"Mobius? Mobius?" Dr. Alltid's voice drifted to him in his dreams, slowly forcing him to wake up. He opened his eyes groggily, still under the fake beach sky, with the doctor's face looking down on him, eyes wide, both hands on his shoulder. "Mobius, look," she said, glancing down at his identical twin.

Mobius lifted himself onto his elbows, which was about as far as he could go, at the moment, still a bit dizzy. He couldn't quite believe what he was seeing, and wondered if he was still in some kind of dream.

The other Mobius was wide awake, oxygen mask off and to the side. The terrible wounds along his arms and chest were starting to swell and bruise, and he looked like Frankenstein's monster, but he was very much alive. They stared at each other, unsure of what to do, what to say, until his twin gave him a lopsided smile.

"Wow," said the other Mobius, a perfect reflection of his voice, as well, if raspy and ragged from screaming.

"This is the man who saved your life," said Dr. Alltid to the doppelganger, who looked up at her in mild confusion, as if he didn't know she was there. "He gave you a blood transfusion."

"Blood?" he asked, looking down at himself. He tried moving his arms, but Dr. Alltid, not missing a beat, placed her hand gently on his.

"Don't try to move too much."

"Do you remember what happened?" Mobius asked the injured Mobius, once he'd recovered from shock enough to make a whole sentence. "You saved my life, too. You tried to give me time to get away."

His twin shook his head, then furrowed his brows. "Wait… wait, I do remember. I came out of the vent, and this… this thing pulled me backwards into it. I couldn't even see what it was. I got away for a second, I think. I can't remember anything else."

"You heard me though, didn't you?" asked Mobius. "In the variant belongings archive. I told you to stay out of the vents-"

"-if I could help it?" the other Mobius finished his sentence, with a grin. "Well, there aren't that many good hiding spots around the TVA, despite how huge it is."

Dr. Alltid was staring between the two of them, confusion written all over her face. Mobius had to ask the obvious questions, to get rid of all the elephants in the room, but they all came out at once in a jumble.

"How do you have a-how do you know-why are you-" he sighed and started again. "Who are you? Are you me from the future? From the past? Are you from a different timeline? How do you exist?"

His twin gave him another small grin, and a chuckle, even though he could see it pained him to laugh. "I've been working through a theory, but it's pretty solid now, I think." The grin fell from his face abruptly. "The file! The film! Where are they? I need my tempad! Shit, where is it?" He tried lifting his arm again, feeling around himself in the sand, but hissed in pain.

"Dr. Alltid," said Mobius, opening the timecell door inside of the film archive, "could you-?"

"Got it," she said, and quickly ducked back into the room, returning with her arms full of film, the manilla folder, and the other Mobius' torn, bloody jacket. She laid them on the ground between the two Mobiuses.

The twin gave Mobius a worried look, glancing unsurely at Dr. Alltid.

Mobius somehow knew what he was thinking. "She's rock solid. Trust me. A very good friend of mine."

The doctor smiled at that. He had to give her credit; Dr. Alltid was taking all of this surprisingly calmly.

The other Mobius squinted at him. "I'm curious to know how much you figured out."

Mobius opened his mouth to speak, but then glanced again at Dr. Alltid, worried for a moment that it would all suddenly be too much for her to handle. On the contrary, she looked just as eager to know as he did.

"Well… I think that all of us working here at the TVA weren't grown in pods and hatched, like we've been told. Some of us seem to have memories beyond the TVA. Strong ones. With the TVA having access to anyone, and any time… I think it's a pretty good bet that we're all actually humans who were stolen from the timeline."

His twin smiled and nodded. "Impressive. Bingo."

Dr. Alltid, to his surprise, clapped her hands together once, a look of revelation on her face. "I knew it," she said, to both Mobius' confusion.

"You knew it?" Mobius asked. "How?"

