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“Sorry to interrupt your lunch, Sir, but you might want to see this.”
A Chronomonitor handed Mobius a thin, brown folder, which Mobius then swiftly hid from view by tucking it under his armpit. He pushed his chair back to stand.
“Sorry, babe, but I gotta take this one,” Mobius said, offering Loki an apologetic smile. “I’ll see you tonight?”
“But I…” Loki tried to hide his displeasure, but to no avail; lunchtime with Mobius was his favourite part of the day and now it was ruined. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“I’m sure you can find something to do at the library. Hey, how about this? You can terrorise our dear sweet Agnes, and you can tell me all about it later, hmm?"
Mobius squeezed Loki's shoulder one last time and fled from the cafeteria like someone had set his pants on fire.
Suddenly, Loki felt a tap on his shoulder; he turned around slowly.
"Don’t look so glum! You can sit with me if you want."
"Thanks, Casey," Loki muttered. “But I’m good.”
“Okay, if you’re sure. I mean, it can’t be fun being the new guy, so I guess if you ever need anything, or someone to talk to, I’m your guy,” Casey said brightly. “Yeah, I spent my whole life behind a desk, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know a bunch of stuff, I’m actually pretty smart - ”
Hypnotised by the little man’s rapidly moving lips, Loki’s mind began to turn. “Actually, Casey…there might be something you can help me with.”
“It’s true, isn’t it?”
Mobius raised his head. “Hmm?”
Loki crossed his arms and leaned against the doorjamb. “The rumour. You’ve caught another Loki.”
“You’re not supposed to know that.”
“Surely I’d recognise my own name written across the front page of that folder you got earlier today at lunch,” Loki said flatly. “Also, my good friend Casey told me.”
“Sorry you had to see that.”
“Why are there so many of us? I bet you don’t see as many Thors pass through these Halls.”
“Oh, but we do. Once every few decades or so, we would apprehend your brother, and his crimes against the Sacred Timeline are no less heinous,” Mobius said. “The last one we caught was a Frog.”
A frog?
“I turned him into a frog once…” Loki said, feeling slightly guilty. He was about to ask if that was the incident Mobius meant when he noticed the Analyst staring. “What?”
“You get this look in your eyes whenever you talk about your brother.” Mobius smiled. “It’s cute.”
“Nonsense,” Loki muttered, feeling his face reddening. He cleared his throat hastily. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Did you come with siblings, when the Time Keepers created you?” Loki asked. “I can’t be the only one cursed with an oaf of a brother.”
“Nope,” Mobius let out a disheartened sigh. “As far as I can remember, there’s just me.”
Loki crawled into bed and tucked his head into the crook of Mobius’ neck. “Poor Mobius.”
Mobius shrugged. “You can’t lose what you never had.”
Loki propped himself up on an elbow. “Can I see him? This Loki Variant?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Loki.”
Loki frowned. “Why not? Have I not earned a shred of trust by now?”
“Mine, sure. But I’m not the one you have to convince here.”
Distaste instantly crossed Loki's features. “The Lady Judge.”
“Nothing happens here that she doesn’t know about, and nothing happens here without her express approval.”
“Urgh.” Loki pushed himself off of Mobius and threw himself onto his back, arms outstretched on the bed. “But she’s tiny.”
Mobius chuckled. “Don’t let her size fool you. She makes up for it in spunk.”
“She does have a soft spot for you,” Loki said with a trace of jealousy.
“Why do you say that?”
“How else could you have gotten her to say yes to taking on another pet?”
“You’re not a pet, Loki,” Mobius said, switching immediately to gentle Mobius mode; it was an infuriating, but highly effective strategy, and Loki found himself pressed against the smaller man once more, chest-to-chest.
“Am I not one, though?” he whispered huskily. “You clothe me, feed me - ”
He brushed his lips against Mobius’ moustache, “Cuddle me...”
