The one where they get a surprise, an unexpected visitor and more than a few revelations. After five years leading the new SHIELD some people might have thought they were ready for anything that came their way... they couldn't have been more wrong.
Time for the mystery of the woman in black to be revealed! And if you don't know what 'mystery' I'm speaking of, you have the cover for this fic right here (and the image in full size, along with the accompanying wallpaper in my deviant-Art account).
References to characters and plot from the final two episodes of the third season of Scandal (don't worry, you don't need to have watched the show to understand it). This was done to fulfill a wish from the person who identified the people I'd connected to Darcy's history. I hope you like it!
Chapter 2. Lady Infinity
The new Mr. and Mrs. Coulson spent two weeks on a beach-house in the Canary Islands (it was Dom's place there, where he'd lived with Elena during the year between the Heist in Rio and Letty being found working with Shaw). Those were also the two weeks Skye usually took off to visit her blood family, though after learning of the upcoming wedding (through a convenient vision from Tawar), both parents had insisted that Skye take that time to enjoy being a newlywed, she could always visit them in January; and hopefully one day they would get the chance to visit her instead, get to know all her extended family... and Malachi...
Things had also more-or-less gone back to normal in the Playground during that time. Most of the wedding guests had returned to their homes (all those who didn't pretty much live in the island, at least). Truth was, there had been offers from more than one government to return SHIELD's main quarters to the mainland; US and the UK seemed to be the most interested (probably because they were the countries the previous incarnation of the organization had come from). With the United States in particular it had been the president himself making the offer, probably an attempt at thanking them for 'services rendered'; though SHIELD explained more than once that it wasn't in any way necessary, and the only reason they got involved at all was as a personal favor.
The situation specifically had been the capture of the international terrorist Marie Wallace who, unknown to most, had once been also known by the name of Maya Lewis... sister of Darcy's father (or the one Darcy had believed for twenty-five years to be her father), it was pretty much how they'd gotten involved; when Maya/Marie's daughter: Olivia Pope, had called on her cousin for help with a 'situation'.
Darcy was the last person to join a group formed by not only her not-cousin, but also her legal team, her father: Rowan Pope, and a former soldier Darcy knew was called Jake Ballard (newest Command of B-613 and, according to the paparazzi, Olivia's boyfriend -which meant, of course, it was all a lie, her cousin knew how to play the media too well-).
The most disappointing part was that no one other than two of the 'agents' of the highly-illegal and controversial program of B-613 even noticed she was there for the longest time.
"You want me to stay?" Rowan demanded in a fake, if dramatic manner, right then. "He goes."
Ballard scoffed, though Olivia didn't immediately answer, it looked like she actually had to think about it, and then:
"Who are you?" Several people demanded at once, finally noticing Darcy at the door.
"Darcy?" The two Popes called at the same time (though only one seemed happy to see her).
"Hey Livvie." Darcy smiled, she actually liked seeing her cousin, it had been a while; her tone turned somewhat stiff before adding. "Uncle Rowan..."
"What are you doing here?" Rowan demanded.
"Livvie called me a couple of hours ago." Darcy answered honestly. "It seemed urgent so I took the first plane available and high-tailed it here."
"There's no way you could have made it here all the way from Arizona in a couple of hours." Rowan said in a suspicious tone.
Arizona... because after getting out of NY, following Hydra's initial attack, Darcy had made it seem like she'd gone back to live to her mother's old place (not like she could explain the truth of where she was, or who she worked for).
"I was actually in NY, for work, when the call came in." Darcy shrugged.
That was true too, she'd been meeting with the four heads of OsCorp regarding Spider-Man's and the Goblin's recent 'adventures' and how the company itself was doing their best to help in the aftermath of the battles.
"It doesn't matter." Jake interrupted. "I have no idea who you are, but if you're here for a family visit you will have to come back later, we're in the middle of something here."
"I know that Mr. Ballard." Darcy couldn't help but enjoy his shock at her knowledge. "That's actually why I'm here. As to who I am, My name is Darcy Lewis, Olivia is my cousin... and this is not a family visit. It's entirely professional." Having said that, she focused straight on Olivia as she explained things. "My team's working on it, you can be sure they'll have a... Marie Wallace and the rest of the terrorist cell found before the end of the day."
"That's impossible!" Jake snorted. "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but there is no way such a thing can be done."
"Oh it can when the team is as good as mine." Darcy smirked at him.
"Your team..." Jake repeated, scandalized. "I though we had agreed not to get government agencies involved in this?!"
"I haven't..." Olivia began.
"She didn't call any agency, she called me." Darcy clarified. "You can consider this a personal favor, for my favorite cousin. We have no interest in Marie Wallace, or in the rest of the terrorists she's pulled together. They'll be all yours as soon as we have them."
"There's no way any Agency would allow that." Charlie denied. "Deny themselves the chance to say they captured one of the most wanted criminals, from several countries?!"
"You work for SHIELD..." Rowan said abruptly, calling everyone's attention. "That's why you are so sure this can be done. Ever since the new Director came to power, it's like the whole Organization has gone nuts. Working with aliens, mutants, with freaks of nature..."
He didn't get to finish his tirade, the sound of flesh hitting flesh interrupted him; and everyone else could only watch in shock, at the woman who had just slapped a man who was, arguably, the most feared by everyone else present.
"You will not insult my friends, my family, in such a way." She said, steel in her voice. "I will not allow it. I understand you think you have all this power, because you're a bad-ass assassin, and have lead dozens of such spies and assassins for years, but, newsflash! I'm not afraid of you. One of my best friends is Agent Romanoff, the Black-Widow, the Winter Soldier is part of my team, I have had the pleasure of working with metas, mutants, witches, and many other amazingly gifted individuals, I pretty much fought a veritable war in the last several years. Compared to that, you're nothing..." She took a deep breath, calming herself down. "Now, as I was saying. I have no interest in any of you, or your little war-games; neither does SHIELD. We will capture Marie Wallace because that's what my cousin, whom I deeply care for, has asked me to do; then, once she's in your custody, we'll leave, and she'll be your problem. We have far bigger threats to worry about that one woman."
