"Your super soldiers were very impressive, Mr. Trent," Strucker said as we walked towards the spaceship. We finished reviewing the last of the tapes from the suits' cameras. "Though they are right that you should work on the suit assembly."

"There's just a lot finicky work to make sure the nanites don't stop at a hair on your arm and don't burrow into your fingernail if your finger is at the wrong angle."

"It's an important priority. Mr. Trent, I will not lie to you. I have harbored… resentment at your rise." Strucker seemed almost genuinely remorseful. "But your work today has secured our world against another alien foe and one cannot doubt that it has made Hydra much more successful. And they are magnificent constructions, perfect in form."

I was surprised that Strucker had come around so easily on this. His resentment of me was not new. But I guess there was nothing succeeds like success. "Thank you."

"If only I had my confidence that you would not continue the imprudent strategies that created our problems in Sokovia, I would be prepared to back you for the Headship, as Pierce has long been debating."

My mind went reeling. Pierce was considering me for the chief head? Why? I guess he was getting on in years. But canonically, Project Insight would surely be going up soon. Had it been his crowning achievement? Had he intended to spend some time as the world ruler before a retirement he could supervise? Had it been impelled because he didn't have any attractive subordinates to trust with world domination?

I had a lot of questions. But the next most important question was the clear quid pro quo that Strucker was promising. I dealt with the twins and he would put his weight behind me for the status of the first head. I could direct the resources of Hydra, a world-spanning, expanding empire to which I had contributed. And if I was head, I could make sure that Hydra didn't do anything ridiculous or stupid between here and Thanos' assault on our world. I could protect my baby and my… seed… from further investigation.

All it would take is a couple of bodies. Why hesitate? Because I knew their names? Because one had given me a hug? It wasn't because they were good people. I had (willfully) killed people who were at least probably good and I had been handmaiden to more than a few by providing Hydra with my technology. Unless I invented a truly ingenious way of clearing out Hydra, I was probably doomed to be party to many, many murders. Why should these two stop me?

But still I did hesitate, "I will do my best, Baron Strucker," I said. There had to be some way to handle this peacefully. That wasn't actually true. There didn't have to be. But I had to try, damn it. "But in the meantime, I have a spaceship to catch. My laurels are owed to me on this one."

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We shook hands and I stepped aboard.

—

I will spare you the screaming, the awkwardness of staring at my wife giving birth with near perfect strangers. But when the baby was born, healthy and screaming, I was the one to catch her. By rights, I should have been attending a big award ceremony with the other heroes of the 15th, but my wife had started having contractions and I had hopped on a spaceship and circumnavigated the globe to be with her when she gave birth instead.

I felt in my stomach a raw terror I had never before known as I held my little girl. Some day she would be full grown and the world needed to still be there for her. I felt deeply, personally responsible for that now. Babies all look pretty similar, but I had already started to see Andromeda and my features appearing in her face, in the shock gray of her eyes. She was still too fresh and wet to have much appearance to her yet. But she was going to be beautiful.

After the baby had gotten her cries out, I brought her over to Andromeda, who smiled with much less exhaustion than I think an ordinary birth would have induced without an epidural. We did try an epidural, but like most drugs it wasn't very effective on Andromeda. "She's amazing," I said gently. "You did a great job."

"It should be your turn next time," Andromeda groused politely and held out her arms for the baby. I handed her over and she held her in her arms. "She is amazing though."

I put my arm around her and said, "I think your idea for a name should be great," I said, at last giving up the battle for a short, efficient name.

"I'm glad you've come to see sense. Your daddy's very smart, Persephone. He even listens to his wife when he needs to, aren't I the luckiest girl? No… That's you now. This sweet man is going to give you the world."

I felt the weight of that statement on me like a stone. There would be many sacrifices that had to be made to get from here to there, I was going to have to do a lot to make sure that terrible purple monster wasn't able to lay a hand on the stones that could end my daughter's life. Or to overpower our armies and establish a more traditional army based xenocide.

I wasn't going to trust my daughter's life to fate. Or to the Avengers being fortuitously present. I wasn't going to miss five years of her life. I didn't want to miss five minutes. I leaned over to my wife and kissed her on the forehead. I was going to do whatever it took to take care of Persephone, I was going to bury whoever I had to bury to see her grow tall and whole and to be buried by my daughter in peace and old age. "This whole world and so much more. I promise."