I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire's point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.

…

Claire POV:

The walk to Bruce's lab was quiet. There were very few agents in the hallways. I assumed they were still sleeping. As I rounded the corner, I could see a faint glow coming from Bruce's lab. Like I had thought, he was inside. He sat at a desk, hunched over, wearing the same shirt from the day before. His hair looked as if he ran his hands through it countless times over the night. I gave a gentle knock on the door.

"Mind if I come in?" I asked. He looked up from the paperwork and journal at his desk to me. His face held an imprint from his glasses. "Bruce, did you sleep here?"

"I couldn't go back to bed after your nightmare," He spoke softly, leaning back. Guilt washed over me. It was my fault that he couldn't sleep.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. Looking down I spoke again, "I can go?"

"No, don't," he sighed. "It wasn't you. I just couldn't get back to bed. Between Tony trying to hack Fury's systems, Loki's scepter, your nightmare…I've had a lot on my mind."

"I understand that." I moved to the desk beside his and pulled myself up on it to sit. My legs hung off the side of the desk, my feet dangling far above the ground. Sometimes, it sucked being short. "Loki has got everyone on edge, even Natasha."

"Fury asked Natasha to go visit Loki in his cell after breakfast." Bruce looked up at me as he spoke. Something told me that he didn't want me to know, but told me anyway. I felt my breath get caught in my throat.

"Why?" My voice cracked.

"He thinks that Natasha can get some information out of him. After the stunt he pulled with you last night, Natasha went straight to Fury. He wants to know Loki's plan," Bruce explained. I frowned and nodded. Why would Fury make Natasha do that? I rubbed my forehead and watched Bruce pour over his notes. I gave the clock a quick glance, it was almost breakfast time.

"Do you want anything for breakfast, Bruce? I'd be happy to go get you something," I offered. I needed to talk to Natasha before she talked to Loki. However, I did not want to seem rude and run out of Bruce's office.

"Some coffee would be great, actually," Bruce grinned. I smiled and nodded.

"Sure, how do you take it?"

"Black," He spoke, moving to another machine. I saw his face light up at his new discovery. I nodded and moved out of the door, quickly running to the cafeteria. Along the way, I bumped into multiple people and shouted sorry's.

"Natasha!" I yelled, catching her as she left the cafeteria.

"What's wrong, Claire?" She asked, concerned. I shook my head.

"Be careful when you go see Loki," I whispered. In my mind I urged her to be careful, I couldn't lose her. I chanted 'careful' over and over again, hoping to imprint it in her mind. "He's dangerous, really dangerous."

"I know, Claire. I'm always careful," She gave me a small smile and walked away. Hopefully, it worked, but I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I grabbed Bruce a coffee and a breakfast sandwich just in case and trudged back to his lab. Something felt off.

"I brought you an egg and cheese on an English muffin, if you want it." I handed the bag and coffee to Bruce and sat at a monitor. "Can I turn Loki's feed on in here?"

"Of course, here." Bruce typed a few things into his own computer and suddenly Loki's security camera was streaming to my computer. Eat, eat, eat, I thought over and over again. I nodded and smiled, watching him take a bite of food. I sighed a breath of relief. Looks like I hadn't lost my touch after all. As I turned back to the screen, I noticed Natasha standing at the side of Loki's cell. Loki grinned and turned towards her.

"There's not many people that can sneak up on me," His voice was soft. He slowly started to walk to her.

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

"After… After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm…You or Claire," Loki taunted. He continued his slow saunter towards the glass wall of his cell. "And I would cooperate. Perhaps if Claire had come, I would cooperate more."

"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton," Natasha's voice was calm.

"Which one?" He laughed. Natasha clenched her jaw. I frowned, he was trying to toy with both Clint and I. Loki's voice was calm. I barely noticed that Tony walked in, I was too focused on the screen. "Oh, him. I'd say I've expanded his mind."

"And once you've won? Once you're king of the mountain?" Natasha took a few steps towards Loki's cell. I bit my lip and took a deep breath. Bruce was half working, half listening to the feed. "What happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki nodded his head slightly. I could tell that he was thinking hard.

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt." This was not a complete lie, she did owe Clint a favor. However, she cared for his family and me like we were her own family. She did love us, in our own way.

"Tell me." Loki's voice was still calm. He was consistent, I'll give him that. He stepped back a little in his cell. Natasha crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head slightly. She let out a sigh before she spoke.

"Before I worked for SHIELD, I uh…" She moved to sit down in the chair in front of the cell. "Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call." Both of them were sitting down, staring at each other. I remembered the day that Clint got the mission to kill Natasha. I remember him bringing her in, I thought he was crazy.

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out." Loki chuckled slightly.

