Chapter 3
Mobius was back on his feet, but not yet discharged from medical care. Cat wanted to strangle the doctor that said Mobius had to return to the infirmary after going on a stroll through the building, but that was being a little unreasonable. Even Cat could recognize that. He couldn’t help it, though. They came here for help and they got it, but why was it still taking so long for Mobius to recover? Why did he still have to stay in the infirmary with all the people coming in and out all the time? They were people Cat didn’t know and didn’t trust!
Mobius had private quarters in the TVA. Cat, Kid, and Croki also had private quarters, which they shared, that B-15 had set them up with. Why couldn’t Mobius rest in one of those places instead?
“Hey, Cat, come back to me.” Mobius gently patted his cheek.
Cat hadn’t realized he had been staring, or rather glaring, into space. “Sorry.”
“Why?” Mobius sounded amused and Cat bristled.
“Entertained by my discomfort, are we?” Cat snapped and immediately felt bad as he realized he overreacted.
“N-no, nothing like that.” Mobius said, scratching at his cheek with one finger- a puzzled, on edge action. “Never mind. Sorry.”
Well, now Cat felt even worse. Why was he so moody anyway? Cat finally got what he wanted: Mobius back in his life, safe and sound, with his memories. The TVA was no longer pruning branches of timelines. The people of the TVA were actually pretty… nice. You know, now that they aren’t committing murder on a massive scale.
“I want to leave.” Cat muttered.
“.... Well, the building is huge, so if you’re that upset with me, you have options.” Mobius sighed.
Cat frowned. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not upset with you.”
“Coulda fooled me.” Mobius complained. “What do you mean, then?”
“I want to go home, but home doesn’t exist anymore. I want to go back to some place that is familiar, but the Void is a hellish place and I don’t want to live the rest of our lives there. I don’t want to stay here, not after everything we’ve been through. Not after everything this place stood for.”
Mobius made an understanding sound, but didn’t say anything at first. He leaned against the wall next to the window and folded his arms across his chest. He didn’t last long in that pose, though, and let his hands rest by his side. Still in pain, then. Did he need more medicine? Was it time for that, yet?
“I get it, Cat. It’s okay-”
“No! It isn’t!” Cat shouted. “It’s more than that! I feel like there is a wall between us that wasn’t there before. I don’t understand how you can feel so comfortable or safe here surrounded by all these people who stood by and did nothing while Renslayer tortured you!”
Mobius was taken aback, but he wasn’t one to sit back and say nothing while someone shouted at him, especially when it was something he felt passionately about. “Cat, I’m not the only person Ravonna tortured. Every single person that worked in this place has been put into that device and had it used on them. Everyone here has suffered the same as me. Ravonna had all the power and control here. She made the rules and everyone was more or less reduced to a blank slate that she could write anything she wanted onto.”
“They hunted us down and they pruned me while they dragged you off to be put in that device again. They worked together to subjugate and brainwash you.”
“That was a specific group of hunters- elite forces that Ravonna had on hand. They were the only ones who had a hand in that and those sections of the TVA were off limits to everyone else. No one else knew, so how could they stop it?”
Mobius had a point, but what happened to those “elite hunters?” Were they still in the TVA, lurking around and waiting for Ravonna to come back and subjugate everyone again? Cat shook his head. Probably not, but how would they know for sure? He didn’t see any of them come in to visit Mobius, but surely, they wouldn’t dare show their faces in there now. And eventually, they would strike, if they were given the chance.
“I still don’t understand how you can stand to be here!”
“This is my home!” Mobius snapped.
“Home?” Cat repeated slowly. “This is your…. Home?”
Mobius visibly braced himself for Cat to shout at him again, but Cat didn’t. Cat just stared at him in disbelief and anger. Cat’s expression twisted into anger as Mobius’s words echoed in his brain. Mobius had never felt afraid of Cat before- aside from that one time in the Void, but he didn’t have his memories then, so give him a break! But with that look Cat was giving him? Mobius was certainly afraid now, but was it justified or just conditioning? Cat took a few angry steps closer to Mobius, who flinched involuntarily.
Cat snarled venomously and stomped away, leaving a stunned Mobius in his wake.
