CONTINUITY NOTE: Takes place in the lull between seasons 1 and 2 of Agents of SHIELD and after Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This is the third part of the (very) loose trilogy begun with In Extremis Veritas and followed by Strange Bondfellows. You don't have to have read either of the prior two stories, but I certainly won't object if you do.

DISCLAIMER: It should be blindingly obvious, but I don't own anything to do with any of the characters herein - Disney/Marvel does. If they should want anything of this story, it's hereby given to them.

For all the differences the twenty-first century had brought, Steve Rogers thought, the process of war hadn't changed much: find the enemy's strongholds, invade them, salvage what intelligence you could and destroy the rest. Oddly enough, even the enemy hadn't changed - it had just gone underground.

Today's target was a Hydra base – in Austria, and Steve wondered that it had gone undetected since the war – that had been the headquarters for some of their biogenetics programs, according to Brock Rumlow. Rumlow was Natasha Romanoff's soulmate, but he'd also been Hydra, and he'd tried to kill Steve more than once.

So Steve had been on edge since his team had arrived, half-expecting that Hydra would have set a trap for them, despite Rumlow's assurances that it had been abandoned after the fall of SHIELD.

"Decoys," Rumlow had said. "Decentralization. Every base that could be found from Nat's data dump is gone. There are others. Lots of others. But, even abandoned, this one might have the information you're looking for."

So now Steve led his team through the base to sweep for any of the enemy that might have remained behind. Having Rumlow at his back still sent shivers down his spine, but he'd promised Natasha he'd give her soulmate a chance to redeem himself, and Steve always kept his promises.

The corridors of this underground facility were dim, lit only by emergency lighting, so Steve strained his other senses for any signs of movement ahead. He rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a woman dressed all in black that matched her hair.

Asian, he thought, and then was instinctively blocking the kick she aimed at his midsection. He struck back, and then her eyes widened and she jumped back, holding her hands in the air.

"I'm sorry, Captain Rogers," she said.

He settled into a ready stance, still alert. "For?"

Her mouth twitched in a half-smile that reminded him of Natasha. "For not recognizing the insignia sooner. I'm Melinda May, deputy director of SHIELD."

"SHIELD's gone," Steve said, but even as he said it, he wondered whether it was true. Fury had survived, after all, and he hadn't wanted to bring SHIELD down in the first place, only yielding to Steve's determination when Maria Hill nodded her agreement.

"SHIELD's necessary," the woman - Melinda May - said. "And now that you've rid it of its Hydra infestation, we can get back to doing what needs to be done."

"And what is that, exactly?" Steve asked.

"Right now?" May shrugged. "Finding and eradicating the last bits of Project Centipede."

Steve studied her. She didn't seem to be lying, but he'd worked with Natasha Romanoff long enough to know that not everyone gave off obvious signals when they lied. For the briefest of moments, Steve wished he could call Fury, confirm this woman was who she claimed to be, but Fury was in the wind.

"Why are you here?" May asked, her tone more curious than challenging, and Steve debated whether to tell her.

"Clear, Cap. Security system's offline." The voice behind him was Rumlow's. Steve didn't turn as the other man came around the corner, halting beside him. Rumlow had worn a balaclava in order to avoid being recognized if any Hydra agents happened still to be on site or any security cameras might remain functional.

"Well, well," Rumlow said, shoving the balaclava up to expose his face. "The cavalry's here."

Before Steve could react, Melinda May had drawn her sidearm and aimed it at Rumlow. "Don't call me that, traitor."

"Don't shoot my soulmate, Melinda." That was Natasha's voice – coming from behind the other woman.

Steve couldn't help smiling, just a little, when May flinched. At least he wasn't the only one Natasha could sneak up on. Still, he had to ask, "You know her?"

"I do," Natasha said, and May lowered her weapon.

"He's really your soulmate?" May asked her.

"For my sins," Natasha replied, and Rumlow snorted.

Slowly, May returned her sidearm to its holster. "Quite a team," she said to Steve. "What's going on?"

"That's a long story," Steve said. Both Natasha and Rumlow recognized and seemed comfortable with Melinda May, and that eased his own concerns. "The short version is that the Ten Rings terrorist organization might be collaborating with Hydra."

May touched her ear – unnecessary, Steve knew, but a polite signal that someone else was here – and listened for a moment before saying, "We'll be right there."

