Tony clasped his hands together, breaking back into his lively self after what had transpired only minutes ago for his godmother. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." He adds, referring back to the Iridium as he walks onto where Fury stands. "Raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails." He quips to the surrounding agents who only look at him weirdly. He then quickly turns around to point at another agent at a desk, "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Mary's godson shouts, drawing the whole bridge to look at one agent who quickly goes back to his work. Tony then covers one of his eyes briefly, trying to look at all the screens around him on Fury's platform, covering one eye, "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Mary states.

"Well, that sounds exhausting." He quips casually as he taps on one of the screens beside him on Fury's platform, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the Cube." Tony rattles off, causing Mary to chuckle under her breath.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" She asks curiously, she was sure he hadn't mastered the field in the past, but when Tony put his mind to something, he was always going to finish it to the best of his ability.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony answers, as he walks over to the group.

Steve looks at his sister's godson, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" He asks, stepping into the conversation.

"He would have to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Banner interjects, his mind beginning to work as he and Tony throw out theories and ideas.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony points out

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Banner retorts.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony says with a smirk as he holds out his arm towards Bruce as he walks around the table to the Gamma scientist.

Steve looks at Mary dumbfoundedly, confused by the conversation that he was just a witness to that he understood none of, "Is that what just happened?" He asks her.

"I've just learned to go along with when it comes to Tony." She replies with a smile, earning a wink from her godson, "It eventually will make sense."

Tony walks over to Bruce, the two men shake hands as they greet one another. "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony states.

Mary's eyes widen and she gasps as she turns around in her hair to face her godson, "Anthony!" Mary scolds him, Tony cringes at the use of his full name, only giving his godmother a sheepish smile in return.

Bruce cringes but smiles briefly in thanks to Mary, then looks at Tony, "Thanks." He murmurs.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury states as he enters the conversation, looking at Tony when he says the last part.

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Steve wonders aloud.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury replies, Mary's eyes glimmer a bit at the Wizard of Oz reference.

"Monkeys. I do not understand." Thor asks.

"I do!" The two Rogers siblings shout in unison, Steve pointing at Fury, causing them to look at each other with a shine in their eyes Mary had missed so much when he was gone.

"I understood that reference." Steve says proudly for getting the reference. Mary's still chuckling under her breath, smiling at her brother. She missed him more than she could ever imagine.

Tony watches his Mama Ree, breathing out a chuckle then turns to Bruce, "Shall we play, Doctor?" He asks his fellow scientist.

Bruce nods in agreement at Tony, "This way, sir."

The godson begins to walk then looks over his shoulder at his godmother, "Hey, Liz!" He calls to her.

Mary turns in her chair, "Yes?" She asks in reply, her eyebrow raised as she wanted to know what Tony was going to ask her.

"Want to watch?" He offers with a small smile, "Maybe help?"

Mary smiles, nodding eagerly as she turns to her brother, "I'll see you later." He tells him as she stands, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she begins to walk towards her godson and friend.

"Lady M- Elizabeth." Thor calls to her, remembering to call her by her alias in public.

"Hm?" She turns around, chuckling, "I'm suddenly popular." She teases under her breath as she finishes her ponytail.

"I'd be honored to teach you how to plait your hair as us Asgardians do. It's a sacred art I believe you would enjoy." Thor says with a smile, taking pride in his heritage and wanting to teach someone about it. Mary had long brown hair that met her mid, almost lower, back. He noticed her always pulling it up into a ponytail before when they had met.

Mary smiles wide, her face heating up slightly, then nods, "I'd like that, Thor, very much." She replies and Tony smiles at the exchange. His arm wrapping around his godmother's shoulders as himself, Bruce and Mary walk down the hall into the lab.

Later that day, Banner and Tony were scanning the scepter that had retrieved from Loki, hoping to find the cube. Mary smiled, as she watched her godson do what he does best, work his mind.

His mind was so vast to her, he graduated MIT at age sixteen, then took over Stark Industries at twenty-one and built it up even bigger than Howard had dreamed possible. Tony had accomplished so much during his life, and now he was putting his mind to good use by being Iron Man.

