Oh there is no use in loving the dying
I have tried but you can't
You just can't guard the dead
You are the watchman and you
Can't keep the gate shut
-Anne Sexton
SHIELD
Andrews came rushing into the room, looking exhausted.
''Dr. Foster's gone AWOL again,'' he related with a wheeze. ''Still no response from either Loki or Darcy?'' Natasha shook her head gravely, then rested it on the palm of her hand and closed her eyes. ''Shit,'' she muttered.
''Another thing, Ma'am. There's two women here to see you. The one says that she has information about them...and about the Restored Ones.''
The redhead opened her eyes raised her head in interest.''Escort them in, please,'' she instructed.
A few moments later Andrews returned with two women; the older, taller one was fair and willowy, with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, the younger had a smooth olive complexion and was far more exotic-looking than the other, though Natasha could immediately see that they were related, probably mother and daughter. The young girl looked a little out of her element, she appeared very perplexed and kept glancing around nervously. The blonde just seemed determined, yet there was something troubled in her eyes. They were dressed like hippies, the Black Widow noted. 'This should be interesting', she thought to herself.
The tall one began to speak first. ''Hello, my name is Selene Sang and this is my daughter Prudence. We've come here because I think I might be able to help with one of your cases.''
Natasha cocked an eyebrow at her. ''I see. And just which case might that be?''
The woman didn't bat an eyelash, didn't cower at all under the assassin's intimidating stare. ''You sent two of your agents to investigate the Restored Ones. Darcy Lewis was Prudence's roommate in college. She and...Loki...came to our house in Scarsdale a few weeks ago for help with what Darcy told us was research for a book she was writing. She mentioned the Restored Ones specifically, which set off some alarm bells in my head.''
''And why is that?''
''I grew up not too far from that place,'' explained Selene. ''I'd heard all the ghost stories. The true ones were the scariest.''
''It has the highest rate of unexplained disappearances in the Tri-State area,'' noted Natasha.
Selene nodded. ''And do you know why that is?''
The Black Widow's eyes met Andrews' for a moment and then she looked back at the blonde woman.''We assumed that it had something to do with the group.''
''Yes, it does, but there's so much more than that, which is why we've come here. Now that whole place is a kind of ticking energetic time bomb.''
Natasha raised her eyebrows at this. ''Could you...be more specific, please?''
''There's going to be a total lunar eclipse in less than twenty four hours, as well as a very strange and rare planetary alignment,'' Selene replied. ''I...I believe that there is going to be a massive collision between dimensions occurring at that time, on that land, via a portal.''
''I see. And how exactly is it that you know this?''
''I'm clairvoyant,'' the woman answered, bluntly and without hesitation. ''I received a vision of what's going to happen. That's also how I knew to come and find you.''
Natasha folded her hands, considered this strange statement. It was definitely one she hadn't heard before. ''If you are really clairvoyant,'' she said to Selene, ''prove it. Tell me something that only I would know.''
Prudence now looked very annoyed, exclaiming, ''Hey it doesn't really work that way, she's not a circus act!''
''No, no, it's ok, honey,'' Selene calmly told her daughter. Then she stared right at Natasha for a long, long moment. Her eyes rolled upwards ever so slightly and she suddenly looked far away, as if she were staring into a dream. Then she blinked and said, ''Dreykov's daughter, Sao Paulo, the hospital fire. Loki said this to you once, it was the one time he really got to you. He told you that you...'' Selene paused, closed her eyes as if she was trying to concentrate. ''He was behind glass, or trapped inside of something...I can hear his voice telling you...that you lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. Somewhere, deep inside, there was a single moment when you knew he was right, but you pushed it away as hard as you could.'' The woman drew in a deep breath, looked drained and exhausted.
Andrews glanced over at Natasha, wide eyed. He seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.
The red haired woman was deathly silent, her face pale and devoid of expression. Andrews couldn't tell if she was furious or sorrowful, she could have been both or neither. There was just...nothing, and this utter blankness threw him a bit. In all his many months of working beside her, he'd never seen her look like that. The blankness disappeared like a curtain being pulled back, and Natasha looked at Selene and nodded. ''How can you help us?''
Connecticut, less than twelve hours to the eclipse
At the moment, Jason was nowhere to be seen. Once Retnick had returned, he'd slipped away somewhere, ceasing his attack on both Loki and Darcy, albeit temporarily. The house, though, continued to come malevolently alive and aware, and so did its apparent servants. Darcy noticed that the three serving girls from the kitchen were all once again facing the curious stained glass windows in the dining room as they had been the night of Penelope's Restoration, not moving at all. Yet once they heard her footsteps, in a single swift motion they turned to face her.
Despite the chill that ran through her, Darcy forced her voice not to waver as she asked the three women,''Who are you?'' They all continued staring with their odd blue eyes, standing in a neat line by the window.
''We own this land,'' they spoke at the same time, their mouths closed. Darcy heard the sound inside her own head, the three of them in unison, their voices equally girlish and menacing.
''Where did you come from?'' she tried again.
''We've always been here.'' Then they turned and faced the window again.
Darcy backed out of the room and met Loki in the hallway. The two had made a pact to stay close together as much as possible for this last, fateful day and whatever it might bring come nightfall. He was about to tell her something when suddenly Retnick came striding down the corridor towards them, looking oddly manic.
''Come here,'' he told them both, leading them to the door to the parlour. Hesitantly, they followed him and paused there, staring at the closed wooden door. Looking up, Darcy noticed this particular doorframe for the first time. It was covered in a strange, faintly etched marking. She squinted at it, trying to make it out, but the words were too faded to read. ''There is something that I want to show you,'' Retnick explained. Once he opened the door, Darcy saw that the leader had not returned to the house alone.''There has to be one final exchange, a powerful one,'' he told them. ''In order for Anna Lily to return to me, someone must take her place in the Palace of Souls. And I was ever so fortunate to find a willing candidate. I could hear her soul crying out from miles away. It's just as I said before—I have no use for either of you,'' he added. ''But your friend will do so very nicely. I've never seen anyone quite so eager. Not since my dear Penelope.'' He laughed, a wicked, mean sound that cracked at the edges like glass. His eyes burned darkly.
Darcy clamped a hand down over her mouth to keep from crying out in horror. Inside the room, Jane sat very pale and still in a large chair, a dazed look in her eyes and a strange smile on her face. Memories of their time on Asgard flooded back to Darcy, her friend's expression reminding her of that night she'd found Jane out in the garden all alone, singing to herself in the darkness. She moved to rush into the room but was abruptly blocked by some kind of energetic barrier. ''Now, now,'' the leader tutted, shaking a finger at her. ''None of that. Don't disturb her.'' As if blown by a huge gust of wind from inside the room, the door slammed heavily shut.
''I hesitated at first,'' admitted Retnick. ''But her desire was so great, I couldn't refuse her.''
One word, a tearful breath, that was all Darcy could manage. ''No.''
''We've already come much too far for 'no', '' he told her, his voice now changing, growing strangely melancholy.
She dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands as she rounded on him, shouting, ''You kidnapped her! You drugged her with something and dragged her here!''
Retnick shook his head emphatically. ''I did no such thing. I merely offered an invitation. And the lovely Dr. Foster accepted. She looked ever so sad when I came across her, wandering alone with tears in her eyes, looking like a lost child.''
''Something's wrong with her!'' protested Darcy insistantly. ''She's not herself—look at her! That's not the Jane I know!''
The leader remained infuriatingly calm. ''Do you really know her?'' he asked. ''Do you truly understand what's in her heart? Something tells me that you don't.''
Loki had to physically restrain Darcy as she lunged at Retnick, who merely turned and walked away as if she wasn't worth his time. She struggled a little, then let go, her limbs crumpling as if she had no strength left. Then she let out a scream, a primal sound of pained frustration.
''It's alright, love,'' the god attempted to soothe her, though his voice shook. ''It'll be fine. Once we can use the reversal spell, she'll be herself again.''
''How could she have believed him? It's insanity, why did she go?'' Darcy was crying now, tears spilling down her face rapidly. It was a heartbreaking sight for Loki. ''She's a scientist, a rational person! She's not supposed to..''
