There is just too much going on right now.
Steve is a criminal now – an international criminal who just disobeyed the ruling of over a hundred countries and his friends. The whole world is going to be looking for him now, and the only people he can call on for help are the ones sitting in this abandoned factory with him.
He doesn't know what's worse: the fact that one wrong move could put him and his friends behind bars for the rest of his life, or the fact that there's nothing they can even do right now to stop it. Until Bucky wakes up, they're just stuck here, twiddling their thumbs and hoping to whatever god might be listening that nobody finds them.
Pietro has spent the last hour or so sitting in the far corner of the room on his phone. He's assured them that he's not texting anybody, and Steve's inclined to believe him, if only because Wanda's phone broke in the explosion so he can't text her, so they've largely left him alone. But with nothing else to do until Bucky wakes up, Steve decides to pay him a little visit.
He sits down on the ground with a quiet groan, crossing his legs in front of him. "What're you up to?"
Pietro angles his phone toward him to show him his now-ended game of Piano Tiles. "I am not talking to anybody," he says, a hint of irritation in his voice.
"I didn't think you were," Steve assures him. "I just wanted to see what you were up to."
"Absolutely nothing," Pietro deadpans. "What a wonderful, heroic journey this is." He restarts his game of Piano Tiles without looking up.
Steve sighs. "I know," he says. "This isn't fun – and it's not going to be fun. And if you want to back out, you technically haven't done anything wrong yet. You can still go back."
"No, I cannot," Pietro says, "because if you cannot prove that your friend was not responsible for the bomb, then the man who was will get away, and I cannot let that happen."
Steeve gives him a small smile, though Pietro's too busy playing his game to notice. "You're a good kid, Pietro."
"I am not trying to be a good person, Rogers," Pietro tells him. "This man could have hurt my sister – he could have killed my sister. He will pay for that. I will make sure of it."
"Good," Steve says. "Remember that. Don't forget it for a second. But you can't kill him."
"I most certainly can."
Steve shakes his head. "No, you can't," he repeats. "Because if they can't take him alive, they won't believe he did it, and they'll treat you like a murderer."
"They already do," Pietro replies. "Was that not the point of the Accords? Because they think we're murderers?"
"But they're 'murders' we could get away with," Steve says. "They're not going to let you get away with this one."
Pietro is quiet for a few moments, and through it, his fingers never stop hitting the keys on his screen. Finally, he just says, "Okay."
"You're not going to kill him?" Steve asks.
"I'm not," Pietro replies. "But that's not to say he will emerge unscathed."
Steve feels he should tell him to be careful, to leave the punishment to the governments, to only do his job in taking this so-called doctor in and leaving the rest to the professionals. But what he did... He blew up the United Nations conference. He killed the king of Wakanda, and a dozen others. He could have killed the Avengers – their friends; Pietro's sister. And he framed Bucky for it all; pulled him out of the life he made for himself and sent the whole world after him.
Maybe he should give the kid a few minutes alone with him. It certainly wouldn't be undeserved.
"Hey, Cap," Sam says.
That can only mean one thing: Bucky's waking up.
Pietro looks up at Steve, a silent question in his eyes, and Steve nods once. The kid's been sitting around for long enough. He can come. He should come. This is his fight, too, and he deserves to know what's going on.
They jog over to the room they left Bucky in, his metal arm clamped in a machine to keep him in place. Sam's been keeping an eye on him, and Bruce has stayed nearby all the while – he's anxious, Steve can tell; he doesn't like this. He wants to know immediately if something goes wrong. Steve can't fault him for that.
Bucky groans, tugging groggily at his arm. His eyes flutter open, and he looks at the crowd of people before him, bleary-eyed. He tugs against the machine once more, but it won't budge – and of course it won't; Steve made sure of it.
Steve doesn't let himself get his hopes up yet. He needs to know for sure. "Which Bucky am I talking to?"
Bucky squints slightly, eyes trained on Steve's face until he can finally make it out. "Where's Alpine?"
"What's Alpine?" Sam asks.
Bucky clenches his jaw, irritated. "The cat," he says. "Where is the cat?"
Sam scoffs. "That's what you're worried about?" he asks, incredulous. "The whole world thinks you blew up the UN, and you're worried about your cat?"
"Your cat's fine," Bruce tells him. "They sent her back to the compound. I left out some food before I left. Our friend is going to take care of her."
Bucky nods slowly. "Okay."
Steve glances at Sam, who looks back at him and mouths, "Is he serious?" Steve just shakes his head to himself.
"What did I do?" Bucky asks.
"Enough," Steve answers.
"Oh, god." Bucky's head falls forward. "I knew this would happen," he says quietly. "Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words."
Steve clenches his jaw. That's... great. They'll deal with that later. Right now, they have other problems. "Who was he?"
Bucky shakes his head. "I don't know."
"People are dead," Steve tells him. "The bombing, the set-up – the doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know.'"
Bucky's quiet for a few moments, brows furrowed, thinking, and then: "He wanted to know about Siberia – where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where."
"Why?" Steve asks. "Why would he need to know that?"
Bucky lets out a long breath and looks up to meet Steve's gaze. "Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier."
