This is the beginning of the CA:WS arc. So, the next five chapters will essentially be the movie, but with missing scenes. Oh, and this chapter has a bit of Agents of SHIELD Season 1, Episode 15. Hopefully, you will enjoy the chapter! Thank you @that_bookworm_21 and @bookloverpercy for your kind words! And for any new voters, thank you as well! R & R! - Spathi

January 2013

Natasha's P.O.V.

Mission alert. Extraction imminent. Meet at the curb. :)

She sent the text to Steve as she wove through the streets of Washington D.C. She'd been in D.C. for about two months, and she had quickly realized that she preferred New York more. She had Iris messaged Bruce on Christmas and New Year's, and had spent that time chatting with him about his projects, which was much more fun then mission reports. 

Last night, she'd had a strange dream, which was amazing compared to her usual nightmares, but still rather weird.

 She'd stood in the middle of a cave. Shadows had stretched around her, and frost spread across her surroundings. Asgardian runes were etched at her feet.  A voice had whispered: Do me a favor, daughter of Mars. Check on my Roman counterpart's child, and I shall give you a gift in return. You know her well... send your brother to help her after the fall of the Aegis. She is with the man who is a friend of horses in Greece, whom you think dead. And she herself has a reputation that involves a metaphorical horse. Help her. And send her to my Roman counterpart.

 As far as she could tell, an Asgardian who liked shadows and ice had sent her a dream telling her to help somebody she knew, most likely a SHIELD agent. However, she had no idea who the Asgardian's counterpart might be, nor what they meant by the "fall of the Aegis". But the only person who she thought was dead currently was Phil. But he didn't interact much with horses, as far as she knew. She pushed the thought away as she approached her destination.

She drove up to the curb in her shiny black Corvette Stingray. She'd gotten it once she got to D.C. She had a lot of money from SHIELD pay, and she only used it on food and supplies. So, she had decided to treat herself to a nice car. She spotted Steve talking to a man who, judging by the logo on his shirt, was ex-military, something to do with the Air National Guard. She smirked to herself as an amazing joke came to mind.

"Hey, fellas. Either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil." she quipped, her eyebrow twitching slightly as she tried not to laugh at Steve's deadpan expression.

"That's hilarious." Steve walked over to her car and hopped in. The man he was talking with nodded at her, sitting down on a bench.

"How you doing?" he greeted.

"Hey." she replied. Steve glanced back to the man on the bench. 

"You can't run everywhere." he said, and Natasha realized that they must have met while Steve was running at a ridiculous pace around the entirety of D.C.

"No, you can't." the man called as they drove away. The car ride to the Triskelion was spent in silence. Natasha spent it thinking about the easiest ways to data mine computers, which was her job for the day. Once they arrived at the Triskelion, she parked the car, and they proceeded to the hangar, where they boarded a plane. The leader of the STRIKE team, Brock Rumlow, gave them the rundown on the mission.

Apparently, they had to board the Lemurian Star, take out all hostiles, and then Steve was going to rescue a group of hostages (which, strangely, included Jasper Sitwell, someone she knew was a Level 8 agent, and therefore had no reason to be on a "mobile satellite launch platform" in the first place), while she completed her mission. Rumlow commanded his men to gear up. She took the opportunity to tease Steve about his love life, which was one of her favorite pastimes while in D.C.

"You do anything fun Saturday night?" she asked him innocently.

"Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so... no, not really." he snarked back.

"Coming up by the drop zone, Cap." Rumlow yelled.

"You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'll probably say yes." Natasha prodded. Steve snorted.

"That's why I don't ask." he pointed out. Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"Too shy or too scared?" she taunted.

"Too busy!" the captain yelled as he hurled himself out of the ship. Natasha rolled her eyes, smiling slightly. She laughed to herself as she heard one of the STRIKE team members ask whether he was wearing a parachute.

