A/N: Final chapter, guys. Thanks for sticking with me to the end!

To Be Free

A week had passed since the defeat of the Masters of Evil. Those that were captured -Mandarin, Madame Hydra, Abomination, and Baron Zemo- were locked up in the Fridge, the triple maximum security SHIELD prison. Those that weren't, that being Black Widow and Moonstone, were being hunted down. SHIELD devoted as many agents as they could to the manhunt. Fury figured that they could find Sofen quickly. Belova was in the wind and would likely stay that way until she was ready to be found.

Amora the Enchantress was taken back to Asgard to face Asgardian justice, whatever that meant. Seeing that they hadn't seen Loki since he tried and failed to take over the planet, Fury was confident that they wouldn't be seeing her again any time soon. That was just fine with him. The less he saw of those people, the better.

They hadn't seen or heard from Pietro since that day. He doubted he ever would. The man was completely devoted to his sister. It was the kind of love and closeness that he, frankly, thought was more than a little creepy back then. Now, he wished that it was still there. He feared what Pietro would become because of this. The man had been broken by the Enchantress, made to kill the only person he truly cared about in the world, and then forced to watch her die all over again after getting her back.

Hill speculated that he returned to Wundagore Mt.. Whether he took Wanda with him was up for debate.

He thought back to the autopsy performed on the Avengers minus Wanda and Thor, who was taken back to Asgard with the Enchantress. What those fucks had done to them, it was reprehensible. With the exception of Romanoff, who was the only normal one among them, they were all cut open and experimented on. Their organs were taken out and replaced with machinery. Their brains were turned into computers, easy to control from Hydra's control room. They were still dead, even, just turned into some kind of cyborg zombies, for lack of a better term.

They deserved better.

In a way, he was glad they weren't saved. They had been changed so much that they were almost unrecognizable. Sure, they sounded and thought like the Avengers, but they weren't. They were mannequins, actions figures made to imitate the real things. As much as it pained him to think about, they weren't human anymore.

Heroes deserved better.

When those heroes made the ultimate sacrifice to protect their home from those that would seek to enslave it, they deserved more than to be turned into monsters.

"You can't just magic them back to life?" Hill asked Valkryie.

She shook her head softly. "Nay. Well, yes and no. 'Tis possible to retake a soul from Hela's grasp, but 'twould require a replacement. A soul for a soul."

Hill raised an eyebrow. "They aren't with this Hela person, though," she pointed out. "Right?"

"You speak truth, Maria Hill. But the point still stands. To resurrect a person through Asgardian magics, it requires a sacrifice. Living soul for the deceased soul. 'Tis why resurrection spells are considered black magic, forbidden by the Allfather. Under no circumstances are they to be used."

Even for his son was left unsaid.

Fury closed his eye. There was no way, in his mind, to bring them back to the way the were.

It wasn't fair.

It wasn't right.

They deserved better than they got. The world deserved better than it got.

What Zemo and the Masters did was truly heinous, and for it, they'd be going away for a long, long time. But, it didn't feel like a victory. It felt like they had still lost, even though they won.

The Avengers were still gone.

The world had changed. Whether it was for good or bad remained to be seen, but the point was that the world had changed. Forever. There was no going back.

In a way, it was a good thing. If the New Avengers hadn't have been around, then the Insight helicarriers wouldn't have been tested. When the Avengers were around, he didn't see the need for Insight. Now, it was a necessity.

He held back because of the Avengers.

With the New Avengers, they were going to need all the help they could get. Assuming they even wanted to keep at this. He wouldn't be surprised or even disappointed if they didn't, since he now knew that he could count on them when it mattered most.

"They did better than I thought."

It had been a week since the Masters of Evil had been defeated. Coulson thought that it would be good to give the Avengers the send off they deserved. He agreed.

With their bodies away from Hydra, they could give them a real burial and memorial, like they should have weeks ago. With the exception of Wanda, who was likely buried near Wundagore Mt., and Thor, who had received his funeral pyre in Asgard, they buried the team where they felt they would want to be.