Before anyone else got a chance to say a word, Darcy's phone rang, she pulled it out of her pocket, giving the coded answer that was to be used during missions:
"Agent Mockingjay speaking..." So she was a fan of the Hunger Games, so what? It was actually appropriate, in a sense, with Tony always calling Clint 'Katniss' (or Legolas, but she wasn't focusing on that one). "Yes... yes... Very well... Thank you Agent Yasha, please tell Hawkeye I will meet him at the rendezvous point as soon as the package has been received... Yes." She snapped the phone shut before turning to the others. "It's done."
"That's impossible!" Several of those present cried out at the same time.
"It's not." Darcy smirked widely. "I told you, my team is that good...Now, lets get going already so you can take her into custody and I can leave with my team already. If we take too long my boyfriend is going to get antsy, and that won't be good." She began babbling almost without noticing. "He didn't like me coming alone in the first place, but I told him Livvie was going to be here, and I trusted Livvie, even if I don't trust anyone else in this room, especially not Uncle Rowan and soldier-boy... Dad, of course doesn't know I'm here, he would have a coronary if he did... or he would fly all the way here from California and make a mess of everything!"
"Excuse me, did you just say dad?" Olivia asked, shocked.
Darcy actually froze at that.
"Right, it's kind of a long story..." The younger not-cousin hesitated for a second before saying: "We're not actually cousins Livvie, at least not by blood, though in my heart you'll always me my cous, you must know that. Turns out George Lewis wasn't my father... I'm sure Uncle Rowan knew this already. Though I'm also sure he doesn't know who my real father is. Mother only revealed it to me on her death-bed..." She shook her head. "We're not ready to make it public just yet; but you'll find out, eventually."
Olivia just nodded, finally taking her bag and coat and following Darcy out the office, Rowan and Jake after them.
An hour later Marie Wallace, Adnan Salif, Dominic Bell and a number of other international terrorists were under custody of B-613, the moment they all were in vans Darcy officially washed her hands off the whole thing.
"Well, that's that." She declared, satisfied. "Livvie, don't be a stranger. Even if we're not blood-family, we're still family where it counts, ok? If you ever need me, just call me. And even if you don't! I'm always game for a girls' night out."
"I will." Olivia nodded, embracing her cousin tightly. "I promise Darcy."
Three days later Darcy had phoned Livvie after Destiny got in contact with her to let her know that someone was going to kill the president's son. The warning came too late to stop the attack from happening, but Darcy'd had a backup plan and one of their local agents arrived to the hospital with a dose of the Solomon drug right on time. They had no idea who exactly had tried to kill the teen (well, they had some idea... put no proof, so it was irrelevant); at least the boy was saved, that was all that really mattered (the traitor from the secret service that had injected him with the virus was imprisoned, but he refused to give the name of his boss).
It was actually for that last fact that the president (who had won the re-election two days later) had tried so hard to convince SHIELD to return to the United States, which they had really no intention of doing. Phil had put it quite clearly:
"We were once a government Agency, Mr. President." The Director had said. "Created from the team-up of Division X and the SSR, we served both the United States and the United Kingdom. And yet, in 2014, when Hydra revealed its presence among our ranks, it wasn't only our own people, our co-workers, that turned against us; the governments of the two countries we'd served loyally for years turned against us as well. For months we were persecuted, referred to in every media as criminals, traitors, terrorists, when we were anything but; and even when the persecution mostly ended, we were seen as little more than vigilantes! Only when the Civil War was over, and when we made it all public, did it stop. But was there ever an apology for the way we were treated for years? No! Nothing at all. You all chose to brush it away, sweep it under the rug, where no one would see it. I have agents, good people, who were forced to spend almost five years separated from their families, their friends, their lives! Out of fear that loyalists like Col. Talbot or Gral. Ross would go after them and their loved ones, simply for their conviction in helping SHIELD protect everyone..." He shook his head. "So, in few words. The answer is no Mr. President. We won't be taking our HQs back to the US, or the UK, or any other country for that matter, we're much better keeping ourselves away from any one country's territory. After all, we're not a government organization anymore, we don't serve any one nation anymore, we serve the world. And that's the way it's going to stay."
No one had even been able to complain about that. How could they with everything SHIELD had done and was still doing? And though eventually people like Talbot and Ross lost their power, and public statements were made regarding the status of everyone working for SHIELD, nothing could have ever made Phil change his mind. At least his agents had the chance to go back to their places of origin whenever they wanted; even if most still chose to spend some time back in the Playground, even when not on mission. It had simply become habit.
Still, it wasn't like during the War, most of the bedrooms were only filled when there was a long-term mission happening, or during certain cycles as the agents kept their training up. Exceptions were people like Phil, Skye and their teams, who chose to stay on the island whenever not on a mission elsewhere, or visiting family; and the Koenig twins, who'd lived for duty for so long they didn't actually have a life outside of SHIELD anymore...
xXx
Two months after the wedding, and six weeks after the couple's return from their honeymoon things had gone pretty much back to normal. With Hydra's defeat, and the number of people that worked together to keep the world safe it was hardly necessary for those living in the Playground to go on missions anymore; except when it was something really huge, like an alien invasion, and that kind of thing didn't really happen that often (the last one had been the Enchantress's sisters attack on NY, three months prior).
That day Skye was sitting on the edge of the cliff where she and Phil were married, looking out at the sea. Life was good, so good... and that was pretty much what terrified her. In twenty-nine years of life she'd never had it easy (and that wasn't a complaint, just a matter of fact), even when things were good, like when she was with the Torettos, with Karen, in college or with SHIELD, there had always been something going on that kept her on-guard (knowing she would be moved soon, having had to run for weeks and live on the streets, the fear that the lies that allowed her the scholarship could be discovered at any moment, the fights that could at any moment mean their lives...). And yet in that moment, the war was over, she had the man she loved most in the world, a huge family, lots of amazing friends, and even though she couldn't give Phil a child of their own blood and that hurt, they'd begun talking about adopting, maybe one of the gifted children human parents had so much trouble understanding...
*Menel!*
Skye's eyes snapped open abruptly as all her senses sharpened into focus. She had no idea where that voice was coming from, only that she wasn't picking up on it with her ears, it was extremely important, and it did not belong to her husband or direct family (which, technically, were the only ones who could call her Menel...). Half on instinct she reached with her her right hand for the elven pendant hanging from her neck; she got a sense of fear, downright terror, so intense that she nearly passed out on that alone.