"He's a supersoldier, he doesn't need one when landing in water." she thought. She strapped on a parachute, and jumped out of the plane. As she hurtled through the air, she tried to think of more suitable candidates for Steve to ask out.

"Hey, isn't Peggy Carter's niece undercover across the hall from his apartment? Sharon, was it? Or Kate, going by her cover. I guess it would be kind of weird, seeing as he kissed her aunt, but it could work. At least Agent 13 works for SHIELD, so it's not like he'd have to hide too much from her." She broke out of her thoughts as she activated her parachute, slowing her fall dramatically. She saw Rumlow shoot a pirate as she descended onto the deck of the ship.

"What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you? She seems kind of nice." she asked, chuckling internally at the irony.

"Secure the engine room, then find me a date." came the reply.

"I'm multitasking." she said as she hopped over a railing. She snuck through the ship silently, until she ran into a pirate. She plastered a flirtatious smile on her face and positioned herself behind the pirate just as he put down a phone.

"Hey, sailor." He spun around, and Natasha kept smiling at him for another second, before kicking at his kneecap, breaking his leg. She then pulled out a garrote, and neatly swung it around his neck. She skillfully backflipped over another railing, using him as an anchor.  Dropping through the air, she shot two more pirates along the way. She shot a third one just before she landed on him. Two more pirates stared up at her through the grate she was standing on. She pointed her guns down, and took care of them as well. 

She kept moving through the ship. Just as she dropped through a hole onto a lower deck, Steve asked her for her status through the comms. He repeated his question, more urgently this time, just as she closed in on another hostile.

"Hang on!" she yelled, and the pirate turned, only for her to vault onto his shoulders, pressing her electroshock cuffs into the back of his neck. He collapsed, and she rolled off of him, immediately disarming the next hostile to run around the corner. She kicked him in the side, and then dropped low, spinning in the other direction and sweeping him off of his feet with her right leg. She put that leg down and whipped her other leg around in the air while straightening, disarming another pirate. Then, she threw a spinning heel kick with her right leg at the head of the pirate, only for him to block it, and shove her forwards. He wrapped his arms around her, and she immediately slammed her right elbow into his face. Milliseconds later, she wrapped her right hand around the back of his neck, while also hooking her left hand under his arm and gripping his shoulder. She brought her knees up to her chest, effectively doing a crunch in the air, and then kicked outwards, as if she was trying to do a kip up. As they toppled forwards, Natasha twisted her body to the left, throwing the pirate over her shoulder as she landed on her back. She immediately sprang to her feet, doing the aforementioned kip up, and spoke into her comm.

"Engine room secure." she said as she reached for a long wrench. She whipped it around just as the first pirate to run around the corner struggled to his knees. She slammed it into his face, and then tossed it to the side, sauntering out of the engine room in search of the ship's computers.

She heard Steve tell the STRIKE team to attack, and then heard distant gunshots. She finally found a room with computers with it. She stationed herself at one of the monitors, cracked her knuckles, plugged in a flash drive, and started typing. She tuned out the crackle of gunfire and the exchanges between the STRIKE team and Steve, completely focused on her job. When Steve tackled Batroc through the door, she barely looked up.

"Well, this is awkward." she quipped as she glanced over.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked, a scowl on his face.

"Backing up the hard drive. It's a good habit to get into." she replied, trying to keep the mood light-hearted. She failed utterly.

"Rumlow needed your help. What the hell are you doing here?" Natasha didn't bother replying. Steve walked over to her, and looked at her monitor. 

"You're saving SHIELD intel." he said accusingly.

"Whatever I can get my hands on." she acknowledged.

"Our mission is to rescue hostages." he responded angrily. 

"No. That's your mission." she said as she unplugged the flash drive.

"And you've done it beautifully." she continued. She knew it wasn't the best thing to say, but she was getting more annoyed by the second. Steve grabbed her by the arm.

"You just jeopardized this whole operation." he snarled. Natasha scoffed.