Tony was in Malibu in the grave Pepper Potts had prepared for him. Steve was in Arlington National Cemetery. Carol was in her hometown Boston. Natasha, Clint and Jessica had received a SHIELD burial at the classified SHIELD cemetery.

Fury couldn't attend all the funerals and memorials due to obligations at SHIELD, but he did attend the memorial in Central Park in remembrance of the team. It was the day that Alicia Masters, girlfriend of Fantastic Four member the Thing and city renowned sculptress, debuted the statue she carved in the team's honor.

It was nearly flawless, depicting them heroically, as they should have been. It included the entire team, even though two members were still alive.

After the massive crowd, nearly seven thousand in total, finally died down, a small group remained over. Those closest to the heroes.

Fury, flanked by Hand, Hill and Coulson, stood back and watched stoically as their loved ones paid their final respects.

"They surprised me," he answered Hand, after realizing that she had actually said something. He was too busy watching Pepper squeeze one of the handles to Rhodes' wheelchair for dear life, presumably so she wouldn't start crying again.

Dr. Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Dr. Erik Selvig were standing next to her, barely able to hold themselves together.

Betty Ross and Bruce stood by each other, hands just barely enveloping one another, as if that bastard father of hers was going to jump out from behind a bush at any moment.

Off to the side stood the New Avengers. It was odd, at this point, to see them in in dress clothes and not their uniforms. But then again, this was an odd time. Hero funerals were a rarity, despite how dangerous and life threatening the job was.

Bucky stood out the most, as he was the only one in the group in his formal Army uniform.

"It's not fair." Janet wiped a tear from her eye with a black handkerchief.

"Life isn't fair," Fury answered as he walked toward them. "You just gotta roll with it."

"Roll with it?! How –"

"Life isn't gonna to stop just because something that we don't like happened," Luke said. A roll of thunder clapped overhead. The rain that had been dropping lightly picked up significantly. "The bad guys are still out there, doing their thing; we need to keep doing ours, no matter how much it hurts." He cast a forlorn look at the statue. "We owe them that much."

Luke's answer was decisive, so Fury didn't see the need to say any further. He breathed in deeply, allowing the cool, rain drenched air to cool him down. Even if it was one of the milder days that summer, he had felt like he was on fire. Maybe it was the guilt.

His relationship with the Avengers wasn't what one would call friendly. Tolerant was a more apt description of their feelings toward each other. He may not have liked them at times, but he always respected them. He knew that, when the chips were down, he could count on them to get the job done.

"How?" she choked out sadly.

Fury sighed.

It was, surprisingly, Bucky who answered. His voice was low and thick with withheld emotions. "There are no guarantees. No happy endings." Everyone looked to find him staring intently at the statue. They all knew which image he was looking at. He turned and cast his steel blue eyes into hers. "But, you show up anyways. You push on and on. And you don't give up. You never give up." With that, he sharply saluted the statue and turned to leave.

Janet watched him leave, but said nothing in reply. Because, there was nothing left to say. Those words were what being a hero was all about. They were what being an Avenger was all about.

One by one, the New Avengers filed out, followed by Hill, Hand, and eventually Coulson. Until it was only Fury left standing in the rain.

He slowly approached the statue, stopping two feet from its base. The inscription read, 'Avengers – Assembled, They Were Strong. Together, Fought As One'

Fitting, he thought.

From an inner pocket of his leather duster, he produced eight genetically enhanced roses, each one based on a member's particular color scheme. He dropped them one by one at the base.

Cpt. Steven Grant Rogers

Anthony Edward Stark

Thor Odinsson

Natalia Alianovna Romanova

Clinton Francis Barton

Capt. Carol Susan Jane Danvers

Jessica Miriam Drew

Wanda Django Maximoff

When he was out of roses, he saluted them one last time. "Team dismissed."

-END-

A/N: Well, that's it. I really hope you enjoyed the ride, because I sure did. My plan is to finish up What's Wrong With Six, then move on to the next story in this series, Ultron Conspiracy. Until then, guys :)