Chapter Text
There had been too many mistakes. Too many retakes. Never being enough, never even coming close to being enough, and it was driving Loki mad.
He’d taken breaks, of course. Sometimes he’d time slip and just… pull Mobius aside, talk to him, and ask for distraction. Maybe come up with some reason to take him out of the temporal core and just take the time between then and the loom exploding to breathe. To just look at him and remember why this was important. To, occasionally in his more masochistic moments, ask Mobius what he wanted to do when they fixed it, what he thought he and Loki would go from there.
Mobius would always say something about He Who Remains variants, focused on the job and not hearing what Loki was really asking. Depending on how insistent Mobius was when Loki would try to correct him, they sometimes ran out of time before Mobius could give him an answer. Most times, Mobius would look away, shrug, and say, “We get some pie, maybe some cocoa, figure out what we do when that’s all done.” But every tenth break or so, Mobius wouldn’t look away and instead searched Loki’s face and see what he was really asking. Then Mobius would smile, eyes bright with it, and one of two things would come out of his mouth: “Let’s see when we get there,” or “Guess I was wrong.”
But frankly, Loki had gotten to a point where, as Victor turned to matter, he just couldn’t think of another way they could try to get a different outcome and he couldn’t take another break and taste what he wanted so desperately only to never get there. He could only go back so far or they wouldn’t have Timely at the TVA for his temporal aura. OB could only have so much time to work on anything he came up with to make the throughput multiplier work better. The only person who could figure out how to get it to work, and have it ready early enough for Victor to get down the gangway in time, was Loki.
It was ridiculous and self-aggrandizing, but it had to be a better plan than repeating the same doomsday scenario over and over again and hoping for a different result.
So as he heard the protests from OB, from Timely, from Casey as they stood around the model of the loom for the first and hundredth time, Loki asked, “But if I had to know. I mean, I really, really, really had to know, how long would it take?”
Decades.
Centuries .
Daunting.
He’d have to go back further. Further than he ever would have cared to.
On autopilot, Loki followed Mobius and Sylvie out of the room while Case, Victor, and OB got to work on a throughput that would fail. Because it always did and always would unless it could be ready well before they got to this moment in time.
Lost in thought, Loki hadn’t really considered what this moment was until Mobius spoke about going to the automat.
“Pie?” Sylvie spat, turning on heel to really glare the agent down. “What is the matter with you? You dragged me back here begging for help, so you must have some idea of what’s happening. Everything is turning to shit, and you want to leave it to them while we go and have some pie? Great idea, Mobius.”
When Loki said nothing, she turned an accusing stare at him but he didn’t flinch. It wouldn’t matter, this whole scenario would be erased and automatically reset to how it originally happened once Loki slipped again.
With a huff, she turned and stormed off, jacket flaring behind her before she stormed off.
“Is it so bad? Having a little creature comfort?” Mobius asked him, one hand on his hip as he gestured in the direction Sylvie stormed off in. Which, ironically, was the automat.
“I’d say no, but the pie is dreadful,” Loki replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he turned toward Mobius.
“You ate the pie, you liked that pie,” he argued with a hint of a grin still lingering on his lips.
“I ate the cream and pushed the rest around on my plate. I wouldn’t call that eating it, let alone liking it,” Loki quipped back as he crept into Mobius’s space.
He frowned, trying to find what he wanted to ask, not sure if he should. Not sure if he could and not sound like he’d lost his mind.
“What is it?” Mobius asked quietly, his hand finding its way to Loki’s forearm and holding tight.
“When I was time slipping,” He started, “I had come from a time at the TVA when you didn’t know me. You didn’t even recognize me as a Loki.”
“Yeah, still find that hard to believe,” Mobius gave Loki’s arm a squeeze before he stroked it once.
“How long, do you think, that mosaic of the Time Keepers hid the evidence of He Who Remains?”
Mobius frowned, which was understandable, it was a strange question to ask then, of all times, when there had been countless of other times Loki could have brought it up.
“They were there for as long as I can remember. I dunno, maybe… a mellenia? The dawn of time? I just… I don’t have an answer for you.” Then with a tilt of his head, asked, “Why?”
“Do you think… do you think the TVA, you, OB, all of you were here the whole time, or?”
“Do I think that He Who Remains plucked us off the timeline from the beginning? I dunno,” Mobius shrugged. “I mean, I’m still wrapping my head around being a variant. I haven’t… I don’t know how long I would have been kept here, you know. Still doesn’t answer the question of ‘why,’ though.”
Loki pulled his arm out of Mobius’s grip but letting his hand take its place. “I’ve been time slipping.”
“You’ve what?” Mobius’s eyes went wide
“I can control it,” Loki rushed to reassure. “I’ve been slipping back, over and over, trying to get this plan to work and I can’t. I can’t, and I think the only way to do it is if I happen to do it myself. Earlier or better. I don’t know, I just… I need to try. But like OB said it would take centuries to learn as much as he and Victor do.”
