Chapter 4
Steve woke up the next morning as the sun was poking out over the horizon. He was so tempted to turn over and bury his head under his pillow, chasing the dream he’d been having. He didn’t remember exactly what it was, but the remnants of the dream sat inside him like a balloon, filling his chest with hope and happiness in a way Steve hadn’t felt in a while.
He thought maybe he dreamed about Bucky.
He swung his legs off the bed and rubbed at his eyes in the dim room. Sam was asleep—and snoring, which was unusual—so Steve crept quietly to his bag in the corner of the room and then into the bathroom to get ready.
He went on a short run rather than his usual morning routine, trying his best to stick to a normal person’s pace. They were supposed to be under the radar and it would be better not to draw attention to himself, but still, Steve had a hard time keeping himself from taking off down the sidewalk at full speed.
Steve felt freer after his talk with Sam. Less burdened, somehow. He’d never really talked about what Bucky meant to him. He went into the ice so soon after Bucky died, and when he woke up, there was really no one he wanted to talk to. No one who would listen, and who would understand.
Until he met Sam. He was so lucky to have run into him in DC, so grateful he’d decided to take a chance and mess with the one other guy running at the crack of dawn. He could never have known how great a decision that would be.
Steve ran through a small park and turned onto one of the main streets that was lined with restaurants and cafés. It was still early in the morning, but the sun had now fully risen and places were already open for business. Steve ducked into the restaurant that had the best smells drifting out the door and ordered a significant amount of breakfast food to go. He got a strange look from the cashier, but he thought it was because of all the bacon he ordered, not because they recognized him.
He made his way back to the hotel to deliver the food to Sam. He figured Sam would still be asleep, but maybe the smell of breakfast would wake him up and help with the hangover, and then they could make their way out of England soon. Ok, so they didn’t have a specific lead on Bucky yet, but the sooner they left the closer they would be to finding him, Steve figured.
He used the flat hotel key card to open the door to his and Sam’s room—and nearly dropped the bag of breakfast in surprise.
“Nat?”
Sure enough, Natasha was sitting cross-legged on top of the desk against the wall. “Nice of you to show up,” she said.
Sam rolled over onto his back and shoved a pillow over his face. “She keeps talking,” he grumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Steve, make her stop.”
Steve laughed. “I brought breakfast,” he said in a sing-song voice to Sam.
Sam immediately sat up and then shut his eyes tightly, looking like he regretted sitting up that fast. “Do I smell bacon?” he whispered.
“Yup!” Steve said, not bothering to keep his voice down, and grinning when Sam winced. “You had an emotional breakthrough last night, so I provided breakfast.”
Sam cracked open one eye to glare at him. “Asshole,” he said, but still he got up and reached for the bag.
“So, uh, what can we help you with?” Steve said, turning to Natasha.
“Oh, you know, just a bunch of evil scientists and their evil gun-wielding sidekicks trying to take over the world again,” she said. “So, basically, the usual.”
Steve perched on the edge of the bed across from Natasha, ignoring Sam behind him who was already scarfing down strips of bacon and pieces of sausage.
“Natasha, I’m sorry, I can’t,” Steve said. “I need to find Bucky. He’s alone and he’s hurt, I can’t take on another evil crime organization right now.”
“It’s not another evil crime organization,” Natasha said. “It’s the same one.”
Steve’s stomach dropped. “Hydra? Still? I thought Fury was taking care of the stragglers.”
“He was,” Natasha said. “But he found this and brought me in. There’s Hydra research bases that we’re still finding out about. We don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but we’ve heard rumors of experimentation.”
Steve’s jaw clenched. If they got a hold of Bucky, they would torture him again, maybe put him back in cryofreeze. Steve couldn’t let that happen. And even if they didn’t find Bucky, Steve couldn’t turn his back and let what happened to Bucky happen to someone else. They were possibly already hurting people. Steve couldn’t walk away, and, he realized, Natasha knew that. “Ok, fine. We take them down and then I’ll find Bucky.”
