Loki and Wanda sat at next to each other at a desk. Loki's legs were up on the table and Wanda's legs were on his lap.

"I thought that his assigning us to this variant problem and getting us out of those ridiculous jumpsuits meant we would be going on some sort of mission, not stuck learning a bunch of TVA bullshit." Wanda grumbled.

"Okay y'all! Let's review what we've learned." Miss Minutes said cheerfully. "What happens when a nexus event branches past red line?"

"Very bad things." Loki replied.

He was reading what Wanda assumed was a fake- or original technically magazine, but honestly she hadn't read the cover.

"Alright, Wanda what is it?" Miss Minutes turned.

"When the TVA can no longer fix or reset the Nexus event." Wanda replied with a sigh.

"Right! And that would lead to the destruction of the timeline and the collapse of reality as we know it."

The orange, translucent clock figure stood on the table between the two. She was about a foot tall with white gloves and black legs. Everything else was orange.

"Can you here us?" Loki asked, putting the paper down. "Are you a recording or are you alive?"

"Uhh sorta both!" Miss Minutes chirped.

Loki nodded. "Ah."

He quickly sat up and went to hit the recording with his paper. Wanda's legs jerked back a bit so he wouldn't crush her legs and she quickly scooted them under the desk.

"Watch it! Where's your manners!?" Miss Minutes exclaimed as she jumped away from Loki's paper.

Loki smiled like a kid and attempted at hitting her again, causing her to jump to the other side of Loki, then on a stack of books.

"Hey! Quit it!"

Loki attempted at hitting her again and Wanda rolled her eyes.

Miss Minutes jumped to the small computer on the desk and pointed her finger at Loki.

"That is not nice."

Miss Minutes then transformed and formed into the screen on the computer.

"Jerk." She muttered.

"You can't hide in the computer." Loki frowned.

Wanda chuckled.

"Training goin' well?" Mobius asked as he approached the pair.

"Loki scared the clock lady." Wanda replied.

"Is that my jet ski magazine?" Mobius asked, pointing at the paper in Loki's hands. "Put it down. Come on, gear up."

He handed Wanda a package, then Loki a package as well.

"There's been an attack, let's go."

Wanda smiled and took the package. "Finally."

She and Loki both opened theirs. Loki's was significantly smaller than her's, which made Wanda a bit confused. Loki pulled his out and it was a jacket with the word VARIANT written on the back.

"Put it on." Mobius encouraged.

He did and it fit him nicely.

"Good. Yeah. Smart." Mobius nodded.

Loki didn't seem to notice the print on the back of it, and Mobius gave a look to Wanda that said ‘don't tell him’, so she didn't.

"You too Wanda." He said.

Wanda pulled hers out of the package and out came a dress that was a lighter color than the original jumpsuit, and had a light purple belt around it. On the back were orange letters that said VARIANT.

Wanda looked at the dress, then at Mobius, then at the dress, then at Mobius.

"This a joke right?"

"What do you mean?"

"You expect me to fight a dangerous Loki variant.. in this?"

"You'd look good in it."

"I may be magic but I can't work all miracles."

Wanda tossed the dress behind her, along with the packaging and Mobius gave a sigh.

The three were led by Mobius to the room next door to where a small group sat, including Hunter B-15 and a few others that both Loki and Wanda had seen before. One, Wanda noted, who had brought her into the court room when she first got there.

"Where's the dress?" A random guard asked as they entered.

"On the ground in the other room." Wanda replied in a monotone.

Mobius gave a look to the soldier that said ‘leave it’.

"Do you have another jacket? I'll wear on of those." Wanda said with a smile.

"We only have one with us right now." The guard said with a frown.

Wanda rolled her eyes and Hunter B-15 cut them off by starting the meeting.

"C-20 and her team went dark shortly after they jumped into the 1985 branch. All signs point to another ambush. We've grabbed enough temporal arua to know it's our Loki variant. But which kind of Loki, remains unknown."

"They're the lesser kind, to be clear." Loki interrupted.

No one said anything until Hunter B-15 spoke.

"Let me see the back of that jacket."

Loki gave a confused look, but turned around to show her. Her turned his neck to see what was on, and he gave an eye roll.

"Very subtle. Well done." He scoffed. "Did you know about this?" He whispered to Wanda.

"No." Wanda replied, hiding a smile.

"I don't want anybody out there to forget what you are." Hunter B-15 replied to the first comment.

"Oh, half of your only hope of capturing a murderer?"

"No. A cosmic mistake."

"That's enough." Mobius intervened.

"Lovely, so where's her's?" Loki asked, pointing at Wanda.

"Oh the ground in the other room." Hunter B-15 replied.

"Here's the deal." Mobius started. "When we get out on the branch, we're not just looking for a time criminal. We're looking for a Loki. A variation of this guy."

