CHAPTER 13

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Darcy glanced frantically at the dark clock on her bedside table. 4:30am. Was anyone even awake at this time on base?

Heart racing and starting to panic, she flipped on the light. Maybe she'd imagined the mark with her mind so fresh from the nightmare. The pain felt real. The dim light of the small lamp lit up the room.

She sucked in a sharp breath when she examined her arm. Along her right forearm the skin was red and raw in a long, thin line. It was a minor injury, a couple layers of skin burned away, and it stung when she touched it, but it wasn't bleeding or seeping. She'd had worse.

But never completely out of the blue after a horrible nightmare.

Maybe it hadn't just been a nightmare.

She reached out and grabbed her new cell phone and pulled up Jane's number, finger on the dial button before she stopped herself. Jane would be sleeping. Besides, how was she going to explain this? Did it even make any sense?

She tried to force her mind to come up with some form of explanation but it only gave her a headache as she twisted her brain up in knots. Any reality check came up blank when she remembered where she was and what she did for a living.

There were superheroes crawling all over this base. Men and women with powers beyond the imagination, with magic, super strength, the ability to fly… and thanks to the New York incident, she knew there was far more than she'd ever contemplated out in the universe, undiscovered.

Whatever invisible force had been in her dreams had somehow burned her; she was sure of it. And maybe since Loki had been there, he would know what it was. Or at least know if such a thing was possible. At this point, she couldn't think of any other way to explain it.

Decided, she climbed out of bed, pulling on slippers and slipping her phone into her pajama shorts pocket. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she trekked down to his prison.

It was eerie at this hour. All the corridors were dimly lit, some completely dark. She didn't meet a soul as she crossed through the hallways. When she opened the door to the familiar balcony, the lights were dark. Unable to think past her nightmare, she stepped down the concrete walkway to the edge of the balcony. As she moved, lights overhead flickered on one by one.

In his cage, Loki was sitting hunched over with his head in his hands. When the lights flickered on, he had that same terrified look she'd seen in her nightmare.

"Loki." His expression turned neutral and he remained silent. She brushed a messy strand of hair away from her face, knowing what she must look like, disheveled and half-asleep. A total mess. "I can't sleep."

"So you came here?"

She knew it would sound crazy, but she had to try to explain. If only she knew where to start.

"I can't sleep because of you."

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His heart skipped a step, no doubt from her words mixed with the adrenaline currently rushing through his system. After another harrowing nightmare, he'd been jolted from sleep, protesting as his vision of Darcy had been torn away…. Thanos was getting better with his torment. Closer.

Somehow, foolishly, desperately, he wanted her words to be the frivolous exaggerations of a crush—one he wasn't sure he'd be so quick to ignore—but his instincts knew better.

She shifted awkwardly, being very careful with her right arm before she afforded him with her familiar eye roll. He'd noticed she tended to do it when she felt embarrassed, as though chastising herself. She bit her lip nervously. "That didn't come out right."

She brushed another wayward strand of hair away from her face. Her cheeks were flush from sleep, she looked out of breath, and the skimpy shirt and shorts she wore did very little to hide her curves. He fought to drown out his awareness of her with memories from the dream that had left him raw. Having her so close after she'd been with him in his nightmare, alongside him and trying to save him, was doing things to his mind. Drawing out emotions he didn't recognize.

The sense of awareness he'd had of her in his dream was somehow still there between them as he looked up at her. When she licked her lips, he couldn't take his eyes away. His sleep-addled brain thought it was attracted to her. Ridiculous.

"This is going to sound crazy but… is there such a thing as dream magic?"

"Dream magic?"

"Yea like… like someone doing something in a dream that also ends up being real, in the real world."

"What do you mean?" A heavy, foreboding feeling was creeping up on him bit by bit, growing stronger with her words. Inexplicably tender feelings mingled with a chilling cold that was flowing through his veins.

Something about his last nightmare had felt different.

Could she possibly know?

Was she in danger as well as him? And why did the thought of that cause a slight twist in his gut?

"You're going to mock me."

His voice was more serious than it had ever been before. "I will not mock you."

Her expression was skeptical but she continued. "Alright. Tonight, when I was sleeping, I dreamed that…" She sighed heavily. "Ugh this is going to sound so stupid. I can't even say it out loud."

"Then show me."

"Show you?"

He tried to appear supportive as she looked down at him. As her dark eyes locked with his, he was assaulted with a deep sense of connection. Just as he'd felt in his nightmares. It unsettled him.

Lifting her right arm up, she held her forearm towards him, supporting it with her left arm and motioning to it. He saw a long, thin burn that appeared fresh. The sense of foreboding grew to a blaring alarm in his head.

"Okay. I dreamed I was with you and you were chained and I tried to free you, except I couldn't, and next thing I know I'm tossed aside and my arm is burning and then I wake up with this."

Her words were fast, tumbling out as though she was trying to get as far away from them as possible. He could not blame her.

The truth settled like acid in his empty stomach. Thanos had found him. Hadn't he? He did not know what it meant, but it was a dark omen, he was sure of it.

