The room was pitch black, except for the light emanating from the alarm clock, which cast a dim glow onto the bed in the small room. A woman slept peacefully on the mattress, her white hair splayed across the pillows, reflecting the light of the alarm clock. Her skin was pale, a creamy shade of ivory and just as smooth. A loud banging suddenly sounded throughout the room and the woman's eyes opened suddenly, revealing glowing blue irises. She glanced over at the alarm clock, noting the time. It was late in the night, too late for visitors. There were also only a few people that even knew that she was staying here. Slipping from the bed, she silently made her way to the door, swinging it open to reveal the one person she didn't really want to see. Her dark hair was up in her usual meticulous bun, and the usual serious look was on her face.

"Mariah", she said, breaking the silence. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Rayne. You know I wouldn't have come unless it was important."

She nodded. She was used to seeing Mariah Hill this serious, but she also looked worried, and that worried her. "What do you need?"

"There's a chopper waiting for us on the roof. I can explain on the way. We can't risk anyone overhearing."

"Give me a minute." She closed the door and quickly dressed, pulling on an old S.H.I.E.L.D. bodysuit and a pair of black, leather boots. She then quickly braided her hair, the end just brushing her waist. Then with a last look around the room, she left.

The roar of the helicopter was all I could hear as we flew through the night towards our destination. Director Fury and Agent Hill both were seated across from me. I hadn't expected for Fury himself to be on the chopper when I had boarded, all traces of sleepiness vanished when I had seen him. They had quickly filled me in on the specifics of going on and since I had previous experience with the experiment, they had decided to bring me in. I didn't mind, they had been keeping me under the radar for a while now, so it was the least that I could do. I glanced up at the window, catching sight of my reflection, my white hair and blue eyes glowing ethereally. I'm sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. had a hard time keeping me under the radar, especially given my history.

The helicopter descended rapidly onto the roof and landed roughly, jolting me out of my thoughts. I followed Director Fury and Agent Hill off of it. Coulson was on the landing strip waiting on us. I wasn't as familiar with him as I was with Hill; I had only met him a handful of times and we rarely spoke. It had been years since I last saw him. He shot a strange look towards me when he saw me exit the helicopter, probably hadn't been expecting to see me. Then again it was also likely because of my appearance, but I had grown used to the stares.

"How bad is it?" Fury asked him over the sound of the helicopter.

Coulson gave him a grave look, "That's the problem, sir. We don't know." Coulson led us to an elevator that seemed to drop rapidly, almost too fast. We exited the elevator and began hurriedly walking down the hall. My head had begun to pound, probably due to the lack of sleep.

"Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago", Coulson said.

"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to testing phase", Fury replied.

"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous event."

Hill spoke up, "It just turned itself on?"

Fury ignored Hill's question and addressed Coulson, "Where are the energy levels now?"

"Climbing, When Selvig couldn't shut it down we ordered evac."

"How long to get everyone out?"

"Campus should be clear in the next half hour."

"Do better." Coulson abruptly turned on his heel and hurried down the hall away from us. We continued on our way down the hall.

"Sir", Hill said, "Evacuation may be futile." We began to descend a set of stairs.

Fury shot a look at Hill, "We should tell them to go back to sleep?"

"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."

"That's what Agent Black is here for. She's seen it before, and she might be able to help", Fury said, gesturing towards me, " In the meantime, I need to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out." Inwardly I cringed, the thirst for power and weapons was all too familiar and brought back particularly unpleasant memories. Hill had told me what they were doing, and I had still agreed to help; although I didn't particularly agree with their choices.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?"

Fury stopped at the bottom of the staircase and turned towards Hill. I almost walked right into him, he stopped so suddenly. "Until such time as the world ends we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below; every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone."

