The Dark Antihero | Avengers: Endgame [6]

Chapter 35

"Shit. Tanya. Tanya," Steve rushed over, kneeling next to her and shaking her arm. She let out a barely audible groan, her head shifting slightly. "Oh, thank god you're alive," he muttered.

"Unfortunately," her voice was so quiet Steve could hardly hear her, Sam oblivious to her words.

"We're gonna get you out of here. Can you walk?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, shifting. Steve snapped the chains holding her hands above her head and they fell to the ground, limp. She staggered to her feet, Steve looping an arm around her shoulders which she swatted away. "I can handle myself."

She tugged on her battle-tested coat, pulling it off and laying it over her arm, leaving her in her underclothes. "First stop is the armory," she said, striding out of the room and past Sam. She made a beeline to a thick steel door, wrenching it open.

Inside, she grabbed all her weapons, along with a new coat, again perfectly fit to her form. She also pulled on some leather gloves to hide the blood caked around her wrists. Tanya returned to the others, and they met back up with the rest of the group.

"Where are we?" Rhett asked nervously, pulling on his shirt sleeves.

"Harudheen. Or, if you're from any other realm, Svartalfhiem, or sometimes, The Dark World," Tanya explained.

"Who was that man?" Addi asked.

"Mälekith, the leader of the Harudheeniksel, or Dark Elves. Do you believe me now, Rogers?" she asked rather harshly. A wave of guilt washed over Steve, remembering his claims about the existence of the Dark Elves.

"I'm sorry. If y--" he started.

"I tried to tell you, but you didn't want to listen. Now, before we go, I want to look around. There's something here," she said, stepping out of the long prison cell. 

"We need to go. The Elves could be back at any moment," Jehlani said tersely.

"No, they'll be out for the rest of the day," she said absentmindedly. "I drugged them whenever they came to visit me."

She leaned over one of the cluttered tables, scanning for something. She swept around the entire room, the others all watching her. She paused in front of a window looking into a pure-white room.

Tanya's mouth hung open slightly, her fingers hovering over the glass. "Home."

She went over to the door, opening it and going inside. It was just as she left it eleven years ago. There was her bed in the far corner against the wall, a desk at the foot of it. A training dummy beaten to shreds was in the corner, leaning against the mirror, and a chalkboard with no chalk.

She knelt, reaching under the bed and pulling out a book. Witches of the Stars. It had always been her favorite, and she read it over and over again growing up. Tanya tucked it into her coat, leaving the room. After several more minutes of searching, she picked up a slender device and stuck it deep inside her coat.

"What is that?" Isa asked, curious.

"Everything that matters," Tanya answered as the group of twenty-five exited the building.

"Why is this place so dark?" Misha asked, looking around.

"Now, Harudheen is nothing more of a wasteland that echoes with the ghosts of fallen soldiers. It's a mere shadow of a forgotten age," she explained, her boots crunching as she led the way. She kept her eyes on the ridge as wind blew at everyone, bringing memories with it. All of a sudden, she came to a complete stop.

"Where is it?" she asked, baffling the others.

"Where is what?" Carol asked.

"The body. It should be right here. There aren't any predators here, and the Elves wouldn't have touched it," she said, kneeling near a lone rock.

"Whose body?" Strange asked as Tanya looked back at the group.

"Thor?" she asked, warning lacing her tone as she stood.

"He...he faked it. He faked everything," Thor admitted.

"Oh, that lying, cheating, dirty son of a bitch! I'm going to kill him!" she shouted. Her fist connected with a rock, splitting it in half.

"Tanya! He's dead. He died five years ago. Thanos snapped his neck," Thor said firmly.

"Well, actually..." Scott, who know who they were talking about, started.

"Do you have something to say, Mr. Lang?" Thor asked.

"W-When, uh, we were i-in New York, he may have possibly grabbed the Tesseract and escaped custody during the Time Heist," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"He what?" Thor asked.

"W-We didn't mean for it to happen, but, uh, it sorta just kinda happened," Scott stuttered.

"So you're saying..." Thor trailed off.

"Ye-e-a-a-h..." Scott admitted.

"Scott! I thought we agreed not to mention that," Steve said sternly.

"Well, I, uh--t-they deserve to, uh, to know," Scott said sheepishly.

"Who are you talking about?" Strange asked.

"Nobody!" Steve, Scott, Thor, and Tanya said quickly.

"We should go. We have no idea what time it is here, with the only light in this world coming from that," Tanya said, pointing at the perpetual black hole looming over the planet. Thor adjusted his grip on Stormbreaker, holding it toward the heavens.

"Let's go home,"