┌──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐

"𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙢 𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝."

└────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┘

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra." Nick says, going over the plan with everybody for stopping the launch. "We have to get past them, insert these server blades." He assumes they'll use Juniper or Sawyer, maybe even both, to launch, but nobody else was safe from assumption. "And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left..."

"We're not salvaging anything." Steve cuts him off, raising his voice. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this." Nick argues.

"You gave Juniper and I this mission." Steve stops him. "This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'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?" Nick fires back. "I noticed." He emphasizes.

"How many paid the price before you did?" Steve asks him.

Nick looks away, thinking about his dear friend, Billie Thompson. He knew her death was no accident, he always knew. And he was angry that she left S.H.I.E.L.D. to him and this is what happened on his watch, with her little girl caught right in the middle of it.

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." He says, looking back at Steve.

"Even if you had, would you have told me? "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too?" Steve snaps at him, standing firmly on his ground. "S.H.I.E.L.D, Hydra," He shakes his head, "It all goes."

"He's right." Maria speaks up in agreement, Natasha slowly nodding her head. Natasha was angry, disappointed, and overall lost that the place she felt like she making a difference... turned out to be corrupt.

When was she going to feel free of her sins?

She remembers Juniper's words, when Juniper and Clint spared her life, when she first joined S.H.I.E.L.D.

'It doesn't matter what you did in the past, ok? Forget it. It's gone, clean slate. What matters now is what you do going forward. You get one life to live, so don't waste it feeling sorry for yourself.'

Natasha smiles to herself, thinking of how proud she was of her friend, hoping she could someday take her own advice.

Nick turns to Maria, slightly betrayed, then snaps his head to Natasha who only looks at him, and finally glances up at Sam, hoping someone in the room would agree with him.

"Don't look at me." Sam pipes up. "I do what he does, just slower." He shrugs.

Steve looks at him and he shakes his head. "Well..." He glances at Maria and Natasha once again before leaning back in his chair with a sigh. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

And if Juniper were here, she'd have something to say about it, Steve thinks to himself as he stares back at Fury.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

"Launch it, Juniper." Brock grits through his teeth to his wife as she hovers over the control panel. "Don't make me force you." He says as his hand grips his gun tightly.

She turns around, narrowing her eyes at him. "Go. to. hell." She spits out at him, her mind racing, praying that the others have some form of a plan.

"Rumlow, come in." A voice comes across his radio.

"Just do it!" He yells at her and she sighs, turning back to the panel. "Or someone else will." He nods at the device placed on the collar of her shirt that Pierce placed on her once they left Barnes.

"Let them." She shrugs, not caring if they decimate her or not.

She has nothing left to lose.

"Do you want your father dead?" Brock chews. "Cause that's what's coming next if you don't get to typing." He places his hand on her shoulder, inhaling. "Come on, baby."

Fuck! She slams her fist down. Her father. She shakes her head, every fiber of her miserable being screaming at her.

She can't lose him too... No matter what's he taken from, no matter how many times he stepped in and gotten in her way—

She looks up at the ceiling, begging her mother for forgiveness as she begins typing in the code.

Her dad was her dad... and the only family and piece of her mother she had left.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

"And we can thank this man, and his daughter, for the fine work they put in to making this possible." Pierce raises his glass and he nods his head to Sawyer Fox, who's been informed Juniper is safe with her husband, still oblivious to what the helicarriers true purpose is for.

"Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, this is Steve Rogers." Steve's voice announces on the intercom. Pierce slowly removes the glass from his lips. "You've heard a lot about me, and Agent 14, over the last few days." He makes sure to use the title she has earned.

Sharon raises up from her hunkered position at her desk. Almost every person in the lobby comes to a stop.

"Some of you were even ordered to hunt us down. But I think it's time you know the truth." Steve take a pause before diving right back in. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by Hydra. Alexander Pierce is their leader."

Sawyer Fox snaps his head over to his friend as Pierce begins to pace. Every board member in the room turns their heads to Pierce.

"The S.T.R.I.K.E. and Insight crew are Hydra as well." Steve continues as Brock drags a cuffed Juniper along beside him as he barks out commands at his team. Juniper smirks as she listens intently, having never been more happy to hear the righteous words of Steve Rogers. "I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building." Everyone in the room with Sharon glances at each other. "They could be standing right next to you."

Juniper looks up at her husband, waiting for her opportunity to strike as most of S.T.R.I.K.E. takes off.

"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."

Sawyer Fox shakes his head in disbelief, realizing what he's done.

"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." Steve looks down, hoping Juniper is hearing all of this from wherever she is inside the building. Maria glances up from behind him. "But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

If you were to ask Steve Rogers a few days ago if he thought he would be worried where Juniper Fox was, assured that she was one of the only ones at S.H.I.E.L.D. to stand and fight with him, he would've laughed. Not that he would've ever thought she was with Hydra, but he knew she was a woman of S.H.I.E.L.D., and willing to lay down her life for it.

But now? Now she was willing to lay down her life to go against it. Oh, how a few days can really change everything.

"Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?" Sam asks, taking a step closer and looking at Steve in admiration as Steve backs away from the mic.

Juniper would make fun of it, surely she would... if he gets to see her again. Dread fills Steve's chest, but pride tries to overthrow it, proud of his speech, and proud that he's going to take down Hydra— once and for all.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

𝟶ʙᴜᴛᴛᴇʀʙɪsᴄᴜɪᴛ𝟽 sᴘᴇᴀᴋs!

Hello, hellooo!! Welcome back to THOA14 & more importantly... happy 12 years to The Avengers movie... whatttt... (ignoring this was published after midnight lmao)

Which I think is pretty special bc today I saw Thunderboltssss!!! New personality unlocked hello?! I've waited for this movie since before it was announced!! I only have 2 complaints (which I don't even wanna make bc it was so fcking funny buttt...) I do feel the end/back half was a bit rushed & I do wish a couple characters (mainly one) had FARRRR more screen time... that's alllll...

Anywaysssss... we are finally one the downward stretch of pre-written chapters, omggg!! I believe this is the 2nd to last one left & I think the next one isn't quite finished lol, so after almost a year & a half... I'm gonna have to actually continue writing rather than editing!! Woahhhh!!!

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter!! Steve's speech in this scene is one of my absolute fav scenes!! It gives me chills & is just so powerful & I love reciting it!! And the fact that he's thinking about what Juniper would think/say while she's not there (and being exactly right) & her being secretly proud of him... UGH OMG IT'S EVERYTHINGGG!! And also not her forgetting about her dad for a moment & not wanting Brock to k!ll him bc she knows he would... </3

This chapter was just so fucking fun to write & then go back through & editttt!! Everything's getting so good & so tense & the part where Brock's walking her in cuffs I can just picture SO vividly!! Alright, I'll stfu now haha, untillll next time!!! <3333