caitri | Fic: Avengers Rampant!, After the Credits

Part One
Part Two

Coulson enters Fury’s office at a fast clip, coming to stand in front of his desk. Fury is frowning at a folder and doesn’t look up. “I came as soon as you called, sir.”

“Sit down, Coulson.”

Coulson does. “Might I ask why you haven’t informed Captain Rogers yet? If the report is true—”

“Oh, it’s true, alright.” Fury closes the folder and pushes it across the desk to him. “It’s all in there. In black and white and in living color: photos across six decades, and our top analysts confirm it—they’re all the same man.”

Coulson opens it up, holding one of the pictures up closely. “This last one was taken—”

“Four hours ago. Security feed from Union Station. He’s downstairs right now.” Fury leans across the desk, fingers steepled together. “You ever see an urban legend come to life? It’s a helluva thing. Problem is, he doesn’t remember a damn thing about what he’s done in all this time.”

“Amnesia?” Coulson frowns. “Part of his programming?”

“God knows what that man’s been through. If he’s really out of there, after having been the go-to assassin for the Eastern powers this long? That’ll be complicated all on its own. But if he’s some kind of sleeper agent, sent in to take down Cap?” Fury looks even more grim than usual. “He’s Rogers’s greatest weakness—always was.”

“But Stark—”

“Stark’s devotion to Rogers, heartwarming though it is, doesn’t exactly counterbalance his history as a loose cannon.” Fury fixes him with that single eye, and Coulson feels cold inside. “If there’s a hard call to be made, I need to know that there will be someone there to carry it out. The Avengers are heroes, Coulson, and the problem with heroes is that they tend to get other people dead. We’re in the business of preventing that. Understand?”

Coulson nods. He doesn’t want to, but he does. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Fury turns the folder around and picks up the top photo: old, browned at the edges, showing two figures beaming into the camera with their arms around each other. “If Bucky Barnes becomes a problem, you have my permission to eliminate him—with extreme prejudice.”