Her New Life

Chapter 70: Series Penultimate Finale- Strength

"Plan from here on out?"

"Well, we could always just wait for it to lose power?" Thor suggested with a hand raised.

"I've got a better idea. I have a feeling that Dark is still in there-" Loki started only to be interrupted by Foolscap.

Foolscap sneered, "How do you know? Seems pretty gone to me."

"Maybe I got to know her instead of being a torturer and kidnapper!" Loki growled at Foolscap before proceeding. "As I was saying, I believe Dark is this in there. She had the forethought to try and run away from the city before getting overpowered by the stone. It's safe to say that she's just trapped in the cage of her mind, maybe we can help her get the key so to speak. "

"How so?" Rex asks.

"I have a spell that allows me, or rather my consciousness, to travel into other's consciousness. I can use it on Dark and help her gain control."

"Two questions. One, have you done this before like recently? And two, are you sure it'll work?"

"I'm sure this will work." He walked over to the wires and ducked into the cage. He then made a running start and jumped into the black cosmo stone's matter and to Dark. Placing his hands delicately on her cheeks as he channels his magic through her.

"What about the second question?!" Hawkeye screamed at the top of his lungs before Loki's body went slightly limp as his consciousness traveled to Dark's.

The first thing he noticed about dark's mind was how dark it was. It was as if a heavy dark mist surrounded everything, one couldn't see past their outstretched hand. Loki took a few steps and called out to Dark.

"Dark! Dark, I'm here! Where are you?" A few more steps and a few more were taken as he continued to call out to her. The darkness seemed to be creeping towards him, his visibility was decreasing. With the lack of visibility, he wasn't prepared to trip on a soft, squishy object.

"Shit!" Loki braced his fall with outstretched palms, finding that the floor was a little farther than he expected as he crashed onto his shoulder. Slowly, he rubbed his head and sat up, crawling towards the outstretched item. To his horror it was a human arm, Loki's breathing quickened and he grabbed the arm and checked the pulse. Nothing. Whose arm was this? Could it be Dark's? Was he too late? He followed the arm to its body and saw the face of a person he didn't know. Concern grew inside him as he got up and called out for Dark again.

"Loki? Loki! Help me!" A voice screeched in reply, it sounded like Dark and Loki ran towards its source. Though within a few steps he realized that the voice was everywhere, the voice echoed throughout the darkness.

"Dark! Where are you?" Loki swiped his arms around in a futile attempt to disperse the darkness. Dark's voice continued to call though her voice became strangled, an almost hostile tone had taken over the previous helpless tone. The voice echoed louder as well. And then within an instant, Loki felt an impact on his ribs. Sent flying through the darkness, he struggled to stand up after a harsh landing. He was perplexed to see that nothing was there to pummel him further, perhaps it was awaiting a chance to sneak attack again? He couldn't let the force get that chance.

"Looookkiii!" Dark's voice was a sing-song tone that sent shivers down Loki's spine, it wasn't her voice. "Loki come out and play!"

Loki made a mad dash away from the noise, trying to use his senses to find Dark.

"Oh come on Loki, if you're gonna stop my fun in the real world, you could at least indulge me in here." A twisted-looking being emerged in front of him with a grin. It seemed to be both parts of the darkness and a separate entity.

"The black cosmo stone." Loki growled, "Where is she? What have you done to her?"

"Just finished up the Space Pirates work, months of torture do things- horrible things- to the human psyche. It's great if you need a weak, susceptible mind to take over and that's exactly what I needed and got. She's in here, floating through the abyss, a broken shell."

Loki seethed and lashed out with his fist only to find that his fist went through a sudden gap in the figure. Before he could pull out strings attached to his arm, so tight that they could cut off blood circulation. He screamed out in pain, trying desperately to tug his hand away from the hole. He didn't realize that the darkness around them was vanishing, revealing Dark, gripping her head and whimpering.

Loki clenched his teeth and looked around for an exit, noticing Dark. "Dark! Dark!" He didn't know what else to say.

Dark looked up at him and fresh tears stained her cheeks, eyes puffy and red. "Please not him! Not Loki Not Loki!" She tried to crawl towards them but the same string entangling Loki entangled her.

"See? Broken." The figure laughed.

"You're wrong, Dark was never broken. Humans never break, sure they have their ups and downs but they never break. Humans are strong and Dark is one of the strongest. Dark, did you hear that! I believe in you! I believe in your strength, your heart, your kindness! I believe in you and I always will! You can do this!' Loki reaches out towards Dark with an expression of pure admiration and love.

Dark looks at him wide-eyed as if he just said something in Asgardian. Her eyes close peacefully and she stands up, wavering only slightly. The bindings around her don't seem to be causing her that much harm.

"He's wrong Dark, you know he is." The black cosmo stone's manipulation was failing.

"He's not wrong, he's right. I'm not broken, I'm strong. I went through so much shit, between you, the Space Pirates, and just shit in general. And I came out on top, I'll always come out on top because I've got the strength. I'll come out on top this time as well." There was a small gleam of white that surrounded Dark, almost unnoticeable as Dark broke free from her bindings. She walked towards the figure which seemed to shrink as she approached. She reached her hand out and connected with it, a screech rang through the area as the black Cosmo stone returned to a small orb encapsulated by what seemed to be glass.

Loki rubbed his wrists where the bindings were, "What is that?" He pointed towards the glass that cosmo stone resided in.

Dark didn't even answer as she rushed up to Loki and suffocated him in a hug, "Thank you, thank you for believing in me! Thank you for showing me things that I was too afraid to see!" Tears of joy seeped down her onto Loki's shirt. He didn't mind, mostly because he was technically a manifestation of his consciousness and also since he too was crying.

"Only doing what you do, Dark."

Author's note: 

Hi, soooo quick thing. Sorry that this is really really late. Before this chapter was due I struggled with some mental health problems that postponed it, unfortunately, my family had also planned a vacation the week after this chapter's due date. That vacation postponed this chapter even further and I continued to struggle with mental health even after the vacation. More so than before. I'm feeling better now so here the chapter is. 

Now onto the fact that this is the second to last chapter of this series. This was some dumb fanfiction(obviously) that I created a while ago. And to be honest, I'm not the fondest of it and as much as this fanfiction needs to be continued a little bit, I can't because I'm not interested in continuing it anymore. I have other things that I'm working on that is my original work and I'm more interested in developing that instead. So that is why this series is might have an unsatisfying end. Anyway, thank you all for reading my random fanfic that's a cross between Marvel and Dinosaur King and I'll see you guys next week for the series finale.