- they dropped lower and found Mobius’ lips. “Kiss me.”
"Don't have to tell me twice."
Kaskawulsh Glacier, Yukon
Loki did not have to wait very long to meet the new Variant. In the early hours of the morning, he awoke to the insistent knocking on Mobius’ door, and five minutes later, he found himself standing in the middle of an icy tundra.
It did not surprise him anymore, the rude awakenings. With no discernible pattern other than a trail of compromised Minutemen and stolen reset charges, It was still very much a wild goose chase that it once was before, and the TVA had resorted to checking out apocalypses one by one, by order of likelihood of a positive sighting and subsequent capture. It was excruciating, but with the fugitive Loki Variant outsmarting them at every turn, Mobius was finding himself at the end of his wits.
“We have an hour till the glacier bursts, we won’t be able to outrun the massive flood so just follow the trail, if you see nothing, come back.” Mobius keyed in the coordinates in the TemPads and began passing them around. “This is our rendezvous point, got it?”
“We’re splitting up?” Loki asked.
“What’s the matter, Variant? You sound nervous,” Hunter B-15 teased.
“This is a highly spiritual place,” Loki said, carefully keeping the heat out of his voice. “One wrong move could spell disaster.”
“L1131 doesn’t seem all that bothered,” B-15 tipped her chin at the silent figure standing a fair distance away, the red light of his collar a beeping beacon in the balmy darkness of the dawn.
The two Lokis studied each other in naked wonderment.
The angles of the new Variant’s face, though not yet as sharp, were well-defined and untouched by wrinkles Loki had become prone to seeing every time he looked too long into the mirror.
This Loki was young.
Before Loki could ask why the boy still had his Time Collar on, Mobius clapped his hands loudly. “Let’s go! There’s no time to waste. Loki 2.0, you're coming with me."
“Your days are numbered, L1130," D-90 murmured, the hint of glee in his voice unmistakable.
Loki whipped his head around. "What did you say?"
D-90 tipped a cruel chin in the direction of Mobius and the new Variant’s retreating backs. "Looks like someone's taken your spot."
Loki watched as Mobius put a guiding hand on the small of the new Loki’s back, a series of small gestures that had started off as a tap on the shoulder here, a tugging of a stuck tuft of hair there.
They were all human gestures Loki had overlooked, and now that they were being pointed out by someone else, Loki could not pass the gestures off as mere products of his imagination.
How gullible of him, to think that Mobius would treat any Loki differently.
For a brief moment, a fire ignited in the pit of Loki’s stomach, a familiar burning he had last felt not too long ago. It was a fire thought extinguished, on the very day they brought him in.
Loki abruptly headed in the opposite direction and began to walk. The ice he was standing on was thin enough as it was.
After a fruitless search, Loki and his Team reached the meeting spot with five minutes to spare, but there was no sign of Mobius and the new Variant.
“Mobius.” Hunter B-15 spoke into her mouthpiece. “Mobius, come in.”
What felt like an age of internal fidgeting turned into real fear in the pit of Loki’s gut when Mobius did not answer. “I’m going to go look for him.”
“Wait.” D-90 suddenly lifted his rifle. “Something’s approaching.”
Two shadows hobbled into view.
"What happened?" Hunter B-15 demanded.
With an arm wrapped around the Variant Loki's shoulders, Mobius limped toward the clearing, dragging one leg behind him.
Loki ran over, his heart pounding at the sight of the blood trail Mobius had left behind. "Mobius!"
"I'm okay, I'm okay - " He winced as Variant Loki lowered him slowly to the ground. "Loki stopped the bleeding as best as he could - "
Loki stiffened; Mobius was clearly not referring to him. He glared at his double. “What happened?” He repeated Hunter B-15’s question, still unanswered.
"It was an ambush," the Variant said tightly, meeting Loki’s defiant gaze without flinching. He too did not escape unscathed, sporting a deep cut on his forehead that was healing little by little in front of their eyes.
