After the fake grenade incident, Steve was chosen out of all the rest of the candidates. He knew it was Dr Erskine behind that decision, but Colonel Phillips couldn't argued against it anymore, and Agent Carter supported it too. He was one step closer to his goal.

Yet, when Dr Erskine visited him that night, Steve had to ask why him of all the candidates. He had been braver, and smarter, true enough, but they might well have chosen someone like Bucky in that case, or even Hermione or Agent Carter.

But it was his weakness that was his greatest ally in the end. Oh, the irony. So he promised Dr Erskine to remain a good man. It wasn't a difficult promise to make. Hermione wouldn't have him any other way and Bucky would slap some sense into him if he wasn't.

The next day, they brought him right back to Brooklyn. So close to his home, he started to babble so he wouldn't dwell on what he'd left behind.

"I grew up in this neighborhood. Know it like the back of my hand. I got beat up in that alley. And that parking lot. And behind that diner there."
"Did you have something against running away?" Agent Carter asked, sounding more amused than repelled by his behaviour.
"You start running they'll never let you stop. So you stand up, push back. Can't say no forever, right?"
"I know a little of what that's like. To have every door shut in your face."

Steve nodded in understanding. He knew through Hermione just how infuriating it could be as a woman in what she called "this backwards era" on her worse days.

"It will get better, Agent Carter, in time, with the example you and all the women helping in the war effort are setting, it will never return to the way things were before."

He said it with the conviction of knowing what the future would hold, and Agent Carter stared at him as if he was a purple unicorn. He glanced out the window, only to see the parking lot where he had met Hermione as they rolled by.

"Let me guess: you got beat up in that parking lot too?"

Steve chuckled and looked away. It seemed like a lifetime ago when in reality it had only been three months.

"As a matter of fact, I did. Rescued a dame from this drunken brute one night, and she somehow became my sweetheart some time later."

Agent Carter frowned.

"I didn't know you were involved. Does she know what you're attempting? It's quite dangerous, as you know."

"Hermione actually left for the front the same day I joined the program. She's no doubt in much more danger than I am at the moment."

Agent Carter's eyebrows rose. She opened her mouth but, guessing what her next question was, Steve talked over her.

"Don't ask me more than that. She's very strict about confidentiality. I have no clue why she was whisked away so suddenly, or what she is even doing over there."

"Maybe I could find out if she's alright for you?" she offered.

Steve nodded eagerly.

"Please. If it doesn't get you in any trouble."

He gave Agent Carter, Peggy she insisted he call her, Hermione's name, rank as well as her destination. Soon, they arrived… at an antique store. The way to the lab was much more secret than anything he had ever expected, but he was glad to see Dr Erskine already there. Even if that was tempered by Colonel Phillips' gruff acknowledgement and Mr Stark's presence. Bucky could gush over the man all he wanted, and Hermione might have dubbed him a genius, but Steve had seen his "flying" car crash and burn, so he wasn't all that reassured by his presence. "Mad scientist" came to mind as he buzzed around the room like a bee on a sugar-high. However, Steve had made it this far, he wasn't about to give up now.

It didn't seem too bad at first, even if the small enclosed space of the capsule made it hard to breathe. It was like being in a coffin. Then Stark flipped a switch and Steve had to grit his teeth, but the pain just grew and grew, even when he thought it couldn't possibly get any worse. His bones felt like they were breaking, his muscles tearing, all of them, all at once. It was unbearable. He couldn't keep the pain in anymore, so he screamed to release it, but it didn't help and the scream grew and grew as much as the pain, tearing his throat apart. The image of him waking between Hermione and Bucky flashed before his mind's eye, a small comfort he latched onto, just long enough to hear people screaming for Stark to stop the experiment.

"No!" Steve hoped they would hear him. He wasn't sure if his voice even worked any more. "Don't stop! I can do this!"

He couldn't give up now. He owed it to his friends. He had to do this for them, for himself, for Dr Erskine and everyone else. If this procedure failed because of him, they might abandon the project, and he'd never forgive himself. Clenching his fists, Steve bit down on another scream, but it still crawled out of him nonetheless. And then the pain stopped, very suddenly, without warning. Steve fell against the door. The capsule, if possible, felt even smaller, pressing all around him, but it opened and he fell forward. Hands grabbed for him, unbelievably small hands, and called his name. Everyone was so small.

Upsidedown-land.

Steve chuckled. The experiment had worked then.

"I did it."

Peggy was there too. Tiny Peggy.

