Part 1: Smoldering Trails
Location: Avengers Tower – War Room / Tony's Lab
Time: Morning, following the destruction of three Hydra facilities
The air inside the Avengers Tower war room was heavy with the weight of implications. Monitors flickered with satellite images—blackened craters, skeletal ruins, and the eerie red glow of heat signatures that no longer existed. Three Hydra facilities, located in Northern Canada, Southern Germany, and Southern Romania, were reduced to ash.
Sam leaned back with crossed arms, his brow furrowed. "No survivors. Not even a distress ping got out before they were wiped."
Steve stood at the center of the room, lips pressed into a tight line. He tapped the screen, bringing up a heat map of one of the incinerated sites. "This wasn't an accident. It was surgical. Precise."
Natasha, seated nearby, glanced toward Wanda and Vision. "He's doing exactly what he said he would do."
Wanda remained quiet, arms folded. She had a far-off look, her mind lingering elsewhere. "He left no one alive. Again."
Beast's voice filtered in through the open comm line from Xavier's school. "Fifty-seven confirmed dead across all three locations. All Hydra personnel."
Jean sat just behind him, fingers gripping the edge of her chair. "It's him, isn't it? Riven."
Logan, arms crossed and standing in the back of the room, didn't say a word.
Steve didn't bother asking for confirmation. They all knew.
He exhaled sharply and turned on his heel. "I'll talk to Tony."
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Location: Tony's Lab, Lower Level – Same Morning
Tony Stark was hunched over a screen, flipping through encrypted data files, red-gold projections shimmering across his glasses. He didn't look up when the glass doors hissed open.
"Busy," he muttered.
Steve stepped in anyway.
"Tony, we need to talk."
"I'm in the middle of rewriting half a firewall and running facial reconstruction on a guy who apparently doesn't want to exist. Come back later."
Steve's voice sharpened. "You gave him the files."
Tony's fingers paused on the interface. His shoulders didn't move. "So?"
"You knew what he was going to do."
Now Tony turned. His eyes were tired but steady. "Yeah, I did. And I still gave them to him. Because someone had to."
Steve stepped forward, jaw clenched. "You knew he'd kill them all."
"Hydra," Tony said simply. "Not puppies. Not some gray-area rogue agents. Hydra."
"There's still a line," Steve snapped. "We don't murder prisoners. We don't execute people in the dark."
Tony's mouth twitched into something between a smirk and a grimace. "That's your world, Rogers. The one with clean uniforms and clear moral roads. Mine's got blood in the concrete."
Steve didn't back down. "This isn't justice. It's vengeance."
Tony turned back to the screen. "To him, they're the same thing."
There was a silence that felt like it could crack glass.
Steve finally spoke, quieter now. "He's not a weapon. He's a person."
Tony's voice was equally low. "Then maybe we should've treated him like one sooner."
Steve stared at him a moment longer, then turned and walked out without another word.
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