Chapter 7
“What happened to that guy who tried to kill me and then disappeared? Vanko, I think? Or was it Killian?” Tony asked.
“Some of the grunts got him.” Lilith said casually. “Why?”
“Just making sure. Your whole network is scarily efficient.”
“That's why I keep them around. Though this one was an idiot, didn't even keep security, 3 grunts got him without as much as an injury. I didn't even send an agent, much less someone good.”
“What is your network up to nowadays?”
“Recruiting in SHIELD, CIA, FBI, MI6, Special Forces, and various positions of power internationally. As for the rest, you said you wanted plausible deniability, didn't you?”
“After Obadaih, I think I'm good. What do you have on enhanced, since I'm technically one now?”
“Raising your PR, finding any enhanced so they don't become enemies.” her phone rang at the moment.
“What is it?” Pause. “How long until he's awake?” Pause. “Make sure it's ours waking him up, don't let Fury indoctrinate him, sell the idea of separating from SHIELD, sell the idea of preferring Stark over SHIELD.” Pause. “No, I have a penthouse in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan, and another in Queens. Offer him a choice, just make sure under no circumstances is he reliant on SHIELD.” Longer pause. “Goodness, they're idiots. Make sure they send in one of the agents, no grunts. Don't go for the pretty face play either, it won't work.” Pause. “You do that.” And hung up.
“What was that?”
“They found Steve Rogers, alive and in suspended animation, in a natural cryogenic style. He's set to finish defrosting and awaken in a week.”
“Howard spent all his life he wasn't in SI searching for the guy.”
“I heard. Either way, they found him, and he could be very useful.”
“He’s going to be Mr. American pretty boy, perfect and flawless.”
“Not quite. I did a bit of research a while ago. He was supposed to be the perfect example of an American, stubbornness especially, but he had his one biggest weakness, and that’s what we’re going to play.”
“What?”
“Not a what, Tony. It’s a who. A who that we have in a safehouse in Moscow, getting ready to take out one particularly annoying General Dreykov.”
“Russian general? Why do we care?”
“I’m working on repurposing the Red Room network, and he is at it’s head, as well as the only one to have the controls. The Winter Soldier will be particularly useful.”
“Why him?’
“You don’t read your paperwork, do you?”
“I don’t like to be handed things.” Tony insisted.
“Codename the Winter Soldier, Super Soldier with enhanced cybernetic metal arm that you’ve since upgraded.”
“That was the weekend project you handed me a while ago, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, that one. Well, the Winter Soldier’s real name is James Buchannan Barnes, AKA Howling Commando Lieutenant Bucky Barnes, the one true bromance of the golden boy that is currently defrosting in SHIELD's New York HQ.”
“Is that why you have him wear a mask and goggles all the time?”
“No, that’s just to keep up the Winter Soldier legend. He’s a ghost story in the international intelligence community, I like to keep it that way.”
“Why the fuck were my orders not followed to the letter?!” Director Fury yelled at the two agents, his emotion matching his ironic name.
“Director, we were unaware you had given specific orders for this situation so we acted as we thought would be best.”
Fury glared at them, but these were some of his best, he knew he wouldn't get anything good out of them. “Dismissed.” He growled at the agents. He seemed to have some moles in SHIELD, either that, or simply agents whose loyalties did not go to SHIELD, first and foremost.
And Nick Fury needed to know.
It took a while, but when a day after Captain America defrosted, he departed the SHIELD facility, saying he had a place to go and things to catch up on, NIck Fury was instantly suspicious.
It took him two weeks, but what he found he really didn’t like.
Everyone in the intelligence community had heard of several various ghost stories. The Winter Soldier, existing since shortly after WW2, master assassin, spy, sniper, and nobody knew anything about him, even then gender was assumed simply because of the fact that the only thing they knew of the assassin, were mostly from the ultra rare mistakes they made, such a footprint or shell left over, which never happened more than once a decade, that suggested large muscles, and heavier weight than most female agents. The Soldier was also known for the only thing anyone had ever survived to say about their appearance, a silver heavily enhanced cybernetic arm. There were also rumors of some others, but those never lasted more than a few years.
