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Conference table, Helicarrier bridge.
A heavy silence hung in the air as you, Steve and Tony sat around the glass table. To your left stood Agent Hill, and ahead of you – The Director.
From the inside pocket of his trenchcoat, Fury pulled out a handful of playing cards.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them."
Fury scattered the cards across the tabletop. More than a few of them were wet with blood, and they clung to the table in a sickly manner.
"We're dead in the air up here," your godfather continued, "Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor... I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye." He rested himself against the control panel. "Think I had that coming."
A moment passed, during which Steve reached for the Captain America card, a vicious feeling materialising in his stomach as his eyes landed on the bloodstains littered across the cardboard.
Slowly, Fury made his way around the table, passing by each of the three of you. "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." He locked eye contact with you momentarily, then proceeded. "There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative."
He gripped the back of your chair.
"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, inheroes."
Having heard enough, Tony stood up. Then, after a few seconds of staring ahead into dead space, he walked out.
"Well," Fury spoke softly, "it's an old fashioned notion."
✧✧✧
Infirmary.
"Ross."
Brendon's voiced seemed to echo off of the concrete walls, reverberating in the ears of the doctor, only driving him further into a distressed state.
Aaron was strapped to a hospital bed, while Brendon sat across from him with his hands on his knees, hunched over slightly.
The doctor strained against the bonds, breathing hard and shaking his head.
