The Variant's Shadow - LokixOC - ONGOING

* Reunion *

Ophelia recognized Mobius' footsteps the second he turned around the corner. She didn't bother opening an eye to look at him. She was still furious, and she had no intention of apologizing to him. She didn't move when he sat next to her on the small wooden bench in the hallway, keeping the back of her head pressed against the wall. 

"I'm not apologizing," she calmly said after a few seconds, hoping that he would just go away. 

"Well, I am." She opened her eyes and glanced at him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Ophelia scoffed. "I thought that I'd have to listen and watch a man die." She sat straight and let out a long sigh. "That's not even the point. We're a team. I've worked for you for over a century, and you're making plans with Loki without me. I know you like him, but this is just humiliating."

"You can't lie."

She couldn't believe that was his excuse. "I can lie."

"You can't," Mobius insisted. "X-5 would've known it wasn't true if you hadn't been that scared. He would've had doubts if I had asked you to leave the room."

"You used me."

He silently nodded. For a second, Ophelia thought that he'd leave her alone to wait for Brad to be ready for another trip to Earth, but he changed his mind and sat back down. "Loki wanted to tell you."

She looked at him and repressed a smile. "Did he ask you to say that ?"

"Yes, but it's true." He looked at the closed door behind her. "You're sure you don't want to sit this one out ?"

Ophelia shook her head. "I'm not leaving him alone with the two of you."

"I didn't know you were friends," Mobius replied with a smile. 

She didn't find this funny. Worse, she was starting to be concerned about Mobius' morality. "I don't need to be someone's friend to be against someone being tortured. I almost got him to talk, you know. He told me that Dox was only trying to save the TVA, too."

"See, that was a good job," he said, as if she was going to forget that easily about what had happened minutes ago. "I knew he'd talk to you." Ophelia frowned. "You were the only one he'd still be able to feel superior to. Did he say something else ?"

She shrugged. Brad did talk, even if it didn't make much sense. "That I'm freaking everyone out and no one can remember meeting me."

"I do," Mobius immediately replied. "You were in Rav- Wait, no." He stopped and looked up, apparently searching for a memory he couldn't find. "I already knew you back then. You're sure you weren't there when I visited OB's office ?" 

"Yeah," she sighed. "Thing is, I don't remember meeting you either. I already knew you when we got called into Renslayer's office, and I had never followed you before. But I knew your face."

"Why would someone make us forget about meeting each other ?"

"Not just you," Ophelia said in a quiet voice. "According to Brad, it's the entire TVA. Do you remember meeting… I don't know, B-15 ?"

He immediately nodded. "On a case long before-"

"Okay, so someone really hates me."

Ophelia took her current notebook from her pocket and wrote the only thing she could think of : 'What did I do ?' Someone went to extreme lengths to isolate her from the rest of her colleagues. Brad could've lied, of course, but she'd just gotten proof that even Mobius couldn't remember her. It was more than a few events being taken from them, this was a complete annihilation of Ophelia's social life.