Apologies for the delay. I originally had four chapters ready for you guys but my computer didn't save any of them, so now I have to start over :( But's its alright. The story must go on!

Chapter 2

"Rehearsals, as you can see, are underway for

a new production of Chalumeau's Hannibal...

Gentlemen, Signora Carlotta Giudicelli,

our leading soprano for five seasons."

- 'Overture/ Hannibal' Phantom of the Opera

oOo

Still the atmosphere remained chilly under the building's elaborate, underground structure. It drifted from cryptic vents and rolled through the corridors in ripples, pumping the area with a bleak and grave eeriness. Footsteps drummed stainless tile. Glimpses of the agent and physicist appeared as patches of blue light caught their figures.

Loki's following footsteps fell upon deaf ears. He swung the cane back and forth to the rhythm of his strides, listening quietly to the useless chatter between the men ahead.

In all the time he had shadowed Selvig's work with the Tesseract, he had only encountered the substance itself a total of three times. The power broke his apparitions every time he stepped into view- shattering his ghostly presence and sending hopeless information back to his dimension.

The Other hadn't wanted to release him until he had gathered more information on the Tesseract's capabilities, but there was no other option. Loki's influence on the astrophysicist was simply not sufficient enough. He would have to come and examine the power source himself.

The two gentlemen approached the prime hideaway. A small cluster of individuals awaited them, draped in suits and formal attire. Loki recognized none of them but the brute of a man in a long trench coat, who immediately stepped forward to introduce them.

"Dr. Selvig, the members of the World Security Council," the director gestured to his guests.

The astrophysicist seemed flustered for a moment, but regained his focus. "A pleasure."

The eldest superior with a wrinkled face stepped forward to shake hands. "I have heard noble things of you, doctor," he said. "The mastermind behind the Cube's secrets and mysteries."

Selvig chuckled. "I'd say she has a mind of her own, sir."

Loki watched the exchange with little interest. He wasted no time in steering the man's focus back on the Tesseract.

"Allow me to introduce you all to a few of its functions," Selvig robotically brushed past them.

"Is the contraption safe?" the woman superior inquired.

"Well, that's the dilemma, ma'am," the astrophysicist retorted. "None of us truly know. But as long as it's stabilized, it should be innocuous."

Selvig moved towards the computers to check the Tesseract's magnitude. He opened the seismograph of the power's pulses, and activated the chamber once the regulations seemed stable. From the left side of the room, metal screeched as it parted, revealing a brilliant mass of blue light.

Everyone took a step backwards. Faces grew tense as the Cube shifted and throbbed with energy- vibrating the steel tile beneath their feet. Blue radiance fiercely reflected through the god's unblinking eyes.

Erik Selvig was the only one to move forward casually. He staggered along as he hunted for some tools within the contraption. "Come on in," he called to them.

The council paused. It was only when the woman moved forward in her sharp heels that the rest followed.

Fury lingered behind with Coulson. "I assume Dr. Foster is on her way."

"From what I've heard," the agent replied.

"Make sure she gets here," Fury insisted. "They were the ones who requested her, and I doubt they'll leave before meeting her."

"Yes, sir." Coulson ducked out of the facility.

Jane Foster had only been to the Empire State Building once in her life, when she was five. Her father had been in town for business and he brought her along, buying her a magnificent colored lollipop and giving her a tour of Time Square. She remembered gazing down at the array of city lights and the distant sounds of traffic. She remembered the wind and the warm grasp of her father's fingers on her waist.

Now the building seemed less brilliant. It lacked the charm and eminence it once carried, the inferior feeling of leaning back and taking it all in. Now the building was ancient. Now it was just another structure for SHIELD.

Jane pushed her way through the sliding door and stepped inside. A few tourists crowded the lobby and the elevator, murmuring among their families and ushering their children. There was not an agent in sight.

Darcy finally came up behind her, wheezing heavily. "You didn't have to… run that entire way, you know."

"I don't see Erik," Jane said, scanning the floor.

"Dr. Foster."

Both women turned. A familiar man in a suit strode towards them from the other side of the room, walking at a rapid pace.

"Coulson," Jane returned, sourly.

"If you'll come with me, please," the agent gestured the way he came. "We have already taken Dr. Selvig downstairs."

Jane followed reluctantly, Darcy at her heels. "I'd like an explanation as to why we were dragged halfway across the country for no reason," the astrophysicist said, bent on answers.

