He has to find the Tesseract.

That's the only thing going through Loki's mind as he twists time around, sending himself back to the halls of the TVA. He has to find the Tesseract. It's the only way he can get out of here. It's the only way he can return to Midgard and finish what he started.

He stumbles a bit on his return, and it takes a moment to catch his balance, and he's ready to take off. He has no idea where he is, but he'll figure it out. He has to.

"Loki?"

Loki whips around. He'd like to think it's a safe assumption that the Minuteman wasn't calling his name, so it must be the girl he's dragging by the forearm. He furrows his brows. Does he know her? She doesn't look familiar. Maybe they meet in the future? Or maybe them meeting was a cosmic mistake in her timeline and shouldn't have happened? He's not quite sure what to do with that information.

It's unclear whether the Minuteman recognizes him or just sees a Variant roaming free and deems it a problem, but he drops the woman's arm and pulls out his pruning stick. Maybe Thor had a point when he said all that magic in his fights would be to his detriment one day. He'll have to win this fight like an ordinary Asgardian.

The Minuteman jabs his pruning stick forward, and Loki jumps back out of the way. Before the Minuteman can pull it back, Loki grabs it, careful not to touch the end. He shoves it back towards the Minuteman, hitting him in the throat. He stumbles backward, and Loki tries to pull it out of his hand, but the Minuteman just pulls him back, too.

Loki pushes the pruning stick to the side and steps in towards him. He hits the heel of his hand against the Minuteman's throat, and, while he's recovering from that, Loki puts his hands behind the man's head and pulls it down, raising his knee at the same time. It doesn't kill him, but he does drop his pruning stick. Loki immediately crouches down to get it, and he stabs it right into the Minuteman's abdomen, watching with smug satisfaction as he disintegrates right then and there.

"Oh my god," the woman whispers, slapping her hands over her mouth in horror.

Loki turns to face her. He's not actually sure what to say — his mind is a little preoccupied at the moment — so he just says an awkward, "Hi."

She stares at him, frozen in place. "You're dead."

Loki scoffs. "I beg your pardon?"

"You're dead!" she says again, more emphatically this time. She takes her hands away from her face and gestures to him. "I saw you die!"

"I doubt that very much," Loki says. "I don't die."

"Yes, you do!" she says. "You just did, like, six hours ago!"

He shakes his head. He doesn't know what she thinks she saw, but he did not die. Not unless she comes from very far in the future. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" She looks at him incredulously. "I just broke you out of prison! How do you not remember me?"

"You what?" Now it's Loki's turn to be incredulous, but it occurs to him that this is the worst possible time and place to be having this conversation, so he shoves that feeling aside. "Are we friends?"

"What?"

"Just answer the question," he says, rushing his words now. "Are we friends or not?"

"I don't think so?" she says uncertainly.

He should have suspected that. He doesn't really have any friends. "Allies, then." That sounds more like him.

"I don't know!" she says. "I mean, you saved my life a few hours ago so I guess...?"

"Then we must be," Loki says, "because I typically just let people die when I no longer have any use for them."

Her jaw drops, and she stares at him in uncomfortable awe.

Loki glances around. He needs to think of his next move. He's been standing here for far too long and it's a miracle he hasn't been caught. He's sure the plot convenience won't last much longer, so where does he go now?

A familiar face catches his eye. Oh, that was just too easy. He taps the woman's arm and gestures down the hall with his head. "This way."

To say she looks confused would be an understatement, but when Loki takes off running, she doesn't hesitate to follow. Maybe that's why they got along. Anyone dumb enough to follow him without question is doubtlessly worth allying with, if only because she'd be easy to betray when the time comes.

Loki flattens himself against the wall and peers around the corner. She presses herself against the wall as well. It's very monkey-see-monkey-do with her, isn't it? If only Midgard was the same way.

"What are we doing?" she whispers.

"We're getting out of here," he whispers back, his gaze still on the man down the hall. Where is he going and why is he walking so slowly to get there?

"How?" she asks. "The introduction video made it seem like there is no 'out of here.'"

"Trust me," Loki says quietly. "There's always a way out."

The man rounds the corner, and Loki immediately runs after him, pressing himself up against the wall closest to him. He peers around this corner now, and it looks like he's heading for a door. That wasn't too bad. He'll just wait for him to go inside and then he'll follow.

