Looking Through New Eyes [Sequel to Better Than You]

A New Theory

             The outside of the judge's office was silent after that little exchange they had, so all that was left was Mobius coming out to either give them a 2nd chance or prune them finally. That answer was soon to come when he finally walked out and whistled for them both to follow, "You're probably wondering what happened out on the mission!" Loki ran up to catch him and (Y/N) walked fast. "That was first lesson in catching a Loki," He rapidly said. "Expect the expected." "I expected this to be a little more convincing," (Y/N) criticized. He gave her a quick glare, quickly going back to the flimsy lying to save his ass, "Half of the fun of being a trickster is everyone knows you're a trickster, and then, many of your tricks can come from exploiting the fact that you that they know-" "Just shut up, please! What happened to the guy I met on the elevator? Didn't like to talk, remember him?" (Y/N) replied, "You threatened him with a death he can't make an escape out of. Getting reset, remember that?" He sighed and kept walking with them both on either side of him. He ranted, "Now, I'm stuck with one who won't stop yacking away about what makes a Loki tick, and the person who goes along with him even though they have the common sense that it won't work out." "Isn't that precisely why we're here?"

         "No," He assured. "I don't care what makes you tick, Loki. You're here to help me catch the superior version of yourself." "I'm not sure 'superior' is actually quite the right word!" They were getting to an elevator when Mobius turned to both of them suddenly. He ranted, "There it is. Right there. I believed, stupidly, that insecure need for validation would motive you to find the killer." Mobius then pointed to (Y/N), "And the need to protect your little boyfriend from certain death again would motive you too. Not cause you care about the TVA mission or being a hero, but because you know that this Variant is either better than you or a threat to loved ones, and you can't take it." They both gave him a blank stare, until Loki smiled at him. (Y/N) laughed, "Play to the most obvious weakness. Well done." "Yes, very nice," Loki started to straighten his tie. "It is adorable that you think that you can manipulate me. I'm ten steps ahead of you, playing my own game all along." "What about with (Y/N)?" He looked over to her for a moment, before looking back to him, "4 steps." 

       "Make it 1. You're starting to get predictable, love." He sighed as he rolled his eyes. Mobius questioned, "What's your game? Charm your way in front of the Time Keepers, hustle them, and seize control of the TVA? Am I getting warm?" His proud smile slowly faded, and (Y/N) nodded her head, "Told you." Mobius called the elevator while Loki asked him, "Why are you in there sticking your neck for us?" "I'll give you two options, and you can believe whichever one you want," He replied and got close to them both. "A, because I see a scared little boy and a brainwashed follower, shivering in the cold. And you kind of bad for those two." That hit (Y/N) and Loki too close to home, making them slightly frown by that. "Or B, I just wanna catch this guy, and I'll say whatever I need to say," He finished. The elevator opened and they all walked inside to sit in silence until they opened right back up.

       "What's this? The next step to your manipulation-" "No, this is your final step. Your last chances," Mobius sounded serious. "And what is our last chance going to take?" She asked, walking fast. "Work." "Work?" Loki looked confused. The group traveled through many different levels until they ended up on a more open one with the view of many different bookcases. "I need you to go over each and every one of The Variant's case files, and then give me your....unique Loki perspective. Maybe there's something we missed," Mobius said. "Well, you're idiots. I suspect you probably missed a lot." "Exactly what he said," (Y/N) smiled. To their left, their was some tables and one with a bunch of papers and files on it. "Let me park you at this desk, and don't be afraid to really lean into this work. Pretend your life depends on it, let's go get a snack (Y/N)," Mobius gestured to her. She shrugged and waved to Loki before following him out towards the cafeteria. 

         "How do you even think of dealing with the same guy over and over anyway?" "After everything we've been through, he's worth going after really. If you really get to know him, he is very sweet," She shrugged. While Mobius had a small bowl of salad, he got (Y/N) a plain peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some grapes by her request. He shook his head, "You have to be careful around those kinds of people." "Those kinds of people? Mobius, I know I might sound like I haven't even heard of the word crime when I first got here, but you have to remember who I am. I've started wars, and killed many just for training to become a Greek Goddess." He looked down, nodding his head. "Yeah, I know," He sighed. "I'm just saying that this time may be very different from the last times you two got closer. I don't want you getting hurt too badly." That was...randomly sweet. Just looked at him for a second with a sad, but stern look on her face when she realized something and started to chuckle. "You're talking about what I said on the elevator way back when." "Of course that's what I talking about. I have pruned many people just like you and Loki-" (Y/N) smirked, "You just haven't seen blood from one of them. Your type of execution is quick and easy, so you haven't someone truly die in front of you." 

        The silence was heavy and so thick, you could cut it with a knife. That was until Loki stormed in with a paper in his hand, "I found something. The answer isn't in the files, it's in the timeline." The timeline? He quick took a seat, eagerly explaining, "He's hiding in apocalypses. Ragnarok, are you familiar?" "Yes. The destruction of Asgard, and most of it's people. I am so sorry." Well that struck a nerve with (Y/N), clearly her throat and gesturing to Loki to change that very quickly. Thankfully, he did continue explaining his theory, "It got me thinking....Nexus events happen when someone does something they're not suppose to do. And then that thing they're not suppose to do cascades into a whole range of other things that aren't suppose to happen. Until eventually, a new timeline branches, yes?" "Where is this going exactly?" (Y/N) asked. He thought for a moment and took Mobius's salad to leave him confused, "Let's say that your salad is Asgard." "That's not Asgard, that's my lunch." 

        "I could go down to Asgard before Ragnarok causes it's complete destruction, and I could do anything I want. I could.." One of his hands picked up to salt, "Push the Hulk off of the Rainbow Bridge." The salt was shaken into the salad. "I could also set fire to the palace," He also said. Then the pepper was shaken into the salad. (Y/N) started to get it, slowly nodding to his metaphor, "But it wouldn't matter, because it's all destroyed!" Loki and (Y/N) said the last part together. She kept going, "The Variant can do whatever they want, and keep going back to the same place in whatever apocalypse they choose, and not be discovered because everything will be gone anyway! That is very clever." Mobius was finally on board with this, "Not bad." "Take us to a real apocalypse, to Ragnarok, we'll show you!" 

     "Yeah. So you two can run away back to your homeland? No," Mobius said. (Y/N) leaned forward, "We can literally go to any of them to test this. How about planet's colliding into each other?" Loki agreed with her, but Mobius shut that down real quick. He shook his head, "I'm not taking you both for a stroll along the promenade, much less an apocalypse. You two are going to lure me out to the field, and stab me in the back. It's a theory I don't want to test." Before Loki could say anything, (Y/N) stopped him and whispered to Mobius with a pouting look. "Come on Mobius," She whispered to him. "You've already gone so far to bring us in the catch this Variant. This is the only lead you got right now. I promise we won't betray you in any way...you can trust me."