I am so sorry for the delay! I know it's been some time since I last updated (and on that last little cliffhanger too), but I've got the next couple of chapters worked out now! They should be posted sooner than a month-and-a-half later like this was. (So sorry about that again.)
Thank you all so much for your wonderful feedback, I'm so glad you've continued to read :)
CHEERS to the descent from bliss moving forwards! (You know what's coming now.)
December 28th, 1944
Hermione could not stop staring at the ring on her finger.
During Steve's proposal, she had been so busy thinking of everything else in the moment, that she hadn't had the time to actually look at the piece of jewelry she would wear for the rest of her life.
It was beautiful.
"It was my mother's," Steve whispered at her feet, his blue eyes wide and soft to her hand.
Hermione nearly cried at the statement. The delicate ring was thin and gold, art deco'd around the sides, remnants of a very 1920s look, with an old European cut half carat diamond resting in the middle. A thin platinum woven rope rounded the octagonal shape, making the silver and gold contrast of the metals shine even brighter under the morning sun.
Overall, it complimented the thin length of her fingers and the undertone of her skin. "I love it," Hermione whispered.
He smiled and got to his feet, holding both her hands with his and leaning close. "And I love you."
Tears came swift and unchecked at the corners of her eyes. Her heart felt so full, so complete, that she didn't want to breathe. Didn't want to stop ever feeling so high, so in love, as she was right now. It was the most beautiful feeling in the world that she'd ever felt, and she could only smile back.
"See? Didn't see that comin," he grinned and traced the side of her cheek with a knuckle, wiping away a fallen tear.
She laughed. "No," she confessed, tipping her head to the side and letting his hand open to hold the side of her face. "No, out of all the ways today could've started, I did not think it would be like this."
"Engaged," he whispered, and she couldn't help but smile widely in return.
It was true, wasn't it? She was engaged! Her!
Every lonely night in her youth, or academic stretch when the solitude of her own thoughts became too much, she would think about marriage and how it would feel to care for someone like her friends and parents did, and it would always seem so far away, like a dream. And here she was herself, under unbelievable and extraordinary circumstances, years later with a man that she loved more than any accomplishment she had ever created for herself.
"Mrs. Rogers," she mused back in a whisper.
"Mrs. Rogers," he repeated like he could taste the words on his tongue and found them delicious.
They smiled as only people who were drowning in each other could.
A thought came to her. "Hang on," she said, "how long have you been carrying this around?"
The side of his mouth tipped upwards into a bashful smile. "A ...while."
"Meaning?"
He hesitated. "Months. Right after D-Day," he confessed, and Hermione drew silent.
The air between them grew somber and heavy. The number of deaths on both sides had been staggering, and she knew it would forever harden a place in their hearts.
"After I'd heard over the radio- after I knew where you were that day - risking your life -" he said looking away. "I wrote to Rebecca and had her send it to me from storage. I didn't want to wait. I couldn't risk it," he continued, looking back at her. His hand came around to her lower back like he was tucking her to him. He enveloped her, body and soul when his stare met hers. "Not when every day could be our last. Part of me wanted to make sure that this- us- would live on if nothing else did."
Hermione felt as if her heart was breaking for him and falling in love with him all over again. She held him gently, careful of her next words. "This kind of decision shouldn't be made because we fear death."
He was shaking his head before she'd finished, but Hermione had to make sure that he understood. "It comes for everyone," she continued. "You, me, our friends, family, eventually all. This war can't take charge of who we are or what we want if -"
"That's not it," he interrupted, squeezing her in reassurance.
Her lips pursed. "I hope not, because that's not why I said yes -"
"It's not why I asked," he stated quickly, chasing her doubts away. "I chose this because I love you. I want this. Wanted this, for -" he shook his head and sighed. "Forever. To share a life with someone, have a family with the right person - partner, and to grow old with together." He chased her eyes back and forth. "Okay? I want this. You. All of it."
Tension Hermoine hadn't been aware was wired through her shoulders disappeared.
"Alright," she smiled, sinking back into his embrace. "Then I still accept and want to marry you as well."
He smiled and pulled her in. "Well thank God for that... Merlin too, I guess."
Hermione laughed, and all was well.
Hermione and Steve didn't end up having breakfast when they made their way back to Colonel Phillips. Steve had kissed her several times, both languishing in the closeness they could briefly share, and picked up Steve's leather jacket before they turned right back around for debrief.
Happiness and unnamed energy flowed through Hermione like she'd inhaled an entire pot of coffee as they stood before the tent entrance with Steve's hand in hers. She was engaged! She was going to marry the love of her life, and she could share that love with everyone else! All of her friends, their team, Peggy, Howard-
Her thoughts screeched to a halt as Steve opened the tent door and stepped through.
Howard.
Merlin, how had she forgotten?
He had said - and she was engaged. She -
"Hermoine?" Steve turned back around, confused at her sudden hesitation.
She swallowed her thoughts, her itching panic, and unease as she followed after him, trying to smile. She was engaged, yes, but Howard would be okay. It would all be okay. They were friends after all, and he would only want what's best for her, wouldn't he?
Hermoine followed in and walked into the circular communications tent she had reunited with Steve in. The Howling Commandos, Peggy, Colonel Phillips, and Howard stood around the table, looking over a map. Heads turned upwards as they entered.
Bucky stood straight beside Peggy. "Well?" he was smiling as if he already knew.
Steve grinned, delighted. "I ought to let her say it," he looked back at Hermione and reached out a hand.
Hermione laughed and answered his excitement with her own. She let him pull her to his side. Her eyes met Peggy's, and the joy filling her chest overflowed into her growing smile. She held out her hand, ring glinting in the tent, and smiled, "I said yes!"
The tent exploded in exclaims of gracious cheers. They hooted at Steve, clapped for Hermione, and shouted over themselves at the bets they had apparently placed on the whole affair.
Turns out, Bucky won the pot.
Cigarettes were handed over as he smirked victoriously. "I friggin knew it," he laughed. "He's been holdin on to the ring for months! I knew he couldn't keep it in his pocket for long."
"Oh la la," Frenchy snickered, and the group of men laughed louder.
"Congratulations, dear," Peggy whispered as she came forward with a hug.
"Where's that bottle of vodka?!" someone else yelled.
Hermione accepted the hug, warming her to her toes, and the congratulations of the team, her extended family. She was so happy, it was dizzying.
Colonel Phillips shook Steve's hand in a sturdy grip and came the closest she'd ever seen the man to ginning. "Well done, Rogers."
"Thank you, Sir."
"And you," the Colonel turned to Hermione, pausing. "Well, you could have done better."
Steve's team was up in arms.
"Than a super soldier?"
"Ah, geez Colonel!"
"Don't let him get you down Cap, the brass is just jealous! "
Good-natured ribbing echoed the tent, and Hermione and Peggy held onto each other through their laughter as all the men became progressively louder.
Hermione's gaze slipped to the only other scientist in the room. Howard was laughing along with the rest of the men, but as she looked closer, everything he did somehow seemed wrong. His smile was too wide. His applause, a beat too late than the rest. A husk somehow moving with the energy around him.
It cut Hermione deep to her core, but she didn't have the time to approach. Just as the noise in the tent was becoming unbearable in the men's laughter and yells, Colonel Phillips clapped his hands together to silence them all.
It took several tries, but after his own bout of yelling and some death threats later, the men once again were quiet. "Yes, yes, a celebration, good," he started, "but, in case you tittering ladies forgot, we're still here for a reason. Hydra," He reminded them and clasped his hands behind his back. The energy of the room became somber. "Agent Granger?"
Her hand immediately came to the miniaturized cabinet at the front of her service jacket. The schematics! However, most of the team still didn't know about her magic, so Hermione put a hand to her head like she'd forgotten something, and raced out.
She went back to Steve's tent. Inside, and hidden away from any prying eyes that might be in the vicinity, Hermione enlarged the cabinet. She broke open the soldered metal drawers with a few quick spells under her breath and pulled out all the documents from within. Rolled forms and packets of clipped paperwork met her hands.
She didn't waste time in going through them now but re-shrunk the cabinet when it was empty and ran, quite unladylike, back to the communications tent. As she re-entered, she placed all of the found documents on the circular table and stepped back. "This is it," she proclaimed, breathing heavily. "All that we found."
Howard, Peggy, and Colonel Phillips began to go through everything. Hermione stepped up to help as the rest of the Commandos watched with crossed arms and serious gazes.
Some documents were written in a combination of hidden codes and mixtures of other languages, clearly meant to keep its secrets hidden and much too complicated to figure out now. She put those to the side and came across one of the rolled manuscripts. While slowly unrolling the thick paper, her eyes took in the inked drawing and German labels that unveiled themselves, and her eyes widened.
It really was schematics. Schematics for a single magical weapon, much like the enchanted guns Hydra had already created. Except this … This was much more complex. It looked like a staff, made of metal or wood, it didn't specify, but engraved upon its surface was hundreds and hundreds of ancient runes.
