66.

?, Austria

February 11th, 1945

There's a singular, dirt road that leads through the trees of the forests surrounding the factory, right up to the front gates.

Steve rides down that road on the motorbike Howard altered for him, his helmet securely on his head and his shield clipped onto his back. He revs the engine and speeds up, flying incredibly fast, the trees passing in a blur.

As he passes a fork in the road and continues straight ahead, he hears the buzzing of other motorbike engines behind him, and two seconds later, six Hydra agents on their own motorbikes emerge from the conjoining road behind him. They ride along behind him in two rows, their faces covered by black visors on their helmets.

Once they're lined up behind Steve, the two men at the front shoot from small guns attached to the handlebars. A bolt of blue energy like a lightning strike flies through the air and hits the shield on Steve's back, bouncing off into the sky.

Steve slows right down and makes a tight turn along the road, the men behind him having to slow down even further to get around two abreast. As Steve gets back on the straight, he presses two buttons on the control pad attached to the handlebar, and a string of wire shoots out from the back, attaching with small grappling hooks to two trees on either side of him, creating an almost invisible barrier that stretches across the road. Steve watches as the first two rows of men duck beneath the wire, having seen it shoot out, but the two riding at the back ride straight into the rope, the tension on it sending them flying backward off of their motorbikes, landing with a thud in the dirt.

Steve presses another button, and under the seat there comes a slight rumble. Seconds later, flames shoot out of the back of the bike in a massive fireball that catches alight the two men right behind Steve, sending their bikes careening off the side of the road into the trees as the men struggles to put out the fire that's engulfed them.

Steve turns back, and the last two men who'd been following him have disappeared. He can faintly hear the rumble of their engines over the bike beneath him. As soon as Steve turns back to face forward, the two men emerge from a small, hidden path running through the treeline, putting them in front of Steve. The Captain speeds up, and as he passes one of the men, takes the explosion device from the back of his bike, ignites it, and then throws it back over his shoulder as he zooms off, leaving a massive explosion in his wake that burns the two men and their bikes.

Ahead of him lies the massive concrete structure of the main entrance's gates. A large tank sits in the entrance way, the barrel of its cannon pointed right at Steve's approaching figure. He reaches around and takes the shield from his back, settling it on the handlebars in front of him as protection.

The tank shoots a ray of Tesseract energy and Steve swerves to avoid it, the beam hitting the ground behind him. It shoots again and again, either missing entirely of ricocheting off of Steve's shield. When Steve gets close enough, he employs the flame throwers attached to the front of the bike, sending two small missiles barrelling straight toward the tank and causing it to explode into flames, sending rubble everywhere as the explosion takes out part of the concrete gates.

Steve swerves to avoid the explosion, instead driving up the sloped edge of the gate, up onto the top of the way, and then jumping over the other side into the front yards of the base. He lands with a thud, the wheels of the bike protesting, but he forces it onward. Ahead of him is the bottom of the mountain that stretches up high into the sky ahead, a large metal door embedded into the rock at ground level.

He's immediately surrounded by Hydra agents who attempt to shoot at him from each side as he passes, but their aim is off, and they end up shooting each other or their own tanks.

Steve presses the final button on the control panel, stands up on the seat of the bike, and jumps off toward one of the tanks, leaving it to drive forward on its own. As Steve clears the tank he takes one of the agents with him, landing in a roll on the ground on the other side with his shield raised in front of him.

On the other side, the motorbike continues straight and drives right into the metal doors, exploding on impact. The blast is massive, fire rising into the air and blackening the rock of the mountain. It blows a hole in the doors and into the metal tunnels inside, taking out a few of the soldiers standing guard.

As soon as Steve is ready to fight, the men come at him. He flings the shield at the closest, sending him down with a thud and a yelp. Another agent comes at him, shooting with his Tesseract ray gun. The blasts hit the shield and Steve uses its protection to get closer, slamming the side of the shield into the agent's head and kicking him away into the tank. Another advances and Steve spins, slamming the shield into his chest. He forces the flat side of the shield into another's face, kicking him in the chest and sending him flying away a few metres into the air to land in a heap. He turns and slams his powerful fist into the neck of another.

Once the area's clear, Steve takes off through the rows of tanks and cars. In the corner of his eye, he sees two more agents heading toward him through the yard. He throws the shield between two tanks, hitting another at the end. The shield rebounds off the tank and straight into the path of the oncoming Hydra agents, hitting them both in the back of the head.

Steve grabs an agent in his path, slamming his fist into the side of the man's helmet, before picking him up and throwing him upward onto the top of the tank beside them. He turns just in time to catch the shield that comes flying back to him.

He turns to see who's attacking next, and finds two exo-suits on either side of him, closing in. They both have a flamethrower in each hand, and they point them outward, forming a circle around Steve and keeping him pinned to the spot. It's incredibly hot, and Steve feels himself heat up under the suit, the fire getting closer in warning when he takes even a step.

Eventually, the flames stop abruptly, and hundreds of Hydra agents surround Steve from all sides, Tesseract-guns pointed right at him. Steve slowly raises his hands, letting the shield clatter to the ground, and admits his defeat. There's no way he can take down these many men at once with how powerful their weapons are. He needs to stay alive and unharmed for the plan to work.

