They tumbled out of the time door into the TVA's golden spine—fluorescent light, polished stone, the rumble of distant elevators. Sylvie sprinted ahead, blades flashing, every step aimed at the gilded lift that supposedly hid the Time-Keepers. Guards spilled in from both sides. Loki materialized at Beyla's shoulder, one dagger in hand and one cocked smile, like this was a ballroom brawl instead of a death run.
"Don't you dare—" Mobius' voice crackled over some unseen speaker.
"—go anywhere without me?" Loki chirped, then palmed the TemPad.
Beyla didn't think, she only grabbed. Fingers caught the fabric at Loki's sleeve the same instant Sylvie tackled him. Three bodies collided, the TemPad's screen flared red, and the floor dropped out into a screaming whirl of violet sky.
They hit hard, shoulders first into dust and glittering shale. The air tasted like coins. Overhead, half a moon hung cracked and dying, tearing itself into molten ribbons that rained in glowing arcs toward the surface.
"Where—?" Loki groaned.
Sylvie rolled to her feet in one smooth line, blade hovering at his throat before the word finished. "Don't move."
"Hello to you too," he said thinly.
Beyla pushed up on her elbows, breath knocked clean from her lungs. The horizon pulsed purple—jagged silhouettes of derricks and prefab shelters, a mining settlement strung with blue lanterns. Another meteor screamed across the sky and broke apart with a sound like a cathedral collapsing.
"Lamentis-1," Sylvie said, not taking her eyes off Loki, the blade steady. "Year 2077. The worst apocalypse the TemPad could think of. Figures."
"Worst?" Loki said. "I've seen worse. Ask Beyla about the time Thor brought a bilgesnipe into the—"
A chunk of moon slammed the ridge behind them and showered the path with sparks. Loki shut his mouth.
Beyla staggered to her feet. "You two plan to flirt with violence until the world explodes, or shall we move?"
Sylvie's gaze flicked to Beyla at the word flirt, and there was a flash there—sharp and unreadable—as if the insult had landed and somehow not at all. She lowered the blade an inch. "Move."
They ran.
The settlement's streets were narrow canyons of corrugated steel. Sirens howled overhead, and a mechanized voice repeated EVACUATION IN PROGRESS. BOARD THE ARK. Most doors were already sealed, windows shuttered. Anything not bolted down rattled with each strike of burning debris. Beyla counted three meteors in as many breaths, then stopped counting; it felt like the sky was shedding its teeth.
"Plan?" she called over the alarm.
"Recharge the TemPad," Sylvie snapped. "Needs a power source we can't get from a wall outlet. Only thing on this rock big enough is the Ark."
Loki blinked. "They named their lifeboat the Ark? Subtle."
"Shut up and keep up."
They ducked into an empty work shack as another volley of stones peppered the yard. Sylvie slammed the door, slid the bolt, and put her back against it. Her hair was soaked and sticking to her jaw; a rivulet of dust had left a clean tear down one cheek. She looked from Loki to Beyla, then down to the TemPad as if it were a pet that had misbehaved.
Loki, because he couldn't help himself, smoothed his hair and plucked a few pebbles from his coat like a man dusting himself after a dance. "All right, then. Recharge, ride the miraculous mortals' machine to safety, and we're on our way. Simple."
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Beyla - Loki
FanfictionBeyla: Connected with earth, and known as the goddess of bees. Also the single individual that Loki seems to have a soft spot for. All stories are written by me and then edited in Grammarly for phrasing, spelling, structure, and polishing. This fic...