"She's got a hacker with her," Natasha said. "In the command center."

"This way," May said, and Steve and Rumlow fell into step behind the two women.

Walking beside a teammate should have felt more comfortable than it did, Steve reflected. How many times had he and Bucky, or any of the other Howling Commandos, done just this sort of sweep? But he'd trusted Bucky and the others with his life. He'd done that with Rumlow, once, and as much as he believed in second chances, Steve was having trouble trusting Rumlow that way again.

So they walked in relative silence through the tunnels. Ahead and to the left, Steve saw a slash of light spilling into the corridor.

"We have guests, Skye," May said as she led them into the room. The light was harsh after the dim corridors, and Steve blinked against it.

When his eyes had adjusted, Steve saw the room was full of what had once been a bank of computers. They'd been shot up or blown up, and most of the chairs from the workstations were still haphazardly on the floor.

"Right, Black Widow, met her." The voice came from a woman with dark hair spilling past her shoulders. She hadn't turned from her focus on the computer where she sat. "Told her you're my SO and she left me alone."

"A couple of others, too," May said drily, and now the woman – Skye – turned, and Steve felt his breath catch.

She wasn't beautiful by the standards he'd been accustomed to, but there was intelligence in her dark eyes and she had a friendly enough expression, given the circumstances.

"Brock Rumlow, formerly of STRIKE," May made the introduction tactfully enough, but the glare she directed at Rumlow suggested she'd still be as happy to kill him as not.

"Hi," Skye said, and Rumlow just nodded.

"And I trust you're familiar with Captain Rogers."

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Steve said, pleased that his voice had worked properly, and then he wondered if he'd said something wrong, somehow, because she simply stared at him.

"Skye?" May prompted.

"Sorry," Skye said to her, then focused on Steve and added, "I'm just not used to meeting someone I've written a term paper about."

Steve's breath caught for an entirely different reason, and he replayed the words in his mind. Yes, Skye had said the words in his soulmark. She hadn't reacted to his words at all, though, and Steve winced when he remembered what he'd said. Of course she hadn't reacted to such ordinary words – she'd probably heard them a hundred times in her life. He'd have to confirm the words with her later, Steve decided, and refocused on the moment.

"You can be star-struck later," May was saying. "What have you found?"

"Some contacts with a Ciprian Mitrea." Skye turned back to the keyboard. "A few emails, mostly corrupted, but what I've deciphered suggests Mitrea wasn't affiliated with Hydra directly. It looks like he might be involved with some terrorist organization."

Steve flicked a startled glance at Natasha, and she met his gaze with a grim expression.

"Can you find a picture of him?" Natasha asked.

"Give me a minute," Skye responded, and for a minute or more the only sound in the room was the tapping of keys. Then, "There, got it."

"Download it to me," Natasha said, and gave the address.

"Done," Skye responded, and it was Natasha's turn to tap keys – this time on her smartphone.

Steve's and Rumlow's phone dinged with an incoming message a half-second later. Steve thumbed his, saw that Natasha had sent a simple text to him, Rumlow, Bucky, and Pepper Potts: Recognize this man?

Bucky's response came almost immediately: Nope.

Pepper's followed less than a minute later: He was the "doctor" who held me in Ruse.

"We need to find him," Steve said.

"Why?" May's sharp question echoed off the concrete walls.

"He's part of the Ten Rings terrorist group," Steve told her. "And he kidnapped Pepper Potts not long ago because she's the only person who survived being injected with the Extremis virus."

May exchanged a glance with Skye. Both women wore concerned expressions.

"What?" Rumlow asked.

"Extremis was one of the components of the Centipede serum," May said.

"Which was?" Steve prompted.

"An attempt to give people super-powers," May answered. Her mouth twitched again. "You started a trend, Captain Rogers."

"More that Dr. Erskine did," Steve muttered. For all that he was grateful for the formula and what it had enabled him to do, both in the past and in the modern day, sometimes Steve wished that particular genie had never been allowed outside its bottle.

"According to Pepper," Natasha said, "Ten Rings was looking for something to use to save the Mandarin's life. Would the Centipede serum do that?"

"If anyone figured out how to stabilize it, yes," Skye said. "As it is, people who receive it tend to explode if they stop receiving it."

"Just like Extremis," Natasha murmured.

"How did Ms. Potts survive?" May asked.

