章 110: Mistrust
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07.
---
"Has he said anything?" Fury asks, once the Jet has been in the air for barely a minute.
As the pilot had everything under control, Natasha turns around to look at the back, and seeing Loki just stare at Mason Aves, who just kept on reading a book he had gotten out of his jacket, she says, "Not a word."
"And what about him?" Fury asks, leaving no doubts to Natasha over who he's talking about.
The surprise addition to their team, requested by Steve Rogers to join them, Mason Aves, Captain Avalon. The second part of the legendary duo, Captain Avalon and Captain America.
Another legendary hero, back from the dead.
Natasha turns her eyes towards Aves, and says, "No, he hasn't said anything either."
Steve, who had been listening in from the door to the cockpit, leans forward and says, "He will answer any questions of ours once we're secure, Sir. He doesn't want to give anything to Loki, since he's the enemy right now."
"Is he though?" Fury counters. "We know nothing about where he has been all this time, Rogers. For all we know, your old friend could have been compromised all those years ago itself."
"I'll take responsibility if that proves to be true, Sir." Steve says, and that's enough, isn't it? Natasha believes so, yes.
She may have been a Russian, and not at all a Captain America fan(and how could she, when her own government assigned father was a Super Soldier who hated Captain America), but her childhood days in Ohio taught her that much about Steve Rogers. He doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body.
Natasha then asks, "Did we find anything about the woman who was with Aves? Candra, right?"
Fury glares at Natasha for changing the topic, and answers, "Face trace gave a few sightings over the years, going back to 1957. No name, official or unofficial."
Silence returns to the cockpit, as the realization that they just let someone that could possibly be a dangerous person walk away. Sure they were in the middle of a fight, but they should have briefed her first.
"Just.. bring them straight here. No sightseeing, Romanoff." Fury says, cutting the call from his end.
Natasha turns back, only to see Steve staring at Mason once again, and she wonders just what he's thinking right now.
—
"Nothing? No hello? No 'how are you's? Not even a 'why am I coming with you?'?" Stark asks, standing with just his armour on, the helmet kept to the side.
Steve turns his head to Tony, ready to admonish him, but Mason keeps reading and just says, "I don't really mind coming with you lot. Steve asked nicely, so why wouldn't I come. You probably would have just tried to threaten me, or God forbid, knock me unconscious."
Or try to, Steve thinks, knowing just how capable a fighter, and how resilient Mason is.
Mason then looks up at Tony from the book, and says, "I am not your enemy, Tony. You don't have to be so stiff. Besides, if I do prove to be an enemy, Steve there wouldn't hesitate to kill me to save all of you."
Steve wants to say that he won't. He won't kill Mason. But he understands War, and that's what this is now. If Mason has turned, and no one knew it before, if Mason betrays them, Steve will try to kill Mason.
Tony hums, and after a moment, he says, "He knew, didn't he? My dear old dad, he knew that you were alive."
"What?" Steve voices out, confused, while he sees Natasha straighten up a bit more, no doubt listening in.
Tony looks at him, and says, "My dad was obsessed with finding you, the Great Captain America, he might've spent like.. hundreds of millions on trying to find you. I should know, he missed my entire childhood doing that."
Steve frowns, not liking how Tony was speaking about Howard. He may have had his faults, but Howard was a good man.
"But Dad never once mentioned trying to look for him. I used to think it was an American thing, like you're America's hero and he's the English one, so he didn't bother. But now.." Tony finishes, waving his Iron Man armour covered hand at Mason, who had kept reading still.
Mason finally looks up, a soft smile on his face, and says, "You're right. Howard knew that I was alive. And so did a few more people." And just like that, he returns to reading.
"I knew it!" Tony exclaims, an expression of pride on his face, while Steve goes into thought.
At least Mason wasn't alone all this time. He stayed hidden just from the Government and the public, not from his friends. Or Howard just found him by chance, could be any one of them.
"I don't like it." Steve says, after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, while their prisoner had just kept his mouth shut, and Mason kept reading his book that Steve couldn't make out the title of.
