Walking After You, 2/6.
Title: Walking After You
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Pairing: Steve/Peggy, Wanda/Vision mentioned
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Not mine! Characters you recognize belong to other people, and I am just playing in their sandbox for fun. This is born of a text conversation with mynuet regarding the possibility of Peggy getting a version of the serum at some point in her colorful history. Civil War compliant (no, really!) because I was actually very pleased with characterizations in it, even if some of the plotting made me go O_o at times. I do reference things from season 3 of Agents of SHIELD as well as season 2 of Agent Carter, but I think it would still make sense if you haven't seen that. Part of chapter 1 inspired by this photo, because of course that's how they should be.
Summary: In the wake of the Sokovian Accords, the Avengers scramble to find a safe haven. That gets complicated when Nick Fury arrives, announcing that he found Peggy Carter. The real Peggy Carter.
Prior chapter:
One - Escape
Two - Misdirection and Discovery
The only thing that could draw Steve's attention from Wakanda was an encrypted message from Nick Fury: Concerning Peggy Carter, must meet in person. Natasha didn't know what it was about, which was possibly one of the most concerning things about it. Of course Nick Fury would stay out of the conflict he had with Tony Stark; Fury was too busy tracking down Hydra locations to help SHIELD. He wouldn't be involved past the intelligence part, and would leave the fighting down to the Advanced Threat Containment Unit and SHIELD. Natasha had told him there was a storm brewing in the United States and many countries around the world, and the Sokovia Accords had been just one piece in a much larger puzzle. "The United States created the ATCU and were keeping powered people in stasis," she told him. "What you didn't know is that other countries often simply hunted them. There's agitation for creating a separate country for them, for keeping them contained somewhere else."
"Where else?" Steve had asked, horrified.
"Siberia," she said quietly.
"That's not something Ross would ever go for," Steve grumbled.
"There was a committee decision. I don't think it was ever formally signed, but you know how those things go," she said, a wry twist to her lips. "It's only a matter of time before someone decides it's a good idea."
"So what would Fury want?" Steve asked her, thinking she would be the most likely candidate to know how Fury thought.
But Natasha, as much as she respected the agent and knew how to read his tones, didn't know what he meant by that. Peggy was dead, and she had been deteriorating for years before that.
Using Peggy's name had to be some kind of code, something about SHIELD or the past, but Steve couldn't figure out what it could be. He brought it to T'Challa's attention, as he would have to either meet Nick Fury on Wakandan soil or do his best to sneak out of a country where he stuck out like a sore thumb no matter how much he tried to keep his head down.
"I will bring him here," T'Challa assured Steve, a grim expression on his face. "I cannot guarantee your safety once you leave my country."
"I'm sorry for all the trouble we've caused, truly I am," Steve said heavily, the same drawn expression on his face. "I didn't want this, please believe me."
"I do," T'Challa assured him. "You fight for what you believe is justice and mercy."
Steve grimaced at the phrasing. "Sounds like I don't always make the right decision."
"Does any of us?"
He was still pondering those words when he met with Nick Fury in the Royal Museum in the heart of Wakanda. "Didn't take you for the sightseeing type," Nick said baldly when Steve showed up. There were some people watching them, but it was the same kind of uncomfortable stare that Steve was used to seeing. It wasn't because he was the reason why their former beloved king had died. No one really knew the details on that in Wakanda. No, it was because of how pale he was and how much he stuck out. Sam told him that there had been whispers in the market of the refugees and how they would steal jobs from proper hardworking Wakandans. It had made Steve want to laugh and cry; times didn't change, and the whispers were always the same, even on an entirely different continent.
"Sometimes there are sights to see," Steve replied tightly. He thought of how he had told Natasha that a gilded cage was still a cage. Wakanda was beautiful and far larger than the Avengers complex in upstate New York, but he still chafed within its borders.
"Here's a sight you'll want to see," Nick said, handing over a file folder.
There were Cyrillic letters stamped in red across the front of it, and something in Steve's gut turned over. He swallowed down the bile and acid, and tried to tell himself that Bucky was just in hibernation. There was nothing in this file that could hurt him.
He was wrong.
Staring up at him was a photograph of Peggy Carter, eyes closed as if in sleep, youthful as she was at the start of SHIELD. She was encased in a cylindrical tube similar to the one that Hydra agents had kept Bucky in when he wasn't doing missions as the Winter Soldier.
"What is this?" he asked, his voice a broken rasp.
Nick Fury nodded toward a bench in the middle of the gallery, uncharacteristically kind. "One of the cells in Austria had been a site for super solder serum research. They were separate from a lot of the other cells, purely science." A chill rolled down Steve's spine at that; he had been a product of a science lab, as had been Wanda.
