Work Text:
“Shouldn’t be a problem.” Steve put down the file. Sam would be useful, but they needed more help. “We can get his wings easy enough, but you said that the Winter Soldier is an assassin, pretty much a sharpshooter.”
Nat narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think Clint wants to be a part of this.”
Steve pulled out his phone. “I wasn’t thinking about Clint.” He dialed a number.
“Hey Steve, what’s up?”
“Hey, Alex, are you busy right now?” Nat’s eyes widened with realization and a smile broke out on her face.
“Uh, no, why?”
“Could use some help over here.”
“I’ll be at the Tower in five minutes.” Alex hung up. Steve put up the phone. “Well, let’s see if Tony is willing to help us.”
Tony wasn’t sure why S.H.I.E.L.D. was after Steve and Nat, but something was off and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. Alex was called in so it must be serious.
“Sir, Steve and Natasha are here with a Samuel Wilson and Alex has just entered the facility.”
“Bring them to the lab.” About five minutes later all four of them were in front of him.
“So does anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” Alex asked, getting straight to business.
“I, for one, would love to know what’s happening.” Tony said. “Because right now Fury’s dead, S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to kill you two, and who’s the new guy?”
Alex frowned slightly at Steve. “What did you do?” Before Steve could protest he added, “I know Nat wouldn’t cause a mess like this, I have no idea who he is, so it had to be you.”
Steve lowered his head in shame. He was right. He sighed and began explaining.
“HYDRA still exists, it grew inside S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re going to start something called Project Insight, which S.H.I.E.L.D. was going to use to eliminate threats before they popped up.”
Alex looked a mix between shocked and furious. He did not like what he was hearing.
“Anything else?”
Nat took over. “They have an assassin, called the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years, maybe more. He killed Fury.” She then looked at Steve, who looked sadly at Tony.
Steve took over. “Tony, your parents didn’t die in a car accident.”
His world stopped.
“What?”
“HYDRA had them killed, sent the Soldier after them. They were murdered.” He paused for a moment. “I’m sorry.”
Tony’s legs gave out under him, Alex and Steve raced forward and grabbed him, setting him down on a stool.
“Dad wasn’t drunk. Oh God, he wasn’t drunk.”
Alex ran his hand in circles soothingly on his back. “Just let it out, Tony.”
Tony started crying a little. For twenty years he hated his dad for getting himself and his mom killed, now he knew it wasn’t his fault.
“I’m going to destroy HYDRA.”
Alex got a destructive gleam in his eye. “Then get ready to hack, I want to see every single secret HYDRA or S.H.I.E.L.D. ever tried to hide.”
“With pleasure.” Tony didn’t even hide the bitterness in his voice.
Alex looked over the info they had on Project Insight. He hated what he was seeing. This never should have been allowed to exist.
He joined the rest of the group. “Alright, what do we got?”
“I figured out what Zola’s algorithm is.” Tony started. “It’s a program, looks at a person’s records, and then determines if they’re a threat to HYDRA. If they are, it sends that name to Project Insight and it takes them out.”
Alex nodded and looked at the others. Nat spoke. “The Soldier has kill on sight orders on me and Steve, not going to be easy for us.”
He nodded again and looked at Wilson. “How’s the elytra?”
“I can work with this.” He flexed his shoulder muscles and grinned when the wings spread out. “Still cool.” He muttered under his breath.
He smirked and got to business. “Alright, here's the plan. Tony, I want you to hack the Helicarriers, keep them on the ground. If they’re not in the air, HYDRA can’t do the project.” Tony got started on his computer.
“Alright, Steve this is going to sound weird, but stick with me.” Steve immediately became concerned. “You and I are going to find the Winter Soldier and neutralize him, not kill.”
Steve, like he expected, was very shocked, but he continued talking. “His movements are too perfect, he doesn’t behave like he’s in control.”
Steve’s eyes widened when he figured it out. “Mind control.”
Alex nodded in confirmation. “We’re going to catch him, break the control, and see if we can get him on our side. If he has any secrets on HYDRA, that can help us a lot.”
Steve nodded but then looked back at Tony. “But the Soldier killed his parents.”
“If he was mind controlled and agrees to help us, I will instantly forgive him.” Tony called back. “I don’t really blame him, I blame HYDRA, he was just the weapon of choice.”
Alex looked back at Nat and Wilson. “You two stay here, cover Tony’s back. If HYDRA gets wind of what we’re doing, they’re going to send agents after him.”
