Living for Now

Bridget's mind was constantly wandering over to Steve. How was he dealing with being on his own for the first time in the condo? Was he bored out of his mind or playing that obnoxious Angry Birds game? Did he decide to try his luck at cooking again or did he pick the smart, less dangerous choice to eat out like she had said? Was he snooping through her things?

He wouldn't do that, she shook her head in disagreement silently, trying to shake the thoughts from her mind.

The chopper's blades were slicing through the air rapidly, the whirring of them ringing in Bridget's ears as Fury, Maria Hill and her made their way towards one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret bases out in the desert. After a lengthy flight from New York, they had immediately boarded their next form of transportation. They had been traveling non-stop since his arrival at her condo earlier that day, and when she got off the helicopter, she was going to enjoy being able to stretch her legs.

When the craft rose over part of a hill, the lights of buildings shone brightly in the dark area, and Bridget gave a soft sigh of relief. Finally they had made it to where their business had called them to, and at that thought, she allowed herself to grow more serious about the situation.

Hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits were rushing about below on the ground, heeding to the urgent call that was being made over the P.A. system that Bridget could barely make out over the hum and buzz of the helicopter's engine. “All personnel, evacuation order has been confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicles for evacuation. This is not a drill.”

The landing pad came into sight and soon the chopper was touching down upon it, the craft jumping slightly as it made contact with solid ground once more. Bridget couldn't help but smile when she saw that familiar agent waiting for their arrival with his dark tinted glasses placed over his eyes, his suit fluttering with the gusts of wind the blades were making.

Sliding open the door, Bridget stepped out, followed promptly by Agent Hill and Director Fury, the small group meeting up with him.

Fury wasted no time questioning the situation. “How bad is it?”

“That's the problem, sir.” Agent Coulson began. “We don't know.”

Nick gave Phil a curious glance, and without speaking another word, they entered the building, taking down an elevator to the lower levels of the base to further discuss the current state of affairs.

“Doctor Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago.” Coulson explained.

“There was no authorization given to go to a test phase.” Fury retorted.

“He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous event.”

“It just turned itself on?” Hill inquired incredulously.

Coulson didn't reply to question her verbally, only giving a brief nod instead, and Fury decided to press on with his own. “What are the energy levels now?”

“Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac.”

“How long do we have to get everyone out?” Bridget piped up.

Phil looked to the brunette and before letting his attention wander back towards the director. “Should be clear within the next half hour.”

“Do better.” Fury ordered, Phil nodding his head before going off on his own to help the recruits.

The three of them continued on towards the Tesseract's holding area in silence, Fury leading with two of his best female agents right behind him. As they grew nearer, Bridget could begin to feel how heavy the air felt. She knew that this could turn into huge issue if something decided to go wrong.

As they stepped down a long flight of stairs, Maria voiced an opinion to Fury. “Sir, evacuation may be futile.”

“Should we tell them to go back to sleep?” He retorted.

Maria bit her tongue and Bridget stepped up next. “Hypothetically speaking, if we can't control the Tesseract's output, there may not be a minimum safe distance.”

“I need you to make sure that the Phase Two prototypes are shipped out.”

“Fury, is that really what's important at the moment?” The brunette questioned. To her, making sure that the lives of the other agents weren't in danger was top priority.

Nick stopped on a dime, turning to face the two women before him, his eye darting from one to the other as he addressed them. “Until such time as the world ends, we will act as if it intends to spin on.” With that he resumed walking towards the Tesseract, the two agents looking at one another briefly before carrying on after him. “Clear out the tech below – every piece of Phase Two on a truck and gone.”

Maria and Bridget climbed up a few stairs, walking away towards the loading area that was further up ahead.

“Not you, Spencer. You're with me.” Fury pointed out.

Bridget looked at Maria before turning back to the Director, following him instead while Maria ordered a few other agents to follow her in Bridget's place. Bridget and Director Fury then entered the holding area, the large building that they entered causing Fury's voice to be better projected throughout the room.

“Talk to me, Doctor.”

An older looking fellow, in a plaid button up with some regular gray slacks, peered over the Tesseract and the advanced machinery that enveloped it. “Director,” he greeted, coming around to meet him halfway.

“Is there anything we know for certain?”

“The Tesseract's misbehaving.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

“Oh, it's not funny at all,” Selvig disagreed. “The Tesseract's not only active, she's... behaving.”

“So you pulled the plug,” Bridget mused. “Then again, since it's an energy source she could just start up again, right?”

Doctor Selvig looked to her and nodded his head. “Yes, that's right.” Giving a sigh, he positioned himself behind one of the computers. “She reaches peak level—”

“We've prepared for this, Doctor – harnessing energy from space.” Fury interjected.

“We don't have the harness.” He bluntly replied. “And my calculations are far from complete. She's throwing off interference – radiation. Nothing harmful, just low levels of Gamma radiation.”

Fury's attention traveled from the glowing blue cub to the doctor. “That could be harmful,” he replied, and it didn't take long for Bridget to realize what, or rather who, he was getting at.

Bridget looked around, searching for the familiar face she knew had to have been around there somewhere. “Where's Agent Barton?” She inquired.

