Winter's Fire. ~Book Three~

Chapter Ten: The Rise of SHYDRA.

Steve smiled as he sat next to Peggy's bed, who was in a very bad condition. Old age had started getting to her, but he was just lucky that Fury had let Red tell him that Peggy was still around when they had gotten back into town from rescuing her. He kept a smile on his face as they talked. 
"You should be proud of yourself, Peggy." He said as he looked over the pictures on her bedside table. They were all of her and the family she built, save for one that was of her, Red and Howard the day they were able to open up SHIELD. 
"Mm." She muttered, agreeing. "I have lived a life, my only regret is that you didn't get to live yours." Steve glanced away. 
He felt a surge of sadness that he didn't get to live his life with her either, but his sadness was quickly replaced with guilt when he reminded himself that he was moving on, starting to live his life with Levi. That bond that Red talked about when Bucky came up, he could feel it pulling him back to Levinia, he could feel her in his heart. 
"What is it?" 
He sighed as he ran his thumb over her knuckles. "For as long as I can remember, I just wanted to do what was right. I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore." Steve leaned back in his seat as he looked at her. "And I thought I could throw myself back in and follow orders, serve. It's just not the same." 
Peggy chuckled at that. "You're always so dramatic." She gave him a very serious look, it was one that he'd seen almost every day back in the day. "Look, you saved the world. We rather mucked it up." 
Steve shook his head at her words. "You didn't. Knowing that you and Red helped find SHIELD is half the reason I stay." 
She gave his hand a weak squeeze. "Hey, the world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best thing we can do is start over." Peggy almost smiled. "You live with Red, she would tell you the same thing." 
"Right, because Red's the poster child for-" Steve cut himself off as Peggy started having a coughing fit. He quickly stood up and poured her a glass of water, and he offered it to her as he sat back down. "Peggy?" He said softly as he took her hand. 
Peggy looked back at him, and he knew by the look on her face that her dementia had kicked in again. That was always the part that broke his heart, when she looked at him the same way she did when she found out he was, not only out of the ice, but also alive. "Steve?" 
Steve smiled as he set down the glass. "Yeah." 
Peggy started to cry as she looked at him. "You're alive! You-you came back. It's been so long... so long." 
Steve leaned over to wipe away her tears, still taking special care to speak very softly to her. "Well, I couldn't leave my best girl. Not when she owes me a dance." 
It was still nice to be able to see her again, he thought. Even if they sometimes repeat the same conversation from time to time.
+++
Tony had picked her up from the Smithsonian and took her out for dinner. It wasn't anything fancy, just a nice burger place, and it was nice and simple, it was everything Tony knew Red would enjoy, and yet she didn't feel very at ease. In fact, a pit of fear was growing in her stomach and she couldn't shake it. 
Tony reached down to grasp her hand with a smile. "I'm glad you called me." 
Red chuckled as she swung their hands between them. "Hey, I needed a reason to call you." 
"So you didn't just need a ride and some food." He asked with a small smirk playing at his lips as he pulled them to a stop and pulled him closer to her. "That really does make me happy, and you are a great bonus, Miss North." 
She rolled her eyes as she draped her arms over his shoulders, but still gave him a smile as she looked up at him. "Are you saying that the burger was better than me?" 
"Taste wise? No, you are far better than the burger," Tony kissed her temple. "I'm saying that you are the best side for the burger, you are French fries." 
Red blinked a few times as she gave him a confused look. "French fries." 
"Yes, French fries." He repeated with a chuckle. "And not just any French fries." 
It was taking everything in her to not bust out giggling at him, and she let him have his cheesy moment. "There's something better than French fries?" 
"Mhm, there's one thing better and that's Sexy ASs French fries." 
As Red started to contemplate whether he's drunk or otherwise, she glanced behind him and saw three SHIELD agents coming in behind him. When she glanced to the side of them, she saw three more coming toward them from across the street. 
She cup him off mid French fry ramble as she pulled him closer to her, "Tony." She whispered, her voice shaking. "I need you to look behind me and tell me what you see." 
He suddenly got very serious as he held her against him more protectively as he looked over her head. "I count three. You got your gear on under that hoodie?" 
"That makes nine." She said as she started to take off the previously mentioned hoodie. As it fell to the ground, she revealed that she was at least wearing the armor that protected her torso, it was something she rarely took off, especially since she got back from that warehouse. 
"JARVIS, activate Red Marc 16. I have nine hostiles surrounding myself and Tony." She looked back up at him. "Get to the apartment and protect Levinia. I'll be there soon." 
"You got it." He gave her a quick kiss before he got into the car. "I'll see you soon." Was the last thing he said before he peeled out of his parking spot and sped toward their apartment. At least Levi would be safe if she failed to keep SHIELD away from her. 
"I booted up what you have on, Ma'am." JARVIS told her, she could feel it spreading over her stomach and chest, going all the way down her legs and stopping at the end of her jeans. 
She slowly turned around as she summoned her staff and twirled it between her fingers, she felt her heart pounding against her chest as the agents finally made it to her. 
"Good afternoon, Agents. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Red asked as she looked between the nine of them. 
One of them-Red couldn't even remember their name-looked down at her. "We need you to come with us, Agent North." 
"And I suppose I don't have much of a choice do I?" Red said as they drew their guns, she sighed heavily as she glanced at their chests. They were all, in fact, wearing SHIELD badges around their necks. She felt her heart beat painfully faster in her chest as she swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump that was forming in her throat. 
