Hello again! I have a heads up. I was on this site over ten years ago (I still can't believe how fast time flew) and had an account. Life happened and I mostly forgot about it until after using Ao3. I opened this new account instead of thinking to do a completely overhaul of the old one and decided to just delete it since I didn't see the point in having two accounts on the same site. Problem is, I couldn't find the option in settings so I had to email support. They asked me to spread the word that, if you have an account you want to delete, to just include the email address you used to register the account with your delete request. Hope this is of help to anyone who needs it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Carrie White or the Avengers, or the MCU characters.

Chapter 4: Uninvited Guest

The following week passed by quickly.

Contrary to what Selvig said earlier, further study showed the Tesseract pulsed instead of spiked as they spoke. It was a soft, understated thing, gentle and never once reached levels the scientists felt they should worry about.

The Tesseract responded quicker to emotions and images instead of words, so Carrie altered her approach accordingly. She tried to keep to the past month of memories, worried how the negative emotions associated with her life in Chamberlain would affect it. She failed miserably, as the Cube was incredibly curious and quickly nudged, poked, and tugged at her mind to show it more when it realized she was holding back. The girl wasn't sure why such a powerful. . . being. . . didn't just slip into her head but some instinct told her it lacked the capabilities. While the Cube possessed the power to get inside her head it didn't possess the knowing. The mind wasn't its purpose. Carrie didn't completely understand why she got that feeling but she did and it felt right. The connection was maintained from her end, that much she was sure of.

Even though the mind wasn't its forte, it could still feel she was keeping knowledge from it and the Tesseract was very insistent.

She relented.

It spiked, brushing just the edges of the parameters set and Carrie felt her head spin as her entire life passed in a blurred, smeared, flash of images. Everything was swallowed by an inky darkness and suddenly she was in space, floating above planets and saw a star going supernova and it lit up her whole world.

She was surrounded by stars, was one of those stars. A power that fed itself and only grew and shone brighter. Infinite and forever, an endless loop that fell into itself –

When she became aware of herself again, she was in the infirmary.

They ended communications early that day. Carrie could barely stand up on her own, the psychic whiplash messing with her balance, and stayed in the infirmary. She laid in her bed, her mind going to that star over and over again. It made her feel so small, but not in a bad way. It felt like a reminder that the world was so, so much bigger than Chamberlain and had a lot more to offer her than the scraps the town threw her. While Carrie never wanted to forget what she almost did, she wanted to leave behind the pain and humiliation that led to that scenario. It needed to be buried.

The next day it was much later than she usually started, but the doctors wanted to be sure she was stable before releasing her.

This time, the Cube didn't stuff the image in her head, it guided her along the path slowly. Carrie saw different planets and different species coming into being, living, dying and being replaced. There were so many stories. If she dared to think so, the teenager could have sworn that the Tesseract had been bored for a while and was pleased to have something to keep it busy. At the very least, she was a novelty.

Mr. Selvig and his team were ecstatic with the data. They explained that they hoped to analyze how the energy was renewing itself so they could replicate the results. Carrie also took to writing in a notebook about what the Cube showed her, which pleased Phil. Odds were he would have to tell Director Fury about her and the Tesseract – she wanted to make it easier for him and sort her experiences outside of her head.

On the sixth day, things took a turn for the worst.

Carrie actually hadn't been in the Tesseract Room at the time. Selvig and his team wanted to study the effects of their conversations with the factor of distance added. The teen decided to go to a training room to practice her powers, specifically, floating. She found herself hovering a few feet above her bed sometimes, higher if she had a nightmare, and wanted to try doing it on purpose. Agent Jon, assigned to watch over her by Phil, was keeping a respectful distance as she practiced. In his hands was a tablet that he used to make notes of her progress.

The Cube proved to be a big help. Carrie often felt like she was floating whenever she was pulled into its visions and she used that sensation to help herself float. Behind her closed eyelids, she could see the vastness of space the Cube was projecting in her mind, along with the sensation of weightlessness.

She was starting to make progress!

Carrie was in the middle of turning in a circle, several feet in the air while staying perfectly straight, when the Tesseract's energy spiked abruptly. The vision of space of was torn out of her grasp and she lost her psychic grip on herself.

