Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters here used. I wish I did, but they all belong to Marvel and its great All-Father: Stan Lee.
See the dark shades of what I used to be
see the purple of her eyes
see the scarlet of my lies
love rescue me
U2, Love rescue me
"You're a surprisingly good dancer, you know?"
"So I've been told." Loki replied smugly.
"And also unbearably egocentric." Darcy rolled her eyes, but smiled.
"I've been told that as well."
The forest of Vanaheim was dense, its massive, centenary trees and tree tops shaping a black lace dome in the night, a lot of tiny little lamps recreating the stars hanging between the branches. It was kinda magical.
The sudden and deep change in the planet the past month was tragic: the communities were facing a civil war and so the allies, seeing that Thanos' minions were many and very dangerous, had hidden in the forest.
Still, there was one village whose Elders decided to remain neutral. Loki and Darcy were in that one, trying to make them understand that being neutral was not an option. They had been there many times now, having developed a friendship of sorts with one of the Elders, Kamilios.
"We are not going to kill people we consider friends." He had declared, completely convinced of his idea. Next day, he and the other two Elders had organized a dance. Darcy and Loki had to accept. Maybe it was their last chance to convince them to fight against Thanos. Odin and The Avengers had given their thumbs up - Odin had nodded, Stark had literally raised his thumbs up- and they had arranged with Heimdall an hour and a safe place to come back.
Currently, Darcy was trying to follow the steps of the dance, half helped by Loki and half improvisation. Something had changed between them. Two months had passed since the ritual she had made for Frigga and her parents, and the change was barely visible, but it was there. Something a little more mischievous, a little less closed off...she couldn't put her finger on it, but everyone had noticed. Of course nobody told Loki anything.
Also, Loki had started seeing Eir, the best Asgardian therapist. On his own free will. Sure, Eir was bound by Loki's seidr to not tell anyone about the fact that he, of all people, had sought help. But Darcy knew, because she was seeing Eir too. She had seen -and done- some terrible things. Eir was great, and her service was for free. So, she recognized one of the breathing exercises to lower the heartbeat and stop panicking when Loki had started doing it, and she had asked him. And that was another change in his behaviour: he had answered with the truth. He actually was able to answer personal questions without lashing out in anger. At least with her. Darcy guessed it had to do with the therapy, and she mentally thanked Eir for that.
She turned around, her arms raised and snapping her fingers to the rythm of the music.
The first arrow hit their friend, Kamilios, through his throat. He was sitting in front of everyone, and when the horrified silence filled the place, Kamilios opened his mouth and tried to breathe. A horrible, gurgling sound could be heard in the night, and the Elder fell to the ground shaking in agony. Then, as if someone had pressed a button, chaos unleashed. Fear and horror replaced music and dances. Arrows poured between the trees, children started screaming for their mothers and the Vanir used their magic to hide or disappear. Darcy, unable to do the same and having lost Loki in the chaos, crawled between dead bodies and broken cups to the nearest tree. She slid between its roots, trying not to think about the spiders and other insects that could have made that place their home. All at once, the screaming stopped and the lights went out.
The silence that followed was nothing like any other moment she had lived before. It wasn't horrified or shocked. It was the silence of the dead Vanir, the ones that couldn't hide fast enough. Darcy knew that the enemies could move in the forest like shadows, and that scared her the most. If they found her, she was dead. She had left her weaponry on the boat she and Loki had rented for the day. After all, it was a ball and not a diplomatic reunion with possible enemies. Carrying weapons with them would have been impolite. The lake they had to reach wasn't far away, but trying to reach it was suicidal. And she didn't know where Loki was. Maybe he had abandoned her. Maybe he had escaped. Maybe he was going to join Thanos. Darcy felt the panic tightening her throat. If Loki had betrayed her, she could not face him. She could not beat the god of Mischief. She could not defeat someone who could use magic.
Suddenly, two hands pulled her up. Darcy tried kick, but the man clamped his hand against her mouth.
"Silence, Lewis!" Loki hissed against her ear. "I'm hiding you now."
Darcy tried to bite his hand and he took it away, muttering something under his breath that was very similar to an insult and making her walk in an apparently senseless path.
"We have to get to the lake and go to the other side! It's near Heimdall's point and he will be able to open the Bifröst!" she whispered.
Loki wasn't paying any attention, so Darcy stabbed his hand with her nails as strongly as she could.
"What?" he snapped lowly.
"The lake, you stupid asshole! We've got all our stuff in there!"
"Can you wait a bloody second, Lewis?"
Suddenly, Loki pushed her against a tree. The back of her head hit the cortex of the tree and she groaned in pain.
"The hell?" She mumbled when his green cape covered them both. Of course, he had "magicked" his armour out of thin air. She heard a loud clang above her head. "Oh my god...did you put the helmet on?"
Loki huffed, exasperated.
"Well, yes! It's supposed to protect your head! Does everyone have a problem with my helmet?"
