𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃

23. 𝗹𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲

Thor continues. "Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves. Ooh," Thor chuckles. "Scary beings. So, Jane, actually . . ." Thor taps the screen, and a picture of Jane appeared on the screen. "Oh, there she is. Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and the Aether stuck itself inside her . . . and she became very, very sick."

Darcy furrows her brows, raising a hand to rest just over her lips.

"And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from, and we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see, and I--I got to introduce her to my--my mother . . ." Thor sighs sadly, and Darcy frowns at the sudden mood change. "Who's dead and, um . . . Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so . . ." Bruce signals for Thor to stop talking, but the god ignores him, mostly because he wasn't even paying attention to anyone at this point. "Yes, these things happen, though. You know, nothing lasts forever. The only thing that--"

Tony walks up towards Thor, motioning for him to go back to his seat. "Why don't you come sit down?"

"I'm not done yet," Thor pushes Tony back. He continues with his sad speech, though everyone was pretty much a little uncomfortable at this point. Darcy couldn't stop looking at Thor with a frown on her face, which clearly showed that she felt slightly awkward and sympathetic for the god. "The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence."

Tony claps, trying to clarify that Thor is done and isn't in the right state of mind to be doing this. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?"

Thor smiles. "No. I'd like a Bloody Mary."

Darcy makes a face, looking away as she mutters under her breath. "Wow."

Next, Rocket was presenting the Power Stone, but this time, they took their session to another table; they all had take out. "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag."

Darcy scoops up a spoonful of fried rice and pops it in her mouth; she picks up her chopsticks and begins to eat her noodles.

"Is that a person?" Bruce wonders.

"No, Morag's a planet," Rocket says as if everyone should've known. "Quill was a person."

"Like a planet?" Scott wonders in excitement. The thought of there being other planets and living beings out there is so surreal to him. "Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look," Rocket nears Scott on the table. He taunts the man by rubbing his head. "It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Scott pulls his head away from the raccoon's little paw, his smile already gone. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

Darcy swallows her noodles before looking over to her friends. "I can't be the only one who found that super weird, right?"

Next, the Soul Stone, which was presented by Nebula and in a little conference room. "Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir."

Taking notes, Natasha asks questions. "What is Vormir?"

"A dominion of death," Darcy's eyes widen a bit, not actually expecting that. "At the very center of celestial existence. It's where Thanos . . . murdered my sister."

The room grew silent and tense. Darcy drops her head and closes her eyes, sighing to herself as she is pretty sure she understands why it's called the Soul Stone now.

But then someone spoke up, and it had Darcy glaring at him. "Not it," Scott noticed the woman's glare, so he drops his head and doesn't look at anyone.