Time to go

A Bargain and a Proposition

"A bargain?" Fury's eyebrows rose in amusement. "Do your other Avengers know you are here?"

Bruce felt a bubble of resentment, but he pushed it down. "Yes, I want to make a deal. It doesn't matter if the other Avengers know I'm here, all you need to know is I'm here alone. No one is going to try and stop me and I have no one waiting to pounce on you."

Fury smiled, it was more unsettling than his scowl. "Very good Dr. Banner, now let's hear this deal. What do you want from me?"

The scientist took a deep breath.

"I want you to release Agent Barton and Sergeant Barnes."

Fury laughed again, it was a bitter short sound. "Not so simple Banner, I want something out of this deal. It isn't a bargain if only one side gets what they want."

"That's where I'm going." Bruce took a step toward Fury, gathering courage and calming himself. Too much courage could be deadly for him, because the second part of courage is rage.

"You have to highly trained soldiers in your basement, who are essentially rotting away to uselessness. My deal is that you get to use them once, send them on whatever suicide mission you want and if they succeed and come back alive they are free." Bruce finished.

Fury gave Bruce a look he would give a dull child.

"So you want me to send two of my prisoners on a mission that will probably kill them and if they live they go free? Why don't I just do that and then keep them? They are my prisoners. Also what mission? What could be so dangerous and important that I would waste Barton and Barnes on? Face it Dr. Banner, you have nothing to bargain with."

Bruce smiled, he was expecting this. "Not quite. You see, I know something that you don't."

"And what is that?"

"The tesseract is back."

Fury's face lost all colour.

"And," Bruce continued. "I'll tell you how I know where it will be, if you let Barton and Barnes go."

Fury seemed to recover slightly from Bruce's first words.

"Not going to happen, I won't let them go just for information."

"Then send them on the mission."

Fury rubbed his forehead. "Terms, lets talk over the terms first and then we'll make the deals."

"Fine. My terms are in exchange for this information that Barton and Barnes are given a week to prep before the mission. A chance to see their important people. To write any wills if they want to. And if they fail their bodies are brought back to be buried."

Fury nodded slowly. "Those seem fair enough, now my terms. Both Barton and Barnes will have trackers put into their arms so we can see if they try to make a break for it. SHIELD will not assist them in any way before, during or after the mission. To succeed and earn their freedom they must bring the Tesseract to me. If they don't they are my prisoners again."

Bruce swallowed. He was playing with other peoples' lives like poker chips, not like he wasn't before, but now it had sunk in. But not just Clint and Bucky's lives, with everyone who could be affected if Fury got the Tesseract.

"What would you do with the Tesseract?"

Fury's face was a unreadable mask.

"Dispose of it in any way possible. It is too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands."

Who are the wrong hands? Bruce wanted to ask.

"Fair enough." He said instead, masking his doubts.