Chapter One: The Launch Ship

(AU where the watcher doesn't come and there isn't Steve Rogers in the hydra stomper aboard the ship. This'll be a somewhat re-write of the second captain America movie but with Peggy Carter, any scene where Peggy isn't in won't be included, also I decided to start with the ship but just note that Peggy did indeed meet Sam Wilson. Finally heads up for homophobes, there will be a Peggy x Natasha romance added in.)

"The Lemurian Star. They were about to send up their last payload when pirates took the ship."

Captain Peggy Carter was giving a mission briefing high in the sky, in a Quinjet just above the Indian Ocean near coast of Ratnagiri, to a group of S.H.E.I.L.D. operatives including Natasha Romanoff and Brock Rumlow.

"How many pirates?" Natasha asked.

"20 or so charmers led by this one, Georges Batroc. Before French special forces showed him the door he wracked up 36 kill missions."

"Hmm," Natasha teased, "sounds more like your type-"

"Fine," Peggy interrupted, then smiled, "I've got the shield, you've got the sword."

"More like knives, but cute wordplay."

Peggy would have loved to keep bantering but they only had a limited time until they reached their destination. "Kill the engines, and find the hostages. Gentlemen watch our six."

Rumlow confirmed the orders to his team, "Strike team, you heard the Captain. Gear up."

Peggy then picked up her shield and headed towards the back of the Quinjet, with Natasha loading her gun following close behind.

"So," Natasha said, "any plans for Saturday night?"

"No," Peggy turned and pointed at her friend. "Stop right there."

She didn't like discussing dating. It might have only been less than two years since she got trapped over 70 years into the future, but she often thought about the man she had left behind, Steve Rogers. She just didn't feel ready yet to find a new man, yet as they prepared Natasha kept going.

"You know Bernard in accounting was asking about you."

"You know nothing good has ever followed the phrase 'Bernard in accounting'?"

With that she hit the button to lower the back hatch. Before she could jump the Black Widow gave out one more remark, "What if his name was Steve?"

This comment really hurt but she played it off as just being a joke. "Ow! Just when we were becoming pals, Widow."

Natasha gave her a smile, and Peggy couldn't help give her a wink to let her know there was no hard feelings. She turned and dived through the air towards the ship, and at the last possible moment angled her body to pencil dive into the cold ocean water next to the ship.

Using the launched ship's anchor she climbed aboard, she then spotted several of the french pirates close together on one of the top decks. At first glance none of them appeared to have radio's so if she could take them out quickly no alarm would be raised. She threw her shield at a pirate walking near the edge of the deck, magnetized it back to her, then jumped up onto the deck proper. Peggy then knocked a red-bearded pirate over, quickly rotated and threw her shield at another ship-seizing pirate, within seconds there was only three pirates left. She lined her shield up, angling it just right, and when she threw it, it knocked two pirates right off their feet.

She looked forward now to see a machine gun pointing directly at her face, the gun of the leader, Georges Batroc. The briefing had suggested he would be in the control room, but clearly he had decided to go check up on the hostages. For a split second she thought she was a goner, but Batroc didn't shoot, so she raised her shield into a defensive position.

The french pirate then chuckled, "I thought you were more than just a shield."

He then threw away his gun and put up his arms in a fighting stance. Realizing Batroc's ego was bigger than his sense to complete his mission, Peggy used this to her advantage to keep Batroc distracted and buy the hostages more time. Peggy put her shield onto her back.

"I'm a pretty good dancer too."

The two charged at each other, Batroc threw the first punch but Peggy easily dodged. The pirate attempted a spinning high kick but Peggy dodged that too, the serum running through her veins had really increased her agility and reflexes. Peggy tried to grab his arm but he pulled away, he tried to do the same but with his focus on her arm she managed to kick him back. He recovered almost instantly and tried to punch her again but she was getting good at dodging his attacks. Despite neither gaining ground in the fight, Batroc once again chuckled.

"I'm too fast."

Every blow or kick each threw at each other they were both able to dodge or block. At one point Peggy managed to kick at him, but he deflected the attack with his arm.

"Oh! That's good."

He then jumped and attempted a two leg attack but Peggy had more than enough time to side-step out of the way. He tried to sweep her legs but failed, however this gave him room to put all his weight in one hand and perform a spinning kick that Peggy could safely admit she had never seen before. She tried to once again side-step but Batroc's boot did manage to kick her in the face, knocking her for a second onto the ground.

Batroc laughed one final time and repeated what he had said earlier, "I'm too fast."

Peggy scowled and was about to just take out her shield and finish the fight when Batroc was suddenly lit up with blue electricity and fell over, in his wake was the newly landed Black Widow.