Coulson led them through the hidden opening before responding. "Director Fury has an important meeting with the World Security Council. They arrived just two hours ago."

"What do they want with Erik?" Jane demanded.

"Nothing. They just want insight."

The astrophysicist slowed her pace, frowning. "Did you… is it here?"

Coulson nodded.

"Smart idea," Darcy muttered.

Coulson sighed. "Director Fury has been overridden. The Tesseract's location is out of our hands."

An ancient substance lied beneath the layers of molten energy. There was a heart to the device, an unseen nucleus that held flaming exuberance and an unlimited, uncountable amount of strength. The potential for its use was endless.

Loki circulated the cube slowly, perusing the contents and inhaling the sweet scent of radiation. Thanos had been right to focus on the device. He had been right to send him to Earth.

The entire room was kindled by the Tesseract's blue electricity. The god found it impossible to look away; the presence of the power was something too overwhelming to avert or disregard. Already, he could feel the current pulsing into his veins and fill him with the most excruciating pleasure of supremacy.

Movements around him went unnoticed. A few footsteps wandered around the device at a safe distance, taking it in from different angles and squinting into the heart of it. Loki already knew the Tesseract didn't sing to them as it did to him. Humans were pitifully weak and unworthy of properly understanding how significant the object was.

The woman slowed to a halt, taking the image from the back angle. "Has this contraption always been stabilized?"

"Ever since we've started working on it, it hasn't given us any threatening problems," Selvig explained. "However, the Cube's power is ambiguous. Our control over it is frail; if it were to unleash endless amounts of energy, we could do little to restrain it."

"If this device could be harmful to the population, then there must be a team developed to control it," another superior insisted.

Selvig was at a loss for words. Instead, he looked to Director Fury, who stepped up to explain the situation. "Our studies show no possible subjugation of it. The equipment and strategy to harness such power is way past our limits. The most we can do is observe and try to balance out its radiations. Is this correct, doctor?" The astrophysicist nodded gruffly in agreement. He continued. "Any attempt to spark it could also end up obliterating the entire damn planet."

Loki listened absently without averting his eyes. They would gladly come to appreciate his power and knowledge of it once he gained control. They would worship his guidance.

More movement occurred from out of the corner of his eye. The tension within the chatter had turned pleasant, and there were new voices in the room. It was only when he heard a sophisticated, feminine tone, did his eyes snap from their position.

The agent had returned with two young women, both acquiring hair winded from the weather. The first greeted Erik with a warm hug and shook hands with the superiors that came to greet her.

"You must be Ms. Foster," one superior addressed.

Foster. He had heard the name before.

Selvig stepped beside her. "Jane- why don't you elaborate on what you've been working on?"

Jane.

Of course.

Loki observed quietly as the bureaucrats of the council disregarded the Cube and crowded the scientist with questions. He had seen only fragments of her through the Destroyer's eyes, flying and weeping to his brother after his fatal blow. Her name had also drifted between Selvig's conversations with his colleagues, and he found it difficult to determine who this significant woman really was.

Jane Foster.

She was the one who had changed Thor. The small, frail creature before him was the cause of the Bifrost's destruction. She had ruined all his plans.

"And do you work alongside your colleague?" The woman asked. "For SHIELD?"

Jane hesitated, and glanced at the director from the corner of her eye. "Our motives are intertwined, but no. I've been working on a different project."

The older superior looked intrigued. "Do elaborate, Miss Foster."

Loki watched her eyes drift from the bureaucrats to the Tesseract sitting proudly behind them. She was at a loss for words, gazing at the prism in obvious awe. The god could only smirk in return.

Jane quickly cleared her throat, but didn't avert her eyes. She turned to the side to properly address the council without having to remove whatever hold the Tesseract had on her. "Months ago, visitors from another realm entered our hemisphere with startling ease," she explained. "One of the them… was my friend..."

There was an uncomfortable silence. Flustered, Jane shook her head and moved on. "For whatever reason, they were unable to return. But these creatures have unprecedented technology… so advanced that it far transcends our own. They are in possession of some great portal- a contraption of sorts, something that permits them to move freely within the nine realms…"

Loki found himself amused by the way she talked. She clearly wasn't a professional speaker, with her swift syllables and stumbled words. Still, there was a passion behind her explanations. Her knowledge wasn't something she had just strung together, it was years and years of in-depth learning and understanding. He had never seen a human quite like it.

