2012

Cassandra sat at the briefing table. She'd just been to Germany to hunt down a psycho god, met her nephew for the first time in a while, and met another, slightly less psycho god. She leaned back in her chair, and nearly fell over, but Natasha pushed her chair back.

"Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any other world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him for the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tessaract."

"An army? From space?" Cassandra asked, confused.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce said.

"Selvig?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist." Cassandra answered.

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours."

Natasha said, looking down at the mention of Clint, Cassandra put a hand on her shoulder.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading any army from here." Steve wondered.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell the crazy on him," Bruce said, making Cassandra smile a little bit.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha said.

"He's adopted." Thor said, countering her comment.

A moment of silence passed the group before Bruce spoke up again.

"Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony interrupted, walking into the room.

He muttered a few things to Agent Coulson, and smiled at Cassandra.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants," he turned to the crew. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Tony covered an eye, mimicking an eye patch, turning back and forth. "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," Agent Hill informed. Tony gave her a suprised look, and ran his hand under the base of the screens.

"Sounds exhausting."

Cassandra gave her nephew, who was, now older than her, a disapproving look, and he blushed slightly, not enough to notice. Natasha cocked her head, raising a brow in Cassandra's direction. She shook her head slightly, mouthing, "I'll tell you later." Natasha nodded, and turned back to the conversation.

"The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." Tony said.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Cassandra asked, knowing he hadn't known it before.

"Last night," he said. Maria sighed, setting a hand on her head. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve interjected.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundredand twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce said.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony reminded.

Cassandra couldn't comprehend what had happened. Science was not her fortè whatsoever, and she didn't make much of an effort to change that. Not that she ever thought she would. Science was a little more of her brother's thing. Or, it was. Even from a young age, James was amazed in things that involved science, like Howard's prototype for a flying car.

A junior agent quietly walked over to Cassandra whispering something in her ear. She nodded, and smiled.

"Thank you, I'll be there in a second."

Natasha looked at her with wide eyes, and she gave her a slight glare. Natasha pursed her lips, and gave her puppy eyes, almost telepathically begging not to be left with these people. Cassandra shrugged, and stood up, walking away.

"I'm a huge fan of how you turn into a big, green, rage-monster," Tony said to Bruce.

Cassandra sighed, and walked out of the room. She could feel Steve's eyes on her as she walked out, knowing he was giving her the "Eyebrows of Disappointment" as she had dubbed it. She smirked to herself, and glanced over her shoulder, throwing a dirty look in his direction. He looked down, feeling some form of embarrassment when she glared at him. She seemed to have that effect on people.

Cassandra walked down the hall, passing agents holding files, talking amongst themselves. She got a few looks from other, definitely younger, agents as she passed by. Cassandra gave the younger people kind smiles, and their cheeks flushed red. She didn't know what had happened, she never go this much attention, and frankly, she wasn't enjoying it much. Something must've been said about her, maybe it was being part of the Avengers, she had no idea.

Cassandra stepped to a locked metal door, and pressed her finger print to the sensor, and opened her eye for the retinal scan. The door slid open, and a man in armor held a hand out when she tried to pass.

"Authorized personnel only ma'am."

"Cassandra Barnes, Level Seven."

Cassandra held up an ID card. He nodded, and stepped aside. She walked forward, standing next to Fury. Cassandra looked over to the man in the glass contraption. She kept her face blank when the man, the psycho god she was talking about, looked at her.

"What do you want me to do with him?"

"Just talk. Find out what his plan is. If you can't do that, then I'll call in Agent Romanoff."

"Yes sir," she breathed, taking the few steps forward to Loki.

She stood in front of the control panel, ready to drop him any second. Even if she wasn't allowed to drop him, it made her feel feel a small bit better having the option of that power.

"Ah, Agent Barnes. The girl out of time."

"Loki, God of Mischief. Though, you look quite a lot like a man I saw at a supermarket once. Yeah, he was gross. Are you guys related?"

"You mewling quim."

"Aw thanks," she said, with mock appreciation. "Now, I have to ask you a few questions, I would prefer if you answer them, but you seem to be the rebellious type, so I don't expect much."

"You may try and get under my skin, but I know you can't. You're afraid, you're terrified. You can't stand the idea of one leader controlling the Earth."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a comfort of mine."

"I know all about you, Agent." Loki spat.

"Nobody knows everything about me, even myself."

"You don't know the power I have."

"I'm pretty sure I do. That magic stick you have is all the power you contain in your small, weasel-like body."

Loki looked impressed with her comment, smirking before speaking again.

"You have an excellent judge of character, Miss Barnes. Why do you work here, why did you take this job? Why act valiant, when you are the opposite."

Cassandra caught onto his plan, make her talk, make her crack. She decided to play along, after all, she had been trained for this exact thing. Emotional and Mental manipulation.

"I, I've done some horrible things in my lifetime, and I want to fix them. It would help my mind, let me know that I'm a good person. I want to wipe out the red, I thought this would help."

She failed to mention the fact that once Peggy had arrested her, she didn't have a choice to become S.H.I.E.L.D. It was that or, being exceuted for treason, and multiple counts of murder. She preffered to stay alive. But Loki didn't have to know that.

"Can you wipe out that much red? The hospital bombing, John McLaran's stolen files, which eventually lead to his death, the death of your brother, the battle of Fenow, Dottie Underwood. It was all your fault."

"The more I try to fix it, the better it gets, no matter how long that takes."

"You are still a criminal, Miss Barnes. You don't deserve to stay alive."

"What could you possibly do to me? More than what's already happened!" She yelled, fake tears trying to come out of her eyes.

"You seem to have a strong connection with Agent Barton. I will send him to you, let him kill you slowly, painfully, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. Then I'll wake him up, show him what he's done, then I'll split his skull."

Cassandra turned away sharply, sniffing, and dropping her head, letting the fake tears she was holding out. To be perfectly honest, some of the tears may have been real. It was the first time since she was young, that she felt afraid for her life.

"You're a monster," Cassandra whimpered. Loki chuckled.

"Oh, I'm not the only monster on your team."

She snapped back around, the tears immediately stopping, and drying. She quickly cleared the tears from her voice and spoke like nothing had happened.

"So, Banner. That's your play."

Loki gave her a confused look, and she smiled back with a proud look on her face.

"I bid you good day, Mr. Supermarket man." She said, bowing excessively, before turning and walking away.

phew.

sorry that took so long, i hate writing directly off of scripts, so sometimes i just procrastinate for days at a time.

also, this is random, but i've been listening to that one song from the movie "Sing" (ya know, that kids movie with the animals) that scarlett johansson sang, because i just like it, and she has a beautiful voice.

anyways, love you 3000!!-