▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

❛ ᴇᴡᴛʀᴛᴡ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ɪᴛ's ᴍᴇ; ʜɪ, ɪ'ᴍ
ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏʙʟᴇᴍ, ɪᴛ's ᴍᴇ ꒱　


❝ STOP TRYING TO BE A
HERO. YOU'RE A VILLAIN.
& YOU'RE GOOD AT IT.
DO THAT ❞

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

Mobius stopped just before the door of the interrogation room to address them. "Okay, keep it simple. Where's Dox? Where's Sylvie? And what did he do to that TemPad? That's all we need to find out. Okay? But of course, Brad knows us, and he knows our tactics. But that's what makes for an interesting chess match. Okay, most of all, Brad's an asshole. So, don't let him get under your skin, all right? Okay? Loki? Jimin?"

"What?"

"This is what I do for a living," the brunette reminded them with a slight sneer to her tone.

The man waiting for them inside had taken a seat at the single stool in the room and he turned around at their entrance. His sarcastic words greeted them: "oh, welcome back. Why don't you go ahead and take this Time Collar off and start treating me like somebody who outranks you?"

"I don't work here," Loki replied.

"You couldn't pay me enough to work here," Jimin agreed.

"Oh, that's a good point. You should stop talking."

Mobius stepped forward and took ahold of the conversation to get it back on track. "Hey, what were you doing down there on the Sacred Timeline?"

"Making movies," X-5 said with a false smile.

B-15 was clearly done with his attitude. "Don't waste our time, X-5."

"It's Brad. Bradley," he corrected her.

Loki allowed him this and acknowledged his new name. "Right, Brad. Let's cut to the chase, shall we? What did you do to this TemPad?"

He pulled it out of an inside coat pocket to show it to the other man, who glanced over at his coworker. Mobius encouraged him, "answer the question."

"It blocks your trackers."

Jimin crossed her arms and gave him an unamused stare. "No, it doesn't."

"Yeah, no shit."

"What is it designed for, X-5?" his fellow Hunter asked.

"It's Brad," he repeated. "Under whose authority are you holding me here? Looking around, I do not see anyone ranking high enough to make that call."

"I don't need approval to detain a hunter that abandoned his post," B-15 spoke sternly.

Her response made him chuckle, though it lacked any humor. "Oh, that's good. That's good. But weren't you the one blabbering on and on about how we all had lives on the timeline? Well, I went down and got my life. What exactly are you mad at me about?"

"There are lives at stake," the god informed him.

"'There are lives at stake?'" Brad echoed sarcastically. "Oh, you've got some nerve. 'There are lives at stake.' Everyone here knows what you're doing, you know? You're just trying to make up for all the terrible, awful shit you've done in your life, you pathetic little man."

At Loki's sharp intake of breath, Mobius cut in to try and ease the tension. "Okay, that's enough."

The dark-haired man waved him off. "No, no, Mobius. No, it's. . . It's riveting. Keep going. I want to hear more."

"Good," X-5 said. "See, everything you and Sylvie have ever done to try to help has only ever made it worse."

"Is that right?" Loki asked evenly. His expression gave nothing away. Jimin thought that he would make a rather good S.H.I.E.L.D. agent if that was something he would ever be interested in.

"See, I've read your file. Both of your files," the brunet continued, nodding to Jimin. He returned his attention to the god. "It's you. You're the problem. Every time we've ever found a you. Problem is, you think you're special, but you're not. So, it doesn't matter what outfit you put on, play dress up or what little lies you tell your friends or even the lies you tell yourself. At the end of the day, you just make everything worse. For Mobius, for B-15, for your mother, and for Jimin too, eventually, though her life probably couldn't get much worse. 'Cause that's what you do. You lose. You're a loser."

"Loki," the Asian woman warned him. Her eyes were fixed on their captive but she could sense his growing unrest, especially as Brad brought up his mother.

"Stop trying to be a hero, man. You're a villain. And you're good at it. Do that."

Loki chuckled, but it was a dark sound, full of menace. "Thank you, Brad. . . very much. I really am touched. You know, you're right. I have done some terrible, awful things. Yeah, maybe that is who I am, and he knows, she knows." He gestured to Jimin before he clapped his hands. "It's the real me. A loser. Always have been. Always will be. And perhaps I've been. . . holding something back."

This time it was Mobius who spoke his name in caution: "Loki."

He ignored it once again and took several threatening steps towards Brad until he was standing over the other man, causing the Hunter to lean away from him. "Perhaps I've just been biding my time. Perhaps I've just been waiting for a moment like this, so I can do terrible, awful things to you."

Jimin walked forward and placed a hand on the god's arm, the action unexpected and startling enough to draw his attention away from X-5. "We're getting off track here. Where is Sylvie?"

Her question made Brad smile, but it was a mocking, disingenuous thing. "Don't even get me started on your life, Agent Hui Jimin." He let out a little scoff. "With a name so pretentious you'd think you could live up to being a 'glorious purpose.' How unfortunate for you that you failed before you could even start to try. Did you know that your father hated you for what you did to your mother?" he asked conversationally. "You killed her by being born. He blamed you every day of your life for that."

The Asian woman pressed her lips into a thin line and her hold tightened on Loki's jacket, but otherwise she remained unmoved. Her voice betrayed no emotion as she demanded, "answer the question, Brad. Where is Sylvie?"

"You know," he continued, as if she hadn't spoken. "You two are a lot alike." He nodded to the god. "You're as much of a loser as he is. After all, you've lost your mother, your father, countless teammates from failed missions. You're not as good of an agent as you'd like to believe you are. But maybe the most tragic one of all is how you sentenced your own lover to her death. After all, if you hadn't been so hell-bent on believing Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., you would never have needed to go to that base. You were the one who asked her to come—"

All she wanted him to do was shut up, which was the only thought on her mind as she lunged forward to punch him in the mouth. His eyes widened, his first sign of being off-put by anything that had happened so far. She gripped the front of his uniform and snarled in his face: "don't you dare talk about her like that."

Her fist reeled back to hit its mark, only for it to be caught by a larger, warmer hand. She jerked around to pierce Loki with a glare full of anger, but he merely kept ahold of her fist and stared back at her calmly. Brad peeled himself from the Asian woman's grasp with an uneasy laugh. "She needs therapy. They both do. I can recommend someone—"

"Okay. Come on," Mobius tried to settle everyone back down.

". . .if you wanna work that out," X-5 finished, sneering at the gray-haired man. "Control your little pets, Mobius."

Jimin took a deep, steadying breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. She forced herself to relax as she stepped away from the brunet. Her features smoothed over, once again a flat lake as the ripples disappeared. She met the god's eyes and then looked at his hand, which was still enclosed over hers.

"I'm fine. Really." When he released her, she gave the T.V.A. workers an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I lost myself there." She gestured towards Brad. "Please, continue."

Everyone except for Loki gave her wary looks, not used to her loosing control. Mobius, at least, should have known what would happen thanks to her last reaction when Katrina had been brought up without her permission— back when they'd first arrived at the T.V.A..

"That got a little tense," the gray-haired man commented. "Hey, you wanna hear a good one? Knock, knock."

X-5 sighed. "Who's there?"

"Brad."

"Brad, who?"

"That's showbiz," Mobius laughed at his joke. "And I don't want that to happen to you. So, play along with us, answer our questions and we'll get you back there, so they don't forget about you. How's that sound?"

"You would do that?" He seemed unwilling to believe them, for good reason.

"I will."

"You promise?"

The older man's expression was sincere as he replied, "I promise."

X-5 let out an awed breath, clearly still not accepting his coworker's words. "You seeing this? Mobius, you could be an actor."

"I'm not an actor, I'm an analyst. But thank you."

Brad got annoyed by his answer, correcting him, "you're not an analyst. I'm not a hunter. None of this is real. I mean, who even are you on the timeline, do you know?"

Mobius shook his head. "Doesn't matter."

"I think it does matter because none of this is real," the Hunter argued. "The TVA is not your real home. Mobius isn't even your real name."

"It's what I answer to."

X-5's new target appeared to be the older man as he asked, "do you have any idea what kind of life you might have left behind? Who might be waiting for you back there? I mean, do you care? You know they took us. You know they took our lives, and you're still here. It's kind of weird, man. I mean, you need to wake up."

"I'm awake," he said quietly.

The brunet immediately disagreed, "yeah, no. You're asleep. You need to wake up, Mobius."

"I'm awake." Although he was doing a better job than Loki or even Jimin had, it was clear that Mobius' easygoing façade was faltering as he shifted on his feet, no longer completely steady in his control.

"And until you do, you're nothing," Brad spoke over his words, not even hearing his reply. He pointed to B-15 as he stood from the stool. "She is nothing. I don't know where to start with those two, but you're nothing here. And until you wake up, you're just a nowhere man. You're a. . . you're a nowhere man!"

With that, the gray-haired man lost his seemingly endless amount of patience and did what Loki had stopped Jimin from doing: slapped Brad across the face. 

✧✧✧

They hurried out of the room after that, following Mobius in an unknown direction. Their feet clattered noisily on the curved, metal staircase as they headed to a lower level. Loki wasted no time in asking, "what was that?"

"Nothing," the analyst brushed him off, turning to walk down the hallway.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine."

The god was persistent as he questioned, "what happened back there?"

"Nothing."

"Didn't seem like nothing."

Mobius didn't spare him a glance and kept walking briskly. "It was tactical."

"Seems like he got under your skin," Loki observed.

"Nope. He didn't get under my skin. He got under your skin."

"Mobius, are you all right? I've never seen you like this before."

"Seen me like what?"

The dark-haired man quickly pulled back, reassuring him, "okay, I'm not judging."

"Feels like you are. Look, I told you I can play the heavy keys and I can. . ." Mobius trailed off as he realized he didn't recognize the area. "Where are we?"

"I was following you."

Petulantly, he argued, "no, I was following you."

"Mobius. You were clearly ahead of us." When the other man sighed, he offered, "how about a slice of pie?"

Jimin went to follow their friend over to get some as well, only for Loki to catch her arm. "Not you."

She gave him an indignant look. "I happen to like pie, and if I want some—"

"Just— just come on," he interrupted her, pulling the brunette out of Mobius' hearing range. He met her eyes in the dimly-lit hallway, any emotions from earlier were gone from his face, replaced by concern. "You've been awfully quiet. Are you alright?"

He received a wan smile in response. "I think we both know the answer to that question." She paused, realizing that he'd asked her that more times than she could count in the last few days, but she'd never asked him— "what about you?"

"What about me, what?"

Her lips tugged into a faint frown as he genuinely didn't seem to understand what she wanted to know, as if no one had ever actually been worried about his well-being. "Are you alright? I mean, the last time I saw you get like that was. . . on a TV screen on Midgard."

Loki was a bit startled by her question, it having been so long since someone had cared enough to actually ask. Then, the rest of her words caught up to him and he sent her a slight grin. "You called it Midgard."

"What?"

"Your planet. You called it Midgard."

Jimin seemed a little surprised by that but ended up just shaking her head as she pinned him with a stern look. "Now who's dodging questions?"

He let out a deep sigh. "I'm fine."

She remained unconvinced as her frown deepened. "For being the God of Lies, you're a terrible liar. That's the oldest line in the book."

"Well, what do you want me to say?" the god wondered, spreading his arms in an exasperated way. "That what everything Brad said was true— I'm a loser and I'm broken and—"

"Maybe you're not entirely okay right now, and that's okay," the brunette interrupted him. "But acting like everything is fine won't make it true. And. . . you heard what he said. I'm more like you than I'd care to admit. I've lost, too. You don't have to pretend with me."

"I thought I was supposed be asking how you are," he muttered, looking away to avoid her intense, dark eyes. "Why do you even care? All we ever do is fight, anyway."

Jimin pursed her lips at his words, knowing that he was right and she only had herself to blame. She'd always been on the prickly side personality-wise but after losing Katrina, she'd kept everyone at arm's length to protect her own sanity— she didn't want to lose anyone else like that. Sure, Loki could be irritating as hell, but she didn't hate him, not really. She didn't even dislike him for trying to take over her planet anymore, honestly. Somewhere between arriving at the end of the universe and fighting giant space monsters, she had grown to care about him, despite her best efforts not to. Now, one of the only reasons why they didn't get along more (not including his general assholery-ness) was her fear of losing another person that was important to her.

Of course, if she ever did admit to having such feelings, she would have to have known Loki longer for the short amount of time that she already had. While it was true that shared trauma brought people closer, she still had her own to deal with that was more of a wall than the one they had built together. So, instead, she only rolled her eyes and asked in a sarcastic tone, "what, did you get along with your brother all the time? What about the rest of your family? You never fought with them, right?"

His mouth curled into a teasing smile. "So you're saying that you care about me?"

"That's what you got out of that?" she asked with a scoff. (Though that was exactly what she'd meant.)

He opened his mouth as if to say something else (maybe that he even cared about her, too— if that wasn't already a complete stretch of the imagination) when Mobius appeared at the doorway. "Hey, are you two coming in for pie? You probably want to get some before I eat it all."

It was only then that they realized how close they'd gotten to standing to each other, with Jimin tilting her head up to be able to meet Loki's eyes. If she took in a deep enough breath, their chests would brush together and she would be able to feel the warmth emanating from him. (For someone who could act so cold, it was always a surprise when she noticed that no, his skin wasn't like ice; in fact, it sometimes felt warmer than her own.)

Seeing Mobius' curious glance between the two of them, the pair jumped apart as if they'd been burned. Loki cleared his throat and avoided her gaze as he strode past her. "Uh, right. Pie. We're coming."

✧✧✧

They were about halfway through eating their dessert when Mobius finally spoke. "Listen. That wasn't tactical. I lost it."

"It's okay," Loki reassured him. "Look, it happens. You know, sometimes a rage builds up and you just gotta. . . let it out."

"I agree," Jimin said. "I find that a punching bag helps best, though. That way it can't retaliate."

The god nodded. "Do you remember that time I was so angry with my father and my brother, I went down to Midgard and I held the whole of New York City hostage with an alien army? Tried to use the Mind Stone on Tony Stark. It didn't work, so I threw him off the building. I mean, let me tell you something. Wasn't tactical."

"You did?" the Asian woman wondered, her expression brightening at the thought. After all, Tony Stark's personality was the kind she tried to avoid interacting with at all costs. She knew how arrogant and egotistical the man could be and thought that a little fall from his tower might help mellow him out.

Loki gave her a cursory glance, not quite sure how to take her question. She didn't seem to be mad at him for New York anymore, but he couldn't be certain. "Yeah. I lost it. Sometimes our emotions get the better of us."

The gray-haired man nodded. "You can say that again."

"Let me ask you something," the other man began, tapping his spoon against his plate. "X-5, you know, he obviously touched a nerve, right? You've never wanted to visit your place on the timeline?"

"Look, that's the last thing I should be thinking about."

"Are you. . . Aren't you curious? Don't you want to see the life you were supposed to live before they kidnapped you and brought you into the T.V.A.?"

Mobius shook his head. "Not really."

"Why?"

"Because it's not my life," he explained.

"But it could have been."

"It isn't. This is. I'd like to thank the guy who kidnapped me and brought me here. Got me this pie."

Jimin frowned. "You'd give away any life you could've had for pie? I mean, don't get me wrong— I like my desserts, but don't you even want to just take a look? You'll never know if you don't."

"The T.V.A. is the only life I've ever known. I like it."

"Look, I understand that. I get it, you know, you might think twice in case. . . it's something bad and you. . ."

"No, that's not it," the Asian woman cut in. "It's not something bad that you'd be worried about. I mean, what if it's something good you'd be giving up?"

Mobius pointed his spoon at her. "Exactly. Do you think I wanna have that rattling around in here? Of course not."

They sat in silence for a few moments before the Asgardian spoke again. "You know, X-5 isn't gonna talk."

"X-5 is gonna talk," Jimin countered confidently. "We just have to find a way in, figure out which interrogation method will break him."

"All right. So what aren't we asking this time?"

"Look, X-5 is a good hunter, okay?" Mobius said. "He's very good at his job. So, does it really make sense that he could spend all that time down there and not find Sylvie?"

Loki focused on gathering his next bite of pie on his spoon while he replied, "look, Sylvie spent her whole life hiding. He didn't find her."

"Well, he wouldn't just play around with a TemPad for nothing," the brunette noted. "He doesn't seem like the tech-geek type to me, so he obviously modified it for a reason."

"Okay. If he found her and walked away, then she didn't know he found her. That's the only way that makes sense," he reasoned.

Mobius leaned forward as he thought it out. "He found her, but maybe didn't turn her in because he wants to continue to live his best life on the timeline."

"He wants more time to be Brad Wolfe."

"Who wouldn't? Now, we just have to find a way to get him to admit it."

The god had to agree. "He's the only one who knows where Sylvie is. Just gotta make him talk."

"Well, come on. You're the God of Mischief, right?"

A smile formed on the god's lips as his gaze became glassy, his eyes unfocusing as he worked through the problem. Jimin's words from earlier about simply needing to know which method worked best rang in his head, freeing him up from the confines of morality and into the broader gray area. 

✧✧✧

Brad was lying on the floor when they entered the holding facility, perfectly at ease despite being a prisoner. The only sign of recognition he gave to the fact that they were even in the room was to tilt his head back to look at them. Loki gave him a casual wave as he greeted the man.

"Hello, Loki. Ready for round two?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I felt like I just. . . need another session, you know? Get a few things off my chest."

Brad tilted his head back a bit more to get a better (albeit upside down) view. "Gonna try the hardball tactics this time?"

"Something like that."

X-5 let out a long sigh, as if his captivity was an entirely tedious affair to him. "Okay."

However, the sound of squeaky wheels being pushed closer to the open door made his blasé demeanor falter. There was a loud clang as the machine hit the lip of the frame, causing Mobius to back up so that Jimin could enter the room first. She helped him carry the machine over the threshold by lifting it on the other side to get it over the entry. At the sight of the device, Brad rolled over and pushed himself into a standing position. "Where's B-15?"

"She's not gonna be attending this session," Mobius replied evenly, pushing the cart into place towards the back of the room.

The Hunter watched them with his hands in his uniform's pockets. "Oh, I get it. So, you come in here without B-15 and I'm supposed to believe you're gonna torture me, Mobius?"

"Well, let's simplify everything," the gray-haired man began. "You have information that we need. You don't want to give it to us. So, how do we find common ground?"

"You are gettin' desperate."

Loki had taken over the job of pushing the cart, bringing it to a halt next to a large tube that was attached to the ceiling. He bent to pick up some wires and began to fiddle with them as he commented, "you're not wrong. He's not wrong."

"I wish he was," Jimin muttered, eyeing the man with dislike. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have the timeline dying around us."

Mobius nodded. "We're definitely getting desperate. And I'll be honest with you, we're down to our last option."

"And your last chance."

Brad was still rather cocky even with the looming threat of violence as he snarked, "this is cute. Which one of you came up with this script?"

The analyst leaned down to adjust one of the valves on the machine, replying, "because you're a tough nut to crack, you've left us no choice but to kind of ramp. . ."

Loki stopped him, pointing out: "Mobius, controller."

"Right, okay. We can't start the festivities without that little baby. Stand by," he looked over at the Asian woman. "Jimin, could you help me find it? I could use a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's sharp eyes."

"Well, I guess I have nothing better to do," she agreed and moved to follow him out.

Loki was last in line as they made it to the door. Still acting as if he were going with them, he slowed his steps to allow the other two enough time to leave the room. Once they were in the main hallway of the T.V.A., he wasted no time in shutting the door, locking them out. While they had known this would happen (as Brad hadn't been wrong about their 'script'), they pretended otherwise and immediately turned to start banging on the door to try and convince the god to let them in.

✧✧✧

The Asgardian let out a breath once Jimin and Mobius were on the other side. He turned his back on them to stalk towards X-5 slowly. "Turns out, there is actually one other option. You sniffed us out, Brad. And I knew you would, because you're a clever chap. So guess what? I wrote a little script of my own."

"That thing does not work without the controller, though, so. . . what're you gonna do?" Brad asked, still entirely comfortable in his perceived safety.

Loki drew the controller in question from behind his back and held it up to the man. "This one? Okay, great. We're gonna have a little Q and A. Did you find Sylvie? And if you did, where is she? Simple question, really, but doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves as we go along."

The Hunter began to get a little agitated as his confidence was tested, though he was still able to let out a mocking laugh as the god fiddled with the switches. "You almost got me. You have no idea how to work that thing."

He let out a soft breath of air, his lighthearted manner dropping into something more sinister. "I'm not trying to be a hero, Brad. I'm a villain. Remember?"

X-5 was became more uneasy as the machine whirred to life. As he backed away from the god, he rushed to save himself. "Um, earlier, I said some really hurtful things to you and your girlfriend, and I brought up your mother. And I am really sorry about that." He glanced back at the small porthole window in the door, becoming panicked. "Mobius! Hey, get in here!"

Loki looked up from the controller, his expression reminiscent of the one he'd worn when he first tried to conquer Midgard: the glint of mischief in his eyes, the knife's-blade smile that curled on his lips, full of danger and the promise of trouble. His tone was still calm when he spoke, jarringly different from the ominous look on his face.

"She's not my girlfriend," he corrected the man, as if that was the most important mistake he'd made. "However, she did give me some helpful tips on how to best get. . . information out of, well, you. Let's have some fun, shall we?"