Chapter 16. Faith
After being briefed again by Fury on what Wanda discovered, Noelle still felt hopeful but also concerned about the relative ease with which those infiltration teams had managed to get past the Avengers security barriers. With everyone back on base, and extra SHIELD agents brought in to bolster security staff, she knew she should feel safer but a part of her still worried that it wasn't enough. After putting Winnie down for her nap, Noelle took some time for herself, going through Bucky's clothes in the closet, desperately looking for something that still had his scent on it. She had already noticed her sense of smell had increased in the last week, a side effect of the pregnancy. Able to detect the slightest residual scent molecule left in his clothing, she finally found a dress shirt that he hung back up, instead of putting it in the clothes hamper. After putting it on next to her bare skin, she laid on the king-sized bed she shared with Bucky, burying her face into another of his T-shirts that had escaped laundering and self-comforted herself with thoughts of him. It was only when she woke to the soft hands of Winnie patting her cheeks that she realized she fell asleep.
"Hi sweet pea," she smiled. "Did you come to check on Mama?"
"You cried for Papa," whispered Winnie, snuggled close to Noelle's chest. Placing herself in position to see her mother's face, the little girl looked up at her. "Can you tell me a story about him?"
"Which story?"
"When he wanted to marry you."
The request was made in imperative fashion. It was a story told several times to Winnie, so she knew it well.
"You know that Papa and I spent three days together getting to know each other," started Noelle. "We met at a jazz club, danced together and knew right away that we had something special."
"Did you think Papa was cute?"
"Oh, very much. Tall, dark hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a way that could see right into my thoughts. He was charming, a gentleman, but he knew what he wanted in life, and that was to have someone to call his very own." Winnie's eyes twinkled. "I had to go back to work, so Papa was going back to Delacroix, to stay with Uncle Sam and Auntie Sarah. Before he left, he asked if we had something that would last."
"You did, didn't you? You loved Papa, already."
"I did love him, very much." She looked at their daughter who looked so much like her, except she had her father's eyes and his ability to sense what people were feeling. "He told me that he wanted to come back as soon as possible and get to know each other even more. I wanted it, also."
She thought back to that first night without him, at how empty her apartment seemed. Until he placed a video call, and she answered it, it felt like something was already missing in her life. Then he called, and they spent over 3 hours talking about nothing and everything. It was light out when the call was first placed, night when it ended, and it took a lot of willpower to say good night. During that second day at work, she could barely keep her mind on the job, finding herself often thinking of Bucky, and the things he made her feel. Dawn, who was back at work that day, noticed and found it hard to believe that a man could have that much effect on her friend. She was impressed at hearing how Bucky handled Mark's calls, glad that he wasn't intimidated by the stockbroker ex-husband with a dominant personality.
"Then what did Papa do?" asked Winnie, bringing Noelle out of her memories.
"On the third day after he left, Papa showed up at the hospital. He stood in the doorway and looked for me, hoping to see me in amongst everyone who was working there, but he couldn't see me, so he listened instead."
"He could hear you, couldn't he?" Winnie always liked this part because she could also hear faint sounds. "Just like when I hear Papa get up in the night because he's sad. I just hear it and know he wants me to hold his hand."
Smiling, she stroked Winnie's hair.
"Just like that. He closed his eyes and listened then he heard me talking to a patient who was very afraid. I was using my calm voice to keep the man from becoming too scared and your Papa heard me. Walked almost to the cubicle I was in before Auntie Dawn stopped him."
"You can't go in there, sir." Winnie's voice was different, sterner as she tried to emulate how Dawn Wilson sounded. "That's what she said to him, because he was breaking the rules in the hospital."
"That's what she said to him, alright. Then she asked if he was there for a family member, and he told her he was there for me. She reached for his metal hand, to show she wasn't afraid of him, then told him to come with her. She left him in an empty cubicle and ordered him not to move. Somehow, I think he knew she was helping him because he stayed there."
