From Darkness

Fifty

The highway stretched out far ahead. The sun had already set. The brightness of it was gone, but it still left a vibrant color in the sky on the horizon. Dark blues and deep purples splattered with pink and streaked with orange. There was nothing for miles on either side of the old truck. Not a single town or a place to stop. Not even another car. Just fields that stretched as far as the horizon and the endless blacktop under a sun that would never fully set.

There was a woman in the passenger seat. She had a small bundle in her arms, wrapped in an old band shirt, still sticky with blood. She looked tired, exhausted. Still bleeding profusely from between her legs. It seeped into her tattered pants, spreading even while she smiled. She touched a bloodied finger to a sticky little cheek. She smiled serenely as she gazed down at the baby with love in her eyes. As if she knew this was her last and only chance to get to know her child.

It took a moment for recognition to flicker in my mind. I was seated comfortably between the woman with the baby and the man in the driver's seat. I'd never seen the woman before. Not in the flesh. Not alive. I'd seen her in old photographs and the one particular picture that still haunted my nightmares. After she'd been hit by a truck and her body was left so mangled that she was barely recognizable as a person anymore.

"What is this?" I asked, confused. The driver didn't respond. He glanced down at the baby in his wife's arms. Russell, I realized. No—Ivan. He looked at both of them with love, but his eyes seemed to pierce right through me. I wasn't there. I wasn't real. None of this was.

"This is a memory," the woman said. But not with the heavily accented voice I'd expected. She was still staring down at the baby, smiling at her as if the little one could understand. "A beautiful one, I always thought."

"Beata?"

"Hello, Johanna," she said. But she didn't confirm. "I've waited a very long time to speak to you."

I looked around the inside of the cab and the endless highway that stretched ahead. No cars. No destination. Just a never-ending sunset on a peaceful memory that couldn't possibly be mine. I looked down at the baby.

"A memory?" I asked. "I couldn't be old enough to remember this."

"No, of course not. This isn't your memory." I looked up at the woman who bared a resemblance to me. I had the coloring of the man in the driver's seat. My hair wasn't quite as dark as his. But my eyes were. The woman beside me. Beata. She had the same features I saw in the mirror when I was bold enough to look. The wide eyes. The same smile and cutting cheekbones. Her eyes were lighter in color, and her hair was such a light brown that it looked golden in the glow of sunset. She looked enough like me for me to believe this was my mother. Which would make the baby me.

"This is Beata's memory?" I asked. The woman still smiled down at the baby.

"No," she said. "It's mine. But I imagine this was her last happy moment."

"This is the day she died. How—how am I remembering this?"

"You aren't. I'm showing it to you. I've shown you many things. Always trying to point you in the right direction. It's easier now that I'm stronger. You aren't fighting me anymore." I looked at the woman again. I realized that though this woman had Beata's face, it wasn't her.

"Who are you?"

"I'm something that has been part of you for a very long time, Johanna."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you to live. I want us both to live. Which is why—I can't let you do this."

Then I found my body. My real body. Not in a truck on a highway that never ended but somewhere else. Far away. In another time and place. Lying flat on my back in a room that was noisy with the sound of clucking chickens and bleating goats. My heart was pounding. My head too. My veins felt hot with the Darkness that lurked inside me.

I threw the blankets aside and bolted across the hall for the bathroom. The Darkness hit the porcelain on the bottom of the sink and splattered like blood. I gripped the edges of the sink and breathed through the heaviness in my chest. I could feel the heat swirling through my chest, and the veins in my arms darkened. But I shoved it down and away, pinching my eyes and counting my heartbeats until the sensation faded again. But the Darkness was still there, dripping out of my nose and slithering under my skin.

There was a knock on the bathroom door, and I jolted.

"Johanna?" Dana asked. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I lied. "Just give me a minute."

"I'll meet you downstairs."

"Okay."

I heard her feet on the stairs again, and I turned on the water to wash away the blood that had pooled at the bottom of the sink. I was planning on leaving as soon as possible, but every time I woke and the blood heaved itself out of me, it got harder and harder to move.

