Chapter 12
Lee finds Steve in a weapons hangar, pacing furiously. He quietly shut the door, and joined him, sitting on a box of ammunition. Steve didn’t notice, or chose to ignore him, pacing still.
“Tony and Bruce are right.” Steve startles, and stops pacing.
“What?”
“Fury’s hiding something. He’s a fucking spy, of course he is. But it’s not as corrupt as your suspicions think. He does want to work on clean energy, but it goes deeper than that. SHIELD has a lot of secrets, Steve. I have secrets, I…” Steve sat down next to him on the crate, shoulders touching.
“Forget SHIELD. What’s going on, Lee?” Lee turned to face him, meeting his eyes full of concern. “You can tell me anything, it stays between us, Lee. You know that.” Lee closed his eyes, energy dissipating from him.
“It’s not that easy, Stevie.” Steve hesitated at first, but grabbed Lee’s hand, wrapping it up in his own.
“Whatever it is, is it hurting you?” Lee shook his head. “Are you being forced into it?” Another head shake. “Are you allowed to tell me?” Lee paused, then nodded.
“It’s just… it’s a lot happening. I don’t think it’s the right time to say anything, either, after all, it happened decades ago, it’s not like it’s going to change now,” Lee added bitterly. Steve thought a moment, quiet, looking at his hand in Lee’s, warm and comforting. He turned to Lee, and took his other hand, and cupped Lee’s cheek, staring into his eyes, soft. Lee looked small, like before, and he gave Steve a small smile. Steve stared, drinking in Lee’s features, until his eyes began to unfocus, but he stopped, a box catching in his eyesight a few feet away.
“I’m sorry, but what’s… this?” He left Lee’s side, and kneeled down, opening the box.
०००
Lee walked into the lab, without Steve, still rattled by Steve’s advances but also what they found in the weapons vault. He knew about it, but he didn’t dare say a word. Tony and Bruce were pouring themselves over a monitor, viewing files of some sort.
“What’s that?” Lee asked, and Bruce jumped, Tony putting a hand on Bruce’s shoulder in reflex. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Tony looked at Lee, and opened his mouth to reply, but the lab doors opened before he could.
Fury walks in, glaring at the three. He looked, well, furious, and Lee did not like the immediate change of atmosphere in the room. “What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” He asked angrily, and Tony turned around, shoulders up, determined look on his face. Lee knew that look. He’d found something.
“I’ve kind of been wondering the same thing about you.” Fury dismissed his comment with a wave of his hand.
“You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”
Bruce spoke up. “We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile.”
“And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss.” Tony pointed to the monitor they’d been viewing when Lee walked in. “What is Phase 2?”
Suddenly, Steve drops a HYDRA assault rifle on the table, causing Fury, Bruce and Tony to turn around. Lee saw the raw anger on his face, and turned to Fury, to see his reaction.
“Phase 2 is SHIELD using the cube to make weapons.” Steve turned to Tony. “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow.”
Fury feigned nervousness. “Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-” Tony interrupted, turning the monitor towards the group.
“I'm sorry, Nick.” The monitor showed plans of the weapons, schematics detailing every idea they’d had for the Tesseract. Tony paused a moment. “Why did you lie to us? To me? You know I’d never agree to this.”
Steve looked disappointed. “I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit.”
Fury composed himself, then turned to Steve. “Seems like Agent Leigh hasn’t told you everything, either.” All eyes turned to Lee, who looked both nauseous and livid, glaring at Fury.
“My secrets have nothing to do with this,” he spat at Fury. “Don’t try to manipulate the situation to me. You’re the Director, this is your responsibility!” Steve looked even angrier.
“Lee’s right. Even if he knew about the weapons, you are the one doing the planning. He has his own loyalties.” Lee felt a tiny bit of relief that Steve was backing him up, but fuck he’s going to have to explain some things later, he bet.
At that moment, Thor and Natasha walk into the lab. Natasha keeps her eyes right on Bruce. The tension in the room spiked significantly. “You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Bruce shook his head, glaring at Natasha.
“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed. I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”
Fury pointed to Thor. “Because of him.”
Thor looked confused. “Me?”
“Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”
Thor’s shoulders raised, defensive. “My people want nothing but peace with your planet.”
Fury cut back, on the offense. “But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled.”
“Like you controlled the cube?” Steve snapped.
Thor looked accusingly at Fury. “Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war.”
Lee sent Steve a worrying look. “A higher form?”
Fury’s face now held a look of desperation. “You forced our hand. We had to come up with something.”
Tony scoffed. “Nuclear deterrent. That always calms everything right down, totally.”
Fury turned to Tony, voice sharp. “Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?”