Loki remembered there was a time when he could heal that quickly. Before the Void, before Thanos.
But it was not the time to dwell on ghastly memories. The red line was less than a minute away.
Loki quickly looped an arm under Mobius and hefted him up. “Come on!”
“That looks like a nasty wound,” Loki said critically, when it was time for Mobius to change the dressing on his leg that evening. He had been given the all-clear earlier in the day, but Loki was not at all convinced that the doctors knew what they were dealing with.
“The beast carried a venom in its spines - ”
“The spines didn’t touch me,” Mobius said. “Loki pulled me out of the way just in time.”
“Yes, you’ve said that.” Loki levelled his lover a waspish glare. “Funny how your new Variant escaped with hardly a scratch on him.”
Mobius stopped.
“What are you trying to say?” he asked softly, without raising his head.
Loki’s mouth worked soundlessly.
“Nothing,” he managed, finally. “It’s just…well. I’ve never seen you get hurt before.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Mobius murmured. “Pass me the clean gauze and the tape, would you?”
Loki wordlessly handed the requested items over, but his displeasure was evident in the frosty silence that ensued.
"Loki, don't you think you're overreacting?" Mobius said exasperatedly. "He could have left me there, but he didn't."
"A ruse. Nothing I wouldn't have done myself."
"But I was the one who took us down that path," Mobius insisted. "The energy trail left by the fugitive Variant led us into a trap."
"Oh, it was a trap alright," Loki growled. "I'm not sure if your new Variant wasn't the one who lured you right to it."
“Why do you say that?”
"The Ijiraq have an affinity for reservoirs of toxic fumes," Loki said flatly. "I caught a whiff of sulphur from the subglacial volcano in the passing wind. If I could smell it, there was no way he didn't."
"Maybe he's just not as well-versed as you in demonology."
"You should have taken me with you. You wouldn't have gotten this badly hurt." Loki abruptly clamped his jaw. "I wish to speak to the Variant."
Mobius laughed. "Loki, you're being ridiculous. It was just a mission gone slightly sideways, that's all. These things happen. He didn't cause this!"
"Why are you defending him?" Loki demanded.
"Loki," Mobius laid a hand on the side of his lover’s face. "Look at me.”
After much cajoling, Loki finally turned.
Mobius thumbed the dimple at Loki’s temple tenderly. “You’re cute when you’re jealous, do you know that?”
“I am not jealous,” Loki said flatly.
“Come on, really?” Mobius wiggled his eyebrows. “I promise I won’t tell anymore.”
“You’re delusional,” Loki retorted.
Loki waited until Mobius’ breathing evened out. The painkiller, he was told, was a strong one, and should knock Mobius out long enough for what Loki was intending to do.
Loki trusted his feet to lead the way. As luck would have it, the corridors leading toward the Time Cells were deserted tonight; the lone Minuteman standing guard at the door paid Loki no attention, thanks to the Hunters' uniform Casey had smuggled for him as a favour. He was not confident it would work, but the TVA was interesting; what they chose to overlook and what to fixate on was highly arbitrary.
His stride came to a stop in front of a nondescript door, its window tiny, but big enough for visitor and prisoner to see each other clearly.
The prisoner was the first to speak. "You're me."
"I am."
"Are you from the future?"
"Something like that," Loki answered vaguely. Enough dilly-dallying. “When are you from?”
The Variant gave him a puzzled look. "By your question, do you wish to know my age?"
"That, I know," Loki said, shaking his head. "Where were you when the TVA came for you? What were you doing?"
"Why should I tell you? You're with them.”
There was no malice in the Variant's voice, only a smidge of curiosity and a lot of indifference.
Loki had to smirk. "Is that what you think?"
The Variant returned Loki's grin with one of his own. The air grew heavy with intrigue.
How identical they looked, as concurred by their reflections in the glass.
