Chapter One: Frenemies In High Places

A/N: I should note that in this, Sharon wasn't dusted during the Snap. Also Brock Rumlow died in 2016 but in a different manner, but we'll get to that ;)

Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed so far!

2024, Las Vegas

"This is a joke, right?"

Dulcinea Rook paced outside Bellefleur Casino with a fliptop phone older than Teddy pressed to her ear, sticking to the shadows to avoid being overheard. On the main street, cars whizzed past at breakneck speed, and every few seconds a horn blared.

When she took calls from clients and associates, she always used her throwaway phone with the replaceable SIM card. Her nails drummed against the jewelled bedazzling that teenage Dulcinea had clearly decided was a rad idea.

"Why would this be a joke, Miss Rook?" Baron Helmut Zemo didn't sound amused so yeah, Dulcinea guessed it wasn't really a joke.

"You were in prison," she hissed, casting around to make sure she wasn't overheard. After everything that had happened with the Avengers, Zemo had been taken into custody, and Dulcinea had vanished as she was so prone to doing when things didn't go according to plan.

"And now I'm not." Zemo offered no more explanation than that. Frustratingly, he'd always been the sort of guy who was scant on the details.

Dulcinea's involvement with Zemo had been...ill-advised. She hadn't known that her help would lead to him breaking apart the fucking Avengers. She had just been a criminal contact, someone who'd managed to point Zemo in the right direction and given him a head start. Fortunately, her name had never come to light after everything happened, because she thought she'd be locked up in a cell too if it had.

So why was Zemo calling her, a woman who he'd had a professional involvement with eight years ago? And why was he urging her to come to Madripoor, a place she'd only just managed to escape from over the past few years?

"Things are different now. I have a kid…"

He chuckled. "No, you don't."

"I mean, he's not biologically mine," Dulcinea snapped, annoyed that Zemo had clearly been sticking his nose into her files, "But I'm not leaving Teddy in Vegas, and I'm sure as shit not dragging him to Madripoor."

"Ah, but isn't that where you found him?"

Shivers crawled up Dulcinea's spine. So he had done some digging. He couldn't possibly have anything on Teddy, but Dulcinea hadn't exactly made a secret of the fact that she'd all but adopted the boy.

"Alright, you got me, Zemo. What is it?"

"I'm not alone. I've got company. I'm with James Barnes and Sam Wilson."

Dulcinea was quiet for a long moment. That was the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Two people who Zemo definitely wasn't friends with, since he'd tried to frame Barnes for killing King T'Chaka of Wakanda.

"Okay, what the fuck?"

"Barnes was kind enough to help me out of prison."

"With what motive?" If those two had released Zemo, there had to be something more going on than he was telling her. Dulcinea didn't believe for a second that Barnes and Wilson had forgiven Zemo for everything he'd done.

"They're creating super soldier serum in Madripoor."

Dulcinea's entire body tensed, and she glanced down the alley at the steps to the side entrance of the Bellefleur, where Teddy was playing his Nintendo Switch, brow furrowed in concentration. Zemo couldn't possibly know what Teddy was...could he? Dulcinea had been smart, she'd covered their tracks. At every given opportunity, she'd exposed her own powers before Teddy's...no matter how much it haunted her, no matter what ghosts of the past it roused.

"And?" She kept her tone cool.

"I need you to get me a meeting with Selby."

Anger flared within her at the thought of that woman. Dulcinea had bad blood with Selby, but the older woman was also one of the few contacts in Madripoor that she had. This idea was looking more and more terrible by the second.

"No. Absolutely not."

Zemo sighed as if she was a petulant child throwing a tantrum. "Dulcinea, you are one of the few people she will speak to."

"Because she's scared as shit of me." Dulcinea grip on the phone tightened. "I'm not the Bone Lady anymore, Zemo."

"We all become things we don't like in order to get what we want."

"Stop the enigmatic bullshit. What's going on?"

"Barnes and Wilson want some background information on a terrorist group known as the Flag Smashers."

Dulcinea had heard of them. The group had managed to create eight super soldiers, and they were causing problems across the globe. On the steps, Teddy swore and glowered at his Switch, clearly not doing well in whatever game he was playing.

For him, she told herself. The kid had told her everything he could remember of his background, but there were gaps, lapses in his memory. What if uncovering what was happening with the serum in Madripoor meant answers about Teddy's past? The boy deserved closure, if nothing else.