I washed my face and waited until it disappeared down the drain, leaving no trace behind. I didn't bother to look at my own reflection. I felt like I could see it sometimes. The way my eyes were always just slightly too dark. I knew I was just seeing things, but the darkness seemed to linger in the places where my veins were closer to the surface of my skin. In the crooks of my arms, the corners of my eyes, just beneath my eyelids. Like shadows that wouldn't fade.

I dried myself off and headed downstairs to get breakfast started with Dana and my grandmother. But the two of them sat at the table instead, looking anxious instead of welcoming. I'd already been there much longer than I planned, and I knew that I was getting worse with every passing day. I knew they could see it too.

I ignored it and went to make myself some toast.

"Johanna," Dana said from the table behind me. "There's something we want to discuss with you."

"Yeah, we can talk," I replied. "There's just a lot I wanted to get done today. Let me feed the animals first." Her chair groaned against the floor as she stood up.

"Let me do it. You should rest."

"You're letting me stay here and eat your food. It's the least I can do."

"Johanna—you're not well." I turned around to face them. They were both looking at me with identical worried expressions.

"I'm fine," I tried. "I'm not planning on staying much longer anyway. Maybe I'll head out tonight."

"We're not bothered by your being here. It's just that..."

"You think I'm not well. I got it. I promise I'm fine."

I took a step for the door, so I could get the day started outside. I was hungry, but the single slice of buttered bread would have to satiate me. I just didn't want to stick around and talk about how awful I was doing.

But I paused when I reached the door. I could hear something outside—the distant shriek of an engine. Not coming from the road. But the sky. I spun around to face them again. It was loud enough for them to hear, but they weren't reacting like they usually did when they thought someone might be visiting.

"Someone is coming," I noted. Dana nodded, confirming my suspicion.

"I know."

"You called Stark?"

"I had to."

"You realize what will happen if I go back to New York, don't you?"

"You realize what will happen if you don't?"

Panic flooded me, and I had to shove it down before the Darkness could take hold of me again. I quickly tossed the slice of bread into the garbage and made a run through Dana's bedroom.

"Johanna, don't," she called after me. But I yanked the window up and slipped out into the yard, intending to run into the woods and not stop until they were gone.

It didn't matter. Stark knew I was there, and I should have known I'd never make it very far. My feet hit the ground, and I bolted for the closest shelter where the goats were hiding from the incoming quinjet. I made it that far and took refuge among them. The quinjet had come to land on the other side of the house, and I was about to make a run for the safety of the trees when a voice stopped me in my place.

"Hello again, Miss Hayes," it said. I spun around and stood in shock, staring at the humanoid creature behind me. He looked human, but not entirely. And it took a few moments for me to recognize the voice as he gently landed on his feet beside a few cowering goats.

"Jarvis?" I asked.

"You may have known me as Jarvis. My name is Vision." I nodded slowly, backing up. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Likewise. But I really need to get out of here."

"I'm afraid I can't let you."

"Why not?"

"Mr. Stark asked me to retrieve you."

"Listen—I'm trying to do this for your own safety. All of you. You don't understand what will happen if I go back to the States."

"Mr. Stark thinks it would be in your best interest to come with us."

"Mr. Stark is wrong. Just trust me."

"And you should trust me, Johanna." He stepped toward me and lifted his hands, which were a color caught between purple and maroon.

"If I go back—I'll end up killing all of you," I warned.

"We know you're sick. We're here to help. We were friends once. Now it's your turn to trust in me." He held out a hand, and I reluctantly slid mine into it.

"What are you?" I asked.

"I'm synthetic. You can't hurt me."

"You don't know that."

"Trust me. Please?"

Stark was waiting inside the house when I returned with Vision. Dana talked to him while my babulia stood back, twisting her fingers.

"Dzaiucyna," she said when I appeared at the door. She rushed for me, but I held up my hands.

