"Every now and then the stars align. Boy and girl meet by the grand design. Could it be that you and me are the lucky ones? Everybody told me love was blind, but then I saw your face and you blew my mind. Finally, you and me are the lucky ones this time."
-The Lucky Ones by Lana Del Rey
The Tesseract has awakened. It's on a neutral world. A human world. They will wield its power, but our ally will know it's workings like they never will. He's ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri will follow. The world will be his and the universe yours. And the humans, what can they do, but burn.
As all SHIELD agents proceeded to run around trying to evacuate, Coulson and Emily stood calmly in the storm as the helicopter landed right in front of them. Maria Hill climbed out first, followed by Director Nick Fury. One of them had to be at the location of the Tesseract, and honestly, they played rock, paper scissors to see if it was going to be Fury or Emily. Now that it was acting up, they both had to be there, and they both had to solve this. "How bad is it?" Fury asked while looking back and forth between the two.
Emily and Coulson both looked to each other, not sure how to tell him this. "That's the problem, sir. We don't know."
Fury looked to Emily like she was in deep trouble, causing her to roll her eyes. It's not like she was the one who went in there and began messing with the Tesseract. "Follow me." She led them into the building, past the fleeing agents and into an elevator, leading them to the bottom levels of the area. "Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."
"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to pull the test phase."
Emily sighed as she spun around, turning to face the one person who had more power in SHIELD than she did. "He wasn't testing it, Nick." She shook her head at his confusion and turned back around, continuing to lead the group. "He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous advancement."
"It just turned itself on?" Maria asked as Emily gave her a shrug.
"What are the engine levels now?" Fury inquired.
"Climbing." Coulson informed. "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac."
"How long to get everyone out?"
"Campus should be clear in the next half hour."
Fury turned slightly to look at Coulson. "Do better." Coulson stopped walking, turned around and proceeded to do more to get everyone out.
"Sir," Maria spoke as they got to a staircase, beginning to go down it to get to the very underground levels where the Tesseract was being kept. "Evacuation may be futile."
"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Emily asked out of disbelief as she half turned to look at her.
"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."
"We need you to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out." Fury told her without giving a glance.
"Sir, is that really a priority right now? We-"
"Until such time as the world ends," Fury cut her off, actually turning to look at her this time. "We will act as though it intends to spin on." Emily looked to him like she was upset. Mostly because she was. These people were helping and Fury never treated them like they were. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone."
"Yes, sir." Maria spoke politely, but obviously pissed off.
As she walked away, Emily stared at Fury with an annoyed face. "What?" He asked in an accusing voice.
Emily shook her head as she continued to walk down the stairs. "These people are risking their lives every day by being involved with SHIELD, and you don't care."
"I care about my workers."
Emily stopped on the bottom step, turning around to look at him. "Not like you should."
"I can still fire you, you know?" He spoke blandly.
"But you won't." She spoke in a cocky tone as she turned around.
"You're just like your daughter." He whispered as he followed her all the way to the Tesseract.
Clint sat on his perch, as always, knowing he saw better with a bird's eye view. Today, he wasn't getting a lot of work down. And that was probably the worst thing he could have done today of all days. It just wasn't good timing. The Tesseract malfunctioning on Melody's birthday. The year anniversary of when their relationship truly started. All the memories were passing through his head, making today a very unproductive one.
He was staring at a photo from the photo booth at the Malibu beach. He had the one where he kissed her on the cheek, and Melody looked to the camera with a shocked face. He would look down every now and then, but he kept getting distracted by that picture. It brought up a lot of emotions. One of the heavy ones being that they had been in the same state for months, and he still hadn't gone to visit her like he promised.
When he looked down, he noticed that Emily and Fury had now walked into the room. He knew this one was going to be good. And he knew he was going to get called down there in three, two…"Agent Barton, report."
Clint smiled to himself. It was clockwork by now. With the picture still in his hand, he slid down the rope waiting for him, and made his way to the two waiting for him. As he joined in between the two leaders, they all began walking together. "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."
"Well," He spoke with a shrug as he felt Emily's eyes on him. He knew she was worried about how he was feeling about today, but he didn't want to tell her. She'd be the last person he'd tell. "I see better from a distance."
"Are you seeing anything that might set this off?" Emily inquired as she stepped in front of him, stopping him from walking.
Clint sighed as he looked to the Tesseract, moving closer to it. "No one's come or gone. Selvig's clean. No contacts. No IM's. If there was any tampering, ma'am, it wasn't at this end."
Emily and Fury both turned to him with confused faces at that one. "At this end?" Fury questioned.
