See Chapter 1 for Author notes.

Chapter Text

Stepping onto the huge plane that Coulson referred to as The Bus, Holly saw a familiar red classic. "Oh wow, Lola! You finally got your hands on her!" Coulson had always talked about owning the classic car but never actively looked to buy one. It wasn't so much a midlife crisis car as a fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Coulson had always been the quiet unassuming guy in the background and Lola was something he could show off proudly.

"A present from Fury, along with the bus." Coulson said with a tight smile. Obviously it had something to do with what was done to bring Coulson back from the dead. Holly didn't know exact details but she knew that he hadn't almost died, he'd been completely dead for almost a week before being forced back via procedure called Project Tahiti involving alien blood. Even with her being inactive, she was still able to make use of her Level 7 clearance.

Following the others toward the main deck of the plane, a small shadow movement allowed Holly to move just in time to avoid an bluntly tipped knockout arrow aimed for her back, rolled to the side before leaping forward into a somersault and kicking up and out with her feet at the figure in the dark. She flipped to her feet while pulling her collapsible staff out of it's boot holster, pinning it against her attacker's neck while shoving him against the wall. It paid to stay armed.

A slightly choked but amused voice greeted her. "Hiya Hot Lips."

She rolled her eyes and gently shoved Clint, collapsing and reholstering her staff. She wasn't surprised. He loved doing surprise mock attacks ever since her brother had sat him down to watch the old Pink Panther with Peter Sellers. One time, he'd nearly gotten stuck in an old hotel airduct in order to surprise her when she was sleeping. "Stop calling me that, Legolas."

"Hey! That's what I call him!" Tony said with an indignant whine from behind them.

Clint grinned, not something he did but for few select people, rubbing at his chest. "Those tiny feet still pack a punch, Skywalker."

She grinned back. "And you're surprised?" She let the archer pull her into his arms, hugging him back, laughing as he swayed them back and forth, his face pressed into her hair. "It's good to see you." She'd known Clint since he'd joined Shield and they'd been partners for years. Beyond that, he was one of her closest friends and one of the few people she would gladly give her life for because she knew he would do the same.

"Better to see you. Nice to see your instincts haven't lost anything in the last few years." He hadn't been able to visit as much with all that had been going on between Cap being found, Hulk pretty much remodeling Harlem, Thor showing up and then dealing with Thor's brother and his alien minions. He always seemed to make time to send her silly texts or links to stuff that he thought would make her laugh though. That was Clint.

She pulled back, very happy to see her friend again. Sometimes it wasn't until you saw someone again that you realized just how much you'd missed them. "Seems like you are getting a bit slow though."

"Phht, whatever." He rolled his eyes dramatically, a smile still on his face. "We'll spar later and I'll show you."

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they joined the others who'd watched the reunion, Steve looked curious while Natasha had a bemused smile on her face. Clint wrapped his other arm around her waist, giving her a wink. Delta together again, look out world. Coulson showed off a few features of the plane, including the wetbar, which looked like it better belonged on a jet of Tony's. They headed into a large conference room with other agents, a nervous looking man with glasses and a huge blond man wearing a cape along with an equally impressive woman dressed in similar armor.

"Everyone, this is Holly Dugan, aka Lady Skywalker. She's an inactive agent coming along as a consultant and maybe more. Of course you know Captain Rogers." Coulson introduced. "Holly, you know Bobbi. This is Dr. Banner, Thor and Lady Sif of Asgard. Everyone, this is my team. Agents Skye, Morse, Hunter, Triplett, Mac, Fitz and Simmons."

Thor stood up first, holding out his hand, a warm smile on his face. Apparently he'd learned some Earth mannerisms. "I was not aware that Midgardian royalty would be accompanying us on our quest. Milady, I bring greetings from Asgard. I am Thor Odinson."

