—chapter ten:
mama, just killed
a man

"TOO LATE. MY TIME
HAS COME."

When Jackson woke up, she didn't know where she was. Looking around, it seemed that she had landed herself in some sort of infirmary. Squinting up at the IV bag, she followed the thin, little pipe that made its way into her vein.

     "What the— " Jackson mumbled and tried to raise her arm but it was strapped down to the bed. She tried to move her other arm, but it was strapped down, as well. She looked over to see someone sitting in a chair, flipping through a magazine. "Hey!" she shouted to get their attention, "What's with the IV drip? I'm not dying. And why am I strapped down to the bed?" She tried to wriggle her arm free before the person got up and warned her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

      "Why?" Jackson tilted her head, still trying to wriggle herself free from the straps. It was hard to do when she had the IV needle stuck in her so she switched to setting her other arm free.

     "Coulson said it'd be best to keep you down here while everything else is going on out there. He's not sure what you're capable of so he wants to keep you here until everything blows over."

     "What's going on out there? All I can recall was there being an explosion."

     "There were some people that broke into the helicarrier and— " There was a roar that interrupted them and Jackson managed to free one of her arms, peeled back the tape that held down the needle, and carefully pulled the IV out of her arm, all the while knowing exactly what was going on. She unstrapped her other arm and went to get up out of the bed when the guard stopped her.

     "You're not supposed to— " the guard started but Jackson placed a hand to their forehead and said, "Sleep", watching them calm down so quickly that they fell to the floor and fell asleep. "Huh," she shrugged, "I didn't think that'd actually work. Thank you, Jasper Hale."

    She stepped over them and pulled the door to the infirmary open and stepped out before breaking into a full-on run to get where she was going.

When she got to the hull of the ship, everything was a catastrophe—everyone was running amuck trying to keep the helicarrier afloat, people were working double-time to make sure everything was still intact.

     "What the hell is going on?" Jackson asked Maria. Maria turned to see her, surprise coloring her face. "Jackson? Shouldn't you be— "

     "Strapped down to an examination table in an infirmary? Yeah, I should be. But I'm not the problem. I'm fine now. Now, what the hell is going on?"

     "There are some outside forces that blew up the third engine on the helicarrier, Tony and Steve are making repairs right now, and — "

     Jackson heard something rolling towards them. When she looked down, she saw an explosive about to detonate. "Grenade!" she yelled and was quick enough to get out of the way. There was an announcement on the intercom saying that Thor and the Hulk were on Level Four and Research Levels Two and Three were dark.

     "Get behind me," Maria commanded Jackson before she started shooting. To Fury, she said, "Sir, the Hulk is gonna tear this place apart!"

     "Distract him," Fury ordered. Maria got down and demanded, "Proceed to Wishbone and engage hostile! Don't get too close!"

     "Isn't that just gonna make him angrier?" asked Jackson, keeping her head down, "He's gonna end up attacking whoever's trying to get his attention."

     "If it keeps us in the air a little longer, it's a risk we have to be willing to take."

     It wasn't long before there were two more explosions and then Jackson felt the helicarrier start to tilt. "Shit," she mumbled as she tried to grab onto something to keep herself from rolling over, "you've lost power in the other engine." Grabbing onto the railing, she pulled herself up and made her way out of the hull.

     "Where is she going?" Maria asked Fury, not taking her attention off of the other hostiles at hand.

     "She's always up to something," Fury answered, "I've learned to not get in the way of her curiosity at this point."

     As Jackson got to the detention center, she wasn't sure what she'd find but she thought it best to start there, her curiosity and intuition leading the way. One of the guards saw her and made a move to attack but thanks to her quick reflexes and a brief study in nerve strike martial arts, Jackson was able to paralyze him and render him defenseless. She was about to do the same to the one standing in the doorway when Coulson came up and knocked him on the head, taking him out.

     "That's quite the weapon you got there," Jackson commented. Coulson turned around, his face devoid of emotion once he registered whose voice it was.

     "It's a prototype," he responded, his tone lackluster, "you should be— "

     "In an infirmary strapped down to an examination table," Jackson finished for him, "yeah. I know. But the least I can tell you right here and right now is that I'm one of the good guys. You don't have to worry about me, Coulson. I get that you don't trust me or understand what it is I am and I get that. I wouldn't know what to do with myself either if I had no idea what was going on with me."