The Fehu sigil, sometimes meaning 'expansive energy', was paired with Raidho, 'the focus of energy', and the inverted Uruz, 'controlled power', altogether meaning something along the lines of 'the focus of unbreakable power' was circled along the top, the middle, and the bottom of the staff in thick, large engravings.
Between the foundation castings were smaller sigils linked together for 'Enslavement', 'Constraint', 'Force', and 'Compulsion'. 'Might', 'Order', and 'Assault '. A cocktail of devastating commandments.
Hermione spread the scroll wider, easily imagining the unearthly blue light filling every rune, and the ruin it would cause. Others around the table stopped to stare at the horrific weapon unfolding.
"What in God's name is that? " Happy Sam asked.
Hermione couldn't give them an answer. Her attention was stolen on the inevitable devastation behind the markings. Slowly, she was beginning to realize just how truly fucked they were.
"No, it's worse," Hermione explained to the scientist and soldiers around the table. "It's actual mind control."
"You're sure?" Howlett frowned, heavy brows contorting his face.
"If the Hydra guns worked, this will work as well if the tesseract is powering it," Hermione stated. "All of these" she pointed to the runes. "- are meant for domination. For complete control over the mind - whatever it's pointed at."
Silence sat around the table. The implication of what that could mean was heavy among them. For, how strong was it? Could it truly take away someone's free will, and if so, could it take away the will of many? Of an army's worth? A nation? Where did it stop, and how could anyone fight something like that?
Hermione did not have the answers.
Steve did. "We have to destroy it."
" - before it's finished being made," Bucky agreed.
"You say that like it's not already done," Creed argued, his eyes narrowed dangerously at that paper like they alone could turn it to shreds. "It's probably why the plans were hidden away. He didn't need them anymore."
"Do you see unstoppable Hydra armies marching over every Allied line?" Bucky shot back, looking out at the rest of the men with a determined glint in his eyes. "No," he shook his head, "because it hasn't been fully built yet. This could just be … I don't know, a rough draft."
Jim Morita blew out a huffed breath. "Some draft, Jesus."
"Rogers is right," Colonel Phillips said, his gruff voice commanding attention. "We need to find where this is being built and burn it to the ground." His eyes came up to Steve, focused and cold. "Get it done, you hear me?"
Steve nodded seriously. "Yes, Sir." His team unconsciously followed in with nods of their agreement.
"Good. Now hold tight gentlemen, I've got to go report this to Washington." The Colonel put his service hat back on and made his way out of the tent. He left the room stiff and tense. Nothing could ease the lingering thoughts of helpless death in the air.
"Hot dog," Gabe whispered, staring at the table of papers.
No one contradicted him.
"I'm gonna get a start on a copy of this," Howard announced, breaking the silence that had hallowly followed. He gathered the scroll, eyebrows furrowed, and left the tent without a glance backward. A cold feeling slid down Hermione's back.
Peggy blinked furiously for a moment like she was throwing off whatever was thrumming through her mind, and then straightened. "We should all prepare for what's coming," she said to the group of them. "Supplies need to be checked, transportation scheduled, and these," she gestured to the other documents on the table, "will need to be translated."
As fast as they all possibly could, went unsaid.
"Bucky, Frenchy, and I speak a little of German and French," Gabe volunteered.
Howlett nudged Creed, and the taller of the two brothers sighed in exasperation. "Count us in too. A damn waste of time I say, but we can work on decoding and translations as well."
Peggy ignored his brisk tone. "Unfortunately gentlemen, new orders arrived for you this morning."
Silence layered the table. New orders meant that they would be shipping off somewhere new, somewhere without the rest of the Howling Commandos, their team.
"It looks as if the Pacific needs your help against Japan and its colonies, and Washington has decided that the best use of your talents lay there." Peggy offered the oldest brother a folded letter, all business.
"Surely this new information trumps any situation in the Islands," Steve argued as Creed tightly accepted the letter.
"It' not up to us to make that decision Captain," Peggy reminded him, but Hermione could see the regret in her eyes. "From what I hear, the Pacific Theater is going poorly, and good men need assistance."
Soldiers were dying. The Beastly brothers could help. That was enough and they all knew it. Steve stood down.
"When do we leave?" Howlett asked in the silence that followed.
Peggy's eyes softened for a moment, apology in the lines of her mouth. "Tomorrow morning, 07:00:00."
And like that, the Howling Commandos were split up. The end of an era. The loss of a perfectly well-oiled team.
