She slammed the door behind her and exhaled. The clang of footsteps rang out as they pursued, but she waited to hear them scatter before springing further into the darkened warehouse. She had to have been running for hours; Rae was beginning to understand what people were talking about when they said adrenaline gave them superhuman powers.
Superhuman powers. The elusive force that got her into this mess in the first place.
I know what I did was right. It was the right thing to do. Even if no one else would do it, it was still right, dammit. Right?
She was practically tripping and spilling down a spiral staircase now, and probably spiraling towards a heart attack if she didn't take a breather. The room at the bottom was dark except for an eerie green glow from emergency lights. This had to be one of S.H.I.E.L.D's top secret archive rooms, where they kept the really good stuff they were too cautious, or afraid, or selfish (at this point she wasn't sure which) to share with the rest of the universe. She felt along the wall as she walked through the isles, row after row of strange boxes, weapons in glass gases, matter suspended in cryo-tubes, ancient relics that seemed to hum with energy. It was like an alien library, and she took a moment or two to quirk an eyebrow and run curious fingers over things she really shouldn't be touching as her eyes adjusted to the dark.
Rae going to die if she didn't get out. And fast. And not just out; very, very out. Outest. So out that not even the most advanced trans-universal organization could track her. So, that was going to be fun.
And then, there it was. "I recognize you," she murmured, approaching the glowing blue capsule locked into the wall in a steal grip. A piece of the tesseract. No one knew it had been left behind, or even found in the first place. Another one of S.H.I.E.L.D's little secrets, for posterity. Or blackmail, or more exploitation and scheming and-
Rae clenched her fists in anger. To think she had dedicated years of her life to an institution-no, to a dream-that only existed in her idealistic imagination. There were no good guys, heroes, protectors. There were only opposing forces. Obstacles, power, leaders, followers. Well, now everything was out in the open. Now the world knew who S.H.I.E.L.D. really was. And even though after they killed her, they'd surely find a way to make her look like a crazed terrorist spreading lies about their benevolent causes, it still had to be done. But if she could live to keep fighting, all the better.
Somewhere on the levels above her, the pursuing agents were barking orders and rushing chaotically through the base. She rolled her eyes. How difficult could it be to track down one stupid girl? They were all flash and technology, but no real skill. None of these morons knew up from down if their GPS didn't tell them so. Still, they were too close. And she wasn't ready to die, or worse. Freedom beckoned before her like a literal light in the darkness. Well shit, I'm getting all metaphorical now.
"How the hell do you work this thing?" Rae said to the cold glowing dimness around her. When no one answered, she decided she really didn't have much to lose at this point, and entered the access code, releasing the little blue fragment into her trembling fingers. Worlds swam before her eyes in a dazzling spectacle of pain and possibility. It was disorienting and beautiful and she wanted nothing more than for it to stop, and to be gone, to follow this wild energy deep into the universe and never return to the world that raised her and then betrayed her, revealing itself to be full of cowards and false idols ravenous for power. And if the journey killed her, at least it was her own choice.
A voice from above echoed like a stone bouncing down into a cavern. "Ex-agent Vaughn is rouge and hostile. Repeat, Rae Vaughn is enemy number one." The voice was garbled, filtered through a radio and several feet of steel and stone. Rae shivered, acclimating herself to being enemy number one. "Pursue by any means," the voice continued, without a hint of regret or hesitation. She had probably had coffee with the guy ordering her execution at the moment.
She had given them everything. All her knowledge, her passion, her dreams. Rae had placed her hope in a future that would never happen, because humanity would never allow it. There is no good and evil, she repeated over and over to herself. That was what she had written in the leak she had released to every receptive media source just hours before. Just that single sentence as introduction, and following, the truth. Transcripts of the inhumane testing, the assassinations swept under the rug, the weapons development, the technology to play God and all the questionable ways it had been used so far. And everything else. Everything she had helped to create, unknowingly. And now she had done her best to destroy it all. What more was there to do here now? As her fingers closed more steadily around the relic, she let go of that hope, that idealistic vision, of humanity itself.
When the agents' ear buds warned of an energetic disturbance and sent them flooding into the vault, they arrived in time to glimpse a surge of white hot light, and for just a fleeting second, what may have been a pleased smile and a whirl of ash blonde hair before all the lights in the base went out.
Golden eyes danced with just the faintest tint of green. But even now, he saw nothing but the immediate stars; yet he knew that all around him, worlds were turning, building, reaching, failing, dying. He tried to see, but wasn't yet sure if he wanted to. The golden curve of the bifrost framed a calm night sky, and that really ought to be enough. But then there was a shimmer, a brief flash, and the portal seemed to groan with use. Someone had arrived, and without the help of the bifrost. He slid out the huge sword and whirled around to face the intruder.
