Chapter 6
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Problem one was solved.
The time doors were big enough and stable enough for living beings to theoretically go through. Still smaller than the standard ones, and they didn’t really stay in place very well. But it was possible.
Now for problem two.
Now for the goat.
Wrangling a goat was no easier in practice than in theory.
At first the goats wouldn’t move, just placidly looking up at Mobius after he opened the gate to let them free, and then after Vesuvius erupted, they scattered in all directions too quickly for him to get one. The ash cloud was very nearly on him by the time he finally coaxed one of the animals into the time door to Loki.
Actually, it was on him.
He only realised after closing that door and opening one back to the TVA, glancing briefly back to see how close the ash was, and finding it all around, but not on him. Frozen in time in an arch over his head.
“Thanks Loki,” Mobius whispered, smiling fondly as he walked through the door back to the TVA.
Back at his desk, after cleaning the traces of the eruption from his clothes and hair, Mobius waited for confirmation that the goat had safely arrived.
<Could you please open a door back to Pompeii directly in front of our time door? Goat incoming.>
Goat incoming was not a reassuring phrase. Mobius imagined the terrifying, chaotic consequences of a goat loose in the TVA - wires chewed through, files stolen and eaten, people being terrified by the presence of an animal they had probably never met before in any lifetime they remembered…
He quickly opened the timedoor back to Pompeii, right where he got the goat from, just in time for his and Loki’s door to open and a goat to run through. Thankfully straight back to Pompeii.
<Theory successfully tested.>
Mobius sent a note back, <What do you conclude?>
<She did not suffer from any temporal radiation or other ill-effects of the environment here. I expect your skin would not peel off. Assuming that goat was a normal goat and not a god in disguise. Unlikely unless it was me. It wasn’t a Loki was it?>
“Why the hell was there a goat in here?!” B-15 cried out from the doorway.
Mobius grimaced and turned to face her, watching as the realisation dawned almost the instant their eyes met.
“Loki?”
Mobius shrugged apologetically, “Loki.”
She sighed, “Why is he sending through animals?”
“It was kinda an experiment. To see if non-gods can survive where he is. Because if they can, then…you know. Maybe…”
“You can go join him?” she asked quietly, her exasperation falling away as she took a seat near his desk, “Is that your plan?”
Mobius looked sadly at the little toy Jet-Ski and its rider on his desk, “He shouldn’t have to be alone. He doesn’t deserve to be alone. He never did and he finally realised it. He finally wasn't alone, and now…now he is. Completely alone.”
“I get that, but going all the way…there, somewhere that we know nothing about…” she looked over at the screen and the image of the tree, “Is that what you want? Forgetting for a minute what Loki might want. What would you want to do? I mean, what do you really want? For yourself?”
“I wanna be there! With him. Since he left, things just…I can’t do this. I can’t go onto a timeline, I can’t stay here. If there’s a way to reach Loki, I’m gonna do it.”
She smiled sadly at him, “You really love him, don’t you?”
Mobius shrugged helplessly, “Yeah. I do. It’s stupid, but I do.”
“Why is it stupid?”
“B! He’s a god! I mean a literal god!” Mobius laughed despite himself, “God of mischief, god of stories, prince of Asgard! I’m…a washed up old analyst who used to sell Jet-Skis for a living.”
“A washed up old analyst who happened to play a major role in saving everything. Who is the reason Loki changed and could do any of this at all, because you believed in him when none of us did. When no one did. You really don’t give yourself enough credit, Mobius,” she squeezed his shoulder lightly, “Now, about that goat…”
The opening of a time door cut her off. The tray slid through it, with the short note.
<Please tell me that goat was not a Loki.>
“I’ll leave you two alone,” B-15 smirked and stood up, “Just don’t go running off to the centre of time without telling me first. Okay?”
“Promise,” Mobius smled up at her then turned to write back to Loki, <Well he wasn’t green.>
<How often in our acquaintance have I actually worn green? I do have more range than that.>
<You spent most of it wearing what you were given by the TVA.>
<For all you know I might’ve chosen something similar myself. And those times we were out on the timeline, I wore other non-green clothes.>
<What color are you wearing now?>
<That’s hardly the point. Just because I happen to have a colour scheme I prefer and know looks particularly aesthetically pleasing, does not mean I can’t choose something different. Especially when in disguise.>
<So you think the goat was a Loki?>
<I think the experiment needs repeating. Perhaps, a snake this time?>
<Nice try. I’m not sending you more animals just so you can risk potential havoc by sending them back through the TVA.>
<It was worth a try.>
Mobius sat back in his chair, considering, hesitating.
His mind had been made up a long time ago. If Loki couldn’t come back, Mobius was going to go to him if there was any way at all that he could.
And now he could. It was possible.
Mobius didn’t reply to Loki’s last message.
The experiment had been successful. Living creatures from Earth could survive where Loki was. The time door was big enough, stable enough, for Mobius to go through.
He was decided on what to do. That his next conversation with Loki was going to be face to face.
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Mobius had let B-15 and Casey know that he was going just before heading down to R&A to see O.B.
There were no preparations needed. Mobius didn’t really have much he was very attached to that he’d want to bring. He only needed to say goodbye to his friends, just in case there was no way back. It should be doable. The goat was able to get to the TVA, after all. But this was all completely uncharted territory, and Mobius wasn’t going to assume anything.
“So you’re really going to him?” Casey asked, standing nearby at the desk with O.B.
“Yeah,” Mobius swallowed down the anxiety that raised because a goat was not a human and things could still go wrong, “Loki said the temporal radiation’s not high there, and a goat was safe. So, I should be okay, right? I’m not gonna lose all my skin or be lost to time or something?”
“Sure,” O.B. replied, perfectly unconvincing and not in the least reassuring.
“I don’t think Loki would let either of those things happen,” B-15 said, walking into the room to join them, “And he’s kinda at the centre of all time, so he probably has some control over that sort of thing.”
Mobius straightened, turning to her, “I guess.”
“So you’re going?”
Mobius shrugged, “I need to be with him.”
She nodded, smiling sadly, “Will you be able to come back?”
“I don’t know…”
“Yes!” O.B. popped up from behind the desk, “I’ve anchored the tempad in this end to Casey’s aura…”
“Hey! Why me?!”
“So you will be able to return, as long as both tempads remain intact, and you don’t turn to spaghetti.”
Mobius rolled his eyes and pretended he hadn’t just heard that last part. Loki wasn’t going to let that happen.
Mobius took a deep breath, “Okay, guess this is me.”
He opened the time door to Loki.
Taking one brief look at the others, he forced a confident smile, and ducked to step through to wherever Loki was.
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