Prologue

Darcy Lewis doesn't believe in fate. Even after her boss hit a blond Norse god with her car (twice) and then proceeded to fall in love with the man. That wasn't fate. That was just a combination of good timing and poor driving. She loves Jane, but the woman cannot be trusted behind the wheel of any sort of vehicle. Jane can't be trusted with her own welfare half of the time, so being charge of her passengers' welfare is a completely foreign concept.

The idea that certain things had to be 'trusted to fate' has never sat right with Darcy. She has always believed that it is lazy, unimaginative, and far too easy. Real life just doesn't work that way. She always worked hard for whatever she got. Nothing has ever just been handed to her – except maybe that A on her Psych midterm in her freshman year of College, but, hey, the girls had to good for something, right? Or what was the use carting them around all the time? (She bought a pretty new bra as a thank you. Never take your boobs for granted!) Trusting fate, wishing on a star, and dreaming was all well and good if you were a Disney Princess, but if you weren't, it was pretty much a guarantee that life was going to screw you, in the long run.

So, even though she wasn't given much of a choice but to believe that there are alien races out there that, once upon a time, were viewed as gods, she clings firmly to her belief that there was no such thing as fate.


"I am one of the foremost astrophysicists in the country."

Darcy nods, solemnly and agrees. "Yes, you are."

"Possibly the entire Western Hemisphere."

"Possibly," Darcy conceded.

"I have an IQ of 175."

"I know," Darcy says.

"I can complete the New York Times Crossword Puzzle in less than five minutes."

"Yep," Darcy concurs.

"So why can I not figure out how to use this stupid coffee machine?"

"Because, Jane," Darcy explains, in a patient tone. "You do not respect her. She will not give you coffee unless you first learn to appreciate her."

"Her?" Jane asks, bemused.

Darcy nods. "I have named her Gloria."

Jane blinks at Darcy, looks down at her empty mug, looks to Gloria and then back to Darcy.

"Coffee," she says, pitifully.

Darcy sighs, holds her hand out for the mug and, once Jane passes it over, goes about making Jane a cup of coffee.

"This is the last time I let Tony Stark build me anything," Jane grumbles as Darcy pushes the mug, now full of steaming coffee, into her hand. "I asked for a coffee machine and I get this stupid piece of crap."

She takes a sip of her coffee and her eyes widen. She looks down at the liquid in her mug before looking back at the coffee machine. "I take it all back," she announces. "Gloria can stay."

Darcy laughs, petting Gloria affectionately. "Stark made this?" she asks. "When did he come by?"

Jane shrugs. "I don't know. I was busy. It was some point in the last week while you were out. He came in, tried to touch the machines and then got pissy when I yelled at him."

"And then he made you a coffee machine?" Darcy couldn't quite connect those dots.

"I wouldn't let him touch anything else, so he got bored," Jane admits. "He started mumbling to himself, drew some stuff on the back of a pop tarts box, and then walked out without even saying anything. I turned around a few hours later and it was there."

Darcy pouts. "Aww! How come I haven't even met any of the Avengers, apart from Thor, but Iron Man makes you coffee machines?"

"Because we're using Stark Industries lab space," Jane points out, savoring her coffee as if it were the nectar of the gods. "After the whole HYDRAgate incident, I'm just glad that we're all okay. Things could have gone very wrong if HYDRA had gotten their sticky fingers on my research. Tony just wanted to give us a safe space to work in."

Darcy opens her mouth to say something, but is cut off by an unexpected voice from behind.

"So this is the great Jane Foster?" the voice scoffs.

Darcy span around to face the direction the voice had come from, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Jane had done the same. The woman standing by the door of the lab was tall and blonde. She was dressed in a similar style to the way Lady Sif dressed when she was not ready for battle, except in green and with far less armor (which Sif seemed to wear a certain amount of, regardless of whether it was required), and far more skin-tight leather. Her blonde hair fell to her waist in waves and was held back from her face by something that was a cross between an alice band and an Asgardian helmet.

"I thought you would be taller," the woman scoffs, eyeing Jane with disdain. "And prettier."

Jane is too shocked to do more than gape at the woman. Darcy, however, manages to keep more wits about her, slipping her hand into her jeans pocket and activating the panic button Jane had given to her when they moved back to New York – another present from Tony Stark – before talking back to the woman.

"Hey!" she shouts, and the woman's attention moves to her now. "Back off!"

The woman looks at Darcy as if she is something particularly nasty stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

"I have no quarrel with you, girl," the woman spits. "This is between myself and Jane Foster. It is she who has wronged me."

"Wronged you?" Jane finds her voice, at last. "How have I wronged you? I don't even know you."

"You may not think you have wronged me, but I assure you that for the crime that you have committed against me, I will show you no mercy." The woman smiles cruelly.

She extends her arm, sparks flying between her fingertips as she gracefully points them at Jane.

"Wait!" Darcy bursts out as Jane steps back, head twisting to assess her escape routes. Darcy has to buy some time. If that panic button worked, then some of the Avengers should be on their way. All Darcy has to do is distract the woman until they arrive. Talking. Darcy is good at talking, at least. She has a degree in Political Science. Her whole adult life had been training her for this moment.

