Y/N's POV
We both gave Mobius a death glare as he kept on smiling.
"What do you want from us ?" Loki asked.
"Well, let's start with a little cooperation" Mobius said.
"Not my forte" Loki answered.
"Even when you're talking to someone very powerful you intend to betray ?" Mobius asked looking at Loki.
"Or when you manipulate someone into doing whatever you ask ?" Mobius said turning his head towards me.
"You don't know anything about either of us" I said.
"Maybe I'd like to learn"
Mobius opened a can of soda and took a sip before continuing.
"I specialize in the pursuit of dangerous variants" Mobius said.
"Like myself ?" Loki asked.
"No. Particularly dangerous variants. Like Y/N, maybe. You're just a little pussycat" Mobius laughed at his own joke, then looked at a document.
"I got a set of questions for the both of you. You answer them honestly, and then maybe I can give you something you want. You want to get out of here, right ? Let's start there. Should you return, what are you going to do ?"
"Finish what I started" Loki answered.
"Which is ?"
"Claim my throne"
"You want to be King ?"
"I don't want to be, I was born to be"
"I know, but king of what ?"
Loki hesitated.
"The nine realms" I answered for him.
"Ok. So now Loki's the king of the nine realms, what's next ? Happily ever after ? Live in a castle and have a couple kids ?" Mobius said.
We stayed silent.
"What would you do Y/N ?" Mobius asked.
"I'd be Queen of the nine realms"
"I'm confused. Why does someone with so much power, just want to follow ?" Mobius said to me with a confused expression.
"And why does someone with so much range, just want to rule ?" He said turning towards Loki.
"We would've made it easy for them. The first and most oppressive lie ever uttered was the song of freedom" Loki said honestly.
Loki laughed.
"The time-keepers have built quite the circus..." Loki said.
"...And the clowns are playing their parts to perfection" I said, finishing his sentence.
Mobius laughed.
"Is that a couples thing ? Finishing each other's sentences ?"
"Maybe" I said with a smirk.
Mobius pressed a button on the machine and a video was projected in front of us.
"I'm not supposed to merge tapes, but I made an exception for you two, because I know how close you are" Mobius said.
The projection showed the Avenger's Tower a couple hours ago.
"What is this ?" Loki asked.
"A sample of your greatest hits, if you may"
The Avengers appeared on the projection and Loki sighed.
Mobius fast forwarded the video so we were now shown on the video.
"I used my powers on him. There is no escape. Maybe if we give up now, Odin won't kill us" My projection-self said.
"I remember I was there" I said with an annoyed tone.
"For someone born to rule Loki sure does lose a lot" Mobius said to me, completely ignoring Loki.
"Things didn't turn out so well for the last person who said that" Loki said, making Mobius look at him.
"Oh, yeah. Phil Coulson"
On the projection was now an image of the agent we killed earlier.
"Didn't the Avengers come together to literally avenge him by defeating you ?" Mobius asked.
"Little solace for a dead man" Loki said not caring about Coulson's death.
"Do you enjoy hurting people ?" Mobius asked both of us.
The projection now showed the destruction we caused and the people we killed.
"You know what I am ?" Loki asked.
"A murder ?" Mobius asked.
"A liberator" Loki said.
"Of eyeballs maybe" Mobius said referring to the man who's eyeball was the key to getting the iridium we needed.
The projection now showed me manipulating the man and Loki putting a device in his eye while smiling.
"Look at that smile. You are enjoying that. Did you enjoy hurting them ?" Mobius asked.
"I don't have to play this game. I'm a god" Loki said.
"Of what again ? Mischief ? I don't see anything mischievous about this"
Mobius sighed.
"Let's talk about your escapes. You're really good at doing awful things, and then just getting away" Mobius was really focused on Loki. It seemed as if he wanted to break him.
"What can I say ? I'm a mischievous scamp" Loki said sarcastically.
"This one is my favourite" Mobius said as he played another video.
The video showed Loki when he travelled to earth after loosing a bet to Thor.
"I can't believe you were D. B. Cooper !" Mobius said with a laugh.
"I was young, and I lost a bet to Thor. Where was the TVA when I was meddling with these affairs ?"
"We were right there with you, just surfing that Sacred Time Line"
"So that had the Time-Keepers seal of approval ?"
