Kate begins leading Cap back to where she thinks answers might be — though, of course, she can't be certain. Still, she can narrow it down better than he could.

He walks with purpose next to her, and she squeals on the inside. This is so accurate to his personality; it's like when he went against orders with Howard Stark and Peggy Carter and saved Bucky and the 107th. Just... less heroic. Either way, she's on an unauthorized mission with Captain America.

She thought the giddy excitement had fled with the incident in the woods, but it's coming back now, growing the longer they walk. She can't wait to tell Coulson — provided he won't be mad about the nature of the mission.

"So, Dr. Carson," Cap starts conversationally, "can I ask... why you joined SHIELD in the first place?"

The question brings the memory to mind again, taking her back to when she didn't even know what SHIELD was.

~_~_~_~_~

"You don't have to stay," Kate said. She couldn't carry any of the groceries they'd stopped to get, so Jones was getting them by himself. He was just about eight years younger than her father, still working. Kate hated that he was helping her, especially when he had his own family to worry about.

He stopped, one hand on the trunk of his car. "Can you make your own food?"

"Well, I know how," Kate replied.

"You can't even grab a snack, Kate," he said, shutting the trunk. "You're not supposed to do much with your hands for another week or so, and then you have to do physical therapy. Until we know you can take care of yourself, somebody is going to be here to help you."

Kate went quiet for a bit as he went around the car and walked towards the front door, her key already in his hand. She couldn't understand why he was so insistent. He didn't owe her anything, and yet here he was. She wouldn't help her, after everything. After what she'd become — though he didn't actually know that last part. She didn't want to know herself.

"Thank you," she said, feeling humbled and hurting and sick over all of it. She walked around the car, but she found that Jones had already gone in and left the front door partly open.

She walked over, pushed it with her foot to get through. The living room was empty. "Jones?"

"In here," he said from the kitchen, his voice tense. Kate hurried in.

She saw a man leaning next to the stove — tall, in all black, with an eye patch over one eye. He turned to Kate, then said, "You should close the front door, Dr. Carson."

As intimidating as he was, Kate didn't budge. "Why?"

"This conversation isn't for prying ears," he replied simply. "And I doubt you want flies in your house."

She ignored the second remark. "What conversation?"

"The one we're about to have."

"And who said I wanted to talk to you?"

"Oh, I think you do," he said, standing up straight, walking over to her. "You're afraid, aren't you?"

"Not of you."

"But of yourself."

She went quiet, her breath catching in her throat. How did he know?

"Who is this guy, Kate?" Jones asked cautiously, looking between them. "What's he talking about?"

The man smiled, though it wasn't mirthful. It almost seemed sad. Pitying. He nodded over to Jones. "Go ahead, Dr. Carson. Show him."

She looked at the man instead of Jones' concerned face. "But what if I-?"

"You won't," he replied simply. Kate didn't know whether to trust him or not, but he seemed to know more than he should, and, anyway, her hands were still weak. She held up her left and willed the fire to stream through her, right from her chest, producing a tiny spark at her exposed finger, peaking through the bandages. There was a pause, both Jones and the man watching, and she tried again, giving it a bit more power.

A candle flame danced atop her fingertip, and she watched in horror before it went out.

"That fire in the hospital wasn't a spark from your clothes, was it?" the man said.

Kate looked up at him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. And I'm here to help you."

~_~_~_~_~

Kate sighs, coming back to the present to answer Cap. "Well... let's just say it was my best option out of what I had. Fury helped me out of the hole I'd gotten myself in."

"And you still don't trust him?" Cap asks, brow raised.

"I do," she replies. "But I also know him. So I know that he keeps secrets, and lots of them. And all of this... it looks weird to me. He just put the Tesseract in front of Selvig and I and said, 'Okay, go.' Never said why..."

She was so focused on the research, on the learning, that she never questioned it — not just with the Tessaract but with everything else. And now she's starting to wonder if she should have.

Their conversation ends as she continues thinking, going over the areas she knows of on the Hellicarrier — which is basically all of them, unless Fury has some hidden ones. She focuses mainly on places she rarely goes, as she knows nothing about what Fury's hiding, and it hits her — the place most people rarely go. "Storage," she says, turning abruptly to the right, walking faster now. Cap has no trouble keeping up.

