A/N: I cannot apologize enough for the delay! I had to work remotely due to COVID for a really long time. So much of my life has been centered around a computer screen, so it made it hard to sit down and work on my story. I can't stand being on a computer too long these days. However, things are changing and slowly getting to some semblance of normal. Therefore, I am finally getting motivated to update and finish this.

Trigger Warning for mentions of death and grief.

Chapter 6: The Motive

Steve was a seasoned soldier. He really didn't think much could surprise him. From Red Skull to Thanos, Steve felt quite certain that little could shock him at this point.

He should've learned his lesson after losing the bet to Fury on the Helicarrier after waking from the ice.

Because he NEVER saw this coming. He swallowed past a lump in his throat as Valentine's people dragged the body of Peter's teacher away.

Peter's classmates were all crying, looking completely shocked and shaken. As for Peter himself, the kid looked completely frozen. He just stared at the spot his teacher once occupied with his jaw hanging slightly open as he breathed heavily through the shock of it all. The three students who had been seated with Harrington were huddled together, seemingly whispering reassurances to one another.

Anger bubbled up inside of the captain and he found himself yelling at Valentine before he could think better of it. "YOU DIDN'T NEED TO DO THAT" he screamed, face red with rage. "Why?! You told that man that he wouldn't be hurt!"

Valentine scowled at Steve as she turned and took a few steps in his direction. She stopped, towering over him and studying him with her cold eyes. "What? You would've preferred one of the brats to take the bullet?" She asked, using her loaded gun to point towards Peter's frightened and traumatized friends.

Steve met her cold eyes with his own furious blue orbs, not wanting to back down or show this woman any fear. He was Captain America! He couldn't let this continue. He at least had to stand up to her in this way. "Of course not! No one had to die! The Avengers are cooperating with you! You're getting what you want!"

Valentine shook her head. "Stark thought he could make demands of his own. His additional time came with a cost. I told Peter that his friends would die if Stark didn't have the stones. Stark told me the truth about the stones, so the friends lived." Grace turned away from Steve, pacing slowly between where Peter and Steve were sitting and where Harrington once sat. "I stayed true to my word. The large boy and weird girl get to live… for now. And since there needed to be consequences for the additional time…" Graced shrugged, as if explaining her thought process behind killing in cold blood was a simple little thing. "... I took the teacher up on his offer and shot him instead."

The next voice was not Steve's, but it echoed his own thoughts perfectly.

"Fuck you!"

Steve just wished it hadn't been Peter's voice. Valentine clearly had it out for the kid, and cursing the woman who had just murdered his teacher didn't seem like the best plan.

Steve felt nervous as those cold, murderous eyes turned to the kid.

"That's not very nice, Petey," Valentine chastised. "I thought you'd be more grateful."

Steve watched as Peter's face turned red with a fury of his own. "Oh no… here we go."

"GRATEFUL?!" Peter cried out in anger and disgust. "Why in the hell would I be grateful that you just murdered one of my favorite teachers?"

Steve tried to interrupt, hoping to keep the kid out of too much trouble. Peter definitely had Tony's preservation skills… or lack thereof. "He's just upset… we're all upset. We didn't expect that to happen. No one in this room wants anyone else getting hurt!"

Grace took a look at her people before turning back to look between Peter and Steve. "What is it with the two of you, huh?" She stepped back in their direction, studying them curiously. "You think you can challenge me… or try to reason with me… just because you spend time with the Avengers? Is that it?"

"We are the Avengers," Steve thought to himself, wanting so desperately to break the glass case behind him. He wanted to take out the broken shield in that case and beat the daylights out of this woman and her people until his old heart finally decided it wanted to give out. He turned his eyes towards the kid, and noticed his arms twitching. Peter was clearly fighting the urge to break the binds on his wrists and use his strength as much as Steve did.

"This needs to stop! Please!" Peter pleaded, sounding like he was really trying to fight the rage growing inside of him. "We only want this to end. We're doing as you ask. Mr. Stark is doing what you ask!" Peter took some steadying breaths. "No more! Please!"

Steve watched Grace carefully, feeling uncertain about how she would respond. She was definitely unpredictable… in the most dangerous of ways.

Valentine just cocked her head at Peter and smirked. "The begging is fine, but if your teacher's death should tell you anything… it should tell you NOT to challenge me!"

