Chapter 15
When Darcy got back to her and Jane's research/living place, she placed her handbag down and smiled.
“Nice date?” Jane asked.
“Good news, yeah, nice date, and no murderbots intruding. Bad news, wannabe reputation murderbots called paparazzi.”
“Murderbots? That's your standard?”
“That's what you had. But all is well.” And then the hail of bullets started.
“I shouldn't have said that,” Darcy muttered as she dropped to the floor automatically, pulling Jane down with her.
“My research!” Jane cried.
“Get down and shut up, Jane” Darcy hissed. “Or are you not aware we are a few feet from a consistent barrage of lethal fire?!”
“Sorry.” Jane whisper-squeaked, trying to make herself as small as possible.
“Shh…” Darcy hushed quietly. She took off her favorite charm bracelet. “Don't take it off.”
“Darcy!”
“Damnit, Jane. I'm not going to die. But that bracelet can create a temporary bulletproof force field. But it has to touch your skin to activate.” Darcy said, before darting across the walkway to press against the opposite wall, peeking out and around the corner before ducking back. She reached out and grabbed her purse, pulling out a pistol.
“Darcy! You know how to shoot a gun?! Never mind, you carry one?!” Jane whisper-yelled.”
Darcy clicked the safety off the gun, before, making sure that the safety on her taser was on and that the setting was set to deep fry before pocketing it. Tasers were for the most part classified as non-lethal compared to normal guns, like the one she was holding, but that didn't mean they weren’t capable of more permanent harm.
She raised the gun, ducking out. Jane stayed where she was, nervous, fiddling with the charm bracelet. She knew logically she should follow Darcy, be brave and face the fire, but Jane had too many leftover self preservation instincts for that.
Suddenly, the temporary calm air was split by a gunshot. And another. 3, 4, 5. A few more. 9 gunshots pierced the air, and then all was still.
“Jane, come here. We'll be safe here. There's better cover in this room.” Darcy called from around the corner, and Jane got up and sprinted to where Darcy was.
There stood Darcy, her hair still perfect, her red dress with a darker splotch Jane was sure wasn't part of the design. There were nine assailants in black full tac gear, all bleeding, all silent, all down. There had been nine identical shots, Jane realized, and after the incident with SHIELD interfering when Thor came, she had looked up information on guns. It took a lot of skill to do what Darcy had just done.
“Darcy, what happened?”
“Some goons deciding that they could get good money for Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, half sister of Lilith Stark seems to be the most likely scenario.”
“And worst case?”
“They were incompetent and actually wanted us dead.”
“Incompetent? Darcy we were nearly killed!”
“Their Tac gear had obvious weak points, they went down with one bullet each, and they shot in the window that we weren't even near, giving us obvious time to escape. Not to mention their aim was shit.”
“Darcy, are you like a super spy?”
“No, I wouldn't be able to manage both that and making sure you keep yourself alive to research.”
Jane chuckled, still tense, and made to take off the charm bracelet.
“Don't. I'm not sure if these were all of them or that whoever sent these goons will stop.” Darcy said as she kneeled down, and pressed three of her fingers to the throat of the nearest assailant. “Dead. You might want to call 911 now.”
“You just killed them! You'll get arrested for murder!”
“Manslaughter at the worst, but they shot first and they didn't shoot the camera up there, for recording your lab ramblings. If it goes to court, any decent lawyer can get an innocent ruling for an innocent client.”
“Darcy, you just killed 9 people.”
“Jane, this is the most clear-cut case of self defense ever, manslaughter for attempted first degree murder? Now, please, just let me check if this was it.”
Jane's panic returned and she forced herself to breathe and not think of getting shot at again.
She was unsuccessful, as another shot pierced the air, shooting straight to Jane. A force field exploded around her, nothin leading to the charm bracelet being the source. The bullet hit it, and stopped promptly, clattering to the ground.
Jane Foster fell to the ground, unconscious. Darcy rushed over to her, heartbeat speeding up almost exponentially. “Jane! Jane, can you hear me? Are you alright? Jane? Jane!” She moved the charm bracelet up on Jane's wrist, pressing her hand to the inside to feel for a pulse. She couldn't feel one, so she reached for Jane's neck, searching for a pulse. “No, no, no. Jane. Janie, please wake up. Jane, come on.” Darcy muttered, doing her best to not succumb to raw panic. She could kill and avoid being killed without an increased heartbeat, but if something happened to a person she cared about? She still remembered Lilith’s manic breakdown after the final battle, and how nobody ever saw her for at least a few hours on the anniversary of the final battle. If Jane was dead because of the sort of magic that was not meant to be used by a muggle, she might break down just like that.
She managed to keep her mind for just a little bit longer, getting her taser out of her pocket. She double checked that she changed the setting from deep fry all the way down to elector tickle which she knew would never hurt anyone, and to which she had used a few times to get attention. She then activated it for a split second at Jane, but it did nothing. Darcy wouldn't risk more. Instead, her hand and taser still pressed to Jane, she took her wand out from her sleeve, fumbling with it, pressed it into Jane's hand, muttering, “Rennervate. Come on, dammit, Rennervate.”
And to her thankfulness, Jane stirred, and Darcy put the wand in her back pocket, thanking her luck that Lilith had thought to get a wand made for her as soon as she showed an aptitude for any magic, other than Asgardian, before the final battle, before Ollivander and anyone else with any aptitude for wand making died. Because while Darcy could do Wandless and Silent casting, she would never be a witch at Lilith’s caliber, and preferred using her wand when she could, which was always.
Jane's eyes fluttered open, and Darcy sighed, sagging in relief.
“Here.” Jane says, handing Darcy back the charm bracelet and Darcy didn't argue.
