The actions of Avengers from an alternate timeline have allowed Loki to acquire the Tesseract and use it to escape from custody, landing in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. As Loki finds himself surrounded by the native villagers there, the Time Variance Authority troops emerge from portals. They brand Loki as "Variant" and intend to arrest him for "Crimes Against the Sacred Timeline." Loki attempts to fight his way out, but Hunter B-15 alters his body's flow of time with Time Twister. The TVA then plants a charge to reset the timeline before taking Loki in.
Unable to escape, Loki gets brought to the Time Variance Authority Office, while the Tesseract gets confiscated. During the processing, Loki gets stripped of his Asgardian Armor, undergoes a test of being an organic being, before being brought to the waiting room. He watches an introduction video with Miss Minutes, explaining that TVA was founded by the Time-Keepers following an inter-timeline war, with the intention to uphold the order in the reorganized Multiverse. The TVA is responsible for watching out for any alterations of the Sacred Timeline and hunting down the Variants, before they can causee a nexus event that can lead to branching timelines and another multiversal conflict.
Mobius M. Mobius investigates a nexus event in a 1549 France when a Minuteman notifies him that the variant Loki has been captured. At the TVA courtroom, Loki accuses the Avengers of altering the timeline, but Ravonna Renslayer dismisses it, claiming that the Avengers' actions were predetermined, while Loki's escape was not. As Loki fails to use his magic against the TVA, Renslayer sentences him to be erased form the timeline, but Mobius intervenes. In an interrogation room, Mobius talks to Loki about his superiority complex and desire to hurt others, showing him various clips of the original Loki's life to undermine his superiority complex. Loki questions the authenticity of the Time-Keepers, arguing that it was by choice and not fate that led him to become who he is.
Mobius then shows him what eventually happened in the original timeline: being incarcerated in an Asgardian Catacombs, Loki indirectly causes the death of Frigga. An appaled Loki denies it, but Mobius tells him that all of it was intended to happen in the timeline, created by the Time-Keepers. B-15 summons Mobius to discuss a fallen Minutemen unit, so Loki uses his opportunity to escape. He threatens Casey to retrieve the Tesseract, bu then finds an extensive collection of dormant Infinity Stones. This causes him to contemplate recognizing the TVA as the most tremendous power in the universe.
B-15 arrives at the office and tries to erase Loki, but Loki teleports himself back into the interrogation room using the Twister. Observing the TVA file of his original self's life, he surfs further past Frigga's death. He tears up as he witnesses bonding moments Loki had with Odin and Thor, his membership in the Revengers, until he reaches the end of the recording, his death to Thanos. B-15 soon arrives and attacks the Asgardian, but he transfers his collar to the TVA soldier, teleporting her out of the room. As Mobius approaches him, Loki admits that he does not enjoy hurting people and simply wants to hide his weakness. Mobius reecruits Loki to respond to a renegade Loki Variant, having attacked Minutemen in 1858 Oklahoma before they can reset the timeline there.
Written by TomislavMuskovic on Oct 28, 2023