Green Tinted Glass

Lucia stepped out onto the deck of the Heli-carrier, the crisp night air stinging her face. She breathed deeply, grateful for the refreshing, clean air after the hours in the stuffy body of the jet. A group of what looked to be 20 armed guards made their way over, led by Fury. 

“Don’t you think that's a bit overkill?” Lucia asked as the guards surrounded Loki and started escorting him towards the bridge, where he would then be taken deep into the depths of the heli-carrier, to a cell that was never meant for him. 

“You can never be too careful, Agent. Did everything go smoothly?” Fury asked.

“For the most part…” She replied, gesturing at Thor as he exited the Heli-carrier behind her. “We have an unexpected guest.”

Instantly, four more armed guards rushed forward to restrain him, but Fury held up a hand, stopping their movements. 

“It’s OK,” He said, then turned to Thor as he spoke, “You have no intentions of harming the people of earth, correct?”

Thor nodded, “I am merely here to keep an eye on my brother, and to stop him from harming your people again.” 

“Well then, welcome aboard. Agent Monet, could you arrange some quarters for our guest?” Fury asked a petite woman standing to the side of the Jet. 

“Of course sir.” She turned heel and headed for the bridge, where Loki, with his entourage of guards, was just disappearing through a door.

“Agent Romanoff, please lead the others to the bridge, I expect a full mission report by noon tomorrow.” Fury checked his watch, where the numbers 2:08 am faintly glowed. 

“Scratch that, noon today.” 

Nat nodded and started towards the bridge, Steve, Tony, and Thor trailing behind. Lucia made to follow, But Fury had other plans. 

“Not you Agent Stark, you're with me.”

Fury started walking, and Lucia fell into step beside him. They weren't headed for the bridge, like everyone else. Instead, Fury led her to an unassuming door and she followed him inside. They were halfway down the corridor before he spoke. 

“A shortcut.” 

As if that explained why Lucia was with him instead of Natasha and the others. She let out a breathy sigh as she was led down a stairway to a lower level.

“Why am I here, Fury?” 

“On the Helicarrier? Because you’re a newly reinstated agent, and this is our current base of operations.”

Lucia rolled her eyes. “You know what I meant.”

Fury chuckled. “What do you think? You’re doing a profile.” 

Yes! Psychological profiles were her specialty, although she supposed that now her analyzing skills were second place next to her feathery and bloody ones. She tried not to let her excitement show on her face. 

“Of course. Anything you need.” 

“What I need is for you to tell me what you think of this ‘Loki’, and why you think he attacked us.”

“Well,” Lucia started, running over everything she knew about him so far, “I know that he’s Thor’s brother, though he’s adopted- I talked with Thor on the ride over, he gave me the whole story. I know he tried to kill an entire race of people and almost succeeded, all for the admiration of his father. When he failed, he let himself fall into the abyss surrounding Asgard, although according to Loki he was thrown into it and exiled. I know that he feels overshadowed by his brother, and that he thinks his father favors Thor. I know he wants to be king- feels he deserves it over Thor. I know his parentage may not be Asgardian. I know he has powers of illusion, as well as shape-shifting, conjuration, molecular rearrangement… he’s considered the most powerful sorcerer in all of Asgard, even Thor doesn't know the full extent of his power. And,” she took a breath, “I know considering all that, he gave up far, far too easily.” 

Fury nodded, “I thought so too. But I didn't ask what you know, I asked what you think.”

“Right. I think that he’s got a plan, that he meant to be captured as part of it. I also think its possible he’s being controlled somehow, that there’s a bigger player in the field that we don’t know about yet-”

“Hold it,” Fury interrupted, stopping in the middle of the corridor, deep in the bowels of the ship. “That’s a bit of a jump. He’s the one controlling other people, people like Agent Barton and Dr Selvig. This man- or whatever he is- is dangerous and ruthless. I agree that he has a plan, I mean come on, he’s a strategist. But right now we have the upper hand. So I need you to go in there and figure out exactly what that plan is, and how we can stop it.”

Fury pointed to a door behind him that Lucia hadn’t noticed before. Across the door read the words: HIGH DANGER PRISONER, CLEARANCE LEVEL A1 NEEDED FOR ACCESS. 

Ah, so this is the cell then. 

Lucia turned back to Fury. “We already know his plan. He means to bring an army of Aliens called Chitauri to earth through an interdimensional portal caused by the tesseract.”

