Seren whirled away from the Tesseract, both out of her shock meeting it and her anger about her lack of knowledge of its existence. Her eyes narrowed to form a glare on Fury. "Everybody said — you all said — that's not supposed to be here! It was…" She didn't have the words to remind them of everything she'd heard about the damn space cube since she started working for S.H.I.E.L.D. "You said this was gone!" she finally yelled. "My grandmother said this was gone! I heard countless stories about that thing and every time, at the end of each story, someone said it was gone! So why isn't it gone!?"

"Agent Soul," Fury's voice was loud yet calm. He expected this kind of reaction from Seren and went along accordingly. "We told you what you needed to know at that time and now it's changed. That happens."

Seren's eyes were wide. She turned back to the glowing Tesseract sitting on its display. "Howard Stark found this while he was searching for Steve and then you said...you all said...after Danvers showed up...you said the Tesseract was devoured by some-some Flerken or whatever the hell it was!"

"Yes, well, Goose decided to hand it over later on," Fury said, face scrunching slightly at the reminder of the cat.

"When?"

"Few weeks after Danvers left."

Seren spun again, eyes blazing with newfound anger. "It's been here this whole time!? And I'm only just now learning about it!?" Her own grandmother had fed her the lie that the Tesseract was lost to them after '95 happened.

"Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. was on a need-to-know basis," Fury began to explain, acting as if his agent wasn't currently shooting daggers his way. "Before 1989, S.H.I.E.L.D., NASA, and the United States Air Force began a joint project to try and study the Tesseract and see if we could harness its power."

"You tried to mess with an unknown power?" Seren cautiously took one step further from the Tesseract. "That thing can be volatile and you wanted to study it!?"

"After the project leader died in what we now know was murder by the Kree, the project was shut down."

"So why didn't it stay that way?" demanded Seren.

"Because of what happened in Puente Antiguo," Fury knew he'd claimed at least two minutes of silence with that answer. "The town that was nearly wiped out by the Asgardians."

"Yes, I remember, I was there," Seren said curtly, not that Fury minded her interruption.

"The project was reactivated upon realizing that the time is coming to face intergalactic threats again."

"No," Seren shook her head. "That...that's why you have me!" she gestured to herself. "It's the whole point you moved on with the Avengers' Initiative. I've been training so that I can take on the threats!"

"Yes but look what happened with the Destroyer," urged Fury. "You were not able to stop it on your own."

"But I can! I just need more training!"

"Seren," Fury's voice was sharp, "I know you are a strong agent. This in no way means that you are off the Initiative. I want to merely provide backup."

"Like a team?" Seren mellowed slightly. She wouldn't mind having a team to fight with. Her whole childhood and training had been done with the idea that she and she alone was supposed to defend the Earth from any intergalactic enemies that may come along. It was a lot of pressure then and still now.

"Basically…" Fury said. Beside him, Maria glanced at him questionably, something that Seren missed during her thinking.

"So what happens now?" Seren glanced over her shoulder at the Tesseract. She felt odd around the thing. All her life she'd heard of the stories that the Tesseract had caused in the past. Her mind immediately went to Steve. This was the reason he wasn't home anymore. He thought it was gone.

"We intend to finally untap its powers," Fury began answering, "Dr. Selvig is leading the research on it but only him."

"Jane Foster isn't a part of this?" Seren curiously asked.

"No, and for the foreseeable future, no one else is to know about this. Not even the Captain."

Seren stiffened. "Why would you tell me that?"

"Because I know you've grown close and I just want to remind you that you are an agent and he is not. You cannot tell him about it."

Seren took in a breath and exhaled heavily. She really didn't like the idea of lying to him, much less when it was about this.

"Agent Soul, are we clear on that?" Seren begrudgingly met Fury's gaze. She nodded silently. "Good."

"Okay, I understand the background and everything but I don't understand what you need me for around here," she shrugged, eyes flickering over to the machinery and the ongoing technicians. "I'm not a scientist, Fury."

"Given what the Tesseract is and what it poses, I need my best and strongest agent to guard it."

"What?"

