All right guys, this is going to be a loooong chapter! At least I think it is…
Well, anyways I tried baking bread the other day, and it turned out to be the foulest thing I have tasted in my entire life. That taught me never to bake bread, ever.
Soooo, lets get on with the chapter!
Oh and by the way, there had been a time lapse in this chapter as well and it is now night-time.
Aaannd, Tony is having a dream…
Tony's POV
I was in the middle of a dark room.
It was so dark; I couldn't see anything at all. Not even my own hands when I held them out in front of my face.
I didn't like it dark.
Ever since Afghanistan happened, I hated the dark. Whenever I slept, my arc reactor would always glow so I was never really in total darkness. Though, now it was different. I couldn't even see the light from my arc reactor. It was as if the darkness was swallowing up any source of light.
Ironically, just as I though that, a flash of light appeared in the middle of the dark room. I sighed in relief as it appeared. It was almost like a flashlight. I was about to go toward it, when it got brighter until I could see the form of a person sitting on a stool.
I looked closer and soon realized that it didn't look very human. It looked almost like a skeleton. I couldn't see the form properly enough to be sure because it was still too dark. The flashlight making the menacing shadows around the room made it all the worse.
I inched closer toward the skeleton on the stool. I took a step forward, but was suddenly stopped. I tried to take another stop, but that failed too. It was as if there was an invisible border blocking me from going any closer. I held my hands out in front of me and tried to push through, but it didn't work. I let out a sigh in frustration. I hated the feeling of being trapped.
I didn't want to accept that so I did what I do best. I talked to the thing on the stool.
"Hey! You there! Creepy mummy on the stool! Who are you?"
The head of the mummy slowly turned to look at me. Its eyes were hollowed and rotting, just like the rest of its body. Its mouth was held tight in a permanent, gruesome grin. I took a step back in surprise, thinking that that was the creepiest thing I've seen in my entire life. And honestly, that's saying something.
The mummy's eyes felt like they were drilling holes through my skull with its stare. I wanted to look away so bad, but I just couldn't. It felt like I had no choice but to hold its stare.
After what felt like an eternity, a white smoke started to build up all around the skeleton. It got so thick that I was totally engulfed with the smoke a few moments later. I couldn't see the skeleton any more. It fact it had gotten so foggy that I couldn't even see my own feet. I didn't know what to do.
I turned around in a full circle, at a complete loss. I hate to admit it, but I was kind of freaking out. I had no clue where I was and I couldn't see anything 5 feet in front of me.
Suddenly, as I was just about to give up completely, a raspy metallic voice came from in the mist.
"You will meet the Half Bloods in the green forest. There will you only have the chance to survive, or else all will be lost."
The raspy voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. I felt like I was being swallowed by the words. The voice kept repeating the words over and over again. I held my hands over my ears, trying to make the voices stop.
"Stop…please…" I begged as I sank to my knees with my hands still covering my ears, waiting for the voices to stop.
After a really long time, the voices finally stopped and the fog finally cleared. I slowly got up, worried that any sudden movement would make the voices start up again. Thankfully, they didn't.
I looked around and realized that the skeleton was gone. I didn't see any shining light, or stool, or well, much of anything really. There was only darkness once again.
"Creepy." I muttered, trying to fill the darkness and the silence.
Just as I was about to step forward, I felt a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I just had enough time to think 'Oh shit, I'm screwed' before I pitched forward into the everlasting darkness.
…..
Water. There was water all around me.
Gunfire. Gunfire as well.
Flashes of light came and went as I saw the clips of the events.
Yinsen dying in my hands. Saying that I shouldn't waste my life.
The water torture they put me through. The feeling of not being able to breath because of the suffocating water, wishing you were dead.
Feeling like you were about to die, only to be ripped back into the living hell.
Getting out of the van and watching all the military officers die around me, knowing it was my fault for making the weapons that caused their death. I was getting hit by my own weapon, thinking that there would be no escape this time.
And then there was pain. Pain all around me. I let out a blood curdling screech as I sank to my knees from the pain. It felt as if my entire heart was going to explode from the inside out. I couldn't take it anymore.
Just as I was about to give into the pain, it was over. I curled up into a little ball on the ground, shivering from the pain. I could faintly see the flashes of light coming from the scenes above me.
