DYER | STEVE ROGERS

𝐈.𝐕

〚 SILENCE 〛

Darla listened to the CCTV footage as she sat on the table. She swung her legs back and forth as Steve placed his hands on her thighs and looked up at the girl. She hadn't spoke since they got back, and she had also drank a lot more. Steve wasn't too sure where she was getting the constant supply of alcohol from, but it was beginning to concern him.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think for me." Loki shrugged.

"Built for those a lot stronger than you." Fury said vaguely. The cage was built for both The Hulk and Darla.

Darla often lost control and took her anger out on others when the voices got too much for her. The cage was just a precautionary measure that Fury had decided to take.

"Oh, I've heard. A mindless beast. Makes play, he's still a man. Maybe even for the drunken mute when she gets out of control. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki questioned Fury.

She couldn't help but grab Steve's hands and begin to fiddle with his fingers. She was trying to occupy her mind as much as possible. Darla couldn't help but feel like everyone's eyes was on her.

Darla looked over to Bruce and gave him a sympathetic smile. He tried to avoid eye contact with everyone, feeling embarrassed, much like the blonde girl right now.

"How desperate am I?" Fury asked. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Oooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power. Unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share." Loki smirked. "And then to be remind what real power is."

Steve smiled up towards Darla. He didn't say anything about her playing with his hands, he just left the girl be. He knew that Loki was talking about her earlier, which explained why she went silent a lot of the time when she drank.

She was a selective mute. She talks more when she's sober to drown out the voices, but when she's drunk, they're not there and she's able to sit in a peaceful silence.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." Fury said walking away.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce questioned as he scratched his jaw.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve questioned.

Darla realised that everyone's eyes was on her playing with Steve's hands, so she stop and moved away from him. She decided to stand at the opposite side of the room. Steve furrowed his brows, not understanding why she moved.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect for the Tesseract." Thor explained what his brother's grand plan was.

"An army? From outer space?" Steve asked, his eyes flickered to the blonde who has began pacing.

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

"Selvig?" Thor questioned, not sure if he heard the name correctly or not.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce informed the blonde haired man.

"He's a friend." Thor announced.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha said as she thought about Clint.

Darla took a seat and pulled her legs up to her chest. She rested her head upon her knees and pursed her lips. She looked around at the different people in the room until her eyes landed on Steve, who was already looking at her.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him." Steve spoke up. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guys brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him." Bruce said as he fiddled with his glasses.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother." Thor said stepping forward and puffing out his chest to appear more intimidating.

Darla chuckled,

"Did we forget to mention that he killed 80 people in two days?" She looked up to Thor with a stern look.

Her voice cracked slightly as she spoke, but nobody brought it up. They all knew better than that.

"He's adopted." Thor shrugged.

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need iridium for?" Bruce questioned as Tony walked in saying,

"It's a stabilising agent." He then turned to Coulson and finished his previous conversation until he walked away. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD." Tony continued to explain to the group. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." Tony tapped Thor's chest before walking over to the different monitors.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." Tony pointed over to a man in the corner before saying, "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Tony brought his hand up to cover one of his eyes.

"How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Agent Hill answered.

"Sounds exhausting." Tony muttered with furrowed brows. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

Darla watched as Tony pressed something against one of the computers. Although she didn't say anything.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill questioned Tony.

"Last night." Tony answered honestly. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"I did." Darla said timidly, raising her slightly. Tony high-fived the girl, leaving her completely startled. "Didn't understand them much though." She whispered.

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

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce vaguely answered.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect." Tony shrugged. He placed his hands down on the back of Darla's chair, making her jump slightly.

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce informed the group.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony smiled and walked over to Bruce.

Despite reading all the notes, Darla had no clue what Bruce and Tony were just talking about.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve questioned with furrowed brows. Darla chuckled slightly at the man.