Loki squeezes his eyes shut, rubbing them lazily with his hand. This is exhausting. He wants to do something. He doesn't want to do anything that will help the TVA, but he wants to do something. Anything. Just sitting here is going to bore him to sleep.

Jane, meanwhile, is as enthusiastic as ever. She's been talking to Miss Minutes for the last... however long it's been. They're not even doing their stupid lessons anymore. Jane is just talking. She's asking so many questions that even Miss Minutes seems out of her depth here. Loki's been tuning in and out, uninterested in their conversation but bored when he's not listening.

"But what if there is no butterfly effect?" Jane is asking. "What if it doesn't affect anything? If I went to a conference and I accidentally stuttered during my presentation and I wasn't supposed to, would that create a branch? It pushes the conference back a few seconds, but it doesn't spiral into anything. Can that coexist with the original Sacred Timeline?"

"The Sacred Timeline isn't that black-and-white, dear," Miss Minutes says. "There is no exact path you have to—"

"But it is," Jane insists, cutting her off. "There has to be an exact path, or we wouldn't be able to deviate from it."

"Well," Miss Minutes says awkwardly, and the first few times she seemed a little unsure, Loki had thought it was funny, but now it's just getting annoying, "there's no exact path you have to follow, but there's a general path..."

"So there can be two different versions of the Timeline?" she asks. "One where I stuttered and one where I didn't? Because the end result is the same, but in one timeline I have the memory of stuttering and in the other, I don't. So they're different timelines, but the end result — everything after that — is exactly the same."

"But that wouldn't happen..." Miss Minutes says.

"Why not?" Jane asks. "Because every moment in time coexists, right? And that's how Variants are made. They act differently in that moment than they usually do on the Sacred Timeline. Right? And that spirals into something bigger, and the Timeline branches."

"Yes, that's —"

"But what if it doesn't spiral?" she asks. "And the rest of the Timeline stays the same, but that moment is different in two different timelines. Nothing else changes. Is that a branch?"

"But that wouldn't happen," Miss Minutes says.

"Why not?" Jane asks. "What stops it from happening? Because we all have free will. We don't have to follow every moment that's laid out for us. I didn't. Loki didn't."

Miss Minutes glances at Loki, who just rolls his eyes. This is so boring.

"So what stops us from making one small, harmless change?" Jane asks.

Miss Minutes opens her mouth to answer, but no words come out. She just thinks about it for a while, and Loki finds himself hoping Jane will just give up. She doesn't.

"Can these two instances coexist?" Jane asks again. "It's a simple question. How much freedom do we have? If I had two flavors of chapstick in my car, I put on the cotton candy in one timeline and the cherry in the other, and I put them back the same way, can they coexist or does one have to be pruned?"

Miss Minutes frowns, and Jane looks at her expectantly. Loki groans and hits his head against the desk, exasperated. Maybe he should have just told Mobius to prune him. Death must be a lot less boring than this.

"You having fun yet, Loki?"

Speak of the devil. Mobius comes up behind him and pats him on the back, and Loki sits up and hits his hand away irritably.

"Agent Mobius, you're good with time," Jane says with an excited grin.

"I'd like to think so," he says. "Why? What's up?"

"Okay, so," Jane says, "what if —"

"Does it matter?" Loki asks finally. "If this was an important point, the clock would have an answer. It doesn't, so it's irrelevant."

"It is important," Jane insists. "I can't help them if I don't have a complete understanding of the subject."

Loki puts his arms on the desk and drops his head on them. He can't even tell her off for this because he wants them to get the job done, too. He can't get out of here until they do. If she really thinks this is important, he'll let her keep asking until she finally finds an answer.

Mobius chuckles. "Alright, what are we talking about?"

"Okay, so," she says eagerly, adjusting her position and sitting up straight, "the Timeline branches when someone does something they're not supposed to do, right?"

"Eh..." Mobius tilts his head back and forth, clearly not quite sold on that explanation. "Not supposed to. There's not one specific path —"

"Don't say that," Loki mutters. "She'll start asking about that, too."

Proving him right, Jane says, "See, I don't get that. What if I wore a gold necklace in one instance and a silver necklace in another, and nothing else changes. It doesn't spiral into anything bigger. That's all that changes. Does that create a branch?"

"No, it —"

"Then how do these two versions of the same timeline coexist?" Jane asks. "Because they're different. They're different timelines where different things happened, but it doesn't branch, so it's still the same timeline."