"The Foster Theory," Nick Fury went on. "Was constructed nine months ago from a series of witnesses, with suggestive evidence from Einstein's relative theory in 1905. We have been monitoring her work for some time. The results have been inconclusive, but her team is currently trying to detect wormholes from different quadrants of space."

"How do you plan to proceed if Miss Foster succeeds in locating a wormhole, Director?" one superior inquired.

The entire council turned to hear his response. Nick Fury looked at them indifferently.

"Proceed as SHIELD always does," he said. "By taking the necessary, precarious steps."

Jane squared her shoulders away from them, edging closer and closer until she stood merely inches before it. Loki watched her movements from the other side of it, absorbing her image kindled in fierce blue.

There was a softness to her face. She had large, brown eyes and high cheekbones that settled gracefully with the curve of her jaw. She was quite attractive for a human, but Loki still couldn't see what had set her apart. Thor had turned away women far more beautiful than her in Asgard many times before.

"Do you think we can expect results in the near future, Miss Foster?"

The question had little effect on the astrophysicist. She appeared in such a memorized trance with the Tesseract, even Loki was surprised to hear her speak up. "My team has been working aimlessly to track one down, but…" she murmured. "Without the proper source of power, our progress will be futile. We need something magnificent to trigger it… something powerful… something… unprecedented…"

Loki could feel the Cube thrumming. It called to her, sung to her… the radiation was humming deep within her own veins.

Very unusual, indeed, Loki mused. It might do some good to warn the Other of the Tesseract's rare connections with its beholders. Perhaps he didn't understand it as well as he wanted to believe.

"Miss Foster?"

Jane slowly angled her head to the left, as if the Cube itself was influencing her to do so. The blue mass glimmered nefariously through her pupils, cold and dangerous.

Jane's head fell slightly backwards. Her eyes fluttered closed- almost, as Loki would recognize- in ecstasy.

"Jane?"

Suddenly, she whirled around, back towards the female who had shrieked her name.

"What?" she asked.

The entire council was watching her. Many of them just gave her thoughtful stares, but others, specifically the ones she was closest to, cast her looks of suspicion. Jane flushed and ducked her head.

The older superior checked his watch. "We should be departing soon. Our flight takes off in less than an hour."

"I will call our ride," the woman said.

"Allow me," Coulson cut in, gesturing the superiors back down the hallway. The group of them bid their farewells to the astrophysicts and shook hands one last time with the director.

"I'd like monthly reports on Miss Foster's progress, as well as your own with the energy device," the older murmured.

Director Fury nodded stiffly. "Will do."

They exchanged final farewells and the superior departed without a word. The scientists waited until their footsteps trailed off before they turned on Fury.

"They could have just read my journal online if they wanted an explanation," Jane said. "Why did they need me in person?"

"To make sure you weren't a fraud," Fury retorted. "Most of your support isn't coming from SHIELD; it's coming from the World Security Council. They're very perceptive of these things." He picked up his abandoned transmitter and brought it to his lips. "Hill- give me a status on Giudicelli."

There was a glitch of static before a woman's voice was audible. "Sir, his flight was delayed two hours. We are currently issuing him a flight back to Boston."

"Confirmed," Fury said.

Selvig frowned. "Giudicelli?"

"Carl Giudicelli," Fury explained. "He's a lab technician that specializes in biophysics and engineering. He's been with SHIELD for about five years now. The World Security Council has assigned him to your team to help you research."

Jane looked infuriated. "I don't need another assistant."

"The Council wants results," Fury said. "He won't get in your way- but the help is there. I suggest you utilize him before they decide to revoke their support."

Loki tapped his cane against the stainless tile while the humans bickered. The new intrusion of the World Council in Selvig's affairs would surely slow him down and stall his progress. If the Other wanted more information on the Tesseract, Loki would have to find a way to get Selvig around the mess of human bureaucrats.

But the Foster girl couldn't be ignored as well. Her acute understanding of portals and bridges intrigued him, and made him question her current sense of direction on the matter. Perhaps he too would have to monitor her work, just to check and see if what she was brewing could serve some sort of use to him and the Other.

Loki gazed into the heart of the Cube one last time, a playful smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

A little mischief wouldn't hurt.

oOo

Reviews? Feedback? I'd love it all :)