Is this the end of the world?
I cannot bear to watch it burn
But we're crawling in the dirt.
Is this the end of it all?
Well we used to stand so tall.
I barely recognise us anymore.

Logically, the tale of how the world ended would start at the beginning. However that is a story of hammers and giants, of hidden truths and self-discovery. The story of another woman and another God whose tale could not be given justice in these chapters.

Perhaps then the middle, a story of blue cubes and red energy, of dark elves and chitauri, of heroes and villains. A long and complex story which would only come slightly closer to the true tale of how the world ended.

So then, the story starts at the beginning of the end. A story of tasers and chapstick, of leather and helmets, of books and candlelight. A story of how a broken man found love in the most unlikely of places. A story of how love found an intern despite her best efforts to avoid it. A story of arguments, hatred, affection, disdain and passion.

A story, in short, of Ragnarök.

The end of the world started not with a bang but with a phone call.

"Hello?" Darcy asked, frowning at her phone. The number wasn't just unknown but the text across the screen said it was blocked from access. That was a first.

"Darcy?" The voice replied. "Oh thank God."

"Kate?" Darcy asked recognising the voice.

"Yeah listen-" She cut off as Darcy heard banging in the background.

"Is that gunfire?" Darcy asked, mouth gaping.

Jane looked up from where she was working, frowning at her questioningly.

"Yes. I don't have long so just listen, stuff is going down at SHIELD. If you are in a SHIELD facility you have to get out now. Okay?" Kate said.

"What?" Darcy asked in confusion. "Kate? Kate what's happening at SHIELD? Kate?"

But the other end was silent.

"Shit." Darcy swore.

"Darcy?" Jane asked. "What's happening?"

"We have to get out of here." Darcy replied.

"What? Why?" Jane asked, looking round at the lab.

"I don't know. Kate said shit was going down at SHIELD and we have to get out." Darcy grabbed her bag and started towards the door.

"That's it?" Jane asked, running to catch up. "That's all she said?"

"There wasn't time; I heard gun shots at the other end of the line." Darcy was trying to walk quickly down the halls without looking like she was running.

Jane was right next to her. "Where was she?"

"I don't know, she was in Washington last time I spoke to her." Darcy replied. She'd met Kate when they worked at the SHIELD facility in New Mexico but she worked undercover for SHIELD and moved wherever she was needed.

Darcy and Jane however were still in England, researching the residual energy from the planetary alignments.

Or more specifically they were in the London SHIELD research facility.

"We can't just abandon the research!" Jane protested.

"Oh yeah let's stay here even though agent thirteen told us not to just so we can protect some research." Darcy rolled her eyes dramatically. "How many times do I have to tell you I am not dying in the name of science?"

"Who said anything about dying?" Jane asked.

"In the three years we have known Kate has she ever phoned one of us to tell us we need to get out of SHIELD? No. You can stay if you want but I trust her." Darcy said.

Unsurprisingly Jane continued to follow her.

Darcy felt a twinge of guilt. Jane was insane but Darcy knew how much that research meant to her.

"It's not like we'll be gone forever, just until this mess gets cleared up." Darcy said in an attempt to be comforting.

"All SHIELD employees please report to Staff Area A." The intercom blared above her.

Jane sent Darcy a worried look.

"Well," Darcy tried. "Technically we aren't SHIELD employees."

"We need to get out of here quickly." Jane said.

Darcy nodded, hand going to her bag to pull her taser out. It never hurt to be prepared, right?

They reached the bottom of the stairs, the door that led out of the facility to their right.

Darcy's stomach clenched. The door seemed ominous and she instinctively clutched the taser harder.

Around them people were wandering out of labs in confusion, the kind of scientists who lived at work and rarely ventured out.

Or as Darcy liked to call them: the kind of lame scientists who didn't have an awesome, hot, fun intern. Jane was so lucky.

Darcy turned the handle to outside.

"What are you doing?" A man in SHIELD uniform asked outside. He held a long gun diagonally across his body, not aimed at them but held as though that could change in an instant.

Darcy flicked her taser at him and pressed the button before she was even aware of what she was doing.

