Chapter 2
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There it was.
Proof.
Confirmation that the tempad modifications and the temporal auras worked, and that Loki was still himself, there in the centre of the tree.
And proof meant hope.
Mobius choked on something between a laugh and a sob, tears blurring his eyes and falling onto the paper.
It seemed impossible. A dream or an illusion or a lie. But it was real. The paper was real, and O.B. was there across the desk from him, saying something that didn’t really seem to make sense. Or sound like words. Not words that mattered. Not more than those words on the sheet in front of him.
Mobius hadn’t seen Loki’s handwriting too often, at least not in any Earth language, but the style felt steeped in his personality.
Mobius lifted the sheet with one hand, quickly wiping the tears from his eyes as he realised there was something written on the back. Just another short note.
<Are you alright?>
Mobius looked up from the paper, over to O.B, finally catching his eye and seeing an echo of his own excitement.
“It worked!”
“Yeah, O.B,” Mobius laughed, “Yeah, it worked.”
“So my theory about the tree was correct! The next step is to find a way for a person to pass through the door, or maybe a god if we can stabilise the tree without Loki there. We will need more information…”
O.B. grabbed a pen and paper and disappeared behind the desk. Mobius could hear him mumbling to himself, but ignored it, taking the notepad and pen from the tray and preparing to write a new note, but he hesitated with his pen just above the sheet.
What he wanted to say was too much, too significant, and too complicated for a small piece of paper and all of time between them. He couldn’t even begin to think of how to write any of it.
How proud he was of Loki, how much he missed him and hated him for making that sacrifice. How in awe he was of his power, his ability, and his actions. How much he missed the god. How everything felt empty and meaningless without him. How he had cried every day after eons of barely shedding a single tear, and how there was no remedy to the pain he felt with Loki gone.
Mobius couldn’t write any of that, so he wrote what he could.
<Paperwork’s piling up. Just in case you feel like setting fire to something>
“O.B.,” Mobius leaned over the desk, “You got something to send?”
“Almost done!”
Which was good, because Mobius could see at least three pages of scribbled notes and diagrams on the floor beside O.B.
Those notes appeared on the counter without O.B. himself emerging, “Send this. I need to know more about where he is.”
Mobius placed all the paper on the tray, with the notepad and pen, opened the door and sent it all through.
In barely a second, it came back.
The tray, three sheets of paper, the notepad and pen.
And a lighter. 1980s Earth era.
It rested on the top sheet, with the beautifully written words, <For your paperwork.>
Beneath that the two sheets were addressed to O.B. Mobius passed them over the desk and picked up the pen once more.
<Do I wanna know why you have a lighter?>
He sent the message back through and waited maybe a minute before the timedoor opened again and the a reply came through on the same sheet.
<Probably not.>
Mobius smirked and picked up a new sheet, writing a longer message, <Things are going great here. Managing branches, tracking down variants who pose a real threat. Sylvie went back to her branch to get the life she wanted. She seemed happy when I last visited her. Gave me some free fries too.>
The reply took slightly longer. Long enough for Mobius to get bored and lean over to see what O.B. was up to. But then the time door opened and the tray slid over, bumping against his arm.
<What? No pie? (And, I know. I can see every branch.)>
A second later, a scrunched up piece of paper flew out and hit Mobius in the head. Mobius scowled fondly at the dissipating time door, and flattened the page out to read, <Remember a fork this time.>
“O.B. I’m gonna go back upstairs for a bit,” Mobius leaned over the counter, “Keep me in the loop, yeah?”
“Didn’t we dismantle all the time loops?”
“Not a time loop…” Mobius sighed and gathered up the tempad, tray and paper, “Just let me know if you come up with anything.”
The call of “Will do!” followed him out the room.
Mobius went to the automat, grabbed two slices of pie and two forks, and sat down at one of the many empty tables. They were all empty, as usual. Pretty much everyone else seemed to prefer the canteen, and sure it had more variety and it was easier to get to, but this place was just more cool.
<Pie with fork your highness.>
He sent the plate, fork and note through, and after a moment wrote <Can you see inside the TVA?>, scrunched it up, and threw it through the timedoor. Hopefully it wouldn’t hit a branch or something…mess up the tree of time and cause some sort of catastrophic dissolution of all time…
Mobius began to eat his pie while he waited for Loki’s reply.
