So, this is a much shorter chapter than anticipated and it might actually get changed before I move on with things. However, anyone who is curious needs to know that I'm going on an extended Hiatus until sometime mid 2017. So there will be no updates until that point. For the people who are still following this story or have been following since the begining I apologize but I look forward to coming back to this someday and I promise to finish this crazy ride someday. I love you all and wish you the best for the next 18 months or so.

Time… and space… the only real constants. Unseeing eyes opened as the universe spun around him. Time shifts were rare but they did happen and when they did something was always left venerable. Called by his thoughts the servant appeared before his master.

"The tesseract… It is still on Midgard correct?" The master already knew the answer, the question was more for his servant's benefit.

"Yes… and the time shift has left Midgard with out the protection of Asgard."

A dark smile revealed broken teeth, and the universe kept on spinning.

"Why then haven't the chitari been released?" This remark was met by silence and the smile quickly fell off his face. "Well?"

"The time shift is still moving, the opening available to us would not be enough to even get the first squadron out."

"I want Midgard at my mercy. Send out what ever you can to assure that when the armies arrive there will be no resistance."

"We still have the elementals from the last raid. Should that please you?"

Finally turning to face his servant contemplative eyes reflected the spinning lights and the kneeling form of the only other presence.

"They will have to do. Go send them out before the shift ends." The servant nodded and then disappeared, leaving the master with the universe still spinning around him. Time… A constant, and a weakness to exploit.

"So guess what mom." Darcy said finally getting to the reason she had called her parents. "It's official… I have finally finished my last college coarse." There was squealing on the other end of the phone and It was the perfect sound to hear after such a long week.

It had been a long day of rebuilding tech and paperwork finally being filled out and Darcy had needed to get out of the apartment. The fact that the three of them were out of milk had been the perfect excuse. The last week had been crazy, in a good way. Erik had left three days after their shopping trip. He had promised to keep in touch but it was obvious that he needed a break. Not that she blamed the man, between trying to explain the way things worked to Thor and Jane thinking up new ways to improve her inventions and gear. Things were pretty hectic at their place. Rebuilding was going well and the days were always busy. But the nights were more so Darcy had claimed from five to midnight her time and Jane and Thor had to comply. Every other night was movie night and the nights in between were baking. Making pizza had been Darcy's favorite as of yet. Thor's face when he first bit into the cheesy goodness that was apparently a uniquely earth dish was priceless. Still with all that food making they were running through cooking supplies fast.

"That's my girl." Darcy grinned at the sound of her father's voice. "All grown up about to take those politicians apart."

"We're going to have to celebrate! You're father and I are going to the Stark expo next week it wouldn't be that hard to meet you there."

"Sounds great Mom. Mind if I bring a couple of friends along?" It wouldn't be that hard to convince Jane to tag along the stark expo would have a lot of shiny toys for Jane to look at and a bunch of science-y people for her to argue with, And Thor still seemed set on following Jane around so that wouldn't be a problem either.

"Well of coarse we wouldn't mind… are any of your friends cute boys?" Darcy laughed as her dad made a sound of protest. There was a bit of shuffling from the sound of the phone and then her dad's voice got even louder.

"If you have boys with you they aren't allowed to come." There was a smacking sound and Darcy could picture the exact expression on her dad's face as his pained 'ow' came through the phone.

"Spencer! Darcy is twenty-five years old and perfectly able to make decisions on her own. If she has a boyfriend it's her business. In fact I should think you might be looking forward to grandchildren at this point."

"Grandchildren! Kristen! My baby girl's to young to be giving me grandkids."

Darcy laughed as her mom started up in Darcy's defense. Her dad really didn't mind but he had always said it was his right to put up a token of protest. "Don't worry dad just one guy and he's interested in Jane not me." There was a pause in her parents playful arguing as they both digested this.

"Dang… I guess I shouldn't have scared off all of your high school boyfriends then." Darcy let out a startled laugh as her mom snorted. Darcy loved her parents to death after all they raised the awesomeness that was herself. Darcy had never quiet gone through the stage of hating her parents that most kids had. Sure there were times that she didn't tell her parents every little thing that she was getting into, but they had always been for her. It was actually her dad who had taught her how to make fake IDs his profession being that of a cop. He had gone through a period of time where he had been sure that some one was after his family and had taken every available precaution. Her mom was a part time nurse but hadn't been on call in years.

Darcy shrugged the bag of groceries higher up on her shoulder trying not to drop the phone while she was at it. It was a dark night the partial cloud cover was making it hard to see the moon though the ball of light was making its appearance known every few minutes. Darcy had decided to take the long way back to the apartment so she would have more time to talk to her parents but now with the increasingly heavy bag of milk and pop-tarts starting to cut off her circulation she was starting to wish she had taken the shorter route.

