DARKNESS.
013. | ❛ the shield. ❜
TONY ARRIVING AT THE RAFT WOULDN'T BE THE NICEST WELCOMES HE'D GET FROM THE NEWEST PRISONERS. FIRST OF WITH LOOKING AT WANDA, AND HOW NO LONGER DID SHE LOOK LIKE THE YOUNGSTER OF THE TEAM AS THE COLOR UNDERNEATH HER EYES WERE PURPLE; AND SHE NO LONGER HELD THE SAME SPIRIT. Then he moved onto Clint, and didn't know what to expect of him expect the list of insults that he knew he deserved coming from his cell.
Clint started clapping from the sight of Tony, "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. I had no idea they'll put you here. Come on."
Clint spits back at him, "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?" Clint finished the sentence for him, standing up. "Criminals, Tony. Think that's the word you're looking for."
He eyes Tony through the bars, "Right? That didn't used to mean me. Or Sam, or Wanda, or Caroline. But here we are."
"Because you broke the law."
"Yeah."
"I didn't make you."
Clint started to be an annoying child not wanting to listen to Tony, "La, la, la, la, la..."
"You read it, you broke it." Tony continued through Clint's blabbering.
"La, la, la, la la..."
"Alright, 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?" Tony said before walking away and moving on to the next person who was Scott.
"You gotta watch your back with this guy. There's a chance he's gonna break it." Clint tells over the next cell.
Scott was next, "Hank Pym always said, you never can trust a Stark."
"Who are you?" Tony asked, causing a small smirk to her face.
"Come on, man." Scott grunted while Tony was moving on to Sam.
"How's Rhodes?" Sam asked, the nicest of the welcoming from them.
"They're flying him to Columbia Medical tomorrow. So... fingers cross." Sam shakes his head at them though of their friend, "What do you need? They feed you yet?"
Sam raises his eyebrows, "You're the good cop now?"
"I'm just the guy who needs to know where Steve went." Tony
"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." Sam retreated and turned his back on Tony.
Moving quickly past Scott and Sam to get to Caroline, not like she wanted to talk to him in the slightest. Knowing that the reason they were in this was because of the damn Accords that he wanted them to sign.
Caroline stood at the end of her cell as she was approached by the man, her arms crossed over her chest. She waited for him to say a word, before she started to run her mouth at him. She wanted to let out all the emotions she had been feeling since the start of this civil war, all the pent up aggressions that she managed to keep below the surface that needed to explode at the moment; at Tony.
"What are you going to do, Tony? You tore apart the Avengers, so what's your big move now?" Caroline said softly, completely ignoring Barton's continued pleas to stop talking to Tony. "God I can't believe that I trusted you at one point in my life! Are you going to kill Steve? Or are you going to kill my sister? I need an answer, and I'll know if you're lying to me."
"No, Caroline. I'm not going to kill Steve. That was never my plan, you should know that." He took a step forward, but Caroline reset her stance and he stopped.
"Convince me." She barked as she turned her back to him.
Tony reached down and tapped a few commands into his watch and waited, looking back to Caroline after a moment, "I've just taken the 'A' out of their 'AV'. We've got about 30 seconds before they realize it's not their equipment. Look."
Caroline turned around surprised at his actions, as a hologram of a man lying dead in a bathtub appeared in front of Tony, and he watched for her reaction.
"Who's that?"
"That is the man who was supposed to interview Barnes. Sweetheart, I need to know where Steve is. Maybe his story isn't so crazy after all, and if it's true, he's gonna need all the help he can get."
Caroline was torn between wanting to incapacitate Tony to keep him away from Steve but at the same time wanting to help him to make things right. If Steve was in more danger than what Tony himself could bring, Caroline wanted to help. She wanted to believe him, a man she trusted with her life before, and when she finally allowed herself to look up at him again, the look in his eyes gave her the answer.
"I'll tell you where he is, but with conditions."
"Go."
"You go alone, and as a friend." Caroline says
"Easy."
"And you take me with you."
[•]
Steve, Kiara, and Bucky had been searching the frozen base for a short time before Caroline and Tony arrived. The three of them stopped when they heard the heavy metal doors behind them begin to shift and crack open. Bucky swung around and held his rifle steady with Steve bringing the shield up to guard them from whatever was on the other side, and Kiara pulled her staff out to the side ready to launch forward. The metal scraped and groaned at the force of Tony's hands prying it apart, and Caroline tried to cover her ears from the painfully piercing sound of the heightened sound.