After a second of deliberation, a few of the agents step forward and grab Steve, another pointing a Tesseract-gun against his lower back, right on his spine, to warn him to behave. Steve allows the agents to drag him inside the base through the doors he blasted open. They weave through the hundreds of hallways, which all look the same – dark and metal – their boots thudding along the metal floors.

Finally, they come to a large elevator and step inside, the doors closing. The ride down is long, and Steve watches the small screen above the control panel that displays how many floors they've travelled down – lower one, lower ten, lower twenty, lower twenty-three.

The doors open and Steve is led out again, down a few more hallways. He's keeping track of their turns, how many doors they pass.

Eventually, they turn into a large, open room. There are multiple prototype weapons around, a large ray gun pointed right at the door they enter from, and also many maps and notes pinned to the dark walls. Steve suspects it's a base or office of some kind, most likely the Red Skull's. The guards lead Steve in, forceful hands holding his upper arms and shoulders. Steve looks to his left where large windows sit embedded into the wall, showing the edge of the mountain and the view of the Alps outside.

Suddenly, Steve sees movement from the darkness beside the desk, and a figure walks toward them. "Arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait, but I must say, you do it better than anyone," the familiar voice of Johann Schmidt mocks as he walks toward a subdued Steve, his features becoming clearer as he steps into the light. He comes to a stop right in front of Steve, and Steve stands a little straighter. "But there are limits to what even you can do, Captain. Or did Erskine tell you otherwise?"

"He told me you were insane," Steve retorts.

Schmidt's jaw clenches. "Ah," he breathes. He looks down to the star on Steve's chest, then back up to his face. "He resented my genius and tried to deny me what was rightfully mine. But he gave you everything," Red Skull says, a tinge of jealousy and resentment in his tone. "So, what made you so special?"

Steve breathes out a laugh. He shakes his head. "Nothin'. I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

Schmidt sneers at that and angrily lashes out, slamming his powerful fist into the side of Steve's face. He then hits his other side, Steve's helmet bashing painfully into his ear, before Schmidt's fist lands a painful blow to his stomach, causing Steve to hunch over in pain and grit his teeth. Steve falls to his knees, coughing, the Hydra agent's hands still firmly on his shoulders to control him. Steve coughs again, tastes a bit of blood. He looks up from the floor at the Red Skull standing over him, his red face morphed into a triumphant smile.

"I can do this all day," Steve pants, a bit of blood trailing down his chin from the cut on his lip.

"Oh, of course you can, of course," Schmidt agrees condescendingly. "But unfortunately, I am on a tight schedule," Schmidt says, pulling a cube-energy pistol from the pocket of his black coat and pointing it at Steve's head.

Schmidt pauses, finger on the trigger, when from outside they hear small grappling hooks smash into the rock just above the windows. Schmidt lowers the gun, frowning toward the window as they watch as, across the ravine between their mountain and one across the Alps, small figures are ziplining toward them.

"So am I," Steve grits out.

Steve grabs the soldier next to him and pulls him in front of him just as Schmidt fires, the Tesseract energy disintegrating the agent before Steve's eyes. At that second, three of the Howling Commandos burst through the glass, sending shards all over Schmidt's desk. Schmidt turns and escapes the room as Falsworth, Jones and Dugan begin shooting in a loud barrage that echoes incredibly loudly through the room. They aim at the Hydra agents in the room with their automatics, sending them all down in a heap.

Schmidt escapes the room, but Steve is caught up in a punching match with three agents who have surrounded him. He takes them down with a final hit before turning, searching for his shield.

"Rogers! You may need this!" Falsworth's voice calls, getting Steve's attention. He plucks the shield from the hands of a fallen agent and throws it to Steve, who catches it easily.

"Thanks!" Steve calls.

Steve runs out of the room into the hallway, looks both ways, and then runs to the right. He sprints down the hallway beneath the fluorescent lights, quickly getting lost in the chase for the running Red Skull.

Outside the factory in the forests surrounding the base, Peggy and Isabel stand beside each other, Phillips to their left. Isabel looks nervous, Peggy rather calm, and Phillips looks impatient, waiting with his radio in his hands.

Behind them is an entire infantry of Strategic Scientific Reserve agents and Allied soldiers prepared to aid them in taking the Hydra base. The men are dressed in their combat fatigues, boots on and helmets secure, their hands loaded with weapons. They listen in silence as there's explosion after explosion, but there's no way to tell what side the explosions come from.

Morita and Dernier have led another unit into the factory to get inside, entering rather dangerously through the vulnerable windows of Schmidt's office. Now, the rest of them await their call informing them that they've entered the factory, and then the assault team, led by Phillips and Peggy, will follow a cleared path into the factory through the main doors that Steve entered from.

"Remember," Peggy says to Isabel, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Keep your head. I know you're doing this to avenge Bucky, because I am, too. You can allow those emotions to fuel you, but don't let them control you. You still need to think before you act if you want to stay alive."

Isabel looks down at the rifle in her hands, then back up at Peggy. "I'll be fine," she promises eventually. "I have more than enough reason to stay alive."

