They had to move quickly since it was clear that Pierce and his conspirators were on to them and were trying to cover their tracks by taking out weak links like Sitwell. With Peggy's help, SHIELD was able to cobble together a plan. It would be a multi-prog attack executed with precision. There were strike teams in place, waiting to pick up the people on the lists in the data they'd retrieved, people who they now had evidence on, connecting them to Hydra and crimes against the State. There were three helicarriers that had been fitted with devices that would give Pierce remote access and make it appear as if the helicarriers had received their orders directly from SHIELD. Two of the helicarriers were still on the ground, Agents Hunter and Barton would find the device on those and disable them. One was already in the air, that one was Sam's. Coulson had a young hacker that he and May trusted completely, he would be working with her in locating the devices and coordinating with the Helicarrier operatives. Morse was on Malick. May on the crooked Senator. Sharon was in the Trisk's command center. The two grounded helicarriers would need to be launched and the only place to do that was from there. Sharon would not allow that to happen. Pierce would need to be in the Trisk to trigger the attack, so Peggy and Natasha were on the hunt. Fury was with the SHIELD lawyers getting the warrants that would set this all into motion. If they couldn't get warrants, Coulson's hacker was ready to release the Hydra data to the public.
Peggy stood in all her Captain Carter glory in front of SHIELD's Wall of Valor. The first section was marked by the years 1941-1965 and the first three names were, 'Capt. Margaret 'Peggy' Carter', 'SSG. Angela 'Broadway' Martinelli', and 'Dr. Abraham Erskine'. Peggy reaches out with her fingerless gloved hand and brushed her fingertips along Erskine's name and then Angie's, where she lets her touch linger as she closes her eyes. Again, and again, that moment on the rooftop plays out in her mind, the woman catching her shield and turning to face her, those empty blue eyes shaded in dark make-up, the flat line of her pale lips, the hollow sound of her voice. "Who the hell is Angie?"
Angie was the only person Peggy had ever loved. The woman she had been planning a future with despite the hardships they would have faced back then. Angie was a woman who could sweet talk military secrets out of the most tightlipped of Nazis or shout out the most excruciating sounding curses in Italian that would have made Mussolini look over his shoulder for evil. Angie was the woman who'd made Dum Dum Dugan cry when she sang White Christmas, and she laughed every time Steve had stepped on Peggy's toes while she'd been teaching him to dance. Angie was the only one who could get away with scolding Captain Britain. She was the woman who knew just how to show Peggy Carter she was loved and filled her with hope for brighter days to come.
The earpiece hidden in Peggy's ear clicked on and a single word was spoken by Fury. "Hercules." Peggy gave a soft grunt of acknowledgment and nodded a slight nod of confirmation that it was time to fight. Stepping away from the wall she began walking further into the Triskelion. The moment she stepped through a doorway into an empty stairwell her earpiece came to life again. The young woman on the other end, Coulson's hacker, sounded as if she couldn't be older than her late teens or perhaps twenty, another young prodigy in her field like Jemma Simmons no doubt. Coulson had a brilliant eye for young talent, and when this was over Peggy would have talk to Fury about letting Coulson use that talent. The young woman, Skye, guided Peggy and Natasha through the back passages of SHIELD's headquarters, secret and hidden escape routes that no one knew the full extent of. Skye had triangulated a cellular signal that matched the devices on the helicarriers, that signal had to be Pierce. Natasha was coming in from one side, and Peggy the other, boxing him in with no way to escape. Peggy had just cleared another stairwell, stepping into a dark metallic walled corridor with harsh blue lighting when she felt it, a presence that made the hairs on her neck prickle. She tapped on her earpiece, going radio silent, and then very carefully began walking along the corridor.
"Angie?" Peggy calls out into the stillness.
Winter ripped wires out of a control panel in the wall, causing all the doors on this floor to self-lock. Then she draws her weapon and begins to track her target. Her mission is to kill the Captain. Pierce was acquainted with a man named Klaue and had gotten her a single magazine of vibranium tipped bullets. Completely lost to her programming, the sound of the Captain's voice and that name had no effect, or so it seemed.
"Angie, darling, it's me." Peggy calls out quietly. "It's Peggy. Angie, you know me."
"No." A cold, empty voice replies. "I don't."
