Nick watched the screens grimly. He hadn't been fooled by Steve's concession in the meeting. He'd known very well that the man was going to do something rash and stupid. Nick had simply made the mistake of thinking that Steve would wait longer than thirty seconds to do it.

He spoke through the secure line that would only go to Natasha and Clint. "Let them get away." He doubted his agents could contain all of them. Even if they could, now that Steve had gone and done this, is was probably better that they got away than remain where operatives of Hydra could easily reach them. This would put Hydra on high alert where they were concerned.

Rogers, if you would have just trusted me.

Maybe he would have if the timing of Felicity's revelation had been different. In Steve's mind, he'd been fighting Hydra only two weeks ago. He'd died fighting Hydra. Now he found out that Hydra was still around, wrapped up in SHIELD, using them as a cover. Under those circumstances, trust was just too much to ask for.

So as Nick watched, Steve and his team commandeered a quinjet and took off. This time Nick spoke to the channel that would go out to everyone. "Do not pursue. I repeat, do not pursue."

After sending the message, Nick turned and left the small room he'd been observing from to head to the helm of the helicarrier. Maria was waiting for him. "Sir, we're just going to let them leave with a quinjet?"

"What would you have me do, Hill?" Nick asked. "Shoot down half the Avengers? After they just saved the world?" She frowned, and he continued. "Besides, we have a tracker in all of our jets. We'll know where they land and take care of it."

"Speaking of it, sir," Maria said. "What's going on here? Why'd they break Loki out and run?"

And this was the part Nick didn't like to do, but Steve hadn't exactly left him with a lot of choices in the matter. Not if Nick wanted to be able to keep operating without raising Hydra's suspicions. "It was that woman Loki brought over. She managed to convince Captain Rogers, Thor, and Dr. Banner that we're the enemy, and they can't trust us."

"That's ridiculous," Maria protested.

"Agreed," Nick said. "But unfortunately, she managed it. Keep monitoring the quinjet they took; let me know when and where it lands."

She nodded, then hesitated. "Sir, do any of them actually know how to fly a quinjet?"

Nick stared at her, then looked out the window to the blue skies. Rogers, if you get your team killed from sheer stupidity, I will find a way to bring you back and kill you myself.

"You mean to tell me we just stole a jet that none of us know how to fly?"

Steve winced at Bruce's incredulous question. Though, to be fair, he had reason to be upset. Steve had been able to get the quinjet in the air – he'd watched people do it a couple times now, and remembered how they had done it – but that was about the extent of his knowledge when it came to quinjets. Luckily no one from SHIELD was chasing them, so there wasn't any need for fancy flying at the moment.

"We didn't really have a lot of options for getting off the helicarrier," Steve said. He glanced over his shoulder from his place in the pilot's seat. Thor had gotten Felicity – who was still unconscious – strapped in a seat. Loki was in another seat across from her. Bruce had claimed the copilot's chair. "I'm sure we'll figure it out," Steve said.

"Figure it out," Bruce grumbled. "Like it's that easy." He shot a look Steve's way. "So, are you going to explain now why we had to run from SHIELD?"

Steve did, keeping the explanation brief but covering what Felicity had told them. When he was done, Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well that's just…horrible. What's your plan now?"

"Right now, it's not crashing the quinjet," Steve said.

"Uh-huh. And how are we going to manage that?"

Steve hesitated, studying the buttons and dials and various other things on the quinjet's dash. "I'm going to call Tony."

I really hope Tony can talk us through this.

Luckily his phone had enough signal to call Tony, and even luckier, Tony actually answered his call. "Hey, Cap. Wasn't expecting to hear from you this soon."

"Uh, yeah, I need a favor," Steve said. "Any chance you can walk me through how to fly a quinjet?"

"What? Why would you need that? Doesn't SHIELD have plenty of pilots to fly you wherever?"

"Yeah, well, about SHIELD," Steve started.

Bruce held out a hand. "Give me the phone, please."

Steve hesitated, but handed it over at the stern look Bruce shot him. Bruce put Tony on speakerphone. "So apparently, according to Felicity, Hydra secretly infiltrated SHIELD from the very beginning. At some point in the future, though she doesn't know when, they're going to assassinate Director Fury. They have Steve's friend from the 40's brainwashed and forced to be a super assassin for them. Oh, and they're working on some kind of plan to murder millions of innocent people.

