The Variant's Shadow - LokixOC - ONGOING

* The End (Again) *

“What are we doing here ?” Loki asked as they were running down the hall holding all of the cells. 

Ophelia didn’t reply and only stopped by an open door. She pushed the employees trying to clean the room, emptied the trash bag the first one was carrying around, grabbed the clipboard the second was checking, and threw it at Loki. “Find me the cell count,” she said, already on her knees. 

“Wh-”

“Just do what she says,” Sylvie shouted. 

Ophelia set her disgust and guilt aside and started counting the small cubes of human remains scattered on the ground. She couldn’t believe they were only supposed to take them out in a trash bag. These were real people. 

There was only one reason for Renslayer to have come here. Ophelia had told herself that they all wanted the same thing. Miss Minutes knew where to go to get help in taking over the TVA. 

“25,” Loki said behind her. 

Ophelia smiled. “Brad’s alive,” she said, turning to look at him. “I only have 24.”

She was ready to leave the room but he stopped her on her way out. “Hang on a second. How can you be so sure ?”

“He betrayed Dox when he thought you were going to kill him,” she explained. “Whatever Renslayer asked for, he made sure to never get back into that cube.”

“How does it help us ?” Sylvie asked. 

“Miss Minutes can teleport, but Renslayer and Brad can’t.”

In the midst of everything that was currently happening in the TVA, Renslayer could’ve walked away without anyone noticing her, even if it was unlikely. She was a judge, and now a traitor. Traitors’ faces weren’t easily forgotten, since she was the first in the TVA’s history. Miss Minutes had probably deactivated Brad’s collar, but he was still wearing his prisoner clothes. They weren’t far. 

Ophelia quietly left the cell and stood in the hallway. They needed a place where no one would’ve thought of going in the middle of an attack. The elevator at the end of the hall was leading right next to Renslayer’s office, but Ophelia crossed it off her list almost immediately. Too easy. On the other end however… That elevator was only three halls away from the War Room, none of them used for deployment or evacuation if it ever came down to it. The stairs right next to the elevators, if taken to go downstairs, would’ve gotten them close enough to R&A to have taken Timely and killed D-20 without being seen. 

The PA’s voice asked for all hunters to be deployed. Almost immediately, another announcement told all TVA employees to start evacuating. Behind Ophelia, Loki and Sylvie were still waiting. 

“You two go to the War Room,” she finally said. 

“What about you ?”

She looked at Loki and sighed. “No time for free will. I have to find myself or I’ll die with her.”

Loki nodded and left, leading Sylvie to the elevator. Ophelia ran to the opposite side. If hunters were all going to the armory, the elevator would be full. She pushed the staircase’s door and ran down. She left it when she reached the Archives’ floor, knowing that a few hunters would’ve thought like her and taken the stairs. She couldn’t be slowed down. There was nothing she wanted less than dying. She hadn’t been through all this, only to end up dead. 

On her way to the next part of her run, she stopped. Loki was running towards the stairs she’d just left. 

She moved away from his path right before he could see her. That wasn’t Loki. Not the one she’d just left. This one was disheveled, and injured, and dirty. This one had just left her to die.