"I think that's overstating things." As if the Fates wanted to prove her wrong, Batroc (who Steve really should have knocked out better) got to his feet and chucked a grenade at them. Steve batted the bomb away, and scooped Natasha up. She fired two shots into a window before they crashed through it, just as the grenade demolished the room they'd just left.

"Okay. That one's on me." she admitted, although technically, it was also on Steve for not knocking the mercenary unconscious.

"You're damn right." he growled, as he got to his feet and stomped out like an angry teenager. Natasha blew out a breath, and rolled her eyes, before getting up and following.

"So Fury compartmentalizes things. That's what spies do. We're spies, not soldiers, Rogers. You need to understand that." she thought. The plane ride back was silent and awkward. The minute they touched down, she exited the plane, and rode the elevator up to Fury's office. She dropped the flash drive on his desk, and he nodded in approval.

"Rogers wasn't too happy about finding out I had a different mission, sir." she told him. He waved a hand dismissively at her.

"I'll handle it. You did good, Romanoff. Now, go get some rest." he replied. Natasha smiled thankfully, and swept out of Fury's office. She drove home, and Iris messaged Percy, who was in Bunker 3.

"Hey, sis!" he greeted.

"Hi, Lex. I need your help." She recounted her dream to him, hoping he would know something.

"So, the daughter of the Roman version of the Asgardian who likes ice and shadows. Well, according to the internet..." he trailed off, searching the web on the monster-proof laptop he had found in Bunker 6.

"There's a guy named Hod. He's the Norse god of Darkness and Winter. He was tricked by Loki, and now he's blind. And his Roman counterpart would be Aquilon. You know, the North Wind. So I guess any child of his would probably like flying, and snow, or perhaps ice." he said a minute later.

"Alright. There's a couple agents who fit into those categories. Not many, but a few." she muttered.

"What about the part about a man who is a friend of horses in Greece?" she asked.

"Well, philos means friend or lover in Greek. And hippos means horse. So that would be anybody with the name Philippos." Percy reasoned.

"Phil! Phillip Coulson. He is alive! Somehow, he didn't die from being stabbed through the heart with Loki's scepter. And that narrows the agents who would be with him to one person. His old partner, Melinda May, who liked ice skating in her youth. She's a great pilot, as well. And her reputation involving a metaphorical horse would be her nickname, the Cavalry! Although, she hates that nickname. Wait. Mel is the daughter of Aquilon?" Natasha exclaimed, frowning at the end. Percy shrugged, looking slightly confused at the rapid speed which she had come to her conclusion.

"She must be." he replied.

"But what does Hod mean by the fall of the Aegis?" she questioned. Percy's eyes widened.

"Aegis means shield in Greek. So that means..." he looked vaguely horrified.

"That means that SHIELD will fall soon. And right after it falls, I need to send you to May's location to help her." she finished. The two sat in silence for a minute before Percy spoke up.

"So, what's the deal with May? How do you know her? And what's with being called the Cavalry?" he asked. Natasha took a deep breath.

"Well, when I first joined SHIELD, Phil was Clint's SO, which stands for Supervising Officer. It means that your SO is responsible for whatever you do, except in extremely special cases, where there was no way they could have prevented it. Fury was Phil's SO. May volunteered to be my SO. Her SO was none other then Peggy Carter herself. Her mother is Lian May, and she was the director of the CIA. She's literally the only agent in the entirety of SHIELD who has more black belts than me. She's a BAMF. No doubt about it. A couple years after I joined up, maybe around when I met you, she went on a mission to Bahrain. Whatever happened there broke her. She came back with the title of the Cavalry, and there were whispers that she had single-handedly taken out 30 men. But I know that something else happened there. Only Phil has any idea of what went on inside that building, and he doesn't even know the full story. When she came back, she withdrew into a shell. She divorced her husband, transferred from the field to administration, and spent years in the back of an office, doing paperwork. By her own choice. I had to deliver the news that Coulson had died to her. And the look in her eyes... they were almost as empty as they were after Bahrain. For her to go back into the field? Something big is happening, and she's probably there to watch Coulson's back." she explained. Percy looked saddened by Natasha's words.

