Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters that may be used or any Marvel storylines or arcs.
Claimer: I only own the character Elizabeth Jones (Lowri Jones and any other names she uses) and her story past, present and future.
Recap
"Just stay beside me and don't say anything. We're likely to get recognised." Maria said quietly, they slipped into the same car and strapped themselves down with three other armed guards.
The cars sped through the city quickly, sirens began roaring and whispers were passed between agents through the front and back. Whispers about what was after Steve.
Apparently, the asset had started attacking Steve and some of his accomplices in the city and that part of the city was now destroyed. Cars were upturned, some were destroyed but the city was in chaos.
The cars jerked to a halt and agents began filing out with their guns ready. Maria and Lowri followed suit, guns in hand.
Lowri took the scene in around her, cars nearby had smoke rising from them, the whole place looked a wreck but luckily there seemed to be minimum civilian collateral damage. She followed the large group of Hydra agents that had swarmed the place and she lowered her gun slightly as she approached with Maria at her side.
Lowri winced as she lowered her gun, earning herself a curious head tilt from Maria.
"I'm fine." Lowri breathed out quietly.
Her eyes scanned the road ahead of them and straight away she spied Steve on his knees with his hands raised above his head and he looked pale. There was something about him that worried her, it might have been the horrified expression on his face or it might have been the barrel of the rifle pressed to the back of his neck but things clicked into place once she heard Rumlow's words.
"Not here!" Rumlow ordered.
Their plan was to kill him, but not here. Not in the public's eye. Of course, Steve is a threat to Hydra so they would want to wipe him off their plate. Maria's plan better included saving Steve. Lowri sighed quietly when she saw Rumlow put Steve in handcuffs. She then spotted Nat looking a little worse for wear and there was a man wearing the Falcon wings and he was made to take off the wings and his eye gear, revealing himself to be Sam Wilson.
The agents holding them captive moved them into a car together and it was either by complete luck or Maria's will that it was only Lowri and Maria in the car with the three 'prisoners'.
Maria had given Lowri a warning just before they had gotten into the back of the car, 'Don't say anything to them until we're sure we won't be heard. I'll let you know when. We have a time window to get out of the car and into one of our own.'
Lowri found herself sitting upright in an uncomfortable position but she forced herself to behave as though the love of her life wasn't sitting right in front of her with a forlorn look and almost in tears over something she can't help.
Steve was held down by thick, solid metal cuffs that locked his hands together so he couldn't move them at all, his legs were clamped to his seat by similar handcuffs and Rumlow had the only keys. Steve was looking down at the cuffs holding his arms down, tears welling in his eyes.
Lowri tore her eyes from Steve and looked over at Sam and Nat, Sam sat closest to Maria and he had normal handcuffs on, sitting still and his eyes on the floor. The Falcon suit sat a few feet away on a storage shelf along with Steve's shield and the eye gear. Nat on the other hand, she was squirming uncomfortably on her seat and Lowri noticed the blood coming from her shoulder.
"It was him." Steve began, he sounded defeated and his voice was strained. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me." Lowri knotted her eyebrows together, trying to think of who he was talking about. She itched to ask.
"How is that even possible? It was like, 70 years ago." Sam protested, he looked up at Steve for confirmation.
"Have you met Lowri and I?" Steve asked slowly. "Zola." Steve said, he looked up at Sam and Nat. "Bucky's unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him, I'm sure. Whatever he did to Bucky helped him survive the fall. They must have found him and…" Steve answered, he dropped his eyes back down to his captured hands.
Bucky.
Lowri held in her gasp at the sound of Steve's best friend's name. He died in 1945 on the last solo mission the Howling Commandos ran.
"None of that is your fault, Steve." Nat replied, she shifted her shoulder and groaned.
"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky." Steve said quietly.
Lowri turned her head to Maria, questioning her and Maria nodded her head. Straight away, Lowri lifted her hands to her huge and bulky helmet and she tugged it off.
"Oh, that's such a relief." Lowri breathed out as she tossed her helmet down in front of her.
All three heads whipped to her and gaped in shock.
"What? Have I grown another head?" Lowri asked, looking between the three of them.
"Where have you been?" Steve asked straight away as Maria took off her own helmet and it dropped to the floor too. She pulled out a small pin and began working on Sam's handcuffs after passing Lowri a laser cutter.
