Summary: "As his breath caught in his chest, he recognized a spark of familiar green, and he was thrown into darkness." Loki finds Mobius, months following the season one finale. His greeting methods, however, are rather questionable, as Mobius gets sent down memory lane- of memories long lost. One-shot. TW: child abuse.

A/N: This literally took like three days to write.

On The Home Stretch

Blood trickled down the side of his face, sweat beaded at his hairline. His silvery long hair was disheveled from months of jumping through timelines, running through apocalypses and hunting for Loki along the way.

Mobius was tired. Exhausted, really. But his stubborn determination to find his friend kept pushing him forward.

He hadn't seen Loki in months, not since he bade him farewell on a windy hillside at the end of time, a stormcloud monster on the near horizon. A lot had happened since then.

Ravonna Renslayer had fled, the TVA had reformed, and every TVA employee made aware of the secrets that even Mobius had been kept from. As if that hadn't been enough, the multiverse had been set free and trillions of timelines had branched off of the main one. Which made searching for Loki a near-lost cause.

But Mobius M. Mobius never gave up, not on anything.

The months following the multiverse's formation had been chaotic. He'd never seen anything like it, and he'd seen a lot of things. He'd encountered hundreds of variants of different people, fought dozens of them himself- he'd had Hunter B-15 give him some proper combat training before he'd split away from the TVA, and it really seemed to be paying off.

His muscles constantly ached, but his resolve remained undeterred. As he hopped through the timelines, as he fought for his life and scavenged for resources, he never wavered. Never lost hope. Never gave up.

The sun of pre-apocalyptic Lamentis-1 beat down on Mobius through the soft purple sky. He paused to wipe at his sweaty forehead and to catch his breath, to take a sip of water from the canteen he'd stolen from Earth's World War 1. He only took a small sip, for he was running empty on nearly everything at the moment. And though he was half-tempted to open a Timedoor and head off somewhere else, he wasn't going to leave the moon until he'd searched the entire thing.

In the far distance, his strained eyes could make out the shape of what appeared to be- had to be- a town. It was where he was headed, for the moment, to restock his supplies and regather his bearings. But, he'd been walking for hours straight, and clearly had at least a couple more to go if he ever wanted to reach the settlement. The mere thought of it was exhausting.

But he wouldn't stop now- he couldn't. He'd come this far, after all. His legs were burning, and his head pounding, but none of that mattered. He'd go on until he either reached the town or collapsed. Then he'd rest.

He wondered if that was how Loki and Sylvie had left when they were here.

Mobius took one more small sip of his water, then capped the canteen and deposited it in the satchel at his side. His tongue wet his dried, cracking lips, and he hardly bat an eye at the now-familiar taste of blood. God, he'd been out there in the multiverse for way too long.

Just as he prepared to take his first step after his short break, however, hands seized the temples of his head from behind. As his breath caught in his chest, he recognized a spark of familiar green, and he was thrown into darkness.

Images flashed through his head, only most that he recognized. The first ones, he'd never seen before, not in all the time that he could remember.


A blonde-haired boy played in the small ocean waves, splashing the water with a grin across his youthful face.

.

The same boy, older- perhaps a young teenager- rode a bike along a road. His long hair blew in the air behind him, and he smiled a little. He adjusted the blue and white baseball cap on his head, narrowed his eyes a little as he turned down a busier road.

.

He was riding a jet ski now, sunglasses on his face, his hair blowing behind him in the salt-scented air as the wind whipped at him. He made a rough turn, the vehicle coming to an abrupt halt as it tossed him off. He surfaced, blinking the water from his eyes and laughing with a grin the size of when he'd been a little boy.

.

A stern-looking man looked down at him, an annoyed look in his eyes. "You need to get a job, boy. Start pulling your weight."

"What if I don't want to?" He asked, his voice only deeper than before- but it was his voice. "Let me live a little, will you? I just graduated yesterday."

.

He got jumped.

He fought the best he could, but he'd never been a fighter. He went home with a black eye, a broken nose, and torn clothes. And none of the things he'd had on him when he'd gone out.

His father berated him for being careless, called him worthless.

He could only hang his head in shame.

He wasn't a fighter.

But he vowed to do better, to be better.

So, he became a lifeguard. It was the best of both worlds.

.

"Come on, come on." He gasped, pressing hard against the chest of the little girl laying in the sand before him. His arms ached more than they ever did after swimming. "Wake up."

Just as he began to accept defeat, the child burst to life, coughing violently.

