The Dragon Princess (Bucky Pairing)

11

Banner continuously scans with a gamma ray detection scanner on the scepter for radiation. Tony looks at his monitors, shifting and solving as many algorithms and equations.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." Banner sighs.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." Tony offers.

"All I packed was a tooth brush." Baner jokes.

"You know, you should come by STARK TOWERS sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land." Tony smiles.

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem." Banner mutters.

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises." Suddenly, Tony pokes Banner with a miniature electrical prod. Steve walks in on them, pissed at Tony. Ashley follows him, its something they started doing. They walk around together and catch up on everything that happened.

"Ow!" Banner exclaims. Tony looks at Banner closely.

"Nothing?" Tony huffs.

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Steve demands.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Tony inquires.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve snaps.

"Funny things are." Tony shrugs.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor." Steve adds the last part quickly.

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Banner shakes his head.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony sighs.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Ashley growls.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." Tony groans.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve concludes.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tont points to Banner. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..." Banner chokes out.

"Doctor?" Steve frowns. A beat.

"'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." Banner points out.

"We heard it." Ashley says.

"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."  Banner points at Tony.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly..." Steve trails off. Tony gives him a look. "...building in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self- sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Banner guesses.

"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now." Tony shrugs.

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce continues.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony agrees.

"I'm sorry, did you say-?" Steve starts.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." Tony holds out a bag of blueberries. "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve scoffs.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible." Tony argues.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed." Ashley observes.

"We have orders, we should follow them." Steve agrees.

"Following is not really my style." Tony shrugs.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve gives Tony a tight forced smile.

"Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?" Tony mocks. The two men seem to start squaring up. Ashley sighs and pushes them apart before they try to beat the crap out of each other.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Banner pleads. Steve takes in the possibility, but as an obedient soldier, shakes it off. Ashley purses her lip, she wont shake off the possibility unlike Steve. She isnt an obedient soldier, shes a princess, taught to stand up to people and accept ideas.

"Just find the cube." Steve walks out of the lab. Still torn apart by the possibility, he walks away, towards the hull of the ship. Ashley sighs and starts to walk out.

"Ashley?" Bruce calls.

"This isnt strange to you?" Tony questions. The corner of Ashleys lip twitches upwards.

"My father has always been a good judge of character. In court, hed be able to smell an enemy spy from miles away. He taught me how to sense lies." Ashley explains. "Sadly, Im not as good as him. However it cannot be pushed aside. Every possibility should be considered no matter how absurd. But for now we should work as a team and what Im worried about is that this information may not bring us closer. Right now our priority is finding the Cube and destroying Lokis plans. Then we can concentrate on what SHIELD plans to do with the Cube."

"What if its too late then?" Banner asks. Ashley looks over her shoulder.

"Its never too late Doctor. And if I am proven wrong. Ill deal with it." Ashley offers.

"How?" Tony demands.

"I have my ways." Ashley smiles and leaves.

***

"Is it too late to go back to Drathen?" Brooklyn teases as she flips through her sketch book, trying to find a blank page. Her brows furrow in concentration. Ashley snorts.

"Yes. I do believe so." Ashley nudges her daughter. "What are you drawing?" Brooklyn shuts the sketch book abruptly.

"Nothing." She lies and shoves it back in her bag. Ashley cocks her head in question. "I need to go do something." Brooklyn hurries out. Ashley looks after her concerned and, she hates being this nosey, picks up her diary. Shes concerned for her daughter, she wont speak to her. Every page is filled, she turns to the last entry:

I dont know what to do anymore. My headaches and vision have become worse. Mother worries. Zephyr appears to care but I dont want him to. Why cant he just hate me so it can be easier to hate him? Anyways, the visions have been of a man, I cant see his face but I hear phrases and snippets of emotions. Or rather emptiness.

Ashley puts away the diary and frowns. Nothing unusual. She glances to the sketchbook and flips through it. Her breathe catches as she covers her mouth. Its Bucky. Her daughter has been having vision of Bucky. Of course he looks different and shes not entirely sure its Bucky but he looks so much like him. The stance, the posture and everything else about him just seems to match. Ashley stuffs the sketch book away and hurries into her own bedroom, if only to hide her tears.