When he finally had them open, she had a clear view of her family, who all looked as equally surprised to see Caroline before them after the battle.
"Captain, you seem a little defensive," Tony began, slowly walking towards the pair.
"Well, it's been a long day." He had his eyes on Tony until he caught sight of Caroline, now he was lowering the shield and taking a step forward to hurry to her side once again, but Tony raised a hand to stop him.
"Caroline, are you okay?"
"I'm fine now."
"Why? What do you mean now?"
"Oh, that's right, I forgot to mention." Tony huffed, "After our little fight, when you took off, the rest of your team got thrown into a maximum security prison. The Raft, to be exact...you may have heard of it."
"Are you okay?" Steve repeated, this time with a darker and much more determined tone.
"When you sacrificed yourself so we could go, I was terrified that something was going to happen to you. I just didn't think that Tony would stoop so low."
"She broke the law!"
"Okay, I might have broken it but it was for a good cause. Like you wouldn't have?" she snapped. "Not even to consider that the Raft isn't a very nice place. Having to compel some of the guards to get out of there."
"Jesus," Steve whispered in complete shock, again trying to take a step towards Caroline. However, Kiara was the one to push past Tony and take her sister in her arms. Caroline relived pressed a kiss to the side of her head, "I'm fine."
Steve saw the opportunity as well and pushed past Tony, setting his shield on the floor next to him and took her arms gently in his grip, trying to lure you to look at him.
"Caroline, I'm sorry. I had no idea they would do that."
"Listen, we can argue about this all day, but I'm here for a reason, alright?" Tony broke in. "Maybe your story isn't so far fetched after all. Ross doesn't know that we're here, and I'd like to keep it that way. I think we've got something a little bigger than either of us going on."
Steve looked down at Caroline, worried that of all the decisions that he had made, the one that allowed her to be a part of this was by far the worst. After Ultron, he didn't want to go through that same scenario again, where she the woman who could live forever could be in a situation of life or death. Giving him a complacent nod and turned him towards Tony to force them to see each other once and for all.
"It's good to see you, Tony."
"Yeah, it's good to see you too, Cap. Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you wanna put that down?" Tony called out to Bucky, who was still holding his weapon steady, "we've got a truce here, alright?"
As they all walked forward with caution, Tony analyzed the room with everyone on defense. "I got heat signatures."
"How many?"
"Uh, one."
As they enter the vast chamber the lights come on. Hazy, yellow mist decends within the capsules. As well as Josef, each one contains an enhanced soldier from the 1991 experiment. Steve and the others look around, bewildered.
A voice on the loud speaker comes on, "If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep. Did you really think I wanted more of you?"
Bucky growls, "What the hell?"
"I'm grateful to them, though. They brought you here." Zemo appears in a control room. Steve hurls his shield but it flies back. "Please, Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."
"Really could they withstand a vampire's strength?" Caroline emerged more forward, shedding her teeth with Zemo more than entertained.
"The vampire and the soldier sister." He teased instantly bringing up Caroline's anger before being held back by Kiara.
"I'm betting I could beat that." Tony continued moving past the scene.
"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came." Zemo responded.
"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve asked curiously as he looks 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."
"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?" Kiara asked to get the reason why they were here if it wasn't for the initial one they thought.
"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."
Steve studies Zemo, "You lost someone?"
He looks grave and clicks his tongue, "I lost everyone. And so will you."
Suddenly he plays surveillance footage from December 16th 1991, as everyone gathers over to the screen. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumples from within? That's dead... forever."
Tony looks at the freez frame of a secluded road and the date of December 16, 1991. His eyes rove, anxiously, "I know that road. What is this?"
As the video plays, the car that the Winter Soldier forced off the road crashes into a tree. Tony watches intently as the Winter Soldier rides up and gets off his motorbike. Steve watches Tony's increasing unease. The driver lies on the ground beside the car; Howard.
"Help my wife. Please. Help." Howard cried out and Caroline can't help but shed a tear.
The Winter Soldier walkes over and hoists him up by his hair. He stares at Howard's bloody face, and stares back pleadingly.
"Sergeant Barnes?"
"Howard!" Maria screams.
Tony glares at Bucky, as the video shows the Winter Soldier pounding Howard hard in the face with his metal fist as Maria continues to cry out.