Scrambling, Carrie mentally pushed herself from the ground before she could land face first and spun upright, landing harshly on her butt instead.

Ouch.

"White! What happened?" Agent Jon was running over.

"I need to see Mr. Selvig." She muttered, wincing as she got up. "Something happened with the Cube."

They took the elevator down and arrived in the Tesseract Room to see complete and utter chaos. Selvig and his scientists were running back and forth between computers yelling scientific terms Carrie only vaguely understood.

She was quickly spotted.

"Carrie! Come here!" Mr. Selvig called. He was standing at the computer where a blonde scientist named Fiona monitored the Tesseract's energy levels. Her brow was furrowed in worry.

"What happened?" Carrie called, jogging over. "The Cube just pulled away from me. "

"Was hoping you could tell me." Selvig sighed. "I step out for one minute everything goes to hell. We were just monitoring its levels and then, this."

"This" was the Tesseract visibly shuttering

Carrie hugged herself and took a deep breath before prodding at the Cube, shutting her eyes tight. Its energy was churning, spinning in on itself and she could see flickers of stars and barren rock.

This wasn't a vision though; it was like seeing through a scratched-up window. . .

No. Wait.

Carrie felt another presence that reminded her of the Tesseract, but it was different. It slid into her mind inquiringly with an ease and fluidness the Tesseract lacked, slipping through the cracks in her mind's front door. She would have lashed out with everything she had if the Presence hadn't gently done the mental equivalent of taking a hold of her arms. She took shuddering breaths as it examined her with the same curiosity as the Tesseract. This Presence was a lot more interested though and... fascinated?

After a moment she felt it make a decision and the scratched-up window cleared up, the fractures filled, the cluttering dust wiped away. The Presence and the Tesseract both allowed her to see what was on. . . the other side?

It was terrifying.

A pale man with dark hair dressed in gold and green, his scepter holding a glow at its tip that had to be the Presence, she knew it. He wasn't alone.

Aliens she didn't recognize surrounded him, most were his size but there was one in the distance, sitting on a giant throne to accommodate his size. Carrie could make out purple skin and dark armor, but the rest was hidden in shadows and gloom.

He was looking at her. Eyes as insane as her mother's but so much more awful because her mother couldn't fight back against her powers, but he could, and he'd crush Carrie and everyone in this room like they were noth –

She cried. Shut them out! Shut them out!

Carrie White reached out for both the Presence and the Tesseract's power and pulled. It felt like she had slammed a door in the face those horrible eyes belonged to, and she was so glad.

"Carrie!" It was Mr. Selvig. She blinked blearily, coming back to herself. The teen was standing in front of the Cube, holding her hands out so that the energy curled against them, unable to escape between her fingers.

"What happened?" The scientist was at her side, and she could feel eyes on her, from a distance. Hawkeye had kept to himself during the week – so quiet she only realized he existed three days ago.

"Someone is doing this; someone is trying to get here." She gasped, flinched as the energy tried to tear itself from her grip but she held on tight. The person doing this would get through eventually, but Carrie would stall them as long as she could. "You need to get everyone out of here!"

He put a hand on her shoulder and Carrie was hit by that feeling of wrongness again, that something wasn't right. A sense of double. Thankfully, Phil walked in and Mr. Selvig turned to him. The horrible feeling went with him as he walked away.

The talk was brief – Carrie couldn't allow herself to get too distracted or else whoever was on the other side would rip the power from her hands and tear the door open. She was barely aware of what was going on around her, the struggling portal took her entire being.

Who was trying to get in?

Director Fury stared at the teenage girl taken into SHIELD's care a month prior. He and his deputy had arrived at the base two hours ago, marking six hours since the Tesseract starting "misbehaving" in Selvig's words. The last of the nonessentials pulled out over an hour ago, leaving only Selvig, his team, their security detail, and Hawkeye besides Hill and himself.

White was tiring, he could see the girl twitching as she tried to hold on for even a second longer. Hawkeye had come down from his perch and was staring with a stoic expression, but Fury had known him for a very long time and could pick out the subtle betrayals of his unease.

It wasn't a surprise. Clint "Hawkeye" Barton, birth name Clinton Francis Barton was a father of two and knew of White's horrific childhood. Fury already had a medical team waiting for them in his helicopter. There was a valid concern about the stress her powers could put on her heart if taken too far.

