Work Text:
“Okay, I think we have it.”
“You think or you know?”
“We think. The tracking is as precise as we are going to get it.”
“It’s a gamble, but it’s one we have to take.”
“Alright, boot it up, and let's do this thing.”
Tony is currently kicking Clint’s ass at Mario Kart. The archer was complaining about Tony cheating but the inventor just crossed the finish line and made a rude gesture at the blond.
“Tony, don’t be a sore winner.” Steve scolded.
“Jeez, sorry Mom.”
Clint threw his hands up in defeat. “You suck.”
“Whoa, very mature,” Natasha said, flipping a page of her book.
As Clint was about to refute her comment the pressure in the room shifted and suddenly a glowing orange doorway opened up in the middle of the communal living room. The team grabbed their various weapons and pointed them at the door. Bruce stayed back, but his muscles tensed and the encroaching green in his brown eyes was a sign he was ready to fight.
Three people came out of the door before it closed. The first is a dark-skinned woman wearing black tactical gear, holding a baton at her side. The second is another woman, with fair skin and honey-colored hair. She wears Asgardian armor, decked out in gold and green. Finally, a man comes out behind them, his silver hair, and mustache catch the light. He wears a brown suit and doesn’t appear to be holding any weapons.
The three of them look around, before settling their collective attention on the Avengers before them.
“Who the hell are you?” Tony asks, pointing the armored glove at the man.
They seem to ignore his question though.
The man asks the blonde woman, “Is he here?”
She flicks her eyes around the room, and Tony catches a slight glow in her eyes before she shakes her head. “He was. A while ago.”
The other two seem to deflate at her words. The man reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a rectangular device. Clint shoots the device out of his hand.
“Ow.” The man says flatly, he moves to pick it up but finally, Steve speaks up in his classic ‘Captain America’ voice.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?”
The three of them glance at each other before the man steps forward. “My name is Mobius M Mobius, this is Hunter B-15, and this is Sylvie.” He gestures to the two women respectively. “We’re looking for our friend. We thought he might be here, but since he’s not we’ll just be on our way.”
At his words, a slight green shimmer surrounds the downed device and it reappears in Sylvie’s hands, with the arrow sticking out of it. She passes it to Mobius. “It’s fried.” She states.
“Shit.” Hunter B-15 says under her breath. She turns her attention to Clint, who has another arrow notched. Her grip on the baton tightens, but before she moves forward, Mobius holds up a hand to stop her.
“Quick question,” Mobius says, “what year is it?”
“2013,” Natasha answers.
“Great,” B-15 throws her hands up in frustration, “Avengers Tower, 2013. The worst place we could be.”
“Not the worst place. Not the worst time either.” Mobius mutters.
Steve steps forward and lowers his shield. “If you tell us who you’re looking for, maybe we can help you find them?”
The three of them once again seem to have a silent conversation with their eyes.
“We’re looking for our Loki,” Sylvie says.
Immediately the atmosphere in the room turns tense. “Loki?” Clint asks.
“Yes,” Mobius says, and takes another step forward, before stopping and putting his hands up when the weapons in the room turn on him. “This will make more sense if you let us explain. Preferably with no one shooting anyone, because I’m the talky one, these two are the mighty ones, and I would say your odds are not good going up against them.”
His tone is mild, but his words hold a threat. Before Clint can say anything that would get them even further antagonized, Tony speaks up. “Right, take a seat then.” He gestures to the couch the Avengers had been on a few minutes before.
The three of them sit, B-15 and Sylvie both straight back and tense, while Mobius looks extremely relaxed. Bruce and Natasha both sit down in two of the armchairs in the room, but the others remain standing. “Before we start, where’s Thor?”
“None of your business,” Clint says, as Tony responds with, “On Asgard.”
Mobius hums thoughtfully. “Well, glad we dodged that god-sized bullet.”
“You said you were going to explain,” Natasha says “because right now it just looks like you are three friends of Loki’s that showed up uninvited in Avengers Tower.”
“Right,” Mobius leans forward so he’s leaning his elbows on his knees. “We’re from a ‘place’ called the Time Variance Authority. Up until recently, we had been protecting the sacred timeline. But since a change in management, now we monitor the multiversal tree.”
“Whoa, the multiverse is real?” Bruce asks.
“Yep, thanks to Loki it is.”
The team gives a collective eyebrow raise at that.
“Look, we know you have your issues with Loki, but our Loki and yours are different,” B-15 says. “The sacred timeline used to run through the loom but it wasn’t built to deal with the infinite number of multiverses, one or two is fine, but the thing about the multiverse is that it’s always expanding. The loom wasn’t built to deal with it. Loki sacrificed himself. Basically, he’s our new loom.”
“And because of how the loom works, Loki is stuck somewhere outside of time, that we can’t get to.” Sylvie continues, “We’re trying to find him so we can come up with a better solution, cause there is no way we leave him there alone.”
“Sorry, I’m just having a hard time believing that Loki of all people would sacrifice himself for anything.” Clint drawls.
