A very warm thank you to everyone who's been kind enough to comment on or read this silly little adventure of mine. I have a few scenes that I'll likely post in a more lighthearted epilogue at some point, but for now, we end the adventure here.

-ONE YEAR LATER-

It's quiet.

For the first time in hundreds, nay, thousands of years, it is quiet.

The endless, infinitely swelling chorus of a million million timeline branches, which has been ever-present since he began his lonely vigil so long ago, is gone; or at the least, has receded to a background noise level too low to register at this time.

Now, there is only a gentle, rhythmic sound he recognizes after a moment to be that of ocean waves. It comes from beyond an open window, through which a salty breeze is drifting, carrying with it the crash of surf and call of an occasional sea bird.

Where is he?

It seems to be more of an effort to keep his eyes open than it should, in fact more of an effort to even think, at the moment. But he manages both, somehow, and finds himself in a small bedroom. It shows few signs of being in regular use, but is furnished sufficiently with a comfortable bed, dresser, and two small tables, one on each side of the bed. A sliding door conceals a tiny closet, in which hangs the outer robe he had worn for so many centuries at the end of time, as well as a few changes of bland, uncomfortable clothing he recognizes as TVA-issue. His helmet sits neatly on one of the shelves within.

One glance out the window shows a semi-familiar scene, though it has been many decades since he was able to cast an illusion here lifelike enough to perceive anything outside the immediate vicinity of said illusion.

Does the sun being low on the horizon here indicate morning, or evening?

And with that uncertainty, memory returns; elusive and hazy, but enough for a vague recollection of the events. It also provides sufficient explanation for this weakness which has him quite off-balance, physically and mentally. His circuit around the little room requires a steadying hand on the wall, more than once. It is quite unnerving, this enervation.

But with said memory comes full alertness, and with a quick wave of the hand, he refreshes his sleep clothing to something more neutral, yet as comfortable. Even that small gesture seems almost painful, and far too difficult.

Something is not quite right.

But he will not get answers here, and so he hesitantly opens the bedroom door. It opens to a tiny corridor, off of which is a lavatory and another room with the door standing open – this one showing many signs of use, including an unmade bed and haphazard pile of books on the bedside table – and from thence, to a warmly-lit living area.

Voices are coming from just beyond, and grow more audible as he approaches.

"Look, if you need me there I'll make the trip, but I trust your judgment, O.B. Tell them whatever you have to, to get them off your back."

"I did. But they want an explanation from you, not me. This wasn't exactly a sanctioned field op, you know. Even Judge Willis isn't happy with us."

A vaguely frustrated noise. "I know. And I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess with me. I figured it'd be over and done before anyone even noticed we were gone, I didn't realize there would be a recovery period. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and all that."

"Dragging would imply we didn't come willingly." Loki recognizes the voice as Casey's, despite not hearing it directly for hundreds of years. "We're in it as deep as you, and totally okay with that."

"But if you don't make a trip back, you're probably going to have people on your doorstep that you don't want to see right now." This voice is female, and unfamiliar. "I think we've held them off as long as possible, boss. They're threatening to put every op on hold, including the final construction phases of the satellite hub, until they get answers."

Loki turns the corner into the living area and sees Mobius semi-slumped on an uncomfortable-looking stool at the kitchen island, back to the hallway and speaking to a flat video screen, which stands propped against a carafe of some kind of orange-hued juice. He is wearing what looks like a standard TVA uniform, but sans the jacket and with his sleeves rolled to the elbows.

Now, he rubs a hand over his face and then sighs. "Understood. I'll be there in an hour. I gotta figure out a few things here, first."

"Well," Casey replies, a slow grin overtaking his expression as he points at the screen. "I think your biggest problem's awake, finally."

"No, my biggest prob – wait, what?" Mobius spins around on the stool, and immediately almost physically melts with what seems to be relief. "Loki, hey."

"Hello." The word is a hoarse rasp, also almost painful, but that is likely from disuse. "I did not intend to interrupt." He attempts to let go of the wall, and does not quite succeed.

Mobius is next to him in a matter of seconds. "Geez, you're pale. C'mere."

He is guided to a comfortable sofa, on which is haphazardly piled a dozen file folders and a computer much more streamlined than anything he remembers seeing at the TVA. Mobius shoves the clutter to one end, deposits him on the other, and then pushes a blanket into his somewhat startled hands before whirlwinding back to his waiting call.

"One hour," he says, leaning one elbow on the countertop and pointing at the screen. "And tell them they have to come to me."

The red-headed female Loki has not met flips him a sloppy salute. "We'll stall for two."

"This is why you're my favorite, Octavia."

"Hey Mobius, don't forget to approve the blueprint adjustments D-73 sent over last night," O.B. adds briskly from off-screen. "I can't have them proceed with the communications center until we have that on file. And the architects have a list of questions for you as soon as you get here. They're in Sector Three now, something to do with the laboratories. Or lavatories? One of the two, I can't read Kirby's writing."

"I figured. If I forget to approve the blueprints before noon, just forge my signature, Casey. I'll handle the rest of it."

"Yup. Can do."

"We'll see you in a bit, then."

The screen goes blank, and for a moment silence blankets the room. Then, Mobius clears his throat, and turns around. He looks no less tired than Loki feels, but at the same time somehow less anxious than Loki is accustomed to seeing, watching the timelines from afar.

"For how long was I asleep?" he asks.

"Three days, normal Earth time, give or take a few hours. I think." Mobius rubs his eyes and moves into the kitchen area, reaching for a coffee mug and filling it from the glass carafe on the counter.

"And it is…morning here, I presume?"

The mug freezes in mid-air. "You can't tell?"

