Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Steve Rogers,” the big blond, who’d just lapped Sam three times on a four and a half mile circuit, introduced himself.

Sam grinned wryly, “I kind of put that together.” Then his training kicked in, “Must have freaked you out coming home after the whole defrosting thing.”

“It takes some getting used to,” Steve said casually and immediately turned to leave. “It's good to meet you, Sam.”

“It's your bed, right?” Sam called after him, acting on a sudden urge to keep the conversation going.

“What's that?”

“Your bed, it's too soft,” Sam elaborated, trying to make a connection and get the guy he’d just met. “When I was over there I'd sleep on the ground and use rock for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed, and it's like…”

“Lying on a marshmallow. Feel like I'm gonna sink right to the floor,” Steve allowed himself to be drawn back by the feeling of being understood, finally. “How long?”

“Two tours,” Sam replied. Then he tried fishing a little, “You must miss the good old days, huh?”

“Well, things aren't so bad,” Steve insisted. “Food's a lot better, we used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot trying to catch up.”

“Well, I never tasted food from the 1940’s but my granddad told me horror stories about it. No one in their right mind would argue about polio. The Internet… Well, take what you read with a grain of salt, there’s no sort of verification on the information there like there is in an old fashion library. If you’re looking to catch up quick, I recommend Marvin Gaye, 1972, "Trouble Man" soundtrack. Everything you've missed jammed into one album.”

“I'll put it on the list,” Steve said. Sam caught a quick glimpse of the list in question: I Love Lucy(Television); Moon Landing; Berlin Wall (Up + Down); Steve Jobs (Apple); Disco; Thai Food; Star Wars/Trek; Nirvana (Band); Rocky (Rocky II?) The list added to the feeling of professional unease that had prompted Sam to try to keep Steve talking.

Steve’s phone buzzed and he quickly glanced at the text. “Alright, Sam, duty calls. Thanks for the run. If that's what you wanna call running,” he teased as he offer a handshake.

“Oh, that's how it is?” Sam replied.

“Oh, that's how it is.”

“Okay,” Sam laughed. “Any time you wanna stop by the VA, just let me know… It might do you some good to talk with people that have a little more in common with you than the next guy on the street. And we’ve got some people there who specialize in helping guys make the transition back to civilian life. Again, your case is unique but they’re good folks, flexible enough to figure something out that might help sort out the enigma that is the twenty-first century.”

“Maybe,” Steve said. “But no promises.”

Chapter Text

“Je croyais que tu étais plus qu'un bouclier,” Batroc said contemptuously.

Challenged to prove that there was more to him than his weapon, Steve immediately put his shield up and pushed back his cowl. “On va voir,” he replied. “Proving my ability to beat you in a fist fight is more important than anything else going on!”

Without the shield in play, Batroc and Steve were much more evenly matched but eventually Steve managed to get an advantage and smashed Batroc through a door into the control room where Natasha was downloading something.

“Well, this is awkward,” Natasha said. “You weren’t supposed to notice me handling my side mission.”

“Rumlow said you missed the rendezvous point,” Steve accused. “We’ve still got hostiles in play and you’re in here wasting time saving S.H.I.E.L.D. Intel. What could possibly be important about that?”

“Fury thinks someone above him is keeping things from him,” Natasha said. “Sure he loves having the guys under him operating on ‘need to know’, witness the current situation, but he doesn’t like when anyone tries to do it to him. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to ‘do as I say, not as I do' if you stick with S.H.I.E.L.D. for any length of time.”

“You just jeopardized this whole operation!” Steve protested. “The lives of the hostages and your teammates!”

“And there very well could be even more lives riding on the data I just acquired,” Natasha pointed out. “I trust Fury, I trust the members of this team to be able to do their part without me holding their hands.”

Suddenly Batroc woke up. He threw a grenade at the two to cover his escape. Steve deflected the bomb with his shield, grabbed Natasha and jumped through a window just ahead of the explosion.

“Weren’t you dealing with him?” Natasha asked. “Did I distract you from handcuffing him or would it have even been an issue if you hadn’t decided to go all mano-a-mano?”

“You distracted me, it’s totally your fault,” Steve snapped. “My proving that I can take a guy without weapons is IMPORTANT! You keeping secrets from ME is just wrong.”

Chapter Text

Steve barged into Fury’s office. “You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?”

“I didn't lie,” Fury replied, unimpressed. “Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours.”

“Which you didn't feel obliged to share!”

“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘need to know’?” Fury asked sarcastically. “That is the cornerstone of how S.H.I.E.L.D. operates and, in this case, you didn’t need to know.”

“Those hostages could've died, Nick,” Steve protested.

“It was your mission to save the hostages,” Fury pointed out. “Run in, smash the bad guys, save their victims.  You love that shit.”

“Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns,” Steve said with conviction.

“I trusted Romanoff to let you know if she can’t provide the support you ask her for without compromising the mission I sent her on. And I trusted that her ability to dissemble would be up to doing so without telling you she had her own objective,” Fury said.

“You didn’t trust me! I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own.”

“Soldiers trust their chain of command,” Nick corrected. “They trust that their officers are giving them the information that they need to know in order to complete their mission. Private What’s-his-Name doesn’t need or get to know every detail of the entire theater of war. He trusts that his general is keeping the big picture in mind while he carries out his mission. That is was makes it an army. I am the general in this scenario, you are not.”

“Colonel Phillips never hid things from me,” Steve complained.

“That you know of,” Fury replied.

Steve’s chin came up stubbornly “Phillips trusted me, we understood each other. He gave me orders and he trusted me to follow them as long as he didn’t try to order me to compromise my Bucky’s safety.”

“That’s your sticking point?” Fury asked, staring gap-jawed at Steve. “That's… Not the impression I got from the history books. Look, I thought you’d balk at being asked to gather information against my superiors, so I didn’t ask. The Red Room did a fairly thorough job of eliminating Agent Romanoff’s moral compass, I’ve got her loyalty so she’ll do anything I tell her to. But your sticking point is the safety of a guy who died seventy years ago?!? You and I need to sit down and have a real talk about where you fit into this organization and what I can expect from you. But… At the end of the day you’re still not going to get to know everything.”

Steve crossed his arms over his chest and gave Fury a sulky look.

“Seriously Roger!” Fury exclaimed. “So, okay, Phillips told you everything. Did Eisenhower? Did MacArthur? Did Truman? How about the French Resistance, did they tell you everything they were doing? It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all.”

“Except you,” Steve challenged.

“No. If I knew all the secrets I wouldn’t have had to order Romanoff to get that data for me. I would have already known it,” Fury replied.

“So you get to keep your secrets from me, but S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t allowed to keep secrets from you?” Steve frowned judgmentally.

“I am the general,” Fury said. “I can’t do my job without having the big picture.”

“And I don’t think you gave me enough of the picture to even decide if I want to be part of your army,” Steve shot back.

“Well, maybe it’s time to rectify that,” Fury said as he led Steve to an elevator. “Insight bay.”

A computerized voice declared, “Captain Rogers does not have clearance for Project Insight.”

“Director override, Fury, Nicholas J.,” Fury replied giving Steve a look that clearly said, ‘You should appreciate all the rules I bend for you.’

“Confirmed,” the computer replied and the elevator started dropping.

“You know, they used to play music,” Steve commented.

“Yeah,” Fury replied. “My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say ‘Hi’, people would say ‘Hi’ back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say ‘Hi’, they'd say ‘Keep on steppin'.’ Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter.”

“Did he ever get mugged?” Steve asked.

“Every week some punk would say, ‘What's in the bag?’”

“What did he do?” Steve asked.

Fury smirked, “He'd show 'em: Bunch of crumpled ones and loaded .22 Magnum. Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much.” The elevators opened to show a hanger with several giant Helicarriers. “Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22,” Furry said. “This is Project Insight. Three next generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites.”

“Launched from the Lemurian Star.”

“That little data gathering op I sent Romanoff on,” Fury reminded. “Once we get them in the air they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulsor engines.”

“Stark?” Steve asked.

“He got us started, had a few suggestions once he got an up close look at our old turbines. After a couple months it seems his issues with S.H.I.E.L.D. outweighed his concerns about another invasion. But these are the specs you really need to pay attention to: These new long range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen.”

“I thought the punishment usually came after the crime,” Steve said frowning.

“Remind me to explain the Index to you someday,” Fury said. “After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve.”

“By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection,” Steve accused.

“Don’t play innocent, your generation made some questionable calls in the name of needs must,” Fury said.

“We were fighting Nazis, everything we did was justified. I’m much more critical of justifications for things I wasn’t a part of.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Fury rolled his eyes. “So are you feeling morally uncertain Captain? Tainted by association? Do you remember me mentioning that Stark’s not in bed with S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

Wandering around DC, trying to make sense of how he fit into the world given what Fury had just shown him, Steve eventually found himself at Peggy’s nursing home.  Sitting at her bedside Steve looked at the collection of family photos Peggy surrounded herself with, tangible evidence of the life she’d led while he’d been gone. “You should be proud of yourself, Peggy,” he said.

“Mm. I have lived a life,” Peggy smiled at her photos. “I only wish that I could believe that you were taking advantage of this second chance you’ve been given and were living your life.”

Steve stared into the distance with a melancholy look on his face.

Peggy frowned. “What brought you here today?” she asked.

“I’ve always wanted to do something important, something good,” Steve sighed. “Back in the War, serving with the Commandos, I finally felt like I’d found that. When the Chitauri came, I started thinking that I could have that again, with the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. but… I spend more time cleaning up Fury’s mistakes than doing real heroics. The missions he sends me on they just don’t feel right, not the way blowing up HYDRA bases and fighting Nazis felt.”

Peggy sighed. “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones,” she quoted.

“What?” Steve asked.

