I was awoken by a loud knock at the door. Opening my eyes, I was completely disoriented. Where was... Oh, yeah. The helicarrier. Wait, hadn't someone been knocking? It must be important. I wrapped my blanket around myself and opened the door.
"Yes?" There was an agent I didn't know standing there.
"Director Fury would like to see you." Oh dear.
"Is it urgent, or can I get dressed first?" When the agent looked incredulous, I took it to mean I could get dressed. "I'll be quick."
I shed the blanket...wait. When I went to sleep all I had was a sheet. Where had the blanket come from? It was blue and warm, something I was grateful for in the cold helicarrier. I'd been too tired to worry about being warm. Ignoring the blanket mystery for now, I got dressed. As I did so, my normal morning alertness decreased as my head seemed to be getting full of cotton. This was not going to be a fun discussion with Director Fury.
As the agent silently led me to my destination, I tried to memorize the route so I could find my way back to my room. I had no idea how long I had slept, but my body was telling me it wasn't enough. I could probably sleep for years if they let me. Surprisingly, I was led to a small, private room instead of the control room.
"Miss Christenson, we need to talk more about your...dreams." The way he hesitated before the last word led me to believe that he didn't believe me.
"Director, I would have you know that either what is happening right now is a dream, or the information I have is. There simply is no other sane explanation."Thankfully he didn't realize I was also implying that my entire life up until Coulson met me would also have to be a dream.
"This isn't a dream."
"Isn't that what dreams are supposed to say?" Before the Director could reply though, Coulson burst into the room. He seemed quite agitated.
"Director, why is Rachel here?"
"I required her presence, and she responded to my order." Director Fury's tone oozed patience.
"Now is not the time for this."
"Why not? I will not allow an unknown threat stay on my vessel. I need to know just how and what she knows." Coulson's agitation dried up as he stood up straight and spoke in an intimidatingly cold voice.
"There are several very good reasons why she should be left in peace. First, Rachel is a civilian. Second, Rachel has sustained a head injury while stopping a criminal from escaping custody. Third, because of this injury, she is under doctor's orders to get rest, which you are preventing her from getting. Fourth, she has divulged sufficient information for me to conclude that she is not a threat. Fifth, I am simply waiting for her to have a mental breakdown. Finally, you agreed to not speak with her until after I had, which I have not for those five reasons." Did Coulson just go all mama bear on me? To Director Fury?
"Agent Coulson, Director Fury is completely in his rights to order me about. We both know my knowledge could be...destructive in the right hands. I would do everything in my power to not tell anyone anything, but unlike most of the people on this ship, I am not trained in anti-interrogation. And that's before taking into account magic. I just ask that I'm allowed my art supplies in whatever hole you decide to dump me in."
I couldn't imagine what Loki could do with my information on these hero's backgrounds, let alone all the possible futures I knew about. Loki, or any other villain who got their hands on me, could become unpredictable as well as have prefect ammunition against the forces of good. There was a reason I didn't exist in the original universe. I belatedly realized the Director and Coulson were silently communicating with looks.
An alarm rang out and both men were instantly alert and moving out of the room. The Director bellowed into his earpiece.
"What is going on?" Since I still had my earpiece in, I heard the reply.
"Loki is not longer in his cell, sir." Why couldn't Loki have listened?
"Then find him!" Way to state the obvious, Director.
"I'll escort you back to your room," Coulson told me.
"I need you finding this nutcase before he can cause any harm," Director Fury retorted to Coulson.
"A, I might be able to talk to Loki," he had listened to my blather before, "And B, Coulson does stupid heroic stuff and I need to stop him." Coulson gave me a look as he realized I was stating what should have been the reason for his death. Please, please don't get yourself killed just because you don't think you should be alive!
I allowed my tired body to lean against the wall as I tried to guess Loki's game plan. Despite my grogginess, I was still quickly able to figure it out with unpleasant consequences.
"Director, where is the Tesseract right now?"
"It arrive on the helicarrier about half an hour ago." That was why Loki was finally on the move. The Other had told him that if he didn't get the Tesseract Loki would wish for 'something as sweet as pain.' Scary thing was, he seemed to really mean it.
"Assign every possible agent to protecting it. Loki needs it. And put the scepter next to it because it could make his job a whole lot easier and once he has the Tesseract we are doomed anyway."
The Director looked at me all shifty eyed like he was trying to figure out if he was walking into a trap or not. I belatedly remembered that while I had proven myself to Coulson, and that the Director trusted Coulson, the Director himself was not convinced. I could be manipulating Coulson with voodoo magic for all he knows.
"I want magic weapons A and B on separate planes with a squad in each one. Now move!" Did he not hear me?