“Whoa, wait, back up a second. What do you mean ‘trying to get it to work?’ It doesn’t work? We’ve gotta think of something else-“
“Mobius, we can’t,” Loki cut him off, gripping his hand tighter. “There’s not enough time even if we tried. I know, I lived it. So I need to go back and learn all this, but if I do I need a who to go back to. And I want to know, need to know if you think there’s a you that I could go back to long before the one who didn’t know me. Which means long before you would have had your memory of me erased.”
“Ah, but then, wouldn’t I know you? If you went back to before that moment?”
“Not if you had your memory erased more than once,” Loki pointed out. “And I’ve a feeling you have. At least selectively. You spoke once of being a hunter, but you were an analyst when I encountered you. You were exactly as you are now, only outside the window you were standing near was a sculpture of He Who Remains.”
Mobius blinked then took another deep breath through his nose.
“And what about Sylvie?”
“What about her?” Loki asked with a minute shake of his head and an infinitesimal shrug.
“Well, I mean, she’d been on the run for a long time. We never knew we weren’t looking for the typical sorta Loki. And you know where to find her, too. What if you go back and….”
Loki waited to see if Mobius would finish the suggestion.
“And?” Loki asked just before another power surge rocked the TVA.
As the lights flickered, Mobius said, “And find her first. Before we do, before all this. It’s not gonna be easy, walking away from her after, what was it? Centuries? I mean, I get you guys haven’t had a lot of time together, at least I don’t think you did. Not sure how long you guys were together on Lamentis, or at the End of Time.”
“Lamentis was a day, two at a stretch. The End of Time was hours, maybe. Not long. And we fought nearly the whole time.” He replied, utterly baffled by the turn of events.
“Yeah, well, you guys would be hiding out for stretches at a time in apocalypses together. It’ll bring you even closer, make that romance really sparkle.”
“What in Hel are you talking about?” Loki asked. “Mobius, I’ve no intention of trying to find her, to help her or otherwise.”
“Yeah, except you say that but we only just had your time slipping fixed - which apparently didn’t last - and then you talk about finding her.”
“Because I saw her in the future. I knew she would be here, I didn’t know why. I thought maybe she had wanted to help fix what she started, but apparently, that only came into play when her own branch died.”
Mobius frowned, leaning back, eyes darting over Loki’s face. Then that same awe and disbelieving smile Loki had seen countless times took hold of Mobius as his fingers curled more tightly around Loki’s.
“Guess you were wrong,” He said in sync with Mobius’s “Guess I was wrong,” which had them both chuckle quietly.
The TVA shook, lights flickered again, the power surges growing as they always did.
“You wanna go back to me.”
“Yes,” Loki replied.
“Before I knew you.”
Loki nodded.
“And before I would have to forget you again.”
Loki nodded solemnly.
“I don’t wanna forget you.”
“Maybe you won’t. Maybe you don’t,” Loki amended, smile growing bigger and sadder. “Maybe that’s why you become the expert on Lokis. Maybe that’s why when we met in the courtroom, you took a chance on me. Maybe some part of you will - or already has - remembered whatever time we have together back then.”
“While you learn, what? Physics? Engineering?”
“Mechanics,” Loki agreed.
Mobius shook his head, “When are you gonna find time to spend with a washed-up old analyst.”
“I’ll make the time,” Loki promised, voice dropping just a touch to reflect the depth of his promise.
To his great surprise, Mobius seemed to be leaning in.
“You’d better,” He said as the room rumbled around them.
Just as Loki was about to lean in himself, a huff echoed from down the hall, forcing he and Mobius back to a proper distance.
“Found your bloody pie room,” Sylvie hissed as she stomped past. Only she stopped, spun on her heel, and threw her arms out in frustration. “And seriously? One slice of pie a week? I get better treatment working on the timeline than the lot of you do here. Who watches how many slices of pie everyone takes? Sure this bureaucratic nightmare has you all scan your little IDs or badges or whatever to get your bloody token.”
“That reminds me,” Mobius said, opening his jacket and reaching into the inside pocket. He withdrew his TemPad, and then started typing really quickly. “When you time slip, do you take things back with you? You dropped the pruning stick, but if it’s in your pockets?”
“Yes?” Loki replied, frowning as he watched Mobius pause and continue to focus on the screen. When he still didn’t react, Loki took a chance to glance at Sylvie seeing a disgruntled but still curious frown as she watched Mobius as well.
His TemPad beeped, and when Loki turned back to him, Mobius was handing it over still open.
“You might need that,” He said, their fingers brushing as Loki took the device.