''To what? Have feelings?'' he cut in gently. ''Just because Jane is brilliant doesn't mean she doesn't have emotions and desires the same as you. She's jealous of you, and frightened. She feels like she's losing everything that she's known and held dear. And she hates me all the more, because she thinks that I don't deserve to be alive, let alone with you. I don't think she likes the idea that I can feel, either.''
''Fuck this,'' she muttered through gritted teeth. ''Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it!'' Ceasing her tirade of profanity, Darcy stalked towards the doors leading to the yard. ''I need some fresh air,'' she told Loki.
He knew that she also needed some space, but he wasn't about to let her go out there completely alone, so he stood on the porch and watched her walk over the grass, as he had the first day that they had arrived. The god wanted to growl in frustration. He'd been just as unpleasantly shocked as Darcy to see Jane sitting in the parlour like a blank little doll. Some small part of him felt responsible. If he hadn't made such a bold, cruel statement that day when he smashed the vials, she might never have been driven to something so desperate as putting her faith in a mad sorcerer.
Darcy stopped in the middle of the yard, halfway between the house and the path that led into the woods. She sank down and the lay out on the ground and closed her eyes, listened to see if perhaps the earth could answer a question that she didn't know how to ask. There was a feeling beyond weariness in her blood, her whole being felt hollow and echoey. Then she heard soft footsteps approaching, closer and closer. Opening her eyes, she saw Ethan Montauk staring down at her. A feeling of deja vu crawled over her skin as Darcy abruptly got to her feet, as she did so she realised that her face was wet with tears, which she quickly brushed away. ''Well, here we are again,'' he said.
Ethan gave her a very soft, sympathetic look. Then he looked toward the woods. ''You asked me once before what was out there. I pretended not to know exactly because I didn't want you to be frightened.'' He laughed. ''I suppose it's much too late for that now.'' The small man shook his head and stared down at the ground, then up again and over towards the trees. ''It's like a path into a nightmare. It's as though time literally stops somewhere in those woods. Like space, like a vacuum. As if no matter how loudly you screamed the outside world would never hear you, never even know to be looking for you.''
''And then what happens?'' asked Darcy, in a voice that sounded too small to be hers.
''Eternity,'' he replied. Then he added, ''I once thought it would be nice, to remain young for so long, watch the world change, have enough time to see what the future would hold.'' He gave a sigh at this confession. ''It's really nothing but more of the same.''
''You were the one who left the coordinates in the notebook,'' Darcy suddenly realised. ''How did you do it? They were-''
''Cloaked, yes,'' Ethan finished for her. ''I've been following Retnick in this bizarre endeavor for over seventy years, don't you think I've learned a thing or two about magick?'' He graced her with one of his lopsided smiles. ''Now granted, I'm certainly not as good as him. Or you, for that matter. You are something special. And powerful. That's why I had hoped that you could possibly stop all of this. I'd assumed that if you found the pages, you would do the sensible thing and destroy them then and there. Of course it wouldn't have put an end to the madness, but it would certainly have made a dent in it. And you and your husband, or whatever he really is, would have been safe and sound and far away from here. Why did you come back?'' He asked the question imploringly, and it struck Darcy then that both Ethan and Retnick had been trying to help her and Loki, albeit in very different ways.
She also realised that she didn't have a proper answer, yet still she found herself saying, ''Because I wanted to.''
Darcy felt oddly calmer after her talk with Ethan, but perhaps it wasn't calm so much as a self-preserving numbness that allowed her to continue on. She was so calm in fact, that once she went back inside the house she immediately found herself walking towards Retnick's study. Loki followed after, halting her before she could reach the door. ''What are you doing?'' he asked. ''I want to talk to him,'' she replied softly. ''Alone. Don't worry, you know I'll be fine. You can wait right outside.''
''Alright,'' he agreed, after seeing the determination in her eyes. Hesitantly, he let go of her arm. She knocked on the door. ''Come in,'' came the leader's voice, and Darcy turned the knob and entered.