Winnie's hands were gathered under her chin, and she smiled, giggling a little. Noelle remembered how Dawn was standing with her hands on her hips as she left the first patient's cubicle. The look in her eyes bordered between angry and impressed.
"Tall, dark, handsome as any man I've ever seen and blue eyes that should be illegal. He has a metal hand. That's your man, Bucky, right?"
"Is he here?" Noelle remembered peering past Dawn, who blocked her view, looking her best friend in the eye.
"He's in A3, waiting quietly for now. He almost walked in on you and the patient in A7. He can't interfere with the ER, Christmas. You know that. So, find out what he wants, give him the key to your place if you want him waiting for you when you finish your shift, but he can't stay."
Winnie's voice cut through Noelle's memory. "Auntie Dawn said he couldn't stay so you went to see him."
"Yes, I went to see him, and it was like seeing him at the jazz club all over again, like everything inside of me was saying this was the man who I had to be with. He stood up from where he sat, his eyes bright and he kissed me right away."
His face and voice were in her head then, as she relived that moment for herself and Winnie.
"I don't want to be without you," he said, once he stopped kissing her. "I know we barely know each other but we know each other in ways that I never thought I would be capable of. I'm not a rich man and I'll probably be an Avenger until I die, or they kick me off. But I will always love you, be faithful to you, spend my life making you happy, and every time I go on a mission, I will always come home to you because you are someone to come home to, Noelle. Would you marry me?"
"You came all the way back from Delacroix to propose?"
"Yeah, I didn't want to wait." He fidgeted for a moment then plunged his hand into his pants pocket, bringing out a small, worn jewelry box. "In my day, when a man wanted to propose and he couldn't afford to buy a new ring, he asked the next most important woman in his life for her help. My parents died without knowing the truth about me, but my sister lived long enough for us to reconnect. It turned out she held on to my mother's engagement ring all these years, hoping someday to pass it on to someone who needed it." He opened it to reveal a diamond solitaire gold ring. "It's old, from 1915, but it means a lot to me if you would..."
"I'll marry you." Noelle's voice was as clear and concise then as it was right now, sharing the moment with Winnie again. "I want to marry you and if that means I get to sell that white elephant of an apartment, I'll live where you are. They have a medical unit for the Avengers, right? I'm a trained ER nurse, experienced in handling all sorts of physical trauma to the body, including gunshot wounds, penetration wounds, and ..."
They kissed again, for a long time. Then Bucky took the ring out of the box and held it in front of Noelle's finger.
"He slid it on, and it fit perfectly, like it was always meant to be on my finger," she said, smiling once again at Winnie. They looked at the ring together, then her daughter grinned. "You wanted me to feel better, didn't you?"
Her daughter's nose crinkled, and she giggled.
"You were sad, and you looked for Papa's shirt so you could smell him again." She buried her own face in the dress shirt Noelle wore. "I miss him."
"They're going to bring him back, baby doll," whispered Noelle, holding Winnie tightly. "He always comes home from a mission. He'll come home from this one."
They held each other for some time, whispering their beliefs that Bucky would make it home. As cheerful and positive as Winnie had been ever since Bucky went missing, Noelle realized that even she needed to be reassured that her father would come back.
Two days later
Wanda waited in the darkness of the doorway, with a clear view of where Sharon Carter was now located, a large warehouse on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa. As expected, several large SUVs with fully blacked out windows approached and parked in front of the warehouse, barely illuminated by the single lamp that flickered on and off above them. The driver and a man from the front of the first vehicle stepped out, seemingly performing a preliminary check of the surroundings before opening the back door of the SUV. A dark-haired woman stepped out, followed by a man dressed in black with red and white stripes across his chest. Wanda almost cried out loud in disgust at the sight of the man, recognizing him as the former disgraced Captain America, John Walker, now called U.S. Agent. Surely, he hadn't been involved in the other attacks on the compound, and even now, as she pressed lightly on the edges of his mind, he gave out the impression of being here at this new locale against his own better judgement. She could even hear him speak to the woman with him.
