Peggy POV
I sat in the monitoring room, eyes fixed on the live feed from Polaris's team. Everything was running smoothly, her squad was executing the mission with precision, and Wanda's progress was remarkable. Her magic had grown tremendously over the past few months under Sabrina's guidance. They were close to wrapping things up.
And yet, my mind wasn't entirely here.
No matter how hard I tried to focus, my thoughts kept drifting back to Steve, and to the Frost sisters. His children. He hasn't been the same since I told him the truth… especially after I said he couldn't meet them.
It tore me apart to make that call. I love him more than life itself, but one emotional choice could jeopardize everything. If Emma Frost ever decided to read his mind, she could uncover all our secrets, every classified operation, every hidden asset, every piece of intel Ed and I built our plans around. She could hand it to the Hellfire Club… or sell it to the highest bidder. And just like that, a year of work would be gone.
Our one advantage has always been secrecy, knowing Hydra exists when no one else does. We can't afford to lose that.
At least, that's what I keep telling myself to make it hurt less.
"Peggy, you okay?" Sage's voice broke through my thoughts.
I turned to look at her. "I'm fine. Just… thinking."
"Thinking about Steve and his kids?" she asked softly.
I wasn't surprised she guessed. It was written all over my face, and Sage was too sharp not to notice. I looked back at the screen, pretending to focus.
"I know you probably don't want to hear it," Sage continued, "and I'm not exactly the best person to give advice on family matters… but maybe you should let Steve meet the Frost sisters."
I blinked, caught off guard.
"I grew up in foster care," she said, her tone quiet but steady. "No parents. No real home. And when I found out I was a mutant, I made the mistake of telling a human friend. Next thing I knew, I was out on the street. For a long time, I hated seeing happy families, parents holding their kids, kids laughing with their moms and dads. That kind of happiness felt like a cruel joke."
She looked at me, her eyes soft but honest. "The Frost sisters have a mother, sure. But don't you think they wonder about their father? Steve wants to be in their lives, that's obvious. You're right, there are dangers… but you're forgetting one major thing."
I frowned. "And what's that?"
"The mind shield," she said. "Ed built that device to protect people's thoughts from telepaths. You asked him to make it, remember?"
I froze, realization hitting me. She was right. I did ask Ed to build it during that meeting about potential allies. How had I not thought of it sooner?
"All you have to do," Sage said with a small smile, "is let Steve use the shield and set up the meeting. Let things unfold from there."
I couldn't help but smile back. "Sage… you're a genius."
"I know," she said smugly.
Ted POV
Boom! Boom! Boom!
I blasted away a whole squad of guards with my magical shotgun, and man, I love this thing. Infinite ammo, zero recoil, and if I really focus, I'm pretty sure I can crank the blast up to "mini-nuke" level. Honestly, best gift Ed's ever given me. It's like this gun and I were meant to be together.
Right now, me, Panda, and Ice Bear were tearing through the base, dropping guards, marking prisoners, and clearing every room. We weren't rescuing anyone just yet; too risky. Our orders were simple: eliminate every hostile before extraction.
We reached a big reinforced door. I didn't bother knocking, one good shot, and the hinges exploded.
Inside was another holding area, rows and rows of cells. But what caught our attention was the lab at the back. Someone was strapped to a table behind a glass wall. We made our way over, stepping through broken glass and fallen equipment. The place smelled like burnt metal and bleach.
And then we saw him.
"Holy crap," I muttered. The guy looked fried. Like someone had left him in the oven on 'hellfire roast' for too long. But he was still breathing, barely.
"Jesus Christ… these guys are seriously messed up," I said.
"You just figured that out?" Panda quipped.
"Ice Bear hates them all," Ice Bear added flatly.
Suddenly, the guy's eyes snapped open. He turned his head toward us and grinned.
"I hate these guys too. No manners. Especially Francis," he rasped.
We all jumped back, weapons ready.
"Wait, wait, wait!" he said, wincing. "Seriously? They sent you? The three bear brothers? Man, I asked for Captain America! But fine, beggars can't be choosers. Speaking of begging… please get me outta here. I really need to pee again."
We all just stared at him, completely lost.
"Uh… who are you?" Panda asked cautiously.