Seeing that his eyes were on Loki, Stark smirks at him and asks, "What? Rock of ages giving up so easily?"
Steve gets confused, not understanding the reference. Was it a movie thing? He has a lot to catch up on, Steve knows.
Steve turns to Tony, Howard's son, and says, "It's never this easy, Mason and I, we've actually been in a War, Mr Stark. Enemies never give up this easily, not when they have something like that scepter in their hands." Looking at a smiling Loki once again, leaving no doubt to Steve that Loki actually wanted to be captured, Steve says, "Besides, he hits harder than both Mason and I combined."
His back was still hurting from when Loki had hit him with that scepter.
Tony hums, thinking it over for barely a moment. He says, "Still, you are pretty spry for an older fellow. Aves, if he is Aves, we can excuse, because he's been awake and running around all this time, free to work out. Not you though. What's your secret? Pilates?"
Once again, the word is unfamiliar to Steve. He just looks at Tony, still confused, but now a bit annoyed, and asks, "What?"
"It's like.. calisthenics. Exercise and yoga combined. You might have missed a few things doing your time as the Capsicle." Tony says, turning his head to look out the window.
And that reference, Steve understood. Capsicle, a funny play of words that at one time, Steve would have appreciated.
Mason snorts, although he hides it before Steve can even catch him in the act.
Now definitely annoyed at the arrogant son of Howard Stark, Steve says, "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."
"And Fury tells you everything? You're best buds now, waving the flag of the US of A together and singing Hallelujah?" Tony counters, raising an eyebrow in challenge. "Trust me, Cap, Fury is not your friend."
Steve opens his mouth to counter, in defense of the leader of a Government peacekeeping Organization. Steve believes that Stark should at least respect the position that Fury is in, like one does the President, or the Mayor. But before he can say that, someone else says something, distracting him.
"Where is this coming from?" Natasha says, looking around at the lightning storm that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Seeing Loki jump a bit in his place, Steve can't help but ask, "Scared of a little lightning?"
Loki smiles, his face oozing nervousness, and says, "I am not overly fond of what follows."
'What?' Steve wonders, only to be distracted once more by the Jet shaking, as a thud sounds above them.
"Someone's on the plane." Steve says, and without saying anything, Stark picks his helmet up and puts it on his head.
Steve picks up his shield, and sees Tony walk towards the back of the plane. The next few events happen even before Steve knows what's happening. Stark opens up the hatch, someone else walks into the flying plane without so much as a harness, and takes Loki with him, after sending Stark flying into Steve by a single swipe of his hammer.
The next thing he knows, Steve is taking a parachute and jumping off after Stark, who flew in his suit, after telling Natasha that he'll handle it.
'I really miss the good old days.'
—
"I'm dealing with literal children over here." I mumble, as I stand up and start walking towards the open hatch. "'I have a plan, attack.' Really? He really had to inherit your flair for dramatics, didn't he, Howard?"
The sound of a handgun safety being taken off makes me stop, as Natasha says, "We would prefer that you don't leave, Captain Aves. Rogers and Stark have that matter handled."
Sigh, once again, children.
Turning around, I say, "You've read about me, Agent Romanoff? Then you know that the gun is not going to be enough."
Natasha shrugs, calmly staring at me, and says, "It might not permanently keep you down, but a shot to the head will probably do the trick temporarily. Or it might just give me enough time to think up something else."
I chuckle, and say, "My wife would love you, Agent Romanoff. But unfortunately, I need to make sure the two idiots don't mess anything up. We don't want the Tesseract to be lost, now, do we?"
'He knows about the Tesseract?' Natasha questions herself, giving me enough time to just jump back and through the hatch.
She still shoots the gun, but it misses my head by a large margin, since I was already speeding towards the ground thanks to the gravity.
Turning my body to start a downward flight towards the ground, I look around. Steve was still in mid air, Thor and Loki were on a mountain top, talking and quarrelling, while Iron Man was shooting towards the brothers. If I remember my movies right, Stark will fight Thor while Loki is just left unattended.
So, let's deal with Loki first, why don't we?
