I didn't make the 18th, but AO3 says it was first posted on the 19th.
"You're not going to go squealing to Fury about this, are you?" Stark asks Coulson and Romanoff, after they've relocated from the lab to the living room. Stark seems to be subsiding solely on caffeine, having consumed 3.6 mugs of coffee in the span of 18.1 minutes before Potts confiscated his mug.
"I trust him." Coulson has creases which indicate worry around his eyes as he scrolls through holographic documents. "But if your intel is accurate, Pierce has been stringing even Director Fury along."
Trust me, the intel's accurate, the Bucky sounds sardonic in James's mind.
James eyes Coulson. The man is obviously of a high rank, high enough that if he is HYDRA he'd know most, if not all, of the codewords to reset James into the Soldier. He has not used a single word, despite having ample opportunity to reset James, order him to kill Stark before Potts arrived, and collect Harry. By now he would have made the Asset complete the mission it had gone AWOL on.
THE AGENTS WILL NOT TAKE HARRY. The voice does not specify if it means Coulson and Romanoff, other SHIELD agents, or HYDRA. It likely means all three, and the Bucky voice repeats the promise with more sentiment in its voice. Anyone who looks at him the wrong way...
"You said they mocked Fury, right?" Stark interrupts the Bucky voice's description of what exactly will happen, turning to where James is sitting with his back against the wall where he can observe all entrances and exits.
It takes 1.3 seconds for James to refocus enough to process the question and answer, a delay that would have earned him a slap from Pierce. He is unused to being addressed, or even present, during mission planning unless he is being briefed. "Affirmative."
"And I'm guessing they didn't mock any HYDRA leaders, like Pierce?" Stark continues, seeming unconcerned with the wait and speaking to James as an equal.
Coulson clears his throat. "I doubt a terrorist organization affiliated with Nazis would accept a man like Fury into their ranks. "
"Touche," Stark runs a hand through his hair, "All right, Fury's probably not HYDRA."
He glances at James again, who slowly nods, and Stark continues, "But I still say the fewer people know, the better. I mean, you've gotten duped by Pierce and STRIKE, and who knows who else is secretly evil."
James eyes each member of the room, and Potts assures him. "I didn't tell Phil or Natalia."
James turns his gaze on the agents, ignoring Stark's incredulous cry of "Phil?!"
"You will tell no one about us." James's voice comes out clipped, not at all like Bucky's inside his head.
The old voice practically screams in his mind, seeming confused with the situation. DO NOT SPEAK WITHOUT PERMISSION. James has to remind himself there are no handlers here. Harry and Potts had relinquished their ownership, and Stark is a technician. Coulson is Romanoff's handler, but he is not James's, despite his high rank and suit that remind him of Pierce.
"Don't tell my secret iden-ty. Or my Bat dad's." Harry speaks for the first time since his whispered questions about whether or not they were leaving as James carried him from the lab. The boy mimics James's clipped tone, then twists in his lap to tell him "He said I'm Harry, but he didn't say yours."
"I revealed your dad's identity to Agent Coulson as soon as he walked in the room." Romanoff's lips quirk upward. "It's hardly a secret now."
"He's not just the Winter Soldier." Stark crosses his arms, then smirks at Coulson, seeming unable to resist gloating "If you only knew, Agent..."
Show him our face and he'd probably worship the ground you walk on, beg for autographs for his cards. Bucky drawls in James's head.
James grimaces internally at the thought, even if holding such power over the agent could be advantageous. It is fortunate that the Batman mask conceals his identity.
Stark is starting to get heated, but Potts calms him down. Both Romanoff and Coulson appear calm and collected, but James can pinpoint the anxiety, confusion and frustration in their eyes as they view the files.
"There are more Winter Soldiers." James reveals yet another HYDRA secret, and his mind is suddenly consumed with thoughts of HYDRA sending one of the other soldiers to apprehend him and Harry. Or a Black Widow. His eyes narrow at Romanoff once again. She had presumably contacted Coulson as reinforcement and James has to remind himself again that Coulson has had ample opportunity to reclaim him, but hasn't.
"Hang on." Stark exclaims. "You mean there's more?! You aren't enough? Trust me, you seem like you'd be enough, and that's supposed to be a compliment, but-"
Stark snaps his mouth shut, then opens it again. "Is it Rumlow? Rollins?"
RUMLOW AND ROLLINS ARE NOT SKILLED ENOUGH. The inner voice almost sounds contemptuous at the thought. STRIKE is a highly trained elite squad, but not as trained as James or other Winter Soldiers.
"Negative."
"Or are they all prisoners of war?" Stark throws a significant look at Coulson and Romanoff. "He was a POW. Totally not his choice to be what they made him."
Potts is giving James a deeply sympathetic look, and Stark's eyes have compassion even if his face is more impassive.
The voice of Bucky answers in James's head. They were HYDRA to the core.
"They volunteered."
Stark grimaces. "All right, so, bad guys through and through. Like, total monsters, won't even defect for an adorable little superhero?" The man shoots a grin at Harry.
