Down the Rabbit Hole.
1988-
"Fury, Nicholas J." Nick told the guard outside of the building.
"Junior." He heard coming from behind the doors and nick groaned wanting to hide himself.
Sure he knew the man would be here but really he was 29 it was past time his father's friends stop calling him Junior especially in a work environment. SHIELD's headquarter was still under construction but they had decided that it was the best place to discuss a super-secret project they wanted to pull together.
"Mr. Stark." Nick greeted the man, following him down the hall to a staircase getting down 3 more floors.
"Your father said you wouldn't say yes without meeting the other involved parties." Howard informed him.
"I read the file but I have to admit, the all program makes me uncomfortable." Nick told him.
"I understand that's why we brought you here." Howard assured him opening the door to a conference room.
Inside Nick recognized some of the people, Assistant director Carter, Dr Pym, Dr McCoy, Professor Xavier, and he was soon introduced to the other officials, Defense Secretary Philips, Lieutenants Striker and Ross, Congressman Pierce, and four people he had never heard or read about and who were not introduced as something other than the World Council, so he didn't ask.
"We all have demanding jobs so let's expedite this meeting shall we?" Dr Pym asked.
"You all know we have been commissioned to do research on the bonds but it's going nowhere, we are missing too many parameters, we need to see how the human biology react to what created the bonds on a cellular basis from the conception to the moment someone meets their bond, see what changes what doesn't how the body reacts." Howard explained.
"But testing kids?" Nick asked.
"Not testing per say, from the day of the conception to the day they'll die, we will meet with them at regular interval talk to them, get some blood, some measurement, nothing invasive, nothing forced and they will live perfect normal life any other time." Peggy explained.
"So you based your protocol on the European environment experiment?" Nick asked, it had been in the news all week, European Authorities had agreed for scientist to test 25 kids as they were growing up on different parts of the continent as to learn how different environment could influence the children medical history, their education.
"In some ways yes, the most important ones are the same the only difference is that needing the testing to begin from the conception all the babies will be conceived by invitro fertilization." Howard informed them.
"You said they would live with their parents." Striker inquired.
"The panel will be genetically approved." Congressman Pierce told him.
"Which means that some volunteers will be couples other will not, from both sex, we will pair them up to get the pool of candidates we need." Howard told him.
"I don't…" Nick stopped. "The bonds aren't hurting anyone, why going to such extremes?" He asked.
"It's not extreme, even pretty soft compared to some testing scientists already tried on youngster when the bonds first appeared. We don't know what happened, it could get worse, kill all of us, put an end to the human race, if we could find the precise moment where the change happens we could prevent it." Pym explained.
"What about unmarked babies? Some are bound not to develop marks." Ross asked.
"We also need them to know what is different in their genes, but after their birth they won't be part of the testing pool anymore." Howard explained.
"What if they come from one of the none-coupled paring?" Nick asked.
"The mothers could either keep them or asked for them to be adopted it's their choice." Pym explained. "Some of the volunteers had already signed papers saying they would give up any rights to the baby so we would give the babies to couples waiting for adoption."
"Are you agreeing with this?" Striker asked Xavier.
"The bonds affect the mutants in the same way and we are geneticists." McCoy told him.
1991-
It took a while for the scientific team to find the perfect pool for their experiment, it's been a year already and Nick had never spent this much time with babies in his life. He was glad when he was send to Pendleton to get two of their recruits to the Factory, as the guards had started to call the hospital where every babies were born before going back to their original states.
He met Phil Coulson there, the man seemed to have a higher sense of devotion and ethic. He wanted to tell him all about the Program, get him to agree with his instinct on the project or disagree with it, he wanted someone he could truly trust to tell him that what they were doing was wrong. The original program had seemed perfect but now each person involved wanted to add their own agenda to it. Striker wanted to transfer the Mutant kids to a special facility, Ross managed to get authorization for the Army to adopt the un-marked babies, for now only the ones who were sent to adoption and Howard had been right they only had a handful of un-marked babies so Ross only had two wards for now but he was talking about expending it to all un-marks kids even the ones comings from married parents. Howard and Pym had a fall out after SHIELD decided to test to compound Pym used to turn into Ant-Man during the war, Xavier and McCoy didn't agree with the testing on mutant but knew that they couldn't do anything against it so they cut themselves off the Program taking their formulas with them so Striker would have a harder time singling them out.
But somehow it still continued, and Nick wanted out, he knew Peggy wanted out too, she wanted SHIELD to not be involved anymore, which meant they had to convince Howard that what they were doing needed to stop. But Howard was busy on the West Coast dealing with Stark Industries.
"Miss Miller." Nick said to the young woman, 19 years old, here to be a surrogate to a couple who was ready to pay a fortune to have a baby already pledging to keep them even if they were unmarked and had already signed all the papers authorizing the testing on their child.
"I mean it's not like I can get more money out of doing nothing faster anyway." She was explaining to the woman next to her who seemed to agree.
"Follow me!" Nick ordered, and she did staying next to him silent until she faced the nameless gynecologist in room 32.
"Miss Miller, your tests were all approved so we can proceed to the fertilization. Will you please state your name, your agreement and the reason of your presence for legal purpose." The doctor told her, pointing out a camera.
"Elizabeth Ann Miller, I agreed to be a surrogate for Project Earth Child." She seemed to hesitate and turned back toward them. "Do I really have to say that I am doing this for the money?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes please state all you want the more we get the better." The doctor said.
"Will you show it to the child?" She asked again nipping on her lower lip.
"Only if you agree and they ask for it." He said sighing and she stopped asking questions even though she clearly had more.
"Well I am Elizabeth Ann Miller, I am 19 years Old, my grades are great at Culver U but my parents cut me off, I met my bond already and they were so proud but I was missing some parts he was looking for in a partner, like a penis, well mostly a penis, and they don't seem to think it's a good enough reason to not marry him. I won't be able to keep going to school without the money I can get here, sure it can seem a little cold but not more than any other surrogate, I was promised that you will be placed with really nice parents, and that the testing would never hurt you that's why I agreed." Elizabeth said before turning toward them again. "Oh I forgot. I totally agree on every parts of Project Earth Child."
"Perfect Miss Miller." The doctor said and Nick left the room to give her some privacy.
"Will they have a sister or a brother one day?" He wondered when he escorted her back to the waiting room. It was a question he asked to everyone.
"Yes and No." Elizabeth told him. "I mean I plan on having children some day in the far future but if this works it's not really mine, I know it's not theirs either, the parents who will be keeping the babies, they told me they needed to diversify the genetic pool to prevent problems with paring in the future so both genetic materials came from donors."
Nick didn't know about that part of their experiment, this young woman had agreed to be impregnated with a child that wouldn't be genetically hers, he understood better both why the single women that were coming in didn't seem to have any qualm about giving the babies up for adoption, or how easily Ross and Striker were scoping some of them away from the process.
Nick wanted out, and he would convince Peggy that they needed to put a stop to this.
It only took him 8 months and 2 days to make it happen, Howard's death and Tony's weird obsession with Miss Miller's daughter gave Peggy all the power she needed to put a stop to it. They paid the remaining pregnant women and kept the adoption program until the last baby was born but no new woman had been fertilized after Darcy's birth.
And Tony never needed to know that the reason Darcy and Elizabeth had been under such a scrutiny or why his parents where coming to Culver instead of hoping on their plane was because Darcy was meant to be his little sister.