"What is this?" Steve repeated, staring at the unfamiliar lettering on a document that made it look as though Peggy had been frozen like the Winter Soldier. Or that she had been a Winter Soldier type of operative, which made no sense, and even the thought of it made his chest hurt as it hadn't since his asthma attacks nearly killed him.
"Peggy Carter," Nick said, a fond note in his voice. "But apparently, the real one."
Steve looked up at Nick sharply, jaw tightening. "Explain."
"The Peggy I knew was older than your Peggy," Nick began. "My SO in the admin track, always a believer in hard work and doing the right thing. She didn't talk about you, not if she could help it, you know."
He didn't want to hear this, but Nick held up a hand. "We all respected that, since it had nothing to do with the job at hand. But maybe, just maybe, that's how Hydra got into SHIELD in the first place. Because the Peggy I knew wasn't the one that you knew."
"What are you saying?"
"I found Peggy, Cap. Apparently, she's been on ice for decades. Almost since the foundation of SHIELD, as a matter of fact. The woman I knew, the one in history books, the one that we all had the funeral for? She was a clone. She believed she was Peggy, she believed in what she said, but her brain was probably chock full of triggers and code words and all sorts of things I don't want to even contemplate."
Blood running cold, Steve stared at Nick. "Where is she?"
"I'm taking care of it. But I thought we needed to meet first. When I left to come here, she wasn't awake yet, and there was barely a pulse. I don't know what we're going to get when the defrosting is complete, just as I wasn't sure what I would get when you woke up. You know the real Peggy Carter. What would make her comfortable when she wakes up?"
"The truth," Steve said, looking at him grimly. "No matter how painful."
"Maybe you should come with me, anyway," Nick said with a sigh. "We can probably get you in under the radar."
He was sure he didn't have enough pull with T'Challa to request Peggy Carter being brought to Wakanda, but Helen Cho and the Cradle were there at the moment. "Maybe," he said quietly, licking his lips. "There are people here that could help."
"You think you got that much pull?"
"I think I can ask. And the worst that happens is that I get told no."
"Someone's gonna tell Captain America no?"
"I'm not Captain America anymore, Nick. I'm just a guy without a home. I'm a refugee."
"Is that strange for you?" Nick asked, frowning at him.
"No," Steve said, finding he meant every word. "I've never belonged. I just wished I did."
They fell into an uncomfortable silence for a time, then Nick looked at his watch. "When can you get a hold of the King?"
"In a rush?" Steve asked blandly.
"If we're going to bring her here before she regains consciousness, yeah."
"I know a way to get his attention quickly," Steve said, standing. "Come with me."
From the Royal Museum, the two went straight across the square to the ultramodern medical college. If Nick was surprised, he hid it well. They went straight to the back elevator, bypassing the front entrance. Steve had a special key to open the service elevator doors, and a light went on over the panel. At Nick's raised eyebrow, Steve shot him an unamused smile. "I'm always monitored when I go to this department."
He didn't ask, but Steve knew that Nick was wondering exactly what business Steve would have in the medical college. Thanks to the serum repairing his genetic code, he was at the pinnacle of human health and physical ability. His immune system was robust, so it would take a massive infection or a particularly virulent virus to make him feel sick. He had guarded his blood during SHIELD testing as best as he could, as he hadn't wanted to subject anyone else to the kind of excruciating pain he had gone through. Steve remembered the sharp pains in his chest, the feeling that he couldn't breathe, the burn of the vita rays, and the sensation of dying. Peggy hadn't wanted the test to continue, concerned for his safety. But he had believed in what they were doing, and believed that it was worth potentially giving his life up for.
The rest was history. Steve hadn't died, and his body was transformed.
Nick was impressed by the sight of the lab that held Bucky Barnes. The containment area was clean, vital signs continually monitored, and staff members available around the clock if needed for anything. Steve greeted them by name, carefully mimicking the Wakandan greeting. The technician smiled and nodded. "Better intonation today, Mr. Rogers."
Steve chuckled. "I'm practicing."
"I can tell. Shall I summon His Majesty?"
"If he's free," Steve said politely. "There are developments that I'm sure he'll want to be aware of, especially since they're not official ones."
The technician straightened her spine a bit and flashed him a brilliant smile. "So exciting."
"Not when you're in the middle of the storm," he told her ruefully.
Nick sat down beside Steve near Bucky's cryogenic tube. "Polite to a fault," he observed. "Is this where you spend all your free time?" he asked in arch tones.
"Not all of it. I'm taking a basic history course at the college, studying the language and culture."
"And the others?"
"What others?" Steve asked innocently.
"You're a terrible liar," Nick snorted. "And I know they put a collar on Miss Maximoff, so she didn't magic them all out of there. Plus, it wasn't put out widely, but a tall blond man in a black tac suit kicking the crap out of the security agents evicted all of the Raft's residents."
