In The Bleak Midwinter
Chapter 15: In The Bleak Midwinter
Stella has been sobbing hard for the first time since her mother died. Her palms were flat on the tiled wall of the bathroom. The drops from the shower masking her tears. She was afraid of what would happen next. She knew Olympus will be after her and they will show up in the tower anytime soon. Maybe tomorrow. She’s afraid to spend the rest of her life in prison. She decided to beg for death if she kneels before her father, Zeus. At least she can be with her mother.
The last time she first and last saw Zeus was back when she was a child. Most of the memories connected to it were blurry except for this one. She can’t believe the next time she comes face to face with him is the moment when he has to sentence her to life in prison, or her begging for death, all because she was lured to kill Asgard’s prince.
Loki. The pain she felt in her chest made her sit on the floor. She was close to earning Loki’s full trust. She was close to knowing him deeply, to become his friend. But the event happened and she stabbed him. She didn’t know what happened when she stabbed him. All she could remember was the power surging from the scepter closing in on her consciousness. She lost her mental battle with it and blacked out. Next thing she knew she woke up after a week only to find out Loki is dead.
She fought the pain she felt over his death. For her, mourning him would be pointless. She’s bound to the same fate. She controlled her tears, making it stop. She then decided to work on the case as much as she can before Olympus gets a hold of her. She knew everyone was counting on her for information so she decided to make things easier for the Avengers.
Why do I even feel this way? So broken over someone I don’t even know much.
She turned off the shower, dried up, and wore the dark green shirt Loki made her wear in Greece (though it was not the exact one since Natasha replaced that shirt without her knowledge). Before she could move on to the next clothing, the sting she felt in her chest made her sit down and another wave of tears left her eyes. She placed her towel on her face and fell on the bed wearing nothing but a green shirt and her underwear.
“Wearing this shirt is a bad, bad idea,” she croaked. She sat up, thinking of changing her shirt, but she ended up staring at the pile. “Stella, get a grip. It’s just a shirt,” she told herself. She took a deep breath and fresh tears fell once again. “Ugh, fuck!” She slapped the towel to her face. “Stop crying!” She stood up and walked to her dresser. She placed her palms flat on the table and gazed at her reflection. Her eyes were red and puffy for hours of crying. “Lords, I swear to god. Stop crying,” she said in a low voice, almost threatening, and sniffled.
When she felt like she had controlled her tears, she pulled up her black skinny jeans and slipped on the sneakers. She checked herself on the mirror, and, seeing her puffy eyes, proceeded to get ice from the mini freezer she has in her room, wrapped it in a small towel, and placed it under her eyes before heading out.
When Stella showed up in the common area near the medical bay, Natasha didn’t know what to say or do. This was the first time Natasha saw her since she woke up. She didn’t know what to expect from her at this time.
“Stella.” That was the only thing Natasha can say as of the moment.
Stella looked grim despite her efforts of trying to look lively. “Natasha.” She moved her head in recognition. She stopped on a laptop and booted it up.
Natasha walked up to her and sat on the stool across the table. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, her puffy eyes still locked on the screen. “I’ll do everything to give you all the information I can get in this short period. We’ll never know when Olympus’ guards would show up at our door to chain me up or when Thor decides to bring me to Asgard. I’m guessing days.”
“He said he won’t let it happen.”
“See? It’s still bound to happen.” Stella starts typing. “Anyway, have you gotten information from Jericho?” For the first time since she entered the floor, she looked directly at Natasha.
Natasha wanted to hug Stella. She looked so tired and it has affected her physically. Her healing capacity has slowed down because of the stress. Faiza was giving them the option to tranquilize Stella so she could heal but most of them were against it. “No, he wouldn’t talk to anyone.”
Stella nodded and continued typing. “I think we should have a meeting. I’ll formally introduce him to you. I mean, I’ll tell you who he is.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Natasha immediately asked. She knew Stella might be scared to face Thor and she didn’t want Stella and Thor to be in the same room for now. Natasha wasn’t sure if Thor would be okay to see Stella but she was just trying to keep the relative peace. Since this happened she was wary of Thor avenging his brother and hurting Stella.
Stella bit her inner lip, trying not to let her feelings rush through her head. “We need to. We don’t have time.”
Natasha’s eyes were still fixed on her. “JARVIS, call everyone for a meeting,” she said after a few seconds of silence.
“Done,” JARVIS replied.
