While Steve and Freya walk to the lab, they end up spotting Natasha slip into the detention center. They glance at each other in question before silently following. Slipping into the detention center after her, they stay in the surveillance room connected to Loki's cell. Freya goes up to the control panel and initiates the monitor with sound. They watch Natasha sneak up to Loki's cell while he paces. He abruptly stops, smiles and turns toward the redhead.

"There's not many people who can sneak up on me," Loki admits.

"But you figured I'd come," Natasha replies.

"What's she doing?" Steve asks quietly.

"Shh," Freya shushes him. "She knows what she's doing. Trust me." Steve just responds with a nod while they train their eyes back on the monitor. Even though Freya's angry with Natasha, she still enjoys watching Black Widow work.

"After," Loki nods. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate," he grins mischievously. "I really hoped it would be Freya that showed up, but I ultimately knew it would be you."

"I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton," Natasha demands, getting straight to the point.

"I'd say I've expanded his mind," Loki grins.

"And once you've won," Natasha says as she slowly walks toward Loki's cell. "Once you're king of the mountain, what happens with his mind?"

"Oh..." Loki chuckles. "Is this love, Agent Romanoff?"

Steve looks down at Freya in silent question. She snorts out a quiet chuckle.

"That's a definite negative. Natasha loves Clint, but she's not in love with him. Same goes for Clint toward her and I," Freya informs Steve. Who tilts his head, seemingly confused, making Freya chuckle again. "You know, men and women can be best friends and love each other without the relationship being romantic."

"That actually happens?" Steve asks in disbelief.

"Oh, boy," Freya sighs to herself before looking up at him. "Yes, that happens quite often." She shakes her head with another chuckle and turns her attention back to the monitor. Steve quickly follows suit.

"Love is for children," Natasha replies evenly. "I owe him a debt."

"Tell me," Loki requests as he backs away to sit on the bed in his cell. Natasha tilts her head in thought before sighing and walking over to the chair next to her.

"Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., I, uh..." Natasha pauses and sits down. "Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call."

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?" Loki asks curiously.

"Not let you out," Natasha replies with a small smile.

"Oh, no, but I like this," Loki chuckles sinisterly. "Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man."

"There's no point in talking to him or interrogating him. He's nuts," Steve shakes his head.

"Just watch," Freya smirks.

"Regimes fall every day," Natasha shrugs. "I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian. Or I was."

"And what are you now?" Loki asks.

"It's really not that complicated," Natasha replies while getting to her feet. She walks up to the cell once more and crosses her arms. "I got red on my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you?" Loki asks quietly. "Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter," Loki says, instantly making Natasha, as well as Freya, tense up. "Sao Paulo, the hospital fire? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping," Loki taunts. Getting to his feet, he starts to approach her as he walks across his cell. "It's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic!" Loki spits as he walks up to the glass. Now face to face with Natasha. Who's standing there with wide eyes. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away." Loki slams a fist against the glass, making Natasha jump and step back. "I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull," Loki growls. Natasha gasps and walks away to hide her face. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim."

"You're a monster," Natasha replies shakily as she sniffles.

"Should we get in there? Agent Romanoff looks a little upset," Steve says.

"No," Freya calmly shakes her head. "She's fine. She can handle it. She's got the situation under control."

"It doesn't look under control to me," Steve responds. All Freya does is nod at the monitor, indicating she wants him to keep watching. She frowns though after getting a good look at Natasha's face. The redhead really is upset. And Loki's words had not only bothered Natasha, but Freya as well.

"Oh, no," Loki chuckles. "You brought the monster." Freya's eyes go wide at his unintentional admission. Black Widow had gotten the god to slip up.

"Got him," Freya grins.

"Huh?" Steve glances at her. His eyes widen when he sees Natasha stop crying and turn toward Loki like nothing's wrong.

"So, Banner," Natasha assesses. "That's your play."

"What?" Loki asks, now confused as well as shocked that she had managed to get information from him.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk," Natasha calls out to the team over comms. Her voice echoes in Steve and Freya's ears as well as through the monitor. "Keep Banner in the lab. I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." Natasha pauses to look at Loki and nods. "Thank you for your cooperation." She turns and makes her way out of secure lock up, leaving Loki to stand in his cell, now completely baffled. Freya tugs Steve with her and slips out of the detention center before Natasha sees them.

"That was amazing," Steve says in awe.

