Sylvie awoke to the sudden sounds of music and festivity. Everyone around her on the train car was dancing and singing with Loki at the center of it. Singing half in English and half Asgardian.

"When she sings, she sings come home." Loki chanted with everyone. "When she sings, she sings come home."

Sylvie briskly waved to Loki in an attempt to get his attention then gestured to her outfit and mouthed. "Where's your uniform?"

Loki continued to dance and sing, too preoccupied to awknowledge her. Moments later the room went quiet as Loki shushed everyone. At the same time in the background, Sylvie spied a man, clearly disapproved with all of the noise and ruckus, making his way out of the train car.

Loki began to sing entirely in Asgard from that moment. His voice gentle and melodic. As he sang he looked directly at Sylvie. While it was unlikely that anyone in the room knew what he was saying, it was clear who he was singing about.

When Loki turned back to the crowd and clapped his hands again, the singing returned to being lively and upbeat.

"To Sylvie everybody!" Loki announced, finishing his glass before throwing it down, shattering it. "ANOTHER!"

Sylvie sighed and approached him. "You're drunk."

"No, I'm just full. Bear in mind, I'm very full." Loki said turning to a small plate of desert. "Now, I need you to try this. It pairs very nicely with the Figgy Port. Who's got the Figgy Port...well you're just going to have to take my word on the Figgy Port-"

"Where's your uniform?" Sylvie interrupted sternly. "We're meant to be laying low."

"Nobody cares!" Loki said with glee. "It's the end of the world."

"I think something's happening..." Sylvie alluded.

"Yes." Loki said pointing to the sky. "That planet is about to crash into us."

"Don't be an ass," Sylvie said with annoyment. "I saw some people looking at you weirdly."

"What?" Loki said, leaning back and accidently dropping the desert onto the floor. He looked down as the plate clattered then back up at Sylvie."When did you get so paranoid?"

"Oh I guess it must have started when I spent my entire life running for the omniscient fascists you work for." Sylvie replied, bitterly.

"Shame to let that go to waste." Loki said looking back down at the desert plate. "Hey! Change of subject. I thought of an answer."

"To what?"

"Your question." Loki said, his cadence slowed as produced one of his knives. "Love is a dagger. It's a weapon to be wielded far away or up close." He moved the dagger directly in front of him. You can see yourself in it. It's beautiful...until it makes you bleed." He said, turning the dagger to point it at himself. "But ultimately, when you reach for it..."

Sylvie tried to grab the dagger, only for it to disappear before touching it.

"It isn't real." She finished.

Loki nodded to her.

"Love is an imaginary dagger?" Sylvie questioned.

Loki arched his eyebrows at himself. "Doesn't make much sense does it?"

"No." Sylvie said. "Terrible metaphor."

"Damn." Loki said. "I thought I had something there." Sylvie shook her head.

The door to the train car opened and a group of guards entered, accompanied by the man who left from earlier. He pointed at Loki. "That's him."

"Stay cool." Sylvie instructed.

"It's gonna be fine." Loki responded.

The same guard that Sylvie enchanted earlier approached them. "Sir. Can I see your tickets?"

Loki chuckled. "You again. Hello. Um, tickets. Yes, of course. Here they are."

Loki raised his hand and activated his magic. A barrage of miniature fireworks emitted from it.

He squinted at them in confusion. "Oops. Still though, looks lovely." The guard siezed his hand, placing it behind his back. "Look, is this really necessary? There is a simple explanation-"

Loki stopped talking when another guard placed a hand on his chest. His temperment slowly changed from charismatic to serious at the obvious line that was crossed.

"Hey." Loki responded in turn by placing his arm over the guard's.

The guard did the same to him, before Loki reached out and swatted him to the ground with his hand, then promptly turned to twist the other guards arm, throwing him to the floor as well.

