a/n: another chapter? it must be christmas xx i cheated a bit and stole a section of this from one of my one shots but I think that's allowed as it fits the story perfectly. happy reading <3

...

You walk for what seems like hours. It may well be hours; you have lost all concept of time since you arrived at the TVA. None of the three of you speak while you walk, each of you retreating into your own minds while it's not necessary to be inside one another's.

You think about the old lady whom you'd just left to die, doomed to be obliterated along with the rest of the moon. You think about Asgard, and its own obliteration. You think about Loki. Your Loki.

Finally the train station comes into view, and Sylvie's voice is croaky with disuse when she uses it to alert you and Loki to its imminence.

'There. Look,' she says, before clearing her throat loudly. You and Loki look in the direction in which she'd pointed, and your pace quickens. That train can't be allowed to leave without you on it.

When you arrive at the back of the queue, the air is simmering with tension. The raised voices of citizens and guards mingle as they clamour to be heard over one another. You suspect it won't be long before a fight breaks out.

A wealthy looking couple are being escorted along the platform by a guard, and produce a ticket to show the guard overseeing the entrance on to the train.

'They're only giving out tickets to the wealthy!' a loud voice proclaims, and there's a surge at the front of the queue as people push to be let on board.

'This looks fun,' Sylvie remarks.

'Come on,' Loki says, beckoning the two of you to follow him towards the front of the queue.

'We can't fight our way on. There's too many of them,' Sylvie mutters as you walk past more guards. 'I have a plan.'

'I thought all of your plans involved fighting,' Loki says, cocking an eyebrow.

'Not this one. I'm going to enchant a guard and have us lead him through the crowd,' Sylvie tells him firmly.

'Or we could just...' you let your sentence trail to nothing as you turn invisible.

'What?' Loki frowns at you, clearly still very able to see you. You look down at your torso, and then back up at him, confused.

'Turn... didn't you see?' you ask in annoyance.

'Oh, she's invisible. We can still see you, idiot. Don't forget about the Loki – Y/N connection,' she says, making quotation marks in the air around the word 'connection' and rolling her eyes. You keep forgetting that Sylvie is as much of a Loki as Loki is. Not that you would tell her that to her face, of course.

'That's beside the point. Instead of arousing suspicion, let's just hop on board like this,' you say, holding your arms out.

'No. I have a better plan,' Loki says, and in a blink he's wearing the same uniform as the guards. 'How do I look?'

'Like someone with a shit plan,' Sylvie informs him. You sigh.

'You do what you like. I'm the one who has this,' you remind them, making the TemPad appear in your palm again. Sylvie grabs for it, but you've already teleported on to the train.

Instead of using the space to cram in as many refugees as they possibly can, they've made it into a high class dining area, with booths. Disgust towards the guards fills you, lacking as you are of any clear leader who is responsible for this to pin the blame on.

In another world you would be outside, invisible, cloning tickets for every single refugee until you collapsed from exhaustion. But what was the point? Sylvie had said it herself, no one makes it out of here alive.

You spy an empty booth and sit down in it, still invisible, your aching legs and feet singing praise for you as you do so. You people watch for a few minutes, and then the train jerks forward and slowly starts to move. Loki and Sylvie are nowhere to be seen, and you almost start to panic, until they emerge through the door ahead of you, Loki shoving Sylvie in front of him. He's clearly enjoying his little power trip.

You scoot around to make room for them as they sit down.

'That wasn't even a plan,' hisses Sylvie before she's even made contact with the chair. 'Plans have multiple steps; dressing as a guard and getting on a train is just doing a thing.'

'Why didn't you just teleport?' you ask in confusion.

'Well because I had to prove a point after you disappeared didn't I?' Loki scowls.

'Right,' you scoff, looking out of the window. You're moving along quickly now, the barren landscape outside the window blurring as you fly along the tracks. Sylvie yawns.

'Bit tired are you? Feel free to, you know, get some rest,' Loki tells her pleasantly.

