Lost Before The Dawn
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter Playlist: 'Odin Confesses' from 'Thor'.
'Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.'
- Edgar Allen Poe
The Pegasus Project, SHIELD Base 326, Earth
Jane stared despondently into her coffee cup, eying the congealing black liquid mulishly. She had been working for what felt like hours, and it was only the urging of her colleagues that made her take a break.
She had been working on the Tesseract for three months, and while they had made some progress, Jane was frustrated by a sudden stumbling block in her calculations.
The Tesseract was a powerful energy source, and it needed suitable restrictions to stop it from overloading, and wiping out God knew how much. Every time Jane thought she'd had a breakthrough, something else cropped up, an imbalance in the second equation, a niggling instinct that turned out to be a figure in the wrong place, or too low an estimate for suppressing the quantum tunnelling effect.
Some days, Jane felt sure the Tesseract was just laughing at them all, at the silly humans' attempts to understand something so far beyond them. Sighing, Jane got up to throw and replace her cold coffee. She needed the caffeine buzz.
As she watched the coffeemaker on the kitchenette counter whir and bubble away its task, her mind drifted to another troubling thing.
She hadn't slept much in the past three months, that wasn't exactly new. What was new was the odd, disquieting feelings she awoke with, every…well not exactly morning, but whenever she did wake up.
Sometimes, after a long, draining day where she'd almost been brought to the brink of tears by frustration, she would wake up, calm, soothed, oddly warmed by her dreams, which she never remembered, beyond a silken voice and a cool hand against her hair, whispering encouragement and prodding hints to her.
When she woke up like that, she was buoyed, energised, bursting with ideas and solutions, which sometimes turned out to be just what she needed, and sometimes so frustratingly easy and obvious, she was annoyed she hadn't thought of them before.
But other nights…she woke up with a feeling of dread, of fear hanging over her, clouding her mind. Those days, she rarely accomplished anything, and it annoyed her even more, especially because she couldn't remember why her dreams the night before had scared her.
Regardless of her unsettling dreams, Jane was glad of the challenge and the distraction. It felt odd, but good, to be working again, on something more than an amorphous theory that everyone discounted. At SHIELD, despite her wariness, she was treated with respect. It was better than skulking in the desert, scrounging for money to fuel her research, all alone since Darcy had gone back to her college, and Erik was teaching in Canada. She talked to them regularly, but it would have been lonely in the desert all by herself.
Or rather, the desert held memories that Jane wanted to forget. She refused to be bitter about the whole Thor debacle, but she wanted to move on, and she refused to wait around like some damsel in distress. She would find Asgard, but it wouldn't be for Thor, not anymore. It would be for herself.
Although sometimes, she wondered about SHIELD's intentions. Fury had told her it was to find a new renewable energy source, and she believed him most of the time, but she couldn't forget he was a spy, ever. It didn't matter; she didn't need to know, as long as she could get what she needed.
Or so she told herself.
She had a good team, with three research associates, and two professors with long experience in astrophysics and quantum mechanics. At first, she'd thought there might be some friction, due to her lack of doctorate and reputation, but they had all settled in well enough.
Doctors James Stanley and Patricia Kent looked on Jane as a protégée and friend. Patricia, or 'Patsy' as she preferred to be known, looked on her as a surrogate daughter.
"Hey there? Anybody home?" Patsy called gently, eying the young astrophysicist gently. Jane had been working herself hard for months, driven by something she couldn't understand, and it worried her.
Jane started, the coffee cup jumping with her, splashing her front with lukewarm coffee. "Oh, God! Patsy! Sorry, I didn't see you there," she murmured sheepishly, placing the ceramic down to grab a towel and dab ineffectually at her shirt before facing the blonde-haired scientist.
"You were miles away. Are you ok?" the older woman asked worriedly. There were deep circles under Jane's eyes, and she looked so pale and worn.
"I'm fine," Jane's smile was small and wan. It didn't fool Patsy for a moment.
"No, you're not. You're a rubbish liar, now go lie down before you fall down," she told her firmly.
"But-" Jane protested weakly. Patsy held up a hand, sternness creeping into her twinkling blue eyes.
"No buts. Bed, go, now," she pointed to the door, then softened slightly. "I'll wake you in a few hours. Fury's coming by tomorrow afternoon for a progress report."
Jane sighed, but capitulated. She was tired. With a grateful smile, she washed up her cup and wandered to the small dormitory that had been laid aside for the research team, in the event they didn't go home.
She sank down onto the marginally comfortable bunk, and sighed, running her fingers through her lank hair. She really needed a shower, but that could come later.
With relief, she toed off her boots and sank back into the cotton duvet, closing her eyes and trying to shut her mind off from all the problems and worries that continually plagued it.
Sleep caught her easier than it ever had before.
He had been waiting for so long, and at last, his coming was nigh. As he watched the young mortal scientist murmur and shift in her sleep, an anticipatory smirk lit his features.