The woman joins him next to this wall now, panting slightly. "Where are we going to go?"

"New York," Loki says simply. He holds his new pruning stick in front of him with a small smile. "I have some unfinished business to attend to."

Her eyes go wide. "You're bringing that back to Earth?"

"Of course," Loki says. Why wouldn't he? It's a nice weapon.

"For what?" she asks.

Loki smirks. "I'm going to kill the Avengers."

She scoffs and steps away from the wall, standing in front of him with her arms crossed. "You can't kill the Avengers."

"I think you'll find that I very well can," he says.

"Even Thor?"

Loki's grip on the pruning stick tightens. "He'll be the first one I kill."

She grabs the pruning stick, and though it takes very little effort to stop her from taking it from him, it's still incredibly frustrating. What is her problem?

"You are not killing Thor," she says firmly. "You just died trying to save him. You are not —"

"I'm sorry, I died doing what?" Loki stares at her incredulously. He would not have given his life for his brother. That's ridiculous. The only reason he would have stopped something from killing Thor is if he decided he wanted to do it himself.

"Saving Thor!" she repeats. "The Dark Elves were —"

"The Dark Elves have been extinct since long before I was born," Loki interrupts. What the hell is happening right now? He puts his hands on her shoulders, grounding them both before they lose their minds. "Okay, who are you?"

"What do you mean, who am I?" she asks. "Jane! Jane Foster?"

Loki slowly drops his arms to his side and hits his head against the wall. "Jane Foster," he echoes, his voice quiet and flat.

"Yes!" she says. "So you do know me?"

"Jane Foster," he repeats slowly. "The woman my brother fell in love with on Midgard. That Jane Foster." He picks his head back up to look at her.

Jane drops her gaze to the floor, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't know if I'd say love..."

"Oh, I would definitely say love," Loki deadpans. Thor made that obnoxiously clear. "You said we were allies."

"Well, I don't know!" she says. "All I know is one day you're trying to kill me, the next you're on the news for destroying half of New York, and the next you're saving me from weird mythical creatures that, by all accounts, shouldn't even exist!"

Loki grits his teeth. He wishes he'd realized who this was earlier. He would have just left her behind. He supposes he could just prune her now, but after all this, it would feel weird to just kill her for the fun of it. Besides, she could make a nice shield.

Loki glances around the corner again, and the man is gone. Oh, he really hopes he just went through the door down the hall, because if they walk in there and he's not there, Loki is going to kill someone. Again.

"Alright, come on," Loki hisses before taking off down the hallway. Jane follows close behind him, and he nearly hits her in the face with the door when he opens it.

He's relieved to see that the man he was looking for is here. He hasn't strayed far from the door, either, which makes it easy for Loki to grab him and pull him to the ground, hidden from view behind a conveniently placed desk. Jane stares at him in shock, then quickly dives after them.

"Ow!" the man whines, but when he sees who it is, his eyes go wide. "Hey, I know you!" he says, much too loudly. "You're that prisoner with the blue box!"

"Shh!" Loki puts a finger to his lips. "What's your name?"

"Casey?"

Okay, fine. Casey. Loki puts on the most intimidating expression he can muster with such a short amount of time to make his move. "Give me the Tesseract or I'll gut you like a fish, Casey!"

"Loki!" Jane whispers, almost patronizingly. "Don't threaten the poor interns!"

"I will threaten whomever I damn well please," Loki snaps.

"Why don't you just ask him for the... the thing?"

"Because this is more fun," Loki says. Can't a guy try to enjoy himself every once in a while? He turns his attention back to Casey. "The Tesseract, Casey. Where is it?"

"The blue box?" Casey asks.

Loki fights back a sigh. "Yes. The blue box."

"It's right in here," Casey says. He stands up and opens up his cart. Loki watches from the floor, but the moment Casey holds up the Tesseract, Loki jumps to his feet to take it. Oh, is it good to have this baby back. Now he can get out of here and —

Wait.

Why isn't this working?

Loki smacks the side of the Tesseract a few times. Is it broken? How is that even possible? It's an Infinity Stone. They're the most powerful things in existence. They don't just break.

"Loki?" Jane says cautiously.

Loki shoves the Tesseract against Casey's chest. "Why won't it work?"

Casey cocks his head to the side. "What's it supposed to do? Just, like, glow, or...?"