"Darcy!" Jane yelled, eyes wide in horror.

She'd stunned a SHIELD officer. She was in soooo much trouble.

"Forget that!" Darcy yelled. "Run!"

They sprinted away from the building, adrenaline rushing in their veins. The fact SHIELD had been surrounded had made them both terrified that they would be pursued. Neither Jane nor Darcy were especially fit so they both desperately hoped no one was following them.

People on the street stared at them oddly but they were too busy running to care. Someone wolf-whistled them and Darcy didn't even stick her middle finger up at them.

See Jane, I can prioritise, she thought.

They'd run for about ten minutes before Darcy physically couldn't anymore. She collapsed against the side of a building gasping for air. Each breath burned in her lungs and she had so many stitches she didn't know which one hurt morest.

She almost had war time flashbacks of the bleep test in high school.

Jane who was equally out of breath stopped next to her, hands on her knees and gasping.

Once Darcy had some more oxygen in her system, she lifted her head to look around. The area of London they were in wasn't familiar but at least they weren't obviously being followed.

It was the kind of area where every butcher was halal and every other shop was a polish delicatessen.

Darcy seriously loved London. You could go from the SHIELD research centre surrounded by glass and chrome sky scrapers to somewhere like this just by walking (or in their case running). The majority of the shops were closed with corrugated metal shutters over the front, covered in graffiti, that weren't even bothering with 'For Sale' signs anymore.

"Jane." Darcy said, mouth gaping as she stared at a small cafe opposite.

"What?" Jane asked, head snapping up at Darcy's tone.

"Look at that TV." She said.

The cafe had a small TV in the corner of it showing BBC news. Which was currently showing live footage of Captain America battling helicarriers.

"Is that Steve?" Jane asked in shock.

Darcy slumped against the wall. "Holy shit."

"What do you mean SHIELD are closing down?" Jane demanded on the phone a few days later.

Darcy looked up from her game of candy crush. It had been a few days since their mad run from SHIELD. They were staying with Jane's mom in England. They knew it wasn't a very secret place but it was better than their SHIELD given house.

"What the hell does that even mean? 'Disbanded due to internal corruption?' What do you mean that's classified? Classified by whom because SHIELD doesn't exist anymore apparently." Jane fumed.

Jane began pacing. It was a good thing her mom was out because Darcy could tell Jane was on the edge of swearing.

Darcy texted Kate.

'Can you explain this whole SHIELD disbanded thing? How is that at all a good idea?' Darcy sent.

"So where are we supposed to work?...Yes but if another company are buying the research facility they are hardly going to let me keep doing my research there without being signed on." And they wouldn't let her intern stay either, Darcy thought. "No it is not my problem, it is yours. You can't just put people out of jobs!...Hello? Hello!"

Jane slammed her phone down on the table.

"Dude, careful. That's an iPhone. It'll break." Darcy said, barely looking up.

"I don't care." Jane snapped. "Shield is disbanded, we need to find somewhere to do research."

"What about with STARK?" Darcy asked. "You could probably just name drop Thor and he'd let us work there."

"Every single SHIELD employee will be going straight to STARK Industries. I'm not making Stark even more powerful than he already is." Jane said. "And besides, we need to stay in England."

Darcy sighed. "Don't tell me we're reverting to doing science out of your bedroom."

"I don't see what other choice we have." Jane said angrily. "Why on Earth are they disbanding SHIELD? That's the worst idea ever."

"Steve came to an agreement with Fury that once they sorted Hydra out they'd shut down SHIELD. He disagreed with the invasion of privacy SHIELD worked with." Darcy read.

"How do you know that?" Jane demanded.

Darcy waved her phone at her. "Kate texted."

She wasn't even particularly close with Kate but she'd been texting her for answers a lot recently.

They'd found out Hydra were the corrupt party yesterday. Darcy had been confused. She thought that was some world war two thing that was definitely over by now.

"In which case they change their policies a bit, they don't get rid of the entire agency!" Jane said. "Do you know how much more crime there's going to be?"

"They'll probably replace it with a similar yet 'completely different' government agency. Called SWORD or something." Darcy said.

