So, I've had this idea for a time, with the main pairings being Steve/Sharon and Bucky/Natasha. It's inspired by Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but don't get me started on the show, since it just turned Sam into a yes-man and apologist for the terrorists and turned Karli into a martyr, not to mention how John Walker was mistreated and demonized in the show. I'm not going to cover the entire show, just some parts will be taken from it, alongside Aragorn II Elessar's 'More than just an identity', which was his take on the show and much better and Stand with Ward and Queen's 'Attack on two worlds'.
Among other things, Natasha is alive, since she comes back to life after Steve returns the Soul Stone to Vormir in exchange for her life and Sharon is not on the run as the Power Broker, since it's plot over logic that all the Avengers on Team Cap were exonerated and Sharon was still on the run for five years and she and Steve are currently in a relationship. The story is going to follow events of FATWS up to a certain point, then it's going to go down a more original route inspired by the comics, since after 1x04 it just went to Hell and Sam just became Sham Wilson and I don't care about Phase 4 asides from No Way Home, Hawkeye series and Shang-Chi and Legend of the Ten Rings. Frankly, Yelena Belova, Kate Bishop, Shang-Chi and No Way Home were the only good things in Phase 4. From Phase 5, only GOTG3 was worth it so far because of James Gunn, we'll see on Deadpool 3 and Daredevil: Born Again.
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel Cinematic Universe.
An USAF transport aircraft was flying in the skies as one of the Majors was debriefing Sam Wilson, also known as Falcon.
"The criminal organization known as LAF is targeting Captain Vasant, one of our military liaisons." The Major explained.
"LAF?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, they're high-powered. We lost contact with Vasant's plane just after it took off." The Major said, with Sam considering what to do. "We need you to make sure that LAF doesn't deliver on their threat."
Sam turned to the cargo door, ready to jump out as the Major followed him.
"Vasant's plane has already entered Tunisian airspace. U.S. military cannot be seen operating out there." The Major explained.
"I got it." Sam assured as he opened the cargo door. "You guys fly low, drop me off, I fly up to intercept. No treaties violated."
"1st Lieutenant Torres, our intel officer, will be helping on the ground." The Major said as Sam put on his goggles and turned, about to jump out. "And Sam, this has tobe subtle."
"Subtle. Got it." Sam said as he fell on his back, diving out of the plane before he deployed his wings, flying above.
On the ground, the U.S. military squad was in their jeeps as one of the men put on his goggles, observing Sam.
"Sam, Torres here. Sending intel to your HUD now." Torres said, typing on his tablet, with Sam seeing the imaging in his goggles. "I'll be your boots on the ground, sir."
Sam saw a plane flying in the sky as he flew towards it. "I got eyes on the plane. Any sign of LAF?"
"Nah. Nothing yet, but I'll keep tracking the chatter." Torres said.
Sam flew above the plane, the propellors soaring as he got on top of it. Sam peeking into the cockpit to see that the pilot was dead and someone else was flying the plane in his place. "They've already hijacked the plane."
"Oh, we're gonna need to call some people." Torres groaned, observing from the ground with his goggles.
The man piloting the plane suddenly looked up and gasped upon spotting Falcon, who immediately flew away, realizing he had been made.
"Did you see that?" The man asked in French. "I just saw a man on the windshield."
Georges Batroc peeked out before he shook his head and smacked the man lightly on the head. "Louie, I'm gonna kill you!"
"OK, switching to plan B." Sam said, using thermal vision in his goggles to see what was going on inside the plane.
Vasant was struggling against two men who had him pinned against the cargo.
"Hey! Stop his flopping." Batroc said as he walked in."He's like a fish, right? Maybe we should gut him here."
The henchmen dragged Vasant away.
"Redwing, engage." Sam said, flying next to the plane as he deployed his drone from his wings.
Redwing flew to the rear of the plane and cut the door out with a laser. As the door flew away, Sam flew in and kicked Batroc, knocking him against the wall of the fuselage. Another merc approached but Sam kicked him in the face before punching another merc and kicking another one away. Sam then lifted the merc and punched him, sending him to the floor before kicking another merc as he fell towards the open door and out of the plane. Hearing gunshots, Sam turned around, using the wings as a shield, one bullet ricocheting off and hitting the pilot on the throat, instantly killing him as the plane began uncontrollably plummeting to the ground.