"Spencer… You have made your position on Darcy and her high school boyfriends very clear you can't go back now. Restraining orders are pretty permanent like that."

Darcy snorted, "I had nearly forgotten about that." Darcy said with a laugh "Don't worry dad the guys in high school weren't worth it. Anyways, moving on, Stark Expo next week?"

"Yep. We thought we would look in on it and see some of the new technology coming out…"

Darcy laughed, "More like dad's paranoia started up again and he wants to make sure that he knows exactly what's out there right?"

Her dad's sound of protest was cut off by her mother's cheerful "Yep." And Darcy found herself laughing again. Darcy was about to say something else when her phone buzzed. Darcy pulled it away from her ear and glanced at it.

"Hey dad I've got an incoming phone call and I really should hurry home. I'll call you back tomorrow after I've talked to my friends. Love you bye!"

"Love you too Darce." And her mothers parting words of "Having a boyfriend is fun." Blended together and Darcy answered the second call.

"'Ello, this is Darcy."

"Darcy, have you left the store yet?"

"Yep, did you need something else?"

Darcy could practically hear Jane's wince. "Well… yes, but if you're already close to the apartment then…" She trailed off and Darcy bit off a groan.

"Yah, Yah, I'll head back but your going to owe me-" the rest of Darcy's sentence got cut off as an arm shot out of the alleyway she was walking past. Darcy gave a cry as her phone dropped to the ground and was stepped on roughly by a large shoe. She didn't have time to react however as rough hands grabbed her and pulled her off of the sidewalk.

Adrenaline flew through her system but even as Darcy struggled she could feel her captor getting a better grip. Terror however had always had an interesting effect on Darcy's mouth.

"You jerk! That was my phone! If you're going to drag me into a dark alley then you might as well do the polite thing and be nice to my possessions! I lost my iPod this month too; at least the men in black were polite enough to not break it, but you sir didn't even have the decency to let me end my conversation and let me tell you that will bring you nothing but grief because Jane will send the god of thunder after me and you do not want to see what happens when Thor gets his hands on you."

The man spun her around so fast that Darcy was forced to stop talking. "Shut up." He snarled even as he pulled both of her wrists into one of his hands and lifted them above her head. For the first time it crossed her mind that she might be in real trouble and fear shot though her.

"Heck No! I won't shut up! You get your hands off me and I might just go easy on you. You over sized-" His other hand went roughly over her mouth and Darcy reacted by slamming her boots down his shin and onto his foot before jerking back up to knee him in the groin. The man grunted in pain and his hands loosened and Darcy squirmed out of his grip when his fist went into her stomach. Darcy doubled over but had enough sense to scoot away from her attacker. She searched around frantically for her purse and the taser on the inside and was just reaching for her bag when she felt a kick to the back of her legs. Darcy fell to the ground and looked up to see the snarling face of her attacker.

"Well, this sucks. You suck." Darcy really couldn't help it. Her mouth really did have a mind of it's own.

"You're annoying." He pulled back his leg to kick her and Darcy felt her eyes widen as she prepared to roll away from the oncoming blow.

"Get away from her!" Darcy let out a breath of relief when she heard Jane's voice, that didn't stop her from rolling to her side however which turned out to be a good thing as Darcy felt the man's shoe just clip her side. The world spun as she finished her roll leaving Darcy feeling more than a little disorientated, even then she felt more than saw Thor's entrance. There was a thud and the man cried out.

"I would do as the lady says." Darcy finally got her bearings and looked up to see Thor standing between her and the man who was now on the ground. The man wasted no time getting back up and looking Thor over. Darcy could see the flash of fear across his face but the man's eyes turned towards her and there was a flash of anger.

The man snarled wordlessly "Move it you oversized-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence. Thor moved so fast Darcy barely saw his fist move but in moments the man flew into the nearby wall hit it with a loud thud and fell to the ground unconscious. There was silence for a long moment before Darcy finally let out a startled laugh. The sound seemed to break the tension and Darcy watched as the tensing of Thor's shoulders slowly drained. Jane burst into motion and was at Darcy's side helping her up.

"Are you okay?" Jane asked her voice was tinged with just a touch of hysteria.

"Yah I'm totally fine, you know I had him on the ropes and everything. But how did you guys get here so fast it's been like barely a minute?"

"While I was talking to you on the phone Thor had been looking out the window and he saw you get pulled into the alleyway and we used the fire escape to get down. I don't think I've ever moved that fast in my life."

"Thanks." Darcy said with a smile. Even though the adrenaline was running off she didn't feel like she was going to fall apart she felt totally calm, maybe still in a bit of pain, but not scared. Darcy gave a grin at Thor who was just turning towards them. "And thank you, you big, muscly-" She was cut off as Thor strode forward and scooped the both of them into a large hug.

