Someone is carrying me. It was Felicity's first thought when she regained consciousness. She blinked her eyes open, unnerved by the idea of a stranger holding her. The man was vaguely familiar, but Felicity couldn't place him. Sweat made his dirty blond hair stick up at odd angles, a bruise was forming on his cheekbone, and dust coated his face.
He glanced down at her. "Oh, good, you're awake. Think you can stand?"
"Yes," Felicity said. She wasn't sure, but she didn't like being carried, so she was going to try.
He set her down, holding her arm for a moment to make sure she was steady on her feet. To Felicity's relief, she could stand without toppling over again. Not that she'd have fallen far; they were in an elevator, Black Widow and Dr. Selvig present as well so there wasn't a lot of space.
I must not have been out for long. A small blessing.
The elevator came to a halt and the doors slid open, revealing what had probably once been an impressive room. It was large and spacious, one wall taken up by windows, though several were broken now. The marble floor was gouged and blackened in places, the bar across the room cracked and dripping with the no doubt expensive contents of different bottles. Furniture was overturned and broken. Several figures ranged around, but one dominated the room. This Avenger Felicity recognized, even though she'd only watched the movie once.
The Hulk had seemed like a ridiculous concept on screen. Guy can turn into a giant, super strong monster because of some kind of lab accident or something? Sounded like a boring male power fantasy to Felicity.
In person was another matter. The Hulk was huge, more than twice the size of anyone else there. His skin was dark green over bulging muscles, alien and intimidating all at once. Felicity was pretty sure she remembered him barreling through buildings like they were made from wet paper during the movie. She took a step back on reflex, nearly bumping into the man that had been carrying her.
"It's you."
Felicity reluctantly looked away from the Hulk to find the source of the voice. This man she quickly recognized as well, despite his worn and dusty appearance. After all, Captain America was her sister's favorite Avenger. But Felicity realized she recognized him from more than the poster on Ellie's wall. "You were on the plane," she blurted out. She could hardly believe she hadn't realized who he was before, but given the amount of pain and confusion she'd been in, perhaps it wasn't that surprising.
"Plane?" Dr. Selvig asked. "How many places did it take you?"
"I'm sorry, who is she, and when did she show up?"
Felicity glanced over at the new voice. It was Iron Man, though his fancy armor was much worse for the wear. His helmet was missing, the body dinged and scratched, and it made creaking noises she wasn't sure it was supposed to make when he moved.
"Loki brought her here with the Tesseract," the man who'd carried her answered. "She's from another reality, where our world is just a story. Loki was hoping to get information from whoever he brought over, but it didn't quite work the way he expected."
Everyone's attention shifted then, and Felicity followed the gaze of the group to two men. One was standing tall wearing a flowing cape and holding a hammer - Thor, she remembered. Sitting at his feet was the man in green and black that she'd seen twice before, though like the others, he was currently bruised and worn. He grimaced as his gaze met hers. "No," he said. "You arrived a bit late. And early, it would seem."
He's Loki.
He was the one responsible for bringing her to this world. For separating her from her family and causing them needless pain. Felicity's hands curled into fists as hot anger bubbled up in her chest. This man had just single handily torn apart her whole life, and then had the nerve to chide her for being late.
She didn't realize she had taken a step forward until she felt the man's hand on her shoulder holding her back. "I get the sentiment," he said, "but you'll hurt your hand more than him if you hit him."
Right. Loki was an alien with delusions of godhood. Super strength and the durability that came with it was undoubtedly one of his powers. It didn't change the tight ball of anger swelling up inside her and she wanted to lash out at him somehow. Felicity glared at Loki. "It wouldn't have mattered when I got here. You picked the wrong person. I'm not a fan; I couldn't tell you anything anyway."
Loki's expression flickered, but Felicity didn't feel any sort of satisfaction at pointing out how completely his plan had failed. She was still there. She still couldn't go home.
Thor shifted, towering over Loki. "You will return her to her home, Loki."
Hope sparked. Was it possible? Could they get her home after all?
"Even if I was so inclined, I can't," Loki said, sparing a moment to look up at Thor. "Travel from other realities only goes one way. The Tesseract can't send her back."
And just like that, Felicity's hopes were crushed. I feel sick.
She held it in. Felicity wouldn't let herself fall apart in front of strangers, and especially not Loki.
Iron Man held up a hand. "Is no one else here having a hard time processing that there's apparently another reality where we're fictional characters? Or is it just me?"