Hill looked as if she wanted to say something more, but only nodded her head, "Yes sir." She descended the staircase, taking two agents with her. Fury and I went into a large room filled with all kinds of equipment that I assumed to be Selvig's lab. As soon as I stepped into the room, I felt it. The power in the room was pulsing and only seemed to be growing stronger. Blue energy suddenly sparked across my fingertips. I willed the energy down, but with the energy in the room, it was fighting to break free. It had been some time since I had felt this much power.

Fury had kept walking towards a man in the center of the room, so I hurried after him. His hair was thinning and he looked like he hadn't slept in days. "Talk to me Doctor."

"Director." The man hardly looked up from what he was doing. There was something strange about him, but I couldn't quite place what it was.

"Is there anything we know for certain?"

"The Tesseract is misbehaving."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's behaving." They walked towards the computer linked to the cube and I followed them. As we got closer to the Tesseract blue energy blazed to life on my hands. The cube sparked an arc of energy and caught everyone's attention. I balled my hands into fists and willed my power under control. Being so close to something so powerful was making it hard to control my powers; I hadn't even seen the Tesseract since the accident, let alone been near something so powerful.

"I assume you pulled the plug?" Fury had already directed his attention back to Selvig.

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

"We prepared for this, Doctor; harnessing energy from space."

Selvig looked up from the computer screen only to glance back down at it, " But we don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete and it's throwing off interference, radiation. It's increased since your friend got here", he said glancing at me, "Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."

"That can be harmful." Fury exchanged a look with me; he seemed to know that Selvig was acting odd. "Where's Agent Barton?"

Selvig scoffed, "The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual", he said gesturing behind him. I glanced up towards the ceiling in the back corner of the room. A man with short, sand-colored hair sat on the rafter overlooking the lab. He wore a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform so he must be an agent.

Fury spoke clearly into his earpiece, "Agent Barton, report." Barton descended from his perch on the rafter and made his way to us.

Fury didn't waste anytime chewing him out, "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."

"Well, I see better from a distance." He stretched his hand out to me, "I don't believe we've met."

I shook his hand, "Black. Rayne Black."

He shot me a smile that I'm sure was intended to make my heart melt, but I knew who he worked for. I could only assume that he was a spy and was used to trying to woo women to get information. "You can call me Clint." He glanced back over to Fury, his charming demeanor immediately becoming serious, "She new?"

"Not exactly." We both trailed behind him as he walked towards where the Tesseract sat at the opposite end of the room. Fury turned towards Barton, "Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?"

I felt a surge of energy suddenly pulse through me, knocking the breath out of me. Monitors began beeping and a blonde scientist spoke loudly to Selvig, "Doctor, it's spiking again." I felt waves of energy coursing through my body as the cube started to spark. I was losing control of the power within me,

"No one's come or gone, and Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end", Barton said answering Fury.

Fury shot Clint a strange look, "At this end?"

"Yeah, the cube is a doorway to space, right? Doors open from both sides." The cube began to spark more violently, and the building began to shake. The energy started pulsing around the cube and blue energy blazed around my entire body.

I could feel the cube pulling the energy from me, making me lose control. The entire room had gone silent, watching the scene unfold. Energy started to swirl violently around the cube and I, and suddenly a beam shot from our combined energy. At the other end of the room a portal began opening where the beam had gone. It grew larger and larger until it exploded, sending a wave of energy through the room. The remnants of the portal crackled along the ceiling, growing more unstable by the minute.

The beam suddenly vanished and the blazing energy around the cube and I dissipated quickly and without warning. The rumbling of the building didn't subside; I could hear the place crumbling around us. My knees gave out beneath me and just as I thought I was going to fall, Barton grabbed my arm to steady me. After sending him a grateful look, I looked to the opposite end of the room where the portal had been moments ago. As we watched, a figure slowly raised himself from a kneeling position.

His black hair was as dark as night, falling in soft waves to his shoulders. His emerald-colored eyes blazed with amusement. Given the green and black, leather armor that he wore, I guessed he wasn't from here. There was a small moment of silence as if he suddenly seemed to notice we were there.

