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Mobius stomped down a spiral staircase leading to the basement of the TVA. Loki and (Y/n) were right behind him. Neither of them had ever seen Mobius lose his temper before, they wanted to make sure he was okay.
"What was that?" Loki asked.
"Nothing."
"Are you okay?" (Y/n) checked.
"I'm fine."
"What happened back there?" Loki questioned.
"Nothing."
"Didn't seem like nothing." (Y/n) commented.
"It was tactical."
"Seems like he got under your skin." Loki observed.
"Nope. He didn't get under my skin. He got under your skin." Mobius denied.
"Mobius, we're worried about you. We've never seen you like this before." (Y/n) told him, sounding concerned.
"Seen me like what?"
"It's okay, we're not judging." Loki promised.
"Feels like you are. Look, I told you I can play the heavy keys and I can..." Mobius entered a room full of containers in the wall that had pie in them. "Where are we?"
Loki shrugged. "We were following you."
Mobius shook his head. "No, I was following you two."
"Mobius...you were in front of us." (Y/n) pointed out.
Mobius sighed in frustration.
"Okay, how about a slice of pie?" Loki suggested.
"...Key lime..."
"Okay, come on."
...
The next thing they knew, Loki, (Y/n), and Mobius were sitting at a small table eating slices of key lime pie.
"Mmm." Mobius hummed. "This is good."
"It is." Loki agreed.
Mobius took another bite, and let out a sigh. "Listen, that wasn't tactical. I lost it." He admitted.
"It's okay. It happens." (Y/n) reassured him, placing a hand on his arm.
Loki nodded. "Yeah. Sometimes a rage just builds up inside and you just gotta...let it out. Do you remember that time I was so angry with my father and my brother, that I went down to Earth, and I held the whole of New York City hostage with an alien army? I also kidnapped by girlfriend and tried to make her rule Earth with me. And I tried to use the Mind Stone on Tony Stark. It didn't work, so I threw him off the building. That wasn't tactical. I lost it. Remember that (Y/n)?"
She nodded at the memory. "Yeah...Boy was I pissed at you."
Loki smiled. "Thankfully I was able to use my charm to make her forgive me." He joked slipping an arm around her shoulders.
(Y/n) leaned into Loki and looked at Mobius. "Sometimes our emotions get the better of us. I mean, I can't even tell you how many times I've hit Loki because I was mad at him."
"Yeah..." Mobius agreed.
"Let me ask you something. X-5, you know, he obviously touched a nerve. You've never wanted to visit your place on the Timeline?" Loki asked.
"Look, that's the last thing I should be thinking about." Mobius told him.
"Aren't you curious?" (Y/n) wondered.
He shook his head. "Not really."
"Why?"
"Because it's not my life."
"But it could've been."
"It isn't. This is. I'd like to thank the guy who kidnapped me and brought me here. Got me this pie." He insisted.
"If you never look, you'll never know."
"The TVA is the only life I've ever known. I like it." Mobius said.
Loki pushed his pie around with his fork. "I get it. You might not want to think twice in case it's something bad and you..."
"Or something good. Something bad I can handle. What if it's something good? Do you think I wanna have that rattling around in here? Of course not." Mobius revealed.
Loki and (Y/n) nodded in understanding and went to change the subject.
"You know, X-5 isn't gonna talk." Loki said.
"X-5 is gonna talk. We just have to find a way in." Mobius stated optimistically.
"Alright. So what aren't we asking this time?"
(Y/n) sighed. "Look, as much as it pains me to say this, X-5 is a good Hunter. He's good at his job. So, it's very unlikely that he spent all that time down there and didn't find Sylvie."
Loki looked a bit doubtful. "Sylvie spent her whole life hiding. He didn't find her."
"Yes, but maybe he got a little help from that TemPad." Mobius suggested.
"Okay. If he found her and walked away, then she didn't know he found her. That's the only way that makes sense." Loki theorized.
"Think about it. He found her, but maybe he didn't turn her in because he wants to continue living his best life on the Timeline." Mobius guessed.
"He wants more time to be Brad Wolfe." (Y/n) added.
"Who wouldn't?"
"Right."
"Now we just have to find a way to get him to admit it." Mobius concluded.
"He's the only one who knows where Sylvie is. We just gotta make him talk."
(Y/n) nudged Loki's arm. "Well? That's your cue God of Mischief." She teased.
Loki glanced at her with a smirk.
...
Brad was laying down in the floor of the holding room when Loki stepped in again.
"Hi."
Brad opened his eyes. "Hello Loki. Ready for round 2?"
Loki nodded. "I felt like I just, need another session, you know? Get a few things off my chest."
"Gonna try the hardball tactics this time?" Brad asked.
Loki tilted his head. "Something like that."
Mobius and (Y/n) rounded the corner rolling a machine into the room.
Brad rolled onto his feet and stood up. "Where's B-15?"
"She's not going to be attending this session." Mobius told him.
Brad scoffed. "Oh, I get it. So, you come in here without B-15 and I'm supposed to believe you're gonna torture me, Mobius?"
Mobius parked the machine in the corner of the tube next to a long white tube. "Well, let's simplify everything. You have information we need. You don't want to give it to us."
Brad released a sarcastic sigh. "You are getting desperate."
"You're not wrong. He's not wrong." Loki commented as he and (Y/n) stated hooking up the machine.