"Val, why are we here?"
"Exploring an opportunity, John, nothing more and stop calling me Val."
"Yeah? Well, I don't like it. Carter, for starters, is up to no good."
"John, just stay quiet and let me make the decisions, okay?"
Val would be Val de Fontaine, former CIA head several years before. Wanda had heard she had always had an interest in enhanced individuals, wanting to form her own collection of them for a special operations group. Bucky had almost been dragged into that against his will, as well.
The third vehicle opened and the woman who exited the vehicle drew the Scarlet Witch's attention, immediately. A tall, elegant blonde, she appeared to be older, but in a way that seemed timeless, as she moved with the grace of a dancer, while also taking in her surroundings with the practiced air of an experienced field agent. The security detail that accompanied her in the vehicle treated her with a deference that left no doubt she was highly influential. With a nod from one of the men in her detail she proceeded towards the warehouse door and entered it, followed by two of her of men, then Val de Fontaine, and John Walker. Rising into the air, Wanda transformed herself into an almost imperceptible shimmer of darkness that entered the building from a roof vent, successfully gaining her way past the men who guarded that area. As she floated through the ductwork, she listened carefully for the thoughts of those from the outside, finally focusing in on Walker, who was still not happy at being there.
At first, she planned to drift gradually through a nearby vent then regather her corporeal body into its normal shape as she sat in the rafters, listening in on the conversation that was still in the greetings stage below. But when the tall, blonde woman looked up to where Wanda watched from the vent she pulled back, wondering if the woman had been able to sense her. It was only when the woman was introduced to the others that her attention returned to the meeting and Wanda quickly reformed herself, silently shifting to a new location away from the vent.
"Nice to see you again, John." Sharon Carter smirked at him. "I'm surprised you're here considering you're still friends with Sam and Bucky."
He looked at Val darkly. "I am still friendly with them, so I'm wondering myself why Val dragged me here."
"Opportunities, John. Can't tell who's playing the game if you don't have a program."
His anger almost erupted then but he pushed it back down. "Well, maybe it's a game I don't want to play."
"You should Mr. Walker," said the blonde woman who studied him closely. "Enhanced humans who don't want to be involved run the risk of being included against their will." She offered her hand to Sharon first. "Sharon Carter, at last. I knew your great aunt. She was a formidable woman in a field dominated by men."
"Thank you. How shall I address you? Your aliases are numerous."
"True. Between us, my birth name will suffice. Alexandra Pierce, only daughter of Alexander Pierce. Officially, I am Alexa Lukin, the CEO for Kronas Corporation, after the untimely death of my husband, Aleksander Lukin." She noted the look on their faces. "The fact our first names are so close is a coincidence, nothing more." She offered her hand to Fontaine. "You have your own stable of ex-husbands who don't share your entrepreneurial spirit, am I right?"
Val shook hands with the woman. "You're right. They all seemed so disappointed that I married them for the access to power, rather than real love. But a woman in our position sometimes has to do things in unique ways to get what we want. That's what this meeting is about, right? To determine after the problems already experienced in previous attempts what exactly it is that we want?"
"Right to the point," noted Pierce, who kept studying Walker. "Tell me, Mr. Walker, how many children do you have?"
"None of your business," he bristled, glaring daggers at her and Val. "My family are off-limits."
"Of course, they are, but they did acquire your abilities, didn't they? That's right, the boy, Lamar, didn't as your wife was already pregnant with him when you became enhanced. But your daughter, Grace, is two years old, about the time an enhanced child starts to spread its wings, metaphorically speaking."
"I'm not staying here to have you discuss my children as if they are assets to be offered to the highest bidder."
"Funny you should say asset," smiled Pierce. "For that is what they are. All enhanced children are valuable assets and in a new world order would be worth a fortune to the right party."
He pulled himself up to his full height, a look of fury on his face, but Pierce just looked at him coolly then whispered some words at him, making him freeze in place, his eyes full of terror.
