A/N: Sorry I haven't updated sooner! I went on vacation and then I had to take my mom to the doctor. But I'm back, and definitely not dead! Also, I might not have said this yet, but I do not own anything you recognize from the Marvel universe. I only own Artemis!

Read on!

People were dying or getting injured at an alarming rate. Artemis didn't realized someone have shoved her until she felt her ankle bend in the wrong direction as she crumpled to the ground and a laser beam nearly sliced her head off. She staggered to a standing position, bracing herself on a stainless steel lab table. She gasped as she put weight on her left ankle, her knuckles turning white at she gripped the edge of the table. Yeah, that was probably gonna be bruised in the morning.

A scary thought entered her mind. If she lived to see tomorrow.

Disoriented and terrified, Artemis looked around her, assessing the situation. Director Fury was crumpled at the foot of the Tesseract's platform; Dr. Selvig cowered behind one of the many desks that filled the large room; Clint was just beginning to stand after hitting a wall. There was only one unnamed SHIELD agent who wasn't dead or dying, crouching next to Dr. Selvig. Artemis was hit with reality like a ton of bricks: they were the only ones left.

Lights flickered above her, showering the room with sparks. She was pretty sure some really expensive lab equipment was on fire somewhere behind her. In the back of her mind, she hoped Selvig's insurance would pay for that.

Everything had happened so fast. Yet when she saw the newcomer, in all his green and leather and slicked-back-hair glory, lunge towards Clint Barton, if was like watching it in slow motion. "You have heart," the man said, smirking at the archer. When the spear came in contact with Clint's chest, and his eyes glowed with the same unnatural blue as the Tesseract, Artemis was pretty sure she had shouted something obscene. By the way the homicidal maniac was glaring at her, she knew that she probably shouldn't have.

Before she could even think about running, a large hand wrapped around her throat and lifted her off of the floor, her sneakers just brushing the cement. Cerulean eyes glowered at her as her own small hands instinctively reached up, trying to pry the man's larger, icy one away from her neck. His sharp, sweaty face was mere inches from her own, and she could clearly see the dark, sleepless circles around his eyes and the crazed look in his unnaturally blue eyes. Atremis' eyes began to water as struggled take a breath. With his free hand, the man reached his spear out and placed it on the unnamed SHIELD agent's chest that had lunged towards them. The SHIELD agent immediately backed off, clasping his hands behind his back, his eyes turning from a dull brown to a bright blue. The visitor's eyes searched Artemis' face, which she was sure was turning blue by now as she attempted to suck in choked breaths, and a sickly grin spread on his face. He looked like he was about to say something to her, but his eyes quickly snapped to gaze at something behind her. "Please don't. I still need that."

"You can put the girl down. This doesn't have to get any messier." She had forgotten that anyone else was in the facillity other than herself and the man who was actively choking her; she was a bit preoccupied.

"Of course it does," the man insisted, looking back at the teenager he had by the throat. "I've come to far for anything else." Artemis' pleading look apparently went unnoticed as the man continued. "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

If Artemis could inhale, she would have gasped. Out of the corner of her watering eyes, Artemis spotted Dr. Selvig crawling out from under one of the lab tables, taking the words right out of her mouth. "Loki, brother of Thor."

Loki's eyes narrowed, and though his eyes were still trained on Artemis, he wasn't really looking at her anymore. She definitely wasn't prepared when Loki suddenly released his hold on her throat. Her legs unable to hold her weight from lack of oxygen she fell to the floor in a heap of gasping breaths and tangled red hair. Unwaning hot tears slipped down her face as the newly found oxygen burned her lungs, and when she tried to get on her hands and knees, pain shot up her leg - damned ankle!

A surprisingly gentle hand was placed on her back and she looked up through the curtain of curly hair in her face to see Director Fury kneeled down next to her, giving her a look that could almost be called concern. Artemis nodded her head once, her ability to inhale and exhale improving by the second. She left herself get pulled up off of the ground by Fury, who then turned back to Loki. "We have no quarrel with your people."

Loki replied in a tone one might use to explain something to a small child. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

Artemis looked at Loki wide-eyed. This dude was high on crazy.

"Are you planning to step on us?" Fury questioned, setting Artemis down on the Tesseract's platform and tinting his head like he was confused. Artemis had known him long enough to know that he was most definitely not confused. It was an interrogation tactic; make the enemy give up their plan. If they think you're unsure of what they plan to do, they'll be too caught up in their own pride to realize that, by sharing their magnificent, ingenious, tactical plan with you, they're literally sharing their plan with you. The bad guy figures, hey, they'll never make it out alive, might as well tell them how awesome my evil plan is. Except, the good guys usually get out alive.

Artemis' breathing had quieted; she was no longer gasping for air and she reached up to wipe away the stray tears on her cheeks with the sleeve of her sweater. She watched Loki as he continued his monologue. "I come with glad tidings," he explained almost cheerfully as he stalked towards Selvig, who simply starred at him in awe. "Of a world made free."

Fury's eye narrowed suspiciously. "Free from what?"

Loki's long face went blank, the shadows under his eyes elongating. "Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in you heart…" He suddenly rounded on Selvig, placing the tip of his spear against the scientist's heart. "You will know peace."

"You say peace, I kinda think you mean the other thing."

Artemis finally found enough air to form words, and though her voice was raspy, she seemed to be back to her normal self. "Yeah, like death. Or destruction. Maybe even obliteration. Take your pick."

Loki's eyes found hers again, and she could practically see the fire beneath them. "Do you think you are humerous, you foolish little girl?"

