Beacon.

Assemble

Steve, Tony, Kindle and Fury are gathered at a table. Hill stands to the side as Fury pulls a handful of cards out. Kindle is curled into a little ball in her chair, her arms wrapped around her knees, her eyes shiny with unshed tears.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get youto sign them." Fury drops the trading cards  on the table. Some are wet with blood. "Thanks to Kindle we have engines. But  our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming." Fury begins to make his way around the table to Steve and Tony. "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, Kindle knows this, has read the files, it was called the Avengers Initiative."

Fury reaches a chair between Tony and Steve "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. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." Tony stands up and walks out. "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

He looks at Kindle who nods and follows Tony out of the room and down to the detention level. He stands there looking at the empty spot where the cage used to be.

Kindle watches him a moment then walks up to him and wraps her arms around him from behind. She folds her hands across his stomach and he covers them with one of his own with a squeeze.

Steve enters the room and looks around, he has removed the suit but is still wearing the dark red leather boots and Kindle can't help but smile.

"Was he married?" Steve asks.

"No. There is...was a uh... cellist, Audrey, in Portland." Kindle shares.

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a goodman." Steve tells her.

"He was an idiot." To y snaps and pulls away from Kindle.

"Tony... don't?" She asks as Tony and Steve slowly move toward each other.

"Why? For believing?" Steve demands.

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony clarifies.

"He was doing his job." Steve reminds him.

Tony shakes his head. "He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..."

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Steve insists.

"Right. How did that work for him?" Tony sighs and looks at the spot on the wall still discolored from Coulson's blood.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asks.

"We are not soldiers!" Kindle speaks up.

"I'm not marching to Fury's fife." Tony insists

"Neither am I." Steve agrees. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done." He looks at Kindle. "Loki needs a power source, if wecan put together a list." He suggests.

Her brain starts working. "There aren't many places that can produce that kind of power." She admits.

"He made it personal." Tony mutters to himself.

"That's not the point." Steve begins.

"No! Tony's right! That is the point. That's Loki's point. Bruce... Agent Barton... He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Kindle asks.

Steve thinks. "To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but..." Tony starts to pace, his brain working overtime. "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."