Chapter 14

Leaving the group behind, I follow the medallion's urgings until I turn down a hallway that leads to a dead end.

Looking around, I saw nothing out of the ordinary for an abandoned building until I inspected the floor. About halfway down the hallway, I see a bulky-looking piece of tech lying on the floor. Getting closer to it, I hear it giving off a tone like a Geiger counter but it has an LCD screen showing a waveform that is going crazy.

Leaning down to pick it up, I notice something more worrying.

Stretching down to the end of the hall were two parallel lines that looked like something or someone had been dragged down the hallway.

I moved quickly down the hallway, and the closer I got, the more the Space Stone reacted. Just as I reached the end of the hall and walked into the wall, my sense of direction did a summersault, and I found myself transported elsewhere.

Suddenly arriving in such a dark and foreboding place set me on edge, and I prepared for something else to happen with my arrival. Taking a look at my surroundings, I find myself surrounded by massive monoliths that rise from an inky-black void below the stone platform I'm standing on, far up into swirling black and grey smoke clouds way above me.

The platform is barren except for another monolith at the very center. The huge square blocks of rock, tower over me at about twenty-to-thirty feet in height. It was two pieces of greyish-black stone as if it was cleaved in half but didn't topple over.

Nothing happened as I scanned the area, so I slowly made my way toward the obelisk; if the Space Stone wanted me to come here, it looked like this had something to do with it.

Walking up to the obelisk, I felt a presence coming from around the area that caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. Everything here was in constant flux and caused my sense of space to spaze out.

It wasn't until I followed the feeling, that I found who I was looking for. Dr. Jane Foster. She was lying limp on her side, on the opposite side of the obelisk from where I arrived. 

'Just what I needed, Thor's paramour getting mixed up in something potentially dangerous.'

Trying to gently roll her onto her back to try and figure out the cause for her current state, caused an extremely violent reaction.

The moment my hand touched her shoulder, a wave of crimson particles blasted out of her body in all directions, making her spasm wildly on the ground and throwing me back several feet.

'Okay, no touching.' I thought to myself as ideas and theories ran through my head. The Space Stone was reacting erratically now, light radiating out from the medallion was bathing the area around me in an azure hue. As the light reached Dr. Foster I noticed something strange occur.

Those same crimson particles that had just reacted to me touching her, were now seeping out of her skin and floating around her in streams.

The familiar ephemeral power flooding the area, along with the Space Stones' resonance with it, revealed what I was dealing with here. The crimson-red hue clued me into this being the Reality Stone from the vision the Space Stone gave me those months ago atop Stark's tower.

'So this is why it wanted me to come here. Another stone.'

Steading myself, I slowly move closer to the doctor, making sure not to cause another violent reaction. As I got within a few feet of her, the energy gave an almost 'hissing' sound at my presence. So I stilled and didn't move any closer. Instead, I pushed out my power to cover the area to try and contain it. And to make sure it wasn't killing her; Thor said I was an extreme anomaly, being able to wield a Stone so freely that most would die moments after touching one.

I was able to get a sense of what was happening to her. The Reality Stone was acting like a parasite inside her, using her as a host. But her body wasn't capable of holding the unrestrained power and was slowly deteriorating under the strain. I focused on first stopping the degradation of her body before moving on to removing the stone from her. 

It would seem, that just like the Space Stone and Mind Stone in Loki's staff, the other Stones have a kind of sentience. The Reality Stone resisted my ability to extract it from the doctor, having taken a liking to her. But after a while of struggling, it finally released its hold on her, slowly pouring out of her body, causing her to spasm once again during the process.

Eventually, it looked like the last vestiges had left her as they rose and collected into a swirling crimson-black sphere above her. It was a strange sight, watching the cosmic energy as it spun and pulsed between being solid like sand into a liquid and then back.

Calmly reaching out to it with my hand, gains its attention. A sense of curiosity washes over me as it slowly extends a tendril to me. Instead of lashing out as it did from inside Dr. Foster, it ghosts over my hand and up my arm, twisting around and around as it goes up to my shoulder. It crawls across my shoulder blades like a snake before dipping down my chest, making contact with the medallion holding the Space Stone.

It recoils slightly and lets out a *hiss* like again, vibrating its form. After not getting a reaction, it touches the medallion again, brushing across its surface and starting to radiate a crimson light. The Space Stone seems to copy it by releasing azure-blue light in return.

