Eunoia [Bucky Barnes]

chapter 22

"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up." Steve tried to reason with Tony who just snapped his head round to face the captain.

"Who said we're giving up?" Tony asked him.

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blames."

"I'm sorry. Steve. That.. that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not HYDRA." Rhodey took a step forward to make Steve look at him.

"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change."

"That's good. That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stop manufacturing." Tony now moved from his place in the kitchen to join the others.

"Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own." Steve once again disagreed with Tony.

"Steve, you joined the army to help people. I don't remember you ever having the right to choose when you first joined yet that didn't stop you from doing great things. I hate to break it to you, but those clips we saw, those situations were less about people, good people, and more about just taking down the bad guy, no matter what." Ava now jumped in on the conversation making both Steve and Tony turn to her.

"I'm sorry, who's side are you on?" Steve asked her as a frown crept onto his face.

"I've not picked yet. I'm just telling you that you're not thinking clearly right now." Steve was just about to argue once again with Ava when his phone lit up signifying a message. Tony and Nat had now started conversing but all Ava could focus on was the way Steve's face had just dropped.

"We've got to go." Steve murmured as he pulled Ava up from her seat by an arm. Ava didn't fight back, it was obvious by the look on his face this was serious. As they made their way down the steps Ava noticed Steve's eyes began to tear up.

"Steve, stop here. What's the matter? What's happened?" She asked as her own anxiety began to rise.

"She's gone." Steve whispered out as he began to cry. Ava just stared at him while her eyes began to fill up with tears. Leaning in the two just held each other, and once again, Ava felt herself wishing she had just stayed in that car on the airstrip.

***

Peggy's funeral service was in London. Ava and Steve had flown out the same day they had been given the news. Now sitting in a church filled with people Ava had never met before, she saw Steve walking down the aisle with five others holding the coffin. It had been draped with a Union Jack and decorated with white flowers, it was beautiful. Steve joined Ava in the seat beside her as they looked forward, preparing for the service to start. The priest began addressing those who had arrived but all Ava could do was look at the picture in front of her, the Peggy she knew.

"And now, I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words." Ava had never met other members of Peggy's family before and looked up to see who Sharon was. Her eyes widened and she was about to nudge Steve when Sam beat her to it, alerting Steve that Sharon was none other that Agent 13, his neighbour.

"Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of SHIELD.. but I just knew her as Aunt Peggy. She had a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool. But it was a lot to live up to. Which is why I never told anyone we were related." Ava watched Sharon's eyes dart to Steve, telling him that the final sentence was directed at him. "I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. And she said, compromise where you can. But where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move.. it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in they eye and say 'No, you move.'"