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"Casey! Casey!" Loki came running into the open desk area. "Ah, there you are! Have you seen Mobius? We were together at the debriefing and then he disappeared. I can't find him anywhere."
They had only just found each other, the TVA and the timeline was in chaos, everyone in the TVA now knew the truth, but at that moment all Loki cared about was Mobius.
"He's at the time theater, he said no one should distur-"
Loki didn't wait for Casey to finish his sentence and ran to the time theater. He entered the room. It was empty and a movie was running. It was just footage of Mobius. Of his life at the TVA.
Loki ran back to Casey and asked, "Did Mobius get away with a time door and is there any way to find out where he is?" Seeing Casey hesitate, he insisted, "Casey, please, I know you have no particular reason to trust me, not yet, but it's for Mobius' sake, please!"
Casey scanned Loki for a moment again, then typed on his keyboard at full speed, when suddenly he gasped.
"What is it?" asked Loki, impatiently.
Casey looked up at him, "Mobius, he... he's in the Void."
"What?"
"It looks like... he's not moving, but he's over there."
Loki pulled the tempad from his pocket and handed it to Casey. Casey just nodded, tapped the tempad and handed it back to Loki as a time door appeared before him.
As Loki walked through the door he heard Casey's voice, "Bring him to us."
Loki barely made it through the door when he saw Mobius with his back to him, a few feet away.
Loki approached slowly, not wanting to scare him away.
Coming up behind him, he whispered softly, "Mobius..."
Mobius raised one arm slowly and with a circular motion pointed to everything in front of him. He said in a broken voice, "I... I'm responsible for all of this, for all of these variants that were sent here... how many have I sentenced to this horrible fate?"
Clearly not expecting an answer, Mobius did not turn around, he stared at the misty horizon.
Loki said nothing.
"I don't know how to be anything anymore. I don't know who I am anymore." Mobius continued, looking down at the ground. He rubbed his arms, "I used to be someone important, someone who was recognized at the TVA, I knew what I was fighting for, and that was all I knew. I thought I was doing good. I thought I was contributing to the good. But everything was a fake. Everything is a lie. Even me, I am a lie." Mobius still wasn't looking at Loki. "How do we... how do I... what do I..."
Loki heard his breathing quicken and suddenly Mobius collapsed to his knees on the ground and he was pulling clumps of grass from the ground and started screaming, "I... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't know, I'm sorry..."
Then Mobius collapsed forward and began to cry, wrenching cries that broke Loki's heart. Strangled by the sobbing, Loki could not understand all that Mobius was saying, he crossed the few meters that separated them and knelt down in front of him
"All this time I was the instrument of evil! I was what I thought I was fighting."
Loki leaned over him, grabbed his hands and pulled him against him, one arm around his back and another pressing Mobius' head to his chest. Mobius clutched Loki's shirt behind his back.
At first Loki said nothing, just tightening his embrace every time a new crisis came through Mobius and kissing his hair from time to time. After a while, the sobbing and screaming subsided, and then Mobius' grip on Loki's shirt loosened. But Loki did not release his hold.
He felt Mobius close his eyes against him.
"I don't know who I am anymore... I don't know... I wonder if I am real. Is what I have experienced real? What I believe or have believed... was it even once real?"
Loki's heart broke even more upon hearing this. The most real man he had ever known was wondering if he was real. Loki searched for words that could soothe such despair, but he couldn't find any.
So he took Mobius' face in his hands, looked into his eyes and said softly, "Let me show you how real you are to me." As he placed his lips on Mobius', he showed him how real he was to him.
********
"Loki?"
Mobius had just entered the time theater, Loki was distraught.
Sitting on the floor with his hands on his head, Loki raised it at the sound of Mobius' voice.
"There's nowhere to run."
Loki replied softly, "I can't go back, can I? Back to my timeline."
Mobius slowly shook his head, looking genuinely sorry.
Looking Mobius in the eye, Loki softly, "I don't like hurting people." He paused, "I..." he exhaled sharply and repeated again, "I don't like it. I do it because I have to, because I had to."
Mobius looked at him with those compassionate eyes and replied softly, "Okay, explain it to me."
Loki swallowed and replied, "Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured up by the weak to inspire fear."
Mobius simply nodded, before adding in an understanding tone, "A desperate game for control. You do know yourself."
Loki bit his lip and added in a breath, "A villain."
He exhaled again.
"That's not how I see it."
********
"Loki! Wait!"
Loki stood in front of the time door through which the woman had just disappeared and deep down he knew he was going to have to follow her.
Not because of all the bullshit he had spouted at her just before.
Not because of his personal interests, well not just because of his personal interests. He was Loki after all.
But because of the man who was running towards him screaming.
Mobius.
Because Mobius had seen in him more than a glorious purpose.
Because even if it was for his own interests, Mobius needed him.
Because Mobius had made him see that he could be a better version of himself.
Because Loki was starting to believe it.
So when he turned to Mobius running towards him, he put everything he could into his eyes.
Believe in me!
Then, reluctantly, he turned away and walked through the time door.
********
"You could be whoever you want, whatever you want, even someone good. "
Loki looked at him, his eyes full of emotion, the same look he'd had when Mobius had told him he didn't consider him a villain. The dawning hope of someone who didn't dare to believe it. Then Mobius continued, trying to convince Loki at all costs, smiling sheepishly, "I mean, just in case anyone ever told you different. "
Loki's smile, a smile Mobius had never seen on his face before, was the best reward he could have received. A sense of mutual absolution, and a sense of shared respect.
********
"Well, see you later, Loki."
Mobius held out his hand to Loki.
After long seconds of silence, Loki's eyes, which had been staring at his hand, looked up at him, seeking his gaze.
Then he shook his head, smiled and walked towards Mobius. At that moment, time stopped.
A fleeting moment of perfect harmony.
As Loki's arms closed around him, Mobius felt as if all the scattered pieces of his heart were being put back together in a perfect pattern.
He was whole. Complete. Alive.
********
Mobius stepped back, but Loki did not let him go.
"You are real, everything you said was real. You allowed me to see that I wasn't meant to do evil. That I was capable of doing good. You made me want to do good. All this was, is, real, Mobius. Because it's you. It's what you believe and it has nothing to do with your mission, with the TVA. This is you here..." Loki kissed his forehead, "and here..." he kissed his chest where the heart was.
"Everything that comes from you is real. Everything I feel for you is real Mobius... My love for you is real. You are real."
Seeing that Mobius was once again ready to collapse, Loki took him back into his arms and continued to whisper words of love and comfort into his hair over and over again. He wasn't naive, it would take a long time for Mobius to accept what he had done and forgive himself. But Loki knew that he was probably one of the most capable of understanding what Mobius was going through. He knew what it felt like to realize that your whole life was a lie, to know that you had been manipulated for the wrong cause. So he would be there with Mobius, on the path to healing and redemption. They would be there for each other.
For the first time, Loki was witnessing Mobius' insecurities and for the first time, Loki was the one who could reassure him.
Later, as they were about to pass the time door that would take them back to the TVA, Mobius asked him, his voice slightly hoarse, "If this is all fake, then who am I really?"
Loki replied with a smile, "We'll figure it out together."
Then squeezing Mobius' hand tightly, he pulled him along.