Mobius frowns. "Well, yes, but..."

"But what?" Jane asks. "If the Sacred Timeline doesn't dictate our every move, neither of those timelines are right or wrong, but if they both coexist, isn't that two different timelines?"

"That's not..." Mobius hesitates. "Is that how it works?"

Loki turns his head to watch Mobius as he contemplates his entire life. He takes back every complaint he had. Mobius's discomfort alone makes this worth it.

"Miss Minutes?" Mobius looks down at her.

"I don't think it's possible," Miss Minutes says.

"I don't think it should be possible," Mobius says, "but I don't know why it wouldn't be."

"Well, because..." Miss Minutes trails off, unsure. "Well, it would have to affect the Timeline. Everything does."

"But what if it doesn't?" Jane asks for the millionth time, and Loki is about ready to cut his ears off.

"It has to," Miss Minutes says.

"But what if it doesn't?" Jane insists. "I don't get it."

"I know, darling," Miss Minutes says. "It's complicated. Time is complicated. But every change alters the future in some way."

"But what if it doesn't?" Jane asks again. "Or if it does in just a teeny tiny way? Does that have to create a Nexus event if nothing else changes?"

"But something else would change," Miss Minutes says patiently.

Loki finally cuts in with Jane's same, "But what if it doesn't?" line, but he goes further with it, hoping to either shut them down or to confuse them enough that they have to leave to figure it out. "For instance, I'm supposed to die. Thanos is supposed to kill me. He throws my body on the ground, and that's the last anyone ever sees of me. Correct?"

Mobius seems almost hesitant to agree given the topic, but he nods anyway. "Yes, and if you didn't die, that would be a Nexus event."

"What if no one knew I didn't die?" Loki asks.

"We would know," Mobius says.

"Because of the..." Loki finally lifts his head, just to free his hands so he can gesture vaguely while he tries to remember the word. "Nexus energy." That's what Miss Minutes called it, right? The look on Mobius's face says yes, so he continues. "What if there was no Nexus energy? There are many, many abandoned planets in this universe. Some may one day find new life, but many will remain empty for the rest of eternity. What if I lived and I found myself on a planet that is and always will be empty? Nothing changes because there's nothing to change. Where does the Nexus energy come from?"

Mobius and Miss Minutes share a look. They're clearly stumped. It makes Loki feel kind of good about himself, if he's being honest. He knows this was Jane's question, but he's rather proud that he was able to stump them with his example. He threw in their own terminology and everything.

"I don't know," Mobius says finally. "I might have to ask around on that one."

"I suggest you do it sooner rather than later," Loki remarks. "I don't expect Jane to stop asking about it until you have an answer."

"I won't," she says. "Especially with the Nexus energy. Because if there really is no Nexus energy on abandoned planets..."

Loki's eyebrows shoot up. "Then perhaps that is where the Variant is."

Jane nods emphatically, a big grin on her face.

"Hmm," Mobius hums. "That could explain why we can't find him..." He thinks about that for a few moments, then gives Jane a pat on the back. "I knew I liked you for a reason."

Loki rolls his eyes. It was his example that got them here. It's not quite fair to say this was all Jane's doing.

"This wasn't really the point I was making at all," Jane says. "I mean, it goes along with it. It'll probably answer my question. But I wasn't thinking about how you could use it, so this was really Loki's idea."

Mobius looks at Loki and chuckles. "I take it you don't want a pat on the back."

"Of course not," Loki says, though he'd be lying if he said the metaphorical pat on the back from Jane didn't make him happy. He'd like to think he's above all of this, but he really does enjoy the validation.

"I'm going to go talk to Judge Renslayer," he says. "You two might have just uncovered a massive hole in our security. If you're right, she's going to want to hear about it."

"And if we're not right," Jane says, "you have to tell me why."

"Of course," Mobius says. "You think I'm not going to help my favorite scientist with her research?"

Jane beams, and Loki rolls his eyes. These two are unbearably nice to each other. If he didn't know any better, he'd think they were falling in love — and he's damn glad he does know better, because he would actually prune himself if they were.

"I'll be back in a few," Mobius says. "You two keep workin' hard."

Loki props his head up on his hand. As glad as he is that Mobius is leaving, he doesn't want to go back to Miss Minutes' lectures, and he really doesn't want to listen to Jane question every single thing that comes out of her mouth. He just doesn't care enough. Jane has gotten so into all of this, but Loki just wants it to be over so he can leave.

