Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 3 of As the World Caves In. I want to thank those who have left reviews for this story. It truly does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying this side story of God of Mischief and Lies and the Woman of Many Faces. I know that this story is probably getting a little long with just the first episode. This is the 4th part of the first episode. I hope that I do alright with this next chapter. Without further ado Chapter 3. ENJOY!

Chapter 3

Loki narrowed his eyes, turning his attention to the man that had shown up to save both him and the annoying Midgard girl that was the ever-present thorn in his side. "And who are you? I'm gonna burn this place to the ground."

"I'll show you where my desk is, you can start there." The man said, leading the two of them through a door out into a hallway that showed everything that the TVA had to offer. "Have a look. Home sweet home."

Loki looked around his brows pinching together in concern. "I thought there was no magic here."

"There isn't."

"That's not real," Loki said, shaking his head.

Everleigh scoffed, shaking her head. "We're looking at it Loki, you don't want to believe that something like this place is real?" Her brow was arching slightly as she looked at the god of Mischief. She had to admit that he was becoming rather bothersome. Him not wanting to believe that they were in such a place.

"It is, and, unfortunately, so is all the paperwork. Good tinder for your fire, though. Come on."

Loki let out a breath looking around his brows pinching together in confusion. He couldn't understand this place whatsoever. "This place is a nightmare."

"That's another department. Now that department I'll help you burn down."

Loki sighed, putting his hands on his hips as he walked.

"I'm Agent Mobius, by the way."

"Are you taking me somewhere to kill me?"

Everleigh let out a breath. "Loki, why would he kill you after saving the both of us? If he was doing that it wouldn't be only you that he would kill. It would also be me as well." Everleigh rolled her eyes, shaking her head lightly.

Morbius pointed his finger toward Everleigh indicating that she was correct. "No. That's where you just were. I'm taking you somewhere to talk."

Loki let out a scoff rolling his eyes. "I don't like to talk."

"But you do like to lie, which you just did. Because we both know you love to talk. Talkie-talkie."

"How long have you been here?"

Morbius let out a breath sighing. He stuck his hands in his pockets as he walked leading them toward his office. "I don't know. It's hard to say, time passes differently here in the TVA."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll catch up."

"So, you're part of the TVA's courageous and dedicated workforce?"

Morbius looked over at Loki. "Yes."

"You were created by the Time-Keepers."

"Yep." He said popping the P on yep.

"To protect the Sacred Timeline."

"Correct."

Loki let out a laugh shaking his head.

Morbius's brow raised as he looked at Loki. "Is that funny?"

"The idea that your little club decides the fate of trillions of people across all of existence at the behest of three space lizards, yes, it's funny. It's absurd." Loki said, shaking his head lightly knowing that this was way crazier than he thought that it ever could be.

Everleigh shook her head lightly in dislike. How could Loki even think that this whole thing was absurd? Everyone needed someone in charge of everything.

"I thought you didn't like to talk."

Loki scoffed looking away from Morbius.

Morbius let out a sigh shaking his head and pushing the door open to his office. "After you."

Loki entered the room, his brows furrowed together. He truly had thought that Morbius was leading him to a room where he would die. "For the record, this does feel like a killing-me kind of a room."

Morbius put something down on his desk looking at Loki. "Not big on trust, are you?"

"Trust is for children and dogs. There's only one person you can trust."

"Yourself? I like it. Slap it on a T-shirt."

"If the TVA truly oversees all of the time, how have I never heard of you until now?"

"'Cause, you've never needed to. You've always lived within your set path."

Loki scoffed, rolling his eyes, getting irritated in rage. No one would choose his path for him. He wouldn't allow it. "I live within whatever path I choose."

"Sure you do. Okay, come and have a seat. I told you, time moves differently in the TVA. Come on, sit down. Let's get into this. Go on, have a seat. If looks could kill." Morbius said as he watched Loki narrow his eyes at him.

Everleigh slowly sat down in one of the chairs.

Loki sat down in another one of the chairs narrowing his eyes at Morbius. "What do you want from me?"

Morbius took a breath through his teeth. He hoped that having both him and Everleigh there would be rather helpful in trying to find the variant that they had been hunting for, for quite some time. "Well, let's start with a little cooperation."

"Not my forte," Loki said, rolling his eyes, not liking the idea that Morbius even thought that he would get some sort of cooperation from him.

"Really? Even when you're wooing someone powerful you intend to betray them? Come on."

"You don't know anything about me."

"Maybe I'd like to learn. I specialize in the pursuit of dangerous Variants."

"Like myself?"

"Mmm… No, particularly dangerous Variants. You're just a little pussycat. I have a set of questions for you. You answer them honestly, and then maybe I can give you something you want. You wanna get out of here, right?" Morbius looked at Loki seeing the spark of interest in his eyes knowing that he hit the right emotional point. He looked over at Everleigh and noticed the sour look on her face. He could easily tell that she wanted to get home to be with her friends and family. Truly he couldn't blame the poor girl after seeing her file records, she had been broken down more and more as time had gone on. "Yeah, so we'll start there. Should you return, what are you gonna do?"

"Finish what I started," Loki said firmly looking at Morbius like he hadn't known what he was planning on doing when he returned to his time. He wanted to be king and that was what he was going to do.

"Which is?"

"Claim my throne."

"You wanna be king?"

"I don't want to be, I was born to be."

"I know, but the king of what exactly?"

Loki scoffed, crossing his arms and looking away from Morbius. "You wouldn't understand."

Morbius leaned forward resting his hands on his desk looking directly at Loki. "Try me."

"Midgard."

"AKA Earth. All right. Now you're the king of Midgard, then what? Happily ever after?"

"Asgard, the Nine Realms."

"Space?"

Loki looked up at Morbius with his brow raised. "Space?"

"Space is big. That'd be a nice feather in your cap. "Loki, the King of Space"."

"Mock me if you dare."

"No, I'm not," Morbius said with a chuckle. "Honestly, I'm actually a fan. Yeah. And I guess I'm wondering why does someone with so much range just wanna rule?"

"I would've made it easy for them. People like easy. The first and most oppressive lie ever uttered was the song of freedom. How's that one go? For nearly every living thing, choice breeds shame and uncertainty, and regret. There's a fork in every road, yet the wrong path always taken. Good. Yeah."

"You said "nearly every living thing", so I'm guessing you don't fall into that category?"

Loki chuckled before sighing. "The Time-Keepers have built quite the circus, and I see the clowns are playing their parts to perfection."

Morbius let out a chuckle. "Big metaphor guy. I love it. Makes you sound super smart."

"I am smart."

"I know."

"Okay."

"Okay."

Everleigh scoffed shaking her head.

"But it seems that Miss Everleigh here doesn't think that you're that smart." Morbius said with a grin knowing that the young woman was not so keen on the idea that Loki was smart.

"You got that right. He's a moron in the right sense. Allowing himself to get caught after taking the Tesseract… Even more of an idiot to allow himself to be brainwashed and tortured."

Loki narrowed his eyes at the young woman.

Everleigh held up her finger silencing him before he could even answer her. "I've seen tortured souls before Loki." She said firmly, narrowing her eyes at the god. "And you're one of them."

Morbius pointed his finger in Everleigh's direction. "She's right about that. She would know tortured souls."

Loki let out a frustrated groan looking away. He hated the idea of her knowing tortured souls. How could she possibly know about torture? There was just no way that this young woman didn't know a ruddy thing about torture.

Morbius's brow raised as he looked at Loki noticing the look on his face. "You don't trust her?"

"I don't believe her." Loki simply said, crossing his arms.

Everleigh rolled her eyes at what Loki had said.

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This is the end of Chapter 3. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried my best to add some extra dialogue. I hope that Everleigh isn't coming off as Mary-sueish. I hate when my characters take that sort of turn. I'm trying my best with trying to make her a stronger character and I'm going with what I have in her character. I hope that you guys like this chapter and hopefully it's not too choppy. Please let me know what you think and I'll try my best to update next week with a brand new chapter. Reviews help me keep me going when it comes to writing. Until next time.