"Interesting," she said, with no change to the tenor of her voice. "Were you aware that the serum created by Wilfred Nagel was programmed to be controllable with an assortment of words? What a genius he was to include that ability in the serum." She moved precisely around Walker, as if measuring him. "What a waste of his talents when HYDRA fell and he was scooped up by the CIA, then by you, Carter, after the Blip. You lost control of the serum, and this man is only one of two survivors of it. You've left the other, Diego, to rot in whatever prison they have him in. If you had been half the operative your great aunt was, you should have had all three, Walker, Diego and Barnes, under your control; breeding them to create a new army. Well, now that I'm here and you've brought me the first part of the triad, we'll work on finding Diego, then use both men to bring in the Asset. I'm fully aware he is inhabiting Barnes body right now. Once we acquire him, a few other well-placed words should put him in our control. Then he will bring Barnes' daughter and wife in, while Walker brings us his daughter. It will be one big happy family again, just like my father envisioned when he was first made the Asset's handler."
"Now, wait a minute," stammered Carter. "This wasn't a meeting to join up with you. I stated that with our common goals we could easily acquire the super soldiers and then use the stem cells of their newborn children to build a new serum, a better one. I'm an entrepreneur, and I only worked with Rollins because he offered skills I needed."
Pierce turned her gaze on Sharon.
"Don't you know? Cerberus doesn't share what belongs to them. Nagel was working for us, so all of the soldiers created with his serum belong to us, as do their enhanced children. Same with the Asset and Barnes' children. They belong to us." One of her men whispered something in her ear and she smiled. "Of course. I should have told you my new name, then you would have known before you even started this business who you were dealing with. To my followers, my name is Madame HYDRA. I am the head of Cerberus and have acquired a significant number of followers from the children of those who were lost after my father was murdered. I am also adept in the Faustus method of brain reconditioning, strengthening the hold over my people. Once we have the super soldiers in our control, their reprogramming will begin, and a new world order will soon be at hand. You're either in voluntarily, or you're dead."
Wanda recoiled at the words stated by Alexandra Pierce and made herself non-corporeal in order to leave. Immediately, Pierce looked at the area where Wanda was, a slight smile crossing her face.
"We seem to have an observer," she stated, giving one of her men a hand signal.
He murmured into a microphone built into his wrist. Almost immediately one of her other men entered carrying a weapon. Before he could arm and fire it, Wanda sent a blast of dark chaos magic at the grouping of individuals while pulling at John Walker, hoping to get him away from the others. As soon as he was hit by her magic, it seemed to release him from whatever hold Pierce had on him. He ran towards her, leaping up into the shadows of the warehouse and reaching for her outstretched hand, grasping it just as she opened a whirling portal and took him with her, closing it behind them in a flash of light that left no trace of where she went. Pierce looked at her man who held the gun and reached out her hand, bringing him to his knees.
"You hesitated." Her face and voice were emotionless. "The Scarlet Witch escaped with my soldier. Find them and bring them to me, or you will be training fodder for the next generation of soldiers."
"Yes, Mistress," he gasped out, as an unseen force choked him. "I will not fail."
Turning towards Carter and Fontaine, who were now being held by Pierce's men she gazed at the two women, smiling as she shook her head slowly at them.
"Well, what am I going to do with both of you?" she asked. "I decided to let Carter in to see how well her people were doing at infiltrating the Avengers compound. Imagine my surprise when I saw that you had only one man implanted there, and the rest were mercenaries or my people under Rollins command brought in after the fact. You wasted them. I'm sure he told them everything they wanted to know, desperate for them to believe that he was always worthy of HYDRA's trust. So, we're going to do things my way now. No quarter, no mercy, no prisoners, except for the enhanced ones and the Barnes woman. You can still be part of it, but I think you need some time to contemplate your place in the world to come." She turned to her second in command. "Take them to the stronghold. Give them the tour of what awaits them if they decline my generous offer."