"Now," Miss Minutes says with that stupid little smile on her stupid little clock face, "where were we?"

~~

Loki wakes up to the sounds of hushed laughter. He's not sure when his head ended up flat on the desk, but it makes it easier to see what's going on without drawing attention to himself. He opens his eyes to see Jane and Mobius sitting next to him, both trying and failing to stifle their laughter about something that Loki is sure wasn't even funny. They're having far too much fun right now.

Loki lifts his head and pulls it to the side with a satisfying pop. He needs to stop sleeping on desks before his head becomes permanently stuck facing one way. He rubs his eyes and looks over at the two, and it's only when he moves that he gets their attention.

"'Morning, sleepyhead," Mobius says. "It's nice of you to finally join us."

Loki is not amused. "How long was I asleep?"

Mobius shrugs. "A few minutes? A few hours? I don't know. I told you, time passes differently here."

Loki rolls his eyes. "Oh, yes, of course."

"How does that work?" Jane asks. "Because time still passes here, right? How can it pass differently?"

"It's... complicated," Mobius says. "It does and it doesn't. We're outside the --"

"If you two are going to discuss the unnecessarily minute details of the passage of time for the rest of eternity," Loki says, "I think I would rather you prune me now."

Mobius chuckles. "Unfortunately, I don't have a pruning stick on me, so it looks like you're stuck with us for a little while longer."

Loki just rolls his eyes.

"I'll stop asking questions," Jane assures him.

"Ask as many questions as you want," Mobius says, then turns his attention back to Loki. "So, Loki, you think you have a basic understanding of how the TVA works?"

"I do," Loki says, and it's almost a challenge, like he's asking Mobius to tell him he's wrong.

"Good," Mobius says. "Because you were right: the Variant could be hiding on an abandoned planet and it wouldn't trip any alarms. Now it's your job to find which one." He pushes himself to his feet. "Don't go anywhere. I'm gonna grab you some files." He flashes a smile, and he's off.

Loki watches him go, then props his head up on his hand to wait. He never would have done this around strangers in Asgard. It's not 'proper.' It's not prince-like. He's always cared too much about his image for this. But right now, he couldn't care less how proper he is. Who's going to judge him, Jane? He thinks not.

Jane looks over at him. "I'm sorry I keep asking questions," she says. "I know it's annoying. It's just, my entire life has been about trying to figure out the ins and outs of our reality, and now that Agent Mobius is basically handing all of that to me on a silver platter..." She shrugs sheepishly. "It's kind of exciting."

Loki stares at her. "We are stuck in what appears to be a pocket dimension out of time, and you find it exciting?"

"Well, no, not the being stuck part," Jane says. "But I feel like I've learned so much. It's going to help guide my research for years. I mean, no other scientist has ever seen anything like this. I feel like it's my scientific duty to share it with everyone, and I can't do that if I don't understand it fully."

Loki sighs. "I understand," he says. "This is your life's work; your chosen purpose. I imagine it must be exciting for you. I have no interest in it, but I suppose that doesn't mean you must stop caring." He gestures helplessly. "Ask him as much as you would like."

Jane cracks a small smile. "Thanks."

"Anything to get us out of this place quicker," Loki says. "I truly believe that if I spend a great while longer with Mobius, I will kill him."

Jane frowns. "He really doesn't seem that bad."

"He is," Loki says. "He shows you his best side; he shows me his worst."

Jane furrows her brows. "But we pretty much see him at the same time."

"I've seen him when you haven't," Loki says. "He is not the person he wants you to think he is."

He doesn't know why Mobius wants Jane to like him, but Loki isn't falling for it for a moment. No amount of sweet-talking is going to convince Loki to forget about all the awful things he's said. "You were born to cause pain and suffering." "Do you enjoy killing? ... Like you did your mother?" "You sure do lose a lot. You might even say it's in your nature." He's not going to forget any of this, and if Mobius thinks he will, he's a greater fool than Loki thought.

Jane sighs. "I'm sorry if Mobius is so much worse to you than he is to me, but he really seems like a good guy. I don't —"

"If you want to be his friend, that is your choice," Loki tells her. "But I do not like him, and I certainly do not trust him. I want as little to do with him as possible."

"That's fine," Jane assures him. "I'll keep him distracted, and you can look through your paperwork or whatever it is he's having you do."

"Yay," Loki deadpans, his face expressionless.

Jane covers her mouth with her fist, laughing into her hand. "I'm glad you're having fun, Loki."

"I hate this place," Loki says. "It's suffocating in its stodgy, dreary lifelessness; a bureaucracy just begging to be torn apart piece by piece until there's nothing left standing."

Jane's eyebrows shoot up. "God, you get violent really fast."

Loki cracks a smile. "Does that bother you?" he asks. Does it scare her? Does he still have that power over her, over a meager human, even when he's being held captive like a wild dog?

"Oh, no, no," Jane says in a way that really makes it sound like it does, "not at all! It's a really good reminder that you're, you know, insane. Just in case I start to forget."

"I find sanity to be a losing battle."

"Whatever that means," she mutters, but she looks amused by it. "I literally never know what's going to come out of your mouth next. It's like a guessing game that's rigged so you can't win."

Loki chuckles. "I feel the same towards you, if only because I expect you to be upset and you never are."

"Upset about what?" she asks.

"Everything," Loki says. "We've both been snatched from our homes with no warning; no satisfactory explanation. Our kidnappers are exploiting us for information with only the unsupported promise of a return to a world that may not still exist. No one has yet proved we will earn the freedom we never should have lost. I don't understand how you're not upset."

Jane shrugs. "I don't know. I trust Agent Mobius. If he says he can get us home, I trust that he's going to get us home."

"Ah," Loki says. "So that's the difference between you and me."

Jane furrows her brows. "What is?"

"You trust others indiscriminately," Loki says. "People who truly have no business being trusted by anyone. I trust very few people, and they must earn it "

Jane props her head on her hand and looks up at him. "Do you trust me?"

"I don't know," Loki says. "I haven't had to make that decision yet."

"Well, that's not a 'no,'" she says, "so I'm doing better than I thought."

Loki chuckles to himself.

"Do you at least like me?" she asks. "Have we gotten that far?"

Loki gives a small shrug. "I do not dislike you." There are certainly many worse people to be stuck with.

She nods slowly. "You know what?" she says. "I'll take it."

Mobius takes that moment to reappear, heading towards them at a light jog, his hands empty. Loki raises his brows. It's going to be difficult to help him with no materials to look into.

"Agent Mobius?" Jane says cautiously. "Is everything okay?"

"The Variant attacked again," Mobius says.

Jane covers her mouth with her hand. "Oh no..."

"I have to go survey the damage," Mobius tells her. "It's too dangerous for you to come, but I'm sure Miss Minutes will be okay company, right?"

Jane gives a small smile. "Yeah, that's fine."

"Now, Loki." Mobius turns his attention to the god with a grin. "You ready for your first day on the field?"

"No."

Mobius's smile falters at that. "What?"

"What good would I do after the fact?" Loki asks. "The damage has been done. I am not a necromancer; I cannot raise the dead, nor would I want to merely to further the destruction your people cause."

"I think we could use your input," Mobius tells him. "We can't catch the Variant, so the crime scene's the closest we can get to him."

"I know nothing of this Variant except that he is me," Loki says. "I am of no use to you as such. If you would like my help, I suggest you give me some reading materials."

Mobius raises his brows. "Really? You'd rather stay here then head out on the field?"

"Yes."

"You don't want to see any action?" he asks.

"If you knew me as well as you claim," Loki says, "you would know that I am a much better scholar than I am a fighter. My preferred 'field' is in the library, not the remnants of a battleground, and certainly not on the losing side of one."

Mobius purses his lips and nods slowly. "You know what?" he says. "I'm glad you're taking an interest. C'mon, I'll show you the archives. All the files on the Variant should be there."

"Very well." Loki pushes himself to his feet. He looks down at Jane, still sitting at her desk. "You're coming, too, I'd hope."

"Uh, I don't know." She looks up at Mobius. "Am I supposed to?" She pauses, then returns her gaze to Loki. "Do you want me to?"

Loki looks over at Mobius and cocks an eyebrow. He supposes that answer is more important than his own. He doesn't make the rules here; the only power he has in the TVA is the power of refusal, and even that has its limits.