He sank back with a sigh of relief, before helping her to sit up and expel the water from her lungs. "You okay?"

The girl nodded, choking back a sob.

He smiled weakly, pulling her against him in a gesture of comfort. "I got you."

.

"I hope you grabbed dinner on the way home, boy."

"I- what? I thought you would. I mean, you usually do."

The man's eyes were hard and unforgiving as he stared at his son.

He sighed. "Okay, great. You didn't today, got it. I guess I'll just-"

There was a sickening crunch as a fist slammed across his nose, cutting him off mid-sentence. He staggered back with a yelp, the wall catching him. His nose throbbed, blood leaking from it- broken, again. His eyes were wide as he stared up at his father, his teeth gritted in miffed surprise.

His father hadn't hit him in a couple of years.

He struggled to regain his bearings, his mouth opening and closing as he fought for words. "You know what? Nevermind. Go get your own dinner, then."

He stalked out the door, wiping his face as he headed back for his bike. He really needed to go somewhere else, for the moment.

.

He felt little remorse when his father finally passed.

.

He was alone for a long time, never really made any lasting friends.

.

Then came Ravonna Renslayer.

He was patrolling the beach when he found her, dressed casually, sitting on a towel in the sand. In her lap, there was a sketchbook. And he recognized the set of horns that she was drawing.

"You into Norse mythology too, then?" He asked, peering over her shoulder curiously. He was in his mid-forties now, but he was as agile as ever, even if his hair had gone gray. He smiled at her as she glanced up at him, mildly startled. "Sorry- didn't mean to scare you. You're new around here, aren't you? I've never seen you before."

"Oh, it's no problem." She chuckled softly.

"Mind if I join you?" He wondered.

"Go right ahead."

He sat down beside her, watching as she detailed the shading of her drawing. "That's really good. Do you draw a lot?"

"Here and there." She shrugged. "I don't usually have the time, I'm so busy working."

He hummed sympathetically. "You should become a published artist- get some money doing what you love."

"What do you do?" She asked.

"Well, uh- I'm a lifeguard. Make sure no one drowns and all that, you know? I just can't stay away from the water."

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "You must be something special if it calls to you like that."

His mouth twitched up in a small smile, but he chuckled sadly as he shook his head. "Nah, I'm not very special. Just a regular old lifeguard."

"One who has an interest in Norse mythology." She teased, a callback to his greeting.

His smile grew a little and he ducked his head slightly. "Yeah..."

"Which one's your favorite?"

"Him, actually." He pointed at her drawing briefly. "I've read all the myths loads of times, but his- dozens. I'll never forget his story."

"You must be an expert on it by now." She remarked.

"Try me."

She laughed, appearing truly fond of his confidence in the matter. "No, I don't think I will."

He shrugged, grinning. "Okay. Your choice."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, the crashing of the waves on the shore soothing. Her drawing progressed in completion, and he was blown away by how realistic it appeared.

"Hey, I never caught your name." He eventually pointed it out.

"Ravonna." She offered.

"Mallory."

Ravonna cocked her head at him, more serious than before. "You know what that means, right?"

"Yeah. I know." He shrugged lightly, offering a sad smile. "So far, it's run true though."

"Let's change that."

.

Seeing as he ended up in the TVA not long after that, his fortune really didn't change. Not that he knew he'd had bad fortune before, with his memories replaced with false ones.

.

.

"Case closed- finally. You know, Ravonna, it's been a couple rotations since I've actually had the time to sleep."

"You'll sleep well tonight then, won't you, Mobius?"

"Oh yeah, for sure. You'll have to break into my apartment to wake me up, I'll be almost as dead to the world as Sleeping Beauty." He warned.

"No, I'll just make you work late because you overslept." She teased, smiling.

.

"Are you sure this one's possible?" He wondered, frowning. "I mean, no one's been successful so far."

"Mobius, you are the best of the best. If anyone can catch this variant, it'll be you."

"I knew I was your favorite."

.

"You're looking a little down there, B-15. I'm sure I can get U-92 to fill in for you- I'll cover, promise."

"I'll be fine, Mobius."

"Oh, come on, have you looked in a mirror lately? You look awful. Go get some rest. It's only another Loki anyway."

.

A fist collided with his nose and blood spurted from it following a sickening crunch. He staggered back, losing his footing and falling onto his back with a grunt. An odd feeling of déjà vu came over him and he couldn't move; he'd been in this position before- but when?

The snarling variant howled in agony as his form suddenly began to disintegrate, orange and blue eating away at his skin. Then he was gone, a Minuteman standing in his place.