James's jaw clenches. He had killed the Dursley boy without defecting, had taken so many lives, orphaned people like Stark, destroyed families. He glances at the man's brown eyes, expecting to see the accusation from before, but it isn't there.
"They will not hesitate to kill Harry, if ordered."
Potts looks horrified, Stark grim. Romanoff's face is stony, and Coulson has a sort of sad acceptance as if he's encountered this before.
"We have one of the best legal teams in the world." Potts says as she examines documents. Potts has fire in her eyes despite returning to her calm and collected demeanor. Just like Carter, the Bucky voice remarks, and James ignores it.
"But if this goes all the way to Pierce, HYDRA could be in the Supreme Court. The United Nations..." Potts looks questioningly at James.
"Unknown, ma'am." Potts is not a handler, but is to be respected nonetheless. She turns back to the documents, scouring them for anybody in Stark Industries.
"You know, I almost pity any HYDRA agent after you're done with them." Stark remarks.
"This would be much better undercover, before a huge trial." Romanoff remarks. James has to avert his gaze to attempt to stop the flashing memories of turning her into an assassin. HYDRA would have trained Harry to use the curse that killed his parents. With a soldier capable of using a killing curse, they might have frozen the Asset so he never saw the boy again, perhaps permanently decommissioned him.
As the agents, Stark and Potts discuss how to keep their investigation covert, James keeps his eye on all entrances and exits. Stark had said Fury had a habit of trespassing, as Romanoff and Coulson had done. Even if the man is not HYDRA, James does not want to be caught unaware.
As the Asset, James would be able to watch with unwavering focus, but his mind is fuzzy in a way that surely would have been wiped. His thoughts are staticky, apprehensive of possibilities and the intel he'd learned earlier.
The intel on the assassination of Harry's parents had made James experience physiological reactions he is beginning to recognize as feelings. Even remembering it brings them back. The burning anger is familiar, but the swooping feeling is not. Is it relief, that he had not murdered the boy's parents as he had Stark's? That feeling sets his stomach churning again.
The mission blares in his head. THE NAMELESS WIZARD WILL NOT HARM HARRY.
James scowls at the voice, not sure it can promise that. According to Coulson, Harry is the only person to ever survive a killing curse, and there is no guarantee he would survive again.
There is a small possibility James would be impervious to the killing curse, taking into account that he heals from gunshot wounds that would kill any non-enhanced individual. It is a slim possibility, likely under 10%. Despite the fact some of the spells the enemy asset had fired at him had no effect, the immobilization spell was all too effective. It is likely the killing curse would be as well.
"Is there armor against the killing curse?" James asks Coulson.
"Not if you're a Muggle- a non-magic person." Coulson says. "Unless you can dodge it."
James had dodged or blocked several of the enemy asset's spells, and Harry had freed him from the immobilization spell. That does not seem like enough.
"We need to enhance your shields." he tells Harry, though James has no idea how to train that. The trainers that had worked on the Winter Soldiers and Black Widows would have fired non-lethal bullets at Harry until he learned, through pain, to shield himself. Would the Asset have been the one firing bullets at the boy to force him to use his shields?
James will not use that approach.
"You need to put him to bed." Coulson says. Harry protests, hiding a yawn.
James tightens his hold on Harry, unwilling to let his son out of his sight, not with the agents here. With the way Coulson and Romanoff had appeared with hardly any notice from Jarvis, Dumbledore and the enemy asset could materialize at any moment. Other Soldiers could swoop in.
As they go through the documents, Romanoff spends spends 2.6 minutes interrogating Coulson about wizards in SHIELD. She clearly had not been at a high enough clearance to know about witches and wizards, but the intel makes realization flash briefly in her eyes.
"It was you who pulled my gun away, wasn't it?" Romanoff scrutinizes Harry, who shifts nervously in James's arms.
"That's one of his superpowers." Stark immediately leaps to Harry's defense. "Disarming, Jedi style."
"I dis-awmed...?" Harry blinks, looking tiredly at James for confirmation. His speech is more muddled than usual.
"You disarmed her very well." James answers with an approving nod.
A slow grin spreads over Harry's face as his eyes droop.
Coulson, who has yet to reveal if he is a wizard despite Romanoff and Stark's questioning, asks the same questions about wizards in HYDRA. Despite the recent influx of memories, James cannot recall anything about wizards before Harry, but he had learned something from Dumbledore.
"Wizards erase memories." James has so much experience with that, he wouldn't be surprised if wizards had cleared his mind at some point too. He wonders if it hurts as much as the Chair.
"In England, they would have removed your memories of him and his magic." Coulson sends a surprised look toward Stark. "Even with the repeal of Rappaport's Law in 1965..."
"I shoot energy with my suits and have this in my chest." Stark says. "Maybe that fools whatever detection method they have."
"They are looking for Harry." James scowls. "If they find him..."
