Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Prune him.”

As soon as Ravonna’s said the words, Hunter D-90 launches himself at Mobius, pruning baton stretched out before him. Loki grabs the man by his coat and pulls him aside just in time. The other hunters activate their batons and move in too. Ravonna watches, face tight.

“What do we do?” Loki asks, eyes wide, as he dodges a swing.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control.” Mobius assures him, taking a TemPad from his coat’s pocket- Ravonna’s wasn’t the only one he’d had on him. He dials in a few numbers, presses a button, and the familiar orange glow of a Timedoor blooms in the center of the room.

Loki takes the hint.

They make their way through the chaos, narrowly escaping the orange tips of the hunters’ batons several times. They dart through the portal unscathed, their surroundings changing around them. Mobius is quick to deactivate the Timedoor, a relieved sigh escaping him.

“Where are we?” Loki wonders, prompting his companion to look up and examine their surroundings.

The sky here is a deep purple, darker than the sky of Lamentis-1. There’s a mountain literally feet from them, on their left, and an ocean perhaps a couple of miles to their right. In the open stretch of land between, there’s a small town up ahead. The sound of alien crickets tells them that it’s night on this foreign planet, and Mobius knows that the townspeople will be too busy sleeping to notice their arrival.

“Somewhere safe.” He finally says, allowing his exhausted shoulders to sag and release the tension that had built up over the last few hours. He starts for the town, not putting much effort into a fast pace. “Come on, I know a place we can stay for now.”

"We really don't know what we're doing, but we're not doing too bad at it, are we?" Mobius muses, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Loki rolls his eyes. "Well, we're both still alive, so, yeah."

It’s been five days since their miraculous escape from the TVA. Things seem to be going well, even if the first signs of the planet’s apocalypse are beginning to show themselves- the sky isn’t supposed to be red. Loki’s conjured them both cloaks to wear whenever they head out to grab some food, despite the fact that they only go out at night.

To Mobius, it feels weird- the whole being-independent thing. He’s always had the TVA- well, for as long as he can remember- but there’s only Loki now. Isolating himself with a god who would have loved to have killed him little over a week ago is much different than going out on missions with B-15 and a team of Minutemen. The tables have really turned since this Loki popped into his life. He’s surprised at how little it bothers him.

They’re staying in the abandoned house of an elderly couple who passed away about a year ago. The dust is slowly fading as the outcasts make use of the place, hiding themselves away from the TVA. Mobius knows that Ravonna has men out there, somewhere in the universe, looking for them. He knows that it’ll take them some time to find them, but he keeps his TemPad on hand at all times anyway, just in case. Loki doesn’t appreciate the paranoia.

“Mobius?”

“Hmm?” He turns slightly where he sits on the couch, but only so he can have the god in his peripheral vision.

“Is this our lives now? Are we just going to keep running away until age catches up with us in a few millennia?” Loki questions, a small bitter touch to his tone.

Mobius shakes his head, turning away and settling deeper into the furniture’s cushions. “For now. We need to lay low, let Ravonna blow off some steam and think we’re gone.”

“But what about Sylvie? We just left her there, with no way out.”

“For what it’s worth, she’s one of the most dangerous variants I’ve ever met. She’ll be fine.”

“But you’ve seen how powerful the TVA is. Infinity Stones are useless.” Loki scoffs. “Did you not see the look on Renslayer’s face when she told them to kill you? She’s heartless.”

Mobius winces.

“Friends across time, allies to the end.”

He sighs. His voice is quiet, just above a whisper. “She’ll be fine.”

“Loyalty and friendship, it makes you weak.” The god snarls.

Mobius opens his mouth, almost closing it again as he struggles to reply, fully turning to him. “What are we, then, if not friends?”

The trickster looks up sharply at the words. A frown marrs his features, but it’s more of an uncertain look than anything, the fire behind his words faltering just a little. “We’re not enemies, Mobius. But we’re far from being friends.”

“Okay. Maybe we aren’t friends, but Ravonna and I were. I can’t just...hate her for what happened back in the TVA.” He says, his own voice growing bitter. “But you wouldn’t understand friends anyway, would you? All you’ve ever done is push people away and leave them in the dust of your mistakes.”

“Like I said, trust is for children- and dogs.”