"You alright, Agent Mobius?"

"Yeah…"

.

"You've been to a lot of places now, Mobius. What's your favorite so far?" Ravonna asked, taking a sip of her drink.

He pondered her question for a moment. "Probably some beach in California, in the 1990s- Carlsbad, maybe. That one's nice."

He was confused by the flash of unease he thought he saw pass through her eyes.

.

He sighed as a folder was handed to him, labelled Loki Laufeyson- Variant L0852. Then he frowned at the stern expression on Ravonna's face. He was in for a ride with this one.

.

"That's the sixth attack in the last week." U-92 growled.

"That we know of." Mobius pointed out, peering at one of the dead Minutemen on the ground.

.

"You have no idea what I'm capable of!" The Loki variant at the stand snarled.

"I think I might." He chirped up.

.

"I can't offer your salvation, but maybe I can offer you something better."

.

"Mobius?" Ravonna's voice halted him at the door.

"I was almost gone." He huffed, offering a small smile.

"You really believe in this variant?"

He hummed thoughtfully, shrugging. "Luckily, he believes in himself enough for the both of us."

.

"Oh, Mobius- you make even the end of the world sound boring." Loki criticized lightly.

.

"No one bad is ever truly bad, and no one good is ever truly good." Loki told him, a dead seriousness in his eyes.

He knew he was right- he wasn't all sunshine and rainbows himself.

.

"'Work your Loki, work your Loki.'" Mobius shook his head, exasperated, as he headed for the door of the office. "That oughta be my mantra."

Because, seriously, all he did was work with Lokis.

.

"It was a means to an end, Mobius." Loki told him, voice as cold as stone. "Welcome to the real world. Down there, we're awful to one another to get what we want."

"Now I gotta have a prince tell me how the real world works?" He was fed up with his friend's antics.

.

"Mobius, listen." Loki was pleading, now. "If what Sylvie told me about this place is true, it affects all of us."

"Here we go. Now, you've already told me about fifty lies in the past ten minutes-"

"-I'm not lying-"

He wasn't going to let the variant cut him off, not this time. "-Now, I'm supposed to believe your-"

"-It's the truth-"

"-terrorist girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Whatever you want to call her." This was going worse than the first interrogation way back when. "What, your female self that you have some demented crush on-"

Loki snapped. "You're all variants!"

That shut him up.

"Everyone who works at the TVA. The Time-Keepers didn't create you, they kidnapped you from the timeline and erased your memories." The other man was done with letting him drone on. Or, he was that desperate. "Memories she can access through enchantment."

He didn't know what to say, what to do. So he just listened, taking in the possibility that everything he knew was a lie.

"So, before this, you had a past. Maybe you had a family, a life."

And why, just why did he feel like Loki was telling the truth- that this wasn't another con?

.

He swapped his TemPad with Ravonna's behind her back; he needed to know the truth.

.

Hunter C-20's digital face looked at the screen, pleading for whoever she was speaking to to listen. "This wasn't the TVA. This was a memory. I lived down there. I went to that bar. I had friends. I had a whole life on the Sacred Timeline."

"Calm down."

"'Calm down?' I'm a variant. So are you. So is every single person in this place."

Loki was right.

.

"Do you really believe that you deserve to be alone?"

.

"Do you swear she didn't implant those memories in Hunter C-20?"

"Mobius, no, I believe her."

"So, I just have to trust the word of two Lokis?"

Loki hesitated. "How about the word of a friend?"

He grimly nodded. "You were right- about the TVA. You were right from the beginning."

.

He heard Loki cry out a "No!" above the sound of his own agonized cry.

But it was too late.

.

He didn't know why he turned the car in her direction, but something told him that he needed to do it. So, he opened the door and let Sylvie climb in.

.

For a moment, he almost began to fear the worst when Loki didn't take his handshake this time. But, he was pleasantly surprised with the first hug he could remember. He felt...happy.

"Thank you, my friend."

"You're my favorite."

He looked at Sylvie as he said it, but he didn't know which of the two he really meant the words for.

With a final pat to Loki's back, they pulled apart and he took the final steps up and through the Timedoor. He still had work to do.

.

"Mobius!" B-15 gasped, eyes lighting up as he approached and opened her cell.

"Hey, we have work to do. You up to helping me out?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"For all time." She promised.

He smiled.

.

He wasn't sure why he'd bothered knocking, it's not like he was welcome here anymore anyway.

"I said I wasn't to be disturbed." Ravonna's voice came, authority in her tone.