As they were waiting, Stella tried to calm down and prepare herself to face Thor. For a moment she thought it was a bad idea, remembering that he was also mourning for his brother’s loss and he might be mad at her. But she told herself she had to face him and tell them everything she knows about Ares and Jericho. Though she doesn’t understand why Jericho did this. She has yet to find out.
One by one they entered and each of them patted her back. When Thor entered, Stella gulped when he marched to her. Thor wrapped his arms around her and almost picked her up from the ground, much to her surprise. “It’s not your fault, my fair Lady,” he whispered. Stella fought the tears from resurfacing. Thor released her from his hug, his own eyes puffy, and walked to a stool beside Steve.
Natasha released the breath she didn’t know she was holding. At least the worst didn’t happen.
She looked at them before she started. “You might be wondering why I called you up for a meeting. It’s because I believe I only have a few days left before the guards come knocking at the door or Thor receives an order to surrender me to his father. Whichever comes first.”
“Lady Lords, before anything else, that wouldn’t happen.” Thor interrupted.
“We’ll never know,” she replied. Thor was about to retort but she raised a hand. “Let me. So, today I want to tell you everything I know. I encourage you to ask questions.” She waited for them to acknowledge what she said as she sat back on her stool. “Okay, first of all, Natasha, Steve, what happened in Nevada?”
"It was an old S.H.I.E.L.D warehouse. Already listed as decommissioned in the 1970s but we found satellite tech inside. It confirms the possibility of a S.H.I.E.L.D agent working for or with Ares, because in the first place why would they use a decommed warehouse? There's nothing left there 'cept old bones and lost souls. And all have those necklaces like the one you brought here." Natasha reported.
“What does S.H.I.E.L.D do to their decommed areas? Do they sell it?” Stella inquired.
“No. They just leave it be or it gets demolished immediately after using it.”
“Okay.” Stella shifted. “So it’s possible it’s someone inside. What else happened?”
It was Steve who spoke this time. “There were humanoid beings that were summoned by sorcery.”
Stella pressed a button on the screen and footage of a shadow warrior appeared. Burly, tall beings with skin dark as the night, eyes glowing yellow, and a black smoke engulf their bodies. “Do they look like this?”
Steve nodded. “We thought we were the only ones in that compound until they showed up out of nowhere.”
“These shadow warriors, as I have observed, are powered by the amulets the demigods are wearing. I remember -” Stella paused as her heart started to ache - “I remember the shadow warriors disappeared when I destroyed Jericho’s amulet.
“Which leads us to Jericho.” She swiped the laptop’s screen and Jericho’s profile appeared in front of them. “This is Jericho Castle. He is Hermes’ son with a mortal. We were trained by Athena together and it looks like he has turned and worked for Ares.”
“How would you know that?” Steve asked. “I mean, how would you know he works for Ares? You haven’t talked to him yet.”
“He wouldn’t steal something Ares wanted if he was still working for the good cause. Being the son of Hermes, he gets the skills of his father. Cunning and he could freely move between realms, especially the world of the dead and the mortals. That makes him an asset to Ares.
“One of his strategies is he will try to outwit you. He’ll trick his way around the realms. That’s what saved him when he was trapped in the underworld. Jericho is a tough nut to crack. He's a fighter. He won't back down and sometimes he would play around with you.” Stella felt her stomach flip. Jericho’s cunningness reminded her of Loki being the god of mischief. If he was here, she thought, he would find this amusing, meeting another trickster. “That's all you need to know if you have to talk to him," Stella advised.
Thor dropped his head as he remembered his younger brother. “Like Loki?” He said.
Stella kept a straight face and replied, "yeah, like Loki" in a professional tone. "Jericho is tricky.” She took a sharp breath, she hated herself for breaking whenever she heard his name. The weird thing is, she now doesn’t feel guilt. She now feels like how she felt when her mother died: empty and lost.
She grabbed her arm, gripping it to bring her back to reality. “Another thing, Ares and Jericho don’t have any magical energy. At one point Ares has obtained magical energy. We still don’t know his source up until now. This might be the same source for the demigods’ and the amulets’ energies. But the source is not important right now.”
“So, we conclude that we are against magical beings?” Bruce clarified.
“Yes.” Stella pressed her watch and her energy is still steady at 67%, though her healing has become 51%. At this point, she stopped caring about whether her magic would return fully or not. The cells in Olympus are enchanted to stop magical energies from regenerating. Her powers are of no use. “That’s why Athena asked me and Loki to work with your team to go after Ares.”
