Summary: "'What are we, then, if not friends?'" Instead of getting pruned, Mobius and Loki escaped the clutches of the TVA and are now hiding out at the ends of worlds. But with reality seeming to fall apart around them, tensions are running high and they aren't completely on the same page. One-shot. AU starting in episode four.

At The Literal End Of The World

"Prune him."

As soon as Ravonna's said the words, Hunter D-90 launches himself at Mobius, pruning baton stretched out before him. Loki grabs the man by his coat and pulls him aside just in time. The other hunters activate their batons and move in too. Ravonna watches, face tight.

"What do we do?" Loki asks, eyes wide, as he dodges a swing.

"Don't worry, I've got it under control." Mobius assures him, taking a TemPad from his coat's pocket- Ravonna's wasn't the only one he'd had on him. He dials in a few numbers, presses a button, and the familiar orange glow of a Timedoor blooms in the center of the room.

Loki takes the hint.

They make their way through the chaos, narrowly escaping the orange tips of the hunters' batons several times. They dart through the portal unscathed, their surroundings changing around them. Mobius is quick to deactivate the Timedoor, a relieved sigh escaping him.

"Where are we?" Loki wonders, prompting his companion to look up and examine their surroundings.

The sky here is a deep purple, darker than the sky of Lamentis-1. There's a mountain literally feet from them, on their left, and an ocean perhaps a couple of miles to their right. In the open stretch of land between, there's a small town up ahead. The sound of alien crickets tells them that it's night on this foreign planet, and Mobius knows that the townspeople will be too busy sleeping to notice their arrival.

"Somewhere safe." He finally says, allowing his exhausted shoulders to sag and release the tension that had built up over the last few hours. He starts for the town, not putting much effort into a fast pace. "Come on, I know a place we can stay for now."

"We really don't know what we're doing, but we're not doing too bad at it, are we?" Mobius muses, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Loki rolls his eyes. "Well, we're both still alive, so, yeah."

It's been five days since their miraculous escape from the TVA. Things seem to be going well, even if the first signs of the planet's apocalypse are beginning to show themselves- the sky isn't supposed to be red. Loki's conjured them both cloaks to wear whenever they head out to grab some food, despite the fact that they only go out at night.

To Mobius, it feels weird- the whole being-independent thing. He's always had the TVA- well, for as long as he can remember- but there's only Loki now. Isolating himself with a god who would have loved to have killed him little over a week ago is much different than going out on missions with B-15 and a team of Minutemen. The tables have really turned since this Loki popped into his life. He's surprised at how little it bothers him.

They're staying in the abandoned house of an elderly couple who passed away about a year ago. The dust is slowly fading as the outcasts make use of the place, hiding themselves away from the TVA. Mobius knows that Ravonna has men out there, somewhere in the universe, looking for them. He knows that it'll take them some time to find them, but he keeps his TemPad on hand at all times anyway, just in case. Loki doesn't appreciate the paranoia.

"Mobius?"

"Hmm?" He turns slightly where he sits on the couch, but only so he can have the god in his peripheral vision.

"Is this our lives now? Are we just going to keep running away until age catches up with us in a few millennia?" Loki questions, a small bitter touch to his tone.

Mobius shakes his head, turning away and settling deeper into the furniture's cushions. "For now. We need to lay low, let Ravonna blow off some steam and think we're gone."

"But what about Sylvie? We just left her there, with no way out."

"For what it's worth, she's one of the most dangerous variants I've ever met. She'll be fine."

"But you've seen how powerful the TVA is. Infinity Stones are useless." Loki scoffs. "Did you not see the look on Renslayer's face when she told them to kill you? She's heartless."

Mobius winces.

"Friends across time, allies to the end."

He sighs. His voice is quiet, just above a whisper. "She'll be fine."

"Loyalty and friendship, it makes you weak." The god snarls.

Mobius opens his mouth, almost closing it again as he struggles to reply, fully turning to him. "What are we, then, if not friends?"

The trickster looks up sharply at the words. A frown marrs his features, but it's more of an uncertain look than anything, the fire behind his words faltering just a little. "We're not enemies, Mobius. But we're far from being friends."

"Okay. Maybe we aren't friends, but Ravonna and I were. I can't just...hate her for what happened back in the TVA." He says, his own voice growing bitter. "But you wouldn't understand friends anyway, would you? All you've ever done is push people away and leave them in the dust of your mistakes."

"Like I said, trust is for children- and dogs."

"Great, so now I'm a child." Mobius sighs, deflating at that. He turns away, eyes landing on a framed photograph of the couple who'd lived here previously. But he doesn't see it, it's just something to look at that isn't Loki's resentment. "You know, you were changing, becoming someone new. Why's that undoing itself? You love that variant so much that leaving her behind's turning you into Sacred Timeline Loki again. Scheming, broody, hateful-"

"-I get it. Go find someone else to criticize, maybe they'll actually take it into consideration of reworking their lives before they die here." Loki hisses. His eyes bear into the other man's back like daggers. "Maybe I should have let her prune you, let things play out until I met Sylvie again, then taken down the TVA as we planned."

He swallows, his heart stinging at the harsh words. But his voice remains a soft murmur. "You don't mean that."

"I mean it."

"You don't. But I'll let you tell yourself that you do. Maybe you'll finally see the truth of it once the TVA catches up with us."

Mobius gets up from the couch and slowly heads for the front door. He pauses, briefly, at the kitchen table, where Loki sits, and hands him his TemPad. He asks him a silent question. Do you want to leave?

Loki's fierce expression falters a little, but he doesn't take the Tempad.

He puts it away. He stops at the front door, pulling his cloak on. He casts the god an exhausted glance, then leaves the house. He really needs to go on a walk.