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Chapter Text

Loki liked Aturi’s figs. Their sweetness, wrapped in a soft green shell, brought back memories of him and his brother, back when the two young Asgardian princes had chased each other through Frigga’s colourful garden, surrounded by stickily sweet fruits, burning hot peppers, the flying pollen of blooming flowers and the smells of spices foreign to many worlds.

Loki liked remembering. It had made him feel less lonely when he had been stuck in his most terrifying nightmare for who knows how long. Now, when he talked about his old memories, it made Sylvie smile and Aturi look at him in a way that almost made one think they didn’t want to kill him any second.

Most of all, Loki liked living. He had almost forgotten how wonderful it was to awake to the chirping of birds, watch the last clouds coloured by the sunrise turn as white as splintered glass, make breakfast for Sylvie and Aturi from fresh fruits and self-baked bread and spend the day exploring a world that seemed so familiar to the Midgard Loki had spent many days of his late youth in and yet was so different, so much more colourful and bright. Most days were calm and ended with long walks in the evening, often along the coastline, side-by-side with Sylvie, below a sky whose stars were almost as beautiful as her laugh. Almost.

Only the nights reminded him of the burden on his shoulders whose darkness and agony filled his heart and mind in his dreams. Loki’s nightmares were cold and lonely, blood-stained and haunted by demons from his past. But not only his own fears seeped into them – he saw it all, the terrors and cruelties from every world on every timeline, each injustice that had ever happened or would happen one day. Every night, he woke up panting and bathed in his own sweat, sitting up so quickly he often startled Sylvie awake as well, whose bed was next to his own. Not so seldom, she jumped to her feet, ready to run, her sword drawn, or palms lit with magic. Her nightmares weren’t much better than his own, he knew. Often, they then sat on one of their beds in silence, looking out of the always opened window and waiting until sleep would stretch out its fingers to pull them back onto their pillows, only comforted by each other’s presence and the certainty that the other understood.

Other than that, Loki was fine.

Mobius visited almost every single day. He was happy to have Loki back in his life and he and Sylvie had found a close friend in each other during their quest to save Loki from his throne at the end of time. Mobius liked his new role at the TVA a lot, because he was now part of the large team that was in charge of helping potentially dangerous variants find the right path. But not only Loki and Sylvie were plagued by old demons. Mobius never talked about what was making his heart heavy, but Loki could see it was there, and he assumed it had to do with his best friend’s life before the TVA. Finding out you were a father once but can’t even remember your son’s names leaves more than just a mark on your heart. It leaves scars. And Loki wasn’t sure how he could help his friend heal.

Still. Their lives were good, and they all were very aware of and thankful for this.

Aturi had invited Sylvie to stay in their houseboat for a few days after she, Loki and Mobius had come to tell Aturi Loki was fine, the multiverse wouldn’t collapse, and Sylvie was happy. A few days had turned into weeks, and after a couple of months, Sylvie had decided to move into Aturi’s houseboat – it was big enough to house at least four people, anyway. Loki had been invited to stay as well, of course, and had gladly accepted the invitation. He hadn’t wanted to return to the TVA (for reasons) and living in Sylvie’s apartment without Sylvie there would have been more than a little strange.

The houseboat was big and offered many rooms, although it hadn’t seemed very inviting at first. Spider’s webs in dark and cold rooms, no curtains or flowers, not a single picture on the walls.

Loki and Sylvie had changed that. Now, the inside of the houseboat almost matched the colourful outside world. Only the burnt woods (which Loki had developed a passion for restoring and affectionately called Fire Woods) on the hill it was laying at darkened their surroundings, but Loki was working on that as well. One young tree after the other was planted here and there, old trees that hadn’t fully burnt down got help recovering, even the little creek emerging from the small cave about twenty minutes away from Aturi’s houseboat looked clearer than before. Loki always had to duck to enter the cave and if he wasn’t careful not to hit his head on the low ceiling, he inevitably left with a bump on his front, giving Sylvie another reason to make a cheeky remark. Loki didn’t mind, though. Frankly, he liked the banter. Both of them always knew when to stop and they were discovering how far they could push not to cross the other’s lines.

For the very first time in his life, Loki felt at ease. He had a home, he was happy, and he knew he was loved. What else could he have asked for?

Apart from the throne problem, maybe. That’s the name Sylvie had given Loki’s mind slips. And that’s how Loki called the times when he suddenly felt dizzy, his sight became bleary or turned black, the terrible ringing noise in his ears became louder than every other sound, his limbs felt a lot heavier than they should, and he was close to fainting – or he simply passed out after a few moments of struggling not to. And the headaches he often had for a few days consistently weren’t pretty, either, but at least he could often hide those from Sylvie. Not always, though, but he tried his best. She worried about him too much, anyway. Mobius did, too. Only Aturi didn’t. And their odd white raven with the clever red eyes. Epres. The fact that he had trouble seeing didn’t really affect his burning gaze which seemed to see right into one’s soul. He almost seemed to know Loki. Not the other way around, though, definitely not. Loki hadn’t met many ravens from Alfheim, but he was sure he would have remembered this one, especially since its life expectancy was longer than the one of Midgardian ravens.

Anyway.

Loki was sitting on the railing of the houseboat (though “houseship” would probably have been a more fitting description of their new home), watching the calm water below his dangling feet, when he heard quiet footsteps walk towards him. He immediately recognized Aturi from the way they moved – always careful and quiet, prepared for a fight, like a wild cat on the hunt; in some ways a little similar to Sylvie. But Sylvie was always ready to run off (still), while Aturi was always ready for confrontation, maybe even looked for it sometimes – more than Sylvie, that is. Oh yes, the three Lokis had their similarities, and they all knew it. But Loki probably saw the most of them. After all, he had spent a small but endless infinity comparing the lives of Lokis on different timelines.

“Is she back?” he asked without turning around.

“Nope.” Aturi reached his side and swung themselves onto the railing as well, squinting as they stared into the low evening sun. “Sylvie’s enjoying her time there, it seems.”

A content smile curled his lips as two swallows flew by, chasing each other to the horizon. Sylvie liked to visit the restaurant on the other side of the hill from time to time. She had told him (a little ashamed) how she had stolen a meal from there before breaking Loki free from the timelines, dressed as a fine lady, which he had laughed about, making her feel less bad about it immediately. Today, she had gone there alone. They all sometimes needed alone time, of course. And as it seemed, she and Ade had a lot to talk about today. Ade was one of the waiters, about twenty years young and very enthusiastic about his job, which had been his reason to chase after Sylvie the first time she had eaten in this restaurant – for free. She hadn’t told anyone but Loki about the fact that she had stolen from there, but she had recognised Ade and had felt the need to tip him a little more, which had made him remember her the next time she had come, marking the beginning of a friendly acquaintance that had the potential of developing into a friendship.

Loki was glad Sylvie liked it here and even slowly made potential friends. Maybe that meant she would finally be able to find peace from her restlessness after centuries of running and hiding and fearing for her life every single day. Because he knew, even if she wouldn’t admit it, that her past was haunting her more than she could handle on some days. Her troubled soul longed to settle down at least for some time.

Aturi turned to look at him. “You there?”

Loki smiled in response. “Don’t worry, I am.” Sylvie had become good at telling when one of Loki’s mind slips was about to happen, but Aturi was never quite sure.

They nodded. “Good. Just wanted to check.”

Loki hummed in response. “I appreciate it.” And he meant that. Caring for another person was even newer for Aturi than it was for him and Sylvie. They had only cared about themselves and maybe their albino raven for more than a decade.

“You’re gonna go visit that friend of yours soon?” Aturi raised their eyebrows challengingly.

That friend of yours.

Loki had been intentionally vague, not even Sylvie knew which friend he had been talking about. Not just a friend, he wanted to say, scream, possibly, to erase the lie. My brother! My brother and my niece… Love. What a beautiful name, wasn’t it? He had seen them on their timeline, but he hadn’t even gathered the courage to think about them much. Not yet. Why? Maybe because his past felt too present whenever he thought about visiting the one family member he had left. And the new one.

Well, look at that, you’re an uncle now.

How did he feel about this? He couldn’t tell. He didn’t even know his niece.

Not yet, that is.

He would. One day, when he would have found the courage to face his brother and with him his past, every good and bad memory. When he talked to Sylvie and Aturi about his time as Asgard’s younger prince, he never really mentioned the bad memories. Of course not. He wanted Sylvie to smile while listening to the tale of a childhood that hadn’t been full of fear.

“Not all too soon, I’m afraid”, Loki finally answered. “He isn’t expecting me, anyway.”

Aturi furrowed their brows, but they didn’t investigate any further and instead looked out towards the ocean again. A seagull was sitting on the surface, its head raised high into the sky as if to search for the swallows from earlier. Had they maybe disappeared into the Fire Woods?

As he was watching the seagull, Loki breathed in the salty air. He loved it here. This timeline was wonderful, and his life was amazing. Sure, neither was perfect, but perfect would have been boring, right?

He closed his eyes and smirked. “You know what?”

“Hm?” He didn’t look at them, but he could vividly imagine Aturi turning their head to look at him.

Loki let them wait a moment before he said, “We’re three Lokis on one timeline and none of us is planning to rule it or betray the other two. Actually, you let us move into your home, and Sylvie and I are working on making this world a nicer place. That’s a rather uncommon occurrence.”

Aturi stayed silent for a few heartbeats, causing Loki to finally open his eyes again. They looked very thoughtful. After about a minute had passed, Aturi met his eyes. “I didn’t let you move into my home.”

Confusedly, Loki raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t need to ask any questions before Aturi already explained, “It was no home anymore, it was cold and empty, just a place to live in, my own four walls. But… Well, you and Sylvie made it feel more like a home again.”

Loki’s eyes suddenly felt a little wet and his eyebrows automatically knitted themselves together as his lips curled into a moved smile – he didn’t deliberately do anything; he was too busy being touched and overcome with emotions.

Suddenly, they heard a voice behind them, and both swirled around.

“Honestly?” Sylvie was standing on the planks, two pizza boxes in her hands. Her eyes were wide, her cheeks faintly flushed, and her face showed disbelief. “That’s… That might be the nicest thing you’ve said so far.”

Aturi grinned. “Indeed, I think so, too.”

Sylvie returned their grin.

Now, Loki really liked Aturi and the other way around, but the way they and Sylvie interacted warmed his heart every time. The two didn’t know each other much longer than Aturi and Loki did, but they behaved like lifelong friends, who had grown apart with age – not extremely close, but friendly and in a very trusting manner.

“You brought pizza?” Aturi asked hopefully.

Sylvie snorted, holding up the boxes. “Well, I didn’t put noodles in there.”

That brought a little laugh out of Aturi. “Good point.”

They jumped off the railing and stretched out their arms in anticipation, their back facing Loki as they walked towards Sylvie, but that didn’t stop him from imagining their smile as Sylvie placed the pizza boxes in Aturi’s waiting arms. “Thanks, I’ll take them to the kitchen to warm them up a little.” They made a half turn to face both Sylvie and Loki simultaneously as they asked, “Any of you coming?”

Loki slid down the railing, elegantly stepping onto the planks, and walked towards the others, gently placing his hand on Sylvie’s arm with a smile when he reached her. “Oh, I definitely am! Won’t say no to Ade’s pizza.” He winked at Sylvie, who rolled her eyes in response, but couldn’t hide a smile herself. “Shut up, you know exactly that Ade is a waiter – he doesn’t bake pizzas or anything, he serves them.”

Loki shrugged, carefully squeezing her arm. “Who knows? Maybe he does it secretly, just to make you happy.”

“You’re such an arse, Loki!”

“Hey, both of you!” Aturi raised her eyebrows warningly. “Stop quarrelling and get your butts back in the house, or I’ll eat it all by myself.”

That made Loki squeeze his lips together with wide eyes in an expression of fear. “Uh-oh, I’ll be right there!”

He brushed over Sylvie’s arm one last time and quickly hurried after Aturi, but not without looking over his shoulder to check if Sylvie was doing the same, which was indeed the case. However much Loki liked Aturi (and pizza), leaving Sylvie behind wasn’t an option, not for all the pizza in the multiverse.

He had seen enough of eternity to know who his heart was beating for. And after all, they were gods. They wouldn’t live forever but as long as nothing tragic would happen, they still had a lot of time. Time to make up for what they had lost, time to get to know each other in a way they didn’t yet, time to discover the world (or several of them), time to gather experiences and make new memories.

“Maybe it’s just a matter of time.” – “Of course it is. Why does everything always depend on time?”

He had asked Mobius this rhetoric question mere months ago, behaving like this fact was a new thing. Now, he smiled about his own words. Everything had always depended on time. For his entire life. And before that. And afterwards. For all time.

Always.

And he would make the most of it.

Chapter Text

Had it not been a Monday, this day would have been exceptionally bad. But since it was indeed a Monday, Mobius only sighed when Victor told him about the problem inside the loom room.

Yes, the loom room. That’s how Mobius had taken to call the core room from which one could see the branches of the timelines, where once the temporal loom had been. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Also, he liked how the “oo”-sound could be heart twice in it.

“I-I told him… not to – go in there”, Victor stuttered agitatedly while gesticulating choppily. “He d-d… didn’t listen!”

Mobius nodded absently. “I guess we’ll have to wipe his memory or something like that”, he muttered, more to himself than to Victor, who seemed more shocked than relieved.

“W-wipe his memory?” His eyes were almost as big and round as his glasses when he turned to look at Mobius.

They were now standing right in front of the loom room, but Mobius stopped dead in his tracks instead of opening the door and going inside. “Well… Yeah. I’m afraid it’ll be necessary.”

Victor’s eyebrows moved dangerously close together.

“Don’t worry!” Mobius quickly said before Victor would think of any horror scenarios. “It won’t hurt in the least.”

Although he still looked a little unhappy, Victor’s eyebrows moved back in place. “Oh. Good.”

Mobius decided not to tell him that doing this wasn’t exactly unusual for him, since they sometimes had to erase variants’ memories in order to steer them back on the right path. Some were just too… convinced they were in the right. And since pruning luckily wasn’t a thing to be done anymore, there needed to be new methods of making sure the TVA stayed unnoticed within the multiverse.

“Alright.” Mobius placed one hand on the door. “You ready for this?”

Victor straightened his back and nodded, and Mobius energetically pushed the door open. Inside, they were faced with a very concerned OB and a very loud variant of Victor – the usual.

“You will do as I say, or my forces shall raze your entire fortress to the ground!” The medieval dressed variant was screaming, his fists raised at OB, who was babbling coherent nonsense to hopefully make the variant calm down. Unfortunately, all his efforts only seemed to be causing the opposite.

“I am a king, you fool of a peasant!” the variant shouted, his voice breaking from his unwithheld rage. “Move! Move or your head will roll!”

Mobius couldn’t help but quietly huff a snorted laugh. He knew someone who would have definitely pulled this speech off way better than that guy.

OB was too distracted to allow himself a quick laugh. “No need to be getting all angry, you see, this place isn’t exactly the best for emotional outbursts, although it has seen a lot, that I must admit. Oh yes, many things have happened here, better and worse, but hey, the building is still whole – or it is again, depends on how you see it – and we don’t need to that worry the loom could explode. That’s good! So, there’s no reason to scream at me, really. Please stop! This won’t get you anywhere.”

“Hey, OB!” Mobius quickly walked towards the two, causing OB to shut up and the variant to stop shouting, surprise in his eyes. “I heard you could use some help.”

Before OB could even react, Mobius touched the variant’s temple with a small device OB, Victor and Loki had constructed together. The variant’s eyes immediately turned dull, and his mouth fell slightly open as his jaw relaxed.

Mobius sighed. “Alright, that should do. Let’s get him to Bonnie, she’s already got a little group of stubborn medieval variants under her supervision.”

OB tilted his head with a frown. “That sounds like a good plan, but you really didn’t need to do that. I would have wiped his memory of the TVA in just a minute, I had everything under control!”

Without a word, Mobius looked at OB, then at the variant, and back at OB again. Doubtfully, he raised his eyebrows.

Rolling his eyes, OB admitted, “Well, as I said: almost.”

“Sure, you did.”

“Almost, yes!”

“Yeah, no, I don’t think so.”

OB shrugged. “Maybe it didn’t look like I had, but I did.”

Quietly laughing, Mobius shook his head. “Whatever, let’s get him to Bonnie.”

Chapter Text

It had been just another Monday, when Sylvie arrived home in the evening. She had spent the day alone, wandering through the forests and along the coastlines, and had visited Ade on her way back home to bring him chocolate. (The guy loved chocolate, but he thought it was weird to buy some for himself because: “Chocolate is something to be gifted, Sylvie, and I’m not gonna give myself any gifts!”)

Sylvie entered the houseboat, poured herself a cup of tea, smiled when she noticed the folded clothes on the sofa (which probably came from Loki, since Aturi couldn’t have cared less about folding any clothes), lifted them into her arms and walked towards her and Loki’s bedroom.

Now, the houseboat was big enough for them to sleep in separate rooms, but somehow, they had simultaneously come to the silent decision to share one. Maybe because Sylvie felt safer when Loki was around, and Loki could only fall asleep after checking that Sylvie was okay. Or maybe because calming down after yet another nightmare was easier for both of them when they could feel the other’s presence, hear the other’s steady breaths, comforted by the thought that they could wake the other up if they needed to.

Maybe.

Anyway, it was just another Monday. Except that it wasn’t. Because when Sylvie entered the room, she found Loki lying on the floor, face down and unconscious.

“Loki!” Without a second thought, she dropped the pile of washed and folded clothes and rushed towards him, immediately turned Loki on his back and pressed a finger to his neck. Of course he was alive, Sylvie hadn’t expected anything else – after all, she knew his throne problem all too well by now. Still, feeling his pulse below her fingertips gave her a sense of relief.

A slow but steady line of blood determinedly made its way down his face, starting at his nose and silently dropping on the floor.

Sylvie managed to get Loki into a seated position, his back leaned against her bed, before she ran to get some water and a small towel. Of course, she almost stumbled over the heap of not-anymore-folded clothes on her way out of the room.

When she came back with both water and towel, Loki had already opened his eyes and was looking around the room with a confused and empty gaze. His eyes didn’t seem to be noticing anything in particular.

“Hey…” Sylvie knelt in front of him and put the bowl of water and the towel down next to her. “Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Loki blinked at her, and after a moment, his eyes focused. “What… Where…?”

She dipped the towel into the water. “I don’t know. You must have collapsed while I wasn’t there. Didn’t I tell you not to collapse when I’m not around?”

He made a grimace that could have been counted as a smile, had it not looked so pained. “Sorry.”

Sylvie sighed. “Well, now you got a bloody nose.”

As if to check if that was correct, he raised his slightly shaking fingers to touch his face, and curiously studied his shiny, red fingertips when he pulled his hand away again.

“Almost looks like you’d been involved in a street fight, maybe you’ll get a blue eye as well if we wait a little for the swelling to appear.”

Loki tried a laugh, but it came out more as a cough. “Ouch.” He put a hand on his ribs and frowned.

“Told you so”, Sylvie retorted. “Had you not collapsed…”

“Yes, fine, I get it.”

“I sure hope you do!” She held up the wet towel. “May I?”

Loki nodded and Sylvie carefully wiped the blood off his face. “You’re lucky this didn’t turn out any worse”, she muttered absentmindedly. “Imagine I had come back hours later, you could have already choked on your own blood or something. Or even just woken up in even more pain from lying on the hard floor for so long. Who knows how long you’d been lying there already? Either way, it wouldn’t have been pretty. You fell face-first, I assume.”

She lowered the towel a little to check if the blood was still running and contently noticed it wasn’t. Suddenly, she felt Loki’s hand on her own (which was still holding the towel).

“Thanks, Sylvie.” He offered her a sad smile, although she was quite sure it had been intended to appear as uplifting. “I’m glad you’re back early, but you don’t need to worry about something that hasn’t happened.”

Sylvie sighed and put down the towel, whereby she inevitably moved her hand away from below Loki’s gentle fingers. “It’s just that I…” She shook her head, trying not to meet his eyes. “I worry about you a lot these days. Your throne problem has become worse lately, and you’ve even started passing out more often. Sure, being absent is one thing, I can live with that. But what I can’t live with is the thought of you passing out and falling off the railing while no-one’s there to jump after you.”

Now, she looked him directly in the eyes. “This needs to stop, Loki! Because if it doesn’t, what if it gets even worse?”

He held her gaze, but the way he was looking at her made Sylvie’s heart even heavier. “I don’t know how to stop it.”

“I know, and that’s why we need to find a way to make it stop.”

“And how?”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “We’ll figure something out.”

When she opened her eyes again, Loki seemed to have got even paler.

Sylvie was right, the mind slips had become worse lately. But facing this problem would have meant diving deeper into what Loki tried to avoid thinking about at any cost, because to him, only touching the throne problem meant sitting on the damn thing again.

He had noticed on his first day outside Sylvie’s safe and warm apartment, only shortly after coming back from the end of time and onto one of the timelines – her timeline. Faces, scenes, people, places, words, even only scents had caused him to almost fall to his knees – he would have, had Sylvie and Mobius not been there to hold him upright. The fates of so many souls were carved deep into his mind, and he could see flashes or even entire histories of a person’s life as if his mind was still strolling across the timelines and stopping here and there to take a closer look.

He didn’t know how to stop it. He didn’t know how to cause it, either. It didn’t seem to work willingly, because at first, he had tried to learn controlling it through causing the flashes to happen and then trying to figure out how to make them stop again. It hadn’t worked. None of it. Nothing he had tried had only caused a glimpse of a flash, not even talking about a full-on mind slip.

So instead, Loki had decided to avoid the problem in hopes of it becoming smaller and eventually disappearing. No need to say, the opposite had happened.

Sylvie was waiting patiently for him to come back to her, while he was lost in his own thoughts once again. He hated being the cause of the worried wrinkles on her front, the sad look in her eyes, the composed mask on her face. But he didn’t know how not to be, and his guilt slowly ate away at him from inside.

“So, do you have an idea?” he finally managed to croak out.

Sylvie drew a deep breath. “We might… Maybe it would be best to…” She clearly had something on her mind but was missing the words to voice her thoughts – until she pressed her lips together, steadily looked at him with a burning gaze and said in a firm voice, “I think we should go back there. See if we can find a solution at the very place the problem started at.”

A very small sigh escaped his nose. “Sylvie, I…” He had expected her to say something like this.

“Please, just give it a chance!” Her mask was crumbling. He could see the pain behind her composure. “I know going back is the last thing you want, but what if it brings us to the root of the problem?”

The irony of her words made him utter a bitter laugh. “Quite literally the roots of it.” Considering I was sat at the centre of a gigantic tree…

“Look”, he started, raising his hands in a calming gesture. “I know you mean well, and it doesn’t sound like a bad place to start, but even only allowing the thought of being back there makes every atom in my body shake with terror.”

“It might be our only hope, Loki.”

“I know, I know, just… Let’s try to find another solution, okay? Maybe the roots aren’t located at a literal tree. Maybe they’re in a place where we’d least expect them. But to find out, we need to give those unexpected places a chance to make themselves known.”

Sylvie didn’t look very convinced.

“I promise, if we can’t find anything else that seems to be a plausible cause of my mind slips’ increasing intensity, I’ll think again about going back to…” – he cleared his throat to prevent his suddenly very small voice from breaking – “…back to the throne.”

There was a long pause, while Sylvie looked at him with concern, doubt and the slightest bit of hope. Then, finally, her gaze turned to acceptance. “Fine”, she sighed. “I’ll give you another two weeks. If we haven’t figured out anything that sounds promising by then, we’ll go back. Deal?”

Two weeks – what an incredibly short time span in the grand scheme of life. Loki had spent a whole eternity trying to learn to control his senses and had only succeeded to some extent, and now she was giving him mere weeks, and to make matters worse only two of them?

“Deal.”

No matter how short two weeks sounded, they still had fourteen days. Fourteen days with twenty-four hours each. That meant 336 hours in total. A lot of time to get to any kind of seemingly promising point.

But if he was honest, Loki hadn’t agreed for his own sake.

Chapter Text

“Mobius! Mobius, you have to come look at this!”

“Hold on, OB. Victor, what were you just saying?”

“Th-the branch ac-a-activities… They’re all… I don’t kn-know! Weird?”

“Mobius!”

“I told you I can’t right now, OB! Why are they weird, Victor? What makes those activities different from the usual?”

“Th-th-they… I-I… Well, their branches grow f-faster, and l-l-longer!”

“Hey, everyone, you have to see this!”

“Casey, give us a minute!”

“No, Mobius – you have to see this right now.”

“Casey is right… This is unlike everything I’ve ever witnessed! Victor, Mobius, come on, quick!”

“What the…?”

“Told you, Mobius! And what Casey found here is an extreme version of what I wanted to show you before. The branches are going crazy! And none of us have any idea why.”

Mobius had spent his whole day looking at screens, trying to help OB and Victor figure out why there were so many unusual branch activities all of a sudden, and – more importantly – why there were so unusual. None of them had been able to put their finger on anything in particular, when suddenly Casey had stormed in the computer room, urging them to follow him immediately.

They had rushed to the loom room, only to see new branches appear here and there – which wouldn’t have been anything unusual, had they not grown so suddenly and had it not been multiple at the same time every time. But it didn’t end there, since their colour made things yet a little more confusing.

Of course, Sylvie and Loki arrived precisely when Mobius had his first minute off that day.

An orange glow caught Mobius’s attention while he was eating his key lime pie. As soon as he turned his head, he already saw two very familiar figures stepping through the time door.

His heart jumped a little from joy, but immediately sank again when he saw Loki’s face. What had happened? He looked at Sylvie and was greeted with a stone wall of emotionlessness.

Oh. This again.

He still had no clue what, but something bad had happened, that made Sylvie fall back into her old habit of “If I don’t feel, I can’t be hurt”, while Loki was visibly worn out. At least it comforted him a little to see that Loki hadn’t picked up his old habit, since “If I hurt everyone first, they won’t get a chance to hurt me” wasn’t exactly helpful in bad situations.

Without a word, Sylvie and Loki sat down at Mobius’s table. Sylvie tried a smile, but showing happiness or being friendly didn’t really work well with being an emotionless wall. Loki, on the other hand, was showing so many emotions that Mobius couldn’t pick out a single one.

“Okay”, he said, putting down his fork. “What’s wrong?”

Sylvie shrugged; Loki looked away.

“Dunno, why’d you ask?” Sylvie was studying and pulling at the end of her sleeve as if there were nothing more interesting to ever be found. “We figured we’d show up a little earlier than announced.”

“I noticed.” Mobius desperately wanted an answer, but if neither of the two was willing to talk about the elephant in the room just yet, pressing them to do so wouldn’t have been of any use. Not in the face of two Lokis, at least.

Sylvie looked up and met his eyes, trying once again to seem unconcerned. “Any news, any achievements?”
Mobius sighed. Okay, maybe if he talked about how shitty his day had been, they’d feel more comfortable opening up themselves. “News, yes – achievements, no. We’ve… had a lot of especially nasty variants lately. I don’t know what’s going on, but something about this whole situation strikes me as weird. They all somehow seem … connected.”

Sylvie grimaced. “Oh, great.”

Suddenly, Loki raised his head. “How are they connected?”

Helplessly shrugging, Mobius threw his arms in the air. “I wish I knew! The only common denominator we have is… well… their branches are grey.”

Silence.

Had the situation been a little more light-hearted, Mobius would have laughed at the way Sylvie and Loki frowned at exactly the same time, with exactly the same questioning look on their faces.

“And not quite grey, either”, Mobius elaborated. “More, like, colourless. And colour-absorbing. Everything around them seems a little dulled.”

Loki exchanged a glance with Sylvie. “How is that possible? What kind of timelines are they?”

Sylvie slowly shook her head. “Let’s have a look at it.”

And so, Mobius rushed to the loom room once again this day, as he followed his friends’ hasty steps, leaving a half-eaten cake behind.

As soon as Loki cast a look at the timelines, his skin began to prickle and his senses felt sharper than usually, more alert. What surprised him, though, was that he didn’t collapse, didn’t have another mind slip, didn’t even feel dizzy. Instead, an absent sense of danger tugged at his consciousness, and slowly became stronger, until it was a clear, almost alarmingly strong sensation.

Some of the timelines were, indeed, colourless. Looking at them was a little like Loki imagined being blind. There was just… nothing. Multiple thick veins of nothing, winding through the infinite maze of colourful timelines, spreading their dull kind of grey like an airborne disease seeping into the fresh, vibrant multiverse.

It scared him.

It scared him in a way that felt like the grey disease was gnawing at his very body, trying to take over his mind and make every thought grey, until they would all eventually vanish.

When Sylvie looked at the free timelines which weren’t dependent on Loki’s own magic as their single source of power anymore, she felt joy rise in her chest. That was until she noticed the grey threads woven into the carpet of vibrant timelines in front of her. They seemed to be soaking up the colours of the timelines around them, leaving empty stains behind.

She frowned as she tried to take a closer look. What was happening in the multiverse? Why was it turning colourless?

Looking at Loki sent an alarming flash through her body. His face didn’t only seem just as confused as her own, it also appeared dangerously grey… almost colourless.

Sylvie didn’t bother watching him suffer the same fate as those poor timelines.

