Victoria

I woke up from my nap twenty minutes later and walked out of the room, leaving the batons' holster on the edge of the bed before heading back into the bridge.

  I saw Fury and Coulson were talking to Thor further into the room, near the glass of the large cockpit, while Hill was making sure every agent was doing their job; Steve, Banner and Stark were nowhere in sight. I noticed Natasha was all alone at the table, so I walked up to her.

"Any lead on Barton?" I asked.

"No." She said with a sigh as she stood up. "But I'm going to interrogate Loki. Wanna come with?"

"Sure." We started to make our way downstairs. "Only that we cannot trust anything he says. He could speak in riddles, mess with our heads."

"That's why the strategy is to make him believe he is successfully getting under our skin." I nodded. "Let him in, just not entirely." I sighed.

"I'll try my best." She nodded. "What are we trying to get out of him?"

"How the sceptre works, how did he turn Clint, what's his plan, anything we can get out of him." I nodded. "I'll start."

"Won't object to that." We opened the door silently and walked in without making a noise. Natasha signalled me to round her up and stay hidden at first. I nodded and we continued our way up.

  Loki was pacing around his glass cage, when he stopped, it was because Natasha made her presence noticeable just by standing in front of the glass. I watched him smile.

  "There's not many people who can sneak up on me." He said to her as he turned around to face her.

"But you figured I'd come." Said Nat.

"Yes. But not alone."

"What makes you think she is alone?" I asked, causing him to turn around and smile at me.

"I expected to see you after." I crossed my arms as I listened to him. "After all, we left a conversation on hold earlier." I tilted my head to the side, attentive of his words. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

"I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton." Nat demanded, causing Loki to turn around and face her.

"I would say I expanded his mind."

"And once you've won, once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?" Nat crossed her arms over her chest as well.

"Oh...is this love, agent Romanoff?"

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt." I sighed and nodded, knowing very well what that's like because I'm in debt with Natasha. However, I do know love is also involved because we've functioned as found siblings for years now. Loki looked at me over his shoulder, I shrugged and he walked backwards to sit on the bench that's in the cage.

"Tell me about it." He said as he sat down. I looked at Nat and she looked at me, then, she took a deep breath and unfolded her arms.

"Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., I, uh...well, I made a name for myself." She said as she sat down on a chair near the glass on her side of the detention room while I reclined my weight on the yellow handrail to my left. "I have a very specific skill set."

"Oh, yes. Just like agent Carter, right?" Loki asked as he looked at me. I held his gaze and breathed in and out slowly, feeling my nails digging into my palm as I tightened the fist that was out of his sight. Don't let him in. Don't let it show.

"I didn't care who I used it for, or on." Nat called the attention back to her, but Loki smiled at me before looking back at her. It was as if he could see what was happening in my head, read my mind. A part of me wondered if he could do it, but hoped he couldn't. "I got on S.H.I.E.L.D.'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." Loki chuckled.

"No, but I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man."

"Regimes fall every day." I said, shrugging. Natasha nodded in agreement. "We tend not to weep over that. We're Russian. Or we were."

"And where are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated." Said Nat as she stood up. "We've got red in our ledger that we'd like to wipe out."

"Can you?" A pause. "Can you wipe out that much red?" He looked at us, alternating his gaze. "Dreykov's daughter." His eyes fixed on Nat and I stood up straight. "Sao Paulo, the hospital fire?" Natasha's breath increased slightly as a thin line of tears formed in her eyes. Loki looked at me. "Killing your own father?" I felt a lump in my throat. "How about Lisbon and those people you killed with a clean shot to the head?" I felt the air lacking in my chest. "Barton told me everything." He turned back to Nat as he stood up.
"Your ledger is dripping. It's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourselves will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality." He turned around to look at me. "This is a child at prayer. Pathetic!" Loki began to walk towards me. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors."

  He hit the glass once he was in front of me, making me flinch and give a step back as I unfolded my arms, feeling my eyebrows furrowing together as I increased my breath. "But they are part of you. And they will never go away." He turned around and walked towards Nat with quick steps, she also gave a step back. "I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill both of you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake, just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull." Natasha turned around and walked away a few steps. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim."

"You're a monster." Natasha whispered as she sniffed, regaining her composure, while Loki chuckled. I knew it was an act, that we were pretending to be terrified of him, although a certain fear could be felt under my skin, tickling, burning. This guy knows how to manipulate someone's mind, mould it the way he likes it just to tear it apart piece by piece. It was hard not to let him in after what he had said.

"Oh, no. You brought the monster." I stood up straight and cleared my throat. Loki turned around, his eyebrows

"Huh." I said when his words made sense and dropped the scared little girl act we were pulling. Natasha dropped it, too and turned around.

