Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Loki never thought he'd find Thor at a beachside resort. Or a beach in general. He didn't seem the type. But as they draw closer to the strange ship, the static in the air confirms that yes, this is indeed Thor's humble abode.

A little girl comes running out of the ship, a big grin on her face. "Aunt Sylvie!" She yells before barreling into the woman beside Loki. Sylvie freezes for a moment before bending over and giving the little girl a hug.

"Hello, Love," Sylvie says, "where is your Uncle Thor?"

Love doesn't answer but instead turns to Loki, squinting at him. "Who are you?"

Loki goes down to her level, squatting, looking into her eyes intently. "I am Loki. Who are you?"

Loki knows very well who she is but he doesn't think saying that will go over well. The girl cocks her head at him. "I thought Loki was a tree. And had long hair. And was dead."

Sylvie snorts, and has to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. Loki glares at her before saying, "I was taking care of a tree for a long time. I still am."

Love looks at his clothes, "You don't look like a gardener."

Loki cocks his head at her, "What is a gardener supposed to look like?"

"Dirty," she says, "and messy."

Loki frowns at that before he can say much there's footsteps on the landing pad. "Love, what did I say about going-"

When Loki sees Thor, he feels as if all the air in his lungs has been sucked away. Judging from the look on Thor's face, he is not far off from feeling the same. Loki has to close his eyes for a second. Let himself feel the weight of gravity on this sandy knoll and the air in his hair. Images of one Thor after another fills his mind. Sad Thor's, fat Thor's, angry, betrayed, happy, married, kids, old, dead. Lastly, his on Stark Tower, pleading with him to stop his insanity and even earlier, begging him to come home.

Home. Thor never knew what home was for Loki. But, back then, neither did he. Mobius, with wild hair and shining eyes, smiling at him from the other side of the kitchen this morning fills his mind and Loki's heart slows. He opens his eyes and sees the anger and tears in Thor's. Thor has to take several breaths before he can get any sound out.

"Loki?"

The sound of his name is enough to make Loki crack, too. As tears flood his eyes, he holds out his arms. "Hi, Thor," he barely manages to say, "I've missed you."

There's a war on Thor's face going between anger and outright crying. It lands on the latter, and Thor stumbles the last two yards between them into Loki's arms where he clutches him tightly, making Loki's back pop. But it doesn't matter because he's crying, saying things like, "Loki, my baby brother, oh, Loki," and Loki is crying, clutching him just as tightly. Loki looks up where a clear sky and bright sun shine. "The sun is shining, Thor," he whispers, "it's shining on us still."

***********************************

Thor is loud. Everyone and everything on this planet knows it by now. Loki thinks he takes it well all things considering. The cursing, the name calling, the tears. Thor isn't subtle about how he feels. Loki only has one defense against all of it. First and foremost and forever: I am not your Loki. He didn't live through half of what Thors did. Loki has lived a whole other life splitting off from when he got arrested by the Avengers. But Loki let's Thor rip out trees and let his emotions out. That's what Mobius would have done if he saw Loki die and some version of him come back. But then Loki starts thinking too hard about that and the horrible memory of Mobius not knowing Loki invades him.

Mobius, it's me!

I don't know you.

Loki has to force it down, go to the water and get a drink. And there he sits watching Sylvie splash in the waves with Love until Thor sits beside him, worn out, cuts on his hands, utterly defeated. "I really wish you hadn't come," he moans.

"Why?" Loki asks.

"Because all you're going to do is disappear again and I don't think I'm going to survive you leaving...again."

Loki rubs his thumb into his opposite hands palm. "I assume an apology would not help anything."

That's when Thor finally looks at him and Loki sees the glass eye and tears on his face. "Not this time." Loki nods. That is completely understandable. A sorry from Mobius wouldn't fix anything either. As the sun begins it's decent, Thor asks, "Where have you been this whole time?"

Isn't that a loaded question. "I believe Sylvie explained the TVA to you," Loki says.

Thor nods, "Yes, but she said you were gone in some tree. That no one could get to you and you couldn't leave. And yet here you are."

Loki spreads his hands, "Here I am."

"How?"

It's a fair question. And a long-winded one. Loki sighs. Okay. Back to the beginning. "I believe Sylvie told you about how she branched the timelines." Thor nods. "Well, when that happened, the multiverse grew incredibly fast and it was causing problems..."

Then Loki explains it all to him. He Who Remains's plan, time slipping, having to learn how the mechanics of time works, trying again and again, and failing. Leaving. Only being able to watch for an indefinite amount of time. His friends coming and releasing him. Even now Loki feels the pull of the tree and it feels like a missing appendage that was the branches. The fear that everything is going to disappear any second. That none of this is real and he's delved into insanity on his throne instead of standing guard like he's supposed to.

By the end of it, Thor looks absolutely sick. His head is in his hands, rocking his body is if to ward off some enemy. Loki let's him think it through because his mind is going elsewhere now that the story has been told. To a man he's watched over so long that it gives him anxiety now that he can't. Especially since said man hasn't been feeling well. Those glowing eyes...he can't be attached to the tree...can he?

"So you were alone," Thor suddenly says, "for all that time?"

Loki nods slowly. "Yes."

"How?" He croaks,"the Loki I know couldn't go one minute without attention."

Loki smiles at the memory of chasing Mobius down the TVA hallways. "That was me for a long time." Then he sees Mobius behind the glass, staring in horror as he leaves. "But I have more important things than me now." Loki let's that sit, then says, "tell me about you? You have a daughter."

Thor takes a moment to take in Loki's words before chuckling, "Niece actually. Well...adopted." Loki raises a brow. Before he continues, Thor brings them mead, then tells Loki of Thanos, the long five years of video games and alcoholism before the ultimate fight. How he trained with a band of intergalactic heroes until he found himself again. How Jane and he broke up, how she got cancer, wielded Mjolnir then died. How Love came to live with him and he's been trying to live on ever since.

"So you really gave the kingdom to a Valkyrie?" Loki says.

"She's a better leader than I ever was," Thor says, drinking the last of his mead.

By now the sun is setting and another image comes to mind of Mobius on the street looking at his house letting time pass.

Then Loki sees his dead face right before he turns to ash.

Loki is on his feet before anyone can blink, and a huge roll of panic fills his chest. "I have to go."

He's turning to run to Sylvie when Thor catches his wrist. "Wait, you aren't..." Thor stops as if he just realized something. His face drops and so does his hand, "... of course you're not."

Loki's panic and need to address this war until he says, "What, Thor?"

He shakes his head. "I thought you might stay. That we could..." Thor stops again and chucks his cup into the water.

Loki gets it now. Thor thought he would settle here, be with him and Love now that he's home. That things would be the same as before. Loki can't allow him to think it's because he hates him or is up to his old tricks so he kneels beside his brother and whispers, "I have my own Jane."

Thor stops mid swallow and looks at him, "What?"

Loki cups his hands together and above them appears a small image of Mobius. Thor sees it and his jaw drops. As tears form in Loki's eyes, he says, "This is my Jane. He hasn't been feeling well as of late. I must get back to him and make sure he's okay."

"Who is he?" Thor asks, his eyes never leaving the image.

Where does Loki even start. He explains the time theater, the loom, Mobius's impact on his life, everything Mobius has done for him, including dying, and even then it's not enough. There is not enough words in the world to explain Mobius. Who he is. What he means to Loki. But if anything it's his tears that trigger Thor into believing him. Loki closes his fist and Mobius disappears.

"That's why I must go back, Thor," he says, "I will return but first I have to make sure he is all right."

As Loki stands, Thor stands, too. He envelopes Loki in yet another hug, whispering, "Don't be afraid of his mortality, Loki. Enjoy the time you have."

Loki squeezes him back and says, "I don't plan on letting him, or you, or anyone go ever again."

Thor leans back, his hands going to either side of Loki's neck and with tears in his eyes, he says, "Neither did I."

***************************

Click-click.

There's a whirring sound then a satisfied hum. Mobius's first thought is that it's Saturday. That's why there is light shining through his eyelids. Second is that he feels a breeze which means Loki open the window sometime last night indicating a warm spring night. Third, that his picture is getting taken and he probably looks like a cockatoo.

Mobius squints with one eye to the other side of the bed where Loki kneels in nothing but his shorts and his ring, hair extremely messy and his Polaroid camera pointed at Mobius. There's another click and out comes another picture. Loki plucks it up and puts it beside the first on his pillow.

"Good morning," Loki chirps way to happily, indicating he has been up for a while.

Mobius opens both eyes and says in half mumble, "Don't you want some pictures of me that look at least half decent?"

"Oh, Mobius," Loki drops onto Mobius's pillow, giving his a wide berth for the photos to develop. His fingers dance across Mobius's naked shoulder bringing up goosebumps along their path. "I could capture the radiance of the moon, the stars, the sun and none could deny your superiority, even if you look like a snoring wildebeast."

"I don't think that sounds as romantic as you think it does."

"Of course it was. I complemented your mortal glory to that of the cosmos. Now hold still. I want another one."

"Loki!" Mobius howls, diving back into his pillow, trying to wiggle his body back under the sheets where the camera can't get him. He doesn't expect Loki to plop on top of him, squishing his belly into the mattress before he pulls the covers back on the other side. Sunlight hits his eyes and Mobius squints even more. He doesn't know how many Loki takes between that maneuver, and Mobius trying to get him off him. They end up in a big pile, Loki's knee stuck in his groin, Mobius's elbow in Loki's ear and the camera stuck between Mobius's solar plexus and his clavicle. Finally, Loki decides to put the camera on the floor...and then roll right back on top of him.

"Heavy," Mobius huff as he tries to get Loki's chin to stop digging into his sternum. 

"Mobius M. Mobius, are you calling your fiance fat?"

If Mobius had said this at any other time he'd get the nearest object thrown at him. He wiggles around and finally gives up. "No, I'm saying if you were a weighted blanket this would be a lot more comfortable."

Loki rolls his eyes. His hands skim Mobius's chest, feeling him and settling on his stomach which he holds so gently that Mobius shivers. This is exactly what Loki he was waiting for. 

"The kids are still at Ben's. They can stay over for a little longer. There is no rush."

Loki wiggles and his intention is more clear than anything else he's done today.

"Norns, Loki, if you want attention there's better ways to say it than jumping up and down on me."

"Where's the fun in that?" Loki grins before he rips the covers away and attaches his mouth to Mobius's.

-April 24, 20--

****************************

Click- click. 

Loki lowers the camera as they enter the kitchen. Sean and Kevin turn and Sean scowls, "Loki!"

"Sean!" Loki scowls back, "You sound just like your father. Both of you are adverse to pictures."

"Can I see?" Kevin reaches for the polaroid in Loki's hand but they hold it way above their head. 

"It's not developed yet and besides you have syrup on your fingers."

Kevin sticks his fingers in his mouth before turning back to his waffle. "Why would you want pictures of us eating?" Sean says as Mobius puts a plate down in front of him, two waffles, buttered and filled with whipped cream on it.

"It's called 'a slice of life,' Sean," Mobius winks at Loki, "It'll be a masterpiece when it's done."

Loki quickly snaps a picture of Sean's waffle then Mobius in his King of the Grill apron. "Sit down and eat," he says laughing before putting a waffle with horns on Loki's side of the table. 

Loki snaps another picture, then says, "The next one needs a mustache."

Mobius comes over and sits, eating a big bite of his waffle, "Sit down. You're taking the kids to school."

Before Loki does, they go to the window and takes a picture of the yard, the sun glinting over a dozen toys.

-May 15, 20--

**************************

After Loki finishes taking pictures of the lake at dawn he takes a picture of the jet skis hooked up to the truck. Click-click. And the rented lake house. Click-click. Sylvie likes to duck out of the cameras sight. He hasn't got a good one of her yet. Just blurry images that probably represent her better than a normal picture would but this is his memory, not hers.

Loki creeps through the lake house, passes the kids sleeping by the fire, passes Mobius, who is sprawled like a star in their bed (and it takes everything in Loki not to go in and cuddle him like the squishy he is) (norns he loves the squish!) to the back of the lake house where Sylvie sleeps in the second bedroom, curled in a ball under about a hundred blankets and an alligator push that Love got her. Loki almost hates to wake her up.

Almost.

Loki takes a quick picture of the last moment of peace. Click-click. Then he grabs her phone, goes to her sounds and sets one off. A piercing beep fills the room. Sylvie screams awake. He snaps a picture mid yell, hair askew, makeup smeared. She spots him and her face goes a whole new shade of red.

"LOKI, I'M GOING TO SHOVE THAT CAMERA SO FAR UP YOUR ANUS MOBIUS IS GOING TO FEEL IT, I SWEAR ON THOR'S LIFE!"

Loki laughs and takes off down the hall, Sylvie chasing him, his camera going off as they go.

-June 1, 20--

*******************************

She's watching Kevin, Sean and Love run with sparklers. Click-click.

Mobius sets off a tank which he stays behind to watch its whole path. Click-click.

Thor shoves two hot dogs into his mouth at once. Gross but click-click. 

"Loki, come set off this firework," Mobius calls after she takes the hundredth picture of Love holding a Roman candle which is probably the worst thing they could have given her.

Loki gives him big doe eyes, "But...pictures."

Mobius holds his hands out, "I'll take some. You need to be in these pictures, too."

Loki hesitates for a moment, then looks deep into Mobius's eyes before handing him the camera. It's the third time she's ever done so. "Try and get yourself in as many as you can."

Mobius shakes his head. "I see myself enough. It's your turn." Loki smiles weakly then goes and grabs a punk.

Mobius takes picture after picture of Loki doing sparklers with the kids, using firework swords to battle Thor and her face as she watches the firework show. Mobius is rather proud of these. The lighting is perfect, authentic. After that he just stares. At Loki's eyes, the glow of the fireworks off her skin. She's beautiful. This would be a whole lot better if Mobius didn't have a splitting headache.

-July 4, 20--

**************************

Mobius's bones are aching. He feels as if he has the flu without the stuffy nose and coughs. He has felt like this for a while. He assumes it's a sickness though he is starting to wonder with all the headaches and...dreams...if this is something he should actually be worried about.

He doesn't want to get up. He really doesn't. But the sun is shining and it's on his face and he's pretty sure he hears Loki downstairs rearranging furniture while talking to the boys...and there's the sound of glass breaking. He groans into his pillow. No. Mobius is going back to sleep and he's going to-

"Mobius!" 

"Dad!"

There's a sudden flash in his vision. He feels like he's getting pruned all over again. His boys in space suits are being dragged away but he can't see by who. Loki has green...branches?...timelines...and they are pulling him into a dark space in the ground as Mobius slowly disappears, the looks of horror on their faces searing into his mind-

"Mobius?"

Mobius startles awake. When did he fall asleep? His head hurts. His mouth is dry. "Loki?" He asks before turning on his side. There they are at the foot of the bed with a very poorly done pancake with in a smile, bacon for eyebrows and a mustache and a candle where the nose would be. Mobius sits up in surprise, pushing down nausea. "What is this?"

Loki and the boys grin, "Happy birthday, Mobius/Dad!" Then the boys hurry to give him breakfast in bed while Loki snaps pictures. A sentimental feeling takes over.

"Birthday?" Mobius asks, turning on the tempad to look at the date. August 29th. Oh. It is his birthday. He totally forgot about it. The boys tried to celebrate it last year but Loki and he had only been there a couple months so it was awkward and honestly Mobius didn't feel very connected to the day of his birth so it really didn't matter. He still doesn't but this year the boys are more content and Loki looks down right giddy.

"Yeah, Dad," Kevin says, placing the plate in his lap while Sean tries to open the syrup bottle, "you're like a gazillion years old now."

Loki snorts. Mobius glares at him and that's when he notices how well dressed Loki is. There are no creases in his black dress pants. His white dress shirt is practically see through with the buttons down to the third one, revealing way too much and the sleeves rolled up. His hair is longer now, curled and the lies around his neck. Then the ring and pendant. The pendent is shiny and very noticeable on Loki's chest, enhancing the muscle there. The ring looks bigger than normal. The sundial is catching the light, blinding him.

Mobius holds up a hand to block the light but only ends up blinding himself with his ring and Loki's magic. Loki chuckles, "Our love is as brilliant as the sun."

"Loki," Mobius grumps right as Sean gets the lid open and squirts syrup all over Kevin, the bed and Mobius. Sean goes red. "Oops..."

There's another snap of the camera then, "happy birthday, folksy dope," before Loki's running out of the room like it's on fire. 

Mobius sighs. Brat. 

