The day after Steve returned, Howard Stark did as well, with the Tesseract stowed in a box under his arm.
"After much effort, and great personal expense," the inventor proclaimed as he laid the container upon Fury's desk, and opened it to display the contents. "We've finally found that damned cube, colonel!"
Steve stared at the eerie glow emanating from the box. It felt like someone had taken a drill to his stomach.
"Rogers, you've seen what this thing can do, up close and personal." Fury said. "Anything we ought to know about before messing with it?"
"Yeah." Steve said bitterly. "You should have left it in the ocean."
Several days later, after much in the way of dry intellectual evaluation, exams which the princess passed as easily as the physical ones, Diana was appointed the rank of Captain. Not long after, Colonel Fury called a meeting of the Howling Commandos to order.
"Yesterday, members of the one-oh-seventh recovered communications from Schmidt's office between him and Doctor Isabella Maru."
"Doctor Poison?" Bucky asked. "I thought she got a face full of shrapnel in the last war."
Fury shook his head. "It didn't take her out of the game, as good as that would've been for us. She stuck close to Schmidt and Hitler. According to the communique, Schmidt shipped her the formula for his version of the super soldier serum." Fury looked up from the document. "I shouldn't have to tell you that if the Nazis manage to refine the Red Skull's crazy juice, that's bad news for everybody."
Steve nodded in agreement. "Do we have a location?"
Fury nodded grimly. "South Poland, a prisoner concentration complex called Auschwitz."
Steve faltered. "Th- That's one of the-"
Fury nodded grimly. "One of the torture camps. According to their correspondence, Maru and the other sickos running the show down there like to test chemical weapons on the civilians. And..." Fury trailed off. "Other experimental compounds." The implication was left unsaid.
"The Red Army's been laying siege to the fortress since January, but the Germans have pushed them back every day. A handful of German soldiers could hold off the entire Russian army with HYDRA's weapons."
Logan perused the blueprints of the camp. "So what's our point of entry?"
Fury picked up a pointer and tapped the map. "There's no approach from the ground on any side. They have energy cannons covering the ground." He said tapping gun emplacements around the compound. "An air approach is out, as well." He tapped large squares along the interior of the camps. "HYDRA developed anti-air ordnance could shoot a pigeon out of low orbit."
Dugan laughed. "Kill the suspense, Colonel, we can't take it anymore."
Fury shook his head. "I'll take my time if I want, Dugan." He tapped the railway. "This is our way in. We hijack the train on its next trip to the camp, free the prisoners and ride straight into hell. From there, we take down their internal defenses, radio in for air support. Paratroopers will come in and take the backs of the Germans at the west side of the camp, where the siege is occurring. They and the Red Army will wipe out the Germans while we secure the camp, capture documents, scientists and any senior officers. Once we secure the compound, we'll set about attending to the prisoners."
The Colonel panned his eyes across the assembled soldiers. "Official orders aside, you know what these guys are like." Fury said as he collapsed the pointer in his palm. "If the Germs decide to off themselves, don't try and stop 'em. Other than that, capture if you can, kill 'em if you have to."
Later...
A knock came from Diana's door.
"Diana... Can I talk to you for a second?" Steve asked, softly.
Diana nodded and gestured for him to enter. Steve sat on the cot opposite hers, and took a deep breath.
"I know what you think of the situation. God knows I'd like to believe it, myself." He said. "But even if all of that is true, I want to know that you're willing to take an enemy life to save one of ours."
She nodded without hesitation, which shocked Steve.
"No matter what has been done to them," She said. "No matter the state of their minds, to allow them to harm others simply for the sake of avoiding harm to them would be foolish. Tomorrow, I shall fight alongside you, and I shan't hesitate to do what must be done."
Steve nodded, relieved. "Good." He rose from his seat. "Get some rest. We've got a hell of a day ahead of us."
A locomotive as black as the deepest dark of night approached their position. It hauled at least thirty cattle and freight cars behind it. Each of the cars had every possible opening covered with barbed wire. Steve's eyes burned with anger at the thought of what they contained, but he kept his calm. He shared a nod with Bucky from across the railway, and the two of them kicked off on their ziplines towards the locomotive. The others shortly followed suit. Their targets were the guard boxes on each of the cars.
Steve grabbed onto the side of the train, and forced open the door. The engineer and conductor started, but did not reach for their weapons. The conductor's eyes met Steve's. He reached for and pulled the brakes, and the train slowly ground to a halt. Steve gave the two men a nod of thanks, and allowed them to leave once the train had stopped.
Outside, the others unloaded the German soldiers who had surrendered, and the bodies of those who hadn't. The corpses were laid aside in the woods, out of the view of the prisoners.
"I wasn't expecting them to give up without a fight." Bucky said to Steve.
Steve shrugged in response. "Not everyone follows because they want to." He said, simply
The Commandos gathered around the door of the first car. Steve walked up to the locked door on the side, and wrenched the latch asunder. As quickly as he dared, he slid the door open.
At first, the captives recoiled from the door, but slowly, they blinked at the light, and carefully advanced toward the door. Many of them reached out to touch him, to see if he was real. Steve faltered, took a ragged breath, and spoke. "Hi... We're the Howling Commandos. We're here to rescue you."
He gave Diana a nod, and she gestured for the prisoners to leave the car. "Please exit the container if you can." She said.
All of them seemed to understand her, because they all followed her instructions. Every single person in the car, and there had to have been at least one-hundred, reached out and touched Steve's shield as the Commandos and regular soldiers of the one-hundred and seventh guided them to makeshift medical tents in the forest.
The experience threatened to overwhelm Steve, but he repeated it another ten times. The other members of the Commandos opened at least one car each.
When they'd finished, Logan could only shake his head at the sight of the prisoners. "I saw shit like this on the Pacific Front..." He said, face contorted in anger. "Hitler and Tojo are two peas in a fuckin' pod." He swore as he punched his claws through a swastika painted on the side of an empty wooden car.
Once the prisoners had been evacuated from the cars, the Commandos and a battalion of the one-hundred and seventh loaded up where the captives had been, and the train continued its journey into the heart of Nazi territory.
Inside one of the cars, Steve and the others steeled themselves for the coming battle. Magazines were checked, equipment adjusted, and breaths as deep as they dared were taken. The cars still reeked of death.
"Nervous?" Bucky asked Steve.
He shook his head in response. "Trying not to be angry." He said as he adjusted the strap on his Thompson Submachine Gun.
"Good." Diana said as she eyed the blade of her sword, inspecting it for any previously-unseen flaws or hindrances. "Anger will not help us in the battle to come."
Logan pulled the straps on his gloves tight. "I dunno, lady." He said with a grin. "Anger's gotten me through two wars so far." He pulled a cigar from his jacket pocket, his Zippo from another, and lit up.
CHOO CHOO CHOO CHOO! The whistle of the train sounded four times. That was the signal. They were coming up on the camp. Everyone immediately cut the chatter, and assumed their battle-stations.