"The Tesseract is in your hands? You've been hiding it from me this whole time?"
Hermione's voice came through the phone, sharp with undisguised surprise and accusation.
Fury choked.
He'd known she'd react this way. But to get the Tesseract back, he had no choice but to push through anyway.
He'd already prepared a two-pronged approach. The plan was to send Iron Man Tony Stark and Captain America Steve Rogers in first under the Avengers banner , a test run, a small taste of what they were dealing with. Contacting the Witch was mainly to see if she had any way to locate the Tesseract, and secondarily to keep her in reserve as a last resort if the Avengers couldn't handle it.
He also knew the situation between Tony and Hermione. Better to tell her himself now than let Tony slip it later. At least this way he looked like he was being upfront.
"So this is what Level 9 clearance gets me?" Hermione's tone dripped with sarcasm. "What, are you the only person in all of S.H.I.E.L.D. who knew about the Tesseract? So the Director moonlights in research now. Interesting."
Fury said nothing.
After a long moment, he spoke. His voice carried the particular flatness of a man running on empty. "The situation is urgent. I ask for your temporary understanding. Afterwards, I'll make sure you receive satisfactory compensation."
He could tell her about other things. But the Tesseract was different.
It was their best shot at matching the kind of power wielded by aliens , or by the magical world. He hadn't been willing to risk Hermione knowing about it.
"You lost it, so go find it," Hermione said flatly. "Why are you calling me? I didn't steal it."
But the word compensation had landed. Her tone cooled from hostile to merely irritated.
"Because the person who stole it," Fury said, his voice dropping, "is someone you know."
He said the name: "Loki."
"Loki?"
A beat of silence.
"Isn't he dead?" Hermione said, the words out before she could stop them.
When she'd come back from Asgard, she'd told S.H.I.E.L.D. that Loki had fallen into a spatial rift. Dead and gone.
"I wish he were," Fury said grimly. "Unfortunately, he's very much alive. And he has the Tesseract."
Hermione was quiet for a few seconds. Then she let out a short, sharp sound. "Tch. That man has the survival instincts of a cockroach."
"But," she continued, her tone shifting, "I don't have any real grudge against Loki. You hid the Tesseract from me. Now it's gone. Don't expect me to clean up your mess."
"Director Fury, figure it out yourself. Don't bother me."
She hung up.
Click. Clean. Decisive.
Her figure blurred and twisted in the air, and then she was gone , Apparition, no warning, no goodbye. The phone sat in Fury's hand, filling the silence with a flat, steady beep.
Fury's chest sank.
She didn't even call him Bald Egg.
She was genuinely angry this time.
---
New York. Near Stark Tower.
The current ran fast, churning against the pipes along the riverbed.
"Jarvis, what's the visibility down here?" Tony's voice echoed inside the suit, slightly distorted by the water pressure.
"Extremely low, sir. Heavy turbidity. Recommend activating infrared scan."
A red beam swept out from the suit's eyes, cutting through the murk, painting the riverbed in crisp detail across Tony's HUD.
"Damn," he muttered, working the laser cutter along the old pipe with careful precision. "This is way more annoying than I expected."
He needed to get the underwater reactor module swapped out fast. The whole building's power supply depended on it.
It didn't take long. A module gleaming with clean, high-tech light slotted into the freshly cut space.
"My end's done. Ball's in your court," Tony said. "Stark Tower , future symbol of clean energy."
"Assuming the Arc Reactor actually supplies power," Pepper's voice came back through the earpiece.
"Obviously it will. Who do you think you're talking to?"
His voice was pure confidence.
"When Hermione gets back, she's going to be floored by the genius of this."
Pepper shook her head, smiling.
The man was a fully grown adult who somehow couldn't stop trying to impress a teenager. Different leagues entirely.
Before she could finish the thought, a rapid series of sharp air concussions crackled through the communicator.
Tony stiffened. "Hold on. That sound — is Hermione back?"
---
Stark Tower. Top floor.
Pepper heard it too , the distinctive crack behind her, the sound she'd know anywhere.
Hermione's Apparition.
Her face lit up. She spun around.
The air folded, and Hermione stepped out of it.
"Hermione!"
Pepper crossed the room in three steps and pulled her into a fierce hug.
"You — where have you been? You've been gone so long!"
There was reproach in her voice, but mostly there was just happiness.
Hermione wheezed. "Pepper , Pepper, let go , you're going to crack a rib—"
She finally wriggled free, pressing a hand to her chest and catching her breath.
"School's been insane," she said. "Non-stop. The Defense Against the Dark Arts workload this semester is brutal, and Dumbledore's been watching everyone like a hawk. I couldn't exactly slack off."
She made a face and kept going.
"And you wouldn't believe it , Hogwarts had a basilisk. The whole school was in a panic. They were doing headcounts every single day. There was no slipping away."
"A basilisk?"
"Magical creature. Rare. Its eyes petrify people." Hermione blinked. "Several students got hit."
"Isn't that just Medusa?"
Tony's voice cut into the channel, dry and unhelpful.
"Basilisks are worse than Medusa," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Indirect eye contact petrifies you. Direct contact, " She paused. "Kills you."
"That dangerous?!"
Pepper grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and started looking her over, checking her arms, her face, turning her slightly, scanning for anything wrong.
"Are you hurt? Did it see you?"
"Pepper." Hermione gently pulled her hands away, caught somewhere between exasperated and touched. "It's over. It's been handled. If something had gone wrong, do you think I'd be standing here?"
Pepper exhaled slowly. Then immediately reached up and pinched Hermione's cheek anyway.
"Next time something that dangerous shows up," she said firmly, "you run the other direction. Immediately. Understood?"
"Yes, yes, understood."
Hermione nodded, quick and obedient.
"Okay, you two , enough!" Tony's voice crackled through the comm, indignant. "I am still down here, underwater, doing actual work. A little respect for the laborer, please?"
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