“You weren’t there for the end of the war, for Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Peggy said. “You remember the Blitz.  Eight months of bombings and London stood firm but with nuclear weapons a single bomb could decimate a city in seconds. It changed the world. And the general public never even knew about the others like you. Every year a few more Enhanced would crop up, people who might, not just survive, but thrive in the wake of a nuclear war.”

Steve looked puzzled.

“You were always the first to run in and oppose any wrong you saw. You never backed down from a fight. But…” Peggy shook her head. “I spent decades on the front lines of the Cold War. Right and wrong took second place to ensuring that a third world war didn’t happen, that we never went past spy games and proxy wars… And making certain that the people who might benefit from such a war remained contained, controlled. Did Nick put you on the Index?”

“He mentioned something about it,” Steve said cautiously. "He got this project, I think he's trying to phase out the need for people like me."

“I may have build S.H.I.E.L.D. but it’s not a place for you,” Peggy said frankly. “It’s a place for those of us who exist comfortably in the shadow zone between cynicism and pragmatism, it’s not a place for primary colors and heroic endeavors.”

Peggy started to cough, Steve turned to get her some water. When he handed it to her, Peggy stared at him with a look of amazed joy and disbelief. “Steve?”

“Yeah?” Steve replied cautiously.

“You're alive! You...you came, you came back.”

“Yeah, Peggy,” Steve said softly, mournfully.

“It's been so long,” Peggy said starting to cry. “So long.”

“Well, I couldn't leave my best girl,” Steve forced himself to smile cheerfully. “Not when she owes me a dance.”

Chapter Text

Alexander Pierce paced in front of holograms of the World Security Council members.

“What’s the point of owning an supposedly world class clandestine agency like S.H.I.E.L.D. if they’re so sloppy that a group of pirates can stumble across one of their operations and get the drop on them?” Councilman Rockwell demanded.

“It ended up on the news!” Councilman Singh exclaimed. “The incident took place less than a mile from my country’s sovereign waters! Explanations are being demanded! From ME! I need a scapegoat IMMEDIATELY!!”

“I don’t really care about Councilman Singh’s personal problems,” Councilwoman Hawley remarked. “I want to know what actions we’re going to take to make sure that there are any MORE incidents. Neither SHIELD nor this Council would be allowed to continue operating should existence of our organizations become public knowledge.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. has been increasingly ineffective about handling things quietly ever since they fumbled the Iron Man situation in 2008,” Councilman Yen said. “Maybe it’s time to rethink that entire operation.”

“And now, six years later, we have pirates, led by a french kickboxer, hijacking a covert S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel in broad daylight? It’s an embarrassment, that’s what it is,” Rockwell groused.

“They got lucky,” Pierce declared. “In the real world things go wrong, plans get disrupted. Fury dealt with the situation, the launch plans were not compromised. If this Council is going to start throwing babies out with the bathwater every time Murphy happens then maybe a group with stronger nerves is needed.”

“Mr. Secretary, no one is panicking,” Councilman Yen protested.

“Oh? And what else would you call that Nuclear strike you ordered in 2012?” Pierce demanded.

Pierce’s assistant walked in and whispered something to him. Pierce turned back to the Council, “Excuse me,” he said.

“Is this what you call under control?” Councilman Rockwell asked.

Pierce shrugged, “The normal state of the world is one of barely constrained chaos, if you don’t like that fact you’re going to have to consider drastic measures.”

The Council logged out and Pierce walked into his office where Fury was waiting. “Nick! I thought we were friends but I only see you when you need me to cover for your mistakes.”

“Goes both ways,” Fury replied. “Or have you forgotten that my team is why you didn’t have to explain Manhattan going up in a mushroom cloud.”

Pierce shook his head and grinned, “Good to see you Nick.”

Fury nodded toward the conference room, “How much fallout are you dealing with?”

Pierce shrugged, “Nothing a little money dumped in the right projects won’t smooth over.”

“I'm, uh...here to ask a favor,” Fury admitted. “I want you to call for a vote. Project: Insight has to be delayed.”

“Nick, that’s quite the favor and you’re on thin ice with the folks in there,” Pierce replied. “I need to know why you’re asking. I’ve got a lot of political capital invested in that project.”

“You know I’m as ‘ends justify the means’ as anyone but I’ve still got a duty to make sure the ends I work towards ARE in the world’s benefit,” Fury said. “I need a little time to be sure of what I’m working towards here.”

“And what if you find something wrong?” Pierce asked. “It’s going to be a huge black eye for me if Insight falls through.”

“If there is something to find?” Fury grimaced. “We’re talking about the the difference between political suicide and literally ending up in a hole in the ground… Along with way too much company to contemplate.”

“Well…” Pierce sighed. “If worst comes to worst and all I’m going to come out of this with is my family I want to make some points while I’ve still got pull. You gotta get Iron Man to stop by my niece's birthday party.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“And not just a flyby,” Pierce said with a grin. “He’s got to mingle.”

Chapter Text

Sam grinned when he saw Steve hanging around after one of his group meetings at the VA. “Look who it is. The running man,” he teased, to cover the surge of relief he felt at seeing the Super Soldier.

“Caught the last few minutes,” Steve said. “They’re all suffering from battle fatigue?”

“The current term is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder,” Sam said. “There’s still some stigma attached but the reality is getting help… Well, it helps. Groups like this, talking with other people who are or have dealt with the same thing it does a lot of good. I don’t know where I’d be today if I hadn’t been able to get this sort of support. So now I want to pay it back.”

“You lose someone?” Steve asked. After his visit the Smithsonian his thoughts lingered on Bucky, his best friend and the one Commando who he’d failed to bring home.

“My wingman, Riley,” Sam said. “Flying a night mission.Standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before, till RPG knock Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch.”

“I'm sorry.”

“After that, I had really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?” Sam said.

Steve remembered how after Bucky had fallen from that train even Peggy’s pleas hadn’t been enough of a reason to really look for a way off the Valkyrie. “But you're happy now, back in the world?” he asked Sam.

“Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell, yeah,” Sam replied. “You thinking about getting out?”

“No. I don't know,” Steve stamered. “To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did.”

“Well, that’s one thing we can help you with here,” Sam said. “Honestly, I was really glad to see you here. What you’re doing, looking up references you don’t get, trying to catch yourself up, that’s great but- Well, you’re missing the framework that pretty much everyone has.”

Steve gritted his teeth.

“Means when you go online- Great on you that you’re learning tech by the way,” Sam praised. “But when you go online looking for an explanation of a specific reference, maybe you don’t get the context, maybe the significance is distorted.”

“Back during the Battle of Manhattan, I heard ‘em call the missile Stark took through the portal a ‘nuke’. I knew it was a bomb and figured that was good enough,” Steve admitted. “I didn’t really understand until just yesterday, what it really was.”

“Yeah, like that. You might think you understand and the person you’re talking to assumes you understand, but you don’t have the same frame of reference,” Sam said. “I talked to some of the career counselors already, just seeing if they had the contacts to pull a specialized history course together for you- Helping people figure out the sort of training and education they might need for going forward is part of the job, so they have connections with the local colleges. I didn’t want to presume beyond the history lessons and hoping you’d show up here, but if you’re interested in the whole package… You could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?”

“I don't know,” Steve admitted.

“That’s- Steve, a question like that isn’t supposed to be a stumper,” Sam said worriedly. “I know I’m probably overstepping here, but- Part of my training before I got this job is recognizing the signs, knowing when to ask for expert help and- Let me give you some names, people to talk to. If you can’t think of anything that makes you happy? Steve, you deserve help with that- Hey it’s in the Constitution even,” Sam finished with an awkward half-grin. “And you’re not the only person to feel that way, as much as it probably feels like you are.”

Chapter Text

As Nick Fury’s car was ambushed, leading to running battle through the streets of D.C., a thick envelope was picked up from the FedEx Express dropbox several blocks away from the Triskelion along with a half-dozen larger packages. It was earmarked for next day delivery to Stark Towers in Manhattan.

Steve came home from a long day of soul searching. He hadn’t really had to think much before deciding to take a hard pass on Sam’s offer to find someone for him to ‘talk’ to. He’d lost everything: Bucky. The life he should have had with Peggy. The Commandos. The very world he belonged in. It was only natural that he was glum. Everything that made him happy was gone, lost to the passage of time. But maybe there was something to the history thing and the retraining.

Steve had always wanted to be a soldier, to follow in his father’s footsteps, to be someone important, someone to be counted and remembered but he didn’t like how Fury operated. It wasn’t even that Colonel Phillips had been particularly in awe of him. Steve was entirely aware that the Phillips had viewed him as a combination of an all-terrain tank and a pain in the ass while the Commandos saw him as their mascot/lucky rabbit’s foot. The only time he’d actually been ‘in charge’ of anything back then had been when Brandt’s people showed to film their news reels. Fury, and everyone else in the twenty-first century, expected Steve to take charge, only as soon as he did Fury would immediately turned around and undermined his authority with stunts like Natasha’s separate mission.

Phillips had been more than capable of sending Steve on a mission where the official objective was secondary to Steve wearing the colors loudly, drawing all eyes to himself while another team of commandos quietly completed one of those compromising SSR mission Fury had alluded to. But Steve had known when it was his job to play decoy. ‘Even Peggy told me to get out of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe I should take Sam up on finding out what else is out there. And if I pick up a couple history courses along the way, it couldn’t hurt.’

As Steve jogged up the stairs to his apartment he ran into his pretty neighbor talking on a cell phone as she carried a load of laundry down to the quarter machines in the basement. “Okay, bye,” she concluded her call. Then she turned to Steve. “My aunt, I have a really close relationship with her.”

Steve smiled at her, “Hey, if you want...if you want, you're welcome to use my machine. Might be cheaper than the one in the basement.”

“You’re an old fashion guy, if I’m too forward it would probably be off putting for you. So what's it cost?”