Several hours later, B-15 stopped by the infirmary to check on Mobius and Cat, but neither of them was there. She asked the nurse, who informed her that Mobius had been cleared for light exercise to start rebuilding his strength. The pair had left hours ago for a walk through the halls of the TVA, but they hadn’t yet returned. In any other situation, B-15 might have left it at that, but she had a feeling about it. A sort of… unease? She was sure that Cat would never hurt Mobius, but she was also certain Cat knew that Mobius wasn’t well enough to be on his feet for such an extended period of time. Had something happened? Had they decided to just… leave the TVA again? No, Cat knew Mobius wasn’t healed yet and needed medical care. He wouldn’t take Mobius out of the TVA before he was well enough to leave. B-15 set out to look for them.
Her search was fruitless for some time and she started to wonder if she should ask someone for help when she passed the door to the off-limits section of the facility. Hmm. Would they go in there? Maybe, but why would they go in there?
B-15 opened the door and stepped into the long hallway. She remembered walking down this hallway so long ago after Ravonna had given her her spiel about B-15 having just been born and built to serve the Timekeepers. She wondered if she would ever remember what her nexus event was and how she felt when she was brought down this hallway to have her memories wiped. Ultimately, she decided, she would rather not know.
The place gave her the creeps, but she walked down the hall anyway. She came to a pair of doors that she remembered. One, she had no recollection of having entered before. The other led to the room she remembered waking up to Renslayer being there to explain the TVA and B-15’s purpose. She checked the room she woke up in first, but no one was there. There was, however, evidence someone had been there recently in the form of a pair of empty coffee cups.
B-15 pulled away from that door and turned to the other one. A deep sense of dread filled her gut when she reached for the doorknob. She froze with her hand just inches away from the doorknob. She wanted to run away. She didn’t want to see what was behind this door.
But what if Mobius was inside? He would probably be fine if he was, because there was no danger here at the TVA for any of them anymore. The guy needed his pain medicine by now, though, and B-15 couldn’t help but worry whether he was alright. What if something was wrong?
She opened the door just as there was a loud crashing sound coming from inside the room. B-15 burst through the door. She almost didn’t see Mobius leaning against the wall next it. Thankfully, the idiot wasn’t standing on the other side of the door. Because if he was, B-15 would have gotten her head bashed in by Cat’s sledgehammer after she would have hit Mobius in the face with the door.
There was a machine in the middle of the room that looked like some kind of torture device. Cat was smashing it with that sledgehammer.
“I’d be helping with that, but doctor’s orders say I’m not allowed to do anything fun for, like, the rest of my life.” Dramatic dork, that Mobius. “Cat’s having fun, though, so I guess I can deal.”
“He doesn’t look like he’s having an ounce of fun. Is he okay?”
“Nope.” Cheerful, like the guy wasn’t at risk of hurting himself or even Mobius if he didn’t stop carrying on like this. B-15 just stared as Cat smashed the hammer into that device over and over again. Metal bent and cracked. Thinner pieces broke off the device entirely, clattering to the floor and scattering about.
“Can’t say I’ll miss that awful thing. No more reprogramming people here. Not like there was going to be, but Cat will feel better once it’s gone.” Mobius explained.
“I guess that makes sense.” B-15 said.
Soon, the device was well beyond repair. The way Cat glared at the pile of metal and wires, though, you’d think it was an immediate threat. Cat turned to face them, with a stormy expression as he heaved the sledgehammer over his shoulder so that it rested there almost like a lumberjack would hold an ax.
“What?” Cat hissed when he noticed B-15 was staring at him. “It’s not like you needed the thing, right?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Give me one good reason not to burn this place down.” Cat snarled.
“Because we’re inside it for one thing. For another, a lot of people live here right now. Their timelines are gone. They have nowhere else to go- we have nowhere else to go, Loki.” Mobius interjected before B-15 could answer.
“Oh, so you call me Loki now, when you feel the need to lecture me! Any other time, I’m “Cat” to you and everyone else. I am Loki! As a matter of fact, I was Loki first!”
“What? What? Are you kidding me? That’s what your problem has been all day? You’re jealous of yourself?” Mobius sputtered in disbelief.
