Judge Renslayer was hard at work when a knock came on the door to her office.

Mobius entered. "Hey."

Ravonna chuckled. "Shouldn't you be interrogating the Loki Variant?"

"He's softening in the Time Cell, but while he marinates, I thought maybe I'd interview the other Variant." Mobius said.

"Oh, no." Ravonna smirked, brandishing her pen. "Just stick with your Loki and figure out what that nexus spike was."

"I know," Mobius said, with excitement. "But I think I can get there faster if I work 'em both together. Remember, you said we have a part to play and the part I play-"

Ravonna scoffed again, cutting him off. "Absolutely not...she's just too dangerous."

"Too dangerous?" Mobius said in disbelief. "Come on, Ravonna. This is what I do-"

"And this is what I do." Judge Renslayer stated firmly, cocking her head authoritatively at Mobius. "Nobody speaks with that Variant."

The excitement died out in Mobius. "I mean, if there's a mastermind here, I don't think it's Loki."

"Good." Renslayer answered. "Then he should be the easiest to break. Work your Loki, and figure out what caused that spike." She said then gestured to the statues around her office. "Time Keepers are watching, Mobius."

"They're always watching. "Work your Loki, work your Loki.""Mobius said impatiently and turned towards the door. "That ought to be my mantra."

Mobius exited the office and walked down the hallway to the Time Theater. Hunter B-15 and others were posted outside of it.

"Is she in there?" Mobius asked.

"Mhm." B-15 confirmed.

Mobius scoffed. "They don't go gently, do they."

"Aren't you supposed to be interrogating your Variant pet?" B-15 asked.

"Just stretching my legs." Mobius said. "You know we brought in Kree, Titans, Vampires. Why is it the two orphan demigods are such a pain in the ass?"

"And yet it was your idea to bring in another one." B-15 said.

Mobius produced a sly smile before walking off. "I'm happy to share credit for that idea."

"Mobius?" B-15 called.

Mobius turned back to her.

"Did Loki say anything while you were in there?" She asked.

Mobius chuckled. "Yeah. He said the TVA is lying to me. Why?"

B-15 produced a concerned look before answering. "Just doing my job."

***

Loki sat at the center of the dining hall. His hair was a mess. Sadness in his eyes. Fallen to the floor. Defeated.

"You." Sif began.

Loki let out a sigh of surrender.

"You conniving, craven..." She continued.

"Sif...Sif. Please, please, no more." Loki begged. "Please, I beg you."

Sif's stride slowed to a stop.

"I'm a horrible person. I get it. I really am." Loki said, slowly turning on his knees to fully face her. "I cut off your hair because I thought it'd be funny. And it's not."

"Uh, I crave attention. Because...I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's..." Loki produced another deep sigh before continuing. "...it's because I'm scared of being alone."

Sif looked down at him and produced a reluctant look before inevitably holding out her hand to him. Loki looked up to it and accepted it.

But as she hoisted him up she pulled him in close to her. "You are alone. And you always will be."

Sif walked off. Loki stared down in horror as he processed the words.

From the entrance of the dining hall, Mobius emerged. "Okay, Loki. You ready to talk?"

***

Loki and Mobius emerged from the Time Prison, taking their respective seats.

"Fancy technology. Threatening interrogation tactics." Loki said. "Seems you and I are in a loop of our own."

"Well, there's been alot of water under the bridge since then." Mobius said, pulling out his pencil and paper.

"Certainly has." Loki said.

"Okay, you said the TVA is lying to me. Go ahead." Mobius said. "Or is that just a cockroach's survival mechanism kicking in?"

"Let me out of this place, stop beating me up, and I'll tell you."

"Cockroach. Got it." Mobius said writing something down on his notes. "How long have you been working for the Variant?"

"Me?" Loki said, apalled. "Working for her? Please."

"Okay so if you're not working for the Variant what is it? You're partners?"

Loki shook his head. "Absolutely not. She's difficult and irritating and she tries to hit me all the time." He went on. "No. Not partners, no."