Loki was ripped from his thoughts when he felt a warm embrace pulling him a step back and turning him around. He blinked and locked eyes with Sylvie, who was now holding him at arms-length, studying his face with a mix of concern, determination and relief.

“You good?”, she mumbled.

He nodded and she let go of him.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Loki nodded and they made their way back to the pie room, Mobius closely behind them.

They didn’t go home the next few days. Sylvie only dropped by once to tell Aturi not to worry, and that they’d be staying at the TVA for some time.

Everyone there was on alert and the small team in charge of watching the multiverse from the loom room spent their days searching for a cause of the grey timelines. Many others, who were working at the DV (dangerous variants) or PTV (potentially dangerous variants) departments, reported that the variants there had become more. It didn’t take long for Mobius and the others to notice that the DV and PTV numbers were increasing with every new colourless timeline, which quickly led to the conclusion that there had to be a connection between those two events.

The problem was that no-one had a clue which kind of connection that could be, and both the PTV and DV numbers, as well as the colourless timelines, were increasing by the hour.

Sylvie did her best to help the others. She ran with messages from Mobius to Verity and back, asked Bonnie about her latest medieval Kang variant, brought the answers to Victor and OB, sat together with Casey to discuss the wildest theories about what was happening in the multiverse while spending hours on documenting everything they could see from the loom room’s window front.

Loki, on the other hand, could barely be seen. No-one knew where he was when he suddenly disappeared, no-one knew where he had been when he suddenly reappeared, no-one knew where he went when they watched him walk away – but no-one asked. Somehow, the entire TVA had come to the silent agreement that Loki, as the god of the multiverse, god of time and existence itself, mustn’t be bothered in whatever he was doing, because they were all certain he was trying to fix this new problem in his own mysterious ways.

Had Sylvie not been this busy, she would have stopped him in the hallway to sit him down and talk about where in the name of all stars he and his mind were disappearing to all the time. Instead, he stopped her in the hallway to hand her a hot chocolate and offer her a gentle smile, warmer than the drink, before she rushed away again.

Mobius once caught Loki on the third floor in the elevator, but while he had to get off at the fifth floor, Loki went further up. Therefore, they barely had enough time to catch up on what was the current most plausible theory for the colour loss of the timelines, before Mobius waved a hasty goodbye while the doors closed behind him, separating him from his friend once again.

Soon, Loki seemed to have become a powerful but mysterious shadow-figure, not unlike the Time-Keepers, once, a long time ago – and not even Sylvie or Mobius knew his thoughts.

Chapter Text

Who would have known the TVA buildings had rooftops?

Loki was sitting on a windy roof, watching the distant timelines. Deep blue snaking its way around vibrant pink, above them a trail of soft green, a little further a silver string, thin and glistening like a spider’s web in the hoarfrost…

They reminded him of the northern lights which he had so adored as a child. Oh, where had all the centuries gone? Where had the days in the palace, the adventures with his brother, the bedtime stories read by his mother gone? It all seemed like a lifetime ago – well, it was, yet at the same time it wasn’t.

Now, there were new people in his life, a new family which he loved dearly. And still, he missed his old family, missed Frigga’s loving arms and Thor’s carefree grin. Loki knew they would have been proud of the path he had chosen, but hearing those words out of Thor’s very mouth? A daydream he would never see come true.

Crossing his legs which were dangling from the edge of the roof, Loki let his thoughts linger on the faint possibility of visiting another timeline someday, only to see his brother again. A gentle breeze was caressing his face, maybe coming from the parting of the faraway timelines. Frigga would have loved their familiar yet one-of-a-kind appearance, he was sure.

He wanted to show Sylvie what beauty he had found, wanted to talk to her about what had dawned on him during his thoughtful hours alone on the TVA’s rooftops – but when he finally went into the main building again and passed her on her way to the Repairs and Advancement department, she barely found the time to ask him if he was doing okay. So, he forced himself to smile, nodded gently and felt his heart clench at the shadow of a smile crossing Sylvie’s face, before she turned away and closed the door behind her, leaving him standing alone in a hallway filled with overflowing boxes full of old or broken pieces of TVA technology.

Sometimes, being surrounded by the people he loved most felt lonelier than being alone.

Slowly, he made his way back to the roof but decided to stop by the pie room to grab the usual: key lime.

On his way, he passed Verity and Bonnie, who were having a heated but hushed discussion and didn’t even notice him, so he left them alone. Yet another neglected possibility of sharing a piece of his mind, but Loki gulped down the words on his tongue that wished to get off his chest so badly. He didn’t want to be a bother. He had been for long enough.

When he reached the pie room, he was greeted by the all too familiar smell of sweet lime and soft cake dough. For a moment, Loki stood in the doorway with closed eyes and let the many memories he had made in this room pass through his mind.

“How about a slice of pie?” – “… Key lime.” – “Okay, great.”

“It’s okay! Look, it happens. You know, sometimes the rage builds up and you just gotta… let it out. Sometimes, our emotions get the better of us.”

“It would just be easier to burn this place down and start from scratch!” – “Sure. Burn it down, easy. Annihilating is easy. Razing things to the ground is easy. Trying to fix what’s broken is hard. Hope is hard.”

“Aren’t you curious? I mean, don’t you want to see the life you were supposed to live before they kidnapped you and brought you into the TVA?” – „It’s not my life!” – „But it could have been. I get it. Y'know, you might think twice in case it’s… something bad, or…” – „Or something good! Something bad, I can handle. What if it’s something good?”

“It’s up to us to protect them. It’s up to us to do better than He Who Remains.” – “Sounds like, whatever we do, we’re playing god.” – “We are gods. ”

“Loki?”

He opened his eyes and saw Mobius sitting at a table, an empty plate (except a few crumbles) in front of him. “What’s up?”

With a sigh, Loki sat down in front of his friend. “Honestly? I’m not sure I know.”

Mobius raised his eyebrows. “Know what’s up with you or just know in general?”

Loki shrugged. “Both? It’s more tied together than I would like to admit.”

A worried look settled on Mobius’ face. “You mean what’s happening to the timelines is affecting you as well, don’t you?”

He nodded and Mobius let out a deep sigh. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t expected something like that.”

For a moment, Loki stayed silent. When he continued talking, his voice was quiet, as if only speaking the words would make their meaning forever unchangeable. “You see, Mobius… I haven’t quite figured out how to separate myself from it, yet.”

“So, you’re still having mind slips?” Mobius leaned forward a little, almost as if he was sharing a secret with Loki.

Loki pressed his lips together – and nodded. “And they started getting worse just a few days before we came to the TVA, and you told us about the whole thing with the colourless timelines and the many new dangerous variants.”

Mobius seemed to consider this for a moment, then he nodded. “Seems to correlate, doesn’t it?”

“I think so.” Loki shrugged. “When I first saw the grey timelines, I felt… strange. As if colour was leaving me as well, only by looking at them.”

His friend’s thoughtful blue eyes were studying him with concern. “Do you still feel… colourless?”

He shook his head. “Luckily, no. But the mind slips still happen. I…” How should he put this? “I try not to let Sylvie notice, though. She worries so much. And she knows they’re happening, anyway. She doesn’t need to know how often or how intense they are. She’ll probably figure.”

The fact that his friends, and especially Sylvie, knew how little it took for him to slip away was almost worse than how little it took for him to slip away.

Mobius nodded. “She most definitely will, but that’s okay. I won’t tell her – promise.”

A small, thankful smile crossed Loki’s face, before a thought that crossed his mind washed it away and replaced it with careful hesitation. “Are you busy right now?”

Mobius shrugged. “In theory, yes – we all are, as you know. But I’m a little exhausted, so I thought I’d take a quick break and have a pie. Why’re you asking?”

“I want to show you something.” With that, he stood up and held out a hand. After hesitating for a moment, Mobius let Loki pull him to his feet and followed his friend to a place where he had never been before.

When they exited the roof hatch, Mobius’ eyes grew wide from amazement. “Wow!” He walked across the roof until about a meter from the edge, and looked down at the TVA buildings, looming below him like a steampunk city.

With a smile, Loki walked up next to his friend. He gave Mobius a few minutes of astonishment, before he quietly suggested, “Have you tried looking up?”

Mobius shot Loki a surprised glance before he did as his friend had said and looked up, where he saw the timelines in the distance, glowing in all kinds of pink love and green forests, purple dreams and blue skies, golden summers and silver starlight. The colourless timelines were hard to see from here, almost impossible even for Loki, who, as a god, had better eyesight than his mortal friend.

“Wow!” Mobius whispered again, taking a thoughtless step forward and coming dangerously close to the edge of the roof. But Loki noticed and carefully but firmly pulled his friend back a little, away from the danger of falling who knows how far down.

“You never knew the TVA had rooftops, did you?” Loki grinned.

Mobius dreamily shook his head, his mouth slightly opened, and gaze still fixed on the faraway timelines. “I never even thought about it! How did you find out?”

Finally, his eyes found Loki’s again. Loki smiled. “I looked.”

Neither of them knew how much time had passed when Loki finally spoke again, after they had silently sat beside each other, taking in the beauty that was life.

“I think I know what is going on.”

Suddenly ripped from his own quiet thoughts, Mobius blankly stared at Loki. “What?”

“The colourless timelines.” Loki patiently waited for his friend to comprehend what he had just said. When he saw Mobius’s eyes grow wide, he continued. “I think I know why they’re suddenly appearing everywhere.”

“What!? And you’re just telling me now!?” Mobius looked as shocked and aghast as relieved and curious. “Well, what is it?”

“I think”, Loki slowly voiced his thoughts, “it’s another Kang variant. You see, I’ve been slipping into this one Kang variant’s mind for a while now. It just took me some time to connect the dots and realise it was all the same person.”

“Hold on.” Mobius raised a hand to stop Loki from talking. “So, your latest mind slips have all been about the same Kang variant?”

Loki tilted his head. “Well, not all of them, but many, yes. Most, even.”

“Okay. And how is that connected to the grey timelines?”

“I’m not sure. It’s like… It feels a little like every grey timeline was asleep. Not dead – not pruned – but not quite as alive as they should be.”

“And do you have any clue why?”

“No. I only know he has a plan – and whichever plan it is, step one is gathering allies without being seen. I’ve watched him convincing others to follow him.”

Slowly, Mobius nodded. “So, you don’t know his motivation, either?”

“All I know is, he’s been corrupted by the mere thought of power. The wish for power is the strongest sensation I feel when experiencing mind slips into his life – but a close second is the same kind of numbness I experienced when faced with the colourless timelines.”

“Right.” Mobius let out a long sigh. “Well, that sounds awesome.”

Loki shrugged. “We all knew that one day, there might be a Kang variant who would turn out to be more dangerous than the ones the TVA usually deals with these days.”

“I know, I know, it’s not that, just…” He looked up at the timelines again. “It’s only been months. I hoped we’d have a little more time before the next catastrophe would happen.”

“Oh, don’t say catastrophe, it’s not! We’ll soon figure out how to deal with this, I’m sure.”

Quietly, Mobius laughed. “Never thought I’d say that, but: I wish I had your optimism.”

After that, they didn’t stay on the roof for much longer. With the help of Mobius as a patient listener, Loki had finally sorted his thoughts and found the words to voice them. Now, he wanted the others to know, and Mobius, now that he was informed, felt the suddenly very persistent urge to get to his feet and save the world – well, all of them – or something like it.

So, they separated and went on the search for their friends.

Chapter Text

Mobius hurried through empty corridors and down seemingly endless staircases, lost in his tumbling thoughts. He was the first to find someone: Verity, who was still talking to Bonnie.

When he stepped towards them, neither of the two noticed him. Verity was just saying, “It can’t be, they were all so clueless when they came!”

“Clueless, yes…” Bonnie made a vague gesture, pointing at herself, Verity, to the sky and who knows where else. “But they were all very persistent. I think they had a clear goal in mind, but they knew they couldn’t reach it – which made them appear clueless, while in their own heads, they were the masterminds and completely in control of the situation.”

Her high voice sounded unexpectedly firm, the determination in it as present as always. Mobius barely knew Bonnie, but as far as he remembered, she had been at the TVA even before him.

Mobius cleared his throat to get their attention, and the two women looked up. Verity’s face showed an irritated frown, while Bonnie’s eyes were wide from surprise, almost as round as the thin, golden frames of her glasses. “Hey”, he said, “I don’t wanna bother you or anything, but we might have figured out something important. About the timelines. The grey ones.”

Verity’s face fell. “What!? How long have you been standing there without even saying a word?”

He shrugged. “Chill out, not that long, about a minute, maybe? I’m not that good with time, you know, ‘cause-”

Verity didn’t let him finish. “Chill out? Really? After you were just standing there silently instead of running up to us, screaming the news? What is it, what do you know?”

“Well, knowing is a strong word.” Mobius shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other, unsure of how to phrase his next thought without upsetting Verity even more. “You see, it wasn’t exactly me who figured it out – it was Loki. I was just there. I listened, I tried to give advice…”

“Mobius, get to the point.”

“Okay, okay! Geeze. Well, we thought it would be best to inform you all together, y’know, to avoid some sort of changes to his words, which can easily happen through mouth-to-mouth-”

“And where’s the rest?”

He blinked, a little irritated to have been interrupted once again. “I don’t know! That’s why I’m here, we’re trying to find you all and get you in one room!”

After a short, very tense pause, Verity simply stood up and said, “Fine, I’ll wait for you in my apartment. And by you, I mean all of you!”

With that, she left. Mobius looked at Bonnie, who shrugged apologetically, then hurried after Verity.

Of course, Loki found OB and Victor together in the Repairs and Advancement department. They spent most of their time there and were rarely ever seen apart. Whatever it was, something had forged an unbreakable bond between the two, and they seemed to genuinely have become very close friends within the short span of just a few months.

When Loki entered, they were absorbed deeply into a discussion whose topic Loki couldn’t immediately place. Something about the efficiency of windmills compared to… nuclear power stations? No, the latter was dropped the moment it was mentioned.

“Modern hydroelectric power plants surely produce at least thrice the amount of energy the best and most advanced windmill could! And this one…” OB was eagerly slamming his finger on the desk, pointing at something Loki couldn’t see, but which he seemed to deem important. When Loki took a step towards it, OB barely noticed him and only quickly greeted him with a rushed “Hi, Loki!”, then continued talking unbothered and like a waterfall. Victor, on the other hand, found the time to offer Loki a shy smile and hesitantly wiggle his fingers as his very own form of greeting. Then, he turned his attention back at OB, giving Loki a chance to study what OB hat pointed at so vigorously before.

It was the plan of a hydroelectric power station which closely resembled one of the first models for an extended temporal loom, which now, of course, had long been dropped and become irrelevant.

“…but if you take the rings and put them over here…”, OB was just saying, first pointing at the mentioned rings on the plan, then at “here”, “…you get at least half the amount of energy on top of what you already have!”

Victor tilted his head attentively, although he seemed a little confused. “Half the amount extra? Are you certain? It seems to me that… it would be less.”

For a moment, Loki was taken aback, looking at Victor dumbfounded. He wasn’t sure which part about Victor’s words had caught him off guard, but something had been off, or at the very least been unusual enough to surprise him. Then, as OB continued babbling, realisation dawned on Loki: Victor hadn’t stuttered. Not in the least! Since when was that possible?

While Loki was still lost in his thoughts, only half-listening to the ongoing conversation, OB continued talking agitatedly. He was still explaining why this specific hydroelectric power station brought more advantages than a windmill, when one of his points suddenly caught Loki’s attention.

“Anyway, you’ll get the friction, and then-”

“Hold on a minute.”

Both looked up surprisedly, as if they had forgotten Loki was still there. OB seemed almost a little irritated, but Victor was curiously waiting for Loki to continue.

“You’re saying this will increase the efficiency – right?”

OB nodded, Victor shrugged.

Slowly, Loki stepped closer to the plan, taking his time while looking at it in silence. Neither OB nor Victor dared to say a word. The atmosphere in the room suddenly got very tense, but Loki didn’t seem to notice.

After a long pause, he finally continued, “Well, you would be right…” – Victor released a relieved breath he hadn’t known he had been holding – “…if the contraction of the stream really made the difference you think it does.”

OB frowned. “Wait, are you saying it doesn’t?”

“Exactly.” Loki shook his head. “Because while a narrower hole would be beneficial in terms of channelling the flowing water to a high-pressured stream, the height you would inevitably have to subtract would decrease the power of the falling water. See…”

He let his finger slide across the plan, supporting his words through pointing at the different steps. “First, you have the regular-sized-hole, okay? It’s a thought-through concept and it works, but you know it could be better – so, you put the hole over there instead, because making it smaller up here would mean less water could reach it, and -”

“Loki?”

Loki stopped mid-sentence and swirled around, as did Victor and OB. Sylvie was standing in the doorway, balancing three cups of coffee in her hands. “When did you get here?”

“I…”

“Sylvie!” OB grinned as he walked around the desk and towards her with outstretched hands. “Thanks for the coffee! We got a bit carried away about the old loom-like water-power-model we found, Loki only arrived a bit ago and was just explaining how he thinks we could increase its efficiency.”

Sylvie raised one eyebrow at Loki, who couldn’t think of anything to say, so he just shrugged. “Okay… And you’re here because…?”

Oh. Had he actually completely forgotten about the timeline-problem for a few minutes, just like that?

“Right.” He cleared his throat and looked from Sylvie to OB to Victor, shortly resting his gaze on each of them before stating, “We have a new theory about the colourless timelines, and this time, it might be fact.”

Casey was the next person Mobius found. He was sitting on a desk in the loom room, a notebook on his lap, a sleepy gaze on his face and an empty coffee cup next to him. The quiet electric rustling of old computers filled the air and the distant pulsing of the branching timelines lit the room in a warm pink or blueish green then and when. It smelled of cold coffee and dust.

When Mobius approached him from behind, Casey quickly noticed someone was there but only slowly turned around to check who it was. His eyes were framed by faint dark shadows.

“Oh, Mobius.” He tried a smile. Casey didn’t look miserable, just very tired – for a good reason, since he was eagerly documenting every change he saw concerning the timelines; a task he performed day and night. “Are you coming to try to force me to take a break again?”

Mobius huffed a laugh. “Something like it, I guess, but not quite.”

Casey amusedly raised his eyebrows, which made Mobius clarify, “No, it’s not a break I’m asking you to take, just a break from your current task. Loki might have figured out what’s going on with those grey timelines you’re watching all day.”

“Really?” Suddenly, Casey looked a lot more awake than before. “What is it?”

Mobius shook his head. “Let’s talk about that with Loki, okay? He wanted all of us to be in the same room when discussing it, I guess to minimise having to repeat it over and over again, and to keep possible rumours from spreading.”

With a sigh, Casey nodded. “Fine. Where’re we meeting ‘em?”

Chapter Text

Verity’s apartment smelled like cinnamon and candlewax. Warmth seeped into the hallway the moment its door was opened. On the soft red couch in the living and dining room, there were two fluffy blankets, one of which was laying on Bonnie’s lap when Mobius and Casey entered the room. Sylvie was sitting next to Bonnie, staring into the flames of three candles on a low, small table in front of her. Loki was leaning on the wall next to Sylvie, Victor and OB both had taken a seat at the small table, on which Mobius spotted a plate with cookies. He walked over to sit across Victor and took one of the cookies, which were still warm as he now noticed. The smell of cinnamon became the taste of cinnamon, chocolate and soft dough the second he took a bite.

From the kitchen, which was mostly hidden behind a dark orange wall, he heard quiet festive music playing in the background. There was a piano, followed by the faint sound of bells, and Mobius was almost sure he could hear someone sing the words “driving home for Christmas”. Before he could ask about it, though, Verity walked inside the kitchen and a moment later, the music stopped.

When she came back, the only noise was the ticking sound of a round clock surrounded by square picture frames. Most of them were empty, but in some, he could spot drawings, or pictures of Verity and Bonnie. The biggest picture showed everyone who was in the room – except Bonnie, who had taken it. Mobius smiled when he saw it. He could remember the day the picture had been taken, just a few days after Loki had finally come back from the end of time.

Verity took her place between Sylvie and Bonnie on the couch and gestured for Casey to take a seat at the table OB, Victor and Mobius were already sitting around. Casey did, glancing over at Mobius with uncertainty. Mobius didn’t know how to react but wanted to make him more comfortable somehow, so he offered Casey one of Verity’s cookies. Casey smiled tiredly and took it.

The ticking of the clock was joined by the quiet chewing from the table and the occasional sniffling sound, polite cough or clearing of the throat, when one of them wanted to ease the tension a little but didn’t know how.

“So”, Verity said after a while, becoming the first person to finally raise her voice in this expectant atmosphere. The word fell into the room like a stone in water. “What’s the news?”

Almost immediately, Loki locked eyes with Mobius. Mobius nodded encouragingly and Loki took a deep breath.

“The timelines”, he slowly began, “are falling asleep. I know it sounds crazy – it probably is – but that’s what it feels like. They aren’t dead, no-one is pruning them either, they simply… lose a little life, become a little numb, a little sleepy, less vibrant. And this, I think, is connected to one specific Kang variant who is seeking recruits on those very timelines which turn colourless.”

Loki seemed to be holding his breath for a moment, while they all silently and impatiently begged for him to gather and voice his thoughts.

“Now”, Loki finally continued, “you will of course ask yourselves how I know this – and I don’t. All I say is purely speculation, but it is based on those of my mind slips which have been occurring for about as long as we know about the fading of the timelines.”

Everyone was looking at him blankly, anxiously waiting to hear what he would say next. Everyone but Mobius, who had taken to attentively studying his hands since he could feel Sylvie’s burning gaze on him, a gaze that said, Did you know about this while I didn’t? Tell me, Mobius, did you? Did he tell you but not me?

“I know this one variant wants to gather allies for a plan I haven’t found out yet, and he doesn’t want to be seen. I have watched him gain followers, who he convinces or threatens with the very concept that has corrupted himself: power. It is his strongest wish – I have felt it when slipping into his thoughts, every single time, so overwhelmingly strong that I was almost intrigued. And what led me to draw the conclusion that this specific variant is the cause of the timelines’ loss of colour is the intense numbness that dulled my sight whenever I was with him – the same numbness that comes with the fading of the timelines.”

He paused, but the meaning of his words echoed in the cinnamon-heavy air. The flames of the three candles that stood on the low table in front of the couch flickered as if Loki’s words had brushed over them like a light gust of wind.

“Help me understand this”, Sylvie said after a long minute of thoughtful silence. Loki looked at her and Mobius saw the accusation on her face and the apology in his eyes. Before either of them even continued to speak, Sylvie and Loki seemed to be having a whole conversation without uttering a single word. Loki held her gaze, until Sylvie finally sighed and looked away for a second, before saying, “This variant collects allies from different timelines like Pokémon cards, which makes the timelines turn grey for whatever reason. Right?”

“Like – what?” Casey frowned. “What’s that name you just said?”

“I…” Sylvie seemed to have been caught off guard, but she quickly regained her composure. “Pokémon cards. That’s… Oh, it’s not important, really, it’s just a kinda popular game on many timelines. Mostly in Midgard, though.”

“Okay…” Casey still seemed confused, so Sylvie added, “It’s just a saying. Forget about it.”

He nodded, but didn’t seem content with that solution. Loki continued anyway. “To get back to the topic, ah… Yes. Exactly what Sylvie said.”

“And what do we do about it?” The question had come from Bonnie, whose presence Mobius had almost forgotten about since she had barely moved the entire time. Her glasses reflected the dancing flames of the candles in front of her.

Loki looked at her with blank honesty. “I don’t know.”

A glum pause followed his words like a cold shadow. Mobius hated the way Loki’s eyes were glued to the floor, he hated the wall Sylvie was building to shield herself from any emotion, he hated how guilty Victor looked, as if he had anything to do with that variant just because he himself was a variant of the same person. He hated how Bonnie was biting her lip in discomfort, how low Verity’s shoulders had sunken, how Casey was avoiding eye contact with anyone, and how unusually quiet OB was.

He wanted to change that. He wanted his friends to feel better. So, he quietly cleared his throat, which made everyone’s gazes jump at him within the blink of an eye. “Well…” Mobius crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We’re gonna figure something out. That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” To be there for each other. To feel a little less alone in this whole situation. “To find a solution.”

“Right.” Loki’s smile reminded Mobius of why he had decided to put himself in the spotlight so suddenly. The way this smile warmed his heart was definitely worth it.

“So…” Loki straightened his back, already looking a little more confident. “Any suggestions? I myself had the idea of finding out about the variant’s motive to make him stop. I just don’t know how we would do that.”

“Either way”, Verity added, “we’re gonna have to face this variant.”

“And therefore, we first have to find him!” OB said. “But where should we start looking? He could be anywhere!”

With a hesitant hope in his heart, Mobius turned to Loki. “Loki, do you have an idea where he might go next?”

But Loki shook his head. “Sadly, I do not. I feel where he already was, not where he wants to move on to.”

Bonnie frowned. “Is there a specific kind of timelines he visits?”

Loki shrugged. “Not that I know of.”

“And the others?” Victor was holding a cookie, but he seemed to have forgotten about it. “Wh-what about… the variants he g-gathers?”

Again, Loki shook his head. “No idea. I barely know anything, and the choices of which I have witnessed a part are random to me.”

“Hm.” Victor leaned back and tried to fold his hands, which was when he noticed the cookie, looked at it surprisedly for a moment, then lifted it to his mouth, hesitated, and finally ate it.

Chapter Text

Loki had told him. He had told Mobius, but not Sylvie. It hurt to know this, but his face hadn’t left her with a doubt about her assumption. The fact that Mobius had avoided eye contact with her hadn’t helped, either.

She felt betrayed. Was it because he didn’t trust her not to jump to false conclusions and head out to finish the variant all by herself, like she had done before, in killing He Who Remains? Was it because he didn’t want her to know about how often his mind slips were happening and how bad they really were? Or even worse – was it because he hadn’t even thought about it, had only wanted to tell Mobius, not her?

Sylvie hated to admit it, but she wasn’t only angry with Loki, she was jealous of her own and his best friend. What if Loki still trusted Mobius more than Sylvie instead of both equally, after everything they had gone through? And… what if that would never change?

“Sylvie?”

Her attention snapped back to the room. Everyone was looking at her after OB had called her name.

“What?”

“Were you listening?”

She shrugged, which brought a sigh out of OB. “Either way”, he said, “we just decided to search the timelines. There’s not much else we can do, sadly.”

She nodded and pretended to have heard it anyway.

Verity cleared her throat. “It would probably be best to make groups of three people. If we all go to separate timelines and move on as fast as possible, we can be the most efficient. And less than three wouldn’t be smart since we’re talking about the most dangerous Kang variant since the collapse of the loom.”

“I hate to break it to you”, OB commented. “But we’re eight people – making groups of three will be a little difficult.”

“No, it won’t. Aturi can help.” Loki noticed Sylvie’s surprised face before he pushed himself off the wall and walked a few steps in the room, facing each of them before continuing to speak. “In each group, we need at least one person who can take a fight, one person who’s good with analysing data and knows about the TVA’s history, and one person who knows at least a bit about how the multiverse works, how the colourless timelines behave and what it takes to cause a timeline to die.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound like splitting us into groups will be easy.” OB’s front was wrinkled with worry, but Loki shrugged it off.

“It’s easy enough. Look: You, Mobius and Bonnie…” – he pointed at each of them while he spoke – “…are our analysts. The three of you can see a story without judgement and filter out whatever information is needed.”

OB couldn’t hide a proud grin, Bonnie nodded confidently, Mobius looked down at his lap with a bashful smile.

Loki continued. “Victor obviously has an expertise on the loom that once weaved the multiverse to one sacred timeline. Through that, he knows a lot about the timelines, too.” Victor laughed uncomfortably when everyone looked at him appreciatively but seemed happy about Loki’s words.

“Casey has spent the last days documenting every single small activity he witnessed in the infinity of the multiverse – he might now be the best-informed of us all when it comes to recent changes in the web of timelines.”

Casey had a very self-assured expression when he nodded.

“And I spent…” Loki’s voice trailed off before he caught himself again. “I spent a long time surrounded by the multiverse itself. The three of us are the ones who know about the multiverse and its behaviourisms.” He looked up and smiled at Sylvie and Verity. “That, of course, leaves you two and Aturi as the ones who are most likely to stay upright in a fight.”

Verity sighed and nodded. Sylvie shrugged, muttering, “It sure does.”

“So, that’s how we will build our groups”, Loki concluded.

“Okay, awesome!” Mobius stood up and walked up beside Loki. “If no-one objects, I’ll make group one with Loki and Sylvie.”

Sylvie smiled at him – an expression without meaning. “Sounds good.” Her gaze wandered over to Loki, who returned her smile. Did he notice how cold her eyes were?

“Then Victor and I will make the second group”, OB said with a questioning look at Victor, who nodded. “We just n-need a f-f-fighter”, he added.

“Well, you’re gonna have to take Aturi then, ‘cause I’ll be in a group with Bonnie”, Verity said, putting an arm around the smiling Bonnie, and OB shrugged. “Fine by me.”

“So, what about me?” Casey asked. “Whose group am I in?”

“We still need a multiverse expert”, Bonnie smiled. “Want to be in our group?”

“I’ll happily accept that offer!” Casey returned with a grin, visibly honoured to now hold the title of multiverse expert.