Turning my body, I manoeuvre my flight path towards Loki, without making it obvious that I'm flying, and with a crash, land on the mountain top right behind him.
Getting up from the crater I had formed with my fall, I glance at Loki, my ears catching the sound of Thor and Tony fighting in the forest underneath the mountain, and dust my clothes just a bit. Being weaker was a drag, but what can I do? Showing my full strength will bring forth even more questions, and I would rather avoid getting annoyed by these people so soon.
And there goes another tree, thank you Thor, the God of destruction. Correction, it was Tony, not Thor. Or well, both.
Tony just kicked Thor through a tree.
Loki, who had jumped when I crashed on the ground, looks at me with wide eyes, and asks, "You're not a mortal at all, are you? What are you?"
In response, I shrug and say, "What I am, isn't important, Loki Odinson. What is important is me making sure that you don't escape while your brother is brought to his senses."
Loki chuckles, but I could tell from his expressions that he was angry at me calling him an Odinson, and he says, "I know.. I know now. You're one of those.. Changelings. No, they call you something else now, don't they? Mutantur? Mutants? Ah, yes. I remember now. Mutants."
I didn't actually know Asgard was aware of the new terminology for Mutantur.
Nodding, I say, "Yes, I am a Mutant. You must know that mutants have powers beyond the normal, don't you?"
As if on cue, the sky shines bright, as an enormous amount of Magic is gathered over the area. The light condenses into the form of lightning that drops down onto Thor's hammer, which he sends towards the grounded Iron Man. Even before he can try to dodge it, Iron Man is hit by the lightning.
But, I know he'll be okay.
Loki tilts his head, both of us turning back towards one another, now looking curious and asks, "What is your power then?"
Smiling, I lean my head to the side, dodging a dagger that came from behind me, and catching the offending hand that wields the dagger, I use a judo move to slam the person on his back.
As the illusion of Loki that I was talking to fades away, I look at the groaning visage of the true Loki, and say, "Amongst others, I have a really good set of senses."
Loki glares at me, and as he conjures another dagger in his hands and throws it while still laying on the ground, I conjure my own sword in my hands, and dodging this dagger too, I kick my foot on Loki's chest, dropping him back down before he can succeed in getting up, and point the sword at his face.
"And I can also do this." I say, referring to my Sword conjuration.
Ah, Glamdring. How much I've missed using you in battle.
"Your mortal weapons won't hurt me, Mutant!" Loki snarls, glaring at me from over the sword tip.
Smiling wide, I ask, "Are you sure about that?"
Loki freezes, as I move the sword ever so slowly, creating a small, shallow, cut on his cheek. For a second, Loki stares at me in horror, as cold, red blood leaks out of his cheek drop by drop. But then a green smoke emits out of the wound, and it heals back up.
Huh, I didn't know he could do that, to be honest. That was the Healing Realm's magic.
Sufficiently cowed, Loki glares at me in defiance, so I smile at him, and say, "Now, I need to stop your brother before he destroys this nice forest even more, so I better find you right here. Because if you aren't, well, my sword won't just be causing small cuts. Capiche?"
Loki nods once, all the while glaring at me, so I move my sword away from his face, and get my leg off his chest.
Turning towards the edge, I see Tony and Thor still fighting. Tony drops down from a flight with a punch- that if it was anyone weaker than Loki, it would have knocked them out cold- which just makes Thor even more angry. As they raise their arms to attack one another once again, however, the iconic shield (that I had missed a lot) slams into Thor's face, rebonds on Tony's armour, and returns to its wielder, who stood on top of a tall tree.
Ah, I missed this man.
—
Steve catches the Shield in his hand, and fixing it to his left hand, he authoritatively says, "That's enough!"
It was said more to Thor than Tony, but Steve didn't think he needed to voice it out loud. Neither did he feel the need to voice out his disappointment in Tony's actions. So much destruction in just two minutes, and for what? Did he even try talking?
Tony, who had promptly pointed his armour weapons at him when the shield had hit, depowers them, and slowly drops his hand, and even Thor does the same, although he didn't look like he would be caught off-guard by any attack that comes.
