Author's Notes: This is a shorter chapter than the last but no less important in setting things up for the future. I'm grateful for the response I have gotten so far and hope that this chapter will spark more interest. This will likely be the last update for this story until 2019. I hope you all enjoy it.
Disclaimer: The Marvel Cinematic Universe and Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to their respective owners.
The Experiment
Chapter 2: The Reaction
Faith looked out on the long endless desert landscape that seemed to stretch on forever before ending at a horizon that only just allowed the mountains to peak over the edge. It made her wonder exactly where she was. If things went sound and she had to leg it out of here she had to have an escape route, right now she had no idea which direction was best to run towards.
Everywhere leads to the ocean, just one way may take longer than the other. Faith thought to herself, before she reminded herself to go West in case, she was sure that was the closest coastline for the state she was in.
But then she realized that she had no idea which state she was in, or what damn desert she was in. That could make this a tricky thing to handle, go West or East. Damn, she should have really paid attention in geography when she had the chance. Just another part of her youth that she regretted, not learning something valuable.
"Any reason why we are taking a jeep instead of a helicopter to your super secret facility?" Faith asked, looking to her fellow passenger, who sat opposite of her.
"It's because it's that classified and that I'm bringing you in off book that I can't afford to bring you via the helipad," Fury explained.
"Budget cuts?" Faith asked.
"No, I just don't like paperwork," Fury replied with a drawl. "And people tend to yell at me when I do something they don't like."
Damn, he does it so well that I think I am starting to like him, Faith thought, the guy just knew how to pull off the deadpan so well, it was an art form in his hands.
"Is it your mother?" Faith joked, trying to be cute about it.
Fury just turned his head to look at her, giving her the usual bland emotionless one-eyed stare that would make anyone feel awkward. But she was a Slayer, and that meant absolutely nothing when it came to awkwardness, intimidation and hostility it helped, but not awkwardness.
"Please stop looking at me," Faith asked, her voice picking up slightly that she was not very comfortable with him looking at her like that.
The ride remained silent for the next forty-three minutes and eighteen seconds; although she had no idea if that was the exact time as she had only done it out of boredom since they were not talking much. It weirded her out how these guys had remained quiet for two hours and not say a word to one another, how could these guys deal with it? They didn't even have the radio on.
"Oh god I am dying here," Faith groaned, shaking her head before dropping it into her hands. "How do you guys do it?"
"We zone out and think of our favorite Backstreet Boy." Fury replied, as if he wasn't even listening.
"Wait, really?" Faith asked, she couldn't help to see if it was true. Not getting a response, she turned her head to Phil, who was driving. "Coulson?"
"Honestly I prefer the classics. The Vienna Symphony is spectacular if you ever get a chance to listen to them," Phil smiling slightly as he looked in the rear vision mirror. Faith decided that it would be prudent to look out the window for a while.
And when she did, she noticed it, the light in the distance and the structures she could see in the darkness. She could make out the field of large satellite dishes behind the arrays of buildings that sat on the raised-up plateau. Faith looked on and saw a helicopter circling the skies and several cars doing the same, while towers lined the outer perimeter.
The hell? Faith thought to herself, this didn't exactly look like some kind of secret facility. "What is this?"
"This, as you so eloquently put it earlier, is my 'super-secret facility'," Fury replied, just as the car moved into a tunnel just outside of the perimeter, a group of guards allowing them access. "Welcome to Project PEGASUS."
Faith remained silent as they moved deeper underground and towards a bay station about a mile in, as she looked around she noticed that there were more guards. She quickly weighed the situation and prepared to remember her way back to the entrance if she needed to.
"Come on," Fury said, opening his door and stepping out.
Faith followed his lead and stepped out, looking around at the simple dull grey walled tunnel before she trailed after the Director. She moved with him into the facility, with Coulson right behind them. Passing security personal and a few others, she noted that while some had SHIELD emblems on their shoulder's others had NASA ones.
"What is this place?" Faith inquired.
