A/N: I wanted to first thank everyone for not spoiling endgame for me in the comments. To the reviewer who said I probably wouldn't like it, you're right. I like what they did with the plot, but not Steve and Tony's endings. So safe to say, that will not be happening in this fic. But it gave me an idea of how I could incorporate a storyline that I didn't think would fit. And given the pairing of this fic, it will end quite a bit differently.

If any of you need more closure after Endgame, checkout my alternative ending to the movie fic "In The End"

I know I haven't diverged yet as much as some of you have hoped from canon, but I am getting there slowly. I needed to keep it mostly canon until Avengers 1, but from here we'll begin to see more and more divergences. And for the reviewers worried that there haven't been any negative consequences of changing the plot line yet, don't worry, there will be.

Hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter!


Chapter 19

Loki was taken into custody without any of the fanfare of all the earlier fighting. She watched on the cameras as Fury turned to face Loki in the glass cell he'd been placed in, one she knew all too well had been intended for Doctor Banner.

"In case it's unclear," Fury started, as he turned back to face their prisoner, "You try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass," he pressed a button then, opening up a hatch under his cell. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

She nearly laughed as Fury pointed at Loki, "Ant," before pointing at the button, "Boot."

The man drove her crazy at times, but he certainly knew his stuff.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me," Loki said, with a mask of carefreeness that she knew all too well.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury said without the slightest bit of hesitation.

"Oh, I've heard," Loki said, looking straight at them through the camera, "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" Fury scoffed, "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close," Loki taunted, "To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

"Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something," Fury said, not biting, as he left the room.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Dr Banner said, breaking the ice first.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," Rogers said, jumping straight into it. "So, Thor, his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor told them carefully. "They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army? From outer space?" Rogers said, sounding stunned.

"It wouldn't be the first time a space army came to earth," Ava said, and Toni shook her head at the girl. The two of them were not supposed to know about the Marvel incident, even if it had been easy enough to find out.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Banner said, not wanting to get into what Ava had mentioned, while Steve looked at Ava intently.

She wouldn't say that Ava was the spitting image of Captain America's long-lost war flame. But the family resemblance was high, and she knew it wouldn't be long before Rogers put it together.

"Selvig?" Thor asked, looking intrigued.

"He's an astrophysicist," Banner told him, as Toni leaned forward against a chair.

"He's a friend," Thor cut in, and Toni wondered if Thor had met the man during his last visit.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Romanoff said, "along with two of ours."

Ava's fist clenched, and Toni rested a hand on her arm, a gesture she knew went noticed by Rogers.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve brushed past it, "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," Dr Banner interjected, and clearly his response annoyed Thor.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother," Thor said, in his princely tone, sounding upset at the comparison.

"He killed eighty people in two days," Romanoff said, unimpressed.

"He's adopted," Thor attempted to brush it off.

She nearly laughed at that. That was his justification for the murder spree? That his brother was adopted? As if it was some sort of justification for homicide. If anyone knew about daddy issues, it was her, and she never tried to take over the planet.

Not with murder anyways.

"Iridium," Bruce brought them back to the point, "What did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," she said then, speaking for the first time, as she drew all eyes to her. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

Thor looked at her intently, and she patted his arm, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You got a mean swing."

He looked unimpressed, and she moved past them, to look onto the crew, to look at the screen.

"Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails," she said, trying to calm the mood of the room. She looked over at one of the agents, who was very clearly not working and frowned. "That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."

This was an all hands-on deck situation, there was no time for bad computer games.

She looked at both the screens, curiously, "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," Agent Hill said, unimpressed with him.

She flitted through the screens, getting the readings, "Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton and Carter-Sousa can get their hands on pretty easily. Only major component they'll still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

She moved close to the screen, placing down a device without them noticing. Rogers looked up at the second agent's name, and she wondered when he'd put it all together.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked her, clearly in disbelief of the entire situation.

"Last night," she said, clearly unimpressed that none of them had any idea what she was talking about, except maybe Ava and Banner. She'd stayed up all night reading through that packet to try and find out what was going on, while they were just what, sitting around? "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers interjected, just as unimpressed with her.

Well welcome to the club, Captain Rogers.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner said, and she nearly smiled at him in appreciation.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Toni countered.

"Unlikely," Ava snorted, "It's near impossible."

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

"Finally, someone else who speaks English," Toni beamed at him, as she moved closer to the scientist, and Ava laughed slightly.

