The Beginning of the End
One breath in.
It’s been weeks since she last saw Jane and she can’t seem to find a way out for either of them. Darcy is trapped in Haze – she could leave if she wanted but truth was that there was no better place for a woman in the Slums than Haze – and she hears word that Madame Aida will debut her new Doves in a party that night.
"If your sister really is one of them, she will be bought tonight to be Clipped”
Darcy is cleaning the bar when she hears Elektra’s voice behind her. She hated Elektra, everyone did but no one messed with her because she was Red Skull’s favorite. Darcy continues her task at hand but the woman doesn’t leave.
“You don’t get it do you?” Elektra scoffs, “Whether you like it or not, this is your life now” She walks pass her, bumping their shoulders on purpose, “And that will be hers"
She can’t accept it yet.
One breath out.
Jane was safe. As safe as either of them could be. She had been told by Sadie that a girl fitting Jane’s description had been bought by ‘his Highness’ Alexander Pierce, alongside a few others. Red Skull had bought one for himself the day before, she called herself Rosebud and now walked around the bar like she owned it.
At first she is shocked, then worried, Jane was now living with a High Commander. The worst feeling though, as days pass and Elektra keeps getting into her head, is the anger that takes control of her. Jane was living with a HighCommander while she was stuck in a seedy bar.
This was her life now and that was Jane’s. She had it better. The worst part is that she envies her.
She tries to drown it with alcohol.
One breath in.
Two night later the opportunity for her to escape arrives.
Haze is packed with customers, including a party of twelve men that come from The Cinders. That’s where she finds him. Loki Odinson. She had met him briefly over five years ago, and Jane was promised to marry his brother. Always the best for Jane.
Darcy waits until he stands to go to the bathrooms to talk to him. She tells him she left Glassmere after there was a fire in her house, for some reason the full truth doesn’t seem like a good idea, and Loki offers his condolences for her lost. He tells her that she shouldn’t be in an establishment like that and offers to take her with him to The Cinders, we are old friends after all, he says and Darcy can’t believe her luck.
One breath out.
Something isn’t quite right about The Cinders. And when Thor dies in a horse-riding freak accident, she begins to worry. His sister Hela arrives a few days after Thor’s passing and Darcy hates her immediately. She hides in her room with a bottle of cognac she stole from Loki’s studio. A few days later she had been rummaging in the maid’s attic when she found an old radio, it was dusty and looked like it hadn’t been used in a while but it could be easily fixed. She does fix it, and even manages to amplify the signal, surfing through several channels until she can find the same one she used in Glassmere to talk to her friends.
That night Loki needs her out of the house and lets her drive to the citadel, where she hides in a bar and drinks herself to oblivion. She thinks is just for fun, or because it calms her down, but it’s to drown the voice that blames her for leaving Jane behind.
Once home, the radio is beeping, someone was trying to contact her. Darcy hides in her closet with it and answers.
“This is Letitia Fox” The voice at the other end says, “This is- we are here"
All might be lost for her, but at least she isn’t alone.
One breath in.
She is not in Arcadia anymore. Jane is not in Arcadia anymore.
Darcy feels a combination of relief and guilt, and she finds herself returning to the same bar she goes almost every night, drinking by herself. Jane would try to find her, and once she did she would hate her for abandoning her in that place.
She finally tells Loki about Jane and he pretended to care, saying he would sent for her. Darcy doesn’t give a fuck about Loki anymore and she can’t stand being around Hela either. Jane is going to hate all of them, her included. There was something going on too, that kept them so busy and late at night having hushed conversations in Loki’s studio, she didn’t want to find herself tangled with their business so she kept away from the house as much as she could.
“Hey”
She turns to find a man smiling at her on the bar. Blond hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders. If she didn’t feel as miserable as she did she would go for it.
“Get lost” Darcy says instead.
The man chuckles and sits next to her, “How did a nice girl like-“
“Like me ended up in a place like this” Darcy looks at him unimpressed, “Seriously” she deadpans, “That’s the line you are going for?”
He laughs amused, and gestures the bartender for a drink. They only serve beer and vodka there, so he asks for a beer.
“Not a heavy drinker?”
The man shrugs, “Not really” he says, “Are you from around here or…”
Darcy cocks an eyebrow, “A bit too soon to ask where my place is"
The man’s lips quirk upwards but he drops whatever facade he had. Darcy pushes her glass away and stands.
“Your messages to Glassmere are being intercepted”
She freezes.
