1990

Daniel was the first to go, thanks to the fact that his health had never been entirely the same after the war, and Angie followed not long after. Then Anna passed away, and Peggy and Jack just barely managed to keep Edwin from killing himself – reminding him that they still needed him, and that Tony needed him as he was practically the only real father figure Howard's only child had ever known. But the butler wasn't the same without his wife, and he died only a week after Jack did, five people dead within the space of two years.

The only reason Peggy made herself keep going was because of SHIELD, because of her determination to watch the organization grow and become all she knew it could be. In a way it was like protecting Steve's blood all those years ago – SHIELD was the final piece that she had of the life that she and her soulmates had lived, and she didn't want to leave it.

So one by one, Peggy had watched her soulmarks fade away, watched Steve's and Bucky's stay exactly where they were, and wondered what it could mean… She was an old woman herself now, surely it was becoming rather a vain pipedream to think that Steve and Bucky might still be out there somewhere, wasn't it? But then, that stubborn hope that they were was something else that she didn't want to leave behind.

Before she was quite able to comprehend what had happened, Peggy was left alone in a cemetery, staring at a line of five graves – two of which were achingly fresh – with tears streaming down her face.

"Hey, Peg," a familiar voice said solemnly behind her, laying a hand on her shoulder.

She'd heard him coming, but the touch still made another sob well up in her throat. Even Howard, who was the closest friend that she had outside of her now-deceased soulmates, couldn't give her the comfort that she needed, and for her that fact only highlighted just how alone she was once again.

"We're going to find them, you know," he said absently, staring at the graves over her shoulder.

By now she knew without question that he was talking about Steve and Bucky. Bucky's showing up and shooting Jack had thrown Howard for a serious loop that had descended into an alcoholic spiral somewhere along the way – one that she, her soulmates, and even Howard's own wife had often felt helpless to stop even as he refused to give up his search for the legendary soldiers. The part of her that had always worried for Howard had hoped that marrying Maria and getting the gift of a child might temper his… obsession with finding Steve and Bucky/ Regrettably, that hadn't happened – not even a little – and in the end, Eddie and Anna had gone so far as to become surrogate parents to Tony.

The old promise of finding the men connected to her two remaining soulmarks burned anew in her heart, causing both more hope and more agony than ever before and she couldn't help the pessimistic words that sprang to mind in the middle of this desolate moment. But Howard seemed to sense her thoughts, saying firmly, "I mean it; I promise we'll see them again, one way or the other."

December 17, 1991

And somehow, for some reason that he couldn't identify, in the far recesses of his mind, Howard had wondered if "the other" way that he had referenced that day would be a scenario exactly like this. Sergeant Barnes – but not him; this was some other man (monster?) entirely – standing over him while he bled to death, Maria already a cooling body in the tangled wreckage that he realized sluggishly he was just as trapped in. His wife was dead, he was going to die here, and whoever Barnes had become was the one who had caused the automobile accident that was leading to his demise.

And it was only then that Howard realized that he had honestly expected something like this – and there was only one thing he could think of in that moment.

He told Barnes as much, staring up at the man, forcing himself to keep eye contact and make his vocal chords work for as long as it took to admit, "I knew it would be you. Just please tell me you're not going after Peggy too; the others are all gone."

Something switched in Barnes' dead gaze… but before he could figure out what it was, Howard's own eyes fluttered closed for the last time.

Soldier swallowed, not feeling the discomfort brought on by the smoke filling the air, not hearing the noise rise to a frenzy around him as onlookers realized who this man was.

Howard Stark. He heard that many times over as he fled the scene, careful and quiet as a ghost. Howard Stark. Peggy. Those names meant something important – he knew they should, he just didn't know what… but whoever those people were… he knew them.

But when he told his handler that, the only response it garnered were those two words that he hated more than anything, words that meant a world of pain that he didn't even have the life left to fight against anymore – "Wipe him."

When Howard and Maria died, Peggy and Tony took it equally hard – in Peggy's case because she'd lost what she truly felt was two of her only remaining friends… and then reports began circling that the Winter Soldier had been behind the so-called accident. Tony began to spiral in ways that reminded Peggy far too much of Howard, but – just like with his father – she had no idea how to reach him.

Tony was only twenty-one, and had suffered more loss in the past three years than anyone his age ought to be allowed. A part of Peggy wanted desperately to reach out to him – to the closest thing to family that she had left – but she didn't know how to do it without revealing the truth that Tony had never known.