Many years later...

Alarms blared throughout the government facility signaling an evacuation. Those on the upper floors were told there was a radiation leak. In reality, the tesseract was acting up. People tended to respond more predictably to 'radiation leak' than 'alien artifact being weird', however.

Agents Raven and Clint Barton sat in their nest and watched the scientists scurry below.  Both being trained assassins, their eyes never quit moving. Never quit looking for threats. Clint had his arm looped around the railing in front of him while Raven sat with her feet swinging over the edge while she ate a peanut butter cracker.

Clint looked at her out of the side of his eye and smirked.

"What, Archer? Unlike you, I didn't get a chance to eat before Tessie started misbehaving. I'm hungry," Raven snapped.

"Far be it from me to deny you, babe," Clint said, ignoring the glare his new wife sent in his direction. In fact, it was just the weekend before they'd run off and eloped. They'd have to work the honeymoon in between missions. 

"Talk to me, Doctor," Fury's voice echoed through the room below. 

"Crap," Raven said with a sigh and sat her makeshift dinner aside. Fury wouldn't take well to her eating while there was a crisis going on, but assassins learned to eat when they had the opportunity. 

Clint's eyes moved back and forth between Dr. Selvig and Fury as they discussed what had gone wrong with the tesseract.

Dr. Selvig pointed in their direction and he figured Fury had asked for their location. 

"Agent Barton, report," Fury's voice came over the radio. 

Clint stood and Raven placed a hand on his arm to stop him. Raven pulled out her radio. "Which one would that be, Fury? There's two of us now."

"Can it, Sterling. Barton, now," Fury replied.

"He does know he can't just keep calling me Sterling, right?" Raven muttered with a glance at her husband. 

He just smirked and shook his head as he headed to the rope to descend.

"You two are supposed to be keeping a close eye on things," Fury said as Clint stepped up beside him.

"I see better from a distance," he answered. 

"You sure you aren't just keeping an eye on your girlfriend instead of doing your job?" the director asked. 

Clint faced him and tilted his head. "She's my wife, Fury. But you should know that, we filed the paperwork a couple of days ago. She's pissed you called her Sterling by the way. She likes being a Barton. And no, I wasn't watching her instead of doing my job. I always do the job."

"So did you see anything that might have caused this?" 

Clint shook his head as they continued walking. "Nothing came, nothing went. It just got pissed off. If something is messing with this thing, it's not from this side."

"This side?" Fury asked.

Why did no one ever see the obvious? "It's a doorway through space, right? Doors work from both sides."

No sooner had he said the words than a surge of energy spiraled through the tesseract. A moment later, a beam of light shot out opening some sort of portal.

"Bird!" Clint yelled, summoning Raven though he was sure she was already on the move.

***

The moment power surged through the tesseract and kept going instead of stopping like before, Raven was on her feet. Reaching the rope she slid down. At the bottom, she froze and watched with wide eyes as the portal that had been opened snapped closed, throwing out a wave of energy as it did so.

A man knelt on the floor where the portal had been, several agents moved to confront him and Fury yelled at him to put down his weapon. For a moment it looked like he was considering it and then he started shooting energy beams from it at the advancing agents.

Raven immediately ducked and moved behind the heavy equipment that littered the floor. She needed to get to Clint, Fury and Dr. Selvig. Getting shot on the way wasn't going to help anyone. She wove and dodged, making her way closer and closer to her target. Her eyes went wide as bullets seemingly had no effect on him. What the hell was he?

She was almost there when the man stood in front of Clint. "You have heart," he said and pressed the end of this spear to her husband's chest. Clint's eyes found her and he gave a small shake of his head even as the energy from the spear moved up his neck and made his eyes glow.

Hot anger flooded through Raven. Clint was alive but whatever that asshole had done to him, had him putting his weapon away. She wanted nothing more than to kill this thing, whatever he was but knew better to attack until she knew how to defeat him.

She didn't exactly want to go flinging explosives or projectiles around as long as Tessie was in the area. She shifted her attention to Fury. Her objective now was to get him and the tesseract out of here. Hopefully Clint was still enough about himself to take care of his own ass.

Not wanting to draw the attention of their visitor, she moved closer to Fury but stayed mostly hidden. Fury's eyes darted to her and she gave him a small nod.

Fury turned to walk away with the artifact, and just as she was about to step out to cover him, the man spoke. "Please don't. I still need that."

Raven stepped out, her gun raised. "This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury said.

"Of course it does," the visitor said with a huff. "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

He was about to be burdened with Raven's foot up his ass if he didn't return her husband and go back to wherever the hell he came from.

"Loki?" Dr. Slevig said. "Brother of Thor?"

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury said.

"I have a quarrel with him. What the hell did you do to my husband?" Raven said, unable to take this back and forth any longer.

Loki smirked at her. "I have given him a great gift. I have made him free."

She arched a brow and took another step closer to Fury. "Free from what, exactly?"

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that you will know peace." He pushed the spear into Selvig's chest just as he had Clint's. When he was finished, he stepped in her direction. "Come. Join me. Join your husband at my side."

"You take one more step and I will kill you," Raven said.

He threw his head back and laughed. "You can't kill me. I am a god."

"They're stalling," Clint suddenly said walking over.  "This place is going to blow. They mean to bury us."

"Like the pharaohs of old," Fury said.

"Well, then." Loki looked at Clint and gestured in Raven's direction then Fury's. 

Clint pointed his gun at Raven and she cocked her head to the side in hurt and disbelief. At least now she knew exactly how much hold Loki had over him. Clint's eyes flashed for just a moment and he turned to fire the gun at Fury instead. 

Raven shoved Fury out of the way and took the bullet meant for him. The director went down with her when she fell. Clint took the case and headed out with Loki and Selvig.

"Sterling. Sterling!" Fury said as he sat up beside the agent.

She groaned. "The name's Barton." While she worked the bullet out of her vest and tossed it aside. Fury called Hill to warn her Clint was no longer on their side. Fury grabbed her arm and helped her to feet. They ran through the building to the chopper waiting outside.

The ground collapsed in a wave, taking everything with it as she watched. Just as she was certain it had taken Loki, and Clint with him, a truck flew out of the tunnel. "That's them," she said.

"Damn it." Fury grabbed a weapon and began to fire as did she. It only took seconds, and one perfectly timed shot, for Loki to put them out of commission. Fury grabbed her arm and pulled her from the chopper with him.

She grimaced as her ankle twisted. Her eyes followed the truck as it drove away. Fury and she exchanged a glance. Before he even said the words, she knew they were at war.