'I can't sleep in a place like this,' she says.

'You can't sleep on a train?'

'No. I can't sleep around untrustworthy people,' she snaps.

'You can sleep, I won't betray you and I'll make sure he doesn't,' you tell her plainly.

'Yeah, right. No thanks,' she scorns you, turning away.

'Read my mind. I think you can help us get out of here and I need to get back to the TVA to get back to my timeline,' you say. She turns to look you in the face, and goes into your mind, rooting around a bit more than you're comfortable with. But you sit it out.

When she's satisfied, she pulls off her cloak and fiercely bundles it into a makeshift pillow.

'If you betray me I will kill both of you,' she says, clearly stifling another yawn. Loki holds his hands up and you nod, and she moves over to the next booth, disappearing as she lies down. You hear her mind go quiet almost instantly.

'So, are we betraying her?' Loki asks you immediately.

'No,' you tell him sternly. He just looks at you.

'What's your plan? You still want to get back to your timeline?'

'I – of course I do. They've got Infinity Stones lying around everywhere back at the TVA, you saw them. If I can get my hands on some of them, and get them back to my timeline, I can bring him back,' you say with a lot more confidence than you feel in your heart as you speak.

'And you really think that's going to work, do you?' Loki asks you, his voice filled with something almost like sympathy.

'It might not. But what else have I got to do?'

'You could help me,' Loki suggests.

'I'll tell you what, if my plan doesn't work and I don't die trying, I'll commit another 'crime' against the sacred timeline and come back to help you,' you tell him.

'It doesn't sound as though there's much of a sacred timeline left, after what she did to it,' Loki says, gesturing towards the direction where Sylvie had disappeared.

'I'm sure the TVA are clearing up her mess as we speak,' you reply, thinking of Mobius. A twinge of regret tugs at your heart.

'Her 'mess'? Don't tell me you're on their side now,' Loki asks you, sounding genuinely concerned for a second.

'No, of course not,' you retaliate in a tone slightly harsher than you'd been intending.

'Good,' Loki says, and you try not to feel pleased about it.

'What about you?' you ask him after a few minutes of contemplative silence.

'What?'

'What's your plan?'

He sighs. 'To have an audience with the Time Keepers. I would have thought that was fairly obvious at this point.'

'Yes, but... what then? Don't you want to get back to your timeline?'

He laughs aloud at that, and you shush him, glancing around at the people in the other booths who had looked over at you.

'No. I don't,' he smiles, before turning to greet the approaching waitress.

'Champagne?' she offers.

'Ah yes, thank you very much,' Loki accepts, plucking a glass from the try which she offers to him.

'I'm okay,' you decline, as she holds the tray out towards you.

'Oh, I'll take hers. Thank you,' Loki intervenes before she can take the tray away. She leaves, and Loki holds both glasses up, smiling at you.

'Cheers,' he says, before downing one of the glasses in one go. He looks so like your Loki when he smiles like that that it physically hurts to look at him. You feel suddenly as though you can't breathe; your heart contracting violently, and you press your face into your hands.

'You okay?' Loki asks, that stupid, familiar tone of concern in his voice again.

'Stop being nice to me,' you say through gritted teeth.

'I'm not, I just need you to give me the TemPad if you're going to die,' he tells you, and this time it's you that laughs.

'We're about to try and hijack the power source to a civilisation's only hope, we should probably follow her lead,' you say, nodding towards Sylvie and removing your hands from your eyes and avoiding looking at Loki directly in the face in case it sends you into cardiac arrest again. Your stupid, treacherous heart. You wished you could turn it off.

'Okay,' Loki says, downing the other glass of champagne. You take off your cape (or, what remains of it) and scrunch it into a makeshift pillow as Sylvie had done.

'Don't get drunk,' you tell him, before lying down and closing your eyes. 'And don't think about trying to find the TemPad. I sleep light and there's a dagger in my belt.'

Loki gives a low chuckle, and you hear the booth creak a little as he stands up.