"You haven't offered anything," complained Fontaine.
"But I have ... Val," smiled Pierce. "I've offered to let you join me or die. It's as simple as that."
She nodded at her second and followed as two of her men took the women out to the vehicles. Just before she left, she looked at the warehouse then exited. The man who was still holding the weapon entered, aiming it at several key supports further inside the warehouse. A blue pulse erupted from the weapon, splintering the wood and steel beams as if they were made of toothpicks. As he stepped outside, the building heaved and groaned, then collapsed in on itself. By the time the dust cleared, it showed only a pile of rubble in the night. The three SUVs were gone, having been driven away from the scene.
The connection between their joined hands was tenuous and Wanda decided they had to stop for a moment, catch their breaths then continue the journey to the Avengers compound to warn the others about Alexandra Pierce. With her free hand, Wanda extended a counter pulse of magic to slow them down. They approached a playground area, where she dropped Walker into the sand, then landed beside him, collapsing in the now cool grains in the dark. Both of them lay there in the dark, breathing heavily before sitting upright and looking at each other.
"Thanks," he said. "That woman, there's something seriously wrong there. You're Wanda?"
She nodded. "I agree and I know from experience. She's got powers as well. Somehow, she knew I was there."
"I could hear you breathing," he admitted, "but I wasn't going to blow your cover, considering I had all sorts of bad feelings about this meeting. Why Val would think I would want to be involved in anything that put my kids in jeopardy ..."
He didn't finish the sentence, just shook his head, as he took his headgear off. Sifting some sand through his fingers he found a rock and threw it.
"How could she control you with words?" asked Wanda.
"I don't know." He ran a hand through his hair. "All I know is that as soon as she said it, I couldn't move. I was aware and could see and hear her, but I couldn't do a damn thing about it." He stood up and offered her his hand. "Where are we going?"
"Avengers compound," she stated. "We have to warn them about Pierce and her plans, then we have to get Barnes family and yours into a safe place." She shook her head. "Not sure where that will be. That weapon the man was holding was a HYDRA pulse weapon, developed by Baron von Strucker." He looked at her strangely. "Once upon a time I was a volunteer for HYDRA, then he offered our services to Ultron, Tony Stark's failed AI security program that saw all human life as the threat. I saw HYDRA as they really were for the first time and realized my brother and I had been lied to for our whole lives with them."
"Didn't you attack the Avengers as well?"
She gave him a grim smile. "Yes, I had a breakdown after I lost the one that I loved. Reality changed for me, and I tried changing it more to bring him and my children back but, in this universe, it wasn't meant to be. They taught me that and I tried to fix what I had broken. The Avengers still don't trust me fully, but I accept that." She looked up at him. "Will you work with them?"
"Yeah, I will," he answered. "If they can protect my family, then they've got my full cooperation."
Standing in front of him she ran her hands over the surface of his body. At first, he was going to say something then realized that she was just being careful, and he stood quietly while she searched for any tracking devices on him. Finding none, she put her hand out to him again and this time he grasped it firmly, watching as she dematerialized both of their bodies, then opened a portal before them. Now that she wasn't rushed and they weren't being tracked, they could take a direct route to the compound.
They rematerialized in the gym area, containing several support staff sparring or working out. Friday announced the intrusion and Wanda put her hands up, gesturing to Walker to do the same. Sam and Torres entered from the hallway, pulling up when they saw the pair, their clothes still dusty from where they sat in the playground sand.
"Wanda, what's going on?" asked Sam, nodding at Walker. "Why is he here?"
"I had a lead that I didn't tell Fury about and followed it," she replied. "John was there with Val de Fontaine."
"The bitch," muttered Yelena, who was right behind Torres.
