Chapter Text
Seeing himself lose again was one thing. Seeing the Avengers towering over him was something. It was like rubbing salt in an open wound, but he assumed that that was what Mobius was going for. Show him his losses to break him. But he'd survived Thanos. The TVA wasn't going to break him. No. He could survive their worst.
But then he saw Frigga die.
His last words to her were saying that she wasn't his mother. Maybe that was true. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't wrong. But as far as he cared, she was his mother. She'd raised him, basically on her own, and cared for him even when no one else did. And he hurt her, right before she died. He was the reason for her death. He killed the one person who had ever loved him.
He needed to stop himself, but he couldn't. He couldn't leave the TVA. He was trapped with nowhere to run. He was stuck with no way of saving the one person that had saved him. He was exhausted. Beyond exhausted. He was so tired of hurting people. He didn't want to run. If he ran, he'd be running from both the TVA and Thanos, and he couldn't do that. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life running. Constantly looking over his shoulder. He was so, so tired, and he couldn't run. He couldn't risk going back to Thanos, and he didn't want to be killed by him either. Even though death was a mercy, especially for what he did to Thanos, he didn't want to die at his hands. He couldn't do it.
He couldn't stop his hands from shaking. He was sat on the steps in front of the door of whatever room he was in, and part of him didn't care. He didn't care that he had his back to the door. That he didn't have his magic. All he had was a dud tesseract that wouldn't even work. It was just a fancy lamp. He was harmless. He just had his finest weapon, and he was planning on making full use of it.
So when he heard the door open, and that it was Mobius who had found him, he knew he had his work cut out for him.
"There's nowhere left to run, Loki."
He chuckled bitterly. "Does it look like I'm running?"
"No, it doesn't," Mobius replied. "So you're giving up?"
"You claim to know everything about me, yet you're asking me if I'm giving up?" He raised a brow. "I thought you would've known what I was doing before you walked into the room."
Mobius took a step closer to him. "I don't think a Loki would give up. Which bares the question - what's your plan?"
"How many others of me have you met?" He asked.
"Quite a few," he replied.
"And what have they been like?"
Mobius seemed perplexed at that. "Well... they've been mischievous. Mildly intimidating. There was one who just commanded power, even without his magic- it was kind of terrifying."
"And what of me?"
"You're... lost, I guess. You don't seem to know yourself. It's like you don't know how to be a Loki," he replied. "I've seen more intimidating cats."
Maybe Mobius was right. He was lost. He didn't know who he was anymore. He used to. He was Loki Odinson. He would spend most of his free time in the palace library, and the rest of his time in meetings with the Council. He spent some time in the towns, making sure that everything was okay, and if he really, really had to, he'd be at royal events. He hated them with a burning passion, but he never had a choice. It was mainly because Odin would spend the entire thing comparing him to Thor. But he wasn't Thor, and the was his advantage.
Then he found out that he was a Jotun. A frost giant. It made sense. He was the disgrace of the family. He never fit in. It did make him wonder, though, why Odin would let him get so involved in Asgardian politics, but he figured that it was because he had a natural talent for it and Thor didn't. One of them had to do it, he guessed. It made sense as to why he was so different to the Aesir. Why he had to hide so much of himself just to survive.
He didn't know who Loki Laufeyson was, and he didn't know if he wanted to.
He just wanted to be Loki, whoever that was.
"And what exactly is your plan?" He asked. "You saved me for a reason. What is it?"
He'd been saved once before without asking to be saved, and it hadn't ended well.
"I have a variant to catch, and I think you would be good help," he replied.
Loki raised a brow. "You want my help?"
"Better than dying, isn't it?"
He stood up, his gaze never leaving Mobius. "You think that you know me. That you know what I've done, and who I am, and who I'll be. Though I think that you're wrong. You know versions of me. You know people who may share the same name as me, or are a version of me in another branch of the multiverse, but you don't know me. You don't know who I am."
Mobius raised a brow as he took a step towards Loki. "I think that you're hurt, that you're unsure of what to do considering your allegiance to Thanos didn't work out- I think that you're scared. You're completely and utterly powerless here, and you're scared."
He chuckled bitterly. "If you know of my time with Thanos then you should know that nothing truly scares me. Not anymore," he replied. "No. I think you're so used to being powerful here that you underestimate anyone who isn't immediately threatening. And just because I don't look like Thor, that I don't have my seidr- I was raised a warrior and I taught myself how to survive."
"What? Am I meant to be scared because you're a 'warrior'?" He asked.
