Hello again everyone. So sorry this chapter took so so long, but life got in the way and I had to take care of that first. This chapter isn't my finest work (it got written in between weeks), but I hope it's satisfactory. If you're still reading, leave a review or make yourself known to me.

Also, I should probably mention that I haven't been keeping up with Agents of SHIELD, and should probably finish Jessica Jones on Netflix. But it's not like this story was going to be 100% true to canon.

Frank came to the ten foot high electric fence, and looked for any weak points.

On paper, three miles in six hours would have been a nice, easy stroll. He'd been in foreign countries for months at times during his SEAL days, and had learned to operate in an environment that was not your own. The problem was, he was sure he'd been tagged. At one of the traffic stops in Frankfurt, the officer took his sweet time making copies of his passport, which signaled to Frank that he was tagged by someone.

Who, he didn't know, but he was willing to be it was HYDRA.

After arriving in Naunhof and paying for two nights at the local inn, Frank made his way to the deposit place soon after dawn. He couldn't just bring his materials into Germany, but Maria and Rusk had arranged for a friend of a friend to get some things ready.

Frank was appreciative of them. It always helped to have Kevlar and an MP5 when infiltrating a possible HYDRA base. After a few more minutes looking around the fence, he found a suitable hole in it that could be cut without much difficulty. He took out a device that resembled a bike lock. To the untrained eye, it was just that. To Frank, it was a miniature EMP that took out anything within ten feet, including the electric fence behind the first fence.

Yep, this person was serious about their privacy.

Castle Zemo's security station was located on the south end of a large circular field where the main castle was in the middle of. Frank had just slipped in the grounds, and now had to cross through a field of tall trees. A few birds crowed, and some footsteps shuffled, but other than that there was nothing, no one but the Punisher. His night vision goggles allowed him to see anyone coming with ease.

Too easy.

Ten minutes of crossing the bleak forest, and Frank ran into a road. Judging from his earlier navigation, he needed to go to the right – or rather, to the north towards the castle. Sticking to a ditch next to the road, Frank continued on until the distant hum of a vehicle was heard. Not taking chances, Frank went prone and waited to see what happened. The vehicle, a Jeep, stopped and two men in woodlands cameo got out, taking a walk around.

One of the men said something in German: "Hey Wilhelm, got a smoke?"

Apparently, that was too loud for the other man. "I'm here, you dumbass. Stop yelling." Also in German.

The first man put his submachine gun on the hood of the Jeep. "How many cigarettes you got left."

"Plenty." Both men took a second to light a smoke. "Any word on how our Slavic friends are going along?"

"Not yet," said the first man. "All I know is that it's pretty big."

"Damn right it's big." With that, the two tossed their cigarettes and got back in the Jeep. Frank watched as they stopped at what could only have been a checkpoint. Dull and grey, it came to life when a search light beamed over the Jeep. A third man in the checkpoint got out, said something to the driver, and then let the Jeep go on. The checkpoint was at the end of the forest and into the castle complex.

Time for some answers.

Frank took five minutes to analyze the security checkpoint and found no glaring ways he could be spotted in the dark. He would be like a ghost. There were two guards at the checkpoint. Frank made a mental coin toss and shot the one in the left side in the forehead.

Before the other could make a move or sound an alarm, Frank moved and struck the other with the butt of the silenced MP5. He went down, unconscious. Frank dragged him out and searched his pockets, which revealed pocket litter and a SHIELD badge. He'd have let Maria and Fury deal with this one, but he'd have to suffice with a rudimentary questioning.

When the guard came to his senses, Frank poured a bottle of water on his head. "Do you speak English?"

The guard took a few seconds and said, "Yes, I speak English." It had a thick German accent to it, but it was good enough.

Frank pulled out a knife. "I'm going to ask some questions. Lie or cry for help, and I'll gut you in a heartbeat. Got it?"

He nodded fast.

"What's your name?"

"Eric."

"I found this SHIELD badge. Are you HYDRA?"

"No. I was SHIELD until insight. I went into private contracting."

Truth. "Who do you work for?"

"I don't know."

"How'd you get here?"

"A friend of a friend. He said the pay was good for reasonable hours. I joined, been here for maybe half a year."

Truth. "Who's here besides the guards like yourself?"

"No one." Sensing a lie, Frank stabbed Eric in the thigh while gagging him.

"That's your one free lie. Who's here at Castle Zemo?"

Steve was now on what Agent- no, Director – Coulson called "the Bus". After Daisy and other SHIELD operatives had come to the rescue, a large Quinjet had swooped down to collect Steve, a wounded Wanda, Coulson, and Bucky (who'd been hiding elsewhere). Sam had also flown to the Bus, with its defenses and advanced shielding keeping War Machine away for the time being.

"Where are we?" asked Wanda, pressing her hand against her forehead. She'd been going in and out of headache ever since the fight in DC.

"Somewhere in the sky," was Steve's reply, caressing to her injuries. She'd suffered a bit at the hands of Black Widow, but nothing that was healable. "Coulson, where are we headed?"

"You're call, Captain," was his reply. "The ATCU have turned on me. Homeland Security is raiding all of my bases for the third time in two years. What's left of my group is scattered around the world."

