5 | A Little Break From Our Show

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Location: New York City, USA, Earth

Time: August 2024

Darcy Lewis had her fair share of wacky and weird things happening to her. She also has lost a lot of people along with it, despite all of it all seeming to return in one way or another.

But hearing from Stephen (Doctor) Strange that your friend (a.k.a practically your daughter) was missing was not something she wanted to hear at the early hours of the day. She hadn't even gotten her coffee yet and Jane was already up - constantly doing calculations and data work throughout the early hours of the night. She decided that since she was now technically almost the same age as her boss lady friend was now (due to the blip and all), Darcy had the rights to have her own sleeping schedule and her own way to do her work.

She was five years ahead of Jane, with ground-breaking research after all the cosmic energy emitted by the snap that led to her own research to focus on cosmic background radiation. A doctorate later, she was now her own boss if she can put a title on it, and bringing in as much as she could to help.

However, this was not what she wanted to use it on.

How her research could even find Illyria Strange was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"You're Sorcerer Supreme and you don't know where your daughter is?" Darcy raised an eyebrow.

They were standing in Darcy and Jane's lounge, the soft murmur of the TV going (which still irks her to this day after what happened in New Jersey) behind them. Light was coming in from the windows whilst she could hear Jane scratching away on the whiteboard with a marker in their makeshift laboratory. (Why her friend decided to do this, beats her. They already had their own lab located just downtown where Stark Industries was, courtesy of Tony and Pepper.).

In front of her, Stephen looked exhausted. With dark circles under his eyes, tight muscles and an agitated sentient cloak: Darcy didn't need any mind-reading to know that the man was running around with only adrenaline and worry over his adopted daughter going missing.

"I literally watch over the multiverse and constantly have to protect the sanctum," Stephen responded sarcastically, which he often did in times of stress. "I can't exactly keep an eye on our twenty-year-old daughter who happens to be a sorceress herself."

Darcy pointed a finger at him, and replied, "Hey! When I lose her, it's somehow my fault. But when you do, I join the blame?" She then snorted, before turning away to head to the kitchen. "Way to be a good dad to the kid who's got telepathic powers and can shoot light beams."

"I somehow meet people who get tangled by these things," Stephen followed her into the kitchen, letting the cloak float off his shoulders. As she got the coffeemaker going, she leaned across the island, gesturing for the man to sit down. He didn't deny the request, relieved to be finally resting despite the setting.

Darcy sighed and placed her hands on the counter. How was she going to approach this?

Ever since the snap and him coming back after five years have created an uncomfortable pause between their relationship – or what was somehow some form of one. Whilst their own dating began just a year after they met, Stephen left Earth to help Tony Stark and Bruce Banner and Spiderman to tackle some alien dude. They then left the same day in this flying doughnut in the sky, decimating a large part of Manhattan as a result.

And while everything was happening everywhere, she was stuck in London where Jane and Selvig just poofed into dust. She's been co-parenting with various people over Illyria for the entirety of Illyria's teenage years. Which included Iron Man and a Sorcerer who was actually a librarian.

Then he comes back and tries his best to be the father he should have been. Not to be wrong, Darcy might have a thing for older men with father tendencies, but their relationship has solely been keeping Illyria safe. She didn't mind it. God, she had an emotional attachment to the girl and which was why Illyria had gone early to university to do a degree in Darcy's field. Next thing she knew: she was watching her climb the steps. The familiar scroll passed to Illyria's hands as she pretended to tear up (which she actually was no matter how she denied it to Wong) to see her kid grow up. It was only this year that she had been giving a place to begin her doctorate, informing not only her but now Stephen as well.

Now he wanted help?

Maybe he was guilt-tripping her after saving her from last year's fiasco?

A cup of coffee for both him, her and Jane (who had yet left the office still) later, she was sitting in front of Stephen once more. "I'm guessing she didn't tell you where she was going, didn't she?"

There was a sigh from him, clearly proving her case.

Darcy was the next to point out, "I'm not saying she's not yet over what happened, but yeah."

"She should have told me," Stephen murmured, shaking his head. "I thought she was off in Oxford to start her research. But I called her, and she wasn't picking up. I've had Wong and the other Sanctums locate her, but she's been off the grid."

Her concern was growing, taking a sip much for fewer than a second. "Have you had her Stark phone located? Tony put a GPS on it."

"No," He replied. "Stark had her phone located?"

She was already on the move out of the kitchen, heading to their lab. Hopefully, he followed her through, meeting Jane who was filling in some stuff on the board. As she arrived at her desk, she logged onto her laptop and began going through several of the Stark databases to find the very thing she needed.

On the other hand, the cloak had rested over her shoulders – a warm feeling enclosing her. Though, there was the familiar scent of cologne that wafted into her nose. Darcy repressed the growing heat on her cheeks and cleared her throat. "Okay, I'm locating her right now." She continued typing before eyeing him, "Call me a paranoid mom and I'll pummel you."

There was a small low chuckle. "I don't wish to anger you any sooner, Darcy," Stephen spoke.

Several minutes later, the screen showed a map where the phone was last recorded. That had surprised them both.

"The Alps," She furrowed her eyebrows. "Why was she in the Alps in the first place?" Looking up to Stephen, she found him frown in thought. What the hell was Illyria thinking of going to the European mountain ranges for? Was it for research or something?

He was about to vocalise his thoughts, but Jane had been faster. But on a different topic.

"Hey, have you seen this Darce?" Jane waved her hand over to her and Darcy quickly rushed over.

She leaned down, looking over the screen of Jane's laptop. "What are we looking at?" While at this time, Stephen had managed to loom over her shoulder – his beard almost scratching the side of her face.

This man really needs to know some space.

But the other part of Darcy said so otherwise.

"There's been a large surge of energy coming from Europe." Jane typed away, before jotting notes down on some napkin on her desk with a pen. "Look at the readings, it's..."

"Ultraviolet radiation along with some infrared. Almost about equivalent to the power outage of the sun." She continued, "That's quite big, not as big as the stones, mind you. But big." Darcy finished, earning a proud look from Jane.

Stephen slowly drawled out, "Care to clarify why this is important?"

"Well, you were discussing that you found Illyria's last location in the Alps," Jane explained, pointing at the large radius which covered the area.

The same area which Darcy found Illyria's last signal.

Darcy and Stephen's eyes went to each other – the colour draining off their faces.

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A/N: We got a little break from Illyria and see what Darcy Lewis is doing. A little shorter as I wanted to vary the pace of each of the chapters. Don't worry, we'll be going back to Illyria in the next chapter. ;)

Thank you again for reading. <3

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Edited: 11/06/2021