There were soft murmurs around her, as if she were surrounded by a crowd trying not to disturb her. They sounded as if they spoke in different languages, but she couldn't zero in on any particular sound or conversation. It seemed as if the voices moved away when she tried to listen in to their conversations. But they also seemed both very near her ear and very far away. It was an overall confusing experience.
Her eyes opened slowly.
A gentle breeze was blowing as she looked around. The soft colors of the sunset reflected in the shallow waters she stood in, though no sun could be seen setting. In the distance, she could see a small house with a rust-colored roof.
She walked towards the house with small, careful steps, worried that the water went deeper than she was comfortable. That wasn't the problem she encountered though, as she found that the distance between the house and herself wasn't getting any shorter no matter how many steps she took towards it. She was still in her sweatshirt and boy shorts, though her eyeglasses were no where to be found.
Fingers pressed against a tender spot on her chest, she looked around once more for any other sign of land.
"Where am I?"
"You are safe, Lady Darcy."
Darcy sat up abruptly, giving herself a head rush. There was no gasping for air or frantic hand motions. Instead, she squinted, her eyes attempting to adjust to the brighter room than where she had just been. Much to her relief, there were six people in the room with her, but she knew only two of them.
Normally, she would ask Jane for answers, but she figured what had happened was way over even Jane's level of expertise and comfort zone that she went for the next most likely to have answers for her.
"Hey, Big Guy, what's happened?" She frowned when Thor didn't immediately reply, slowly turning to Jane for an explanation. "Jane?"
"You've been unconscious for a week, Darcy." The small brunette explained, placing Darcy's glasses in her hand so that she could put it on herself. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"There was a purple dude — like Grimace, but not as soft, I think? No, actually, I think he looked like an angry stubbed toe, but hey maybe that's jus—"
"Darcy, focus."
She looked at Jane, who was looking decidedly more high definition now that she had her glasses on. The astrophysicist placed a hand in hers in a gesture of comfort.
"He…he was on the ground. Thor was…laughing…? At him, I think? I…I don't know how I got there. It was my day off, so I prepped myself for a Harry Potter Marathon in my apartment and I must have fallen asleep or something, but the next thing I knew I was standing in some forest…I thought it was a dream." Her brows furrowed. "Jane, where am I?"
"We're in Wakanda, Darce'."
Wakanda? The same Wakanda that was apparently far more technologically advanced than the rest of the world? The Wakanda she had spent hours learning about because her need to be in-the-know had her wanting to know every little thing she could because how the fuck did they keep that a secret for so long and why? A quick and better look around confirmed all that she had read about the place. It was definitely on a different caliber all together, maybe even more advanced than the tech at the Avengers Facility.
The room she was in was as big as (maybe even a bit bigger than) her apartment, though far more advanced in terms of technology. Everything was sleek, modern, and metal — no, probably not metal, she found herself correcting as she remembered the big reveal that Wakanda did a few months back. While the materials that were around her probably weren't a hundred percent vibranium, she wouldn't be surprised if it were somehow diluted into it.
Wearing her glasses, she was finally able to put a name to the once-vaguely-familiar faces in the room aside from Jane and Thor.
Tony Stark stood beside the King of Wakanda, T'Challa. The latter offered a small polite smile which she returned with her own. Tony, on the other hand, studied her with unrestrained curiosity. They were by the door, as if they had just been about to leave when she had woken up.
Thor stood by the foot of her bed, looking far different from the god of thunder that she had last seen in London. She found herself studying him for a moment before she brought her gaze over to the pair to her left.
Standing by a lot of holo-screens and monitors were Bruce Banner and Princess Shuri. Like her brother, Princess Shuri and Doctor Banner offered her a small smile, though they quickly returned to pouring over the information they were getting from the screens before them.
When she looked back at Jane, it was to the realization that her friend looked far more tired than any research or experiment bender had made her.
"You remember anything else, Short Stack," was Tony's casual quip.
Darcy rolled her eyes, and replied without missing a beat, "Not that short, Daddy Warbucks." She pursed her lips. "I remember something floating. And then…" The memory of Thanos strangling her made her stop, her free hand coming to caress her throat. "What happened?"
And so they told her everything. They told her what the Infinity Stones were, and a vague explanation of what each stone could do. They told her how Thor's people had been wiped away by the mad titan so that he could get the Space Stone. They told her how a man called Doctor Strange, who had the Time Stone, had been captured by one of Thanos' children and how Ironman and Spider-Man had tried to keep the fight away from Earth. They told her how Thor had a met a group that called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, whom had ended up helping out both Tony and Thor. They told her how Thanos' other children had tried to capture Vision, but the other half of the Avengers (because really, who didn't know that they had broken up — especially since she and Jane were authorized to work in the Avengers Facility) had saved him and taken him to Wakanda. They told her of what preparation and battle each group had faced in the time leading up to their battle.
They told her Thanos had intended to wipe out half the population of the entire universe. Doctor Strange told her that in a reality wherein she hadn't interfered, he would have succeeded. They told her about Vision's and Wanda's sacrifice, and how Thanos had made fools out of all of them by reversing time and taking the Mind Stone. Peter Quill told her about Gamora, how she had tried to keep Thanos away from the Soul Stone. Nebula told her how Gamora had been manipulated to reveal its location. No one truly knew what had happened, but Mantis told her the crushing remorse Thanos had felt when his favorite daughter's name had been brought up.
