The Aftermath
Back at the TVA Loki reflects on what just happened. He feels the ghost of her lips on his and her body pressed next to his like she wants to become part of him. His heart and soul are still there with her, they haven’t yet caught up with his body, but when they do grief and loss poor through him. How can he go from such ecstasy to such depths of despair so quickly?
He feels like his heart has stopped beating in his chest; suspended in the gap between the moment when they were kissing. His whole life, and the one beyond it, felt like it had been leading him to that moment of completeness.
Now, in the moment after the moment after, he feels his shattered heart start pounding in his chest again and, despite the distance between them, he knows it beats for her. Separated by space and time his heart and soul are pulled towards her heart and soul. He knows that the thread on her end pulls just as tight.
He knows what she is feeling right now. He understands her and he knows why she did what she did. Even if it was the wrong thing to do, it was her thing to do. Her purpose. Her glorious purpose perhaps. He was supposed to support her, but he let his own desires take over. Of course he didn’t want the throne, but he was tempted by any future that meant they would be together. Him and her for eternity.
But he was wrong to try and stop her. To betray her trust. And now they are separated and she may never let him back into her heart again. He may never see her again. That last thought wakes him from his depressive thoughts. He is in control of his destiny and he feels it in his bones that his destiny is to be by her side. He will find her and they will be united.
He snaps into action. His plan?Ultimately to get to her and let her know he understands. He needs to find a way to her, but first he needs to find the others, to tell them what the two of them did and to warn of what’s coming.
He runs through the halls of the TVA to try to find the one person he knows will help him. He searches and then feels immense relief to see Mobius standing with B15.
Loki runs up to them and the words fall out of him: An admission of guilt, a warning of what is coming. But faced with Mobius’s blank stare and failure to recognise him he feels like the floor is falling away from him. He turns to look out of the window at the statue and sees it’s changed.
Is this the Mobius he knows? Have his memories been wiped? Instinctively he reaches out to Mobius to try and connect like Sylvie showed him he could: hoping that he can unlock the memories. But he stops himself knowing that the only way this magic could work, if he was even capable of doing what she can, is to be away from the TVA.
They are suspicious: B15 is calling up records in an attempt to find out who he is. In a split second he assessed his options. Capture could lead to being pruned, which could take him back to the void. Will she be there waiting for him? He doesn’t know. The only other ally he has is that kid and an alligator, and he isn’t sure how much use they will be to him. So that’s one reason to go to the void, but probably not a great plan.
His other option is to try and get away from the TVA with Mobius and to awaken his memories of him. He isn’t even sure that’s a great option, but it seems that one will probably lead to the other anyway; grabbing the tempad could get him pruned.
So in a catlike move he reaches out and grabs Mobius’s tempad creating a door and pulling his friend through it with him.
Once through the portal he knows he probably only has seconds before others follow him through. He grabs Mobius and reaches for his mind attempting to unlock just one memory of them. He sees a flicker of a moment between them in the void: the goodbye. It’s the memory he needs and he shows it to Mobius.
He looks at his friend. Confusion darts about his face. “You remember something” says Loki. “You know me don’t you? Trust me. You have to trust me,” he pleads.
A second later and B15 and other hunters come through the door. B15 grabs Loki and readies her spear to prune him straight away. But Mobius yells at her to stop. “We need to return our prisoner to the TVA for questioning,” he says.
Placing a time collar around Loki’s neck again he whispers in his ear: “I need to know.”