Loki's mouth hung, unable to hide how he felt about the sudden killing.

Tears stung at Wanda's eyes and she stared at Ravonna with a look of pain and anger.

Ravonna kept a solemn look, not showing emotion to it, only looking like she didn't like the sparks that flew from him as the technology disintegrated him.

The four soldiers walked over, grabbing Loki then Wanda, two on each of them. This time it was Wanda struggling to get out of their grasp, but they didn't kill her like they did Mobius, so she gave up.

Ravonna stepped aside and the soldiers led the variants out, Loki before Wanda.

"Wait for me at the elevator." Ravonna ordered.

They were forced out of the room and led down the hall, neither saying a word. Loki stopped in the middle of the walkway and the soldiers shoved him in order to keep him going.

Wanda looked down at the soldiers shoes and 'accidentally' stepped on them, causing them to grunt and stumble, then continue forcing her along.

Ravonna went to Sylvie's cell to collect her. As she walked in, Sylvie was sitting at the table silently, but she was soaked. Her hair was wet and her clothes were all damp.

"Who was in here with her?" Ravonna asked.

A soldier who stood at the doorway responded.

"Sorry ma'am. B-15 insisted."

Ravonna bit the inside of her mouth. Another good soldier corrupted. She turned to the soldier.

"Put out an alert for Hunter B-15." She instructed. "She too has been compromised by the variant."

Sylvie, who'd been sitting at the table, let's propped up, gave a smug grin to Ravonna, which only made Ravonna glare at her.

Two soldiers came in and grabbed Sylvie, who got up willing and began walking.

Ravonna walked behind her, making sure she didn't try anything funny.

They rounded a corner and Sylvie saw Loki and Wanda being held firmly in front of the elevator that would lead to the Time Keepers.

Loki was on the left, Wanda in the middle, and Sylvie was put to the right of them both.

Sylvie glanced at the two and immediately noticed their downcast looks.

"You okay?" She whispered very faintly.

Wanda shook her head slightly and Loki just glanced up, then looked back down.

"I've got them from here." Ravonna stated to the six guards.

The soldiers who had Loki and Sylvie stepped off to the left and right. The ones who had Wanda, backed up as Ravonna stepped forwards, into the elevator that had opened.

The three followed her in, staying in their forced positions.

Ravonna stood behind Wanda in the elevator.

For a long moment, it was silent, the only noise was that of the elevator lifting up.

Well, until Sylvie spoke.

"Do you remember me?" She asked.

"I do." Ravonna replied.

Neither looked at the other, they just stared ahead, waiting to arrive on the Time Keepers's floor.

"What do you want to say to me, Variant?"

"What was my Nexus event? Why did you bring me in?"

"What does it matter?"

"It was enough to take my life from me, lead to all of this. Must have been important. So what was it?"

"I don't remember."

Ravonna had a slight smirk on her face, but none of the variants could see that due to the fact that none of them cared to look back at her.

The elevator door opened and all they could see was a blue light filling the room and fog or smoke covering the floor.

Wanda walked out first, Loki and Sylvie walking out behind her, Ravonna coming in last, holding her Time Twister device in case the three tried anything.

Two soldiers stood at the entrance as the four walked in, and in front of them were three alien beings sitting atop three thrones on a large stand.

"Gracious Time-Keepers, as promised, the Variants." Ravonna called.

The three walked forward until they stopped at a red lit line that was barely visible through the fog. Ravonna stayed in the center of the room.

Wanda stood in the middle, Loki at her right and Sylvie at her left now.

All three looked up at the Time Keepers, all a touch intimidated but not ready to go down without a fight.

"After all your struggle, at last you've arrived before us."

The middle one's voice echoed across the room, it's voice like a computer's as it spoke. Then the one in front of Sylvie spoke.

"What do you have to say for yourselves before you meet your end, Variants?"

It had the same echo as the first, but it's voice was more raspy.

"Is that the only reason you brought us here?" Loki asked. "To kill us? I've lost track of the number of times I've been killed, so go ahead. Do your worst."

The one in front of him spoke this time.

"You and accomplices are no threat to us, Variant."

Sylvie spoke this time.

"Oh no I don't think you believe that." She stepped towards the Keepers. "I think-"

Ravonna clicked a button and Sylvie was sent back to the spot she just left.

The Time Keepers smirked. Sylvie glared at Ravonna.

"I think your scared." Sylvie finished.

"No, Variant." The middle one spoke. "You're nothing but a cosmic disappointment."