Just as my heartbeat was almost back to normal, the pain started again. I couldn't take it anymore, so I let myself go and I slipped into darkness once again.
…..
I woke with a strangled yelp.
I bolted upright and my hands clawed at my arc reactor, as if it were still burning. Rogers, Clint and Natasha ran over to me.
"Stark, what happened?" The captain asked.
I blindly threw punches at them for them to get away, but of course none met their mark. They had all taken steps back to give me space.
After a couple minutes, I calmed down enough to realize that it had all been a nightmare. It wasn't real, but it might as well have been. It had seemed so vivid. I felt my heartbeat pounding a mile a minute in my chest.
Natasha, Clint and Steve walked back over to me when they had seen that I calmed down. Thor and Bruce still seemed to be sleeping. Fury was rummaging around with the few things that we had with us. Of course he didn't seem to care about my nightmare. Bruce and Thor it seemed hadn't noticed my yelling.
"Tony. Are you all right?" Cap asked.
"Does it look like I'm all right?" I snapped back at him. He stared at me with a slightly hurt expression on his face.
Finally, I sighed and said, "It was a nightmare…well sort of."
"What happened?" Natasha demanded.
"I was in a dark room and there was this creepy ass mummy. I couldn't see it properly, and it told me to meet the Half Bloods in a green forest. It…it said that that would be our only chance to survive." I shivered. I didn't mention the part about Afghanistan. I would never tell anyone.
Clint broke the silence. "The Half Bloods? You mean those kids?"
"I guess." I replied. I didn't know what could be so special about them.
"And what about the forest? How can there be a forest in a desert?" Rogers asked.
"I-I don't know." I stuttered. I never stuttered. I mentally kicked myself, but I couldn't help it. Rogers had once again reminded me of my own misery.
"Hey you okay?" The cap then asked.
"Of course I'm okay!" I snapped. I got up quickly. I didn't want them asking any more questions.
I turned my back to them. I could still feel their eyes boring into me.
Fury looked over at me, but didn't say anything. His face was blank and void of any expression as usual. I ignored him and bent down to a backpack on the ground. I shuffled around in it, trying to avoid the stares I was getting.
Yesterday night, we had stopped traveling once it had gotten really cold and dark. It was good thing it got cold. It took my mind of the desert for a while.
After half an hour of traveling around blindly in the dark, we had decided to stop for the night. We had set everything we had on the ground in the middle of nowhere and decided to set up "camp", if you could call it that. We shared a bag of chips which tasted a lot like plantain chips and finished half a bottle of water.
After that, everyone slowly dozed of to sleep. Clint and Natasha shared the sleeping bag, capsicle used his shield as a makeshift pillow and Fury claimed the blanket for his own. They all had their weapons close to hand in case something happened.
That left me, Thor and Bruce.
Bruce didn't seem to care much, considering the years he spent on the run and just settled down on the sand, curled up in a ball. Thor soon followed suit and used his cape as a blanket with his hammer beside him.
So I had no choice but to go to sleep on the cold sand, which brought back some bad memories, but I tried to shove them to the back of my mind. I was the last to go to sleep, and even that took a while. I tried using my suitcase of armour as a pillow just like Steve was using his shield, but it was way too uncomfortable. So I gave up and just lay on the sand, trying not to think about of what was going on. Eventually, pure exhaustion brought me to sleep. And that was when I had the dream.
I slowly got up off the ground from rummaging in the bag, hoping that Steve, Natasha and Clint weren't looking at me anymore. I turned around to see that Natasha and Clint were packing up their sleeping bag, while Steve was just staring into the distance with a blank expression on his face. Fury was still in his things, with his ever straight expression that never wavered. I was still a little surprised to see Thor still sleeping, loud snores escaping from his mouth.
Finally, I turned to Bruce. He was also sleeping, but not as calmly as Thor. He tossed and turned on the ground, muttering words that I could barely hear, though I vaguely caught him saying "betty" and "monster".
I bit my lip, contemplating over waking him or not and finally walked over to him in an attempt to wake him up. Steve had noticed me walking toward him and walked over as well. Natasha, Clint and Fury soon followed, and we crowded around Bruce. I knelt down and poked his shoulder.
"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce. Hey big guy! You in there?" I said.