Jane shook her head. "I don't think they will, Darcy. They're selling off all the companies and everything. And besides, SHIELD was above the government, it wasn't confined to one country. This...this is big."

Oh well, Darcy thought. In her opinion it was stupid to get rid of SHIELD but it wasn't like it affected her that much. She didn't work for them just with them. Not that she got paid...

"I can't believe the others let him do this. Do you know how much stuff they're saying about people like Clint and Natasha? I don't know what's real and what isn't. I mean that stuff about Budapest? No way that happened. All of it's public now. I mean, if we didn't have confirmation it was Steve I would have said it was The Rising Tide or something." Jane continued.

"What's Banner doing?" Darcy asked. "He was a scientist at a SHIELD facility as well, right?"

They'd had to work with him a few times, them needing his help on radiation and he needing Jane's knowledge of astrophysics, even though that was only one of her three degrees.

"I spoke to him yesterday, he's going to lay low for a while. I think he was kind of relieved to get away from SHIELD for a bit." Jane replied.

Darcy's phone started to vibrate in her hands. She frowned as she saw it was another blocked number.

"Hello?" She asked.

"We must speak to Dr Foster." A cold voice said.

Darcy narrowed her eyes at the phone. "Can I ask who is calling?"

"We shall explain that to Dr Foster."

"Then phone her." Darcy replied.

"Put her on the phone. Now." The voice demanded.

Darcy was tempted to just press the end call button but her curiosity over why they were phoning Jane- particularly in such a demanding way- was too great.

Frowning in confusion at Jane, she passed over her phone.

"Hello? Dr Foster speaking." Jane said.

Darcy couldn't hear what was being said but Jane visibly paled.

"I'm not interested." She said in a voice that was evidently trying to be calm.

The voice obviously continued speaking. Jane listened for a moment. "I appreciate the offer but I'm fine."

Then she hung up the phone and returned it with a shaky hand.

"So who was that?" Darcy asked, attempting to sound casual.

Jane opened her mouth to open but the sound of the doorbell ringing sounded through the room.

Jane looked startled, turning to face Darcy who had immediately turned to grab her taser which she never kept very far from her these days. Right now it was slipped down the side of her boot.

Jane smiled slightly in amusement. "If it were Hydra I don't think they'd ring the doorbell."

Darcy ignored her and moved to the side of the door as Jane opened it.

"Jane!" Thor greeted as he entered, moving to hug her.

"Thor." Jane said back, melting against him.

Darcy put her taser back in her boot and made gagging motions as they kissed.

"Oh stop." Jane said to her as she pulled away, smiling and looking slightly bashful. She turned back to Thor. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you in a few days."

"I was dealing with a quarrel on Alfheim. When I returned Heimdall informed me of what had happened and I harkened to the Allfather immediately." Thor said.

"Odin?" Jane asked. "What's he got to do with this?"

"Tell me Jane," Thor said. "Has anyone contacted you?"

Jane paled once more and Darcy recalled the weird phone call she'd received before Thor had arrived.

Thor nodded solemnly. "I thought as much. What did they say?"

"They offered me a job." Jane said. "Scientific research."

"Wait," Darcy said. "Why is that bad?"

"It was not research that was necessarily legal." Jane said evasively.

"Oh." Darcy replied.

Jane wrung her hands together nervously. "I mean I told them I wasn't interested. It'll be fine."

Darcy wasn't convinced, it sounded more like Jane was trying to calm herself down. She didn't quite believe it was 'offering' as 'demanding' given their demanding tone.

"Why'd you go to Odin?" Darcy asked.

"I have heard SHIELD has dispersed." Thor said and they nodded. "With no one to protect you I feared others would contact you, either for your own scientific skills or as leverage against me."

"So Odin?" Jane asked.

Thor grinned so broadly Darcy had to resist the urge to smile herself. He was like a giant puppy.

"It is all arranged. To protect you both, the Allfather has consented to allow you to reside in Asgard."

Chapter title and lyrics from The Swarm by You Me At Six. Yeah I apologise for the pretentious start and song lyrics but it is Ragnarok so it needs to be big and pretentious. I guess this isn't so much the first chapter as it is a prologue but yeah.

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