Creating the Plan
Walking further into the room, Kara leaned against the wall and folded her hands together in front of her. The feeling inside of her was one of uncertainty, anguish, guilt, and pain as she watched Steve slowly. She hadn’t felt this way in a long time, and she didn’t like it at all. But she also knew she was in the wrong, and she didn’t know how he would react to that. So she waited for him to make the first move.
“Is Layna safe?”
She looked up at him as he spoke, his voice sounding hurt and rough. Her heart warmed a little at the thought that his first priority was Layna, but it didn’t warm the rest of her as it usually would.
Nodding, she stayed away from him against the wall. “I spoke to Tony before you arrived here. They’re protecting her. If it comes to it, Bruce has no problem Hulking out and covering her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She knew the question was coming, but she still dreaded it. “I should have.”
He looked up at her. “But?”
“But, I didn’t.” She shrugged. “I was going to tell you when I saw you. But when I got to Sam’s place, there were spots of lead where I couldn’t check for bugs, and you were already knee-deep in a plan to take them down, and you were so upset. Then you were having me hack SHIELD, and everything happened so fast.”
This time she made herself push off the wall as she took a few steps closer to him. “It killed me to keep this from you, but I had to, Steve.”
“You had to?” He asked loudly. “You had to keep something like this a secret?”
“Yes, I did. I had to because I’ve seen this whole situation before.” Now she had his attention. “On Krypton with my grandfather.
“When I was about seven, I was taking a walk with my grandfather through the street of Krypton. During our walk, he was shot right in front of me.”
Now his face fell. “Kara…”
She shook her head. “This isn’t an excuse or a way to turn this around for my own comfort.
“I was sure he was dead. I could even hear the guards in our palace talking about it on their shift changes. I was absolutely devastated. Then my parents came to my room, and I knew what they were going to say. I was wrong. He was alive and being cared for in the palace medical wing. I was ecstatic.
“A few days later, before I even got to see him, someone we called a friend snuck into his room and stabbed him to death in his healing bed. I needed to make sure Fury was going to live and that he was safe before I gave you that false hope. Can you understand that?”
“Of course, I can.” He told her and grabbed her hand. “I’m sorry you went through that.”
“I’m sorry I kept any of this from you.” She told him again. “I should have told you. Once you guys were attacked on the highway, I knew that the jig was up, and you had to know. I was going to tell you once we all got away, but obviously, that isn’t how things turned out.
“That situation with my grandfather…” She paused, and he squeezed her hand. “That whole thing still haunts me, and you can hate me if you want, but I wasn’t going to do that to you. So you can do whatever you want with that information; if you want to…end us or not…but, I’m standing by my decision.
“Was that really Bucky?” She asked then, hoping to delay what she knew was coming.
Steve’s heart fell into his stomach, and he reached for her instantly, pulling her body to his own. “You thought I was going to leave you?”
“I just…”
“Kara.” His eyes were even sadder now. “You and Layna are the only good things in my life. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than this to tear us apart.
“I understand why you did it. This whole situation is just completely messed up. I could never have imagined I would be fighting HYDRA again. And Zola? Now Bucky…”
She bit her lip. “I’m so sorry, babe. You’re sure it was him?”
“Yeah. It was him.” He said brokenly. “And I’m going to have to fight him again. What am I going to do?”
“You aren’t going to do anything. We are going to find him and fix him. We’ll get your old Bucky back.” She told him. “You both deserve that much.”
“What did I do to deserve you?” He asked her, kissing her forehead.
She smiled. “That is a whole different can of worms for another day. Now come on, Fury has been working on a plan to take them down, and if we’re late, we’ll never hear the end of it.”
She started to lead him out of the room when he tugged her back. “Kara…I also have a plan. But there’s something we need to talk about.”
Looking at him with curiosity, she waited as he explained what they would have to do.
Sitting at their makeshift briefing table, Kara watched as Fury opened a file and held up a picture of a much younger looking Alexander Pierce. Behind her, Steve stood with his hands on the back of her chair in silence.
“This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn’t an achievement; it was a responsibility.” He dropped the picture and leaned forward in his seat. “See, it’s stuff like this that gives me trust issues.”
“We have to stop the launch,” Natasha said from her seat across from Kara.
“I don’t think the Council’s accepting my calls anymore.” Fury told her.
Then he opened a secure case holding three oversized microchips.
“What’s that?” Sam asked from behind Nat.
Maria sighed. “Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they’ll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized.”
“We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own,” Fury added to her information.
Nodding, Maria spoke again. “One or two won’t cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die.”
Pushing the image of Krypton’s last moments out of her mind, Kara felt Steve squeeze her shoulder. She reached a hand up to hold his but remained silent.
“We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA.” Fury warned them. “We have to get past them, insert those server blades, and maybe, just maybe we can salvage what’s left…”
“We’re not salvaging anything,” Steve said suddenly, glancing at Kara. “We’re not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We’re taking down SHIELD.”
She nodded at him to show that she was behind his decision as Fury defending his position. “SHIELD had nothing to do with this.”
“You gave me this mission,” Steve told him firmly. “This is how it ends. SHIELD’s been compromised. You said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose, and nobody noticed.”
“Why do you think we’re meeting in this cave?” Fury shot back. “I noticed.”
“How many paid the price before you did?” Kara asked quietly.
Fury looked at her in equal parts guilt and anger. “This isn’t like Krypton…”
“This isn’t about Krypton!” She said firmly. “This is about people now, here, on this planet. This isn’t an ecological problem that is being ignored. These are people who are doing the destroying. What about all of the people they killed?”
Looking down, Fury sighed before setting his gaze on Steve. “Look, I didn’t know about Barnes.”
“Even if you had, would you have told me?” The soldier asked him. “Or would you have compartmentalized that, too?”
There was no response.
“SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes.” He said again; he wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“He’s right,” Maria whispered.
Fury looked at each person individually. Maria and Natasha both had looks of agreement, while Sam just shrugged.
“Don’t look at me,” He told Fury. “I do what he does, just slower.”
Then he looked at Kara. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.” She confirmed without having to ask. “If this is what it takes to bring them down, then it’s time.”
Shaking his head, Fury looked down again. “Well, it looks like you’re giving the orders now, Captain.”
“We know what we need to do with the blades.” Steve started giving orders.
Once he was finished, Sam spoke up. “Okay, that all sounds great, but even the weakest entrance is going to have guards. How are we going to get past them?”
Kara smirked. “I had an idea for that.”
“Care to share with the class?” Fury asked her.
Turning to him, she cocked an eyebrow. “I saw that old cruiser parked outside…how attached are you to it?”