Charged Emotions
Athena supposed it should have been obvious from the start, what Loki's plan had been. She felt it even more keenly as she walked through the halls of the base with Thor. Loki had been so fixated on Banner and the 'Hulk' he turned into, knowing about the glass cage, knowing who it was meant for. It was like every word he said was something to try and trigger Banner, to remind him that he was a monster and try to incite him to turn against the agents around him. She should have realized it, it was so clear to her now why he was fixated on the man. To put a man like Banner in a craft like this...one single instance of anger that could unleash the Hulk and everyone, every single person both in the craft and in the towns below them would be in danger. The ship was held together well, it was strong, but if the Hulk went on a rampage through it...it would be torn apart, and all the people in it would likely be killed either from a crash or from the Hulk himself. THAT had been Loki's plan from the start, to try and get the Hulk out of hiding.
It was why he'd let himself get captured, because he knew, from Barton, the cage that they had made for Banner. He knew exactly what Banner was like, what the SHIELD agents feared of him, and what they knew of his strength. He would know the cage was certainly strong enough for the Hulk, that the agents had likely studied just how powerful the creature was. He knew Fury's first course of action would be to detain him and the only thing he would have on hand would be the glass cage. She knew, Fury had been wrong, the cage wasn't meant for someone stronger than them. She, Thor, and Loki could easily break out of it and if Fury thought that the cage could hold the Hulk then that answered her questions about the Hulk's strength and who would win in a fight between them, likely Thor. But that was the point, Fury was so sure that the cage would hold the Hulk and, since the Hulk was the strongest person he knew, he was adamant that it would hold Loki as well.
Loki could have easily gotten out of it...but he was choosing to stay IN it because then they'd have no place to put Banner and secure him. He was taking up the space in the cage for a reason. To keep Banner out. It was rather perfect in its simplicity in a way. If they opened the cage door to shove Banner in, Loki would get out. If they somehow managed to get Banner inside well, Loki would just unleash the beast with his taunting and digs and then let Banner out of the cage with him. If they, in some manner, got Loki out of the cage and Banner in it, then Loki was free. There was no win at all for any side now that Loki was there and in the cage. They could hope that she and Thor would be able to deal with Loki, retrain him, keep watch over him, but that was another issue. Loki KNEW them, he knew what they were like, he knew how they fought, their methods and their training and he had already proven he knew how to manipulate Thor into reacting instead of thinking, even with Athena beside him. She was rather adept at ignoring those around her when she wanted to, her brothers and sisters could be a very rambunctious bunch and one needed to be able to tune them out at times so as to not go insane. There was always some sort of trickery going on with her siblings so she knew how to spot it in others. But that only meant Loki wouldn't likely best her in the mind games but he very well could likely best her in physical combat. She would stoop so low as to use his injuries against him, the torture that had been inflicted on him was likely to leave scars and still tender wounds and she would use whatever was her advantage to subdue him, something she noticed Natasha did as well and she respected her for it.
Now that they knew Loki's game had been a bid for Banner, she knew what the next course of action would be, either to detain him (which would likely make him angry) or to try and keep him calm. She was a fan of the second option, but she had a lingering fear that it would be far more difficult than they knew. Not only was everyone being called to a lab that Tony and Banner had retreated to, but...the mix of personalities alone would not be good for anyone, she was sure. She and Thor, they had no issue with Banner, they did not know this Hulk figure, they only saw the man he was and, while she knew Thor was more cautious of his wording around Banner so as not to allow any 'cultural differences' anger or insult the man, neither she nor Thor were really all that concerned with him. They were both quite certain that they could handle Banner if need be so if he turned into a 'green rage monster' as Tony had called it, then so be it and they would see it dealt with.
But that was them.
