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𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐓𝐰𝐨, 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐

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┝┈┈───╼⊳⊰ ४ ⊱⊲╾───┈┈┥

> The beginning of the plan started out by Loki going ahead into X-5's holding cell while Ivy and Mobius wheeled in a very odd-looking machine that sounded like it was one use away from breaking into pieces. To Ivy it looked like some random machine you'd see in a children's book made of random pieces of metal. But from Mobius' brief explanation of the machine, it definitely wasn't meant for children.

"Uh... Where's B-15?" X-5, or rather Brad, questioned as he stood up from his spot on the floor.

"She's not gonna be attending this session." Mobius answered.

"Oh, I get it, So, you come in here without B-15 and I'm supposed to believe you're gonna torture me, Mobius?"

"Well, let's simplify everything." Mobius began. "You have information that we need. You don't want to give it to us. So, how do we find common ground?"

"You are gettin' desperate."

"You're not wrong. He's not wrong." Loki noted, messing around with a wire.

"We're definitely getting desperate." Mobius grabbed a tube from the device to connect to the wall.

Ivy stood up from where she was attaching a wire to the bottom of the machine. "No question there."

"I'll be honest with you, we're down to our last option." Mobius continued to attach the tube to the wall,

"And your last chance." Loki pointed out.

"This is cute." Brad quipped. "Which one of you came up with this script?"

"Because you're a tough nut to crack," Mobius began to turn a valve on the machine. "... you've left us no choice but to kind of ramp..."

"Uh, Mobius," Loki interrupted, pointing at the machine's handle. "Controller." It seemed as if they had 'forgotten' to also grab the controller.

"Right, okay. We can't start the festivities without that little baby. Stand by." And with that Mobius and the other two began to head for the door. That was then Loki and Ivy's cue to quickly shut the door, leaving them alone with Brad. Mobius then pretended to demand them to open the door. Ivy thought his acting was a bit off but as long as Brad bought it everything was going to go just fine.

"Turns out, there is actually one other option." Loki turned towards Brad and began walking towards the machine.

"You sniffed us out, Brad." Ivy also made her way over to the machine, a mischievous smile beginning to form on her face.

"We knew you would, because you're a clever chap." Loki added. "So, guess what?"

"We may have written a little script of our own." There was a hit of wickedness in Ivy's eyes. She may have found this a little too much fun, but she honestly didn't care too much about that at the moment.

"That thing does not work without the controller, though, so..." X-5 pointed out. "What're you gonna do?"

"This one?" Loki pulled out said controller from his back pocket. "Okay, great. We're gonna have a little Q and A."

Brad seemed to be getting agitated. Everything was going exactly as planned.

"Did you find Sylvie?" Ivy was the one to ask the first question. "If so, where is she?"

"Simple question, really." Loki smiled as he started flipping switches. "But it doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves as we go along."

"You almost got me." Brad slightly chuckled. "You two have no idea how to work that thing though."

Loki chuckled. "I'm not trying to be a hero, Brad. I'm a villain. Remember?"

Brad faked a smile back at the god before turning to Ivy. "And what about you? Why are you here, doing this?"

"Well, you said being told the truth about him upset me." Ivy pointed over her shoulder to Loki. "I'm here to prove that no, I don't actually mind it all that much. I mean, you said it yourself. I don't have the greatest reputation either." She gave a mocking smile.

Loki then got the machine to start up. "Look at that."

"Um, earlier, I said some really hurtful things," Brad began to back up slowly, very clearly beginning to get worried. Loki and Ivy just laughed almost maniacally. "I brought up your mother and then brought up your spy stuff. And I am really sorry about that." He then turned to the door. "Mobius! Hey, get in here!"

"It's locked, Brad." Mobius' muffled voice barely made it through the door. "It's locked!"

Loki began to look over the machine's controller as Ivy peered over his shoulder to also look at it.

"You need to put that down." Brad demanded nervously. "That's uh... you don't know what you're doing with that."

Loki looked up, "What does this one do?"

Loki then clicked a random bottom that made a glowing box appear around the stool in the middle of the room. Within a second the stool was then crushed by the box making everyone jump back with a gasp in surprise.

"Oops." Ivy laughed.

Loki also laughed. "Yeah, sorry. Uh, could've hurt yourself there."

