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her legs aching for a break after the prolonged fight. Steve walked over to the bar.

"Water?" He called, pouring his drink.

"Bourbon."

He rose his eyebrows. "Alrighty."

He walked over with their drinks, handing Alex her glass. He took a sip, sitting down on the chair adjacent to the couch.

"God, where do I even start?" She chuckled.

"Wherever you want."

"Well, I guess I'll start from the beginning. He took me to Asgard, you know that. He put me in a cage. He constricted me. Then,"

She paused, taking a sip of her drink.

"Then what?"

"Then..he taught me to fight. He told me I was powerful. We fought, many times. I met his mother. I watched his mother die," She listed. "I held his hand at her funeral,"

Steve listened intently, trying to understand. Although, the rollercoaster of events were throwing him off guard.

"I helped him fight for Thor. I watched him fucking die,"

"He died?" Steve gaped.

"You didn't let me finish. It was an illusion. He came back, but he was different. He was...good. He trained me. And then he gave me away."

Steve pursed his lips. "Doesn't sound like that much happened."

"That's the thing, everything happened."

"How do you mean?"

She sighed. "I fell. I did. He made me feel so powerful, and I loved every minute of it. I loved when he told me I could do anything. He made me think I was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen."

"I see."

"His mother told me all about how he grew into such a hateful person, and I wanted to help him. I thought I could help him, but," She chuckled. "I was naive. Incredibly, stupidly, naive."

"It's not naive to want the best for someone."

"It's naive to think you are the best for someone."

Steve furrowed his brows as he looked at her. What was once a hopeful, innocent girl who just wanted to help was now a determined yet hopeless girl.

"I once was in love." Steve said.

"Woah, who said anything about love?"

"She was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen," Steve ignored her. "I never really got to tell her."

"What happened?"

"Well, I got stuck in an iceberg. Kind of ruins your dinner plans."

"Ah,"

He chuckled. "What I'd give to go back and tell her how I felt about her,"

"I sense a lesson coming on,"

"I'm just wondering if you feel regret that you didn't tell him how you felt about him."

"You do realize we're talking about Loki, right? The one that killed hundreds." She was shocked Steve was indulging her feelings.

"You're not an idiot. If you saw something in him, there must've been something there."

"Yeah. Stockholm Syndrome." She deadpanned.

He laughed. "You're deflecting,"

"There isn't anything to tell him anymore. Whatever I felt was naive, and I know better now."

Steve was about to respond when the door opened.

"When you ladies are done with your wine night, I want Alex to come to the lab." Tony gave a sarcastic smile.

Alex and Steve stood up. She gave him a squeeze on the arm, letting him know she was grateful for talking with her. He simply nodded, hoping her heart wasn't beginning to be closed off forever. She then walked off with Tony, shutting the door behind her.

"Alright, look alive everyone, it's playtime." Tony announced. "We've only got a couple of days with this joystick, so let's make the most of it. Update me,"

"The jewel seems to be protecting something inside, something powerful."

"Like a reactor?"

"Like a computer."

Bruce came walking in, smiling at Alex. She barely had a chance to talk with him since the fight, and he's not exactly in a talking mood when he's the Hulk.

"Hey, so I've been analyzing the gem inside the scepter." Tony gestured for Bruce to come over. Tony flicked his hand, and a holographic model appeared in front of them. "Jarvis, here, is top of line. However, meet his competition."

Tony flicked his hand again, and another, bigger, model appeared. Unlike Jarvis' yellow hue, the new model was blue.

"It looks like it's.." Alex trailed off.

"Thinking." Bruce finished, walking around the model. "It's not a human mind, I mean look at this. They're like neurons firing."

"Down in Strucker's lab I saw fairly advanced robotics. They deep-sixed the data, but I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

Bruce looked to Tony. "Artificial Intelligence."

"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron." Tony spoke intently.

"I thought Ultron was a fantasy."

"Yesterday it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol,"

"That's a big 'if'," Alex commented.

"Our job is 'if'," Tony argued. "What if you were on a beach, turning brown instead of green? Never having to look over your shoulder? What if Alex could be relaxing in Asgard with uh, Severus Snape's twin brother?"

"Hey."

"I mean, what if the world was safe? Next time the aliens roll up to the club, which they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?" Tony was really selling the idea. "I want to apply this to the Ultron program, but Jarvis can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here."

"So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't wanna tell the team?" Bruce said.

"I'm right here," Alex spoke.

"We don't have time for a city hall debate. I see a suit of armor around the world."

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony."

"I've seen colder." He retorted.

For the next several hours, Alex watched as Tony and Bruce worked together. It brought her back to the infancy of her powers, when they were in the lab for hours together. But, this time, the research was not being done on her. She had to say it was quite refreshing.

The night was falling on them, and Tony sat with his face in his hands. She sat on the counter, swinging her legs.

"Banner, show Alex where to store her suit." Tony was writing on one of the holograms with an air pen.

Alex followed Banner to a room that was full of all different Marks, and she saw an empty slot for her new baby.

"I haven't gotten to ask how you've been," Bruce said.

"I've been better, I've been worse."

"Well, you've improved greatly."

He turned to walk out of the room, and she caught a glimpse of the long, vertical scar that ran down his cheek.

"Bruce, what happened on your face?"

"I assumed you knew. When Loki came down to Earth and saw we tricked him, he got angry. I lunged at him, and took a dagger to the face."

Bruce left the room, leaving Alex fuming.

That fucking liar.

She thought back to when she asked if he had hurt anyone, and he simply said 'no'. He hurt Bruce, one of her closest friends on the team. She breathed to keep her anger in control, her veins lighting up faintly but then dying down. She walked out of the room and back to the lab, where Tony still seemed to be in distress.

"Do you think I'm doing a good thing here?" Tony spoke up.

"I think you're the smartest guy I know," She responded. "So I think your head is in the right place. But, they're programmed. What if something goes wrong?"

"It shouldn't,"

"I know you want to do the very best you can, Tony, but sometimes you can't do it all."

"Of course I can. Must I read you my credentials?"

"I know them by heart from the amount of times you've told me. I just want you to know you do more than enough."

He looked at her, smiling softly.

"So, we gonna talk about Loki?"

"Nope."

"Cool. Party's in fifteen, go put something clean on."

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𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚞𝚗 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚏𝚏 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗, 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚐𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚊 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚜 :)

𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚋 𝚖𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚝