"Just find the cube."
Steve stormed out of the lab, leaving Stark to his snooping while Bruce looked for the Tesseract. Find the Tesseract. Capture Loki. They were halfway through their mission, and Steve was irritated with Stark's flippant attitude and Fury's secrets. Even Doctor Banner was suspicious of why they were there now, not when they started working with the Tesseract. Steve should have known they found it the moment he woke up. Tony should have been brought on board to work with it, but SHIELD was keeping their secrets, even from those they had called in. They were called in to clean up Fury's mess, but he wasn't letting them in on why he'd created the mess in the first place.
As the door slid shut behind Steve, he looked at the agents walking past, noticing how tense they acted around him. He drew his brows and looked down the hall where the agents were coming from, guessing that was the sleeping quarters.
He found a large, open room with trundle beds lining the wall and a television and couches in the opposite corner. Steve paused, realizing that the agents didn't have a space of their own, just a place to rest as they took turns working. He searched for Brooke's mahogany hair around the room, drawing the attention of the agents around him.
"Captain Rogers. Fancy seeing you down here with the peasants."
He turned to see Brooklyn's friend Jasmine taking a drink from a metal bottle. Her blonde hair was pulled into a tight bun and she wore her uniform, but she had on a long green cardigan that stopped just above her knees. She was clearly resting, and clearly unhappy to see Steve.
"I'm looking for Brooklyn."
"Well, obviously, you're obsessed with her." Jasmine rolled her eyes and gestured to the corner of the room. Steve followed where she pointed and saw someone sitting on a bed facing the wall. He looked closely, realizing between the beanie and shag blanket a bit of Brooklyn's purplish hair peeked out. Steve turned to Jasmine and she just glared up at him, "She's found someone really nice. She's been looking forward to this for weeks, don't mess it up for her. It's hard for us to find somebody who can deal with us being gone all the time."
"I need her help." Steve replied. He stared at Jasmine impatiently, and the woman just shrugged and gestured toward Brooklyn.
"Then go ask for it. Just don't fuck her over, she likes you for some reason."
Steve glared at the woman, knowing he had much bigger problems than Brooklyn's snippy friend. She reminded him of the women who rejected him over and over again in the late thirties. Steve hadn't had to deal with a woman like that in a long time, and he didn't appreciate the trip down memory lane. He tried to push her words to the back of his mind, but they nagged at him.
She likes you for some reason.
Steve hadn't gotten the feeling that the SHIELD agents didn't like him, but the more he thought about it, they didn't seem too excited to see him either. Agent Hill watched him warily. Coulson was just excited to breathe the same air as Steve, but he didn't necessarily want that either. The agents seemed excited to see Captain America, the man with the uniform and the shield, but they couldn't care less about Steve Rogers. It was just a reminder that Steve Rogers died the day he let Abraham Erskine make him the world's first super soldier.
Before, nobody wanted him because he looked sad and pathetic. After, people only wanted him until they realized he was still sad and pathetic beyond the new and improved exterior.
When he reached Brooklyn, Steve tentatively reached out and tapped her shoulder. She startled, whipping around and panting as she grabbed her chest. "Jesus, Steve. What are you doing here?"
"Am I not allowed to be here?"
"I mean, you are, but what are you doing here?" Steve looked at how stunned her expression was and finally noticed the white pods in her ears with a cord that trailed down to her phone. She was on the phone.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bother you, I just…" He watched as she held her phone close to her chest, staring up at him with pursed lips and drawn brows to show she was pissed. "Never mind. I'll do it myself."
Her expression melted quickly, and she raised her brow, "Do what?"
Steve looked around the room, wary of all the agents who could be listening, "I need you to help me with something."
"What kind of something?"
"The kind of something I don't trust to do with anybody else."
Brooklyn raised her finger, telling Steve to give her a minute, "Hey, I gotta go… I love you, too. Bye."
Steve's heart jumped into his throat at her words and he smiled, determined to be supportive despite how much he hated it, "Mason?"
"Yeah."
Steve nodded and she stood, tossing the shag blanket on the bed and walking to the wall. She typed in a code and a panel moved aside, revealing a little cubby that was hers. After tossing her beanie with her other belongings, Brooklyn followed him wordlessly out of the barracks, and Steve noticed Jasmine shoot him a dirty look at they passed.