He glanced down at the screen, finding his picture - not his mug shot, but an actual picture in which he knew the jacket he wore would have the word “variant” plastered across the back - along with a profile. Loki Laufeyson, not marked a variant but as an analyst for the TVA. The class didn’t mean much to him, only that there seemed to be no trace the he didn’t belong.
“You told Brad you didn’t work here, which I suppose was true at the time. But you’ve done enough for us, with us, to have status as an employee. If anyone questions you, that would probably get you out of any hot water.”
“What are you two on about now?” Sylvie demanded.
“No time to explain,” Loki replied as he closed the TemPad and put inside his jacket pocket.
“Make time,” She demanded with a tremor of worry in her voice, stepping toward them but stopping just beyond arm’s length away.
Instead of giving her the answer she wanted, Loki turned to Mobius and said, “Thank you.”
“Just come back. Come back to us, come back to me,” Mobius replied.
Loki shook his head morosely. “You won’t even know I’m gone.”
“Come back anyway,” Mobius insisted, taking Loki’s hand again and giving it another squeeze.
There was a rumble, a warning over the public address system that fell on deaf ears.
Loki would be starting over, in a way. Starting from scratch with everyone at the TVA. With no idea if He Who Remains would allow it, or would even allow the infiltration.
“What are you even doing? Loki!?” Sylvie demanded again, that hint of worry morphing into fear.
Maybe if it were possible for that moment to continue to exist, Mobius would explain it to her. Maybe to himself as well, if that moment in time still somehow existed and the Loki in his place would find himself bewildered with how they got there. Or what happened, or why Sylvie would think he was time slipping still. Maybe she would take off in a huff, and Mobius with a newfound understanding of Loki’s feelings for her would encourage him to try and calm her down with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. He’d know, then, that Loki wasn’t seeking her out for anything more than her help. The elevator would happen again or still. Loki would see himself and prune himself as he was supposed to, and everything would continue on exactly as it did until he could bring himself back to fix the loom.
But it likely would not exist, not like this, not ever again.
So Loki paid it no mind as with Sylvie’s voice in his ears, and the sight of Mobius filling his vision, he slipped back, focusing only on the latter.
Mobius centuries ago. A millennium ago.
When Loki finished slipping he was in front of the elevators in a well-lit TVA hallway, no one else around and the doors were closing with Mobius on the other side of the lift having never seen Loki’s arrival at all.
~M~
Mobius’s eyes sprung open, his heart racing in his chest and his breathing already evening out. In the dark of his bedroom, he could make out the shapes of his sparse furniture and the closet door. The sun hadn’t come up yet, but it was threatening to if the blue hue to everything was any indication.
He rolled over, sheets dragging along his bare torso as he made to look at the alarm clock on the other nightstand.
5:14 am. Too early to get out of bed, too late to really get back to sleep. So Mobius settled back into his too-large bed, beat the pillows under his head into submission, and ruminated.
That dream wasn’t new. He’d had it at least once a month in the six that he’d been back. Always the same thing, that particular one. There had been others, of course. Loki pulling him aside as the loom melted down, asking him what they would do when it was all over. But those all burned away before Mobius barely had his eyes open, leaving him only vague impressions of what they were but never letting him know how they went.
The dream he’d just had, though, felt more distinct. It lingered, and if Mobius didn’t know better he’d almost think it was a memory. Obviously, it was a way for him to try to cope with everything that happened. An idea that maybe against all odds, that despite fixing the time slipping, Loki somehow could still do it and was using it to get back to Mobius.
Still, Mobius’s mind was kind enough to not stray to the possibility that Loki had, in fact, done that. After all, when he popped up in the Judge’s chamber, Loki had been a mess and so glad Mobius recognized him, claiming there was a time when he didn’t know Loki at all. The idea was almost as impossible as it was heartbreaking.
Outside, a car honked, and another honked back. A truck or bus hissed as it began moving presumably from a red light.
Mobius stared at the ceiling, thinking of what the world outside might be like at this hour in New York. The city that never sleeps, wide awake at this early hour. It was as far from a quiet, suburban street in Ohio that Mobius could actually live with. Plus, in an unhealthy way it had him feel closer to Loki than anywhere else on Earth he could think of, including New Asgard.
Not that he would ever tell either Sylvie or Verity that. He’d never hear the end of it. Verity might even insist he go back to the TVA full-time. Just to have a constant distraction. Her intentions would be good, but she’d probably forget that the TVA was far more haunted than New York. That at least in the city, Mobius could round a corner and maybe not be confronted with the ghost of his best friend.
Calling him anything more than that hurt too much, even if Mobius’s feelings went far beyond platonic.
He hadn’t realized it was happening, the slow drifting back to sleep. Mobius was listening to the traffic and the slowly stirring birds and didn’t notice it was lulling him back to sleep. The last thing he really recalled before he would wake again at a proper hour was a cool breeze rustling the sheets despite his bedroom window only being open the barest crack.