Chapter Text
The steps down to the airlock were a haunting reminder of when Loki had shut him and Sylvie out and all Mobius could do was make a few weak calls before fear overtook him. Now, he was faced with going through the exact same door and watching it hiss and turn, the locking mechanism clicking into place.
There was no one to watch him leave, but there would be someone to see him arrive. Mobius let out a sigh, heading over to the suits, ready as ever despite their limited use when there was no loom to fix. He shook his head and began suiting up. It was bulky and difficult, taking more time than he probably had to put on, and—as his fingers kept slipping on the buckles—all he could think of was Verity finding out and chasing him down before he did what he must for Loki.
“You deserve love,” he whispered, clicking the last latch into place. He was exhausted from it, but there was so much more to do. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and reached over for the button that opened the outside doors.
The lights above him flickered, and the gears creaked as the doors slowly moved, revealing the starry sky and the green glow of an aurora in the same spot where Yggdrasil should be. It was beautiful, but also painfully empty.
He began walking, remembering how long it had taken him to reach the end the last time. The gangway was marginally shorter now, but each step he took was as tiresome. He grit his teeth and kept his eyes on the broken edge and that shimmering light, and pressed on.
The further he moved, the more the sky lightened with flashes of green spreading across it, seeming to grow in size and color. He smiled at Loki’s encouragement, trudging on, gaining ground with each small step, bracing himself against the increasing temporal radiation. Parts of his suit began to flake away, but he ignored the twisting in his gut.
“I’m coming, Loki.” He would not let anything stop him. This was their story. This was how it would end and begin. They had and would keep on fighting against destiny together, creating their own. Nothing would keep a god and their human apart any longer.
He was almost there, and the temporal storm was rising. Behind him, he heard a thunderous noise and he peered over his shoulder to see every single light in the control room flashing rapidly. If his email hadn’t been sent yet, Verity would soon find out he was out here when everyone rushed to see what was going on.
Swallowing around the lump in his throat, he turned back. It was about trust. He trusted Loki and the messages he’d sent. They all led to this point—putting faith in his god. Faith that was rewarded when the portal to the end of time widened, becoming clear enough to see the steps beyond floating in midair and leading to the crude ones carved out of black rock.
He pressed on, heart hammering with the strain and the hope welling within him. Mobius was going to him, and while he didn’t know what lay ahead at the end of time, they would be together as they had been all this time.
His feet neared the edge of the gangway. Only a few more steps and he would reach it. He glanced back one last time at the TVA and the giant sign that proclaimed, ‘For all time. Always.’ The words were never more fitting than they were at this moment.
“Goodbye,” he said, turning back to the rip in space and time. He took two more steps, and then he crossed the threshold, the air changing immediately. Gone was the heaviness, and he breathed a sigh of relief. The climb up the rock was steep enough without the added resistance.
He couldn’t see the tree, but the sky around him was filled with green and blue. A breeze blew the tatters off his suit, and the pieces twirled up and away, disappearing from sight. The place felt somber and beautiful, desolate and peaceful.
At the brow of the hill, the view changed and Mobius could finally see him sitting on the throne, horns on his head, his eyes unfocused as the timelines rustled around him. He looked like he had before, except this time there was a faint smile on his lips. It urged Mobius to take those final few steps, stumbling in his rush.
“I’m here, Loki. I’m finally here,” he called out.
“Mobius.” The timelines glowed and Loki’s head twisted towards him, eyes brightening. “I’ve been dreaming about you.”
“More than dreaming.” Mobius stepped closer, cupping his cheek with his gloved hand. “Remembering.”
Loki nodded, leaning into him. “Dreaming, remembering, watching, living: it’s hard to know the difference.”
“Maybe it’s my job to help you with that,” Mobius suggested, kneeling down before him. “I am a Loki expert after all.”
That made Loki laugh, a genuine happy sound that made the timelines vibrate with him, flapping in the air. It was something Mobius had thought he would never hear again, yet here it was clear as day, taking away the weariness around Loki’s eyes.
“I would share eternity with you, Mobius. You who saved me from myself, who showed me there could be another way.”
Mobius felt wetness on his face. “You couldn’t tear me away. Even if I need to stay in this damned suit the whole time.”