"We are desperate." (Y/n) agreed. "And we are down to our last option."
"And your last chance." Loki added.
"This is sad. I at least expected better acting from you, babe." Brad said to (Y/n).
(Y/n) hummed. "Well, we didn't exactly have time to rehearse our scripts."
Mobius hooked up the machine to the tube. "You're a tough nut to crack, so you've left us no choice but to ramp..."
"Mobius." Loki interrupted. "Controller."
Mobius looked at the panel and realized they had forgotten the controller. "Right. We can't start the festivities without that little baby. Stand by."
Brad scoffed and sat back down on the little stool as the three of them headed for the door. Mobius and (Y/n) exited first, but Loki stayed behind and closed the door, locking them out.
When Mobius and (Y/n) realized Loki was still inside, they tried to open up the door, but noticed it was locked.
"Hey, open up."
"Loki?"
"Turns out...there is one other option."
"No, no! Hey!"
"Loki, we said we weren't gonna do this!"
"You sniffed us out Brad. And I knew you would, because you're a clever chap. So guess what? I wrote a little script of my own."
"Loki. Loki this isn't right."
"Open up!"
Loki walked over to the machine and Brad leaned forward.
"That thing does not work without the controller, though, so...what're you gonna do?"
Loki pulled out the controller from his pocket. "This one? Okay, we're gonna have a little Q&A. Did you find Sylvie? And if you did, where is she? Simple question really, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves as we go along."
Loki faces the machine and plugged in the controller to operate it.
"This one's plugged in here...and..."
Brad smirked. "You almost got me. You have no idea how to work that thing."
Loki smiled back. "I'm not trying to be a hero, Brad. I'm a villain. Remember?"
"No, Loki! This isn't the kind of mischief I was talking about!"
"Loki, you're not a villain! Don't do this!"
Loki pulled a string on the machine, starting it up. He extended his arms, looking very proud of himself. "Look at that!"
Finally, it seemed that Brad was getting nervous. "Okay, um, earlier, I said some very hurtful things, and I brought up your mother, and said some things about (Y/n). And I am really sorry about that. Mobius! (Y/n)! Get in here!" He yelled.
"It's locked, Brad. It's locked!"
Loki held up the controller and examined it.
"You need to put that down. That's...you don't know what you're doing with that." Brad warned.
"What does this one do?" Loki pushed one of the buttons, making an orange cube appear on the stool that Brad was sitting on. He pushed another button and the cube shrank, crushing the stool in the process. "Woah, sorry. Could've hurt yourself there."
"Hey, don't touch random buttons on that, okay?"
"I guess there's a learning curve with this thing."
"Yeah. There is a learning curve. You know, you could kill me with that."
Loki glanced up at him. "Could I?"
He pressed another button encasing Brad in an orange cube, who flinched violently and grunted in frustration and fear.
"This is exciting." Loki whispered.
"Turn it off." Brad demanded. "Loki, turn it off."
"Uh, let me try this one." Loki pushed another button and the cube became more narrow, barely giving Brad enough room to step to either side.
"Okay. Okay. Alright." Brad muttered.
"Sorry." Loki apologized. "That's only made it smaller."
"Now, look. I don't know where Dox and the others are. Okay? I don't know." Brad insisted.
"I don't know if you know this, but I've done some terrible, awful things." Loki reminded him.
Brad nodded. "Yeah, you have. You're doing one right now. Have some perspective on yourself."
Loki pushed another button, bringing down the height of the cube, making Brad crouch to avoid hitting his head.
"Okay!" Brad gasped. "Okay. Okay."
"Trial and error."
"I swear, I don't know where they are."
Loki smiled widely. "Brad! You're so convincing. I want to believe you, but you're just...you're such a good actor."
"Look, I really, I really don't know. I swear."
"You're so talented!"
"They did not tell me the plan."
"Please tell me the truth. I know you're lying."
"Okay! Okay, okay. I lied, okay, I lied. I was supposed to look for Sylvie, but then I bailed, okay? I bailed." He confessed.
Loki nodded. "Right. So, they told you to go look for Sylvie and you bailed? What's the penalty for a highly decorated field officer abandoning his mission? You and Dox? I don't buy it."
Loki used the controller making the cube even smaller, causing Brad to be hunched down.
"I swear, okay! I went down there to get my life, okay? Because none of this is real."
"Well if none of this is real, I guess you aren't either."
Loki used the controller to start shrinking the box, squishing Brad even more.
"Just tell me where Sylvie is, Brad."
Brad grunted loudly. "Okay, I'll tell you where she is! She has a new life!"
Loki got rid of the box, and Brad fell to the ground.
"There you go. Got there in the end. Why do you make it so hard on yourself, Brad?" Loki asked casually. "One thing, you said you bailed on the mission."
"Yeah, but I found her first." Brad panted. "She's on a branch."
The door to the cell opened and Mobius and (Y/n) stepped inside.
"He knows where Sylvie is." Loki reported.
"See? Little bit of mischief." Mobius said. "Let's go, Zaniac."
"If I tell you where she is..."
"No, you're gonna show us." Mobius helped Brad off the floor and led him out of the cell.
"Nicely done, Loki." (Y/n) complimented.
Loki looked at her and smiled. "Thank you darling."
He pulled her close by the waist and pressed a kiss to her lips.
"Now let's go find Sylvie."
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