Metal scraped against metal as the ship tilted again, and Sauer watched in sick horror as the shattered quinjet-with Biggess still attached-slipped free from its moorings and slid out the hole in the ship. It had to be 30,000 feet straight down, and whether they were over water or air she did not know. It wouldn't matter anyway.

She shivered. Goodbye, Big Ass, she thought, and (shakily) pulled herself away from the bulkhead.

Sauer still had a duty station to find. Nobody had sounded 'abandon ship' yet, so she had to assume it would continue to fly. She started picking her way through corridors, altering her route when she hit larger pieces of debris. The Hulk had created quite an obstacle course in his rage.

Sauer finally found a clean passageway heading in the right direction and started jogging. Battle sounds faded as they got further and further behind her. This part of the ship seemed oddly uninhabited-at least she did not see any other personnel. She rounded a corner-

WHAM

-and ran smack into Agent Barton. He grabbed her none too gently by the arms.

"Sauer," he said almost distantly, peering at her face and releasing the iron grip he had on her arms. His eyes looked odd, as if they were the wrong color.

"Agent Barton," she gasped in surprise, then noticed the odd look on his face and the strange color in his eyes. "What happened?"

"The ship is under attack," he said flatly, mechanically. "You should be at your duty station," he continued in that mechanical voice. "You have orders."

She nodded. "I know. I keep getting sidetracked." She peered again at the odd, distracted look on his face. "Are you all right?"

His face was a mask, but he nodded. "I am. I have orders..."

Agent Barton didn't usually operate aboard the helicarrier. He was a top notch spy and assassin, Sauer knew. It was odd for him to be in the bowels of the ship like this.

"What orders?" she pressed.

"I have to find Agent Romonov," he said flatly. "I have orders, Sauer," he repeated again.

Barton never called her 'Sauer'. Since they had met that day in the street he had always called her 'Annie', after Annie Oakley. There must be some serious shit going down for him to refer to her with such formality. Was he in shock? She grabbed his muscled arm again. "Barton," she said, trying to get his attention. It didn't work, he kept moving. "Hawkeye," she hissed stronger, "look at me."

He turned those weird eyes on her again, and while he recognized her, she saw that he didn't seem to notice her injured face. Weird. She slapped him in the arm. "Are you in shock? Snap out of it, Barton!"

He grabbed her by the arms again and shoved her up against the nearest bulkhead, every move calculated and firm. "I have orders," he said in that mechanical voice again. "My orders don't include you. I have to find Agent Romonov. Get to your duty station," he finished flatly.

This must be some serious shit, she decided. "I saw Agent Romonov near Hangar Bay 2," she offered. "Mind the damage; the Hangar Bay is open to the sky."

He nodded. "Get to your duty station," he said again, robot-like, and disappeared.

"Men," Sauer shook her head and started moving again. She doubted she would ever understand them.

The corridor was starting to look familiar. Was she getting close? She could hear voices. There was a distinctive whump of large-arms fire and an odd sizzling odor. It sounded like one of the newer tech pieces was in use, and not in the Testing Range, either. Sauer ducked through the nearest hatch...

She was back in the containment room, but Prince Loki was gone. Hell, the cell was gone, and Agent Coulson sat on the floor, one of the new large energy rifles underneath his arm. He was bleeding out of his chest and back, and blood bubbled up from his mouth and nose. She ran for the nearest intercom system.

"MEDICAL EMERGENCY IN THE CONTAINMENT DECK," she bellowed, and then ran back to where Coulson lay and tried to cradle his head.

"Agent Coulson? AGENT COULSON," she shouted, then heard the rattle from his chest. The man seemed to be drowning in his own blood. She ripped his shirt open even as his eyes dragged open. He smiled.

"Pistol," he said softly, his own pet name for her. Then his face wrinkled. "You're a mess."

So much blood. She remembered the rejuvenation packets in her pocket and pulled them out with fumbling hands. "Pot," she looked at him knowingly, then pointed at herself, "kettle. Hold still," she admonished, ripping open the first unit and applying the cream to her fingers. It seemed to smoke oddly. Was she really supposed to shove that up her nose? She wasn't using it on herself now, though. She shoved the mess into the hole in his chest, praying she could find whatever was bleeding and stop it.

His eyes widened and he gasped in pain. "Too late, Pistol," he gasped. "Get the boss."

"I'm here." Fury at last! "Stay awake. Eyes on me," he commanded sternly.

"Sorry, Boss. I'm off the clock," Coulson said softly.

Fury shook his head. "Not an option."

Coulson glanced up at Sauer. "Save it, Pistol. Looks like you need it more..."

