TITANIA: Goddess of War

Chapter 16

Meanwhile, Neilrosa and Steve were in the storage room; Tony with Bruce in the lab, one examining the sceptre and the other trying to get to the S.H.I.E.L.D. database; Thor was on the bridge lost in his own thoughts, agent Romanoff went to interrogate Loki.

"Hm. There are not many people that can sneak up on me." Loki stopped walking around his cell and smirked.

"But you figured I'd come," Natasha smirked too with crossed hands on her chest.

"After. After whatever tortures Furycan concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate." He smirked and sit down.

"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton." Nat narrowed her eyes.

"I'd say I've expanded his mind."

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

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki asked with a playful grin.

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt."

"Tell me."

"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." Nat went to sit down on the chair in front of the cell.

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

"Not let you out."

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

"Regime's fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian, or I was." She c****d her eyebrows and smiled a bit.

"And what are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated. I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out." She got up again.

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov's daughter? Sao 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, a prayer. Pathetic." Loki got up too and started to get closer to her.

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Banner and Stark in lab stared at the screen as it showed "ACCESS DENIED" and Stark tried to hack it again.

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"...You lie and kill in the service of liars..." Loki was continuing his speech.

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Hill runs to one of the agents, as he alerted her about something. The screen read "VIRUS DETECTED" and agent Hill looked at Fury, who knew exactly who is it.

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"...and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code..."

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Neilrosa and Cap were browsing the storage room, looking for anything weird. She noticed a box on the top shelf and grabbed a moving stair to check it out. With Steve, they climbed up the stairs and he opened the lid of the box. Their eyes enlarged as they saw something unexpected, terrifying and they looked at each other.. Old HYDRA weapons and equipment.

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"...something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away." Loki went silent just to slam his fist against the glass and Natasha flinched.

"I won't touch Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way, he knows you fear." Natasha became scared out of her mind, her mouth was open and her eyes never left the Norse god. 

"And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work..." She turned away from him in horror, clasping her mouth with her hand. 

"And when he screams I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Only Natasha's sobs could be heard as her head hang low.

"You're a monster!" She whispered.

"Oh, no. You brought the monster." Loki grinned menacingly. Just then sobs stopped and Natasha lifted her head, turning back to Loki. Not even trace of tears was on her face.

"So, Banner? That's your play." She looked at him as nothing had happened.

"What?" He looked confused as  Natasha began to exit the room.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well," she stopped and turned to Loki, "Thank you, for your cooperation!"

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Neilrosa and Steve grabbed the HYDRA gun and marched to the lab back to Stark to show him. As they were approaching, loud voices could be heard which she recognized as Fury and Tony, bickering.

"...we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Banner's voice could be heard.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?" Tony asked just when those two entered and Steve slammed the big gun on the table.

"Phase Two is SHIELD used the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me." He looked at Stark.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-" Fury tried to explain when Tony cut him off.

"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" He turned the screen for them to see and Neilrosa's eyes widen. It was a plan for some missile powered by Tesseract. She slowly came closer to look better at it, but still, she was surprised and mad.

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

"Nick?" Princess's voice sounded more like a whisper, but everyone in the room heard it. She was looking at him with hurt in her eyes. Just then Thor and Natasha entered, noticing the mad goddess in front of Nick.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" She asked again, coming closer.

"I thought, that you don't need to know." He simply replied and it took every bit of strength in Steve to grab Neilrosa and don't let her go. She was shaking with anger, she thought she was fighting for good but behind her back, they used Tesseract for making weapons. To kill.

"Did you know about this?" Doc turned to Natasha for answers, seeing that Neilrosa didn't know about this.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha came closer.

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

"Loki's manipulating you." She tried again.

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

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

"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." He pointed to the screen with his glasses, looking at everyone in the room.

"Because of him." Fury hesitated but pointed at Thor.

"Me?"

"Him?" Both Thor and young goddess asked, shocked.

"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, hilariously, out-gunned."

