22 – Avengers Tower – April 2, 2014
When Aspen opened her eyes she was in an unfamiliar bed, and her whole body ached. She pushed the pain aside and sharpened her focus. She was in a plain, modern decorated room with a view of New York City out her window. She tried to stand and found that she was feeling stronger than expected. She walked up to the window and caught sight of her reflection. Putting her fingers to her cheek, she felt the nearly faded scratch marks the Winter Soldier had left on her face. The bruises around her neck were all but gone too. Someone had healed her. Rather miraculously at that. She left the room and found herself in what seemed to be a medical bay. An Asian woman looked up as she entered and smiled.
"I see you're feeling much better," she said.
"Yes, thanks to you I take it?"
"I'm Helen Cho," the woman introduced, coming forward to shake Aspen's hand. "I work for Mr. Stark."
"Stark. Is this his tower?" Aspen asked. Suddenly it looked familiar though she hadn't spent much time in it before. "Are Lucy and Noah here too?"
"Yes. Your friends are fine. They're resting. Mr. Stark is on level twelve. He wanted to talk to you when you were awake."
"All right. Thank you for healing me," Aspen said. "I did take a beating."
"It looks like you all did."
Aspen found the elevator and pushed the button for the twelfth floor. She hoped Tony had more news on the ongoing battle, but she wasn't sure he would have even heard about it. The doors slid open and she found herself in a comfortable living room space that was open and airy. There was a bar against one wall and couches in the middle. The upper level was framed by a low glass wall with stairs leading up to it next to the bar. Tony was sitting on one of the couches scanning through a tablet.
"Ah, the superhero awakens," he said, looking up.
Aspen approached. She'd had very few positive interactions with Tony – very few interactions in general – but he had clearly taken them in when they needed help, so she was determined to get along. "Hey, Tony. Good to see you." She sat across from him.
"Coffee?" he asked.
"Yes, please." He got up and poured her a cup, setting it down on the coffee table between them. "Any news?" she asked.
"You mean from Steve."
"From anyone. Is there a SHIELD anymore? Has Hydra taken over the world?"
"From what I can gather, which, maddeningly, isn't much, nothing public has been announced. SHIELD is still very much alive. In fact, I haven't been able to find anything on Hydra. Whatever's happening is still very much covert."
"Did you hear about Fury?" Aspen asked. She felt frustrated that Hydra was still hiding. It was like a predator that struck and retreated over and over until its prey was unable to stand.
"Yeah, good man. I was sorry to hear that. Surprised."
"Me too. I didn't think it was possible to kill him. They're saying he was assassinated, but the World Council is acting like everything is just fine otherwise."
"We don't know how far the corruption goes. Could be someone on the Council involved? They all could be for all we know. I haven't heard anything from Steve. I tried his phone, but it went straight to message." Aspen tried not to worry. She pulled out her own phone. It had died, but Tony had a charger she could use. She plugged it in and her phone came to life.
"I have a message," Aspen said. She opened it, heart pounding. "It's from Steve. 'Stay in New York. SHIELD tried to kill me, and it's not safe in DC right now. I'm with Nat on the run. She says I have to ditch my phone so they can't track me. I'm taking off my bracelet too, and you should destroy your necklace just in case. I will find you. Stay safe.'" It ended 'I love you', but she didn't read that part aloud. She fingered her necklace and then she took it off. "I need to destroy this," she said. Tony wordlessly took the necklace and placed it on the floor crushing it under the heel of his shoe. He picked up the remains and set them on the table.
"Tracking device?" he asked.
"Yeah. For Steve and me, but I suppose SHIELD can track us too."
"I take it Rogers doesn't know who was behind the attack or he would have said."
"I don't think any of us know specifically," Aspen replied. "Hydra burrowed so deep that I'm not even sure SHIELD ever really existed."
"It did. People like you and like Fury made it exist. Now it's just tarnished, but it still existed."
"What do we do now?" Aspen asked.
"I have no power on the Council, and without Fury…" Tony shrugged.
"We can't do much," Aspen finished his thought. "I've got to get into the New York headquarters and see if I can do anything. I can't just sit here. I know Steve and Nat can handle themselves in DC, but this war is going to be everywhere. Anywhere there's a SHIELD base."