Peggy gets her shield up just in time, causing the bullet to skid across its surface, leaving a gouge, which surprises her. Nothing is supposed to be able to damage vibranium. Peggy aims her own weapon but is reluctant to pull the trigger unless she knows for sure she'll only wound the other woman. "You do, my darling, we meet in the war. Remember? The USO show?"
The second bullet nicked the edge of the shield, causing Peggy to mutter, "Bloody hell, what are you firing at me?"
"Vibranium tips." Came Winter's response.
Turning towards Angie's voice, cold and empty as it was, it was still very much Angie's voice, Peggy charged. Luckily, she managed to slam into the other woman before she could get a third shot off, the collision sending both of their weapons flying from their hands. They fight hand to hand for several brutal minutes, landing punches and kicks that would bruise and breaking skin that began to bleed. It's only when Peggy is able to grab hold of her shield after flipping Angie over her head that she gets the upper hand. She uses the shield to pin Angie down, pressing all of her weight and strength into it. Close up, looking into Angie's face, into her eyes despite the void she saw in them, Peggy no longer had any doubts. This was her beloved Angie. Angie, who was now just as strong as she was, still as young as she was, and who was really giving Peggy a challenge in this fight.
"Your name is Angela Maria Sofia Martinelli." Peggy says as she struggles against Angie's counter force. "You were born on the 15th of August 1925. Your mother's name was Lucia, and she almost gave birth to you on the kitchen table because she wouldn't stay in bed. Your Nonna Sofia had to yell at her because she kept trying to feed the midwife because it was the Feast of the Assumption."
Pain exploded inside of her head, fueling Winter's push to get the Captain off her. She pushes against the shield so hard she sends the Captain flying back, and the moment she's free she scrambles to her feet. Rage washes over her and Winter charges full force. Peggy throws up her shield, but it's not enough, she's pushed back fast and hard, the momentum sending them through a wall of glass at the end of the corridor. There's nothing on the other side so they fall a couple of stories before crashing through a skylight, dropping right into the same room as Natasha and Alexander Pierce. Peggy scrambles to her feet first, drawing her backup weapon and aiming it at Pierce since her gaze lands on him before seeing Natasha. Angie gets to her feet, draws her backup weapon, and aims it at Peggy.
"Complete your mission, Winter!" Pierce demand. "Kill the Captain and the Black Widow."
Natasha, who's already got a gun on Pierce, calls out, "Cap, behind you!"
Peggy turns on instinct, her gun now trained on Angie.
"My mission." Winter repeats. "My mission. Kill the Captain." She looks right into Peggy's eyes, her gaze cold and empty. "You are my mission."
Peggy lowers her weapon. "I won't take your life, my love. I've just found you, Angie, I will not lose you again."
Pierce laughs, any fear he might have felt at finding himself at the end of the Black Widow's gun have vanished. "I'm afraid Ms. Martinelli is no longer at home, Captain Carter."
It's a risk to take her eyes off Angie but Peggy does it anyway to shoot a glare at Pierce.
The man smirks. "Oh yes, I know who she used to be. I've seen her pictures in the archives, standing beside you in that mixed company of yours. The Russians never knew, they didn't care, to them she was simply Karpov's pet. Karpov himself didn't care who she used to be before he turned her into what she is now, the old fool actually thought of her as a daughter."
Winter's gaze shifted from Peggy to Pierce, though she continued to face Peggy, her gun still trained on Peggy. Her attention was on the man who had awakened her from her cold sleep.
"Sentimental old man refused to give us the weapon he created to deal with the likes of you." Pierce continued. "Ninety-eight years old, weak, feeble, and in a wheelchair, yet the old Soviet actually thought he could stop me. He pulled a gun from under the blanket covering his lap."
Pierce is laughing. Winter blinks. Then her eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"I must admit that I'm not as good with a gun as Rumlow is, I don't like getting my hands dirty, but you really don't need much skill to put an old communist in a wheelchair down." Pierce finished. He even managed to smirk before his smug expression shifted into one of sheer shock.
Peggy watches in stunned silence as blood runs down Alexander Pierce's face from the bullet wound perfectly placed in the T area of his head, that spot right between the eyes that kills instantly. When she turns to look at Angie, the other woman's gun is still aimed at Pierce. The expression on Angie's face is no longer blank but full of rage and pain, physical and emotion. "Angie?" Peggy says gently as she takes a step closer to her love. "Angie, darling," She takes another step but stops when she finds the gun aimed at her again. "It's alright, Angie. It's alright. Safe and sound, love. We're both safe and sound now my darling."
