122 Assassinations

A/N: Reminder that I've stopped writing new chapters, and will only upload the old ones. The story is officially dropped!!

Read on!

—

Margaret "Peggy" Stevens, formerly Carter, was an old, but resilient woman.

The 91 year old woman was the first Director of SHIELD, as well as one of its founders, and so, despite her advanced age, she was given the best treatment possible from the organization she helped found. 

Constant checkups, advanced medical equipment constantly monitoring her vitals, and of course, a highly protected Safehouse.

The safehouse was in Washington DC, not very far from the Triskelion, the Headquarters of SHIELD. It was surrounded by multiple SHIELD owned businesses, and a contingent of guards that were loyal only to Shield. Even beyond that, the walls of the building were reinforced, to make sure that no explosion on the outside harms those inside it, not too much at least. Even the windows of the building were made out of thick, bulletproof glass, the same one that had been used to create the prison for Loki.

The only way someone could even come close to Peggy Stevens was if SHIELD wanted them to come close. 

And there was a reason for all this. You see, almost a decade after she had already retired from SHIELD, there was an assassination attempt on her life. The attempt had happened barely a month after Howard Stark, another one of SHIELD's founders, had died in a tragic accident, along with his wife.

The assassination attempt had forced Peggy's children to go into Witness Protection, changing names and moving to different countries, while Peggy's husband had been moved to a different safehouse in DC itself.

Unknown to anyone but Peggy and her family, one of her grandchildren had moved to a different planet altogether, thanks to the presence of a Gift in his body. The 37 year old Collin Erikson was a Wizard, and now lived in Wizarding Britain, on the planet Avalon.

Dr Lara Hutchins was one of the many doctors and nurses under the employ of SHIELD. She had been working in SHIELD for close to a decade now, and was the person in charge of Peggy Stevens's health for the last three years of it.

For three years she had been working diligently, making sure Peggy Stevens remained as healthy as possible. There were some incidents of sickness, illnesses, and even some broken bones thanks to an unfortunate fall in the bathroom or two. But Lara had made sure that Peggy recovered.

And while the fractures didn't get fixed completely, thanks to the old age of the patient, Peggy didn't feel the pain anymore.

So Lara could safely say that her work was spectacular when it came to taking care of her patient. She was trusted implicitly to take care of Peggy Stevens.

Which is why, the Agents working in the building did not do more than a cursory check on her, when she entered the Safehouse to check on Peggy Stevens. Everyone knew her here, everyone knew that she was the one making sure Peggy Stevens was healthy.

The first thing Lara does after entering the building is go to the kitchen, where the Chef had already prepared the nutritional breakfast for Peggy Stevens. She might be the doctor in charge, but it wasn't unknown of her to feed Peggy during any one of the times. It allowed her to talk to her patient, and get a first hand read on how much she ate.

Lara had just a small smile on her face as she entered the room that Peggy Stevens was kept in, after entering a 16 bit passcode. Surprisingly to her, however, Peggy Stevens was not alone even at 10 in the morning.

Lara looks at the man who was sitting at Peggy's bedside, and says, "Mrs Stevens! You have.. a visitor."

Peggy turns towards her, with the man having already stood up when the door opened, and says, "Lara.. come. You've heard of Steve, I assume. Steve, this is my Doctor. Lara Hutchins."

Peggy's voice was soft, a bit raspy, thanks to the old age, and the man turned towards her with a concerned frown.

Lara nods at the man, and says, "Of course, who hasn't? Captain Rogers, it is so nice to meet you. But if you don't mind, I've brought Mrs Stevens's breakfast."

Steve Rogers, Captain America, just nods at her, and moves away. Lara takes a moment to first note down the readings for the hour, and then breaks the seal on the soup bowl. And then, in front of Steve Rogers and in full view of the camera, Lara feeds the first spoonful to the smiling Peggy Stevens.