Suddenly, the radio in Phillips' hands crackles to life. "We're in! Assault team, go!" Morita's voice yells into the comms over the sounds of gunfire and explosions.

"Move out!" Phillips yells.

Immediately, the soldiers start toward the Hydra base in a run, rifles ready. As they rush through the sparse forests and shrubs and emerge into the open fields surrounding the factory, the blasts of Tesseract energy begin, and a few of the men are disintegrated in a flash of blue when they're unlucky enough to get hit.

Phillips, Isabel and Peggy are positioned in the middle of the mass of men. It isn't that two of them are women, but that they're the ones who know about Hydra, they're the ones with the experience and the knowledge, and they can't risk any of them being injured or killed.

The clump of green moves toward the front gates of the factory where a line of Hydra agents and tanks is waiting for them, shooting repeatedly. A group of Allied tanks roll in behind them, shooting blasts over their heads and causing great explosions that cut through the Hydra defences. A Hydra tank upends, the men fly all over the place and very slowly. The defence dwindles.

Peggy all of a sudden grabs Isabel's hand and drags her to the side, cutting in front of the running men to the side of the mass. Isabel almost thinks Peggy might have changed her mind about Isabel going inside and might be trying to drag her to hide in the woods, but they never make it. They stop beside a Hydra tank that's stopped and is firing at the Allied soldiers. They squash up against the side of it so they can't be seen by anyone inside the tank, or anyone around it.

Peggy motions silently for Isabel to stay before climbing up the side of the tank. Isabel waits as requested, keeping her rifle ready. Peggy gets to the top of the tank, opens the manhole and then shoots three times, killing the three men inside. She disappears them, dropping inside the tank. Isabel watches as the barrel of the tank turns toward the doors of the Hydra base, slowly with a whir, before Peggy shoots the cannon. The blast of blue energy flies through the air and hits the not the main doors that have already been blown open by something, but into the hoard of Hydra soldiers in front of them. It clears most of the soldiers, sending their bodies flying with the force, disintegrating others. It lears the path for the Allies to push forward.

As Peggy climbs back out of the tank, rather satisfied with her work, the Allied soldiers get into the compound, wipe out any who survived the blast, and then filter into the hallways of the base. The first few men are disintegrated by blasts from the soldiers inside, but as soon as the danger disappears and the soldiers are taken care of, the men enter again and run through the factory hallways in search of more Hydra agents.

Peggy and Isabel run across the yard of the base and through the exploded doorway, joining up with the group once again. They run a little faster than the others and weave between them, attempting to catch up to Colonel Phillips who runs near the front of the group. They manage to make it close just as the mass rounds a corner and stumble across a lone Hydra agent, defiant and standing in the middle of the hallway.

The man glares. "Cut off one head, two more shall–"

Phillips cuts off the man's words by shooting a single bullet at him, bursting through his mask and hitting him between the eyes.

Phillips turns to his men, triumphant. "Let's go find two more!

Steve finally catches up to the Red Skull. He sprints down the hallway after him, blocking with the shield as Schmidt shoots backward at him with a Tesseract pistol.

Schmidt rounds the corner where one of the automatic metal doors is quickly closing. Schmidt squeezes through and continues on his way. Steve throws the shield with a grunt. It bounces off the wall around the corner and slams into the opening of the door, jamming in the frame and halting the door from closing any further, allowing Steve the ability to pass. There's a loud metallic thud.

Steve moves to follow but pauses when an exo-suit emerges from around the corner from where he'd come, two flame throwers in his hands. The flames spill out the end as the suit raises the guns and points them right at Steve. Steve quickly ducks into a small alcove on the edge of the tunnel as the flames just brush him, filling the entire hallway with heavy, hot flames.

Steve turns his head away from the flames, sweat breaking out on his forehead from the heat, his left arm that slightly sticks out feeling hot and burning slightly. He can hear the exosuit coming closer with stomping footsteps, but he has no way to take it down without risking being dangerously burnt again. He hasn't got the shield for protection, and a pistol isn't going to do much against the suit. Steve will have to use his own brute force.

Just as Steve's contemplating risking the burns, a round of machine gun fire comes from the other end of the hallway behind the suit and Steve stays hidden. The bullets hits the suit in the back and in the head, and after only a few shots, threaten to break through the metal of its helmet. The suit turns to its newest attacker, and a shot hits the flamethrower, causing it to explode, setting the suit and the man inside alight. He burns for a few seconds before he falls forward to his knees and then to the ground with a metallic thud.

Steve frowns at the sound of the exosuit hitting the ground and carefully looks around the wall into the hallway, seeing the suit unmoving on the ground. Beyond it is a group of Allied soldiers coming toward him, Peggy at the front with a machine gun and Isabel behind her beside Colonel Phillips.

Steve rushes out, jogging past the now-burning suit. The men are all unharmed, but their faces are set into frowns of determination. Steve nods to a few of them in thanks before he stops in front of Isabel and Peggy. Somehow, they both look flawless, despite invading a Hydra factory – Peggy's wearing a full face of makeup without a hair out of place, whilst Isabel's hair is pulled back into a neat pony tail, her uniform a little dirty but not terribly ruined.

"You're late," Steve notes.

Isabel smiles back. "Can't always be on time."