"No." He cannot help but smile widely, at the realization. "It is that precise fact which told me I am no longer at the End of Time. I cannot tell the passage rate down to the second, any longer."

"Huh. I didn't think about that." Mobius comes back into the living area and gathers up the clutter from the other end of the couch. "Is it unsettling? The not knowing?"

"Slightly. But I welcome the ambiguity, as proof of reality." Loki shakes his head. "I had thought my last recollected events to be merely a fantasy, until that realization."

"Well, it was definitely a fantastical rescue mission," Mobius agrees, with a small but genuine smile. "I'm pretty sure O.B. is using the whole thing as material for that novel of his."

"He's writing a book?"

"Oh, yeah. A whole saga, I think." Mobius sets the pile of folders on the island beside the now-blank screen. "It's been slow going, but he's making good progress, for as little free time as he's had lately. And it's not half bad, to tell you the truth."

"He was originally a science fiction author on the timeline."

"How do you know that?"

"Ah, yes." Loki leans back against the well-worn cushions. "I believe we have much to discuss."

"Yeah. I'm sure you have a load of questions."

"None that are immediately pressing. And it sounds as if you are in high demand."

"Guess so."

"Have you been here the entire time I was sleeping?"

"All except a couple hours one night, yeah. Had an emergency I had to be on-site for. Wasn't gone long."

"And have you slept, in that time?"

"Why?"

"Because you do not appear to have done so."

"Now, there's no reason to be mean." A stifled yawn. "But I have. Been a little too keyed up, I think, for it to do much good, though."

"Can I be of any assistance?"

Mobius's weary face softens in a smile. "Don't you worry about me. You need to rest, anyway, get your strength back. You had a really rough go of it, there toward the end."

"I am feeling more improved by the moment," Loi replies, not untruthfully. "But something feels quite strange."

"With your magic?"

"Yes," he replies, in some surprise. "Its presence and effectiveness seem to be somewhat inconsistent, I can feel as much. The fluctuation is very disorienting. I would almost prefer being cut off from it completely, as it was in the TVA."

"Yeah, we thought you might have an issue until everything sort of regenerated, which is why we put you here to sleep it off instead of the TVA. If it's still bad in another day or two, then we might worry about it; but O.B. gauged it's going to take almost a week under a regular time-passage rate for you to be back to normal."

"Noted."

"I really think you should stay here and take it easy, Loki. But if you're interested in a field trip, I've got a lot to show you."

"Then I would prefer to see it rather than entertain myself here, provided I would not hinder your work."

"Not at all. It'll probably make things a lot easier with the council, anyhow. And I know Judge Willis – B-15, by the way, she took the name she had on the timeline when she got promoted – will be happy to see you."

"I monitored her in the field a few times, before her promotion from field duty."

"Saved her life once too, didn't you? Way back at the start of it all."

"Indeed. And I have been quite interested in the peculiar sort of raids Casey has been conducting through late-timeline apocalypses, I presume on your order. What in the worlds have you been up to?"

Mobius' face creases in a wide smile. "Well, if you're feeling steady enough, let me grab my jacket, and I'll show you."

-TWENTY MINUTES LATER-

"Where are we?"

"The TVA," Mobius replies, with an innocent smile.

"Not any part of it that I recall." Loki looks up at the vaulted ceilings and suspiciously shiny, obviously new marbled stonework. A clean white tile floor, void of any branding or insignia, spreads throughout the atrium and a half-dozen corridors beyond. "And Time is actually passing here, if considerably slowed from reality, I can still feel as much. That is not the case in the TVA."

"All correct." Mobius takes his arm and leads him to the outer wall, gesturing to the scenery beyond. "Take a look."

Loki steps to the window, and then stares at the barren wilderness with immediate recognition, and something like astonishment. "This is the Void at the End of Time."

"Correct again."

"Mobius, what have you done?"

"Built a secondary TVA, among other things." Loki turns at the unfamiliar voice, to see the young red-haired agent from earlier walking from one of the corridors. She's now wearing a set of plain black glasses, and carrying a writing tablet.

"Oh, come on. I've been here for like, two minutes, Octavia."

"Yes, sir." The agent stops in front of them, acknowledging Loki with a curt nod and nothing more. It is quite refreshing. "Sorry for interrupting, but it's categorized as a Safety issue, so you have to sign off on the report. And I doubt you want this particular report delivered while you're in a council meeting, so I intercepted it."

Mobius sighs. "What is it now?"

She shoves the tablet and stylus into Mobius' hands. "We had an incident. Your special guest was testing the extent of the magic dampener, and set fire to his bedding. The fire suppressant system kicked in immediately, but we had to move him to a different room due to water damage."

Mobius winces. "Intentional?"

"He said it was an accident," she replies, in a neutral tone.

"Good grief. It's been what, sixteen hours?"

"Fourteen and a half."

"Well, log it as an accident, unless it happens again. If it does, I'll talk to him."

"Understood."

"I'm gonna regret this, aren't I."

"Probably," she replies cheerfully. "But you never know. He might end up surprising us. There's been a lot of that going around."

A brief chuckle, and Mobius scribbles a signature on the tablet and hands it back.

"You may want to continue your tour on the south side, by the way," the woman adds. "Or just bite the bullet and meet everyone in the Observatory now. Put O.B. out of his misery."

"It's not even been an hour!"

She raises her free hand in a conciliatory gesture. "I told you we'd stall, and we will, if we have to. But I just figured you should know, they're already here waiting for you, and they're not going to get any less frustrated in the next ninety minutes. Hello," she adds, turning to Loki. "I'm Octavia, by the way. Formerly designation Hunter O-55. I don't think we ever met in the field."

"We did not, to my knowledge." Loki accepts the brisk handshake. "But I am delighted to make your acquaintance now. You seem to be one who has many stories to tell about this place."

"Nope. No." Mobius gives him a gentle push in the direction from whence the agent came a moment ago. "You are not getting dirt on me before we've even been here five minutes. Now shoo."

Octavia's laugh follows them down the corridor.

"A secondary TVA? Truly?" Loki asks, as he is guided into a cross-corridor.

"Yeah. Nowhere near the size of the central complex, but it's pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. And definitely has room to grow. Why did you think I was out here in the Void getting stabbed by a variant a while back?"

"Overconfidence and human stupidity," Loki replies dryly.

"Besides that." Mobius grins, walking backward for just a second and gesturing around them with both hands. "This thing's been almost four years in the making."

"It seems to have a very different atmosphere than the TVA I remember."

"That's probably because it's built for defense, not just maintenance, and we're operating on technology at least two or three centuries beyond what's installed at TVA Central." Mobius pauses outside a massive set of double doors. "This is the Observatory, which I think you'll enjoy. But you don't have to sit in on this meeting, Loki."

"Do you want me to remain outside?"

"No, not at all, I think you'll be interested in what we have here. But you only just woke up a couple of hours ago, and I'm guessing it's gonna be real easy to get overstimulated if you're used to nothing but your own thoughts. So don't overdo it, and let me know if you need a break, okay?"

"Mobius, I assure you I am perfectly fine. Stop fussing."

"Fussing, he says," Mobius mutters under his breath as he turns back and opens the doors.

Soundproofed, the room then lets out a burst of noise and chatter, which fades slightly as Mobius enters, and then dies completely when he's followed closely by Loki, who offers a semi-apologetic shrug with his hands in his pockets.

Mobius gestures a thumb over his shoulder, and shrugs. "I've been told you have questions," he says blandly. "Does that answer most of them?"

For a second, there is only dead silence, other than a stifled laugh from B-15's side of the room.

Then O.B. pops up like a demented jack-in-the-box from out of nowhere, and nearly bowls Loki over with a spontaneous hug.

Clearly startled and a trifle uncomfortable, Loki pats the shorter man on the back briefly and then looks helplessly in Mobius' direction for assistance. But a moment later, O.B. hops back, grinning from ear to ear.

"Loki! I'm glad you're okay! It's good to see you!"

"Ah…yes, thank you. Good to see you too, O.B. I believe you're significantly responsible for my recovery, correct?"

"It was a team effort. And we have an awesome team."

"Agent Mobius," Judge Gamble interjects, with exasperated severity. "What the hell is going on."

"I'm pretty sure our guy here already explained it to you, in more scientific terms than I can," Mobius says, gesturing at Ouroboros. "But if you need the Cliffs Notes version: we've replaced the power source in the Tree with a self-sustaining one, and provided it with a triple-redundancy backup system. Meaning there's no need for a physical guardian there, at least not full-time. Or at least not until the war begins."

"And where did you get these power sources?" Judge Neilssen asks suspiciously.

"For the primary one, we adapted an experimental arc reactor we stole from the basement of Stark Industries R&D in the defunct 748 branch, two minutes before the branch died."

"You did what."

"It was really simple, actually!" O.B. says. "It's the most advanced self-sustaining and completely stabilized power source that I've ever seen, and Stark knew what he was doing when he made it. Adapting it to a micro-fusion process done with magic instead of palladium was not that hard, it's all just different types of energy conversion." He gestures at the holo-wall. "And in the three days that it's been running, there have been zero issues."

"So you haven't been experimenting with infinity stones again," Gamble says, looking somewhat less annoyed.

"Only inspired by them, not actually using them," Mobius confirms. "And by inspiration, I just mean we've created three major artificial 'roots' on the Tree, each powered by a containment vessel similar to the Tesseract."

"Right now, they're just a backup system, in case the arc reactor ever fails, which it shouldn't, and we could always just get another one from an Earth apocalypse" O.B. adds. "Loki poured all the magic possible into the containment vessels, and they will kick in immediately if the reactor ever fails."

"Containment vessels?"

"Like the Tesseract. Right now, I'm calling them Cosmic Cubes! But that's still being workshopped. They'll last for centuries. Loki will have to go back every two hundred years or so to top them off again, but there's no reason now for him to have to stay there, unless there's an active threat against the Tree. Which we should be able to see coming, here."

"If this is such welcome news, then why, exactly, didn't you submit this proposal through the proper channels, Mobius?" Gamble asks pointedly.

"Because in the two hours it would've taken me to write out the proposal, two hundred years or more would have passed, inside that," he retorts, pointing at the hologram wall. "And in the week it would've taken to be discussed and approved by the council, thousands more."

"Mobius." Loki's tone is calm and even.

"No, I'm not done." He turns back to the council, hands on hips. "It would've been even more centuries spent in what amounts to inhumane solitary confinement, just because my little side project was held up under the wheels of bureaucracy. Again. Like hell I was going to wait, once we found a way."

"The review and risk evaluation process exists for a reason, Agent Mobius."

"I'm well aware of that. But if that had been one of our agents in there, we wouldn't be hem-hawing around about it, we'd be launching a field op as soon as it was safe to do so. I was tired of waiting, yes, I admit that. And I don't care what the consequences are!"

"O-kay, let's just settle down for a few seconds," B-15's calm voice interjects, immediately de-escalating the tension. "We all wanted this outcome, so the technicalities of its execution are much less important than determining if it's actually as self-sustaining as it sounds. Yes?"

There's a smattering of mumbled agreements, and a couple ambiguous head-nods.