**************************

After Kevin and Mobius take a shower and put the bed sheets in the washer, Mobius comes downstairs and spots what all the banging was this morning. Balloons, baking materials and more litter the floor and float on the ceiling. Mobius enters the family room, and he sees Loki on the floor surrounded by even more balloons. A sign over the TV says happy birthday. He sits cross legged looking at the pendants pictures, gripping it with a white knuckled grip and eyes practically bulging out of his head.

Ah. It's one of those moments.

So Mobius goes and sits by him even though his bones are screaming and all he wants to do is lie on the couch and sleep. They sit in silence for a while until Mobius bumps Loki's shoulder and says, "This seems like a bit much, doesn't it?" Loki finally looks away from the pendant and around the room. "I mean we are getting married next week. Going all out on this seems like a bit much."

"It's your birthday, Mobius," Loki says, flipping the pendant shut, "Our wedding is about us. This day is about you."

Mobius rolls his eyes. "I don't need a day about me. I'm content as is."

Then Loki rolls his eyes, too, "Then let us celebrate you. You just have to open gifts and eat cake. How about that?"

Mobius shakes his head, amused. Then he grips Loki's arm, serious now. "You okay?"

Loki takes a deep breath, his face flinging between trying to smile and concern. Finally, it lands on tired. "I forgot where I was for a moment. I thought I was back in the tree and that this was a dream." He grips the pendant again.

"Did the pendant help?" Mobius asks.

Loki nods. "Yes. The pendent is real. I can feel it. So that means all of this is real. My illusions aren't that strong so all of this happened." He finally looks at Mobius and smiles. "I'm okay now."

"We're going to have to write that down for Judy to know about," Mobius says, immediately looking for Loki's phone so they don't forget and they can relate this to the therapist. 

Loki groans. "How long do we have to be in therapy?"

Mobius shrugs, "Beats me. At least until B-15 is happy."

"And why are we letting her decide?"

"Because I have more brains than the two of you combined." Loki and Mobius turn as B comes into the room, a box in hand and a big grin on her face, "Happy birthday, Mobius."

There is a chime of voices as O.B., Casey and D follow her in. There's a flash of lightning then thunder. Kevin comes roaring down the stairs saying, "Uncle Thor and Love are here!"

Mobius looks at Loki who has a sly grin on his face. "Everyone. Really?" 

"When I said we were celebrating you," Loki winks, "I meant it."

*****************************

"Happy birthday, Mobius!"

Mobius groans so loud that Sylvie shrinks back before she can smack a big red kiss on his cheek. As she does, he says, "Birthday smirthday. God knows how old I am. There's no use in celebrating anymore."

Mobius is cutting his own cake because he absolutely refuses to let Loki do it and D doesn't need to make Loki jealous with his culinary skills. Sylvie takes the knife from him and hip bumps him out of the way before doing a lot more elegant cut than he was doing. "Nonsense," she says, "every birthday is important no matter how old you are."

"Says the princess who still looks like she's in her prime."

Sylvie rolls her eyes before reaching into her skirt pocket and pulling out a piece of paper. "Here." Mobius takes it as she she shimis her black mini skirt down and rearranges her teal tank top. He looks at the paper. Free pie at her town bakery for a year. Mobius raises a brow at her as she floofs her hair that also has gotten longer.

"Free pie?"

"Don't say it like it's a bad thing. We need to hang out more, especially now that you are becoming my in-law."

"You don't like pie."

"Nonsense. The TVA just makes it disgusting."

Mobius rolls his eyes. He hears the front door open and the kids cheer before Ben is joking with the kids. He can almost count down to the millisecond when Loki shows up in the kitchen to get away from Ben. The second he sees Mobius he stops, stares then glares at Sylvie.

"Will you stop kissing my husband," he bites, "you're going to cause a scandal."

"Oh, please," Sylvie bites back as Loki gets a rag and starts wiping Mobius's cheek, "he's not your husband yet and besides he likes my kisses better."

Loki goes feral eyed as Mobius coughs and it is almost impossible to wrangle him back in before Loki attacks Sylvie and ruins the cake. Mobius is laughing the whole time until a searing pain explodes in his head. His ears ring and for a moment he sees Yggdrasil, pulsing but something is off. It's not vibrant. It's yellowing...Mobius feels sick.

Then he's back and Loki just barely catches his eyes lighting up before dimming again. He frowns and whispers, "Are you okay?"

Mobius nods, "Yeah. Just a headache. Didn't sleep well."

Loki frowns. "Should I tell everyone to leave-"

"No, no," Mobius says quickly, watching as Sylvie takes the Cake to the family room, "I'm fine. Let's just keep it short okay?"

Loki smiles weakly, "Okay. Meet me in there. I'll get my camera."

Then he's off, hitting the stairs, two at a time. Mobius sighs and rubs his head. Maybe he should see a doctor. Maybe being bound to a tree isn't all it's cracked out to be.

Mobius makes his way to the family room where Thor is watching from the doorway as Sean looks at a book O.B. has and Kevin is trying to arm wrestle Love. Thor looks at him as he stops by the man, watching as well. Thor claps his shoulder and Mobius stumbles. "Happy birthday, Mobius. May this year of renewal be as good as the last."

"Tell me that after we get through the wedding," Mobius says, "Do you have your clothes figured out?"

Thor nods. "Asgardian traditional wear. Brunhilde had it especially made for this event. I'm still figuring out Love's though. She refuses to wear anything Asgardian."

Mobius chuckles, "Fair enough. Don had a problem getting Kevin to wear pants for the first six years of his life. Kindergarten was a nightmare."

Love slams Kevin's fist down and she cheers and high fives Sylvie and B-15.

"Are you ready?" Thor asks, "To be married?"

Mobius shrugs, "Ready as I'll ever be. Loki and I have been talking out our fears about it but that doesn't stop the nerves."

Thor squeezes his shoulder, eyes misty, "You have made him incredibly happy. I've never seen him care more about anyone than you. And you have returned that affection full measure. I'll forever be in your debt for that."

Mobius grins and pats his hand, "No debts, Thor. I'm just glad you're here. He wouldn't be the same without you."

The grin Thor gives him is probably the biggest Mobius has ever seen from him.

Suddenly one hand lands on Mobius's shoulder and the other covers his eyes. Sparks of blue reflect off the hand. "Guess who!"

"Ben!" Mobius howls, "You're going to give me a heart attack one day!"

Ben laughs and spins Mobius around before giving him a big hug. He's still in his tracksuit so that means he came straight from the gym. Mobius embraces Ben. He has gotten used to his tactile nature over the past year and it's been an anchor when things are rough. Ben has shown him their childhood photos, yearbooks, weddings and more. He was close to Don. That was undeniable. Mobius just wishes he could remember that closeness because just like with his of love jet skis that transpired his memory erasage, his body immediately reacts to love Ben but he can't understand it. It's a predicament in and of itself. Like right now when Ben is burring his face in Mobius's shoulder to hide his tears.

"How old would he have been?" Mobius asks, thinking of his dead variant. The one he replaced.

Ben shakes his head. "It doesn't matter. I'm just glad you're here. Losing your best friend sucks, you know."

A dull pain fills Mobius's chest. A scar that didn't heal properly. It has a name. Funny how that scar can make you so happy when it filled you with so much pain only a little over a year ago. Mobius nods. "Yeah. It really does."

Click-click.

Mobius turns to see Loki with his polaroid camera raised. He lowers it and grabs the picture that came out. As Ben pulls away, Loki slaps it against his chest. "Keep it. I don't need a picture of your hideous self in this house."

Mobius rolls his eyes. How Ben likes Loki is beyond him when Loki acts like this to him all the time. Ben smiles and says thanks before Loki is ushering Mobius into the room.

"All right, here's the birthday man," Loki yells and Mobius wants to run and hide. He should have saw this coming. "Let's show him we care! Or I'll skin all of you!"

"Loki," Mobius hisses but the group is laughing is Loki pulls Mobius into the recliner by the fireplace and puts the cake on the coffee table that has been dragged over to it. 

Sean starts the song off and is a full line in before the others join in, "Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday to you..."

And as the song goes, things slow. Mobius looks at the smiling faces. His friends. People who made him like living. Who cared for him even though he gave them no reason to. The TVA family. His family. Ben. Sylvie. Thor. Love. They all smile and sing and come here even though they will all be here for the wedding next week which is ten times more important. They are here and even though Mobius has had a hard time believing it, they love him. They all love him. In some very real and scary way they do.

And for some reason, that makes Mobius tear up. Not because they love him but because he can't shake the feeling that this is all going to end. And not in the distant future either.

The singing stops and they all look at him expectantly. Mobius looks between the candles and them. "Make a wish, Dad," Sean says, voice cracking. Mobius can't believe he's already a teenager. He looks at Kevin then Loki who has his camera ready.

Mobius takes a deep breath and blows. 

Click-click.

-August 29th, 20--

*******************************

Catching Mobius mid blow was not easy. He looks like a blowfish as the candle flames whip away from him. Mobius had to do it three times because the thing would just not go out. The rest of the party was fun. Filled with wrestling, eating and Mobius hitting D-90 with a spoon for trying to make ice cream and getting it all over the kitchen. It was a good laugh.

Now it's about 4:00 a.m. Mobius and the kids are fast asleep. Loki's pictures from over the last couple months lay in front of him. Ones of Sylvie running down the hall after him, knife in hand, with the face of a maniac in booty shorts and a rat's nest for hair. Ones of Kevin and Sean eating waffles, syrup all over fingers. And his favorite of Mobius sound asleep as the sun comes up on him. He looks peaceful. Younger. Loki can't help but stare at the strange luck tattoo on Mobius's shoulder. He had to wait until the kids were gone to take this picture. If the kids ever saw it he doesn't want them asking why there was a bruise on the tattoo. Mobius would never forgive him for that.

Loki loves these pictures. He has so many. Mobius says he needs to have a scrapbook. When his fiance goes and visits Sylvie he'll get one for Loki but for now they lay on the coffee table until he puts them back in the manilla envelope.

Loki has to think about who he wants to use his camera next week. He's leaning towards B-15 or D-90. They won't try to modify or break it. The only problem is that D-90 is doing the cake so he'll have sticky fingers and B-15 is literally in charge of everything going smoothly and will probably forget to take pictures. Which reminds him, he needs to go with Ben to get his dress. Loki can't believe he agreed to let Ben help him with this. But Ben has been super involved, making this the best wedding Don never had. He's actually gotten into a fight with B-15 over it. Ben even wants to officiate it before Mobius talked him out of it. Now it's between Thor and O.B. Loki's almost tempted to take Mobius's advice and let them flip a coin for it.

Which leads Loki to the picture of Mobius and his hands, they're two rings put together side by side for the photo to remember their engagement by.

He's getting married. Him. Loki Laufeyson, terror of New York, son of a frost giant, discovered by Odin and god of lies, mischief and now stories. To a man who seems so plain and yet...

And yet he's not. Mobius is colorful, bright, mischievous. Loving, caring. Everything Loki never knew he needed. And Loki is marrying him. His small choke seems to echo in the room. This is real and yet Loki keeps thinking it's not. Maybe he'll wake up one day. But today is not that day.

Loki stands and stretches before getting some water from the tap. He sees the neighbor across the street is just getting back from graveyards. He had promised to help the guy with his garden next week. Winterizing or whatever even though it's just the beginning of September. He needs to put that on the calendar. Next to the giant heart that says wedding.

Eight more days. Loki can wait.

Thump!

Loki stops mid drink when he hears something hit the floor upstairs. It's not even 4:30. Did one of the kids get a nightmare? He heads for the stairs, trying to be quiet so no one else wakes up.

"Kevin? Sean?" Loki calls at the top of the stairs. There's no answer so he goes to their room that is still cluttered with toys and books yet to be picked up.

The two are sound asleep, snoring and twitching. They are peaceful. Loki would stay and watch for a moment if the fact that they didn't make the noise wasn't turning in his brain. If it wasn't them, it was Mobius. 

Loki makes his way to their room quietly and quickly, trying to be quiet with the door. It doesn't matter. The bed is empty, but their bathroom light is on. It's glaring into their room, harsh and unwelcome. "Mobius?" Loki calls quietly, walking over to the bathroom.

When he gets there, Loki stops dead in his tracks, "Mobius..."

Mobius is leaning on the toilet, head on his arm while the other lays in his lap. He's pale. Sickly pale. One Loki has never seen before. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that his eyes are glowing the brightest colors Loki has ever seen. Every color of Yggdrasil and... yellow. The color the grass turns when it's dying. He's shivering as if it's not 70° in this house. Rather like Loki has held him in his Jotunn form too long. Mobius's breathing is shallow.

Loki steps into the bathroom and that's when Mobius blinks and finally looks at him, "Hi, Lokes."

Loki pauses. He feels sick. This is not happening. It's not happening. Not now. Not ever!

"I think," he says so quietly that Loki has to strain to understand him, "I think something is wrong..."

Then Mobius closes his eyes and shakes harder. Loki only glances at the bowl but that's all he needs to do to know what is in it.

Blood.

Chapter Text

Loki should be out of tears by now but he's not. He's in Mobius's arm chair, rubbing his palm raw as he watches the man sleep. He threw up a few more times before Loki carried him down to the living room and has been watching over him ever since. Mobius isn't breathing right. His breath hiccups on every inhale. It sound like he groans every time he exhales. His words are going through Loki's brain again and again.

I think something's wrong.

Something is wrong. 

Something is wrong! 

Loki has to take a deep breath again, but it turns into a hiccup and he has to cover his mouth in order not to sob. A year. A year and two months. That's how long it took for him to get sick. For the mobius strip surrounding the tree to start losing magic. Now not only does Loki have to refill the tree with magic but he has to make Mobius better.

Loki curses him again for dying. For getting attached to the tree. For not leaving Loki there and moving on. For loving Loki, saving Loki, protecting Loki-

"Loki."

Loki gasps so hard he chokes on spit. Mobius, his face half covered by the blanket, watches him. The man says weakly, "Stop thinking. It will be all right. We knew this was going to happen. You just have to refill it. That's all."

"It's way more complicated than that, Mobius," Loki hisses, "if we wait too long you die. If I go, we risk me being stuck at the tree again. Then we won't get married. You'll be alone again. I'll be alone again! And-" Mobius is sitting up and Loki about blows a gasket, "Why are you sitting up!"

Slowly sunlight creeps across the floor as Mobius's eyes shine brighter. He takes a very deep breath before saying, "Sitting here watching me drool blood isn't going to help us. We need to go to the TVA."

Loki scowls, "You aren't going anywhere. You need to lie back down and-"

"Dad?" Loki's jaw snaps shut as Sean comes into the family room, rubbing his eyes, "I had that nightmare again." Then he sees the two of them and the blood on Mobius. Mobius's eyes and his pale face. Sean goes pale, too. "What's going on?"

Mobius and Loki exchange looks. The kids know about the tree and how Mobius is tied to the tree. Loki explained it to them at Christmas. What he didn't explain was how Mobius will get sick as the precursor to the tree dying. Because that means Mobius is dying. And Loki doesn't want to scare the kids like that. He still doesn't but it looks like they might not have a choice.

Mobius sniff's then raises his blanket so Sean can come sit. The boy does so, and quickly. Loki can practically see the flashback starting in Sean's eyes. Back to when they got the call that Don was missing. And dead.

"Dad's a little sick," Mobius says, voice cracking, "which nightmare did you have?"

Sean looks at Mobius with a knowing look but his need to talk wins out. "It was the one about the vines," Sean's voice squeaks. His puberty does nothing to quell the boy still in him. The fearful boy that explains the exact same nightmare he told Loki at Christmas. Of Mobius looking in awe at his surroundings, Loki's tree. Of him turning to ash. Loki being pulled away by vines into some hole. Of some masked man taking him and Kevin. It makes Loki ill.

"I'm tired of this nightmare, Dad," Sean complains leaning into Mobius. Mobius hugs him tight even as he heaves rough breaths, "I just want it to stop."

Again, Mobius looks at Loki. Loki can't tell if it's because he is holding back a cough or it's something else, but the tears in Mobius's eyes makes Loki's heart break, "I'm sure it will go away soon."

Sean sniff's and pulls back to get a better look at Mobius. "You don't look good, Dad. Maybe we should take you to a doctor."

Mobius shakes his head, "We'd like to go to the TVA. What's wrong with me is something the doctors wouldn't understand. Not here at least."

"Then let's go," Sean says, turning his stare to Loki, "If they can help we need to go."

Loki nods. "Yes, I need to go. You three will stay here and-"

"No!"

Loki jerks back at the ferocity from not only Sean but Mobius, too. Mobius has a horrible coughing fit. Blood stains his arm as he tries to cover it. Sean looks sick. He barely says, "No. I'm not risking this being the last time I see you. I'm going with you. So if something does happen, at least I have a proper goodbye."