Steve leans in a little bit, most likely for a kiss, when Peggy clears her throat. "Weren't you about to…"

"Yes, Steve. Please, go," Isabel says with a small laugh, pushing on his arm to get him to chase after the Red Skull.

"Right," Steve says. He still kisses her anyway, because he isn't sure when he'll see her again, short but passionate like a fire within him. He pulls away and looks at her one moment. "For Bucky?" He asks.

Isabel gulps, and nods. "For Bucky," she agrees.

Steve hurries off to the door where the shield is still lodged, holding it open. He yanks it free and then slips through as the door shuts behind him, blocking Isabel and Peggy's view of him as he disappears.

Steve runs through the hallways and emerges into the massive hangar. The roof is higher than any other he's seen, cars and soldiers and small planes everywhere. There's a large runway leading to an opening at the end of the hangar, the snowy mountains just visible because it's so far away.

Steve's attention is immediately drawn to the massive plane, bigger than any he ever could have imagined, its engines whirring and spitting out hot air. The plane is sleek and modern and all black, almost looking like it belongs in space than in the sky.

Between Steve and the Valkyrie are hundreds of men, Hydra and Allied, fighting each other across the hangar. Shots fly through the air, explosions and bullets and blue blasts, and the men fall on both sides. Steve needs to get through them to the Valkyrie, which is slowly turning around to face the runway, having not gained any momentum as yet. He gets a running start, slamming the shield into one agent, initiating a punch on another without halting his run, running through a third with the shield raised.

There's a chain hanging from the ceiling above the men, and so Steve jumps up onto a piece of cargo and flies through the air, grabbing the chain with one hand, and with his other hand keeps his shield raised against him on the side of Hydra agents. He swings on the chain over the top of the men, managing to clear the bulk of the fighting, landing on the other side of them running.

Having cleared the barrage, Steve sprints after the Valkyrie as fast as he can, his legs pounding against the concrete flooring. Quickly, though, the plane gains speed and moves faster than him, and Steve falls behind. He stops, breathing hard, considering the plane to be long gone as he watches it race down the runway, when suddenly there's the sound of screaming brakes behind him and headlights pool on the floor beside him. Steve turns, and Phillips is driving Schmidt's sleek black car, Peggy sitting in the backseat.

"Get in!" Phillips yells, and Steve complies quickly, climbing over the door and into the passenger seat.

Phillips takes off before Steve is fully inside, the car speeding away. It's fast, powered itself by the Tesseract, and being an open-top, it blows them around forcefully. Peggy holds onto the back of Steve's chair, her neck straining to keep her head upright against the force of the wind, her hair whipping out behind her.

They catch up to the Valkyrie, which is still gaining speed with how heavy and large it is. However, as they get closer, Schmidt must up the accelerator, and the plane seems to shoot off further with a burst of energy. Phillips presses a button on the dash and the car makes a whirring sound before accelerating with added turbo, throwing them forward impossibly faster and making their heads whip backward painfully. They move so fast the wind howls in their ears and brings tears to their eyes.

As they get close enough, getting close to the wheel of the plane and the dangerous propellors, Steve stands and climbs onto the side of the car, hanging on tightly to the closed door so he doesn't fall off.

"Keep it steady!" Steve yells to Phillips, who drives in a perfectly straight line, lined up with the wheels of the plane.

"Wait!" Peggy yells. Steve turns toward her and she grabs his shoulder, looking him dead in the eye. "Isabel told me to tell you that you'd better come back to her. You have a promise to fulfil," she tells him on behalf of her friend. There's an expression on Peggy's face, of desperation, that Steve's never seen before. Steve nods, looking determined. Peggy pulls Steve forward and plants a kiss to his exposed cheek. "Go get him."

Steve looks at Phillips for a moment, and the gruff man does a double take. "I'm not kissin' ya."

Steve flicks the shield over his head and onto his back before climbing onto the elongated bonnet of the car. He ducks as the front of the car moves under the rapidly moving propeller, just skimming the top of the shield and sending sparks everywhere. It also hits the front of the car and it swerves slightly with the force.

The plane and the car exit the hangar onto the small section of runway outside the compound out in the snow. At the end of the runway is an impossibly tall drop down the mountainside. Steve jumps at the last second, grabbing onto the structure connecting the wheels to the plane as they rise from the ground and the Valkyrie takes to the skies, gliding over the ravine.

The force of his jump sends the car skidding to the side. Phillips slams on the breaks and the car slides across the icy runway, the tyres screaming with a puff of smoke and ice shards. The car comes to a stop as the back wheels dangle dangerously over the edge of the runway and the ravine hundreds of metres below. Peggy looks down over the end of the car at the height they're suspended at before looking up at the Valkyrie as it flies away. Steve is clutching tightly to the wheels and he turns to look back, offering her a small wave with one hand before disappearing inside the plane as the wheels are brought inside.

"He's on the Valkyrie," Peggy says into the radio, watching the Valkyrie climb higher into the sky, the wheels and Steve disappearing into the bottom of it.

Isabel's voice crackles over the radio moments later. "Thank God," she says sounding extremely breathless. Gunfire sounds right beside her. "Morita and I are searching for a radio to contact it right now."

