Here's the last chapter for episode three!

When Sylvie wakes up she notices several things that irritate her: Loki is out of uniform, totally drunk, and singing. But even worse, Sigyn is nowhere to be seen. How that idiot managed to hold a woman like Sigyn's attention, she would never understand.

After managing to calm him down and stop the singing, Loki ends up breaking several dishes accidentally, much to the chagrin of Sylvie. He stares longingly down at the dropped piece of food he had been trying to convince Sylvie to try a food she can't remember the name of, "It's a shame to let that go to waste," he says wistfully. "Hey! Change of subject. I thought of an answer."

Not quite sure what he's referring to, Sylvie tilts her head, "To what?"

"Your question. Love is a dagger," he says, conjuring a dagger to his hand for demonstration. "It's a weapon to be wielded far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It's beautiful. Until it makes you bleed. But ultimately, when you reach for it..." Loki offers the dagger to Sylvie, but as soon as her fingers are about to brush the hilt, it disappears.

"It isn't real," whispers Sylvie, a haunted and drafty expression sitting behind her eyes.

"Yeah."

Trying to cover her tracks, Sylvie laces her voice with the usual and expected teasing, "Love is an imaginary dagger."

Loki deflates a bit, "... It doesn't make sense, does it?"

"No," says Sylvie as she clears her throat. "Terrible metaphor."

"Damn. I thought I had something there."

There's a small silence for a moment as Sigyn debates whether or not to let the situation go. But she can't. "When will you realize the best thing to ever happen to you is right under your nose?"

Loki scoffs. "Who, Sigyn?"

"No, that waiter over there...Yes, of course Sigyn," says Sylvie as she hits him lightly on the chest.

"She's a mortal. I would outlive her by thousands of years."

"She's hot," retorts Sylvie.

"Well, if you think she's so terrific, why don't you pursue her?"

Sylvie looks as if she's been stung, her eyes going wide and an exhale of pain escapes her lips. It takes a moment for Loki to process what's going on. Sylvie loves Sigyn. Or loved a Sigyn, rather. Instantly, Loki regrets his words, not something he often does. "I'm sorry I didn't know--"

"--It's fine," says Sylvie, her voice cracking slightly. Loki goes to speak once again, but Sylvie cuts him off. "I said it's fine. I don't want to talk about it. Besides, instead of talking about her, we should be finding her."

