After going through the portal, they soon arrived inside at the Knowhere port instalation. The two of them began to walk around to try to see if they could either find the Collector or the Aether. From rapidly looking and scrambling through shelves they haven't found anything. They even tried places where you wouldn't expect for someone to put the Aether in. But so far there hasn't been any signs of the Collector or the Aether.
"Did you find anything? Did you find the Eater yet?" asked Darcy out of nowhere as she was looking. "Wow I can't believe that this guy collects this much stuff. When you said that he was a pack rat, you weren't kidding. Heck he's even collecting living things. Plus I can't believe that we are in Outer space, I mean come on it's so cool and maybe after we find the either then we can go and explore for a bit. Even though this place obviously have a lack of air, but I'm sure that you can use your magic in order to deal with that and then maybe we can enjoy the sites and explore for a bit."
"It's called the Aether Darcy and please remain focus on the task at hand. If I have found either the Aether or the Collector then wouldn't I have said something?" said Loki "Since we're here to find the Aether and retrieve it. Not to go sight seeing and let's not make anymore false alarms and try to focus on finding either the Collector or the Aether before something happens that we might not get out of.-" Before Loki could continue on, he then sensed that someone was lurking right behind him. He quickly got ready to fight and ready for anything that could be lurking in the shadows. But soon he discovered it wasn't someone that he would expect to sneak right behind him.
"Well, well I did not expect another Asgardian to pay me a visit so soon, especially without some form of notification from the All-Father ruler of Asgard himself." said The collector right behind him "So what do I owe the pressure?" Before Loki could get a chance to answer, things even got more unexpected and surprisingly.
"Hey Loki,I know that you want to focus on the mission itself which I'm totally cool with but you won't believe all of this crazy stuff this guy has. I mean he even have living things in his little collection." said Darcy "Which isn't fair if you ask me since they should be free living their lives not locked up in some cage like a prisoner, I mean I kinda get on how they must be-" Before Darcy could get a chance to finish her sentence and saw the two of them. It didn't take a deep thinker to figure out what's going on between the two of them. But Darcy knew that she should be ready for anything in case things gets out of control for some reason.
"You know I can see that you two are obviously in the middle of something, though it would be my cue to just leave you boys to deal with it." said Darcy determinedly "But I have the feeling that things might not end well, so I think I should stay around in order to make sure that things don't get out of control."
"An Asgardian and an human in my vault, I thought I've never see the day that two of them would be together at the same time." said the Collector "What do I owe the pressure of this special visit?" Which Loki immediately decided to take the lead in this conversation and the situation itself.
"We are here regarding the fact that two Asgardians delivered the Aether a couple of days ago and we recently realized that it was a mistake and we are now sent by Odin to come and retrieve it." said Loki "We are very sorry for any inconvenience, but we must retrieve the Aether and deliver it to Odin immediately." Despite his story being really convincing, the Collector wasn't being particularly coorperative this morning.
"I've been given this stone in order to give it my protection and I'm not going to give it up that easily and you two don't know what power it holds." said the Collector.
"From what we've been through, I think I know what power it holds pretty well." said Darcy "Even though I'm Earth"s ambassador to Asgard and witniss some of it's power." Which Loki couldn't help but roll his eyes, since thar was one of the worst lies he ever heard in his life and he was surprised that the Collector bought that.
"I have made a decision and it's final." said the Collector calmly and stubbornly "I would like to have a hold of the Infinity stone in order to study it and to know all the power it may hold. When it comes to this power then I don't think I can trust anyone who just break into my vault with such an unexplainable power that existed ever since the dawn of time or anyone that I barely even know".
"Yeah we know it's intense power that if it falls in the wrong hands then we're all doomed and all that stuff." said Darcy "But we'll even be more doomed if you don't cooperate and give us the Infinity stone before we do something or we can make a deal." Though unfortunately they still weren't getting anywhere with the Collector.
"There's nothing that you can offer me that can make me change my decision regarding the stone." said the Collector "It's a priceless and powerful artifact and I am not going to let random strangers walk off with it. There's no possible alternative that could make me accept your proposal." Before either Loki or Darcy could say anything, the next thing the three of them knew was Chitari starting to surround around them and then both Darcy and Loki immediately got ready to fight. But the Collector doesn't seem to be as open as they are when it comes to fighting. Loki immediately noticed the Collector's nervousness and decided to use the current situation as an advantage.
"I'm guessing that you are not a fighter, from the way that you are backing away from the Chittari gaurds." said Loki "Here's our deal, if you give us the Aether then you'll be under our protection for the rest of your days and if you don't then we'll leave you to deal with the Chitari all by yourself." Which it made the Collector back away nervously and knowing that he has no choice in this situation. Especially when it comes to past deals regarding Thanos.
"Yeah good luck trying to escape from these guys. From what I've learned from my experience is that if the Chitari wants something then they won't stop until they get it, no matter what." said Darcy "So I would decide to give the eater to us if you want to stay alive and be safe if I were you." Which from her taunting it made the Collector even more worried for his life.