"You gonna take on Hydra single-handedly?"
"No. I need backup." She pulled up a number on her phone and sent a text message to the one person she knew she could trust who wasn't already involved. 'SHIELD compromised, Fury dead, Hydra is quietly taking over. Need backup. Meet me at Stark Tower. Bring Barney.' She sent the text off to Clint and waited anxiously for the reply. It came a few minutes later, and Aspen grabbed her phone.
'Be there in two hours. Sit tight.'
"We've got Barton," Aspen said. Already the situation felt easier knowing Clint would be there. She hadn't seen him since Christmas, but it had sounded like he was going to take some time off. Natasha had always given her vague replies when she'd asked though, and Clint's texts were few and far in between. He always had her back though, and she never doubted he'd be at her side as soon as possible to help.
Her thoughts strayed to Steve and then to the Winter Soldier. She had no way of contacting Steve now that he'd ditched his phone, no way of warning him that Hydra's Asset, the man who had assassinated Fury, was none other than his friend Bucky. Aspen remembered Steve mentioning that Bucky had been experimented on during the war when his unit had been captured by Hydra. Arnim Zola had done something to him that had helped him survive his fall from the train and the cold. He didn't look a day older than the pictures she'd seen of him from the 1940s, just worn and haunted. Like Steve he had somehow been preserved. And then twisted into something he would hate. She had seen the real him, or at least the tip of the iceberg, in Canada. The James who had saved her was the man Steve had one known. Was there any chance of getting him back though? She'd done it once before, but Hydra had taken that away from him again, and they would continue to as long as they existed. They needed to take Hydra down and make sure it stayed down this time. Aspen wasn't sure if that was possible. She had no idea how many followers were out there hiding all over the world. Leaders like Strucker and Zemo were still out there too.
"Did Lucy mention anything about a stone?" she asked suddenly.
"No. But you can ask her yourself."
Aspen turned to see Lucy and Noah entering the room looking tired, but better rested than the night before. Noah was still sporting some bruises, but he wasn't so pale. "Aspen, you're up!" Lucy came over and hugged her. "I was so afraid we were going to lose you."
"I'm still here." Aspen hugged her back. Noah stood by the doorway until Tony waved him in, getting two more cups of coffee for the agents.
"I'm so sorry," Lucy said after a moment. "I lost the stone. I went to someone I thought I could trust, and she turned out to be Hydra. They took the stone away. I should have done more…"
Aspen shook her head. "You did enough," she told the girl. "What you and Noah did was heroic. And you saved my life. I might have died if you hadn't come back for me. I doubt a Hydra agent would have hesitated before finishing the job."
"But you said the stone held an enemy in it." Lucy still looked upset. Aspen was disappointed the stone had gotten away, but Lucy and Noah were still alive, and right now that was what mattered most to her.
"Then we'll take him down again," she assured Lucy. "Right now we have more immediate things to worry about."
"Hydra."
"I've called in a few friends of mine. You two can stay here or come with me, but I wouldn't think any less of you if you stayed."
"We're coming," Lucy said before Aspen hardly got the words out. Noah nodded.
"All right. Good. I've got a team then." Aspen smiled.
"Before you go storming Hydra, you might need breakfast," Tony suggested.
"That would probably be a good idea," Aspen said, realizing how hungry she was.
"Jarvis, see if you can rustle up some breakfast," Tony said, speaking to his AI.
"Right away, sir," came the response.
"Then after breakfast we can discuss this new idea I have. One that involves the Avengers."
…
"So you leave DC after you clean up this mess and move here," Tony finished as Aspen, Lucy, and Noah swallowed the last of their breakfast and Tony's assistant cleared the dishes away.
"You want Steve and me to move into Stark Tower?" Aspen asked.
"Avengers Tower. It's here for the whole gang now."
"So we can actually be a team for once?" Aspen wasn't sure Steve and Tony living in the same building was the best idea, but she had to admit, she liked the idea of teaming up again.
"Seems like we might be needed again. Banner has been living here for awhile now. Since New York actually. I couldn't convince Barton, but Romanoff might consider. At least when she's not off doing spy stuff."