The man groaned dramatically. "Oh, come on! None of you watches movies? Fine. Name's Wade Wilson. A.K.A. the Merc with the Mouth. A.K.A. Deadpool. A.K.A. the guy with the best ass in the multiverse. A.K.A. the guy everyone wishes they were, except maybe Wolverine, that hairy diva."
We all blinked.
"Yeah, no. I'm not dealing with this." I lowered my shotgun and looked at the others. "Raise your hands if you wanna leave this guy here and clear the rest of the base."
Ice Bear and Panda immediately raised their hands.
"Good enough for me," I said. "Let's go clean another area."
We turned around and started walking out, ignoring the guy still strapped to the table.
"Wait, wait, NO!" Deadpool shouted behind us. "You're supposed to untie me, then I help you clear the base while showing off my amazing combat skills, and then I get my shiny invite to the Vanguard Initiative! You guys seriously don't know how fanfics work?!"
We ignored him. Honestly, I had no idea what he was talking about, something about "fanfic"? Yeah, he was definitely insane. Still, one thing bugged me…
How the hell did he know Captain America was alive? No one outside our inner circle should know that. I decided to let Ed deal with that one when we got back.
Ed POV
Me and Lena were at this fancy restaurant one of those places where the napkins are folded like origami swans and the waiter looks like he's judging your net worth. Still, it was a nice change of pace. We talked about business for a bit. LuthorCorp, Omnitech Nexus, future plans, but eventually, we dropped the work talk and just… talked. About ourselves.
"So, let me get this straight," I said, raising an eyebrow. "You set fire to your high school?"
"Not on purpose!" Lena laughed, though a hint of embarrassment crossed her face. "It was for a science fair. I wanted to impress my mom and my brother. I built a prototype teleportation device, the idea was to transfer objects from one point to another. I ran the numbers, tested it multiple times, and it worked… mostly."
She sighed and continued, "The problem was power. During the demonstration, I used one of Lex's custom generators, way too strong for a school circuit. When I tried connecting it to the school's power grid, it couldn't handle the load. The thing overloaded, sparked, and—" she made a small explosion gesture with her hands "—half the gym went up in flames."
I chuckled. "Wow. Must've been quite the show."
"It was," she said, smiling faintly. "Until it wasn't. My mom and Lex weren't exactly thrilled. I was devastated, spent months beating myself up over it."
"You must've looked up to them a lot back then," I said softly.
"I did," she said, her tone dropping. "Especially Lex. He wasn't always the… maniac who wants to kill Superman. Back then, he was my big brother. kind, encouraging, always willing to help me with my inventions. I wanted his approval more than anything… even more than my mother's."
Her voice wavered slightly. She blinked fast, quickly brushing away the tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
I smiled gently. "I wish I could've met that version of him."
Her gaze met mine. "You would've liked him," she said quietly. Then she hesitated before adding, "Well… maybe. He always did appreciate smart people. You two probably would've gotten along."
She straightened up and forced a small smile. "Anyway, enough about my family. Let's talk about yours. I don't think I've ever heard you mention them, and I've definitely never seen you bring them to any of your parties back then."
I hesitated for a moment. I couldn't exactly tell her the whole truth, so… half-truths it is.
"Well," I said, leaning back in my chair, "not much to tell. I'm adopted. Got a bunch of siblings. And my mom's the best you could ever ask for. That's pretty much it."
Her face softened. "I'm adopted too," Lena said. "My mother passed away when I was little, and the Luthors took me in. I only remember a few things about my birth mother. What about you?"
I shrugged lightly. "Nothing. Total blank. No memory of my birth parents. But honestly? Doesn't matter. The family I have now, they're all I need."
She smiled warmly. "Can you tell me a little about them?"
"Okay, let's see…" I said, leaning back a little with a small smile. "There's Vaelthrya. She's… well, she's good at almost everything you can imagine. Elegant, kind, graceful, and just a little crazy. The type who'll help a hundred people before breakfast, then lie straight to your face if it means protecting one of them."
Lena chuckled. "Oh? Sounds like a doctor or something."
"Something like that," I said with a shrug. "She's the oldest. Then there's Thaldris, the second oldest and probably the most hardcore out of all of us."