"I do! It's horned! It will tangle in everything, for god's sake this is a forest! Haven't you heard about the conceited deer?" She replied.
He put his hand over her mouth again, and she actually stayed quiet.
Something was coming. Darcy could sense it in the way the soft breeze stopped all at once and the sounds of the forest were suddenly silenced.
She felt Loki's chest vibrate in exasperation and she realized they were very close. His arms were both raised above her head, covering them with his cape. She guessed it was enchanted to hide them, though she didn't know for sure. They were hiding between the lower branches of some kind of pine tree, but all in all she doubted that the thing searching for them had eyes.
"We have to reach the lake." He murmured against her ear, his cold breath surprising her.
"No shit, Sherlock" She bit back, earning a snarl of frustration. He was familiar with the character now. "How do we do that without the thing searching for us...actually finding us?"
"No magic. We run."
Without another word Loki stood up, gripped her wrist and took off.
He was a powerful being. He had magic, obviously, but he also was stronger and faster than an average human. So when he started running, Darcy tried to keep up and failed.
"Dude! Slow the fuck down! You're gonna kill me!" she yelled while trying to dodge branches and plants from crashing into her face.
"We can't! The creature senses magic and it's trained to hunt. Jump on my back and brace yourself."
"Are you crazy?" She exclaimed after accidentally swallowing a leave, coughing to get off its bitter taste.
"I think we've already stated that I am! Now, jump on my back or I swear to the Norns that I will leave your body here for the Vanir to find!"
He lost his patience, stopped abruptly and Darcy crashed against his back. The freaking armour was hard and she clumsily wrapped her legs around his waist and grabbed his shoulders. She looked back and could she a flash of a bony, grey hand. It was the thing.
"Run, run!" she urged, clinging onto him like a baby koala. She couldn't fight magical beings! That... thing, whatever it was, had an aura all around it that made her think about the Nazgûls in Lord of The Rings. Not a very helping thought at the moment.
"What do you think I've been doing all this time?" He hissed.
They reached the lake, Loki run along the lakeshore and stopped for a millisecond to let Darcy jump on their boat. With a swift movement he jumped on it as well and cut the rope that kept the boat from going away.
The thing that followed them stayed within the limits of the forest.
"They can't stand moving water. It's against their nature." Said Loki with a smug smirk when she asked him with her eyes. He started rowing quickly.
Darcy flung a bag at Loki and set herself to prepare her stuff. Whenever they went on a mission they carried their own bags: Loki's was full of tricky stuff, made to distract, while Darcy's was full of...weapons. Her favourite was a Stark-modified taser, but this time she fished from her bag three grenades and an AK47, also Stark-modified. Her instinct told her they were not safe.
"You brought that terrible, noisy gun here?" Questioned Loki with disdain.
"It it not terrible, and her name is Dorothy." Darcy loaded the AK47, released the safety and held it firmly against her shoulder, sitting down.
A boat was not the best place to shoot, but it would have to do.
As soon as they were in deeper waters, Loki left the oars and hid several knives around the boat, using his seidr to keep the course in the right way.
"We should've stayed and helped. It was the right thing to do." Said Darcy. Loki sighed.
"Nobody was armed. Nobody was fighting. If we had stayed, we would be prisoners by now...and corpses by tomorrow."
"What do you think will be their side?" Darcy chose to ignore the corpses part, in favour of inspecting everything around them. The adrenaline pumping in her heart made her all too aware of the danger.
"I believe they will choose Odin's side...though I can't be society is not ruled by one King, and under Odin's protection they could organize themselves the way they wanted. Also, they loved Frigga. Her memory may be enough for them to choose a side. I guess they'll respect the truce and protection Asgard had kept with them all these centuries."
They were talking to prevent from panicking. They knew something was coming, it was just a matter of time until it found them.
"Heimdall?" Darcy tried, but nothing happened.
"He can't see us. I hid us from everyone's view."
"That is going to be a major problem! Why did you do that?"
"Because our enemies have a very similar way of seeing the things they are after as our mutual acquaintance, Heimdall."
Darcy remembered Heimdall's father was from Vanaheim.
Not a sound could be heard, except for the boat sliding across the lake, towards the land.
They were close to it, but suddenly a Vanir boat appeared out of nowhere.
"It's the Midgardian and the Silvertongue! Curse their souls! Kill them both!" Screamed someone, and they tossed something at them. It was rounded, it was strangely familiar...it was Kamilios' head. It fell heavily to the water and floated around them, making Darcy's stomach churn.
Then she started shooting like crazy. No bullet affected them, until Loki noticed and told her.
"They are protecting themselves with magic! Throw a grenade!"
"Help my aim!" She indicated, grabbed the grenade, pressed the lever, pulled the ring off and kept it in her hand for two seconds before throwing it with all her strength to the enemies.
There was no need for Loki's magic to help her. The grenade fell exactly in the middle of the boat before exploding. The blast made their boat shake and three more boats appeared around them.
"Aha! I knew they were hiding with magic" Loki smiled and Darcy furrowed her brow like she couldn't believe what he was saying.
