⟬𝟯.𝟭⟭ 𝐁𝐘𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 ➣ {𝕝•𝕝} ❘ [𝕷𝖔𝕶𝖎𝖘𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖝 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗]

╰┈➤ ❝ [ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰɪᴇʟᴅ] ❞

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

📍OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN

1985
━━(•)━━

They walked through the golden gateway to the other side what looked like a renaissance fair.

"Apex of nexus signature located, ma'am." One of the minutemen said to B-15. Loki, Y/N, Mobius, and Beulla followed them, talking between themselves.

"Let me ask you this, why don't we just travel back to before the attack," Loki asked the two TVA agents, "When the Variant first arrives?"

"Nexus events destabilize the time flow," Y/N answered, receiving a surprised look from the agents, "What?" she looked from one to another, "Hey, I watched the videos, alright?"

"Not bad," Mobius appreciated, "And this branch is still changing and growing, so you gotta show up in real-time."

Y/N kept trying to avoid the look of a man whose eyes were raking her form, not far away from her. It wasn't something she was new to, but it made her uncomfortable nonetheless.

Loki turned to her intending to annoy her for his entertainment, but seeing her awkward grimace, he looked around for something that was causing her to look so congested. He finally caught sight of the man (who was basically undressing Y/N with his eyes) and glared at the man in a scrutinizing manner, catching the man off guard and successively scaring him away.

"Hm," Beulla smirked to herself, looking between the man, Y/N, and Loki, "What an interesting development,"

Loki heard this but decided to ignore it since he knew very well that she would tease him with it if he reacted.

"Did you watch any of the training videos you guys were supposed to?" Mobius asked Loki, oblivious to what Beulla had just watched unfold.

"Well, as many as I could stand." Loki replied, shoving his hands in his pocket in pride as Y/N seemed to get more pleasant, now that the creepy man was gone, "Your stupid TVA propaganda is exhausting,"

"And what do these do?" The minuteman behind him asked, showing the small cylindrical tubes he was holding.

"Reset charges prune the affected radius of a branched timeline, allowing time to heal all its wounds. Which sounds like a nice way of saying disintegrate everything in its vicinity."

"They're both on it," Mobius nodded.

"I watched the videos. I mean, some of them."

Mobius pushed the curtain of the tent aside to let Y/N and Beulla in and followed them inside with Loki after.

B-15 noticed a helmet on the floor, "So he's taking hostages now?"

"The Variant's never taken a hostage before," Beulla thought out loud.

"Maybe he's upping his game."

"Or he pruned her," Mobius offered.

"A Loki couldn't have gotten the jump on C-20."

"I think you underestimate, actually," Loki began.

"Fan out and search for her." B-15 ordered the other minutemen, "And hurry up because we're at three units until red line," she glanced at the TemPad in her hand.

"Come on." Mobius urged, making Y/N elbow Loki to get his attention.

"Wait," Loki called out to them, keeping his gaze on the floor, "If you leave this tent, you'll end up like them."

"What do you see?" Mobius stepped closer to him with Beulla.

"I see a scheme, and in that scheme, I see myself. We have a saying in Asgard, 'Where there are wolf's ears, wolf's teeth are near,'" he crouched down beside the helmet on the floor.

"It means to be aware of your surroundings," Y/N crossed her arms.

"Precisely," he nodded in approval, "Which is absurd, because my people are, by nature, gullible fools. A trait that I, the God of Mischief, exploited time and time again simply by listening. My teeth were sharp, but my ears even sharper," he finished as the two TVA agents looked at him closely.

"We're running out of time, Mobius," B-15 informed in annoyance.

"Hold it," Beulla held up a hand, "Just give him a chance."

"You know remind me of them," Loki continued, "The Time Variance Authority and the gods of Asgard, one and the same. Drunk with power, blinded to the truth. Those you underestimate will devour you. You underestimate us, just as you underestimate this lesser Loki. Which is why you walk into one wolf's mouth after another."

"Two units," B-15 interjected, "He's wasting our time."

"Okay. Come on, Loki," Mobius waved a hand impatiently, "Make a long story short."

"We need to look for C-20." B-15 stopped in front of Mobius as he hold his hand out for her to wait.

"That's exactly what the Variant wants you to do," Loki told, "It's a trap. He's waiting for you outside this tent."

"Should I secure the reset charges?" one of the minutemen asked.

"No. He wants us. We're the key to his plan. He knows that we're stronger than him."

"Almost one unit," B-15 notified.

"But that's not what we want. We have a new purpose," Loki turned to Y/N who had a clueless expression splattered all over her face. Rolling his eyes, he continued himself, "We are servants of the Sacred Timeline,"

B-15 threw him a weird look; Y/N let out a derisive noise at the back of her throat, crossing her arms.

"And knowing what I now know about his tactics, I can deliver you the Variant." Loki walked over to Mobius' back, "But we need assurances."

"Mhmm?" Beulla nodded for him to continue, exchanging a glance with Mobius.

"Assurances that we won't be completely disintegrated the moment the job has been done," he gestured between himself and Y/N.

"Yeah, agreed," Y/N added.

"Right," Mobius paused, not finding anything to say.

"We'll need to speak to the Time-Keepers at once. They're in graver danger than we realized," Loki spoke.

"He's lying. Just playing games." Beulla waved him off, turning around facing everyone, "There's no one out there."

"Reset the timeline," B-15 ordered another minuteman.

"You had me for a second," Mobius admitted, "Our ears are sharp too," he walked out of the tent with Beulla with Loki and Y/N close behind them.

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