Everyone locked their eyes on Stella when they heard her say his name. It was the first time for others since she woke up. She had her professional, Detective Lords expression is written on her face. They were talking to Detective Lords this time. The upbeat, carefree Stella was nowhere to be found.
But deep inside, Stella was curled up in a ball in the corners of her mind. She shouldn't be affected by this but it broke her to pieces. She expected them to talk about him or mention him; now she's cursing herself for caving in.
Bruce was studying Stella on the side. She looked so professional talking about Jericho and how to extract information from him but her eyes seemed distant. Eyes don't ever lie.
“So, what are we going to do with the demigod?” Thor asked.
“I’ll bring him with me back to Olympus,” Stella replied without missing a beat.
“On the other hand, Jericho only wanted to speak to you. He was asking you the whole time I tried to interrogate him.” Natasha told Stella. “I was close to using the truth serum on him.”
“After this, I’ll go speak to him.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Tony asked Stella.
She took a deep breath as tears threatened to reappear. “I have a few unknown days left. Might as well maximize my remaining time.” She shifted on her seat. “Speaking of, if ever you’ll face Ares, secure your weapons. He might try to steal it. He tried stealing the Excalibur, among others.”
“So if Ares sent Jericho to steal the scepter, then there is someone working for Ares who knows that the scepter and the tesseract work together.” Tony proposed. “What if -” he turned to Thor - “it’s Selvig?”
“Erik will do no such thing. He is intelligent enough to prevent something like that from happening again.” Thor stood up, dropping his arms to his sides. “Besides, the scepter is with us. No one can control his mind to work for them.”
“Where is he now?” Bruce asked.
“The last time I heard from him he was in Europe.”
“Clint and Fury also cleared Selvig on this case,” Natasha added.
Tony’s leg started shaking. “Then it’s someone new. Or old. Someone who has been in the scientific division of SHIELD for so long he or she has a higher clearance by now. Someone who can move around without giving any suspicions.”
“And you have to figure that out,” Stella said. “Though I wish I could see it firsthand.”
“Can you enter SHIELD? I guess you can.” Tony began, excitement bubbling in his voice.
“She doesn’t have enough security clearance to enter and know other information,” Steve said.
“But she’s an Avenger?”
“I’m not an Avenger,” Stella told Tony.
Tony turned to her. “You’re here with us now so you are.”
“De facto,” she pointed out.
“Still an Avenger.” Tony faced Steve. “But we need to know who’s working on the tesseract. Fury still has not given us the information. So, at least you can identify possible demigods before you...you know.” Tony gave Stella an empathetic look. She nodded, accepting what he said.
“Odin will not prosecute you for my brother’s death, Lady Lords,” Thor announced.
“Olympus will do it for Asgard,” she replied without a beat.
He walked to her. “I think Athena wouldn’t even let them do that to you. You’re the guardian and what happened was an accident.” He placed a hand on her shoulder.
Having this conversation was draining her. “It will happen, Thor. You don’t know Zeus.”
One by one the others left the lab, even Tony.
Thor’s shoulders dropped. “Aye. I don’t know how your father will react to that but I hope he will not sentence you for life imprisonment. I can testify for your innocence. I can talk to Athena. The realms need you.”
Stella stood up and looked up at him. “I wish I could be as optimistic as all of you.” She wrapped her arms around her. “Thor, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Her eyes started to become blurry with the tears that were threatening to fall.
“Stella.” Thor caught the first tear with a finger. “It’s not your fault. There is no need to apologize. I know what happened. I saw it. It wasn’t your fault.”
“I wielded the scepter, Thor. I stabbed your brother.”
Thor’s heart was pierced on her admission. “It was an accident.” He held her by her arms and looked her in the eyes. “Always remember that I don’t see it as your fault.” She still wasn’t buying it. Stella still thinks that it’s her fault, but for Thor and everyone else, she is innocent.
“Stella.”
…
“Hold on, darling.”
Stella threw the blankets off her as she woke up in the middle of the night, tears flowing from her eyes. It can’t be. He’s dead.
She scanned her room in the dark but there was no sign of him. I’m just dreaming, right?
She then brought her knees to her chest and cried, letting the darkness of her room comfort her.
It’s just a hallucination.