Her head is exploding with pain as that tiny little piece of herself that she'd hidden away so very long ago, struggles to break free of decades of programming. Her heart is pounding too fast, too hard, and every little sound reverberates in her ears in a way that makes it feel as if someone is pulling glass out of her ears. The air around her suddenly feels hot and heavy, she can't breathe, her limbs feel as if they're full of lead. Winter begins to back away slowly, inching towards the door while trying to keep a steady shot on the Captain while watching the Black Widow who stood in silence across the room. She needs to go back to the compound, she needs Karpov, and the protocols, and her chamber to make the pain stop. She needs this woman with the voice that seems to call to her, to stop. Stop with the words that rattle around in her head like stones in a jar, threatening to break the glass.
"Shut up." Winter says, her voice strained as she tries not to show her pain. "Shut up! Shut up… Eng… Eng…" Her free hand flies up to her temple to press against the pounding as she shakes her head as if trying to dislodge something. "Shut up English!" There's a pair of structural beams over their heads with a haphazard web of cables and wires holding back a storm of shattered glass, Winter aims for the wires, and fires several shots.
On instinct Peggy scoops up her shield and dives towards Natasha to protect her from the beam and falling glass, tucking them both beneath the vibranium.
Winter spares Peggy one last look before making her escape. "You…" She says in a broken whisper. "You talk too much."
Angie's gone by the time Peggy gets to her feet and runs after her. She'd been wearing a SHIELD uniform with an access card badge; she could be anywhere by now. Peggy scans the area with her dark wide-eyed gaze and then screams as she punches the closest wall. She can't lose her again! Pulling her hand out of the hole in the wall, Peggy shakes off the chunks of plaster and dust that stuck to her hand and then turns with determination to pick a path and go find Angie. But Fury calls out her name, congratulates her on a successful operation, thanks her for saving SHIELD, and then starts talking about debriefings and conversations with world leaders. Peggy's shoulders slump, her eyes being to sting with unshedable tears, and calls Fury every insulting curse word she can think of as she walks with him in silence back to his command center.
Once Peggy finally frees herself of the debriefings, and the hours of standing before video screens and holo-projected world leaders answering an endless barrage of questions, and a trip to the American Oval Office to do it all over again, she heads home with the intentions of formulating a plan to go out and find Angie. When she steps into her loft, Peggy is more than a little surprised to find Natasha sitting on her sofa with a glass of wine. There's a pizza on the coffee table along with the bottle of wine Natasha's drinking from, and an empty glass. There's also a thick document envelope which Peggy eyes as she tosses her keys in the bowl by the door. "How did you manage to break free of the bureaucrats so quickly?"
Natasha reaches for the wine bottle and begins filling the empty glass. "Fury, Hill, they respect my thoughts, options, and ideas. The men in charge of the world beyond SHIELD, not so much. To them I'm just a tool, an asset to be used in their favor, and a potential threat if I were to be out of what they think is their realm of control." She sets the bottle down and reaches for the glass, which she holds out for Peggy to take once she's sitting beside her. "You on the other hand, you, they'll listen too."
"Listen too, but not respect?" Peggy raises an eyebrow as she accepts the wine as she reads between the lines of what Natasha is saying.
"Do you think they respect you?" Natasha asks in reply.
Peggy snorts. "I may be a war hero, a super soldier, but I'm still a war hero super soldier with tits, and even though times have changed, they haven't changed enough, so no." She sips the wine and shrugs. "Though perhaps some of them do, it's still hard to tell." She sighs, rolls her head on her shoulders, sips some more wine and then asks, "What are you doing here, Natasha?"
The redhead reaches for the thick envelope and tosses it into Peggy's lap before opening the pizza box and grabbing a slice.
Peggy sets her wine glass aside so she can unwind the red string keeping the envelope closed. She has a maelstrom of questions and feelings all whooshing around in her head with no idea where to even begin getting a hold of them all. As she slides out a package of documents, some she can already see are in Russian, she finally asks, "What is this?"
"Leads." Natasha answers. "Places to start your search for her."