"So?" Darcy prompted when he didn't respond.

It took him a moment to realize he'd withdrawn into himself. She'd just confessed she'd shared his dream, and been physically harmed by it.

She'd shared his nightmare of Thanos.

His hands gripped the glass roughly in an effort to remain standing. He was so ashamed of the fear coursing through him, but he could not stem the flow.

"Loki? What does it mean? Are you okay? Is something like that even possible?"

He had no doubt his face reflected the horror he felt. Thanos had been able to reach her, through his dreams. He was everywhere. Loki was as good as dead.

"You have to leave."

"What? Leave? I'm not leaving until I get an answer. What is this?"

"A coincidence! Nothing. It is irrelevant. You need to go."

"It's not nothing!"

"Then you are mistaken! It is not from your dream. That's impossible. You must have done it by accident, some other way."

"How? I don't have anything that can burn me like this in my bedroom! Explain that to me!"

"No! GO!"

"Not until you explain!"

She crossed her arm with the burn still visible on the outside. Her face showed anger, the stubbornness he'd come to recognize, and tenacity. But underneath all of those was an emotion he'd never seen on her face before, and it was all the more starkly revealed because of it: fear.

She'd been standoffish with him in the past, angry, frustrated, and cautious. Wary, at times, but never truly afraid. He did not expect her fear to bother him, but somehow seeing it in her eyes sent his own fear ratcheting up a notch.

His pulse was racing.

She was an open book to him, and what he saw there brought home the thoughts he'd refused to let himself contemplate until now. She sensed something was wrong, but didn't know what it was.

He knew.

"I just want to understand."

The plea in her voice was hard to resist, but he didn't even dare voice the words aloud. Simply acknowledging Thanos would give him too much power.

He was a coward. The truth sunk into his bones like lead.

"You can't."

At that, her shoulders jerked back at the challenge. Before she could deliver the angry retort he knew was coming, he continued. "You can't know. You have to leave it. Trust me. You are in danger."

Darcy let out a sarcastic snort as she gestured to her arm. "No kidding. You think?"

"Darcy. The more you know about this, the more I tell you, the more at risk you will be. It is better if you remain as you are."

She nibbled her lower lip again as her thoughts turned inwards. She was maddening, in more ways than one. "So you admit you know what I'm talking about."

He kept himself carefully still, fighting to keep his face as expressionless as possible. She was clever enough to pick up on the tiniest thing if he was not careful. He remained quiet as she studied him.

"My dream wasn't really a dream, was it? I mean, somehow, you were there. You were actually there."

He knew if he denied it she would see through the lie. She was too perceptive for her own good, and he was too drained to completely conceal his emotions. So he tried a different tack.

"You need to put it far out of your mind. Think of something else, anything else. Take your mind off it whatever way possible."

"Easier said than done." She leaned against the railing, a lock of hair falling forward over her shoulder. The burn looked so wrong on her pale, smooth skin.

"Darcy, you will not get any answers from me. You need to go."

Her eyes narrowed as she withdrew inwards. The frustration, alarm, and upset emanating from her were so strong he felt them in his bones like tiny pinpricks of awareness. Never before had her emotions been so overwhelming.

He'd given in to Thanos once, and he regretted it more than anything in his life. He could not afford to risk anything more being revealed to him.

"If you have that dream again, try to clear your mind. Do not think of people you know, names, places. Wipe it all away. You have to try to wake up, to escape and to not reveal anything or anyone that you know."

Her look was speculative as she studied him. "He was torturing you." Her tone was carefully blank, as though testing the waters to see his reaction. "Trying to get that information. Trying to find you?"

He glared at her in warning. She took a step back, but not because of him. She moved as though preparing to leave.

"Does Thor know anything about this? That torture is real, isn't it? It's why you don't care what Fury does to you. Nothing could be as bad as that."

The words felt like a blow. She saw to the very heart of him, saw the very thing he'd never wanted anyone to know. Why had she been pulled into his nightmare? It had been bad enough alone but with her watching, seeing him so weak…..it was beyond torture. Not to mention it made her another possible target. He was almost grateful when the rage inside of him began to burn almost as hotly as the terror. It gave him something solid to cling to as he sorted through his thoughts.

"You cannot go to Fury. Or Thor. Mention this to no one."

"Loki. I'm not just going to stand by when things like this keep happening. When it's becoming so real, it does this." She motioned to her arm once more.

Night after night, endlessly, he'd been torn apart, both mentally and physically, by Thanos in his nightmares. But he'd always woken without a scratch. Why, now, had a mark appeared on her?

"There's no way you can convince me that this is nothing."

"Fury cannot help you. None of them can help you."

"Why? And if they really can't, then why won't you? Don't you want to get out of this?"

"What I want does not matter."

"Why do you always talk like that?"

"Because it's the truth!"

She'd made him raise his voice, the words rasping through a throat nearly choked with anger. His voice was so loud, and so rough, it echoed in the room.

He'd chastised her and argued before, even been cruel to her, tossing painful words in her face to frighten her away. None of it had worked. This time, he'd made her flinch.

