Chapter 4
Loki followed Mobius briskly down the corridor on the lookout for Sylvie or any possible sign of her. They got to his friend’s desk where Mobius rooted around in drawers in frustration. He made an aggravated sound but then he saw another analyst rushing through the office and grabbed them.
“Hey, I need your TemPad, emergency mission from upstairs, quick!”
The confused analyst hesitated for a moment, then nodded and reluctantly handed it over before rushing out of the office, briefcase and coat in hand. Mobius sighed in relief and paused before he ultimately handed it to Loki, knowing he was out on a limb here.
“Thank you, my friend,” Loki smiled earnestly and set his hand on the man’s shoulder, “take care of yourself, I don’t have many friends, but you’re probably the best one I ever had.”
Mobius smiled and squinted at him in consideration, “I don’t know if that makes me feel better, but I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Loki chuckled, “thanks, me too.”
He opened the TemPad and considered how best to navigate from this branch to find her. Would she know which timeline she had sent him to?
“Mobius, say I were to end up on a branched timeline, how would I get back to the original timeline?”
“Well that’s easy, you just come back to the TVA, we exist only on the sacred timeline,” Mobius said simply.
“Right,” Loki considered how to explain this, “but what if something happened and the TVA suddenly appeared in multiple realities?”
“What, like a cataclysmic nexus event broke reality?” Mobius asked dubiously.
“Sure, and suddenly there were hundreds of realities stacked on top of one another?”
Mobius stared at him half skeptical and half shaken. He put his hands on his hips and considered what Loki was asking, visibly mixed with fear and confusion manifesting in denial.
“Okay but that can’t happen, He wouldn’t let that happen, He controls the timeline…”
“Mobius, please, I need you to listen to me: the timeline has been set free. That’s why it’s splintering. A nexus event has occurred at the end of time itself and I need to know how to get to another timeline.”
Mobius stared at him with horrified realization as his face fell, “at the end of time…” he muttered nervously to himself. He turned to pace and try to wrap his brain around the idea.
“Please, I need to figure this out before B-15 shows up and prunes me,” Loki implored.
“I don’t know!” Mobius threw up his hands in frustration, “okay, I don’t know. What you’re describing is unprecedented, it’s what I’ve spent my life working to prevent, so… I’m sorry… but I just… I don’t know.” Mobius collapsed into the chair at his desk.
Loki felt for his friend, this version didn’t know he was a variant, he didn’t know about the TVA’s lies. He still believed in the system and this was everything he knew to fear and prevent.
Loki sighed wearily and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Okay. I’ll start with Roxxcart. It’s where she used to go, it’s where we met, it’s where I’d go. I’ll start there, then keep trying branches until I find her,” Loki resolved.
“Good luck,” Mobius said skeptically, “if you’re gonna try every superstore on earth till you find your friend you might as well give up now, those places are everywhere.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Loki brushed him off, “there’s one in particular that gets destroyed by an apocalypse.”
“Oh great, yeah that sounds like a great spot to meet a woman,” Mobius shook his head.
Loki rolled his eyes, “I know what I’m doing, okay, now—”
“How do you even know you’ll get to the right branch? Everything’s in flux, you could end up on a timeline which ends up being pruned!”
“Well I have to try,” Loki said with exasperation. “I can’t do nothing, it’s not in my nature. I’ll look for her there and I’ll keep looking until I find her, alright?”
Mobius could tell the strange man was saying this more to himself than to him so he shrugged, “alright, do what ya gotta do. I’ll be here, awaiting the inevitable destruction of time.”
Loki sighed and nodded, “see you in the next life, my friend,” he murmured, then typed his destination into the TemPad and hoped for the best as he stepped through the orange portal.