CHAPTER NINE:

ALEXANDER PIERCE

STEVE STOOD IN a room, staring through a window, watching doctors perform surgery on Nick Fury when Natasha came rushing in, stopping beside the super soldier.

"Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asks.

"I don't know." Steve murmurs in reply.

"Tell me about the shooter." Natasha demands.

"There were two of them." Steve begins. "Both fast. Strong. One of them had a metal arm."

Maria Hill then walks up beside Natasha, staring at Fury as well.

"Ballistics?" Natasha questions.

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable." Maria informs.

"Soviet-made." Natasha murmurs.

Maria glances at her. "Yeah."

"He's in V-tach."

"Crash cart coming in."

"Nurse, help me with the drape."

"BP's dropping."

"Defibrillator!" A doctor orders, to which a nurse brings a machine to Fury's bedside. "I want you to charge him at a hundred."

"Don't do this to me, Nick." Natasha whispers.

"Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear." The doctor places the defibrillator to Fury's chest. "Pulse?"

"No pulse." Another doctor replies.

"Okay, two hundred, please." The doctor requests. "Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear! Get me epinephrine! Pulse?"

The other doctor shakes his head from side to side. "Negative."

The three all stood there in silence as they watch the doctors and nurses check Fury. Shaking his head, Steve walks out, leaving Natasha and Maria inside the room.

"What's the time?" The doctor questions.

"1:03, Doctor." A nurse responds.

"Time of death," the doctor begins. "1:03 a.m."

Maria leaves Natasha's side, walking out of the room as the red head continues to stare at Fury, tears in her eyes.

~

Steve looks through the window of a hospital room, Fury's lifeless body laying on a table, a sheet covering the lower half of his body. Glancing down at his hand, his blue eyes stare at the hard drive Fury gave him. Natasha stood at Fury's bedside, just staring at him when Steve eventually joins, the two standing there in silence. Eventually, Maria soon joins, stopping beside Steve.

"I need to take him." Maria speaks up.

The blonde glances at her before walking up behind the red head. "Natasha."

Instead of replying, Natasha softly rests her hand against Fury's forehead as her bottom lip quivers slightly. Steve watches as she then walks past him and out the door, him following after her.

"Natasha!" Steve calls out.

Natasha spins around, facing him. "Why was Fury in your apartment?"

"I don't know." Steve replies, shrugging.

"Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D." Rumlow informs as he walks up to them.

"Yeah, give me a second." Steve nods.

"They want you now." Rumlow insists.

Steve nods. "Okay." He then turns back to the red head.

"You're a terrible liar." Natasha states before walking off.

Hands on hips, Steve's blue eyes land on a vending machine right beside him. Rumlow continues to stand at the end of the hall, waiting for Steve to finish up whatever he was doing. Eventually, Steve walks up to him.

"Let's go." Steve instructs.

Rumlow nods. "Yeah. S.T.R.I.K.E., move it out."

~

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve finds himself walking to Alexander Pierce's office in his uniform, shield on his back. As he stares straight ahead, he notices his neighbor standing there, talking to Alexander Pierce before turning to walk off, her finally noticing him.

"Captain Rogers." Agent 13 greets.

"Neighbor." Steve responds coldly.

"Captain." Pierce begins. "I'm Alexander Pierce."

"Sir, it's an honor." Steve replies as they shake hands.

"The honor's mine, Captain. My father served in the 10st. Come on in." Pierce gestures for him to follow in his office, which he does, the man soon handing Steve a photo. "That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met, when I was at State Department in Bogota. E.L.N. rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was Deputy Chief of the S.H.I.E.L.D. station there, and he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate". Turned out, the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what do they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order, and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil, and saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."

"So you gave him a promotion." Steve concludes.

"I've never had any cause to regret it." Pierce states. "Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

Steve shakes his head. "I don't know."

"Did you know it was bugged?" Pierce asks.

"I did," Steve nods. "because Nick told me."

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Pierce questions, receiving no response. "I want you to see something."

Leaning over, he grabs a remote, pressing a button on it, a screen popping up from behind the super soldier. The blonde turns around, revealing Batroc on the screen as he was being interrogatted.

"Is that live?" Steve asks.

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers." Pierce replies.

"Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line." Steve states.

"No. It's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star. And he was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts. The last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech." Pierce informs, handing him a file.

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Steve asks.

Pierce shakes his head. "Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437."

Steve stares at him curiously, looking up from the file. "Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?"

"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence." Pierce responds. "The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death."

"If you really knew Nick Fury, you'd know that's not true." Steve states.

Pierce nods slightly. "Why do you think we're talking? See, I took seat on the Council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, to build a really better world sometimes having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies. Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today makes me really, really angry. Captain, you were the last one to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident. And I don't think you do, either. So, I'm gonna ask again. Why was he there?"

"He told me not to trust anyone." Steve replies.

"I wonder if that included him." Pierce says.

"I'm sorry. Those were his last words." Steve informs. "Excuse me."

With that, he grabs his shield, placing it on his back as he makes his way to the door.

"Captain," Pierce calls, making Steve look over his shoulder. "somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone."

Steve gives him a nod. "Understood."