“Okay, let me sum that up real quick. Group one…” – Mobius counted the groups on one raised hand – “…is Loki, Sylvie and me. Group two, OB, Victor and Aturi. Which leaves Verity, Bonnie and Casey for group three.”

“Sounds about right”, Bonnie agreed.

“Yeah”, Sylvie sighed. “Which makes us three times three people trying to just skim all of existence real quick, because, well, why not? Why would we need more than nine people for something as easy as that? I could do it all by myself on a Thursday afternoon if I wanted to!”

“Sylvie…” Loki took a step towards her, but Sylvie only backed away in response.

“No!” she shouted, suddenly full of a rage she didn’t quite understand, and everyone stared at her. Or maybe not that suddenly after all. Deep down, she knew it was just an outlet for all the built-up emotions she had held back for weeks now, which didn’t really surprise her, but it still confused her that all these emotions now came out as rage towards none other than Loki of all people.

“We can’t do this all by ourselves! We won’t get anywhere if we’re only nine against literally every single world there is!”

Loki’s face was twisted into a deep, worried frown while his patient, understanding gaze rested on her. “But we cannot ask anyone’s help either. We don’t know who we can trust with the information about this variant.”

“So what?” Sylvie could feel her voice, although now quieter, was on the edge of breaking. “We need help, or we’ll never find him before he’s built a whole-ass army to fend us all off!”

“I know, but-”

“But what? None of us know where he is now, or what exactly his plans are except ‘power’” – her fingers formed sarcastic quotation marks – “which isn’t exactly concrete, is it?”

“Maybe I can find out some more about it while-”

“When you have another mind slip that nearly kills you?” She took a step forward again, until she was only inches away from him. Her voice was dangerously quiet as she spat her next words in his pale face. “Don’t you think I figured out by now, even though you were lying to me the whole time about how bad they really are?”

Loki’s mouth fell open. His eyes were looking at her, but Sylvie felt like he couldn’t see her, although he was trying to. There was no veil hiding his emotions as he stood there, facing her. The honestly hit her like a blast of cold water in the face, washing away all the rage and leaving her with guilt and exhaustion.

Suddenly, Sylvie became very aware of how quiet it had become. When she glanced around the room, she realised everyone was staring at her and Loki with shock or uncertainty in their eyes.

Everyone but Mobius, who had taken to watching the cookies as if they’d run amok if he didn’t. After a very long moment of very tense silence, he cleared his throat, causing everyone’s eyes to move to him rather than Sylvie and Loki.

“Uhm… I think we’ll all leave for a minute. Verity?”

Verity blinked like she was waking from a dream. “Uh, yea, I… Yea.” She nodded and shooed everyone except Mobius, Sylvie and Loki outside. With one last glance at Mobius she made sure he was following, then she left her own apartment after the others.

Mobius took his time to look at Loki and Sylvie for a few heartbeats without a word, before he finally stood up and left as well.

As soon as Mobius had closed the door behind him, assuring them that the others had all gone outside, Sylvie let herself sink to the floor, dropped her head onto her knees and wrapped her arms around herself. It was all too much. She just couldn’t take it any longer. She had been strong for too long, had tried to be strong for Loki, too, just to take some weight off his shoulders, so that he wouldn’t have to feel as bad about losing control every time a mind slip happened.

Needless to say, making herself feel worse to take some weight off Loki’s shoulders didn’t exactly make him feel better, either.

But he had told Mobius, hadn’t he? He had told Mobius about the worst recent mind slips – and they seemed to be reoccurring ever since the timelines had started to turn grey.

“Sylvie?”

Mobius had known. She hadn’t been allowed to know.

Suddenly, she felt an arm around her shoulders, before Loki pulled her close and held her tight without a word.

A long silence followed, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Not comfortable, either, just… something neutral. Neither of them felt good at the moment, but at least they were there together.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Loki whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Just that. Nothing more.

And Sylvie gave in.

Her tears silently rolled down her cheeks while he held her in his arms, gently rocking back and forth. She wasn’t sure he had noticed she was crying, but she didn’t really care right now. The only thing that mattered was that he was here, and he was there for her. He was being strong for her this time, for however long she couldn’t be. And although it took some willpower to allow him to be, Sylvie was so glad to get to simply be weak for once.

Loki didn’t know what was wrong, but whatever it was, it weighed on Sylvie like a mountain. And it most probably had for a while, now.

He didn’t need to think about what he was going to do when she broke down in front of him, which was good, because he was sure he would have been clueless had he tried to use his brain. Instead, he let his instincts take over and suddenly found himself sat on the floor beside Sylvie, wrapping his arms around her to let her feel his presence, make her understand he was here.

While they sat there, slightly moving back and forth, an unpleasant thought dawned on him, but Loki pushed it away for when Sylvie could talk about it. Not now. Later.

Although maybe later would mean never.

His right hand drew calming motions on her back, and Sylvie’s shoulders relaxed just a little.

What if this was all his fault? It wasn’t unlikely…

Oh, Sylvie.

“I’m sorry.”

For a moment, her body tensed again, then he felt her relax and sink deeper into his embrace. It didn’t take long for him to notice that she was crying, but he didn’t say anything. There was no need to. The only thing that mattered was that she was here, and he was here with her, for her. Something he hadn’t been able to do for far too long.

After a few minutes, Sylvie had stopped crying, and after another few minutes, she gently pushed herself away from Loki, just far enough to look at him while still being wrapped in his arms – he wasn’t planning on letting go all that soon.

“Sorry”, she said while trying a small smile. “I just…” Sylvie sighed. “It’s all been a lot the past months. And longer, to be honest. First, the whole thing with He Who Remains and the fact that I experienced something like genuine affection for another being for maybe the first time in my life…”

He couldn’t help but smile, and she mirrored his expression.

“… Then feeling betrayed by exactly this person, trying to move on and finally live the life I’d always wanted, then you coming back, then the whole loom thing, having to let you go once again, then you were gone for months before I finally saw you again and you looked…” – her gaze was still fixed on Loki, but he was sure she was seeing his past-self on the throne instead of him – “…almost dead.”

She took a quivering breath before blinking rapidly and seeing Loki again. “Then, Mobius and I were hopping the timelines to find another Loki who could help me find the strength to get you out of there, which meant I saw a lot of us whose fates I hadn’t been prepared for. Then, we thought we had destroyed all of existence, but after we figured out we actually hadn’t, your mind slips started. And not only have they not stopped ever since, but they’ve also even become worse. And now that whole thing with the colourless timelines is happening, there’s still so much left to fix. I don’t feel ready to go on another adventure to save existence itself. I don’t even feel ready to look at my own file!”

“Wait – look at your file?” He stared at her full of confused surprise. “What do you mean? I thought you don’t have one…?”

An apologetic smile made its way onto Sylvie’s face. “Well… I do. Mobius and Verity found it on accident and Mobius told me just a few weeks ago, not long after you had come back.”

Loki could feel his mouth falling open in disbelief, but he didn’t care nearly enough to bother. He didn’t know what to say. How could this be possible?

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to think about it.” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know why. I always wanted to read it and now that I finally could, I haven’t even looked at it.”

Suddenly, Aturi’s face appeared in Loki’s mind. “You’re gonna go visit that friend of yours soon?”

“Not all too soon, I’m afraid. He isn’t expecting me, anyway.”

“I…” He looked away. “I understand. There’s… been something similar going on for me.”

He looked at her again and saw the same confusion in Sylvie’s eyes that he had felt before.

“But you know about your file”, she hesitantly said, voicing it more like a question than a statement. “You’ve read it.”

Loki smiled. “I have. But…” He took a deep breath. “Do you remember I told you about an old friend of mine that I wanted to visit when the time had come?”

She nodded, but the confusion on her face didn’t become any less.

“Well, he isn’t actually a friend… He’s my brother, Thor.”

Her eyes grew wide. “You… He… Wait, what!?”

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to think about it”, he quoted her hesitantly. “Sorry?”

For a moment, Sylvie just stared at him, her mouth hanging slightly open. Then, she did the unthinkable: she laughed. “Would you say I have to be sorry for not telling you about my file?”

He firmly shook his head. “Absolutely not!”

“Then why would you have to be for not telling me about Thor?” She smirked, tilting her head. “I guess we both have to face a challenge we shouldn’t face alone.”

With a sigh, Loki agreed. “I think so, too.” Was now the right time to ask about his doubts from before? About her breakdown being his fault? Probably not – but judging by the way Sylvie was looking at him, he couldn’t hide it much longer, anyway. “Sylvie… I, um…”

She raised one eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Your outburst… Was it because of me? Because I didn’t tell you? About the mind slips, I mean.”

Her smile froze before it faded. For a few heartbeats, she didn’t answer. Then, she finally but very slowly said, “Kind of. Look, it’s not your fault – not really, anyway. I just… I felt so betrayed.”

He didn’t know what to say, so he just waited for her to continue.

“I realised by how Mobius didn’t seem surprised about anything you told us that you had talked to him about your throne problem, but I knew you hadn’t talked to me.”

Averting his gaze, he let out a long sigh. “Sorry. I wanted to talk to you, but you seemed so busy, and I didn’t know where to start and didn’t want to lower your spirits. I just didn’t want you to worry even more. Mobius never had to see me half-dead, you know. You did. I knew you could take it, but I also know you haven’t forgotten the image of my lifeless body bound to countless timelines on the damned throne. I couldn’t bear the thought of mentally putting you through that again. And I figured you knew my mind slips were happening, anyway, so I saw no need in telling you they were even worse than you probably thought they were.”

Loki had expected Sylvie to be hurt by his words, or at the very least angry. Instead, the anxious knot in his heart twisted and finally dissolved when she smiled. “It’s alright. I’m just glad it’s not because… you didn’t trust me not to go out there to try and kill this variant or something. You know, like I did to He Who Remains.”

“What? No!” He fiercely shook his head. “Absolutely not! Sylvie, I trust you with all my heart – more than I trust myself, if I am honest.”

She laughed, but when Loki took her hands into his own and looked at her seriously, she surprisedly lifted her head to meet his eyes. “I mean it, Sylvie. I really do. Norns, I wouldn’t even think twice about jumping off that metaphorical bridge if you told me to do so!”

That made her giggle quietly, which warmed Loki’s heart. “In all honesty a god of lies can bring up, Sylvie… I love you.” Well, that wasn’t what he had meant to say. But it was true, so he didn’t question it, didn’t pause, didn’t flinch, just kept looking into Sylvie’s wide, breathtakingly beautiful blue eyes and moved on. “And I trust you. And I would do anything to make sure you’re okay – which is why I hate to be the cause of your doubts or tears, so when I am, please tell me.”

Sylvie stared at him.

He could feel his own heartbeat, the heat rising to his cheeks, his suddenly cool hands.

No word was spoken as her hands carefully squeezed his half-consciously. Time seemed to be standing still for a moment, until Sylvie blinked, swallowed a bundle of emotions and bit her lip, letting her gaze flicker away from him for a second.

Yet she hesitated, before she finally nodded. “Only if you also tell me next time something as bad as those damn mind slips happen to you, Loki. Like, I realise you don’t want me to worry or something, but I do notice when you’re unwell, so I worry even more if I don’t know what’s going on.”

Loki remorsefully looked down while he nodded, then up at Sylvie again with a smile. “Sounds like a fair deal.”

She returned his smile. “Then let’s stick to our word this time.”

“I am fairly confident we will.”

Chapter Text

Aturi wasn’t a fan of the idea of abandoning their houseboat for a few days or weeks, but at least they were willing to help and excited to go on an adventure and out into the world. “I’ve spent enough time being sad and lonely”, they sighed. “I guess it’s only time to finally do something. Also, I’m hella interested in seeing this whole multiverse thing.”

The fact that they were seeing “this whole multiverse thing” every day because, well, they were living in it, didn’t seem to bother them. “Whatever”, Aturi shrugged, when Loki tried to explain it to them. “How am I supposed to see this here as part of a multiverse if I’ve never even seen another universe?”

Although not a universe each, Aturi had never seen Victor, OB, Bonnie and Casey either, so Loki and Sylvie invited them to the TVA before they’d start their mission with Victor and OB.

Upon seeing the TVA buildings, Aturi couldn’t help but wrinkle their nose. “This place is very sterile”, they commented even before anyone could ask them about how they liked it here.

“Yeah… It kinda lacks a whole bunch of colours, doesn’t it?” Sylvie agreed.

Loki smirked, shaking his head. “It was designed for a specific purpose, not to be pleasing to the eye, I’m afraid.”

Since Verity’s apartment had become the silently agreed upon meeting place (probably because it was cosy and Verity loved having guests over), that’s where they went to meet the others.

It was no surprise to see Bonnie opening the door with a careful smile. “Hi! The others are already here, what took you so long?”

She gestured for the three to go inside, and while Loki explained that they had done a little sightseeing tour around the TVA, Bonnie and Aturi studied each other interestedly. When Loki noticed, he fell silent.

“Hi”, Bonnie said again, and while she stretched out her hand, her small smile reappeared. “I’m Bonnie.”

Aturi hesitated barely enough to notice before they took Bonnie’s hand and – to Loki’s and Sylvie’s surprise – mirrored Bonnie’s smile. “I’m Aturi, as you probably figured.”

Bonnie shrugged. “It was to be expected, yes. Just checking, if you don’t mind – they/them, right?”

Aturi nodded, to which Bonnie clarified, “Okay, great, it’s she/her for me. Awesome! Then let’s go see the others, shall we?”

Aturi had to admit, they kind of liked Bonnie.

Yes, they were surprised about that – of course they were. Maybe their defences had become weak after befriending Sylvie, Mobius and Loki after so many years of being alone. Verity wasn’t bad, either. And Bonnie seemed to be yet another likable person in this circle of friendly people. She walked ahead and waved for the others to follow her, leading them into a living room which was connected to a very small kitchen. The latter was only separated from the rest of the room by a wall in the same orange which Aturi had identified as the TVA’s signature colour, but inside Verity’s apartment, the orange suddenly seemed warm and inviting instead of it screaming danger, which was nice.

On another wall, there were quite some picture frames, and although most of them were empty, a few framed drawings and photographs. In many of the latter, Aturi could spot Bonnie, her face showing a variety of expressions ranging from the widest smile to the deepest sarcastic frown.

All in all, Verity’s apartment looked nothing like anything else Aturi had seen in the TVA so far.

Bonnie sat down on a comfortable-looking sofa, next to Verity, Mobius and someone Aturi didn’t know. The other two whom they didn’t yet know were sitting around a small kitchen table. Loki walked past Aturi to join them there. Only Sylvie was still standing right behind Aturi. When they turned around, Sylvie smiled and quietly said, “I think it feels less awkward to be standing around when everyone else is sitting if you’re not the only one standing.”

Aturi amusedly smiled back and shrugged as if they didn’t care, but the region around their heart suddenly felt a little warmer.

“Anyway”, Sylvie said, now loud enough for everyone to hear. “This is Aturi, as you probably guessed. Aturi, that’s Casey” – she gestured at the one sitting on the sofa, who waved with a shy smile – “this is OB” – then at the smaller one of the two who were sitting at the table, who also waved, but with at least twice the energy and a wide grin – “and next to him is Victor” – a wide-eyed guy who wiggled his fingers, which Aturi interpreted as yet another wave.

“Well, hi Casey, OB and Victor”, Aturi said, looking at each of them upon speaking their names. “I heard I’ll be in a group with the two of you when we hunt this variant, right?” They looked at OB and Victor, who both nodded.

“You don’t take long to come to the point, I see”, OB commented. “I like that! I think we’ll make a good team.”

“W-we m-m-most definitely… will”, Victor stuttered his agreement – and Aturi froze. Someone commented something else, but Aturi could neither make out the words, nor who was saying them. They only stared at Victor, who looked back uncomfortably, but Aturi didn’t see him. They were looking into the past, into a long-forgotten memory – no, hundreds of memories. Not at the poor guy staring back at them, asking himself what he had done wrong.

“Aturi?”

If it wasn’t Sylvie’s voice which brought Aturi back, it must have been her touch – a careful hand gently brushing over their arm.

Aturi jerked back and threw their hands on their knives.

Suddenly, the whole room stopped breathing. The only sound Aturi could her was their own pounding heart.

Sylvie’s hands were raised to a defensive pose which Aturi had seen on Loki countless times. Sylvie surely must have copied it from him, they thought, while Sylvie calmly said, “Hey, it’s fine. You’re fine. That was just me. Sorry, I didn’t think twice.”

Aturi closed their eyes for a moment to take a deep breath. “Yeah, whatever.” They opened their eyes again. “Sorry. Just a reflex.”

No-one moved a muscle – except Sylvie, who nodded. “Thought so. Anyway, where were we? Right, the groups. Let me repeat.”

She looked around the room as if nothing had happened. “Group one: Loki, Mobius and me.”

Loki looked up at her and smiled.

“Group two: Aturi, Victor and OB.”

Victor and OB exchanged a quick glance – a little too quick, as if they were worried someone might notice. The gnawing feeling of being unwanted and probably feared grew on Aturi.

“And last but not least, group three: Verity, Bonnie and Casey.”

And so, they had gathered their groups. It didn’t take long for small conversations to spark within the room, giving Aturi the chance to steal away. They had just closed the door behind them, when they heard it open again. Swirling around, Aturi expected to see Sylvie in the door frame. Instead, they were facing the guy named Casey.

“Hey”, he said.

“Uh… hey?” Aturi’s voice should have told him to leave them the hell alone, but he didn’t seem to care, or maybe not even notice.

“Where’re you goin’? We were just getting out all the cookie boxes.”

“I…” Cookie boxes!? “I don’t think I’ll stay.”

“Why not?” The way he was looking at them, the guy really meant it. “If it’s because of what happened with Sylvie, don’t worry about it. I’m friends with two Lokis.” He raised his eyebrows with a meaningful expression.

“Okay…” Aturi didn’t know what to say. They didn’t even know how to normally stand anymore. What were they supposed to do with their hands, again?

Casey smiled. “Either way, the cookies are really good. Verity made them. Oh, and Bonnie helped, of course. So, if you want to try some, you should probably come inside again.”

For a long moment, they simply stood there, staring at each other. Then, Aturi shrugged defeatedly, which Casey took as his sign to go back into Verity’s apartment and wave for Aturi to follow him.

Chapter Text

After a short cookie break to calm their spirits, they didn’t waste any more time. More and more timelines were losing their colour and although Loki would have never admitted it, he was feeling worse every day. At least he hadn’t had another mind slip yet, though.

Since the only pattern they had found in which timelines became colourless was that they were usually younger, shorter ones, they decided to visit the colourless timelines first, to hopefully gain more information.

Aturi, OB and Victor set out to a once thick, purple thread – a medieval timeline, where Victor would feel right at home. Casey had documented how it had turned colourless. He, Bonnie and Verity, on the other hand, would seek out a futuristic timeline from the year 3021, while Loki, Sylvie and Mobius chose a timeline most notable for its ancient world, something all three of them had personally witnessed before.

When Sylvie opened the time door, she suddenly felt like she had months ago, when she had been on her way to Loki on his throne at the end of time. Just to be sure she hadn’t dreamt the past couple of months, Sylvie interlocked her fingers with Loki.

He was there. She could feel his warmth and the gentle squeeze of his hand around hers. When she looked up at him, he smiled, but his eyes were slightly smaller than usual, and his face was a little too pale for her liking. It was about time for them to set an end to this grey-timelines-thing.

Sylvie let go of Loki’s hand and gestured for him to go first. “After you.”

He quickly glanced over at Mobius before walking through the time door. Sylvie followed, Mobius closely behind her.

When the time door closed behind Mobius, he immediately felt there was something wrong, although he couldn’t quite place it. He had seen countless versions of the ancient world before and this one didn’t look much different – paved streets with ruts from wagons drawn by horses or oxen, tall marble temples with high pillars in the distance, wooden multi-story buildings and small street shops around them. The smell of horse droppings, smoke and warm bread hung in the air. Not quite the same as other timelines, of course, but only because no timeline looked exactly like the other. And still, there was this weird kind of numbness prickling in his fingertips… Yep, something was definitely off. It had to be.

He walked a little closer to Loki, who was standing a few steps ahead of him. “What’s up with this timeline?”

His friend’s face was lined with a deep frown. “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s way too quiet here.”

Sylvie walked up left to him. “Like the whole timeline had just… stopped breathing.”

“Yet it isn’t frozen. Look!” Loki pointed at a smoke trail winding into the sky.

Sylvie followed his gaze while she spoke. “But where are all the people? Where is all the noise you usually hear everywhere in those ancient times?”

“I don’t know.”

Suddenly, Mobius crouched down on the floor. His friends looked at him surprisedly, but before they could ask what he was doing, he put a finger on his mouth. Slowly, he moved towards a hole below the pavement on the side of the road. “There”, he whispered. “Can you see that?”

The others followed him just as carefully. “What?” Sylvie asked quietly.

“The mouse.” He pointed at the hole. “It isn’t dead, but it isn’t moving, is it?”

Inside the hole, a small mouse was almost completely stuck in a crawling motion – almost. Its hind legs were hanging in the air and very, very slowly sinking towards the ground.

“What in the name of all stars…?” Sylvie knelt beside him and stared at the tiny being in front of her. “How can this be?”

“Because the whole timeline is asleep.” They both looked up at Loki, who was still standing upright and looking into the far distance while he spoke. “It’s like I described the feeling of when timelines lose their colour. Life is still happening, but only in slow-motion.”

Chapter Text

Of course, Aturi couldn’t leave without Epres.

Mobius had given OB the TemPad for his group with Victor and Aturi, so it was OB who brought them to Aturi’s home. There, he and Victor waited in silence on the deck of a massive houseboat for Aturi to get their albino raven and come back. That is, until Victor finally spoke. “I’m not sure I… like being in a group with Aturi.”

OB raised his eyebrows so high he was sure they were hiding below his hairline at this point. “Yeah, me neither. The outbreak with Sylvie wasn’t exactly reassuring…”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“And what if that happened to one of us? They are our group’s fighter, neither you not me. We could never defend ourselves against them!”

Victor tilted his head from one side to the other thoughtfully. “We probably couldn’t, no.”

OB threw his hands in the air with an exhausted expression on his face. “We barely even know them!”

“Yes.” Victor clumsily adjusted his glasses. “But we will get to know them, eventually.”

OB sighed, mumbling, “Well, I sure hope so, and better sooner than later.”

Just as he had finished his sentence, Aturi came back, a white raven on their shoulder. “Alright, we’re ready to leave”, they exclaimed without explaining a word about said raven. Neither OB nor Victor uttered only one of their questions or doubts. Instead, OB opened a time door.

The smell of filth and muck hit them as soon as they stepped through the orange rectangle. OB grimaced unhappily and Victor pressed his sleeve against his nose. Only Aturi didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. Even their raven abruptly spread out its wings and flew into the sky, where it would have blended in with the clouds in another world or time, but not here – Epres was a white spot in the distance, highlighted by the grey clouds around him.

Aturi didn’t mind his sudden absence. “Okay, so what do we do here, now?”

OB shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve never been to another timeline.”

Victor stepped forward and squinted. “Me n-neither, but… this one is not like m-mine… at all!”

OB frowned, walking beside his friend. “Why not, Vic? What’s different here – the smell?”

The one addressed shook his head. “N-no, not that.”

“Okay…” OB waited a moment before he asked, “Then what is it?”

“I think I might have an idea.” Aturi joined them before Victor could answer. “It’s the silence what’s bothering you, isn’t it?”

Their face didn’t show many emotions, but it was definitely laced with confusion.

Victor nodded. “I-i-it’s… never so s-silent. Not in the… medieval times, as y-you c-call it.”

Aturi shook their head. “I remember these times from my own timeline, and no, it isn’t”, they said quietly. “Also, where is everyone? I haven’t seen a single person or animal, not even a pigeon or a rat.”

OB looked out towards the low wooden buildings, the muddy streets and dark corners. No soul was in sight, neither human nor other. Except – wait a minute. Was that back there…?

Without a word, he ran towards an abandoned cart in one of the gloomy side streets. Hadn’t he spotted a pair of feet behind it?

When he arrived at the cart, which was loaded with fabric scraps and rags, he slowed his pace and carefully sneaked around it. There, sitting on the ground with a small, half-eaten loaf of bread in his hands, sat a middle-aged man dressed in rags himself. His eyes, just like his mouth, were only slightly open, as if they had gotten stuck halfway while he had been blinking.

“Uh… guys?”

While he was still calling for them, Victor had already reached him, Aturi right behind. Victor recoiled in shock when he spotted the man. Aturi, on the other hand, came a step closer and bowed down a little to wave their hand in front of his face.

“Is he…?” Victor started, trying to avert his gaze while still looking, which wasn’t quite working.

“He can’t be dead, or why would he be holding the bread that way”, OB answered his unspoken question.

“No, he isn’t”, confirmed Aturi while straightening. “But what happened, I can’t tell. It’s like he was partly frozen. Look, his hands are still moving towards his face!”

“That’s right!” OB wondered. “And his eyes have opened some more, haven’t they?”

“Just l-like his mouth”, Victor added.

Aturi turned around and faced the sky with a shrill whistle, making OB wince surprisedly. A heartbeat later, Epres was falling from the clouds and landed on their outstretched arm. As soon as the raven’s claws had embraced their arm, Aturi turned towards OB and Victor. “This has to be some kind of magic, or else I’ve never seen magic before.”

Chapter Text

Bonnie didn’t like this place. She hadn’t liked it the second they had stepped through their time door, she hadn’t liked it while the portal had closed behind them and the brightest, most sterile lights from god knows where had embraced them, she hadn’t liked it when Verity had scrunched her nose in disbelief and Casey had stared at the sky with wide eyes, she didn’t like it now that they were walking across empty bridges, surrounded only by the clearest air, although it smelled a little like plastic, and the faint noise of electric vehicles, which were moving through the sky like hanging from a string that was slowly being pulled forward, as if someone had paused this whole world and only half-succeeded.

Casey and Verity were talking about the futuristic inventions they could spot everywhere, but Bonnie was too busy observing her surroundings and being uncomfortable to tune into the conversation. So, she wasn’t listening until Verity called out her name in shock.

“Bonnie, look!”

Only then did Bonnie turn around and run back to her friends, who had been strolling across the gigantic bridge behind her.

“What’s the matter?” she stumbled breathlessly upon arriving at Verity’s side. Her best friend wordlessly pointed at a round vehicle flying not far from the bridge in response. Inside, Bonnie could recognise the silhouettes of two humans, but what was far more interesting was the one person leaning out a window and… gifting the inside of their stomach to the world below. Because while this sight itself wouldn’t have been as unsettling, the speed in which it was happening was. The puke was dripping down way too slowly, and the person themselves didn’t seem to be moving at all.

Bonnie frowned. “What…?”

“I don’t know”, Verity breathed, “but whatever it is, I don’t like it.”

Meanwhile, Casey had taken to sticking his head across the railing of the bridge and adding his own last meal to the one of the person in the vehicle.

“Sorry”, he coughed when straightening up again, “my stomach just can’t handle seeing puke.”

Bonnie calmingly rubbed his back while Verity shrugged. “At least now we know that slow-puking is not just a thing on this timeline, since you don’t seem to be affected by it.”

Casey nodded unhappily. “I could have done without proving that, though”, he mumbled.

“So, time isn’t standing still, but it isn’t quite moving, either…” Bonnie sighed while looking into the distance. “I guess now it’s clear what Loki meant when he said it felt like the timelines were falling asleep: they are asleep.”

Chapter Text

Sylvie, Loki and Mobius were the last to stumble into Verity’s apartment. Mobius and Sylvie were supporting the slightly quivering and very pale-faced Loki on each side, but before anyone could ask about it, Loki fell onto the sofa and mumbled, “Just another mind slip, I’m fine.”

Judging by the face Sylvie made, he absolutely wasn’t.

Casey and Victor had moved aside, and OB had stood up to make some space for Loki and Sylvie, who had sat next to him, while Mobius had taken to staying on Loki’s other side, which meant he was now standing next to the sofa with one hand calmingly placed on his friend’s shoulder and a worried expression.

Aturi, who had been pacing up and down the living room with Epres on their shoulder, finally stood still, watching Loki thoughtfully while stroking across the raven’s feathers. Bonnie was sitting at the kitchen table where Verity, who had opened the door for the three latecomers, had joined her. The room was silent except for the ticking clock Verity had hung up on her picture wall to get a better understanding of the way time moved.

“Anyway”, Sylvie finally said with a sigh, turning the others’ attention to her instead of Loki. She seemed tired and… disappointed, maybe. But it was hard to tell, since she had put on her well-trained mask of emotionlessness. “How did your trips go? Cuz ours was pretty awful.”

Bonnie was the first to answer. “We weren’t exactly successful either. Time seemed to be swimming through pudding – it was slow and only the vehicles were moving.”

“Yeah”, Casey agreed, staring at the floor, “it was kinda terrible.”

“Same with our timeline”, Aturi said while looking at OB and Victor. “Time was basically standing still. We saw a guy who seemed to be eating some bread, but it was all in super slow motion.”

Sylvie nodded. “Then your experiences aren’t much different from ours.”

“At first we thought time was standing still”, Mobius added, “but some smoke from a distant fireplace said otherwise.”

“But you don’t know what it means either, do you?” Verity asked with a glance at Loki, who didn’t look up or answer although he could feel her gaze.