"Is that what just happened?" Rogers muttered under his breath, looking lost in their conversation.

"It's good to meet you, Dr Banner," she told him. "You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. I've wanted to meet you for years and discuss your work first hand. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

She broached the second subject, clearly aware that the man was uncomfortable with his mutation. She'd seen his work that resulted in the creation, and she knew a thing or two about science trying to kill them.

He looked down, "Thanks," he said, pausing. "I'm a fan of yours too, Dr Stark. I heard you finally figured out a way to channel the arc reactor into producing clean energy. Something that like would be monumental for the future of energy. And you, Dr Carter-Sousa. I've seen the patents you've filled for SI. They're absolutely brilliant."

"I'm lucky to work for a great boss," Ava smiled, and Toni laughed, glancing over at the younger girl with a fond expression on her face.

"She's just saying that because we're cousins," Toni said, and Rogers looked like he was trying hard not to listen. She supposed the easiest thing would be to just tell the man. But where was the fun in that? Besides, he'd made it very clear he was all about the mission on hand, and all other personal feelings were to be put to the side.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube," Fury said, walking into the room then, "I was hoping you and Dr Carter-Sousa would join him in that search."

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

That was probably the least scientifically accurate thing she'd heard all day.

"I don't know about that," Fury interjected before she could say anything, "But it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn three of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Thor looked around the room, lost, "Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve said quickly, proud of himself, "I understood that reference."

She made a mental note to also catch the good Captain up with pop culture references from the last seven decades.

"Shall we play, Doctors?" Toni asked, holding her arm out to the both of them.

"Let's play some," Bruce said, gesturing to the door, as Ava slipped her arm through hers, and they walked out of the room.


She looked over at the monitors in Dr Banner's lab, as he scanned the scepter with a gamma ray detection scanner, searching for radiation.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process," Bruce said, looking down still.

"We don't have weeks," Ava remarked, with a frown.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops," Toni said, look over at them.

"All I packed was a tooth brush," Bruce sighed.

"You know," she said with a smile, as Bruce met her eyes, "You should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten flours are all R&D. You'd love it, it's like candy land."

"It's true," Ava said solemnly. "I moved in there too with Toni, and it's an absolute dream. State of the Art technology, constant supply of snacks. It's the best."

Bruce smiled at her somewhat sadly, "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises," she said, moving closer to him, as she poked him with an electrical prod.

Perhaps it was the safest thing to do on an aircraft, but clearly the man had self-esteem issues. And if she was going to fix that, she needed him to know he was in control.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, looking at her in surprise.

"Nothing?" She asked, as Rogers chose that moment to walk into the lab.

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Rogers said, clearly unimpressed.

"Jury's out on that," she said with a shrug, knowing the constant news articles on her mental state varying as suited their needs. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

He gave her an appreciative smile.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked her, and she sighed.

"Funny things are," she said simply.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve spoke down to her like she was a child, "No offense, doctor."

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," Bruce said, giving her a pointed glance.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut," she pointed the device back at him. She would get him to embrace himself, one way or another.

"I agree," Ava told him, "The Hulk most certainly should be strutting."

"See this is why you're my favourite," Toni grinned at her.

"You need to focus on the problem, Ms. Stark," Steve cut her off, chaisting her.

She nearly laughed, "You think I'm not? What, do you think I stayed awake all of last night reading that packet to further my ego? I've been doing everything in my power to find out where those agents are, and where Loki is hiding the Tesseract. But I only have more questions. Why did Fury call us, and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

He scoffed, "You think Fury's hiding something?"

She sighed exasperatedly, "He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," she looked over at her fellow geniuses. "It's bugging them too, isn't it?"

Bruce gawked, bobbling the words, "Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..."

"Doctor?" Steve turned to the man.

Bruce paused, "A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it," Rogers said quickly.

"Well, I think that was meant for you," Bruce said, turning to her. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" she glanced at the man, utterly unimpressed with the man her aunt asked her to help. "-building in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Bruce cut in.

"That's just the prototype," Ava said simply, "The next ones are going to last far longer than that."

"I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Toni said with a nod.

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring her in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce raised his hands, "If anyone knows anything about it, it would be her. I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Toni said nonchalantly.

"I'm sorry, did you say...?" Rogers said, looking unhappy.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge," She said, referring to the device she'd planted a while back. "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide."

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Captain America said, looking completely disappointed in her.

"They wanted her around," Ava said in her behalf, "They just couldn't afford her time."