With that, he walks out of the office with clenched fists. The super soldier found himself walking through the halls of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, soon stopping in front of an elevator. The doors open, letting the blonde head inside.

"Operations Control." Steve speaks up.

"Confirmed." The A.I. of the elevator replies.

As the doors were about to fully close off, Rumlow placed his hand in-between, causing them to open again. Him and other S.T.R.I.K.E. team members head inside the elevator, glancing at Steve.

"Cap." Rumlow soon greets, nodding at the soldier.

"Rumlow." Steve greets back.

Standing in silence, the doors to the elevator close up as they start to head downwards.

Rumlow turns to Steve. "Evidence Response found some fibres on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the Tac team ready?"

"No, let's wait and see what it is first." Steve replies.

Rumlow nods in reply, turning away from him. The blonde glances between the S.T.R.I.K.E. members, gaze landing on one that had his hand rested on his gun holster. The elevator comes to a stop, the doors opening, more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents coming inside, surrounding Steve. The soldier heads to the front, stopping right behind Rumlow.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Fury. It's messed up, what happened to him." Rumlow says.

"Thank you." Steve replies.

With furrowed brows, he glances around, gaze stopping on a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. The blonde notices a small bead of sweat going down the agent's temple. The elevator stops again, a few more S.T.R.I.K.E. team members heading inside once the doors opened. Steve looks back at the doors, watching them close, leaving him with all the men.

"Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?" Steve questions, breaking the silence.

Suddenly, the S.T.R.I.K.E. member in front of him brings out an electric rod, spinning around and aiming it towards the super soldier. Steve was quick to knock it out of his grip, just before many men grabbed ahold of him. One men walked forward, placing a metal bracelet around the blonde's wrist.

Grunting and groaning loudly, Steve used all his super soldier strength so his wrist wouldn't touch the metal part of the wall. Eventually, he was able to get all the men off him, kicking them in the shins or any body part, including elbowing them in the face. As he goes to attack more, Rumlow kicks his arm, making his arm go upwards, the metal bracelet instantly attaching to the metal part of the wall.

Rumlow brings out a electric rod, the rod meeting Steve's back. The blonde lets out a loud grunt in pain before elbowing Rumlow in the face and throwing a gun against the wall. As another man goes to lunge at Steve, rod in hand, the super soldier grabbed the man's arm, guiding it in another man's direction, the rod meeting his torso before he kicks them both unconscious.

Steve places his feet against the wall, pushing off it, where his wrist leaves the wall, metal leaving metal. The soldier quickly finishes off two other men before turning around, seeing Rumlow slowly rise to his feet, two rods in his grips as he holds his hands up.

"Woah, big guy." Rumlow breathlessly comments. "I just want you to know, Cap, this isn't personal!"

Just then, Rumlow lunges at the blonde, where Steve was able to grab ahold of his wrist, stopping his movements. However, with the other hand, the rod in Rumlow's grip met Steve's torso. The super soldier was able to push Rumlow off before going to punch him, but Rumlow dodged, rod meeting Steve's torso once again. Eventually, Steve pushed Rumlow off of him before throwing the man upwards, Rumlow's back meeting the ceiling, which knocked him unconscious.

"It kind of feels personal." Steve observes breathlessly.

He proceeds to step on his shield, the vibranium object sticking to the arm of his suit. Slamming his shield against his wrist, the metal bracelet breaks off. Steve presses the open button on the elevator, only to see many more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents standing there, guns aimed all at him.

"Drop the shield and put your hands in the air!" An agent commands.

In response, Steve spins around, shield cutting off the wires of the elevator, causing the platform to sink downwards in a fast pace. Once the elevator stops, the blonde uses his strength to open the doors, only to see the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents running in his direction. Quickly, he closed the doors again, blue eyes trailing to the glass window beside him.

"Give it up, Rogers! Get that door open! You have nowhere to go!" A muffled voice shouts from outside the doors.

Steve takes a deep breath before running forwards, using his shield to block the glass as he breaks through the elevator window, then falling through the glass roof on the small building beside the taller one, landing on the ground as the people around him move out of the way.

The blonde lets out small groans and grunts before rising to his feet, sprinting towards the garage. Soon enough, he makes it inside, hopping onto a motorcycle and then driving his way on the bridge. A plane soon flies up behind the blonde, bringing out a gun from the hatch below.

"Stand down, Captain Rogers. Stand down. Repeat, stand down." A male voice commands from the plane.

Steve doesn't listen as he, instead, speeds up, making the plane start shooting at him. The super soldier proceeds to dodge the bullets being fired his way before grabbing his shield from his back, throwing it at the motor of the plane. He stands up, flipping upwards, leaving the motorcycle as he lands on the plane.

He runs forward, grabbing ahold of his shield from the plane's motor, just as the plane flips to the side, causing him to roll downwards. However, Steve quickly caught himself with his shield, flipping himself back up to his feet, where he proceeds to throw his shield at the plane, now causing it to go haywire, moving downwards.

Steve flips off the plane, shield tightly sitting in his grip as he lands on the ground. Standing up, he looks over to the plane, watching the vehicle crash onto the bridge before he runs off.