Mobius clicked a button on a new device her had and a showing of a blue Loki appeared. Wanda tilted her head, a bit confused but not saying anything.

Mobius continued. "A type we should all be very familiar with, because the TVA has pruned a lot of these guys, almost more than any other variant."

A different Loki popped up, this time one as a soccer king.

"And no two are alike. A light difference in appearance or.." Mobius clicked another button and the soccer dude switched with an overly muscly Loki who looked like a human bear. "Or not so light."

"Different powers, although, powers, generally include shapeshifting, illusion projecting, and my personal favorite-"

"Duplication casting." Loki cut in.

More Loki's were popping up as Mobius spoke and they stopped when Loki spoke. Mobius cut off the slide show and repeated himself.

"Illusion projection."

"No, they're two completely different powers." Loki stated.

"How?" Mobius asked as if he were dumb.

"Illusion projection involves depicting a detailed image from outside oneself, which is perceptible in the external world, whereas duplication-casting entails recreating and exact facsimile of one's own body in it's present circumstance, which acts as a true holographic mirror of it's molecular structure." Loki said. "But uh, you already knew that."

Everyone looked at him as if he were an alien, and Wanda looked at him with a curious look.

"Do we read out of the same books? That sounds like the description to the abilities I read about in some of my books." She said.

"Perhaps." Loki replied.

"Noted." Mobius said calmly before immediately switching back the subject. "We're gonna break into two teams, including myself, Miss Wanda, and Professor Loki."

"Why?" A soldier asked.

"Because whoever this Variant is, we haven't been able to find him. So let's bring in an expert." Mobius said.

"Or her." Wanda added.

"Hmm?"

"You said 'him'. If Loki's a shapeshifter then how do you know this variant isn't a female. Maybe that's why you can't catch them."

Mobius narrowed his eyes and gave a hum.

"Maybe, make that an expert and a feminist witch." Mobius fixed his sentence.

Wanda rolled her eyes.

"That's me. I'm the expert." Loki said, pointing a thumb at himself.

"Alright, get ready, get your pruners and other weapons you might need. Break." Hunter B-15 finished.

Mobius gestured for Loki and Wanda to come with him, so they did.

"Do I get a weapon?" Loki asked as they walked.

"Nah." Mobius replied.

"Well, both of us will have our magic back. Is no one concerned about that?" He continued.

"Of what?"

"Us betraying you."

"No." Mobius replied, very calm about Loki asking about him betraying everyone.

"Why not?"

"Well I don't think your Avenger friend will betray us, and we can catch you." Mobius answered. "Besides how's betraying us gonna get you any closer to the Time-Keepers?"

Loki stopped walking so Mobius and Wanda did as well.

"An audience with the Time-Keepers is on the table?" He asked.

"Keep that focus." Mobius replied.

He then took Loki by the shoulder and kept moving them forward.

A yellow door opened, larger than the previous ones and the three watched as soldiers went through before they followed.

"Apex of Nexus signature located, ma'am." A soldier said to Hunter B-15.

Mobius stood between Loki and Wanda as they walked into the new place. It was a carnival like place, but with dress up.

Wanda smiled to herself as she felt the magic in her coming back.

"So let me ask you this, why don't we just travel back to before the attack, when the variant first arrives?" Loki asked as they walked.

"Nexus events destabilize the time flow. This branch is still changing and growing, so you gotta show up in real time. Did you watch any of the training videos you were supposed to?" Mobius replied.

"Well, as many as I could stand. Wanda turned it off before I could though so blame her." Loki replied.

"Your hand was reaching out to stop it and I moved your hand away, then accidentally bumped it which stopped it." Wanda stated with an eyeroll.

"And?"

"So what do these do?" A soldier came up behind them and showed two small can like items painted purple with a gold outline.

"Reset charges prune the affected radius of a branched timeline, allowing time to heal all it's wounds." Loki started.

"Or a nice way of saying destroy and disintegrate everything in it's area." Wanda finished.

"Good job." Mobius said, sounding like a proud father.

"We watched the videos! Some of them."

The group entered a carnival tent, which surprisingly had no one in it.

"So he's taking hostages now?" Hunter B-15 asked.

Loki followed Mobius to where they were looking while Wanda stepped to the center area of the tent, looking around.

"The variant's never taken a hostage before." Mobius said.

"Maybe he's upping his game." B-15 said.

"Or he pruned her." A soldier suggested.

"A Loki couldn't have gotten the jump on C-20." B-15 said.

"I think you underestimate, actually-"

"Fan out and search for her." B-15 stated, ignoring Loki. "And hurry up, we're at three units until red line."

"Come on." Mobius said to Loki, turning to exit the tent. "Wanda what are you doing?"

While the soldiers were talking, Wanda had stepped between two of the dead soldiers. Red magic swirled through her fingers and her eyes glowed red, showing she was using her magic.