"Well, then you're not gonna be happy to see me." He chirped as he entered, pruning baton in his hand. As she turned towards him in surprise, he held out his arms. "He's baaack."

She actually had the nerve to return his smile. "If anyone was ever gonna make it back from the Void, I suppose it was gonna be you."

.

"Someone created the Time-Keepers. They created this whole place- they gave us all a purpose."

He shook his head, his disbelieving smile still masking his face.

"I have to believe they had a reason."

His facade fell away as he finally spoke, his voice trembling for the first time he could remember. "No, because I've seen the horror waiting for people when they get pruned, and there's nothing necessary about that."

"You know what would happen if we didn't prune the timeline?" Ravonna asked.

"What?"

"Chaos. Death."

"Free will?"

.

"You betrayed me!"

"No, no! You betrayed me!" She whipped around from the bag she'd been packing to face him with an emotion he'd never seen in her- and it was betrayal. "I looked out for you, hung my neck out for you, and you suffer a crisis of faith and turn to those variants? Eons of friendship, and you threw it all away on a couple of Lokis. No, Mobius, I didn't betray you."

.

"Look, maybe we can build this into something better, together." God, he sounded so naive- but he said it anyway.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mobius."

"I'm not gonna let you go." He activated the pruning baton.

"Please, Mobius. Even with that, you're of no danger to me."

"Is that what you think? Let's see."

She was right. She kicked him, winded him, and he could do nothing but watch her leave. He wasn't a fighter, never had been.

.

The monitor was beeping rapidly, dozens of new branches crossing redline fast.

"No turning back now." He murmured.

"Who said anything about turning back?" B-15 asked, her voice as soft as his.

"For all time."

"Always."


More images rushed past, most of them snippets of his travels in search of Loki.

Loki…

A moment of clarity in the rush of confusion.

Get out of my head.

Reality came rushing back all at once and he gasped against the sudden light that flooded his vision, blinking. His aching legs gave out beneath him and he tried to make the fall to his knees a little more gradual. Panting to catch his breath again after the rush of memories, his hand rose to his forehead.

"Mobius?" A familiar voice asked him cautiously.

"Loki…?" You're really here.

His friend was crouched in front of him, now, looking a tad concerned. "I just had to make sure it was really you. Sorry about that."

Mobius struggled to form words. "I..."

Loki stared at him, baffled for a long moment. "Oh...Oh." The realization seemed to hit him hard, and the god shrank back to give him space. "I'm sorry, Mobius. I...I guess I didn't think about that."

"No...it's okay." He murmured, slowly unclipping and removing the holster that held two pruning batons on his back. He stared at it for a moment, the pain of his situation with Ravonna returning full force.

"Are you okay?"

"I just...I just need a minute."

Loki nodded, mouth twisting uncomfortably. "Understandable."

Silence stretched between them. Mobius took a deep breath, trying to steady himself, but his chest felt weighed down by the return of his memories. He closed his eyes, trying to gather some composure from the whirlwind of feelings.

A warm hand touched his shoulder cautiously and his heart lurched. He opened his eyes, meeting Loki's gaze as it shifted away for a brief moment, a look of guilt briefly crossing his face, though he forced himself to hold his gaze. "It's good to see you again, Mobius. Especially now, with all...this going on."

"Yeah, things are a bit of a mess right now." He agreed quietly. "You gotta catch me up on what happened after I returned to the TVA."

"I will, but not now." Loki promised. "You look exhausted. When was the last time you slept?"

"...Three jumps ago?" Mobius shrugged, wincing as he shifted to get up. His eyes narrowed at a glimpse of crimson glistening on his friend's fingertips. "You're bleeding."

"What?" The god frowned, puzzled, following his gaze down to his hand. His eyebrows raised almost immediately in clarity. "Ah, no, that's your blood, Mobius."

"Is it?" His brows furrowed.

Loki nodded, awkwardly gesturing at the analyst's head.

"Oh. Right." The cut stung on contact. "I forgot about that."

He pulled the baton holster back on, strapping it tight. When he glanced up again, the other man had extended a hand down to him.

"...You look like you could use the help." Loki offered, his eyes sincere.

Mobius accepted it gladly. "Thanks."

Once he was on his feet again, albeit covered in Lamentis dust, he pulled his TemPad from his satchel and opened up a Timedoor.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to home base. Gotta make sure B-15 doesn't think I'm dead."

"Okay." He seemed to accept that, giving him a nod towards the portal. "After you."

"Stay close." Mobius advised. "Just got you back, pal, don't wanna lose you again."