“Great, so now I’m a child.” Mobius sighs, deflating at that. He turns away, eyes landing on a framed photograph of the couple who’d lived here previously. But he doesn’t see it, it’s just something to look at that isn’t Loki’s resentment. “You know, you were changing, becoming someone new. Why’s that undoing itself? You love that variant so much that leaving her behind’s turning you into Sacred Timeline Loki again. Scheming, broody, hateful-”

“-I get it. Go find someone else to criticize, maybe they’ll actually take it into consideration of reworking their lives before they die here.” Loki hisses. His eyes bear into the other man’s back like daggers. “Maybe I should have let her prune you, let things play out until I met Sylvie again, then taken down the TVA as we planned.”

He swallows, his heart stinging at the harsh words. But his voice remains a soft murmur. “You don’t mean that.”

“I mean it.”

“You don’t. But I’ll let you tell yourself that you do. Maybe you’ll finally see the truth of it once the TVA catches up with us.”

Mobius gets up from the couch and slowly heads for the front door. He pauses, briefly, at the kitchen table, where Loki sits, and hands him his TemPad. He asks him a silent question. Do you want to leave?

Loki’s fierce expression falters a little, but he doesn’t take the TemPad.

He puts it away. He stops at the front door, pulling his cloak on. He casts the god an exhausted glance, then leaves the house. He really needs to go on a walk.

Chapter Text

It’s unnaturally warm outside for this time of day.

The red sky is slowly growing a little lighter as the night ends and day approaches. This heat is supposed to be mid-day weather for this planet, from what Mobius has learned in the few days they’ve been around. Not to mention that the sky is supposed to be purple. Not for the first time, he wishes he’d paid more attention to the apocalypses he and Loki had studied in their hunt for Sylvie.

His best guess about this planet is that it’s a heat wave. In a few days, at this rate, everyone’ll be roasted like chicken- he’d better stop that train of thought there, or else he’ll never look at chicken the same way again. But for now, they still have a little time before they need to leave. The apocalypse, ironically, is not his biggest concern.

That would be Loki.

The God of Mischief had spat out some words that make Mobius’s insides churn, words that refuse to leave his head, even if he is on this walk to try to put it all aside.

“Loyalty and friendship, it makes you weak.”

“Go find someone else to criticize, maybe they’ll actually take it into consideration of reworking their lives before they die here.”

“Maybe I should have let her prune you, let things play out until I met Sylvie again, then taken down the TVA as we planned.”

Mobius is glad that he’s not as temperamental as Loki, even if he does regret a little of what he said back there. He fears that if he was like that, he’d have said much worse. Perhaps something along the lines of wishing he’d left the pair of Loki variants back on Lamentis-1. And that’s something he’d never truly wish for.

But, still, Loki’s nature and lack of close relationships don’t make the words he said any more acceptable than they should be.

“Maybe I should have let her prune you.”

“Maybe I should have let her prune you.”

“Maybe I should have let her prune you.”

No, they are most definitely not friends; not yet.

“You know, you were changing, becoming someone new. Why’s that undoing itself?”

Why can’t you handle feelings? What’s going through your head?

He doesn’t need to ask that question; he already knows why- sympathy towards Sylvie, a friendship of sorts formed while outrunning the debris of a planet colliding with a moon. But he has to admit, just to himself, that he is jealous of their bond. Apparently, it’s stronger than his own with Loki. What happened out there?

Mobius sighs, shaking his head to clear the thoughts away. He lifts his gaze back to the horizon, trying to appreciate the beauty of the planet’s landscape, despite the unnatural color of the sky warning of the impending apocalypse.

The universe is seemingly beginning to fall apart, his friendships and reality with it, but he still has something to fight for; the universe can’t very well save itself, nor can the TVA reform itself.

Reforming the TVA, it’s become his new personal goal. He’d accomplish it, eventually, when things cool down- metaphorically speaking, anyway; this planet is only going to get hotter.

He allows himself to come to a stop, a little ways out from the town behind him. He runs a hand through his dishevelled silvery hair, feeling the first beads of sweat forming on his scalp. He grimaces, noting that it’s indeed going to be a hot day. Maybe the timeframe is shorter than he’d previously thought.

His tired eyes- God, he hasn’t even done much yet today- watch as the sun begins to peek up from behind the beautiful mountains, silhouetting them against the slightly-lighter red light.

Then another, brighter light winks into existence, out by the beach, on his left. He freezes, eyes straining to lock onto the rectangular orange shape. And he recognizes it.

He’d recognize a Timedoor anywhere.

Shit.

