“I’m from a line of mediums, though I’m the less psychically inclined of my family,” McKinney laughed. He wound up a black cord in his hands and tossed it in a box with obscure equipment. Hagen, Natasha and Clint hovered around the body bag holding the shell of the former Shade and whispered things to each other that Eden couldn’t hear.
“Then you should know that that makes you more susceptible to possession,” Denny returned with fearless humor. “Working with Shades this closely isn’t good for anyone much less someone who can channel spiritual energy more than others.”
“I’ve been possessed before.”
“Shades aren’t your average possession,” she continued, anger building. How stupid could these people be? “You can’t just cleanse yourself and you can’t just exorcise them from a host body. They attach themselves to the soul, whereas most possessions involve a spirit or demon inhabiting the human form alone. Once inside they slowly eat the existing persona away.”
“Oh wow,” McKinney said with ample surprise.
“My God, how long have you been studying these things?” Denny asked, appalled.
“Only a few months,” Bea answered. “Mostly we've worked with possessed animals. This has been our first big break.”
“Shades in the bodies of lesser animals are just as dangerous,” Eden frowned.
“Yeah, but they never screamed at us or gave us cryptic riddles.”
Eden crossed her arms and proceeded to watch them complete the removal of their belongings in silence. When that lost her interest she moved closer to Natasha and Clint.
“— Selvig reported earlier that the energy cloud has finally stabilized. At least, that is what appears to have happened. There haven’t been any unusual spikes in activity for the past three days.”
“Good, good,” Hagen fervently nodded. Denny’s eyebrows lifted and fell in silent judgment.
“I hope this means that your team will start finding ”
Hagan bristled. “We are doing the best we are able, Agents. A little consideration for the circumstances we are working with would be appreciated.”
“There is no room for appreciation in our line of work, Dr. Hagan,” Natasha returned.

“I don’t think that the fact the cloud has stabilized should be considered a good thing,” Denny called after them as she jumped from the top step. Both agents turned to face her.
“I mean,” she continued at the sight of their faces, “It might just mean that the activity is at a steady continuum. It doesn’t mean that it’s stopped or slowed down. Things have stabilized.”
“I don’t recall either of us saying that it was a good thing,” Natasha looked to Clint.
“No, but that Hagen guy did. I wanted to say it in there, but…”
“But what?”
Denny squinted her eyes and pursed her lips. “I… I’m not sure. I have a bad feeling about this, though. About SOMU. It isn’t good for people to be so involved in Shades and studying Shades in such an unprotected manner.”
“Well, we don’t know enough to protect ourselves from these things or stop them, which is why we need people who are willing to study them.”
Denny threw her hands up. “It doesn’t matter how much you learn or discover about them, there’s nothing that you can do to stop them! These aren’t things that you can just kill, not with mortal weapons or cleansing rituals. These things have only one weakness, a particular golden flame, and according to them I’m the only one who knows or has the ability to conjure this flame.”
“Which is why they wanted you dead when you were younger, I assume.”
“Apparently, yes.”
“Ever since we brought you in you keep talking like none of this is certain,” Natasha pointed out.
“I’ve been told these things,” Denny shrugged passively. “I cannot say whether or not they are true.”
“Told by who?”
“People, things in the Dreamscape. I don’t know how to explain it to someone who doesn’t already have a basic knowledge of these things,” Eden shrugged in desperation.
“This flame, have you used it before?” Clint asked.
“Once; successfully anyway,” Denny admitted. “I managed to get to the man immediately after a Shade took him. I haven’t been able to cleanse a host under a Shade’s control much longer than that.”
“Why not?”
“Well, it isn’t like I’ve ever had many chances to practice,” Denny scoffed. “I’ve had more dealings with Shades than you all have, but that doesn’t mean that I went out of my way to fight them. Which is another reason why I think you should be concerned as well. People who enjoy working with Shades for long periods of time have something very wrong with them.”
“You think they might be Shades,” Clint stated.
“I have my suspicions,” Denny admitted. “Especially towards the psychic. And the Doctor seemed too agreeable about the stabilization. I am willing to admit that I could be paranoid. But I truly believe that something is off in this situation. If there aren’t hosts, that does not rule out the possibility that they are still helping Shades. Mr. Gorman did that much without allowing them in his body.”
“If it will make you feel better we’ll talk to Director Fury about it.”
“I don’t know who that is, but I guess that will have to do. I’d really feel better if they were disbanded and quarantined.”
They got back in the car in momentary silence. Natasha pulled out her phone, maybe to call the Director, but pressed it against her lips pensively instead.
“You said before that these Shades are trying to experiment with a stronger form of possession. Clearly the Shade that we just talked to was not a success. Do you think that there would be enough time between the woman’s possession, which we estimate may be a week, and now that would make Shades capable of successfully inhabiting a body?”
“Um,” Denny’s face screwed up in thought.
“I guess what I’m asking is how advanced, or how quickly do you think that they could advance their practices.”
“I am not sure it would necessarily be a chronological progression,” Denny conjectured. “I imagine that some Shades have already been successful, and others are trying to figure it out. You know, like, one got it right without trying and now they all are trying. Maybe success varies based on the spiritual and or mental state of the host, or even of the Shade. I don’t know. I don’t have a good answer.”
“Starting to doubt?” Clint asked Natasha, who put him on hold with a finger.
“Most of the subjects that SOMU has dealt with to this point have been animals. Hagen claimed that they were unable to obtain any useful information about Shades from those missions. Do you know enough to validate that statement?”
“A Shade is a Shade,” Denny shook her head. “Even in an animal form, such as a dog, it could talk. The psychic in fact told me they didn’t, and that is a blatant lie. Actually, Shades cannot stay attached to animal forms. I think it’s because animals don’t have the same sense of morals that humans do. Unless they just had particularly stubborn Shade… and I don’t know what exactly they are trying to find out from them…”
Denny sighed. “Shades are manipulative. Extremely manipulative. They are expert readers of human emotion and use clever words and sweet talk to get their way. When that doesn’t work, they whittle down resistance and instill as much doubt and discord as they can. They come to those who least expect it, creeping and whispering things, things that only you know— things that you thought only you knew. What would you do when they offer you things beyond your world, when they promise you the dark desires of your human heart? People hear this and think they know what they would say, that they’d know it’s too good to be true, but when it happens, there is nothing that can prepare you for the sweet poison of their words. I can promise you that. The only way to resist them is to come to terms with yourself before they do. To know who you are and what your weaknesses are.”
Natasha and Clint were quiet for a minute longer. Denny shook her head to herself and looked out the window, back to the upper stories of the complex. Natasha finally stowed the phone and put the car in drive. She spoke quietly to Clint but not so that Eden couldn’t listen in.
“If we take into consideration the possibility that SOMU has become… infected, more or less, then that would explain why we’ve not been able to get good information—”
“Any information,” Clint scoffed.
“—out of them. In fact it would discredit the information we have been getting.”
“This is not something we need right now,” Clint groaned. He rubbed his eyes wearily.
“But it may very well be our current situation. Do you want to tell Fury or do you want me to?”

“I have a better idea. Let’s tell Coulson and let him tell Fury.”

Notes