A week had passed after chief Dooley's sacrifice, the SSR pried out a confession from Dottie and Ivchenko regarding their plans to destroy Howard Stark, who now after all this time, was finally cleared of all charges. Peggy returned to work for the SSR, Jarvis on Howard's orders remained assigned to help her if ever she needed it. Sousa was promoted and receive his own office in California, Thompson replaced Dooley as the new chief, only Peggy got the short end of the stick.

Alex returned to his company, but he soon turned all administrative powers over to Faith, he checked on the dozens of Russian teens he had now adopted as a new parent. When he went over and told all of them that from now on they could call him papa. He was greeted by a room full of laughter, not with him but at him. He had figured that all of them were still cautious about him and his hidden objectives. He even came and straight out told them that yes, he had a secret plan for them, but they would all have the choice in either taking him on his offer or not. If they opt to not, then he would do everything in his power to find whatever it was they wanted to do and help them achieve it.

He also went for a long overdue dinner at his parent's house. At which they introduced a new girl to him, again, who he seduced and never called back. This, of course, sent his mother in another one of her rants about never having any grand kids. To which he spent a few hours calming her down, by promising to meet a new girl, next month that his mother thought would make them into such a nice couple. To which he could only sigh, and in his mind, he screamed that he would much prefer having to fight in a pit surrounded by hungry vicious wolves, then meet the new candidate from his mother selection of future gold digging Mrs. Grey wannabes. His father took to this with amusement, ever since his son had gotten his company off the ground. The material his company presented to the world had attracted many interested parties. As well as open a whole new list of clients to his firm, at this point his father stood to make senior partner in a few months instead of years.

But as of now despite all the distraction in his life, he was at his home. A building that he had remodelled to his specification. It had five floors, the top floor was for all form him his personal place, the floors below carried all that a top hotel would need to function. He hired six people to take care of cleaning and cooking, they also had the option of living there. He had set up a rotation so that, at any given time there was at least one person awake to attend him if ever he needed it. There were also rooms for all types of occasions, all the way from a small party to an intimate night for two. There was but one golden rule for the staff, under no circumstance would they enter the basement without his very explicit approval.

Under all that glamor, Alex had built the most advanced lab he could in this period of time. This was the place where he would conduct all his tests for the formula, and assembles piece by piece his own version of the chamber that had contained the very same ray that had given birth to Captain America. Of course, his device was the improved version from the diary of Abraham Erskine and Lawrence Van Helsing. In fact, most if not all of his current products were inspired by the diary he had copied. Sadly, some, if not most were downgraded versions from their original design.

Alex was finishing some of the final stages of assembling his chamber coffin that would be the centre and core for his power up. There was only one problem, he didn't have the ability to automate anything, so he needed a second pair of hands in activating and deactivating all the switches. Of course, this meant one of either of two things. One, he hoodwinks someone to help him and then kills them to keep it a secret. Or two, he turns to someone he trusts, and offer them the same thing he would get or at least a lesser version to it, in exchange for helping him. Of course, the question remains who? And which he should choose.

While he was placing the finishing touches on the chamber, a phone that was connected to the house upper floors rang.

"It probably Henry, asking me if I want another cup of coffee, or asking me if I'm going to stay up all night again." Alex said as he mumbled to himself as he made his way to the phone.

"Hello, what is it now Henry? I'm right in the middle of a breakthrough." Alex said as he held back a yawn.

"Sir you have a visitor." Henry said, his gruff voice came from the other side of the phone.

"Oh? Did they leave a name?" Alex said, he was trying who would come and find him at home at, he checked the time, 2 AM. He was surprised at the time, that meant he'd been down here from 4 PM from yesterday.

"She did sir, said her name was Peggy Carter, should I invited her in? Or turn her away." Henry said.

Alex was lost in thought, he was trying to make his tired mind work in providing a reason for this impromptu visit. He shook his head and figured he could no doubt use a break by this point.

"No, Invite her in, oh and Henry escort her to the reading room. Bring a bottle of my best scotch and two glass to use please." Alex said.

"Right away sir." Henry said, as he hung up the phone.