Jane gave a cry of surprise but Darcy just laughed and used her free arm to kind of awkwardly hug him back. "Seriously Thor, thank you. And I'm fine now so don't worry about me."

"I will always worry about you Darcy. It is my honor to worry about you."

Darcy beamed into Thor's shoulder and let the warmth wash over her. "Okay, big guy, can you put me down now."

He set them down quickly and Darcy winced at the pain in her stomach. Jane however was looking over at the now unconscious man. "Who was he though? He doesn't look drunk, and it looked like he was more intent on grabbing you then stealing from you."

"Well Dr. Foster the answer to that question is a bit more complicated than you'd think."

Darcy snorted as she spun around to face a semi familiar face. "I should have known that the men in black had a hand in this. The crazy things started happening only after you showed up." Darcy paused as she looked closer at the three agents at the end of the alleyway. "Hey wait, where's Colson and Arms? I was promised a date."

Jane snorted but her eyes had narrowed. Darcy really couldn't blame her seeing as SHIELD really hadn't been the best neighbors while they were in New Mexico so the fact that they had shown up again just as Jane was starting to get traction didn't look super great for the secret agents.

"We need the three of you to come back to New Mexico." The dude on the right said totally ignoring her question, while the guy in the middle was doing a pretty good impression of a statue, and the dude on the left stood there and tried to look professional but seemed to be giving Thor some wary looks.

Jane stiffened but it was Thor who moved first. Darcy watched as he took a deliberate step forward in-between Jane and the agents. "It is not your choice on whether or not we go with you. I would even venture to say that you have no right to even request we come with you."

"Dude's right." Darcy said with a shrug as she reached down and got her purse, carefully checking over her taser to make sure it wasn't damaged. Loosing her Ipod, phone, and taser within a month would have been just too much. "You haven't been following the rules of agents and civilians all that well. Seriously like I would make a better secret agent then you and that's saying something."

Seeing the offended looks on all three of their faces was totally worth overplaying her bluffing skills.

"Why should we even consider going back with you?" Jane snarled, "You took all my stuff and have threatened to do so again repeatedly!"

"She's got a point too." Darcy said as she casually adjusted the settings on her taser.

"If you come back with us we can insure your safety."

"This man here attacked Darcy while you were all near by," Thor stated his eyes cold, "if that is a showing of your ability to 'insure our safety' then I believe we will be better on our own."

"Oh, burn. Thor's got you there." Darcy stated as she casually wandered over to her attacker and started searching his pockets.

"Your attacker was simply a common mugger, there is no way to account for randomness." The man on the right said his eyes still on Darcy. "What exactly are you doing?"

"Hey you defeat an enemy and then you take the loot." Darcy said, "Ever played any RPG? Besides he broke my phone, he owes me now. Oh look a gun, wonder why he didn't use it?"

"A gun?" Jane's voice cut off anything any of the agents were about to say and Darcy grinned widely as she carefully handed over the evidence.

"Yep and not just any gun, that's military issue." Darcy said with a smile even as Jane's face started to twist into a scowl, "I'd know, my dad's obsessed with the possible dangers out there."

"What did you just say about randomness?" Jane's voice was threatening and Darcy smiled widely at the suddenly much less confident agents. It helped Jane's case of course to have Thor's giant form to be looming over them.

"There are factions within SHEILD that don't believe the three of you are competent enough to deal with the world Agent Coulson is considering bringing you into." The one in the middle finally stated looking at Thor defiantly. "They do not represent the whole but they did wish to have their voice heard. The fact that he made it this far is irrelevant seeing as the orders just came through for the three of you to return to New Mexico due to new developments."

"Wait," Darcy said holding up her hand, face in a frown. "Your saying that some guy breaking my phone, was a test?"

Jane's face was furious and Thor's was just as dark, but as much as Darcy kind of wanted to see them both explode she needed to know.

"So did we pass?"

There was a moment of complete stunned silence. The three agents were still tensed as if ready to run, and Jane was staring at Darcy with out any comprehension on her face. Thor just kind of sighed and leaned back, still ready to jump in but his eyes were alight with amusement and Darcy sent a wink at him.

"Seriously, did we pass? 'Cause if I lost my phone to a test that I didn't even win at; I'm going to be really upset. Speaking of which, I'm going to have to demand compensation no matter what your answer is, between my phone, my Ipod, and Jane's research I'm pretty sure you could find yourself in a demanding legal battle."

"You can't sue us!" The one on the left finally blurted out, obviously still off balance.

"Sure I can, I just got my political science degree I know all the rules." Darcy said with a shrug, before looking over at Jane who seemed to have finally calmed down enough to use her big brain and think about the situation.

