The series finale

Days. It had been days.

It never took the TVA days to show up. At least, not when she was somewhere actually inhabited. And of course the time they'd take forever would be the time she was being paraded around some bizarre, colour-changing town through a variety of humiliating situations.

She'd picked up a pair of trainers yesterday, and Agnes offered her a spare room, but that was as far as her comforts went. Despite her most **** of wishes, she found herself walking outside every day, and spent almost the whole day naked, outside, and far too exposed.

Days.

And on top of it all, for some reason she'd stopped covering. She wished she could actually say why. One day, her supposed comedy had been losing her clothes, or ending up exposed. They'd made the shift to color, she'd done the same, only now she'd apparently evolved to just living like this.

She sauntered down the street as though she didn't have a care in the world. Her arms were by her side, save when she lifted one to wave in a cheerful, friendly manner that was honestly almost as embarrassing as the fact she was offering a free view of every little bit of her to those all around.

Only the slightest of flushes in her cheeks gave any indication of the fact that some part of her, deep inside, was not quite as happy with this state of affairs as she looked.

The fashions had grown more garish, not that she had any taste of that.

On her endless journey walking around Westview, Sylvie once more passed by Wanda's house, waving over the fence.

"Typical Sylvie," Wanda laughed, good-naturedly, as Sylvie went by.

She never thought she'd be looking forward to the scuffle of the TVA arriving. If they ever did. She hoped they would, sometime.

"No luck figuring out who that is?" Monica said. "Nope. We've identified everyone who's not Sylvie or Agnes," Jimmy said. "Unless you have anything new? You saw more of her."

"I'm not sure anyone could see more of her," Darcy said.

Monica had made it back from inside Wanda's Hex; she was the only person to have done so. She'd just about shaken off the simplistic character she'd been assigned.

"She's just a reminder things could've been worse," Monica said.

"I don't know, I think you'd have killed it in that role," Darcy said. Monica lifted an eyebrow: Darcy hurried on. "Hi. Darcy Lewis. Sometimes I give weird compliments. How's it hanging?"

"Moving on," Monica said. "I think Agnes was looking at me a bit, but you saw most of it. The big things always seem to happen on camera. Well, unless they break the narrative."

"I swear these episodes have gotten longer," Jimmy said. "Sylvie alone is making up like an hour of each."

"Ooh! She's back!" Darcy said.

The screen cut to a rather familiar, still-bare blonde. She was stumbling out from Agnes' house.

"I still think we should be focusing on Wanda," Monica said.

"Shush. She might show up!" Darcy said.

Sylvie seemed a little more unsteady. Her body filled the frame - and did indeed seemed to be heading over to Wanda's house. She made it to the door, and punched it angrily, displaying surprising strength.

"Let me _out _of this place!" Sylvie shouted. "Do you know who I am?! I'm a princess of Asgard! Adopted daughter of Odin! Rightful ruler of Jotunheim! I am not going to be paraded about some tiny Midgard neighborhood in nothing but air."

The door opened. Wanda and Vision both stood there, Wanda's expression unreadable, Vision's eyebrow quirked.

"You people should be on your knees, to rise only when I say so," Sylvie said. "Not seeing me..."

"Rising is easy if you're going around dressed like that," Vision said.

The screen froze a second. It stuttered.

Darcy blinked.

"She recast Loki?" Darcy said.

"Probably just a boner joke," Jimmy said.

The screen stuttered again, and when it resumed, Sylvie's anger seemed to have dissipated. In the distance, Darcy could just about see Agnes' face watching through the window. Nosy neighbor; Darcy sighed.

"Are you sure?" Sylvie said, her voice a much higher wheedle. "I think this neighborhood could do with a nudist society, don't you? We could get to know each other no barriers, just freedom."

"Um," Wanda said, genuinely seeming shocked. "How about I get back to you on that one?"

"Okay!" Sylvie said brightly "Tell your friends!"

The blonde waved cheerfully, before turning and walking away, butt in center-screen.

"She did it again," Monica said. "Wanda's editing the show."