"Naneth!" She screamed, half-hysterical.
It was like the exact opposite of the day she'd nearly died, when her sharp feelings and the magic in the pendant allowed her to unconsciously reach for her mother, even a realm away... this time she was the one feeling her mother's emotions, and they weren't good.
As if that weren't enough, in that exact moment Skye became aware of two new presences, right as two objects appeared beside her, people: two black haired, brown eyed toddlers in pale-green and light-blue pjs whom she identified in an instant:
"Vali?! Narvi?!" She called, beyond shocked, then she screamed. "Hela!"
Her older sister was beside her in less than two seconds, looking half lost and extremely shocked by her little sister's hysterics... until she too noticed the two toddlers, and then her mood darkened as well. While Hela had never seen her two youngest half-siblings, Menel had shared enough memories about them, the fact that the two were in that moment in Midgard, in their sleeping-clothes, alone, with no explanation whatsoever, was more than enough reason to know, without a doubt, that something really bad was happening on Asgard.
"We need to find out what's going on..." Hela decided.
Skye still wasn't talking, she just kept looking at her little brothers with a mix of confusion and fear, her right hand grasping her pendant with all her strength... she was still getting feedback from her mother's emotions.
"We need to talk to Uncle Thor..." Hela kept going on. "It would be safer for him to find out what exactly is happening on Asgard right now... even if that means revealing to him the truth about our Father on the throne..."
Eventually Hela's voice managed to pull Skye's attention back to the present. It took great effort but she took her hand away from the pendant, making it drop against her shirt, no direct contact with her skin (if it did she would begin feeling it all again).
"We need to get moving..." She whispered, at once reaching for one of the boys.
Hela took hold of the other, following her younger sister down the hill (it would have been too dangerous to try and teleport with them, besides which, Hela just wasn't sure Menel had the needed focus to do magic safely at the moment). Even with how bad the situation had to be, the Queen of the Dead couldn't help but take a moment to look at the little boy in her arms. It had been so long since she had seen something like that... not since Jormungandr left his childhood behind; Malachi was aging like a human, which meant she'd missed those stages with him, and she hadn't seen Menel until she was an adult. The twins, on the other hand, were aging like elves and asgardians do, slowly, which was why they still looked like toddlers even though they were around five years old.
Things were no better when the two sisters got to the living quarters of the Playground, in fact they only got worse when Cassie rushed to the group with her own news:
"Jane just called!" She declared in a nervous hurry. "She said Thor just left for Asgard. He did not say why or anything, only that he was being called back and Heimdall seemed to believe it was urgent for whatever the reason and..."
She cut off her rant the moment she noticed the two little boys in Skye's and Helena's arms.
"Are those who I think they are?" Azazeal asked, completely serious.
"This is Narvi." The older Lokidottir said of the blue-clad boy in her arms. "The one in Skye's arms in Vali. They're our youngest siblings..."
"Something definitely has happened in Asgard..." Phil murmured, not liking it.
Truth was, no one liked it. They might not have had the slightest idea of what was going on exactly, but just the fact that the twins had been sent on a trip across realms, on their own and with no warning, was telling.
"It gets worse." Helena admitted grimly. "Skye got feedback from her mother earlier, it was nothing good..."
"Skye..." Phil called to his beloved, fearing for her as much as for her family.
"Naneth is so terrified..." The half-elf admitted quietly. "I cannot get a sense of anything beyond that, absolute terror. If I so much as graze the pendant I feel like I might drown in it... it's awful."
"We need to find out what exactly is going on." Azazeal decided. "We know something's wrong, but until we know what exactly, and why, there's nothing we can do to help..."
There was, of course, the chance that even if/when they found out the truth, they wouldn't be able to help, but that was one option neither of them wanted to contemplate.
For a second or two not a word was said, and then they all became aware of a new presence at the same time. With the tension as high as it was, the reaction was instantaneous as the two sisters held the little boys tightly against their chests in protective stances, their husbands moved to cover them at the same time they raised their respective weapons (one an ICER, the other a ritual knife), shooting in the direction of the new presence without even stopping to consider it beyond the fact that it wasn't anyone familiar. Casarmi, in the room as well, dropped to her knees, curling her body around Malachi, while at the same time keeping her head up and a hand ready to call on her powers; Thelma, standing beside her, kept an eye on everything. Skye used her own telekinesis to make her gun levitate, even as her arms remained on her little brother; however, before she could fire, something about the stranger called her attention.
"You don't have a presence..." She blurted out, confused. "Why don't you have a presence?"
"It would be too dangerous to time-travel and allow my aura free, if it were to connect in any way with that of my past-self the effect would be catastrophic." The newcomer answered in a low, somewhat haunting voice, the attacks having done nothing to her.
"Past-self...?" Darcy repeated in shock.
"Time travel?" Phil repeated almost at the same time, turning to look at his wife for a moment before adding. "Again?"
"How?" Azazeal asked instead. "Messing with time isn't easy. I was surprised that the mutants managed to do it, though the conditions were harsh enough on that front, and even then, it was only a mind that traveled back. You... you just implied that you're here physically, that there is another you in this time... which means a lot more..."
"Who are you?" Several people asked at the same time.
"Where I come from names don't matter, they stopped mattering many years ago... around the same time the universe as a whole pretty much went to hell..." The unknown made a pause before turning in Hela's direction. "No offense intended."
"You know who I am, yet you won't tell us anything about yourself." Hela insisted.
"You may call me Infinity." The time-traveler answered, finally stepping out of the shadows. "It's one of the last names anyone called me by, and I mind it less than the other one..."
The figure was finally revealed then. It was a woman, around six feet tall, with golden skin, dark cloudy eyes and brown hair so dark it was almost black; she was also wearing a black dress made in two layers: a sleeveless, floor-length, solid black one with a sweet-heart neckline, and on top one with long sleeves, an elegant hood and several extra inches on the ground, made completely of black lace; a dark gold sash marked her waist.
"Why are you here?" Phil asked, still not lowering his gun. "You say you're from the future, and your past-self is somewhere around... but why here? Why now? Why us?"
"As should be obvious I've traveled back because there's something that needs to be changed, as for why here, now, you... because here is the right place, now was the best time for the change that needs to be made, and you are the ones that can make it..."
"You do realize that changing the past will mean destroying your timeline, possibly yourself, right?" Azazeal asked, eyebrow arched.
"I am perfectly conscious of the consequences of my actions." The visitor stated in a very no-nonsense tone.
"This has something to do with Asgard, doesn't it?" Skye asked abruptly, moving to stand beside her husband rather than behind him. "Whatever's going on over there, with our family, whatever made it necessary for the twins to be sent here... it's bad, really bad..."
"Worse than you could ever imagine." The black lady stated soberly.
It wasn't the first time Skye heard those words, she liked them then even less than the last time.
"We need to talk, time is short and there is much to do." The visitor declared.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Hela demanded.
"Because, Hela Lokidottir, wife of Azazeal, mother of Malachi, Queen of Helheim, Ragnarok is coming, and unless we all do something about it the results will be disastrous."
The word 'Ragnarok' was enough to put everyone on high-alert, though for entirely different reasons. If Doomsday was really a risk in that moment, they really needed to do anything they could to stop it.
"I trust her." Skye stated quietly. "I don't know why, but I do."
Phil nodded, he agreed with her every word, even if he didn't dare actually say it. It didn't sit right with him, being willing to trust someone he didn't know, but in their situation it was necessary.
"We should go inside." Casarmi offered, getting back on her feet, though without letting go of Malachi. "Something tells me we will all need to be sitting down for this one."
The lady in black just nodded, following everyone else into the visitor's building (there was no way they were taking a complete stranger, especially one they'd no idea how she'd gotten onto the island, into the living areas of the base). Once there Helena and Skye placed the infants on a blanket on the floor, surrounded by cushions, Casarmi promising quietly to look after them and Malachi (Thelma too); while the rest took seats around the small sitting room.
"Now, who are you? Where do you come from? And what are you doing here?" Phil fired off what he considered were the three most important questions in that moment.
"Like I said before, I'm here to change the past, to try and prevent the universal hell my time has turned into." The lady stated solemnly. "I come from the future, though the specific realm is unimportant, half of them collapsed and most of the rest stopped mattering after the war razed them all to the ground. There's nothing left of what they once were. Finally, as for my identity. Like I said, you can call me Infinity, it's a title more than a name, but at least I earned that one..." She hesitated before adding. "Some people called me Black Queen... though I do not think I really earned that one, and anyway, one can hardly be a Queen when there's nothing left of your kingdom, or your people, right?"
There was so much sadness in her every word, so much grief, it almost pained Skye, even though she still wasn't getting anything from the black-clad lady (she could only imagine what her senses would be picking up then, it wouldn't be good).
"As you've managed to deduce, something is wrong and it's connected to Asgard." Infinity began the actual explanations. "The simplest way to put it is: Odin is awake."
"What?!" Skye's deep rooted horror at that one thing echoed all around.
"What happened?" Phil asked, trying to remain focused.
After all, they couldn't really solve anything unless they knew every detail.
"The Gatekeeper saw the end of your battle in New York, earlier this summer." Infinity explained grimly. "I know not how it happened exactly, but he did. For some reason he became aware the moment Lorelei was slayed, he then turned his eyes on Midgard right on time to see Amora fall, to get a glimpse of your power."
"He's been seeing me for years, that was never a problem." Skye replied, shifting in discomfort.
"He's seen you train with Sif, and your magic, but never had his eyes laid on you as you Shadow Walked... that talent..." She shook her head. "Only one person in all the universe has the power to travel the worlds without the use of the Bifrost, or the Tesseract. Even with the Hidden Paths, few people know of them, even less can travel them effectively, and there has only ever been one who knows more them all... even if he favors other traveling methods more."
"Loki." Azazeal and Loki spoke at the same time.
"It's why he's called Sky-Treader." Helena nodded.
"It's why Uncle Thor got him out of prison after Grandmother's death, so they could get to Svartalfheim and confront Malekith." Skye offered. "Adar is the only one who knew how to make such travels."
"Indeed." Infinity nodded sagely. "Even the Allfather, with all his years and experience, couldn't have done it, not without help. And that's only considering the Hidden Paths. Shadow Walking is a talent that belonged to a race long ago lost. You see, the Shadow Plane exists where the edge of each realm touches the edge of the abyss, those are very specific paths, hard to navigate. You need a lot of power even to get in there, even more to be able to keep control. And, as if all that weren't hard enough, the Shadow Plane is so deeply entrenched in the abyss itself that most people wouldn't be able to survive long there, not with so little oxygen... just like most people could never survive in the abyss, in what midgardians refer to as open-space."
"Except Father has, he fell off the Rainbow Bridge once, after all." Helena muttered.
"Exactly." The visitor nodded.
"I too can travel the Shadow Paths, or I could." Helena went on. "The Allfather bound that ability in me after me and my brothers were accused of using the Dark Arts..." She snorted. "It's why in the end I needed to use the Hidden Paths to get here..." She shook her head. "In any case, I can do that because I'm his daughter, which means..."
"Which means me doing it showed that I am Lokidottir as well." Skye finished for her. "I gave myself away, just like that."
Still, she couldn't say she regretted it; she'd done what was necessary to keep someone she loved safe... and deep down she'd always known Odin would be waking up some day.
"At first Heimdall did not realize what it all meant." Infinity went back to her story. "But he kept an eye out, until eventually he figured it out. I know not who exactly he got to help him, but it finally came to a head last night. Odin was found and Loki was taken into custody. It took them a while to be able to take him, which is what allowed Lady Tawariel to send the twins away, even if neither of them had the chance to alert you of what was going on."
"So, in summary, both of my parents are prisoners of Odin right now... again." Skye couldn't help but bite her lip at the idea. "What can we do about it?"
"I cannot tell you what to do." Infinity denied. "What I can tell you is what you did once, and how things turned out..."
"Well, it obviously didn't go well, but lets hear it." Skye nodded grimly.
"The first time around you spent most of the day making calls, to your teams and your contacts, you wanted to know if whatever was going on was limited to Asgard or bigger." Infinity said. "Nothing came of it, until you got a call from Destiny. She told you that Loki and Tawar had been found. It's why Thor was called, to see what he knew; he was shocked by the revelation that his brother was alive, but he could see something wasn't right about his father's attitude, so he didn't say anything about Menel, Hela or their family on Midgard. The Allfather didn't even know about the twins. Finally, she (Destiny) warned you that Odin was sending his best Hunter after you. It was then that you decided to run..."
