So great to see I'm already getting reviews and followers! No pressure... :D Thank you guys!

Chapter 1 - SHIELD me


The hot steam filled the little bathroom and Em had to wipe the mirror clean with the edge of her towel to be able to see anything. Her emerald eyes sparkled along with her smile. She remembered her mother telling her once, when she was just a little girl, maybe ten or eleven, that her eyes had changed color. She claimed they used to be a dull blue, then suddenly they had turned this dark green, alive with light and life. She still didn't really believe her, cause whose eyes changed color like that?

She ruffled her short, brown hair with a small towel and patted her trained body dry. She had for the last few months spent most of her spare time working out. In her new job at SHIELD she felt the need to be both fit and enduring, in case she ever got some field-time. She was after all the weapons-expert. And she had the most awesome sparring partner when it came to that exact subject. She gave herself a crooked smile in the mirror. The heat in her cheeks faded a bit as she, yet again, looked at the strange mark on the top of her chest, almost right in between her collar bones. A diamond-shaped mark, colored deep green, like her eyes. It was just over 1 inch long and perfectly visible, not like a tattoo which after some time faded in to the skin, but it almost glittered, like it had a light of its own. But no one had ever seen it. Whenever she was with her boyfriend's from the past she used a special concealer to hide it. Right now she hadn't needed to hide it for anyone the past 12 months, so she didn't bother to put any on anymore, she had basically given up hope. Her job took up all her time anyway.
There was a knock on the door.

"Fury wants to see you! Hurry up! He's ten minutes out!" An agent she couldn't recognize by voice spoke firmly, as if she was a prisoner.

"He can wait five minutes! I just got out of the shower for crying out loud!" She called back before slowly getting dressed. She had, from the very start, refused to wear the typical SHIELD-getup. She wasn't a soldier and she wasn't a military agent, so she went with her own clothes. She had argued that if she was comfortable in her outfits she would be more of use in a case of an emergency. So, she pulled on her black jeans, black boots and a tight fitted, black and red shirt. It was elastic enough for her to move freely in, yet it suited her slender body. She was single. She was going to do her best at looking awesome, who knew who you'd run in to!


"Ooooooh!" Tony Stark let out a long whistle as she entered the high tech lab they shared. Em rolled her eyes.

"You see me in this outfit almost every day, Tony, I look the same as yesterday!" She pretended to be exasperated and annoyed, but she was hard tried not to smile at his flattery.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you look good, every single day. " Tony shook his shoulders and clicked his tongue, making Em laugh.

"You are so subtle, Stark."

"Subtle is such a harsh word." Tony eyed her and grabbed her hand as she past him.

"When are you going to leave this facility long enough to come with me to New York?" He asked. Again. Em suppressed a sigh, yet her chest turned warm.

"I've got a job here, Tony. I can't just up and leave, like you. You're the billionaire with the private jet and…built in servant in your ear." She leaned closer and smiled secretly.

"I've got bills to pay." She whispered and giggled as Tony rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Who helped you when your car broke down." He crossed his arms and eyed her with judgement.

"Tony, don't..!" Em started, but he cut her of with the wave of his hand and continued his piercing stare.

"…You did." Em mumbled.

"And who helped your mother when she was forced in to an early retirement?"

"You did."

"Who will watch out for you and shield you from everything big and bad out there?" Em smiled at his almost paternal nod.

"You will."

"And who makes you feel like a woman deeply loved?"

"You d… Tony!" Em laughed heartedly, letting Tony grab her by the waist and pull her close. Her chest fluttered and her cheeks went warm. His dark brown eyes heated her so easily now, not like when they had first started to work together, when Tony was more her mentor than her coworker. They had flirted playfully, mostly because Tony is THE playboy. NOT flirting isn't an option. Now it felt like it could easily get more serious. Or at least heavier. For both of them.

"You don't belong underground, Em." Tony's voice was heavily laced with something undefinable and Em shivered.

"Take me to the heavens then, Tony." She whispered back.

"Clarke, report in with me, now!" Director Fury's voice crackled through the walkie still lying on her desk.

"Shit!" Em tore free and grabbed her weapon holster and strapped it to her pants. The black standard handgun was firmly shoved down in to it.

"On my way sir!" She said hastily in to the walkie before strapping that to her belt as well.

"I forgot, Fury wants to see me! He's probably landed already. Craaaaap!" She groaned, mentally beating herself for being such a mental slut. She'd been thinking about Tony all the way back to the lab.

"Well, I'm going back to New York now. I'll see you soon, right?" Em smiled up at him.

"I count on it." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before she bolted from the room.