Retnick was standing, staring thoughtfully out the window, at the blaze of setting sun now burning behind the trees. Everything felt suspended in amber, the air was almost too heavy. ''I knew a soldier once, just a scrawny little Yankee fellow, nothing special about him at all,'' the leader began. He seemed to be slipping far back into his memories to find something. ''And then a few experiments later and he was nearly superhuman, practically indestructible.'' He chuckled. ''It was like something out of an old myth, yet it was pure science. My initial goal was very much the same, but unfortunately, I didn't have access to their technology, especially after the war was over and done. And so I used what resources I had at my disposal.''
''The dark arts,'' supplied Darcy.
He turned to face her. ''Yes, dark. Darker than you can imagine. And very much an art.'' His blue eyes glittered icily.
''I suppose it's too late for me to try to reason with you,'' she said in a soft voice.
''Much too late,'' he agreed with a nod.
''I just have to ask a question. How do you know that she's really out there somewhere? How do you know that this...Palace of Souls is what the Reckoner claims that it is?''
''I've never been a religious man, or a spiritual man. I don't know that I believe in heaven, or any place like it,'' Retnick told her, a weary lucidity in his cold blue eyes . ''But I do believe in eternity. And eternity can exist as a physical plane, take on different forms. It could be heaven, could be hell, could be just...nothingness. But whatever it is, it is endless. It holds many hidden things.'' He paused, everything was quiet and golden and the shadows changed, the light sliding further across the floor.
''I'm sorry, dear girl,'' Retnick said, the sentiment sounding so sincere that for a moment Darcy almost believed him. ''I am. But there is an order to all things. And we must keep the balance.''
Before they'd hidden it away, Darcy had related to Loki the entire text of the reversal spell. It turned out that it wasn't nearly as simple as they had anticipated; they wouldn't merely read some words off of the paper to make everything magically right itself again. This particular ritual needed to be performed on 'sacred ground,' and, of course, required a sacrifice.
''I'm so, so sick of sacrifices,'' she muttered darkly. They were back in their old room again, watching as the sun dipped perilously lower and lower beneath the horizon, the light fleeing from the sky. ''At this point, I'm willing to just run to some neighbouring farm and grab a goat or something.''
Loki actually had to laugh a little at this imagery. ''It doesn't work that way, and you know it. These powers aren't going to be appeased by the blood of livestock, they want it to mean something.''
''It only hurts when it's real,'' Darcy said with a sigh. ''That old thing. I know, I know. So, what do we...sacrifice? And what exactly do they mean by 'sacred ground'?'' she wondered. ''Like a church, or something?''
''I don't think that it would necessarily have to be a church,'' he ventured. ''Especially given that many of the forces that we're dealing with pre-date organized religion.''
''I know this ground ain't sacred,'' she said with a sniff of disdain. ''It's definitely evil, though. So what do we do now? The eclipse is in just a few hours. What's going to happen then?''
The god grimaced a little as he began, ''From what I can tell, everything is going to happen very quickly. First the portal will be opened indefinitely, and a flood of energy will come pouring out like a solar flare. This energy, in conjunction with the eclipse and the alignment, will allow a kind of tipping point to occur. Retnick plans to take this opportunity to make his exchange—theoretically, he will have a small window of time in which to swap Jane for Anna Lily in the Palace of Souls. He's going to use, I suppose, a combination of magick and science to wake her up.''
''Do you think that he has her somewhere in this house?'' The idea of a cryogenically preserved child somewhere in their midst seemed somehow more awful a thought to Darcy than any impending dimensional rip.
''Anna-Lily? It's entirely possible...if not in the house then definitely somewhere close by. As you said when we arrived, you can hide a lot on land this big. It's definitely large enough for a small facility to house a cryonics chamber.''
''He can't do it though. He can't. Science isn't evolved enough to wake someone up from cryogenic sleep. I know it happened to Steve—but he's also superhuman. Anna-Lily was just a sick little girl.''