The seal was only to be broken in front of Peggy Stevens, in full view of the camera. It was to prevent, or catch, any more assassination attempts on her life. Starting from the Kitchens, to the bed that Peggy slept on, everything was under constant surveillance, and even the places the food came from were kept an eye on, to prevent anyone poisoning Peggy.

All in all, everything about, around, and even inside the safehouse, made assassinating Peggy Stevens almost impossible. 

Almost.

It was not a wonder, though, that Lara Hutchins had been working on this particular Assassination assignment for close to 12 years.

Lara Hutchins.. Black Widow, and an infiltration agent that had managed to infiltrate the biggest Spy organization in the world. SHIELD.

For 12 years she had waited, biding her time, and remained loyal to SHIELD. For 12 years she had worked her way up as a Doctor, with her employers making sure she became the Doctor in charge of Peggy Stevens's health. And then, she waited. 

She waited for the order to assassinate Peggy Stevens. An order which she had known would come for a decade, and which had finally come.

Steve Rogers's presence was not an issue, since the Thallium based poison that Peggy Stevens had just consumed with the first sip was a very slow acting one. It would take days for the Poison to take effect, and when it does, there will be just one symptom. 

Death.

Lara Hutchins keeps her face neutral, a smile on her face, as she keeps talking with Steve and Peggy, making sure to not give a single sign that she had already succeeded where many had failed. That Peggy Stevens was already dead. She just didn't know it yet.

As Lara picks up the spoon to feed her the soup once more, Peggy stops her, and with trembling hands, asks for the napkin. Lara obediently hands her the napkin, and watches as Peggy wipe her own mouth, and then drinks the water.

"So.. Lara.." Peggy says, after drinking the water, as Lara picks another handful of soup. At Lara's questioning look, Peggy smiles at her, and asks, "Who hired you to poison me?"

Lara stops, the words of the old woman shocking her to the core, and with a confused frown on her face, she asks, "What do you mean, Mrs Stevens?"

'How? How did she know? The poison is tasteless, odorless, and there should be no signs of her being poisoned at all!' Lara thinks to herself.

She could feel the atmosphere in the room change, making her realize that maybe she should have aborted today's mission. But how was she to know that Steve Rogers was visiting his old lover today?

Feeling movement, Lara twirls around Steve Rogers's extended hand, and kicks the back of his knee. Even as Steve drops down, however, Lara ignores him and starts running towards the door. She knew that she wouldn't be able to defeat Steve Rogers, not without her weapons at least.

But before she even reaches the door, something hits her on her back, hard, and Lara slams into the metallic door. As Lara starts to get up, she sees the approaching figure of Steve Rogers, his iconic Shield in his left hand, and before she could even start putting up a defense, Lara finds herself knocked out by a single punch.

—

Steve frowns at the unconscious woman, who was apparently the doctor in charge of Peggy's health, and asks, "How did you know?"

He was worried. He did not feel anything wrong, he did not sense anything untowards coming from this woman who apparently poisoned Peggy. Or tried to.

Peggy softly snorts, and says, "You can thank Mason for that. 20 years I haven't seen him, and still, his gift comes to use even now."

"His gift?" Steve asks, turning around as he brings his phone out to call SHIELD, wondering if Mason knew this would happen some day. An assassination attempt on Peggy.

Peggy brings her wrinkled hands to her neck, and brings out a gold necklace, two rings hanging off of it. She caresses the rings, and says, "After.. After Howard was gone, Mason gave this to me, with Robert's agreement of course. One is supposed to protect me from any poison, while warning me of it, and the other will take me to Mason if my life is in danger."

Steve sighs, thankful for his friend's thoughtfulness. Even if it did worry him a bit. 

'Why would Howard's death prompt Mason to do this? Did Mason think anything was suspicious about Howard's Death?' Steve thinks for himself.

Shaking his head, he says, "Fury's sending a team to capture her. I'm guessing you'll be moved from here."

Peggy nods at him, and sighing, she says, "Not that it will be of much use. I have no doubt that this woman is a Black Widow, and so, no answers will be forthcoming. She might not even know who hired her."