"And Thor?"
"Currently living with his girlfriend Jane, but I think I might be able to convince him to swing by with some Asgardian mead from time to time. Just think about it. You don't have to give your answer right now."
"If SHIELD does fall, then we'll need somewhere to go," Aspen said. "The Avengers will have to be backup if SHIELD can't come out on top."
"Exactly. The world needs us even if it doesn't know it yet."
"Oh it knows it. Have you seen the Avengers merchandise in the stores? Your face is plastered in every toy section in every store. Iron Man action figures are all the rage these days."
"Yeah, I can see why. The suit is pretty awesome." Tony gave her a smirk which Aspen returned. "By the way, what ever happened between you and Reindeer Games? Never heard back on that."
"Who?"
"Loki," Tony clarified.
"How did you know about that?" Aspen asked suspiciously.
"Saw it on the news. You were a little obvious." He sat back, waiting for her answer. Tony might keep up the humor and the light tone, but Aspen could see a shrewdness to his eyes. He certainly didn't like or trust Loki, and she couldn't say she blamed him.
"Long story short, I needed someone to help me learn to control these new powers I was so wonderfully injected with. I somehow managed to connect to Loki through my dreams – don't ask how. He actually did help me."
"From his cell in Asgard?"
"Er, no. He'd broken out of that. To help Thor!" she added at the look of alarm on Tony's face. "Thor is the one who broke him out. They were having a little trouble with Dark Elves in Asgard. You remember the attack in Greenwich."
"How do you know Loki didn't cause all that? Seems like his style."
"Not this time. He…had other ambitions." She didn't mention that he'd tricked Odin and was currently sitting comfortably on the Asgardian throne. She supposed she should tell Thor, but another part of her wanted to give Loki the chance to be king. She truly believed he could be a good king, but the worst of Loki tended to come out when his brother was around – not that it was any fault of Thor's.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means he's going to stay in Asgard. He's given up his dreams of ruling Midgard – Earth, that is."
Tony snorted but didn't pursue the subject. Lucy and Noah were watching their conversation with rapt interest. Lucy seemed a little star-struck.
"Well, you've certainly been busy," Aspen commented. "Where's Pepper?"
"Taking a long-deserved vacation back at the old homestead," Tony said. "We had a bit of an incident with our Malibu house awhile back."
"I saw that on the news. Looks like you came out all right. Can't say the same for your house."
"We're working on rebuilding that," Tony said off-handedly.
"Seems like we've all been fighting our own battles," Aspen said.
"I got the light taken out of my chest," Tony pointed out.
"Won't you…"
"Die? No. I had the shrapnel removed. I'm just a mortal man now." It was Aspen's turn to snort.
"So does that mean you're not Iron Man anymore?"
Tony lifted an eyebrow. "I'll have you know that my life support wasn't the only thing that made me Iron Man."
"I guess if your suit is still iron and you are still a man and there's still justice to be had, Iron Man will be there to save the day."
"I'll be sure to make that my new slogan."
…
Clint and Barney arrived after two-thirty – Aspen had slept in until noon, so they were getting a late start. When Clint walked into the room he made for Aspen without a word and hugged her tightly.
"Ouch."
"Sorry." He let go at once. "How are you? You look like you got in a fight with a tiger." He brushed a finger across the scratches on her cheek.
"Something like that. It's so good to see you." She turned to greet Clint's brother while Clint and Tony said an awkward hello.
"This is Lucy and Noah," Aspen introduced. "Lucy is Maria Hill's niece. This is Clint Barton and his brother Barney."
"Pleased to meet you." Clint shook both their hands. "So what have we got here?" Straight to business. They didn't mention Fury, but Aspen knew that Clint would be torn up over it. Fury had been the one to recruit him and give him a second chance.
"We don't really know. That's the problem." She laid out everything they did know so that Clint, Barney, and Tony were caught up on the events of the last few days. Aspen told Tony about her time in Canada and Doctor Rinehart. Lucy and Noah quietly interjected parts of their story where needed.
"We should have seen this coming," Clint said finally when everyone had finished recounting.