Lena tilted her head, a little confused. "Hardcore?"
"Yeah," I said, laughing softly. "A long time ago, feels like almost a hundred years now, she decided I needed to 'toughen up.' So she started training me. Hand-to-hand, sword combat, all that fun stuff. We've fought over a dozen times… and I've never beaten her. Not once. Trust me, I tried everything."
Lena grinned. "She sounds terrifying."
"Oh, she is," I said. "In the best way possible."
I took another sip of my drink before continuing. "Then there's Zabrie, my big brother. Pretty fun guy. A bit of a show-off. Definitely a womanizer, but somehow still a gentleman. He really does care about his… wives."
Lena blinked. "I'm sorry, wives? As in plural?"
I did not meant to say that out loud.
"Yeah, believe it or not. Four. Don't ask me how it works , I have no clue. I just try not to think about it too much.
There is no way in hell, I'm telling her the real number.
"There's no way in hell I could share a man with three other women," Lena said, shaking her head.
"And I can't imagine having more than one wife," I replied quickly.
She smirked. "Everyone loves differently, I guess."
"Yeah," I said with a small laugh. "Guess so."
"Anyone else?" she asked.
"Yeah, one more, Crystal. She's elegant, beautiful, and probably one of the smartest people I've ever met. Honestly, she might even be smarter than both of us combined."
Lena smiled, leaning forward slightly. "Now that's someone I definitely want to meet."
"Yeah, maybe," I said with a small shrug. "They're all pretty busy with their own lives. We don't really stay in the same place for long."
Lena smiled softly. "What about your mother? Can you tell me a bit about her?"
I leaned back in my chair, thinking. "The best way I can describe her… she's warm. Kind. She's got this huge heart, you know? I'm not her only adopted kid, she's taken in plenty of others. But the crazy thing is, she makes every one of us feel like we're her favorite. You can feel how much she loves us. It's… real."
Lena's expression softened, though there was a hint of sadness behind her smile. "I wish I had that with my adoptive mother. Lillian was… cold. For as long as I can remember, I wanted her approval, her affection, anything. I tried so hard to earn it, but she never gave me either. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if she even wanted me. One day, her husband just brought me home. She didn't even know I was going to be part of the family."
She looked down at her plate, her voice fading to almost a whisper.
I watched her for a moment, then said gently, "I don't know your mother, but… if she truly didn't love you, I think you would've known. Some people aren't great at showing emotion. They hide it behind intellect, control, or fear of looking vulnerable. The way you talk about her, she sounds like someone who's too smart for her own feelings."
Lena lifted her eyes to mine. "She is," she said quietly.
I nodded. "That's what I figured. I think she did love you, Lena, just in her own way. You probably just weren't used to it. Your birth mom, she probably showed love differently, right? Warm, emotional, open?"
Lena hesitated, then nodded. "Yes."
"That's what I thought," I said with a small smile. "Look, don't take my words as gospel, I never met the woman. But from what I've seen… blood doesn't define family. It's the bonds we choose, the people we care about and protect, that matter most."
For a moment, Lena just looked at me, silent but smiling softly, like she was finally letting a small piece of her guard drop.
"Has anyone ever told you how wise you are?" Lena asked, a playful smile tugging at her lips.
I grinned. "Nope. Guess no one's figured it out yet, probably because I do a great job hiding it behind my childish charm."
She laughed, a genuine, melodic laugh that made the moment feel easy. "Hahaha, Ed… I'm really glad you asked me out tonight. This is the most fun I've had in a very long time."
I smiled back. "What are friends for, right?"
Lena tilted her head slightly, her smile softening. "Yeah… friends."
For a moment, neither of us said anything, just the quiet hum of the restaurant around us and that unspoken something hanging in the air.
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AN: I hope you like how I brought in Deadpool, my original thought was him escaping the lab and somehow showing up on the island, But I thought that might be too hard to believe, since ed got plenty of security measures for anyone to get on sanctuary.
Also thanks to crazy panda I'm making a auxiliary chapter for the Ben 10 fanfic, and has me thinking I might do it to this one as well, but I honestly don't know yet, if you guys are interested in that let me know it will take me a while to get everything in order.