Temptation

Anyone for pie?

"Please, Loki, please don't. Please, my love, don't go, it's too risky. Look what happened..." she begged on her knees now. Mobius, the palace guards, even Odin himself could have materialised on Sleipnir, and she wouldn't have stopped.

Loki knelt with her, putting a finger under her chin and tipping her tear stained face to his. "My Queen, I have to help.  You know that.  We can't risk losing..." he placed the other hand on her belly. "We can't risk losing this little one, our other two darlings and any of this...." he indicated around them. "We, as much as Thor, owe it to our people." he said softly as she keened and cried into his shoulder.

Mobius, silent until now, spoke.  "Eva, I'm sorry.  If there was ANY other way, I promise I wouldn't be here.  We need Loki.  He's the original one.  The original timeline, the one with all the power. The one who's destined..." he broke off, realising he was on the cusp of saying too much, even to Loki.

Eva looked up at him, then back to Loki. "Promise me you'll come back.  Before you start your search, after you've spoken to this man... this Orab.....?" she trailed off, forgetting the name.

"Ouroboris," Loki said softly.  There was something stirred in his memory, but it was gone before it was even a thought.  "Come love, stand and hug me. You can do this. You're stronger and wiser than me.  You're braver than Sif and more shrewd than Fandral.  In short, you put us all to shame. I need to come back because I need YOU.  And I will need our new child, it's been a long time since anyone listened to a word I say!" he laughed softly, trying to break the tension.

All he did was break her heart, but she nodded.  "Ok, I understand.  Kiss me?  One last time?"

Loki looked at her, and Mobius turned and walked away to the balcony, giving them space. 

"This isn't the last time, Kjaer... I promise.I love you, my darling, my Queen." he kissed her deeply, each imprinting the taste and feel of the other's lips. "I will always come back to you." they broke, and he knelt in front of her.  Taking her stomach gently into his hands, he spoke to their as yet sleeping child.

"I will come back, little Prince, I promise.   I will always come back.  Take care of Mama till I do, ok?" he kissed her bump and rested his forehead on it for a moment.  Eva ran her fingers through Loki's long raven locks. They were as silky and beautiful as the day she'd met him.

Holding out her hand, she helped him stand.  No more was said. Truthfully, neither could speak.  It was left to Mobius to do the honours.

"Eva, we will be back before you realise we've even gone.  I will make sure of it." he smiled, and an orange portal door opened to their left.  With a nod, he walked through, leaving them to embrace one final time. 

"It'll only be a few minutes." Loki smiled and slowly walked away, still holding her hand.  Tears coursed down her cheeks, and she tried to smile.  As he reached the doorway, he dropped her hand and began to cross the threshold into the time corridor.  Everything will be ok, he told himself.  At least until he heard her parting words.

"I shall wait at the tree, my love, I'll be there when you return.  Our special tree.  Don't be late....."

Oh dear Gods in Valhalla, it was his dream.... it was starting.....  he tried to get Mobius, but he was already through. He tried to get back, but he was already in the time corridor.  Panic gripping his heart, he emerged to see Mobius standing talking to a smaller, dark-haired man with black rimmed spectacles and a large smile.

The room was like the biggest workshop Loki had ever seen.  No, in fact, it was not only the biggest, but actually?  The ONLY one he'd ever seen. 

He ran frantically through the filing cabinets of manuals and drawings; the tables strewn with half completed electrical and mechanical gadgets.  One corner even had a pinball machine in it.  There were tubes running from everywhere in the building to a huge chute at the far end of it.  Every now and again, a capsule would fire from a tube and land in the big netting below. Loki looked, but something made him extremely uneasy about the whole thing.  The fact Eva had mentioned the tree....

"Mobius, we have to go back... please, there's something not right... we can't be here. I need your help." he grabbed Mobius' arm and pleaded breathlessly with him.  Mobius turned and looked at him.

"It's ok Loki, calm down.  Think. " he spoke softly, holding his hands out palm down. "If the tempad is as unstable as we think, we can't guarantee getting back in one go.  By  the time we managed to get to the correct reality, everyone would have aged by many, many years.  No. We have to do it this way." he turned to the smaller, overall clad man.  "Now, Ouroboris?  This is Loki.  Loki, this is OB." 

Loki stared at OB, and OB stared at Loki.  "Hi." they said in unison as they shook hands and laughed.  Mobius shook his head, smiling.

"Ok, so, what do you make of this?" he handed the tempad to OB, who looked closely.  Saying nothing, he paced up and down, examining it closely.  Now and again, he would stop, open his mouth as if to say something, then close it abruptly, shaking his head and moving off again.

Eventually, OB stopped. He turned to Loki and Mobius.  "I could fix this if I had all the time in the world." he smiled at his own joke, a smile not returned by the others. He shook his head, "Oh, come on, it was a LITTLE bit funny?"

Mobius and Loki looked at each other and then turned to OB, "NO!" they chorused.  OB shrugged.

"Ok, ok, ok, give me a couple of hours.  You two go and have lunch. There's pie......" he smiled, and Mobius grinned.

"Why didn't you SAY so?  Come on, Loki, you're gonna love this!"  He took off along a corridor that branched off from the room they were in.  "The pie here is to die for." 

"That's what i'm afraid of....."Loki muttered as he followed on. 

OB watched the pair of them walk away. There was something awfully familiar about the tall, dark-haired stranger. No doubt he'd be able to reconcile that eventually.....