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Chapter 26

The elevator opened up into Pierce's office.

Steve went first, shield tightened on his arm, his gun poking over. He'd put himself right in front of Emily, his shield and thicker frame basically hiding her behind him. Emily had her finger on the trigger, moving away slightly as they stepped out of the elevator. Steve put his arm out in front of her to steady her behind him, but Emily still sidestepped him. He may be protective of her, but now really wasn't the time.

Pierce, Sitwell and Rumlow were gathered around the desk, each regarding the couple with a complete lack of surprise.

"You figured it out," Pierce observed, "I have to say, I'm impressed. I thought we'd covered our tracks well, but you somehow worked it out. It's a shame Rumlow had the sense to bug his locker. Here I was, thinking he was paranoid, but he was right. Quite a shock when golden boy Rogers went snooping in- I thought nothing would happen after you looked at the accounts, Collins. Well, I gotta give you a round of applause. Guess your brain cells didn't die off in the ice."

Steve gritted his teeth, sharpening his aim.

"Well if Rumlow hadn't have been such an arrogant piece of shit with his naming decision, maybe you'd be sitting pretty right now," Emily shrugged.

"Bitch."

"Ooh, never heard that one before," Emily shot back, "What the hell is your play anyway? I can't imagine any of you are hardcore Québécois separatists."

"Convenience," Pierce circled his desk, going up front, "See none of us were hugely comfortable with neo-Nazis or Islamists, not really someone we'd want to ally with, even if we had the power. Not really our crowd. Besides, they probably wouldn't work with us anyway. Now, Gratuit Q haven't really caused any major waves- no big scandals, apart from being a terrorist network. They would be easy to pacify, they didn't ask for much. You actually did us a huge favour Collins by killing Sartre; I was worried he'd get too cocky and blab. Fortunately, all the loose ends were tied up. I think we can tell you that we were setting Rogers up to take the fall. A federal penitentiary and loss of status for a great hero. You'd get in our way."

"You see Rogers," Rumlow swaggered across the room, "You're not too big into government intervention- regime change, close monitoring, PATRIOT Act, wiretapping or anything like that. For you, we should just let people be free and when it's law enforcement, just follow the law without letting that freedom slide. SHIELD has become far too focussed on that good as opposed to gaining power on the level that the CIA and FBI have. We want power."

"So you want to be authoritarian powers?"

"We're not picky about who we take down. It's not a Neocon thing, about taking out dictators. We will take down our own politicians in either party, hell, any party across the world. We want SHIELD to dominate the world, to put the fear of God into everyone. Fury is slipping. He may do some murky things, but not enough to actually do something. The FBI and CIA hold the President's ear, but he still treats SHIELD like a clean-up service after aliens. We are stronger and more advanced, or at least we could be, but we are being held back. We knew that Rogers is our most powerful threat. Not even Romanoff or Barton could stop us- and they have done some very bad things in the past. We thought that Collins would fall after we sent Rogers away for life, but I guess that could still happen."

Both Rumlow and Pierce were practically gleeful.

"You know that in James Bond movies, the villain will tell 007 their plot before they attempt to kill him, but it never works," Emily informed them, "Why are you telling us this?"

"Is everything a movie reference with you?" Rumlow rolled his eyes, "Because when this is all said and done, everyone will blame it all on you."

"You have no proof," Steve defended.

"We don't need proof for that, but there is something else," Sitwell finally spoke, standing up, "This will be your downfall."

He turned on the monitor to show the open office space where they'd called everyone to gather. Every SHIELD worker was unconscious on the floor, some slumped over each other. There was practically no space between them; one would have to tiptoe/hop to get between them. Though their mouths were open, every pair of eyes was closed shut. Whatever it was, it was bad.

"Just a little knockout gas, to answer your question," Sitwell went into faux-professor mode, "Won't kill them, but they'll feel pretty rough for a few hours after they wake up. It's clear that Captain Rogers and Agent Collins didn't want anyone to learn their plan or stop them. Everyone outside of this room is out of action. You maybe should have gone with them; you might have had a shot then."

"Do you really think anyone is stupid enough to believe we'd want to do this to anyone, least of all our friends?" Steve snapped, "No one on this earth would think Emily would ever harm Agent Coulson. You're insane if you think this will work."