'I wouldn't dare.'

...

Someone grabs your shoulder roughly, and you sit bolt upright, unsheathing your dagger.

'Your boyfriend is drunk,' Sylvie tells you, knocking your dagger away from where it has come to rest at the base of her throat. You blink a few times, struggling to ascertain if you're dreaming, and catch sight of Loki dancing and singing at the bar.

It hits you in the chest again, and you furiously blink away tears as Sylvie stares at you.

Loki, come here.

Noo.

Come here now.

I don't want to.

You sigh, getting to your feet and stretching as Sylvie sits down.

'How long did we sleep for?' you ask her.

'I don't know, but this goon woke me up with his warbling,' she scowls.

I do not warble.

You do.

You walk over to Loki and glare at him.

'I told you not to get drunk.'

'I'm not drunk, I'm just full. But bear in mind, I'm very full,' he tells you, his voice slurring. You look back over to Sylvie, who is watching one of the guards at the door, talking to a civilian who is pointing at Loki. She shoots you a worried glance. Loki is still talking to you.

'Now, I need you to try this, it pairs very well with the Figgy Port. Who's got the Figgy Port? ...you'll just have to take my word on the Figgy Port.'

'Where's your uniform?' you hiss.

'Nobody cares! It's the end of the world,' he tells you, flinging his arms out. There's a guard walking slowly up to you behind Loki.

'Okay, stay cool. It's going to be fine,' you mutter, for your benefit more than Loki's.

'Huh?' Loki says, and then the guard is tapping him on the arm.

'Sir, can I see your tickets?'

Loki turns around.

'Ah, you again. Hello. Um, tickets. Yes, of course, here they are,' he stalls, patting his pockets.

Where are our tickets?

We don't have tickets, Loki.

What?

The guard grabs his arm, and Loki looks up, severely affronted.

'Hey!'

He shoves the guard, who shoves him back, another guard making a beeline for you. It's not ideal, but you have been waiting for a reason to use your magic properly since the TVA had denied you its use. You draw your dagger too, for good measure.

What, we're going to fight every guard on this train? Sylvie's voice fills your mind, and you choose to ignore her, for now. What other choice do you have?

Loki punches his guard in the face right as you send yours flying in a rush of purple, and all hell breaks loose. Passengers fight to get out of the carriage while more guards try to get in, which gives you precious seconds, seconds in which you're getting closer to the Ark.

Sylvie whirls past you in a blur of green and daggers, and as you send another guard flying Loki sends one through a window.

Unnecessary.

I disagree.

One guard gets Sylvie in a headlock and wrestles her backwards until they're pressed against the wall. Loki sees this and takes careful aim, successfully launching a dagger into the wall right beside her head.

'Awful throw,' she tells him, before managing to break free from the guard herself and sending him reeling towards the ground. You pay for your split second of ignorance; a guard appears from out of nowhere beside you and lifts you off of your feet. Before you can so much as scream he throws you through the broken window, out of which Loki had seconds previously launched a guard.

Your magic surrounds you as you fall, but you still have the wind knocked out of you as you hit the floor, rolling a few times for good measure. You sit up just in time to see Sylvie fly from the train, which is now about a hundred metres from you, and then Loki is projected from the window too.

You stand and teleport to Sylvie.

'You okay?' you ask her, and she grabs your leg.

'The Tempad, is it alright?'

You'd completely forgotten about the TemPad, and when you try to summon it, it isn't there. You look down at Sylvie in horror, before turning to Loki, who is struggling to his feet about fifty metres away.

You teleport to him and shove him so hard that he almost falls back to the ground.

'Where is it?' you snarl. It's your own fault for trusting him.

'Calm down, it's right here,' Loki tells you, right as Sylvie arrives at your side.

And he holds the broken TemPad out before you. You and Sylvie stare at it as it splits into two, and then dissolves into nothing before your eyes.

