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Týr hummed an out-of-tune melody to himself as he flipped through another one of Mobius' jet-ski magazines. He was sitting back in his chair, legs crossed and feet up on Mobius' desk.
He genuinely hadn't felt like causing too much chaos today, which was why he was keeping his distance from Ravonna's office, but they seriously couldn't expect him to sit in that awful cell-like room all day every day. It wasn't like anything else interesting happened around here anyway, unless, of course, he was the one who caused it.
At least that was what he had thought before a raven-haired man in a TVA jumpsuit, matching his own, slipped into the room, looking incredibly suspicious.
The man glanced around, before quickly approaching Casey, a worker whom Týr often took great enjoyment in frightening. He whispered something as he got Casey's attention.
"Hey! I know you!" Casey exclaimed, causing the man to shush him as he pushed them both behind a desk. "You're that criminal with the blue box-"
Týr swivelled round in his chair, taking his feet off the desk and scooting closer, straining his ears to listen to the hushed conversation.
"What's your name?" The man whispered.
"Casey?"
"Give me the Tesseract, or I'll gut you like a fish, Casey!"
Týr stifled a snort of laughter at the man's attempt at being threatening.
"What's a fish?" Casey asked, loudly, quickly being shushed, before he repeated in a hushed voice, "What's a fish?"
At this, Ty was unable to contain his amusement and let out a short laugh, drawing the attention of a few other workers, but most of them were aware of his antics at this point and, so, remained unbothered.
"How do you not know what a fish is?"
"I've lived my entire life behind a desk-"
"Well, what difference does it make?"
"I wanna know exactly what I'm being threatened with before I comply." Casey explained.
"Death, Casey! Violent, painful death!"
"Okay! Okay. I comply, I comply. I comply, jeez." The worker slowly stood up, opening a drawer in his cart and pulling out a glowing, blue box, handing it the the man.
The ravenette sighed as he took it and Týr grinned. He knew very well that things like that were useless here.
The man paused as he looked into the drawer. "What? Infinity stones? H-How... How do you have these?"
"Oh, we actually get a lot of those. Yeah. Some of the guys use them as paperweights. Some of em'."
The man slowly stood up, looking around like a lost child, and walked over to the centre of the room, staring at the screen that showed the Sacred Timeline. He was followed by Casey, who pushed his cart after him.
"Is this the greatest power in the universe?"
At that moment, the elevator dinged as it opened, B-15 rushing out with two other hunters in tow.
"And that's my cue." Týr muttered, setting the magazine back down on Mobius' desk. He made eye-contact with B-15, grinning at her and winking, before he disappeared in a flash of blue.
He hadn't really focused on where he wanted to warp to, and so now found himself in one of the TVA's many identical interrogation rooms. Odin, it had been a while since he was last in one of these.
The projection screen was displaying what Týr recognised to be the Avengers. He was pretty sure they had been some sort of combat group on Midgard, but the only member he could easily recognise was Thor.
Huh. What kind of Variant's file would contain the Avengers?
The brunette took a seat in one of the chairs by the table, leaning over to fiddle with the projector, when the same raven-haired man from earlier appeared, crashing onto the floor with a grunt.
-
Loki panted, moving to toss the time-twister up onto the table, only then noticing he was not alone.
The man, sitting on the opposite side of the table to him, raised his hand, giving a little wave, "Hi~"
Loki just stared at him, taking in the man's appearance, his soft jaw, dark, curly hair and dull, grey eyes.
He also shared a collar, similar to Loki's, yet his seemed slightly different.
He quickly pushed himself up, breathing heavily. "And who might you be?" He asked, brows furrowing.
Grinning, the man leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs and holding a hand out for Loki to shake, "Týr Hymirson. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
The hand was ignored. "Mobius' 'arsonist friend'?"
Týr's grin grew, "Aw~ he talks about me?" He shifted in his seat, folding his arms over his chest, "And you are?"
"Loki. Loki Laufeyson."
"Ah. The God of Mischief, if I'm not mistaken?" He smirked.
Loki's attention turned to the projection of the Avengers. He walked round the table, closer to Týr, and pressed a button on the projector, making the image on the screen fast-forward through multiple events until it landed on the picture of his mother, lying on the floor, dying,
Loki's breath started trembling. He desperately wanted to look away, but found he couldn't. Tears threatened to spill down his cheeks, as Týr stood from his chair, gesturing at it for Loki to sit, a slightly pitying expression on his face.
He tried to glare at him, but had a suspicion the attempt didn't have the effect he had meant it to. Sitting down, Loki pressed the button again, stopping when it landed on a scene of him, Thor and Odin.
"I love you, my sons." The Odin in the projection said, "Remember this place. Home."
"Touching." Týr murmured, taking a seat on a step that ran around the edge of the room.
Loki took a sharp breath, trying his best to fight the tears in his eye.
The projection switched to another scene again.
"Loki I thought the world of you. I thought we were gonna fight side-by-side forever." Thor spoke. He smiled, pressing the button again.
"Maybe you're not so bad after all brother."
"Maybe not."
"Thank you. If you were here, I might even give you a hug."
Loki let out a choked laugh.
"I'm here."
He pressed the button again, this time the scene turning to some sort of fight, explosions audible in the background. He glanced at Týr, who met his gaze with a soft expression.
The projection displayed his future-self, summoning a knife and holding it up to the neck of someone all too familiar. Thanos.
Loki's face fell.
"Undying? You should choose your words more carefully."
He slowly stood up, moving closer to the projection.
In the projection, Thanos lifted Loki up by his neck, choking him.
Loki's breath quickened as he walked forwards.