The other biggest ghost story, and the only one other than the Winter Soldier (only because Natasha Romanoff confirmed that) that he believed was real, was the White Witch. The White Witch was an all-purpose agent, who did anything, from stealing blueprints to the White House, to assassinations, to rigging a SHIELD facility to blow, to commanding cannon fodder, etc. She, because they had caught an image of her a few years back, was never clearly visible, but was always dressed in a uniform that had no affiliation, and when it didn’t have perfect camouflage to the level of practically perfect invisibility, it was all white, and of some materials that everything slid off, leaving it perfectly unblemished, from blood to ink to bullets. She was also enhanced, not only healing at an astounding pace, proven by the one time a knife had made it past her outfit, but also being able to do things no human could. She had jumped down from a ten story building and seemingly flew down, landing perfectly. She had climbed up a perfectly smooth wall, and severely debilitated one of his best agents with a single punch. Some of her technology also seemed to not be currently possible, such as the near-invisibility, or her wrist and boot strapped knife sheaths where she never seemed to run out, same as with her guns and other tools that seemed to last for infinity. She also had one weapon they had never been able to analyze but it had the appearance of an elegantly crafted stick but seemed to shoot out laser bolts that, depending on the color, did various things. The red ones knocked you out on contact and the quickest anyone had awakened from that bolt was several days. The pale blue one created a force field shield against everything harmful, and how that was judged he didn’t know, but that seemed to be the way it worked, a lighter red one wrenches all weapons out of the target’s hold, a pale violet one froze a person, a greyish brownish one wrapped a person up in ropes that degraded almost instantly after they were cut. There were many more, but those were the ones they had down for sure.
He had never been able to track the White Witch, but he had been able to track one of her drop sites, and what he saw, he didn’t like. The dead drop site that had no activity since he had discovered it had people there. The exact agents who he had exploded at for their disobeying of his instructions about the awakening of Captain America.
He thanked his past self for installing a completely unnoticeable camera there.
The first agent said, “White Witch?”
She faded into visibility, although later when he looked over the video feed carefully, he would see that her outline was barely visible if he looked closely enough, but nevertheless there. “Why are you reporting here?” She demanded.
“Our other back channels are being monitored by Director Fury.”
“He was literally furious when he found out his explicit orders for the awakening of Sleeping Beauty were ignored. Barely made it out.”
“You two are good, you’re going dark until you are contacted again.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Any other orders?”
“The usual. Fury isn’t our enemy, but he declined being an ally years ago, so treat him as you would anyone else. He isn’t to be hurt, but if you can talk him around in circles so he loses track or follows some false trails, metaphorical bonus points.” Fury noted to himself not to fall for such things.
“All missions canceled?”
“I said the usual. Yes, you’re going dark, any missions you had, you’ll get replaced or you’ll get informed if you’re not. I don’t care what you do within SHIELD, keep your loyalty to them as long as you don’t lose it to us.”
“Of course. We’re not Hydra.”
“Good. If you find any that haven’t been reassimilated, send them my way, we’re nearly done with complete assimilation.”
“Anything on recruiting in SHIELD, since we’re going to be there?”
“Feel out Barton, Romanoff, and May. They’re good but if they’re not in, that’s that.”
“It’s an open secret on Level 7 Barton has a family, wife and a kid or two, though who and where is heavily classified.”
“Don't touch them. We’re not barbarians, and either way, I was the one who added security to their place as a favour. You wouldn’t be able to get in without me knowing.”
“Ma’am?”
“Do you need babysitting or do you not have somewhere to be?”
“Does the Boss have any updates about our branch?”
“Yeah. Keep your mouths shut, redirect attention, and don’t recruit unless you’re willing to put your own necks on the line.” a deeper voice came from behind, and the last person Fury expected came into sight.
“Sir!”
“Go back to SHIELD, and keep Coulson from getting Steve Roger’s new address, the man’s a fanboy with Level Nine clearance, it’ll be a nightmare.”