"O.B., why don't you show us exactly what's happening inside the tree now," she adds, gesturing toward the holo-wall. "We need to see numbers and measurements, pre- and post-op., and tell us how exactly it's working and what the failsafes are."

"I can do that." O.B. glances up at Loki one more time, then darts away toward the other side of the room. He is followed momentarily by most of the councilmen, who look marginally less annoyed than they had a moment ago.

Mobius exhales loudly into his hands, and drags them down his face. "This is why I'm not a judge," he admits ruefully.

B-15 snort-laughs, a hilariously undignified sound. "Among many other reasons, including the fact you still can't make it to meetings on time." She stops in front of Loki, and smiles. "For the record, I'm on his side," she says, nodding toward Mobius. "I'm really happy to see you."

"And I you. Judge Willis." Loki's smile is a genuinely bright expression, despite the lingering pallor of his features. "Would that we could have been so civil to each other when we first met, hm?"

Mobius perks up visibly. "Oh, I haven't heard that story."

"She hit me in the face in slow-motion," Loki says dryly. "It was quite an impressive introduction to the potential power of the TVA."

She grins, completely unrepentant of that particular memory, but puts a gentle hand on Loki's shoulder. "Are you all right, though? If even half of what Mobius has said over the years is accurate, you've had a horrible time of it. Coming on top of one hell of a time loop that lasted for centuries, which none of us knew about until afterwards."

"I am…going to be fine," Loki replies quietly. "Of that, I am certain."

"Okay. We'll catch up later," she says, glancing between them. Mobius nods. "Meanwhile, you still have some explaining to do, you know."

"Yeah, I figured." Mobius looks at Loki, and his brow furrows slightly. "And you're not exactly being subtle here. Is that wall the only thing holding you up right now?"

Clearly leaning against it, arms tightly folded to hide the fact that his hands are shaking, Loki scowls at him.

"Good grief. Loki…"

"I'll send everyone to the conference room, meet us there when you can," B-15 says, nodding again at the two of them and marching across the intervening space to corral the rest of the council and Ouroboros.

The latter breaks off from the group after a word from her, and heads back to them. "Hey. What's going on?"

"I believe I have overextended my current physical reserves, what little there is of them," Loki admits, without even trying to prevaricate. "I am quite eager to hear about this," he indicates the holographic wall display briefly, and with genuine wonder, "but in the interim. Might there be a place I could lie down for a while?"

"Oh yeah! You've had living quarters reserved here for almost two years now, I can take you to them."

"Two years? Bit optimistic of you, wasn't it."

"You know me, always looking on the bright side." Mobius' smile doesn't reach his eyes, though. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, quite." The reassurance is genuine enough. "I shall retire for a bit and then find you afterwards."

"I got him, Mobius, go on and get it over with."

"Thanks, O.B. Hopefully we won't be more than an hour." Mobius pats Loki's arm briefly and hurries after the council to the conference room next door.

"It's going to be at least three, isn't it."

"Oh yeah," O.B. replies cheerfully. "He's probably lucky everyone's so happy to see you, otherwise he'd be in pretty big trouble. C'mon, the living quarters are this way."

"He's not seriously in trouble, is he?" Loki asks, as they slowly make their way down a corridor.

"No, no. There's just a fine line between having enough oversight to make sure nothing bad happens in the big picture, and loose enough oversight to allow agents to make their own decisions when the circumstances call for a snap decision in the field. Mobius has basically been walking that line too closely for comfort this whole time, and it makes the council antsy."

"That oversight bit sounds suspiciously like something from a guidebook."

"It is!" O.B. beams. "Second edition! Updated with, well. With you."

"With me?"

"Oh yes. Mobius made sure everyone in the TVA knew exactly what happened, what you did for us."

"That seems rather unnecessary," Loki murmurs.

"He said belief was crucial to any god retaining their power, and we were responsible for making that happen. So even if you couldn't see us, the faith would still be there, always. There's not a person working in the TVA who doesn't know what you did to save us all."

O.B. touches his arm briefly to turn them down a side corridor. This one appears to be somewhat unfinished, with what will someday be windows currently covered with lightweight wood.

"Sorry for the mess," O.B. says, as they cross a cracked floor tile. "Most of the living quarters are done, but we're still doing construction on part of the guest quarters. We had to redo the blueprints to accommodate some additional features like the communication portal, which I have not started working on yet."

"This is a most impressive setup, even what little I have seen." Loki pauses for a moment, one hand on the wall, as a bout of lightheadedness hits again.

"You okay?"

"Yes. Yes, thank you. How is it that I can feel my magic here? I thought it was prohibited in the TVA."

"It is in TVA Central. Not here." O.B. includes the surrounding area in an all-encompassing, mildly flailing gesture. "There's a threshold where the dampener kicks in, just for safety, but we're embracing it here, as a rule. The perimeter defenses are primarily magical in nature. Some stuff we've learned from future timelines, some we already knew. And Sylvie was here at the beginning. She gave us a pretty strong layer of enchantment shielding that should last another few years at least."

"I am surprised to hear that." Loki shakes his head. "I would not have thought she could ever be convinced to return to the TVA."

"Mobius has been busy, Loki." O.B.'s voice is sober, almost somber, now. "From the second he stepped back into the TVA after living on the timeline, he's been working to find a way to get to you. All of this, everything, has been in service of that goal. At the expense of his own health, more than once."

"What? I thought he was primarily working on tactical strategy for the upcoming war. That was what he told me, at least."