"So, Banner." Nat assured. Loki's confused expression only grew when he saw me blink the tears away and cross my arms over my chest.

"You crazy motherfucker." I said to him, to which he scoffed.

"That's his play." I said to Natasha.

"What?" I laughed as I walked downstairs to meet halfway out with Nat.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk." She informed command as she walked away with quick and audible steps. "Keep Banner in the lab. Vic and I are on our way. Send Thor as well." She turned to face him. "Thank you, for your cooperation." She added and pulled me out by the shoulder.

"You fooled him." I complimented her.

"We fooled him." She smiled at me, and I smiled back. "It's our job and we're very convincing. Maybe me more than you." I chuckled.

  We made our way up quickly and got to the lab at the very same time Steven did, he had one of the recovered HYDRA weapons that were kept in storage and he placed it harshly on a metallic table, metal clattering against metal. Fury, Banner and Stark turned around to face him as I wondered how the hell did he get that thing.

"Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons." He stated. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making-" Fury tried to explain.

"I'm sorry, Nick." Stark interrupted him. "What were you lying?" He turned the screen around and showed how the energy of the Tesseract could be the core to the guns to power them up and stop using bullets. I sighed.

"Did you know about this?" Steve asked me as his hands found his belt.

"I did, my clearance code let's me know about all of this." I answered.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Captain. But we've known each other for two days now. I don't need to tell you anything, and I'm doing my job by keeping my mouth shut." He scoffed.

"Clearly. Although I believed that, after spending plenty of nights together, we already had chemistry and you could've told me." I scoffed back, realising he was still quite bitter about that moment when he woke up and I was there.

"Ouch." Said Stark.

"It's good to know fossils have a sense of humour." He looked away with a bitter smile.

"Okay, hang on, is this you telling us you had an affair?" Stark joked. "Or are you actually dating agent Peggy Carter's great-granddaughter?" He laughed. "You have a type, Cap."

"Shut up!" Steve and I called in unison. Steve's eyes moved from Stark towards Fury. "I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." He added as Thor walked into the lab.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked Natasha, knowing she's also an agent that would've known about Phase Two.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" She told him, causing him to chuckle.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed." Banner told Nat.

"Loki is manipulating you." She started to walk up to him.

"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 grabbed the screen. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him." Fury answered with honesty as he pointed at Thor.

"Me?" Asked the tall blonde guy.

"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, outgunned."

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

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat." I said.

"The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled." Fury added.

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Asked Rogers.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Thor added. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war." I frowned.

"A higher form of war?" I asked. "You've got to be kidding."

"You forced our hand, we had to come up with something." Fury commented.

"A nuclear deterrent." Said Stark. "Because that always calms everything right down." I clicked my tongue.

"Remind me again, how'd you made your fortune, Stark? Seems like I forgot." I said.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep in-" Steve tried to make a point.
"Wait, wait. Hold on. How is this now about me?" Stark cut him off.

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

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor mocked us and I dropped a dry laugh as Steve and Stark got in an argument.

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

"You treat your champions with such mistrust."

"Oh, my God." I said to myself as my hands found my hips and I looked up feeling anxious and angry. That's when I started to understand Loki's plan even further. My eyes got pinned to Banner in a second.

"Are you boys really that naive?" Nat asked him. "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on threat watch or why was agent Carter assigned to spy on him for months?" Asked Banner.

"How the hell do you even know about that?" I asked him.

"Is that true? You were spying on me?" Steve asked me and scoffed.

"I mean, you did know I was spying on you when you realised our apartments were aligned with each other."

"Am I really a threat?"

"If it makes you feel any better, we're all under threat watch." I told him.

"Specially you and miss double-super-secret-agent." Stark said. "Although, if I made a contest between the two of you, I'd say you-"

"Shut up." He blinked, as if remembering something all of the sudden.

"Wait, are we on that list?" Stark asked, pointing at himself. "Are you above or below angry bees, agent?"

"Enough with the wisecracks." Steve said.
"Stark, I swear to God, if you make one more witty remark..." I warned at the same time.

"Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened." I rolled my eyes.

"Show some respect!" Steve snapped at him.

"That's the second time you've told me that. Respect what? Carter can defend herself, can't you, love?"

"Keep your flattery for Miss Potts." I said to him.

"Hey! You keep her out of this, brat."

"Then shut your fucking mouth."

"Language, for God's sake." Steve said, exasperated.

"My God!" I said in Russian. "You say 'language' to me one more time, Rogers-" The Russian accent slipping through my voice as I got angry.

