Chapter Nine

Skylanas stood at the helm of a ship he "borrowed". The captain was under his control and was following his precise directions to their location. They were headed to a spot right on the northern tip of north America.

He ran a hand through his unruly red hair. It was all so frustrating. Since the humans were slow to figure out what was going on, he decided the bread crumbs he was leaving needed to be decidedly bigger.

The weapon he built, took years to fashion. He had controlled beings of just about every race, from just about every realm to make it happen. And it was finally time for his endgame.

The only thing the humans had managed to gather at this point, was that the puzzle was made of ten pieces, and they all had the same energy signature. But they were still trying to figure out its origins. He was getting impatient, and it was time for them to find the very first piece he placed.

The problem was, they were only searching north America for the energy. He needed them to go a bit further north, for their biggest surprise. So his plan was to place the ninth piece himself, to make sure it was exactly where he needed it to be. Far enough south, that they would find it with their trackers, but far enough north, that they would see the energy signature just beyond it.

The last piece, for them, but the first piece he planted. It was under a lot of ice, but unless they were absolute idiots, they should find it.

It was a gamble. If they missed it, he literally would have to hold someone's hand and take them there.

It was actually quite ironic when he thought on it. The fact that he needed them to be smart enough to figure it all out, but stupid enough to fall for it.

He finally saw what he was looking for up ahead. Skylanas placed a hand, on the captains arm. "We will be stopping there."

He had to hurry, he needed to finish this task and return to Asgard. He had decided that the children were next on his list. He would find them, and take them for his own.

It was not fair that Odin got them. After all, they were more HIS blood than Odin's, what with Odin's adopted son being a frost giant. And when Odin fell, and hopefully took his worthless sons with him, he wanted the children to be safe.

As far as Lucy? Well he had yet to decide what her future held.

Fate was a funny thing sometimes. When Skylanas discovered his long lost daughter had landed in Loki's clutches he nearly revealed himself, just to put a stop to their ridiculous wedding. But he had to remind himself of the bigger picture. Stopping a wedding was not going to ruin Odin. But the original plan, well that would be enough to bring Midgard, Asgard, and especially Odin, to their knees.


Phil and his team stood around the former crash site. "What is it exactly that you guys are supposed to be recovering?" Phil asked. "It just looks like grass now."

"Mostly soil samples here, and around the area. This visit shouldn't take too long, we could probably head back to Washington tomorrow."

Phil hadn't realized how short this trip was actually going to be. He looked at the house, and saw Wendy watching them from her kitchen window.

Her eyes met his, and she smiled. He nodded his head at her, and headed toward her front door.

Might as well get this over with, he thought to himself, as she opened the door when he climbed her porch steps.

She moved aside, and let him into the house. And he stood awkwardly in the entry watching her as she closed the door behind him. She stared at him for a second, and then took a tentative step closer to him. He reached for her, and she stepped into his arms.

"I missed you." She said, as she hugged him. "I'm glad you're here. Even if it is just for work."

He opened his mouth to respond to her, when there was a knock on her door. He let her go quickly, and stepped back from her.

When she opened the door, one of the scientists from his team entered the house. "I'm sorry to bother you.." He looked inside and saw Coulson. "Oh hello Sir, I didn't see you come in here. We need to take some blood samples from you Mrs. Wilson."

"It's Miss Rogers please." She looked over a Phil for a second, and back at the scientist. "I'm sorry, why? Why would you need my blood?"

"I'm sorry ma'am I can't tell you that." He looked around himself, "is your husband here? We would like to get a sample from him as well."

Wendy looked uncomfortable, and Phil put his head in his hand. Was this guy that stupid?

"Um, actually, he is my EX-husband. He doesn't live here anymore, and he hasn't for a long time."

The scientist was oblivious to how awkward this was, "oh I see. Well do you know where we can find him?" He didn't even look at her, just continued scratching notes onto a tablet.

Wendy looked at her feet, "no. I don't know where he is. I haven't heard from him in over a year."

The man waved his hand at her, "no bother then. We will find him. Have a seat, I am going to get my kit."

He left the house, and Wendy looked at Phil with pure exasperation. "Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on."

Phil really didn't know that much, but he was aware of why they wanted to test her blood, and he didn't see any reason she shouldn't know too. "I will tell you, but you can't say anything."

