"You're not supposed to be here today, are you?" Chloe heard as soon as she walked into the lab.

She threw a look over to Seren, raising a questioning eyebrow at her. "Do you not want me here?" Why should she ask when she already knew the answer?

Seren was kind enough to keep her usual answer to herself this time. Her eyes flickered back to rest on the Tesseract. She'd made it very clear that she wanted Chloe as far away as possible from the Tesseract, but nobody listened to her. She made it clear to everyone around her that she believed the Tesseract was a catastrophe waiting to happen, but nobody believed her. Apparently even though the Tesseract had already proved to be a disaster not once, but twice, wasn't proof enough. Seren stopped arguing months ago.

What was worse, in Seren's mind, is that they kept calling Chloe over. Chloe came in and out of the facility whenever Coulson or Fury mandated it. She tried to do readings on the Tesseract, rarely getting anything out of it except for a few details that weren't exactly helpful anyways. Seren was always grateful when Chloe left safely each time. She just dreaded the next time Chloe would stop by.

"I'll be quick," Chloe said as a means to comfort Seren. She appreciated Seren's concern for her, even though they were completely misplaced. Dealing with an alien artifact was the least of Chloe's current problems, Seren just didn't know it.

"No, you won't," Seren said softly, meeting Chloe for a second to smile.

Chloe smiled back. "No, I won't," she agreed. She liked dragging her visits out as long as possible just to see Seren. They never got to work together and this time around, Seren was always in a rush to get her away from the facility. "I was just in New York," Chloe thought to say, hoping that it would quench Seren's concern at least for a moment.

Seren hummed, bringing her arms over her chest. "Haven't been there in a long time," she mused.

"Six months," Chloe stated, earning a nod of agreement from Seren.

"Seven tomorrow."

"I, uh, saw Steve. He says you haven't called anymore. Just texts." Seren said nothing to that but Chloe saw the exact moment Seren's body had stiffened. "Just check-ins every once in a while. That's not very you. You call me all the time, even Natasha."

"Don't poke what you don't know about, Chloe," Seren muttered.

"It would help if I did," Chloe shrugged her shoulders. She brought her hands together in front of her. "I mean, Steve's concerned. It's kind of sweet the way he asks for you."

Seren shook her head and walked away from Chloe. Chloe dared to think it was a way to shake off her words.

"He's just worried," Chloe went on, saying it slowly. "And I think it's kind of weird that you're dodging him like that. It's not very like you." It was always ironic to Chloe how Seren was perhaps the sweetest woman alive despite holding such fierce strength and power. Seren was always on the plan to help anyone who needed, even people who didn't quite deserve it sometimes. She was a helper - it's what she trained to do. It made absolutely no sense to Chloe why Seren did a whole 180 with the one person she was specifically assigned to help.

"Drop it," Seren snapped abruptly. She moved closer to the Tesseract, something always made her wary but right now she would gladly take the Tesseract than continue talking about Steve.

"I can't," Chloe said simply, "It's just strange, alright?"

"The reason I don't call is because I don't have anything to say."

Chloe snorted. "Okay."

Seren glared at her. "You don't understand, you don't know."

"Don't know what?"

Seren crossed her arms again. "The Tesseract practically ruined Steve's life. He went under because of it. He lost decades of his life because of that thing." Chloe's eyes were wide when Seren looked back at her. "So imagine what he'll say when he learns that I've been protecting it?" Chloe scratched the side of her head while she processed Seren's words. The ginger shifted her attention back on the cube. "I don't call anymore because I don't want to lie. Better to just text. Can't lie there."

"Yeah, I heard. You text him every three days."

Seren nodded lightly. "I check in, I ask him how he's doing and then tell him I'm good. It's all I can do until this stupid thing is over."

"When are you supposed to text him again?"

"Tomorrow."

Chloe hummed. "Might want to do a little more than that, then. Two minute call." She raised two fingers with her best encouraging smile.

Seren rolled her eyes. "Chloe—"

"You can't do a two minute conversation? Or don't 'want' to…?"

"Of course I want to," huffed Seren. It was actually alarming how much she wanted to talk to Steve. She had no idea where that came from, honestly. She wasn't one to get close to people because of her secret and what she did for a living. "But...what if I say something I shouldn't?"

Chloe snorted. "Please, Agent Seren Soul always knows what to say. And as far as I know, Seren was also pretty good at talking to men."

"Not funny," Seren wagged a finger at the laughing blonde. "...but maybe one call won't hurt."

Chloe nodded, clapping her hands together. "Exactly! Call tomorrow because I guarantee it will all go well."

Seren smiled lightly. She could do two minutes, sure she could...

"Maybe you should text him now to give him a heads up. Don't want him going out and not hearing it, right?"