"Then why did you bring us here? Why not have us killed earlier? Did you have to make sure we were dead? That you wouldn't fail like you have before this?" Wanda asked, not allowing herself to show fear, just like Loki and Sylvie.

The middle one rolled it's eyes.

"Delete them." He stated.

"No I'm not done with you yet." Sylvie started at them.

Ravonna clicked her Time Twister and Sylvie warped back to the original position again and the two soldiers who stood at the entrance turned on their prune sticks.

The three variants turned around, ready for a fight as more soldiers entered the room from the sides of the temple like structure. They were all carrying prune sticks.

Then the elevator opened.

This time Ravonna turned around as well.

B-15 walked into the room, carrying a Time Twister. She clicked a button and the collars that had been on the Variants, restricting them from going farther than a step off of position, all fell off and collapsed to the floor.

"For all time." B-15 stated, staring at Ravonna. "Always."

Then she revealed her other hand which held Sylvie's sword. She tossed it into the air and Sylvie caught it, a smirk growing on her face.

Ravonna turned around and backed up as the three variants formed into a defensive triangle.

Sylvie stared down Ravonna while Wanda and Loki watched as soldiers surrounded them.

"Protect the Time Keepers!" Ravonna shouted to the hunters.

B-15 got struck in the head, then the gut from the two guards at the entrance.

She went to attack back, then she got kicked in the legs and her head got stomped on, causing her to black out.

The hunters drew closer to the three, and on cue, all three variants threw the first punch.

There were about twelve guards in total, so it was only 4 v 1. Not super bad odds.

Sylvie used her sword, but two out of four of those she went against had shields. She stabbed the first one with ease, then managed to kick one with the shield, causing them to stumble.

The other two went at her with prune sticks and she leaned back, causing one to get pruned while the other's shield got pruned.

The other one got up and Sylvie heard Loki shout "A little help here!?" So she tossed him her sword and smirked at the two soldiers.

"Come get me." She taunted.

They both ran at her and she kicked one in the knee and jumped on the other who carried the shield. She jumped specifically at the shield and the soldier dropped it, allowing Sylvie to slam it into his toes, causing the soldier to let out a shout of agony.

The non shielded soldier ran at her, attempting to prune her, so Sylvie jumped out of the way and grabbed the prune stick, pruning the one that ran at her, then the one who was crying about his toes.

As this went down, Loki attacked his four soldiers with his hands until he called for help. He got the sword and thrusted it at one, hitting them in the gut, then he swung around, causing the impaled soldier to hit the other three in a smooth motion. One knocked over and the one who got impaled slid off of the sword, collapsing on the ground.

Loki began swinging the sword in a way his mother taught him as the two soldiers backed him up against the stand that the time keepers were at. Loki leaned against it, then pushed himself off in a rapid motion, impaling one of the guards and knocking over the other.

The hunter pushed himself back up and went to strike Loki with his prune stick, but Loki slid out of the way and stabbed the man in the back.

"I apologize Mobius, I lied." He mumbled.

On Wanda's side, she immediately ran for the one in front of her. He stumbled back as she jumped at him, climbing up his body till she was on his shoulders, then she kicked two other soldiers that had run at her while she was on him.

She wore heels, and the actual heel of it, hit one in the throat, causing him to let out a gasp as he stumbled backwards. The other got hit with the ball of the shoe in the nose and he grunted, also stumbling.

Wanda flipped herself around the soldier she sat on and pulled the prune stick from his hands, jabbing it into him and landing safely on the ground.

She jabbed the one who got hit in the throat with the prune stick, then turned and saw the fourth one that she hadn't touched yet, running at her. She leaned her body back like she'd practiced many times when she was still on earth and the man completely flipped himself over her on accident, not expecting half her body to got down.

Wanda pruned him, then looked around for the other one who was strangely not there anymore. She turned around and gasped as he was suddenly running at her.

The back side of his prune stick rammed into her head and Wanda let out a groan in pain, then she stabbed him with the prune stick, ignoring the blood that was now coming from her face.

"Ow."

Sylvie had finished her four guys before Loki and Wanda. She held her prune stick firmly and stared at Ravonna who now didn't have any guards defending her.

Ravonna kept her head high and she walked towards where one of the unconscious soldiers were, using her foot to kick their prune stick up and catch it.

They circled each other for a short moment, Ravonna standing between Sylvie and all the other fighters at the other side of the room.

"This time, I finish the job." Ravonna stated.

She thrusted the prune stick at Sylvie and Sylvie easily dodged.

Ravonna swung her stick around, smacking Sylvie across the face with the non-disintigrating side and Sylvie gave an offended gasp.

