Chapter 39

She didn't sleep well that night, and the SHIELD faculty had nothing to do with that fact.

How could she sleep when it turned out that she'd been lied to her entire life? That her parents had been murdered, because Howard had come too close to finding out that SHIELD had been infiltrated with HYDRA. And that they had probably taken her mother out as well in the odd chance that he had shared his suspicions with her.

Not that it was likely. Her father didn't share very much about his work, not with her and definitely not with her mother. He might bring his work home with him, but that didn't mean he cared enough to share it with them.

He never cared enough to share any of it with them.

And yet her mother still had to die.

Her sweet, innocent mother, who had been nothing but loving to her entire life. Who had supported her; who had cared about her, and who had been there every time her father had kicked her down.

For decades she'd blamed Howard. Blamed him for taking her mother from her. How could she reconciled the fact that it wasn't his fault? Not directly. Because he wasn't responsible for this. She knew that.

But her mother had been murdered.

And she couldn't forgive that.

"Miss, you have a call from Colonel Rhodes," JARVIS told her quietly as she continued to stare at the ceiling, hoping sleep would come for her. Steve was fast asleep beside her and she sighed to herself, getting up from the bed, and grabbing her phone as she tried to leave the room, making as little noise as possible.

"Toni?" Rhodey said as she picked up. "Are you okay?"

"You know," she said, not really as a question. She could hear the concern in his voice. Concern that he often held as the anniversary of her parents' deaths came around and she would lock herself up in her lab.

"Yes," he said simply, "Harry called me. He said they found some disturbing information when digging into HYDRA at the old SHIELD base. I'm so sorry Toni."

"It's fine," she lied. "I'm over it. The old man went digging and got himself killed. I guess, despite his alcoholism, he didn't crash the car that day. But I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me, Pop Tart."

"Toni," he sighed, "I was there, remember? I'm the one who came and saw you after you received the news. You came and stayed with my family, remember? I was there for you when they passed. And I'm here for you now. It's okay if you're not okay. You don't need to be strong all the time. Even if you're a superhero, CEO, mentor, and so much more. You're allowed to be upset. You're allowed to be upset. You're allowed to mourn them again. You're allowed to be mad, and furious, and it's perfectly fine."

"She didn't have to die," Toni choked out softly after a moment, because this was Rhodey. This was Rhodey who had been there for her since she was a teenager at MIT. Rhodey who had picked her up every time she was down. Who had been her first real friend. "She didn't have to die. Howard didn't either, but she was innocent in all of this. They could have spared her. They should have spared her."

"I know," he told her softly, "We'll get the people responsible, Toni. I promise you. We will drag them out of the shadows and into the light for everyone to see. The world will know the truth, I promise you that. Your parents will get the justice they deserve. We won't let HYDRA get away with this, I promise you Baby Girl. You and me against the world."

"I love you," she told him softly, "I don't know if I ever thanked you for being there for me and for being my friend. I don't know how I would have gotten through life if I didn't have you by my side. I know it hasn't always been the easiest thing in the world."

"Toni you befriended a black kid in the eighties on a campus where all the students kept trying to tear us both down," he said. "You gave me so much with your friendship at a time when no one else wanted anything to do with me. And I don't know what I would have done without you in my life. I don't care if being friends with you isn't easy, and that more often than not it means I get shot at. I wouldn't trade it for the world."

She felt her throat close up slightly, and she nodded, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see her anyways.

"Say the word, Baby Girl, and I'll be there in a heartbeat," he said, giving her a moment. "If you want me there with you, taking them down, I'll be there. War Machine and Iron Woman against the world."

"War Machine again, is it?" she laughed, watery.

"We both know it was the better name," he conceded.

"Thank you," she said. "I know you're on a mission, Rhodey Bear," she told him softly. "What you're doing is important. But I promise I'll keep you in the loop. If I need you, I promise I'll call."

"Good," he said firmly. "And I promise you, the moment I'm back States side, I'll swing by the tower. We'll binge the Star Wars movies, the ones Peter calls old, and quote lines at each other."

"Sounds like a plan," she smiled. "I'll talk to you soon, Rhodey."

"Bye, Toni," he said, "Try and get some sleep okay?"

She hung up the phone as she went back to the room she had been staying in as she crawled into the bed.

"Are you okay?" Steve said, rousing from his sleep to look at her carefully.

"No," she admitted, "But I will be."

He opened his arms and she nestled herself against his chest as he held her tightly. She closed her eyes, trying to get some sleep, as she knew when morning came, nothing would be the same.