"From now on, your one and only mission is to secure the Tesseract."

"Ah...so I'm a babysitter for that thing now?" Seren jerked a thumb behind her.

"Theoretically, you may be the only one on this planet who can touch it without disintegrating," Fury said, making her blink with newfound horror. "Well, maybe Atria and your mother."

"Yeah, I'd rather not find out," she swallowed hard.

"Do you understand the mission, then?"

"Y-yeah," she nodded. "So am I permanently based here until further notice?" The idea of moving to New Mexico made her far more uncomfortable than she would've thought. She'd been lucky enough to stay near her parents and grandmother so far. Plus, she had friends like Steve and Natasha who occasionally dropped by. New Mexico was far.

"Indefinite periods of time," Fury clarified. "I have Barton coming too. You'll be alternating, giving each other breaks."

"So thoughtful," Seren said, slowly turning towards the Tesseract. She was never a seer like her mother, rarely ever had feelings but right now she felt something. It was like the first time she met Steve. It was the fear of calamity.

~ 0 ~

Seren paced back and forth in her new living quarters. It wasn't the grandest of rooms but for the mission she now had, it was enough. She had her phone tightly gripped in her hand. "Grandmother, you said it was gone. I asked you about it a long time ago and you told me it disappeared!"

"I know what I said, and I would do it again," Atria said all too calmly which just irritated her granddaughter even more.

"Grandma!"

"Oh hush, stop acting like a child, Seren," Atria scolded, making Seren pause her pacing. "You of all people know that not all projects are known by every Agent. You know what you need to know and at that time, you didn't need to know anything about the Tesseract."

"It would've been nice to know," Seren said quietly. "Maybe take the pressure off of me a little. Not every child grows up handling the stress very well of being Earth's only possible salvation from an intergalactic attack. In fact, I'm pretty sure that no one would."

"I'm very sorry, my little star soul, but the Tesseract has always been a sketchy object."

"It's dangerous," Seren swallowed hard. She shuddered at the reminder that she would now be in close proximity to it. "And nobody can touch it. I don't think I can either, no matter what Fury thinks."

"Don't try it," Atria still warned. "Danvers was lucky, you already have abilities."

"Yeah, I wasn't exactly looking to collect more." Seren bit her bottom lip while she gathered courage to ask what she'd been wanting to.

Given that Atria was a seer, she already knew what Seren was going to ask her. "Go ahead, my little star soul," she prompted.

Seren released her bottom lip with a sigh. "What's the point of this project? What is S.H.I.E.L.D. supposed to do once they're able to access the Tesseract's power?" Assuming they could ever do such a thing, what would be the point? There had to be another step to the mission she didn't know about.

"How would I know? I'm retired," Atria said plainly.

Seren scoffed as loud as she could, hoping to make the point that she didn't believe Atria one bit. "We all know that's not entirely true. You're retired but not at all out of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Atria laughed softly. "My little star soul, always so intelligent."

Seren glared at the wall. "It's not a joke! What's the mission here? Really?"

"I don't know, Seren, you're the one there."

"Atria!" Seren snapped, startling Atria for once. She'd never called her grandmother by her name, much less in that tone.

"Calm down, Seren. I assure you that this time, I don't know what the plan is."

"But you used to," Seren said, "And that's the point. What used to be the plan?"

"It was on a need-to-know basis."

Seren growled. That wasn't the answer she was looking for and Atria knew it. It was why Atria cleverly ended the call shortly afterwards. Seren wouldn't be getting any answers and that was final.

~0~

"You don't have to be in the same spot, Agent Soul," Dr. Selvig would say each day when Seren found herself a spot (that was out of the way of other technicians) to begin her routine. "Agent Barton has his own nest up there."

Seren snorted. She tilted her head up to the rails overlooking the lab. Clint had only been there a week and already had a spot chosen to oversee everything. They'd nicknamed it his "nest" because of his alias. He preferred to see things from a distance while she liked the opposite. Up close to the Tesseract is where she thought she should be. Two weeks into the guard and she was beginning to grow restless about it.