Selvig looked up for a brief moment and pointed behind him. “The Hawk? Up in his nest as usual.”

Looking up, the brunette could make out the figure of a person clad in all black attire, sitting comfortably in the rafters as he watched the scene from above. As Fury called him to give his findings, she watched him with interest as he began to climb down a rope effortlessly, joining them in mere seconds.

Fury, Clint, and Bridget began to walk the surroundings, looking around them to see what the other scientists besides Selvig were doing.

“I gave you this security detail so you could keep a close eye on things,” Fury began.

“Oh, I see better from a distance,” he stated.

“Seen anything that might have set this thing off?”

“No one's come or gone. Selvig's clean – no contacts, no IM's.” He answered. “Sir, if there's any tampering, it wasn't on this end.”

“This end?” Bridget questioned softly, the archer hearing her and nodding his head.

“The cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?” He began, making eye contact with her before directing it at his employer. “Doors open from both sides.”

The three of them stared at the cube in slight awe, Bridget amazed that something like that could be so magnificent. Never in her life did she ever imagine she'd be a part of something so incredible, be able to see something like this with her own two eyes.

In that one split second, chaos erupted. The cube sparked, glowing blue streaks of light being emitted from the object, the ground shaking with a tremor as it continued to misbehave. All eyes were upon the Tesseract, the three of them beginning to back away from it as they knew something was going terribly wrong. As the cube's light continued to grow brighter, the streaks of light merged together, a beam shooting out down towards the end of the room.

The beam manifested a growing blue orb of light at the end, the sphere spreading and flattening until it reached a length that the average human could walk through. Inside the ring that had come up, there was nothing that could be seen, only darkness with a few specs of light embedded in random places.

No one could look away, Bridget becoming entranced by what she was seeing transpire before her. Her reflexes from years of training began to kick in and she could feel her hand twitch as it hovered beside her gun holster.

The ring had lost all stability as it collapsed in on itself, waves of blue energy came flooding out in every direction, the floor quaking from the blast and causing Bridget to take a few steps back from loss of balance. As the light dimmed, the energy disappearing as it climbed the walls like blue flames. Everyone was at a loss, not sure of what had just happened.

Looking towards where the ring had formed, there was a figure kneeling down upon the floor, the last bit of blue energy rising off of him like steam. Without a need for an order, the guards that had been set up around the perimeter of the room began to slowly close in on the person, their guns up at the ready to fire if necessary.

As they made their way towards him, he began to stand up from his position. Bridget could make out his general features – black hair that was combed back neatly, very fair skin, and a bit of a narrow face, but she couldn't make out much more than that due to the distance between them. When he stood straight up, she then realized he held a weapon – a spear – in his hands, his fingers wrapped tightly around the handle.

“Sir, please put down the spear,” Fury ordered.

Bridget wondered if he was able to understand them as his eyes glanced at what he held in his hands, an expression that appeared to be of awe etched upon his face, but she knew that it didn't matter anymore when he retracted his arm only to thrust it and the spear forward. Blue streaks shot out from the end of it, hitting the guards that were approaching him and sending them flying back.

Bridget and Barton moved swiftly as they realized the attack was headed towards them. Barton shoved Fury and himself to the floor while Bridget jumped to the side a few feet. Both males were able to avoid the danger, though Bridget was still hit and was sent back against the wall, her forehead smacking up against it and causing her to black out.

Gunshots rang out from guards who were quick to get back up, Clint shooting off a few rounds from his own gun as well. The attacking man jumped from where he stood, his body soaring through the air as he shoved his spear into a body of one of the guards, killing him instantly. He went on to kill more of the guards, as well as injure the scientists who were trying to hide behind their computers, his movements smooth and done without hesitation.

Barton, who had been knocked down by the blasts the spear had produced, began to rise back up from the ground. The black haired man took notice and immediately confronted him, stopping his gun from being pointed at him by blocking his wrist.

The man's icy, clear blue eyes gazed at him with curiosity. “You have heart.”

Clint's eyes stared at him in confusion, not knowing quite what he meant. Lifting up his spear, he brought it to Barton's chest, and once the metal made contact with him, he began to change. The air left his lungs and a new, overwhelming sensation overcame him, his eyes becoming clouded with a blue similar to that of the Tesseract's.

Fury, who had started to come to and had seen the interaction between the two, stared up at them in disbelief. He couldn't believe his eyes as he watched Barton re-holster his gun. What had just happened to one of his best field agents?

Looking to the side he noticed Bridget who was still under, her face relaxed as her consciousness was nowhere to be found. He knew that he was running out of options and he had to act fast before the lunatic with the spear tried to do any further damage.

As inconspicuously as he could, he took the Tesseract and placed it inside a specially made briefcase while the hostile was creating more goons for himself. After locking it and rising to his feet, he began to walk with haste towards the exit.

“Please don't. I still need that.”

The man's voice was unnervingly calm for someone who had just murdered numerous people, and Fury stopped in his tracks. “This doesn't have to get any messier.”