"That's the one," agreed Walker. "Can I put my hands down?" Sam nodded as others arrived gathering around them. "It was a meet with Sharon Carter, and a third individual, supposedly the one behind Cerberus. I wasn't happy about being there, but Val insisted we should always know when a new player arrives on the scene. She's Alexander Pierce's daughter, Alexandra. She's behind Cerberus and calls herself Madame HYDRA." He looked intently at Sam. "She controlled me with some words. I was still aware, but I couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything. She said that all of the super soldiers with HYDRA serum in them could be controlled. Wanda was there and blasted them with magic, then grabbed my hand and got me out of there."
"She regards all super soldiers as the property of Cerberus and that includes their offspring. She wants them all, Sam, and she's coming for John's family as well as Noelle and Winnie and is looking for the Flag Smasher Diego. We have to get them to safety." She saw Fury and Winter entering and looked at them. "Alexandra Pierce, she's Madame HYDRA and she claims to be adept at the Faustus method of brain reconditioning." His face reacted to her news. "I take it you know what that means? She used it to make her followers loyal. Her choice to Carter and Fontaine was to join her or die. Enhanced beings who don't join her get reprogrammed. She's coming here, Fury, and she has HYDRA pulse weapons designed by Baron von Strucker. She can take this place down in minutes."
He stared at her for several long seconds then at everyone else.
"We better get ready then. Are you both staying?" She looked at John then back at Fury and nodded. "Good, we're going to need all hands. Walker, we're going to use a sorcerer to open a portal to your family. I would like you to be there. We may have to get creative where we hide them and the Barnes family but I'm not going to say anything about that. It will be need to know."
"I need to know something," said Winter, stepping forward at that moment to stand in front of the other super soldier. "John Walker, former Captain America, now known as U.S. Agent. You stated Pierce used words on you successfully to keep you immobilized, claiming it was a function built into the serum. You know that it is unlikely."
"Before it happened, I would agree with you ... what is your name? I know you're not Barnes."
"Winter, just Winter. What were the words?"
Walker swallowed then looked down at the floor quickly then back at Winter's face. It was obvious he was shaken by the whole incident.
"Stop moving and comply. That was all she said. Why would I obey her? I've never been tortured or subject to brainwashing, at least not as far as I know." He ran his hand through his hair. "I couldn't move or speak at all. My vision and hearing were fine but that was it. She had control of my body until Wanda used magic against them. As soon as I realized I could move I ran to her and grabbed her hand just as she dissolved, pulling me with her. If she hadn't ... I'd be reprogrammed by now."
"Possibly, if she got you to a memory suppression machine while you believed you were under her control," stated Winter, looking at Fury. "Faustus developed several methods of brain reconditioning. Barnes had to undergo the most traumatic procedures as he fought them hard, every step of the way. The regenerative nature of the super soldier metabolism undid much of what they subjected him to, bringing the necessity of cryogenic storage between missions to slow down the healing process, as well as regular memory wipes to reinforce the programming. It's possible the serum that flows in Walker's body has changed his brain in a way that would make him susceptible to hypnotic suggestion, but the effects wouldn't last. Pierce is being untruthful claiming she could control all the super soldiers because Barnes is proof that it cannot be sustained. I chose to be the killer for Barnes, and I never fought the programming, but he still did and when the moment was right, he finally broke away for good and there was no return to being the Fist of HYDRA, not for him and not for me." He put his hand on Walker's shoulder, ignoring the slight flinch the man made as he did it. "John Walker, will you fight alongside me against this woman and her followers? She is dangerous but she doesn't control us because we are men who have been down a path very few others have walked. Stand beside me, as you did for Barnes and Wilson against the Flag Smashers. Together, let's prove to Alexandra Pierce that she is not what she thinks she is."
He looked intently at Walker, displaying a sense of purpose that seemed to infuse the other man. He nodded then placed his hand in solidarity on Winter's opposite shoulder, before looking at Fury. Together they left, first to get to Walker's family, then to evacuate the compound of all families. If Pierce was coming, they would be ready and waiting. There was an energy in the facility that proved the staff had enough of having their lives upended. To Fury, it meant they were all onboard. Cerberus was about to get tested in a very real way and he was actually looking forward to it.