Black Widow shrugged. "We just fought off an alien invasion powered by a magic cube. Alternate realities don't seem that farfetched."
Iron Man opened his mouth, paused, and then sighed. "You know what? This sounds like a SHIELD problem."
"Speaking of," the man said - Felicity really needed to learn his name. "Fury is sending someone to pick us up, so we can debrief and start figuring out our next steps."
"Joy," Iron Man said, his flat tone and expression clearly saying how much he'd rather not do that.
Thor reached down, snagging Loki by the back of his jacket and dragging him to his feet. "Then let us go."
Hulk staggered suddenly, and Felicity flinched back, ready to bolt out of the way. But Hulk was staggering away from the group, his body shrinking down, the green pigment fading from his skin until he was the size of a normal man. He dropped to one knee, and Captain America moved over, reaching out to put a hand on his back. "Are you alright, Dr. Banner?"
"I'm fine," Hulk - Dr. Banner? what was she supposed to call them anyway? - said. There was a strain to his voice though, and his muscles trembled as he stood. Captain America stayed close to him.
There were too many of them to make only one trip down the elevator. Thor, Loki, Iron Man, Captain America, and Dr. Banner went down first, leaving Felicity, Black Widow, Dr. Selvig, and the guy who's name she still didn't know waiting. An awkward silence fell over their group. Felicity crossed her arms, staring without really seeing. How long will it take them to realize I'm gone? How long had she even been gone from her world? It didn't feel like she'd been gone long, but the Tesseract had apparently bounced her around to different times in the Marvel universe. What that meant for time in her world, Felicity couldn't even begin to guess.
Dr. Selvig cleared his throat, getting her attention. "What's your name, miss?"
Felicity blinked, focusing in on him. "Felicity. Felicity Greene."
"I guess you already know who we are," the man said.
"Not really." She shrugged. "Like I said, I'm not a fan."
He seemed surprised. "You mean you weren't just trying to get at Loki with that jab?"
"No," Felicity said, irritation creeping into her tone. "I really don't like superhero movies."
"Ouch," he said. "Okay then, I'm Clint. That's Natasha, and Dr. Selvig."
The elevator dinged, interrupting the introductions. The four of them piled in. "I know this is hard," Dr. Selvig said as the elevator went down. "But Director Fury will make sure you're taken care of."
Felicity's throat tightened, and she couldn't find it in herself to respond. Dr. Selvig was trying to be kind, to offer some comfort, but Felicity wasn't ready to be comforted.
When will they notice I'm gone?
Her manager would be concerned when Felicity didn't show up for work and didn't call to let her know what was going on. Her friends would wonder, when she didn't show up for the afternoon study session that she had organized for their licensure exam in two weeks. Her mother would worry over their missed nightly phone call. Ellie would be annoyed and concerned that Felicity never responded to her texts. What would be the tipping point for them to realize that she was gone?
The elevator doors opened, letting them out into an open lobby area. The lobby was in better condition than the room they'd been in upstairs. The others were waiting for them. Someone had gotten Dr. Banner a t-shirt to wear, though Felicity couldn't begin to guess where they'd gotten it.
The group shuffled outside, and Felicity paused once they were through the doors. Down on the street, she could truly appreciate the damage that the alien invasion had done. From where she stood, she could spot wrecked cars, see billows of smoke from damaged buildings, and clearly hear the sirens of emergency vehicles. The dead bodies of the alien invaders littered the ground where they'd fallen, jogging Felicity's memory of the end of the movie and the way the aliens had all collapsed after the portal had been closed. An overly convenient event, she'd thought when she'd first seen the movie. Now though, seeing the aliens closer as well as the damage they'd caused, Felicity was glad that was how it had worked out.
Two black SUVs were approaching, the only moving vehicles on the road. It took them longer than it would have normally to reach the spot where the group waited, as they SUVs had to maneuver around other wrecked or abandoned vehicles, but they made it, and once they did everyone piled in. Felicity managed to snag a window seat in the middle row of one of them. The others were quiet during the drive, probably exhausted from the fight they'd just been through. Felicity was fine with that; she didn't feel like talking either. Instead, she stared out the window as the SUV drove along with frustrating slowness.
The amount of destruction they road by varied, sometimes worse than what she'd observed around the building she'd arrived at, sometimes not so bad. She couldn't help but cringe at the first collapsed building she saw. This is awful.