Bruce looks over at Tony, "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." He states as he taps the monitor, watching the readings flux.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." Tony replies, causing Mary to smile at him, she had absolutely no idea what either of the men were talking about but she enjoyed watching them nonetheless.

Bruce chuckles "All I packed was a toothbrush." He jokes.

Tony smiles at his friend, "You know, you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's Candy Land." He suggests to Bruce. Mary smiled softly as her godson and friend were getting along pretty smoothly it seemed.

Bruce shakes his head, "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem." He states back, Mary remembered that day, she was with Pepper when that happened, all over the news was The Hulk smashing Harlem to pieces. Mary was one of the first medical people on the scene after they had gotten Bruce out of the area.

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises." Tony states as he picks up electrical prod, shocking Bruce.

"Ow!" Banner yelps in shock, turning to look at Tony who's behind him.

Mary widens her eyes at her godson. "Tony!" She exclaims, slightly pissed he would try something like that. He looks over at her, shrugging, then turns back to Banner.

"Hey!" Mary can hear her brother shout from down the hall, she didn't expect to see him until later but she was happy to see him nonetheless.

"Nothing?" Tony asks as Steve walks in, the look on his face anything but pleased with what he just had walked into. Mary looks at her brother, Steve respected Tony out of his love for his sister and Howard, but she knew that her brother was coming close to snapping at Mary's godson for everything that he's done since he came aboard the helicarrier.

"Are you nuts?" Steve questions Tony.

Tony looks Steve, then looked away, "Jury's out." He quips quietly before continuing his questioning of Bruce, "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Anthony that's enough." Mary interjects, her hazel eyes narrowed at her godson.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve questions Tony again, he didn't find it funny like the Stark man did in trying to unleash the Hulk in a flying raft in the sky.

"Funny things are." Tony quips back at the older Rogers sibling, pointing his zapper stick at his briefly

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor." Steve states, turning to Bruce.

"Seriously, T, what were you thinking?" Mary asks as she steps off her stool and walks over to him.

"Wanted to see how well he kept the lid on it." Tony replies casually. He was always testing theories in his head and seeing how they would play out in real time, but sometimes that got him in trouble.

Bruce shakes his head, waving his hand dismissively, "It's alright, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Tony rolls his eyes, "You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." He states, strutting past Bruce to prove his point as he walks away from where Bruce was working.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve states seriously.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." Tony throws questions in the air to everyone.

Mary looks down, she had been thinking the exact same thing since he showed up in the gym. She knew Tony was finding out why for her but also for himself. He was a curious person by nature, but when his godmother was involved, he proved that no one could stop him from finding the answers he wanted to get for her. The answers she deserved to have and to know.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asks, his blue eyes landing on his sister. If Fury was hiding something, something from Mary even, then it was something big and something he didn't want her knowing.

"Captain, he's a spy. He's the spy. His secrets have secrets." He tells her, then points to Bruce, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..." Bruce fumbles with his words after Tony put him on the spot.

Steve glances over at Bruce, "Doctor?"

"Mama Ree, you told me he was keeping things from you. This is how i'm finding out." Tony states, "He's never kept anything from you. Why now?"

Mary looks at him, nodding slowly, "I've known Nick since he started at Shield as an Agent, so what's changed?" She asks aloud.

"A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube." Bruce points out. Steve murmurs a reply, and Bruce continues, "Well, I think that was meant for you." He says to Tony, the godson snacking on blueberries and offers one to Bruce who willingly accepts. "Even if Barton tell didn't Loki about the tower it was all over the news." Bruce finishes.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" Steve stops himself as Mary and Tony give him looks, "-building in New York?" He corrects himself.

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self- sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Banned says, looking to Tony.

"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now." Tony retorts, "That's what he's getting at." He adds as he pops another blueberry into his mouth as he says it, looking at Steve. He then holds out his blueberry bag towards his godmother. Mary smiles softly, taking a small handful of blueberries for herself.