When they were alone in the hallway, Steve turned to Brooklyn, "Stark is trying to hack into the system."
"What?" Brooklyn squawked and Steve quickly grabbed her mouth and gently pushed her against the wall, boxing her in with his massive frame. When he removed his hand, she gasped, quieter this time, "What do you mean he's hacking into the system?"
"He thinks Fury is hiding something, and Banner thinks so, too."
"You think I know what he's hiding?" Brooklyn asked incredulously and Steve's eyes drifted down the hallway as an agent passed them. The man looked at the pair curiously and Brooklyn just snapped, "Mind your damn business, Roberts."
"Do you?" Steve asked when the man had passed, and Brooklyn lulled her head back against the wall and groaned. Steve leaned closer and ducked his head down, so he was inches from her face, "Don't lie to me."
"I know a lot of things you don't know Steve; you're going to need to be more specific." Brooklyn hummed and Steve pushed away, grabbing her wrist, and dragging her down the hall of the ship, "Where are we going?"
Steve stopped in front of a big door, then looked back at Brooklyn, "Can you get in here?"
"In the storage containment unit? Yes. Why do you need to get in there?"
"Open the door, Hayes." Steve ordered, crossing his arms as Brooklyn shifted her jaw back and forth. "If you don't, I will."
She snorted, "You can't get that open."
Steve grabbed the edge of the door and pulled, leaning all his weight against the locks as they creaked until they finally cracked and he slid it open, looking down at Brooklyn. She gulped, looking over her shoulder and motioning for him to go inside.
Voices echoed from the walkway above and Steve grabbed Brooklyn and pulled her against the wall, holding his gloved hand over her mouth as he watched the men continue walking away until they were out of view.
"You know I'm a spy, right? I know how to be quiet." Brooklyn pushed Steve away roughly, but he was already distracted by the boxes across the walkway. "Steve?"
"Shh!" He hushed her, reading the storage containers quickly as he held his finger up to her. Then his gaze moved up to the top level, "Can you get up there?"
He looked to Brooklyn and she motioned to the stairs, "Yeah, over there."
"Okay, meet you up there." Steve told her, crossing the storage unit and using one of the crates as a step to jump up and grab the railing, easily clearing it and looking around the upper level.
Brooklyn's loud whisper echoed in the room, "Show off. Why am I even here?"
Steve ignored Brooklyn, instead choosing to start open crates on the upper level. He found a bunch of glass bottles of green soda, and the remains of what looked like an old Iron Man suit. By the time Brooklyn had reached the upper level, Steve had ripped open half of the containers. He reached for the next box and pulled open the top, staring at it for a moment before looking up and glaring at Brooklyn. "Did you know?"
She stopped in the spot where she'd reached, looking into the box and gasping, "I-"
"Did you know about all of this?" Steve gestured to the Hydra mask and Tesseract powered weapons packed away in the crate in front of him. "Why do you have this?"
Steve wanted Brooklyn to tell him that she had no idea what she was looking at, and that she didn't know why SHIELD had it. He wanted her to tell him that she was in the dark as he was, and that she would support him when he confronted Nick Fury about it. But her jaw just quivered, and her eyes stared at the box, telling Steve that she knew exactly what she was looking at. "SHIELD wanted to use the cube to power up the Hydra weapons."
"It's complicated."
"Really, explain. Please, I'd love to know what SHIELD is doing with Nazi weapons." Steve ripped open another crate and found even more guns and another mask. "How long have you known?"
"I'm an undercover operative, why would I know about all of this?"
"You clearly do." Steve barked back and Brooklyn sucked in her breath, grabbing the railing and looking over it as Steve's temper began to rise, "Brooklyn, we spent six weeks together locked in that cabin. Did you know about all of this?"
She clenched her jaw and looked down, avoiding Steve's gaze. "I wasn't allowed to tell you."
"I can't believe this." Steve grabbed the gun and stood, walking towards Brooklyn. She pushed herself flat against the crates, flinching as he reached her. She slammed her eyes closed and grit her teeth, as if preparing for him to strike her, "Brooke, look at me."