Natasha, for all her bravado, she could see the tension increase in her shoulders and how much straighter she stood when she had to be around Banner. She could see how the woman tried to keep distance from him, stand closer to others, how her hands always seemed to linger nearer her weapon when Banner was in the same room. She caught the woman's gaze both flicker to Banner and also try its best to avoid looking at him and while some might think it was some sort of attraction between the two, she knew it was really fear. Natasha was scared of Banner, she was terrified of this Hulk most likely, and she would be the one most likely to be focusing on Banner. But that attention wouldn't help him, she knew, to be confronted with someone who was terrified of you and trying to placate you...it only served to make you angrier. She knew that from first hand experience when one of her...she wasn't sure what to call her, a friend? An acquaintance? Employee? She had been very, VERY insulted once when a woman she knew had shown enormous disrespect for her, had broken a few rules that had been set, had gotten her uncle involved with her and she had been furious! She had stormed to the woman who had cowered in fear of her and began to try and plead for herself and beg her and blame her uncle and so many other things that it had just made her even more embittered and raging. She had dealt with that woman easily and, even though she knew this was a different situation, she could relate to Banner in that. You didn't want pity, you didn't' want people trying to control you out of their own fear. He likely had trouble trusting the people around him as it was because of the glass cage, seeing someone terrified of you and trying to manipulate you for their own selfish reasons was only going to anger him.
And then there was Tony and Steve, the two men hardly seemed able to be in the same room together without starting some sort of argument or bicker. The shouting and arguing alone could drive anyone mad and to expose someone to shouting would just mean making them feel like shouting or the need to shout to be heard. She could tell that Tony respected Banner as an intellectual equal and that he didn't seem bothered by the Hulk part of him at all. He didn't filter himself or baby Banner, he treated the man like a human being instead of a potential monster and she could tell that Banner both appreciated and respected that. Tony would defend Banner from them all and it would make him a target and make Banner feel obligated and guilty because of it. Steve wouldn't make anything better. He seemed to feel he was entitled to 'team leader' status because he was a captain, well if that was the case she and Thor were the rules of the land as gods. She wasn't sure what training Steve had had, he was a fair leader from what she could see but he almost seemed to take authority when there wasn't a need for someone to do it. On that note, just how much battle had the man seen? He didn't seem as battle hardened as she or Thor were, did he even know how to fight a person like Loki or the Chitauri, his army? They were not of human design and, by that logic, should not be fought with human strategy. But she doubted Steve would see it that way, he would think only of the safety of the crew and vessel, which was right, but he seemed almost too focused on tasks at times, like he had something to prove to them all, that he could do it. He would be harsh and to the point and try to follow a rigid protocol when it came to Banner and that would just make the man tense and uneasy all the more.
Fury as well wouldn't help the situation by being there. He was rather intimidating and the fact that he had had the glass case and, in no uncertain terms, implied it was for Banner, it wouldn't endear him to the man. Fury would probably try to control his rowdy makeshift agents and would just end up getting frustrated and irritated with all of them and start shouting. He didn't seem to know how to talk to someone without it coming out gruff and commanding and intimidating and that wasn't what Banner needed. The man seemed to just barely be keeping a hold of his anger and his mind and his emotions and to add the stress of being surrounded and looked at as though he were about to snap at any moment, to have Fury treating him like a threat instead of a guest would be detrimental. She was of the opinion that they shouldn't do a thing, that they should stay back and let Tony handle it and go about his business as though Loki hadn't said a word.
She was starting to consider that Loki might have spotted Natasha's ruse and purposefully let slip about the Hulk and how he was planning to use the man as some sort of distraction to take them all out. It made sense though, that he'd do that, he was trapped in a glass cage that, while it kept him getting out, or so Fury believed, it would also protect harm from getting in. He would probably just sit there and read a book while the battle went on around him, perfectly safe and uncaring till it was over and he could escape or the ship crashed and he survived due to the cage and he escaped. Either way, all of it meant that he was likely to escape and that would only serve to put everyone ill at ease. She had to wonder if he knew that, the moment they worked out it was Banner he was after, they'd go confront the man and try to restrain him before he even did anything. Maybe that had been his plot, to get them all to a point where THEY inadvertently released the monster inside him.
She let out a long breath as she neared the lab with Thor, whatever the case was, whatever reason Loki had let that slip, they would have to tread carefully. They couldn't risk falling into one of Loki's traps, not now, not there, not where they were cut off, where there was such a high risk of destruction and casualties. This wasn't an open battlefield, this wasn't something she or Thor had trained in, but they would do all they could to prevent the battle occurring. She could only hope that whatever torture Loki had endured, it hadn't addled his mind to the point where neither she nor Thor could guess what his next move would be. An unhinged mind was far more dangerous than a logical one, it made no sense, it saw things others didn't, it was more creative and less caring of consequences and if Loki had reached that point of seeing mere pawns instead of people around him, then that would not be well for anyone.
