A Taste of Vengeance

They say love is the most powerful force in the world. But what about hate that is fueled by love? What about the hate that is opposite. I recalled something Robert Frost wrote in a poem: “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I prefer those who favor fire, but if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice.” It was hate and love, that had the power to destroy, and hate was the destructive way to die as opposed to passionate.

Loki was about to feel my ice, as my body was shaking and seething with loathing at the dark and desolate creature that had attacked my mind, turned my powers against me and threatened everything I knew. I felt like I was seventeen again, struggling against this madness that took control, and I faintly wondered if this was how Bruce felt surrendering to the Hulk.

I screamed then and attack Loki full force. It felt like a fire was blazing inside of me as I ripped at his mind with a storm force driven purely by anger. He clearly had not expected it and I took control, seizing his most painful memories, like living in Thor’s shadow.

I grabbed one where they were practicing combat in the meadow, at a young age. Thor was easy to spot, even as a child. He was strong and tall, with flowing white blond hair, like sunlight. Their father, who was a most intimidating man, watched and laughed as Loki, who was quicker than Thor moved away from the child’s punches and lunges but finally grabbed his dark brother, overpowering him. Their father was endless about how great of a fight Thor was.

I shoved another memory at Loki, feeling him struggle in my grasp and fighting against me. But I was not myself. I watched as Odin, King of Asgard screamed at Loki for the things he had doe, the betrayal he had inflicted on his own family. Several images went by that I could use, and image after image I bombarded my enemy with, of pain, hate, and loneliness. There was no shortage of things I could us.

This is what happens, Loki Laufeyson, when you touch my mind. You will never make me grovel. Now get out. I added the last part with a shove and felt his presence leave my mind.

The battle of minds had only last a few moments, but it had brought me to my knees. Steve was in front of me, clutching my arms so hard that it hurt. My vision was blurry but he must have seen that I was back, because relief flood his face. My head was throbbing and I felt worn and weak. I had never experienced anything like that in so long. The last challenge I had was with Jean, when I attacked her after my uncle’s death, which also almost resulting in my brain exploding.

The ear piece in my ear crackled and I heard Natasha’s voice, saying that Loki was going to unleash the Hulk and to meet in the lab right away. Steve heard it too, looking at me with concern. I nodded my head and he helped me stand, although I swayed a lot more than I thought I would. I touched my nose where I felt something wet and sticky, and found that my nose was bleeding.

“We should get you help,” Steve insisted, cradling my face.

I raised a brow. “I thought you told me I wasn’t a damsel in distress? It’s fine. It happened when I was younger too. To much stress on the sinuses.”

“What on earth were you doing?” He asked as we took off at a run down the halls. i was still clumsy so he decided, much to my embarrassment, that he would carry me bridal style while I held the big, ridiculous gun. “You look like you were having a seizure. And you yelled a lot.”

“He knew I was going to help Natasha,” I scowled. “It’s the way me and her have always worked. She’d send out a distressing thought and I’d sweep in and distract whoever it was for a moment while she gathered her thoughts and tactics to interrogate.” He wheeled around a corner, almost dropping me and I glared. “Loki it seemed, was prepared for my attack and turned it around on me. Long story short, I kicked him out in the end.”

“Sounds complicated,” he huffed, stopping to let me walk with him the rest of the way through the thresh hold.

“Trust me, it is.”

Inside the lab, it seemed that tension was already at an all time high. Banner and Stark had paused their work, and Fury was standing there, clearly displeased with whatever was going on. I could practically smell the rage he was trying to contain so that he wouldn’t trigger Banner.

“What exactly is phase two?” Tony asked, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his head. His gaze was childish and smug.

“Phase two,” Steve said, throwing the gun on a lab table, “Is that SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons.” He looked pissed and superior at the same time. “Sorry,” he added in Tony’s direction. “Computers were moving to slow for me.”

“Look,” Nick began explaining quickly as possible. “We have been gathering all the information we could about the tesseract.” He placed his hand on the gun. “This doesn’t mean that-“
“I’m sorry Nick,” Tony cut in loudly. His tone had finally transformed to serious instead of witty or comical, an odd change. “What were you lying about?”

Tony brought over a screen with a weapon being built onto it. It was a diagram on what went were and how it was used. I studied it and raised my eyebrow. The diagram of the weapon on the screen was the one that was laying on the table, and from the information about how it worked on the screen, I assumed that it was extremely powerful, and not something that SHIELD should be abusing.

“It seems I was wrong, director. The world hasn’t changed a bit.” Steve’s face was nothing but anger. It must have been especially difficult for him, who worked for nothing but a good cause, to be manipulated.

Natasha walked in and I turned to her, demanding, “Did you know about this?”

She didn’t look surprised at the screen but didn’t answer me. “You should really remove yourself from this environment, doctor.”

