A/N Hello everyone! I hope you all had safe and happy holidays! I'm sorry about the gap in updates, I know I left you guys with a cliffhanger before! I had some very sad times recently: my wonderful grandma, who helped to raise me, recently passed away. She was the one who always encouraged me to write, since my first poem in the second grade. So I decided that the best way to honor her memory was just to keep writing. (And it helps to keep the sadness away, too.)Here is a new chapter for you. Hold onto your hats! There is a method to my madness, I promise you! Please, please review, no matter what you think. Or just drop in and say hi. =) Constructive criticism is always welcomed and carefully considered. I love you all and think you are wonderful.
Good fences make good neighbors
-Robert Frost
Neither Darcy nor anyone else said much as they returned to SHIELD headquarters. The wind was tossing the snow so violently that every gust stung and tore at their faces as they darted into the warm, bright lobby of the building. There didn't seem to be too many other people around, it was later in the evening now and much of the regular staff had gone home. However, once they got onto the elevator and reached the upper levels, it was another story entirely.
There was a palpable tension hanging all around like an aura. Everyone they passed looked rather harried and grim-faced. As the four reached the door to Jane Foster's lab, Darcy hesitated, standing still. The snow was melting off of her shoes and creating a small puddle around her feet. ''Should—should I be here, too?'' she asked, fidgeting slightly. ''I can wait here if you guys want, if this is some kind of 'special' meeting.''
''You're not getting away that easy, I'm afraid,'' Tony replied, sliding his key card along a slot in the door. ''We can discuss changing your status with Fury later, but for the time being I'd say you've been unofficially bumped up the ladder here. Besides, you and Dr. Foster are pals, right? I'm sure you've seen her overreact before, it should be nothing new.'' The door swung open.
Something big did indeed seem to be going on, Darcy realized, judging by the group that had collected inside the lab. Bruce Banner was seated in front of a screen at a work station in the far corner, frowning, scrolling through what looked liked miles and miles of mathematical calculations. Clint Barton scowled at a map. Thor appeared to be deeper in thought than Darcy had ever seen him, staring out the window with a troubled and far away expression on his face. And Jane probably hadn't eaten or rested in hours, her face was tight with worry, her body stretched tensely like an elastic band about to be snapped as she paced back and forth, coffee cup in hand. They all paused when they heard the door open, and looked up.
''Tony—hey, thanks for-'' Jane began and then stopped as soon as she saw Darcy standing beside Loki. Her expression morphed into aggravated disbelief. ''Please tell me it's not true!'' the scientist demanded, setting her coffee down on a desk and crossing her arms. Over at the window, Thor turned around and got to his feet, trying to hide the small smile that briefly flickered across his face as he stood to greet them. ''Thank you for coming, my friends. Hello, brother.''
Loki scowled and remained silent. His body seemed to radiate annoyance, his gaze iced itself over. Everything about his presence screamed that he didn't want to be there. The change in demeanor was almost staggering. It made Darcy dizzy. She shivered, getting now the briefest glimpse into the side of Loki that people seemed to be so wary of. Still beautiful, but so very cold, very empty. A shadow slid around in his eyes, a flicker of something that Darcy couldn't define. Then he seemed to gain some control of himself; he blinked, and the shadow passed away, but he still didn't speak. Darcy let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding.
Jane was shaking her head almost violently. ''I don't want to believe this. Darcy—I'm so...'' She couldn't get the word out. Disappointed? Angry? Disgusted? Mentally, Darcy attempted to fill in the blanks. Inwardly, she cringed, seeing the disapproval painted vividly on her friend's face.
''There will be time to discuss personal matters at a later date, Jane,'' Thor reminded her gently. ''We have far more important things to deal with, presently.''
Jane wearily collected her thoughts and then began to speak. ''Yes. Well, I have asked that you all come for this meeting because it seems that we have an unprecedented catastrophe on our hands.'' She gestured to a large screen mounted on the wall, showing what looked like a global weather map. ''The largest storm system ever on record is now heading right for us.'' She pointed to the window, where the snow and wind still howled like hell. ''This is only the warm-up. And it's not just here, it's everywhere. Temperatures are dropping rapidly all over the globe. Water levels,'' she tapped the screen and a new chart appeared, ''are rising at an alarming rate, and I can't seem to find any logical explanation for the speed. It should take thousands of years for this kind of change, yet it's been escalating steadily over the past few months with a particular increase in just the last couple of weeks. And unfortunately, there's more. Volcanic activity has seen a marked increase, particularly in Iceland.''