“A cup of coffee?” Steve replied.

“Thank you, but um… I really think I’m getting somewhere by getting you to chase me, and, uh...you really don't want my scrubs in your machine. I'm just finished orientation in the infectious diseases ward… It’s basically the modern equivalent of a TB ward...”

“A TB ward? My mom worked in… I mean grandma?” Steve hestated. “When did Tuberculosis stop being so widespread?”

“The vaccine started gaining acceptance shortly after WWII, but there was a recurrence in the 1980’s with a drug resistant strain,” Steve’s pretty neighbor said. Then she added, “Keep in mind I’m only playing hard to get.”

“I’ll do that,“ Steve said. He turned to go into his apartment.

“Oh, and I think you left your stereo on.”

“I’d never be so waste…” Steve cut himself off. “Oh. Right, thank you.”

Steve cautiously entered his apartment and found Fury sitting on his couch in the dark. “I don't remember giving you a key,” he said.

“I got into Stark’s place without him handing over a key,” Fury pointed out. “I could, did get through your lame-ass security with a broken arm and a concussion... My wife kicked me out.”

“Didn't know you were married,” Steve remarked.

“You don't know enough about me to know a cover story from a revelation,” Fury replied.

“I know, Nick. That's the problem,” Steve said as he turned on the light and discovered that Fury hadn’t been kidding about the broken arm, not to mention a sizable assortment of other injuries.

Fury glared him into silence, turned the lights back off and showed Steve a warning on his phone: “ears everywhere”

“I'm sorry to have to do this,” Fury said. “But Stark’s closest pad is the Tower in Manhattan. Hint, Hint.” While talked Fury typed out a second message: "SHIELD compromised."

“Who else knows... about your wife?” Steve asked.

The text Fury showed him said, “You and me" but verbally he replied, “Just...my friends.”

“Is that what we are?” Steve challenged.

“I came here looking all pathetic and everything, don’t you care?” Fury stood up and was suddenly shot three times from through the wall. As he collapsed Steve checked out the window for the shooter then quickly dragged Fury to the next room. With the last of his strength Fury pressed a flash drive into Steve’s hand, “Don't...trust anyone.”

Steve’s front door burst open. “Captain Rogers?” his pretty, not-so civilian neighbor came around the corner with a drawn weapon. “Captain, I'm Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Service.”

“I suppose the guy on the next landing down is S.H.I.E.L.D. too?” Steve huffed.

“Well, yeah. Given the speculation about you and Barnes we wanted to cover all bases. Can’t have you getting too attached to any non-S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. It might give you ideas,” Agent 13 replied.

“On whose orders?”

Agent 13 nodded towards Fury’s prone form. “His.” She crouched beside Fury for a moment than reported back to S.H.I.E.L.D. “Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs.”

“Do you have a twenty on the shooter?” the Agent on the other end of the line asked.

Steve spotted the shooter through the window, “Tell him I'm in pursuit,” he ordered.

After a brief encounter where the shooter revealed himself to be Enhanced and familiar with the physics defying antics of Steve’s shield before disappearing into the night, Steve found himself standing outside Fury’s operating room along with Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff.

“Let me just take a few moments to establish how deeply I care about Nick Fury,” Natasha said.

“Okay,” Steve waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Now tell me about the shooter,” Natasha said.

 “He's fast and strong. Had a metal arm,” Steve reported.

Natasha nodded toward the folder in Agent Hill’s hands, “Ballistics?”

“Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable,” Hill said.

“Okay, I suspect I may have a connection to the shooter.”

Inside the operating room, Fury’s condition took a turn for the worse.

Natasha interrupted her debriefing to put her emotional involvement on display, “Don't do this to me, Nick.”

After a few hectic minutes for the operating team the doctor called the time of death. Steve held tight to the flash drive Fury had given him.

The doctors cleared out to give Natasha and Steve a little privacy while Natasha cried over Fury’s body and Steve stood awkwardly in the background. Hill came in a moment later and claimed the body.

“I care very deeply for Nick Fury,” Natasha reiterated. “Now tell me why was he in your apartment?”

“I don't know,” Steve said.

Brock Rumlow came up behind him, “Cap, sorry to interrupt this little impromptu interrogation session. They want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D. for the official version.”

“Yeah, give me a second,” Steve said. “I want to check if Natasha has any info to share with me before I go.”

“We’d rather you didn’t,” Rumlow replied. “But whatever.” Rumlow walked off to give Natasha and Steve a last moment to determine what the other knew or didn’t know.

Natasha sighed, “I gather information Steve, I don’t disseminate it,” she said. “And you're a terrible liar.”

“STRIKE team, escort Captain Rogers back to S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately for questioning,” Jasper Sitwell ordered over the comms

“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” Rumlow complained as he wandered down the hall, leaving Steve standing by an open vending machine. “Now stop pestering me while I do my job.“

A FedEx truck pulled up behind Stark Towers in Manhattan as the sun peeked over the horizon pouring through the longitudinal streets. Several mailroom workers stepped out to help the driver unload. Among the packages was the rather unremarkable envelope from D.C.

Back at the Triskelion Rumlow delivered Steve to Alexander Pierce’s office just as the Secretary of the World Security Council finished debriefing Agent 13. “For whatever it's worth, you did your best,” he told her.

“Thank you, sir,” she said and turned to leave. “Captain Rogers,” she greeted Steve.

“Could I have just a second?” Steve asked Pierce then shut the man’s door in his face. “Was flirting with me part of your assignment?” he demanded.

“If it makes you feel better, it was a perk of the job,” Agent 13 replied. “If Fury hadn’t pointed out that fraternizing rules were being suspended with regards to you he probably would have had a battle royale on his hands given all the people who wanted to be tasked with cozying up to you. So while I got to play the girl next door, literally seventy-five percent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s other agents who shared assignments with you took the chance to make passes at you while you were working together. But then you’ve been being deliberately obtuse about all their flirting.”

“Yeah, Peggy read me the riot act about fraternization once,” Steve remarked.

Agent 13 smirked to herself.

“I was shocked at how unprofessional everyone was being given that Peggy founded S.H.I.E.L.D. And then there was Coulson watching me while I slept.... You do know you’re all creepy right?” Steve asked.

“Well, aside from a guy who spotted you as a likely PTSD sufferer from a mile away, it’s not like you’ve been trying to make healthy connections,” Agent 13 pointed out. “You exercise, go on missions and look insanely hot while complaining about having to live in this century. If you’re not going to get a social life for yourself, S.H.I.E.L.D. might as well spoon feed you one. Catch up with me later and I’ll tell you my ace in the hole for in case my cover got blown.”

“Done yet?” Pierce asked leaning out into the hall.

“Um, yeah,” Steve said and allowed himself to be steered into Pierce’s office.

“Let me just take a few moments to establish how deeply I care about Nick Fury,” Pierce said. “Now that I’ve made it clear that I’m just doing this out of my deep personal connection with Nick. Let me ask you Captain, why was he in your apartment last night?”

Steve shook his head as if to clear his vision.

“Captain?” Pierce asked with concern in his voice.

“Sorry, for a moment I could have sworn you had red hair,” Steve replied. “So um, since you and Natasha are apparently not working together, despite both of you only being interested in getting to the bottom of Fury’s murder because of your personal connection to him, I’ll tell you what I told her: I don't know.”

“Did you know your apartment was bugged?”

“On top of my neighbors being placed in the building to spy on me for S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Steve asked. “Yeah, Fury mentioned it before getting shot.”

“Well, Nick would have known; he had the bugs planted before the ink from your signature dried on the lease.” Pierce said.

“I’d be shocked but I already learned he was trying to control my love-life tonight,” Steve said. “Bugging my apartment isn’t actually more intrusive.”

“Okay, let’s see if this shakes you up,” Pierce said and turned on a screen showing Batroc’s interrogation.

“Who hired you, Batroc?” the interrogator demanded.

“Is that live? Steve asked.

“Yeah,” Pierce said. “They picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers.”

“Are you saying he's a suspect?” Steve asked. “Assassination isn't Batroc's line.”

“Also we picked him up in Algiers... Last night… While Fury was being shot,” Pierce replied. “As alibis go being in police custody on the other side of the planet is pretty rock solid. It’s more complicated than that. See even though we’re interrogating Batroc about who hired him we already know he was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star. It’s a good technique, softening people up by asking questions we know they can’t answer then slapping them around for it. By the time we actually get around to asking him for information he knows and we don’t, he’ll be relieved to get a question he can answer.”

Steve sighed, “In addition to sex, we also had interrogation in the 40’s. And the SSR wasn’t exactly opposed to using it, as I think you’re aware since Fury mentioned it was in your files.”

“Batroc was contacted by e-mail and paid by wire transfer, to prevent him from rolling on his employer,” Pierce continued. “But we’re very good at tracking down things like that, especially when they use S.H.I.E.L.D.’s methods to hide their tracks and when I know who was doing a little unauthorized poking into the Lemurain Star’s mission so I was actually investigating from both ends: Nick hired the pirates himself.”

“Why would he do that?” Steve asked sarcastically. “I mean it’s not like he probably had suspicions that S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised before showing up at my apartment last night.”

“Well, since scapegoats are S.H.I.E.L.D.’s bread and butter, the plan is to say Nick was corrupt and blame his murder on his corruption then let the whole thing drop,” Pierce informed Steve. “The dead don’t cause much of a fuss if you blame them. And actually investigating murders is a pain in the ass.”

“I didn’t really like Fury much but the man practically died in my arms,” Steve protested. “Doesn’t anyone in this benighted century remember ‘speak no ill of the dead’?!?”

“Remember, I’m Nick’s great friend, you can trust me to do right by him,” Pierce reminded Steve. “See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. I’m a great guy like that. We knew that despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down.”