"We'll meet you there," Peggy says, squinting at the tiny dot of black in the white, snowy sky.

Steve hangs on tight against the force of the wind as the wheels are brought up into the cabin of the plane with a loud whirr. He gets inside, out of the cold, and quickly jumps from the wheels to the catwalk beside them, jumping the railing. He sneaks quietly along the catwalk through the darkness of the cabin. It's dimly lit, only by small lights along the walkways that don't do much at all.

Along the catwalks, waiting above small trapdoors along the ground, are small pod-like aircrafts. They look almost like massive bombs, only they've got small propellers and a pilot's cabin attached to them. And each one, Steve notices, has the name of a city painted on them in white writing – Chicago, Boston, New York, every other major city in the United States. Hydra's Parasits, Bucky had said they were calling them. The bombs were part of what the one-oh-seventh had been forced to build in their captivity. And the Valkyrie is the vehicle that will drop them over each of those cities, and with the speed they're moving at, it will drop them within hours, desolating the entirety of the United States.

Steve goes to the closest control panel for the bomb next to him, which says Washington DC, and fiddles with the controls. The trap door opens, and the bomb falls to the snowy mountains below, not detonated. He watches the first parasit fall, making sure it doesn't explode, before moving off to locate the next control panel.

He's rushed then by a group of Hydra soldiers. He lets them approach, ducking the punch from the first before slamming a fist into his back and pushing him into the railing hard enough to knock the breath from the soldier's lungs. He kicks at the second as he approaches, sending him to the ground with a thud. The third agent turns and runs away from Steve, but Steve throws a knife across the cabin and hits the man in the back, making him slump over one of the parasits.

That leaves Steve with two to fight, and he trades punches between the two, smacking them hard across the face. One lands to the ground after a blow to the head. Steve picks him up with a grunt and throws him toward the open trap door, sending him flying out into the air and falling the hundreds of metres back to Earth through the clouds.

Steve turns, and the last Hydra agent he'd been fighting is missing. He searches and finds the man immediately; the soldier's attempting to drop into the pilot's capsule of the Chicago bomb. Steve hurries over and pulls the lever that drops the bomb from its position into the sky, leaving the man dangling from the overhead beam above the hole, having not made it into the cockpit. He drops after a moment into the suction of the wind, pulled away from the plane powerfully in the wind from the turbines.

Steve hears a loud clunk, and a second soldier is climbing into the pilot's capsule of the bomb headed for New York, starting up the engine and opening the trap door. Steve dives for the plane and grabs a hold of it just as it drops down out of the trap door.

He clings on for dear life as the plane shoots forward so many hundreds of metres above the Earth, the propeller spinning behind Steve's legs as he sways rapidly in the wind. The pilot swerves the plane roughly and randomly, attempting to lose Steve. Steve's grip shifts a few times where he's holding onto the front of the pilot's capsule and he clings tighter. He turns and looks back at the propeller, gulping.

Steve grabs hold of the edging of the capsule and pulls the glass, not hard enough for it to break but hard enough to open it. He reaches inside and grabs the man by the collar of his shirt, pulling him from the seat and then letting him go. He falls backward into the propeller, leaving only a spray of red out the other side.

Steve drops inside the pilot's seat and takes the controls, closing the glass behind him. He needs to get back inside the plane. The parasit flies around the side of the Valkyrie toward the front, circling around to head around toward the back of the plane. As Steve passes, the Red Skull points the canons on top of the Valkyrie at him and shoots. Steve swerves the plane in evasive manoeuvres, narrowly avoiding being hit by the blasts. Just as he comes level with the other side of the plane, a single blast manages to hit one of the propeller blades behind Steve's head with a loud clunk. Steve looks back at the bent metal. The propeller's still spinning, but not for long.

Steve circles around and then straightens up, heading straight for the back of the Valkyrie where there's a large hole between the two engines. The parasit speeds toward the opening, Steve lining it up perfectly. He grits his teeth and slams his eyes shut, bracing himself against the panel as the plane makes contact, skidding across the floor of the plane, crashing into the beams and panels. It comes to an abrupt stop, throwing Steve up against the panel and knocking the air from his lungs, a mass of fire and sparks around him.

Steve takes a moment to catch his breath, holding a hand to his forehead where his helmet dug into his head on impact, before unlatching the capsule and climbing out. He's just grateful it hadn't exploded.

He finds his shield abandoned on the ground where he'd leaped onto the parasit, threading his arm through the leather straps. He continues through the Valkyrie, still amazed by the size of it. Eventually he comes to a thick metal door that he slowly opens and peeks inside, revealing the cockpit of the Valkyrie. It's an open room with a massive window taking up the front of the plane, giving him an unobstructed view of the clouds and the blue Earth below. In the middle of the cockpit, just behind the bulky pilot's seat and control panel, is a large containment vessel bolted to the floor, a bright blue light emitting from it.

Steve slowly enters the room and descends the three stairs to the level ground, looking around. As Steve inches toward the pilot's seat, he looks inside the vessel, just spotting the Tesseract sitting within it, powering the ship. Steve inches toward the chair, teeth gritted in anticipation, his footsteps silent. He gets a view of the seat and finds its empty, the plane running on autopilot. Steve pauses. He knows the Skull must be somewhere.

