Undercover Location. 2014.
Maria opened the door to the workers entrance of an old dam that was no longer in use. I still couldn't recall the exact steps we had taken, following Maria, to get us here. But I knew that had we stayed in the back of that van, there was little to nothing we could have done to prevent us from now being dead.
Natasha was being supported by both Sam and Steve as we headed down the damp hall only to be greeted by a man with a stethoscope around his neck and a concerned expression on his face.
"GSW. She's lost at least a pint." Maria said as the doctor instantly began examining Natasha's wounds.
"Maybe two." Sam offered.
"Let me take her." The doctor said but Maria shook her head.
"She'll wanna see him first." I furrowed my eyebrows as Natasha cast a confused glance my way.
We followed Maria down the hall and into a large, mostly empty space that was only occupied by a cube of plastic sheeting. Maria approached it and pulled it to one side and I heard myself audibly gasp. Nick Fury lying still alive, barely, but breathing in his bed. He opened his eye and examined Nat, Steve and I closely.
"Well it's about damn time."
The doctor had Nat sat at the end of Fury's bed as he began work on her shoulder, pressing down harshly on the wound. Sam was indifferent to the man he didn't know but I kept close to Maria. Fury and I had never been particularly close, but it had been a shock when I'd heard of his death and I was even more shocked now.
"…lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver and one hell of a headache."
"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor said without looking up from Natasha's shoulder.
"Let's not forget that. Otherwise I'm good."
"But they cut you open." Natasha said. "Your heart stopped."
"Tetrodotoxin B. It slows the pulse to one beat a minute, Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him but we found a use for it."
"Why all the secrecy?" Steve interjected suddenly. "Why not just tell us?"
"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful." Maria explained.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead." Fury said. "Besides…" he looked between Steve and me. "I wasn't sure who to trust." I caught Natasha looking mildly uncomfortable, it was clear the statement had hurt her slightly, but she wasn't going to make that obvious to everyone.
I could understand why Fury had trust issues, I certainly did but why he felt he could trust Steve over Nat and I did hurt a little. We'd been following his orders and fulfilling his missions for over ten years each, Steve had only been in the 21st century for a little over two years. But the more I mulled it over the more it made sense, Nat and I were born from secrecy, lies and espionage. Steve was born from freedom, fighting for other people's freedom and a strong sense of what it wrong and right. That will always be a fundamental difference between us.
I sat next to Maria as we all gave Fury the time he needed to digest the information Steve, Nat and I had supplied him with. He held a black and white photo of Pierce in his hand.
"This man declined a Nobel Peace Prize. He was peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." He sat forward and looked between Nat and me.
"See it's stuff like this, that gives me trust issues."
"We have to stop the launch." Nat said simply.
"I don't think the council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury said as he opened a small briefcase.
"What's that?" Sam questioned.
"Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized."
"And like Sitwell said, they'll start locating and executing whoever fits Zola's algorithm as being a threat to HYDRA." I said.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury said.
"One or two won't cut it, we need to link all three carriers for this to work." Maria stated.
"Because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."
"We have to assume that everyone on board those carriers are HYDRA. We have to get past them, insert these server blades and maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left…"
"We're not salvaging anything." Steve interjected. "We're not just taking down the carriers Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."
"SHIELD had nothing to do with this." Fury argued.
"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Fury questioned. "I noticed."
"How many paid the price before you did?" I felt Fury look between Nat, Maria and me before realising we were actively avoiding eye contact with him.
"Look, I didn't know about Barnes."
"Even if you had would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that to? SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes."
"He's right." Maria said simply. Fury then looked to Nat who slowly sat back in her chair, getting her closer to Sam and Steve making her position clear. Fury glanced to me and I made my feelings clear without needing to utter a word. In a last stitch attempt, he looked up to Sam.
"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."
Fury sighed before sitting back in his chair, looking round eat of us one last time.
"Well. It looks like you're giving the orders now Captain."
"Leyna." Steve's voice pulled me from the mental slump I had found myself in. I hadn't realised I'd simply been staring at a wall, but my mind had gone to somewhere completely different, almost like I'd disassociated from reality but as soon as I blinked everything was just as urgent as before.
"You okay?" Steve asked. "We never really spoke about what happened at Camp David."
I shrugged my shoulders, brushing it off.
"I'm fine. What's up?"
"I need a ride."
"You know," I said through gritted teeth as I finally managed to pick the lock of the security door into the Smithsonian. "Lock picking…not my forte." Steve smiled as the door swung open and we stepped inside.
"Remind me why we're breaking into the Captain America exhibit." I asked as we made our way through the halls. The museum was yet to open but we still ran the risk of being spotted by one of the many security guards the roamed the halls.
"My uniform." Steve said as we reached the particular display he was looking for. Steve's original uniform was at the front, the traditional garish red white and blue stars and stripes from the war. His howling commando's behind him and one caught my eye.
"He's so different now." Steve said quietly, almost like he'd heard my thought process.
"Seventy years is a long time." I almost whispered. The man on the wall was miles away from the soldier that I knew.
"Did you know?" Steve asked suddenly.
"What?" I replied, noticing his clenched fist.
"Did you know about Bucky?"
"No. Steve. I knew the solider, the assassin who trained me, who was ordered to beat me until I no longer feared pain or was smart enough to avoid it. I had no idea that person had ever been anyone else. When his mask fell off in the street, that was the first time I'd seen his bare face."
"Why should I believe you?" I chewed on my lip before shrugging.
"You shouldn't…but can you afford not to? And I'll make you a deal, if we both live through this. I'll be completely transparent with you."
"Completely?" Steve questioned.
"Maybe not completely. But I'll tell you everything I know. You say there's someone else in the soldier's head – he can't be any worse than the man we dealt with yesterday." Steve smiled slightly.
"He would have liked you. Back…before serum's and wars."
"No one likes me." I crossed my arms over my chest as Steve removed the uniform from the mannequin.
"I don't know. I'm starting to."