It seems that Director Fury wanted to wait and try and learn more information before acting, but Steve decided it was too big a risk to leave Felicity where Hydra could get to her – oh, or the Tesseract or Loki – so now we're all on the run from SHIELD in a jet that none of us know how to fly. Did I miss anything?"

Thor called out from the back, "Lady Felicity is still unconscious from that gas."

"Right, thank you," Bruce said.

There was a moment of silence on Tony's end of the phone. "Guys, I am way too sober for this."

Steve huffed. "Tony, can you help us out or not?"

"Obviously I'm going to help," Tony said. "Where are you trying to get to anyway?"

"I'm going after Bucky," Steve said. "Felicity said she knew where I might be able to find out where they're keeping him. It's – " he stopped abruptly.

"Cap," Tony said slowly, "did she tell you the destination before she was knocked unconscious?"

"No," Steve said. "There, uh, wasn't exactly a chance."

Tony let out a short curse. "Did you at least steal a quinjet with plenty of fuel?"

Steve eyed the various gauges on the dash. Presumably one of them monitored the amount of fuel, but it wasn't exactly obvious which was which. He glanced at Bruce and Thor, who had ambled up from the back. Thor just shrugged, seeming as baffled by the system as Steve was, and Bruce shook his head. Steve cleared his throat. "Which one is the fuel gauge?"

"You know what, forget it," Tony said. "I'm in a suit, I'm coming to you."

"How are you…?" Steve started

"I'm tracking the signal from your phone," Tony said. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Thanks, Tony," Steve said. "I appreciate it."

"Oh no, don't thank me," Tony said. "You owe me for this one."

Steve shrugged a little. That was probably fair.

"In the meantime," Tony continued, "anyone got a good guess as to why SHIELD isn't chasing you right now? Considering that you're kind of on the run from them."

"Director Fury is still an ally," Thor said. "He would not wish us to come to harm."

"And there aren't a lot of options for getting us out of the sky that don't involve missals," Bruce finished. "Following us probably isn't necessary anyways. This is SHIELD we're dealing with. They probably have trackers on all of their quinjets."

"Have any of you wondered," Loki said, speaking up for the first time since they'd stolen the jet, "exactly what sort of story Director Fury has had to spin about the situation?"

Everyone turned to look at him. Loki shrugged, looking far more relaxed than Steve thought he had a right to look. "Is this really necessary right now?" Steve snapped.

"Probably not at this exact moment," Loki replied, "but you'll want to think about it at some point; it'll give you a better idea of how they're going to come after you. He has to tell them something if he wants to continue operating without drawing suspicion. My guess, he's pinning it all on her." Loki gestured towards Felicity. "It'd be the easiest sell."

Steve glanced Felicity's way, an uncomfortable feeling of guilt tugging at him, because Loki was probably right. She was the least known factor in the situation, and therefore the easiest one to blame. Which meant that when SHIELD and Hydra came after them – and they would, there was no doubt about that – that Hydra now had the perfect excuse to whisk Felicity away and attempt to find out things for their own purposes. And it was Steve more than Fury that had handed them that excuse. Felicity would have been willing to work with Fury's plan, that much had been clear.

Staying there was still a bad idea, for all of us. She'll be okay. We'll keep her safe from Hydra.

"I'm here," Tony said. "Care to open the door for me?"

Steve knew how to do that much at least. Air whipped through the jet as Tony flew in, his current Iron Man suit gleaming and in good condition. As soon as Tony was inside, Steve hit the button to close the door. The suit slid apart, allowing Tony to step out of it. He immediately came up to the front of the plane, and Steve moved out of the pilot's seat for him.

"For the record," Tony said, reaching over and tapping a gauge, "this is the one that tells you how much fuel you have."

Steve studied it. "That doesn't look full."

"It's not. We're not going to crash, but we don't have a ton of flight time available. We need a destination; preferably somewhere close."

Felicity groaned, shifting in her seat and eyelids fluttering as she started to wake. Thor hovered over her, looking a mix of relieved and uncertain. Her face screwed up – the knockout gas had probably left her with a headache – then her eyes blinked open and she glanced around. "How do you fare, Lady Felicity?" Thor asked.