"And an intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome," she told him simply.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve ignored her, "This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style," she said simply.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" he gave her a condescending smile.

She took deep breath. Men like him had thrown harsh words at her through her entire life. Words of anger and hate when she made them feel tiny.

"I'm about getting the job done, Captain Rogers. I'm about trying to figure out what happened to my cousin, and her brother," she pointed at Ava. "And SHIELD is keeping something from us. If you want to keep following their orders blindingly, then you do that. But I'm going to get our men back."

He took a step closer to her, as Bruce stepped in, "Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

He looked lost in thought for a moment, before shaking his head, "Just find the cube."

She watched him walk out the door as she muttered to herself, "Well Aunt Peggy, it might be a bit harder to help your man when he can't stand me."

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice," she said aloud after a few moments.

"Toni," Ava said softly, "You know he's wrong right? He's wrong about what he thinks of you. He doesn't know you, not like I do. Not like Harry, or Pepper, or Rhodey. Not like Mom and Dad do. Who cares what he thinks?"

"The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us," Bruce said after a moment.

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit," she said slowly, "It might as well belong to Hammer tech. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

"And I'll read all about it," Bruce said, "Safely from the sidelines."

"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us," Toni told him, as she moved closer to the man, as he looked at the screens.

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare," he told her gently, as she placed a hand on his arm.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," she told him gently, pointing to her reactor. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege."

"But you can control it," he countered.

"Because I learned how," she said softly, "It was killing me slowly, so I took charge of it."

"It's different," he tried to brush off. He pretended to be reading the screen, but she pushed the data aside, so he'd look at her directly.

"Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you," she told him gently.

"So you're saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life?" He asked, swallowing.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Ava asked him, looking up from her own screen.

"That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?" he asked them both, looking lost.

"I guess we'll find out," she said finally.

"You might not like that," he warned her.

"You just might," she countered.


She took a step out of the room, pulling out her phone.

"JARVIS, call Rhodey for me," she said, as she ducked into a hallway, and out of earshot.

"Calling Colonel Rhodes," JARVIS said, as she heard the call go through slowly.

"Toni?" she heard him answer within the first couple rings, "What happened? Where are you? I heard that some God from another planet attacked and that they've taken Harry hostage. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Honey Bear," she told him softly, "I'm at a SHIELD mobile base, aboard the helicarrier."

"What's happening?" he asked her carefully, "I heard you've taken the man into custody. This Loki creature. What does he want? Why did he attack?"

"I wish I knew, Rhodey," she said with a sigh, "He was arrested far too easily, as if he wanted to be on board. We have him in custody, where he can't hurt anyone else. He's locked up in some bullet proof glass cage that they intended to keep Doctor Banner in."

"Yet you think he could still do something to hurt innocent lives," his voice called out through the phone.

"I do," she admitted, "I think that we're all at risk. That whatever he's planning hasn't yet come to pass, but when it does, it's going to shake us to our core. He has a space army, Rhodey. A space army is going to invade Earth. And we're utterly and completely unprepared. We don't have the technology to fight a space war. What are we going to do if he manages to bring them here?"

"We'll take it one step at a time, Baby Girl," Rhodey told her gently. "Something else is bothering you though, isn't it? Something other than just this. I know you, you're rattled about more than just this. So what's bothering you, Toni?"

"I met Steve Rogers," she said with a sigh. "He's everything like my father described. Righteous and courageous, brave beyond measure, and basically every other thing the stories said about him. You would love him, he follows the letter of the law to the tee and loves all the security protocols that I brush off so easily."

She paused for a moment, and Rhodey didn't say a word, letting her speak her mind.

"He hates me," her voice cracked slightly. "Just like my father told me he would. Because I'm not good enough. Because I'm too brash and too bold and don't just bend the knee and follow whatever he has to say without as much of a question. He looks down at me when he talks to me like he already knows the kind of person I am, and I just met him hours ago. It feels like dealing with Howard all over again, where I want nothing more than his approval, and he just sees what he wants to see."

"Then he's an idiot," Rhodey said firmly, and she let out a somewhat watery laugh. "He is, Toni. You are so much more than what the media portrays you out to be. You're insane sometimes, yes. But you are the most brilliant person I know. I've never seen anyone else's mind work like yours does, and it amazes me each time you come up with something new."

He paused, letting her take his words in.

