A/N: I'm sorry this took me so long to write: I had to watch a few seconds of "The Avengers" on my iPad, switch back to Safari, write it out, and then switch back to the video, and then it had to RELOAD, and then I had to wait until it got back to the part I was at... and yeah. It was a lot of messy stuff. But I INSIST on having correct dialogue.
This is a longer chapter. I hope you like it!
3rd POV
"Are you sure that you haven't pushed him a little too far, my lord?"
"Too far? Not at all."
"I don't understand how you can be so unconcerned. I've visited his cell. He shies away from anything and everything that moves. Flees from the light, whereas before he welcomed it."
"What of it?"
"He is a broken man, my lord. A broken man with a ripped soul and a frozen heart. You've shattered his mind."
"Don't fret. He will do nicely for the tasks I have hammered into his brain."
"How will he execute your will if he is damaged beyond repair? Admit it, Thanos. You've gone too far."
"No. Trust me on this. I have tortured thousands, and in the end they did my will. Laufey's son will be no exception."
vVvVvVvVvVv
The Tesseract has awakened."
"Finally."
"It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, as our ally knows its workings like they never will.
"He is ready to lead, just as you predicted. A world will be his. The universe, yours. And the humans... what can they do but burn?"
vVvVvVvVvVv
"ALL PERSONNEL, REPORT TO YOUR EMERGENCY EVACUATION VEHICLES IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL."
This announcement rang out around the SHIELD encampment, forcing people to run in droves to cars, dressed in a strange assortment of pajamas and uniforms, holding bags and suitcases and in some cases, teddy bears.
A helicopter landed on one of the helipads, near a man in an impeccable black and white suit and dark, heavily tinted sunglasses.
From the helicopter emerged two people: a woman with dark brown hair in a pixie cut, with a serious expression and an African American man with an eyepatch covering three ugly black scars going across his eye. The former wore a dark uniform that included a walkie-talkie and a handgun at her belt, the latter in a uniform as well but with a cape added to complete the look.
"How bad is it?" The African American man shouted to the man in the suit, struggling to be heard over the roar of the helicopter.
"That's the problem, sir." He replied. he flicked off his sunglasses, and this time an undertone of worry showed through his before calm voice. "We don't know."
vVvVvVvVvVv
"Dr. Selvig read an energy source from the Tesseract four hours ago." Coulson continued to explain as quickly as possible as they headed to the area of most concern.
"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to test phase." Fury objected.
"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room." Here, Coulson looked Fury in the eye. "Spontaneous event."
"It just turned itself on?" This was Hill, sounding both skeptical and worried.
"Where are the energy levels now?" Fury ordered. He was already assessing the damage, analyzing the situation, trying to get it all under control.
"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't get it to stop, we ordered evac."
"How long until you get everyone out?"
"Campus should be clear in about half an hour."
"Do better." With this statement, it was clear that Coulson was dismissed. The agent nodded and headed off to try and speed up the evacuation.
"Sir," Hill spoke up as they were climbing the stairs. "Evacuation may be futile."
The Director's voice was full of sarcasm. "We should tell them to go back to sleep?"
Undeterred, Hill forged on. "If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."
Fury completely ignored that grim statement. "I need you to make sure that the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out."
Hill's mouth twisted with disdain. "Sir, is that really a priority right now?"
"Until such time as the world ends, agent, we shall act as though it intends to spin on." He met her eyes with his one. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone."
Although Hill disagreed, she straightened up slightly and said, through pursed lips, "Yes, sir." And then she brushed past the Director and headed down some more stairs.
Fury allowed himself a brief smile before continuing on. Hill was a true soldier.
"Talk to me, doctor." He called out as he emerged into the room where the Tesseract was being stored.
It was a very big room, with a complex contraption holding the thing itself placed in the very middle. The ceiling was high and arched, the walls plated with metal.
