A/N: I'm alive. Sorry for the long wait. Also, today was not the day to do these chapters. Any scripts directly from the movies are not going to be 100% accurate, as it's all from memory because Google is down.

Natasha's stomach tightened and flipped as she tried to keep her food down. She blinked a couple times, adjusting her eyes to the dim lighting. Clint appeared beside her, looking slightly sick.

"What's the plan?" She asked quietly.

"Loki gets here in about fifteen minutes. By the time we get there, he should be arriving. While Loki deals with the agents and me, Fury will be trying to get the Tesseract. He's going to get shot by me anyway, so you can sneak behind him, knock him out and grab the case with the Tesseract while I keep Loki distracted. Then we both disappear." It had some holes, but if things went south, they could always improvise. She nodded, following Clint's lead through the twisting hallways.

They arrived a tad ahead of schedule, so they waited in the hall, just outside the room. They didn't have to wait long. An explosion rocked the facility, powering open a portal. Within a few minutes, the portal was gone, leaving a kneeling Loki in it's wake. She'd seen the security footage, at least, the footage that wasn't destroyed in the explosion. Loki looked a lot worse in person. Even from her shielded vantage point, she could see the sweat, the dark circles under his eyes. He looked like something you would find in the desert, but with less sand. How had she not seen it before? All the signs were there. He looked half dead. He definitely didn't look like he was healthy enough to lead an invasion.

"Sir, please put down the staff." Fury said, while pointing about a dozen guns at the newcomer. Natasha mentally facepalmed. Fury was paranoid, he had earned the right to do so. Still, why would a complete stranger from likely a stronger race, lower their only weapon, when the other party appeared hostile? Loki really didn't do anything unexpected, even without having seen the footage before. He attacked. S.H.I.E.L.D agents retaliated, not like they had a chance. Fury went straight for the Tesseract and Natasha made her move to intercept him. She moved silently through what little cover she was provided. Somehow, Loki saw her.

Natasha ducked, rolling to the side as Loki leaped at her. She was on her feet as Loki landed, turning to catch the arrow that had exploded. She saw Loki toss it away, exploding several agents. By now, the agents that hadn't exploded had reacted, an onslaught of bullets forcing Natasha to take cover. The Tesseract was still about 50ft away.

Despite being shot at, Loki hadn't moved from where he landed a foot and a half away. Bursts of blue light was shooting from the scepter towards the agents. Those bursts were strong enough to knock out a Quinjet engine. Clint fired another arrow, harmless gas hissing through the open compartment. Loki made another leap, this time towards the person who had fired the arrow. Clint. Was this his idea of distracting Loki? Even through the smoke, the few remaining agents had seen the movement, perhaps through the gas dispersion. Natasha made a dash for the Tesseract as the agents drew their fire away from her.

"Agent Romanoff, what are you doing here?" So much for sneaking behind Fury.

"You'll thank me later, Director." Much later. Clint had said knock him out, but like Natasha thought, they needed to improvise. She drew her gun, shooting Fury in the shoulder. He stepped back, the impact of such a close range bullet nearly knocking him down. It gave her just enough time to grab the Tesseract. She brought her comm to her mouth, whispering "ready" in Russian. Clint answered with the same and she tapped her time watch. She shrunk and was pulled back through time, but not before the hair on her arm stood up, as if a mosquito had landed on her.

A/N: Any ideas as to the significance of that last line? Usually I would put the actual Russian word for "ready", but as I said, Google is down.