The soldiers all turned to look at her and B-15 glared.

"Keep moving, we need to find C-20, this is a distraction." She claimed.

"No." Wanda said, louder than how she'd spoken before. "They're not here. Neither of them. The only magic readings are coming from me and our Loki."

"The TVA isn't magic, witch." B-15 stated.

"I've been in the TVA for more than 24 hours, if not longer, I know the senses of your soldiers well now too. This C-20 is not here. The two did leave together, as their traces end there." Wanda explained.

"Where?" Mobius asked, much more gentle than B-15.

"There. Next to that pole." Wanda said, pointing at an empty spot on the grass.

"Great, you found out they were here, we need to leave. Two units. This was a waste of time." B-15 rolled her eyes.

Mobius glanced at Wanda before moving to where the portal supposedly was.

"Reset the timeline." He said.

A soldier placed one of the charges down and another casted a door portal. Mobius gestured for the variants to go and both glanced at him before walking through.

"What magic do you have exactly?" Loki asked as they went back into the TVA office.

"Chaos. Also regular spellcasting." Wanda replied. "And what about you?"

"Well Asgardian for starters.. You know they call me the most powerful sorcerer on Asgard." Loki said.

"Ah. I'm sure you and our sorcerer would get along great." Wanda replied.

Mobius got in front of them and led them to an unfamiliar area. He made them sit on chairs in front of a green door.

"I'm going to be a few minutes. Don't leave."

When Mobius left, Wanda turned her attention back to Loki.

"Where do you think the elevator leads?" Loki asked.

Wanda shrugged.

"So you have a sorcerer?"

"Dr. Strange, Tony hired him once for a party thinking he was a magician, he showed up asking about the check he got from Stark and then explained how he wasn't a party person, only a doctor. Then he helped on a few missions after that." Wanda explained.

"Ah."

"So you said Asgardian for starters, what else can you do?" She asked.

"Well not to brag but I've done astral projection, shape-shifting, hypnosis, energy blasts, levitating, conjuration, telekinesis and teleportation." He said proudly.

Wanda smiled.

"Very impressive. What books did you learn from?"

"Asgardian ones that my mother gave to me. She used to teach me everything. Who taught you?" Loki asked.

"Um I taught myself. And I got books from an old.. Frenemy. Her name was Agatha."

"Was? What happened to her?"

"Some stuff happened. She goes by Agnes now."

Loki gave a confused look, but decided not to ask.

Multiple minutes passed by but finally the doors opened again and Loki looked over with excited eyes while Wanda merely turned her head.

Mobius whistled and Loki hopped up. Wanda got up and followed him.

"So about the mission," Loki started. "Well I have some guesses but I think I know what to do. See something about being a trickster is knowing that everyone knows your a trickster. You have to expect the expected. This variant took the C-20 person because they want us to follow them. We have to know that because knowing that will lead to us understanding the weak points in whatever trap the variant is setting up."

"Okay shut up Professor Loki. What happened to the guy I met on the elevator? Who didn't like to talk? Remember him? Now I'm stuck with this guy who won't stop yacking away about Loki traps." Mobius said.

"What? Isn't that precisely why I'm here?" Loki asked.

"No. I don't care about these traps. You're here to help me catch the superior version of yourself."

"Hang on!"

"That's it."

"I'm not sure 'superior' is actually quite the right word."

Wanda sped up to keep up with the two, gods they walked fast.

"See? There it is. Right there." Mobius said.

Both stopped suddenly so Wanda had to stop herself from running into either. They had reached an elevator.

"I believed, stupidly, that insecure need for validation would motivate you to find the killer. Not cause you care about the TVA mission or bein' a hero, but because you know this variant is better than you and you can't take it." He finished.

Loki gave a smile.

"Very nice."

Loki moved closer and held out his hands to fix Mobius's tie while talking.

"I mean, it is adorable that you think you could possibly manipulate me." He stepped back. "I'm ten steps ahead of you. I've been playing a game of my own all along." He gave a satisfied smile.

"What? Charm your way in front of the Time-Keepers, hustle them, and seize control of the TVA? Am I getting warm? A double cross by history's most reliable liar."

"Okay. Why are you in there sticking your neck out for me?" Loki asked.

"Us." Wanda added.

"Us?" Loki finished.

"I'll give you two options and you can believe whichever one you want. A, because I see two scared little children, shivering in the cold. And you kinda feel bad for the little ice runt and the small family missing princess. Or B, I just wanna catch this guy and I'll tell you whatever I need to tell you."

The elevator that the three reached beeped and Mobius went in. Loki waiting a moment then also filed in, Wanda coming in last.

"I don't need your sympathy." He stated as he entered the elevator.

"Good. Cause I'm runnin' out of it."

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My favorite quote of this chapter: "You can't hide in the computer."