Loki throws the Tesseract back in the drawer with a noise between a groan and a scream. Is that all the Tesseract does here? It's nothing more than a glorified nightlight? Then how is he supposed to get out of here?

"Loki!" Jane says again, more frantic this time. "What is happening right now?"

Loki grits his teeth. "I'm thinking." New plan, new plan... God, what is his new plan?

"I'm very confused," Casey says.

Loki pinches the bridge of his nose. Come on, come on. What else has he passed today that could be useful? What else has he seen? The Tesseract is broken, so that's no good. Obviously he can't use his magic. The only person he knows is Jane Foster, so she's no help. The pruning stick will be great for buying time, but it's no escape plan.

Ding!

Loki whips around, instinctively stepping in front of Jane before he's ever seen what the noise was. He switches the pruning stick to his right hand, holding it at the ready — and it seems to be a good idea, because the doors open and a bunch of Minutemen storm into the room.

The Hunter that dragged Loki in here stands at the front. She's the first one in the room, heading straight for him with her pruning stick extended. Loki grins. Oh, he's going to enjoy killing her.

Loki holds up his own pruning stick, a smirk on his lips, but the Hunter seems unphased. Her single-minded focus is on pruning him, it would seem. His should be on doing the same to her.

"Loki," a familiar voice drawls, and Loki knows without looking that it's Agent Mobius. His subtle condescension made quite a mark in the half-hour or so they've spent together. He'd rather not have to deal with it any longer. "Even you can't prune every single person in this room."

"We'll see," Loki says with a slightly manic smile.

He jets out his pruning stick, ready to stab this Hunter (B-15, it says on her helmet) before she even gets close to doing the same. She tries to stab him around the other side, and Loki swiftly moves his pruning stick towards hers...

And the tips meet.

And the two sticks prune each other.

"Oh, shit," Loki mutters.

"Still think you can do it?" Mobius asks, and Loki shoots him a glare. He's enjoying this way too much.

Loki grabs Hunter B-15's arm, hoping to twist it around her back and knock her to her knees. Instead, she pulls herself free, throwing Loki forward in the process. He stumbles forward, nearly falling right into the tip of a Minuteman's pruning stick, but he drops to the floor before he touches it.

"Ooh, so close!" Mobius says eagerly.

Loki rocks back on his heels and pushes himself to his feet in one swift movement. He kicks the Minuteman's shin, then knees him in the abdomen. The Minuteman doubles over in pain, and Loki hits his elbows down on his back, sending him to the floor.

Loki's about to reach for the pruning stick when Hunter B-15 grabs him by the back of his jumpsuit, throwing him backward and into Casey's cart. Oh shit, oh shit —

"You know," Mobius says, "you can stop at any time. If you cooperate, you might actually make it out of here alive."

"Oh, I'm sure," Loki says sarcastically. He slides over the top of the cart and shoves it straight into Hunter B-15, pushing her back into the Minuteman behind her. They both fall to the floor, and two more Minutemen come after him in their place — the only other two Minutemen, he notes; he's starting to get somewhere.

Loki pulls the Tesseract back out of the drawer. He looks down at it for a few seconds, shrugs, and throws it in one of the Minutemen's faces. He picks up the cart in its entirety and chucks it at the other one.

B-15 is already back on her feet, and she grabs a pruning stick from one of the Minutemen on the floor. Loki glances around, then jumps on top of a desk. It's a better vantage point, if slightly more dangerous. It doesn't deter B-15 at all, nor does the lamp that he kicks at her because she just prunes it. The typewriter he throws at her, though, that one stops her.

Loki jumps down to the ground and pulls Jane to her feet with a rough tug. "Come on!" He runs to the door, his hand still tightly wrapped around her arm to make sure she stays with him.

"Loki!" Mobius yells. Loki just shoves him out of the way.

Loki keeps running long after the point where those Minutemen have doubtlessly already lost him. He just needs to be sure. He needs to know that he's out of their way. Those pruning sticks are terrifying. He's not messing around with them if he doesn't have one himself.

"Loki," Jane wheezes. "Stop. I need to..." She cuts herself off to refill her lungs. "I need to stop."

Loki stops running and drops her arm. He leans against the wall, panting while he tries to catch his breath. Jane just collapses into a puddle on the floor.

"Jane?" he says quietly, breathless.

She raises an arm weakly. "I'm good."