That just made it worse. He turned around violently, back and forth.
"No…" he muttered.
"Bruce! Bruce!"
The rest took a couple steps back. I could tell that they still didn't fully trust Bruce to not hulk out from a bad dream, or something, even though the big guy helped save New York.
I shook him again, and it seemed to do the trick. A little to well, I think.
"NO!" he shouted as he bolted up right from his position on the ground.
The next thing I knew was white hot pain as something hard hit me on the nose. I was thrown back into the sand as Bruce flailed from sheer panic. As I held my hand to my now bleeding nose, I could see Natasha and Clint edge their hands toward their weapons. Fury already had his hand on one of his knives. I could see a tint of green in Bruce's eyes and skin. That watch of his was beeping out of control.
I quickly ran over to him with one hand on my nose. I dropped to the sand beside him and put my free hand on his shoulder."
"Bruce, it's okay. You're with us now. No guns. Nothing." Bruce looked up at me with green streaked eyes. I saw it slowly fade into a hazel. I could feel him calming down as the beeping of the watch subsided, but still held the constant beep for some reason.
Once all the green was gone, he looked down ashamed. He had noticed my bleeding nose. I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Bruce, you know that's not you're fault. If you have even have one thought that it is, I will personally get in my suit and throw you off stark towers." I grinned like a cocky bitch.
"Now come on." I got up and held out the hand that wasn't covering my nose. He graciously took it and pulled himself up. I saw Fury, Natasha and Clint relax considerably.
Bruce looked up at my bleeding nose again and muttered, "Sorry."
I shrugged off his apology.
"It's just a bleeding nose, I've had worse."
I tore off a piece of the shirt I was wearing under my red and gold jumpsuit and used it to cover my nose.
"All right," I said to the others. "Who wants the honour of waking up Thor? 'Cause I'm definitely not."
"Not me," Bruce said quickly. No one objected.
Fury just looked at me with a glare that spoke louder than words.
"You'll see what'll happen if you suggest I wake him." Natasha threatened. I let out a small whimper of fear that I would later deny had ever happened.
"I know a lost case when I see one." Steve said. He had joined in when he heard all the commotion, I thought.
I looked over at Clint.
"That leaves you, Barton."
"But why do I-" He stopped short when he saw that all the others were shooting daggers at him. Natasha pointed at Thor menacingly.
He reluctantly walked over to the sleeping giant.
"Hey! Thor! Wake up!" he shouted over his massive snores.
Clint shoved him in the shoulders as a hard as he could, but Thor wouldn't budge. He resolved to punching him in the arm, but when that didn't work, Clint started to kick him as hard as he could.
"Thor-wake-up!" Clint said between kicks. I watched in amusement with the rest of the avengers, smirking at Clint's puny attempts to wake him up.
Finally, after a long time of punching and kicking, Thor stirred from his slumber. He opened his eyes and said, "Who is this inferior creature that dares awaken the mighty Thor from his slumber?" Thor boomed.
"Uh, it's Clint."
"Oh, friend Clint, why it is you! Why did you not just say so?'"
Clint groaned and face palmed as the rest of us burst out laughing. Thor got up from his spot on the ground and brushed himself off.
"Good morning, fellow avengers!"
Everyone muttered signs of a good morning.
"We should keep moving if we want to get to this mythical green forest you're talking about, Stark." Fury said, talking for the first time this morning. He motioned for everyone to pick up their things.
"Wait, what forest?" Bruce asked, confused.
"Stark had a dream about a mummy telling him to go to a forest where we'll meet the half bloods." Steve answered him.
"You mean those normal looking teenagers?"
"That's what I said." Clint quipped from where he was picking up his bow and arrow.
"Yep."
Bruce nodded, but didn't say anything. If he had a dream about that as well, he sure didn't want to say so.
I picked up my heavy suitcase from the sand, wishing that I had a lighter way of carrying the suit around. Bruce didn't have any weapons to carry, so he picked up the backpack with all of our essential equipment in it, including our blanket, sleeping bag, food, and water.
Once everyone had cleared up the area and made it look like no one had been there in the first place, we started walking into the desert.
I walked with Bruce in the front. Steve and Thor were behind us and behind them, were Clint, Natasha and finally Fury in the very back.