"What?!" No one could believe that, they didn't want to, except...
"For the children..." Casarmi whispered in understanding.
"What?" They all turned to look at her.
"You ran to protect the boys." The blonde explained. "If it had been just you, you probably would have fought to the end, but with Malachi, Vali and Narvi... you knew you had to think about them first, had to keep them safe. That's why you ran..."
No one answered, though they all knew she was right. They were all proud, Warriors, but their family would always be more important, and the boys were innocent...
"What then?" Azazeal asked.
"You left before dawn, with help of several of your contacts, some hacking and magic, it was as if you'd vanished from the face of the Earth..." The Black Queen admitted with a sigh.
"What about SHIELD?" Phil couldn't help but worry. "Who took our places?"
"No one." Infinity answered. "Your teams... at first they weren't ready for someone taking your places; and then they just feared that if someone did they would try to change things again, that they would undo everything the two of you did... So they refused to have a new Director and Deputy; instead they formed a council of sorts, and together made the decisions that needed to be made to allow SHIELD to work properly." She made a pause. "The decision actually allowed them to hide your departure for a while, I don't know how long. Though eventually things began falling, piece by piece. While SHIELD itself continued working, following the guidelines you'd set, the Alliances didn't stand... not without you. It was... it was as if without the two of you the groups simply didn't know how to work together anymore. Someone said it once: the Alliance followed you, not SHIELD..."
Skye did not say a word, but Phil remembered well when Wolverine had said something to that effect; he'd been talking about the other world, the one where Sentinels had eventually caused the end of everything... and even back then Phil hadn't been able to stop feeling that it might be the same in their own timeline... well, it appeared he was right.
"How long did it last?" Skye couldn't but ask. "After we left, how long before it all... how long before we were found?"
"Three years." Infinity answered honestly.
"Prior to the apocalypse three freezing winters would follow each other with no summers in-between." Casarmi whispered quietly.
Since learning the truth about Azazeal, about the boy she'd given birth to, and the family she was connected to she'd researched all she could of the Norse gods. Talks with Skye, Azazeal, and later on Hela had shown her that a lot of what humans knew of 'Asgard' was wrong (though she had realized some of that when it'd come to Malachi); and yet they'd managed to somehow get Ragnarok right... or at least part of it.
"Exactly." Infinity nodded. "As the third winter was approaching its end a... you were found. The Hunter was after Malachi, following the Allfather's belief that if the boy died Hela's tether to this world would be lost and she would end up trapped in Helheim again. What He never counted on was the one willing to surrender their life for the boy..."
"Me." There was no hesitation in Casarmi's voice as he spoke.
"Yes." Infinity inclined her head respectfully at the blonde girl. "There... you did something, I know not what. When the Hunter tried again, his power turned against him..."
"It worked!" Despite the revelations, Casarmi smiled.
"You know what your future self did?" Helena asked, very interested.
"It's a spell I'm still working on right now." Cassie nodded with a small smile. "It's something to protect Malachi... though it can only be used as a last resource because... well..."
"It's powered by your death." Helena finished for her.
"Yes." The blonde didn't even bothered trying to deny it. "A spell this strong, it will only work if I put the whole of my soul behind it..."
"And you would..." Azazeal was speechless in his shock.
It had been something for the girl to be willing to carry his baby and give birth to him despite the danger that put her in; then she'd chosen to stick around, be part of Malachi's life, even if she couldn't be his mom, she was an aunt; then she was going to be willing to give up her life, and to know it wasn't a spur of the moment, but even right then, before they even knew there was a very real danger coming their way, she'd been preparing something like that, a spell powered by her very soul, meant to keep the boy safe no matter what... no one had any words for a sacrifice of that level, for a love like that...
Helena got on her feet then, silently shifting into her real image, kneeling before the blonde young woman and pressing their foreheads together in a loving gesture.
"Takk, søster-gruven (Thank you, sister-mine)." Hela whispered in a thick accent.
Casarmi didn't answer, she wouldn't have known what to say even if she'd tried; so instead she just allowed Hela's magic to touch her, basking in the love of a sister, which she could have never imagined during the first eighteen years of her life. While the words of her unfinished spell echoed inside a corner of her mind:
"My power to thee, my love unto thee; my blood thy blessing, my life thy shield..."
Infinity allowed the peaceful moment to continue for a little while longer, before she went back to her story. For a moment it looked like she might have liked to say something else, concerning Casarmi's revelation, but in the end she focused on all that needed to be revealed if they stood a chance at changing things.
"Azazeal killed the Hunter when he got distracted by his failed attempts to kill Malachi." Infinity went back to the story.
"Was it Halle?" Azazeal couldn't help but ask.
"No." The traveler shook her head. "W... You later learnt that she was already dead by that point, the Hunter killed her when he found out she knew where HQs were, had known for years, yet never so much as attempted to kill the boy..."
That one they weren't expecting. So many years, centuries, seeing Halle (or Ella Dee, as she'd re-named herself) as an 'enemy' (which had never been easy considering she'd once been Fenrir's lover), so many lives Volstagg's daughter had taken, innocent lives, of so many girls whose only sin had been to be compassionate enough to be willing to help Azazeal; only for her to die in the end for choosing not to try and kill a little boy...
"There's one thing I don't understand." Thelma abruptly chose to speak up. "Don't take this the wrong way but, why are they always sent to kill Malachi, or girls like Cassie, but never Azazeal? I mean, technically he was the problem..."
"Indeed..." Somehow no one was surprised that Infinity could hear and see Thelma. "But Odin cannot hurt or order someone else to hurt Azazeal..."
"Why not?" Cassie and Thelma asked, confused.
"Because he's an Eihenjar." Phil and Skye answered in unison.
"Exactly." Infinity nodded. "Eihenjar are Warriors who've been blessed by Valhala. Even if by becoming part of the Asgardian Army they technically fall under Odin's rule, they still have favor in a certain way. Only the Higher Powers could undo that blessing... and that's never been known to happen, never."
"It's why we... the Nephelim, were exiled, rather than executed..." Azazeal realized.