"Do we all know the plan?" Natasha asked, Toni adjusted Steve's uniform. She took a step back, grinning at how he looked in the same suit he'd worn the first time he'd gone after HYDRA.

"Those Helicarriers cannot launch," Toni said firmly, "I have SHIELD the original designs for it before HYDRA modified them, and I will hack into them to make sure they never go up. It's going to be your job to make sure I have the time to get into them."

"So leaving the easy stuff to us then," Wilson said dryly and she shot him a smirk. She was liking this new friend of Steve's.

"Always," she said, as she stuck her hands out and the suit attached itself to her carefully.

"That is so cool," Sam said under his breath.

"I'm sure I could arrange for a similar upgrade for you," she said with a shrug, "I designed your wings after all."

He gaped at her and she laughed, "It doesn't have to be as invasive as mine, but I can still find a way to make it happen."

"I'm sure you can," he said.

"Okay," Steve nodded, "It's time."

They marched towards the SHIELD headquarters in silence, and she felt the anticipation filling her with every step they took.

"We need a back way in," Natasha said, "I can send a signal to scramble to earpieces of the agents guarding the side way in."

"I don't know if I should be impressed or terrified," Toni said, thinking about it for a moment. Impressed, definitely impressed."

"Please don't tell me you're going to collect her as a part of your nerd group," Harry groaned. "You already have Ava. You don't need her too."

"I like having badass women around me," she shrugged. "And Romanoff is definitely a badass."

"Does this mean we're going to start painting each other's nails and braid our hair?" Natasha smirked.

"Only if we can do it on Thor," she laughed.

"I can work with that," Natasha said, beginning to send the scrambling signal on her phone. "Done. Let's move now."

She walked through the door first, raising her repulse at the scared looking tech, who most likely had no idea of what was about to happen. She wouldn't fire at him lethally, probably just stunning him if forced to. But he didn't need to know that.

"We need to let them know what's happening," Steve said, looking past the guy. "Not all of them are HYDRA. We need to warn them of what's happening."

"Okay," Toni nodded. "I'll set up a secure channel so they can't trace where it's coming from."

She moved towards the command panel in the room, while the others held weapons up in case anyone entered the room. She opened up a new terminal session, masking her login access and using a VPN to bounce the signal off several other locations including Japan.

"Okay, you're good to go," she told him, and Steve took a deep breath.

"Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers," He started, and she gave him a reassuring look. "You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

She grinned at him, proud of everything he'd done. She squeezed his hand softly as Sam gave him a look.

"Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?" Sam teased.

"He was practicing it front of the mirror this morning," she said teasingly as well.

"I regret introducing the two of you," Steve groaned, as Maria watched the screens.

"I doubt you do," she kissed him softly.

"I hate to break up this touching moment, but they're preparing to launch the carriers," Maria said, looking down at the monitors.

Sam, Harry, and Steve looked at each other, "We need to stop them," Steve said, nodding at her. "Will you guys be okay?"

"We got this," Toni said, "Go kick some ass."

"We will," Harry winked at them, and Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Is he always that annoying?" she asked, and Toni laughed.

"He grows on you," Toni said. "But I think he's putting on a bit of a show for you. He has a thing for badass women who can kick his ass."

She looked pensive at that, before brushing it aside. "We're going to need to access the source directly if we're going to want to stop them from launching those carriers. If you're going to bring them down like you claim you can, you'll need all the backup you can get."

"You'll need access to override it," Fury told them, "You may be good, Stark, but you can't hack biometric encryptions. Or at least not with the amount of time we have left."

"Go," Maria nodded at the three of them, "I'll coordinate from here."

"Okay," Toni nodded, knowing they were going into the belly of the beast. She left her armour on, as they moved towards where Alexander Pierce was.


"I'm going in first," Natasha said to them, pulling up a face masking device, as she transformed into one of the World Security Council Members, Hawley to be precise. "Come in when I say it's clear."

"Okay," Toni said, as she watched the spy sneak in.

"Man she is cool," Ava said over the comms, as her cousin temporarily switched them to a private channel. "I wish I was that smooth."

"Don't we all?" Toni laughed as she listened to Pierce over the lines.

"Let me ask you a question. What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow, and you knew that they were gonna drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution?" she heard Pierce say through Natasha's comms. "And you could just stop it with a flick of the switch. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you all?"

"Not if it was your switch," Singh said, as she heard glass crash, before she heard fighting sounds from the other end.

"I'm sorry. Did I step on your moment?" Natasha said smoothly and Toni readied herself to go in.

"Too cool for Harry," Ava said solemnly, and Toni laughed lightly.

