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Avengers Compound, New York, Midgard - 2023
By all rights, Darcy shouldn’t even be here. She stared at the battlefield the Avengers compound had become, then side-eyed the time travel van she was stuck standing next to. The doors were open and Jane sat in the front seat monitoring the equipment. Just in case... because Thanos had somehow caught wind of what they were doing from that garden planet he’d created as a you-did-well-you-deserve-an-award retirement he’d created for himself. The one that Thor almost killed him on but decided to walk away because at that point, after Thanos had used the Infinity Gems to destroy the gems... what was the point?
Well, time travel, apparently. And fuck all if it hadn’t worked. Darcy refused to think about the consequences of it right now. Because she should not be here. She should be back in New Asgard, helping everyone who just appeared out of thin air and comforting those people whose loved ones weren’t back. Because Bruce brought back those Snapped, Darcy assumed. But what about everyone else who died because of car accidents and plane crashes and... she flinched as an explosion boomed across the pitted landscaping. Right, not the time. She could deal with reality as soon as they defeated Thanos.
If they defeated Thanos. Because to be totally honest, he kicked their asses last time.
But this time they had support from various other galactic entities, people who felt they had nothing left to lose, and the Infinity Gems.
Except Captain America was using Thor’s hammer to fly her way with the Gauntlet Tony had created cradled in his free arm and Nebula clinging to his back. Shit.
“Jane! Turn it on!” Darcy hollered into her comm.
“All right, all right,” Jane said. Darcy could hear the sound of machinery starting up. She didn’t dare glance away. Thanos was running after Steve. Not moving fast enough to catch up, but still coming.
Darcy triggered her suit. She was standing next to a freaking time machine and, well, was built into a van. She had no clue what the blast radius of the thing was and had little desire to become a screaming baby. Sure, it was supposedly safe. Darcy’s life had never followed along with the words “supposedly” and “safe.”
Steve landed and Nebula dropped off his back. “We need to go,” she growled.
“We!?”
Nebula rolled her eyes and activated her suit. She glanced over her shoulder at the oncoming Thanos.
“Right,” Darcy said. She could figure out why Nebula wanted her to come later. She dove into the time stream - or whatever it was called - and floated to a sudden halt. Her ears rang in the sudden silence.
Steve and Nebula looked back at her. They floated through the quiet of the quantum whatever for a moment.
“Now what?” Darcy finally asked. “I wasn’t briefed on this part of your mission. Aside from the gems needing to be returned to their own times. Why the hell do you need me?”
Dammit, she was just so tired. She wanted to go home, crawl into bed, and sleep for a week. The last five years had been nothing but pain and horror and stress as she wrangled a grieving Thor and a refugee population that had found its number more than halved. Because oh no Thanos had Dusted half the freaking universe. And that somehow targeted his enemies the most. Because what populace had survived the fall of Asgard did not survive Thanos. She still had nightmares about the colony space station floating derelict outside a nebula because all its engineers and governing council had been Snapped. Over half a million Asgardians, dead. Because something had gone wrong and there was no one to fix it. Her people had been reduced to New Asgard on Midgard and those refugees Vanahiem had been willing to take in. She was a princess of dust and despair.
“Because you know Asgard,” Steve said.
Darcy stared. Static filled her brain.
Oh. Oh. Because of course they needed her. It was nice to be considered valuable. But she didn’t want to go. Dread coursed through every part of her. To see Asgard again when now it was literally nebula dust... Darcy swallowed. She could scream and cry later. Probably puke her guts out, too, just for good measure.
“Right,” Darcy said. Her voice was steady. Be the leader of your people you are. Conceal it all. Don’t feel. Don’t feel until this is over and you are home. “Okay.” She forced herself to take another breath. Here, in this place, they had all the time in the world. “Where and when are we going first?”
Nebula looked at her like she as an idiot. “Asgard.”
Asgard - 2013
Whatever nanoparticles Tony had used to create the quantum time travel suits was awesome, but creepy. And decidedly non-helpful, given Darcy had no idea what she’d been wearing ten years ago. The probable dress mismatch gave her anxiety something tangible to focus on because hiding behind a pillar outside of Jane’s room was enough to send her blood pressure screaming into the atmosphere. She leaned against the pillar, trying to get up the nerve to walk in and take away Jane’s five minutes of relief not having an Infinity Stone trapped inside her body gave her. Darcy’s hand refused to stop shaking.