Once again B-15’s hand tightens on the baton, and Sylvie looks ready to lunge at the archer. Mobius is the only one who looks calm.
“Well, we know two very different Loki’s.” At Clint’s disbelieving eyes, Mobius continues, “You know an invader and a villain. We know Loki. You don’t.” Something like steel had settled in the man's usually light tone.
“Except we have no way to leave now, cause Barton here fried the time door.” Sylvie hissed, glaring venomously at him. Tony took note of her familiar nose, the shape of her eyes, and the glare that is incredibly familiar.
“Well we can't just let you run around, lose in New York,” Steve states.
Sylvie stands at that, taking it as a challenge, “Who says you can stop us.”
“Actually, I agree with him,” Mobius says. “We have already branched this timeline enough, it would be best if we stay out of things. But we do need the resources to repair the door, or else wait for Casey and OB to come and get us, and that could be ages, considering they probably don’t know where or when they are looking.
“Here’s what I’m proposing. We stay here, out of your way, and Tony helps us fix the door, so we can get out of here as quickly as possible.”
“Hell yes.” The inventor responds immediately.
“Tony!”
“What? It’s a time door! Of course, I want to take a look at it.” Tony protests the scolding look Steve gives him. “Plus it’s my tower, so I say they can stay.”
“We appreciate your hospitality,” Mobius says. B-15 and Sylvie don’t look as happy as the man, but they seem to follow his lead.
“Right! I can show you guys to the guest floor.” He leads them to the elevator despite the rest of the Avengers protests. “Don’t mind them, Steve pretends he’s the leader, but it’s my tower, I’m in charge.”
“Loki’s right, he is fun,” Sylvie whispers to B-15.
“Stay focused,” B-15 scolds.
“I am focused, besides, not my type.”
He glances back and catches their hands intertwined. Mobius chuckles next to him. “Eyes on the prize.”
Sylvie rolls her eyes.
“So, you guys are really friends of Loki’s. Didn’t think Reindeer Games could make friends.”
“Yep, friends.” Something in the man's voice catches Tony’s attention but he lets it go. The elevator takes them down one floor, to the guest floor. He shows each of them a room right next to each other.
“JARVIS will probably call you when we’re ready to start working on the time door, if you get lost or need any help with anything, just ask him,” Tony explains. “JARVIS?”
“Hello, I’m JARVIS, Mr Starks A.I.”
“A.I.? Is this gonna be another Miss Minutes situation, cause I’m not doing that again.” Sylvie hisses.
“Doubt it, that kind of variation happens very rarely, he’s a very well-built A.I., unlike Miss Minutes,” Mobius assures.
“Sorry, Miss Minutes?” Tony asks.
“An A.I. built by the former leader of the TVA, she was… not built as cleanly as JARVIS. By the end, she was… unstable.” Mobius explains.
“Well, I can assure you, I don’t build shotty A.I.” Mobius and B-15 glance at each other before nodding.
“Right, I’ll let you get settled in.” He shakes hands with Mobius and heads back to the elevator, allowing it to take him back to the Avengers.
“Tony, you can’t just make decisions for the team without having a discussion with the rest of us,” Natasha says as soon as he returns and sits down.
“I’m not making a decision for the Avengers, I’m making a decision to have some guests stay in my tower.” He rolls his eyes at her indignant huff.
“I mean, if they really are from the future we can ask them some questions, like where the staff went. We could prevent every catastrophe before it happens.” Clint suggested.
“Well, from what I understand, they’re not from the future, they’re from outside of time. There is a difference,” Tony says, “Plus they seem pretty hesitant to let anything about the future slip. Guess that’s how you branch a timeline?”
“Hmm,” Bruce seems intrigued at the idea of their technology along with the possibility of time travel.
“Look, I’ll put the tower on lockdown, they won’t leave unless we want them to. We fix their door and then we get them out of our hair.”
“And if they find Loki?” Clint asks.
“I feel inclined to believe them about Loki,” Tony says.
“Seriously?”
“Look, I get it, Reindeer Games is crazy, but from what Thor said, he got his whole world turned upside down, and we have no idea what happened during his missing year in the void. It’s possible he mellows out after taking some time to process what happened.” He explains. “Plus, Thor always said Loki was sometimes referred to as the God of Stories. God of Tielines would fit pretty well.”
“I just think you’re taking a massive risk on the slight possibility that Loki gets better,” Natasha responds.
“Didn’t Barton take a massive risk on you?”
The redhead tenses at his words and Clint stands, Tony following suit. “They are nothing alike.”
“No, he’s right. You had little to no reason to reach out to me but you did.” Natasha says, “I’m with Tony, we let them stay.”
“Hell yeah, two for team space door!”
“Time door.” Bruce corrects, “And three. You’re not the only one interested in that door.”
Tony and Bruce fist bump and the eyes of the Avengers turn to Steve.
He sighs and rubs his temples. “I will admit this is a massive gamble, but there are only three of them and five of us. If we need to, we can beat them. Until then, we let them stay.”
“Hell yeah.”
“This can only end in disaster.”