Teacher Down Under
Chapter 6
(Author's note: I apologize for this long delay. Life happened (Christmas is the busy season at work) and my muse insisted that I finish two other fanfics first. But I think I am back on track now. I'm trying to make this MCU compliant, and that is getting harder. Thank you for your patience.)
The news from Lagos was bad, but the fallout, the Accords was worse. I got to look at a report breaking the details of the Accord down to more manageable levels. It was as awful as I thought it would be. The bare bones of it was that the Avengers, and other augmented human as needed, would come under U.N. oversight. There would be a small committee, headed by one of my least favorite humans, former General Ross. That committee would decided when and where augmented humans, and the Avengers could be used.
I had met Ross several years ago when I was still working for the Veterans Administration. He was a self centered piece of work then. I don't think he's improved. Just gotten more convinced of his own ability to tell right from wrong. And now he has the power to implement it.
Based on my knowledge of the Avengers, I knew that Steve would refuse to sign the Accords. I was pretty sure Hawkeye and Wanda wouldn't either. Natasha called me to keep me in the loop. Tony, due to guilt is all aboard the Accord wagon. So Rhody, his best friend is too. Vision is also signing-based on probability apparently. Nat gave me a long explanation of why she agreed to sign. Mostly it's tied to trying to keep the group together and to keep Tony from being too stupid. Good luck with that. The rest of the group is "retired." I'll believe that when I see it. Nat said that Tony was still trying to get Steve to sign.
And the hits just keep on coming. Today we received notice that Peggy Carter, one of the founders of Shield has passed away. Two of the Australia office heads will be flying to London for the funeral. But not before we have a wake tonight. Many of the senior staff here knew Ms. Carter and want a night to honor her memory. Or as our Head stated, "I'm not getting on that bloody plane sober!" I've been asked to be the designated sober person for the event. They know they can trust me to not pass on anything that is said. I'm trained in grief counseling, and I can make sure they all make it to their own beds safely.
It was an interesting night. The alcohol consumption was epic, which, after hearing the stories, I think Peggy would have approved of. I knew of Ms. Carter from Steve's stories and from what I had read. But these men and women had worked with her. I hope I can live up to her. Maybe someday.
The funeral was filmed and broadcast for us to see worldwide. Steve was one of the pallbearers. Nat and Sam were there too. Sharon Carter was one of the speakers. I knew she was Peggy's niece, but I guess Steve didn't. They would be having an interesting conversation once it was over. The ceremony was elegant. Very Peggy carter. There were a lot of tears here in Australia.
Things got crazy fast. Steve stayed in London with Sam while Nat joined Tony for the signing of the Accords in Vienna. I was in a conference when the news arrived about the bombings. We all rushed to watch the raw footage. The King of Wakanda, the spearhead of the Accords was dead, amongst others. Natasha was unharmed, as was Tony. It looked like everyone was running around, trying to figure out what to do. It felt strange, being halfway across the world from my friends and not being able to help.
And then the world went completely crazy. Surveillance footage identified the bomber as James B. Barnes, aka Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier. Suddenly Bucky's photo was on every newscast. They were going to find him. No matter where he had hidden himself. And the orders were going to be Shoot to Kill.
All I could do was weep. In the space of a few days Steve would loose the love of his life and his best friend.
Eventually I stopped crying and started thinking. Steve was in London when all this went down. If he gets any word of where Bucky is, he'll be there, probably with the local police and army behind him. And Sam will probably go with. Against the Accords. Thinking about that didn't help, so I went back to the footage of the bomber. As I replayed it, something didn't seem right. "Travis," I asked my faithful AI, "Compare the footage of the Vienna bomber currently on display with known footage of the Winter Soldier. Could they be the same person."
Travis was processing for longer than I had anticipated. "Ma'am, facially the bomber is close enough statistically to fit the Winter Soldier. However, the body language is different."
"What?" My AI knows what he's doing, and after about 15 minutes he had me convinced that the bomber had used a Barnes mask of some sort, but wasn't Barnes. Why? To smoke out the real Barnes, of course. No idea why. Time for me to talk to the Shield station heads.