"Silverpants, use your own freaking magic for something more than pushing this crap around!" Screamed Darcy when she saw the enemies approaching them with more speed than she had thought possible.
"I'm keeping us hidden from worse things! And I've made a shield so their magic can't harm us!" He replied scandalized at the new nickname and at her underestimation of his abilities.
"Then why the hell do you need me to throw another grenade?" She yelled, and the other boats started shooting.
"Would you rather have to fight four of them, mortal?" replied Loki, still concentrated in his seidr and moving his fingers ever-so-slightly to keep the spell working.
"Less talking more fighting here!" she avoided answering. The first boat was at her right, so she pointed Dorothy there, while holding a grenade to throw to the second boat, the one at her left. The third boat was Loki's, and it was in front of them.
Fortunately, Vanaheim only had little amounts of gunpowder, and less powerful. Unfortunately, they had magic.
Shots fired, Darcy covered and waited for them to recharge their weapons. The second she heard silence, she fired Dorothy against the boat at her right and killed the guy that was holding the Vanir gun. In the meantime, Loki was covering them from the other boats by blasting them with magic. Darcy threw the grenade to the boat at her left, missing by two meters but managing to stun them long enough for her to shoot Dorothy against the first boat and leave Loki free to concentrate on the boat in front of them, making them attack each other.
The archers of the boat at her right recovered and aimed at her. Darcy lowered her head and saw the guys in front of them trying to choke each other. Okay, one boat less to fight, apparently. And she had pretty much left the people of the second boat in a daze of deafness and confusion (loud explosions tended to cause that).
Time to throw her last grenade to the boat at her right again. The motherfuckers recovered fast. She rose her head and peeked at the guys. She didn't have a clear shot, not with the archers so ready to stick an arrow in her head. Loki wasn't covering, he could help her.
"Trickster! Can you help me directing the grenade to these bastards?" She said, and Loki turned around.
It all happened too fast for her brain to register right away. Loki turned around, eyed her and her situation and opened his mouth to say something when an arrow pierced his shoulder. He fell to the ground of the boat and groaned in pain. Panicking, Darcy recognized the arrow as the poisoned type. Loki had said it caused hallucinations and paralysis. She would have to be fast. Raw fury flashed in Loki's eyes, and he made the boat in front of them explode in thousands of pieces.
Okay, time to end this shit.
Darcy gathered her courage and threw her last grenade, but it exploded in the air and didn't do much damage. They were prepared this time. She crouched and crawled frantically to where Loki was sprawled.
"Trickster, please tell me you are alright" She tried to reach for him but he slapped her hand away. He was pale and his eyes were wildly trying to look around him. Darcy grabbed one of her pistols and shot to the members of the boat at their left.
"It's poisoned" He said, his breathing shallow and too fast. Darcy shot again. "Reach my bag."
Darcy tried to, but failed when the two boats left, completely recovered, shot a round of arrows to their boat. She was pretty sure the boat she was in looked like a hedgehog. Fortunately, there was no way the arrows could harm them at that distance and with both of them on the floor of the boat, so she watched them fall harmlessly around her. Darcy rolled on her side and grabbed Loki's bag for dear life.
Meanwhile, Loki seemed a little recovered, though he still had a pained expression on his face. He took the rudder and started guiding the boat towards the near coast, manually.
"What are you doing?" She asked again.
"I…my magic...I can't control it well enough for all of my spells to work simultaneously. I...have one to hide us and protect us from their magic and I can't keep speeding this at the same time."
"What do you want me to do with the bag?"
His hands were trembling and he was barely keeping it together. Darcy shot to the boats again and hit two Vanir, who fell to the water. The enemies were closer.
Loki was looking around him wildly until he could focus at her. Why had she thought he was recovered?
"As soon as we reach the land, throw the sand at the bottom of the bag...to them."Loki panted.
Everything smelled like gunpowder. Darcy could taste her own, salty sweat. The air was heavy with humidity and they were severely outnumbered. Heimdall wouldn't open the Bifröst unless they were at the safe place.
Another round of arrows fell over them, and Darcy knew they didn't have guns anymore. They were fighting with what they knew best.
Darcy peeked again just in time to see their seidr coming at them. Loki was sprawled on the floor one more time, muttering nonsense, occasionally waving his right hand over his leg.
The coast was about ten metres from them...and she had no magic.
Darcy felt the fear bubble up in her stomach and she knew she had to make a choice, now.
Loki did it for her when he started shivering and screaming the hell out of him, in a weird language.
Darcy inhaled, dig her hand inside Loki's bag and took a handful of something very similar to sand, but black. She flung it towards one of the boats, took another handful and threw it to the other. At first, nothing happened and she kept her eyes open, waiting, hoping that whatever that black powder was worked.
Loki had stopped screaming, the seidr of the others kept coming at them, shining red in the night and she thought about her friends on Earth and the ones she had made accross the nine Realms.
