[616] ground zero for trouble

[daughterofliberty]

"Remember, Nick," she calls, buckling the utility belt of her suit. "I've got years of vacation time saved up. You owe me. After this, I'm taking five whole days in Virginia with Steve, and no one is going to bother us. Right?"

Fury scoffs, and she turns a gimlet eye on him. "Right?"

"Right," he says, holding up his hands in surrender. "Hell, Carter, it's not like the rest of the Avengers and SHIELD aren't around to pick up the slack. Go! You crazy kids have fun. Send a postcard. Let your hair down a little. You've been tense as a wire ever since – "

"I wonder why," she snaps, and he shakes his head. 

"Just saying," he says, as Tony Stark sniggers behind him. Sharon waves them both off, an unruly smile tugging at her mouth.

"I'll check in once I've made contact," she says. "Steve should be waiting for me at the rendezvous."

"Good luck, Agent Carter," Tony says, and she tosses him a crisp half-salute, then heads through the hatch towards the hangar that holds her vehicle: not the Quinjet, not for a mission this small, but the cherry-red convertible that hovers as she enters and taps out the activation code. "Come on, baby," she tells it. "Let's go for a ride."

But when she reaches the rendezvous at Avengers Tower and strides through the door, Steve's nowhere to be seen. 

And, honestly? Neither is the Avengers Tower.

Comments

[marvel_npc]

"Everett Ross?" Steve says as they walk into the room, with mixed surprise and chagrin. "Why the hell – "

"Because he knows Madripoor, Captain," says T'Challa, rising from his seat. At the table, Nat smothers a tiny smile. "He knows the mission. And he knows Sharon Carter and her methods." The king of Wakanda gestures to two empty seats at the table. On either side of his, Nakia and Okoye watch, tense and anxious.

"Shuri is in the lab, making preparations," he explains as he sits back down. "But will join us by conference call."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky pats Steve on the shoulder and walks to the further chair. He nods to Sam, then meets Natasha’s eye. There’s a grateful expression in his.

[marvel_npc]

Once everyone is seated, T'Challa taps on a Kimoyo bead and one of the empty chairs fills with a hologram of Shuri, seated in the lab.

"I am grateful to you all for being here," T'Challa begins, looking around the table and meeting each person's gaze with his own level on. "We have reason to believe that ex-SHIELD Director Nick Fury has lied to us all and that our friend Sharon Carter is in fact alive and possibly in danger in Madripoor. Shuri?"

Shuri nods and the air above the center of the table fills with a frozen image taken from the security camera recording. At his side, Nakia flinches, her hand tightening on the arm of her chair until he takes it gently in his. She gives him a grateful glance and he smiles, slightly, before turning to the others, who are studying the image. Natasha Romanoff alone seems unmoved by fear or worry – she is practiced at hiding her emotions and putting them aside for later, he notes.

From her seat in the lab, Shuri tells them: "I have isolated several areas of the recording which seem to have been tampered with, and while I can't say with 100% certainty that this image is fake... there are enough discrepancies to make me believe it is."

[nerves_of_ice]

He’s still wearing the prototype arm that Shuri had coaxed him into testing earlier in the day, which he realizes as his left hand clenched tight. Bucky forces himself to flatten his fingers against the tabletop, his glance settling on Natasha as Sam speaks.

“But why?” Sam looks around. “Thought Fury was one of the good guys?”

[marvel_npc]

"He is," Nat murmurs, before meeting James' gaze unflinching. "For the most part."

He found out about James and Sharon, somehow. He must have. It's the only explanation. "Probably he wanted to avoid something exactly like this happening if we got word that something had gone wrong and she was in danger."

She'd said we but everyone around this table knows exactly who Fury would have wanted to keep away from Sharon and Madripoor. Sam glances at James, then shakes his head.

"That's cold, man."

It's Steve who answers. "The why doesn't matter right now," he says, firm. "All that matters is what we're gonna do about it." He looks at T'Challa, who nods.

"Agreed," he says. "And I think we all know exactly what we are going to do: we will go to Madripoor and find Sharon Carter... if she lives."

[nerves_of_ice]

Of course it would be Natasha who saw so quickly to the heart of it; to the reason for it. After all, the two of them have been here before, in their own way. His eyes meet hers again, and they trade a long look in silence, each of them aware of their own memories.

