Chapter Text
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Blame Me in the Aftermath
Space
"Oh, is that right, Slonna? You're going with that story. That you don't know? What happened to the entrails of the Ancient Eel of the bottomless lake of Lathdran? Because, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you."
Slonna, to their credit, gurgled under the meaty hand currently wrapped around their slime covered throat.
"I didn't---" Slonna tried to argue, the puce colored flesh that made up its amorphous body rippling with fear tinged adrenaline.
"The ancient eel entrails on your chin tell a different story, Slonna!" Thor, son of Odin, future King of the Nine realms and Thunder God was well past his limit for games. His eyes were wide and manic and he shook the slimy alien as hard as he could. "I needed those entrails to find the path to the---Cliff."
"Cliff?" Slonna coughed.
"I don't know, it's all very mysterious," Thor almost sounded like he was whining before he sighed in slight defeat, dropping Slonna to its foot. "I'm trying to save the Universe here, and the Fates are not making my quest easy."
"You're Thor, why do you have to search out saving the universe, don't it usually find you? You know, trouble?" Slonna questioned.
"Yes, when I was a boy and foolish, but now---now I have, there's," Thor hesitated and then narrowed his eyes at Slonna. "I'm not having a heart to heart with a thieving, villainous---eater of ancient beings."
"I get peckish," Slonna defended pathetically.
"I have to find the Cliff to find the blasted orange stone---"
"Stones?" Slonna sounded panicked and began to wriggle slowly in trying to get away from Thor the wet sound of slime hitting stones echoing in the cavern. "I want no part of stones, Odinson."
"Well then, you should have thought about that before you ATE the guide that would take me to the stone," Thor sassed back impatiently, reaching for the creature again to shake the Ancient Eel out of him.
A blast of light from the rainbow bridge illuminated the dark and dank cave that Slonna had been hiding in and when it receded, Steve Rogers stumbled.
"Captain!" Thor called out, absolutely delighted at the appearance of his friend. "It's been too long. Come, help me to rip Slonna in half to get my Eel."
"I---what?" Steve blinked, looking around nervously. "Darcy?"
"On Earth, last time I checked with Heimdall, which was quite a bit of time ago, but your people were most adept at hiding her," Thor blinked at him quizzically.
"She wasn't---she wasn't safe, someone took her," Steve felt a little breathless at the sudden travel. His eyes darted from the alien within Thor's reach and realized pretty quickly that he had not been zapped to another part of Earth. Just a second ago, he had Darcy within a finger's grasp, all the happiness and warmth he had ever wished for right there and now he was God knows where and she was---
"I have to get back, NOW," Steve barked out, looking wild with worry. "Tell your gatekeeper to put me back on Earth."
"I don't understand, they said dear little Darcy was safe in a new life on Midgard," Thor looked suddenly concerned. "What did your people do to her?"
"Well, it seems like you're quite busy with this Darcy fellow, so I'll be---"Slonna muttered, taking a singular step away from Thor. "Just going along then---"
Thor scowled and reached for Mjolnir, which had been (dropped) placed on the ground where Steve had appeared. But the hammer did not heed his command, instead, it was lifted right off the ground with no hesitation by one Steve Rogers, and the lightning cracked across the sky outside of the cave as Steve took two steps towards Thor and Slonna, holding the hammer in a threatening gesture at the alien.
"Give him what he needs! NOW." Steve demanded, with the heat of a man who needed this particular task to be completed quickly so his own desperate need could be tended to.
Slonna had the good grace to immediately vomit, all over Thor's outstretched hand, the sludge bringing a long tapered purple snake like creature with it. Thor looked disgusted at the state of his hands, but softened when the snake wrapped itself around his wrist.
"That's a nice snake," Thor murmured. He turned to Steve and looked distinctly bewildered at the hammer Steve still held in his hand. To his credit, Steve immediately turned the handle and offered it to his friend. Thor wiped one of his hands off and took the hammer before looking to the sky. "Heimdall? Please take us to where Darcy is."
They waited for the rainbow bridge, while Slonna gurgled with nervousness and abortive choking. In addition to the aftermath of being sick, the pathetic being's stomach started to grumble. Loudly. Slonna had not been lying when it had said it was hungry earlier.
"I have no idea what's going on with Heimdall, he's been slow lately," Thor muttered in annoyance. "If he wouldn't try to stab me, I'd suggest he was getting too old to look over all the nine realms."
Slonna continued to gurgle and whine in its renewed hunger and Steve looked around as they waited.
"Where are we?" he whispered to Thor.
