Oof, I thought last chapter was tough to write, but this one was like pulling teeth. I'm not super thrilled with how it came out, but I figured it might be easier to just call it done move on to the next chapter.
I added a line to chapter 15 where McGonagall mentions Harry has his mother's green eyes, and that Lily had red hair.
James has just divulged possibly the most classified intel of HYDRA- the leader.
James has once again offered the information willingly to Stark, who had not tried to kill him after James revealed that HYDRA sent the Soldier to assassinate his parents.
"Pierce?" Stark studies him with eyes that aren't quite as sharp as usual, indicating exhaustion.
That bastard really deserves it, the Bucky voice sounds grimly satisfied, and calls Pierce several more colorful terms in James's mind.
"Piers is Dudley's fwiend." states Harry. "He helps Dudley hit me."
James had not encountered Piers, but he should teach the kid a lesson. Not kill him as he had the Dursley boy, but scare him enough to ensure he'll never be a bully again.
Steve never liked bullies, declares the Bucky voice. Neither do I.
"Well, that Piers kid sounds like a jerk." Stark mutters. "But I kind of doubt a kid's in charge of HYDRA. Even if you were somehow in charge of him."
Unlike James, HYDRA does not have codewords for gaining control of it.
"My dad said Piers." Harry argues.
"He said Pierce. Not Piers." Stark explains to Harry before turning toward James. "There are a lot of Pierces out there. Secretary Pierce, for instance..."
The man's expression darkens, full of suspicion, and he mutters "Please tell me it's some other Pierce."
"Did you mean Secretary Alexander Pierce, former director of SHIELD?" the computerized voice Jarvis interjects smoothly, presumably addressing James. A holographic photo of Director Pierce's face appears. He is elderly, with graying hair and the beginnings of wrinkles, but James remembers him younger as well. James had not gained wrinkles or graying hair as his handler has.
The sight of the man makes him feel phantom slaps on his face. He tenses, instinctively expecting the order to be put in the Chair, even though it is a stationary picture, not the real person.
The old voice klaxons like an alarm in James's mind. PIERCE WILL RESET THE MISSION AND RECLAIM HIS ASSET.
Not gonna happen, pal. The Bucky voice replies, though James can hear apprehension behind Bucky's bravado. Surely Pierce is powerful enough to make him HYDRA's asset again, even if he is not now.
Harry stifles a snicker. "That's not Piers! It's a old man!"
"That is Director Pierce." James speaks through a clenched jaw, trying not to think of the punishment that would await him if Pierce knew James just uncovered him, which would be in addition to the punishments for defecting and revealing HYDRA's existence.
Stark groans, scrubbing a hand over his face. "You're just a stream of earth-shattering revelations, aren't you? You're telling me this HYDRA infestation goes as deep as the director of SHIELD?! The Secretary?!"
Stark is expressing disbelief but James does not think he is dismissing the intel, as he had originally dismissed HYDRA as a memory of the Bucky person.
"Affirmative." James states.
Stark slumps into a chair and moans. "I just wanted to fly home, crash, and drink until I forgot everything. Then you had to drop even bigger bombs on me."
Harry's brow furrows over Stark's words. "But you'd die in a crash, like-"
"I don't need to be reminded about that, kid." Stark's snaps in a tight voice, and he glances once again at James. He said he wouldn't hurt James and he's out of his armor, but James still prepares himself for a fight.
Harry shuts his mouth hastily, eyes wide and locked on Stark's hands.
"I-I'll get your d'ink, sir." the boy murmurs, reverting to his behavior at the Dursley residence as he hurries toward the bar lining one wall.
Stark pinches the bridge of his nose. "We talked about this, Oliver. You're not serving me." The man stands and quickly strides to the bar, beating Harry there, and turns to gesture for the boy to stop. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm not mad at you, anyway... just, mad."
James observes Stark pour himself a liberal amount of liquid from a decanter and toss the glass back, immediately pouring another.
Stark's promise not to blame James for the assassination of his parents- even when it had been his hands that had done it- may not remain in effect if the man becomes inebriated. Intoxication can make many people prone to violent outbursts, which Stark had already demonstrated by shooting a workbench. Next time, it could be James or Harry.
Yet Stark is unarmed and Harry seems capable of disabling his suit. James would have enough of a head start to subdue the man.
"So has every SHIELD director secretly been HYDRA?!" Stark tosses back more liquid, then shakes his head wearily. "There's no way Peggy Carter could've been... or are you gonna drop that bomb, too?"
James has few memories of Carter, and the Bucky voice remarks She didn't even notice me, only had eyes for Steve. It was horrible.
Carter had fought against HYDRA. There is the possibility she could have been a double agent, but James is somehow certain she wasn't. "Carter was not affiliated with HYDRA."
Stark exhales slowly. "Well, that's the first remotely relieving news you've given me all day. You sure Fury isn't HYDRA? Black man with a dark coat and eyepatch?"
Another holographic photo matching Stark's description appears. It must be Fury, but all James has heard were unflattering jibes. "Rumlow and Rollins joked he was blind."
"Literally or figuratively?" Stark asks. "Because if he doesn't know any of this is happening under his nose..."
