Disclaimer: I Own Nothing

The Varanger Peninsula was a long way away from Italy but that was where Hydra was going to start their plan and that meant that the SSR would have to go there to stop them. Steve sat in the hold of the transport ship as the SSR had commandeered the ship and turned the hold into their base as they made their way to Oslo where they would stock up and then make the rest of the trip to the peninsula. He got up and made his way up some stairs and could see the various members of the SSR. He on the far end and spotted Philips who was clearly attempting to organize the SSR forces that he was juggling which had grown substantially since they took down Manfredi. Steve exhaled as he scanned the room silently wondering what Erksine would think of all of this, he looked down realizing that this was the first time he had thought of the man who had given him so much since he left New York and started fighting against Hydra.

"What are you up too?" came Peggy's voice from behind him. Steve turned as she approached him and stood next to him.

"Just thinking" he replied turning back to look over the sea of people.

Peggy joined in looking over everyone "Have to admit that I always doubted that we would come this far" she stated noticing Dugan and the rest of the Howling Commandos were showing some of the new recruits how to use some of Stark's new gadgets and equipment. "It always felt like this was a goal that was too far away to accomplish with the Red Skull always two or three steps ahead of us."

"But we are here" Steve replied causing Peggy to look at him "Belief has gotten us this far, we cannot and will not get this close to getting him and fail. We will stop the Red Skull for sake of everyone, I don't know what he is planning but we have to stop him."

Steve's radio clicked on "Hey Cap come on down to my little corner of paradise I think I found something interesting in Manfredi's journals" came Starks voice.

Steve looked down and could see Stark waving at him from the far corner of the cargo hold surrounded by his technicians and equipment. Steve waved back and started heading towards the stairs with Peggy close behind him. "Anything that Stark can pull out of those journals about Hydra is going to help immensely in preparing for the Red Skull and his plan" said Peggy.

They had discovered a set of journals in Manfredi's office just before they left for the ship and Stark had been digging through them since the ship left the port. Howard had moved to his work bench in the back of his science division as he had come to calling it since they had boarded the ship and turned the cargo hold into the main HQ for the SSR. Stark waved them over where they spotted Philips, Bucky and the rest of the Howling Commandos. "Guys looks like Manfredi worked more closely with Zola than we thought he did" he exclaimed laying out one of the journals. "So you remember all the equipment you saw back in France when you rescued everyone?" Steve nodded prompting Stark to continue "It was a small part of an invasion force that Hydra was preparing. Thanks to these journals I now have a pretty good idea on Hydra's plan" Stark explained. "Manfredi spent some time with Zola and the Skull back in late 1941 and early 1942 when the Red Skull was searching for something all over Europe. The Red Skull called it the Tesseract and he believed that it was a pathway to a place called Asgard" explained Stark pulling up some weapon schematics. "The one thing about these weapons is the energy projection produced but Manfredi explains what the Tesseract was supposed to do, it's a power source. Theoretically you could somehow transfer the power into some kind of battery and have energy weapons and based on the schematics Zola pulled it off."

Peggy stepped forward "Manfredi was supposed to leave Italy for Norway shortly before we captured him."

"Yeah, according to his journals he was going to be a high ranking member of the Hydra command structure and their plan is very ambitious if Manfredi was correctly informed" said Stark.

"What kind of invasion? The United States? The Soviets?" asked Philips prompting Stark to look at him.

Stark sighed "Everyone."

Dugan and Morita scoffed and Dernier shook his head "It's not possible" he said leaning onto a table.

"No" stated Bucky from the back "If Hydra wanted to invade the rest of the world I wouldn't put it past them."

"Barnes an invasion of that scale would stretch any nation or group too far to properly institute a war" explained Dugan looking back to Stark.

"It's a pre-emptive strike, Hydra has spent their time with the Tesseract creating guns, bombs, tanks, planes and anything that could be used for war, they are going to use a large cargo plane of Zola's design to launch smaller planes that will drop some very large Tesseract bombs onto every major city all over the world…..even Berlin" explained Stark presenting a map that Manfredi had drawn roughly on one of the pages.

"I don't get it how can a small piece of an army stand up to the entire world and expect to survive" asked Gabe Jones looking at the map.

Stark shrugged his shoulders "Look at us we went from being a small group of scientists and soldiers to having an army at our disposal."

"Hydra has grown quickly look at the party in Italy, agents from all over the world. Red Skull has the men and weapons to do what he wants to do, not to mention with the rest of the world being occupied with the war, it is a prime time to strike against the globe" explained Peggy.

Philips nodded "Okay then, we are now trying to prevent a global attack that could cripple every major government in the world. So everyone get some sleep and be ready for anything."

Everyone broke up and Steve stayed put sitting across from Stark who was pouring over the journals. Steve watched as he could see the mind of Howard Stark turning as he absorbed information from the stuff in front of him. "I usually prefer women to be watching me so intently Mr. Rogers" he said with a sly smile.

"Sorry Howard I'll leave you be" said Steve moving to stand.

"Don't worry about it. I should pry relax a little anyway there will be time to finish the journals tomorrow" Stark replied putting his feet up on his bench.

"So what's your plan for after the war?" asked Steve just interested in talking about something other than the task at hand.

"Well assuming we avert the end of civilization as we know it, I figure that I'll go home and continue building my company maybe start a family. It's getting to be that time for me to get settled down" he said loosening his collar.

"Didn't think you would ever settle down" said Steve with a laugh.

Stark chuckled as well "Neither did I but something about facing the end makes a man start to think about the future, the company is doing fine thanks to my friend Obadiah running things while I handle everything here."

"No kids yet?" asked Steve.

"Nope surprisingly no, but I always thought having a son would be nice" Howard stated. "How about you any plans for after fighting the good fight?"

"Not really, something tells me that I will always be doing stuff like this unless….something changes my mind" Steve said while looking over towards Peggy who was walking towards her room which was separate from the rest of the crew.

"That is one tiger that will be tough to wrangle my friend" said Stark putting his work away. Steve stood up and nodded his good night to Howard and started walking to his cot. He looked around before laying down and noticed that everyone was sleeping soundly. He closed his eyes but opened them quickly when he heard groaning and mumbling from nearby. He looked over and could see that Bucky was having another nightmare, Steve sighed and sat up to watch him. "We'll get them Buck no matter what it takes" He said laying back down but not falling asleep.