Holly watched as instead of taking her hand, her forearm all but disappeared in Thor's grip and her own hand barely managed to reach half of his huge muscles. An Asgardian version of a handshake? "Thank you Thor, but I am no royalty. My codename for SHIELD was Lady Skywalker, it is no title. It has to do with the kind of weapons I prefer to use, inspired by a Midgardian epic known as Star Wars."

Thor's eyes lit up and a genuine look of happiness took his face. "I know of this! I have seen it while visiting Midgard with the Warriors 3! You fight with the swords of light?"

She couldn't help but smile at his glee for knowing something from this world and not having to have it explained to him. It was obvious that he was very eager to learn new things. She wouldn't doubt she would be the same way on Asgard. "That's right. Well done, Thor Odinson."

"I should like to see these swords of light, Lady Skywalker. Perhaps you will honor me with a mock fight as we fly this metal beast into danger?"

Holly could barely keep up with the near Shakespearean tone of the Asgardians, all the while her mind screaming at her that she was meeting aliens. "It would be my honor, Lady Sif." She bowed her head in respect to the pair.

To her right, she saw Tony all but hauling Dr. Banner from his seat like a petulant child and over for a proper introduction. "Dr. Dugan, it's very nice to meet you. I've seen some of your classes online. Very engaging and thought provoking." He fidgeted nervously, pushing his glasses up and barely meeting her eye.

She smiled, knowing that Dr. Banner's alter ego was the Hulk. She knew Tony would be the last person to baby the man or be afraid of him because of what he became. It was something he'd learned from her father. From what she knew about both Banner and his alter ego, she had no worries either. " Please, Dr. Banner, just Holly. I don't even make my students call me Dr Dugan if they don't want to. It's nice to finally meet you. Tony raves about you. I'm impressed you have the patience to deal with him on a regular basis. I think if anything that shows a great deal of control on your part."

"Please, call me Bruce. And thank you. He does like to try and tempt...you know, the other guy into coming out. But I promised Pepper I would try not to break Manhattan. One borough is enough."

Holly laughed. "I'm sure Manhattan appreciates it." She shook his hand. "If it means anything, my father never liked General Ross. He always thought it would be a matter of time before he ended up getting people hurt with his recklessness. I think that transferred over to Fury, why he tended to be a bit protective of you where others wouldn't have been."

Bruce nodded. "I appreciate that. The General...is a complicated man."

"Pompous asshat." Tony coughed not so nonchalantly into his hand.

"Who I heard was drummed out of the service early for the events leading to the Abomination." Holly said, smirking at how Tony seemed protective of the man who could become the Hulk. Of course they both had difficult childhoods thanks to their fathers on top of genius beyond compare. It wasn't something you usually found in another person. At Bruce's confused look, she shrugged. "I still have my SHIELD clearance. You'd be surprised at the things I know."

She turned to where Trip, another person she recognized, was standing with his arms crossed, a playful twist to his lips. "Look at this, two Legacies on the same plane. You know I brought the noise."

"And I always bring the funk." The black man grinned, pulling her into a tight hug. "It's good to see you, Holly. It's been way too long."

"I know, it's really good to see you Trip. I was sorry to hear about Garrett. I can't count the number of times I met him and never had a clue he was Hydra. Not even a hint. Pissed me off that he and that Ward traitor were able to fool us so well. You okay?" She was even more angry that she'd actually thanked Garrett for having Trip on his team at the time the Towers fell, Trip being out of the country and not in NY at the time.

"Yeah. It's messed up, the whole Hydra thing, but they made their choice and it was the wrong one." He shrugged. It was obvious to her that it still bothered him. Not just the feeling of betrayal by his commanding agent, but by the fact that Hydra had infiltrated so completely. It had taken her by surprise as well. She'd spent a good deal of time going over old missions, thinking of why she hadn't suspected. She'd never liked Pierce, neither had her father or Peggy, but to think he'd been Hydra the whole time made her sick.