“Did Thor not mention that he met me?”
Darcy jumped, nearly tripped over her skirt, and finally composed herself to turn and look over at Frigga. She looked as Darcy’s memories had returned to life. Golden hair, elegance, and an utter mischievous expression filling her face.
She swallowed back tears. “He did. But being back here- Frigga...”
They looked at each other for a moment. Darcy drank the seconds in, knowing the blessing this misbegotten time was. Never again would she stand in these golden halls with her mother-in-law. With the friend Frigga had become.
They walked into Jane’s room, where she lay peacefully sleeping. Darcy’s stomach knotted itself as she lay the Reality Stone on Jane’s bare arm. It glimmered for a second before swirling into streams and flowing back into her. Darcy stared at her friend for a moment as Jane’s face scrunched up with pain.
Frigga lay her hand on Darcy’s shoulder. “Come, daughter, I have something for you.”
Darcy followed Frigga out into the grand hallway and down towards the balcony. They stepped outside and Asgard’s balmy air rushed over Darcy’s skin. She breathed in the so-familiar air, scented with the earliest spring flowers, and unbidden tears streamed from her eyes. Darcy clutched the stone balustrade and did her damn best not to collapse in a heap.
“Take this.” Frigga shoved a bag in front of her face.
Darcy wiped her face off with her sleeve before taking the elaborately woven bag from Frigga. “What is it?”
“I was raised by witches, Darcy,” Frigga said. “I know how unkind the future has become.” She took a breath. “If you can time travel to save the universe, I can gift you items to help.”
Darcy loosened the cords and peeked inside. Healing stones. A neck brace. A large bundle of cloth. And a memory crystal. She took a breath and knotted the bag closed before slinging it over her shoulders.
“Thank you.”
Frigga leaned over and kissed Darcy on the forehead. “Go with all my blessings, daughter. Now go save the universe.”
Darcy grinned and stepped back from Frigga. She lingered a moment longer, taking in the beauty of Asgard that was, then activated the Pym Particles. Instantly she was back in the quantum realm with Steve and Nebula. For once, she was glad the helmet hid some of her face.
“It’s done,” she said. Her voice cracked. And she broke down again, curling her body around the bag. This time, there was no Frigga to console her. No Asgard to return to. It was just her, alone. Her companions could do nothing to help her grief.
Morag - 2014
Darcy remained in the quantum realm alone. Her gloved fingers ran over the woven bag again and again. She had the pattern almost memorized. The hidden runes spelled safety, health, and victory. She had to believe Frigga’s message. She had to. Thanos was coming after them, she just knew it. Time travel wasn’t unique to Midgard. Others had discovered the quantum realm - she vaguely remembered Loki ranting about it once - but it gave them just a bit of much-needed time to return the stones they had.
Unless Thanos had the idea to retrieve stones from other times like they had and just change the world without them knowing until they emerged back home. But no, he was going to go after the easy target. Them. Because getting some of the stones safely out of timelines was just too much effort and why not take the ones already still outside of time?
Steve and Nebula popped back in from returning the Power Stone, Nebula’s helmet not hiding her disgust. Steve just acted amused. Darcy shrugged. She must have missed something funny. Oh well.
Two down, four to go.
Vormir - 2014
Darcy flinched as stone splinters blew past her face. Dammit, she thought they’d had more time than this. But no. Fucking Thanos had caught up with them and here they were in a battle once again. Nebula snarled and dove in, Steve just behind her. Darcy knew better. She held tight to the Gauntlet containing the remaining Stones and found a mostly-hidden nook in the jagged rocks. Vormir was utterly gorgeous. It sucked that she was too busy trying to stay alive to enjoy it.
And she couldn’t even attempt to return the Stone because it would be all too easy for Thanos to sacrifice someone to get the Stone back. Darcy curled up tighter. This... was not what she signed up for.
Except she really had. All her choices led her here on this fool’s mission to keep saving the universe. It wasn’t enough she’d fallen in love with and married a literal alien prince. Nope, it meant all the kidnappings and being disowned from her family and the politicking that the creation of the Avengers team and the utter loneliness and despair of having to keep a refugee population together in a world that really didn’t want anything to do with them. She wanted to curl up in her warm bed in the fjord in Norway where New Asgard was and ignore the world. She’d earned that luxury, dammit.
