Revalation
Jane felt like, to put it simply, shit. The headaches had returned just as quickly as they left after she picked up the hammer for the first time. With the headaches came nausea and pains. Mjolnir was supposed to help but all it was doing was giving her powers whilst not living up the description the book gave of it being supposed to be able to prevents sickness and disease. It had only gotten worse as their adventure had gone on, to the point that she nearly collapsed from exhaustion during their latest run in with danger after an attempt to rally the gods had gone awry.
They were supposed to have an army but all they came out with was a single weapon: Thunderbolt. Just to make things even better, the hammer had started acting strange and even at one point directly flew against where she was telling it to go before seemingly catching the thrown bolt in mid-air. It had protected Peter without her asking to and for that she was grateful but she wouldn’t be able to use something if it didn’t listen to her.
“I know that look.” Valkyrie interrupted her train of thought “You’ve got something on your mind.” She said and it was true “I was just thinking about this shadow realm and if we’re really going to fight him on his own turf.” Jane lied not wanting the others to know of the malfunction of her weakness. “Well in that case take a drink. It’ll help calm the nerves.” The king said as she slid a glass of something colourful over if anything it looked quite nice.
Jane took it with a quizzed look “Oh calm down, love. It’s not poison.” Valkyrie insisted and Jane thought to herself that if she was already dying then why not try whatever this concoction might be. “If I die then I’m coming back to haunt you.” Jane joked before taking a swig and Valkyrie laughed loudly “There we go! I knew there was someone adventurous under that doctor persona.” She said with a series of claps. “It’s not actually that bad. Did you make this?” Jane asked taking another sip.
Brünnhilde smiled “You bet I did. I may be king but I still have some experience barkeeping on Sakaar.” She explained and Jane listened with rapt attention as the other women went in to great detail on the various types of people and aliens that she encountered on the other planet. Yet her eyes kept drifting to the strong biceps, tapping fingers and soft lips. “Uggh!” Jane abruptly cried out startling the other.
She abruptly left the cabin of the magic ship and stepped onto the deck where the other two were. Thor was pouring a drink on Stormbreaker as Peter watched from where he was on the floor with a confused and slightly disgusted expression. The ravage was tinkering with something that looked like a small spherical device before a bright flash had him clutching at his eyes with a yelp. Jane wanted to escape these confusing thoughts she was having about the other women but it felt like she was in some looney toons episode as she stepped from one problem into another.
A second of peace was all Jane wanted but instead she was in the middle of a madhouse of emotions and had no idea what to do. Plane and simple, she was out of her depth and without anything to help her stay afloat Jane drifted to Thor’s side. The man doesn’t expect this and is a startled for a second before reaffirming his stance. “Beautiful aren’t they?” He abruptly asks before Jane realises that the god was talking about “Oh umm sure.” She agrees but they’re already at the awkward phase as she catches that Peter was watching what she was doing with a look of contempt in his eye.
“I think we need to talk about us, Jane.” Thor suggests as he turns to face Jane who isn’t sure what he is on about “Sure. I’m all ears.” She says “I know there was a love between us before and that there still might be some of it left but I don’t think I want that anymore.” The thunder god explained before tensing up as he waited for a response “Uhm that’s fine because I don’t think it was ever going to work out between us anyway. I mean with you constantly off on space adventures and me in the lab all day.” Jane agreed and knew that if there was a time that she was going to confess the real reason then it was going to have to be now.
Thor let out a large sigh of relief at the response “Oh great! I thought you were going to say something completely different.” He put a hand on his chest in a dramatic manner
“I have cancer.” Jane blurted out.
“I’m sorry, What?” Thor muttered.
Jane was ashamed to admit that what she did next was try to retreat with a quiet “bye.” But Thor caught her hand and pulled her back “What did I say? I don’t have cancer. I was kidding.” She tried to brush off with a nervous laugh “Jane, I’m so sorry.” Thor said as his grin quickly turned into a frown “Don’t be sorry.” Jane didn’t want sympathy. It wouldn’t help anyway.
She couldn’t hide it any longer. She had to ‘face the music’ as her dad would say “At first I was just feeling tired and then they told me I had stage four. That I had to get my affairs in order then I heard Mjolnir calling to me so…” Jane revealed to Thor who responded with “So that’s why you came to new Asgard.” And Jane agreed “Yeah. I thought the hammer could cure me so I went to find out but it doesn’t seem to be doing much because in the end I still feel the same if not worse.” She said almost hopelessly.
Thor decided to try one of his pep talks, something he had picked up from Quill who always gave one to the guardians when things were starting to slack. “Jane, the hammer called to you because I told it to protect the ones I loved but you have long since proved yourself worthy. More worthy than when I met you and wasn’t even able to pick it up. We don’t know how much time we have but I’m sure you’ll find a way to spend it wisely.” He said before clasping her on the shoulder.
‘God, are you really that bad at pep talks?’ Jane thought to herself as half it was semi-inspiring, with the other half being a bit depressing. “Now whatever you want to do with this time you have left, I fully support and will help you with. Now, what do you want to do?” Thor asked with a serious tone “I want to get those children back to their families. I want to finish the mission.” She answered and Thor nodded. “Then let’s do it.” Thor promised as the two watched as the black and white space rapidly approached. It seemed as if it was absorbing any colour that was near it.
“We can’t be seriously going head first into that thing?” Peter questioned now standing up as if he hadn’t been eves dropping on the conversation and then pretending that he hadn’t been harbouring a jealously of Jane after she revealed the sickness. “We are.” Thor answered simply as the group stared as the unnerving sight of the what looked like a moon of sorts that was devoid of life.
Peter was sure that then could have been a better plan but since when did the guardians do anything logically?
-End of Chapter 5-