As far as basic things go like meeting new people who are actually people you knew years ago because you brought them back from the dead with SCIENCE! Tony is the absolute tops. Well not really, but that isn't important right now. He can totally explain any number of things later, but right now the important question is how to destroy Hydra and that means studying how far it's rot extends into SHIELD and major governments of the world. It also means making a list of possible plants/turncoats/extortion victims while also having a gander at this whole "Inhumans" project HYDRA has such a time hard-on for.

It would probably help if Uncle Nicky would stop trying to bogart everything – Fort Awesome does not recognize any authority outside of Tony fucking Stark. "Look here Stark. This isn't a damn game. If you want to help maybe make yourself useful -" Tasers trump pirates good to know. "Good job Dum-e. No, I don't want a smoothie. Give it to Long John Unconscious over there." Agent Stalker does a very tepid defense of Fury while Natasha continues to case his lab with a small frown on her face. Which is probably bad…wait. Definitely bad- like just the worse. Oh well.

No time to worry about what she might or might not remember because the rot goes deep indeed. Only a third of SHIELD's overall personnel are rogue, but that third tends to be in administrative positions. Worse it seems like a fourth of America's congress is in HYDRA's back pocket along with a simply disgusting portion of the EU. The World Security Council is literally all HYDRA stooges. How the fuck does that even work? It's like some horrible Ubisoft game except nobody bothered to give him kickass Parkour skills or the ability to leap off tall buildings and survive landing in strategically place haystacks.

Speaking of Assassins – Natasha has a distressing attachment to a certain Winter Soldier. Which, like okay, she is an adult type person but she is going to be very disappointed in the certain aspects of the relationship because he is definitely going to fire a repulsor blast or eight into a certain Soldier's groin. However, he does promise not to murder Barnes. Or at least he promises to try not to murder Barnes and really that is much more then he should be promising. Barnes murdered his parents and extenuating circumstances aside that's not really something you forgive or forget or maybe he's just like spectacularly bitter. Eh, por que no tres?

In a different world Project Insight would have had to wait, but in this one, Tony Stark puts his entire weight behind it. Which is weird considering his stance on weapons following the events with Stane, but people are forever underestimating him and so no flags are raised. In the meanwhile, Tony works on the BARF device and manages to get de-programming HYDRA assets down to an art. This is deeply unfortunate because it means he will almost definitely have no excuse to fricassee a certain MIA soldier, but at least Aunt Peggy and Natasha will be happy. Which is good because the plan he has for bringing down SHIELD is not going to make them happy like at all. Oh, well.

As it is three years pass before the helicarriers are complete. This is just enough time to de-program everyone salvageable while also using their knowledge to build a rather specific list. One he replaces the original list with (And why the hell is he only at number 50 on the list? Does no one understand his brilliance?) right after tracking down a certain bunker and performing a rather gleeful decommission of the ZOLA program. In hindsight, he maybe should have told someone where he'd be, but he has long ago learned that people don't like to let him do anything fun.

"I don't see the problem really. It isn't like anyone was there except me and the Legion and whatever the hell was on that ancient ass computer system." That is probably not the best thing to say, but he has been putting in his leg days so he probably has a chance of escaping… Also, there might have been some pretty decent side effects following him injecting the Compound (working titles take time okay). That said he probably should mention he's a technopath or that he seems to be able to generate force fields on the fly. He isn't going to because he has trust issues, but the last time he was trusting he literally got backstabbed so whatever.

Besides, it's nearly showtime. "I should have made popcorn or hot wings." Natasha seems to be studying him again with that weirdly judgmental stare she's so fond of. Probably learned it from Agent Stalker or whatever. Either way, the clock hits 3:14 and people start dying. Thankfully the precision upgrades he gave the carrier manages to keep collateral damage down, but it's still a pretty bad scene. Bad enough that it's only because HYDRA is involved that he manages to keep his head attached to his neck. Well, that and the news that so many government officials around the world were apparently super-secret-supernatural Nazis. Also, he managed to gain a lot of favor with the kill switches he had installed on all the carriers.