“Yes sir.” The agents said, and left, and Fury looked at the Winter Soldier. There was no red star on his arm, unlike what Romanoff had said when she had encountered him ages ago.
“It’s not like you to come out here and deal with these agents who need so many instructions for everything.”
“Not everyone’s effectiveness improves with less binding orders.”
“And you don't get orders at all.”
“Helps to be so close to the big boss. Are you all good? That little history lesson couldn’t have been pleasant.”
“It was a shock, but it wasn’t that surprising, nor did I not understand and sympathize.”
“When you’re all nice like this, it makes me realize how much of a robot the old you was.”
“You’ve got a new robot now.”
“And you’re going to have to deal with the legendary ice cube.”
“No, the ice cube we have to deal with separately. I just heard, Boss isn’t getting involved with the Tesseract. Something about an allergy and bad history.”
“I’ll talk to -” Fury didn’t hear the last part, swallowed by the wind, but it sounded like a garbled blend between him and her, so he didn’t even know anything about their big boss.
“How is your civvie cover?”
“Bored out of her mind, though I do get to establish yours. Thankfully we got Master McHacker and his ego to cement that one.”
“Did you ditch the idea of naming me your cousin yet?”
“We’re going for as real as can be. You’re the grandson of your first cover.”
“First fake or first real?”
“First real. Same name. Officially, all records are in, now you just have to pop in to say hi to your grandpa’s buddy.”
“What about the thing where I'm supposed to be dead?”
“Officially, the paperwork glosses over that, but something along the lines of a pregnancy discovered after he died, old ex-girlfriend.”
“Really? You had to do that?”
“Mister Hacker likes his pranks, and so do I. On the other hand, the same name works, but without the history.”
“Thank you.” The Winter Soldier said, and then a gobsmacked Fury watched as he lowered his mask, his face out of the camera's angle, and the Winter Soldier kissed the White Witch.
“How long do you think it’ll take Mrs. Boss to catch on?” he asked.
“The kid’ll probably know first. But I say she probably already knows and doesn’t care.”
“That her two best assets are dating?”
“Some of your attitude from your robot phase is leaking through. We’re more than assets, and you know it. I only got into this business because I could and I saw how much good it does. You might have been forced into this but you are more than a pawn now.”
“I know. But we are still assets. Valuable weapons in human form.”
“The White Witch and the Winter Soldier. Ghost stories. Sure, for the rest of the world. But you’re still as much a person as I am, as the Boss, as the kid, as anyone else. Don’t let them get to you from beyond the grave.”
“It also helps to remember my first revenge mission.”
“That too.” They drew together closer and entwined in another heated kiss.
“You want to meet up in our civvies tomorrow?”
“Sure. Just promise me one thing, oh prime example of masculinity.” She said, the nickname dripping with sarcasm.
“What?”
“Pick me up. I want a bit of a show.”
“Deal.”
“I have to go, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You too, doll.” he said, as they split and departed.
Fury digested the information, putting it into his private database as he did so.
The White Witch was dating the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier had recently changed bosses. The Winter Soldier had a very well made but relatively recent civilian identity. The Winter Soldier was, in fact, the same person in all the reports over the decades, his enhancements likely came with longevity, and his current civilian cover was the grandson of his original one. He had infiltrators in SHIELD. The two that he had caught were going dark and his chances of getting anything from them that wasn’t going to be outdated were slim to none. He decided to keep them around, so he at least knew who to track when they left from going dark. The White Witch and the Winter Soldier were close to their boss. The White Witch and the Winter Soldier were the bosses, but not the top bosses. His two agents didn’t know the boss personally. The White Witch and the Winter Soldier were allowed a lot of freedom with minimal direct orders and instead a choice as well as passing down orders. The organization the Winter Soldier and the White Witch worked for had a master hacker high up in it’s ranks, they were onto the fact he was monitoring any contact out of HQ, including their back channels for communication. The White Witch was involved in the offer he got all those years ago. Their organization was absorbing Hydra, which was still around. Barton had had contact with them and gotten extra protection for his family in exchange for an unspecified favour. They were thinking of recruiting some of his best active agents. That Ward wasn’t mentioned meant that needed investigating.
