Steve flew the Quinjet toward mountains. Bucky and Connie sat behind him.
"What's gonna happen to your friends?" Bucky asked.
Steve stared ahead, heavyhearted. He sighed and shook his head before saying, "Whatever it is... I'll deal with it."
Bucky looked thoughtful before saying, "I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."
Connie glanced at Bucky. "Yes you are. HYDRA stole us and made weapons of good people."
Steve glanced around at Bucky. "What you two did all those years... it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice. Goes for you as well, Connie."
"But I did it," Bucky said.
Connie took Bucky's hand and squeezed it gently. He rested a gentle hand on her stomach and they shared a smile.
HOSPITAL
Rhodey laid inside an CT-scanner. He was in a blue gown covering his body. Tony paced up to Vision who watched Rhodey grave-faced.
"How did this happen?" Tony asked.
"I became distracted," Vision replied.
"I didn't think that was possible."
"Neither did I. "
Tony left Vision looking in on Rhodey. Along the corridor, Tony spotted an equally concerned Natasha.
Tony and Natasha stood on a balcony looking towards a row of trees.
"The doctors say he shattered L4 through S1," Tony said. "Extreme laceration in the spinal cord. Probably looking at some form of paralysis."
"Steve isn't gonna stop," Natasha told him. "If you don't either, Rhodey's gonna be the best case scenario."
"You let them go, Nat."
"We played this wrong."
"'We'? Boy, it must be hard to shake the whole double agent thing, huh? It sticks in the DNA."
"Are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one goddamn second?"
"T'Challa told Ross what you did, so... they're coming for you."
"I'm not the one that needs to watch their back." She walked away.
Tony activated holographic images appearing on his wrist device and asked, "What am I looking at, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"
"Priority upload from Berlin police," F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied.
"Fire up the chopper." Tony flew over a stormy sea in the chopper. He looked surveillance images on a tablet computer.
"The Task Force called for a psychiatrist as soon as Barnes and his wife were captured. The UN dispatched Dr. Theo Broussard from Geneva within the hour. He was met by this man."
"Did you run facial recognition yet?"
"What do I look like?"
"Uh, I don't know. I've been picturing a redhead."
"You must be thinking of someone else."
"Must be."
"The fake doctor is actually Colonel Helmut Zemo, Sokovian Intelligence." Tony projected the image. "Zemo ran Echo Skorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad."
"So, what happened to the real Broussard?"
"He was found dead in a Berlin hotel room. Where police also found two wigs and facial prosthesis approximating the appearance of one James Buchanan Barnes and one Connie May Barnes, nee Donovan."
"Son of a bitch. Get this to Ross."
"Yes, Boss."
---
Tony flew the chopper low over the broiling sea. He operated the chopper with a touch screen computer in a wall panel.
A guard said over the radio, "This is the Raft Prison Control. You're clear for landing, Mr. Stark."
The sea swelled and surged as Raft Prison rose up from beneath. A huge, fortified, circular structure with small lights around the sides. Two semi-circular doors opened up in the flat circular top. The chopper landed on a helipad and the doors closed above it. Tony, who's left arm was in a sling, walked up to Secretary Ross.
"So? You got the files?" Tony asked. "Let's reroute the satellites, start facial scanning for this Zemo guy."
"You seriously think I'm gonna listen to you after that fiasco in Leipzig?" Secretary Ross shot back. "You're lucky you're not in one of these cells."
Secretary Ross looked at Tony sternly and led on through a thick, steel security door. Soldiers stood guard in an operations room. Tony looked at a surveillance screen. It showed Wanda, sitting hunched and bedraggled in a cramped prison cell.
Another security door opened. Tony walked into a chamber surrounded by large, bared windows. Beyond the windows were a number of prison cells. Tony took in his surroundings.
Clint clapped and said, "The Futurist, gentlemen! The Futurist is here! He sees all! He knows what's best for you, whether your like it or not."
