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“I’m not worried,” Mobius says, and when Hunter B-15 raises an eyebrow at him from across the elevator, he repeats it. “I’m not worried!” Louder this time. “I’ve been here a long time. I know how to handle some bureaucracy.”
“A long time,” Hunter B-15 echoes.
“And I’ve got nothing to hide!” Mobius says.
B-15 scoffs this time. “Really?” she says.
“Okay,” Mobius says. “The whole ‘we’re all variants’ thing. But Gamble and Dox already know that.”
“And they took it oddly well,” B-15 says.
It’s Loki’s turn to scoff. “If you call Dox sending two-thirds of the TVA, armed to the teeth, after Sylvie reacting ‘well,’” Loki says.
Loki, who’s standing so close to him that their shoulders keep bumping as the elevator shudders its way up to the war room.
Or, maybe, he’s standing so close to Loki. Mobius can’t help it. First, he gets Loki back from the End of Time, which certainly wasn’t a sure thing. And then he finds out Loki’s randomly being ripped out of time, that he doesn’t really have him back?
But that’s over now. Mobius knows that. Intellectually, at least. Some part of him still wants to keep a hand on Loki for the foreseeable future.
But it’s not like he can hold his hand.
B-15 appears to ignore Loki. “Maybe they’re like Renslayer,” she says. “I don’t think she would be interested in going back to her old life.”
“Losing the power,” Mobius offers.
B-15 nods. “Right,” she says, her tone distant. She turns back to Mobius. “If you’re not worried, why did you ask me to come with you?” she says. “They didn’t invite me to this meeting. Just you two.” She points at him and Loki, and Mobius’s heart-rate picks up.
That’s true. They did just ask for him and Loki.
But that’s okay. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong.
He’s not going to let anything happen to Loki.
“We’re a team!” Mobius says, gesturing to all of them, trying to seem calm, affable. “We’re doing things together. Circle of trust!”
At that, the corners of Loki’s mouth turn up. B-15 looks less convinced.
When they step off the elevator, she pulls at Mobius’s elbow. “Mobius, can I talk to you for a minute?” she says.
Loki doesn’t budge.
“Alone?” B-15 says, and Loki still doesn’t budge.
“Loki,” Mobius sighs, and Loki frowns at him.
“Circle of trust?” they say, still not moving from Mobius’s side.
B-15 makes an exasperated noise. “Okay,” she says. “If you really want to hear this.” She turns to Mobius. “What makes you think they’re not going to just prune them?”
“Because I’m not going to let them?” Mobius says.
“Oh, yeah, you and X-5 squaring off,” B-15 says. “I’d love to see how that works out.”
“Excuse me, excuse me,” Loki says, a nervous smile climbing its way up his face. “Can we get back to the ‘pruning me’ part?”
“That’s not — that’s not what they’ve called us here for,” Mobius says. He pauses. “I’m pretty sure it’s not what they’ve called us here for.”
“Okay,” B-15 says. “Because I’m not so sure. What reason do they have to keep Loki alive?”
“He can help them find Sylvie?” Mobius says.
Loki scoffs again. “As if,” he says. “We’re finding her ourselves.”
Mobius turns to Loki. “Don’t — don’t say that in there,” he says.
Loki flips his hair back. “I assure you that I can defend myself,” he says.
“Against the whole TVA?” B-15 says.
“If necessary,” Loki says.
“Loki, Loki,” Mobius says, reaching into the pocket of his suit and getting a hand on his TemPad. He stands close enough to Loki that he’s blocking the view between them from anyone walking down the hallway. “Take this, take this,” he says, pushing the TemPad into Loki’s chest.
“Mobius, I—” Loki says, taking the TemPad and tucking it into their inside jacket pocket.
“Mobius, what about you?” B-15 says. “What if they prune you?” she whispers, leaning towards Mobius. “What happens then?”
Mobius can just see it, too. X-5 or Dox makes a move towards Loki, and Mobius steps between them. He’d do it without having to think first. He knows that.
“Then, I prune myself, and I go get him,” Loki says. Confident, sure, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Mobius reaches for their forearm.
“I like to think I can handle myself in the Void,” Mobius says. “B-15, you should have seen my driving.” He mimes driving a racecar. “Really amazing stuff.”
B-15 gives Mobius a worried look and doesn’t say anything for a long moment. “Okay,” she says. “Just be careful.”
####
“Just what exactly is your relationship with this variant?” General Dox spits out.
Mobius, who has settled himself in front of the microphone, ready to speak on the record, just stares at her. “My — my what?” he says.
“Your relationship,” Dox repeats, her tone like gritted teeth, “with the variant.”