Loki shook his head. ''That's exactly it, Darcy. Retnick knew that science alone moved too slowly, and just wasn't enough. That's where the dark magick comes in. Let's face it, sometimes, magick trumps science. You know that. And whether he can actually wake Anna-Lily or not is the least of our problems, it's the fact that he's going to try. When he does, when that portal rips open, some very terrible things are going to happen. This entire realm with be in great danger.''
Asgard
Thor walked thoughtfully down one of the long palace hallways with heavy footsteps that echoed. Odin and Frigga had asked to see him, their tones grave. He couldn't help but feel a kind of prickling uneasiness along his spine, though he tried to shake it away. The god's heart had been a bit heavy lately, he hadn't had much opportunity to visit Midgard; his job as peacekeeper in the Realms kept him very busy, especially since they all seemed to be quite chaotic at this time. No sooner had he calmed the riots and wars in one then he was sent to yet another that was tearing itself apart. It left him feeling rather frustrated. And he missed Jane so very much.
He entered the throne room and saw his mother and father sitting there, somber expressions on their faces. They looked like statues.
Odin spoke first. ''I wanted to first commend you for all of your hard work in these trying times. You've done Asgard a great service. Now, however, you must return to Midgard. There is a new darkness spreading there. And it is strong.''
Thor raised his eyebrows for a moment in concern, opened his mouth to say something, but then instead simply bowed his head in a nod.
''There's something else, too,'' Frigga said, a very troubled look in her green eyes. ''Loki, Darcy, and Jane—they all may be in danger.''
Having rarely heard his mother sound quite so serious, Thor felt a chill go through him, even as he said, ''I will see to it.'' Grim yet determined, the god of Thunder walked out of the room.
The sun had now vanished completely and the sky had grown dark, a deepening, thick blackness.
''The night begins to fall at last,'' said Mary, her eyes shining, joy in her voice as she stood by one of the windows in the smaller sitting room, a broom clutched in her wrinkled hand, as always. ''It's been so very long.''
Loki ignored the batty old housekeeper and caught up with Retnick just as he was heading towards the door at the end of the hall, the door to the room with the chalk circle on the floor.
''I hope you're prepared for what you're about to do,'' he told the leader, fixing him with a cold stare.
''Don't talk to me about being prepared, you stupid, stubborn thing,'' Retnick snarled in response, clearly irritated with being called out yet again. ''I don't know why, but you two appealed to what's left of my humanity. And I tried to give you a chance, but you had to come running back. To what? Try and stop me?'' He shook his head. ''I almost wish you could. Being right on the edge of the thing you've been striving towards for so long feels almost like a dream. I never thought it would be like this.''
Loki took this opportunity to try and reason with him.''Even if by some unfortunate stroke of luck you did manage to bring her back, you know the consequences. You know that Jason and his ilk have been using you as a pawn in their game. Tonight the door is going to rip open completely, and then we are going to have an invasion on our hands.''
''It's not an invasion,'' Retnick said softly. ''It's a Restoration.''
''Is that what you truly believe?'' Loki asked with a raised eyebrow. ''You're smarter than that. See, in a sense, you were doing the world a service. Your little cult offered supposedly willing sacrifices one at a time to these beings on the other side and then your prison held them. It was easy enough to delude yourself into believing that you were a benevolent facilitator of this alchemy. But once the door rips itself open far enough, there isn't going to be any slow choosing of Vessels. They won't have to wait anymore, they won't have to abide by your rules and play nice. They are going to overrun this realm, throwing it into darkness, spreading like a virus until they are the only thing left, walking round in their stolen bodies. What kind of a world is that to bring a child back into?''
Retnick said nothing.
''And another thing,'' continued Loki, ''perhaps you may have preserved her body very well, physically, yes, she may wake up again. Jason may have her spirit somewhere. But what about her mind? How are you going to explain to Anna-Lily what happened? What if she remembers? She'll wake up and look around and wonder why more than seventy years has passed. She's only a little girl, what is that going to do to her?''
''Children are resilient,'' the leader replied, though his voice wavered. He coughed a little and quickly straightened up, drawing himself to his full height. ''Now, if you'll excuse me.'' He waved his arm, sending out a jolt of energy that caught Loki off guard and knocked him to the ground, dizzy and disoriented. Retnick stepped around him carefully and made his way down the hall.
The circle in the room where the Restored were chosen had never been closed. It always allowed for a small residual trickle of energy to constantly flow through it like a stream. It only took a few words from Retnick and then the trickle became a churning river, one that began to rip at the edges of the floorboards, practically dissolving the area inside the chalk, swirling into a dark hesitated, just for a moment, but then the words were spoken and it was over and done and far too late to take back. Jason had been correct when he had told Darcy that Retnick didn't need all of the remaining pages to the book. Once, yes, back when he wasn't nearly as strong, he would have needed them, but now he had the Reckoner and the Palace of Souls to aid him in his quest to bring back the one thing that he had ever really loved, the thing that made him less of a monster. She wasn't dead, she was only frozen in wait, in a place beyond death. After all the years spent building to this one moment, now it had arrived, and Retnick couldn't deny the queasy feeling that rose up inside him, a dread that he'd never felt before, the sudden knowledge that he had gone much too far.
Exhaustion made Darcy slip off into sleep against her will. Something made her begin to stir awake, the feeling of cold fingers against her arm. Even only being half-aware, she knew for certain that it wasn't Loki. Her eyes flew open and she instantly reeled in shock to see Anna-Lily sitting on the bed beside her, her small hand resting on her skin. Her eyes were wide, she looked rather frightened.
''All of the doors are open,'' Anna-Lily whispered in her tiny, grave voice. ''They are coming.'' Darcy blinked and then she was gone.
''The moonlight is gone, swallowed at last,'' Penelope announced to all the others in a satisfied voice. ''Now our time has come.'' She reached out her hand and touched the iron door to her cell. The lock instantly fell away as if it were a castle of sand. She walked down the long, narrow hallway, opening each door and freeing all the others. One by one, they stirred to sudden life and slipped eagerly out of their cells, following her out the door and along the path through the woods.
Meanwhile, the mansion suddenly shook as if rattled by an earthquake. Light began to spill out from the room at the end of the hallway. Grimacing at the sharp pain in his head, Loki woke to the sound of Mary's cackling, delighted laughter. Darcy flew down the stairs, clutching at the bannister for support as she made her way to the foyer. Picture frames were shaken off of the walls, vases and other knick knacks fell to the floor and cracked. Struggling to his feet, Loki caught sight of Darcy hurrying towards him, eyes wide. He grabbed her arm. ''Quickly, we have to get out of the house.'' Together they ran out the door and into the back yard.
The air was remarkably still. Darcy's eyes were drawn upwards, to the sky, where the moon was now covered completely. ''Look!'' she whispered, clutching at Loki's hand. She had never seen a total lunar eclipse before. It truly was an amazing sight.
Then her heart plummeted as she looked across the grass, seeing something in the shadows. Hesitantly letting go of Loki's hand, Darcy crept closer. The first thing she noticed was that all of the flowers that had been parched and dying were now suddenly in full bloom. Amid those flowers lay Ethan Montauk, both of his eyes finally closed forever. Death made him look strangely relieved. ''Oh no,'' whispered Darcy. Then she turned and looked back at the house, all of the windows now violently alight as the portal continued to pull open wider and wider.
Loki's gaze, however, was drawn to the edge of the woods, where he saw them, waiting. They came into view single file, moving like shadows, Penelope leading them, her dark eyes shining. He reached out and pulled Darcy away. Ducking quickly out of sight behind the stone wall, they hid and watched as the Reckoner came striding calmly across the field, where he came to stand beside Penelope, both of them smiling with apparent delight as they watched that light spitting from the house. Now the leader was there too, they could see him rushing over to the macabre couple.
''What is this?'' Retnick demanded, seeming a little short of breath. Darcy noticed that he looked worried, perhaps even afraid. Clearly something hadn't happened the way that he had anticipated. The Reckoner smiled like an eel, his eyes glittering in the dark. ''I'm sorry, old friend. And we are all so very grateful to you for your assistance. But you have grown greedy, and now that I have such wonderful new companions I'm afraid that I have no need for you anymore.'' He began walking away. ''Wait!'' screamed the leader. ''What about the promise that you made me?''