"So, why didn't Shield bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Banner questions.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of Shield's secure files." Tony states nonchalantly, shrugging.

The siblings's eyes widen, "I'm sorry, did you say.." Mary trails off.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge." He cuts his godmother off, holding up his phone briefly before putting it back into his pocket. "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He states, offering his snack to Mary, "Blueberry?" He offers to Steve.

Steve shakes his head, still not fully understanding what his sister sees in the Stark man, "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

Tony cocks his eyebrow at the super soldier, "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 don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them." Steve retorts, he was still the soldier he was trained to be since before the ice. And that made him immensely different from Tony.

"Following is not really my style." Tony quips, causing Mary to now sense the tension between her two most beloved people in her life besides her husband and daughter.

Steve smiles coldly at him, "And you're all about style, aren't you?"

Tony cocks his head slightly as he steps up to Steve. Her brother had hit a nerve, "Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?" Tony snaps and Steve narrows his blue eyes at the man in front of him but doesn't do or say anything more at the time because of his sister in the room

"Steve, tell me none of this sounds a little off to you?" Mary asks her brother, trying to defuse the tension in the room. Steve takes in the possibility, but shakes it off.

"Just find the cube." Steve states, walking out of the lab.

"That's the guy my dad and Mama Ree never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." Tony states, not realizing his godmother is still in the room.

He winces as a small wrench is thrown at him, "How dare you, Anthony Edward Stark. That is my brother, the only family I had for most of my life." She snaps, shaking his head in frustration and disbelief that her godson would say something like that with her in the room. He knew Steve meant everything to her, just like he did. "I can't bear to look at you right now." She snaps and storms out of the lab, leaving her godson with his mouth agape, not realizing what he had said before it was too late, and his godmother was already out of his sight. The godmother wipes her tear filled eyes as she walks down a hallway, hearing grunting and metal groaning she walks closer to the sounds, she sees her brother. "Steve? What's going on?" She asks cautiously, she knew what Steve was doing wasn't a good idea, but she wouldn't ever let him do it alone.

"I'm digging for secrets." He grunts out as he pulls open the sealed door, he walks into the storage room, seeing cases and crates everywhere. Mary steps up behind him, now as curious as her brother to know what Fury's been hiding from her. She was tired of learning Fury was keeping secrets from her. They walk deeper into the storage room, looking for anything to give them a clue as to the secrets being kept in the dark. Steve looks up, seeing a catwalk above the siblings. He smirks slightly, looking at Mary, "Just like old times, huh?" He teases as he squats down for her to climb onto his back.

Mary blinks her hazel eyes, then chuckles softly as she climbs onto his back, "I've missed this." She tells him as he leaps up onto the catwalk above the siblings, the younger sibling climbing down from his back when Steve stands up, stabilizing himself on the catwalk.

"Riding on my back?" Steve asks as they hold onto the railing, walking forward through the giant maze of containment crates.

"Being with you like this, like back in the '40's, back in our time." She states, making Steve smile, nodding. It was a different atmosphere than before, but the two siblings still found their way to stick together, through all odds it would seem. Not even death could stop the Rogers siblings.

"It feels nice." He says with a small smile then hesitates, looking at his sister as she stops walking to turn around and look at him, "I guess I don't feel like I've missed much like you have because to me, I gave you to Peg and the Colonel only weeks ago.. I crashed the Valkyrie and woke up from a stale dream." He replies quietly, "Then people tell me it's been seventy years since that? It's still hard to wrap my head around that sometimes." He mumbles, shaking his head, looking away from his sister, not wanting to see her reaction.

"Oh, Steve.." Mary mumbles, pulling her brother into her arms the two embrace tightly as Steve can without hurting her with his strength, "I'm sorry you feel like that, I really do." She mutters, "I wish there was a simple answer that would solve everything, but there isn't and I hate that there isn't."

Steve shakes his head as the two pull apart, "It's alright, Lizzie. I know it'll be a battle to adjust as well as I can in this new age. But I have you, and we both know that when the both of us put our minds together, there's nothing we can't face."