Sam disarmed the merc and hit him in the throat before using the thrusters in his pack to boost himself forward, while slamming the merc's face against a pile of crates, knocking him out.
Vasant was coming to, dazed, when Sam approached him. "Captain Vasant? Let's get you out of here."
Next thing Sam knew, he was kicked in the face and recovered to face Batroc. Sam dodged Batroc's punches as they traded blows before Sam kicked him in the chest and Batroc stumbled back against the crates, while the mercs were dragging Vasant away. Batroc rushed to tackle Sam, who jumped anddeployed his wings but Batroc grabbed Sam by his legs and slammed him to the floor and kicked him in the chest, sending Sam crashing against the crates.
"Sam?" Torres called out from the ground, observing the plane with his goggles.
Batroc and his men and restrained Vasant were putting on wingsuits before Batroc turned to Sam and fired from his gun, but Sam used his wings to block before Batroc put on his helmet and jumped out with his men and Vasant.
Sam rushed to the door and jumped out of the plane, turning on his wings.
"Oh!" Torres saw Falcon with his binoculars and laughed.
Sam was chasing Batroc, as one of the mercs turned and fired from his guns, while Sam avoided the bullets, flying down behind the merc and pulling the line as the parachute exploded from his pack, slowing down his fall. Sam was chasing the rest of the mercs through the valley, avoiding the rocks in his way but as he was making his way out of the narrow range, he had to avoid a gunfire from two military choppers that began chasing him.
"Redwing, get them off our ass!" Sam ordered.
Redwing flew out of Sam's wings and fired two miniature missiles, shooting down one chopper. Redwing was giving Sam a covering fire as they were flying after the other chopper shooting at them before Sam got behind the chopper and fired a line, ensnaring one of the mercs and throwing him out of the plane, while Redwing used its laser to cut off the rotor, causing for the chopper to plummet to the ground.
Sam resumed his chase of Batroc but before he could get close, another merc flew in and grabbed Sam and they briefly traded blows before Sam shook him off and threw him against the cliff as he fell down before Sam resumed his chase.
"Keep going! We're close!" Batroc ordered to the pilot before he grabbed Vasant by his jacket, gloating. "If we get to the border, he's not gonna follow."
They heard a click and turned to see Falcon sitting with them in the plane.
"What's up?" Sam quipped.
One merc pulled out his gun but Sam grabbed his hand before another merc shot his pack and Sam kicked him off the chopper in response.
Batroc grabbed Vasant as they jumped out and flew off, with Vasant screaming. Sam was about to give chase, when a merc grabbed him but Sam elbowed him in the face before kicking him and Sam fell off, while firing a small disc on the chopper as it exploded, destroying the plane before Sam began following Batroc.
"All right, heads up! You're about to fly into Libyan airspace!" Torres said.
"And I assume they have a problem with that." Sam said.
"Yeah, yeah. A big problem. A big problem." Torres said.
Batroc got onboard another chopper with Vasant as Sam continued chasing them.
"How long I got?" Sam asked.
"90 seconds." Torres said.
Sam then got an alert on his goggles that missiles and he dodged and flew between the rocks to avoid them.
"Aw, shit. He's outnumbered." Torres said ashe got onto a jeep.
Sam was flying around to avoid the missiles until he flew towards one of the choppers, directing one of the missiles towards it and shooting it down.
"Sam, we gotta fall back! We got to call it off! We gotta find another way!" Torres ordered.
Sam smirked as he got on his HUD an alert that his thrusters had rerouted. "I just did."
With his newfound route, Sam flew into the helicopter and grabbing Vasant, flew off.
Batroc growled before he saw the missiles flying towards the helicopter and he jumped off, swearing. "Merde!"
The helicopter exploded, while Torres cheered as Sam descended to the ground holding Vasant.
Tunisia
Sam and Steve were in the café, with Sam fixing Redwing with his tools as Steve began drinking his tea.
"I've been working with the Air Force for six months now. Every time ops touches him, he gets all glitchy." Sam grumbled.
"Why don't you ask Stark Industries or S.H.I.E.L.D. to fix it?" Steve suggested.
"Would you trust them in my place?" Sam pointed out and Steve nodded.