"See? Another verbal threat." I pinched the bridge of my nose as I exhaled. "You're definitely above angry bees." I glared at Tony.

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

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Said Banner and the room fell silent slowly. "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." Said Fury.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Asked Stark, placing his hand on Steve's shoulder just to get his hand pushed away.

"You know damn well why. Back off!"

"I'm starting to want you to make me." Steve smiled smirked.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." I scoffed.

"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 and looked away, his eyes meeting mine for a brief second.

"Always a way out." He added when he knew what to say, looking back at his dead friend's son. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be the hero."

"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." The distance between them shortened defiantly.

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

"That's enough." I said, stepping in between both of them. My hand found Steve's chest, right on top of the white star. His blue eyes met mine and softened as he exhaled a breath, his shoulders moving down. "Enough. It's not worth it." I whispered.

"Listen to your girlfriend, Rogers." I turned around to face Stark.

"You know what? I'd actually like to kick your ass as well just to shut you up once and for all."

"How 'bout you move aside and let the adults talk, sweetheart? You can't handle this." His hands found my shoulders and tried to move me away, but he failed to do so because I stood my ground, firmly. I pushed his hands away.

"No. You move." Stark sighed, annoyed. When he tried to move me aside again, I pushed his chest and he lost his balance just slightly. I heard Steve's amused scoff behind me as Thor laughed.

"You people are so petty, and tiny." He commented, amused at the scene.

"Yeah, this is a team." Said Banner, sarcastically. I looked back at Steve and he gave a step backwards, away from Stark, as he nodded at me. I stepped away alongside him.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his-" Fury spoke to Nat.
"Where? You rented my room." Banner interrupted him, clearly pissed.

"The cell was just in case-"
"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried." We went quiet and payed attention to Bruce's words, feeling a deep empathy at what he had said. "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." I gulped and reached slowly towards my gun, removing the holster's secure. Everyone in the room tensed and with their feet ready. "Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?" I curled my hand around the gun, tightly, and pulled it out in a quick and swift movement.

"Doctor Banner," Steve called him. "put down the sceptre." Banner looked at his hand and frowned as he realised he had taken it. That's when a computed behind us beeped.

"Got it." Said Bruce as he let the sceptre on the desk, where it originally was, and walked towards the computer. "Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all." He added as he walked past us, everyone in the room let out a breath, my eyes pinned on him.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I could get there fastest." Said Stark as everyone approached the screen, although I stayed where I was standing, marking my distance.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it." Stark waved him off and tried to get out of the room.

"You're not going alone." Steve told Stark as he grabbed his arm, halting him, and getting his arm smacked away a second later.

"You're gonna stop me?" Stark asked him.

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

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

"Put on the goddamn suit."

"You two behave like children." I said to them as I watched, not willing to separate them a second time.

"Oh, my God." Said Banner. In a second, the ground beneath us blew up. The expansive wave throwing me against the desk, hitting my back hard, and knocking the gun out of my hand. I stood and coughed, watching Steve and Tony rushing out of the room and clicked my earpiece twice to listen to the team.

"Hill?" Fury asked for report.

"External detonation. Engine number three is down. We've been hit. Somebody's gotta get outside and patch that engine." Maria informed.

"Stark, do you copy that?"

"I'm on it." Said Stark. I looked around and saw that Natasha and Banner were gone and a hole in the ground.

"Nat?!" I called.

"I'm fine. Don't come down here! We're fine!" She said from below.

"Carter, initiate a defensive lockdown in the detention section, Coulson's on the way there, then get to the armoury."

"On it." I said as I nodded and ran out of the lab. I rushed into my quarters first to get my batons. As I clipped the holster over my chest, I ran out and further downstairs towards the detention level, meeting with Coulson in the hallway. "What's the plan?" I asked as I pulled the replacement gun that's attached to my boot's holster out and set it on the holster around my thigh.

"Get to detention, keep an eye out for anyone who shouldn't be there." He commanded.

"And you?"

"I'll get a gun." I nodded and we separated from each other. When I arrived at the detention level, Loki was smiling.

  "I told you, you brought the monster." Loki said to me.

"The perimeter breach we've got is being effectuated by hostiles in S.H.I.E.L.D. gear." I heard Hill in my ear. "Call-outs at every junction." The ground began to tilt and I had to hold on to the handrail in order not to fall as I heard engine one had failed, that Barton was behind it.

"And you sent Barton to rescue you? Take out our systems for you to take us down?" I asked him.

"Precisely, agent Carter." That's when gunfire echoed behind me. I took cover behind one of the glass structures and pulled my guns to shoot back at the guys.

