Reunited

So this is it.

This is how he dies.

He supposes it could be worse. He was destined to die by Thanos's hand. At least this way doesn't give Thanos or Destiny the satisfaction.

Of course, dying in the collision of a planet and its moon will probably take longer. It might hurt more, too. He'll also never get to see his brother again. But that's a small price to pay to avoid playing into the Time Keeper's hands, right?

... oh, who is he kidding? There's no plus side to this.

Sylvie walks away. She accepts their defeat graciously — much more so than last time. Loki does the opposite; he just stands and stares. Earlier, he'd still had hope. He still had time — time to think; time to scheme. He doesn't have that anymore. Now it finally feels real, and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

So what does he do now?

What can he do?

Besides...

Stare.

A hand grabs his arm from behind, wrapping around his upper arm and holding on tight. Things had calmed down when everyone had realized this was hopeless. Apparently someone didn't get the memo.

Loki whips around, a fist raised and ready to throw it, but he pauses when he sees who it was who grabbed him. He slowly unclenches his fist, otherwise frozen in place. Is that...?

"Mobius!" Loki throws his arms around the man. "Oh, is it good to see you!" He came back! He watched Loki leave him in the dust, and he still came back! Loki should have known he could count on him.

"Right..." Mobius awkwardly pats him on the back a few times before gently pushing him away. "Look, this moon is --"

"I know, believe me," Loki says. It would be hard to miss. "Are you here to bring us back?"

"I --"

Loki cups his hands around his mouth. "Sylvie!" She couldn't have stayed around a minute longer? "Sylvie!" He looks around, only to find her just a few feet away, her arms crossed as she taps her foot impatiently. He tries to ignore the judgemental look on her face.

"Sylvie, look!" Loki yells. He hopes she can hear him over the bustling of the dying city. "Look, it's Mobius!"

"That's great!" she yells back, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Why do I care?"

"Because he's going to get us out of here!"

"No, I'm going to get you out of here," Mobius says.

"What?" Loki cocks his head to the side, his eyebrows furrowed. "You're not going to take her?"

"Of course I'm not going to take her!" Mobius says. "I don't even know who she is!"

"She's a --" He cuts himself off before he can say "friend." That's not quite right. Hell, that's not even kind of right. No, she's... "She's my partner." His partner in crime -- quite literally. This whole miserable crusade has been one big crime against the Sacred Timeline. He has enough crimes to answer for; what's a few more to the list?.

"Loki, you don't need a partner," Mobius says, exasperated. "I'm your partner!"

"Well, she's my other partner," Loki says. He has one partner who kind of likes him but doesn't trust him, and he has one partner who kind of trusts him but doesn't like him. That's just his luck, isn't it?

Mobius groans. "We don't have time for this!" He pulls out his TemPad to open up a Time Portal. "She's supposed to be here. You're not. Let's go." He reaches out to grab Loki's arm again, but Loki pulls it free.