"You're very pretty for a Loki."
"My name's Sylvie."
"Oh."
Hestia, sister of Mobius and agent at the TVA, thought it would be a normal day at work like always and wanted to hide herself behind her little desk.
But when a variant starts to kill multu...
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Renslayer stepped into the room, only to find Sylvie sitting at one of the two chairs with her feet at the table, her hair wet.
"Who was in here with her?"
"Sorry, ma'am, B-15 insisted." A Minuteman spoke from behind her, holding the door open.
Ravonna looked for some seconds at the Variant, then turned to hunter D-90. "Put out an alert for Hunter B-15. She too has been compromised by the Variant." Her voice was shaky.
Sylvie grinned at the woman, who was staring at her with a hint of fear in her eyes.
~~~
Loki and Hestia had been dragged by each two soldiers holding each arm of them to a too familiar elevator. Hestia herself had never visited the Time-Keepers, but she had to admit that she was scared as hell.
Her hair was uncombed and some strains rested in front of her face. Dirt and some scratches were on her face, a pair of them even bleeding. Hestias breathing was quiet, yet could be heard through the loud silence filling the room.
Footsteps approaching disturbed the quiet, causing Hestia to turn around out of reflex, only to receive a slap on her cheek from the Minuteman to her left. A little gasp escaped her at the contact and she spat out some blood. The wounds on her arm and left leg from hours before weren't helping.
Another two Minutemen brought Sylvie next to Hestia, the goddess turning to the human immediately with worry written all over her face.
"You okay?" The shorter-haired woman whispered and Hestia just now realized her hair was wet. Why was her hair wet?
Slowly the former agent and Loki turned to her, both nodding slowly.
Renslayer packed something out from them behind, causing a little 'plop' sound to echo through the room before she spoke. "I've got them from here."
The six Minutemen slowly let go off their arms and stepped to the side, allowing Ravonna through. She stepped into the elevator which opened seconds before and Loki, Hestia and Sylvie followed.
~~~
In the elevator was the air so tense it was able to be cut through with a knife. Hestia turned over to look at Sylvie, who had anger all over her face. She knew how much the goddess despised Renslayer.
"Do you remember me?" She asked Ravonna. "I do."
There was a long silence again. No one said something, no one did something.
"What do you want to say to me, Hestia?" Renslayer suddenly said, knowing exactly what she wanted.
Hestia took a long breath and closed her eyes before speaking up.
"What was my nexus event?
Why did you bring me in, Ravonna?"
Sylvie now turned over to the human, who still hadn't opened her eyes. She had noticed this habit from Hestia, which she would do whenever she was just closing her eyes to blend out everything around her, making a bunch of plans in her head or just thinking. Thinking about everything that happened in the past hours and how quickly her life changed.
"What does it matter?" Renslayer asked, her walls being built up high. But as you probably know Hestia, she could easily break them. But she didn't and kept quiet to herself, collecting all that bunch of information for later, where she would finally let it go. Renslayer also had some fear in her voice. The former agent saw that she didn't have any plan for what would happen now, after this. She knew exactly that everything could go wrong.
"It was enough to take my life from me, which led to all of this. Must have been important. So, what was it?" Hestias voice was tense, but quiet enough to hear the sadness in it.
Ravonna didn't answer for some time, until Hestia saw a little smile form on her face in the corner of her eye.
"I don't remember."
Hestia took a shaky breath and closed her eyes again, hiding the tears that were threatening to come out. She hadn't cried in ages and she would never allow herself to do that ever again.
The goddess turned to her left where the woman was standing, sympathy written all over her face.
~~~
The elevator doors opened, revealing a blue light room with stairs, leading to.. the Time Keepers.
Slowly all four of them stepped out after each other, Hestia standing on the right, Sylvie in the middle and Loki on the left.
"Gracious Time-Keepers," Renslayer started. "as promised, the Variants and the traitor." She stopped walking while they continued some steps, then stopped too.
"After all your struggle, at last, you've arrived before us." The one in the middle said, who was blue. "What do you have to say for yourselves before you meet your end, Variants?" The one to the left spoke, who was green and some kind of.. octopus? Hestia had no idea.
"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 purple one to the right spoke now. "You and your bravado are no threat to us, Variant."
"Oh, no, I don't think you believe that." Sylvie called in. Hestia slowly looked around in confusion, it all looked so.. fake, made up. Their voices sounded.. techno and electric. Their bodies were animated and not very realistic.. Maybe the Time-Keepers were this kind of.. specimen, but they were at the top of the time, shouldn't they be super smart looking and talk clever?
"I think-" Sylvie continued and was about to step forward, only to be teleported some seconds back by Ravonna. The blue Time-Keepers grinned, and even that didn't look.. real.
"I think you're scared." She finally spoke. "No, Variant. You're nothing but a cosmic disappointment. Delete them."
"No, I'm not done with you yet-" The goddess stepped forward again and Ravonna was about to teleport her back again, but nothing happened. She just glitched a bit, but stayed on the same spot.
The elevator doors suddenly opened and Hunter B-15 stepped out, clicking a button on a remote, causing the collars around the three Variant's necks to fall off and onto the ground.
A grin formed on Sylvie's face before she turned to Hestia, who gave her a nod, her lips formed into a little smile too.