"Ah, no. What would Claire do though?" He chuckled slightly. I clenched my fists together and shifted uneasily in my seat. He leaned forward with a sinister grin on his face. "But I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"

"Regime's fall everyday. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian, or I was." She shrugged like it was not a big deal.

"And what are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out," She stood as she spoke, crossing her arms again. I have seen her use this interrogation technique once before. She had taught me how to perfect it even. However, Loki made me uneasy.

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red?" Loki questioned. I frowned, sensing where this was going. He slowly moved to stand up. "Drakoff's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital file? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?"

Natasha's eyes widened and she took a few deep breathes in. He must have all of Clint's secrets. No wonder he came after me. After me and Natasha, I wondered who he would try to play with.

"This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic!" He was standing at the glass again. "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 a part of you, and they will never go away."

Loki slammed his fist on the glass, causing Natasha to jump. I jumped in my own seat.

"I won't barter 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!"

Natasha turned away from him quickly. I took a deep breath in and covered my mouth with my hand. Breakfast felt like it was going to come back up.

"Then, I will have little Claire to myself," He nearly growled. I felt my stomach sink. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

"You're a monster." Natasha sounded as if she was crying. Her face was turned away from the camera so I could not see.

"Oh, no," he laughed. I had always thought that people who are crazy only laughed in the movie. This proved that theory wrong. The way Loki laughed sent chills up my spin. "You brought the monster."

"So, Banner? That's your play?" Natasha turned around to face him again. Her face was dry of tears. She had faked it. It didn't help my stomach any.

"What?" Loki was confused.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk," Natasha spoke into her earpiece. She immediately moved away and started out the door. I glanced towards Bruce, then back to the screen. "Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well."

She turned to face him, Loki was confused.

"Thank you, for your cooperation," She said politely. I sat back in my chair trying to process everything that had just happened. My mind was racing, as well as my heartbeat.

"He's not going to get to you," Tony spoke up, making me jump. I turned to face him, brushing my hair from my face. "I heard about your nightmare last night. Don't worry, kid, I won't let him hurt you or Legolas."

I gave Tony a small smile and nodded. Giving myself a momentary distraction, I took my hair down and then put it up again in a Dutch braid. I had just shut the laptop screen off when Fury walked in. His black coat swishing behind him. I looked up at him, certain I was going to get in trouble for watching the feed.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" He walked to stand on the other side of the work bench, across from Tony.

"Uh…kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony replied. His voice was arrogant.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury spoke. His voice was angry, this was not a good sign. I glanced towards Bruce, who was casually standing behind Tony.

"We are, 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." Bruce was the one to speak as he pointed to a screen that was locating the cube. I didn't expect Bruce to reply. I frowned and took a deep breath.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Tony shrugged. At that moment, his computer dinged in front of him. 'Phase 2' was written in bold letters across his screen. "What is Phase 2?"

Steve took this opportunity to move into the room and slam a weapon on the table. Metal hitting metal sounded throughout the air. I looked to Steve, confused. Steve spoke up, stepping forward. He did not look happy at all. "Phase 2 is SHIELD used the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

He was glancing between Tony, Bruce, Fury and me. I stood up from my chair slowly, as if not to disturb anyone. Fury started to walk towards Steve. He was trying to defend himself from the evidence Steve and Tony had just found.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…" Fury was cut off by Tony.

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony cut him off. "What were you lying?"

"You know the Tesseract is dangerous, why try to control it?" I asked, moving to look at Tony's screen. Steve looked to me, he was watching me closely. There were hundreds of files on blueprints of weapons.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Steve said as Thor and Natasha walked into the room. I looked to Natasha, she held up a hand to me. I frowned and stepped back. Pressure was building in this room, I could feel it. The hair on my arms stood up straight.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce motioned with his glasses to Natasha, then to me. I shook my head quickly.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha supplied. I frowned, this was not like her. Bruce just laughed a little.

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

"Loki's manipulating you," Natasha spoke calmly, stepping closer to Bruce.

"No," I replied. "Loki is manipulating all of us."

"My brother…" Thor began to speak.

"Your brother," I cut him off. I was angry now. "Your brother is not a good guy, no matter how you argue it. He has brainwashed people. He has killed people. He has tried to turn me against my own team. He is playing all of us."

"Claire…" Steve warned. I took a deep breath to calm myself. As I looked around the room, I noticed some of the smaller items hovering above their stations. When I calmed down, they dropped back into place.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce directed his comment more towards Natasha and I, than to anyone else.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha said, walking towards Bruce. Fury rolled his eyes, he looked uncomfortable as well.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce took a few steps towards the computer screen and reached for it. He motioned at it with his glasses. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury replied, pointing towards Thor.