Chapter 2: The Haunted I

A/N:

Well, well, well it looks like some ppl recognize this story from my deviantart account-looks like its a small world after all..

You may have noticed Darcy was missing in the last chapter, well that's going to change, this chapter is all Darcy centric.

Enjoy! And please tell me what you think!

The Haunted

Chapter 1

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;

One need not be a house;

The brain has corridors surpassing

Material place.

~Emily Dickinson, "Time and Eternity"

If you want to truly comprehend the mind of one Darcy Anne Lewis you have to understand the impulse that drives one to click on a youtube video about a cup and two girls that everyone tells them they really don't want to see, or that sudden urge to slow down at an accident and stare at the wreckage. She knows that it's a bad decision and yet she does it anyway. A Geek tragedy in the truest sense of the word: born of too much coffee, too many bad choices, and way too much Internet.

That was the crux of the matter; how her life ended up a live wire of curiosities and impulses, and worst of all- nagging urges to fight. The better informed urge, keyword being flee, set to hibernate. Like when the blond in the horror movie goes off to investigate rather than, you know, turn around and flee like a motherfucker.

Panic, horror, fear of the unknown, it's a baser impulse, but an important one that was lost on Darcy Lewis. And in reflection of her life, it'd been her biggest character flaw to date.

Yet her existence hadn't always started out like that.

Raised by two liberal, overbearing parents, no one had ever bullied her for being named after a Jane Austen character. Her marks, had she not always procrastinated, were passable, her introduction to alcohol and detention slips an unimpressive mockery of authority. There were no mutant powers that had ever kicked in, no angsty back story, no radioactive spider bites. She had been leading an average life. And in all her attempts to cover up this mediocrity during her adolescence with a colorful image, and colorful words, and colorful things; dig deep enough and you'll find that, that dull word "average" haunted Darcy Lewis.

It had her feel as if her life were an open book.

There goes Ms Lewis with all her ambitions in life but no drive to get her there. Meek, obedient Darcy; pushed by her parents into attending that local university Culver so conveniently close to home rather than pursue her dream of going to Art school. Choosing that safer second choice major, Political Science; unable to fit in with those "Pre-law" snobs and too lazy to switch out. No dramatic climax for her, just voted most likely to marry someone mediocre, apply for a tedious office job, and pop out a couple of rugrats.

And then something snapped.

It wasn't like the earth shattering snap of Thor's 'Mew Mew.' Or that snap that switches mild mannered Bruce Banner into a raving Hulk. It'd been a gradual discovery while scouring her school's internship pages at 3 am under 'no credentials.' An accidental click of her mouse had revealed the Bargholm Astrophysicist's Grant and six credits.

Why not apply? Political Science was a type of science, right?

What's the worst that could happen... they don't call her back?

But they had!

On her laptop had been a way out of her living purgatory and the last farewell to normal life as she'd known it.

Darcy Lewis had clicked accept.

When she had arrived at her internship her employer, Dr. Foster, had been the quintessential absent-minded professor type; perpetually gawking at Darcy's sass, her inexperience, and her complete obliviousness to science. Then there had been Jane's surrogate father figure Dr. Erik Selvig. Darcy had been pretty sure he couldn't understand a word she said often smiling and looking hopelessly to Jane to help translate. For a while they had both tolerated her, but like the mold on a fourth grader's forgotten lunch box, Darcy Lewis had grown on them. She'd become their sample compiler, paper-filer, and coffee maker and the disgruntled university student had liked it that way.

If only she had known what lay ahead of her then for together they had experienced the paranormal.

Alien Norse Gods, secret agents, Iron Giants…the works!

But now...now with their Norse hero missing in action, and the happy ending between Jane and Thor nothing more but a whispered promise, something akin to normality had returned to Darcy Lewis's life, and the intern felt cheated by it.

It had been heart breaking.

Every time Darcy had caught Jane searching the skies for Thor. And in Darcy's mind Thor should never have openly promised to return to Jane, because the problem with spoken promises is that once made, their bound to be broken.

Jane hadn't been the only one going through Thor withdrawal either. Meeting Thor was clearly not something one forgets which had been exactly why S.H.I.E.L.D. had remained in Puente Antiguo to cover up all possible evidence. The small town now transformed into MIB central, with more agents than locals and lots of yellow tape. Everywhere she went a suit and tie kept tabs on her. Like Darcy Lewis had actually needed a field agent assigned to her to escort her to the laundry mat!