"Awesome," Bruce mutters under his breath.
Steve folds his arms across his chest and leans back against the wall. And the plot thickens.
Pietro clears his throat, and everyone looks over at him. "Should we let him out of the..." He gestures vaguely to the machine holding him in place by the arm.
Steve sighs and pushes himself off from the wall. "I got it."
So there's a brief, somewhat awkward pause. Steve unclamps Bucky's arm, and he can see both Sam and Bruce's discomfort out of the corner of his eye. But he knows Bucky. He trusts him. They'll be fine.
With Bucky freed, Steve leans back against the wall, and Bucky pushes himself to his feet with a quiet groan. He bends and straightens his metal arm a few times, rolling his shoulder and massaging the joint before he finally lets his arms fall down by his side.
And then they're back to business.
"Who were they?" Steve asks. "The other soldiers."
"Their most elite death squad," Bucky says. "More kills than anyone in HYDRA history – and that was before the serum."
"They all turn out like you?"
Bucky shakes his head. "Worse."
"And the doctor, he could control them?"
"Enough," Bucky answers.
Steve lets out a long breath. "He said he wanted to see an empire fall."
"With these guys, he could do it," Bucky tells him. "They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight; infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night; you'd never see them coming."
Steve pinches the bridge of his nose. Great. And he thought proving Bucky innocent would be the hard part. He should have known there would be more to this. It can never be simple, can it?
"We need to tell Tony," Bruce says.
"He wouldn't believe it," Steve says. He'd think they're just grasping at straws, desperately trying to prove Bucky innocent of a crime the world's already deemed him guilty of. "And even if he did, who knows if the Accords would let him help?"
"Loki, then," Bruce says.
Bucky looks up at the name. He didn't know it in 2014, but he must have heard it by now. The invasion he led may have been years ago, but its effects still linger. People certainly still talk about it."
Steve nods once. "We'll bring him in," he says. "When we're nearing the bunker. It's going to be a hell of a trip, and he's going to insist on taking it with us."
"He'll wear himself out before we even need him," Bruce surmises.
Steve nods. He'll be more useful if he stays home until he can help, and he's not going to want to do that. An hour or two before they make it to Siberia, they'll give him a call, fill him in on the details, ask for his help. They're going to need him on this, and they're going to need him at his best.
"Oh, great," Sam says sarcastically. "And now we're back to keeping secrets from a god again, because that always works out."
"We're not keeping secrets," Steve says. He's not an idiot. He's learned his lesson about that. "If he calls, if he texts, if he shows up on his own, we'll tell him everything. I just don't want to pull him in before we need to."
Sam eyes him skeptically, but he doesn't argue. Whether he agrees with the plan or just trusts Steve enough to go along with it, he's not sure, but he appreciates it nonetheless.
"That still strikes me as an unfair fight," Pietro says. "It is still only five against five – assuming we do not unleash the Hulk."
"God, no," Bruce says immediately. "He's staying out of this."
"Thank god," Sam mutters under his breath.
To Steve, Pietro says, "You, Barnes, and Loki could each take one super soldier, yes? But I do not have the same faith in myself or Wilson – no offense, Wilson."
"None taken," Sam says. "You're right; it's gonna be a close fight."
Steve frowns. He might have a point. Although Loki's pretty good – and he's incorporeal, too, which will help. Nobody can hurt him, but he can hurt everyone. Just having him there would probably be enough to make it a fair fight. Right? Hopefully?
Bruce opens his mouth as though he's about to say something, but he doesn't. He closes his mouth again, but the thoughtful look on his face remains.
Steve furrows his brows. What is he up to?
Finally, Bruce says, "Are we just looking for more manpower?"
"That depends," Steve says. "What kind of manpower you got?"
"I don't know," Bruce says, almost sheepishly. "I was just thinking, remember that Spider-Man guy?"
"They guy from YouTube?" Sam asks, brows furrowed. "You guys know him?"
"We know of him," Steve says. "He's just a kid – a high schooler from Queens, apparently."
Sam scoffs. "He's in high school?"
Steve just nods. He wouldn't have guessed it, either.
"You want to bring in a high schooler?" Somehow, his incredulity has only grown.
Steve shrugs halfheartedly. "We're gonna need all the help we can get."
"Do you remember what Tony said his name was?" Bruce asks.
Steve frowns. No, he doesn't, but he'll think of it.
He'll...
Think of...
Crap, what was his name?
It's quiet for a few moments. One of them has to remember his name. It shouldn't be too hard. Who was he? What was his name?
Bruce's eyes light up. "Peter Parker!"
Steve snaps his fingers and points at him. "That was it! Peter Parker – and there was someone else he mentioned, too; some other..."
Bruce furrows his brows. "Who...?"
It takes Steve a moment, but he figures it out: "Mathew Murdock."
"Okay," Sam says, "I know the Spider-Man, but who the hell is Mathew Murdock?"
"No idea," Steve replies. "But Tony mentioned his name with Spider-Man's, so he has to be someone."
Sam shakes his head to himself. "Alright, whatever," he says. "Let's get Googling."