"Research site," Fury replied. "For the artifact that I brought you here to see."
Faith did not know what kind of place this was but she did notice a plaque or two around, all of them saying the same thing. Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility. It would seem that this place was one of those high-tech scientific research bases where they look into alternative energy sources or something like that.
"Director," Faith turned to see a woman with dark hair in her early thirties walk forward and hand him a file, only sparing a brief glance to the Slayer.
"Agent Hill," Fury greeted in turn. "What is the status of the chamber?"
"Main staff has been sent off, paid leave and off time for the rest of the week. They seemed skeptical," Maria Hill replied, walking in step with the Director.
"Why? I'm a nice guy, can't they see I let them off because they have been working hard," Fury replied.
"Sir, they thought you were firing them."
"Sounds like something I might do, better keep that in the book for a later date." Fury replied, giving off a rare scoff as he moved deeper into the facility.
Faith however had to trail behind the two, Coulson was by her side, while three guards brought up the rear, it was a little odd for her as she felt like a third wheel – or seventh wheel in this case. It was strange really for her to be here, it was completely alien that she would be allowed into a secret facility like this. Even with her reservations and suspicions she did not understand why they were being so trusting of her presence that the two people ahead of her did not seemed concerned.
Even the guards seemed at ease with the escort.
"Well Miss Lehane, we are in luck. The man leading the project is spending the weekend with family. And the night staff is off on vacation, courtesy of my good graces," Fury stated, not glancing at Faith as he spoke, but the way he said it and what was stated earlier showed that he was the one responsible for them not being present. "It won't be that hard to get into the lab without anyone making a fuss."
Faith did not reply; instead she just followed as they led her deep into the bowels of the facility. Down an elevator and a few stairwells, they eventually arrive at the deepest section of the base.
When they entered the lab, Faith was expecting perhaps something ancient, something that would simply scream out demonic to her, considering how she got roped into this. After all, with every past experience she had always been stooped and surprised by what she had found, and she was surprised, but for the opposite reasons.
Instead, all anyone in the lab seemed to be looking at or taking readings on, if she saw from computer screens, was a single blue cube like object.
For a moment she just looked at the cube. It looked like an ornament you put on a wall or desk. A cool looking ornament she was sure, but come on, there was no way this thing could be what she was brought here for.
She stared at it for a few moments, looking as it swirled and pulsed with energy.
"... Seriously?" Faith mumbled out, looking to Fury, with skepticism in her eyes.
But her skepticism was only met with a cold impassive stare; oddly enough he beat her own gaze with only one eye. Has she not been so dumbstruck she may have made a joke about it. Scratch that, even if she had not been dumbstruck, she would have held her tongue. This guy did not like jokes.
"This thing? It looks like something I'd buy in a glass art store," Faith said, before moving slightly closer and looking at it, the swirling inside the cubic structure. "Or a boring lava lamp."
"That thing is called the Tesseract and it nearly cost the Allies World War II." Fury replied, his tone became quiet and dark as he mentioned it, turning and walking around said object that he claimed to have been an instrumental object in the decisive victory of the World War.
Faith let her shock show openly at Fury's statement, knowing by the grim tone of his voice that he was telling the absolute truth. After all he had said things a lot less serious, like national security, end of the world, his favorite Backstreet Boy without a single alteration in his tone. So, if that alone was anything to go by than Fury was quite serious about how big this thing is.
Yet for some reason she couldn't help but not understand what it was, or how it could have been used by the Germans.
"What is it?" Faith asked, taking a step back as she looked it over.
"This object was found and used by an organization known as Hydra, think of it as Adolf Hitler's supernatural research division," Fury stated, giving Faith just enough information to get the idea behind the object. "Hydra's Founder, Johann Schmidt later known as the Red Skull, found it in Europe and with the assistance of a scientist by the name of Arnim Zola created rudimentary energy-based weapons as well as hyper advanced machinery that even today we couldn't replicate."
He stepped in front of Faith, looking her straight in the eye.