Sylvie moves to leave the compartment but is stopped by several guards entering with a man. He points at Loki. "That's him."

~~~

Throughout the course of her twenty-five years of life, Sigyn has had some terrible ideas. Going exploring on a train in search of some sort of quadrillionaire is definitely somewhere near the top. Sigyn speed walks down the halls, away from the guards that are hot on her tail and towards the cart that she left Loki and Sylvie in.

She bursts into the room, accidentally running full tilt into Loki's side. After a moment, she notices they all have an audience and straightens out her clothes that had been wrinkled by running. she gives the guards a curt nod, "Gentlemen."

"Where were you?" asks Loki in a tight whisper.

The group of guards that had been after her yell down the hallway, "Someone stop her!"

Loki and Sylvie shoot her an accusatory look. "Ahh, took a wrong turn looking for the bathroom?" tries Sigyn.

The fight turns into a blur. It's not hard for anyone to tell that Loki is drunk, so the guards immediately gang up on him first. Two of them go to throw him out of the window, but Sigyn manages to reach out her hand in the nick of time, allowing her powers to suspend him in the air just outside of the train. He's yelling something at her, but she can't hear him. She continues to fend them off with one hand, pushing them away from her and sending some of them into Sylvie's blade for good measure.

Just when the battle starts to turn for them, a blunt force hit causes her arm to buckle in on itself, causing her to drop Loki outside. That's going to hurt. Sigyn glances over to Sylvie, letting them both know what they have to do. Making a run for it, they both dart towards the hole in the hull. Sylvie latches onto Sigyn with a death grip as their feet leave the ground. Luckily, Sigyn easily breaks their fall and gently lowers them to the ground near Loki.

Sylvie steps away from Sigyn with a slight blush on her face as the other woman walks over to check on Loki. He groans as he stands up, clearly fine, a little battered, "Well, that's not ideal."

Sigyn is about to make a snide remark herself when Sylvie decides to take things a step further and pull her sword on Loki. "Give me the TemPad."

Surprisingly, Loki agrees and conjures the tablet; there's just one small problem. Or rather, one large, gaping problem--it's broken and smoking. He motions towards Sigyn, "To be fair, she's the one who dropped me."

"If I didn't grab you, you still would've fallen flat on your face, just fifty kilometres back."

"You asshole," says Sylvie as she advances towards him threateningly, and Sigyn makes no move to stop her. "You killed us."

Sensing the womens' anger at him, Loki attempts to fix the TemPad but in vain as it falls completely apart in his hands.

"You're not a serious man," accuses Sylvie.

"You're right. I'm a God."

Sigyn rolls her eyes, not able to take it anymore. "Will you cut it out with the whole god thing? If you really were a god, I don't think you would have just gotten thrown out the impromptu window."

Sylvie nods, agreeing with her statement. "You're a clown. You got drunk on the train."

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

"I'm hedonistic," yells Sylvie. "A lot more than you, I assure you. But never at the expense of the mission."

"Oh, the mission? The mission? What, your glorious purpose? Give me a break. You can't beat them."

The arguing goes back and forth, back and forth, as the two Loki Variants' emotions begin to rise, no longer allowing Sigyn to block it all out. She feels the anger radiate off of Sylvie like waves in a hot spring, and the hidden guilt of Loki hitting her in electric-like pangs. As those emotions flood into her system, so do others around the planet—despair, grief, loss, pain, agony. Sigyn's mind begins to race, and her pulse quickens with anxiety as the emotions hit her like concrete walls. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that this is like the troubles her future self experiences on Xandar. But it's much too early for her to have that happen, right?

She runs her hands over her face, trying to centre herself and calm down her pulse. The emotion begins to build up in here, and she can feel it trying to escape. She tries her best to mash it down, but it erupts, "Shut up!" A small blast of energy radiates outward from her body.

Both of them turn to Sigyn with surprised looks on their faces, hair slightly swept from the blast.

Sigyn gulps. The pent-up energy is gone, but the anxiety is back in full force. "Just...just tell me what you decide. I need a breather," she says as she walks in the opposite direction of them. Loki goes to walk after her, but Sylvie holds out her hand to stop him.

After walking a good distance away, Sigyn sits down and huddles her knees to her chest, trying her best to calm the rest of her raging pulse. She stares up at the planet about to crash down on them at any minute. She could potentially be out there somewhere still exploring the galaxy, or she could be long gone for all she knows. The only thing she does know for certain is that this entire situation is completely messed up.

She should be back on earth with Tony, Thor, Natasha, Steve, Bruce, and even Clint Barton who she only just met. But now she's stuck on a planet about to be crashed into by a moon—just her luck.

She feels the presence of Loki and Sylvie getting nearer but she doesn't bother to turn around. Sylvie stops a distance back and Loki continues, walking up to Sigyn and gently sitting down next to her. "We've decided what we're going to do."

"Oh?" is all Sigyn manages to say.

"We're going to hijack the spacecraft. It's not supposed to make it off the planet, but it's never had us on it," says Loki.

A moment of silence passes as Sigyn considers the plan. "Seems less shit than the average plan you two usually come up with."

For once, Loki ignores the teasing, instead taking a moment to debate whether or not to speak up on an issue that's been pressing him. "Can you feel them all?"

Sigyn takes a deep breath and turns her head to look at Loki. "Every single one of them. All blurred together. I've been in crowds before but it's never been anything this...strong."

"And you don't know how to turn it off?" he says as more of a statement than a question.

"Haven't the slightest idea. The future me can do it. I just happen to be the most useless version of me that you could possibly be stuck with."

Loki chuckles. "Well, I wouldn't say that. I'll admit, you did manage to do quite a few good hits on me." The rare admission brings a small smirk to Sigyn's lips. "But if you ever tell anyone I said that, I'll deny it."

"It's crazy to think that not too long ago, we were fighting each other to the death."

"Yes, well, things change I suppose."

"They must if you haven't tried to stab me yet," jokes Sigyn.

Loki stands up and dusts himself off, "There's plenty of time for that later." He offers a hand down to Sigyn still sitting on the floor, and after a few seconds of hesitation on her part, he helps her up.

Seeing that they're done now Sylvie walks over to the two. "Any questions?" asks Sylvie.

Sigyn raises her hand, "Yeah, just one...what's 'hedonistic'?"