"When we were learning about TVA employee anatomy in medic classes, I noticed that our anatomy is exactly the same as human anatomy, down to the parts they don't even need that sometimes cause problems, like appendixes and tonsils. Nobody ever explained it, of course, and no one ever even thought it was strange… except for me, it seemed."

"That's the TVA's modus operandi," said the other Mobius, rolling his eyes. "'Shut up and accept the truth we give you, or else.'"

"So, you are actually from the TVA, then?" asked Mobius wonderingly, looking down on his twin. "I mean, you'd have to be, to have a badge and a tempad and everything." He shook his head. "But… but how?"

The Mobius on the sand gingerly lifted his less-damaged arm to cross it over his chest. "How much time do I have to tell this story?"

"It doesn't matter," Mobius answered. "Take all the time you need."

His twin began his tale, regaling Mobius and Dr. Alltid with the story of how he was tasked to capture a Loki variant, who'd named herself Sylvie, and had the brilliant idea to coerce another Loki variant to help him. He told them how he and Loki had become friends, how Sylvie held the key to the true human nature of the TVA employees.

"So, Sylvie could read minds?" said Mobius, trying to keep everything straight in his head.

"Sort of," the other Mobius replied. "She can pull up memories out of peoples' subconscious, but I believe it's more of a side effect of the enchantment magic she does. As far as I know, she can't bring up an entire lifetime of memories."

"Oh," said Mobius, mildly disappointed. He would have liked to have met this person, at least to see if she could help him make any more sense of his half-remembered, disjointed visions.

Mobius' twin continued to say that Sylvie had infiltrated the TVA, to try and gain access to the Timekeepers, and Mobius stopped him again.

"Timekeepers? Plural? As in, more than one?"

"Yes," said the other Mobius, growing slightly irritated. "There were three in my TVA. Or-well… I'm getting to that…"

He told them how they'd uncovered the Timekeepers' ruse, revealing them to be robots, how he and Loki and Sylvie had been pruned into the Void, which elicited a gasp from Dr. Alltid, and that the Asgardians had to fight some monstrous, eldritch being in order to gain access to whoever was beyond it, controlling the TVA.

The idea stirred some strange, muddled memory from deep in Mobius' subconscious. Someone telling him that they needed to go to the Void? Some oddly familiar voice echoed in his mind.

"A citadel at the end of time…"

Before the other Mobius could keep going and make Mobius lose his place, Mobius raised a finger in the air to stop him once again. "Can I ask you a favor?"

The other Mobius squinted but said nothing.

"Can I refer to you as Variant Mobius? You know, if I ever have to tell someone else about you?"

Variant Mobius squinted harder and scrunched his mouth into a thin line.

"I knew you wouldn't like that, but could I just do it for my own sanity?"

"Well, it's a bit of a misnomer, because you're just as much of a variant as I am," Variant Mobius answered, wincing a bit as he lifted his injured arm to scratch his chin. "A more fitting name might be Multiverse Mobius…"

Both Dr. Alltid and Mobius gasped, then.

Dr. Alltid scooted closer to Multiverse Mobius… no, Mobius decided he couldn't call his twin that. It felt too silly, even if it was closer to the truth. She scooted closer to Variant Mobius and spoke.

"But, the multiverse can't exist, as long as the TVA is doing their job," she said. "At least, that's what we were taught."

Mobius butted in, nodding. "That's right. They taught us that the multiverse was condensed into one universe after the time wars, so any branch that forms on the sacred timeline can't create a new universe if we're constantly pruning it."

A sly grin crossed Variant Mobius' face. "What if I told you none of that mattered?"

Mobius felt a chill in his gut, one of somewhere between terror and excitement, and leaned so far out of the beach chair he feared it might topple over.

"The multiverse has always existed anyway," said Variant Mobius. "All the TVA does is keep each universe from bumping into each other. And, I suppose, there has to be one in each universe, doing its job, believing that it's the only one out there."

"Holy shit," whispered Mobius. "You're really from a different universe."