The Tesseract itself was a cube about the size of a grown man's fist, electric blue and sending off curls of energy the same color. It was hard to look directly at it.
Selvig looked up. "Director." He sounded surprised and slightly nervous.
"Is there anything we know for certain?"
"The Tesseract is... misbehaving." He admitted. Behind him, a personnel in a white coat tried to tap the cube with a metal instrument. The silver rod ended up smoking and burned, while the young man flinched, suddenly grateful that he was wearing safety goggles.
"Is that supposed to be funny?" The Director asked.
"It's not funny at all." Selvig said gravely. He headed over and then fell into stride with Fury. "The Tesseract is not only active, she's... behaving."
"I assume you pulled the plug."
"She's an energy source." The doctor sounded extremely frustrated. "We turn off the power, she turns it back on." He went behind a computer. "If she reaches peak level-"
"We have prepared for this, doctor." Fury interrupted, almost accusingly. Behing him, the Tesseract rumbled. "Harnessing energy from space."
"We don't have the harness." Selvig tapped a few things on his keyboard, frowning slightly at the screen. "My calculations are far from complete. And she's throwing off interference, radiation." The Director immediately glanced over his shoulder, surveying the cube warily. Selvig caught his glance and added, "Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."
Fury looked back at Selvig. "That can be harmful." He deadpanned. Selvig resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"Where's Agent Barton?"
Here, the doctor openly scoffed. "The Hawk?" He jutted his thumb over his shoulder, something reminiscent of distaste on his face. "Up in his nest, as usual."
Meanwhile, up in the scaffholding, a young man was sitting on a ledge, gripping the metal railing with both hands as his feet dangled below. "Agent Barton," His earpiece crackled to life. "Report."
Duty calls. Hawkeye jumped up and slid down the cable he had attached to the ledge.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, Fury said, "I gave you this detail so that you could keep a clse eye on things."
"Well, I see better from a distance." Hawkeye retorted as they headed back over to the Tesseract.
The Director lowered his voice and pointed. "Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?"
"Doctor," A blonde woman in a white coat called out, and Selvig looked up. "It's spiking again."
"No one's come or gone." Barton murmured. His blue eyes drifted over to the doctor, who was now standing next to the woman, examing the glass screen with grim expressions. "And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs."
The two agents stepped up onto the dias where the Tesseract was, and Hawkeye continued. "If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end." He crossed his arms.
Fury looked up. "'At this end?'" He echoed, looking almost alarmed.
Hawkeye looked at him, and he seemed rather calm. "Yeah, the Cube's a door to the other side of the space, right?" Here, he shrugged. "Doors open from both sides."
As if his words somehow had an effect on probability, the Cube pulsed, sending out a wave of energy that shook the floor. Both SHIELD agents stumbled, attention successfully directed.
"Not yet." Selvig muttered, tapping furiously at the computer.
It pulsed again, and this time the entire facility shook, the ground trembling, shuddering, th foundations sounding as if they were cracking. It was a sound like thunder; a warning of the storm to come.
Everybody stared at the Cube. The Tesseract continued to send out waves, as if irritated, and finally a beam of bright blue energy shot out towards the front of the room, creating a large circle of pulsing electricity.
And then it impoded, causing the energy to crawl up the sides of the room, gathering in a pulsating mass of pure power in the arched ceiling.
It was deathly silent. Everybody was tense. Everybody was waiting.
It was the calm before the storm.
Through the smoke and haze and remnant flames of blue, the personnel could barely make out a figure, kneeling on the ground, holding something that resembled at spear in one hand.
Armed troops in black uniforms crept forward, weapons held at the ready, while the Director and the agent on the dais reached for their guns.
The figure rose slowly, and as he looked at them, everyone momentarily hesitated.
There was a grin of pure madness on his face.
And then the smile faded, and a look of confusion took its place, as if he was thinking, Why are these puny mortals pointing those toys at me?
Those were, in fact, his direct thoughts.
