Surprise! It's a sequel.

This follows THROUGH THE DOOR and INTERLUDE: ANGRY EYE PATCH MAN. Both can be found in my profile. Read them first.

The concept for this series was born before, wow, the second Thor movie even came out. Certainly before the second Avengers. I'll be honest, I haven't even seen that one. Kind of fell off the Marvel bandwagon for a while there. Point is, this little fic takes place prior to-and-during The Avengers and nothing that happened after that in the movie-verse counts. A few things from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. might show up later. Other pop culture references are fair game – see if you can spot 'em!

Out the Window – Part I

Worlds Apart

Chapter One

Willow closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.

The setting sun was a warm presence against her back. She hummed under her breath as she moved slowly across the hardened desert earth. Exhaling slowly, she let a tendril of magic flit down her arms to the very tips of her fingers; cautiously expanding, testing the air, searching. She frowned. There was something…

Rack city bitch, rack, rack city bitch

Ten, ten, ten, twenties on ya titties bitch

Willow's eyes popped open. "Seriously?" She didn't bother to check the caller ID before pressing the phone to her ear. "I tell you to pick a new ringtone and that's what you come up with?"

"You're out there again, aren't you?" the voice on the other end of the line accused. "I can hear all the dirt."

"No, I'm not," Willow lied. "I'm at Jane's."

"Ooh, you dirty liar! I'm sitting in your chair right now. I'm thinking about stealing it, actually. It's super comfy. And all swivel-y."

"You're here?" Willow frowned again, turning automatically towards town. "Why aren't you at school? I swear to – well, something other than a god – Darcy, if you got suspended for using your Taser again – "

"That was one time and he totally deserved it. And I was never actually suspended.."

"Because Jane sweet-talked the Dean," Willow scoffed. "Don't change the subject, young lady."

"Chill out, Mom, I'm on Spring Break. WOOO!"

Willow waited a beat. "You just flashed me, didn't you?"

"Yup."

"Moving on…you do remember there's nothing to do in Puente Antiguo, right? And that it's nowhere near the ocean?"

"I hate the beach. And you're the one who keeps changing the subject. Jane says you still go out there at least once a week."

"Like Jane doesn't," Willow muttered under her breath. Louder, she said, "I'm coming back in now, are you happy?"

"Super-duper thrilled!"

Willow rolled her eyes and hung up without saying goodbye. She stashed the phone in her back pocket and took one last look around the Bifrost site. The patterned circle of compacted earth was just as it was when it had first formed, close to a year ago, now. It never changed, but Willow constantly found herself drawn back to the spot where they'd last seen Buffy and the Asgardians.

Biting down on that thought, Willow clenched her hands into fists and disappeared with an entirely unnecessary crack.

They scrounged up a dinner of take out from one of the local (read: only) pizza joints in town, and Jane produced a six pack from somewhere. Darcy chattered away happily, and snarked with Willow about anything and everything, and threw balled up napkins at Jane until she dragged herself away from her laptop and joined the conversation.

Between the "anonymous" funding Jane had recently accrued, and Willow's own contract with S.H.I.E.L.D., they had been able to expand their now-shared living space quite nicely – but the lab had expanded further, and so when they all curled up on the couch to watch a movie after dinner, they had to first unbury the thing of miscellaneous equipment and paperwork.

"You two are unbelievable," Darcy said with disgust, holding up a tangle of scavenged electrical wires in one hand while she fished a large crystal out from between two of the couch cushions with the other.

"I should be working," Jane grumbled as she wheeled one of the larger monitors into a good viewing position and hooked it up to her laptop. "The weather conditions are perfect tonight for – "

"Stop!" Darcy shouted. "Just stop!" She glared at them both. "When was the last time either of you took a break? Got out of town? Lived a little?"

Willow and Jane exchanged guilty looks.

"That's what I thought," Darcy said with a sigh when neither of them could come up with an answer.

"It's not that bad," Willow tried to defend. "We've both done a lot of travelling – "

"For work," Darcy interjected.

