Out of the Dark

Disclaimer: I do not own or pretend to have ownership of any Marvel characters, quotes, plot lines, etc.

Hello Everyone! First of all, it has been far too long since I posted anything completely new. Second of all, I am not yet finished revising "Loki" and "The Avenged." HOWEVER I have had this fanfic planned and written pretty much since I posted my first chapter of Loki. I just watched the new teaser trailer for Thor: Ragnarok (who else is soooo excited for November?!), and although I haven't completely figured out the ending for this story (I'll have to see where Ragnarok goes before I decide), it motivated me to post just a taste of this third installment (also because I know some who have read my previous stories wanted a continuation). You won't likely be seeing much more of this fanfic for a while longer, but without further ado, here is the first chapter of Out of the Dark.

Chapter 1
Three years. Three years, two dates, and one college degree later. The years had felt long, the two dates had both been unsuccessful, and really the only good thing that had come out of the past 36 months was Leya's college degree because now people took her seriously. Of course, Jane and Erik had always taken her seriously. That, at least, hadn't changed.

For the past three years, Leya had been working with Jane and Erik again. Leya was glad to be back with them. It was good to be in the company of friends, with people who knew her rather than strangers she had to put up a normal, cheery face for.

Leya had tried going on a couple dates at Jane's urging. Personally, Leya wasn't sure either of them were in a very good position to give relationship advice, considering the fact that they were both stuck on Earth waiting for a couple Norse gods to fly back down to them. But Leya had humored Jane, and in her defense, Jane had gone on a few as well. To Leya's surprise, she had actually met someone she genuinely liked. His name was James, he was a nice, polite, decent, and distinctly normal.

Well, normal is relative, but what she meant was he lived a regular life. He had a job, he had good days and bad days, sometimes he missed his train, sometimes his favorite football team won their game. He was a nice guy, and he liked Leya. She could tell. And something in her wanted to open up to him, too, to leave her past behind. Maybe she could live a regular life with him. But of course, she couldn't. Something always stopped her. Always the same thing – Loki. So as much as she liked James as a person, Leya knew she would never be able to fall in love with him. Jane's series of dates also failed, rather spectacularly, and eventually both women just stopped trying.

They were living in London. Leya had completed her junior and senior year at a good university there and was now 24 years old. Leya had to admit she loved the city. She had a little apartment – sorry, flat – near Jane's lab, just a few blocks away from the Tower of London. It was a wonderful lab, at least five times the size of Jane's old one in the U.S., complete with a storage room, a back room with contained cots and emergency supplies, more lab equipment than they could dream up, and even roof access, perfect for stargazing.

Jane still had the waver that had played such a prominent role when they'd first found Thor, but it had been three years since the device had picked up anything notable. It seemed the most interesting occurrences around the lab building were the occasional power surges in neighboring high-rises that resulted in power outages for the entire block. But still, Leya couldn't complain. Leya and Jane grew close, more like sisters than colleagues, Erik was, well, still Erik, and they'd even gained a new team member; an intern named Ian. He was enthusiastic, for sure, but. . . still learning, let's leave it at that.

One morning, Leya awoke with an unreasonably good feeling about the day. Stupid she thought to herself, shaking her head, when has anything particularly good come from you 'having a feeling'? But then, no, you mustn't think that way. . . you've had plenty of good in your life. Your adoptive parents, and of course you friends! Jane and Erik, Thor too, and. . . there's Loki, I suppose.

Leya shut her eyes as she exhaled and fell back against her pillows. This time she hadn't bothered trying to forget Loki. Not because Leya necessarily believed she would see Loki again, it would be foolish to believe anything Loki said – he wasn't exactly good at keeping promises – but because she knew it would be a futile endeavor to ever try to forget him. And you know he isn't dead this time. Loki always seemed to be with her, like some sort of invisible cloud, ever since he'd flown off with Thor back to Asgard. She'd felt his presence the moment she'd stepped off the plane in the London airport, when she'd entered Jane's new lab, when she'd hurried out of the café after her first date with James, and even as she'd walked down the aisle at graduation.

Yawning, Leya tossed aside the covers, as well as her thoughts, and got up. As per usual, she turned on her coffeepot, but instead of turning on the news, Leya checked her email. Several emails were from acquaintances she'd made in London, a few spam advertisements, but nothing notably important or conspicuous. Just as Leya logged off of her laptop, she heard her phone buzz. Leya picked it up to find a text message from Jane.

Waver picked up something, Ian and I heading to check it out. Meet us here: The message read, followed by an address. Leya quickly gulped down her coffee and got dressed. On a strange whim, Leya decided to bring her dagger as well. She quickly slipped it into her boot as she grabbed her keys and headed out the door.