“Thor told you this?” 

“Yes, but it's impossible. For a portal that size, the amount of raw power it would take would need to be stabilized by some other compound, something like-” she stopped in her tracks, slapping her palm to her forehead as some of the puzzle clicked together. “Fuck!”

“What is it, Agent?”

“Iridium! The man at the gala- The one whose eyeball Loki scanned? He was Heirnch Schäfer. Fucking hell, I knew I recognized him from somewhere!”

Fury raised an eyebrow in question.

“I did my senior year project on the theoretical science of stabilizing massive amounts of raw energy with different chemical compounds.” Lucia explained. Fury raised an eyebrow. “What can I say, I take after my father. Anyway, Heirnch Schäfer was a nuclear scientist that specializes in the chemical element iridium, I was researching it as one of the potential compounds that could stabilize high amounts of raw energy, but it was impractical because it's so rare and expensive and hard to work with because of its melting point… I'm getting off track. Schäfer has a warehouse full of the stuff. A warehouse that obviously has high amounts of security, including…”

“A retina scan.” Fury finished for her. “So you think he would have used iridium to stabilize a portal?”

“I think he still is. If Clint was on the other side of that retina scanner… I don’t know, it was the most promising in my research, but still highly theoretical. Although, if given the resources… Dr Selvig could work it out. They might not even need Loki to open the portal.”

Fury’s face was grim. “Then let’s hope Dr Banner and Mr Stark can figure it out first.” He took out a walkie talkie while scanning his clearance card on the door. It opened with a hiss and slowly swung inward as he started talking into the device. 

“Hello Agent, I need you to give the following information to Dr Banner and Mr Stark… yes this takes precedence over the scepter…”

His voice faded as Lucia stepped into the room. 

She was standing on a metal grate platform, a sheer drop beneath her into wires and pipes running along the floor far below. Technology rimmed the circular room; command centers to control the cell in the middle. And what an impressive cell it was.

Circular walls made of thick, triple glazed bulletproof glass that not even a bomb could shatter. Metal fittings lined the edges and the door, and great metal clamps held the cell in place where it was suspended above what looked to be a massive chute out the bottom of the ship, which was currently covered in metal plating. The cell was very sparsely decorated, with only a bench to sit or lie on on one side. And in the middle of it all, the raven-haired, cause-of-all-her-problems stood with his arms crossed behind his back. 

His gaze pierced through Lucia, like phantom claws against her, shredding her to pieces and picking at the scraps for anything useful. She straightened her back and gave him her best glare. 

He smiled.

“In case it isn't clear,” Fury said, coming through the door behind Lucia, evidently done with his conversation over walkie talkie, “You try to escape,” He opened a plastic box that covered a big red switch, “You so much as scratch that glass…” he flipped the switch to halfway, and the chute below the cell opened, a rush of air blasting through. Lucia imagined flipping the switch fully would send the cell tumbling out of the Heli-carrier, down, down, down to the inevitable death of whoever was unlucky enough to be inside. Loki seemed to think so too, and he came close to the wall of the cell, peering down into the open air with a calculating look. Was that genuine fear on his face? 

“30,000 feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?” Fury half-shouted over the rushing of air. He flipped the switch back, and the chute closed. 

“Ant,” he gestured to Loki, and then to the switch, “Boot.” 

Loki simply chuckled. “It's an impressive cage.” he said, amusement laced through his words. “Not built, I think, for me.” 

“Built for something a lot stronger than you.” Fury said.

“Oh, I’ve heard.” Loki said, his gaze flitting to a surveillance camera in the corner of the room. 

“A mindless beast, makes play he’s still a man.”

Lucia cringed as she imagined Dr Banner watching the footage. So he knows about the Hulk.

“How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?” 

His eyes landed on Lucia as he said creatures, and a shiver ran down her spine. 

“How desperate am I?” Fury said, his voice at a calm volume, but Lucia could hear the anger creeping in.

“You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill because it’s fun.” 

Lucia studied Loki closely as Fury took a breath. He didn’t exactly look happy, nor did he look like someone whose plan was going smoothly. He had a hard look on his face, but it disappeared as Fury spoke again.

“You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did” 

“Ooh.” Loki breathed, a smug look coming over his face. “It burns you to have come so close.” Lucia shivered at the gruffness in his voice. “To have the tesseract, to have power; unlimited power. And for what?” He chuckled again, turning to the camera. “A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is.” He growled. 