"Give me a break, Barton," Tony retorted. "I had no idea they'd put you here. Come on."
Clint spit. "Yeah, well, you knew they'd put us somewhere, Tony."
"Yeah, but not some super-max floating ocean pokey. You know, this place is for maniacs. This is a place for..."
"Criminals?" He stood. "Criminals, Tony. Think that's the word you're looking for." He eyed Tony through the bars. "Right? That didn't used to mean me. Or Sam, or Wanda. But here we are."
"Because you broke the law."
"Yeah."
"I didn't make you."
"La, la, la, la, la..."
"You read it, you broke it."
"La, la, la, la la..."
"All right, you're all grown up, you got a wife and kids. I don't understand, why didn't you think about them before you chose the wrong side?" He walked away.
"You gotta watch your back with this guy. There's a chance he's gonna break it."
"Hank Pym always said, you never can trust a Stark," Scott said.
"Who are you?" Tony asked.
"Come on, man."
"How's Rhodes?" Sam questioned.
"They're flying him to Columbia Medical tomorrow. So... fingers crossed." Sam shook his head. "What do you need? They feed you yet?"
Sam turned and raised his eyebrows. "You're the good cop now?"
"I'm just the guy who needs to know where Steve went."
"Well, you better go get a bad cop, because you're gonna have to go Mark Fuhrman on my ass to get information out of me."
Tony held up a device he'd pressed. "Oh, I just knocked the 'A' out of their 'AV'. We got about 30 seconds before they realize it's not their equipment."
Secretary Ross, in the operations room, asked, "What did you do? Get it back up!"
Back in the cell, Tony said, "Just look. Because that is the fellow who was supposed to interrogate Barnes and his wife." He showed a holographic image of Doctor Broussard. "Clearly, I made a mistake. Sam, I was wrong."
"That's a first," Sam retorted.
"Cap is definitely off the reservation, but he's about to need all the help he 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 Rogers?"
"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 Connie grabbed another machine gun. Bucky, Connie and Steve stood together, waiting for the exit ramp to descend.
"You two 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.
"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for a redhead."
"What was her name again?"
"Dolores. You called her Dot."
"She's gotta be a hundred years old right now."
"So are we, pal, Connie." He clamped his hand on Bucky's shoulder and while Bucky took Connie's hand.
Wearing his helmet, Steve walked with Bucky and Connie 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 Connie 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 and Connie and heaved up the cage door.
Bucky and Connie readied their heavy duty machine guns and walked along a corridor, keeping close to a wall. Bucky and Connie looked into an alcove full of junk then the two of them and Steve moved on up some stairs. At the sound of a loud thud, they spun around, aiming down the corridor.
"You two ready?" Steve asked.
"Yeah," Bucky and Connie replied.
Double doors parted, forced open by Iron Man. Steve stared in surprise. Tony walked towards Steve, Connie and Bucky and retracted the suit's helmet.
"You seem a little defensive," Tony commented as Bucky and Connie kept their guns up while Steve walked to meet Tony with his shield covering his body. Connie slowly lowered hers, still staring at Tony.
"It's been a long day," Steve replied.
Tony glanced at Connie and Bucky. "At ease, Soldier. I'm not currently after you."
"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 four 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, Connie and Bucky towards the enormous chamber with the capsules standing in it.
"I got heat signatures," Iron Man informed.
"How many?" Captain America 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 Connie stared at Josef's corpse. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"
"What the hell?" Bucky asked.
Connie shrugged. "I have no idea."
"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 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. How nice to find a flaw." He offered a small smile to Connie and Bucky 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 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 stepped over to the screen. Connie remained back with Bucky, seeing a look that worried her. "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 Impossible Girl forced off the road crashed into a tree. Tony watched intently as the Winter Soldier and the Impossible Girl drove up and got off his motorbike. Steve watched Tony's increasing unease. The driver laid on the ground beside the car.
It was Tony's father, Howard.