The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 65

Time passed in a blur, I didn't have much of a reference to keep track of it other than the hardly-changing seasons. The temperature went from hot desert weather to hot New York summer and now it was April (or was it May already?). We had made quite a bit of progress, Selvig had been instrumental in helping our calculations along in understanding the energy of the Tesseract, but ever since he took over, I had a much harder time getting access to it alone, since I was a woman and he was an old fashioned gentleman, he often insisted that I turn in early. He wasn't doing this randomly, he was doing it because he saw the pain I was in. The internal decay was starting, there were days when I felt like my entire body was on fire, when I felt like I was being torn apart and put back together again. Black spots in my vision were commonplace and painkillers were essential for function. Ever since I took over as Claire, I had taken off my engagement ring, having big jewels like that would inevitably draw attention, but I kept my wedding ring on, and I also wore my ring of black opals. If I couldn't take the Tesseract, then perhaps I could absorb enough power from it to recharge the new Bifrost temporarily, but I wasn't having any luck in that department either, absorbing the energy would be picked up by the readings and I wasn't one of the people who could approach it on a whim anymore. Besides, while at work, I was required to wear rubber gloves. It wasn't a hard regulation, but it was a strong recommendation. For me, it was a requirement because the higher-ups were known for doing unannounced sweeps of the lab for intruders, ever since Fury nearly spotted me. They scanned keyboards for fingerprints, something I couldn't duplicate, and looked for loose hairs carrying DNA. If they found one of mine, it would all be over. My DNA was different from every other species in the galaxy. Well, it wasn't really DNA anyway because the 'D' implied that it was a double helix and that wasn't what I had. I had SNA, a sextuple helix. That is what allowed me to change shape and mix species, I could move bases and connect different traits and segments from different strands. There were only two helixes connected at any given time, but my hair would still contain the disconnected ones. I would be the find of the millennium for SHIELD. Because of this, I kept my workspace notoriously clean and my hair up in a tight bun.

I had forbade myself any thought of Loki, because any time I did, I was brought to tears. I felt bad for never going to see Jane but it couldn't be helped, the first thing she would ask is where Thor was and she would either blame me for his absence or the whole thing would turn into a sob fest.

Today, we broke from routine. The emergency alarm went off at 10pm, signalling that the Tesseract had activated. All by itself. No matter when we did, we couldn't get it to shut down. In fact, the energy levels just kept climbing, so Coulson sounded the evacuation alarm and Director Fury was on his way in personally. My job was to supervise the energy levels of the Tesseract, but since we were short on people, I picked up a couple pieces of equipment and approached the it. I knew I was being watched by the agent that Fury had placed up on the balcony, so I casually removed my left glove before I went up. I wouldn't be seen as suspicious if I acted like I owned the place, and that I wasn't doing anything wrong, so that's what I did. With my back to the agent, I brushed my finger against the surface of the cube, timing it with a flash of energy. Then, just to seem normal, I looked at my scanner, pretending to examine readings for a second before I went back to my station. Just in time too, Fury had come down in person with Selvig. When I looked at the screen, I couldn't believe my eyes. All of the energy I had sapped from the Tesseract had regenerated, along with some more!

"Doctor," I distracted him from his calculations, "It's spiking again." He came over. As we were looking at the reading, I saw the drop and then quick rebuild in power.

"This, how did this happen?" He gestured to the drop.

"I don't know, I was up taking readings."