“Give me the Soul Stone.”
Darcy blinked up at Nebula. She was covered in black blood and her eyes were wild. She gestured again with her hand. “Darcy, give it to me.”
“Why?”
“I had an idea.”
A bad idea was better than no idea at all. Darcy’s fingers fumbled to turn the giant Gauntlet around. Nebula wasted no time snatching the Stone from its cradle. The Guardian, or Red Skull, or whatever he called himself now drifted over.
“A sacrifice is not required to return it,” he said softly.
Nebula shot him a Look. Darcy’s mouth twitched at the sheer aggravation it contained. The Red Skull either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
“I’m not sacrificing anything,” Nebula snarled. “I’m going to use it.”
Her hand clenched tight around it before Darcy could get words - any words - out of her mouth. Brilliant golden light burst out from between Nebula’s clenched fingers. The sounds of battle halted instantly.
Darcy clambered out of her hidey-hole with Frigga’s bag thumping against her back, still clenching the Gauntlet tightly. She could not lose it, not now, not when they’d come so far. She peeked around the Guardian’s flowing robes and felt her heart drop into her stomach. Bodies littered the ground. Some lay in pools of blood but the majority looked as if they just... died. The golden light faded. The only people left standing were Steve, as covered in blood as Nebula, and Thanos and one of his soldiers. Darcy vaguely recognized him as the one member of the Black Order who’d survived Thanos’ attack on Wakanda.
Steve retreated to stand beside Darcy. Thanos’ eyes were fixed upon Nebula. She brushed past Steve and Darcy, hatred etched into every line of her body. The Soul Stone remained clenched in her ruined cybernetic hand.
“Hello, Father,” she snarled. “Brother.”
Thanos smiled. It sent chills down Darcy’s spine. She tucked the Gauntlet further out of sight. She didn’t know if Thanos had noticed it, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to take the chance.
“Daughter,” Thanos said. His voice rumbled in the silence. “You disappoint me.”
Nebula snorted. “Good.”
Thanos looked down. “Corvus Glaive.”
”Yes, Father?”
“Bring me the Soul Stone.”
And Nebula smiled.
Oh, hell. The battle was swift and short. Corvus Glaive had the strength and power. Nebula had the speed and the Stone. It was over before it began. Darcy had to force herself to watch as Nebula took control of Corvus Glaive. She marched him over to the edge and sauntered over. She whispered something into his ear before pushing him over the side. Darcy retched and turned away. Steve touched her shoulder and squeezed it lightly.
“That was senseless, Daughter,” Thanos said. He looked only mildly irritated. Darcy’s heart hammered in her throat. His mildness sent her terror skyrocketing.
Nebula shrugged a shoulder. “I made a sacrifice. A life for a life.”
Thanos tilted his head, puzzled. The Guardian, still behind Darcy, made a soft noise. He moved forward to the middle of their battlefield. He floated above the corpses of the soldiers Nebula had killed. Wisely, he blocked no one’s line of sight.
“Only here could she do that,” Red Skull said. “And then even only with the Stone.”
“Do what?” Steve asked. His hand tightened around the strap of his shield. Darcy stepped back and slightly behind him. She wanted the protection, thank you very much.
“Bring me back.”
Gamora stood on the edge of the cliff beside Nebula. Thanos stared at her, finally showing signs of emotion beside bored annoyance. Shock filled his face. He remained silent and still.
Too still.
Darcy’s stomach swooped as Gamora stalked over. She stepped through the corpses with ease. Too many battlefields, too many kills for her to be bothered. She tilted her head up to look at Thanos.
“It seems your sacrifice was in vain,” Gamora said. Her voice remained steady. A tear tracked down Thanos’ face. “You love yourself more than you could ever love me.” Her head tilted to the side. “But then, you don’t actually know what love is.”
“And you do, Daughter?”
Darcy burrowed into Steve’s side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They were silent witnesses to this, nothing more. And Darcy was quite okay with that.
“Yes.”
The wind howled over the mountaintop as Gamora and Thanos looked at each other. The lone tear had long since dried.