"I promise, I won't."

"Well apparently you are the only person, besides Michael of course, who was living in the vicinity of where one of the objects fell. The others were in completely uninhabited areas."

"There are more of them?" She interupted.

"Shit, pretend I didn't say that, okay?" Maybe giving her too much information was a bad thing.

The scientist re-entered the house carrying a caddy of blood drawing tools. Wendy looked at Phil and whispered, "this conversation is not over, you got me?"

She sat down, and the man quickly drew some blood, and immediately starting mixing things to test it right there.

"Don't you want to take that to a lab or something?" Phil asked in confusion.

"I just wanted to see if we will need to take some more with..." He trailed off, as he looked at his results.

"Something wrong?" She asked nervously.

He smiled at her, "no ma'am. Everything is fine. We will just be needing some more samples, and maybe to run a test or two. I think you are going to need to come with us."

"Come with you? What do you mean come with you?" She asked, but he just stood and headed for the door.

He stopped by Phil, "Agent Coulson, may I have a word with you outside please?"

Phil looked from him, to a panicking Wendy. "Yeah, I'll be right there."

The man left, and Phil turned to her. "I'll find out what is going on. But if he says you need to come with us, you are coming. So go pack a bag."

She put her hands on her hips, "you cannot tell me what to do Phillip Coulson. I want to know what is going on."

"You and me both sister," he said pointing at her. "don't argue with me, just go pack a few things." "Please?" He said in a more pleasant tone, when she scowled at him.

"Fine." She stormed from the room, and Phil turned for the door.

Phil walked out to the vehicle that the man was standing next to. "Alright, can you fill me in?"

The man shook his head. "No sir, I can't. I'm sorry. She will need to come with us for further testing. The reason I called you out here, is because we need to find her husband."

"Ex-husband." Phil corrected.

"I don't care, I'm just curious if he may have been exposed as well." The man just kept writing on his tablet, seemingly unfazed by what he was saying.

"Exposed? What does that mean? Are you saying she is in some kind of danger?"

"No, nothing like that. It's just interesting, that's all."

"Interesting? You want to take her to your lab, because it's interesting?" Phil hoped the guy picked up on his tone, because he was really starting to get a bit pissed off.

"Look Agent Coulson, I am under orders not to tell anyone about what we are doing here. I need the woman to come with us, so we can run some tests. I also need you to find her husband. This is the information you are getting from me. Why are you so concerned about it anyway Sir?"

"I guess it just seems a bit ridiculous to drag a woman across the entire country, because you found something you think is interesting." Phil muttered through gritted teeth.

It wasn't often Phil was kept out of the information loop, and the fact that Wendy was involved, just made it all the more frustrating. But the guy was right, if he had orders, Phil had no right to try and convince him to reveal what he knew.

"I'm sorry Sir. It is what it is." He said with a shrug.

Yeah, that was easy for him to say. He wasn't the one that was going to have to explain, without explaining, to a very angry woman.


"We've found it Sir. We should be right on top of it now."

Fury stood on the deck of the Helicarrier. It had taken more than two days, but they managed to finally pinpoint the location of the ninth object.

"Send the team down then."

"Yes Sir."

It looked like they would be here for a while. Luckily it was summer, the thing would have been impossible to find this far north with the amount of snow they got clear up here.

Fury headed towards his office, "keep me updated agent." He said over his shoulder.

"Yes Sir."

Fury picked up his phone off the desk and saw he had a new message from Coulson. The guy had been driving him crazy for the last twenty four hours, with questions about the woman they brought back from Portland.

He didn't know why Coulson was so worried, but he was starting to think that maybe this woman was something more than just work to the man.

He decided to forgo listening to the message, and just call him.

He answered on the first ring, "Sir, they have taken her somewhere and they won't let me see her."

"Slow down Coulson, are we still talking about the Rogers woman?"

"Yes. They brought her here for some kind of testing. But that was two days ago, and now they have taken her somewhere, and won't tell me where she is."

The man sounded really worried. There was no more wondering in Fury's mind. Phil Coulson was attached to this woman.

"Have you found her ex-husband yet?"

"No Sir, but that isn't the point right now."

"Actually Agent Coulson, that is exactly the point right now. Obviously you are connected to this woman in some way. But there is nothing you can do directly to help her, except finding the missing husband. He may have some of the answers that they are looking for."

