ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴʟʏ ʟɪɢʜᴛ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋɴᴇss ❹

Chapter 1

1 : The Darkness

They didn’t know how this happened to humanity. They used to see the world in color until God decided to take this precious gift from them. After centuries and centuries they turned the world into cruel and evil place. The world was now in only black and white, as if to make them suffer for their own mischief. The only way to get rid of this curse was when you met your soulmate, met the right partner.

Your soulmate is the only person on this earth that will make you see the world in color again. They are the only person that when you look them in the eyes for the first time, they will give back the power of color.

It was a rare chance for people to find their true soulmate.

Most people only found their ‘life mate’. Your life-mate was the person who you met, who you shared life experiences with that form a strong bond between two people and those two people genuinely loved one another for who they really are.

A soulmate has a deeper bond and deeper level of connection than a life-mate. Once you meet your true soulmate, the bond will bind both of you within a second; You can’t run, you can’t hide, and you can’t deny it.

The same curse had no exception even earth’s mightiest heroes had to suffer the same thing.

Even though the world was rotten to hell, a villain still tried to conquer it every single day; As if the black and white vision wasn’t bad enough! This time it was Loki leading an army of aliens called the Chitauri.

The Avengers managed to save the day. The team consisted of five members; Ironman or Tony Stark, The Hulk or Dr. Bruce Banner, Thor the lightning god, Hawkeye or Clint Barton and Black Widow or Natasha Romanoff.

It was a hard fight but they managed to win the war. SHIELD had to use all their forces to clean up the mess in New York. Stark Tower was almost destroyed but was now renovated to become a home of the Avengers.

Thor transported Loki back to Asgard to face the Asgardian justice for his crimes against the Nine Realms. The god promised to come back as soon as he finished his business with Loki.

Clint and Natasha had to go back to SHIELD immediately after the battle. Fury tasked Hawkeye for a scout mission in Europe for potential recruits while Natasha remained at SHIELD and helped Fury and Hill handle the cleanup in New York.

Three months after the incident, the Avengers reunited again for the opening of Stark Tower. Tony invited everyone to live in the tower and specially designed the five top floors for each member to have their own space.

Everyone agreed to this because they knew Tony wouldn’t give up asking them. Natasha only agreed because of Pepper nicely asking her to move in; she couldn’t handle this much testosterone in one building alone.

The welcome party was held when everyone finally moved in and Clint was back from Europe.

“Legolas! Welcome back, buddy” Tony greeted and hugged Clint.

“Hey, Stark, still your pretty usual flamboyant self.” The archer shot back and Tony smiled.

“I designed the top floor for you buddy but I didn’t know which color you like the most….”

“Don’t worry, man. I’ve only known two colors my entire life.”

Clint received a very warm welcome from everyone and the last one was Natasha who hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek.

“You’re still alive.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Nat?”

“Just kidding” Nat said, “I’m glad that you’re back.”

“It’s good to be back.”

Everyone enjoyed the little party. Tony and Pepper introduced the team to James Rhodes or the War Machine who will join the team the next time they face a global catastrophe. Rhodey quickly blended in with the group. Mostly because everyone couldn’t stand Tony Stark.

Thor already came back from Asgard and brought Jane and Darcy along with him, not to mention that the astrophysicist saw color again because of Thor which brought them to the subject of soulmates and life-mates again.

“What is it like, Stark?” Natasha asked curiously “To see the color again and not having to live in black and white?”

“It’s great, actually. I feel alive again. I can see you guys wearing very stupid matching clothes.”

“I never heard your case before, Stark.” Clint spoke up “I’m not sure that the curse worked that way. I don’t believe in a life-mate

“What why, Clint?” Nat asked because she’d only heard of the word soulmate.

“The curse was that humans had to live in black and white until they found their soul-mate.” Bruce told “Tony knew Pepper for a long time but they didn’t see the color right away.”

“It was like a light flickering sometimes.” Tony explained “Sometimes I thought I saw colors but nah, it was just black and white. Until that day I kiss her after the Stark expo incident and everything blew up. My only conclusion is that, in my case, I have to find someone who shared the same life experience and truly loves me for who I really am. That’s why I consider myself a lucky man.”

“In conclusion, people started to mix the concept of soul-mate and life-mate together because they couldn’t tell the difference between those two words.” Bruce explained “It was already hard to find the person who can give the color back to your life so people tend to ignore the categorization.”

Bruce himself already saw the colors too. He’d already met his soulmate, Betty Ross; but due to the Hulk inside him, Bruce preferred to stay away from her because he was afraid of hurting her. It was the most painful thing to do. Lucky enough for them, Bruce and Betty already bonded in the deepest level. They no longer felt the searing pain from being away from one another or lost the ability to see color.

Thor was immune to the curse because he wasn’t from this earth but Jane seemed to see color again because of Thor. Tony quickly classified it as life-mate. Jane could be ten meters apart from Thor but if more than that her vision would return back to black and white. They had shared a kiss but no deeper level of intimacy. That was why her vision turned to black and white again if she was away from Thor.

Tony and Pepper had their colored vision back permanently. Their bond was completed because they shared the deepest level of intimacy with one another. They could be apart from each other and basically got their normal lives back.

Clint and Natasha, the two master assassins still had their visions in black and white. Clint was more hopeful than Natasha who accepted the fact that she might not find her soulmate, let alone life-mate, especially after all the bad things she did while with the red room.

Nat lost her hope and learned to accept the truth. She will die in this sorrowful world without a chance to see color again.