It was almost imperceptible the speed with which the magic flowed from Loki’s hands. Green flashed and the throne changed into a large brown sofa with gold cushions. Mobius looked down at his arms covered in a muted brown tunic, dark soft pants on his legs and a cape falling from his shoulders.
“That’s better,” Loki said, pulling him up from the ground onto the sofa. Their lips met before Mobius found his footing, and he chuckled into it, straddling the lap of a god.
“Always dramatic,” he murmured, savoring the feeling of Loki’s hands holding him tight, and kisses running down his neck. It wasn’t the first time they’d kissed, but it was spine-tingling, electric, making him feel light-headed. Every sense was filled with Loki—his soft breaths, his cool skin. He wanted this to last forever, to never stop.
Here at the end of time, Mobius finally had Loki. They gave themselves over to each other, ravenous and hungry, tasting and exploring every inch of exposed skin until they were sated, flushed and covered in sweat.
“I love you,” Loki whispered, head pressed into Mobius’ chest and breathing heavily.
“I could never stop loving you,” Mobius whispered back.
Afterwards was a strange concept here at the end of time, but there was one. Mobius curled himself up into Loki’s side, playing with the gold edging along his cloak.
“What now?”
Loki shifted, his lips finding Mobius’ forehead and pressing a kiss there. “Now, we decide how we want to live.”
“But you have to stay here, don’t you?” He looked up reflectively, his lashes moving along Loki’s neck.
“I’m technically also still living in the TVA and the timeline. Time doesn’t play by any rules.”
“It kinda does. And you control it.”
Humming, Loki closed his eyes and the timelines shimmered behind him, moving like a wave. His lips parted, tongue licking the back of his teeth. “I know how we can do it.”
“Do what?” Mobius breathed.
Loki opened his eyes and smiled. “Live as a family.”
Their living room was a mess as usual, toys scattered across the floor. Sean and Kevin were rolling about arguing over who could play with the model train aunt Sylvie had bought them. Mobius put his hands on his hips and sighed.
“Come on. Do we need to buy two of everything?”
Loki snorted from the sofa, a hand covering his eyes. “They will still fight over them.”
Mobius laughed, tiptoeing across the mess to sit on the arm of the sofa beside Loki’s head. He rubbed his thumb along Loki’s wrist, smirking when he shivered.
“Do you want to go for a nap? I can handle this,” Mobius suggested. “And Verity and Sylvie will be over later for dinner.”
Shaking his head, Loki turned to look at his boys. “No. I don’t get that much time with them as it is. Or you, for that matter. They work you too hard.”
“Please, I do most of my detective work these days sitting on a lawn chair while these two chase each other with water pistols. It’s you who spends most of your time there.” He ruffled Loki’s hair. “Just because you can control time, doesn’t mean you don’t need sleep.”
Loki huffed, sitting up and shuffling across. Mobius sat down and pulled him into a hug, shifting the blanket across them both and smiling at how easily Loki snuggled into him, laying his head on his shoulders. It wasn’t long before his breathing began to slow and his hand slipped downwards, heavy with sleep.
“You’re as bad as the boys, fearing you’re missing out,” whispered Mobius when he heard Loki give a soft snore. He pulled out his TemPad from his pocket and typed a quick message to Sylvie asking if she and Verity could delay things for a couple of hours.
She typed back immediately, giving a thumbs up. He took a deep breath, switching on the TV for the cartoons, ready to settle down for a couple of hours when his TemPad pinged again. It was a link to a report beside a devil horns smirking emoji.
“What are you up to?” he whispered, opening it up and reading the title ‘the many armed multiversal protector system, aka how to free Loki’.
“I can’t believe this,” Mobius hissed in the kitchen to Sylvie. “When were you going to tell me?”
“Loki was a bit touchy about it. I thought it best not to say more until we were sure,” she said, folding her arms a little defensively.
Mobius sighed. “Sorry. This has taken me by surprise. And it works?”
“Yes. Verity has made sure it works. We’ve triple checked it. It means Loki wouldn’t need to be there so often. You know how exhausted he is. He might be all powerful, but even he has limits.”
Mobius bit his lip and then nodded his head. Everything she said was true. Loki was running himself into the ground keeping everything in balance, having both a family and protecting the multiverse. Something was going to give at some point, and neither one was a good option.
“Okay. How do we do this?”
“OB has the parts ready. All we need to do is open the portal to the end of time and set it up. It will redirect temporal radiation into a defense mechanism, meaning we will know if any new multiversal threat exists. And Verity is setting up three people to be in charge of it, meaning no one can take over it alone.”
