"Ant. Boot."

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." Loki gazed up at the security camera above. "The mindless beast. Makes play to be the man."

We all turned to Dr. Banner. He smiled sheepishly at the comment.

It all smelled fishy. Loki had given himself up so easily. After the minor skirmish between Steve, Stark and Thor in the forest, he gave himself up willingly. Why would he do that? He had nothing to gain by handing himself in. It probably did more damage to his plans being locked in a cage in the basement of the Helicarrier than skipping around flailing his magic stick.

We sat around the glass-topped table on the bridge. The table was technological. Files, information, photos, and the security footage of Fury interrogating Loki appeared on the surface. I sat in between Steve and Agent Romanoff.

"How desperate are you?" Loki wondered aloud. "You call on these 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 because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

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

Such words made me nauseous. As much as I hated it, the God of Mischief had a point. What was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s aim with the Tesseract? What were they intending to do with it. What were they planning?

"Well, let me know if real power will want some magazines or something," Fury remarked as he left Loki with his thoughts.

The video on the computerised table-top disappeared. Nobody said anything for what felt like minutes.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner noted.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve said. He turned to the God of Thunder standing nearby. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard nor any world know," he replied, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Loki means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth."

"And, in return, Loki will give them the Tesseract," I assumed.

"Indeed."

"An army," Steve confirmed. "From outer space."

"Beyond farfetched, huh?" I remarked, which he smirked in reply.

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

Thor stood taller. "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

Thor frowned. "He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha informed. She looked at her hands folded on the table in front of her. "Along with one of ours."

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

"I don't think that should be our top priority right now," I suggested as I threaded my fingers together. "We shouldn't be focusing our efforts on Loki."

"I agree," Banner said. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor warned. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha reasoned.

"He's adopted."

I snorted. "Well, that explains a lot."

"I think it's about the mechanics," Banner concluded. "Iridium. What did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony Stark strolled side by side with Agent Coulson onto the bridge, his hands buried in his pants pockets. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"And let me tell you, that was not a fun time," I added. "It completely destroyed the base."

"No hard feelings, Point Break, you've got a mean swing." Tony patted the Asgardian on his incredibly large bicep. Thor looked at his arm and then at Stark with irritation. Like me, the Playboy wasn't growing on him.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants," he explained. He pointed to an agent at a computer station. "That man is playing Gallaga."

Steve turned to the man in question. I rolled my eyes.

"Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He frowned as he stood at Fury's station, placing a hand over one eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," I stated obviously.

"Sounds exhausting."

"That's because you're lazy."

"I prefer to say I'm actively challenged." He stepped away from the station. "Agent Barton can get his hands on the rest of the raw materials pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

Agent Hill stepped near to us. She crossed her arms. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night." He spread his hands to the sides. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked, bringing the conversation back to that of importance.

Banner paced nearby, turning his glasses in his hands. "He would have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."

Stark nodded in a cocky manner. "Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect."

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

Stark marvelled at his fellow scientist geek. "Finally, someone who speaks English."

Steve glanced at everyone around him for answers. "What just happened?"

"The geeks have united." I clapped my hands together in anticipation. "Time to party."

"Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled, Dr. Banner," Tony kissed arse. "And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

I turned to him. "Subtle. Real subtle."

"Thanks," Banner replied awkwardly.

Fury appeared from his time in the basement with Loki. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him, Stark."

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

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube," Fury added. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Thor frowned. "Monkeys? I do not under-"

"I do." Steve looked around with an expression of pride. Tony rolled his eyes. Banner and Natasha looked away, trying not to laugh. "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony said as he led Banner away.

Steve turned to me. "I understood that reference."

I couldn't help but grin and giggle. I patted his arm. "Yes. Yes, you did."

I wandered into the lab while Stark and Banner were deep in conversation about sciencey stuff. I've never really understood anything to do with physics or whatever. I mean, I had time to learn. All the time in the world, in fact. But physics was boring.

"You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime," Tony suggested. "Top ten floors, all R and D. You'd love it. It's candy land."

"It's ugly, that's what it is," I jumped in.

"You're just jealous, Andi."