Suddenly, a grey mist raised from the water and covered them all. Within seconds, Darcy couldn't see past her nose.
That's why Loki had told her to throw the sand when they had reached the coast. Fortunately she knew where that was.
But they would have to swim. The coast was tricky enough for Loki, she couldn't navigate the boat blindly. She didn't even know how to do it!
Darcy stared at Loki. He was very still, yet panting like he had been running. He was shocked. Whatever the poison that arrow had, he was tripping balls. Still, she had to try and get him to move.
"Loki" she murmured softly, only for him to hear. His name fell awkwardly from her lips. " Loki, can you swim a little?"
He didn't say anything. When she reached for him, he flinched in horror but no words left his mouth.
Fuck.
Turns out that trying to lift up a god is a no go, even when you've been working out quite a lot because, war.
Darcy cursed her bad choices and her enemies. When she heard them scream, she wondered what was happening. They were going away. And then she knew. The mist caused the enemies to be trapped in an illusion. They were escaping from that illusion.
Darcy had to act fast, because the mist wouldn't last forever. She sat up and took the lifejacket from its place. Loki always laughed at her for that, but she hated and feared water. She kept a lifejacket in the boat just in case. Good thing it was going to be useful.
Darcy had trained to be able to swim, but who knew what dark creature could be lurking in the depths, waiting for something to sink its teeth in?
That was so not the time to think about water monsters!
She tied the lifejacket around her, tied her bag to her wrist and sighed for what she was about to do. Then she took an unresponsive Loki by the good arm and literally rolled off the boat. They fell in the cold water with a loud splash and for a moment Darcy thought she was going to drown under Loki's weight. The man was sinking in the lake like a stone. She could not open her eyes and she didn't know if something was about to eat her.
Her head hit the surface and she breathed in deeply, then made sure to pull from Loki's good shoulder to take his head out the water and started kicking her legs. The cold swimming took Loki slightly out of his dazed state. He started muttering again, again something she couldn't understand.
When her feet finally touched the shallow bottom of the lake, she groaned.
"Loki" she said, trying to keep her tone low in case more enemies were around. He stared at her, his skin almost grey and his eyes lost, like a madman. "Loki, I need you to try to walk. I need you to help me, dear. We're going somewhere safe." She stared into his eyes, talking like one could talk to a scared child.
After a minute or so she kept agonizingly trudging out of the lake, he actually moved his feet along.
She knew where she had to go in case everything went out of control. Loki had had the same thought when he directed the boat to this coast.
There was a cave nearby that -of course- Loki had discovered.
Anyways, just to be sure, she whispered Heimdall's name. Nothing happened.
"I can't feel my legs..." Loki whispered in her ear and she shivered when his cold breath caused goosebumps in her skin.
"You're going to be fine, dear. I promise."
Fifteen minutes later, she reached the cave and entered it. It was dark and it smelled like a cave: humidity and earth. It was cold too.
Loki was trembling in her arms and when she tried to let him go, he swayed on the spot.
"Easy, Loki. You're gonna be fine." She murmured.
Darcy sat him against the nearest wall and proceeded to rummage inside her bag. When she finally found her fluorescent tube, she sighed and turned it on.
She couldn't make a fire because the smoke would intoxicate them, but fortunately she and Loki had left some things there in a previous mission.
The adrenaline was wearing off from her system. She shivered.
Darcy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Loki. She had to see his wound and heal it. He was once more staring blankly at the roof. His hair was damp and he was so very pale at the dim light…
When she raised the tube to see him better, he winced and closed his eyes.
"No,please, please. Thor, THOR!" He yelled, startling Darcy and trying to keep her hand away. "THOR! WHERE ARE YOU? HELP!"
For the first time since she had met him...he was crying. A stream of tears ran down his cheek.
"Loki, listen to me. You're being poisoned." She tried.
He wanted to yell one more time, to call for his brother, but his lips were numb and he could only whisper nonsense.
Her heart clenched at the sight of Loki reliving his most terrible moments. The poison was made for that.
Unable to stop the sympathy in her, she gently raised her hand again and caressed his face.
"Loki, dear...I'm sorry, but I have to take that arrow out. It will hurt a bit, but then it will be fine."
Darcy raised and took her first aid kit out of her bag. She thought longingly about Loki's first aid kit, left in the boat and much more useful than hers. Her kit for humans would have to do.
But first, she had to take part of his armour off.
Darcy examined his clothes carefully. The arrow was stuck between the shoulder plate and the chest plate.
How the hell was she supposed to know how to free him from that armour? And who the hell had that aim?
"Fuck me sideways, man." She muttered, and suddenly an idea hit her. The shoulder plate was part of his long leather coat. Leather was easier to cut.
Darcy took a knife from her bag - seriously, every time she packed she felt a little more like Mary Poppins- and sliced it rather easily from below the rib until his armpit. She then did the same to the other side.
Okay. Darcy started to move the coat up the arrow to take it off. Damn Vanir, they really had a hell of an aim.