Steve could certainly appreciate that. Vigilance is important, least of all in times like these.
As the two hotheads stare at him, Steve jumps down from the tree, which is just shy of 30 feet high, and lands lightly on his feet. He stares at Thor this time, and says, "Now, I don't know what you're doing here-"
Thor interrupts him, probably angry at Tony's actions and his own sneak attack, and says, "I am here to put an end to Loki's schemes!"
Seeing the hammer rising ever so slowly, Steve says, "Prove it. Put that Hammer down, so we can discuss further matters peacefully."
"Uh, yeah. Bad call. He loves that Ha-" Tony begins, before being backhanded by the Hammer in question.
Thor glares at him, making Steve realize that he probably made a mistake this time, and snarls, "You want me to put the Hammer down?!"
As Steve watches wide eyed, Thor jumps into the air, hammer raised up with a weird sort of vapour surrounding it on all sides. As Thor approaches him, Steve raises his shield, trusting it to defend him from this like it did against the Hydra energy weapons.
Almost in slow motion, the Hammer approaches Steve's shield, the full strength of a God behind it, and slams into it. With a loud boom, the hammer strikes the shield, and stops.
Nothing happens, other than Steve feeling the extreme strength of Thor Odinson pushing him down for a moment. And after a few seconds, even that stops, as the Hammer slides off his shield.
Hesitating a bit, Steve slowly brings the shield down, only to see a wide eyed Thor staring at it in what can only be shock.
"That's.. that's impossible! Nothing can stop Mjolnir!" Thor mumbles, staring at his shield, now with fear.
Steve is about to dismiss it as a weird fact about the metal that Stark had made his shield out of, but then he notices a soft blue shine coming off of his shield, which makes him pause.
Flipping the shield around, Steve notices some pattern of lines and squiggles in a blue colour covering the surface of the shield.
"Wh- what Magic is this?" Thor whispers, as Steve wonders the same.
"Earth Magic, Son of Odin." A familiar voice says, making Steve widen his eyes.
'Mason!' In all the rush of Thor kidnapping Loki, Steve had just forgotten about Mason. But then, what Mason just said comes to his attention once again. Earth Magic? What was Mason talking about?
As Steve stares at Mason, a different sword in his hand than Steve was used to seeing, Mason points his unarmed hand at the shield, and pulls his hand towards himself. As if by Magic, the blue light that had carved the patterns in Steve's shield lifts off of it, and moves in the air, towards Mason, towards his hand, which catches the light over its palm.
All the while, the three spectators in Thor, Steve, and Tony, watch in silence. One amazed, one weirded out, and one wondering what the hell is happening over here.
"A Mage!" Thor whispers, his fear slowly turning to wonder, while Steve and Tony are just weirded out by the spectacle.
The light that Mason had somehow pulled out of the shield over his palm starts condensing, gathering into a crystal that looks beautiful and scary at the same time. The crystal was glowing brighter and brighter with every note of light that was brought into it, until finally, a bright blue crystal of condensed lightning floats above Mason's hand.
And then, it shoots up into the air, disappearing into the sky, while the four spectators, Loki included, Steve remembers, watch on in awe.
"Are we done here?" Mason asks, as Steve looks on.
He stood there, looking as annoyed as he always looked, with his sword resting on his shoulder.
And Steve can't help but wonder.. did he always have this new talent? Did he always have this.. Magic?
—
An hour passes, and Steve finds himself sitting in the Helicarrier once again, looking at the two screens in front of him. One showed Loki's glass like cell, where just two people could be seen on screen from two different angles.
Loki, and Director of Shield: Nicholas Fury.
"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." Fury says, as he starts walking out of the room that contained the transparent prison.
Steve didn't pay much attention to the ongoing conversation, even if he did participate in it. He was just too busy watching the second display screen, showing another prisoner sitting calmly, reading the book once again.
Mason Aves, his old friend.
It hadn't taken long after Mason had given them the big reveal of his Magical powers, after he had cowed Loki into staying put, and brought out a sword from nowhere, for the group to pile into the Quinjet once again, and continue their journey to the Helicarrier.
