I believe this last story arc, about 3-4 chapters, will be the end of this universe, for now. But you never know when the muse might strike again.
Meanwhile, thank you to everyone who's been kind enough to read and/or comment. Love to you all.
-IN THE RATHER NEAR FUTURE-
"Mobius."
"Hm?" He belatedly realizes there was genuine alarm in the tone, and looks up quickly from the tablet. "Sorry, what?"
Posture now ramrod-tense where he stands at the window, Loki nods in a southerly direction. "Have you seen that before, while here in the Void?"
Mobius takes the three steps to the observation windows, and almost in reflex hastily backpedals, fumbling for Loki's arm. "Oh god. No, we definitely have not," he says hoarsely. "Is it…"
"Headed right for the hub, yes."
The ghostly, amorphous shadow of Alioth looms ever closer, silhouetting them in an almost violent red glow against the fast-darkening horizon beyond the observation windows. Thunder rolls menacing in the distance, and the roiling cloud bank spreads like ink through the dimly-lit sky. Even sheltered as they are, they can hear the wind picking up, heralding the ominous arrival.
"Why's it that color?"
"I am uncertain, but my conjecture would be that it bespeaks a powerful enchantment, and not one a Loki is capable of. That looks like true chaos magic, not the lesser kind of mischief I wield. The dark kind." Loki glances over his shoulder as a streak of crimson lightning flashes, and recoils slightly at the looming creature, now mere kilometers from their location and closing fast. "I would need actual contact to determine if that is the case, and if the enchantment can be broken."
Mobius nods, a curt, efficient gesture. "You think you can do that?"
"I don't know." Loki casts one more look back at the beast. "It might be best to deploy your lifeboat protocol. Just in case."
Backing away from the windows, Mobius nods again. "Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right." He hastily pulls up a program on the tablet and inputs a few commands. Within moments, sirens begin sounding throughout the complex, the primary lighting fades to red. A sudden hubbub of uncertain voices can be heard in the direction of the main work rooms.
"We should've done evacuation drills before now," Mobius mutters in dismay, when it's clear that there's more confusion than anything else happening. "Nobody understands what's going on. I didn't think we'd have to even think about this for another year, at least."
Loki makes a sweeping gesture with both hands over his TVA uniform, transforming it into something more like flexible armor of Asgardian design. He then gestures toward the nearest corridor. "Go on. Get everyone back to the central TVA."
Mobius hesitates. "It might not even be able to get through the shield."
"If I have say in the matter, it won't. I can enhance the shield enough to repel nearly anything for some time, enchanted or otherwise," Loki replies, clearly already three steps ahead of him. "But I can't do it from inside the hub, and not indefinitely."
"Don't do anything stupid, Loki."
"Believe me, I have no plans to do so, but we need further information about what is happening. And if the enchantment can be broken, then I will break it. If it cannot be, I likely will have to stop Time entirely, across the whole of the TVA complex, to protect it against further incursion. That will be immensely easier to do if it is empty of people, Mobius."
"Understood, it'll be clear for you. But be careful."
"I will." Loki puts a hand briefly on his shoulder, before stepping back and opening a Door onto the wind-swept landscape of the Void. "Go. Get everyone out. I'll come to you when I'm finished."
Mobius nods and tosses the tablet on the nearest flat surface before taking off down the corridor like the monster itself is at his heels.
Loki steps through the Door into a roiling maelstrom that sounds and looks like an apocalypse. Facing down a being of pure, malevolent darkness, set in motion by a man long dead, yet still living across countless timelines. A haunting reminder of the war ahead, personified by an amorphous creature which cannot be killed by any method known to man or god.
The usual magenta and purple shades of the beast have morphed into a dangerous, almost violent scarlet; clearly not the signature of a Loki, though it stands to reason someone must have betrayed their location, quite recently, and a variant is as logical a guess as any. Whether this new enemy has been put in motion by He Who Remains' variants, someone within their small circle, or some third party entirely, remains to be seen.
But the first priority is to protect this brave little outpost against the oncoming storm, and Loki immediately applies himself to that task, with both hands and a not-inconsiderable amount of power channeled directly into the magical shields which have hidden the satellite TVA from view for many years now. At this point, it is clear that Alioth is on a precise mission, and so it matters not if either Loki or the protective dome around the hub are visible, now; their cover has been permanently compromised, and all that remains is to strengthen the position.
Survival, not subterfuge.
A slow-moving wash of green magic slowly spreads over the invisible dome, writhing and twining like glowing vines, not unlike the timelines themselves. Gingerly prodding at Sylvie's previous enchantment net, and then weaving the strands together into more complex runes and sigils which might not be possible with only one or the other. Her enchantment, designed to repel such a being as Alioth and further conceal the buildings within, and Loki's to first invoke, and then break, the rules of temporal science; shifting the hub just a fraction of a second out of sync with the rest of the Void.
To an outsider, it would look as if the entire complex simply disappeared; and while such powerful temporal rule-bending will not last forever without a direct power source, it might suffice to disorient the beast. Each of the two discrete sets of spellwork offers a layer of protection against both magic and brute force, and all are far more powerful than he would ever have believed possible from a Loki, particularly in his troubled youth.
If only his mother could see what he's become, so many centuries later.
But there is no room for such distraction, now. He keeps one hand braced mid-air to complete the increased shielding and seal any weak spots in the time-lock, and hesitantly stretches out the other in an attempt to reach the mind of the monster.