Variant Mobius nodded and touched his finger to his nose.

Mobius leaned back again, blinking into the neverending sunset of the fake beach. He'd known everything he knew must have been wrong, but he'd had no idea how… big… the lie had been. Or, was it even a lie? Did all the Timekeepers in the multiverse even know about each other?

"How did you figure any of this out?" whispered Mobius.

Variant Mobius opened his mouth to speak, but grimaced and groaned again instead.

Dr. Alltid brought a clear syringe of something out of a pack attached to her hip.

"I figured you'd need this sooner than later," she said, inspecting the syringe, flicking it to get all of the air bubbles out. "Would you like some painkillers?"

"God, yes. Please, doctor," sighed Variant Mobius. She gave him the shot, and he settled back down into the sand and continued quietly. "I was going to say, I had no idea what was going on, at first. After I'd been pruned, I still had my tempad, so I planned on going back to the TVA. I was pretty pissed… I'm sure you'd understand… had some half-cocked idea in my head that I could somehow single handedly tear down the TVA-"

That sent another small shiver of deja-vu up Mobius' back. A faceless woman, crying, pleading with him.

"You were going to burn it to the ground!"

Mobius tried as hard as he could to push the feeling to the back of his mind and listen to Variant Mobius' story.

"Anyway, I tried going back, but my tempad suddenly wouldn't take me where I thought I was going," he said. His voice had already started to slur ever so slightly, and he reached out to fish the tempad out of his bloody jacket pocket, forgetting about the pain until it apparently made itself known again. He let out a loud groan, and Dr. Alltid gently moved his arm back to his side.

"If you really need something, let one of us get it," she said with saintly patience.

"Oh, okay. Thanks." Variant Mobius blinked, seemingly dazed and confused. "Where was I again? Oh yeah. So, everywhere I went, I noticed the nexus event alarm on my tempad was going absolutely bonkers. Like, dozens and dozens of branches all going at once. Should have torn the whole world apart right in front of me. But it didn't. You know why?"

"Because it wasn't your sacred timeline," Mobius said, all the puzzle pieces miraculously falling into place. "You were traveling into different universes' sacred timelines!"

"Yep. My tempad wasn't calibrated for it and thought there were nexus events happening everywhere. That's what made it so hard to navigate with it, too, like trying to paddle a canoe in a hurricane."
"What caused it, though? How could a tempad suddenly jump through universes?"

"I don't know exactly what Loki and Sylvie did," answered Variant Mobius, "but I'm certain that's what was responsible. I finally got to what I thought was my TVA… until I saw the Timekeeper statue, just one of them. And you. I only caught a glimpse of you, but I knew I'd screwed up, somehow."

Mobius' eyes opened wide with astonishment. "When?" he asked breathlessly. "When did you get here?"

"About two Null-weeks ago. The minute I arrived, the alarms started going off," said Variant Mobius. "I think my tempad sensors got crossed with your guys' timeline monitors and made everything go crazy."

Dr. Alltid put a hand over her mouth and gave Mobius a frantic glance. "That was when-"

"When I caught those two variants-" said Mobius.

"Loki and Sylvie," finished Variant Mobius.

Both the doctor and Mobius stared at him, uncomprehending. The look of satisfaction on Variant Mobius' face slowly faded as he realized that Mobius was still just as confused.

"You mean, you didn't know it was them?" said Variant Mobius. "But then… how do you know them? They must have told you who they were when you captured them."

"They might have," said Mobius slowly, guilt growing deep inside of him. It was his fault, then, that they'd been brainwashed. "In fact, I'm certain they did. But I don't really remember. The TVA made certain of that. I can vaguely recall, now, that I caught a couple of variants, but their faces are just a blur. I still put it together, though. I just didn't have their real identities." A smile spread across his face. "I became friends with Loki variants? Who could have thought that would happen?"

Variant Mobius scoffed and furrowed his silver brows together, as if he was the one confused, now. "But if you didn't know who they were, then how did you become friends?"

