Chapter Eleven: Buzzing

Threat?! Draco's mind started going at 100mph. How could he possibly be a threat to a cube? Absorbing energy that doesn't match wouldn't work though… you would put yourself at a disadvantage or make yourself vulnerable…

"Draco?" Agent Coulson pulled Draco from his thoughts. "What're you thinking?"

"I'm not convinced that the Doctor's theory is correct." His eyebrows came together. What is that noise?

"Care to tell us why?" Director Fury crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Draco. Buzzing… it's so annoying…

"Well… from what I understand taking on energy that isn't compatible with your own would have a negative effect on you, so you'd only want to do it as a last resort." Maybe I should ask them to turn whatever it is off. My…head…

The three older men looked towards each other, thinking over what Draco was suggesting. Dr. Selvig suddenly started shifting through the papers on the table and the other two men joined him. It was obvious that he had thought of something but right now Draco couldn't concentrate on what he was muttering.

"There was definitely a surge in power from the Tesseract…"

"The output went up by about 95%..."

"But that would suggest…"

"Right so…"

Voices started to fade out as the buzzing seeped deeper into his brain. A constant pounding and fuzzy feeling had taken over. No other sounds were getting through to him. If I could just… turn it… off…
His legs started moving as his mind searched for the source of the buzzing. No one seemed to notice that he had walked away, too absorbed in their discussion.
He walked around some tall crates, and the centre platform came into view. The buzzing became louder and louder. Just… be… QUIET
A shot of light came from Draco's hand just missing the cube and the device it was contained in.

"Draco?!" Was that his name? Yes… of course it is. His legs kept moving towards the cube. No… leave me… alone… Another shot of light, this time skimming the top of the device.

"DRACO!" Hands grabbed him and tried to pull him back, but his body kept trying to go forward.

"Cover the cube!" Director Fury yelled to some people out of Draco's field of vision.

Two lab techs grab some sheets left from the basement being built and threw them over the Tesseract. The buzzing got a little quieter, but Draco could still hear it. Another sheet and Draco's legs stopped moving but his head was spinning.
He was being pulled backwards as Draco pressed his hands over his ears and clamped his eyes shut. He felt his legs being picked up as he was carried to the lift. Something wet was slowly going down his face… from his eyes, his nose and he thought he could feel something wet on his hands. My… head…

Phil Coulson and Nick Fury carried the teen back to his room where they laid him out on the bed.

"Sir." Phil said as he looked down at the boy's face.

"Well, that can't be good." The Director sighed. The boy had gone deathly pale, and tracks of blood were coming from the corners of his eyes and from his nose. There was dried blood in his ears and on his hands.

"I'll arrange a medical check." Phil turned leaving the room.

After about 20 minutes the boy started to wake up. Groggily pulling himself up he looked surprised to see Nick Fury sat in the chair opposite the bed.

"Good to see you're awake." The boy didn't respond. Nick watched as Draco pulled himself up to a full sitting position and looked down at his hands. Very little colour had returned to his face, and he was visibly shaking, even if it was very slight.
"Phil's gone to arrange a medical check for you." Draco looked back over to him.

"Wh-what happened?" There was a tremor in his voice.

"I was hoping you could tell me."

"Th-there was a buzzing… and my head started to feel fuzzy?" Nick frowned. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Was it Draco's presence that was setting the cube off or was something else happening to it?

"You wanna tell me about the light that came out of your hands?"

Draco felt himself blushing, not that it showed on his face much. He remembered trying to cast Expelliarmus but nothing after that. He didn't really want to explain his magic to anyone right now but there wasn't really a way out of it.

"Can everyone where you're from do it?" Nick Fury dragged him out of his thoughts.

"No u-uh but a lot of people can." The door opened and Agent Coulson and a young woman entered the room.