"Were it not for Captain America, the Red Skull would have not only conquered Europe, but the rest of the world too," Fury stated factually. "Well, after blowing it to pieces that is. The man wasn't what you would call stable. Suffice it to say his presence and that of the Cube could have been the end of our way of life, as well as most of the human race."
"Well that certainly wasn't in the history books," Faith said in a subdued voice, although she attempted to maintain an air of indifference. "So, what exactly are you expecting out of me then?"
"The Tesseract comes from Asgard," Fury replied, tapping onto a console nearby and revealing several images and videos of an incident in a small New Mexico town. "Home to a dimension of godlike beings modeled after figures from Norse myth. Based on our reports and the debriefings we got from the scientists that he was with during one of these gods stay on Earth, it seems that their race uses Science and Magic, claiming they are one and the same."
Faith smirked to herself and let out an inaudible chuckle, shaking her head, she knew what they wanted.
"As of late, we have been unable to cause any form of reaction from the object. We are hoping you could change that. We want you to see if you can either cause it to react to your presence or see if it does use what you deem to be magic."
"That's it?" She asked, getting a nod from the Director, before shrugging. "Well at least it's not hell gods. You would have the wrong Slayer then. You mind if I actually touch the Cube thingy. I can't really tell anything from a distance, touching might help."
"Then go ahead." Fury replied, before he told her in a deceptively calm and slow tone. "Just be careful."
"I know, you're watching me to make sure I don't make off with the Cosmic Cube," Faith replied, raising her hands up in mock surrender, but come on, what the hell would she do with it?
"Tesseract," Fury amended.
"I like my name for it better," Faith smirked as she made her way over to it, scientists making sure to monitor the situation.
Standing in front of the object she felt some tension well inside her, for good reason. She was about to touch something that seemed to be the greatest thing in the damn universe and she was going to play with it. That was so going to blow up in her fact. Steeling her nerves and giving her arms a shake, she slowly reached for the cube.
She put her hands on the Tesseract, her palm resting along the side of it, unable to actually pick it up as it was fastened into some kind of device.
As soon as she touched it however, she felt a warm sensation move through her hand. It got warmer too, but that was probably as far as it got. It would seem that the Cosmic Cube, her new favorite name, was no more magical that a waffle iron.
What was she expecting? A massive surge of power, a portal to open and a demonic army appears. As far as she could tell this thing wasn't supernatural at all. In fact it didn't do anything but make her hand start to sweat.
Well, this was a waste of… why is there energy coiling around my arm? She followed the strange coils as they moved along her arm, moving along her skin and making her hair stand on end. It was then that the Cube started to brighten, as well as get a bit hotter and then her arm started to hurt. She could hear the scientists around her, chattering wildly about this being the first real spike the cube had given off.
"Oh, please do not let this blow up in my face," Faith muttered, closing her eyes and actually praying to anything out there not for this to end with her getting blown up.
Those were the last words Faith said before the Cube's energies engulfed her entire body for a second or two. Then she was violently cast back, she flew all the way to the other side of the lab, and through a work station or two before sliding to a halt.
But it was not only her that was affected. Alarms went blaring, as the people in the room recovered from the sudden concussive explosion that occurred. Everyone had been thrown to the floor, disorientated and blinded from the intense light. As they slowly got back up, the small shockwave that followed from Faith coming into contact with the Cube began to dissipate as the energies around the Cube retreated within the square object's interior.
Coulson was the first get to his feet, having been furthest away from the shockwave. As he stood he looked around the chamber, surveying the damage and looking for any casualties. He could see everyone had been knocked off their feet, not many were standing back up too quickly however.
"Director, are you alright?" Coulson said, rushing over to his superiors' side.
"I'm fine, Coulson," Fury groaned as he allowed Phil to help him up.
"Well you wanted a reaction," Phil remarked. "I'd say you got it in spades, boss."
"You're telling me," Fury replied, his eye going towards what he saw.
An unconscious Slayer, laying on the floor face down and almost forty meters away from where she stood a few moments ago. He saw the rest of the room was in shambles and that the scientists were all still recovering from the sudden spike.