Leya followed the address Jane had given her and pulled up at a large concrete building, an abandoned storage warehouse or something. Leya recognized their black van that had served as base camp on many research trips, the lone vehicle in the empty lot. She parked next to it, then got out of her car and walked inside. The inside of the building was just as dark and empty as the outside looked, except the inside harbored a dank, moldy smell that permeated throughout the building. Leya walked around until she came to a large open area, perhaps an area where trucks would have come in to load up. She saw Jane, Ian, and a few kids, probably middle school age. Leya followed their gazes as she walked over to them, then stopped in awe as she saw what they were watching. In the middle of the room was a giant semi-truck floating upside down in the air. Oh my god. . .

"Is this what the waver picked up?" Leya asked Jane, whispering. For some reason, the situation felt like it warranted hushed tones.

Jane shook her head without turning to look at Leya, "No, but it sure is cool." Ian nodded enthusiastically in agreement. After several more minutes, Leya broke the silence again.

"Well, we should go looking for what the waver picked up," she prompted, "it's probably related."

Jane appeared to snap back to reality.

"Of course," she agreed and handed Leya the waver. But just then, one of the kids said, "Wait, we have something else to show you." Jane hesitated and looked at Leya. Leya sighed, then nodded, and they followed the kids.

The kids lead them to a dim, dusty stairwell, the concrete stairs twisting up and down the height of the building. They walked up several floors, then one of the boys stopped and dropped an empty soda bottle down the middle of the stairwell. The bottle fell a couple floors, then suddenly vanished with a subtle vacuum-like sound. As if that wasn't startling enough, the bottle reappeared a few floors above them and fell down into the boy's waiting hands.

Jane, Leya, and Ian stood in startled silence. The kids had evidently gotten used to the strange phenomenon and were now tossing other things down the stairway; little rocks, candy wrappers, and even a shoe. Ian, quite taken with the spectacle, decided he wanted to join in. So he took something out of pocket and tossed it down the stairway. Everyone waited, but the thing didn't reappear above them.

"Sometimes, things don't come back," one of the girls said, sounding more ominous than she probably intended.

"Ian," Jane began, "Were – were those the car keys?"

"Um. . ." Ian said with a guilty look on his face. The kids suppressed laughter, and Leya couldn't help a small smile.

Just then, Leya heard the waver squeal. She looked down at it and saw the needle swinging violently back and forth. Leya turned in a circle and stopped in the direction the waver was showing the highest reading. Jane walked over to her, and they both looked ahead. The readings seemed to be coming from somewhere down a long, dark hallway. The two women glanced at each other, then took a deep breath and walked forward a little. Suddenly, the waver spiked and hit maximum. Jane gave a shout, and Leya looked up just as Jane was knocked to the ground and some invisible force start pulling her down the hallway.

"Jane!" Leya shouted and started running after her. But the thing pulling Jane was too fast, and Leya couldn't hardly see a foot in front of her down the hallway. Jane was swallowed up into the dark, and Leya stopped running. Leya watched at the waver as she walked back to Ian, but the instrument was silent and motionless. Leya wasn't sure if it made her feel better or worse.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she said to Ian, "This place gives me the creeps."

"But, what about Jane?" Ian asked as he scrambled after her.

"Don't worry, we'll get her out. But we'll need flashlights," Leya replied.

The two walked back to Leya's car – thankfully, she hadn't thrown her car keys down the stairway – where Leya pulled out two heavy-duty flashlights from the trunk. Leya tossed one at Ian, who almost dropped it, then the two reentered the building.

Leya and Ian searched the entire building, but found nothing. Down the hallway Jane had been pulled into, the two only found a dead end. Frustrated and tired after hours of searching, the two exited the building and sat in Leya's car while they rested. Leya gave Erik a call, but it went to voicemail.

"Hey, Erik, I'm not sure where you've been all day, but Jane's in trouble and I think you'd better meet us," Leya said, then read out the address of the building.

"Oh. . ." Ian said as Leya hung up the phone.

"What?" Leya asked. Ian handed Leya his phone, which was streaming live news footage from Stonehenge.

And there was Erik, running around naked amongst the stones, ranting about planetary alignment and celestial activity. Essentially, spouting their research in the middle of a historical monument.

"You've got to be kidding me," Leya said in disbelief as she watched two police officers grab his arms and force him into a police car. Erik had attracted quite a scene of tourists and reporters alike. Leya sighed and handed the phone back to Ian.

"I guess we know where we'll find Erik," she sighed as she pulled out of the parking lot.