Author's Notes: I wanted to get this chapter out before Endgame premieres tomorrow. I know we are all looking forward to this culmination of a decade's worth of storytelling. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: The Marvel Cinematic Universe and Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to their respective owners.

The Experiment
Chapter Three: The Response

Less than twenty-four hours had passed since the incident at Pegasus. To be honest, Coulson was surprised by just how fast they had been able clean the slate after the event. All evidence had been collected then destroyed, staff that had been present during and after the incident were either being moved to new projects or were put on leave until they could be transferred somewhere else.

It was a mess at first, over twenty people had to be immediately removed from the Project and transferred. Little to no reason given, for all the secrecy a Level Ten Operation granted, it was hard to think that this would go unnoticed for long. It was the greatest irony of a secret clandestine agency, despite no one knowing what goes on inside the organization, a lot of people's heads turn when something happens.

When their most secret project so much as sneezes there a lot of people wanting to know what made it do that. No one was good enough to hide something like this, the Tesseract reacting after nearly thirty years of inactivity, from the higher ups. They may be bureaucrats, but they were perceptive when it came to certain things that they had invested money and manpower into.

If they wanted to, they could probably find out what happened, no one was good enough to hide something from them. They had oversight on nearly everything SHIELD does, including Pegasus and Phase 2. Sneaking something by them is unlikely, as well as ill-advised.

Then again, his boss was Nick Fury. That alone made him a master sleuth, with or without the title of Director of Shield stapled just before his name.

Said Director was currently standing behind the glass window, looking on at a comatose Faith Lehane. The Slayer had equipment hooked up to her to monitor her vitals. "Of all the scenarios I expected to happen once I brought her in, this was not one of them."

Coulson said nothing. No one could have predicted this, it was a long shot that anything would have happened. The Tesseract had been touched by enough people over the last seventy years and nothing even remotely close to what happened to Faith had happened with them. While the Tesseract entering an active state certainly was a major event for the project, it was also something that would cause problems for them in the future.

The World Security Council had a lot of interest in Project PEGASUS and they would want to know exactly how things are going. Especially if the Tesseract actually reacted to something, that meant revealing Lehane's presence. Something that was best not allowed to occur.

The sound of the door to the room sliding open brought his and the Director's attention, seeing the doctor come towards them. It was Doctor Jackson Streiten, one of the best doctors SHIELD had and someone that Fury could trust completely to maintain secrecy. As soon as Fury had begun the cover up, he had contacted the good doctor at Bethesda and had him 'take some time off' in order to arrive under the radar. "Doctor, how is she?"

Streiten had a concerned look on his face; given this man was a renowned doctor and surgeon to boot, with a success rate of ninety two percent, seeing him concerned did not bode well for Faith. "Honestly Fury, sometimes you expect me to drop everything I'm doing when you need to bring me out for one of your off books assignments."

"Hey, I didn't want her on that table. Things happen, Jackson, you know how this goes, not everything goes smoothly and sometimes people get hurt." Fury returned in a collected tone, although he did let out a breath. "But… I definitely wasn't expecting this to happen. What is her condition?"

"Well no one expects anything to happen," Streiten replied, shaking his head before beginning his report. "Your consultant is observing all of traits of a coma patient. Her heart rate and brain activity are all within range of what to expect of a young woman of her age and the fact that she's breathing on her own is a positive sign. But I am not getting anything to tell me that her condition is worsening or improving. This wasn't caused by head trauma. This is the body going into a coma on its own, we just don't know what caused it. Apart for waiting for the results of her blood work to come back, all we can do is wait and see."

Not the best prognosis, but it was all they got. Better than knowing that she was dying, although that was not off the table yet if she didn't wake up anytime soon.

"I don't think all we can do is wait," Maria Hill stated walking in with a folder in hand. "I just finished speaking to Dr. Florence. He has readings from the cube that pertain to our situation with Lehane."

Dr. Florence was their newest junior researcher for Project PEGASUS, having recently been transferred here after the previous junior researcher got transferred off the project. A few off handed comments here, some rumors there and everyone was left to wonder why so many people were not being transferred into the project.

It was an interesting little strategy, keeping a secret by making it appear to be a myth or rumor. Twenty people get transferred out of Project PEGASUS? Make it sound like something horrible or crazy happened and everyone will start spreading stupid rumors around. Rumors can be bad at times, but the thing was, after a while people tend to rationalize things and those stupid silly rumors often get thrown out.