Apparently said agent had a name, Agent Matthews; her shiny new S.H.I.E.L.D. sitter. Hair in a buzz-cut and eyes hidden under dark aviators; he always had a foppish grin ready for her snide remarks. She might have thought the man attractive if it hadn't been for the fact that he was like her constant shadow.

Dr. Selvig had told them they were under some kind of "official lock-down." No one got in or out without S.H.I.E.L.D.'s say so in an attempt to make the "Iron Giant" incident look like a waste spill. After that tidbit of info, Darcy saw less of her elderly friend at the lab. His shadow, Agent Coulson, had been keeping Erik on a tight leash. Every time she had seen Coulson he had been barking out orders to any S.H.I.E.L.D. operative within earshot about some "Avengers Initiative." It seemed that "all would be revealed" after he had some kind of "talk with the Doc" at Isabel's coffee house.

Then and there, Darcy had decided it was high time to start doing a little spying of her own. Jane, transfixed with jotting down information gleaned from Thor's World Tree, had been largely unapproachable on the subject. But even the postdoctoral researcher had her limits. She too was weary of those who had snatched away her life's work.

So, while Darcy was taking their orders at Isabel's the morning of the meeting she slipped the elderly woman a note. And soon after they had finished eating a brawl between an employee and a customer"suddenly" erupted outside causing Matthews, who'd been sitting two booths down from them, to run out and help. That's when they hid in the "out of order" ladies room until the Agent cavalry arrived with Selvig in tow. Their conversation had started off simple enough until Coulson mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. tinkering around with some kind of a cube, and titillated by this news, Erik desperately wanted to know all about it, but of course, Coulson wouldn't let up on what he knew. Finally Erik cracked; He would join in on their Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. but on the condition that Jane and Darcy were kept safe under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s protection.

Darcy had stopped listening in at this point, she had been seeing red; infuriated that S.H.I.E.L.D. would use them like that to get to Erik. Darcy's anger subsided, however, when her attention had been drawn to Jane. The distressed scientist had been clutching onto Darcy's hand in a vice grip from the shock.

Everything had happened too damn quickly. With the conversation now over the men had stood, shook hands, and left. In a bid for their protection Erik would be taken to God knows where. Their fate now in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Jane, locked in her bunker, had internalized her distress. Darcy, however, kept nothing bottled in, confronting the "angry ditched" Matthews with everything she had. Her shadow didn't hold back on her either, like an irked parent he cooly explained to her, her situation. She would be given an ultimatum; she could either stay as Jane's assistant working for S.H.I.E.L.D. extending her "internship" or she could return home where the Big Brother monitoring would subside.

But what did she really have to go home too? Disappointed parents and an unfinished degree? And what of Jane Foster? First Thor and now Erik had left her; could she really do the same?

It had been like a scene straight out of the Matrix. Darcy Lewis, the girl who knew too much surrounded by agents. Opting to take the red pill instead of the blue; soon to discover just how deep this rabbit-hole went. But unlike Alice there'd be no returning from her Wonderland. As soon as she had agreed as soon as her paperwork had been stamped off and signed off, and sent off to headquarters; they had been kicked out of the quaint New Mexican town like Erik, off to God knows where.

In the grand scheme of things anonymity had worked out in their favor. Their world had become a battlefield. Though Thor had ultimately defeated The Destroyer, the destruction had merely been a taste of what was in store for them when another Big Bad had come a knock'n. For there on their lab cafeteria's TV screen stood an unusually thin man with cruel expression and long raven hair; his sunken features almost feminine. Smoky lashes hid bright eyes; cold and unyielding like the many nights Darcy had spent in the New Mexican desert. Decorated in armor similar to Thor's he looked exquisite and complicated, and deadly; so much so that Darcy had been taken aback. It was criminal that even antagonists from Asgard were this attractive. Chills coursed down her spine while listening to his calm and calculated speeches, his voice every bit the voice of a silvery-tongued prince, his jeering message one of world domination.

