Chapter Seven
When Steve, Natasha and Sam had set off in Sam's black car, no one was truly expecting what was to occur. They had a mission, they had a plan, to uproot HYDRA from the bottom up and take down this Winter Solider before she got any further with her disastrous plans. She was just an assassin, that much was clear, but she was also a loose cannon. Whoever had hired her wouldn't let her go that easily. No, the Winter Soldier wouldn't be done for quite a long time.
And as it turned out, Steve and the others would be saying more of this Winter Soldier than they cared... and soon.
It started and ended on the causeway over the main hub of Washington DC. They tried to remain off the grid since SHIELD was most likely still after them - and wouldn't rest until they were dealt with - but they all were in agreement that things had to be done. It wasn't going to resolve itself and with Fury dead, they were the only ones left.
Steve spent the remainder of the morning after Sam and Natasha had created somewhat of a plan. They were off to retrieve Sam's military gear to get "back in the game" as he would say and that should have been no problem. Getting the Falcon's wings wasn't the problem, it was the distractions. After that had been settled, Steve took the rest of the time reading over the files Nat had printed out for him. They weren't just any files, they were files that he should have had access to a long time ago. They were classified information regarding the missions and eventual death of Margaret Carter.
Steve wasn't sure he wanted to read them, but he knew that he deserved the truth and at least one person around here was willing to give it to him. That brought up the total number of people that he trusted right now to a whopping two. And he was currently in the same house with both of them.
After becoming head of SHIELD, Peggy and Howard didn't give up the field either. Just because they were the founders didn't mean that they were about to retire. Peggy was the leader of many missions, which ultimately became her downfall. There were snippets about Howard, Maria and even Tony here and there but the bulk of the files involved one Agent Carter.
Steve read about the countless number of lives that she had saved, the conversations she had spoken with diplomats and high ranking members of the government, and the people who she had lost and gained. She had hired one Alexander Pierce to take over the company after her and Howard both retired which opened the door for Howard and Maria's death, angering Steve even further. HYDRA had always been there since the beginning and corrupting this business. It made him shake with anger to see all of her hard work become so evil.
And then, abruptly, the files stopped.
There was one last mission. Moscow, Russia. Peggy had noted that she suspected someone was targeting her and Howard in her earlier entries and that Howard and Maria's accidental death wasn't so accidental after all. She had become suspicious too and they had killed her as well.
"I'm beginning to think this extraction mission is not what it seems," wrote Peggy in her very last entry. "My team keeps giving me looks like they are afraid and I have never seen these agents afraid before. Something is seriously wrong."
The next line stated that Margaret Carter had died from blood loss due to a gunshot wound to the abdomen and a severed arm. It made Steve sick to his stomach.
He couldn't bring himself to read the files Fury drafted up and Natasha uncovered about how he managed to play it all out as a ruse. That part was still raw in his mind.
It was around that time that the others decided it was time to leave. And Steve found that decision to be a very good one.
And that is how they ended up driving down the causeway, unaware of their attacker until it was too late.
The footsteps on the roof of Sam's car came first. And then the metal arm crashing through the windshield. And then the wheel was ripping out of the vehicle.
It didn't take long for the Winter Soldier to appear and it seemed she had a new mission with new targets. Them.