"Yeah, I guess you don't do partners." Mobius said before adding. "Unless, of course, it benefits you and you intend to betray them at some point."

"It was a means to an end, Mobius." Loki said. "Welcome to the real world. Down there we're awful to one another to get what we want."

"Oh, now I gotta have a prince tell me how the real world works?" Mobius said. "Why don't you just tell me what caused the nexus event on Lamentis?"

Loki looked down in impatience before glancing back up again. "Let me say this again. I'm not going to tell you, just so you can turn around immediately afterwards and prune me."

"I guess we've reached a dead end then." Mobius said, sitting up from his paperwork.

"Okay, it's over." Loki said.

"I'm going to miss these little tete-a-tetes." Mobius said.

"Me too."

"One guy playing checkers, you. Old Mobius playing chess." The agent said. "But yeah, give my regards to Lady Sif."

Mobius pulled out his Tempad and began pressing buttons on it.

"What...no. What?" Loki looked in horror to where the Time Prison had spawned before. "No, no, no. Please, not... just wait, wait, wait."

Mobius looked up from the Tempad. "Yeah?"

Loki sighed. "Of course it was me pulling the strings all along."

Mobius took a seat.

"She came to me on Asgard a long time ago." Loki continued. "And then she took me to one of her apocalypses and that's where we hatched out plan together."

"Which is?" Mobius asked.

"Coming along very nicely, thank you." Loki said with disdain.

"And the Variant?"

"Doesn't matter. She's a pawn." Loki said. "Something very, very, big is gonna happen. And when it does, I'll dispose of her."

"Well, we've saved you the trouble there. She's already been pruned." Mobius said. "So assume I do set you free..."

"Hang on, wait." Loki said leaning forward. "What did you just say?"

"What?" Mobius asked. "Assume I do set you free."

"The Variant. She's gone?" Loki inquired.

"Yeah. Not before taking out two of ours. Yeah, she was going to her Time Cell, broke free. Hunter B-15 stepped in, popped her." Mobius said. "So you might want to fire off a thank-you note to Hunter B-15, because it looks like you're the superior Loki. I would've bet on her, but that's what makes a horse race."

Mobius's words seemed to drift into the background as Loki visibly processed what he had just heard. He then looked back up to Mobius and produced a weak shrug. "Good riddance."

Mobius looked up from his paperwork and squinted at him before letting out a lively chuckle. "Haha, haha."

"What's so funny?"

"Come on." Mobius cackled."Look at your eyes. You like her."

"What?"

"You like her." Mobius repeated. "Does she like you?"

"Was she pruned?" Loki asked with growing concern.

"I mean, it's no wonder you have no clue what caused the nexus event on Lamentis." Mobius went on. "The both of you were just swooning over each other..."

"Mobius. Tell me the truth." Loki interjected.

"...it's the apocalypse. Two Variants of the same being, especially you, forming this kind of sick, twisted, romantic relationship. That's pure chaos. That could break reality. It's breaking my reality right now. What an incredible seismic narcissist. You fell for yourself."

"Her name was Sylvie." Loki said.

"Ah, Sylvie." Mobius purred, looking back down at his notes. "How do you spell that? Is that with an I-E or just an I-"

"Is she alive!" Loki shouted.

Mobius's tone returned to serious. "For now."

Loki let out a repressed sigh of relief.

"And was infiltrating the TVA, was that always sort of the grand plan?" Mobius inquired further.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Our interests are aligned." Loki said.

"Overthrowing the Time Keepers?"

"Maybe they need to be overthrown." Loki stated.

"I outta box your ears." Mobius said.

"Mobius listen." Loki said. "If what Sylvie told me about this place is true, it affects all of us."

"Here we go. Now, you've already told me about 50 lies in the past 10 minutes." Mobius said.

"I'm not lying." Loki said, tension rising in his voice. "It's the truth."

"Now, I'm supposed to believe your girlfriend-"

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Whatever you want to call her. What, your female self that you have some demented crush on-"

"You're all Variants!" Loki finally exclaimed, throwing his hands against the table. "Everyone who works at the TVA. The Time Keepers didn't create you, they kidnapped you frm the timeline and erased your memories. Memories she can access through enchantment."