"Mobius..."

"And I'm not leaving my dad," Sean argues, "if something happens to him, you're the only one that can help. You're the only one who knows anything." He crosses his arms, resolute, angry, "I'm going. And Kevin would agree with me."

Loki feels a headache starting to spread in the back of his head. He wants to scream. He wants to throw stuff around. He's so angry he could rip this world apart. This isn't fair. A week before his wedding and his husband to be is going to die. Either Loki is going to get trapped in a tree or this will work and they'll be home before dinner.

Loki stares at Mobius. Despite the utter redness of his eyes, he looks positive, almost determined. Just like he has always been. It's Loki's anchor. Has always been his anchor. Mobius believes in him and Loki believes in Mobius even when everything is dim. Even now when Mobius is dying, he looks at Loki with so much faith. Like he can do nothing wrong. Like he has the world in his palm and Mobius trusts him not to crush it. Loki supposes he really does.

Loki sighs and puts his face in his hands. This is insanity. This is probably the beginning of that dream that Sean and Loki have been having time to time. If only he knew who the masked man was...

Loki's wishes war with logic. Mobius and the kids should not come. It's dangerous. But if Loki were to be sent back to the tree, a goodbye would be nice.

Loki's brain says no. His heart says yes. 

He sighs heavily before looking back up at the two.

"Fine." Sean grins before Loki says hotly, "but the second something goes wrong, don't expect me not to say I didn't tell you so."

********************************

Telling Kevin is not a pleasant business. In fact Loki has a hard time not exploding when Kevin comes down and the first thing he does after Sean tells him the news is run back upstairs crying. Does Loki want to run back upstairs and hide under his bed and cry? Yes! Can he? No!

It takes Sean and him far too long to get Kevin out from under his bed and the thing that does it is Sean saying they can go to the TVA and see the tree that is keeping their Dad alive. And even then Kevin is hesitant as they hand him a t-shirt with Led Zeppelin on it and his jeans. Sean looks at Loki as if Loki might have the answer to how to fix this.

In all honesty, he doesn't even know if he can. 

Loki always knew the day would come when Mobius would get sick and the tree would need more magic. They expected it. But O.B. said that it would be years before it was ready. How could his calculations been so off? How could the smartest man Loki knows miscalculate so horribly?

While Sean gathers their backpacks for what might end up being a long stay, Loki runs downstairs. Maybe it's a bad thing that being this far from Mobius is giving him anxiety but if he stays away from him one more second he really will lose his mind. Which is convenient considering that when he gets downstairs Mobius not on the couch where he left him. The blanket is disowned as well and Loki feels a whole new level of panic enter his brain.

Is it ash? Spaghetti? Some new horror that will haunt him the rest of his days? 

"Mobius?" Loki calls hoping there will be an answer. One, too, three beats go by before a croaked "yeah" reaches his ears. Kitchen. He's in the kitchen. Not Ash or spaghetti or any other horrifying thing the universe wants to inflict upon Loki.

As he hurries to the kitchen, Mobius comes shuffling out the door still in his shorts and t-shirt looking very tired. "What?" He asks, "What's wrong?"

As if he doesn't know! The audacity of this man. "You weren't where I left you!" Loki almost howls, his panic reaching a whole new level again. "You disappeared, Mobius! I thought you had disappeared. Again!"

His breath catches in his throat. Loki is getting light-headed. Mobius's face spins as he reaches out, brushing Loki's arms lightly, "I'm okay, lokes. I just wanted to watch the sunrise. I'm sorry I scared you."

It scares Loki, how unwilling Mobius is to fight. How tired he looks. The sun shines on his face, highlighting the bruises beneath his eyes. Loko slides his arms around Mobius, pulling him to them. Mobius grunts and Loki believes it's in pain but he can't let go. He doesn't dare to. He curls his hands into Loki's shirt, holding them together. It's warm. It's so incredibly warm and Loki wants to break down right there and never come out.

But the kids are coming. Loki hears them on the stairs and if they see them like this, they'll get scared. That's the last thing Loki wants. So he lets Mobius go and takes his hand instead, leading him the stairs where the boys wait, backpacks full, almost busting the zippers. Mobius smiles at his children. He let's go of Loki's hand and opens his arms. "I think we all need a hug right now."

And they rush forward. Sean and Kevin wrap themselves around him and Mobius squeezes them before looking at Loki and opening an arm. "I said all of us."

Loki doesn't want to, but he has to be brave, so he steps in but feels sick. If anything he wants to time slip and make sure this day never happened. But Mobius would know. He always knows. It's a curse of being a part of the tree. And he would ask why Loki did it. Or would come find him in the tree and ask him, then drag him back home.

Which in turn begs the question... is Mobius himself outside time? That he can feel when these things happen and remember them? Is he really everything he was before or is he a copy of the essence of time. He's kept alive by Loki's magic so is he therefore attached to Loki and that's why his time slipping doesn't affect him?

O.B. and Loki have been trying to figure that out. Mobius turned to ash. He died. There's no question about that. But somehow Loki brought him back. Somehow he pulled pieces of him back out of the tree and recreated his temporal aura. It's his. But what does that mean? Just recently they thought of taking a scan of his aura. They just haven't done it yet. Maybe that's what they will do now. Speaking of O.B...

Loki pulls away, reaching for the tempad in his pocket, "We need to go. If the tree starts to die-"

Mobius puts his hand on Loki's arm, stopping him. "We know, Lokes. Let's go."

He looks even more tired. Loki hates this. He nods and types in the coordinates. As the orange door pulls up, the kids start tittering at each other. Well. At least some of them are excited.

************************************

Loki takes them right to O.B.'s door. No long walks. No detours. Just straight to who can help them best. 

O.B.'s alone when they get there much to Loki's relief. When he sees that he's brought the whole family, the mans face goes from elated to terrified. "What's happening?"

The kids on the other hand immediately ooh and all. Mobius whisper screams to them and they start exploring R&A as if looking for something. It would be like Mobius to send them on a scavenger hunt while the grown-ups talk. Kevin is already down at the other end while O.B. keeps looking like he's expecting the world end. Sean stays close by though. He hasn't forgotten why they are here.

As Mobius meets him at O.B.'s desk, Loki says, "Mobius is sick. How bad is the tree?"

O.B. gives him a confused look, "The tree is fine."

Now Loki frowns, "No, it isn't." He points at Mobius. "He has thrown up blood and could barely stand this morning."

Mobius puts a hand on his shoulder, "That's a little much, Lokes..."

O.B. looks between Loki and Mobius before shrugging as if throwing up blood isn't a big deal. "I checked the levels yesterday. Nothing is wrong. All the levels are holding steady. It doesn't need you yet."

Loki feels a burn in his chest. One that is aching to punch something. "He is sick. His eyes are glowing, O.B. There's obviously something-"

Mobius screams. Loki twists around taking half of the objects on O.B.'s desk with him.

"Dad!" Sean and Kevin come running as Mobius collapses... right into D-90s arms.

"Mobius!" The former hunter huffs, going to his knees with Loki's fiance's body in his hands. 

Mobius, curled in a ball, clearly in pain, sweat breaking on his face, looks up and smiles at D-90. "Looks... looks like you caught me again."

D-90 hums, "You really need to stop falling into me. Loki's going to kill me."

Then he looks at Loki and Loki knows the heat and growl that's coming out of his throat is more than his frustration at everything. He has to stop being jealous of D-90 but some things are easier said than done. Why is he even here? Must be always be the one to come check whenever their signatures show up? 

"Dad!" Kevin slides in on his knees, while Sean stops right next to them, eyes worried. Mobius takes Kevin's hand and says, "I'm all right. Just... I just tripped. D's got me."

Loki see's D-90s hands flex over Mobius's chest and belly and he goes forward, fully ready to tear D-90 limb from limb. "Give him to me!"

D let's go, hands in the air, while Loki gets in front of Sean and tucks his arms under Mobius's back and knees.

"No, wait," Mobius says, trying to uncurl, "I can stand-"

He yelps as Loki stands up. Mobius weighs next to nothing and despite his push to the god's chest, he's too weak to do anything about it. So Loli carries him back to O.B. who looks like he's seen a ghost.

Again, Loki says through gritted teeth, "What is wrong with the tree?"

"Wait," Loki hears D-90 speak up, "what's wrong? What's going on?"

Mobius twist so he can see behind Loki, "I'm fine, D. Can you take the boys? Go get them some pie. Please."

Behind him, Kevin and Sean immediately start protesting. "We can't leave you." "No, Dad, we need to stay together!" "Dad!"

"Boys," Mobius says with such force that it sends shivers down Loki's back, "we'll explain this to all three of you later. But please be on your best behavior for D. He's going to show you the TVA." Then with the softer voice, "Please."

Loki hates it when Mobius uses that voice with other people than him. He turns and glares at D-90 who looks ready to argue. Loki knows he came down here to check on them. Someone always does. And he wants answers. But D-90 also turned a new leaf and has been quite successful at it. So Loki's not surprised when he says, "As long as you tell me what's going on when I get back."

"Promise," Mobius says while Loki grips him tighter.

D nods and looks at Kevin and Sean who are hesitant to go. Kevin walks over and gives them both a hug, "Don't die while we're gone," he murmurs and Loki's heart breaks. Sometimes his pain feels like so much that he forgets that their pain is just as big.

Mobius rubs Kevin's back, "Don't worry. Your dad's been through worse."

"Come on, Kevin," Sean says even though he's pale and Loki can tell he wants to cling to them, too. Kevin let's go but slowly walks after D who is leaving the room at a much brisker pace.

When they're gone, they turn back to O.B. who is tapping at his computer. 

"Set me on the counter," Mobius whispers, wiggling in Loki's grip. 

"Mobius," Loki groans, really not wanting to let go of him ever again in this lifetime. 

"I'll be alright. I'll even let you hold my hand."

That makes Loki snort and smile. Mobius smiles, too, even though his eyes get brighter and his grip tighter. Loki sighs. "Okay. But if you fall again, I'm holding you the rest of the trip."

Mobius rolls his eyes as Loki sets him on the counter, "I'll keep that in mind." He wraps his fingers around Loki's and Loki keeps his shoulder pressed into his. As he looks at O.B. he kisses Mobius's temple because he can. He can do that. And so much more. Because he's here. Not in a tree.

This is not the time to dissociate, Loki. Focus.

O.B. taps the computer again and again, seeming to get more and more frustrated. "It doesn't make sense," he growls, "everything is fine. Readings are stable. Magic is holding up. Nothing is wrong, Loki. Absolutely nothing." O.B. turns to Mobius, "How long have you been feeling this way?"

At that Mobius freezes the thumb doing circles on the back of Loki's hand. That's when Loki knows he's about to lie. And Loki feels a whole new anger bubble up. "I wasn't feeling great at the party. Had a headache all day. I didn't feel nauseous until dinner."

"And?" Loki hisses and Mobius immediately jerks away from him. He tries to untangle their fingers but Loki holds tight. Mobius won't look at him. A tight bitter feeling feels his chest. "Mobius..."

He shakes his head before swaying and resting his head on his free hand. "It's been on and off since New years."

Loki feels sick. No, he feels revolted. Betrayed. He doesn't realize he's squeezing harder until Mobius squeaks. "What has?" O.B. asks.

Mobius shrugs. "Headaches. Nausea. It didn't seem like a big deal so I never mentioned it."

"You promised to tell me if anything is off," Loki hisses through grinded teeth.

Mobius finally looks at him, a glare permeating his face. "And I said it didn't seem to be a big deal. Humans get sick, Loki. How am I supposed to know if it's the normal human sickness or tree sickness?"

"That's actually a good point, Mobius," O.B. says, taking a last tap at his computer before facing them, "who says you're even human anymore."

That makes them both pause.

"What?" 

*********************************

Loki hates watching Mobius go through that stupid temporal aura machine. The memory of hoping and praying he was not a robot is a constant nightmare he has to live through and now he has to live through watching Mobius do it even though he knows he's not a robot because he pieced him back together himself.

But the light flashes and Mobius doesn't melt. Loki pulls him out of the machine so fast he stumbles. He's so mad at him he could blow up the TVA but he's also terrified and that's what keeps Loki rooted as O.B. takes the scan and hums and ha's over it.

"I'm guessing that means it's strange, O.B.?" Mobius asks.

O.B. nods. "Very. I've never seen an aura like this." They wait for him to elaborate but he doesn't. In fact he stuffs the thing in his chest pocket and simply says, "I'll have to study it more. It's very complex."

Loki frowns, "Does it indicate why he might be sick?"

O.B. shakes his head, "No, but it's definitely tree related. You said this started back on New Year's?"

Mobius nods and leans into Loki, his eyelids drooping. He needs to sleep. But they need answers, too. At the mention of New years and Mobius's nod Loki clenches is empty fist. Mobius broke his promise. And maybe it was because he didn't know it was a big deal. But he still should have told him. This could have been fixed long ago if he had.

O.B. looks between them and it's a it as if he senses the tension. "I'm going to go talk to Casey. He might have an idea of what is happening. You two should go get something to eat. I think B and Gambit would like to see you, too."

Mobius suddenly jerks into livelihood. "Gambits back?"

O.B. smiles, "He, Carter and Gwen got back yesterday."

"Where have they been?" Mobius asks, "after everything with me and the loom I lost track of them."

"I think Gambit would tell you all that. They are really excited to see you."

A big grin pops over Mobius's face. Again a cloud of jealousy fills Loki. He doesn't have time to think on it as Mobius drags him away. This is the most energized he's been all day.

"Mobius!" Loki growls as the man tugs him away, "the tree!"

"O.B.'s looking at it," he says slowing and looking a Lokk with a brow raised, "unless you want to go with him then you need to let me go."

Loki can't decide what he's more angry about. Mobius's lack of care for himself, the fact he's running to see Gambit or that he doesn't want to talk about this. Finally, Loki hisses, "Well I'm not going to let you just go and make out with lame game-"

"Gambit-"

"Lame game. But as soon as he's done, we go straight to O.B. You understand?"

Mobius rolls his eyes, "Yes, boss." He says it in such a way that it makes Loki want to scream. They begin to walk again, people eyeing their intertwined hands as they go. Loki glare's right back. Judge ye simpletons. You wish you had half the lover I do.

The closer they get to the cafeteria though, the more sad Mobius looks, his energy gone. It's a heartbreaking look. One Loki has seen from him one too many times before. Before he can say anything, Mobius says, "I'm sorry." Loki jumps. An apology? "For not telling you. I..." Mobius sighs and the fact his chest practically rattles unhinges Loki. "I don't have an excuse for it. I suppose I just didn't want to admit that something was wrong because if there is then this," he waves at the two of them, "has a high chance of being over, too."

Loki has a million things to say about that. From pretending to arguing to the tree to their relationship. Loki says none of that though. Instead he stops Mobius dead in the hall and kisses him. And it's more overwhelming than it has any right to be. The warmth of his lips, the plushness of him. The prickliness of his jaw as Loki cradles it. Then Loki pulls away and hisses, "If you weren't sick right now I would rip your head off."

Mobius, half lidded and, dare Loki say, enchanted, smiles and nods, "Noted. I'll tell you from now on. I think this is something I should bring up in therapy."

Loki frowns because he really doesn't want to think about therapy but then Mobius is kissing him again and it takes everything in him not to pick him up and run them to the nearest closet. He would have if a loud jolting yell hadn't pierced the air.

"Whoa! Who knew Mobius M. Mobius was a fan of PDA!"

Loki hates him. He doesn't think he's ever decided to hate someone so fast in his life. Mobius twists away from the kiss and lights up. "Gambit!"

And he's gone, hobbling like a dead man to this ugly black clothed, red-eyed human with a complection of a cow. It doesn't help that Gambit looks just as happy. They shake hands before doing this ugly 'man hug' that sends Mobius into a coughing fit. Loki's walking up right as he pulls his arm away. There's blood on it. Gambits eyes go wide open. "What is wrong? What is this?" 

"Nothing I can't handle," Mobius smiles before practically falling into Loki. Loki grips him tightly to him, soaking in the softness of the flesh beneath his fingers.

Gambit looks at Loki and he goes serious, "You are Loki. I was told you had a returned."

Loki glares at him, debating whether he should act like he doesn't know him or tell him to piss off. But Mobius beats him to it. "That he is. You missed a lot since I last saw you."

Gambit snorts. "I believe the last time I saw you, you were helping a baby frost giant find a family. How did that go for you?"

Mobius grins but he's leaning into Loki more. He's getting weaker. Loki clears his throat, "Perhaps we can discuss this at a table. Let him sit."

