Rogue (Under Rewriting)

Chapter Sixteen

Washington D.C., 2014, a few minutes later

"It was him. He looked right at me like he didn't even know me," Steve said in a broken voice.

"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago," Sam asked.

"Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and-"

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha said cutting him off. Her tired eyes looked at Alex's for a second before looking away. The blonde couldn't help but internally beg her to turn back. She wanted so bad to tell the redhead that none of it was real.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky," Steve said as Sam noticed Natasha's bleeding shoulder and looks at the two guards.

"We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck," Sam informed trying the help her but the guard just pulled out an electric rod before shoving it in Sam's direction.

The guard swiftly flipped the rod around, shoving it at the other guard's neck before taking her helmet off. Alex started to reach for Steve's cuffs when he jerked his hands away, the betrayed look still fresh in his eyes. Alex looked him in the eyes before reaching for his cuffs again. This time he didn't jerk away and he let her magic swirl around, breaking the cuffs.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," Hill said as Sam looked at her in confusion. She turned to Steve nudging her head in Sam's direction. "Who's this guy?"

Alex sends her magic to the other two pairs of cuffs as Maria starts cutting a hole in the bottom of the vehicle. They slip out one by one with Alex going last. Alex walks up to Natasha, wrapping her arm around the girl for support.

"Was that the stupid plan," Natasha whispered to the blonde. "Pretending to still be with Hydra?"

"Yeah," Alex answered as they made their way to a hidden base.

"You were right. It was stupid, but I'm glad it was an act," Natasha said with a small smile.

"Careful, Ms. Romanoff, I might get the idea that you're starting to like me," Alex smirked.

"Would that be a bad idea," Natasha questioned.

"Not at all," Alex answered with a smile. She tried her best to mask her flushed cheeks as her heart beat rapidly.

*****

Maria leads them inside the hidden base and a doctor immediately ran up to them, ready to take Natasha.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint," Maria said to the man.

"Maybe two," Sam corrected.

"Let me take her," The doctor said as he grabbed her other arm.

"She'll want to see him first," Maria said before leading them to a hospital-like room. On the bed was one very alive Nick Fury.

"About damn time," He said as they walked in. The doctor moved Natasha over to a table and started fixing her shoulder. Fury started listing off the things wrong with him. "Lacerated spinal column, a cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," The doctor added.

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good," Nick said.

"They cut you open, your heart stopped," Natasha stated.

"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," Nick explained.

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us," Alex asked.

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Maria explained.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust," Nick explained. "By the way, that girl of yours is a handful."

"What," Alex asked in confusion. Her back stiffened when she heard the voice she didn't want to hear, not in a place like this at least.

"The macaroni here sucks," The girl stated as she wandered into the makeshift room. Her eyes widened as she noticed the blonde glaring at her with hard eyes. She gave a small smile and waved to the five adults that just walked in before going to sit in a chair next to Nick.

"What. The. Hell. Are you doing here," Alex asked through gritted teeth. The younger cowered back in her chair before answering.

"He sent for me. I was at home when she came and said that he wanted me," Bailey said in a small voice. She had never seen Alex this mad before and never wanted to see her like this again. Alex looked back at Fury, who shrugged, then to Maria, who held her hands up in surrender.

"I was following orders," She defended. Alex took a deep breath in before glancing at Natasha.

'Calm down.' She mouthed at Alex who just nodded.

They were now sitting around at a table in the secret base with files spread around. Alex stood behind Natasha not in the mood to sit at the moment. Bailey was as far away from the blonde as possible while still being in the group.

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

"We have to stop the launch," Natasha spoke.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore," Nick said opening a case containing three chips.

"What's that," Sam asks looking at the case.

"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized," Maria informed.

Nick continued, "we need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own."

"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 gonna die," Maria finished looking between each person as she turned her computer around to show.

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra. We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left-"

"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D.," Steve said cutting him off.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with it," Nick tried to explain.

"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," Steve continued.

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed," Nick stated.

"And how many paid the price before you did," Steve asked.

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes," Nick informed.

"Even if you have, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that too? S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, it all goes," Steve questioned.

"He's right," Alex said. Fury looks at Natasha, then Maria, and then Sam.

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower," Sam said back long away.

"Well," Nick paused, leaning back in his chair. "Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

It was silent for a moment as they all looked at each other. Natasha looked at Alex, silently asking her if she was okay, to which she gave a small nod.

"This is epic," The young girl whispered with wide eyes.

"Other room. Now," Alex order walking towards the girl.

"Yep. Way ahead of you."