"We've cleared out what we think is almost the whole complex; fairly large but it seems like most room was made for this giant tunnel going upwards.", a lieutenant said.
"Probably lifting the Valkyrie up to that hanger we saw then.", Peggy nodded. "Smart decision, keep it from a risk of attack if it was up top side. It would be fairly safe all the way down here.".
The several paratroopers stared at Steve in awe as they stepped out, and one of the lieutenants replied, "Blimey, we heard stories about the Valkyire and you, Captain America, and for you to sprint out of nowhere from where we barely started to storm this place. How did you survive?".
"Lots of floating on my shield in the ocean up north near Greenland, figuring that everybody thought I was dead as I snuck into trains and cars and ships, and after hearing stories and rumors about Captain Carter aka Britain, I knew I had to help with whatever's going on. Managed to stop some Hydra who was hassling a family before I got them down, and the women of the family gratefully stitched my suit up, while the men helped me out with a shave and a good bath, and grabbing a map from one of the dead Hydra and found your camp...Glad I came in time.", Steve replied with a smile.
The paratroopers whistled in amazement as Bucky replied, "Is the tunnel blocked?", and a lieutenant replied, "A avalanche got down into the tunnel as we were chasing and finishing off several goons here, and it killed them off as far as we know, since there was a rumbling explosion up there from where you came from.".
Peggy and Steve looked at each other, and Peggy replied, "That was a wrecked anti-tank rifle going off, and Nikhol Sinclair's cold as dead right now.", and several grins adorned with cheers around the paratroopers, as Steve then replied, "How did you get in, anyway?".
"The car garage on another side of the fortress, that way.", an airborne sergeant replied, and Steve nodded, "Right. You got a radio?", and the first lieutenant nodded, "Yes, sir. Want me to tell them that Sinclair's dead, and all Hydra is gone for good?".
Steve replied, "Do it.", and the lieutenant went to radio, calling the commanders and the Howling Commandos and others on the same channel, starting to tell the good news as the paratroopers murmured and took a breather, slightly relaxing as Peggy subtly squeezed his hand with a smile.
Steve smiled before seeing a flicker of something over the group, and saw two Hydra goons, mangled somewhat, with one heading into a dark room, with the other flourishing a damn heavy flamethrower despite his injuries, "MOVE! INCOMING!".
Steve and Peggy moved quickly as he tossed his shield towards the flamethrower; both of them quickly had an idea what was going on, especially with the one trooper heading towards the room. They were both praying to be wrong, but odds could very much be in favor that any sort of self-destruction of the complex might be in there.
The shield slammed into the neck of the flamethrower trooper, snapping his neck and finishing him off as Peggy leapt over the returning shield and the falling corpse of the man before she ended up in the room that the other goon had gone into.
Peggy saw a single glowing console with the man punching in quickly of a code, and Peggy threw her shield at the man, but the console glass saw the reflection of the shield incoming and the man tried to dodge, yelling in pain as he was narrowly clipped into his already mangled side, his hand seemingly leaving the obvious red button, but managed to realize for a second, and turned with a pistol at Peggy, but she was too quick with her own pistol, shooting him in the head, and he staggered, collapsing into the red button.
A monotone voice with a blasting alarm bellowed out through the fortress, "Self-Destruction in 5 minutes.", and Peggy paled, running with her shield, shouting, "RUN! GO!", as wire-sparked trucks and cars revved, with the paratroopers piling in, with Bucky as the last one, almost staggering the last truck, "Steve, Peggy!".
"Don't slow down, soldier, that's an order!", Steve snapped out at the driver as he ran with Peggy, glancing at her, "Just like old times, huh? Back then with the fireflies?".
Peggy laughed, "At least we're outrunning a bomb, not fireflies. Major difference there!", and Steve smirked before seeing a rumbling motorcycle that is stuck, on active throttle against a wall, with a clearly dead Hydra goon nearby, and grabbed Peggy's arm, "Come on, let's hope this still got damn plenty of gas!".
The alert certainly was heard by all and the troops throughout the complex were rushing fast for the exits. Some units would probably be cutting it close, but it would've been worse if they had continued following the trio deeper into the place rather than holding positions mainly closer to the entrance.
Steve quickly put his shield on front, watching the angle, checking the gas, "We're good!", as Peggy sat behind him, holding into his waist, with her shield being put on her back harness, and Steve then throttled hard, turning into a whip-turn, and then sped off, turning and skidding into the way to the car garage door, seeing the distant cars and trucks leading the way.
They can hear the voice counting down as Peggy replied, "You got it, Steve, don't slow down!", almost hating that by what the lieutenant meant by the other side of the fortress, it's literally a half mile, but then again, if it wasn't for the cars and trucks and motorcycles here, it would have been impossible to get everyone out.
"Gonna cut it close!", Steve shouted as Peggy squeezed a bit tighter. "Nothing we haven't dealt with before!", she gave a small laugh as the timer got closer to zero as they got closer to the exit. The motorcycle's wheels smoked and burned as Steve pushed it to the limits with the throttle.