"I mean, he has. Honestly, he's done about as much work on his own as the rest of the council combined, in preparing for what's ahead. But he's never lost sight of this one endgame – finding you. Getting you home." O.B. side-eyes him, with a kind smile. "And he's probably going to seriously downplay all of it, so I just figured you should know. Don't let him do that. Make him tell you everything, and then ask the rest of us."

"I believe there is much I do not have visibility into, which I need to know."

"Well. You have time now, don't you?" O.B. bounces a little, grinning. "Pun intended! Okay, this one is yours. It's unlocked right now. Eventually it'll have fingerprint access, but that's not been set up yet. This master keycard," he pulls a ring of three similar cards from his pocket and removes one, "will lock it on the inside."

"I'm sure that's not necessary."

"No, but just in case, you should have the right to feel secure here."

O.B. swipes the card against the small reader by the door, whereupon it slides open, and then hands the key to Loki.

"We had anything you left behind at the TVA sent over a while back, but nobody's really been in here doing inventory or anything. Let me know what you need and we'll get it set up. Mobius' quarters are next door, but I don't think he'll be getting back here anytime soon. The rest of the rooms in that direction are empty for now, and the ones in the opposite direction belong to the architects. They're typically pretty quiet."

"I'm sure it will be quite satisfactory. Thank you. And, O.B.," Loki adds, as the latter turns to leave.

"Hm?"

"Thank you for watching out for him."

O.B. nods, not needing further clarification. "Of course. For all time."

"Always."

-SOME TIME LATER-

It is still slightly disconcerting, to awaken and not immediately be able to comprehend how much time has passed; and yet, it is strangely comforting. The difference is stark, and it serves to illustrate clearly that he is no longer held in the bleak, never-ending grasp of a solitary prison.

He now takes a closer look at these modest living quarters. They seem fairly regulation-standard, similar to those in the other TVA; but he can tell that someone took the time to add a few items which are not the basic, blasé accoutrements found in those regulation quarters, at least to his limited remembrance of them.

Indeed, the washroom can only be described as quite hedonistic, compared to the tiny shower cubicles found in the regulation apartments at the primary TVA complex. Those are genuine Asgardian artifacts on the modest bookshelves, and there is a tidy pile of folders and notebooks on the writing desk which, upon brief perusal, seems to be a paper record of all which has occurred since the Loom event – the latest report being dated only a week ago, outlining the specifics of a truly fantastical rescue mission.

Altogether, it is…comforting. Certainly not palatial, but someone has taken care here to make the rooms his.

The slumber seems to have done his physiology good, as the vaguely ill feeling of earlier has vanished, leaving behind it only a sort of dull weariness which will likely require time itself in order to fade. Meanwhile, he feels steady enough for a little wandering about the place, and wastes no time retracing his steps down the corridors and back to the room called the Observatory.

In regulation-issue TVA uniform, he looks like just another agent, and so escapes immediate notice. This permits him time to ingest his surroundings, particularly noting the life and vitality that permeate this workroom. One of the ghastliest parts of the original TVA, was the lack of individuality, the lack of life which those lonely cubicles had held. Even conversation with one's peers was strictly regulated in small increments, as if in an attempt to stamp out any potential deviation from the set path.

But not so, here. These agents are quite loud; not abnormally so, but a far cry from the silent workrooms in the primary TVA. The uniform looks to have made some variations that appear far more comfortable, and there is an air of businesslike enthusiasm centering around the technology. Long gone are the sand-filled hourglasses and analog displays; this is something far, far beyond.

"So, what do you think?"

He starts, as a cheerful voice comes from behind him, and whirls around with what is probably a wild expression.

Casey's face assumes a look of alarm, and he quickly steps back. "Sorry!"

"No, no. It's fine." Loki shakes his head, waving off the additional apology forthcoming. "I am perhaps not yet accustomed to hearing anyone's voice but my own in proximity."

"That makes sense. You were in there a long time." Casey edges closer again, as if trying to figure out if a feral animal is cat or flerken. "Are you good now?"

"I am. And in answer to your question…this is so far beyond what I might have expected, it is quite incredible."

"Yeah. It's been kind of a wild ride on our end." Casey nods toward the front wall, where the glowing hologram of the Tree stands tall and ever-flourishing. "Is this the first time you've seen it? From the outside, I mean."

"It is." Loki shakes his head, a small smile just barely visible. "And I'd no idea that all of this was in progress, so close to it."

"I know Mobius was holding off telling you, just in case something went wrong," Casey adds quietly. "He didn't want to give you hope and then have the war cut off our progress permanently, or something."

"I have yet to see a variant of He Who Remains which is at the point of multiversal insurrection, in any timeline. But that could change incredibly quickly."

"Good to know." Casey scribbles something in a notebook. "We've tracked all the variants we know about, by now. Those dots on the hologram, see? But it'd be a huge advantage to have information direct from the source, so to speak. When things really start moving that direction, we're guessing the war will break pretty fast."

"Indeed. Once all is said and done, I am at your disposal for that purpose. He has many aliases, as he is a nexus being; I would suspect you do not have all of them identified yet."

"Great, that'll be a huge help." Casey grins, and after a second of hesitation pats him briefly on the arm. "Glad you're okay, Loki."

"I have only learned a fraction of what has been happening here, but I have the feeling that I owe a great many people my sincerest thanks, yourself included."

"Do you want to just wander around, or would you like a tour? The council went back to TVA Central about a half-hour ago, and Mobius went with them, said he'd be back in an hour. Paperwork, I think. But I could show you around here?"

"That would be much appreciated, if it is not too much trouble."

"Nope! We need to stop by Research & Advancements and issue you a Tempad anyway, we'll start there. C'mon."