No one stops them, some not caring, others not really having the authority to. They eventually get to the section of storage where there's no foot traffic outside the door, only cameras in a dark hallway. There's nothing she can do about that, unless she lies, but Fury would see right through it anyhow.

They stop in front of the door, able to see nothing useful through the small window. Cap looks at her. "Do you have a way to access this?"

"Yeah," she replies, grabbing the keycard attached to her lab coat; she's been back here before, with Nat once. Nat had to access it with her card, but Kate's been bumped up since. When she scans her card, though, the light turns red. "My clearance level should work back here. That doesn't make sense."

"I got it," Cap says, grabbing onto the door, pulling. The metal creaks, and Kate looks on in amazement as the door unlocks, and he slides it open. He looks back at her, then steps aside, letting her go first.

She smiles to herself before focusing on the task at hand. "We better hurry; Fury will know I tried to access this area."

A few agents are on the walkway overhead, but they don't notice Kate and Cap, who wait until they're gone to sneak up there. Cap jumps up, almost cat-like, but Kate opts for taking off her shoes and using the stairs before leading him deeper inside, eyes hunting for the storage part of storage.

The first few bins they check have nothing out of place; typical weaponry, some equipment, even some back up uniforms.

They keep moving, searching for the right section — one labeled Phase 2. Kate frowns, not recognizing the label, and walks in. Cap follows.

She drops her shoes in front of one storage bin, opening it. Cap opens the one next to her. She doesn't know what she wants to find, but it's not what she sees.

Weapons, with HYDRA's logo on them.

And suddenly it all makes sense. They need the power for the weapons. Weapons that could kill hundreds, thousands with the Tessaract. Her hands begin to heat up, the anger hitting her.

Cap suddenly grabs a gun out of the bin, turning to go, and Kate grabs a handful of small means of mass destruction, following him, ignoring agents' shouts at the sight of the weapons.

She was going to go all the way to the control room to confront Fury, but she sees him already in the lab and turns inside with Cap.

"What is Phase 2?" Tony is asking.

Cap slams the gun down on the table. "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons." He glances at Tony. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow."

Fury looks at Kate. "Kate-"

She drops the weapons in her arms, letting them crash to the floor, starting to warp from the heat in her hands. "Don't 'Kate' me. What is this?"

"We gathered everything related to the Tesseract," he replies. "This does not mean that we're making-"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony interrupts, turning a screen around, displaying blueprints for what looks like a missile. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Cap spits, just as Thor and Nat walk in.

Bruce looks at Nat, voicing something Kate's too afraid to ask. "Did you know about this?"

Nat ignores the question, making Kate's heart sink. "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?"

"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."

Fury points at Thor. "Because of him."

"Me?" Thor asks.

Kate crosses her arms, listening to Fury blame other people for his mistakes. "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."

"I was there. Thor handled it like it was a child's toy," Kate says.

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

Fury decides to deal with him first. "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?" Cap asks.

But Kate is too disgusted to acknowledge that the question points out her own failure. She glares at Fury. "Is your angle seriously to kill what you can't control?"

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor says before Fury can speak. "It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

Kate acknowledges the failure now, though this time because it's wrongly attributed. "Well, that's not my fault!" Her hands spark, and she clenches them into fists. "How was I supposed to know?!"

"I never said it was — but you are far too intelligent to-"

"Don't even finish that backhanded compliment."

"You need to settle down, Kate," Fury says, gesturing to her hands. She glares but doesn't respond, fighting her own fire, nails piercing her palms.

"Hold on — a higher form of war?" Cap cuts in.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something-"

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony says. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

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

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Cap starts, but Tony quickly interrupts.

"Wait, wait, hold on! How is this now about me?"

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

"I thought humans were more progressed than this," Thor comments.

Fury rounds on him with a raised brow. "Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"You treat your champions with such mistrust."

Kate snorts mirthlessly, her hands now back to warm. "Well, I thought I could trust him, but-"

"Are you all really that naive?" Nat asks. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

It's the knife in Kate's sunken heart. She turns on Nat. "You knew about this?!"

