What If...
"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Phil Coulson called out through the walker talkie.
Nick Fury stared out into the distance where the god of mischief and one of his best agents had driven off to into the dead of night. "The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down. Hill?" he asked.
"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors." Maria answered.
"Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that brief case." Fury ordered
"Roger that." Maria confirmed.
"Coulson, get back to base. This is a LEVEL SEVEN. As of right now, we are at war." Fury notified
"What do we do?" Phil asked never having been under a situation such as the one they were in at the moment.
Fury paused for a moment deep in thought calculating his next move. There was no other way.
"Bring everyone in." Fury said.
"Everyone?" Phil asked. "Including…"
"Sir I would suggest reconsidering calling her in. She left very clear instructions not to be disturbed." Maria said sounding fearful.
"I don't care if she's on vacation. I want her brought in by whatever means necessary. Assemble all available strike teams to her last known location. They have authorization to use lethal force if necessary." Fury said.
Hours Later-
Somewhere in an old, almost WWII-esque boxing gym, Steve Rogers worked out some of his pent up anxiety by throwing jabs at a punching bag. Every punch was him trying to push away the memories of everything and everyone he left behind.
There's not enough time! I gotta put her in the water! Steve shouted.
Steve's rage keeps building as he punches the bag. It gets harder...
"Steve please, don't do this. We can find another way." Nora cried.
Steve closes his eyes. Goes at the bag harder.
"Nora…this is my choice." Steve said.
"Please Steve, don't do this. Don't leave me alone." Nora begged.
Steve opens his eyes and fuckin' tears the bag as the last memory kicks in.
"It's okay Nora, you'll be okay. This was always supposed to happen. The three of us together to the end of the line. At least this way I can see him again. He won't have to wait alone." He said, his voice cracking at the end. "Maybe this time he'll have enough time to teach me how to dance before we meet again."
Steve growls as he throws one last jab tearing the bag open, off its chain, spilling out the sand. He stands, breathing hard, trying to hold the tears back. He caught his breath before picking up another punching bag. He hooks the bag up and starts punching again as Fury walked in.
"Trouble sleeping?" he asked already knowing the answer.
"I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill." Steve said unwrapping his hands.
"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world.
Steve put the bandages away before sitting down. "I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." Steve said.
"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently." Nick said.
"You here with a mission, sir?" Steve asked knowing this was a long time coming.
"I am." He confirmed.
"Trying to get me back in the world?" Steve said.
"Trying to save it." he said handing Steve a file on the Tessaract and on what hydra was planning on using it for.
"Hydra's secret weapon." Steve noted feeling the anger build up inside of him.
"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs." Fury explained.
"Who took it from you?" Steve asked.
"He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know." Fury said.
"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." Steve said genuinely believing that.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment." Steve turned and picked up a punching bag before walking out of the gym. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"
"You should have left it in the ocean." Steve said.
"Nora said the same thing." Nick said making Steve stop.
"You said…" Steve started.
"We were advised that dropping news like that so soon and abruptly would hinder your progress and should wait until you were better adjusted." Nick said.
"She's alive?" Steve asked.
"She is, she helped found SHIELD along with Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. She actually recruited me." Nick said. "I sent for her, hopefully she'll join us. We could use her help."
"I'll go pack a bag." Steve said walking out of the gym.
"I should warn you, she's not the same person you knew back in 1945." Nick said.
"I don't care. She's still soulmate." Steve said.
After Stuttgard-
The guards escorted Loki through the halls of the hellicarrier. The guards surrounded him and kept their guns aimed at him as they moved. When they turned the corner another squadron of guards came in except all of them looked beaten and battered as they carried a young woman by her arms. Her cuffs looked even more reinforced than his but that wasn't what surprised him. He had seen her before. She turned to look at him and she stared right at him in passing before she was dragged away.
Meanwhile in the Hellicarrier control room…
After Loki was Interrogated Fury returned to the control room where the team he had assembled were already discussing what they had just learned and sharing intel. Maybe they did stand a chance.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury said walking in.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve pointed out.
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury said.
"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said.
"I do! I understood that reference." Steve said proudly.
"Director Fury, package is secure and incoming." Hill said.
"Package?" Tony asked as a squadron of Agents armed to the teeth walked in still in formation.
"Oh boy." Natasha muttered taking in their battered appearance.
"Status report." Fury ordered.
"Package retrieved in Marrakesh at 0800 local time. Twenty agents were taken down and are currently being treated in Ansbach." They reported.
"Woah." Tony said.
"Stand down." Fury ordered. The agents hesitated before they put her down and moved out of the way so he could see her.
"You are not an easy person to find." Fury said.
"Nora." Tony said.