He spoke gently to lull her into a false sense of ease, and it worked, but when she opened her eyes he just grabbed her shoulder with his open hand and shoved her against the container, "Tell me what you knew."
"I knew you would be angry, and I knew I couldn't change what SHIELD was doing, so I made sure SHIELD wouldn't take you. I saved you from yourself, so you wouldn't have one of these dropped into your hand without warning. I realized that you wouldn't stand for this, even if Fury's intention were good." Brook groaned as Steve pinned her even harder to the shipping crate, "Things are complicated, Steve. The world is more complicated than you remember it. We need to be ready."
"Not like this. Not with these." Steve growled as he pulled away and jumped over the railing, landing on his feet and storming out of the storage container. He made a beeline for the lab, but he heard Brooklyn's voice calling loudly behind him.
Before he reached the door to the lab, he stopped and turned to her, clutching the weapon tightly, "Haven't you done enough, Agent Hayes? Who are you even working for? Fury? Me? Yourself? You prepared me for SHIELD at Fury's request, then made the personal call not to let me in. You kept secrets from me then said you did it for me, what's your endgame Brooklyn?"
"I didn't think I'd care about you." She admitted bluntly and Steve laughed loudly, drawing the attention of the few agents that were walking nearby. When a few approached, Steve shot them a dirty look and they scattered, leaving the two to talk alone.
"You care about me? Really? Could have fooled me." Steve turned towards the lab, seeing Fury was already inside, but before the door could slide open for him, he turned back to Brooklyn, "Do you have any idea how much it hurts that the only person who knows me isn't interested? That literally any random woman on the street would take one look at me and give me their number, but the one woman who actually knows my personality is the only woman who won't give me the time of day."
Brook gasped in exasperation, running her fingers along her scalp as she looked at the ground, "It isn't like that, Steve."
"I don't have time for your lies. I don't know what your game is, but I'm done playing." Steve left Brooklyn to go confront Fury, finding him asking Stark what he'd been doing.
"What is Phase 2?" Tony asked and Steve slammed the weapon the table, hearing the flick of Brooklyn's heeled boots as she followed him into the lab.
"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons." Steve looked to Tony with a bitter expression, "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."
"I mean, it helps that you got a robot to help you." Stark gestured to Brooklyn, but Steve didn't so much as flinch. Tony noticed this, shrugging, "Lovers quarrel?"
Fury stepped up to Steve, trying to take his attention away from genius taunting him, "We collected everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean-"
"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?" Stark asked as he turned his screen around to show Fury the prototypes for Phase 2. Steve shifted his feet, feeling his body temperature begin to rise as he clenched his fists.
"Steve, let me explain." Brooklyn stepped forward and grabbing onto Steve's bicep, but he ripped it away and turned on her as Natasha and Thor entered the room. Brooklyn put her hands up in defense, looking to Natasha for help. "We need them."
"No, no, nobody needs weapons like this! I ended Hydra. You…" Steve swallowed, feeling his whole body tremble with pent-up aggression. He couldn't find the words he needed, so he shut down and turned away as he heard Banner ask the question on everyone's mind.
"I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction?"
"Because of him." Fury pointed at Thor, and the god looked around at them in confusion. "Me?"
Brooklyn grabbed Steve's arm again and he whipped around so fast Fury stopped talking, "If you touch me again, I'll break your hand."
"Agent Hayes, I'm going to need you to remove yourself from the situation. In fact, go back to New York. You're nothing but a distraction and a nuisance." Director Fury ordered the woman and she stood up straight, her expression one of hurt and anger.
She turned to Steve angrily, "You know what, I'm done giving you chances, you piece of shit. Get your head out of your self-righteous ass and realize that sometimes life isn't black and white. I'm going home." Brooklyn turned and glared at Fury and Romanoff before stomping out of the lab, leaving the Avengers to fight over Fury's motives for using the Tesseract to defend Earth from otherworldly invaders.
"We're… we're a time bomb." Bruce warned. His eyes were wild. Steve could tell he was beginning to lose his cool.
Fury saw it, too. He told the Doctor, "You need to step away."
"Why shouldn't the man let off a little steam?" Stark asked as he reached out to place his hand on Steve's shoulder.