"Yeah," Clint spoke with a shrug. "The cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" Emily looked down with thought, wondering why she hadn't noticed this yet. She was around this project just as long as him, and she still hadn't noticed what he had noticed. Maybe Clint should have been Supervisor. "Doors open from both sides."
Fury and Emily looked to each other, both sharing their thought about how stupid they were not to figure that out. Then, the Tesseract began making noises none of them had heard before. Their casual stances turned into ones of readiness, each of them having a hand on their gun holster. The entire building began shaking as a portal opened. The energy went back on them, and once it was gone, there stood Loki of Asgard.
But here, no one knew that. He was just some threat. A threat they were going to have to take care of. Almost everyone had their guns aimed on this threat and everyone was ready for an attack if one needed to take place. "Sir!" Fury finally yelled out, breaking the intense silence. "Please put down the spear."
Loki looked down at his spear, realizing that they were afraid of this thing. It was unknown. So, might as well show them what it can do. He shot it off towards the man calling the shots, causing Clint to tackle down both Fury and Emily for their safety. Everyone began shooting at Loki, but he took them down with daggers like they were nothing. Clint got up to shoot at the Asgardian, avoiding Loki's shots and daggers expertly. Emily stayed down, protecting Fury, trying to find a way to get the Tesseract and Fury out of here safely.
Loki looked around at his destruction when he noticed one of the soldiers was getting right back up. He ran to him, grabbing his arm before he could get at his gun. Clint struggled in his grasp, knowing in that moment he had nothing to defend himself with, and this guy was killing everyone he could. He knew he was done for, and in that moment, he held onto that picture of Melody tighter than anything. He loved her and that was the last bit of her he would have left until the moment he died.
In that moment, Loki saw all the emotion that passed over Clint's face, and something about that made him want to keep this one around. "You have heart."
Clint was squirming as he brought the spear to his chest and made his eyes go black then back to blue. Clint looked up at Loki, part of him accepting him as his leader and the other part screaming. He holstered his gun as his other hand released, letting the picture of him and Melody fall out of his hands and to the ground.
Fury looked up as Emily's eyes were focused on Clint. He got the Tesseract, put it into its case and pulled up Emily, preparing to drag her out of there as Loki took over another SHIELD agent. He pushed Emily in front of him, but they both stopped when they heard, "Please don't." Emily shut her eyes, scared that they weren't going to get away. "I still need that."
"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury told him without turning around.
"Of course it does." He growled as both Emily and Fury turned around to face him. "I've come too far for anything else." Emily looked him up and down, and then looked to Clint who stared off with dead eyes. He truly was taken over. "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."
"Loki," Selvig mused as he stood up, but neither Fury nor Emily looked away from Loki. "Brother of Thor."
"We have no quarrel with your people." Emily finally spoke while putting up a hand, showing she meant no harm.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
Both Emily and Fury gave him a concerned look. "Are you planning to step on us?" Emily asked in a threatened way, obviously getting upset with the intruder.
"I come with glad tidings." He moved closer to them with a bright smile on his face, Emily and Fury making a point to try to protect each other. "Of a world made free." Loki looked to Dr. Selvig with an interested face, concerning Emily.
"Free from what?" Fury asked, trying to get in front of Emily.
"Freedom." Fury and Emily shared a worried look before looking right back to Loki. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that in your heart," He spun around quickly, putting his spear to Selvig's chest, taking him over, causing Emily to clench her teeth. Loki now had two of their best assets. "You will know peace."
"Yeah," Fury half laughed out. "You say peace, but I kind of think you mean the other thing."
Loki smiled, but then his eyes drifted to Emily. He looked her up and down, seeing something in her, but he couldn't exactly tell what it was. It was like he wasn't let in on a joke everyone here knew. Or information that everyone here knew. "Sir," Clint spoke as he moved to Loki. The other part of him was cursing him for giving him any information. "Director Fury and Supervisor Carter are stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of raw material on us. They plan to bury us."
"Like the Pharaohs of Odin." Emily told Loki with a glare, knowing he was staring at her.
"He's right." Selvig told them from his computer. "The portal is collapsing on itself. You've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
Loki looked to Clint, giving him his first order. "Drop them."
Clint pulled out his gun as fast as he could manage and shot Fury in the shoulder, having it go clean out and into Emily's shoulder. The two fell down, dropping the case with the Tesseract in it, causing Erik to pick it up as he walked by.
Clint walked up the stairs, all the other guards were either with them or dead, leaving them with an easy escape. They found Maria at the top of the stairs, but Clint didn't think twice about it. He was her senior agent. She had to do what he said. "We need these vehicles."
Everyone who was with Loki began loading the vehicle Maria was trying to use to get the Phase 2 prototypes out on. She took one look at Loki and knew that something wasn't right. "Who's that?"
