Mobius and Loki were on a mission under cover to serve Loki as training, before sending him to hunt down the variant of Loki that Mobius had told him about.
"Remember, low profile, don't talk to anyone, and DON'T draw attention to yourself, got it?" Mobius asked Loki and he just nodded.
They were in a jail in 2016, hunting a variant of Ant-Man, who after getting his suit, he became a criminal and for a while he committed a lot of robberies, until a couple of members of the Avengers caught him and sent him to a common jail, since, without his suit, Scott Lang was just as dangerous as any convicted man.
"B-15, Status," Mobius said into a radio.
"In position. I'm at your 9."
Mobius turned to the control room on the other side of the cell block and saw C-20 who nodded at him and he nodded back. Everything was ready.
The plan was for Loki and Mobius to start a fight with the variant, and after keep fighting for too long, B-15 and C-20 would intervene and be "forced" to separate them, put them in isolation and when they all were out of sight of the other guards and prisoners, they would open a portal and return to the TVA.
Simple, right?
After exploring the prisoners a bit, they found Scott on a bench surrounded by other prisoners.
"Okay, we'll have to wait for the variant to be alone."
"What? Why? He's right there.
"And he's with his friends, if we fight with him, his friends will fight with us too and complicate things. We have to wait."
Loki reluctantly agreed and both agents sat on a bench where they could keep an eye on the variant. But sooner rather than later, Loki grew bored and looked around at the other inmates until he saw a small group of prisoners with sharp plastic spoons and forks.
"Hey." He called them, and they turned. "What are you gonna do with that?"
"We want to cause a riot to escape, but we don't know how," said one of the prisoners, and Mobius heard him.
"A riot? Please. Everyone knows that to start a riot you just have to fight someone while you yell 'Riot'." Mobius thought aloud.
"Really?" Asked one of the convicts.
"Let's try it!" Said another and immediately hit the guy who was closest to him and fell to the ground. And then shouted "Riot!"
"Riot?" Several prisoners who listened asked.
"Riot!" One of the prisoners started, then another, and another, and before anyone could do anything, all the convicts started attacking the guards and fighting amongst themselves.
Between all the chaos, blood began to flow, Mobius was looking for the variant they were hunting or any member of his team, but he could not find them anywhere.
He walked past a table where a prisoner held another prisoner to the table while he spilled alcohol on his face.
"No, please don't! I swear it wasn't me!" He begged the prisoner against the table after spitting out a mouthful of alcohol.
"Nowhere to run now, Willa!" He threatened the other prisoner, headbutted Willa and while he was stunned, he took out a lighter and a newspaper, set the paper on fire and threw it at him.
In an instant his entire body was covered in flames and he broke into a run as he screamed for help. He almost caught Mobius unintentionally, but he reacted in time and dodged him. Willa continued to run on fire until he hit a wall and ended up rolling over his body until death.
By the time Mobius found the variant, it was too late, the variant was fighting the biggest and strongest guy in the prison, and before Mobius could do anything, the giant prisoner lifted the variant over his head and slammed it to the ground before stomping him with his feet. Any hopes that the variant might still be alive were dashed when Mobius saw blood trickle from his skull at worrying speed.
"Ravonna is going to kill me." He blurted out amid the chaos.
Later, Mobius, Loki, and the other agents had returned to the TVA, and the first two were in Ravonna's office.
"What was I thinking?" Mobius said to himself.
"What were you thinking, Mobius?" Ravonna exclaimed." 15 guards wounded and 3 dead to get you, B-15, C-20 and this variant of Loki out of there." She said pointing at Loki for a moment before letting out a big sigh. "It is a miracle that the guardians did not prune you."
"I know and I'm sorry. I really don't know what happened to me, the variant was there and in a moment, he just 'poof!' He disappeared. I do not know what happened. I don't know if it was the coffee I had this morning or that I slept badly and the truth is that..."
The two continued arguing while Loki just watched silently with a poker face. During his life she had seen dozens of arguments like him and knew they almost never ended well.
Unless something else happened…
"Someone is going to have to answer for the failure of the mission and the guards."
"If you allow me." Loki intervened.
"What?!" They both yelled at him at the same time.
"I just wanted to say that what happened in prison is my fault and I'm sorry."
