It has been a day since the alarms warned everyone the Sacred Timeline was fractured, branching off so quickly there was no way to stop them. The archivists have been home, their archives shut down as every hand moves to the task of figuring out just what has happened and why.

Tam lets themself into Archivist House #5 and wanders up to where they know their friends are hiding from the others. They find Cyd, Ayshi, and Iris sitting in a corner staring at the little screen they stole from Loki's room.

"Any change?" Tam asks.

"No," Cyd answers, "So it's possible he's still alive."

Iris snuggles close to Ayshi, "I hate this."

"I know. What can we do, though?" Tam answers.

"I don't know," Ayshi answers. "But maybe Jemmi will have something for us when they get back."

"Where are they?" Tam asks.

"Scouting," Cyd answers.

A smile creeps across Tam's face, "You mean sneaking. Jemmi's always been good at sneaking."

Cyd shakes their head, "No, scouting. Jemmi's asking questions. Sneaky questions, yes, but...it's not just sneaking around. They're listening for anything that could help us. You know Jemmi's always been good at finding things out."

As if on cue, Jemmi bursts through the door, nearly bowling over Tam, "He was here!"

Iris scrambles to their feet, "What do you mean, 'here'?"

"He came back here. Only for a moment, but...I heard from a couple of Minutemen survived. He was here and he was here with a woman."

"Do you think she's why everything went loud?" Iris asks.

"I have no idea. But there was fighting against the Minutemen and against each other and then they were gone again," Jemmi says, still breathless from running home.

Tam nods slowly, "So he's alive. Or was. How long ago was this?"

"I don't know. Enough ago that they're trying to come up with some kind of plan to catch him and still have no idea where they went," Jemmi answers.

Iris snatches up the little screen, "How do we know this is updated?"

Cyd shrugs, "I don't know."

Ayshi gently slips it from Iris' hands, "There's a port. We have to plug it in and let it sync with the main computers. But after that, we'll know for sure whatever the TVA knows about him."

"How do we do that without getting caught?" Cyd asks, "We're not even supposed to have this. They might try to prune us if they know we do."

Tam gestures for them, "Come on. I'll get us there."

"Where?"

"Back to Loki's rooms. There's a dock there. It must go to this," Tam says.

Iris hurries over to them, "What even is this thing? What do we know about it?"

"Next to nothing," Ayshi answers, "But we know it still says 'Fugitive Variant' on it and that another part of the screen shows the divergent timelines and nexus events. Beyond that...I don't know what it does."

"Or what it's called," Iris adds, "So if they ask us what we have, we can genuinely tell them we don't know."

Tam nods, jaw set with determination, "Exactly. Now come on. We need to do some sneaking."

Jemmi smiles and places their hand on Tam's arm, "Then maybe you need to let me lead."

After an hour of cautious creeping, dodging agents, dodging Minutemen, and pausing to listen to hurried and panicked voices in the halls, the five archivists duck into what was formerly Loki's room. Tam takes the device to the dock and carefully drops it into place. Things click and whir and reach out to lock it to a coupling. The screen glows. The word "charging" blinks in tiny letters in the upper right corner. Tam sighs, relieved it worked.

"Is it updating, too?" Cyd asks.

"I don't know. But at least it's charging quickly. It says it's staring at thirty-five percent and it's already going up," Tam answers.

Ayshi leans over their shoulder and taps the screen. A menu appears. The word "update" is on the top and they tap it. A progress bar appears and quickly zips to full. It returns to the menu screen. Ayshi taps "exit" and once again, Loki's picture is stamped over with the words, "Fugitive Variant."

Ayshi sighs, "No change. It doesn't say he's caught or dead."

Iris carefully sits on the foot of the bed, "So now what do we do?"

"Stay very quiet, keep the lights off, and wait until it's charged. When it's done, we'll sneak back home," Jemmi replies.

Cyd turns out the light and sits beside Iris, "Alright. So...let's wait." Ayshi sits on the floor by the dock and Tam joins them. Jemmi hovers, unable to sit, unable to be entirely still, checking on the status of the device, silently tapping their fingers against their leg, pacing near-noiselessly. Ayshi falls asleep against Tam. Cyd and Iris play cards by the light of Loki's blue cube.