Holly nodded before turning and waving Steve over. "Steve, have you met Agent Triplett? He's a fellow Legacy, what we've come to call anyone descended from the original Commandos, who weren't terribly prolific. We're the only ones left. His mom was Gabe Jones' daughter."

She almost teared up at how big Trip's eyes got at the sight of the real Captain America, someone they'd both grown up hearing firsthand stories about. Like a child learning Santa Claus was real or going to Disney World for the first time. He knew about Steve being found from the start, but here he was in the flesh. He instantly straightened up and put his hand to his temple in salute. "Sir! It's an honor, sir."

"At ease, son. We're all friends here." Steve put out his hand, respectful amusement in his eyes considering that Trip was physically older than he was. "It's actually my honor to have fought with your grandfather, he was one of the best men I knew. He'd be proud to know you were continuing the fight with SHIELD."

It was obvious that Trip was nervous but he relaxed just a bit as he shook Steve's hand. "Thank you sir. Really."

The girl that Coulson had identified as Skye came over, an amused look on her face from watching Trip's reaction to Steve. "So you are the Holly Coulson's told me about. Is it true you became an agent at 14?"

Holly nodded, remembering how proud she felt when she received her badge and clearance. "Yep. The youngest SHIELD agent in history."

"And your dad was director?"

"Yes, he was. For well over 20 years before Fury took over."

"I can't even imagine being an agent that young!"

"I was born into SHIELD. It's all I've ever known. The last few years have been stranger than anything SHIELD ever threw at me, to be honest. Staying in one place was hard to get used to." She gave the younger girl a smile and leaned in closer. "We'll have to sit down and talk, I can tell you a few stories about Coulson you won't believe."

"May told me the Milan story."

Holly fought back a laugh. "Oh sweetheart, Milan is nothing. I've known the man for 20 years, May is holding back on you."

"Oh god dammit." Coulson muttered, his hand to his forehead.

"You get what you ask for, Phil." May said with a smirk on her face as she gave Holly a wink, heading up to the cockpit.

After a few more introductions and takeoff, the group all sat down around the conference table for a situation report by Coulson. It seemed there was a leader of a small country in Western Europe, called Latveria who was threatening neighboring nations with releasing his armies of mechanized soldiers unless they surrendered and declared allegiance to him. He called himself Dr. Doom.

"Wait, Victor Von Doom? The scientist who used to work with Reed Richards?" Bruce spoke up, his brow furrowed. "Last I heard he'd been in an accident and Richards was recovering from cosmic ray radiation exposure with his team."

"You heard correctly, Dr. Banner. Unfortunately, whatever happened to Doom was enough to push his meglomania into full blown psychosis. No one has seen him since but he's fully embraced his title of dictator. We're flying in to assess the potential threat under the unofficial request of the United Nations Security Council."

"Because Doom is considered a world leader, they'd have to publicly threaten sanctions and such otherwise. He have diplomatic immunity if he tried to coordinate this aggressive expansion from the States probably." Holly added, looking at the old stock photo of the man. Part of being a SHIELD agent was knowing just what kind of laws you were possibly violating if you weren't invited to a particular country. Doom looked like the kind of guy who thought he was better than everyone else and to try and prove him wrong would send him over the edge. Vanity and ego to the extreme. The question was what put him over the edge? The accident?

"That's right. Luckily for us, he's near his home country commanding his self proclaimed Doombots from a castle fortress. Seriously, that's what he called them in his formal threat." Coulson seemed ready for everyone to think he was just kidding.

"Doombots? Castle? Lame." Tony concluded with a dismissing wave of his hand. After you fought an entire alien army, one madman with robots seemed like nothing.

"This coming from a guy who used to have a building with his name on it in NY?" Clint quipped, an eyebrow raised. "And had how many Iron Man suits that could operate independently thanks to Jarvis?"

"Blah blah. Keep it up there Robin Hood and I'll start charging you rent!"

"Where is Latveria? Near Russia?" Steve interrupted, looking at the screen, keen to stay on topic. "It sounds vaguely familiar but most of my time was in Eastern and Northern Europe."