Mobius shrugged. "We went bowling together."

Variant Mobius raised a single eyebrow.

"And then," Mobius drawled on, "Lucky… Loki-good Lord… anyway, he immediately got himself into trouble, volunteering for fight night."

Variant Mobius let out a loud bark of a laugh, then winced through a smile, as well.

"Do you still do fight night?" he asked, now fully slurring his words. "Crazy son of a bitch, you're-we're too old for that!"

"Of course I don't. I just watch." He gave Dr. Alltid a knowing wink, which she acknowledged with a grin.

"Did he win?" asked Variant Mobius.

"Eh… he would have. There were some extenuating circumstances." He sat up in his beach chair, finally feeling steady enough to do so. "Did you know a guy in your TVA, Agent J-520? Calls himself Jet?"

"Mmm. No. But you have a Hunter B-15 here, right? I saw her."

Mobius nodded. "Work with her all the time. What about Ravonna Renslayer?"

Variant Mobius' smile faded. "Yeah. I know her too."

Dr. Alltid patted Mobius on the shoulder. "I'm sure you two could reminisce and compare TVA's for hours, but I think your… I think he needs some rest, Mobius. So do you."

Mobius grunted as he stood from his beach chair, and with some gentle maneuvering, they moved Variant Mobius onto the chair in his place.

"I feel like I have a million more questions," said Mobius, his head swimming as he looked down at the film and manilla folder on the sand. "But before I leave, I have to ask… how did you find my life?"

Variant Mobius smiled at him and blinked, seemingly struggling to keep his eyes open and not crossed as the painkillers started to really kick in.

"That's a story in itself. I decided to hide out at this TVA anyway, instead of trying to find my old one."

"Why?"

Variant Mobius paused a second before answering. "I knew Loki and Sylvie had gotten captured here, but I had no idea what really happened to them. I had to do something. I had to talk to you, somehow. And since I know you so well, I knew you wouldn't appreciate some crazy looking version of me running up to you, trying to convince you we were kidnapped, brainwashed humans from Earth."

"You know," said Mobius, "I did think you were a shapeshifter this whole time. Well, most of this whole time. For a while I just thought I was crazy."

Variant Mobius nodded sagely, like he completely understood. He probably did, at that.

"I knew if I was to have a chance of convincing you of anything, I'd need evidence. The problem was, I had no idea where our files would be stored."

Mobius picked up the film once again from the sand, staring at the little cells full of moments of his life. "You found the classified documents the TVA has been hiding?"

"No. Unfortunately not," said Variant Mobius, to Mobius' surprise. "I don't think they even classify those documents. Why would they? They don't need them anymore, they'd be more of a liability than anything. I think TVA employee's former files have been destroyed."

"Then what is this?" said Mobius, holding up the film, confused.

"Technically, that's my life."

Mobius stared at him, stunned and disheartened for a moment as Variant Mobius continued.

"Did you even look at the folder?"

Mobius picked up the file from the sand, labeled 'J79197', and leafed through it. There was no mugshot, replaced with a blurry, distant polaroid of Mobius… or his variant… moving through some strange, desolate landscape full of demolished buildings. The information in it set off a chorus of bells in his mind, though.

"Jeff Boyd," he read from the thin file, "planet code, ETH. Born 1947 A.D., Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America. Current location, unknown. Nexus Events, transmitted flu virus to Brian Banner, killing him before birth of Bruce Banner. Escaped from Time Variance Authority and the Void. Illegal travel through multiversal space. Significant life events: failed seventh grade, strained relationship with both parents, failed marriage with one Joanne Singer… marriage? We got married?"

Variant Mobius twitched an eyebrow. "You remember Joanne? I don't. The only thing I know I remember is that I wore a green John Deere hat all the time, and that memory almost felt like a fluke."

Mobius shook his head, still confused. "But if this is your life, how am I having visions about someone you married?"

