The Immortality War || The Avengers

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

{Third Person P.O.V.}
{May 10, 2012 - Days After The Invasion}

In the Washington D.C. Triskellion, Alexander Pierce sits in his office alone. He gazes out the large window, across the Potomac River. In his grasp, a file on one particular Avenger. He knew her face looked familiar, and he knew her name by heart, but he never thought she would look that young after all this time.

He averts his eyes from the waters in front of him to the file in his hands. He opens it again, seeing the pictures from her long past. Blurry images collected over decades can only briefly touch what she'd lived through. To him, she is a wave of dark hair and eyes like steel. She is  righteous and brave and unmoving and everything he used to be. She is good and sacrificial and selfless and everything he is not.

And he never knew what happened to Emma Jane Barnes.

On his monitor, to his left, he sees pictures of the fateful day in New York, the day the aliens came. Half of him is shocked to see his old ally, now a blonde, fighting with Captain America and other rag-tag heroes to save the world--again. The other half of him isn't surprised at all.

He smiles briefly. "Finally found daylight again, didn't you, Emma?"

He's terrified of her now, because he knows that she hasn't changed at all, whereas he has changed very much. He is no longer a young Lieutenant in the Army; he's something much more sinister. If she knew what he had, who he had, in his pocket, she would kill him. That much he knows for sure.

So he makes the first move.

He turns to his screen, pressing the keys to connect with Natasha Romanoff. Her face pops up on the screen, collected and composed. "Hello, Secretary Pierce. I wasn't expecting your call."

Pierce offers a small smile, folding his hands on his desk. "Yes, I know. Agent Romanoff, I wanted to ask you a question about the day we've all been talking about."

Natasha rolls her eyes, replying, "Who hasn't asked a question?"

Pierce offers a chuckle. "I wanted to ask you about Steven Rogers and Emma Barnes. You fought with both of them a few days ago. How are they...recovering?"

The Russian assassin looks perplexed. "What do you mean?"

The Secretary restates his words, "Captain Rogers came out of the ice not a week ago, and Barnes has a questionable track record."

"Don't we all?"

"My question is about their character and abilities. Do you think that they are qualified?"

"Qualified for what, Sir?"

"For SHIELD Agent status."

Natasha stops a moment, eyes widening briefly. "You want to recruit them? Forgive me, Sir, but that's not up to you. That's up to the Academies and, ultimately, Director Fury himself."

Pierce smiles. "It will take some convincing from the Security Council, maybe a month or two before everything calms down enough that they will see reason, but yes. I want to recruit them both. They would be a great asset to SHIELD. I'm sure Director Fury would agree. He seems very fond of them both."

Natasha nods, eyes looking downwards to her left in memory recall. "They're great fighters, Sir, and are definitely willing to lay their lives on the line, but should we recruit them so soon? I mean, I would love them by my side at SHIELD, but one is almost a century old, and the other is barely adjusted to the 21st century."