"Who's this guy?" Maria asked.
Lowri began cutting her way through the cuffs on Steve's arms, she was ignoring his shocked look.
"I've been in the Triskelion, but we don't need to go into details just yet." Lowri replied, she successfully managed to free his hands and she moved onto his legs next. "Seems like you guys have been busy, though." Lowri freed his legs and Maria had freed both Nat and Sam as the car they were in rolled to a stop.
"Alright," Maria began, she looked round the car at Sam, Nat, Steve and Lowri. "There's a van waiting around the corner from here." Maria got to her feet and took the laser from Lowri, she began cutting a hole in the floor of the car. "So, we'd best be ready to rock and roll before this guy pulls off. My friend working behind the scenes at trafficking is gonna keep this light red for about three minutes." Maria said, she got back up and booted the hole in, revealing the tarmac beneath. "Let's get rolling." She said before grabbing her bag and dropped down with it.
Nat dropped down next, rolling onto her bad shoulder and she groaned.
Sam went next with the Falcon suit and the eye gear.
Steve looked at Lowri before getting to his feet but he hesitated.
"Go, Steve." Lowri said gently, Steve shook his head at her and looked as though he wanted to protest. "I'll be right behind you."
Steve grabbed his shield, pressed his lips together and dropped down to the tarmac and rolled out of sight.
Lowri followed him straight away, she tucked and rolled out of the bottom of the car, she hit the hard tarmac and rolled away from the car, she spied Steve making a run for it and she followed him as quick as she could.
The van they were heading for was all black and the side door was open, it was similar to the car they had just left but this one was much larger.
The van roared into action as soon as Lowri threw herself through the open door behind Steve, he turned and caught her as she jumped in and Sam slammed the door shut behind her.
Steve landed on his back with Lowri on top of him and she smirked down at him, pleased to see that he was unhurt and that he had gotten away from Camp Lehigh safely. Lowri wrapped her arms around him happily and he gingerly wrapped his around her.
"Lowri." He whispered into her shoulder, she closed her eyes and pressed closer to him slightly.
"I promised that I'd come back to you." Lowri whispered back, she hoped for no one to hear her except for him but Nat heard her and she called out the word 'cheesy.' Lowri rolled her eyes and she smiled down at Steve. "You're not a zero sum to me." She said in a quieter voice.
Steve squeezed her as he sat them both up, Lowri removed her arms from him and turned to Nat who was sat against the van wall, shaking.
Lowri got down on her knees beside Nat and looked into her eyes.
"How're you feeling?" Lowri asked, she reached for the other side of Nat's shoulder and then shuffled around to Nat's other side.
"Like crap." Nat said, "You don't look too good either. Steve said he had to leave you behind. What happened?"
Lowri pulled Nat forward slightly so she could probe the back of Nat's shoulder.
"Same old, same old." Lowri replied.
"What do you mean?" Steve asked.
Lowri shrugged her shoulders and pushed Nat back. "You've got a GSW, keep pressure on the entry point, that's smaller." She turned from Nat, "Hey Maria, have you got a bit of cloth or something?"
Nat groaned and tensed up.
Lowri quickly turned back to Nat and gripped both of her shoulders to stabilise her.
"Yeah, here!" Maria called from the front seat. Something was passed back and then a thick white cloth was draped over her shoulder.
"Here." Steve said gently, Lowri grabbed it and wadded it up, she tucked down the back of Nat's shoulder and pressed it against the exit wound.
"Lean back." Lowri ordered, she helped Nat lean back against the wall of the van with the cloth padding the wound. "Try not to move."
"You still haven't told us what you've been doing for the past two days." Steve said slowly.
Lowri stayed on her knees beside Nat and she looked down at the floor.
"The S. T. R. I. K. E. team took me in, they're Hydra. They took me to the Triskelion and I was put in a cell and locked inside. They left me alone for a few hours and then Alexander Pierce made an appearance." Lowri said, she looked up as she spoke and she looked at Nat.
"We spoke for a few minutes, snide comments really. He's not happy that I took down some really good agents and he revealed that the Winter Soldier was working with Hydra. But I guess you've found this out without me, eh?" Lowri asked, she turned and looked up at Steve.