"How do you feel?" she asked, looking up at him for the first time.

"Taller," was all that crossed his mind at that moment, but he felt stronger too, healthy, like he could do anything. For the first time in his life, he had no limits. He could run a marathon, laugh his heart out or-

An explosion in the observation booth up above drew their attention and Dr Erskine shouted for someone to be stopped. Steve was still a bit confused from his trip in the coffin, but the gunshot was like being doused in ice cold water. His eyes were still on Dr Erskine when he fell. Steve rushed to his side, but it was bad. Erskine only had the strength to point at his heart, reminding him of his promise to stay a good man.

"I will," Steve promised again, but the doctor was already gone.

Righteous fury flooded him, the ice turning to fire. He had to stop the culprit. His body was running before the thought had even fully formed in his mind and he had a hard time making his muscles work the way he wanted, so he crashed into walls, cars and even through a window shop as he tried to turn or slow down. He got out of the whole pursuit without a scratch, without even being winded, and he easily caught up with Erskine's murderer.

"Don't!" Steve cried out, but the brute threw the little boy in the water below anyway.

Steve didn't hesitate for a second between rescuing the kid and going after the Nazi spy. But, as it turned out, the boy knew how to swim and told him to "go get'im!", so he did. Steve caught up to the spy just as he was fleeing aboard what looked like a mini-submarine and he had to use all his newfound strength to tear the metal apart and drag his prisoner back to land. He still had some fight left in him though, and the vial he had stolen, the last of Doctor Erskine's life work, broke, the super-serum vanishing into the concrete. Then the spy swallowed a capsule of poison and died within seconds. It was all over. He had failed.

Steve waited on the scene for reinforcements to show up. It wouldn't be hard to follow the trail of destruction along the way, as well as the curious onlookers gathered around.

It wasn't until a reporter snapped his picture, badgering him with questions, that Steve realized none of this had ever happened in Hermione's world. If she had been shocked by Stark's flying car, she would at least have seen a passing mention of a supersoldier barreling through Brooklyn to stop a Nazi spy. He wondered what had happened to that world's Steve Rogers. Had he worked in a factory? Waited out the end of the war from the comfort of home? All alone, without Hermione or Bucky.

Finally, the military whisked him away in the back of a Jeep and they returned to the SSR compound where he was poked at and measured and drained of blood samples for days on end.

Peggy made an appearance, looking happier than the last few days where they were all adjusting to having lost Dr Erskine, and during which she was also mad at him for having made her miss her shot, but he maintained it wasn't worth getting ran over for.

"I got some good news," she said with a mischievous air about her.

"I was starting to think those had gone out of fashion. Are you going to give it to me, or make me guess? Because it could take a while."

She smiled and shook her head.

"It's not much mind, but I managed to get some news concerning your sweetheart."

"Hermione? How is she?"

"I only know she made it safely to Norway and left for an expedition inland with a troop of about twenty men."

Steve was torn between relief and worry. What the heck was she up to? Only twenty men to foray into occupied territory. Maybe Bucky was right about the whole spy thing.

"You really have no idea what she does, do you?"

Steve shook his head, trying to dispel the frown that was broadcasting how anxious he was.

"Not a clue."

Peggy glanced around them, making sure no one was eavesdropping.

"She's part of a secret program much like ours. It's another subdivision of the S.S.R. actually, although I couldn't learn much more than that, you were right about them being strict about confidentiality. However, I did hear that on past operations, they snatched a couple of important artefacts before Hydra could get to them."

"You think that's what she's doing in Norway?"

Peggy nodded and Steve paled. Did she even know how dangerous Hydra was? Or had they just sent her there to read some runes with only twenty soldiers to protect her, hoping for the best?

She has her magic.

He had to keep that in mind. She had been through war before, had battled and won. He had to trust she would manage to get herself through this one too. Peggy promised to check on her status regularly and keep him updated, but as it turned out, their paths parted soon after. Peggy was leaving with Colonel Phillips and Stark for the European front, while he was being used as a dancing monkey.

The cowl of his costume was an unexpected blessing since it afforded him some measure of anonymity. Captain America… what a joke. If his sergeants could see him now in his flashy tights, they'd be laughing their heads off. He was raking in money for the war effort, and sure, that was good, or rather, necessary, but it wasn't what Dr Erskine had wanted, nor him.