Steve thought, then nodded. "Alright. Set course for Los Angeles."

"Why?" asked Daisy. "That's even larger than Washington. We'll stick out like a sore thumb-"

"Or hide in plain sight." Steve turned to Sam. "Can you get in contact with Scott Lang from here?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Maybe, but I can make no-"

"Try." He told Sam of the intended plan, who nodded. With that taken care of, Steve's attention turned back to Wanda. Better safe than sorry, Coulson and Daisy had placed her in a special room within the Bus, one that could withstand her telepathic outbursts. "You alright?"

"I try to, Steve." Wanda looked down, never changing her gaze. "Why Natasha? Why her?"

Steve didn't know. "I don't know why. She's like that, weaving her web as she sees fit."

"By harming me?" Wanda suddenly fixed her gaze on Steve, a tint of red in her eyes. Coulson, who'd been watching discreetly, nervously grabbed a gun from his pocket.

"She's never been that person who gets attached. She tried it with Bruce and we both know how that turned out. Don't worry about her, okay? Focus on me." Steve took Wanda's head into his chest, letting her sob as needed. He waved for Coulson to lower his guard.

With any luck, they'd get to LA and figure out a plan until Stark and the government could be sent away.

"Damn. Goddamnit."

Tony Stark was walking the stairs in the Congress building. It had been turned into a temporary shelter after the recent battle. Failing to get the Captain here and know meant the hydra known as the White House was beaming down on him. Ellis, Rusk, Ross, everyone. Witnesses and potential troublemakers had been sent to this building, where government forces hoped to squeze anything of importance out of them

"We've got one," said a brutish looking ATCU officer. "Matthew Murdock. A lawyer, though he's not what he says he is," The officer's face frowned. "He's said nothing. You wanna try?"

"You bet." Smiling a fake grin, Stark walked into the office where the New York lawyer was being held. He was tied up and two guards posted at the side. "Leave us."

As the guards left, Tony took up his own seat. "I'm not sure what you did was brave, stupid, risky, or all three."

Matt was silent.

"Look, I'll make this simple. Tell me everything you know about where Steve Rogers and Phil Coulson are, and we'll set you free. We may be in touch for… other activities, but that's it."

Still stone faced silence.

"If you refuse, I'm going to have to hand you over to the ATCU, and trust me, you don't want that to happen."

Matt looked with blank eyes at Tony. Or rather, sensed him. Then he spit out something, along with some blood. Tony picked it up and had Friday analyze it: a Morgan silver dollar.

"An old herloom?" asked Stark sardonically. "Guess it's mine now."

"Guess that's thirty pieces of silver you've got now, huh? Sleep tight, Judas."

And that was that. Murdock was taken out by his guards while Tony stared into the abyss. Is he right? Am I fighting Steve Rogers for the wrong reasons?

No, I'm not. If we don't have regulations and checks, we're no better than HYDRA or Loki.

"Tony?"

That was Natasha. The redhead had finished her attempts to trace the Bus, with no success. "It's the latest. They reverse engineered something of yours, and… you know the deal."

"Yeah, yeah," as he went with Romanoff to catch an update from the President and National Security Advisor, Tony found himself still thinking that Rogers could be reasoned with. He'd see the futility of being a stubborn outlaw.

Would he?

Eric gulped. "Six. They work in the main castle, the old dining hall. No one else allowed there."

"Do you know any of them?" asked Frank, who proceeded to keep pressure (not the good kind) on Eric's wound. Now he was confident he was getting the truth out of this turncoat.

"No. Not at all."

This was probably the truth. PMCs were a dime a dozen, ranging from back alley leg breakers to professions with decades of experience. Eric seemed like the latter, a Grant Ward type. He and any others of his kind hired didn't need to know details, just get things done.

"Does the name Hendrik Zemo mean anything to you?" asked Frank.

"I know he worked for SHIELD. And HYDRA, before that."

Frank questioned Eric for another ten minutes, getting any juicy details he could get his hands on. Then he darted him with a tranquilizer and let him rest. Frank began ransacking the checkpoint as silently as possible, taking the laptop and any important looking papers. He found the name Zemo on more than five papers.

Presumably Hendrik Zemo.

The man's link to HYDRA, as well as the Houston attacks, seemed pretty much irrefutable, but things didn't make sense. Why would a former SHIELD/HYDRA legate who'd retreated to his family castle two decades ago orchestrate one of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil in years? Certainty, he had the skills and knowhow to pull it off, but why? What was the motivation? And Russia. Why get her involved?

Too many goddamn questions. He updated his findings to Maria and hoped she could make some sense of it. Two minutes later he got a response from her: Keep going. We don't want the situation getting any worse than it already is.

-What do you mean? What's the latest?

-The USS. George Bush is off the coast of Alaska right now. She'll cross international waters any minute now

Maria appeared to have been interrupted while composing the message. Another minute, and he got another message:

-There's more. A small Russian prototype helicarrier attempted to get into the Bush's airspace. Helicarrier driven off. No known causalities on either side, but the UN is running around like a headless chicken.

Escalation, thought the Punisher.