“We’re going to need to split the team up, there’s too many bases. If we go at them one at a time, that’ll give them too much time to scatter and regroup elsewhere.”
“What about firepower?” Steve asked, already thinking through the strategy.
“They’re relatively small,” Natasha said. “They might have some nasty stuff inside, but Fury’s intelligence says they don’t have great defense systems set up.”
Steve turned to Sam, who had eaten half of the bacon and was chugging from a bottle of water. “What do ya say, Sam—want to be an Avenger?”
Sam nearly choked on the water and looked up at Steve with wide eyes. “Uh… you serious?”
Natasha laughed. “Don’t act like that’s a surprise.”
Sam still looked shell-shocked, and Steve laughed too. “It was bound to happen,” he said with a shrug. “You’ve got all the qualities for it.”
“What qualities are those?” Sam asked.
Steve said, “Bravery, good instincts—”
“Also known as stupidity and recklessness,” Natasha said.
“Sure, those too. Plus, you can fly.”
“Not anymore,” Sam said. “Your BFF tore apart my wings, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Natasha said. “Stark made you a new pair.”
If Sam had looked shocked before, he was downright stunned now. “Hell yes,” he said under his breath.
“So Stark’s in?” Steve asked Natasha.
She nodded. “Stark and Rhodes will land in Paris tomorrow morning. They’ll have your wings,” she said to Sam, “and then they’re headed straight to Austria to meet up with Thor.”
“Thor’s back?” Steve asked.
“Yeah, he got word—somehow, he never explains the details—that Hydra’s work has something to do with Loki’s scepter.”
“Shit,” Steve muttered. This was getting more complicated. “Do we have intel on the bases?”
“Some,” Natasha said. “At least the smaller ones that we’re hitting first. Fury thinks it’s best to get in, get as much information as we can, and then blow the place.”
“Civilians?” Steve asked.
“Not around these,” Natasha said. “The first crop we’ve found are all isolated in the mountains, and forests.”
“Ok,” Steve said. If he found one of the chairs they used to torture Bucky in any of those places, he’d be happy to blow it up on his way out.
“When do we leave?” Sam asked.
“We’ll head into Paris tonight to meet Stark,” Natasha said. “And then the three of us will go to Romania to hit the cluster of bases there.”
Steve nodded. He tried not to think of Bucky. It didn’t work.
“We’ll be in and out,” Natasha said, as if she could read his mind, her voice softer. “He’s lasted this long on his own, he’ll be fine while we take care of Hydra.”
Steve swallowed. She was right, but it still hurt to think of Bucky all on his own.
“Do some sightseeing, boys,” Natasha said, smirking slightly. “I have some loose ends to take care of, I’ll meet you in Paris tonight.” With that, she left the hotel room and closed the door behind her.
Steve and Sam were left staring at each other. “So…” Steve said, feeling like he should fill the Natasha-shaped hole in the room but wasn’t sure how.
“Why do the English insist on ruining a perfectly good piece of toast by putting beans on it?” Sam asked, rummaging through the rest of the takeout bag. He handed a container to Steve, and sure enough, it was filled with beans on toast.
“No clue,” said Steve, accepting the fork Sam passed him. He sat down on the bed next to Sam and starting poking at the beans.
“About the whole Avenger thing—” Sam started.
“Don’t even ask,” Steve said. “You are far more qualified than any of us. Well, maybe not Thor, that guy is a literal god. But you’ll be a better Avenger than the rest of us put together.”
“I’m not enhanced,” Sam said. “I’m just a regular guy.”
“So is Clint,” Steve said. “And Natasha. I’m pretty sure, anyway.”
“I’m a soldier.”
“So am I.”
“All I have is a really cool set of wings.”
“All Tony has is a really cool suit.”
