Steve's gaze stayed on Fury. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Why was S.H.I.E.L.D. experimenting on the Tesseract in the first place?"
Banner adjusted his glasses, looking just as uneasy. He didn't say anything, but the answer was written all over his face.
He didn't need Fury to spell it out.
He knew exactly why people chased powerful weapons — because he was one of them. The Hulk inside him was the result of that same thinking, born from experiments meant to recreate the Super Soldier Serum.
A project that started with the idea of protection and ended with something no one could fully control.
Fury exhaled slowly, then lifted a hand and pointed across the room.
"Because of him."
Thor stiffened. "Me?" He looked genuinely confused. "This is only my second time on Midgard. What have I done to warrant this accusation?"
Fury didn't flinch. "Last year. New Mexico."
The room went still.
"We learned something important that day," Fury continued. "We learned that Earth isn't alone in the universe. Not even close. We learned that there are civilizations out there far more advanced than us."
Tony glanced sideways. "That's one way to put it."
Fury kept going. "One being, one hammer, one day — and the damage was worse than any terrorist attack we've ever recorded."
Thor's expression darkened, but he didn't interrupt.
"So yes," Fury said, voice firm. "We started preparing. Because if one Asgardian could do that much damage by accident, what happens when something hostile shows up on purpose?"
Steve frowned. "So the Tesseract was about defense."
"Exactly," Fury replied. "Deterrence. Survival. Making sure that if the next attack comes, we're not standing there with rifles and prayers."
Thor's expression hardened slightly. "I thought humans were a peaceful people," he said. "Yet you speak as if you are eager for war."
Fury didn't raise his voice, and he didn't look offended. He simply met Thor's gaze. "Peace is a luxury," he said. "One you get to enjoy when you're strong enough to defend it."
He took a step closer to the table. "If someone came to Asgard, broke through your defenses, and showed you that the universe was far bigger and more dangerous than you believed, would you not prepare?"
Thor didn't answer immediately.
"We didn't go looking for gods or aliens," Fury continued. "They came to us. New Mexico proved we're not alone. Loki proved that they don't all come in peace."
***
At the same time,
Inside the glass containment cell, Loki sat calmly, his hands resting at his sides as if he were merely a guest waiting to be entertained. The transparent walls reflected his faint smile, sharp and knowing.
Slowly, deliberately, he leaned forward and spat.
A small red device clinked softly against the glass floor — its surface pulsing, blinking with a steady crimson light.
Loki's smile widened.
He looked up through the glass, eyes gleaming with quiet satisfaction, already certain of what was about to happen.
"Humans," he said lightly, almost kindly, "your end is near."
The device continued to blink.
***
"No one in this room is innocent," Fury said, his voice steady but heavy. "Tony, before you cleaned up your act, you were the biggest arms dealer on the planet. Banner—your work started as a military weapon project, whether you like it or not. The Hulk didn't come out of a vacuum."
He let the words sit, eyes moving across the room, making sure they landed.
"No one here gets to stand on a moral high ground," Fury continued. "Not S.H.I.E.L.D., not you, not me. We all made choices thinking they were the right ones at the time."
He straightened slightly.
"And nobody gets to point fingers at S.H.I.E.L.D. for trying to do what we thought was necessary to protect humanity. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe we pushed too far. But don't pretend we did it for power or glory."
"We did it because we were afraid. And fear makes people prepare for the worst."
Natasha glanced down at her phone and typed out a short message, asking Luke to come by.
She would rather have him in the meeting—not because he would agree with anyone, but because things felt lighter when he was around. Luke had a way of keeping conversations from turning too heavy without forcing it.
Right now, the room was weighed down by right and wrong, blame and justification.
And, honestly, it was easier listening to Luke's dry humor than sitting through another round of serious arguments.
…Yeah. She kind of missed him.
The impact came without warning.
BOOOOM—!
The entire room shook violently as a deafening blast tore through the carrier. Metal screamed, alarms wailed, and the floor lurched hard enough to throw everyone off balance.
Panels burst from the walls in showers of sparks. Lights flickered, then went out completely as emergency red strobes snapped on.
Before anyone could react—
CRRRRASH—!
The ceiling gave way.
Steel beams snapped loose and sections of plating collapsed in a cloud of dust and debris. Smoke filled the air, along with the smell of burning circuits and scorched metal.
The blast threw Fury back. Tony barely managed to lift an arm to shield himself. Steve raised his shield just in time, taking the force head-on.
Thor was blasted out of the room, the wall giving way as he disappeared in a rush of broken metal and smoke.
Natasha was thrown down to the level below along with Banner. She hit hard, her ears ringing, her vision unfocused as the noise faded.
*****
A/N: If you'd like to read chapters ahead of the Webnovel release schedule, you can join my Patreon!
The Patreon version is already updated up to Chapter 175.
👉 patreon.com/Universal_Peace