The two nodded and Alex and Steve left to suit up. Before he was fully out of the door, Alex paused, “Oh, and Wilson, consider this your application to the Avengers.” He could just see Tony chuckling and Nat’s knowing grin when he heard Wilson start sputtering.
“And this is why you’re the leader.” Steve whispered.
Steve was very nervous as he walked down the street. Why am I doing this?
“Ex, I don’t like this.”
“Relax, you’ll be fine.” Alex tried to calm him down over the com. “ The Soldier is after you, what better way to draw him out.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that he could kill me before you find him.” He kept glancing around nervously, he did not like being bait.
“I’m gonna be real with you, I’m really counting on him shooting at you.”
Steve froze where he was and placed his hand on the com. “What!”
A red energy shield formed over him and startled everyone, people panicking more when the bullet fell down, a few more following after. Everyone began running when a white energy blast shot into a building.
“I needed him to reveal where he was.”
“Alex, you son of a bitch.”
Tony’s fingers flew across the keyboard, typing away furiously. He just got the Helicarriers grounded for six months, now he and Nat were separating HYDRA files from S.H.I.E.L.D. ones, as a little payback.
Wilson was guarding their back, and the two missed the portal opening behind them.
“Uh, guys, a blue cloud just spit out a kid.”
They both looked immediately and Nat was confused, Tony was happy. “Hey Little Ex.”
Grian skipped over happily. “Hi Uncle Tony.”
He scooped up the five year old and plopped him in his lap. “What brings you to Earth?”
“Dad said if he wasn’t back in a few hours that I could come in after him.” Grian explained as Nat put the pieces together in her head.
Tony decided to save Wilson the trouble. “Grian, this is Natasha Romanoff and Sam Wilson, they’re helping me, your dad, and Uncle Steve with something.”
Grian’s eyes sparkled when he looked at Nat. “I remember you! Dad told me that you’re the best spy on this planet.”
Nat smiled at the compliment and the kid then looked at Wilson. “I’m sorry, but he has never told me anything about you.”
Wilson smirked. “It's alright, we just met today, would be creepy if he did.”
Grian nodded as the lights went out.
“Tony.”
“HYDRA found us.” Tony cut Nat off and began pressing a few buttons. “EMP, everything’s dead.”
He pulled out his phone and texted something. “Happy’s evacuating the building, I don’t want any of my employees getting hurt.”
“What’s going on?” Grian asked, and Tony racked his brain for an explanation, but Wilson beat him to it.
“Ok, you know how S.H.I.E.L.D. has good spies like Nat?” Grian nodded. “Well HYDRA has bad spies that are trying to stop us from helping a lot of people, and if we don’t stop them millions of people will die.” Grian looked shocked at the explanation.
“What do we do?”
“Well unless we get something to keep them out, we’re sitting ducks.” Tony said.
Grian’s eyes widened. “I have an idea!”
Alex walked over the Winter Soldier’s stunned form, Steve going around on the other side. His helmet told him that he was actually stunned and not faking it.
He slowly lowered himself and flipped the man on his back. He placed two fingers on the Soldier’s forehead and red sparks danced around him.
Alex grimaced slightly. “Messed him up pretty good, pretty much made him a puppet. I can break their control on him, but it looks like there is a set of control words that when spoken will give them control over him again. That I can’t break, at least not instantly.”
Steve nodded. “Just break the hold on him they have now, maybe with Tony’s help we can get rid of the control words.”
Alex nodded and more red sparks flared up before disappearing. The Soldier slowly began to come to.
“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Alex joked. “How you feeling?”
“Like a train wreck.” The Soldier sat up and rubbed his head. “Ugh, forgot what it’s like to have control of your body.”
“Yeah, being mind controlled for fifty years does that to you.” Alex said as he and Steve helped him up. “Do you remember anything about yourself?”
He shook his head. “No, I just remember HYDRA and what they made me do.”
Steve patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you.”
The Soldier looked hard at Steve. “I don’t know why, but you seem very familiar to me, like I knew you before HYDRA.”
Steve started to look at him hard, and then his eyes popped out of his sockets. “Bucky!?”
Alex pulled up some files in his helmet, eyebrows rising as he read. Apparently he was one of his World War 2 buddies and was presumed dead after he fell off a train.
“How are you alive?” Steve asked. Alex could see memories come back to the man.
“Zola, he experimented on me when we got captured that time. Whatever it was must have helped me survive the fall.” Barnes realized.
