Hell is Living Without You ~ Loki

Chapter Ten

Loki and I waited outside Ravonna Renslayer's office. Mobius had gone inside, to try and reason with her about Loki's actions.

Let me give you a tip. As much as I want to know who these omniscient Time Keepers are, and to get out of here. You must play the game. That's what's kept me alive. As soon as I get my chance, I'm leaving and never turning back. Mobius is a good friend, but I don't love him enough to stay here.

I can try, but no promises.

No Loki, I'm not accepting that. Promise me that you'll try to behave. Because they will prune you and I don't know if I could lose you again. You and Mobius are my only friends. I can't loose you, okay?

Fine, I'll promise. Only if you promise me that you'll come with me if I find a way out.

Okay deal. I promise.

Good, then I promise too.

That was perfect timing, because Mobius walked out and whistled at us to follow him. "You're probably wondering what happened out on the mission. That was your first lesson in catching a Loki. Expect the expected. Half of the fun of being a trickster is knowing that everyone knows you're a trickster, and then, many of your tricks can come from exploiting the fact that you know that they know..." Loki rambled. "Okay just shut up." Mobius said. "Please, what happened to the guy I met in the elevator? Who didn't talk. Remember him? Now I'm stuck with this guy who won't stop yacking away about what makes a Loki tick!" Mobius cried, sounding exhausted. "What? Isn't that precisely why I'm here?" Loki asked, confused. "No! I don't care what makes you tick. You're here to help me catch the superior version of yourself. That's it!" Mobius exclaimed. "Hang on. I'm not sure 'superior' is actually quite the right word." Loki protested. "See! There it is. Right there. I believed, stupidly, that insecure need for validation would motivate you to find the killer. Not 'cause you care about the TVA mission or bein' a hero, but because you know this Variant is better than you and you can't take it." Mobius taunted. "Very nice. I mean, it is adorable that you think you could possibly manipulate me. I'm ten steps ahead of you. I've been playing a game of my own all along." Loki announced proudly. "What? Charm your way in front of the Time Keepers, hustle them, and seize control of the TVA? Am I getting warm?" Mobius said. Loki dipped his head in shame. "A double cross by history's most reliable liar." Mobius cried. "Okay, so why are you in there sticking your neck out for me?" Loki asked. "I'll give you two options, and you can believe whichever one you want. A, because I see a scared little boy, shivering in the cold. And you kinda feel bad for the ice runt. Or B, I just wanna catch this guy, and I'll tell you whatever I need to tell you." Mobius snapped, as the elevator door opened.
We all stepped inside and Loki spoke up. "I don't need your sympathy." He told Mobius. "Good 'cause I'm running out of it." Mobius said. The elevator stopped, and the three of us stepped out. "What's this? Next step of your manipulation?" Loki asked. "This is the final step. Your last chance." Mobius told him. "Oh, and what does my desperate last chance require?" Loki asked snarkily. "Work." Mobius said simply. Loki looked confused. "Work?" He asked. "I need you to go over each and every one of the Variant's case files, and then, give me your...How do I put it? Your unique Loki perspective. And who knows? Maybe there's something we missed." Mobius explained. "Well your idiots. I suspect you missed alot." Loki commented. "That's why I'm lucky I got ya for a bit longer. Let me park ya at this desk. And don't be afraid to really lean into the work. Here's a good trick for you. Pretend your life depends on it. Freyja will help you so you're not completely alone. I'm gonna go get a snack." Mobius said, giving Loki a pat on the back.

Loki and I sat down and started going through the fies. "Oh my goodness." Loki exclaimed, and I looked up from my file. "Don't tell me the Variant ambushed and killed another team of minutemen!" He said. "And stole their reset charge aswell!" He gasped sarcastically. I let out a chuckle and Loki smiled, before rolling his eyes. "Shh." A woman behind him said. Loki turned around and shushed her harsher. "Do you want a drink?" I asked him. Loki didn't answer, instead he got up and headed to the receptionist. I sighed and went to get us a drink. There was nothing I fancied, so I conjured up two Cold Coffees and rejoined Loki at the desk. "I got you a drink." I told him, and handed him the brown liquid. "What is it?" He asked. "Coffee." I answered happily, whilst sipping mine. "No thank you." Loki said, I sighed and pushed it into his face harder. "Just try it." I insisted. He rolled his eyes and sighed before taking the plastic cup and tasting it. His face looked bored, until the liquid touched his lips. His eyes widened, and he downed the lot. I let out a laugh, watching his reaction. "I like it. Another!" He cried, about to smash the rubbish on the floor. I grabbed his hand to stop him from throwing the rubbish down. I conjured up another one and handed it to him. "Shh." The lady behind us scolded again. We resumed looking through the files, and Loki was thoroughly looked through a file. He sipped on his third coffee and went back to reading it.