"Au contraire," Sitwell smirked, "They'll all just think that the power went to your head. Captain America wanted to rule the world with his little queen by his side. Agent Coulson would try to appeal to his niece's better nature. That little Uncle Phil shtick won't fly anymore."

"He'll know, Uncle Phil will know. Not just him, other people will know. Steve knows how much I love him, but even he knows that my Uncle Phil is my #1 person."

"Then he'll have to die," Sitwell told her, "It's a shame, he's a good man, I like him. I mean, he's a little bit righteous and he never shuts up about you, but I like him."

"I'll trade myself."

"Pardon?" Pierce looked at her, slightly amused.

"You do what you want to me but you let my uncle go. You get him out of that room and give him whatever antidote, then leave him the hell alone. You don't touch him. I'll do whatever, if I can save him. If I can, I want Natalie, Aaron, Natasha and Clint safe too. Just please don't touch my uncle, I'll do anything."

"No, don't, I'll do it," Steve jumped in, "Leave them alone at least and let Emily go. Your issue is with me, so keep it with me. Seriously, I will do what you want, Emily can go."

"Your little display of loyalty would be cute if it wasn't so sickening," Pierce mocked, "No, I need them as leverage to make sure you don't do anything stupid. I can easily deploy something that will be lethal to your friends. As for Collins-I need to make sure you don't do anything rash, Rogers. If you try anything, I will have Rumlow shoot your girl in the stomach. It will kill her, but it will be slow and painful. You'll have to watch her bleed out in your arms."

Steve recoiled, pushing Emily behind him.

"It's just as adorable as when you were in your hospital bed," Pierce continued, still mocking.

"That was you," Steve's eyes narrowed.

"In our defence, we didn't mean to hospitalise you Collins. The toxiodine was just to make you a little paranoid and scare you. We had you followed, but we found the toxiodine was more effective so we pulled out guy. The side effects were just there to make you feel somewhat out of sync. Once you had it out of you, we decided pumping more would just raise suspicions. Did it work?"

"A treat," Emily replied through gritted teeth, "The North Dawn, was I meant to be hurt?"

"We were aiming to kill you or at least injure you. Killing you would break Rogers, but injuring you was probably a more realistic goal. Enough with the chit chat. We need to keep you here just long enough for wake up time. We should have tied you up or something Collins, get you in earlier. That would keep Rogers in line. It's a shame we have to keep in this standoff, but it's for a greater cause."

Emily suddenly eyed something on the desk- it was something that was being used to keep the gas flowing in the open office space. If they could destroy that, then at least their friends and co-workers would be safe.

If they could freak the men out enough, they could stop them. One way or another, they'd prove their innocence.

"Do you trust me?" she whispered into Steve's shoulders.

"Of course," he still had his shield in front of her as opposed to him, "What do you have in mind?"

"Don't look at it, but there's something on the desk that I think could control the gas. If we get rid of that and scatter them, even just for a few seconds, we might have a chance at getting out of here."

"If I throw the shield, it puts you in danger."

"The table there can withstand bullets. If I duck behind that, it gives us time. Can you do it?"

"Yes."

"Then let's go."

They looked at one another, knowing they didn't have to say a word to one another to convey what they felt. Emily whispered a countdown and when she was done, it was set.

With all the might he could, he threw the shield right at the control. In what was a matter of seconds, the shield shot across the room, hit the controller and went straight back onto Steve's arm. The monitor had turned off so they didn't know if it had worked, but the look on Sitwell's face indicated it had. The shield had already returned to Steve by the time they'd clocked what was going on, so the shooting started late.

Emily barrel rolled behind the table, sending several bullets at the men. They finally shot back, even though Emily was well protected by the table and Steve by his shield. Steve edged towards the table, throwing his shield one last time at the controller so that it was definitely broken, jumping back out when his weapon returned.

As Sitwell fired back, Pierce climbed across the floor to grab at something. Rumlow, however, did something else entirely. He pulled a briefcase from under the desk and made a run for the back staircase, obviously wanting to get whatever it was out of there.

"I'm on it!" Emily called.

Steve passed her the shield. Emily held it up against her as she ran, zig sagging to avoid the bullets. As soon as she was near the door, she threw it back to Steve, who caught it in mid air. Emily didn't even acknowledge the transaction; too busy focusing on getting Rumlow.

