Everyone has been waiting for this chapter, or at least everyone that is reading this story has been waiting. I'm sorry it took so long for this one to come out, I had some health issues. Send Potato Tree some get better wishes, maybe? Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
Eighty feet below the surface of the Hudson River there is something hanging suspended in the water. In the past week it has been there no human eye has seen it, nor even imagined that something like that could be down there. For in the murky water that is the Hudson River there is a single person floating amongst the dark abyss of endless emptiness. Perhaps floating is too simple of a word to describe what can only be described and not seen.
An orb of light surrounding an angel. Peaceful is a nice word to use when describing the look on the angels face, as if she was sleeping, or feeling the kiss of her lover on her neck. It is here, near the depths of the river that she is sleeping; her wings hang limply beneath her, as she seems to wait for whatever it is that will set her free.
Suspended as if she was a puppet and someone was holding her by the strings, the glow of the orb around her acting as a shield, this girl should have died. You seem to know who she is thought, don't you?
Its Cora isn't it? She's alive, that's good isn't it? Yes, but for how long.
Something happened as she was taking her last breaths, do you remember the glow that was faintly shinning around her body? It saved her. That was the power of her second Talon, but with this great power comes something else entirely.
It may have saved her from drowning, but it also used up the last bit of her strength, and now it was taking everything she had to stay in the state that she was in. Every day that no one found her was another day closer to just sinking and disappearing into what she would never return from.
So start getting anxious, because she doesn't have very many days left.
Loki thrashed around in his bed, wrestling with yet another dream of Cora. It had been two days since he had figured out she was still alive, and still they had found nothing. No trace of her, no glance, not even another feather. Speaking of feather the one they had possession of was starting to grow dimmer, they didn't exactly know what that meant, but it had to be along the lines of Cora dying.
His dreams were getting more vivid and cruel as each day passed that they did not find her. The day before it had been a dream about when he'd found her inn Nash's house, limp and motionless. He had had to run for miles before he finally got to her, but she was already dead.
He'd gone through the same motions as before, giving her CPR, and waiting for the moment when she would cough and sputter and look up at him with love in her eyes but she never did. It felt like he tried to revive her for hours, pleading with her to wake up, even though he knew that she wouldn't. She'd left him with one breathless word.
Hurry.
The worst dream he had had thus far was one he did not wish to repeat but still did.
All he could remember was suddenly opening his eyes to see Cora in front of him, he tried to reach out and grab her but something prevented him from even getting close to her. As if he were in a cage of glass, he could do nothing but watch as Cora struggled to get air, gagging and swallowing water he almost wanted to turn away. This was too painful to watch.
He tried to wake, closing his eyes tightly and wishing himself awake, but the dream would not let him leave. He had to watch as his love eventually stopped struggling and lost her life, slowly sinking into the darkness of the water.
Find me. Hurry.
She'd left him with the same breathless words as she did every night. Though this was the first time she had said hurry, so that left the urgency fresh on his mind as he'd gone about his next day.
He had woken from that dream panting and crying out for her, it had been one of the most horrible things he had ever watched.
Tony woke up from yet another dream about Cora as well; it seemed that both of them were being plagued by that of which they could not find.
Choking on his air Tony felt much like he imagined Cora had when she was drowning, though of course it had to be very different. Struggling to grasp his words he'd finally seen something useful in his dreams.
"I know," he murmured breathing heavily.
Tony had been doing all the hard work, but since he was the only one with such a suit it was natural, it would be hard for Thor or Loki to try and get down to the depths that he traveled.
Gasping for breath Tony sat up in his bed. This dream had been different than usual, usually he and Cora were playing hide-n-seek and he was it, but this dream was different.
It started out with when he and Cora had first met, and then it escalated from there. Showing memories that they had shared together, adventures that she had tagged along on, tough he was usually against it, it even showed him when she was laughing with him on the flying ship.
The last thing it showed him was the one thing he had been waiting to see for days, ever since he had first started dreaming of her.
For the last thing he saw was Cora, limp and motionless. You would think that he wouldn't want to see her like that, but it was something he had not yet seen, for this time he could tell this was more of a vision than a dream. He could see that Cora was suspended in the water, glowing just like the feather glowed, seeming only asleep when really she was on the border of death itself.
He was there in the water with her; all he could hear was her faint voice whispering to him.
I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. Come get me. Every time she said she was here her voice grew a little weaker, and as Tony watched the glow of the light surrounding her got dimmer and dimmer until suddenly it went out. Then it felt as if he was being pulled forcefully through the water, he could see nothing at first, the murky water blocked out any traced of light. For a mere fraction of a second his eye caught something on the reflection of the water, it almost felt as if Cora had been trying to tell him all along. As if he could hear her voce telling him where to look for her, for he could only read one word before he had been pulled out of the dream.