  I counted five rogue agents. I shot down two guys when the other three started to press on me. I shot one of them down until a fourth rogue agent threw a knife at my right hand, cutting it and caused me to drop the gun as I ran out of bullets of my replacement weapon.

I ran at him, dodging his bullets and fought him hand in hand. I managed to climb onto his shoulders and electrified him with the Widow bracelets in my gloves. When we were on the ground, the other agent rushed at me and hit me on the forehead with his gun.

  I felt my skin getting cut open as I fell backwards and hit the ground. He stunned me, but didn't take me out. I watched him click the code of the panel and the door opened for Loki to get out, as he walked out of the glass cage, he created an illusion of a version of himself that was still in the cage.

Moments later, Thor bursted into the room. He thought he was watching Loki walking out of the glass. I tried to warn him that Loki was already by the door, but I was too stunned to speak. Thor rushed towards the illusion of his brother and got caged instead.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki asked him as I began to move slowly. I turned around to lay down on my stomach and took a deep breath before I impulsed myself up, blinking and moving my head to shake off the feeling. Thor grunted and hit the glass with the hammer, cracking it enough for the cage to detach a bit. Loki laughed. "The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?" I picked up my gun from the floor and shot the remaining agent, clean in the head, causing Loki to turn around and face me. "You're persistent, agent. I'll give you that."

"Like a rock in your goddamn boot." I said to him, my aim locked on his head. That's when Coulson arrived carrying a big gun.

"Move away, please." He told Loki before he could click the panel to release the cage. "You like this?" Asked Phil as he gestured at the big gun he had in hand, Loki went serious and placed his hands up. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does." He powered it up. "You wanna find out?" In the blink of an eye, he was stabbed from the back.

"Phil!" I screamed with horror at the sight of him being impaled by another Loki, my voice breaking.

"No!" Thor yelled as well, as his brother let Coulson's body fall to the ground. I shot my gun at the Loki that was close to the panel, the bullets flying through him until he disappeared. I blinked, confused, and began open fire at the Loki that was now wearing his Asgardian armour until the bullets ran out, not missing once as he walked up to me, slowly. Unfortunately, no harm came to him. The bullets were useless.

When I had ran out of ammunition, I kept the gun in the holster quickly before I fired the widow bites at him, they got stuck to his armour but nothing happened to him, the electricity just flowed through his armour without causing any harm. Tears blurred my vision as I moved towards him to fight him with my fists if I had to. I pulled out the batons and attacked the Asgardian, but Loki blocked my attacks each time and eventually disarmed me, the batons falling to the ground.

Suddenly, he grabbed me by the neck and started choking me. I punched his arm, trying to get off his grip as he so easily moved and opened the hatch and released the glass cage. I grunted as I watched Thor fall thousands of meters to the ground and air came in through the hole on the room.

"You're going to lose." Coulson spoke all of the sudden as the air began to lack and I tried to kick my way out, feeling my body more and more tired with each passing second.

"Am I?" Asked Loki.

"It's in your nature." I began to gasp for air, scratching Loki's hand and face, but he remained unbothered.

"Hm. Your heroes are scattered, I'm about to break her neck," He squeezed more and I could feel as if my throat was being crushed. "and your flying fortress is falling from the sky. Where exactly is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction." He squeezed even more and I felt myself fading away. With the remaining energy I had, I pulled my knife out of the pocket of my belt once I remembered it was there.

"I don't think I'm-" With a swift move, I cut Loki's cheek open, causing him to let go of me as he yelped in pain. A second later and as I hit the ground with a thud, Phil fired the weapon and Loki flew backwards. I took a hot minute to recover on the ground, gasping for air and feeling my blood rushing through my body after I had felt the pressure in my head dissipate.

"So that's what it does."

"Phil." I said, almost inaudibly, my throat burning when I spoke. "Philip." My hands found his chest as more tears rolled down my cheeks. "Please, please, please hold on." Speaking was extremely painful. I opened my channel. "Help! Someone help me, please!" Screaming hurt more than any other wound I had ever had, but I had to if I meant to save Phil's life, attempt to at least, because he looked very bad. "I'm in the detention level, Loki got out and Coulson's down! I repeat, I have an agent down! I need medical assistance urgently. Does anyone copy? Help me!" I turned to Coulson. "You're gonna be okay."

"Are you okay?" I nodded.

"Someone, please hurry up!"

"I'm on my way." Fury said and I looked at Coulson, he was closing his eyes.

"No, no, no. The hell, you won't." I held his head in my hand, my palm staining his cheek with his own blood. "Wake up, Phil. You're not dying on me, Philip. You're not dying on me."