“Steve, be real for a second,” Sam said. “I’m just a Black kid from New Orleans. What business do I have fighting aliens, or being on Earth’s defense best team?”
Steve looked up from his beans on toast and saw that Sam actually looked nervous. “Sam. You’re not just anything. You’re an Air Force special ops member. You’re a VA counselor. You’re—” Steve flashed back to sitting on another bed, when he was 100 pounds lighter and doubting the role he was chosen for. “You’re a good man, Sam.”
“That’s it? That’s your big pep talk?” Sam laughed. “You give the best speech I’ve ever heard to all of the Triskelion while Hydra’s banging down the door trying to kill you, and the best you’ve got for me is ‘you’re a good man?’”
Steve smiled. “That’s what did it for me.”
Sam seemed to know what Steve was saying and he took a deep breath, letting it out very slowly. “Ok. Ok, I’m an Avenger now. Damn.”
Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “Yup. Now, I think we gotta go… if I’m doing the math right, it’ll take us at least a couple hours to get to London.”
“So much for sightseeing, huh?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure 80% of what Natasha says is always to mess with us.”
“That’s a pretty conservative estimate,” said Sam, laughing.
The rest of the day was taken up by a long car ride packed into a small car and then a long train ride packed into—ok, so it was a regularly sized train, but Steve still yearned to stretch his legs.
When Sam saw him fidgeting, he handed Steve his iPod—apparently a small metal device that held a world’s worth of songs. It looked so small and fragile in Steve’s hand, but Sam assured him it was an old model and had lasted long enough, Steve was unlikely to break it. Steve put the small ear buds into his ears and let Sam pick the music, leaned back into his seat and tried to relax.
When they arrived in Paris, the sun had already set and the skyline twinkled with little yellow lights. It was so different than the last time Steve had been there, and he couldn’t help but smile at that. Whatever Zola said, at least this was something good he’d done.
Either Tony had paid for that night’s hotel room or Natasha had stolen Tony’s credit card to pay for it, because it was far nicer than their typical under-the-radar hotel stay. To take the best advantage of it, Steve and Sam went straight to bed, knowing that it would be the nicest bed they’d probably get for a while.
When they got up the next morning, Natasha was in their room again. Her hair looked shorter.
“Do you even sleep?” Steve asked, sitting up and rubbing his face.
“Not typically,” Natasha said, shrugging. “Come on, we have some maps to look at before Stark lands.”
“Fun,” Steve muttered, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.
Ten minutes later, Steve and Sam were dressed and standing over the tablet Natasha was holding. “These are the Hydra outposts,” she said, pointing at a few blue dots in the Eastern European forest. “They’re spread out enough that we don’t think they’re working together.”
“How do we know about these?” Steve asked. “This is Fury’s intel?”
“That’s one of the interesting wrinkles,” Natasha said. “After SHIELD fell, there was the expected chaos for about a few weeks, and then a whole bunch of chatter about Hydra bases. These Hydra bases, specifically.”
“You think there’s a new player emerging?” Sam asked. “Someone filling the power vacuum SHIELD left behind?”
Natasha shook her head. “It’s too organized for that. I don’t think it’s someone new, I think it’s someone old.”
“What do you mean?” Steve asked.
“I think someone who already had connections is trying to pull the strings. I’m not sure if this is a vendetta, someone taking advantage of the lack of hierarchy to expose a competitor, or if it’s a distraction from something bigger. But either way, it’s not someone new: this was a coordinated release of information, they had to have known that the Hydra bases were there for a while.”
“You think this came from inside Hydra.”
“That’s my best guess at the moment,” Natasha said.
“Any chance it’s a trap?” Sam asked.
“There’s always a chance it’s a trap,” Natasha said. “But it’s a risk we have to take. We have plenty of fire power and two teams, so if one goes down, we have back up.”
“If Loki’s scepter is in play, this is a lot more complicated than these small bases,” Steve said. “This could be only the beginning.”