Hermione crossed her arms over her chest, an unease filled her. Things were happening so fast now, so out of her control. It almost felt as if she couldn't do enough fast enough to help. Like holding back an incoming tide with bare hands.
"Aw don't cry for us, little hellcat. We'll be back soon enough," Creed winked at her, breaking her thoughts and putting his letter in his trousers.
"Jesus, don't start," Howlett warned.
Any sympathy for the departing older brother was lost to Hermione. She hated nicknames of any sort, the one and only exception being called Doll by Steve or close friends. "Hellcat?" she asked dryly.
"I thought it fit, don't you boys?" Creed answered with a self-satisfied smile. "Feisty as all hell if you do permit me saying."
"More clever than any cat I know," Frenchy shrugged.
"You got shot out of a building," Gabe reminded her. "More than nine live if you ask me."
It sounded like the moniker was sticking, one last parting shot from Creed before he left. Hermione narrowed her eyes on the enormous man. "I thoroughly despise you."
The room erupted in laughter. "Ach," the soldier answered, clutching his chest. "My bleeding heart. Torn up it is now."
"If I thought shooting you would stick, I'd do it myself."
More laughter. Someone from the group added in by saying "rawrrrr", adding fuel to the flames and Hermione rolled her eyes, holding back a blush.
It went on for some time, Hermione and the Commandos tossing about insults to another, before Peggy put a stop to their antics and placed her hands on her hips. The men quieted, Hermione crossed her arms again, and the taller Agent picked up where she had left off. "Bucky, Frenchy, Gabe, you men are with me. The rest, pack and supplies. Agent Granger?"
She gave her colleague the floor, but Hermione had nothing to offer the men. Mentally, she was getting lost back into the deconstruction and translations of the staff. She shook her head tightly, indicating that she had no further things to discuss, and cleared her throat. "Reconvene at 19:00:00 for further movements."
"Dismissed," Peggy stated.
Like she had cracked a whip, the Howling Commandos jumped into their orders. Steve stayed at Hermione's side as she organized the documents by date and need, and began doling out packets of the Hydra work.
Her eyes strayed to several documents signed off by Armin Zola, Hydra's leading scientist and the masochist who had tortured Bucky, and then she stopped on disturbing photographs linked to a scattering of mismatched german phrases further in the pile. She paused in handing over the documents to Bucky, and Peggy followed her gaze.
Her friend's lips tightened, and there was recognition at the gruesome images. A group of distinctly Asian villagers caged, and in various scenes of what looks like human experimentation, were the subject of horror from Hydra's attentions. Hermione translated the location marked at the lower right end of the picture that stated, "Hunan Providence Residents - Chaves, Portugal Dig Site". Then at the back of one of the black and white photos, showing a strange metallic object only a forearm long, covered in otherwordly circular symbols, a single word was etched as if in a hurry. "Obelisk".
Hermione frowned. The definition of an obelisk was a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering stone pillar that ended in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. It was the name of a shape for some famous creations, like the Washington Monument. But the image in her hands was not a dedication to presidential legacy. Was this another weapon? Something else created by the tesseract? It did not look like it emitted the same ethereal blue light that its other counter creations did.
"It's an object of unknown origin," Peggy supplied. "We have no name for it."
Hairs at the back of Hermione's neck rose. Like the tesseract. "You know of this already? Is it alien?"
Steve frowned at Hermione's side, but Peggy neatly inclined her head in neither a yes nor a no. "Yes to the fist. ...Perhaps to the second," was all she said.
"And those?" Hermione laid out the various pictures of human remains. Some showed villagers that looked as if they had been turned to stone while screaming in agony in their last moments. Others had spikes of black rocks extending from their corpses through their mouths and eyes, black sedimentation ripping from their skin. In another picture, all that was left was the burning end of what looked like a fingertip. "What is all this?"
Peggy sighed darkly. "Rumors of another thing found by Hydra in Portugal reached us a few months ago. We had gathered some conflicting information and only a few photographs as evidence, but from what we've discovered, Hydra is using whatever power the Obelisk has on the Chinese villagers captured. Who were also incidentally looking for the object as well."
"The Obelisk did that?" Bucky repeated, eyebrows lifted.
"We don't know how, but we can only assume that it works much like the tesseract. You touch it-"
"And things get ...wonky," Hermione finished, nodding in understanding.
"Exactly."
"So Hydra's got two items of unknown origin in their hands, most likely from space, that they can use against us?" Steve clarified.
"Well, the tesseract yes," Peggy nodded. "But clearly, they haven't figured out how the Obelisk works - or I feel as if the War would already be over."
