Chapter One: Pilot

Andra Forsythe watched the scientists below with some fascination. They all looked like little mice, scurrying around, trying to avoid the predator that was going to eat -

"Andra!" he called, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"What, Clint?" she returned, sighing.

"You can't attack them, even for play. Remember what Fury said about you getting detained?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't thinking about attacking them!" she protested.

"Yeah, you were," he corrected, and she could hear the smirk in his voice, "I'd only have to look at your tail to be able to tell."

She sighed and stood. When she came to her full height and stood before him, she was only an inch shorter than he was. Her bright green eyes met his blue ones, and a smirk crept its way onto her face.

"And have you been paying close attention to my tail?"

"I don't have to. I know you."

Andra scoffed and went to sit cross-legged on her bed. It was annoying sometimes, living up here with Clint. They didn't call him Hawkeye for nothing. That man could shoot an arrow at a gnat 300 meters away and hit it straight-on (she'd found that out from a bet that she consequently lost), and his eyes never missed anything. She couldn't keep anything from him! Still, it didn't bother her much. She didn't need to keep anything from him anyway, he already knew it all. They both knew each other like the backs of their hands and despite the certain lack of privacy, they were good friends and enjoyed each other's company. They'd known each other for years – since before she worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. In fact, he was the one who'd recruited her.

The two had worked together on more missions than they could count, but she and Clint rarely got the chance to spend this much time together. It had struck everyone else in the lab as odd how well the Bird and the Cat got along – one wouldn't expect them to – but they only had to look at their relationship to realize that this was something they'd done many times before. That didn't mean they enjoyed it, though. For the two of them, it was much preferable to be fighting off bad guys during their time together, not sitting in a small room on top of a lab in which nothing happened.

Andra watched him intently for a moment as Clint fashioned more of his special arrows. He was currently working on the kind that exploded a moment after making contact, her personal favorite. They'd had lots of fun with those on missions.

A soft chuckle came from her companion, and she looked up at his face to find him looking at her. "Are you gonna say what's on your mind, or are you just gonna stare at me?"

She cracked a smile. "I'm just gonna stare at you."

"You know; you keep doing that, people are gonna get the wrong idea," he told her.

"There's no wrong idea to get. They know we're friends, what more would they think?"

He gave her a half-smile, half-smirk. "Maybe they'll think you're in love with me," he teased.

"Oh, come now," she laughed, but when his expression didn't change, she raised her eyebrows. "They don't… do they?"

"Maybe they do… and maybe they're right," he said, his half-smirk becoming a full one.

"Oh, ha, ha. You and I both know better than that. Now why don't you go back to your precious arrows, I'm sure they're missing you," she returned, before laying back and looking around.

The Nest, as she, Clint, and pretty much everybody else called it, was rather bland. It had that cold steel look to it that was oh-so-common in all the S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. They'd tried to add some life to it with a little personalization, but it stayed dead-looking. Besides, on their limited, on-the-job allowances, they couldn't do much anyway. The most exciting thing there was the weapons rack that took up the entire back wall of the rectangular cutout – that was what really made it their space. It held every weapon they were allowed to take from the Armory… not to mention a few they probably weren't allowed to, but had taken anyway.

Andra was just sharpening her dagger when her ears perked up. The scientists below were rushing about and one of the computers was letting off a loud siren noise. Then the sirens of the whole building began going off, amplifying the noise to the point that she winced in pain. She and Clint shared a joint look of tired expectation as Fury's voice echoed in their com-links.

"Agents, report."

They stood from their places, replaced their weapons, and walked over to the side. Both grabbed a rope and grappled down to the floor, walking over to Director Fury.

"Agents Barton and Forsythe, I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things," he reprimanded them.

"Well, we see better from a distance," Clint defended.

"Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?" Fury continued.

"No, nothing's happened. There's been no outside contact since 1200 hours yesterday, sir," Andra mentioned.

Clint nodded. "No one's come or gone. Its oven is clean; no contacts, no IM's," he looked at it, "If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."

"At this end?" Their superior raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides," he explained.

As if the universe wished to confirm what he was saying, the Tesseract glowed brighter and the ground shook beneath their feet. It then shot a beam straight at the platform behind it, opening a portal. As the three watched, the portal's energy exploded suddenly, knocking them back and blinding them as it rushed to the ceiling. As Andra blinked the light from her eyes, she saw what was left on the platform. A man was kneeling there, who looked to be burning with blue fire. He had slick, black hair and a sort of long, black leather coat. Several agents began walking toward him with weapons drawn. When he stood, he looked to be about six feet tall. His eyes searched the room, stopping only briefly on Clint and herself. In his hand was a long spear with a curved blade that looked to be dangerous.

Fury looked up at him and shouted, "Sir, please put down the spear!"

Instead of taking Fury's advice, he raised it and shot at them. Clint knocked Fury out of the way as Andra jumped back, all three avoiding the blast. Agents dove at him, guns firing, but he proved to be far more powerful than they. Blue shots from his scepter and knives from somewhere in his ensemble killed the agents quickly and efficiently. Clint stood after protecting Fury, and the man started walking towards him. He raised his gun to shoot him, but his hand was grabbed by the man.

"You have heart," he stated, touching the end of his scepter to Clint's chest.

Andra watched from behind an overturned table as Clint's eyes turned black, then a light, cold, almost lifeless blue. Whatever the dude had done to him, she didn't like it. She watched Clint lower his gun and put it back in its holster. Suddenly, she fought the urge to scream at him, at ask him what the hell he was doing, but since she didn't want to end up that way herself, she bit her tongue and hoped Clint could fight whatever this was. The man moved on to other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, turning them to his side. She surveyed the scene and her eyes caught sight of Fury putting the Tesseract in a case and standing up.

The man froze and turned around slowly. "Please don't. I still need that," he said in a low accent that sounded British.

"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury replied as he turned around to face him.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose," he announced.

Selvig looked up from his place on the floor. "Loki? Brother of Thor?"

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury told him.

The man – Loki, apparently – looked at him with a slightly amused expression. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

"Are you planning to step on us?"

Andra stood and walked out from behind the table to Fury's side, crossing her arms. She wasn't letting them go down without a fight.

"I come with glad tidings," he told them, smiling, "Of a world made free."

"Free from what?" Fury asked.

"Freedom."

"Freedom?" Andra repeated, not sure she'd heard him right.

He smiled at her. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart," here he turned and pointed his staff at Selvig, turning his eyes bright blue as well, and said softly, "You will know peace."

Fury tilted his head to the side. "Yeah, you say peace, I kinda think you mean the other thing."

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow," Clint interrupted, and Andra wanted to smack him, "Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

"Like the Pharaohs of old," Fury confirmed.

Selvig checked on the computers. "He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

"Well then…" Loki trailed off, and Clint raised his arm and shot Fury in the chest, walking over to grab his case.

~/~

Well, YAY! This is the original manuscript. To old readers, it's good to see you again. To new readers, welcome to my first decent fanfiction! (The other is a Draco Malfoy love story that will never see the light of day if I have anything to say about it.

What do you think of Andraste thus far?

Any questions, comments, concerns? About ready to take the Tesseract from Loki? Review or drop me a line!

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- Emmy