The Reality stone pulls itself off my arm before collecting back into a ball and hovering in front of my chest.

My first thought was that it was attacking me again. But I was quickly proven wrong when the massive ball of swirling non-Newtonian liquid shrank rapidly, compressing down, until only a thumb-size crimson-black stone remained in its place, floating before me.

It did not react this time as I reached out and grasped it. But I learned from the last time and didn't let it flood me with power like the Space Stone did. I focused on connecting to the Reality Stone, the same I learned to do with the Space Stone. It proved surprisingly easy as it yielded to me quickly. I felt its power lying dormant, just waiting to be called upon. 

The power also held enlightenment for me as it broadened my horizon of what my power could truly do.

Creating matter and objects out of nothing, willing them into existence. Conjuring it from my imagination alone.

No more statistical chance, or rather, controlling the outcome; a coin flip would always land on heads if that is what you wanted. 

Invoking rules over reality that could never be questioned or disobeyed by those actively perceiving it.

The Space Stone is extremely powerful, but the Reality Stone... it's something else entirely. I take hold of the medallion and attempt to put the Reality Stone into one of its facets. As I bring it close, the stone warps and melts into a 'liquid' state and pours itself into the depression before becoming a stone again. 

Shaking my head at the strangeness of this stone, I turn my attention back to Dr. Foster. She's still breathing by the looks of it, but I should get her out of here. 

Gently picking her up into my arms, I focus on creating a portal out of this place back to the factory building in London. I'm forced to utilize the Space Stone as, wherever this place is, it's FAR away from Earth.

_________________________

Arriving back on Earth, the sun had fallen behind the horizon, twilight transitioning into night. Surprising as I could have sworn it was less than two hours since I came to London. 

As I was walking toward the building's exit, Jane began to regain consciousness.

"Whaa," She groans, looking up at me, "What happened? Who are you?"

"My name is Dante, a friend of Thor's. What happened to you is... well, that is a bit of a long conversation. Are you feeling alright?" I ask her as I gently set her on her feet, making sure she has stable footing.

"I... I'm fine, I think. You know Thor? Is he here, too?" She looks expectantly for my answer.

"Sorry. But I haven't seen Thor in over two months. He's been pretty busy from what I gathered."

She looks downcast at my answer,

"Hey, is that my scanner?" She grabs the tech out of my hand that I picked up from the hallway and inspects it thoroughly.

"I believe it's yours. I found it on the ground in the hallway before I found you," I look up and notice it is quickly growing darker by the minute, " We should probably find your friend, Darcy, and that other man that was with her."

As we walk out of the building into the parking lot, we see Darcy speaking to a British police officer before she notices Jane,

"JANE!" Darcy yells out, quickly running over, "Where the hell were you?!"

"Please tell me you didn't call the police," Jane says to her.

"What was I supposed to do? I was freaking out."

"NOT call the police. You call the cops, they call the FEDs. Next thing you know, we have SHIELD crawling all over, "Area 51-ing" the place..." Jane starts to rant.

During her build-up, there was a low roll of thunder overhead and it began to rain. But the strange part was, that the area surrounding Jane, Darcy, and I was not being touched by this sudden downpour. Almost like we were under an awning.

I immediately looked around for the cause of this phenomenon and caught sight of it, as he walked in from the distance.

"Thor, of course," I mutter to myself. But even with the pattering of rain around us, Jane managed to hear me, cutting her rant off mid-sentence.

She quickly walks toward Thor without another word, which causes the 'umbrella' that was stopping the rain to follow her, leaving Darcy and me in the rain.

"Typical," Darcy says with a huff as she tries to pull her jacket over her head for cover from the rain.

"Here," I say, getting her attention, as I try one of the ideas that the Reality Stone gave me.

I pictured a large, sturdy umbrella and flexed my power to manifest it into reality. With a barely audible *pop* of displaced air, the umbrella appeared in my hand.

"Whoa, I've seen strange things from Thor and his friends, but that's new." She says. She pokes the offered umbrella with a finger, confirming it's really before taking it. "Thank you. Look at you, handsome, a gentleman, and a real magician. You single by any chance?" She asks with a smirk and a wink while opening the umbrella.

I take a moment to take her in now that there isn't anything pressing to deal with. She's quite beautiful with a slightly nerdy aesthetic, but her attitude tells me she's anything but shy.

