It had been a long excruciating hour in the hotel room in Vienna. Cassie had been pacing back and forth in the hotel room Tony gave her. She had to be honest, all of this was a little overwhelming. Getting to meet the Marvel actors was one thing but to be in the movie, talking to the characters; it was something completely different. She kept checking her phone to see if the bombing had happened yet before deciding to just turn on the tv altogether. Scanning the channels, she looked for the live press conference. Finally, she found it, people just starting to file into the building.
None of them know, she thought. None of them know what is about to happen but me.
She kept glancing at her phone, going through all of the old videos and pictures she had with her dad. He would freak out when she got back home, telling her how delusional she was before storming out of the room for some other meeting. This was, of course, if she could actually get back home. Cassie had started taking pictures since her first night in the compound and hoped that if the same thing that happened to her got her home, her pictures would transfer over.
Now that she thought about it, the way she ended up on this other earth seemed eerily familiar. The gold circle that appeared below her, the one that sent her falling through the sky, looked a lot like the portals Dr. Strange made. Maybe he was her ticket home, but, Stephen Strange wouldn't get his powers until later this year.
Her thoughts were cut short when a jingle sounded from the tv. "Breaking news," said the reporter. "A bomb when off in Vienna today during the conference for the Sokovia Accords. Our sources say that only one was seriously injured, the King T'Chaka of Wakanda. He is being rushed to the hospital as we speak. Authorities have identified a suspect, James Buchanan Barnes, otherwise known as the Winter Soldier..."
The reporter's voice faded away as Cassie took in what had happened. King T'Chaka was still injured but he was alive. That's better than before right? The hotel was only a couple of blocks from the building and she knew that things were going to escalate soon so sneaking out seemed like the best bet.
It wasn't hard to sneak out of the hotel. There was no security and Happy was still back in New York, well, for now. Cassie took off down the street, trying to remember the way to go. She heard all the commotion in the distance, helicopters, fire trucks, ambulances; she followed the noise. It wasn't long until she reached the cut-off point. There was yellow tape surrounding everywhere and she didn't know how to get in. Quickly, she picked out the least intimidating officer and walked up to him.
"Excuse me, I need to get in there," she told him.
"No can do. No one goes in or out," the officer said.
"It's okay she's with me!" said a voice. Cassie looked behind the officer to see Tony strutting over to him. The guard took one more look at her behind giving her the nod saying it was okay. Cassie walked under the tape and met up with him.
"Thanks," Cassie said.
"You shouldn't be here," Tony said, "I told you to stay at the hotel."
"Well, I'm the only one that knows what happens all right?" Cassie talked back to him. Tony's eyes widened at how disrespectful she was being. "Sorry," she added.
"So you knew about the bomb?"
"Yes."
"And you knew it would injure T'Chaka."
"Well in the movie he dies on impact so I say we're off to a little bit of a better start."
Cassie and Tony looked around at all the destruction that was caused. Tents were being set up to help people and the building was still on fire. She tried to eye where Nat and T'Challa were, needing to convince him not to go after the Winter Soldier.
"It doesn't look any different though," said Tony, directing Cassie's attention back towards him. She looked down at her phone, there was a news alert.
Breaking News: King T'Chaka of Wakanda dies during emergency surgery after the Vienna bombing.
"Shit," Tony swore under his breath.
"Language," Cassie said on instinct. It was something she said under her breath to herself often. Tony looked at her with surprise. "Sorry, it's kind of a famous line on my earth. From Age of Ultron?" He gave her a blank stare. "Sorry, now is not the time."
"Age of Ultron? Really?"
"It wasn't the best movie I'm not gonna lie."
"Whatever... someone's dead which means-"
Cassie caught on before he was finished. "No, Tony, he's innocent. Let Cap bring him in on his own. He's trying to change."
"A king is dead Cassie, he has to answer for his actions. He's still a wanted man."
Cassie scanned her eyes around the scene again, searching for T'Challa. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nat's bright red hair. She took off. Tony was calling for her but she didn't care, she needed to get over to them before it was too late.
"That sounds very peaceful," she heard Natasha say.
"My father thought so," said T'Challa. "But I am not my father."
"T'Challa wait!" Cassie came sprinting so fast to them she almost ran into Natasha. Nat reached out her arms to balance her. "Please stop, Barnes is not responsible for this bombing. It's not him, he's being framed."
"Who is this?" T'Challa asked Nat.
"It's Tony's niece," Nat responded warily, she gave a stern look towards Cassie. "She's not supposed to be here right now."
Cassie continued. "Please, believe me, it isn't him."
"The task force will decide who brings in Barnes," Natasha cut in, trying to reassure T'Challa his father's death would be brought to justice.
"Don't' bother Miss Romanoff," he said, standing up from the bench. "I'll kill him myself." T'Challa walked away, leaving the two girls by themselves.
"What were you thinking!" Nat said to her.