"Yeah, I'm good right here," Seren said, gesturing to her current spot. "How's it going with that thing today? Any news?" She asked the same thing every day and Selvig was nice enough to answer her every time.

"It's dormant," he began as usual. "I imagine it's been like this for a while, right?"

Seren slid off her spot, eyes narrowing on the Tesseract. Selvig was right. As far as anyone could see, he Tesseract's blue didn't glow or anything. It was just there. Seren moved towards it. "By my calculations, it's been dormant since 1995."

"Really? That's 17 years, almost 18," mused Selvig. He wrote it on a notepad and shuffled away from the Tesseract.

Seren stood directly in front of the tesseract, arms folded tightly over her chest. "Do we have any actual idea what this thing could be or do?"

"You don't know about it?" Selvig threw her a look from one of the tables. She shook her head. "But I thought you were S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prized agent? The Celessian?"

Seren would miss the entire meaning behind that question on account of her blissful unawareness of the third person in the room. Besides, all her attention would go into the Tesseract. "Doesn't mean I'm allowed to know everything."

"But someone as powerful as you…? I heard that the star tattoo on your neck means something, doesn't it?"

Seren's eyes flickered to the man. She wouldn't question his knowledge. Many people around her liked to know her odd biological features. Privacy wasn't something she was luxurious enough to have. She stepped back from the Tesseract and pulled the right side of her suit's collar to show a small print of her star birthmark. "I have two," she confessed. "One here and one at the end of my shoulder." She tapped the right side of her shoulder. "Every Celessian has the one on their shoulder but it is said that only those who will harness a strong power gets the imprint of the second star on their neck." Her lips curved into a small, albeit proud smile. "Isn't that odd?"

"Odd, sure, but, why do you ask?"

"Because I'm not entirely Celessian. I'm a human too, Dr. Selvig, remember? My grandmother doesn't have the birthmark on her neck, nor does my mother. Just me. I'm the first of our family to have it in a very long time."

"Impressive," Selvig flashed her a smile. "I'll be back. I need to get a few more tools."

Seren nodded at him. Her eyes went straight back to the Tesseract as he headed out. She didn't notice the odd pause he took at the doorway to look at her one more time. She was thinking about what she said. The second birthmark was truly rare. It was supposed to mean she was meant to be powerful and yet each time she looked at the Tesseract, she felt like she wouldn't be enough to protect everyone if it ever decided to act up.

~ 0 ~

"Hey there," Clint Barton walked up to Seren who was under the lab's doorway, inadvertently getting the first look at the object he and here were going to be guarding for a while. "So...that's the infamous Tesseract?"

Seren nodded. "Nice flight?"

Clint snorted. The casual side conversation was always an interesting route to take during missions like these. "Yeah, I guess."

"Have you seen Natasha by any chance?"

"Uh, no, not lately," Clint replied, "Why?"

"I just needed to call in a couple favors."

"Like what?"

"Well, for starters, asking her if she knew about that thing?" Seren made a nod towards the Tesseract then turned away. Clint followed her into the hallway.

"Even if she did know, do you think she would tell you?"

"I'd like to say that because we've been friends for years, she might," Seren said, sparing Clint a small smile. "It's good not to be alone here. Thanks for taking the position."

Clint smiled back. "Well, we just made such a good team last time, I figured why not do it again?"

"...you had no idea I was already here, did you?"

"Uh no, no I did not. But it's always good seeing Stardust."

"I hope you feel like that after spending months with me because according to Fury, we'll be spending that kind of time here and more."

Clint nodded solemnly. "I heard."

"I just don't get why they wouldn't tell me about this thing. The Tesseract is not something to play with. I doubt it's something to study either," Seren said, stopping altogether. "I genuinely feel like this is a catastrophe waiting to happen."

"So why don't you tell Fury that?"

Seren laughed in Clint's face. "Are you new?"

Clint smirked. "So what's plan B, then?"

"Wait, I guess," Seren shrugged. "What else can we do? It's not like we have a guide to the Tesseract. All of Starks' research is already in our hands and it's not much to go by. God, I wish I could call Thor right now."

"I thought you had his number or something," Clint joked.