“No.” Mobius chose to sink onto the armrest next to Loki. Not that standing up was getting tiresome, he just felt like sitting was the better choice at the moment. Who could tell how long this conversation would take?

Verity sighed, raising her eyebrows at Bonnie as if to say, We’re not gonna get anywhere this way.

Bonnie simply shrugged. She had got the message, but she wasn’t sure how to react or if she even wanted to. Her own thoughts were tumbling over each other in search of a solution or only a hint towards one.

Victor wasn’t much better off. He was (still, he had already been doing so minutes ago) looking at his fingernails with little interest but great passion, just so he could avoid being spoken to as long as he didn’t know what to say. OB was watching him whenever he wasn’t busy following the ping-pong-match going on around them. Then and when, he gently nudged his friend to cast him a smile, checking if Victor was still listening.

Aturi and their raven were watching Loki contemplatively. He wasn’t well, so much was clear. But he didn’t seem miserable, either. Just… lost in his thoughts. He clearly wasn’t paying attention to the ones around him, maybe because he had found a promising thread in the labyrinth of his brain that might lead him to a solution. One look at the raven and Aturi’s doubts vanished. Had they been able to communicate with Epres like his former owner, they were sure he would have agreed to their guess about Loki.

Casey wasn’t sure what to think of Aturi’s raven. It seemed vaguely threatening, but maybe he only got this impression from Epres’ burning red eyes. It seemed too intelligent for a raven. Casey was almost sure, if everyone would stay this silent, it was only a matter of time until Epres would start speaking his mind.

The minute hand of Verity’s ticking clock had moved closer towards the eight. Time was making its way through the stiff silence in the room, and maybe it was the only breathing thing around.

“I saw him.” Suddenly, everyone’s gazes were glued to Loki.

Verity could hear her own heartbeat while she glared at him. “Saw who?” A hint of nervous impatience swung in her voice. “The variant?”

Loki nodded slowly. “He isn’t only recruiting people – he is killing the ones who dare to say no.”

Chapter Text

Sylvie and Mobius had known already – Loki had told them just after he had collapsed on the cobbled streets. Now, their gazes had found the floor while the others were staring at him with wide eyes.

“But…” Victor started. “But that m-means that…”

OB put a hand on his arm and Victor fell silent.

“Yes.” Loki’s voice sounded quiet and exhausted, but he didn’t have enough energy to care. “We have no way of knowing how many – not yet at least. But in every case: too many.”

Bonnie arose from her chair. “Well, then we need to find him even more urgently! We can’t just let innocent people die; we have to stop this!”

Finally, Loki looked up and met her eyes. “How?”

One hollow discouraged word – and Bonnie slowly sunk onto her chair again, head lowered towards her chest.

Loki drew a deep breath. “I suggest we rest tonight – we all need it. Tomorrow morning, who knows, maybe one of us has dreamt the solution.”

With that, one after the other slowly went on their way until only Bonnie was left after Verity had closed the door behind Loki, Sylvie, Mobius and Aturi with their raven.

The four (five, if you count the raven) made their way to Mobius’s apartment instead, where they sat around the kitchen table, which finally had more than two chairs, offering each of them a place to sit (except the raven, which was sitting on Aturi’s shoulder anyway).

For a few minutes, none of them spoke a word. They sat silently around the table, listening to their own breath, trying to catch their thoughts, waiting for anyone to say anything.

Mobius was the first to make a sound. He cleared his throat, then waited a moment before he spoke. “As a classified analyst, let me offer my humble expertise: This situation is shit.”

Loki laughed silently while looking up at his friend, and Sylvie smirked. Aturi rolled their eyes but couldn’t prevent one corner of their mouth from twitching a little. Only Epres stayed unbothered by Mobius’s joke.

“Well, you definitely hit the nail on the head there”, Loki agreed. “The problem is that we don’t know how to deal with said shit.”

“Maybe you’re right and we just need a little rest”, Mobius suggested. “It’s better than silently suffering the injustice we’re faced with while staring at the floor.”

Without further discussion, Loki nodded. “Let us do that.”

Aturi shrugged. “Then I guess I’ll have to go back to my timeline, since I don’t really have a place to sleep here.”

But Sylvie looked at them with a smile. “Oh, I made sure you do. Bonnie is sleeping over at Verity’s tonight; we can have her apartment. Loki will stay here with Mobius.”

Again, Loki nodded. He had been glad when Sylvie had told him she had organised a bed for each of them, since he had completely forgotten about sleep until not long ago. Since then, his longing for warm bedsheets and a few hours of unbothered silence was increasing by the minute. Sadly, he was fairly sure he couldn’t fall asleep in the state he was in…

They said their goodbyes and Sylvie and Aturi left. Loki didn’t notice Sylvie’s worried gaze resting on him until she closed the door behind her and Aturi. Mobius did, though. And his own eyes were filled with concern, too.

Once the door was closed, he stood up and walked in front of Loki, stretching out a hand. His friend looked up surprisedly, but Mobius smiled. “C’mon. You won’t fall asleep like this, will you, now?”

A little confused but without a question, Loki took his Mobius’s hand and Mobius pulled him out of the apartment, into the elevator, up a set of chairs and out on the rooftop, where they could look out at the distant timelines and other TVA buildings.

There, Mobius let go of Loki to take off his jacket and spread it on the floor to sit on. He then patted the empty spot next to him, making it clear he was waiting for Loki to join him on his jacket. Loki did so.

They sat in silence for a while, before Mobius sighed. “You too thought we could finally find peace, huh?”

Loki hesitated, then nodded. Another short silence followed, before he quietly spoke. “There’s something strange about losing everything you’ve ever had. Once you realise what you lost – realise all you had –, you suddenly start to appreciate all those little things that seemed meaningless before. You start to long for your old life, although it wasn’t perfect, because you finally know it was fine, or at least good enough. But inevitably, when you reach for it… it isn’t there.”

He fell silent. Mobius waited patiently, watching his friend with empathy.

Finally, when Loki’s eyes were less glassy again, he continued. “Except for these one in a million instances when you’re lucky enough to get it back, at least some of it. Then, you see your world with new eyes, and a new heart.” A careful smile spread on his face as he looked up at Mobius, while tears were still welling up in his eyes. “I cannot put into words how incredibly glad I am to be one of these exceptions.”

“Oh, Loki.” Mobius closed the small distance between them in putting an arm around Loki’s shoulders and pulling his friend into a hug. “Believe me, I am, too.”

Chapter Text

Sylvie was standing in a dark and misty cave. She couldn’t see further than a meter ahead of her, where the only visible thing was the hint of a reddish-brown wall. When she turned around, she could spot the shadow of a person not far from her, but as soon as she stretched out her hand, the figure was gone.

Sylvie attempted to speak, but her tongue seemed to be glued to the top of her mouth. She tried to walk, but her feet were too heavy to lift. She wanted to grab her sword, but as soon as the thought appeared in her head, she could see the blade float away from of her, out of reach. The only thing left was the TemPad on her wrist, but when she touched it, her fingers simply went through the material.

A cold shudder ran down her spine. What in the name of all stars was going on?

Sylvie.

The voice was loud and clear, and seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. Presumably, it was the voice of a woman, but Sylvie wasn’t sure since she had heard multiple octaves at the same time.

“What do you want?” she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t. The words got stuck in her throat before they even reached her mouth.

The voice laughed. No need to be scared, Sylvie. I have not come to hurt you, although I would have enough reason to wish for revenge.

What was that supposed to mean? What was the voice trying to tell her? Did the person behind it want to intimidate Sylvie? If so, they weren’t very successful.

Again, the person laughed. Oh, I know you are not an easy nut to crack.

Were they reading her thoughts?

I am in your head, Sylvie – I am literally making you have these thoughts.

No. Absolutely not. Sylvie wasn’t having this.

Well, what do you want to do against it?

Wake up. She wanted to wake up.

I doubt you really do. You will want to hear what I have to tell you. At least if you should be smart enough to listen.

“I am smart enough to get the hell out of here”, Sylvie thought.

Well , the voice said, it would not make much sense to keep you here any longer if it is against your will.

And suddenly, the cold cave disappeared, together with its mist and shadows, and Sylvie was left floating through empty nothingness. “Is this Ginnungagap?” she thought. “Will I dissolve now? Can I die inside my dreams? Am I even dreaming?”

The voice didn’t answer. She was alone.

Sylvie awoke in cold sweat, shooting up into a seated position and immediately reaching for her sword which she had left leaning against the wall next to the sofa. While her fingers closed around the heft, questions started racing through her mind. Where was she? Was she still dissolving in Ginnungagap? Where was Loki? Who was the person from her dream? And where were they?

No, wait a minute. The sofa, the wall, the dim light in one corner of the room coming from the gap below a closed door… This was Bonnie’s apartment at the TVA. She was okay. And Loki was, too. He was with Mobius.

With a long sigh, Sylvie let her weapon sink, only to lift it again a heartbeat later, when the door to the living room burst open. In its frame stood Aturi, knives raised and ready to fight.

“What happened?” They ran towards her, worry in their eyes. “Are you alright?”

Sylvie didn’t immediately answer. Why were they so concerned? Had they seen the shadow in the cave?

“Sylvie?” She wasn’t sure if it was anger or concern she could hear in Aturi’s voice. “I heard you scream. What’s the matter?”

Now, Sylvie finally reacted. First, she blinked confusedly. Then, she stammered, “I screamed?”

Aturi let their daggers sink with a sigh. “Yes, you did. Just a nightmare, then?”

After hesitating for a moment, Sylvie nodded. “There was a voice…” She shook her head. “Oh, I don’t know. Something stupid, I’m sure. I can’t remember.”

Which was obviously a lie, but she didn’t want to talk about it right now, and Aturi accepted that. At least they didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, they sat down next to Sylvie, staring into the darkness.

Unlike Sylvie, Aturi wasn’t wearing a purple and grey pyjama. They had decided to sleep in their everyday clothes, although offered something more fitting for sleeping in by both Bonnie and Casey. Therefore, they were dressed in all black (as always) and almost blended in with their dark surroundings. Only their slightly reflecting eyes and bright blue dreadlocks were sticking out. The latter seemed yet a little more turquoise in the dim light coming from the now opened door to Bonnie’s sleeping room, which Aturi and their raven were spending the night in. The light highlighted their slim face with its sharp features and small, pointy nose. Only the freckles were too dark to be seen.

After a long silence, Aturi carefully started, “So… Is there anything you need or… I don’t know… should I just leave?”

Already ready to shake her head, Sylvie suddenly froze in place. “The TemPad.” Her voice was raw, her eyes wide as her hands frantically moved to the floor, below the sofa, and up again. “Where is it?”

The shadow in her dream couldn’t have stolen it, right? It had just been a dream after all, right!?

“Whoa, Sylvie, hey!” Aturi grabbed her hands and held them firmly in their own. “Calm down! I’ll just tell Epres to look for it, I’m sure you’ll have it back in a minute.”

They let go of her hands and produced a high and clear whistle. Mere seconds later, their raven was stretching out its claws to land on Aturi’s outstretched arm. “Sylvie’s missing her TemPad.” They stroked across his feathers. “Could you fix that, please?”

Epres let out a caw and spread his wings to search the room, a white shadow in the black night. Meanwhile, Aturi turned back to Sylvie. “What do you even need it for, though?”

Sylvie shrugged, watching the raven’s silhouette circle the sofa. “I saw it in my dream. Just wanna check it’s really here…”

Aturi seemed a little confused, but thankfully, they didn’t question Sylvie’s statement. It didn’t take long for Epres to return with the TemPad. Sylvie took it from his claws with a sigh of relief. “Oh, thanks! I was worried that… Well, that I was going insane, I guess.” She smiled humourlessly and looked at Aturi again. “How could he find it that easily? I thought he has trouble seeing.”

As Epres settled on their shoulder, Aturi smirked, giving the burn scar on their right cheek, which went on around Aturi’s neck and to the collarbone, a slight twist. “His eyes are better at night.” The faint light made their scar seem a bit more pinkish than usual, creating a stark contrast to their black skin.

Sylvie asked herself for the hundredth time how Aturi had got it.

“We figured out through a coincidence, when we were looking for a necklace that had got lost in the woods at night.” Their eyes were looking into a distance so far away, Sylvie doubted Aturi could still see it clearly. “At first we thought he had some magical powers.” They laughed – and for the first time since Sylvie knew them, Aturi looked happy and carefree for a fleeting moment. “Then we noticed that he wasn’t going blind like we had thought, he just couldn’t see very well in the daylight.”

Their lips were still opened to a small, dreamy smile and their gaze caught in the past. Sylvie could feel her heart twist as she watched Aturi. What in the name of all stars had happened to them if this was how they had been long ago? What could make such a bright person turn so bitter and hateful they turned to killing everyone and everything in their path? Until Sylvie had arrived at their timeline and turned both their lives around – more on accident than intentionally.

She didn’t make a sound in an attempt to give Aturi their few moments of peace while they were stuck in the memory of a happier time. Nonetheless, Aturi was pulled out of their mind mere seconds later. Their carefree expression faded as soon as they blinked, and they averted their gaze.

“Anyway.” Aturi cleared their throat. “I guess… I’ll go back to sleep.”

But Sylvie wouldn’t just let that be the end of it. “You know you probably saved my life, do you?”

Aturi caught her gaze with a frown. “Huh, ‘cause of the TemPad or what? What are you talking about?”

“When you helped me learn how to channel and share my powers.”

After a moment of confused hesitation, Aturi shrugged, absentmindedly letting Epres peck at their fingers. “I just let you try.”

“Yeah”, Sylvie laughed bitterly. “Time and time and time again, because I kept messing up. You remember how I literally made that tree stump explode? Poor Mobius almost had a heart attack!”

A grin spread across Aturi’s face. “I do remember.”

“And the pot we put on your head to make it harder for me to reach you?”

“Harder?” Aturi laughed out loud. “It literally got impossible!”

Rolling her eyes, Sylvie retorted, “No, only as long as I tried to do it through the pot, without having physical contact!”

They shrugged. “Same thing.”

“It’s not!” Sylvie jokingly pushed them backwards and Epres fluttered away with an offended caw, settling on the sofa’s armrest instead.

Aturi pushed back with a mischievous “ooh, don’t try me!”, and Sylvie landed on her back, her friend towering above her. She laughed and Aturi chimed in, ignoring Epres’s silent chatters as they said, “You know, I once knew someone who was very ticklish…!”

Sylvie squeaked surprisedly when she felt Aturi’s hands on her stomach and tried to croak out the useless words “I’m not, I promise” while she failed to twist out of Aturi’s reach and laughed until her cheeks hurt.

Chapter Text

It had been a tough few days for all of them, Mobius knew. His friends were no better than him at hiding how tired they were, and he wasn’t very good at it to begin with.

As they now gathered in the TVA’s lunchroom, after a night and morning of rest, he could see their red eyes, the dark shadows in their faces, their empty gazes wandering around the room, telling the tale of stray thoughts spiralling back again and again to what was constantly on their minds: the fact that a variant was running around killing innocent people, and no-one knew yet what to do to stop him.

Especially Sylvie, who was sitting opposite Mobius, didn’t really seem rested at all. She was poking her sweet potato puree with her knife, which was a little disturbing to watch since Mobius wasn’t sure Sylvie wouldn’t lift the knife to her mouth any second, having forgotten it wasn’t a fork she was holding.

He cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention on himself. “Sooo… Will we continue jumping timelines on the search for information? I mean, we still don’t know much more about the sleeping ones than when we started: they’re usually younger and shorter, and life on them seems to only be happening in slow-motion. That’s about it.”

Sylvie looked at her plate again, blinked confusedly at the knife and put it down. To Mobius’s left, Loki sighed. To his right, Verity shrugged. OB was avoiding his gaze, Victor was pretending to be air, Casey was hypnotising his orange juice, and Aturi’s and Bonnie’s silent faces weren’t much helpful either.

Mobius waited a very long minute until he slowly said, “Okay, well, our second option is to immediately go search for that one variant. Problem is, we don’t know where to start, and the multiverse is infinite, so locating him is gonna be a lot harder than finding a needle in a haystack.”

Sylvie nodded absentmindedly, her eyes glassy, her gaze going nowhere. Bonnie appeared to be chewing her lettuce extensively.

Finally, OB found it in himself to say something, giving Mobius a chance to finally release the breath he had been holding for the entire morning, as it seemed.

“He’s killing people. We need to find him or at least try.” OB shrugged. “But I don’t know how, either.”

Suddenly, Bonnie stood up. Surprised by the unexpected exponential energy increase in the room, everyone stared at her wide-eyed. Bonnie took it as a chance to emphasize her words. “Then we just have to start somewhere – anywhere! We can’t stay here, watching the hours go by, while this guy’s out there, murdering innocent people and putting entire timelines asleep!”

“And building an army”, Verity muttered with an unhappy grimace while glueing her gaze to the table.

“But where do we start?” OB shook his head. “None of us know his pattern!”

“Maybe we don’t need to.” Loki’s voice was quiet, but all the more profound. “As much as I hate to suggest it…” He looked at Bonnie, who straightened her back and held his gaze. “We possibly need to wait – stay here, watching the hours go by, saving our energy. I, at least, do.”

Bonnie frowned, but it was Verity who asked, “What? Why?”

Loki smiled, but there was neither humour nor joy in it. “Because of my mind slips.”

Sylvie closed her eyes with a defeated expression. Her thoughts were as obvious to Mobius as if she had written them on her forehead in bright red letters: They’re still happening.

“Okay?” Verity wasn’t satisfied yet. “They haven’t really helped us the past few days, though, have they?”

For a moment, Loki was silent. Then, without looking at anyone, he said, “It’s not me you need to ask.”

With a frown, Verity looked from Loki to Sylvie, who was staring confusedly at Loki. When she saw Sylvie couldn’t provide her with any more information, Verity searched for help in Mobius’s eyes, but he shrugged, shaking his head and soundlessly forming the words, “I have no clue!”

“Uh…” Verity turned back to Loki again. “Then who are you suggesting I’d ask instead?”

Finally, Loki looked up – but his eyes found Mobius’s gaze, not Verity’s. “I am still in the stages of figuring out.”

Mobius couldn’t prevent the slight frown from appearing on his face, but he nodded with a (what he hoped to be) reassuring expression as he mumbled, “Then let’s figure this out, shall we?”

Loki gave him the smallest thankful smile.

Again. What had they been talking about this time? For a change, at least Mobius had seemed as clueless as Sylvie.

That is, until a faint suspicion dawned on Sylvie. Did Loki know…? No, he couldn’t. There was no way for him to know. Or was there?

As soon as they were on their way to leave the lunchroom, Sylvie walked up to Loki and pulled him away from the others, out of eavesdropping reach. The fact that he wasn’t surprised by her attack was enough to reassure her of her suspicion.

“How?” she hissed. Just that.

“Mind slips, I told you”, he whispered. “And you? Dreams?”

Sylvie nodded, then shook her head. “Yes, but that’s not what I’m asking! How did you know?”

“She told me.”

“She…” For a brief moment, Sylvie forgot how to breathe. “You talked to her?” Suddenly, she wasn’t whispering anymore. Out of the corner of her eye, she could faintly see a few of their friends turning towards them, but she chose to not care about them right now. He had known about her encounter with that strange person in the cave?

“No.” Loki, on the other hand, was still keeping his voice very low. “She talked to me.”

“Well, who is she?” Their faces were now centimetres apart. During another conversation, a very different one, Sylvie would have felt her heartbeat rise for an entirely different reason. Not in the midst of this conversation, though.

Loki’s response was beyond disappointing. “First, we need to read up on our background. And we need Mobius. Then, I might be able to give you an answer, because, as I said, I’m still unsure myself.”

They stayed this close for another few heartbeats before Sylvie abruptly broke away. “Fine”, she snapped, a little surprised by (but not disagreeing with) the anger in her voice. “Go ask Mobius, then. And when you’re done, tell me what the two of you have come up with this time. Or just don’t tell me at all! Wouldn’t make much of a difference, right?”

Without waiting for an answer, Sylvie turned on her heels and started to walk away.

“Sylvie, wait!”

Uh, no. She wasn’t planning to.

“I didn’t mean it like that. Please, Sylvie –”

Now, he had raised his voice as well – but the door to the lunchroom fell shut before he could finish his sentence.

Chapter Text

Sylvie didn’t slam the door when she entered Bonnie’s apartment – she gently closed it. Sylvie also didn’t let herself fall onto the sofa to cry – she calmly sat down and stared into the void instead.

Her thoughts were gone. All of them. The only thing she could remember was the woman from her dream.

I would have enough reason to wish for revenge, her words echoed in Sylvie’s head. You will want to hear what I have to tell you.

What did she want to tell her? And did she still? Was there any chance for Sylvie to find out after her dream had ended so abruptly last night?

Maybe she could try to fall asleep and dream about the woman again.

Loki knew her, didn’t he?

“How did you know?” – “She told me.”

She had told him about Sylvie. So surely it hadn’t just been a dream, rather some kind of mix between dream and vision. If she could fall asleep right now, would the mysterious shadow figure come back?

It was worth a try.

Spreading out on the sofa, Sylvie closed her eyes, but falling asleep was easier said than done. Especially within a few minutes. So, as one does, Sylvie started to quietly sing an Asgardian lullaby Loki had taught her.

“Sov godt og drøm søtt, lille skatt. Det er mørkt på himmelen i natt. Du vil finne et lys som kan lede deg. Her er en knys til deg, fra meg.”

Sleep tight and sweet dreams, little darling. It’s dark in the sky tonight. You will find a light to guide you… Here’s a hug to you, from me.

A hug would have been nice, she wasn’t going to lie about that.

Suddenly, a knock on the door ripped Sylvie from her (finally peaceful) thoughts.

“No.”

She didn’t want to see anyone. Especially not him, not now.

But an unexpected voice answered. “I just want to talk… please.”

She could have said no again and been sure to be left alone, but something drove her to get up, walk towards the door and slowly open it. “You.”

Mobius looked at her with a sad smile. “I know, you were expecting Loki. Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, I…”

…I’m glad you’re not him.

Sylvie blinked the thought away, swallowed dryly and started a new sentence. “No need to apologise.”

Mobius was watching her with an expression that made her feel seen-through. “Can I come in?”

“I mean, it’s not even my apartment, so I guess so.” Sylvie shrugged and held the door open for Mobius, who didn’t waste any time and started his investigation as soon as the door had closed behind him. “What’s going on?”

Unsurprised by his question, Sylvie huffed a bitter laugh. “You should know better than me.” She hadn’t intended her voice to sound this raw, but there she was.

“No, I mean – inside of you.”

She side-eyed him. “… I am digesting my meals very well, thank you.”

Mobius actually laughed. “Good one, I wasn’t expecting that!”

Sylvie, on the other hand, didn’t.

His grin faded into a faint smile. “While it’s great that your digestive system is doing its job, that’s not what I meant.”

Sylvie shrugged as she blankly stared at him. She had thought so.

“Sylvie, please talk to me! What’s wrong?”

She would have liked to shove him out the door and scream, It’s none of your business, leave me alone!

Instead, she bit her lip and said, “It’s about Loki.”

“Well, yeah…” He nodded in the lunchroom’s general direction. “I figured.”

“Well, then. You’re an analyst, I’m sure you can come to your own conclusions.”

“And yet they’d be wrong – that’s why I’m asking you!”

“It’s just that…” How should she explain the unexplainable?

Mobius waited patiently for Sylvie to continue while she was at a loss of words, but she wasn’t sure patience could help here. Thoughts were bubbling up in her mind, but to give them a voice not only seemed close to impossible – it seemed cruel. She knew it wasn’t right to think like this, but she couldn’t help it. And there had to be some truth to it, or else she wouldn’t have had these thoughts.

“It’s stupid”, was all she could finally mumble.

But Mobius wasn’t going to let that be the end of this. He came a step closer and gently but firmly put a hand on her arm. “It obviously isn’t, or else it wouldn’t be affecting you like this.”

There, suddenly, the words broke free. “He’s always been my first priority, but I never seem to be his.”

For a moment, Mobius just stared at her. Then, he shook his head, his hand dropping as he quietly said, “Of course you are!”

“Then why is he always putting you first?”

Now, not even Mobius seemed to know what to say, as a deep frown formed on his face.

Once let loose, though, Sylvie’s tongue could barely be held back anymore. “It’s always: ‘Oh, Sylvie, let’s talk about this thing I’ve already discussed with Mobius!’ and ‘This issue you’d want to know about? I didn’t tell you, but I told Mobius!’ and ‘Yeah, sure I’ll give you an answer, but let me talk to Mobius first!’”

She sighed. “Of course it’s not your fault, and I’m not angry at you or anything it’s just… It’s so frustrating.”

Luckily, Mobius didn’t look hurt, only sympathetic. “I can imagine.”

He seemed to be waiting if she would continue, but Sylvie’s flow of words had ceased. And so, it was Mobius who started speaking. “You know, he’s doing this because you’re his priority. Your happiness is. He doesn’t want you to worry or to have to deal with something that can be solved without you, when it would be affecting you otherwise. He’s trying to shield you from every negative thing he can.”

Unhappily, Sylvie shook her head. “But that’s not making it any better! In fact, it’s making it worse, because I feel like he doesn’t trust me enough to tell me! Why would we lie about there only being good in the world when we both know it’s wrong? And it’s not like I couldn’t handle the truth – he knows that.”

Mobius tilted his head. “On an intellectual level, yes. But the brain is one thing. The heart, on the other hand…”

“Oh, please, Mobius. You, as an analyst, should know that the heart doesn’t actually have anything to do with emotions.”

He threw his hands in the air defensively. “But it’s a good way of separating! You see, while he might very well know that you’re absolutely capable of dealing with nasty situations, his instincts seem to tell him the opposite, or they at least make him try to hold the promise he’s given himself: to protect you. And that’s nothing rational. That’s love.”

Silence.

He could have as well taped her mouth shut or driven his fist against her stomach. It would have brought the same result.

Somehow wanting to break the silence and distract herself from this strange nauseous feeling, Sylvie made an attempt at a joke. “So, you’re saying love isn’t rational.”

“Love is a dagger. It’s a weapon to be wielded far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It’s beautiful… until it makes you bleed. But ultimately, when you reach for it…”

“It isn’t real.”

Mobius smiled, but the look in his eyes told Sylvie how unsure he was if he should be frustrated with her reaction. “Oh, c’mon.”

But Sylvie smirked and the look in his eyes disappeared. “I know.”

Another silence followed, but this time, it wasn’t uncomfortable. And it was Mobius who broke the silence. “You should tell him.”

Caught off guard by his words, Sylvie frowned. “What? That love isn’t rational?”

 “Sylvie…”

“I can’t just tell him what I told you!”

“Why not?”

“Well, because… it’s… I… I can’t!”

Smiling, Mobius shook his head. “Yes, you can. Of course you can. You’ll need to work against your own mind, though. Saying something like that to someone so meaningful to you is hard – it makes both of you very vulnerable.”

Sylvie’s eyes searched the floor when she very quietly said, “I know…”

“Will you still try?”

Still very quietly, she slowly shook her head and hesitantly responded, “I don’t know…”

But Mobius wasn’t going to let her get away this easily. “Please? For me, if not for the two of you?”

Finally, Sylvie found it in herself to look him in the eyes. “Fine.”

He smiled. “Good.”

And then, without another word, without even turning back, he left.

Chapter Text

Sylvie had stood in front of Bonnie’s closed apartment door for a few minutes, then made her way back to the couch, where she had made herself somewhat comfortable and fallen to a light, but finally dreamless sleep. For some hours, she guessed, she only lay there, half-awake towards the end, watching her thoughts pass like crumbs through thick syrup.

It startled her when a second knock ripped her from this state. Confused why Mobius had come back already, she opened the door once more. Did he want to ask if she had already talked to Loki?

Outside stood Loki, hands folded behind his back, his face hesitant and insecure. “Hey.”

Sylvie crossed her arms in front of her chest with a frown. “Hey”, she snapped back. “So, you’ve read stuff and talked to Mobius, then?”

Loki sighed, looking down. “Neither. Or, well, I have read stuff, but nothing important. Not yet. Do you, um…” He held up a book which he had seemingly conjured up behind his back. “I came to ask if you wanted to join me.” When Sylvie raised a single eyebrow, he hastily added: “I mean, of course you don’t have to, I just thought it would be nice to ask. In case you wanted, you know.”

Sylvie’s frown smoothened, but her arms stayed like they were. She was already thinking of a clever comeback, but not a hurtful one – not as long as he was looking at her like that, at least. Was a comeback the right response, though? Maybe she was being too harsh…

He hadn’t apologised (not yet, that is), but he had started an apology. That was more than she had accomplished since their fight in the lunchroom. And although she didn’t see any guilt for it in herself, she kind of felt sorry for that fight, so maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start an apology herself. But how?

When her eyes met Loki’s again, Sylvie made the sudden decision to switch off her brain and let her heart do the work – which Mobius would have been proud of, she was sure. And before she knew what was happening, her mouth was forming sounds that built a word.

“Sorry.”

Sylvie blinked surprisedly, not only at the word which had come out of her mouth. At exactly the same time, Loki had said exactly the same word and was now looking at her with raised eyebrows and a perplexed expression. “I…”

Before he got a chance to speak, though, Sylvie had already beat him to it. “You said you didn’t mean it the way you said it, or the way I understood – right?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, I didn’t mean it like that, either. It’s just… I mean… I feel like you…” A groan of frustration tumbled out her throat. “I feel like I’m only ever your second choice, when you’re always and without doubt my first.”