Mobius froze.

"So before this, you had a past." Loki continued. "Maybe you had a family. A life."

Mobius softened and cast his gaze down in contemplation. "Nice try."

Loki shook his head and leaned back in defeat.

"That was good." Mobius continued. "You two, what a pair! Gosh, unbelieveable. Wherever you go, it's just death, destruction, the literal ends of worlds. Well," Mobius said standing up. "I'm going to have to close this case now, cause I don't need you anymore. Or as you might say, our interests are no longer aligned."

The Minutemen entered the room and siezed Loki again. He didn't try to struggle this time.

"You know, of all the liars in this place, and there are a great many, you're the biggest." Loki said.

"Why, cause I lied about your girlfriend?"

"Oh no, that I can respect." Loki said before being walked to the Time Door. "I mean the lies you tell yourself."

***

Outside of the hall of Time Theaters, B-15 breathed heavily. She shuddered as she stood, as if in disbelief of everything she came to know in the world.

Summoning her resolve she walked towards the entrance of the Time Theater, engaging her Timestick.

"Open the door." She told the guards standing in front of it. They stepped aside and she entered.

Sylvie sat at the other end of the room with her feet kicked up onto the table.

She greeted B-15 immediately. "Hello...oh I don't know. You're name's a number. Can't read it from here."

She promptly got to her feet and prepared to approach her as if it were a brawl.

B-15 deactivated her Timestick, then pressed some buttons on her Tempad to create a Time Door behind her.

"Come with me." She said before disappearing into the door behind her.

Sylvie eyed the Time Door curiously before stepping towards it.

***

Theremin music played on the records in Renslayer's office. Mobius stared at them while Renslayer scribbled something down on the paperwork between them on the couch. After she finished with it, she placed the pen and the paperwork next to Mobius.

"Mobius?" Ravonna called to him.

"Oh, yeah." Mobius said, exiting his trance and pulling the paperwork closer to him.

"You okay?" Ravonna asked.

"Yep, I'm good." Mobius said, signing the pages before nudging them towards Renslayer who placed them next to her.

"Case closed." She said.

"Yes." Mobius concurred.

"Cheers." She said, lifting her glass up from the table to clink against Mobius's. "To putting all of this behind us."

"Amen." Mobius said quietly.

"If you could go anywhere, anytime, where would it be?" Ravonna asked.

"I can go anywhere, anytime." Mobius answered.

"You know what I mean." Ravonna said.

Mobius looked down to his drink and then up to Ravonna again. "Why wouldn't you let me interrogate Sylvie?"

"Sylvie?"

"The Variant, that's what Loki calls her." Mobius explained. "Why wouldn't you let me you know, question her?"

"I told you, we couldn't risk her escaping again." Ravonna said.

"She wouldn't have escaped." Mobius said.

Ravonna gazed skeptically. "The other Variant got away during your first interrogation, didn't he?"

Mobius looked back down at his drink again and chuckled. "Ouch."

"Come on." Ravonna said. "An-n-n-n-ywhere and anytime on the timeline. Where'd you go?"

"I like being here, with you, doing the work." Mobius said.

"Fine." Ravonna said flatly, taking a drink from her glass. She then produced a smile. "I recieved word from the Time Keepers. They want to personally oversee the Variant's pruning. Aaand, they want you there too."

"It's about time. Great." Mobius said with arched eyebrows before returning to his prior expression. "When...when did you first notice what was going on with C-20?"

Ravonna scoffed in disbelief. "Mobius, what is going on with you?"

"Nothing."

"We did it." She said.

"I know."

"The Time Keepers are happy. Mission accomplished"

"It's great. Mission accomplished." Mobius repeated. "It was just that she seemed fine when I...when I saw her. I mean, a little freaked, but fine."

"Well, she quickly wasn't fine." Ravonna responded.

"Okay."

"Okay." Ravonna said. "C-20? The Variant? All these questions, what are you getting at?"

"I don't know..." Mobius began. "Something just seemed a little off."