"Don't tell me, he was your type?" Natasha said smugly.

"Thanks Nat. I count ten Pirates here, meaning there is probably fifteen more spread out across where the hostages are kept, the control room, and throughout the rest of the ship. Let's move out people."

"If not a date, what about friends. There's that nurse that lives across the hall from you? She seems kind of nice."

"Nat, your job is to secure the engine room, not make sure I'm not lonely."

"I'm multi-tasking."

Peggy set back out to complete her mission, she par-cored her way to within range of the bridge control room and shot a listening device at the corner of the glass. In her left ear-piece she could now hear one of the pirates speaking in french.

"Pourquoi Batroc prend-il si longtemps ? Si nous ne sommes pas prêts à bouger bientôt, nous pourrions être pris en charge par Interpol ou la marine indienne."

Peggy's years of french lesson's were paying off, she understood that the pirate left in charge of the room was getting impatient. The pirate spoke once more, seemingly into a radio.

"Démarrez les moteurs."

They were on the clock now, once the remaining pirates realized their ransom or their leader weren't coming back they'd kill the hostages and be fully prepared to take off at full speed. At the very least Peggy and her squad needed to make sure the pirates could not get away, so Peggy hoped Natasha was securing the engine room as the pirate gave his orders.

Through her right ear-piece, Peggy heard Brock Rumlow inform her that they had two minutes before the hostages started getting killed. She had to fight her instincts to go down there and save the hostages herself, she knew she had to stay in her designated position for the plan to work.

"Targets acquired."

"S.T.R.I.K.E. in position," relayed Rumlow.

"Widow, what is your status?" Peggy asked into her communicator.

She was met with only silence.

"Nat, we're running out of time, where are you?"

"Hang on!"

Peggy could feel every second tick by, every drop of sweat dripping down her back, but she trusted her friend. Finally, with just under a minute to spare she heard Natasha in her ear once more.

"Engine room secure."

"Ok than. On my mark," said Peggy, so that the S.T.R.I.K.E. team could all make a coordinated take down. "Three...Two... One."

Peggy waited for the all clear that the hostages were safe before throwing her shield at the glass protecting the bridge control room, knocking out the pirate inside at the same time.

She then received an update from Rumlow, "Hostages on route to extraction," she thought that would be it, but he than gave more worrisome news. "Romanoff missed the rendezvous point, Cap."

Peggy had been planning on assisting with the evacuation, but now she was worried about the safety of her friend in arms.

"Nat? Are you compromised?"

No response.

"Nat?!"

Now worried, Peggy decided to climb up to the best vantage point in the ship, the bridge. When she entered it however, she found it was not just populated by the pirate she had knocked out. Natasha was standing over one of the computers, typing away.

"Well, this is awkward," said Natasha sarcastically.

What are you doing? Why didn't you answer me or Rumlow?"

Natasha seemed to ignore the second question and just answered the first, "Backing up the hard drive. It's a good habit to get into."

Peggy was a bit miffed. "Rumlow waited for you at the rendezvous, forcing the hostages to stay on this ship longer. What in blazes are you even doing here?"

But Natasha didn't answer, instead Peggy had to look over the head-heads shoulders. She saw a S.H.I.E.L.D. memory stick plugged into one of the computers and instantly Peggy realized what she was doing. "You're downloading all S.H.I.E.L.D. data from this ship."

"Whatever I can get my hands on. Yeah."

Anger was beginning to rise in Peggy, in the just under two years she had known Natasha Romanoff she thought she had changed. When she met her she was solely a spy and agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. but Peggy had thought over the last many months Natasha had become something more, a hero and her friend. Peggy was wrong, Natasha was still nothing more than a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D.

"This wasn't our mission, our mission was to save the hostages."

"No, that was your mission, and you've done it beautifully, dear."

"You could have jeopardized this entire mission, we don't know if every pirate is taken care of and your job was to watch the hostages back as they evacuate."

"I think that's overstating things," she said as she extracted the memory stick and put it in her pocket.

But just then they heard the click of a grenade being activated. The two women looked around and realized the pirate Peggy had knocked unconscious had awoken and was trying to make his escape.

Having no time Peggy pulled Natasha over her shoulders, used her shield to break the glass to another room, and jumped inside just as the explosive went off. Glass and metal shrapnel flew everywhere but they were mostly unharmed thanks to the wall under the window they had taken shelter behind.

After taking a second to catch her breath, Natasha once again spoke, "Okay. That one's on me."

Very much upset, Peggy got up and did not offer a hand to her former friend, instead turning her back to her.

"You bloody hell are right it is."

And with that she went to go take her anger out on the man who likely ordered this deception. Director Fury.