“We need to get to Tony and the others, tell them what we found out.” Alex said, and Barnes started panicking as he remembered something.
“HYDRA sent soldiers after Stark after he hacked them. Last report said he was in a lab with Romanoff, Samuel Wilson, and a blonde kid.”
Alex looked confused. “Blonde ki-” He felt fear enter his entire body. “Grian.”
He raced back to the tower, the two super soldiers right on his tail.
Steve had never seen Alex move so fast before, but his son’s life was on the line and he didn’t want anything to happen to him. He did know that he did not feel bad for any HYDRA agents they faced; Alex was going to make them suffer.
They had to push past people to get into the Tower, Happy helping them get inside.
“Elevator’s down! Take the stairs!” He yelled and Alex took off, Steve and Bucky struggling to keep up. They weren’t going to tell him to slow down, he wouldn’t anyway.
Alex stopped to throw an ender pearl up the stairs and he grabbed on to Steve and Bucky so they would teleport with him. His stomach turned when they appeared and Alex took off again, leaving the super soldiers in the dust again.
Somehow they landed on the floor where Tony’s lab was. Alex drew a gun and burst through the door, but then he just stopped and lowered his gun.
“I think I should have taken into account that Grian’s my son.”
Steve looked inside and both he and Bucky tried not to laugh.
All the HYDRA agents were hog tied on the ground, some had paint covering them and others were covered in soot.
Their friends were sitting by a red block with a computer on top, watching Tony type away. All except Grian, who was sharpening a sword. Why does he have a sword?
Alex walked forward and Grian smiled and put down the sword.
“Hi Dad!” He wrapped Alex’s legs in a hug and he picked up the kid.
“Hey G.” He glanced at the tied up agents. “Do I want to know?”
Grian shook his head while Tony, Nat, and Sam started laughing.
“Ex, that kid of yours is something else.” Tony said and looked back at Bucky. “So he was mind controlled.”
“Yep.” Alex popped the ‘p’. “Meet James Barnes.”
Nat dropped the knife she was holding. “How?”
“Zola.” Steve said, and Bucky walked forward nervously.
“Stark, I’m sorry for what I did to your parents. I respected Howard a lot, I never would have done it if I was in control.”
Tony sighed and stood up. “Like I told them, I don’t blame you, I blame HYDRA. You were just their weapon of choice.”
Bucky nodded and unformed soldiers came in, Rhodes in front in the War Machine armor.
“I love the dramatics Rhodey, but they’re not necessary.” Tony said as the soldiers just looked at the agents on the ground. Rhodes looked at everyone questioningly and everyone pointed at Grian, even Alex.
“... How?”
“Because he’s my son.” Alex answered. The soldiers began to lead the agents out of the building.
“Well, this is going to be a legal mess.” Tony said, pressing a button on the laptop. “Pretty sure I just made it worse.”
“Pepper’s going to kill you.” Steve said.
“Probably.”
Alex sat on a couch, exhausted. It had been a very busy week full of legal work, but they got everything figured out.
Everything HYDRA related was dumped on the internet while everything S.H.I.E.L.D. was made next to impossible to find. HYDRA operatives were being arrested everyday. Tony was in a little trouble for dumping government documents, but they got him out of that very quickly.
Bucky was not charged for anything he did as the Winter Soldier because he was not in control of himself. CIA agents came by everyday for any information he could give them about the people he killed while under HYDRA’s control, where bases were located, or any information HYDRA kept off file, and he was more than happy to help.
With some help from Bruce and Tony, they removed the control words over him, so he didn’t have to worry about turning back into the Soldier. Tony let him stay in the Tower as well, and Steve was having a blast updating him on the twenty-first century. Bucky adjusted to his new life very well and he fit in with the rest of the team very well. He’d make a good Avenger.
He smiled as he watched Grian color on some paper. The press had seen him, and everyone was absolutely losing their minds over the kid. The public loved him and he was a really big help getting everyone on their side out of trouble. The jury believed everything he said, and he made the Avengers look even better as not just a team but a family.
Not to mention everyone went nuts everytime he called an Avenger an ‘Aunt’ or ‘Uncle’.
He heard footsteps and saw Steve. “How’s Buck?”
“He’s doing good, but we got a problem.”
Alex raised an eyebrow.
“HYDRA got their hands on the Mind Stone and they’ve hidden it somewhere, not even Bucky knows where it is.”
His face hardened into a frown.
“Looks like we’re staying longer, Grian.”