So long he'd believed it'd been only because of Lady Frigga, and yet there had been something else... Odin really couldn't kill him. And that meant he couldn't kill Phil either.
"You can still die, of course, but the Allfather cannot order you dead." Infinity clarified.
"What happened then?" Hela inquired.
"It was a terrible tragedy." The black-clad woman admitted. "There was this young man, a warlock, he belonged to a small coven in Massachusetts called 'the Sons of Ipswich'. Everyone knew he was courting Casarmi, though no one knew how serious they had been, the fact that he intended to ask for her hand soon... he went to pieces after he learnt what had happened. He didn't blame Malachi, or anyone else from the family, he knew how much Casarmi loved the boy, loved everyone... losing her... it destroyed him. He tried to use his own power to lessen his grief, his pain, but it only made things worse. He became addicted... until eventually the Power itself destroyed him completely."
No one knew what to say, especially Cassie. Ever since giving birth to Malachi she'd devoted herself to that, to the boy, even if she couldn't really be his mother, Malachi was her family, and from him everyone else, they, and Thelma, were all she had (she'd learnt, less than a year after the birth, that her mother had died, multiple organ failure, in the psychiatric hospital...). To think that at some point in the next three years she'd found (would find) someone; someone with magic, and who would truly love her, enough to want to marry her, enough that the loss of her would utterly destroy him... she wasn't sure if she should feel honored or appalled...
"Things happened very quickly after that." Infinity continued. "None of you were willing to take Casarmi's death lying down. You decided something needed to be done. And so you left the boys with people you trusted, family, got Jormungandr, and all of you together you traveled to Asgard. There..." She hesitated, her voice catching. "First you got Sleipnir, that one was relatively easy; he'd been left alone for years and no one noticed him missing at first. Then you went for Fenrir... you found the body of Lady Sif beside him. Apparently she'd been visiting him for years, the two were very close... something had happened that made her decide to take the risk of freeing him, but she couldn't finish the task. The magic in the chains killed her before she could break the last chain. You finished the task before going in search of A... your Father..." Her voice caught once again. "What you found was food for your worst nightmares. Loki was chained against a rock, and there over his head was Öndurguô, Skathi's venomous serpent, dripping venom over his body little by little. N... Lady Tawariel was there too, looking emaciated; she'd devoted the last three years of her life to prevent as much of her match's pain as she could, holding a mithril bowl over his head to catch as much of the serpent's venom as she could. And yet, every so often she had to move, to be able to empty the bowl, during that time Loki would be in pain. It broke her heart whenever that happened, so she did her best to hurry and return..."
"Which, in turn, means that she never ate, or slept..." Phil murmured quietly.
"I think Sif did her best to help for a while, but it did not last." The Traveler admitted. "Asgard knew her as Sigyn, for reasons I know not, rather than her birth name, they began calling her the Goddess of Fidelity, for her insistence to stand by her match... I honestly believe that if it weren't for her being an elf, the way the Earth itself helped support her, she wouldn't have survived as long as she did... and yet..." Her voice broke, just for a second. "She died instants after her eyes laid on her daughter, right after hearing that her little boys were safe."
Skye let out a strangled sob... it had been bad enough to fear her mother's terror through the connection the pendant could create, but to suddenly learn that it was going to end like that... that in another timeline it already had...
"You released Loki after that." Infinity continued, though it seemed to be an effort for her. "All you wanted was for all the pain to end, for the family to be free... it didn't work like that. Eihenjar were sent after you. You won, but still, it was a signal of what was to come. It was obvious the Allfather would never leave you in peace, not after what you had already done. Also... I think A... Loki might have been broken by that point. It might have been the venom, N... Tawariel's death, everything that had happened in the previous three years... there's no way of knowing for sure. The only thing certain is that he was beyond reason. He broke the gates that sealed Muspelheim, and then it began..."
"What?" Thelma asked, completely captured by the tale...
"Ragnarok..." Everyone answered practically in unison.
"The End of Days..." Casarmi clarified for her friend.
"That's not good..." Thelma tried to quip, but even she knew the seriousness of the situation.
"The battle lasted... I have no idea how long it lasted." Infinity admitted, sounding so tired in that moment. "With Warriors who were effectively immortal, who needed very little food and drink to function. Also, it took little time for 'sides' not to matter anymore. You may have never intended for Ragnarok to come, but it did. At the end there were so very few left standing..." The black-clad woman swallowed. "Jotunheim, Muspelheim, Helheim, as well as parts of Vanaheim and Asgard were turned into black remains where nothing would grow for the rest of time. The echoes of the battle also caused terrible disasters in all the other realms, especially Midgard. I was made Queen in the Aftermath of all that... was the only one left who had any connection to the Asgardian crown anymore..."
No one needed her to clarify that meant, it was clear enough.
"I was mourning all the people I'd lost: my siblings, my parents, so many friends and... my match, my soulmate, the love of my existence..." She shook her head. "In my grief I refused to wear anything but Black... like a part of me wanted to remind all the universe of what I'd lost. I came then to be as I am even now... hence the 'Black Queen' title."
"What about the Infinity one?" Hela inquired, curious.
Skye couldn't help but think that, said like that, it had a familiar ring to it, but she couldn't remember why exactly that was.
"That one came later." The Traveler admitted. "That tragedy... as great as it was, for me and for all of Asgard, it was actually just the beginning..." She shook her head. "Too late we learnt that there was someone dwelling in the abyss, someone who'd sought to take over the universe for a very long time, and Asgard was one of the few powers standing in its way. He took advantage of our vulnerability to strike then." She let out a breath. "Only the opportune intervention of a team known as the Guardians of the Galaxy saved us. They knew about Thanos, his power and his intentions, they'd actually had a few problems with him in the past. It was their leader, a half human called Star Lord, who explained things to me. Thanos sought to take over the universe, but not only that, he also wanted to have the power of the Infinity Stones..."
"Infinity Stones..." Hela and Azazeal echoed, trying to remember where they'd heard that term.
"Before creation itself there were six singularities, then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of the old system were forged into concentrated ingots... the Infinity Stones." The black-cad woman recited as she were quoting someone. "Each Stone possesses unique capabilities capable of altering one facet of existence in ways few can comprehend... there were those who believed that if one sole individual were to ever wield all six stones at the same time they would gain the power to shape the universe itself to their will..."