"That's a no, that's what that is." She said as glanced around at them, her grip on her staff tightening. "As your superior, I am ordering you to stand down, Agents." 
Another one spoke up after he cleared his throat. "Sorry, that's not an option, Ma'am." 
"Then let's get this over with, shall we?" 
At least her armor, while not completely covering her shoulders, covered the important parts of her body. Red slowly rose into the air, still slowly spinning her staff between her fingers before she swung it and whacked one of the surrounding agents in the face. Sparks of flame fanned out from the end of it and she used it to her advantage as she kicked another one in the face. Before any one of them could react, she thrusted her hand out and sent a ball of fire at a third one. 
As Red flew up and toward the sky, one of the nine agents-she couldn't tell which-grabbed her foot and threw her back onto the ground. As they tried to kick her ribs in, she grabbed her foot and pushed them away from her. 
"JARVIS, call Steve!" She yelled as she struggled to get to her feet. She had to get back on her feet, staying on the ground meant she'd be dead. She had to stand back up. 
"I'm afraid the signal has been jammed." 
"Fuck me." Red muttered as she continued to claw and kick in her attempts to get back to her feet. 
"I don't believe that's my job." 
"It's a figure of speech." She muttered before she shrieked when one of them took hold of her hair and dragged her to her feet before slamming her face into a bike stand. She cried out in pain, even though it was against her better judgement, she couldn't control it. Red hated that she as showing them that she was weak, and they had such a firm grip on her hair. 
As she reached up to try and get her hair free, he forced her head back and exposed her throat. Panic started to set in, she decided that she was pretty much done for, at least she'd be seeing Bucky again soon. 
With a whimper, she deiced that she had two options in front of her, she could either give up and die like a coward, or she could keep fighting. She was raised better than this, she was a warrior, she wasn't going to die to a blade being held to her throat. 
Red closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. Her father told her that when she was in a fight spot, she needed to concentrate all of her power into one part of her body and that would be how she would survive. She made her fire flow into, and out of, her hands as she kicked out. 
With a cry of surprise, the man holding her let her go and she set two others on fire. She quickly gained her footing and leaned against the bike stand. As the two who had been set on fire started to run away, she grabbed a fun off of their belt and started to fly back and toward the store fronts as she fired at the seven remaining agents that had attacked her. 
As she tried to make her escape, a small disk flew out and landed on her chest, sending out a short, but painful electrical charge through her body that made it seize up and caused her to crash land into a Bath and Body Works. 
Red dropped the the gun she was holding as she hit a shelf full of candles and landed on the floor with a painful thud as shattered glass and wax rained down upon her. Slowly, as she struggled to get air back into her lungs, she rolled to her side and wheezed as she tried to swallow as much air as she could. Her vision blurred as she crawled her way toward the back of the store to hide behind the counter. 
Once she was behind the counter and she was leaning against one of the shelves they use to keep the bags, she was able to catch her breath. She couldn't call Steve, he usually turned his phone off when he was with Peggy. "J-JARVIS," she stuttered. "How is that signal doing?" 
"It appears to be online, Ma'am." 
"At least that's some form of good news," Red said as she forced herself to stand up and she limped into the back of the store. "Get Clint on the line." She found her way into the back room where she found a gaggle of employees who looked as scared as she felt. 
"Calling Agent Barton." 
"Thank you, JARVIS." 
Red took a breath as she reached up to push her probably bloody hair out of her face as she looked at the five people in the room. "All right, I'm Agent Red North, I'm with an agency called SHIELD. I need all of you to exit the building as safely and quickly as possible. Can you all do that for me?" 
"Yes." 
"All right... good." She held her head as she turned to head back out the the door. "Stay behind me and point the way." 
After what felt like the longest two minutes of her life, she was able to kick open a backdoor that opened out into an alleyway, and when she made sure that it was clear, she went them all on their merry way and she went back inside to find her gun and a hiding place. 
As she picked up her gun and went back into the alleyway to shoot out the lights and camera, Clint finally picked up the phone. 
"Red, what's wrong? Are you okay?" 
She whispered as she went behind the wall that faced the exit door. "Clint, I need you to get to downtown DC as soon as possible." 
"I'm on my way, what happened?" 
"I don't know, I was out with Tony when nine SHIELD agents showed up and attacked me." She reached up to try and clean her face free of blood. "I umm.. I told him to get Levi and get her safe." 
"Is Stark okay?" 
"Yeah, he's fine. He was able to get away." 
"Okay, stay where you are." 
"Yeah, I'll try." Red took a few deep breaths, she couldn't let her panic take over. Not when she was still in the middle of a firefight. 
"Be careful and stay safe." 
As Red started to reply, she heard them come into the store she had crash landed in. She flew up and into the back room again before she hid under the desk. "Just hurry," she hissed. "I don't know how much time I have." 
"I'll be there soon, Red. You're getting home to Tony, okay?" 
"Okay." That was the last thing she said before she hung up the phone. She cocked the gun as she heard them walking around in the hallway outside of the break room, she leaned her head against the desk. 
She was never one to pray, but if there was ever a moment, it would be now. As Red started to pray to whoever would listen, she felt a presence next to her, filling her with the same hope and light that Loki would have if they were on the battlefield for Asgard again. 
She opened her eyes and turned her head, looking right into his blue eyes as he crouched down next to her. She thought it was funny that she prayed for strength, and the Gods sent Loki.