They told her about her sudden arrival, of how they had all frozen in place. Thor and Wanda told her of the warmth they had felt at her arrival, as if she were a bright spring day come to life. Thor told her that it was the Soul Stone that had entered her body. Shuri told her that there were no physical traces of it in her system, according to the various x-rays and scans they had performed on her during her comatose state. Jane told her how she had been flown to Wakanda three days ago, when Tony had been informed via FRIDAY that 'Doctor Foster is currently frantically searching for Miss Lewis, Boss. Shall I inform Doctor Foster that Miss Lewis is currently in Wakanda?'
They told her she'd killed Thanos. Some corrected that she had made him disappear, which didn't necessarily always equate to dead. Captain America told her that by the time Thanos had completely disappeared, she had been in possession of the Infinity Gauntlet. Thor told her that she had lost consciousness, but hadn't fallen to the floor after fainting. They told her how she had been wrapped in a protective current of something (magic? electricity? With the people around her being who they were, it was probably both). Thor told her how when he had attempted to take the gauntlet from her, believing that it was what was causing the barrier, a massive energy burst, causing a brief universal blackout — the likes of which even the Guardians who had been with some of the Avengers on a different planet at the time had felt when their ship detected it.
They told her the Infinity Gauntlet was gone.
Just like Thanos, which didn't necessarily mean dead.
By the time they had finished, everyone else had packed into the room. Word of her regaining consciousness had been quick to spread, and the once spacious room suddenly felt much smaller. Their faces and names blurred together along with their stories. Information overload, she thought to herself.
If it weren't for the feel of Jane's hand in hers, grounding her, Darcy would have thought she were still dreaming. Or that they had truly drugged her up with the good stuff, because she definitely wouldn't have been able to come up with their story on her own.
"Hey guys, I think we're overwhelming Miss Lewis here." Bruce, bless his heart, had taken note of the increasing tension building in Darcy's shoulders and her increased heart rate (thanks to the monitors).
Darcy smiled sheepishly, "I think everyone here can call me Darcy." She turned to Thor. In a room full of superheroes, he was the only one she really trusted (while Jane, whom was badass in her own right, she was most definitely not a superhero and was held to a different much higher standard, thank you very much). "I'm sure we all have questions, but I'm also sure we have time to figure it out." Briefly, her gaze flickered to Doctor Strange before returning to Thor. The thunder god was definitely half of the reason she felt calm about everything. She squeezed Jane's hand once more. If Thor didn't seem too worried, then why should she?
Shuri was quick to order everyone around, "Alright everyone out. The next guards scheduled can stay, but everyone else should go. Brother, bring Darcy, Dr. Foster, and Thor some food, will you?"
There were some laughs at watching the smaller and younger woman ordering one of the tallest men in the room.
"I am King and yet I am ordered around by my sister." T'Challa complained, though his grin and Shuri's eye roll told everyone that it was normal for the pair.
"There's a badass woman working behind the scenes for every great man." Darcy couldn't help but joke, earning a little more laughter. Nobody refuted her statement as they realized how right she was.
The group slowly trickled out soon after.
The room had no windows, or any indicator of what the outside world looked like. The only way Darcy could tell that it was already night time was due to the clock displayed in one of the monitors. It was ten in the evening, and the group had dispersed about three hours ago, leaving her in the care of Princess Shuri, Doctor Banner, and Thor (she had convinced Jane to get some sleep, and the woman had agreed only if Thor stayed to watch over Darcy), and under the watchful eyes of James Buchanan Barnes and Okoye.
Darcy wasn't even aware she was tired nor that she had fallen asleep until she was in the midst of waking up.
A quick glance at one of the screens told her it was two in the morning. There was no one else in the room with her, though she was sure that there were guards posted outside her door. Actually, if she closed her eyes and tried to listen, she could hear their breathing and even tell who they were. Wait what? She sat up and looked at her hands. They had told her that she wasn't sick per se, but that no one knew what the side effect of having an Infinity Stone inside of her would be. Vision hadn't absorbed the stone, the fact that Thanos had been able to pluck it from his head was evidence of that. They were making sure she was safe. They were making sure everyone else was safe from her. She understood the precautions, but she hated being in such a helpless position.
The door opened to reveal Thor.
"Lady Darcy," he said, walking towards her in even strides.
She scooted to one side of the bed so that Thor could sit beside her.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm just glad I'm not Supergirl and the rock wasn't Kryptonite." She shrugged in feigned nonchalance, but her smile softened when Thor held one of her hands in both of his. The sight of his large hands cradling her small-by-comparison hands would have been comical if he didn't look so unlike the spirited thunder god she had known since New Mexico. "You know something, don't you?"
"I know of a possibility," countered the Asgardian. "But it is a selfish wish, my lady; one I can not ask of you."
"Not exactly a genie here, so I don't even know if I can grant wishes, Big Guy."
Thor said nothing, only offering her a sad smile. She looked from their joined hands to his face, and was surprised to find herself looking into a pair of green eyes that were far from Thor's blue hues. She blinked, as if to clear her vision, and instead found herself elsewhere.
The bodies of the people of a great nation that once called themselves the protector and rulers of the Nine Realms were littered around the spacious field. Gods and goddesses. She didn't know how she knew that they were Asgardian, but she was sure with every fiber of her being in her assessment. Her theory was solidified when she saw a man clad in familiar green and black armor of sorts. That definitely looked similar to the guy that tried to destroy New York. She'd seen the clips. Near him laid a dark-skinned man in gold. For a moment, she expected him to move.
Her lips, pale and chapped, curled into a frown. They all looked at peace, as if asleep, but Thor's recount of what had occurred told her better. These people were dead.
And so why was she dreaming of dead people?
Dead people that she's never met before, she would remind herself.
"Darcy Lewis…"
She woke up with a start.