Sam nodded. “Who’s coordinating?”
“Maria Hill,” Natasha said. She handed a small device to both Sam and Steve that didn’t look unlike Sam’s iPod. “We’ll be on local comms only, these are for emergencies. It’ll get a 911 out to Hill and she’ll coordinate back up.”
“Ok,” Steve said. “Where are we hitting first?”
Natasha talked through the strategy, pointing to each location on the map and laying out the defenses that Fury’s intel and Stark’s satellites had picked up. By the time she finished, Steve and Sam knew each piece of the plan and how they were to attack each base.
Sam said he’d run out to grab breakfast for them before they left to meet the others at the hangar. Natasha turned to leave too, but Steve grabbed her arm.
“Nat, wait.” He waited until Sam left and then turned to her. “What are we going to do about Tony?”
“What about him?” Natasha asked.
“About what Zola said in that bunker… that his parents were killed by Hydra. That Bucky killed his parents.”
“We don’t have proof that that’s true,” Natasha said. “Zola was a liar.”
Steve shook his head. “Zola was a madman, a sadist, a Nazi, but I’m not sure he was lying.”
“He was saying anything he could to stall us,” Natasha said. “And why are you on that side of this, anyway? Do you want to tell Stark your childhood best friend killed his parents?”
“No,” Steve whispered. “But, isn’t it the right thing to do?”
“No.”
Steve was surprised at the firmness of Natasha’s tone.
“The right thing to do is to take down the rest of Hydra, and make sure they don’t do something with Loki’s scepter that we can’t undo,” she said. “And we need Tony to do that. We can’t take them down without him. If you told him, he wouldn’t be able to complete this mission. He may even lash out, we don’t know what could happen.”
“Ok, so you’re saying to wait?”
“I’m telling you not to tell him," Natasha said. “Right now, Tony has closure. He may still have complicated feelings about how his parents died, but that’s how things are, sometimes. If you tell him that Hydra might have killed them, all you’re doing is digging at old wounds. He’ll become obsessed with finding out exactly what happened, and that proof might not even exist. You’d be doing him more harm than good.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Steve said. Maybe it was selfish to tell Tony that Hydra might’ve killed his parents. Maybe it was just Steve wanting to clear his own guilt at the idea that Bucky might’ve killed Howard without even knowing.
Natasha put a hand on his shoulder. “This is the right thing to do,” she said quietly. “It’s the kind thing to do. Don’t force Tony to grapple with demons he’s left behind.”
“Ok.” Steve nodded. “Ok. Thanks, Nat.” This was a weight Steve could bear on his own for Tony—and for Bucky too, if he needed it.
Steve and Nat met up with Sam and made their way to the hangar to meet up with the rest of the Avengers. Steve noticed that Sam seemed restless, not grounded in the way he usually was.
“Are you nervous?” he whispered to Sam after the parked and were walking towards the quinjet that had landed in the distance.
“Nah,” Sam said, shaking his head. He glanced over at Natasha and then back at Steve. “Shut up.”
Steve laughed and swung an arm around Sam, not unlike how Bucky used to treat him when he knew Steve was hiding something. “Just don’t listen to anything Stark says and it’ll be over quickly.”
“Sure,” Sam huffed, and ducked out from under Steve’s arm.
They heard Thor before anyone else. “Steven!” he boomed. “Natasha! It has been too long since I’ve been in your presence.”
“How are you, Thor?” Steve asked, reaching out a hand to shake Thor’s.
“Oh, I’ve been a bit troubled, Captain, as I’ve roamed the planets for news of my late brother’s old weaponry.”
“Late?” Natasha asked.
“Yes, although it pains me to say, I believe Loki to be truly dead this time. May his soul be at rest, finally.”
Steve couldn’t say he was too broken up to hear about Loki’s death, but he patted Thor’s massive arm and tried for sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“No matter, now is not the time for reminiscing,” Thor said. “Introduce me to your friend!”
