In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

The Eye of Agamotto Broken

Events in my life no longer shock me as they used to. I used to be a different person. Happy and frail and soft and hesitant and knowing. I thought I knew who I was, where I came from. Then, I evolved.

Clara Blake was not brought to life by the loving of a man and a woman, but by a concept older than the start of the universe: the Infinity Stones. My physical being comes from humankind. My mind, my soul came from somewhere untouched until I ventured deeper into my abilities.  Such an event created a mystery to myself that I thought would never happen.

I knew a few things for certain. The voice invading my thoughts wanted me to touch the Stone, to become one with it, and it was enforcing pain in my chest that I had to fight throughout my entire existence these days. I was cautious of becoming one with the pain. I didn't know what it would do, and that was the frustrating aspect: I couldn't help myself and no one could help me.

Except one person.

Agamotto named the Eye after himself. It had a connection to him. The Stone had a connection to me. It could have been a dead end, I knew that dearly, but I had no energy left. My final move was to let go and become one with the pain. I had one job, it felt like, and that was to touch the Stone.

I became one with the pain. It brought me through the familiar tube I had fallen through in returning back to that prison cell. It was fast, as if I was near, and I dropped through the black hole and to a rug on the floor. However, as soon as I hit the floor, I was thrown vertically against a book case within seconds, forced to grab the shelf to stay upright.

Drops of liquid spilled on my shoes. I snapped my head up and met the glossed eyes of Thor Odinson, my teammate. He dropped his beer glass when he recognized me.

"Clara!" he shouted and embraced me, lifting me from the ground. I tried to remember to breathe as he expressed his joy for seeing me. It was like the sickness plaguing his body had gone when he saw me.

"Clara? repeated a voice.

I wiggled my feet to make thor drop me, placing my hands on his arms to lean him away from me. I saw Steven Strange over his shoulder.

"Strange," I greeted.

"I'm a bit busy," said Strange. He closed the book and teleported us to a different room by the time the book had slammed shut.

"Clara, where have you been? I haven't seen you since Ultron. So much has happened!" exclaimed Thor.

"And now?" I wondered.

"Now I'm here to find my father."

I raised my eyebrow. "Your Father's on Earth?"

"Thats why he's here," said Strange.

Thor tilted his head. "And what are you doing here?"

"I'm connected to an Infinity Stone."

Thor's face dropped. He looked up and down my body, assessing me, noticing the change in not only attitude but the clear weight loss I had gone through from the physical toll of being connected to an Infinity Stone.

"Me, too, buddy," I sighed, patting his arm. "I've got no clue. Was hoping Strange and I could do some talk about Agamotto, actually."

Strange turned his head to me. "What about him?"

"I want to read everything you have about him."

"So you need me to read it and translate."

"Or that, yeah," I agreed.

Strange squinted between Thor and I. "You know, I used to live a peaceful life."

"What's life without the occasional Avenger popping in?" I said sarcastically.

He dealt with Thor first, telling him his father was in Scotland and he didn't wish to be bothered, after Strange had offered to reunite him with Asgard. He then popped us downstairs, the familiar entranceway where Strange and I had fought Kaecillius together.

I took a seat on the steps.

"My brother," reminded Thor.

"Oh," said Strange. He waved his hand casually.

From a yellow sparky hole in the ceiling, Loki dropped. He hit the floor with a small bounce, flipping his hair up from his face. He seethed, "I have falling for thirty minutes!"

Loki pushed his body from the floor and withdrew knives from behind his back in an entirely magical, swoosh of the hand, appearance. He began to charge at Strange.

"Okay, that's enough," decided Strange. He created a portal and sent it flying towards Loki, engulfing both him and Thor, and then ceasing its existence. He turned to me. "So. Where were we?"

"Agamotto. Me. Possibly a connection there," I told him.

Strange held the Eye. "Agamotto created the mold around the Stone. He didn't create it. I read the books in my spare time. I remember reading he found it wandering the universe and he stored it in here."

"He is connected to it," I breathed, a slight smile stretching across my face. "Okay. Okay, now what else do you know about him?"

"Agamotto created the mold to avoid users from directly touching the Stone."

I said, "Do we know of anyone who's touched an Infinity Stone?"

"I do not, no. Your contact to space just left," said Strange.

"I think he only concerns himself with Asgardian matters. I'll ask when he comes back in town," I said softly. I thought about other questions posed from what Strange enlightened me with, but only one situation came to the forefront.

He noticed the shift in my face. "What?"

"What could happen?" I said quietly.

"No."

I stood. "It won't hurt me. I know it won't," I told him. I didn't notice my eyes lose contact with his and focus directly on the Eye. "It talks to me, Strange. It wants me to touch it, you remember, the hold it has on me. It won't hurt me."

Strange's switch occurred, too, though it was on the defensive from me. He began to turn his shoulder to protect the Eye hanging from his chest. His voice was hard. "I can't let you touch it, Clara. We don't know what could happen."

My voice was wistful. "I do."

The Sanctum Sanctorum went silent. It was Strange and I and the Eye of Agamotto holding a connection between us. I wanted it. It wanted me. Strange wanted none of it.

"Don't make me do this," he said boldly.

My eyes followed the wistful pattern of the Eye's casing. "I won't fight you," I told him, because truthfully, I didn't know if I could beat the Mystic Arts in the physical weakness that the Stone gave me.

Strange was speaking. I heard nothing past the first word; his words became distant and muffled to my ears.

My mind had gone elsewhere as I followed the casing to the center circle, the spot where the light typically shined. The last time I saw Strange, the Eye was in his use, and I had to hide from its light. It had lifted from his neck while I was in direct light; it wanted me.

I closed my eyes. I let my chest rise and fall, slowing it down. I took a breath and I remembered and I felt. I felt the physical space between the Eye and myself. My body began to feel like I was losing weight, connecting to a space not physically present.

Three words brought my soul, my hand, and my eyes open and ready. "Come to me."

The Eye ripped itself from Strange's neck. He looked upon me with betrayal, shock.

I met his eyes with sadness and determination. It was a necessary action, one I felt no guilt for. I felt fatigue past what any human had experienced, and it was time to come to terms with losing the fight. It was time to accept my evolution and become one with the new aspects. To complete it, I needed to touch the Stone that called me. Nothing else mattered.

A simple touch of my fingers against the casing caused it to shatter. By the time it collided with my palm, the green stone was pulsating with an emerald light, which then encased my body and swept me away from the Sanctum Santorum.