Gambit frowns, "Yes, that is a good idea. Come, Mobius. I'll get you some food." He reaches his arm out but before Mobius can touch him, Loki slaps his arm.

"Go get some water and a banana. Or toast. We'll be there shortly."

Gambit smirks at Loki before shrugging and walking off. He's growling in the back of his throat. If there's one thing he hates about being here it's that everyone has a need to touch Mobius. It's completely unnecessary. But he can practically feel Mobius grinning beside him. "Jealous, Lokes?" 

"The entirety of the TVA doesn't need to touch you. It's unbecoming and inappropriate."

Mobius chuckles, "I love you, too, Lokes. You're my best friend, you know that, don't you?"

Loki glares at him. "Let's just get you sitting down. You need nourishment."

If Mobius makes a scene by laughing the rest of the way to their table, that's his problem not Loki's.

********************************

"So you were under cover... why?" Mobius asks as he sips at his water and picks at his food. Loki wishes he would eat more. He just picks and picks like an annoying bird. Not that Loki has room to talk. He's just stabbing the same leaf of his salad over and over again.

"We had a special mission," Gambit says, "do you remember that Doom variant we dealt with. The one involved in your stabbing?"

Mobius groans, "Don't remind me. I still feel an ache whenever it rains."

"Old man," Gambit grins and Loki growls. Gambit growls right back at him and Mobius has to slap the table to get them to focus again.

"Undercover. Go."

"Doom was obviously not the only variant of himself and he's spreading his findings abroad. Gwen, Peggy and I went to timelines to find him. The microverse, outside of time, etc."

"You mean the void?" Loki asks. 

"Yes. I was in the void when I got the news you were freed. Congratulations by the way. I hope you were going to invite me to your wedding."

Gambit looks at Mobius for that and Mobius rolls his eyes, "Of course, but you were gone. How was I supposed to get an invite for you?"

"Love finds a way, my friend."

Loki chuckles his bowl at him and Gambit has a laughing fit. "Loki," Mobius snaps, slapping his wrist but it's not hard. He found it funny, too.

Gambit coughs then turn serious again, "There's a Victor Von Doom in the void. He has a very small army. He's been at war with the other groups in the void such as the Loki collective and the exiles."

"Deadpool?" Mobius asks.

"Yes. They all want to control the void but just recently Doom has switched directives. He's found a way to control the monster dog. Aolith."

Mobius and Loki look at each other, all good feeling gone. He has control of any of Aolith...

"My tree," Loki says, "is it safe?"

Gambit pinches his lips together. "I believe that is what he's after. Control of the tree. He gets that, he has the power of the cosmos. He just has to get around the temporal radiation first."

Mobius's eyes flash and he groans, holding his head. Gambits frown gets bigger. "What was that?"

Mobius shakes his head. "When I saved Loki, I died. I got brought back because of him. I'm attached to the tree and it's been acting up lately. O.B. can't figure out why."

The second Mobius says that Gambit pales. That draws Loki's attention to him as he leans forward, taking in the glow in Mobius's eyes. "When did this start?"

"A couple months ago," Mobius hums, kneading his head, "it's on and off the last but the last few days have been awful."

Gambit slaps the table and stands. He points at Mobius and says, "Grab him. Get him and take him to R&A. I'll gather everyone else."

Loki frowns, "What are you talking about? What's going on?"

But Gambit only calls back as he runs, "I know why he's sick!"

That was enough for Loki. He picks up Mobius and runs. 

******************************

"They're poisoning the tree?"

B looks sick as she says that sense. They all do. D stands my her at the entrance of R&A. That spider Gwen, Carter and Gambit stand at the desk and behind it are Casey and O.B. Loki sits with Mobius against the wall. Kevin is curled on his father's lap and Sean is between them. All eyes are on Gambit who is shaking his head, looking solemn, arms crossed.

"I didn't know it was poison. Not until Mobius told me how ill he's been."

"What do you mean they are poisoning the tree," Loki says, "what is Doom doing?"

Gambit runs a hand through his hair. "I didn't get it at first. I thought he was just feeding the monster dog. The thing eats anything. What I didn't consider was a type of food he was giving it." Gambit looks at O.B. and O.B. pulls up a scan of the tree using an old projector to show on the wall. Gambit goes to the picture and kneels below it. "The monster dog is at the bottom of the tree, yes?"

He asks Loki and Loki finds it odd he's defensive about it. "Yes. The steps to the tree are guarded by him. No one can get in that way."

"So that's where the roots of the tree are, yes?"

Loki frowns, "Yes..."

O.B. suddenly lights up, "It's turning what it eats into raw time. That's what happens when we throw stuff out and around the loom. It turns into raw time. So whatever Aolith eats goes to the tree and it goes gets turned into time."

Many of the group is confused by what O.B. said. Loki's happy he's not one of them. "What you are saying is what it was eats feeds the roots of the tree."

"Yes," Gambit claps, "it feeds the roots that make the timelines. Before Doom got a hold of it, Aolith ate whatever it wanted. But now that it doesn't eat whatever, it eats what Doom tells it too."

"Which is?" Casey asks.

Gambit sighs. "I'm not sure."

Loki explodes. "What do you mean you're not sure!"

"Doom wouldn't let me into that circle. All I know is that whatever it is is meant to weaken not only Aolith but the tree until it's surrendered to a new power. He wants to run your magic down to the point he can get in and take control."

"What poisons time?" Gwen thinks out loud, "How is that even possible?"

"It shouldn't be," O.B. says, "time is a construct, not something that gets sick. It's not alive like a tree is."

"And yet," Mobius says. He taps his lip for a moment before continuing, "I saw the tree yesterday. And it was turning yellow. It is sick. I'm sick. Which means branches are dying. Whatever he is using is effective. If it's already affecting the tree it'll begin to affect Loki's magic soon, too."

That hit's hard and too precisely for the group. There's a tense silence. Loki can't focus on all this. One thing at a time.

"So Doom is poisoning the tree and therefore poisoning my husband. How do we fix that?" He says.

"Fiance," Sean whispers. Loki glares at him. He smiles back only barely.

"Well," O.B. says, "the same way you take poison from a human. You suck it out. Put better nutrients back into it."

"That doesn't take care of the people poisoning it, though," Mobius says only half awake, "they'll just keep poisoning it and I'll keep being sick."

Gambit looks over the group and sighs, "We have to take the group in the void out. Break their control over Aolith. Subdue them. But we need an army for that. A plan. It'll take time which you currently don't have."

Loki watches B nod although reluctantly. "He has a point," she says, "I can't just rally a bunch of hunters to go into the void until the council knows what's going on. Right now we need to get the poison out of the tree and out of Mobius. Short-term answers before long-term. We will revisit this after you both have clear heads."

Loki doesn't like this. A short-term solution for a long-term issue. It's not right but what choice do they got. If there is one thing he does not miss about the TVA it's the autocrats. He would much rather march into the void and ussurp this Doom right now. But she is right. The tree is being poisoned in real time and who is to say that the poison won't start killing branches and by extension Mobius in the next five minutes. First things first. Save the tree.

Loki disentangles himself from his little family and stands, a new determination settling in his bones. His opposition has a name now. It has a reason. He promised himself when he came back from his first escapade in the past that he would protect the free will of his family and after centuries of learning, everyone. He's been too stationary. To blinded by hope of a peaceful way forward. He doesn't know how Doom found his tree or what his plan is but Loki will protect what he vowed to protect all those centuries ago. No walking away. Not this time.

"Take me to the old loom. I'll get to the tree from there."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Loki turns as Mobius practically crawls up the wall to get his feet. The boys scramble up as he sways, holding him up, "We're doing this together remember. If you're going to the tree, so am I."

"Yeah, we're staying together, remember," Sean says.

Kevin nods hard, "Ohana means family. Family means no one is left behind."

Loki wants to argue but he also knows there's no point. This is Mobius who literally died at the foot of the tree just to get him out. And these are his children. If he thinks they are just going to let him go he has another thing coming. And honestly Loki would rather have them with him when revisiting the tree than not when he relives the nightmare of when he left.

Captain Carter objects for him, "I don't know if that's a good idea. With your sickness it might cause more harm than good."

"And the temporal radiation may have receded some but that's still dangerous for Sean and Kevin," O.B. adds. "I don't even know if we have suits their size."

Loki looks at their friends. They are just as scared. He can see it in their quivering limbs, bitten lips and wide eyes. They weren't prepared for this. But Loki can't afford to be scared right now. And if he's alone, he will be.

"You heard Kevin," Loki says, "family means nobody is left behind."

"Or forgotten," Kevin adds.

Loki nods, "Or forgotten. Find a suit for them. I want us at that tree within the hour." Loki claps his hands and that jerks everyone into motion. As he watches, Mobius comes up behind him and leans on his shoulder.

"Commander Loki," he smirks, "looking like a boss, pussycat." He kisses Loki's cheek and walks away, kids attached to him. Loki smirks. Brat. 

********************************

It's more than an hour that it takes for them to get suits for Kevin and Sean. And they are big. Way too big. They look like snakes shedding their skins. But they are eager to go and a little upset that Mobius, who has changed back into his brown TVA suit doesn't have to wear one. Frankly, Loki is as well. Even though he literally pulled Mobius back together and watched him lay under the tree and walk down those stairs it still gives him horrible anxiety knowing that he is exposed to temporal radiation.

But yet here they are standing in front of the loom door as a family. Kevin's hand is in Loki's, Sean's in Mobius's.

"Remember," O.B. says from the speakers above them, "do not take off your helmets or suits at any point. That would immediately turn you into spaghetti. If you get separated, there is speakers in your helmets. I will hone in on your heat signatures here so I can track you. If anything goes wrong press the button on the wrist of your suit. It will alert us and help us get to you if you get separated from the tree."

"He's like an instructor on a rollercoaster. Or an airplane," Kevin mumbles.

"Thank you, O.B.," Loki calls up, "we will be back soon."

"We'll be waiting," O.B. replies before the mic turns off.

As they wait for the doors to open, Loki has to take a deep breath. It's too deja Vu standing here, with the intention to save timelines. Save Mobius. It's too reminiscent and Loki almost expects to turn around and see Mobius and Sylvie at the door.

"Are you okay?"

Loki looks down to Kevin and realizes he's squeezing his hand way too tightly. He forces his muscles to relax, forces his chest to inhale and exhale. "Yes," he says, "I'm okay."

But when Loki looks up, he sees Mobius looking at him, his jaw tight. They're both not all right. But they can't show that. Not now.

The door opens and Loki jumps, waiting for bright exploding temporal energy to hit him. Instead it's just calm green clouds. His magic calls to him, crawling through his skin and absorbing into him as he walks out onto the runway. There's nothing pushing back this time. Just open road to the end of the catwalk where he knows an opening is. A slip in the curtain.

"This is weird," Kevin says.

"Shut up, man," Sean says, "this is crazy cool."

"Boys," Mobius steps in, "let Loki focus."

Loki rubs Kevin's glove, letting the scratchy surface ground him. Each step seems to stretch on and on and Loki keeps waiting for all three of them to turn to spaghetti. So when they finally reach the end he's almost caught by surprise. They're here already. The dreaded remains of the loom still stand. Mobius and Sean go to the old console, feeling its buttons.

"This is so cool," Sean says. Mobius looks at Loki, a haunted look in his eyes.

"Where now, Lokes?" He asks.

Loki inhales heavily. "Onward." Then exhales. Kevin and he make their way to the very edge of the catwalk. Loki reaches his handout. He hears Mobius make some noise, a mix of a grunt and a groan. Loki hates that he's reliving this trauma, too. He hates all of this.

But he does it anyway. He pulls back the green smoke like it's a curtain and gently steps through, with Mobius and Sean behind him. They remind him of the secret passageways in and out of Asgard. One's only he knew of. This is how he got to He Who Remains throne when he left, taking all the time lines with him. A secret passage and a flash of color. He is grateful for the oohs and ahha that erupt from the kids because he would be adrift in memory otherwise.

Before them is Loki's tree. They're at the bottom of the stairs looking up at the green strands waving back and forth. In various areas Loki hears the mobius strip humming as it charges his magic through its system.

"This is so cool!" Kevin shrieks, jumping up and down. 

Suddenly Sean is racing by them, "Race you up the stairs!" 

Then he's in full flight. Kevin scowl, "Hey, no fair!" Then he's off after Sean. Loki stands at the bottom staring. Mobius comes alongside him, slipping his hand into the others. "He's right," Mobius whispers.

"Who is?" Loki asks. "About what?" 

Mobius points to the top of the tree where instead of green Loki sees a sickly yellow. "It's being poisoned all right. So. How are we going to get the poison out is the question."

Loki shakes his head. "It's hard to know without knowing what the poison is. But it will have a different signature than my magic. I'll be able to pull it out. But I can't dispose of it here. That will be the problem. If I do it'll only recycle into the mobius strip and make things worse."

Mobius snorts. 

"Indeed." Loki huffs.

They stare for a moment. The image of Mobius's dead body on the stairs, the very ones Kevin and Sean are running up now makes him sick. He has to get this done. The sooner the better. But as he steps forward, Mobius grips his hand stopping him.

"What?" Loki asks, "what's wrong?"

Mobius is still looking at the tree, his adam's apple bobbing. It's not until Loki sees the tears in his eyes that he knows this is something else than sickness. 

"Loki," he said slowly. He closes his eyes for a moment and Loki's chest feels heavy. 

"Yes," he says even softer.

Finally, he looks at Loki and smiles even though he looks ready to faint. "Thank you. Really. You have made me the happiest man alive this past year. You and the kids are everything. This time with you is everything."

Loki swallows hard. He doesn't like this. Why is he saying it like that? 

"Why are you saying that like it's a goodbye?" Loki says trying to be light-hearted in his voice, even though he feels nowhere close to that.

Mobius shrugs, "I don't know. Maybe I'm going to pass out in the next 2 seconds and I'll never wake up and I just want you to know how I feel." He's trying to be light-hearted, too, but it hurts too much. "Sorry," he tuhs them forward, "let's get this over with. The sooner we're away from here the better."

Now that is an opinion Loki can get behind. He squeezes his hand and slowly, surely, they make their way up the stairs. The boys are already at the top, staring at the tree and all its beauty. The walk is slow going with Mobius noticing the intricate detail of the stairs as they go. When they reach the top it gets crowded. There's not a lot of room due to all the branches of the tree but when the tree opens it's a whole of ducking and dodging so the timelines don't send hit them and send them into oblivion. The boys find it entertaining. Loki does not.

The tree opens upon a shimmering green veil and in the middle of it a gold throne.

"Whoa," Kevin says, "is that where you sat that whole time?"

Mobius hums while Loki nods. "It is. Be careful. Don't touch anything."

Kevin goes running around the face of the tree while Sean stands off to the side uneasily. "How long is this going to take?" he asks, feelings hips as if looking for pockets.

"Not long," Loki says as he steps toward his throne reaching his hand out to a timeline that is yellow, "once I identify the sickness I can remove it." The branch wraps around his hand and he feels the strange energy of some type of magic, not his own swirling in it. He ignores the image of a happy Don at home. His Don. He looks an Mobius. His Don.

Mobius is standing by one of the walls of the trunk, his hand brushing branches that turn bright blue at his touch. 

"This is beautiful, Loki," he says, looking up, up, up at all the branches. This feels almost deja vu. 

As the branches shimmer, they begin to swirl around Mobius almost like fish to food. Loki smiles, "It trusts you," he says, a few more yellow branches come to him. One wraps around his wrist, another his arm. He feeds it as he stares.

"Does it?" Mobius asks, turning in a circle. Loki hears Sean yell at Kevin, but he keeps his eyes on Mobius.

"Yes," he whispers, "it knows you're a part of it. It trusts all of its branches. It's all connected."

Mobius touch a branch and it wraps around his wrist. "And if one breaks?" A few more yellow ones grip him and he seems to chuckle at it.

Even more vines seem to surround him. "Then I suppose they break. It's no longer part of the tree and will die. Or it may become something else. It won't need another tree anymore."

Loki doesn't actually know that for certain. These are timelines after all.

"Pity," Mobius says, turning back to the entrance.

Loki frowns. He wants to disagree with that. Not every branch of a tree is good. Some branches need to be cut off to become better or new.

But then he turns to Loki and a scream clogs in his throat. 

Mobius is flaking. His hair, face, clothes. Every part where yellow branch is touching is flaking. The poison, it's killing him. It's all going through the branches to Mobius, turning his eyes bright yellow.

"Mobius!" Loki shouts but he doesn't even get one step in before the branches clinging to him tighten and starts pulling him back towards the throne.

