Grace for The Fallen

'A bit of a fright'

Daetheia Grace

"The Skrul?" Tony's voice was surprised and a bit amused, "I didn't think that you would want to see him again. I heard that he's not the best guy."

"Well, you heard wrong," I snapped. He looked at me in shock and I sighed, "Sorry, Tony. I guess the stress of the day is getting to me. But really, he's not as bad as people say. He's... well, I suppose you'll see." I grinned at him. We trudged up the mountain, step by step. While we were walking up, I tried to practice my gifts. I slowly opened my mind and waited for the onslaught of voices and noise to hit me again.

It wasn't as bad this time. Not so much a crowd all screaming at me as a group of people rushing past, whispering hurried words that I could hardly make out as they went. I looked at Tony and tried to focus all my attention on him. The voices in the background slowly faded until they were little more than white noise. It was so weird, doing this. It was like I was living in two worlds. On one hand, I was aware of my bare feet moving on the stairs and the wind rushing around the mountain to whip strands of auburn hair across my face. On the other I was in a sort of sleep-state, my mind searching Tony's, my thoughts intertwining with his.

Then I found it. His voice. It crept into my mind ever so slowly, like a tentative dog inching towards an outstretched hand. I focused on it, homing in on it until it was the only thing I could hear. I found that I could both hear it and see it like it was a thread of colour in a white room. It whispered into the ears of my mind, and I found my opinions and thoughts moulding to it.

I have to become an Elf-killer. It's for the best. It said, and I found myself agreeing with it.

I have to protect her. Protect Daetheia. Even though I had never wanted him to protect me, I found myself supporting the idea.

No. I shook my head. That wasn't me thinking. I had never wanted him to become an Elf-killer. I had never wanted protection. I have to be careful with this gift. If I wasn't, I could lose myself. I could let my opinions be swayed by whoever's thought's I listened to.

Theron is so annoying. Thinks he knows everything. Thinks he's better than everyone.

Well... can't argue with that one.

I giggled, and only when I heard the voice of Tony in my normal ears did I pop back into the real world.

"What?" I asked. He looked amused.

"What were you laughing at?" He repeated.

"Oh, nothing," I replied vaguely, "Just something I heard." He c****d an eyebrow but said nothing else on the subject.

"So, we almost there?" He asked instead. I nodded.

"How close are we?"

"Close." I reigned in my smirk. I was having too much fun with him to give him a real answer.

"How close is close?"

"Close enough."

"Daetheia!" His voice was filled with exasperation, "Can't you just–"

"We're here," I cut him off as we finally pulled our feet over the last step. I grinned at him, and he glared playfully back.

I looked at the dark mouth of the cave in front of me, but instead of feeling the trepidation that I had felt earlier, I felt only excitement. I stopped only to motion Ariston forward with my hand before walking swiftly into the familiar darkness.

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"Daetheia," Ariston's voice broke the silence that had swathed us like a blanket as soon as we had entered the mountainside, "Where is he? Why is he not here?"

"Oh, believe me, he's here," I answered, my voice echoing in the rock tunnel, "He just won't show himself until we are out of sight of the light."

"Oookay," I heard the nervousness that Tony tried to mask in his voice, and reached my hand back to grasp his. We walked like that for a while, our footsteps sounding in tandem. And then I felt it. That prickling sensation at the back of my neck, the slight tingling of my ears. I stopped.

"He's here."

There was an audible whoosh of power as the hallways lit up in brilliant light. Unlike before – when I had been barely more than human – I felt the power in that burst of light flow over my skin, rippling over me like waves over a pebble. It was exhilarating. And utterly terrifying.

I heard a gasp beside me as Tony was blinded by the sudden flash. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. I felt kinda bad for not warning Tony about the light, but I didn't want him to see what I was going to do. I uncovered my eyes and looked up. The Skrul was staring at me with wide eyes. Then his lips turned up into a smile, and a twinkle came into his dead eyes that I hadn't ever seen before. He opened his mouth, but I quickly put a finger over my lips.

