Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D HQ
Aurora followed Steve into Director Fury's office, almost as upset as the captain was about the mission on the Lemurian Star, but for a different reason. She knew that Fury always compartmentalized on missions, but he almost always clued her in. This time, she'd been just as in the dark as Steve was. After almost six years at S.H.I.E.L.D., she thought she'd earned enough of his trust to at least know when someone else was running a side mission while she was on the main one.
"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve demanded as he burst into Fury's office.
Fury obviously knew what he was talking about. "I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than the two of you."
"Which you neglected to share with either of us." Aurora said sharply, raising an eyebrow at the Director.
He sighed slightly, turning to Aurora rather than a still frowning Steve. "I told you what I thought you should know."
"You didn't think Natasha running a whole other mission wasn't something we needed to know?" Steve blurted. "Those hostages could've died."
"I sent the greatest soldier in history and one of my most powerful and trust agents to make sure that didn't happen."
"Soldiers trust each other," Steve snapped, "that's what makes it an army, not just a bunch of guys running around shooting guns."
"Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." He sighed and looked back to the Captain. "Look, I didn't want you to do anything you might be uncomfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything."
"And I'm not?" Aurora raised an eyebrow again. "I could've saved S.H.I.E.L.D. intel, Director. There's something you're not telling us."
"Maybe not. But it doesn't really matter now what I was hiding from you, now does it, Agent Banner?"
"I could make you tell me," she said simply, the threat scarily calm, but that was all it was. A threat. She'd never do it. She refused to force people against their will unless it was a last result.
Fury just leaned back with another shrug. "You could. But I don't think Rogers would approve."
"She doesn't need my approval to do anything." Steve spoke up flatly. "She can do whatever she wants."
"It's called compartmentalization," Fury snapped. "Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all."
"Except you." Steve all but growled.
Fury sighed and stood up, refraining from calling her bluff. He knew she could, but he knew she wouldn't. "You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that."
Steve looked at Aurora with a raised eyebrow, asking if she knew where they were going.
She shook her head subtly, standing close to him as they followed Fury through the facility.
He looked down almost anxiously at her, and Aurora had to try not to let her mind slip towards his, just for a peek to feel past what he let out without realizing. She pulled back quickly though, this was so far from the time and the last time she had gotten that close to his mind, her powers turned blue all the faster.
She almost blushed, but refrained as they climbed into the elevator behind Fury.
"Insight Bay," Fury said to the elevator.
The artificial intelligence denied. "Captain Rogers and Agent Banner do not have clearance for Project Insight."
"Director override: Fury, Nicholas J."
"Access granted."
The elevator started moving, and they stood in silence for part of the ride.
"You know, they used to play music," Steve commented softly.
Fury snorted. "Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad—worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say "hi", people would say hi back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say "Hi", they'd say, "Keep on steppin'." Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter."
Steve looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "He ever get mugged?"
Fury laughed slightly. "Every week some punk would say what's in the bag?"
"And what did he do?"
"He'd show 'em. A bunch of crumpled ones... and loaded .22 Magnum."
Steve nodded slightly, almost laughing at humor that wasn't there. He glanced at Aurora and saw that she seemed to have ignored the entire conversation.
Fury continued his story with a quick conclusion. "Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much."
They reached the basement level, and Steve saw Aurora's mismatched eyes grow wide.
"Yeah, I know," Fury stated, "they're a little bit bigger than a .22."
Steve looked on in as much shock as the telepath, breath catching and not realizing how close Aurora's mind had actually drawn to his until he felt an echoed flare of his confusion and then quick anger at Fury that he quickly pressed back down, with a smaller feeling of concern that wasn't wholly his.
"This is crazy," Aurora said softly, most of the statement hidden beneath a breath, but Steve still caught it.
"This is Project Insight," Fury explained. "Three next-generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites.
"Launched from the Numerian Star?" Aurora guessed.
Fury nodded as he continued to explain. "Once we get them into the air, they never need to come down. Continuous sub-orbital flight, courtesy of our new repulsor engines."
"Stark?" Steve asked.
"He had a few suggestions after he got an up-close- look at our old turbines."
Aurora snorted.
"These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. Our satellites can read a terrorists DNA before he steps out of his spider-hole." Fury looked at Steve and Aurora. "We're going to neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."
"I thought the punishment usually came after the crime," Steve commented.
"We can't afford to wait that long," Fury replied quickly.
"Who's we?"
"After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge and threat analysis. For once, we are way ahead of the curve."
"By holding a gun to everyone on earth and calling it protection." Steve all but scoffed.
"You know, I read those SSR files. The greatest generation, you guys did some nasty stuff." Fury shot back.
"Yeah," Steve defended, "we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so people could be free." Steve pointed around them to Project Insight. "This isn't freedom, this is fear."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be," Fury retorted. "It's gettin' damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."
Steve met his gaze evenly, blue eyes stern. "Don't hold your breath."
He glanced to Aurora, who had been oddly silent on something he knew she couldn't agree with.
"Do you have a comment, Agent Banner?" Fury asked, almost like he thought her silence was agreement that would hush the protesting Captain.
"How do the satellites read the DNA of their target? And what precautions have you taken to make sure it reads the entire genome exactly as it is?" She shook her head, staring at the floor with her heterochromic eyes. "If there's even the smallest glitch, it could kill any number of innocent people. A child, a sibling, anyone with a similar genome."
"We have precautions," Fury said simply.
Aurora's frown deepened. "Thanks for clearing that up, Director," she replied flatly, turning to leave just behind Steve.
Aurora was shaking her head, her arms still crossed as she split off from Steve to get dressed in mundane clothes and go home. She was surprised to see Steve waiting on her at the door.
"Oh," she said with a smile as she walked out, her bag slung over her shoulder. "Hey, Steve."
"Hey," he said with a returning smile. "Since we didn't ride to work this morning in our own vehicles, you want a ride? I keep a motorcycle here for things like this. And since we live in the same apartment building—thanks for getting me that apartment, by the way."
"You're welcome for the six-hundredth time," she said with a laugh, "and sure, I'll take a ride."
He smiled again and offered his arm.
She took it and they walked together toward the garage, both trying their hardest not to dwell on Project Insight.
They weren't doing a good job, but eventually they reached Steve's motorcycle and he swung a leg over it almost effortlessly, looking back at Aurora with a faint smile, almost sheepishly before she slipped just as easily onto the back, her arms wrapping around his middle.
"Ready?" He asked quietly and she could have sworn there was something different in the tone of his voice that she quickly brushed off, trying harder than usual not to slip into his mind as her palms pressed against the warm expanse of his abdomen through the thin fabric of his shirt. She pulled her hand back quickly, clutching at the leather of his jacket instead, needing more distance between their skin before she just let herself slip into his mind.
"What? Oh, yeah." She whispered and Steve cranked the bike into a roar before starting from the parking lot, looking back at Aurora every few minutes with a grin like he was making sure she wasn't going to just tuck and roll in the next turn.
She found her mind drifting into deeper into his, and Steve didn't push her out. She felt all of his current emotions, touched a few of his memories, and knew what he was thinking without ever realizing she was doing it.
Even when she dipped deep enough that he was sure to notice he didn't push her out, didn't even react. She just skimmed some of his memories though, those that were pushed closest to the front of his mind. She saw herself in a few, but couldn't quite place where, or what made her think there was just something off with them.