"If it is Wanda," Darcy said. "Doesn't help us work out who that is."

Outside of time and space, a TVA agent was monitoring their screen. For a long time now, a line had been running parallel to the Sacred Timeline, not deviating too much. Still the nexus event had been far too long ago for anyone's liking. This kind of disturbance was always concerning.

Though the end of the Westview anomaly was coming up, which meant it was safe to send an agent in. Though safe was a relative term when the Scarlet Witch was involved. Still, at least a reset charge would continue to be a reset charge when the spell was failing.

A team stood by, ready to be sent out.

"You're ready?" the monitor said.

"And waiting," the leader said. "What date do we head to?"

"Sending you co-ordinates" the monitor said. "This is a high-risk operation, you know the drill. Bring a defensive. Any preferred color?"

"Red seems fitting for this one," the leader said.

"Red it is" the monitor said, pulling something out from their drawer and tossing it over. "Good luck!"

The first thing Sylvie realized when she regained control of her body, was that there was a light show in the sky, purple and red clashing.

The second was that she had spent far, far, far too long paraded around like some kind of naked puppet. Wanda, even Agnes had used her to try and bait Wanda, and she'd barely had more than a scrap to wear.

And there was still power thrumming from overhead, presumably Wanda involved in some kind of fight - the hex on Sylvie had weakened. Sylvie took in a deep breath, face burning, and quickly dove to the side, to take an all-too familiar position curled up behind a garden fence and silently hoping that no one was home.

She made a mental note to never, ever come back to this town again.

Okay. She had to move. Sylvie stuck her head up over the fence, eyes wide, cheeks flushed; no one seemed to be in this corner of the town at least. Judging by the flashes and sound of explosions, either people were actively running towards the fight, or away from it. It depend on how foolhardy the people of this world were.

But people were what she needed. People had clothes, and she didn't want coming to this place to be for nothing.

Quickly, Sylvie left cover, and crouch-walked down the street. She caught a glimpse of a vague crowd when she did so, and swiftly drew back.

Downsides, that was a lot of people to strut out in front of and to just hope that because the spell on her had weakened, it had left their minds unprotected now too.

"Oh! Whoa, whoa!"

And she heard a voice, and saw a brunette start to hurry towards her. Beet-red, Sylvie drew back.

No. No, that was probably good actually. It meant not heading out into the open. Sylvie pulled back behind the corner, covering up with her arms, and tried not to blush too much more when the stranger ducked around to see her.

"It's you!" the brunette said grinning. "Hi! Darcy Lewis, big fan."

"You... know me?" Sylvie said.

"Oh, yeah, saw your scenes," Darcy said. "At first it was like, why is the universe making a sitcom starring two Avengers, but the guest-stars were awesome and it was a lot of fun, so, no regrets. And didn't expect you to be honest. Nice to finally meet you for real!"

Scenes? Sylvie blinked, trying to vaguely recall what she'd learned about Midgard from stray minds over the years.

Then her eyes went wide.

"This was broadcast?" Sylvie said.

She'd lived a long life. The last week, without question, had been the most utterly embarrassing, downright mortifying, frankly humiliating string of days of her entire life, and it had an audience?

Darcy cocked her head, and Sylvie opted to not wait for a reply. Darcy was proffering a hand; Sylvie grabbed it, and effortlessly enchanted the suggestion for Darcy to hand over her clothes. Denim pants, a blue and red top, and matching blue underwear beneath.

It was only as she was sliding her panties down her legs that Darcy seemed to realize what she was doing.

"Oh fudge. Did you just..."

"This has gone on long enough as it is," Sylvie said, snatching up the small pile of clothes Darcy hade made. Jacket, shirt, bra, panties and pants - they were maybe a little big for her, but they'd fit and they'd cover, and that was what mattered.

"Hey!" Darcy said. "Hey! Just because I'm a fan doesn't mean you can just take my..."

Sylvie started running, untangling the garments as she did. She could fuss over underwear later, she just had to find a way to pull the shirt on and...