"It's near Bavaria, Cap. In the Alps." Bruce spoke up absently, intently reading the information on his tablet. It made sense that Banner would be familiar with another authority in the scientific community.

Holly stiffened at the sound of Bavaria and even more so about the Alps in that country. "Director please tell me Doom is in Latveria and not Bavaria."

"Sorry Agent, I can't." Coulson's eyes were sympathetic. He already knew what she'd realized. He had to. And that was probably why he slipped, calling her agent.

"Why does it matter where he is?" Natasha spoke up confused.

"Because an egomaniac like Doom would want to chose an infamous place for his base of operations. A place that would be legendary and inspire fear while having the capabilities, once retrofitted, for his purposes." Holly explained, dreading her next question and closing her eyes as she did. "He's taken over Castle Kaufmann, hasn't he?" She knew they should have destroyed that place in the last 60 years.

The only one who reacted to her question was Steve who took in a sharp breath. Coulson looked sadly at the soldier before nodding. "Excellent profiling Holly. That's where we are heading. We should be there in less than 6 hours."

Steve stood up suddenly. "Excuse me." He left the room.

"What was that? Cap allergic to Bavarian crème?" Tony said in his usual blunt manner, rotating his chair in mild interest. It obvious wasn't Steve's usual behavior to leave a situation meeting.

Holly smacked him upside the head from across the table without even moving. It had been a trick that had greatly amused her brother when she was a kid. Tony wasn't known for his tact and telekinesis came in handy. "Castle Kaufmann was once the base for the Red Skull and the original incarnation of Hydra. That's where Cap and the Commandos stopped their plan of attack using the Tesseract." She took her breath. "It's where the plane that Steve was forced to crash into the Arctic launched from, in March 1945."

A low curse in French came from Trip who had finally made the connection. His grandfather had been a Commando and had no doubt had spoken sadly about the events at the Castle. He'd been the only other Commando present when Bucky Barnes had been presumed lost from the fall from the Hydra train. The others were quiet, concerned about the super soldier but not knowing what to say. What could you say?

"Shit." Tony breathed. "I didn't know."

"No, but as usual, you speak without thinking." Holly said roughly. She was used to Tony's particular way of expressing himself and his personality but she knew it could be seen as cocky and abrasive if not downright rude by others. She almost wanted to ask him if he'd like to make a return visit to the system of caves he'd been held captive in for 3 months in Afghanistan."Excuse me, I'm going to check on Steve and hope he's not experiencing the Super Soldier version of PTSD."

She left the room and made her way through the plane, looking for Steve. She was more than a little angry that no one had warned Steve ahead of time where they were going. They weren't facing the Red Skull again but to go back to the place that led to you ending up a human popsicle for nearly 70 years to face another megalomaniac with plans of world domination had to mess with your head. She wagered Steve probably still had issues dealing with winter after his experience.

She finally found him sitting in a seat looking out the window on the night sky. His jaw was tight and his hands were gripping the seat arms so tightly that she was sure that he was bending the metal under the leather cushions. She cautiously approached him and stopped a few feet away, in case he was dealing with PTSD. Her father had told her about how Uncle Dum Dum had nearly killed him once when he tried to wake his brother from a nightmare involving what Hydra had done to the men before their rescue by Captain America. She remembered Pepper telling her about Tony having a nightmare that had him waking up with his armored hand and a charged repulsor in her face. And she'd witnessed the same with both Clint and Natasha. She'd had her own share of nightmares over the years too. He had to be hurting.

She spoke quietly. "Steve? Are you alright?"

It was silent for long moments. "What do you think?"

"Sorry, it was a dumb question." She apologized. "Can I sit with you? I think you need some company. I can just sit here if you want and not talk. I don't think you should be alone."

He swallowed and turned away from the window to look at her, the pain in his eyes evident. He looked lost and almost scared. One of the few things that could actually really frighten the legendary Captain America. Or was this more of the man behind the shield being afraid? "I'm not going to try and hurt myself or go crazy."