Being part of a clandestine organization often gave people a bit of insight into espionage, specifically what kind of clichés come with spy work. Most people write off those silly 'everyone died' in some event here, or they were 'sent to another dimension' there sort of stories and eventually it is all forgotten.

"How so?" Coulson asked.

"He's fairly confident that when the cube reacted, it emitted gamma radiation." Hill answered, presenting the report to Fury.

"Gamma radiation?" Fury questioned, giving a cautious glance over his shoulder to the comatose Slayer. "Do I have to be afraid that our consultant is going to be going off the rails and going green on me? Or blue? Or any color in the visible spectrum?"

Hill shook her head. "Florence assures me after comparing the data we have on file for Banner's work that the emissions are different. If anything the radiation from the Tesseract is less harmful than the radiation that Banner was exposed to and more importantly, a fraction of what Banner took in."

"Yet Faith was at ground zero of the reaction, and it had an effect," Coulson argued. "Even if the rest of us are fine, it did something to her. Her eyes were glowing with the same energy as the Cube, something has happened."

"Yes I checked that. I didn't notice any luminescence but her iris color seems to have changed. I only realized the change when I checked her file. What that means is entirely up for speculation, but me and my team will continue our observations," Straiten stated. "But you need to bring in a specialist Nick. I can help in making sure this woman remains alive, I'll do my best, but if her body does reveal to have been changed by gamma radiation, that is a bit outside of my wheelhouse."

If the effect had not been harmful to Faith, such as causing radiation poisoning, then there was the possibility of some form of mutation. While not as similar to Bruce Banner, it was possible that there could be some underlying effect the radiation had on Miss Lehane. Despite the length of time they had held it, the Tesseract was still an unknown object that could do almost anything. Who knows what those energies could have done to her.

"Not to belittle them but the two scientists we pulled out of PEGASUS do not know much more about gamma other than it being a type of radiation." Maria added. "And I hate to say this sir, but you can't remain here much longer. You have a meeting with the World Council in less than twelve hours at the Triskelion.

Fury had a lot on his plate at the moment, this little internal cover-up of their required his near full attention to pull off. Keeping everything moving along smoothly so nothing got leaked was vital, along with moving pieces around so no one saw them being moved was just as equally important.

A Level Ten Operation required his full attention, it was not easy to pull off when you had other things to do. And usually he could do it with little to no oversight or resistance, so long as the World Council knew, but he couldn't let them know. So, he was stuck with the dilemma of staying and trying to find an excuse as to why he couldn't meet with the Council which would likely never succeed. Or go and risk this Operation becoming compromised.

"I'll handle this boss." Phil said, deciding to give Fury an easy way out.

"You sure about this Coulson?" Fury asked, raising a brow. "It hasn't been that long since that last assignment. The way that ended—"

"This isn't the same," Coulson said curtly, as he didn't want to focus on the TAHITI project any more than he ever needed to. "This is alien technology we are dealing with, not biology. We brought her into this. I owe to myself to make certain she comes out of this in one piece."

Phil may have been ordered to bring her in, but orders went only so far, and in a way, he had been the one to drag her into the mess personally. Culpable or not, he did not feel right leaving here without at least knowing she was going to be alright. If he could stay on he would to keep the Operation going and see to it that Faith recovered.

Fury looked into his right hand man's eyes and nodded. "Alright then. It's your show. Is there anything I can do to help before I get shot into my own personal hell with the Council?"

Phil cracked a smile at that. "I'd like Agent Morse reassigned to me for the duration of this Operation. We've worked well in the past and once she's been reassigned, we can send her after our specialist."

"You already have someone in mind?" Maria asked.

"Well you did say Dr. Florence compared the radiation against the Banner file," Coulson mused. "Since we obviously can't get the man himself, what about his partner?"

Eight Hours Later

Chicago

Betty shook the man's hand, the last one of dozens she had to shake since the end of the conference. It had only finished half an hour ago but she was reluctant to stay for the party after, not something she usually reveled in as of late.

"I thank you again for coming, your research on radiological treatment is quite intriguing, I would hope to hear more another time."

Betty smiled pleasantly, even if she knew that the man now shaking her hand was twenty years her senior and also obviously trying to come onto her. But it was one of the many unpleasant realities of being a woman in the scientific field and apparently caught the eyes of men.