-FOUR HOURS LATER-

As if it is permanent muscle memory, these narrow halls and rooms are as familiar to him as those in his childhood home; and why would they not be, as he spent almost as long in them, time loop after time loop, as he did in Asgard so many centuries ago. Loki probably knows his way around the lesser-used TVA corridors better than Ouroboros himself, by this time, though the knowledge is some centuries distant, blurred a little by so long spend in solitude.

Some of the memories here are horrible. He now knows precisely how many ways there are for someone to die in such a scenario as that which resulted in the meltdown of the Loom, how painful those deaths can be, how agonizing the knowledge of such failure is, time after time. How many different ways in which it is possible to lose everything that means anything. Watching that happen for decades, centuries, on end, has left emotional impact damage that will never fully fade, a constant reminder of the trauma endured.

Scar tissue, as Mobius had told him in that final, desperate encounter before the End.

But not all of the memories are bad. Though the rest will never recall without aid, there had been good days, many of them, among those terrible time loops. Even before the truth had been known, before the Void and before the Loom, even those extremely early months between his apprehension by the TVA and learning Sylvie's identity, had been pleasant. Peaceful, if a bit mundane, and overshadowed by the ever-looming threat of being pruned for misbehavior – but peaceful, nonetheless.

Perhaps he had trusted too quickly, or at least had trusted one person too quickly, then. But he had felt relatively safe in the TVA, at least in certain company, which was something of a novelty. And trust was not something he had much experience with, at that point in his eventful life.

The progression of that trust into the gift of non-judgment, of acceptance, of affection without expectation, was something he had no experience with.

Approval, pride, camaraderie, friendship, love – whatever labels one might put to the overlapping emotions – all of these, have always been transactional, even in his own family. Conditional. With the possible exception of his mother, none had ever regarded him as simply himself. Neither king nor god nor adopted brother nor villain, but simply Loki.

Why here, in this bureaucratic prison hidden away in a pocket of no-time, had he somehow found such a gift? And at the hands of one unremarkable, incredibly ordinary Midgardian, no less.

The doors to the now-defunct Loom observation room are open, as there is no real need to keep them closed now that the Loom is gone, and the lighting within is powered down to energy-saving mode. Where once there was a blindingly beautiful, incredibly dangerous fixture of multihued energy outside, there is now only a void at the end of that forever-accursed gangway.

It looks as if someone, O.B. presumably, had at some time added lights to the gangway, which are the only pinpoints of glowing relief against the looming darkness beyond. A dimly lit path leading into utter darkness, eerie and foreboding.

A solitary figure stands silhouetted against that dim light, arms folded across his chest and staring silent into the void.

Loki's footsteps rebound off the walls and ceiling of the empty room and deserted hallway, so he could not have arrived unnoticed; but when there is no visible reaction to his presence, he remains near the door, uncertain.

"Do you know how long I waited?" Mobius finally asks, without turning around. The words are calm enough, but imbued with unspoken pain. "Waited here, in this room. Thinking you were coming back? Praying you were coming back?"

Loki tilts his head back against the cold wall, eyes closed for a moment. "No," he answers quietly, because there is nothing to say which will make the denial better.

"Neither do I," is the whispered response. "Long enough that people got worried, I guess. But I was so sure you'd come marching back to us from the End of Time any minute now, ready to regale us with a great story about what happened, how you just saved us all, bring on the accolades, etc. etc. Real Valhalla-level hero stuff."

"You have always had more faith in me than was really justifiable, Mobius."

"Well, someone had to."

"But that's just it. You did not have to. In fact, all logic dictated you should not trust me for a moment. How many variants of me, had you encountered prior to our association?"

"Couldn't tell you. Specially since my memory was wiped at some point, probably more than once." There's a hint of bitterness in the tone. "But enough."

"Enough for what?"

"To know you were different."

"How could you possibly be certain I was any different from those who came before."

"Well, I wasn't. Not at first, anyhow. You seemed to trust me, tolerate me. Maybe even like me, which hadn't really happened before. But I didn't know if there was ulterior motive there or not."

"Only at first," Loki says quietly.

"And let's be honest, my perception of a healthy relationship is pretty skewed. The only person in the TVA I could call a real friend, pruned me without a blink of hesitation."

"What, then, changed your mind about me?"

"Part of my regular case analysis, post-field op, was done after you ran away with Sylvie to Lamentis. I reviewed the archived surveillance footage at that doomed Roxxcart store."

"I'm afraid I don't follow you."

"You asked Sylvie-enchanting-B-15 if that poor guy buying his plants was dead, when she broke the enchantment and he collapsed. And when Sylvie switched from B-15 to that kid who worked there, you checked to make sure B-15 was still alive before moving on."

Loki blinks. "That? That is what you gambled your entire existence on, in regards to my character? Basic human decency? I am not even human, Mobius! And I am anything but decent."

"Which is why it caught my attention," Mobius replies, shrugging. "You had no reason I knew of to actually care about anyone at the TVA, outside of what favors you could curry from them. It was a totally unnecessary act of decency, and no one would have even known you did it, if I hadn't looked. So yeah. I gambled a bit on the idea that you weren't purely evil. Even if I was pretty angry with you at the time."

"That is a game of chance only a fool would play."

"What can I say, I liked my odds. And I'm pretty good at noticing details."

"I would reluctantly agree with that." Loki shakes his head ruefully. "But just when I think I might understand you somewhat, I am right back where I started. Equal parts fascinated and horrified by your guileless lack of self-preservation. It is as if you actively try to live up to your name - a veritable Möbius strip of endless chaotic good."

Mobius squints at his reflection in the window. "That sounds like a compliment, but I'm not sure it is."