Steve frowns, and says, "Let's hope Natasha can make this one talk."

It takes a few minutes for SHIELD to get the agents to the room, and take the unconscious woman to the Triskelion. Steve spends another hour or so with Peggy, listening to her talk about her children, one of whom she had named James Carter. After which he returns to his room.

The matter was not over, he knew. Someone tried to have Peggy killed, and it was a mission a long time in the run. Someone spent more than a decade making sure an infiltration agent was perceived as completely loyal to SHIELD.

And Mason knew that something like this would happen. Why? Why did Mason not trust SHIELD like this? Why didn't Peggy seem worried that this could happen again? Why did Peggy sound.. resigned to her fate? Steve didn't know, but he does know that things weren't as simple as he'd originally believed.

When Steve is later told that the Black Widow, Lara Hutchins, poisoned herself with a suicide pill hidden inside her tongue, Steve knew one thing and one thing only.

'I need to talk to Mason.' 

—

Tony Stark sat inside his lab, underneath Stark Tower. He stared at the four suits of armour standing upright in front of him with something akin to a frown.

Mark XL to XLIII were the only ones he had brought here to Stark Tower. The rest.. were once again in Malibu, hidden inside the basement of the basement of the rubble that used to be his house.

After killing Aldrich Killian, he had debated destroying every one of these suits, but ultimately, he couldn't do it. Not when he knew a threat like HYDRA still existed. And so, he had simply.. rebranded them into the Iron Legion.

Alas, that proved to be a deal breaker for his girlfriend, and the CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts. They were now, as Ross Geller loved to say, on a break. Pepper needed time to think over if she could live with the Iron Man and the Iron Legion still existing, and Tony.. he had a lot of things on his mind.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The sudden voice makes Tony jump, and answering his mental call, the four Iron Man suits point their armed weapons at the intruder inside his most private Lab.

Tony scowls when he sees the intruder to be none other than someone he's been waiting for for the last half year, and asks, "How did you get here? Screw that! Where the fuck have you been?"

He doesn't, however, make the Iron Man suits drop their weapons.

Mason Aves, Captain Avalon, a Wizard Mutant, stares at the Iron Man suits that had him at gunpoint, and says, "Not on this planet. I just came to Earth an hour ago, and came here as soon as Emma told me about your.. call. She said you sounded desperate… So here I am."

Tony blinks, and opens his mouth. Closing it with a snap, he raises his finger, and says, "First, I didn't sound desperate. And second, what do you mean you weren't on this planet?!"

Mason shrugs, and says, "Exactly that. I was not on this planet."

Tony is once again forced to mimic a goldfish, as he keeps opening his mouth and closing it with a snap. Finally, shaking his head, he says, "I'll get to that later. First, tell me something. Are you HYDRA?"

Mason raises an eyebrow, and looks at Tony like he's an idiot. He asks, "Ignoring the fact that that one statement hurt more than any punch ever did me, why the fuck would you ask that? Did you seriously think that someone who's actually an HYDRA agent would say 'yes'?"

Okay, now that he said it like that.

Tony shrugs, and says, "Look, I'm not a suspicious guy but things don't add up for me, okay? I dig into Hydra, I tell Emma Frost that I need you, and not only do you not show up, but I find myself under attack by a terrorist organisation? Tell me that's not suspicious."

Mason looks at Tony, confused, and asks, "Didn't you literally invite said terrorists to your home? I did my homework before coming here, you know."

Tony waves his hand, dismissing the accusations, and says, "I've invited multiple terrorists to my home, and threatened even more. But none of them managed to land a blow on me as large as AIM did. So they definitely had help."

And the worst part was, the help came from inside America. From SHIELD, from HYDRA. Tony.. didn't know what to do, he didn't know who to trust anymore. And even Mason Aves, someone famous for having fought Hydra in the past, wasn't someone he trusted implicitly.

70 years is a long time, and as they day, Time changes people.

