Chapter Text
Thor and Loki have arrived on earth throughout the rainbow bridge—searching for their dad—when they see the retirement home he stayed at completely in pieces. Loki’s already sweating and afraid Thor thinks he was lying or did this himself.
“I swear I left him right here” Loki argued.
Both crossed armed looking at the excavator destroying the place. Couldn’t have been a coincidence, right? That thought wasn’t able to leave Loki’s mind.
“Right here on the sidewalk, or right where the building is being demolished?” Thor slowing turns his head towards Loki “great planning.”
“How was I supposed to know—I can’t see into the future i’m not a witch.” He says.
Loki’s outfit being a neat black suit and having long black curly hair from nature isn’t helping with that statement.
“No? Then why’d you dress like one.” Thor’s judging face is burning right through Loki. His eyes darting up and down, making sure it isn’t an actual witch in front of him.
“Hey,” Loki says. “..Rude.” He softly mumbles after.
“I can’t believe you’re alive,” Thor seethes. Letting out a sharp, breathless laugh.
The mood completely changing and making Loki put on more of a serious face. “I saw you die,” Quickly smacking his lips before continuing the sentence. “I mourned you, I cried for you.”
“I’m honoured..?” It was clear he meant this sarcastic, but it came out as more of a question.
Both clearly uncomfortable, they turn their heads to see a group of people coming up to them—to be more specific two girls and a guy which seems like their dad(?)
One of the girls approaches Thor “Hi! would you mind taking a picture with us?” The girl happily asks while taking out her phone.
“Oh—sure.” Thor agreed.
Loki already starts to roll his eyes when the dad(?) comes up to him. He has an old rusty brown suit on—which makes it seem like he just fought about twenty of his aliens from the last encounter on earth—he has obvious bright blue eyes, making his short grey hair pop out. His wrinkles around his eyes, forehead and his eye bags prove he must be around forty.
Now standing right in front of Loki he begins. “Hello, i’m Mobius.” Introducing his hand hoping Loki would shake it.
A sick feeling enters his stomach. He quickly ignores it, and looks the man in front of him up and down before declining the offer.
“Afternoon.. uh.. Mobius.” Loki says uncertainly.
There’s a clear uncomfortable silence between them until Mobius finally continues.
“You’re Loki, right? Well doesn’t matter—uh.. this might seem odd, but do you mind taking a picture with me? I’ve been a fan for quite some time.” Mobius obviously knows that’s Loki, but he can’t blow his cover yet. This Loki has to believe he’s here just to ask for a picture and not anything else than that.
Loki’s expression turning into a clear confusion and surprise.
Oh?
That’s..
This is surely new.
Loki quickly gets taken out of shock when Thor pumps him hardly in the arm.
“Brother, are you done with—who are you again?” His eyes darting up and down looking at the man next to his brother.
He looks up at Thor to make their eyes meet. “..Mobius.” He softly says. This is his first time meeting a Thor variant—and to make it more dramatic—also right after he lost his Loki.
“You wanted a picture—right? How oddly that is,” Hoping Thor would understand the signal to wait for a second, when he continues. “Right here or..?”
“You know what, can we just over there?” Pointing his finger to an alley right behind them.
It’s dark inside with—right on cue a rat coming out onto the road, there’s almost no view to inside of the alley, nobody would be able to see you if you’re in there—great place to hide a body if you asked him.
Loki narrows his eyes. “There? Sure..” The sick feeling returns to his stomach, but he decides to ignore it again and just agree.
Mobius starts walking in front of them and Loki shoots a quick ‘I have no idea what’s happening’ look to Thor.
Mobius’ pass suddenly quickens and he seems to type something into his odd looking phone.
Following Mobius he slowly starts to feel like something is not quite right, and immediately at that moment an orange looking door appears in front of the both of them. Just now Loki realises what the man in front of him had been doing on his weird phone.
“Before you” His arms leading Loki into the door.
“What is thi—“ Before he can continue he shoots a glance at Thor after hearing fastening footsteps towards them—who apparently seems to be running to them. And after that he doesn’t quite remember what happened, but he sure wasn’t in the location he was in before anymore.
“…can’t just use him!”
“I know but he can be useful and we need his help.”
He softly hears a conversation going on outside of the room he finds himself in. There air smells like an old bookstore and the whole place is covered in dust. The air feels chilly, although that could just be his own body temperature. The room is lit up with orange lights and he’s sitting on one of the two chairs. In front of him is a table he’s been laying on.
Where am I?
The sound of a door clink fills up the room and he looks up to see the same guy—Mobius who kidnapped(?) him—walking in.
“Ah, hello again.” Their eyes meeting shortly before Loki storms onto him. Leaving the chair falling with a loud thud.
“Wo-wo, slow down.” Mobius raises his hands just to make sure Loki doesn’t take a step further.
“Where am I, what the hell am I doing here?” Opening his hands to use his magic, only for nothing to appear.
“We’re at the TVA—Time variance authority.” Mobius says. Quickly taking a step back to leave some room between the two of them.
“What happened to my magic?” He spits out.
“We had to turn the system back on so magic isn’t allowed in here anymore—again” he quickly adds.
He turns around—now his back to Mobius— to look around the room and focuses back onto the chair until he sits down again. Now feeling everything but even a little calm inside. Mobius quickly follows.
“This might seem weird, but I—we need your help.” A big sigh escapes his mouth. “You are our last most similar Loki—to ours—we could find.”
Loki frowns. “What..?”
“I have quite some explaining to do,” Mobius sighs. “Please make yourself comfortable.”
. . .
“You want me to get your Loki out of some sort of tree made out of the branches from the timelines?” Loki asks incredibly confused.
“Well sort of—Loki’s power is making sure the tree won’t die, but if he leaves, there won’t be anything left… Sylvie alone won’t have enough power to keep every timeline alive,” He snaps out in a single breath. “So that’s where you come in!” Almost out of breath he shoots his head up to see what Loki’s expression looks like.
Loki looks like he has just seen a ghost, he swallows hard, the words tumbling over each other in a frantic blur. “To be really honest with you—this is a lot to take in, and I don’t know if i’m qualified to do it.”
“No, no, you absolutely are,” he stumbles out, his words colliding as he tries to maintain composure. “I’ve already gone through a thousand of Lokis. I-I can’t—I don’t know if I can keep looking.” He stops, presses his hands to the desk, and forces his voice to steady.
“You must do this.”