"That was a mistake," he murmurs - to her, to the absent Sharon, to anyone who might care. His glance flicks to Steve and T'Challa in turn.

"Yes. We have to. Not just for her sake, although everyone here knows what I think about that. But because Fury doesn't get to pull a stunt like this, endangering someone who laid her life on the line time after time for SHIELD and the cause it served. If she's alive --"

He forces his voice not to crack on the words. He can't afford to let emotion rule him.

"--if she's alive, then she's cut off from everyone but him. That's not acceptable. We have to get her out."

A beat of silence falls. He lets it hang in the air before he breaks it. "As far as planning goes, I've already told T'Challa that the Winter Soldier is known in Madripoor. We can use that."

Only after he says it does he let his glance return to Steve.

[marvel_npc]

He feels the bottom drop out of his stomach. "Buck – "

Glancing at Nat is no help; she lifts one eyebrow in an infinitesimal flick that is somehow as loud as a shout.

But it's Nakia who speaks up, her expression studiedly calm. "He is correct, Captain Rogers," she says, her voice clear and steady. "And more than that; the kind of people we will need to connect with in Madripoor are the sort to be impressed and more than a little interested by anyone who has managed to... acquire the Winter Soldier."

She looks an apology Bucky's way; Steve doesn't think it's enough. "Anyone important enough to have the Winter Soldier as a bodyguard is certainly important enough to deal with."

[nerves_of_ice]

It's Sam who breaks the next silence. "Are you sure?" he asks Bucky. "Not that I think you don't mean it, 'cause we all know you do. Just like we know you're willing to do what it takes, no matter what it costs you." Bucky blinks at him in surprise. He hadn't realized Wilson had been paying quite that much attention. Sam continues, "Just know... there's options. We can find another way."

"I'm sure," Bucky tells him, low and steady and certain. "But thanks."

[marvel_npc]

"Too large a team will cause too much suspicion," Nakia continues, as T'Challa folds his hands together and half-turns to watch her.

"I suggest splitting into two: one undercover on the ground, one waiting nearby for extraction or support if things go wrong." Her calm glance lands on Captain Rogers, who looks back at her, still stricken.

"Captain, I am afraid the identity you created for Prague will not work in Madripoor."

"You and I will hang back, Steve," Natasha tells him, and he opens his mouth, about to argue, but Nakia cuts him off by turning to T'Challa. "You as well, my love," she tells him, and he stares at her, thunderstruck.

"Me?"

"You are far too recognizable, my king," Okoye interjects.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Guess that puts me in the starting lineup," Sam observes. "Okay, so it's me, you," he says, with a nod to Bucky, "and you two?" He looks at Nakia and Okoye, who both shake their heads.

"Okoye will remain with the others nearby," Nakia says, and Okoye nods, looking grimly resigned. "She is better as a warrior than a spy."

"And one more," Natasha puts in. Her expression is unruffled as everyone else turns to her with varying degrees of surprise. "A second bodyguard - one for Nakia."

"Okay, makes sense," Sam agrees. "Who?"

Natasha turns to look at Bucky, who feels all the wind go out of him as she says, "Yelena."

"No."

[marvel_npc]

"Wait," Steve says, for a moment too bewildered to be either worried or insulted. The others trade similarly bemused glances as he says,

"Who's Yelena?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky shifts into Russian without even thinking about it as he demands of Natasha, "ты с ума сошёл?"

"Успоко́йтесь, всё бу́дет хорошо́," Natasha flashes back. "ты знаешь, что она хороша. вы тренировали ее."

"Не в э́том де́ло!" Bucky argues, at which point Natasha rolls her eyes and looks past him at Steve.

"She's my sister," she says. "James is being overprotective."

[marvel_npc]

"You have a sister?" Steve says, trying in vain to latch onto any part of this conversation that he can.

Okoye, on the other hand, arrows in on the salient point. "She can fight?" she asks Natasha.

[nerves_of_ice]

Natasha looks pointedly at Bucky, who mutters several curses under his breath before nodding to Okoye. "She can fight," he admits, and Natasha smiles.

"She's as well-trained as I am," she says, smoothly. "And she'll know how to work with him. She's a good choice."

Sam's eyebrows have risen higher and higher as he listens to all this. He glances at Steve.

[marvel_npc]

"Fine," Steve says, firmly putting a stop to both his spiraling thoughts and any other questions that might come up.