"That was the point." Nora answered with a glare. Her finger twitched and the cuffs and chains broke off. She lifted her arms, her hands glowing, and the two Strike leaders were thrown against the wall and lifted up by their necks, choking them in a Darth Vader like manner.
"Ah!" They choked and struggled against their invisible restraints.
"Nora!" Tony shouted at his daughter.
"You've ignored me for twenty years, you can do that for five more minutes Tony." Nora said not bothering to even look at him.
"Rumlow, Rollins, which one of you idiots pulled the trigger?" Nora asked as they continue to struggle.
"Nora. Let them go" Fury said raising his arm to stop everyone from trying to point their guns or trying to get close to her. The only one that hadn't reached for her weapon was Natasha.
"Please Nora." Steve said trying to reason with her.
"I'll get to you in a minute Spangles." Nora said.
"Nora, I gave the order to bring you in by whatever means necessary." Fury said.
"I don't ask for much Nick. I do my job, I clean up your messes and keep this place running and even put up with that useless council. I haven't taken a single sick day since the day SHIELD was founded. So when I decide to take a vacation for the first time in twenty years I expect you to lose my number until I get back!" She shouted making the hellicarrier shake.
"The Tessaract's been stolen." Nick said and just like that she let Rumlow and Rollins fall to the ground.
"What?" She said turning to look at him. "I fucking told Howard to leave that thing in the ocean. Ah." She said shaking her head and wincing in pain. "Who took it?" She asked pinching her eyebrows together.
"My brother Loki." Thor said.
"We have him in a cell." Natasha said.
"So go get him to talk." Nora said.
"I was already on my way." Natasha said walking away stepping over Rumlow and Rollins who were still trying to catch their breaths.
"Why is my daughter here?" Tony demanded glaring at Fury.
"Daughter?" Everyone said surprised.
"Only when he remembers." Nora added walking to the computers and getting into the system to see what intel they had.
"Nora, Wha… how?" Steve said.
"Wait how do you two know each other?" Tony said surprised.
"She's my soulmate." Steve said.
Tony was quiet before he started laughing. "Oh, that's a good one Cap but there's one tiny problem with that. My daughter doesn't have any soulma…" he started before Nora pulled up her sleeves and held up both of her wrists for her father to see leaving him speechless.
"Are you done gaping like a fish so you can get to work?" Nora said.
"Doll, why are you acting like this?" Steve asked.
"Wow, that freezer burn must've killed a lot of your brain cells. Seventy years later and you still can't tell." Nora said.
"What are you…" Steve started before Nora made her eyes glow bright green making Steve's face pale. "You're the time stone."
"Time Stone?" Tony asked confused.
"Aya is actually my name.." Aya said with a smirk.
"What the hell is going on? You're not my daughter?" Tony asked.
"Yes and No. It's her body." Aya said. "I've been inside of her since Geneva."
"That… that was two years ago." Tony said.
"For you. For Nora and I it's been sixty-eight years. Time is a matter of perspective. Them all the jumping through time does make it hard to keep track." Aya said.
"No, no that's not possible. You can't be Nora. I talked to her yesterday and she was alright. She was normal." Tony said.
"2012 Nora does live with me. She's such a pain. So whiney and annoying. The Nora I'm in is from 2016. I took her back to 1950 to each her a lesson and well… she didn't take it to well." Aya said.
"What does that mean?" Steve asked worried.
"She needed to understand that death is a part of life. That sometimes there is no other way around it and that hard choices have to be made. She learned her lesson in Ferrdows but the guilt… it broke her and I took over. That was over thirty years ago. I've been behind the wheel since then." Aya said. "I have to say she held out a lot longer than I thought she would. All of my old hosts broke down after the fifth time jump or earlier. I thought watching this one kamikaze into the ocean or even watching Bucky fall would have done it but no. She held out for thirty years. You should be proud." She told Tony who looked furious.
"You mean to tell me the Nora that recruited me is dead?" Fury asked.
"Oh she's very much still alive. Hasn't shut up the entire time we've been here. She's begging to be let out and hug this one." Aya said waving towards Steve. "But I like being in control after billions of years having to banter and coerce mortals into doing something it's nice to be in charge."
"I want to talk to my daughter." Tony said. "Now!"
"Then you should call her before she gets on that plane and hope she answers." Aya said.
"Plane? What plane?" Tony asked.
"Where is she going?!" Steve demanded.
"Spoilers. This is your last chance, if not you're going to have to wait six very long months." Aya said.
"Why Six months? Where is she going?!" Tony yelled.
"Clock's ticking." Aya said. "If you find the Tessaract I might tell you where she is."
To Be Continued?
…Aya didn't send Nora back to her time after Ferrdows. Instead her decision that day finally broke her will and Aya took over.