While Pepper deals with the fallout Tony begins to make plans or he would but him and Natasha seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut. She wants to talk about the Insight thing and he'd rather not, but he also wants to know everything about her while not letting on that he has some serious stalker tendencies. It's a bit of a mess and it is not helped along by his need to avoid the Pirate, the Aunt, and Agent Stalker. In other news, he can apparently make solid holograms with like sound and shadows and everything. He really should mention these new abilities to someone, but that just sounds like he's asking to be horribly betrayed so maybe not.

It all comes to a head with her blocking him against the cabinet (they are the same damn height… how the hell is he this fucking short) and demanding to know why she remembers his scent and how he knows she loves blackberry jam and that she's allergic to silk and hates the color yellow. Strangely enough, it is a bit awkward explaining to someone that you are kind of their father/creator and once upon a time assassination target who failed to save their life once. She blinks and he notices she has what look like circuits traced in gold inside her eyes. That probably isn't normal, is it? "If all of that is true then why do I not remember you?" And that is a damn good question. A damn good question that a certain Shaft impersonator and his creepy Agent Smith partner need to answer.

Holding an icepack to his functional eye Fury has the audacity to actually pout like a damn child. "Look Stark it wasn't a conspiracy or anything. When Clint took her down she sustained a lot of head trauma. Imagine our surprise to have her back up and running ops not even an entire week later. So we had Clint try to bring her in and that's when we noticed that something had been done to her even if we weren't sure what." None of those words sounds like an explanation, but Tony is a patient man of deep restraint – and Natasha looks like she wants to land at least a few more hits on her old boss. Who is he to disagree?

Fury being smarter than he looks quickly puts his hands up and spills about the reprogramming they might possibly have given her during those first weeks when she was so out of it. "You fucked with my mind?" Lucky for Fury, Coulson (and Agent Stalker sounds so much cooler) steps up and takes the fall. "You were a valuable asset and we could not have you returning to the Red Room so we decided to flip you over to our side. I won't apologize for that, but I will apologize for not making the decision to return you to Stark's care. Then again it apparently worked out for the best overall." As it turns out Coulson is a lot tougher than he looks, but he also bleeds like a stuck pig.

Considering the damage Stark did to HYDRA he isn't the least bit surprised that Barnes comes knocking. Not literally of course, but he does show up and that is a good thing. For one it saves on time and effort tracking him down, beating him up, and dragging him back. For another … oh! For another, it means Tony can try out his new defense system – which is great because he really fucking hates Barnes. And that would probably be unfair if Tony hadn't had to crawl through the heads of a metric ton of brainwashed operatives. The system they used to turn people wasn't fucking magic - it was unimaginable pain plus drugs and stimuli-based training. Doing what you're told stops the pain, disobeying cranks it up. Meaning that some people barely needed his help to toss their programming while others needed all the help he could give and barely managed to slip their leases.

Now sure it's understandable to not want to suffer, but Barnes had taken it to an entirely new level. And somewhere inside Tony, a deeply angry child screams in outrage over losing another childhood hero. A childhood hero so afraid he didn't even think twice about murdering his old friend and said friend's wife and therefore leaving their son in the clutches of a greedy prick like Stane. So yeah, this was going to be fun and since Barnes is just stuffed full of Super Serum then that means Tony probably won't end up breaking his promise not to kill him. Best plan ever.

Thirty minutes later Tony is stepping over the twitching remnants of a Legion member and dodging around hanging cords with sparking ends. On his hand is his new prototype glove which normally looks like a watch. Peering around a corner he sees Barnes being pinned to the wall by something that isn't quite a spider mecha, but only because the poor thing seems to be missing some legs. As the glove's repulsor gears up with a whine Barnes looks him in the eye and begins struggling harder. "Yeah, you know what's coming, don't you Bucky?" Barnes stops struggling and frowns as though confused. Good that will make this a lot more fun. "Here's hoping you never wanted kids."