It was another thing to add their list of growing concerns. Hydra had a neat hand in collecting items of power and creating gross brutality.
"I fucking hate Nazis," Bucky mumbled.
"Amen," Gabe said further down the table.
After the Beastly brothers had left the tent, promising to come back after they had packed to help with whatever was left to translate or decode, everyone else split into their tasks. Steve went to follow after Colonel Phillips for additional updates and strategies moving forwards, Peggy was helping in the translations, and Hermione went to follow after Howard. Partly to help with the Hydra staff, but more so to address the change in their working relationship.
She found him in a separate canvas tent, lit by gaslight and surrounded by sketches and notes of his own inventions. The scientist tent she had once shared with him before she had left to assuage the guilt in her heart from their creation.
His head snapped up from over the Hydra staff schematics. Surprise flew across his face, then hesitance, hurt, and bitterness in quick succession. He turned away from her, back to the document beneath his propped fists. "I, uh, didn't mean to skip out on you so fast back there, I just-" he stopped himself, took a breath, and came back to meet her eyes. "Congratulations. On your engagement."
It wasn't genuine, anyone could tell from the cold light in his eyes and the formal tone of his speech. Her heart fell. Perhaps she was losing a friend. "I'm sorry," she offered back. "That you had to hear it like that. Especially after..."
"That I told you I loved you?" A snap of tension filled the room. Betrayal was clear in his features. Hermione froze, unwilling to move for fear of making what was between them worse before Howard swallowed and tucked his hands into his trouser pockets. He shook his head. "Naw, it's alright. I uh," he laughed to himself self-deprecatingly. "I mean I get it, you know? I don't have the-" His chest puffed out as if showcasing enormous muscles, and grimaced cartoonishly.
She could understand the statement, and frowned, hurt and a little angry. "It's not like that and- and you know it." She had not fallen in love with Steve like some starry-eyed fan from a film. What they had was more- she was more than that.
Howard huffed out his invisible structure and licked his lips, eyes to the floor. "No, you're right. That was unfair of me."
He met her eyes. Pain and something Hermione couldn't identify, something close to heartbreak, swam in his gaze. His mouth opened, close to saying something, before his jaw snapped shut and he shook his head again. He swallowed and looked away from her. "I ought to say I'm happy for you and mean it at this point, right? That's what the books and films do."
"We're not a film, Howard."
"No, course not. I would've lost you anyways if it was," he stated, eyes dull. "Paired up against America's New Hope ?" He tucked his hands into his impeccably ironed trousers. "I didn't have a chance, did I?"
Words were caught in Hermione's throat. What could she say that would help him? Would alleviate the loss, the hurt, and the anger in his eyes? For how fast her brain could spit out facts and navigate tricky equations, it was completely silent in the face of Howard's question.
She could only tell him the truth.
"I love him."
He stilled for a heartbeat, then turned away. "Yea," she heard him whisper, a confession and a hollow acceptance. His back was facing her as he continued on. "Well, don't let me rain on your parade, doll. You should be celebrating, not consoling me like I'm some kinda … heartbroken or something."
Hermione didn't know if she should reach out to comfort him, or if it would make everything all the worse. She clenched her hands into fists. "Your friendship is important to me, Howard," Hermione vowed, if not begged him to understand.
But his back was the mountainside she could not hope to scale over with the gorge that laid between them now, and he remained still. She could not fix this, but she did not want to lose him either. He had been one of her first friends. Her first steady hand in this new world. He was the reflection of brilliance that inspired and illuminated her own understanding of the world.
"I do love you," Hermione whispered to him, her own heart breaking. He froze as if holding his breath, or guarding himself against something ready to strike. Hermione mentally pleaded with him to turn, to look into her eyes. To accept what she had to offer, but he did none of those things, and Hermione had no choice but to continue on. "But I love you as a friend. Please understand."
The edge of his face twisted to look back, and she could see the glint of vibranium conviction in his eyes. Jagged, justified, and terrible. "You go on now," he told her. "I'll be seeing you."
It was like he was breaking up with her, as a friend. Cold and steeped in finality. She would never hear from him again, would she?
She didn't get the chance to ask, as Howard straightened and turned. He continued to his work without a glance back, and without another word. Whatever amiable work relationship was lost to her now too. He clearly did not want her in the tent, and cold pricks of tears filled the corners of her vision.
So sorry this chapter is so short! Longer chapters are coming, but I thought I had kept you in suspense for long enough :)
Thank you for your Comments and Ludos, you all are truly wonderful!
~Missmusicluver