Thor was uncharacteristically silent during that time, while Loki had kept staring at Mason, either as if he was a puzzle to be solved, or he was food to be eaten; Steve didn't know which.
But as soon as they had landed on the Helicarrier, a large group of armed soldiers had appeared in front of them, accompanied by two agents that he knew as Coulson and Sitwell. Coulson led Tony Stark to a place he could store his armour without it getting in anyone's way, and where he could work on it if need be, while more than half of the soldiers had taken Loki to the cell that he now occupied.
The remaining soldiers had surrounded them all, while Sitwell had asked (read ordered) Mason to go with them, from where he had been taken to the interrogation room that HE now occupied.
Unsurprisingly, Mason had agreed, probably having seen it coming when Natasha had informed Fury over the comma about what she had witnessed him do.
"Rogers?" Fury calls out, bringing him out of his thoughts, and making him realize that Banner and Stark had left the room, probably to start tracking the Cube down.
Steve looks at him, and asks, "What's going to happen to him?"
Fury stares at him for a second, his expressions not letting Steve know anything at all, and says, "We need to first confirm that he is who he says he is, and that he isn't against us."
"He's Mason alright, and he's not with Loki." Steve says, completely sure of both.
Fury raises an eyebrow, and asks, "How can you tell? Beyond your gut feeling, I mean. And I'm not saying he's necessarily with Loki, we need to make sure that he isn't against us. For all we know, he could be here to steal the Tesseract for someone else, or for himself. He's been out in the world for 67 years, Rogers, who knows what he's done, who he's allied with. And that's not even mentioning his new Powers that he wasn't seen using even once during the war."
Thor, who had stayed silent during this entire time, scoffs and says, "Those are no New Powers. He was born with them, it is just likely that he hid them before."
All three remaining heads, Fury, Natasha, and Steve, snap towards Thor when he says that, and Steve notices the agents standing guard, as well as Fury's deputy, turning towards them, now openly listening.
Frowning, Steve asks, "What do you mean?"
Thor smiles at him a bit sadly, and says, "My brother is the expert in this, but I have some knowledge in this subject. Your friend is something called a Mage. A Wizard."
"Wizard?" Steve asks, skeptical of it. He hadn't made the connection when Thor had first said Mage, but now he said Wizard, and Steve was beginning to doubt Thor's sanity. But it could also be true.
But then again.. Steve did wonder how Mason had kept his swords hidden when infiltrating as a HYDRA agent that day, when Red Skull had died, when Steve had dropped the plane
Aliens, Wizards, what's next? Robots that want to take over the world?
Thor nods, and says, "They're people born with the ability to use Magic. Like my brother, or my mother. The talent is very rare, and even on Asgard barely a hundred people can use it, none as skillfully as my brother and mother. But what your friend Aves did before, stopping my hammer from harming you, is something even my Mother would struggle with."
Fury shakes his head, and says, "Back up. Since when does Earth have Wizards? Like old Gandalf? We would have known if it was so."
Steve was curious about it too, and so he turns towards Thor.
Thor nods at the screen showing Mason reading the book, which funnily enough was the Lord of the Rings, and says, "As I said, I don't know much about them. Midgard always had them, since thousands of years ago. My brother encountered them, so did my mother, my father, his father, and his father, and so on."
Well.. damn. Steve didn't know what to think now. Magic. Actual Magic was real, and has been on Earth in past history.
"They were in high numbers and right around the time of my birth they were at their strongest. They lived in seclusion, mostly, and stayed away from the other mortals, like yourself. Fear of being taken advantage of, fear of persecution. I don't know what exactly happened, but a few centuries ago they disappeared. Heimdall tried looking for them, but he only realized that Mages were being killed by those without Magic for the crime of using Magic. Children, women, men, elderly, and sometimes even non-mages were being accused of Witchcraft and killed."
'The Salem Witch trials!' Steve remembers, although he didn't think they included real Witches and Wizards too.