After she managed to pull out the coat, she took the chestplate and slid it up, barely grazing his chin. Underneath the chestplate there was a green, thick shit. She could cut it with a pair of scissors, but unfortunately the ones she had were for stitches on the skin. Instead, she chose to cut the leather that covered his belly. It was a rather difficult job, since the leather was harder on that part, made to protect him from punches and kicks. After ten minutes or so, she had done it. Finally, he was only in his shirt and leather pants.
"I'm sorry, dear, but this is going to hurt." She said. Loki was completely paralyzed and unresponsive, his eyes closed tightly and heaving like a wounded animal.
Darcy examined the wound. It kept dripping a dark red mix of blood and poison. Darcy could smell it in the air.
She knew the artery was not compromised but she would not risk the arrow stuck there for an entire night before she could get professional help. It was poisoned after all.
Darcy had seen how to remove a sharp object stuck in a body. In videos. In plastic buddies. In movies. Never in real life. Either way, only one sentence had stayed in her mind: "Don't prolong the pain."
That meant she would have to be kinda brutal.
Darcy inhaled as much as she could, took the arrow between her fingers, closed her eyes and pulled it out in one sudden, firm tug.
She blinked, staring at the arrow in her hands.
It was a black, simple arrow, with a metal point that kept oozing the horrible, sticky substance. She threw it far away and took the alcohol, hoping it would help with the possible infection.
"Get out of my mind...out..out...out" Loki started repeating, startling her. But Darcy couldn't do anything about it.
She cleaned the wound as best as she could, until the bleeding almost stopped. She left him there and went to the other side of the cave, where she took off her wet clothes and put on the Asgardian most simple, old but warm enough for her needs.
Darcy thanked the gods for all the stuff they had left in the cave when they found it and hid it from view. Clothes, food, water, an Asgardian portable heater, two plates, spoon and forks.
"We're an intelligent team." She muttered while heating some canned soup. She drank water before going to check his teammate state.
"Loki." She called softly, putting a hand on his cheek.
He opened his eyes and stared at her one more time. His gaze was lost. She realized he couldn't place her.
Darcy had never wanted to acknowledge how intense his stare was, how powerful he was. It was scary. But now, watching his face in front of her, feeling the hardness of his cheekbone under soft skin and cold flesh, she realized he was also beautiful. Beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
"Hela?" He said, his voice hoarse but hopeful.
The poison had made him believe he was dead. Her heart sank.
That's why she pulled her old, typical Darcy Lewis trademark trick:
"Wait, so are you implying my face is half-rotten flesh? Because that's so not how you are supposed to talk with a lady!" She feigned a scandalized expression. "I'm Darcy Lewis, silly. I've been working with you for the past year."
He frowned in confusion, still not recognizing her.
"You are beautiful."· He said.
His words surprised her. She didn't remember him ever noticing her physical aspect. They had always been a team, kinda friends. But that night she had realized he was beautiful and apparently he had, too.
It had to be the poison.
"Well, so I've been told. Now, you're a little ill. You must eat and drink something. And then you must sleep."
Darcy brought the warm soup and the water, all too aware of his piercing stare following her every move.
She sat besides him and commanded:
"Eat."
His hands trembled but couldn't raise to grab the spoon she held in front of his face.
"What's wrong with me?" He asked, suddenly fearful. You said I'm only ill."
Darcy pursed her lips. She couldn't manage a freaked out Loki right now.
"You're...wounded."
"You're lying." He affirmed, his voice much colder and harsher than seconds ago. "Don't lie to me!"
His breathing was superficial again and his whole body was shaking in anger, but unable to move.
"I'm sorry! Dude, you've been poisoned. Don't be scared. It will pass, I promise. I'll feed you now, but don't get used to it."
She spoke quickly while he analyzed her words, trying to find the lie in them.
"Fine."
Darcy sighed and started her new task, giving him some water between spoonfuls of hot, creamy soup.
"Now we go to sleep." She explained once he finished. "Can you stand up?" Yeah, a long shot but she had to ask.
He tried and his legs trembled.
"I don't think I can do that on my own, no."
He seemed a bit more on this side of the galaxy, at least.
"Come on, I got you." She slid her arm under his good side, grabbed him firmly and pulled him up.
It was a long, painful process in which Darcy asked herself what the fucking hell was with the Vanir and their poison that had made Loki, the most self-sufficient guy in the Universe, a scared baby. By the time they reached the sleeping bag, both were panting.
"You're fucking heavy. I swear to my life that I will never, ever carry you like this again." She said, and both fell to their knees.
"My clothes are wet." He complained. Now that was the Loki she knew.
"I'll help you take it off. You've dampened mines too, I forgot. Sorry."
Once he was ready, he seemed to lose his grip on reality again. His lean torso was tense, his muscles trembled in failed attempts to move them. It was kinda pathetic seeing him like that. She knew they were just hallucinations, but he looked like a scared, vulnerable child having nightmares.
Darcy also knew his nightmares were beyond comparison.
