Chapter Text
“Loki! Hey.”
Calling out to him from back along the corridor, Loki turned to find Mobius jogging after him, apparently having just come out from an impromptu meeting with B-15.
“Hi. What was that all about?” Loki asked as he caught up, a pointed nod towards B’s office. He narrowed his eyes in feigned suspicion, “Are you in trouble again?”
“What d’you mean again?” Mobius replied, unfazed, “No, it was just a boring, touch-base kinda thing, just clarifying some details about yesterday.”
“Details?” Loki scoffed, as they continued strolling towards the cafeteria, “The only pertinent detail is how effortless it was for me to neutralise her.”
“Yes, Your Magnificence, you’re exceptionally clever and amazing,” Mobius drawled. “But unfortunately B needed a little more than ‘Loki kicked her ass’.”
“Mm. Maybe I should go back and give her my version, so she’s really got the full picture,” Loki suggested.
“She needed more info, Loki, not a flowery theatrical monologue.”
Loki looked at him with a wounded expression.
“You love my monologues.”
“I tolerate them. Which is much, much more than can be said for B-15. Why do you think she asked for me alone?”
“Well obviously, she was sparing me the supreme discomfort I’d have suffered as a result of the unrelenting onslaught of heavy praise from the two of you,” Loki immediately answered, which earned him a snort of laughter.
Then Mobius stopped short.
It took Loki a couple more steps to realise, but then he halted too, turning back around to him with a confused frown.
“Mobius? You okay?”
Mobius raised his eyes to him, but it seemed as though he was having trouble focussing.
“Feel weird,” he mumbled, and Loki took a step closer, noting that his breath was becoming quite rapid and shallow.
“What do you mean? What kind of weird?”
Mobius had gone as white as a sheet, and Loki looked around them, surreptitiously locating the nearest waste paper basket, just in case.
“I- uh…” He was plainly trying his best to answer, but could barely even seem to breathe. As Loki reached out to grab his shoulder in support, Mobius crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.
“Mobius!”
Loki was kneeling next to him a split second after it happened, and a couple of passers-by immediately came over to offer their assistance. But before anyone could do anything, Mobius was already blinking his eyes open, dazed.
“Mobius,” Loki breathed as he grasped his arm, adrenaline coursing through him, “Are you alright?”
Mobius lay there for a few moments, still and wide-eyed, as though in disbelief that such a thing had even happened.
“Yeah. Yeah…” he panted, frowning in confusion. “What the hell was that?”
“You passed out,” Loki told him, relief and anxiety playing tug-of-war in his chest.
“Ugh. My arms are tingling,” Mobius mumbled absently. The two other analysts had taken a step back, and Loki gave them a little wave, letting them know he had it.
“Can you stand?” he asked gently as they were left alone once more.
“Not sure. I think maybe?”
“Take your time,” Loki advised as he began helping him sit up.
With support, Mobius was soon on his feet again, and Loki carefully led him to a seat at someone’s vacated desk, before crouching down beside him.
“Has… that ever happened before?” he asked quietly.
“I’ve passed out before, sure. But that time there was an obvious cause.”
Loki’s concern must have been written all over his face, because Mobius attempted to reassure him with a smile.
“S’fine, Loki. Probably just low blood sugar or something,” he said, affecting dismissiveness that was not wholly convincing.
Loki exhaled in a huff, reeling a little in the aftermath of his panic. But to his credit, he did manage to smile back.
“Bit of an over-the-top way to inform me you’re hungry,” he joked, his voice shaking a little. “And you had the gall to call me dramatic.”
Mobius grinned, then rubbed a hand over his face.
“You still up to eating something?” Loki prodded hopefully.
“Yeah, I think so. I’m almost back to normal again, just a little dizzy.”
Loki made him wait a couple more minutes (“No need to go all mother-hen on me Loki, I’m fine…”), then gave him a hand up before they set off once more, taking a more leisurely pace.