“In my opinion there’s been way too much tearing down of the old world,” Steve groused. “I liked the world I came from, I understood it. There are a few good things about this time but not the changes to society.”

“Yeah, I didn’t actually expect to find an ally in you Captain,” Pierce sighed. “But I had to try. Now, in the name of old fashion virtues like avenging fallen friends: You were the last one to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident and I don't think you do either. So I'm gonna ask again: Why was he there?”

“Just because you keep asking don’t think that my answer is going to change. Excuse me.” Steve picked up his shield and slung it across his back and started to leave.

“Captain,” Pierce called him back. “Just in case this gets messy I want it on the record one more time that whatever happens next- Say you getting attacked by a couple dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the way out. -Is all because I’m Nick Fury’s friend and I’m trying to do right by him.”

“Uh-huh,” Steve said without much conviction.

After the attack on Steve failed miserably Jasper Sitwell addressed a room full of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, “As of right now S.H.I.E.L.D.’s only priority is tracking down this guy,” he said pointing to a picture of Steve.

“With all due respect,” Agent 13 interrupted. “If S.H.I.E.L.D. is conducting a manhunt for Captain America, we deserve to know why.”

“Since when?” Sitwell asked. “You’ve been corralling and containing Enhanced for decades and you’ve never whined ‘What about this guy’s civil rights’ before.”

“But, it’s Captain America, he’s special!” Agent 13 argued.

“Because he lied to us,” Pierce said as he entered the room. “I have no proof that Captain Rogers has information regarding the death of Director Fury. But I believe that’s the case and he refused to share it. Besides, he’s the only lead we’ve got. So I’m asking you, who has your loyalty? One of our own who has been brutally murdered or someone who is clearly NOT the character from your Saturday morning cartoons. Because if he was that guy, he’d be working with us right now.”

In Manhattan DUM-E made his daily trek from Tony Stark’s lab to SI mailroom. SI personnel greeted the bot as he trundled along and DUM-E whistled or beeped back cheerfully.

“Got a package for Mr. Stark today along with the regular fanmail,” one of the clerks said as he looped a customized mailbag over DUM-E’s claw. “Make sure he knows it’s there, it was marked for urgent delivery.”

DUM-E whistled a sharp affirmative, then spun around on his treads and hurried back toward the lab.

Poorly disguised in a hoody, Steve went back to the hospital and discovered that his vending machine trick hadn’t been as clever as he thought it was. Natasha appeared behind him chewing a big wad of gum since she’d had to buy six packs to get the flash drive and had gotten bored while waiting for Steve to come back for it.

“Where is it?” Steve demanded as he slammed her into the wall.

Natasha choked and gagged as the impact made her swallow the gum. Steve took a moment to pound her on the back, the Heimlich Maneuver hadn’t been developed until the 1970’s. He’d just dug through his pocket for a pen and a pocket knife to try a tracheotomy when Natasha managed to cough up the gum after using the edge of a desk to perform an abdominal thrust on herself. “Have you updated your first aid certification since waking up?” she demanded as she gasped for air.

“Sorry,” Steve said, shame-faced.

“Where did you get the drive?” Natasha demanded in an attempt to capitalize on his guilt.

“Why would I tell you when you won’t give it back to me?” Steve replied, forgetting to feel bad in the face of opposition.

“Fury gave it to you.”

“So this is the part of the interrogation where you ask me questions you already know the answer to?” Steve asked. “Does everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. use the same playbook?”

“What works, works,” Natasha said with a shrug. “Why did Fury give it to you? Beyond the obvious: He was injured, didn’t trust S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore than I do, you’re a semi-outsider, easy to manipulate and physically nearby.”

“Can I ask a question I actually DON’T know the answer to?” Steve interjected. “What's on it?”

“Let me borrow a page from your book: I don't know.”

“Stop lying!” Steve exclaimed grabbing her and slamming her up against the wall for a second time.

“Sorry, I’m physiologically incapable of that, Rogers.”

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?” Steve demanded, frustration clearly showing on his face.

“Didn’t everyone?” Natasha asked. “The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in. He needed me… So do you. And I’d take it kindly if you’d quit manhandling me.”

“No! I don’t really have any other idea of how to get information out of you so spill or I’ll hit you.”

Natasha eyed Steve warily, decided that he was serious and said, “I know who killed Fury. Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.”

“So he's a ghost story,” Steve replied, unimpressed with what she was willing to share.

“I’ve actually gone up against him. Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me.” She pulled up her shirt, “Wanna see my scar? That I got shot by a really good sniper totally proves that the Winter Soldier is real, also take note of my body.”

“Er, yeah, your body is very nice,” Steve agreed, trying to politely not look at her exposed midriff. “But this Winter Soldier is far from the only sniper out there. My best buddy, Bucky could have made a shot like that. So could Hawkeye now that I think of it… Um who were you working for during all this anyway? Are you sure it wasn’t Hawkeye?”

“Clint’s a soft-touch when it comes to women, can’t believe that we might be just as capable of evil as men. He wouldn’t have taken the shot, trust me, I know from experience. Look, the whole thing hurt my pride so I went after the shooter and I can tell you that going after him is a dead end.” Natasha held up the flash drive, “But we’ve got what the ghost was after.” 

“I guess we’re in this together,” Steve sighed. “Do you have Stark’s phone number? He was pretty handy at hacking S.H.I.E.L.D.’s encryption back during the invasion.”

“Oh come on, I’m smart enough to take care of something like this without any help from Stark,” Natasha insisted.

DUM-E sorted through the mail in his bag until he found the package. When Tony ignored his poking he set it on top of the engineer’s coffee cup. And just as DUM-E knew would happen Tony discovered the package less than five minutes later. “Where’d this come from?”

DUM-E beeped, proudly announcing his excellent delivery skills.

Tony opened the envelope, a thumb drive and a short note fell out into his hands. “If I haven’t contacted you by the time this reaches you assume I’m dead,” the note read in Fury’s crisp, no-nonsense hand. “S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised. I was unable to decrypt the information on the drive but it can be downloaded and copied, it’s everything I was able to gather. Rogers and Agent Romanoff are in the loop and on site in D.C. if you need additional ground work. They should be contacting you soon. I don’t have to tell you not to trust anyone right?”

Chapter Text

Dressed to distract from their more distinctive characteristic and walking close enough to be mistaken for a couple, Steve and Natasha entered a shopping mall. “First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk.”

“If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off,” Steve groused as they walked into an Apple store.

“The drive has a level six homing program,” Natasha explained as she pulled out the flash drive. “I’ve got no idea why Fury had me steal files from a corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D. operation using S.H.I.E.L.D. hardware that would alert S.H.I.E.L.D. when anyone accessed the stolen files but he did. As soon as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D. will know exactly where we are.”

“Yeah, if Fury suspected something fishy was going on in S.H.I.E.L.D. you’d think he’d have you use hardware that wouldn’t report your poking around back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Especially when he went to the length of hiring pirates to attack his own ship to cover your stealing the files in the first place,” Steve agreed. “But I suppose hindsight is 20-20. How much time do we have?”

Natasha pulled in the drive. “Uh...about nine minutes from... Now.”

In Stark Towers Tony juggled the flash drive he’d been sent from one hand to the other. “J.A.R.V.I.S., I wouldn’t put it past Fury to pull a Peter Pettigrew just to get S.H.I.E.L.D. into SI’s systems. Is that paranoid?”

“Based on data collected from previous encounters with S.H.I.E.L.D., I would consider it prudence rather than paranoia, Sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

“Alright then,” Tony declared with a decisive nod. He went down to the lobby where SI had a guest office set aside. Then he rolled under the desk and pulled the casing off the computer, in a couple of seconds the wifi card was removed and the computer had been physically detached from all external servers.

“Let’s get started!” Tony dropped into the desk chair, cracked his knuckles then plugged in the flash drive and started typing.

“Oh look at you, trying to call for help,” Tony purred at the program few seconds later. “Too bad there’s no way out of this system.”

Outside of the Mall where Steve and Natasha were trying to access their drive Rumlow and a STRIKE team pulled into the parking lot.

“Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something,” Natasha declared. “This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands.”

“Can you override it?” Steve asked.

“The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly,” Natasha admitted. “I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D. developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from.”
Rumlow ordered his men to split up as they walked into the mall. Natasha and Steve’s window for getting anything from their flash drive was rapidly closing.

Tony frowned. “This is the weirdest AI I’ve ever seen J.” he said.

“How so?” J.A.R.V.I.S. asked, bothered that Tony’s precautions meant that he couldn’t ‘see’ what Tony was talking about.

“I might be fooling myself but it seems… Intuitive. Even… organic,” Tony said. “It’s trying to predict me.”

“Successfully?” J.A.R.V.I.S. asked.

“Naw,” Tony replied. “Just a guess here but it expects me to think like my dad. Now I know how Howard thought... And, apparently, so does this program but I didn’t stop breaking into my dad’s encrypted files just because he caught me the first dozen times. This AI is trying to do to me what I learned to do to Dad by the time I was twelve. All I’ve got to do is… what Dad didn’t think to do to stop me. I’ll be through it’s defenses in a couple of minutes.”

Natasha and Steve zeroed in on the location where the protected files had come from with mere seconds to spare. They evaded detection by Rumlow’s team via a public kiss that hid their faces without making it look like they were hiding their faces, stole a car and were on their way to New Jersey.

“Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?”

“Nazi Germany,” Steve replied, his accent thickening with annoyance that even S.H.I.E.L.D.’s famed profiler seemed to think she knew everything about him because she’d seen the propaganda campaign Brandt had built around ‘Captain America’. “And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash.”

“Borrowing without permission,” Natasha pointed out. “I’m bored and I’ve got nothing better to do than to pry into your private life. You mind?”

“Would it stop you if I did?” Steve asked.