“Father had fallen to Odinsleep,” Variant Loki said. “I was in his chambers, and Laufey came.”
“So was I, but I was taken farther down the timeline. What did you do differently?”
“To answer that, I would first need to know what you did, to know where our paths diverged,” Variant Loki answered calmly.
“I killed Laufey, just as he was about to kill Odin," Loki said.
The Variant nodded carefully. "I too, did the same."
“Then Thor came, challenged me to a fight. It took us to the Bifrost, which I had intended to use to annihilate Jotunheim."
Variant Loki's expression remained impassive, giving nothing away. "I did not get that far."
"Did they tell you what was supposed to happen next?"
"What do you mean?"
"Did you not watch it? The entire reel of our lives, as dictated by the Time Keepers?"
Variant Loki shook his head slowly.
A sinking realisation dawned on Loki. "He did not show you."
So it was a cruel treatment reserved for the worst of Lokis, then. What else could Mobius have neglected to tell him?
"What happened out there? On the Kaskawulsh glacier?"
"I saved your precious mortal's life."
Loki ignored his smirk; it did not surprise him that the Variant knew, Lokis were perspicacious like that.
"Which should not have been in danger in the first place had you warned him," he retorted.
The Variant’s already thin lips drew tighter. "If it had not been us, it would have been someone else."
"Who?" Loki wanted to see for himself the catastrophic height this Variant's stories could go. "The fugitive Variant?"
"An Inuit woman.”
“A woman?” Loki said incredulously. “At that hour of the morning?”
“She had a child.” Variant Loki shifted his eyes. “She was out looking for him. The Ijiraq must have taken him. I would hate for the child to become an orphan."
Loki’s eyes narrowed. "You couldn’t have known all that. You had your collar on, you couldn’t have looked into her mind."
"I didn't need to. I could smell the milk on her." Variant Loki’s eyes took on a vacant stare. “Losing your mother...is a death.”
Loki felt the blood drain from his face. "I must go."
He abruptly made to leave, knowing his knees could give way at any moment -
"Loki."
The hair on Loki's neck stood on ends. He turned around slowly.
"Do we really deserve this?"
Loki may have asked himself the same thing countless times before, but this was the first time he had an answer.
“No,” Loki said firmly. “No, you don’t.”
"You need to let him go."
Mobius paused in the middle of pulling on his armor vest. Renslayer had just approved another field op and time was of the essence. "Let who go?"
"Loki."
"We arrested a lot of Lokis," Mobius mumbled impatiently. "You're going to have to be more specific."
Loki only stared at him, stone-faced.
Mobius sighed and sat himself down at the foot of the bed. "You talked to him, didn't you?"
"Don't tell me you're surprised."
"You have to be careful, Loki." Mobius reached out to grasp Loki's hips, drawing him in closer. "Don't draw attention to yourself."
"Don't do anything stupid, you mean," Loki glowered, an expert in Mobi-speak by now.
"I need to be able to protect you."
Loki scrutinised his boyfriend over a pair of imaginary spectacles. "That's sweet, but I don't need your protection. And you're flouting the maxim of relevance."
"Alright, alright. I'm listening," Mobius relented. "You wanted to talk about the new Variant. And before you say anything further, no, Loki, we can’t just let him go.”
"Give him a fair trial, then," Loki said. "He saved your life. He deserves at least that."
"Guess you've warmed up to him too, huh?"
Too?
"I was right," Loki whispered. "You are smitten with him.”
Mobius rolled his eyes. “Now who’s being delusional?”
“Then why am I not coming with you?” Loki demanded. “Is this how it’s going to be? You leave me as you please, knowing I will be here waiting for you like a fool?”
“Loki.” Mobius pinched the bridge of his nose. “I really don’t have time for this right now. Can we talk about this when I get back?”
“Sure,” Loki said curtly. “I can hardly wait.”
"Loki, what is going on with you?"
What could he say? That he feared losing Mobius to this doppelganger, possessed of a heart so pure even Loki had a hard time hating?