"I plan to be in New York and Dallas in the coming months, planning on actually getting funding for my research. You can drop by anytime." Betty knew he wouldn't, being a director of a Hospital and also staging the events in Chicago such as this conference wouldn't afford the man much free time.

At least she hoped he wouldn't.

"I'll be sure to check my schedule, have a lovely night miss Ross."

As he man walked away so did she, turning to the nearest exit and making her getaway. Staying too long in these places just made her more uncomfortable, and with how her life has been over the last two years she didn't feel ready to socialize with some of the upper echelon of the medical world.

After her position in Culver was revoked, she was forced to find new supporters for her work, hard to do as she had to hide the reasons for her departure from her previous benefactors. After Bruce's episode at the college she was held responsible, by association, while she was not openly accused or punished for her action there was a silent conversation had that saw to her removal from the university.

She didn't blame them, not when they were merciful enough to let her leave without incident or blame. But it was a bitter pill to swallow when she was forced to leave and fight to keep her work alive. The only reason she was able to keep working on these lectures and going to functions was because of her severance. But that was running out.

If she didn't find a steady salary or find a benefactor for her work than she was in trouble. She couldn't let this happen, not after all the years of hard work she and Bruce put into this project.

"Excuse me, Miss Ross."

Betty jerked in surprise as the greeting, turning to see a woman standing behind her. Casually dressed, but the way she stood reminded her of all those military friends her father had. This woman was a soldier.

"Yes, can I help you?" Betty asked.

"My name is Bobbi Morse, I am agent from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," Bobbi greeted, she didn't make a move greet her any further, and Betty felt no need to reply. "I was sent here to ask for your assistance. We have a situation that you are perfectly skilled for."

Betty had no idea what they wanted, but she did not actually care. "I am not interested." she said, turning and reaching for her keys.

"Listen, I am not with your father."

"The fact you say that, only tells me you think the reason why I won't help you is because of him. You're wrong. The reason is that I know who you are," Betty replied. Someone from SHIELD had been approached by someone from this organization before by an agent named Sitwell. In the wake of the Harlem battle between Bruce and that monster, she had been approached to see what she knew regarding her former fiancé and his condition. She didn't reveal much, having little to no trust in the people who were looking for Bruce.

"I don't think you do," Bobbi replied.

Betty stopped for a moment, looking back at her.

"We know where Bruce Banner is," Bobbi said, that had actually taken Betty by surprise. "At least my superiors know, we have known for the last year and a half where he has been."

Betty wanted to know if he was alright, if there were any problems and if he was coping. But she kept her mouth shut, showing interest might look back on her part and could be the thing that makes them promise something that she didn't think she could refuse. Even if she doubted the people who were offering it to her.

"I can't tell you anything, I don't know anything, but my superiors do. But they need your help, and if this isn't about Bruce how about helping out someone who needs help," Bobbi said. "We have a woman that is unconscious and experiencing symptoms we have no idea how to predict, and it came from something that emits gamma radiation."

A thought quickly came to the forefront of her mind, the idea of another person becoming like Bruce was terrifying. Even worse is if they transformed into what Emil Blonsky turned into. Bruce at least could at least return to being a human being after some time, but Blonsky was stuck in that gamma mutated abomination and how much of his sanity he really had left was debatable in her mind.

She wanted to say no on principle, to wipe her hands clean of this and not have to deal with anymore shady government organizations. But a nagging feeling stopped her from immediately ignoring the request, that maybe there was someone that needed help and she could offer it. Call it a moral compass guiding her down the right path or even sympathy for a woman that was likely going to suffer the same fate Bruce did.

"I suppose there is no one else then?" Betty inquired. "No one else you can ask."

"Not that I know, they told me it was important we get you to help us." Bobbi answered, giving a shrug.

"So, you got a team with a black SUV waiting nearby to shuttle me off to some facility?"

"Sedan actually," Bobbi replied. "Besides it is just me, they sent me because they thought I could convince you."

She was quite bold, especially when saying it aloud.

"Usually people like you don't speak this openly," Betty said.

"Considering that you don't like being kept out of the loop and had to deal with shady stuff all the time I thought that you would appreciate some honesty." Bobbi replied, giving a shrug as she stated the obvious. "Kind of why they sent me as well, I am a bit of a straight shooter."

Betty could tell, it made her wonder if they had planned this out. That they had read her profile and understood how she thought and acted. It wouldn't be so hard to believe, considering that they are a agency that deals in the spy game. Which was reinforcing her belief that they knew her a little too well because the next thing she asked was something she chalked up to being flattered by her honesty.