The room escalates into verbal assaults, and Lee just stays quiet, watching the entire thing. Fury deserved this, the Director being battered on all sides. Lee just watched, quietly amused that he got to watch them all force Fury down a notch.
The computer beeps, chatter immediately stopping. They all turn to the monitor, and Tony rushes to it. “We got it!” Bruce walks over to the monitor, looking over Tony’s shoulder as he furiously types.
Thor spoke up. “Located the Tesseract?” Tony nods. “The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it.” Tony ignores him and walks towards the lab doors, leaving. Steve grabs his arm.
“You're not going alone!” Tony glared at him, and wrenched his arm out of Steve’s grasp.
“You gonna stop me?” The two glared at each other, chests puffed.
At that moment Bruce, who's looking at the monitor, notices something about the Tesseract. “Guys-” The entire room shakes, an explosion sounding somewhere on the Helicarrier. Everyone is thrown in every direction. Lee, Steve, Fury, Thor and Tony are thrown across the room, while Natasha and Bruce fell down into the lower equipment room. Steve helps Tony up and out of the lab, Lee following.
Fury sits up, clutching his ribs.
Lee, Tony and Steve run through a dim, debris filled hall.
Tony calls out towards them, sprinting down another hallway. “Jarvis says an engine is completely down. Find engine three. I'll meet you there!”
“I know the way, this way!” Lee sprinted forward, leading the way. The ran down hallways until they found the right place, the door wedged shut, window showing debris propped against it on the other side. Steve pushed with all his strength, and the door broke open.
Steve pressed a button on his earpiece. “Stark, we’re here!”
Tony’s voice sounded in their ears. “Good. Let’s see what we got.” Tony flew in, in his suit, and surveyed the damage. ”I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris.” Tony begins pulling on the stuck rotors, and he calls out to Steve and Lee. “I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position.”
Tony flies into giant cooling conductors. Steve jumps over to the other side of the broken railing, and gets himself to the control panel and opens it up. Lee follows, engaging his armor and watching his back. He spoke up after a moment. “What's it look like in there?”
Steve stared at it all, making zero sense of any of it. “It seems to run on some form of electricity.”
“Well, you're not wrong.” Lee scoffed and turned to the paneling.
“Move, watch my back.” Steve awkwardly shoved out the way, lifting his shield. “Tony, the relays are intact, there’s minimal damage.”
Tony blasts his repulsors at broken debris off the turbine engine. “Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push.”
“Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!”
“Aww, you care. Stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage magn-”
“Speak English!”
“I got it, Steve, shut up!” Lee huffed in frustration. “Continue, Tony.”
“See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word.” Steve looks over at the other side, where they originally were before jumping to the panel. He sees the red lever and jumps towards it. Lee followed again. IRON MAN laser cuts a big piece of broken metal. He then JUMPS on it, relieving the rotors.
“Steve, you-” On the other side, men enter the broken engine room, guns in hand. Steve and Lee looked down, and the men noticed them, beginning to shoot at them and throw grenades. Lee blocked the grenades, throwing them back with his armor, and Steve jumped to the other railing and down with the attackers. Steve yanks a gun out of one of the attacker’s hands, and grabs another from a fallen one, and tosses one up to Lee. Lee grabs it, and starts shooting, hitting his targets accurately. Tony begins to push the rotor using the rockets from his boots. The rotors start propelling faster and faster as Tony’s rocket boosters get more and more bright. On the other side, Steve loses the upper hand and slides off the railing, but grabs onto a loose cable, dangling.
“Lee, assistance!” Lee jumps down, trying to reach Steve, flashes of Bucky running through his mind. Tony continuously spins Engine 3, giving it all he has. Finally, the Helicarrier rights itself, the engine back to running properly.
Tony calls out. “Cap, I need the lever!”
Lee answers, still struggling to help Steve. “We need a minute here!”
“Lever. Now!” Tony lets go of the rotors, and they spin by themselves, spinning faster than Tony can fly, Tony getting caught up into one of the rotors. Lee uses the last bit of his strength to pull up Steve, and they crawl back over onto the floor, breath coming out in gasps.
“Tony, can you hear me? I’m pulling the lever!” Lee grips the red lever, and shoves it down. A vent opens up from engine 3, and Tony falls out. Tony flies over to the two, and collapsed on the floor, all three of them exhausted. Fury’s voice sounded over their earpieces.
“Agent Coulson is down.”
Another agent spoke up, alerting Fury. “Paramedics are on their way.”
Steve and Tony looked at each other. Lee just watched the sky, outside the gaping hole of the engine room.
“They're here."
Nobody spoke, waiting for the news.
“They called it.”