"We did, sort of. We just didn't know who or when or even if Hydra would show itself." Aspen sat back, suddenly feeling exhausted again. "It's like history is repeating itself. But Hydra hasn't reared its head yet. It's still hushed up."
"From what I heard from my contacts, Steve has been determined an enemy of SHIELD for withholding information on Fury's death," Clint said.
"If he did withhold information it was for a good reason," Aspen said.
"He and Nat will get things under control in DC. I can't think of two people I'd trust more for the job save maybe Fury…" He trailed off.
"So now the question is, do we wait for Hydra to show its hand or do we go in now and try to inform as many people as possible?" Aspen asked.
"That'd be too risky going in like that. Like you said, we don't know who. They've clearly done a good job of blending in all these years. We go in there ranting about Hydra, and we're going to get ourselves killed."
"So who do we trust?"
"No one. We can't possibly know until people are forced to pick a side."
"So we wait until the battle starts," Aspen said. She didn't like that idea, but she wasn't seeing another option. Even if they tried to warn someone, they still had no idea who to trust.
"I don't see what more we could do," Clint told her.
"I hate waiting," Aspen said.
"Me too, Pen. Hey, I want to get in there and kick Hydra's tentacled butt out of SHIELD as much as you, but we need to play this smart. Right now all we can count on is the three of us."
"Five," Noah interjected. Clint gave him a stern look but nodded after a moment.
"The five of us."
"I'll do what I can," Tony told them.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask," Clint said, "what's with the giant A on the side of the tower? Is it 'Anthony Tower' now?"
"Guess again."
Clint's eyes widened. "Avengers Tower?"
"Bingo."
"He wants to restart the Avengers, regroup us after this is over."
"You mean if SHIELD falls," Clint filled in.
"We could do a lot of good as a team," Aspen said. "Once we got it together, we did pretty well in New York, you have to admit."
"Yeah, it was nice having a team like that," Clint said. "But first things first."
…
Steve had been through so much the last few days and now, standing before the Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian gazing at his first Captain America uniform, he felt overwhelmed. Bucky was alive. He'd survived the fall and then been taken by Hydra to become the very thing he hated, the very thing he'd fought against. Hatred for Hydra burned deep inside of him. He remembered after he'd thought Bucky was dead, the rage he'd felt. It was no longer a matter of keeping Hydra at bay; it was a matter of making sure it was dead and buried. And now again he wanted to make Hydra pay for all they had done to Bucky. He knew he would have to face Bucky again before this was all over – the Winter Soldier. The assassin who had been forced to forget Steve, to forget himself. It seemed like Steve was losing everyone – Peggy and Bucky had both forgotten Steve because of forces no one could control. He had no idea where Aspen was or if she was even safe.
He knew he needed a clear mind for the battle that was to come, but as he fingered the fabric of the uniform, he felt a wave of nostalgia that threatened to send him to his knees. He was suddenly back on the Valkyrie flying over the arctic water below. He knew this was different, but not different enough. This time Hydra needed to go down with the ship.
Pulling the suit from the mannequin, he bundled it under his arm and took off toward the back entrance Natasha had broken into for him. She'd hacked the system to allow him ten minutes before it came back on. "Did you leave a note saying you'd dry clean and return it by tomorrow?" Natasha asked with a half-smirk.
"Shut up," he said gruffly, but she just grinned.
"Hey, you gonna be okay?" she asked, keeping in stride with him though he didn't slow down.
"I have a mission. I'll fight until Hydra is gone."
"That's not what I meant. Steve." She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop with a surprising amount of strength. He turned to face her. "Will you be able to stop him if he gets in the way of the mission?"
"I'll do what needs to be done," Steve told her. "But I won't kill him."
"Can you get through to him?" she asked.
"I don't know." He looked down at the suit he'd stolen. "I thought maybe this would help him remember."
"Hundreds of thousands of people will die if we don't do this right, Steve."
"I know that. I won't risk the mission." But he also couldn't kill Bucky. "I'll get him back."
Natasha watched him for a long moment, green eyes shining in the dark. "I trust you," she finally said. "I trust you to make the right choice."
He wasn't sure he trusted himself.