Temptation

Changes..

"So, if what you're saying is that time-loops ARE possible in the TVA, how do I not know this?" OB looked at them from where he sat on the floor.  He was surrounded by bits and pieces of his current 'tinkerings'.

"Because we keep slipping back into the loop before we get a chance to discuss.  We need to talk faster. Get more said...." Loki looked at him, a serious expression on his now worried face.  How the HELL were they ever going to get out of this?

The lights dimmed, and off they went on the hellish merry-go-round once more.

This time, when they "landed," Loki didn't wait.  Grabbing OB's hand, he launched into it;

"Hi, OB? Loki, " he pumped his hand up and down in greeting.  "Time loop - you heard about that recently, yes?  Good. Ok, so what do we do?  Here - Tempad, it's a bit broken.  Unstable..." he paused and looked at the shocked technician.

"Em, I'll need time...." he said cautiously, feeling a strange sense of Deja vu in the conversation.  

"Don't worry, we have plenty of that."

By the time they had been through the pantomime several hundred times, they'd reached a point where OB was actually working on a solution.  Then, as they slumped onto the floor of the workshop waiting for the expected flicker, it happened.  

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

Loki and Mobius stood from where they were resting, backs against the little counter, and peered over at OB.  He smiled up at them, like a child at Christmas surrounded by toys.  His "time toys."

"So you see, I DID manage to do it.  Look!" he held up a sheet of paper covered in drawings.  "I remember now.  Someone came and told me there was a problem with the Tempads and that sometimes they would loop." he scrambled to his feet, scratching his head. "Wait a minute.... that was YOU!" he looked at them both.  "I know you!  You're.... Loki and you.... Mobius!" he grinned like a lunatic "And you're going to save the timeline!" he added with a sense of amazement.

"I am?" Loki was confused. "How?"

"By taking over...." He stopped as Mobius shook his head in the background, where Loki couldn't see him. "Em, I mean, by taking HIM over to...." he pointed at Mobius, scrabbling for a new answer. "To... to catch the variant..." 

Loki turned very, VERY slowly, and looked at Mobius. "What. Is. He. Talking. About?" His voice was low and about as threatening as Mobius had ever heard over the millennia he had been tracking them all.  His blood, normally a sanguine cool, now ran icy cold.

"Now look Loki, let's not be hasty... There are things we need to talk about.... things we should agree on...." he backed away a step at a time, hands up in a gesture of compliance and surrender.  Loki scowled and took a matching step forward each time.   They came face to face as Mobius backed up against the wall.

Loki reached out, and it took all Mobius' self-reliance not to flinch.  Instead, he stayed silent and looked.  Loki took his slim brown tie in his hands and gently adjusted the knot just a smidge tighter.  "It's adorable, you know." he smiled like a snake eyeing his prey "that in all this time, you thought you could manipulate me." he patted Mobius' s lapels as he smoothed them down.  He left his hands resting on the now shaking agent's chest as he hissed quietly. "I am Loki of Asgard... and don't you forget it."

There was silence for a moment, then Loki smiled, stepping back as if the tension had never existed. "Now, if we have a job to do, let's do it.  But first?" he turned and held out his hands, flicking his wrists.

Nothing happened.  Loki frowned and looked at Mobius. "What the....?"

"Oh, sorry, I should have told you, your magic won't work here. " Mobius shrugged, looking more than a little smug. Loki growled at him,