I hadn't learnt how to project my own thoughts with my gift – if I could even do that – so I indicated for him to read my mind and, with a puzzled expression, he complied. When I had told him what I wanted to do, his eyes regained their focus. He grinned wickedly and nodded, then wiped his face back into its normal stoic look. Just in time, too. Tony opened his eyes and blinked, stiffening when he saw the Skrul standing in front of him.

His jaw dropped and his eyes flew open. It took all the self-control that I had accumulated with having Lucas as a brother to stuff the laughter building up in my throat at the sight down. His expression was definitely worth the earful I was going to get when this was over. He looked so awed. So scared. So surprised. I shoved down another giggle. Had I looked like that when I first saw the Skrul?

Oh, believe me, you looked much worse.

I startled at the voice in my head but quickly recovered, glaring at the Skrul. He didn't react other than a barely perceptible twitch of the lips. He subtly nodded his head in Tony's direction.

Time to do your bit.

I grinned before schooling my expression into one similar to Tony's. I fell on my knees and looked up at the Skrul in faux awe and fear.

"Oh, Magnificent Skrul!" I cried out, bowing my head and pretending to tremble, "Please don't kill us!"

"And why do you think that you deserve to live after disturbing me, Elf? And you," his head whipped towards Tony and my self-control was once again put to the test after hearing the very unmanly squeak Tony let out, "How dare you set foot in my realm, human? How dare you come within a foot of my presence? And how dare you not bow before me?"

"I'm sorry!" Tony squeaked out, his knees trembling as he hastily fell into a bow, "Please don't kill me!" This proved too much for me, and I let out a little wheeze and bent double, still trying to stop myself from laughing. Tony's face whipped towards me, his eyes horrified.

"What are you doing to her?" He yelled, and I couldn't keep it in anymore, I burst out laughing at his dismayed expression, my arms going to wrap around my stomach. His expression warped into one of utter confusion.

"You should," gasp, "See your face," I barely managed to get out between gasps and giggles. The journey of expressions across Tony's face was truly one to admire. It got even more interesting when the Skrul started laughing along. And not like the little chuckles he had let out earlier, but a full belly laugh that warmed me right down to my toes. I stopped laughing for just a second to stare at him in awe, but then the laughter bubbled up and out again and we were laughing together with Ariston looking on with a decidedly miffed expression. Eventually, he decided to speak up.

"Ok," he put his hands on his hips like a disapproving mother, an analogy that served to make me laugh even harder, "What, exactly, is going on here?"

"N-nothing," he raised a disbelieving eyebrow at me and I had to take a bit of time to calm myself down before I could form a coherent sentence, "Sorry, Tony, I thought it would be funny to ask the Skrul to give you a bit of a fright." I grinned cheekily.

"'A bit of a fright'?" Tony repeated, pinching the bridge of his nose and letting off a long-suffering sigh, "Daetheia, I thought we were going to die!"

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing again, and I could see a little smirk tugging at the corners of Tony's lips before he quickly schooled his expression back into disappointment.

"And you?" Tony whirled towards the Skrul and I almost died at the look of slight panic on the all-powerful-Skrul's face, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"It was her idea! She told me to!" The Skrul put his hands and in surrender and the glare I shot at him was somewhat useless thanks to the large smile still splitting my cheeks. At that sentence, the severe expression on Tony's face was replaced with one of humour as he turned to look at me.

"Yeah, she tends to be a bit bossy." I pouted at the statement and stuck my tongue out at him. He smirked and did the same. Yes, we were a bit childish. So what.

Tony turned back to the Skrul and stuck his hand out.

"Hello, I'm-"

"Ariston Nox," the Skrul nodded, but didn't shake his hand, "I've been wondering when Daetheia would bring you." The Skrul turned his back on Tony's flabbergasted face and smiled at me, "Hello again." I grinned, suddenly feeling better than I had all day.

"Hi," I replied, "Told you I would come back."

-Rebecca Underwood