"I'll look through the database in Bunker 6. I might even check with Aquilon to figure out where she went. The minute you tell me to go to her? I'll be there." he said, a determined light in his eyes. Natasha smiled.

"Thanks, little brother. Goodnight." she said.

"Night, sis." he replied. She waved her hand through the mist, and lay back on her bed. She closed her eyes, trying to get a lot of sleep before the inveitable storm that was coming in the next couple days.

Steve's P.O.V.

The day after the mission, he stormed into Fury's office. 

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" he said, smiling bitterly.

"I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours." was the reply.

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share." he shot back.

"I'm not obliged to do anything." Fury said indignantly.

"Those hostages could've died, Nick." Steve stressed, trying to get the director of SHIELD to realize the possible reprecussions of what he'd done.

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen." Steve groaned internally.

"Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns." he responded. He suddenly remembered that Nick Fury had been in the army himself. If the rumors were true, Phil Coulson had been in the same unit as him.

"The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." There wasn't much Steve could say to that, so he kept silent. Nick sighed.

"Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything." the director explained. Steve didn't see how that was helpful in any way.

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own." he stated firmly.

"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all." Nick clarified. Steve looked at him accusingly.

"Except you." he said flatly. Nick sighed again.

"You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that." Before Steve tell the director exactly what he thought of that statement, Fury had already moved to the elevator, and he had no choice but to follow him in. The elevator talked, which Steve was suddenly glad he was used to, due to being in Avengers Tower for a while. Fury gave him clearance for some project, and the elevator started moving down. The tension in the air felt rather awkward, so Steve attempted to make small talk.

"You know, they used to play music." he said, but it came out flat and slightly deadpanned. Luckily, Fury ignored the tone, and humored him.

"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say "hi", people would say hi back." Steve stared, not entirely sure what to make of the new information.

"Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say "Hi", they'd say, "Keep on steppin'." Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter." Nick continued.

"Did he ever get mugged?" Steve asked curiously. Nick smiled conspirationally.

"Every week some punk would say, "What's in the bag?"" he started.

" Well, what did he do?" Steve asked, honestly intrigued.

"He'd show 'em. A bunch of crumpled ones and a loaded 0.22 Magnum." Steve blinked.

"Of course, there was a loaded 0.22 Magnum in the lunchbox. Right." he thought. Fury smiled slightly.

"Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much." Steve glanced out the glass walls of the elevator, and did a double take.

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a 0.22." Fury said, smirking.

"A little bit? This is a little bit? These things are literal aircraft carriers! How does a gun shape up next to these things?" he thought incredulously as they stepped out of the elevator.

Percy's P.O.V.

He hummed as he typed away, searching through SHIELD files for the location of Melinda May. As he went, he pulled several files out, made physical copies, and destroyed all evidence of them. There were many interesting things, such as a small farmhouse somewhere in America where an agent lived with his wife and two children, as well as a couple of files on Natasha's past. He tried to take the latter, but could only wipe some of them.

If SHIELD fell, he reasoned that a lot of these files would easily be accessible, and he needed to get the more dangerous ones out of the way. He pulled all files related to weaponizing alien technology, as well as the files on all people he knew to be demigods. He also pulled all the schematics and blueprints that would build anything out of the database. He focused on removing all information Level 7 and above especially, including a strange project titled T.A.H.I.T.I. He found some notes on something called the Deathlok program, which was apparently linked to the company Cybertek. He sighed in frustration.

"I'm not getting anywhere with this." he thought. He kept typing, until a small notice came up.

"Massive energy readings above the California-Nevada border?" he mused. He turned and tried to match the readings to any past instances, finding matches in New Mexico and London.

"So... Asgardian, then." he said out loud. He vapor-traveled to the area, and watched. He noticed a woman go by on a motorbike, followed by several men, who all seemed dazed.