"Loki, what are you...?" Mobius started, but was quickly interrupted by Ravonna.
"Ahg, I should have known it. I knew this was a bad idea, I should have said no from the beginning." Ravonna complained rambling with her words.
"What are you doing?" Mobius whispered loudly to him.
"Trust me," Loki whispered back and winked at Mobius and turned back to Ravonna.
"…When clearly I shouldn't have allowed it. Do you have something to say in your defense?" Ravonna finished with her verbiage.
Loki glanced at Mobius over his shoulder for a moment in discomfort before replying, "Uhm…Rookie mistake?" And he smiled.
"Listen to him for a moment, Ravonna." Mobius continued what Loki had said. "It was only a training mission after all."
"Yes. And if that happened in training mission, I don't want to imagine what will happen when you hunt the Loki variant."
"Yes, yes, but remember that whenever I failed you, right after, I manage to accomplish the mission. I promise you that this time will not be the exception. When you count on me, there will never be exceptions."
After that, the three of them were silent for several minutes. The only sound in the room was Ravonna's fingers tapping on her desk incessantly. They continued like this until Ravonna let out a great sigh.
"Without exceptions."
"You don't know how much I thank you–"
"Don't. Make. The same mistake. Again," Ravonna interrupted.
"Of course Ravonna."
The two of them nodded their heads and Mobius and Loki left the office. And then it was Mobius's turn to let out a sigh.
"I think you dodged a big bullet, as humans would say." Loki joked.
"Why did you do that?"
"You're welcome." Loki smiled again.
"Don't you play with me. I know you are not the kind of people to do something for others just because."
"If you already know the answer, why do you ask?"
"Spit it out at once, what do you want?" I sigh in surrender.
"A TemPad–"
"No."
"I haven't even told you where I want to go."
"And you don't need to. I'm not giving you a TemPad. You cannot go back to your timeline."
"I don't want to go back to my timeline. I just need to see something."
"No no no no. Impossible." Mobius shook his head numerous times.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes!" For a moment, Loki looked at him expectantly in a staring contest, and seeing that Mobius had no intention of losing, he turned and walked to Ravonna's office.
"If that's your decision, I suppose Ravonna will not mind to find out what really happened on the mission," Loki said and turned towards Ravonna's office.
"Nonono, wait." He stopped him cold. "Okay, you win, I'll let you use the TemPad just ONE time."
"I'm glad to hear that."
"With the condition that I go with you and you don't cause any Nexus events! Understood?"
"Actually, I need to go to two places."
"No, that's not part of the deal–"
"Ravonna!–"
"Do you want to stop doing that!?" He shut Loki up by covering his mouth and hiding in the hallway before Ravonna peeked out of her office door. They both went to a time theater to continue whatever this was.
"Fine, two places. Nothing more. Where do you want to go?"
Loki just smiled at the question.
...
A portal opened in the living room of a house, and Mobius and Loki, with a small box in his hand, emerged from it. Upon entering the first thing they noticed was the intense smell of beer. Mobius' first reaction was to want to open a window, but they were all locked, Loki, noticing this stopped him on the spot.
"Don't do it, we can't let him know we're here."
"Who? You didn't tell me where we are."
"Do you really care so much to know?" Loki resented Morbius.
"I care to know what danger we are pose by the simply being here."
"We will be leaving soon if you have so much trouble, Your Majesty." He said the last part in a mocking tone.
He set the box he carried with him on the living room table delicately and fearfully, as if the smallest wrong move would ruin everything.
Loki wanted to see more of the house he was in, but an approaching voice forced Loki and Mobius to hide in a room.
"Are you sure you want to go with those guys?" They heard a woman. Instantly they hid in one of the rooms, moments later they heard the door opening. Then they heard another voice speak.
"It's the best for everyone, and for me too. I was never too fond to be king, if I'm honest. You've also done a good job so far here, haven't you?"
Inside the room they were hiding in, Mobius and Loki started arguing.
"It's time to go." He whispered and shouted Mobius to Loki at the same time.
"No, I want to hear this." And they did, at the same time, Loki analyzed the room and seeing it carefully, Loki confirmed his suspicions. This was his house.