The Reckoner shook his head, gave Retnick an almost pitying smile. ''Underneath it all, what you really wanted was power. The ability to be a god on earth for just one moment. And you've had that. You've had a very long moment. Don't worry about your sweet daughter—she'll be kept safe, as she has been all this time.''
Retnick's eyes burned with rage, he looked like he wanted to scream, but no sound came out, he just swallowed reflexively, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Jason turned and walked along the path into the woods.
Darcy's breath caught in her throat as Penelope reached out, wrapped her pale fingers around his neck and squeezed. She looked up at the eclipsed moon and smiled, showing her black teeth. ''Thank you,'' she said to Retnick in that awful, deep voice. ''Thank you for letting me walk the earth. Thank you for giving me my bride, my body, my beloved.'' Her fingers tightened their iron grip, lifting him clean into the air with unnatural strength. ''But you must understand.'' His eyes bulged and then he stopped struggling. ''You have forgotten that you are only a man. And as such,'' she dropped his lifeless body to the ground, ''You must remember to die.''
Biting back a scream, Darcy dug her fingernails into Loki's arm. The god simply stared, wide-eyed at what had just happened. Then there came the familiar and eerie sound of singing from behind them. She turned and saw a flickering of light through the trees, from deep within the woods. She got to her feet and followed the sound. Loki saw her move, went to follow her but cast a wary glance behind him at the glowing, shaking house.
Branches crunched beneath her feet as she was led by the sound and the light, through the forest and then to the place beyond, the place with the tree and the stone building that had served as a prison. Her eyes widened as she saw what lay even beyond that. It was enormous, a building of unbelievable height and width, something that no human being could possibly have built. It seemed almost alive, aglow from within.
Then with horror she saw Jane standing by the tree, near the entrance to the colossal structure. Her hands were bound and she still looked half-asleep, or deeply drugged. Revulsion slithered around her stomach as the Reckoner then appeared, seemingly out of thin air.
''Please,'' Darcy begged frantically. ''Please let her go.''
Jason shook his head. ''I'm afraid that there's only one way for that to happen.''
Her heart sank as she realized what this meant. Terrible sounds came through the trees and Darcy could hear the utter chaos as the creatures came rushing out of the portal, tearing their way out of the house and flooding into the night.
There was no way that they could use the reversal spell, they had no chance to fight, not from this side. The doors of the Palace were opening, beckoning. She could hear the voices calling to her, see the hands reaching out, so many hands, so many voices. She thought of Jane, laughing and smiling in happier times. And then she thought of tears and blood and broken glass on the floor. You got the better deal. Darcy heard the hopeless echo of the scientist's voice in her head. And then, right then, she knew what she had to do. She owed it to Jane. She trusted herself enough. And she trusted Loki. The world was going to hell around them, the Restored had broken free and were now walking the earth again, Retnick's lifeless body was crumpled on the ground. 'Not everything dies the same way,' she remembered those words.
Darcy was scarcely aware that she was moving or talking until she'd begun to run.''Take me!'' she screamed, rushing until she was near the doors. ''Take me instead! Just let her go!''
Jason's eyes lit with utter delight. ''Done,'' said the Reckoner, snapping his fingers. Jane's hands fell free and then she disappeared.
''Where did she go?''
''Back home safe. Don't worry, love, soon you won't even remember her name. But she will remember you. Fondly, I would assume. After all, you did save her life. This is what, the second time you've done that now? Or rather, I should say that you've postponed her demise. Strange. Strange what you consider saving someone. I would have given her a world without death. I would have given her eternity.''
Loki had finally managed to catch up with Darcy, a sinking feeling overtaking him as he saw what was happening. She turned to him very quietly, and held up her hand so that he could see the scar along her palm. Tears shone in her eyes. ''Find me,'' she whispered. Then she bolted into a sprint towards the beckoning Palace.
Icy fear crashed over Loki in waves.''No!'' he shouted, running after her. ''No, NO!''
Darcy managed to turn back in time to meet his eyes again and share one last look, just as Jason smiled and she was pulled through the doors.