Her shrug was noncommittal. "I think I'm stating the flaws in your plan. I also think you didn't get enough hugs as a child."

She was sure Loki was about to lunge for her when a familiar somebody stepped in between the angry Norse god and the snarky teenager. Clint Barton, his eyes shining blue, walked swiftly to Loki's side. "Sir, Director Fury and Artemis are stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. They mean to bury us."

Fury smirked smugly. "Like the pharos of old."

"Wait, what?" Artemis craned her neck, looked straight up to the domed ceiling overhead. Sure enough, the Tesseract's glowing blue energy was swirling above them, crackling and spitting out sapphire sparks. "Hold the freaking phone, I didn't sign up for this!" She tugged on the end of Fury's trench coat. He ignored her, of course.

Dr. Selvig rushed to one of the computers not destroyed by Loki's arrival, clicking keys and pushing buttons. "He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself—"

"Excuse me?!" Artemis hoped she hadn't heard him right.

"—We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

Loki turned to possessed Clint. "Well then."

Suddenly, a gunshot rang throughout the room. Artemis screamed as Director Fury fell next to her.

She hadn't seen that one coming.

Thankfully, Loki and his entourage hadn't given her another look as they grabbed the silver case the Tesseract was in. Artemis heard them leave the room as her eyes remained on Fury. Was he dead? Holy shit, was he dead? It felt like Loki was strangling her again, except she was pretty sure she was going into shock. Are people even aware that they're going into shock when it's actually happening? Her mouth began to chant "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," over and over again, some of her hair sticking to her face. It felt like centuries she sat there, staring at nothing. The crackling and glowing raw energy above her was going to explode soon. She would be buried under tons and tons of cement. Years from now, people would come looking for her body, sifting through rock like the archeological digs in Egypt. They would find her crushed bones, hidden under a millennia of rock and decay.

Like the pharos of old.

"Miss Romanoff!"

Artemis screamed for the umpteenth time that night as the body next to her spoke in a deep voice. God, she had forgotten about Director Fury, shot and bleeding next to her. "Y-Yes Director?"

"I need you to contact Agent Hill on the walkie," he held out his walkie-talkie to her. "Tell her Barton has turned and is with Loki. She needs to stop them." His tough face grimaced as he pressed his hand to his wound.

Slowly, she reached out and took the device. "Uhh, yeah. Okay." Artemis shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Static came on as she pressed the button. "Agent Hill, this, uhh, this is Artemis Romanoff." No response. She wiped her free hand on her jeans, getting rid of the sweat. "Listen, Clint – uhh, Barton is possessed by this scary looking psycho dude in leather named Loki. Anyway, they have the Tesseract. You need to—" She stopped short when the sound of gunshots replied to her from the walkie talkie. Artemis turned to Fury, who had managed to get to his feet. "That doesn't sound good." A crumbling noise sounded from above her. "Neither does that."

Fury quickly hauled her from the floor, his arm slipping under hers. She tried to limp from the large room without crying out every time she put weight on her left ankle to no avail. "What's wrong with your ankle, Romanoff?" Fury asked her as they reached the high speed elevator, which was speeding them to the first floor of the building.

"Umm, I think it's sprained, maybe." Artemis knew she didn't sound sure of herself at all as she stood on her right leg and leaned against the elevator walls. "Why are you asking if I'm okay? You just got shot! We almost died! I thought you were dead!"

Fury helped her hop out of the elevator and towards the waiting military truck. "It's happens," he replied to her, like he was talking about his hair getting grey or something.

Director Fury handed her off to an agent once they reached the truck, yelling something about a broken ankle so he could be heard over the loud blades of the helicopter a few feet away. Artemis watched Fury rush towards the helicopter, holding a hand to his side. She looked up as someone began to strap her into a seat, and she had never been so happy to see Phil Coulson in all her life.

Everything after that was a blur to Artemis. She could hear Phil asking her simple questions like "what day were you born", "what's you sister's name?", "what's eight times three?". Of course she knew the answers. Why was Phil asking her stupid questions? Maybe it was because when she tried to reply, she seemed to have no control of her mouth, blubbering incoherent sounds or saying absurd things like "Phil, you tie looks silly. Why do you wear silly ties?" and then reaching out to straighten it. She felt her hands become incased in his two big calloused ones, and heard him say something about going into shock, and her brown eyes met his blue blue blue ones. His eyebrows wrinkled and two lined appeared in between them. Phil looked sad. Why did Phil look sad?

"Arty, you're going to go to sleep, okay?"

"But Phil," she began, swaying as the car hit a bump. "I'm not tired."

He let go of her hands and moved a piece of her hair out of her face. She pushed her cheek into his rough hand as soon fingers had brushed her skin. Artemis hadn't realized that her face was burning up until she felt how cold his hand was. Distracted by the soothing way Phil's cold skin felt on her face, she didn't feel the prick of a needle injecting a sedative into her arm. All she knew what that her eyelids felt really heavy all of a sudden as she leaned closer to Phil Coulson. Artemis' mind became blank, her arms felt like she was carrying twenty grocery bags. The last thing she remembered was Phil asking someone, "What do we do now?"

It was the best sleep Artemis had in weeks.

AN: Yay, another chapter down! Hopefully you guys will review, because I want to know what you guys think! I don't want to be posting this if no one is reading it, you know? Anyway, tell me what you think, and thank you to everyone who has reviewed : IBeliveSherlock, Nielelien10, IJustWannaBeAHero, and TombSphynxAna ! Next chapter should come soon! (:

-Z