Behind him, he hears the familiar sound of a Tesseract gun powering up. He turns and blocks with the shield just as the Skull appears from behind one of the beams and shoots at him, the beam bouncing off the shield and blasting a hole in the large windows, filling the cabin with freezing air and the howl of the wind.

"You don't give up, do you?" Red Skull yells over the noise, still holding the glowing gun at Steve.

"Nope!"

Steve charges at the Skull, raising the shield as blast after blasts is aimed at him, bouncing every which way off the shield and leaving holes in the walls and floor of the cockpit. When he gets close enough, he slams the shield into Schmidt's arm, knocking the gun from his hands. He punches Schmidt in the stomach and then swings for a hit to the jaw with the shield, but Schmidt dodges backward, narrowly avoiding the impact. Schmidt utilises his momentum, punching Steve in the ribs before landing a hit to the side of his face.

He grabs Steve by the neck of his uniform and throws him backward onto the ground, his back landing hard against the metal grate. As Steve tries to jump up, the Skull kicks him with all his might in the ribs. Steve sucks in a deep breath and gets onto his knees, catching the Skull's foot as he goes in for a second kick to the face. Steve grabs Schmidt's shoulders and runs him backward into the railing, slamming his back into the metal.

Schmidt pulls back and punches Steve in the face, hard enough to knock Steve backward and push himself over, both of them falling to the floor, Steve's shield flying off to the side. Steve grabs a box and hits Schmidt over the head with it, grabbing the groaning man and getting both arms around his neck in a choke hold. Schmidt struggles against Steve's hands, making choking sounds. He throws himself to the side and sends both he and Steve tumbling over the Tesseract vessel and onto the ground again.

Steve grabs up his shield and attempts to hit Schmidt again, but Schmidt grabs the metal and forces it into Steve's own chest, pushing him backward against the vessel. He almost smiles at his small success until Steve throws his head forward, headbutting Schmidt hard. His head spins for a moment, but he ignores it, instead slamming the shield into Schmidt's stomach and sending him flying into the control panel. He lands in an explosion of sparks on the panel and moves the steering panel, sending the Valkyrie into a steep descent toward the icy lands below them.

Steve flies backward, weightless, into one of the beams toward the back of the cockpit, and the Skull follows, slamming into Steve. They tumble in a fit of punches and kicks toward the back of the plane away from the cockpit, forced by gravity. The Skull manages to kick Steve in the chest with both feet and send him flying to the opposite end. Steve watches, puffed, as the Skull climbs his way up the beams back to the control panel. He grabs hold of the lever and pulls it, initiating the autopilot again. The plane hastily levels out, and Steve falls from where he's pinned by the force to the ceiling, landing on the ground in a heap. He quickly scrambles over to the edge of the cockpit behind one of the metal pillars.

Red Skull pulls a pistol from his pocket where he stands on the elevated pilot's seat, searching for Steve who's watching him warily.

"You could have the power of the gods!" Schmidt yells to Steve, shooting when he sees movement, the blast only just missing Steve as he struggles to regain his breath. "Yet, you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight the battle of nations!" Skull shoots again, trying to hit Steve as he makes his way around the edge of the cockpit. "I have seen the future, Captain! There are no flags!"

"Not my future!" Steve argues.

He dives from the edge of the cockpit to where his shield lies abandoned on the floor, tucking into a roll before standing. He blocks one last blast from Schmidt's pistol before flinging his shield at Schmidt. It hits the man in the chests and knocks him backward with painful force into the cubic console holding the Tesseract, which explodes in a mass of blue light. Small sparks of light climb into the sky from the stone inside, filling the cockpit with a blue light.

Red Skull slowly gets up, pained, and stares at the console, at the Tesseract that lies outside it, the console now too damaged to house it anymore. Without it, nothing is powering the plane. The levels will drop quickly, and the plane will fall from the sky.

"What have you done?" Schmidt hisses.

Carefully, he picks up the cube with his bare hands, staring at it to ensure it isn't damaged. Suddenly, it glows an even brighter white than usual, losing most of its blue colour, like a star was residing within it. The energy starts to pour from it in flashes and bursts that climb up toward the ceiling and run laps around the roof, creating a sort of circle. Then, suddenly, the roof of the plane disappears, replaced by a picture of space itself, of the galaxies and stars and comets.

Both Steve and the Skull stare up in wonder at this portal that's opened up above them. Steve can't believe it; Isabel had been right all along. He can see the blackness of the space, an orange coloured realm in the distance, surrounded by the bright lights of the stars. It's fascinating and terrifying and beautiful all at once. Steve has the sudden urge to paint it.

Schmidt smiles down at the cube in his hands, but it slowly turns into a look of horror when he notices that the hand that holds the cube is disintegrating, small bits of red skin flying up into the portal. He's stripped of his arm, the beam of light going upward travelling to his shoulder and torso and chest, and then to his face. Schmidt screams as his entire body is engulfed by the blue portal before he's shot up into the galaxy above them, disappearing into the beam. It's like a blackhole, sucking the Skull up into its grasp forever.

