It makes her sick, the way sadness is addicting. Sadness is familiar. It's comfortable and it's easy in the sense that it comes naturally to her. But everything else about it is hard. The way her body aches with self-hatred. The way her mind spins a...
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Athalia sat at the table in the main room of the ship. The table they had all been circled around before life had gone downhill when they had been watching Fury but Loki in the holding cell. But now Loki was gone. Thor and Banner were missing and Coulson was dead.
The young princess sat silent, zoned out at a random spot on the glass table. Her body shook a little after everything that had happened. Being chased by the Hulk and getting flashbacks was one thing but then to witness a man died right next to you was another. Athalia was so unfocused that she hadn't even heard Steve and Tony enter the room.
Tony sat on the opposite side of the table. Steve noticed the frightened, scared look on Athalia's face. He didn't know what she'd gone through in the last hour but being the gentleman he was, Steve sat next to her, asking her if she was okay. She jumped at the sound of his voice. Still not realizing they'd entered. Steve apologized before repeating the question.
"I couldn't save him," She mumbled, staring back down at the table.
"Coulson's death wasn't your fault," Steve replied with a soft voice. Athalia shook her head, not meeting the captain's eyes.
"I was there," She stated, "and couldn't do anything."
Silence comes over the room again, the only sound of muttered talking coming from the agents typing away on the computers. Tony still hadn't said a word. After a while Fury joined them in a room, standing at the other end of the table. The director held a stack of cards in his hands.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," he said, throwing the cards on the table towards Steve. Blood smeared on against the glass. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." Steve picked up one of the cards. Athalia let out a shaky breath.
"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." Fury spoke, as the three listened. "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, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battle that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."
Tony stood from his seat, looking around the room he didn't say anything. He just left the room. His chair still spinning from the sudden movement.
"Well," Fury said, "it's an old-fashioned notion."
●○●○●○●○●
Athalia had joined Steve in finding Tony. Not wanting to be left alone sitting in her own through. Natasha was off somewhere trying to help Clint return to his normal self after being freed from Loki's mind control. They found Tony in the room where Athalia was only a short moment ago. He stared out to where the cell was meant to be. While Athalia's eye's different to the wall with Phil's blood.
"Was he married?" Steve asked, leaning against the railing with his arms crossed.
"No," Tony replied, "There was a cellist, I think."
"I'm sorry," Steve apologized, out in the open. "He seemed like a good man.
"He was an idiot." Tony snapped.
"Why?" Athalia asked, "For believing?"
"For taking on Loki alone."
"He wasn't alone." Athalia spat, "he was doing his job."
Tony scoffed, "He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..."
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Steve explained, moving from his spot against the railing. Walking towards him.
"Right, I've heard that before." Tony scoffed again, rolling his eyes as he brushed past the two. His shoulder barging into Steve's.
"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?" Tony stopped in his tracks.
"We are not soldiers. I'm not marching to Fury's fife."
"Neither am I." Steve replied, "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done."
"Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-" Athalia started, before her voice was overlapped by Stark.
"He made it personal."
"That's not the point," Steve said.
"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony questioned. To which Steve and Athalia replied 'To tear us apart,'. "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, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." As Tony spoke, pacing around.
"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart. Yeah, that's just a preview. This is opening night. 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..." He stopped speaking.
Tony failed to finish his sentence. Like the gearbox in his brain had shut down, the only part working was a lightbulb over his head. Steve and Athalia raised their eyebrow as they waited for him to continue.
"Son of a bitch."
Tony walked past them out of the room his shoulder knocking into Steve's as he did so. The group had a plan. Most ideas admittedly came from Tony as he explained the lightbulb moment that went off in his brain. Tony had his own job to do, he was going to fly to Stark tower to talk to Loki, but first, the billionaire needed to fix his suit. Steve and Athalia's job right now was to get Natasha and Clint, steal and jet and get their asses to New York.
"Time to go," Steve said, now fully in his suit, as the door to the room holding the two agents opened. The redhead turned her head at the sound of the door sliding open. There was no Barton in the room.
"Go where?" Natasha questioned.
"We'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" Athalia asked. Upon the words leaving her mouth, the door to the bathroom opened. A man that Athalia had yet to meet, who she assumed must have been Agent Barton, emerged from the bathroom.
"I can." Both Steve and Athalia moved their eyes between the two. Was Clint back to his normal self? They wondered, or was he going to turn on them and go back to Loki? Natasha nodded her head, letting them know he was on their side without words.
"You got a suit?" Clint nodded his head at Steve's question. "Then suit up."
Moving fast on their feet all four walked toward where their weapons were held. Cap's shield, Nat's guns, and Barton's arrows. Athalia didn't need to grab anything seeing as she formed her weapons out of pure nothingness. They past the agents in the crowned hall of the ship making their way to the room where all the jets were held. The floor that Athalia and Thor had battled the Hulk on.
An agent stood inside an open jet, wiring together some passes. "Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be here."
"Son, just don't," Steve warned him. They kicked the agent off the jet. Nat and Clint sitting in the pilot and co-pilot seats. They powered up the jet, closing the door. The wheels started to turn before they shot out of the giant aircraft, soring through the air, heading straight to New York.