~~~~~

Running has never been Sigyn's forte. Even as a child, she much preferred the sports that did not involve having to run. So, figuring that this could be her last day alive anyway, Sigyn has decided to take the easy way to Shuroo. And by that, she means levitating herself all the way there. As Sylvie and Loki chat and walk, Sigyn floats on her back slightly behind them, her hands crossed behind her head.

Her ears start to burn when she hears Sylvie mention that everyone who works at the TVA is a Variant and she floats herself faster to pull up beside the two of them. "I'm sorry, did you just say that all the people working at the TVA are Variants?"

Sylvie rolls her eyes. "Yes, I did."

"Even Hilda?"

"I'm not quite sure who that is, but like I said, all of them are."

Not too long later, they all finally reach the city. Sigyn gets onto her feet as they hear an announcer tell the city that the shuttle is going to leave in ten minutes. Great.

A crowd has formed in the inner part of the city, chanting, "Let us on! Let us on!"

Loki, who has climbed onto a well for a better view, turns to look at Sigyn and Sylvie, "They're going to let these people die."

An expression that can only be described as pure horror crosses Sigyn's face, but before Loki can comment on it, she's off like a rocket. Sigyn veers off into a side street towards the sound of screaming people.

"Shit!" yells Sylvie as she and Loki race through the crowd after Sigyn. To make matters worse, above them, the planet begins to splinter off into pieces, sending large asteroids into the defenceless city below. Loki and Sylvie are knocked back in a blast that leaves them momentarily senseless.

After helping one another up, they rush into an empty store, but a guard catches the back of Sylvie's cloak. With their combined forces of Sylvie and Loki finally working in tandem, they easily take out the guards and speed back into the streets, trying to locate Sigyn and get closer to the ship about to take off. They find themselves momentarily huddled in an alley with several citizens of Shuroo hiding for their lives.

Spotting a break in the falling rock and rubble, Sylvie and Loki make a mad dash once again. The pieces of a large building begin to crumble down onto the street, but Loki turns and blasts it back up into place.

"Taking lessons from Sigyn, I see," says Sylvie in between pants.

"You clear a path to the ship. I'll find Sigyn," says Loki.

When he finally finds her, she's standing in the middle of a courtyard, head whipping around as she seems to try and figure out which way to go, which direction of people need her aid most and stopping every asteroid from falling that she can. But the constant use of the power it takes to throw an asteroid is clearly starting to leave her exhausted and disoriented. "Sigyn, we need to leave!"

Sigyn's head whips to see Loki standing a few metres away from her. "I can't. I have to help them."

"You will die here!"

"Then I die knowing I did everything I could."

"It's pure suicide," reasons Loki, although a small crack comes through his voice due to the dryness of the air. "All these people, they're already dead. Don't add your name to the list of those lost here."

"I have to save them," says Sigyn as her head drifts towards the direction of small cries for help.

Loki can see her legs twitch in anticipation; she's about to take off into the inferno. A blaze of fire that there is no walking out of, even for someone with powers granted by the power stone. He shakes his head, eyes full of pleading, "Just this once, don't be the hero. Not today."

This seems to catch Sigyn's attention, and after a tense moment of consideration, Sigyn steps down from the platform, stumbling slightly. Luckily for her, Loki moves forward to support her, allowing her to put some of her weight onto him for added balance.

Moving as fast as they possibly can, they weave through the crowds of people towards the ship and Sylvie, who is currently engaged in a brawl with several guards. "We can still make it!" shouts Loki.

The sentiment lights a fire under all of them, making the final push towards the gate, which will lead them to the safety of the ship.

That is until the thrusters start to fire, signalling that the ship is about to leave the ground. However, not a moment later, a large asteroid rips through the ship's hull, sending it crashing down into a blaze of parts. The fighting in the streets stops on all sides as they stare up at the only hope of getting off the planet going up in flames.

Episode 3 is finally done, which means we are halfway through the story (but technically slightly more than that since there are some episodes coming up that won't require as many chapters), onto the next half!

How will the TVA figure out to track down the Variants? And what will happen when Sigyn's parentage is finally revealed? Find out next chapter!

Any last guesses for who either of her parents might be?

And thank you guys so much, your comments honestly make my day. There are so many hilarious comments, and I love them all. This week's question is: what do you think Sigyn's time-loop prison might be, or do you have any suggestions? I have some ideas, but nothing set in stone yet, so I'd love some feedback from you guys if you're willing!

Onto the (let's be honest here) only reason y'all even read this book, the chaperly memes:

Bonus: