A/N: send me some prompts if you have any ideas for this story! i hope you enjoy this chapter<3

...

Mobius takes you into a room marked 'Time Theatre 16'. He sits down on one side of a small table, and gestures for you to sit down opposite him. You collapse into the chair which faces him across the table, suddenly exhausted.

"You've had quite a day, huh." Mobius says, leaning back in his chair to regard you.

You look up at him and imagine how you must look to him. A mess, probably. You can't remember the last time you slept. He looks as though he's waiting for you to say something.

"Yeah." you settle for. He gives you a sad smile.

"I'm Agent Mobius, by the way."

You just nod.

"Do you have any more questions?"

Only about a million, you think to yourself. You try to break through the film of indifference which has settled over you since you arrived here. There might be a tiny, tiny, shred of hope waiting to be found somewhere within this man's explanation.

"Who decides what makes up the sacred timeline?" you ask first.

"The Time Keepers." Mobius says, as though that's enough explanation.

"Right. And what gives them the right to dictate what is supposed to happen? To everyone, ever?" you ask, your tone making very clear what you think of this arrangement.

"Well, they prevented the multiversal war, so I would argue that that gives them to right, if nothing else." Mobius chuckles.

"The multiversal war?"

Mobius sighs.

"Before the Time Keepers created the sacred timeline, there were hundreds of millions of different timelines, all fighting for dominance. Every timeline thought that they had the right to rule all of the timelines."

"But... isn't that what the Time Keepers are doing? Ruling all of everything?" you ask.

"Well, yes. But they had to choose one timeline, there couldn't be multiple. That would entirely defeat the object of their endeavours." Mobius says.

"They sound like a bunch of hypocrites to me." you mutter, looking at the ceiling.

"Hey, you should be a bit more grateful. You turn out great in the sacred timeline, and so does Loki."

You look back to him so fast that something twinges in your neck.

"Loki survives?"

"Yes." Mobius says, smiling.

"So... there are multiple 'variants' of Loki?" you frown.

"And you. And everyone. But there are thousands of Y/N and Loki variants, far more than most other people. You two have caused the TVA quite a hassle over the past few millennia."

Your head all but explodes, questions bouncing around the inside of your skull like ping pong balls.

"Millennia?" you finally manage to sputter.

"I can only assume that's how long we've been around for. Time moves differently here, it's not very... linear." Mobius says casually, as though he's telling you the weather forecast.

"How many variants of us are there?"

"It's impossible to say. But for every Loki variant, there's a Y/N variant. And you always end up crossing paths, even if you hadn't yet met in the sacred timeline. I assume you know that the two of you are soulmates?"

You can't speak. You nod. Thousands of Y/N and Loki variants...

"You okay?" Mobius frowns.

"It's just... a lot." you manage.

"Yeah, it can't have been fun watching him die. But he never stays dead for long, I wouldn't worry."

You manage a pained smile as tears blur your vision yet again.

"I don't think he's coming back this time." you tell him, your voice constricted.

"I wouldn't be so sure."

You frown at Mobius.

"If you know something..."

"I don't, I swear. This is very much uncharted territory for me, I've never even met a Y/N variant before. Loki's just don't tend to stay dead." Mobius shrugs.

And there it is. The shred of hope.

"So, I can go back?" you ask, gripping the edge of your chair very tightly all of a sudden.

"Maybe, if you can help us. But that's unlikely, honestly." Mobius tells you nonchalantly. You fall back into your seat, defeated once again.

"Why did you interrupt my trial then? Just send me off to be 'reset', whatever that means." you scowl.

"I told you, we need your help. There's a Loki variant on the loose, and we need to catch them. They haven't met their Y/N variant yet, so they're still a bit... unhinged." Mobius tells you.

"They?" you ask.

"It could be a female variant." Mobius explains.

"I – oh." you say, blinking. Does that mean..?

"There are male variants of you too, yes." Mobius tells you, a slight smile spreading across his face.

"Okay. Cool." you say. Male versions of you. Why not?

"So, will you help us?"

"If I do, you'll send me back? To my timeline?" you ask, watching Mobius carefully.

"Perhaps." he says, avoiding eye contact.

You try and go into his mind, but you can't. You sit up, frowning, and try again. Nothing.

"You can't use your magic here. Doesn't work." Mobius informs you.

Panic rises in you quickly, but you push it down. Don't let him see that you're scared. You try for indifferent again, but fail miserably. There's too much going on. You have a shot at getting Loki back.

Correction: you are going to get Loki back. Your Loki. Not some variant of him. You decide there and then that that is what's going to happen. You'll need to earn Mobius' trust in order to do that though.

And you'll probably need a plan. You'll worry about that later.

"So? Will you help?" Mobius repeats.

"Yes. Fine." you say. He smiles, relieved.

"Great. That's great. Okay, so -"

He's cut off as the doors to the Time Theatre swing open. It's the woman who had arrested you, B-15.

"What are you doing?" she asks Mobius, who stands up. You do the same, feeling very exposed with no armour, no weapons and no magic.

"My job. Is it yours to interrupt?" Mobius retorts, visibly annoyed.

"We have a situation." B-15 says solemnly.

"There's always a situation." Mobius sighs, raising his eyes heavenwards. Then he turns to you.

"Stay here. I won't be long."

You nod, and they leave. You stand still for about four and a half seconds before moving quickly towards the door.

Yes, you need to gain Mobius' trust, but you also want to see if you can find a quicker route out of here.

A quick peek around the door tells you that Mobius and B-15 are gone, and so you run. You miss your magic so much, invisibility right now would be immeasurably helpful.

You have no idea where you're going, taking corners at random and praying you don't run into any guards. With a bit of artful dodging and perceptiveness, you make it pretty far from the Time Theatre without getting caught.

The next corner you race around you find a door labelled 'Evidence Room'. Bingo. If you can find the gauntlet you might be able to use the Space stone to get out of here.

And then... what?

You swat away the doubt which invades your mind forcefully. You'll work it out. Mobius said it himself: Loki's don't stay dead for long.

You push open the doors into the Evidence Room and, as if the universe is trying to prove your point, you walk straight into Loki.

"Hey – watch it." he scowls, whipping around to look at you as you stagger backwards. Your brain, and body, cease to work. You just stare.

He's Loki, but he's not. He looks different, but you can't work out how. Younger, infinitesimally, maybe. His hair is shorter. He doesn't look at you like he loves you, or even knows you. Rather, like you're something unpleasant that he's just trodden in.

The Loki variant... you have to assume he's a variant, turns back around without so much as a second glance in your direction. He's holding something small in his hand, and has the word VARIANT written across his back in large orange letters. Well, that clears that up.

You're definitely in shock.

"Hey." Loki whispers suddenly, forcefully, and darts over to a man next to a trolley full of various items. It's the man from behind the desk, the one who B-15 had given the gauntlet to. You look around for it, but don't see it.

"Hey, I know you. You're the criminal with the blue box." Casey says to Loki.

"Sh – shush!" Loki hushes him, pulling him down behind a desk. It occurs to you that you should probably hide too, so you move to crouch down with the two men.

Loki turns to look at you incredulously as you join them.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" he asks you irritably. He may as well have stabbed you.

"I – no." you whisper back.

Loki shakes his head in annoyance, and turns back to Casey. You close your mouth.

"What's your name?" Loki hisses to Casey.

"Casey."

"Give me the Tesseract, or I'll gut you like a fish Casey." Loki says threateningly. You stare at him.

"What's a fish?" Casey says, looking genuinely bewildered. You turn to stare at him instead.

"How do you not know what a fish is?" Loki asks in disbelief. Once again you have to remind yourself that you are not, in fact, dreaming.

You pinch yourself again, just to make sure. Your nails dig in and draw blood. Fine. It's definitely not a dream.

"I just want to know exactly what I'm being threatened with before I comply." Casey is saying.

"Death, Casey. Violent, painful death." Loki states angrily.

"Okay, okay! I comply, jees." Casey says, standing up and opening a desk drawer. He pulls the Tesseract out and hands it to Loki, who also stands up. You follow suit.

"Here. Is this it?" Casey asks.

Loki doesn't reply. He's staring into the desk drawer with a look of bewildered horror on his face. His expression scares you so much that you almost don't follow his gaze.

Almost.

There are Infinity Stones in the desk drawer. Loads of them. For the third time today, your brain doesn't let you believe what your eyes are seeing. Loki is speaking, but you can't hear him; he sounds as though he's at the end of a very long tunnel.

They can't be real. They can't have Infinity Stones just lying around in desk drawers. You reach out to touch one, a Mind stone, and it hums gently beneath your touch. Very solid. Very real. It's only until you start to go lightheaded that you realise you're not breathing.

"How do you have these?" you croak, still staring into the drawer, and both Loki and Casey turn to look at you.

"Oh, we actually get a lot of these. Some of the guys use them as paperweights." Casey tells you. Your knees decide that they don't want to work anymore, and you sit down heavily on the floor, all thoughts of an escape plan out the window.

There's no way you're getting out of here.

Loki has moved across the room, away from you, to watch a screen which has a straight line cruising across the middle of it. The sacred timeline.

Paperweights.

The doors to the evidence room fly open, and B-15 appears with a couple of guards. Loki quickly does something with the small thing in his hand, and disappears. Then, much to your surprise, he reappears next to you and grabs your arm.

The next thing you know you're back in a Time Theatre. Number five, this time. To your surprise, the Avengers are projected on the screen, looking a lot younger than the last time you'd seen them. You feel a pang as you look at Thor.

Loki roughly lets go of your arm and stands back a few paces to look at you.

"You're Y/N." he says, a statement rather than a question.

"Yes." you say, looking to him, trying to ignore the annoying ache in your chest which is your heart. He doesn't know who you are.

"Mobius told me about you. Soulmates, he said." Loki scoffs, looking at you as though he wants you to laugh with him, and tell him he's wrong.

You can only nod. Loki frowns, looking at you intently.

"You know another version of me, then? A variant?" he asks. You can't help but smile at the absurdness of it all. Then you want to cry.

"Yes." you say. You don't trust yourself to start talking. Loki is silent for a while before he speaks again, watching you.

"What did you do? What was your Nexus Event?" he finally asks.

"I killed Thanos."

"You -" Loki starts, blinking a few times, clearly stunned.

"You killed Thanos? You?" he eventually manages, staring at you.

You can't help but feel slightly offended.

"Yes. Me." you retort.

"How? Why?" Loki asks, incredulous.

"With my magic. And a massive glaive." you tell him.

"Why?" he repeats. You think he might know.

"He kill -" the words get lodged in your throat and you have to try again, swallowing hard.

"He killed you. Or, your variant. My variant." you say, your voice breaking a bit on the last word.

Loki sits down heavily in a chair, dropping the small thing he'd used to get you out of the evidence room on to the table. You slowly sit down opposite him.

"Mobius told me I die a lot." he says, after a very long silence.

"That was the third time you've died since I met you." you tell him, looking at the table, then at him as he looks at you.

"How long had you known me for?" he asks you. You think.

"Almost five years. But we spent some time on Midgard and some on Asgard, so I'm not really sure." you tell him.

"Right. And is that...?" he trails off, apparently unable to say what he's thinking, nodding towards your left hand. You frown and follow his gaze, bringing your hand up to your face.

You'd completely forgotten about the ring.

You feel as though something very large and solid has struck you in the chest, and for a few seconds you can't breathe, let alone reply. Tears prick your eyes again, and this time when you try to blink them away it only makes it worse.

Loki is dead, and yet he's sat opposite you, staring as though you're some sort of ghost.

Overwhelmed, you bury your head in your hands, elbows on the table.

Don't cry. Stop crying. There's nothing you can do -

"What?" Loki says.

"I didn't say anyth-" you trail off suddenly, lifting your head to stare at him.

"What?" he repeats.

Can you hear me? you think.

Loki looks terrified.

"How are you doing that?" he asks, half raising a hand to his head. You feel a wall go up around his mind.

"We can hear each other's thoughts. If we want to." you tell him, sitting back in your chair.

"Why? Because of the..?"

"Soulmate thing. Yes." you say.

Loki looks vaguely sick.

You're beginning to wish that Mobius had just let the judge send you off to be 'reset'. You don't need to know what that means to know that it's better than the situation you currently find yourself in.

Anything is better than this.