"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve is saying as Dahlia enters the room with Thor and Natasha. She sighs, already feeling the tension in the room and knowing things are bound to get worse.
"Did you know about this?" Bruce asks Natasha.
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" She replies.
"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed." He answers. Dahlia steps closer to Thor, unsure as to what's going on and trying to figure it out with her limited knowledge of Earth.
"Loki is manipulating you." She says.
"And you've been doing what, exactly?" He asks.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha tells him.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." He replies.
"Of course, they are. Stupid humans." Dahlia mutters, annoyed they'd use the technology for destruction.
"Because of them." Fury says, pointing to Thor and Dahlia.
"Is he pointing to us?" She whispers to Thor, feeling the stares of the group.
"Us?" He asks, resting his hand on Dahlia's shoulder.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned." He explains to the others.
"Our people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor tells him.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled." He says.
"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asks.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor explains.
"A higher form?" Steve asks.
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Fury replies.
"I thought you humans were smart, but I'm now seeing that you're arrogant idiots." Dahlia says, crossing her arms over her chest as she rolls her eyes.
"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right down." Tony says sarcastically.
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury taunts.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-" Steve adds.
"Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony asks.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" He asks. Dahlia rolls her eyes at their bickering.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor says.
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury replies.
"Only because you didn't know we exist, and even if you did you wouldn't have been able to with your sorry excuses for technology." Dahlia tells him.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust." Thor adds.
"Are you really that naive?" Natasha asks, joining the argument. "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."
"Captain America's on threat watch?" Bruce asks.
Dahlia clutches her head as the voices around the room get louder, overwhelming her senses. She covers her ears, trying to muffle the arguing until they begin to quiet.
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor says.
"That's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." Bruce replies.
"You need to step away." Fury orders.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asks, grabbing Steve's shoulder.
"You know damn well why. Back off!" He answers, shoving his arm off.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." He replies. Dahlia rolls her eyes, knowing if they always act like this, nothing will ever get done.
"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Steve asks.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." He answers.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." He says. Dahlia glares in his direction, finding his word unnecessarily harsh especially as they'd just met.
"I think I would just cut the wire." He replies.
"Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero." He threatens.
"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." Tony says.
"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." He replies. Thor laughs.
"You people are so petty, and tiny." He tells them, still laughing.
"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce says sarcastically.
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-" Fury asks.
"Where? You rented my room." He interrupts.
"The cell was just in case-" He says.
"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried." Bruce tells him.
Dahlia frowns, hoping to have an opportunity to speak with him one on one, knowing the feeling of no longer wanting to live after believing you've lost everything.
"I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?" He continues.
"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter." Steve says. He glances down at the scepter in his hand, but the computer starts beeping.
"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." He says, moving across the room to the computer.
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asks.
The group begins arguing again about the Tesseract and Dahlia rolls her eyes.
Hey!" She yells, getting the group's attention. She suddenly remembers her revelation from before. "Loki is not himself, and these are not his actions. I sense that his magic is no longer pure, and something has corrupted it. I believe he is under someone else's control."
"Oh, my God." Bruce says, just before the explosion sends the group flying from the room.
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Lady Dahlia | Loki Odinson
FanfictionDahlia was adopted by Heimdall after being abandoned by her parents for being born blind. Growing up with Heimdall meant she grew up with the Odinson brothers. It was mostly fun, but also came with some challenges. Now that she's grown up, she must...
