Chapter Seven: So, Where You From?

"Nice to meet you, I guess." Draco looked at the two men. Were they ever going to let him out of here? How long would he have to stay here? Was it because they were worried that he might do something?

"Right now, you're in a quarantine room." Agent Coulson spoke up. Yeah, I got that figured out. Thanks though. "Just until we make sure that nothing you're carrying will harm us."

"You mean the bacteria, radiation and energy, right?" Agent Coulson nodded. Draco lent back against the wall. That could take a while. He knew a little about muggle science, his father had always found a use for muggles and some of their knowledge was useful. Not that Draco was supposed to read those books. Not that anyone had noticed him sneaking them out of the library.

"Unless you can shed some light on that?"

"Not really. Sorry."

Director Fury hummed at that. He flicked through the file again. What sort of tests had they done on him? Did they take bloods or scan him? Maybe they're not actually humans, how was he to know?

"Judging by the scans you're human. So, where you from?" Fury looked back at him.

"Wiltshire." It probably wouldn't do any harm. Seeing as their accents were definitely American. He wondered if they even knew where it was. The men looked at each other, confusion written on their faces.

"But that's in England?" Agent Coulson looked between Draco and Director Fury.

"Well done." Draco muttered feeling tired of this already and his mind wander off somewhere else. I wonder when they'll give me my stuff back…

"That doesn't make sense. If you're from England, why would you have unidentified bacteria on you? And the background radiation where'd that come from?"

Draco didn't answer. Watching them try to figure out what was going on was more entertaining right now. It's not he was going to have anything to do for a while. Besides he didn't want to put his foot in it and get himself into an even more complicated situation. The Director muttered something to Agent Coulson, who then promptly turned and left the room.

"Seeing as you can't provide any answers, we'll figure it out ourselves." He turned to leave.

"Yeah. That's great. By the way when can I have my stuff back?" Director Fury looked at Draco once more before leaving. Great.
He rubbed his sore arm again; the stinging had barely calmed down at all. With a sigh Draco laid back down, careful not to lay on his right arm, and stared up at the ceiling. He had no new information, well not that he had any information to start with, no plan and no idea what was expected of him. That was an uncomfortable feeling, he had always been told what people wanted from him. Even when it wasn't explicitly stated it wasn't hard for him to figure it out. Most people wanted to be around him for his family name, some wanted money, some thought it would benefit them in the future. He couldn't remember a time when someone hung around him because of him. Not that it mattered. Life was easier when he knew what people wanted.

Right, I'm in America. Presumably whatever 'job' I'm supposed to do is here. Pretty inconvenient that I got picked up by whoever they are… or… is that why they left me there? Did they know this would happen? Coincidences are very rare.

As he laid there thinking over his situation, Draco's eyes started to feel heavy. His muscles ached and his vision blurred. Slowly he drifted off to sleep once more.

Meanwhile…

Agent Coulson walked down the long corridors back into the lab. There had to be a simple answer to this. He turned into a large lab, where the small box was being tested on and monitored and walked up to a large screen that hung from the ceiling. Scouring the internet, news channels and even radio stations he came up empty. There had been no radiation related accidents reported on any public sources. A quick scan of… more private sources he came up empty once more.
The kid was from England, he was as human as he was.

I'm missing something.

Nothing coming from the box matched readings from his last encounter in New Mexico. The energy could be picked up by their tech but not identified. It didn't even come close to anything they've seen before.

"Agent Coulson?"

"Yes?"

"The results on the bacteria for you." The lab tech handed a small stack of paper to him. A very quick once over showed that the bacteria wouldn't harm anyone. It didn't even seem likely to spread anything. Although a more thorough look showed that the kid barely had any bacteria on him that would be common to see.
Would it be dangerous to the kid to let him out?
Could the common bacteria harm this kid?

"How's it going Coulson?" Fury walked towards him, and he handed the papers over.

"Well… It doesn't look like the foreign bacteria on him is harmful."

"But?"

"Perhaps the bacteria we consider to be common could be harmful to him?" Fury raised an eyebrow and gave the papers a look over.

"So, he has very few matching bacteria on him. What about the radiation?"

"The levels are low and completely harmless to us. There's no sign anywhere of a radiation related incident or experiment." A frown clouded Fury's face. "We have no record of any energy matching what is coming off the kid and the box. We don't even have anything like it."

Fury's frown deepened and he looked over the papers a couple more times. Sure enough the background radiation and foreign bacteria were harmless, but that energy was bothering him. It didn't even match the Phase 2 prototypes, which begs the question what does it do?

"We'll continue to monitor him and the box until we can be sure that the energy is safe." Fury turned to leave, taking the papers with him.

"We can also make sure that our common bacteria won't kill him." Coulson added on. Without responding Fury left the room.

Wonder if the kid would be hungry…

Draco awoke to the sound of a door unlocking and opening slightly. Agent Coulson slid a plate into the room through the small gap before quickly shutting it again.

"Thought you might want some food." Draco walked over a picked up the plate. On it was just some vegetables and a questionable looking meat… thing. It may not look too nice, but Draco had to admit that he was starting to get hungry, and he wasn't really in a position to complain.

"Quite worried about me escaping then." He muttered to himself.

"Oh no that's not it. While the bacteria and radiation on you may not be harmful to us, there's nothing to suggest that bacteria out here won't harm you." Agent Coulson clarified, watching Draco carefully, while Draco considered the statement. He supposed that they probably don't want him getting sick or worse seeing as he was the only one who could give them information. Still, he was in no rush to tell them.

"That's nice of you." He started eating slowly and to his surprise it didn't taste as bad as it looked. But he could feel a pain in a couple of his teeth. Must've cracked them clenching my jaw… great another thing to add to the list of problems.