She tore the door open, running as fast as she could down those steps. The bullets were already flying from Rumlow's gun, whizzing past her head, coming as close as they could without actually hitting her. Emily ducked and dived as she descended the steps, checking every so often that Rumlow wasn't at the bottom.

"Come and get me Collins!"

God she hated him.

"You think you're all that because you're Phil Coulson's niece and you're screwing Captain America. Look at Emily Collins with all her little Avenger friends. You're not as good as you think you are- you're just riding off other people's coattails. Now everyone is going to think you're a power hungry bitch who wants to rule the world. You will lose EVERYTHING and I will enjoy watching you fall. The rest of your days will be spent in a federal prison and you'll never get to touch your precious boyfriend ever again. I cannot imagine the other women will like a stuck up Ivy League graduate being around them."

Emily continued stalking down the stairs.

"I can't wait to see your uncle's face when he finds out- that's if we don't have to kill him first."

There was an opening.

If Emily could climb down that without falling to her death, she could get ahead of Rumlow. It was a risky path, but she had to do it for the people she loved. Steve was in there, her Steve. They would hurt him and her uncle and everyone else. Emily was not about to let the man she loved get locked up and never have to see him again.

Especially if Brock Rumlow was behind this.

Taking a deep breath, she lifted one leg over the railings, gripping on tightly. Gun on hip, she lowered herself downwards, remembering every piece of the free climbing training. Emily thought that this part of training would be reserved for going down cliffs in the middle of Europe, not climbing down the stairs of The Bunk. Still, she had to do what she had to do.

There were several times when she thought she was about to lose her footing, but she remained steady against them. Luckily, there was a pipe she could use to slide down- it could give her the advantage. Taking a slight jump, she managed to slide down as far as she could until Rumlow was unknowingly in her sights.

Managing to get to the bottom of the stairs, she purposefully created a loud thud by jumping up and down as far as she could. This sparked Rumlow's attention, who looked confusedly up at the spot- he could see no one there.

Just as he was about to turn away, Emily struck.

"Hey!"

Before Rumlow could even open his mouth, Emily sent a bullet straight into his throat.

"That was for me."

Bang- into the stomach

"That was for my uncle and my friends."

Bang- into the head

"And that was for Steve."

Rumlow could only manage to gargle some blood as he fell to the ground, dead before he hit it. Emily checked for a pulse and breathing anyway, and after finding none, grabbed his weapon. Taking the briefcase to the side, Emily opened it up.

Upstairs, Steve was doing a battle of his own.

Sitwell had been an easy kill. One aim of Steve's gun and the agent lay dead on the floor in a pool of his own blood, a single headshot taking him down.

The issue was Pierce- the man was good.

He had some kind of gun that Steve had never seen before, a large thing that looked like Chitauri weaponry. Hidden behind some kind of force field that he'd activated for protection, it was clear that Pierce was ready to wait him out.

All Steve needed to do was figure out how to deactivate the field. Pierce continued to get the knockout gas to work again, but seemed to be having trouble now Sitwell was dead on the floor and Steve had broken whatever mechanism was needed. He fiddled around with all the sticks and pushed all the buttons, but failed.

"DAMN IT!" Pierce slammed his fists against the table.

"I thought I was slow with technology, but you're really behind the times Mr. Secretary."

"You won't be laughing when I put a bullet in your girlfriend's skull."

"I have to say, I never trusted you. Emily did, but I never did. She said if Fury trusted you, then she did. Maybe I was being paranoid, but turns out I was right. You turned down the Nobel Peace Prize and whilst you thought it made you look, well, noble, it just showed who you really are. It was all just to prove that you could. You wouldn't be a laureate, but you'd be the man who said no one deserved awards for doing the right thing."

"A noble speech for someone about to die."

"With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, I don't think God is going to call me home tonight. He certainly won't be calling Emily, that's for sure."

"We'll see, Rogers. This shield will hold. I can wait."

He smirked before looking back down at the panel.

Steve looked around the room, wondering how on earth he could wait Pierce out. He had to get that shield down so that he could finish Pierce off. Emily had been a while and he was worried that something had happened- unfortunately, he couldn't afford to worry.

Damn Fury, he had to hide everything in his office.

He'd have to take the power out, even temporarily. Steve knew the power in Fury's office ran independently from the rest of the building, just in case of any attacks or outrages. Unfortunately for Steve, he had no idea where the power came from.