"Fair point. Even without Tony around, Pepper might keep the techs in check, but I wouldn't take that chance. S.H.I.E.L.D. was infiltrated by Hydra once. Who knows who else I could trust there." Steve said.
Sam chuckled as they looked up to see Torres walking over to them.
"Hey, Torres." Sam greeted.
"Hey." Steve said as he and Torres shook hands.
"Hey, Avengers."
The three turned to see a man and woman as the guy spoke to them in Arabic. "Hello. You brought my wife back to me."He put an arm around the woman, his wife. "Thank you."
"Always happy to help, sir." Sam replied in Arabic.
"Have a good day." Steve replied in Arabic as well.
"You two know Arabic." Torres quipped, pulling out his phone and recording them. "Come on, can you two say it again? Hold on a sec."
"Alright, come on." Sam chuckled, gesturing for Torres to lower the phone as he turned to Steve.
"So how's retirement working out for you?" Torres asked.
"Well, after Thanos, I went back and saw Peggy." Steve said as he took a breath. "I did consider spending rest of my life with her. Finally find what I'd been looking for. But…" He sighed. "I realized I'd be leaving behind everyone else. Buck. Sam. My friends."
"So you never confronted Peggy in the past?" Sam asked.
"Oh, I did." Steve nodded. "But… the more we talked, the more I realized that I was living in the present as Captain America most of the time after I got out of ice. The war hero. The Avenger. Not as much as Steve Rogers. So… after I returned back, I left the shield to Sam. I retired. Wanted to figure out who I was as Steve Rogers."
"How's it working so far? Found someone?" Torres asked.
"Sharon." Steve said with a longing look and Sam and Torres both looked in surprise. "After Thanos… after I returned the Stones, I talked to her. She got into some legal trouble over stealing the wings and shield and helping me break you out. Pepper made some calls and got a good lawyer for Sharon. Matt Murdock, he helped clear all the charges on the grounds that she was helping us and that alongside with the Sokovia Accords being overturned was enough to exonerate her. We've been together for six months now."
"I'm happy for you two. Really. Glad you guys are making it work." Sam said and Steve nodded.
"Though, as much as I trust Sam and the others, it's hard to just sit by, retired, with what's still going on in the world." Steve said.
"Tell me about it." Torres said as he got up with his camera recording around before on the screen appeared a sign of a hand holding the world and he turned to show it to Sam and Steve. "Oh, bam! Right there!" Steve and Sam took a look. "You see these guys? These are guys you gotta worry about. I've been stumbling onto their manifestos on message boards. They call themselves the Flag-Smashers."
"Is that a new thing? Bad guys give themselves bad names." Sam said.
"There's a lot worse names than that one." Torres said as he sighed and sat back down. "But basically, they think that the world was better during the Blip."
"Not really. Cleaner water, less ships. That's an upside. But the downside was no one was really able to move on. Really live." Steve said, remembering all those therapy sessions he had held during the Blip, all the people talking about how they had been coping with losing the people they loved during the Snap.
"Yeah, essentially, these people, they want a world that's unified without borders. So, you could see why a lot of people are into that." Torres said.
"At what cost?" Steve asked. "It happens every time, they fight for what they believe is a righteous cause but eventually they stop caring about what it costs or what collateral damage they might make, believing that the ends justify the means."
Sam nodded before turning to Torres. "Yeah, but keep an eye on it."
"If anything gets serious, you let us know." Steve said.
"No doubt. I'll… I'll, uh… I'll track the online chatter, see what they're saying." Torres nodded. "Yeah. I do gotta ask you, though, 'cause online there's just been a lot of stuff about how Tony Stark was building some secret base on the moon or something."
"I know nothing about it." Steve denied. "Honestly, these things you shouldn't really take at face value."
"Oh... Had to check." Torres shrugged as both Sam and Steve walked off.
A young Asian man walked down the hotel lobby with his friends.
"Half hour before last call?" The woman accompanying the Asian man asked.
"I can't, guys. I have to prep for tomorrow's session." The man said.
"Really?" The woman rolled her eyes in amusement.
"Ooh!" The man nearly bumped into waiter carrying a cart of suitcases as he was making his way upstairs to his room.