I glanced over at Bruce beside me. He was walking silently, with his eyes to the ground. He was even sulkier than usually was.
"Hey Bruce, you all right?" I asked him.
"Hmm? Oh ye-yeah, I'm good."
I didn't prod, which was probably a first for me. He had just sounded so distracted and heart broken. It was heard to ask more questions. So we kept walking in silence.
I wondered if we were ever going to get back home, to avenger's tower…Pepper. She was probably worried sick by now. I sighed and realized that for now, our chances of getting back were going to be slim. I knew that at least one of us was going to die here, as horrible as it was, and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
I sighed again in frustration and only looked forward at the endless sand ahead.
…..
It has been so long. I lost track of the hours that passed long ago. I had no idea where we were and I was sure that I was going to collapse soon from sheer exhaustion. I was stumbling through the dessert just like the rest of the avengers. We had drunk almost a full water bottle in the time that has passed. I looked back at the other avengers and saw that they looked just as tired as I felt. Only Fury didn't look as tired as the rest, but then again he had to be really good at hiding his emotions. After all, like I said, he was the ultimate spy. His secrets have secrets.
I looked around once more to see if there anything in sight if I was lucky and sure enough, there wasn't. Just sand as always. I looked back down at the ground, defeated. Of course there was only going to be sand. Who was I kidding?
We walked for another ten minutes, just like we had been for the hours before.
I reluctantly looked ahead once again, expecting to see the same sand, but this time I saw something…different. In the distance was a faint green line. I squinted my eyes to get a closer look. Slowly, I realized that it was actually a tree line of a forest. I stopped walking abruptly. I felt someone walk into me and I turned around to see Bruce's confused face.
"Guys, you would not believe me if I told you, so I'm just going to tell you to look." I shakily pointed to the green line in the distance.
I heard multiple gasps from our little group. No one could believe it, including me.
"Stark, how come you couldn't sense this forest in your armour?" Fury accused.
"I don't know." I answered, fully bewildered. He was right it didn't appear in my armour. JARVIS had told me there was nothing here, but here we were staring at a forest. There must have been some type of interference between the forest and my armour. There should've been no reason for it to not to register. The gamekeepers must have made some sort of tech scrambling wall so we didn't know it was there.
"Well then, why are we standing here like a bunch of fuckers for? Lets go!" Clint exclaimed.
"Yes friends, let us wander to this sea of green." Thor said.
Clint and Thor led the way and the rest of us followed. We were all hit with new hope. If we could get to this forest, we would be partially home free.
As we were walking, I suddenly remembered my dream. That grotesque mummy had said something about a forest, hadn't it? Yes, now I remember. It said we were supposed to meet the half bloods in this place. That somehow they could help us.
Though, I had a hard time wondering how anyone could help us now.
….
The forest was definitely a lot longer away than it looked. I didn't expect it to take an hour for us to get there. Once we did get there, though, our hopes soared a million fold.
We walked against the trees, looking for a clearing to get in. As we were walking, Bruce voiced a concern I knew everyone were probably thinking.
"You ever wonder if this were a trap?" Bruce's voice was devoid of any emotion or gentleness. It was cold and calculating. It actually sent a shiver down my spine. I guess a life-threatening game will do that to you.
We continued walking. No one said anything because we all knew this could be a very real possibility.
Finally, Fury spoke up.
"Does it look like we have much of a choice here?"
No one answered once again.
Five minutes later, Natasha said, "Hey guys? I think I found a clearing."
We all crowded around the opening in the dense trees. It was small and it looked as if someone else had already gone through it. Though, it was better than nothing.
"Ladies first." Clint said as he beckoned toward the forest.
Natasha shrugged and plunged into the trees. Everyone followed until it was only Bruce and I left.
Bruce glanced at me before he also was swallowed by the trees. I turned around to get one last glance at the desert. I knew that I would have to meet my fears at least once more. After all, we were literally surrounded by dessert.
Until that day came though, I would keep my usual snark as if there was nothing wrong in my life. After all, they probably needed iron man more than they needed me, the ass Tony Stark.
As I sighed at the truth of my words, I stepped into the thicket of the trees and let them swallow me whole.
Well, here it is.
Damn, this is a long chapter! It's a present for all you guys that have reviewed!
Next is Luke.
-Detective DG