TITANIA: Goddess of War

Chapter 15

The sceptre was on a stand on the table so it would be easier to manipulate and observe it. Banner was just scanning it with a device and Neilrosa was waiting, didn't want to interrupt doctor's work. She already changed to normal civil clothes so she wouldn't stand out so much.

"The Gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." The doctor stated as he was looking at the screen for the result of the scan.

Neilrosa approached the sceptre and traced the lines on it with her fingers, feeling the cold metal beneath her hand. She saw it somewhere before, she just couldn't remember where. It maybe was in Odin's Vault or she could hear about it from her mother when she told her bedtime stories when she was a little girl. One way or another, she couldn't point her finger on it.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster we can clock this at around six hundred teraflops." Stark was at another screen, doing some work on it.

"All I packed was a toothbrush." Doctor Banner chuckled a bit as he was working on his gamma tracer. 

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

"Thanks but...last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem." Doc said shyly.

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises." That's when Stark zapped Banner in the side and Neilrosa lost her focus on the sceptre.

"Ow!" Doc flinched and rubbed his side.

"Hey!" Steve's voice sounded from the door as he walked in, still in his Captain America uniform.

"Nothing?" Tony looked curiously on Banner.

"Are you nuts?"

"Jury's out!  You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, a huge bag of weed?" Tony joked.

"Is everything a joke to you?" 

"Funny things are." 

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offence, Doc." 

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

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mister Stark." 

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"Isn't he? He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets. Even I don't know everything and when he calls me, he doesn't tell me why now, why not before. I just trust him, because I feel it like that. He summoned me to you, remember?" Neilrosa looked from the sceptre to Steve.

"It's bugging him too, isn't it?" Tony finished her sentence and turned to the doctor.

"Uh, Aah, I just wanna finish my work here and-"

"Doctor?" Steve raised his eyebrows at him and Goddess looked at him too.

"A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it," Steve said sternly.

"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news." Banner gestured to Tony, who offered him a blueberry.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" Stark gave him a look as princess giggled.

"-building in New York?" 

"It's powered by an arc reactor, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Banner turned to Stark.

"It's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean the energy right now, that's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they even doing in the energy business in the first place?" Doc asked everyone, but mainly Steve.

"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files."

"I'm sorry did you say-" Neilrosa started as she looked at him surprised.

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Cap smirked ironically.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them." Steve said and looked at all three.

"Following's not really my style." Tony frowned.

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

"Out of the people in this room, which one is "A" wearing a spangly outfit and "B" not of use?"

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Banner questioned Cap. Steve sighed and looked at the quiet person by his side.

"I want to hear your opinion too, Rosa." 

"I know Loki better than any of you, hell, I nearly married him. But as of why he is doing all of this, I have no clue. He wants power, he wants to rule the world, but his mind is too confusing for me. Tesseract is powerful, that's why he wants it, but really Steve? Following orders without questioning them? You didn't even do that during the war. Bruce is right here, something isn't as it should be." She looked directly at him and he knew that she won't change her mind. She was like that during the war too, stubborn but brave... and beautiful. Steve would need to be blind to not to see it, but he fell in love with Peggy and Neilrosa fell in love with Bucky.

Princess again focused on the sceptre in front of her while those two were bickering like an old married couple. Her fingers stopped on the tip of the sceptre, hovering over the glowing blue jewel it carried. She slowly tried to touch it with her finger as she did with the body of the said spear, but when her fingers came in contact with it a huge blast of energy made her fly backwards with a scream.

All three ran to her as she was trying to get up. Her vision was a bit blurry from how she hit her head but her hand. It was burned, really badly. She never saw a force like that. Likely for her, her fast healing kicked in and her hand was getting better, but really slowly. 

"Oh my god, Rosa. Can you hear me?" Steve kneel to her and helped her to sit. Doctor Banner checked her head and hand, seeing the burned flesh and turned his head to the sceptre. Princess didn't take off the eyes from the sceptre as she was standing up.

"You need to sit, your highness," Bruce demanded, but she wasn't listening to him. Her hand was nearly back to normal but the pain was still there.

"Be careful around it. The body is harmless but the jewel... I have only burned hand, but I don't what it can do to you." She trialled oof as she looked at the men around her.

"Examine it, do tests, whatever, but just please don't touch the jewel." She looked at them with pleading eyes and left the room.

"Just find the Cube," Cap added and left too. He found Neilrosa outside, leaning against the wall with closed eyes.

"You okay?" He asked and rubbed her back.  Her eyes fluttered open and two purple, nearly galaxy orbs looked at him with a faint smile on her lips.

"Yes, I just... It was a big hit and not such a soft landing." She chuckled and grabbed her head. It started to hurt.

"Do you want to sit down?"

"I'm okay, but you are planning to do something? Do you want to check if what Tony suggesting is true?" Steve clenched his jaw and looked down the corridor where the door to the storage room was. Neilrosa followed his gaze.

"Let's go." She pushed herself from the wall and with Steve behind went to open the storage room to get inside.