"Okay, tell me about this girl."

In his office at the Triskellion, Fury was feeling exacerbated by the World Security Council. Their almost constant push towards weaponizing the power of the Tesseract and to further develop weapons using that power, as Hydra had done during the course of World War II.

Like that's what this world really needs. To have everyone stop buying guns and ammo and go straight to disintegration weaponry, Fury said to himself. Gideon Malick, the current head of the WSC, was the one driving this push. He was also the one that helped to kill the Avengers Initiative before he could truly bring it together.

He understood the need for oversight; no one person should have too much power without checks and balances in place. But more times often than not, the Council made some of the most asinine decisions he had ever heard of. Trying to pin Harlem on the Hulk and clear Emil Blonsky so to use him as a SHIELD weapon. The once distinguished soldier had to Fury proved with his actions be every bit the monster inside that he become on the outside. There was no way he'd allow someone like that to be free and about, even if he would be 'technically' under his 'control'. Phil had had a unique way of dealing with that situation, sending Tony Stark to talk to General Ross as the one giving the offer. The 'talk' that happened was explosive to say the least. Stark really had a tendency to rub people the wrong way which in that case had been a blessing.

Still, with the Council's collective desire to gain Tesseract-empowered weaponry, Fury knew he was right keep Faith out of sight; especially after the reaction. Fury was only of a handful of SHIELD personal, active or retired, that knew all of the details of an certain event in 1995; an incident that would change his entire career trajectory and with him becoming Director. Meeting Carol Danvers and everything that followed until she left Earth had been the single most incredible event in Fury's life. He learned not only that aliens were not simply science fiction, but he took part in a conflict between two different species, in space.

As much as he could remise about that golden period, the reason Fury thought about it was because how Danvers got her powers. Back in 1989, She had been attached a test pilot to Project Pegasus, back when the project had been trying to develop a light speed engine, capable of faster than light travel. What no one realized was that Doctor Wendy Larson, the leader on the project, was actually a renegade Kree operative named Mar-Vell, chose not to follow her own government's plans for genocide of the Skrull race. Her engine used power that she had been able to somehow siphon from the Tesseract, a feat that no other scientist could replicate, much less had become aware of it.

After the Kree found out, they shot down the jet Mar-Vell and Danvers were on during a test run. They killed Mar-Vell, intending to take the engine but Danvers shot engine causing it to explode, and the resulting energy washed over her. Now been being transfused with Kree blood after the Kree took her back to Hala and brainwashed the amnesic pilot that she was a Kree Soldier could have also played a factor but Fury was certain that Tesseract energies were what gave Carol Danvers her powers.

There was no telling what Faith could have gained, even if she had a fraction of what Danvers possessed, it would monumental. And if the Council ever learned of it, they would stop at nothing to push at human experimentation under the guise of defense of the planet.

Fury was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of his secure line ringing. He picked up the phone. "Speak."

"What the hell have you done, Director?"

Fury frowned, having recognized the tone. "I don't appreciate your tone, Finn."

"And I don't appreciate being run over by my boss and yet here we are," the current head of WAND spoke, the frustration and anger Fury could clearly tell in his voice yet he managed to keep him tone as calm as could be. "I've tried for well over a year now to get you to let me open up dialogue with the Watcher's Council, to contact Buffy openly so we can start sharing Intel and coordinating missions to deal with the kind of threats SHIELD wants nowhere near the press. You shut me down every single time I brought it up, and yet in a split second you choose to pick Faith Lehane of all people up off the street?"

"You are the one that vouched on her character, stating her need for redemption was genuine," Fury stated. "Are you stating otherwise?"

"My personal feelings regarding Faith have nothing to do with this," Riley countered. "You chose to go behind my back to grab Faith to fly her out to Project Pegasus and according to Coulson, the moment she touched the artifact you have down there, she's fallen into a coma!"

"There was no way to know this would happen," Fury said. "I have the best people already on the case, making sure Faith will recover."

"I don't think you realize how combustible the situation we are in now is Director," Riley responded. "Unless I tell Buffy and explain what you have done before she find out on her own, they will assume worst case scenario and begin searching for Faith. The moment they find out find out what happened, I can assure you the resulting chaos will draw far more exposure to both of our organizations than we wish. But they won't care about that. Faith is one of them and they never leave a Slayer behind."