“Of course it does.” The man retorted, his crystal-like eyes piercing into Nick, who began to turn around to face him. “I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard; and I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

“Loki,” Selvig breathed out, slowly rising from the floor with some trouble. “Brother of Thor.” Loki looked towards the scientist at the mention of his adopted brother, clear distaste upon his facial features.

“We have no quarrel with your people.” Fury began, trying to reason with the demi-god.

“An ant has no quarrel with a boot.”

“You planning to step on us?”

Smirking to himself, Loki took a few steps forward. “I come with glad tidings of a world made free.”

“Free from what?”

“Freedom.” The two gazed at one another, tension surrounding them as Loki continued on, slowly walking around the room. “Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart,” he briefly paused and turned to Selvig, pushing the tip of his spear to his chest and taking him under his wing as well. “You will know peace.”

“Yeah, you say peace,” Fury glared. “But I kinda think you mean the other thing.”

It was then that Bridget started to come to, the voices around her seeming slurred and her senses dull.

“Sir, Director Fury is stalling. He means to bury us, drop a hundred feet of rock on us.” Looking up towards the ceiling, some of the remaining Tesseract energy was swirling around together at the ceiling.

“Like the pharaohs of old.”

“He's right. The portal's collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical.” Selvig agreed after studying a computer screen.

“Well then,” Barton began, his hand reaching for his gun and shooting off a single bullet towards Fury.

The gunshot seemed to snap Bridget to attention, though she didn't dare make a move. She knew that she was no match for Barton's sharp eye and so she remained silent, playing the part as the group made their escape. Once they were gone from the room, she shakily rose to her feet, rolling Fury over and trying to bring him to his senses.

“Fury, wake up. Fury!” She called, snapping her fingers before his face. “Patchy!”

He groaned and then began to sit up. “Spencer, go after Barton. They're probably going to run into Hill. I'll let her know that you're on your way.” He ordered.

“And you?”

“I'll get out in time. Go.”

Nodding her head, she sprinted off towards the loading bay area, jumping down flights of stairs one at a time and riding down the railings in a spectacularly fast fashion. When she was near the bottom, gunshots rang out and she picked up the pace. Entering the area, she saw Agent Hill leaning up against the wall, grabbing hold of her left shoulder, wincing in pain.

“Hill,” she gasped, rushing to her aid, helping her rise to her feet and looking around the corner. “What happened?”

“Barton left with that strange man and a few others.” She growled out as she dug a bullet out from her shoulder. “They just left.”

Noticing another jeep, Bridget pulled Maria by her right arm towards it. “Let's go then. We don't have much time.”

Bridget hopped into the driver's seat while Maria got in beside her. The brunette floored it, the engine exerting its energy and propelling the car forward with a sudden start. They weaved through the underground tunnels, Bridget with both hands on the wheel as Hill gave her directions on which ways to go, and the brunette hoped that everyone above was gone now and at at a safe distance.

“They should be around here somewhere.” Hill stated.

As they swerved into another tunnel, Bridget immediately noticed the headlights behind them. “Found 'em.”

Speeding up fast, she then spun the wheel around, the car moving about and Hill grabbing the dashboard for stability. Once the car was turned around, Bridget fixed the steering wheel as she did her best to slow them down by ramming the front bumpers together. While Bridget kept the car straight, Maria began to fire her gun at them.

Barton, who was behind the wheel, was growing tired of them, and swiftly maneuvered the car to send them off the front. Bridget wasted no time realigning herself at them before speeding down the tunnel once more. She could feel the car slightly shudder and she figured there was another large tremor. In the rear view mirror she could see the ceiling beginning to come down, the falling rocks coming upon them fast.

The inevitable happened as the ceiling caved in upon them, trapping them in the jeep. Bridget lost her breath as the wind was knocked out of her when her body and part of her chin hit the steering wheel, and she looked over at Maria with concern, wondering how she was doing due to the bullet wound. The two of them began to cough violently as the air began to become clouded with dust from the debris that now surrounded them.

“You alright?”

“If you want to call this alright, then I suppose so.” Hill muttered. “You?”

“Never better,” she replied, looking over to Hill's shoulder. “Unzip yourself. We need to stop the bleeding.”

Maria couldn't argue with her and nodded, doing what she was told as Bridget tore off the bottom half of her shirt. When she finished dressing her wound as best she could with what they had, Coulson's voice came over their radio.

“Director? Director Fury, do you copy?”

“The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Spencer, Hill?”

Hearing their names be called, Maria took hold of the radio and handed it to Bridget, motioning for her to do the talking. “A lot of men are still under. We don't know how many survivors. Hill's been hit, but we need medical assistance soon.”

“Okay. Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase.”

“Roger that.” Bridget sighed out.

“Coulson, get back to base. This is a level seven.” As those words escaped the radio, a new tension filled the air. They all knew that this was a serious offense, a threat to the globe, but hearing Fury acknowledge it by giving it such a high classification was a slap to the face. “As of right now, we're at war.”

“What do we do?” Coulson asked.

He didn't need an answer. They all knew what this meant, what this would bring out, who this would call upon. Bridget's stomach began to churn as a bad feeling settled there and she couldn't help but feel that Steve was already leaving her once again.