Seren genuinely chuckled for the first time. "Maybe."

"Do that now!" Chloe was quick to pull out a phone. "Use mine!"

"Chloe…" Seren didn't have much of a choice, not when Chloe was shoving it in her face. Sometimes, she really was too much.

~ 0 ~

"Hey, you are relieved Stardust," Clint arrived the following afternoon. He stopped abruptly when he noticed Chloe standing a bit too close to the Tesseract. "Winters, get the hell away from it!"

Chloe endlessly stared at the Tesseract, eyes glowing blue almost like the Tesseract's shade.

"She's not here," Seren called from above. "She's in the Hivemind."

Clint raised his head to find her standing at his usual spot by the rails. "Soul, what are you doing up there?"

Seren shrugged and leaned her body over the rail. "I wanted to see what Hawkeye's nest was like. You should clean some more."

Clint rolled his eyes at her. "Get down."

"Don't want to share with me or what?"

"I thought you were eager to leave or something. Usually you are."

Seren gave him the point. She hopped over the rail and landed gracefully on the ground by floating. She met Clint face to face, almost laughing with his flattened expression.

"Show off," he spat.

"Jealous," she quipped and moved around him towards Chloe. "Hey Chlo, give it a rest already." She shook the blonde's shoulder a bit. "She's been in there for an hour."

"She can do that?" Clint asked.

"Yeah but I've hardly ever seen her do it."

"Any special reason she started that anyways?"

Seren stepped back from Chloe and shook her head. "Not really, just the usual 'hope that would get something new out of it'."

"Well then don't worry about it. Go get some rest."

With a sigh, Seren turned away from Chloe. "Yeah," she agreed solely because she had a pending call to make. She was a bit excited to hear Steve's voice after so many months. She started making her way out of the lab when something grumbled. "What was…?" She trailed off when the 'grumble' turned into an earthquake that rocked them and everyone else in the room.

It even pulled Chloe out of her trance and, thus, out of the Hivemind. "The hell?" She gasped, deeply out of it. Whenever she was in the Hivemind, it was an overwhelming sensation coming back to the present. This time, however, the Tesseract she was standing in front of was glowing insanely bright. "What—?"

Clint marched over to yank Chloe away from the Tesseract. The technicians were quick to swarm the cube with tools and whatnot.

"It's never done that before," Seren breathed at the sight of the glowing Tesseract. It was glowing stronger than it ever had and it kept going. Her stomach began to churn. "Dr. Selvig!"

The man was already amongst the technicians and scientists trying to find out what was happening. "The energy levels are spiking."

"Spiking? It's never been turned on!" Clint exclaimed. The whole mission had been, at least for him and Seren, completely boring because nothing ever happened. "How can it be spiking?"

"I don't know!" Selvig snapped. "But it is!"

"Well, turn it off!" Seren yelled.

"I can't!"

"We need to get Coulson in here," Clint told Seren who immediately nodded. "If this thing decides to activate, we don't know what we're getting into."

"I might have an idea…" Seren swallowed hard. Something similar to the 40s could be creeping up on them. She turned to go find Coulson quickly.

~ 0 ~

It would be four hours later into the night when Fury had to come see the mess himself. Nothing had worked to shut the Tesseract down. In fact, it only seemed to get stronger. The only possible solution (for the time being) was to evacuate the whole facility.

Selvig had pulled himself away from the Tesseract when it began to flare rings of power. Seren, however, had not. She wanted to be close to it in case it decided to erupt. She hoped she would be able to keep it at bay. She looked every now and then to Clint and Chloe up on the rails. As much as she'd fought with Chloe to get out with the others, the blonde refused and only decided to compromise by staying with Clint above them.

"Talk to me, doctor," Fury strode into the lab where barely half the employees remained. "Is there anything we know for certain?

"Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig moved from behind a CMS machine.

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No," Seren's tone was sharp and unhinged. She met Fury's gaze with a near glare. "I told you something like this could happen! I told everyone—" she violently pointed at the technicians around her, "—that this thing was volatile but did anyone listen!? No!"

Fury raised a hand to stop Seren from continuing. "I want solutions," he said, glancing at Selvig afterwards. He completely missed the death glare Seren was sending him. "How soon until you pull the plug?"

"She's an energy source. If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level…"

"We've prepared for this, doctor. Harnessing energy from space."

"But we don't have the harness, Fury!" Seren yelled again. "Everything here is theoretical, or am I wrong, doctor?"

Selvig shook his head. "Our calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."

"That last one is harmful for some people," Seren made a gesture to the entire room.

"Is Barton here yet?" Fury decided to ask. He knew well the schedule of the two guards. Seren wasn't supposed to be here tonight.

"The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual," Selvig pointed up to the rails.