''There are a lot of volcanoes in Iceland,'' Stark interrupted. Though the billionaire's expression was serious, he seemed to be clinging to his trademark cynicism. ''And I'm sure that it's not at all uncommon for one or two of them to experience some activity-''
''All of them.'' Jane cut back in, her voice sharp and heavy. ''Not one or two of them. All of them are showing activity, and I'm not talking about a few minor quakes. As you said, there are a lot of volcanoes in Iceland. Can you imagine the devastation if they all experienced an eruption? And just wait, because there's more. Whole constellations of stars are vanishing. No, Mr. Stark, before you say anything, it's not an equipment malfunction. It's not a black hole. They're just gone. My data has been confirmed by scientists at at least two other observatories so far, and nobody can even begin to explain why or how this is happening. So you see, we have a very large problem.''
''Where's Fury?'' asked Natasha. The assassin's face was absolutely devoid of expression, but Darcy noticed that she had gone very pale.
''The Captain went to check. Last I knew, he was still in his office. He said he had a headache.'' Jane retrieved her coffee cup from the table and sighed. ''That makes two of us.''
Clint scoffed. ''It must be one hell of a headache. Fury once gave a meeting with three cracked ribs and a broken jaw without breaking a sweat.''
''Look, I don't really have the authority to do anything,'' admitted Jane. The scientist's nerves were like tattered ribbons, and she tried with flailing desperation now to keep her voice even, though she wanted nothing more than to crumple to the floor in a heap and scream and scream and scream. ''I technically don't even have the authority to call this meeting, so everything here is off the record. But I've been throwing this data at Fury for days, as the rest of you know, and nothing's been done or decided. It's all, 'thank you Dr. Foster, let's wait and see.' We don't have time to wait and see!'' Her eyes darted to the large screen and then out the window and back again with weary helplessness. She regressed for a moment, seeming to become smaller, childlike. ''We might not have time for anything.''
Darcy reached out her hand and held onto Loki's pale, icy fingers. The contact was sobering, and seemed to steady her. All of the thoughts had stilled inside of her mind, put on pause as her mental faculties worked to process Jane's words in some sort of coherent way. They could not, and so everything simply blanked itself out and became a persistent hum in the back of her skull. Temporarily mute and numb, she could do nothing but stand there clutching the hand of a god until some sort of survival instinct kicked in and she became useful and human again.
''Friends, if I may,'' Thor began in his deep voice, and everyone looked up. ''There is a legend, or a prophecy rather, where Loki and I come from. It predicts almost exactly the events which we now seem to be facing.''
''That is a story, drivel, the mad words of an ancient and withered old crone starving for attention.'' Loki spoke up, his voice like a slap, cold and hard. ''Let's not complicate the situation with myth.''
''Loki, can you truly believe that?'' asked Thor, rather sadly. ''Look at all of the facts we now have. The seers words are coming to pass.''
''If that's true,'' Loki snarled, ''then not only is Midgard doomed, but each of the nine realms will suffer a similar fate. It will be the very end of the entire cosmos, and you know as well as I that there would be nothing that you or I or anyone could do about it.''
Darcy closed her eyes for a moment, willing herself to believe that she was back in her apartment, having a very strange dream, about to wake up. It didn't happen. She opened her eyes and once again saw a room full of heroes and friends, found herself still clutching the icy hand of a villain, not wanting to let go. It will be the very end. She shivered.
''We can fight,'' the god of Thunder offered firmly.
Loki chuckled, and the sound was rather like sandpaper, rough and mean and ugly. ''Always your first solution, brother. Well, yes, we certainly can fight, just as the seer foretold, but we will all lose. We will all die.''
''Back it up!'' Tony Stark practically shouted this, his words like bullets. The two gods turned to face him. ''You two. Witholding information. Vital information. Spill, now.'' Any trace of cynicism vaporized from his face and now he was full of a wild, determined anger. He looked formidable.
All eyes in the room fixed on the two Asgardians, awaiting a response. Thor cleared his throat, then began. ''Long ago, a prophecy was given about the end of time. The worlds would become corrupt, people would turn on each other. Chaos and violence would reign. An endless winter would cover everything. There were tales of a great serpent, writhing under the seas, causing the water to rise. A wolf would swallow the stars, leaving everything in darkness. The rainbow bridge would be destroyed, and all the gods would gather for a final battle, which none would survive.''
''You're talking about Ragnarok,'' said Jane, rubbing her temples with her fingers. ''And I hate more than anything to agree with Loki, but I can't accept an ancient myth as an explanation for what's going on here. Many cultures have the same sort of story, they're meant to be a kind of metaphor rather than a summary of actual events.''