"If I haven't been around lately, I'm sorry," Mobius said.
"Why, because I'm a scared little boy who can't be alone?" Loki sneered. "Please, just go. And don’t feel the need to hurry.”
“I can’t talk to you when you’re like this,” and Mobius closed the door behind him.
Loki picked up the object nearest to him and was about to hurl it at the door, before he stopped. Mobius hated fighting, and for good reason; it always made him forgetful.
Loki pocketed the Time Twister. It was time to make his move.
Loki slid the visor down, just as a Hunter rushed past him. “Are you coming?”
“They found the Variant?” Loki asked gruffly, masking his voice as best as he could.
The Hunter nodded, and thinking he was speaking to a colleague, clarified further. “Found him in the Death Valley. They are asking for reinforcement, get a move on!”
Following closely behind, Loki jumped through the open Time Door -
And was immediately flung back by a blast of energy.
Loki shook his head to clear it, but a foreign voice blared through the acoustics of his mind, ‘Sleep.’
He watched as the Hunter he had door-pooled with collapsed to the ground in a dead faint.
Loki climbed to his feet. He found himself surrounded by bodies, some he recognised, one he knew very well. He lurched for his lover.
“Mobius,” he gasped and dropped to his knees. He grappled for the Analyst’s slack shoulders. “Mobius, wake up!”
“He’s not dead,” a voice cut through the fog.
“Not yet,” another voice said tightly.
Loki froze; it was the female voice he had heard in his brain seconds ago.
Taking in his surroundings, he seemed to be near a ledge overlooking ravines so deep he could not make out the bottom from where he was sitting. He waved a hand, and the fog lifted entirely.
Two pairs of bright green eyes stared back at him, identical in every way to his own.
‘Ah. Another one of us,’ the female Variant spoke without moving her lips, her shoulder-length blond hair bobbing in the wind as she stood on the precipice an arm’s length away.
“He is not with them,” L1131 said in a low voice.
Lady Loki’s lips curled in a cruel twist. “And yet it is not us he reaches for.”
“Loyalty is a choice, Sylvie,” L1131 said. “Surely you understand that.”
“Speaking of choices…” Lady Loki tinkered with her TemPad and a Time Door appeared in the air behind her. “As much as I love reunions, I really hate them, so...you two coming?”
Loki studied Mobius’ sweet face, slack and tranquil in sleep.
Could he really leave Mobius, after all the promises they had made to each other, spoken and unspoken both?
Loki pressed the button on the Time Twister and the collar fell from L1131’s neck. “Go.”
L1131 stood stock-still, pale hands reaching up to feel his throat. His solemn gaze soon shifted to Sylvie’s awaiting Time Door, the portal to freedom.
“Go!” Loki shouted. “Go, damn you!”
L1131 slowly shook his head.
Sylvie shrugged as if to say ‘Suit yourself’, gave them both a little wave, and disappeared through the Time Door.
As it promptly closed behind her, Loki must have made a noise, for L1131 was suddenly crouching in front of him. As their hands touched, the instant jolt of electricity rippling through him zapped Loki back to reality.
His chest felt heavy with a grief he could not understand.
“Why didn’t you leave?” Loki asked in a tremulous voice.
Ignoring Loki’s question, the Variant knelt to pluck a TemPad out of a Hunter's hand.
"You can't be here, Loki," L1131 said gently. "They will execute us both."
A Time Door materialised. He nodded at it.
"Go," he urged.
As if entranced, Loki dropped Mobius’ hand. "Where will it take me?"
"Somewhere we belong," L1131's voice cracked. There were tears in his eyes.
One by one, the Hunters around them began to stir.
L1131’s eyes widened with panic; it was the first time Loki had seen such emotion in them. "Go!"
And Loki ran.