Steve smacked it away and snarled, "You know damn well why! Back off!"
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Stark mocked, staring at Steve with a confidence that Steve wanted to beat right off his face.
Steve was suddenly aware that nobody in the room was on his side. He was unwanted, unappreciated, and unwelcome. He was brought back from the dead to fight for an agency that wanted to undo everything he'd worked for, and then he was treated like a simpleton because he slept through seven decades. The Avengers had Captain America, whether they wanted him or not, because he didn't want to be there any more than the rest of them, and he was done being treated like a buffoon.
"Right." Steve smirked, starting to walk around Tony, "Big man in a suit of armor, take that off and what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
Steve took a step closer, his blood boiling, "I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. And I've seen the footage. The only thing you fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony argued back, tilting his head and grinning knowingly, "It's like the robot agent said, sometimes life isn't black and white."
"Don't talk about her."
"Why?" Stark pressed, looking back at Fury and Romanoff before turning to Steve, "Because she finally grew a spine and walked away from you?"
"You know what…" Steve stopped himself and curled his hand into a fist, hissing through clenched teeth, "You may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." Steve smiled a little, preparing to bite back at Stark, but the billionaire muttered under his breath, motioning towards Steve's body, "You've got all that going for you, and you can't even get that solid 6 and a half to give you the time of day."
"You know what, put on the suit, let's go a few rounds!" Steve yelled and suddenly Fury was holding onto his arms, pulling him back.
Tony laughed, "I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Then put on the suit, let's go!" Steve bellowed and the computer started beeping wildly. Everyone turned their attention to it and Bruce went to see what was happening.
"We got a hit." Bruce said, looking around.
"I can get to it faster!" Tony snapped and Steve grabbed his arm, "You're not going alone."
"You gonna stop me?"
"Put on the suit." Steve taunted again, ready to pummel Howard's son into the Earth for all of his quips and jokes and arrogance. He'd pummel Stark for all of his anger towards Fury, and Brooklyn, and SHIELD, and waking up in a time that didn't want him, and he didn't want to be a part of.
Suddenly, Steve looked away from Stark as he heard Banner mutter, "Oh my God."
Before anyone could ask what he meant, an explosion rocked through the lab, sending Steve and Tony flying back through the doorway. As the dust settled, Steve scrambled to his feet, helping Tony up and saying sincerely, "Put on the suit."
As he helped Tony, heard Fury call into his comm, "Coulson, initiate official lockdown in the detention section. Hayes, if you're on comms, make your way there as back up."
"Yes, Sir." Brooklyn's voice cut through the comm and Steve grit his teeth as he sprinted towards the engine room. When he reached the door, one of the agents held it open for him and motioned him in, and Steve realized that engine room three was now a gaping hole in the side of the ship.
"Stark, I'm here!" Steve called as Iron Man flew up to the engine.
He looked at it for a moment, then told Steve through his comm, "I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."
Steve nodded and leapt over to the control panel Stark was motioning to, and pulled it open, revealing a slew of exposed wires and flashing lights. He sighed as Stark asked what it looked like, thinking Brooklyn had done a terrible job at teaching him anything useful for this terrible new world.
"It seems to run on some kind of electricity." Steve chirped, knowing he wasn't any help to the tech genius.
"Well," Stark answered, strangely sincere, "You're not wrong. See the lever over there, stand by it and wait for my word."
Steve waited by the lever, watching as Stark worked to dislodge the debris. Once he finally got the biggest chunk out, he got in and started pushing. Steve practically had his hand on the lever, waiting for Stark's word, when several SHIELD agents appeared and stared at the turbine blankly.
Suddenly, one threw a grenade towards Stark, and Steve leapt into the air, smacking it back down before swinging to the bottom level to engage. The first agent began to fight Steve hand to hand, but he simply grabbed the man and flung him into the open sky. Before Steve could register that he needed to get back to the lever, two more agents appeared from the doorway and started shooting rifles at Steve. He grabbed the gun from the man he'd thrown off the helicarrier and began firing back at the new agents trying to kill him.
Hell of a time not to have my shield.