His magic fetches up like a vehicle crash against Something, something that lashes back at him with the force of an invisible army. The impact is hard enough to drive him a stumble-step backward, and he feels a rush of cold fear to suddenly learn the amount of power, of intent, that the defense shows. Before, Alioth was relatively mindless; it knew its function, and sustained itself through that function, nothing more. The destruction was never personal, and there was no emotion or active intelligence behind it.
But this…this is not animalistic ambivalence. This is bloodlust, and a hunger for power, for obliteration, rather than mere survival.
This is intent, where before there was only instinct.
Loki barely has time to assimilate this horrifying fact, when he is even more horrified to see another Time Door open nearby and a familiar figure emerge, one arm thrown up to brace himself against the howling wind.
"What are you doing!" Loki shouts above the storm, which is now strong enough to bend the scraggly underbrush almost double. Red lightning forks down to the ground near the monster to punctuate the statement. "You can't be here!"
"The buildings are clear," Mobius shouts back, fighting his way through the gale in Loki's direction. "And if you think I'm letting you face something like this alone, again, you've got a lot to learn still about me!"
Norns. This one mortal is going to be the death of Loki, someday.
Despite the increasingly perilous scenery, Loki does double-take briefly when Mobius finally scrambles down the slope to land with a staggering leap beside him on the rocky ground.
"Is that one of my daggers?"
"Nope. It's mine now." Mobius grins at him, gesticulating somewhat dangerously with the weapon. A short pruning stick is held firmly in his other hand. "Finders keepers. You should take better care of your stuff."
"You're utterly ridiculous."
"Yep. So what's the plan here?"
"I am uncertain, yet."
Loki does have to admit, somewhat grudgingly, that Mobius' form and stance seem relatively practiced, certainly more than he'd have expected from someone who still firmly believes all things can be solved by talking about them, rather than a more physical battle. At the least, he likely can hold his own in a fight, for a bit.
Speaking of which, Alioth is almost on top of them, now. They are nearly out of time.
"Honestly, what in the realms do you even think you're doing?" Loki says over his shoulder, shifting his full focus to a second, and likely final, attempt at enchantment.
"Guarding your six! Somebody had to put that thing in motion, and we have no idea who!" Mobius calls back, the words carried away on the wind as he suits the action to the word. Just the two of them now, back-to-back and staring the End in its monstrous face, so to speak.
Strangely enough, the line of reassuring warmth at his back against the wind is far more bolstering than one might think. Loki redoubles his efforts, struggling to get past the initial magical bonds which have enslaved this nebulous monstrosity, and pours all the strength he has into the counter-enchantment.
It's futile.
A whiplash of defensive magic broadsides him like the inverse of a weapon recoil, draining his own power significantly in a kind of reverse shockwave, the like of which he has never before encountered. Stumbling forward, he staggers to one knee, barely hearing Mobius's alarmed question over the increased roaring of the wind. There's a small thud as the pruning stick is dropped on the ground, and a hand comes down on his shoulder.
This is very bad.
"Loki. Loki! Do something!" Mobius's hand tightens almost painfully as the monster just keeps coming, close enough now to be utterly terrifying even to a non-mortal man.
A burst of adrenaline and Mobius' frantic tugging at his arm force him back to his feet again, and with a quick double-handed gesture, several hundred duplications of the two of them spring up at irregular intervals around the invisible TVA complex. An intercepting army of cast-clones several kilometers wide, which might buy them a few minutes, at least.
Certainly, it seems to momentarily mystify the beast, as it snarls a roar of frustration and begins circling the field, occasionally diving down at the figures beneath.
"Okay, that's…whew. That's something, yeah." Mobius' voice is still unsteady, his hands shaking slightly as he holsters the dagger and bends to retrieve the pruning stick. "You got a plan beyond the magic act?"
"I can't break the enchantment controlling it," Loki replies breathlessly, still a bit winded. "It is too strong, and rooted in an incantation I have never seen before. It feels as if it is literally draining magic from me, rather than reacting to it. I might even be making it stronger. I don't know."
"That's completely terrifying, given how powerful you are. Maybe we should bail out too, while we still can," Mobius says with obvious reluctance. "I hate to lose this place, but we might have to cut our losses and see what's left standing when the storm's over. If it's ever over."
Loki exhales, and briefly shakes his head. "We can't afford to lose the satellite TVA, Mobius. This would indicate there is a very active force against us that we were not previously aware of. The timelines are in danger, and this is the first line of defense. We can't just walk away."
All these years, all these centuries, of work gone in a blink…Loki cannot allow that to happen. Not without a fight, at the least.
"Buildings, processes, they can all be replaced," Mobius replies, though the dread at the idea of his work being destroyed is quite visible in his face. "People can't."
Loki swallows hard. He is more than willing to remain and face down the monster, but there is one particular loss he is not so willing to risk.
He also knows it is likely he'll never be forgiven for what he's about to do.
"No, they can't," he says slowly, and reaches into his pocket for his Tempad.
It's not there.
"You know," Mobius says, deadly serious. "I do learn from past mistakes. Mine and other people's." He gives Loki a pointed look and briefly waggles the instrument now grasped in his left hand. "And you're not shoving me through a Door back into the TVA while you take on that thing alone."
"Mobius –"
"Not up for debate, Loki. I'll smash the damn Tempad and strand us here, if I have to." Mobius shrugs at his disbelieving gesture, and points the pruning stick at Alioth, which is taking great pleasure in wiping out a dozen duplications at the far end of the field. "So what's your plan C?"