The Daughter of Tony Stark

A World Divided; Chapter 4

   I sat next to Sam as I watched Steve carry the front corner of Peggy Carter's coffin down the center of the church. My headache was back, stronger than ever, but I was trying to ignore it. I was here to mourn for an awful loss and to help Steve get through the ceremony. When he came back to his seat, I held his hand and rubbed it gently as we listened to a choir sing a beautiful song about the woman's passing. Time seemed to fly until the priest spoke.

"And now," he said gently, "I would like to invite Sharon Carter, to come up and say a few words." Steve glanced up in surprise at a blonde woman who started to make her way to the speaker pedestal, and leaned over to Sam.

"Quick question," I whispered, "Who is that?"

"An ex-SHIELD agent," Sam explained. "Spied on Cap a while back."

"Thanks."

"Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of SHIELD," the woman began nervously," But I knew her as Aunt Peggy." Sharon took a quick breathe before continuing. "She had a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool, but it was a lot to live up to. Which is why I barely told anyone we were related."

I looked to Steve and gave him a quick smile as I squeezed his hand lightly. I could tell Sharon was directing her speech towards him, and I could tell it was helping slightly. "I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage at a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. She said, 'Compromise when you can. But when you can't don't. Even when everyone is telling you that something is wrong when it's something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty, to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say, 'No... you move.'"

I directed my full attention to Sharon as she said those words. To Steve, it was the Sokovia Accords. But the flashbacks for me were becoming too painful, as if I needed to see something. I closed my eyes and allowed it all in.

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FLASHBACK...

"Stop it!" a little girl about eight years old cried, struggling against the chains that were holding her down in a car. A bullet wound was lodged in her left shoulder, and I winced as I saw blood trickle down her long-sleeve shirt. "You killed my friend! She was innocent!" The driver turned, and I saw a handsome young man.

"Your friend's death was because she was there with you," the man stated calmly as the girl yanked on her restrains, ripping up the seats of the car during the process. "We didn't want any witnesses. In a few minutes it will be as if you never existed."

"We?" the young girl repeated, and her struggles stopped. "What do you mean, 'we'?" The man turned back and took his gaze off of her. I noticed a slight bruising under his eye with a small fist shaped indention. The poor kid had got him really good.

"HYDRA," the man said, smiling slightly.

"HYDRA, like Captain America and Nazis?" the girl said in shock before emitting a nervous chuckle. "Hate to disappoint, but those people are gone."

"Hate to disappoint, but they're not, actually," the man smirked. The girl paled, and a few strands of her dark brown hair fell in her face as she continued to struggle. "Please stop, I would hate to knock you out."

"I don't care," the girl said stubbornly. "You killed Morgan, you... you killed my friend." Her voice cracked as she said, "She was like a sister to me."