"What are you really running from when you escape ?" Mobius asked and Loki got up.
Mobius used a device to bring Loki back to his chair.
"I was standing up to make a point" Loki said.
"Really ?" Mobius asked.
"Yeah. He does that a lot. For someone who supposedly knows everything we do, you sure don't know our mannerisms" I said.
"I'm sorry, go ahead" Mobius said.
"It won't be as meaningful now" Loki said with actual sadness in his voice.
Loki got up while I stayed seated.
"What exactly is it that you want ?" Loki asked.
"I want you to be honest about why you do what you do" Mobius said.
"Liar" I whispered.
"I'm serious !" He said.
"All I seek is a deeper understanding of the fearsome God of Mischief and the manipulative Goddess of Love" Mobius said with a desperate tone.
I got up and walked next to Loki.
"What makes Loki tick ?" Mobius asked.
"I know what this place is. It's an illusion. It's a cruel elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate attempt at control" Loki said.
"Our choices are our own" Loki said with a threatening glare.
"Your choices are your own. Good let's start with that. I think this one is gonna fire you both up" Mobius clicked on another button.
"If you hadn't picked up the Tesseract and taken Y/N with you, you would've been taken to a cell on Asgard and your precious Y/N would've been locked up in your room and she would've only been allowed to get out when Thor was there to guard her" Mobius showed an image of me in restraint walking with Thor and an image of Loki in a cell on Asgard.
"This never happened" Loki said.
"Not to you two. Not yet. The TVA doesn't just know your whole past, we know your whole life, how it's all meant to be"
The next clip showed Frigga talking to Loki in his cell.
"Then am I not your mother ?" The projection of Frigga said.
"You are not" The 'future' Loki said.
"Then the dark elves attack the palace. Frigga has to defend Thor's girlfriend, Jane, who held the Aether at the time. Y/N is with them, and Frigga asks her to not interfere with what she's about to do. Loki, you give the dark elves exact directions to where you think Thor is, but you actually send them towards your mother and your wife" Mobius narrates.
The projection shows an elf holding Frigga with a sword to her back. The elf stabbed her and my 'future' self ran towards her body. The video pauses and the projection shows Frigga's corpse with me next to her, on my knees crying.
Loki and I were shocked. This couldn't be true.
"Where do you have her ? Where is she ?" Loki asked.
They must've been holding her captive somewhere.
"You lead them right to her" Mobius told Loki.
"It can't be true" I said.
"You're lying" Loki said.
"It is the truth"
"Where is she ?" I said.
"Tell me, Loki, do you enjoy hurting people ?" Mobius said.
"I'll kill you" Loki said.
"Like you did your mother ?" Mobius asked.
Loki threw a chair at Mobius but he dodged. Mobius was slowly getting angry.
"You weren't born to be king, Loki. You were born to cause pain and suffering and death" Mobius told Loki.
He then turned to face me.
"And you're just a follower. Think about it. Have you ever done anything for yourself ? It's as if your only reason to live is Loki"
It's true. But according to everyone I've ever known, it was my destiny to protect the one I loved, so I never questioned it.
Mobius calmed down, and the door opened to reveal the agent who had caught us earlier.
"What are you doing ?" She asked Mobius.
"My job. Is it yours to interrupt ?"
"We have a situation"
Mobius sighed.
"Don't go anywhere" He told Loki and I before walking outside and closing the door behind him.
"What now ?" Loki asked.
"You should start by thanking me" I said as I handed him the device Mobius used to control us.
"You're a genius, as always Darling" He held my hand and used the device to teleport us to somewhere else.
We were in a hallway and we walked around for a bit, until we found an office with a dozen cubicles. The secretary from earlier was at his desk, quietly working. He had the Tesseract with him, and if we wanted to escape we needed the space cube.
"Hey" Loki whisper-screamed at the secretary before grabbing his arm and hiding behind a desk.
"I know you ! You're the criminal couple with the blue box !" The secretary said with a cheerful tone.
"What's your name ?" Loki asked.
"Casey"
"Give me the Tesseract or we'll gut you like a fish, Casey" Loki threatened.
"What's a fish ?" Casey asked scared.