"Oh, it is." Loki pushes off of the wall and moves slowly into the room, footsteps echoing on the tiled floor. "So: The day the Loom melted down. I haven't had the chance to recount the tale yet, but everyone in the building at the time, that first time, was sent back to a branch on the timeline, with no memory of the TVA."

Mobius eyes him in the glass as he approaches. "Really?"

"Really. I survived the explosion, only to find myself in a completely empty TVA which was in 'fail-safe mode', and which was rapidly spaghettifying around me. Reality was starting to deteriorate, everywhere I turned. Everywhere I ran."

"That sounds terrifying."

"It was, particularly as I had no idea what was going on, initially. I then started inadvertently time-slipping to different branches, where I found everyone except Sylvie living a normal life with no knowledge of whence they had just emerged. She, in contrast, remembered everything, but thought it perfectly fine to leave it all as it was. She simply could not comprehend why I was distraught."

"That sounds like her, yeah," Mobius mutters, not even trying to conceal his eyeroll.

"She was not entirely wrong, but that is a topic for a later tale."

"Sure, sure. Go on."

"A very long story shortened, having us all in the same room together would have enabled me to get back to the point in time just before the Loom exploded, through technology existing on one of the branches at the time. I therefore had to convince each of you to come with me, a total stranger, through an ostensibly magical gateway you had no reason to trust."

"Huh. But you succeeded, I assume?"

"In a manner of speaking. I am very good at spinning a tale, as you know."

"Mmhm."

"But my point is – when I showed up at your home to recruit you, with zero physical evidence to back up my wild stories, your reaction was not to call law enforcement because someone clearly unstable followed you from your workplace. You offered me a drink, Mobius. I could have been anyone, and you still immediately assumed the best of me."

"Maybe I just felt like I could trust you."

Loki's expression becomes more serious. "Maybe I just wanted to be trustworthy."

Mobius looks down at the floor for a minute, absently scuffing one shoe over a smudge. "It didn't work, did it. Getting us all together. You did all that and it still didn't work."

"No." The word is quiet, almost painfully so. "Reality started to disappear, across every timeline, including the branch we occupied. You all slipped away right in front of me, one by one."

"That's horrible."

"It was, yes. But I suppose in the end, it was a good thing; because it was only then, I presume out of sheer desperation, that I finally learned how to control my time-slipping, and returned to the TVA."

"Where you then spent hundreds of years attempting to solve an unsolvable problem. Trapped in a time loop, and doomed to fail from the inception of it."

"Indeed. And after all of that, I went even further back, to see if there was an alternative – in the Citadel, in the Void, in the TVA, anywhere I could think of to branch the original outcome. Nothing worked."

"You finally figured it out, though."

"I did. With some help from you, and from Sylvie. But it came at a cost. There was no other way."

"I believe you. I know there wasn't." Mobius clears his throat, somewhat thickly. "But almost five years later, and I'm still so mad at you, Loki."

A brief chuckle. "I assumed as much."

"Like, really, really, god-tier mad. Bordering on cosmically pissed-off here."

Loki clears his throat. "I thought I came prepared for that." A tinny clink rings out as he sets the plate of pie down on the nearest flat surface. "…And I am now beginning to realize Sylvie might have been horribly rude to you, but also somewhat correct, in that this is not sufficient motif for properly dealing with emotional trauma. I am actually dreadful at this."

There is a muffled sort of almost-laugh at the sight of the plate, but no further reaction.

"Mobius…I have been caught up by your task forces on the events of the last few years. And as for the rest, it was not difficult to read between the lines of your files."

"What's your point."

"My point is that I have access to every moment of time and space, that which is past and yet to come. And yet I find myself realizing all of that in collective, is not sufficient time to convey my gratitude for what you have done. For me, and indeed for all of us."

"You saved us all, Loki," is the quiet response. "All I did was return the favor. And it sure took long enough."

"Five years is but a blink in the span of All-Time, Mobius."

"It wasn't five for you. And I knew that almost from the beginning. I knew every hour, every day, every year that passed was exponentially multiplied on your end. I kept track, even if no one else did. Even if you didn't. I did."

"Time dilation is not a variable you had any hope of controlling." Loki frowns, unable to read expressions properly in the dimly-lit glass before them. "Do you in some way blame yourself for the time frame? Because I certainly don't."

"No, not really. At least, I'd like to hope we worked as fast as we could, safely. I couldn't risk lives, and I know you know that."

"Why, then, this solitary vigil in the heart of the old TVA, when you should be in your own timeline branch or at the least, in the new complex, celebrating your accomplishments? Are you truly that angry with me?"

"No, not at all. It just hit me real hard a couple hours ago. Adrenaline, and all that."

"What, then?"

Silence.

"Is something wrong?"

"I…I don't know." Mobius pinches the bridge of his nose with one hand, and then makes a frustrated, vague gesture. "Can you believe that? I've been so sure of everything, all this time. I've been the big ideas guy for the last few years. A driving force for change in the TVA."

"And now?"

"Now I have no idea what comes next. Where do I go from here. What do I do. We all have to have some kind of purpose, glorious or otherwise. It's just kind of hitting me that I never planned past this point. What happens after the endgame?"

"May I show you something?"

Mobius finally turns, and looks at his outstretched hand quizzically.

"I have long since mastered the art of enchantment, but would not utilize it here without your consent. But I would like to show you."

"I don't want those memories of my life back, Loki. I got to see a version of what could have been, and I'm grateful for that. Satisfied with that. I don't think I could handle actually having those memories floating around up there, with all the emotional context they'd bring. Not right now, anyway."

"I understand your desire to remain in the dark, possibly better than you know. Certainly better than Sylvie knew, for the record, and I told her as much when she was so cruel to you before."

"You did?"