"Nat, Buck; your word is good enough for me. But how the hell are we going to get her out here in time?"

"I may have the answer to that," T'Challa says, surfacing from a few moments of deep thought. "Endangered or no, the mission undertaken by Sharon Carter is still a dire one. I would like to call Everett Ross in to take over from Nick Fury. Perhaps together we can finally see an end to this threat."

He turns to Natasha. "If your sister is willing and happens to be staying somewhere along the way, he could bring her with him and meet us there."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, she'll be willing," Natasha tells them. "Location might be a problem."

"Call her," Bucky suggests. "Be sure on both counts."

"I can patch the call in here," Shuri offers. Natasha types something on her phone quickly, watches as a response pings back, then sends a second message and nods to Shuri.

"Use this number." She recites it aloud, and waits along with everyone else as Shuri does something on her end, then flicks a viewscreen into the air above the table.

[miss_american_pie]

"Hey!"

Yelena pauses halfway through the door, her phone in her hand, and leans back to stick her head around the jamb, rolling her eyes when she sees the face Melina is making. "Don't forget," the other woman warns. "It's your turn to do the dishes."

"Mama," Yelena says, scandalized. "I will. Can I just – ? Okay? Thank you?"

Melina waves her off and turns, muttering something to herself that Yelena is just as happy to not to hear. For her part, she slams out the door and into the early evening air as she thumbs the screen and accepts the call. "они сводят меня с ума," she says, holding the screen up to her face. "I – "

She falls off, features furrowing into a frown as she stares at the faces looking back at her. "Is that the king of Wakanda?"

[marvel_npc]

"See?" Shuri hisses at her brother. "You are too recognizable!"

T'Challa ignores her in favor of inclining his head to Yelena. "Indeed," he says, mildly, "I am. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Yelena. We have a favor to ask of you."

[miss_american_pie]

"Me?"

She glances at the other faces she can see, and her eyes grow huge as she recognizes Steve Rogers. "Is that Captain America?"

As much as possible, she addresses Natasha, who she can just barely see at the edge of the screen. "Старшая сестра, это что-то от Мстителей?"

"Did you say Captain America?" she hears Alexei holler from the kitchen, and she rolls her eyes and yells back,

"Busy! Give me a second!"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Unofficially," Bucky says, before Natasha can answer her. "Hello, Alyona."

He can't quite manage a smile, but he can feel his expression soften a little as he looks through the display at her.

"My friend is in trouble. We're going to get her out of it. It could get messy."

[miss_american_pie]

"Yasha?"

She moves the phone and cranes her neck, trying to see him, as if she could move the display from her end. He sounds...

Bad. For once, she doesn't say so out loud.

My friend is in trouble. All her bewilderment washes away as her expression clears to intent focus. "What do you need me to do?"

[marvel_npc]

Yasha, Sam mouths, and leans over to whisper to Steve, "Did you know about any of this?"

Steve shakes his head at Sam and looks at Yelena. "If you agree," he says, firmly, "you'll be going in undercover with Bucky." ("James," Natasha murmurs.) "We'll give you the details when you get here, if you come, but it's going to be dangerous. You can say no."

[miss_american_pie]

Yelena's eyebrows climb throughout this short speech, and she glances at Natasha, rather than Captain America.

"'It's going to be dangerous,'" she repeats, unimpressed. "Is he serious?"

"He always is," Natasha says, something unruly shading at the corner of her mouth. "I'll fill him in. You in?"

"Yes, of course," Yelena tells her. Him. All of them. "It's this or spend the rest of my life doing chores like Zolushka. Where's the rendezvous?"

[marvel_npc]

"I'll text you the coordinates and time," Natasha tells her. "Be nice to the man who's picking you up. He's about to have a very hard day."

[miss_american_pie]

"I can be nice," Yelena says, defensively. "Fine. See you soon."

She waves and then makes an awkward head-bob of a bow towards King T'Challa, who she had kind of forgotten about, then drags her thumb across the bottom of her screen to hang the call up. She takes a moment to blink to herself, then stands and yells: "Mama? I need my suit!"

"I think it's in the laundry," comes Melina's call. "Why?"

Yelena's already coming back inside, but she's shouting anyway. "I have to go rescue someone with Natasha and Captain America – don't start," she says, holding up a warning finger to Alexei before she runs up the stairs.

"Don't wait up."