If he could angle himself correctly, he could knock Pierce away just long enough to take the force field down. Pierce's head wasn't in the right place, but he could knock his body just far enough if he used the right strength.

Mentally using trigonometry and physics, Steve moved himself slightly while Pierce was distracted. Just as Pierce looked back up, Steve threw his shield. It bounced against a potted plant then flew across the room. Pierce wasn't quick enough to move out of the way, so it hit him straight in the middle and sent him flying. Steve jumped up, caught it, and ran to the desk.

There was no indication on the desk of how to take the field down. Frustrated, Steve reached out and pulled down on the interface. To his surprise, it worked.

Pierce crawled towards the Chitauri weapon, but Steve was quicker. Just as Pierce raised his gun, Steve sent a shot straight into his chest.

Dropping the weapon, Pierce clutched his chest and fell backward.

"You son of a bitch..." he spluttered, reaching for the weapon again.

"I've never liked bullies, it doesn't matter where they came from," Steve fired his weapon again; "You shouldn't have messed with me or my girl."

The second bullet hit Pierce in the middle of his skull, instantly killing him.

Thank God

Steve didn't even celebrate the victory. Hearing the door leading to the stairs open again, he was ready for anything. As soon as he saw a bedraggled Emily walking in, he felt the biggest relief of his life.

Emily rushed over, dropping the briefcase. Steve caught her, the two immediately kissing passionately in the middle of the office.

"We did it Em."

"We did."

He picked her up, spinning her around. She laughed outrageously and when he put her down, they passionately kissed once again.

"What's in the case?"

"More of that knockout gas, at least that's what it's labelled as."

"What if they have stuff on us?"

"That's why I had this attached to me," Emily lifted her shirt to show a listening device taped to her skin.

She grinned deviously.

"You never cease to surprise me."

The elevator dinged again, the two turning around and pointing their weapons perfectly in sync. The doors opened to reveal Fury and Hill.

"I have never been happier to see you in my life," Emily stated, a tired smile appearing on her face.

"I have that affect on people, Collins," Fury headed over, "We just arrived back and found everyone knocked out. I called Dr. Banner out; he's brought an antidote fresh from Stark Tower. Everyone is back up. There's a bit of vomiting and headaches, but that should clear up."

"My uncle?"

"Is fine," Hill told her.

"Thank God," Emily exhaled.

"So, you want to tell me what happened here?" Fury nodded at Sitwell and Pierce's bodies.

"Rumlow is dead down the stairwell too, courtesy of Em," Steve put an arm around his girlfriend's waist, pulling her closer to him, "Turns out the three of them were trying to take over SHIELD so they could be some kind of evil shadowy superpower and were trying to pin the blame on me regarding the stolen data from North Dawn. Em's got it all recorded. I assume there are all sorts of cameras and bugs around this office."

"Of course. Pierce might have dismantled a lot of them, but there are ones that I only I know about."

"Good," Steve nodded as Emily handed the listening device over.

"Thank you Collins. I will call a cleanup crew then listen to this. Look, I'd normally get you to debrief right now but you two have had a long day, so you go home and relax. First thing tomorrow, we'll go through this and yes, we will have to work with the World Security Council. They'll pitch a fit when they find out that Pierce is dead."

"From the losers that wanted to nuke New York?" Emily deadpanned, "Cry me a river."

Fury chuckled.

"Everyone is downstairs in the office space; Dr. Banner will stay until the side effects have worn off in a couple of hours. Tomorrow, 9:00 in my office. You'll have to clear the day. Now, go check on your friends."

They didn't need to be told twice. Bidding a goodbye, they headed down the elevator in a shocked silence.

"I can't believe we did that."

"Neither can I," Steve agreed, "But it's over."

"It's over," Emily repeated, "Hey; we make a pretty good team."

"That we do," Steve took her hands, pulling her over, "Whatever comes next, we'll be doing it together."

"I love you so damn much."

"I love you too sunshine, I love you too," Steve laughed before they kissed again.

Hi all hope you enjoyed it! Only three chapters left.

Next Time: SHIELD tries to process what happened, while Emily gets a happy, if hugely unexpected, surprise.

Thanks again, don't forget to review as we wind down and I will see you next time xxx