"Okay. Okay, I won't." I nodded. "I won't." He stayed awake and conscious. A moment later, Fury came in running through the door. "Sorry, boss. The God rabbited." Fury took the weapon out of his hands as I pressed his chest, Phil's blood staining my skin and the fabric of my sleeves and gloves.

"Just stay awake." Said Fury. "Eyes on me."

"No, I'm clocking out here." I bit my lip in order to suppress a whimper.

"Not an option."

"It's okay, boss." Phil's eyes met mine. "Vic...it's okay." I shook my head. "This was never gonna work."

"Shut up, Phil. Shut the fuck up." I said with a broken and raspy voice.

"This was never gonna work, if you didn't have something...to..." I felt him stop breathing. Phil's eyes lost the light they had in them, and that smile he always had, even in the toughest of situations, fell when his heart had stopped beating.

"Phil?" He didn't say anything. "This- no. No, no, no. Phil!" I laid Phil carefully on the ground and began compressions. I knew it was sort of useless given the fact that his chest had been pierced through with the sceptre, but I had to try. I had to try and save one of the people that saved me. I owed him that. I looked at Fury. "Sir, he's not- he can't...where's the medic?!" I yelled, knowing my voice was heard through the channel. 

"Carter...he's gone."

"No. No, he can't be. Anyone but him." I looked back at Coulson, my arms burning and cramping with each compression I made. "Not you, Philip. Not you." I pressed on the compressions, fearing I'd break his ribs.

"Victoria..."

"Don't do this to me, Phil."

"Victoria." Crack. The ribs underneath my hands broke as I kept on making compressions.

"Not you. Please."

"Victoria!" I froze when Fury's hands fell on my arms, halting my movements. He never calls me by my first name. Nick shook his head and my lips curved down and quivered as I stopped, my weight tilting backwards so I was now sitting on the ground. I stood up, recovered the batons and placed them in their place on my back as I watched the medics, that were fucking late, pick up Coulson and set him in a stretcher. They started compressions again until they claimed to have found a pulse. I looked at my bloodstained hands and ran out of the room.

  I pressed the run as I felt my lungs collapsing. I tripped over a step and fell to the ground, I groaned as I sat up on the staircase, pressing my back against the metal, my hand finding my knee.

  I felt like a little kid, like that one specific time I was running around the backyard in the house I lived when I was a kid. That day I fell and scraped my knees and hands, I cried until both my parents rushed outside and held me, cleaned the cuts and hugged and kissed the pain away.

  I wanted to feel that comfort, I longed for it now that my heart was aching with grief and loss, but I knew my parents wouldn't run to find me this time. I buried my head in my arms as I hugged my knees until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I pulled out the baton and tried to hit the person because they had taken me by surprise, but he grabbed my wrist before I could hit his face. It was Rogers.

  Steve's blue eyes looked into mine with empathic sadness, he had heard the news. My grip around the baton went loose and it fell to the ground, clattering against the metallic floor as Steve pulled me up.

  In a second, he wrapped his arms around me, pressing me gently against his chest. I'm not used to hugs, to love, to compassion. I've been hugged before, and I am loved, but this felt different because it felt like the comfort I needed and longed for. It took me by surprise, but I ended up hugging him back.

After a few minutes my breath began to regulate until I was steadily breathing again, realising my breath was synchronised with Steve's. Then, I broke down being embraced by this stranger I knew quite well, crying for my friend.

  I don't know how long we stayed there, I just know I got tired of crying. Slowly, he pulled away from me, his eyes finding the wound on my head. "Let's get you cleaned up." He said and I nodded. Rogers picked up the baton from the ground as I held on to his waist, his other arm around my torso as well. We walked towards the quarters hallway and entered his room.

  Steve sat me down on his bed, setting the baton on the mattress beside me. When he had closed the door, he walked up to his closet from where he pulled out a white long sleeved compression shirt. He left the piece of clothing in the bathroom and walked out.

I felt silent tears rolling down my cheeks for a minute. I looked at Steve when he cleared his throat and stood from his bed to remove the holster of the batons, leaving it on the bed, before I walked into the bathroom. I closed the door behind me and unzipped the one piece suit and slid my arms out of the sleeves of my suit just to tie them around my hips. I was standing there, only on my sports top, staring blankly at the sink as I fixed the chain that's around my neck, my own set of dogtags given to the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. just like they do in the military.

When my eyes met the mirror, I saw a cut on my left cheekbone from the explosion, a piece of glass had cut my skin, the cut made by the gun of that rogue agent on the right side of my forehead and the marks of Loki's hand around my neck. I looked away from the mirror and grabbed Steve's shirt just to put it on, slowly.