"The stomach of the Wersludgsnipe, the mother of all Bilgesnipes, a nasty piece of work," Thor shrugged nonchalantly, as if that weren't a terrifying, confusing sentence. "No worries, she's as big that huge country of yours on Midgard---Russia. But with less snow."
"Neat," Steve answered grimly. He sighed and said, "If I don't get taken back to Darcy, I swear to God, I'm gonna take that Hammer and shove it right up your gatekeeper's---"
The lights came on and Steve's threat wasn't finished as the gatekeeper whisked them out of the belly of the beast and back to more familiar territory.
Asskicker Meadows
"What in the hell?" Maya Archie blinked her eyes opened and tried to reorient herself to her current situation.
That current situation being passed out on the floor of the rec room of her grandmother's retirement community. A lot of strange things had happened at her grandmother's retirement community since it opened ten months ago. There was that time she had visited shortly after it had opened and walked in on what was certainly the tail end of a shoot out, complete with smoking bullet holes in newly finished drywall. The problem was, of course, that there were no gunmen to be found. Just a lot of people over the age of eighty who all claimed that they had no idea how it had happened and then asked her how school was going.
There was the time she'd tried to facetime her grandmother on her birthday and Retta Archie had answered the call wearing night vision goggles and full bulletproof tactical gear. Maya had explained that away as her grandmother being an active old broad, playing laser tag or paintball or something as a group activity for the senior citizens.
She had a little more trouble explaining away what had happened in 2014, when Natasha Romanoff had forced Hydra out into broad daylight on twitter. Retta and her backup Herb had parachuted onto Maya's campus from a quinjet, taken out her awful history professor with high tech blow darts, then drug her back to the first retirement community until everything could blow over.
She'd spent the better part of two weeks at the retirement community then, playing bingo with Herb and eating meals that were always low sodium. She'd gone away with less water retention in her ankles and the knowledge that her grandmother had never really retired from her work in the spy world. Even after realizing all that, she had still been plenty surprised at the magnitude and scope of their work.
But still, arriving via a Doctor Jane Foster created portal, ushering Everett Ross into the community center main hall while Jane went to Darcy directly, and then promptly falling to the ground and losing all consciousness was new. Maya attempted to bring some sort of moisture to her dry mouth as she looked around, seeing that most of the senior citizens had simply passed out sitting in their seats and motorized carts. Her grandmother had fallen gracefully on top of her, and Everett was ass up, face down on the highly polished tile floor where they did bi-weekly swing dancing events.
Maya could feel the edge of something at her brain as the fog cleared. Devastation. Fear. Heartbreak.
"Poor girl," Retta whispered as she slowly pulled herself away from her prone position on top of her granddaughter to sit and look around, those sharp eyes trying to assess the situation. Her gaze settled on the small body that was face down ass up on the floor next to her.
“Grammy, this is——oh shit that’s a big gun,” Maya panicked and began scrambling away from both Everett Ross (his face down and ass way up in the air) and her gun toting Granny, who had said gun trained on Everett’s ass.
"Hands where I can see them!" Retta ordered with as much authority as possible. And it was a lot of authority. Maya had once wet her pants when Retta had ordered her NOT to eat all the Christmas cookies one year. She had been three, but still, it had been a terrifying experience.
"Grammy, it's alright," Maya tried to intervene, looking around in confusion. Jane had split their destinations. Jane's portal went straight for Darcy's signature, and Everett Ross and Maya herself were sent to the middle of the largest building at the community.
"You hush, child," Retta waved Maya off. "You don't know what this man is."
"Uhm, FBI troll?" Maya shrugged. She shook her head in earnest and held up a hand, "No, he's actually CIA. I think."
"This man is under Thaddeus Ross's thumb, and I will not have him anywhere near my people," Retta said through gritted teeth.
"Not under---Jesus, I gotta better reception in Wakanda," Everent grumbled, half audible as his ass wiggled in the air. He tried to pull himself up while keeping his hands up, knowing intrinsically that a gun was aimed at his person.
"How did you get here?" Retta demanded.
"Jane Foster sent us here," Maya explained. "Remember how I explained she's my fake girlfriend right now? And remember how I said I was gay except for Thor? Well---"
"How long have we been out?" Everett looked down at his watch, his hand shaking. "Five hours? How did---Does anyone else---do you guys feel---"
"Devastated," Retta whispered, still keeping her gun trained on Everett. "What did you do to Darcy Lewis?"
"I did nothing, Foster needed to have a chat with her about highly sensitive and confidential information," Everett shot back, gaining back some of his own sass.