James scowls at Stark. "You told Potts you would not contact Fury." Stark hasn't gone back on that promise, has he? Fury could still be HYDRA even if James doesn't recognize him.
"I haven't. I don't exactly trust him." Stark returns to studying Pierce's picture with growing disgust. "Ugh, we're gonna need tons of evidence to bring Pierce down, and I bet he covers it up. You don't happen to have mad detective skills, do you?"
"Ask Batman!" Harry chips in, standing close to James. "He's the greatest mad de-te-tive ever in the world!"
Stark shoots Harry an exasperated look. "Isn't your dad Batman?"
"No, the real Batman." Harry's tone is as exasperated as Stark's expression.
Rather than arguing, once again, that Batman is fictitious, Stark ignores the statement altogether. "As much as I'd like to go into this guns blazing, we should probably make a plan or two."
"That would certainly be advisable." the computerized voice Jarvis remarks dryly.
Decommissioning Pierce would not destabilize all of HYDRA. As the motto goes, cut off one head and two more shall take its place. There would simply be a new leader.
They'll need to dismantle everything, bring HYDRA down as the other Winter Soldiers would destabilize and topple entire countries in a single night. Unlike countries, HYDRA may not be able to be razed that quickly.
"Any idea how long Pierce has been the director of HYDRA?" Stark asks.
James's brow furrows minutely. Some missions have set time stamps, but often he would be thawed and given no information on what year it was.
"It's no biggie if you don't." Stark says, though he almost sounds as if he's simply humoring James. "I had Jarvis scan more paperwork than Pepper's ever forced me to sign. Ugh, that was a pain."
Several holographic documents appear. Two of them have HYDRA's logo of a skull and snakes on the top.
Bit stupid for an undercover organization, remarks the Bucky voice.
Harry, however, points at the logo excitedly. "Snakes! I can ask my snake fwiends to bite bad guys!"
"Is that another one of your powers? Being a mini Doctor Dolittle?" Stark seems unsure as to whether to actually believe it or dismiss talking animals as a child's imagination.
"Who?"
"He talks to animals. And they talk back, but not in a hallucination way."
"Dogs only talk in dog sounds." Harry replies derisively. "'Cos Nighty's a dumb bad dog and Ripper g'owls like a tiger."
"So is it just snakes?" Stark questions, and Harry slowly nods. The man glances toward the ceiling. "Hey, J, while you're busy combing through all those documents, mind seeing if there are any kids' books with talking snakes? Order Doctor Dolittle too."
Even James expects a snarky retort from the computerized voice about being busy, but instead it says "Sir, Agent Romanoff-"
"Is she HYDRA too?" Stark's voice is weary.
Before Jarvis can reply, a pair of woman's legs that are too short to belong to Potts silently descend the steps. James grabs the blowtorch and instructs Harry to remain hidden behind one of the cars.
The woman has red hair and glossed lips, and James recognizes her as the agent he shot through to hit the target engineer. She has two pistols and four knives concealed on her person, which would go unnoticed by 98% of people but are impossible to miss for James's trained eyes.
THREAT ASSESSMENT: HIGH.
She enters a code onto the access panel and enters through the glass door.
Stark folds his arms across the faint glow filtering through his shirt and narrows his eyes at the woman. "You are not the former assistant I was hoping to see, Rushman or Romanoff or whatever your real name is. I know I said I wanted you before, but I really don't want you now."
Romanoff's eyes flick to where James is standing motionless. He should have remained unnoticed by civilians and trained agents alike. It makes her more dangerous.
James hears Harry whisper something about his bad witch mummy, and the agent's eyes narrow at the car before settling on Stark as if seeing him anew. "Didn't think you were the type to settle down with a husband and kid."
James ignores the Bucky voice as it asks in a shocked tone Fellas can marry fellas now? That is unimportant. He needs to focus on Harry's safety.
"Do you see a ring?" Stark arches a brow. "I'm anything but settled right now. In fact, I've been thoroughly unsettled by a lot recently, and your appearance isn't helping. What does Fury want?"
James tenses. She is SHIELD. Fury cannot know they are here. James isn't sure the man is HYDRA- he'd never heard the STRIKE team disparage Pierce the way they had disparaged Fury. The lack of respect indicates he is an enemy of HYDRA, but that does not mean he will be an ally to James or Harry.
It is possible Romanoff brought the STRIKE team as backup. Ordinarily, fighting multiple opponents on his own would be a negligible exercise, but STRIKE is different. Rumlow may have his own trigger words to incapacitate James until Pierce arrives.
"Fury wants to know why Iron Man decided to destroy a warehouse." Romanoff replies.
Stark snorts. "Boredom? I'm volatile, as your own report said. That means I like to blow shit up."
Romanoff levels Stark with an unimpressed look as the man continues "For an intelligence agency, you're remarkably stupid a lot of the time. You can tell Fury I said that, quote me if you want."
She will not be reporting their presence to Fury.
WITNESSES ARE TO BE ELIMINATED.
James is closing in on Romanoff before the inner voice has finished speaking.