"Yeah, sure," Mobius says with a shrug. "I'll keep the two of you together. It'll make my life easier when I get back." He gestures for them to follow him. "C'mon, I'll show you where you're going."

~~~

Mobius thought he'd taken care of it. He was on a time limit; there was only so much time until the branch red-lined, and he had to get to the scene as quickly as he could. He thought he'd done as much as he needed to make sure Loki and Jane were all set with what he wanted from them. He not only brought them to the archives; he even asked the secretary to find the files on the Variant for them. And then he was off, doubtlessly convinced that Jane would chat with Miss Minutes and Loki would read up on the Variant.

He was wrong.

"Thank you," Loki says, taking the files from the secretary's hands. "These will be very useful in my research."

The secretary doesn't acknowledge that. She doesn't acknowledge much; she's a very quiet, very stoic individual. It doesn't give him much to go on, so he's not sure how he expects this to work.

"May I ask one more favor?" Loki asks.

She just looks at him.

"I'd like a better understanding of the TVA," Loki says. "I believe it will aid in my mission to help Agent Mobius. Would you be so kind as to give me any files you have on the creation of the Time Variance Authority?"

"Those are classified," the secretary says monotonously.

Loki nods slowly. "Alright, then the files on the beginning of time."

"Those are classified."

"The files on the end of time?"

"Those are classified."

Loki sucks on a deep breath. This is getting very annoying, very fast. He puts on his friendliest facade and asks, "May I have your files on Loki Laufeyson?"

"Those are classified."

Loki scoffs. "Are you trying to tell me I do not have the clearance to read about myself?"

The secretary just looks at him. "Yes."

Loki grits his teeth. This is ridiculous. "I was sent here to read any materials that may help the TVA in its long-standing battle against a Variant of Loki Laufeyson. I cannot do that if I cannot read about Loki Laufeyson. That leaves you two options; you can show me the files, or you can watch as your precious Sacred Timeline falls to ruin because this Variant will prove to be uncatchable without my assistance."

The secretary narrows her eyes, and Loki narrows his right back. He's not the type to back down from a glaring contest.

Finally, the secretary turns to the shelves, pulls out another stack of folders, and plops them on top of the ones he already holds.

"Thank you," Loki says indignantly. He turns and stalks away, a powerful strut to his step. He can't lie; he misses wearing a cape. It made his dramatic strutting worthwhile. He lacks that intimidation factor he once held. He was much scarier on Earth than he is here, held captive by this all-knowing organization.

He drops his files on the table across from Jane, and her head snaps up instinctively. He sits down on the other side of the table and pulls down the first folder. He opens it up in front of him to an "About Me" style page.

"Wow," Jane says. "They've got a lot of paperwork on this Variant, huh?"

Loki shakes his head. He puts his thumb roughly where he thinks the divide between Variant Loki and Sacred Timeline Loki is, and puts his pointer finger on the bottom of the stack to show a rough measurement of how many there are. "This is about the Variant," he says. "The rest is about myself from the Sacred Timeline."

Jane raises her brows. "Why's Mobius having you look into yourself?"

"He's not," Loki says. "I am merely trying to satisfy my own curiosity."

Jane cocks her head to the side. "Your curiosity about what? What are you going to learn about yourself through a stack of papers that you haven't learned just by living your life?"

"My future," Loki says simply.

"What?"

Loki begins flipping through the file, but nothing seems to cover what he'd want to read about. He puts it aside and pulls out the next one. He has no luck with that one, either. Onto the next file.

Jane drags her chair next to his, looking over his shoulder at the files in front of him. "What are you looking for?" she asks. "What, some discrepancies between what the film showed you and what they have written down? You want to prove it wrong?"

Loki gives a minute shake of his head, his eyes still scanning the page in front of him. "No," he says, "Mobius's video was rather convincing. I do believe it, as much as I wish I could say otherwise. But his video was a tool of manipulation, designed to evoke emotion. I want to see the facts."

"Why?" Jane asks.

Loki looks over at her and furrows his brows. "I beg your pardon?"

"Why do you want to see what happened?" Jane asks. "You know what happened. Reading it instead of watching it isn't going to change that."

"Maybe not," Loki says. He doesn't elaborate.

"Then what's the point?" Jane asks.

Loki shakes his head. He returns his gaze to the file in front of him. He'll find his answers. It might just take time.

"Loki..."

Loki sighs and looks up at her again. "Yes?"

"Can I be completely honest?" she asks.

"Of course," Loki says, though he's sure he'll come to regret that, if her expression is any indication.

"I think this is a bad idea," Jane says. "You know that whatever you find is going to hurt you."

"I don't believe that," Loki says. He's lying.