It was then that they had been moved to a new location; one with a lot more security. Needless to say, this Norse Trickster fellow had not only fucked with the wrong mortals but with his big immortal brother as well. Thor's second trip to earth had been nationally televised and it had left Darcy scratching her head in wonder why, in all of his time spent on earth, Thor hadn't taken a time-out to maybe, like promised, check in on Jane!

Still this news did not put a damper on her friend instead it re-vitalized her determination to create her stairway to the heavens. In that short amount of time, surrounded by battle-weary agents who could easily have ended them, they had fought their own internal battle, one of science. And although Darcy Lewis had been no Doogie Howser of the rare anomalous particle phenomenon she had somehow managed to keep the firelight of Jane's sanity up and running.

Their stellar work ethic never did lead them to a much deserved vacation though. Instead it lead them straight smack into the same stellar situation they had been in months ago. This time stuck in middle of nowhere Wiltshire, England sent to investigate odd atmospheric activity and Celtic crop circles.

Like Scooby doo... same gimmick different setting.

Darcy hadn't gotten the entire gist from her physicist just yet (Jane had still been on a plane after her visit with a recovering Erik in Norway) but her friend had listed the rubix cube Erik had been studying as a leading factor. Her friend's scientist senses tingling from the amazing storms and light shows they'd been having lately; archaeological finds having randomly popped up undetected for centuries. The ones they had been sent to investigate dated back to the last Ice Age; dubbed "Bluehenge" for the color of the icicle-like ruins in the shape of runes that made a path to, well, Stonehenge.

Soon they would be meeting their newly assigned host Sir Carl Strange; the man in charge of the "Bluehenge" expedition. A PhD holder in atom interferometry, his research analysis made the site out to be computer-like in its preciseness; a remarkable feat accredited to Vikings. Mystery surrounded it; the biggest question being what had caused it to suddenly reappear. Merlin? Atlantis? Giants? Giant Mole Men? Well, who knew for sure.

All Darcy Lewis had known at the time was that Matthews driving on the left side of the road was making her nauseous. They'd been on their way to meet up with Jane for a debriefing at their new S.H.I.E.L.D. placement. It was supposed to be just like Downton Abbey, well-managed and conveniently close to the site, a home of one of Strange's ancestors dating back to the Elizabethan era.

Blinking back the glare of the afternoon sun Darcy had been left speechless by it. There before them lay a long driveway lined with scattered pine and oaks leading up to, what could only be described as, a vast and intimidating manor house. Forget the "well managed" part - it'd been more like "rather neglected." Its peeling paint was covered in a film of dew as long wisps of ivy crawled up the tarnished window panes to a lopsided chimney. In the distance stood an empty courtyard filled with sickly green weeds once a garden, its pond covered in slime.

Well, at least it was more scenic and habitable looking than Jane's motor home in New Mexico.

"Jinkies." She muttered as she re-adjusted her glasses eliciting a chuckle from her agent as they begun the long hull of equipment and luggage towards the opened iron gate. In that moment Darcy had to force herself to look away from the massive estate overwhelmed and overheated from the long humid day.

And then she'd felt it.

Walking at a steady pace she stopped dead in her tracks as a chill ran down her spine, something she had never experienced before, a whole new sensation. But where was it coming from? She just couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. Darcy blinked looking across the garden, towards the car, past the gate, and then she finally looked up.

There, in the clutter of billowing trees, a swarm of black birds had been forming; hoards of them. Their eyes glimmering and ever watchful some flying in circles, hanging off branches, sitting in the hollows of the trees. All watching as she watched them and as if recognizing her stares their squawks went from a low moaning to a piercing pitch.

Man it was freaking her out...

Come off of it, Darcy, it's just a flock of birds. So she brushed it off as nothing.

A pity dread was one of those things lost on Darcy Lewis because just like all the blonds in those horror movies she'd watched growing up-

She should have left when she had the chance.

A/N:

Ah yes the plot in my cauldron doth thicken. double, double toil and trouble.

So... Shield not as nice as you'd think they'd be, huh? Hope this helps to fill in the cavity gaps of where Thor and the Avengers fit into the story. I hope to add more Marvel characters into the mix like the x-men later and Dr. Strange plays a pretty important part as well when it comes to magic and science. And the crows...well they kinda speak for themselves being the token symbol of trickster Gods everywhere that they are!