Thor shakes his head, and says, "We couldn't see them after that, and I, like most of Asgard, had assumed that they had all died out. But now that I've seen your friend use his Magic, the way he helped your impressive shield stop my Hammer, and sent my own Lightning back into the skies after saving you from my stupid mistake, I can be sure that while their race has died, he Magic still remains, in the descendants of the Mages of old."
An entire subspecies of Humanity, wiped out because of fear. Steve could see humanity doing it, they've tried it before. With Black people, with Mutants, with Jews. Although the racism against the first and last was almost gone now, which he was really glad about, while the racism against mutants didn't look as if it was going any time soon, much to his displeasure.
Fury sighs, rubbing his forehead, while Steve just frowns. He glances at Natasha, but her face showed nothing to him other than the worry she had for the compromised agent.
Fury turns towards Steve, and says, "You see why I need to be sure of his affiliation? He could be after us for revenge against what our ancestors did against his. He could be an ally to Magneto, for all we know, having gotten together in their common hatred against humanity. Hell, he could be someone pretending to be Aves using this Magic, we don't know if that's impossible! We NEED to make sure he's on our side, Rogers."
Steve can concede that, but he trusted his gut feeling a lot. It was what had told him that Mason was a good man even back then, and it is what was telling him that Mason can be trusted now. Magic or no Magic.
But still, he knew that Fury won't trust his words like this.
So he asks, "What can I do?"
Fury nods, and says, "I want you to talk to him. Confirm that he is Mason Lucas Aves, Captain Avalon, the same man that you fought in the War with. I would have asked Agent Romanoff, but she doesn't know him like you do. Ask him how he knows about the Tesseract, who Candra is, and why he's here with us. It's not a secret that both Loki and Aves want to be here, I want to know why. And lastly, ask him about this Magic, where he was all these years, and why he was hiding."
Steve nods, understanding the order, although it pains him to interrogate a close friend, his closest friend right now, since all the others are dead or dying.
He knew that it was Mason, he could recognise Mason anywhere. But he could also understand Fury's doubts, and his fears, especially in the current times. And so, he would do it. To prevent mistrustful behaviour, to prevent any more fights, he would question his friend.
---
Steve puts the badge he had been given on the scanner, and enters the password to the Interrogation room. Just by looking at the door, and the walls, Steve could tell that this interrogation room was a Prison in and of itself. Even he would find it hard to escape from this, with his superior strength.
Not Mason though. Nothing could keep Mason imprisoned. He will always find a way.
Funnily enough, Steve had read a few comics from right after the War which said the same. "You can't imprison Captain Avalon!"
The fact that Mason was still inside when he got there proved to Steve that what Fury said was true. Mason wants to be here. Why, he doesn't know, and he doesn't think Mason will tell them.
Entering the room, Steve sits on the chair opposite Mason's, a single table between them. Mason keeps the book down, and watches him with a smile on his face, but Steve holds his own smile back.
He needs to do this first, confirm his identity for Shield's sake.
"Can you tell me your name?" Steve begins, asking the first question.
Mason raises an eyebrow in question, and says, "Mason Lucas Aves. Captain Avalon, a Knight of Great Britain."
Steve nods, detecting the honesty within the answer, and says, "Tell me something that would prove your identity to me, and to Shield."
Mason hums, closing his eyes as he thinks for a moment, and as a smile forms on his face, he asks, "Should I tell you about our first mission together, when we rescued the Commandos and the other POWs from Hydra? No, that's too tame. I could tell you about the time Dugan, Peggy and I caught you kissing that brunette? What was her name? Charity something? Or should I tell you about how Bucky paid a couple of hookers to get you to lose your vir-?"
"NO!" Steve exclaims as his face flushes, cursing Bucky, and says, "That's enough, Mason. That's.. that's enough."
Why Bucky had to tell Mason that, Steve didn't know.
Turning towards the camera, a blushing Steve says, "He is who he says he is, no doubts there."
Mason chuckles, and says, "In case that wasn't enough, I can show you these." At that Mason puts his hand on top of the table, and just like the day he had learned about them, Mason's nails extend further, and dig into the steel table easily.