Then Gamora moved almost faster than Darcy could see. A knife sliced into Thanos’ eye just before blood spurted from his throat. He gurgled something and collapsed to the ground.
“Hurry!”
Nebula raced over to Thanos. Darcy wrapped arms around herself as best she could with the cold metal Gauntlet getting in the way. She could still see his body moving. She retched again. And turned away and buried her face in Steve’s side as the sisters shoved his body over the side of the cliff.
“That was hardly-” Steve’s outraged shout got cut off.
“Hello, Steve.”
Darcy looked up at the woman dressed in the same red-and-white suit they all wore standing on the cliff’s edge. She was smiling. Wisps of red hair floated around her face in the wind.
“Nat.”
“We win?”
Steve looked around the desolate, gorgeous landscape littered with bodies. “Yeah,” he said. “We won.”
New Jersey, Midgard - 1970
“Steve, what are you doing?”
“I looked it up,” Steve said as he leaned against the car, staring at the simple house across the street. “Tonight’s the night she disappears.”
Natasha sighed. “And what, you think you can rescue her?”
“Warn her.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “If Darcy can use returning the Stones as an excuse to try and rescue Loki from certain death, then I damn sure am going to do this.”
Darcy looked down at her hands. Being stuffed in the back seat of the car with Gamora and Nebula wasn’t something she’d call comfortable, but overhearing the conversation wasn’t comfortable either. Okay, yeah. Steve was right. She’d made the argument that she could try - the Time Stone would allow her that - out of pure selfishness. She missed him so much. There was no way she would begrudge Steve this.
“Who is this woman?”
“Steve’s long-lost girlfriend,” Darcy told Nebula.
She snorted. “Does an assassin kill her?”
“No one knows,” Darcy said with a shrug. “She went home at the end of a normal day and disappeared without a trace. And this time period doesn’t have the best technology for tracking people down. DNA testing hasn’t been invented yet.”
Gamora shook her head, but kept her eyes on the house. A car had just driven up and parked. Steve stiffened, but kept talking to Natasha. He had to pretend like nothing was wrong, like he hadn’t seen the woman he loved and left behind.
Darcy’s mouth twitched. If Bucky were here... but given the circumstances, in the worst possible way, he just might be.
Natasha pounded on the car. “Showtime.”
Darcy clambered out of the car, grateful she wasn’t wearing the hooded trenchcoats Gamora and Nebula had to wear. It was a very warm late spring day. She stretched out her shoulders before putting her bag on and trailed after Steve and Natasha. The five of them huddled on the porch for a moment before Nebula rolled her eyes and pushed the doorbell.
Steve shifted his weight from foot to foot. Darcy had never seen him so nervous. The door opened and the world seemed to hold its breath.
“Hello, Peggy.”
A sharp intake of breath. “You’d better come inside.”
They filed in one at a time, Darcy deliberately going last. The pistol clenched in Peggy’s steady hand conversely made her more at ease. The door shut behind Darcy, but at least she knew she wasn’t going to get shot yet. Peggy needed to know what was going on first. Curiosity. The bane of the universe.
The five of them sat awkwardly in the living room. Peggy remained standing, pistol aimed. Nebula and Gamora kept their hoods up. Silence reigned. Then Steve reached into his pocket and gently opened and set a battered watch on the coffee table.
Peggy drew in a breath. “Steve?”
What followed was a jumbled explanation of SHIELD and the Avengers and time travel and Thanos. Nebula and Gamora had lowered their hoods at some point; Peggy had barely batted an eye. But the pistol had been put away and she and Steve clutched hands as they stood talking softly to each other. Nebula picked at her gloves. Gamora looked a tad wistful. Natasha stood in the doorway, already on guard for whatever threat was coming to vanish Peggy Carter. And in case they needed a fast exit from whatever or whoever it was; they could not change the timeline. Darcy played with the knotted string holding her bag shut. The next stop would be 2017. To rescue Loki. If they could drag Steve away. She just had this feeling he would want to stay and that... that would mess everything up.
Then Peggy stepped away from Steve. “When are we leaving?”
“We?” Steve echoed. “Peggy, we came to warn you!”
“And you did,” Peggy said, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. “You said I disappeared with no signs of foul play. I see no reason why I cannot come with you. Time travel leaves no traces.”