Mary chuckles, a small smile on her face as she nods in agreement, "It's always us two, hm? The Rogers siblings. No matter what happens, we always come back to each other." She says and Steve nods in agreement.

"Now let's go find answers." He mutters as they continue to walk in search of whatever would give them answers. They reach crates that looks like it could hold something useful for them. Steve breaks the locks on it, opening it up, the siblings' eyes widen in horror and shock as they see Hydra uniforms and weapons that used the Tesseract. Steve looks at Mary, knowing this will crush her deeply, the place she built with their closest friends has been hoarding this secret for only God knows how long without their co-founder knowing.

"Mary.." Steve murmurs, but Mary holds up her hand, silencing her brother as she stares at the Hydra gear in stunned silence. She grabs a mask of the Hydra agents and Steve grabs a weapon.

"I'm getting my damn answers." She snaps, "Fury is going to need to pray to God that I show mercy on him." She adds, wiping her eyes and cheeks with the collar of her shirt as they exit the storage room.

When they get back to the lab, Fury is in the lab talking with Tony and Bruce.

"What is Phase Two?" Tony asks. He looks at his godmother as she and her brother enter the lab, seeing her hazel eyes not as vibrant as they should be, his heart breaks a little.

"Phase Two is Shield uses the tesseract to make weapons." Mary snaps, as she and Steve slam their evidence on the metal table, all eyes turning to her. Fury looks ashamed but Mary could care less at the moment.

"Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for us." Steve says to Tony.

Fury is trying to find an answer, as he speaks, "Mary, Captain Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-"

Tony cuts him off, sliding a screen over with blueprints for new weapons using the tesseract. "I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?"

All Mary can see is red, "You lied to me!" She shouts, Steve grabs hold of his sister by her arms to keep her from launching her 5'5" self at the Director, "You swore the Tesseract was only for clean energy! How long have you been keeping this from me, Nick?" Fury refuses to look at her, knowing how hurt she is, she feels betrayed by someone who she trusted her life with. That changed the moment she found the Hydra weapons.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve says as Thor and Natasha walk into the room.

Bruce pipes in, pointing at Natasha with his folded glasses, "You know about this?"

Steve continues to hold Mary until Tony takes her from him, smoothing her hair down with his hand as he glares daggers into Fury. Neither of them trusted her on her own right now due to the information and lies that had been uncovered.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from the environment, Doctor?" She asks him.

Bruce scoffs, now pissed off as well. He hated being lied to just as much as everyone in this room, "I was in Calcutta, i was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you." Natasha says cooly, walking towards him.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Bruce retorts.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha says.

"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." Bruce questions, holding onto a screen with blueprints for the Tesseract weapons and pointing at them with his folded glasses in his other hand.

Fury then finally snaps, "Because of him!" Nick shouts, pointing to Thor.

Thor's taken aback, looking at Mary then at the Director, "Me?" He asks confusedly.

"Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town." Nick says, glancing at Mary briefly, she was there when it happened, when the Destroyer showed up and nearly burned down an entire town. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned." Fury explains.

Thor, still stunned, shakes his head in confusion, "My people want nothing but peace with your planet." He replies.

"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, that can't be controlled." Fury states.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Mary quips, Tony can feel her shaking with anger in his arm as he holds her tight and Steve holds her hand as an attempt to comfort her.

"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." Thor explains as best he can. Mary's hazel eyes widen in shock at her friend's statement.

Steve's eyes widen, "A higher form?"

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Fury snaps at the thunder god.

"Nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down." Tony quips, letting his godmother go from his arm when she stops shaking.

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

Mary narrows her hazel eyes, "Now hold on-"

"I'm sure if Stark still made weapons he would be neck deep-" Steve cuts his sister of but then Tony cuts him off.

"Wait! Wait, hold on." Tony interjects, stepping closer to Steve, "How is this now about me?"

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

Mary widens her eyes, stepping between her two boys, "Stop this!" She shouts, but no one hears her as they all start arguing.