"Dad!" Sean is howling and Kevin is heaving as they both run towards Mobius. Loki yells but the branches are tight around his wrist, arms, his stomach, clinging to him. "No," he huffs.

Mobius looks down and sees that his hands are disappearing. His eyes widen and Loki can't take the look in his eyes. Fear. Pure and simple.

Kevin hits him and half of his side turns to ash. Yellow flakes that go into the branches above. 

"Dad!" Kevin shrieks while Sean pushes him away despite how he is hyperventilating.

Mobius looks at the boys then at Loki. He reaches out, stepping toward him, "Loki!"

"Mobius!" Loki screams again and uses all the power he can to pull himself forward and away from the throne that is starting to crumble as well. 

Their eyes meet as their fingertips brush. A yellow branch comes between them and in the next second...

He's gone. Loki's fiance is gone. His husband is gone.

His name clogs in Loki's throat. It won't come out. It can't come out. He can't look at the boys who just lost their father for the second time in their lives. So when Loki starts get pulled back more vigorously, more branches curling around him and tearing him limb from limb, he's too in shock to fight. But the boys aren't.

Kevin is bawling and Sean looks on the verge of a mental breakdown but they rush Loki while he's in this troubled state, while he can't fight back. Mobius is gone. Again. He disappeared again and again and again and again. Is this what he is designed for? Being left behind in a shower sparks and ash and spaghetti, designed to die because of his creation, his problems again and again...

"Loki!" Sean howl's as he tugs at Loki's trapped wrist. And that's when Loki sees him. The man with a gun and metal mask aiming at the throne, at Loki's boys. Behind him is a yellow door. 

How did he get here? Why-

The man shoots. "Boys!" Loki shouts, shoving the boys to their backsides before the bright yellow shot hits the base of Loki's throne. It's like a wormhole has opened under his feet. The throne cracks until the base turns to rubble, destroyed. Loki hear's the boys yell and he barely sees there faces as he falls, falls, falls into the abyss. He barely sees the start of the searing bright fire as it spreads above him.

The tree. The tree is on fire! 

Loki struggles but the branches pull him tighter, pull him deeper, deep into the tree, away from Mobius, the boys, his family! No! He doesn't have a family! They killed Mobius! Mobius is dead! A screaming pain envelops his chest, worse than the pain of ripping himself through time and space, worse than watching everyone he knew turn to spaghetti.

Slowly the hole above him closes, leaving him in black, his screams echoing off the walls (walls? Dirt? Where is he?) around him. This isn't happening! This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening! Dirt, or what seems to be dirt, clogs his throat. Choking him. Killing him. He never should have come here. He never should have left the tree. Come to the TVA. Met Mobius. Fell in love. He never should have left his set path. He should have continued to float in space until it killed him, never meeting the Titan or another soul again. And with the world's crowding around him, crushing him, he wishes he had never been born.

Chapter Text

A long time ago, when Loki Let go of the bifrost and was drifting he believed the darkness would suffocate him. The inner as well as the outer. He believed himself alone and he was for a long time. A very long time. Then he wasn't anymore. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. A light he almost reached... then the tunnel collapsed.

Now he's back in the dark. Is this what the dead feel when they are laid into their graves? Claustrophobic? That it's a small box they are in and its closing in on every side. That the dirt above them is crushing the casket, thinking to feast off their bodies, compiling them into the planet's core?

Loki can't scream. Its as if he's paralyzed. Stuck somewhere between his tree and the void. Is he inside of Aolith? He's not turned to nothing so maybe he's just above him. In the roots of his tree. Visions flash before him. Fire. His boys screaming. The feeling of ash brushing his fingers as Mobius turns to nothing.

Mobius. His Mobius. 

Who was poisoned.

By men who want what isn't there. By some man in a metal mask who kidnapped his children and just killed thousands of timelines.

He took what wasn't rightfully his. 

He took what is Loki's!

Suddenly the darkness turns a rich sheen of green. His hands tingle as the burning anger flows through him. This man took everything from him. This man poisoned Loki's tree and kidnapped his children. Killed his husband. He has the audacity to come after his throne, after his friends.

Tears blind Loki's eyes at the thought of Mobius, but he can't focus on that now. He has to get out. He has to go home.

And with a twist and burn in his chest Loki takes himself back to the tree, back to before all this happened. 

But it doesn't work. Just like it didn't work when Mobius died. He doesn't go back to right before Mobius's death. Instead he lands outside the tree that's in the mist of an inferno. The tree is on fire, licking yellow and green flames across the front of it. His breath is taken as he remembers the branches that made up the front of tomb. Don and his little family, gone. The frost giant mother and her herd of sheep like creatures, gone. The world where Odin loved him, chose him. Gone.

Murderers.

Loki screens Jesse grabs together all the fiery branches and tosses them away. No more burning. Mobius's words come back, making tears stay in his eyes. Millions of lives left to burn and now they're cast away, left to die. Mobius would have cried. We he would have tried to find some way to save those branches, keep them. 

Mobius...his sweet Mobius...

Loki screams again and reaches out for the other branches. Now magic for the branches remaining. The left over poison erupts from those branches, spraying yell into the sky as he pushes with all his might to get it out.

It doesn't bring Mobius back.

They turned him to ash. That man turned Mobius into ash. Doom and his army and whatever poison they pumped into the tree. And as Loki looks up at the poisoned branches slowly healing from the awful and diseasing things they put in the tree, he scowls. Loki brought him back once, he can do it again. Then they'll get their children and Loki's going to rip Victor Von Doom apart piece by little itty bitty piece.

Loki reaches out with all the magic in him feeling for Mobius, the pieces that he collected a little over a year ago. He feels and he feels... and he feels nothing. Not even a soft murmur of his name, or the call from other Loki's, not even a trace of magic calling back to him. And when Loki looks up, he sees the yellow returning again, spreading through the tree.

Loki screams a third time and the floor rumbles. Why isn't this working! Why is the tree dying faster than Loki can fix it? Is that why he can't get Mobius back? Because the poison is blocking any chances of getting him back?

This Doom is slowly becoming number one on Loki's all time kill list. Gwen is right. He doesn't know what is poisoning the tree. He doesn't know what is poisoning time.

And that's something that Loki realizes might not just influence the people in the branches but his power as well. He looks around the tree, the hole in it's base and it's not just the branches but the very air that is yellow. Loki tries to time slip and as he expects his body jerks but goes nowhere. He tries again in his body spasms under his effort.

No. Doom has locked him out of his own power. Did he know what Mobius meant to him? Is that why he set this up? Rob Loki of his one true power and he'll be helpless to do anything else and when he's too broken hearted to do anything, Doom will steal his throne. Kill him.

Loki is numb though. Numb to the grief that will no doubt hit in the worst time. Right now... he's furious. Again, he screams but this time it's with pain as he takes the stairs, parts of his throne and the Mobius strip and makes a wall around the exposed trunk of his tree. He can't cover all of it but at least he can make a blockade until he finds a way to get rid of the poison, retrieve his children and bring Mobius back.

When it's dark and the only light is the branches gleaming over the stone walls, Loki flips open the tempad in his pocket. The time door waves, as if the poison is affecting it, too. He shoves his magic into it so it holds until he goes through, then the door collapses, turning a sickly yellow that leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

********************************

Loki doesn't know why he goes home when he knows that monster has his children and Mobius won't be greeting him at the door. He won't be. Nobody will be there to greet him. But he goes there anyway, angry, numb, maybe confused. Maybe he's poison. Wouldn't that be a gift.

When he opens the door, the house is silent. There's no yelling, no pounding of feet. The only sound is the thunder rolling over him as he slowly steps into the home. It's dark from closed curtains and very black clouds. A tornado? Possibly. But he won't go to the basement. There is no point.

Thunder rolls again as he shuffles slowly, slinking into the house. He looks in the living room where the blanket still lays as well as his pictures scattered on the table. Loki's pictures...

His body automatically goes to the corner, sitting in his chair. He collapses into it and stares. Stares at hundreds of photos from Mobius asleep in bed, to the kids chasing each other with water guns. Thor, with Love braiding his hair into awful contortions. Sylvie making faces. B-15. Casey. O.B. D-90, the kids. Loki, Thor, Sylvie, Mobius, him, Mobius, Ben, Mobius, Mobius, Mobius-

Loki screams and throws the coffee table over, scattering pictures. This wasn't supposed to happen! Loki was supposed to be the one that got stuck. He was supposed to be the one to leave. Not Mobius. Never Mobius! 

Loki's panting. He feels like he's ran miles and miles. He can't breathe. He can't be here. Not in this empty house with no kids and no Mobius. He can't, he can't, he can't! He collapses, his knees hitting the carpet and his hands scrambling to get the scattered pictures. And he sobs. He sobs over pictures of baseball games and birthdays. Tears fall on Mobius is smiling face as he carries a pumpkin. Pictures of Kevin riding a horse in New Asgard and Sean helping Sylvie make ice cream get crushed under his fingers.

Loki is alone. He's alone, he's alone, he's alone. It was supposed to be him. But it wasn't! Slowly his ring comes into view. His arms shake as he cradles it to his chest and feels the pendant press into his sternum. He stares at a picture of Kevin and Sean burring Mobius in the sand. Kevin and Sean aren't dead. They were caught. And Doom...He's going to kill himself... But first...

Loki gathers the pictures, slowly, mechanically, some bent by the coffee table, some wet from tears, and puts them in a manilla envelope before tossing it into his pocket dimension. That is his motivation now. Focus on Sean. Focus on Kevin.

He forces himself to his feet and goes to the kitchen where he has his daggers hung up, indicating his pension and desire for peace. So much for it. He yanks them from the casing and that's when he notices it. The white envelope sitting on the window sill right where Mobius would have been sitting to watch the sunrise. Loki creeps forward as lightning flashes and thunder rolls.

As rain begins to fall, Loki sees that the envelope has writing on it. Chicken scratch. His name in Mobius's handwriting. Loki feels sick. His hand is shaking as he picks it up and it takes far too long for him to get the envelope open and the piece of paper out. It's a small note written on their pumpkin list for groceries. And the chicken scratch all but makes his blood freeze. He doesn't want to read it but he has to.

Loki,

I don't have a lot of time to write this or I would be a tad more elegant but you know me. Words are more your thing than mine. Anyway, I have a feeling that things are going to change and I want you to no and remember that it's not your fault, Lokes. Maybe this whole time we've been on borrowed time. Maybe I'll come home and maybe everything will be okay but judging by the dreams you and Sean have been having, I don't think that's true. And if I'm right, and I don't come back, please take care of the boys. Stay close to Thor and Sylvie. Live a life you can be proud of, Lokes. Don't get hung up on me, and kill yourself getting me back. I think one of us doing it is enough. Be happy, Loki. Tell the boys I love them. I love you more than I could ever say.

-MMM

The paper crumbles under his fingers and Loki has to force himself to relax, to take deep breaths. This isn't real. He can't accept this. How can Mobius just tell him to move on? How could he not try to deny his death? Loki screams through his teeth and kicks the table sending it into the cupboards. Then with a lot softer touch, he folds the note and whisks it into his pocket dimension.

Mobius has been right about many things in his life but this one Loki will not allow. He will come home. Their children will come home. And they'll go on with their life here. Be happy. Content. Mobius saved Loki and Loki saved the multiverse. This problem is temporary. It shouldn't have happened-

"Loki?" 

Thunder booms. Rain starts to hit the window.

Loki forgot about him. The one thing on this timeline that mattered besides him and the kids. Not even Mobius's brothers could compare, not when they were so far away.

He takes a deep breath, trying to will tears and shakes away. He can't know. No one can.

"Hello, Ben."

"Where's Mobius?"

Loki focuses on the window. It's so dark now. Ben sounds nervous. He has no reason to be. He doesn't know a thousand branches just died and Mobius with them.

"Not here."

Ben's boots hit the tile, thumping lightly as lightning flashes. "Where is he?"

The word clings to Loki's throat and when it finally comes out, it's forced, hard, in shambles. Like claws on a chalkboard.

"Gone."

Loki wonders if Ben has been having dreams, too. Maybe that's why he's so panicked and so desperate. Or maybe it's because Loki kicked the table across the room seconds before he arrived. That would get Loki upset, too.

Ben's boots squeak as he whips Loki around and drags him into the hall, his fist cocked back, ready to fight. He's never trusted Loki. And Loki doesn't blame him. The tears in his eyes tell Loki everything. He's never seen Ben upset. Not like this.

"Where. Is. He. Loki," Ben snarls, his grip tightening, "tell me, you..." he chokes. So does Loki. Loki tries to take a deep breath and break out of Ben's arms but he's pressing hard against his chest, trapping him where he stands. Tears develop in Loki's eyes but he refuses to let them fall. Not now. 

"Gone," Loki says softly, quietly, "he's gone."

"Gone where?" Ben hisses, pushing him harder.

A tear escapes. Everything hurts. "The kids. They were taken."

Ben pushes off him, whirling around to the kitchen and all it's harm. The rain gets harder and flashes of light cross his face. He paces for a long moment, tears pouring down his face although he's silent. A silent warrior prepping for war. But he is no warrior and this is not a fight he can win.

"Who took them?" He spits.

Loki shakes his head. "I'm going to get them back. I had to be sure..." he trails off. There's no point in telling him Loki was hoping this was all a bad dream. Ben all but confirmed it's not.

Ben stops and glares at Loki. "Who has got them? Some space warlord? Doctor Stranges evil twin? The Winter soldier? Who?"

Again Loki shakes his head. "Someone attacked the tree. A Doctor Doom in his army. I have to get back to the TVA. I don't have a lot of time."

Which is ironic. Loki used to have all the time in the world and now...

Loki pushes off the wall and goes to the staircase. There he reaches behind their family photo and takes out another pair of daggers from a secret compartment he created. You can never be too sure about your amount of weaponry.

"I'm coming with you."

Loki turns to Ben who blocks the way back down the stairs. Loki looks at the determination on his face. He chuckles darkly, "No, you're not."

He tries to shove past him but Ben catches him off guard as he wraps an arm around Loki's waist and throws him back on the stairs. "Yes, I am."

"Ben," Loki hisses, "go home. Your wife and kids need you-"

"My wife is gone, Loki!" Ben hollers, his tears getting worse, "She left this morning. The kids are with her." Ben takes a long deep breath, but it's not enough for Loki to get his head around what Ben just said.

"What? But at the birthday-"

"I don't know, Loki," Ben says, his voice wobbling between anger and despondency, "people fight. We just can't seem to move past it this time. And Don - Mobius! - is gone and she's gone and without him I have no one."

"Ben-"

"No one!" Ben yells shutting him up. There are moments where the relationship Ben and Mobius had in childhood appears. They are so different. But it's moments like this, when Ben is angry, full of purpose and righteous anger, that Loki sees it. The dedication. The codependency that lasted so long.

Ben continues, "I am going with you, Loki. And we are going to save this family."

"You could die."

"So be it."

"Your children-"

"Don't bring my kids into this. If they were here, they would join me and you know it."

Unfortunately Loki does know it. It's no secret Ben's kids love Mobius. And it's even less of a secret that his daughter has a crush on Kevin. They would join their dad in a heartbeat.

Loki sighs, "Ben. Mobius wouldn't want you to do this."

"Don didn't want me to do a lot of things. If I had listened to him, he would have been dead a long time ago."

The time when Don was a teenager and he tried to off himself comes to mind. Ben found him. Ben saved him. And Ben certainly isn't going away now. 

Loki sighs and his heart hurts. He wishes Mobius was here. He wishes this was a dream. 

"Okay..." He says slowly, "but you have to stay with the hunters or O.B. No wandering off on your own."

Ben immediately nods. "Whatever. As long as we get them back."

Loki doesn't have the heart to tell him Mobius is... dead. Gone. He's not coming back. Loki shoves the Sob down. He stands straight and says, "Okay. Let's go."

As he moves to the door, pulling his tempad out, Ben says, "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" Loki huffs, trying to ignore Mobius's picture in the corner of his screen.

"Are we going to ask Thor for help?"

Loki stops. 

Norns.

*******************************

Thor is on a small planet far away from earth. He wanted to take Love camping in one of the largest, most exquisite forests this side of the galaxy. Loki hates to interrupt him, but Ben is right. He's going to need everyone he can to save his children. Doom will know what hurt him but he might not know that their Uncle is the god of Thunder.

They are sitting around a fire when Ben and Loki step out of the shakey time door and into the smoky air. It seems that whatever Thor is trying to teach her how to cook, it's failing miserably.

Ben stumbles into Loki as he walks through the portal, looking quite ill. "I'll be honest," he huffs, "I really thought I was going to die there for a second." He dry heaves and Loki looks away.

"Loki!"

