agoodyarn | for andimwearingtights: Man of SHIELD

Nat took his phone instead of returning the favour with her own and typed out, He's already indignant. It's gonna get bad.

Steve opened the door to the interrogation room and, though his eyes went to Kal first, he walked over to Lois and offered his hand for a greeting. "Nice to formally meet one of the last sensible journalists in the world, Miss Lane."

She smirked just a little.

"I like to think there's a few of us out there. Though not so many that have heard the kind of stories I have about you, Captain. I don't suppose you remember a Margot Callahan?" Smile. "She'd send her regards if she knew I was getting to meet you."

Clark couldn't help smiling a little, since he could smell Lois angling for a story after this. And he was happy for her. He was a journalist himself; he entirely understood. And Lois deserved something good out of this whole mess.

Steve paused. And then he laughed. "I remember Margot. She was a nice girl. A nice lady, now, I bet."

But then he was looking over at Clark and it was...

It was like being drawn in by a magnet. He could feel the inherent goodness in the man standing in front of him and it made him want to have faith again, even with everything that had happened with Bucky and Hydra and SHIELD. It felt... It felt better than he could've imagined, and he wasn't sure what to think about it. Or what to do.

"And it's nice to meet you, too, Kal."

"Still kicking," Lois reassured her before leaning back into the chair to let him talk to Clark. Clark, for his part, leaned in and offered his hand.

"Captain. It's an honor." He looked towards the window. "And Colonel Fury, I hope we can come to some degree of trust between us. I'm here to help. I promise."

"I believe you." That, at least, Steve could promise. He did believe Kal. Though he did have to admit to himself that at the moment, he'd just about believe anything Kal said. He was almost certain that just like himself, Kal didn't lie.

Fury knew that Kal could hear him, but he pressed the button to project into the room regardless; Captain Rogers and Miss Lane should hear him too.

"You'll excuse me if I'm a bit skeptical. Now, I'm not exactly the type to trust some alien message hijacking my monitors, but this Zod seems to think you're a fugitive. You mind explaining why that is?"

Kal looked from Lois to Steve and back to the 2-way mirror.

"My father sent me here from the planet Krypton, where this General Zod came from as well. Zod was a criminal, a ruthless warlord who attempted a coup against his own leaders before the planet was destroyed. If anyone is a fugitive, sir, it would be Zod. Unless you can think of a crime that a day old baby could have committed."

"Revenge, then," Steve filled in, and looked over at the mirror. "Sound familiar? Like someone's younger brother?"

He'd read the files. He knew about the first invasion of Earth, with Loki and the Destroyer. About a town in New Mexico practically being razed. All for the sake of revenge. This was just larger scale.

"I think we need a better plan than just handing Kal over. Even if it means--" He glanced at Kal, and it hurt him to suggest it. "--Handing him over, temporarily, so he can find out their layout and get back to us."

Clark stood up a little straighter and Lois actually looked like she might sigh out loud.

"I intend to go there with honest intentions," he said plainly to Steve, and to Commander Fury in all honesty. "That doesn't mean I'll be going there with my eyes closed, however."

Fury hit the button again.

"If any of them can do what this one can do... what, exactly, do you think we can do to get him back once he's there?"

And Steve looked in the direction of the mirror. Unlike Kal, he couldn't see through, but he was firm when he said, "Whatever it takes. You don't leave an ally behind."

This was the man who had dropped into enemy territory and walked into a Hydra base in the middle of a world war just for the sake of one man. He'd do it again. Without hesitation.

"That's if the world decides to send me there," Kal said gently. Because even now, even after his treatment, even after what Steve had said, he hadn't actually been told he was going to be given to Zod.

"Let's hope they don't."

For reasons. Reasons he couldn't exactly explain just yet, if he ever could, but he knew that he didn't want to think about Kal being handed over just like that. It made something inside him twist with nausea and anger.

Kal just gave a soft little shrug, since he was resigned to his fate regardless. But the fact that someone wanted to fight for him, multiple someone's considering both Steve and Lois...

That felt good. That made him feel so much less alone.

Lois stood then, walking up to Steve as she tilted her head to Clark.

"How much pull do you have with the folks making the decision?"

Steve took a slow breath, evaluating his answer before saying, "Back in the war, when I was still shilling war bonds, I drew this picture of a monkey on a unicycle. Now, it'd pretty much be a monkey that can punch people."

He'd discovered that not so very long ago. He was still pretty damn bitter.

"Unsurprising but unfortunate," was Lois's assessment. Kal winced just a little. But Lois continued. "Keep it in your back pocket, though. Because if we pull this off, we're going to need you for his PR campaign."

Lois turned to Clark and gave him a soft, sad smile. "No more hiding, big guy."

Kal nodded and breathed in deep as the door opened again. Nick Fury stood in the doorway, looking at the three of them but finally, just Kal.