"Fury, Chloe is here too," Seren said as the two in question started dropping from above. "She needs to leave now!"

"Not until everyone else leaves!" Chloe said before Fury even had the opportunity to voice where she thought she should be.

"Doctor, it's spiking again!" One female scientist reported from her spot, pulling Selvig over.

It was then that Fury would ask his agents if Selvig was clear of any suspicions. They could never be too careful.

"No one's come or gone. It's oven is clean. No contacts, no I.M.'s," Clint spoke in a hushed tone. "If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."

"At this end?" Fury frowned.

"It's what Selvig's told us, remember?" Seren said, briefly motioning towards the doctor in question. "The Tesseract is a doorway and what do doors have? Two sides. We're here…" she gestured then to the cube, "...so who's on the other side?"

There was an ominous silence amongst the group. None of them had ever thought what would be on the other side of the Tesseract. Their primary goal was to harness the energy, after all.

The Tesseract thundered again, shaking the entire facility. Its energy flared around it again, building up with stronger and brighter glows.

"Everybody move!" Seren yelled at them just as the Tesseract shot a beam of energy forwards. She was quick to grab Chloe with her while Clint took Fury.

The energy was brighter than before, barely allowing anyone to see the swirl of a portal it was beginning to create. Seren pulled herself up from the rumble in time to catch the dark void of space. Her gasp was muffled completely by the noise of the Tesseract, but nobody could take away from her the feeling of seeing actual stars for the first time in her life. She could make and bend the stars but she had never been able to see the ones in the sky. It was breathtaking...until it all exploded.

The portal was done and so was the Tesseract. The only sound was a heavy breathing that didn't belong to any of the portal was gone but in its place stood an unknown figure. S.H.I.E.L.D. guards entered the lab with guns in hands, ready to fight whatever the problem was.

Seren stepped forwards as well. It was a man and he...he didn't look right. If Seren was right, she could see a bit of frost on his forehead. He held a long scepter in his hand. He slowly looked up to the group with the coldest of grins.

"Sir, please put down the spear!" Fury ordered.

It was if the mention of the scepter pulled the man into the realization that he was indeed holding it. Seren saw his hand grip it. Her own energy flared around her hands, ready to go when he was.

And then he was.

He shot a ray of blue energy towards them with the scepter. Seren crossed her arms to create a colorful shield in front of her. While it took her with it, she was virtually unharmed. The other agents opened fire on the man but it seemed like the bullets weren't doing much. He would return the favor with more energy surges, managing to knock most of the team down. He jumped off the platform and started taking more of the agents down himself with knives and energy blasts.

"Get out!" Seren yelled at Chloe when she zoomed towards the man to take him head on.

"Seren, wait!" Chloe scrambled to get herself up on her feet.

Seren took the man by surprise with a well delivered punch. The man barely raised his hand when Seren started firing star bolts his way.

Clint collected himself after securing Fury and pulled out his gun. He wanted to fire but there wasn't a clear shot. Seren was too close to the man. The scepter blasted her back enough for the man to grab her in a chokehold from behind.

"A strong Celessian, I hear," the man said in a breathless tone.

"Take the shot — Barton!" Seren yelled at the man. "Just — t-take it!"

Clint couldn't trust himself to take the shot without hurting Seren in the process. He didn't have to think about it more when the man spun Seren around and pointed the scepter at her chest.

"Confused — find peace," the man said with a wicked grin.

They heard Seren take a deep gasp as if the scepter had actually stabbed her, which it hadn't. It barely touched her and yet she felt her mind squashed in an instant. She didn't think it was even possible. All her thoughts, her anger — her feelings — faded away from her until there was nothing left but darkness. Her eyes went pitch black as stark blue lines marked her skin for a few moments. The blue faded with flames in her eyes.

"Seren!" Chloe fired her own energy blasts towards the man. To her shock, Seren whirled around and created a shield to protect the man. Chloe froze altogether. "Seren…?"

"Get out now!" Clint hissed at Chloe and Fury. He started firing now.

Whatever happened, Seren wasn't responding to them anymore. She upheld her shield to take each of the bullets. Once she lowered the shield...she retaliated. She pulled her hands in opposite ways, creating a colorful flaming sword of star matter.

Chloe's mouth could've fallen to the ground. "Seren!"

"Aw, crap!" Clint quickly put his gun away to handle the incoming Seren. He combated her as much as he could before eventually falling short. Seren was quicker and stronger, the two usual qualities S.H.I.E.L.D. prided her for.

In the meantime, the man had collected a few more puppets for his team until finally firing towards Clint. Seren paused like a robot while the man headed their way. Clint barely lifted his head when he felt the prod of the scepter against his chest.

"You have heart." The same darkness filled Clint's eyes as the glowing blue lines crossed his skin.