"Why are you giving me this?" Peggy asks next, a little wide eyed with surprise.
"Because you're not the only one who recognized the Winter Soldier, though I had no idea she was the Winter Soldier, even to us the Winter Soldier was a kind of boogeyman." Natasha explains softly. "The woman you came crashing into the room with, the one you called Angie, I knew her, when I was younger. We called her Baba Yaga, she trained us, the very best of us, to be even better. But she also left us with a flaw."
Peggy raised her eyebrow again as she turned from the papers to look at Natasha. "What kind of flaw?"
"She left us, or at least, she left me, with a sliver of my humanity." Natasha's voice grew soft and quite as if sharing a secret that she didn't want taken away from her. "How's Sharon?"
Peggy blinked; a bit taken aback by the randomness of Natasha's question. "She'll be fine. Loads of stitches from where Rumlow sliced her arm, a bit of a knock to the head from the blow back, but otherwise she's fine. Fury isn't even mad that she blew up a bay of mini quinjets to get the son of a bitch."
"Good." Natasha relaxed as she let out a sigh of relief. "Barton was sent to kill me, you know. I'd been doing some pretty dark shit to survive after defecting, I was alone, scared, didn't trust anyone, and I ended up on SHIELD's shit list. He didn't follow through with his orders, obviously, morally against killing a kid, so he brought me back to SHIELD. I was like a feral kitten in a box, hissing and spiting and clawing at everyone I came into contact with. Except for Sharon, I trusted her almost instantly."
"Why?" Peggy asked as she watched Natasha closely. "Why Sharon?"
Natasha smiles in that soft way one does when recalling a memory. "Baba once told me the only person she ever truly trusted was a Carter. When Sharon told me her real name, I don't know, it just hit funny, and I threw caution to the wind and decided to trust a Carter too." Natasha's smile shifts a bit as she looks up at Peggy and says, "Your girl is in there somewhere, Peg. It isn't going to be easy to find her, even if you do manage to find the Winter Soldier, my people had decades to fuck with her head, but the fact that she remembered your name all those years ago, Angie has to be in there somewhere."
"Thank you, Natasha." Peggy says with genuine gratitude for her friend's help and understanding.
"I'll help when I can." Natasha replies with a shrug while grabbing another slice. "But SHIELD's a mess right now, Hill's gonna need my help helping Fury's ass clean it all up and setting things right again."
Peggy nods. "I understand, maybe I'll ask Sam to give me a hand."
The two women finish off the pizza and the bottle together and in a moment of levity Natasha asks, "So does finding out your war era girlfriend is still alive take finding a fuck buddy off the table?"
"Why are you offering?" Peggy teases back.
Natasha smirks. "I was going to, but now it would just be awkward."
Peggy chokes on her wine which sends Natasha into a fit of laughter.
The Smithsonian had curated an exhibit honoring Captain Britain and the 107th. The project had been started before Peggy's return, and had been delayed a bit following the discovery of her still being very much alive. The least she could do was make an appearance at the grand opening event, as a way of apologizing to the scholars and curators whose work had to be rethought and replanned. But Sam's concerns had value, and she knew it. Peggy had been so busy acclimating to the modern day she was now living in, that she hadn't really taken the time to deal with the past. Her dreams were plagued by the war, and most nights she awoke sweating, heart pounding, with the phantom sights, sounds, and smells clinging to her senses. After finding out that Angie was alive, those dreams became more intense and lingered in her mind for longer periods of time afterwards. So, Peggy called Sam and agreed to his idea of setting up a private reveal for her, and for the remaining Howling Commandos and Daughters of Liberty.
The huge banners with her image on them at the entrance caused Peggy to hold back a small groan. She had always hated being in the public eye, it went against every instinct she had as a spy, but the serum had made her into more than just a spy. It had made her into something more than just a super soldier. Peggy had been a source of hope for not only the men and women in the war, but the loved ones left behind. Past the large hanging banners was a wall with quotes from the U.S. President, "Welcome Back, Cap!" and the U.K.'s Prime Minister, "We are beyond pleased to have our Captain back." And the one that actually meant something to Peggy, "We welcome the pride of Britain back as we remain grateful for all she has done for us." Queen Elizabeth II. The wall labeling her a living legend and a symbol of courage was a bit to live up too though.
As Peggy passes into the main exhibit hall, she triggers a voice recording that calls her a hero to the world, and says her story is one of honor, bravery, and sacrifice. It's strange and a little uncomfortable to hear such things. She was just a woman doing her duty to King and Country, doing the right thing as a human being, a sister honoring the memory of her fallen brother, and a child honoring the person her parents had raised her to be. This, this all made her seem larger than life. Literally, there was a beautiful floor to ceiling piece of artwork depicting her as being larger than life, a bloody superhero.
There were screens everywhere playing out old newsreel clips of her, battle footage she hadn't even seen before, and clips of her with other soldiers, sailors, and civilian workers like the bomb girls of Canada and the land girls of England. Peggy pauses to watch herself carry children out of one of the camps she'd liberated and wondered if one of them had been the man in Berlin. Moving on, she stopped at a section where she's shown in her drab green uniform before the serum, and her identification picture from Bletchley Park. For her those moments in her life had been barely a decade ago. If she closed her eyes, she could still smell the coffee, cigarette smoke, and typewriter ink of the Bletchley offices she worked in. The replica of her motorcycle made her smile, as did seeing the display of uniforms worn by her Howling Commandos. Dum Dum's mannequin needed a mustache, it looked naked without one. Seeing Steve's iron giant actually gave Peggy a warm fuzzy feeling in her chest. Walking up to the massive personal tank, Peggy ignored the velvet ropes, and reached out to press her hand against the cool metal of its leg. "Hello old friend."
The feeling of comfort the old iron giant gave her allowed Peggy to move on to the section of the exhibit dedicated to the Daughters of Liberty. Peggy couldn't help but chuckle at how history had cemented Dum Dum's nicknames into the legend of their lives. Closing her eyes for a moment after watching a cluster of video interviews with Katie, Amanda, and Jaime, Peggy steady herself before turning toward the memorial for Angie. Finally turning to face the etched image of the person she loves; Peggy wasn't hit with any of the emotions she'd been expecting to feel. Reaching out once more in defiance of the museum rule of not touching things, Peggy caressed the image of Angie and felt herself taken up with a strong sense of determination and hope. She was going to find Angie, she was going to bring her home and get her help, she was going to bring her darling back to her. And God have mercy on anyone who tried to stop her.
"I miss her too." Steve's voice is gentle, a soft whisper full of grief over the loss of his friend.
Peggy wants nothing more than to spin around and tell Steve that Angie is alive, but she can't, not here. She and Natasha agreed that it would be best to keep Angie between themselves and a very select few, Sam because Peggy would need back up, and Steve because they both trusted him completely. So instead of shouting her news, Peggy turns slowly to face Steve with a small but warm smile. "She'd get a kick out of all of this, though she would agree with me that Dum Dum's mannequin needs a mustache."
Steve smiles. "I'm sure we can work that out with one of the curators."
Closing the distance between them, Peggy hugs Steve hello and then as she's pulling away, she says, "I need to speak with you alone, Steve. Come to my flat before you leave D.C., sooner the better."
"Of course, Peg." Steve agrees.
There aren't many Howling Commandos left. Steve is still around and in good health because of the serum. He walked her back to the entrance of the exhibit where the others waited, if not the men themselves then their children, grandchildren, even a great grandchild. Pinky Pinkerton was in a wheelchair but as soon as he laid eyes on her he struggled to his feet with the help of his grandson to salute her. Junior Juniper introduced her to his daughter, Angela. James Falsworth held her face in his aged and trembling hands and held back tears as he welcomed her home. Gabe Jones was no longer with them, but Peggy got to meet his SHIELD agent grandson, Antoine. Jacques Dernier, Jim Morita, and Sam Sawyer were all gone but had good lives. Peggy found herself deeply missing Dum Dum, his absence strongly felt, but Lorraine was there. Apparently, she and Dum Dum married after the war and they'd had seven children, six sons and a daughter they called Maggie. "He wanted a girl he could name after you so badly." Lorraine said with a chuckle while clutching Peggy's hands in her own. "She was her daddy's world." Amanda Fraiser remained with the Royal Canadian Air Force while raising her family. Jaime Bering had been chief of SHIELD's London office, after her retirement she became a successful author. Katie Danvers was also SHIELD for a time, after she left, she bought a small book and tea shop in Dublin, where she's lived with her wife of nearly fifty years.