"This place won't be the same without you, Thor."
"I know, but, ahg…I've never been one to stay in a place for too long. This is the perfect opportunity for me…and to…do something better."
"You brought half of Asgard back to life, without counting, half of the bloody universe. That is a big something for anyone. You have to learn to give yourself some credit."
"I have made my decision, Valkyrie, I do not want to regret it."
"If you really are so determined to go, let me go to my place, there's something I would like you to go with."
"Sure." Thor accepted.
The two time agents heard the door close and Thor was left alone. In an attempt to avoid silence, Thor searched for something to entertain himself with until Valkyrie returned. And very soon after he found the box that Loki left behind.
He checked it carefully, but found no clue that it could tell him who it was from. He didn't even remember how that package got there.
Thor opened the box and inside he found a letter.
"I told you, brother, I told you that the sun would shine on us again. I'm sorry I'm not there to see how it rises with you.
I regret not being there when you needed me the most. And I regret all the hardships I put you, Freggia, Odin and all the others through.
I promise you that I will try to clean the blood that has stained my hands for years. That's why, in the same way that I assured you that the sun would shine on us once more. I assure you, brother, I'll be good, for all of the times I never could.
I wish I could be there with you, but the path I've taken separates me from yours. I hope that with this, you remember me as what you always saw me.
-Your brother."
Thor stood in complete silence the entire time he read the letter. Not breathing or blinking or moving in the slightest, with a dead face the entire time. His first thought was that someone was playing a bad joke on him. He carefully and fearfully set the letter aside, then found something else in the box.
He found a necklace with some strange stones, but familiar at the same time, when looking at it a little closer, Thor could appreciate Asgardian runes carved in the stones. As if the necklace had called to him, Thor brushed his fingers over the stones and they gave off a blue electric glow. And in that same instant he knew what it was.
It was a necklace made from the remains of Mjølnir.
He immediately dropped the necklace and walked away from him taking several steps back, colliding with the furniture until it hit the wall, after merely processing what was happening, he ran from his house to the street.
"LOKI! LOKI! Where are you!?" He screamed turning to every side. He approached the people who were passing by and he saw each one as if he had seen a ghost. And in a way, he actually had. Thor was looking for a ghost.
"Loki! Please show yourself! Where are you brother?"
Valkyrie saw what was happening and went over to find out what was happening.
"Thor, Thor, calm down. Tell me what happens?"
"Loki, I'm so glad to see you are here, brother. You are alive!"
"Thor, calm down! What are you talking about? Loki is dead, you told me yourself."
"Please, stop your tricks, brother. Come back." Thor grabbed Valkyrie by her shoulders. "I only want you to come back. I don't care what you've done, If you're in trouble, I can help you!"
Meanwhile, inside the house. Loki watched from the window. Mobius joined him, placing his hand on Loki's shoulder. For a moment Loki thought he was trying to comfort him, and although he knew that was his intention, it was also a way of telling him not to try to do anything stupid.
"How did you know where to go?" Mobius asked.
Loki despite hearing him, took several seconds to answer.
"When I saw my life, just before Odin died, he told us to remember this place. He used to say that Asgard was not a place, but his people. It seems Thor understood that."
The two of them stared through the window as Thor broke apart as Valkyrie tried to calm him down.
While Mobius was not looking, Loki summoned a dagger into his hand, his fingers rubbing the blade of the dagger. His mind wandered between ideas and what would happen if he followed his instincts.
"Ready to go?"
Loki didn't answer.
"Loki?" He called it a little louder.
He awkwardly turned around for a second before answering.
"One...one more minute."
Loki interpreted Mobius's silence as an 'okay', after a while he no longer saw Thor through the window, but rather his reflection in the window. For a second he could see Mobius's hand on his shoulder transform into Thanos's hand, when he choked his neck.
He no longer had a place here.
Mobius was forced to pull Loki out of his thoughts.
"Come on, we have a variant to hunt." Loki vanished the dagger from his hand and nodded.
Mobius opened a portal to the TVA and the two of them crossed.
This is the closest Loki and Thor will get ever again, that's it until the multiverse is completely open.
Since third episode I had this idea, but I had to wait until the serie ended to see if I could fit at the end. I could not.
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See you around.