📍NASA SPACE RADIATION FACILITY
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THE pitch black dark sky and glistening stars were the only things (Y/N) could see when she leaned toward the window of the chopper she, Nick Fury, and Maria Hill were taking over to a NASA and S.H.I.E.L.D facility for an emergency, a situation that involved the well-known Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.

Unfortunately for her, (Y/N) had a full knowledge of the Project itself, being a part of it a long while ago, when she was still part of the Air Force and didn't have the powers she has now, although she received them because of it. Sadly, those were the single memories that were fresh into her brain; from flying the light-speed engine all the way to the explosion and the crash, everything else from her life before the Kree was still blurry, no matter how hard she tried to remember.

(Y/N) was knocked out of her spiral when she heard the feminine voice of Maria Hill on the other side of her. "We're landing on the facility in less than a minute, sir."

Maria Hill was considered to be Fury's second hand, one of his most trusted agents ever since she entered into the business and (Y/N) could clearly see why. She was skilled, firm, and tough-minded, everything needed to be a good agent.

Just like she had said, the facility where they were landing was now on (Y/N)'s line of vision, perfectly seeing the large campus from above and how cars were exiting and entering the place. The helicopter began to lose altitude as it got closer to the landing pad, the strong wind from the blades causing people's attention to drift onto them for a small time before they continued on.

The helicopter landed on its assigned pad, lowering quickly to the ground and now (Y/N) could perfectly see how the rest of the people inside the facility were running out and piling into cars to evacuate the place. She peaked out the window again and spotted the familiar face of Phil Coulson standing by the landing pad with a serious expression, sunglasses covering his eyes as his hands were clasped in front of him.

Once the helicopter landed safely on the ground, Maria, being closest to the door, swung it open effortlessly and stepped out, careful to dodge out of the motor blades. (Y/N) followed after her and Fury was the last one to step out, adjusting his long black coat as he walked away from the helicopter.

"How bad is it?" Fury questioned first.

Coulson removed his sunglasses. "That's the problem, sir. We don't know."

In order to receive a further explanation of what Coulson had to say, he guided the trio into the facility and took them to an elevator, which meant to take them underground where the problem was being caused.

Once the elevator went to a stop, they all stepped out into the floor and (Y/N) could see how it wasn't fully empty yet, the remaining people were walking past them without even acknowledging them and either rushing through their duty or leaving the place.

"Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago," Coulson informed.

"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to test phase," Fury stated the obvious.

"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room," Coulson explained. "Spontaneous event."

"It just turned itself on?" Maria asked from behind the two men, listening closely.

Fury decided to continue with his questions. "Where are the energy levels now?"

"Climbing," Coulson responded immediately. "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."

"How long to get everyone out?"

"Campus should be clear in the next half-hour."

Fury turned around to face Coulson. "Do better."

With that, Coulson gave the director a firm nod and stayed behind, allowing the three to continue  and walk deeper into the lowest levels of the facility by walking through a long set of stairs, which gave (Y/N) the small time to think.

She had been hesitant at first when Fury had told her about the reboot of the project because she had been in first line when it didn't go well, and she wasn't completely sure it was the best thing to do to restart it. The Tesseract is an extraterrestrial object, no one fully knew what it was capable, including her all those years ago.

"Sir, evacuation may be futile," Maria decided to speak up as they still went down the stairs.

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury questioned with a hint of sarcasm.

"You cannot control the Tesseract's energy, and if something goes wrong there may not be a minimum safe distance," (Y/N) knew she couldn't argue with the stubborn man, but she at least tried to make an effort.

Fury exhaled a long breath through his nose and dismissed her words. He turned back to face the women, but his eyes were on Maria. "I need you to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out."

(Y/N) rolled her eyes at his orders, and Maria seemed to find them unnecessary at the moment. They had stepped out of the stairs into the new floor, and continued walking forward as Fury took the lead.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Maria questioned carefully, and that was what (Y/N) liked about her; she had no fear in questioning the orders of her superior.

"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on," Fury explained as he climbed a small set of stairs. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone."

Maria didn't seem to fully agree, but she didn't question any further and walked past them as she uttered the phrase, "Yes, sir."

She looked at two standing guards and gestured them to follow her. "With me."

(Y/N) and Fury kept strolling until they stepped foot to the room they needed to be in, a room filled with computers, devices and a machine that contained the Tesseract safely in its place. Banners of the NASA and S.H.I.E.L.D. insignias were hanged up in the back of the enormous room, scientists were in their lab coats and security was all over the place.

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

Dr. Selvig looked away from the machine and headed their way. "Director. Lieutenant."

"Is there anything we know for certain?"

"The Tesseract is misbehaving," Dr. Selvig said as the scientist standing in front of the machine stuck a small metallic straw into the cube and it immediately caused a reaction.

