Chapter 16
Sharon was standing in the control room, supervising the techs launching the Insight Helicarriers and worrying about Rosie. It had been a big risk to call Rosie and warn her about the situation, but Sharon felt that it was worth it to keep the girl from getting unnecessarily mixed up in it.
She had been quite close to her cousin Marlene and was thus well aware of her excessive selflessness, which had been passed on to her daughter. Rosie would definitely put herself in danger trying to help.
Better she stayed safe and as far removed from the situation as possible. Not that Sharon believed it would happen; the kid would somehow find a way to help Natasha. All she could hope for was that Rosie heeded her warning and didn't physically get involved in anything.
Sharon knew that Steve hadn't had something to do with Fury's death - she'd been there, for god's sake!
There was something else in play; something big. The fact that Secretary Pierce seemed largely unaffected by the Fury's assassination and the sudden disappearance of Maria Hill did nothing to reassure Sharon's growing fears that all was not well behind the scenes. She didn't have enough intel to draw any solid conclusions, but every single instinct she was screaming that there was danger.
Without knowing anything more, her best option was to keep her head down and try and discreetly find out what happened that night in Steve's apartment. Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice sounding through the PA system. Sharon hid a relieved smile, feigning surprise at the announcement.
"Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it... But I'm willing to bet I'm not."
Everything fell into place in her head like a jigsaw puzzle. It all made sense now... Fury had failed to notice the presence of HYDRA until a few days ago, when he must have said something that told Pierce that he had figured it out.
In return, Pierce had him assassinated and declared the Captain a fugitive because Fury had somehow managed to tell him about his suspicions. Natasha had been there in at the hospital where Fury had been taken to and must have fled as soon as she realised what was happening.
The question was, what had they found out about Project Insight that made them want to stop it?
At that moment, Rumlow and a few other agents broke into the control room, Rumlow ordering the head tech, "Preempt the launch sequence. Send those ships up now." This solidified Sharon's belief that the Captain was right and that Rumlow was indeed HYDRA. Why else would he order the launch instead of replying to the allegations that had been just made about where his loyalties lay?
The tech whose name Sharon had never learnt, seemed to be stuck in a dilemma and hesitated to do as he was told. "Is there a problem?" Rumlow snapped at him.
"I'm..." The poor guy was stuttering in fear.
"Is there a problem?" Rumlow repeated his question, his voice a low, threatening growl.
"I'm sorry, sir. I'm not gonna launch those ships. Captain's orders." Brave guy.
Rumlow leveled a gun at the tech's head. "Move away from your station."
Sharon knew what she had to do. She pulled out her own gun, aiming it at Rumlow. "Like he said!" Everyone except Rumlow's goons pulled out their guns on him too. "Captain's orders."
"You picked the wrong side, Agent."
"Depends on where you're standing." She answered without hesitation.
Rumlow lowered his gun, and it looked like he was going to give up, when he suddenly lunged at her with a knife. Quick as a flash, he slashed at her arm, surprising her enough to cut a deep gash from her elbow to wrist.
The other men on his side used the moment of shock to their advantage and opened fire on everyone else in the room. As they all dove for cover, Sharon saw Rumlow activating the launch sequence and a red OVERRIDE message was displayed on the screen as he made his exit. Shots were still flying, but they had the advantage of numbers and Rumlow's minions were soon overwhelmed.
A small beeping noise drew her attention back to the screen and she gave a small smile when she saw the error message displayed. 'BAY DOORS FAILURE. LAUNCH DELAYED." Luck was on their side. Sharon ran over to the tech who was on the floor and grabbed his collar, hoisting him back into his chair. "Try to stop whatever override Rumlow used."
He nodded and got to work while Sharon kept an eye out for any more HYDRA agents. Everyone else in the room was slowly helping each other up, and she gave a small sigh of relief when she saw that there had been no deaths. A few people had gotten shot and others injured by flying bits of glass, but they were all able to stand on their feet without collapsing, which was an encouraging sign.
Her attention was drawn back to the tech, who was looking very confused. "I can't access the system anymore. Someone's externally controlling it. Might not be a bad thing, though. They're better at this than I am and clearly on our side, seeing that the Bay Doors have been remotely disabled." He looked up at her, "It's out of my hands now. We have to hope that whoever this person is, they can stop the launch."