I rolled the sleeves up to my elbows and opened the faucet of the sink, warm water rushing down quickly. I grabbed the soap bar and began to scrub Phil's blood from my hands the best I could, until my skin burned, specially the knife cut on the back of my hand. My sight was blurred with tears again. I took a deep breath and closed the water once I had washed away the soap and had splashed some water on my face. I took the towel that was beside the mirror and dried my hands as I opened the bathroom door and walked out again.

When I returned to the bedroom, I realised Steve was wearing the suit's pants and boots but had removed the suit's shirt, replacing it for another blue long-sleeved  compression shirt which fit him perfectly. I supposed the one I was wearing would fit him just the same even if it looks like a dress on me. He cleared his throat at the sight of me as I let my hair loose and he blinked himself out of some sort of trance, and looked down at the first-aid-kit resting on the bed beside him.

"Come here." He said softly and I walked up to the bed, then, I sat down, leaving the towel next to the kit. "May I have a look?" He asked and I nodded. His hands cupped my cheeks softly as his eyes inspected the wounds on my face. "You won't need stitches, which is a good thing because I don't know how to stitch someone up." He smiled, I tried to smile back, but my lips barely curled up. "I'm gonna clean them." I nodded again and he pulled out a cotton pad, then some rubbing alcohol. "It's going to sting a little." I sighed and he pressed the pad onto my cheekbone. I hissed and my hand gripped his wrist tightly. "I know, I know." He had a look at my hand and took a mental note to bandage that up before he focused on the wounds he was cleaning. He started to clean the wound carefully until he was done and moved on to the cut on my forehead. When the burning pain had faded away, I let go of him and he patched the wounds with small pieces of surgical tape extremely carefully, I noticed how his eyes darted to the chain around my neck. 

We remained silent for a moment. A part of me was surprised at the gentle touch this soldier has, I would've expected him to be more rough even when he doesn't mean to. But then I remembered the way Peggy described him and knew no one would have such a gentle touch as Steve Rogers does. He left the cotton on the bed and took a bandage from the aid kit, quickly, his hands took my own.

He bandaged my hand carefully and at a slow, careful pace until he was done. Then, he held my hand in between his for a moment. I felt his warmth on my skin and looked into his eyes. "Let me see your neck." He let go of my hand as he scooted slightly closer to me and that's when I could pick on his scent. His cologne was strong, slightly woodsy, yet, sweet. A strong combination of lavender and eucalyptus. His warm hands found my neck, the gentleness of his touch still hurt. A few tears escaped my eyes due to the pain and heaviness in my chest. Steve brushed the tears away with his thumbs as I exhaled a shaky breath. "I'm so sorry, Victoria." He said low and gently.

"He's the best person I've ever met." I spoke, slowly, my voice still broken and raspy. It hurt to speak.

"You shouldn't speak." I shook my head.

"He didn't deserve that. Phil didn't deserve that." Steve wrapped his arms around me again, his hand on my back. "He trained me, he's my family, and now he- he's..." I bit my lip and shook my head. "He has to live, Steve." Steve's embrace tightened around me, my head on his shoulder, the tip of my nose brushing his neck as my tears stained the fabric of his shirt.

"I know."

I was being held by him in such a genuine and caring way that it was slightly hard to comprehend. However, I liked it. After all, it's something I hadn't felt before, at least not in a very long time. It felt extremely good, even heavenly, to be held by him, by someone that could understand a part of me. Someone that saw me even when I didn't want to be seen.

We stayed there, in his bedroom, in that embrace, for a couple minutes. He didn't let go of me until my crying stopped, then, we walked out of his room and towards the bridge. "Thank you." I whispered to him as we entered the busy and yet unsettling quiet room. Steve nodded at me as his hand found the small of my back and we walked up to the people of our team.

Stark was sitting with Hill at the glass table, we joined them quickly. "Are there any news?" Steve asked for me as he opened up a chair for me and I sat down. Hill shook her head as he took a seat to my right.

"Not yet." I sighed and pulled my cuticles with my nails instead of picking on the black nail polish I had on as Steve stood up and brought for us cups of tea. The four of us sat in silence, waiting to hear from Fury. I looked at my hands and saw a thin line of blood in my cuticle and held my breath. Apparently, Rogers saw this too and held my hand, softly, his hand hiding the blood from my sight. My eyes pinned themselves to our hands, the way his thumb caressed my knuckles in an attempt at calming me down that actually worked.

"Steve?" I whispered his name. I saw how Rogers looked at me from the corner of my eye, my glance glued to the mug in my hand now.

"Yes?" He spoke, lightly.

"Do you believe in God?"

"I do." He said after a short pause. I nodded.

"Could you pray for him? Please."

"Of course." I nodded and looked at him.