"I went to a fundraising gala last month," Jane added. "I wore heels!"

"Which was also for work. Yeesh. Sit your bony asses down and prepare for a week of relaxation and recreation, Darcy Lewis style."

Willow and Jane proceeded to exchange an entirely different sort of look.

When Willow blinked sleepily back into consciousness several hours later, the lights were low and the laptop had gone into sleep mode. Darcy was sprawled across the other end of the couch with a pillow over her face. Jane's seat was vacant.

Yawning hugely, Willow checked the time on her phone. It was nearly two in the morning. She sat up and rotated her neck; stiff from falling asleep smooshed up against the arm of the couch.

Careful not to wake Darcy, she got quietly to her feet and went in search of her wayward roommate.

Jane was exactly where she always went when she disappeared this late at night: curled up on one of the beaten-up lounge chairs on the roof, staring up at the stars.

"Hey," she greeted softly as Willow approached.

"Hey," Willow echoed back, sinking into the seat beside her. She let her head fall back and followed Jane's gaze skywards. It was a clear night. The stars seemed to stretch on into infinity.

"I'm not pining," Jane said suddenly, after a moment of companionable silence.

Willow quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Really, I'm not," Jane insisted. "I mean, yes, there was that whole thing – or not a thing, there wasn't enough time for it to be a thing – so yeah, there's…Thor…but that's not…" Her rambling trailed off as she struggled to find the words. She gestured helplessly with both hands in front of her, and then at the sky. "It's what he represents, you know? There's so much more out there – that we're a part of! – and I saw it. I touched it."

She took a breath, and Willow stifled a 'that's what she said' joke. It was not the time to channel her inner Michael Scott.

"The world is older than any of us know," she murmured instead.

"What was that?"

Willow shook her head. "Just remembering something. Not important."

"It's just…how could anyone see what we saw and forget about it; just go on with their lives?"

"You'd be amazed by what people can see and forget," said Willow dryly, thinking of Sunnydale.

"I'm obsessed, aren't I?" Jane groaned. She dropped her forehead to rest on her knees. "God, I'm such a stalker! I met the guy once for all of 48 hours and now I'm chasing him across the galaxy!"

"Could be worse," Willow pointed out. "At least you're not leaving dead things on his doorstep. That would be way creepier."

Jane lifted her head and squinted at her. "You're sure you're from Earth?"

"So, Boss," Darcy said cheerfully over toast and cereal the next morning, "what kind of mind-blowing scientific discovery are we going to make today?"

Willow and Jane exchanged decidedly less chipper glances.

"I thought this was supposed to be a week of relaxation and recreation…?" queried Jane.

"Puh-leeze," Darcy drawled. "Don't act like you were actually going to take the week off. You're not even finished breakfast and you're already sciencing!"

Jane looked down at the napkin she'd been idly scribbling on in surprise, like she hadn't even been aware of it.

"Oh," she said, guiltily, dropping her pen and flexing her fingers.

"Let me guess, you 'dream in equations'," Darcy said disgustedly, and Jane's guilty expression intensified. Darcy sighed. "Hopeless," she pronounced, including Willow in the statement.

Willow held up her hands. "I swear, I am 100% focused on these cheerios."

"Ppfff," Darcy scoffed. "You're probably going to read those tea leaves when you're done."

Jane smothered a laugh. Willow frowned down at her mug.

Damn it, I totally was going to do that.

"I figure, if I can at least make you both eat and sleep like regular people, I can consider it a win," Darcy said with a shrug. "I mean, I'm not a miracle worker."

"We're not that bad, are we?" Jane asked Willow.

"Oh, honey, at least Willow knows she's an obsessive workaholic."

Willow wasn't sure if she should feel offended or smug. Either way...

"It's true," Willow told Jane apologetically.

"Not to completely undermine everything I just said, but have you made any progress?" Darcy asked curiously. "With, you know…" She gestured towards the ceiling, and ostensibly, the sky above. "It's been, like, ten months."

