Clock's Ticking

Enchantment

After Sylvie and I jump it isn't long before we meet the ground and roll a couple of yards. When I look up, groaning and trying to recover from the pain of leaping off of a train, I see Loki walking toward us, most likely chasing after the train rather than coming to check on us. Loki sighs as he gets a few feet past us and I stand up. Loki places his hands on hips as he turns to me, "well, that's not ideal."

Sylvie swiftly moves past me and puts her sword to Loki's throat, "give me the TemPad."

Loki jumps a bit, "all right, all right, okay." He takes a deep breath as he pulls something out of his pocket. When he opens his hand in front of us the TemPad appears, but it is badly damaged, even to the point of smoking. "Well, I did take quite the tumble."

"You asshole. You killed us."

"Maybe we can fix it." Loki looks down to the smouldering rack in his hand, "okay? Um..." as he tries to fix it, it crumbles more and he drops it.

"You're not a serious man."

"You're right, I'm not. I'm a God."

I step up next to Sylvie, "you're a clown. You got drunk on the train."

"You did too."

"No, I had two. You had eight."

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

"I'm hedonistic." Sylvie becomes defensive and angry, which is understandable, "more than you, I assure you, but never at the expense of the mission."

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

Sylvie just shakes her head before she walks away. Once she's a few feet away she screams, her anger turning into power in her hands, which the releases with a loud explosion as she stops screaming. She continues to walk until she finds a large rock to sit on. I take a deep breath and look around before Loki nudges me, "what?"

"Go after her," he gestures toward Sylvie.

"Why me? You go."

"She likes you more."

I sigh and nod before walking over to Sylvie, who is sighing over and over again. I look over her and make sure she's not still boiling and it appears she's calmed down a bit, "did screaming make you feel better?"

"Yes, it did," Sylvie looks up to me, "you should try it sometime."

"All right," I shrug, "why not." I take a few steps away from Sylvie and scream into the air. When I turn back she is laughing a bit, "how was that?"

"Good."

She chuckles, "do you feel better?"

"Yeah, a bit," I nod as I sit down next to her.

Loki walks up behind us, once he's sure it's safe, and sighs, "what now?"

"I don't know," Sylvie barely looks over her shoulder to Loki, "you broke the TemPad."

"Well..."

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

"Well, yes, but..."

"Yes, but what?"

"Well, the entire moon is destroyed, right?"

"Yeah, and everyone on it is killed."

"Including us."

"Yes, including us."

Loki goes silent for a moment, and only for a moment, "what about the ark?"

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

"It never had us on it," Loki grins.

I scoff, "what? We hijack the ark and make sure it gets off this moon?"

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

"Okay," Sylvie gets up and walks away, leaving Loki and I sitting there confused. Soon we get up and hurry after Sylvie. The three of us hiking across the moon's desert in silence for quite a while. If it wasn't for the rumbling of the planet about to crash into us  and the meteor's it's sending our way, it'd be peaceful.

But the peace isn't forever and Loki finally decides he can't take the silence anymore. "You know," he rolls up his sleeves, "I don't think I've ever walked this much in my life."

"That's a pretty good life."

"Well, you're lucky you missed it."

I scoff, "you were a prince. Anyone would die for that life."

"Here's an idea," Loki glances over to Sylvie, "what if you enchanted me and you could walk for the both of us? I take a nap in my subconscious and then you could just wake me when we arrive. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Sylvie clicks her tongue and smirks, "that's not how enchantment works."

"How does it work?" I look over to her.

"Doesn't matter," she looks back to me.

"You know, I feel like I've done all the sharing," Loki gestures to himself. "But I don't really know the first thing about either of you."

"Thanks for the tactical advantage."

"Ah, so you two are gonna team up and use that tactical advantage to kill me when the TVA shows up."

I chuckle a bit, "I don't know about Sylvie, but killing you will do me no good, so hasn't even crossed my mind. Slapping you might have, but not killing you."

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

"Okay, fine," Sylvie turns forward again, "you wanna know how enchantment works." She glances over to me, "I have to make physical contact and then grab a hold of their mind." She gestures around in front of herself before she looks over to me.

I nod, trying to understand what she means, "how?"

"It depends on the mind. Most are easy and I can overtake them instantly. Others, the stronger ones, it gets tricky."

"Like me?"

"No, Kamaria," Sylvie shakes her head, "not like you. I've never met someone like you. Someone I couldn't enchant."

"Then what's it like with the stronger ones?"

"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 takes a deep breath.

"That young soldier from the TVA, her mind was messed up. Everything clouded."

I nod, "everything gets clouded if you've been with the TVA long enough."

"I had to pull a memory from hundreds of years prior, before she even fought for them."

Loki and I stop, but Loki asks what we're both thinking, "what? What'd you just say?"

"Before she joined the TVA?" I shake my head.

Sylvie turns toward us a bit confused, "yeah, she was just a regular person on Earth."

"A regular person?"

"Loved margaritas."

I shake my head, "no, no, everyone who works for the TVA was created by the Time-Keepers."

"Besides you," Loki gestures toward me.

"Right," I point to Loki, without looking at him.

"That's ridiculous," Sylvie looks to Loki and I as if we're mad, "they're all Variants, just like us."

"They don't know that!"

By now we are close enough to the city to hear the announcements they are putting out over the Ark's speakers, "all ticketed passengers..."

Sylvie turns to me and takes my hand, "that's our ride." I look down to my hand and nod before we start to march off. 

"Ten minutes until launch."