“Oh.” His shoulders dropped and the book in his hand almost slid to the floor. “Oh, Sylvie, no, that’s…” He shook his head, reaching out to grab her hand, but then pulled back again. “That was not my intention in any way, I swear. I’m so sorry I made you feel like this.”

He stared at her for a minute, then ran his hand across his face, letting his gaze find the floor. “I think… You know, it’s easier for me to open up to Mobius sometimes, just because I’ve known him longer and he always wanted me to tell him everything and only the truth since day one. And therefore, it was already becoming a habit to talk to him about everything before you and I even had a conversation that lasted longer than two minutes.”

“But why does that still matter?” All rage had left her voice, but a kind of sadness she couldn’t really grasp had mixed into it. “We’ve become more open with each other over the past weeks than I even thought possible in the past.”

“I know, I can’t really pin it down either. I’m still trying to figure it out myself, but… well…” Shifting his weight from one leg to the other, he looked both sides to check the hallway for any unannounced eavesdroppers. Sylvie noticed and took a step away from the door to wave Loki inside. He smiled thankfully and closed the door behind him when he entered the apartment. A few steps more and they were sat on Bonnie’s sofa, looking at the floor, then at each other, then back at the floor, while a flood of memories was drowning out Sylvie’s thoughts.

“The promise he’s given himself: to protect you. And that’s nothing rational. That’s love.”

“Fine! Go ask Mobius, then. And when you’re done, tell me what the two of you have come up with this time. Or just don’t tell me at all! Wouldn’t make much of a difference, right?”

“Sylvie, I trust you with all my heart – more than I trust myself, if I am honest.”

“You go, I go.”

“I’m so glad to see you.”

“In all honesty a god of lies can bring up, Sylvie… I love you.”

“Maybe we could figure it out… together.”

“Our Sometimes…”

“For you. For all of us.”

“Well, if you stay here, you’ll have to find another way to be fine, because I won’t be.”

“I just… I just want you to be okay.”

Sylvie looked up and met Loki’s eyes. His beautiful blue-green eyes which seemed to be reflecting the entire multiverse. And who knew, maybe they were.

“First, we need to read up on our background.”

“Okay”, she breathed, before taking a moment to regain her composure. “Let’s see which book you brought, then, shall we?”

He returned her gaze with eyes wide from surprise, which prompted her to say, “We can talk about this over some hot chocolate and a good book, I think.” A glance at the title made her add, “Or, well, a book. We’ll see how good it is.”

Chapter Text

Loki hated to fight with Sylvie.

But more than the fight, he hated how she had looked at him – the pain in her eyes, the offense and spite. That alone would have been enough to drive a thin but determined knife through his heart. Their fight had only twisted it, making the wound hurt even more.

He hadn’t run after her. It wouldn’t have made a difference. But when Mobius had, a wave of relief had washed over him.

None of his friends had asked him about Sylvie or the cause of their fight and he hadn’t said another word or even looked at them; yet he had felt their gazes on his way out of the lunchroom, each burning with surprise, concern and uncertain curiosity.

Loki didn’t know where his legs were carrying him until he found himself standing in the TVA’s library. The first time he had visited this room he had been surprised by its size. He had had expected it to be a gigantic room filled with at least thousands of books, scrolls, papyri, stones, sheets, cloths, parchments, manuscripts and more, maybe even some types of media he didn’t yet know. And while the library was big, it wasn’t nearly as large as expected, and didn’t hold as many scriptures either. Turns out the old TVA hadn’t thought very highly of literature, at least not if it couldn’t be used as evidence for unplanned activities on the so-called sacred timeline.

Either way, now that he was already here, he could as well search for some books about Norse mythology.

What would have been an eery silence in any other room was the comfortable absence of noise in a library. Words didn’t need sound to understand feelings – black letters on white pages were enough of a voice.

It was calming to him. Loki had always loved reading books, dreaming himself into other worlds and reliving the adventures of his favourite characters over and over again every time he turned back to page one. Slipping into the skin of a hero and trading it in for the way more interesting and actually quite charismatic villain had always seemed easier than trying to live his own confusing life, even if he had often settled for the misunderstood but well-intentioned antihero in the end.

He couldn’t help but wonder which his role was to Sylvie at the moment.

Skimming through countless books, picking up one or another from time to time, and pausing to study especially beautiful covers or interesting titles seemed vaguely familiar – an old habit from a time long gone, yet it felt like coming home. Old habits die hard, they say.

Suddenly, a dark blue cover laced with fine lines of silver caught his attention. Carefully, Loki pulled out the small book to see its title – but there was none. Only the silvery shadow of a crescent moon surrounded by fine crosses resembling stars.

Curiously, he opened the book, turned the first page, which was empty, and read the title on the next: The Elves of Midgard.

A triumphant smile spread across his face as he put the first book regarding Norse Mythology back on its shelf. He had found the corner of this library he had been looking for.

Most rooms in the TVA now had clocks, but the library didn’t – and Loki didn’t mind. There was something soothing about getting lost in the smell of old paper and memories. And so, the hours flew by and soon he had no idea which time of the day it was.

He probably could have gone on for days, but his thoughts kept straying from the literature, back to Sylvie. And once he spotted the rather large book in its faded red-orange cover, he knew it was time to take it to Sylvie the second he read its title.

And so, he got to his feet and walked straight to her room – well, Bonnie’s room – whatever.

When he arrived, he lifted his hand to knock on the door… but froze instead of knocking. It was so quiet. Yet his heart was thumping like timpani.

Should he really come to her already? Would Sylvie even want to see him? What would he tell her? Should he apologise immediately when – if – she opened the door? Or would it annoy her? Would she slam it shut once she saw him?

But before he could turn on his heels, the image of her tense jaw and hurt eyes flashed through his mind. Without giving himself another chance to start thinking again, Loki knocked.

“Okay.” Sylvie drew a breath and looked at him. “Let’s see which book you brought, then, shall we?”

Caught off guard by the sudden change of mood, Loki raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Sylvie saw his surprise and explained, “We can talk about this over some hot chocolate and a good book, I think. Or, well, a book. We’ll see how good it is.”

With a glance at the title, Loki nodded. “Probably a little tragic, honestly.”

Sylvie shrugged. “I’m all for tragedy and misery. Makes me feel better about my own.”

It was supposed to come out as a funny comment to brighten the mood, but Loki could hear the pain behind her words, see the scared little girl from Sylvie’s past through the cracks in her protective wall. He wanted to hug her and never let go.

A little uneasy, Loki cleared his throat. “I, ah… I’ll go and get the hot chocolate.”

Holding two steaming cups in his hands, Loki already felt a little more secure. Why? Well, having something to hold on to just brought a sense of security. Just like when you sing acapella or with instrumental support: you’re suddenly less alone, although nobody is actually there with you. And if you’re the one playing, you can clutch to your lute with all your might and smile through anything that might not go as planned, because the lute will carry you through it all.

Okay, he did realise that sounded a little weird – but that didn’t make it any less true! Anyway.

When he got back, Sylvie was lying on the sofa and reading the book he had brought from the library. As he walked into the room, she looked up and slapped the book shut.

“So, Sigyn.”

The words fell into the stiff atmosphere like the first raindrops after a heavy drought.

“Do you know anything about her?” Loki put the hot chocolate on the coffee table next to the sofa and sat beside her legs, so that she could keep lying down.

Sylvie shook her head. “Not really, to be honest. I don’t think I remember her from my timeline, but maybe she’s one of the many vague, blurry faces.”

He nodded thoughtfully, letting his gaze wander from her eyes to the hot chocolate. “The Sigyn I know – well, knew – was a very shy and reserved woman. She rarely ever spoke to anyone, especially not people like Thor, who were rather loud and outgoing… but she quite liked me, I think.”

Sylvie sat up. “How come?”

Loki shrugged, still staring down the hot chocolate. “She talked to me, sometimes for hours. I never considered her as anything more than nice company, maybe a friend, but she, I think, could not say the same.”

“And what happened to her?”

For a long moment, there was silence. Then, Loki looked back up at Sylvie. “She died.”

Another long pause followed, in which Sylvie’s eyes widened in surprise and sympathy. “I… I’m sorry.”

But Loki shook his head. “No, don’t be. I mean, I am, too – of course I am. It’s just that… She…” He let out a deep breath full of the tension he had been holding. “She chose her own fate, you could say. After she lost both her sons, she saw no purpose in life anymore, and so… she went on a hopeless mission to either get them back or die, thinking death would reunite her with her children.”

Suddenly, Sylvie looked quite pale. “Oh.” Her voice was very quiet and thin.

“I hope that it at least worked out”, Loki continued. “Her wish, I mean. The mission didn’t, but that was clear from the start. I never knew if any of them landed in Helheim, Vanaheim or neither – or Valhalla, which she would have deserved, if you ask me.”

After a minute or two filled with silence, Sylvie asked very quietly, “And what about the other parent? Were they then left all alone, without neither Sigyn nor their sons?”

With a sad smile, Loki shrugged. “You could say so, yes – but he never really cared about his family to begin with. As far as I know, Utgard-Loki is still alive and well in Jotunheim.”

“Wait – Utgard-Loki?”

“Exactly. And no, he is not a variant of us.”

With a frown, Sylvie took up the book about Sigyn again. “That’s a very strange coincidence, though, since it says in there that Sigyn falls in love with… well, with one of us, a Loki. And they have two sons together, who get brutally murdered.”

Sighing thoughtfully, Loki nodded. “It is a strange coincidence indeed, yet I believe it to be merely that: a coincidence. I mean, I come from that timeline I was just telling you about, so he definitely couldn’t have been one of us, or he would have had to be me. And – well, I am me.”

She raised one amused eyebrow. “I figured.”

“Yes, well… Anyway.” He didn’t know what else to say. The last time he had seen Sigyn had been ages and ages ago – he could barely even remember.

Sylvie, on the other hand, was already a few steps further. “So, you think the shadow figure from my dreams is Sigyn.”

“Precisely.”

“But why?”

“Well… She seemed vaguely familiar – and her plans would fit that assumption, as I realised after she told me what she wanted.”

Sylvie’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

“Now, she wasn’t exactly precise”, Loki quickly added. “And she didn’t say who she is. That’s why we can’t yet be certain about her identity. But what she did say is, she wants us to talk to her. We’re supposed to meet her in person, talk about what she wants from us – and how she can help us.”

“Help? Why would she want to help us?”

“I’m guessing for her own benefit.”

“And what would that be?”

He shrugged. “I’m not quite sure myself but let me start with what she told me before we start speculating.”

Leaning back, she took a sip from her cup of hot chocolate and looked at him expectantly without saying a word. Sylvie wasn’t happy with how this story was going: First, this mysterious figure had appeared in her dreams, then she had to find out Loki had even talked to them and knew more than Sylvie did, now, the being appeared to be Sigyn, who was the most loyal lover of most timelines’ Lokis. And she had no idea what this woman wanted, if it even was Sigyn to begin with.

Amazing.

He knew very well how annoyed Sylvie was by all the guessing she had to do while Loki already had so many answers – or at least solid assumptions. But if that was how Sigyn wanted to play this game, neither he nor Sylvie could change it. They had to follow her rules or ignore her calls, and thereby maybe a more than valuable opportunity for them to fight their own problem: the variant of He Who Remains.

“So, what did she tell you, then, huh?”

Seemed like he had taken too long to start his monologue. “Right, sorry. Um. It happened mere days ago…”

Chapter Text

Darkness. A cave. Then, a flicker of light.

Where was he?

Long time, no see.

And what was this voice, where did it come from? It seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at all. Who was speaking? He couldn’t see anyone.

Do you really need to ask? It would not change my words, neither your response. At least it should not. And why the unnecessary answers if they might be a bad influence on your mind? No. You better stay uncertain. I know you will figure it out eventually.

“What do you want, then?”

I want to help. You need help, do you not? You are all of you are so clueless – I can change that, but only if you help me in return.

“I don’t even know who you are.”

No, not yet. But there is no need to. Everything you need to know is that you all have something on your mind that is bothering you enough to prevent you from fulfilling your mission. And what that is, I will tell you – because I can see it. All of it.

“I do not know what you mean by that, nor who you are. Why would I trust you?”

Because you are desperate to do something, but you have no clue what or how. And I do.

“And what do you want me to do?”

Come.

He waited, but the voice didn’t continue. And just as he wanted to ask where he should come to, a figure appeared in his sight, blurry and unrecognisable at first, only a shadow, like the dark spots in one’s vision after staring into the sun for too long. Then, the shadows parted, and he found himself face to face with a tall, blonde woman. Her long hair fell over her shoulders in braids, her clothes were simple and spoke neither of wealth nor poverty, not even a profession. She looked strong but tired, and her grey eyes in the pale face were bloodshot and underlined with deep, dark shadows, like she had spent her nights lying awake and crying for a very long time.

Something about her seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

Her stern and melancholic gaze? The dropped shoulders, maybe the way her mouth twitched nervously from time to time? Or was it that her clothes reminded him of his youth? Of a time long gone, lost to the vagueness of memory and forgetting…

“Who are you?”, he asked again.

She giggled, but her mouth didn’t move, her face stayed emotionless, her eyes still had that same sad gaze to them, unchanged by what could have been a joyful sound.

I told you; you will have to find out yourself. But come and I might say more. Your friend, this Sylvie…

His heart leaped in his chest.

“What did you do to her?” Suddenly, all calm had vanished from his voice.

She only giggled again, her face staying a mask like before.

Oh, no need to worry. She did not want to stay, so I did not force her.

Only now he noticed that her mouth wasn’t even moving while she was speaking. How was this possible, what was happening? Was he hallucinating? He had thought he was having another mind slip, but this… this wasn’t like any mind slip he had had before.

I might visit her again – we will see. But until then, it is you who needs to listen to me, and to the promise I will give you: Come to me and I will help you succeed. In return, you will only need to get me out of this place. No catch, no buts. Only this.

“The fact that I still have no clue who or where you are makes this seem like many catches and buts.”

You will find me once you have made your decision, so do not worry about that.

“Right. And where will I find you, in the dungeons of a heavily armed fortress filled with demons, giants and monsters who would never even hesitate to kill anyone in their sight?”

Another giggle. Her face seemed so young yet so old at the same time – like the face of an immortal. Was she a goddess? And if yes, who? He could recognise an immortal, but knew quite some goddesses, and only few of them would have even spent one thought on helping him with something as simple as finding his way to the bathroom. A good portion of them would have probably found joy in seeing him dead. Why would this one be different?

No dungeons and fortresses, no demons, monsters or giants. Only a lone woman in a dark and cold cave.

“And what-”

Enough talking, it is time for you to leave.

Suddenly, the walls came closer, and the cave started to shrink – or did the woman start to grow? Darkness swirled around him, embracing him and pulling him downwards like a torrent of nothingness, empty of all sound and colour, swallowing him and dissolving his body like he was vanishing in Ginnungagap, until only his mind was left floating through the grey void, much like the colourless timelines.

Loki awoke on the hard floor of the TVA’s rooftops, cold and sweating, his heart thundering in his ears. The woman was gone, the cave had vanished, the darkness disappeared, the timelines were pulsing in the distance.

He was alone.

Chapter Text

It might have come across as a desperate choice, but Loki didn’t care anymore. He was going to meet Sigyn with Sylvie. He would confront her with her offer, find out how she could help, and inquire what exactly it was she wanted in return – there had to be a downside he was missing.

When he had told Sylvie this, she had frowned but nodded without a word. She was on board. Mobius, on the other hand, seemed less happy about his decision.

“You can’t just go to her timeline with as little information as you have right now”, he said, hurrying after Loki who was walking around the TVA on the search for his other friends, Sylvie beside him.

“Maybe you’re right, but I will go.” He stopped abruptly enough to make Mobius bump into him.

“Why? I mean, Sigyn?” Mobius adjusted his shirt and shook his head. “Who knows if that’s just a trap! It could very well be our variant, and if it is -”

Loki cut him off. “I told you, Mobius, I will go. It might be a trap, yes, but I have to take that risk for the sake of the multiverse.”

“Okay, well, if this is about the multiverse: We don’t even know if the multiverse can exist if something bad happens to you! I mean, you were literally its power source, and who knows if you sill are?”

“Then we might have to find out through trial and error.”

With a desperate and very dry laugh, Mobius turned to Sylvie, who didn’t show much reaction and generally seemed on board with Loki’s decision. Which wasn’t helpful either, so he faced Loki again. “Where even does this sudden change of mood come from?”

Loki shrugged. “Maybe I realised just how little time we actually have?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Well, if you’re so sure about that, Mr Analyst, then you tell me!”

Taken aback by the harshness of Loki’s words, Mobius backed away a little, which immediately brought a change to Loki’s expression. His eyes widened, his face turned yet a little paler and he stretched out his hands just slightly, as if to catch his words and stuff them back in his mouth, where they had come from.

“If I might add something to your endless quarrelling”, Sylvie said, stepping forward and facing Mobius, who was holding eye contact with Loki. “Loki is right, we should hurry – we’ve wasted too much time already. And yes, it’s risky, but that’s what we’re used to. We’ll be prepared.”

Mobius slowly shook his head. “For some things, we can’t prepare.”

“Not we as in the three of us, Mobius”, Loki corrected him softly. “This is something Sylvie and I will have to do alone.”

Mobius’s eyes widened. “You… I… What!?”

“Sigyn, as you surely know, is the lover of many Lokis on many timelines. Maybe, if only Sylvie and I talk to her, she will hesitate to do any bad to us for this very reason. But we could not guarantee anyone else’s safety.”

“You can’t even guarantee your own safety!” Mobius exclaimed, his voice suddenly free of control. “Come on, Loki, what’s going on? Talk to me!”

But Loki only looked at him with his pale and unreadable expression.

Sylvie saw it. She saw it all. And she realised what was happening.

For a moment, she closed her eyes and very quietly sighed, then forced a smile onto her lips. “I’ll meet you at the library”, she quietly told Loki, cast one last look at Mobius – and left.

As soon as Sylvie was gone, Loki closed his eyes, leaned his back against the nearest wall and let himself sink to the floor, where he stayed like frozen, legs pulled to his chest, his arms resting on his knees.

Mobius watched him for a while, uncertain how to act, then joined his friend on the floor.

“Sorry.”

Mobius laughed quietly. “It’s okay.” He looked at Loki out of the corners of his eyes with a small smirk. “Sometimes rage just builds up and you need to let it out, right? Like when you held NYC hostage with an alien army and threw Tony Stark off a building.”

His smirk reached Loki, whose face brightened just a little. “Right. Because sometimes our emotions get the better of us.”

“Exactly.” Mobius nodded. “But I have no clue what’s happening, so… just talk to me, yeah?”

When Loki opened his eyes again, they were glassy. “I… Sylvie told me that…”

“…that she feels like you’re putting me over her. Yes. She told me as well.”

Loki stared at him with wide eyes. “Wait, what? When?”

But Mobius smiled. “When I ran after her after your fight. I asked her what’s up, and well, the answer quite surprised me.”

For a moment, Loki just stared at him blankly – then, he nodded. “It surprised me, too. Yet I think I understand.”

“You do?”

“I’m trying to, at least.”

Mobius nodded. “That’s good. I’m gonna have to admit I don’t really understand right now, but that’s not as important.”

“Well”, Loki said, “I do tend to come to you for advice, that has almost become a habit at this point. And lately, I’ve been trying to shield Sylvie from even more worry than she experiences on a daily basis anyway. So, maybe that lead to her impression. Either way, I’ll do my best to change it so that she doesn’t have to feel that way again.”

The smile on Mobius’s face had almost faded, but now it came back. “Seems like an approach Sylvie will approve of. But, uhm… about the trip to Sigyn.”

Loki raised one eyebrow. “What about it?”

“I just…” Mobius was trying his best to avoid his gaze. “I need to know if you don’t want me to come because of the thing with Sylvie.”

“Oh, no!” Loki vehemently shook his head. “No, not that. It’s because I don’t want you to get hurt. Had Sylvie not had a dream sent by Sigyn herself, I would have told her to stay here, too.”

Mobius tilted his head. “Yeah, she probably would have killed you before Sigyn would have even got a chance.”

That brought a little laugh out of Loki. “Not wrong.”

“And what about Aturi? I mean, they’re a Loki, so you could take them with you – and they’d definitely be a real big help should it come to a fight.”

But Loki wrinkled his nose. “Sylvie and I have discussed it; we don’t think it would be a good idea. Aturi is an amazing fighter, of course, but they’re just too unpredictable. Sylvie alone might not contain her anger, she even admitted to it, although she promised to try. But her, I can calm or hold back for a while. Her and Aturi, definitely not.”

“Especially in the state you’re in.” When Loki made a shocked face in response, Mobius explained, “Well, should you have another mind slip, you might need someone to protect you, not someone you have to hold back.”

“True”, Loki agreed reluctantly. “I just hope it won’t come that far.”

“Sure, we all do. But sadly, we can never be certain.”

“I know.”

“Of course you do.”

After a minute of silence, Loki cast a long look at Mobius. Then, with a deep sigh, he got to his feet and held out a hand for Mobius to grab. “Let’s go.”

Mobius did so and let himself be pulled to his feet. “Where to?”

“The library.”

Chapter Text

Bonnie was sitting alone at a table in the empty lunchroom. No-one had seen her come, and only Verity had noticed her leave.

Sometimes, going back to the place where something you don’t understand happened helps to get an understanding of it. This time, though, it didn’t really do anything, if Bonnie was being honest.

There they had stood. There they had battled each other with words, Sylvie and Loki.

Who were they really? Neither of them seemed to show, maybe even know, their inner self in this time of danger and uncertainty, and neither seemed like one would imagine gods to be like. Sylvie was so… normal. A scarred woman with watchful eyes and a good heart, who didn’t like to show her true feelings. And Loki, though sometimes wearing his heart on his sleeve, seemed somewhat unreadable apart from constantly being tired. They were so similar, yet so different. One had lost their loving home, the other had never really had one to begin with – and yet they shared the same kind of trauma, the same sort of hurt, the same longing for what they wanted back or had always wanted to have.

And some of that longing, hurt and trauma was etched deep into Bonnie’s soul, too.

She knew it was there; she just couldn’t fully grasp it. Reading her file surely would have helped to find out what exactly it was and why it was there, but she didn’t want to. Sometimes, knowing true light was a far greater pain than never seeing it. And Bonnie truly feared that pain, more than anything even. What if she was to find out about a loving sister, or a desperate mother, or a heartbroken partner she had left behind? Mobius had once told her that he had two sons on his timeline, and that seeing them happy with his variant – their dad – was simultaneously comforting and painful, since he knew he could never even talk to them.

Bonnie had listened and tried to give advice, but after this talk, she knew she definitely didn’t want to share his pain. What if she, too, had had children?

Verity was fine with the knowledge of her variant’s life on the timeline she had come from. It had been though to get used to at first, but after a while, she had decided that she loved her life at the new TVA too much to be sad for long. Verity’s variant was a pediatrician who loved her job more than anything, which was a noticeable parallel to Verity – although happily being single and without children must have played a role there, too, Bonnie thought. Maybe Bonnie’s variant was similar. Hopefully there were no broken hearts involved.

“Hey, Bons!”

Bons. Only one person called her that. Bonnie looked up to see Casey walking towards her.

“What’s up?”

She shrugged. “Not much, I’m just thinking about… well, you know, what happened.”

“With Loki and Sylvie?” Taking a seat beside her, Casey sighed. “Yeah, I’m confused by that, too. What were they even fighting about? And why?”

Shaking her head, Bonnie leaned back on her chair. “I wish I knew. It must have something to do with the mind slips Loki referenced, but other than that? No idea.”

“However, it seemed brutal. The way he looked after her when she rushed out the room…”

“Yeah…” Bonnie sighed. “I don’t get it, to be honest. Any of it.”

“Yeah, right? Surely, they’d never want to hurt each other in any way, would they? I mean, they’re madly in love, aren’t they?”

With a slight chuckle, Bonnie shook her head. “Well, they do love each other, but… I don’t know, Casey, I’m not good at that kind of stuff.” Was I ever?

“What, love?”

She nodded. “Being in love, to be more precise. I love my friends, you know, but I’m not sure I ever was in love with anyone.” Unless I had a partner on my timeline. A partner with whom I might have had a family. “Maybe… before I came here.” Before I lost all connection to my old life and forgot my own name. “But other than that? Nope.”

Casey’s gaze went past her, into a faraway world, his face showing a kind of hesitant uncertainty she could relate to more than he knew. “Well… me neither. I, uhm… I don’t think I really, like, that I would fall in love with anyone, like, ever, you know.”

Raising her eyebrows, Bonnie made an effort to catch his gaze, but Casey just looked down in response, his face burning. “What are you trying to tell me, Casey?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. I just… I’ve been thinking about that recently. You know, ‘cause of Sylvie and Loki. And, I mean, there’s just so many different forms of love. So, loving someone, like, romantically… I’m not sure that’s for me.”

Now, he finally met Bonnie’s eyes – and she smiled. “Well, that’s fine. Who’s saying you have to?”

“I… uh, no-one.”

“Exactly. And you know what? We all love you so much that you’d probably turn into a giant pink teddy bear from the love overload if you’d have a romantic partner to love you as well.”

His face still red, Casey broke eye contact to laugh out loud. “Thanks.”

“No worries, that’s what friends are for, right?”

He nodded. “I guess so. Just feels good to get it off my chest, honestly. Kinda relieving. I know it’s not a big deal or anything, and I know none of you would mind, but it’s just…” With a sigh, he looked at her again. “I can’t really describe it, to be honest. I guess this kind of stuff just feels bigger than it is when you never say it out loud.”

Tilting her head, Bonnie agreed, “It surely does. Anything does, I think. Anything that’s on our minds and feels important, at least…”

What if I left behind a loving sister, a desperate mother, a heartbroken partner? Did I have a brother, or a dad? One like Mobius’s variant, maybe, who loves his kids more than words can say?

“Yeah… You’re probably right.” He grinned. “As always?”

With a loud laugh, Bonnie got up and walked over to his side of the table. “Do you want a hug from the always right person?”

Still grinning, he stood up to let himself be embraced. “I’d love a hug.”

Bonnie had to admit she didn’t just want to hug her friend for his sake – she needed this just as much as he did. For a while, they stood there, wrapped tightly in each other’s arms, before Bonnie let go again. “Is that why you came? To have a little talk?”

Should we continue this talk? Do I want to? Would I even muster up the courage to tell you about… what’s on my mind?

Casey shook his head. “Actually, it’s not.”

Good. Bonnie was hit by a not quite unexplainable wave of relief. He didn’t want to talk, not right now – that was good. Or was it?

“Was just a good opportunity, to be honest, but I came to tell you everyone’s gathering in the library – and don’t ask me why, I have no idea. I only know it’s got something to do with Sylvie and Loki. Shall we go?”

Suddenly, Bonnie felt a frown carve itself into her front. “Yeah, let’s join them. I wonder what they’re up to this time…”

Chapter Text

Their friends had wished them good luck. They wouldn’t accompany them, though most of them would have liked to. And Sylvie and Loki had had to promise they would take good care of each other and come back unscathed.

“Let’s see if we can keep that promise”, Sylvie had muttered when she had opened a time door without even knowing where to. Loki had told her Sigyn’s extraordinarily specific instructions: to follow her instincts, and so she had done. Hopefully, they would end up where they were supposed to go, and not in the middle of some apocalypse or something. Unless Sigyn’s cave was in the middle of an apocalypse, of course.

Damn, she hoped it wasn’t.

Carefully stepping through the orange wall in front of her like she had done a million times before, Sylvie cast one last look over her shoulder and spotted Mobius’s face. It was laced with worry and weariness, making him look older than he actually was. Or, well, older than he usually looked, since he was technically a few hundred years old.

Whatever. For Mobius alone, she would give her everything to make this mission a success. She wouldn’t let him down – not again. She had done so often enough. Too often.

As everything else, Mobius’s face turned orange, then faded from her view as she stepped through the time door, Loki following close behind.

It was dark. It was cold. The air smelled of moss on damp stone, and of despair. When the time door’s orange glow faded, all that was left was the dim cave with its red-brown walls – no person in sight.

“I don’t like this”, Sylvie whispered, but Loki was too deep in thought to react. He was studying the place with the utmost interest and a glimpse in his eyes that must have told Sylvie he had memory of this cave, although she would probably never guess what kind of memory.

“Loki!”

Only now he realised they had been walking in opposite directions. Quickly, he ran after her on quiet feet. “I don’t know where to go. This cave is bigger than expected…”

“A lot bigger!” Suddenly, Sylvie stood still, her eyes wide. When she whispered, it was even quieter than before. “Did you hear that?”

Slowly, Loki nodded. He had heard it: a light sound, like a falling leaf or feather, coming from further into the darkness. “Should we follow it?” he breathed, but even before Sylvie could open her mouth, the dry giggle of a watchful woman echoed through the cave.

Sylvie and Loki jumped closer together, now standing back-to-back, weapons drawn, ready to fight.

“Well, look who made it”, the same voice as the giggle came rippling down the walls like an avalanche of sound. It was impossible to say where in the cave it had come from. Her voice was deep and clear, laced with unhidden grief and anger – the perfect combination to create the lust for sweet, brutal revenge in the heart of a maniac. And if anyone knew about this lust, it was a Loki.

