to be put through couldn't be worse that Sif kneeing him in the groin every few seconds.

He walked in and arrived back in the room that he'd first been in, only this time, Wanda was here.

She looked at him with pity and he had to move his gaze away from her eyes.

"Fancy technology." He commented as he sat down on the left side of the table.

Mobius was on the right and Wanda was in the middle.

"Threatening interrogation tactics. Seems the three of us are in a loop of our own." He said, looking at Mobius.

He could feel Wanda's eyes on him but he couldn't bring himself to meet them.

"Well, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then." Mobius replied.

"Certainly has."

"Okay, the two of you said the TVA is lying to me. Go ahead. Or is that just a faulty plan that you came up with last minute in case you were seperated?"

"Let us out of this place, stop beating me up, and I'll tell you." Loki replied, crossing his arms.

"Even if it was a faulty plan, apparently it worked since we're not seperated anymore." Wanda said, glaring at Mobius.

"So it was the faulty plan. Got it."

Mobius jotted something down on a sheet of paper.

"How long have the two of you been working for the Variant?"

"Me? Working for her? Please." Loki scoffed.

"I didn't even know this Loki until you TVA people, let alone a variant." Wanda stated.

"Okay so if you're not working for the Variant, what is it? Are you a super trio now?"

"Absolutely not."
"That sounds disgusting."
"She's difficult."
"Are irritating."
"And she tries to hit me all the time."
"They are constantly bickering and it gets on my last nerve."

Loki and Wanda went back and forth, finishing the other's sentence about Sylvie.

"So a super trio?" Loki asked.

"No." Wanda finished.

"Yeah. I guess you don't do teams then." He jotted down more things. "Unless, of course, it benefits you, and you intend to betray one of them at some point."

"It was a means to an end, Mobius. Welcome to the real world." Loki stated.

"In the real world, people are awful to get what they want." Wanda continued.

"Now I gotta have a prince and an Avenger tell me how the real world works? Why don't you just tell me what caused the Nexus event on Proserpina."

"Let me say this again. I'm not going to tell you just so you can turn around immediately after and prune the both of us." Loki stated.

"I guess we've reached a dead end then."

"Okay, it's over."

"I'm gonna miss these little tete-a-tetes."

"Me too."

"I probably won't." Wanda mumbled.

"Two guys playing team checkers, you, old Mobius playing chess. But, yeah, give my regards to Lady Sif." Mobius picked up his Tempad and stood up.

"What? No. Please, no." Loki said, his tone going from authoritative to worry.

Wanda could see the fear forming in his eyes and she hated it, so she started talking.

"It was Loki." She said.

"Hmm?" Mobius asked.

"He was.. pulling the strings all along."

Mobius raised his eyebrows and sat back down.

"Before.. Westview.. The variant came to me. She told me she needed my help, and I told her that I had a friend who could help us.. Loki. So we went to Asgard and got him, then she took us to one of her apocalypses."

She glanced at Loki, who for the first time since they'd sat down together, was actually looking back at her.

"Then we made a plan. Loki led it, and the both of us became his..." Wanda paused to think of the right word.

"Pawns." Loki finished. "They were the pawns in my plan."

"Which is?" Mobius asked.

"Classified." Wanda stated.

"But coming along very nicely, thank you." Loki included.

"And the variant?" Mobius asked.

"Doesn't matter. She was a pawn." Loki said. "Something very, very big is gonna happen. And when it does, this witch will leave my sight. And the variant? I'll dispose of her."

"Well, we saved you the trouble there. She's already been pruned."

Wanda gritted her teeth inside her mouth. She didn't believe him. He'd already told her once, but it wasn't true. She refused to believe it.

Loki looked at Mobius, his evil plan face forming into one of loss.

"So, assume I do set you two free." Mobius started.

"Hang on, wait." Loki cut in. "What'd you just say?"

"What? Assume I do set you two free?"

"The variant. She's gone?"