"Fine," Dulcinea ground out, "I'll set up the meeting with Selby. I'll come to Madripoor. But my condition is that, under no circumstances is Teddy involved in any of this."

"Of course," Zemo said smoothly, though Dulcinea didn't trust him at all. She flipped the phone shut with a satisfying snap. Raking her hands through her hair, she blew out a deep breath and thought about just how fucked she was going to be. This was a bad idea, and she knew that.

"What is it?" Teddy strode over, shoving his Switch in his bag. He had a few inches on Dulcinea now, and she kept reminding herself that he wasn't a child anymore. He was almost fifteen years old, and he'd seen horrors just like she had. Treating Teddy like a kid would only make him upset and frustrated.

"We're going to Madripoor." Dulcinea sucked in a deep breath at the shadow that passed over Teddy's face. "I've got business there. The man who's asked me to meet him there has...a lot of dirt on me. Things that can't get out into the open."

"Okay." Teddy shrugged his shoulders. Not much fazed him, a stark contrast to the nervous mess he'd been when he first met Dulcinea. He had a good heart and a sweet nature, but none of that would matter if Zemo found out what he was. Dulcinea pressed a kiss to his cheek and ruffled his dark hair.

"We need to be careful, alright? No...extraordinary stuff."

"I swear on the Switch." Teddy held up a hand in a solemn salute, making Dulcinea crack a smile.

"Alright, but if I hear the kind of language I did a few minutes ago, that Switch is going in the trash."

Shoving her fliptop phone in her bag, she pulled out her iPhone and rattled off a single text, pure and simple.

I need a favour.

Dulcinea Rook had always been good at games. When she'd been a kid growing up on her mum's farm in Texas, her uncle Caleb had taught her chess. Even when she learned to master the moves on the board, Caleb managed to beat her every single time. As she'd grown more frustrated, he'd taught her a useful skill.

"You can read the whole game on your face, Dulcie. When you're losing, you look sour. When you're winning, you look smug. If I can already see everything written in your expression, I can read your every move."

Dulcinea had gotten better at chess after that, and other games too. Her favourite game was when she put on the mask of the pretty Southern belle. People didn't necessarily trust a dazzling smile, but they sure as shit weren't scared of a petite blonde in her early thirties, even if they should be.

It was that mask Dulcinea wore—along with a little black dress that flaunted more cleavage than she reckoned she'd shown in a couple years—when she met Zemo, Barnes and Wilson at the Brass Monkey. This was Selby's territory, and though Dulcinea knew the older woman thought about her with a sense of dread, she also wasn't bold enough to overstep.

Fortunately, once she'd told Selby she was arriving and wanted to arrange a meeting, the woman had been unusually receptive. Crossing the bar to where a man with a metal arm was single-handedly thrashing Selby's grunts, Dulcinea hoisted a pretty smile across her lips, heels clicking across the bar as she caught Zemo's eye.

"Well, look who it is." Dulcinea leaned in to kiss Zemo's cheek, tilting her head to the side as she examined the two men with him. Disguised or not, these had to be Barnes and Wilson. "If you're done making a mess, I can bring you to Selby now."

"What a lovely surprise to see you." Zemo gestured to his companions. "My friend, Miss Rook."

"I prefer Dulcinea." She cocked her head toward the stairs. "Come on. You know full well Selby doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Dulcinea inhaled deeply through her nose as she headed upstairs. She hadn't seen Selby in years, and knew the woman would be pissed about capitulating. Good thing she'd sent Teddy to stay with a friend, because this was the sort of business she didn't want the kid involved in. In exchange for learning about his past, Dulcinea had bared her own, but not all of it. Not the darkest parts.

"You should know, Baron, people don't just come into my bar and make demands." Selby sprawled across one of the couches, sneering at Dulcinea. "Fortunately for you, the Bone Lady is one of the few people whose demands I will listen to."

Dulcinea clenched her jaw, but said nothing. It wasn't worth antagonising Selby, not when there was so much on the line. She silently cursed Zemo for getting them into such a sticky situation, but if anyone was going to have answers about the super soldier serum, it was unfortunately the middle-aged woman in front of them.

"Not a demand." Zemo sat down on a couch. "An offer."

"A lot has changed since you were here last." The insufferably smug look never left Selby's face. "By the way, I thought you were rotting away in a German prison. How did you escape?"

