3rd Person's POV

Loki walks back and forth inside his glass cell.

Suddenly, he stops, "There's not many people that can sneak up on me."

Turning around he sees Natasha Romanoff standing on the other side of the glass.

"But you figured I'd come."

Loki shrugs, "After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton."

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

"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain. What happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?"

Natasha shakes her head, "Love is for children. I owe him a debt."

"Tell me..."

Natasha sighs while crossing her arms, "Before I worked for SHIELD, I uh... well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."

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

"Not let you out." Natasha scoffs.

Loki laughs, "Ah, no. But I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"

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

"What is it you want?"

Natasha shrugs, "It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? DRAKOV'S daughter? SÃO PAULO? The hospital fire? 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? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer... PATHETIC!"

Tony and Banner continuously work at their monitors.

Loki continues angrily, "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers."

Agent Hill checks every view screen in the bridge. Fury oversees.

"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!"

Steve opens a steel crate. Angry, he looks behind him and looks back into the crate. The crate is filled with an array of Hydra weapons.

Dylann sits on her computer looking up Steve Rogers. She scrolls until she stops on a picture of Steve, Peggy, Howard, and someone who looks exactly like her. She looks at the name, Sammie Dylann Todd.... 'Dylann?' she asks herself as she then types in the name. On the screen is an exact picture of what she had believed was a dream but now knew was a memory.

Loki slams his cell, making Natasha flinch, "I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear! And when he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

Natasha turns around, walks away from Loki, disgusted and quietly distraught, "You're a monster."

Loki laughs evilly, "No, you brought the monster."

Natasha turns back around; poised, "So, Banner... that's your play."

Loki staggers, "What?"

Natasha ignores him and speaks into her earpiece, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well."

"Thank you for your cooperation."

Natasha quickly walks out, leaving Loki frozen. But what she doesn't see is how quickly his fearful face turns into a smirk.

Fury walks in surprised to see Tony and Banner stop working on the scepter.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Uh... kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

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

Banner nods, "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."

Tony smirks, "And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss."

Suddenly, his monitor show a collection of SECRET FILES, "What is Phase 2?"

Out of nowhere Steve shows up and drops a Hydra assault rifle on the table causing Fury, Banner and Tony to turn around. Cap looks pissed.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow."

Nick holds his hands up, "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're..."

Tony interrupts.

"I'm sorry Nick," He moves the computer screen towards Fury which shows plans of the weapons, "What were you lying?"

Steve frowns, "I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

At that moment, Thor and Natasha walk into the lab. Natasha keeps her eyes right on Banner. Banner looks at her, pissed.

"Did you know about this?"

Natasha ignores his question, "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"

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

"Loki's manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

Natasha scoffs, "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. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him." Nick says pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Thor looks 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."

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

"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."

Steve crosses his arms, "Like you controlled the cube?"

"You're 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."

"A higher form?" Steve's frowns grows.

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

Tony sighs, "Nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury glances over at him.

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony frowns.

Steve laughs bitterly, "I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor says looking between Tony and Steve.

Fury frowns angrily, "Excuse me, did WE come to YOUR planet and blow stuff up?"

As the "team" argues, they don't realize the blue gem on Loki's scepter is glowing brightly. Outside the helicarrier, a lone carrier slowly hovers over the ship. Inside, Barton and his crew suit up and arm themselves. Barton pulls out his hi-tech bow and arrows.

Back in the lab, the egos of these people keeping rubbing off each other and at any moment, the shit will hit the fan.

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

Banner pulls his glasses off upset, "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."

Fury glances over at Banner, "You need to step away."

Tony smirks and puts his arm around Steve, "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"

Steve pushes Tony off, "You know damn well why! Back off!"

Tony comes face-to-face with Steve and smiles, "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

Steve scoffs, "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

Tony smiles, "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, 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." Tony jokes.

Steve smiles, "Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

And that did it. Within a second the joking Tony had disappeared and now he was angry.

"A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"

Steve puffs up his chest at Tony, who just stands there, unmoving.

Steve smiles in a teasing manner, "At least I'm honest Stark."

Tony frowns instantly feeling like he knows where this is going, "What are you on about Capsicle?"

"Dylann... I mean if that's even her real name. I've known her for a day now and I'm more honest to her than you'll ever be."

Tony scoffs suddenly feeling angry, "This isn't about her."

Steve frowns, "It is now. Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughs at them, "You people are so petty... and tiny."

Tony rubs his head and moves away from Cap.

Banner sighs, "Yeah, this is a team..."

Nick looks over at Banner then Natasha, "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr.Banner back to his..."

"Where? You rented my room." Banner says angrily.

"The cell was just in case..."

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!"

Everyone stops arguing and looks over at the beat Banner, "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!"

Banner slowly gets upset as he looks at Romanoff, who gets unnerved.

"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Natasha and Fury have their hands down to grab their guns.

Steve stands firmly with a hand up, "Doctor Banner, put down the scepter."

Banner looks down and is shocked to see that he is holding Loki's scepter. The computer beeps. They all turn to it. Banner puts down the scepter and walks over to the computer.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all."

Thor steps closer to the computer, "Located the Tesseract?"

Tony nods and starts to walk to the door, "I can get there faster."

Steve frowns and blocks him, "Look, all of us-"

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

Tony turns to leave, but Steve stops him.

"You're not going alone!"

Tony frowns with his arms crossed, "You gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

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

"Put on the suit." Steve steps up to Tony so close that their noses are almost touching.

At that moment Banner who's looking at the monitor notices something about the Tesseract.

"Oh, my God!"

Something on the Hellicarrier explodes making everyone be thrown in every different direction. Steve, Fury, Thor and Tony are thrown across while Natasha and Banner is down in the lower equipment room. Steve looks up at Tony.

"Put on the suit!"

Tony nods, "Yep!"