Ravonna pointed the prune stick at Sylvie and Sylvie used her own stick to push it up and swing at her.

Sylvie then went to slash her over the head and Ravonna held hers at a sword defense, keeping Sylvie from pruning her.

Ravonna pushed it off to the side and Sylvie slashed her non pruning side at her, ripping her sleeve.

This time Ravonna gave the offended look and Sylvie chuckled.

Sylvie went to kick Ravonna and Ravonna grabbed Sylvie's shoulders and threw her to the ground trying to choke her with the prune stick. Sylvie managed to get her hands up and grab the stick before it could touch her neck, but she strained while Ravonna pushed it down.

Ravonna started tilting it, trying to get the prune side towards Sylvie's face, then Sylvie let out a grunt and used all her force to push Ravonna off of her and role over so the positions had switched.

However, instead of trying to prune Ravonna, Sylvie let out a shout and slammed her fist into Ravonna's face.

Loki and Wanda both finished off their fourth soldier as Sylvie climbed off of Ravonna. Loki handed Sylvie her sword and Wanda joined the two.

"You're a child of the Time-Keepers too, Sylvie." The middle time keeper said.

None of them had done anything the whole time, they just sat upon their chairs and watched.

"We can talk." The Kepper tried to bargain.

"Oh yeah?" Sylvie mocked.

She threw her sword at the Keepers and it went right through the middle one's neck.

The other Time Keepers started laughing as the head of the middle one fell down the stand and rolled to Sylvie's feet.

Sylvie got up on the stand and went to strike the other ones, then the two just.. stopped. They didn't move and it was like their system had crashed and they were powering down.

Sylvie turned around and hopped off the stand, going to grab the head.

"Ew." Wanda mumbled.

Sylvie flipped the head over and looked at the neck. It had a bunch of cut through robot parts.

"It's... Fake." Sylvie muttered.

Wanda gave a confused look while Loki stared down at it.

"Mindless androids." Sylvie continued.

Loki gritted his teeth.

"It never stops." He stated.

"Then who created the TVA?" Wanda asked, looking at the robot head.

"I thought this was it." Sylvie said angrily.

She threw the head with all her might and it slammed against one of the soldier bodies.

Sylvie walked away from Wanda and Loki and got on the stand, sitting down and giving a frustrated sigh.

Wanda turned around and looked towards the elevator. She started walking and Loki looked between the two.

Sylvie looked like she was ready to fight anyone who tried to touch or talk to her, and honestly, Loki needed to talk to Wanda about something.

So Loki turned around and followed after Wanda.

"Wanda." His voice was quieter than usual and Wanda turned around to look at him.

"Yeah?" She asked.

Her voice sounded defeated, annoyed and upset. She thought this was the end. That after those Time Keepers were killed, she could go home and maybe live normally. Maybe Loki and Sylvie could join her. Maybe she could treat them to a happier life, but no. Now Mobius was dead the the Time Keepers we're fake.

"I.. I have to tell you something." He said, stepping towards her.

"Sylvie's the one who needs the pep talk, not me." Wanda said with a half hearted chuckle.

"No. That's not it. Uh. Wait are you alright?"

He just then noticed the blood that was coming from where Wanda was hit with the edge of a prune stick. She'd been wiping it off since it got quite annoying to keep feeling the liquid running down the side of her eye.

"Yeah, it's just a scrape. I've dealt with worse." Wanda nodded, brushing the blood off once again. "Are you okay?"

Loki had a worried look on his face that he quickly tried to hide.

"Yeah. Well, uh.. Back on Proserpina." He opened his mouth to continue talking but didn't know how to. "This is new for me.. um."

"What is it?" Wanda asked.

Loki's hands kept moving as he spoke, Wanda noticed.

Then he moved them upwards and put them on Wanda's shoulders. He kept a face that showed he wanted to say something, but didn't know what, so he just tried to keep eye contact.

"You can tell me anything, Loki." Wanda said, trying not to worry him.

"Well. I-"

Before he could finish, Wanda let out a gasp of pain.

"Wanda..?"

Wanda looked down at where she had felt something hit her, where golden sparks were now forming.

She looked back up at Loki, unable to say anything as her body disappeared into prune sparks.

Her disintegrated body revealed Ravonna, gripping a prune stick with an unhappy look on her face.

"What have you-"

Ravonna went to prune him too and Loki managed to push it out of the way. But when he went to grab the stick, Ravonna smacked him in the face with the pruning side and Loki too disintegrated.

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My favorite quote of this chapter: "She too has been compromised by the variant."