Evening meal passed without incident, and although Loki was watching Mobius like a hawk the entire time, he was cautiously optimistic that everything truly was fine with him.
It wasn’t until they were in the elevator heading up to the living quarters when it happened again. This time Loki had no warning… one moment Mobius was beside him, the two of them leaning casually against the handrail, the next he was sprawled on the floor, narrowly missing smacking his head on the adjacent wall.
Letting fly an Asgardian curse, Loki threw himself down by his side, unsure of what to do. He laid a hand on Mobius’ cheek, stroking lightly, silently willing him to wake up again.
Which he did, only seconds later… but possibly a few more than it had taken the first time. Mobius’ eyes were frightened, and there was a light sheen of perspiration appearing on his paling skin.
Naturally, the elevator chose that moment to arrive at their floor, so Loki shifted around to block the opened door, holding the elevator until Mobius was able to move.
“Loki?” he all but whispered, “Did I… ?”
”Yeah,” Loki answered him softly, with a calmness he was certainly not feeling.
“Oh. Crap.”
“Mmhm.”
They remained in silence for a short while as Mobius recovered. The colour was coming back to his face, but he still seemed shaky and weak, so Loki insisted he stay put for a few more minutes.
“What’s happening to me?” Mobius eventually muttered.
“I don’t know,” he replied soberly, “I think maybe we need to go to the infirmary, Mobius. It- it could be something serious, or at the very least something that requires treatment.”
Although initially looking rather agitated at the suggestion, Loki watched Mobius’ expression morph into resigned acceptance, realising that Loki was correct.
The very moment they entered the infirmary they managed to cause a scene. Mobius passed out yet again in a reception area that was unprecedentedly full of hunters, all wearing medical-grade face masks. As Loki later discovered, the group had potentially been exposed to some horrific alien virus several day-cycles ago, and after being sufficiently quarantined, were awaiting their final blood results that would give them the all clear.
Loki was very glad that he wasn't aware of this when several of them gathered closely around Mobius, even putting their hands on him in order to roll him into the recovery position. At the time, he was simply grateful for their help… especially given it took close to two minutes for Mobius to rouse.
These episodes were getting longer.
Almost beside himself in worry and fear, Loki valiantly strived to keep his cool in front of all of these unfamiliar people.
When Mobius finally came to, he didn’t even bother saying anything. He merely stared up at Loki fearfully, his head shaking in bafflement.
A flurry of activity followed as Mobius was admitted to the inpatient ward; their only patient, as was often the case when either he or Loki ended up having to stay within this cursed facility. He was promptly gowned up, much to his vocal annoyance, and the medical staff wasted no time at all beginning myriad tests on him; bloodwork, various scans, EEG, ECG, MRI… and a couple more fear-inducing acronyms that meant very little to Loki.
Fortunately, and frankly surprisingly, Mobius remained conscious throughout. In fact, it wasn’t until he was settled back on the ward after the first few procedures that he passed out again, and this time it went on to last a good five minutes or so. Before even one of those minutes had passed, Loki had dashed off down the corridor frantically seeking help, completely forgetting in his blind panic the emergency button right next to Mobius’ bed. He of course beat the first doctor he’d found back to the room, and as he took up Mobius’ hand, his own trembled in apprehension.
Standing in observation, tension increasing by the second, Loki watched the doctor check over Mobius’ vitals, then examine him for the usual things such as pupillary response, reflexes and suchlike.
“Don’t panic,” she said quietly after glancing at Loki, reading him like a book. “Everything here looks fairly normal. However, now that we’ve completed our first sweep of tests, I would like to set him up with a Holter monitor for the time being, so that if he has another fainting spell, we’ll have a better scope of cardiac data to analyse as well.”
Loki nodded on autopilot, barely having taken in anything she’d said. As she departed to go and fetch the device to which she’d referred, he hooked a nearby chair with his foot and dragged it close to the bed, flopping into it with a weary sigh, and not releasing Mobius’ hand for a single moment.