“I don’t — could you specify?” Mobius says. He exchanges an unreadable look with B-15. He can feel his hands starting to shake, just slightly. Imperceptibly, hopefully.
“Agent Mobius, General Dox is concerned that you may be compromised by this variant,” Judge Gamble says.
“What — what do you mean compromised?” Mobius says. Loki is standing behind him. Mobius wishes that he could see their face. “Again,” Mobius says, turning to Dox, “could you specify, please?”
“What is your interest in Lokis?” Dox says.
“My interest in Lokis?” Mobius repeats. “Well, my initial interest was in understanding the psychology—”
X-5 laughs, actually laughs, all smugness and aggression.
Mobius leans back in his seat. “Something to share with the class, X-5?”
“No, no,” X-5 says. “Go on.”
“My initial interest was in understanding the psychology of Lokis so that I could better perform my duties as an analyst,” Mobius says. “As you know, we get a lot of Lokis coming through here.”
And you’ve sent them all to the Void, a little voice in the back of Mobius’s head reminds him. Along with what, billions of other people? Trillions? He swallows.
General Dox leans forward. “Let the record show that Agent Mobius has spent the equivalent of 2,227 years, 10 months, and 5 days accessing the file on Loki Laufeyson in the Time Theaters,” she says.
Something lurches in Mobius’s stomach, but he bites his tongue and doesn’t let it show on his face.
“It’s funny, I can’t quite verify that,” Mobius says. “You see, I seem to have some gaps in my memory. You all wouldn’t happen to—”
“You spoke of your initial interest, Agent Mobius,” Dox says. “What about this particular variant?” She gestures at Loki, and Mobius takes the opportunity to sneak a look back at them, glancing over his shoulder. They just look — nervous? Tired, intensely so?
Me, too, Mobius thinks. Me, too.
“This particular variant, Agent Mobius?” Dox repeats.
“Well,” Mobius says, “again, as you know, I got permission from Judge Renslayer, may our friendship rest in peace, to make Loki a consultant on our case to locate the Loki-variant we later identified as Sylvie Laufeydottir. Who understands a Loki better than a Loki?”
“Maybe the man who’s spent 2000 years watching him?” X-5 says.
“Now, that isn’t completely fair, is it?” Mobius says. He glances back at Loki again. “Loki, how old were you when the TVA brought you in?”
Loki frowns. “In Earth years?” he says. “Like 1400 and something?”
“See,” Mobius says. “Not so strange now. They’re very old.” He leans back in his seat again. “As I was saying, I initially brought this Loki in as a consultant on the Sylvie Laufeydottir case. However, in the course of that investigation, some serious truths about the TVA that we are still, of course, figuring out how to address, occurred.”
“Interesting phrasing,” Dox says. “Some serious truths… occurred? How did they occur? How did you become aware of these things?”
Mobius sighs, knowing where this line of questioning is going. “Loki informed me that during their time on Lamentis-1 that they had encountered serious evidence that all employees of the TVA were variants,” Mobius says, and when Dox tries to cut him off, he raises a hand. “And if you’re suggesting that I simply took their word for it, I can assure you that I did not.” He looks back at Loki again, catching his eyes in what he hopes is a reassuring glance, then looks back to Dox. “I didn’t trust them. Not then. Not yet. But, Loki’s claims, combined with some odd behavior I had noticed from Judge Renslayer— we’ll call it a hunch. Which I then verified by taking Renslayer’s TemPad.” Mobius shrugs. “You know the rest. Ravonna had me pruned. I came back. She kicked me into a coffee table. I got back up. And now here I am.” He shrugs. “Judge Gamble, can I ask what this is about?” He gestures, palms up. “It seems like we have more important things to be doing than talking about my friendship with Loki.”
Judge Gamble pauses, thinking. “X-5 has alleged a romantic relationship between you and the Loki variant,” she says.
Mobius blinks. He opens his mouth, closes it.
“X-5?” Loki says, and Mobius turns around fully now to look at him. “You’re X-5?” they say, gesturing at the hunter, and X-5 scowls. “Only time I’ve ever seen this man was in this war room a few h— actually, I don’t know how long ago it was. My point is, how could he possibly know—”
“Their point is,” Mobius says, clenching his jaw, “that X-5 is lying. There’s nothing romantic between Loki and me.”
“Oh, please,” X-5 says, hands on his hips, one hand dangerously close to his time stick. “We all saw the spectacle you two made in here earlier.”
Mobius sighs. “We’ve had some very trying experiences recently,” he says. Under his breath, he says, “I wouldn’t call it a spectacle.”
“You’re not supposed to befriend the variants, Agent Mobius,” Dox says. “If that’s even what’s really going on here.”
“We’re all variants,” B-15 mutters behind him.