Everyone’s heads snapped over to look at her. Darcy felt as stunned as Steve looked. That... was something none of them had considered.
“We don’t have...” Steve’s voice trailed off as Darcy switched off her nanoparticle disguise to dig into the belt pockets. She held out a suit capsule and a spare container of Pym particles.
“There’s a reason we had a back-up plan,” Darcy said. “It’s not like I was hanging out with that van for fun.”
Peggy marched over and snatched them from her. “Then it’s time to go.”
Somehow they all managed to fit back into their stolen car. Darcy ended up sitting on the floor. Steve drove for a little while and turned into an abandoned lot. They clambered out, stretched, and stood in a loose circle. Steve couldn’t stop staring at Peggy like she was the rising sun and the dawn of everything beautiful. And Peggy returned the look with a brilliant smile.
Somewhere in Space - 2017
Darcy’s skin crawled as she stepped through the destruction of the ship. These were her people, bleeding out, dying, as she walked through them unseen. They lay in disarray, crumpled around wounds and limbs twisted in unnatural ways. Their deaths were not clean and they did not die without pain.
She pressed a hand to her mouth. Guilt twisted through her stomach. She dry heaved and forced herself to breathe. Even with time stopped, the air reeked of smoke and ozone and blood.
Thor was on his knees before Thanos, defiance and grief etched across his face. Darcy swallowed at the sight. And turned away. This was the past; there was literally nothing she could do to help him. Then. She could help him now.
Loki lay on his back, limbs askew and one arm trapped underneath. She swallowed again and waved Steve over. “He’s here,” she said through the silence. It was so weird. The ship should not be silent in its moments of destruction.
Steve wove his way around the debris as Darcy pulled the bag Frigga had given her off her back with her free hand. The other clenched, metal joints moving as the Time Stone glowed a steady green. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold this.”
Steve nodded and took the bag. He unknotted it and pulled out the neck brace. How in the Nine Realms had Frigga... witch. Darcy squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden onslaught of tears. Now was not the time. She forced her eyes open as Steve gently, carefully, correctly braced Loki’s broken neck before crumbling a healing stone over the grievous injury. Darcy moved a step closer and fumbled at her belt. With careful fingers she passed over another suit capsule. It flickered open and wrapped Loki up, transforming his fighting leathers into the same sleek suit they all wore.
She knelt down and grabbed his hand. Steve remained beside them both, supporting Loki’s shoulders. Darcy activated the Pym particles.
They were back in the nothingness and Loki floated beside her, gasping for breath as the stone slowly knitted him back together. His eyes moved towards her and she never once looked away as they filled with pain and confusion and fear, before recognition drifted into relief and finally closed.
Darcy barely felt someone removing the Gauntlet from her hand, noting only that the burning had stopped. There were more healing stones; she could fix the ravages of using an Infinity Gem later. She clung to Loki as everyone but Peggy left the quantum realm to return the two last Stones. She floated on Loki’s other side, pistol ready as she stood guard.
Thanos was dead, the Stones returned. She could breathe again, and heal, and rejoice that so many people were alive again. But right now, all Darcy wanted to do was cry.
New Asgard, Norway, Midgard - 2023
Darcy stood on the cliff overlooking the fjord as the residents of New Asgard bustled through its streets. Birds wheeled overhead, crying as they rode the wind coming off the water. Farther than she could see, the fishing fleet was out looking for its catch. It wasn’t Asgard’s golden palace and shining city. Asgard was never going to return; it had not even been a thought while the Avengers had the Stones. But it was simpler here and just as beautiful in a wilder way.
She pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders as Valkyrie and Sif flew by on their winged horses, riding patrol. Darcy knew she would find them later in the tavern, doing their best to out-flirt each other before heading home full of good mead and cheer.
Seven months had passed since the day the universe had been saved. Darcy sighed and glanced to her left. Loki stood beside her, eyes on the horizon. She reached out her hand and gently took his. He smiled down at her. She grinned back.
Her life had not been anything she’d ever planned. It had been a long decade and more, a harsh one, but just being able to stand here with her husband and see what they had accomplished. To look beyond New Asgard and see what the future could possibly hold for them....
That, right now, was enough.