Fury had pulled Chloe with him towards the Tesseract. She was frantic with Seren's forced compliance and yet all Fury wanted her to do was stay away from the man.

"He doesn't need another alien in his control," barked Fury. "Now here!" He shoved a case into her hands then grabbed the Tesseract to put inside. They quickly shut the case and tried making a run for it.

"Please don't. I still need that," the man called out to the pair.

"This doesn't have to get any messier…" Fury said, eye flickering over to his best agents now standing completely still behind the man.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig easily remembered the name from the God, even Chloe did too.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury said.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki returned with a promising smirk.

"And you're planning to step on us or what?" demanded Chloe. "With my friends over there?" she made a gesture towards Seren and Clint.

"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free."

"Free from what?"

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…" Loki suddenly whipped his scepter towards Selvig's chest, forcing him to join just like the other agents. "You will know peace."

"Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing," Fury sarcastically said. "Especially when you're doing things like that," he nodded to the newest recruit now standing behind Loki.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Clint suddenly said, much to Chloe's horror. "This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

"Like The Pharaohs of Odin."

Chloe's head snapped in Fury's direction. He was insane if he ever thought that she would let Seren get killed, especially over the Tesseract.

Selvig headed for the computers to get a read on the energy levels. "She's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

"Well then…" Loki glanced at Seren. The Celessian didn't even hesitate when she drew her balled fists forwards and fired star bolts.

The bolts took both Fury and Chloe down, leaving the Tesseract case to land away from them. Clint collected it on their way out.

Chloe groaned as she sat upright and once she remembered what happened, she pushed it all away to get back up. "Seren!" She looked around and saw the lab was completely empty of them. "Fury!" She hurried to the man's side. One of Seren's star bolts had gotten his side. "You'll need medical attention—"

"Secure the Tesseract, Winters!" Fury barked, shooing her away.

"What!?" she frowned. "I-I can't. They have Seren. I can't fight her! Look at what she can do!" She had her own training but never against someone like Seren. She helped Fury stand up through the grumbles of the ground and together headed out of the room.

The only choice was to get the others to try and stop the Tesseract from leaving the facility. Maria was hot on their tracks in a jeep chase but only a miracle would allow her to catch up with them.

Seren flew over the cars, firing bolts and spheres of star matter at those getting in their way. She only narrowly missed Maria's jeep.

"They're going to make it out!" Maria exclaimed through the comms. She could see the outline of the end of the tunnel and she was only getting slower.

Fury and Chloe had managed to clamber onto the helicopter the former had arrived in. From their spot in the sky, they could see the chosen truck Clint was driving. The final blast of the Tesseract's energy forced the tunnel to cave in and seal Maria, as well as plenty others, inside.

"Fire, Winters!" Fury ordered when the chopper's door slid open.

"But Ser—"

"That's an order!" He yelled over her, ignoring her hard flinch, and started shooting down at the incoming truck with his gun.

Chloe put her hands together and held them out. Light blue energy seeped through to her fingers until blue flames sprouted, ready to be fired.

Seren rose high into the air to meet them. She drew her arms back.

"NOW WINTERS!" Fury practically screamed.

Chloe would hate herself for the rest of her life but she fired a second before Seren did. The blast of energy hit Seren square in the chest, throwing her down into a hard landing on the ground. In retaliation, Loki used the scepter to give one last blow that would surely bring the helicopter down.

The helicopter couldn't and wouldn't survive the hit of energy. Fury and Chloe were forced to jump out before everything went to pieces. By the time either of them would come through, Loki would be too far gone.

"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Maria's voice would come through their ear comms. a few minutes later.

"The Tesseract is with the hostile force," Fury was able to respond. He glanced at Chloe to see her silently pulling herself up to her feet. "I have men down. Maria?"

"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors."

"Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that brief case."

"Roger that."

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."

Chloe turned towards the darkness. Wherever Seren had landed, she'd probably gone after Loki. She was lost with them.

A/N:

Ha, bet nobody saw that twist coming. Seren gets to work with Loki :). That'll be fun for others to find out, wink wink ;).

Also, I am SO happy to announce that I've officially finished my training and I am once again FREE! Literally so happy to be able to relax again and get back to my writing (all my stories have taken a huge hit with their drafts because I've had zero time to do anything). So basically what I'm saying is that updating will finally resume! And I'm so happy because I've got so many new ideas for MCU fics with phase 4 that I could connect with the earlier movies.

For the review: See, I thought about going down that road but then I realized what could make things worse? And I went with Seren getting mind controlled as well because this is exactly what she's been training for and she got sucked in. Plus, it all lands on Steve in the next chapter and hell no he's not going to be happy this happened to Seren, especially when she had already warned the others about the Tesseract. Angst, I love it.

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"