And then someone knocks on the door.

Mobius is still reeling from the news that Loki came back, even for a moment, and then immediately disappeared again. Above all, he wants to know why Loki ran. Why, after all the work to gain some kind of promise or trust to access the Time Keepers, did he follow this Variant into...wherever? (Apparently back to the TVA.) And there is also something in him that worries. Loki made progress. Loki seemed to trust him. And then...betrayal? It doesn't sit right with him. And so he decides to visit Loki's rooms, knowing he won't find anything there, but thinking maybe it will help him centre his head so he can try to sort out just why it would be that Loki would follow an unknown Variant to points unknown (and then disappear again, when the TVA could have offered a reward for bringing the person killing Minutemen back, or some kind of protection for his existence).

But they wouldn't have. Mobius knows this. He sighs as he approaches Loki's room. Something catches his eye. A very faint blue glow from under the door. He reminds himself the Tesseract is still inside. But then a shadow passes in front of the light and he freezes. He raises his hand and lightly knocks on the door.

Jemmi freezes and stares at the door, wondering who is knocking and why.

A voice calls, "Hey...is someone in there?"

Jemmi shakes their head, hoping the other person goes away.

"Look...I'm not mad. I just...I just want to come in and have a sit-and-think." No answer. "I'm going to open the door now. Please...just don't kill me. Whoever you are." The door slowly creeps open and Mobius steps in the room and reaches for the light. When it softly fades on, he is surprised to see the five archivists. "Oh. Um...what are you doing here?"

Cyd plays their next card while Iris fiddles with the discard pile, tidying it when it is already neat, "Waiting," Cyd answers.

"For what?" Mobius asks.

Jemmi steps between him and the others turning his attention away from where Tam sneaks the device from the dock, "Look, we're just worried about him, alright? And we came here to think. Same as you, it seems."

Mobius sighs, "Yeah. Seems like. But...why you?"

Tam settles on the bed, offering their hand to Ayshi as they stand and move over to it as well, "Because we liked him," Tam says. "He treated us like people."

Mobius' brow furrows, "What? But we all treat you like people. What are you talking about?"

Ayshi shakes their head, "No, you don't. We're living computers. We pull up files, splice them, deliver them, and you forget about us. Do you even know we have names?"

"Well I assumed you did," he answers, "But I don't know what they are."

Cyd shuffles the discard pile, their focus on their hands, even as they speak, "We weren't given names. We had numbers. Like the Hunters. But there are so many of us and we all look so similar. Our hair doesn't grow. We remember waking up and being disoriented, but we don't remember being born. We didn't have a childhood. And none of us know what it is to fall in love or...or have an intimate attraction to someone. We just...don't experience it. Any of us. So we found the one person we knew had lived life outside of this world and we asked questions. He didn't know we had numbers. He thought it abnormal that we wouldn't just have names."

Mobius shakes his head, confused, "Wait- you sought out a Variant because you had questions about life? Why didn't you ask one of the rest of us?"

Jemmi tosses up their hands, "Because you don't live life in the TVA! You just exist here- all of us just exist here. We watched lives pass us by every day in the reels, we cut together scenes and stitched narratives into being and none of it made any sense to us! We've never seen these places, done these things, fallen in love, had sex, been children, any of it. He had. And so we asked. He answered. And he never treated us like we were just the machines running the archive."

Something softly chimes and everyone freezes. Jemmi, positioned between Mobius and the bed, hopes to keep his attention away from the others as Tam tries to sneak a look at the device tucked under their leg while Ayshi attempts to block what Tam is doing from view.

"What was that?" Mobius asks.

Iris speaks, their voice soft, "You can't take it from us."

"Well, yeah, I can't take it from you if I don't know what it is."

Jemmi walks behind him and makes sure the door is closed snug; they lock it and stand between him and it, "Then we're going to need a promise you won't take it once you do."

Mobius slowly turns to see Jemmi, arms crossed over their chest, staring intensely at him, "OK...but you're kind of starting to scare me now."

Iris speaks again, "Good. Because we liked him. And we're worried. You're not going to take away the one hope we have."