It’s the TVA.

So much for getting a breather.

A group of dark figures emerges from the portal.

“There’s one!” Someone shouts in the distance, pointing towards him.

He’s a deer caught in the headlights.

They start towards him.

He does the first thing that he can think of; he draws his TemPad from within his pocket and punches in the coordinates to the one place they won’t expect him to go to.

Loki’ll be fine, he tells himself.

Mobius goes back to the TVA.

He walks through the familiar halls at a brisk pace, eyes sharp as he heads for Time Theater 47.

It’s where Sylvie should be. It’s where he’d seen her be led off too, anyway, when she and Loki had been brought in. As far as he’s aware, she is still there. But with his luck...he can only hope.

He might as well break her out while he’s here, right? Settle his issue with Loki while he can, before he pushes him even farther away. Because who knows how long they’ll be on the run before they get the chance to return and do some real damage to the TVA.

He’s lucky not to run into anyone. The halls seem oddly empty, and he almost wonders if he’s been set up and is walking straight into a trap. Luck hasn’t really been his thing lately, so he really won’t be surprised if that’s the case. But he’ll definitely be disappointed if his miraculous escape from a pruning was only for him to come back to something like that.

But that’s not the case. Not exactly, anyway.

When he reaches the Time Theater, he’s faced with a group of Minutemen. Hunter B-15 still stands at her post there. Most of them activate their pruning batons at the mere sight of him and he grimaces, realizing he’s not armed himself. Real smooth, Mobius.

“Well, this is a bit awkward.”

Chapter Text

For a moment, it’s deadly silent. No one moves.

Then there’s a flash of maroon as Hunter B-15 whips out her own pruning baton and slams it into the guard closest to her. It hits his face and he crumples to the ground.

The other three guards whirl around on her and Mobius is quick to use the distraction to grab the weapon of the fallen Minuteman. He tears the helmet off of one of the guards and whacks him over the head and he collapses in a heap.

One of the two remaining Minutemen spins around and slams him across the stomach, sending him to the floor. He grunts as he hits the stairs awkwardly, his back protesting. His weapon rolls out of his reach, clattering down each of the steps loudly. The guard aims the glowing end of his pruning baton at him. Mobius struggles to catch his breath.

“You’re making a mistake.” He gasps, propping himself up a little. In reality, coming here wasn’t the best idea either. “This is bigger than you understand. It’s not too late to back out.”

The man’s face shifts into something of uncertainty as he contemplates his words. And then B-15’s baton is knocking into his head and he slumps to the side, limply falling to the floor.

The hunter deactivates her weapon and clips it back to her utility belt.

“Thanks?” Mobius manages, surprised by her choice in allegiances.

“She’s inside.” B-15 tells him, throwing a thumb over her shoulder at the Time Theater.

“Good.” He murmurs, allowing his former coworker to help him up to his feet. His ribs ache. “I guess I got lucky with this, then, didn’t I?”

Hunter B-15 rolls her eyes, hauling one of the large doors open for him.

And inside, sitting with her feet propped on the table, is Sylvie. There’s an air of impatience about her as she gets up and walks towards them. Definitely a Loki.

“Wait, it’s safer if we go inside.” Mobius points out. “Don’t exactly need Ravonna to know I’m here yet.”

The variant shoots him a curiously displeased glance. “What did you do?"

“You mean, other than just help take out your guards?” He frowns as he and B-15 slip inside the cell and close the door. “It turns out that just a little bit of truth can get a man killed around here.”

“Then you know that we’re variants?” B-15 asks.

With a grimace, he nods. “Yeah. I know.”

He wonders how she knows. Probably something to do with Sylvie, he muses, recalling how Loki had told him that she could access memories through enchantment.

“Where’s Loki?” Sylvie demands, not even trying to be polite about it.

“Tucarro.” Mobius tells her, suddenly freezing as he remembers the situation he’d left the god in at the time of his unexpected departure. “Ah…”

“What is it?”

“We gotta get back fast.” He decides, grabbing for his TemPad and dialing in the coordinates as quick as his fingers will move. “Ravonna’s got a team down there right now. Loki and I only have one TemPad between us...”

“You really didn’t think about this when you left, did you?” Sylvie snorts, a tad of amusement hidden beneath her unimpressed expression.

B-15 shoots her a disapproving look. “Now’s not the time for this. Mobius?”

“Hang on.” What year was it?