Zemo shrugged. "People like us always finds a way, don't we? I'm sure you already figured out what I'm here for."

Selby pointed at Wilson. "You're taller than I'd heard, Smiling Tiger." She turned her attention back to Zemo, her teasing quickly morphing into a hunger for business. "What's the offer?"

"Tell us what you know about the super soldier serum, and I give you him." Zemo rose to his feet, crossing over to Barnes, who remained immobile, standing at attention. "With the code words to control him, of course. He will do anything you want."

Dulcinea knew full well that the super soldier no longer heeded those commands, so she was interested to see exactly what Zemo was playing at. She forced herself not to look at either of them, planting her hands on her hips.

Selby smirked. "Now that's the Zemo I remember. I'm glad I decided not to kill you immediately. Yeah, you were right to come to me. Arrogant, but right. The super soldier serum is here in Madripoor. Dr Wilfred Nagal is the man you want to thank, or condemn, depending on what side of this you're on. The Power Broker had him working on the serum, but things didn't go as planned."

"Is Nagal still in Madripoor?" Zemo asked.

"Oh, the breadcrumbs you're getting for free." Selby laughed lightly. "But the bakery's gonna cost you, Baron, and before you get all cute don't think you can find Nagal without me."

Suddenly, Wilson's phone began to buzz. Selby turned to face him. Dulcinea refrained from rolling her eyes. What kind of idiot didn't put his phone on silent during a stealth mission? She glanced at Selby, who threw her a look of pure venom before turning her attention on Wilson.

"Answer it. On speaker."

He did, but Dulcinea's entire body was rigid with tension. Whoever the woman on the other end of the phone was, she messed up the moment she said: "Sam, I'm sorry, lemme call you back."

"Sam?" Selby's eyes narrowed to slits as she realised she'd been deceived. "Who's Sam? Kill them."

A gunshot ripped through the window and Selby hit the ground, dead. Dulcinea drew a Derringer from a holster on her thigh and shot one of Selby's men when he came at them. Even dressed to impress, she made sure she had a weapon somewhere on her. There was no way she wanted to resort to her powers.

The Bone Lady is dead and buried. I made sure of that.

"They're gonna pin this on us," Wilson said as they pressed against the door.

"We have a real problem now," Zemo admitted, glancing at Dulcinea as she put her gun back, "So leave your weapons and follow my lead."

Dulcinea was going to have some seriously harsh words with him when this was over, but right now, she had to admit listening to Zemo was their best bet. They emerged from the bar to immediate gunfire, making Dulcinea duck behind a dumpster and draw her Derringer again. Heels or not, she still had the ability to kick some serious ass. Fortunately, someone was sniping from above, taking down their would-be killers with precision. Dulcinea could hazard a guess.

"It seems you have a guardian angel," Zemo remarked.

"Well, this is too perfect." Sharon Carter walked over with a gun in hand, pulling back her hood. As glad as Dulcinea was to see the woman, she had to wonder where Teddy was. It had been Sharon's care she'd surrendered the teenager into, and the last thing she needed was Teddy getting caught up in the crossfire. "Drop it, Zemo."

"Sharon?" Bucky asked incredulously.

"You cost me everything." Sharon strode toward Zemo, before she turned to glare at Dulcinea. "You didn't tell me that you were with him, or them."

"I just needed Teddy with someone I trusted." Dulcinea shook her head slowly. She hadn't meant to deceive Sharon, one of the few actual friends she had in Madripoor. The last thing she needed was to make an enemy of her, especially when people would know she'd fucked Selby over.

"Sharon, wait." Wilson stepped forward, hands held high in surrender. "Someone recreated the super soldier serum and Zemo had a lead."

Sharon shook her head. "Well, that explains why you guys are here, and Selby's dead."

"So what are you doing here?" Barnes asked, which made Dulcinea cringe because she knew it was a sore spot for Sharon.

"I stole Steve's shield, remember? I also took the wings so that you could save his ass, from his ass. Unlike you, I didn't have the Avengers to back me up so I'm off the grid in Madripoor."

Wilson frowned. "Hey, don't blow that smoke at me, I was on the run too."

"Was, is, big difference. I don't speak to my family anymore. I can't. My own father doesn't know where I am."

"Sharon." Dulcinea stepped forward despite her friend's tight grip on the gun. "I can explain everything, but here isn't the time or the place."