"You already know how you die," she reminds him. "You already know how your parents die. What—"

"That would be incorrect," Loki interrupts. "I've been told how my mother dies. Everything else was shown, but he told me what I did to my mother — what I supposedly did to my mother. That is what I want to see. Does that answer satisfy you?"

"It satisfied my curiosity," Jane says. "But it doesn't satisfy me."

Loki cocks an eyebrow, his lips pressed into a firm line, almost daring her to continue. He doesn't expect her to do it. She does anyway.

"You have to stop doing this to yourself," Jane says. "What does it matter if he's lying or not?"

Loki scoffs. "What does it matter?"

"Yes, what does it matter?" she says. "So what if he was telling the truth? So what if on the Sacred Timeline, you're supposed to get your mother killed? That's not you."

Loki cocks his head to the side. "Excuse me?"

"The whole reason we're here is that we are not the same versions of us from the Sacred Timeline," Jane says. "If you killed your mom on the Sacred Timeline, it's because the Time Keepers wanted your mom dead, and they used the idea of you to do it. That's not your fault. You've already proven that you were never going to follow the plan they made for you because it's not you. Why would you think whatever the future is 'supposed to' hold is any different?"

Loki just looks at her for a long time, silent. Is she right? The Time Keepers did write his life for him. Everything he'd done in the last, he did of his own volition, but he can't say the same for the future. How many Variants have there been whose Nexus Event occured after his? How many different possible outcomes have the TVA seen of his life that went against the Time Keepers' wishes? And who's to say those are any less valid than the future scripted out for him?

"So?" Jane says finally. "Do you want to put the folder away and start looking into this other Variant?"

Loki hesitates, then nods. "I suppose that would be a better use of our time." He closes the folder, ready to be done with it, but the force sends some of its contents out of it. Loki goes to tuck those papers back in, but the title of one page, peeking over the top of the folder, catches his attention.

Event Inquiry

Destruction Of Asgard

Curiosity getting the best of him, he pulls that page out to read it over.

Ragnarok (Class Seven Apocalypse): Total Planetary Destruction

Loki sucks in a sharp breath. He'd heard about Ragnarok. Everyone in Asgard knew the legends. He'd always known Asgard would one day come to an end. He just hadn't expected to live long enough to see it. But if this is in his file, he assumes he did. It must have happened during his lifetime. He wonders briefly if he'd had anything to do with it, but he pushes that thought out of his mind, Jane's words ringing in his ears. We are not the same versions of us from the Sacred Timeline. Whatever happened to this Loki, whatever this Loki did, he had no part in it, regardless of what Mobius wants him to think.

"What is it?" Jane asks, craning her neck to see.

Loki takes a deep breath, preparing himself to answer that. "The destruction of my homeland."

"What?"

Loki just hands her the paper wordlessly. He can't bring himself to look at her as she reads it, so he lowers his gaze to his lap.

He can't believe it. Asgard's gone. Within a matter of years, Asgard will be gone. And in any timeline where that could be avoided, where some small change could snowball into his realm's salvation, the TVA will prune the world themselves.

"Oh my god," Jane whispers. "I am so sorry. That's... god, that's awful."

Loki swallows hard and stays silent.

"Here, I'm just gonna..." Jane reaches over him to shove the paper back into the folder. "I'm sorry," she says again. "This has just been one bombshell after another for you, hasn't it?"

"The longer I am here," Loki says, "the less interested I am in striking a deal with these so-called Time Keepers."

"What?"

"They've weaved a tale of destruction in my wake, taking everything I've ever loved and turning it to ash over and over and over again with no hope for reprieve." Loki raises his gaze to meet hers. "Do you trust them?"

Jane's brows shoot up. "What?"

"Do you trust them?" Loki asks again. "Do you trust the Time Keepers to follow through on Mobius's promise? To bring us back to our timelines and let us live our own lives without interference?"

Jane hesitates. "I did until you asked."

"And now?" Loki asks. "Now you don't? Now you have your doubts?"

"Now that I think about it, yeah, I kind of do," she says. "I mean, if they send me back to 2014 and you back to 2012, isn't that going to be two different timelines? And isn't the whole point of the TVA to make sure there's only one timeline? It just doesn't really add up."

Loki nods. So he's not alone in that. "I suspect that once we've caught their Variant, they'll prune us and be done with it."

"Please tell me you're going to follow this with a plan to make sure that doesn't happen."

Loki cracks a small smile at that. "Have you heard the phrase 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"

Jane nods slowly. "I have."

"This Variant has already killed countless of the TVA's soldiers," Loki says. "If we find him — when we find him — I suspect he may be much more help to us than the Time Keepers would be."