In the upper level of the hotel, another man was walking around with his security, and two guards in suits stationed in front of a wall, when a metal arm burst through the wall and grabbed one of the guards, dragging him in. The other guard backed off and reached into his jacket for his gun, when someone jumped through the hole and kicked the first guard down. The Winter Soldier with his mask on whirled around and threw a knife that hit the other guard in the throat before he could pull out his gun, killing him instantly. The Winter Soldier then picked the guard on the ground and stabbed him in the neck with his knife.
The other guards opened fire at the Winter Soldier, while the rest was accompanying the man out but the Winter Soldier shot the guards down with his Uzi and jumped over the railing down the stairs, punching one guard in the head with his metal arm, crushing his skull before he shot the other guard on the stairs. The Winter Soldier whirled around and threw his knife, killing another guard before he spotted his target and grabbed him by his throat and pushed him through the door, squeezing hard and choking him.
"Hail Hydra." The Winter Soldier said.
The man choked for air before the Winter Soldier crushed his windpipe, killing him and let go of the man's dead body. He then heard key rattling and turned to see the young man from the lobby, who had seen the whole scene frantically putting his key into the door to his room.
"Shit." The young man whispered with trembling breath as the Winter Soldier walked towards him with cold look in his eyes and the young man turned to the Winter Soldier in fear. "Please. I-I-I didn't see anything." He stuttered. "I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything."
The last thing the man saw was the Winter Soldier drawing his gun and pulling the trigger.
New York
Bucky gasped as he woke up, cold sweat all over his body, when, Natasha, in her tank top and shorts was walking into the bedroom, in her hand a mug of tea.
"Siberia again?" Natasha asked, but Bucky shook his head.
"Hotel Inessa." Bucky said, sighing heavily and Natasha nodded.
"It never gets easy and it will always haunt you. You might never escape your demons, Bucky. But…" Natasha sighed. "It's not about forgiving yourself. It's about what you can do for others. The red in your ledger might never go away. Focus on what good you can do. And maybe one day you will forgive yourself."
"Have you?" Bucky asked, turning to Natasha, who was silent for a moment.
"That day might never come. Whether willingly or not, you have to accept that you caused pain and death. You can never undo it, no matter how hard you try to be better. But don't dwell on how many innocent lives you took. Focus on how many innocent lives you can save. It will never balance the scales… but it's the least you can do to make up for your past. But if you don't believe you can do good and make up for your past, you'll never be free." Natasha said and Bucky seemed to be lost in thoughts.
"You make it sound so easy." Bucky said tiredly as Natasha sat down and placed her hand on his chest.
"Redemption isn't an easy road, Bucky. But you don't have to take it alone." Natasha said as he met her eyes. "I'm with you to the end of the line."
Bucky's face was filled with emotion as he remembered.
1936
A scrawny Steve before he was injected with the Super Soldier serum and Bucky were in suits, going upstairs to Steve's apartment as the church bell rang.
"We looked for you, after. My folks wanted to give you a ride to the cemetery." Bucky said.
"I know, I'm sorry. I just kind of wanted to be alone." Steve said sadly.
"How was it?"
"It was OK. She's next to Dad."
"I was gonna ask—"
"I know what you're gonna say, Buck. I just—"
"We can put the couch cushions on the floor, like when we were kids." Bucky said, while Steve stopped at the door to the apartment, checking his pockets if he had misplaced the keys. "It'll be fun. All you gotta do is shine my shoes, maybe take out the trash." He kicked the brick under which the key was hidden, while handing it to Steve. "Come on."
Steve took the key and smiled at his best friend appreciatively. "Thank you, Buck, but I can get by on my own."
"The thing is, you don't have to." Bucky assured, while placing his hand on Steve's shoulder. To him, Steve wasn't only his best friend, he was family. A brother. And brothers would always look out for each other. "I'm with you to the end of the line, pal."
Steve lifted the debris as the Winter Soldier got out and Steve turned to him, trying to reach him. "You know me."
"No, I don't!" The Winter Soldier shouted, punching Steve and knocking him down.
Panting, Steve got up, not wanting to give up on his best friend. He had to try. "Bucky. You've known me your whole life."
Snarling, the Winter Soldier punched him again as both of them fell down.
"Your name is James Buchanan Barnes." Steve said.
"Shut up!" The Soldier snarled, knocking Steve down.
Steve got up, taking off his helmet. "I'm not gonna fight you." He dropped his shield. "You're my friend."
Roaring, the Winter Soldier tackled Steve and knocked him down.
