The Variant's Shadow - LokixOC - ONGOING

* Brad Wolfe *

Ophelia found it quite amusing that this was only her second time participating in an interrogation. After all this time following Mobius around, she hadn't learned anything about his job. 

He warned them all before they entered the room behind him. Brad was no ordinary prisoner. He knew all of the TVA's tactics. If it seemed to put Mobius in a rather cheerful mood, it didn't prevent him from reminding Ophelia that nothing had changed for her. Just like when he'd let her join in for Loki's interrogation, Mobius asked her one more time to stay quiet and simply watch. Less than an hour ago, he was apologizing to her. Everything was already forgotten and she was being put back where she'd always been, when Loki apparently had every right to do what he wanted. 

Ophelia swallowed the remains of her already shattered pride and followed them in. There was no table this time. Since she wasn't supposed to say anything, she took the only foldable chair in the back and sat down. 

"Welcome back," Brad said. "Why don't you go ahead and take this time collar off and start treating me as somebody who outranks you ?"

Ego, humiliation. Everything Ophelia had known would happen. She crossed a leg over the other and patiently waited.

Mobius briefly checked that she was making herself as small as possible, which she found equally weird and demeaning, before turning back to Brad. "What were you doing down there on the Sacred Timeline ?"

"Making movies."

B-15 sighed. "Don't waste our time, X-5."

He corrected her, but Ophelia didn't hold it against him. He had a name now, the least they could've done was to respect it. If B-15 wanted one, Ophelia would've been more than happy to access her file. Not only to find out her name, but also because she was convinced that someone like B-15 must've had an amazing life. 

"Brad," Loki said, insisting on his name. Ophelia didn't really like that much more. He pulled the Tempad from his pocket and showed it to the prisoner. "What did you do to this Tempad ?"

"It blocks your trackers."

"No, it doesn't."

"What is it designed for, X-5 ?" B-15 asked. 

Ophelia sighed. "It's Brad," she muttered, unfortunately loud enough for everyone to hear. 

She was about to apologize when she met Mobius' gaze. He wasn't mad. Somehow, Ophelia wondered if he'd known that she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut. 

Brad only briefly glanced at her before turning back to the people standing in front of him. "Under whose authority are you holding me here ?" he asked. "Because I don't see anyone ranking high enough to make that call."

"I don't need approval to detain a hunter who abandoned his post," B-15 calmly replied. 

"Weren't you the one blabbering on and on about how we all had lives on the Timeline ?" he asked her. "I went down and got my life. What are you mad at me about ?"

As Ophelia was thinking that he wasn't entirely wrong here and that they had no reasonable motive to keep Brad in custody, Loki intervened : "There are lives at stake," he said. 

"There are lives at stake," Brad calmly repeated, looking at him. "You've got some nerve. We all know what you're doing here," he added. "You're just trying to make up for all the terrible, awful shit you've done in your life, you pathetic little man."

"That's enough," Mobius tried to stop him. 

Ophelia was absolutely agreeing with that. They should've stopped there and got out. Loki had no magic in the TVA, and if his own interrogation was any indication, nothing good was about to happen. Brad knew that, and this was the exact chess match Mobius had anticipated earlier.