"Huh. Did he, now? I should shake his hand."
"Still a terrible liar," Nick said, lips curling in a sardonic grin. "I'm guessing they're all here with you, since you're all international fugitives."
"Only one hundred and seventeen countries think so. Wakanda happens to be one of the ones that doesn't," Steve replied with a shrug, looking at Bucky's serene expression.
"And why would anyone think to find you here if the Winter Soldier was the one that killed the former King?" Nick asked. "Smacks of Natasha's doing."
"Does it? Maybe I've gotten better at this sort of thing."
"Not on your life. You're too damn honest for that."
Steve sighed. "Yeah. There's that."
They sat in silence for a moment before Nick looked from Bucky to Steve. "Did Natasha tell you anything of her past or what it was like for her when she was first brought in?"
"No. And I didn't ask, and didn't read the files that were online."
"Not a one?"
"If I needed to know something, I would ask her. I trust her, and I trust that she'll tell me if I need to know something."
"She had triggers in her head, too," Nick said flatly. "They're out now, as far as we can tell. So it can be done." He shrugged at Steve's surprise. "It wasn't pretty, and it looked pretty damn painful on her end. But if motivated properly and with enough support, it can be done."
"He didn't think it could be."
"You really think Hydra would want anyone believing that the conditioning could be undone?" Nick asked. He gave a huff of unamused and bitter laughter. "Oh, no, it can be done. If you have the right people to help you through it."
"And you have them."
Now he smiled, wide and pleased. "I might've hung onto a few good people when SHIELD fell and I stopped being the guy in charge."
"So we might have quite a bit to tell the King," Steve mused.
"Probably best not to overwhelm him," Nick advised.
"I don't think that will be a problem," an accented voice announced behind them. Steve turned with a smile as Nick startled.
T'Challa stood a few feet behind them, dressed in casual clothes in dark colors. He generally didn't stand on formalities or formal dress unless it was an appearance in official capacity. The medical college and university system were his favorite places to be; brilliant in his own right, he enjoyed doing research for its own sake when not bogged down with matters of state.
He grinned at the two men seated in front of Bucky, then gestured widely toward a table in the alcove close to the large glass windows. "I was in one of the labs upstairs," he said with a slight curl to his lips. "Now, let us discuss your news and how it will affect my country," he suggested in genial tones.
Standing, Nick nodded. "It would never do to offend a King."
***
Peggy had been sedated the entire time her body was being thawed out and then transported to Wakanda. Steve wanted to be angry about that, that her body was being treated without her consent or knowledge, but he also knew that an angry Peggy would punch her way through a dozen people to break herself out of wherever she was, even if it seemed like an impossible task. It would be a shock for her to see the modern world, just as it had been a shock for him to race into Times Square. He would spare her that if he could; as modern as the medical college was, it was still recognizably a research hospital.
Steve sat beside her once she was set up in an observation room. There were no pathogens or odd chemical markers in her blood that any of Nick's or T'Challa's doctors and researchers could find, and all of the notes in the Hydra cell had indicated that she hadn't been altered in any way. She was on ice because they knew she would never cooperate with their studies, and her exposure to Zero Matter meant that they wanted to study the properties of her tissue and blood. During the initial freezing process, something had gone wrong - the notes were fuzzy about the details, but her heart had stopped and they had to administer adrenaline to get it going again - but then she was put into the same state as the Winter Soldier. At no time had she ever been woken. None of the scientists could ever identify or isolate any Zero Matter in her blood or tissues, even though they did note some odd proteins and cells. Those oddities remained consistent throughout all of their tests, and it had been assumed by Hydra scientists that they were artifactual to the freezing process, as some of the proteins were similar to those found in the Winter Soldier.
As soon as Peggy made a soft noise, indicating that the sedatives were wearing off, Steve took hold of her hand. The lines of her body were still strong, and the bright red nail polish that had been her signature was still on her nails, not even chipped. It seemed like such an insignificant detail, but one he kept fixing on.
When her eyes opened and her body jerked, Steve didn't try to keep his grip on her hand. There was a telltale flare of panic in her eyes, even though she was silent, a tightening in her jaw and the tension that indicated she was ready to fight. Because of course Peggy would have fought off whoever attacked her, and she never would have cooperated with Hydra.
"Peggy," he said gently. "It's okay now. Whatever happened before, I promise it's okay now."
"You-" Her gaze sharpened. "This is another trick, isn't it?" she asked, jaw tight and anger in her tone. "One dead friend resurrected wasn't enough, but now this? This is too much."
The pain in her voice cut straight to his gut. "I'm Steve. The real Steve," he said heavily. He kept his hands up and in her sight, letting her scramble away from him. "The serum kept me from fully dying when I crashed into the ice. SHIELD agents found me, thawed me out." He never looked away from her. "It's been a long time, Peggy, and a lot's happened."