"You said there were new developments down in New Mexico. What exactly does the entail?" She asked looking much calmer. Darcy rolled her eyes. Of course that was the first thing she was going to ask. If there was even a hint of new scientific discoveries Jane would go into bloodhound mode and find them.

"That's classified-" the one in the middle started but one glance at Thor who had pushed back off the ally wall and he quickly continued. "-and shouldn't be discussed out in the open, but we've been cleared to fill you in as we travel."

Darcy glanced over at Thor and Jane and was relieved to see them glance at her too. She was a bit worried that they might not have spent enough time together to really start on the silent communication thing but even Thor was in with them. This family thing she was going for was really building itself faster than Darcy had hoped.

Darcy and Jane leaned in towards Thor who took the position facing the agents and gave them another glare before focusing his attention on his companions. Darcy gave a mental cheer at his obvious protectiveness. Thor was the best.

"I do not like their offer." Thor stated bluntly. "There is a chance that they will simply try and take your possessions again and we do not have Erik with us to help again should we need it."

"I agree, but if there is even the slightest chance of getting the rest of my research and equipment back I need to take it." Jane said seriously. "Even with my notebook back there are still tail ends of my research that I could do a lot more with if I had access to them."

"Besides the men in black seem to at least be trying to be a little more honest with us now that we've almost caught them in a lie." Darcy said as she patted her taser again just as a reassurance. "But let's really look at our options, if we go with them we don't really know what we're getting into."

"But we could possibly get my research back." Jane added.

"If we don't," Darcy continued with a nod of acknowledgement to Jane. "We could head out to New York for the Stark Expo," Jane perked up at the mention. "My parents just invited us and we could hang out with my dad the cop for a while."

"I do not know your father, but you have mentioned that these cops are peace keepers. I see no problems with that option." Thor said simply. "Though I also do not think that this SHEILD will let us go easily even if we do we can not hide from them forever."

"So wait was that a vote yes or no for Stark Expo?" Darcy asked after trying to figure out his meaning by herself and failing miserably.

Thor was silent as he stared over their shoulders at nothing in particular and Darcy fought the urge to tap her foot impatiently. "I would prefer to try and keep you safe but Jane is right this might be our best chance to regain her research. While I would prefer to have this meeting on our terms by at least appearing willing we can figure out the best way to approach them in the future in necessary. It is a sound battle strategy and the best I can think up for this short notice."

Jane smiled up at Thor and Darcy rolled her eyes. "Okay, sure, sound's like I'm a bit out voted, though if we can go to the Stark Expo it would be cool to slip that in as an option at some point before next week."

"I'd love to go to the expo too but I also need to know what's going on in New Mexico that's drastic enough for them to consider calling us back." Jane said seriously, and Darcy gave a reluctant nod.

"Okay," Darcy said pitching her voice loudly as she turned around to face the agents. "Sounds like a plan you'll have a moving van here on this street by tomorrow morning right?" The agent's looked startled but Darcy plowed on. "Great, your request for our presence has been granted and I'm sure that you'll want to make our trip as comfortable as possible, seeing as I need to move out of the apartment by next month anyways I'll graciously let you all help me get packed an moved. If that thing in New Mexico is as ground breaking as your implying then you better hurry up and find some moving people, I'm not sure we'll even be able to leave until all my stuffed animals are safe and that could take hours."

The Agents looked like they were going to protest but Darcy just sent them a wide smile, "Also it looks like my SIM card survived to if you could get a new phone for me by tomorrow to I'd greatly appreciate it. Anyways we should head to bed, need a good night's sleep, long day ahead helping out in New Mexico tomorrow. We'll see you in the morning. Bye!"

Darcy skipped over and picked up the discarded bag of groceries which had miraculously survived with only a few dents and started towards the apartment building. Behind her she heard Thor's voice, "You all heard the lady Darcy, we shall see you in the morning."

Jane quickly caught up to her and Darcy sent her a grin, "You know I'm not sure whether you should actually talk to the agents again I'm not sure you're helping our chances."

"Ah, They'll grow to love me I'm sure, I mean you did after all."

"Yes but I'm not sure we have the time to convert an entire secret organization to Darcyism."

"There is always time for Darcyism. Also I think after everything they've put us through I deserve at least something back and some new followers is always nice."

"You say that so seriously, I was just joking, and I'm not sure these guys are the type just to follow anyone."

"Sure they are, they wear suits." At Jane's look Darcy rolled her eyes. "Look between your brains, Thor's brawn, and my theology we'll have your stuff back in no time I promise."

"I'm not as convinced on your theology but sure, why not, we're already half way to crazy anyways."

"That's the sprit now we better get some sleep I was serious about that long day."

Once again, short, but I wanted to update everything with what I had before I disapeared for a while. Anyways, keep on going my friends, your reviews and alerts have been a blessing for me and I look forward to coming back someday.