A yellow doorway opened in thin air. Losing track of what she was doing, Sylvie dove to the side again, crouching behind a hedge, hugging Darcy's clothes to her chest.

The TVA. It was about time. To think she'd ever be glad those bastards had showed up.

"Okay, you know the drill! Stay close, find any anomaly," one said.

At which point Darcy started running up in their general direction, already out-of-breath from the kind of day she'd been having, red-faced, a hand held between her legs that jostled from side to side as she ran and kept exposing what she meant to cover, and a neatly trimmed strip of black, and an arm crossed over her generous, heaving breasts. The leftmost slipped out over her elbow.

"Hey!" Darcy shouted. "Hey! Nudist blonde lady! Where'd you go?"

Sylvie winced. If Darcy ended up outing her before she was ready to confront the agents... Sylvie shuffled to the side, trying to keep on the best side of the hedge, curled up, still naked save for the wad of clothes she kept hugged close, working out if there was any way to surreptitiously dress before stealing a TemPad.

"Found one, sir!"

"Huh, what's... Hey! hey!"

Well, that sounded like Darcy had gone at least. That was probably good; whoever had taken her back to the TVA would have left the team in Westview behind. That meant fewer people to get past.

"Hey, sir, she mentioned a blonde," a TVA agent said. "That matches the anomaly Mobius was worried about."

"And she thought she was this way," another TVA agent said. "Okay, everyone, look around. Don't go too far. I'm ready for the witch, but I'd rather not risk it."

They were moving. Sylvie shifted her position; okay, not enough time to dress. She settled for wrapping every bit of clothing she'd taken from Darcy up in her jacket to make it easier to carry, and braced herself. Step one was figure out who had the TemPad.

The instant she saw someone pass the hedge, she rammed into them, powering past the all-too familiar sense of embarrassment and exposure. She glanced towards the gateway - only three TVA agents left.

She could see the one with the TemPad too. Oddly, they had a lanyard around their neck, or something like one; it was an unusual flair given how monotonous TVA outfits generally seemed to be. She knew the TVA well enough to guess that it was more practical than fashionable though.

The lanyard flashed red. For a moment, Sylvie realized it was more of a pendant than a badge, the dullness of the loop having confused her; some kind of red gem was in the middle.

And then there was a pulse of energy. Sylvie lifted the bagged-up clothes on instinct to block out the light.

And felt those clothes turn to sand and fall out of her hand, trickling through her fingers. She stared at the stranger, eyes wide.

Wait. That kind of power, that mention of 'being ready' for someone as powerful as the creator of this hex, and that red light. The TVA had access to Infinity Stones?!

Suddenly much less confident of her ground, Sylvie yelped and ducked down again; the hedge didn't offer any more protection than Darcy's clothes did, quickly turning into bubbles at another flash of red.

And on top of everything, there went her most recent attempt at actually stealing an outfit. And her cover. Clutching her arms over herself, Sylvie tried to run, as though she could get away from a Stone-bearer; the ground rose up, swallowing up her feet for a moment, trapping her in place.

A week of nudity and embarrassment and it was going to end like this?! She squirmed; she could get a little purchase, and probably could break out of the earth, but the TVA agents were already close to her. They'd cuff her before she could, and bring her to the TVA, and all of this would be over and it would be for nothing and...

"What is this?"

There was another flash of red, and a woman landed, her hands wreathed in bright red light. Her voice was faintly accented, and the new, dark red outfit and head-dress made it take a second before Sylvie recognised Wanda.

And suddenly Sylvie wasn't the TVA agents' priority as a peturbed Avenger appeared in their midst. She looked at the open yellow doorway to the TVA.

She brushed too close to one of the agents; her gaze focused on the Stone-bearer.

"TVA," Wanda murmured, reading the mind of the nearest agent. "You... want to destroy this place. My life. The people here."

"Now then, this doesn't have to get-"

Wanda shot a jet of searing crimson towards the agents. Two ran back into the yellow gateway on principle; the one that remained quickly created a barrier with the reality stone.