"That's Black Widow for you," Freya chuckles before nodding toward the end of the hall. "Cmon, lets get to the lab." Steve replies with a nod and falls in step with her as they head toward the lab. When they arrive, they're surprised to see Fury already there. And it looks like Tony is arguing with him.

"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss. No fuss." Tony turns his attention to the screen in front of him when it beeps. The decryption program finally finishes, opening up one of the secure files as it does. "What is 'Phase 2'?" he asks Fury.

Steve slams the weapon he and Freya had grabbed from the storage room down on the table behind Fury. His voice thick with anger.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons." He looks over at Tony, "Sorry, computer was movin' a little slow for us." Freya walks past Steve to stand on the other side of the table. A hard stare directed at her boss.

"What the hell, Fury...?" she asks through clenched teeth. Fury finally looks up and addresses the soldier and the assassin as he walks over to them.

"Rogers, Freya, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. That does not mean that we're making-"

"I'm sorry Nick. What, were you lying?" Tony cuts Fury off as he spins the monitor in front of him around to face the other man. Freya watches the screen preview a break down of one of the weapon schematics. She can feel her anger growing.

"Stop bullshitting us," she snaps at her boss.

"I was wrong, Director," Steve glares. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Movement makes Freya look to her left. She sees Thor walk in, followed by Natasha. The two women make eye contact and the redhead looks away guiltily.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asks Natasha.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asks, ignoring his question.

Freya immediately realizes Natasha already knows about this. It makes sense with her being a higher level agent than the young Stark. She steps up next to Thor. He notices her stiff posture and places a hand on his niece's shoulder to comfort her while they watch the exchange between Bruce and Natasha.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed," Bruce smirks.

"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha warns.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" he retorts.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," she says impatiently.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce grabs the screen and turns it toward her. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." A brief silence follows before Fury points at Thor and Freya.

"Because of them."

"Wait, what?" Freya furrows her eyebrows in confusion.

"Us?" Thor mirrors her expression as he points at the two of them. Everyone's eyes are now trained on the uncle and his niece. Tony takes a step forward in anger. Ready to defend his daughter.

"In 1996, a young girl landed on our planet in a beam of light," Fury begins to elaborate. "No memories. Origin unknown. As she grew up, she began to acquire ability after ability. Only becoming stronger and more dangerous with age."

"She's not a threat Fury and you know it," Steve snaps.

"The limit of her powers are unknown. She doesn't even have full control over them," Fury replies. "What if she were to turn on us one day? If she loses control, we're all dead. I didn't make a cell for her because I know it'll be useless. So don't say she's not a threat, because she is the biggest threat here. Just look at who her birth father is." Even though Freya knows what Fury says is true, her mouth still drops open. Clearly offended by his words. Tony is absolutely seething.

"You better back the fuck off, Fury," Tony warns. "That is my daughter you're talking about. I raised her, not Loki."

"Like that's any better," Fury snorts.

"Hey!" Freya angrily yells at Fury. Her momentarily glowing eyes not going unnoticed by the others. Steve's eyes widen in surprise. He watches her curiously for a moment before glaring at Fury once more.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury continues as he ignores her cry of protest. "Because of Freya, we already knew we're not alone. But what we did find out is that we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor crosses his arms and narrows his eyes. "And my niece has done nothing but protect it."

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched." Fury pauses as he glances at Freya. "That can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve questions.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor states angrily as he steps forward. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve asks.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with someth-"

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony interrupts Fury. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury retorts.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-"

"Wait wait, hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony interrupts Steve this time. Freya steps forward between Fury and Thor when she notices things are starting to get out of hand.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve snorts.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor scoffs.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury snaps.

"You treat your champions with such mistrust. Especially, my niece," Thor glares back at the director.

"They're not my champions-"

"Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha asks. "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Bruce scoffs.

"We all are," she replies.

"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" Tony teases the soldier.

"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack-"

"Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened."

Freya looks around at everyone, watching everything dissolve into chaos. Something's wrong. She's getting that feeling in her stomach again like she did on the jet before Loki tried to mind control Steve. Except it's stronger this time. Much stronger. Something bad is going to happen, she can feel it. Her attention gets pulled back to Steve and her father as their voices get louder. She crosses the room hoping to get them to stop as they continue to argue. Everyone is turning on each other and is becoming aggressive. Tony and Steve being the worst ones.