"Stark and Banner fixed it," Steve said. He looked at Skye – his soulmate – and said, "Can you use facial recognition to find this Ciprian Mitrea?"

"Without all of SHIELD's resources, it'll take a while," Skye said. "Unless you can narrow down the search to something smaller than the whole world."

"He was in Ruse, Bulgaria, five days ago," Natasha said. "That's when we got Pepper back. He must have left as we arrived because Barnes didn't see him at the house where she was held."

"That's narrow," Skye said, and turned back to the computer to work.

Now that he'd recovered from the shock of meeting his soulmate, Steve saw that Skye was actually working at a laptop she'd connected to the remnants of the computers here. Her fingers flew over the keys with confidence, and even from this angle, he could see that her eyebrows had knit together in concentration.

Then there was the briefest of touches at his forearm and he glanced down into Natasha's knowing smirk.

He shook his head, briefly, and counted more on her reading his lips than actually speaking when he whispered, "Don't need help with this."

Her smirk became a smile, but thankfully Skye turned before Natasha could speak.

"There we go," Skye said after a few minutes. "I've uploaded the image, and set the search parameters. It's scanning all the surveillance feeds at airports, train and bus stations in Ruse and all the connecting cities. It could be a while."

"Thank you," Steve said. From the corner of his eye, he saw Natasha exchanging a glance with Rumlow.

"If we're gonna be hanging out here a while," Rumlow said, "want to get something to eat?"

Skye stared at him. "You're thinking about food?"

Rumlow grinned at her. "First rule of field assignments of undetermined length. Never pass up a chance to eat, sleep, or piss. Never know when the next one's coming."

"Or other things," Natasha murmured.

"Or other things," Rumlow agreed. "Guaranteed a base this size has a chow hall, and probably a fair amount of food stores left, too, given they got out of here in a hurry. I make a mean omelet."

"Come on, Melinda," Natasha said, and there was the barest hint of threat in her tone when she added, "you can tell me all about the new SHIELD."

Skye watched them go, then turned to Steve. "Should we be worried this is going to go bad in a way that results in blood or broken bones?"

Given the parties involved, it was a valid question. Steve considered it for a moment, then shook his head. "No. I think Nat's just annoyed she doesn't actually know everything."

She was also, Steve thought, giving him time alone with an attractive woman - and one he'd actively expressed an interest in. He owed her thanks for that, and he was just petty enough - in a very small, very dark corner of his soul - to look forward to Natasha's expression when she found out Skye was his soulmate.

"Good," Skye said, bringing Steve back to the moment. "I mean, if it were anyone else, I wouldn't even be worried. But this is the Black Widow, and her soulmate was STRIKE. May might have her hands full."

"Rumlow said something about a cavalry?"

"Don't call her that," Skye said. "She hates it."

"Why would I call her that?"

"You don't know? I thought everyone in SHIELD knew that story."

"I wasn't in SHIELD very long - and I was catching up on half a century of progress."

"How's that working for you?" The words might be saucy, but the tone was genuinely curious.

"As well as anyone could expect," Steve said, and was surprised to find it was true. "I've been reading modern history, but it's not the same as living it – any part of it, really. And I have a list of things people have said I need to be familiar with."

"A list?" Skye sounded curious. "What's on it?"

"Lots of things," Steve said. "Star Trek and Star Wars, Thai food, Nirvana –"

He broke off when Skye made a derisive sound. "What?"

"Nirvana? Really?" She shook her head. "Okay, I'll grant you that Smells Like Teen Spirit is okay. Even good. But the only reason anyone cares about any other of their songs is that Kurt Cobain died young."

"Is that so?"

"It's a pattern. Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix – all of them revered way out of proportion to their actual talent, just because they died young. Not to say they didn't do good music, sometimes, but not enough to justify the worship."

"I'll have to add all of them to the list." Steve couldn't help smiling. It was a relief to know his soulmate wasn't like some of the computer types he'd met at SHIELD – completely comfortable with computers and equally uncomfortable with the rest of life.

"Not until you've heard some that are actually good."

"Who would you recommend?"

Skye grinned. "I'll give you a list."

Steve laughed. "Please do." Then he sobered. Better to get it out of the way now, he thought. "I have a question for you."

"What's that?"

"Does your soulmark read, Pleasure to meet you, ma'am?"

Her stunned expression was all the answer he needed.