"Yeah, like what?" Retta scoffed. "Like Steve Rogers is the father of her baby?"
"How did you---" Everett shook his head to stop himself from asking. "You're Peggy Carter's secretary."
He looked to Maya with wild eyes and asked, "I didn't know you were related to her?"
"Yeah, sometimes I find myself wondering how that worked too," Maya nodded. She pursed her lips before declaring, "I mean, I am a bad ass bitch, but still. I don’t really appreciate the guns and espionage like she does."
Retta stood and finally put the gun down at her side, if only because her hand was shaking as she looked around at the state of her little community. Most people were still passed out, but some had come to and were either weeping or staring off into the distance with a blankness that was truly terrifying.
"Retta---where's Darcy?" Sam shouted from the end of the hallway, following Natasha closely. They were both having trouble with walking briskly. It looked like their limbs weighed five times their normal amount. He stopped in his tracks and looked suspiciously at Everett. He scowled, and didn't think he was in the wrong a bit too. They hadn't exactly had the best run in the last time they saw each other.
"Darcy is talking to Jane, or at least she was five hours ago," Maya answered. "She's going to tell Darcy something she needs to know. About the father of her baby."
Natasha swore in Russian and from the look on Retta's face, she understood what the Black Widow was saying.
"Herb!" Retta shouted. "Get me a scan of our entire facility and let me know where the last energy signal was from a Bifrost bridge. Get our search party out for Darcy, NOW."
New York Avenger's Facility
"And I'm telling you, you bald ignoramus James Bond, that maybe if you could keep a handle on your organization, this shit wouldn't have even happened in the first place! I mean, my God, Fury, you couldn't even keep track of the secret Nazi's in your organization, we should have known you couldn't keep track of a small, helpless intern."
Tony was glaring at the hologram of Nick Fury in the empty lounge of the Avengers Facility. Stark's coffee was long forgotten on the coffee table, his hands balled into fists at his sides, a vein on his forehead bulging. He had been happily ignoring Thaddeus Ross' telephone calls, and he knew he should have ignored this secret call from SHIELD's former Director.
"Oh, she's helpless, is she?" Fury demanded of Tony. He picked up a small Stark pad and scrolled through it. "According to my reports she incapacitated over one hundred and fifteen people with no weapons at all. She and Barnes have been decimating Hydra bases over the past few months. And as a matter of fact, I just got word that another one went down."
"Yeah, you know what I mean, if you had been able to keep your house in order, she would have never been put in that position," Tony snapped back.
"Do you know where the girl is?" Fury demanded, clearly not willing to continue to be brow beaten by Tony.
"Why?" Tony looked up at Fury with petulant security. "So you can stuff her into spandex and give her to Coulson so he can screw up her life too?"
"She's dangerous out there without prop-"
"She's a PERSON," Tony argued, wincing a little at the end of it. He realized that Steve had made the same arguments about Wanda weeks ago. Two women that had been messed up by Hydra and then set on the world. Before he had tried to rationalize that Wanda had volunteered for the upgrades, but how hard was it to persuade an angry teenager to accept a bunch of superpowers they didn't understand?
He didn't know Darcy Lewis, either. But like hell she deserved to be drugged, put into a straight jacket and an impenetrable cell.
"I don't know where she is, but if I did, I'd take it to my grave," Tony's voice was a quiet, mumbled thing.
"None of us have anyway of defending ourselves against her, Stark," Fury reminded him.
"You afraid of crying a little?" Tony scoffed. “Don’t worry your extra shiny head about it, Nick, it was very therapeutic afterwards, even if I did have a hell of a migraine after crying so much.:
"Boss---incoming," Friday announced and before she could finish her announcement, the common room was illuminated with lights from the Bifrost.
They had built a patio that connected to the large multi-purpose room, in the hopes that Thor would be able to use the landing pad and come right into an Avenger's private space. He had not used the pad for nearly a year, though. Today, he walked in shoulder to shoulder with Steve.
"What are you---get the hell out of here!" Tony quickly shot to his feet.
"
Rude
," Thor objected, looking like an overgrown, kicked puppy. "It's been many months of yours since you last saw me, you should at least be---a little
happy
that I'm here."
"Rogers, now is not the time," Tony began after sparing an exasperated glance Thor’s way.
"Captain Rogers, good to see you," Fury boomed from the hologram. "Care to tell me where your boyfriend's new girlfriend is?"