Thor, who had walked in with Natasha looked simply confused at what was going on. I nodded at him in greeting, thinking about all the things I had seen in Loki’s mind pertaining to him. Loki had lived in Thor’s shadow all his life. But Thor was nothing but loving and worshiping of his brother. How could he not know that?”

“I was in Calcutta,” Bruce insisted with a dry laugh. I was beginning to see that his irritation was building. “I was pretty well removed.”

“Loki’s manipulating you.”

“And you’ve been doing what exactly?”

“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.”

Bruce pulled the screen towards him, retorting, “And I’m not leaving just because you get a little twitchy. I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction?”

There was a long pause before Nick sigh, pointing at Thor. “Because of him.”

Thor looked genuinely surprised as I was. “Me?”

“Him?” I echoed. Sure, Thor was powerful and all, but he was as harmless to earth as a butterfly.

“Last year,” Fury explained to all of us, taking on a extremely pedantic tone, “We had a visit from outer space. His destruction destroyed an entire town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly and hilariously outgunned.”

“That’s the way it’s always been,” I insisted. “Hence the reason you’re standing in a room full of super heroes.”

Thor nodded in agreement. “That is all well said, Agent Bane.” He turned to Fury. “My people have made nothing but peace with your planet.”

“But you’re not alone, are you? The word is filling up with people that can’t be matched, just like Agent Bane has pointed out to you. They can’t be controlled.”

“Like you control the cube?” Steve retorted, leaning against a desk. I leaned by him, not wanting to be far apart for some sickeningly girly reason.

“You’re work on the tesseract,” Thor seethed, “Is what drew Loki and his allies to it. It is a signal to all the realms that earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

I frowned. “So basically, SHIELD isn’t even a SHIELD. It’s a target. And speaking of targets,” I said, pushing myself off of the desk. “When were you going to tell me how SHIELD signed the death warrant on my parents?”

The room went absolutely silent. Nick Fury stared at me and for the first time in his life, he became incredulous. I moved so quickly then no one had time to react. I slammed into him, pulling him up against the wall by his collar, holding him there with invisible force. I heard a gun click and I knew Natasha was pointing her gun at me.

“Are you going to shoot me, Natasha?” I demanded, not looking away from Fury. There was no response so I turned back to the man in my grasp. “You lied to me. You told me there was no information on my families assassinations. The director before you signed off on it- he had them killed because they wouldn’t help them create Phase Two. You knew what they were killed for and yet, you created the very thing they died for. I dug into the hold harder, causing him to grunt. “You manipulated me.”

“I didn’t lie,” Fury said calmly. “There was no information on the assassination because I had it destroyed. I didn’t want anyone to know what SHIELD had been like before I took control, I didn’t want the world to know how corrupt and cruel it was. Do you think your parents were a special case? Several agents were killed in the corruption. Don’t expect special treatment just because I know you, Ashlynn.”

I shook my head and dropped him. “They were your friends.”

I tried to ignore the fact that what Fury said was ringing with truth. I had never received any special treatment from SHIELD. They had even decided they would kill me if I hadn’t agreed to become a part of their team. Nick had always been just as harsh on me as he was on anyone else, and he avoided favoritism at all costs. Even though I was throbbing with pain and sadness and anger, the better half of my brain, the one where Uncle Charles existed, told me that there was no reason he should have told me concealed information.

Someone touched my hand and I turned around to see Steve. His eyes were soft, and understand, although his face was still set in defiance. I looked at Fury one last time before I made the decision to drop it, something I had never done before. Usually I blew up everything and shot everyone until I had the truth. Leaving what needed to be left, was truly Steve’s doing, and not my own.

Steve led me away from Fury to the corner of the room, where he laced his fingers in mine as the silence continued for a moment. It seemed everyone had forgotten about what we were presently talking about.

Until Steve said, “Even if SHIELD was making weapons, Stark industries would-“

“Would what?” Tony demanded, coming towards us. “be neck deep in it? How is this now about me?”

“Isn’t everything?” Steve retorted hotly.

Thor seemed oblivious to this and kept hounding Fury with questions, his godly anger rising more and more. “I thought earth was more advanced than this?”

All at once we began arguing. The volume was increasing as Thor and Fury argued about the planets being peaceful with one another and Tony and Steve began going at it about who had the right to be here and who didn’t. I still had a head ache and was trying to block out the sound as well as my own problems with SHIELD.

“Are you really that naive?” Natasha demanded them all, clearly just as annoyed as I was. “SHIELD monitors everyone who is a potential threat?”

“Captain America is a potential threat?” Bruce asked, his surprise just as great as mine was.

“What are you?” Tony asked, “Below or above angry bees?”

“God dammit Tony!” I shouted. “Everything always has to be an insult with you doesn’t it? God forbid we won’t have a shinny suit so we’re all inferior correct?”

“All you do is cause chaos!” Thor accused Fury.

“You brought us here as a team,” Banner said, voice laced with anger, causing everyone to freeze. He didn’t look happy as he shook his head. I glanced at Steve, who let my hand go an approached them slowly. “We’re not a team… we’re a time bomb.”