A smirk tugged at Fury’s lips. “Well, let me know if ‘real power’ wants a magazine or something.” 

He walked away, and Lucia followed, pausing just outside the door and turning back to Loki. 

“Quite theatrical, aren’t you?”

A small muscle twitched in his jaw. Lucia smiled and walked out of the room, the door closing with a metallic thud behind her. 

“Anything?” he asked in a low voice once they were safely in the corridor. 

She nodded her head lightly.

“Nothing substantial, but I think his plan has something to do with Dr Banner, or rather, his alter ego. My advice would be to be careful about Banner, and send Natasha in to prod at Loki. Let me watch and see if I can determine a motive, another layer of his plan, anything.”

Fury nodded, pointing Lucia towards the bridge. 

“I have an errand to run. Go.” 

She walked to the bridge in silence, mind swirling.

-

As Lucia walked into the bridge, Thor was in the middle of telling Bruce, Steve and Natasha Loki’s plan. While Steve and Nat had been on the jet when Thor had explained it to Lucia, they had both been in the cockpit and missed out on the vital information.

“-He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth, in return, I suspect, for the tesseract.”

“An army,” Steve said in quiet disbelief, “From outer space.” 

“So, he’s building another portal.” Bruce said.

“Yes, that's what he needs Eric Selvig for.” Lucia interrupted. “Didn’t an agent come to brief you in the lab?”

“No, I’ve been here.” Bruce answered in confusion.

“Selvig?” Thor questioned.

“He’s an astrophysicist.”

“He’s a friend.” Thor's eyebrows knitted together in concern.

“Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours.” Natasha explained, eyes dropping at the mention of Clint. 

“Mind control. With his scepter.” Lucia added. 

“I want to know why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here.”

Steve said. 

“I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki, that guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him.” Bruce argued.

Lucia was about to object, but Thor beat her to it. 

“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother.” 

“He killed eighty people in two days.” Nat reminded him.

“...He’s adopted.” 

“Yeah, and how many people have you killed in two days, Nat?” Lucia said, regretting the jab as soon as it came out of her mouth. Nat’s expression fell.

“My record’s around 92.” Lucia chuckled, trying and failing to lighten the situation. 

“And besides, he’s not crazy. He’s an Asgardian strategist. The most powerful sorcerer of a warrior race. Underestimating him would be suicide. He has a plan, he wanted to be captured; we just don't know why yet.”

“I think it's about the mechanics.” Bruce said, dismissing her argument. “Iridium. What do they need the iridium fo-”

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” said Tony, sauntering into the room with Coulson at his side. He nodded to Lucia, clearly he had received the briefing from whatever agent Fury had sent. He turned to Coulson, talking in a hushed voice. 

“I’m just saying, pick a weekend, I’ll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive.” 

He turned back to the group of them.

“It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D.” as he passed Thor, he patted him on the shoulder. “No hard feelings, point break, you’ve got a mean swing. Also,”

He took a breath, walking towards Lucia, “It means the portal can open as wide- and stay open- as long as Loki wants.” 

He paused at Fury’s tech center; double hologram screens on either side of a platform that overlooked the rest of the bridge. 

“Uh, raise the mizzenmast, jib the topsails.” he quipped. It landed flat, and at least half of the agents working paused to stare at him quizzically. He rolled his eyes.

“That man is playing galaga!” he pointed, “He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did.” 

He looked around at Fury’s set up, covering one eye to emulate Fury’s eyepatch.

“How does Fury even see these?”

“He turns.” Agent Hill said.

“Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major thing he needs is a power source of high energy density-” he fiddled with Fury’s computers. “Something to kickstart the cube.”

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill questioned. 

“Last night.” Tony smirked, and Hill gave him a quizzical look.

“The packet, Selvig’s notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?” 

“Not the only one.” Lucia muttered. 

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asked.

“He’d have to heat the cube to 120 million kelvin just to break through the coulomb barrier.” Bruce half-answered.

“Unless Selvig has found a way to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.” 

Lucia said, deep in thought. 

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.” 

Bruce said, in his zone now. 

“Finally!” Tony said, walking over to Bruce “Someone who speaks english.” 

Lucia rolled her eyes as Steve asked “Is that what just happened?” in a small voice. 

“It’s good to meet you Dr Banner.” Tony said, shaking his hand. “Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster.” He smiled and Bruce winced. 