Steve noticed Marna, Erik, and the others nodding in agreement with Grace's warning. They looked at her with reverence, and Steve could not understand why. How could these people be so cruel? For what? Infinity Stones? Nothing made sense here.

"I don't understand," Steve vocalized his thoughts. He continued as soon as he noticed he had Grace's attention. "Why are you really doing this? Do you people really believe these stones are worth taking lives without any remorse?"

"Isn't that what the Avengers do?" Marna answered in place of Grace. "Don't the Avengers take actions all the time without considering the lives lost? What remorse do they really feel?"

Steve noticed Peter frowning. "The Avengers don't murder anyone!" the kid argued.

Erik scoffed. "You sure about that, kid?"

"I'm pretty damn sure!" Peter growled in response.

"Take it easy," Steve whispered to him. He looked towards Grace and nodded towards Marna and Erik, "You have your people well conditioned to hate the Avengers. Why? They saved the universe from disaster. What purpose does this serve?"

Grace shook her head. "Did they, old man? Did they really save the whole universe?" She gestured in the direction of her crew. "See all these people with me? They would argue otherwise."

As Steve took a moment to look at the stony faces of Valentine's followers, he suddenly understood. He cleared his throat, "You all lost someone."

"Damn right!" Marna responded. "The whole world celebrated as if the Avengers did all the right things by using the stones again, but…" The woman's voice broke as she was unable to continue.

Erik came up from behind, placing a hand on her shoulder. "... but no one stopped to consider the consequences of snapping people back into existence from the place they disappeared from five years earlier."

Marna sniffed, bringing the back of her hand to her mouth for a moment before speaking again. "My husband and my son were on a plane when they were snapped. They were on their way to a baseball tournament for my boy. I had to work, but I was planning to join them later." She let out a soft sob. "They disappeared, and I was left alone for five long years!"

Erik nodded. "For me, it was my son and daughter. They were all I had left after my wife passed from cancer years before. My son had just gotten his license, and he took his little sister for a ride."

Another voice from Valentine's crew called out, "My parents were simply minding their own business at home."

"My wife worked on a cruise ship!"

Valentine's voice chimed in next. "So much loss. So much pain was felt when your beloved Avengers failed us all against Thanos!" She sighed, "but I had a solution." She began to pace a little as she continued, "I was able to develop technology that would help these poor souls and eliminate their pain for good."

Steve shook his head. "You wanted to erase their memories with that technology." He thought about Bucky. "No good can come from tampering with people's minds."

Grace laughed, "Oh please! And you think good came from the solution of these so-called heroes?!" She clenched her jaw and gripped her gun tightly. "Stark made sure my program got shut down. My work was taken by what was left of his SHIELD friends, and I was told that there was a better way to help people." She pointed again to her team. "Just ask them how much better the other way was!"

Steve looked at them as they began answering.

Marna was glaring at Steve as she spoke. "I thought I was getting them back. When people reappeared in the blip, I waited anxiously for a call. I tried reaching out to the airline." She looked down towards the floor and swallowed another sob. "When I finally got a call… Do you know what it was?"

Steve shook his head silently.

"It was a call from the airline telling me that their passengers returned in mid-air…" She let some tears drop. "... but five years later, there was no plane at that spot in the air! THEY RETURNED ONLY TO FALL TO THEIR DEATHS!" She screamed the last words, but it was more in anguish than anger at this point. More tears streamed down her face as she looked up towards Steve again. "Can you imagine how scared my boy must have been? One minute he's on his way to his game with his daddy and the next thing he knows…" She cried some more. "... the next thing he knows is that the plane is gone and he's plummeting to his death. Their bodies were so damaged… I… I could hardly even recognize them when I went to identify them."

"Oh God…" Peter breathed out from next to Steve. "I…That must have been terrible."

"Of course it was, genius!" Erik spat out. "And Marna's isn't the only story like that. My kids… my kids returned to a busy highway without any car there. Their bodies were crushed by so many vehicles, we needed DNA tests to confirm that it was even them!"

"My parents were shot by the new people living in their house! The new occupants thought they broke in!" The voice from earlier added.

And the other called out, "My wife is assumed to have drowned at sea. They never found all the bodies of people who were supposed to blip back to a cruise ship that wasn't there anymore!"

Steve shuddered. He had, in fact, heard a few stories like these. However, he was so focused on his next mission to return the stones and find Peggy that he never really allowed himself to think about these things. Clearly, that had been a mistake. He cleared his throat, fighting his own emotions. "The Avengers never wanted that outcome for any of you."