"Hey, don't just touch random buttons on that, okay?" Brad advised. "Mobius, get in here!"

"Bit of a learning curve here I see." Ivy nodded, pointing at the controller.

"Yeah. There is a learning curve." Brad confirmed. "You know you could kill me with that."

Ivy and Loki looked up. "Could we?"

In that moment Brad looked genuinely terrified. Here he stood in a room with the God of Mischief and a fully trained SHIELD spy with no way out. He was then even more terrified when Loki hit another button causing him to be surrounded by a glowing box.

"This is exciting." Loki laughed.

"Certainly." Ivy agreed.

"Turn it off." Brad spoke with a shaky voice. A mixture of fear and anger. "Turn it off."

"Let me try this. Let me try this." Loki then pressed another button, this time making the box grow smaller.

"Okay. Okay. All right." Brad gasped.

"Oh, sorry. That's only made it smaller." Loki grimaced.

"Hey what if you pressed this button?" Ivy began to pry the controller away.

Loki snatched it back. "No, not that one, this one!"

The two then began to have a fake little argument over which buttons to press. They pretended to not notice that what they were doing was causing the glowing box to expand and contract. Brad on the other hand, was getting closer to having a heart attack at any moment.

"Look!" Brad called out, causing the fake argument to die out. "I don't know where Dox and the others are. Okay? I don't know."

"I don't know if you know this, but I've done some terrible, awful things." Loki mocked.

"Yeah, you have. You're doing one right now. Have some perspective on yourself." Brad pleated, to which Ivy this time was the one to hit a button to make the box smaller. "Okay!" Brad yelled in anger.

"Just trial and error." Ivy faked a regretful face.

Brad chuckled, on the brink of losing it. "I swear I don't know where they are."

"Brad. You're so convincing." Loki exclaimed. "I want to believe you, but you're just-"

"You're such a good actor." Ivy joked.

Brad grunted. "Look, I really, I don't really know. I swear."

"You're so talented." Loki cheered.

"They did not tell me the plan."

"Please tell me the truth." Loki interrupted. "We know you're lying."

"Okay? Okay, okay. I lied. I lied, okay? I did." Brad admitted. "I was supposed to go look for Sylvie, but then, I bailed, okay? I- I bailed."

"Right. So, they told you to go after Sylvie and you bailed?" Loki questioned.

"Yeah."

"What's the penalty for a highly decorated field officer abandoning his mission?" Loki questioned, looking to Ivy for an answer.

Ivy crossed her arms, leaning back on her heels. "Oh, that's a big-time offense there. No one ever heard from the guy who did that at SHIELD the last time that happened." This was a true statement.

Loki nodded before turning back to Brad. "Yeah. You and Dox, I don't buy it." He then made the glowing box shrink again.

Brad gasped. "Okay. Okay. Look, I swear, okay? I went down there, and I went to get my life, okay? Because... none of this is real."

"But if none of this is real, doesn't that mean you aren't either?" Ivy questioned, leaning her head a little in fake wonder.

Loki then took this as an invitation to begin making the box smaller and smaller. Brad began pleading for him to stop. There was a moment where Ivy thought that this may have all been a bit much, but she knew there was no other way to get him to talk. She knew they had to pull out all the stops to get to the bottom of the stakes at hand. They had to find Sylvie.

"Just tell us where Sylvie is, Brad." Loki demanded.

"Alright." Brad cried out. "I'll tell you where she is! She has a new life!"

Loki then immediately hit a button to make the box disappear, making Brad crash to the ground. "Very good."

"Now was that so hard?" Ivy smiled.

Loki hung the controller back up. "One thing, you said you bailed on the mission." He then stood over Brad.

Brad remained lying on the floor. "Yeah, but I found her first. She's on a branch."

Mobius then entered the room, completely unfazed by what just happened. Loki turned to him, "He knows where Sylvie is."

"See? A little bit of mischief." Mobius joked.

"Only as good as your plan."

"Thank you." Mobius then began to pull Brad up to his feet. "Let's go, Zaniac."

"Are you telling me that was-"

"Hell of a performance."

"Alright, if I tell you where she is, are you gonna let me go?" Both Ivy and Loki laughed at Brad's question.

"No. You're gonna show us." Mobius corrected.

