~~~Catherine's pov~~~
About two hours after I went to clear my head and work on an escape plan, Loki called out to me telepathically and told me Linda had woken up.
On one hand, I was extremely relieved that she was okay. On the other, I was concerned that my previous worries were not as insane as I thought and Linda was never going to talk to me again.
Pushing those thoughts to the back of my mind, I bolted back to the room, and upon opening the door, I saw Linda and Loki talking to each other.
My heart sank. She was talking to him.
Looking down at the floor, I blinked back tears. I mean, I saw this coming a million miles away. It makes sense she would choose him-
"Mom!"
My eyes snapped up to see Linda run up to me, and I knelt to catch her as she jumped into my arms, making me stumble back.
"Hey, you okay?" I let out a small laugh as I regained my balance.
She looked up at me with a smile and nodded. "I'm okay."
That's when it hit me, and my chest filled with hope.
She was talking to me. She was actually talking to me.
I looked up at Loki, tears of relief in my eyes, and saw that he was smiling down at me with a look that said, 'I told you so.'
Now, that was about eight hours ago. And things have definitely escalated since then.
Escalated meaning that apparently, this past version of Mobius realized that we weren't normal TVA employees and called the Hunters to arrest us. Or prune us. The threat wasn't all that clear...
~~~Loki's pov~~~
I pulled Linda forward as we ran from the Hunters that were chasing us throughout the entire TVA.
She still wasn't 100% after what happened, and I'm sure this situation wasn't making it any better.
"Stay close!" I called back to her and Catherine as we rounded the corner only to be met with another group of Hunters, their time-sticks ready to strike.
"Hold it right there, variants!" One of them in the very front shouted as Mobius stepped forward.
"Mobius, it's us. You know us!" Catherine stressed, keeping Linda behind her.
To my extreme disappointment, he shook his head. "I don't know you."
With that, the Hunters inched closer, brandishing their weapons, prompting me to hold both Catherine and Linda behind me, away from the time-sticks and the possibility of being pruned.
It was the park all over again.
That's when I heard Linda's small voice behind me. "No. Not again." She grasped my hand tightly and when I blinked again, we were face to face with Mobius in a completely different location.
My eyes were wide with surprise at the sudden change of, well, everything. "What the hell was that?"
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
I furrowed my brows in confusion. Why were we now in front of a door to a time theater instead of in a hallway surrounded by Hunters?
Whatever happened had happened so quickly, that I barely registered it when Linda fell to the floor, once again unconscious.
I instantly went into panic mode, kneeling beside her. "What just happened?!"
Loki's eyes filled with concern as well and mirrored my actions. "I don't know! She just collapsed!" He lifted her off the ground, and stood up, checking her pulse.
It's sad that this is the second time this is happening within twenty-four hours.
"Alright, what the actual #### is going on?!" A new voice entered the conversation, startling me.
I looked up at the man who the outburst belonged to. "Mobius?" I raised a brow, perplexed. Why did he sound different now?
He raised his hands away from his sides. "Yeah! Care to explain where the hell you guys just came from?!"
Loki, also completely confused, looked at him strangely as he continued to hold our unconscious daughter in his arms. "You know who we are?"
"Of course, I know who you are!" He answered, surprising the hell out of me. "What kind of question is that?! What's going on?! I thought you two were fighting Alioth, what happened to that?"
"We'll explain in a second." I shook my head and opened the door to the time theater beside us so we could talk in peace.
Loki and Mobius followed me into the room, and Loki gently set Linda down on a nearby bench in the theater.
"It's been a second. Now please explain!" Mobius sounded like he was about to lose it. "What happened with the cloud monster?"
"Alioth was a distraction. A guard dog." Loki shook his head, walking over to us in the center of the room. "We found him. A Citadel at the End of Time."
"But where's Sylvie?"
I shrugged. "Don't know. She's probably still be there."
Loki nodded, confirming my statement. "We got to the man at the End of Time and we disagreed on how to handle the situation, which ended in us fighting. She wanted to kill him, and I tried to stop her. In the end, she pushed me through a time door."
"Well, I'd ask who won, but..."
"It was a draw." He shrugged.
I raised a brow. He told me what happened, and I know he really wasn't trying to fight her, but that doesn't change the fact that she won.
Mobius also looked equally confused. "You both pushed each other through time doors simultaneously?"
"No. I was actively trying not to fight her. I was trying to stop her. She wanted to kill him." He began to explain.
"Okay, fine. It was a draw." Mobius put his hands up in surrender and then looked at me. "And where were you during all this?"
"Funny story. In order for Loki and Sylvie to meet the guy at the End of Time, I had to be sent back to the TVA with Linda."
"But Linda disappeared... Wait. How did she get to be with you guys? We were just in Renslayer's office-"
"I've been meaning to talk to you about that, by the way," Loki interjected, pinching the bridge of his nose. "In the Void, when I told you to keep her safe, you heard, bring her directly to the woman who hates us and wants us dead?"
I crossed my arms, siding with him. Although nothing major happened, bringing her to Renslayer was a serious risk.
"I'll admit, that was a bad call on my part." Mobius relented. "But how is she with you two? She went missing just a few minutes ago-"
"Wait, for you it's only been a few minutes?"
"Yeah. Why?"
I sighed. I guess now is the time to explain the whole past-TVA bit. "Because for us it's been two days."
~~~Mobius' pov~~~
I have absolutely no idea what's going on.
All I know is that I went to grab Linda a water and when I got back, she was gone. I've spent the last few minutes searching for her, and now she suddenly appears, unconscious, with both her parents.
According to Loki and Catherine's explanation, Miss Minutes took Linda to a past version of the TVA, even though that isn't possible, to meet up with Catherine, who was also there. And when Sylvie pushed Loki through that time door, he ended up at the same place they did.
I shook my head in confusion at their words. "There's still one thing I don't get. Well, actually two things. One, how did you just appear here? Two, why is Linda unconscious?"
"While we were in the past TVA-"
"There is no past TVA." I corrected.
Catherine rolled her eyes. "Clearly there is. Because we were just there, and it was the past."
"Fine. Agree to disagree. Just tell me what happened."
"While we were in the past TVA, Linda found a Terrigen crystal. You know what that is, right?"
I nodded, my eyes wide. "Yeah. It's the crystal that unlocks a genetic mutation in Inhumans."
They both looked at me strangely, probably wondering how I knew that.
"I'm a Shield nerd, alright? When I'm bored, I watch the files about the agents of Shield. Phil Coulson, Daisy Johnson, Melinda May, etc. If you watch it all in order, it's almost like a TV show." I sighed, admitting to my guilty pleasure.
"Okay, anyways, she found the crystal, it shattered and she turned." Catherine sighed. "And before you ask, yes, she's an Inhuman. So am I. It's all genetic. Her abilities contain having visions of the past, and now I'm guessing time travel, considering that we're standing here, talking to you right now."
I'm sorry, what?!
"You got here because she time-traveled and brought you with her to the present. That's your theory?" I just wanted to make sure I was hearing this right.
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
He was actually taking the news pretty well. I was expecting a little bit more backlash, but this is going as smoothly as I could have hoped.
"It's not a theory. It's what happened. There's literally no other explanation." I told him, my arms still crossed.
His face filled with realization, confusing me. "Actually, I think there might be. I found these while I was looking for Linda..." He trailed off and brought out various Tempads from his back pocket. "And I think they're her's."