“You,” Fury said adamantly, “Need to step away.”

“No, you know what?” Tony asked, “Why shouldn’t he be able to blow off a little steam?”
“You know damn well why,” Steve snapped, leaving my side entirely and getting in Tony’s face. “You need to back off.”

“Oh I’m starting to wish you would make me,” Tony growled, getting level with Steve. I approached them but Natasha caught my wrist, shaking her head, murmuring, “Focus on Banner. Cool his thoughts.”

“Yeah,” Steve challenged Tony, looking at him through narrowed eyes. “Big man in an iron suit. Take that off an what are you?”

Tony looked confused. “Genius, playboy, billionaire philanthropist…”

I ignored the argument that continued going on and dipped into Bruce’s mind, surprised at what I saw. His mind was teeming with anger, but it was a sort of subdued, sad anger. I could see that he was controlling it, more than he thought he was even. I tried to best I could to look interested in the fight that was going on, trying not to give myself away that I was going through his mind, trying to find a quiet, serene place to pull his thoughts too.

“You’re not a hero, Rogers,” Tony said, livid. “Everything special about you came out of a bottle.”

“If we’re going into specifics here,” I commented, trying to look into Bruce’s mind and speak while doing so. “The only people who were born super here are me and the Lightning Thief.” Thor looked at me, puzzled. Yet another joke lost on a god.

Bruce Banner, who was one of the smartest men alive, began to feel suddenly calm, and I was glad that my plan was working. But then something happened. He realized he was beginning to feel calmer than he had in years, triggering the alarms.

“Get out of my head!” He bellowed at me.

Reaction in the room was unanimous. Steve was in front of me in seconds, a defensive stance facing Bruce. My gun was pointed over Steve’s shoulder at the doctor, as was Natasha’s and Fury’s. Thor’s hammer was ready, and the only one who didn’t seemed alarmed as usual, was Tony.

“Agent Romanoff,” Fury intoned. “Would you please escort Doctor Banner to-"

“To where?” He demanded. “You gave me the room so you could shoot me if something when wrong. But you can’t, I know, I tried.” Shocked silence filled the room. “I got low. I didn’t see and end… I put a bullet in my mouth, and you know what happened? The other guy spit it back out. So I moved, to help other people and I was doing good until you people dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone at risk. You want to know my secret, you want to know how I stay calm?”

Bruce grabbed the scepter then and I held his hand in place, causing him to look up at us in surprise. I glared at him, not letting his hand move an inch. His anger was palpable and it was taking over him faster and faster. He may not know how to use that weapon, but I knew that it was so dangerous, it didn’t matter if you knew how to use it or not.

Alarms on the computer went off then, causing us to flinch. Bruce looked at the computer, the anger leaving his face. He glanced at me as if to ask to remove my hold on him. I looked into his eyes for any sign of the Other Guy, and when I saw none, complied with reluctance. Banner was a good man. But he was more dangerous than anyone on this ship.

“Sorry guys,” he breathed, somewhat relieved. “Looks like you guys don’t get to see my party trick after all…oh my god.”

“Move!” I screamed, jumping at Steve just as an explosion went off in the ship, knocking us to the ground.

The ground rumbled and quaked underneath us and the lights shut off, dosing us in half darkness. Dust filled the air as I rolled off of Steve, who would have been hit by a large chunk of ceiling if I had not seen the warning Banners mind. Barton was here, I knew then. I could sense him and his tainted mind.

I got up, coughing, realizing we had been knocked through the glass and into the control room. I searched for Natasha but found her no where, probably still in the room above or knocked through a wall. Steve scrambled to me and held my face, making sure I was okay. Even in the rushed moment I gave him a fleeting smile of pure happiness.

Hr returned it and said to Tony quickly, “Put on the suit!”

“Yep!” Tony yelled to us, running into the hall.

“Somebody has to get outside and fix turbine three!” Hill shouted in our ear pieces as we ran down the hall, footsteps thundering after us. “If we lose another one we won’t be in the air any more and we can’t fix it from here.”

“Stark,” Fury called over the radio. “You got that?”

“Yep. Cap, Bane I’m going to need you to cover me!”

“Easy,” I joked, running into my room.

I grabbed guns left and right, strapping myself and slipping knives into their places. I ran to my night stand and whispered The Lord’s Prayer, kissing the photo as quickly as I could before running out of my room and into the hall, where Steve was waiting for me.

I ran past him but he caught me, quickly, saying, “Just in case you’re not as awesome as we think,” and pressed his lips to mine. I smiled into the kiss, reaching him on my tippy toes, deepening the kiss. His tongue skimmed my lip, but before anything else could happen, Tony was yelling in our ear pieces, “Good god, Uncle Sam, you’d think at your age you would of have enough kisses in your life time. Come on, Bane of my existence, we’ve got work to do.”