“Thanks.”

“Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube.” Fury said, entering the bridge. 

Yeah, right. And I’m only here to do a profile. Lucia thought. 

“I was hoping you might join him.” Fury told her brother pointedly. 

“I would start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a hydra weapon.” Steve suggested. 

“Damn right.” Lucia muttered, abruptly becoming aware of the throb in her side where Loki had grazed her with a blast. It wasn't healing well, but she had been trained to block out pain. And after Hydra… lets just say her pain tolerance was very high.

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube, and I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.” Fury continued.

“Monkeys?” Thor asked, that confused look on his face again, “I do not understand-”

“I do!” Steve said, a little too excitedly. Everyone stared. “I understood that reference.” He said quietly. 

“Shall we play, doctor?” Tony said, turning to Bruce. 

“This way.” He nodded.

Everyone started to get up, either to follow Tony and Bruce to the lab or to do some other useful thing. Lucia tapped Natasha on the shoulder as she got out of her chair and gestured over to Fury. Nat nodded, silently understanding, and followed Lucia over to where he stood giving hushed orders to Maria Hill. 

As they approached, Fury dismissed Agent Hill and turned to them, folding his arms behind his back. 

“Stark, would you care to explain our little plan to Ms Romanoff?”

“Right. So we think Loki getting captured is part of some bigger plan, a plan I suspect involves the Hulk in some way. I need you to interrogate Loki, prod at him so I can piece together his motives and larger plan.” 

She grinned. “When do we start?” 

-

Lucia slipped into the room as quietly as she could, holding her breath as she crept into a hiding spot behind some crates. Thank god above Loki had his back turned to the door, or this would have been a lot trickier. Natasha walked into the room before the door could close, and made a little more noise than Lucia had. Loki straightened, sensing her presence. 

“Hmm. there's not many people who can sneak up on me.” He purred, his voice far too soft for a ruthless killer. 

“But you figured I’d come.” Natasha said, cocking her head to the side. An assumption, but a well placed one. 

“After.” He confirmed, a strange look flashed across his features before it was replaced with that cool indifference. “After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm.”  He smiled. “And I would cooperate.” 

“I want to know what you’ve done to Agent Barton.” 

A look between curiosity and amusement came across Loki’s features. Clearly, he didn’t expect her to be so direct. 

“I would say I’ve expanded his mind.”

Nat came closer to the glass of the cell. 

“And once you’ve won, once you’re king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?”

“Ooh,” he breathed, “Is this love, Agent Romanoff?” Amusement sparkled in his eyes, but Natasha’s face remained cool and collected. 

“Love is for children; I owe him a debt.” 

Loki smiled, walking away from the glass, away from Natasha. 

Closer to Lucia. She held her breath. 

“Tell me.” he said, turning back to Natasha. She took a deep breath, as if contemplating whether she should. 

“Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D, I, uh…” She sat down on a crate, “I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn’t care who I used it for, or on.” emotion seeped into her voice. Lucia could tell it was real, as was the power of her deception. Loki watched her from his bench, a feline grace to the way he held himself. 

“I got on S.H.I.E.L.D’s radar in a bad way.” Natasha continued. “Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call.” she smiled faintly at the last bit as Loki studied her, weighing the information laid out before him. 

“And what will you do if I vow to spare him?” he questioned softly. 

“Not let you out.” 

“Ah, no, but I like this.” He grinned. “Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?” he said, an expression tied between disbelief and amusement on his face. 

“Regimes fall everyday. I tend not to weep over that; I’m russian. Or- I was.” 

“And what are you now?”

“It’s really not that complicated. I got red in my ledger, I’d like to wipe it out.”

And there it was; the bait.

“Can you?” He questioned, “Can you wipe out that much red?” 

Natasha’s brows furrowed in confusion. Lucia smiled. 

He was falling for it.

“Dreykov's daughter?”

The smile was wiped from Lucia’s face, though Nat, to her credit, kept her face neutral. How could he possibly know about that?

“São Paulo,” Loki continued, “the hospital fire?" 

Loki studied her for a reaction. She gave none.

“Barton told me everything.” He explained, standing up from his bench and walking towards the glass wall that separated them. 

“Your ledger is dripping. it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?” he seethed. There was such anger in his voice, such hate. It was the most emotion he’d shown since Lucia had met him. 

