I Swear It's Not A Lie

Prologue

Howard and Maria were out again. It was just Jarvis and Ana. Anthony and Natasha had gone to bed.

And then Peggy arrived around nine ish. Once again she had somehow got in over her head with some Cuban scientists who were trying to develop a superserum variant that could be used to turn crocodiles into assassins. Unfortunately their lab used the test subjects as guards, so Peggy now had a bandage on her leg. Never mind that she was over fifty.

"Oh Jarvis, I can handle it, I'm not retiring yet. Don't be ridiculous."

It was at that moment that little Natasha appeared at the top of the stairs. "I can't sleep," the four year old called down.

Peggy smiled warmly up at her. "Shall I tell you a bedtime story?" The little girl grinned and nodded. Peggy limped up the stairs and grabbed Natasha's hand. "What sort do you want?"

"Can you tell me about Captain America? Daddy says he's awesome and you and him were super in love!"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he's been telling it wrong," Peggy said smiling. "Come on, I'll tell it to you properly. Is Anthony asleep?" Natasha bit her thumb and shook her head.

That's how Peggy and her friend's two children ended up on Anthony's bed. Peggy began telling the story of how a scrawny, shrimpy little guy became a super hero.

"Well what was the big deal about him? He was nothing special," Tony grumbled.

"Anthony, you missed the point. What he lacked in strength, he made up for in kindness."

Anthony coughed something that sounded a little like Pansy.

Natasha glared at her brother and turned back to Peggy. "So now he's super strong, what did he do?"

"Well, he toured the country to persuade men to enlist before heading to the front line."

"That's where all the fighting was," Anthony said, self-importantly.

Peggy smiled. "Yes, and his friend, you remember, Bucky from earlier, had been captured by the bad guys!" She leaned on dramatically.

Natasha gasped in horror, enraptured, eyes as wide as saucers. Anthony pretended to still be sceptical, but still looked more interested.

"I bet he went in and killed them all. That's what I'd do," the little boy said.

Little Natasha frowned. "Killing isn't very nice though. He should go and ask nicely."

"That's a stupid idea, idiot."

Peggy frowned, reproachfully. "Anthony, be nice to your little sister." The boy stuck his tongue out and pouted. Peggy continued the story. "So then, your Daddy and I flew Captain America and into enemy territory so we could drop him at the base where Bucky was being held. It was full of bad guys, and Captain America went in alone. But he saved all the soldiers the bad guys were holding prisoner, including Bucky."

Natasha laughed and clapped. "Yay! Go Captain America!"

Even Anthony looked impressed at that.

"And so Captain America set up his own team to go after the rest of the bad guys, including their leader, The Red Skull."

Anthony scoffed. "That's a lame name for a villain."

"It's better than that Batguy you're obsessed with," Natasha told him.

Anthony scowled at her. "Batman, idiot. And he's cool!"

"Not as cool as Captain America!" Natasha countered. "At least he exists!"

"I wish Batman existed instead of you."

"Anthony Edward Stark!" Peggy scolded. "Apologise to Natasha right now!" After he reluctantly mumbled an apology, Peggy continued. "So, this team, known as the Howling Commandos, went on many missions and destroyed most of the evil bases. But then, when they captured the evil scientist, disaster struck. Bucky fell from a train off the mountain!"

Natasha gasped. "Did he survive?"

Anthony scoffed. "Of course he didn't! He fell down a mountain!"

"Shut up, he might have! You don't know everything!"

Peggy gave a sad smile. "No. He didn't. Captain America was very sad. But the rest of the Howling Commandos carried on and reached the last base. They attacked and defeated the bad guys except for the Red Skull who was about to escape on his plane, the Valkyrie. So Captain America kissed his best girl," ("Yay!" cheered Natasha.) "and snuck onto the plane, just before it took off. He defeated the Red Skull but the plane was carrying a bomb headed for New York. Captain America had no choice but to force it down into the icy water. The plane was never found."

Natasha sighed. "He was so brave. When I grow up, I'm gonna marry a guy just like him!"

"You can't! He's dead," Anthony pointed out.

"I know that! I'm not stupid."

Peggy smiled, chuckling quietly at their antics. But when Anthony made to swat his sister with his pillow, she had to intervene. "Come on now, it's late. You've had your story; it's time to go to sleep. Come on, Natasha, back to your room." She grabbed the little girl's hand and guided her back to her room and tucked her in.

Just as Peggy was leaving, Natasha called out, "Who were the bad guys?"

"A branch of Nazis called Hydra," Peggy told her.

"Are they all gone now?"

Peggy paused. "Yes," she said eventually. "They're all gone now."

"Okay," the girl said sleepily. "Night night. I hope you catch the crocodiles."

Peggy smiled softly as she turned out the light.

After watching Civil War I decided to unearth my draft of a fanfic from last summer. Most of it was not usable due to bad writing, canon, and other reasons. I have revised the plot and voila! Story!

A lot of you probably know this but in comic canon, Tony Stark was a girl called Natasha in an alternate universe. So I decided to use that name for Tony's sister in my fanfic. To avoid confusion with the Black Widow, Natasha Stark will be referred to as Dr Stark or Ash, and Natasha Romanoff will be referred to as Nat or Romanoff.

This story will start just before the Avengers movie but will focus most on the Winter Soldier movie and all the Hydra goings on. I'm kind of ignoring Agents of SHIELD tv show because I just think it will complicate things.

I don't have an updating schedule but I'm hoping that I will manage to not abandon this? I have a very good idea where this is going and already have the first three chapters written.

I accidentally posted the original prologue but I completely changed it because I wasn't happy with it and thought this one would be better.

I hope to post chapter 1 later today, but it will definitely be before Wednesday.