“Yes, right. Thor, this is Sam Wilson. He’s the newest member of the team.”
“Sam, son of Wil, an honor to make your acquaintance!”
Sam gave a crooked grin. “It’s nice to meet you too,” he said, shaking Thor’s hand. He turned to Rhodey, who was holding Sam’s new wing pack in his hand. “And Colonel Rhodes,” Sam said, holding out a hand to Rhodey as well. “It’s really an honor, sir.”
“You know I made the wings, right?” Tony said, looking up from his phone as if he just realized they were all standing there. “Don’t go giving Rhodey too much credit.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Rhodey said, “he’s just jealous you like me more.”
“He does not like you more,” Tony said.
“Actually, I do,” Sam said, smirking at the look on Tony’s face as he said it. “To be honest, I’ve been following your career for some time, Colonel.”
“Please, call me Rhodey,” he said. “And, thanks. You’ve had a pretty impressive career yourself.”
“So, Capsicle,” Tony said, interrupting the moment that Sam and Rhodey seemed to be having. “Surprised to see me? Did you forget about me?”
Steve frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, you took down an entire wing of the government and didn’t even invite me! I had to assume you forgot I existed, why else would you leave me out of the fun?”
Steve had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. “It was complicated,” he said. “And it all happened pretty fast.”
“What about you, Romanoff? Didn’t think to pick up the phone and call an old friend?”
“I’ll tell you what, Stark,” she said, doing that fake smile that Steve had noticed she used with people she wanted to shut up. “Next time we take on the US government, I’ll make sure to send you an RSVP.”
“I’m holding you to it,” Tony said. “Now chop chop, let’s move this party to the jet. Some of us have a secret Nazi organization to take down.”
“It’s just an hour to the drop point,” Rhodey said, leading the way into the quinjet. “Then we’ll split up from there.”
“Perhaps we’ll fly together in a future mission,” Thor said, nodding to Sam as they entered the jet. “Until then, I wish you speed and safety in your battles.”
“Uh, thanks, you too,” Sam said, looking utterly confused at how to respond to that, but pleased nonetheless.
As Jarvis flew the quinjet across Europe, Natasha went over the broad strokes of the plan one last time. Iron Man, War Machine, and Thor would peel off and hit the more southern Hydra bases—because they could fly, they were taking the bases that were farther apart. Natasha, Sam, and Steve would hit the bases in the northern forests that were only about a half a day’s hike from each other. There were seven in total—that they knew about, at least—and they had to be fast, to keep Hydra from regrouping at the next base. Once all seven were destroyed and their intel collected, both teams would fall back and regroup to plan a larger attack on what was left.
Natasha passed around the small devices she had given Steve and Sam already.
“I designed those myself,” Tony said, interrupting Natasha. “When you push the button they’ll pinpoint your location to the precise meter, and as far as I can tell, they’ll work underground and up to at least where my satellite is in space. Not saying anyone should screw up their job and end up in space, but it would be pretty cool to test these suckers out several miles in the air.”
Rhodey rolled his eyes.
Beyond Stark’s emergency beacons, they were on their own. Their earpieces were on local range only to keep them from being tracked, which meant that they couldn’t communicate with the other team, either. They all had 48 hours to destroy the bases and rendezvous back in Poland.
When the jet landed, Rhodey said good luck and Thor gave them some sort of Asgardian battle hymn or something that Steve didn’t understand. And then a moment later, Tony, Rhodey, and Thor flew off, leaving the three of them behind.
Steve grabbed his shield from the quinjet and a pack of supplies while Sam examined his new wing pack.
“All good?” Steve asked.
“Great,” Sam said, not looking up from the wings. “This’ll fly like a beauty.”
“Alright, boys,” Natasha said. “It’s a two-hour drive to the border and then we’ll be on foot the rest of the way.”
“Lead the way,” Steve said.