"Oh?" she asked, somehow looking strong even with nothing more than a hospital gown and her open hands at the ready. Steve ached for her, missing and loving and wanting all at the same time. "And I suppose you're going to tell me."
"And you probably won't believe me," Steve said, nodding. "But I will answer anything you want, as best as I can."
"Start with where we are," she demanded.
"The Medical College of Wakanda. Nick Fury found you in some Hydra cell in Europe and brought you here. I insisted on being here to tell you everything. His idea of introducing you to the present would be to create something and lie, and I know that won't work with you either."
Peggy blinked at him, and he could see her mind racing. "Nick Fury?" she said, shaking her head. "I don't know the name."
"It's 2016," Steve blurted. "A lot's happened."
Distrust and curiosity were in her expression, but she didn't move. He explained about how he had been found and defrosted, the disorientation of running out into Times Square and seeing what the modern world looked like. Then the Chitauri had come at Loki's behest, and he had tried going on the road to see what America looked like in the modern day. No one recognized the tall blond man with a motorcycle and leather jacket, and he felt so out of place. He made his way back to SHIELD and was based in Washington, DC, doing missions and trying to figure out what he should do. Something in her face softened as he spoke, and he could tell that she believed he was telling her the truth.
"There was a version of you," Steve said, voice sad. "She had dementia. Sometimes she remembered me, and she was my touchstone, just as you were in the war." His eyes slipped down and he could feel the churn in his gut. "They tell me she was a fake. A clone that Hydra made, just so they could worm their way into SHIELD." He looked up at her, contrite and in pain. "I'm sorry, Peggy. I'm sorry I didn't know that she wasn't you."
"Sounds like she thought she was," Peggy said, acceptance in her voice. "And you wouldn't have expected something like that."
"When would it have happened? How could they get to you?" Steve asked, shaking his head. "You're too good for that."
Peggy laughed a little, sad and bitter. "After some kind of test Howard did, actually." She moved to sit on the hospital bed. "Any of my history that you're aware of?"
"That they had in that lab? Some."
"I was investigating something in California called Zero Matter. A destructive substance from another dimension that could wipe out lives. It turned a friend insubstantial, actually. I thought he was dead."
"A friend?" Steve asked, blinking.
She shot him such an arch look that his chest ached. God, he had missed her. "Steve," she admonished, a playful edge to her stern tone.
"Anyway, I was fine afterward, but Howard said the entire escapade worried him. And then Chief Thompson, who was my superior at the time, was murdered before he could return to New York. I think that sent Howard off the deep end, really. The man was beside himself. Not that he liked Thompson, but if someone was bound and determined to destroy the SSR, killing Chief Thompson was a surefire way to do it."
"Did they ever find who did it?"
"No, but I had my suspicions, given that certain possessions he had at the time were missing, including files that had been doctored. They likely hadn't realized that he had given me a specific membership pin that the Council of Nine members had." She held up a hand when Steve clearly would have asked about it. "The pin itself is something like a key, and the Council was doctoring elections, making history for their own ends."
"So what did Howard do?"
"Some tests to see what effect Zero Matter would have on me. The actress Whitney Frost had been utterly infected with it, and it drove her insane. But I hadn't had the same exposure as she did. Howard did a number of blood tests and such, but ultimately, nothing happened."
Steve had an awful suspicion growing, and his gut churned. "And then?"
"It wasn't long after returning to New York that I was attacked," Peggy told him in her usual brisk tones. "It was a shadow at first, and I got Angie out of the way, at least." At Steve's blank look, she explained quickly. "My friend Angie. We'd been out to dinner so I could tell her about some of the trip to California. She got away, at least, and I shot at the man." She frowned, biting her lip. "It had looked like Sergeant Barnes, Steve. Which is impossible, but if Hydra had captured me, then perhaps they engineered someone to look like-"
"Not impossible," Steve said heavily. "Let me show you," he told her when she appeared confused by that. He found a robe and led her down the hall toward the stasis chamber where Bucky was in his cryogenic sleep. He pointedly ignored Nick Fury coming out of the observation room where he had undoubtedly been listening to the entire conversation, and led Peggy into the stasis chamber.
Her gasp of shock made Steve feel awful. "They did that to you, Peggy. That's where you've been since 1947. And now it's 2016."
"Oh." Peggy's voice was faint for a moment, then she turned to look at Steve. "I suppose I hadn't really thought about the year. Are you trying to tell me that we're all nearly a hundred years old?"
"Yeah, I guess I am," he sheepishly admitted.
She sighed and shook her head. "Let me get a cup of tea, and we're going to go over this all again in better detail."
That was Peggy, all right.