"First, it's not Captain anymore," Steve said calmly, taking a few steady steps to get closer to the hologram. His mouth set into an aggressive, unfriendly looking smirk. "Second, fuck off."
"What is going on?" Thor muttered to himself.
"That girl is a danger to everyone---"
"You don't need to worry yourself over that girl, because the day you put your hands on that girl is the day that I will throw you into the fucking sun, Fury," Steve barked out. "You keep her name from your lips, she's not a toy or a bargaining chip and she isn't on your roster."
"Who, exactly are we talking about?" Thor muttered to Tony.
"Oh, he doesn't know, that's perfect, since it's HIS fault," Fury pointed to Thor. "You had three humans in contact with you since you fell to Earth all those years ago, and every one of those humans has been put through the ringer."
"Seriously, you are all being really rude," Thor scolded under his breath. He gripped Mjolnir tight before stepping towards the Hologram screen. "If I remember correctly, your organization used and abused Doctor Selvig then left him to rot in an institution. And you never answered little Darcy's calls when she needed assistance in London."
"Is she here?" Steve turned to look at Tony. "Did Ross get her?"
"No," Tony muttered, looking away from Steve's unwavering stare. The only other person he had seen Steve get that worried about had been Barnes before. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Steve cared for Barnes’ baby mama a whole hell of a lot. "Get the hell out of here before someone catches wind of you being here."
"It's Darcy?" Thor questioned, looking between all three men, true concern lining his face. "Is she alright? What has happened to her?"
"She's---she was taken by Hydra. Years ago," Steve explained patiently. "And I'd like to go back to her, please. Now."
"Is she harmed? Is she---do Jane and Erik know?" Thor questioned. He shook his head, "Jane said nothing in her last letter to me, but that was months ago. What's happened to her at the hands of Hydra?"
"Now he cares," Fury scoffed.
"You were meant to protect her!" Thor roared out, taking Mjolnir and shattering the hologram into fragments of light.
"Cut the feed!" Stark called out. He sighed and looked to Thor, "Good thing I replaced all the glass screens. Look, just, get out of here. We have ears listening in, I'm sure. Just---get the hell out of here."
"Tony---" Steve began.
"I got your stupid phone. I'll call if I---, just get out of here," Tony muttered. He looked like all of his anger had been knocked right out of him, and only miserable resolution remained. He looked to Thor and said, "Your crazy doctor woman has been using her damned portals to go everywhere on good ole Midgard. Might want to have her curb that or she's going to have Ross on her too."
"Who is this
Ross
?" Thor narrowed his eyes. “If he puts himself on my Jane, there will be a very large amount of hell to pay.”
"I'll explain on the way," Steve promised. "Let's get out of here, pal. I need to find my girl."
Asskicker Meadows
Steve supposed that there were reasons the Bifrost couldn't transport them to the retirement community. One, the retirement community should remain a safe haven for the fugitive Avengers and crime fighting super senior citizens alike. Two, he would prefer zero attention from the outside world on the place that he and Darcy were calling home. Three, the Bifrost hadn't been prompt or accurate earlier.
Still, Steve longed for the quick and efficient travel. It had not been fun being held tightly against Thor (Not that he's not an attractive fella, because he was, but Steve was already taken twice over and he preferred not thinking about his teammate in that manner at all). And the flight had been so fast and so harsh, that Steve had felt the delicate skin under his eyes flapping in the high winds.
But now his feet were on solid ground again, and he surveyed the state of what Laura Barton still lovingly referred to as Asskickers Meadows.
It was bedlam and chaos.
Senior citizens were wandering aimlessly, whether on their feet or in their motorized wheelchairs. They had hands full of tools or weapons, but they had no sense of urgency. Most of them were crying and those that weren't looked absolutely despondent.
Natasha and Sam stepped onto the well manicured lawn of the community center and Steve felt his stomach drop at their expressions.
"We can't find her," Sam blurted out, looking anxious and tearful.
"What happened?" Steve demanded, searching for those feelings that Darcy had been sending him just a few short hours ago. He got only an echo of it, laying underneath everything else. And everything else was cold devastation, inordinate sadness and a terrifying amount of self-loathing. He felt his stomach churn as it hit him and he was even more desperate to get to her in that moment.
"Jane Foster happened," Natasha revealed, glaring at Thor.
"I haven't---that---I didn't," Thor abortively tried to defend himself. He looked bewildered and serious as whatever Darcy was doing managed to have an effect on him as well. He sighed and shook his head. "Is Jane here? Is she with Darcy?"