It came as the desert was half finished.
<Thank you, and no. It exists outside of time, as I’m sure you recall. Are you joining me in pie?>
Mobius waited until he had finished before replying, setting both empty plates aside to make space for the notepad.
Another screwed up page flew through a fresh time door before he could even pick up the pen, this time hitting Mobius right on the forehead.
<You failed to answer my question. Are you alright?>
Loki had sacrificed himself for them. He deserved to hear that Mobius was okay and happy. It would be a lie though. Probably a transparent one, obvious even through some scrawled handwriting.
<I miss my friend.>
<So do I.>
Mobius took a shaky breath, watching as those words became blurred from the tears forming in his eyes.
Loki didn’t deserve to be alone. He never had deserved that, and now even Lady Sif would surely agree. Mobius felt a pang of guilt disrupt his sadness at his decision to put Loki in that particular time loop.
<Want me to pass a message onto any of the others?> Mobius wrote, having to discard the first page as a tear fell and smudged the ink.
<Take Casey into a timeline to see a fish.>
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<I said a fish, not an entire aquarium.>
Mobius smiled to himself, sitting on his cot in his small bedroom. He had chosen San Francisco aquarium in the early 21st century, and possibly overwhelmed Casey with the multitude of fishes. He had never seen the other man so caught between excited and confused.
<He told me you threatened to turn him into a fish.>
<Does that really sound like a threat I would make?>
<Yeah, it does. You turned Thor into a squirrel at least twice.>
<I did not! I made his outward appearance that of a squirrel. He was not, at any point, actually wholly a squirrel.>
It had been great.
Mobius shouldn’t have been getting anything other than information from studying Loki’s past back then, but he had to admit watching a particularly angry squirrel trying to pick a fight with Loki had been entertaining.
The first time he’d done it, it ended up making both Thor and Loki late for a feast. Odin had been furious, Loki had been punished, but that did nothing to deter him from his mischief.
Because Loki was stubborn and defiant, and he would push the limits set for him until they or he broke.
A time door appeared on his bed, a crumpled sheet tossed through and landed on the floor by Mobius’ feet.
<Can I ask you something?>
<You’ll ask whether or not I say yes.>
<I will.>
That last had been sent on the tray. Probably solely so that Loki had an excuse to throw the next note through. Mobius was pretty sure he was hoping to hit him even if there was no way for Loki to aim or even see.
The next note landed in Mobius’ lap.
<Why didn’t you enter your old life on a branch? I saw you watching it.>
<That’s just not my life anymore. I like the TVA.>
He paused as he wrote. He had liked the TVA, he still did, and he still belonged there more than as single dad Don, seller of Jet Skis. But it just didn’t really feel quite right here anymore.
He discarded the page he had begun to write.
<I couldn’t see myself there.>
He had literally seen himself there so it sounded stupid, but Loki would understand.
<Do plan to stay at the TVA?>
<I don’t know. Do you plan to stay there?>
<I can’t leave. My magic sustains all of this. If I leave it falls apart.>
Mobius wasn’t surprised by that at all. He had known Loki was leaving for good from the moment the god turned and looked back up at him from the gangway. The farewell was written in his eyes.
It still hurt to have it confirmed.
Mobius sighed and let himself lie back on his bed. Being able to communicate with Loki like this was great, so much better than never talking to him again, but damn did he wish he could see him.
Properly.
Not a recording in a time theatre.
A Loki he could touch, who reacted to what he said, and vibrantly exuded that chaotic energy Mobius loved. Who was unpredictable, sometimes simply by doing exactly what Mobius should have expected.
He was tired, felt himself drifting off. Time didn’t work normally in the TVA but people still needed sleep, and Mobius hadn’t managed more than a few hours since he had first seen Loki timeslipping and found out about He Who Remains.
He wasn’t the only one either. B-15 had been struggling to sleep ever since they found out the truth about the TVA. O.B. probably didn’t sleep at all ever. But that was O.B.
Mobius did need sleep.
He sat up tiredly and changed into his pyjamas, writing a note just to make sure Loki didn’t feel abandoned. Maybe no time would pass for him as Mobius slept, maybe it would feel like decades.
<Gonna sleep now. Don’t know if you sleep, but goodnight. Not that there’s night here either. But you know what I mean.>
<Goodnight Mobius.>
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