Mason takes a deep breath, and letting it out, he says, "No.. I'm not Hydra. And neither is Emma, or anyone high enough in MIS to be of any threat to you. And no, I'm not saying this just because you have your Iron Men pointing their weapons at me. They won't be able to harm me at all."

Tony stares at the man, and after a minute or so, brings the weapons down. Reluctantly, he says, "I don't have a choice here but to trust you. The enemy's already tried to have me killed once, I can't take the risk." With a pause, he frowns, and says, "And don't say Iron Men. That sounds.. very lewd, for some reason."

"Okay, Tony. Sit down, take a deep breath and start from the beginning. Why did you need my help? And what made you look up Hydra?" Mason says, and Tony finds himself nodding as they sit down.

After a silence that stretches for barely a few seconds, Tony says, "Hydra's still alive. I'm sure you already know." Mason just nods, as he leans back in his chair. Tony narrows his eyes at that, and asks, "And why haven't you done anything about them?"

It had bothered Tony a lot. There was no way someone like Mason, someone with Magic and Telepathy, wouldn't know that Hydra was inside SHIELD. No way at all. Why then did he not do anything? Why did he not say anything?

Mason sighs, as he looks away from Tony, and says, "I.. wasn't in the right state of mind, these last few decades. I'm sure you know my wife's been missing. Only now that she's back, do I realize that my priorities were really screwed. I'm sorry to say but there could have been a worldwide plague that killed billions 20 years ago and I wouldn't have cared at all. The world could have ended and I wouldn't have cared, since at that time, and until I saw Steve that day, my priority was looking for my wife."

Tony didn't know what to say to that. He knew he couldn't blame Mason completely, not really. Tony himself had done a lot of stuff when emotionally unstable, sanctioning America's war on Terror (or oil, more like), was just one of them.

The words finally register, and blinking in surprise, Tony asks, "You got your wife back?"

Mason grins, and nodding, he says, "Yup. I finally found her like, 8 months ago. Right after the battle, to be honest. I'll introduce her to the team later. I've been busy getting.. reacquainted with her since then."

'Team? Oh yeah, team.'

Tony grins back, and says, "Reacquainted, eh? Good for you, man. So, you're going to fight against Hydra then? And I assume the Avengers will be the face of this battle?"

Mason nods, losing the grin, and says, "Hydra.. is my demon to battle. But.. I also know that you, Steve, and the rest of the team, wouldn't hesitate to join me in my fight. So yes.. the Avengers will be fighting Hydra. And this time, HYDRA won't be surviving."

Tony nods, and says, "Right. Speaking of the Avengers… Are we sure the spy twins aren't HYDRA? And what about Fury? That's why I contacted Frost for, actually. I need your telepathic help to find out who's HYDRA and who's not."

Mason smiles at him, and asks, "You're actually prepared, aren't you? You're ready to fight a War? Because make no mistake, Tony, this will be a war. And no, Romanoff and Barton aren't HYDRA. Neither is Fury, Coulson, Hill, or anyone on the Avengers."

Tony did know that actually, that this was going to be a War. His hacking had netted him absolutely nothing. Not a single trace of HYDRA, not a single trace of any crimes they may have committed while hiding inside SHIELD. This just means they're more dangerous than he believed.

Tony shrugs, not showing the worries he has, and says, "They've stayed hidden long enough, who knows what Power and influence they've already gathered in their hands. I just don't want to be mistrustful of my own government." Pausing, he adds, "Not more than usual in any way. You know what, Sterns. That Senator has got to be Hydra. He just smells it."

Mason shakes his head, a smile on his face, and says, "I have no idea who that is."

Tony snorts, and says, "Real shady guy. Tried to force me to hand my Iron Man to the Army. He was far too interested in my suit to be anything but Hydra."

"Or maybe he was just an asshole who didn't trust you." Mason points out.

Tony shrugs, not arguing it, and turns his back on Mason to continue working on upgrading the next armour. It is entirely possible, but until proven otherwise, every Government asshole is in suspicion of being Hydra.

"How did you find out about them anyway? About Hydra." Mason asks, as Tony keeps designing the XLV.