"I'm fine," I assured her. "Purple Jarvis found me." I motioned toward him, standing behind me.

"We've been calling him Vision," Tony said. "And you don't look fine." I took a deep breath and turned to him. His playful demeanor was absent, his face was covered in bruises, and he looked as worried as the rest of them.

"You know why I stayed away, don't you?"

"Sure, you had a love shack in Romania." I wanted to be angry at his comment, but if he knew about Romania, then he knew about Bucky.

"Where is he?"

"Don't know. I was hoping you could tell me." I sighed in relief.

"I stayed away to protect you, Tony. I didn't do it to shack up with my boyfriend." His eyebrow rose. It was cut. His face was bruised. It looked painful. Something had clearly happened recently. But we were so closed off from the rest of the world that we only read the newspaper when Dana made her trip into town every other week.

"We can help you."

"You really want to risk it?" He chewed on the inside of his lip.

"I don't think we have much of a choice, Jo. We'll do whatever we can to help you get it under control."

"And if it turns on Clara? Or Bernie?"

"She doesn't know I'm here."

"And where will you take me exactly?"

"New York. Clara isn't there."

"Keep her away from me." I moved for the stairs so I could collect my things.

"I thought that'd be a lot harder," Tony said. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm only going with you because I'm a risk to everyone I meet. I trust you to do the right thing if it comes down to that."

"We'll do what we can to prevent it from happening."

"Just don't forget they wanted to use it against the Avengers."

"I won't."

"I'm going with you," Dana said before I could go back to the stairs.

"No," I told her. "I'm a danger to you too, and you need to be here with your mother."

"Mr. Stark already agreed to help her with whatever she needs. Hydra isn't after us anymore. I owe it to my sister to look out for you. You don't have to be alone."

"I don't want to risk your life."

"We'll start tests right away," Tony said. "The sooner we figure out what we're up against, the sooner we can find a way to protect everyone. In the meantime, we'll keep you under quarantine."

"Quarantine didn't work last time."

"They didn't have me last time."

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Thank you for being patient with me while I worked on this final chapter. I've been struggling to figure out exactly how to end it. This was supposed to be an epilogue just to lead into the next story. But when I went back and reread the last chapter, I realized it was kind of a bad place to end it. So I decided to use this as the official end and omit the epilogue entirely.

Also, the dream at the beginning was supposed to be the first chapter of the next story. But I thought it would be a good place to introduce Chaos as a character instead of just a concept. That way you can get a taste for what's to come and still have that finality of knowing that Jo ended up back with Stark after the events of Civil War. But like most MCU movies/events, it happened off-screen. Jo is never an active participant in the things we see on screen.

Also, I've just been really excited for this reveal since I decided what direction I was going in. I've been unknowingly planting the seeds for this since the very first story when Jo was haunted by dreams. The next story will delve more into how Chaos uses dreams/memories to communicate with Jo and why Hell Bound had so many red herrings. Dreams didn't play a huge part in this story but the few she did have were important.

Anyway, I'm still hard at work on the next story. Unfortunately, Covid kind of complicated things. First with me losing my grandma last month and then with me coming down with it a few weeks ago. I just haven't had the energy or motivation to devote to a story that's kind of heavy on touchy subjects. I'm ready to try and jump back in now though. I'm still struggling with fatigue and minor breathing issues, but I feel ready to push myself again.

Also, WandaVision kind of threw a wrench into things by introducing Chaos Magic into the MCU. I'm still not sure how I'm gonna go around that. My Chaos is obviously a bit different since I was trying to take elements of Chaos Magic, symbiotes, and Singularity. And I'm aware it doesn't need to be canon-compliant. And I know the next story will probably diverge from canon a lot more than the first three. But I still want to keep it from getting confusing for readers.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you stick around for the next one. Thanks for reading!

Part 4 is called Absolute Gravity and it's already up!

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Book 1: Monster

Book 2: Hell Bound

Book 3: From Darkness

Book 4: Absolute Gravity