"What have we here?" Toni asked, slinking into the room as she saw Natasha pointing a gun at Pierce.

"Such a shame they got you involved with this, Stark," Pierce glowered. "You could have been useful to us. We had big plans for you. For all of you. But then you had to go and interfere."

"Like my father did?" she asked coldly, as she moved towards the computer.

"Your father was working on something big. Something that could have been useful to us," Pierce shrugged, "But he got in the way. He refused to share his formula with us. He was starting not to trust us. The same organization he helped to build. And so he needed to be taken care of. It's a shame that it didn't end there, and that your godmother couldn't keep her nose out of it for once."

"What did you do to Peggy?" she asked, growing cold. Ava let out a gasp on the other end of the line, as Harry made a startled noise.

"Took care of it," Pierce said simply. "The same way we took care of all our problems."

"But she's not dead," Toni said, trying to buy them some time, as she began typing into the screen to gain access to the override.

"She's hardly a threat, is she?" Pierce mocked, "Once she was the top spy in the game. The Head of SHIELD. And now? She's locked up in an old age home, barely even having control over what station is playing on television. She was nearly onto us back then. But we solved that problem didn't we."

"Falcon, status?" Maria asked over the comms.

"Engaging," Sam grunted, as shots rang out through the comms. "Alright, Cap, I'm in. Wait, shit!"

"Eight minutes," Maria reminded them all.

"Working on it," Steve responded back.

She gained access to the system then, as millions of millions of files appeared in front of her. Pertaining to everything from their work in the wars, government attacks, alien encounters, and so on.

She needed a way to sort through it all. An algorithm to identify which files were related to what. And she was running out of time.

"What are you doing?" Rockwell asked her, as she pulled up a shell and began issuing commands to sort the files based on certain criteria. If she could just find the perfect set of parameters to isolate the HYDRA files, then she wouldn't have to leak it all on the internet.

Because that was the plan that they'd come up with.

Dump the files on the internet for everyone to see. It was time to bring HYDRA out into the light.

"She's disabling security protocols and dumping all the secrets onto the Internet," Pierce said, clearly understanding their plan.

"Including HYDRA's," Natasha said, coolly.

"And SHIELD's," Pierce said, turning to her. "If you do this, none of your past is gonna remain hidden. Are you sure you're ready for the world to see you as you really are?"

Natasha froze then, and Toni knew that it was something Natasha would have to come to terms with. For so long, she'd lived in the shadows. Hiding her face, her name, and anything that could identify her. She blended in wherever she went, and it was how she was so effective. But if all the files were out there, then none of it would be hidden.

"Just HYDRA's," Toni corrected then. "I've narrowed it down enough to almost safely release all the HYDRA files alone onto the internet. I just need a bit more time."

"We don't have time," Natasha told her firmly, "Just release it all."

She turned then at the other woman, looking at her incredulously.

"I'm all for transparency but I don't think you have any idea what that means," she stated. "Any agent on an undercover mission would be instantly compromised. Thousands of agents will be at risk and could be killed. Most of them have family or people they care about, and it would be endangering them as well. What about the alien technology that we have here? If that gets out to the public and they get their hands on it, do you have any idea the sort of damage they could do? It could topple governments, and lead to mass chaos. HYDRA might have gotten into SHIELD and corrupted it, but they still did do a lot of good too. We cannot just let everything get out there."

Natasha was silent for a bit, and she knew it had been rough on the spy who had given everything to this organization after escaping the KGB.

She wondered too, if Natasha knew people who would be personally affected if all the files got out there.

"Fine," Natasha nodded. "But you better type faster, Stark."

"Alpha locked," Steve's voice came through the comms.

"Falcon, where are you now?" Hill questioned.

"I had to take a detour! Oh, yeah! I'm in. Bravo locked," Sam all but cheered.

"Two down, one to go," Hill told them all.

"You know, you may be smart Stark, but even you cannot disable the encryption. It's an executive order, meaning it takes two Alpha Level members," Pierce said in an unworried voice.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Romanoff said. "Company's coming."

They heard a helicopter land on that level, as Fury stepped out of it. Pierce looked surprised, but quickly covered it up.

"Did you get my flowers?" Pierce asked as Fury entered the room. Fury gave him a cold look then and he continued on, "I'm glad you're here, Nick."

"Really? Cause I thought you had me killed," Fury retorted.

"You know how the game works," Pierce shrugged.

"So why make me head of SHIELD?" Fury questioned, "After Director Carter-Sousa retired."

"Cause you were the best and the most ruthless person I ever met," Pierce said, and Fury nearly growled.