All of the passengers scrambled out of the car as the fight broke out. Sylvie approached the guards at the other side of the train with a smile on her face. She removed the crown from her head after intercepting the first guard, using the horn to stab him in the chest then proceeded to dispatch the other guards with ease. Loki did the same on his end dipping right to avoid the guard's baton swing, then finishing him off with a concussive energy blast.

Sylvie intercepted the next target, kicking him in the leg before wrapping hers around his head, locking him in place. She freed herself up to drew her sword then proceeded to intercept the next enemy. On Loki's end as another guard attempted another attack, he blocked two incoming hits then slammed his head against the glasses on the bar counter.

Sylvie continued to battle the other guard, clashing her sword with his baton in a succession of blows. She missed one of them, her blade landing and embedding itself into the wood of the bar before the guard managed to put her in a strangle hold. Loki looked over to see her peril, producing another dagger and carefully throwing his arm back to aim.The dagger sailed forward after Loki threw it; the force causing it to wobble as it bit into the wall right next to Sylvie's face.

"Awful throw." She regarded.

Loki turned away back to the other guard. "Oh, will you stop it."

The guard began another brawl which ended in Loki parrying his first blow before roundhouse kicking him out of the window of the train.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Bye." He said, leaning out of the window to wave.

Sylvie managed to break free from the guard's grasp before slamming the guard's head into Loki's dagger on the wall. Loki turned around unexpectedly to see two guards grab him before promptly throwing him out of the broken window.

Sylvie witness what happened, her eyes widened as the realization hit her. "Tempad."

Recovering her machete, she quickly dipped past the guards before jumping out of the window of the train after him.

***

Loki tumbled to the ground. He discarded his Variant jacket as he got to his feet, leaving just his suit and tie. Sylvie fell not too far away from where he did, brushing herself off, she got to her feet. Loki watched the train as it escaped into the distance.

"Well, that's not ideal-" He began.

SCHLINK!

Loki turned to discover Sylvie's sword inches from his neck.

"Give me the Tempad!" She demanded.

"All right, all right." He said. "Okay."

He slowly reached into the air to pull out the Tempad, instead pulling out a smashed device that erupted into a puff of smoke in his hands.

"Well..." Loki began to justify. "I did take quite the tumble."

Sylvie stared at him with hot boiling rage. "You asshole. You've KILLED us."

"Maybe we can fix it." Loki reconciled quickly. "Okay. Um..."

The second he fiddled with it the entire thing crumbled to smithereens.

"You're not a serious man." Sylvie said with disdain.

"You're right." Loki said affirming himself. 'I'm a god."

"You're a clown." Sylvie said. "You got drunk on the train."

"I'm hedonistic." Loki said. "That's what I do."

"I'm hedonistic. Alot more than you I can assure you." Sylvie said; Loki's eyebrows raising at that last part. "But never at the expense of the mission."

"Oh, the mission? The mission?" Loki dismissed. "What, you're glorious purpose? Come on give me a break, you can't beat them."

Sylvie turned away from Loki with seething frustration, and screamed across the horizon, emitting an enormous blast of green energy onto the ground. After the scream Sylvie planted herself on a nearby mound of dirt. Loki walked slowly in her direction, hesitant as he sat himself next to her on the mound.

"Did the, uh, scream make you feel better? Loki asked.

Sylvie turned towards him with a cold stare before turning back to face forward again. "Yes. It did. You should try it sometime."

"What now?"

"I don't know. You broke the Tempad..."She said.

"Well..."

"...and that planet is about to crash into us."

"Well, yes, but..."

"Yes, but what?"

"Well, the entire moon is destroyed, right?" Loki asked.

"Yeah. And everyone on it is killed."

"Including us?"

"Yes. Including us." Sylvie snapped impatiently.

"What about the ark?"

"The ark never leaves because it's destroyed."

"Never had us on it." Loki suggested.

"So what? We hijack the ark and make sure it gets off this moon?"

"I mean, sounds like a good idea to me."

Sylvie stared at him. He stared back.

