Clock's Ticking

Night Light

Lady Loki and I leave the small shed, since the meteors have let up, we waste no time in heading to the next destination, which is anywhere we can recharge the TemPad. Loki seems to hide out in the shed, making sure we aren't dead before he starts to follow us. Lady Loki and I would have been more than happy to enjoy this walk through a doomed waste land in peace, with little to no talking, but Loki has other ideas, "so, what's the plan?"

Lady Loki sighs and reluctantly answers Loki, "there's a town near here. And can you shut up? Just because I have to work with you two, doesn't mean I wanna hear your voices."

"Alright, well, slow down," Loki widens his gate to catch up to us. When he gets to us, he looks over to me confused and puzzled, "why are you so willing to work with this Variant."

I look over to him and scoff, "because it's either work with her or die. Plus, it's easier than working with you."

"But she's the Variant you were working with me to catch."

"What part of imminent death confuses you?" Lady Loki looks over to Loki and gestures around us, as if to remind Loki of where and when we are. "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."

"Alright," I nod, "what do we call you then?"

Lady Loki stops and looks over to me, as if she is shocked someone would ask that question, "Sylvie... I'm Sylvie now."

"Oh, you changed your name," Loki pats Sylvie on the back, "brilliant."

"It's called an alias."

"It's not very Loki-like."

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

"Want and need to take over the world, any world," I shrug, both Loki's looking to me as if they're offended, "best guess."

Loki sighs as he shakes his head, "independence, authority, style."

"So... not you?"

"Oh," Sylvie chuckles, "she got you." She laughs before patting me on the shoulder. "But if that makes a Loki a Loki, then why did you go to work for the boring, oppressive time police?"

"I don't work for them," Loki corrects, "I'm a consultant."

"Please," I scoff, "you're working for us so we don't prune you."

"Again, she's right," Sylvie nods. "You don't know what you are or what you want."

"Oh, yeah? What about you?" Loki shrugs, "I already know what Kamaria wants." Loki pauses for a moment, "a family... But what about you?" Sylvie doesn't answer, she just keeps walking, "your years in the making plan was to tear the place down, create the ultimate power vacuum, and then just walk away." Loki stops, letting his hands, which he had been gesturing around with, fall to his sides. "I'd never of done that."

"Yeah?" Sylvie finally answers Loki and turns to him, "well, I'm not you."

"That's part of the different timelines," I shrug, "even if you were to look exactly the same, you'd be completely different."

"Can we get on with this now?" Sylvie turns back around and resumes walking and shortly after I join her.

It doesn't take us long to find the abandoned town. It almost looks like some old mining towns on Earth. Old and poorly built or maintained metal structures like the streets, with is a dirt road. Loki looks around, having taken a spot walking next to me, "it looks like everyone already fled."