Romanoff dodges his first blow, flipping up to wrap her legs around his throat. She attempts to subdue him with strangulation and blunt force trauma to his head, but he slams her back into a wall.
It is similar to how the fight with the giant played out, only James is the giant this time. He will not allow Romanoff to incapacitate him with a tree.
James successfully stuns Romanoff enough to flip her off his shoulders and toss her across the room. She expertly rolls to her feet, producing a gun and aiming it at James.
James distantly hears both Stark and Harry shouting, and the gun is ripped from Romanoff's grasp by an invisible force. The enemy asset had used a similar, seemingly magical method to relieve the escorts of their weapons and James of his weapons and supplies in the Tesco parking lot.
Does Harry have the same ability?
Romanoff's expression is shocked for 0.4 seconds before she smooths her features. She ignores the gun and produces a knife, gripping it 24% tighter than she had the gun, as if to ensure it won't be pulled from her grip.
James dodges the knife and locks Romanoff's arm in place. She attempts to break the hold in a manner similar to the one James had been teaching Harry, but James readjusts his stance. The knife clatters to the floor.
"солдат" Romanoff gasps. It is not an attempt to gain control, but a realization of who he is.
James does not release his hold, but his mind flashes to the Red Room. He recalls instructing a red-haired girl on how to shoot a gun. She was barely older than Harry is now, but he realizes she grew to be the agent he currently has in an arm-lock.
He is not sure how he went from training her to shooting through her. Is she an enemy of HYDRA, despite working in SHIELD? Or is she still working for the Russians?
Romanoff takes advantage of the distraction to twist free. That action, along with Harry's voice, snaps James out of the memory.
"Go away!" Harry is standing with his hands on his hips, glaring at Romanoff from under his black mask. "You can't eat anyone here."
"I wasn't planning on eating anyone."
"Was too!" Harry is obviously unconvinced. "You're my bad witch mummy. Go away. I haf' a new dad now."
"I'm no one's mother." Romanoff's eyes do not leave James for even a fraction of a second. "Certainly not yours. And I'm not a witch."
"Are you Batgirl?" Harry seems to be going through a mental checklist of red-haired individuals.
"No, she's not." Stark sighs. "She's a triple-agent spy, that's all I know about her. And she speaks Latin."
Romanoff speaks in Russian instead of Latin, addressing James. "You look the same."
She looks only a few years older than when the Soldier shot out her tires and then shot through her to kill the engineer.
"Who were you working for?" she's clearly referencing the mission where his bullet pierced her.
"I don't work for anyone anymore." James replies.
"What are you saying?" Stark demands, annoyed at being left out of the conversation. "Hey, Jarvis. What are they saying?"
Jarvis translates Romanoff's words, and Romanoff smoothly transitions to English to tell Stark "I was wondering how you ended up with a Soviet assassin in your house."
"Soviet?" Stark raises a brow at James. "Well, that explains your red star. So, what, were you two spies together?"
"We were. Then he shot through me." Romanoff's voice is carefully deadpan. "Ruined bikinis forever."
Stark mutters that he doubts that, absently rubbing his chest. "I'm living proof you be hot as hell, scars and all." He nods at James. "I guess he's proof of that, too."
Romanoff ignores Stark completely, still watching James. "I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. They sent an agent to kill me, and he made a different choice."
James does not think Romanoff was sent to kill him. Though she'd noticed his presence, she had given no indication of expecting to see either him or Harry, or of having any knowledge about Harry and his abilities.
All evidence points to her coming solely for Stark.
Presently, she's extending a silent offer for him to defect, to join SHIELD. James studies her. She truly doesn't know that joining SHIELD would be joining the same side he's left.
"We've both got red in our ledgers. We can wipe it out." Romanoff seems to think she is currently doing better than being an assassin, meaning she cannot be knowingly working for HYDRA. Anyone willingly joining them would have no qualms about getting blood on their hands.
"Yeah, SHIELD might not be the best way to atone for past stuff." Stark mutters.
Romanoff shoots him a look. "Not all of us are billionaires with the time and money to invent weaponized suits."
"SHIELD 's bad guys." Harry says solemnly. "Like Hy'da."
"HYDRA?" Romanoff asks.
James interrupts his son quickly.
"I will not join SHIELD." The words feel strange in James's mouth. What he wants has never factored into the equation in the past, and if SHIELD wants to acquire him, they will likely find a way. Most likely using the STRIKE team.
As if answering his thoughts, James hears footsteps on the stairs. Only one person, thankfully, but it would only take one person with the right words to reset him.
The man is wearing a suit, but it is not Pierce. That fact does not necessarily make him less dangerous.
"Oh, yay, Coulson." Stark mutters sarcastically. "Just who I wanted to see."
Here was my brother's (joke) suggestion of how to end this chapter.
"What the & &)$&(?!" Exclaimed Natasha boisterously. "Hydra has infected shield? Good thing they call me the Exterminator Terminator, because I'm about to end these :$;!(&zing little ($:bugs' whole careers", she announced vehemently.
Hopefully next chapter comes faster, but I'm struggling with writing all this spy stuff. It's not really my usual genre.