"Thank you." He nodded back at me and silence fell upon us again as I played with the sleeve of Steve's shirt. After an hour, Fury walked into the room. Hill stood up and I just looked at him, expectant, and held my breath as I squeezed Steve's hand. When Nick locked glances with me, I knew. A whimper left my lips as my grip around Steve's supporting touch went loose until it was nonexistent. "Oh." I whispered as Nick approached us.

"Agent Coulson is down." Fury informed us all as my breath quickened, around us, everyone stopped moving in an instant. The world literally stopped. "The medical team called it just now." Tears rolled down my cheeks silently. I brushed them away quickly, because it's one thing to cry in the intimacy of a room in front of one person I feel like I could trust, than crying in such an open area with a lot of personnel watching. Fury played with something in his hands. "These were in his jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them." He told Steve as he threw the Captain America baseball cards Phil had collected at the glass table, all of them stained with blood. Steve looked at them, and grabbed one of the cards to look at it, closely.

"We agreed on 'later' but..." He whispered and I looked at him.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor...I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." Tony looked at the ground, turning away from us, as Steve dropped the card on the table and I wiped a tear away with the shirt's sleeve. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier." A pause. "There was an idea, Carter knows this very well, as well as Stark," I felt Steve's eyes on me as Fury walked around the table, circling us. "called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group or remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea." I brushed another tear away as I nodded and thought of the last words Phil spoke. "In heroes." Stark stood up and left the room with quick steps. "Well, it's an old-fashioned notion." With that, he walked away alongside Maria, leaving Steve and I alone. "Back to work! We need to figure out our next move!" He commanded the crew, soon the buzzing sound of the agents working echoed around again.

"Coulson, he-" I cleared my throat, feeling it burn. "he said that this idea was never going to work with his dying breath." Steve looked at me as I played with the empty mug I had in hand. "Not if we didn't have something to push us, to assemble us." I shrugged. "At least that's what I think he would've said had he finished his sentence." I looked at Steve. "He was always so optimistic, he always saw the bigger picture. It's only natural he thought of his murder as a sacrifice, something that would bring the team together, you know?" I chuckled and brushed the tears away. "I know Loki is going to make his play, probably today because he's desperate, and we've got to stop him."

"Who's 'we'? There's only like four of us left." Steve told me slowly.

"That's more than enough. We go at him, whoever is left." He looked at me, remaining quiet for a moment, letting my words sink in.

"You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why?" He paused. "What did Loki do to you?" I sighed.

"He almost killed me just now. He killed my friend." He moved closer to me again.

"You're not easy to read, but your mask is leaking, Carter." He said, slowly. "Victoria..." He whispered my name, the way my name sounded from his mouth was unlike the way I had heard it before. I took a deep breath.

"I've been compromised, alright?" He frowned and I looked at him, I acknowledged we had drawn to each other like magnets, not realising how close we were to each other until our eyes met. Our noses were inches away, I noticed how he swallowed as his eyes met my lips. My eyes traveled from his oceanic eyes to his lips as well as I took a deep breath. "You probably know by now that I'm not only a spy but also an assassin." He nodded. "There's more to that, but that's classified information I won't confess to you yet. I've got red on my ledger and I'd like to wipe it out, Cap. I need to wipe it out." I took one of the cards stained with blood and held it near my face. "Because of him. I owe him, more than you know." I placed the card on the table, Steve's eyes glued to it. "He believed in you, that you could lead any team. And he'd like you to suit up, Captain." His blue eyes locked with mine again. "I'd like you to suit up." I stood up and walked away.

I walked with quick steps towards the detention level to be alone for a second only to find Tony Stark already standing there, watching the space where the glass cell used to be.

"Stark." I greeted him. Tony looked at me, then back at the empty space in the middle of the room

"Agent Carter." He said as I walked past him and sat down on the staircase where Phil had collapsed.

"Was he married?" Asked Steve out of the blue. He had followed me here and was standing by the entrance.

"No." I said.

"There was a...cellist. I think." Stark added. I watched Steve cross his arms and recline his weight on the handrail.

"He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot." My eyes snapped at Stark.

"Watch it." I warned.

"What? It's true."

"Why was he an idiot? For believing?" Asked Steve.

"For taking in Loki alone."

"He wasn't alone." Both men looked at me and I realised the Russian accent that comes out when I'm angry was in my voice again. "I was here. I was the one fighting off a squad meant to break Loki out all alone. Five men against me, and even if I can fight off plenty of people in one round, it was too much. I was outnumbered and outgunned. When I got too close to killing them off, I got knocked out and Phil came in. He saved me. We were doing our job." Stark turned around to face me for a second as I stood up and walked away towards the exit while he scoffed.