“You still not comfortable with that, huh?”
Sylvie shrugged. “I’m working on it.”
Mobius reached over and squeezed her arm. “You’ve come a long way.”
“And so have you, Mr. Multiverse.”
They were gathered in OB’s lab one more time. Most certainly not the final time, but maybe the last time where Loki looked like he could fall asleep at the drop of a hat.
Mobius stood by his side, Sylvie and Verity in front of them, Casey, Ivan and OB on the other side of a trolley with a large sheet covering a model to be unveiled.
“The last time we did this, the loom was in danger,” Loki said solemnly.
“Nothing is in danger,” Verity reassured.
“Let’s just show you,” OB enthused, whipping off the cover of the eight-legged model, the legs circling and intertwining, each one a circuit on its own and also part of the bigger whole.
“What’s this?” Loki asked.
“Something that will keep an eye on things for you, save you…” OB began.
“Absolutely not.” Loki shook his head. “We can’t. What if He Who Remains comes back. I can’t let him win again.”
“Hey, hey,” Mobius said, pulling Loki to the side. “What good are you if he comes back and you’re exhausted? Have you thought about that? Have you thought about how Sylvie and Verity might want to drop in and spend time with Sean and Kevin? How you want to spend more time with them, with me?”
“But if I don’t stop him…”
“You will. You always will. Let them help you. That’s what family is for, right?”
“Let me think about it,” Loki said after a long minute.
“Okay, good. Let’s go for a walk, clear your head.”
They ended up in the automat again, Loki pacing back and forth while Mobius sat.
“I trust them,” Mobius said, forcing Loki to stop.
“What if it doesn’t work?”
Mobius tilted his head from side to side. “Before, you were exhausted trying to look after all of time, and now we live together and have a family and you’re still looking after all of time. You are amazing and can do anything, but you aren’t limitless like that. It’s time to stop running.”
“I’m not running.”
“You and Sylvie should really talk properly about your shared trauma, because you have both been toyed with by egomaniacs wanting to control other people. You might have had different experiences, but in a lot of ways, they are the same.”
“And you think I’m still running?” Loki asked, voice quieter. He came and sat down, clearly mulling it over.
“You want a family. You want to have more time. This is a way to do it. And you do trust me. I know you do.”
“How could I not?”
“And you know them out there would do anything for you. They are also your family,” Mobius said.
Loki nodded. “I know.”
“So, let them do this.”
Loki's gaze drifted to the rows of pies on the wall beside them. Mobius wondered just how many memories they had shared in this seemingly unremarkable room. How many tears had been shed here? How much laughter? Were there more stories in store for them here? He hoped so. He knew Loki would do everything in his power to live a long and happy life alongside him, but the fact remained, Loki couldn't keep up this life forever. Not alone. Mobius reached out and squeezed Loki's hand from across the table.
"Let us help you. You know we won't stop until you do.”
His eyes returned back to Mobius, back to the present, away from whatever memories he had been reliving moments ago.
"You are really quite stubborn," he said. "You know that, right?"
Mobius smiled. "When I know what I want, I get it."
"You can’t steal my line," Loki huffed for mere seconds before he laughed, eyes sparkling.
"What can I say? It's a good line. So…what do you say? Ready to take a leap into the unknown?” Mobius asked gently, then lowered his voice to add, “For me?"
Loki squeezed Mobius' hand. "For us."
It was a strange feeling to walk down the TVA hallway with Sean and Kevin in tow, eager and excited to see their father’s place of work. The same beige walls seemed warmer, filled with a joy he had rarely experienced while working here.
There was a party in the cafeteria, a celebration for the new protection system successfully working. Loki stood at the side of the room dressed in a dark green suit for the occasion, holding a glass of punch and scrunching his nose when he took a sip.
“You don’t need to drink that,” Mobius said, snatching it from his hands and taking a swig. “No one will care if you don’t.”
“I thought it was customary.”
“Yeah, yeah. We make our own customs now.”
“And what are those?”
“Well, I could do with learning to dance.” He took Loki’s hand, pulling him towards the center of the room. Someone put on some music, and Mobius hummed along, content with Loki holding his waist and leading them in a waltz around the room.
“If you’re lost, you can look and you will find me…time after time.”