The Dark Angel¹

3.2 𝑁𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐴𝑟𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑛𝑔

WALKING TO TOWN

"So, what's the plan?" Loki asks after walking for a while.

" There's a town near here," Laverna explains briefly.

"And can you shut up? Just because I have to work with you doesn't mean I wanna hear your voice." Sylvie tells him.

"All right, well... Slow down, Variant," Loki says.

"What part of imminent death confuses you? And don't call me 'Variant.'"

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

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

"Oh, you changed your name. Brilliant." 

"It's called an alias." 

"Well, it's not very Loki-like."

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

Loki sighs. "Independence, authority, style." 

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

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

"You don't know what you want." 

"Oh, yeah? What about you? Your years-in-the-making plan was to tear the place down, create the ultimate power vacuum, and then just walk away. I'd never have done that."

"Yeah? Well, I'm not you." 

"Can you two just shut up!" Laverna doesn't scream, but the anger in her voice makes them shut up immediately.

TOWN

"It looks like everyone already fled." Loki comments.

"No shit Sherlock," Laverna mutters.

"If they did, it was in vain," Sylvie speaks, not having heard what Laverna said.

"How long do we have?" 

"Twelve hours or so. Things down here are only gonna get worse. More meteors, gravity quakes, and of course, the collapse of society in the face of annihilation." Sylvie informs him.

Loki points to a lit sign. "Could that charge the TemPad?"

"Maybe," Sylvie says.

Laverna only rolls her eyes. 

"If they would only know."

Sylvie hurries up the ramp to it.

"I'm just checking the coupling. Making sure it can connect." Sylvie fumbles with some wires.

"Right" Loki speaks, not really believing her.

"Okay. Hand it over." She holds out her hand to him.

Loki snickers. "Pitiful. I'm not giving it to you. You're gonna have to try harder than that."

"Then don't give me your 'tech savvy' ideas either. The TemPad requires a massive power source, not a night light." Sylvie complains.

HOMESTEAD

They continue walking, meteors falling around them. They approach a homestead.

Sylvie draws her sword and Loki grabs her arm.

"Brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile." Loki lectures her.

"Noted" 

Right after saying that, she kicks in the door... and is immediately thrown backwards by an energy blast wielded by the woman living there. She groans.

"It's remarkable that you ever made it as far as you did." He turns to cal into the house. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be. I enjoyed it." The woman speaks.

"Oh..." He chuckles. "I did too. But I can assure you, despite my acquaintance behaving like an animal..."

Sylvie scoffs.

"...uh, we mean you no harm. We're simply weary travellers." Loki offers.

"Sure you are." The woman says.

He looks through the window and sees a photograph of a woman and a man. 

He uses his magic to appear as the man in the photograph and steps in front of the door.

Laverna facepalms.

"Hello, dear." He speaks.

"Patrice?" The woman questions.

'Patrice' nods and starts to cry. "It... It's been a long time. You're as beautiful as I've..."

Loki gets blasted backwards and lands beside Sylvie on the ground. 

Sylvie chuckles.

He sits up with a groan.

"Patrice never said a thing that nice in 30 years. You're no travellers, you're devils." 

Laverna smirks. 

"Which one was that? Diplomacy? Or..." Sylvie chuckles.

"Don't. Just don't." Loki begs her.

"What do you devils want with me?" The woman asks them.

"We just wanna ask you a question. Where is everyone?" Laverna speaks.

The woman looks over at her and drops her weapon to the ground.

The smirk is still present on Laverna's face.

"The ark. The evacuation vessel." 

"Something like that would have enough juice to repower the TemPad." Sylvie says.

"How do we get there?" Laverna asks the woman.

"Train station's the edge of town. But you'll never get a ticket." She answers.

"Come on, let's go." Sylvie stands up.

"Go back into your house and don't shoot any more people, unless they are from the TVA," Laverna tells the woman and she obligates.

Laverna and Loki follow after Sylvie. 

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