“This is a bassist sentimentality, this is a child at prayer. Pathetic!” he snarled at the glass. 

“You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate; to have your own code.” his voice became deathly quiet, and Lucia had to strain to hear from her hiding spot.

“Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you.” he breathed. Voice so soft now, like a lover's embrace, like he was almost sorry. 

“And they will never go away.” His voice was cold and detached as he stared at her through the glass. Wait, no he wasn’t staring at her, he was staring at the glass, at-

Loki slammed his fist against the wall, making Lucia jump and tearing her away from her train of thought.

“I won't touch Barton,” he snarled, teeth bared, “not until I make him kill you, slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he’ll wake long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I’ll split his skull.” He spat. Nat turned away, composing herself and reeling in the horror blatant on her face. Lucia knew it was mostly a charade, they had both been through much worse, but still it hurt to see her in such anguish. 

“This is my bargain you mewling quim.” He growled.

Nat let the smallest, stifled sob escape her.

“You’re a monster.” she choked out. 

Loki chuckled, his face sour. “Oh, no. You brought the monster.” 

Aha. confirmation.

Nat straightened and turned back to Loki, all emotion from moments ago vanished without a trace.

“So, Banner. That's your play?”

Loki leaned back from the glass, shock and confusion clear on his face. 

“What?” 

Nat reached into her ear to the communication device there. 

“Loki means to unleash the Hulk, keep Banner in the lab, I’m on my way. Send Thor as well.” 

Nat nodded to Lucia as she passed. Lucia stood from her hiding spot, coming into Loki’s view. She swore she could hear him growl. Lucia followed Natasha to the door, but stopped just before it, turning back to Loki. 

“Thank you for your cooperation.” She smiled with a tilt of her head, before walking out the door.

“Anything?” Natasha asked as they raced towards the lab. 

“Heaps. No time now, though. We have to make sure Banner is calm. Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

Rushing through the corridors of the Heli-carrier, they bumped into Thor, who they took with them to the lab. As they entered, the air was tense, and Steve was talking to Fury with an accusatory tone.

“-world hasn’t changed a bit.”

“Did you know about this?” Bruce asked Lucia and Nat. Lucia shook her head- she had no idea what he was talking about. Natasha didn't respond to his question.

“You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?” she asked instead.

“I was in Calcutta; I was pretty well removed.” Bruce said, his tone accusatory. 

“Loki is manipulating you-”

“And you’ve been doing what, exactly?”

“What's going on?” Lucia asked, even as a feeling of betrayal began at the bottom of her spine. Tony showed her a holographic screen with the blueprints of nuclear weapons powered by the tesseract. A S.H.I.E.L.D stamp of approval glowed in the corner beneath the words PHASE 2. Lucia looked to Fury. For the first time since she met him, he avoided her gaze.

“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.” Nat said to Bruce.

“Yes, and I’m not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I’d like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

“I second that.” Lucia said, shooting an accusatory look as Nat. She, too, avoided Lucia’s gaze. The cold feeling of betrayal worked its way up into her stomach.

Everyone was silent for a beat, before Fury took a breath and pointed at Thor. 

“Because of him.” 

“Me?” Thor questioned.

“Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town.” Fury explained. “We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned.”

“My people want nothing but peace with your planet.” Thor objected.

“But you’re not the only people out there, are you? And you’re not the only threat. The world’s filled up with people who can’t be matched,” a look towards Lucia and Bruce, “That can’t be controlled.”

“Like you controlled the cube?” Steve prodded.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies!” Thor added, “It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

“A higher form?” Lucia asked, but her question went ignored.

“You forced our hand.” Fury rebutted, “We had to come up with something-”

“A nuclear deterrent.” Tony interrupted. “‘Because that always calms things right down.”

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?” Fury shot back. 

“I’m sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-” Steve was interrupted by Tony.

“Wait, wait, hold on, How is this now about me?” 

“I’m sorry, isn’t everything?” Steve snapped. 

“Whoa, calm down everyone-” Lucia started, but nobody listened to her.

“I thought humans were more evolved than this.” Thor taunted. 

“Guys, please, can't you see this is his-” Lucia continued, to no avail.

“Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?” Fury retorted, ignoring or not hearing her attempts to diffuse the situation over the din of everyone arguing. 

“You treat your champions with such mistrust.”

“Are you boys really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats.” Natasha interjected.

“-Captain America’s on the threat watch?” Bruce asked.

“We all are-”

“Can everyone just- just calm down?” If everyone kept arguing like this, it would only be a matter of time before Bruce lost control. Lucia could hardly think, everyone's voices melding together.

“-Wait, you’re on that list?”

“-Are you above or below angry bees?-”

“Stark, so help me god if you make one more wisecrack-”

Everything became a cacophony of arguing voices. Lucia huffed in frustration, couldn’t they see this is what Loki wanted, what he was planning for? Was the Avengers initiative so doomed to fail that even he could see it from the very start?

“-threat! Verbal threat, I feel threatened-”

“Show some respect-”

“Respect what?”

“Can you all be quiet for two seconds?!” Lucia said, frustration raising the volume of her voice.

“You speak of control yet you court chaos-”

“Shut up, all of you!” The room went deathly quiet at Lucia’s outburst, all attention turning to her. “Jesus Christ, we’re supposed to be a team!”

“A team?” Bruce scoffed, “No, no, no, we’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re… we’re a time bomb.” He breathed a laugh that had no humor in it. 

“You need to step away.” Fury cautioned him.

“Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?” Tony jeered from across the room.

“You know damn well why, back off!” Steve said.

“Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me.”

“Yeah, big man in a suit of armor” Steve circled him. “Take that off, what are you?”

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you fight for is yourself. You’re not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”

“I think I would just cut the wire.”

Steve scoffed, “Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”

“Alright, that's enough.” Lucia interjected, before her brother did something stupid like punch Captain America. “Cool it. We need to work together to beat this guy-” Tony held up a hand to silence her, his full attention still on Steve.

“A hero, like you? You’re a laboratory experiment, Rodgers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.” Tony spat.

Lucia’s mind was reeling. She felt slightly dizzy, slightly sick. This wasn’t how her brother usually acted. Sure, he could be an arrogant prick, but never this extent of scathing. And this certainly wasn’t the Steve Rodgers she had come to know in the last two weeks. It was like something was making them behave aggressively. Something like…

“The scepter.” She said out loud, quiet enough that only Nat, standing shoulder to shoulder with her, could hear.

“What?”

“Put on the suit, let's go for a few rounds.” challenged Steve.

“It’s the scepter.” Lucia said, a little louder, hoping Nat would understand.

“You people are so petty!” Thor laughed, “And tiny…”

“Yeah, this is a team.” Bruce said, sarcasm dripping off his words.

“Agent Romanoff, could you escort Dr Banner back to his-” 

“Where? You rented my room.” Bruce interrupted, referring to the cell a few floors below them. 

“The cell was just incase-”

“In case you needed to kill me, but you can’t, I know, I’ve tried.”

“Oh, Bruce…” Lucia said softly, instinctively placing a comforting hand on his arm. He shrugged it off. 

“I got low.” he explained as he realized everyone was staring at him. “I didn’t see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spat it out. So I moved on, focused on helping other people, I was good.” he turned to Natasha. “Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk! You wanna know my secret agent romanoff, you want to know how I stay calm?” everyone went quiet as they realized Bruce was holding-

“The scepter.” Lucia said, finishing the thought out loud. “Bruce, put down the scepter.” She held up her arms in a calming gesture, and only then did he seem to realize he had picked it up. 

Just then, the computer at the back of the room beeped, signaling that it had located the tesseract.

“Got it.” Tony said.

“Sorry kids, guess you don't get to see my party trick after all.” Bruce muttered as he walked over to the computer. 

“You located the Tesseract?” Thor asked.

“I could get there the fastest!” Tony exclaimed.

“The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it.”

Tony turned to leave, presumably to get his suit and go after the tesseract. 

“You’re not going alone.” Steve grabbed his arm, and Tony slapped it off. 

“You’re gonna stop me?”

“Put on the suit, let's find out.”

“People, the Scepter is affecting our minds, its making us aggressive, just take a breath-” Lucia tried, but everyone was too tense, to eager for a fight. 

“I’m not afraid to hit an old man.” 

“Put on the suit.” Steve seethed.

“Oh my god.” Bruce said, surprised by whatever he saw. Lucia looked at the map on the screen. 

“It's in New York!”

Suddenly an explosion rocked the ship, destabilizing the floor beneath them. A gush of hot air through a vent by Lucia’s feet threw her through a window, Nat and Bruce falling beside her. Lucia  summoned her wings to cushion her fall, but the extra weight had her crashing through a flimsy walkway and into the corridor below. Looking up through the hole in the ceiling, she could see Nat and Bruce land roughly on the metal walkway. Lucia had to get up there and help them- 

Through her earpiece, Agent Hill's voice yelled. 

