A woman watches from a rooftop as chaos spreads throughout New York City. She watches as a race of extraterrestrials come barreling out of the sky to cause harm to innocents. Anger seeps through her, the darkness coiling around her body like snakes. She heard the news of a certain God of Mischief who wanted to rule over Earth. It's him she saw first; it's him she first noticed the real cause of his motives.
She had seen him escape from one of the SHIELD headquarters, darkness exuding out from around him. She'd seen it from a mile away. She knew what she had…must do. She meant to act, take it from him then, but there was a problem. Loki had mind controlled some people, who could stop her; who get in her way. She didn't want to have to kill them. They were innocents after all. She chose to wait to see what happened.
Then came the rumors of his wife, the healer, who had been arrested because SHIELD had thought she was part of the plan to rule Earth. It's too bad she thought Loki was dead. She'd been banished to Earth and she didn't know what had truly happened to her one true love. The woman watched over her as well. The Immortals Healer, everyone called her. The woman thought she was useful and sat back to see how she could help the civilians around her; or simply to help stop her husband.
The woman watched as the Chitauri continued to terrorize her people. She sighed, knowing she had better get to work. She clenched her fists, surrounding herself in darkness, appearing on the ground in front of a group of the aliens.
"Hello. I'd like you to stop hurting these people," she greeted them. She knew for a fact they didn't understand her, would attack; which is exactly what happened. Sharpening the darkness, she shot it forward, impaling the entire group like chicken on skewers…only with black blood dripping onto the metal. She continued her defense, disappearing when necessary, conjuring the darkness to resemble shadowy figures who would help her defend the civilians.
She dealt with most of the creatures, retreating when she saw an opportunity to deal with the God himself. She levitated to the tower and landed before Loki and his wife. Clara, that's her name, she thought to herself.
"Hello, trickster. Goodbye, darkness," the woman said. She curled her hands outward, lifting Loki into the air. The darkness came to her easy, spreading out into a thick shield of glass, which she shattered with a shard of black. It was corrupted, not meant to be used by anyone or anything. She learned long ago to distinguish between the two. Most people only saw it as evil, and she found out how much she was hated for her abilities. She had been constantly shoved away when she could have provided help to loved ones. Loved ones who perished from it because they couldn't control it…or killed because they had chosen to embrace the evil part of it.
The woman watched as the two lovers spoke to each other, as they showed unconditional love for each other. A pain shot through to her heart. She yearned for it, knowing she might not be able to have someone of her own. Someone who could love her. Oh, how wrong this woman was. Give it a few years and a person would come into her life who would shower her with love of his own.
"As sweet as this is, I should really introduce myself. My name is Lucy Sebastian. I helped during the battle. Too much darkness and the source came from him. I took most of it, but…sweetie, he's been through a lot. Take care of him," She said. The woman disappeared. Back to her apartment, back to her loneliness. A few months later, she met a man who – at first – wanted to betray her to his employer.
As she sat alone reading a book, she was interrupted by another person. She sprang into a defensive posture, relaxing when she recognized the Ancient One.
"You've got some nerve coming in here," Lucy greeted her.
"You're impressive. A darkness ability…used for good. I came to recruit you. We need another teacher to show other uses of it," the Ancient One said.
"No,"
"You could be of great value to us,"
"Look, lady. I said no. I haven't the best track record of teaching anyone. The last few I tried to help decided to slaughter a bunch of people. One couldn't get a hold of it and managed to explode his insides all over an unused subway train. I have no desire to repeat past mistakes," Lucy snapped. The Ancient One tilted her head.
"You'll meet him one day. In a few years. I'll be at the Sanctum Santorum should you decide to change your mind," she told Lucy. Then she vanished into a portal, leaving Lucy to wonder how she knew about her secret desires.
Five Months Later
Lucy Sebastian walked the streets of New York; Manhattan to be exact, when she heard yelling.
"Stop it. You're hurting him," a woman screamed. Lucy ran off to the source of the voice and noticed three things. The first being three people standing in an alleyway; two men and one woman. The second was one man being strangled by coiling darkness, which also had some electricity. The third being the second man looking terrified of what he was doing. Meaning he couldn't control the power.
Lucy took action and conjured two shadowy figures to hold the man losing control of his ability back from hurting anyone else. She also produced a sword of black glass to sever the coils from the man being strangled. He fell to the ground, while the other looked at Lucy with shock at what she had done.
The victim, who had dark hair and dark eyes, fled from the two of them into the arms of the woman - who had fire red hair and blue eyes – trembling from fear.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. This just exploded out of me. I couldn't control…" The terrified man, who had sandy brown hair and green eyes, said.
"I know. I can help you. First, you must apologize to these people," Lucy told him.
"Don't bother. He could have killed my fiancé. I should call the…p-police," the woman said. Lucy surrounded the alleyway in darkness, no one to see what would happen.
"I don't believe that's necessary. He had no control of his ability. It was an accident. Should you choose to call the police, they might think you were crazy. After all, it is a little bit of darkness. Though, I wouldn't imagine they would want to deal with me. I assume you've heard of the Dark Empress," She threatened. Both the man and woman nodded, trembling at the name alone.
"We won't say a thing. Let us go," the man said.
"Gladly," Lucy released them, turning her attention on the man beside her once the other two people had left.
"What's your name? I'm Lucy. Let me help you. I can teach you to control it," Lucy told him.
"Reid Granger," he answered her. Reid would be Lucy's newest student, though he meant to betray her and turn her over to his employer, Frank Michaels; His employer had better, crueler uses for the Dark Empress. However, this would all change the more Reid and Lucy spent time together. He would grow to love Lucy like a sister and when the time came, he would refuse to bring her to Frank. It would cost him everything.