Lovers of air travel find it exhilarating to hang poised between the illusion of immortality and the fact of death. – Alexander Chase
Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. – Cesare Pavese
They were back in New Mexico. Darcy was not pleased by the idea of staying in the same hot and tedious town they used to work in before getting SHIELD backing. Puente Antiguo would never be her in her top five tolerable places to be stuck. The hot sun with no beach. The one edible restaurant in town. The lack of anything resembling a social life after 9:30 at night. Not a fun place. Lucky for her, this was only a two day rest stop between Earth and their little trip to Asgard. SHIELD, Jane and Thor had decided that Thor's original little travel hotspot would make a good area for the relatively large scale trip back. Apparently, between Jane's equipment here on Earth and some hardcore-something from Asgard they'd be able to make a steady link between the two locations.
It also helped that it was a small town that had learned to not ask too many questions about certain events. So the sight of the sleek black government cars and the increase in thunderstorms barely made the citizens of the town blink.
The rune mark was still burned into the ground in the desert outside of the town almost two years later. Based off of Jane's mutterings, Darcy guessed that it still held some residual power that could aid their movement to Asgard. Or at the very least it was in a backwoods enough place for SHIELD not to give a damn if something went wrong. Jane had ordered the few pieces of lab equipment that she thought would function in Asgard to be placed on the rune. Darcy also rolled her battered suitcase (complete with duct tape holding it together) and book bag to sit next to the lab equipment. Jane's own suitcase was already in place and it was looking a lot newer and fashionable than hers. Jane must have gone shopping in a sudden fit f panic when she realized she was going to be meeting Thor's parents. Now that she thought about it, Jane's clothing did look a lot newer and expensive than normal.
Darcy's clothing on the other hand had not been upgraded. While Jane's involvement in SHIELD had garnered Darcy a full time job and a decent paycheck for once, paying back college loans had trumped clothes shopping in her mind. She was quickly hating herself for that decision as she saw Thor approach Jane's work van decked out in his Asgardian battle garb with Mjølner at his side. Considering he considered this a version of everyday clothing, Darcy thought that she and Jane might not be blending in so well. She was so used to Jane's and Thor's more casual wardrobe of flannel shirts and T's that she forgot that Thor probably didn't dress that way for his parents. She had a feeling royalty frowned on the casual blue collar look.
Before she could start her own little panic-party (guest list VIP Darcy) about where she was going and who she was going to meet one of the SHIELD agent's came up and informed her that Jane needed her by the van. She abandoned her suitcase and Jane's equipment to the Agent's safekeeping and walked over to Jane's van.
It was a comical sight. Jane was hunched over the hood of the van with her notes spread out haphazardly. Her new clothes already looked a little limp and mussed. On one side Coulson stood looking unflappable in his suit and sunglasses. Sunglasses that for once were actually being used as God intended against the glare of the New Mexico sun. Thor stood on Jane's other side in full armor, Mjølner in one hand, looking like a kid on Christmas morning. The big guy was certainly excited about bringing Jane home with him.
"Hey guys, what's up? Agent MIB over there said you needed me?" she would have hummed the MIB theme song just to break the tension radiating off of Jane and Thor but, not only was her singing horrible, it was unlikely anyone but Coulson would even get it. Thor was lucky to turn the oven on correctly never mind understand pop culture references and at times Jane was just as oblivious to things outside her lab.
"Ah, Darcy. Is everything ready on site? We have less than 20 minutes until the ideal conditions can formulate. Thor is going to contact his side of the bridge and everything has to be perfect."
"Yep, followed your little diagram and your novel-length directions to the letter, Jane. Good to go."
Thor beamed in her direction as he started herding Jane and Coulson away from the van towards the equipment. "Let us move onward, my friends. Heimdall is awaiting my command!" he helped Jane finish stacking her notes that she was scrambling to keep together on the hood. When he and Jane finally started moving towards Darcy, Coulson followed behind them signaling to his agents to get into their places.
Frankly, if Darcy hadn't seen Thor fall from the sky that night he was banished there was no way she could have taken this situation seriously. The three of them were standing dead center in the middle of the rune, Jane's equipment surrounding them. Thor was bellowing loudly at the sky looking equally ridiculous and heroic, Jane was clutching at Thor's arm as the wind around them swirled higher and higher and it was loud and bright and indescribable and then…
.
.
.
.
…and then the landing almost drove Darcy to her knees. Jane was faring similarly, only Thor's strong frame kept her upright. The howling sound disappeared instantly, leaving them in an eerie silence. Jane and her own loud, nervous breathing being the only noise now.
When Darcy managed to stumble to her feet she noticed the golden clad warrior standing at attention just outside of their little circle. He didn't even blink his odd colored eyes as Darcy stared at him gaping.
"Hey big guy…" oh her voice definitely sounded nervous and out of breath-real impressive "wanna fill me in on where we are and who this guy is?"
Thor looked up from where he had been fussing over Jane to glance around the area.
"Why, Lady Darcy, this is Heimdall, Asgard's gatekeeper and guardian!" Thor beamed at the guy, and Heimdall gave a short bow in their direction and relaxed a tad.
"Welcome to Asgard, Lady Jane, Lady Darcy, my Prince. Transportation for your belongings shall be here soon. "
Well awesome, it worked, they made it across the bridge and it looked like no one was missing any limbs or anything. And Heimdall-so not the image she was expecting from a Viking 'god-alien' gatekeeper dude.
Thor turned back to Jane to continue making sure she was alright. While they were being their normal lovey-dovey selves Darcy with a wary nod in Heimdall's direction started to look around the area they had landed.
It was a wreck. Or in the process of being built. Or maybe a bit of both. She really couldn't tell the difference. She turned in a circle to get a better feeling for the place and that's when she picked up on the circular shape of the room and the really big windows. When Heimdall didn't move or protest as she edged closer to the nearest window she figured it was safe for her to look out and see where they were.
Darcy let out a startled gasp as she looked out the window. A hundred or so feet below the window water frothed around the slick base of their landing site. If she looked directly out, she could see the water flowing out and then just disappearing as if it was the end of the earth. Running parallel to their location was the remains of the famous bifrost, jagged edges leading off to open space, giving the remains a cloudy dying look. The whole view made her feel a vague uneasiness that didn't disappear with the joyous sounds of some guards arriving to meet their returning prince. When she forced herself to turn away from the window, she found that Heimdall had been following her gaze out the window. He met her eyes and gave a brief nod before turning to aid his prince.