And as soon as they reached the pavement, the place began exploding, and the force of it caused the motorcycle to fly, spinning and all, heading to a tree, yet Steve saw it coming, "Jump!", grabbing his shield from front, and landed into a hill, sliding on it, with Peggy on his back, and before they knew it, they crashed into a snowdrift which was gratefully not hard as ice.
It was almost fairly quick; the chain of explosions that echoed as the complex was engulfed in fire and torn to shreds. It was almost amazing that the entire mountain in of itself didn't collapse.
Steve shook his head out as he dug out of the snowdrift, looking around, "Peggy!", and then a head popped out, shaking out as Peggy grunted, blinking as she came out of the snowdrift, and they stared at each other before laughing out loud as they realized they did it...
Peggy laughed, "Oh, we did it! We got Hydra forever for good!", and Steve grinned, "Yeah, we did! Oh, that was a close call!", looking at the smoking and crumbling fortress, stunned that they literally narrowly escaped, and on a bike, no less! He shook his shield out from the snowdrift, glancing at Peggy who was checking her shield, smiling with snow in her hair, "We really got a lot of stories to tell when the kids are far older.".
"Yeah...I missed you so damn much, Peggy.", Steve mused, and Peggy looked up to see desire and longing in her husband's eyes, and realized that they're actually alive, together, and emotions hit her as she dropped her shield away and ran to him with tears in her eyes, barely noticing him letting go of his shield too.
The two of them embraced tightly as Peggy began to kiss him on the face repeatedly, "Oh, Steve... I missed you so much!", as she almost began to cry right then and there.
"I did too, Peggy... I thought I probably wasn't going to make it when I was going down... nor when I was trying to survive...", Steve admitted to her.
Peggy looked at him, "Yet you kept going...for us and our family...Where were you?", and Steve replied, "Greenland...If it wasn't for the crystal and the serum in effect...you get the gist..", with a murmur as he held her so tightly, soaking into her presence desperately as he ripped off his gloves to gently caress her cheeks, his wedding ring glistening in the light, "Always together to and beyond life, remember, wife?", with a loving smile, showing her that he would always love her.
"Thank god we visited the other place first...I do, husband...I love you so much, Steve..", Peggy smiled, caressing his hair and face as she couldn't stop pecking everywhere, taking off her gloves as well, her wedding ring glistening in the light, showing him that she would always love him in return as he spoke reverently, "I love you beyond my heart, Peggy...", before he leaned in to finally kiss her on the lips passionately and desperately and tenderly.
Peggy held him even tighter as she relished into the long-awaited feeling of being loved and cherished, kissing him back eagerly, feeling his hands mussing her hair and back while her hands caressed through his hair and neck, and they would have maybe lasted quite a few minutes like that if not for the sound of cheering and wolf whistles in the distance.
The two of them broke apart as they both were blushing. "Probably a better place to really catch up and all...", Peggy said. "Yeah, if we don't want an audience and all...", Steve chuckled as Bucky clapped his hands and approached them.
"Alright, alright!", Bucky said, his head directed towards the other troops. "Regroup with your officers; we'll be moving out of the area fairly soon.", he said as the troops began to disperse. "So, what's the plan?", Steve asked.
"Report to Phillips as well as the other commanders. More than likely, 101st will keep moving on through Austria; maybe we can get to Vienna before the Reds if the Germans are willing to let us through while slowing them down.", Bucky explained. "Once we do that, we can get Preston to take us home for a little while before we'll probably be expected again. I think you two, for sure, might have one or two more fights left even if HYDRA's now mostly gone.".
"Can't be too complicated; still strong odds that someone, somewhere in HYDRA's chain has survived... but, leadership wiped out, their resources all gone, and nowhere really left to hide, it would be very difficult for someone to even pick up the pieces and try to rebuild anything even within a hundredth of what Schmidt had created.", Peggy said.
Steve nodded, "Right, but you know we can't tell Phillips the other thing.", and the others understood what he meant, and Peggy squeezed his hand, "Don't worry, he doesn't know really, but yeah, we will get away when everyone's exhausted.", smiling reassuringly at him before she picked up her shield, and Steve did the same.
Bucky chuckled, and indeed, after camp got packed up, with all everyone heading back west to the safest and best fortified base within Germany near Austria, while protecting their patrols and increasing Allied lines as German lines is deteriorating, and after reporting almost all the truth with an edited story of Steve's recovery and survival to Phillips and the other commanders, with most everyone celebrating another victory, with the SSR knowing the truth behind Hydra, with most knowing that it was a secret association with the Nazis for some reason, and of course, partying hard and falling asleep easily, with few staying away of the celebration; specifically the trio.
Peggy called for Preston with her tracker, and the trio, after Preston casted some runes on their bunkhouse to make the other sleeping people assume that they went out early to the mess hall or something in the morning, stepped through the portal, and Preston closed it after he followed them through.