"Loki." She called, unable to resist that look. He shifted his gaze and fixed it on her face. Sudden relief softened his features.
"Darcy." He pronounced, his lips moving over her name with a kindness she had never heard coming from him. He was laying down and she was kneeling besides him, holding in her lap his ruined shirt.
"Sleep. You'll feel better in the morning." She promised, covering him with the sleeping bag. She went near the entrance of the cave and smoothed his shirt on the floor. Minutes later, his breathing was deep and rhythmical.
Darcy couldn't sleep. Now that she had nothing to do but wait and watch, her mind was trying to wrap around the fact that she had killed people.
"It was them or us. It's called self-defense." She whispered for herself.
It had happened before, a few times. Those Vanir were not the first ones she had killed and she was sure they wouldn't be the last. But she couldn't get over the fact that those were living, thinking beings, and that she had terminated their lives like she had the right to do so.
Darcy realized her hands were trembling and her breathing was far too quick. A well known anguish made her heart race. She had become a murderer. The sounds around her suddenly became too loud for her ears: her heart, the echo of Loki's breathing, her own lungs filling and emptying rapidly. Everything felt surreal, even the cold light of the fluorescent tube. Even her own arms, bracing her knees.
She felt how the oxygen in the room started to scarce. Maybe she was about to die there, in that hidden cave, away from her friends. She closed her eyes and saw the image of Kamilios trying to breathe while he choked and spit his own blood. The way he had tried to take off the arrow with jerky fingers. The way his lifeless body sounded when he fell to the floor, low and heavy against the leaves of the forest.
The soothing voice of Eir came to her mind. Breathing. That was the key.
Darcy breathed deeply through her nose, forcing her heart to slow down its frantic beating against her chest. The world still seemed blurry around the edges, but at least that oppressive feeling was lifted off her chest. She realized her hands were clenched in fists and wriggled her fingers to relax them. There was enough oxygen. They were safe. She was safe. She had saved Loki. Heimdall would see them, as soon as they reached the safe clearing in the forest. Loki would be better by the next day.
Darcy felt tears prickling her eyes and after checking that Loki was still sleeping, she allowed them to run down her cheeks.
That was a long night, one in which Darcy missed her own hidden, little house in New York. It had a little yard, one that was abandoned when she bought the house. She had planted flowers there, inside old, hand-painted pots. She kept her "medicinal herbs" there, ready for when she wanted a moment of peace on her own.
The panic rose and lowered in her chest the entire night, but she continued breathing and trying to think of her flowers, her books and the funny moments with her friends.
Eventually, her phone started ringing to "I'm feeling good" and Darcy stretched her sore muscles and turned the alarm off, heading outside to relieve herself before Loki woke up.
She packed everything as fast as she could, knowing they would face Odin's rage as soon as they stepped into Asgard. It was going to be a problem, she knew it.
Loki seemed to be actually resting. Too bad she was going to wake him up. She kneeled beside him and saw that the wound was completely healed, leaving a thin, silvery scar behind. He looked so relaxed…
"Dude. Wake up. Heimdall is going to kill us." She shook his shoulder gently.
His eyes snapped open and he gripped her wrist. He looked like a wild animal, ready to fight and kill. So much for the relaxed look.
Loki saw her and he let go of her hand as if it was on fire.
"What happened?"
Then he saw he was half-naked and raised a suspicious eyebrow at her. Darcy tried - in vain- not to facepalm.
"Last night you said your shirt was wet. I helped you. If you don't remember anything, it's a long story and definitely not one for now. Do you remember anything?"
"...Flashes. Only flashes. I got hit by…" he paled. " A poisoned arrow! Norns, my head is killing me…"
"We all know your head is fucked up, Loki. Now, move those legs of yours, we need to go now if we want to survive." She hurried him.
Loki stood up, the action taking its toll when he swayed a little. Darcy was heading out of the cave when he realized.
"WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO MY ARMOUR?" He yelled, staring horrified at it.
"Um...desperate circumstances call for desperate measures?" She offered weakly."Okay, you had an arrow piercing your shoulder, and I had to take it off."
"By tearing my armour into rags?" He picked up the pieces and stared at them.
"It's not like I knew any other way to free you from it. I'm not very familiar with alien leather." She said, crossing her arms defensively.
Darcy was so not in the mood to argue. She needed a bath, a movie and lots of linnen tea. Possibly two days of good rest as well.
"You could have just untied it! The ties are right here!" He shook some black strips in her direction.
Okay, that was it. Darcy felt something snap inside her and walked to him furious. She took the rests of the armour from him and screamed to his face.
"I DIDN'T KNOW, UNDERSTAND? DO YOU THINK I HAVE EXPERIENCE IN THIS STUPID ASS MEDIEVAL ARMOUR?" He took a few steps back. She looked like a Valkyrie! "I DON'T! YOU WERE TRIPPING BALLS, I HAD JUST KILLED A BUNCH OF VANIR AND I NEEDED TO TAKE THAT ARROW OFF BEFORE TODAY SO YOU COULD USE YOUR GODDAMN LEGS FOR US TO GET OUT OF HERE!" She cut the screaming when she realized her temper was winning the best of her. She had inadvertently confessed she had trouble killing people to someone who didn't and was probably going to tease her about it for the rest of her life.
