Mischief and Enchantments

Chapter 3: Mischievous Scamp

"If you hadn't taken the Tesseract, you would have been taken to a cell on Asgard," Mobius explained.

The projection showed Loki—well, future Loki—walking up to his father's throne in chains. His mother was standing beside his father.

"Loki." His mother said. She seemed disappointed. Sad. She was sad because of him. Loki tried not to let it affect him much.

"Hello, Mother." His future self replied smugly. "Have I made you proud?"

"Please don't make this worse." His mother begged.

"What is this?" Loki asked. "This is nonsense, more tricks. This never even happened."

"Not to you," Mobius replied. "Not yet. Look, the TVA doesn't just know your whole past, we know your whole life, how it's all meant to be. Think of it as comforting."

"This is absurd," Loki muttered.

The scene on the projector changed. His future self and his mother stood inside what looked like one of Asgard's prison cells.

"And am I not your mother?" His mother said. She seemed hurt, heartbroken even. What had they discussed?

"You're not." His future self answered coldly.

Okay, now Loki knew this wasn't real. He would never do that to his mother. Never.

"And then the Dark Elves attack the palace," Mobius went on. "And you think you send them to Thor."

"You might want to take the stairs to the left."

"But instead, you send them..."

The projection changed again Loki stumbled back a little in shock. His mother was being held by a Dark Elf.

"I'll never tell." She choked out.

And then she was stabbed. She lay on the ground. Dead.

Dead. Dead because of him.

Loki froze, denial and guilt taking over his thoughts.

This isn't real. He told himself. This isn't real!

"Where do you have her?" He demanded. "Where is she?"

"You lead them right to her," Mobius replied, shrugging a little.

"I don't believe you," Loki said, his voice shaking with denial. "You're lying. It's not true."

"It is true." Mobius shot back. "That's the proper flow of time, and it happens again and again and again because it's supposed to, because it has to. The TVA makes sure of it."

"Where is she?" Loki asked again.

Mobius ignored him. "Now why don't you tell me, do you enjoy hurting people? Do you enjoy killing?"

"I'll kill you." Loki threatened. "I'll ruin you."

"What, like you did your mother?" Mobius taunted. "Like you ruined Sylvie?"

That was the last straw. Loki hurled his chair at the projection of his mother, but it phased through it. Then he charged towards Mobius, but just when he was about to reach him, Mobius used the collar device to set him back to where he was, which landed him on the floor.

"Sorry," Mobius said, "the Time Twister just moves you, not the furniture."

"You weren't born to be king Loki. You were born to cause pain and suffering and death. That's how it is, that's how it was, that's how it will be. All so that others can achieve the best versions of themselves."

The projector changed to an image of the Avengers standing in a ruined New York City, preparing to fight Loki's army.

Loki was really starting to hate this man. First, he showed him his most painful memory from his childhood, then he showed him the terrible fate of his mother that he indirectly caused, and then he taunted him with one of his greatest failures.

This was torture.

Mobius walked over to Loki and held out his hand to help him up.

"Don't say her name," Loki said shakily. "Don't talk about them."

"Come on." Mobius urged Loki to get up, ignoring what he had said. Reluctantly, Loki let Mobius help him up.

At this, the doors opened and the hunter that arrested Loki walked into the room.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

"My job," Mobius replied. "Is it yours to interrupt?"

"We have a situation." She said, sounding agitated.

"There's always a situation," Mobius muttered. He turned his attention back to Loki "Don't go anywhere." He told him. With that, he followed the hunter out of the room.

Loki was alone.

He pulled Mobius's device out of his pocket. He was able to steal it from Mobius as he was helping him up off the ground. Loki smirked as he looked down at it.

Now he could have some fun.

Mobius headed back to the Time Theater where he took Loki. Hunter B-15, at first, just told him what he had already heard. How Loki should be reset and that talking to him was a mistake. But then she revealed that the TVA had just lost another unit of Minutemen.

He knew Loki could help them. The killer kept evading them, and Loki was a master at making mischief and escaping. Mobius had a feeling that Loki was their best shot.

"Okay, Loki," he said as he walked back into the Time Theater. "I think we can finish up tomorrow and just pick it..."

Mobius trailed off and stopped walking abruptly.

Loki was nowhere to be seen.

Mobius's eyes widened as he scrambled to search through his coat pockets.

His Time Twister was gone.

Realization set in and Mobius shook his head.

"Mischievous scamp."

Hello!
The next chapter is where it really starts to get good. 😆

—Blue 💙