The struggle between White and their uninvited guest was making the scanners go nuts. The people assigned were steadily ensuring the information was uploaded to SHIELD's database so it wouldn't be lost in any worst-case scenario.

Then Carrie White convulsed. Two of Selvig's team, Fiona Hark and Jason Trey, who had been attending to the girl quickly grabbed her arms as she collapsed and carried her away.

They were out of time. Hill gave the signal and all of the security detailed raised the prototypes he ordered to be left behind for this. Fury had his doubts that this would be enough firepower, but the other weapons hadn't done well (were disastrous) in testing. This would have to do.

"Her heartrate is steady sir!" Trey called out from the corner. White was coming around in Hark's arms as the Tesseract convulsed before exploding with energy that gathered into a beam. It hit the platform and ceased, any lingering power rising up to the high ceiling where it twisted and curled on itself.

A man in green and gold, matching one of the descriptions White had provided, stood up from where the beam had hit. He held a gold scepter in one hand with a glowing tip that burned and sizzled. The newcomer didn't look well, he was pale, sickly, with dark rings under his eyes and seemed downright displeased.

"That took longer than it should have." He said tensely, his eyes scanned the room, ignoring most of them until they settled on Carrie White. The stranger regarded her with interest as the girl who looked almost as sickly as him weakly stared back.

"So, this is the one who delayed my arrival? This. . . woman-child?" The smile was politely fixed, and Fury knew he was ready to take his frustration out on them. "I'm interested to learn how you were able to accomplish such a feat! It will certainly be a long conversation."

Time to step in.

"A long conversation for sure, but one I'll be having with you on why the hell you're here. I will only ask once; put down the spear!" The director of SHIELD demanded.

The newcomer's smile widened. "I think not."

What followed next could only be described as a one-sided massacre. The new guy didn't discriminate between the people shooting at him, and the ones hiding behind whatever they had. He easily redirected the energy blasts of the prototypes after the initial attack, tossing them at scientists or other members of security. Fury and Hawkeye ducked as Hill was pulled to the side by White, landing roughly near her. The girl did the same for the others when she could, saving two other scientists and one of their shooters but most of their people ended up dead.

Then the guy started to advance on White's position, when Hawkeye intervened. The agent's punch was caught easily, and the spear brought forward to touch his chest. Hawkeye's eyes went completely black before returning to normal, save the iris of his eyes, now an unsettling blue. Fury signaled to Hill, who frowned, but nodded and started escorting White and the surviving scientists, bar Selvig, out the door as Fury went for the Cube.

Carrie didn't have it in her to protest when they left Director Fury and the others. She knew in her current state it was hard to focus enough to use her powers which was bad. Ms. Hawk and Mr. Trey needed to support her between them. It would be best to get out of the way.

Several cars had been left for them and they scrambled into one. Hill hit the gas and they tore through the underground tunnel. Barely minutes into their escape, Deputy Hill's radio came to life and Director Fury's voice was heard.

"They're right behind you and have the Tesseract. Selvig is also compromised. I repeat, they –"

"Copy sir." (Ms.) Deputy Hill said. "Get out of there now."

The following car chase was terrifying as the man and his brainwashed (had to be, they didn't feel normal) help tried to make them crash. Deputy Hill gave as good as she got and caused one of the cars chasing them to flip. Carrie tried not to think about the man – the brainwashed man – who was inside and hoped he lived.

The scientists were as terrified as she was but didn't panic and stayed as much out of the way as they could, crouched down and out of the line of fire.

Director Fury had somehow beaten them outside the compound and was waiting in his helicopter with one of the surviving agents. They opened fire from their vantage point in the sky. Deputy Hill took the opportunity and made a break for it, turning sharply as the man retaliated.

In the end, the helicopter crashed, though Carrie was able to slow its descent so no one inside was seriously hurt. Their attacker escaped in the chaos of the base and the land it was built on collapsing in on itself as the energy from the Tesseract went critical.

Everyone tried to get their bearings, and Fury spoke through the speaker again. She felt her consciousness waver and only heard the end as everything went dark.

"As of this moment, we are at war."

I hope you liked the chapter! I'm quite happy - I picked on some grammar errors I missed the first time and now I can fix them!

Sincerely,

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