[ chapter seven ] walking on thin ice

THE HALLWAYS OF TIME VARIANCE AUTHORITY WERE DIM, entangled with darkness with a red color flickering and pulsing slowly as the blood that was shed on the snow. 

On the walls there was playing a shadow-play, distorted shadows were appearing and disappearing as the red light dimmed.

A tangerine light reflected on the shiny honeycomb panels, as a time door opened and two silhouettes bedazzled with snowflakes entered the hallway. Something was echoing the hallway and signaling that something wasn't right. This quick movement was complemented with a doubtful chatter as they realized that something was off.

Those footsteps couldn't be described properly. They were swift yet noiseless, needlessly careful as if the person in question was approaching a menace. Pungent dust swirled and descended back to the ground, reflecting the red light like sparks of fireworks.

The high pitch sound resounded and then vanished into thin air, similarly as the alarm of red madness stopped with a door opening. It roared only behind the hexagonal ornamented entrance.

Mobius breathed out loudly, still frozen while his teeth gritted due to a sudden change of temperature. He was shivering so much that snow dust sprinkled all over the patterned carpet.

"So what are we looking for exactly?"

"Anything about that creature or the Dyatlov expedition," I stated while searching through the drawers full of documents. The scene of Igor Dyatlov's clothes tinted in red, dripping with blood as his chin was shivering, attempting to express his last words, was replaying through my head again and again. 

What a shame it's a failed experiment too. . . 

Ask his mother. . .

My heart stopped. These words will keep me awake as I am unable to tell their origin as they turned into a fog.

"Once we find it we need to make sure to get them back to TVA and by that I mean as soon as possible," I declared, taking a quick glance at him. He stood there and was just looking around.

"Come on and hurry up!" I urged, waving at him repeatedly to give him a sign that I wasn't joking. He looked like one of those nonplayable characters waiting for the main character to interrogate them. "We're running out of time already!"

"Got it," Mobius cleared his throat, suddenly his eyes widened as he was meant to be super quiet which he failed immediately. Instead of helping me to look for the right file, he went straight to my desk and tried to look for something there. At least I assumed that. He searched through drawers and then a mysterious object glimmered within his sight.

"Why is it here?" he questioned, picking up a tiny bottle that was half empty and placed right next to my porcelain tea set. I watched him in disbelief.

"Let's not talk about that. . ."

I didn't even take a look at him and he already knew why.

"Don't—"

"I thought he was joking—"

We blurted out at once as my back straightened and we deeply gazed into each other's eyes. Corners of his mouth turned into an unpleasant grin and his leer was trying to uncover all of my secrets.

"I had no choice, okay? No more questions," I warned him and then continued to look for clues. All was silent except for the alarm which no one had even stopped yet. I concentrated on my tasks but Mobius was interested in something else.

"Did you enjoy him getting poisoned? What was it like to watch him die and don't even move a finger to at least save his life?" Mobius queried, slowly losing those sparks that lit every time he perceived me. Those glimmers were now gone.

I sighed. 

I attempted to say something, but those words curled on my tongue, however, I couldn't say them out loud as my body reminded me of that moment. I would rather swallow those sentences than be called a monster ever again.

"Mobius, it's not what you think," I vocalized quietly, although I already knew what he was going to say. A wave of distress filled the hole in my hollow chest.

"Of course," Mobius chuckled in an irksome way with his upper lip twitching as he was trying to suppress that anger building up inside of him. "Did you at least get his consent?"

"No," I whispered. I didn't even have to answer. The fact I froze and hesitated to answer, gave it away. I decided to sit down, as the wild emotions and anxiety weakened my body. I debated whether I had the right to do that at all — to tell the truth.

"He's just a boy. You shouldn't interfere in his life, Enigma. He lost everything, in fact, all he has now is himself. . ."

I was looking at my reflection that distorted with every blink. The flutter evoked memories in the back of her head that was meant to be forever forgotten. Why didn't I realize it before?

"You don't get it, do you?"

"I didn't write that, Mobius. I wasn't the one who wanted to test his limits through chaos theory," I was trying to explain, obeying the system I was captured in. I crossed the line trying to rewrite a story that was given to others in advance, eventually failing to remember that I was puppet number one the whole time as if the figure that was in charge all the time tried to hide the truth.

"Who was it then?"

"Nathaniel Richards, more precisely what is left of him," I explained, however, this was unheard of before.

"I met him on the edge of the world, stressed over the fact that another timeline got ruined during my presence. He introduced himself as a scientist that supposedly traveled many of those branches to puzzle the mistakes out. I believed him because I was alone, drifting from one universe to another to make myself feel valid, he did that for me and I was thankful for it. That time I finally embraced my idea of making the TVA be more cautious about devastating events that bombed the timeline many times. I and Nathaniel built this place from scratch to protect the timeline we wanted to maintain together. We called it the Sacred timeline as our ideas of the ideal past, present, and future were influenced by our visions and travels."