Fury frowned again. Riley wasn't wrong about his assessment. The last thing any of them needed at this point was exposure. The Slayers started poking around, the more of chance the Council would get wind of the incident, regardless of how well he had covered things up. He took another minute before making his decision. "Make contact with Miss Summers. But under no circumstances do you reveal where we have Faith. You may know your ex better than I do, Finn. But you know jack about the Tesseract. Believe me when I tell you, we've only just scratched the surface of what it has done to Faith and it's going be a long while until we learn exactly what he has done to her."

She felt herself falling through the darkness. Nothing but an endless sea of darkness.

How long had she been falling for, she could not say. Time seemed to have no meaning here.

And then suddenly, where once was black, there was only white. It lasted for a moment but once it passed, her eyes could see again more than just an endless blackness.

Now she could see stars that burned bright against the darkness of space. Worlds hanging there in the void like rare jewels. It was something she had never even seen before.

But when it came to jewels, her attention became drawn to six colorful lights in the horizon. Lights that grew closer the more she felt drawn toward them and could see they were not stars but gems. Raw, unrefined in shape, but she could simply feel the power behind them.

It was more than she could have ever imagined she could feel from anything.

But even then, she moved away from five and continued towards the blue stone. Like a moth to a flame, she was drawn to it by instinct. She held her hand out, trying to touch it, wanting to touch it.

And then…

Slowly, Faith opened her eyes and found herself staring at the ceiling. The room itself was very white and bare, save for one wall that had a long panel that reminded her too much of a one way mirror. Her eyes narrowed as she came to one possible conclusion on her present situation. "I better not be a prisoner."

"You aren't. You are however in isolation."

Faith turned her head to the source of Coulson's voice, finding his image on a monitor. "Sorry about the circumstances, but given what happened, we thought it best to have you moved to another facility."

"Another facility?" Faith repeated. "You mean we aren't in New Mexico anymore?"

"Not at all. We did bring you to Pegasus under the radar. Director Fury had to work fast in order to cover up what happened."

"Seeing as how I'm alive, I didn't blow the place up. How bad was the damage?" Faith asked as she tried to sit up. "And where is Nicky anyway?"

"To the facility none; the reaction knocked all of us off of our feet and rendered you unconscious for the last four days," Coulson answered her. "Unfortunately, Director Fury had to return back to headquarters to handle affairs of his position, less we let people know about what we were doing with you."

"Four days?!" Faith exclaimed, putting a hand to her temple. She was glad she had set the reset on her check in counter for an entire week after meeting with Fury on the plane, not to mention telling Lacey that she was going to be out of state for the next few days. The last thing she needed was having a war between SHIELD agents and Slayers over her. There were a few things she needed. "Where are my clothes Phil? And my phone?"

"The clothes you were wearing to Pegasus were taken away for examination and your phone was destroyed."

"Excuse me?"

"You were at ground zero of the reaction and even if it hadn't been smashed by the way you fell, the circuits were fried. And with the energy that washed over you, the doctors believed it best to not have the contaminated clothing remain on your person," Phil explained. "There is a bag with some clothes you can change into."

Faith let out a curse at that news. That meant she had three days to make the call, and this time she'd have to actually contact Buffy. I can just imagine the speech she will give me for acting 'impulsively and without thinking of the consequences'. While they were certainly friends now, they both had their own approaches to dealing with situations like this. If it had been B in that hotel room instead of her, she would have probably told Coulson no. She had been burned one too many times by government agencies.

Still, the Spartan white room had her feeling somewhat anxious. "Want to tell me why I'm in isolation anyway? I'm not sick Coulson."

"Director Fury ordered you placed in isolation due to the fact that when we got to you, you exhibited physical changes."

Faith blinked hard. "What do you mean physical changes?"

"Your eyes were glowing blue, Faith," Coulson stated. "Tesseract blue."

Faith turned around for a moment to look at her reflection in the mirror, and felt relieved that her eyes were her normal shade of brown. "You sure about that Phil?"

"I understand your eyes look normal now, but back at Pegasus they were glowing. Once we had you here, Director Fury had his own personal physicians attend to you. Dr. Streiten found your eyes to be a non glowing blue when he examined you. It wasn't until six hours ago that your eyes returned to their original color," Coulson explained. "So I am hoping you can understand why we are keeping you in isolation. In the near seventy years that the Tesseract has been in Government hands, nothing even remotely close to what you went through with the artifact has happened."

Faith stared back at Coulson's image. "I agreed to help you look at the Cosmic Cube as a onetime consult. In no way, shape, or form did I ever give permission to be a lab rat."

"And you aren't," Coulson assured her. "But it is our experience that when something alien goes all 'wacky' as it did, things happen and they need to be observed. I promise you Faith, we will not keep you any longer than need be. I have a specialist in looking at the results of your blood work. She'd like to speak to you when you are ready."

"Specialist in what exactly; alien artifacts that go nuts?" Faith asked, refraining from rolling her eyes. She would have thrown another jab if not seeing the serious expression on his face. "What aren't you telling me?"

"When the Tesseract reacted as it did, it emitted gamma radiation and since you were at ground zero, you got the full dose of it," Phil said, even as he saw Faith begin to go pale right after hearing the words 'gamma radiation'. "You don't have radiation sickness. All of your results so far don't show any signs of it so we may have gotten lucky but this is why I flew in a specialist in gamma radiation. I want to make certain everything is being done to clear you Faith."

Faith just sat on the bed then, finally able to breath after hearing that bit of news. Okay, maybe spending a few days in this place won't be such a bad idea, she said to herself. As if a terrible joke, she suddenly heard her own stomach growl. "Well if I am going to be here now for a while, can I get some food brought to me?"

Riley had a bad feeling about this, it was usually how he felt every time he would have to meet up with his old flame. More times than not, it never ended well, for either of them. Usually there would be a few words said, an argument erupted and both leaving on bad terms.

He usually felt bad about it afterwards, and he liked to think that she did as well, if only to make it easier for himself to meet up with her next time with less hostility. Didn't always work, but there were a few moments that they could walk away from one another without much fanfare. Usually a shake of the hand and with a smile on the face, sometimes even a pleasant good bye that promised the next meeting would be just as nice.

As rare as that may be.

Today he was thinking he was going to be suffering through the former.

Faith and Buffy had history, lots of history. Good and bad, sometimes a lot worse. But these last few years, as Slayers working side by side, they were thick as thieves and very protective of one another. As much as Buffy spoke about never leaving a Slayer behind or abandoning their people, her close circle of friends were different from anyone else in her organization.

Take one of them, put them in a coma and lock them up in isolation with no say on where she is and why than there were going to be problems.

"Riley."

He looked up, surprised for a moment, standing there was Buffy. Noticing the frown she wore he knew she wasn't in a good mood, she was already looking for Faith and having no luck. This meeting was definitely going to end with words said.

"Hey, good to see you Buffy," Riley said, he tried to school his emotions and try to do this like a professional.

Sad part was that no matter what kind of man you are, when you meet with your ex-girlfriend to talk with her about her lost friend that you know where she is and how she is doing, things were going to be uncomfortable. Something he knew that she would pick up on the instant she looked at him, let alone when he spoke.

Buffy did notice, and now she was both curious and annoyed, she took her seat in front of him and leaned forward. She wasn't here to mince words, she wanted to hear what he had to say. "Okay. What's going on Riley? Out with it."

"… I need to talk to you about Faith, and why she won't answer the phone when you call her."

The moment he said that, her eyes narrowed and any levity she might have had evaporated. "Explain. Now." she demanded in a tone that offered no avenue of escape.

Faith stared at the plate before her. An actual choice stake, mash potatoes and carrots with glass of water. All under in under an hour. "You must have some sort of chef on hand."

"Actually I cooked it myself," Coulson replied. He smiled seeing Faith's surprised expression. "Spend enough time on your own and you learn cooking for yourself helps to keep your body in better shape than eating from your favorite fast food takeout. It's rather basic, but it's good basic."

"Hey, I don't mind at all about the food choice," Faith replied good naturedly before holding up the plastic utensils left for her. "But seriously, couldn't you just give me real silverware."

"Isolation protocols state not to let you have any metal objects within your grasp until you've been cleared," Coulson stated. "We're following protocol to the letter, Faith. No exceptions."

Faith shook her head in annoyance. "Seriously Phil, I am not going to try to escape or hurt myself. Don't you think you could give me a real knife to cut this stake with instead this plastic crap that won't…" her words trailed off when she noticed his stare wasn't on her, but rather what was in her hand. Her eyes traveled to the plastic knife in her hand.