"I did what I did to protect people," Fury defended.

"Our enemies are your enemies, Nick," Pierce told him patiently. "Disorder, war. It's just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Moscow, or an EMP fries Chicago. Diplomacy? Holding action, a band-aid. And you know where I learned that; Bogota. You didn't ask, you just did what had to be done. I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing twenty million. It's the next step, Nick, if you have the courage to take it."

"No, I have the courage not to," Fury said firmly, as he grabbed Pierce and dragged him over to the retinal scanner. Toni typed out a few commands, the last thing she needed was the override before she could fully break the encryption on the files.

"Retinal scanner active," The computer said.

Pierce laughed, "You don't you think we wiped your clearance from the system?"

"Oh I know you erased my password, probably deleted my retinal scan, but if you want to stay ahead of me, Mr. Secretary," Fury said then, a glint in his eyes, as he removed his eyepatch. She stared at the dead eye under the patch, scars left from scratches on his face. "You need to keep both eyes open."

"Alpha Level confirmed. Encryption code accepted. Safeguards removed," The computer said firmly.

"Are you ready?" Natasha asked her as she finished typing in the final commands, before hitting the 'Enter' key.

"Done," she said with a smirk at the room. "And it's already trending."

Natasha took a look at the screen then.

James Henley jHen · 1m

I can't believe HYDRA has been here all this time. I thought Captain America brought them down in the 40s? I have a feeling these files are going to contain secrets we're going to wish we didn't know #IStandWithCap

CNN CNN · 1m

#BREAKINGNEWS: Captain America Unmasks HYDRA influence over secret Government Agency. More updates to follow. #CaptainAmerica /3284n9

Harry Cheng ChengHarry · 1m

Was releasing secret government documents the best thing to do? I get that Stark is all about transparency and all, but I can't help but wonder if there was a better way to handle this. #IStandWithCap #NoMoreHydraHeads

She turned to smirk at them only to see Pierce press a button on his phone, as the other council members began to drop to the ground, smoke coming from the badges they'd received earlier. Natasha turned at him, raising her gun.

"Unless you want two-inch hole in your sternum, I'd put that gun down," Pierce said, gesturing to the pin she was wearing as well. She didn't drop her gun, and Pierce shrugged. "That was armed the moment you pinned it on."

"I'm on it," Ava said over the comms, "I'll unarm it. Just give me a few moments."

Fury and Natasha dropped their guns as Pierce simply shrugged at them.

"Lieutenant, how much longer?" Pierce questioned.

A man responded from the radio, "Sixty-five seconds to satellite link. Targeting grid engaged. Lowering weapons array now."

"One minute," Hill told them all, and she felt her breath catch. Where was Steve? Had he put in the final chip necessary to disable the Hellicarriers? "Thirty seconds, Cap!"

"Stand by. Charlie- " He started, before she heard shots, and Steve didn't make another sound.

"Steve!" she said frantically, not caring if Pierce saw her expression. He didn't respond, and she could hear Hill try and get him to confirm his location.

"We've reached three thousand feet. Sat link coming online now," The voice over the radio said.

"Deploy algorithm," Another voice said out.

"Algorithm deployed," The first man confirmed.

"We are a go to targets," Pierce said, "Washington, the White house, the Pentagon, Stark Tower."

"That's nearly 700,000 people," Hill said breathlessly.

No.

She felt panic fill her chest. Bruce and Ava were at the Tower. She had thousands of employees at her tower.

And they just wanted to fire at it, bringing it down, with all of them inside.

"Ava get out of there now!" Harry screamed, "Trigger the emergency systems. Evacuate the building."

"I just need a little longer," Ava said, "I nearly disabled the pins."

"Forget the pins!" Harry snapped, "Get out of there now. Natasha can handle herself. Get everyone out of there."

"Target saturation reached. All targets assigned," The tech said again.

"Fire when ready," The second voice ordered.

"Firing in, three, two, one." The tech said, and she held her breath, panic filling her.

"Charlie locked," she heard Steve say and she nearly let out a cry of relief as she saw the targets go offline on the screen.

"Where are the targets? Where are the targets?" The second voice demanded.

"Okay, Cap, get out of there," Hill ordered.

"Fire now," Steve commanded, and she felt the panic return. Had he even cleared the Helicarrier? Where was he?

"But, Steve-" Hill began to protest.

"Do it! Do it now!" Steve demanded, and she turned out the window to watch as the Helicarriers began firing at each other, with Steve still inside.

"What a waste," Pierce muttered.

