In The Shadows | L. Laufeyson [1]

4 // Submerged In Darkness

Tony and Steve sit at a table while Fury stands before them, he shuffles through some old collectors cards before showing them to the pair.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them," Fury says, throwing the blood splattered cards onto the table.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor, Agent Draugr... I got nothing for you," Fury continues. "I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Even with one good eye I saw Helena switching sides a mile away, though I wish she hadn't. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract," he admits, "I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier."

There's a pause and Steve finally puts down the cards, Tony still won't look in anyone's direction.

"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of 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. In heroes."

With that Stark stands up and walks away. Fury and Steve watch as his figure disappears around a corner.

"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion," Fury admits, trying to guilt Steve into keeping his chin up.

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Tony looks to the spot where Coulson's blood is still staining, "He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve disputes.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony argues.

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?"

"That's bound to be why he took Helena."

"She was gunning for his right hand man position the second he stepped on this ship, Fury's right. But that's what he wants. He want to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it, Helena is in on it too," Tony continues. "They want an audience."

"Right. I caught their acts in Stuttgart," Steve says.

Tony begins walking up the steps as he continues, "Yeah, that's just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? Helena's only going to encourage that, you heard how she speaks of him. They want flowers, they want parades. They want a monument built to the skies with his name plastered..." Tony realizes what he's saying, and it hits him like a ton of bricks, "Son of a bitch."

He runs back down the steps as Steve follows him.

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Loki and I admire our work, Selvig is working on the portal, the team is in ruins, but they'll figure us out soon enough. We stand on the balcony of Stark Tower, waiting for someone to join us, sure enough, Stark sees us after trying to penetrate the shield around the Tesseract.

As Stark's technology takes off his armor, Loki and I walk towards the entrances of the tower. Loki with his green and gold Asgardian armor and scepter in hand, I with my red and black armor, large red sword in hand.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki sasses as Stark walks in.

"Actually I'm planning to threaten you both," Stark disagrees.

"Shame, I actually liked you, Stark," I say, truth in my statement.

"You should've left your armor on for that," Loki quips, padding forward.