"And Thanos wanted that power..." Casarmi murmured between shocked and horrified. "That is... not good just doesn't cover it, does it?"
"No, it doesn't." The Black Queen agreed. "Only beings of immense power can wield even one Infinity Stone, they're that powerful; lesser beings are destroyed, pretty much torn apart by a power they could never begin to comprehend... the only time beings not 'supreme', so-to-speak were known to wield one of the Stones was the Guardians, in a Planet called Xandar. Ronan the Accuser tried to use the Stone to destroy the planet, and the Guardians stopped him. It was his touching of the stone and surviving which alerted Star Lord to the fact that he wasn't fully human. And yet, even he could have never wielded all the stones on his own; even with the one he had the aid of his team, especially his match: Lady Gamora."
"So, he warned you of what was going on." Azazeal summarized. "Then what?"
"I did my best to coordinate what forces were left on Asgard, but it was useless in the end." The Lady admitted. "In the end Asgard was lost, along with the Stones Odin had been keeping in his vault... which I did not know about! Had I known I would have attempted to do something! It was truly a mess of epic proportions." She shook he head. "After that loss what few of us were left had to run. I went through the realms, warning everyone about was going on. Lady Thenidiel, an elven spell-weaver and prophetess asked to see me while I was in Alfheim; she was the one who told me that Thanos actions would cause the Universe to unravel unless he was stopped, and the only way to do it was to lay claim to the Stones before he could. As she explained it there were certain individuals across the worlds who carried the blood of the Celestials, the last creatures known to be able to wield the Infinity Stones. Those beings were the ones able to lay claim to them, and if one were to lay claim to all six..." She shook her head. "The claim was important, because while any being of enough power could wield it, and even those weren't many, the will of one with a claim would always supersede anyone else's order. For example, if Thanos tried to use a stone to cause destruction but my claim was on that same stone then my will to protect would cancel out his wish." She let out a breath. "There were very few people left who had the power to lay such claims. Most of those who would have been able to do such a thing were dead already: Lady Frigga, Loki, Ronan, even Malekith; there were few left, like Thanos, Star-Lord, myself and, to everyone's surprise: Lady Jane..."
"Jane Foster?!" Several people asked in shock.
"Yes." The Black Queen nodded. "Her power was very low, but it was how her body managed to assimilate the Aether, and why it did not immediately kill her. In the end, that was one of the things that saved us, because the fact that she'd laid claim to the Aether made it so Thanos could not use it, even though the Collector had passed it on to him. He couldn't use the Tesseract either, as Loki's claim was on that one, and his will had passed the claim to me before his end. Star Lord had the Orb, Nova Prime had delivered it to him when it became obvious that keeping it herself in Xandar was putting her people in too much danger. We also had to deal with the other end of that when us having the Mind Gem in the Scepter which Loki wielded during the invasion and we recovered from Baron Von Strucker's base in Siberia, was for nothing as it turned out to have the Other's claim, and from him it went to Thanos..."
It was obvious that the family was beginning to get lost by that point, so many claims, too many hands... but it really had been a mess in that and many more ways.
"Thanos brought the war to Midgard." The Traveler continued. "We knew it was going to happen, of course, but there was little else we could do at that point. One by one, this realm lost most of its Warriors, and those who were left did all they could to protect the innocents, though it wasn't easy... The 'Infinity War', the conflict was called..."
"Wait a second." Thelma interrupted. "Infinity War, Infinity Stones... you keep using that word... is that why you called yourself..."
"The name was given to me." The Black Queen corrected the ghost-girl. "Because in the end, it came to Thanos and me. Peter... Star Lord, willed me the Orb right before throwing himself in a last, suicidal attack against 'the Other', Thanos's second in command. He chose that as a way of helping me, and also because he no longer wanted to live, not after his match, Gamora, had just died, at the same time as Thanos's daughter: Nebula. It was then that we reached a stand-still, as I held the Tesseract, the Aether and the Orb, or in other words the Stones of Space, Reality and Power... one could almost say I inherited them, in a way. Thanos, for his part, held Mind, Soul and Time. It had never happened before, for so many Stones to be held by so few individuals, much less for all six of them to be in one same place. It became a battle of wills then. And in the end, I won... I don't know how. While I always knew myself to be a willful person... stubborn, my match would call me, I still never imagined I would actually win."
"Why did you keep fighting then?" Phil asked quietly.
"Because doing anything else would have been an insult such to everyone I'd ever loved I could not even begin to imagine it." The Lady admitted. "My match was a Heavenly Warrior... one who never gave up, no matter the odds. I knew that, had he been in my place, he would have kept fighting to the very end, so I couldn't do any less. I... it hurt, doing it without him, doing anything without him; but I know for a fact it would have been much worse if I'd never had him. So I chose to focus on that, on what I did have, and kept fighting."
No one said anything, but the respect was obvious in their eyes, along with a certain level of disbelief as no one there could imagine going on, fighting such a war, without their by match beside them, it was just too painful to even contemplate...
"So in the end I won." The Black Queen went back to the story. "I know not how I did it. But my will turned out to be stronger than Thanos's, and the Stones surrendered to me. Remnants of their power turned against him, considering him unworthy for having lost; nothing was left of him afterwards... probably for the best. So the war ended, and those that still remained began doing their best to rebuild."
"If you had such power in your hands couldn't you... I don't know... just undo everything the war had caused?" Casarmi asked quietly.
"Not really." The Lady admitted, and it was obvious it pained her. "I could restore the realms, and I did, but souls... even with the corresponding Stone, that's a very delicate thing. I believe Hela said it once. The souls of the dead move on, and they achieve true peace... why would they want to return after they've found that? And if you try to force them, souls are fragile constructs, and forcing them tears pieces of them. It simply wasn't fair for anyone. So I let them have their peace. They certainly earned it... I let them go, even if that meant I would never be able to join them."
"Why not?" Skye was horrified by the idea.