At least she wasn't the only person that hated what the TVA stood for, Sylvie reflected. Luckily they didn't seem to have had the time to add a reset charge yet; that was likely what Wanda was trying to prevent.

Sylvie, arms clutched to her body, watched the brightly-lit clash.

The TemPad. She just needed to get that. And thankfully the Stone that would make approaching the agent so hard was mitigated by them being incredibly distracted by Wanda. He unravelled a house, and Wanda seemed to vanish into thin air; not knowing where to aim made using even an infinity stone harder.

Of course they had those. Of course. How many nexus events had they plundered? How would they ever prune high-stakes events otherwise? Sylvie grimaced.

She crouched low, against a still well-maintained lawn, cheeks warming at the feel of blades of grass tickling her bare body. The TVA agents turned on the spot, keeping an eye out for Wanda.

Sylvie leapt up and barrelled towards him, slapping the TemPad out of his hands and grabbing the cord around the Reality Stone. He fell to the floor as the cord snapped, and she grabbed it off of him.

Sylvie scowled. Still, she had a TemPad in hand again. That was something.

Wanda reappeared, hands still lit-up, though her expression softened when she saw that her foe had already been toppled. She lowered her hands.

"Thank you," Wanda said. "Whoever you are. You don't know what they were going to do."

Sylvie looked at her.

And remembered she was still holding the stone. Sylvie's eyes narrowed.

"You," Sylvie said.

That time, she caught Wanda by surprising. Expecting to share gratitude, Wanda took a second too long to react as a wave of crimson energy struck her, making her stumble back.

"Because of you!" Sylvie snapped. "Do you know how it feels to be paraded about stark naked for weeks?!"

The energy cleared. Wanda looked down at herself, and yelped, reality having warped her clothes off of her. Sylvie really wished she was more experienced at using an infinity stone; she probably could have warped clothes onto herself if she had any finer control, she just hadn't wanted to risk it.

Blasting away Wanda's, though she didn't care about the potential side effects.

"Hey!" Wanda said. She blushed, crossing one arm over her breasts; the other stayed to her side, hand lit-up.

Okay. Annoying the witch who was responsible for this whole town maybe wasn't her best idea, but she needed some kind of outlet. Sylvie faced her down, a hand over her core, reality stone dangling between her fingers, and her other hand halfway over her chest as she tried to operate the TemPad one handed.

"This is on you" Sylvie said. "You decided I just had to be the local nudist!"

"I... Wait, you're her," Wanda said. She hesitated, crimson energy faltering. "I'm sorry. I was... in a bad place."

"So was I!" Sylvie snapped.

Before either of them could say any more, another yellow doorway opened. Sylvie grimaced. That was the problem with the TVA; they never stopped coming. One fell, another came through, and this one seemed to have a spare reality stone too.

Wanda glanced at them, then back at Sylvie.

"Truce?" Wanda said. "These people are worse. Believe me."

"Oh, I know," Sylvie muttered.

Fighting them here wouldn't do much. And if they had the infinity stones...

This latest team was armed with what looked like another red stone too, and someone else had a green amulet. They'd really come prepared.

She wanted to hang on to the reality stone. if she could figure that out then surely she'd have an edge against the the TVA? But if she kept it, they'd pursue her more keenly. She couldn't easily get away from two stone-users, unless...

Unless they were distracted.

"Catch!" Sylvie shouted, throwing the reality stone to Wanda; Wanda frowned, but grabbed it, apparently sensing the power.

And as the armed, naked Avenger faced down the TVA, Sylvie took a few hasty steps back and quickly opened her own portal.

Let them sort each other out. Any chaos she caused the TVA was worth it; both stone users were now clearly focused on the prospect of the witch with a reality stone of her own, and heropening salvo of power more than justified that. The time stone bearer froze the attack in mid-air, and the reality stone user tried to strike, only to found their own alterations immediately undone.

Honestly, she was happy with both sides losing. Sylvie hastily opened a portal to the first destination she could, and slipped out of there before the TVA noticed she was gone.

Categorically, anywhere would be better than here.