"But that is EXACTLY what happened!" Grace argued. "There was clearly no planning on their part. If they had actually thought things through, they would have realized the consequences of bringing people back in that way!"

"And you?" Steve questioned carefully. "Who did you lose, Grace?"

For the first time, Steve saw a shred of humanity enter the woman's eyes as her mind no doubt drifted to her own loss. But she steeled herself, seemingly choosing not to answer.

"Never mind that," She told him coldly. "We should've been allowed to forget! We could've started fresh!" She shook her head. "But no… our fate is in the hands of a bunch of assholes in tights and armor!"

"So now what?" Peter chimed in. "You'll use the stones yourself? Try to bring them back safely?"

"Something like that. Let's just say that we know how to make a better world," Erik answered roughly.

Peter scowled at the man in disapproval. "I don't get it, man. You really think your kids would want you hurting a bunch of other kids? What kind of family man are you?"

Erik growled as he charged forward, dropping quickly to a knee and roughly grabbing Peter's collar. "You don't DARE to talk about my kids, you little shit! You couldn't possibly understand! If my kids ain't alive, then no other kids matter to me!"

"That's enough!" Grace told him. "Leave him be, Erik." The man hesitantly complied, releasing Peter with a push.

Steve winced sympathetically when the kid's injured head was knocked into the case behind them. To Peter's credit, he held in any cry of pain. If Steve thought Grace was developing a soft spot for Peter, her next statement proved that false.

"The boy will get punished enough when I kill one of his friends," Valentine stated.

Steve's heart rate escalated as he and Peter both replied to this with surprised shouts of "WHAT?!"

"For what reason?!" Steve challenged.

She lifted a sharp eyebrow at him. "Sweet little Peter can't just curse me out and think I won't take it out on his friends, now can he?"

"No!" Peter yelled.

"When the Avengers give you what you want, no one else needs to die!" Steve insisted.

Grace shrugged. "I suppose we'll see about that."

"They will!" Peter insisted. "They'll get you your stones! Please! No more killing!"

"Hmm… well… since you beg so nicely, I'll consider your request," she taunted.

"And once you get them… the stones?" Steve asked. "Then what?"

Grace didn't answer him. Instead, she signaled for her people to follow her as she seemed content to leave Steve and Peter to sit and remain full of dread.

Steve could hear Peter breathing heavily next to him. He took a deep breath and turned to look at the young vigilante. The kid looked wrecked. He was at least two shades paler than normal, making the blood on the side of his face look even more grotesque. The wound was again looking like it was healing too fast, but Steve didn't really feel like now was the time to point that out.

The haunted look in the kid's eyes broke Steve's heart. He cared about the boy. There was just something about Peter Parker that made you want to wrap the kid in bubble wrap and keep him safe from the world. But somehow trouble always seemed to find the Parker boy.

Steve was reminded of Peter's flashbacks as he noticed the haunted expression seemed to intensify as Peter was looking towards the blood next to his friends… the blood that was the horrible and terrifying reminder of their teacher's unfortunate end.

"Kid?" Steve whispered to him quietly. "Talk to me, Peter. I know this is all terrible, son, but I still need you. Tell me what you're thinking right now."

A tear slipped down the young man's face, but there was a frustration growing prominent across his features. "It's always my fault. They…" he sighed and shook his head. "... they all d-die because of me. All of them."

Steve frowned, growing even more concerned for the boy's mental stability at this point. "That's not true, Peter. You must know that."

Peter shook his head more and closed his eyes. "It's just like Ben. I didn't… I d-didn't see it coming, but… I should've stopped it. I could've stopped this." He opened his eyes and turned them towards Steve. There was so much pain in the kid's brown orbs. Pain, loss, fear, anger, frustration… all of these emotions seemed to form kaleidoscopes amidst the unshed tears that threatened to fall.

"You can't, Peter," Steve sighed sadly. "I know… I know you think that you are responsible for stopping all kinds of bad things from happening, but it's not all on you. The Avengers are a team for a reason, kid. We rely on each other. We can rely on them. They will stop this, Peter. I promise you. Please trust them."

Peter shook his head once more. "You don't get it," he cried, releasing a sob. "Why don't you get it? I'm… you know who I really am. I… I've avoided that side of myself too long be-because I was running from the memories. Steve… I… I was w-weak. I'm s-supposed to be stronger. I should've protected him." Peter looked up and around at his classmates. "I can protect them, sir. I can. I'll stop this."

