Prodigal Son's Prayer

13

Back in the cell, Tony said, "Just look. Because that is the fellow who was supposed to interrogate Barnes." He showed a holographic image of Doctor Broussard. "Clearly, I made a mistake. Sam, I was wrong."

"That's a first," Sam retorted.

"Cap and the Lieutenant are definitely off the reservation, as well as the Eclipse and the twins, but they're about to need all the help they can get. We don't know each other very well. You don't have to..."

"Hey, it's all right." Tony leaned closer to the window. Sam sighed and looked uneasy. "Look, I'll tell you... but you have to go alone and as a friend."

"Easy." Tony walked to his chopper.

"Stark?" Secretary Ross called. "Did he give you anything on the Rogers brothers and the older one's family?"

"Nope. Told me to go to hell. I'm going back to the compound instead, but you can call me anytime. I'll put you on hold, I like to watch the line blink."

Ross stared at Tony who smiled as he got in the chopper and the door slid shut. The chopper rose off the helipad and flew away. The doors closed on the prison roof.

Sitting in the chopper, Tony un-clipped the sling holding his left arm. He cradled his arm in his hand for a moment. He slowly reached out the injured arm and pressed a button on a panel. The Iron Man Suit wrapped itself around Tony. A hatch opened and he flew out of the chopper as Iron Man. He sped through dark clouds. Close behind, T'Challa was at the controls of a Quinjet.

---

Steve brought his Quinjet into land beside Zemo's caterpillar truck on the remote icy mountain top. The jet's wings folded up beside the fuselage. On board, Bucky pulled out rack of guns labeled 'Romanoff'. He took a light machine gun and Daniel grabbed another machine gun. Bucky, Lottie, Daniel and Steve stood together, waiting for the exit ramp to descend. Sarah and Margot remained back as due to Margot's current health crisis, they wanted to sit it out.

"You three remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?" Steve asked.

"Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?" Bucky questioned.

Daniel laughed. "He blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for that redhead."

"What was her name again?"

"Dolores," Steve replied. "You called her Dot."

"She's gotta be a hundred years old right now."

"So are we, pal, Lottie." He clamped his hand on Bucky's shoulder and Daniel wrapped an arm around Lottie's shoulders. "The girls are in their 70s."

Wearing his helmet, Steve walked with Bucky, Daniel and Lottie up to the entrance set in rock. The door was still open.

"He can't have been here more than a few hours," Steve said.

"Long enough to wake them up," Bucky and Lottie warned.

Steve led them into the cast bunker. They traveled down into the depths inside a caged elevator. It stopped in the bowls of the bunker and doors slid open. Steve nodded to Bucky, Lottie and Daniel and heaved up the cage door.

Bucky and Daniel readied their heavy duty machine guns and walked along a corridor, keeping close to a wall. Bucky, Daniel and Lottie looked into an alcove full of junk then the three of them and Steve moved on up some stairs. At the sound of a loud thud, they spun around, aiming down the corridor.

"You all ready?" Steve asked.

"Yeah," Bucky, Lottie and Daniel replied.

Double doors parted, forced open by Iron Man. Steve stared in surprise. Tony walked towards Steve, Lottie, Daniel and Bucky and retracted the suit's helmet.

"You seem a little defensive," Tony commented as Bucky and Daniel kept their guns up while Steve walked to meet Tony with his shield covering his body. Daniel slowly lowered his, still staring at Tony.

"It's been a long day," Steve replied.

Tony glanced at Daniel, Lottie and Bucky. "At ease, Soldier. I'm not currently after you or your brother."

"Then why are you here?"

"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."

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

"You too, Cap." He said to Bucky, "Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop..." Steve signed Bucky to lower his weapon and he did so.

The six of them cautiously walked along a corridor. T'Challa, in his Black Panther Suit, was hiding around a corner, watching them.

With his helmet and face plate reengaged, Iron Man led Steve, Daniel, Lottie and Bucky towards the enormous chamber with the capsules standing in it.

"I got heat signatures," Iron Man informed.

"How many?" Captain America and Lieutenant Rogers asked.

"Uh, one."

As they entered the vast chamber, the lights came on. Hazy, yellow mist descended within the capsules. As well as Josef, each one contained an enhanced soldier from the 1991 experiment. Steve and the others looked around, bewildered.

Zemo, on speaker, said, "If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep." All of the enhanced soldiers had been shot in the head. Bucky and Lottie stared at Josef's corpse. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

"What the hell?" Bucky asked.

"What the-" Lottie began as she stared around. She swallowed rising bile and tried not to think of the horrors that had been inflicted throughout decades upon her and Bucky in that very room.

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

"I'm betting I could beat that," Iron Man shot back.

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

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve questioned. Black Panther watched from the shadows. Steve and Daniel looked at Zemo through a window.

"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 and a bit of hazel in your brother's. How nice to find a flaw." He offered a small smile to Lottie  and Daniel stepped in front of her.

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

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

Steve and Daniel studied Zemo and said, "You lost someone?"

Zemo looked grave and clicked his tongue. "I lost everyone. And so will you." He played surveillance footage from December 16th, 1991. Steve and Daniel stepped over to the screen. Lottie remained back with Bucky. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumples from within? That's dead... forever."

Tony looked at the freeze frame of a secluded road and the date, December 16, 1991. His eyes rose anxiously. "I know that road. What is this?" The video played. The car that the Winter Soldier and the Cataclysmic Eclipse forced off the road crashed into a tree. Tony watched intently as the Winter Soldier and the Cataclysmic Eclipse drove up and got off the former's motorbike. Steve and Daniel watched Tony's increasing unease. The driver laid on the ground beside the car.

It was Tony's father, Howard.