Unexpected

XVIII

Nina walked into her lab behind Nick. He sucked in a breath when he realised Tony and Bruce were no longer working on the scepter.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Nick asked angrily. Or should I say, furiously.

"Uh... kinda been wondering the same about you," Stark admitted.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Nina looked at the screens. They actually were locating the Tesseract.

"We are," Bruce came in. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Stark assured him. Suddenly, a collection of secret files appear on his screen. "What's phase 2?" He asked out loud. Banner moved in closer to Tony, to actually read what was on the screen.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons," Steve said, barging in the room with a HYDRA gun prototype in his hand. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little too slow for me," he said to Tony. Nina couldn't believe it.

"Are you serious?" She asked him incredulously. She actually couldn't believe it. "Did you seriously just take that weapon from its room to make a point?" She asked him. By the look on everyone's face, they could see that she was pissed.

"What," Steve said. "Did you expect me to simply trust him?" He pointed at Fury. Nina used her own hand to slap his down.

"No, Rogers," she told him. Steve flinched at her use of his last name. "I excpeted you to trust me!"

"You guys have prototypes of guns in your basement. How can I?" Nina's face contorted into one of pain. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"This is it, Steve!" She yelled at him. "This is where Earth starts to get attacked by alien invasions. This is where Earth learns how to defend itself!" Steve took in the information, and realised Nina knew what she was talking about.

" And how was I supposed to know?"

"You could have asked, before bursting into an archive room behind my back," she sneered through her teeth. "So this is it, then. We're back at stage 0. No trust at all?"

Before Steve could answer, Tony interrupted their argument.

"I'm sorry, but how has this become a soap opera," he said sarcasticly. "These weapons are being made behind the world's back, how are they going to protect it?"

"Aren't you the one who invented nuclear weapons for the army?" Fury asked him. Nina finally walked closer to the screen. There were so many equations solved, ones she didn't know about.

"Seriously?" She asked Fury. "You too?" She couldn't believe she had no one left to trust. She was completely alone.. again.

"What, kitten. He lied to you too?"

"You actually started to make these weapons," she accused Fury. "After I told you to wait."

"As you said, Agent, the earth is learning how to defend itself," Nick pointed out. "How can it do that with you by its side?" He asked. Nina's face fell. How dared he say that in front of Tony and Banner. The latter, who was already suspicious about Nina, had probably worked everything out, bu now.

"You do realise that what your amateurs scientists did to the Tesseract was the thing that actually brought Loki here, right? You just told the Universe you're ready for a bigger form of war, and trust me. You are not!" Nina snapped at him.

"You'd know," Fury commented, his only intention to get on her nerves.

"Yeah, you know I would."  Steve saw how shaken Nina still was, so he took a step forward.

"I was wrong, director," Steve said. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Just in time, Natasha walked in with Thor trailing behind her. As soon as Nat saw her friends expression, she could feel the tension building up in the room. Yet, she walks in and keeps her eyes straight on Banner. Nina almost face palmed herself. How could she have forgotten about Banner? They wet literally fighting in front of him.