STEVE ROGERS HAD his head down like the rest of his colleagues. They sat in the back of S.T.R.I.K.E team's truck heading towards their inevitable end.

"It was him." Steve abruptly said. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

They knew he was talking about the Winter Soldier, who turned out to be a longtime friend of his from the early 20th century.

"How is that even possible? It was, like, 70 years ago." Sam asked.

"Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43."

"So Zola experimented on him." Y/N chimed in, which was an idea he wouldn't put past Zola and HYDRA.

Steve sighed. "Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve." Natasha quietly muttered, but was loud enough for him to hear.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Y/N noticed Natasha's weakened state, and was going to say something but Sam decided to.

"We need to get a doctor here." He said. "If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the truck."

One of the agents brandished their electrified baton and motioned Sam back, but to their surprise, the agent attacked their colleague sitting beside them and took them down.

They took off their helmet, revealing themselves to be Maria Hill.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain." Hill breathed out as hair covered her face. She moved it away and looked at Sam, then at Steve.

"Who is this guy?"

• • •

THEY HAD ESCAPED through the floor of the truck during one of their stops and took a van to Hill's hideout, which was an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D dam facility.

Natasha was helped down the hallway by both Steve and Y/N as Maria called out to an incoming agent.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two." Y/N added.

"Let me take her." The agent shouted back.

Maria shook her head. "She'll want to see him first."

They walked into another room and Maria pulled back the curtains. To their shock, they saw Nick Fury lying on a bed connected to machines, alive and breathing.

He looked up at his fellow agents. "About damn time."

Natasha was being treated by a doctor while Y/N stood by applying a bandage to his own wound. Thankfully the bullet went straight through and his healing factor was doing all the work.

Fury laid on his bed, listing the injuries he sustained from his attack a couple days ago.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache."

The doctor bandaging Natasha decided to speak. "Don't forget your collapsed lung."

"Let's not forget that." Fury agreed. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open. Your heart stopped." Natasha said still in disbelief that he was alive.

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Y/N asked.

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful." Maria answered for him.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead." Fury added. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

• • •

AFTER SETTLING IN, Y/N went back into the room Nick Fury was in. To his surprise, he wasn't bed-ridden anymore and was up on his feet with an arm-sling. The young man still noticed his slow movements and limp when walking though.

"Agent L/N." He greeted as he picked up a couple folders.

"Fury." Y/N greeted back. "I didn't bring you flowers or balloons so I'm sorry about that."

"Don't make me laugh. It hurts when I do."

The young man chuckled as he walked further into the room. Nick eased his way towards a nearby chair and sat down with a groan.

"We thought you died, Nick." Y/N spoke again. "I thought I didn't do enough to help you."

"Sorry I kept you in the dark. But like I said, I needed them to think they succeeded in killing me."

"I thought I failed." He ran a thumb over the top of his own hand. "Nat and I did. Failed to protect the man who gave us a second chance."

Nick sat back and listened to him as he continued.

"A lot of things went south. Your assassination, HYDRA's uprising, what Zola said...it's a lot to take in."

Nick sighed, figuring what Zola told him in Camp Lehigh unearthed a lot of things he didn't know about before. Things Fury himself had known based on private files.

The same files that were included in the database on the Lumerian Star that he needed to take back.

"When we recovered you almost three years ago, I didn't know exactly what you were." He began. "After your initial blood tests, it matched Director Carter's...at that time I knew you had to be related to her somehow."

Y/N looked up and listened to Fury.

"Then we found Rogers a few months later. We took tests and I found out he was related to you. It doesn't take a master scholar to put two and two together."

"So you knew who my real parents were this whole time?" Y/N asked. "And what about the people who raised me? Who were they?"

He shifted his body and leaned a little bit forward.

"They were HYDRA operatives, tasked to steal you from Agent Carter and brought to their higher ups." He answered. "But what HYDRA didn't expect was for their spies to defect last minute."

"You're saying they—"

"They didn't go through with it. Now with HYDRA after them they had to disappear, change their names, change yours. Seems like they still kept your first name, though. The name Margaret gave you."

Y/N took a breath in, taking in the information. The people who kidnapped him basically raised him. Although a part of him hates them now for ripping him away from his mother, he's also grateful they didn't take him straight to HYDRA.

"Jesus." He breathed out. "But HYDRA still got me during the war. Which means they..."

Nick solemnly nodded, assuming that his adoptive parents had to have been killed either directly before or after his deployment. "I, unfortunately, think so."

Y/N tried to shake the thought away and wanted to know more about what happened to him. "What the hell did they do to me?"

"Your brain chemistry was altered so that it could easily replicate things. Like an artificial photographic memory."

"A mimic." Y/N muttered.

"What?"

"That's what Zola said. Called me Taskmaster. I was supposed to become their weapon like Steve's friend, Barnes."

Nick got up from his seat and looked at Y/N.