The kid was growing hysterical. The warring emotions in his eyes spilled into complete chaos. If Steve didn't calm him down, things could get far more complicated than they needed to be. He needed the boy to focus. He needed Peter to be more productive and not let the kid entertain wild thoughts about breaking free and getting himself and Steve into serious trouble. They couldn't help anyone if they ended up dead themselves.

"Listen to me, Peter." Steve said calmly. "We need to stay focused. What did we learn?"

Peter frowned. "W-what?" He turned anxious eyes over to three kids who had been closest to the teacher. He was sending his friend Ned a worried look, and Steve noticed the other boy looking back at him imploringly. His friend knew his secret. If Peter thought his friend needed him to reveal himself, then he most certainly would. "Steve… she's distracted. I can take her."

Steve once again tried to change Peter's focus. "Maybe… What do we know?"

Peter's eyes finally turned to look at the soldier. "They're angry. They want to use the stones, I guess. They want… they want to somehow fix their pain." Anger crossed Peter's own face. "Well… I'm angry now. They won't get away with this. I can show them real pain, Cap." Peter whispered. "This can end… I can end this!"

"You're not like them, Peter. You don't hurt people. You help them. ALL of these people need our help, Peter. Something still doesn't add up here," Steve insisted. His whispered words were growing more desperate. He really couldn't let the kid reveal his secret right now.

Something in Peter finally softened, and the boy took a few steadying breaths. "I think you're right. How could the team possibly have the stones?"

That hadn't really been the part that didn't add up to Steve, but the young man made a good point. "I… I don't think they do, kiddo."

Worry crossed the kid's face. "But… Tony said…"

"-It's impossible," Steve interrupted. "I think they're stringing her along," he nodded over to Valentine. "They need her to believe that they have them. It means the team has a plan. Tony wouldn't promise her the stones without a plan, Peter."

Desperation and fear fell on Peter's face once again. "She'll kill them… or at least one of them. I can't lose anyone else, Steve. I can't!" Peter insisted. The desperation once again morphed into determination. "I'll stop it. This time… I'll stop it."

"No!" Steve insisted, perhaps a little too loudly this time. He noticed a mix of people turn in their direction. He shifted a little as if he was uncomfortable. "Ow…" he sighed, hoping to be convincing. The faces turned away and he let out a relieved sigh. After a moment, the captain continued. "The stones aren't what I'm worried about. I feel like Valentine is holding something back, kid. There's a missing piece of the puzzle here."

Peter blew out a breath, clearly trying to calm himself. "Let me guess… you want me to hold off to see if she'll reveal anything else?"

Steve gave him a small, satisfied smile. The kid really was smart. Tony taught him well. "I know it's hard. Believe me… there is a part of me that wants to beat them all to hell." The two Avengers studied one another for a moment. A quiet understanding finally passed between them. They were both desperate for this to stop. Neither one enjoyed sitting back and playing hostage. But it was the years of experience that Steve had that made him far less impulsive than the young man sitting next to him. A smart soldier knew how to wait for the opportune moment. In this case, the opportune moment would ideally involve their team getting their asses moving on their plan and making their heroic entrance. "Preferably sooner rather than later," Steve thought to himself.

"Fine, Cap," Peter relented. "We'll do this your way for now." The kid met his eyes again. "But the moment she tries to shoot someone else… the moment she thinks she has the right to take another life… that is the moment I finally let Spider-Man come out to play. No one else dies today, sir. No one!"

Steve nodded. He would have to be satisfied with that for right now. The poor kid was clearly at the end of his rope. For this kid, the trauma was bubbling over. For a while that trauma kept Peter's alter ego at bay. But now… the trauma had Peter wanting to bring his heroic side to the surface completely. It was like looking at a pimple ready to pop. "Okay," Steve relented. "But ONLY if it is absolutely necessary. Revealing your abilities at the wrong moment could easily make things worse."

The two sighed… Steve in relief and Peter in frustration. It wasn't fun being the hostages when they were supposed to be the heroes. Steve turned and studied the kid next to him again. Peter was certainly a hero, even if he had lost faith in himself recently. It was Steve's job now to help Peter regain the faith in himself and his abilities. He wasn't going to let the young hero make the wrong move and get himself hurt or killed. That wouldn't help the kid or anyone else in this terrifying situation.