''True, but maybe we just need to interpret the metaphors a little better.'' Clint offered. He tapped the screen on his tablet a few times and then continued. ''I've heard that myth too, most of us here have, especially thanks to those hideous Wagner operas.'' He shuddered. ''Anyway, it says here that the big serpent, the once causing the oceans to rise, is Loki's son. Hey Loki, you have any snake children?''
''I most certainly do not. That's a repulsive suggestion.'' The god looked mildly insulted.
''And I'm sure that Thor would have mentioned being the proud uncle of a ginormous reptile,'' added Clint. He looked down at the screen again. ''Or a huge wolf. Damn, Loki.''
''I assure you, my brother does not have any offspring, animal or otherwise,'' Thor stated firmly.
''Thank you for clearing that up, brother.'' Loki rolled his eyes rather meanly and stared at the ceiling.
''Over the centuries, obviously, our legends may have been mistranslated as they found their way to Midgard. But the bulk of the material still remains the same, and everything that the prophecy said is coming to pass, now,'' insisted the Thunder god. He didn't seem to want to believe any of it, either, yet seemed to accept everything with a strange, almost noble fatalism.
''Ok. Great. But what if it's just a coincidence?'' Tony Stark was not a man prone to fatalism. He spoke up now, still looking stern and exasperated. ''Winter and rising seas and all—it's pretty vague. And I don't have enough concrete information. I want something more to go on besides an ancient myth. And even if we were to believe that, you guys said yourselves, part of it is wrong already. So how can we possibly use that as a guide? We need to look at other scenarios, more plausible ones.''
''You mean scenarios in which we actually have options, right?'' Natasha's face was still unreadable and colorless.
''We always have options,'' Tony said firmly. ''Some are just easier than others.'' He tapped his foot in thought for a moment. ''We know for a fact that we have some pretty freaky and powerful enemies, both on this planet and otherwise. Why don't we first try to put together some kind of profile and figure out who or what especially hates us right now and has the ability to pull off something like this?''
''I think that I should go to Asgard immediately and speak with my father,'' said Thor. ''If the prophecy is coming to pass, he will know about it.''
''I don't think it's such a good idea for you to leave just yet-'' Jane began, her voice rising..
''Where the hell is Fury!'' Stark loudly demanded of the entire room.
''He's been taken to the hospital,'' spoke a sudden, commanding voice from the doorway. They all quieted and turned to see Steve Rogers standing there, looking tired and worried. ''Very discreetly, just a short time ago. He seems to have suffered some kind of a stroke, we're not sure yet.''
''So it was one hell of a headache,'' Clint mumbled softly.
''Is he going to be alright?'' asked Jane, clutching the edges of the desk for support.
''As I said, the doctors need to run some tests before they know for certain. Until then, I'll be filling in temporarily as Director. Normally, the chain of command would have fallen to Agent Coulson first, but as he is...no longer with us, I am now in charge until Fury is well.'' He looked around the room. ''Since everyone is assembled here and looking very grim, I can only assume that Dr. Foster has filled you all in on the situation we're now facing?''
''Steve, you're in charge now, so you need to be the voice of reason.'' Tony Stark's voice had taken on an uncharacteristically pleading tone. ''Don't fail me. I'm hearing apocalyptic weather reports, Iceland is apparently about to go by way of Atlantis, and Prospero and Antonio over here are telling us that some kind of ancient myth is suddenly coming true. Please help us figure out something constructive!''
''The Tempest? Really?'' muttered Darcy under her breath. Nobody heard her, except Loki. He smiled thinly.
''I don't understand any of this any more than you do, Tony,'' Steve admitted. ''I can't be the voice of reason until I can see a reasonable course of action. We're all just going to have to take one thing at a time and try our best. And I don't think that right now we have the luxury to dismiss information as 'myth' because it's more comfortable for us. Right now, myth is all we have to go on.'' He sighed, then continued, ''I agree that Thor should go to Asgard and see if his father can offer us any help. For right now, the rest of us are going to stay put. Barton and Natasha, you'll be helping me to keep peace in the city. People have begun to panic already because of the storm, and it's only going to get worse. Stark and Banner, help Dr. Foster. Do some more research into these old stories and see if there's anything that we might be missing. Keep tracking the progression of the...events.''
It wasn't what anyone wanted to hear, but it was all that could be offered at the moment. Nobody protested, though Stark looked as though he wanted to. Natasha and Clint followed the Captain as he turned and left the room. Banner, still silent, went back to rechecking his miles of equations as they poured by on the screen, his jaw set in a firm line, eyes like stone. And Darcy just stood there beside Loki, both of them seemingly either forgotten or ignored. But only for an instant.