"He was out of your league." He told me. "You should've waited. He should've waited. He should've-" I turned around to face him.

"Wait for what exactly?" I cut him off. "For you to come back from fixing the engine because you could've stopped that, right?" I asked, pointing at the blood on the wall, Stark looked behind him and sighed. "That's what you're saying?" Silence. "He was definitely out of our league just because he's an alien God, but getting here faster or waiting a minute wouldn't have made a difference. Even if you had gotten here, Coulson would've died anyway."

"What do you mean?" Asked Steve, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Loki was already out." They blinked and stared at me, confused. "He can create illusions of himself, that's how he trapped Thor in the cell. And he didn't have the sceptre because that thing was in the lab, yet, he stabbed Coulson with it. He didn't leave my sight the whole time I fought the squad because he was trapped. But the man I was looking at was an illusion, he wasn't the real Loki." My eyes pooled with tears with each word I spoke. "I don't know how he did it. I missed it. I didn't see it and that never happens to me. I don't miss anything."

"It was not your fault, Victoria. Don't do that to yourself." Said Steve. "Sometimes there isn't a way out." He added, looking at me, and Tony behind me.

"Right, I've heard that before." Said Stark as he walked away.

"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?" Stark turned around and faced Steve abruptly.

"We are not soldiers. You're the soldier, Cap. Then there's us" he pointed at himself. "and the spies that work for Mister Spy." He pointed at me. "And, I don't know about you," he said looking at me. "but I'm not marching Fury's fife."

"Neither am I." Said Steve, making me look at him. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does." I gulped and looked at the ground knowing it was true. My own hands are dripping blood as well. "But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done." I looked back at the blood, same as Tony. "Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-"

"He made it personal." Said Tony.

"That's not the point."

"No, that's exactly the point." I agreed a minute later, for the first time ever, with Stark. "That's Loki's point."

"Carter was right when she said he had us well studied. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony commented.

"To tear us apart." Steve affirmed.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but...he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us. And to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"That's why he wanted us to catch him, why it was so easy." I added.

"Right. We caught his act in Stuttgart." Steve commented.

"That's just previews. This is opening night." Stark's mind started racing, I could see the gears moving in his head. "And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered..." It clicked for all of us.

"New York." I said and ran out the room.

"Son of a bitch." Stark cussed and they ran behind me.

Stark left towards the lab while Steve and I made our way to our respective rooms. I took off his shirt and the bloody suit to replace it for another suit, which black, the eagle of S.H.I.E.L.D. blue, as well as its seams, but essentially the same as the one I was wearing.

I clipped the holster of the batons over my chest, securing just one of the batons in place over my back. Then, from a panel in the closet only I can open, I pulled out two guns and loaded the bullet cartridges, keeping replacements on the utility belt that's around my hips. I also loaded my Widow bracelets and took a knife I kept in its pocket of my belt because the other one flew out of the carrier when I cut Loki's cheek earlier. I closed the panel of the closet and walked out, finding Steve on the hallway, the top part of his suit on.

"This is yours." He said, offering my other baton, which I took and kept in the holster.

"Thank you." He nodded.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said as I braided my hair with quick hands, he just looked at me. "What?" He blinked and cleared his throat.

"Black suits you better than blue." I smiled at him and we started to walk away. As we made our way towards the hangar, we walked through the hospital wing. I saw Natasha in a room through the window of a door and slid the gate open.

"Time to go." I said and Nat turned around to face us.

"Go where?" She asked.

"New York, we'll tell you on the way." I looked around. "Where's Clint?"

"Here." He said from the bathroom, Barton was drying his hands. His eyes back to their normal shade of green. I smiled at him, getting the same gesture in return with sweetness in his gaze instead of empty hatred.

"We need one of those jets." Said Steve behind me.

"I can pilot it." Said Barton. I looked at Steve over my shoulder, then at Nat. She nodded and that was all we needed to know he was back.

"You got a suit?" Barton nodded at Rogers. "Then suit up."

Steve got his shield and put on his helmet, then the four of us made our way towards the hangar, where Barton gathered a quiver filled up with special and tactical arrows. We headed towards a Quinjet that was at the edge, one of the crew members was checking the jet's inventory.

"Hey, you guys aren't authorised to be in here." He said.

"Thanks for the info, now get out." I said to him as Barton sat down as a pilot.

"Hey!" Steve held the guy's arm.

"Son, just don't." He said.

"Get out of the jet, please." I ordered, the crew guy walked out and Natasha hit the button that would close the hatch of the jet.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Said Clint. Natasha sat down beside him while Steve and I sat together on the left row of seats. The jet took off and we started the journey towards New York City.