“No,” Natasha replied blithely. “And since I figure not answering the question is an answer in and of itself there’s really nothing you can do about it. So… Was that your first kiss since 1945?”

“In my defense, you’re one who mentioned public displays of affection making people uncomfortable and I agreed,” Steve said. “They make me uncomfortable. Even if we had been dating I wouldn’t have been happy to be kissing you in the middle of a shopping mall…. Especially not the way you kiss.”

“Getting guys hot and bothered whenever the opportunity presents itself is just one of my skills,” Natasha replied with a smug smile. “And I use any excuse to get in some practice.”

“It’s supposed to be about WHO you’re with not technique,” Steve muttered, flushing.

“So you’re a romantic, that’s… er… sweet... I guess,” Natasha said. “Are you dating someone? It hurts to think I could miss something that big but if I did I’ll stop trying to set you up.”

“How ‘bout you cut it out, regardless of what I answer?” Steve suggested. “Like I told Agent Neighbor, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s interest in my love life is creepy and, believe it or not, it's kind of hard for me to find someone with shared life experience.”

Natasha blinked at him in confusion, “Why is that important? Just tell them whatever you think will get what you want out of them.”

“Not a romantic I take it?” Steve asked dryly. “What do you tell someone if you want them to like you for yourself.”

“That…” Natasha shook her head. “I don’t even know how to respond to something that ridiculous. No one wants you for yourself. Everyone has an image of what they want you to be and if you manage figure that image out and reflect that back at them they like you.”

“And you wonder why I have a hard time trusting you,” Steve remarked.

“Okay, apparently I’m doing it wrong with you. So I’ll try the straightforward approach: Who do you want me to be?” Natasha asked.

“Yourself!” Steve exclaimed with frustration. “Do you even know who that is?”

It was hard to tell which of them was more relieved when they pulled up outside the long abandoned Camp Lehigh. “This is it,” Steve said.

“The file came from these coordinates,” Natasha confirmed.

“So did I,” Steve said. “This camp is where I was trained. Why don’t you tell me something real about yourself in return.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Natasha replied. “But please go on about yourself.”

Eventually, Steve’s knowledge of military regulations revealed a hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. office and a secret room beneath the secret office, pack full vacuum tube logic circuits and banks of magnetic tape for memory storage.

“This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient,” Natasha protested. Then she noticed that someone had adapted USB port to connect to the early commuter. She plugged in the flash drive…

Tony glanced around the conference room at his science team, plus Thor, Darcy, Pepper and Happy. His expression was deadly serious as he held up the flash drive. “So it turns out that when S.H.I.E.L.D. was first forming it took in some Axis scientists deemed too questionable for anyone else involved in Operation Paperclip to touch with a ten foot pole… HYDRA’s Arnim Zola for example.”

“I’m just speculating here,” Rhodey interjected. “But… It didn’t turn out well?”

“It didn’t turn out well,” Tony confirmed with a sigh. “Sure they were individuals with valuable knowledge but the leopard didn’t change his spots. The ones in S.H.I.E.L.D. had the leeway to continue pursuing their own agendas and once they started putting people they’d turned into high ranking positions they were their own oversight… After seventy years of that crap HYDRA’s so entwined with S.H.I.E.L.D. I can’t tell where one starts and the other ends.”

“I knew I didn’t like S.H.I.E.L.D. but… HYDRA? Fought against Captain America back in WWII HYDRA?” Pepper shook her head, looking shocked.

“Since its inception S.H.I.E.L.D.’s been flying under the radar,” Bruce said. “So they could ‘do what needs doing’ without the ‘ignorant’ public getting in the way. They’re all about the ‘greater good’ and ‘the ends justify the means’.”

“The problem is: If you don’t ask the guy next to you what his ‘greater good’ looks like you might get a nasty surprise down the line,” Darcy agreed.

Tony nodded. “Back in 2012 I started a joint project with S.H.I.E.L.D., something to get the Earth ready if another invasion came our way. Now, you all know that collaboration imploded but the project didn’t just evaporate when I walked out,” he said. “And the specs I pulled off this drive... Someone somewhere down the line got confused about which way the guns were supposed to point.”

“I do not understand,” Thor said.

“Tony might have wanted something to guard against another invasion but S.H.I.E.L.D. is more worried about threats originating from the Earth,” Jane explained.

“It’s not all that crazy,” Happy said. “Even in 2012 more New Yorkers were were murdered by other New Yorkers than by aliens.”

“Yeah, but if you show up on MY planet’s doorstep with an invading army I don’t have any qualms about blowing your head off,” Tony said. Then he shook his head, “What S.H.I.E.L.D. turned the project into…”

“It’s S.H.I.E.L.D., they decided to be proactive about taking out threats didn’t they?” Darcy said. “I mean, that’s why they took Janey’s research after all: They thought, somehow, it would turn into a threat. And them having a gun to the whole planet’s head is scary enough but HYDRA managed to get their grubby hands on the trigger. Am I right?”

“I should have known this would happen,” Tony upbraided himself. “Everyone in this room is on HYDRA’s hit list.” He turned to Helen Cho, looking guilty, “And so’s your son.”

“Not your fault Tony,” Helen said. “The important thing is: What are we going to do about it?”

“Sir!” J.A.R.V.I.S. suddenly interrupted. “S.H.I.E.L.D. has just fired a missile targeting an abandoned military base in Wheaton, New Jersey.”

“Get the suit!” Tony exclaimed running for the door.

“I’m sorry Sir, the missile will have reached it’s target before you clear the Tower,” J.A.R.V.I.S. reported.

“Fuck!” Tony swore and punched the door. “Fury said Rogers and Romanoff were involved, told me to expect them to call. They never did and I didn’t think me trying to find them while S.H.I.E.L.D. was conducting a manhunt for Rogers would help anything… Damn it! I should have...”

Rhodes grimaced, “They’re both professionals, we gotta trust that they knew what they were doing when they decided not to reach out to you. Right now? All we can do for them is hope they had better sense than to be that missile’s target. But, Tones, we’ve got to focus on this,” he nodded to the flash drive. “You were in part of the project once? What sort of back doors do we have to exploit?”

“Know that my skills are at your disposal,” Thor said as he stood and gave Rhodes a slight bow of acknowledgement.

A measure of tension slipped out of Tony’s shoulders as he looked around the room once more, recognizing the ability and the strength of the team he’d assembled.

Chapter Text

Sam had just returned home from his morning run when he heard a knock on his door. He was surprised to find Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff standing on his front porch. “Hey, man,” he greeted Steve eyeing them with cautious curiosity. Given his line of work, one of his guys showing up at his door was generally cause for worry but the Black Widow’s presence along with Steve’s spoke of something else. ‘Well, a different sort of worry anyway,’ Sam thought.

“I'm sorry about this,” Steve said. “We need a place to lay low.”

“Everyone we know is trying to kill us,” Natasha warned.

Sam took a moment to think before replying. “Well, seeing as how you’re Captain America and the Black Widow, the least I can do is let you in while you explain why.”

“Thanks Sam,” Steve said as they came inside.

“Why don’t you two clean up,” Sam said eyeing their bedraggled state after surviving the missile. “I’ll cook breakfast and then you can tell me what the hell is going on here.”

After washing up as best as he was able in Sam’s bathroom Steve came out to find Natasha looking sad and thoughtful. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” It wasn’t the most convincing of declarations.

“What's going on?” Steve pressed.

“When I first joined S.H.I.E.L.D. I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA. I thought I knew whose lies I was telling but...I guess I can't tell the difference anymore,” Natasha confessed.

“You realize, even with S.H.I.E.L.D. you were just trading one master for another?” Steve asked. “You were still lying, manipulating people… Killing?”

Natasha’s expression told Steve he wasn’t wrong about what she’d done for S.H.I.E.L.D.

“It’s not the best way to ‘go straight’, keeping on doing the same stuff that got you in deep in the first place, ya know?”

“It’s all I know,” Natasha said. “I had to buy my way out of the pit the Red Room raised me in and those were the only skills I had to offer.” After a moment she added, “I owe you, for back at the bunker.”

“It's okay,” Steve deferred. “What else could I do in that situation?”

“You could have only worried about yourself,” Natasha said. “If it was the other way around and it was down to me to save your life, and you be honest with me, would you trust me to do it?”

“I-” Steve shook his head. “I feel like I oughta be protecting you from yourself, showing you how to be a person and not a tool for whoever’s hands you fall into… But no, I can’t trust you. Not when the only thing you stand for is your own survival. Still, I believe you can get there. I believe that you wanna be better than you are now.”

“Well, you seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing,” Natasha remarked.

“I guess the world just makes more sense when I’ve got someone to blame for how it’s screwed up, someone to fight against to make it right,” Steve replied with a shrug.

“You do know it’s not really that simple, right?” Natasha asked.

“When there’s an enemy right in front of you, it can be,” Steve insisted.

“Eggs are ready,” Sam called from the kitchen.

Over breakfast the two of them told Sam about what they’d learned: About HYDRA’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Zola’s mysterious algorithm. “Phone’s over there,” Sam said. “Let’s face it, you two can’t stop this on your own.”

“Won’t that just paint a target on whoever we call?” Steve asked.

“The missile told us a lot,” Natasha suggested. “There aren’t many people in S.H.I.E.L.D. who could launch a domestic missile strike.”

“Pierce could,” Steve said.

“He’s not going to be easy to get ahold of,” Natasha cautioned. “He's sitting on top of the most secure building in the world.”

“But he's not working alone,” Steve said thoughtfully.

“So you figure out someone who’s HYDRA, someone who you can get ahold of… Then what?” Sam asked.

“We force them to tell us what the algorithm does,” Steve said as if it was obvious. “I know that sort of thing can be uncomfortable to contemplate but this is HYDRA we’re talking about.”

“And I’m one of the best interrogators in the world,” Natasha added with a superior smirk.

