"I was ascending Mount Apo to perform the scheduled ritual to appease Apo Sandawa, the spirit of the mountain, when I saw the UFO descend to the summit and pull the cages up, like in one of those cheesy old alien movies!" The witness from Davao City recounted. "Then it sped into the stratosphere as fast as lightning!"

"I see. Did you happen to notice anything unusual about the spaceship, like an odd shape, a logo, or some visual marker of identification?" Loki questioned her.

"No, I was too awestruck by the whole alien thing to pay attention to that sort of thing."

"That's quite alright. With your permission, may we draw out your subconscious memory pf the ship through a harmless process similar to hypnosis?"

"Like sorcery?"

"Well… yes, to be truthful."

"Be my guest: I have nothing to hide."

"Thank you. Now, if you please, just close your eyes, relax, and focus on that memory." He and Sylvie looked into her memory of the event together as the funnel-shaped ship beamed up the animals, just as Sylvie had guessed. In the front of the spacecraft, between the headlights was a logo of a feather-covered animal that resembled a frog with a beak mouth, with a diamond in the background. "Hmmm… I don't recognize that insignia. What about you, Miss Lushton?"

"Yeah, I do. It's the emblem of Planet Niveis. It's a snow-covered paradise that has strange, exotic animals of their own, especially their planetary mascot, the Ranablins, which are illegal to remove from their natural habitat."

"Sounds like my kind of paradise!"

"Did you frequent that planet in your travels as well?" Loki wondered. "You know a lot about their culture!"

"Yeah, I found out it's against the law to even touch a Ranablin, and I may or may not have gotten arrested for touching their protected bird after I saved one from a pack of hungry Jackanapes."

"And I presume those are a type of primate?"

"Nooo, they look more like people imagine jackalopes to be than apes, but with bigger, buffer bodies. And little cotton tails."

"They must be making an illegal trade, dropping off the endangered species from Earth and picking up ones from Niveis to bring here." Mobius figured.

"Then we know where our destination lies!" Loki exclaimed. "Let's go wait for those poached animals to arrive and catch our poachers in the act, shall we?"

The Time Detectives thanked their witness and took a portal to the planet Niveis, scouring the cold world for any signs of its native species in cages. As they waited for the spaceship from Earth to descend, Mobius's TemPad began to ring.

"Sorry, the Time Detectives are already on a case at the moment; could you leave your name, date, and number, and we'll call you back later?"

"You're the detectives working on the poached animals case, aren't you?" A male voice questioned him back. "This is the Barter Brothers. We got your number from our lawyer, and contrary to what Thanos may have told you, we're not involved in this crime: we've been set up!"

"Oh yeah? Let me guess, your business only deals in honest-to-John legitimate trades?"

"We do the best we can to keep our noses clean. If you're able to save the animals, we'd like you to meet us at the courthouse to turn the creatures over to the authorities together, expose Thanos, and get our name cleared."

"Hm. Okay then, if that's true, I guess we'll meet you there." Mobius hung up.

"Well well well, it would seem some things never change." Loki commented. "Thanos is still a villain after all."

"We don't know that for sure, but we'll find out soon enough!" Mobius replied. After a few hours of waiting, the detectives finally saw the ship descend, and as it did, the ground underneath it opened up to reveal the local endangered species, caged and ready for transport. Time Detectves boarded the ship, disabled the controls, captured the ship's captain, and began to free the animals from Earth. As they freed the Andean bears, Loki noticed a small red piece of cloth caught in its claw.

"This material… you remember Thanos's ripped sleeve? He didn't rip it in a confrontation with his suspects, this bear ripped it in self-defense as that monster caged it and took it from its home! He is guilty!"

"Wow, I guess you were right after all!" Mobius remarked. Then he grew pensive. "Wait… when you and Healer searched his mind for lies, you yourself said he was telling the truth. How can he be guilty if his memories prove otherwise?"

"And he himself admitted he was mad: perhaps his mind doesn't work like ours."

Mobius shrugged. "Perhaps. Anyway, the important thing is that we free the rest of the animals and take these guys to a safe location back on Earth. And take care of these poachers: at least we know for sure they're guilty!"

"Indeed." Loki telekinetically tucked the ripped red cloth into a baggy as evidence and finished freeing the bears, ensuring his dad was at a safe distance before doing so. Then he and Sylvie freed the Ranablins and the other native creatures of Niveis, capturing the poachers that guarded them also and gathering what information and evidence that remained. After the detectives turned the criminals in to the Niveisian police and arrived back on Earth, Loki broke off from the group to meet his caller. Six brown-haired men were waiting for him in the courthouse. "You must be the Barter Brothers: I'm Mr. Ouroboros of the Time Detectives."

"Where are the animals?" One of the brothers questioned.

"They're with my partners, one whom you spoke with earlier, on their way here from the place the animals were taken. He sent me ahead to meet you." Loki extended his hand, and one of the brothers shook it, allowing Loki to easily activate his enchantment. When their brief meeting had finished, Loki regrouped with his team.

"How did it go? Did you see any guilty memories?" Sylvie asked her fiancé.