"You're also the most generous person I know," he told her gently, "You give so freely, even to those you don't even know. You gave me a home in yours. You gave Ava an entire floor in your tower and have one set up for Harry and I when we're there after missions, and for your Uncle whenever he's in town. You're paying for your Aunt's care, and have been for the last decade, even though no one would judge you if you didn't. You've been mentoring Peter Parker for a year, without any recognition, doing it secretively so no one else finds out, because you want to protect him, even though it could be used to give you some good press. You're so kind, Toni. You're my sister and I love you. Captain Rogers will come around and see the truth about you eventually. And well, if he doesn't, then who needs him anyways?"

She smiled to herself, as she listened to his words wash over. This is why her Honey Bear was the best. He always knew what to say to make her feel better, even when the rest of the world was weighing on her shoulders. He always knew what the right thing to say was.

"Thank you," she told him softly, "You're right. He's going to see what he wants to see, like everyone else always wants to. And I'm not going to let it get to me. If he wants to believe I'm nothing more than a spoiled girl, well then let him join the club with the rest of the world."

"That's my girl," he said, sounding proud of her. "I'm going to tell the General that I'm needed to fight in this war to come. I'll arrange something, come back from this mission early to make sure that you're not alone. I don't want you fighting against whatever this is alone."

"No," she said quickly, "Rhodey, you're fighting another war, one that is just as important. We can't all drop all other responsibilities because the world might end. If it doesn't, we need to keep living in it. The terrorists will still be there. The last thing we want is for them to use this as some sort of advantage to take over western society. You have your job and I have mine. I won't pull you back from duty because I have no idea what I'm doing. You need to be there, Rhodey. I'll be fine. I promise I'll keep you up to date on whatever happens."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," he told her gently, "The rest of the military can manage the terrorists on their own. Even if I can't get there in time for the fighting, I'll get there as soon as I can, Toni. I'm not letting you go through all of this on your own."

"I love you," she said softly, as she saw Romanoff walk towards the interrogation cells. "I probably should go. I promise I'll call you as soon as I have any updates."

"Good," he told her, "I love you too, Toni. Be careful, okay? Don't get hurt."

"I'll try my best, Sour Patch," she said with a grin as she hung up the phone, just in time for her scanner to let her know that it had hacked SHIELD successfully.


She'd almost laughed as she went over SHIELDs files, learning what it was that they had been working so intently on with the Tesseract. The model had reached a lock on the signature, and there was nothing really left to do but wait.

"What are you doing, Ms Stark?" she heard Fury ask angrily as he walked into the room.

"I've kind been wondering the same about you," she said, looking back up at the man.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," he told her, and she nearly laughed.

"We are," Bruce told him. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Ava said, smirking at him. "That was easy wasn't it?"

She looked over the file on her monitor.

"What is PHASE 2?" She asked, innocently, as Fury looked irate.

"PHASE 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," Captain Rogers said, barging back into the room, throwing a weapon of sorts on the table. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow."

She'd had her answer an hour ago, but fine, whatever, of course brute force is always the best answer. Who even needed algorithms anyways?

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-" Fury said, cut off by her.

She turned the monitor to face his good eye, "I'm sorry, Nick," she said, showing him weapons plans. "What were you lying? We negotiated that in my contract, remember? You were going keep the manipulation to a minimum."

"I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Rogers said, looking let down, and she almost felt sorry for the man.

Thor and Romanoff walked in a that moment, and Bruce looked over at them.

"Did you know about this?" He asked her.

"Did Harry know about this?" Ava asked the man, who softened when he looked at her.

"He knew what needed to be done," Fury told her. "Just like your mother," he turned to her, "And your father."

"Right," Toni laughed. "Like my father."

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Romanoff said, coming closer to him, and Bruce looked at her in disbelief.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," he told her, unimpressed.

"Loki's manipulating you," she tried to say calmly.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" he asked her, raising a brow.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," She rolled her eyes at him.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," He told her firmly, holding the monitor in his hands. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury said, pointing at Thor. All of them looked at the man, and she felt almost bad for him.

"Me?" he asked, a bit stunned.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Fury told them all.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor told him, trying to play the diplomat.

"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, they can't be controlled," Fury informed him, stepping forward.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Rogers asked, throwing it back at him.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor argued.

"A higher form?" Steve asked, a bit concerned.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something," Fury tried.

"Nuclear deterrent. Cause that always calms everything right down," she said simply.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" He shot back.

"By revolutionizing modern technology," Ava interjected, "Stark Industries isn't in the weapons business anymore.