Fury spoke up, breaking the silence in the room, "Sir, please put down the spear." My eyes were drawn to the weapon the man held, a golden spear with a large blue gem at the blade. The man looked at the weapon in his hand as if he had forgotten it was there. He drew back his arm and fired a blast at us. Barton, who was still holding my arm, pulled me with him as he jumped to the side to avoid the blast. I saw Fury across from me; he had jumped out of the way as well.

Gunfire sounded and the man jumped at one of the agents, stabbing the spear into their chest. He turned and threw small, throwing knives at a few of the guards, who fell to the floor dead. Another blast was fired and the blonde scientist fell to the floor. He whirled and sliced at a man behind him in the chest. Every movement he made was graceful, so fluid that he didn't even seem human whatsoever.

Barton pulled out his gun and fired a few shots at him, but the man merely waved his hand and the bullets seemed to disappear. He fired another blast in our direction, killing guards and destroying equipment. He kicked a guard that had gotten too close to him and he flew backwards into a concrete wall. I winced as I heard the loud cracking noise. The man faced us, panting, holding his spear at the ready. Barton rushed at the man, but he caught his arm with ease.

"You have heart", I heard him say in a strangely calm voice. I backed away to where Fury was standing, my eyes never leaving the man. The tip of the spear lit up blue and he touched it to Barton's chest. I watched as his eyes turned black and then a bright blue, the same color as my eyes. The man released him, and to our disbelief, Barton put his gun in its holster. Fury knelt and put the cube in a case as the man went around making more minions; he seemed to be ignoring us entirely. Fury and I turned to go when his voice stopped us.

"Please don't", his voice was like velvet, "I still need that." I guess he had been paying attention to us after all.

"This doesn't have to get any messier", Fury replied turning to face him.

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

"Loki, brother of Thor." Loki's gaze flicked over to Selvig at the sound of his voice.

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

His eyes flicked back over to our direction, "An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

"Are you planning to step on us?"

"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 turned and pressed the tip of the spear to Selvig's chest, adding him to his collection of men, "You will know peace."

"Yeah, you say peace. I kind of think you mean the other thing."

"Sir", Barton said walking over to Loki, "Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and bury a hundred feet of rock on us. They mean to bury us."

"Like the pharaohs of old."

"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself", Selvig said looking up from the computer, "We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." He was right, I could feel the portal there even if it wasn't visible, and we were running out of time.

"Well then", Loki said looking over to Barton. Barton raised his gun and fired at Fury and then me. I felt a burning in my shoulder before I fell to the ground. Barton grabbed the case while we were down, and they made their way out. I gritted my teeth, ignoring the stinging pain in my shoulder. I could feel the blood dripping down my shoulder, soaking into the my uniform.

Next to me, Fury sat up, grabbing a radio from his pocket, "Hill! Do you copy?" I heard him pull the bullet from his vest as I slowly got to my feet. "Barton has turned." Fury got to his feet when the portal overhead began to crackle and surge with unstable energy.

We hurried out of the lab, Fury still on his radio, "They have the Tesseract! Shut them down!" We rushed out of the room, the building beginning to crumble around us. We made it to the chopper just as the ground beneath us began to crack. I held tight to the wound on my shoulder, hoping the pressure would keep it from bleeding so much. I felt the explosion before I heard it, blue energy crackling to life on my fingertips in response to the surge. Fury and I watched as the ground caved in where we had just been moments ago.

"Sir", I called to him, noticing a jeep coming out of the tunnel, "There they are." Fury moved to my side of the chopper, sliding open the door and unholstering his handgun. He shot a few rounds when I saw Loki fire a blast of energy towards us. I reacted instinctively, leaping out of the chopper towards the blast. I felt it as the energy crackled through me, absorbing into my skin. I heard Fury firing off more shots as I fell onto the hard ground below me, my world spinning and then turning dark.