“Yeah, no offense but this Zola guy thought he had you dead to rights and he didn’t spill,” Sam said. “In fact, a guy who was desperate enough to stay alive that he downloaded his fucking brain into a computer- In 1972! -was willing to suicide if it meant meant taking you down with him.”

“Zola was a fanatic,” Steve said. Then he hesitantly added, “Well, he did turn on the Red Skull to save his own skin back in ‘42 but still-“

“Are you willing to bet everything on the next guy you grab not being a fanatic?” Sam asked.

“Zola probably got tired of being a ghost in the machine,” Natasha said dismissively.

“We need to deal with this,” Steve said firmly. “We can’t just pass the buck.”

“It’s too big,” Sam argued. “You need some sort of safety net. What if you don’t survive the next missile they lob at you? That leaves me to try to explain what’s happening. Maybe Captain America and the Black Widow have the credibility to get someone to listen to story you’re pedaling but me? I’m not saying I won’t do everything I can to let people know what’s going on but I’m going to sound like a tinfoil-hat wearing conspiracy nut. I doubt they’ll even bother to kill me, I’ll kill my own credibility claiming some secret group from WWII is behind everything from the Kennedy assassination to the assassination of Howard Stark.”

“Can we call someone without just putting their head in a noose?” Steve wondered. “They killed Fury.”

Natasha thought about it, “They bugged our homes, our phones but even S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t bug every phone, they can’t listen to every phone call made. Steve, you only just met Wilson here, he’s not on their radar yet. And Stark, S.H.I.E.L.D. does have surveillance on him but… Maybe it’s just a game to him, screwing with everything S.H.I.E.L.D. does to try to keep an eye on him but it’s a game he’s winning. S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t been able to place an agent anywhere in SI, let alone in Stark’s personal sphere, since I profiled him for them in 2010. He’s on the lookout for S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to bug him and any sort of technical surveillance? Stark’s tech beats S.H.I.E.L.D.’s hands down. He’s not someone I’d chose to depend on but odds are we can get away with calling him from Wilson’s phone.”

Steve nodded, “Okay, I’ll call Stark. Then we’ll sit down and figure out our next step. I agree with you about counting on Stark but, like Sam says, we need something in place if things go south.” Steve picked up Sam’s phone and dialed.

“Who’s this?” Tony demanded brusquely.

“Captain Rogers,” Steve identified himself. “Stark-”

“Glad you’re not dead Capsicle,” Tony interrupted. “I was a little worried when S.H.I.E.L.D. started shooting missiles at New Jersey.”

“Tony!” Steve exclaimed. “I need you to listen, this is important: HYDRA-”

“Infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., like the day it was born,” Tony interrupted. “Got it. Pepper, Dr. Selvig and Darcy are already at the UN Headquarters explaining things.”

Just under a week later General Talbot stood in Victoria Hand’s office at the Hub, “Look we all know this is just Stark throwing a tantrum but with Potts formally protesting his treatment on behalf of Stark Industries and add to that Dr. Selvig’s unfortunate experience in 2012, and the lack of support he received from S.H.I.E.L.D. in the aftermath… We have to observe due form.”

“Of course,” Agent Hand said with a sour look on her face.

“Now the last thing I want to do is compromise any agents in the field but Stark’s instigations are serious enough that they can’t simply be swept under the carpet,” Talbot continued. “I’m looking to you to help my people take over support for active missions while a quiet investigation is conducted. Trust me, I know it’s not possible to just pull out of every mission at a moment’s notice. Because there are lives involved, this has to be kept off the Evening News. Agents in the field will not know anything is happening, the public won’t know what’s happening… Unless there’s some substance to Potts’ claims. For the duration of the Investigation S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities and employees in the U.S. will be put on lockdown… I’m sure we can clear this all up in a few weeks at the most.”

“And what about S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities in other countries?” Agent Hand asked.

“Their local governments will deal with the allegations Potts brought before the U.N. as they see fit,” Talbot stated. “The U.S. has no jurisdiction.”

“That’s not going to be enough,” Steve insisted. “HYDRA has some sort of interest in Project Insight. I don’t know exactly what they’re up to but that sort of fire power-”

“They’re trying their hand at Psychohistory, trying to write an equation to predict human behavior,” Tony interrupted. “Then they’re going to use those S.H.I.E.L.D. gunships to preemptively execute anyone who might get in their way. They’ve got around seven hundred thousand people targeted for a first pass. Guess what? All the Avengers made the cut.”

“We can’t let those ships get in the air!” Steve exclaimed.

“Yeah, got it covered.”

Sitwell glared at Rumlow, “What do you mean EVERY LAST ONE of the repulsor engines has failed?!?”

“We have to assume that everyone on those Helicarriers is HYDRA,” Steve said. “Even if they can’t get them in the air that’s around twenty thousand HYDRA soldiers in three very heavily armed fortresses.”

“Yeah, Cap... About that?” Tony looked at the scans of the Triskelion on his HUD, the homing signals from the repulsor engines on the three Helicarriers burning like beacons. “Why don’t you and Natashalie sit tight. We got this.”

“Who’s we?” Steve demanded.

Tony glanced to his right where War Machine, Thor and Dr. Banner were waiting. Rhodes was talking quietly with several police and military officers. “The perimeter’s secure,” he told Tony. “Betty, Jane and Helen are ready to black communications to and from the building as well as taking out their power. So as soon as you’re done chatting…”

“Sorry Rogers, gotta go. Rhodey’s getting all military on me about keeping a schedule,” Tony said. “Thor and Brucey-Bear are here too. Sit tight, one more heavy hitter isn’t going to be a game changer.”

Back in Sam’s kitchen Steve stared at the phone, the dial tone buzzing audibly to all three of them. “He hung up on me,” Steve said in shock.

Chapter Text

With most of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s strongholds worldwide the various governments that had tacitly supported the organization and the World Security Council decided to act as if the various base commanders were not HYDRA. Units from the officially recognized militaries of a dozen different countries were being sent in to assume command of local S.H.I.E.L.D. bases as diplomatically as possible.

The organization had an army that, while it was only the fraction of the size of the U.S., Russian or Chinese militaries, was still on par with many national forces. And while S.H.I.E.L.D. was at a numerical disadvantage against any of the superpowers, their technology was markedly superior, no one else was even close to being able to put a suborbital platforms like the Helicarriers in the air. On top of that S.H.I.E.L.D. had access to nuclear missiles. It was the general consensus of the UN Security Council that it was in everyone’s best interest to try to avoid a shooting war with S.H.I.E.L.D. while dismantling the organization. It was also hoped that if the discovery of HYDRA’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be handled quietly then it would provide more useful leads in uncovering HYDRA agents in other organizations.

If the administration of any of the bases turned out to be weighted toward HYDRA control the military units being sent in were prepared for the situation to degrade but it was everyone’s hopes that most of the bases would, at least, surrender temporary control peacefully- Not that they’d ever be getting it back. S.H.I.E.L.D. was done. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t try to avoid complete chaos or armed revolt during the process of shutting the organization down.

Discretion and diplomacy were the game plan for most of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s strongholds. Because of Project Insight and the three heavily armed, if grounded, Helicarriers the Triskelion was being handled differently. With the Triskelion they were going in under the assumption that HYDRA was calling the shots.

At Rhodes’ command power and communications to and from the Triskelion were cut. Tony watched several military units were deployed to subdue the personnel on the upper levels. Then he headed for the elevators along with Thor and Bruce. “Tony Stark, Dr. Banner and Prince Thor do not have clearance for Project Insight,” the building’s computer informed them politely.

“Hey Rhodey!” Tony shouted across the lobby, “Quiet or loud?”

“Oh, just go for it,” Rhodes said.

Tony grinned and gestured for Bruce and Thor to step out of the elevator, then he blew a hole in the floor with one of the armor’s small forearm missiles. Thor leapt into the shaft with a grin. Bruce stepped up on the top of Iron Man’s boot and accepted a ride down. As they descended Tony spotted dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D. technicians clustered around disassembled repulsor engines where they’d been trying to figure out what he’d done to disable them before the power cut out.

Thor stood on the deck between the three massive ships and shouted, “No harm will befall those who surrender peacefully!” His voice echoed and boomed in the closed hanger like thunder.

“Think that voice qualifies as power?” Tony murmured to Bruce as they landed behind Thor.

“Let me borrow a mic?” Bruce asked.

“You’re on,” Tony said.

“You have five minutes before I angry,” Bruce added to Thor’s statement, his calm declaration amplified by the external speakers in Tony’s suit until his voice matched Thor’s for carrying power.

Throughout the hanger scattered groups started raising their hands. One of the gun turrets on closest Helicarrier swiveled around to target them. Tony set Bruce down and blasted the turret with both repulsors. “Okay, after that little stunt, five minutes just got shorter,” Bruce muttered as his skin began to turn green.

The three Avengers charged across the hanger. Iron Man going high and raining destruction down on the two more distant helicarriers while Thor leapt onto the deck of the nearest and began ripping the gun turret from their moorings. Hulk simply punched through the side of the nearest ship and kept going.

For the three of them, the baseline soldiers HYDRA sent at them, although numerous, were insignificant. They fought the Helicarriers themselves. Iron Man wove between explosions, peppering the massive ships with repulsor blasts and missiles. The agents who’d surrendered huddled behind the Hulk as he took great offense when any of the gun turrets turned his way.

Inevitably the roof of the hanger eventually became collateral damage. Water from the Potomac poured in, drenching the battlefield. A few more enterprising HYDRA agents scrambled to get to the Quinjets on the decks into the air. “This is the middle of D.C.!” Tony exclaimed as he shot after the lead jet. “We have to keep the fighting contained! Rhodey! Coming your way!”