"Show some respect," Steve growls. Tony scoffs and rolls his eyes.

"Respect what?"

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor scoffs at Fury. His deep voice drowning out everyone else.

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce adds. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury warns.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asks as he places his hand on Steve's shoulder. Getting fed up, Steve quickly smacks his arm away.

"You know damn well why. Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me..." Tony challenges.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor." Steve slowly walks past Freya and stands on the other side of her dad. "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony instantly replies as he turns toward the other man. Freya hears someone snort behind her, thinking that it was most likely Natasha. She takes a step forward, trying to get in between her dad and Steve.

"Guys... Cmon, stop it. This isn't like either of you." They both ignore Freya and continue to argue.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve says venomously. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself." Glancing up at her dad, Freya can tell by the look on his face that Steve's words are getting to him. "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you," Steve accuses.

"Guys, please-" Freya attempts to speak.

"I think I would just cut the wire," is her father's smart-ass reply. Steve smirks and quickly looks down at Freya. Her wide eyes are begging them to stop.

"Always a way out." Steve's smirk quickly disappears. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero." A snarl almost takes over Tony's face. Placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder, he pushes her out of the way. Giving him room to step forward and get in Steve's face.

"A hero? Like you?" Tony growls. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle..." His voice gets dark at the end as he glares at Steve.

"Put on the suit," Steve smirks again. "Let's go a few rounds."

"You people are so petty, and tiny," Thor laughs at the chaos. Freya notices her dad drag a hand across his face like he's slightly out of it. She narrows her eyes as she turns around to face Bruce, who finally speaks up.

"Yeah, this is a team," he scoffs.

She glances down behind Bruce, noticing the scepter is glowing. Her eyes go wide, realizing the scepter is the cause. It's messing with their heads, making them aggressive towards each other. For some reason though, it isn't effecting her. Confusion takes over as she tunes back into the conversation, hearing Fury speak to Natasha.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his r-"

"Where? You rented my room," Bruce snaps.

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried," Bruce admits. Freya's eyes soften as she looks at Bruce, her heart breaking for him.

"Bruce," she frowns. He quickly glances at Freya and frowns as well before continuing.

"I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." Freya stiffens as Bruce absentmindedly reaches back, grips the scepter and faces Natasha. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" Everyone in the room is now on edge as he picks up the scepter from its stand. Freya starts to raise her hands in case she needs to help contain him. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Fury and Natasha place their hands on their guns.

"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter," Steve says calmly. Bruce looks down, finally realizing he's holding Loki's scepter. He looks up at everyone with wide eyes. Suddenly, one of the computers behind Thor begins to beep.

"Got it," Tony announces. Bruce slowly puts the scepter on the table and walks over to the computer with Natasha on his heels.

"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," he mumbles.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor questions.

"I could get there fastest," Tony says. Causing Freya to look at him pointedly and raise an eyebrow. "Okay, fine, second fastest," he reluctantly admits.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor replies to Tony, who's starting to leave. Freya turns around just as Steve reaches out and grabs her father's arm.

"You're not going alone," Steve orders. It's Tony's turn to smack Steve's arm away.

"You're gonna stop me?" Tony challenges.

"Put on the suit, let's find out," Steve challenges right back. Freya steps forward, placing her hands on Steve and her dad's chests as she looks between the two.

"This isn't the-" Her father interrupts her as he walks forward more, attempting to get in Steve's face with Freya in the way.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit," Steve growls.

"Knock it off!" Freya finally yells.

"Stay out of this!" Tony forcefully swats her hand away. Freya's eyes go wide at his outburst towards her.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Steve wraps his right arm around her waist and pulls her to his side protectively. Slightly shielding her from Tony.

"Merky..." Tony's eyes soften, realizing what just happened.

"Oh, my God," Bruce mutters when the computer beeps again as it displays the Cube's location.

An explosion suddenly rips through the middle of the lab. The force of it throws everyone in different directions. Freya lands hard near Steve, who rolls onto her to shield her. Her arms wrap around his head, attempting to protect him from any debris. Hearing a groan beside her, she unwraps herself from Steve and looks over to see her father lying there.

"Dad! Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine," Tony shakes his head. "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm good," she nods. Tony begins to pick himself up as Steve rolls off of Freya and checks to see if she's okay. The two men finally make eye contact.

"Put on the suit," Steve tells Tony.

"Yep!"