They could hear voices as they approached with Natasha, having been led there by her, "Phase Two is SHIELD used the Cube to make weapons," Steve was saying, "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury defended, "This does not mean that we're..."
Athena closed her eyes at that, she had feared that, when she had heard that they had done tests and studies of the Tesseract. It was not an artifact that humans were meant to use or even have in their possession due to how powerful and dangerous it was. Humans had a troubling habit of either locking up what they didn't understand or examining it too closely. She had experienced one of them when SHIELD had taken her from the Bifrost landing area and chained her up, not sure who she was or what she was or what she could do. But the Tesseract...that was different, she knew energy, especially to humans was tempting and tantalizing, a source of power to them. And she would have been just fine if they were studying the Tesseract to see what it was and where it came from and return it.
But to hear that they were trying to make weapons out of it?
She supposed it shouldn't have surprised her much, humans were notorious for trying to turn everything in their hands into weapons. From the sharp wooden writing instruments Jane had used to the small keys that Darcy had carried, she was sure that they had, at one point, realized the potential weapons on them. Humans were always trying to find a new way to fight, a new method for war and, while she knew those of Asgard would be proud of their prowess in battle and in coming up with weapons to face their enemies, she knew that war only begot war. And any and all weapons that they tried to make from the Tesseract would be ones they wouldn't fully understand, weapons that they might end up making things worse with. Or...it could be weapons that would destroy them in the end. True, they might (MIGHT) work out a way to use the Tesseract to make an actual, functioning, usable weapon, but then what? If they win one war, what would follow? Would they use the weapons of the Tesseract only for war or would it eventually fall into the wrong hands that would use it for taking over and for keeping others in line, under their thumb, in their control? Humans took more power than they knew how to handle and now that she knew they were making weapons out of the Tesseract, it was even more imperative that she and Thor get the box and bring it back to Asgard.
Glancing at Thor, she knew he felt the same. She could see it in how he tensed, how his step faltered for only a single moment, how he clenched his fists at the knowledge that an Asgardian item was being used in such a way. They would stop this, they would get the Tesseract back before any harm could come to the humans from using it.
Everyone was already in the room, Fury standing in the middle of it, with Tony and Banner at a work bench, Steve standing near them but looking at the director, when she, Thor and Natasha entered. The three men were staring hard at Fury who was just as rigid, tall, and proud as ever, and staring at them through his narrowed good eye.
"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony reached out to a monitor and turned it around to face him, showing plans that all of them could recognize as plans for a weapon of some sort, revealing that Fury had been about to lie and say they weren't building weapons or planning to, "What were you lying?"
"I was wrong, Director," Steve glared, "The world hasn't changed a bit."
Banner looked over at them, seeing them entering the room and walking up to them, "Did you know about this?" he asked, more of Natasha than of Thor or Athena, knowing that they'd only been there a short while but that Natasha was working for SHIELD.
Natasha didn't answer at all, only stated, "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"
Athena nearly shook her head at that, for how skilled Natasha was in many other areas, she wasn't exactly subtle in some. As though that would ease Banner at all, as though that wouldn't alarm him. She knew that Banner had been brought there, having them tell him or 'ask' him if he wanted to leave was not going to fool him.
Nor did it, it seemed, as Banner just laughed, "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."
"Loki's manipulating you."
"And you've been doing what exactly?" Banner countered.
"Astute," Athena remarked, nodding at Banner as he gave her a small smile, though she stepped nearer to Thor.
Banner's smile almost fell at that, thinking she'd done it because he'd looked at her, because she saw the monster as well, but realized that Thor was unhappy with her compliment to him and she was merely reminding him it was only that, reminding him with her nearness, reassuring HIM instead of herself.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha reminded him.
"Yes," he scoffed, "And I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy."