Mobius takes a step inward, backing away from Jemmi as he turns around to the others, "I...I don't know what you're talking about."

Ayshi nods, "We'll tell you in a minute. First, you tell us what you know about where he is. Is he alive? Is he safe? Why did he leave?"

Mobius sighs, his shoulders dropping, "I wish I could tell you- if I could, it would mean I knew. And I don't."

Tam very slowly lifts their stolen screen and rests it on their leg, "This. This is what we have. We don't know what it is, but..." They show him the screen, "But it tells us this. And it updates. And as long as it says these words on it, we think that means he's still alive out there somewhere, even if we don't know where. And if it changes...well, then maybe we'll know if he's dead."

"A TemPad," Mobius says. "Where did you find that?"

"It was in here," Tam says, "We stole it right after the alarms went off. And we've had it ever since. When we leave here today, we're still going to have it."

Mobius nods and walks over to the bed, sitting on the edge of it not far from Iris, "Yeah, yeah. OK. You'll keep it. It's not like it's going to do anybody else any good."

Tam raises their eyebrow, "I didn't think it was going to be this easy. What's the catch?"

"No catch. But if it changes...tell me?"

Tam nods, "We will." They pause, then clear their throat and ask, "You're closer to him than you want to be, aren't you? You feel something. Maybe even friendship."

Mobius sighs, "And if you say anything about it-"

"You keep our secret, we'll keep yours," Jemmi says.

Ayshi leans over onto Cyd, resting their head on their shoulder, "So...what do we do now?"

Mobius looks from one archivist to the other, all of them looking very worried, very tired, "Well...I guess we go back to doing the one thing we all have in common- we wait."

"Will you tell us if something changes?" Iris asks, "Even if it's bad?"

"Yeah," he says, "I will." He stands, "I can't really stay. I just needed a little time to clear my head. But...be careful. You're not supposed to be here."

Tam nods, "We will be. You, too, though- you're going to be sent out to fix this."

"I don't think so. I don't think they're going to trust me with much ever again," Mobius replies.

On his way to the door, Ayshi speaks, "Well...they might not trust you, but...if you keep your word and tell us what you find out, at least you'll have us."

Mobius smiles and nods as he leaves the room. Tam stands and gestures for them to follow. Jemmi slips in front. Silently, they turn out the light and slip back to the house. When they get there, they gather in the bedroom shared by Cyd, Iris, Ayshi, and Jemmi. Tam hands them the TemPad.

"Do you think he'll keep his word?" Jemmi asks, "That he'll let us know?"

Tam shrugs, "Well, it's not like he's got much left to lose."

Iris sighs, "I hope they don't prune him."

"It's a risk. But we're going to just have to keep a watch on this and hope nothing changes. Why'd it beep?" Ayshi asks.

"It was just tell me it was fully charged and updated," Tam answers, "And that nothing's changed."

Cyd sighs, "Nothing's changed- I guess no news is good news?"

"Or just bad news we don't know about," Iris adds. "I hate that saying."

"I need to get back to the house," Tam says, "I promised some of the younger ones I'd teach them how to play cards today. I need to try to get their minds off everything that's going on."

"I wish that would work for me," Iris says. "Instead, I just worry."

Ayshi pulls something from under their tunic- the glowing blue cube, "Well...we can at least take some comfort in this, can't we?"

"We shouldn't have that, either," Iris says.

"Nope. And at this point, do I care?" Ayshi asks.

Iris shakes their head, "No. None of us do. Time is broken. Our world is confused. A glowing blue cube is the least of our worries."

Jemmi takes it from their hand, "I'll talk to Casey in the morning. I'm sure I can get him to cover for us- tell them he gave it to me."

"Until then, though," Cyd says, taking the Tesseract from Jemmi, "This goes in a drawer." They tuck it in the dresser and close it, a minuscule sliver of blue light peeking around the edge of the drawer.

Tam waves their goodbye and heads out. The four, left alone, curl up together on one bed, the TemPad beneath the pillow, none of them willing to be far from it just in case it beeps. Whether that sound would signal living or dying, none of them can predict, but either way, they know they want to know as soon as it happens. And if he were to be captured, they want to know as quickly as possible so they can beg to see him one last time before he is sentenced and pruned.