"Ha, ha," Seren rolled her eyes, "I'm not supposed to talk about this with anyone. Those are the orders and, well, I have to follow them."

Clint nodded silently. He had to admit that he admired Seren's full-blown loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. No matter how upset the organization's system made her sometimes, she never failed to put in her best efforts for whatever task S.H.I.E.L.D. put her up to. She was the most committed agent Clint knew of — that everyone knew of. He wondered if that would ever become Seren's downfall. It wasn't a thought he wanted to share with anyone.

~ 0 ~

The days would actually become longer and longer when the only thing you had to do was stare at an alien cube. It was hard to believe that two months had already gone by, but according to the calendar, they had. Two months of staring at the Tesseract and the rest were to come. Seren didn't want to say she was 'bored' because the Tesseract wasn't something to be bored with but the fact she had to stay and just watch it wasn't exactly something interesting to do.

She would much rather be home (far, far away from the Tesseract). She missed home. She missed the base, she missed her colleagues, she missed her friends. She'd called Steve a few times to check in and unsurprisingly he was more worried each time they talked.

"What's the long term mission that's finally grounded you for a while?" He asked during one phone call. He knew he wasn't privy to top secret missions, Seren was bound by rules and codes. There was just something in her tone each time she talked to him that warranted his concern. She sounded, for a lack of a better word, scared. What on Earth could scare her?

"You know, secret stuff," Seren would say in return. She sat on the edge of her bed with an uneaten take out box beside her.

"I get the feeling that the 'stuff' isn't something you're very comfortable with." He was absolutely right.

"Who isn't every once in a while, right? You would know."

"Yeah," he sighed. "It's because of what I know that I worry."

"C'mon," she tried to be playful at least for his sake, "You don't need to worry about me. Big—well, maybe not that big but decently sized—alien with strong cosmic powers? Ha."

It was almost scary realizing he knew her so well enough to know she was blatantly lying to him. "Seren, if you're in danger—"

"I always am," she shrugged. "Something you went through too, if I recall correctly."

"Seren, you're deflecting," he pointed out. "And if you're doing that, it's because there's something extra special going on." She was working really hard not to let any detail of the mission slip from her. She'd never done that before.

"Hey, um, I'll actually be dropping by in a few days," she admitted, hoping that it would help change the subject. "If you want to, I don't know, get something to eat."

He really did and it wasn't just because he wanted to see her. It'd been a very long time since he had a gut feeling and he wasn't too pleased that it was happening now because of Seren. "Yeah, that'll be great. Some catching up to do."'

Seren would hang up after that for fear of saying something she shouldn't. Each call was more disastrous than the last. If she didn't get a hold of herself, she wouldn't be able to call him at all.

~ 0 ~

"Hey," Clint met Seren in the morning. It would be his turn to take over the guarding duties for a while.

She slid off her usual spot to come greet him. As she walked by the Tesseract, she couldn't help eye it as if it would jump out at her.

"Yeah, I wonder if it'll do that too," Clint said as she neared him. "Anything change?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm starting to wonder if it's just toying with us, you know?"

"That would mean it's sentient and so far...I don't think it is," Clint said, though now he threw the Tesseract a glance more suspiciously. "We should mention it to Selvig though."

Seren cracked a smile. Selvig worked so hard that she worried about him sometimes. To say, she'd mentioned Jane Foster a few times and he almost always disregarded it. "You ready?" she asked Clint.

Clint pointed up to his preferred spot up on the rails. "Always."

"Where do you always disappear to?" Seren eyed him curiously. It was honestly alarming how little she knew of Clint despite working together for years. She knew more about Natasha and that was saying something considering her own obscure background around S.H.I.E.L.D.

"What do you mean?" Clint played dumb like a professional. She laughed. "I just go take breaks. Don't you do that?"

"Well, yeah, but somewhere people know I'd go. Like home or something. Where do you go when S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't need you, huh?" she raised an eyebrow.

"What is this? 20 questions? I don't even see a drink anywhere."

Seren shook her head. "Well, if you need me, you can find me in New York." She pronounced the city name slowly to make her point.