"Hello, I've come to check you over." The young lady had a sickly-sweet voice and a smile to match. Draco just nodded much preferring the strict and blunt approach of Madam Pomfrey. She took his temperature, checked his pulse and blood pressure while asking him a few questions. Did his head hurt, does his family have a history of fainting, was his vision blurry… it felt like an hour had passed when she finally stopped.

"Well?" Fury seemed almost as fed up as Draco felt.

"All clear as far as I can tell, but obviously without doing a scan I can't tell you about any internal problems or damage." Fury nodded and dismissed her. Agent Coulson must have slipped out of the room again because he re-entered with a bowl of water and a cloth.

"For the blood." He said as he handed them over to Draco. Gently setting the bowl down next to him on the bed, he dipped the cloth in and slowly started wiping blood off his hands and wrists.
"You'll need to do your face, neck and ears as well." Agent Coulson added with a small smile. When Draco touched his face, completely missing the dried blood, Agent Coulson held out his hand for the cloth. To his surprise Draco just handed it over.

Being up close to him Phil could see that his eyes were unfocused, and he wasn't really looking towards Phil, slightly to the left instead. Very carefully he started by wiping the blood from Draco's ears, moving very slowly to avoid startling or hurting him. Maybe he's in shock. He could probably do with some food.

"It's not… compatible… another type instead." Draco was mumbling under his breath.

"I'm going to clean the blood from your face now." Phil looked into Draco's eyes to get his attention. Draco barley nodded and sat very still so Phil could get rid of the blood. There was a sinking feeling settling in Phil's stomach. Blood from the ears would suggest some damage to the brain. We really need to do the scan. There's no way he's going to let us do one… He couldn't stop the sigh that left him once he finished cleaning the blood.

"What were you saying?" Phil stood up straight again taking a step back from Draco.

"What?"

"You were mumbling."

"Oh right…" A little blush appeared on the tips of Draco's ears.

"So?" Nick Fury decided to join the conversation.

"… I was thinking that perhaps I was wrong." He took a deep breath. "Perhaps… it's not that my energy and the cube's aren't compatible. It might be that they're the same just another type or version."

Phil turned to look at the Director. It was a theory worth looking into in his opinion. It would require a lot of research, that they might not have time for right now.

"Like your energy being your universes version of the cube's energy?" Agent Coulson tried to clarify what Draco was suggesting.

"Maybe? I can't be sure…" He trailed off staring at nothing. Let him rest then get him some food…

"So can you do anything else or is it just the light?" Nick Fury interrupted his thoughts, and he twirled round to stare at the Director. Phil understood that he was curious and wanted answers, so did he, but the kid just had blood coming from his eyes. Surely it could wait a bit longer.

Draco stayed quiet. He wasn't sure how much to tell them or what he wanted to tell them. He still didn't know what Death wanted from him. Was it to do with them and their bloody cube? Was that why Death left him in that alley? Near where Agent Coulson was… coincidences are rarely a true coincidence from his experience. There wasn't much else he could at this point, he was stuck here with them for who knows how long.
With a small sigh and shake of his head Draco cast Wingardium Leviosa silently and moved the bowl of water off the bed. He let it hover in the air between himself and the Director. The two men had their mouths open slightly and were staring at the bowl and with a bit focus Draco transfigured it into a lantern. As soon as the lantern finished forming it crashed to the floor. Draco clutched his head as a sharp shooting pain raced through it.

"You ok?" Draco nodded, nothing a good sleep wouldn't fix or maybe a healing spell. Maybe he could finally fix his cracked tooth as well. There didn't seem to be a point in hiding anything from them anymore. At least just these two anyway.

"We'll leave you to rest for now and I'll come back with some food later." Agent Coulson smiled as he practically dragged the Director out of the room with him.

Author's Note:

Hi! I didn't plan to be away for the whole of October but it ended up being a busy month. So I don't actually have buffer chapters written and this chapter was really hard to write for some reason? I'm sorry if it came off weird or uncomfortable (?)

Hopefully the next chapter will be better! See you there!