Hudson.
They'd been looking in both rivers, the East River and the Hudson River, but they hadn't known which one to channel most of their time to. Finding one thing in such a vast expanse of water was pretty much impossible, especially with the two rivers involved, but now he knew. She was in the Hudson River; he didn't know why he felt so light headed with this new information, he felt as if the answer had been right in front of his the whole time.
It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, in the faint light of the moon he felt as if he could answer anything. Nothing could explain the amount of hope he felt in his chest, swelling up like a marshmallow in a microwave, he knew!
"I know where she is," he muttered closing his eyes tightly and lifting his head up towards the ceiling.
Feeling the need to rush Tony jumped from his bed and made way for his suit, it was still night time but there was something about his dream that made him feel like he could find her. He wasn't surprised when he saw that Loki was already up, it was hard for the both of them to sleep during these days. Looking at Loki with a bit of a superior air about him he spoke.
"Get your brother, and come with me," he said commandingly. Even if he did find Cora he didn't know what state she was going to be in, would he be able to just fly the sky of them out of there? Or would someone else have to intervene and help out as well?
"Find her," Loki muttered softly. "Please, I don't want to keep dreaming about her dying," he said in a weak sounding voice. No one wanted to see someone they loved dead, but to watch them die without being able to do anything, that was something else entirely.
"I don't either," Tony said under his breath as he walked about from him. He didn't want to admit it, but Loki truly did care for Cora, and he was willing to forget any past mishaps in order to accept him. It was evident he was suffering the most from this, it was like he never slept, but was always dreaming, he really did love Cora.
It took them maybe ten minutes to get ready in the dark and be on their way; Thor and Loki went about borrowing one of the ships from the docks while Tony dove straight into the water. He was going to find her if he had to search all night, because there was no way he would be able to watch her float away like she had in his dreams again.
He hadn't searched for Cora in the dark since the first night she sank, so tonight his thoughts were his own, and all he could think about was how she had been alone in this darkness when she was drowning. If you've ever been alone, and everyone has, you know the feeling of that emptiness, as if no one could ever find you in the darkness that covers you and eats you whole. If you like being underwater and feeling the weightlessness and peaceful feeling of being alone then you're half way there. Imagine being alone in the dark, but in a place where no one will ever find you, and the darkness is so heavy you can't get out of it no matter how hard you try. It's almost peaceful, but the dread of knowing you are dying, and knowing you can't say goodbye to those you love and care about, it's crushing.
Tony could only imagine how she felt, sinking and sinking, reaching out towards a surface that she would never get to, and calling out the names of those she loved in a desperate attempt that they might somehow hear her. That she had said goodbye.
Jarvis mentioned something to him, that through all scans and tests it showed nothing like a human could be floating at these depths, but Tony knew better not to believe in that. Cora was not of this world, Earthly devices would not be able to find her, and one could say Tony had gone a little crazy believing these things. But one could definitely understand why.
At first Tony turned on his lights, but then thought against it with a small inkling of hope that he would be able to find Cora in all the darkness because she was glowing, because she wanted to be found. It took him twenty minutes of just aimlessly going through the water to find something that made hope rush through him.
A single feather seemed to be suspended in the water, almost as if it was waiting for him, glowing faintly in the water he tried to touch it but his fingers went right through it. Was it even truly there? Or was it a mirage, and illusion, it almost seemed to be made of light.
Not long after the first feather there was another feather floating in the water waiting for someone to find it, then there was another, and another. The building up of hope in his chest was almost overwhelming as he felt he was getting closer and closer to where she was.
Then suddenly in front of him there was a glow, eerie and unsettling in the darkness of the water it felt out of place, as if it was a black whit sock stuck yellow sock that had snuck into a load of dark laundry. With a rush of something, perhaps excitement Tony rushed forwards, it had to be Cora, it had to.
Surging forwards Tony stopped when he saw what was in front of him, an orb of light surrounding a single form that hung suspended in the middle of it.
It was Cora!
She looked so peaceful, it was almost as if she was already dead, but he couldn't think of that, no happy thought, happy thoughts. He'd found her, and her light wasn't out yet. Even as he looked at her it seemed as if the light was dimming, like a glow stick near the end of its life.
There was one problem that kept coming back to his mind as he stared at her with speechless happiness, how was he supposed to get her to the surface?
Again, sorry it took so long for this one to come out. I updated my other stories and then stared at my computer for a few days trying to figure out what to write for this story. Finally it came tome, writing things is hard.
So, this is a bit of a cliff hanger, I'm smiling a little bit because I know that it is. What do you think?
Thanks for reading.