Thor laughed as he looked up at the open sky. “Consider it done Son of Stark!” He raised Mjolnir and dozens of lightning bolts struck the decks. Between Iron Man and War Machine the few quinjets that escaped Thor’s rain of destructive power didn’t last long.

Down below, on the flooding floor of the hanger the Hulk scowled at his frightened prisoners then, with a grumble, he ripped massive plates off the nearest helicarrier and stacked them up to form a crude stair. At the top the agents and technicians were met by a the military and were added to the other prisoners from the building.

“It’s going to be a hell of a job, sorting out who was HYDRA from this mess,” Rhodes commented as he and Tony landed. Hulk and Thor followed the last of captured agents out of the pit and a few moments later the battered Helicarriers had vanished under the waters of the Potomac.

“Mighty Green One!” Thor called to Hulk, “If you have yet energy?”

“Don’t tell me he wants to spar after that?” Rhodes exclaimed.

“Just don’t break any buildings!” Tony shouted after them.

A moment later a police officer ran up, “There’s battle on the Beltway Overpass. Captain America, Black Widow, some guy in a mask. Heavy artillery, machine gun fire.” Tony glanced at Rhodes and both of them blasted off.

Tony arrived just in time to see Steve staring, frozen at a guy with a cyborg arm and a machine gun. A black guy Tony didn’t know made a desperate, full body tackle and managed to knock the cyborg’s aim off, saving Steve for a moment. Natasha was leaning up against a nearby car, blood leaking from between her fingers. The cyborg brutally kicked the guy who’d attacked him off then brought his machine gun to bear on Steve again but Tony was in range now. He blasted the cyborg with his repulsors, sending the guy tumbling down the street.

“Bucky!” Steve shouted.

The cyborg regained his feet. Shaking his head as if to clear it he asked, “Who the hell is Bucky?”

War Machine hovered above the battlefield. “Stand down!” he ordered bring his heavy shoulder mounted gun to bear against the cyborg.

“NO! BUCKY!” Steve screamed in alarm. He ran and threw himself between War Machine and the cyborg. Rhodes hesitated and the Cyborg took the chance to flee.

While Steve took off, chasing after his ghost Tony shouted, “Romanoff needs a hospital!” The guy who’d saved Steve earlier tried to stand up only to crumple clutching his stomach where he’d been kicked.

Rhodes looked between the two injured and the direction in which Steve had disappeared. “Tones, make sure they get help. I’ve got Captain Distracted and- Is there any way that could actually be Bucky Barnes?”

“Aliens, Norse gods, Capsicles, rage monsters, people who blow up…” Tony listed off.

“Yeah, yeah, nothing’s impossible anymore,” Rhodes agreed. “Get them to a medic quick. The Widow liable to go into shock and the other guy could easily have internal bleeding from that kick.”

“Watch yourself,” Tony said as he considered how best to transport his charges.

An hour later Rhodes found Steve Rogers on the bank of the Potomac, gut shot and half-drowned. There was no sign of the Winter Soldier.

Chapter Text

“You have no authority over us,” Councilman Singh declared arrogantly.

Everett Ross eyed the four apprehended members of the World Security Council. “Let’s see, you people belong to some sort of shadowy international cabal who has been known, on more than one occasion, to order missiles be fired at civilian targets without so much as a declaration of war. I think, and the UN agrees, that the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre is a very appropriate body to investigate your case.”

The four Councilmembers traded glances among themselves, then Rockwell stepped forward. “As the Cold War began to ramp up a number of the cooler heads in governments across the globe recognized that the question of Capitalism versus Communism would be a moot point if either side won a pyrrhic victory. The World Security Council was established to be above politics, to work behind the scenes to de-escalate anything that might turn the war hot.

“To that end, the first council picked up the nearly defunct Strategic Scientific Reserve and restructured it as the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. S.H.I.E.L.D. was tasked with carrying out the the WSC’s agenda in North America, primarily through the US’s various alliances they expanded their reach throughout the Western Hemisphere and are also active in areas like Japan and Hong Kong. The WSC has a similar relation with S.P.E.A.R. in Asia, W.H.O. in Europe and for years we have been trying to establish firmer connections with a group called P.R.I.D.E. centered in Africa. This is along with other, more local intelligence and response organizations across the world.”

“The Council brings stability to the world,” Yen said. “We are above political squabbles.”

“Yeah, yeah, the bunch of you are so great, above the rest of us, making choices for the good of the world that the world’s too dumb to make for itself. Thanks but no thanks,” Everett said. “There are damn good reasons for the UN’s mandatory transparency and I’ll stick with the inefficiencies of that system over your Secret Masters of the World bullshit.”

Tony knocked on the door to Steve’s hospital room.

“Stark,” Steve looked surprise as he recognized his visitor.

“I should have brought a balloon or something,” Tony muttered uncomfortably as he shut the door behind him. He didn’t sit down or even come very far into the room. “Look, I- The UN tapped my team to help dig out and sort through all of SHIELDRA and the WSC’s records enabling the Herculean task of figuring out who was HYDRA and who was legitimately S.H.I.E.L.D.- Not that S.H.I.E.L.D. and it’s sister operations in other areas of the world were particularly legitimate when it comes to the gamet of government-ish organizations. -Back to the point: There were a lot of people involved who were just trying to make the world a better place and they don’t deserve to be burned just because they didn’t know that some of their coworkers’ and superiors’ secret notion of what a better world looked like had a distinctly fascist tinge.”

“Okay?” Steve said, confused as to what Tony was trying to tell him.

“We, well mostly me- Bruce, Betty and Helen lean biological. Jane and Eric are astrophysics. Rhodey’s operations. When it comes to breaking electronic security systems and digging up all of S.H.I.E.L.D. and associates’ dirty secrets, that’s mostly my skill set,” Tony rambled. “So I’m satisfactorily independent- My last couple years as Iron Man have established that I don’t answer to the U.S. government or S.H.I.E.L.D. or well anybody-

“Actually this is sort of a roundabout way of getting me and my new friends answering to the UN. Which most of the team is pretty happy about, when it comes right down to it. Rhodey, Helen and Jane- Well Darcy more than Jane but Jane defers to Darcy when it comes to politics and administration in general. -Are all in favor. Darcy’s a little like Jane’s version of Pepper, without the sex- I think. I haven’t actually asked. They might have some sort of three way going with Thor. I mean, I can totally picture it.”

“Stark!” Steve interrupted. “Could you NOT go there.”

“No sex in the 40’s?” Tony asked.

Steve gave an aggravated huff, “Yes there was sex in the 40’s. How do you think you got here? But I’m sure both this Jane and Darcy are respectable young women and- And some things SHOULD be private, despite what YOU might think, even in this century.”

“Anyway,” Tony said dragging himself back on topic. “This situation: The UN is willing to trust that I can do the job and be discrete enough to dispense the dirt I dig up to the right government to act on it, since the WSC is being treated as an international terrorist organization, as of a week ago, but still maybe some of the secrets the Council was keeping from their respective governments shouldn’t necessarily be shared with everyone. Especially not right now: It’ll be another month or so before all currently active field missions have been shut down and the agents pulled out so they can be investigated for loyalties to HYDRA.”

“What are you trying to tell me?” Steve asked impatiently.

“Thunderbolt Ross managed to weasel his way into the U.S.’s response team for the whole SHIELDRA debacle and he’s making like Senator Joe in his early days-” Tony cut himself off at Steve’s look of frustrated incomprehension. “Right, references 50’s history, not your thing. Um- Think the Salem Witch Trials, only with Marx standing in for the Devil. So old Thunderbolt is all for turning this into a modern day witch hunt- He’s bad news, just ask Bruce or Ross’ lovely, science-minded daughter. -If Thunderbolt’s given enough rope he’ll probably hang himself but he’ll hang a lot of other people first, probably not metaphorically either. If he’s kept in check, odds are he comes out of this looking like a hero; the driving force behind purging HYDRA from our government, which is going to be a huge headache down the road.”

“You want me to deal with this Ross?” Steve concluded.

“What?” Tony sputtered to a halt. “No. I wanted to warn you that they’re going to be investigating you and Romanoff for HYDRA affiliations.”

“They think I’d willingly have ANYTHING to do with HYDRA!” Steve exclaimed jerking upright in bed.

“Don’t tear your stitches,” Tony exclaimed. “Okay, yeah that’s pretty much my reaction too. I mean, I think you’re a dick but the stubborn, self-righteous subspecies not- Still, take away the whole Captain America mythos thing and just looking at the facts: You and Romanoff worked predominantly with STRIKE for over a year, nearly two dozen missions with them. It turns out that Rumlow and his crew were definately HYDRA, dyed in the wool, murdering people for the cause HYDRA. And you worked with them, more than a couple times. Natashalie’s really up shit-creek without a paddle given her Red Room history. She’s already changed loyalties once, that makes people skeptical about the depth of her current loyalties. Hell, I’ve got personal experience with her willingness to stab a guy in the back,” Tony rubbed the back of his neck.

“Natasha is not HYDRA,” Steve said forcefully. “She was with me every step of the way, helping me. She joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to have a chance to be better and they just kept using her. She deserves a real chance to atone for her past, like you made for yourself. Not everyone has a personal fortune to fund their redemption efforts.”

“And…” Tony checked his watch theatrically. “Ten minutes before you tried to make this all about me. I think that might be a record. I just wanted to give you a heads up: Ross is using the situation as his comeback vehicle, you’re in his sights and the man has an unsavory history with the notion of recreating Erskine’s formula.”

“Thanks,” Steve said stiffly.

Tony turned to leave.

“Stark- Tony,” Steve corrected himself, trying to gentle his voice as he called Tony back. “At Zola’s bunker, he claimed HYDRA was behind your parents’ deaths, that it wasn’t an accident. Don’t know how reliable it is but I figured you should know.”

For a moment Tony looked shocked then he nodded jerkily and walked out of the room without another word.