"It's Aether, Darcy." said Loki smiling at her before turning to the Collector with a serious look on his face "Now it's decision time sir." As the Chitari came closer to the three of them ready to attack in any means nesisary. But in the nick of time, the Collector made his decision and it would benefit them in the end.
"Alright, you can have the Infinity stone under the condition that you give me protection from Thanos and any of his minions." said the Collector immediately and desperately. Which from his desperateness it immediately made both Loki and Darcy exchange a smile and knew that they completed their mission. But first before they could relax at the very moment, the two of them realize that just because they now have the Aether doesn't mean that they were out of the woods yet.
"We were hoping that you would tell us that." said Loki and then began to fight off the Chitari and Darcy soon quickly joined in the fight as well despite Loki's protest to not to get involved in the fight. But that didn't stop them from continuing on the fight and to try to defeat as many of the Chitari as they can. To both of their surprises is that there weren't that many guards that were trying to defeat them or take the Aether. Since one would think that Thanos would be sending his entire army after them in order to grab the Infinity stones and Loki. But that gave them an unexpected advantage that could wind up helping them win this fight and things seem to become easier for them to win. Soon they wind up defeating all of the Chitari in an instant and then turned to the Collector who has the Aether right out in front of him. Already knowing that he has to fulfil his deal and calmly handed over to the two of them. Which Loki immediately grabbed the Aether with a scowl and look like if he was ready to tackle or freeze the Collector for not giving the Aether earlier, since if he did then maybe, they would have avoided the entire fight with the Chitari from ever happening. Darcy immediately noticed Loki's frustration and decided it might be best to calm him down before he does something he might later regret.
"Look I know that this guy caused so much trouble for both of us just now. But we're not going to help anyone if you do something to him and it will lead to someone to come here and investigate what happened here. Then he'll wind up tattling if he survives your little angry attitude." Said Darcy "Now let's go before Thanos send anymore goons after us." Though to both of their surprises, Loki manage to calm himself down and back away from The Collector and stared at him angrily.
"Do not tell anyone that we came and took this or else the deal we made is off and we keep the Aether." Said Loki. With that he began to leave the vault and head straight towards the portal ready to leave all of this incident behind. Darcy quickly turned to The Collector and grabbed his hand and then began to shake it.
"Well it was nice doing business with you. Though sorry about my friend's aggressive approach in the end... but you kinda deserve it." Said Darcy "But anyway I hope that you have a nice rest of the day." With that Darcy left and quickly followed Loki in the portal and back to Earth.
An Hour Later
Once they made it back to Darcy's apartment, the two of them got right at work trying to deal with the Infinity Stones. But that was easier said then done. Since Loki was having a tough time trying to figure out how to break apart the Infinity Stones with annihilating the whole apartment building or accidentally let the Aether go into Darcy. Along with the fact that it will be difficult to get it out now with Malekith dead and no other Dark Elf might have survive from the recent incident. Though things are going to get more challeging due to the fact that Thanos might have more than just the Gauntlet. Since when he first met Thanos, he gave him the septar in order to take over Earth, if he had one Infinty stone back then. Then maybe he has more than one Infinity Stone or at least the ones that are missing with the exception of the secptar of course.
"Darcy has my brother ever told you what became of the secptar that I used to take over Earth in my previous visit?" asked Loki as he was working on the Infinity Stones and trying to get the stones that were hiding from the inside of what seem their protective cases.
"No it never occurred to me on ever asking what happened to that septar. Heck he didn't even think about talking about his little trip to New York, especially about you that is." said Darcy "Though maybe he does know something about it because The Avengers or at least Captain America must have told him something about what might happen to it."
"Well then it's up to us to try to find out." said Loki "I think that tomorrow is when you should pay my brother and his little significant other a little visit in order to gain the information that we may need to find the septar." That immediately caught Darcy's surprise and attention.
"You do know that I'm terrible of keeping secrets right?" said Darcy nervously "They already think that I'm acting strange enough and what if they suspect this secret once I ask about the septar?"
"I have noticed of your difficulty of concealing the truth. But you are the only one who can ask that won't blow our cover or at least one of the few people that they would least expect that would help me." said Loki "I believe you can do this and get away with it if your not just careful but try to cover it up with anything else that either you or what they give you in whatever conversation you will have. Just try to make it as casual as you can and make it as convincing as you can then it might work." That gave Darcy some confidence, but still she was unsure about this plan.
"Ok but what do you expect me to do? Go to Jane's house in 7 in the morning and have breakfast with them. Then out of nowhere say "Hey Thor, how are you doing today? I was wondering whatever did happened to that septar Loki used back in New York? I'm just curious of course because of a college assignment that I have to do for the time being about the Battle In New York that's all."" Without a second thought, Loki already knew what this conversation she was going to have with both Thor and Jane going to be like in the morning even before it happens...