"You're my mission." The Soldier snarled. "You! Are! My! Mission!" He shouted, puncturing each word with a punch to Steve's face, beating him to a pulp.
"Then finish it." Steve said weakly with his face full of bruises. "'Cause I'm with you to the end of the line."
The words seemed to pull out a faint memory in the Winter Soldier's mind as he then stared at Steve in shock and realization, his face filled with emotions.
Present
Bucky breathed heavily, silently crying as Natasha wrapped her arms around his neck and he sobbed into her shoulder, with her trying to comfort him over the choices he had never made and the inner demons he was unable to escape from.
The following day
Bucky jumped down at the parking lot near the vehicle of Senator Atwood, putting a device under her car right above the wheel.
She had been a pawn of Hydra for years, with the Winter Soldier helping her get into office as a Senator by killing all rivals. Even after Hydra disbanded, she was abusing the power the Winter Soldier had given her.
Bucky was outside the parking lot eavesdropping on the conversation in Atwood's car, with Atwood talking with an associate.
"Make this go away. If Congressman Lockhart wants to speak up, silence him for good." Atwood said. Suddenly the door locks in the car went off, locking Atwood in, much to her confusion.
Bucky pulled out a tablet that served as a remote as the car drove around uncontrollably and Atwood began sobbing in fear, wondering what was going on. Atwood tried to desperately get control of her car, when the window pulled down and Atwood turned her head and paled to face the Winter Soldier.
"Remember me?" Bucky asked. The associate pulled out his gun but Bucky grabbed his hand with the metal arm, making the associate scream in pain before Bucky knocked him out, shocking Atwood as Bucky looked her in the eye. "I am no longer the Winter Soldier. I am James Bucky Barnes. And you're part of my efforts to make amends."
Bucky chuckled and walked off, with Atwood panting out in fear, when she heard sirens blaringand SUVs surrounded her car, with SWAT teams preparing their guns, aiming at her. Bucky walked to Natasha and she handed him a pen as he looked at his list, crossing Atwood's name off of it.
This method had been suggested by Christina Raynor, a therapist appointed to Bucky as a condition for his pardon. Unfortunately, she was terrible at the job to the point even Bucky questioned why she had this job, until Bucky decided to check himself out from their sessions, mainly because he didn't believe they were working, even though he had to admit, her advice for Bucky to make amends made him put some effort, with Natasha's help.
Later, New York
Bucky was walkingdown the street, when he heard an argument nearby.
"Your can isn't even half full, why don't we just share?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't gotta body me, Yori."
"It's Mr. Nakajima."
"OK."
"It's Mr. Nakajima!"
"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" Bucky called as he pulled away the old Asian man yelling at the young man in front of him. "Yori, what's going on? I thought we're getting lunch."
"Unique is putting his trash into my trash." Yori gestured at the garbage bins.
"It's trash." Unique shrugged.
"And the time has come for me to smack—" Yori raised his hand, when Bucky grabbed his arm, stopping him.
"Whoa!" Bucky yelled.
"It's just trash." Unique shrugged.
"Hang on." Bucky said to Yori, placating him before turning to Unique.
"Hey, man." Unique held out his hand to Bucky who shook it. "I'm Unique. It's like Monique, but it's got a 'U' in there for uniqueness."
"That's absurd." Yori scoffed as he walked off.
"OK, sorry." Bucky whispered before he approached Yori. "Yori, you can't keep fighting with your neighbors Come on, let's get some food."
"No, go away." Yori protested.
"But Izzy. We always go to Izzy on Wednesday."
"I'm not in the mood today."
"Hey, what if I buy?" Bucky offered and Yori stopped for a moment before turning to Bucky.
"Fine, but no talking." Yori walked past Bucky onto the street.
Bucky walked behind him, seeing Natasha across the street. She gave him a nod of encouragement and he nodded back.
At Izzy's, Yori was reading the newspapers as he showed the article to Bucky, who was eating. "Take a look. Nobody made it past this week."
Bucky shook his head, mouthful. "So young. Such a shame."
"You guys didn't order the usual, huh?" Leah, the waitress at the counter inquired. "Feeling a little adventurous?"
"You should ask her out." Yori said.
Bucky shot him a look and shook his head. "Mm-mmm."