“Darcy Lewis”
Her blood runs cold and she turns to him slowly. The man gestures her to sit but she glances at the exit, she could make a run for it. She tries remembering if she said something to Letitia that could get her in trouble with Loki, but she can’t think of anything.
The man then says, “I’m here because I need your help”
Darcy frowns.
“Just listen to what I have to say” He says, “If you don’t… If you want to leave afterwards, I won’t stop you”
After a few seconds she nods and sits next to him.
He tells her about Hydra. About Loki and Hela being part of some kind of criminal organisation that has existed for decades. How they are the responsible for Glassmere falling and how they are putting their grand plan in motion. But there was people trying to stop them, and they needed someone on the inside to help them get ‘sensitive’ information they knew Loki had in his possession. He tells her that if she agreed, they would help her get to the Freelands. It was her chance to make things right, to redeem herself for… Everything she feels guilty for. And once Loki gets Jane and they reunite… She will forgive her.
“Tell me what I have to do”
He smiles.
He gives her a small chip and tells her to just leave it anywhere near a computer and it will copy every file in a matter of minutes, and then slides a device towards her. Everything you need to know about Hydra is there. He gives her co-ordinates and tells her that they will wait but not for long. In that moment the bartender tells her she has a message coming from Catalean. The man next to her stands, before he leaves he leans towards her and whispers in her ear.
“Welcome to the resistance”
One breath out.
Darcy stops feeling the pain but he can still feel the warm blood pouring out of her. The bullet lodged inside and the fragments making the wound throb. She stares in the direction Bucky Barnes left, and sighs relieved when she can’t see him anymore, the darkness working as a mantle of protection as he and Jane make their escape. She reaches for her bag, Bucky had thankfully left it next to her before he laid her on the ground.
“Over here!”
The Shadow Men start leaving the cottage. She reaches inside the bag as she struggles to stand, knowing that they had already found her. The lights from the flashlights blind her briefly, when her eyes get used she can see there are eight men surrounding her, holding they rifles to her. They are all shouting, at her or eachother she can’t quiet get it, her eyesight is blurring and she feels tired. But she isn’t scared.
She isn’t scared of Loki.
“What is that on your hand!?” One man shouts, “Put your hands up!”
She isn’t scared of those men.
Darcy shakes her head, “They never fail who die in a great cause"
She isn’t scared of dying.
“It’s a grenade!”
Darcy takes her last breath in.
When she opens her eyes all she sees it’s clarity for a few seconds.
There is a soft song playing in the background, and she blinks several times before she stands up slowly. She inhales the sweet smell of cinnamon around her and finally focuses her gaze. Her mother’s face is split into a warm smile that reaches her kind eyes, She returns it at the same time Julia opens her arms for her.
“Mama?” Her voice breaks, it sounds distant to herself, “Mama!”
Julia’s hair smells sweet, and she is so warm when Darcy embraces her, “It’s alright, baby, I’m here”
Darcy buries her head on the crook of her neck and soon the tears start streaming down her face. She was having a bad dream, she wants to say, something bad happened but… When Darcy can’t remember what it was, and her throat is too tight to speak she lets herself cry.
“Baby mine, I’m here now” Julia leaves a kiss on her hair, “Don’t cry”
Darcy let’s out a whimper that turns to a chuckle, and she looks at her mother’s face. She kisses her mother’s forehead and smiles at her.
“I’m just so…” She lets out a soft laugh, and the tears blur her sight once again, “I’m so happy you are here, mama”
Julia’s warm laugh fill the air. Darcy sees her extent a hand to her, she’s on the doorway now. Her feet are naked and the floor is soft underneath, and she feels like floating as she moves closer to her mother again.
“Nothing can hurt you now”
Last breath out.
He’s almost outside the barn when he hears the explosion. Even though he was far, it felt like it had happened right next to him. The ground shakes under him and he falls to his knees, the gravel scratch his palms before he covers his ears too late.
Say this words.
There is a ringing in his ears. His lungs are burning, his knees feels weak, but he continues to run without looking back. Come on, Buck, come on. He takes two sharp breaths in and lifts himself up. He tells himself to keep moving, to keep running.
Say this words, soldier.
A man jumps from the shadow, and he pounces over him. He slams his fist against his face until he stops struggling under him. the ringing inside his head finally goes away, and then there’s silence.
Sirius, Talilah…
He can smell the smoke, and when he looks behind he can see the house being consumed by the fire. But he makes it to the barn. It’s quiet, and he pushes the doors not knowing if he made any sound. All he can hear now is his heart is pounding in his ears and his own heavy breathing.