She looked up at him before glancing around. "I'll be fine. What's going on now?"

Steve moved her way. "We took a quinjet to get off the helicarrier. We could use a destination though; where are we supposed to go for the information about Bucky?"

She ran a hand over her face. "Some abandoned military base. Don't remember where it's at, but I'm pretty sure it's the base you trained at."

"Camp Lehigh," Steve said.

Felicity shrugged. "I guess. I don't know what it was called."

He turned towards Tony, trying to ignore the weight settling in his chest. "We're going to New Jersey."

Felicity rubbed her temple. Her head hurt, no doubt a side effect of whatever gas that had been used to knock her out. No one else seemed to be suffering from a headache, so she guessed the gas had only affected her. Probably shouldn't come as a surprise, since no one else in their group was normal, but it was kind of annoying. And apparently at some point while she was unconscious Iron Man had joined them, but Felicity didn't bother asking questions about that one. She found she didn't care enough to truly wonder how or why.

The others were discussing where they should land the quinjet, and how they'd get to Camp Lehigh without SHIELD or Hydra being able to follow them. "It doesn't matter," Felicity spoke up. They stopped mid conversation, and turned to look at her. Felicity shrugged. "We're going to talk to an evil supercomputer. It's probably going to tell Hydra where we are. You might want Director Fury to know too."

"I'm sorry, did you say evil supercomputer?" Iron Man asked. What was his actual name again? She hadn't heard anyone say it since she'd arrived in this world, but Felicity felt like she ought to know it. It was on the tip of her tongue, she just couldn't quite think of it.

"Yeah, evil supercomputer," she said. "What, those aren't common in this world?"

"Uh, no," Iron Man said. "Definitely not."

"Really?" Felicity was kind of surprised by that. She'd figured all manner of ridiculous things were just normal here. She frowned. "But in the movie, I think Steve knew it?"

"I've fought some strange things," Steve said, "but never an evil computer."

Felicity sighed. "Maybe I'm misremembering the movie then, I don't know."

Iron Man eyed her, then looked back up at Steve. "And you decided to go on the run from SHIELD on her say so?"

She bristled. "Hey, I'm not the one who say we should run." Steve had decided that on his own, and hadn't been interested in second opinions. She'd said from the start that going to the base to get information about Bucky was only a maybe. It wasn't her fault if Steve had decided to take it as a given. And she still couldn't think of Iron Man's name, and it was bugging her.

"What was your name again?"

Iron Man's attention snapped back to her, looking affronted. "You don't know?"

Felicity resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Can't think of it, haven't heard anyone say it. And also, not a fan of superhero movies. Never made an effort to remember anyone's name."

"You can remember there was a random, evil supercomputer, but not my name." Felicity didn't think she'd ever seen someone look so offended over asking their name before.

"Yeah, well, the Winter Soldier movie was my sister's favorite, so that's the one she played the most and you weren't in it," Felicity said.

"I wasn't – " he sputtered.

"His name is Tony," Bruce said.

Tony, of course. Now that she'd heard his name, she could remember Ellie saying it. Felicity glanced Bruce's way. He still made her uneasy, but he had actually answered her question. "Thanks."

Tony turned to face forward again, still looking mildly offended. Felicity couldn't bring herself to care.

"Anything else you can tell us about the…computer? Or what we'll find at Camp Lehigh?" Steve asked.

Felicity considered what she could remember. The first thing that came to mind was that the computer had had a German accent, but that didn't seem relevant. "Um, I think in the movie you used it to find out about Hydra's plan to murder people. Then – oh. The building it was in blew up."

Steve didn't look alarmed by her words, only thoughtful. "Do you remember what caused the explosion? Was it rigged with explosives, or did they call in an airstrike, or something else?"

Felicity frowned and shook her head. "Sorry, I don't remember."

"Seems like an important thing to pay attention to," Tony commented over his shoulder.

Irritation flickered through her. "Not when it's fictional." A day ago, that's all this place had been. Fiction. In her wildest dreams, she would never have imagined there was a reality where all the Marvel stuff was real, and she'd end up there. "Besides, there's explosions all the time in these movies; even your house got blown up that one time."

