Tony leans into the bedroom I woke up in. "Coulson and Agent Carter are here."
I jump off of the hard bed and walk down the hall,to Natasha's room. She is curled up asleep.
I tip-toe toward her and gently shake her shoulder."Nat,"I shake a bit rougher and her eyes snap open. I recoil.
She looks around the room as if looking for something and hides her hands in her face. "What are you doing in here?"
"Coulson is here,"She levels her breathing, and wipes the blood from her lower lip."Was it Yelena?"
"What?"
"The dream?" I dab my thumb on her lip and run the blood off on a small piece of unused paper."Was it Yelena."
"It was all of them, Steve."She whispers.
"It's ok. You're ok now."
"No I'm not," She shakes her head."When I wake up,those dreams are not supposed to be real. But they are. Everything. Bruce is still dead. Jaxon is still dead. Yelena is still out there somewhere-"
"But she's not here."
"So what? My friends are still dead because of her."
I can't argue. I don't have a response because she is right. They are dead. We can't bring them back or see them again.
"We have to get downstairs, 'Tasha."
"I can't do it alone."
I help her out of the bed and she insists that she walk instead of me carrying her,and so I do. I wrap her arm around my neck and together we walk down the stairs and into the living room where Peggy and Phil are waiting, dressed to stay discreet.
Peggy watches Natasha and ,her eyes full of pity that Natasha does not want and chooses to ignore.
I help her sit down.
"You poor thing."
"I'm alright." She says looking to avoid any further sympathy.
Coulson looks as if seeing her pains him. He turns away to hide his face.
"Coulson what are you doing here? Won't they follow you?"
"No. Peggy made sure any trailers were sent far away from here. We need to talk buiness though."
"What buisness, Coulson. Does it look like we're up for any fight?"
Peggy shifts her weight uncomfortably as Tony snaps.
"Bruce is dead. Natasha can't stand on her own because of them. The tower is gone. What do you want, Phil? What is it you have planned for us?"
He shakes his head."I don't."
Tony throws a glass bowl at the wall and it shatters at Clint's feet."They took eveything away from us, Phil! Everything. And you come here like you have something for us, just to say you have nothing."
"Tony, calm down," I say calmly.
"I'm tired of this! I am sick and tired of this. We have nothing. Everything we were was stripped from us in a matter of seconds-"
"Not everything,"Peggy says.
Tony begins to pace."Tell me Agent Carter,what do we have left."
"Your integrity. Your will to do good in the world. No one can take that from you."
I sit down on the arm of Natasha's chair and she slides her hand into mine and squeezes. I intertwine my fingers in her's and keep her held there.
Tony sighs heavily."We don't have weapons. I don't have a suit-"
"Who says you need weapons to win a war? I understand that you lost one of your own," She turns to Natasha."Had another injured. But that does not mean that you just give up, Mr. Stark. If you surrender now,you've let them win. Is that what you are ,Anthony? Are you a quitter?"
"No."
"So why are you giving up so easily? Why are you so quick to throw in the towel?"
"I've lost hope, Maragret."
"I'm not going to lecture any of you on this,but we can win this fight. Together," She looks around the room."Leviathan means to rip us apart from the inside. And right now he's doing a damn good job. Clint and Steve. Anthony. The only two that truly seem like they have some sort of union is Steve and Natasha. Thor seems to have excluded himself from the Avengers as well. What is this?"
"That's where I'd like to take over." Phil steps forward."Leviathan is dead."
"What?" Clint pushes off the wall.
"He's been dead for over thirty years."
"Then who shot down the tower?"
"Dottie." Peggy says darkly.
"I don't understand," Natasha says. "If Leviathan is dead then how is Dottie still...active?"
"Dottie doesn't need Leviathan to be active. Is she working independantly? No."
"Then who the hell is she working for?"
"I thought Ward was brainwashed," I say.
"He was. An autopsy revealed that."
"So who's Dottie working for?"
"Leviathan."
"We don't need riddles right now,Coulson." Tony says.
"There is a new Levaithan."
"You mean like an heir or something?"
"Something like that,yes."Peggy says.
"So a son,maybe?" I ask.
"He was in jail most of his life. He didn't have time for a son." Clint says.
"That's what we are stumped on. Natasha do you think Yelena still has ties back to The Hand."
Natasha pales and looks as if she could be sick,but she pulls herself together quickly." It's possible. But Elektra was killed."
"She isn't the leader and she isn't dead." Clint says.
"Levaithan and The Hand? Doen't make sense. If this was the case, this whole thing would revolve around ,Natasha. If her theory is correct, Dottie means to reenact what she couldn't finish in the forties. That means this is about Peggy and Tony."I say.
"Me?" Tony asks.
"Dottie had your father brainwashed and had him fly a plane of midnight oil over New York."
"Jesus. He never-"
"He didn't like to talk about it. Neither do I."
"Back to this Hand thing."
"I do not understand what this Hand is." Thor says.
"They're a group of highly elite ninjas and such. This is right up their alley."
"As far as we are concerned, Dottie is working with them."
"So what does Natasha have to do with this?" I ask." The Hand is her thing."
"Yelena,Steve. As long as I am alive and she is alive ,she is going to want to get rid of me. That is her purpose."
"So if this theory is correct not only are we dealing with this Leviathan heir,but The Hand too."
"Quite possibly, Agent Barton." Peggy says.
"That's just..."
"Grand." I say.
Because I understood that reference.