Only at the end of it there was a two inch 'blade' only this was made of blue light. As if in a trance, she took the knife and with the 'light' part, cut into the stake on the plate, as cleanly and easily as if she had a steak knife.

Looking at the reflective wall, she could see herself and saw her eyes were no longer brown but in fact blue. Dropping the knife in surprise, she noticed her blue eyes turning back to brown and the energy blade on the tip of the utensil faded away as if it had never been there to begin with.

Phil looked back to Faith with a startled look of his own. "Well, that's was unexpected."

"Yeah," she agreed still trying to believe what had just happened.

"I'll get someone down there to take that plate away so we can have it analyzed. For now, I don't think you should be holding on to any instruments."

"And get someone to get me some chicken fingers and fries. I think I'd like some finger food after that," Faith muttered. If she had any doubts before, this erased them all. Something had happened to her, something that made her a possible danger to others. Who knew if this was just the beginning? "So what do we do from here?"

"After you eat, I'm going to check with the team to make certain you can actually leave isolation without causing contamination," Coulson stated. "Once that's done, we should have you meet with Dr. Ross and have her begin running tests to understand what has happened to you."

"Okay, good. Let's run tests," Faith started to say. "But if we are going to do this, and I'm going to be here for the foreseeable future, then I need something from SHIELD."

"What?"

"I am going to call someone from my organization's tech team and you're going to bring him here. You can do your whole spycraft thing so he doesn't know the location."

Phil frowned at that. "You can't ask us to bring an unvetted..."

"Fury brought me into this!" Faith snapped. "He got me to go to his super secret facility to look at the Cosmic Cube and I got knocked on my ass, exposed to gamma radiation and who knows what else is happening to me!"

"We never expected any of this to happen."

"I know and I am the one that agreed to go in the first place so no one is to blame," Faith agreed. "But Fury wants to prove to us that he wants to work with us instead of against us, then this is his sign of good faith. You need to let me call my people and let me bring someone else into this. You either do this Phil, or by the end of the week, you are going to have Slayers magically appearing through portals to break me out of here."

"They wouldn't even know where to look," Coulson refuted.

"Remember how I said I sent out an alert on my phone. One I sent again but for a longer duration when we went to Pegasus," Faith said to him. "If I don't resend that page from my phone with the correct update, Willow find everywhere that phone has been and have teams run down every location. How do you think that's going to end?"

There was silence between the two speakers for a time before Faith let out a sigh. "Phil. I trusted you enough to accept your offer in my hotel room. I understand something has happened to me. Something that could affect my fellow slayers if I don't figure out what that something is. But they are going to need assurance to know I am alright and this is the way to do it."

"… who exactly do you have in mind?"

Faith simply smirked. "He's unconventional, to say the least."

Of all the ways Buffy thought she would be dealing with any of her ex-boyfriends, the idea of strangling him with her bare hands was nowhere near the list.

But at least Riley could understand that was what she was thinking as she taken to using the cloth napkins at the table they were sitting at and twisted them so many times they were hanging on by a thread.

"I can see you are upset," Riley began to say diplomatically only to stop when seeing the dagger glare his ex was sending him.

"No Riley, I think you know me well enough to know when I'm upset," Buffy said with a deceptively calm voice. "This is beyond being upset. You've been working for years behind my back running a new Initiative."

"WAND is nothing like the Initiative," Riley returned, steel in his voice as he defended the unit he had spent the last five years building from the ground up. "There are no dissections; there are no experiments on supernatural beings to graft them to human bodies or any other inhumane work. Hell we don't even go hunting like the DHU did after any signs of demonic activity. What we do is keep our ears to the ground and anything that doesn't seem to be a typical human scenario, we investigate and we deal with. Like that hive of demon parasites in Morocco three years ago."

"What are you talking about? I dispatched Leah to deal with that threat when we received—" Buffy stopped as she realized now how too easily they had picked up the chatter about the hive. She hadn't given it much thought, chalking it up to her people doing their jobs efficiently. She narrowed her eyes to Riley. "How many incidents have you 'dropped a dime' to me over the last few years Riley?"

"A few," Riley admitted. "As much as I trust Fury for giving me full control of the division, there are just some things that shouldn't be put into a lab to study. Adam made that lesson crystal clear for me. What you and the new Council do, you can handle this in ways we can't, but you and your Slayers can't be everywhere Buffy."