"Go check on her," Fury ordered, motioning towards Faith, he raised a hand to his earpiece. "I need medical teams down here. We have injured personnel in the containment chamber."
Phil was already at the Slayer's side, kneeling down and checking her pulse. A wave of relief hit him to feel that her pulse was strong. She was down but not out.
"She's stable, so far as I can tell, but I think we'll all be better off once we've had doctors give her a clean bill of health," Coulson called out, watching as Fury helped Agent Hill to her feet and then moved to get the rest of their personal up and about.
"Amen to that," Fury agreed.
It wasn't long before their backup arrived. Medical teams and Security flooding the room, they moved to those who had been hit and looking for the threat that caused the disturbance. Fury motioned for Hill to deal with the Security; she nodded before moving off to get them to stand down. "I need to know what her condition is as soon as possible and if she can be moved."
Fury had kept her visit out of the books; anything regarding her acquisition to her arrival was simply a myth. He would keep it that way; anything that causes problems for the project would get the World Council breathing down his neck. The fact he sanctioned bringing the girl here and also allowing her to interact with their most heavily guarded artifacts was a big no-no in their books.
Anything relating to this would need to be kept under wraps tightly, he couldn't let anyone get wind of this and cause problems for them. After all, if they realized she had been here and caused a reaction she may be detained and with the way her organization acts he did not want some damn war to start.
"On it, boss." Phil said, motioning for a medical team to help him.
"Tell me that you have something. Is the Tesseract functional now?" Fury turned to one of the scientists, who were fiddling with their computers to see what they had gotten. Most were glitching and unresponsive from the sudden outburst of energy.
"I don't know sir, it appears to have returned to an inert state, but we did pick up a massive buildup just before the explosion." One of the support staff spoke. "We had about three seconds of power fluctuations that went off the scales. Quite honestly, we have no idea how to explain it."
"How did she get a reaction out of the Tessaract?" Another scientist asked.
"Classified as is my visit. There is to be no record of our arrival. Wipe all the data in this time frame after you transfer it to this flash drive," Fury ordered, handing them the drive, one took it after sharing a sidelong glance with his colleague.
"Director." Phil's voice brought Fury's attention back to him, and he saw the stunned look on his face. "You need to see this."
Fury moved forward and knelt next to the woman. He didn't see any sort of anomaly to make note of, until they opened one of her eyes. He saw that it had changed color, no longer brown, but a deep blue. Almost glowing, as if it was some kind of star or…
The Tesseract.
Fury got up slowly and quickly took stock of the situation and the course he needed to take. Would be hell to pull off but he had no choice but to do it, anything less and the consequences could spell doom for SHIELD.
"As of this moment, this is a Level Ten Operation. All of you are to speak to no one but me or about any of this," Fury called out. "You will all be eventually extracted from Project Pegasus with the correct cover stories and will be transferred to a facility of my own designation. There you will be given new assignments; you will not be informed until after you take your new posts. Let's get to work people!"
Fury watched as the room went into meltdown as people went about the order. Only he as the Director of SHIELD could authorize a Level Ten Operation. The contents of said operations could only be viewed by him alone, could only be accessed with his personal approval. It would give him the security that he needed to proceed with the necessary cover up of this event.
He was glad Selvig had gone to visit family and the majority of the staff was sent away. A couple of support techs left to monitor the Tesseract in case of unexpected activity and a few security personnel. Easy enough for him to relocate to wherever he would be moving Faith now. Had it been when Selvig or his main staff were here, he wasn't sure he could manage to keep absolute secrecy. Or allow them to be reassigned, this team was hand chosen because of their experience and to lose them in any way would be a blow.
Even if they had never been able to garner a reaction from the Tesseract.
But Faith had, she had done something no one else had been able to achieve in nearly seventy years. That in of itself spoke volumes of the monumental event of today.
And Fury wasn't going to let anyone else find that out until he learned what exactly that meant.