Jane eyed the two of them, then walked over to stand directly in front of Loki. Her face was a pale mask of fear and rage. She paused for a fraction of a second, then raised her hand, reached up, and struck him across the face as hard as she could. Darcy gasped and jumped back, yet still their hands remained joined. Thor leapt to his feet. ''Jane, you're upset, I understand, but I don't think that now-''
''Yes, now. Now! When am I going to have time again?'' She narrowed her eyes at Loki, who stood absolutely still. ''You,'' she began in a deathly quiet voice, ''are a menace. You are a poison. You are a selfish monster and you cause nothing but pain and chaos wherever you go.'' Jane glanced briefly at Darcy and then back to the god. ''Your brother may have forgiven you, despite all the hell that you put him through, and you may have been able to fool a few people with your pitiful, repenting act but I don't buy it. I don't think that you're sorry about anything. What's more, I think that you're secretly jumping for joy about all of this. You must be. You caused it, after all. I know the story, inside and out. And I know that in the end, you don't fight on our side. But what really makes me sick is that you've poisoned Darcy's mind, made her believe that you're something that you're not.''
''I'm not being poisoned!'' Darcy yelled. The volume of her own voice startled her, and she continued on more softly. ''My mind is exactly the same as it always was. He hasn't done anything to me. It's me. Jane, I made a choice.''
A second passed that felt like a thousand years. ''If that's the case,'' Jane said quietly, ''then I'm very disappointed in you.''
Darcy felt as if she'd been slapped as well. The scientist turned away to walk back over to her desk when she stopped suddenly and put a hand to her head. Then she crumpled, falling. Thor rushed and caught her before she could hit the floor. ''Jane, what's wrong?'' he asked in a frightened voice.
''I don't...I don't know, I just feel so strange all of a sudden.'' She looked weak and confused, her eyes seemed to roll to the side, her arms went slack.
''Jesus Christ, what next?'' Tony Stark reached for his phone. ''I'll call an ambulance.''
Bruce Banner had now gotten up and darted across the room, he was kneeling beside Jane and taking her pulse. ''No, wait. There's a lab with medical equipment one floor down. Thor, please take her there. I think I have an idea about what might be going on, but I need to run some tests. Everyone else just stay put and keep doing...whatever you were doing.''
Thor hoisted Jane into his arms and carried her away hurriedly. Banner ran back to the desk where he had been working, grabbed his tablet, and then rushed after them.
This is not happening. Darcy felt her hand fall away from Loki's. Her body was numb once again, her mind blanked, became a hollow vessel. Then out of the emptiness she heard an echoing sound, steady, like water dripping from a broken faucet. It was the sound of her own heart beating.
Feeling began to resume, unwelcome. Then, strangely, she found that she was talking. ''I thought this was a love story,'' she said. Her words made no sense to her, and they were very quiet.
Wanting desperately to cry, but finding that tears refused to come, Darcy walked with leaden feet over to the window and looked out at the snow.
Two Hours Later
Neither Thor, Banner, or Jane had yet returned. And Tony Stark had vanished into the corridor with his cell phone soon after they'd rushed to the medical lab. Darcy now sat cross-legged underneath one of the desks with her laptop, reading everything the internet could possibly tell her about Ragnarok and chewing on her fingernails. She'd chewed them down to bloody skin.
She heard a voice sigh, saw long legs approach. Loki knelt down and peered under the desk at her. ''Please come out of there. It can't be comfortable.''
''No,'' said Darcy stubbornly. ''I'm doing research.'' She knew somehow that it was in vain, but it gave her something to focus on.
''Under a desk?'' Loki's voice was both doubtful and mildly amused.
''Yes,'' she replied. ''It helps me think.'' It was actually a childhood habit that she'd suddenly found herself regressing back to. Every time that she'd been frightened, or if there was, say, a big storm, Darcy had always built a fort underneath a desk or table and barricaded herself in with flashlights, blankets, and books.
Then, hesitantly, she asked in a soft voice that shook, ''Did you...I mean, I'm not saying that you did it on purpose or anything, but did you maybe...accidentally...hurt Jane and Director Fury?'' It was a thought that she hadn't wanted to entertain, but one that kept twitching in her mind.
Quick as lightning, a long-fingered hand grabbed hold of Darcy's ankle, dragging her gently but forcefully out before she had a moment to protest. Then Loki wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her effortlessly, setting her down on top of the desk so that they were facing each other at nearly eye level. His pale face was stern, eyes blazing coldly.