"Bucky is innocent you have to believe me."
"No matter what-' Nat was cut off by the sound of her phone. She looked down at an unknown caller.
"It's Steve," Cassie said. "He's nearby. He's gonna go after Bucky."
No matter how much Cassie begged Nat and Tony to not go after Bucky, she would never be able to convince the Secretary of State. She could convince some of the avengers she knew what was going to happen but he would never believe her. Tony and Nat sat in a car, driving somewhere unknown with Cassie. The car was small for the three people and she felt herself get knocked into Tony a few times, she quickly apologized to him.
"Okay well, they're gonna want us to go after Barnes," Natasha said, breaking the silence.
"I can send Rhodey out, do a sweep of the nearby areas to cool Ross off, show that it might not be him," Tony suggested as he sent a text off to one of his closest friends.
"That might work," Cassie butted in. "He's one of the people that bring in Steve, Bucky, Sam, and T'Challa."
The two Avengers looked at Cassie with worry. "T'Challa?" Nat asked.
"Shit, shit, shit... I wasn't supposed to say that..."
"Why would we bring T'Challa in?" Tony said, more demanding an answer from her rather than asking a question.
"He may or may not be a superhero as well... but don't worry he's on your side."
"My side? Why do I have a side? What are you talking about?"
"Wait," Nat interrupted. They both turned to look at her. "You said at the compound that you're in Captain America: Civil War. If we're in a civil war, doesn't that mean we're fighting our people?"
Tony turned to look at Cassie as well. She glanced back and forth at them, not knowing what to say. The silence in the car never felt so loud as she awkwardly stared at Nat and Tony. "Well- I..."
"Well spit it out!" Tony exclaimed before he got an alert on his phone. "It's Rhodey. He found Rogers and Barnes in Romania."
"Ugh, the plums!" Cassie said under her breath. She always hated that Bucky never got his plums.
"What?" Tony asked.
"Nothing! It's nothing. Let's just get moving. I hate that you're gonna have to bring him in but this was an epic chase sequence in the movie."
They drove for an hour or so until they got to a nearby airport. The drive would have been over 8 hours so of course, Tony opted to fly. Cassie didn't think she would ever get used to being on a private plane. When they sat down she could see the stress that overtook Tony so she sat next to him. He was going to be a father in some years' time so maybe comfort from someone younger was what he needed.
He got an alert on his phone. "Rhodey is gonna bring him to our compound in Berlin. We're going to meet him there."
"Dang," Cassie commented. "I would have loved to see Bucky steal that motorcycle...." Nat looked over at her like she was crazy. "What? He's hot what can I say? And don't give me that look, Natasha, in the comics, you date him."
Nat was taken aback. "I date him?"
"Yeah, you meet in the Red Room. On and off-again relationship. Your love started to un-brainwash him so he got taken away."
"Red Room? What's the Red Room Nat?" Tony butted in. It was clear Cassie might know more about his close friend than he did.
"Nothing," she dismissed quickly. "It's nothing..."
"Anyway," Tony continued. "You can come with us to the compound, maybe try and convince some more people there but Happy is going to meet us there. The minute he shows up, you're going to the hotel." Cassie nodded. As she watched Tony pull out a tablet. He scrolled through files that he kept secret and one caught her eye. P.Parker. Cassie gave out a huff. Tony looked up at her, and then back down at the page she was looking at. "What? You know him?"
"Do I know him? Not personally but yes, I know of him."
"He any good at his job?"
"One of the best. He's a lot of people's favorite superheroes. In my top 5 for sure."
"Really? Am I in your top five?" he asked with a smirk. Cassie knew his ego was blowing up the size of a beach ball. She wanted to deflate it.
"Of course, but behind him and Wolverine of course."
"Wolverine?" Tony asked.
"He's part of the X-Men. In my world, a different company used to own the rights to X-Men so their movies don't take place in the same universe. Though, technically Wanda and Pietro's father is in the X-Men... it's hard to explain."
"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to stop right there. I got some stuff I need to do, you go sit by Nat and talk about girl stuff."
Cassie got up and walked over to Nat who was reading another book. She sat down and crossed her arms, peering out the plane window.
"Got banished from Stark's side of the plane?" Nat asked, looking up from her book.
"Sometimes I forget how hot-headed he is..." Cassie told her to which Nat laughed at with a nod.
"He's always been that way. I don't think that's something you can change about him. Now, tell me more about the relationship I have with Bucky."
Cassie looked up and stared at her quizzically. "Why do you want to know more?"
"Well, I do supposedly date him don't I? I'm just curious about what happens to us in the comics...."
Cassie continued to stare at Nat, questioning her true intentions. For an assassin, she was really bad at hiding why she wanted to know. "I get it," she started, "Bucky's hot. I would want to know too."
Nat shook her head, placing a hand on her forehead at how blatant Cassie was being. "If you want to put it that way.."
"Okay well, where to start...."