Alex clean up the lab a little, making sure that he didn't leave any dangerous substance just laying around, thus creating the classic of an accidental mutation of some sort. He did not need a monster running around because he was negligent.

He then walked to the only entrance to the lab, an elevator. He had customised it so that a ring he had would act as the only key, to the basement. He knew it wasn't foolproof but it was the best he could do for now. He figured that once he started learning magic he could create a better system, but for now, it would do.

Alex walked into the reading room, Peggy was sitting in one of two pairs of chairs that was close to a fireplace. Henry was there keeping her company and asking if he could get her anything.

"Thank you, Henry, that would be all for tonight. Get some sleep I'll attend to Pegs myself." Alex said as he approached the other chair.

"Are you sure sir? I could stay up just in case you needed anything, sir." Henry said.

"No, it fine, thank you and good night." Alex said as he motioned him to leave, he sat down in the chair and turn to give a tired smile to Peggy.

He motioned to the scotch, with a raised eyebrow. As Henry left the room and close the door behind him. Peggy nodded, she eyed the drink with an appreciation, on her salary she hardly could afford such a pricey bottle. Alex poured each a glass and past one over to her, they sat in silence as they watch the fire for a few minutes, quietly sipping their drink.

"Sorry for coming so late." Peggy said.

"It's fine." Alex said.

"I'm to be sent to California, apparently Sousa asked for me in helping to shape up the office down there. But I'm more inclined to believe that Thompson wants me out of his way." Peggy said.

"My offer still stands you know, coming to work with me." Alex said.

Peggy smiled. "And just like every time you've asked, my place is there."

Alex was shaking his head. "I still don't get how you can stay in that world, I myself was chased out pretty bad. But like every time if ever you change your mind, the offer is always on the table."

"So, will you tell me the real reason your here? Not that I mind, it good to see you and all, but you coming in the middle of the night seem like a lot of cloak and dagger spy stuff." Alex said.

"Need you to tell me the truth, about Russia. What is it that you didn't give to the SSR." Peggy said, there was tension in her voice.

Alex remained silent for a moment, he looked in the fire for a time.

"Is that from the SSR or just you asking?" Alex said, his tone neutral.

Peggy took a deep breath, and down her glass. "Just me." Peggy said, her voice a whisper.

Alex gave nod, then a sigh, finally he also drained his own drink. Grabbing the bottle he refilled both his and her glass.

"Good, officially I gave everything but one thing over to the SSR. And as you've no doubt figure out, they had samples of Steve blood, they haven't figured all of the formula out yet. But what they do have is worrying, they have created a minor version of the formula, giving a minor boost to strength, speed and a bigger one on reflexes. A faster nervous system, so a boost to the mind, calculation and on spot decision making, better memory holding and learning. Self-recovery is also boosted and a by-product would no doubt be a longer lifespan." Alex said. 

"The files?" Peggy said, as she gripped her glass until her knuckle turned white.

"Destroyed and burned, I made sure of it. They also had a few samples of the drug, also destroyed. But Pegs that was just a small base, not a big one, they lost was almost nothing but a few lab rats. This was a hit but the research is already out there, by the looks of it, the American government sold the samples to the Russians for a quite a sum." Alex said, anger in his voice.

"One last thing, Hydra was behind it." Alex said in a sad tone.

"What?..nnnnn..no that's impossible, we destroyed all the bases, there's no way they could still be around." Peggy said, she jumped up from her seat as she looked down at Alex.

Alex looked up at her and held eye contact. "Who said that Hydra was only in Germany?"

Peggy froze and sat back down. "What do I do Steve." She mumbled as she stared out into space.

"Peggy, you're trying to fight a massive organisation alone. It's not going to work, you need a giant to fight a giant." Alex said.

Peggy remained silent as she went over what he just said.

"You're talking about starting a whole new agency, from scratch, built up into something that would oppose Hydra in all shapes and forms." Peggy said.

"Yeah, and for that, you need a few things. One, lots of money, lucky for us we happen to know someone who has more of it then he knows what to do with it. Next, you need a few core members that will create the foundation that the future will be built on. And last you need the political backing to make this happen." Alex said.

