I stood up and made a false oath in front of the world. "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God."

And then I set to work bringing that office, constitution, and nation to an end.

---

Tony knocked glasses with Mike at one of the big White House parties, "Congratulations," he told the younger man. He looked a bit haggard, worn out. But he had just run a fairly aggressive Presidential campaign and had all these parties to go through.

Mike managed a game smile, "Thanks Tony."

"You enjoying that new house?"

"Well, I wish it hadn't been demolished a few years ago," Mike said.

"Oh, really?" Tony said. "Yeah, I think I know the guy who did that."

Mike mimed being injured, "Well, give him a good sock in the jaw for me."

"I would, but he's a friend, you know, a bit slow on the uptake, but I have to settle sometimes."

"Wow, what a bore he must be." Mike said.

"So what's next for America, conquering the stars?"

Mike smirked, "Think we're going to try to get things straightened out here on Earth."

"Pity," Tony said, shrugging. "I'm told there's a lot out there." An Asgardian had released a pretty comprehensive public summary of known alien civilizations and that had sent another shot of recognition through the whole of humanity that they were under threat.

"There's a lot of problems down here – Whoever was driving that rogue SHIELD operative, the rolling transformation of our energy sector still hasn't quite leveled, the new educational distribution and the issues with that."

"Still not a huge fan of a procedure that's so dangerous," Tony said, trying to get his friend's attention. "You should stop it till you can iron that out."

"You going to share your Iron Man tech?"

"Nope," Tony said, shaking his head. They went back and forth like this, 'stop sharing that dangerous tech' and 'share that dangerous tech' going between them. Then Tony snapped his finger, "Oh, uh, don't tell the tabloid press this but Pepper is…" he made a motion around his waist.

"Really!" Mike said, his eyes widening and his face breaking into a real smile. "Congratulations Tony, that's great. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Tony said.

---

Steve sat down on the park bench next to Daisy and handed her a hot dog, "I shouldn't have left."

Daisy looked at him like she agreed but thought better of saying so. She leaned into him and sighed, "It's not like you could've stopped him. Pomares wasn't any better."

Steve put an arm around her. He hadn't had any success at finding Bucky – Wherever he was now, he didn't want to be found. He'd been in hiding from the full force of U.S. government and SWORD, even with Ward feeding him locations and sightings it hadn't been enough to track him down. Hell, Ward had given him a Quantum Tunneler off the books and it still wasn't enough. Bucky moved too quickly and laid too low.

The evening air of New York was still chilly, even to Steve, and he looked down at Daisy. She was a blessing, he had to admit that. "How's the CfL doing?" Steve asked, feeling guilty for leaving them to no avail.

"Growing, polling is always getting better, lots of organized boycotts and such," Daisy said. "The organizers are really top tier, they put the elbow grease in. I'm sure they'd be happy to have you back though."

"Yeah," Steve agreed, feeling another pang of guilt. There were a lot of arrows in the quiver of, 'ran off in the middle of an election year and came back with nothing.'

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Daisy looked at him when he didn't say anything more, "You are coming back right?"

"Yeah, of course," he said. There wasn't any point to continuing the running around and finding nothing routine.

"Good," Daisy said. "Means I'll be off the beat, which is a pity, but the CfL could really use you."

Another pang.

---

Natasha Romanov was a happy woman. She would not have thought happiness was on the table for her, but laying here in this cabin next to Bruce, in a world she had helped to make safe? That was happiness. She grinned at Bruce until he woke up.

"What's with the staring?" Bruce said, his voice groggy.

"I like what I see," Natasha said, running her fingers through his hair.

"This is my good face," Bruce joked.

Natasha smiled and kissed him. "Clint called, wanted to know if you were good to come by and see the kids next month?"

"Yeah, of course," Bruce said. They still lived out in the woods because Bruce was anxious about hulking out, but he was much calmer and more confident than he had been when they met. He didn't feel like he was on the brink of turning most of the time, at least not to Natasha.

----

It was mid-March and Daisy and Steve were huddling next to the stage of a CfL rally in Minnesota, the cold wind cutting through the easy air. Steve had another speech to give, more people to recruit, and then they'd ship him off to another city to do the same schtick again. It reminded Steve, maddeningly, of his time as a propaganda performer. This was better and more serious, he had to remind himself, he wasn't a performer he was a messenger, people were listening to them.

Then Ward appeared right next to the two of them. "Put these on," he said, throwing each of them Quantum Tunnelers. Steve caught his and held it out as Daisy put hers on .

"Ward, we have a rally going here," Steve pointed out. "I'll admit I've complained to you a fair number of times, but it still matters that I do them."

"Steve," Ward said, his voice urgent. "I need you to trust me. Put it on."

Steve put his on and looked over to Daisy, had already prepared it. "What's the matter?"

"Someone's going to try to kill you," Ward said. "Both of you."

"Here?" Steve said. He hadn't spotted any super-soldiers. An inhuman, maybe?

"Not exactly," Ward said, nodding his head toward the clouds.

"The helicarriers?" Steve asked, taken aback. "I know personal use of a tunneler is illegal, but it's not a death sentence."

Ward shook his head and said, "Look, we need to go now. I don't know when it's happening. Both of those tunnelers are set for an old safe house basement. Do not come up at any point until I come to find you, no phones, nothing that signals. Nothing that goes off."

Steve looked at Ward for a moment and then nodded his head, "Yeah. Okay." He nodded to Daisy and Daisy nodded back. "But you're going to have to explain later."

Ward looked him dead in the eye for several seconds and then seemed to flinch, looking down and away. "Yeah, I am," he said and Steve realized the tone of voice as shame.

Daisy and Steve exchanged a last, nervous look before they took out their phones and handed them to Ward. He was their friend. They trusted him. He just dropped the phones straight into the grass.

"Go!" Ward said urgently.

They pressed the launch button on their tunnelers.