"Right," Clint waved her off. "Go take a break or whatever aliens do."

Seren would've taken offence if she didn't know his personality enough. "So funny. Wait till you meet my friend…"

"He may be a war veteran, but he's not all that scary—" Clint started when Seren laughed.

"Not Steve. Don't you remember?" she sauntered up to him, jabbing a finger to his chest when she added, "I made an alien friend from Asgard. He's big and he has this tough voice. He'll scare you good."

"That guy..."

Seren giggled as she turned away to leave. "You better watch out!"

"I can take him!" Clint called after her then frowned when she laughed hard.

~ 0 ~

Seren had been sneaky enough not to tell Steve when she was coming back to New York. She thought the surprise might help put him in a good mood after the terrible mess of phone calls she made to him. She was beginning to just leave him texts instead because her conversations were getting dangerously close to revealing her extreme disdain for her mission. Plus, it would help him learn how to text better.

She would stop by her favorite coffee shop for some cinnamon rolls to help with her surprise. As soon as she stepped in, though, somebody exclaimed her name.

It was the same waitress she always spoke to whenever she stopped by. The young woman was ecstatic. "You're back!"

Seren chuckled as she walked up to the counter. "Nice to see you too, Mary."

"Where've you been!?" Mary planted her hands on the counter, eager to find out the answer. "Did your job take you somewhere exotic this time or what?" She knew very little of Seren's job except that it required her to travel often.

New Mexico is far from exotic, thought Seren. "Something like that. I'm here for a few days."

"I'm assuming you want your usual, then?" Mary was quick to go behind the cash register.

She only waited for Seren to give her the confirming nod. "Make it a dozen." She started digging through her purse for the money.

"Oh, sharing with your boyfriend?"

"Yeah—what!?" Seren's head snapped up to meet Mary's grinning face. "My what!?"

Mary chuckled as she took Seren's money. "You've been gone for what? Three months? I bet you guys missed each other like crazy!"

Seren scratched the side of her head, trying to come up with plausible reasons for where Mary would get an idea like that. "What the...Mary, what are you talking about? Have I been gone that long that rumors started, or…?"

Mary giggled and handed Seren her change. "Are you trying to hide it?"

"I can't hide what I don't have, so…"

"C'mon Seren," Mary walked down the counter to get the cinnamon rolls. "That guy you came with the last time you were here. You always show up with him."

"Steve!? Hold on there—"

"He's adorable! And the only reason I'm saying 'adorable' is because he's your boyfriend so it would be wrong to go anything beyond that—"

"Oh God, Mary, it's not like that at all," Seren would laugh only out of sheer embarrassment. "We're friends, really good friends. Why would you...why would you ever think that?"

Mary shrugged her shoulders. "Because it just looks like you guys are? I know you're a complete sweetheart and he seems along the same lines. You guys spend hours in here, and you giggle with him—"

Seren gasped. "I do not giggle!"

Mary started to laugh. "Yes you do. I never saw you giggle with anybody before, not even when you had that guy a couple years back. And he was hot!" She came back to the front of the counter with Seren's box in hand. "But you never giggled with him. Ever. And now you do it! I bet you do it with everyone now. It's like he unlocked a new feature."

"I'm not a video game character, Mary," Seren frowned. "Stick to the biomedicine major because as a seer, you don't make the cut." Seren promptly took the box from Mary. "Please never say anything like that ever again. He is not, nor will he ever be, my boyfriend."

Mary pouted. "Really? Or are you just telling me that so I won't bug you about it."

"Think about it, genius, if I kept denying it then why would I keep coming back here?"

"...I guess," Mary bobbed her head. "But if it hasn't happened then I'm willing to bet that it will in the future!"

"Seriously, biomedicine major, stick to that."

Mary laughed. "I'm all over the place but you guys really do seem like a good match. There's these cute little looks between you two."

"Please stop," Seren said, though Mary caught the faint tinge of pink on her cheeks. "I'm going to go."

"Be on your way," Mary waved her hand towards the doors. "And say hi to your not-boyfriend for me!"