****

Being in 1982 Broxton, Oklahoma was definitely not on Ivy's bucket list of places she'd want to visit. Even if it was, the first thing she'd want to see of the place was definitely not a McDonald's. One of the lower ranked fast-food places in her opinion. Though she did appreciate the older places still having the bright and fun colors.

"Brad, I'm telling you right now," Mobius began as the four exited out of a time door. "If you're wasting our time, you're going right back in the gizmo."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Brad put his hands up in surrender. "Okay. All right. Look, she's in there, all right? She's in there." He then tried to put an arm around the others. To which Ivy quickly dodged his arm and went stand on the other side of Loki. "So, why don't you guys just head on in and remember that I'm the one who brought you here, and a deal's a deal. All right? So, you go ahead, I'm gonna head on back. Alright?" Brad then turned to leave.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." Mobius reached out to stop him. "Why are you so jumpy? It's making me nervous."

"I'm not jumpy. I'm not nervous."

"Yeah, you're like," Mobius mimicked running. "You wanna take off."

Ivy and Loki stood a few feet from the two bickering back and forth, both not exactly in the mood to join the argument at hand. There were bigger problems that divided their attention at the moment. They both walked a few more steps towards the building before stopping.

Right inside that building was supposedly the person who they would have called a friend not too long ago. Someone who they fought with at the end of the world. Someone who decided to betray them at the end of the world.

"What do you think?" Mobius walked up to them.

"If she's here, we have to find out what she knows." Loki spoke.

"Be ready for anything I suppose." Ivy advised. She intended to begin walking at this moment, but her feet didn't seem to want to move. She didn't realize until this very moment that anything could happen when they would all reunite. Would Sylvie run? Will there be a fight? Is it possible Sylvie just doesn't care anymore about the whole ordeal?

Loki began to start walking towards the building before noticing that Ivy still stood still. Noticing the anxiousness on her face he walked back to her and grabbed her hand. Ivy's brows knitted together as she looked down at their intertwined hands and then back up at the god. Loki gave the spy a reassuring smile to which she gave one back. They were both incredibly worried how this would turn out, but at least they were worried together.

As Ivy and Loki eventually made their way into the building Mobius and Brad hung back a little. Brad held a seemingly disgusted face as he turned to Mobius. "Do they always do that weird eye contact with no talking thing?"

"You also think it's a bit odd, huh?" Mobius questioned, relieved he wasn't the only one. "Like just use some words maybe. Or get a room."

Once Ivy and Loki made it into the McDonald's they both looked around for Sylvie. The place only had a few customers, none of which were the blonde they were looking for. Eventually their eyes landed on the women at the counter. It was her.

There stood Sylvie behind the counter wearing a striped red, yellow, and white uniform. She was currently handing a customer their order with a smile on her face. The customer even seemed to thank her by name as if they knew her personally. Though Ivy and Loki didn't hear this part for they were too busy being caught off guard at the fact that she was actually there! There living a normal life working at that!

Sylvie's smile quickly faded once she noticed when the others walked through the door. Her facial expression was nearly unreadable. In this moment Ivy thought an immediate fight might have been easier than whatever was going on now.

"This feels tense." Brad mocked how Ivy and Loki very slowly walked up to the counter "What do you say, we leave them to it. We head back to the TVA."

"What are you talking about? No. I'm not going anywhere until I get some apple pie" Mobius then scurried off, leaving Brad to trail behind in annoyance.

When Ivy and Loki stood in front of Sylvie, they seemed to want to look everywhere but her face. There was an awkward but tense bubble surrounding them.

"Hi." Ivy and Loki finally blurted out eventually.

"Hi." Sylvie said, almost monotone like. When the other two didn't respond she sighed in annoyance. "Listen, I haven't got all day. You two gonna order something? Or, what?"

"Can we talk?" Loki questioned straightforwardly.

"Please?" Ivy added, trying to sound less demanding.

"My break's in five minutes." Sylvie said simply before walking off.

Ivy took a big breath in and out, not sure if in relief or worry. "I guess that could've gone worse."

"I suppose." Loki nodded.

The two then made their way outside to the parking lot, both leaning on the short brick wall of the building's entrance way while they waited for Sylvie to go on break. Loki stood with his hands in his pockets as Ivy had her arms crossed, kicking around a loose bit of cement.