"I'm sure if she still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Steve gave her a glance.

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" she protested.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" he asked her in mock confusion.

Dear Einstein, she really hated that man.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said, amused at their fighting.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury argued, clearly unimpressed with the man."

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor asked, looking back at her sympathetically.

"Are you boys really that naïve?" Romanoff asked. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America is on a watch list?" Ava all but laughed, "Him? The paradigm of all that is good and bright in this world?"

"We all are," Romanoff snapped at her.

"Don't speak to her that way," Toni shot at her, coming to her cousin's defense. "She's done nothing but speak the truth. Something we all want to get to the bottom of."

"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack-" Steve turned to her.

"That was a threat!" she all but spat back with false platitudes, "I feel threatened."

"Guys," Ava said, trying to get their attention.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor shook his head.

"It's his M.O., isn't it? 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," Bruce said, shaking slightly.

"Guys," Ava tried to interject again.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Toni cut in, furious at how they were all treating the man.

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve stepped closer to her.

She turned to face him, aware of just how far their faces were from each other, "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me. Were you there in Harlem? Do you know first-hand what he's capable of? You didn't see him save the city from the Abomination. Yet you seem so sure of yourself for a man who just got out of the ice and has no idea how the modern world works. Maybe you should be backing off."

He stepped closer into her space, "Big girl in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" he asked her, looking down on her.

"Genius, billionaire, philanthropist. Daughter, niece, cousin, CEO of the largest corporation in the world. I revolutionized the world of technology while men like you spat down at me and tried to put me in the place they thought I belonged in. I built that suit in a cave when I was being held captive and tortured. I am not nothing without the suit. The suit is nothing without me," she spat back at him.

"I know women and men with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage," he said, and she laughed. Of course he'd seen whatever press footage they had of her.

"The only thing you really fight for is yourself," he came closer, "You're not the girl to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"Why should I lay down on the wire? I'm not a soldier going through army boot camp. I'm a strategist," she told him, "I think I would just cut the wire."

He smiled at her, as if he could see right through her to her core. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"I never once claimed to be one," she said to him, "That's the difference between us, Captain Rogers. I've always known what I am, known who I am. But you? You're not a hero either. You're a lab rat. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"

Rogers made himself stand taller, trying to goad her into standing down but she refused. He knew people like her, well she knew men like him too. Men who always thought they were far better than the rest of them.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds," he told her, and she nearly laughed.

"You people are so petty, and tiny," Thor said, laughing from behind them.

She rubbed her head, exhausted from the lack of sleep as she took a step back.

"Yeah, this is a team," Bruce remarked.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr Banner back to his-" Fury tried to deescalate the situation.

"Where?" Bruce laughed sarcastically, "You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case-" Fury tried.

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!" Bruce said, silencing them all.

"Bruce," Ava said, trying to step closer to the man, but he pulled away.

"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!" He paused to look at Romanoff, who didn't even flinch when he did. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

He moved then, holding the scepter, and Fury and Romanoff immediately grabbed their guns.

"Bruce," Ava told him gently, "Put down the scepter. I think it's been messing with your head. With all of your heads."

He lowered it carefully back onto the table, looking surprised and clearly unaware that he had even picked it up.

The computer chimed then, and she moved away, looking at the screen to see what it was that it said. "Got it," she let out a breath.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all," Bruce muttered quietly, and Ava rested an arm on his shoulder. He shot her a tired smile, and she returned it carefully.

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked, trying to see where it was.

"I can get there faster," she said simply, as she looked at the coordinates.

"Look, all of us-" Steve tried to cut in.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it," Thor warned them.

She turned to leave, as Steve grabbed her arm.

"You're not going alone!" He told her insistently.

"Why, cause I'm just a stupid little girl who can't handle herself?" she scoffed at him. "Because I'm not to be trusted? Are you going to stop me, Captain America?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out," he bit back, standing a foot away from her.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," she laughed, "Even if it is you. Aristotle, the stories I've heard about you. And you're not even coming up close."

"Put on the suit," he goaded her again.

"Oh my God," Bruce said, as he looked at the location.

She turned to him, as the ship shook at that moment, and explosion throwing them all to the ground.

Rogers looked at her, trying to see if she was injured, "Put on the suit," he told her quickly. And she nodded in agreement.

"Yep," she said, as he helped her up.

Whatever it was that Loki was planning, whatever he was trying to achieve by letting himself be taken into custody, it was happening, and it was happening now.