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

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asks him. Mary becomes lost in all of the arguments, shutting her eyes tightly, she didn't like it when her friends fought, she never had before and she never will.

"I swear to God, Stark are you on that list? Are you more crack above or below angry bees?" Steve asks.

"Verbal threat! I feel threatened!" Tony shouts. Mary looks at both of them as they argue. Soon the multiple arguments die down and all that's left is Thor.

"You speak of control yet you court chaos." The god says.

Bruce looks at all of them, "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."

"You need to step away." Fury warns the Gamma scientist.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asks as he puts his hand on Steve's shoulder, pisses his godmother's brother off even more.

Steve narrows his eyes, shoving Tony's hand off his shoulder, "You know damn well why! Back off!" Mary gets between them again as Tony and Steve come face to face, she places her hands on their chests, trying to break them up, but it's no use.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony quips under his breath to Steve.

"Anthony, don't do this." Mary pleads, but it falls on deaf ears.

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

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony retorts, smirking.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage." Mary's brother snaps, "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."

Tony steps back from Steve, "I think I would just cut the wire." He points out.

Steve scoffs, "Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero." He snaps, Mary's eyes widen in shock as she stares up at her brother.

"Steven Grant!" She shouts, but again, it falls on deaf ears. She turns to see something in Tony snap.

"A hero? Like you?" Tony questions, stepping even closer to Steve despite Mary pushing them apart with everything in her. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." He snaps. Mary shakes her head, tears falling from her eyes as two of the most important people in her life are fighting like she's never seen before.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds." Steve suggests smuggly.

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

Fury looks at Natasha, "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-"

"Where? You rented my room." Bruce cuts Fury off.

Fury sighs, "The cell was just in case.."

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!" Bruce snaps, pausing. Mary gasps in shock at her friend's reveal. "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, like Mary does." He says with a slight smile before it vanishes from his face. "I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk," He states, then turns to Natasha. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" He snaps.

Fury and Natasha back up slowly, their guns both ready to be drawn. Mary widens her eyes as she sees Bruce holding the scepter without realizing it.

"Bruce, put down the scepter.." Mary states calmly.

Bruce then looks down at his hand, he finally notices that he's holding the scepter, just then a ringing goes off in the room, capturing everyone's attention. He sets the scepter down on the table behind him and walks to the computer where the beeping is. "Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." He murmurs.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asks.

"I can get there faster." Tony butts in.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor points out to the group as Tony turns to leave.

"You're not going alone!" Steve shouts to her godson, stopping him in his tracks by grabbing his arm.

Tony smacks Steve's hand off, "You gonna stop me?"

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

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

"Put on the suit." Steve says through his gritted teeth.

Mary walks back to them, "Enough of this!" She shouts at them, looking over at Bruce as he pulls his glasses off his face, reading something on the computer. He mutters something that Mary can't hear as an explosion goes off. She screams as both Tony and Steve hold onto her tightly as the lab their in gets blown up from underneath them. Bruce and Natasha falling into the hole the explosion caused.

"Mary!" The two men shout as she's knocked unconscious and they're blasted away from her. The two put their differences aside as they focus on Mary and the explosion as they hurry to recover. Steve scrambling to his sister, hoping he didn't hit her head badly.

"Put on the suit." Steve murmurs as he lifts Mary into his arms.

"Yep!" Tony shouts in reply, looking his godmother over, "Keep her safe." He says before he runs off to get his suit on.

Steve looks down at Mary, "Come on, Lizzie. Wake up." He murmurs as he runs to get her to the bridge where she'll be safe and he can help figure out and fight off whatever just happened in the carrier.

You'll notice that this chapter used to be Chapter 17, it is now Chapter 18 because when i went back to edit/revamp this chapter, i added so much that all together one chapter made well over 9,000 words... so i split them. So now there is literally a new chapter just before this one, Chapter 17. Shakespeare in the Park. Which i will say was so much fun to write. That chapter is huge and important to the rest of the series in my personal opinion. So please go read it!

Love, Red
(My sign off gif isn't working right now which sucks)