"Fine..." Ravonna conceded. "You want the truth? I'm trying to protect you. Would you normally interview someone like that? Yeah. But the Variant scares the hell out of me, and I didn't want to see anything happen to you." Ravonna leaned in. "C-20 lost her mind. She couldn't even form words by the end. I just couldn't deal with that happening to you or anyone else. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Yeah, if it's the truth." Mobius said.

"You've been spending too much time with Lokis." Ravonna regarded.

"Yeah." Mobius chuckled. "I definitely have been spending too much time with Lokis."

"What we do here matters." Ravonna said.

"I know." Mobius said.

"When we're out there fighting for the fate of the Sacred Timeline," Ravonna began. "We're also fighting for this. For us. Friends against time, allies to the end. You've seen all of existence, same as me. So, you know. Friendship like ours is...uncommon. And worth fighting for. Same as the Sacred Timeline."

"It was a good speech." Mobius said.

"Thank you."

"I knew I was your favorite analyst. Was that so hard to admit?" Mobius proclaimed. Ravonna chuckled. Mobius gestured towards Sylvie's machete sitting on the table. "What are you going to do with that trophy?"

"Oh?" Ravonna reacted to the question.

"Where's that going to go?" Mobius asked.

"You're right." Ravonna said standing up and walking to the bookcase. "Let's see."

While she was distracted, Mobius quickly pulled out his Tempad from his suit and placed it on the table, swapping it for Renslayer's.

"Uh..." Ravonna said, placing the blade on a sword rack. "How's that."

Mobius blew air. "Whew, looks perfect. You're running out of room there." He stood up. "All right, I will see you later on."

"One drink?" Ravonna said in disbelief.

"I had two didn't I?"

"Mobius?" Ravonna whined. "This is a career case. You sure you're okay?"

"I'm just exhausted, dealing with all these Lokis." Mobius said, looking away and taking another big sip.

While he drank Renslayer froze and looked at him skeptically before nodding gingerly. "Fair enough. Let's finish this."

"For all time." Mobius said.

"Always." She finished.

"I'll see you up there." Mobius said, turning towards the door. "Thanks for the drink."

***

The Time Door opened up to Roxxcart superstore. The rains from the flood poured on as Sylvie and B-15 came through.

"Fine. You wanted a fair fight. I respect that." Sylvie regarded.

"When you were in my head, I saw something." B-15 said. "What did you do to me?"

"I showed you a life before the TVA." Sylvie said.

"That's a trick. It's a deception." B-15 refuted.

"No, it's not."

"I was created by the Time Keepers."

"No." Sylvie said. "I can't create memories. I can only use what's already there." She explained. "The Time Keepers took your lives from you. From all of you. You're Variant's. We're the same."

B-15 paused in contemplation then extended her hand towards Sylvie. "Show me."

Sylvie accepted her hand. A web of green energy traveled up to B-15's temples. B-15 shuddered and closed her eyes before the tears began to flood her face like the rain. Sylvie released the connection.

"I looked happy." She said.

Sylvie nodded sadly in agreement.

B-15 opened her eyes and with a heartbroken voice asked. "What now?"

***

Mobius retreated to the file shelves of the archives. Placing himself in one of the aisles he pulled out Renslayer's Tempad. He brought it to a search. Eventually the Tempad produced a status report of C-20. Deceased, the file said. Mobius looked away for a moment before reluctantly pressing the button to access one of the mission debriefing files. The Tempad launched a video of the debriefing.

C-20 sat in front of the camera. "You're not hearing me. I was there. This was real, what I saw. This is a place that I've been. This wasn't the TVA. This was a memory. I lived down there. I went to that bar. I had friends. I had a whole life on the Sacred Timeline.

"Calm down." The person on the other end of the camera said.

"Calm down?" C-20 protested. "I'm a Variant. So are you. So is every single person in this place-"

"I'm ending this." A voice cut in, entering into the frame.

Mobius squinted, then zoomed in closer to see the face of the interviewer. Ravonna Renslayer.

Mobius closed the Tempad in horror and immediately left the archives.