"Yeah. Not before she took out two of ours." Mobius replied to Loki.

"Yeah, she was going to her Time Cell, broke free. Hunter B-15 stepped in, popped her. So you might want to fire off a thank you note to Hunter B-15, because it looks like you are the superior Loki."

Loki stared at Mobius, unable to reply as Mobius kept talking.

"I would've bet on her, but that's what makes a horse race."

Loki leaned back in his chair, putting on a face of command again.

"Good riddance." He nodded.

Wanda glanced at him and sighed.

Loki put on a smile and Mobius looked up at him from the paper he'd been filling with notes. Then Mobius turned to Wanda, seeing her not even trying to hide the pain on her face. Mobius cocked his head to the side before laughing.

Wanda raised an eyebrow.

"What's funny now?" She asked

"Come on. Look at your eyes. You like her."

"What?" Wanda asked, disbelief in the conclusion that Mobius made.

"You like her! Does she like you?"

"Did you prune her or are you lying to us!?" Wanda demanded, now that the attention was on her.

Mobius just laughed again.

"No wonder you have no clue what caused a Nexus event on Proserpina. Both of you were just swooning over each other. I bet Loki was bickering with her the whole time cause he likes her too!"

"Stop acting like a child, Mobius." Wanda said through gritted teeth.

"It's the apocalypse. Two variants of the same being and a love-sick witch. Now I'd watch that on television. The three of you forming this kind of, sick, twisted love triangle. You say you have chaos magic? Try to control that chaos. That could break reality. It's breaking my reality right now."

Wanda went to get up and leave but Mobius clicked a button on his time twister and she warped back into her seat.

"This is ridiculous!" Loki stated angrily to Mobius.

"This variant must've been hella good to get the Scarlet Witch after her, let alone another Loki."

"Her name is Sylvie." Wanda stated through gritted teeth.

Mobius gave a lovey smile.

"Ah, Sylvie." He wrote that down on his paper. "Lovely. How do you spell that? Is that with an I-E or just an I?"

"Is she alive!?" Loki demanded.

Mobius looked up from the paper with a hint of amusement from Loki's question.

"For now." He said.

Wanda glared at him. She knew Sylvie wasn't dead. She'd lived too long to fail by this wretched place.

Loki gave a sigh of relief, one that even made Wanda wonder if Mobius was right about Loki liking Sylvie.

She knew she didn't have romance feelings for the woman, she just appreciated Sylvie's nature and how Sylvie could figure out things and how her attitude was, even if it got annoying.

How Loki felt though, was a whole different matter.

"And was infiltrating the TVA, was that always part of the grand plan?" Mobius asked.

"Our interests are aligned." Loki replied.

"Overthrowing the Time Keepers?"

"Maybe they need to be overthrown."

"How do you know the Time Keepers are really all they claim to be?" Wanda asked.

"Aw, the two of you are even working with Sylvie's ideas, how cute."

"Mobius, listen. If what Sylvie told us about this place is true, it affects all of us." Loki said.

"Oh here we go. Now, you've already told me about 50 lies in the past 10 minutes."

"I'm not lying!" Loki tried to cut in. Mobius continued.

"Now I'm supposed to believe your girlfriend."

"We're telling you the truth. She's not my girlfriend!"

"Whatever you want to call her. Your female self that you have some demented crush on and for some reason so does this witch."

"Stop bringing me into this! Listen to Loki!"

"Why, she's basically your girlfriend too."

"You're all Variants!" Loki cut them both off. "Everyone who works at the TVA! The Time Keepers didn't create your they kidnapped you from the timeline, and erased your memories!"

"Memories that Sylvie can access through her enchantment." Wanda said, her voice at a normal time rather than almost yelling like Loki.

"So before this, you had a past, maybe you had a family, a life."

Mobius looked at the two. He didn't show any more amusement in what they said. He looked like he was processing it, believing them for once.

His gaze left them and went down to the table.

"Nice try."