"Okay." Sylvie said lightly, getting up from the mound.

Loki produced a puzzled look at the shift in tone. "Really?" He said, standing up to follow her.

***

"You know, I don't think I've ever walked this much in my entire life." Loki proclaimed.

"That's a pretty good life." Sylvie commented.

"Well, you're lucky you missed it." Loki said back. "Here's an idea. What if you enchanted me and you could walk for both of us. I'll take a nap in my subconscious, and you can just wake me when we arrive?"

"Yeah, that's not how enchantment works." Sylvie said.

"All right, how does it work?"

"Doesn't matter." She retorted.

"You know, I feel like I've told you so much about me." Loki began. "I really don't know the first thing about you."

"Thanks for the tactical advantage."

"Ah, so you want to use that tactical advantage to kill me when the TVA shows up." Loki said.

"Worried are you?"

"I just need to know if I can trust you."

"Okay, fine. You want to know how enchantment works." She began. "I have to make physical contact and then grab hold of their mind."

"How?"

"It depends on the mind. Most are easy and I can overtake them instantly." She explained. "Others, the stronger ones, it gets tricky. I'm in control but they're there too. In order to preserve the connection, I have to create a fantasy from their memories."

"And you call me a magician." Loki regarded.

"That young soldier from the TVA, her mind was messed up. Everything clouded." Sylvie said. "I had to pull a memory from hundres of years prior. Before she even fought for them."

"What?" Loki said, stopping in his tracks. "What did you just say? Before she joined the TVA?"

"Yeah, she was just a regular person on Earth." Sylvie said.

"A regular person?" Loki confirmed.

"Loved margaritas."

"I was told that everyone who works for the TVA was created by the Time Keepers." Loki said.

"That's ridiculous." Sylvie said. "They're all Variants, just like us."

"They don't know that." Loki said.

"All ticketed passengers..."The announcer said. "Ten minutes until launch."

"That's our ride." Sylvie said. The metropolitan area was now in view.

***

Loki and Sylvie arrived in the city.

"Do we trust each other?" Sylvie asked.

"We do." Loki said. "And you can."

"Good." Sylvie said looking at the chaos that was unraveling before them. "Because this is gonna suck."

Loki leaped up to a higher vantage point and saw the endless crowds of people pushing past each other to get to the ark. None of the guards would let them.

"They're gonna let these people die." He said.

"We have to get on that ark and make sure it takes off." Sylvie said.

"How do we do that?" Loki said.

"We go around." Sylvie said, grabbing hold of his hand.

"Okay." Loki said, following her lead.

Up above in the sky the planet hovering above the moon's surface formed an enormous fissure. Larger and larger meteors began to fall as the cracks in the planet erupted onto the moon. Explosions erupted all throughout the city. The chaos breaking out among the people suddenly erupted even more as everyone merged into a mad scramble. Loki and Sylvie ran forward fighting their way through when another meteor erupted in front of them, knocking both of them to the earth. Loki struggled to get him and Sylvie to their feet.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah."

The two gods ran through the dining area and encountered more guards. As one of them snagged Sylvie's cloak from her outfit, she dispatched him quickly while Loki threw an energy blast at the next incoming soldier. They dealt with the next wave of soldiers easily.

"Just go." Sylvie said. And the two of them exited the diner and progressed forward.

More explosions followed, sending debris everywhere, blocking their path.

"Over here!" Sylvie called out.

The explosions erupted even more to the point where all of the buildings were starting to collapse around them. No way back now. Only forward.

"Watch out!" Sylvie pointed to an enormously tall tower falling down.

"I've got it!" Loki exclaimed, halting the entire building with his telekinesis and sending it back up. He went back to running. "We can still make it."

They fought their way through the endless wave of guards.

"Sylvie come on!" Loki called to her.

The ark was in sight now, nearly ready to take off just a bit further...

It exploded into flames before them. They had failed. Sylvie turned her back and walked away as Loki watched in disbelief.