"Woah! Chill!" she hearkened for the way of a greeting. The sword lowered just an inch in confusion, and the golden eyes searched the unexpected visitor. A woman-definitely human-unarmed and extremely unimposing in every way. On the tall side, even as she leaned against the curve of the wall for support. She was weary yet alert, and appeared uninjured. And she was staring at him with narrowed gray eyes behind stray locks of blonde. He would have much rather dealt with a frost giant, to be completely honest. This was just awkward.
"I am Heimdal, gatekeeper of Asgard" he offered, carefully, deliberately. "Who are you and by what means have you come?" He flashed a speedy glance over his shoulder. They were still alone.
Rae pried very stiff fingers off of the glass vial that contained the tesseract fragment, and showed it to Heimdal slowly. Standing up straight and stretching, she remarked, "It was quite a ride. I'm Rae. Vaughn. Of uh, Midgard." She punctuated with a little half-hearted curtsy, which didn't work out too well since she was wearing jeans. Did they even curtsy here? Maybe she just insulted him by accident. Cultural integration hadn't exactly been part of her training.
The guardian snatched the vial from her hand, siding the sword back into place, forgotten. The movement was so swift and graceful, Rae didn't have a moment to react before he was turning the relic over in his hands, studying it intently. "Where did you get this? Explain yourself, woman!" he demanded.
Rae sighed, unfazed. "Look, I don't want any trouble. I'm already in enough of that." She took a few cautious steps around the gate room, leaning gingerly out towards the endless stars, but keeping an eye on Heimdal all the while. He, on the other hand, wouldn't stop watching his own back. She took advantage of this in order to snatch the fragment back and stuff it into the small over-shoulder bag she carried. "That is not yours to wield. It belongs to Asgard." He held out an open hand, inviting her to be compliant.
She was just about completely done with being compliant.
"Sorry but no. I don't know you or anything about you and I know enough about this to not just hand it over to the first person who pretends to have authority over me. If you're going to kill me, go for it. The market's great right now, timing's never been better, gotta nab your opportunities when-why do you look so paranoid, Heimdal, gatekeeper of Asgard?"
Golden eyes pulsed green, or maybe she imagined it. He composed his features. "You are wise not to trust blindly, Rae of Midgard," he simply said.
"Yeah. Learned that the hard way," she was pacing again, this time drifting towards the glistening rainbow bridge that stretched off towards the city. Maybe she could find someone there to take pity on her, get some food, find somewhere to sleep...
"You are running," the deep voice interrupted her internal planning.
"Technically, I'm walking," she countered. "But I was running. There was a lot of running involved. Then there was a lot of light and a headache, and now I'm rambling. Sorry."
The man raised one eyebrow. Curiosity would most definitely be his undoing. He was surprised there wasn't a prophecy of the sort by now. "And who, pray, do you run from?"
Rae sighed, stood to face him fully. He was enormously tall and sort of terrifying, but he was definitely hiding secrets of his own. "S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe you've heard of it. You're the guy that sees everything, aren't you?"
He swallowed. "Yes."
"I worked for them. They're...not who they say they are. I let everyone know, and now they want me dead. But you know, that's life, right?"
"And so you come to Asgard for sanctuary, by means of an infinity stone which can only be wielded by those who understand it, and you expect to be welcomed into our society without question?"
The girl narrowed her eyes, then looked away. "I didn't exactly have loads of time to think it through."
"Then you are a fool," he replied, dismissing her by turning away. This frustrated her, probably more than it needed to. "Look, I've had kind of a long day, okay? And what I did had to be done. You have no idea what was coming, what they were planning to do, if no one had at least tried to put an end to it, those people would have been ruling the world-all the worlds-in a few years. And when I see something wrong I have to fix it. Or make it worse. Whichever presents itself at the moment," she exhaled sharply, ran a hand roughly over her eyes and pushed back her hair, then started for the bridge again. "So, can I pass or enter or whatever, or not?"
He studied her carefully, and for a moment he stopped worrying about anyone seeing them, or not being able to see beyond the local sky, or even the immensely powerful relic she carried. Rae almost detected the beginnings of a smile, sly and arrogant and rather unmatched to the sturdy figure before her, before his steady gaze returned. "Know this: I will be watching. Welcome to Asgard."
Rae nodded at him casually and slipped off down the rainbow bridge, but after a few paces, the gatekeeper turned his back again, and Rae ducked back around the edge of the bifrost globe, peering in with one eye.
A figure shimmered into existence, bound by an ethereal golden rope, golden eyes ablaze with rage. "You know I'm not sure the world can handle two of you, good Heimdal," said the other, in a new, mocking voice. And in a moment there was only one Heimdal, and it was the one tied up on the floor. Rae stared in shock as the man who had met her became none other than Loki, the God of Mischief, previous enemy number one of S.H.I.E.L.D., and previously declared dead. He smiled a wicked smile and vanished Heimdal's bonds with a wave of his hand. "This has been immensely informative, but I'll be going now." And he was gone, leaving behind only a momentary green haze in his wake.
Well then, Rae concluded, I guess I'll have to defend my status as enemy number one.