"This isn't over." Sharon gestured for them to follow, making Dulcinea's shoulders slump in relief. "I have a place in Hightown, you should be safe there for a while."

Dulcinea had met Sharon in Madripoor about a year after she'd taken Teddy in. The woman had been bitter about where all the sacrifices she'd made for the Avengers had landed her, and Dulcinea couldn't say she blamed her. She'd never told Sharon about her association with Zemo though, so her friend was bound to have some questions. Fortunately, Sharon had a soft spot for Teddy.

"You're back!" Teddy barrelled into the room with a bowl of Trolli lollies, making Dulcinea sigh deeply at the prospect of a sugar-high teenager.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Alright, Mum," Teddy sniped back without any real heat, grinning as he shovelled yet another handful of lollies into his mouth.

"Wait, who's this?" Wilson frowned as he examined the teenager. "Is he your son?"

"I so did not have a kid at seventeen." Dulcinea pulled a face. "His name's Teddy. He's as good as my son, really."

"I think it's time we had some answers." Barnes glowered at her, certainly not as hospitable as his friend as he jerked an accusing finger at Dulcinea. "Who is she, Zemo? Why is she helping us?"

"So you didn't tell them." Dulcinea shot Zemo a sour look. "Thanks, Baron. Nice going."

"Dulcinea Rook is an old acquaintance of mine." Zemo's tone was casual as he sank into one of the mustard-yellow chairs. "I've known her for years. She has connections in Madripoor. I didn't realise they extended to Sharon Carter."

"I'm full of surprises," Dulcinea said with false cheer.

"Well, I'm hosting in an hour," Sharon announced, striding from the room before glancing back at the others, "So I'm going to get ready."

Wilson and Barnes filed out as well, leaving Dulcinea in the room with Teddy and Zemo. A jerk of her chin was all it took for the teenager to get the message, though he was scowling as he took his bowl of lollies and left the room. Zemo had poured himself a brandy, walking over to Dulcinea with an expression that was hard to read. Suspicion and intrigue, mostly.

"So, you do have friends in high places."

"You aren't the only one with friends." Dulcinea shrugged, pouring herself a brandy as well. She needed a drink after how the night had gone. "Or surprises up their sleeve, for that matter."

"How did we know that you didn't betray us?" Zemo used a gloved finger to tilt Dulcinea's chin up, but she just grinned, undeterred by his close proximity. She knew he was a master at manipulation, and she wasn't about to let him manipulate her.

"I didn't want to be here in the first place, remember? What good would it do me to turn on you?"

"Touche." Zemo sat down, swilling his glass of brandy before taking a sip. She tilted her head to the side and observed him. A couple years in prison didn't seem to have made much of an impact on him. He was almost the same as when she'd first met him in 2016, back when she hadn't known what a mess she was getting herself into.

"Why was it me you called, Zemo?"

"You had helped me before." Zemo shrugged his shoulders. "We had some history. I knew you were familiar with Madripoor. It seemed you were a wise choice, if I had to pick someone who would help me."

"Or because I see through your bullshit and I know you'd leak who I am and what I've done in a second if I didn't."

"Maybe." The hint of a smirk tugged at the corners of Zemo's lips. "You have grown up, Miss Rook. You're no longer the easily swayed young woman who told me where I could find Vasily Karpov."

"I'm thirty-one, I'd hope I'd be grown up."

"And the boy?"

Dulcinea smiled sweetly and took a sip from her brandy. "Teddy's not your concern."

"You never struck me as the maternal type. Besides, bringing a child to Madripoor?"

She set her glass down. "Teddy isn't a child. He's fourteen."

"A child, Dulcinea."

Was I a child? Some part of her wanted to ask, the bitterness rising to the surface. Was I a child when at fourteen, I was forced to become something I didn't ask for and never wanted? Was I a child when I became the Bone Lady?

"I told you, Baron." Her voice was flirtatious, but her eyes flashed danger. "Teddy isn't part of this."

Dulcinea noticed. She noticed the way he watched her. Not like she was some easily coerced twenty-something, not like she was the feared Bone Lady. Zemo knew the ugliness of her past, but he didn't know everything, and he didn't know Teddy. If she had to keep his attention on her to distract from Teddy, she would do so.

Zemo was many things, but he was a man. And men, Dulcinea knew a thing or two about.