“You're alright. We're alright.”
“The shot…” Jane started panicking again.
“We're good.” Darcy said. The preset Protego Maxima also included an Expelliarmus and a Stupefy for good measure.
Then Jane realized one thing. “My research!”
“It's on the other side, and the shots only came from one side.”
The neighbors had called 911 and police sirens were finally heard coming towards their location. By the time both Jane and Darcy went to open up the door. A police officer stood there, gun pointed to the floor but safety off.
“Ma’am.” He said with a nod to both of them. “The neighbors called to say shots rang out here.”
“You're late.” Darcy said. “If I hadn't thought about getting a hidden carry gun beforehand, we'd both be dead. There were lethal shots fired, I feared for our safety so I fired back. You can take this as my official statement if you want, we both deserve a nap.”
“Exactly what she said but there was a sniper that shot through the window as well, you might want to investigate though they're likely gone.” Jane said, and followed Darcy to their individual bedrooms.
“Sir, I narrowly escaped getting caught, but we were only half off. We know who the Winter Soldier and the White Witch are.”
“I want to know who those shooters were, who that sniper was, and who hired them. If I don't have this information immediately I am going to have to get involved personally.” She paused as she listened into her phone. “And if this leaks as anything other than perfect someone is going to pay. Control SHIELDs PR. What else did I hire you for?” She demanded, then, after a short pause said, “you go do that.” As she pulled the phone away from her ear, ending the call and putting it away, she muttered something he couldn't decipher, and her pregnant stomach seemed to retract, and a different uniform slid on, encasing her body. As the transformation took place, she walked, picking up a gun, smoothly putting it together and putting some rounds in, cocked it, flicked the safety off, and fired into a variety of targets moving at a very fast speed. He saw her hit nearly everyone, with a light growl of frustration when she didn't. When she finished putting away the gun, JARVIS spoke over the intercom.
“Mrs. Stark, Miss Lewis is calling your private line.”
“Patch her through here, JARVIS, the next inanimate object I touch will likely explode.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Lilith?”
“Yeah, Darcy.”
“I am perfectly fine, so is Jane, you can stop at the shooting range.”
“This gun's rounds ended, I'll be fine.”
“Well good news and bad news.”
“Spit it out.”
“Good news? The bracelet worked on Jane, she was knocked out but I got her to reawaken with a Rennervate. Bad news? Nine shooters who burst through the window, they're all dead, but there was also a sniper. That was the bad news. The worse news is that the gun was a Stark weapon, and the only one other than the family who has access to Stark-made sniper rifles is-”
“SHIELD.” She growled. “Any clue as to the sniper?”
“The only ones who could pull off such a perfect shot are Barton, Ward, May, Triplett Amador and Coulson.”
“Ward is one of ours, May is aiming to get in as a mole, she wouldn't risk it and I sure as hel didn't give that hit order. Triplett is halfway across the world and Coulson owes Tony, he wouldn't even if his morals let him, he's very good but rarely uses those skills.”
“So it's either Amador or Barton. I thought Ward was also on that list but I wasn't sure he was one of yours.”
“He was re-assimilated from Hydra. I don't know if he knows, he gets orders from Garrett, who I control.”
“Good. One less to track down.”
“We have only one to track down, there’s a possibility it was someone else, but it seems to be Barton, Amador has been dead for 3 days.”
“I'll let JARVIS run decryption on SHIELD servers, see if it was an on the books authorization for a hit.”
“It wasn't. The uniforms were plain black Tac suits, no logos of absolutely anything. Even the guns were absolutely mainstream and untraceable. Someone went to a lot of trouble to hide who ordered the hit.”
“Did you do a scan?”
“I was too busy shooting Lilith. 9 on 1 and I was in complete civvies, no protection that wouldn't have made more trouble than it’s worth.”
“Alright, Darcy. Get Jane some therapy, don't need her getting panic attacks from PTSD. I'll handle it.”
“Alright. You got it.”
“Bye.” The call disconnected, and Steve didn't stop his rhythmic blows on the super soldier ready punching bag.
“Do you rule the world yet?” He asked her.
“It's very overrated. There's no point in being the figurehead, only the people in the background get to do something.”
“Like kill the President?”
“Get over it, Rogers.”
“Get over it?” he asked, absolutely stunned.
“That’s what I said, Rogers. This isn’t open war. There is no place for a black and white tinted view of the world where you never know who’s an enemy an who’se an ally.”
“What would you know about war?”
“Did you ever meet Albus Dumbledore?”
“Yeah, English Special Ops, enhanced instincts, had a team that took out quite a few dangerous Nazis. Some of the guys suspected he was immortal, given he never took so much as a hit.”
“He was killed by a threat in the 90s that took out tens of thousands of people as well. A civil war where the only thing both sides had in common was being very heavily enhanced, very well trained, and determined to keep the whole thing from the eternal public.”
“Wizardkind.”
“So you were informed. Well, Teddy’s currently the last member of Wizardkind still alive.”
Steve knew who Teddy was, even though he had yet to meet the 13-year-old. “What do you mean?”
“The species imploded on itself in a complete and total xenocide.”
“What happened?”
“Political tensions left unresolved for decades, one man capitalized on it, led a reign of terror, my mother died defeating him, he got himself resurrected, took the species with him before he died. May 16th, 1996.”
“That’s the death day listed for Hermione Stark.”
“Hermione was my best friend, and she was one fourth of a suicide bomb that finally took out Voldemort.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Don’t be. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and what does kill you immortalizes you.”
She left Steve to mull over her words as she departed, giving her punching bag one last hit, as the outfit receded, leaving her in ordinary, albeit designer clothes, her pregnant stomach no longer hidden, as she departed to deal with whatever else she did.