"Doesn't she have a right to know what she did wrong?" Darcy asks, desperately. "Wouldn't it be so much better for you if she knows exactly why you're doing this to her? So that she can think about it as you make her feel sorry for it?"

Jane shoots Darcy a look, as if trying to say 'what are you doing?!' Darcy sends her back what she hopes is a reassuring look, patting her pocket surreptitiously. Jane's eyes widen as she understands, and her eyes skirt to the jacket lying over the chair she had been sitting in most of the morning. Her own panic button must be in her jacket.

The woman looks coolly at Darcy, considering. "You may be right. Maybe all Midgardians are not the fools I thought them to be." She turns to Jane, regally drawing herself up. "My name is Amora and you, Jane Foster, are to be punished because Thor is mine, and I will not have some Midgardian take him from me!"

She said it so seriously, but Darcy and Jane could do nothing but blink at her, and then each other, words just wouldn't come.

"Y-you…" The words seemed to get stuck in Darcy's throat. "You want to punish Jane because you've got a crush on Thor and don't like that Jane got him first?" she asks, unable to keep the incredulity out of her voice, hard though she tried.

Amora looks furiously at her. "It is not a 'crush'!" she spits. "Do not insult me by labeling my love with childish Midgardian terms. Thor and I belong together and if Jane Foster were out of the way, I know that he would finally see it to be true!"

"You think that hurting Jane will make Thor like you?" Darcy asks. "You're delusional."

"Darcy!" Jane gasps. Darcy ignores her and carries on.

"If Thor knows you hurt Jane he would hunt you down. What part of this plan makes any sense at all?" Her hands are on her hips by this point, but she was standing in such a way that, if Amora made a move, she would be ready to dodge.

"You make the mistake of thinking that Thor would know I did anything to Jane Foster." Amora smiles amusedly. "You think my plan is to harm her? That would be far too easy… and not enough punishment for her. No. You see, I forgot to explain when I introduced myself. In Asgard, the people call me Enchantress. I am well versed in the art of magic and it is this I will use to destroy your life, Jane Foster. I can make it so you were never born; so you and Thor never even met. All your work, the contributions you have made to your community, they are great, are they not, Jane Foster? What do you think this world will be without them, when Loki decides to visit? How do you think Midgard would have fared without your research when the Chitauri invaded? Think on that, Jane Foster."

She lifts her hand once more and Darcy panics. Not enough time. She does the only thing she can think of and dives for Jane, pushing her out of the way just as a figure bursts through the window. The figure grabs her, but they aren't quick enough. The light from Amora's hand hits Darcy and her vision fades to black.


Thor bursts through the other window a moment later, shortly followed by Iron Man. He takes in Darcy on the floor, unconscious, Jane pushing Steve away to get to her, and takes two steps over to Amora, lifting her off the ground by her throat.

"Enchantress!" he bellows. "What have you done to my friend Darcy?!"

"I-I don't know!" Amora gasps. "I've never tried this spell before now! I do not know what happened!" Her fingers struggled against Thor's grip on her neck but he didn't relent.

"She said she wanted to erase my existence, Thor," Jane tells him, looking over from where she has cradled Darcy's head on her lap. "Make it so I was never born. Darcy got me out of the way and it hit her instead."

Thor's head pivoted back to Amora. "Is this true?" he asks, dangerously. Amora struggled against him, whining. He repeated the question. "Is this true? What have you done to her?" he demands.

"It-it's a very delicate spell..." Amora stammers. "She got in the way. There's no telling how the spell affected her…"

Steve's gasp turns Thor's head immediately.

"What is it Captain?" he asks, trying not to take too much of his attention away from the Enchantress, lest she use his inattention to escape.

Steve has moved so that he could see Darcy and is staring at her, eyes wide.

"Stark," Steve calls, not taking his eyes off of the woman unconscious on the floor.

"Yeah?" Tony replies, from where he's scanning the room, making sure everything is safe.

"Get over here."

Tony does as he is told. He knows Steve's tone is too serious to argue. He walks over to stand next to the Captain and looks down at the prone form of Darcy Lewis. He stands there in shocked silence for a few seconds before opening up the visor, as if to check what he is seeing is real with his own eyes, instead of through the HUD screen.

"Is that..?" he trails off.

"Yes," Steve replies, faintly.

Tony shakes his head as if to clear it. "I mean, I knew her name was Darcy Lewis, but I'd never met her before; Pepper handled her employment stuff she was always out whenever I came by… I didn't make the connection."

"What?" Thor asks, impatiently. "What is happening?"

"I think I know what happened." Steve still hasn't taken his eyes off of Darcy. "She tried to erase Jane from time, right? What's the chance that when Darcy got hit instead, just as I grabbed her, the timeline still got changed, just, instead of removing somebody from the past-"

"-it added someone instead?" Tony finished.

Thor takes in the two men who are staring at Darcy with familiarity, despite claiming to have never met her before.

"Oh," he says.