Temptation

Chaos and Order

"You're the God of Mischief Loki. You can do anything you want to!" Mobius sat forward and smiled, waving his spoon at him like a baton.  He had a small dot of cream on his chin and a wicked gleam in his eye. He'd been sitting at his desk, feet on the edge of it, eating his second slice of pie that week when Loki had wandered up and thumped a folder down.

"It's her.  I know it is.  She's doing this. Wanting to get pruned so she can go and wreck havoc in the void. I just can't see a safe way to get to her. And more importantly? Get back." 

Mobius sighed. Maybe Renslayer had been right all those attempts ago. That Loki Laufeysson ID L1130 was just another variant in a long line of variants. Finding him would turn out to be as fruitless as all the others.  Now he had; there was no way he was going to let her win. Loki just needed to have all the facts.  The files were just the start.

He glanced at them, lying innocuously on his desk.  All the variants he'd chased down.  There was the kid, sullen and arrogant. The tall fur-clad boastful one, bragging all the time.  The one who thought not only should he be the superior Loki, but president to boot.  All had eventually proved, in one way or another, useless.  He smiled as he picked up a small and grainy black and white mug shot showing a variant he'd never even bothered to interrogate.  Well, he mused with a wry shake of the head, who even spoke Alligator?

He looked up at Loki and smiled. "Look, let me finish my pie.  Now we're allowed more than a slice a week, I mean to enjoy it.  I think there's someone you might like to talk to.  Maybe HE will have some ideas."

Loki sighed and sat down.  When Mobius was in this kind of mood, there was no persuading him otherwise.  He leaned back in his chair and opened a drawer next to him, looking for something to occupy him while Mr Pedantic finished his toxic looking green pie.  A little pile of red, blue, yellow, and green stones winked up at him in the harsh overhead lighting.  What was it Casey had said the first time? 

"The guys use them as paperweights...." 

Odin's beard, if only they knew...

The door to the holding cell opened, and the older man looked up.  Not again. He had no more to tell.... who the actual Alioth's Head was THAT?  The younger man walked in and stopped, looking at him as if he had seen not only a ghost, but one that he couldn't believe was him.

Mobius smiled at the shocked expressions.  He pushed Loki, now dressed in his TVA uniform of brown slacks, white(ish) shirt, and brown and orange tie, further into the room.  A dark brown wool pea-coat finished it off.  Loki was well and truly a TVA man now.  Well, in appearance anyway.  They didn't go quite as far as trusting him with his own pruning baton.  Not yet!

Mobius held out his hand to indicate the sitting man.  "Loki, meet Loki!" 

Both stared at each other as if they couldn't believe their eyes.  The older - and as he liked to be called 'Classic' Loki - stood, and it took Loki a moment to compose himself.  Despite the shock of actually meeting another "him," he was more taken aback by the outfit the older man wore.  It seemed it was fashion's day off.  Where Loki prided himself on his usual metal and leather outfits - they liked it that was in Asgard - this one?  Well.  What was there to say about yellow and green lycra.  Well, other than dear Gods man, how BIG are those trunks, and WHAT the hell is that on your head......   

Loki heard Mobius cough discretely, and he pulled himself together.  Classic Loki walked over and extended a hand. "Pleased to meet me!" he said with an ironic laugh.

Loki frowned. "How did you know I was us?" confusing himself slightly in the process.  Classic Loki smiled and sat back down, crossing his thin, wiry legs and covering up with his cloak a little self-consciously. 

"Come on ... what did you expect?" he laughed, breaking the ice somewhat.
The two of them looked at each other, a silent understanding passing between them.

Mobius walked forward, "Look, we don't have a lot of... time..." he paused, wincing slightly, and the other two turned in unison and looked at him.

"Really?" Classic said.

"Oh, Mobius!" Loki put a hand over his eyes and shook his head.

"Ok, ok, I know. Sorry." Mobius sat on the third chair at the table. "We need to get going on this. If she gets to the loom before we do..."

Now the other two looked at him, the new word to both of them piqued their interest. "Loom? What do you mean loom?"

"Well, it's like this....."

Almost an hour later, the three of them stood in Judge Ravonna Renslayers' office. Not that Renslayer was there. She hadn't been there for quite some time. Attempt number 763, to be exact. It had all gone horribly wrong and now? Now she lauguished somewhere at the end of time. Another lost character in the void.

Being honest? Mobius was glad. Renslayer was the reason he was an analyst and not a Hunter. She'd sent him on that mission. She'd asked him to prune a child for God's sake. His refusal had earned him a desk.

No, the reason they stood here was to speak to the one other person who knew everything there was no know about the TVA.

Mobius coughed, and 'she' looked up.

"Morning, Y'all!" She said brightly in a strong Southern Belle accent as she hopped onto the desk. "Why if it isn't ma favourite Agent Mobius. I do believe we haven't spoken in oh.... 200 attempts? Don't you worry, Honey.  Y'all did the right thing.  Why don't you sit awhile and catch me right on up?"

Mobius nodded as if talking to a small, orange, glowing clock with a face arms and legs, was the most natural thing in the world.

Classic and Loki just stared. Open mouthed and confused as hell. 

"Are you... REAL?" Loki asked, putting out a hand to try and touch her.
She jumped away, hopping onto the monitor sitting on the desk.

"Oh my! Ain't YOU a handsome one! And so handsy! Of course, Im real, sweetie. As real as you - or him - or...." and now she turned to Mobius and sighed in a lovesick teenager way, "or handsome here. It's been so long..."

Classic and Loki sniggered and looked at their feet. Mobius flushed. "Loki..." they both turned in unison. "Meet Miss Minutes. The real power behind the TVA."

"Why, I'm surely pleased to meet y'all!" She simpered.

This, as Loki had already said to himself several times, was a nightmare.......