My attention is grabbed by the sound of a loud *SMACK*. Turning around, I see Jane smack Thor again, *SMACK*.

"She hasn't seen him in, like, months. He promised he'd be back, then vanished. She's a little pissed." Darcy answers my questioning look.

We both walk over to the pair, 

"Hi," Darcy breaks them out of their little world of staring at one another, "So, this you?" She points up to the sky, implying the rain.

Thor looks up and realizes it only now, and quickly stops the thunderstorm.

"My apologies, I was worried when Heimdall lost sight of Jane. I arrived as quickly as possible," Thor says to us and notices my presence, "Dante, my friend. What has brought you here with Jane and Darcy?"

"Now that you mention it..." Jane trails off, wondering as well.

"I noticed extreme spatial distortions taking place across the entire world. When I looked into the cause, I noticed an unusually high number of anomalies were located here, in London. So I came to find the cause," I say gesturing to the building, "I happened to meet Darcy and..." I looked over to the guy still talking to the police,

"My intern," Darcy answered.

"Right. After hearing that Dr. Foster was scanning for the same anomalies, I went to look for her. She did end up finding it, unfortunately. One of the distortions acted as a portal to a place far, far away from Earth,"

Thor's eyes widen and Jane starts to space out,

"That dark place..." Jane mumbles.

"Yes, Doctor. You came in contact with something, something powerful," I say as I show my medallion,

"Ooh, fancy. Why are there only two stones though, and the rest are empty?" Darcy asks

"Another stone... she was in contact with an Infinity Stone? Jane, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Thor quickly begins looking at Jane for any sign of injury.

"I feel fine, Thor."

"She is okay, Thor," I say to calm him down, " I removed the Reality Stone from her body. It was acting like a symbiote or a parasite, using her as its host. I checked it had been causing her body to deteriorate, but I fixed any damage it caused."

Thor sighs in relief,

"Good, good. Yet again I am in your debt, my friend. I can't imagine what would have befallen Jane if you hadn't been here."

"Hold on," Jane speaks up, "What are you talking about? It couldn't have been that bad. I feel fine."

Thor looks at Jane and speaks in a serious tone,

"You are extremely lucky Dante was here to remove the stone from you, Jane. He is one of the only people I know of who has wielded a stone without dying. It is a miracle that you are even alive after coming into contact with it."

"You guys are saying those stones on his necklace could have killed Jane? Why the hell are you wearing them then?! How are you not in the same danger?" Darcy asks, clearly worried.

"That is a bit of a long story, Darcy. I'll just say I'm able to control their power, they don't affect me in the same way as others." I answer vaguely.

It didn't seem to comfort her much, but she didn't push for more.

"I trust in your abilities, Dante. But I still would like Jane to be seen by Asgardian healers. Just in case." Thor says to me.

"I understand. No offense taken, Thor. But is it okay for you to take her to Asgard? I got the feeling it wasn't something you could just do on a whim."

Odin had let me stay on Asgard since I had helped get Loki back to face judgment and then fix the Bifrost. But I got the sense that it wasn't normal for humans to be on Asgard from the comments of others there.

"As long as Jane is alright, I shall deal with the repercussions that may come from Father," He says with conviction and then turns to Jane, "Will you come with me, Jane?"

"To Asgard? Yes, of course." She says excitedly.

Thor wraps his arm around her and raises Mjolnir over their heads, causing another rumble of thunder overhead.

I gently touch Darcy's shoulder, pulling her away from the two of them. There is another *boom* of thunder before an aurora of light shoots down from the clouds, encompassing Jane and Thor. Then, with a bright flash, they're gone. Leaving only a smoking circle or Asgardian runes on the ground in their wake.

"Ugggh!" Darcy groans from beside me, "There they go again. I feel like an afterthought."

Looking over at her, I see she looks downcast,

"You asked me if I was seeing anyone?" I say to her, getting a cute reaction,

"Huh?" She looked momentarily stunned, blinking her eyes for a few seconds at the quick change in topic, but recovered quickly, "Yes, and...?"

"Would you join me for dinner tonight?" I smile, and she quickly returns it with a smoldering look and a smirk.

She turns to the side and yells out across the parking lot,

"Hey, intern! Get the car back to Jane's office," She yells, getting the guy's attention before turning back to me, "Drop me off at my apartment, I want to change first."