Steve kept trying to push back the agent, but they had more places to hide than Steve did, and he kept backing away as he shot. Finally, the agent aimed for Steve's face and he flinched, ducking his head, and losing his footing. As his boot slipped, he began to fall out of the helicarrier, reaching out and grabbing a loose wire before he could be swept away.
He clung for dear life, reaching forward as best he could to try and pull himself back onto stable ground, but the helicarrier was falling fast and the wind was too strong. Steve heard a noise and looked down, seeing the glass container carrying Loki plummet to the ground. He started to slip a little, then tightened his grip, fighting his way a little closer to the ship as the agent starting firing at him again.
"Cap, hit the lever." Stark's voice was strained, and Steve knew he needed to get out now, or Iron Man would be nothing but shards of metal.
"I need a minute here." Steve screamed as he fought his way back, hearing Stark call for him again over the comm. He managed to get a grip on the floor and pulled himself in, only to be shot at from below. Steve grit his teeth and crawled forward, aware of how close the bullets were to striking his face, but he pushed forward until he was close enough to reach up and pull down the red lever, freeing Stark from the turbine.
Cap struggled to get to his knees, wondering if it would be easier for one of those bullets to sneak through the metal rungs of the floor and pierce him through the skull. The idea of dying quickly and falling out of the sky seemed easy to Steve, but then he remembered that humanity needed him to stop Loki, and Brooklyn was still somewhere on this overrun ship.
Iron Man appeared quickly from below and took out the man who had been shooting at Steve, knocking the assailant unconscious before lying on his back in his suit. Steve panted as he sat down, needing a moment to catch his breath before he went back into the fray. At least the helicarrier was staying in the air. Plus, maybe Loki had fallen to the Earth and died. That would save them a lot of trouble.
There a moment of calm as Tony stood up and looked at Cap, "There's nothing on the comms."
"I know."
"It's quiet. No more fighting. No more gunshots."
Steve groaned as he stood, stumbling a step and grabbing the railing before pushing his hair out of his face and straightening out. Tony removed his helmet, and sighed, "You okay?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Tony grumbled, turning back to the agent he'd pummeled. "This whole mind control thing is a treat, isn't it?"
"I killed a man."
"Only one?" Tony asked. When Steve shook his head, Tony nodded, "Sometimes that's just how it goes."
"I know. Doesn't make it any easier knowing they were on our side once." Steve muttered.
Steve took a few steps towards the stairs and paused when Fury's voice came through his comm, "Agent Coulson is down."
"A medical team is on its way to your location."
"They're here. They called it." Fury answered.
Steve looked to Tony, seeing how wrecked the man looked. Steve had found Coulson a nuisance, a distraction from his self-pity. All the man had wanted was for Steve to sign his cards.
"Are any other agents down?" A voice asked, and Steve lowered his head, waiting for the answer with bated breath.
After a pause, he heard Maria Hill's voice cut through the comm, tentatively almost, "Fifteen, including Coulson. One agent missing."
"Missing?" Fury asked and Steve's heart began to beat faster in his chest. He had to find Brooklyn.
As Steve prepared to jump down to the same level as Stark, Maria Hill answered Fury's question, "The cameras went out all over the carrier, but we know two agents were in the detainment section when Loki escaped. One of them is dead, one of them is missing. Might have been sucked out after the cell was dropped."
Steve felt his lungs collapse as he gasped for air, clinging to the railings on either side of the stairs as he looked down at Stark. Tony studied Steve's face for a moment, then looked away.
Brooklyn had been sent to the detention section to assist Coulson.
Steve jumped down to the level Tony stood on, and Stark reached out again and grabbed the soldier's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze with his armored hand, "I'm sorry, Cap."
His throat felt tight and his legs felt heavy. Steve wanted to just collapse, but Fury informed everyone that Loki had gotten away with the scepter. "I'll be fine." Steve straightened up and clenched his jaw, realizing he'd seen the cell fall. Assuming she wasn't the agent who was dead, she'd probably been sucked out after it. Nobody had been around to help her. She'd run out of her borrowed time.
Dangling precariously from the side of the ship, he watched helplessly as his best friend fell to her death. The memory seemed familiar, and Steve didn't want to think about it. He had a job to do. They all did.