Loki slides down the wall and sits next to her. If she's going to sit, so is he. They haven't seen anyone in at least two minutes. The hallway is all but empty through and through They should be able to rest here for a brief moment without getting caught.

"I really need..." Jane pauses to breathe, then continues, "to do more cardio."

Loki just nods. He's beginning to feel the same way — though not nearly as bad as she does, he can tell.

"What now?" she asks.

He shakes his head in defeat. "I don't know."

"What?"

He gives a small shrug. "I don't know. Without the Tesseract..."

"The blue box?" she asks. He just nods. "What is it?"

"An Infinity Stone," Loki says. "The Space Stone; the most powerful thing I've ever seen. It can fold space to its whim."

Jane scoffs. "It can what? But that's not —"

Loki raises an eyebrow. Is she really going to tell him of all people how the Tesseract works?

"That's not how space works," Jane says. "It's not supposed to just..." She shifts her position to free her hands, and she mimes what looks to be opening a book, or something of the sort. "Fold."

Loki chuckles. "Your understanding of our reality is infantile at best."

She scoffs. "I'm an astrophysicist! This is what I do!"

"And I'm a god," Loki says simply. That alone puts him on top.

She narrows her eyes. "Fine," she says stubbornly. "If you're so much smarter than me, then how does it work? How does this little blue box just fold space to its whim?"

"Easy," Loki says. "Magic."

She shakes her head to herself. "You have no idea, do you?"

"It's magic," Loki repeats. "That's what Infinity Stones are: magic."

"But how does it work?" Jane insists.

"What part of 'magic' is confusing you?" Loki asks sarcastically.

"Nothing just happens," Jane says. "There's always a reason; there's always an explanation. Magic is no different. It's just science that we don't understand yet."

Loki chuckles dryly. "You mortals and your science."

"You gods and your magic," Jane replies in the same mocking tone.

He cracks a smile. "I see why Thor chose you. You share both his contempt for magic and his infatuation with it." Neither of them would admit it, he's sure, but they both need magic. They wouldn't know what to do without it. How lost was Thor without his precious thunder; his lightning to put on an unnecessary show in every fight? And what would Jane do if not chase explanations for the unexplainable? They both rely on magic, probably as much as Loki does. They just don't know it.

Jane doesn't fight back with a snappy response. She doesn't say anything. She just drops her gaze to the floor. Loki senses he's said something wrong. The only reason it bothers him is that he can't tell exactly what he said wrong, because he'd like to keep talking about it.

"You don't think you love magic?" Loki guesses. Is that what's bothering her? Because he will gladly spend the next few minutes explaining why she's wrong and he's right. He loves to be right.

But she shakes her head. "No, it's not that. I just..." She sighs. "Thor and I aren't together anymore."

"Well, I would hope not," Loki says. "I don't know what I'd do if Thor showed up, but I highly doubt we would both survive."

"That's not what I mean," she says. She reluctantly raises her gaze to meet his. "I just broke up with him."

Loki guffaws at that. "Don't tell me that's when the TVA showed up."

She furrows her brows. "Well, yeah, it was."

Loki throws his head back laughing. "Oh, that is hilarious!"

Jane just looks even more confused. "What?"

"You weren't supposed to," Loki says. "You were destined to fall in love with him; probably to stay with him your whole life. None of it was real." He lets out another laugh, almost manic in his enjoyment. "You fell in love because the..." He gestures vaguely to the sky. "The Time Keepers told you to! And when you changed your mind..." He claps his hands together, and she flinches at the sudden noise. "They got rid of the whole timeline."

Jane squeezes her eyes shut, her face turning a faint shade of red. He doesn't care. This is just so exciting! So exhilarating! This was such a nice revelation!

"This is the best thing to happen to me all day," Loki says with a grin. "Not that it had much to compete with, but still!"

Jane tucks her head, her hair shielding her face from view. "Thor was right. You are a horrible person."

"Everyone keeps saying that," Loki remarks. And so what if they're right? He's always had a bad reputation. Why not make it worse?

She wipes her eyes with the heel of her hand before she opens them and takes a deep breath, calming herself. "Why are you enjoying this?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Loki asks. "He didn't deserve you. He didn't earn you. You were handed to him on a silver platter and he ate you up but it was never real. It was just universal charity work, nothing more."

"That's not true," Jane says quietly.