"Well. There's one. Some type of Aphrodite-like magic. Okay." he muttered. A little while later, a he noticed a line of cars with SHIELD logos on the side heading down the road. He raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting." Suddenly, a rainbow broke out of the sky, and struck the ground. Percy blinked in surprise as a tall woman in armor stood in the center of a smoking ring of engraved asphalt.

"Hey, that's an Asgardian that was in New Mexico." he realized. He listened carefully, and the Asgardian introduced herself in a voice that carried.

"Do all Asgardians naturally yell?" Percy wondered. He glanced at the now identified Lady Sif, and realized that Melinda May stood across from her.

"Perfect!" he thought. He followed the agents back to their airplane, which he realized, was the Bus model. It was specially designed by Fury for an unknown team. He slipped onto the Bus silently, and followed the Asgardian around, using the Mist to cloak his presence as best as he could. Once she had been left alone, he approached. He stuck a tracking dot onto the wall in a place where it wouldn't be noticed. Sif turned and stared at his approximate location.

"I am well accustomed to Loki's magic tricks, Midgardian. Yours, while impressive, pales in comparison to his. Show yourself, and I may speak with you civilly." she said. Percy smiled, and got rid of the Mist surrounding him.

"Lady Sif, of Asgard. Pleasure to meet you." he introduced himself, matching her style of speaking.

"Who are you, if not with SHIELD?" the Asgardian questioned.

"I am the adoptive brother of one of Thor's comrades, the Avengers. I am also similar in heritage to you." he replied.

"You are no child of Asgard." Sif said.

"No. I am a child of Olympus." he responded. Sif's eyes flashed in recognition.

"We have heard tales of Olympus's exploits. Yet, I have never met one of your kind. What is your name? Whose child are you? And why do you come here?" she asked curiously.

"I suppose in your traditions, I would introduce myself as Perseus, Son of Poseidon. Although I much prefer you call me Alexios, in order that my identity is kept secret. And my sister received a message from the Asgardian called Hod. His Roman counterpart's daughter is on this plane, and will need assistance at a certain point in time in the future. I came here to scope out the area, so that when I am given the signal, I will easily be able to offer my aid, while staying out of sight." Percy explained. Sif's eyes widened.

"You are the legendary child of Poseidon, Perseus Alexios, Son of Jack? Your adventures are well known to those of Asgard. If Hod sent you here to find his counterpart's daughter, then I would truly like to meet her. His counterpart does not often have children." she responded.

"She doesn't actually know her heritage yet, so please do not inform her. And she is the one referred to as Agent May. She has an impressive reputation. In recent reports, it is said that she wielded the Berserker Staff, managing to control its power." he replied. Sif looked surprised.

"The Berserker Staff? She must truly have great control over her emotions." she said. Percy went to reply, but cut himself off as an agent, who must have been Phil Coulson, started talking nearby. 

"I hate to cut this conversation short, but I must depart." Percy said softly. Sif nodded, and Percy stepped back.

"Goodbye, Alexios." Sif said.

"Bye, Sif!" Percy whispered as he vapor-traveled away.

Percy reappeared in Bunker 6, and headed over to the computers. He pulled up a satellite map, and made the Bus's location appear. Then, he hacked into Zvezda, and added Natasha's location to the map. Percy activated the tracking dot on Bruce's glasses as well. He'd attached it while Bruce was helping him recover after Tony shot him.

"I'll need to tag the other Avengers as well. And maybe tag all of the SHIELD agents after SHIELD falls. Because there's no way SHIELD is going to just disappear. Someone's going to start it back up." he thought. He preferred tagging objects that people always had with them, but somehow, he got the feeling that he'd need to figure out how to actually track people as well.

He turned away from the computers, and looked over at the stack of files he needed to sort through.

"Well. This will be interesting." he sighed in Russian, cracking his knuckles. It was going to be a long day.