He was tall, taller than both the Director and Barton. His hair was dark as midnight and slicked back, and his skin was pale as parchment, long hours away from the sun bleaching the healthy glow from his complexion. His eyes were a bright, electric blue; the same shade as the Tesseract's energy. There was a strange glint to it; the fire of either a madman or a genius.
He was wearing a strange sort of armor- black and green with veins of gold running through it, and in his hand, there was a weapon: a gold and silver spear, with a wicked point, and something that looked like a pulsing blue stone set in the tip.
Whatever it was, the Director decided not to take his chances.
"Sir!" Fury called out, and the stranger's head flicked towards the sound. "Please put down the spear!"
He looked down at his weapon, as if seriously considering doing what he was ordered to do. And then he decided against it, looking back up and shooting a blue beam of energy at one of the soldiers.
Fury and Barton dove aside to dodge the blast, but they could still feel the force of it rippling through the air. They both decided that they did not want to get hit by that.
vVvVvVvVvV
Loki wasted no time in reducing their task force to a chaos. He jumped at one of them, driving the tip of his spear into his chest, relishing the look of shock and despair on his face as he spluttered and died.
The first blood of a new war. A wave of excitement crashed over him. He felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins like poison.
They were still shooting at him. Irritated, the Fallen Prince of Asgard turned around and hurled two knives at the offenders. They caught them in their necks, and they were down too.
Loki slammed the shaft of his spear across the chest of another, and then shot another blast of energy at a woman in white, causing her to scream as the mechanism she had been working on to fall on top of her.
It was chaos, beautiful chaos, a maelstrom within scarce curtailment.
They had recovered from their shock, and had gathered in a formation. He smiled to himself, almost amused. Midguardians are always doing that. Organizing things. What a strange habit, especially when the things that are so neatly categorized can tumble at the lightest of touches. He turned again, and felt one of the shots hit him in the side of his face, but it barely stung.
With one well-aimed blast three out of four of them went flying. One, though, was faster and manged to roll away before he was blown to bits.
He kicked a man in a suit that had gotten too close and he hit the wall at sixty miles an hour. Loki was satisfied as he heard the crack of bone.
Finally he paused in his destruction, and surveyed the mess he had made. Tech had collapsed on themselves, people were on the ground dead or dying, others were moaning and unconscious. Machines sparked or smoked, and some had caught on fire.
Not all of them. One stirred, and very nearly got to his feet before the prince got to him and blocked his arm from moving with his staff. The man grunted, the pain of the blow making him grimace.
For the first time, Loki examined him. He was tall, though a good couple inches shorter than himself, with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Lean and athletic.
But it was his eyes that really interested him. Despite his defeat, his eyes were still smoldering with rebellion, with hate and anger and determination.
Unfortunately, it brought back memories of another person, another who's blue eyes burned with such fire and ferocity that it set her apart from her brethren. Sparking with magic, dancing with light.
You never noticed the color of one's eyes unless it was a particularly pretty color, or unless it was particularly bright. Both were true with Ka-
No! The voice came back, banishing all thoughts of the Vanir princess. No, you swore to forget her!
Back to the situation at hand. Loki finally spoke. "You have heart." And he pressed the tip of his spear to his chest.
He could feel the thrum of his heart through the shaft of his spear as the blue energy slowly unwound from the stone and to the man.
Veins of blue appeared in his neck, and his eyes flashed pure black before turning back to blue. But it was a different shade.
Experiementally, Loki released him. The man placed his gun back in the holster strapped to his leg, and the prince grinned in triumph.
He detected movement behind him. A mortal was attempting to escape.
He almost let him go- Let him spread the word- but then he sensed that the Midguardian held something with him. An unbelievable energy source.
Loki almost smiled. Does he think me so blind? And he spoke again, quietly.
"Please don't."