"Be quiet," she snapped. She had already applied three R-packs and reached for a fourth. "Gimme the power pack out of that gun," she snapped at Fury. "It feels like there's a bleeder near his heart. I gotta cauterize it."

"Stay with me, Coulson," Fury commanded, tearing into the energy rifle. He glanced at Coulson's paling face. "This has been fired."

Coulson grinned weakly, dreamily. "Yeah. Works great." He looked at Sauer's face again, and a bloody hand traced her nose. "Who?"

"Big Ass," she answered. She hoped the information would piss him off enough to keep him awake. It seemed to work for a moment; his face tensed.

"Worthless cur," he murmured. "Where?" He looked up at her again as she shoved fingers into his chest again. It didn't seem to hurt him anymore-not a good sign.

"Dead," she replied. "Off the ship."

"Good." His eyes turned back to Fury. "It's ok, boss. It was never gonna work anyway. They needed..."

He gasped. Fury had handed Sauer the stripped-down power pack from the energy rifle. A live wire sparked out of one end; she shoved it into the spot where her fingers found a fountain, ignoring the burning pain in her hand and concentrating on closing the breach. Deal something besides death, she prayed. The energy rifle was powered by energy from the Tesseract, and that thing seemed alive. Maybe the energy itself could take a direction. It couldn't hurt.

Coulson's eyes filled with blue fire, and he gasped. "Pistol!"

She shoved the last R-pack into his chest. "Live, dammit," she hissed, and then Fury pulled her away. The real medical team had shown up. Finally.

Fury pushed Sauer, shaking, onto the same bench she had occupied during her conversation with Loki. The ship seemed to have stabilized, and she watched numbly as the med techs took over with Coulson.

Fury was impassive. He reached for his intercom.

"Coulson is down," he announced. There was a pause.

"Sir, I have a medical team en route to your position. Wait for their..." Commander Hill started to answer, but Fury cut her off.

"They're here. They just called it," Fury said impassively.

Sauer looked at her commander oddly. The medical team was still working on Coulson. They hadn't called a Code Blue. She opened her mouth...

And was silenced by the look on his face. He shut off his comlink. "Staff Sgt. Sauer, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"With me."

/

Fury led her to his office, where he pointed to a chair opposite his desk. She sat down, shaking; Coulson's blood still covered her hands. Fury saw it and handed her a packet of steri-wipes, then dug a cold-pack out of the first aid kit on his wall.

"Your face," he said in his brisk manner, "talk."

"Sergeant Biggess attacked me, sir, after I left my regular duty station this afternoon."

"Don't you work in Armory 1?"

She nodded, pressing the cold pack to the bridge of her nose. "I do."

"That corridor is heavily populated. Didn't anybody notice?"

"We weren't in the regular corridor, sir. Sergeant Biggess said I was needed in R&D for some work on one of the new prototypes. We were taking a shortcut when he turned on me."

"He give a reason?"

"He wanted a quickie. I told him to go fuck himself."

Fury seemed surprised at that. He didn't say anything, but his one good eyebrow went waaaaaaaaaaaay up, and he looked at her a full minute before speaking again.

"That would put you roughly near the center of the ship, Sauer. You told Coulson that Biggess was, and I quote, "Dead" and "Off the ship". Care to explain that?"

She went into detail then; Fury was a stickler for them. Sauer told him everything: the fight, her encounter with Loki, the conversation with Doc in Sickbay 2, and the events after the sounding of general quarters, ending with Biggess' death and her rescue by the Hulk.

"I ran into Agent Barton just before I found Agent Coulson, sir," she finished. "I don't know if he is in good health, either. He seemed...off somehow...like he was shell-shocked or something."

"Agent Barton has been compromised, and is not currently under S.H.I.E.L.D. control," Fury told her. "You were lucky to escape him alive. Did he tell you where he was going?"

She nodded, suddenly worried. "He said he had orders: he had to find Agent Romonov."

Fury closed his eye and looked sick. "Damn." He seemed to think for a minute. "I'll be frank with you, Sgt. Sauer: I have a situation that needs a gunsmith, and that gunsmith needs to keep her mouth shut. Do you understand the meaning of classified?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Because everything about Agent Coulson's 'death' is just that: classified. You will speak to absolutely no-one other than me about the things you have seen this afternoon. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

"Sir?"

"Sergeant?"

"What if I am asked about Sergeant Biggess or my...condition?"

Fury scowled. "Your injuries are combat related. Nothing more. Direct questions about Biggess' death will be directed to me, and only to me. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." He nodded. "You are dismissed to your quarters: shower, change, eat something. Take another anti-inflammatory. Then report to R&D #5 for duty on the double. Are we clear?"

"Yes,sir."

"Dismissed."