Loki turns back to Thor who is already up and shuffling to them. And for some reason at the sight of his big brother with big blue worried eyes and lumbering form, Loki's chest constricts and he can't breathe.

When he's at least ten yards out he says, "Sylvie texted me. She said something happened and she had to go to the TVA. What's happ-"

When Loki was a little boy, he used to look to Thor as a protector and an annoyer. When nightmares came and he couldn't go to Frigga, he would go to Thor. Those were the days before Odin put it in his mind that warriors don't cry.

It's lucky they're both past those days. 

Loki collapses into Thor, wrapping his fist into his stupid hoodie that was once Jane's college hoodie and shoves his face into his shoulder. Thor gasps and grips his jacket, his confusion shown through his lax muscles. And Loki sobs.

For the first time in a long time, he leans into his brother and sobs. The stupid smell of his sweat and the feel of his arms flexing, trapping Loki as he begins to piece together that Mobius... Mobius...

"Mobius!" He howls into Thor's shoulder, "They killed him! They killed him, Thor! They killed Mobius..."

Thunder roars above him. Thor's arms are holding Loki so tight that he's having trouble breathing. It doesn't help the Loki's getting to the sobbing-so-hard-he-can't-breathe either part. "Who?" Thor growls lowly, "Who killed him?"

But Loki can't breathe enough to answer. He's practically inhaling Thor's sweatshirt trying to breathe. He hears Love run up and say something and Ben replies. Then Thor is pushing Loki back and he can't sob any harder.

Loki can't really see him, but Thor grabs the nape of his neck and holds them close, as if willing him to calm down. He doesn't.

"Loki," he says, voice getting rougher, "What happened?"

"Thor," Loki croaks before the world slightly fuzzes and he rocks unsteadily on his feet.

"We have to go to the TVA," Ben says somewhere behind him, voice shaky, "the kids are in trouble."

"Kevin and Sean," Love says and something in Loki hurts. Lightning strikes a tree not to far away and thunder shakes the ground.

"My nephews are in trouble," Thor growls.

Loki tries to inhale but it's hard with snot in his throat and it causes him to choke. "Yes," Ben answers, "and we can get them back if we hurry."

Thor nods and lightly shakes Loki, "Loki? Are you with me?"

Loki shakes his head. No, not really, but he doesn't have a choice does he. Slowly he takes out his tempad and types in the coordinates to the analysis room. He needs to find someone. Anyone. His hands shake so hard Thor has to steady his wrist so he doesn't mess up the coordinates. When it's open, he's dragged through.

Now it's raining here, too.

*****************************

Sylvie spots them the second they come through the door. Her eyes are wide. She looks ready to run. Behind her, B-15, D-90, Gwen and Gambit stand in a circle looking up at the monitor that shows a large section of red splashed through the middle of the tree. The dead branches. 

Sylvie parts from the group and runs to Loki. He keeps his eyes on her as she comes to a stop and in her eyes he sees fear. "Where are they?" She asks.

"Gone," Loki says as if he has no control, the kids were taken. And Mobius... Mobius..."

Loki gasps and she squeezes him then backs up. "Things are not okay, Loki. If there is anything we needed right now," she chokes, "it's him."

She pulls back, glancing at Thor and Ben before taking Loki's hand and leading him to the front of the group. B-15, D-90, Gambit, Gwen, the whole room stares as he goes by as if they know and he doesn't dare look back. He can't breathe. He can't cry. He wishes he could disappear.

They stop at the stairs leading down to the balcony and stare at the computer. At the gaping hole in the tree and all the red branches as the poison spreads.

"What's the damage?" Loki whispers.

B-15's voice is broken as she speaks. "We watched Mobius and your light disappear. The kids... O.B. is tracking them now. As soon as you disappeared..." she has to stop to take a breath. She's broken, too, "Our system shut down. The time doors are on the fritz. Every time we scan the tree the readers go faulty. Lights have been going in and out. Not even our time sticks are functioning right. Miss Minutes has said goodbye three times. The poison is starting to affect everything. Where preparing attack maneuvers. Either we bring them down..."

She doesn't finish but Gambit does, "...Or we go down in a blaze of glory."

Loki curses. His whole world is falling apart. His kids are with that psychopath. He's going to eradicate the TVA next. For a moment, Loki has to wonder if he knows this man, if he did something horrible to him to make him destroy everything that Loki loves.

"Where's O.B.?" Loki says, finally turning to look at B-15 but not directly at her, "Doom has Kevin and Sean. I must get them back before you introduce any kind of attack."

"He has the kids!" Loki hears Gwen gasp. He ignores her. 

B-15's eyes widen before she curses, too. "He's in his lab. He's running diagnostic. He thinks they got sucked into a branch but if Doom has them he's looking in the wrong place."

Loki turns from the group, from the fire that's catching and needs to be put out. He pushes past everyone, urging them out of his way, beelining for the elevator. A load of footsteps follow him. He hears Gwen ask where Mobius is. Ben sobs in response. She hisses, "We'll end him. I'll make sure of it or die trying." Then B saying, "Call Carter. We need everyone on this."

Loki waits for Mobius to add his input, but it never comes.

*****************************

Loki doesn't like the deathly silence. No one wants to address the elephant in the room. So they just listened to O.B. clack around on his computer until it gets too much to bear. Even then all he can do is let out loud whimper and curl further into himself, hoping this time he turns into spaghetti just like everyone else. He's starting to wonder if Doom just wants everyone dead and not control of his tree at all.

O.B. finishes his writing with a loud clack against the keyboard then looks at them gathered around his desk once more only this time with no Mobius. No Kevin. No Sean. His eyes are bloodshot, hair askew. "You're right," he says to Gambit, "they're at the coordinates you gave me. I'm also receiving strange readings from the there. I can't get a good fix. There's not enough power to."

As if an emphasis, the light flickers. Loki's mind immediately goes to when the lights were going out as he ran around the TVA looking for a pruning stick. He's not scared of putting sticks anymore, or never being reassembled again. It's hard to be when you're fears keep happening again and again.

"But it's safe to assume it's a weapon," Carter asks, "or maybe even the poison itself?"

O.B. nods. "And then some."

Loki swallows hard. "We have to stop the poison. Hit him and hit him hard as well as save my children."

Jimmy raises a hand, "I'll help get the kids. Then if there's time, join the main attack."

"Should we do that all at once," D-90 steps in, "O.B. knows where the kids are. They are alive. Why? What does Doom want with them?"

There's a long silence until Sylvie steps forward, "Isn't it obvious? He wants Loki."

Loki shakes his head, "He tried to bury me in my tree. He doesn't want me. He probably doesn't even know I got out."

Sylvie puts her hands on her hips, anger on her face, "You think he didn't notice that little show after you got out. The TVA has that shock in their charts. No doubt he does, too. It wasn't meant to hold you, it was meant to anger you so would do something as stupid as walk into his camp."

"She maybe right," Gambit says, stroking his chin, "you are the only thing holding the tree together. He needs your power to achieve his goal. Use the kids to trap you, then steal that power and kill you."

Loki curses. Their point is to perfect to argue with. Doom can do nothing without Loki's talent and magic. If what Gambit says about him stealing magic is true, Loki's the target. He couldn't have just brought him to himself. Loki would have killed anyone who tried. Doom wants him weak, desperate like he is right now. Loki curses again.

"So what do we do then?" Casey asks, looking as hopeless as Loki feels, "If he sees Loki isn't coming Kevin and Sean are good as dead."

"Who says it has to be this Loki?" Sylvie says. In a flash of green, a blonde version of Loki stands before them. Loki chokes. He forgot she could turn into a man as well as he can turn into a woman. She just doesn't do it. She doesn't like it. Or maybe she just doesn't like seeing his face in the mirror. Everyone inhales sharply.

B chokes, "That could work."

Loki immediately shakes his head, "Absolutely not. I'm not letting you do this, Sylvie. Those are my kids. I need to get them-"

"And what?"

Sylvie and Loki both jump at the sudden anger spilling from Thor. When he looks at him, Loki flinches. Thor's eye is on fire. Even Love has taken to scooting a few feet from him.

"Let Doom kill you. Gets stabbed. Choked. Thrown off a cliff. No. Losing them is one thing, but I'm not losing you for the hundredth time, Loki. I won't allow it."

Electricity pops up through Thors fingers and his fake eye. Loki's deaths. The many he got to evade. This isn't about him.

"Thor-"

"He's right," Carter suddenly says, "we can't lose you. Even if we manage to get the kids, and stop Doom, it's not going to matter if you die. Without you, we all do."

Loki's throat tightens and it's his turn for the burning to overwhelm him, "So I do what? Sit on my butt while Sylvie gets killed in my place. While you all die because we couldn't catch on and I couldn't save my kids!"

They stare at him in shock. Loki feels victorious... but only until O.B. speaks with his own fire and anger. "You save Mobius."

Slowly, almost scarily, everyone turns to O.B. and it makes Loki feel so much less alone.

"What?" Ben croaks from his stance by the door, "Moby is dead." Loki growls at his casual use of Loki's nickname for Mobius. "How could he...?"

Loki turns to O.B., bitterness on his tongue. "I already tried. The poison locked me out. I can't bring him back." Loki wants to throw up as he says it.

O.B. stares for a long moment before he leans over and takes out black scans of a temporal aura. Mobius's aura. He holds two up and they look completely different. He shakes the one in his right hand. "This is Mobius aura before everything with the tree happened." He slams it down and puts the other front and center. It's covered in so many colors it almost looks like a kaleidoscope. "This is what it is now."

"It looks like a Picasso," Jimmy says. And O.B. nods wildly at that. 

"It's supposed to. Mobius was turned into atoms when the temporal radiation tore his body apart and sent it into the tree." Loki flinches at the mention of Mobius turning to ash under his fingers. He can feel it even now. "Loki brought Mobius back through calling those atoms back from the tree. But by the time he would have got them, they would have found new homes in a likened host."

That catches them up. "Wait... what?" Gwen says.

O.B. pulls up the scan on his prompter. Slowly Mobius's new aura disappears into many different forms, forms resembling...

Loki curses. "Don."

O.B. nods. "Don. Jedediah. Hansel. Owen. It doesn't matter. Those parts of his aura would have gone back to its source. Back to his variant, to the ones that make up that part of him. When you brought him back, Loki, you brought him back through multiple variants of them, making up," he taps the new aura, "a new aura with the same memories. Memories shared in these atoms. In his soul."

Loki stares. So does everyone else. Because what O.B. is saying is...complicated. not to mention impossible. "How?" Loki says, "How is that possible?"

O.B. shrugs. "I don't know all the particulars with dream walking but in short variant souls connect across all the timelines. His memories might have been kept in his soul via the dreams those variants had."

"I'm confused," Ben bursts in, looking ruby red from no doubt pent up frustration, "how does this help us save my friend?"

O.B. is starting to go red, too. He slaps the image again and the little figure of Don spins. An orange piece of Mobius's aura goes to Don and enters its body. "Mobius is a part of the variants around the tree. His aura is mixing with theirs. Loki would have to go to these branches and..." he plucks the orange piece from Don and puts it in Mobius's empty aura, "...extract it. Piece by piece until we get the poison out of the tree and he can just pull those pieces out."

Suddenly Loki feels deja vu. "How long would that take?" He whispers.

Ben scowls, "Does it matter?"

Loki swallows hard. Ben's right. It doesn't matter how long it takes. As long as Mobius is put back together, it doesn't matter.

B voices their thoughts. Or at least Loki's. "We can get him back. Just like before."

"So technically, Uncle Mobius won't ever really die. Like Uncle Loki," Love says, interrupting B's thoughts.

Loki feels sick. "Of course I can die," he says, "Mobius, too. It would just be a different kind of death..." No. He's not thinking about this right now. Focus.

Sylvie claps their hands, a strange look in their eye. "It's settled. We have the beginnings of a plan. I will be part of the away team as Loki. Loki will start going to branches to retrieve Mobius. All we need is our respective parts."

That's a loud clanging and banging as everyone moves in agreement, chattering at the same time making Loki's head hurt even more. He can save Mobius. But he has to trust others to save his children. This is insanity. All because Doom wants his tree and he can't have Loki.

As orders are shouted and everyone storms off to invade the armory for the first time in a long time, Thor's hand lands on Loki's shoulder, curling over his neck, shaking him. "You'll get him back. And we'll get your children. I promise, Loki, on my life."

For some reason that triggers Loki's tears to return. He doesn't dare look at Thor, but at Love who will be staying with O.B. for this particular mission. He's showing her how to run his projector, her face aglow. Loki sniffs. "Thor, you can't promise that." Thor tries to argue but Loki raises his voice, harsher than it has been in a long time. "You will come back and you will bring Sylvie with you. If neither of you come back, I'm damning you both to helheim and never looking back."

Thor's hand moves and his arms capture Loki squeezing so tight he gasps. Slowly, Loki does the same to him, forcing himself not to sob. And for a moment he's numb as the team reenters and he watches them file in, with armor and weapons galore, B and Sylvie laying out the plan as they go, splitting them all into two.

Then he looks up at Mobius's empty aura still projected on the wall.

And a fire ignites. 

Loki has a way forward now. He can put his family back together. He's lost a lot. But he's also cheated a lot. This is going to be one of the biggest cheats he's ever made, bringing someone back not once but twice.

The lights suddenly brighten flooding R&A with a deep shade of green. His friends look at him as Loki stands. Alarms go off as somewhere far away Loki feels his power pushing back on the poison.

O.B. looks at Loki with pride in his eye and beams. Loki wears a grin he hasn't worn since battle of New York. Mischievous, angry, determined. "Where do we start?"

Chapter Text

Sylvie tugs incessantly on the tie around his throat. He keeps fussing with his hair and clothes, clearly uncomfortable with having to be in this body. Loki watches him, feeling his tongue swells he holds the extraction piece O.B. designed to his chest. The scientist said he got the idea from when some humanized raccoon saved Thor's love from the reality stone. This will be more advanced cause it will extract aura rather than an infinity stone. Loki just hopes it works like he says it will and he won't end up hurting some poor Don.

As Sylvie once more yanks on his now black hair and throws the tie away, Loki catches his elbow, and says, "You don't have to do this."

He slams B's locker shut, knocking the mirror to the bottom of it and snarls at Loki. "Don't you start bossing me around. I'll beat the snot out of you in this body, too."

Loki stares at the scrunched up nose, pointed eyebrows and harsh eyes. How Mobius could find love in that face, enough love and want to see a good man, he has no idea. But he loves Loki and Loki needs to remember that. The hand on Sylvie's elbow goes to the pendant around Loki's neck and he swallows. "I'm not bossing you around. I'm reminding you that there's still time to-"

"Don't," he says, turning to the group by the launch bay which have split into two with Jimmy and Gwen and Thor going for Loki's kids and D-90, B-15, Sylvie and Gambit and Captain Carter going for Doom. More hunters are among them for the bigger fight after the kids are removed. Loki said his goodbyes to them already. Who knows who will come back. Doom will not hesitate to kill them. And Aolith will be at the ready. Loki imagines this will be a mass killing but he must be hopeful.

Sylvie sighs, sensing his thoughts and sits beside him. What a pair they must look like. Twins, sitting on a locker room bench, waiting for the world to end... again.

"This isn't goodbye," Sylvie says.

Loki shakes his head, "It could be. I can't bring you back like Mobius. You are Thor will go to Valhalla, not get sucked up by the tree." Loki finally looks at him, chewing on the inside of his cheek before saying, "You die, Thor dies, any of them and that's the end. The sun is done shining."

Sylvie rolls his eyes. "You and Thor and the sun. You can't worry about that right now. Trust us. Just our love for your children and we will get them back. And trust our love for each other. You taught me that, Loki. It's the reason I'm here in the first place."

Loki stares at Sylvie and he stares back at him and Loki wishes he had his own face at this moment because he's right. Loki needs to let them do this. Loki's worry will only make things worse. And this is their family whether they like each other or not.

Loki sighs and takes Sylvie's hand, squeezing as he says, "Keep everyone safe. I know you can. And come back. Don't be self-sacrificing like me."

Sylvie's smile is weak, "You know we're not the same."

"Still a Loki. Norn's knows what we are capable of."

Sylvie chuckles before B yells at him. He squeezes Loki's hand and goes to the group who waves at him. It's at least a hundred souls going to the void. He will have no communications, no way of knowing if they are okay. So Loki locks eyes with Sylvie and Thor and watches through tears as they prune themselves and disappear.

Then everything is silent save for Loki's muffled sobs and he looks to the device in his hand. His only hope. After a moment, he hears footsteps near him. He looks up to Casey who looks peakish. Loki forgot he's not the only one losing people today. This is going to be hell for Casey, O.B. and Love, not just Loki.