"You- will never be- a god."
There was a horrible cracking sound as the projection showed Thanos tightening his grip, snapping Loki's neck.
Loki let out a gasp, turning his head away.
When he looked back, the projection briefly showed Thor, crying over his body, before the tape ended and the words 'END OF FILE' were displayed.
"Hm." A noise to his left startled him, as Loki realised Týr was now standing next to him, head slightly titled as he gazed up at the projection. "What an interesting life you have. Or- should i say could've had?"
Loki laughed, bitterly.
The door behind them opened.
"What's so funny?" B-15's voice rang out.
Loki's chuckles subsided, face hardening as he said, voice low, "Glorious purpose."
Both Týr and Loki turn around to face the hunter, Týr's lips turning upwards in a small smirk.
"Well hello again, 15." He greeted, head tilted.
B-15's eyes narrowed. "So this is where you ran off to. I think it's time we put you back in your cage, Týr."
He rolled his eyes at her, "Oh, come on, I was just taking a stroll."
Loki surged forward, lunging a fist at the woman, only for her to catch it and send a punch into his ribs. She twisted his arm round behind his back, shoving him into the table.
As she did so, Loki caught sight of a flash of blue, as Týr suddenly appeared right next to them, grabbing the time-twister off the table and clicking it.
Loki's collar buzzed, light turning off as it fell away from his neck. Týr quickly snatched it and wrapped it around B-15's neck instead, grinning as she released her grip on Loki and turned to him.
She threw a fist at him, Týr immediately clicking the time-twister and making her disappear.
Loki panted heavily, jerking his head to get the hair out of his face, before moving to stand next to Týr, who was now staring at the time-twister in his hands with a mischievous glint in his eye. He glanced at Loki, before clicking the device again
The hunter reappeared, then Týr clicked it again, and she disappeared.
Both Variants tilted their heads, Týr's smirk growing.
He clicked it again, and again, making B-15 reappear and disappear over and over, as she attempted to tell them to stop, voice coming out in broken shouts.
Týr made a face as he clicked the device quicker, before clicking it one last time and causing the hunter to disappear for good.
He grinned and turned to Loki, holding out the time-twister for Loki to take, "You know, I have a feeling you're going to make things round here a lot more interesting. I haven't had any fun like that since the 'Office Incident'."
Loki chuckled lightly in response, taking the time-twister from Týr's hand. His gaze fell to the collar round the other's neck.
"Could I-" He started, motioning at the collar with his hand which now held the time-twister.
"Ah." Týr shook his head, sighing, as he turned to take his seat back on the small step, "No. Unfortunately my collar has a higher-security lock on it than most. That won't work."
Loki picked up the tesseract, taking a seat next to the shorter man. "Why's that?" he asked.
"It's more restrictive. According to Mobius, I'm included in the 'dangerous Variants' he specialises in." He grinned.
"But-" Loki paused, a look of confusion growing on his face, "Before- you did magic, didn't you?"
Týr nodded, "Yup." He held his hand out in front of him, a small blue flame sprouting from his palm, "It seems my magic is at a level not even the Time Variance Authority can overcome."
Loki looked back down at the tesseract, turning it over in his hands.
"That doesn't work here, though, if you hadn't already figured that out." The brunette gestured at the glowing cube.
"How?"
"Dunno. Mobius says theres 'no magic in the TVA', but, well-" He motioned his head at the small balls of blue fire, now dancing around his hand, leaving trails of tiny orange wisps.
Loki's grip on the box tightened, glaring at if, as though he thought if he willed it hard enough, the thing might do something. Nothing happened.
He groaned, setting the tesseract down and placing his head in his hands.
The door opened, causing Týr to look up, sending a smile and wave at Mobius, who had just walked in.
Mobius rolled his eyes at him, his attention then focusing on the ravenette he was sitting beside.
"Loki?" He asked, walking forwards cautiously, "No where left to run."
The man in question stared down at his hands. fiddling with his fingers, "I can't go back, can I? Back to my timeline."
Mobius sighed and shook his head slightly.
Loki took a deep breath, then looked back up at the other man, "I don't enjoy hurting people. I... I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to."
"Okay, explain that to me." Mobius requested, softly.
"Because it's part of the illusion." He replied, "It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear."
"A desperate play for control." Mobius finished, "You do know yourself." He started slowly approaching the two.
"A villain" Loki concluded, sighing.
"That's not how I see it."
Loki picked the tesseract back up, staring at it.
"He try to use that?" Mobius asked, directing his question at Týr, who was now staring at a little flame protruding out of his fingertip.
"Oh, absolutely." Týr smirked, looking up again.
"Even an Infinity Stone is useless here." Loki scoffed, "The TVA is formidable."
"Ehh..." Týr nudged him, smiling. He grinned at Mobius, raising his eyebrows.
Mobius shook his head, laughing slightly, recalling the chaos that had ensued the last time Týr had 'taken a stroll', "For most people." He corrected, then turning back to Loki, "Listen, I can't offer you salvation, but maybe I can offer you something better."
Loki stood up, walking closer to Mobius, ignoring the small groan from Týr as he followed suit.
"I hate standing." The man muttered.
"A fugitive Variant's been killing our Minutemen." Mobius explained
"And you need the God of Mischief to help you stop him?"
"That's right" He confirmed, "Plus, I think Ty here needs something to do."
Týr grinned, "Finally, some excitement!"
Loki chuckled, softly, "Why me?"
"The Variant we're hunting is... you."
Both Týr's and Loki's eyebrows raised.
"I beg your pardon?"
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
weee im having too much fun with this fic :)
- Arachnid
word count: 2206