This evoked many memories that I tried to suppress within the flowing time. They were back and stronger than ever.

"I chose to leave my timekeeper role to live a life that I always wanted since I already found someone that could possibly embrace the time-keeping role better than me yet I was so wrong. Our visions were contrasting from the beginning and I was naive to admit it. That was the moment Nathaniel found out that he wasn't the only one of him and there were plenty of his variants trying to break through the system he created. He thought he was some sort of being like me that exists and would remain remembered among everyone in the back of their heads. I made him believe that he was the one and no one could replace him. But truly that's just what people do when they love someone so much."

Mobius stepped aside, stumbling over his own leg as the wave of information made him worried about something.

"He let them out. I trusted him and gave him the power to write the stories of others, thinking that he would prove to me that he's good after all. However as the realization tore him apart, he did the unthinkable. He rewrote my life to make me the watcher of my loved ones being cursed with a hex to make them unable to recover from the bad," I breathed out. My now-dead husband, my brother, and all of their variants — they were the main targets. And that was also why I had trouble opening up about my feelings again since Mobius was too good for me to begin with. 

He doesn't even know about it but he helped me through my darkest times the most.

"The fact I never heard of Nicholas Strange before is making me question many things and also try to understand this anomaly. I did quick research before he forced us to send them on the mission. Unlike Loki, there aren't other Nicholas Strange variants in the void, nor across the multiverse. He's the one and only and that makes Nathaniel go after him. . ."

"The boy is an easy target unless he can't die. There's something bigger behind it and I am worried that makes him a nexus being," I stated softly.

"I don't understand," Mobius shook his head.

"His story can't be affected by someone else. Surely he can be used, but that is on his free will if he decides to fall for it or not and I am worried that he already took the bait," I sighed and that is when something flashed in my eyes as I perceived a file that was misplaced according to alphabetical order.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE HIGHEST POWER and the power of something that is monitoring all events, they will always find out that something is wrong.

The impact of capturing an unknown creature was bigger than we expected. Entering the main control room was pure chaos, everyone was trying to figure out what exactly happened, still the look on their faces was puzzled — completely astray.

A display showing the branch of the Sacred timeline was begging for help as a new branch started to be visible, glitching through the system.

Ravonna's expression was the definition of fury as she was attempting to explain something to one of the officers. Having her hand folded on her chest was a sign that she was losing her patience and temper as she wasn't having things under control.

It was obvious she was running out of patience because thanks to this every other case was delayed and that would violate the Time Variance Authority's schedule to keep everything flowing in continuity.

The officer was constantly needing to prove their own point, explaining why they can't follow her orders.

"Just find who's tempad was used in the location!" Ravonna raised her voice which made the employee shiver in fear as she hit the wooden table with her fist. Officer's mug trembled, and the hot liquid spilled right next to their left hand.

"Now!"

Her shouting made everyone work even harder. The officer nodded ready to help, however, their hands transformed into a stone, unable to move, completely forgetting what they were supposed to do.

When their hands started to function properly, they became loudly typing, searching for the information in the database that was filled with codes.

Nevertheless, a disapproving yet eerie frown magically appeared on the employee's face as their inner voicer read quietly the name of one of the TVA's most reliable analysts.

The officer glanced at Ravonna in fear, their chin shivered, hesitating to say the suspect's name at loud. Perceiving the officer's withdrawn look on their face, looking right through the screen as if it never existed, made her look for the name herself.

The information was disturbing, yet she didn't find it surprising. Ravonna finally understood.

Mobius with his unexpected behavior was always looking for trouble, never getting caught yet today was different — his plan had failed.

The idea of keeping one of the Loki variants inside the organization was suspicious, and the fact that the Headmistress herself admitted that someone I knew was causing trouble for the authority outside the barriers, added a confirmation to the case.

With heavy breathing out she walked to the microphone and pushed the officer out of her way with a subtle move of her shoulder. It took her a while to press the defined button to call over all the hunters to express her orders.

When the group gathered in the cramped spaces of the main control room, she started to speak.

"Bring me Mobius, preferably alive," Ravonna declared with an informative tone of voice. As her message faded within the walls of TVA, everyone froze. Most of the hunters were his friends, so the information didn't sit well with them.

"Why?" Hunter C-20 questioned as Ravonna's orders were too specific. She gulped as she perceived the judge walking to her pretty slowly — probably to give her time to think about her reaction.

Ravonna snatched the time stick from C-20's hands. The stick's tip flickered in burning orange.

"So I can end it myself. . ."