"I will, right after I call your manager!" Seren threw her a look on her way out. She could hear Mary's laughter even from the street. The nerve of that woman! She only hoped that Mary hadn't gone to Steve with the same story.

~ 0 ~

After three knocks, Seren was able to exclaim 'Surprise!' in Steve's face, paired with the biggest grin she could produce.

"Hey! You didn't say you were coming back today!" He was quick to pull her into a hug. As far as he knew, her return was still up in the air. Her schedule turned very loose with this mission.

"I wanted to surprise you—watch out with the box!" Seren pulled away from him and made sure they hadn't crushed the box between them.

"What's that?" he chuckled at the sight of the pink box.

Seren raised it between them. "I know it's absolutely terrible to have dessert before dinner but I thought we could make an exception this time."

"I guess…" Steve bobbed his head until she chuckled. "Come in." He took the box from her and motioned her to step inside the apartment. "You know, I was actually talking to Chloe earlier in the day and she mentioned about meeting up with you in New Mexico."

Seren came to an abrupt stop then spun around to meet him. "She's what?" Her eyes were far too wide.

"You...didn't know that?" Steve let the door close behind them.

"I didn't even know she was in the same country! Why—she doesn't need to be in the lab!"

Seren's reaction wasn't the one Steve had been expecting. He was aware of the sisterly relationship between her and Chloe. Why wouldn't she want Chloe to work the same mission?

"When did she call you?" Seren hurried back to him. "Did she say when she was supposed to be heading there?"

"Uh, I don't...I'm not sure, sorry…" Steve said slowly, barely finishing the answer when Seren turned away from him. "Seren, what's the problem? I know I keep asking you but what is the mission?"

Seren stopped to look back at him. She wasn't reacting the way she should be and that had to change. She put a hand on her chest to calm herself. "Um, n-nothing you need to worry about. Sorry, I...it was just surprising, that's all."

Steve came by to drop the box on the coffee table. He'd been meaning to finally get a word with her about this mission of hers. He gently took her by the arm and led her to the couch. "I know that I'm not part of this mission so you can't tell me everything but can you just tell me something about it? Something that'll make me worry less about you?"

Seren shrugged her shoulders. "It's just a regular mission."

"No," Steve pointed at her. "A regular mission doesn't keep you away for months. It's not an undercover one because you wouldn't be able to make the calls you do and much less come back as easily. This is something else."

"So what if it is?" she challenged. "Even if it is, what can you do about it? Not everything at S.H.I.E.L.D. is good and unfortunately I still have to work the mission."

"So whatever you're doing, you don't like it," Steve concluded, much like he presumed months back. Seren looked away from him. "And it's scary, otherwise you wouldn't sound as nervous as you always do on the phone. I'm curious, what would scare someone like you?"

Seren rolled her eyes playfully. "I grew up as a human, Steve. I do have fears just like everyone else."

"Yeah, so what are they?"

She met him with sharp eyes. "I don't like doctors. Actually, I don't like anything that has to do with the medical profession."

"Really?"

"I hate them. You will never catch me in a hospital!"

"Why do you hate them?"

"Because I grew up with the constant fear that anybody would find out what I really am! And where do people usually find out what you are? At the doctor's!" Seren shuddered at the mere idea of a doctor being near her.

Steve chuckled at her. It was a genuine fear of hers apparently. "I can understand that given my own experiences with them. So, you do have fears but that doesn't explain the mission here…"

Seren shook her head, getting up from the couch rather fast too. "Let's just forget about the mission, okay? I don't-don't want to talk about it. I just...I want to forget about it while I'm here! That's why I came back!"

The last thing Steve wanted was for her to get frantic about things. "Okay, okay!" He got up and planted his hands on her shoulders. "We can—we can do that! Please calm down."

She was doing a horrible job being aloof. Why would you think you could handle visiting when the phone calls were a disaster!? She now reprimanded herself for being that stupid. She should've stayed away and stuck to the texts entirely. After today, she would.

"Seren?" Steve was still waiting for her to say something.

She looked up at him and felt even worse seeing him absolutely worried about her. "I-I'm good," she promised him.

"Do you want to have that dessert before dinner, then?"

She nodded. "Yes, please," she whispered.

"Okay, perfect. Give me a second." He started for the kitchen when she latched a hand to his arm, having enough strength to actually stop him.

"Um, I...I can't say anything about the mission and to be honest I don't know the entirety of it either. The only thing I want to leave clear is that I really want to tell you but I can't. I'm not allowed to."

Steve nodded at her. He pulled her hand from his arm and kept it wrapped in his. "I know, I'm sorry I'm not helping. I promise I'll stop asking questions."

"You're right, though, I'm not comfortable with it. In fact, I really don't want to do it."

Steve squeezed her hand. He could see that a mile away. "I'm sorry."

Seren half-smiled at him. "You know about that too, very well, huh?"

Of course he did. He patted her hand then released it. "Yes."

"I just don't want to lie to you," she said for all points of clarification.

"I really appreciate that, Seren, seriously." Steve smiled softly at her. She didn't have to worry herself with what he would think about her missions. "Whatever happens, I'm with you." In return, he got the first honest smile from her. She beamed, even. His words carried a lot of weight for her, whether he realized it or not.

~0~

Chloe's eyes raked over the dank hallway while she waited for…

"Chloe!" Seren came hurriedly to her side. She had Agent Coulson behind her.

"As far secret facilities go, this one's the worst," Chloe decided to make that her first comment.

"Yes, we'll see what we can do about that," Coulson sarcastically said, making her roll her eyes. "Has Fury briefed you?"

"Sort of," Chloe said, glancing at Seren who was shaking her head. "He just said that I'll be coming in and out every once in awhile. I'm supposed to see if I can get information out of something?"

Seren absolutely hated this plan. Chloe was young. She had no idea what the Tesseract was and much less what it had done in the past. Fury argued with her saying that she needed to put aside that sisterly feeling and allow Chloe to do her own job. Seren was all for letting Chloe do her jobs so long as it wasn't this mission.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked the pair. She sensed the tension between Seren and Coulson.

"We need you to do a reading on an important object," Coulson started leading the way. "It's dormant for us but you never know what the Hivemind might have to say about it."

"It's not another hammer, is it?" Chloe scrunched her face. "Because we all know how well that worked out the last time."

"This is much worse," Seren said, ignoring Coulson's sharp look.

"Why?" Chloe cluelessly asked.

Coulson finally led them into the lab and gestured her towards the center where the blue cube was sitting at. "Have you ever heard of the Tesseract, Agent Winters?"

Chloe was fascinated by the strange cube. Despite her issues handling the Hivemind, it started raging with overlapping whispers. On the outside, she merely scrunched her face. "Um...I haven't but they have." She tapped the side of her head. "This was a myth amongst the stars. What's it doing here?"

"It was supposed to be lost," Seren explained. "But apparently S.H.I.E.L.D. has had it for the past 17 years in secret."

"So why are you suddenly telling me about it?"

"No, no, I didn't know about it," Seren clarified. "I just learned about it 3 months ago."

"Your mission," Chloe realized. "You've been here with this thing the whole time?" Seren nodded silently. Chloe shifted her gaze back to Coulson. "What do you want me to do?"

"Just like the last time with Thor's hammer. Anything you can find out about the Tesseract, we would like to know."

Chloe slowly nodded. "Okay...and then what? What happens after?"

"Don't bother asking," Seren cut in, eyes narrowing on the Tesseract, "They won't tell you. Won't even tell me and I'm stuck guarding the stupid thing all day."

Chloe looked between Seren and the Tesseract repeatedly before she got dizzy. What could be so bad about that thing that would have Seren so uneasy?

A/N:

I know this chapter was kind of iffy and I'm sorry. It's one of those awkward filler chapters to lead up to the better parts! Next chapter is the start of the Avengers movie and I'm so excited for what's going to happen ;)

I'm hoping my updates will be back to normal in a couple weeks. My course literally ends in 27 days (and yes, I have a countdown for it). It's crunch time people and i'm feeling it xD

As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"