"I've been stripped of my status in S. H. I. E. L. D. and I have no more powers to make executive decisions, but when I offered to give myself up, he refused. In Alexander Pierce's words, I'm 'a dangerous woman.' And I can't be trusted because I've been lying through my teeth my entire life." Lowri said.
Nat scoffed loudly and Lowri looked back at her.
"So, Pierce is Hydra then?" Nat asked.
Lowri nodded her head. "Yeah." She said slowly. "He might even be one of the Heads."
There was a silence that settled in the air, she had left off the bit where she had been tortured for good reason. She had no idea what Steve would do if she told him. But she left her sentence hanging, Steve clicked on straight away.
"What else is there?" Steve asked, he sat just behind her she could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head. Lowri looked up and locked eyes with Nat. "There's more."
Lowri nodded her head slowly. "I was taken down the hall from my cell and I was brought into a room with –" Lowri wanted to think of a great excuse but nothing came to mind. "With torture equipment." Nat's eyes widened. "And I was right in guessing that they planned to use them on me." Lowri took a deep breath in, "But I'm used it. Torture didn't affect me in the way they wanted so after a few hours they injected me with what I can only assume to be a local anaesthetic and continued because I'm aching all over."
"They tortured you?" Steve asked sharply.
"Yeah, the usual, crushed toes, fingernails ripped off, screws drilled into the body, teeth ripped out." Lowri said casually, she shrugged her shoulders but she heard Steve breathe in sharply. "After the anaesthetic, I can't remember much. I heard two names and then I woke up back in my cell just before Maria got me out."
"What were the names?" Nat asked slowly.
"Doctor List and Baron von Strucker." Lowri replied. She sat back on the floor of the van with her eyes to the floor.
"And you don't know what's happened to you while you were under?" Sam asked gently.
Lowri shook her head, "Not a clue. But I've got a dressing on my chest, right by here," She said, gesturing. "And it hurts pretty much constantly."
"Are you alright now?" Steve asked slowly.
Lowri nodded her head, "Aside from the pain in my chest, everything that happened when I was being tortured has either grown back or healed itself. I feel fine." Lowri said, she turned and looked at Steve and found him looking at her with concern and worry deep in his eyes.
The van came to a stop and Maria jumped out straight away. She opened the door and Lowri turned to help Nat to her feet but Sam had already beaten her to it. Sam jumped down and helped Nat down, then quickly hurried her after Maria.
Steve jumped down before Lowri and turned to help Lowri, she let him because he was probably feeling bad for leaving her in Hydra's clutches. His hands lingered on her waist for a second longer and their eyes connected.
"Come on, we'd better get inside." Steve said quietly. He led the way after Maria and Lowri took a quick look of their surroundings. They were at an abandoned dam headquarters, tunnels and all.
They slipped into a tunnel guarded by a gate and as soon as Steve closed the gate behind them, a man rounded a corner and began heading towards them.
Sam had his arm around Nat, supporting her fully with Maria just beside them, Maria looked up as soon as she spotted the man.
"GSW. She's lost a lot of blood." Maria called, the man walking towards them began running quicker. "She's lost at least a pint."
"Maybe two." Sam added knowingly.
"Let me take her." The man called as he neared but Maria shook her head quickly.
"No. She'll want to see him first." Maria insisted. Steve looked at Lowri and Lowri looked at Steve in the same second, both had the same confused look on their face. Who's him?
Lowri looked from Steve to Sam and Nat. How did they get involved in the fight between Steve and the Winter Soldier?
They rounded a corner and Maria stepped forward to push aside an almost transparent plastic sheet to reveal the him she had been talking about.
Nick Fury, the same man who died three days ago. He looked very much alive.
Lowri's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened considerably, what the hell?
"About damn time." Nick said as soon as he saw Lowri and Steve standing in front of him. The doctor stepped forward and took Nat off Sam, he helped her sit down on an upturned crate and he stripped off her jacket to get a better look at her shoulder.
"What the hell happened to you?" Lowri asked, she stepped closer to the bed and placed her hands on the white frame, staring at Nick.
"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache." Nick answered.
"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor reminded Nick.
