The Woman in the Red Dress (Howard and Maria Stark One-Shot-- AU)

Chapter Twelve

The Avengers were seated around a table with Agent Carter in front. There had been plans made, destroyed and then remade. Each time a new problem arose. With how much power Thanos had, each plan ended up with everyone dying. In the future, at least they had more backup: Loki, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Valkyrie, Maria Hill, Rhodey, Shuri, Heimdall, Wong-- oh, and they had armies. Getting Thanos back through the portal or even back with Strange was the issue. On top of that, with all the power Thanos had, he chose not to attack.

"Anybody else scared?" Scott asked, having not talked lately. "Anybody?"

"Fear will not help our cause," Thor stated.

"Thanos is an all powerful God--"

"He's not all powerful," Clint stated. "He's just working his way up."

"Clint is right," Wanda came in. "We still have the ability to defeat him. Thanos hasn't gained all the Infinity Stones. If given the chance, we would be able to stop him. We can take him back to the future."

"We will take him back to the future, but we need the Infinity Stone first," Steve pushed.

"And you'll get it." Maria walked into the conference room. Somewhere along the way, she had dropped Mjolnir off and changed back in her regular uniform. Standing at attention, her shoulders were up, back straight, chin high. Sometimes she was relaxed, not now. "Trust in Howard. He will accomplish it."

"You don't have any doubts?" Scott asked.

"I wouldn't have married the man if I had any doubts." Maria paused. "What is your issue with him?"

Scott squared his jaw and stood. "Yeah, I have problems with Howard Stark because of--"

"Lang," Steve warned.

Ant Man didn't listen. "Pym-- know that name, remember that name. I thought you had to be innocent in all of this, but no, you're a secret god-spy-assassin human; you had to know. Never trust a Stark, he said."

Maria, the whole time, stood unmoved and unbothered. She wore a polite, democratic smile. "Is that all?"

"No, I can go on."

She waited, and Lang watched her with pursed lips and an angry gaze. So many things ran through his head at one point, but now as he tried to stand eye to eye with her, all those things disappeared. Goodness, she was intimidating, looking bored at the whole thought of him, as if she was ready for anything to come out of his mouth and she wasn't even going to be surprised, like she heard it all before about Howard Stark.

"I have nothing else." Scott quickly sat back down.

After a second, Maria turned back to Agent Carter. "Colonel Phillips is talking with Chief Sousa now."

Agent Carter asked, "How well is that going?"

"The colonel isn't exactly happy with our work." She rolled her eyes. "Do we have a plan?"

"All of our plans involve our deaths," Clint asked, "so it's going well."

"He'll most likely attack here again," Natasha responded. "However, why didn't he come with the rest of them? While we would be focused on the soldiers, he had his chance to come and take the Infinity Stone."

"Unless he knew that Maria already had it." Steve glanced up, the realization hit him. "You saw Thanos, yes, when you were stealing the box; he let you go."

Maria watched him with an even gaze, trying to figure out where he was going with this. "Yes."

"He saw the Infinity Stone on your finger."

"Why not take it then?" Thor asked, following Steve's thought process. "No offense to you, ma'am, but you seemed probably weak to him then. Why not take it then?"

"Maybe he didn't know?" Wanda offered. "Maybe he saw the stone and didn't think anything of it?"

"What was it that you stole?" Steve asked.

Maria kept her mouth clamped shut.

"Peggy?" Steve turned to his old flame, and even she was hesitant to answer. Maria wasn't going to answer without her boss' permission, but it was a good thing the boss stood in the room with them. "What did you steal?"

"Something that Obadiah Stane had in his possession," Maria answered. That was a name that people recognized easily, as that was the first person Iron Man had fought. Stane had worked at Stark Industries.

"What was it?" Vision asked.

"I wish I knew," Maria said, "but that's not my job. Even then, I try to leave the science to the scientists."

"How did you know when you stole?"

"The Hydra scientists drew me a picture. It took me long enough to infiltrate just to get close enough to object. I wasn't leaving without it."

"What does the object do?"

Maria paused.

"You don't know what the object does?"

Agent Carter spoke up, "When orders are given, Agent Stark is known to follow them. No question. She brings back what we need."

"What was it, Peggy?" Steve asked, growing slightly angry.

Agent Carter said nothing.

Wanda's eyes grew wide. "She doesn't even know." Throughout this time, Wanda had popped into the heads of Agent Carter and Agent Stark, careful to stay away from some of the gray areas, searching and shifting through the memories. "This order came from the colonel. They don't even know what he wanted it for."

The door opened, and Chief Sousa came inside. Everyone looked to him.

"Sousa, what did you give the colonel?"

"The box," Daniel Sousa answered.

"What was in the box?"

"Whatever Agent Carter retrieved from Stane."

"None of you know." Chief Sousa's mind had been easy to navigate, not because there wasn't much in there but because there weren't as many secrets as the two agents. It was a wonder how they managed to keep everything straight. "This could lead to destruction."

"It will be something we deal with," Agent Carter answered. "For now, we focus on Thanos. When is he coming back? What can we do to stop him? We need a plan, and we needed it created hours ago."