"He would like to take you out on a date." Yori said to the woman, despite Bucky's gesture of protest. "Maybe to bingo or a night of pinochle? Pinochle. Yeah."
"I'm really sorry about him." Bucky said.
"Why are you sorry?" Leah asked as Yori chuckled. "I'm game."
"Nothing against you, as much as I like you, I'm already committed." Bucky said.
"Oh." Yori and Leah said at the same time, abashed, while Bucky chuckled.
She walked off when Bucky saw Yori staring at a dish, seeming lost, in distress.
"What's wrong?" Bucky asked.
Yori was silent for a moment before he spoke up in Japanese. "My son… he loves the red bean mochi." He tried to control his tears, then spoke in English. "Umm… he had a consulting job with a company. And, uh, he was working abroad and he was killed. The police said 'Wrong place, wrong time,' but… I will never know what really happened to him. I felt it was strange." He put a hand on his heart. "In here."
Unseen to him, Bucky turned away with a haunted look full of guilt and shame in his eyes, knowing exactly what had happened to Yori's son.
A moment later, Bucky walked out before he entered the car, with Natasha at the driver's seat, looking at him worriedly as Bucky stared at the road in front of him, lost in thoughts.
"You didn't tell him." Natasha said.
Bucky was silent, with his response only a tired sigh, but Natasha already knew her answer. He turned to Natasha, who just looked at him saddened.
"I know it's not easy… to give a closure. But the longer you keep bottling it up, the more it will tear you up from the inside out." Natasha said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I know. But every time I sit there next to him, I wonder the whole time, 'Can I tell him? How can I tell him? That it was me. I killed his son.'" Bucky sighed.
"You didn't kill him." Natasha said firmly. "You didn't have any more of a choice in the matter asthat boy did. Hydra is the only one to blame. Not you. You didn't really aim the gun at him. Hydra did. The programming in your head did. The only way to give both you and him closure is the truth. Whether he forgives you or not… you can't control that. All you can do is live with the consequences."
Bucky considered as he kept staring at the road in front of him. He knew Natasha was right… but how could he bring himself to forgive himself, considering that there are countless ways it could go wrong?
Bucky was at the door to Yori's apartment and knocked, when Yori opened.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Yori inquired as Bucky looked inside to see a memorial to Yori's son RJ. Unable to see it, he turned away briefly before meeting Yori's eyes.
"Forgot I owed you for lunch." Bucky said, handing Yori some dollar bills before he walked off.
Yori looked confused before closing the door as Bucky and Natasha walked down the hallway, with Natasha sighing tiredly. She knew that only time would make Bucky ready.
Switzerland
In the evening, Torres walked down the town square as he pulled out his phone to see satellite mapping of the square as he approached another man, speaking in German. "Do you know what we're supposed to do?"
The man ignored, when they heard whistling and walked to a red-haired girl in a mask with the symbol on it pulling out masks from a bag, distributing those to all of them. Torres put on one too before getting an alert on his phone when an alarm rang out in the nearby bank as two duffel bags fell out of the top story.
Another man in a mask jumped down, looking unharmed as he picked up the bags. People were running all over as the police began giving chase to the masked man, who handed the bags to two other men, who ran off.
Torres was about to follow the man, when a police officer apprehended him, assuming hewas one of the thieves. "You're under arrest!"
"He's getting away!" Torres protested, but then he realized he was wasting time arguing before he threw the officer over his shoulder. "Sorry!"
The masked superhuman man saw a policeman trying to arrest another masked man and rammed into him, sending him flying into a pole and knocking him out.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Torres yelled as he drew his gun and took off his mask, approaching the scene. "So, I don't know how jurisdiction works here, but I'mma have to place you under arrest."
In a split second, the man grabbed Torres' gun hand and twisted, making him cry out in pain before the man slammed Torres to the ground and kicked him in the face, knocking him out.
Washington, D.C.
Sharon Carter was in the apartment cooking, when she heard the door open and smiled. "Hey."
"Hey." Steve said as he got behind her and hugged her, kissing her on the cheek.
"You're right on time, I almost got the dinner finished." Sharon said.
"Nice." Steve said as he held the frying pan with the steak with her.
"You ever cooked?" Sharon asked.
"Mom and Buck taught me, but I was too scrawny to hold a frypan most of the time." Steve said as they laughed before Steve sat down with Sharon preparing the table and noticing the worried look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Sharon asked.