Loki paused. "They're not guilty."

"So they didn't tear that piece off of Thanos's sleeve?" Mobius questioned.

"Well… it did appear that way…"

"You saw it happen in one of their minds?"

"In more than one, actually, but…"

"But what?" Sylvie wondered.

"But I think there's more to the story than that."

"Like what?" Mobius asked in turn. "We've got our culprits' guilt verified by both sides' own memories: what more do you need?"

"I can just feel it, a strong hunch that tells me Thanos is up to something!"

"Loki, did you see the Barter Brothers illegally trade those animals or not?"

"Fine, yes, that's what I saw!"

"Did Thanos manipulate them then?"

"Not that I saw…"

"Then how could Thanos possibly be guilty and the others not be!?"

Loki put a hand on his chin, and in a moment, his face lit up. "The Mind Stone! Back on the world of Sanctuary, Thanos used the Mind Stone to implant the false memory in my head that my brother threw me into the abyss beneath the rainbow bridge, when in fact I let myself fall from it! I wouldn't put it past him to do the same to frame the Barter Brothers!"

"You think Thanos would use an Infinity Stone to put fake memories into the Barter Brothers' heads, and even his own head, to get away with stealing some animals and blame someone else?"

"Yes!"

Mobius sighed. "Let me put it another way: you really think Thanos, whose main goal in life was to bring balance to the universe, to halve every species in existence so that the others could survive, would kidnap members of endangered species to endanger them further!?"

"He's mad, Mobius, who knows what kind of plan he's concocted for those animals in his twisted sense of self-righteousness? Maybe he intends to feed them some sort of unnatural substance that will cause them to multiply at an insane rate or just use them as test subjects for something worse!?"

"Loki, you don't care who's really guilty, do you? You're just looking for an excuse to condemn Thanos!"

"And why shouldn't I? You know what he's done, to me and so many others!"

"I know what the Thanos from your timeline has done to you and would have done to you, but this is not him! You can't punish someone for something an alternate version of them did or would have done!"

"Oh, that's rich, coming from the interrogator who relished in informing me that I was born to cause nothing but pain and suffering and death because the damned timeline required it!"

"Loki-"

"From the analyst who emphatically ingrained in my head how my destiny- my glorious purpose- was to kill my mother over and over in an infinite loop of timelines, who had no qualms in pinning that on me when I hadn't done anything of the sort, you're full of it! And in truth, even my variants were innocent of that charge!"

"I know, and I apologized for that! I've grown since then, so have you! Don't you think it's fair we give Thanos that same chance?"

"Don't you think it's fair we give the Barter Brothers that same chance?"

"A chance to prove they're really innocent, yes. A chance to frame an innocent man for a crime they committed, no."

"But Thanos framed it to look like he was framed by framing the Barter Brothers first-"

"Seriously though, what reason would Thanos have to use the Mind Stone!? No one on Earth besides you and your variants can read minds without it, and he doesn't know you!"

"He's a liar: you can't trust anything he says!"

"And why would Thanos hatch this convoluted plan to steal animals if he erased his memory of that plan? Why would he have you save the animals and get himself in trouble when he could just let someone else take the blame?"

"Because… because… I don't know, his mind is on a different, more villainous level of cunning than mine, and he's crazy, so- so who knows what he's plotting!? Aha, I know! Perhaps he's aiming for such a ludicrous scheme, he drives us all as mad as he is! And then- then he'll take advantage of our madness-"

"Loki, listen to yourself! You're so desperate to ensure Thanos's guilt that you're not making sense! You need to focus more on the mission and less on your own emotions! Do you see what you're becoming? You're acting just like Ayesha of the Sovereign, too blinded by your own indignity and past trauma to see the case clearly! The Barter Brothers are clearly guilty, and you're obliviously falling right into their trap to frame Thanos!"

"Really Mobius, after all we've been through, you're choosing to side with him over me?! YOU PICKED A FINE TIME TO BETRAY ME!"

"I AM NOT BETRAYING YOU, I'M KEEPING YOU FROM BETRAYING YOURSELF, AND EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR!" Mobius caught his breath and composed himself. "On the Sovereign home world, when their people threatened you if you didn't let Fandral take the blame for the murder the Sovereign lady committed, you refused to submit to their corrupt ways because you stood for justice. But now that the person framed is a variant of your enemy instead of your friend, you're going to ignore that sense of justice and passion for revealing the truth, throw away everything you've worked for to change into a better man! You're better than that, Loki. Remember what you told me back at the TVA after Pompeii? 'No one good is ever truly good,' and…?"

"'No one bad is ever truly bad.'"

Mobius smiled. "The Thanos from your timeline has been in your head for far too long. He's taken enough from you, don't let him take one of the key characteristics that separates you from the other Lokis: don't let Thanos take your integrity."

Loki beamed back at Mobius. "I'm starting to believe you truly are my real father: you've got quite the silver tongue yourself!"

"Heh, yeah."

"I'm sorry, Dad, for what I said. So, should we go meet with Thanos?"

"I think that would be best. We'll leave the animals in his protection and see if we can find some solid evidence besides the Loki Mind Theater!"