“Would you like to say that into the microphone, Hunter B-15?” Dox says.
B-15 smiles tightly. “Gladly,” she says. Mobius scoots over, and she leans down to repeat, “We’re all variants.”
“In his defense, I’m very charming,” Loki says. “People are really drawn to me.”
Mobius chuckles despite himself, shakes his head. “Is there anything else, Judge Gamble, General Dox? Or can we go?”
“Agent Mobius, you are aware of the consequences of fraternization at the TVA?” Judge Gamble says.
“I’ve watched all the modules,” Mobius says, tapping the side of his head. “TVA expert right here.”
“General Dox, X-5?” Judge Gamble says. “Do you have any evidence to support your claims?”
“You gave up everything you believed in for this variant,” Dox says. “You gave up everything, all that you’ve worked on for countless millennia. You betrayed your closest friend. You risked your life.”
Mobius leans into the microphone. “I gave everything up for me, too, Dox,” he says. “I thought whoever I used to be, you know, a couple of eons ago, deserved — that person deserved me trying. I deserved it. We all deserve real lives.” He catches B-15’s eye, and she almost smiles at him. “Whatever I’d been doing at the TVA, it wasn’t living. Not really.”
“But this variant was the catalyst for all these realizations?” Dox says.
“Yeah,” Mobius says. “Yeah. They were the spark.”
####
Loki leans against the counter in Mobius’s apartment. “So, when you met me, that’s when you really started living?” they say, amusement, fondness glittering in their eyes.
Mobius smiles, looks away. “That’s not what I said,” he says.
“It’s what you implied,” Loki says.
“Well, forgive me the implication,” Mobius says.
He and Loki share a long look. Mobius sighs.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted,” Mobius says, reaching into his kitchen cupboard and looking inside. “Since the last time I got some sleep, I almost feel like I got pruned, outran a cloud monster, got kicked in the sternum by my former best friend, and got tackled by an Asgardian traveling at a hundred miles an hour, but surely—”
“What was that all about, Mobius?” Loki says.
Mobius looks away from the cupboard. “What was what all about?” he says.
“Why did Dox bring us in to talk about our relationship?” Loki says.
“If I had to guess,” Mobius says, looking back to the cupboard and pulling out a tube of mini M&Ms, “she’s trying to set us up for something, and that meeting today was setting the groundwork.”
“Nefarious,” Loki says.
“Yeah,” Mobius says, popping the tube of M&Ms open, “nefarious as hell. You want some?” He gestures with the tube.
Loki frowns, steps forward to look into the tube. “What are these little… gems?”
“They’re candy, Loki,” Mobius says. “You’ll probably like it.” He eats a small handful of them himself.
Not looking completely convinced, Loki holds out a cupped palm, and Mobius pours some M&Ms into his hand. “So, what are the consequences of fraternization at the TVA?” Loki says.
Mobius forgets to chew for a moment. He swallows.
Nothing good. The consequences are nothing good.
However hell of a long time ago it was, Mobius still remembers when the TVA discovered H-56 and L-23’s relationship. When Ravonna had discovered it. After it was all over, Mobius, as casually as he could, had said to Ravonna, it’s sort of funny, isn’t it, that when the Timekeepers created us, they made that sort of thing possible. Not ha-ha funny, of course. He’d taken a sip of his drink.
It’s an aberration, Ravonna had said. A defect. It’s not supposed to happen.
And Mobius had nodded. He’d smiled.
If he was lonely, if that meant there was something defective about him, well, he’d just keep that to himself.
How many millennia ago had that been, that conversation? And how many millennia before—
But they’re all just variants. They’re all just people. There’s nothing aberrant about it, one way or another. He knows that now.
Mobius makes himself smile. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Loki,” he says.
Loki’s still holding the M&Ms. They’re melting in their palm. “I—” they say.
“It’s absurd, after all, isn’t it?” Mobius says. “The idea — the idea that there could be something going on between us.”
Loki just looks at him for a long moment, opens his mouth, closes it.
“I mean, Loki, just because I—” Mobius starts the thought but can’t finish it.
Another long pause.
“Just because you what, Mobius?”
“Just because I— I mean, you’re important to me, Loki.”
Loki nods, their expression so guileless, more genuine than Mobius could have ever imagined from watching their file. Because this is so different — having Loki here is so different, so much more real than those tapes of their life in the Time Theater could ever be. He’s learned so much more about Loki in the little bit of time they’ve had together than he ever did from those tapes.
“You’re important to me,” Loki says.
Mobius studies their face. That face that he hasn’t been able to get out of his mind since they met. “I know,” he says. The room is still. He gestures at Loki’s palm, still slightly outstretched. “Try the candy, Loki,” he says. “You’ll like it.”