Psych - HIATUS

אחד

"I don't have a better answer," said Azriel.

"Shall we look inside?" Samuel suggested. The trio carefully placed the Apparatus on the ground. You slowly opened the box, wondering what you'd find.

You don't know what you expected. Something that would look more like a relic, no? Instead, it was full of sand. The finest sand you had ever laid your eyes on. It was dark and shiny, almost like charcoal. You eyed Azriel and Samuel in confusion. "Sand?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Azriel, but there isn't a whole lot of sand in the Arabian peninsula that's black," Samuel said.

"There isn't any black sand that I know of," Azriel confirmed.

Enthralled, you scooped some sand in your hand and raised it, letting the sand sift back into the Apparatus. "I wonder how it could've gotten here?"

"This'll be the mystery for the next era of Hebrew archaeology," Samuel stated.

"Indeed it will. If God wills it, we'll learn more of this Hebrew myth that isn't as mythical as we thought," Azriel agreed.

You wisely didn't respond, knowing that any misplaced words could cause a religious flame war or offend someone.

When you were in the vehicle heading back to Tel Aviv, you let Azriel drive and you went to your phone. "What's so important on there?" Samuel asked. Usually you drive, considering you don't trust other drivers.

"Oh, I'm just excited to get back to a book I'm reading," you said, trying not to panic. You didn't want your professional reputation to be harmed because people knew you were reading a fluffy Avengers x Reader.

Unconcerned, Samuel left you to the fanfic while he and Azriel talked about another site Saudi Arabia that was interesting.

When you arrived, Azriel and Samuel went to discuss the find with the museum director in Tel Aviv and left you to "read your book." Like they expected you to do that.

You put your phone in your pocket and walked over to the Apparatus. You being one of the three in charge of the dig, no one questioned it. You slid the Apparatus open and peered inside at the sand.

Huh, I thought it was darker than this, you thought. The sand was now a very dark grey rather than a black. To be fair, you were in a poorly lit room when you first looked at it, so it's unsurprising that it looked darker then.

You studied the inside of the box. It was plain other than the sand. The outside was very decorative and had several characters engraven into it. The characters were in Hebrew or Aramaic, you figured. You'd ask Azriel later what it said.

You wondered what was at the bottom of the box. You started pushing the sand around in the box, keeping it all in the box, but piling it up on one side. 

The bottom of the box was silver, which made it clash with the sand. It was smooth and it appeared to cover the entire bottom.

Satisfied, you closed the lid and opened Wattpad back up.

When Samuel and Azriel came back, the three of you carried the Apparatus inside. "This feels...heavier than it was earlier," you said.

"You're right," Samuel agreed. "That's weird."

You got the Apparatus in the building, and took a big swig from your water bottle. You rubbed your fingers across your temples.

"Are you okay?" Azriel asked.

"Yeah, I'm probably just dehydrated," you said. Azriel nodded and threw a plastic water bottle at you, despite seeing you holding one already.

Boring talking to the museum director. Blah blah blah. You loved archaeology, but this part was the worst. It agitated your migraine. Seeing your pain, Azriel and Samuel did most of the talking for you, you only saying "Yep" and "Nope." The director, noticing the reasoning behind this, directed most of the conversation to Azriel and Samuel.

As soon as you could, you went back to the vehicle. In a day you went back to your home in San Francisco. Your head still pounded with pain, and you were about to go to a doctor about it. It wasn't excruciating, but it was lasting longer than usual.

You weren't home to often. You were always off in Arabia. You had considered getting a home in Israel in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, but you have so much family in San Francisco that it was worth it to stay in California.

Normally, you would've been back in the Middle East, probably Cairo. But you couldn't even think about getting on a plane and working at a dig in your condition. You stayed home and watched some of your favorite MCU movies: Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, and Avengers: Infinity War.

During the final battle of Wakanda, your head ache got worse. You thought it was because there's so much movie in this movie. Too much for your brain to take in. Too tired to get the remote and turn it off, you lie down on the couch and close your eyes. You listen to the mess called Infinity War and massage your temples. Why does it hurt so bad? you thought.

As Thor came to Wakanda, the pain increased. It hurt just to hear Thor hurl Stormbreaker across the Wakandan plains. It became excruciating very quickly. The last thing you heard was the Snap.

•••

"Ugh, what happened?" you asked as you woke up.

"I, uh, I don't know," said a gentle female voice. You opened your eyes to see a young woman you had never seen before lean against the wall. You quickly took in your surroundings, and saw you were in a hospital room, speaking to a doctor.

"How did I get here?" you asked.

"We found you unconscious on the street a block away and thought you had been mugged. I don't think you were though, your wallet has your ID, cards, and cash." The doctor sighed. "How did you end up there?"

"I wasn't in the street! I was at home, watching a movie," you said in confusion.

"Have you been drinking?"

"I don't drink!"

"Illegal drugs?"

"What? No, I don't do that stuff! And you'd know if I did! You could do a blood test!"

The doctor sighed. "I'm just tryna find an explanation as to why you were outside of your home. When you were inside, were you experiencing any discomforts?"

"Yeah, I had a headache for a few days. It was getting really bad, I was about to call my mom and have her drive me to a doctor."

"We can do a brain scan." The doctor proceeded to do a CAT scan on you. "Nothing looks wrong. Your parietal lobes and cerebellum are slightly larger than average, but that shouldn't cause any problems."

"Is there anything wrong with me?"

"Nothing but a small road rash."

"So can I go?"

"Yes, just come back if your head hurts again, then we can do a PET scan."

•••

You went home and got on your laptop to look at the news. You were expecting something about the current political situation. Not what you saw. The headline read:

BREAKING NEWS: TONY STARK REVEALS HIMSELF AS "IRON MAN"

Iron Man? you thought. This is old news! The movie came out in 2008, it's 2019 now. What is this?

You clicked the article and skimmed through it. It was from BBC, an actual news outlet, not some fanboy on Reddit. You looked at more news articles. It was about Tony Stark being captured by terrorists, Tony Stark being rescued by the US Air Force, Tony Stark closing down his weapons production, Iron Man fighting terrorists, etc.

The heck?!