She shook her head. "I never said that you'd do either. But it's obvious that you are hurting just the same. I'm sorry you had to find out where we were heading like that. I know it has to be a shock."

His jaw tensed. "Yeah. One place I never wanted to return to. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you would figure out where Doom would set up base."

She shrugged as she carefully moved herself into the seat opposite him, making her movements deliberate and without any suddenness. "Uncle Dum Dum wouldn't talk about what happened there except to use the Castle as a starting point to try and figure out where you might have crashed enroute to NY." Her voice seemed loud in the large room. "Peggy told me of how she spoke to you right till the very end. That you were going to go dancing. But as much as she missed you, she knew that you'd made the right choice and she was proud that you had been so brave to do it."

Steve had returned to looking out the window. "I remember seeing the water and ice coming closer and closer. Peggy talking about our date. Telling me I better not be late. I have vague memories of the cold, being unable to move and the ice biting into me. I think I thought that at least I'd see Bucky again. See my parents."

Holly's heart broke, hearing the pained words coming from the hero before her. Everyone seemed to forget that despite appearances, Captain America was really a former target of bullies. He was still just a kid himself, forced to do things he never got the chance to come to deal with before waking up in a whole new world with everything he ever knew to be gone. No chance to just be Steve Rogers of Brooklyn again. He'd only been out of the ice a few scarce months before the Loki incident with the Chitari invasion happened. Not long after that was Hydra emerging from within SHIELD and the appearance of the Winter Soldier. There was no time for him to truly mentally deal with what he'd been through during the war, let alone his choice to sacrifice himself in that bomber.

"It's stupid. It's just a place. I'm sure it's changed in nearly 70 years, right?"

"It's not stupid Steve." She took a chance to trust him as he was trusting her. "I haven't been able to go to New York since September 11th. I was doing a quick snatch and grab in San Diego with Clint when everything happened. It's just blind luck or whatever you want to call it that I wasn't home in NY when everything went down. All I had left was a communique that went to all SHIELD agents, requesting assistance in NY." She took a breath. "That was the order from the Hydra undercover."

"I'm sorry, that must have been so hard."

She nodded. "Coulson tried telling me that if I had been in New York, I probably would have died too." Another moment of trust. "For a while, I wished I had. Died, you know? That's why I left SHIELD. I couldn't risk the lives of other agents because I didn't care about my own. I didn't have anything to live for. That's dangerous in this line of work."

"I understand." His eyes told her that unlike a lot of people, he really got it. In any kind of a fight, you had to be completely focused and beyond that, care about what happened to you. Without that, you could get others killed trying to defend you or pick up your slack. Or worse, innocents could suffer.

"Maybe this could be a second chance for both of us. I can try and get back into the field and you can help yourself put away those memories. To make it just a place in the Alps that no one cares about. Hell, we have to have some good ordinance on this thing. Maybe if we ask nicely, Coulson will let us blow it back to hell. That could be fun."

She could see him fighting it, but a smile and a chuckle came out. Steve looked at her, his lips slightly curved. His eyes less pained, more amused. Pleased even. She could see the kid from Brooklyn that he'd always insisted to Peggy he was in the end in that smile. "You are a special kind of lady, you know that?"

"Coming from you, that's the highest compliment I've ever received." It really was a bit of a thrill too, not just to be called special by Captain America, but to make a man who looked like Steve with that warm personality smile and laugh. He didn't seem to have a disingenuous bone in his body. In this day and age, it was refreshing.

They sat quietly for a while before Holly spoke again. "Listen, I know this isn't going to be easy for you and I know quite a few people on this plane want me to move on from my own issues. Anyways, I'm sure Tony actually does have a new saber for me with him and Coulson has my costume somewhere around here. He's a nut for costumes yet always wears a suit. Never figured that out."

Steve chuckled again. "I think that might actually be his costume."