Good. He needed her afraid. Needed her to see the reality of their situation.

Abruptly, he missed her first visits, so simple he'd only worried about how long he could get her to stay and talk to him. Now he needed her to leave, though a small part of him wanted her to stay, and every moment longer he felt more and more worn down.

Drained and lifeless.

"You've already given up on yourself. Maybe if you opened up, we could help you. You could get out of this situation."

"Do you not think I have already tried? Already explored every avenue, every single possibility? There is nothing. The situation is hopeless."

She looked at him oddly, as though she hadn't expected those words. Better she see how pathetic he was and leave him be. The further away she was from him, the safer she would be.

Since when did he even care about her safety at all?

"You haven't tried everything."

"Oh?"

"You haven't tried working with me."

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This was crazy. He'd basically admitted that yes, her frightening dreams were in fact something to be very seriouslyworried about. Yet when he seemed so defeated, everything in her rebelled. It looked so wrong to see him like that, just as it had looked so unnatural and wrong to see him in chains.

So maybe her rebellious side was getting the better of her again. If there was something out there even someone like Loki was wary of, there was no way in hell she'd be able to stand up against them. She was nothing but an assistant, for crying out loud. Not even that great at filing paperwork.

Fury had lost faith in her, leaving her behind when Jane was out on assignment. And maybe that was part of the reason she wanted so badly to help, to be useful.

Her self-defense skills were less than stellar, as Lars could attest. Yet that hadn't stopped her from confronting the punk that had stolen her phone. All the power behind Fury hadn't stopped her standing up to him on the few occasions she'd dared to.

She did not want to wake up again with another burn, heart pounding so violently in her chest she could scarcely keep it contained. She could not sit and wait or try to ignore it. Something had to be done.

The question was what.

"Explain it to me, and maybe I can help you."

"How? You have no magic, no special skills. You are human."

His words stung even though they were absolutely true. They threw fuel onto the fire inside of her, making her desperate to take action.

"If you won't help, I'll go to Fury. Or Thor. I'm not sitting around doing nothing and pretending to ignore this. Maybe I can't fight this. Maybe I am useless. But I never give up. Ever."

It was one of her best qualities, as well as her worst fault.

He looked furious and frustrated with her, a look she knew well having seen it in so many people time and time again throughout her life. She'd learned to ignore it.

"Don't. Wait."

And it seemed he'd finally taken in how stubborn she was. "Wait. I will help you. I can teach you what I know. But we will have to be careful. This will put everything at risk. You will be in more danger than you've ever been before."

"I will be careful."

"You will have to be a lot more than that. What I ask you to do, you will have to do, and you will have to trust me."

"I will try."

He seemed to accept that answer, turning away and rubbing his brow. He looked more tired than she felt. They both needed rest.

"Can we wait until morning?"

His eyes tightened as he seemed to struggle with an ache in his brow. "Yes. Do as I said, clear your mind when you sleep, and try not to think of anything."

"Okay." She took a deep breath. The thought of going back to sleep unnerved her, but she had to try. If she was going to take a stand at all, she had to get started by getting enough rest. "We'll start in the morning."

He nodded and she left him before he could say anything more.

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The enormity of what he'd shared and promised hit him like a maelstrom as he let out a heavy gasp.

Was he really going to do this? Did he have any other choice?

The cause was hopeless from the start, and she would only end up another victim. But her determination and her hope were so infectious; they made him want to do something. Even if it was his last stand. She had no powers or abilities, but something about her ridiculous stubbornness made him not want to give up.

If this was his end either way, he could at least go down with a fight.

His next thoughts were cut short by the sound of her familiar footsteps, dragging something along the concrete floor. When Darcy came into view again, she had a pillow under one arm, while the other dragged a thick blanket behind her.

"I don't know what will happen this time, but just in case."

He was at a loss for words. She didn't seem to mind, ignoring him as she wrapped herself in the blanket and tucked it underneath her as padding against the cold floor. She tucked the pillow under her head and lay facing him, though he could hardly see her at that angle when she was so far above him.

They stayed silent for so long and she lay so still that the lights flickered off and left them in darkness, with nothing but the glowing red lights from the monitors and cameras around them breaking up the darkness.

He sat on the floor, relaxing against the padding that surrounded him, though his thoughts were tense. He thought she might have fallen asleep when her whisper broke the silence.

"Thank you Loki. Goodnight."

She said nothing more as she drifted into sleep, but he remained awake staring across at the dark lump that was Darcy, up on the balcony above him.

Something was different. The fact that she was in his nightmare, the fact that she'd been harmed… the fact that she'd come to him for help—nothing was as he'd expected. It threw off his sense of balance, as though one day, he'd woken up to find that the sky had decided to be below his feet and the Earth was hanging threateningly above him. A strange, confused nausea clung to him as he thought about his situation. He did not know what to make of any of it, or of the tumultuous emotions battling inside of him.

But somehow, because of this, he knew: everything was about to change. He only hoped it would be for the better. He did not see how any of them could survive otherwise.