"Because wielding all six Stones made me effectively immortal, as well as invulnerable." The Traveler admitted. "To the end of time I will remain as I am right now... or at least until someone else comes and takes this power from me. And that's highly unlikely, even though there are a handful who could one day grow and become capable of wielding such power... I wouldn't allow them to, I wouldn't wish this curse on anyone, especially not those I love..." She shook her head. "So, you see, in the end this was my only chance. Going back in time, so that you may change things. I am in no position to tell you what to do, I made the decisions once, and you've already heard how that turned out. All I ask..." Her voice broke briefly. "All I ask is for you to make sure it never comes to this, that I never become this... this creature I am right now. I don't want to be this, I don't want to live forever, never having the chance to join those I love again, to see into the blue eyes of my beloved and get lost in them, to hear him whisper into my ear how much he loves me, how he'll always love me... This... this is torture, worst than anything any race could have ever devised, worse than death."
"And you think if we do things right, you'll never become... this..." Hela inferred.
"That's what I hope." The woman nodded. "Hope... what a fickle thing. To think I once believed I was fortunate to have avoided the end of the world... it would seem it still found me in the end... hopefully this time it'll be better."
Skye and Phil somehow knew she was referring to the Sentinel War... she knew about that, but how? It just wasn't logical, or was it?
"Please..." The Lady said one more time, this time a plea. "Do not let me become this... do not let me become the Lady Infinity..."
Skye remembered then why the word sounded so familiar to her, she recalled with almost morbid clarity the words Rokk Krin, the Warrior from the superhero group called the Legion in the future 31st century had pronounced under his breath:
"Lady Infinity..."
That was what he said, referring to her...
At the same time the revelation finally settled in Skye's head she noticed that they'd all gotten on their feet (she'd done it automatically), the Black Queen had too (and suddenly the title and her disregard for names made a lot more sense). It looked as if she were beginning to dissolve.
"You're ceasing to exist." Hela commented I understanding.
"Time's been changed." The Traveler confirmed.
"Lets just hope it'll be for the better." Phil declared with a small smile, trying for optimism.
"Hope..." Both Skye and her (just discovered) future self echoed quietly.
"I'm sorry..." Lady Infinity whispered abruptly.
Then, before anyone could understand what was going on she was holding Phil's face carefully in her hands and kissing him, with such intensity as to leave everyone breathless. Most actually expected Skye to react in some way, it wasn't like they did not know how possessive she could be. But Skye did not move, she just watched the scene with a look of the deepest sadness... then, as the Black Queen pulled back, her hood fell, finally revealing what Skye'd already known, the identity of the Lady infinity... was her.
"Amin mela lle..." The older Menel whispered at Coulson. "Forever..."
"Forever..." Phil echoed, still in absolute shock at the revelation.
It wasn't like he'd ever doubted his Arwenamin would love him forever, but to have such proof before him, and to know how much she'd suffered for her loss of him...
"We need to change that future." He declared with absolute conviction.
Yes, they needed to, and not only for the world, the universe as a whole; because though those would always be important to him, so was his beloved, and he never wanted to see in his match, in the woman standing by his side in that moment, the emptiness he'd seen in the eyes of that future version of her. It just hurt too much.
"We need to change the future." He repeated, not knowing if he was trying to convince everyone else, his wife, or just himself.
"We will." Hela declared.
A declaration that was followed by everyone else present. None of them would allow what they'd just heard to come to pass. They might not yet know how best to change things... but leaving them as they were definitely wasn't an option. It would never be.
xXx
In a corner of Asgard, Loki let out a pained hiss as a drop of acidic venom hit the already raw flesh on his chest, around the same time the just-emptied mithril bowl his match had been carrying clattered to the ground. Sif, who'd been secretly visiting the couple during her break hurried to the elven lady's side, only to have her wave in the direction of the bowl, doing her best to wordlessly convince Sif to focus on that. The Warrior Lady did; while no one but 'Lady Sigyn' was supposed to be allowed to aid the 'criminal Loki' in any way, Sif just couldn't leave them alone. Not when they needed help the most (and wasn't that a change of tune considering how much she'd once hated Loki).
She and Loki both turned back to Tawar just in time to see her raise her head to the heavens, eyes blank in her trance, as words began coming out of her mouth, a prophecy:
"Three Winters blown away by the ever-changing winds of one Fall, False Prophecies shattering like so much glass; Clouds of Truth burst forth through Fake Wisdom and Unjust Fury. Chaos, Magic, Bonds, a new universe takes form... The bell tolls, Ragnarok has come!"
The whole time-travel, Lady-Infinity thing has been in the works since Astrid (probably even before that) as you can probably tell. I hope you like it. I hope you understand how and why everything was done; and while in the end my version of Ragnarok will be nothing like the original one... I decided I could still use it for something. (If there's anything you don't understand questions are welcome I'll answer anything as long as it doesn't mess with upcoming chapters).
To clarify some things: The first flashback takes place before the last chapter of Avery (though I don't actually have a specific timeline for that one) it's why no one knows yet that Darcy is a Stark... the second one goes at some point during that last chapter. And here I'm working under the assumption that the Playground in a self-contained base in an island, outside of any country's jurisdiction (in the middle of nowhere, some might say).
The spell/prayer from Cassie, to protect Malachi, I originally wrote it for another fic. I was going to write a short one-shot surrounding the episode 'Death takes the mother' of season 2 of HEX, wanted to explore the possible reasons why, after trying so hard to kill him when he was an infant, Ella did not go after him again until he was already grown and in Mendeham, actively working against her. In my mind, she didn't because she couldn't, because he was protected, by Cassie.
I'm sorry that the prophecy in the last scene doesn't rhyme or anything, but poetry just isn't my thing. I just hope it made enough sense to get the message across, regarding what's coming.
Now, I probably should have said this in the last chapter... though truth is I forgot. I haven't seen anything from the new season of AoS, nor am I planning to, at least not until I finish writing Meneliel. The reasons are varied, but mainly the fact that I'm very much aware that my Skye, by this point, is probably next to nothing like the one in the show, and I don't want to get mine out of my head just yet, not until I'm done. So, no spoilers on that front please! Also, don't try to fit what I'm writing here with what's going on there, I doubt any of it fits at all.
Next chapter: meetings, plans, all cards are set on the table and our family gets ready to change destiny. It's time for the children of Loki to stand together...
P.S. I know in the tags I put the marvel versions of each child of Loki... I also hope you realized it won't be quite like that, but they're not like the myth version of them either; more like a mix of the two with a twist to fit my verse for good measure. Hope that'll be alright.
See ya next Friday!