Chapter Text
Mobius gasped as he awoke, the sun blinding him as he squinted his eyes open to see his surroundings. He had just made up with Loki and then Ravonna had barked “prune him” as he was finally accepting where he was from. He thought that she would be proud of him, Loki was, for not being in denial about everything. It seemed that she was in denial, or she knew about it all; Mobius’ blood pressure raised at that, and he had to take a few deep breaths before he screamed with anger. Mobius looked to his side where Loki had been, he wasn’t there anymore. He sat up and looked around for a moment, before concluding that this was where people went after they got pruned, a version of hell? Or just a barren land for him to roam around in. Suddenly a cloud rippled above him, and a few objects got spat out of it and came hurtling down towards him, “what the fuck?” Mobius muttered aloud to himself. He walked towards the objects as they came and slammed into the ground, each with a crash. He watched as a mattress went bouncing off and rolled for a bit before collapsing into the floor with a satisfying thud. A wooden thing had crumpled to far into itself that Mobius wouldn’t have been able to recognise it if he hadn’t sat behind it for (however long he was at the TVA) his whole life.
A car came speeding from the edge of a forest a few miles away skidded to a stop suddenly when it neared Mobius. It rolled towards Mobius for a moment before stopping, so Mobius walked over to it and looked at the driver's seat - it was empty, so he slid into the driver’s seat. He had used one once, during his training days – in case they ever needed to pursue a run-away variant. And the skill had come naturally to him, and Mobius thought bitterly about if he had owned a car when he was not variant or an agent and was just living on Earth. Mobius thought about how to start the car and muttered “where are the keys?” just before the engine purred to life after a second; he was shocked for a moment, (the cars he was trained to drive with the TVA didn’t turn on on their own) he shrugged and pressed on the ‘go’ peddle and the car jerked forwards. After a while of practicing, Mobius had gotten used to the car and it had gotten used to him. The car groaned as he braked suddenly, testing them out. “Wow man you’ve got to be more gentle with those babies” the car muttered before turning off the engine in refusal. Mobius blinked slowly, in shock, “you talk?”, he asked, he then shrugged "you do drive yourself so I shouldn't be shocked".
The car had refused to talk again, but had opened the trunk when Mobius asked, and had turned on the engine and allowed him to drive again when he begged nicely. Mobius had grabbed the mattress and the remnants of his desk and managed to shove them into the back of the red Chevvy and was beginning to drive towards a forest that would offer him more shelter than the barren grasslands he was currently occupying. As he was driving away another couple things were spat out of the sky and landed where the other stuff was dumped, and Mobius concluded that he would find shelter first, and then make his way back to the stuff. He also suspected more stuff would accumulate between now and then anyway, so he’d rather wait and let it pile up rather than go back and forth every 30 minutes.
Mobius noticed that time seemed to be working here, the sun had moved in the sky, and he was starting to feel hunger and drowsiness. Mobius watched as more stuff was spat out and the car jerked suddenly, and he narrowly missed a tree. “Watch it” growled the car, “ah ha! You do talk!” exclaimed Mobius happily. The car groaned, “yeah I’m a variant like you”, Mobius recoiled and noticed that the car had begun driving itself, and Mobius was now simply a passenger. “Okay, what’s your name?” he asked politely. “Lightning” the car muttered, “there’s only 3 variants here: I’m one, you’re another, and there’s a crazy guy who has been here way longer than I can remember …” the car muttered, “are you taking me to him?” Mobius asked. The car did its best to shudder, and replied with a growl, “no”.
After a while of sitting back and letting the car take him wherever he was taking him, Mobius turned to his shattered desk and grabbed one of the drawers that was still intact, then another, and another until he found the one with the TVA logo stamped on the front. “Please please please” he prayed before sliding a finger to the back and pressing on the thin wood which gave way immediately. A TemPad fell out of the secret compartment and Mobius grinned to himself, “oh yeah” he celebrated, grinning like an idiot. “What’s so great?” Lightning asked, “I have a TemPad” Mobius announced. Lightning hummed, “what’s that?”. Mobius then had to take thirty minutes (according to Lightning’s in-built clock) to explain what it was and what it did.
Lightning seemed happy with the prospect of getting out of wherever they were, but told Mobius to hold off from doing so – “just wait and see something” he muttered. They drove for another hour and Mobius had fallen asleep, he woke up to the car’s engine stopping and Lightning shuddering (it was a similar to the feeling of stalling). “Glad you’re awake, you snore” muttered Lightning as Mobius stretched and groaned. “Where are we?” Mobius asked, “at a place where I know from my timeline, go inside,” Lightning said, Mobius suddenly saw a huge Motel had been dumped here, and the neon light was flickering ‘welcome’. Mobius got out and Lightning rolled along behind him, “I can’t get to some of the parts, but this is where I’ve been living for the last couple years” he said, Mobius spun around and looked at the car’s face (which was incorporated into its grill) “you’ve been here alone for a couple years?”. The car bounced on its wheels as a nod and Mobius placed a hand on its hood, “I’m glad I’ve got you” he said appreciatively.
The sun settled soon enough, and Mobius retrieved the mattress from out of Lightning’s trunk and some of the wood from his desk formed a fire for him as he sat and watched the stars above him. The ‘rooms’ of the motel were only garages for cars, and Mobius had little to have use of, so he sat under the stars and waited until the tiredness took over.
Mobius awoke with a cold sweat, “LIGHTNING!” he yelled into the almost-risen sunlight. The car rolled out of one of the garages a moment later and grumbled “what?” before Mobius sprinted towards it and got into the driver’s seat. “Let me drive” he said as he pumped the gas and began speeding them towards a location he instinctively knew where to go to.