"It absolutely is," Loki replies.

"And even if it was," Jane says, "I don't get why you care. What does it matter?*

"Because it's one less prize that Thor has earned." He spits the name with all the venom he can muster. "It wasn't his charm or his wit or his winning personality. It was just fate."

Jane scoffs, shaking her head incredulously. "Who cares? We're about to be disintegrated by this weird time-space place. Who cares whether Thor 'earned' me?"

"I do!" Loki snaps, seething. "Because every time he wins, I lose! And now..." He chuckles dryly, gesturing widely to the whole of the TVA. "Now I know that it was never me. It was never him. It was the Time Variance Authority all along. They made me a pawn in their chess match, but I have always been the rightful king. Not Thor. Not Odin. Me."

"Oh my god," Jane whispers. She props her elbows on her legs and buries her face in her hands. "I'm going to die side-by-side with a narcissistic psychopath."

He shakes his head. "No, we are not dying today." He pushes himself to his feet. "Come on. We're going to find a way out."

She looks up at him from the floor but makes no move to get up. "I don't think I want to."

Loki scoffs. "You what?"

"I don't want to go with you," Jane says again. "I'm not going to help you get back to Earth just so you can kill the Avengers."

Loki crosses his arms. "You would rather stay here and die?"

"If it's going to save the world?" she says. "Yes. I would."

"Fine," he snaps. "Then stay here and wait for somebody to come around and kill you. It won't affect me. I'll forget all about it when I return to Midgard and finish what I started."

"You are insane," Jane tells him.

Loki chuckles dryly. "It's been said."

Jane shakes her head to herself. "You are actually insane," she mutters under her breath, and she stands up as well. "I'm not going to let you kill the Avengers."

"You can't stop me," Loki says.

"I'll try."

"You'll fail."

Jane folds her arms over her chest and glares at him. Loki just smiles. He knows he's right. No one is going to stop him from returning to Midgard and taking his throne, and certainly not a human. It would be cute to watch her try, though.

Finally, Jane asks, "Where are we going now?"

Loki thinks about that for a few moments. He has two options: the way he came and the way he was going. On one hand, he knows the way he came is swarming with Minutemen, all with their pruning sticks set on him. On the other hand, he has to believe that if there is a way out, it comes from the way he came in. And that will be towards the Minutemen.

This could be a bad idea.

Loki nods down the hallway they came from. "This way."

"Oh, good," she says, a detached sarcasm in her tone. "We're going towards the disintegration sticks. This is fun."

"You don't have to come with me," Loki tells her. "I am perfectly capable of doing this on my own." At least, he hopes he is. It really depends on if there is a way back to Midgard.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Jane says. She takes a deep breath. "Okay. Towards the pointy sticks it is."

They head back the way they came, side-by-side with Jane against the wall and Loki on the outside. He trusts himself to move out of sight far more than he trusts her to, should the situation arise. He looks around as they walk, peering around every corner before they turn it to ensure they're still alone.

Much of the walk is in silence, until Jane asks, "Do you really think we can go home?"

Loki chuckles dryly. Home. He hasn't had one of those in years. "I am a master of escapes. If there is a way back to Midgard, I will find it. If there isn't, I will make one.

"You know," Jane says, "that would be really comforting if you didn't just spend a year in the dungeon."

"I got out, didn't I?" Loki says.

"Only because Thor broke you out," she says.

"I still got out," Loki says, unphased. It doesn't matter how; it just matters that it happened.

She gives a resigned sigh. "I might as well just turn myself in now."

"Be my guest," Loki says. If she doesn't think they're going to make it, that's fine, but he does. He has to, because if he doesn't, he has to accept that he's stuck, and he can't do that. So he's going to keep trying, with or without her.

Jane stays by his side, which he takes to mean that she's not going to turn herself in after all. That doesn't necessarily open up the gateway to conversation, so they don't speak much while they walk. Unless one of them figures out a way out, there isn't much to say.

Much to Loki's dismay, the first person they run into is Mobius. He's leisurely strolling the halls, looking absolutely unbothered by everything that's happened today. It must be nice. Loki wishes he could say the same.

"Well, this is interesting," Mobius says, eyeing the two with a small smile. "No one told me we had a Jane Foster Variant in the building."

Jane eyes him warily. "How do you know my name?"

"It's my job," he says simply. He holds out a hand. "I'm Agent Mobius."

