Saving Grace

Twenty Two

An engine exploded. Everyone was thrown across the room. Loki's small army had stormed the ship — including Agent Barton. Tony and Cap went over to fix it. Dr. Banner transformed into the Hulk, and Thor fought him.

Surprisingly, Cap and Tony worked together to fix a broken turbine. Hulk ended up falling off the Helicarrier, while Natasha fought Agent Barton and managed to snap him out of Loki's mind control. Loki was sent off the ship in the fight. Thor followed.

And then the worst happened.

"Agent Coulson is down," Fury says after the fight. Everyone looks down. Tony fights back tears, already wondering how he's gonna tell Grace. Fury pulls collectible Captain America cards out of his pocket. They're half-covered in blood. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." He tosses them to Steve. "Guess he never did get you to sign them." Steve picks them up as Fury continues. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, and Thor — I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." He sighs. "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, 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 gets up, walking away. He can't stand to listen to it anymore. Fury smiles a little, sadly. "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

~~~~

They've opened Coulson's locker. Tony and Cap are standing there, looking in it.

"Was he married?" Cap asks.

Tony shakes his head. "No. There was a, uh...cellist, I think."

"I'm sorry," Cap says. "He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot." He doesn't believe it, not really.

Steve's brows furrow. "Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-"

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

Tony looks at him for a moment, then walks away. "Right. How did that work for him?"

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

Tony stops, turning around. "We are not soldiers! I am not marching to Fury's fife!"

"Neither am I!" Cap shouts back. "He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list-"

Tony looks at the blood on the wall. Coulson's. "He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Cap replies.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart."

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

Steve nods. "Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." It's then that he realizes what power source Loki is going to use to open the portal. "Crap."