So when he got the news he was being shipped off to Europe, he had been over the moon, even if he was only going there to punch fake-Hitler in the face for what felt like the thousandth time. But his crowd was… different. Exhausted soldiers, wounded for some, caked in mud and just plain miserable. Rude too, but he couldn't hold it against them. He wouldn't want to see his stupid show either in their place, so he sent the girls back out and sat backstage to doodle in his sketchbook, wondering what the hell he was doing here.

"Steve?'

He jerked around at the familiar voice, snapping his pencil clear in two.

"Peggy! I didn't know you were around here or I would've gone to see you."

"Officially, I'm not here," she said with a brittle smile. "I, uh, have news for you. Had for a while but there was no way to pass it on to you safely."

Steve drew a blank at first. He wasn't a part of their program anymore so he didn't know what sort of news she could give him except…

"Hermione?"

He could barely whisper the name. He hadn't heard from her in all this time and tried not to think about it lest he drive himself mad with worry. And unlike the last time, Peggy had says news. Not good news.

"No."

His heart ached like it hadn't since the serum, the world around him seemed to dim, he couldn't even hear the girls' singing anymore or the soldiers jeers, he couldn't feel the biting cold in the air. Peggy bit her bottom lip and put her arms around him.

"I'm sorry," she said. "MIA with her troop since she left off for her mission. Norway's resistance sent back a couple of dogtags from two of our boys who were accompanying her, but there has been no news since."

He shrugged Peggy off, her concern made it worse, more real and he couldn't accept that. Looking out in the distance at the skeleton of the trees surrounding the camp, Steve tried to make sense of it all. MIA. Not dead. She could still be out there somewhere. She could still come back to him. He had to have faith in her the way she always had faith in him.

"She's not dead."

"Steve…" Peggy trailed off and sat next to him in silent support.

Like a wake. He tried to shrug off the feeling when the honk of an ambulance dragged him back to the present: the rain, the frozen mud, the despair on some faces, pain or bandages on others, but also a will to keep going, determination etched deep into the lines of their faces.

"There's still hope," he said. "There's always hope, or we wouldn't keep on fighting despite everything we've already lost and suffered through. Look at those guys. They look like they've been through hell and back," he said pointing at the crowd cheering the USO girls on. "But they still have hope."

"These men suffered more than most," Peggy said as she scanned the faces in the crowd. She sighed. "Two hundred of them went up against Schmidt in Azzano and less than fifty returned. These soldiers are all that's left of the one-oh-seventh. The rest were killed or captured."
At the news, the heart Steve had tried to put back together with blind hope and faith began to crack. Not Bucky too… No. He held a hand over his heart. It was pounding too hard and shattered, the pieces slipping through his numb fingers onto the cold, dirty ground, and he had to struggle to keep the world from dimming again.

"The one-oh-seventh? You sure?"

At Peggy's nod, Steve looked at the faces in the crowd but couldn't find Bucky's. He ran to the Colonel's tent, not waiting to see if Peggy had followed. Of course the gruff man had to be a smart mouth and mock him, but Steve didn't care. In the end, in between insults, he got what he wanted: information. Bucky was missing in action too, not dead, but this time, Steve knew exactly where to find him. As soon as he was dismissed from the Colonel's ire, he ran to his tent and changed into normal gear, borrowed a shield and helmet and was almost out of camp when Peggy caught up to him.

"What are you doing? Do you plan to walk all the way there?"

"If I have to. I can't leave him behind. I can't lose the both of them."

She had a pained expression.

"You heard the Colonel," Steve insisted. "He can't do anything, I get it. But I can. You know I'm meant for more than that," he added and waved towards the scene. "Dr Erskine had faith in me, won't you have faith in me too?"

She nodded, but far from letting him sneak out, she dragged him back to Stark's plane, who, and it turned out, was as mad a pilot as he was a scientist.

After they took off, Steve watched the two of them dance around each other as they planned to "fondue" after dropping him off, whatever that meant. He wished them luck. It would be nice to see some love bloom in the middle of the war.

Stark laughed maniacally as he avoided one shell after another aimed at them. Peggy had not been exaggerating when she'd told him he was their best pilot despite being a civilian. The plane swerved to the side again and shuddered when another explosion lit up the sky. This was becoming too dangerous. Steve yanked the door open.

"Wait! I can take you all the way in!" Stark shouted back at him, sounding far too jovial, as if they were taking a leisurely stroll through the park.

"Too risky! As soon as I'm free, you turn around and get the hell outta here!"

"You can't give me orders!" Peggy tried to argue, stalling for time, more like.

"Sure I can, I'm a Captain!"