Without turning around, Tony says, "Our mutant friends.. one of the X-Men -X-Women?- in the Avengers is a telepath like you. She told me that Secretary Pierce is Hydra, and that HYDRA has infiltrated Shield very much."

"And what else did you find?" Mason asks from behind him, sounding curious.

Tony answers, "I've tried digging through SHIELD, NASA, CIA, FBI, NSA, IRS, and even TSA, but nothing. No hints of HYDRA at all."

Mason snorts, and says, "It was expected. HYDRA has been a part of SHIELD since Operation Paperclip. They know SHIELD as much as SHIELD does. Maybe more. If I didn't have my Telepathy, I doubt even I would have found out about them."

Tony looks up, a frown on his face, and asks, "Really? That long? So the organization was never dead?"

Mason shakes his head, and says, "Nope. Just hidden."

"Huh." Tony says. After a short pause, he turns back to his workstation, and asks, "When did you find out about them then?"

For a few seconds, Mason stays silent, and then he says, "December 1991. A few days after HYDRA orchestrated your parents' death."

CRACK!

Tony's fist slams into the monitor, and Tony stares at Mason, his eyes stony, filled with anger. His other hand was clutching the table hard, causing his fingers to start bleeding. The Iron Legion, or just the four armours still in the room, all activate once again reacting to Tony's intentions, and point their weapons at Mason.

Mason himself, meanwhile, looks at Tony with a sad look on his face, but he does not look worried about the weapons at all.

"What… did you just… say?" Tony grits out, ignoring his bleeding right fist, as he takes it out of the broken monitor.

Mason sighs, and says, "Hydra.. orchestrated your parents' death. It wasn't an accident, Tony."

"No. No. No! It was an accident. I've read the autopsy multiple times! Dad was drunk as he usually is, and he slammed into the tree! He got cut by the glass, and bashed his head on the steering wheel! And mom hit her head on the side door and broke her neck!" Tony angrily yells, as he starts pacing around the room.

Mason watches him calmly, and says, "The autopsy report was faked by HYDRA, Tony."

Tony still doesn't believe him. It can't be possible. It can't be that Hydra was responsible for his mother's death. For his father's death. For 21 years, Tony had blamed his dad's drunken behaviour for the accident, and now he finds out that his dad wasn't a drunk driver, but that he was killed? Murdered by Hydra?

And Mason knew? Knew and he didn't tell him before?

"Why should I not kill you?! You knew it! You knew it and you didn't tell anyone! You didn't do anything!" Tony yells, as he gets into Mason's face and holds him by the neck.

Mason just keeps staring at Tony with those sad eyes, and says, "I know it isn't a good excuse Tony, but I told you. I wasn't stable enough mentally speaking to do anything. I. Absolutely. Did. Not care. For anyone other than Selene at that point. And I have only myself to blame for that."

Tony scoffs, and turns around, he says, "Get out. GET OUT! YOU! You might not have killed my mom and dad, but know this Aves. I blame you for their deaths!"

Mason sighs, as he gets up, and whispers, "Me too, kid. Me too." Shaking his head, he says, "I'll return in a few days, when you're calmer. And then I'll tell you exactly who ordered their deaths, and why. Until then, I hope you try to think from my point of view."

And then, Mason disappears from the room, as silently as he'd appeared, leaving Tony to think for himself. He knew Mason wasn't to blame for the deaths itself. But after the deaths, Mason should have done something. He should have brought their killers to justice, or at least made it known that they didn't die in a drunk driving accident.

HYDRA.

Tony knew this much now though. HYDRA is far more ingrained than even he originally believed, and this means that want it or not, he is going to need the help of Mason Aves to fight against them.

And fight them he will. For his mother.

—

A/N: Yes, Mason lies a lot. He has secrets, namely his Time travelling and his Reincarnation. And to protect those secrets he will lie to anyone and everyone. Even Selene doesn't know about the Reincarnation.

Thank you for your support! Tata!