"What is there to be jealous of?" I jumped onto a nearby table and sat there cross-legged. "It sticks out like a sore thumb. And it does nothing but massage your ego."

Tony waved me off. "Ignore her."

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke Harlem," Bruce declined.

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises." Tony poked him in the side, an electric spark shocking him. Bruce yelped and danced away. Tony stared at the scientist.

"Hey!' Steve charged into the lab.

"Nothing?" Tony interrogated.

"Are you nuts?" Steve demanded.

I saw a bag of blueberries nearby. I snatched them and began to indulge. "Gee, what gave you that idea?"

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Tony marvelled. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve growled. "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offence, Doctor."

I admit, in the two years that I'd been around him, I'd never seen Steven Rogers angry. I'd seen him agitated, and I'd seen him irritated. But I'd never seen him angry. And Tony was pushing him closer and closer to the brink of rage. The end result wouldn't be good.

"No, it-it's alright," Bruce brushed off. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle...pointy things."

"You're tiptoeing, Big Man," Tony remarked. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve ordered.

"You think I'm not? 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."

I raised an eyebrow. Tony noticed, and pointed to me. "See? She's catching on."

As much I hated to acknowledge the Shellhead's opinion, he had a point. There was something Fury wasn't telling us. No, there were multiple things Fury wasn't telling us. I got that vibe a long time ago.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked, perching his hands on his hips.

"He's a spy," Tony stated the obvious. "Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." He pointed to Banner. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?" And then to me. "And her. Hell, she should know better than anyone that the man is hiding something."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded, leaping off the table.

"Uh," Banner muttered uneasily. "I just wanna finish my work here and-"

"Doctor?" Steve interrupted.

Bruce hesitated. It was obvious to me that he didn't like sharing his opinion, which was odd for a scientist since that was what science was really all about.

He slipped off his glasses. "'A world for all mankind'. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it."

He turned to Tony. "Well, I think that was meant for you."

Tony marched over to me and snatched the bag of blueberries.

"Hey!" I shrieked.

He directed it at Banner who dug out a handful. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news," Banner said.

Steve's eyes widened slightly in realisation. "The Stark Tower? That big ugly..."

Tony glared at him with his brow raised, ready for the rest of the sentence.

"...building in New York?"

I snorted. "Ouch."

As the men continued to discuss the sciencey stuff, I toppled into my thoughts. I didn't have a good feeling about the studying of the Tesseract. Bad things happened around it.

Bruce watched me as I strolled up to the scepter and ran my hands along it. I could feel the power knocking around in there. In the hands of Loki, it could do a lot of damage, more than he'd already committed when the pieces of his plan fall into place.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programme finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files," Tony simply said.

I swivelled around. "What?"

Steve's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, did you say—"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge," Tony explained. "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide." He directed the bag at Steve. "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

"That's not hard to figure out why," I leaned against the table, my arms crossed. "He's intolerable."

Tony shrugged. "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not possible."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve deduced, taking over the conversation. "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." He stood in front of Tony, towering over him. "We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?"

Tony looked around. "Of the people in this room, which one is; A: wearing a spangly outfit, and B: not of use?"

"Steve." We all turned to Banner. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

Steve's eyes flicked around. He was thinking. Something did smell off, even I could tell. I could smell that off stench on Loki and Fury. And I could tell that Steve's curiosity was convincing him slowly. He wanted to find out what was up as well.

"Just find the cube," he growled, and he stormed out.

I retook my cross-legged position on the table. While the scientists did their thing, I had a nagging feeling that the Asgardian we had imprisoned in the basement was the only person on the Helicarrier that wanted to be on it.

To say that things weren't tense when Fury walked into the lab would be an understatement. The tension was so heavy that it felt like the atmosphere could shatter at any time.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" the Director demanded.

"Kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony commented.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are," Banner replied, pointing to a screen across the way. "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."

Tony turned the screen around. "What is Phase Two?"