***
***
To Chapter Three - Becoming Again
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Pairing: Steve/Peggy, Wanda/Vision mentioned
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Not mine! Characters you recognize belong to other people, and I am just playing in their sandbox for fun. This is born of a text conversation with mynuet regarding the possibility of Peggy getting a version of the serum at some point in her colorful history. Civil War compliant (no, really!) because I was actually very pleased with characterizations in it, even if some of the plotting made me go O_o at times. I do reference things from season 3 of Agents of SHIELD as well as season 2 of Agent Carter, but I think it would still make sense if you haven't seen that. Part of chapter 1 inspired by this photo, because of course that's how they should be.
Summary: In the wake of the Sokovian Accords, the Avengers scramble to find a safe haven. That gets complicated when Nick Fury arrives, announcing that he found Peggy Carter. The real Peggy Carter.
Prior chapter:
One - Escape
Two - Misdirection and Discovery
The only thing that could draw Steve's attention from Wakanda was an encrypted message from Nick Fury: Concerning Peggy Carter, must meet in person. Natasha didn't know what it was about, which was possibly one of the most concerning things about it. Of course Nick Fury would stay out of the conflict he had with Tony Stark; Fury was too busy tracking down Hydra locations to help SHIELD. He wouldn't be involved past the intelligence part, and would leave the fighting down to the Advanced Threat Containment Unit and SHIELD. Natasha had told him there was a storm brewing in the United States and many countries around the world, and the Sokovia Accords had been just one piece in a much larger puzzle. "The United States created the ATCU and were keeping powered people in stasis," she told him. "What you didn't know is that other countries often simply hunted them. There's agitation for creating a separate country for them, for keeping them contained somewhere else."
"Where else?" Steve had asked, horrified.
"Siberia," she said quietly.
"That's not something Ross would ever go for," Steve grumbled.
"There was a committee decision. I don't think it was ever formally signed, but you know how those things go," she said, a wry twist to her lips. "It's only a matter of time before someone decides it's a good idea."
"So what would Fury want?" Steve asked her, thinking she would be the most likely candidate to know how Fury thought.
But Natasha, as much as she respected the agent and knew how to read his tones, didn't know what he meant by that. Peggy was dead, and she had been deteriorating for years before that.
Using Peggy's name had to be some kind of code, something about SHIELD or the past, but Steve couldn't figure out what it could be. He brought it to T'Challa's attention, as he would have to either meet Nick Fury on Wakandan soil or do his best to sneak out of a country where he stuck out like a sore thumb no matter how much he tried to keep his head down.
"I will bring him here," T'Challa assured Steve, a grim expression on his face. "I cannot guarantee your safety once you leave my country."
"I'm sorry for all the trouble we've caused, truly I am," Steve said heavily, the same drawn expression on his face. "I didn't want this, please believe me."
"I do," T'Challa assured him. "You fight for what you believe is justice and mercy."
Steve grimaced at the phrasing. "Sounds like I don't always make the right decision."
"Does any of us?"
He was still pondering those words when he met with Nick Fury in the Royal Museum in the heart of Wakanda. "Didn't take you for the sightseeing type," Nick said baldly when Steve showed up. There were some people watching them, but it was the same kind of uncomfortable stare that Steve was used to seeing. It wasn't because he was the reason why their former beloved king had died. No one really knew the details on that in Wakanda. No, it was because of how pale he was and how much he stuck out. Sam told him that there had been whispers in the market of the refugees and how they would steal jobs from proper hardworking Wakandans. It had made Steve want to laugh and cry; times didn't change, and the whispers were always the same, even on an entirely different continent.
"Sometimes there are sights to see," Steve replied tightly. He thought of how he had told Natasha that a gilded cage was still a cage. Wakanda was beautiful and far larger than the Avengers complex in upstate New York, but he still chafed within its borders.
"Here's a sight you'll want to see," Nick said, handing over a file folder.
There were Cyrillic letters stamped in red across the front of it, and something in Steve's gut turned over. He swallowed down the bile and acid, and tried to tell himself that Bucky was just in hibernation. There was nothing in this file that could hurt him.
He was wrong.
Staring up at him was a photograph of Peggy Carter, eyes closed as if in sleep, youthful as she was at the start of SHIELD. She was encased in a cylindrical tube similar to the one that Hydra agents had kept Bucky in when he wasn't doing missions as the Winter Soldier.
"What is this?" he asked, his voice a broken rasp.
Nick Fury nodded toward a bench in the middle of the gallery, uncharacteristically kind. "One of the cells in Austria had been a site for super solder serum research. They were separate from a lot of the other cells, purely science." A chill rolled down Steve's spine at that; he had been a product of a science lab, as had been Wanda.