“External detonation, number three engine is down. Can they get it running?”

A couple seconds passed before her voice came through Lucia’s ear again. 

“Somebody’s got to get outside and patch that engine.”

“Mr Stark, you copy that?” Fury’s voice in her ear asked. 

“I’m on it.”

“Coulson, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention section then get to the armory. Romanoff?” 

Natsha’s voice came from above Lucia a second before it came through her earpiece. 

“We’re ok.”

“Agent Stark, you good?”

Lucia touched a finger to her earpiece. “Yep.”

“Get to the detention section, I want eyes on Loki, don’t let him out of your sight.” 

“Got it.” 

Lucia gave one last look to Nat and Bruce before setting out for Loki’s cell. It was disorienting, being thrust into the belly of the heli-carrier at a random point, but she quickly found a corridor she recognised and made her way from there. As she rounded the corner to the hallway Loki’s cell was on, a roar came from above her. 

Shit, the Hulk, and I left Nat without backup- no, Nat could hold her own, and Lucia had her own task. 

She burst into Loki’s cell room. He was sitting quietly on his bench. He had a calculating look on his face, like he was hurriedly thinking up a plan. Lucia couldn't think why, everything seemed to be going exactly as he wanted it to. He even looked annoyed, unhappy. Maybe whoever was attacking the heli-carrier wasn’t getting to him as quickly as he wanted. She would see to it they never would. When he saw Lucia, he smiled.

“Hello agent.” he purred.

“What have you done?” She spat at him.

“Me? Nothing. I’ve been here the whole time, sitting quietly. Whatever could you be referring to?”

Another roar sounded from somewhere overhead. He grinned. It didn’t reach his eyes. “The beast has been unleashed.”

“His name is Bruce, and he’ll calm down soon enough.” 

“I wouldn’t be so sure. Such a stressful environment for such a sensitive man.” 

Over the PA a male voice Lucia didn’t recognise began to speak.

“We’ve got a perimeter breach! Hostiles are in S.H.I.E.l.D gear. Call outs at every junction.”

“Fuck.” Lucia ran her hands through her hair, fixing it out of the way, then took out her gun, loading it and clicking the safety off and on again, off and on again, just to have something to do with her hands.

“Such foul language from such a pretty face.”

“Shut your mouth or so help me, I'll put a bullet in it.”

“We have the Hulk and Thor on research level 4. Levels 2 and 3 are dark.”

Lucia paced the room, then stopped to barricade the door as best she could. She took out her ear bud and placed it on a table, turning the volume all the way up so she could hear it without having the earpiece in. She paced again.

“So eager to be locked in here with me? Perhaps they should make you a cage.” 

“They did. I proved to them I didn’t need it. Now for fucks sake, shut up. My threat from before still stands.” 

“Do you always curse when you’re scared?” he cocked his head to the side, studying her like a zoo animal. 

“I’m not scared. I’m agitated. And I swear when I fucking feel like it.” 

“Engine one is now in shutdown.”

The Heli-carrier lurched to the side, and Lucia grabbed a rail to stop herself from falling over. Loki laughed.

“We are in an uncontrolled descent.”

“It’s Barton.” Fury’s voice blared from the earpiece. “He took out our systems. He’s headed to the detention level. Does anybody copy?”

“This is agent Romanoff, I copy.” Lucia wanted to go out there and help her, but she needed to be here if Nat failed.

Loki’s gaze found Lucia’s. He seemed almost as unhappy as she did about it. He quickly gave a chuckle when he noticed her staring. 

“Looks like my rescuers have arrived at last.”

Lucia shook her head. “You’re not very good at it, you know.”

Loki raised an eyebrow in question. 

“The whole ‘whatever’ act. Looking like you don't care, like you’re always three steps ahead. Like everything is always going according to your plan.”

“I’m very good at it.” 

Lucia laughed.

“Not good enough. I can see it in your eyes. You don’t want to do this.”

“Of course I do.” He said, his gaze hardening. 

“So what are you planning?”

“Why would I tell you?”

Just then, the lights went dark, apart from the emergency ones in Loki’s cell and the blinking of the control panel. 

“What the-” 

The door to Loki’s cell opened.