"What do you think of all of this?" Loki questioned.

Ivy kicked the rock she had been messing with. "This meaning?"

"Everything?" The way he said that made it sound as if it was a question.

Ivy sighed, looking up at the sky for a moment before focusing back on the rock. "I genuinely have no idea at this point. Is it possible to feel incredibly overwhelmed but also numb to everything at the same time? Like one moment I'm freaking out about the potential of time crashing in on itself. And the next I feel like I should just let everything go because what's even the point anymore? Can we really stop millions of one person ruining everything?" She shook her head. "Sorry, that was really unmotivating."

"No, no. I get it." Loki reassured. Unbeknown to her he kept his focus on her completely. "We haven't had a true moment of peace since the moment we were taken to the TVA." He paused. "Though I know you weren't exactly living in peace before that, no thanks to me."

Ivy laughed, finally looking up at him. "To be fair it didn't seem like you were either really."

Loki joined Ivy in laughing. "No, no. Certainly not." He then spoke quieter. "You have no idea..."

Ivy knew a little bit about Loki's memories from the past and future from the Projector Room ages ago, but something about the way he said this now made her wonder if there was something else that had happened. Something besides family issues. But just as she was about to question this Sylvie made her way out of the building.

"It's a short break, so talk fast." Sylvie walked straight passed them towards what the other two assumed was her truck. She opened the tailgate and sat down, beginning to drink from the cup she brought with her.

Ivy and Loki had a moment to snap out the momentary depression conversation they were having before walking over to Sylvie. Inevitably going into another uncomfortable conversation.

"Look, I know we're the last people you'd want to see right now." Ivy was the first to speak up.

"Correct." Sylvie confirmed.

"We, uh..." Loki sighed. "We haven't come here to make trouble."

"Then why are you here?" Sylvie questioned, anger seeping in.

"Uh... this is gonna sound strange." Loki began. "But... there's been a problem. It's complicated. We've been pulled through time. Between the past and the present. Well, I was in the past..."

"Oh, just get to the point, Loki."

"Look, we were in the future when we saw you." Ivy took it in her own hands to explain. "The TVA is in danger. You were there. We need to figure out why you were there."

"So, you guys see the future now? Cool." Sylvie began drinking out of her cup again, not taking this seriously at all.

"It's not something we chose." Loki noted.

"Look, as much as I'd love to see the TVA burnt to the ground, I have no intention of going back there." Sylvie explained. "My life's here now, and I'm not running. I'm happy."

"Explain what we saw, then." Loki questioned.

Sylvie shrugged, "I don't know. I don't care."

"It's the future. It's going to happen."

"Is it? Really? Because that sounds a lot like the future's already been written. And we all know that it hasn't. Not anymore. I made sure of that."

Ivy leaned her head towards Loki. "Eh, she kinda has a point."

Loki gave her a half-annoyed look before suddenly getting an idea. He faced Sylvie again. "Enchant me. You can see what I saw."

"I don't want to see." Sylvie emphasized. "I don't want to see. I want nothing to do with this. I have no answers for you."

Ivy empathized with her. She couldn't imagine ever wanting to just walk away from somewhere when things were just getting good. She felt bad about essentially trying to pry Sylvie away from the one good thing that's happened to her.

Loki on the other hand was solely focused on the plan ahead. "Sylvie, if we don't work together, I can't guarantee how long this will be here."

"Oh, you have some nerve coming here with your TVA bullshit."

"Look, Sylvie. I understand that you hate the TVA, we all did. But his is bigger than the TVA now." Ivy tried to explain.

"Exactly!" Loki agreed. "You like it here? You like this place? You've made a home here?" He gestured to their surroundings. "If what He Who Remains said is true, the TVA is the only defense. And if what we saw of you is true, then there's nothing that stands between this world and utter destruction."

"Without the TVA, everything will be gone." Ivy stressed. "We wouldn't be coming to you if it wasn't crucial." That sounded a bit harsher than Ivy intended, and by the look on Sylvie's face she took it that way.

"I've got to get back to work." Sylvie hopped off of the tailgate, closing it and then beginning to walk back to the building.

"Wait, I meant that in a 'wanting you to live normally and happy' type of