Captain's Hart

Chapter 6 Trap

Steve turned on Arianna sharply as he demanded: "Did you know about this?" Her eyes went cold and he suddenly found himself looking at a very different woman from the one he'd seen so far. This was the face of Aria, a cold and emotionless killer. Even her air had changed, the fire turning to ice and her eyes steely.

The change only made Steve angrier as he saw full proof of how deeply SHIELD's training was ingrained in its agents. He was furious as he wondered just how much of this woman's words he could trust; he had never felt so alone on a 'team' before. His heart ached for his old team where he knew they had each others' backs. This group, this so-called team SHIELD had put together... he couldn't trust. Because he had the distinct feeling that they could easily stab him in the back when his guard was down.

Arianna meanwhile was furious, both with the situation she found herself in and with Steve's accusation. She had opened herself up to him because she'd felt she could trust Phil's hero, and he'd accused her the second he'd gotten angry. He's no different from the others. She thought bitterly. They say 'trust' but no-one trusts a spy. We'll always be the first to be blamed... and I can't even blame them.

Arianna tried to keep her anger in check as she said slowly and distinctly: "No. Because if I did, one, I wouldn't be here, I'd be demanding Fury explain what he's planning, and two, I would never have brought you here." "So, you show your true colors. Your true loyalties." Steve scoffed scornfully.

His eyes were blazing like blue fires as he spat: "All that talk, and in the end it's never about the right thing. You'll just follow Fury's orders without question... like a machine."

Her eyes flickered, changing to pure anger, before the shutter was pulled down again and it was cold indifference. This only agitated Steve further, and he barely heard her as she snarled: "You don't know Fury like I do. He's not completely cold and calculating, and until I've spoken to him directly I choose to reserve my judgment on the precious few people in this world that I trust."

She spat the word but Steve remained unmoved as he picked up one of the guns and strode off. Arianna clenched her fists, willing herself to stay collected despite her deep anger, and let her SHIELD training kick in. She calmed down and followed Steve, as he strode back towards the lab. She could hear Fury inside the lab, which confused her briefly, until Tony asked: "What is Phase 2?"

Steve walked in, dumping the HYDRA gun on a nearby table as he snapped coldly: "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons." He addressed Tony as Arianna walked in after him: "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow." Tony's eyes narrowed at Arianna, who saw his screen showing top secret SHIELD files.

So, he hacked the security systems. Arianna realized and if this had been any other situation she would've sighed and shaken her head at him amusedly. Unfortunately, she was feeling far from amused as Fury said to Steve, trying to placate the furious soldier: "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupted and they all turned as Tony showed them the screen to show plans for weapons based off of the HYDRA weapon designs. Arianna's eyes face contorted in anger as Tony added scornfully: "What, were you lying?"

Steve said coldly to Fury as he folded his arms: "I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit." "Sir, is this true?" Arianna demanded as Fury's mouth pressed into a thin line.

"Don't pretend you didn't know." Steve snapped at her and Arianna exploded back: "I didn't!"

"She didn't, because it says specifically that it's level 8 and above, Arianna's only level 7." Tony chimed in flatly, and Arianna whirled on him as she snarled: "Oh, so you only trust me because you looked at the records."