"What happened to your sleeve? Or is that just a new trend?" Agent Coulson spoke again. Draco looked down at his arm as he considered his answer.

"I believe it burnt off." Draco raised an eyebrow at Agent Coulson's chuckle.

"Ar-are you not joking? He shook his head and went back to eating. He could feel the older man's stare on him. Presumably looking for burns on his skin. Honestly Draco wasn't sure if it actually burnt off or if it just felt that way. There was a slight black-brown tinge on the frayed edge of his shirt where the arm was now missing.
"You believe it did? I think you'd notice your sleeve burning off."

"Oh, but I did notice. I felt it." Sarcasm started leaking its way into Draco's voice.

"But you didn't see the fire?"

"Who said anything about fire?" A frown appeared on Agent Coulson's face and after a moments silence, a sigh came from him. He shook his head slightly and left Draco to eat.
When he had finished his food, he placed the plate by the door and laid down again. The stinging in his arm had started to subside and the ache in his muscles was slowly going too. The food had gotten rid of the taste of blood for the most part. The teeth that had cracked were a bit sore but nothing too bothersome. I wonder if there's a spell I can use to fix them. I'll figure it out when I get my stuff back… He sighed again. There was nothing to do and he was getting bored very quickly.
Might as well sleep some more…

"Coulson with me." Fury commanded as he walked past. The two men descended deeper into the base. Down to the deepest lab that they had. Inside people were walking between screens, discussing the results of their latest experiment. An older man was giving directions to some lab assistants for the next one.
"Doctor Selvig."

"Ah! Director Fury! I wasn't expecting to see you today." The older man turned towards them. He looked tired and a bit scruffy, it didn't look like he had left the lab for a few days.

"Take a look at these." Fury handed the papers over to the scientist, who began reading them straight away.

"Wh-what is this?" Dr. Selvig's mouth was hanging slightly opened as he looked over the test results in his hand.

"Something we picked up earlier today."

"I've never seen anything like it! I mean look at this!" Dr. Selvig had started waving the papers around. He would pace and read something, then race over to a screen and would return to waving the papers around excitedly. Fury and Coulson watched the scientist for almost half an hour allowing the man some time for his manic thought process.

"Well?" Fury's question snapped Dr. Selvig out of his thoughts.

"It's incredible!" He turned to walk back to the Director. "It's almost like the Tesseract but there's something very different. If I had to guess, I'd say it's from another world."

"It's from Wiltshire." Dr. Selvig started to laugh at the statement. It quickly came to his attention that Director Fury wasn't joking at all.

"What?! That's not possible!" The papers were being waved around again. He quickly took to looking between the papers and screens once more. A frown would ghost over his face occasionally before disappearing just as quickly.
"Well… if what you're saying is true there's only one other explanation I can think of right now." Dr. Selvig stated with a sigh.

"Which would be?" Fury could feel his patience slipping away with every second that this conversation went on for.

"It may have come from Wiltshire, but it won't be our Wiltshire."

"I'm sorry?" Coulson's brows knitted together in confusion.

"I'm suggesting that it has come from another universe. Possibly one not too dissimilar to our own."

Draco awoke to someone tapping on the glass window. He turned his head and cracked one eye open. He could see Director Fury and Agent Coulson on the other side. There was also a new person, a tall and slim lady with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty."

"What can I do for you Director?" Draco sighed a little as he stretched his legs and arms out. The stinging was still there but it had faded quite a bit while he was sleeping. But the ache in his muscles was only getting worse by sleeping on this table/bed thing. He slowly sat up to face them, swinging his legs over the edge.
"Oh, hey your new." He nodded to the lady.

"Agent Hill."

"Well, nice to meet you Agent Hill."

"So, what's it like travelling between universes?" Director Fury raised and eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. Draco kept his expression under control, he could tell that they were just guessing, trying to get him to confirm their theory for them. His father had used that tactic a few times before, normally with other high status pure-blood wizards. Not all of them would fall for it but more than Draco would've expected.

"You tell me." Director Fury laughed. Didn't think he'd know how to do that…

"It doesn't seem too pleasant from where I'm standing." Agent Coulson took over the conversation. Draco raised an eyebrow. It's not that he was wrong but how had he come to that conclusion? "You seem to be very tired, and you did say that your sleeve got burnt off." Perhaps they did have magic here since it seemed that Agent Coulson answered the question that came to Draco's mind.

"Ah… the sleeve has nothing to do with it." Draco laughed a little before he realised what he had done. A scowl crossed over his features. Agent Coulson just smiled in return.

"But it did make you tired?" Apparently, it was Agent Hill's turn to speak. Draco shrugged. If he was honest, he didn't know why he was so tired. He was used to running on very little sleep So, it was either the crossing universes or when he tried to use his magic in this world.

"Why did you come here?" The Director took over again, his tone stern.

"I was asked to."

"By who?"

"Death." Draco heard a sigh from the other side of the glass. He knew they wouldn't believe him. He was still having a hard time believing it himself.

"When you're done joking around let us know." Draco shook his head slightly as the Director and Agent Hill walked away.

"Alright. I'll bite. Why'd 'Death' bring you here?" Agent Coulson stood with his arms crossed looking directly at Draco's face.

"Dunno. Said they had a job for me, dropped me off then disappeared." Draco shrugged in response.

"Did they tell you what the job was?" Another shrug. Agent Coulson sighed a little, gave Draco a small nod and then headed off.

Damnit I should've asked about my stuff again… The broken teeth were beginning to annoy him.

Author's Note:

Let me know if the different perspectives are confusing at all and I'll figure out a better way to write them :)