Tony spun around. "What?"

Felicity paused. "Oh. Um. Guess that hasn't happened yet."

"Who blows up my house?"

She shifted a little in her seat, almost feeling bad for mentioning it, because there was no other information that she could give him about it. "I don't know. I'm not even sure which movie it happens in. I just know that it happens."

Tony scowled, clearly unsatisfied with her response. This time, Felicity couldn't blame him. If she found out someone was going to blow up her home, she'd want details too.

"Let's try to stay focused on our more immediate problems," Bruce said. "Sounds like Camp Lehigh is a trap."

"I wouldn't call it a trap," Thor said. "Perhaps it was in the…movie, but that doesn't mean it is now. Hydra has done nothing to try and lure us there; they do not realize that we even know of the computer's existence, nor do they have any idea of our current plans. We should expect the computer to alert Hydra once we arrive, but there's no reason to think they are ready for us now."

"And as long as Hydra hasn't preset the place to self-destruct, we'll have time before they can actually do anything," Steve said. "Tony, I'll need your help with the computer."

"Figured you might," Tony said. He still looked a little grumpy.

Steve continued. "Thor, Bruce, you two will stay in the quinjet with Loki." Felicity couldn't quite stop the scowl that crossed her face at his name. She'd been doing her level best to pretend that Loki wasn't sitting across from her. "Felicity, you'll be with me and Tony."

It took a moment before Steve's words processed. "What? No!" Steve paused, actually looking surprised at her outburst. The look of genuine surprise on his face only served to irritate Felicity further. "There's still a chance that the building could blow up, and I'm not a super whatever. I'm not going in there."

"We'll make sure you're fine," Steve said. "It might not blow up at all, and if it does, we should have plenty of time to get you out of there first."

Felicity sputtered. With jerky movements, she undid the straps holding her in the seat so she could stalk over to Steve. "You can't promise that!" She emphasized each word with a pointed jab at his chest. "And there's no reason for me to go in the building anyway!"

"There is." Steve's voice was infuriatingly calm. "People asking the right question or making the right comment makes you remember things. If you're there in person, it might make you think of something we should know that you wouldn't have otherwise."

She opened her mouth to argue, then paused. …He's right. She hadn't even really noticed the way people asking for specifics sometimes triggered memories of things, but now that she thought about it, that did happen. There really was potential that being there could make her think of something else.

Felicity scowled up at him. "Still not a good enough reason for me. I think I've given you plenty of information, and I'm not about to put my life at risk on the off chance I'll remember something else that may or may not be useful."

His brows drew together and his mouth tipped down into a frown. "Then here's another reason for you." This time, there was a hard edge to his voice. "It's in your best interests for us to keep ahead of Hydra; what do you think will happen, if they get a hold of you?"

She stiffened, and hoped he attributed the flush she could feel crawling across her face to anger. It stung far more than Steve could possibly realize for him to have turned around and given her a self-serving reason to help them. I never asked to come here!

Felicity had never had any interest in knowing about the Marvel universe, wouldn't have wanted to come to this place if she'd known it was real. She'd given them what warnings she could, because lives had been on the line; was it really too much to ask to just be left alone now? She'd lost everything already, her family, her world. What gave Steve the right to ask her to risk more? Because maybe her life didn't matter in this world, maybe no one would care or mourn her if she died, but now that she was looking at an actual, concrete chance of death, Felicity realized that she still desperately wanted to live. If he'd just listened to Director Fury, we wouldn't be in this mess! Director Fury had wanted to keep things quiet. Hydra probably still would have been suspicious of her, but they wouldn't have been sure.

Her hands curled into fists. "Yeah, well who's fault is it that Hydra knows to come after me now, hero?" She laced the word with as much sarcasm and venom as she could muster.

Steve's face went blank, and Felicity knew her words had hit her intended mark. It didn't make her feel any better. Just hollow. And small.

She didn't wait for him to say anything in response, turning to move away. She desperately wished they weren't in the quinjet right now; there wasn't anywhere for her to go really, and she'd rather be anywhere than here –

Blue sparkled in front of her eyes, and then there was nothing under her feet. Felicity let out a choked cry that was immediately snatched away by the wind as she free fell through the sky.