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

"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 fired back and Neilrosa couldn't stay silent.

"Threat? That's how you see us? Not everyone out there wasn't to wipe you out. My people want peace with you too, but how can we when you are going to accuse us of trying to destroy you? I was walking this planet before you were born, saw the cruelty of human race and I hoped, during the war, that what I was creating with Peggy and Howard will be the door to the future, to peaceful future, not a scared boy seeing everything that he doesn't know as a threat." She was shaking as she ended her speech, totally angry with Fury. He was just blankly staring at her, not giving away any emotion.

"Yes, we can't be controlled because we don't want to. Because we are free people and no one can control us. We can control our powers ourselves or at least we are learning how to." She added.

"Like you controlled the cube!" Steve exclaimed.

"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 fora higher form of war." Thor stated and gave Fury a hard look.

"A higher form?!" Steve asked confused and Neilrosa just glanced at him.

"You forced our hand! We had to come up with some-" Fury wanted to argue again when Start interrupted him, again.

"Nuclear deterrent! 'Cause, that always calms everything right down." That's when it all began, the arguing and screaming. Princess went backwards, she didn't want to be part of it, she was just watching and listening as everyone was screaming at everyone.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury looked at Tony.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-" Steve started too. 

'Wait-Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve said sarcastically. 

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor chuckled.

They began arguing, she couldn't even make out what they are saying. She just noticed how the sceptre began glowing strongly on the and she came closer, but still afraid to touch it. The world was buzzing with the voices in the lab, making her grab her ears. 

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

It's his MO, 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." Banner was getting angry, even she could feel that.

"You need to step away." 

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony argued and grabbed Cap's shoulder.

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve screamed and pushed Tony's hand away.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Neilrosa was on high alert as those two were eye-killing each other. The room went absolutely silent.

"Yeah, a big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" Steve got into Tony's face.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." He answered and Natasha shrugged, agreeing with him. Steve smirked.

"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." Neilrosa got closer to them, ready to break the fight.

"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony answered, looking directly into Cap's eyes.  He smirked again as he looked at the others, catching Bruce's smirking expression and Neilrosa's clenched jaw.

"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." That was like a slap and Steve got even closer to Tony, well tried to.

"You two, stop!" Princess exclaimed, standing between them with hands on their chests. She was glaring on both of them as she turned her head.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds." Steve tried one more time but Neilrosa pushed him away, her eyes deadly and cold.

"You people are so petty, and tiny." Thor laughed into the silent room.

"Yeah, this is a team." Banner chuckled sarcastically.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort doctor Banner back to his-" Fury started.

"WHERE? YOU RENTED MY ROOM!" Banner screamed and scattered his arms.

"The cell was just-"

"IN CASE YOU NEEDED TO KILL ME. BUT YOU CAN'T, I KNOW, I TRIED!" Everyone looked at him with surprise.

"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 freakshow and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, AgentRomanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" Everyone is looking at him. Natasha and Fury reached for their gun; a sword appeared in Neilrosa's hand, which only Tony and Steve noticed as she was still standing between them. Her eyes were trained on Bruce's hand when Steve spoke up.

"Doctor Banner put down the sceptre." He said calmly and that's when Bruce realized he is holding it. That's why he was so angry. Just in the right time, the monitor made noise, signalling that it found the Tesseract. Doc put the sceptre back down and went to look at it.

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

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"Look, all of us-" Steve started but...

"I can get there faster." Tony was for sure faster in this one.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it," Thor demanded and Neilrosa was just again in the middle of the argument.

"You're not going alone!" Steve stopped Tony from leaving. 

"You gonna stop me?" He smacked his handoff. 

"Put on the suit, let's find out!" Neilrosa again came between those two but now she was nearly squished. 

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

"Put on the suit." They were standing so close that she could feel their breath on her. Banner was looking at the monitor and took his glasses off.

"Oh-my-god." Just a whisper but hear by everyone when an explosion made everyone fly in different directions.