open arms, mcu

nineteen

chapter nineteen
╰  ( civil war )

💫 ━━ THE Quinjet lands besides what Steve and the others believe is Zemo's caterpillar truck. The jet's wings fold up beside the fuselage with a press of a button.

Steve moves towards one of the back seats where Paisley was sleeping, she had fallen asleep with her head resting on Buckys side.  The super solider has been very hesitant at first, tense, and scared of the little girl being so close to him. He relaxed eventually, it took him some time, and a talk from Steve, but he let her sleep against him.

Neither of the ancient men move, watching as the twelve year old snores quietly. Her chest is moving up and down, telling them that she's still alive and well.

"She said she knew you." Steve says abruptly, looking at his friend with curios eyes. "How does she?"

"I remember bits and pieces, not everything like she might." Bucky says slowly, looking up from the sleeping child. "I remember taking her from her home, delivering her to the red room a few days later."

Steve frowned. "Had you killed her birth parents?"

Bucky shifted. "I think so."

Steve clasped his hand on Buckys shoulder. "It's in the past Buck, don't let it haunt you anymore."

Bucky nodded, but he wasn't convinced. He would remember it for the rest of his life. It would forever remain in his mind. "It's time to get going, don't you think? Should I wake her?"

Steve nodded, "Yeah, she'll wake pretty easily."

Bucky looked down, softly placing his hand on her shoulder and giving her the lightest shake he could. "Hey, wake up, please."

Paisley groaned, but she opened her eyes slowly and blinked up at Bucky. "Hi."

"Hey, kid." Bucky shifted so Paisley wasn't leaning on him anymore. "We're getting ready to head out, Steve went to go and grab you a snack."

"We're there?"

"We are."

💫 ━━ A set of double doors are pried open. Paisley, Steve and Bucky are standing by the door, blinking in shock as the three were just about to open the door. They stare in surprise when the door opens to reveal Tony in his Iron Man suit.

Tony takes a step towards Steve, Bucky and Paisley, retracting his suit helmet. "You seem a little defensive."

Bucky keeps his gun up and pointed at Tony, well Steve takes a step towards him, his shield covering his body. "It's been a long day."

Tony eyes Bucky Barnes. "At ease, Soldier. I'm not currently after you."

"Then why are you here?" Steve questioned.

Tony made a face. "Could be your story's not so crazy. Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself. — And I had to come say hi to this one." He reached forward, ruffling Paisleys hair.

Steve flashed a smile. "Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork." He lowered his shield."It's good to see you, Tony."

"You too, Cap." Tony said to Steve before he looked to Bucky. "Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop ..."

Bucky lowered his gun.

💫 ━━ TONY is leading everyone towards what looks like an huge chamber with capsules that hold bodies.

It's an odd sight to see, and Steve is making sure that Paisley is tucked into his side just in case something happens. He couldn't be the one to tell everybody that he let something bad happen to her.

"I got heat signatures." Tony announced through the speakers on his suit.

Steve looks around the room, as if he could magically see whoever Tony was detecting. "How many?"

"Uh, one." Tony answered. It didn't make sense though. There was supposed to be more than one heat signature, there was supposed to be more than one frozen super solider.

The four enter a room. Or a chamber as one may like to call it. A hazy, yellow list comes from all the capsules. They contain an enhanced soldier from the 1991 experiment.

Paisley reaches out, placing her hand against one of the cold chambers. A small part of her believes that the body in there will move and scare her, but she keeps telling herself it won't happen. Finally she looks up, noticing the holes in the glass indicating that they had been shot and killed.

Helmut Zemo started to speak, his voice coming from a speaker, "If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep." Bucky frowns as he stares at all the corpses. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

Bucky looks towards one of the speakers. "What the hell?"

"I'm grateful to them, though. They brought you here." Zemo appears in a control room, Steve quickly hurls his shield but it flies back. His attempt useless. "Please, Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."

Tony looks towards the person cockily. "I'm betting I could beat that. And I bet she could too."

Helmut Zemo only smiles. "Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came."

Steve tilts his head, he's thinking. "You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?"

It just doesn't make sense on what is all happening. Paisley can't reach his mind, and she can't figure it out. She's confused and she can't help, not yet.

"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized — there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw." Helmut Zemo squinted at Steve.

"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?" Steve asked.

Helmut Zemo shook his head. "Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."

Steve studies Zemo. "You lost someone?"

The villan clicks his tongue. "I lost everyone. And so will you."