Broken Remains || Bucky Barnes

Tony's Not Right

Nikita's POV

"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor...which is one more than you have."

"So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it going to be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?" Sam and Rhodey bickered back and forth.

"117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like, "No, that's cool."

"How long are you gonna play both sides."

"I have an equation." Vision interrupted their bitching.

"Oh, this will clear it up." We all listened closely.

"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man...the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during the same period...the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve looked up from the Accords.

"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict...breeds catastrophe. Oversight...oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Boom." Rhodey said.

"Tony. You are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal." I looked at Tony laying on the couch.

"It's because he's already made up his mind." Steve said.

"Boy you know me so well." Tony got up. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache." He made his way to the kitchen. "That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort. Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"

He threw his phone into a basket of fruit on the counter and a picture of a boy showed. He was probably around 19-20.

"Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA...had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first he wanted to put a few miles on his soul...before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauder-dale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where. Sokovia."

The tension in the room could have been cut with a ballpoint pen.

"He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass. There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't except limitations, if we're boundary-less...we're no better than the bad guys."

"Tony, someone dies on your watch, don't give up."

"Who said we're giving up?" Tony looked at Steve.

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame."

"I'm sorry, Steve. That is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not Hydra."

"No, but it's run be people with agendas, and agendas change."

"That's good." Tony cut into Steve and Rhodey's conversation. "That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands...I shut it down and stopped manufacturing."

"Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

"If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later. That's the fact. That won't be pretty."

"You're saying they'll come for me." Wanda's voice sounded scared.

"We would protect you." Vision reassured her.

"Maybe Tony's right." I looked up at Nat. "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off..."

"Nat, you can't be serious." I looked at her, slightly disappointed. 

"I'm just reading the terrain. We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

"Focus up. I'm sorry. Did I just mishear you...or did you agree with me?"

"I want to take it back now."

"No, no, you can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented. Okay cased closed, I win."

I looked over and saw Steve pull out his phone. "I have to go." He got up and walked out of the room.

I looked at Sam. I made my way back to my room.

*Steve's POV

I stayed behind alone. I heard footsteps enter the room and looked to see Nikita.

She was dressed in all black but nothing too fancy, and her hair was pulled back in a loose, relaxed braid that went over her shoulder.

"When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I had known was gone. Then I found out she was alive. I was just lucky to have her."

"She had you back, too." Nik folded her hands in front of her.

"Who's signing?"

"Tony, Rhodey, Vision, Nat"

"Clint?" I asked.

"Says he's retired." She replied.

"Wanda?"

"TBD."

"And you?"

She seemed to take a moment and think about her answer.

"I think, being controlled by someone with more authority than me, didn't work out so well the first two times it happened. No matter what we do people are still going to get hurt. Whether it's us or the civilians. I would rather retire than take orders. I'm sorry I didn't see that sooner."

"So you wouldn't even fight for your freedom?"

"I never said that. But, like Banner said, "We're a chemical mixture." something like this was bound to happen."

"So what are you doing here? Creating chaos?" She laughed for the first time in what felt like forever.

"I just didn't want you to be alone." She pulled me into a comforting hug. "Come here." I wrapped my arms around her and for a moment, I felt like we were an unstoppable duo.

Maybe that's because we are. I didn't have to worry about whether or not she would turn on me. She was one of the few things I still had. And I don't want to lose her.