"What is this?" Steve repeated, staring at the unfamiliar lettering on a document that made it look as though Peggy had been frozen like the Winter Soldier. Or that she had been a Winter Soldier type of operative, which made no sense, and even the thought of it made his chest hurt as it hadn't since his asthma attacks nearly killed him.
"Peggy Carter," Nick said, a fond note in his voice. "But apparently, the real one."
Steve looked up at Nick sharply, jaw tightening. "Explain."
"The Peggy I knew was older than your Peggy," Nick began. "My SO in the admin track, always a believer in hard work and doing the right thing. She didn't talk about you, not if she could help it, you know."
He didn't want to hear this, but Nick held up a hand. "We all respected that, since it had nothing to do with the job at hand. But maybe, just maybe, that's how Hydra got into SHIELD in the first place. Because the Peggy I knew wasn't the one that you knew."
"What are you saying?"
"I found Peggy, Cap. Apparently, she's been on ice for decades. Almost since the foundation of SHIELD, as a matter of fact. The woman I knew, the one in history books, the one that we all had the funeral for? She was a clone. She believed she was Peggy, she believed in what she said, but her brain was probably chock full of triggers and code words and all sorts of things I don't want to even contemplate."
Blood running cold, Steve stared at Nick. "Where is she?"
"I'm taking care of it. But I thought we needed to meet first. When I left to come here, she wasn't awake yet, and there was barely a pulse. I don't know what we're going to get when the defrosting is complete, just as I wasn't sure what I would get when you woke up. You know the real Peggy Carter. What would make her comfortable when she wakes up?"
"The truth," Steve said, looking at him grimly. "No matter how painful."
"Maybe you should come with me, anyway," Nick said with a sigh. "We can probably get you in under the radar."
He was sure he didn't have enough pull with T'Challa to request Peggy Carter being brought to Wakanda, but Helen Cho and the Cradle were there at the moment. "Maybe," he said quietly, licking his lips. "There are people here that could help."
"You think you got that much pull?"
"I think I can ask. And the worst that happens is that I get told no."
"Someone's gonna tell Captain America no?"
"I'm not Captain America anymore, Nick. I'm just a guy without a home. I'm a refugee."
"Is that strange for you?" Nick asked, frowning at him.
"No," Steve said, finding he meant every word. "I've never belonged. I just wished I did."
They fell into an uncomfortable silence for a time, then Nick looked at his watch. "When can you get a hold of the King?"
"In a rush?" Steve asked blandly.
"If we're going to bring her here before she regains consciousness, yeah."
"I know a way to get his attention quickly," Steve said, standing. "Come with me."
From the Royal Museum, the two went straight across the square to the ultramodern medical college. If Nick was surprised, he hid it well. They went straight to the back elevator, bypassing the front entrance. Steve had a special key to open the service elevator doors, and a light went on over the panel. At Nick's raised eyebrow, Steve shot him an unamused smile. "I'm always monitored when I go to this department."
He didn't ask, but Steve knew that Nick was wondering exactly what business Steve would have in the medical college. Thanks to the serum repairing his genetic code, he was at the pinnacle of human health and physical ability. His immune system was robust, so it would take a massive infection or a particularly virulent virus to make him feel sick. He had guarded his blood during SHIELD testing as best as he could, as he hadn't wanted to subject anyone else to the kind of excruciating pain he had gone through. Steve remembered the sharp pains in his chest, the feeling that he couldn't breathe, the burn of the vita rays, and the sensation of dying. Peggy hadn't wanted the test to continue, concerned for his safety. But he had believed in what they were doing, and believed that it was worth potentially giving his life up for.
The rest was history. Steve hadn't died, and his body was transformed.
Nick was impressed by the sight of the lab that held Bucky Barnes. The containment area was clean, vital signs continually monitored, and staff members available around the clock if needed for anything. Steve greeted them by name, carefully mimicking the Wakandan greeting. The technician smiled and nodded. "Better intonation today, Mr. Rogers."
Steve chuckled. "I'm practicing."
"I can tell. Shall I summon His Majesty?"
"If he's free," Steve said politely. "There are developments that I'm sure he'll want to be aware of, especially since they're not official ones."
The technician straightened her spine a bit and flashed him a brilliant smile. "So exciting."
"Not when you're in the middle of the storm," he told her ruefully.
Nick sat down beside Steve near Bucky's cryogenic tube. "Polite to a fault," he observed. "Is this where you spend all your free time?" he asked in arch tones.
"Not all of it. I'm taking a basic history course at the college, studying the language and culture."
"And the others?"
"What others?" Steve asked innocently.
"You're a terrible liar," Nick snorted. "And I know they put a collar on Miss Maximoff, so she didn't magic them all out of there. Plus, it wasn't put out widely, but a tall blond man in a black tac suit kicking the crap out of the security agents evicted all of the Raft's residents."
