Whatever It Takes

Chapter 14 - They Called It

New York, 2012

Walking into the lab you didn't even notice that everyone is already in there, clearly in the middle of a confrontation. You walk right up to the desk and throw one of the many guns you had found on the table before turning to meet Fury's eye.

"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?" Stark says, trying to meet your eye, but you're too angry.

"Sorry Stark, computer was going a little slow for me," You still haven't broken eye contact with Fury. "You are full of shit, you know that. Preaching to me about trust, and then breaking it yourself."

"I told you what you needed to know," Fury starts before you cut him off.

"Bullshit. Did you know that I have gained more trust from Stark in the last few hours than I have from you in the last 4 years? You expect me just to follow your orders, just like THEY did, but I expected better Fury. You made me believe I was helping make up for my mistakes, all those shitty jobs you had me do. You made me guard that damn cube, while this was going on in the background." You point to the gun, just as a hand rests on your shoulder.

"Sasha," you turn to see Banner looking at you with sympathetic eyes. "Calm down." You can still feel the anger, but you take a small step back from Fury.

"You might want to remove yourself from this Doc." Nat starts to walk over to you, but you put a hand up. You know she's known about all this as well, of course she would have, and that just infuriates you more. "Can't either of you see, Loki is manipulating you both, using this as a distraction."

"Nah, I'm not leaving just because all of a sudden you get twitchy. Now I want to know why SHIELD is designing weapons of mass destruction."

Fury gives you a small look before pointing at Thor. "Because of him." An argument erupts between the entire group. Stark and Rodgers; Nat and Banner; you and Thor against Fury. Not one of you paying attention to what's happening behind you all: Loki's scepter has started to glow.

"Sasha, you have to understand, this was about preparing ourselves for what might happen in the future. It was something you didn't need to know. It was all under control." Fury tries to reason with you, gaining nothing but a scoff.

"You speak of control, but really you court chaos." Thor slams back.

"It's his M.O." you push back. "I mean, is this really meant to be a team?" Gesturing to the argument continuing to go on around you, "Just one chaotic mess because you can't tell people the truth!"

"That's a bit rich, coming from you!" Fury shouts back. Banner walks up to stand next to you. "You need to step away from this, both of you." He looks over to Nat. "Romanoff, maybe you need to escort Dr Banner and Volkova back to..."

"To where?" Banner stands firm. "You've already rented out my room."

"The cell was just..."

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't. I know, I've already tried!" Banner shouts out, shifting everyones attention to him. Nat moved over to stand by you as you both look at him. "I got low. So I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out!" You feel tears brimming to your eyes, guilt getting to you. Why had you had to push him to talk about the other guy? Not being able to meet his eye, he directs his attention to Nat. "I was doing good, and then you had to bring me back here to this." You could sense the anger rising in him, Banner had always had such a calming influence since you had met him, and it unnerved you. Nat too, you could feel her tensing beside you. "You wanna know what keeps me calm Agent Romanoff?" Banner grabs the sceptre, and on instinct you pull your gun and shoot.

It was on target, completely missing Banner but smashing the glass window behind him: a warning shot. Nat grabs your arm as you realise what you've done. You hadn't meant to, especially not to Banner, but you had gone on autopilot. "Bruce..." you start to say, but he doesn't look at you. He's looking at the sceptre in his hand, completely transfixed by it. He gently puts it back on the table behind him as an alarm goes off on a console, breaking him out of his stupor. He marches off to look at it, Nat on his heels as you are completely frozen in place.