Ivy here.
I woke up with a splitting headache. Nothing seemed to be in focus. Something was moving in front of me, I wasn't sure what.
"Hey, you're up. You okay?"
Everything came back. And the full horror of what I had almost done filled me. I leaned over and threw up.
There was next to nothing in my stomach, but it was still unpleasant.
"No. I almost just…" my voice trailed off. I literally could not say it. Saying it would be confirming it. Making a reality.
"You couldn't have ever succeeded. Loki must have known that."
But if I hadn't been resisting… he would never have been expecting it. He'd turned his back on me, if I hadn't been resisting… I might have actually been fast enough to do it.
I… [I'm fine, Miranda. I can do this.]
I've been punched in the face, broken a rib or two (thanks to Hawkeye), been stabbed (long story involving a boy who wanted to show off his friends – it's an interesting story, actually, but I can't go into it here, not enough room in the recording, maybe some other time), even went through a windshield once during a car accident. But I don't cry when I'm in pain, physical or emotional.
Not even then. I buried my face in my hands. A tiny moan escaped my mouth.
"It's not your fault. You didn't have any control over it," he said. "Loki was controlling you, there was nothing you could have done."
"I should have," I mumbled. "There must have been something."
"If there is – and I doubt it – and you didn't know about it, it's still not your fault."
He fired off an arrow at an approaching Chitauri. They were swarming up the sides of the walls.
I stood up. The world tilted and I fell back.
A group of Chitauri charged. Hawkeye reached for an arrow, but he was out.
He pulled an arrow out of a dead alien and put it back in his quiver. Then he grabbed me and jumped off the edge of the building.
We weren't really falling. More like sliding along a rope.
Still, the feeling of plummeting toward the ground wasn't exactly a pleasant one.
And then we were swinging forward. We slammed into the glass. It shattered.
We both landed on the floor in among the shards. They cut into my skin.
I'm not sure how much time passed while we lay there. But then he was leaning over me.
"You okay?"
"I'll live." I sat up, wincing. Shards of glass were stuck in my arms, and his too.
I got to my feet.
"Stark!" said a voice over Hawkeye earpiece, the voice just barely audible to me. "We got a nuke coming in, about three minutes before it blows up."
Well, here it came. The end of the battle at last. Good. I was just about sick of this whole mess.
"Got it," said Mr. Stark. "Hey, is Ivy there?"
Hawkeye looked surprised, but pulled off his earpiece and handed it to me.
"Ivy?" said Mr. Stark.
"Yeah?"
"You know about this the whole time, didn't you." It wasn't a question. "This is what you were talking about."
"Yes. It was." I knew he was going to survive, come out alive.
But it didn't help one bit.
Does anyone know when the Thor 2 trailer is coming out?