Clint half turned to her as everyone got into the truck and he made his way to the driver's seat. "He didn't tell me." Maria was still confused as she turned around, deciding to do what he told her, but kept a close ear on her radio for Fury or Emily.
Emily was currently bear crawling to the picture of Clint and Melody on the ground with the bullet still in her shoulder. Right when she got to it, she pocketed it, and looked to Fury who was grasping his aching shoulder while holding his radio in the other hand. "Hill, do you copy?" He grunted out right when Emily yanked the bullet out of her shoulder. Fury hurried over to Emily, helping her up, getting ready to get them both out of the crumbling structure. "Barton has been compromised."
That was the only confirmation Maria and Clint needed to start firing on each other. Clint started, causing Maria to roll out of the way, finding cover so she could shoot with the proper protection. But Barton was getting away. She shot at the truck as he got in the driver's seat, but it was no use as they drove away unscathed.
"He's got the Tesseract." Emily spoke into her radio as both Fury and Emily began to hurry to the stairs. "Track it down!" Maria didn't need any more orders after that. She jumped into the nearest truck she could find and began chasing after Clint.
Coulson hurried, getting everyone out of the building at all costs, even if it meant leaving some important equipment. Right when he got the last of them on trucks out of there, he pulled out his own radio. "Director, Supervisor, we cleared upstairs. You need to go!" Right as he spoke, Fury and Emily made it to the top of the building just as it was crumbling, getting on their helicopter and beginning to fly out.
Maria continued her chase on Clint, making both cars face each other. Clint shot, but on the inside, he was hating himself for shooting, trying to miss as much as possible. Clint was still under the control of Loki, so he was going to do anything to get Loki out of there safely. He stepped on the accelerator as hard as he could, forcing Maria to move from out of his way and get right back behind him.
Right as everyone made their escape, the left over energy from the Tesseract exploded, sending everything to crumble into itself. Maria now had to travel even faster than before, now worrying about getting out of there in time. Colson watched in horror as everything behind him was crumbling. And Emily and Fury watched from below, hoping they got a lot of people out of there.
Maria was stopped by a large rock falling in front of her and on both sides as Clint made it out before he could find the same problem. Fury and Emily saw Clint escaping, causing Fury to get an idea. "Go after that truck!" He yelled to the pilot.
"Fury!" Emily scolded as the pilot did what he said. "That's Clint!"
"It's not him right now!" He yelled right back as he hurried to the door of the plane.
Clint began to turn off the road as Fury steadied his gun on him. He felt guilty about it, but he had to get the Tesseract back. He shot off he was gun, hitting the truck in a few good places, but Loki had the better weapon. He picked up his spear, aiming right at the plane.
The back part caught on fire, causing Fury and Emily to jump out right when they got low enough to the ground, knowing they wouldn't break anything. Emily rolled out of the plane after Fury, looking up just in time to see Loki looking back at them, knowing he had got away.
"Director?" They suddenly heard on their radios. "Supervisor? Do you copy?"
Emily looked to Fury while holding onto her aching ribs as she pulled out her radio. "The Director and I are fine. The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down."
Fury pulled out his own radio, weakly pressing the button to talk. "Hill?"
"A lot of men still under." She answered as she pulled herself out of the truck, taking deep breaths while looking around at the area. "Don't know how many survivors."
"Sound the general call." Emily commanded. "I want every soul not needing rescue looking for that briefcase."
"Roger that." Maria answered.
"Coulson," Fury spoke through his radio. "This is a level seven. As of right now," He turned to look at Emily for her guidance which she shrugged to, knowing it was the only thing they could do. "We are at war."
Coulson sat there for a moment, letting those words sink in, knowing this was the biggest thing SHIELD was ever going to have to deal with. "What do we do?"
Fury took the radio away from his mouth, knowing there was only one thing they could do. His eyes drifted to Emily for guidance, her breath still heavy from everything they had just went through. They couldn't do this alone. Not even if they tried. They needed people. A team. A man in an iron suit. A trained assassin and SHIELD agent. A man who had some…interesting affects after being exposed to gamma radiation. A god. And her daughter. She slowly pulled her radio to her mouth with a sigh, answering for Fury. "We call the Avengers."
Merry Christmas! I know I said I would be putting this story up after the holidays, but I started writing last night and the whole first chapter just poured right out. Don't worry, Melody will be back in the next chapter. I wanted this chapter to focus more on Emily and her being in charge at SHIELD. I hope you're all having a merry Christmas and for those of you that don't celebrate, I hope you're just having a great day! Please review and I will have the next chapter up soon!