"No. Because you have your ways too," he replied. "No. What you should be scared of- is that I've survived for centuries around people who underestimated me. Who didn't see me as a threat, even without my seidr. And that's how I survived. Being underestimated. So, my dear Mobius, I will enjoy it very much when I rip you apart from limb to limb, starting with the least fatal, making you watch as your blood soaks the floor and paints the walls red. You will watch as I kill everyone here, slowly, painfully, until death finally takes mercy on you. I will burn this place to the ground, without my seidr, and I will rule the TVA."
Mobius just stared at him. "Do you really think that?"
Loki grinned. "I know it."
He knocked the time stick out of Mobius's hand before he threw a punch to his face. His knuckles burnt a bit when they made contact with Mobius's nose, but he didn't care. He gave the man a chance to recoup before he went for another blow, but was blocked. Mobius grabbed his fist and pushed him back, making him stagger. He kicked his stomach, sending Loki back to the floor, and when he went to get up, the time stick was pointed at him, stopping him from getting up any further.
He had to stop himself from smiling.
"So that's your plan," Mobius said.
"What?"
"Try to distract me so you could do that, and end up in this exact position," he replied. "You gave me an opening."
"I had to give you a fair chance," he said.
"No. You let me win." He raised a brow. "You want me to kill you."
He chuckled tiredly. "I suppose you do really know me."
"Why?"
"I will not spend my life here, serving you, and waiting for the day where I'm no longer useful. Waiting for the day where you dispose of me. And I will not wait for Thanos to catch up to me." He finally met Mobius's eye. "I'm not your toy, and I'm not something for you to play with. I will not trade the prison of my past life with this. I refuse to trade one prison for another, and I refuse to keep running."
Mobius faltered at that. "I'm not going to kill you, Loki."
"Then you're far weaker than I expected," he replied. "Would you hesitate if I got your dear, lovely Ravonna? What would you do if I pierced her heart with her own gavel? Would you hesitate then? Or perhaps if I pruned Hunter B-15? She doesn't even have a name. Why would you care about her?"
"You're not going to kill anyone here."
"Oh, am I not?" He grinned. "You care for Ravonna. I could see that the moment you stood up to her. And she cares for you too. Can you imagine her face when I impale her with her gavel, knowing that you're the reason I wasn't killed at my trial? To see the betrayal, that you let me kill her."
There was a moment where Loki thought that he'd done it. That Mobius really was going to kill him. But then he saw the realisation set in his features and his plan went up in flames. Mobius wasn't going to kill him. Not when he knew that that was his plan. B-15 would. Without hesitation. He sort of wished that she was the one that found him instead. He would've been dead the moment she walked through the door.
"I guess you don't need a weapon to be dangerous."
"Why do you think I'm often gagged?" He asked with a tired smile. "My words are my best weapon."
"I see that now," he replied. "I can't let you go, Loki."
"I don't expect you to," he said. "And as you said, I've nowhere to go."
He raised a brow. "So that really is your plan? Dying?"
"To die will be an awfully big adventure."
"Are you seriously quoting Peter Pan right now?"
"Apparently," he replied. "I've threatened your friends. What can you really do now?"
"I'm not going to kill you, Loki."
"Then I suppose I should pay Ravonna a visit." He grinned. "Is she your only friend here? That's rather unfortunate. This place is rather isolating, isn't it? Perhaps the Time-Keepers like you all that way. Lonely and easy to manipulate."
"Loki, I swear to god- you're a little shit, you know that?"
"I've been told," he replied.
Mobius just stared at him. He was trying to figure out what to do, he realised. He didn't think that he'd left Mobius with any other options. He was dangerous. An active threat. Considering he'd threatened many, many people, he wasn't someone they could keep around. Maybe he should kill Mobius just to prove that he had to be killed. Not that anyone else needed convincing. Mobius was the only one that wanted him alive, he just didn't know why.
"You know, Loki- I think you were right before," he said. "I didn't know you. But I think I do now."
"You do?"
He threw the time stick to the side. "I know that you're scared of being out of control. And that's why you lash out. Why you've threatened the people closest to me. You use your words to hurt people, either to get your own way, to stay in control of a situation, or- or to keep people away. You hurt people because they hurt you, and it's easier to hurt them first than to let them hurt you. You're- you're scared. You're always scared. But that's what makes you dangerous."
He raised a brow. "You're not underestimating me now?"
"No. Because I don't know what you're capable of," he replied. "So you've lost the upper hand."
"Hm," he hummed. "I suppose I have."
"I feel like there's a 'but' there."
"But-" he grinned as he got up and grabbed the time stick. "You let your guard down."
"Loki, no-"
"Goodbye, Mobius."