“The apocalypse was in 677 AD.” Sylvie supplies with an impatient eye roll.

Mobius gapes at her as he enters the year into the TemPad. “Just how many apocalypses have you been to?”

“Obviously more than you.”

He shakes his head and activates the Timedoor. “Let’s go.”

The portal takes them directly into the house.

The first thing that registers in Mobius’s mind are the sounds of something slamming into the front door, followed by grunts as someone- Loki- holds the door shut. He doesn’t even have time to be relieved that he’s still alive.

“Loki!” Mobius calls, announcing their arrival.

“Are you going to help me?” The god bites out, the sarcasm not quite making its point over the desperation in his tone.

He closes the Timedoor, exchanging an exasperated glance with B-15. Sylvie merely rolls her eyes and heads in the direction of her counterpart’s voice.

Mobius has half a mind to sink down to the floor and take a moment, but there’s no time. It’s already much warmer than it was when he left. At this rate, if the TVA doesn’t manage to get in, they’ll just bake to death- neither sound very pleasant.

So, he follows Sylvie down the hall to the back door. B-15’s on his heels, understanding that he’s more aware of the situation on hand than she is. He pulls the cloak off as he does, deciding that the article was slowing him down. Why he hadn’t ditched it before his quick stop by the TVA, he didn’t know.

Loki’s literally putting his back into the door, face twisted in a grimace at how uncomfortable it must be. His jaw hangs open as they walk in to meet him. “Sylvie?”

“You really can’t do anything yourself, can you?” She snarks, gesturing her head away from the door. “Move.”

“Now, that’s just rude.” He frowns, though he does as she says. “What are you going to do-”

There’s a flash of brilliant green light around the door’s edges, and suddenly there are metal clamps locking themselves into place, bolting the door to its frame. The wood groans against the weight of a Minuteman launching himself at it, but the door remains still. The tension in the room eases, just a little.

“...I should’ve thought of that.”

“What about the front door?” Mobius asks, glancing at Loki.

“I threw the fridge in front of it.” He replies.

Sylvie scoffs. “That’ll never hold.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like we’re going to stay here.” Mobius tells her.

The door makes a mild splintering sound and they all wince.

“Where will we go?” B-15 questions.

The former TVA analyst glances at Sylvie. “Your pick.”

Chapter Text

Jotunheim. Sylvie chooses Jotunheim.

And the apocalypse? Well, that would be what Earth’s people call global warming.

The ice is melting. Half of what they can see appears to be just...water. The air is warm- for Jotunheim, anyway- though it’s still much too cold for Mobius’s liking. He can see B-15 clench her jaw tight so that her teeth won’t knock together when her jaw shivers. He wishes he hadn’t chosen to ditch the cloak. Could’ve been useful.

"Oh, lovely. Ice. And it's melting." Loki drawls, using the environment to voice his distaste of his birth planet. “We'll just slip and slide our way to somewhere safe.”

At least you’re not freezing. Mobius huffs in mild annoyance, glancing at the TemPad’s battery level before pocketing the device. "We'll have to make it work. This thing only has enough juice for one more jump. We need to find somewhere to charge it."

"And somewhere that'll keep us from freezing to death." B-15 adds, as if reading his mind.

"Yeah. That too." He agrees, pulling his TVA-issued coat tighter around his shoulders.

Sylvie merely shrugs. “You let me choose.”

Mobius lets out a long-suffering sigh, scanning the landscape for any traces of, well, anything- anything that isn’t just water and ice. A shelter would be nice for the time being, at the very least. A settlement would be almost like actually hitting the jackpot gold-panning in a river, unlikely to happen, but a blessing.

“Where do we even begin?” B-15 asks, apparently not seeing anything more than he is.

He doesn’t have an answer for her, Sylvie chooses not to respond, and Loki is interested in another topic altogether.

"You went back to the TVA? Alone?" He’s facing Mobius, his eyebrows raised in something akin to disbelief.

"Yeah, I did." He doesn’t even try to keep all of the scorn from his voice. "You're welcome, by the way."

As he stalks off to start traversing the endless expanse of ice and water, leaving the group in stunned silence, he catches Loki's face twisting into a look of guilt. But he doesn't stop to hear apologies that should’ve come sooner. Trying to listen and be his compassionate self doesn’t seem to get him anywhere with this Loki- he’d learned that back on Tucarro. It seems that he needs to be more direct about things now, more forceful. They are on the run, after all, and he shouldn't leave room for argument.