The long hallways were dark and moist and uncovered. The rough stone walls always made her feel squeezed and tight for air. When the alarm sounded, setting the few red flashing lights down along the wall in to motion she picked up speed. Her pulse rose instantly. If they sounded the alarm for evacuation it could only be related to one thing and one thing only. The Tesseract.


"Sir?" Em was almost run down by guards and employees as she exited the facility and entered the huge open space in front of it. It lay in a mix of darkness, moist pavement and the hectic sound of helicopters, running feet and orders being shouted back and forth. Em had to raise her voice to even hear herself over the noise. Director Fury had just stepped out of the huge, black helicopter alongside Agent Maria Hill.

"We seem to have a situation, Miss Clarke." Fury's voice was loud, but tight with worry. Em hurried alongside him as he marched inside.

"Yeah, I figured as much. The Tesseract?" She asked, trying not to be overly worried.

"It seems to be having bursts of energy without Selvig interfering. It can only mean one thing." He said tightly, not even looking at her.

"What? What does it mean?" Em asked curiously, knowing he had said too much already.

"Sir." Maria Hill, looking hard at Em, spoke through tight lips.

"And what do you need ME for? I know weapons, not otherworldly forces." I continued, ignoring Hill.

"Nothing to concern yourself with, Clarke. I need you to oversee the weapon transfers and make sure…everything is taken out of the facility and to the helicarrier." For the last bit of that sentence he looked at her. Even his patched eye seemed to drill in to her. Em swallowed.

"We're not coming back?"

"These needs to be done now. Go." He cut her off and Em knew better than to linger and ask more questions. She turned and headed down another narrow corridor. But she was heading the completely opposite direction than everyone else who was evacuating.


She found the hidden latter easily. A glance over her shoulder confirmed she was alone and quickly she clambered up the narrow latter, pushing the little hatch in the wall open as quietly she could. The massive room opened up in front of her. The cold, blue light flickered against the dark stone walls, giving it a sickly glow. The ledge she was on was a long, metal bridge stretching along the wall, several stories above the ground. A three-bars railing was all that separated her from certain death.

"Are you sneaking up on me again?" Em almost squealed at the sound, pressing her back against the wall. She silently closed the hatch and now she saw Clint Barton. He was sitting with his feet in an almost lotus position, his arms rested on the railing and his eyes fixed on the scene below.

"Hi hawk. Sorry, no, not sneaking up on you this time. Not that is wasn't fun the last time." She grumbled and rolled her eyes. The memory made even Barton smile. She had, by accident, scared him out of his mind once when she had found her way up to his "nest". Completely unaware that anyone could get up to where he had settled he wasn't paying attention and when Em had tapped him on the shoulder he had spun around, grabbed her arm and flipped her over, smashing her in to the hard metal floor and pressed a blade against her throat. After being scolded for entering his so-called "private domain" Em had made him swear never to tell anyone she knew how to get up there and they had settled with a silent truce. Never would they ever be friends or enemies. They were just allies.

"What's going on?" Em whispered and moved silently closer to the edge, but in safe distance from the little light there was, apart from the clutching, waving blue.

"The Tesseract erupted, untouched by Selvig or any of the scientists. I think it's trying to establish a portal…" Barton was interrupted by a message in his ear. Quickly he stood up.

"Fury needs me." He said and without another look at Em he walked over to a line fastened to the railing and with great ease let himself slip down. Barton was never really the talkative kind, or the sharing kind, so why he had told her what he had was beyond Em. But it got her thinking. A portal? To where? She crept closer to the wall, but still able to see it all, the Tesseract in the strange machine in the middle of the room, all the computers, huge futuristic screens and a dozen or so lab-coats and black-suits along with Fury, Barton and Selvig.

She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she sure could see. And feel. The Tesseract seemed to have another burst of energy and the light grew, right in front of her eyes. A burst sent a wave fanning out on the room. Flickers of what looked like blue flames licked upwards and it expelled a strange, humming sound. Then everything erupted. First in Em's head. The sheer force was so powerful it slammed her against the wall and she moaned, not sensibly alert enough to care if anyone heard her. Images flashed before her inner eye. Green eyes, green cape, melting stars, wind, emotions beyond her understanding. Power, desperation, jealousy, lust and so much anger it threatened to tear her apart! Her whimpers and cries of pain were muffled by the massive explosion at the bottom floor. A huge column of blue fire shot straight up and slowly a portal widened and grew above them, all without Em seeing it. Her eyes were tightly pressed shut, all while her mind forced lost memories to the surface and filling her body with emotions and memories she knew didn't belong to her. Just as the portal exploded above them, Em cried out in fear.

"No!" It was here. Materialized below her. It was here and everything and nothing was the same.


Next: "I never lie." - Em knows more now than she's known her entire life. But the truth hidden in her past is not the truth she believs in now. But there's no way to deny it. How can she possibly stay with SHIELD?