It would be a challenge. The stakes were high. But Steve Rogers had never been one to back down from a situation like this where the odds were against him. One way or another, he would get the young man out of this in one piece.

Even if it cost Steve his life, that was a price that he was more than willing to pay. If it came to that, he would pay that price so that Peter could live and grow to be the hero that he was destined to be.

Colonel James Rhodes was by no means an unintelligent man. People often forget that he met Tony when they were both students at MIT. After strategizing and discussing some ideas for how the team could intervene if (or probably when) things went south, Rhodes decided to make himself useful in a different way.

After working some magic with his tech, Tony had managed to get audio to go with the video. They all were now well aware of why Valentine's crew were so angry and willing to stand by her side. The reality was tragic. And yet… things still seemed off in terms of motive. Rhodes couldn't help but to feel like he didn't have all of the variables.

If his best friend wasn't so busy working on making the decoys of the Infinity Stones, he knew Tony would feel the same way. However, the billionaire was far too worried and distracted to look into things or vocalize any concerns he had about it.

Therefore, the War Machine decided to follow a hunch. He had a feeling that the missing pieces to the puzzle would be found in Valentine's technology that had been promptly shut down during the blip. The colonel was able to find the research quickly enough with a simple request to FRIDAY. The A.I. accessed the necessary files in no time, and the man was able to get to work.

The concept of Valentine's tech was more than a little disturbing. She had planned to market the software as a self-help app for those who were struggling with their grief and trauma. It was clear that the whole point was to erase the pain as opposed to help people process it. Before long, he decided to look into the coding, wanting to understand how something like this could even be feasible.

The programming was unlike anything the MIT grad had ever seen before. There were additional symbols included beyond the standard letters and numbers. Yet, Rhodes felt like he had seen the symbols somewhere before. He sighed, taking a moment to think.

And then it came to him. The realization of where he'd seen those symbols before hit him harder than the time he fell from the sky in his armor.

"Holy Shit," he cursed, loud enough to earn the attention of some of the other Avengers around him.

"What is it?" Clint asked. He noticed Rhodes studying the holographic files in front of him. "You find something?"

Rhodes nodded. "You could say that. Listen… did we end up alerting our friends who are off-world about what's happening here?"

Clint nodded. "Yeah. Thor and the Guardians are making their way back to our galaxy just in case they're needed. Why?"

"Is Carol with them?" Rhodes asked, sounding anxious.

"Uhh… I doubt it. She tends to fly solo. No need for a spaceship, you know?" Clint studied his friend's anxious face, noticing some worried looks coming from some of the others.

"But she knows what's going on, right? I'm going to need to talk to her right away," Rhodey explained quickly.

Tony spoke up from his work station, intrigued and nervous by his best friend's urgent tone. "What's happening, Platypus? We don't have time for you to make plans for date night."

The Colonel shot his friend a look. "It's not like that!" He snapped back. "She's likely the only one who can confirm if my suspicions about Valentine's old tech are right. AND if my suspicions are correct… this is a MUCH bigger problem."

"How so? Come on, man, the suspense is killin' us here!" Clint whined impatiently.

"During the five years after that first snap, Nat had us all going on missions here and there. We would follow leads, and sometimes we'd pair up. There were a few occasions where I explored some intergalactic issues with Danvers." He enlarged the coding he was looking at earlier for the others. "See these symbols in the coding for Valentine's tech? I'm pretty damn sure I recognize these from one of those missions with Carol."

Wanda stepped forward to take a closer look. "What are they?"

"I think they're the missing piece to this damn puzzle. Grace Valentine isn't just our standard angry bitch out for revenge." Rhodes looked around at his team, noticing now that most had stopped to listen to him. "You guys… These symbols are Kree. Valentine isn't just working for a bunch of grieving and angry citizens. If I'm right, she's somehow working with the Kree!"

Rhodes made eye contact with Tony, noticing instantly that his friend looked on the verge of panic attack. Aliens… why was it always the damn aliens?! The two friends studied each other for a few more moments… a silent conversation and instant understanding happening between them. Their thoughts were clearly the same… "Well shit!"

If Rhodes was right, things were about to get much, much worse.

A/N: The mystery starts to unravel. I know I made you wait far too long for this update, but please stay with me! More will be revealed about Valentine in the next chapter. ETA to post the next chapter is about 2 weeks.

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