As Fury put all that and more down, as many details as he could find, every last little bit of this information dump he had just received, he called the three aforementioned agents into his office one at a time.
May came first, being the only one on location at the moment. Barton, begging to be released from the medical wing after a slight skirmish on his last mission, jumped at the order, and Romanoff was on a private mission, her daily pastry run, and he allowed her it, not interrupting her during that time unless it was truly important or a new mission.
“Director.”
“Agent May. Sit.”
“Do I have a new mission?”
“As of this moment, this is strictly off the books.”
“Sir? Protocol says everything goes on the books.”
“Some things break protocol. We have moles within SHIELD, and I know maddeningly little about them.”
“Why call me in here, Sir?”
“I tapped one of their communications. They are going to attempt to recruit you, as well as Barton and Romanoff. I want you to be the decoy, attempt to go in and find out exactly who they are, what they want, and as much as you can about everything else.”
“Director Fury, who do we know?”
He named the two agents who had gone dark, but then said, “They were given orders to go dark, so other than feeling you out and potentially leading towards recruitment, you won’t get anything for now. As long as it doesn't interfere with SHIELD business, I want you to do everything you can to seem loyal to them after they go to recruit you. If it does, don’t mess up anything big, warn our agents, warn me, but exercise your own judgement. This is off the books, because I don’t know who is and who isn’t a mole.”
“Director, who was passing down the orders? Maybe I can go straight to the top, track down their big boss?”
“I have absolutely nothing on the big boss and neither will the two moles. They got orders from two other people. I promise you you will fail to track their boss down.”
“Who were they, sir? I have yet to completely fail, even when the mission didn’t go perfectly I always got at least something.”
“They got orders from the White Witch, and then she met with the Winter Soldier.”
“Sir, those are ghost stories.”
“And I confirmed they are real people, working together, for the same boss, and very close at that.” he said, showing her the video recording of the meeting.
“Sir, maybe I can track their meeting tomorrow?”
“I have not so much as a hint of their civilian identities or their location, there will be millions of couples that can match what we have of them all over the globe, not to mention they will be purposefully disguised.”
“Sir I can-”
“Agent May, why are you so resistant to actual spy work?”
“I don't know if I can pull off such a lack of loyalty to SHIELD.”
“You're going undercover, Agent May. Pull it off.” He said. “And this stays completely off the books.”
“You've said that, Sir.”
“I mean nobody knows. Not Coulson. Not your husband. Not your mother's agency.”
“I'm not one of my mother’s s agents, Director.”
“Good. Go, officially you're on break, babysitting some lower level agents.”
“Yes sir.”
As May exited his office, he saw Barton drop down from the vents.
“Barton, get in here.” Fury ordered.
“Director, thank you oh so very much for saving me from the med wing.”
“Barton. Bluntly, I have hints of moles in SHIELD, agents who want to try recruiting you. It's being dealt with, so you're getting approved for personal leave.”
“Thank you sir.” Barton said, as he departed, texting the news.
Fury sent through the paperwork with some half-assed excuse he knew would look like an off the books favor but he didn't care.
A short while later, Romanoff came in, throwing her empty pastry container in the bin in his office. He gave her the stink eye, he didn't allow janitors in his office so he had to bring out his trash himself and he preferred to do it as rarely as he could.
“Fury.”
“You're going undercover.”
He had a mission for her, the timeline was just sped up now. “Where?”
“Stark. He's getting too good at hiding, I want that problem fixed. Full threat assessment and get as much as you can on the Iron Man suit as well.”
“Yes, sir. Do I have a premade cover?”
“Use Natalie Rushman.”
“Would that not be a little too obvious, sir?”
“This is temporary, as long as you get the information I don’t care if he finds out. This is a one-time thing, Romanoff, but I want the information, and too much SHIELD effort was put into getting Natalie Rushman a degree from Yale for it to be a one-time cover.”
“Yes, sir.”