Prologue

1984

Alexander Pierce was a patient man. A very, very patient man. More so than most people realized. But the woman sitting across from him was trying his patience. Skin wrinkling and eyes tired, Peggy Carter, long-retired agent of both the Strategic Scientific Reserve and S.H.I.E.L.D. Her hair was still dark, but there were hints of gray in it, even as it was tied into a bun. She sat up straight in her chair, hands folded neatly in front of her as she looked down and sighed.

"I really don't understand," she said, sounding quite vexed. Even in her age, her English accent was still as strong as ever. "You've all read the deposition I wrote after the incident, and yet I've been here for three and a half hours."

Slowly, she looked up, her tired eyes meeting Pierce's. "How many different ways do you want me to tell the same story?"

Pierce sighed and leaned back in his chair, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Try to look at it from our perspective, Ms. Carter. Please. You freely admit that the entire survey team, along with its benefactor, were all slaughtered by a hostile force approximately two hours after setting down on Bouvet Island, a subantarctic volcanic island that had yet to have been fully surveyed at the time. Then, a seismic event sunk the surrounding landmasses, burying all traces of whatever happened there beneath tens of thousands of layers of snow and ice. Now, you and one other survivor were picked up approximately five hours later, both delivering... similar accounts of what happened, accounts that were met with considerable skepticism."

"I already told you-"

"Neither account, however," Pierce interrupted crisply, "made any mention concerning the hostile life forms that you supposedly encountered."

"Then somebody got to them." Peggy said icily, clenching her fists. "Someone doctored the recorder. Who was the last person to use it?"

"Miss Carter." Pierce said sharply, and Peggy glared at him, before sighing and relaxing back into her seat. Pierce stood up from his, and started walking around the table, arms crossed, glancing at Peggy. "Now, an analysis team had been dispatched after you were picked up from Bouvet Island, and a second one was sent in recently after this case was reopened. Neither found any physical evidence of the creatures you described."

"That's because they were buried. Buried and drowned. Like they should have been." Peggy said. "I've told you everything I know. The team and I landed on Bouvetøya under the pretense that we would locate Captain Rogers."

"But instead you found a structure. Something from a long-lost human culture-"

"No. I told you. It was not human. It was an alien temple. Extraterrestrial. It was not from here." Peggy clarified. "We detected its heat signature-"

"And found something never before seen once in history." Pierce said. "Two non-human beings. One of which you described as being humanoid in stature, though was equipped with technology of considerable advancement, while the other being animalistic in both appearance and behavior. A creature that gestates inside of a living human host, has concentrated acid for blood, attacked on sight, and in your own words, was generally unpleasant."

Pierce looked hard at Peggy, whose expression was hard and defiant. "You think I'm a head case."

Pierce chuckled. "I don't think you're a head case at all, Ms. Carter. In fact, quite the opposite. But the fact that there was no real evidence of your account places the truth of your argument in question."

"I've said all that I can." Peggy said. "There's nothing more I can give."

"You can give me the details." Pierce said, walking up to the desk. "In your own words. Not something written down in an old file by an exaggerative SSR agent."

Peggy looked away slowly. "It is a very long story..."

"We have time." Pierce said as he pulled the chair out and took a seat, sitting forward with his hands folded over the desk. "And I'm told that I'm a good listener."

Peggy studied the man, before sighing in resignation, getting into a more relaxed position. "It was almost ten years after the war. Stark had just left overseas after the incident with Leviathan..."

Short, yes. For now, tell me all what you think. Should I continue?