"If you start sending planes out, Loki is going to catch a ride on one of them. Our luck, it would be the one with the Tesseract. I think that putting the scepter and the cube together is a tactical advantage because we would only have to guard one thing. Loki will go with single minded purpose after the cube and will only resort to going after the scepter if completely necessary. Once he has the cube, the scepter is of no importance. If he has the scepter though, we become puppets. Use decoys if you want to, but Loki can probably read the radiation/magical output of the cube, and the scepter is going to have noticeably smaller output."
The Director and I had a small staring contest, during which I started to doubt several things. One, I was new here while the Director had lots of experience. Since I had given all the explanation of my thinking, I should let him make the decision. Before I could show my deference though, a second doubt appeared. Did I know what I was doing? I was trying to give Director Fury of SHIELD advice! Of course he wasn't listening to me! He was big and important and...real, at least in this world. Third, was this real at all? Was I still dreaming in my bed somewhere else on the helicarrier? Or was I dreaming from sooner still than that? Was I asleep in central park after seeing a Captain America look-alike?
"Rachel?" Coulson suddenly stepped into my field of view blocking everything else and disrupting my thought process. He still looked his normal stoic, but there was this clear layer underneath that showed clear concern. It helped my clear my tired head a little. It didn't matter if it was real or not at this point. I still needed to help stop Loki. But how?
My legs took off before I gave them permission. I didn't have a plan, just that to be able to do something I needed to be in the right place at the right time. I was guessing that the right place was on the flight deck. My moment came a lot sooner than I thought it would. I saw Tony running in the opposite direction and thought at first that he was headed for his Iron Man suit. However, I then saw a flash of green and quickly tackled him. Since I am not an athletic girl, I was surprised when I actually took him down. I was rewarded with the view of Loki with a knife in his hand. The knife was in a position so that it would have entered Tony's back and probably stabbed his heart.
"Loki, please. We can help you. You don't have to kill anyone. You can go home."
"I don't have a home. I am an exile." He said it as proudly as he had proclaimed 'I am burdened with glorious purpose,' but I could hear the excruciating pain behind the words because I was looking for it. My own situation hit me in that moment. I was in a completely different universe. My friends didn't know who I was. Mom was back home, and even if there was a woman just like her here, I was not her daughter. And Dad, well Dad had been dead for years.
"No, I don't have a home." He literally took a step away from me. Was there someone behind me? Tony was still trapped beneath me, and I didn't take my eyes away from Loki. It was vital we maintained contact. This might be the only way to get through to him. "You still have a chance to make things right. Go home. Your mother probably misses you dearly." I nearly chocked on the word mother. "Go home. You have a brother who desperately loves you. Stop tearing his heart in two because it only tears yours up as well. Go home." Take me home. Take me home. It was all I could to keep the longing in my own voice to a minimum. I didn't want to seem like I was begging him to go; he would react poorly to that.
"I don't have a home." This time, he sounded like the broken man he truly was.
"Home is where your family is. Family is more than flesh and blood. It is love."
I anticipated the next argument and belatedly realized I probably shouldn't have been able to. I shouldn't know anything that happened on Asgard, yet I couldn't help in coloring my every word and action around Loki. All I could hope is that he would forgive my knowledge and not force me to reveal just how much I knew.
"Rachel, is it alright to send Thor in?" Surprised, I took a moment to realize Coulson was speaking to the comm in my ear.
"Loki, your brother would like to speak with you." The wounded, vulnerable look quickly disappeared and I suppressed a sigh of disappointment.
"I have no brother."
"No, you have a brother. He is just saddened that you do not wish to be his." He looked at me for a long moment with all hints of his thoughts hidden behind a mask of indifference.
"Thor!" Loki took a couple steps forward, past the heap of me and Tony. I quickly scrambled off him.
"Sorry about that, Mr. Stark. You probably want to get out of here before sibling rivalry erupts." He stood up and gave me the strangest look.
"Right." He started down the hallway and then turned back. "You coming?"
"I gotta stay as mediator. I should have gotten a degree in psychiatry." He gave me another look.
"You're staying here with Lightning Rod and Reindeer Games? Tell me you got a failed super soldier serum or something."
"Nope. Just normal little ol' me. Now get out of here, Mr. Stark. Your a little exposed in these kind of situations without your armor. And you charm will get you nowhere this time." I suddenly got the disturbing feeling that I had become a puzzle to figure out for Tony.
"You're exposed as well."
"I am expendable. You are not. So no more suicide missions okay? You've got a team now. Use them." As electricity literally crackled through the air, I realized Thor and Loki had been having a staring match the whole time Tony and I had been talking. "Go Mr. Stark." He took one more look at me before leaving me alone with two highly destructive people with tempers and bad history.
So I've gone back an updated some of my past chapters mostly to give Coulson more of a reason to trust Rachel. The added part is mostly chapter 5. If not mentioned before, I took out the conversation with Rachel's mom. I thought at that point that her mom had gone to avengers world as well, but this is not the case. I also fixed a couple things to fit the home situation of Rachel. That is mostly explained in this chapter though. Thanks for reading! Any suggestions/comments are welcome.