He was Realms away, but even then, his power had only grown. Thanos had taken him, a weak, broken thing and reshaped him, reinvigorated him.
It had not been a pleasant process, enough to still make Loki wince in remembrance of it, but he was so much the stronger for it. Soon, he would rise and then no-one could stop him.
He would make the Earth belong to him, as nothing had before. He would conqueror it, and then…
Then they would see, all of them.
As he regarded the human woman, he cocked his head to the side, finding himself reluctantly entranced by the soft murmurs falling from her lips as she slept, and dreamed.
He had been infiltrating her mind for months, planting the seeds of her triumph in dreams, always ensuring she forgot him afterwards but not the knowledge he planted, until the next time.
Her triumph…how foolish a thought, when all along it was his own. It was his genius that would enable the Tesseract to bring him through to their Realm, and it would be his pleasure to make her bow before him.
Thor's woman.
Although, he had to admit, he had sensed an interesting amount of disillusionment regarding his brother in the young woman. If Thor did ever return, Loki suspected he would not receive as warm a welcome as he hoped. Her tenacity and spirit had also impressed him in their metaphysical confrontations, her mind as forceful and quick almost as his own. She was an intriguing mortal, more so than he had first thought.
Thor had always been awful at keeping his promises. Loki, on the other hand, when he deigned to make them…he always kept them.
He was keeping this one.
Whether that thought was about his promise, delivered in anger and bitterness, or about the girl, he couldn't decide, but the thought made him smirk coldly anyway.
Now, one last task to achieve before he went through, and then it could begin.
On the barren rock where he had resided for months, the lost Prince closed his eyes, drawing on all his power even as the intricately crafted sceptre in his hand glowed an eerie blue.
Jane frowned, as a familiar voice called to her.
She knew it…but she didn't know where from. It was…soft, gentle, almost tender but with an edge of command she recognised well.
Jane…sweet little Jane…
She mentally sniffed. She was many things but sweet wasn't one of them. As for little…well, that she could hardly help. Genes were not her specialty.
A silken laugh, amused, rang through her head.
Feisty as always, I see. Open your eyes, Jane, we have much to discuss before you awaken…
Jane opened her eyes, meeting the emerald green gaze, icy and cool, of a tall, raven-haired man in black.
And she remembered.
When Jane awoke, that familiar sensation of warmth flooded her, and she frowned at the sensation. Something hovered at the edge of her consciousness, something important, very important.
But it was gone, as easily as a wisp of smoke on the wind when she tried to focus on it, and she sat up with a discontented huff. True, she was feeling better, but these odd dreams were getting on her nerves.
A solution for the problem with the quantum tunnelling effect slipped through her mind, and she made a mental note to mention it to James, before she swung her legs out of bed, and stumbled into the bathroom adjoining the small dormitory.
Inside, she turned the water on, and waited for it to warm up, as she undressed. Steam filled the bathroom, as she dumped her old clothes on the floor, and leant on the sink, eyes fixed on the fogged mirror, but unseeing.
What were these dreams? Why couldn't she remember them? Technically, only the most vivid dreams were recalled once the REM cycle was over, but this…was different.
These dreams were not so much vivid as haunting, and they differed from night to night. Sometimes fear, sometimes comfort…
Jane closed her eyes, willing herself to remember, but once again all she remembered was a soft voice, and a hand on her hair.
Wait…the voice had been male.
Absentmindedly, still focussed on her dreams, Jane wiped away the condensation, and raised her eyes to the damp surface. And jumped out of her skin as she met the emerald green eyes of the man stood directly behind her.
Shocked, terrified, Jane spun but there was no one there. The bathroom was empty.
Inwardly shaking, Jane turned back to the mirror, its concave face showing only her own tired, pale visage. She chuckled mirthlessly, forcing her heart to calm, and shook her head.
She was going crazy, staying cooped up underground for so long. Perhaps she would go out and look at the stars on the roof of the compound that night, after work, just to maintain her sanity.
With a determined setting of her jaw, she turned away from the mirror and stepped into the warm, soothing embrace of the shower.
She was just getting dressed, tying the laces of her boots when one of the research associates burst through the door.
"Jane? Jane!" the associate, Lisa, exploded frantically, auburn curls flying as she flapped, the wings of her white coat making her look like an deranged goose. "You have to come quickly! The Tesseract's going nuts!"
Alarm streaked through Jane, and she sprinted through the door, heart pounding with that sudden sense of dread and fear that had plagued her before, as an unholy chuckle echoed through her head. She tried to ignore it, but it turned into words as she entered the elevator.
I'll be seeing you soon, Miss Foster…
A/N: I know I said I wouldn't update until September, but I just needed to get this out once I saw the leaked clip of Loki and Barton on Tumblr. This is, however, the furthest I can go without the DVD for backup, so no more updates until September. Please read and review! :D