"We had exactly the same life. Nearly. Until I met Loki in my universe, and you met him in yours. I got a file as soon as I ended up in this universe, apparently. The files are made and numbered automatically, but there's a method to it, I figured it out…" Variant Mobius interrupted himself with a deep yawn. His eyes were only half open now, struggling against sleep. "The TVA employee numbers are made from their variant numbers."

Mobius squinted at the variant number on the tab of the folder. J79197. At first, it made no sense to him at all, until he suddenly gasped and snapped his fingers, pointing at Variant Mobius.

"They break it up and add it together!"

"Right," said Variant Mobius. "Seven-ninety-one plus ninety-seven equals-"

"Eight-hundred-eighty-eight."

"Congratulations. How did we fail seventh grade?"

Both Mobius' chuckled at each other. It was nice to talk to someone with an identical sense of humor.

Variant Mobius shifted slightly in the beach chair. "I spent forever going through the file archives, trying to find the right one."

"Where did you get the keys, then?" asked Mobius. "If they threw everything of mine away, and they obviously couldn't have been yours…"

"Pretty much every one of our variants, no matter how different they seemed, had almost exactly the same set of keys on them when they were captured. We all owned Fords-or whatever the great-big-truck equivalent was in that timeline-and we all had some kind of jet ski key. I left those keys for you in that box because I wanted to see if it sparked something in you, like it did for me." Variant Mobius stared longingly out into the ocean horizon, watching the Waverunner bob up and down.

"It did," whispered Mobius, following his variant's gaze out into the water. "It did. Thank you."

Variant Mobius yawned again, shut his eyes, and let out a deep sigh. "You have to tell Loki and Sylvie," he murmured. "You have to convince them… they can help, if they…" Variant Mobius then trailed off into silence, his mouth open slightly. He'd lost his battle with sleep.

Mobius whispered to Dr. Alltid, who'd been standing there the whole time, listening to him just as intently as Mobius had. "Doctor, do you think you can keep an eye on him? I'll give you access to this timecell."

She nodded, handed him her tempad, and whispered back, "he's going to be all right now. I'll check up on him for as long as he needs. How long do you think you'll have to hide him here?"

"No idea," he answered as he finished up with Dr. Alltid's tempad and handed it back to her. He'd been stuffed with so many revelations all at once that he could barely think about the practicalities of hiding him.

Mobius opened a time door for Dr. Alltid back inside of the film archives. "Take care, doctor. I can't thank you enough."

"It's my job to take care of employees, Mobius," she said as she stepped through the door and turned to face him. "No matter where they came from."

He smirked at her. "You know what I meant. I'd give you a medal, if I could. Hell, I'd throw you a parade."

She scoffed, smiled, and shook her head at him as she walked away and the time door closed behind her.

Mobius looked down at Variant Mobius sleeping on the beach chair just as he'd been not long ago, then looked down at himself, covered in dried blood.

"Well, I simply can't go out looking like this," he muttered to no one in particular. He opened another time door in the middle of his room, saving him the horror of having to walk through the corridors looking like a butchered pig. He took off his clothes to shower, almost stuffing them down the laundry chute, like he did every day, but stopped himself. There was no way in hell no one would notice a blood-soaked suit coming down into wherever they did the laundry. That might have been understandable for a medic, but for an agent? Instead, Mobius tossed his clothes randomly into the timeline, throwing them out into a vast, empty desert.

After a shower and a change, he took out another clean set of clothes for Variant Mobius, and a set of pajamas as well, and came back into the timecell, laying them folded next to the beach chair where Variant Mobius snored away. He was pretty sure he didn't snore that loud-though, of course, he didn't have anyone to tell him if he did or not.

He wondered for a moment if Joanne had ever complained about that particular shortcoming.

Mobius picked up a section of film from the sand, then went back into the film archive room. He sat down at an editing machine, threaded the beginning of the film through, and pressed play.