So many lives lived happily through good times and bad. A week ago, this would have just reminded Peggy of everything she'd missed out on while in the ice, and the overwhelming pressure to find a life to live now. But now that she knows Angie is out there somewhere too, looking forward isn't as painfully lonely as it had once seemed. So, at the end of the reunion when Sam asked her if she was ok, Peggy could honestly say that she was and that she would explain why soon.
The next morning in the safety of her flat Peggy told Steve about Angie. He promised to help Peggy in any way he could, either in finding Angie or helping Angie once she was found. He also reassured Peggy that he had no doubt that she would find Angie and bring her home. With Steve and Natasha on board, there was only one person left to reach out too.
"I have already asked a lot of you Sam." Peggy said as she handed him a cold bottle of beer from her fridge. "I don't want it to seem as if our friendship is all about me asking you to run headlong into danger with me every other week, especially since this one is more personal than helping me defend SHIELD."
"You're my friend, Peggy." Sam replies easily. "If you need my help I'm there. Besides, I've felt more alive these past few months than I have in a long time. What do you need me to do?"
Peggy smiles as she reaches for a book on her end table, it's old, one of her favorites that had been in the box of her things that Steve had returned to her. From it she takes a picture of herself and Angie and hands it to Sam. "Her name is Angie, and she's the person I was going to spend my life with after the war." She pauses for a moment, not because she's unsure of his reaction to her and Angie, he had made comments about her and Natasha in the past, but because she was unsure of how he would react to what she said next. "She's also the woman from the rooftop, the Winter Soldier."
She fills Sam in on what she knows so far and warns him that looking for Angie is totally off the books. Sam agrees to help her. Pierce admitted to killing the man who turned Angie into the Winter Soldier, causing the Winter Soldier to kill him in return. But Pierce killing Karpov meant he knew the last location of where the Russian had held Angie. Given the fact that shooting Pierce in the hell felt like a personal move on the Winter Soldier's part, Peggy wanted to see if perhaps she'd gone back to the last place she'd been with Karpov.
They had no idea when Pierce had actually gotten his hands on Angie, but Peggy would put good money on her return playing into him feeling he needed a super soldier of his own. "He assumed I would be affiliated with SHIELD, loyal to Fury, and would need someone capable of tangling with me."
Natasha and Sam agreed, so they started looking into Pierce's movements since Peggy's return. They also looked into Rumlow's because Pierce wasn't the kind of man to do the hard work himself. The first solid lead they were able to find was an old fallout shelter under an old bank that had been shut down years ago. There was a large metal chair with restraints at the ankle, wrist, and head, and a machine with wire leads beside it. The settings on the machine churned Peggy's stomach. No normal human being would be able to withstand the voltage the machine was set to. Peggy herself would suffer a great amount of pain at those settings. It must have been agonizing for Angie. There was also a large cryogenic pod reminiscent of the vita ray machine she herself had once stepped out of after undergoing the serum.
"You alright, Cap?" Sam asks gently as he watches her.
Peggy reaches out and presses her fingertips to the glass of the pod's little window. "It's a cruel and twisted bit of fate that Angie and I should both end up here in this time and place. While I slept unaware and peaceful in the ice, she was used and abused, tortured and forced to do things she wouldn't have done if she were herself."
"We'll find her, Peggy." Sam reassures. "And you'll find a way to help her."
Peggy smiled a small, warm, smile of gratitude for Sam's support. Then she looked at the pod once more, closed her eyes, and whispered. "Where are you, my darling?"
The crowds buzzed around her as she stood in front of the glass with her face etched into it. The name beside her face read, Angela 'Angie' Martinelli. Was that who she was? Was that her name? It's what the Captain had called her. Angie. She'd also called her darling and my love, was that who she was too? What was her connection to the Captain? Walking over to one of the screens she watches herself and the Captain, watches the way they look at each other, the smiles they try to hide. Then the pain in her head surges again and she has to get away, away from these images, away from this place, and away from that woman. So, Winter runs, but Angie is no longer hiding in the deepest depths of her own mind. Peggy was alive, her English was alive! And Angie knew that no matter where Winter ran, Peggy would find her, and she would get to reclaim what was hers, her body, her mind, her life, her love.