"Well said," Athena nodded, "You have a right to be here, as do the others, more so as you were invited," she gave Fury a pointed look about how she and Thor had essentially been taken there as more...comfortable prisoners than an actual one like Loki, "What I wish to know, is why you are using the Tesseract to try and build weapons?"
"Weapons of mass destruction," Tony added, crossing his arms and looking at Fury expectantly.
"Because of them," Fury pointed at Thor and Athena, making them frown.
"Us?" Thor scoffed.
"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, out-gunned."
"And you think one attack is a precedent for others?" Athena shook her head at him, "As though every 'visitor' shall be hostile and wish to harm you? How will that ever help relations between your people and anyone if you automatically assume that war is coming instead of peace?"
It was ridiculous! To go into anything expecting war and expecting the worst would only make it happen. One side would be so invested and focused on the negative that they would end up creating the opportunity for war, or worse, initiating it.
"Our people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor agreed.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury countered, "And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."
"And how does it make you any better than them to try and out match and control THEM?" Athena nearly spat, disgusted by the hypocrisy of it, "Control of another thing is dangerous."
"Like you controlled the cube," even Steve had to agree to that, all this damage had been done because Fury and his partners had been so focused on learning how to use the Tesseract instead of just finding out where it came from and trying to return it or hold onto it till the owners came looking for it.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor nodded, "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?!" Steve rounded on him.
Athena frowned, not sure if the man was upset from the idea of a worse war or offended that they thought the wars that had already been fought were 'lesser' or medieval in comparison.
"You forced our hand!" Fury defended, "We had to come up with some..."
"Nuclear deterrent?" Tony cut in, "Cause that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury glared, snapping at him.
Athena's frown deepened at how Fury had snapped at the man, he had been described to her as always in control of his emotions and there he was, shouting and yelling.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep..." Steve muttered.
"Wait, wait!" Tony held up his hands, "Hold on! How is this now about me?"
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve mocked.
Athena looked at him sharply, that...was not like Steve either, he always seemed mild mannered and polite. She started to look around, something was happening here.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor muttered to her, making her look at her, THAT was slightly more typical of Thor though...
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury rounded on Thor.
"Are you boys really that naive?" Natasha scoffed, "S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats."
"You furious?" Tony turned to Thor and Steve, "I'm furious."
"Why?" Athena asked them, why were they suddenly all so furious and shouting and at each other throats? There was nothing to incite such anger as this. Unless...Loki. This had Loki written all over it! But how was he doing it?!
"And Captain America is on the threat poll?" Banner turned to Natasha.
"We all are!" she cried.
"That's not your concern doctor!" Fury pointed at him.
Athena looked around, trying to find some sign of what was going on, and it caught her eye. As everyone around her started to shout and argue, the scepter, the one that had been taken from Loki, was glowing faintly.
"You're on that list?" Tony looked at Steve, "Are you above or below angry bees?"
"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack..." Steve grit his teeth.
"You're a threat. I feel threatened!"
"Show some respect!"
"Respect what?!"
"Yeah man, handle me now, that'll be good," Banner started to laugh tensely, no one seeming to notice that the shouting was just increasing the fury they were all feeling.
Athena shook her head, feeling it creeping up on her as well, wanting to shout at them all that they were all being so stupid and making themselves vulnerable in their anger. But she forced it down, she physically bit her tongue to keep herself quiet as she made her way around the throng of arguing males and towards the scepter, maybe if she could just destroy it...
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor pointed at Fury, getting lost in the argument as well.
"It's his MO, isn't it?" Banner chuckled darkly, "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 turned to Banner.
But Tony moved in front of him, defending his friend, just as Athena thought he would, which was lucky for her as it allowed her to slip behind him and try to examine the scepter, "Why shouldn't they guy let off a little steam?"
"You know damn well why!" Steve shouted, "Back off!"
Athena glancing up as she heard his words, the Steve had glimpsed didn't seem one to use language like that, and she knew the control the scepter had on them was just growing but...what if it wasn't the scepter and control, what if it was just the scepter starting it and their fury was feeding it, making it stronger?
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony challenged.
"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire."
"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
Steve smirked at that, "Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."