"Will you be in this core?" Peggy said.

"No, I left for a reason Peggy." Alex said, there was sadness and regret in his voice.

"You never really told anyone the reason you left, oh I know the official one the one were you use a letter to regain your freedom. But I always suspected that there was more to it." Peggy said.

Sigh "I suppose it won't hurt to tell you, as you know my boss was less than happy after the war. My official job was to make sure that Steve stayed alive and in the event of his death, to bring back his body. Failing in both objectives put me on the shit list, so they sent me to the archive to rot for my remaining years. While I was there, I stumble on an old file that had my training regiment. In it was a group of volunteer, that had followed the brief report I had sent about the type of training I was using back in the academy, the files contained the training but they had neglected several safety measures I had underlined. The results were mixed, on one hand, they had highly trained people who had reached their physical peak. And on the other hand, they had a mentally unstable split personality disorder. At first, the mental instability wasn't too bad, but as they receive more mission their mental issue got more problematic. Ending in either them taking their own lives, or going nuts and killing anything and anyone in sight. That was when it hit me, anything I came up with, was going to be taken by the agency. And just like this files on my training regiment, they would ignore any warning and test it right away for a quick power-up, and not give a damn about the cost. So I came to realise, that whatever I figure out next, if I wasn't in control of the decision, then a lot of lives would be put in danger until I got there. I figure I wasn't going to wait until someone else put me there." Alex said.

"But if you join in the core you would have a seat at the table." Peggy said.

"Yeah, I would, at first. Look, you know me well enough that some of my more adventurous opinions already have had one or two issues that have been ignored in the past, in light of progress." Alex said.

"You mean the whole thing about Zola?" Peggy said.

"Yeah, I didn't exactly make any friends that day." Alex said.

Peggy snorted. "You, punching the general, after learning the deal he made with the only living member of hydra that agreed to talk to us didn't make friends? Steve and I had to step in and save you, from being court-martialed." Peggy said, with a small grin on her face.

"Thank you for that, and it wasn't my finest hour either, but I still think we should kill the little fucker. But bringing up Zola does show the demerit of me being in the hot seat. My stance won't budge, I would create more complications than needed." Peggy looked at Alex with a raised eyebrow. "Look, it not like I'm blind to what information Zola has already given up, but you have to admit that he's hiding a lot more then he's been telling us, different branches of hydra in other countries for instance." Alex said.

"Perhaps, but we need him more now than ever. He's the most important piece of information he has ever had on hydra with him, we will be able to hunt and destroy this organisation no matter where they are in the world." Peggy said.

"I hope your right, OK, we've gotten off track, tell me what you really came here for." Alex said, by hearing her he knew that nothing he did or said would stop the formation of SHIELD, and the inevitable parasitic rise of Hydra. Keeping Zola had always been the first rotten apple in the barrel, from there the infection would spread and grow into something monstrous. If he stayed outside he would have the freedom and secrecy to create his own troops to fight Hydra later. But if he sat at the table, he would only delay the outcome.

Peggy took a deep breath, she had thought this through for days. She had questioned the wisdom of keeping it or hiding it in some vault, but when she looked at the past outcome of those results she felt that she had found the solution to the problem. She reached into her purse and took out a lipstick. And she then passed it to a confused Alex.

"Take it." Peggy said.

"Its really not my colour." Alex said with a straight face.

Peggy rolled her eyes, and motion for him to take it and open it.

Alex still confused, open the lipstick. Only what came out was a glass vial, with blood in it. Alex stared at it for a long time. Then he closed it up once more.

"Steve's blood." Alex said.

Peggy just nodded.

"What do you hope to achieve from giving it to me?" Alex asked.

"Destroy it. I couldn't do it alone." Peggy said, her voice almost failing her as she said it. Tears were falling as she asked him to destroy the final remains of the man she loved.

Alex didn't say anything, he simply opened the lipstick case once more, took out the vial and threw it into the fire. They both watched as the last of Steve's blood burned to ash, tears were in both their eyes as they had flashes of their time with Steve pass by in their memory. They would not stand by and watch as his legacy was ruined by the greed of others.