Fury frowned. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, it's not funny at all," Dr. Selvig stopped in front of the two before walking them closer to the area of work. "The Tesseract is not only active, she's. . .behaving."

"I assume you pulled a plug."

"She's an energy source," Dr. Selvig began. "We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level — "

"We prepared for this, Doctor," Fury interrupted him. "Harnessing energy from space."

Dr. Selvig walked up to his computer and looked back at the director. "But we don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete. And she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."

(Y/N) knew better. "That can be harmful."

Fury silently agreed, but he decided to change the subject. "Where's Agent Barton?"

Dr. Selvig scoffed. "The Hawk? Up in his nest as usual."

(Y/N) looked up toward the direction Dr. Selvig had pointed behind his back, and spotted the infamous Agent Clint Barton a few feet away from the area, kneeling in an upper level so he could have a better view. He was known for his precise and perfect aim, and that he had 'eyes like a hawk', which was what gave him his alias.

Even though he could be ruthless when the situation called for it, (Y/N) knew he was a good man ever since she met him; especially because he was the one who had brought Natasha in.

(Y/N) was knocked out of her thoughts when Fury called him through the radio. "Agent Barton, report."

Clint used a simple rope to lower himself down to the ground floor and join the duo, falling into step with them as the three now walked amongst the machines of the room.

"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things," Fury told him.

"Well, I see better from a distance," he excused.

"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" Fury continued with his questions.

(Y/N) followed the two men as they got closer to the machine that held the Tesseract in place. It was a circular shaped structure, the Cube being in the middle part of it as it glowed in a blue light.

"No one's come or gone. And Selvig's clean," Clint replied. "No contacts, no IMs. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."

Fury's head snapped at his direction. "'At this end'?"

"Yeah, the Cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" Clint stated the obvious. "Doors open from both sides."

The ground began to shake, and the Tesseract's energy crackled loudly, catching everyone's attention at the same time. The glow of it was increasing and letting out spasms of light before absorbing in into some sort of vortex. When enough energy was pulled in, the Cube emitted a ray of blue energy towards the opposite way, where it opened up a kind of gate with blue light glowing around the edges.

The gate grew in size and the other side was barely visible before the ray died out into a minor explosion, letting out a large amount of blue light into the ground and air. Right when the energy had dispersed and the smoke that had built up around the area disappeared, the armed soldiers took this as an indication to step forward with caution, aiming their guns when they spotted a figure.

Fury gave (Y/N) a side eye, and she didn't need for him to speak because she knew what she was telling her to do. (Y/N) balled her hand into a fist and hid it behind her hand.

Every single person in the room didn't do any sort of movement because their attention was set in the man standing before them, a man with pale skin and black hair slicked back. He wore a dark green and black armor with golden details, and in his hand, he held what looked like a scepter with a jewel that glowed the same color as the Cube.

"Sir, please put down the spear," Fury ordered.

The man's icy eyes trailed down to the weapon in his hand, a smirk forming in his lips before he raised it higher in the air and aimed a powerful blast in his direction. Before it could hit him, Clint threw Fury out of the way as (Y/N)'s hand glowed and she did her best in redirecting it.

The attack gave the soldiers the permission to fire at him, but the man was quick enough and jumped in the direction of the closest soldiers to him, using the sharp end of the scepter to impale it in their chests and throw several pocket knives at the ones he couldn't reach.

Once he got rid of the soldiers, his next blast was towards the female scientist hiding behind a computer, throwing her body back to the ground. Clint, and a few other of agents, raised their guns and fired consecutively, but (Y/N) stepped in front of them and balled her fist again, aiming a full photon blast in his direction, which threw him back a few feet, but it made him angrier.

The scepter fired another blast, this time colliding with one machine, and both Clint and (Y/N) were able to roll out of the way before, unlike the majority of the agents.

The silence brought satisfaction to the extraterrestrial visitor, because he eyed the several bodies laying unconscious on the ground for a few seconds, the smoke from certain spots of the room filling his nose.

(Y/N) crawled her way towards Fury, but her attention was drifted off when she heard how Clint tried to stand up, only ending up in grunting in discomfort when the man grabbed him forcefully by the arm and restrained him from moving anywhere else.

"You have heart," he finally spoke up in an accent.

The sharp end of the scepter touched Clint's chest as the jewel glowed too, emitting a small hue of light that crawled over his neck and enveloped his eyes, turning them into a dark shade of black before it disappeared into his irises, changing them from its original color to the same glowing shade of the jewel.

Satisfied with the result, the man removed the scepter from his chest just as Clint returned his gun back to its holster. (Y/N) and Fury could only silently watch from the side, sharing a common thought when (Y/N) realized they were the closest to the Tesseract and that they had to leave as soon as possible.

