Second Chances

Chapter 11

Sylvie has experienced many unexpected things throughout her life. She was abducted by and escaped from the organization that dictates the flow of time when she was just a child, after all. Life hasn't exactly been predictable. Usually, these surprises don't really surprise her.

But Mobius's outburst? That surprised her.

She doesn't know him very well, all things considered. He's been nothing but a nameless, faceless figure hunting her for centuries, and only within the last week or so has she actually met him. And when she looks past the whole TVA thing, she really does like him, and she really does feel like she knows him, as much as one can know someone they only met a matter of days ago.

Clearly, she doesn't know him as well as she'd thought she did, though, because she did not see this coming. He's always so calm and collected – always so optimistic, even when driving a busted-up car through the Void at the end of time itself while trying to escape a giant man-eating cloud monster, a situation that is very hard to be optimistic about. And maybe that's the problem is that much of what she knows about him, she learned from their time in that car together. He was calm and collected then; that doesn't mean he always is.

Loki tries to follow him, but Sylvie stays put. She's not convinced she'll be even half as helpful as Loki will be in calming him down. They don't know each other well enough for that. But, to her surprise, she is exactly as helpful as Loki is – which is to say, not at all.

As Mobius walks away, Loki remains frozen, watching him go without another word. Sylvie gives him a minute or so to come back, and when he doesn't, she walks up to him, parking herself by his side just as Mobius slips out of view.

"Well," she says. "That was unexpected."

Loki sighs. "I didn't mean to..."

Sylvie pats him on the back sympathetically. "I know."

"I've never seen him like this," Loki says. "He's supposed to be the calm, level-headed one. He was supposed to be the one person I couldn't piss off. He wasn't supposed to..."

"I know," Sylvie says again. It's an odd kind of comfort to know that this surprised him, too.

Loki takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Now what do we do?"

"Not watch the fireworks, probably," Sylvie says. It's the least they can do.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Loki asks.

Sylvie shakes her head. "If it means that much to Mobius, we can skip it tonight."

Loki gives her a small smile. "Maybe we can do it tomorrow night," he says. "We can ask Mobius in the morning."

Sylvie raises her brows, a frown on her face that she can't hide, but she doesn't say anything.

Loki furrows his brows. "What?"

"What do you mean, what?"

"What is it? You look like you're upset – and I've already upset one of my friends today; I don't want to upset the other."

Sylvie shakes her head. "It's nothing," she says, but then she says it anyway because it's going to bother her all night if she doesn't. "I just don't think it's fair that we're expected to take orders from Mobius."

Loki frowns. "They're not orders. He's just..."

"He's just pitching a fit because we wouldn't listen to him," she finishes for him. "I don't know if that's much better."

"But I don't think he's trying to give us orders," Loki says.

"I don't think he knows what he's doing," Sylvie says. "He's just so used to the TVA where he gets to dictate people's lives."