James leaves the sentence incomplete. He cannot do his duty as a father and ensure his son's safety. Even if they erase Jame's mind and Harry uses the word to become a handler again, the Asset cannot fight every type of magic.
"They'll take my dad's brain!" Harry cries.
"I could assign you protection detail." Coulson offers. "A witch or wizard, in case the Death Eaters attack."
"No witches!" Harry protests, burying his face into James's chest.
"Witches and wizards aren't all bad." Coulson tells Harry gently.
"They eat kids." Harry protests, glaring suspiciously at Coulson.
"Those are just stories." Coulson answers almost helplessly, seeming to realize that children cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. Stark sends him an almost sympathetic look, no doubt thinking of the times he's tried to convince the boy Batman is fictitious.
Harry clearly does not believe a word. "Dum-Bell-Door tried'ta cook me!"
"Was the fire green?" Coulson asks.
Harry nods, frowning and rubbing his forehead. "Like in bad dweams. With bad guy laughs."
"The Killing Curse." Coulson blinks. "You remember-"
James cuts him off. "Dumbledore used the killing curse on him?" He'll break the old man's nose again with his prosthesis, rip him apart with his hands for trying to kill his son.
Potts manages to defuse both James and Stark, enough for Coulson to explain that green fire is a way to travel, not a killing curse, and doesn't hurt at all. "It's called Floo Powder, and it lets witches and wizards go from fireplace to fireplace."
Simultaneously, Stark and James turn toward the fireplace in the room, and Coulson assures them it isn't connected to the Floo Network. "The Killing Curse is also green, but it's not fire. More like an energy blast."
"He wasn't cookin' me?" Harry asks, still partially in disbelief. Coulson shakes his head.
"Harry," Potts interjects gently. "There are superheroes, and super villains, right?"
James feels Harry's head nod against his chest.
"They both have powers, and it depends how they use them. They can use them for good or bad. Like Matilda."
Harry looks back at James for confirmation, so James tells his son "A weapon isn't good or bad. It's the person who wields it."
THE ASSET IS A WEAPON.
Before James can think too much on why the voice said that, Harry is speaking again. "There's good witches with good wep-nized sticks?"
"There are good witches and good wizards." Coulson nods. "Your parents were two of them. Lily and James were kind, and would never eat you or any other child. They both bravely fought the Dark Lord."
"Then they died." Harry says in a completely neutral tone.
"If the Death Eaters attack, you'll need help from someone magical." Coulson echoes the thoughts running through James's head. At Stark's look, Coulson explains that Death Eaters are the Dark Lord's followers.
Stark pinches his nose. "Just when I think I've heard everything... now there's HYDRA and some kind of wizard HYDRA too? How will we know this wizard isn't HYDRA?"
"Fury knows some Aurors who fought the Death Eaters, who survived several assassination attempts by the Dark Lord and his followers."
James wonders if he'd been sent to assassinate any of them. It is likely he would have sniped them, rather than engage. Several memories of sniping flash through his mind, but he does not know if the targets were magical.
When the memory fades, James realizes he hasn't processed any of the conversation. As the Asset, he would have listened with unwavering attention if required, had even overheard countless conversations he was not supposed to listen to, in which the handlers, technicians or agents speaking acted as if he was a mindless beast that could not understand them.
He would not have been distracted by memories. How can he ensure Harry's safety in his current state?
"I thought I was finally on the right side." Romanoff is staring at the transparent files of Rumlow and Rollins without truly seeing them.
"I've been there." Stark says in a low tone, seemingly to himself. "Nothing to do but blow it all up and start over."
"So that's what you were doing with the warehouse." Coulson says.
Several memories of explosions flash through James's mind. Some from his time as the Winter Soldier, but others from when his left arm was flesh and Captain America at his side. HYDRA bases. Bucky supplies in his head. I'd love to blow some to hell now.
Romanoff glances in James's direction. "I guess I shouldn't have offered for you to join SHIELD. But you could help us."
This offer, like her original offer to join SHIELD, is phrased in a way that sounds voluntary. When he was under HYDRA's command, nothing was voluntary. Even Pierce's speeches of him bringing order to mankind left no room for choice.
"Destroying them might be cathartic." Romanoff adds.
"It sure was when I did it." Stark's voice has a dark quality that is usually absent.
James wants to raze HYDRA to the ground. Harry's safety cannot be ensured without its annihilation, but he cannot risk running into agents who could reset him, cannot leave Harry alone.
No way in hell we're dragging him to bases. Bucky says. Harry needs safety and consistency.
"I need to be here for my son." he says, holding the sleeping form of Harry.
Coulson nods in something that almost seems like approval. "Seriously, put him to bed. Get some sleep yourselves, you both look like you need it."
This ended up being another talking chapter but several of you said you didn't mind. More stuff will happen next chapter- I was going to have Tony's POV in here too, where stuff happened, but bumped it back.
I haven't seen Crimes of Grindelwald, but I found Rappaport's Law on a wiki page.
I figured they really need some sort of magical guard, because they're sort of helpless against magic. I've basically already decided who, feel free to guess.