“Sigyn.”

Though his eyes were twitching from one side to the other, looking for a person, Loki’s voice sounded calm, like he was completely in control of the situation and calculating her every move before she would even have a chance to make it. No need to say, he wasn’t. “We have come to bargain – as I am sure you expected, since you are the one who ordered us here.”

Now, a shadowy figure appeared in the back of the cave, just near enough for Loki to see. Carefully and without taking his eyes off the figure, he reached back to grab Sylvie by the arm and turn her towards Sigyn as well.

Tensely, they watched as Sigyn came closer, the shadows around her parted and her appearance became visible. Blonde hair, braided to two strands falling over her shoulders, simple but well-made clothes from Asgardian wool and yarn covering the tall and strong body of a tired woman with melancholic but bloodshot grey eyes underlined with the shadow of grief. They were piercing him like a lioness’s who was waiting for the gazelle she was about to make her next meal to move, or even only slightly flinch.

When her lips twitched a little, her eyes stayed completely still. “Loki… To see you again after all these years.” Another dry laugh followed, but it didn’t reach her face. “Yet you are not the one I lost.”

Coming evermore closer, Sigyn never once took her eyes off Loki – as if Sylvie was nothing but thin air.

Loki raised his chin a little higher. “Tell us what we came for.”

Finally, Sigyn’s gaze dropped to his daggers, then moved to Sylvie’s sword before it wandered up to her face. And, contrary to any expectation either Loki or Sylvie had in that moment, a small smile slowly spread on Sigyn’s face. “I can see her: the little girl inside of you. And she is scared, am I right? Let her be scared – I am sure she can feel what she is about to see. But tell her there is no need for it as I will not hurt you, Sylvie. I doubt I even could.”

Sylvie’s eyes were filled with confusion, but Sigyn turned her back on them and started walking, only stopping for a short moment to wave them after her. And so, they followed.

Sigyn guided them outside, from where they had a beautiful view across… well… nothing but the remnants of destruction. Lone rocks were floating through the air, crashing against each other from time to time, making them splinter and spread the sharp pieces even further. Here and there, Sylvie could spot large wooden objects burnt beyond recognition. The different parts of surely once beautiful buildings were circling or merging with the devastation. There was nothing else, not even a floor for the ruins to land on.

Her heart sank as she realised what Sigyn had meant earlier: this was the aftermath of an apocalypse – little Sylvie’s playground.

“What happened here?” she said with a sudden kind of empathy for Sigyn arising in her. “This place is an absolute disaster…”

The dim light outside was as bleak and reddish as the walls of the cave, but when Sigyn turned to face Sylvie, she looked so much paler and wearier than in the dark cave. Her shoulders hung low and her gaze, though having seemed resolute and stern mere minutes ago, was now empty and dull.

“My timeline’s Loki wanted only to protect his family, and the world his sons were growing into. It costed him his life, since apocalypses, once they have found a beginning, are unstoppable.” She looked out towards the lifeless destruction surrounding them. “No-one survived – no-one but me, merely through coincidence, since I got trapped inside the only place that did not crumble or was burnt to the ground. Turns out my biggest mistake was telling my sons to run for their life and leave me behind, or they might still be here today.”

Her eyes were those of a lone survivor who had lost everything – an all too familiar sight to Sylvie. But they were also the eyes of a mother who had lost her children.

For maybe the first time ever, Sylvie didn’t care what the person in front of her could do to hurt her as she stretched out a hand and said, “I am so sorry.”

And Sigyn, with one look at Sylvie’s expression, took her hand and smiled, while a tear rolled down her face. “I was hoping for you to understand.”

Her eyes jumped to Loki, who was standing beside the two women speechlessly. But when Sigyn stretched out her other hand, he didn’t think twice before he took it. “How can we help?”

For a long moment, Sigyn closed her eyes to gather herself. When she opened them again, the stern look was back, although the weariness and desperation hadn’t become any less, now joined by the utmost urgency. It was an almost frightening mix of emotions in her gaze with which she told Loki, “I need to get away from here.”

Sylvie and Loki exchanged a glance. Getting someone off their timeline was easy… but finding another to send them to? Not so much.

“We could do that”, Sylvie said when she looked back at Sigyn. “But where would you want to go?”

“In all honesty, I do not care. Take me wherever and I will be forever in your fault.”

Now, Loki took a step forward. “Do you know about the TVA?”

Sigyn’s lips twitched, but without turning to a smile or grimace. Maybe out of nervosity? Or well-hidden amusement? “I do. I came to you in visions while you were there.”

In case he had seen it, Loki politely ignored the twitching. “How about if we take you there? First of all, you will be safe – and you can tell us all about the help you promised you could offer us.”

She nodded. “Bekymre deg ikke, for I have not forgotten. Fleeing is simply the first and most urgent point on my list.”

Loki smiled empathetically, then cast a look at Sylvie, who chose not to ask about the sudden Asgardian she had of course not understood. Instead, she raised her hand with the TemPad on its wrist. “Then let us leave.”

Never had she seen a wave of relief so great as the one washing over Sigyn when the time door cast its orange glow into the dead world around them.

Chapter Text

The woman that stepped into the TVA’s library had to be a goddess – no doubt. Though the shadows beneath her reddened eyes and the pale colour of her sharp carved face her back was proudly upright as if it was the only posture she knew, her appearance was beautifully young and graciously old at once, and her gaze was stern and wise and intimidating. The strands of hair falling over her shoulders were like sunlight behind light grey mist on a cold day in the north – dull gold, too precious to be touched, too captivating to look away.

Bonnie marvelled at every move the goddess made, every gesture of her hand, every one of her gazes as she inspected the room with its faded books and flying dust particles. A moment before, the high shelves and dark carpets had seemed noble and elegant, the light flooding in from big windows brighter and clearer than anywhere else; now it all appeared more like a faded photocopy of itself, a memory of past beauty.

In libraries, all sounds were naturally muffled, but now, in the presence of the goddess, a new kind of silence had settled between the high shelves and old rugs. It was a silence that spoke of wonder and fear and anticipation.

Bonnie barely noticed Sylvie and Loki behind the goddess, or the orange glow of the time door, or the way the others, who had been waiting here with her, froze and trailed off in the middle of a sentence.

When the goddess showed the faintest smile, it was like a sunrise on a frigid winter morning, not warm enough to thaw the frost, but bright enough to blind every open eye. “Greetings”, she said. “I am Sigyn – and I have come to offer my help.”

Loki and Sylvie quickly explained that Sigyn’s price had been to be taken away from the apocalypse she had been trapped in, for she herself could not open portals to another world. Sigyn added that she wanted nothing but to never go back to where she had come from and was happy to repay her saviours in advice.

While they were talking, Mobius discreetly let his gaze brush over everyone in the room. Except for the other three gods, it seemed only Mobius was not so enchanted by Sigyn’s godly presence. Verity was frozen in marvel, Casey wore a faint dreamy smile, Victor’s eyes were wide with amazement and Bonnie seemed far gone, as if no-one but her and Sigyn existed anymore. At least the tenseness in OB’s face seemed to come from intense pondering, not some sort of bewitchment. And Aturi was hidden too deep in the shadows to leave any kind of expression visible. Was their raven with them, watching from the sidelines?

Mobius wondered if OB or Aturi had noticed the slight twitching of Sigyn’s mouth that came from time to time – the smallest imperfection in the goddess’s glorious appearance, a single tiny factor that didn’t seem controlled or wanted, instead a little out of place. It made her the littlest bit human.

When Loki and Sylvie were done explaining, they looked at Sigyn expectantly. Now, Mobius understood, it was her turn to tell them how exactly she even wanted to help.

Sigyn got the message and started speaking – but her gaze was directed towards the furthest corner of the room, where Aturi was sitting. “I am a lesser goddess – my powers or sphere of influence barely surpass a half-god’s. Yet where another would merely see hard walls, I see windows with cracks and holes, hidden by heavy curtains. They are not easy to reach or to climb through, one can get hurt if they try, but there is always a way, no matter how concealed or unrelated it may seem at first.” She smirked, finally opening her gaze to include the rest. “An Asgardian saying goes: Er veien lang og bratt, må den føre til en topp.”

“If the road is long and steep, it must lead to a peak.” The quiet translation had come from Loki, whose eyes were on Sigyn, but Mobius could see he was looking right through her. Sylvie was watching him thoughtfully. When Mobius took his eyes off them, he noticed everyone in the room seemed to have awoken from a vivid dream – as if Loki’s words had finally broken the spell Sigyn’s presence had put them under.

“And which way do you see?” It was OB who had spoken, without the slightest trace of hesitation or uncertainty in his voice.

Sigyn met his eyes. “This variant you are hunting – he wanted to recruit me.”

The silence that followed was louder than any expression of shock could have possibly been. OB exchanged a glance with Victor before he sought Mobius’s gaze. His face formed the same question Mobius saw on everyone’s faces, yet no-one dared to ask. He offered OB a small shrug as an answer.

“How?”

The word fell into the silence like a stone into a deep pond. Everyone’s eyes jumped towards the darkest corner of the room – except Sigyn’s. She only looked at the floor with a smile on her twitching lips. “He came and asked – then left when I declined.”

“Really?” Aturi got up and went straight towards her, their steps quiet as always and unmistakably determined. They had no attention for the ones they passed; their focus was solely on Sigyn. “Let me guess.” They stopped a meter in front of her. “He thanked you for your time, accepted your no and left without further ado.”

The smile on Sigyn’s lips was unchanged, but there was a cold in it Mobius hadn’t noticed before. “Your mistrust is at least twice as great as everyone else’s combined – which has to say something, given that ever suspicious Sylvie is part of everyone else.”

Aturi’s face was as impenetrable as ever. “No wonder.”

A quiet rustling made Mobius look up. There, atop one of the high bookshelves, sat Epres, Aturi’s white raven, and was watching Sigyn with his burning red eyes.

“Aturi…” Loki rose to step between Aturi and Sigyn, but Sigyn held him back with one raised hand. Unnoticed by the two, he exchanged a worried glance with Sylvie.

“Well, then”, Sigyn decided, although no-one but Aturi and her seemed to know what decision had just been made. “His name is Kaydon Gray. He comes from a late medieval timeline – the first he destroyed. That is, he did not destroy it, exactly. Instead, he slowed its time to an extend where it almost stands still.”

Mobius thought he could feel Loki’s eyes on him, but when he looked over, Loki was looking at Sylvie.

“I do not know where he gained this ability from, only that there is an aura to him I had never felt before…” Finally, Sigyn took her eyes off Aturi and faced Loki and Sylvie instead. “…until I found it in you two.”

After a moment of silence, Sylvie slowly said, “So that’s why you sent us these visions. Because we match his aura.”

With a twitch of her lips, Sigyn nodded. “There is only a trace of it in you, Sylvie… but in Loki, it is stronger than any aura I have ever sensed.”

“It’s from there.” Although his words were composed and utterly calm, Loki had suddenly become quite pale. “From the end of time. Isn’t it?”

He wasn’t looking at Sigyn, yet his words had a direction to them that made everyone’s eyes jump to her. Sigyn kept to staring at Loki. “That is what I think.”

A caw from the bookshelf made them tilt their heads back. Epres fluttered up and let himself fall until he stretched out his wings to slow down and land – on Sigyn’s shoulder. Aturi’s eyes widened in disbelief as they stared at their raven. Sigyn, though, only smiled.

“I believe he agrees.”

The tension in the room was palpable. No-one except the four gods dared to speak, not even Mobius. Bonnie wished herself small as an ant or at best invisible. Would Aturi now storm at Sigyn with raised blades?

Very carefully, Aturi closed the distance between them and Sigyn and slowly stretched out their arm, their piercing eyes glued to Sigyn’s while Epres hopped from her shoulder on Aturi’s hand. Their words were so full of rage that their voice, although dangerously quiet, carried through the whole room. “Du tror du er bedre enn oss bare fordi du vokste opp i Asgard. But guess what: Det har jeg også.”

It was impossible for Bonnie to tell what Aturi had just said, since Sigyn’s face stayed unreadable.

“Aturi, hør på meg.” Loki. He had got up and was now standing next to Aturi, his hand halfway to their shoulder. “Listen to me. Please.”

His voice was gentle as the brush of a feather, but strong as a force of nature. Aturi visibly swallowed, then finally averted their eyes.

“We need to work together on this – all of us. And Sigyn may have the key to our success.”

“Fine.” Aturi’s voice was rough with unhidden mistrust and anger, but, surely against their will, the slightest trace of uncertainty shone through. Epres crawled upwards on their arm and nestled on their shoulder, the right one, which was the same side as Aturi’s burn scar.

As if they had felt Bonnie’s gaze on them, Aturi turned around. But Bonnie quickly looked at Sigyn instead and saw Aturi turn back from the edge of her vision.

“So, how can you help us?” Again, Loki tried to move the conversation forward without sending heads flying.

Sigyn tilted her head. “That variant, as you call him, Kaydon Gray… He does not want to be seen, but I saw him. He does not want anyone to know what is on his mind while he speaks to them, but I found out anyway. His plan obviously involves gaining as many loyal followers as possible, so to ensure they are loyal, they need to join him willingly. When they do not, he either threatens them into joining him anyway or kills them to ensure no-one will recognise him. Only when he offered me a place in his lines and I declined, there was no need to kill me since my world had long died before he ever came. There was nobody I could have revealed his identity to, so he did not bother to battle a goddess and simply left her to the inevitable. Of course, he couldn’t know that my husband had taught me magic, which allowed me to seek contact outside my own world.”

She shot a quick glance towards Loki, making it clear who her husband had resembled.

“Gray’s only motive is the hunger for power, but his mind is veiled. I do not know what caused the veil, but there is a hollowness in his gaze that I have only seen in the eyes of dead. Maybe, if he could escape this hollowness, this veil, he could see something beyond the lust for power. And that is where I come in.”

Her unreadable charming smirk returned. “You see, he saw his chances against me slim because I was at peace with myself when he came. I had found and buried the bodies of my sons and my husband, and I had accepted that I would live out my days in a world of death and destruction. My soul was broken beyond repair, yes, but I did not think of conquering other worlds to ease my pain. My only wish was peace and quiet, and he came to offer me war.”

She laughed dryly. It sounded like faraway thunder, threatening and impossible to escape, yet too quiet to scare. “He had thought me desperate enough to do anything to get away from this living nightmare, and when he realised I was not, he did not know what to do with me except leave me to die. Usually, his victims are so desperate they will follow him anywhere as soon as he promises them a chance to escape their reality. And this is where his weakness lies.”

She paused. When the pause became so long Bonnie was sure Sigyn had finished talking and was waiting for a reaction, Sigyn suddenly added, “In the face of acceptance or even peace combined with humble wishes instead of the yearning for unlimited power, he becomes weak and see-through. You need to use this to find him.”

Aturi laughed humourlessly. “Right. So, we’re just supposed to stand in a circle and talk about some humble wishes and inner peace and all our problems will be solved.”

“No.” Neither Sigyn’s face nor voice exposed the slightest trace of anger or impatience, but her eyes were gleaming with both. “You are supposed to face your biggest inner demon, the one thing you are too scared to do, the one person you do not dare to see, the one topic you under no circumstance want to talk about, or whatever else it may be. Because after you have done so, your veil will have opened, and your mind will be free to find Kaydon Gray, since this is what he hides behind: uncertainty, regret, and missing closure.”

Again, Aturi held Sigyn’s gaze with the same intensity as before. Only this time, they didn’t say anything; and after a long breathless moment, they looked away in defeat.

Not for the first time Bonnie wondered what had happened to Aturi – and how they had become the distrustful, ever suspicious person they were today.

Chapter Text

They would try. Each of them. Although Sylvie seemed just as thrilled about it as Aturi, the both too had agreed to give Sigyn’s solution a chance. After all, what did they have to lose?

Now, it was time to go to bed and wait for it to happen: a dream that would tell them where their own veil lay. Unlike some of his friends, Loki trusted that Sigyn had been telling the truth when she had promised she would send them all a dream that would show them their fears. “I cannot read your minds, only your aura. If you yourself are unsure what this fear is, I cannot see it, either. Just like I could not see what caused the veil in Kaydon Gray’s mind”, she had explained.

“The veil…” Loki mumbled thoughtfully while he was standing before the sink in Mobius’s tiny bathroom. The towel with which he had dried his face was still in his hands, and there was an almost black stain of water slowly spreading on his dark grey shirt. Grey… it felt like his whole life was evolving around this one colour at the moment. He would have much preferred green, or pink, or at the very least a faded orange.

Wrinkling his nose, Loki realised that the water stain was bigger than he had thought. He could feel the cool dampness seeping onto his skin. It was a very numbing feeling which was a very uncomfortable sensation to have right above his heart. Maybe he should change the shirt, Mobius could surely borrow him another one.

When he pulled it over his head, his eyes caught sight of an unfamiliar spot in the mirror as his gaze flickered across the glass. What the…?

With a sudden tightness in his chest, Loki squinted his eyes and leaned closer to study his findings more carefully. There was no way in any world that he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing. Right? There couldn’t be!

But the spot stayed, from whichever direction he stared at it in disbelief. Actually, shock, not disbelief. Because he could believe what he was seeing. It didn’t even surprise him as much as it probably should have. He just didn’t know what to do with the fact that… well…

Swallowing dryly, Loki struggled to tear his gaze away but managed to drop his head and stare at that same spot he had inspected in the mirror. Right there, in the middle of his chest, just above the heart, was a somewhat round area in a frightening, very not-skin-like grey. And the blurred edges merged perfectly with his skin colour as if the spot had every right to exist.

Loki closed his eyes. “Okay”, he whispered. “So, this is really happening, isn’t it?”

No-one answered. There was no-one who could have answered. And… he wanted to keep it that way. Oh yes, he was absolutely going to keep it that way.

Chapter Text

There was a swimming pool. It wasn’t deep, but deep enough for a child to disappear beneath the surface when standing upright in the water. And there was a child jumping from the edge of the pool, landing right next to another child that screamed out, “Kevin! Watch out! You almost killed me!”

But Kevin hadn’t heard a word because, well, his head had been underwater. When he surfaced, spitting out water and coughing, he had a gleaming grin on his face – the embodiment of childish innocence. “Did you see that? I almost did a somersault!”

The second kid clenched his teeth and growled, “Oh yea, I did see, because you almost fucking fell on my head!”

“Language, Sean!” An adult entered the picture: a very familiar middle-aged man with few brown hair left on his mostly grey head.

“Dad!” Sean screamed a little breathlessly, swimming towards Don, as Mobius remembered his variant’s name was. “He nearly killed me!”

“Killed you?” Don’s eyebrows came remarkably close to kissing his receding hairline.

“No, I didn’t!” Kevin shouted angrily, paddling inelegantly after his brother.

But Sean wasn’t having it. “Yes, you did! Liar!”

Don sighed, closing his eyes for a moment to rub them with his fingers. The other hand was bedded firmly on his hip, giving the single father of two in his bright blue shorts and faded yellow Aloha Shirt a quite exhausted appearance.

Suddenly, when he opened his eyes again, his shirt and shorts lost all colour in a heartbeat – and everything else did, too, until there was nothing left but bright grey. Then, out of the grey nothingness, formed the silhouettes of the same three people as before, this time wrapped in warm winter coats and sitting on the backs of two horses. Sean was sitting on the smaller one, Kevin and Don on the other. A woman in a riding jacket was walking in front of them, holding both horses on their reins.

Mobius watched as the colour returned to the scenery just as sudden as it had left.

Sean was smiling proudly, his back as straight as a young tree’s trunk. Kevin, though, was tiredly leaning against his dad, who was sitting behind him, holding him tight. After a glance at his older brother, Kevin whispered, “This is so cool. I feel like a brave knight – and I’m on my way to save a beautiful princess!”

“And does this princess like horseback riding?” Don whispered back with a fond smirk and Kevin nodded vehemently. “She loves it!”

Don laughed silently. “Phew, I’m glad she does, ‘cause I left the car in the parking lot.”

When Kevin chuckled, Sean looked over with an absent gaze. He surely was dreaming himself a brave adventurer as well but was too proud to admit it.

Kevin, though, wasn’t. “I wanna do this again soon!” he said, now loud enough for his big brother to hear.

Sean hesitated a moment, then nodded. “It is kinda cool. Thanks for taking us, dad.”

The smile on Don’s face grew even warmer. He opened his mouth – but Mobius woke up before Don could say something.

Loki knew there was no use in trying to rub the grey away with a wet towel. The spot was here to stay. He still tried. After all, he had nothing to lose.

Casey hated his dream.

He was aware of the fact that he was just dreaming, but he still hated every second of it. Why? Well, because he couldn’t do anything about it. And what he was going through here was torture at its finest.

First, he had stood in the loom room with his friends who had all been staring at the screen of the same computer Casey had been working on – or at the loom, because it had been close to exploding. Too close. And Casey had been the only one able to change that – but he had failed. The loom had exploded, and it had been his fault.

The explosion had turned everything blinding white before a different scenery had formed out of the nothingness: the lunchroom. In it, his friends. Again. They were all huddled together in a corner, tied up on their wrists and ankles, unable to move. Only Casey was free – and he had a pruning stick. But when the gigantic orange clock that looked like a horror movie version of Ms Minutes walked towards him, its minute hand stretched out like a longsword, Casey’s hands were shaking too much to hold on to the stick. It clattered to the floor and stayed there while the clock walked past him towards his screaming friends. Casey closed his eyes and prayed for the dream to change again – which it thankfully did.

Now, he was standing next to a hospital bed – in it was Bonnie, grey as stone. Around them, their friends had gathered. They seemed to be waiting for something.

Suddenly, Verity stepped forward. “Casey, what do we do?”

Had he been able to move, his mouth would have dropped open. He wanted to tell her that he had no damn clue what to do, but before he could even begin to talk, his eyes caught sight of the clothes he was wearing: a flashing white doctor’s coat.

“Casey…” His gaze jerked up to look at Bonnie, who was trying her hardest to stretch out a trembling hand. “Casey, help me… please…”

Her hand dropped and her eyes fell shut.

Casey felt like the way too white room started spinning around him. He couldn’t see clearly anymore, his head was suddenly too heavy to hold, and his stomach was turning and twisting in every possible and impossible direction. But to his luck – or despair – the scenery changed again.

Still a bit dizzy, Casey looked up to find himself in a brightly lit room. The only visible colour was gleaming white. There was no furniture or window. Just white walls, a white floor and the glistening white lights on the ceiling which were giving him a headache already. The room was fairly large, but there was no-one in sight.

Of course, now that it didn’t help him in any way because he was alone in a room without windows or doors, now he could suddenly move.

“Bons?”

No answer. Of course not.

“Hey, Bons! Vee-Vee? Mobius? Anyone!”

But no-one came.

No-one even heard him.

In the end, Loki pulled the wet shirt over his head again without asking Mobius for another one. He only nodded quickly to greet his friend when he walked past him as Mobius entered the bathroom after Loki was done. Had he said a word, his voice probably would have broken. Or he would have cried. Either way, Mobius would have seen something was wrong. And oh, if only he knew just how wrong it was…

The fact that Verity was pruning timelines in a children’s hospital was a little confusing, but here she was.

Every child that passed the plastic desk she was sitting at handed her a slightly glowing string. Just one small sting, every single time, each one coloured differently, some thicker and some thinner than others.

And what did Verity do with all these strings? She threw them in a dark grey bin. And inside said bin, there was nothing. Like, literally nothing. As soon as the strings fell into it, they dissolved in the nothingness. It didn’t even have a colour, it was just… well, nothing.

Of course, Verity was well aware that the strings weren’t just normal strings; they were timelines, very young ones too, and they were already a home to countless beings. A developing home, but so full of life, life that wanted to sprout and grow and extend – life that she erased with just one swift motion of her right hand. Take – move – drop – move back. Take the next – move her arm across the desk – open her hand over the bin – move her arm back again.

She was aware of what she was doing. But she didn’t have control over her own body. And so, she kept pruning timelines until she finally awoke in cold sweat, her heart beating out of her chest, her breath running wild.

Hadn’t Sigyn spoken of dreams? She hadn’t just had a simple dream – this had been a full-on nightmare.

Loki was sitting on his mattress, clutching his knees and rocking back and forth. He couldn’t sleep. Of course not. The image of pale skin growing grey had imprinted itself into his mind.

Shit, was he scared.

Chapter Text

Victor was unique. He knew that for a fact. There were trillions of versions of him, but they were all different, some just slightly, some vastly. That was all just a little hard to believe while facing these trillions of his variants, all lined up in front of a gate. And next to the gate was Victor.

He knew that whatever he would do, he could never press the button in front of him, because it would open the gate. And if the gate opened, one or two of his variants would walk through. And if they did, the multiverse would have one or two more dangers to face. Because, however it was possible for him to be so certain, he knew for a fact that they were all evil. Every single one of them.

And yet he had let about fifty through already.

It wasn’t his fault, not really, because he was trying with all his strength and willpower to stop his hands from pressing the button – the only problem was, he simply couldn’t. He let them through, all his evil variants, and he could only move his arm mechanically to press the button and watch them walk past.

This was his responsibility. Every single one of them. Every evil variant he was letting into the multiverse. Because he was doing it. He was pressing the button. Time and time again.

In the end, he wasn’t any better than those variants. Maybe even worse.

What if the grey would spread?

Loki stared down at his chest, having removed his shirt once more. There it was, his infallible connection to the multiverse, a testimony of his past sacrifice – his possible doom.

He gulped down a wave of panic, trying to breathe evenly to supress the scream of desperation tugging at his throat, the tears pricking at his eyes. His hands were sweaty and slightly shaky and his whole body felt numb from the sudden coldness rising within him.

Stiffly, he shook his shoulders to rid himself of the tension gripping him tightly, but it didn’t help. In the end, Loki closed his eyes and leaned back against the cool wall. He had no idea what to do.

There were so many people surrounding him that Ouroboros had long lost track of how many and who. Most of them he had never seen before or recognised from somewhere but didn’t know where from. Some he knew vaguely. And here and there, he spotted the familiar face of a friend.

The first was Victor, who was standing amidst the crowd, looking lost and confused. When OB approached him, he didn’t seem to notice him.

“Vic! Hey, Vic, it’s me: OB!” OB walked towards him, stretching out his hand to touch his friend by the shoulder, but Vic turned and walked away without even looking at him. Too perplexed to do anything, OB just froze and looked after him, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

While he was still dumbstruck, Mobius walked past him. Before he knew what he was doing, he grabbed Mobius’s arm and pulled as hard as he could, turning Mobius around until he was looking directly at him. “Mobius! What is happening?”

For a moment, Mobius seemed confused; then he smiled the politest distant smile, as if OB was a random stranger who was acting a little crazy. “Sorry, who are you?” he said – and OB felt his muscles weaken. His arm fell to his side, letting go off Mobius, who cast a last look at OB, then turned on his heels and walked away, leaving OB hurt and confused.

It wasn’t any better with Aturi, who acted like he was nothing but thin air. Bonnie offered him the same polite smile as Mobius, then excused herself with a tilt of her head that seemed to say, “Sorry, I have to go.” Verity frowned at him as if she was disgusted by his very existence. Sylvie laughed at him. Casey looked so confused that OB’s stomach turned and twisted and he walked away even before Casey did.

The only one of his friends he hadn’t yet found was Loki – his last hope. But OB wasn’t sure he even wanted to find him. Maybe it would be better if he didn’t.

Tired of this stupid dream, OB let himself sink to the floor. He wanted to wake up. Better sooner than later.

While he was sitting there, his shoulders hunched forward, his head low, a familiar figure walked towards him. Turns out he didn’t need to find Loki – Loki had already found him.

OB looked up without a word. Trying to get Loki to talk to him would be useless, he knew that by now. But maybe he at least wouldn’t humiliate him if OB stayed quiet.

Loki was almost past him, when he suddenly stopped and looked down, locking eyes with OB. OB stared back, trying to supress the tiny spark of hope lighting in his heart that would surely only lead to disappointment. He didn’t want to talk, but he couldn’t help it. “Loki?”

When Loki smiled, it was a warm smile. He stretched out a hand and waited for OB to take it. OB hesitated for a long moment, but when Loki still didn’t draw back, he finally took it – or at least he tried to, because as soon as their hands would have touched, Loki vanished. OB blinked, utterly confused, but there was not even a shadow left. Loki was simply gone.

Swallowing dryly, OB let his slightly shaky hand drop. None of his friends cared about him or even saw him. And all these strangers around him were like ghosts – they neither had a name nor meaning to him. And OB sat there, on the hard ground, alone among hundreds.

He had no clue what was happening, but it scared him to death.

I need to tell Sylvie.

The wish had formed before Loki could stop himself from thinking it. He couldn’t tell her, she would worry herself sick if he did!

On the other hand… If the grey really would spread, Sylvie would notice sooner or later. As would everyone else. Better he told her now, before she would find out through seeing his very colours fade. Also, he did, in fact, need to tell someone, simply because he was so overwhelmed by the sheer panic his greying chest was causing him. He needed help. And if he had to talk to anyone, he wanted it to be Sylvie.

