Sergeant Barnes: The Last Mission (COMPLETE)

Chapter 65: Steve

As it turned out, we didn't need to clean up the food fight from earlier in the kitchen. With the mess from HYDRA, we were told to not touch anything that wasn't ours, and to evacuate immediately. All in all, I'm not sure it was worth it.

Worth it or not, we were all alive, to some degree. We piled into the two vans, Natasha with some difficulty, and we drove to the safe zone that we were originally supposed to go to before. I didn't recognize where we were going, but I figured I was going to have a lot of that over the next few days. Again. 

The vans took a secret route underground, and we pulled into a parking garage the size of a football field. We all unloaded, and Raven helped Natasha from the van to the stretcher that was waiting for her. She was whisked off without a word by the medics, but I figured she would be okay. She had made it this far.

I looked around. Other than a few modern touches that I didn't understand, it looked a lot like the SHIELD I remembered. A thought occurred to me.

"I thought SHIELD went down after HYDRA tried to take it over the first time."

Nick and Maria walked up alongside us. "It did," Maria answered, already getting down to business on her tablet. "We revived it, changed a few things from the first time around. Hopefully this will last longer."

"It won't if we HYDRA keeps pulling stunts like this," muttered Tony, and I looked over at him. He scanned the room, then turned to face me. "Ready for Round 3?" He asked me.

Bucky laughed, and I elbowed him in the ribs. "I'll be fine," I retorted.

"Are you still up for those scans, Rogers?" Nick asked, and I nodded. If it meant deactivating the rest of the cyborgs, I didn't mind SHIELD running a few tests. 

He turned to Raven. "Escort him to the labs, then come and see me. You're going to be busy for the next few hours, Agent."

"Yes, sir," she replied, and when our whole group checked in, she and I walked off in a different direction. I looked over my shoulder and watched Bucky walk away with Nick and the others. He was still a little rattled from earlier, and so was I, if I was being honest. What if another cyborg had already infiltrated SHIELD, and they found him?

"Where are the others going?" I asked Raven, looking forward again.

"Well, none of them are agents of SHIELD, so they need to submit an AUAR." She must have seen the confused look on my face, because she clarified. "It's a form for non-agents who help on missions like this. You'll probably get one later, after the scans."

"Great," I grumbled. "Not a day out of HYDRA's control, and I'm already doing paperwork."

"If it makes it any better, most of it is submitted electronically, now."

"It doesn't."

She shrugged and turned a corner. "This way."

We walked into an elevator. People were going to join us, but I think I scared them off, because no one actually walked through the doors. We had the whole elevator to ourselves. The doors closed as a chime sounded, and we began to sink into the lower levels of the base.

Raven stood looking at the doors, and I leaned against the railing on the side. I stared at her for a minute, before asking, "So. Barton and Romanoff, huh?"

She nodded and turned to face me. "The two best assassins in the world. I couldn't have asked for better teachers."

"Seems like they've done a pretty good job so far." She smiled, although it was a small one. "Not many teens would have survived that."

Raven's smile morphed into a smirk. "Not many teens have blackmail on Captain America, either." She traced her cheek, and I froze. If Nat ever found out about that, I was dead. Raven knew it, too.

I couldn't think of a response, but thankfully, the elevator opened, and we had to walk out to make way for people going down. Raven had to shoulder her way through the adults, but the crowd parted almost immediately for me. Can't imagine why.

As we walked past a hundred people in white lab coats (I think I would have gotten goosebumps right then, if possible), Raven started explaining what would be happening soon. "That building was a SHIELD base, so they'll have all the red tape they need to get to work. They'll clean up the mess, and they'll send a team to Germany to clear out the HYDRA base as well."

"I don't think that's the only one," I told her. "Do they know about any others?"

"I think they might be waiting for you to tell them," she remarked. "After the scans, and you have enough time to recover, they'll probably start asking about what you remember about HYDRA. Or they can extract it while they scan, if you ask them to."

"That might be easier. They'll have visual and audio proof that way."

"You might mention it to them, then," she recommended, and we turned down a hall.

"What are you going to go do?" I asked her. "Are you on clean up?"

She shook her head and responded. "I'm not cleared for that. I was barely cleared to go on the mission. I'll be back to doing busy work. Filing, most likely."

 A set of lab coats were standing outside a secure room, and when they saw me, they all hushed and pointed. It didn't faze me. I was used to it by now.

One of them, I think he was some kind of leader, or supervisor, walked up to us and shook my hand. "Captain Rogers, pleasure to see you again," I smiled, even though I'm not sure he was 100% correct. "We'll take him from here, Agent," he told Raven, and she nodded and walked away.

"Come on in, sir," the scientist said. "Everything is ready for your scan."

As I laid on their table, and they got to work scanning and analyzing what they saw, I drifted off in though. SHIELD didn't seem much different than last time, but I knew that Fury remembered what last time was like. I trusted him more now. He wouldn't make the same mistakes. He knew that freedom wasn't fear. 

It was going to be okay.