There is a moment of shocked silence, broken only by the intermittent sound of meteors hitting the ground around you, and the rapidly receding noise of the train you'd just been thrown from.

'Well, I did take quite the tumble,' Loki defends himself with a shrug, as though he hasn't just potentially killed you all. He doesn't care. A further reminder that this isn't the old Loki. Your Loki.

'You asshole. You've killed us,' Sylvie hisses, her voice shaking with rage. You can feel your heart pounding in your chest, and look up at the huge planet in the sky which is about to obliterate you. For the first time since you arrived here, panic, real panic, rises in your chest.

'Maybe we can fix it, okay? Um...' Loki says, looking around as though for inspiration. You look back at him with something like disgust. He meets your gaze and frowns.

'You're not a serious man,' Sylvie snarls.

'You're right. I'm a god,' Loki snaps back, his gaze moving to her instead. You take a small step back, your heartbeat suddenly very loud in your ears.

'You're a clown. You got drunk on the train,' Sylvie retorts, gesturing at the now long-gone train.

'I'm hedonistic, that's what I do,' Loki tells her. You don't hear her reply, you've turned and are walking quickly away.

It doesn't matter if you lose them; nothing matters anymore. Any one of you could be hit and killed by a meteor at any point, and if by some miracle you're not, you'll all be killed by the planet which is soon to become one with the moon that you're currently stood on.

You don't try and stop the scream of panic and rage which tears its way from your chest. The scream is accompanied by an unintentional burst of your magic from your hands; a sudden visible force which causes the sand around you to fly into the air.

The noise you create is quickly taken by the wind which howls past you and whips your hair up around your head and face. A meteor hits the ground not forty feet away from you with an explosive whoomph, but you hardly even notice it.

Instead of walking until you get hit by a meteor or squashed by a planet, you choose to sit on a nearby rock, burying your head in your hands. This was not what you had planned to happen.

About thirty seconds pass, in which you fight to keep the hot tears which have risen to your eyes behind your tightly shut eyelids. Then you hear footsteps behind you, and someone sits down next to you.

'Did the, uh... scream make you feel better?' Loki asks you. You put the wall back up. Your mask back on. You can't let him see past it.

'Yes, it did,' you say, lifting your head from your hands and looking directly at him. It almost hurts. 'You should try it sometime.'

Loki looks back at you for a second, taking in your probably red-rimmed eyes, and then looks back down at his hands.

'What now?'

For the first time, he sounds almost genuine. Not sarcastic, not trying to impress someone.

'I don't know. You broke the TemPad,' you reply dully.

'Well...'

'And that planet is about to crash into us,' you add, looking up at the sky. Loki follows your gaze.

'Mm,' he says, noncommittally.

You can't even find it in you to be angry with him. He looks over to where Sylvie is still stood, trying to gather the remains the TemPad from the sand. Then he turns back to you.

'You didn't seriously think I'd let our only chance of my... our survival just break, did you?' he asks you quietly. You look at him quickly. There's a glimmer in his eye.

In his hands sits the TemPad, still out of charge, but fully functional and seemingly undamaged. He's holding it so that his body shields it from Sylvie's sight. Your mouth opens, and then closes again.

'How... why?' you finally manage, reaching out to touch the TemPad gingerly. It's real.

'She's willing to kill either of us to get her hands on this. I'd rather that didn't happen,' Loki tells you, making it disappear again. You quickly remove your hand from over his, blinking hard. This time they're tears of relief.

'Look at me,' he says. You do as he says, your mouth very dry all of a sudden.

'We're going to get out of here. Okay?'

You want to believe him, you really do.

'You don't know that, do you?' you reply.

'Where's the girl that was ready to 'die trying' that I met on the train?' he asks you. You fight back a smile.

'I told you to stop being nice to me,' you respond, standing up as Sylvie walks towards you.

'We need to get to the Ark,' she says, walking to you and then straight past you.

'I thought you said that the Ark gets destroyed?' Loki asks.

'Yeah, well. The Ark never had us on it,' she tells him.