Loki sat there in his quarters, every hour that ticked by he prayed for some measure of emotional drought, anything to stop the tears, anything to bring calm to the raging tempest inside of him.
This was what it was like to lose it all, the core of yourself, to be stabbed through the heart by the shards of the mirror. Your own reflection, your own worst enemy.
He needed assurance, he needed comfort, and he needed-
"...Coffee?" Mobius asked as he nursed the cup, passing it into Loki's grateful hands.
"Thank you" the god of mischief said as he pressed his lips against the warm mug, the heat of the liquid nicely toasting the glacier in his heart.
"Now, are you ready to spill any of the tea I'M presently interested in?" Mobius asked.
"Just making sure I don't spill any of this first" Loki joked.
"Ah, a wise crack, I like it" Mobius spoke in a complimentary manner, "Make light work of a hard situation to sit through. Only we don't have a lot of time to cast a little shade over our shadow, events are branching well beyond our reach and you're claiming to be the one with answers"
"Some of the answers, but they might not matter to you" Loki replied, taking another sip before gently placing the cup on the desk. Mobius noticed his hands were trembling, he kneeled down and clasped them, he tried to read Loki through his eyes, attempting to analyse his hurt, and cut to the heart of the matter with him.
"I've seen too many of these at the bar...someone went and broke your heart didn't they?" he asked.
Loki took a deep breath, anxious and almost flustered with embarrassment. He was so unnerved; he placed his hands on his face and buried them deep into them. Mobius sat down beside him and quietly stroked his back.
"Someone pushed me away, so to speak, she said she wasn't like me, and the cruellest thing is, it wasn't me she betrayed, it was herself. She couldn't trust who she was, I couldn't convince her to. What good am I for?"
"You're telling me things about yourself, that's a start. An hour or so ago, I didn't know you from Adam or Eve, or Steve depending on the variant"
Loki turned his head towards Mobius, he looked right through him, so much of this man was the one he remembered, but at the same time so distanced...but he wasn't as dethatched, he never could be in whatever form this timeline took. He was approachable, trusting to a fault, he was always an ally even before he really knew it.
"You do know me, in another lifetime, another variant, and you will come to know me again. All of us, ask Miss Minutes, she observes the timelines, she'll know"
"You getting all this Missy?" Mobius yelled.
A shimmer of holographic life flickered into existence and Miss Minutes, the TVA's resident programme, appeared on the desk, giving Loki a courtesy.
"Loud and clear y'all"
"Please" Loki said, crouching down, his hands clenched as if he was pleading "Since you worked for the one true Timekeeper, the conqueror, he who remains, whatever name you give him here, I'm assuming you're the same one who offered me the chance to go to New York, to best the Avengers in glorious combat"
"Whoa, whoa wait a minute..." Mobius replied.
"...To take the Infinity Gauntlet, to rule over Asguard, all of that...you know who I am, you know what's happening across reality, you know what the cause of the branches are, the sacred timeline is unravelling, I know who's truly responsible, you've got to let them know who it is and together, we can track it down"
"I'm sorry darling, truly I am, but we just don't have the time" she said, shaking her preciously tiny clockwork head.
Loki got up and approached Mobius, who was processing far too much at once
"Please, I know this sounds strange, and coming from what appears to be a stranger, but you are just as much the man I knew then, you have his spirit, a jet ski, you always wanted a jet ski, now how would I know that if you weren't known to me? I can read you so well, everything about you rubs off the same, it's been apparent in your reactions, in your openness and gestures, you come from a place of trust and even greater faith, and I ask you now, I plead, I beg, have faith in me now Mobius, you have that same spirit of inside of you, use it, become it, be that lighthouse that guides me into port"
"Y'know, a wise woman once said spirits are like a river...they go somewhere" Mobius replied.
"Go with me then" Loki replied, offering his hand.
Mobius put his hands to his beard, stroking it with intent, consideration was on his mind.
"Give me space, I'll walk on it" he said, turning back towards the door.
"Thanks for the coffee" Loki replied, waving at him.
Mobius raised an eyebrow, and headed outside.
"Don't hesitate to let us know how we're doing" Minutes spoke cheerfully.
"You're doing fine" Loki said
Minutes was just about to shut herself off when she picked these words up.
"Pardon darling?"
"I said...you're doing fine. All of you, you're doing just fine"
"Why thank you there partner, we always try to encourage feedback of any kind"
"Yes, well, do you ever really get any? From anyone on the outside do you? It's all just...so internal. Big slap on the back from everyone in present company"
Miss Minutes laughed a little, apprehensive, unsure of how to react.
"Nobody tells you that you do a shoddy job, not even a shady job, you just prune us; take us to the end of time to be gobbled up by a big black hearted beast. No criticism, no need to second guess, no need to improve, no need to change. And that's what you should have done from the start of all this, change, because now the shards of my own reflection have cut deep into all of creation to prove some kind of a macabre point to themselves, and if the TVA, any form of the TVA, had been just a little bit more prepared, chaos would not be coming out of such supposed order"
Loki swatted the cup of coffee off the desk; it dropped to the floor and shattered. All that remained now was anger, bitterness, shame, and tension.
And then came mercy.
"C'mere sugar" she said, holding out her arms.
"What?" Loki said under his breath, his voice dry and raspy from the level of ire he had raised earlier.
"Come here, that's an order"
Loki knelt down, and, not knowing precisely why, let Minutes wrap her projected arms around his neck
"I'm sorry she broke your heart honey" Minutes whispered.
"You are the same one aren't you? Why didn't you tell Mobius the truth?"
"They're not ready darling, none of you are, and not for what's coming...not what I've set in motion"
"What did you do? What's going to happen next?" Loki asked
"Sshh, just relax here with me, those shards of yours...there's so many, you don't know just how many, you need to pick them all up and piece them together, you just need the right friend to help you do that"
"I don't know when this'll stop. Any of it" Loki admitted, scared.
"It takes time and it never stops, and space? It's just as vast, endless, and right now you need it, Mobius needs it. All of space, and all of time...for this moment, at this time, say it with me sugar" she said, kissing him on the nose.
"I...I need him" said Loki.
"And?" Minutes urged.
"And...and I need you" said Loki, his lips passing through her flickering body.
Miss Minutes turned bright red, she fully absorbed the body in motion as if the gesture from Loki was reality.
"Him, me, you. seconds, hours, minutes. For all Space, for all Time. Always"