He nods to him, "Anything?"

Casey shrugs, "O.B. is too nervous to try and contact them. He's tracking them though. So for so far so good."

Loki swallows hard, "Good."

Casey holds out a couple files to him. "I, uh, I don't know where you want to start but I used to help Mobius with finding Lokis to help. I figured I could help you find a Mobius's. Or at least, you know, be involved in getting him back somehow."

Oh, Casey, Loki thinks, how could I have ever threatened you. Also how could you have had been a notorious villain yourself. Loki smiles as more tears cloud his vision. "Thank you, Casey. What do you have?"

Casey seems to relax when Loki says that, as if expecting rejection. He scans the three files before handing them to Loki. "They're all new branches. Relatively new. O.B. said it would be a good idea to keep you as far away from the roots as possible but also not in the poisons path so..."

Loki looks over the three. All ones with not a lot of information on them. One is Mobius that instead of a jet ski salesman, he's a golf salesman. Another he's a man with little boy with a misshapen face. He'll have to keep that one in mind. The last one has little to no information.

He's a traveler. Friendly. A nowhere man. The picture shows a very young Mobius with white blonde hair and smooth creamy skin. Not his Mobius. Not like the ones in the other folders. He doesn't look like him as much. It makes Loki's heart hurt less.

Loki shows Casey the file and says, "I'll go here first."

Casey nods, "It doesn't look like him save the nose. He's got to be in his twenties."

Loki sets the file down. He stands, straightens his jacket, sticks the device that looks too much like a claw and sighs, preparing to time slip. "1999 here I come."

His body jerks and he's gone. 

**********************************

Loki appears on a road in the middle of nowhere. There's a small grove of trees to his right and flat plains to his left. Truly the middle of nowhere. He expected an office. Maybe a restaurant or maybe a quaint apartment. Not this. Not a long stretching into nothing.

Loki jerks when a loud horn feels his ears, tires screech and a heavy weight slams into his back sending him into the gravel road. He tumbles tearing his shirt and jacket. He lands on his back staring at the bright blue sky that disappears on The rise where the truck must have come from.

Feet away, big blue truck sits idle while Loki lays there almost willing it to run him over if not for the job he has to do. Isn't this how Thor met Jane? She hit him with her car... twice. The door slams shut and a pair of feet run to his side. The guy crouches and bends over Loki though the sun prevents him from getting a good look at him.

"Holy," the guy curses, "are you all right? I didn't mean to hit you. Please don't be dead."

And it's his voice above anything that pulls Loki out of his shock. He blocks out the sun with his palm and his heart leaps to his throat.

"Mobius..." He mumbles. 

The bright blue eyes crinkle in confusion. His face is creamy, no wrinkles inside. His bright blonde hair dips back and forth in front of his eyes as the wind picks up. He's in a blue jacket kneeling over Loki with concern all over his face. He curses again.

"I probably hit you and now you have amnesia. I'm sorry, man."

No, not Mobius. His variant. The one Loki came looking for. He tries to sit up but his head spins and he flops over instead. He waves his hand at the variant.

"Help me," Loki says, "please."

"Are you sure you can stand man? You look two seconds away from passing out."

Loki shakes his head even though yes, the sun is spinning a bit but Mobius... his variant... Keeps Loki from completely losing it.

"I'm fine, please get me up."

He tugs Loki up,albeit roughly with the unbalanced weight. "Where did you even come from?" He's asking as Loki tries to straighten up despite the world spinning, "are you a hitchhiker?"

"What's a hitchhiker?" Loki mumbles, tapping his pockets for that stupid extraction gun. The sooner he gets out of here the better.

"Oh, boy, maybe I should drive you to a hospital. Would that be all right?"

Loki feels the gun but he's shaking too hard to get it out of his pocket. It's like his first time time slipping all over again.

The variant grips his shoulders and leads him to the truck. Loki sways unsteadily as they do and they almost fall in to the dirt several times before they get to the passenger side. As the man lightly pushes Loki in he says, "My name is Vann by the way. Vann Siegert."

"Loki," he says, then as an after thought, "Friggason."

The variant, not Mobius, not even Don, but Vann close the door and crosses back to his side, climbing in and off they go. A slight surge of vertigo hit's and it takes everything in Loki not to throw up on his upholstery.

"What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Mobius- Don- Vann asks, "I've seen hitchhikers before but none as well dressed as you."

Loki runs a hand over his dress shirt as he swallows back bile. "Oh, I was... Um..." He chokes on his tongue just like he did when he first met Don. His ability to make Loki's silver tongue lead is a true crime. He looks at his ring and sighs. His heart aches. He's here... Yet so far away...

Vann sees him spinning the ring and makes a humming sound. "Marriage problems?"

That seems to snap Loki out of whatever daze he's in. "What? No, no, no. Why? Did it seem like I was... No, I'm, we're fine."

Vann shrugs, eyeing the clear landscape around them. "Your ring. Left hand. Says your married. But you're not happy. Or else you wouldn't be in the middle of nowhere."

"Oh!" Loki says again and scrubs his face, hoping to wipe away any sign of the angst he's been filled with since Mobius turned to ash. "No.... I, uh... I'm trying to find him actually."

Vanns eye brows raise at that. "You're trying to find him?"

Loki shrugs. He thinks back to when Mobius would save Loki's. He didn't explain himself. Not all the time. Just in certain occasions. Loki wants to take that approach so every Don does not need an explanation of why he's here. He doesn't think Van is one of them. There will be no explanations here.

Vann looks between him and the road for a while. A sign goes by. There's a gas station up ahead. Vann asks, "Are you feeling better?"

Lokis head is starting to clear but it does spin just a bit. He wants to throw up but that's been the case since he left the tree. He shakes his head. "I'm fine. Just give me another minute."

"If you need something to eat or drink, a gas station is up ahead. I have a flask in my console if alcohol doesn't bother you."

Loki snorts. Mobius drinking with Ramona comes to mind. Of course his variant would have alcohol in his truck. "No, it doesn't bug me at all."

Loki reaches forward. In the console is a handful papers registering the truck. Under some of the papers is a small silver flask. Loki takes it, whips the lid off and takes a big gulp.

"No, wait!" Vann says, "Not so much!"

But by then Loki already has half the flask gone. He wipes his mouth on the back of his hand and frowns. "This has a strange after taste," he says, "there's something wrong with it. I think I did you a favor."

"I...uh...it's been...a minute," Vann chokes as he directs his truck back into the right lane. The gas station appears down the long highway right as Loki stomach rolls. It's either he gets out of the vehicle right now or Vann is going to need to get a new one.

"I'm gonna throw up..."

Vann rams into the corn stalks on the side of the road and Loki pushes his way out. He throws up all over those corn stalks. He hears the door slam as he heave's and a distant memory comes to mind. One from when he was a teenager.

A pair of Kree had come looking for an audience with Odin. Their plan was to kill them all one by one starting with poisoning Loki. Unlucky for them the poison they administered worked on Asgardians but not Jotun's (little did Loki know at the time). As a result, he threw up mid feast. He got in a lot of trouble but Frigga knew something was wrong and that's how they uncovered the plot.

And now as he stands there dry heaving, thinking about that day, a new sick feeling comes over him and he straightens looking at Vann who is staring at the edge of the road, looking horrified, his breathing heavy.

When he raises his eyes, Mobius's eyes look back at him. Blue. Sweet. Kind Mobius. But this is his variant. And that not so good streak starts to make a lot more sense.

"Did you just try to poison me?"

*********************************

The next five minutes are enough to make a chaos god like Loki proud. And frankly his old self would have loved every minute of it. Him now, not so much.

Vann takes off for his truck the second Loki asks the question. It takes him two seconds longer than necessary to figure out that yes that's exactly what just happened, and of course it didn't work and now this Mobius variant is on the run. By then Vann is screeching back onto the road. Loki screams after him, pounding the pavement as he runs after the truck, yelling stop and they need to talk.

He manages to jump and latch onto the bed of the truck and he makes deep grooves in the gravel trying to stop it while Vann swerves back and forth trying to lose him. While this is happening, they passed the gas station where Loki barely glimpses two old men sitting under the canopy as they go by.

Vann makes a nasty swerve and Loki uses that momentum to launch himself into the back, landing hard enough to dent the floor of it. He pries his hands from the destroyed tailgate of the truck and crawls forward to the back window where he punches the glass out. Vann swerves again and Loki almost tumbles out on his head as a semi passes. He can't hear anything with the wind howling but he manages to pick up a yell from Vann before he crawls into the cab. He slams on the brakes and Loki falls the rest of the way through. He gets out and tries to run. Because that is better than driving apparently.

"He never makes this easy, does he?" Loki growls before crawling out the driver side door and running after him. It really doesn't take long. As Loki runs, he extracts the device O.B. gave him so he can get this over with and get out. Then he tackles Vann down into the grass on the side of the road, while he screams bloody murder which is ironic considering who Loki is and who Vann turned out to be.

"Hold still," Loki says trying to turn the gun on and keep a firm grip around Vanns wrists. But Vann squirms and Loki rolls with it, sitting on him to try and get him to stop squirming. "Vann, if you hold still, this will be over a lot sooner."

The makes a chirping sound, vibrating in his hand, ready to clamp down when they both hear sirens. Police. In the middle of nowhere. Loki curses. So does Vann. A million questions crack through Loki's mind. Are they aware of what just happened? Or are they after Vanns latest kill? How many kills does he have? It doesn't matter. They have to go. Loki can't leave Vann to his fate.

"Can you get us out of here?" Loki asks. Vann nods, his face smashed in grass though his body tenses, ready to go. "Then show me you are capable of it."

Loki pulls him up and they run to the truck, slipping in right as the police lights appear over the small hill. Vann slowly still rolls forward, keeping to the side of the road as two cars pass, making it seem like it's not for them they are looking for. Vann is trying to look as if it wasn't them doing the damage for the last mile, which is hard with a busted window and dented tailgate. But then the last car comes up on their tail making them stop. Vann eyes Loki then rolls down his window as the cop gets out and comes to the window.

"Afternoon, Officer," he says, "is something going on?"

He says it in absolute calm. A sweetness that affects the officer and Loki both. And Loki can't help but realize that this is how Mobius would sweet talk Ravonna when she tried to pull stuff with Loki.

The officer eyeballs Loki who fidgets with the seat. He smiles and waves before looking away again. He listens to Vann talk and slowly his voice becomes Mobius's, too. If he doesn't look at him, he can almost believe his finance is there, instead. 

"We got a report about some maniacs in a blue truck destroying the road. That sound familiar to you boys?"

"Tear up the road?" Vann laughs, "Sorry, officer. I have a big truck but nothing that could do that much damage."

"The report said the driver had blond hair and," the officer glares at Loki, "a man with black hair and a suit was tearing up the road."

Vann looks at Loki for a second. He's too jumpy to turn him in. Loki can tell. Instead he says, "I was going fast officer. Something might have fallen out of my truck. Did you see if my-"

"Son, I'm going to need you to step out," the officer says, going to the side so the door can open, "step out and put your hands on your-"

Loki hasn't done this in a long time, so as he conjures up magic and blows it across the truck into the officer's face, he prays to the norns that this trick has not gone sour. "I'm sorry, officer," he says, "my friend and I were in an argument and he let go of the wheel. I think we need some shut eye. Any telling where the closest motel might be?"

The officer blinks slowly. Vann holds his breath, his fist turning white where he grips the strap of his seatbelt. Slowly the green seeps in and the officer becomes more relaxed, open. "Oh, yes, the motel. There's a town a few miles from here. Just take the first exit. I have to give y'all a warning though for speeding."

Vann couldn't look anymore terrified if he tried. But he does manage to say," Yes, that's fine. Understandable."

The man writes out a warning, wishes them a good day then goes back to his car. They don't move or even breathe until the officer drives past them and well into the horizon. Then Vann turns to him, looking absolutely horrified and squeaks out a simple question.

"Who are you?"

*************************

Casey hates this. He really and truly does. O.B. had a moniter set up in R&A trying to track Loki and the away teams. It's the same thing he had for when Mobius, Sylvie and D-90 went to get Loki back. Only this time they are going to war. 

Love giggles behind him and O.B. does this sort of half chuckle half snore. Casey would be endeared if he wasn't so an edge. It's a familiar feeling. He wonders how much of it comes over from his criminal days. Close to his shoulder is Ben. No one would allow him on the away team so instead he got lost in the TVA for a while. Casey found him a little after Loki left wandering around in the basement. Frankly, it's nice to have Ben here. His panic soothes Casey in some crazy way.

Casey's watching Lokis dot high up in the tree when Ben points at the moniter, "Uh, the lights are going out."

And O.B. is there seconds later, tapping hastily on his keyboard. Love comes up between O.B. and them and asks, "What does that mean?"

"People are dying," O.B. says so fast it's hard to believe the little girls words registered with him, "but we don't know who yet."

Ben claps his hands over her ears, "You can't say that! She's like nine!"

"Technically, she's well over a couple hundred years old," Casey says numbly as he watches the little lights disappear. Was that D-90? Maybe Sylvie. Or maybe even B-15. He's going to throw up.

O.B. is slapping the keyboard as hard as he can trying to keep up with the information coming through. "I wish we could talk to them," he hisses, "From what I can tell they got in. Kevin and Sean are out but only one body is with them."

Casey feels the world spin under him.

"Uncle Thor?" Love says, her voice soft almost ghostly.

Suddenly Miss Minutes appears. She was her finger at them from the screen then the enter system shuts down. Ben hisses, "What just happened?"

O.B. looks up. The lights flicker and images of the Loom fill Casey's mind. He's going to die isn't he? This Doom is going to win and he will die. "I don't know. We're blind now and we will be for the foreseeable future."

Love yells and runs into Casey, shoving him but he barley feels it. He's had these horrible dreams where he will wake up one day and he'll be the only one left alive. Where he goes out into the TVA with unfamiliar faces who scowl at him cause he says something he shouldn't have.

It's moments like this where he thinks that dream is going to come true. That Doom will kill everyone but him. A cautionary tale for a new world order. Casey looks away, leaves the room entirely. Mobius always said pie was good for times like these. 

Maybe he'll give that a go.

***********************************

Vann is driving them toward a town. Wakita, the sign says when they pass it. He sits in the driver's seat completely dazed. Loki didn't tell him everything. Just the part where he's a god looking for his love. "Very Greek," he had muttered to which Loki informed him the Greens are nothing but pampered snobs. Vann shut up at that. As they drive by a police car, he flinches, and Loki says, "So. You kill people for a living?"

Vann inhales sharply, "No, not for a living."

"Then why?" Loki can't figure it out. Mobius is sweet. He would never do harm unless necessary or provoked. Not like Loki. 

Vann shrugs, "I want to help people."

Loki finally looks at him, confused. "Help?"

Vann nods as if that sentence makes any sense at all. "Yeah. Help. So many people are miserable. Life is hard. Why not try and help them out?"

Nope. Loki is not addressing this. If he thinks about it too long it's going to start disturbing him and he's going to second guess Mobius's entire moral code. So instead, he stuffs a piece of gum from Vann's glove box into his mouth. He doesn't let himself wonder if it's poisoned either. "Sure."

"What about you?" Vann says, though he sounds like he doesn't want to know either. "You spat green dust at a guy, destroyed the road and my poison that's extremely lethal by the way. Most people are dead within minutes and you're over here asking if we can go to McDonald's."

Loki picks at his teeth, watching as the first exit sign appears. "I'm from asgard. A Norse god. But I'm not from this timeline. I'm here to resurrect my fiance who's aura you just happen to hold. I have to do it before a megalomaniac kills our kids and takes over the timelines."

There is a long silence, then a small, "Sure."

What can Loki say. Curiosity kills the cat.

"So does that mean you have to kill me?"

Loki snorts. "No. The extractor in my pocket dimension will suck what I need out of you."

"Right..."

Loki finally looks at the copy. And he can finally get why Mobius never retold his story with every branch he went to. Vann is pale, shaking. "You okay?"

Vann spits out a half hysterical laugh, "Peachy. I have an alien god in my car who is trying to resurrect his fiancé with my aura before some warlord comes and destroys all time. I'm just fine."

He takes the exit and Loki spots the McDonald's. "Are you going to eat?" Vann shakes his head. Loki sighs. "You don't have to be scared of me."

"I don't have to be scared of you. I'm just a god who tore up your truck and mind controlled a cop. But you don't have to be scared of me."

Loki groans. Mobius gets this way when he is especially mad. This is uncalled for.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Vann. Let's go to McDonald's and you can get a shake and I can eat out the fries."