"Huh. Did he, now? I should shake his hand."
"Still a terrible liar," Nick said, lips curling in a sardonic grin. "I'm guessing they're all here with you, since you're all international fugitives."
"Only one hundred and seventeen countries think so. Wakanda happens to be one of the ones that doesn't," Steve replied with a shrug, looking at Bucky's serene expression.
"And why would anyone think to find you here if the Winter Soldier was the one that killed the former King?" Nick asked. "Smacks of Natasha's doing."
"Does it? Maybe I've gotten better at this sort of thing."
"Not on your life. You're too damn honest for that."
Steve sighed. "Yeah. There's that."
They sat in silence for a moment before Nick looked from Bucky to Steve. "Did Natasha tell you anything of her past or what it was like for her when she was first brought in?"
"No. And I didn't ask, and didn't read the files that were online."
"Not a one?"
"If I needed to know something, I would ask her. I trust her, and I trust that she'll tell me if I need to know something."
"She had triggers in her head, too," Nick said flatly. "They're out now, as far as we can tell. So it can be done." He shrugged at Steve's surprise. "It wasn't pretty, and it looked pretty damn painful on her end. But if motivated properly and with enough support, it can be done."
"He didn't think it could be."
"You really think Hydra would want anyone believing that the conditioning could be undone?" Nick asked. He gave a huff of unamused and bitter laughter. "Oh, no, it can be done. If you have the right people to help you through it."
"And you have them."
Now he smiled, wide and pleased. "I might've hung onto a few good people when SHIELD fell and I stopped being the guy in charge."
"So we might have quite a bit to tell the King," Steve mused.
"Probably best not to overwhelm him," Nick advised.
"I don't think that will be a problem," an accented voice announced behind them. Steve turned with a smile as Nick startled.
T'Challa stood a few feet behind them, dressed in casual clothes in dark colors. He generally didn't stand on formalities or formal dress unless it was an appearance in official capacity. The medical college and university system were his favorite places to be; brilliant in his own right, he enjoyed doing research for its own sake when not bogged down with matters of state.
He grinned at the two men seated in front of Bucky, then gestured widely toward a table in the alcove close to the large glass windows. "I was in one of the labs upstairs," he said with a slight curl to his lips. "Now, let us discuss your news and how it will affect my country," he suggested in genial tones.
Standing, Nick nodded. "It would never do to offend a King."
***
Peggy had been sedated the entire time her body was being thawed out and then transported to Wakanda. Steve wanted to be angry about that, that her body was being treated without her consent or knowledge, but he also knew that an angry Peggy would punch her way through a dozen people to break herself out of wherever she was, even if it seemed like an impossible task. It would be a shock for her to see the modern world, just as it had been a shock for him to race into Times Square. He would spare her that if he could; as modern as the medical college was, it was still recognizably a research hospital.
Steve sat beside her once she was set up in an observation room. There were no pathogens or odd chemical markers in her blood that any of Nick's or T'Challa's doctors and researchers could find, and all of the notes in the Hydra cell had indicated that she hadn't been altered in any way. She was on ice because they knew she would never cooperate with their studies, and her exposure to Zero Matter meant that they wanted to study the properties of her tissue and blood. During the initial freezing process, something had gone wrong - the notes were fuzzy about the details, but her heart had stopped and they had to administer adrenaline to get it going again - but then she was put into the same state as the Winter Soldier. At no time had she ever been woken. None of the scientists could ever identify or isolate any Zero Matter in her blood or tissues, even though they did note some odd proteins and cells. Those oddities remained consistent throughout all of their tests, and it had been assumed by Hydra scientists that they were artifactual to the freezing process, as some of the proteins were similar to those found in the Winter Soldier.
As soon as Peggy made a soft noise, indicating that the sedatives were wearing off, Steve took hold of her hand. The lines of her body were still strong, and the bright red nail polish that had been her signature was still on her nails, not even chipped. It seemed like such an insignificant detail, but one he kept fixing on.
When her eyes opened and her body jerked, Steve didn't try to keep his grip on her hand. There was a telltale flare of panic in her eyes, even though she was silent, a tightening in her jaw and the tension that indicated she was ready to fight. Because of course Peggy would have fought off whoever attacked her, and she never would have cooperated with Hydra.
"Peggy," he said gently. "It's okay now. Whatever happened before, I promise it's okay now."
"You-" Her gaze sharpened. "This is another trick, isn't it?" she asked, jaw tight and anger in her tone. "One dead friend resurrected wasn't enough, but now this? This is too much."
The pain in her voice cut straight to his gut. "I'm Steve. The real Steve," he said heavily. He kept his hands up and in her sight, letting her scramble away from him. "The serum kept me from fully dying when I crashed into the ice. SHIELD agents found me, thawed me out." He never looked away from her. "It's been a long time, Peggy, and a lot's happened."