"The Flag-Smashers." Steve said and Sharon nodded.
"I know." Sharon nodded. "Ever since the defeat of Thanos, the Sokovia Accords were repealed, much to the displeasure of some people like Secretary Ross. He's still trying to find a way to 'mitigate the Avengers' damage.' Most of us had the charges dropped after violating the Accords and I got exonerated thanks to Matt Murdock and now I'm working with the Joint Counter Terrorist Center, with the Flag-Smashers getting a lot of our attention."
"They believe the world was better after the Snap before we beat Thanos. But they're not above killing innocent people to get their way." Steve said.
"Whenever people believe that the ends justify the means, they become no better than any other villain in history." Sharon said as Steve sighed, looking down. "You wanna go after them? I thought you retired. That you trust Sam to take the mantle."
"I do." Steve said before sighing. "It just feels like the Flag-Smashers is another mess we've created, just like with Hydra uprising, Sokovia, Thanos… everytime we win one battle, its fallout fuels another. It's like a vicious cycle I can't escape from."
"This isn't your or the Avengers' fault, Steve." Sharon assured, holding his hand.
"I'm not saying it is. It's just that… when does it end? I've been trying to figure out who I am outside of Captain America and I'm happy with you, but…" Steve trailed off and Sharon nodded.
"The world will always need Captain America. And while you trust Sam, you believe that the Flag-Smashers are your mess to clean up, not his." Sharon said and Steve nodded. "It's not just your responsibility, Steve. I'm not saying you shouldn't help. But there are other ways than jumping into the battle and trading blows."
"They haven't really been willing to listen to reason, as far as I know." Steve said tiredly. "And I wanna help, but first I need to be sure that they really want—"
They were interrupted by the knock on the door and Sharon got up. "I'll get it."
She approached the door and opened, looking in surprise to see Everett Ross.
"Is Captain Rogers here?" Everett asked as Steve approached, knowing what it was about. "We need your help."
Elsewhere
A ginger-haired woman entered a small office, where a red-haired woman was at her desk, reading a file before she looked up, smiling politely. "Karli. What brings you here?"
"You promised me we'd change the world for the better. But I need more resources. More people. More of the serum." Karli said.
The woman smiled, even though the look she was giving made Karli tense as the woman rose from her desk, her voice calm and composed, but in her eyes was a fierce unrelenting look. "You think you can make demands of me?"
Karli shuddered before she took a deep breath. "I wasn't trying to be out of line. But a lot of people are trying to interfere. The law enforcement. Army. It's just a matter of time before the Avengers are down on us. And we need better resources."
"Don't worry about the Avengers. I've had years to prepare. And we're just getting started." The woman assured as she looked down at a small golden statue of Captain America on her desk and picked it up, holding it in her hand and glaring at it. "Steve Rogers and the Avengers took everything from me. I'm going to take everything from them. Piece… by… piece."
"How do you want to kill Captain America?" Karli asked.
"You haven't been listening. I'm not going to kill him." The woman said and much to Karli's shock, clenched her fist, twisting the statue to the point that the statue looked like nothing more than scrap metal. "I'm gonna make him wish he was dead."
Karli tensed as she walked off, unnerved by the woman before the woman turned to the wall, facing the symbol of Hydra hanging above.
"Hail Hydra." The woman whispered lowly.
As much as I do enjoy Steve/Natasha in MCU, mainly because I saw two other films with Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson together outside of MCU, I'm a big supporter of Steve/Sharon and Bucky/Natasha, since I love those pairings in comics.
The Flag-Smashers' motives are similar to how they were in the show, but as you can see, they are working for Hydra, not that they know it, since even the MCU wiki, AOS and FATWS confirmed that there were some small splinter cells of Hydra still active, even though S.H.I.E.L.D. and Bucky took them down and you will see who the woman in the end Karli was working for is, but I think you can take a guess, since this woman is replacing Power Broker, because don't get me started on how Sharon being Power Broker ruined her.
And really, the therapist subplot with Bucky and Raynor was one of many things wrong with FATWS. Really, look at the therapy sessions with Curtis in The Punisher and you will see the difference between a good and terrible therapist. If Raynor was in charge of the group, Lewis Wilson and others would've lost it long ago.
So, what do you guys think?
Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this so far.
With regards
Bl4ckHunter