Brian looks up, shielding his eyes against the brightness of the sun's harsh rays. The great ball of fire is coming ever closer to Earth as she spins faster each day. He can feel the impending doom with every hour, but as he so often does, he pushes it away.
The wind ripples cloth. He looks in the direction of the sound and stares, for a moment, at the flag he sees. It still seems so odd, sometimes, not to be on Britain's fresh, green toil, but then, it's no fresher any more than this land the Americans still consider to be the Land of the Free. They are all destroying their own homes, and yet, so few of them can see it.

A hand touches his shoulder. The blonde jumps, clearly startled, then silently cusses himself for allowing himself to be caught off guard. He can not allow for any one to sneak up on him, not his enemies or these people who call themselves his friends. Bruce and Steve smile at him; he forces himself to return their grins as though nothing is wrong and everything is normal.

Yet, Brian knows, deep inside, that nothing will ever be normal again. They say something about a mission, Bruce speaking more than Steve, and he returns to the inside of the Avengers' headquarters with them. He glances at the news flashing across the screens, and suddenly, he feels sick.

This isn't different, after all. It's still the same. They're still fighting for a world of people that do not truly appreciate them, the sacrifices they make, or the lives that have suffered before their own so that they might live. They do not appreciate the world in which they live, or the sacrifices Mother Earth makes daily as more of her children die so that they can continue living and destroying her, raping her lands and killing her children.

He blinks back tears. He shakes silently inside with rage, rage at these very people for whom they are about to lay their lives on the line yet again. He screams inside, and then a hand touches his shoulder again. "I know," Captain America speaks so softly that only Captain Britain can hear him. His fingers rub a small and aching spot on Brian's tense shoulder. "I understand."

The two, world-weary soldiers exchange a nod as others look on in silent understanding. Each of them knows. War never changes, but life must go on. They must risk their lives for a people who, at large, will never understand or appreciate even a micro amount of what they do and give for them. They must risk their lives for the people like the friends and loved ones Steve has already lost; Bruce's lady love; Tony's dear friend, Pepper; and Brian's own sister, Betsy, and their friends and family who still wear the X.

"Let's do it," he says softly, and his voice sounds as though it is far, far away. A part of him is far away, still standing back on Britain's green soil before her lands became so polluted, still playing with Betsy and Jamie and trusting their father will come home from the war. But the rest of him is here, ready to fight for people that do not deserve it or him and ready to die for those who do.

The End