Like he'd told Hermione when she'd been made Sergeant, he might as well own his Captain rank since they'd so kindly stuck it on him. Steve waved the transponder at them in good bye, and jumped. He had a moment of weightlessness that made his stomach belly flop, then another of awe at the lethal light show blooming all around him in the night sky. He followed the plane's retreat for as long as he could, wishing them safe return, but then had his own mission to deal with: saving Bucky.

Steve ran through the dark woods, still marvelling at the way his body moved with such ease, without tiring, almost instinctually. The woods thinned, revealing a road that had to lead straight to the Hydra compound. He jogged along it for a few minutes when he heard the roar if a motor behind him. Hiding in the ditch, Steve waited for it to pass before jumping back on the road and swinging himself into the back of the truck. Half a dozen soldiers stared at him, too shocked to even point their weapons his way. He socked the first right in the face, kicked the second in the chest, used the third to throw on the last three and knocked them all unconscious while they tried to untangle themselves. Looking down at his handiwork, he made a mental note not to hit the face so hard. That was messy, and frankly, quite gross. He threw them out onto the road one after another, then sat back, waiting for the next stop.

The Hydra base was gigantic, much bigger than anything he'd expected, and looked to be a modern factory churning out bizarre looking weapons. Steve snuck in, but with no idea of where Bucky could be held, he followed the sound of voices, rare and indistinct at first, but he soon heard English and hurried along, heart beating. There were cages upon cages filled with men like dogs in a kennel. It was horrifying. As he counted the guards and observed their rounds, he noted they were being treated worse than cattle for the slaughter too.

Without hesitation, Steve pounced on the next guard to pass below him, literally flattening him to the ground under the weight of his anger. He ripped the keys dangling at his side and opened the closest cage.

"Who are you supposed to be?"

Steve was used to the mockery by now.

"Captain America. I'm looking for Sergeant James Barns of the one-oh-seventh, anyone seen him?"

The question was passed along until a tall guy in a dapper bowler hat pushed forward.

"Isn't he the guy they took away after he tried defending that chick?"

The Asian guy behind him nodded.

"There's an isolation ward somewhere that way. He might be there but those that are taken to that place never come back."

Steve's jaw clenched and he nodded, giving them direction towards the exit and asking for a little distraction on their way out. They seemed more than happy to oblige, not that he blamed them.

Soon enough, he heard shouts and explosions behind him as he ran in the direction he'd been pointed to, then an alarm blared just as he arrived to a section of the facility that looked more like a lab compound than a factory. He began kicking doors in, his heart sinking with every new room he found empty, until suddenly he found him. Steve blinked incredulously for a second, then rushed to his side.

Bucky looked sick and he was mumbling his rank, name and service number over and over. Steve tore off his bindings and whatever device they'd strapped to his head.

"Bucky," he urged, slapping him carefully to get him out of his daze. "Buck, come on, buddy."

"Steve?"

"Yeah, it's me, Buck. Come on. We gotta get out of here."

Steve pulled Bucky off the chair and put his arm over his shoulder to help him along. He seemed a lot weaker than the other prisoners he had freed.

"Did I shrink?"

"No, Buck. Come on."

They'd only made it to the end of the corridor and Bucky still seemed delirious. Steve dreaded to think what they'd done to him.

"What happened to you?" Bucky asked a few minutes later.

"I volunteered, remember?"

"Yeah… Dumbass," he sounded more like himself in that instant, but then stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait! Hermione! Steve, Hermione is here. I saw her."

His heart skipped a beat. He didn't dare hope, maybe Bucky was still delirious.

"Are you sure?"

Bucky nodded and Steve recalled the other soldiers saying Buck had tried defending a woman. It made sense. Steve bit his lip, gathering his thoughts. He couldn't leave Bucky behind to search for Hermione. He couldn't possibly choose one over the other.

"Do you know where?"

"Not here, I don't think… I haven't heard her or anyone around here for a while."

Steve nodded. If they knew what she could do, they would keep a close eye on her. Explosions started shaking the building however and he was pretty sure the prisoners were long gone. All he and Buck could do was run, and keep their eyes peeled as they searched for Hermione or an exit, preferably both, which is how they ran straight into Schmidt and a pudgy little guy, as well as an unconscious body slumped over Schmidt's shoulder with curls he would recognize anywhere. Bucky had too judging by how his breath caught.

"Let her go," Steve snarled.

"I think not, Captain," Schmidt said as he dropped his girl onto the dumpy man at his side. "I have plans for her."