"Tell me about Zod."

"Without hesitation," Steve promised, not even having to think twice. He even reached out and squeezed Kal's shoulder, trying to make it clear - he was going to make this work somehow, no matter what it took.

When Fury walked in, Steve glanced back, then stepped slightly to the side, letting Fury have a clear line of sight - and allowing Kal a clear line of sight, too. And only slowly did he remove his hand.

Kal breathed in deep and watched Commander Fury for a moment before breathing out again and taking his seat once more.

"From what I was told, all citizens on Krypton were made to a specific genetic code, bred to function in certain roles in their society. Zod was Krypton's military leader, and he sought to take over rule of the planet to cut down on 'degenerative' bloodlines that he believed to be the problem with the planet. My biological mother had gone to school with him and my father had worked beside him in an attempt to make the high council see reason, take action to save the planet. When my father's peaceful requests were denied, Zod turned to a coup."

While Kal talked, Steve paced forward, coming over to stand not facing him directly, but at the side of the table. He didn't want to look too much like he was choosing sides. Even though he had. "Were they initially on the same side?" he asked, thinking he'd gathered that from what he'd been told so far.

Kal nodded easily enough.

"My father preferred peaceful methods. He was Krypton's foremost scientist, and he'd spent his time figuring out ways to try and save what was left of Krypton and preserve the good of the world to live on."

He swallowed and ducked his head a little.

"He said he sent me here because this is a world where people have free choice. Where a child can aspire to be whatever they want to be, even something greater than what they were born to."

His head lifted again.

"That's why I want to help, Colonel. Because I don't want to see what happened to Krypton happen here. Because I believe in that choice as much as my father did."

And there he swallowed, the word 'father' holding more than a few echoes of pain.

"...So this is revenge in more ways than one. Zod prefers military action. Was even, if I understand correctly, literally bred for it," Steve said quietly, mind working. He'd always been creative. It just took the military to turn that creativity into something tactical. Which... was even more interesting in their current situation.

"It makes sense that he's using this approach, but that doesn't mean that we have to meet him the same way. He thinks he's dealing with a fugitive. The truth is that he's dealing with a refugee. What if we talk to them all? What if we can make them allies, like the Asgardians? He's a military man, but it seems like that he went to violence when he saw the peaceful approach wouldn't work. This is a new chance for a peaceful approach to work."

Fury looked to Steve and his eyes asked in no uncertain terms if he was sure about this. He also looked towards the mirror. What did Natasha think? He'd trust the two of them and he needed their feedback, even if he was reasonably certain he knew what the answer from up top was going to be.

"That depends on what he wants," Kal noted quietly, "and I don't know what he wants with me. For all I know, it could be to make amends for turning on my father."

Fury's phone chirped and what it said was probably predictable. Hope for best, prep for worst. It was an attitude she hadn't much had before she and Steve started working together.

Steve, for his part, looked at Kal with complete sincerity. "You say you're willing to go, no matter what. I don't think it's right to hand you over if you're going to be punished for a crime you didn't commit. But I think you have a point. We need to find out what Zod wants from you. And while I'm stubborn enough to insist that we don't just give in, I'm also smart enough to know that I'm not the best man for the job of negotiating."

Another chirp on Fury's phone.

Understatement.

Clark opened his mouth to say something when he obviously heard something well beyond the room... and sighed. A moment later, Nick checked his phone with a deep sigh.

"Looks like we're going with plan B," he said and the look he gave Steve harked back to the conversation they'd had in that elevator what felt like an eternity ago. Fury liked people... but he sure as hell didn't trust them.

Steve's jaw flexed and he shook his head. "Have they even considered this as an option? Do they even have the amount of information we do? They're making the choice blind," he bit. "Would they ask this of Thor? Or do we just keep welcoming somebody whose brother, whose association with us, has caused severe damage to three cities in two countries while condemning somebody else who's completely innocent?"

His hands were flexing. Only a severe amount of self control was keeping him from punching the table. Denting it. Warping it beyond repair. But he was determined not to look that irrational just now.

Clark walked over and carefully took Steve's hands with his own, squeezing the fingers lightly and giving him a faint, if slightly sad, smile. There was no need for Steve to be so angry. He'd be all right. For the first time in what felt like years, Clark felt like he knew what he was doing. Clark felt like he was making the right choice.

His teeth clenched, Steve looked up at him - and it went through him like a wave. Someone else was going to fall and, again, he wasn't going to be able to do anything about it. What good was the serum if he kept being put in situations where he was powerless?

"This isn't right," he said quietly. "There are other ways."

But he already knew that it was decided, and his only option, if he didn't want to do it this way, was exactly the way that Kal, who was intimately involved, didn't want it to go.

for andimwearingtights: Man of SHIELD

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