It was one of the reasons that Felicity hated superhero movies. They never acknowledged how many people would probably die or be seriously injured if these sorts of things happened in real life. Sure, buildings collapsing on screen looked cool, but how many people would have been trapped inside them?
Here though – here, things were real. And those collapsed buildings and burning vehicles meant lives lost. They meant people hurting.
Ellie had always claimed that superhero stories were about hope, and that was why she loved them. Looking out the window of the SUV, Felicity didn't see hope. She saw a horror story instead.
The SUV's finally made it to their destination; a fancy plane, or jet, or whatever it was supposed to be. They offloaded from the vehicles and piled into the jet – quinjet, she heard someone call it. Felicity didn't bother to ask where they were going next. The destination really didn't seem to matter. It turned out that their flight was much shorter than the drive had been, and when the ramp lowered, Felicity saw that they were on the giant airship thing that SHIELD has used as a base during the movie.
I should probably be impressed.
The view was objectively stunning. The city sprawled out on one side, the ocean glimmering in sunlight on the other. It was the kind of view that would typically inspire awe, but Felicity couldn't manage to feel anything beyond the numbing circle of I'm never going home.
The group shuffled inside, where several people in suits were waiting for them. "Director Fury is ready to talk to you," a woman said. Her eyes flicked towards Felicity. "Except you, Ms. Greene." Felicity started a little at the use of her name; how did they know it already? "We'll deal with your situation once things have settled down. For now, if you could accompany Agent Klein."
It was worded like a question, but the tone said it was an order. Felicity didn't argue. Where else would she go? She simply followed the agent as he led her away from the Avengers down gray hallways. She lost track of the number of turns they took before the agent stopped in front of a plain, unmarked door. "You'll be staying here for now," Agent Klein said, the first words he'd spoken to her. "Someone will come get you later."
Felicity nodded. "Okay." He stayed still until she opened the door and stepped in the room. As she shut the door behind her, she could hear his footsteps heading away. Felicity looked around the room they'd put her in. It was smaller than her college dorm room, with no windows, and only a bed, a desk, and a chair for furniture. The one other door in the room opened to a cramped bathroom that had a sink, toilet, and a shower that was barely large enough to turn around in.
She sank into the desk chair. The room was quiet, and the silence pressed in on her, reminding Felicity of the terrible quiet that had accompanied her trip to this world. Felicity's mouth trembled, and now that she no longer had an audience, she couldn't hold back her sobs. She doubled over in the seat, pressing her hands against her mouth to stifle the noise.
Hot tears rolled down her face as the grief washed over her, the knowledge that she would never go home. She would never see her family again. Her life, her plans, they were so much ash in an instant.
Eventually Felicity's tears came to a stop. She wasn't sure how long she'd sat there crying; she was wearing a watch but hadn't looked at the time when she'd entered the room. Someone's going to come for me eventually. The thought propelled her out of the chair. She didn't want to let anyone find her like this.
Felicity went to the bathroom so she could wash the tear tracks off her face. It was a small improvement, but it would still be obvious to anyone who saw her red rimmed eyes that she'd been crying. Her blonde hair was half falling out of its ponytail, so she took a moment to fix that as well.
"Get it together, Felicity," she whispered to her reflection. There was a part of her that wanted to flop down on the bed and cry some more, but crying wasn't going to fix anything. She needed to do something.
Felicity strode back into the room and went to the desk. She searched through the drawers and found a notepad and a pen. She settled into the desk and tried to organize her thoughts. Felicity had no doubt that whenever they came for her, they'd want to find out whatever she might know. It wasn't much; she hadn't seen all the Marvel movies, and any information from movies prior to this one would probably be useless anyway. It couldn't hurt to write it down for them though.
Ellie would be better at this. Not that Felicity wished her sister had been taken instead. But Ellie loved the Marvel movies. She got in debates with people about them, wrote essays that she posted online, watched the movies over and over. Especially that one Captain America movie, what was the name of it? Ellie had it playing on repeat as research for a fanfic, whatever that was supposed to mean. The Winter Soldier, that was the title. That's the one where –
The pen slipped from suddenly numb fingers and Felicity's heartbeat picked up. She'd just remembered the two plot twists of the Winter Soldier movie. One: Captain America's best friend from the 40s was still alive. Two: SHIELD – the organization that had her now, that was supposedly going to help her – was secretly evil.
AN: Hey, I live! Thanks so much for all the support on the previous chapter. I hope this one was worth the wait!