Time will Tell

Multiverse Madness

"Loki?" Carrie walked over the to the table and sat on the chair next to him "Why didn't you tell me who you were?" she asked quietly, still looking pale and shaken.  

"Would you have believed me if I had?" he took her hand in his and looked into her face, searching for some scrap of comfort.  This was beyond anything he had believed possible.  Not only did she know who he was but she was still talking to him.  For now.

"No.  Probably not." she shook her head and withdrew her hand from his.  Where once, she had craved his touch, the revelation that she was merely an echo of the woman he truly loved had broken her heart.  She couldn't allow the fact she still wanted him like she wanted air, to distract them from their purpose. "We need to listen to Mobius, he has something he needs us - all of us , Stephen included, to do."

"Ok, enough!" Loki finally snapped. Carrie was being weirdly cold with him and now this Mobius, whoever he was , not only knew all about them - Strange included - but seemed to be pulling the strings. He did what he wanted, not what some little jumped up pen-pusher told him to! "I want to know WHO you are, WHERE this is and WHAT THE HELL is going on?"

"Sure you do Loki. " Mobius smiled and stood, walking over the the screen in front of them, currently displaying a picture of Loki from 2012. "you love to be the one in charge don't you? The one calling the shots. Just love to be the manipulator.  Well now, the shoe is on the other foot and you don't like it do you." he wasn't crowing about it, he was, putting it bluntly telling the truth.  "you're cruel for fun and you don't care about anyone or anything that doesn't suit you." Mobius stopped and looked at him, "well, up until Carrie that is. "

Loki shot him a look, his eyes full of regret as the truth about him, hearing if from someone else, stung.  "You leave Carrie out of this " he growled hoarsely. "She's got NOTHING to do with you or any of this - whatever THIS is." his eyes narrowed as he gestured round the room.

"Ah now see that's a lie and you know it." Mobius walked over to where Carrie sat and put both his hands on her shoulders "it's because of her, you're here."  Carrie looked up at Mobius and he nodded silently.  She stood up and walked the couple of paces to him, crouching next to him, a pale ghost of a smile on her face.

"Loki, they know about us, what we did.  They saw. " she closed her eyes for a moment, the feelings surging through her again.  Feelings she had to suppress. "They said it's changed things, for me, for you, for everything." she stood up again and squeezed his hand "Please, for me if not for yourself, listen to him ok?" her eyes were full of tears and Loki had the darkest sense of dread he'd ever had, other than the day the Dark Order had threatened him.

He swallowed and looked at her softly, for her he would do anything, for her he would tear worlds apart. Set fire to this version of hell they were currently in. He nodded and turned to Mobius 

"Go on.  Amuse me."

So Mobius sat down and talked.  And talked and then just for good measure, talked some more.  His voice was extraordinarily soothing.  It was as if he had done this kind of thing his whole life.  On one level, Loki was slightly in awe of the man, how could he deal with this - this bureaucracy without going completely insane - but on another felt incredibly sorry for him.  It appeared this was his whole life.  Nothing more, nothing less. Didn't he have a wife?  Children?  A life?

He became aware the voice had stopped.  Fortunately he had been listening while he pondered.

"So what you're saying is that even if we reach the book - Strange's plan - it wont work? So we have to trap him instead?  At - " and here Loki gave a wry smile "at the end of time?"  

"Yes." Mobius shrugged.  "The book only gives you one thing, the answer to a question.  It will only tell you HOW to defeat Thanos, it won't do it for you. A waste of time and a danger you cannot afford to risk.  If he follows you and asks for something, you can bet your life it wont be the secret recipe for KFC" he smirked and Carrie snorted with laughter.  Loki just looked like they'd lost their minds. 

"Oh Lokes, I'll explain later" she giggled, despite the situation they found themselves in, his endearing lack of knowledge made her love him all the more. Shit.  There was those bloody feelings surfacing again.  With an effort she composed herself.

"The problem is, Thanos knows you and Strange.  You won't get within a hundred yards of him, let alone lure him into any kind of portal.  There's only one possible way to do this.  We use the tempad to move to somewhere he is and I have to do it. I have to get him to the end of time.  He'll never see it coming.  He won't be able to get back either - the infinity stones are just paperweights here. No power. He'll be trapped forever.  We then use the tempad for everyone to return to their own time."

"NO ABSOLUTELY NOT NO WAY I AM NOT ALLOWING THIS." Loki stood and ranted at the pair of them.  "you could get hurt, or trapped or..." he trailed off.  Mobius looked at his feet and Carrie just put a hand on his arm. He couldn't even contemplate the consequences of her getting hurt - or the inevitable agony if they succeeded.

"Loki, " she said softly, "we don't have a choice.  This really is the only way." she looked at him sadly "Believe me if there was I wouldn't be doing it.  I really rather like my life here."  she paused and smiled, allowing herself one last crumb. "with you." she too refused to think about the reality of him leaving.  He would be going back to a life with his love.  She would not.

Loki sat down with a thump and a sigh.  He knew she was right.  Then a thought struck him "What's a tempad?" he asked. 

"This" Mobius held up a small device, similar size and shape to a mobile phone. "I'll show you how it works.... " 

For the next couple of hours, they got used to the pad and refined how to jump from one timeline to another and forward and back.  

At last they were ready.  The only thing now was to work out how to find him and trap him.  They decided that Carrie would carry the tempad, it's memory set to the correct co-ordinates by Mobius, then as she got close to Thanos, open the portal and quite literally push him through.  She could close it before he even knew what had happened. Risky but doable.

"How do we convince Strange though? He didn't want Carrie involved any more than me" Loki said, omitting it was for very different reasons. 

"Don't worry, if you say I sent you, he'll understand" Mobius smiled and they stared at him incredulously.

"Strange KNOWS about this place?" Loki said in a half whisper "he never breathed a word!"

"No, he was under oath not to.  How do you think we let them have the Eye?  It's a TIME stone after all is it not?"  With that Mobius stood and closed both Loki and Carrie's files with a thud. "Right, time to get this show on the road.  Oh and Loki" he turned and motioned to Hunter B15 who had been standing there the whole time, she handed over her baton.  "you might want to take this," he passed it onto Loki with a look "You never know.  It will deal with any resistance" 

With a nod, Loki took it and as a portal opened to the side of them, took Carrie's arm and walked through.  "Don't take this the wrong way, but I really hope we never see you again!" he called as they left the TVA man standing with his files.

Mobius watched as the portal closed and turned away.  He left the room with B15 tripping over the edge of the chair where Loki had shoved it roughly to the side.  As he did so, a magazine fell out of one of the folders.  With a quick glance at B15, he snatched it up and stuffed it back in before she noticed.  He would have time to read that later.  One day he mused, as he put out the light and closed the door, one day he would get that jet ski.