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Steve and Sam had snuck into the hangar where the Helicarriers were. As they crept through the dimly lit area, hHe hoped that Rosie and Natasha would be able to do their parts in the plan on time. A voice rang out in the silent area, "Launch Initiated. Insight Helicarriers ready for launch. Clear the area. Repeat, clear the area." Steve looked upward, fully expecting to see the massive Bay Doors opening, but they never did.
A small laugh was heard across their comms. "She managed to disable the automatic bay doors to buy us some time. That girl is something else, Captain." Hill sounded impressed. "You two better get to work on replacing the targeting chips. We aren't sure if she'll be able to disable the engines before someone manually opens the bay."
"Roger that, Agent." Sam said as the two of them made their way to the carriers, abandoning stealth in favor of speed. "Hey Cap? How do we know the good guys from the bad guys?" he asked.
Steve replied with, "If they're shooting at you, they're bad." Sam gave him a two-fingered salute before flying off to the furthest carrier. Steve jumped aboard the nearest one, instinctively raising his shield. He was just in time to block the hail of bullets headed his way. Steve's body moved on autopilot as he fought his way through the HYDRA guards, his mind focusing on finding the easiest route to the centre where the chips were supposed to be. He could hear Sam cursing as he dodged gunshots, but Steve tuned his friend out, keeping his focus on his destination. Entering in the passcode, he replaced a chip.
"Alpha Locked." He announced..
"Bravo locked!" Sam called out a few minutes later, just as Steve finished fighting the guard that was around the targeting systems. Unfortunately, it had given the HYDRA agents enough time to regroup and block the route out of the Helicarrier. There was no way he'd be able to fight them all, so Steve threw caution to the winds and ran up through the Helicarrier, in the absolute opposite direction that anyone else would have run. He burst out of the doors at the top, sprinting onto the mini-runway, enemy agents hot on his heels. "Hey Sam, I'm gonna need a ride!"
"Roger! Let me know when you're ready."
"I just did!" The agents opened fire. Thankfully, Sam came swooping in and picked him up, flying both of them over to the last carrier. "You know, you're a lot heavier than you look."
Steve smiled, "I had a big breakfast." He was suddenly thrown off the roof of the contraption, barely holding on to the side to prevent himself from falling down to where ten agents were waiting with guns. "Sam! Where are you?"
"I'm grounded, the suit's down. Got thrown across the room. Sorry, Cap."
"Don't worry, I got it." Steve climbed back up to where Sam had dropped him off to see Bucky waiting for him, gun in hand.
"People are gonna die, Buck. I can't let that happen. Please, don't make me do this." He tried to get his friend to listen to reason, but it didn't work. Steve felt like crying when he saw the stone-cold glare his friend was levelling at him. It was horrible to see that expression on a face which used to show only happiness or exasperation when it saw him. 'This isn't Bucky!' He reminded himself as he fought. 'This is the Winter Soldier! He won't hesitate to kill you!' But it was very difficult to put his all into the fight when faced with those familiar blue eyes after spending years thinking he'd never see them again.
A small shout of joy in his earpiece distracted Steve for a second. It was Hill, "She did it! The kid got into the system and fried the engines!" The distraction proved costly, however. Steve let out a small cry of pain as he got stabbed in the shoulder. Pulling out the knife, Steve got back to his feet and faced off against his best friend once again. Now that he knew the Helicarriers weren't getting into the air, he shifted his focus to fighting Bucky. He could now give his full attention to dodging Bucky's hits.
The fight was vicious and Bucky was not holding back. Grabbing the gun that he'd dropped, he shot Steve twice. One hit Steve in his other shoulder and the other bullet lodged in his thigh. He was slowly getting dizzy, but Steve was determined to get Bucky to remember him. "You know me."
"No I don't!"
"Bucky, you've known me your whole life. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes." Steve stopped fighting, just as Bucky shot him again, this time in the stomach. "I'm not gonna fight you. You're my friend." He took off his mask and threw his shield away, hoping that it would get across his message. It didn't seem to work, though. Bucky had him pinned to the ground in seconds.
"You're. My. Mission! You're my mission!" Each word was punctuated by a blow to his face that slammed his head into the floor - again and again.
With the last of his strength, Steve croaked out, "Then finish it. Cause I'm with you to the end of the line." There was an abrupt pause in the punches, but Steve's vision was darkening and he passed out before he could see what had caused Bucky to stop attacking him.
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