Algol, Rigel.
He gets into the car and slams the door closed. Jane is saying something, he looks at her but no sound comes from her lips as they move. He sees Jane is holding the keys and takes it from her, but he can’t seem to figure how to turn the car on When he finds the key slot his hands are shaking to hard. Darcy died for them.
Star.
She calls his name but he doesn’t seem to be there. His eyes are wide and there is cold sweat running down his brow. His sigh blurs and, dammit, he's crying and choking.
“Siri- siri-“
“Bucky, Buck look at me” Jane puts both hands on each side of his face, warm against the cold sweat running down his forehead. He looks at her, and circles her wrist.
“Bucky, what was that? What happened?”
He wrenches himself from her hold and shakes his head.
“We have to go” He says, “Sirius, Ta-talilah”
“What?” Jane looks as his shaky hands reach for the keys, “Bucky, what are you saying? What-“
“Algol- Algol, Rigel”
“What are you- Where is Darcy?”
He turns shifts the gear and when she stops him, he slaps her hand away.
“Where is Darcy?!” She pushes, “Is she in the other car? Are we-“
“She’s dead, Jane” Bucky says, but it comes out too quietly.
Jane can’t hear him over the commotion going on outside. Bucky keeps repeating the same thing over and over, but he doesn’t give her an answer. When she looks at the barn doors and realises they remain close, and no one is coming, she tries to ignore the noise and focus on him.
“Are we- are we taking both cars?”
Bucky shakes his head and she takes a sharp breath in. For a second everything is still, quiet, and he grips the steering wheel like he is trying not to pass out. Jane sees his hands are covered in dirt, and there is blood in his shirt. He said… He said Darcy... Jane’s eyes they are glassy and her chest is moving up and down at a fast pace.
“Darcy is-“
“No” Jane shuts her eyes, “no, no, no Bucky, she-”
“She was shot, they- they found us and-” It was his fault, he can’t look at her and tell her that, “We have to leave now, Jane or-“
Jane doesn’t listen to him, she turns around and opens the passengers door, getting out in a swift motion. Her legs shake and her hands are cold as ice, nails digging into her palms, and she hears him open his door. He reaches Jane in two long strides and grabs her arm.
“We have to go!” Bucky says, “Time’s run-“
"Did you see her die?!” She tries wrenching herself from his grip, “Bucky did you-"
"Yes I did!" He shouts.
Jane freezes. She hears herself beg frantically, that she wants to go back for her, she can help her, they can’t leave her, as Bucky drags her towards the car again, as she punches his chest and pushes him off her. The alarm form the house seems to be everywhere now and he can hear shouting getting closer to them.
Jane is not listening to him. He swallows the nod in his throat. The injector he had taken from Hela is in his left pocket, and he grips Jane’s wrist, the one fisting his shirt as she sobs loudly.
“Let me go back, please!” She cries, “Ple- Bucky, let me go back”
He hugs her tightly and presses the needle against her neck.
Jane gasps when she feels a sting on her neck, and she lets go of Bucky as if he was made of fire. His arms around her don’t stop her, and he isn’t looking at her. Her eyes go wide and she takes her hand to her neck. Bucky forces himself to look at her, and when he gives a step forward, she gives one back.
An the voices outside are too close.
“I’m sorry, Jane”
“What is- what did… Did you do?”
When her knees give up on her, he catches her. And Jane protests are weak. He sits her on the passengers seat and puts her seatbelt on.
“Bucky”
Jane tries to look at him but her head feels too heavy, and she feels her temple bang against the cold glass window. When she looks outside they are moving. Everything is moving, the world starts spinning around as she feels the sting on her neck fade away and being replaced by a buzzing sensation that spreads across her body. She feels but doesn’t at all. Jane tries calling his name again, but she can’t seem to be able to talk at all, the name trapped in her throat and her tongue heavy in her mouth.
What did you do to me?
“Bu…”
Jane feels the fabric of his shirt as she manages to reach for his shoulder, and grips tightly making him look at her.
“Why?”
The man looks away, and she lets out a breath that turns into a choked out sob. Tears sting her eyes and she tries to blink them away but everything blurs out, his face only a dark shadow next to her. Where are we going to go now. As she drifts away to an unwanted sleep, she wonders how could it feel like he’s her perdition when he was once her salvation.
And my body is wear, feel my heart giving up on me
And my body is weak, feel my lungs giving up on me
I'm worried it might be just something my soul needs
And I see war on the screen and it is cruel and unclean
But I still worry more about you