I jumped at the sound of Steve slamming a weapon down on the metal table. He looked angry. "Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. using the cube to make weapons." He glared at the scientists. "Sorry. The computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury reasoned. "This does not mean that we're—"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony wore a cocky smirk. The screen he turned showed a diagram of a missile being put together. And Tesseract energy was inside it. "What? Were you lying?"

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

Thor and Romanoff walked in. I rolled my eyes. There were already big personalities in the lab fighting. Adding two more was going to make it worse. And, really, I was in no mood for this. We didn't have time. Well, I did. The Earth didn't.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked Romanoff irritably.

Natasha clenched her jaw. "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?"

Bruce chuckled. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." He jutted a finger at the screen. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury didn't hesitate. For the first time, it seemed that we were going to get answers. Surprisingly, he pointed at Thor. "Because of him."

Thor frowned. "Me?"

Fury clasped his hands behind his back. "Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly and hilariously outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor growled defensively.

"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."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve offered, crossing his arms angrily.

"You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor explained, irritated. "It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve said.

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

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony said. Everyone turned to him. He shrugged. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

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

Steve pointed to Tony. "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep—"

"Wait, wait, hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony fired.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

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

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

And then everyone joined in on the argument. One huge one turned into three small ones, each person screaming over the other.

I groaned and massaged the bridge of my nose. 

I was the only one that hadn't spoken up. I wasn't going to waste my breath. This was pointless! How was squabbling going to help anything? Big personalities made the best arguments it seemed. That was what I learned while sitting there as each person in the lab fired off their opinion and defended it with their life.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor spat.

"It's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce offered. Everyone turned to him. "I mean, what are we? A team? No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

I carefully slid off the table, trying hard to not make my presence known. We were walking on eggshells now. Everything was bubbling to the surface hand in hand with anger. And if we were not careful, a Green Guy that loved to stomp and smash was going to make a red carpet entrance.

"You need to step away," Fury ordered.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony offered, laying a hand on Steve's shoulder.

Steve batted it away. "You know damn well why! Back off!"

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

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor." He turned to face him, inches from his face. "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."

Steve scoffed. "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?" Tony took a step forward, and the tension skyrocketed to a whole new level. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Hey!" I thought it was time to step in. "Enough!" 

And I was ignored.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

Thor cackled deeply. "You people are so petty." His eyes flicked up and down at everyone. "And tiny."

"Agent Romanoff," Fury commanded attention, "would you escort Dr. Banner back to his—"

"Where? You're renting my room."

"The cell was just—"

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried." He clenched his fists. Things were getting real now. "I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the Other Guy spat 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 glared at the spy. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

I watched as Fury's and Natasha's hands crept to their gun holsters. I watched warily as Banner's hands wrapped around the one thing he should not be holding in his state.

"Dr. Banner," Steve cooed. "Put down the scepter."

Everyone stopped to watch the good doctor's next move. All I heard was my heartbeat and blood thrumming in my ears. No one moved. No one spoke. 

A ding sounded. I breathed. Saved by the ding. How ironic.

"Looks like another secret has finally made an entrance," Tony remarked, stepping away from Steve.

Banner put the scepter down as Tony flew around the screen. 

Tony turned to Fury and frowned. "What's Project Hourglass?"

From the look he wore, Project Hourglass was not something Fury wanted to reveal. It piqued my curiosity.

"Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. using the Tesseract to build weapons especially for this project?" Banner damanded.

Fury clenched his jaw. He really did not want to give away anything. What the hell was this project? He revealed everything about everything else so far. What else did he have to lose?

Tony shrugged. "All right. We'll do it my way."

With a simple flick of his hand, Project Hourglass opened. The information appeared on every available screen.

My chest tightened. I went numb all over. I was rooted to my place. My blood ran cold. My eyes flicked from screen to screen in horror.

Project Hourglass was me.

❈Author's Note: Hey, there! Sorry for the long chapter. I couldn't see it being divided and being equally cool. Besides, isn't this the best scene from The Avengers? It's definitely one of my favourites. Let me know in the comments.

This chapter is dedicated to Nasmir for making the awesome channel art for my Wattpad book trailers YouTube channel. Thanks, dear!

If you liked this chapter, please consider giving it a quick vote! Thanks for reading!