''You know as well as I do that I did no such thing. And even if I were so inclined to, I couldn't. Odin bound the majority of my abilities. As I assume Banner has now realized, Jane and Fury are getting sick because the very fabric of reality is crumbling, tearing apart at the seams like worn cloth. They are going to go mad. And eventually, so is every other creature in this realm, and then the rest. It's simply happening to them more quickly since they've been so closely tied into the events.'' His words were like icy slashes against her skin. They burned.
''I oughta slap you too!'' Darcy said. She was crying again, but it didn't help anything, just made the world even more blurred. ''I thought that you said before that it was all just a story! Drivel, or whatever you called it.''
Loki took hold of her shaking shoulders and held her still so that she looked directly at him. That falling feeling had her in its grip once more, but for some reason, she felt suddenly, disturbingly calmer.
''It is just a story, but with a few true parts. Yes, events have been set in motion, but not following the predicted course. It hasn't occurred naturally, or at the proper time. Ragnarok was supposed to wipe the slate clean, so to speak. A new beginning would spring from the ashes left behind by the destruction.'' He chuckled as if he found the notion slightly ridiculous, then continued. ''It was to happen at a moment that Asgardians would all know by certain signs. And then we would be sure that it was time to accept our fate and go merrily to our doom in a glorious final battle. This is not that. This is synthetic, accidental. Thor destroyed the Bridge to prevent me from doing something rash. And then I further weakened Yggdrasil by using the Tesseract. We kept tearing holes in a fragile fabric until it became more and more unstable. SHIELD, Jane, and all those experiments continued to wear it away. This isn't some mythical ending, some grand death and rebirth. This is something we did. And that means that there may still be a chance to do something about it. I don't want to die any more than you do.''
''What could we do?'' Darcy asked, blinking at him. The tears had stopped flowing and now she was simply fearful and confused once again.
''I hate to say this, but Thor was correct about going to Asgard. The Allfather must have realized by now that this is not Ragnarok. Therefore, he is far less likely to accept his doom. And he will do everything in his power to prevent the destruction of the realms.''
''But in the meantime, we just sit here and wait to go insane? I can't do that! Loki...I'm so damn scared. I can't lose my mind!'' Darcy felt herself once again on the borders of hysteria. She could barely breathe, her chest was so constricted with terror. She prayed that numbness would once again sweep over her.
Loki tightened his grip on her shoulders. ''I won't let you lose your mind. I'll keep you safe, no matter what it takes.''
Darcy wriggled away from him and jumped down from the desk. She paced across the carpet. ''I want to believe you,'' she said, with her back to him. ''I'm sorry. And I do, I think. Believe you, trust you, whatever. I don't care what Jane said...I just...I somehow know that you are sorry. It's like, be careful what you wish for, I guess.'' She laughed with a bitterness that was like an earthquake, overwhelming in its strength. ''I wanted so much to find out who you were. I thought maybe, you know, we could be...friends. Since we seemed to get along so well through windows and all. But maybe some things aren't meant to be touched. Maybe we were supposed to have been only that way, perfect strangers, good neighbors. But when I found you, I found the end of the world. I guess that's what I get for being so...adventurous.''
He was standing right behind her now, she could feel him. He grabbed her shoulders again and spun her around. There were those eyes again, so cold, bright, lovely. It was like looking into the sun. Everyone always told her no, and Darcy always said but why, why can't I look, it's so pretty...
''I'm never going to be any kind of hero, not in any story, not in any prophecy. The best I can hope for is that I might be remembered as ambiguous. But you,'' he said, and the word sent tremors all along her skin, ''you are good. And you are beautiful. Jane was right about one thing, I am selfish. I want. And you were the first person to ever want me. I could see it in your eyes, in every movement. Even if we were supposed to have stayed separated by glass, even if I knew for certain that to break down those boundaries would have catastrophic consequences, I am not sorry that it happened. Because I'm selfish and I want to touch you.''
They were perilously close now. ''All this science,'' he continued, his voice like rain landing on her body, ''This belief is a universe that can be quantified, understood, and therefore controlled. No. It's as absurd a notion as any myth. To understand this world, any world, is to know chaos. And to accept it, to let it in. Let it wash over you without the need to rationalize. It's like lust, or love. It comes in waves, knocking you down, dazing you. It possesses you, it directs you. Your actions and emotions become inexplicable. You might even forget who you are. It's all chaos. And it devours. It's selfish. It wants.'' His breath was so cold against her skin, dangerously, chillingly erotic. His hands were around her waist now, strangely hesitant, not sure where to go.
''You're so warm,'' he murmured.