"What's a fish ? How do you not know what a fish is ?" I asked.
"I've lived my entire life behind a desk" He answered.
"What difference does it make ?" Loki asked getting angry.
"I'd like to know what I'm being threatened with before I comply" Casey said casually.
"Death, Casey. Violent, painful death" Loki said.
"I comply. Jeez !" Casey opened a drawer and Loki quickly grabbed the Tesseract.
I looked inside the drawer and I couldn't believe what I saw.
There were multiple infinity stones.
"How do you have these ?" I asked confused.
"We get a lot of those, actually. Some of the guys use them as paperweights" Casey said with a laugh.
Loki grabbed a time stone and looked at it. We walked around the office in shock. Loki still had the Tesseract in his hands and I realized that it didn't glow as much as usual.
"Is this the greatest power in the universe ?" Loki said with a look of disbelief on his face.
Hunter B-15 was behind us holding her baton ready to reset us, whatever that meant.
Loki used the device to teleport us both back to the office we were in not too long ago.
It was just us now. We sat on the two chairs left at the table.
"I think we should watch the rest of our future" I proposed.
"Agreed" Loki said, slight shock still in his voice.
He opened the computer and began going forward in time. He stopped at Frigga's death. Her dead body was shown on the screen.
Loki's breath began trembling. It didn't take long for the both of us to silently break down in tears.
"She dies in the future and there's nothing we can do about it" I said.
Loki wiped my tears, then his and continued rolling the tape at maximum speed.
He stopped when the screen showed Odin sitting on a rock next to Thor, Loki and I.
"I love you my children. Remember this place, home" Odin dissolved into golden dust. He died in the future too.
Loki and I were crying messes. We couldn't hold the tears back.
"Loki, I thought the world of you. I thought we were gonna fight side by side forever" Future Thor said on the tape.
The next scenes shocked me.
Loki had a dagger in his hand and he tried stabbing a purple Titan. The titan used an infinity stone to stop Loki's dagger.
The Titan grabbed Loki's neck and began choking him. My future self tried running towards him, but a guard held me in place. Future Loki smiled at my future self before dying.
My future self got out of the guard's grip, conjured a dagger and stabbed the Titan. The Titan turned around and grabbed the dagger in his shoulder and used it to stab my stomach.
I fell on Loki's corpse and an injured Thor ran towards me.
"Avenge us" Those were my last words before I died.
Loki gasped.
We were in complete shock. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't true.
The tape ended and the computer closed.
Loki began laughing.
Someone opened the door and when we turned around we saw B-15.
"What's so funny ?" She asked as she closed the door behind her.
"Glorious purpose" Loki said.
We walked in front of B-15, Loki tried punching her, but she grabbed his wrist and punched him back.
I grabbed the time twister on the table and unlocked the device around my neck. I put the device on B-15 and used the time twister to teleport her.
I removed Loki's choker and handed him the time twister.
"You save me once again" He said.
"You need a lot of saving lately" I said.
Loki began teleporting B-15 between the office we were in and the hallway very quickly.
"Sto- Thi- No- !" She tried saying, but she could never finish her sentence.
Loki stopped after awhile and teleported her far away from us.
Loki sat on the stairs and sighed.
Mobius walked in the room holding a baton.
"Loki, Y/N" He said slowly.
"We can't go back, can we ?" Loki said.
Mobius stayed silent.
"I don't enjoy hurting people. I don't think Y/N does either" Loki said and I agreed.
"I do it because I have to, because we've had to" Loki told Mobius.
"Explain that" Mobius said.
"It's part of the illusion, it's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak, me, to inspire fear" Loki said in a sad tone.
"A desperate play for control" Mobius said finally understanding Loki's ideology.
Loki grabbed the Tesseract that was next to him.
"Tried to use that ?" Mobius said with a smile.
"Oh, several time. Even an infinity stone is useless here" I said.
"I can't offer you salvation, but maybe I can offer you something better. A fugitive variant has been killing our minutemen" Mobius explained as we walked in front of him.
"And you need the God of Mischief and the Goddess of Love to help you solve that ?" Loki asked.
"That's right"
"Why us ?" I asked.
"The variant we're hunting is a Loki"
Published : 03-11-21
Number of Words : 2492
Edited : 06-05-22