"Oh?" she asked, somehow looking strong even with nothing more than a hospital gown and her open hands at the ready. Steve ached for her, missing and loving and wanting all at the same time. "And I suppose you're going to tell me."
"And you probably won't believe me," Steve said, nodding. "But I will answer anything you want, as best as I can."
"Start with where we are," she demanded.
"The Medical College of Wakanda. Nick Fury found you in some Hydra cell in Europe and brought you here. I insisted on being here to tell you everything. His idea of introducing you to the present would be to create something and lie, and I know that won't work with you either."
Peggy blinked at him, and he could see her mind racing. "Nick Fury?" she said, shaking her head. "I don't know the name."
"It's 2016," Steve blurted. "A lot's happened."
Distrust and curiosity were in her expression, but she didn't move. He explained about how he had been found and defrosted, the disorientation of running out into Times Square and seeing what the modern world looked like. Then the Chitauri had come at Loki's behest, and he had tried going on the road to see what America looked like in the modern day. No one recognized the tall blond man with a motorcycle and leather jacket, and he felt so out of place. He made his way back to SHIELD and was based in Washington, DC, doing missions and trying to figure out what he should do. Something in her face softened as he spoke, and he could tell that she believed he was telling her the truth.
"There was a version of you," Steve said, voice sad. "She had dementia. Sometimes she remembered me, and she was my touchstone, just as you were in the war." His eyes slipped down and he could feel the churn in his gut. "They tell me she was a fake. A clone that Hydra made, just so they could worm their way into SHIELD." He looked up at her, contrite and in pain. "I'm sorry, Peggy. I'm sorry I didn't know that she wasn't you."
"Sounds like she thought she was," Peggy said, acceptance in her voice. "And you wouldn't have expected something like that."
"When would it have happened? How could they get to you?" Steve asked, shaking his head. "You're too good for that."
Peggy laughed a little, sad and bitter. "After some kind of test Howard did, actually." She moved to sit on the hospital bed. "Any of my history that you're aware of?"
"That they had in that lab? Some."
"I was investigating something in California called Zero Matter. A destructive substance from another dimension that could wipe out lives. It turned a friend insubstantial, actually. I thought he was dead."
"A friend?" Steve asked, blinking.
She shot him such an arch look that his chest ached. God, he had missed her. "Steve," she admonished, a playful edge to her stern tone.
"Anyway, I was fine afterward, but Howard said the entire escapade worried him. And then Chief Thompson, who was my superior at the time, was murdered before he could return to New York. I think that sent Howard off the deep end, really. The man was beside himself. Not that he liked Thompson, but if someone was bound and determined to destroy the SSR, killing Chief Thompson was a surefire way to do it."
"Did they ever find who did it?"
"No, but I had my suspicions, given that certain possessions he had at the time were missing, including files that had been doctored. They likely hadn't realized that he had given me a specific membership pin that the Council of Nine members had." She held up a hand when Steve clearly would have asked about it. "The pin itself is something like a key, and the Council was doctoring elections, making history for their own ends."
"So what did Howard do?"
"Some tests to see what effect Zero Matter would have on me. The actress Whitney Frost had been utterly infected with it, and it drove her insane. But I hadn't had the same exposure as she did. Howard did a number of blood tests and such, but ultimately, nothing happened."
Steve had an awful suspicion growing, and his gut churned. "And then?"
"It wasn't long after returning to New York that I was attacked," Peggy told him in her usual brisk tones. "It was a shadow at first, and I got Angie out of the way, at least." At Steve's blank look, she explained quickly. "My friend Angie. We'd been out to dinner so I could tell her about some of the trip to California. She got away, at least, and I shot at the man." She frowned, biting her lip. "It had looked like Sergeant Barnes, Steve. Which is impossible, but if Hydra had captured me, then perhaps they engineered someone to look like-"
"Not impossible," Steve said heavily. "Let me show you," he told her when she appeared confused by that. He found a robe and led her down the hall toward the stasis chamber where Bucky was in his cryogenic sleep. He pointedly ignored Nick Fury coming out of the observation room where he had undoubtedly been listening to the entire conversation, and led Peggy into the stasis chamber.
Her gasp of shock made Steve feel awful. "They did that to you, Peggy. That's where you've been since 1947. And now it's 2016."
"Oh." Peggy's voice was faint for a moment, then she turned to look at Steve. "I suppose I hadn't really thought about the year. Are you trying to tell me that we're all nearly a hundred years old?"
"Yeah, I guess I am," he sheepishly admitted.
She sighed and shook her head. "Let me get a cup of tea, and we're going to go over this all again in better detail."
That was Peggy, all right.
***
***
To Chapter Three - Becoming Again