Loki calls after him. “Mobius!”

He ignores it.

"What did you say to him?" He hears Sylvie ask, sounding rather puzzled.

"Quite a few things I shouldn't have." The god sounds almost mournful.

B-15 lets out an unimpressed sigh and quietly says something that sounds like,“I think you broke him.”

“You’ve never seen him act like that?”

“No.”

“...I’ve really messed up, haven’t I?”

Sylvie snorts, amused at the disarray between the others.

“You think?” B-15’s voice raises in the first traces of what might be anger.

Mobius sighs and shakes his head, tuning them out.

While he’d originally hoped that moving would help him keep warm to some extent, he finds himself chilled to the bone in a matter of minutes. His limbs are numb, now, his fingers and toes stiff. His breath billows out in front of him. He tries not to pay any attention to any of it, to use it as motivation to push on and put his focus in keeping his footing on the ice. But with no sign of anything useful in sight, he’s really just trying to walk away from the others. Shame that they’re following, though he supposes that they won’t last long without him anyway. Why am I always the glue?

It doesn’t take the others long to fall silent, and he spares them a glance to make sure they’re all still there. They are. B-15’s making a point to ignore the pair of Lokis, who walk in stride just behind her. Sylvie appears unaffected by anything, but Loki is clearly sulking. Good for him.

...When did I turn so bitter?

It’s still cold. Very cold.

Mobius has no idea how neither he or B-15 have dropped to the icy ground yet.

He reaches up to run a hand through his hair, only to reel back in surprise as pain erupts in his fingers as they connect with his forehead instead. He curses the cold, tries again, and curses the cold a second time when he finds that his hair’s nearly frozen.

Next time, I choose where we’re going.

A wave of relief rushes through him when he finally sees something that appears to be out of place on the horizon. He thinks it’s what’s left of Laufey’s palace. He hopes it is. He’s tired of walking, tired of being cold, tired of...well, a lot of things.

“Mobius!” It’s Loki.

“I see it.” It comes out as a near-whisper, and he realizes he hasn’t spoken a single word in a few hours. He clears his throat, but can’t be bothered to repeat what he’d said.

"Mobius, wait." He can hear Loki struggling to catch up to him. "Please."

Oh, great. A pep talk.

"Would it kill you to leave me alone?" He calls over his shoulder.

“Mobius, listen to me.”

Gee, he really does say my name a lot when he's desperate, Mobius notes. The pleading tone in the god’s voice reminds him of his questioning after Lamentis-1. He sighs through his teeth, reluctantly slowing his pace just a little. He has long legs, he’ll catch up.

Loki catches up soon enough, and falls into step beside him. "Mobius...I'm sorry."

"Really?" He doesn't even turn his head to look at the god. The part of him that's still angry doesn't want to accept his apology.

The other man sighs. "I...I was wrong, Mobius. I swear, I didn't mean any of it."

Mobius's face twitches, but he doesn't say anything, doesn't stop walking. There’s nothing to say, not to that.

The god sighs, takes the hint, and tries a different approach. "Thank you. For going back for Sylvie. I...you didn't have to do that."

It's so sincere that he has to stop and face Loki.

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t have you putting it against me for who-knows-how-long-we’ll-be-on-the-run.” He points out, his voice having softened. “Having the only other person with me antagonizing me the whole time we’re out here, that doesn’t sound very entertaining.”

“You could’ve been killed.” His companion almost murmurs, eyes downcast. “I’m sorry.”

Mobius gives a sad little smile and pats his arm. “I know.”

Loki seems to regain a little confidence at the gesture, enough to change the subject. “...You look cold.”

“I am cold.” He admits. “Can’t feel my fingers.”

“I’ll conjure you up a coffee, if you want, when we get to those ruins.” The god promises.

“I’d like that.” Mobius says. “But I hope you know that it won’t make up for half the things you said.”

“I know. I promise that I’ll try to do better.”

“That’s the best I can ask for.”

“We’re not going to stand around here all day, are we?” Sylvie asks scornfully, as she and B-15 arrive, though there’s a pleased light to her eyes at the scene laid about before her.

Mobius smiles at her. “No. Come on.”

As they turn and resume their trek across the ice, he catches a glimpse of B-15 looking more relieved than he’s ever seen her before. And he knows that everything’ll work out fine, if only in their group and not the whole TVA reforming thing.

And he can’t ask for more than that.