CHAPTER III.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

' there's something in the water
i don't like the flavour, I don't like the taste
searching for nirvana
something that'll take it all away from me '
demons ━ hayley kiyoko

KEL'S BREATH IS BITTER ON HER TONGUE.

"No," Mobius says between bites of his salad. "We said don't bother us until you've read all the files." he holds up a hand. Kel pushes back in her chair, cracking her neck. She puts on a lazy smile, lopsided and unkempt, just like the rest of her. The conversation between Mobius and her is not forgotten.

"I have." Loki says incredulously.

"Every file?" Kel asks slowly, her voice weak. She crosses her feet under the table, and leans farther back in her chair. She wants nothing more than to bury herself in her shirt so that no one can see her.

The girl always becomes like this when Mobius and her fight.

"Yes." Loki replies.

"Pertaining to the Variant?" Mobius continues to question.

"The answer isn't in the files." Loki responds, which gets an eyebrow quirk from Kel. "It's on the timeline." Kel, despite her misgivings for Mobius, looks over at him, and they meet each other's eyes. They both have the same annoyance plastered across their uncannily different faces.

Without asking, Loki pushes Kel's chair over closer to Mobius, almost causing the girl to fall out of it, and pulls up another seat, sitting down across from them both, apologizing for nothing. Kel grumbles and sits upright, her already sour mood being brought even lower.

Mobius just wants to finish his snack in peace.

Loki's tone is dead serious. "He's hiding in apocalypses." Kel sits up straighter, frowning, as Mobius gives the God an unimpressed look.

"Which apocalypse?" he asks, and Kel nods in agreement. Loki notices that her usual serious yet amused grin is gone, replaced with something numb and void of emotion. It's odd, and slightly discomforting.

"Any time in history?" Mobius continues. "There's, like, a million of 'em."

Loki shifts the papers on his desk aggressively. "Ragnarok." he slams his hand on the table, and Kel jumps in her seat. "Are you familiar?"

Both Mobius and Kel nod.

"Yes." Mobius speaks up. "The destruction of Asgard and most of its people." then his voice softens. "I'm sorry." Kel nods in understanding.

"Yes, very sad." Loki relents, but he doesn't sound very upset. Then again, this is Loki they're talking about. "Anyway, it got me thinking..."

Mobius gives Loki an expectant, almost sorrowful look. Whereas Kel rolls her eyes and says. "Oh, no... he's thinking..." Loki turns to her sharply, glaring. Kel shrugs and gives him her most innocent eyes.

"Go ahead." Mobius cuts in. Loki waves his arms around, staring at the table, as if trying to organize his thoughts.

"Nexus events happen when someone does something they're not supposed to do, right?" he then asks. Kel makes a pained face and bounces her head from side to side.

"Well, it's a little more complicated, but, yeah." Mobius answers.

"Great." Loki says. "And then that thing they're not supposed to do, cascades into a whole range of other things that aren't supposed to happen." he makes hand gestures to emphasize his point. "And so on and so forth, until eventually, a new timeline branches. Yes?" Kel nods softly.

"Chaotic alterations of a predetermined outcome." Mobius says, his voice lilting. Both him and his clone are getting a little wound up in Loki's strange and convoluted explanation. Just get to the point already, Kel thinks miserably.

"Exactly." Loki says excitedly. "So, let's just say..." as he does this, Loki reaches over and takes Mobius' food, which causes both Kel and her partner to frown, instantly defensive. "... your salad is Asgard in this scenario."

"No, it's not Asgard." Mobius argues, and he looks genuinely hurt. "That's my lunch."

"It's- it's a metaphor." Loki explains. "Just hang in there." Kel reaches over to her own fries and picks up the rest with her hands, promptly stuffing them into her mouth so they won't be stolen.

"I want that salad." Mobius whispers. Kel nearly chokes on her mouthful of fries.

"And I could go down," Loki continues. "To Asgard before Ragnarok causes its complete destruction and I could do anything I wanted." Kel's incessant chewing becomes the only sound at the table. Mobius cocks his head to the side, pondering Loki's words.

Finally, the God continues. "I could, let's say, push Hulk off the Rainbow Bridge." At this, he takes the salt in front of Kel and pours a bit of it into the salad. Mobius crosses his arms over his chest. "There he goes."

"Wait, so..." Kel says, her mouth still full of food. "The salt is Hulk?"

Loki nods. "And I could also... set fire to the palace." he pours some pepper into the bowl.

"No, just stop." Mobius says. "Don't set fire to the palace."

"Okay?" Loki doesn't seem to hear him. "I can do whatever I want to do, and it would never matter. It wouldn't go against the dictates of the timeline because..." he rapidly pours a bunch of salt and pepper into the bowl, hands shaking. Kel swallows down the rest of her food, relieved Loki wasn't able to steal any of it. Once he's finished, Loki grabs Kel's soda can, but when realizing it's empty, turns around frantically. He holds up a hand and quickly rushes out of the chair, then heads over to Casey, a clerk, who sits away from them.

"Oh, God." Kel puts her head in her hands, wanting to cover her eyes as Loki comes back with a carton in his hands, eyes alight.

"Because..." He continues. "The apocalypse is coming. Ragnarok, Surtur will destroy Asgard no matter what I do." and then he pours the drink into the salad. Kel gasps and Mobius jumps.

"No, don't do..." Mobius yells, then sighs as the liquid sloshes around the leafy green of his lunch. Kel mouths the word yikes.

"There's the apocalypse." Loki says.

"That's the apocalypse?" Mobius and Kel ask. They share a look. Kel puts a hand to her head and pushes her hair back.

"Ragnarok obliterates the salt." Loki finishes slowly, and grins widely, as if he's just single-handedly saved world hunger. Kel bites the inside of her cheek, an unimpressed look on her face. He holds up the empty carton. "Ragnarok." he slams it down on the table. "There it is!"

Kel frowns. "There what is?"

"What am I looking at?" Mobius says, his voice high and patronizing.

"Okay," Loki tells them. "It was a clumsy metaphor. But you see what I mean." Kel would like to rudely point out that no, she doesn't know what he means. "It doesn't matter. It could be any apocalypse. It could be a meteor. It could be a volcano, a supernova. If everything and everyone around you is destined for imminent destruction, then nothing that I say or do will matter, because the timeline's not gonna branch. 'Cause it's gets destroyed." The more Loki speaks, the more Kel sits up, her eyes slowly widening as she takes in his words. "Hence, the Variant could be hiding in the apocalypse and do whatever he wants, and we wouldn't know!"

"So... they're camping out," Kel says. "In places about to be destroyed?"

Mobius nods his head. "No bad." Kel's eyes widen. That's high praise coming from a man like Mobius.

Loki leans forward, his face practically giddy. "Take me to a real apocalypse, to Ragnarok, I'll show you." Kel scoffs and Mobius smiles.

"Yeah. So you can run away back to your homeland? No." "No, no, I'm not going home." Loki argues. "We can go anywhere." Kel's head switches between Mobius and Loki so fast she's pretty sure she's gonna get whiplash.

"I'm not taking you for a stroll along the promenade, much less an apocalypse." Loki's movements become more and more comical, and she scoffs.

"Oh, Mobius, come on!" he says, voice hoarse. "What could possibly go wrong? We gotta properly test this theory. " Mobius leans on the table, eyebrows raised.

"Well, here's a fun theory." he tells the God. "You lure Kel and I out into the field, and stab me in the back, leaving her for dead. And that's a theory I don't wanna test." Kel's frown deepens. She raises her hand slightly so that Mobius will look at her.

"Um, why aren't I stabbed in the back?" Loki makes an offended face and both men ignore Kel's question.

"I'd never stab anyone in the back!" he says in a high-pitched voice. "That's such a boring form of betrayal." This comment, while a bit strange, makes Kel a little bit better about the whole being stranded idea.

"Loki, I've studied almost every moment of your entire life." Mobius says. "You've literally stabbed people in the back, like, 50 times."

There's a pause as Loki stares at Mobius, then cuts from Kel's amused face and back up. "Well, I'd never do it again!" he holds his arms out to the side. "Because it got old." Mobius laughs and Kel shakes her head, smiling down to her lap.

"Okay." Mobius says.

"Okay look," Loki cuts in. "You don't trust me, you can trust one thing." he points a finger in their faces and Kel leans back, glowering. "I love to be right."

Well, she can't argue with that.

━━━━━━

POMPEII, ITALY, DOES NOT FEEL LIKE IT'S ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED.

People bustle about, carrying baskets, their soft linen dresses swaying in the slight breeze. Underneath her feet, a rumble passes beneath the earth, a muted omen for what's about to unfold.

Despite the fact that all of these lives are going to become ruins, Loki seems to be as giddy as a school child on the last day (not that Kel would know anything about that). He looks at Mobius and a silent Kel with wide eyes, a smile plastered onto his sharp features. Kel purses her lips, a sick feeling rooting in her stomach.

Mobius holds onto her hand, which Kel greatly appreciates.

"Here we go." Loki whispers, and Kel turns to him. Why did she decide to come on this escapade again?

"Shh," Mobius answers. "Any minute now." they all shift from foot to foot under the overhang of the building they entered through.

"Until this entire town is wiped off the face of this planet." Loki says excitedly, and Kel scrunches her nose. "Imagine. All that volcanic ash..."

"Could you be any more excited for this?" Kel ponders out loud, cocking her head to the side as she looks at Loki. The God stares at her, unimpressed.

"Okay, okay." Mobius tries to cut in. "We don't want to get too giddy."

"Oh, come on." Loki says. "It's cool!"

"That a bunch people are about to die?" Kel replies under her breath as Mobius answers. "No, it is cool, but it's not in good taste because of..." he gestures to the volcano, then to the people.

Loki frowns. "Well, they're all gonna die anyways." Kel takes an offended step back.

"I know." Mobius relents. "Now listen, we're gonna watch the TemPad for any variance energy." he gestures to Kel and himself.

"Okay." Loki replies swiftly.

"Okay." Mobius clarifies. "Because we gotta be careful." Kel's stomach does somersaults. "If you're wrong, and there's a good chance you are, anything we do can create a huge branch." as Mobius speaks, Kel's legs begin to shake more and more. Her hand goes to her wrist, fiddling with her bracelet. Mobius lightly touches her arm.

"Oh, Mobius!" Loki says scornfully. "You make even the end of the world sound boring." Kel rolls her eyes. She's starting to see why she's never become an agent. If it means putting up with uncooperative variants for the rest of time, she's pretty sure she'd get over it within the first week.

"Listen!" Mobius yells, stepping closer to Loki. "Okay, we're not meant to be here. Okay?"

Loki takes a deep, shuddering breath. "Okay."

"Anything we do can impact the course of history." Mobius explains. "Do you get that?"

"Yes. Yes." Loki responds a little too quickly. Kel narrows her eyes. Mobius turns to her.

"You got that?" he asks, a little more polite than he was to the Variant.

Kel nods her head dramatically and so hard that her neck begins to ache. "Crystal clear, Mo!" Mobius shakes his head dejectedly as Loki frowns at the name. Kel gives an overly-enthusiastic thumbs up. Mobius looks down to his feet. Every time Kel gets like this, he knows something's wrong.

"Okay," Mobius says, turning back to Loki. "We're gonna start with very small disturbances.

"Very small." Kel repeats.

"Can you make bird noises?" Both the young girl and the God frown at Mobius in confusion. Kel taps her foot, looking out at the oblivious citizens.

"Bird noises?" Loki asks.

"Yeah." Mobius answers. "Bird noises. Like some, like, whooshing noises." and then Kel's partner goes on to mimic the cooing of what she can only describe as a dying animal begging for oblivion.

Both Loki and her groan at his attempt, however while Kel stays put, Loki rushes out into the square, practically sprinting to the middle of the street. Kel's eyes widen as Mobius calls after him, but is soon drowned out by Loki's own voice.

"Go!" he yells as he opens a gate to a cart, and a bunch of rather peeved looking goats emerge from it, chasing through the streets. "Be free, my horned friends, be free!" Kel covers her mouth with her hand, head jerking up to Mobius, whose face has gone slack in shock.

And then Loki begins to speak in a language Kel doesn't know. As he keeps talking, Mobius shifts around, his face pained, and he grimaces every once in a while. Kel watches, her expression growing increasingly twisted.

Loki's actions are becoming more and more animated, but judging from the reaction of the townsfolk, he's brought grave tidings. Kel gulps. He's telling them they're all about to die.

And then he looks over at them, speaking in English this time. "We are from the future, right?"

"Can I please stun him?" Kel remarks, but Mobius simply shakes his head.

"What is the TVA?" Loki continues, running a hand through his hair. "I mean, it's from the future. It sounds from the future. It's pretty future-y?" Kel and Mobius stare at him like he's just grown another pair of legs.

Before they can respond, a cacophonous rumbling takes over the space, and immediately the volcano behind Loki explodes. Mobius instinctively grabs onto Kel's arm as she turns away. Screams erupt through the square, and everyone begins to run for their lives.

"Right on cue!" Loki yells through a laugh, and Kel gives him a patronizing look as he runs off the ramp and grabs a basket of fruit, throwing it around the place. "Enjoy your last meal while you can! Nothing matters! Nothing has ANY CONSEQUENCE!" Kel shakes her head, sick to her stomach at the God's enjoyment of this. "Dance while you still can! Whoo-hoo!"

Kel is too busy watching Loki with a look of disdain to notice Mobius' face. He peers down at the TemPad, eyes narrowing.

"I don't believe it." Mobius says, and Kel looks at him while Loki walks over. "Zero variance energy!" Kel gasps. "No branching in the timeline."

"Wow." is all she can say.

"The TVA would never even know we were here." Loki says, still out of breath from his escapades with the people of Pompeii. "If it were me, this is where I would hide." As he speaks, the dirt and lava grow closer behind him and Kel takes a tentative step away.

"Cool," she says, then looks at Mobius. "Time to go?"

"Yup!" Is his only reply.

Once they emerge back into the TVA, Kel, Mobius, and Loki herd into an elevator. The moment the doors open, the three of them walk out simultaneously, and Mobius starts to speak.

"Doomsday." Mobius says, walking quickly out of the elevator. Loki and Kel rush to keep up. "The Variant's been ambushing our soldiers and hiding out in doomsdays to cover his tracks." Kel says nothing, her mind still on the city, on what happened to all those people.

She knows she shouldn't be upset, they were going to die anyway, and technically, they already were dead when they arrived, but still... Kel can't shake this feeling that, somehow, she were responsible for those deaths, for the lives of women, men, and children all being snuffed out at once.

It's impossible, but Kel has always been a paranoid girl, and her mind gets stuck sometimes, thinking of the same thing over and over until it consumes her, and the only way to stop is for Mobius to bring her back to reality.

She tugs on her bracelet. The fabric is worn, and the funny little charms have rusted over in the many years she's had it clasped around her wrist. Come to think of it, she's not sure she's actually ever taken it off...

"You're welcome." Loki says wryly, and all thoughts are abandoned as Kel glares at him.

"Yeah." Mobius replies. "But in order for this theory to hold, the disasters have to be naturally occurring, sudden, no warning..."

"And no survivors." Kel finishes quietly. Mobius frowns and grabs a folder off his desk, then the trio are off again. Kel watches Mobius and Loki with a raised brow, noticing how they seem to be exuding the energy of a bunch of excited bees.

"How many could there be?" Loki asks.

"I don't know." Mobius replies truthfully. "We're gonna find out." they hurry out of the room and rush through the TVA towards the library they'd left Loki in just hours before. Kel's feet ache as they finally make it into the space, and Mobius rushes off to get some files while Kel and Loki get comfortable at a large, mahogany table.

When Mobius returns with the mountainous stack of paperwork, Kel groans and Loki sits up straight, his eyes practically glowing.

For the next couple of hours, Kel, Mobius, and Loki flip through page after page, searching through the records for all the apocalypses and doomsdays. After a while, Kel's breaths shorten as she reads about the countless events that have caused cataclysmic damage to the world and the entire universe.

Her eyes begin to blur as she reads the countless deaths of all living creatures. Mobius notices how every time she finishes one of the files, she shifts in her seat, slowly inching closer to him. Loki doesn't notice anything, he's too focused on trying to find what they need.

An infinite amount of time passes.

They've gone through about 700 files when Kel accidentally falls asleep. She doesn't mean to, but her head slowly comes to rest on the table, from where she'd been reading relentlessly, and her eyes close softly.

It's another couple minutes before Mobius notices, turning to ask if she's alright, only to find the girl breathing delicately, cheek squished against the wood, arms under her head. Mobius says nothing, and doesn't try to wake her. He knows how much of a burden this all is, one of her first missions turning into the most important one, possibly in all of the TVA's history. And despite being thousands of years old, in Mobius' eyes, Kel is still only a child.

He peers down at her bracelet, the one he gave her when he first saw her, the one she never takes off.

There's shuffling in front of him, and Mobius turns to see Loki also leaning against the table, his eyes closed. The man pauses in his reading, head swivelling between the two people napping. He rolls his eyes. Ridiculous.

Mobius lets the two sleep for a couple more minutes, entrenched in his work, when suddenly Loki jerks upwards, having awoken from his short clumber. He looks around lazily to see Mobius yawning and Kel asleep on the desk. His eyebrows knit together at the sight.

When Mobius notices Loki's awake, he nods and begins to gently prod Kel with his paper, trying to get her up. It takes several tries before the snoring girl opens her glazed over eyes. She yawns, nose wrinkling as she sits up, her back cracking, and pushes the strands of hair stuck to her cheek away.

Loki gives Kel an amused look at her disheveled state, while Mobius simply helps her become aware of her surroundings.

After a couple more moments and a couple more yawns, Kel is back to full consciousness.

"Wha-what?" she says softly, and Mobius smiles.

"Come on," he tells them both. "Let's take a walk." Loki nods and grabs his jacket, while Kel clumsily gets to her feet, holding onto the back of her chair to keep from falling. Her back arches, and a glob of drool sticks to the side of her mouth. She wipes it away hurriedly as the three of them walk briskly through the halls of the TVA.

Eventually, Mobius, Kel, and Loki end up back in the cafeteria. Mobius and Loki sit across from each other, with Kel resentfully stuck in the middle. She stares down at the bowl of fries in front of her, which normally on any given day, she would dig into happily. But not right now. Now, she has absolutely no appetite, and simply stares at the food intensely.

"By the way," Loki speaks up for the first time since they arrived. "At your desk, that magazine?" Kel perks up a little.

"Yeah." Mobius replies tiredly. "The one on jet skis?" Kel snorts a little and Mobius lightly kicks her foot under the table.

"Yes." Loki says. "Why do you have that?" Kel turns to Mobius, her bug eyes boring into the side of his skull.

"Because they're awesome." Mobus finally responds, and Kel smiles a little, turning her gaze down to her hands, clasped together on top of the table.

"He loves 'em." she remarks coolly, and Mobius gives her a look.

Loki chuckles. "I suppose they are awesome."

"Yeah." Mobius says lightly, his voice nearly a whisper. "You know some things... Actually, most things in history are kinda dumb and everything gets ruined eventually." Kel nods her head vacantly. "But, in the early 1990s, for a brief, shining moment, there was a beautiful union of form and function," Kel almost rolls her eyes at Mobius' over-the-top monologue. "Which we call the jet ski, and a reasonable man cannot differ." Loki and Kel share the same soft smile towards Mobius. The girl shakes her head, thinking about how many times she's heard Mobius' love for jet skis proclaimed out loud.

"You ever been on one?" Loki asks, and Kel's smile falters.

Mobius clears his throat. "No... no." His eyes cast downwards. "I think a TVA agent showing up on a jet ski on the Sacred Timeline, that would create a branch for sure."

"It'd be fun, though." Loki comments. Kel rests her chin on her hands, looking between them.

"Yeah," Mobius agrees. "It'd be really fun." Then he turns to Kel. "You'd be there too, of course."
Kel cockes her head to the side. "Oh, well thank you." Mobius smiles.

"So," Loki cuts in. "Why read about them?"

Mobius shrugs. "Just helps remind me of what we're fighting for." Kel nods instinctively, turning to Loki, who sits back with a frown on his face.

"I mean, you two really believe in all this stuff, don't you?" he finally speaks out loud. Now it's Kel's turn to frown. What does he mean by that? Why wouldn't she believe in the TVA, it's real, or course it's real... isn't--

"I don't get hung up on 'believe, not believe'." Mobius answers Kel's thoughts. We just accept what is." Loki whirls around to Kel, eyebrows raised, but the girl just shrugs, her voice a lump in her throat.

"Three magic lizards..." Loki begins.

"Time-Keepers." Kel and Mobius interject.

"... created the TVA, and everyone in it..."

"Right." Mobius says.

"Including you guys?"

"Including us." Mobius replies light-heartedly. Kel nods again, her head bobbing up and down.

"You see every time I start to admire your intelligence." Loki tells the two of them, raising a hand to his forehead. "You say something like that."

"Okay," Mobius answers. "Who created you, Loki?"

"A Frost Giant of Jotunheim." Loki answers.

"And who raised you?"

"Odin of Asgard." Kel can see where this is going, and can't help but smile.

"Odin, God of the Heavens." Mobius says. "Asgard, mystical realm, beyond the stars. Frost Giants." his tone becomes more patronizing with every word. "Listen to yourself..."

"It's not the same." Loki argues. "It's completely different."

"Uh, no." Kel finally interrupts, and Loki glares at her. "No, it is not."

"It's not the same," he says.

"It's exactly the same thing." Mobius says. "Because if you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds kinda ridiculous."

"Yeah," Kel interjects, pointing to Mobius. "I'm a female clone of him created by an all powerful force that controls the entire span of time across the whole universe. We have the same thoughts, about the same personality, and some of the same looks," she turns to Loki. "crazy, right?" the God rolls his eyes.

"Existence is chaos." Mobius adds in. "Nothing makes any sense, so we try to make some sense of it." Mobius claps a hand on Kel's shoulder. "And we're just lucky that the chaos the two of us emerged into gave us all this." he points to their nearly ethereal surroundings.

"Our own glorious purpose." Kel says amusedly. Loki scoffs and Mobius winks at her. She winks back. The two are now back on the same page. "The TVA is my life, and it's also Mobius'."

"It's real," Mobius finishes. "Because we believe it's real." Loki doesn't say anything for a couple moments as Kel leans back triumphantly, admiring the look of utter confusion on the Variant's face.

"Fair enough," he says after a while. "You believe it's real."

"Yeah."

"So everything is written." Kel sighs deeply. "Past, present, future. There's no such thing as free will." She looks at him sharply.

"Well, I mean, you know," Mobius splutters. "It's an oversimplification."

"So in fact," Loki's not done. "In a way, you and I," he suddenly seems to remember Kel sitting between them. "And the clone child," she scoffs. "Here at the TVA. We're the only ones who are actually free."

Kel leans forward as Mobius asks. "Where are you going with this, Loki?"

"How does it all end?" he answers.

"What?" Kel asks. "It ends..." she pauses, though, as no answer comes to mind. Her thoughts are a complete blank.

"That's a work in progress." Mobius whispers.

"Oh, those lazy Time-Keepers." Loki says loudly. "What are they waiting for?" he looks down at his watch.

Mobius laughs. "Au contraire. No, because while we protect what came before, they're toiling away in their chamber, untangling the epilogue from it's infinite branches."

Kel leans closer to Loki. "In simple terms, they have no clue what's at the end, not until it actually happens." Loki nods at her numbly, and Kel grins, a smug look on her face.

"Kel, that's not..." Mobius starts, but then Loki speaks.

"Ah, I see. So, when they're finished, what happens then?"

"The End." Kel says in a deep, breathy voice. "And... also us."

"No more nexus events." Mobius continues. "Just order. And we meet in peace at the end of time. Nice, right?"

Loki's eyes pop out of his skull. "Only order?" Mobius and Kel nod. "No chaos? It sounds boring." Kel's stomach twinges at the word. Chaos.

"I'm sure it does to you." Mobius says.

"You know, you called me a scared little boy." Loki tells him.

"I called you a lotta things."

Kel clears her throat and mutters. "Old man."

Loki ignores her. "You did. You're wrong though." his tone grows serious. "You see, I know something children don't."

"What's that?"

"That no one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good." Kel's breath is short. She stares at Loki, her wide eyes narrowing. She's trying to understand what he means, her hazy mind trying to find an answer in their long conversation. She only comes up more puzzled than before.

"Scared little boy." Mobius remarks softly.

"Yes, it was quite patronizing." Loki says, his tone lightening the tension. "I thought it was a bit too far, actually." Kel bites her cheek, and they are left in complete silence for a couple seconds before Mobius is suddenly grabbing her arm and standing swiftly. Kel looks at him confusedly, noticing a spark in his eyes. A glow in his irises can only mean one thing; he's had an epiphany.

Kel loves it when he has an epiphany.

Mobius looks to Loki. "You're very clever," and then he and Kel immediately start to race down the hall, back to the library.

━━━━━━

"THE VARIANT LEFT SOMETHING BEHIND AT AN OLD CRIME SCENE." Mobius says as they walk through the library. Kel and Loki practically trip over themselves to keep up with him. Mobius walks with a newfound purpose that makes Kel raise an eyebrow.

Whatever Loki said back in the cafeteria, it resonated with the man, and Kel's heart thrums with excitement that's been missing from her step all day.

"A cathedral," Mobius continues, turning into a tight hallway lined with shelves. "A candy box."

"The blue thing." Kel remarks, and Loki gives her a distant look while Mobius searches around.

"Yes, the blue thing." he repeats lazily. "An obvious anachronism. We gave it to Analysis, but they couldn't find anything real."

"Why does that matter?" Loki asks, peering over Mobius' shoulder. Kel is squished up beside the drawer Mobius is sifting through.

"I think," she pipes up, arms crossed over her chest, "because now we have two variables."

"Correct." Mobius answers without looking up. "Apocalyptic natural disasters and..." he stops, pulling out a clear plastic bag with the candy box tucked safely inside.

Kel smirks. "Kablooie."

"What's that?" Loki asks.

"Did you not hear what I just said?" Kel inquires. "It's Kablooie." Loki gives her a look which seems to say; wow, really? Kel grins and turns back to her partner.

Mobius is a little more forgiving. "It's candy. Do you have candy on Asgard?"

"Yeah," Loki says quickly. "Grapes, nuts." Kel snorts, stifling a bigger laugh with her hand. Mobius turns and walks past them, the two following suit.

"No wonder you're so bitter." he whispers back, and now Kel can't contain her snicker. Loki refrains from shoving her into the shelves, but the girl knows he would very much like to do so from the murderous look in his eyes.

She stands on her tip-toes and quickly hurries after Mobius before Loki decides to burn the TVA to the ground like he originally planned.

They head back to the desk and Mobius slams more papers down onto the table. Kel stands beside him, with Loki on the other side. She taps her foot lightly.

"Okay." Mobius says matter-of-factly. "Kablooie was only sold regionally on Earth from 2047 to 2051." Kel nods along as he speaks. "All you gotta do is cross-reference that with every apocalyptic event." Kel and Loki share the same concerned look. She's never been good with the paperwork side of this job.

"I'm gonna split it into three." Mobius continues. "And let's make it a competition, see who finds it."

"Yes." Kel says plainly while Loki utters. "Sure."

"You wanna bet something?" Mobius asks.

"Yeah."

"Gentleman's bet?" Mobius says, and Kel frowns. "Yeah, let's play for pride." she lets it slide and nods. "Okay. May the best one win." Mobius hands out the papers. "Go!" Kel sits down enthusiastically, and opens up the pages, reading at a pace thought to be humanly impossible. She flips through each one meticulously, searching and searching for the answer.

(Kel can be very competitive)

They continue on with Mobius and Loki talking to each other about how the human race has messed up the world (Kel thinks there was a mention of the Swallow somewhere in there) and Mobius passionately begins to recount every disaster that could hit during that time until...

"Got him!" Kel yelps, almost toppling out of her chair in the excitement as her eyes land on the answer hidden within the pages. Loki and Mobius stop speaking and turn to her sharply. A triumphant look is plastered over her face.

She holds up the page and turns it around for them to see, finger pointing to the solution. "This is where he is."

"Alabama, 2050." Mobius reads out loud, and Kel nods behind the paper, smiling. "Good work, Kel." she beams, and even Loki gives her a small, approving smile. Mobius claps her on the shoulder, and Kel holds her head up proudly.

In this moment, she feels like a real agent, a real analyst, and her heart thrums with the thrill of it all.

━━━━━━

"THIS IS EXCITING!"  Kel says cheerfully as they walk out into the locker room, where a team of Minutemen are getting ready. Mobius has just been to see Judge Renslayer, and their mission to go to Alabama and take down the Variant has been approved.

Kel's pulse races at the thought. A real mission, an important mission, one she's able to go on. For so many years, she's been held back, whether it be by Mobius' caution or the Time-Keepers themselves, the TVA has always found some way to keep Kel M. Mobius from going out into the field. She's been confined, squeezed into a cage so tightly she's bursting at the seams, energy crackling under her skin for just a taste of the outside world, the real outside world. She doesn't care about the danger, the assignment, or even the part she has to play, as long as she's out there, Mobius by her side, it's enough.

"Yup." her partner says. "We are doing some good work today."

"I thought so too." Loki replies.

"I'm telling you." Mobius continues. "You actually help us catch this Variant, and who knows, my friend." Mobius opens up his locker and begins to remove his jacket.

"What, good enough for a face-to-face with the Time-Keepers?" Loki asks, and Kel smirks at the hopefulness in his voice.

"I didn't say that." Mobius answers. "One step at a time."

"Yeah," Kel chimes in. "A tiny, itty-bitty, little baby step." Loki gives her a look and turns back to Mobius.

"All right. One step at a time." he says, and then his eyes widen as Mobius pulls out two very sharp looking daggers, the likes of which Kel assumes are Loki's. His face goes slack at the sight of them.

"Just in case." Mobius whispers to him. Loki takes them into his hands as if they are a pair of newborn puppies.

They are snatched away instantly.

"Absolutely not." Hunter B-15 says as she passes by them, holding the daggers in her hands and shoving them into her own locker. Kel stifles a laugh at Loki's wounded face, shrugging on the vest and rain-coat Mobius has handed to her.

B-15 turns around instantly and says. "Gather around for a briefing." Kel follows behind Mobius and watches the female hunter with a look of awe. She's starting to like this woman more and more.

They stand in a circle, Kel sticking to Mobius' side, tugging on her vest, which is two sizes too big for her small frame. She's the only child the TVA has ever had to deal with, and they never took the care of making armour for her size. When B-15 starts to speak, Mobius reaches down to stop Kel's fidgeting, and she gripes under her breath before nodding and standing still.

B-15 leads them through the briefing, explaining the layout of the superstore type building they'll be entering. She talks about how all of the civilians are hiding in the warehouse underground, but this is overshadowed by the fact that they are entering a class ten apocalypse, meaning no one makes it out alive. Kel's stomach twists.

And soon, they are walking through the portals, rain pelting their faces like a sheet hanging over their heads. Kel, Mobius, and Loki are the last to enter, and as soon as she steps foot over the threshold, she's being pulled close to Mobius as the wind almost knocks her off her feet.

The raindrops are like daggers driving into her flesh, ice cold and sharp. Mobius tugs her hood over her eyes, and Kel leans into him. They head over to B-15, who holds her TemPad. Loki stands beside them, hands in his pockets, and he reminds Kel of the strange little plants she sometimes sees growing in the dead of winter somewhere on the Timeline. Completely oblivious to the harsh weather around them.

"Anything?" Mobius yells out.

"Nothing yet." B-15 replies. "Move out!" Kel doesn't hesitate, and Mobius moves with her towards the front entrance, Loki keeping in time with their steps. Kel glances at the God, noticing that he's enjoying this way more than any of them. She frowns.

Once they're inside, B-15 turns to her men. "Take both teams and sweep the storm shelter."

"Yes, Ma'am." they respond in unison.

"Loki, Kel, and I are gonna check out the Green House." Mobius tells them as Kel takes off her hood and shakes her whole body, droplets of water spraying everywhere. She can feel the cold seeping through the protective coat, inching its way towards her skin. Goosebumps rise on her arms. Her hair sticks to her neck and head, her usually messy bangs a full on catastrophe.

"No." B-15's harsh and blunt voice cuts through Mobius', and they all turn to look at her.

"No?" Mobius and Kel repeat.

B-15 points to him. "You go with D-90. He stays with me." B-15 replies, and then the last minute points to Kel. "and the other Mobius." Kel raises an eyebrow and turns sharply to her partner, whose face falls at her words. Kel frowns.

"I can stay with..."

"No." B-15 cuts in. Kel shuts her mouth with a snap, somehow knowing better than to argue with her.

"What are you..." Mobius says roughly. "They're under my supervision."

"This is my field op, Mobius." B-15 replies and gestures to Loki. "If he's not a threat, then..."

"Of course he's a threat." Mobius argues. "Do you not remember the Time Theater? And what has Kel got to do with..."

"Mobius." Loki tries to cut in.

"You are more than welcome to go back to the TVA and litigate with Renslayer, but right now..."

"We're here. We're not going back." Mobius says firmly. "The Variant is here." Kel reaches up and lowers his arm.

"Mobius, it's okay." she says softly, and he looks at her swiftly.

Loki nods his head in agreement. "It's fine, it's fine."

Mobius meets Kel's gaze, and she gulps down her protests. "It's okay. It's just one mission." His face falls, and Kel looks down to her feet as Loki and Mobius talk and she moves away, B-15 gives her a look that Kel is unable to read, but soon Loki is by her side, and she cranes her neck to see Mobius walking away from them. He looks back and meets her eyes, and she nods encouragingly, hoping to give him the strength she herself doesn't have at that moment.

"We'll see you in the showroom." a hunter says to B-15, and then they are left alone in the upper part of the store. Kel looks at B-15 with a tentative smile on her face, hoping to mask the simmering insecurity beneath.

She tugs on her bracelet.

They start to walk down one of the aisles.

B-15 holds her baton with both hands and Kel keeps her stunner loose at her hip. Loki, who walks beside her, has his hands in his pocket and looks around cautiously. With every step, Kel wants to sink into the floor more and more. This is not what she'd thought this mission would be like, and without Mobius at her side, Kel has no one to turn to.

Loki is the one to break the silence. "I for one am glad we're getting to spend this time together." Kel looks past him to B-15 on the other side. "Not you, of course." Loki adds in towards the girl, and Kel gives him a half amused half annoyed look.

"Quiet." B-15 whispers.

"I'm saying we got off on the wrong..." B-15 shushes him, and that's when Kel hears it, a soft clinking, sounding from the next aisle over. Kel looks up to Loki, who shares the same worry in his eyes, and B-15 hurries forward, turning the corner, the two following after her.

When they get around, what awaits them is a young man with his back to them, reaching out towards the hundreds of potted plants lined up on the shelves.

"Hey!" B-15 yells, and the man startles turning around swiftly, his hands rising to be eye level.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he exclaims. "It's okay. It's okay."

"What are you doing?" B-15 demands.

"Shopping for plants." the man replies, and Kel would roll her eyes if she didn't know this would be his last day on earth... ever.

"In this storm?" Loki asks.

"It's a hurricane sale." the man replies, as if the answer is the most obvious thing in the world. "Azaleas are half off." Kel cocks her head to the side while B-15 looks at Loki.

"Could that be you?" she asks.

Loki looks between them, then says. "I mean, I probably would have worn a suit, but, yes, maybe." Kel pulls out her weapon and clasps it so tightly her knuckles turn white. B-15 strides forward, her baton raised, and goes to grab onto the man.

But then the strangest thing happens. The man quickly looks at her and grips onto her forearm, then Kel swears she sees a spurt of vibrant green pass from his hand into her arm, and then the man drops. Kel's eyes widen, and without hesitation she tries to rush to him, but Loki grabs onto her, pulling her back.

"What are you doing?" she says as B-15 stands straight. Loki holds on tighter.

"Kel," he says in a tone so unlike him that the girl freezes. "Go. hide." she frowns.

"What?" she asks.

"Now!" Loki says, more forcefully this time, and he lets go of her, pushing her towards the other side of the store. Kel doesn't hesitate as she runs to the other side of the shelves, her feet squeaking on the tile. She turns to see Loki watching her, and he beckons her on before B-15's voice rings out.

"They usually survive." Kel freezes. That voice. It's not B-15's voice. The usual gruffness, the hard edges, none of it is there. Kel turns, breathing heavily to see Loki pass out of view, and she knows he's now talking with whoever has taken over B-15's body.

Kel turns back around and heads across the open space to the other shelves, crouching down behind one and peering over the top. The lights flicker, and Kel can hear the murmur of voices grow distant. She takes a deep breath and turns, back sliding down until she rests on the floor.

It's there that she waits. Usually, she'd have a TemPad, and be able to connect with Mobius or someone else, but after her fight with Loki, the device was shattered, and she hadn't had time to replace it. Kel's hands shake as her head darts back and forth, eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of a threat.

Her mind is racing, but the thoughts are clouded, and she tries to gain her footing. Her heart thumps wildly in her chest, the excitement of it all, the danger, it's almost too much.

But there is one thing she knows for sure. The Variant is here, and Loki is currently speaking with them. Kel gets up as she no longer hears the voices and moves along the halls, flitting between the shelves, searching everywhere. Then, the voices come back into range. They're not audible enough to hear, but at least she knows they're close.

Kel crouches down again, blowing out a breath, when her eye catches a glint of something pastel orange. She frowns and leans closer, then her eyes widen. Kel moves backwards at the sight. A reset charge, no not just one, two reset charges have been laced together, placed behind some boxes on the shelves. Kel leans closer and moves one out of the way. They are connected to a wire, which leads to another charge, then to another. Kel races down the shelves, looking at the wire and charge, her breaths moving to pants, sweat lacing her brow.

The Variant has rigged this whole place to blow. Kel's head starts to swim.

CRASH!

Kel jumps as the display she'd been looking at collapses on top of her, and a heavy weight crashes into her side. She yelps as she's thrown back into the wide open space, and lands on her stomach, nose hitting the floor with a sickening crunch. Immediately, hot liquid begins to ooze from her nostrils, pooling on the floor and filling her mouth a metallic tang.

A hand grabs onto her arm, and Kel jumps back.

"Kel!" she pauses as she turns to see Loki also lying on the ground, straight on his back. Kel winces as her head starts to throb, and she grabs onto Loki's arm, pulling him up. The two stand and turn together to see a large man kneeling on the ground a little ways away from them, his back turned.

Kel and Loki share a look, then Kel nods, and they both start walking towards him.

"What do you want from me?!" Loki calls out, which was definitely not what Kel had in mind, and her step falters. The man turns to look at them, and his eyes land on the girl. "What is this about?!"

The man stands, and Kel walks slower now, Loki still plowing ahead.

The man starts to laugh. "Brace yourself, Loki." he says in a menacing tone. He continues to chuckle, and his eyes flash green. Then, he's falling, hitting the ground with a hard thump. Kel gasps.

Loki sighs, his back to Kel, and she takes a deep breath.

And then... CRACK.

The next few moments are a startling tapestry of broken thoughts and visions. Fragments of a time that Kel can't quite place together. Her head is filled with a silent scream as pain explodes, a white hot cacophony across the back of her skull.

She's laying on the ground, her whole body convulsing, blood pouring from her nose.

Loki is beside her, hoisting her up into his arms.

There is a green light.

A woman with blonde hair a smirk turns around, a portal opening in front of her.

And then, they're going through that portal, only someone is screaming her name. She turns her head weakly, her vision moving in and out of focus as unconsciousness comes to claim her.

The last thing she sees before she's enveloped in the soft white light is Mobius running down the hall towards her, his face pained, screaming her name at the top of his lungs.

Loki walks through the portal, Kel in his arms, and the doorway closes behind them.

a/n: this is gonna be a very rushed author's note because I'm about to go camping and still need to finish packing LOL. anywayyys I really love this chapter and all of the little character hints as well as foreshadowing that was going on so if any of you caught that well done.

what did you guys think of this chapter? did you love it, did you hate it, was it too long? let me know! as always, don't be afraid to comment, vote, and follow me! <333 until next time...