Carefully, Fury grabbed the Tesseract with his gloved hand, silently hissing at the small burning sensation it gave him before placing it in a protective case and closing it. (Y/N) allowed Fury to take it in his hands, and they tried to stand up and walk away as the man was distracted in doing the same thing he did to Clint with another agent.

They barely took one step before his voice interrupted the silence. "Please don't. I still need that."

(Y/N) turned around, her fist glowing faintly. "We don't want this to get messy."

The man chuckled at the sight. "Oh, but I do. I've come too far for anything else," he paused and held his head high.  "I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Dr. Selvig, who had knelt on the ground to check on the bodies, stood up at the realization. "Loki. Brother of Thor."

Fury decided to step up. "We have no quarrel with your people."

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," the man, now known as Loki, said in a slow tone.

"Are you planning to step on us?"

"I come with glad tidings of a world made free."

"Free from what?"

"Freedom," Loki spoke proudly, a voice filled with pride.  "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart — "

He abruptly looked behind him at Dr. Selvig, pointing the scepter the same way he did with Clint, the same color covering his eyes and now stood beside Loki with no emotion in his face.

". . .You will know peace."

"Yeah, you say 'peace' I kind of think you mean the other thing," Fury continued.

Clint, who had been standing on the side with a stiff posture, noticed the faint blue glow on the roof and how it increased in size, swallowing the majority of the roof behind Fury and (Y/N).

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Clint made his way towards Loki. "This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

"Like the pharaohs of old," Fury stiffly said.

"He's right," Dr. Selvig moved to his computer. "The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

"Well, then," Loki looked back at Clint, and didn't hesitate in firing his gun directly at Fury, knocking him down into the ground with a loud grunt and dropping the case with the Cube in the process.

Loki and his three new followers made their way to the exit, not before Clint swooped the case from (Y/N)'s hands by kicking his leg into her chest, throwing her off balance before aiming his gun again and finish the job.

Loki interfered before the gun fired. "Not her. If she makes it out, she has to deliver the message."

Clint stiffly nodded at his new superior and they headed toward the exit, ducking out of the way when (Y/N) had delivered another photon blast in their direction, hitting the farthest wall instead, causing the rumbling to increase.

(Y/N) made her way to Fury and helped him sit up as he groaned and tried to pull the flat bullet off his protective vest and into his hands. When he saw it, he reached for his radio in his pocket and placed it close to his mouth.

"Hill! Do you copy?" he called. "Barton has turned."

(Y/N) helped him up and held onto his arm because of his limp, and she looked up at the vortex just to realize they were running out of time; the blue light was swallowing up the majority of the roof into itself. Luckily, they both were able to leave the room in time, as Fury kept dialing Maria in the radio.

"They have the Tesseract!" He yelled. "Shut them down!"

(Y/N) looked back at him. "I can go help her — "

"No," Fury interrupted firmly, in the tone he reserved for his employers. "This isn't your fight."

(Y/N) couldn't wait for him to elaborate and the two of them sprinted their way up the stairs and out of the facility because the ground and the roof were slightly shaking and loosing its stability, dust falling every now and then onto them.

"We're clear upstairs, sir," Coulson spoke through the radio. "You need to go."

Fury and (Y/N) were able to step out of the facility and to the outdoors just in time, not losing rhythm in running inside the helicopter from before that had been waiting for them the entire time. The helicopter was able to gain altitude just as the pad underneath crumbled along with the rest of the ground.

(Y/N) leaned her head down to see how the crumbled floor was sucked below before it exploded, raising above the ground just a few feet before the rest of the blast spread out through the rest of the campus, destroying every single building and taking them underground.

The helicopter caught sight of the two vehicles that were driving Loki away and it lowered down just so the chopper could hover in the air a few feet in front of them. With eyes set on the truck, Fury opened the door of the helicopter and fired one shot at the window before (Y/N) directed a perfect blast at Loki, who was sitting in the back.

The angered scowl was evident on Loki's face and he used his scepter again, this time aiming at the tail of the helicopter and setting it on fire, causing it to lose altitude pretty quickly and for it to spiral in the air. Since they were closer to the ground, Fury was able to jump out and roll on the dirt without (Y/N)'s help.

The truck was able to get away and out of their range, and the radio on Fury's jacket made a crackling noise before Coulson's voice was heard through it.

"Director Fury, Lieutenant Vaughn, do any of you copy?"

"The Tesseract is with a hostile force," Fury responded. "I have men down. Hill?"

"A lot of men still under," Maria replied. "I don't know how many survivors."

"Sound a general call," Fury continued. "I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."

"Roger that."

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven," he said in a serious tone. "As of right now, we are at war."

"What do we do?"