All of a sudden, the beam and the lights stop, a wave of energy bursting through the cockpit and into the sky around the plane. The roof returns to normal, the light from the Tesseract ceases, and the cube falls from where it's suspended for a moment in mid-air where Schmidt had once stood. The cube falls to the ground, still glowing, and burns a hole in the floor of the ship, through all the levels, until it drops into the sky and falls into the ocean far below, disappeared forever.

Steve collects his shield from the ground and carries it up to the pilot seat, putting it beside him. He unfastens his helmet and puts it at the ground by his feet as he sits down in the pilot's seat and takes a look at the damaged control panel. He moves the steering column as he sits down. The autopilot beeps and shows him on one of the screens the projected target, New York, and then his position on the map, nearing the icefields of the North Pole. Steve releases the column and the plane resumes tracking on a straight and level flight toward New York. Schmidt's locked the autopilot.

Steve looks out at the view, at the fluffy clouds and the faint yellow light on the horizon as the sun begins to set. He then picks up the radio and tunes it to the correct frequency, hoping to contact someone back at the base.

"Come in, this is Captain Rogers. Do you read me?"

"Captain Rogers, what is your–?" Morita begins, but then there's a scuffle.

"Steve, is that you?" Peggy's voice fills the cabin. "Are you alright?"

"Peggy! Schmidt's dead!" Steve yells into the receiver.

He wrestles with the controls. He tries all of the switches, but none of them seem to do anything. He even tries turning the autopilot switch and nothing happens. The steering column only moves up and down, and not right to left. The plane's control panel is clearly damaged, most of the lights not even lit up anymore. Something even more worrying is that, without the Tesseract powering it, the dial that once would have been for fuel and is now converted to show the storage of Tesseract energy is dropping quickly. Without the power source, the plane won't make it far before it crashes of its own accord. He'll run out of power and he'll go down. He has to find a way to land it before that happens.

"What about the plane?" Peggy asks.

Steve draws in a breath. "That's a bit tougher to explain."

"Give me your coordinates, I'll find you a safe landing site."

Steve taps on the screen displaying coordinates, but it's black, the screen cracked. There's another screen with green writing, and it displays a little dot for the Valkyrie on a map of the world. Steve can see he's somewhere over the Arctic or Greenland, flying quickly. It's hard to make it out.

He then looks at the other screen showing the positioning of the other six bombs aboard the plane, all of them flashing that they're ready to be dropped. "I-I can't, the control panel is ruined. I can't see my coordinates," Steve says. " There isn't going to be a safe landing. The plane's powered by the Tesseract, but we lost it in the scuffle. Without the energy, the plane's going to lose power any second and it's gonna go down. It'll go down soon, but maybe not before we're over land. The best I can do is try to land it before it leads to anyone getting hurt. I'll try to force it down."

"I'll get Howard on the line, he'll know what to do," Peggy says, sounding slightly frazzled.

Suddenly, Steve hears another female voice beside Peggy. "Is that Steve?"

Peggy says, "Yes, I–", but quickly there's the sound of more movement.

"Steve, honey? It's Isabel," Isabel's frantic voice quickly comes over the comms. Steve squeezes his eyes shut against the tears that threaten to fall. God, he wanted to hear her voice, needed to hear her voice one last time. But now she's going to be there to hear the end of it, to hear him put the plane down and probably never come out of it. "Steve?"

"I'm here," Steve promises, his voice choked. "Belle, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, we're all fine. Steve, what's going on? Why does Peggy look devastated?"

Steve swallows. "You were right, about everything. The Tesseract – when Schmidt touched it, he was teleported into space, he just disappeared, and I could see this galaxy above us on the roof. It was… I can't even explain. And the plane is powered by the Tesseract, I'm moving so fast I don't even know how it's possible." Steve pauses, a small smile managing to grow on his lips. "You'd better make sure Dugan gives you that twenty dollars, Belle."

"You could tell him yourself," Isabel argues, and it's clear what she's asking Steve, the desperation in her voice.

"The Tesseract is gone so the plane has no power. It's going to crash land, probably somewhere over New York. I'm going to force it down before we hit land to minimise the impact."

"He can't do that, Peggy," he hears Isabel say immediately, defiant, and Peggy's agreeing. "Please, Steve, let us talk to How–"

"There's not enough time!" Steve interrupts. "This thing's moving too fast and it's heading for New York. I can't let it crash on land or on the city. I can't risk it. It will kill too many people, even without all the explosives that are onboard. I gotta put her in the water."

"Please, don't do this. We have time. We can work it out," Isabel pleads, her voice on the verge of tears.

"Right now, I'm in the middle of nowhere," Steve says decidedly, eyeing how on the map, the plane is over a patch of ocean between the ice fields. "If I wait any longer a lot of people are gonna die. Belle… This is my choice."

When Isabel doesn't say anything, Steve nods in his decision. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his compass, opening it up and putting it on the control panel so that Isabel is smiling up at him. He looks at her a moment, at her dark hair and crinkled eyes as she smiles brightly. He feels his throat clog up, his eyes water.

He looks away, to his lap for a second, before glaring at the view in front of him and forcing the steering column downward. The plane dives down toward the water, pushing through the clouds, the cockpit shaking with the force of the fall.