Sylvie dreamt of blurred faces. It was honestly a little boring, since she didn’t recognise any of the people in her own dream. She knew she had known them at some point, but she couldn’t remember. Probably from some apocalypse or another. To be frank, she was just glad Joseph, the charming postman she had left to die alone, hadn’t made his appearance yet. Hopefully, it would stay this way.

Little did she know there were other just as powerful ways to break her heart. She only realised when the blurry face of a child stayed longer than the rest. She knew this face better than any of those she had seen here before, but where from?

And then it hit her: This was her brother. Her Thor. The one person she would have died for without a second thought when she had been just an innocent child herself, long before the TVA had ruined it all. And she didn’t remember his face, didn’t remember his voice, not even his smile.

It was all blurred.

Wait a damn minute… These faces… they were all Asgardians. Every single one of them was a person from Sylvie’s own timeline – a person she might have called a friend once, or a teacher, an aunt or maybe a cousin. Or mom. Dad. Brother.

The faces continued flying by, but now that Sylvie knew what she was seeing, who she was seeing, it cut her soul into tiny pieces not to recognise a single one of them.

Seconds felt like hours while Loki was sitting on Mobius’s folding bed, staring into the darkness surrounding him, his back against the hard wall. He could hear his friend’s calm breaths from the other side of the room. The man had been asleep faster than one could say, “Time Variance Authority”, leaving Loki a whole night to stare at his bare skin and search for some colour in the grey above his heart. Hopefully, the dream Sigyn had promised would find Mobius was good. Judging by the quiet sighs Loki heard from time to time, it probably wasn’t terrible, at least. Loki could only hope for the same, should he fall asleep this night – which he hardly thought possible at this point.

Aturi didn’t want to fall asleep. They knew exactly what they’d dream about, and they didn’t want to relive the most terrible moment of their entire life.

They tried walking around the empty corridors of the TVA for a while. Every time they passed someone, they either hid behind the closest corner, talked to Epres (which got them some weird looks), or pretended not to see the other person, even when it was completely clear they could. That quickly got boring, though, and on top of that tiring, since almost everything looked the same here.

“Well, what now, huh?” they asked their raven while running their fingers through its feathers.

Unsurprisingly, Epres didn’t answer. He only plucked at a snow-white feather, sending it floating towards the ground.

They went back to the apartment they shared with Sylvie – Bonnie’s apartment. Sylvie was fast asleep on the couch. And not only that – her sleep even seemed quite peaceful.

“Lucky you”, Aturi muttered under their breath before they entered the bedroom, closing the door to the living room behind them. Epres fluttered down from their shoulder and onto the end of the wooden frame around the bed. It was a small bed, and like everything else in Bonnie’s apartment, it seemed nice but impersonal, as if Bonnie was just living here temporarily. Which, maybe, she was, who could tell? But it didn’t seem like it.

Aturi let themself fall onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Being honest, they felt some sort of empathy towards Bonnie. They didn’t exactly know why. Maybe it was the way Bonnie never seemed to feel uncomfortable around them, unlike Victor and OB. Not that Aturi blamed them for it, it was no wonder the two felt a bit uneasy. But not Bonnie. Or maybe it was the way she looked at the world with her big grey eyes: watchful but consciously unconcerned. Or the honest, innocent smile raising the slightly blushed cheeks in her hazel face. All in all, Bonnie didn’t seem like a person who was used to hiding her true self, and Aturi admired that a lot. Plus, she wasn’t hiding fear behind a mask of politeness when she was around Aturi, which was what Aturi was used to when people who didn’t want to fight interacted with them.

“Epres, hvor lavt står solen?”

How low is the sun?

The raven cawed. Not that it would have mattered. Not that Epres could have even known. There was no sun where the TVA was, the only somewhat natural light here fell through the windows in the library… the same library where Sylvie and Loki had brought Sigyn to.

Aturi grimaced. They didn’t like this Sigyn in the least, but at least she seemed like she actually meant what she said. Only that part with the aura reading was a little suspicious. Aura reading wasn’t easy, Aturi knew that for a fact. It was unlikely for Sigyn to actually be as good as she had made it seem. Unlikely – but not impossible.

They sighed. “Epres?”

Sleepily, the raven raised its head.

“Til og med du er sliten?”

Even you are tired?

The raven tucked its head under its wing in response. Aturi snorted. “Great.”

Quite honestly, the ceiling was very boring. “Maybe I should go to bed…” But then the dreams would come. “Eh, kanskje ikke.” Maybe not.

Oh, most definitely not. Aturi was used to staying up day and night. They wouldn’t simply fall asleep if they closed their eyes, not if they didn’t want to. And their eyelids were so heavy… Maybe they should close them for just a moment. Not long, only for a bit, until it would be easier to keep them open again. Just… a few seconds…

As soon as they fell asleep, they found themselves surrounded by a fire. Their dream was full of hot flames. Not much else, only a burning forest. Yet it was more than enough.

They wanted to wake up as soon as they had fallen asleep.

Chapter Text

Humming didn’t help. Getting up and walking around a little didn’t, either. Loki had tried it all: drinking some water, reading a book, going to the toilet, changing sleeping positions, counting to one thousand and back to zero in both English and Asgardian… Maybe he would have to knock himself out to get Sigyn’s dream.

Every time he closed his eyes, his hands and feet started feeling numb, as if the grey was spreading from all ends of his body. Only once, his thoughts had drifted off so far, he had almost fallen asleep, but the feeling of icy mist closing around his heart had startled him awake in cold sweat before sleep had even got a chance to embrace him.

Bonnie smelled the smoke before she found the fire. It was closing around the doors of a shed, probably a sheep shed, but there were no animals inside. She didn’t know why she knew that, but she was certain.

For whatever reason, Bonnie couldn’t stop herself from walking towards the flames until they were so close her skin started prickling. And there she stood and stared at the glowing red building while it slowly began to fall apart.

There was nothing around the shed, only indefinable forms blurred by light grey mist. Bonnie should have just walked away, this was neither captivating nor did it make any sense to her, and to top that, it was dangerous. But something about the burning shed was pulling on her heart with invisible strings, unwilling to let her go.

Finally, the front wall crashed, sending a shower of sparks to rain down on Bonnie’s shoulders and hair, red mixing with red. Yet the sparks were of no interest to her, because she had just spotted a person standing inside the shed, surrounded by flames as high as herself – a young woman with red hair and light brown skin, big grey eyes and freckles on her nose and cheeks. Only the glasses were missing.

Her mouth agape, Bonnie stared at herself in disbelief while the rest of the burning shed collapsed, ending her dream and pushing Bonnie back into the world of the awake.

In the end, when he had long given up hope and was only waiting for Mobius to wake up so another day could begin, Loki actually fell asleep.

At first, his dream was an indefinable swirl of faces, colours and sceneries – but at least there were colours. When the chaos finally evened out, Loki found himself standing on a grassy hill with nothing around him but a faintly lit mist dressed in gold and a pinkish red by the setting sun. The wind was moving the knee-high grass like calm ocean waves.

Loki didn’t know this place, but he liked it here. It was so… peaceful. And it reminded him faintly of his first encounter with Aturi’s timeline, when Sylvie had opened a time door for him to a place where he could feel, mere days after they had returned from the end of time. Yet it wasn’t Aturi’s world his dream had taken him to. He would have recognised almost any place there, having spent so much time in it by now.

Where was he?

Hesitantly, he started walking, but his hesitation soon turned into determination. Loki wanted to get to know this dream world, even if it was only that – a world from a dream, a place he would never see again. Maybe especially then, he wanted to see as much of it as possible for as long as he could. After all, it was beautiful here.

Time seemed not to be passing at all, although he left the hilltop behind and dove into a valley with grass just as soft as the one on the hill. Then, he went up another hill that looked exactly the same. Except…

When Loki was already suspecting to have entered some kind of time loop where he could never leave this one hill and the dale below, he suddenly spotted a familiar frame on the other side of the hill. It was the frame of a person, a tall one with broad shoulders and fair hair catching the last light of the sunset.

He should have jumped in joy, but instead, Loki’s heart skipped a beat as he froze, his eyes wide, his senses suddenly enhanced. He could hear the moving grass, feel the fainting sunlight like fire on his skin, smell the trace of a scent from a time long gone in the air.

Slowly, very slowly, he started moving again, gingerly placing one anxious foot in front of the other until he stood about a meter behind the familiar person, gulping down his fear and readying himself to speak. But the other turned around before Loki could force any word out of his slightly opened mouth – and frowned in disbelief.

“Brother?”

His breaths didn’t seem to reach Loki’s lungs anymore. “Thor…”

It was truly heart wrenching to watch the sad smile form on Thor’s face, because it was a smile that told a tale words couldn’t have expressed. He had seen Loki before. Many times. But it had never been real. Thor thought this was just another illusion caused by his own mind. And Loki couldn’t even disagree, since this was all just a dream. His dream. A dream he wanted to stay in for days, only to get to see his brother smile.

“I miss you, little brother.”

I miss you.

Not I missed you. Because Loki wasn’t there. Not really.

Though he gulped down his tears, Loki’s voice was hoarse when he spoke. “I miss you, too, Thor. More than you know.”

Chapter Text

Listening to Victor talk had become easier but Aturi still hadn’t got quite used to it. Not that they minded his stutter, not at all. It just hurt to hear the familiarity in the way his words twisted and stumbled before they climbed across his tongue and pushed through his lips. Victor had a hard time getting anything out sometimes. It hadn’t been as bad for… Well, either way, Aturi really didn’t need the constant reminder.

At breakfast, none of them had talked much. No-one had even mentioned their dream. Somehow, Aturi suspected most dreams had been nightmares. It only made their attitude towards Sigyn colder.

Sigyn had joined them but not said a word unless spoken to. Aturi had felt her gaze on them from time to time and mostly chosen to ignore it, but every time they had stared back, Sigyn had been looking at someone else or nowhere specific.

Bonnie still seemed a little bewitched by the newcomer. Aturi could feel their jaw clench at the sight of Bonnie’s marvelling eyes. Didn’t she know Sigyn shouldn’t be trusted that easily? At least Verity was less naïve. Bonnie would listen to her, Aturi hoped.

Only once they were all done and Aturi was already getting up to leave, Sigyn suddenly stood.

“Your work is not done”, she said, her voice carrying through the silent room, thick like honey but with a roughness like sandpaper. “It has only just begun. Now, you need to act on your dreams.”

Some were nodding. Some muttered their agreement. Aturi stayed silent.

“When each of you has done what needs to be done, we will form a ring of completion that will transport us to the one our minds long to see: Kaydon Gray.”

“What’s a ring of completion?” Verity asked warily.

Sigyn smiled. “Magic. Possibly one of the strongest forms of magic a lesser goddess like me can achieve. Loki, Sylvie and Aturi will need to help me when the time has come.”

Her eyes found Aturi, who scowled in return.

“And how are we supposed to act on our dreams?” OB was looking strangely unlively. Usually, he was almost a bit too active for Aturi’s liking, but today, his face was a little pale, his eyes small and glassy, his shoulders lower than normally. Aturi couldn’t help but wonder what he had dreamed about.

Sigyn smiled empathetically. “I wish I could give you all a clear answer, but I cannot. Only you yourself can know what you need to do after seeing your dream. My advice: Talk to someone you trust and think it through together.”

Aturi rolled their eyes but didn’t comment on it. Sure, talk to someone about the unspeakable. Definitely. Because, well, why not?

Either way, a unanimous decision was made to do what Sigyn had suggested – if doable. Because part of this unanimous decision was that Aturi would never, ever open their mouth to utter only a single word about their past. Not to anyone. But only Aturi knew about this part of the decision. And they weren’t planning on telling anyone. Instead, they would have to make up some story about a believable, semi-dramatic event to talk about if questioned. And given that Sylvie and Loki knew a bit about the fire, they couldn’t talk to either of them. Which was a shame, since Sylvie would have been Aturi’s natural first choice.

Back in the apartment Sylvie and Aturi shared, Aturi sat on the bed with Epres, running their hand across his bright feathers. “Du forstår, hva?” You understand, huh?

Epres tilted his head as if to answer with a yes, and Aturi smiled a small, sad smile. “Men du er den eneste, kjære Epres.” But you’re the only one, dear Epres.

They sighed, glad that they had at least someone. “Ja, du er den eneste.”

“Loki?” Mobius knocked on the bathroom door once more. “Are you okay?”

Silence. Mobius was already thinking of ways to break into the bathroom, that’s how worried he was since he had heard the unusual, loud and dull thud, but then the door gently swung open, and Loki smiled at him from tired eyes.

“I’m fine, don’t worry.”

Mobius squinted. “Yeah, sure you are. Have you even slept last night? You look paler than your shirt, and that shirt is white.”

Loki didn’t answer. He knew he didn’t have to.

With a sigh, Mobius lowered his voice. “What happened? Did you stumble or something?”

Nodding, Loki walked past him to Mobius’s bed, where he sat down. “Mind slip”, he mumbled barely audibly.

For a moment, Mobius simply stood next to the open bathroom, watching his friend uncertainly, then he went to sit next to him.

“You wanna talk about it?”

Loki shrugged. “There’s not much to say, I didn’t see anything unusual. Just a park… a sandbox with three or four children… parents sitting at the side, chatting…” Again, he shrugged. “Life.”

Mobius huffed a laugh. “Good summary.”

Once more, there was silence. This time, though, Mobius didn’t mind it.

“I dreamt of my sons.”

Loki looked up surprisedly.

“You know…” Mobius smiled. “It was a nice dream, actually.”

Loki smiled back. “What did they do?”

“They were just… being kids.” Where had this sudden sting in his chest come from? “Swimming, fighting about nonsense, horseback riding and letting their fantasy run wild…” He swallowed down a lump of emotion threatening to break free. “Spending time with me. Well, Don. Their dad.”

Loki was watching him thoughtfully. Mobius could feel his gaze on him. But he couldn’t meet his eyes. Not as long as the sting in his chest was still hurting.

“Would you like to see them?”

Now, he did look up. “Huh?”

“Your sons.” Loki’s expression was serious. “Do you want to visit them?”

Mobius closed his eyes. “I can’t, Loki. You know I can’t.”

“That’s not my question.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter if I want to, I can’t!”

“Still not.”

“Come on, Loki, you know as well as I that it’s ridiculous to even think about!” His eyes were open again, and they were staring at Loki with an intensity that almost shocked Mobius. But not Loki.

“Is it?”

One very long, exasperated sigh later, Mobius had his emotions under control again. “Yes, it is. They’d recognise me as their dad, but I’m not Don, and either they’d find out or Don would. I can’t go.”

He paused. Then, before he could choose otherwise, he let his mouth form the words he was scared to even think. “But you’re right. I… I would like to see them.”

And Loki smiled. “I know.” With that, he got up and held out a hand. Mobius frowned but took it and followed his friend out the room.

Chapter Text

Sylvie was pacing up and down the corridor in front of Bonnie’s apartment. Aturi was inside and probably still talking to their raven in Asgardian (of which, by the way, Sylvie didn’t understand a word, which didn’t exactly make it easier to ponder her dream from last night). Sylvie wanted to leave them alone for now, not least because she wanted to be alone herself. Loki had come to her after breakfast, but before he had got a chance to ask any questions or make suggestions, Sylvie had already shaken her head with a distinct, “Not yet.”

First, she needed time to think about her dream.

But now that she had said time, she didn’t want it. It may sound stupid, but she would have loved to be in a rush at the moment, something like running for her life or hunting down a foe, fighting some monster or at the very least busying herself with the search for food. Getting to explore your own mind can be quite unsettling. So why not change the subject?

Sighing deeply, Sylvie came to a halt to lean against a wall and close her eyes. “Damn, I’d love a ridiculously smart but somewhat scary bird to talk to right now”, she muttered to herself.

Thing is, there’s usually no answer when you talk to yourself.

“Yeah, that would be quite useful sometimes.”

Sylvie’s eyes snapped open, and she found herself staring at Verity, who was leaning on the opposite wall on the other end of the corridor. “Since when are you here?” The question sounded sharper than deserved.

“I only just came, don’t worry.” Verity pushed herself forward and came closer but stopped a few meters away from Sylvie, where she now leaned against the same wall so that they could both stare at the same trivial view. Hooray.

“I’m not gonna ask you about your dream”, she said without looking at Sylvie, though Sylvie was staring her down with uncertainty. “If it was as grand as mine, congratulations and welcome to the trauma club.”

Sylvie snorted humourlessly. “Welcome? I invented that thing.”

Verity smirked and turned her head just enough to look back. “Right, I forgot.”

Now, it was on Sylvie to look away although she could feel the other’s gaze on her.

“You know”, Verity said after a while, “it really helped me a bunch to read my file. Maybe you should do the same.”

“Right.” Sylvie clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms. “Read about what hurts most. Sure, I will.”

Verity sighed. “Well, I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but you gotta face your past someway, and you’ll probably wanna do it rather sooner than later, while you can still choose. It’ll catch up with you one day, y’know.”

Sylvie didn’t know what to answer, so she just stayed silent.

When she looked back up, Verity suddenly seemed very hesitant. She looked down, stared at her feet for a bit, fidgeted, then looked at Sylvie again. “Can I tell you?” she blurted out. Then, more controlled, “About my dream?”

Sylvie stared back – then shrugged. “Okay… I mean, if you really want to…”

Verity nodded, though her front wrinkled as if to disagree. “I do. You’re the one who opened my eyes back then. You know, in showing me what my life was like before the TVA.”

There was the faintest trace of a smile on Sylvie’s face. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Right.”

Silence.

“Well…” Verity drew a deep breath. “I dreamt of threads. Threads of timelines, to be exact.”

Victor had a hard time telling OB about his dream. OB knew that because Victor’s stutter returned and only faded out again once he was done describing the nightmare. These days, Victor rarely ever stuttered in OB’s presence, when no-one else was around.

In return, OB told him about his own nightmare. He didn’t comment on Victor’s dream before he was done telling his own. He would have found it unfair.

The first words that were spoken into the thoughtful silence after they both had shared their dream with the other came from Victor. “Well, it cannot have been more than a dream, because I would never ignore you, my friend.”

His words still stumbled a little, but they all made it out of his mouth without doubling parts of themselves. OB smiled. “I know, Vic. I know…” Yet his smile faded as he looked up. “You’re not a villain, Victor. You know that, right?”

Victor tried his best at avoiding OB’s gaze, but OB was used to this tactic and simply kept staring straight at his friend until Victor finally met his eyes. “I…” Victor sighed. “I do know that. But sometimes… I forget, I think. Or it’s… hard to believe, while so many of my variants are.”

OB firmly put his hands on Victor’s shoulders. “You, Victor Timely, are not evil. You’re my friend.”

Victor smiled. “And you, my friend Ouroboros, are seen and heard. If by no-one else, then surely be me. Always.”

The warmth rising in OB’s chest drove tears into his eyes.

“Good thing we have each other then, huh?”

His smile even wider now, Victor nodded. “I’m glad the multiverse evened a path for us to become friends.”

Aturi was sitting in the library. They didn’t really know what had made them come here of all places, but they had their suspicions. The many books, for instance. Or the gigantic windows. The smell of old wood and inscribed paper… She would have loved this place.

For once, Epres wasn’t there. Aturi had left him in Bonnie’s apartment with the task of being there for Sylvie if she needed him. But that wasn’t the only reason the raven wasn’t here – Aturi didn’t want him with them right now, not while they tried to think about the unthinkable without letting it get to them. Epres had seen them cry often enough. Sometimes, his sole presence – the reminder – was the reason for their tears. Other times, it was their own reflection.

The noise of quiet footsteps alerted Aturi, making them look up.

Bonnie came around a bookshelf and surprisedly looked down at Aturi, who was sitting on the floor. Her eyes were red and glassy, and there were the faint traces of tears on her copper face. She tried a smile, but to Aturi’s admiration, she didn’t wipe away her drying tears. “Hey. I didn’t know you were here, too.”

Her voice was quieter than usual, and softer. More fragile.

Aturi found themself smiling back. “Ditto.”

Bonnie nodded slightly uncomfortably. “Well, this could get a little weird now. Uh… do you want me to leave?”

To their own surprise, Aturi shook their head. “It’s fine. Stay, if you like.”

Bonnie’s smile reappeared as she walked towards Aturi and gestured next to them, silently asking if it was okay if she sat beside them. Something about the warmth in her smile was oddly comforting to Aturi. Or maybe it was the way she looked at them, had looked at them from the start: without the tiniest bit of prejudice, instead making an offer whose source Aturi still couldn’t quite understand – an offer of peace, of unconditional kindness.

With a smile, Aturi moved a bit towards the bookshelf on their left, so that Bonnie would have enough place to sit to their right, next to the other bookshelf. Before their feet, one of the library’s big windows shone its light onto the old carpet.

“My dream was terrible”, Bonnie said silently, staring straight ahead.

Aturi only briefly looked at her. “Yeah, mine too.”

Then, a silence fell between them. It was the kind of silence one would expect in a library, one of calm, respect and understanding.

“Have you always known who you are?” Bonnie asked after a while, hesitantly glancing at Aturi from the side.

Aturi didn’t know why they even answered, since this was quite a personal question – yet they did. “I… I did, once. But I forgot. Now, I’m slowly getting to know myself again.”

Bonnie nodded as if she knew exactly what Aturi was saying. “I thought I did, but then I found out I actually had no clue. It’s not exactly been easy since. Verity has been a huge help – she understands me like no-one else. And vice-versa. But…” She slowly took a breath. “Well, she knows her past. She’s read her file. I… can’t bring myself to do the same.”

“The file that says who you were before the TVA kidnapped you?”

Again, Bonnie nodded.

“Why not?” And why are you telling me this?

She shrugged. “It’s not like I don’t want to know. I’m just scared to find out I left someone behind who could miss me.” A fresh tear rolled down her cheek. “But since my dream, it’s all I can think about.”

Aturi couldn’t help but stare. It had taken weeks to get to this level of vulnerability with both Sylvie and Loki. And Bonnie just came here and showed in such simple way that already, she trusted them.

The words were spoken before Aturi could think about them. “What did you dream about?”

Going by Aturi’s logic, Bonnie should have stood up and left that very moment. But Bonnie seemed to prefer her own logic. “A burning shed. When it collapsed, I saw myself inside.”

The reply sounded dry and analytical, almost free from any emotion. It was a kind of detached indifference that alerted something buried deep inside Aturi.

“Do you know what that could mean?” Their voice was suddenly surprisingly gentle.

Bonnie shook her head. “No clue. But something tells me it has to do with my timeline.”

Aturi nodded. “Okay. Then… how about if we go get your file to check if you’re correct? You don’t even have to read it yourself if you don’t want to. You could give it to Verity, for example.”

Bonnie looked up with new life in her eyes. “Yeah, we could do that. We really could!”

“Right now?” With a smile, Aturi got to their feet and stretched out a hand.

Letting Aturi help her up, Bonnie returned their smile. “Right now sounds perfect, ‘cause I know I’ll not do it later, when I’m by myself again – too many worries, you know.”

“I can imagine.” One last look at the big window framed by two high, old bookshelves reminded Aturi of why they had come here, what they had been thinking about, that they actually wanted to be alone right now and deal with their own shit. But when they looked back at Bonnie, they knew they had already made the decision to help this woman right here and now. They would have enough time for their own troubles later.

Aturi grinned. “Alright, let’s get this going!”

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long for Mobius to come out of the closet.

He was wearing a very small pair of jeans as a kind of turban, had two different socks on his hands and somehow had managed to braid his tie together with two others, one of which was pink, the other green.

„Loki, I need your help.”

Loki raised a single eyebrow. “I can see that…!”

“What am I supposed to do, I’ve never dressed inconspicuously casual before!” The way his turban wobbled as he raised his sock hands in frustration only cemented his statement from before: Mobius did, in fact, need Loki’s help. Urgently, even.

“Okay, look”, Loki smirked, walking over to his friend to take off the jeans-turban, then the sock-gloves. “I can see why you chose blue for your right and red for your left, though it might be a little controversial”, he commented casually, giving Mobius a reason to roll his eyes. “Honestly! Furthermore, the little beige daisies on the blue one perfectly match the stripes on your green tie.”

“Loki…”

“But it’s a bold choice to put pink and green together with brown. I mean, sure, you can do green and brown. But not with this shade!”

“Loki!” Mobius tried his best to seem exhausted, but the slight smile tugging at his lips exposed him as merely a little annoyed. “Please, no more styling tips. I need actual advice this time.”

Loki huffed fake-offendedly. “Do I ever not give you actual advice?”

“Well, yeah, basically all the time?”

“Oh, please! Don’t you know I’m the god of good advice?”

“Pfft, no, you’re not!”

“How would you know?”

Mobius’s smirk grew wider. “Maybe because I literally studied your very existence?”

Loki was pleased to note that his friend was enjoying this just as much as he was. “Fair enough. But I could be!”

“Anyone would be better suited for that job than you!”

“Hey, not anyone!”

“Absolutely anyone.”

“Okay, I see how it is, I guess you don’t want my help then?” Loki could feel the playful spark in his eyes. He may not have been the god of good advice, but he was the god of mischief after all. And needless to say, mischief was more than just his job description – it was his passion.

Mobius only had to look at him and wait. Finally, Loki gave in with a quiet laugh, patting his friend on the shoulder. “Right, let’s see what we can do for you.”

“How’s it look?” Seeing Mobius in sweatpants and a fluffy, bright blue jumper was a very new experience, to say the least.

Loki tilted his head. “It’s alright, but not exactly good.” They had to start somewhere, and Loki wanted to guide his friend slowly into the increasing craziness he had planned for the outfits.

“What?”

“Well, you don’t want your sons to recognise you, do you?”

“I… no, but…”

“They will if you look like this.”

Mobius’s shoulders inside the knitted jumper dropped disappointedly. “Fine. So, on to the next?”

“On to the next.”

“That’s better, isn’t it?”

Loki couldn’t help himself – he had to stare. The way the silver sequin top shimmered was just a bit… irritating.

“Yeah… no.”

“No? I thought you said you like the top?” Mobius tried to look at his own back. “Oh. Those pants are… quite tight.”

Loki’s eyes widened in amusement. “I mean, yeah. I’m sure the ladies would love them!”

“Loki!”

“Sorry. Men too. And everyone else.”

“That’s not… I didn’t-”

“I know, I know. Just change, okay?”

“Absolutely, I’m not wearing this thing any longer than I have to.”

Loki chuckled but chose not to make any more comments.

Mobius made an almost disgusted face when he saw himself in the cowboy outfit, complete with boots and a hat. “I look like Lobster Loki.”

Loki, on the other hand, had a hard time holding back laughter. “You kinda do.”

One look at his friend was enough for Mobius to sigh very loudly and take off the hat. “Fine, I’m changing already.”

“How about now?”

The dress was definitely doing its job, but Mobius still just looked like Mobius in a dress. “Better.”

“Good?”

“Better, but not good. Not good enough, however.”

Mobius sighed, looking down at himself. “Still?”

“Still.”

“Okay.” He paused, spinning a little to each side to make his skirt fly. “Actually, I kinda like the feeling of it. It’s very…”

“Light?” Loki smiled. “Freeing?”

Mobius thought a moment. “Yeah”, he then concluded and changed out of the dress without another word, grabbing the pile of clothes Loki was holding – the next option: a very tight outfit in bright, blooming colours, completed with a white cardigan.

As soon as he had put the clothes on, he proudly turned to Loki, expecting to finally have found his outfit.

“Now, how do I look?”

But Loki had to disappoint his friend once again. “Still too much like yourself.”

“What? I look nothing like myself! I’ve never even worn something like this!” Mobius gestured at the cardigan with a very bewildered expression.

“Which doesn’t change your face, Mobius.”

The answer was a frustrated groan from Mobius.

Loki didn’t bother to comment on it. “You want to stay unnoticed – I’ll make you stay unnoticed. Trust me. I’ve had tougher cases.”

“Oh? Like when?”

“Like when I needed to make a bunch of Jøtuns believe Thor was Sif, and I his – or, well, her – bridesmaid.”

“… Right.”

“You remember?”

“No, I do, yeah. Now that you talk about it…”

“So, you get what I’m saying. You’re not Thor, and you don’t have to look like Sif. You just can’t look like yourself. That’s a comparatively easy task.”

A short pause in which Mobius seemed to be debating with himself ensued. Loki just hoped he wouldn’t give up on their project.

“Okay, yeah, whatever. Let’s just get on with this.”

And get on with it they did. Hours later, when Mobius had almost lost his temper thrice already (although he never would have admitted it), Loki finally lit up as soon as he saw the new outfit on Mobius.

“Now, that is what I call a masterpiece of transformation!”

“Wait, what?” Mobius stared at his friend, disbelief in his eyes. “Really?”

“Really.” Loki grinned. “And you what? Let’s put this leather jacket to the test!”

Supressing a slightly uneasy feeling, Mobius squinted. “What exactly do you mean by that…?”

Loki, though, only flashed his typical mischievous grin at him. “Well, if our friends don’t recognise you when we walk by, your… Don’s kids won’t, either.”

Chapter Text

“Is the raven intentional?”

Aturi put down the box of old TVA files they had been going through. “Huh?”

Bonnie turned around on the office chair, away from the computer screen. “You know, because he’s a raven, like Hugin and Munin, Odin’s ravens, and… well, you’re a Loki.”

Well, that had come out of the blue. “Bonnie… are you distracting again?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, I just wondered.”

