A.N. hello peeps! I'm back! this chapter is a littler longer than the last two, but not by a ton. it's still relatively short. I'm sorry about that, it's just that as an amateur writer i don't have the patience to write long chapters yet because almost as soon as I get to a stopping point, I can't stop myself from sharing what I have with you guys! thank you for those of you who have followed my story by the way, it really means a lot to me. I really hope you guys like this chapter! please let me know what you think in the reviews, constructive criticism really does help me improve so if you don't really like something, or if you have any advice, please share that with me. so without further ado, here's chapter 3!

Loki woke up in a cell. Exactly where he didn't want to be. This was fine, he would just find a way to escape, right? Oh, who was he kidding? he wasn't getting out of here by himself. The only reason he had gotten out last time was because Sylvie had helped him escape and then he had been pruned… wait, that was it! He just had to get himself pruned again. It couldn't be that easy though, could it? Being pruned was very painful and he would have to find his way back to the citadel at the end of time, but he could do it. That was where he had last seen her, so that was where he would look. By the time he managed to get there Sylvie probably would be calm enough to not kill him on sight, and if she wasn't there he could at least look for clues as to where she had gone. He would have to make it so that the TVA had no choice but to prune him, but also not make it so that they could tell that he was trying to get pruned. They didn't know how much he knew about the TVA so that would help him, and he was a Loki. Lokis were very good at being obnoxious, annoying, mischievous, and sometimes just a tad bit overdramatic. They were also known to be just a little insane as well.

Getting himself pruned would theoretically be very easy, especially since no one in their right mind would want to be pruned unless they had a very good reason. He sat up, walked to a chair that was in the middle of the room, put his feet up on the table, folded his hands across his chest, and smirked at a camera that he could barely see in the corner of the room. This would hopefully make him seem dangerous and make the TVA want to get rid of him faster. If it didn't do that then At the very least it would make one of them curious enough to come pay him a visit. So he sat there, and he waited.

He didn't have to wait long. It couldn't have been more than an hour before Loki heard the door creak open and shut on his left and the sound of approaching footsteps echoing around the room. Not unexpectedly, the man who now sat across from him was Mobius. This might actually end up being kind of funny. Mobius knew next to nothing about him, but he had a decent amount of information about Mobius.

"Hello Mobius," Loki said. He hadn't moved at all since Mobius had entered the room.

"Hello Loki," Mobius replied.

"I see you did your research on me before coming here"

"How could I not? But that's not the point. You know how I know who you are, that's sort of fun to say isn't it? You know how I know who you are? Anyway the point is, how do you know who I am?" A positively evil smile spread across his face as he shrugged.

"We meet not to long ago,"

"Yeah I know that but how do you know me?" Mobius asked again, clearly not understanding his meaning. Loki shrugged again. If he could make Mobius think he was an enemy of the TVA, he might have him pruned to make sure he couldn't do any more damage and make their situation any worse here than it already was.

"I would ask who you're working for but something tells me that you're not really the type to work for someone else unless it suits your purpose, and even then it's more of a partnership, if not them actually working for you while thinking you're working for them. And that's if that sort of thing occurs at all. Your file says that you tend to work alone." Loki smirked and rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Up until recently that might have been true, but he knew now that things were much easier and got done much faster when Sylvie was around, and that was besides the fact that things were just more enjoyable in general when she was there. "Your file also says that usually you're more talkative than this, why the sudden silence?" Loki said nothing. "Alright then, do you know who made the sacred timeline go all wacko?" His smile widened as he looked Mobius in the eye and said,

"I did," Mobius actually looked slightly dumbfounded.

"You?"

"Me,"

"How?"

"I killed someone I wasn't really supposed to from the original sacred timeline," Loki answered. He was labeling himself as a criminal and a major enemy of the TVA by taking the blame for what Sylvie had done, hopefully it would be enough to get him pruned.

"Why?" Mobius asked. Loki shrugged.

"I thought it would be a rather amusing thing to do, to throw this place into total chaos,"

"Mhm, ok. Now tell me the real reason,"

"That was the real reason,"

"You and I both know that's not true,"

"And how would you know that?"