"Let's not forget about that." Nick groaned as he shifted in his bed. Nat winced as the doctor pressed two dressing pads on either side of her shoulder in an attempt to staunch the blood loss.
"They cut you open, your heart stopped." Nat said slowly.
"Tetrodoxin B. It slows the pulse to one beat per minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Nick explained.
"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asked sharply, he stepped up beside Lowri and stared at Nick. "Why not just tell us?"
"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful." Maria answered.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure on who to trust." Nick added.
Lowri shot her head up and narrowed her eyes at him. "That stings, Nick."
"Oh yeah? Try having someone open your chest up. Then you'll know what stings." Nick replied.
Lowri took a small step back and Steve's eyes went to her.
"1837, London. Remember reading that bit do ya?" Lowri asked, her tone was sharp and Nick's eye widened. She turned from him and pushed past the transparent plastic sheet, Nick's words had hurt her. He knew what she has been through and his careless words stung deeply.
Lowri turned right and stepped out into the large corridor that led to the gate but instead of heading for the gate, a sudden wave of dizziness came across her and she stumbled into the wall, breathing heavily. She pressed one hand against the cool wall and the other went to her chest, right where the dressing was. A dull throbbing pain began getting stronger and stronger in her chest.
Her palms began getting sweaty and she felt clammy, as if a fever was coming over her but that's highly unlikely, she hasn't had a fever since she was eighteen.
Lowri closed her eyes and leant back against the rough wall. All Lowri wanted was to sleep all of this off, to get some proper rest.
The throbbing pain got sharper and she let out a small yelp, she pulled up her shirt and began peeling off a corner of the bandage, it was thick and the medical tape was strong but Lowri managed to peel back enough to get a glimpse of two swollen lumps on her chest, as if she had been bitten by a mosquito.
She pressed the medical tape back in place and pushed off from the wall, she was going to start panicking if she didn't do something.
Lowri stepped back into the room, considerably calmer and the bed in front of her was empty.
"We need to figure out what we're gonna do." Steve's voice carried out and Lowri crossed the room and spotted them all in another room, Nick and Nat sat around the table and Maria, Steve and Sam were standing around the table. As Steve spoke, Maria slid into a chair next to Nick.
Lowri stepped into the room but she was still feeling slightly feverish. She wasn't going to say anything because it was probably nothing. She slid into the seat beside Nat and she shared a look with her.
Steve paced behind her and Sam was standing opposite Lowri with his arms crossed over his chest.
Nick looked up at Steve with a serious look on his face and he brought out a photo of Alexander Pierce. Lowri flinched when she saw the image at first and she gained a curious look from Nick and Steve leant heavily on the back of her chair, subtly letting her know that he was there for her.
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it's stuff like that gives me trust issues." Nick said, he threw the photograph down and he looked at Lowri. "What happened?"
Lowri dropped her eyes to the table and leant forward on her elbows.
"Alexander Pierce is ready to use any sort of questioning techniques to get what he wants." Lowri said carefully, she looked up at Nick and he sat back in his seat.
There was a silence that hung in the air and Lowri leant back and crossed her arms over her chest, wincing as the throbbing pains in her chest got sharper.
"We have to stop that launch." Nat said, breaking the silence. Her shoulder had been patched up with white dressings, steadily growing red.
Maria was busy setting up laptops in front of her and there was a silver briefcase just beside her legs.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Nick said slowly, he raised an eyebrow as Maria passed the silver briefcase over to Nick. He slid the case onto the table and opened it up to reveal three green and black computer chips.
"What's that?" Sam asked. He held up a defensive stance, but he glanced at Steve. It was clear that Sam was here to follow Steve's orders, to follow him like a soldier following their leader.
"Hydra plans to use the helicarriers to their advantage. Remember that 1000 hostiles wiped out? Try a couple million." Nick said, looking around at everyone.
"Once the helicarriers reach 3000 feet, they will triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponised almost instantly." Maria began, she spun one of the laptops around to how a plan of the three helicarriers and their route into the air, then the final plan.
"We need to breach these helicarriers," Nick said, the screen zoomed in on one of the helicarriers and showed the underbelly, there's a small room underneath which acted as a control room. "And replace their targeting blades with our own."
