Fifteen Minutes

Mobius?

The little glass door moved without a sound when he pulled it.

His fingers carefully held the edge of the cold ceramic plate. He took it to the nearest table.

He grabbed some cutlery and sat down.

If there was anything certain at all in that infinite universe, it was that Mobius would always feel endless pleasure when eating that pie.

He gave it one bite, then two.

Chewed it slowly, enjoying that flavour and all the memories that came with it.

It was hard to be back at the TVA. Mobius thought that it could be a good idea to come back to headquarters after all that had happened. He thought that it would be good to return to some place familiar, which he knew with his eyes closed. He had lived a lifetime in those corridors. A whole life, which he believed to be his only life up to that point.

Then, he happened.

Loki, the God of Mischief. The God of Illusion, of Strategy. One of Odin's sons, one of the heirs to the throne of Asgard. Brother of Thor, the God of Thunder.

Loki had been captured in one ramification of the Sacred Timeline, back when the TVA still pruned all ramifications to preserve the order. Mobius had personally interrogated him. He was the first to believe in him, to see something valuable about him beneath that thick cloak of arrogance, egocentrism, and suspicion.

He had not realised it, not quite. Not until it was too late.

He realised, at last, when he finally met his original life in his original timeline and concluded that he did not feel bad for not being there anymore. He didn't miss it, nor did he regretted it. These feelings, however, only existed because he had Loki by his side.

He had a place to go back to. The TVA, Loki, the Loom - he had another purpose.

Up until he lost it.

Mobius ate the last bite of the lemon pie and stared at the empty plate.

The remnants of the green lemon cream against the white ceramic would bring him back to that day.

Nothing would erase that day from his memory.

Behind that thick metal door, all he could do was watch Loki while he walked towards the Loom.

The ramifications grew and multiplied every second. The Loom was almost collapsing. Victor Timely made himself clear as day - it didn't matter how many times they attempted to expand the Loom, it would never be able to handle that expanding universe because that universe would expand endlessly.

Then, when there were no plans left, Loki went down the stairs, opened the door and closed it behind him.

Unable to open the door again, Mobius watched when Loki walked towards the Loom with his body being hit by the extremely strong and powerful waves of temporal energy. Those waves could end a human being's life in seconds, but Loki was a god. Time did not affect him the same way as it affected the others.

Mobius felt his own heart break when he saw the crack to the After-Time and he finally understood what Loki was about to do.

When the god turned back to look at them all one last time, Mobius could swear on his life that he had looked directly at him. A painful look, but also courageous. A look of someone who knew there was no coming back from that.

Loki was now the Lord of Time.

His power balanced the existence of all infinite ramifications of the universe. He was now at the core of the Tree of Time, which had already been mapped by the TVA. To Mobius, it was only an odd shape in the monitoring screens. The Tree, however, held inside the only thing that truly mattered to him.