"But you're not a weapon. You're not a killer." He placed a hand on the young man's shoulder. "You're special, like I've been saying. A good man. You may think you're destined to be otherwise, but you'd be wrong."

Y/N continued to listen.

"You're Y/N. You're Freedom Fighter."

The soldier nodded and hugged the Director, which was pretty unusual coming from him. Fury grunted from his aches but still accepted the embrace.

"I know I kept things from you. And I'm sorry." He said.

Y/N didn't respond and continued hugging him. After a few moments Fury started to get uncomfortable mostly because of the pain.

"Sorry." Y/N parted after hearing his groans. "Does this mean I'm in your inner circle now?"

Fury stifled a chuckle. "That hug was a one time thing. You do it again then I'm knocking you off of it completely."

• • •

NATASHA TOOK TIME to relax as she sat on the sofa in one of the rooms. It seemed to have been a break room for once-working agents at the facility.

Her colleague and friend walked into the room, the man noticing the same tank top on her from before but now with blood stains on one of the armholes. She was immediately aware of his presence.

"It's pretty dark in here." Y/N remarked as he went further in.

"Bulbs are shot. And I don't think they have much power here anyway." She replied looking up at the ceiling.

Y/N sat down beside her, his attention now at the wound on her shoulder. The doctor bandaged it up as best he could earlier, but blood still seeped through.

"Christ, you're still bleeding." He said, trying to hide a worried look as he got up to grab the kit on the table nearby.

"I don't—"

"Aht. Silence. As the doctor gets to work."

He walked back to the couch and started removing the gauze, beginning the new bandaging process.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" She asked.

"In all honesty, not really." He answered. "There was that one mission where Barton got hurt. I tried my best in patching him up and he said I did quite well."

She raised a brow. "Barton's approval? Maybe you should try your luck in medicine then."

"No thanks." Y/N said with a chuckle.

He finished applying the bandages but suddenly let out a sigh. Natasha took notice. "What's wrong?"

Y/N put the roll of bandages back into the kit. "Sam's house was what? A few hours ago? I just..."

Natasha had an inkling on what he was going to bring up. "Y/N—"

"I shouldn't have said the things I said and I shouldn't have done what I did. I don't know what came over me." He apologized about their argument and sudden kiss. "It was your personal space and I compromised it. I'm sorry."

Natasha's lips curled into a smile and laughed. Y/N's brows furrowed in confusion. "What?"

"It's very cute. You're like a Boy Scout, it's funny." She said. "You really are Rogers's kid."

Y/N chuckled and leaned back on the sofa as Natasha continued.

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I didn't push you away did I?" She asked.

Y/N only shook his head in response. Natasha studied his silence then laid beside him, resting her head against his shoulder as his arm went around her.

"No, you didn't." He replied. "Good, because that would've been very awkward."

Natasha suddenly shifted her body and pushed Y/N down against the sofa, his head laying on the armrest. She was now on-top straddling him.

She smirked. "How about we finish what you started?"

"What?" He asked.

"You know."

"I actually don't."

"You're kidding. Don't make me say it."

"I'm one-hundred percent unaware of what you're insinuating."

"Sex." She emphasized as she brought her face closer to his.

"Oh."

She rolled her eyes. "You're such a liar. You just wanted to hear me say it."

"Maybe I did." He replied with a chuckle.

"Мудак (Asshole)."

Amongst their laughter, they didn't hear Steve come in. He smiled and cleared his throat, getting their attention.

"Uh, is this a bad time?"

Y/N groaned, Natasha still on him. "Steve, come on, man. Shouldn't you be polishing your shield or something?"

"Hill's calling us. Fury wants to talk." He said as he started to walk away. "Come on, now. Don't make me ground you."

"You're not funny." The young man rolled his eyes, but Natasha still laughed at the Captain's joke. He looked at her, "That wasn't funny."

"Come on, let's go." Natasha said as she got off of him. Y/N sighed and rubbed his face, then got up to follow her out of the room.

• • •

THE TEAM WAS ready to discuss their plan. Nick Fury sat at the table holding an old picture of Alexander Pierce.

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." Nick said. "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

Natasha was sitting down with Y/N standing right behind her. Sam stood a few feet anyway from them and Steve was beside Hill on the other side of the table.

Romanoff chose to speak. "We have to stop the launch."

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls any more." Fury said, then opened up a briefcase containing three computer chips.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

Maria turned her laptop towards him. "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.

Maria continued. "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 still going to die." Y/N interjected.

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA." Fury said. "We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left—"

"We're not salvaging anything." Steve cut in. "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."

"You gave me this mission. 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? I noticed."

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

Fury shook his head. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

"Even if you had, would you have told me?" Steve asked. "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too?"

The Captain exhaled before continuing.

"They took Bucky, they took Y/N from Peggy. All this time I thought they were gone but in fact HYDRA had something to do with it."

He looked at everyone and finished his rant. "S.H.I.E.L.D, HYDRA, it all goes."

Maria agreed. "He's right."

Fury looked at Natasha, who's expression alone informed him of her approval. The young man behind her had his arms crossed and nodded, agreeing with his father.

Sam's and Nick's eyes met next and the Air Force veteran shrugged.

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."

"Well..." The Director sighed and looked back at Steve. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

Outside of the facility Steve gazed over the railing of the dam while in his thoughts. He thought of the upcoming mission, and he knew who to expect. Not just Pierce, Rumlow, and other HYDRA loyalists...but also Bucky.

"Hey." Y/N greeted as he walked up beside Steve. The older man gave a nod back but still looked ahead.

"I know what you're thinking." The young man said.

"You do?"

"About Barnes being there."

Steve sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened to him. He didn't deserve to be whatever Zola turned him into."

"He was my best friend, took me under his wing when things got tough. I thought I lost him."

"You're gonna try to get through to him? That might not be easy."

"Things are never easy."

"And he might not even give you the chance. You think he'll remember?"

"He will."

Y/N nodded and Steve finally turned to him. The man spoke again.

"They might've taken Buck, but I'm not going to let them take you too. Not again. I'll bet my life on it."

"You don't need to bet anything." He replied and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We're going to do this. Take down HYDRA once and for all. You, me, Natasha, and Sam are coming out of this."

Steve agreed.

"And there's no way in hell I'm letting ourselves die the day after finding out Captain America's my dad."

Rogers chuckled and smiled. He pat his son's back and started to walk away.

"Gear up. It's time."

Y/N placed his hands on his waist, looking at the causal wear Steve had. "You really gonna wear that?"

Steve turned around for a moment. "Son. If you're gonna fight a war, you got to wear a uniform."

Y/N chuckled. "Ain't gonna be easy, since I threw mine away."

"You'll manage. Since the plan doesn't require it."

• • •

ALEXANDER PIERCE GREETED the council members as they walked into the building.

"Hawley. It's good to see you." Pierce said and turned to the councilman beside her. "Rockwell."

They started to walk together.

"And how was your flight?" Pierce asked.

"Lovely. The ride from the airport, less so." Hawley answered.

"Sadly, S.H.I.E.L.D can't control everything."

"Including Captain America." Rockwell chimed in, garnering a slight eye roll from the Secretary. An agent showed up with a briefcase which Pierce opened.

"This facility is biometrically controlled. And these will give you unrestricted access."

Each of the council members took one and placed it on their suits. Afterwards, they followed Pierce to his office near the top floor and started listening to his lecture. He paced in front of the holographic screen displaying the countdown to Project Insight's launch.

"I know the road hasn't exactly been smooth, and some of you would have gladly kicked me out of the car along the way." He held up a glass of champagne and offered a toast with the rest. "Finally, we're here. And the world should be grateful."

Suddenly, a voice spoke through the PA system. It was Steve Rogers.

"Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. 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. 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."

Rogers further explained how S.T.R.I.K.E and the Insight crew were also HYDRA and that there could be many more within the agency.

"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."

After the revelation, Councilman Rockwell glared at Pierce. "You smug son of a bitch."

S.T.R.I.K.E team officers stormed into room and Councilman Singh was relieved at the sight of help.

"Arrest him."

One of the officers took out his pistol and aimed it at the councilman.

Pierce looked at Singh. "I guess I've got the floor."

Some time later, Project Insight was launched and the carriers began their ascent. Captain America and Falcon continued their mission to try and stop it as Pierce looked out the window and witnessed it unfolding.

"Let me ask you a question." Pierce said as he walked up to the council, mainly facing Singh. "What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow and you knew that they were going to drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution, and you could just stop it, with a flick of the switch. Wouldn't you?"

Pierce handed him his drink back, then looked at Rockwell and Hawley before turning to Yen. "Wouldn't you all?"

Singh glared. "Not if it was your switch." He threw his glass on the floor, and all Pierce could do was chuckle.

An officer handed him a pistol and the Secretary aimed it at the councilman, but Councilwoman Hawley quickly acted and pushed Singh away. She grabbed Pierce's arm and tossed a taser disc at the nearby officer before disarming the Secretary.

An officer aimed his handgun at Hawley but was quickly grabbed by Councilman Rockwell. He drove a knee into his abdomen and hit his face before flipping him over onto the floor.

Hawley pushed Pierce down and ran over to another officer, grabbing his head and slamming it onto the table before engaging another agent and taking him down too.

The remaining agent fumbled to unholster his gun as Rockwell vaulted over the table and kicked him across the face.

Councilmen Yen and Singh looked on in awe as Hawley picked a gun up from the floor and aimed it at Pierce. Rockwell caught his breath and looked at the Secretary.

"I'm sorry." She said as she tapped the side of her temple, in which Rockwell did as well. The two officials' faces glitching as they pulled off their Photostatic veils, revealing themselves to be Black Widow and Freedom Fighter.

Pierce huffed as he looked at the two former agents.

Natasha still aimed the gun at Pierce. "Did I step on your moment?"