Natasha gave her lawyer an impatient look, “They’re not going to put any of us in a prison. You know why?”

“Please, do enlighten me,” the lawyer’s tone dripped with sarcasm.

“Because they need us,” Natasha replied, supremely confident. “Yes, the world is a vulnerable place, and yes, we helped make it that way. But we're also the ones best qualified to defend it.”

“Do you realize that Stark Industries has been in an ongoing series of legal battles with the U.S. government dating back to 2010 to block efforts to force Tony Stark into supplying the military with equipment equal to Iron Man? In those cases it has been the government’s position that Stark’s invention is necessary for the National Security and thus he must turn it over. Is that a position you wish to support Ms. Romanoff?” the lawyer asked.

“They’re not going to arrest us as long as they depend on us for their safety,” Natasha said serenely.

“No, they’re going to shanghai you into working for them,” the lawyer replied. “But then maybe you’re comfortable with that, it’s how S.H.I.E.L.D. has managed the Enhanced for the last half century after all: Draft the ones they needed, the ones they felt they could control while they buried the ones they considered too dangerous or too unpredictable in secret prisons, in sanitariums… In unmarked graves. Not for what those Enhanced had done but for what they were deemed capable of doing.”

Natasha sat there, unmoved.

“Beyond that, are you sure they need you?” the lawyer asked in frustration. “Looking at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files on their agents I don’t see that your skills are markedly different than those of Agents Sharon Carter, Melinda May, Kara Palamas, Bobbi Morse, Isabelle Hartley, Maria Hill... That list only includes female specialists. And don’t think the lot of you will be able to put a unified front and force the government to back down. Carter’s already agreed to play ball and has been re-assigned to the CIA.”

“Hill and Carter aren’t even close to being in my class,” Natasha replied arrogantly. “Hartley’s past her prime and May doesn’t do fieldwork any more; psych issues.”

Tony watched warily as Maria Hill took a seat across the conference room table from him and Pepper. Given his previous interactions with S.H.I.E.L.D. he was mildly impressed that she’d requested an appointment with him through standard business channels rather than breaking into his home or ambushing one of them at a press conference or the UN meetings he was currently obliged to attend.

The simple thought of the UN hearings on SHIELDRA were enough to bring exhaustion crashing down. Tony’s regular counselling sessions for his PTSD had been usurped by efforts to get a handle on what he felt about the little bombshell Rogers had dropped on him about his parents. Extracting S.H.I.E.L.D.’s information was a huge endeavor and seeing what HYDRA, what S.H.I.E.L.D., had been up to for the last half century was emotionally exhausting. ‘Dad didn’t kill Mom driving drunk but he spent decades working alongside Nazis like Armin Zola. And if Dad wasn’t aware of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ‘Index’, their practic of locking up or CROSSING OFF Enhanced who didn’t play ball with them then he was being willfully ignorant and there’s no way Aunt Peggy didn’t know… Well, at least my team’s helping where they can. They might not be the computer experts but they all know data analysis. I’m not stuck wading through all that shit by myself.’

“Ms. Hill, you said you had something you needed to discuss with us, pertaining to the investigation of HYDRA’s infiltration?” Pepper asked crisply.

Hill looked to Tony. “It’s about the agents and other employees that your investigation has cleared,” she said. “The official policy regarding former S.H.I.E.L.D. employees is that we’d be divided into three groups by the investigation. Those whom had evidence of wrongdoing discovered would be judged in a military tribunal. Those who were cleared by the investigation would be absorbed into other, more official government agencies. And then there’s the rest of us: Those who where there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges against but too much suspicion to be placed in another government position...”

“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know,” Tony pointed out.

“And I’m sure, as a scientist, you’re also aware of how hard it is to prove a negative,” Hill said. “But you’ve still recommended over a hundred S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel be cleared based on the data you extracted.”

“Yeah. And?” Tony pushed.

“Three of those people have received offers. The rest of us are blacklisted,” Hill stated bluntly.

Tony looked unhappy.

“According to the results of your investigations, the only thing we did wrong was trust the wrong people,” Hill continued.

Tony waited for a few moments. “Isn’t that -um- not heavy-handed enough for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? I mean you haven’t even said anything about how I made the mistake of trusting Obie.”

“I didn’t think I needed to,” Hill replied.

“What do you want me to do?” Tony asked.

“I noticed that you didn’t have much trouble pulling together a team to put in the field,” Hill said. “But you’re going to need more infrastructure if you plan to assist Thor with his ‘quest’. Without surveillance and scouting, getting the scepter back will be a crap-shoot. Disorder on our side plays right into HYDRA’s ‘cut off one head, two more will grow in its place’ structure. You recommended clearing us and we know how to run an International mission, how to get the paperwork done, who to talk to about getting permissions.”

Tony turned to Pepper. “She has a point. Think we can open up a new division of SI?”

“You need to work with the UN for this,” Pepper disagreed. “The last thing we want to do is replace S.H.I.E.L.D. with another unregulated organization, only under SI’s banner.”

“So you’re saying dump it on Rhodey’s desk instead of yours?” Tony asked slyly.

“One last thing,” Hill interjected. “You need more combat personnel for any sort of extended operation. I know you and Rogers tend to rub each other the wrong way but the Battle of Manhattan showed just how effective you can be when you work together, please consider reaching out to him. Barton’s available as well.”

Steve walked slowly into Stark Tower’s busy lobby. If he were honest with himself, he wasn’t entirely sure why he was there, except… He had no leads on Bucky and, with the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., no other purpose left in this century. Nothing better to do with his time than look into the job offer he’d received.

He walked up to the front desk and gave the receptionist his name. She smiled with professional courtesy, “I’ll let Colonel Rhodes know you’re here.”

“Thank you Ma’am,” Steve replied, practiced manners covering surprise. He’d expected that Stark had been behind the offer even though it had been Rhodes’ name signed at the bottom of the letter.

“Captain, good to see you,” Rhodes greeted Steve with a hand-shake several minutes later.

Steve held up the letter. “I wanted to hear more about this?”

Rhodes nodded. “We’re restructuring the Avengers Initiative under a UN charter. While it is expected that the Initiative will eventually become the core of a combat force designed to deal with extra-terrestrial or Enhanced threats to global security, filling the gap S.H.I.E.L.D. left, only we’ll be functioning above the board. But for the immediate future our mandate is the recovery of the scepter Prince Loki was in possession of during his attack on Earth.”

“Prince Loki?” Steve asked frowning.

Rhodes grimaced. “Earth’s experiences with him aside, Loki is the second Prince of Asgard and it was Asgard’s determination that he was acting under duress during the invasion. Of course, the judge for his case was also his father but… Well, at least they’re not sending him back here. King Odin tasked Prince Thor with recovering the scepter. In the interest of maintaining good relations with Asgard the UN has offered to help. Also given Thor’s revised opinion of the danger represented by the scepter we’d rather not have it floating around the planet. You’ll probably like this part: We believe that the scepter fell into HYDRA’s hands after Ms. Romanoff… misplaced it. So if you sign on, you’ll be going after HYDRA, just like in the old days.”

“I’m interested,” Steve admitted, trying not to sound too eager. “But how can you be sure this um, ‘UN’ will be different from S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

Rhodes stared at Steve for a moment, “Airman Wilson told me that he didn’t think you were getting proper support in acclimating to this century but… Wow.”

“Sam said that? To you?” Steve asked feeling a little betrayed.

“He’s worried about you,” Rhodes replied. “As far as he’s concerned you’re already one of the guys in his group, someone who’s well-being he’s vested himself in- He might have an issue with maintaining professional distance, but then he’s not a psychiatrist.”

“He suggested I talk to one,” Steve said reluctantly.

“You’re going to have to if you want this job,” Rhodes said bluntly. “You’ve been through too much not to. Before I put you in the field, I need to know that whatever coping mechanisms you’ve developed won’t compromise you.”

“You?” Steve asked. “You’re leading the team?”

“What is my rank, Captain?” Rhodes asked dryly.

“Sir,” Steve snapped to attention reflexively as he remembered Colonel Phillips calling him on the carpet more than once during his time with the Howling Commandos. “I meant- I thought, I thought this was Stark’s idea?” he finished awkwardly.

“Tony will be part of the team,” Rhodes said. “But he doesn’t have command training and he has a number of other demands on his time. While Ms. Potts is SI’s CEO, Tony is still the head of R&D for the company. He’s leading the Solar Undertaking Defense Development System team, or S.U.D.D.S. They’re a scientifically oriented group established to develop technological defenses in preparation for another alien invasion.

“There is some overlap between S.U.D.D.S. and the Avengers Initiative: primarily Dr. Banner’s alter ego and Iron Man but because of my military background I was tapped to lead the Avengers as they will be structured more on the lines of a military unit,” Rhodes explained. “As for your question about S.H.I.E.L.D. versus the United Nations: No one likes red tape, no one likes oversight but when off-the-books organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. are established to ‘get things done’ by circumventing those things you always end up with abuses of power. We’re discovering that HYDRA agents infiltrated all sorts of government organizations on a global scale but in legitimate organizations their ability to do harm was severely curtailed by the checks and balances that organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. lack by design. For the most part the more adherent HYDRA supporters were weeded out before they could rise through the ranks in organizations under public scrutiny. This left HYDRA forced to depend on individuals like Senator Stern who, despite his HYDRA sympathies is more enthusiastic about his extramarital affairs than world domination. We’re going to have to deal with inefficiencies and not being able to do everything we might think is necessary,” Rhodes admitted. “But that’s the cost associated with limiting the power of those who’d abuse it. So, are you in?”

Steve thought about his lack of leads on Bucky, about what HYDRA had done to his friend. “I’m in,” he said.

“Okay,” Rhodes replied. “Let’s talk about what your responsibilities will be, compensation and benefits.”