"Yes. And…I am now realizing I should have done so in the moment, within your hearing rather than beyond it." Loki sighs, dropping his hand for a moment. "One of many, many mistakes made, I fear."

"No. No, it's fine." Mobius offers him a small smile. "It's fine, Loki. Water under the bridge. And I didn't even realize I needed to hear that, until now. So…yeah. Thank you."

"Then, what I would like to show you," Loki continues, after a brief pause, "is the most important conversation I had before the Loom meltdown. It has no relevance to your life on the timeline. But because of how I timeslipped the final time, resetting the branch to its previous state, you do not remember the conversation. It was vitally important to me, however."

"If it was that important, then yeah. I'd like to remember it, I think." He frowns. "But you can't do it here, can you? Enchantment, I mean. It's magical in nature."

"I believe I might now be a chink in the TVA's armor in that area," Loki replies, somewhat guiltily. "It would appear I am, at the very least, capable of rudimentary conjuration and spellcasting here. Despite the safeguards."

"That might be because you blew them all to kingdom come when you freaked out about me being stabbed a while back," Mobius says dryly. "Good to know, though. Poor O.B. is going to have a fit."

"I will not apologize for a warranted reaction to your impending death." Loki shrugs. "But to answer your question – my magic is still relatively drained, but this would be very brief, and I am more than capable."

Loki extends his hand once more, and after a moment of hesitation, Mobius does the same. They join in a flash of green, and immediately drift away into a familiar scene, the Time Theater where it all began, so many years ago.

"Okay, it looks like someone got a hold of the set list. How are you doing this?"

"Mobius, I need your help."

"Well, I'm listening."

"Comfort? There's no comfort. You're not gonna find comfort at the TVA."

"She knew the hard thing to do was the thing that had to be done. And by hard, I mean impossible. No, there's no comfort. You just choose your burden."

"Thank you, Mobius."

For a moment, it is difficult to determine reality from retrieved memory, until Loki drops his hand, breaking the contact and thereby the visualization of the world dissolving in his grasp, as it had that one final day.

Mobius stumbles forward a step as he does, and Loki is quick to steady him. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Gotta say, not my favorite trick of yours, though. Gimme the fireworks any day. Ugh."

Loki can't manage even a smile at the quip, simply looks at him for a moment after stepping back a pace. "I was going to kill her, Mobius."

Mobius stops rubbing his forehead, and stares at him. "Sylvie, you mean?"

"Before she could kill He Who Remains, yes. I was going to go back to that precise moment in time, and I was going to stop her, by the only means possible. I thought it was the only option; I thought it was her, or the rest of the universe, every universe. The sacred timeline, or no surviving timeline at all. I could see no third course of action. After literal centuries of trying, I saw no way out."

"Geez. That's a horrible choice."

"I was so tired, at that point," Loki says quietly. "I just needed a few minutes to think, to get my head straight. And you gave me that, in that Time Theater. Not even knowing who I was, at the time, besides a belligerent variant you'd for some reason decided to save from being reset. I came to you, and you gave me that Time. And critical advice."

"Betcha Sylvie wouldn't appreciate knowing I was the one who sent you merrily on your way to kill her, with that critical advice," is the wry response.

"You don't understand - I was so close to simply giving up, and walking away without taking either option. It had been so, so long, and I was too deep to see my way out properly. You gave me the courage to keep going, to keep trying; and if all else failed, to do the right thing, not the easy one. You gave me hope, Mobius, when I had none of my own left."

Mobius' expression has shifted into full-on skepticism, even in the face of genuine earnestness. "C'mon, Loki, be serious. I said 'you'll find no comfort in the TVA', and that gave you hope?"

"Yes. Because you were wrong, and I knew that for fact. So it stood to reason I might be wrong as well, in my decision-making."

"How do you figure."

"There is comfort in the TVA; but it is in its people, not its mission, old or new. It is every agent who now guards a timeline, instead of pruning it. Every variant, who is permitted freedom instead of control. Every weapon which is now used for defense, not destruction.

"It is loyalty; but to proven truth, not what one has been told is such. It is freedom of choice, but choices made with full knowledge of that truth.

"And, more personally," Loki finishes quietly, almost reverentially. "It is one man who has enough faith to literally cross the universe, and reach what was thought unreachable."

Mobius snorts, though the sound is a little congested, and he refuses to make eye contact. "Let's not get away from ourselves. You make it sound like some heroic Asgardian quest or something."

"Asgardian it might not have been, but the rest? Most certainly." At the rising protest, Loki takes a hasty step forward, hand outstretched. "You have no real idea how extraordinary, how important you are, do you. To the universe. To me."

"I think you're a little bit biased, is all."

"But I speak the truth. And whatever choice you make, as to what comes next. Please, make it with full knowledge of that truth." Loki pauses, and then frowns, pensive. "As the god of lies, I acknowledge the ironic invalidity of the statement. Seriously, how can I be so dreadful at this?"

Mobius' laughter is a little strangled, as he gives up all pretense of keeping it together and closes the inches between them with outstretched arms and a strangling grip. For a second, there is only the dark silence of the Void beyond the windows, and the sound of unsteady breathing.

"I'm still mad at you." The words are a bit muffled, but still audible.

"I know. And I am sorry." Loki's arms tighten, almost a reflex against the subtle pull of Time. "I am so sorry."

"I know." A muffled snort. "Guess I can forgive you, what with saving the world and everything. Kind of a lifetime free pass on that mischief of yours."

The silence punctuates the words with a gentle finality.

"One year ago, you told me not to thank you until I was home," Loki finally says quietly, into his shoulder. "So. Thank you, Mobius. For all of Time, and always."