“So you’ve found your file?”

Silence. Then, after a long breathless moment, Bonnie’s head dropped a little. “No. Well, yes. But I haven’t opened the folder it’s in yet.”

Leaving the box behind without a second thought, Aturi walked towards her. “Okay.” They squinted at the screen. “This, uh, this right here?”

Staring at them from the side with a slightly puzzled expression, Bonnie said, “You really have no idea how that thing works, do you?”

Aturi shrugged. “No clue. I’ve never used a computer or anything similar before. Never needed to.”

The little chuckle Bonnie let out was somewhat endearing. “Look.” She double-clicked on the device she had called mouse earlier and the screen of the computer changed, showing a white rectangle with black letters on it. “And that’s…”, Bonnie started explanatory – but then trailed off. She cleared her throat in an effort to regain her composure, but Aturi could still hear how small her voice suddenly sounded compared to before. “That’s my file.”

It wasn’t hard to tell Bonnie was just staring at the screen without reading a word.

Aturi quietly took a step backwards. “Hey, you got this. I’ll leave you alone for now.” This way, Bonnie could choose to share pieces of what she would find later but wouldn’t be forced to do so.

She nodded. “Thanks.”

Though it was barely audible, Aturi appreciated it. “Sure. I’ll be outside if you need something.”

Aturi had been sitting on the floor in front of the computer room’s closed door for a while now, thinking about everything and nothing, pondering their dream, Sigyn’s reliability, Bonnie’s thesis about Epres and the rather boring, newly digitalised files they had gone through to distract themself while Bonnie had searched for her own file. Time Variance Authority. Pah. These people had been playing God for a very long time, and so far, Aturi knew of not one single worker who actually was a god and had grown up with the concept of overseeing multiple worlds at the same time… which didn’t make the fact that this organisation had been controlling the entire multiverse for who knows how long any more comfortable.

And they weren’t even all-digital yet. The literal organisation that was in charge of keeping everything and everyone everywhere in every time in check. Surely, they’d have enough understanding of modern technology when to them it was past, modern and futuristic technology all at once – right? And yet they were still busy digitalising pile over pile, centuries of files.

Suddenly, the door swung open. There was Bonnie, standing tall, her gaze far gone and her shoulders low.

Very slowly, Aturi got to their feet. “Are you… okay?”

Her eyes found Aturi’s. “No.” Which was quite obvious by the way her voice broke, and her eyes went glassy. “I don’t think I am.”

“Do you, uhm… want to talk about it?”

She shrugged, then shook her head – only to hesitate and shrug again. “I don’t know.”

Shit. What was Aturi supposed to do now?

“Okay, then tell me when you’ve found out, yeah? I mean, if you wanna.”

Bonnie nodded, her face pale. Maybe it was time to test out her own strategy: distraction.

“I’ve thought about it, by the way. The raven thing.”

“Huh?” Finally, Bonnie’s eyes focused.

“Well, I don’t think there’s a connection, you know. The whole part about Odin and all. There can’t be.”

For a moment, Bonnie seemed bewildered, but then she gladly took the opportunity Aturi had laid out for her and let herself get distracted. “There can’t be?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Because the raven isn’t mine. Or, well, now he is, but he wasn’t always mine.”

“Then whose was it?”

“Novy’s.”

The name hung in the air like an explosive ice crystal – and Bonnie seemed very tempted to touch it.

Being honest, Aturi hadn’t planned that. Not at all. Sure, distracting Bonnie had been intentional, but mentioning Novy? Not in a million years.

But now they had said the one name they had sworn to never speak again. Now they couldn’t take it back anymore. Now it was out there.

Bonnie was next to them before Aturi realised she had moved. “Should I ask?”

Aturi shook their head. “Rather not. I didn’t even want to…”

They sunk to the floor again, pulling their knees close to their chest. Bonnie sat down beside them.

“My timeline was pruned because I was supposed to die.”

Aturi looked up surprisedly.

“Yeah, I know.” Bonnie gave them a crooked smile. “Now I do want to talk about it. Guess I have made my decision then, huh?”

Aturi really tried their best to mirror her smile, but Bonnie turned away before they managed. Her eyes, though directed towards the opposite wall, were peeking through a window to another world.

“In my timeline, a medieval one, my mother and I created a nexus event together.” She sniffed to fill the short silence. “Our village was raided by soldiers. Six of them got to our house, my mother and I somehow managed to hold them up long enough for my… my children… to sneak out the back door and hide in the barn.” Pausing a moment, Bonnie seemed to fight back a swirl of emotions arising in her. “We were simply extremely friendly and offered to give them anything they desired. Only when two of them started to show how much they desired me, a young woman whose… husband was away at war, we fled and hid on the rooftop until they finally left. Little did we know they had set fire to the barn… None of my children survived.”

Bonnie swallowed hard and Aturi was already taking a breath to say something, anything really, but she cut her off with a sharp gesture.

“I’s okay. You know, it’s okay because… apparently, none of that was supposed to happen. My mother should have gone with my children, while I held up the soldiers on my own.” Her words were dry and distant, as if she was analysing the life of a total stranger. Which maybe wasn’t all too wrong. “My mother would have smelled the smoke from the spreading fire, and they would have left the barn before it was too late – which would have alerted the soldiers, who then would have tried to chase them down. Kids are an easy catch, I guess. Probably sell well on slave markets. Anyway, that’s where I come in; because I would have realised what was happening and thrown myself at the soldiers, who would of course have killed me, but only after my family was out of sight. In this version, only I died, but my children and my mother survived, and my husband came home from war only weeks later. In the branch we created – the one that was pruned –, my mother and I were the only survivors my husband could come home to.”

There was a long pause in which Aturi was studying Bonnie’s face with a mixture of empathy, uncertainty and… something else. Something warm.

Finally, someone spoke. To their own surprise, it was Aturi. “How do you feel about all of that?”

Bonnie shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. I guess I’m relieved that the timeline where my children are alive, is the one that still exists. But…” Her laugh didn’t sound amused. Rather a little manic. “Well, I had children. Three of them.” She looked at Aturi, but they weren’t sure she was seeing them. “And I had a mother. And a husband.” She swallowed but she couldn’t stop her voice from breaking. “I… I had a whole family.”

Though a little hesitantly, Aturi placed a firm, steadying hand on Bonnie’s shoulder. “And you saved them.”

The smallest smile brightened Bonnie’s eyes. “Yeah. I guess I did.” Somehow, she sounded relieved.

“Hey!” It surprised Aturi that the grin on their face was honest. “Look at you, a real warrior! And there I thought Loki had labelled you as one of the analysts.”

Bonnie shrugged, her smile spreading. “Thanks.”

Aturi frowned. “Why, what for?”

“For listening.” Though still small, Bonnie’s smile was as bright as ever. “For being there.”

With a deep breath, Aturi tried to get rid of the sudden stiffness in their shoulders. “Sure. I mean, you would have done the same, right?”

Suddenly, there was a whole new tension in the room. Bonnie’s smile faded and she looked at Aturi with both surprise and hesitant expectancy, but without pressure. She wouldn’t force anything out of Aturi, so much was clear. This conversation could have ended then and there.

Or not.

“Uhm… about the fire.”

Bonnie didn’t say anything. She only looked at Aturi with her big, golden eyes and waited patiently. In her face was that same warmth Aturi had felt inside when looking at them before. A trace of it was still there, battling the sudden frost that was threatening to enclose their heart once more.

“I…” Just uttering this one word was as painful as ramming a knife into their own back. Because there was a sentence following this word, and a meaning in that sentence – and a story behind the meaning.

“I lost my better half in a fire. My Novy.”

Chapter Text

“Novy and I moved to Midgard, partially to escape our overprotective families. I was royalty, you know – a Loki growing up in Asgard. But always being treated with the with greatest care and an unnecessary nobility bored me to death. Novy, too, had a very overprotected childhood. That quickly connected us, somehow, though we came from different worlds: she was an elf, I an Asgardian. We were only kids when we first met, but we grew so close so fast…

In Midgard, we found that beautiful little town by the sea and Novy convinced me to get one of those vintage looking houseboats. We did, and it became our home. Ours and Epres’s. Novy had adopted him back in Alfheim and he was her dearest darling – but I was fine sharing. I thought he was cool, ‘cause he was so different. I mean, a white raven? That is pretty cool.

Anyway. All in all, we were happy. We really were. But one day, while I was back on our boat, fixing some jammed door, Novy went out mushroom picking with Epres. He returned soon – alone and visibly frightened. Of course, I followed him to see what was going on… and then I saw the smoke. It was a forest fire.

With Epres as my guide, it didn’t take long until I had found Novy, but there was a wall of flames separating us. She was hiding in a cave, where she was somewhat protected from the fire, but the earth and trees holding the cave together weren’t.

The cave collapsed before I could reach her.

If not for Epres, who wouldn’t stop tugging on my clothes, circling me with desperate caws and pushing me away from that damned cave, I, too, would have died that day. I was so determined to get Novy out of there or die trying.

To this day, I still don’t know how the fire started. If it was intentional. I didn’t only have friends back in Asgard, of course – I was royalty, after all. But what I do know is that I had lost sight of any kind of light in life until Sylvie came along. It’s crazy to think about, but that total stranger who came to me for help and let her guard down although she knew very well it could get her killed… well, somehow Sylvie touched a part of me I had forgotten about long ago. Thanks to her, I now have a new chance – and I’m not going to waste it. Novy was such a bright person; she wouldn’t want me to live in darkness.”

Bonnie was staring. She knew she was. But she didn’t know what else to do. For once, she had no clue what to say.

Aturi wiped away their tears. Bonnie suspected they hadn’t even noticed them until now.

“I’m sorry.” Their gaze almost met hers. “That was… a lot.”

Bonnie vividly shook her head, glad to finally know what to do. “No, no, it’s fine! You don’t have to apologise, really!”

Now, Aturi looked her in the eyes. “I…” Their voice was suddenly very small. Bonnie’s heart skipped a beat as she held Aturi’s gaze. She had never seen them this vulnerable.

“Yes…?”

Aturi swallowed dryly but didn’t look away. “I’ve never told anyone.” They breathed in – and out. “I didn’t think I could.”

Bonnie managed an honest smile. “Well, you’re pretty good at it.”

Aturi’s lips twisted into the same small smile Bonnie had seen on their face before, but this time, for the first time, it brightened the whole room, warming Bonnie in its light.

“You think so?”

She shrugged. “I suppose you are, yeah.”

They were still looking each other in the eyes, Bonnie suddenly noticed. For some reason, though, she couldn’t bring herself to look away until Aturi did.

“Thanks.” Their voice was just above a whisper. “Turns out you would, indeed, do the same for me: listening, being there without any judgement.”

“Of course.” Bonnie could still feel the warmth radiating from Aturi. “And… well, thank you for sharing. Or, for trusting me, really.”

She could see Aturi nod from the corner of her eyes. “Yeah…”

It took Bonnie a moment to realise there was no more to say, neither for her nor for Aturi. The silence that ensued was comfortable. All that could harm suddenly seemed far away and there was a kind of strength dripping into their hearts like gentle drops of summer rain. The smile on Bonnie’s face just didn’t want to fade, but she didn’t mind. Actually, she felt more at ease than she ever had in the past months.

Chapter Text

Casey was trying. He really was. But how the hell was he supposed to just deal with a dream in which everyone needed him, and he could help none of them?

He had tried writing it down. He had tried telling it to himself like a bedtime story, in an effort of making it something soothing and unexciting instead of nightmare fuel.

“Talk to someone you trust and think it through together”, Sigyn had said. Of course, it seemed like a logical next step to follow her advice, but Casey could hardly tell his friends about a dream in which he had been the worst friend possible. Not that he feared for any of the scenarios in his dream to actually come true, but the thought of someone thinking of him as the Casey he had been in his dream still frightened him. He wasn’t like that, at all. He knew it for sure.

The quiet buzzing of the few but old computers around him might have been soothing on any other day, but now it reminded him of the hospital bed he had seen Bonnie lie in in his dream. In the distance, seemingly nearer than they actually were, the timelines were pulsing and branching and slowly changing hues every now and then. Only one of these changes was unnatural: whenever they turned grey. Yet Casey couldn’t interfere, only watch.

“Come on now, it’s not like any of your friends could stop the timelines from fading, either”, he scolded himself. “Not even Loki can.”

Loki, once known as the god of mischief, now as the god of the multiverse. In all honesty, the fact that Loki seemed so helpless against the steady draining of colour from the multiverse scared Casey a little. If he didn’t know what to do, how could Sigyn be of any help? Yet there was a kind of solemn strength to Sigyn, a godly reassurance that she just knew. Knew whatever. Whenever. Everything.

With a very heavy sigh, Casey flopped backwards onto the cold cement floor. “Loom room… broom… doom.” He lightly shook his head. “You seriously need to sleep”, he told himself. Which was true but didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t. He had tried then and when during the day.

Casey wrinkled his nose, squinting at the dead grey of the ceiling. It smelled of old dust in here. What would the multiverse smell like if it wouldn’t appear as colour, but scent? He imagined it would be a wild explosion of every smell possible, but somehow always with a hint of cinnamon and moss. Why exactly that? He had no idea. Possibly because the colours he saw were sparkly as cinnamon smelled, and the scent of moss brought a somewhat grounding feeling with it. The feeling of something simple, something real and ordinary that you could touch, and feel, and smell, and squeeze – even taste if you really wanted to.

Inevitably, he wondered if the timelines could feel damp and fluffy as moss. Maybe he should ask Loki sometime.

“Oh. Hello.”

Casey turned his head without sitting up. Loki was standing one or two meters away, looking down at him. Casey saw him upside down.

“Hi. What are you doing here?”

As Loki came nearer and sat down next to him, Casey sat up. Loki shrugged, staring at the timelines in the distance. His cheeks looked damp, like he had just washed his face – or cried.

“I felt the sudden urge to see what I am made of.”

Casey frowned. “The timelines?”

Loki smirked. “Or multiverse dust? Who knows.”

“Well, you, if anyone.”

“Not wrong.”

They were comfortably silent for a long moment. Then, Loki said, “Mobius and I are going on a little trip to his timeline tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. It was easier to keep track of time since the TVA had introduced clocks and calendars to its endless hallways, but Casey hadn’t got quite used to it yet.

“Okay”, he said, making it more of a question than a reaction.

“Well, I just thought I’d let you know since we’re both here and everyone else already knows.”

Casey nodded. Loki probably saw from the corner of his eyes, but maybe he just guessed Casey had heard, since he still wasn’t looking at him. Almost, Casey would have asked what he was thinking about. Almost.

After a while, Loki sighed. “I guess I will leave you alone now.” Finally, he looked at Casey, a smile on his tired face. “It was probably rather peaceful before I came.” It was meant as a joke, but Casey didn’t laugh.

“Yeah, no. I…” He hesitated. Should he tell him about…?

No.

“I’m worried about the multiverse.”

Loki looked at him like he had read his mind. But he didn’t make any comments on Casey’s unspoken words. Only grasped his shoulder tightly, reassuringly. “Aren’t we all?” Then let go and got up, leaving Casey to stare at the timelines all by himself again, the spot where Loki’s hand had been just a second ago suddenly a little cold.

Chapter Text

Never in his entire centuries long life had Mobius been this nervous. He was fidgeting. His left eye was twitching. His hands were damp and cold.

“Loki, I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

“Oh, come on!” Loki grabbed his arm and tried to pull him forward, but when Mobius resisted, Loki let go with a sigh. “You can’t get cold feet now, Mobius. None of our friends noticed you were you, remember?”

He did remember. They had all barely even looked at him as he and Loki had passed them in the TVA. Sylvie had only recognised Mobius after he had said hi (and then proceeded to laugh at his black leather jacket). She hadn’t asked to come with them. She hadn’t seemed to want to, to Mobius’s surprise. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved not to embarrass himself before one more friend, or if he was disappointed Sylvie wasn’t there now, after they had shared and been through so much on their quest of returning Loki to a life that wasn’t spent in solitude.

OB and Victor hadn’t been any better. Loki had even started a little talk with them, since they had been chatting about this and that and therefore had seamlessly included Loki into their conversation but hadn’t spared a second glance at Mobius until Loki had pointed out the person behind him (Mobius in disguise). Now, it wasn’t unusual for half-strangers – other TVA employees – to nod a greeting at you as you passed them in the hallway, but for them to stand right behind you and listen in on your conversation… that would have been more than weird. And still, OB and Victor only really took notice of Mobius after Loki had brought their attention to him.

No, his friends hadn’t recognised him as he had passed them casually, confidently even, with Loki at his side. But now, here, on the timeline he had come from, once, he absolutely didn’t feel confident or casual, even though his friend’s presence was somewhat reassuring.

“This is a whole different situation, Loki. What if I stay in their sight just a moment to long? They might think I’m their dad, and then what!”

He was gesticulating so vividly now that his hands were brushing against the dry bushes they were hiding behind. Bushes that were tall as trees, perfect for seeking shade in the summer heat – or for shielding an anxious man and an anticipant god from curious gazes from diagonally across the street, where Don’s house stood.

Loki didn’t answer. For a moment, he seemed to sway, but the motion was so slight and over so quickly that Mobius questioned if it had even happened. Still, didn’t Loki appear a bit paler than just seconds before?

Suddenly, Mobius’s doubts and fears were forgotten. He opened his mouth to inquire his friend’s well-being, but before he could get a single word out, Loki was already smiling again, grabbing Mobius’s arm and pulling him towards a hole in the bushes, where the leaves weren’t as thick.

“Look, they’re playing in the garden!”

Mobius didn’t have a good feeling about whatever had just happened, but he decided to push the thought away. Loki seemed fine, now. And he was waiting for his friend to react to his statement.

Mobius squinted, staring out at the small garden that went around the house. “I can’t see anyone.”

Loki frowned and followed his gaze. “Oh. You’re right. Well, then they must be behind the house right now. Because I know they’re in the garden.”

“How would you…?”

As if conjured by his words, the boys suddenly emerged from behind the house, shouting while running and throwing a ball at each other.

Mobius’s throat tightened. What if their gazes caught on the unfamiliar shadows behind the bushes they surely knew well from having seen a thousand times before?

“Mobius.” There was a comforting reassurance radiating from the squeeze of Loki’s hand on his arm. “It will be fine. I’m the god of illusions, remember? If nothing else works, I’ll conjure up something to make them believe they’re dreaming, or I’ll hide your face behind the mist of magic. Trust me, I’ve got everything under control.”

Mobius did trust him, and he trusted that Loki had this situation under control – but he seemed to be having trouble controlling himself at the moment. After all, Mobius hadn’t forgotten whatever had happened mere seconds before. It had almost looked like another one of Loki’s mind slips, but then again it had been over too quickly.

“Yeah… Yeah, okay.” Mobius drew a shaky breath. “You’re right, I know you are.”

Loki nodded contently.

Sweat was pooling in Mobius’s black leather boots. Small drops were glistening on his face and running across his nose, behind the black sunglasses with their silver glasses. His black leather gloves had become slippery. He felt silly, if not for the boots and glasses and gloves, then for the silver spikes on his black leather jacket with the skull on its back. And if not for that either, then for the way too tight black leather pants or the black cap whose front conveniently also was decorated with silver spikes and a skull.

Mobius fumbled for his silver belt with the skull buckle, wiggling it a bit higher. It fit him just a little too loosely, but when he made it tighter, it was too tight. Of course.

“So, my dear biker friend.” Loki smiled. “Ready to meet Don’s sons?”

With a sigh so heavy that it made the leaves in front of him dance, Mobius looked from his friend to his variant’s sons. They were throwing a bright red ball with some yellow motive on it that Mobius couldn’t see from where they were standing. The smaller one with the slightly longer hair – Kevin – was running to catch the ball after the older, Sean, had thrown it in an especially high arc to score a point. Because from the laughing and booing Mobius had heard so far, it was pretty clear that this game was about throwing the ball so that the other couldn’t catch it, and when the other indeed didn’t catch it, you got a point.

Hesitantly, Mobius stepped forward, just in front of the bushes, while going through the ridiculously short script he and Loki had prepared.

Hello, my name is Mobius. Because why wouldn’t he say his real name? After all, they had no idea who he was.

I found this cap. There would be his cue to pull out a children-sized, bright yellow cap with some mechanic Mobius vaguely recognised as a character from a children’s show on its front.

Is it yours? And that would be all of it.

“I can do this”, Mobius whispered under his breath, stepping onto the road leading past the front of the house. There he stopped, because a truck was driving towards him with a tempo surely way above the speed limit. Idiot, he thought and let his gaze find Don’s sons again.

Immediately, his eyes went wide, his mouth dry, and his heartbeat became alarmingly fast. Kevin was taking revenge and had thrown the ball so far away from his brother that it would be impossible for Sean to catch it – unless he sprinted onto the road.

Something in Mobius’s head clicked. Without thinking, he ran in front of the truck, right towards Sean who was quickly stumbling backwards, completely unaware of the situation, his arms outstretched towards ball. Right before he caught it, his brother noticed the truck and started shouting hysterically for Sean to watch out, but it was too late. Sean needed a second to get what his brother was screaming about before he even saw the truck.

By that time, he would have never made it back onto the property safely, even if he hadn’t stood frozen from shock in the middle of the road, although the truck driver had noticed him by now and was slamming his breaks.

That was when Mobius finally reached him.

He grabbed the kid around the waist and continued running towards the house, where he almost stumbled over his own feet when he came to a halt next to the still screaming Kevin. Only there, Mobius turned around to check if they were safe now while he lowered Sean onto his own two feet.

The truck had skidded to a halt a few meters further, just after the house. It was standing in the road vertically, blocking everything and everyone. The door on the driver’s side opened and a stout, bald man in a white, sweat-stained tank top exited, his red face compressed to an angry scowl.

He slammed the driver’s door shut. “What the fuck, man!”

The kids were hiding behind Mobius now, who was positioning himself in a hopefully threatening way between them and the truck driver.

“Yer kids ain’t got eyes in their head, huh?”

Nervously, Mobius ran his tongue across his lips. “Well, I’m sorry for… I mean, they aren’t my -”

“What, can’t even talk, eh?”

Mobius’s heart was pounding in his ears, but he wasn’t about to let this reckless driver win. “No, I can. And the kids can see very well, thank you.”

He heard another door slam shut but paid no further attention to it. “But as you said, they’re kids. They live here; this is their home and their playground. You were going way too fast!”

The driver bared his teeth. “You…!”

Suddenly, his face changed from red to white. All his muscles relaxed for a moment, then tensed even more than before as he sprinted towards his car, jumped into the driver’s seat, swiftly turned around and speeded off without further ado.

Although he was relieved (he could have never taken this guy in a fight, and he doubted Loki would have been of much help in his current state), Mobius frowned confusedly. Why the sudden retreat?

But then he heard the sirens.

Mobius turned to look for the police car, but only saw a broken children’s toy shining faintly blue every two seconds – the red light was cracked. Somehow, the speaker in the middle still worked, and was faking what seemed to be the truck driver’s worst fear.

Suddenly, the plastic toy vanished in front of Mobius’s very eyes, taking both sound and light with it.

He blinked, checking if it would reappear, but it didn’t. Only then he understood. A beginning smirk made his lips twitch as he lightly shook his head, looking towards the bushes on the search for his friend.

A polite cough made him turn around rapidly.

There stood Don, right in front of him, his sons at either side of him, an arm around each of them.

“Hi”, he said with Mobius’s voice, stretching out his hand. “I’m Don.”

Mobius shook it hesitantly.

“I can’t tell you how thankful I am for what you did here”, Don continued. “Sean could have been dead if not for you.” The word made him shudder slightly. “No idea where those cops drove by, but they were checking the wrong street.” He shook his head in frustration before a small smile lit his face. “But I’ve got a picture of the licence plate.” Triumphantly, he waved his phone in front of Mobius. “So, thanks again.”

Mobius nodded in response. He had forgotten every word in the script. Even his own name.

“So, uh…” Don looked at Kevin, then squeezed Sean’s shoulder. The older boy was still as pale as a vampire.

“May I invite you for a cold beer? You can park your bike in my driveway if you want.”

Finally, Mobius came to his senses again. “Oh, uh, thanks but, I, uh…” Once again, he adjusted his pants, silently cursing the belt. Oddly aware of how ridiculous he must have appeared, he glanced behind himself to see if Loki was coming. But he couldn’t spot anything or anyone hidden in the bushes. Mobius looked back at Don. Damn it, Loki, where are you?

Well, he would have to talk himself out of that situation on his own, it seemed. “Thanks, but I’ve got my bike parked back there.” He gestured vaguely in the general direction the road was coming from, very aware of the fact that he neither had a bike nor the faintest idea how to operate one.

“Okay then”, Don concluded. If he had suspicions, they didn’t show. “So just the beer? Or maybe a coke?”

Ready to decline, Mobius opened his mouth – then closed it again. After all, why not? Hadn’t he come here to get to know Don’s sons?

He smiled. “I’d love a cold coke.”

Chapter Text

“And then he just stopped the car! With his bare hands!” Little Kevin looked adorably excited.

Sean, on the other hand, still seemed a bit giddy – and grumpy. “Shut up, Kevin.”

“Hey, Sean!” Don sharply looked at his older son from the side of the kitchen table. “Wording.”

“What?” Sean shrugged, gesturing towards Mobius. “It’s not like he’s Spiderman or something! He’s just a random biker guy who showed up at the right time!” He glanced over at Mobius. “No offense, sir.”

Mobius gave him a weary smile in return. “No worries, I’m quite aware I’m just a random guy.” He was still wearing his sunglasses and felt very foolish for it, but he was too scared to take them off in case it would raise any hard-to-answer questions. The fact that he was keeping them on inside the house had luckily been quite easy to explain. “I need them to see. I, uh, left my other glasses at my bike.” Followed by understanding nods.

“Yeah, he’s not as cool as Spiderman”, Kevin clarified while squinting at Mobius who carefully sipped at his coke. “But he did save your life.”

Sean shrugged – again. It seemed to be his favourite reaction. “I know. That was kinda badass.”

Awkwardly touched by that statement, Mobius almost choked on his drink, which wasn’t very badass. “Thanks”, he offered and got two shy smiles in return.

“Wait, what do you work as?” Kevin suddenly asked, his eyes wide. “Are you a biker?”

Sean rolled his eyes. “That’s not a job, dummy.”

Mobius saw how Don already opened his mouth, but he decided to handle the quarrelling children himself this time. “Well, it could be. But it isn’t my job.”

Don had closed his mouth again, as Mobius contently noted.

“I just work at an office.”

Kevin let out a loud sigh. “How boring!”

“So that’s why you bike in your free time?” Sean concluded.

Mobius thought about that for a moment and decided that it seemed fitting for the role Loki and he had made up. “Yeah, that’s right.” Sometimes, even without this role, he did wish to escape the TVA for a short while to go do something fast, and reckless. Something to drive his adrenaline up and let him forget about the multiverse. He smiled, carefully choosing the words with which to describe a daydream that should become reality in the boy’s minds. “I like the speed, and the wind hitting my face. It feels like… freedom.”

Kevin giggled as he looked at his dad from the side. Sean shrugged. “Sounds like what dad always says about jet-skiing.”

Oh.

Don’s eyes now had lit up in an eager smile. “Sean’s right, that’s almost exactly my wording, even.”

So, trying to sound like Mobius knew what he was talking about had worked, but maybe a bit too good. “I’m sure jet-skiing is amazing. I’ve never tried it myself, but it’s on my bucket list.”

He hoped he hadn’t sounded too hasty while trying to avert any possible suspicions that he might be more similar to Don than the family had thought.

But the kids didn’t seem that invested in the conversation anymore, and Don was looking at Mobius with a sideways smile and a spark in his eyes. “Wanna cross it off?”

Mobius blinked. “What?”

“I own a jet ski. I sell them for a living. If you want, I’ll help you get your own. Or you can borrow mine for a day.”

Now, Mobius’s eyes were so wide he wasn’t sure he still could blink. “Wait – really?”

When Don laughed, Mobius suddenly felt like he was looking at himself – for the first time since he had met the single father of two. They were so different, Don and him… but probably not in that many ways, after all.

“Of course!” Don said enthusiastically, grinning brighter than the afternoon sun. “You saved my son’s life. Such a small favour is the least I can do.”

Mobius was smiling himself now. He could feel it from his head to toes. “Oh, that’s not as small of a favour as you think it is, believe me!” How often had he dreamt himself onto the damp seat of a jet ski, flying across the water while the wind dried the spray on his skin and his soaking wet hair until only a salty crust was left? A beautiful union of form and function…

“You ever been on one?” Loki had once asked.

“No… no.”

This was his chance. A chance he had been waiting on for… centuries.

“I would love that!” Mobius could barely contain the excited laughter threatening to spill from his mouth any moment now.

Don nodded firmly. “Then we shall make it happen.”

Wait. This also meant that they wouldn’t say goodbye forever today. It meant that Mobius might get another chance to see the boys again.

“Yes”, he smiled. “Yes, we’ll make it happen. That would be awesome! Thank you, Don.”

Don smiled back at him. “My pleasure.” Suddenly, he stood up, pushing back his chair. It squeaked a little on the tile floor. “Well, Mobius, I don’t want to hold you up, but… my sons have been trying to talk me into playing this new game I got them for ages, now, but it’s always a bit boring with only three players. Soo…?”