“What do you mean, ‘completely healthy?’” Loki ground out at the exasperated doctor. “It is transparently obvious that this cannot possibly be the case.”
“Oh yeah, thanks for that,” Mobius griped from next to him, though his tone made it clear he was half-kidding. Loki shot a glare at him, unamused.
“It’s true,” the doctor replied, “We can’t find anything medically wrong with him. There’s nothing in any of his results to suggest that he is anything but perfectly fine.”
“Except for the fact my heart keeps stopping just before I pass out,” Mobius supplied almost cheerfully.
That was the third time Loki had heard a variation of that statement, and it still sat with him like a chunk of ice in his stomach.
“Yes. Well. There’s no reason for that, though,” she reiterated, and her furrowed brow betrayed her vexation.
“So what next?” Loki asked, and he hated how helpless he sounded.
She sighed.
“I don’t know, honestly. He must stay here for observation and further monitoring, and in bed as much as possible – it’s far too dangerous for him to be on his feet. Sounds like there was already a near miss on a possible head injury earlier, and with the increase in frequency of these bizarre episodes, inviting further risk is the last thing we need. Other than that…” she trailed off, lifting her shoulder in a feeble shrug.
“Thanks, doc,” Mobius firmly cut Loki off as he’d opened his mouth to express his dissatisfaction yet again.
She gave them a brisk nod, and beat a hasty retreat back towards her office.
Loki sat heavily, burying his face in his hands with a sigh as he leaned forward on his elbows.
“Loki.”
He peeked at Mobius between his fingers, and found blue eyes gazing at him earnestly.
“Hey. It’s okay, I’m okay,” he promised.
“No you’re not,” Loki bit out. “And it drives me crazy that I can’t do anything about it.”
“I don’t expect you to, Loki. No one does,” Mobius said reasonably. “You’re not a doctor, what in the worlds are you supposed to do?”
Pushing himself back to his feet, Loki began pacing agitatedly.
“I may not have medical qualifications, but I did spend centuries studying various branches of science. You’d think I’d be smart enough to figure out something.”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” Mobius said, trying and failing to hide his mild amusement.
“Ordinarily I’d take you straight to a timeline and heal you,” Loki continued, “But there’s nothing my magic can do, when there’s nothing to heal.”
He paced in silence after that, thinking hard, and as a result took far too long to realise that Mobius had been unusually quiet for a while. He spun around to regard him, only to find he’d lost consciousness yet again.
Tears of frustration welled in his eyes as he reached the bed in two quick steps, grasping Mobius’ clammy hand in his once more.
Brains for days, not to mention supreme magical abilities, and yet he couldn’t even help-
Wait. Hold on.
Magical abilities…
Loki thought back to their mission two days ago, where they’d apprehended that witch variant who had been so easily overpowered by Loki’s phenomenal command of his particular brand of magic… unfamiliar as it was to her.
But in hindsight, there had been a moment — nothing more than a fleeting instant — where he was sure he’d heard a vague grunt from Mobius, as though he’d been hit; weathered an impact of some kind. Yet Mobius hadn’t said anything, and he’d been fine afterwards… not to mention, Loki had already cast a spell of protection over Mobius as soon as they’d arrived on the timeline, a usual precaution he took if they were dealing with a case involving magic.
But was it possible that it had failed, somehow?
Pushing his way forcefully into the cell, the requisite accompanying hunter trailing along behind him, Loki glared at their subject menacingly in a way he hoped would convey every drop of red-hot ire currently coursing through his blood.
She wore the regulation TVA jumpsuit, her long dark hair fanning wildly as she spun around to look at him.
”Oh, it’s you,” she smirked, “The magic man.”
Loki stalked closer, plunging his hands into his pockets to prevent himself from doing something that he could get in a lot of trouble for.
She didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by him, which only served to fuel his rage.
How dare she not be affected. If not by him, then at the very least by—
“What have you done to him?” Loki demanded sharply, his voice like cold steel.
She smiled indulgently, folding her arms with casual nonchalance, an eyebrow raised in challenge.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”