They walk through the dark halls in silence, clustered together as they follow Sylvie. Hunter stays near the front of the procession, watching for threats, while Thor stays to the rear, scanning for the same.
An orange glow comes from behind a statue ahead and Thor's hand lingers over Stormbreaker until he hears Sylvie say, "Shut it, clock- I don't want to hear anything you have to say." As they pass, Thor sees a small orange animated glowing clock watching them in curiosity. He is uneasy turning his back on it, even if it does seem to glimmer as though it is an illusion. Even illusions can be deadly. He glances back over his shoulder as they reach an elevator, but the clock has vanished.
Sylvie gestures to the lift, "Well, this is how we get to him. I don't think all of you will fit."
Hunter turns to the group, "Thor, you take the Lokis and Ayshi. Come up last. Mobius, you take Iris, Miriam, and Tam," she turns back to Sylvie, "And you're taking me up first so I can assess what we're walking into."
Sylvie stares at Hunter for a moment before answering, "You don't trust me?"
Hunter scoffs, "After what we heard outside? Absolutely not. Now move. I don't want them out of my sight for very long." Sylvie steps into the elevator and the doors slide shut behind them.
Loki steps over to Cyd and takes his hands, "Please, be patient...I don't know what I'm going to feel with her. But...this hurts."
Cyd reaches up and rests his hand on Loki's cheek, "Hey...it's alright. I already told you that whatever you feel, there's nothing wrong with it. Just tell me what you need me to do."
Loki nods and kisses Cyd's forehead, "Thank you."
Cyd smiles and hugs him, "I've got you, sweetheart. I don't know what all that means in this kind of situation, but...so long as you remember I love you, that's all I need."
"I do," Loki answers, "And I love you."
Meanwhile, the younger Loki scoops up the alligator Loki and holds him snugly. Ayshi stands close, hoping that somehow they are a comfort to the nervous young person beside them.
Thor rests his hand on his youngest brother's shoulder, "Know that I will protect you as though we have grown up together. If there is a threat to you, or to the others in this family, I will not hesitate to strike."
Loki sighs, "Thanks, Thor." He pauses, "I wonder what it would have been like to grow up with you...I mean, for longer than I did."
Thor shrugs, "I don't know, but we have one another now, and so now is when I can promise you that I see you no less my brother than I see the Loki I did grow up with...well, sort of. This timeline business makes these things...different."
Loki nods, "I know. But still...it means a lot to know you don't hold it against me."
"Hold what?"
"That I killed you. Well, my version of you."
"It is a little unnerving to think about, but if you never want to tell me that story, I won't ask. That is your history and, if you wish it, your secret. But whatever happened in that time and place is not a part of our story. It doesn't change who we both have become in this time and place. And so here, I have chosen to call you my brother, regardless."
Loki smiles, "That makes me feel better. I mean, even though we're in this terrible place, at least we're all together, right?"
"Right," Thor answers, smiling back.
The elevator dings. Hunter steps out and gestures to Mobius to bring the next group. Cyd kisses Loki's cheek and tells him to stay strong, he'll be waiting when Thor brings him up. Loki looks a little lost when the door closes on Cyd.
Thor takes a deep breath, "Well, Loki, Loki, Loki, and Ayshi...our turn next."
None of them say anything in response. The elevator doors open not long after. Hunter gestures for them and they step inside. The older Loki has to force himself to keep breathing steadily.
The younger Loki notices, "You're scared."
"Only because of what happened before."
"Should I be?"
"I don't know. I don't know who we're going to meet. But last time...it was so much more than just him."
The younger Loki nods, "Sylvie."
"Yes."
"And whatever happened hurt."
He squeezes his eyes closed, trying to force back the memories, "Deeply."
"It's why you didn't want to come here for so long, isn't it?"
He merely nods in response. The door slides open and they walk into the large room where their family waits, Thor in the lead.
A man waits for them behind a desk. His fingers are laced in front of his chin as he watches them from across the room. Sylvie walks to stand in front of the desk.
He speaks, "And just why are they here?"
"Because they wouldn't leave without seeing you," she answers.
"That wasn't part of the plan."
"Well you can tell them that," she replies briskly.
He gestures for them to approach and they do, Hunter, Mobius, and Thor in front, "What do you want?"
"Well your name, for a start," Thor says.
"Kang. And I know who you are. Some of you. What do you want?"
Mobius speaks next, "Well, we need someplace to be. We don't have a home along any timeline. The family's staying together. And the Void isn't exactly a great place to live."
"And what do you want me to do about it?"
"Sure would be nice if you could find a place for us," Mobius says, "Otherwise, we're going to have to stay here."
Kang stares at him, "Here?"
"Well it's not like there's anywhere else we can go where the TVA won't hunt us down, is there?" Mobius replies, "So you're either going to have to figure this out, or we're going to go set up camp in the hall downstairs."
"You can't do that."
"And why not?" Hunter asks.
"Because I said you couldn't."
During this banter, Cyd watches both Sylvie and Loki. She keeps glancing back to him. There's a look on her face that tells Cyd she has something she desperately needs to say, but won't while others are present. Cyd walks toward the desk, passing by her as he does.
He whispers, "Go talk to him," before slipping between Thor and Hunter and addressing Kang, "Yeah, you say we can't, but I'm done living every day just waiting for a pissed off cloud monster to eat me. So you're going to find us a place to be real fast or I'm going to start unpacking the car. Then I'm raiding your fridge because those weird Void birds weren't exactly a delicacy and I'm betting you eat better than that."