“We are not the same person! You may be oblivious to it, but the way he looks at you- he wants what he cannot have!” Cat found himself becoming even angrier; this wasn’t what he had been upset about all day, but it sure was an infuriating topic he didn’t have the self-control to keep himself from responding to.
“You need to calm down.” Mobius said.
“I need to calm down?” Cat snarled.
“You need to calm down before you say or do something you’re gonna regret, Loki!” Mobius raised his voice, but wasn’t quite shouting. Not yet.
“You’re so attached to this place and to these people. I can’t help but wonder if maybe you liked being the TVA’s pawn! Maybe you liked having a pet Loki instead of me!”
Mobius flinched and then his expression turned steely. He was quiet and thoughtful for a few minutes as Cat caught his breath. B-15 simply stood there awkwardly, uncertain of what to say or do.
“I don’t believe you should stay in the infirmary with me tonight, Loki.” Mobius said with a calm tone of voice. “We’re both cooped up here with no other real option right now and it’s starting to get to us. We need some space, I think. A little time to get our heads on straight. That kind of thing.”
“Fine.” Cat said, tossing the sledgehammer to the ground and stomping away.
“Fine.” Mobius echoed, sounding less angry and more defeated.
B-15 walked with Mobius back to the infirmary. He crawled back into the bed and settled into a comfortable position while B-15 thought about what she saw and heard. Mobius didn’t strike up conversation, but rather stared at the wall and sulked.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Yup.” Mobius told her a bold-faced lie.
“Do you want to talk about-”
“No. I don’t. Leave me alone, why don’tcha?”
“...If that’s what you want.” She started, caught a bit off guard after Mobius’s snapped response.
“For now, it is.” Mobius answered.
“Try to relax and let it go for now. You guys will work it out. See ya.” B-15 said as she walked to the door.
“See ya.” Mobius answered, mind elsewhere already.
She closed the door behind her, leaving him with his thoughts.
Mobius M. Mobius was just a man. He wasn’t even a young man like Casey and some of the others around the TVA. Ultimately, he was a broken man; that was how he saw himself. He was a broken, pathetic man who took the word of the woman who tortured him at face value and ran with it for so long. He had no family. They were all dead- and one of their deaths was his fault. He hadn’t been there for his child when she needed him the most on her eighteenth birthday. He was gungho about the mission he was given, probably because it filled a need he hadn’t been aware of. He needed to do something worthwhile or what was the point of living, ya know?
The answer, though, was that there wasn’t one. Without Marie… No, that was wrong. It wasn’t true. He had plenty to live for. His friends, his boyfriend, jet skis, justice for the people who have suffered under the hands of the TVA, and to protect people in the future from subjugation by a TVA like entity. There was so much to live for, but why did none of it feel like it was enough?
He remembered clearly what his plan had been way back then. He had been at peace with it, had been ready to die. But this innocent animal had needed his help. He couldn’t bring himself to abandon it. And then that cat turned out to be a Loki and his entire world got turned upside down.
He had still been planning on going through with it after he got to know Loki a bit and gave him what he could to help him with his new life. His daughter loved that bridge. It only seemed fitting that his life should end there. It would have been-
“Mobius, can I come in?” Loki- not Cat- poked his head in the doorway, interrupting Mobius’s train of thought.
“Oh. Yeah, sure. Come in.” Mobius said, wondering if he should even attempt to pretend he was fine.
“Sorry I haven’t come around.” Loki said. “I’ve been… thinking about things.”
“There’s a lot of thinking going around these days. What’s been on your mind?”
“How are you feeling?” Loki asked, dodging the question.
Mobius shrugged. “I don’t need morphine anymore. Plain old tylenol or ibuprofen have been working just fine the past couple of days. Went on a walk. Helped Cat find a sledgehammer he used to smash the machine Ravonna used on all of us. You know, the little things.”
“Oh, I see. Where is Cat, by the way?”
Mobius sighed. “I dunno. He won’t be back tonight, though.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because I told him to stay away.” Mobius said more sharply than he had intended.
“Should I leave?”
“Why should you leave?”
Loki hesitated and looked away. “It sounds like you’ve had a row. Might make it worse if I’m around.”
“I’m not his property. I’m not anyone’s property.” Mobius snapped. “Sit down or go. Whatever you want.”
Loki, not Cat, sat down beside the bed and sighed.