Steve takes another look at the picture of Isabel. He can just imagine her, sitting by the radio, eyes spilling over with tears. "Belle…" he whimpers involuntarily.

"I'm here," her voice comes through, shaky and unsteady.

Steve starts breathing rapidly, the fear coursing through his veins. The wall of blue and white is heading toward him at a rapid speed, his death with it. He doesn't want to die. He's spent his whole life trying to live, to survive, and now he's giving that up in a split moment. He's spent his whole life wishing to be well, and now he's losing that. He wants to go home. He wants to go home with Isabel, marry her as he'd promised, buy a house and sell his art and have kids and grow old. He doesn't want to die young, along and scared. He doesn't want it.

But he has to do it.

He's got people waiting for him when he gets to Heaven after all. He's got his Ma and Pa, and Bucky. Friends and family who are going to be waiting to see him through the Pearly Gates. It makes him feel a little better. He'll be with his friend. He can wait there until the time is right and Isabel joins them, too. He can watch her from up there, watch her have a good life. Maybe he'll even be a guardian angel or something. God knows, she's lives her life as a guardian angel for him.

"When you look up at the stars, look for me," Steve tells Isabel. "I'll be shining down on you, I promise."

He hears Isabel choke out a soft sob. "I'll look for the brightest star in the sky. It'll be hard to miss you, Stevie. Everyone's gonna see your shine," Isabel promises, utter conviction despite the fear and sadness in her voice.

"It sounds nice," Steve breathes. "Kinda like Heaven."

"You told Bucky you'd look after me. You gave me a promise. I need you, Steve. I-I can't d-do this…"

"Belle, I'm so sorry." Steve hesitates. Maybe it's easier just to pretend this isn't happening. "I will look after you, always. I'll come back to you."

Isabel pauses a moment, collecting herself. "I'll be waiting for you," Isabel promises.

"Stork Club, tomorrow night at eight?" Steve asks her, his eyes locked on the approaching ice.

He can imagine it, if he tries – the Stork Club, restored to its former beauty; dancing with her in the corner, slowly and intimate, the feeling of her beneath his hands, against him, her head resting on his chest.

"Alright. Don't be late. Bucky won't be there to entertain me this time while we wait for you."

"You got it," Steve promises. "I'd hate to keep my best girl waiting."

"Steve, I love you," Isabel says in a rush, like she's worried she'll run out of time. That isn't an entirely illogical fear.

Steve's eyes widen in fear as the wall of white is right in front of him, taking up the entire view from the window. He can see all the ripples in the plates of ice as though the waves have frozen as they crashed.

Steve's eyes flick at the last second to the compass, to the picture of his girl. She smiles at him and he concentrates only on her, ignoring what's right in front of him. "I love you, Bel–"

"You got it. I'd hate to keep my best girl waiting," Steve says.

Isabel can hear the fear in his voice. His voice so full of fear that it has Isabel's own heart and breathing racing for him. Isabel slams her eyes shut and imagines anything else than the mental images her mind is providing. What she wouldn't give to be there with him, to hold him and reassure him it'll be okay.

She covers her mouth with her hand to hold in the sob, scrunching her eyes shut. "Steve, I love you," she says in a desperate rush, her voice hysterical. She needs to get it out, needs to tell him, because she has no idea how far away he is from crashing, from there being no more time. He needs to hear it one last time.

"I love you, Bel–"

The comms cut out sharply, replaced by a static white noise. Isabel's eyes fly open, staring wide-eyed at the radio.

"Steve?" She asks quietly, to no response. "Steve?!"

All that responds is the crackling white-noise of the radio.

Her hands fly to her mouth as she takes a sharp intake of breath, her eyes immediately welling with tears. "No. Oh God, no!" Isabel says, her voice practically a wail, before she breaks down, hiding her face in her hands as massive sobs wrack her body.

Peggy herself is shocked, her jaw dropped, and she's staring at Isabel's crying figure. Her mind whirls at an hour a minute at what's just happened, at what she just heard. An hour ago, Steve was here, in front of them, talking to them, and now he's gone. Like that. Like a snap of two fingers, he's gone. And Bucky, too; only a few weeks ago, they'd all been at the Stork Club, and Peggy had seen that beautiful, movie-star smile lighting up Bucky's face. And he's gone, too, in the blink of an eye and the roar of a passing train.

Suddenly, Peggy snaps into action. She pulls Isabel closer to her and tucks her against her chest, holding her friend tightly and rubbing her back as she wails and cries and screams.

Colonel Phillips stands in the doorway to the communications room, watching with a solemn expression as Isabel cries against Peggy's shoulder, clutching her friend tightly. Peggy and Phillips make eye contact over Isabel's head. The older man nods to Peggy gravely before walking off, leaving the two some form of privacy.

"It's not fair!" Isabel cries into Peggy's ear.

"I know, sweetheart, it isn't fair," Peggy responds, thinking Isabel is referring to the unfairness that she's been left alone.

"They deserved better. Steve and Bucky, they didn't deserve this, it isn't fair," she continues.

Peggy freezes when she realises what Isabel meant. "No, they didn't," she agrees sadly. She reaches up to pet the back of Isabel's hair. "They were too good for the world, Isabel. It was cruel for them to be here in the first place."