Jane rolled her eyes. "I'm so sorry to disappoint you, but no. In ten whole months, I haven't yet figured out the secrets to wormholes or cross-dimensional travel."

"You slacker," Willow deadpanned.

"I didn't ask if you'd solved it," Darcy defended. "I asked if you'd made any progress."

"Some," Jane admitted. "Maybe. It's difficult to tell?"

"But you're helping her, right?" Darcy asked Willow. "With your super powers?"

"Magic…"

"Whatever, Hermione."

"It's complicated," Jane explained, pushing back her chair and scooping up their dishes. She dumped them in the sink and turned on the faucet. "And it's not just about finding a way to get to Asgard."

"Uh huh," Darcy said, disbelieving. "So you're not at all motivated by the thought of hooking up with a certain smoking hot god of thunder? He of the shining golden tresses and mighty hammer?"

Jane sighed. "It's bigger than that, Darcy."

"Ooh, Jane!" Darcy said wickedly. "You dirty, dirty girl!"

Jane threw a dish towel at Darcy's head.

"So it's like a really big battery?" Darcy confirmed.

It was evening again. They had made it all the way to dinnertime without a single mention of work, Thor, or alternate realities. But Darcy's natural curiosity had won out in the end and now they were all back in the lab. Jane was busy filling a whiteboard with her neat handwriting and Darcy was quizzing Willow on her S.H.I.E.L.D. consulting gig.

Which technically was classified, but Darcy was really, really persistent. Pit bull with a bone persistent. And Jane already knew everything anyways. If anyone wanted to arrest Willow for blabbing…she mentally wished them luck with that.

"It's not actually that big," Willow say, holding out her hands to demonstrate the size of the Tesseract. "Just a cube."

A glowing, mystical cube with untold power.

"Where'd they get it?"

"I'm not sure," Willow said with a frown. "Fury didn't say. I've been more focused on what it can do than where it came from…I know the Nazis were after it during World War II, and then it was lost, but…"

"Is it just me, or is it always the Nazis?"

"…Erik might know more. He's the lead scientist on the project. He e-mails me sometimes when he's hit a wall, but I've been mostly keeping an eye on things from a distance."

"You don't trust S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Darcy asked.

"I can count the number of people I'd trust with an object of unfathomable power on one hand," Willow told her. "It's nothing personal."

"What about Jane?" Darcy pressed. "Why didn't they ask her to consult? You said that the energy might be able to sustain a portal - isn't that like a wormhole?"

"They asked," Jane offered over her shoulder, eyes never leaving the sweeping trail of numbers and symbols unfolding beneath her hands. "I declined. It's completely personal."

"Jane's still pissed off at S.H.I.E.L.D. for confiscating her stuff," Willow confided. She raised her voice. "Even though I keep telling her to keep her enemies closer and use them for their state-of-the-art equipment."

Jane whirled around to face them, brandishing a red dry erase marker. "They're not my enemies," she insisted. "I just don't like them. They have an agenda."

"Which is exactly why I want to know what they're up to," Willow pointed out.

"Do you think you could use the Tesseract to get home?" Darcy asked. She had stolen Willow's chair again and was spinning in slow circles, head tipped back, foot kicking out at regular intervals to keep up her momentum.

"The thought had occurred to me," Willow said. She shook her head. "I have to find Buffy first."

"But she's with Thor, right?" Darcy stopped spinning and sat up straight. "She has to be. She disappeared with the rest of the Renaissance Faire. He'll keep her safe. And Jane will find Thor, or die pining."

"Hey!" Jane cried.

Willow managed a laugh, even though her gut twisted every time she thought of her lost friend. Which was all the time. "You clearly don't know Buffy very well. She's not exactly a damsel in distress. She's usually the one causing the distress. Not to damsels," she amended hastily. "Unless they're bad. I mean - "

"Stop while you're behind," Jane advised.

"Mean," Willow pouted.

"Accurate," Darcy sniped.

"I could turn both of you into toads without breaking a sweat, you know that, right?"