The Cliffs of New Asgard
Loki was no stranger to Midgard, having visited multiple times in the last two centuries alone, but he did not recognise the place when he saw it the first time at the Time Theatre.
The ocean, the cliffs...L1131 must have visited them in his lifetime, how lucky of him.
He would have loved to be in their shoes, to sit alongside his brother and father, with the wind blowing in his face and hair, and not a single care in the world.
(I love you, my sons.)
Was he the only Loki who had never experienced that?
You can’t lose what you never had, wasn’t that what Mobius said?
“You’re wrong, Mobius,” Loki said aloud.
“About what?” A voice interrupted his reverie, and his heart stopped.
"Thought I might find you here."
"This is about the only place I can go where my existence has no bearing on the workings of the universe,” Loki said. “Unless you would begrudge me the air I breathe, of which I can assure you, I am not breathing all that much.”
“No, no,” Mobius said coolly. “Breathe all you want.”
“Thank you,” Loki said, acid dripping from his voice. “Even in death, I have to seek permission to live.” He heaved a despondent sigh; now that he had been found, he could feel the invisible noose tighten around his neck. "That is the story of my life."
Mobius was a firm believer in the old adage 'silence is golden', so he sat down on the grass next to the brooding Asgardian.
“The Variant failed the field test," Mobius said finally. "He gave the fugitive Loki the slip."
"Shocking," Loki said. "Do you honestly believe that we Lokis would betray one another?"
"Oh I know you wouldn't. For all the flaws in your character, disloyalty isn't one of them."
"Why, you know me so well," Loki mock-gasped. "And here I was hoping to preserve the mystery for a moment longer."
"Oh, you're a mystery, alright," Mobius conceded. "Like how you could escape the TVA and come here of all places."
Loki sniffed. "Houdini was a friend, if you must know."
"I bet he was."
“So has the mighty TVA reached a verdict?” Loki said. “Is he to be reset? Returned to his timeline?”
"Neither," Mobius answered. “Pruned, actually.”
Loki whipped his head around, stunned. “What?”
“Guess he couldn’t live with what he did.”
“But he didn’t do anything,” Loki said insistently. “Mobius, this has to be some kind of mistake - ”
“The Judge’s decision is final.”
“He never fell into the Void, never led Thanos’ army into New York, never caused Ragnarok, what did he do that was so wrong that you had to take him?” Loki demanded.
“He made his own choice,” Mobius said. “You made such a compelling argument, so the TVA allowed him to. Isn't that what you wanted?"
“Yes, but I thought - why would he - ” Loki could not conceal his bewilderment. “All for killing Laufey?”
“Yes," Mobius said. "After Laufey killed your Mother.”
Loki felt his heart seize in his chest. “What?”
“He didn’t tell you, huh?”
A horrified shake of the head.
Grim-faced, Mobius inched closer toward him, a show of support. "He was driven out of his mind with grief, to the point where he could not control his magic. Nearly took the palace down."
A sudden, sick realisation dawned on Loki. "That was the reason for the collar.”
Mobius nodded ruefully. "He insisted on keeping it on."
"You used him," Loki choked. "You hoped to exploit the berserker in him to subdue your runaway Loki."
"Well, it backfired on us, didn't it?" For all his grievances, Mobius did not sound terribly disappointed at all. "You really are more powerful than you realise, all you Lokis. And he couldn't have been what, twelve hundred years old?"
"Young as he was...he was the me I wanted to be," Loki confessed.
“Funny. He said the exact same thing.”
Mobius nodded at the look of disbelief on Loki's face. “It’s true. Said it after he watched you die at the hands of the Mad Titan to save your brother. I mean, not you you, but the Loki you would have been had you stayed on your path and not - "
No, something was not right here. "But he couldn't have known! You spared him the Time Theatre!"
"What are you talking about?"
"He told me you did not show him what was - is - supposed to happen, Frigga, Ragnarok -" Loki's breath hitched in his chest, "My supposed end. He did not see it."