"I know you like to lie to avoid answering questions you don't want to answer. Now tell me why you really did it,"

"Fine!" Loki said, jumping up and shoving his chair back. "I did it because I am a variant and I'm tired of being controlled. I am not some cowardly idiot's pawn and I refuse to play along with whatever it is I was supposed to have done in this 'sacred timeline' of yours" Loki had always been a good actor, and he was using all of his skills to make this convincing enough to fool the living lie detector that went by the name of Mobius, who was currently sitting in front of him. He began to stomp away, knowing full well that he would just be jerked back to where he had been but also knowing that this would make his act more convincing. Sure enough, he hadn't taken five steps before he was teleported back into the chair. He let out a loud groan and leaned his head back over the back of his chair.

"Wow, I never really thought you to be one for temper tantrums but okay," Mobius said.

Loki looked up at the ceiling and asked, "Are you going to punish me now? Make me go see your boss?" Mobius sighed,

"I'm afraid we must, we can't exactly have the guy that screwed up the sacred timeline running free, can we?" Loki rolled his eyes again. Of course they couldn't. This was actually working very well. Now all he had to do was make a few fake escape attempts and if that failed to get him pruned, they would just prune him after the trial he knew they would give him anyway.

"How did you get here?" Mobius inquired

"I honestly don't know. One second, I'm stabbing a guy, the next, I'm in the middle of this place." Loki said, intentionally making himself sound very tired.

"Ok, did you work with anyone else to accomplish your goal?"

"Ha! No, I worked alone. Now, I'm quite tired so if you would please leave and allow me to rest that would be wonderful."

"I'm not done talking to you ye-"

"Well I am, now leave me alone," Loki interjected. Mobius sighed again,

"Alright then, but I can't promise I'll be able to defend you during your trial if you don't answer a few more questions. Your trial is tomorrow so if you're going to answer them you should do it now," Loki just stood up, walked over to the creaky cot that rested in the corner of his cell, laid down, and rolled over to face the wall.

"Goodbye Loki," Mobius said, "I'll see you in six… no, seven hours," he gathered his things, but before he walked out the door he turned around and said, "I really did try to help you, you know?" Loki said nothing, saying anything would only make Mobius stay longer and as much as he wished that he could sit and talk to his friend again, he knew it would only raise the chances of Mobius getting suspicious and preventing him from getting pruned, and besides, this wasn't the Mobius that knew him anyway.

-Oo000o000oO-

You know that really bad feeling you get sometimes, the one that gets your stomach all twisted up in a knot and makes you feel like something really bad is about to happen? That's the feeling that Sylvie was having, and she also had the feeling that it had something to do with Loki. She had sent him into the first timeline that had popped up for the TVA headquarters on the tempad, she hadn't had time to be picky or choosy. What if she had sent him into a dangerous reality? Normally, she wouldn't be concerned. The thing was, there was something at the TVA that prevented magic of any sort from working, and while Loki was still a formidable fighter even without his sedir, he wouldn't stand a chance fighting against the TVA without it. Oh Norns what had she done? Loki was a truly powerful being, but without his magic, well, he was just a tall, skinny, handsome, asgardia-no, frost giant, with unusually good fighting skills. Wait, handsome? Where had that thought come from? It didn't matter. He would get eaten alive! Or maybe she was underestimating him. Loki was clever, cunning, smart, and completely ruthless when the situation demanded it. He had wormed his way out of tons of sticky situations. But if he was fine and had managed to get himself out, why did she have the feeling that something had gone terribly wrong? Why did she even care? Why did he care about her? Why were there so many new emotions coursing through her right now? Why did everything about this situation have to be so confusing? Sylvie let out a groan of frustration and leaned her head back to look up at the sky. The planet was going to crash into the moon soon, it was time to leave. Before she did though, she reached over to touch the rock Loki had sat on, made a decision, and said,

"I'm coming for you, Loki,"

ANThanks for reading! You guys are the best! I kinda feel like Sylvie's one line in this chapter was a little cheesy/awkward, but that's what I have so... yeah. Also, I would like to work out an update schedule but I can't decide which day of the week to pick for my update day, so I decided, why not let you peeps decide? If you guys have a preference, please let me know. If multiple people tell me different days, I will go with the day that has the most votes, or if you all pick different days then I'll just go with whoever told me their preference first. And if no one suggests a day... I'll just ask one of my friends to pick a random day of the week lol. Thanks again for reading! (and yes, I know I already used this quote but I can't think of another one to use right now so...) see you soon :D