Vann curses at him but goes to the McDonald's where they use the drive-thru to get their food. Then they sit in the parking lot and eat until Vann looks ready to vibrate out of his skin.

"So what," he says, "your fiance's ashes got spread around time and now for some reason I'm carrying a part of him or something?"

Loki sighs, stuffing a handful of fries in his mouth. He didn't really want to get into this much detail but as long as Vann doesn't run he guesses he has to. "No," he says taking a few of his pictures from the pocket dimension. "You are him."

He shows Vann the pictures and he spits ice cream on his steering wheel. Mobius and Loki at the beach. It's when the boys had buried Loki in sand, and Mobius had taken the picture. His smile and belly are on full display. The second is Lokis favorite of him sleeping and the third of his birthday.

Vann tries to take the pictures but Loki holds them away from his sticky fingers. "Th-That. That's me. Old!" He sputters. 

"You're not old," Loki huffs, "and you're not completely him. I'm never seen him try to murder someone and I hope I never do."

And Vann starts cursing again, banging his head on the steering wheel. Loki has no idea what to do with that. Mobius would be calm and gentle and work this through with this variant.

Loki is not Mobius. 

"This is not real," Vann mumbles, "I'm back in Tulsa high because my brother decided it was a good idea to drop in and argue with me."

"My Mobius has two brothers," Loki says.

Vann holds up his pointer finger, "I have one."

Loki hums, "I met them once. Twice next week when we were supposed to be married."

Van groans and finally raises his head from the steering wheel, "Isn't this, like, illegal?"

"What?"

"Telling me all this stuff."

"It's not your future and besides it doesn't do anything. I've seen millions of my futures and nothing has happened yet."

"Okay, you know what," Vann yells and yanks the truck into gear and they're on the road again. His radio fuzz is in and out and it takes Loki back to when he had to speak to Mobius through any speaker available. Sound is so in tune with time and space and he could manipulated quite easily. But Mobius never heard him. How could he. As angry and hurt as he was. So Loki spoke to Sylvie, too. He missed all of them but they were the most accessible. And Sylvie answered. But she could also sense his magic. He was alone but not completely. He could hear and see and eventually Mobius could hear him, too.

How Loki wishes that was the case now. He wishes he could hear Mobius, get his advice. He's on his own like he has been so many times before. He hates it.

Once they are on the long, lone stretch of highway, Vann speaks up. "So, let me see if I'm understanding you. You're here to extract some part of me to save your fiance who is some other version of me."

"It's a lot more complicated than that but yes."

Vann shakes his head. "And where is your version for this world right now?"

Loki shrugs, "On Asgard. Depending on how this time line goes, I could be on earth in twelve or thirteen years."

Vann chews his lip. "So... how did a god fall in love with someone like me? It doesn't exactly add up."

"Well, I'll tell you if you tell me how you wound up killing people."

"You are really caught up on that."

"How could I not be. Mobius could kill people, yes, but not like this."

Vann shakes his head. Loki stares at him for a long while trying to find the man he loves. All he finds is his nose.

"I didn't love him at first," Loki starts, "he broke me down to my barest self and I didn't appreciate it at the time. But what he did..." Loki relives it, the moment Mobius came into the time theater and said he didn't see a villain. It's the moment that changed everything. It's moment that led to here. Tears touch his eyes.

Oh, Mobius...

"He believed in me when no one else did. He's all I had for a while. He was light when everything was gloom. He taught me what hope was. That things could be good. Happy. He denied everything I was ever told and said I could be whatever I wanted to be.

"I love Mobius because he is the light in the dark that I never had. The man who soothes me and tries his best to make me the best man I could be while still loving me when I make mistakes. I can't ever-"

I am the way, I am the light

I am the dark inside the night

I hear your hopes, I feel your dreams

And in the dark I hear your screams

Loki jumps. So does Vann as his radio begins to play. He hits it, "Stupid thing must be picking up a station somewhere."

I'll be right there

I'll never leave

And all I ask of you

Believe

"Mobius?"

Vann's hand retreats like it's been burned. The radio turns to white noise, getting louder and louder before disappearing altogether. And Loki's heart stutters. Was that him? Or was it a station like Vann said? Loki reaches for it, brushing his fingers over the dials. Nothing happens. Beside him Vann shutters, his breath unsteady.

"That wasn't a station, was it?" He asks.

Loki can't help the slow grin that crosses his face. "No. I don't believe it was..."

*********************************

Vann has to stop halfway to nowhere. He sits watching the sunset as Loki fiddles with the radio, trying to lure Mobius back to it. Nothing is forthcoming. But it had to have been him. Somehow Mobius is part of the time stream just as Loki was. Somehow he was speaking to Loki. It had to be him. Or Loki's going crazy and Vann is paranoid. 

After several more failed attempts, Loki gets out of the truck feeling more hopeful than before and simultaneously more sad. He goes to Vann and sits beside him, watching the orange sun set on the flat land before them. 

"Can I ask you something?" Vann asks. 

Loki nods slowly, "Yes."

"Your fiance, he's some other version of me. A better version."

"Vann-"

"Hold on. Let me talk. The other version of me. You love him for everything he's done for you and your friends. But what about him? Doesn't he..." Vann sighs, "Does he do things you hate? Doesn't he disappoint you or disgust you?"

Loki can't help but wonder where this sudden line of questioning is coming from. He says, slow and gently, "Mobius... Before he... disappeared... lied to me. I asked him to do something and he didn't keep his promise. It angered and hurt me, but what he's taught me is that everything in the universe makes mistakes. He taught me how to talk about them, overcome them. Frankly, I wonder all the time why he isn't disgusted with me. Why he stays with me. Over Christmas, I made so many mistakes and each one I thought would be the last straw. But he forgave me each time. And we have found ways to adjust to each other. I forgive him when he messes up just as he forgives me. And if we follow and adjust that formula as needed then we always come out the other side okay."

Vann shakes his head. "You make it sound easy."

"It assuredly is not."

"There was a girl I thought I liked and she liked me. I messed up. Had to leave. I haven't seen her since." Vann looks at Loki and his blue eyes swim. "I'm messed up. And every day that becomes more and more clear. More than ever with her. I want to change but I don't know how. It's like a drug, killing. I need it sometimes. Or I think others need it. Then the person I considered a friend killed someone I thought was sweet and I woke up I guess." He smiles, looks at the ground though the smile is anything but happy. "I think... I think sometimes I want to be caught. Put in prison. On death row. Other times..." He motions at the truck. "So a good, loving me... It sounds impossible."

"Vann," Loki's voice breaks as he speaks, "I tried to commit genocide and rule your world. Neither of us are innocent souls here."

Vann looks sad, shoulders slumped for a long moment before saying, "Wanna hear a joke?"

And Loki can't help but smile at how Mobiusesque that is. "Always."

And that seems to catch Vann off guard. It takes him a moment to recover before saying, "Once I was laying in the grass and a spider crawled in my ear."

Vann pauses and Loki can't help but get antsy. Him and Mobius always thinking they are funny. "And? What happened?"

Vann, just a little more pale than before, shrugs. "Nothing. It crawled back out again. Nobody home."

Loki laughs and Vann jerks at the sudden outburst, as if he wasn't supposed to laugh. 

Loki then faces him, saying, "Knock, knock."

Again, Vann seems taken in surprise, but he answers none the less, "Who's there?"

"Brad."

"Brad who?" 

"That's showbiz."

And Vann laughs. "I didn't think Norse Gods knew human jokes."

Loki shrugs. "It wasn't me. Your variant told that one."

Vann shakes his head, "Of course I did." He looks down at his hands then shakily extends one out to Loki. "I suppose I should give you his aura. He sounds like a really lucky guy."

Loki exhales, his breath burning his chest and throat. That's how Mobius does it. He makes a connection. Slowly, he takes the device from his coat. He tries to do exactly as O.B. said. Lay it flat against the skin. Leave it for two minutes. When it turns the color of the sunset the aura is captured. It's a bit more poetic than O.B. is accustomed to being but Loki doesn't believe it matters. If he wants to be colorful, let him. 

As the machine slowly begins to glow, Loki whispers, "Thank you. Mobius has been beside me through so much no matter how awful I've been. I can't imagine my future well without his continued life."

Vann looks slightly drowsy. "I don't know how some piece of him got in me but whatever you need." He looks up as the sun disappears and stars appear in its place. "So your just out there somewhere? A prince on a warrior world?"

"Yes," Loki says as the machine turns orange. He take it away, leaving a red mark on Vann's skin. "In all honesty, I'm surprised Odin or Heimdall haven't made a big deal of a second me being here."

"They're not going to come after me, are they?"

Loki chuckles at Vann's nervousness, "The King of Asgard is the least of your concerns. He's not going to hunt you for all the kills you've done."

He winces. "Maybe it would be better if they came. Get me off this planet."

Loki smiles, "The other me would like you. Given the time."

"I'd like to meet him," Vann says, staring out at the milky way, "I haven't had someone laugh at my jokes before. It was nice."

Something in Loki saddens for this variant. Loki doesn't dislike him but he hopes another him loves him someday. "I must go. I have many more of you to visit. And I must see if my children are alright."

Vann chuckles, "Kids. I never believed I'd have any. And here you are saying I have two."

"Are you going to kill anymore people, Vann," Loki asks even though he knows he can't stop him if Vann wanted to.

The man shrugs, "I don't know. Maybe I'll go to Norway. Learn something new." He looks at Loki and Loki can see the soft smile Mobius gives him reflected here.

Loki stands, feeling heavy, "Try growing a moustache along with it. It'll make you look sophisticated."

"Right," he says and waves. 

Loki waves back before time slipping and letting screams be the last thing he hears. 

*************************************

When Loki rips back into the TVA, he's greeted by Casey who looks worse for wear. He's almost in a daze as he looks through the file in his hand before looking at Loki. The time slipping no longer disturbs him. He's seen too much. "Did you get it?"

Loki nods. "Yes. He was hesitant at first but I got the first drop eventually."

Casey nods even though he doesn't look like he's listening. "Good. Was he anything like Mobius?"

Loki snorts, "He had his humor and his nose. Otherwise he was quite different."

Again Casey nods. He hands Loki the file. "Well whatever you did there, you saved his life. He was originally heading for death row. After a while his future reset and now..."

Loki takes the file. In it, a new picture greets him of Vann and a tall black haired women sitting on a beach somewhere Loki barley identifies as Vanaheim. The women holds Vann tight, looking beautiful, like a princess. Vann has a moustache and a bright grin.

"Odin doesn't like him," Casey says, "but Thor respects him. I guess his list of kills got him some points with the Einhajar which he ends up regretting I might add. Had two more after you left and one more with the other you when Loki did some recon for Odin. He eventually ate Idunn's apple. What he's god of is yet to be determined."

Loki smiles. "I can only imagine." Vann actually got a happy ending, too. Somehow he and Loki met and he wooed her enough to become Asgardian. He obviously had to leave Earth, just to be happy with Loki on Asgard...

"Thank you, Casey," Loki says before closing the file and setting it on the desk he appeared by, "my children?"

Casey sighs, stands and starts to leave the little desk that seems so lonely in the docking area. That's the first time Loki realizes he didn't come back to the same area he left from and Casey is utterly and completely alone in the old Loom room. 

"Casey?" He says, suddenly all senses on alert, "What's going on?"

Casey begins to lead him to R&A, walking fast, "We lost contact and visual. Doom blew out our systems. We've been blind for the last hour."

Loki stomach drops, "What do you mean we're blind? How did he do that?"

Casey shakes his head, his body tensing, "I don't know. O.B. and Ben are trying to fix it. As far as I know we're still blind."

"Meaning everyone could be dead."

Casey doesn't answer and that seems to tip the scales. Loki yanks the tempad from his back pocket. Casey doesn't even fight him. Just jerks at the sudden touch. Loki flips the pad open. Miss Minutes appears, blinking about shutdowns and goodbyes. He curses at her.

"I have to get to the void." He flips the pad to Casey. As hes prepping to timeslip, Casey grabs his arm. 

"You'll only make things worse. Let's find a new Mobius to get."

"My children-"

"None of this will matter if you don't get him back."

The whole conversation with Sylvie from earlier comes back and Loki groans. So Casey goes ahead, giving Loki space and he slides against the wall and waits from the floor for something, anything. It's quiet. He wonders how much is happening out there, if the system is so down they can't track and help timelines or if they're preparing for war. And the need for Mobius to be here grows even stronger. Despair is slowly winning. He wishes there was noise. Anything to let him know the world is alive. 

Not long after he makes that errant wish, he does. Running. Two sets of fast paced steps. He looks up and around the corner comes his two sons. His heart stops.

"Loki!" The boys yell, sprinting to him.

Loki's on his feet in seconds. "Kevin! Sean!" They all crush together and he wraps those boys so tight to him they squeak. They squeeze him back, attaching themselves to his neck and sides. Sean is saying his name again and again. Kevin is sobbing into his coat. Loki's gasping, clutching them, making sure they are real with quick pats of his hand. The yelling in his mind soothes at their presence. They are dirty. Kevin's stomach is grumbling. There is a scrape on Sean's face. But they are home. They are safe.

Through blurry, teary eyes, a blond head appears, green cloak trailing her. She leans on the wall, hand tight on her side. "Sylvie," Loki chokes. 

"Hi, Loki." Sylvie coughs and he hears the pain that action brings. Sean peels away from Loki and he has a hard time letting him.

"She's hurt," Sean says, "we need a doctor."

Loki stands, picking up Kevin in the process. Kevin clings to him and he welcomes it. Sean and he each put an arm around Sylvie and they begin down the long hallway to an elevator that will take them to the med unit.

"Is everyone else here?" Loki asks. 

Sylvie shakes her head. "No. Doom is a lot more prepared then we realized. Kevin and Sean were not the only kids there. He had a boy, Franklin, there, too. B is trying to find his branch. Get his family."

"Thor?" Loki whispers. 

She flinches. "He's staying there. He and B are the ones most used to battle, to war. He is... he's made himself a general. As long as we have men to fight, he'll be there fighting."

Loki chokes. Oh, Thor. Of course he would do that. Odin trained him for it. "What about Love?"

"He told me to watch her before I ran with the boys. Guess I'm a babysitter now."

"Maybe it's for the best," Loki says, eyeing her steadily reddening side. 

Sylvie shakes her head. "I'm not used to standing to the side when it's clear what I need to do. When I don't have a bias in my way. Standing here watching... I don't like it."

The elevator bings. They pile in and as it moves, Sean and Kevin turn to them. "Dad?" Sean asks.

Loki sighs. "We have a way to bring him back, Sean, but it's going to take a moment. Ben is here. You'll stay with him until I can bring your father back."

At that Sean scowls, "Why can't I help?"

Before Loki can argue, Sylvie intervenes. "Don't argue, Sean. This is delicate business that Loki has the power to do. We'll be helping your father by making sure you're safe and monitoring things from here."

Sean's fire gets more intense. "I want to help! He's my dad. I can do anything you tell me to. I can't just leave him-"

"You can wait with O.B. and piece your father together, Sean," Loki interrupts, "there is no shame in doing the work from a safe distance."

Sean stomps his foot. Loki glares at him. Sean crosses his arms. As they stare at each other defiantly, Kevin whispers into Lokis shoulder, "I miss Dad."

Loki sighs, "Me too."

The elevator opens and Sean gets back to Sylvie and they take her to Doc Clock who fuzzes in and out but manages to get them to a room where she distracts the boys with how she's going to fix the gunshot in Sylvie's side. A deep wound. Loki can tell the second they uncover it. As Doc works, Sylvie whisperers, "How is it going?"

Loki shrugs, "I got one so far. It's not going to be easy but you're all right. We need him and I need to be getting him. It's almost like how Mobius helped me, though. This Mobius I saw was so different and yet I helped him, even if I took something from them in the long run."

Sylvie hums and flinches as Doc Clock begins to seal up her wound. "We're here, Loki. The best that we can be."

He smiles a half hearted thing, "And to think once upon a time you would have run for McDonald's at this point."

"Oh, shut up."

As Kevin asks a question, she continues, voice even softer, "Where are you off to next?"

"I don't know. I was so concerned about Kevin and Sean, I barely got the first one done. I suppose Casey will tell me where to go next."

Sylvie nods as she grabs his hand. "Don't dawdle, Loki. O.B., Casey, Ben and I have the kids. I fear if you stay too long, Doom will find you. He's hell bent on having your head."

Loki squeezes her hand. "There is no rest for the wicked."

"Or the good. Go."

He tugs his hand away even though he has no desire to leave them. He hugs Kevin, tell Sean to be smart even though he glares at him.

Then Loki runs.