He then uses the same nail to cut into his arm, and even before the blood can leak out, the wound closes right before Steve's eyes.
'Huh, that's gotten faster than before.' Steve thinks to himself.
Steve nods, despite it not being necessary for Mason to share another one of his secrets, he appreciates the effort. Sighing in satisfaction, Steve says, "There are a few more questions that we need to ask you, Mason, now that I'm sure of your identity. I hope you are honest with me."
Mason nods, and leaning back, he says, "Ask away, old friend. Do understand, however, that I reserve the right to not answer a question I deem.. inappropriate."
Steve nods, and opening the file he had brought with him, which contained just a single page with the questions Shield had printed out for him, he asks, "Where were you, these 67 years? They told me you disappeared the same day I did, and were only seen running after a man whom you had a vendetta with."
Mason sighs, and running his hand through his hair, he asks, "Not the question I expected you to ask first, but one I expected nonetheless. I was here, and there, everywhere really. Travelling the world, learning more and more about my powers, doing things I wasn't allowed to do before. No one knew who I was, of course, and I was free to enjoy my freedom without any supervision."
Steve smiles, knowing just how much Mason had craved freedom. He had seen Mason get annoyed every time someone from the Brass ordered him to do something he found stupid.
Steve waits for Mason to say something about the man he had supposedly followed, but Mason says nothing, and just smiles, telling Steve that that's not something he's saying. Not right now.
Moving on, Steve asks, "How did you stay hidden from all the Agencies, all the cameras? There are no sightings at all of you."
And Steve knew just how much this was bothering Shield. One just cannot stay hidden from all cameras for 67 years. Not one camera caught him? Not one person mistook him for himself? There aren't even mad ramblings of anyone claiming to have seen Mason alive. Just one claim of a madman imprisoned for impersonating Mason to seduce, and steal from the wife of a rich British aristocrat in the 80s.
Mason grins, as if he knew just what Shield was feeling, and says, "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it, Steve. If people could recognise me during my missions I would have been a bad infiltration specialist, wouldn't I?"
Steve could at least concede that, but he suspected that this Magic had something to do with it.
Reading the next question, which he knows will be the hardest for Mason to answer, Steve hesitates a bit.
"You want to ask me why. Why I left, why I disappeared." Mason says, without Steve even needing to voice it out.
Steve nods slowly, sighs, and says, "I know it couldn't have been easy, making that decision to desert, but I just want to know. More than Shield, I want to know. What happened?"
Mason stares at Steve, and for a second Steve is worried that Mason won't answer. Mason nods, and says, "Yeah, you of all people deserve to know."
Shaking his head, Mason says, "I was.. tired, Steve. Tired of fighting a War. Tired of losing people. I was already losing my mind when we lost Tim and Bucky, and then, right as we won the War against Hydra, you disappeared. Died, as far as I knew then. I couldn't do it after that. Couldn't face the others, knowing that I survived when you didn't."
"They wouldn't have blamed you." Steve says, interrupting whatever Mason was about to say next.
Mason looks at him with a small smile, and says, "I know that now, I didn't know that then. I heard your last words with Peggy, you know. Seeing her like that, I just.. ran away."
He sighs, and says, "By the time I got my head on straight, a few months had passed after the War ended. Hitler had killed himself, Nazis had surrendered, then USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered, and people moved on. I moved on from your 'death'. But by that time I had realized something. I couldn't show myself to the public, not at that time."
"Why?" Steve asks, confused.
Mason shrugs, and says, "Your death meant that I was the only remaining Super Soldier in the world. It didn't matter that I was experimented on by the Nazis, and my Powers could have been my own powers and not those from the Serum like yours, I was the only man like you. A Super Soldier. People were trying to replicate it, even back then. You can ask Shield about the continuation of Project Rebirth, and its consequences. But it wasn't just the Americans. Britain, Japan, France, Canada, Australia, hell, even India was trying to create super soldiers, sacrificing volunteers and prisoners, in droves, and they were barely independent back then."