Loki shifted the weight of his legs, obviously realizing how childish his tantrum was.
He was still half naked, but in that moment he put the shirt on, wincing when his arms trembled a bit.
"Come on. We're on bigger trouble than this." Darcy said coldly.
They headed the safe clearing in no time and both rolled their eyes when they saw the Bifröst coming at them before they said a word to Heimdall.
They were only given half an hour to change and clean themselves before the epic berating started.
"TRYING TO FACE THIRTY ENEMIES ON YOUR OWN! HIDING YOURSELVES FROM HEIMDALL'S SIGHT SHORTLY AFTERWARDS! DISAPPEARING FOR FIFTEEN HOURS!" Yelled Odin, quite loudly for a guy his age.
Loki was completely serious - welcomed change for everyone, since he always had an annoying smirk in the presence of his not-father -, staring at some point between Odin and Thor, who wasn't too happy himself.
"If I may…" tried Darcy, but Odin was not quite finished.
"YOU MAY NOT, MORTAL! YOU AND LOKI DISOBEYED AN EXPRESS ORDER! WE WERE ABOUT SENDING THOR!"
Darcy recognized the feeling growing inside of her. She was sick of Asgardians calling her "mortal", as if having a long lifespan was a guarantee of wisdom, goodness and integrity. Ask Thanos about it.
Suddenly, a voice raised above the others.
"Miss Darcy Lewis saved my life." Affirmed Loki.
All the murmurs that could be heard in the room sopped. The presents (Jane, Thor, Odin, Sif and The Warriors Three) bounced their eyes between Darcy and Loki with expressions going from "this little shit is lying again" to "what the fuck is going on here".
"Say what?" Croaked Jane, always the first one to ask questions. She was unable to believe what Loki had nonchalantly stated a moment ago.
Loki smirked his signature smirk: mischievous, a little crazy and definitely mocking.
"I said that Miss Lewis saved my life."
"How so?" Thor stared at his brother intently, trying to find the truth in Loki's green eyes.
"We were invited to a dance, and we agreed to go because we wanted a last chance to convince Kamilios and the other Elders to join our side. Right in the middle of it, our enemies, a Vanir community from the North, shot Kamilios and killed him." Several gasps could be heard in the room, but Loki continued. "We managed to escape, but a Netvora followed us. We had to hide from it and so I did, with a spell. We ran to the lake because the Netvora had already sensed us. Unfortunately, when we thought we were safe, more enemies appeared and recognized us. I was shot with a poisoned arrow and Miss Lewis defended me, guided our boat to the safe cave and….took off the arrow before half of the poison could damage me."
Everyone looked like they had been hit by a lightning, including Darcy. Lastly, Odin cleared his throat and spoke.
"Is this true, miss Lewis?"
"Yes?" Darcy rushed to explain. "I mean, I definitely took out an arrow of his shoulder. A poisoned one."
"Then, Loki, you promise over Gugnir that you're speaking the truth?"
Odin raised from the throne and stepped forward, placing Gugnir in front of him with a solemn gesture.
Loki's face was a carefully controlled, inexpressive mask. He walked to the throne, climbed the stairs and put two fingers on the spear.
"I swear that Miss Lewis saved my life, that we were being attacked and that I hid us with a spell. I am not lying." He said, his voice very similar to a growl.
After all the hard work, after the confession...Loki swallowed his rage and kept a little smirk playing on his lips. Lewis did not know about the arrow, about its actual danger. It was very simple: he hand't told her about it. He had thought that there was no way the Vanir could damage him in any way. He thought that if she was hurt, he was better than any healer. She didn't need to know. She didn't need to know how easily Vanir poison could kill him. He wasn't sure she wouldn't try to make amends for the damage he had done to Midgard years ago. He could have been dead by the morning if she had thought that taking it off was not her work, that a healer could do it better… she didn't panick, she took it out with little medical knowledge, and she had saved his life.
And he had a question, just waiting to escape from his lips. One he tried not to pay any attention to. What would have she done if she had knew the arrow was deadly and he was defenseless? Would she had saved him?
He certainly had killed lots of humans.
The question was already stinging like a thorn in his mind. He barely noticed how Odin dismissed both of them and the guards guiding them towards the exit.
He was so deeply focused in his own mind that he didn't notice either the hand flying towards his face until it slapped him.
He blinked. What?
Miss Lewis was furious. Her cheeks were red, her eyebrows were knitted together and her lips had a sneer of rage on them.
Beautiful.
The word sounded strangely familiar to him and he wondered why. He certainly had not seen her as anything but an allie.
"What was that for?" He asked, casting aside the thoughts.
"Why didn't you tell me before about how dangerous the arrow was?" She hissed through gritted teeth, eyeing the guards to make sure they couldn't hear.