He glanced back up at them after a long moment. He gave a half of a chuckle.

"That was good. You two, working with the variant. What a team!" Mobius mocked. "Gosh! Unbelievable. Wherever you go, it's just death, destruction, the literal ends of worlds." He laughed.

Loki just shook his head silently while Wanda let out an a frustrated sigh.

"Well, I'm gonna have to close this case now, cause I don't need you anymore. Yeah. Or as you might say, our interests are no longer aligned."

Two soldiers walked in and Wanda glanced at Mobius's hands. He held a third device that Wanda didn't recognize. That must've called the soldiers in.

They grabbed Loki and Loki glared at Mobius.

"You know, of all the liars in this place, and there are a great many, you're the biggest." He said as the soldiers forced him to stand.

"Why? Cause I lied about your girlfriend?" Mobius taunted.

"Oh no, that I can respect. I mean the lies you tell yourself."

And with that, the red door opened and the soldiers threw Loki in, then backed up as the door disappeared.

Wanda rolled her eyes at Mobius as the soldiers went to her.

"You know, I liked you at first." Mobius said to her as the soldiers forced her to stand.

"Oh I feel so honored." Wanda scoffed. "Loki was right. You may not believe either of us, but I was the one out there for who knows how long with the two variants."

"Exactly, they played with your mind."

"No. They showed me things. Things that you refuse to believe. This place is a lie. You could be a good man instead of one who tortures those who are right because of the lies that have been drilled into your brain."

Mobius gave a nod to her.

"Gotta say, I'm kind of rooting for you and the variant to get together. It wouldn't be a weird self-incest if that happened."

The soldiers began pulling her out of the room.

"You're pathetic, Mobius!" Wanda called to him as she was pulled out.

The soldiers led her down the hall. No one else was there and Wanda eyed the two prune sticks that clung to their sides.

She closed her eyes and gave a breath. Attacking the two of them wouldn't do anything to help either Loki variant.

She arrived back at her cell room and the soldiers stood outside her door.

Wanda sighed and walked over to where the flipped over table was, then she sat down and picked up the memory ball was laying on the floor, wondering if there was any way to get to her life scenes again.

Or perhaps Loki's? Or even Sylvie's?

——————————

Speaking of Sylvie, she sat in a room identical to that of Loki's and Wanda's former room. Her legs were propped on the table.

Her head turned as the door to her cell room opened.

"Hello.... Oh I don't know, your name's a number. I can't read it from here."

Hunter B-15 held a prune stick as she looked at the blonde.

Sylvie got up and walked towards the woman. Then B-15 put away the stick and pulled out a Tempad.

A door opened behind her and B-15 looked at Sylvie, not with a face of distaste or anger, but a blank one that most couldn't read.

"Come with me." She ordered, then walked into the door portal.

Sylvie cocked her head, then followed her in.

The portal led them back to the center outside of Roxxcart.

"Fine. You wanted a fair fight. I respect that." Sylvie said, her voice loud in order to be heard over the storm.

"When you were in my head, I saw something." B-15 declared. "What did you do to me?"

"I showed you your life before the TVA."

"That's a trick. It's a deception."

"No it's not."

"I was created by the Time-Keepers."

"No. I can't create memories. I can only use what's already there. The Time Keepers took your lives from you. From all of you. You're variants."

B-15 looked at her with disbelief, but a bit of understandment. She believed Sylvie, it was just difficult.

"We're the same." Sylvie finished.

B-15 held out her hand.

"Show me." She said.

Sylvie put her hand on B-15's and a green magic went through her, going into B-15's mind and showing her her past life.

Her breath became shaky as she looked over her memories, seeing a sister, a girlfriend, her parents.

Sylvie moved her hand off of B-15's.

"I looked happy." B-15 said, close to tears.

Sylvie nodded, not saying anything in reply.

"What now?" B-15 asked.

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My favorite quote of this chapter: "Two variants of the same being and a love-sick witch. Now I'd watch that on television."