"Answers to what Sir? Is she alright? Is there something wrong with her? I wish Lucy was here, she could probably get some answers from someone."

Fury sighed, "look, just do your job. Find this elusive ex and bring him to New York. And as for the woman, I didn't know you were this involved with her, or I never would have sent you back there. I am assuming that is why you didn't tell me."

"Sharing my personal life with you, has never really been high on my to do list."

"Well it has managed to find its way there now. Just find the man, Coulson. And when I get back, I will see what I can do about getting you some more information."

"Thank you Sir. I'll find him."

After he hung up, Fury sat wondering who exactly this woman was to Coulson. Is this the kind of thing he should know about? While he could admit he wasn't all that great at bonding with his agents, Coulson was also a friend. He really needed to ask more questions.

His intercom buzzed, "Sir?"

"Yeah, what?"

"We need you on the bridge. Agent Williams seems to have found another one."

Shit, two in one day? "On my way."

As he walked to the bridge he was joined by Agent Hill. "Sir, they have found a second signal, but it is quite a bit further north."

"How much further north are we talking? We are already at the top of the world."

"About 150 miles north east of us. Almost at the north pole."

"What the hell?" Fury shook his head. "Do we have the resources to send a team that far? We are going to need agents that are familiar with that type of environment."

Hill stood tall, "actually Sir, I was thinking I could head the team."

"To the north pole? Are you sure you want to do that?"

She nodded her head, "yes Sir. Very sure, and I'm sure I can find a team to go with me."

Fury held out his hand, "then be my guest Agent Hill."

"Thank you Sir." She nodded her head, and left.

"Freaking North Pole." Fury muttered under his breath.


When they finally found somewhere to land, they were still miles from the object. Maria Hill readied her team for the long walk ahead of them.

"We need to move quickly, so we can be back here at the chopper before nightfall."

The men surrounding her all nodded, and suited up. If they had taken the time, they could have flown some snow mobiles or something in, but Hill was anxious to get started. So they all decided they would walk it.

It took a few grueling hours, but they made it to the signal's point of origin. There was only one problem, the object wasn't there.

"Fan out." She shouted, "it's here somewhere, we just have to find it!"

A bit later, she heard a call over her radio, "Agent Hill, I think I know why we can't find it. I think I found a cave that goes underground. I think it's underneath us."

The team gathered at the opening of a cave, that submerged beneath the ground at a steep angle. They unpacked their spelunking gear, and prepared to head down.

Hill led the way, while the rest of the team followed. When they reached the bottom, the ground flattened out, and there seemed to be a path carved through the ice.

"Well this isn't weird at all." The Agent standing behind her muttered.

Hill started forward, and then thought better of risking her entire team, when she had no idea what was ahead. "Smith, and Johnson, you're with me. The rest of you stay here, we'll radio back when we find it."

The three of them walked on the path for, what felt to Hill, to be about a mile. She followed the signal again, and it seemed to be coming from about another quarter mile ahead. They carried flashlights, and we're wearing head lamps, but it was still dark.

The path was winding. And slippery. Even with her ice cleats on, it was slow going. Suddenly Hill thought she could see light ahead. But she was unsure how that was possible, since they seemed to be going down, not up toward the surface. And then they turned a corner, and she just about fell over in shock.

The path opened up into a huge cavern. The other two agents stood stunned in the entrance.

"This is impossible." Smith muttered. "How? How is this possible?"

Hill took her satellite phone out with a shaky hand, and called Fury.

"Hill? What's going on? Did you find it?" The quality of the call was terrible, Maria could barely hear him, so she shouted her response.

"Um Sir, we are going to need more help down here!"

"Help with what? Aw shit, there aren't more of them are there?"

Hill swallowed, trying to decide how to describe what it was she was seeing. "That is a possibility, but I can't be sure right now. I am standing in a cavern, it appears to be umm..." She swallowed and looked to her right and left, "I don't know, a couple of miles across maybe. And Sir? There is what looks like a city, or settlement of some kind, down here."

"I'm sorry, I didn't get that Hill. Did you say a city? At the North Pole?"

"More like under the North Pole." She responded.

"Freaking North Pole." Fury muttered again. "Don't go any further, send me some pictures, and wait there for back up. And if you see elves, Hill, keep it to yourself."