"Are you still on the fence about Rogers' chances?" Romanoff said, and she wondered if that was more for them than him.

"Time to go, Councilwoman," Pierce said, holding his phone up to Natasha. "This way, come on. You're gonna fly me out of here."

"You know, there was a time I would have taken a bullet for you," Fury said, not turning around.

"Pin temporarily disabled," Ava said over the comms. And Toni held back the urge to smile.

"You already did. You will again when it's useful," Pierce said, as Natasha threw off the pin from her body before throwing it onto Pierce just as he tried to activate it. His body began to burn up as Fury shot Pierce twice, causing him to drop to the ground.

"You did good kid," Fury said to Ava and Toni looked out the windows in time to see the Helicarrriers begin to drop.

"Hail HYDRA," Pierce murmured, as he grew still, and she felt no sympathy for the man on the ground. The one who'd caused her family so much pain, time and time again.

"Sam, where are you?" Toni asked, as she felt dread.

"41st floor, north-west corner!" Sam said as Natasha began to tell him that they were on their way.

"Hill, where's Steve?" She demanded, just as she saw the helicarriers fall to the ground. "Please tell me he wasn't in there."

"He hasn't responded to any of our messages," Hill said, and despite her calm tone, she knew Hill was worried.

"Get a team on the ground," Fury commanded, "Find Rogers. He has to be there somewhere."

She moved out of the building quickly, flying through one of the windows and directly for the ground. If her boyfriend was down there, she'd find him.

But it didn't stop the sense of worriedness from filling her as she looked.


She sat in the hospital room as she watched Steve lying there, wires and tubes over his body as he slept.

She'd found him on the banks of the river where the Helicarrier had fallen, and she'd wondered how he'd gotten himself there.

"You're thinking too hard," Steve murmured as she watched his eyes flutter as he slowly awakened.

"I'm always thinking too hard," she retorted. "But if you didn't constantly put yourself in danger, maybe I'd be able to take a step back and breathe."

"I'm sorry I worried you," he told her gently, "But I couldn't do it. I couldn't fight him."

"What happened?" she questioned him gently, "How did you get off the carrier?"

"I fell," he said, "I remember being in the water, falling down deeper and deeper. Then I remember seeing a metal arm reach for me. I think Bucky saved me."

"Did you break through his conditioning?" she asked him gently, as she moved to sit on the bed, gently stroking his face, careful not to hurt him.

"I don't think it'll be that easy," he sighed. "He knows who I am. He recognizes me. But not enough that the HYDRA programming didn't still come out."

"You're going to go after him," Toni said, realization filling through her.

"I have to," Steve said softly, "He's all I have left from back then. He was my family, Toni. I can't leave him to the wolves."

"Okay," she exhaled. "But we have to do this right, Steve. He's a known assassin. Regardless of the conditioning, he's still an assassin. He may not have had a choice in his actions, but his victims still deserve justice. We need to bring him in and make it public knowledge. If he's going to gain his innocence, then the world needs to know the truth."

"Won't he be in danger?" Steve asked, after a moment. "The government will try and kill him."

"We won't let them," she promised. "SHIELD may be compromised now, vulnerable from everything that's happened, but Stark Industries is consolidating them. We have the resources, the money, and the technology to keep this going. We'll bring him home, Steve. I promise."

"Okay," he said softly, "I trust you."

"There's something else," she told him gently. "Pierce implied HYDRA is the reason for Aunt Peggy stepping down from SHIELD. And if there's any truth in that, I need to know what happened. Her husband and children deserve to know the truth."

His eyes darkened at that and he held her hand tightly.

"We're going to make sure they never hurt another person again," Steve told her firmly. "Even if I have to personally go after every last HYDRA agent myself."

"You won't be alone," she agreed. "You have us with you, every step of the way. But I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. Now that we know the truth, I feel like there's going to be many, many more secrets to uncover."

"Then we'll do it together," Steve promised. "You and me, against the world."

She smiled at that, as his eyes began to close again from the medication.

"Sleep," she told him gently, kissing his forehead. "I'll be here when you get up."

He closed his eyes, as the exhaustion took over, and she stayed with him the entire time. Just as she said she would.

She knew there was still so much she didn't know. Like how her parents died. Or what had happened to Peggy. Was Obadiah HYDRA, or did he just benefit from their actions. Did anyone else in her life know the truth, and were they keeping it from her?

She wasn't sure she would like whatever answers she found, but she knew she knew she had to try. She couldn't drop it, not when there was a truth to find out.

She just hoped that from here on out there wouldn't be any more secrets that would be lifechanging.