Oh, that was the answer to his question, then. He would have to put only a little pressure to draw the words out of her, that was it.
"Does it pain you to have come so, so close without knowing you could eliminate a threat?" Loki raised an eyebrow and intertwined his fingers behind his back.
Darcy's face was all confusion, until realization hit.
"Eliminate a threat?" She asked and gestured towards the front garden. "We can't talk here."
They walked until there were no guards on sight. She turned around to face him.
"Explain what do you mean by 'eliminate a threat'". She demanded.
"It is actually very simple. I am a threat. I have killed many Midgardians. You could have let me die last night, if I had told you that the arrows were deadly."
Darcy rolled her eyes, but when she spoke her voice was serious.
"Yes. You have killed lots of humans. You tried to enslave my planet. You commited treason to your own people. You have done lots of terrible things. Nothing is going to erase that. But who hasn't? I mean, now I've killed people, and I'm not a superhero or anything. But think about it. Before the war, before Thanos...Tony used to sell weapons of mass destruction. I can assure you he's responsible for a lot of deaths and diseases. I know this because I hated the guy, before he was kidnapped and started the superhero thing. Natasha was an assassin and she killed without asking. The Hulk levelled a couple cities. If you've heard about Ultron, yeah, Tony and Bruce's idea. Sokovia was their responsibility. Wanda, the Black Panther… the Civil War, Jesus! You know what's the difference? Now they try to do good things. Thanos is worse than anything we have ever faced before as a Galaxy. We had to leave our differences aside to fight this bigger evil. And you confessed, saved Jane, helped saving the Universe from the Dark Elves...and no, a few good actions do not erase the terrible ones. But at least, you are trying. Give yourself that before thinking everyone is going to try to kill you at the first opportunity."
"I saved Thor's mortal only because Frigga died for her."
"So what? Who cares about why you save someone? You could've just let the Kurse kill her and free the Aether when you went to the Dark World. Make a deal with those elves. After all, you were going back to prison. Of course you didn't go back to prison, you tried to take over Asgard and then, when Odin caught you, you confessed. So you finally went back to 'domiciliary prison'. And a while later, when Thanos finally appeared, you actually worked with me. You keep working with me. You have made pretty good things this past year. The way I see it, you have two choices now: either you spend the rest of your long life being a bitter ass, or you grow up, learn to live with your actions and start again." Loki was speechless. "This is not new for you, I'm sure Eir has told you something similar before… with a little more professionalism. So to answer your question no, I wasn't asking about the arrow because I lost the chance to eliminate you. If you had told me this before, the real power of the poison, I would've been faster to take it out. I dragged your butt all the way to the cave because I thought you were tripping balls, not actually dying in front of my eyes."
Loki was speechless. He had been sure she wouldn't save his life if she could let him die. He had promised himself not to be vulnerable in front of her in any mission. Instead, she had scolded him like one does to a child. She had talked a lot about his past actions as if they were not a taboo but something to have a dialogue about. He had to say something!
"I-I...thank you, miss Lewis." He stuttered.
"You're welcome, I guess." Darcy felt a little awkward by that speech. She had taken the first chance she saw to say a few things she had been thinking a lot the past year.
They stood like that for a moment. avoiding each other's eyes. With a sense of adrenaline, she raised her hand at him.
"Friends?" Darcy offered cautiously, knowing she could be easily rejected and trying not to care so much if that happened.
Loki was, once again, speechless. He realized that so far she was the only one who could do that. Leave him mute. Or stammer while talking.
It was new and terrifying. She was offering him friendship. That meant vulnerability. For a second, he thought about turning around and leaving her. But suddenly something that Eir had said in one of their long conversations came to his mind: "Only the stupid ones think they don't need friends. A friend is not something you have to earn, Loki, through deceit and lies, by showing them your best side and hiding your failures. A friend is someone who knows every little fault, everything you did wrong and yet, they choose to stay by your side."
She was doing that same thing. To him. How?
"I don't know how to be friends with someone." He admitted trying to remove from his words any kind of sentiment.
They shook hands and Darcy, Miss Lewis, smiled.
"It's not that hard. You start by exchanging books. That is very, very important. You'll see soon enough."
Loki narrowed his eyes and smiled briefly. It was a new kind of smile. One that did not have so much darkness and self loath inside it.
"I have my personal library at your disposition, Miss Lewis, though you may find too many boring books about magic in it."
She grinned almost maniacally, and raised her eyebrows.
"Silverpants, you don't know how long I've been dreaming to hear those words coming out of your mouth. I will manage, don't worry. I'll bring you some of my books next time. Now, I have to go if I don't want Heimdall scolding me for not arriving on time. See you!"
She winked, turned around and started running to the Bifröst.
"Farewell." He nodded once at her and tried to crush the little, warm flame of hope that ignited inside his chest.
Maybe Eir was right. Even when she was a mortal, even after all his crimes, she wanted to be his friend. He would try not to ruin everything this time.