"Not that it was currently happening or to this extent!" she replies, relieving Kate's worry and anger if only slightly. "And for the record, Clint knew as much as I did." Kate shakes her head, confused.

"But we're the same clearance level now. Why did you-?" she cuts herself off as it dawns on her, why she wouldn't be trusted. Why Nat and Clint didn't know everything. She looks at Fury, hurt in her eyes. "The watchlist. Is that why I'm here? Am I a potential threat?" He's always told her her condition makes her even more useful, that it adds to her instead of taking away. And yet he believes she's dangerous — to SHIELD.

"You were in pain," he replies, "and you have a power that can hurt a lot of people if you use it incorrectly. Both of those things made you dangerous. We needed to help you so you would end up on our side."

She can't stop the tears from pooling in her eyes. "And is your side even the good one anymore?"

"Kate, I trust you. You aren't on the watchlist anymore," Fury replies. "Some people in this room still are."

"Captain America is on that watchlist?" Tony says before Kate can respond. She doesn't try to, listening to the others arguing, tired of all of it, confused but for once content to leave her questions unanswered.

Cap is glaring at Tony. "Stark-"

"Are you above or below angry bees?"

"You make one more wisecrack and I'll-"

"Threatening! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!"

"Show some respect."

"Respect to what?"

Everything delves into crap, Tony and Cap arguing, Bruce going on with Nat, Fury trying to reign things in, Thor taking it in while Kate tries to keep it from overwhelming her to flames, trying to breathe after the last ten or fifteen minutes of the worst idea ever rearing its ugly head, while the second worst idea ever is falling apart like a badly knitted sweater.

Thor's booming voice cuts through everything. "You speak of control, yet you court chaos."

"It's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce asks. "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 says.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asks, putting his hand on Cap's shoulder.

Cap jerks away. "You know why! Back off!"

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

"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," Cap shoots back. "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."

Cap chuckles mirthlessly, shaking his head. "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 says, real anger showing now. "You're a lab experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"

"Not true!" Kate argues, ticked.

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

Thor laughs. "You people are so petty — and tiny."

"Hey!" Kate shouts. "Need I remind you of the stunt you pulled in the woods?!"

"You can't be serious-!"

"I'm deathly serious!"

"Yeah, this is a team," Bruce scoffs.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-" Fury starts.

"Where? You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!" Bruce shouts. Everyone stops, looking at him with sad 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 freak show and put everyone here at risk!" He reaches behind him, grasping the scepter and holding it at his side. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

"Dr. Banner," Cap says calmly, "put down the scepter." Bruce looks down as if he didn't realize it was in his hand.

Thankfully, the computers start beeping, and Kate runs over, saying, "Got it," desperate for something to do.

Bruce sighs, putting the scepter back and moving over to Kate. "Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asks.

"I could get there fastest," Tony says.

Cap sighs. "Look, all of us-"

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor argues.

Almost without thinking, Kate turns on him. "Selvig and I weren't done with it."

"You want to keep it here, with SHIELD?" he asks, gesturing around them. "After all of this?"

It dawns on Kate that the blows are still coming. Keeping it with SHIELD, continuing the research, means that Kate gets info, but so does SHIELD. Info they want to use to make weapons, info that they've been using to do just that — or at least to prepare to. Info Selvig and Kate gathered. That's why she wasn't told, that's why Nat and Clint weren't given all the information. She looks at Fury, breathless with shock. "You... You had me- I was studying-"

"Kate-" he tries.

"I was studying that thing to make weapons, and... and you never said a word! I-I just wanted to know more, and all I was doing was helping you create more destruction!" Her hands begin to heat again.

"Not destruction, protection," Fury replies, forcing his voice to be calm.

But Kate lets go, stops trying, stops forcing, the shout ripping tears up for its own company as her hands shoot flames, hitting the metal floor. "I think I know destruction when I see it!"

Everyone jumps back, surprised. Her ragged breathing fills the room until Tony breaks the silence. "Look, wherever the Cube's going, I'm getting it."

"You're not going alone!" Cap argues.

"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."

Before he can, Bruce says, "This isn't good."

Kate wipes her eyes, looking at the computer screen. She only has time to brace herself before something explodes, the force and fire hitting the room, throwing her through the window behind her.