"She's here," Erik Selvig called out from the still broken gazebo twenty yards away. He cradled a small brunette in his arms but it was not the brunette that Steve had hoped for. Thor rushed to them, taking Jane from Erik and gently brushing her hair from her cheek. "She took the brunt of whatever Darcy pushed out. The best that I could get of the emotion before I passed out was---devastation?"
"Self loathing," Sam whispered, still feeling it as he looked away from Thor and Steve, lacking any of his usual bluster and energy.
"Terror," Natasha added.
"I don't understand," Thor looked down at Jane tenderly. "If something terrorized Darcy so and took her---"
"She left," Erik corrected him. "We checked the surveillance."
"No," Steve said resolutely. “She didn’t.”
"Steve, I'm sorry, she sent out the feelings blast and every soul in a three mile radius passed out. The surveillance shows her going for Herb and grabbing his control pad and then the feed cut out," Sam said gently.
"No, I don't---she wouldn't," Steve shook his head. They had been doing so well. He knew that he could feel the true and deep affection she felt for him just hours ago. "She wouldn't."
"She might," Natasha sighed, looking annoyed at herself. She had been worrying about Steve for the last few days, but she should have been worrying about Darcy's reaction to the news of the baby's father. "Steve, in Bucky's letter, and what Jane told Darcy before she went---"
"Nuclear," Sam finished for her.
"Nuclear," Natasha agreed. "Jane told Darcy who the biological father of the baby is."
"Is it---you said---I thought it wasn't bad?" Steve panicked. Darcy was hurt and alone and worried and Steve had to get to her and assure her that no matter what, they would get through it together.
"I---" Natasha couldn't get any words out, her eye building with tears. She had only wanted to make things right for Darcy and Steve. She had only wanted to make sure that they could build a small piece of happiness. Now that was all scattered into the wind, just like Darcy herself.
"It's you," Jane whispered, stirring in Thor's arms. "They---they used your sperm, Rogers. They violated her with a piece of you that she has to carry for---"
"Jane," Thor admonished, following the conversation well enough, knowing that too much had happened since he had last glimpsed Darcy. Steve had managed to convey enough information, shouting into the breeze as they flew with Mjolnir to this elderly paradise. And now he
felt
it. All too well.
"You just go around filling up random cups so they can try to do this with other girls?" Jane mumbled, glaring at Steve. “Or were you in on it too? Got an army of super soldier babies that you don’t have to pay support for?”
“Hey lady, I don’t know you, but that’s not him,” Sam defended easily.
“The only thing I know is that I let my friend, the only person who cared for me for years be hurt by monsters,” Jane’s tears weren’t the effect of Darcy’s lingering emotional wizardry. They were her own and they were effortlessly spilling down her cheeks as her voice went ragged. “And now it’s about time someone helps her by telling her the truth. You can’t tell me that Lady Spies-A-Lot over there hasn’t known for a while now. That you all probably knew and didn’t tell Darcy!”
She was met with silence that seemed to enrage her more.
“You’re all lucky I didn’t portal every last one of you away from her,” Jane muttered.
“My love, you can’t---” Thor sighed, unable to truly argue with Jane. Darcy had clearly been misused and Thor was having trouble understanding who
hadn’t
hurt the girl at this point.
"Steve?" Natasha said quietly, because the man had gone stock still, his eyes darting back and forth as he mentally computed this supposedly life changing information. He nodded slowly before turning on his heel and walking down the path, heading towards the small house that he and Darcy had been living in. "Where are you going?"
"I'm finding my girl and telling her that I love her," Steve turned his head and called back to the people who seemed shocked at his reaction. "That it doesn't matter. Bucky is the baby's father, and no matter what---it doesn't matter what everything else says. If she wants me to be the father too, then...then
good
."
He broke out into a quick sprint, to where, the remaining team didn't know. Jane wrinkled her nose in consternation and muttered something about 'honorable assholes'. Thor took some solace from that, although he was now more worried than ever for Darcy's safety and well being. He and Jane would make amends to her as soon as the resolute Steve found her. Thor pressed his lips to Jane's temple.
"It's been too long, my Jane."
"HEY! HANDS OFF THE GOODS! That bootie belongs to Sugar Tits!" came a shout approaching the Gazebo. Maya Archie stopped in her tracks and her eyes went wide as she saw just who was molesting Jane Foster. Her mouth fell open and a high pitched sound began to filter out before her entire posture seemed to fall. She propped a hand on her hip and shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. "Oh, hey thunder bae. How you been? I'm---I'm Sugartits. I mean, your. Hi."