     "Well, then what is going on with you? Because whatever it is screwed up one of the best pieces of technology that's on this helicarrier. If it's something you can't control then you can't be here."

     "I can control it," Jackson responded firmly, "or else I'd still be strapped to that table."

     Coulson sighed. "We'll figure something out. But for now, we've got other things to deal with. How'd you get out, anyway?"

     Jackson smirked and wiggled her fingers mischievously. "I have my ways."

     The two of them both moved into the detention center and spotted Loki near the control panel about to release Thor, who had somehow ended up in the glass cage, into oblivion.

     "Move away, please," said Coulson, gesturing to his weapon. As Loki backed away, Coulson continued. "You like this? It's a prototype. We started working on it after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Wanna find out?" He then booted the weapon up.

     Jackson was eyeing Loki and she could feel something delinquent that was underlying his calm and collected demeanor. Her eyes widened when she realized that it wasn't him standing there. Everything was moving so quickly as she yelled out, "No!" and when Loki's image started to dissipate. Thankfully, she was quick enough to turn around and stop the scepter from going in, but she wasn't sure for how long she'd be able to hold him off.

    "I wouldn't do that if I were you, darling," Loki warned, but Jackson kept her death grip on the scepter. Knowing what it did to her last, she tried her best to keep her emotions at bay. Realizing that the infirmary workers hadn't put her gloves back onto her hands, she reached out a hand and touched Loki's forehead, forcing him to calm down. It started to work, as he was starting to lose his grip on the scepter and begin to slip into unconsciousness but then Loki came back and knocked her out of the way.

     There was a disgusting, squelching noise of a blade piercing through skin, and as quick as the scepter went in, it came out. Jackson rolled over and opened her eyes to see that it wasn't her who had gotten stabbed, but Coulson. Her hand flew over her mouth as she saw Coulson slide down the wall, blood beginning to bloom and stain his shirt.

     She thought about calling for help but she didn't have an earpiece to tell anyone what happened and she couldn't risk yelling out for the fear of losing her life, too.

     Loki made his way back over to the control panel and flipped it on, the mischievous emotion coming up to breach the surface. With the push of a button, he sent Thor tumbling down in the glass cage. He was about to walk away when Coulson spoke up. "You're going to lose."

     Jackson looked over at him, surprised that he still had a little bit of breath within him. Loki looked over at him, as well, and asked, "And why do you think that?"

     "It's in your nature," Coulson responded calmly. Loki squinted at him. "Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"

     "You lack conviction." And with one, final breath, Coulson pulled the trigger on the weapon and sent Loki back flying, bursting through the wall as he went. "So that's what it does."

     Jackson fought the pain in her system and forced herself to get up. She came over to Coulson's side to look him over, the one time her medical assistance ever came in handy once she stepped onto the helicarrier—it truly felt like some sick joke. As much as it hurt to think, it looked like Coulson wasn't going to make it. With the way that he was stabbed, he was losing a gregarious amount of blood at a very rapid speed.

     "Coulson, stay with me." Jackson kneeled down next to Coulson. "I'm gonna get you out of here. Do you have an earpiece or a walkie-talkie so I can signal for help?" She started to look through his coat pockets to find something but nothing was there.

     "Don't. . .worry about it, Jackson. We'll. . .figure something out," Coulson coughed out and Jackson felt a few tears forming in her eyes. Coulson's emotions rolled off of him and she brightened a little, confused as to how he could feel so calm while he was bleeding out on the floor of the detention center. Jackson stayed with him and tried to keep him awake until Fury got to them both.

     "Sorry, boss," Coulson apologized to Fury, "the guy rabbited."

     "Just stay awake," Fury ordered, "eyes on me."

     "I'm clocking out here."

     "Not an option."

     "It's okay, boss." Coulson smiled. "This was never gonna work. . .if they didn't have. . .something." And with that, the last of his breath left his body, a ghost of a smile on his lips. Both Fury and Jackson backed away as the medical team arrived and carried Coulson away.

     Jackson sighed. "I did the best that I could to keep the scepter from going through him but Loki was much stronger than I could handle and he overpowered me. Coulson didn't have an earpiece on him so I wasn't able to call for help as quickly as I wanted to, either."

     "Thank you," Fury said to her before making the announcement into his earpiece. "Agent Coulson is down. They called it."

     They both made their way back to the hull of the helicarrier, the grief and silence that was looming over their heads was too heavy for either of them to speak as they made their way back.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

rip coulson