The movement stopped. Loki turned, and his eyes were drawn immediately to the silver suitcase that the mortal held in his hand. "I still need that." He said in a dangerous tone of voice.
The mortal in question was like the one he had just taken ahold of- athletic and seemingly strong, but that's when the similarities ended. His skin was darker, and one of his eyes were covered with a black, cloth eyepatch.
This also brought back memories, but ones that were much more bitter than the first. Of a sentence; no, not a sentence, two words that had shattered his hopes and driven him towards the precipice of death and despair.
"No, Loki."
"No, Loki!"
Of course, rememberance of those words brought back the other statement, but one with such different meaning. Whereas the first was a rejection, the second was acceptance, and offered him comfort.
No. Stop. You cannot. That is a forbidden place now. Forget your past. Loki's lip curled slightly in distaste. With every little thing you are reminded of her. How utterly pathetic you can be.
"This doesn't have to get any messier." The mortal warned. He hadn't even turned around yet.
"Of course it does." Loki's voice was deadly serious. "I've come too far for anything else."
Now the mortal turned around, and although he tried to hide it, the fear on his face was palpable. He was outnumbered, outgunned, and facing a god. Although he didn't know it yet.
Let's change that.
"I am Loki." The Fallen Prince stared holes into the man. "Of Asgard."
"Loki!" He was alerted to another presence, one that was slowly rising to his feet.
He was a short, fat man in a dress shirt and tie. Something about him seemed rather familiar...
But his speculations were cut off with the man's next sentence. "Brother of Thor!"
It was one of the worse possible things that he could have said. Anger replaced the satisfaction, burning hatred. No matter what I do, that's all I am known as. Brother of Thor. Son of Odin. The Secondborn Prince. The Dark Prince. Always compared.
But now I shall prove that I am better.
He was about to blast the man into oblivion, but he was saved by the other mortal. "We have no quarrel with your people." He said in his best trying-to-diffuse-the-hopeless-situation voice.
Loki shrugged. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
The man sounded shocked now. "Are you planning to step on us?"
"I come with glad tidings." Loki smiled now, treading forward, casually placing himself in front of the fat man. Of course, the latter paid no notice. "Of a world made free."
"Free from what?" The eye-patch man sounded exasperated.
"Freedom." Loki said, almost cheerfully. "Freedom is life's geratest lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..." He deftly turned around and put the point of his weapon to the fat man's chest.
Another heartbeat, but much more rapid, and there was shock and fear on his face as he felt his will being stripped away. And then the fear and the suprise was gone, and he was just another mindless drone to do his bidding.
Before he was scared. My power set him free.
"...you will know peace." Loki finished in a whisper.
"Yeah, you say peace." The dark-skinned man scowled. "I kind of think you mean the other thing."
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling." Announced the agent he had just taken control of. He strode forward and took his place at Loki's side. "This place is about to blow, and drop a hundred feet of rock on us." Here, he leveled Fury a hateful look, as if he had not been trying to kill the man he was now trying to protect a few minutes ago. "He means to bury us."
Fury cocked his head. "Like the pharaohs of old."
"He's right!" Selvig called out from the computers. "The portal is collapsing in on itself; we've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
"Well, then." Loki looked expectantly at Barton, who promptly shot Director Fury in the chest.
The man let out a grunt of pain and fell, propelled backwards with the force of the shot.
Loki picked up the briefcase and handed it to one of his newly acquired servants.
He had only been in Midguard for five mintues and he had already completed two-thirds of his job.
He smiled. This was going to be way too easy.
A/N: Hooray! I hope you enjoyed. I'm going to be skipping around a little, so don't be alarmed if I make some big jumps.
I really like that scene where Loki just looks at Hawkeye and goes, "Well then." and then he shoots Fury. I don't know why, but I find it frikin' hilarious.
Don't worry! Katarina's coming up in the next chapter. Although there were a few mentions of her in here... ah, right! Tell me what you think of that!
Review, favorite, follow.