In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

Very Strange After All

Kaecillius caught the section of hallway Stephen and I stood within in a rotating loop, throwing both of us around as if we were stuck in a drying machine. then, midway between hitting the other end of the hallway, he switched the way we fell. Suddenly, we were above him and the both, revived, henchmen.

Stephen and I caught onto light fixtures on opposite sides. Struggling to hold on, we looked at each other, racking our brains on how to win this fight.

I looked down. Behind where Kaecillius and his two friends stood were the three doors from before. Three doors for three people. I whipped my head up at Steven, but he was no longer there. He had let go of the light fixture and dropped down, landing on the woman. He pushed her through the desert door. I dropped one hand from the light fixture without thinking, catching him in a safe portal before he had fallen through, as well.

I released the light fixture and fell through a portal of my own to aid Stephen. He lunged for the switch to trap the woman within the desert, but he was blocked by the man hitting his arm away. Ducking behind their fight, I hit it, then stood ready to flip it again.

Stephen rotated the fight. He was in the midst of making the man walk backwards, until he was hit and dropped. Instead, I grabbed a lamp from nearby and smashed it into the man's face, kicked his chest through the opened door, then Stephen hit the switch.

Then, it was two on one. Needing a minute to breathe, I tackled Steven through a portal into one of the previous rooms we found, before Kaecillius was able to reach us. I hid us behind the staircase.

Steven watched me cradle my head in my hands. I hadn't done much, not at all more than him, and I was struggling to keep my breathe steady. My hands trembled significantly. And the room, despite not spinning, was hazy. I was frozen, the pain I once was stuck in for months on end, ready to come back again.

"I don't understand," I whispered. "I'm here, I'm by you, and I'm still being punished."

"Clara?" asked Stephen softly.

Eyes slammed shut, I reached for him. He took my hand, then guided it to the necklace around his chest. I touched it and it began to shake.

"Heal me," I begged it. "I'm right here. I'm protecting you. We're touching. Let me help him."

Subtle crackling followed heavy thuds up the stairs.

Stephen hurriedly switched places with me. He set me against the stairs, ordered me to not move, then took on Kaecillius himself. He purposely focused the fight away from where I was, trying to give me time to focus on getting back to normal.

I listened to crash after crash, the grunting, and soft gasps as close call after close call was made. strange couldn't do it by himself. the fighting was circling over to me, judging by the flying shards of glass that kept getting closer.

My eye caught the Cloak from before thudding against the box it was contained in. that was how i could help, I decided. I opened a portal in front of me. It flickered around the border, pulsating irregularly. I had no time to find a way to break the glass before I lost all control of my power. I broke the glass with my bare fist. As soon as my bleeding knuckles exited the portal, it closed. I felt my power flicker to a stop inside of my chest.

The Cloak flew straight for him. I didn't see exactly was was occurring, as I wasn't eager to reveal my location, but I heard the clashing continue, sounding a bit more in Stephen's favor. I waited until I heard chains sounding, then I peaked over the banister.

In front of the window, branded with the Seal of Ashanti, Kaecillius was chained in a full body chain.He mumbled words unable to be understood by the chain link covering his mouth.

Stephen was bent over in front of him, panting. "Clara?" he called.

I made a noise to ensure I was alive.

Stephen unhooked the chain covering Kaecillius' mouth. He ordered Kaecillius to stop mumbling some type of mantra, or magical spell.

"Stop," said Stephen again.

"You cannot stop this, Mister Doctor," said Kaecillius.

"I don't even know what this is."

"It's the end, and the beginning. The many becoming the few, becoming the one."

Stephen held up the chain menacingly. "Look if you're gonna start not making sense, I'm just gonna have to put this back on."

"Tell me, Mister Doctor--"

"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange, all right?" interrupted Stephen.

Kaecillius paused. "You are a Doctor? A Scientist? You understand the Laws of Nature; all things end, all things age, all things die. In the end, our sun burns out and our universe grows cold and parishes. But the Dark Dimension: it's a place beyond time."

"I'm putting this back on," sighed Stephen.

"This world doesn't have to die, Doctor. This world can take its rightful place along so many others as part of the One. The great and beautiful One. We can all live forever."

Suddenly, my eyesight blurred. I lost focus on the necklace hanging on Stephen's chest, not on purpose, but because my eyes were glossed over in a dark green tint. I felt my head begin to rattle, despite no movement from my body, until I was forced to claw the pads of my fingers into my head to relieve part of the pain.

"Really?" asked Stephen, sounding relatively interested.

"Strange!" I gasped. I wobbled on my feet, terrified of what was happening to me.

He waved the mouthpiece lazily in the air at me. "Relax, Ms. America, I'm not gonna-- Clara? Clara!"

I couldn't hold myself over the banister anymore. My arms collapsed first, then my body followed, gravity tugging me over the ledge.

Clara Blake was lost to the world again, for reasons I was unsure of yet. The empty void that I spent months in returned, despite being in close contact with my source of power: a time stone that I truly knew nothing about.