"One or two won't cut it." Maria said seriously, "We need to link all three carriers for this to work. Because if even if one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die." Maria said, she looked over at Lowri first, then Steve and then Sam. "That's why each of you is gonna have a chip. Each of you target a carrier each. Three is better than two."
"We need to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra. We have to get past them, insert the server blades. And maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left-" Nick said but Lowri cut him off.
"No." Lowri said straight away. Nick's eye flew to her with a sharp look in them.
"No?" Nick asked slowly, he leant heavily on the table and stared at her.
"We're not salvaging anything." Steve said firmly, he leant heavily on the back of Lowri's chair and she felt slightly proud that he had her back. "We're not just taking down the carriers and Hydra, Nick. We're taking down S. H. I. E. L. D."
"S. H. I. E. L. D. had nothing to do with all this." Nick said in a low, and dangerous, tone.
"S. H. I. E. L. D. has had everything to do with this." Lowri replied in an equally low, and dangerous, tone. She kept her eyes locked on Nick as she spoke. "We – I gave the approval for Operational Paperclip to go ahead in the early days, that's what brought Arnim Zola into S. H. I. E. L. D." She dropped her eyes to the table, "Because of a stupid mistake I made years ago, Hydra grew in S. H. I. E. L. D. without any of us noticing."
"That can't have been helped-" Nick started but Lowri cut him off again.
"You don't see it, but I do. Hydra is S. H. I. E. L. D. and S. H. I. E. L. D. is Hydra. All of our operations and protocols are Hydra. How can we distinguish between the two of them if both have been up and running for the same time?" Lowri asked, but no one answered her question. "I helped create S. H. I. E. L. D. and I say the end is now. My word stands."
The authority rang through the room silenced them all.
"This is how the mission ends, Nick. S. H. I. E. L. D.'s been compromised. You said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed." Steve added calmly.
Lowri felt the guilt rush over her and she closed her eyes. How would the others react? Chester, Peggy and Howard? How would they react to knowing that Hydra is still alive?
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Nick asked, gesturing to their current surroundings. "I noticed."
"And how many people paid the price before you did?" Steve asked harshly.
"Look," Nick said firmly, he glanced away from Steve as he thought of the right words, he looked back at Steve and pressed his lips together. "I didn't know about Barnes."
"Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalised that too?" Steve asked, he was pissed off, borderline dangerous. "S. H. I. E. L. D., Hydra, it all goes."
"He's right." Maria said quietly, she refused to meet Nick's eye.
Nick turned from Maria and looked at Nat for her answer but Nat refused to meet his eye too and she didn't even move or say anything.
So, Nick looked up at Sam for his answer.
"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower." Sam said, gesturing to Steve, still standing behind Lowri with a firm look in his eyes.
Then Nick looked at Lowri and his gaze softened.
"You know my position on this, Nick. S. H. I. E. L. D. goes." Lowri said, she leant back and crossed her arms over her chest but the sharp throbbing pain multiplied three times and she fought to keep her body still.
"Well…" Nick began, he looked up at Steve. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."
Steve didn't crack a smile, instead, he stepped around Lowri and placed both hands on the table and leant heavily.
"Hill, what do these targeting blades do?" Steve asked, nodding to the open case in front of them.
"When the three helicarriers triangulate, and if these targeting blades are in place, then millions of people won't die. Their weapons will lock onto each other instead." Maria answered calmly.
Steve nodded his head, "The three of us will target a helicarrier each. Sam's got his Falcon suit and Lowri's got her fire. If anything goes wrong, you two can mix it up. We're gonna need someone on the inside."
"We've already got that covered." Maria said, she reached into the rough bag at her feet and pulled out a small device. "This is a photo-veil, Nat, you're gonna wear this and impersonate one of the council women from the World Security Council. They're gonna be there for the launch. You're gonna need to gain control of the room and hack into the mainframe and servers, release every bit of S. H. I. E. L. D. data to the world, including Hydra's."
As Maria spoke, the pain in Lowri's chest multiplied and multiplied and the fever gained control over her. Lowri pressed her hand to the dressing on her chest as the pain increased considerably.
Lowri cussed loudly and her entire body went light, as if all gravity was gone from her. She felt extremely lightheaded and her hand fell from her chest as her body slumped to the side as Lowri fell unconscious.
Ooh, what do you think happened?
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