Timeline - A Lokius Story

Prologue

Mobius's hand is reaching out for Loki's, desperately trying to find it. Loki, who can barely see through all the smoke, is reaching back.

"Hurry!" Mobius's voice cuts through the deafening sound of the crackling fire and the explosions still happening around them. And he's suddenly calling out for Ravonna and B-15 as well, trying to locate them by the sounds of their voices.

An ember lands on Loki's shoulder, catching the fabric of his shirt on fire. He frantically swats at it with his free hand, the one that's not locking onto Mobius's, in a desperate attempt to get it off of him.

Sylvie, he realizes, is right behind him. He reaches for her then, grabbing her hand as well as Mobius drags all five of them through a Time Door just as the ceilings are collapsing behind them.

The last thing Loki sees before he runs through the door is bodies. So many bodies. D-90. Casey. Minutemen he would've considered his acquaintances, if not his friends. They're all dead.

He doesn't have time to grieve right now. He makes it through the Time Door, where the hot air of wherever they are attacks him. But the air is fresh, so he takes several deep, shuddering breaths to clear the smoke from his lungs, and then he began to cough.

Sylvie pulls her hand away from Loki's, but Mobius doesn't. They're all standing in a circle, breathing hard and fast, coughing.

"Everyone alright?" Mobius finally asks. "Anyone hurt?"

Loki originally wasn't going to say anything about his burned shoulder, but Sylvie points at him. Loki glares at her.

"All those people," B-15 says, and her voice is soft and filled with a pain that Loki has never heard in a person's voice before.

Suddenly Loki's heart is aching for everyone who died, for his friends and acquaintances and the ones he never met. If the TVA hadn't been blocking his magic, he could've saved some of them. But they're dead now, and he can't change it.

"Where are we?" Ravonna asks in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

"I think we're in Nebraska, but I didn't take the time to look," Mobius admits. "Let me look —" he takes out his TemPad and checks it — "yeah, Nebraska."

Loki glances around quickly. They're surrounded by what appears to be a vast nothingness on all sides, but in the distance he can make out the shape of a town, or perhaps a city.

"When?" Ravonna asks.

Mobius looks at the TemPad again. "2019. And... it looks like we're in a timeline without..."

He doesn't say the name Thanos, but Loki knows.

"Interesting," Mobius muses, putting the TemPad back into his pocket. "I didn't know there were any timelines without him."

"Well, there wouldn't be," Ravonna sighs, "if that didn't happen."

Everyone glances at each other. Sylvie speaks up next.

"Perhaps we should find shelter," she suggests. Always the survivalist, Loki thinks in admiration.

"In the city?" asks B-15.

"Where else?" Sylvie points out, looking at the Hunter like she's an idiot. "It's not like there's going to be a random empty cabin in the woods."

Loki, however, has just spotted exactly what Sylvie said wouldn't be there. He clears his throat and nods his head towards the building. He hears Sylvie mutter something under her breath that sounds similar to, "Damn you, Laufeyson."

Mobius rolls his eyes at the two. "Come on, then," he says. "The sun's going down, let's get out of the open."

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And that's the prologue! Not terrible, but not great. I wrote about 80% of this at 3 A.M. and then had to try and write a few closing paragraphs after that. It... worked.

Stay fresh, cheese bags.