"Peggy?"

"Oh, I shouldn't've said that."

Ana left after talking about the picture. Tony had briefly before heard about Peggy in passing from his father… and something about fondue.

"I have a feeling that I might not have time to get at least ten minutes of sleep anytime soon, so I'm going to get a blanket and nap until they call. Also there are extra pillows and blankets in the ottoman," Ana called to the men.

She laid herself on half of a couch and covered her legs in a black and yellow blanket. Within seconds she was sleeping soundly. Tony paid closer attention to the blanket and said, "Batman, really?"

~A~

By the windows, the Loki and Steve spoke a bit. "Why did Ana ask you to hug her?"

"Because we relate to each other on a level. She said it perfectly to me once. It went something along the lines of, 'ignorance and neglect hurt much more than outright dislike or hatred.' Take care of her, okay? I might not see her for a while... I care for her like she cares for me."

Steve looked to the god and then looked back at the girl in question. She shivered slightly and curled up a bit more. Steve walked over to her and pulled the blanket up to her shoulder. He kneeled in closer to her and studied her more, finding more similarities to Peggy from when he last saw her. He ran to grab a piece of paper from her room and a pen and promptly started to sketch her face.

Ana started to wake when he was about finished. Her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks until she fully opened her eyes. The contact on her right eye was slightly off, and so her vision was fuzzy. Ana reached out her hand and placed it on Steve's face. "Angular jaw and a rather nice bottom lip. Steve, I believe." "Ma'am… your eye thing is messed up." "Right. Thanks," Ana said as she promptly removed the contact. The rest of the men barely noticed as she left that there was something different with her eye.

~A~

On the roof, a helicopter landed on the roof and was clearly heard from the ceiling. Ana gathered her shoes and the guy's now clean clothes. The men filed into the hall, Loki now in zip-tie handcuffs, and then up the stairs with Ana following all the way. "How was the break?" Natasha asked as they piled into the helicopter. "Entertaining. Thor attacked my giant box of teddy bears and Tony filmed it. I napped under a Batman blanket that Tony hated. We showered and Steve sketched a portrait of me."

"All of you showered… together?"

"God, no I'm not a slag! Just start the damn chopper!"

~A~

The helicopter flew them to a plane, and from there the plane took them to the helicarrier. Tony and Ana were moved to her lab to work with Dr. Banner. But before that happened, Ana followed the guards with Loki into the holding chamber with her cat. Once the guards and Ana left, Director Fury talked to Loki about an ant and a boot.

In the main area of the helicarrier, they were all around the table watching the interrogation. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner added at the end of it.

"Once you get to know him, yes," Ana stated.

Steve commanded, "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?

"He has an army called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard nor any world know. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. Return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army, from outer space."

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Banner stated.

"Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha butted in.

Steve said, "I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

"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," Banner said, not noticing the icy glare from Ana.

"I don't care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

Natasha dully stated, "He killed eighty people in two days."

Thor, backtracking, "He's adopted."

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Banner thought aloud.

"It's a stabilizing agent," said Tony said as he walked into the main chamber. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants. That man is playing Galaga!" Ana walked over to the guy and gave him a slap across the back of his head and stabbed his screen with a pen, shattering it. Tony was by the center monitors and placed a bug while saying, "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did. How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Ana said as she shuffled back to her seat, kicking her feet up on the table.

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill questioned.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Oui, mais je n'ai écumer un peu d'elle," Ana said as she leaned back in her chair, bored, and stared at the ceiling. (Yes, but I did skim a bit of it.)

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve questioned

"He got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner said simply.

"Unless-"

"Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect with a reactor," Ana imputed.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, people who speak English," Tony said relieved.

Steve, confused, "Is that what just happened? But she was just speaking French a moment ago."

"Oui, et alors?" Ana simply stated. (Yes, so what?)

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"Thanks."

Fury entered and said, "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him. Ana, you too."

"Je suis considérablement honoré, âne." Ana said with her voice dripping in sarcasm. (I am greatly honoured, ass.)

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon," said Steve interested.

"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."

Thor asked confused, "Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do! I understood that reference," Steve exclaimed. Ana walked over to him, patted his shoulder, said "Oh, baby," and gave him a kiss on the temple before the trio left the room. "This-a-way, boys, I had it decked out with all the new toys!"

~A~

Back in the lab, work looking for the Tesseract began. "I'm so hungry," Tony moaned. "Back of the room, by the pipe. There is a knob on the pipe. Use the knob to open the door and inside should be some blueberries, Pepsi, sweets, and a whole mess of other things. Help yourselves as long as you bring me a Pepsi and a box of sweets," Ana said not even looking up from the screen in front of her. Currently she was perched atop the center island, "What?"

"How do you know this?" "First rule of my lab: don't question me and just assume."

"Age. I skimmed over it in the file they gave us. And it's a demand, not a question."

"Seventeen. Happy princess?"

"Teenager, eh? Who else is a teen on this… Thing? Also, aren't you the princess?"

"Captain Rogers, I believe. I think nineteen. Oi! Who told you." Ana hopped off her perch and was chest to chest with Tony. "Calm down guys-" Dr. Banner tried to intercede, but was cut off by shushing. They were having a staring contest. Tony caved first because of Ana's killer stare. Steve decided to walk in and was confused by the scene of the two standing that close. "How's the search going?"

"Spotty so far, Steve." Ana answered as she was the one to grab the blueberries, throw them to Tony, get her Pepsi and sweets, and hop on top on the table before. She hopped off again and started walking out the door, "Guys, I'll be back. My contacts are bothering me. Carry on. Oh, and no fighting."

She continued to her room, but before she made it there she was stopped by Natasha. They stared each other down until Natasha slammed Ana into the wall, leaving the younger Russian's feet dangling from the floor. Ana then swung her legs around Natasha's arm and kicked her face before landing on the ground. "I still don't believe you're here."

"Shit happens, doll face. I would know." Ana retorted back before entering her room. She rubbed her eyes after removing her contacts. Her hair was a mess so she combed it before re-tieing it up in a bun with parts of her bangs curling around her ears. She checked the time, grabbed her blacked-out ray-bans and placed them on her head. She closed up her room and made her way back to her lab, avoiding people's eyes.

Upon arriving back, Steve had left and the other two were acting seemingly normal. "Anymore progress?"

"Nope, your royal highness. Why sunglasses? It's only nearing dawn."

"The sun and I have a love hate relationship. It loves making me hate it and and run from it. O merciless sun, why doth thou so bright?! On top of that, the idjits from SHIELD won't let me have blinds! Bah!"

Both men looked at each other, passing blueberries among themselves.