Shaking his head once again, Mason says, "If I had gone public then, I would have been hounded by the Governments. My own Government wouldn't have hesitated to cart me off to be experimented on so there could be more of me. And there wouldn't have been a shortage of Assassins after me either, since I would be the only Super Soldier alive, and hence, a threat to all the other nations. And so.. I kept away. I decided that Super Soldiers would remain a relic of World War II."
Steve frowns, putting a note to himself to ask Fury about what Mason said. People kept on trying to replicate the Serum, that soon? He knew Banner was trying it, and so were many others, but he didn't think it began right after the war.
But then he realizes something. Mason.. he left everyone. His home, his friends, the commandos, hell, he might not even have had access to any of his money, let alone the pension he was supposed to get!
"It must've been lonely." Steve muses, wondering if he could have done it. If he could have left everything and everyone behind.
Mason smiles, and says, "Not as much as you're thinking, but in the beginning it was. But then, a few months after the war ended I couldn't handle it anymore and made contact with our friends. Phillips, Peggy, the Commandos, Howard, and Lorraine. I got them all together, and told them about my survival. I had left them alone to mourn our 'deaths', and so, I wanted to show them that I was there in case they needed me. But even still, I had people of my own to.. lean on."
"Peggy knew?" Steve asks, straightening up, while also wondering why she never told Shield about it.
But the answer provides itself as soon as the question is asked. Peggy wouldn't do that, she wouldn't betray a friend like this, not even to her own organization. Hell, it could be possible that Mason even helped her with Shield's establishment!
Mason smiles, and says, "Yup. She knows, not knew. She's still alive, you know. She's a bit old now, but her mind is as healthy as ever."
"How.. how was she? How is she?" Steve asks, hesitating a bit.
Shield had told him that she was alive, the only one of the old times to survive till this day, but they hadn't mentioned anything else. Not that he had asked, but still.
Mason sighs, smiling, and says, "She was sad, at first. For almost the next year she was upset over your death. But she's a strong woman, she recovered. Worked as an Agent in SSR for a while more, and when Shield was founded, she became the first Director. Then she married, had children, and lived a very happy life."
Steve smiles, making his mind up on visiting her soon. His task, however, makes him come back from his thoughts, and clearing his throat, he asks, "Right, next question. What were you doing in Germany? Also, what can you tell us about the woman you were with?"
Mason chuckles, and answers, "Candra is.. a friend. A sister, you can say, even. We've known each other for years. But I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about her."
Steve nods, but asks, "Is she like you? A Mage?"
Mason raises an eyebrow, and says, "You've been talking with Thor, eh?" Shaking his head, Mason says, "Yes, Candra is like me, a Mage."
Steve nods, understanding that that's all Mason was going to say about Candra, and he could appreciate what little information they got.
"You didn't answer the first question." Steve points out.
Mason smiles, this one strangely sad, and says, "I didn't, did I? Sigh, I.. I was looking for someone. I had a pretty good hunch that someone I've been looking for for almost three decades now would be coming there. Candra was there to help me with it, of course. Alas, she never showed."
Steve notices the vagueness of it all, and despite knowing that Mason might not answer this question, he asks, "Who is it?"
Mason looks up, and only now Steve notices just how.. broken.. Mason looks when he's not pretending to be calm, as he says, "My.. wife. She's been missing since 1985. And I've been looking for her ever since."
—
A/N: Sorry for being late, I was out of town, visiting the University I studied my Masters at. I might finally be getting my final Marklist and my Masters degree soon!
And sorry about the diversions, there's been a problem. It's me, I am the problem.
Jokes aside, I've realized that I enjoy writing the past too damn much. Despite not knowing too much about history, too. Either that, or I dislike writing about an already established plot. Grindelwald's plot is fairly unknown, and I could use that, but for MCU, there are so many fics, not to mention the wonderful movies and comics.
So as you can see, my MCU plot will be a bit.. different. Like here, in this chapter, I didn't focus on what we know has happened from the movies, instead I gave a new.. perspective to the events, and added Mason's interrogation to it.
Hope it's good.
The last part will be explained in future chapters, don't worry.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
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