Dressed in casual clothes gratefully as the suits are in a luggage bag, to be washed and the shields to be secured in the cottage, Peggy happily heard their daughter calling for them, "Mumma, Dada!", and she smiled, "Brookyln!", dropping to her knees, welcoming her into her arms, as Steve smiled gratefully at Bebinn who passed Asher over to him, "Hey, kiddo..", as he gurgled happily at his daddy.
Preston warmly kissed and hugged Bebinn with a warm smile, stroking her baby bump tenderly, showing that everything went fine this time for the pickup, as Bucky happily reunited with Audrey and Marina, kissing his fiancée on the lips and tickling Marina gently as she giggled happily, with Harrison and Amanda nearby, watching happily.
Peggy, after holding and kissing Brookyln, noticed the signs of Happy Birthday, chuckled, "Guys, my birthday isn't until a few days.", with a smile, and Steve sheepishly smiled, "Well, the plan was to surprise you and Bucky with me, until Preston told me what's happening, of course...It was supposed to be a great surprise, along with a couple of other things too.".
"Oh, Steve, that was a wonderful plan...And what other things?", Peggy asked in confusion, and Preston said, "You didn't tell her?", with a smile, and Steve shrugged, "I figured you two wanted to tell her yourselves.", with a chuckle.
Peggy looked at Bebinn and Preston, and Bebinn smiled, "I'm pregnant, Peggy, and it's twins I'm carrying.", with a beaming look.
Peggy's jaw nearly dropped upon hearing that. "Wasn't too much of a secret... I kinda blurted it out to the whole world the moment she told me.", Preston chuckled as Peggy shook her head. "That- that's incredible!", she smiled.
"And good timing too; in Europe at least, the war's just about over. HYDRA's pretty much finished from where we can see things and Germany's running out of room day by day as our armies blitz across the Fatherland. I give it a few more weeks before there's probably a radical change in leadership amongst the Nazis and whomever takes over will probably be willing to try to save anything that's left. Still not going to happen as long as Hitler still leads, but that'll probably not be much longer as I said.", Steve replied.
"Willing to let his whole country burn rather than accept the truth that the war is lost...", Bucky shook his head. "Guess what happened the last time really stuck with him and the other Nazi leaders. Go down to the bitter end rather than just giving up when they still had some fighting left in them back in 1918.".
Harrison snorted, "No doubt about it. It's gonna be a lot of recovery, through.", and everyone nodded in agreement, and Brookyln piped up, "Mumma, we have party?".
Steve chuckled, "More like she wants cake. Ever since we were planning it and all, she wants to taste cake. As for this little guy, he just wants to have milk, right, kiddo?", as Asher babbled and squealed.
Peggy laughed warmly, "Alright, looks like I'm outvoted then. Let's celebrate the good news, then.", with a smile, and everyone laughed as they then went to have a party, with cake, breastfeeding, and a few presents for a few hours before Peggy was stern on the bedtime for Brookyln and Asher.
Steve glanced at Peggy after she came down to the living room, talking with Bebinn and Preston, "They tucked out?", with a smile, and Peggy nodded, "Yes, apparently, the excitement and the worry and such tired them out almost all day of yesterday and today with the time zones of us switching and portalling...Thank goodness that it was only a bit of cake. I'm not in the mood for a sugar-crazy toddler, and that she digests fast for a half super soldier kid.".
"Yeah. Anyway, Bebinn offered a better idea. Apparently while we were gone, Bebinn, safe and well with her crystal aiding her in her portalling, had went to Atlantis to tell Kida of the hopeful end of Hydra, and that you went to aid Peggy, and anyway, the point is we don't have to...ah, cause questions with Brookyln even if we narrowly are too loud to beat the soundproofing runes when we could go to our Atlantean bedroom instead by her portal.", Steve said with a blush, remembering Bucky's remarks.
Peggy sagged in relief as she heard the idea, "Thank the Kings...it would feel so weird here with my parents practically living here...", with an embarrassed blush as she doesn't want to repeat that morning again, as Bebinn gently smiled, "So, is that a yes, then?".
"If you're offering... um, it still will be a little bit awkward at moments though since obviously, if we ask... you know exactly why.", Peggy blushed as she rubbed her arm.
"It's understandable... you're only human after all and especially with the fighting and everything; any sort of relief to the chaos would be welcome...", Bebinn said.
Peggy smiled at Bebinn, "Thanks, Bebinn...", and Bebinn nodded, "Of course. Shall I do it now?". Steve looked at Peggy, "We'll figure something out for the next few weeks, but I don't want to waste this opportunity...", with a nod.
Peggy chuckled, and nodded, "Do it, please.", and Bebinn smiled as she stood up momentarily, motioning with her sling ring, while her crystal and the time stone aided her from feeling off, keeping the babies safe within her from the magic, and a portal formed into the hallway before the Atlantean master bedroom of Peggy and Steve's bell-shaped tower home.