Thor laughed at that, shaking his head as he and Natasha stood to the side, more amused to watch than get involved now, which was not helping the situation at all, "You people are so petty, and tiny."
"Yeah, this is a team," Banner remarked.
Fury grit his teeth, "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his..."
"Where?" Banner scoffed, "You rented my room!"
"The cell was just..."
"In case you needed to kill me," Banner cut in, "But you can't, I know, I tried," everyone stopped at that, falling silent as they looked at him, Banner shuffling slightly at it, Athena's glance falling to a small monitor that had a wire connected to the scepter, seeing the lines that had been growing higher starting to fall and let out a breath, hopefully it meant the control the scepter had over them was lessening as she truly didn't know how to stop it, "I got low," he shrugged, "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 looked at Natasha, "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"
But their gaze wasn't on him, but on Athena behind him, Steve taking a step forward as Natasha and Fury put their hands on their guns, "Put down the scepter Athena."
"Do not dare lay a hand on her," Thor was in Steve's way in an instant, glaring at Fury and Natasha for even thinking to touch their weapons.
"What is she doing?" Natasha asked quietly, watching as Athena held the scepter in both hands, frowning at it.
"You cannot tell me none of you realized how childish and angry you were acting only moments ago," Athena glanced at them, "It is the scepter..." she shook her head, "I can feel the energy in it, it is calling out to the Tesseract...it is trying to control you from a distance."
Banner hesitated at that, before hurrying over to a monitor and typing something in, his eyes widening, "It IS calling out," he muttered before looking at them, stunned, "And it's helped us locate the Tesseract!"
"I can get there faster," Tony nodded, seeing the location as he followed Banner.
"Look, all of us..." Steve began.
"No," Athena shook her head, "You all fell victim to the Tesseract's command of your emotions, Thor and I shall retrieve it."
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor agreed, "No human is a match for it."
"Yeah, well, all of us here are a bit beyond human, aren't we?" Tony grinned and turned to go.
But Steve reached out and grabbed his arm stopping him, "You're not going alone!"
Tony smacked his hand away, "You gonna stop me?"
"No," Athena cut in, "I will," she glared at them both, setting down the scepter and moving around the table, "Do you not see how childish you both are being? You are grown men. You are warriors. You are wise beyond your years. Act like it. Or are you both so weak that you would submit to the Tesseract's control?"
Before either man could even answer, Banner gasped, seeing something else on the monitor, "Oh my god..."
They had all turned to him, about to ask what was wrong...when they found out, as an explosion went off outside the craft, sending them flying into the walls and doors and every which way from the force of it. Fury and Thor fell near a table, Steve and Tony blasted out of the room entirely, while Athena, Natasha, and Banner were sent through a wall and down a set of stairs to the lower equipment rooms, everyone disoriented...but one person was angry, very angry, and on the verge of turning green with rage and pain.
A/N: Sorry! This chapter was posted when I updated my OUAT story, but I left the page too soon. I really, really need to stop doing that :( But I caught it earlier! I saw a tumblr alert about it right when I woke up (I tend to fall back asleep after posting) and immediately logged on to post this :)
I'm very excited for the next few chapters ^-^ Yay!
Some notes on reviews...
Lol, oh I'm well aware what Sirens are ;) I've got about 8 years of research/reading on the myths and a college essay comparing the movie 'O Brother Where Art Thou' and their depictions of the mythological creatures with how they are actually portrayed in myth/art ;) But actually, in original Greek prose, Sirens are described just like Harpies, birds with women's heads. It wasn't till the Renaissance paintings that they started to take on Mermaid-like features, originally being described as 'creatures of the earth' instead of sea creatures (you can see some original Greek vase artwork of Sirens that are birds with human heads, especially in covers of the Odyssey translations (you can see a bird with a human head swooping down and Odysseus tied to the mast)). In some accounts, they believe Sirens were originally handmaidens of Persephone and were punished by Demeter when her daughter was captured by Hades to be bird-like so they could forever watch over the earth from the skies. The Furies were more thought to be dog faced/headed, snake haired, bat winged women that could drive men to insanity merely by the sight of them ;) If you check, many mythology sites/books describe Sirens to be birds with women's heads instead of Mermaids ;)