"I don't know what to tell you, Loki," Mobius said quietly, "Other than he lied."
Loki sagged, stunned.
“Congratulations. Looks like you’re the superior Loki after all.”
He could not speak, he could not even think, his brain felt too convoluted to form any coherent thought, and Mobius just kept rambling.
"There's something poetic about it all, if you think about it," Mobius said. "All these versions of you, trying to make sense of it all, and all you end up doing, time after time, is lying to yourself."
“He wasn’t lying,” Loki said numbly.
“Wasn’t he?” Mobius asked.
“Withholding the truth is not lying,” Loki said. “I have done worse to keep up appearances."
“Then why do you think he did it?”
"You wouldn't understand."
"Why don't you explain to me on the way back?"
There is no way back, Loki wanted to say.
"Come on, Loki…" Mobius laid a cajoling hand on his back. "Let's go home."
I am home, Loki raged inside, longing to scream the words into the vast nothingness that was his life. Seeing this place for himself had done nothing to fill it.
So he said what he once said to his brother, this time with more conviction. "I don't have it."
"That's not true."
Loki barked an incredulous laugh. "You don't mean the TVA?"
Mobius did not answer, but Loki was not about to let him off the hook easily. Once so disarming, the sight of Mobius' benevolent half-smile now infuriated him to the point of madness.
"You?"
Mobius' smile vanished.
Home sweet home, Mobius had said, on the first day they met.
“It may not be much, but it is all I know,” Mobius said. “It is all I have.”
Loki felt a hand grasp his, familiar and warm and desperate.
“I could leave you here, I could make up a story to Ravonna, but there’s an empty spot in my bed that’s going to remind me everyday of what I’ve had to give up.”
Loki closed his eyes. This was not how he envisioned his last conversation with Mobius would be.
“You’re not giving up anything, Mobius. Another Loki will come along soon enough.”
"Hold on a minute." Mobius stiffened. "Is that why you've been acting so weird lately? You thought I was favouring him?"
"You wouldn't be the first to have done that. I've always been the second choice."
Mobius’ chest swelled in determination. “I will give up the Loki Portfolio.”
“If you give up the chase, then there’s no reason to keep me around for much longer, is there?” Loki asked bitterly. “I’m only as useful as the TVA would have me be.”
“I’m not the only analyst Renslayer’s got.”
But you’re the only one I want! Loki roared in his head.
Mobius reeled. “You’re the only Loki I want too.”
Undeterred by the blunder of having spoken his thoughts out loud,
"You've never lost someone, have you, Mobius?" Loki asked dully.
Mobius faltered, grappling for words he did not have.
"You never really get over it," Loki sighed, closing his eyes. "They say you do. But you don't. You think about them when you lie in bed at night. You think about them when you look at yourself in the mirror. You think about them all the time."
“I can’t lose you,” Mobius pleaded. “There can be a hundred, a thousand Lokis out there, but to me? There is only you. I want you.”
Loki opened his eyes and swept them across the vast ocean in front of him once again.
How he wished they could sit here, together. Him, L1131...even the Lady Variant who had had the TVA running around in circles for years. Oh the stories she could tell.
"We would look smashing together, I reckon," he mumbled under his breath, grateful for the blessed wind for taking the prayer away, "One day, perhaps."
“What?”
“So much we haven’t done,” Loki mumbled, remembering the tears in his double's eyes. “So much.”
Mobius must have thought Loki was talking about him, for he was too quick to quip, “We have all the time in the universe, Loki.”
Would it have been so bad if he had stayed with L1131, to face the music together?
Would it have been so bad if he had taken that leap of faith and joined Sylvie as one, against the world, against the order of Time itself?
As he took Mobius’ hand, Loki offered a silent apology for the lost opportunity up into the heavens, so the wind could take it to where a Loki may be waiting, wherever they may be, in this timeline or the one after.
Loki was going to believe in the lie for a bit longer.