Lieutenant - Daughter of the Captain

Chapter 11.0 - Mission

"Coulson is down...the Lieutenant has been compromised," Fury's words rang through their heads.

Steve's heart dropped. He heard Fury confirm Coulson's death. But he had other concerns.

"Compromised, sir?" He repeated, suddenly breathless.

A beat of silence passes.

"Loki has her..." Fury stated simply.

Steve felt his heart beat in his ears. He tried not to think of everything he could do to her, everything he could force her to do. He tried not to think of what he would want with a child.

Through all of his worrying, though, he heard her voice in his head. A reminder.

"Don't pretend like this is anything more than it is, Captain Rogers,"

Tony went to speak, but he was cut off.

"We've got a job to do," Steve said, putting his shield securely on his back and starting towards the bridge.

Tony sighed, closing his eyes. He stepped out of the Iron Man suit and winced.

"Kid, you're going to be the death of me..." He muttered to himself before following after Steve.

********
Natasha sat at Barton's bedside. She held her head in her hands, thinking of the girl with the blonde hair....and everything that Loki could want with her.

She had a dark past. She had red in her ledger. She knew what that girl was capable of.

Best case scenario he'd make her kill for him.

Worst case scenario...he's a sadist...

********
Steve and Tony sat at a glass table on the bridge of the ship, Director Fury and Agent Hill standing opposite them. Their faces were numb an lifeless, though, most for more reasons than one.

"These were in Phill Coulson's jacket," Fury tosses a set of bloodied Captain America trading cards onto the table,"Guess he never did get you to sign them..." he directs the comment towards Steve, who picks them up to examine them.

"We're dead in the air up here," The Director continues, "Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming," he pauses, considering his next words, "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. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called 'The Avengers Initiative'. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could," He explained to the two of them.

"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea...in heroes..." He finished, just in time for Tony to get up and storm away.

Tony wasn't sure where he was going, but he knew he wasn't going to sit there and listen to Fury's attempt at a pep talk.

Every second that they spent there, she spent with him. A wack job who's only goal was to subdue the human race.

That wasn't going to end well.

******
Barton was beginning to stir, breaking Natasha from her thoughts. He was muttering to himself, coming out of the scepter's control.

"Clint, you're gonna be alright," She soothed, he was sweating and still slightly delirious.

"You know that? Is that I what you know? I got-" he stuttered, "I gotta go in, though...I gotta flush him out..."

"We don't have that long, it's gonna take time," Natasha reasoned, watching him become more aware by the second.