Jane hesitates, then slowly reaches out to shake it. Mobius smiles warmly, which brings a faint smile to her face, too. Loki just rolls his eyes.

"So," Mobius says, "what was your Nexus event?"

Jane furrows her brows. "I'm sorry?"

"Your Nexus event," he repeats. "What you did to stray from the Sacred Timeline. Usually right before the big, bad TVA shows up."

Jane still seems taken aback by that, and ordinarily, Loki wouldn't even consider answering Mobius's questions, but this one is still funny to him so he says, "She broke up with Thor," with an amused smirk on his face. Jane shoots him a look, and he revels in it.

"Mm..." Mobius shakes his head. "No, that was supposed to happen."

Loki's eyebrows shoot up. "Really?" That's even better. She gets sick of him in every timeline. Oh, how he wishes he could rub that in Thor's face right now...

To Jane, Mobius asks, "2017, right? 2016? Somewhere around there?" Noting her confused look, he adds, "I'm bad with dates."

"2014," she says slowly.

Mobius clicks his tongue. "I take it back. That sounds like a Nexus event."

Jane just looks at him, confused.

"I'm glad I found you," Mobius says. "I figured if I just kept walking around, you'd show up eventually."

Loki gets the feeling that was directed mostly towards him. All he says is, "Send us back."

Mobius barks a laugh. "Send you back where? The timeline's been reset. There's nowhere to go."

"Whatever timeline you have left, then," Loki says. "The Sacred Timeline." That's what the video called it, right?

Mobius scoffs. "Or I could not do that," he says. "The timeline would branch and you'd just get reset right along with it. It's not really a winning situation for any of us."

Loki narrows his eyes. He supposes that makes sense, but he can't bring himself to accept it. There has to be somewhere left for him to go. There just has to be.

"What do you want from me?" Loki asks.

"To talk," Mobius says. "I told you that. I just want to talk."

Loki chuckles dryly. "I don't believe that for a second."

"What else would I want?" Mobius asks. "What, you think I'm going to kill you? I'm the only reason they didn't kill you."

Loki, as always, has a sarcastic remark prepared, but Jane cuts in and says, "If he tells you what you want to know, can we go back to our timelines?"

Loki shoots her a look. Even if that was possible — which it's not; Mobius just said their timelines are gone — it's not her place to volunteer information from him. That little movie session was the weirdest form of torture he's ever experienced. He doesn't particularly want to go back to it.

"Hmm..." Mobius hums thoughtfully. "Well, I'm asking you a big favor. Maybe if the Time Keepers see you cooperating, they might break a few rules for you." He bounces his eyebrows.

Jane looks up at Loki eagerly. "This is our chance!"

Loki shakes his head, eyeing Mobius skeptically. "I don't believe you."

"Then don't," Mobius says with a shrug. "Stay here. I'm sure it won't take long for someone to find you and prune you. No skin off my back."

Loki grits his teeth. Mobius's flippancy is really getting on his nerves. And the worst part is that he's right; Loki isn't really in a position to bargain. Sure, he could threaten to, say, rip Mobius's head from his body, but if Mobius truly can't get him back to his timeline, what would the point be? This might be his only chance.

"Fine," Loki says finally. "But you're taking off the Time Collar. I'm not a dog."

"Sure," Mobius says. "I mean, you have the remote. You could do it yourself. But if you really want to give it to me..."

Loki's eyebrows shoot up. "The remote will take it off?" The only thing more surprising than that is that Mobius openly admit it.

Mobius chuckles. "Not very good with technology, are you, Loki?"

Loki pulls out the Time Collar remote. After a minute of studying it — and telling both Mobius and Jane off for trying to help — he manages to get it off. Mobius holds out a hand, but Loki just tightens his grip on it. Mobius would probably just slap it back on him.

Jane tugs at her own Time Collar. "Can you take mine off, too?"

Mobius shakes his head apologetically. "I don't have the remote, but I'll ask around. Don't worry; we'll get that thing off you."

She smiles. "Thank you."

Loki narrows his eyes. There is absolutely no reason for Mobius to be this nice to her. The fact that she's falling for it is even worse. He's the bad guy! He works for the big evil organization they're both stuck in! He knows humans are notoriously gullible, but this is ridiculous.

"Now c'mon." Mobius turns and gestures for them to follow. "We need to talk."