Suddenly, put the piece of paper back together with the rest. "Come on." Loki said, picking up the file as we went on a hunt for Mobius. I caught eye of him in the lunch hall. Loki sat down, and I pulled up a chair. "I found something." Loki said happily. "No. I said don't bother me until you have read all the files." Mobius said. "We have." Loki told him. "Every file?" He asked me for confirmation. "Yup." I smiled. "Pertaining to the Variant?" Mobius asked. "The answer isn't in the files, it's on the timeline. He's hiding in apocalypses." Loki cried. "Which apocalypse? Any time in history? There's like a million of em." Mobius asked. "Ragnarok. Are you familiar?" Loki asked Mobius. "Yes. The destruction of Asgard and most of it's people. I'm sorry." He answered. "Yes, yes. Very sad. Anyway, it got me thinking." Loki started. "Go ahead." Mobius said. "Nexus events happen when someone does something they're not supposed to do, right?" Loki confirmed. "Well it's a little more complicated than that, but yeah." I said. "Great. And then that thing they're not supposed to do, cascades into a whole range of other things that aren't supposed to happen. And so on and so forth, until eventually, a new timeline branches. Yes?" Loki asked, checking if Mobius was still following. "Chaotic alterations of a predetermined outcome." Mobius said. "Exactly. So let's say..." He grabbed Mobius' lunch. "What are you doing?" Mobius asked sadly. "Your salad is Asgard in this scenario." Loki continued. "It's not Asgard, it's my lunch." Mobius complained. "It's a metaphor. Just hang in there." Loki told him, and I watched in amusement. "I want that salad." Mobius said. I conjured up a new salad, that was exactly the same as the one Loki was ruining. I conjured up a coffee for me aswell. "And I could go to down to Asgard before Ragnarok causes it's complete destruction and I could do anything I wanted. I could, let's say, push the Hulk off the Rainbow Bridge." Loki said, picking up the salt and tipping it in the salad. "There he goes." He said. "The salt's Hulk?" Mobius asked. "And I could also set fire to the palace." Loki told him, picking up the pepper aswell. Mobius watched in horror as Loki ruined his salad. I nudged forward the one I had conjured up, and he happily tucked in whilst Loki explained. "Okay? I can do what ever I want to do, and it would never matter. It wouldn't go against the dictates of the timeline because..." He picked up the can of drink, but it was empty, so he looked around for something, then spotted my coffee. He picked it up and held it. "Excuse me!" I said, he drank a large sip and put it back down on the table. "Because the Apocalypse is coming. Ragnarok, Surtur will destroy Asgard no matter what I do." Loki said. "No don't do-" Mobius started, but he had already started pouring my coffee into the salad bowl. "There's the apocalypse." Loki said. "That's the apocalypse?" Mobius asked. "Ragnarok obliterates the salt." Loki finished proudly. "Ragnarok." Loki said, gesturing to my now empty coffee cup. "There it is." Loki told Mobius. "What am I looking at?" He asked confused. "Okay, it was a clumsy metaphor. But you see what I mean. It doesn't matter. It could be any apocalypse. It could be a tidal wave, it could be a meteor, it could be a volcano, a supernova." Loki said. "If everything and everyone around you is destined for iminent destruction, then nothing that I say or do will matter, because the timeline's not gonna branch. 'Cause it gets destroyed." I clarified, and Loki nodded. "Hence, the Variant could be hiding in the apocalypse and do whatever he wants, and we wouldn't know." Loki added. "Not bad." Mobius said impressed. "Take me to a real apocalypse, to Ragnarok and I'll show you." Loki suggested. Mobius chuckled. "Yeah, so you and Freyja can run away to your homeland? No." Mobius said. "No. I'm not going home. We can go anywhere." Loki reasoned. "I'm not taking you for a stroll along the promenade, much less an apocalypse." Mobius scoffed. "Oh Mobi, Come on! What could possibly go wrong? We gotta properly test this theory!" I protested.