Buffy let out a sigh as it rankled her to admit to that. It still stunned her how she was basically leading all of these people. Ten years ago she would have never believed it possible. She tabled her inner debate to the side as she looked back to Riley. "Regardless of your boss's gag order, you should have gone behind his back and told me about this the last time we saw each other two years ago."

"Maybe," Riley allowed, "But I don't want to take the chance of WAND falling under the command of someone without my experience. Sam is the only one in the division even close to understand it like I do and she's my wife."

Buffy shrugged at that. It wasn't that she didn't understand, but it wasn't her problem. What was her problem, was the Director of SHIELD had plucked Faith off the street and was being held in some secret facility and he had smartly not told Riley the location because had he known, there would be no way she'd let him leave without telling her.

Before she could continue to give it any further thought was interrupted by her phone getting a text message. It was from an unregistered number, but the message sent was enough. She dialed back the number and waited for it to pick up.

"I'm glad you decided to call back."

"I'm glad you chose such a ridiculous code phrase. 'Real vamps don't sparkle'," Buffy replied, allowing herself to relax somewhat hearing Faith's voice.

"You will not convince me otherwise that the 'vampires' in Twilight aren't doing that," Faith defended herself. "Worst portrayal of vampires ever, considering we know what they are really like."

"You will get no arguments from me on that fact," Buffy allowed herself a small laugh. "Now that I know it's you, tell me where you are so I can get you extracted so I can have a long talk about all the things you should have done before getting on a plane with strangers."

"Can't B," Faith said in a tone that Buffy knew she was being deadly serious. "and please no speeches about how impulsive and reckless I can be."

"Gee you think I would have gotten point across by now," Buffy replied bemused.

"Listen to me. I can't leave B."

"And why the hell not?" Buffy asked.

"Aside from the fact I got exposed to gamma radiation, I'm having episodes where my eyes are glowing neon blue and apparently I can manifest blue energy at the end of a knife."

There was a long, awkward moment of silence after hearing that piece of news. It took her a minute or two before she could even ask the question. "Yes or no. Are you dying, Faith?"

"No," Faith assured her. "Once they knew about the gamma they checked me to see if I was radioactive and I came back clean and that was less than twenty four hours after I got exposed. I spent the last four days in a coma and physically I am fine and not showing any symptoms of radiation sickness. They just let me out of isolation begin tests to find out why."

Buffy remained silent, though Riley could see how tightly she was gripping the phone. "You know there is no way I am going to leave you there alone without reassurance. I don't care, Faith. Slayers don't leave each other out in the cold."

"I've already explained that Phil, and he's a good guy for a spook B. Think you might actually like him," Faith said with some amusement in her voice. "But I told him if they wanted to prevent all out war, I wanted someone specific from our side to be your assurance."

"And who prey tell do you want?" Buffy asked.

"Well. Where is Andrew right now?"

Riley started wonder just how bad things were. He knew Faith was in a coma following her trip to Pegasus but had no idea it could be bad enough that Buffy was asking Faith if she was dying or not. Seeing her face relax slight after getting an answer didn't do much for his concerns.

So why did he suddenly feel like he wanted his ex to be angry rather than the evil smile that was slowly forming on her lips.

"Seriously? You want him? Really?" Buffy asked, with no lack of glee in her voice. It sounded almost mischievous to him. "No, seriously I think it's an absolutely great idea. " She eyed Riley then. "I honestly can't think of a better response. No, do not worry about getting transport for him. Riley is right in front of me. I'll have him take Andrew to you." Her smile became more normal. "But I want daily reports Faith. That's non-negotiable. We either hear from you or we are going to come for you." Riley waited for her to speak again. "Good. I'll make sure he brings a care package from the girls. Stay safe Faith." She hung up the phone then and slowly took a seat back at the table, looking at Riley with a smirk on her face.

"What?" he dreaded to ask.

"Faith is out of isolation. She's convinced your superiors to bring one of our people to her as our own personal assurance that she's fine," Buffy replied. "You're going to bring him to her."

"Okay, sure," Riley said, still confused by the look on her face. "But why are grinning like that?"

Buffy had the cruel smile on her face. "Riley. You're going to spend hours on a plane with Andrew Wells, who has the specialty of annoying anyone he's around, regardless of whether he is trying to annoy you or not. By the time your flight is over, I guarantee you're going to want to punch out your Director for keeping your mouth shut for as long as you have."

The sad thing was, Riley actually believed what Buffy was saying.