Family is for all time, always [1]

Mobius lies to Loki

~~~Catherine's pov~~~

"Mobius, what's going on?" I asked my friend when I saw a group of minutemen assemble outside of two time doors.

It had been twelve hours since Linda and Loki had disappeared with the variant, and I was a wreck. I hadn't eaten or slept since they vanished, and I was exhausted.

"We got a temporal lock. We know where they are." He answered.

Before I could react, Loki, Linda, and the variant ran through the time doors.

"Linda?" I stood still for just a moment before running over to her and hugging her tightly.

"Mom!" She hugged me back, and I could see she was shaking.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, inspecting her face.

She shook her head and hugged me tighter.

I looked up at Loki, who was standing by the now-closed time doors smiling down at us.

"Thank you so much." My voice broke as I spoke.

~~~Loki's pov~~~

Seeing Catherine's look of joy and relief made it all worth it.

Sylvie was staring at me, a look of shock still on her face.

What could she have possibly seen in Linda's memories?

That's when the minutemen grabbed us.

I sighed, knowing that this would happen.

"What are you doing? Let him go." Catherine protested, standing up with Linda in her arms.

"Catherine, he purposely left us behind at Roxxcart and almost got your own daughter killed. You can't possibly be standing up for him." Mobius started to lead us away.

"Mobius, he was trying to help us catch the variant. The variant that we now have because of him! Are you serious?"

I appreciated that she was trying to get us out of this situation, but I knew her efforts would be futile.

Just as I expected, Mobius didn't listen to Catherine, so Sylvie and I were taken to separate time theaters.

Mobius opened up a red time door, but when the minutemen went to throw me in, he stopped them.

"Okay. One last desperate trick from the desperate trickster. Go ahead."

"The TVA is lying to you." I needed him to believe me.

But no such luck.

"Put him in."

Great! Note the sarcasm.

~~~Catherine's pov~~~

Linda was taken to the infirmary, just to make sure she wasn't severely injured. She did go through an apocalypse after all.

"Mom?" Linda called me over when the doctors left.

"What is it, sweetie?"

"Go see the variant. She'll explain everything." She whispered to me.

"What?" I was surprised by her request.

"Promise me."

"Okay. I'll try to talk to her." I assured her.

What was she getting at? Why would I need to talk to the variant?

~~~Loki's pov~~~

After taking several beatings from the fake Sif, Mobius finally stopped the torture.