Sylvie steps back, eyes still on the conversation in front of her as Cyd becomes more animated. He gestures to the others, calling for them to come make their case. Sylvie sees what he's doing- being a distraction. She slips back to where Loki stands and nods for him to follow her. He hesitates.
He doesn't want to leave Cyd, but he hears his lover say, "Come on, it's storytime with Cyd and the Archivists. We're not going to leave this place until he's heard every damn thing we've been through thanks to the TVA. Let's make it clear who we are and what this family is to one another."
"You don't need to-" Kang starts.
Iris cuts him off, "If there's any hesitation about finding us a place on the timeline where we can live together in peace, we absolutely do need to. You're going to sit there and listen."
Miriam shakes her head, "Do you even know who we are?"
Kang, still dispassionate, shakes his head, "No."
She pushes her way past the others, puts both her hands on his desk, and leans forward so her face is level with his, "We're the people stolen to run the TVA. We had names. We had lives. We had victories. The uprising we started that could have changed the course of history was cut short so you could play with time, moulding it to your liking. And while we became property of the TVA, our entire identities erased, you enabled a genocide and let our other selves die. You absolutely will listen to us, and you will understand just who we are and why we aren't leaving until we have a place together."
"And what if I say no?"
Miriam stands back and crosses her arms, "Then I suppose we'll have to assert ourselves and stay here, whether you like it or not. And, as Cyd said, get ready to restock you refrigerator."
Thor rests his hand on Stormbreaker, "We can force you to sit there. Because theirs isn't the only genocide you've enabled. You stopped me from keeping half of all life in the universe from being snapped out of existence. I'm not leaving."
As they start telling their stories, Loki slips away with Sylvie into a small antechamber. She closes the door and he keeps his distance, wary.
She sighs, deflating, "I'm so sorry about what I said outside."
He furrows his brow, "What?"
"I know what you did was out of care, not malice. And I know you're capable of loving others."
He shakes his head with disbelief, expression pained, "Then why did you say...?"
"Because he was watching," she answers, "And you were never supposed to come back here. If, by some miracle, you did, I had explicit instructions to keep you from getting this far by any means necessary- thoroughly breaking your heart if I had to. I didn't think you'd show up with all those others."
"They're my family."
"I know. I heard you call them that."
"Sylvie...I don't know what you want me to say. That...that hurt."
"I know. And I am still angry, at least a little, that you made it harder for me to finish the mission, that I had to fight you. But...I don't want to stay here, either."
Loki steps toward her, "But you don't trust me. You didn't then. You don't now."
"That's not true."
"Then why couldn't you just tell me something was wrong on the steps? Walk a little with me, do anything differently?"
She sighs, "Because this was what he expected me to do - I have to follow orders or gods know what happens next. He expects anger and he thought it would be the only way to get you to leave- to hurt you badly enough you didn't want to talk to me."
"I...I don't think that would be possible. I learned too well from Thor- when you care for someone, even when they cut you, especially when they're consumed by anger or grief or pain they can't escape...you still try to find them, to reach them," he says.
"Love is a dagger," she replies.
He smiles, "You remember."
"I do. It was beautiful, even if it fell apart a bit there at the end." She pauses, "Like us." Sylvie takes a few steps toward Loki, "If you leave, please let me come with you. I don't want to be here. I don't care if I get to stay with you after or not, I just want to be away from this place and him."
Loki closes the gap between them and cautiously reaches to rest his hands on her shoulders, hesitating before he places them there; she nods and he does, "Sylvie...I haven't stopped wanting you to be OK."
She rests one hand on his wrist and places her other on his chest, "Still?"
"Of course. And even though you hurt me, that still stands." He leans in and gently kisses her forehead, "I don't know how to define what I feel. It's love, but it's not...not the kind of love I have with Cyd."
"Cyd?" she asks.
"My beloved. I've found something incredible with him. I...I know that changes things..."
Sylvie shakes her head, "No, it doesn't. I...I love you. But I don't know what that means."
"Why did you kiss me?" he asks.
"Because when you're going to say goodbye to the only friend you've ever had, the only person who's cared about you for centuries...sometimes a kiss is the only way to say everything that needs to be said before it's over," she answers. "I didn't know any other way to tell you what I needed to say."
"Do you now know how to say it?" he asks.
She nods, "I think so." He raises an eyebrow, inviting her to continue, "You meant more to me than I thought someone could. You got through. If it weren't for the fact that I raised myself for one single purpose...things could have been different. And I knew you felt like you didn't have anyone and there was no one who cared about you deeply. You needed to know that wasn't true, and that you were worthy of that kind of love, even if it couldn't be from me."
He folds her in his arms and she rests against him, eyes closed, "I've missed you, Sylvie. Every day."
"And what would Cyd think about all this?" she asks.
"Cyd accepts whatever you and I are to one another." Sylvie looks up at him, rests her hand on his cheek, and moves her lips to his for a soft kiss.
He smiles, "That was lovely."
"It wasn't the same, though," she replies.
"No, it wasn't. And that's fine."
"If it never is?"
Loki shrugs, "Then it never is. But thank you so dearly for this moment. You shattered my heart when you shoved me away. It's still not healed. What you said on the stairs struck old wounds. This will take time. But..." he pauses, "...but I'm willing to try so we can be friends."
She steps back and nods, "Thank you, Loki. I would love to be your friend again." She steps to the door and listens a moment, gently cracking it so she can hear better, "We should get back."
They slip silently from the room, hoping their absence wasn't noticed.