In grief, Tony closes his eyes for a moment, as in screen Howard slumps dead. The Winter Soldier puts him in the driver's seat with his face against the stearing wheel. Tony stares in horror watching and Caroline feels a pain throbbing in her chest, knowing exactly well what was going to happen next. With Maria in the passenger seat with blood streaked down her face. The Winter Soldier walks around and grips her throat, expressionless he strangles Maria. Tony watches the screen stunned, watching The Winter Soldier walk up and aim a gun at the surveillance camera. Caroline stood behind Steve and watched the whole video; holding her breath at the grainy footage on the small screen in front of them. Her focus shifting only to glance up at a visibly shaken Bucky when the video came to an end.
"Steve..." Caroline whispered, sensing the shift in Tony as each minute passed.
"Did you know?" He asked Steve
"I didn't know it was him," Steve replied in a pleading tone, trying to reach out to Tony but being shook away.
"Don't screw with me, Rogers," he spat back, "did you know?"
She released Steve's arm and took a step back, knowing what he was about to say and what was going to ensue.
"Yes."
Within a matter of seconds, all hell had broken loose and the truce was shattered. The three of them were fighting high above, and the room they had left Kiara and Caroline in was crumbling around them. Steve deflected a blast from Tony that hit a wall just a bit too close, bringing a huge scaffolding down next to Caroline, it's force knocking her to a cavern below where they would soon be joining. Kiara jumped down, hurrying to grab her sister to her feet. Hurriedly turning around, Kiara sees Stark collide forcefully with Bucky, sending him sprawling backwards onto a lower platform.
"Bucky!" She screams, looking down on him, running hurriedly along the wall of platforms trying to get to him. It was when she could see Kiara's colors come out, and see the fight was on.
"Casualty, this is your final warning, stay out of it." Caroline gasps as Stark takes the cheap shot, sending a blast straight at Kiara. Steve appearing just in time, placing his shield up in front of her as the shot reverberates back at Stark, knocking him against the opposing wall.
"We need to go!" Caroline yells up to Bucky, fear and joy warring for as he moved quickly climbing the walls and platforms ascending.
Kneeling down, watching them climb up to her. as Stark rises to his feet once more, resuming his pursuit.
"Watch out!" Caroline yelled, attempting to give a warning, but Steve reacting first, wrapping a thin wire around Stark's neck as he jumps towards the ground, dragging Tony with him.
Her attention switches quickly back to Bucky, speaking words of encouragement as she watched him make large and dangerous jumps, every moment coming closer to her.
"Come on!" She shouted as she heard Cap's shield clatter to the ground, just as Bucky makes a particularly risky jump to the platform she was kneeling on. His fingers dig into the grate as he hangs below. Kiara was close behind as Caroline frantically fumbling her hands along her back helping to pull her up. Within an instant they're on your feet and frantically climbing, hopping the few more platforms to the ladder.
He begins to climb ahead of them, both of them frantically scaling the rungs with speed. Caroline screams as the hinge abruptly explodes beside her, Stark's missile coming in firm contact as the door groans, collapsing downwards.
Kiara pulls Caroline down as they dropped down hurriedly, ducking into the shelter of the ladder as Bucky jumps to the opposite wall, narrowly avoiding debris from the blast.
Stark rises swiftly above the blondes, going after Bucky as he ferociously swings a large pipe from the debris. Kiara's hands scramble hurriedly around her, reaching for fragmented bits of concreate as she began to send a barrage of flying objects at Stark.
But to no avail, Stark moves swiftly, locking his arms around Bucky's neck before speaking clearly to him as Caroline's scream, pleading with Tony to release him.
"Do you even remember them?" He asks forcefully.
Falling into silence as they watched Bucky's face, pain and regret flashing across his features. "I remember all of them."
He speaks slowly, struggling to breathe as Tony's metal limbs wrap around him.
"Tony please." She begged, tears falling from your eyes once again.
"No!" Kiara screamed, as Stark flies down taking Bucky with him.
Jumping without thinking, adrenaline pulsing through Caroline as she flung herself at Stark's back, wrapping her limbs around him and clinging on for dear life as they fall down the shaft.
"Caroline!" Steve yells as he jumps across, catching her around the waist, causing her to dislodge and slam back against the wall, coming to rest painfully on a platform, gasping for air at the impact.
Bucky, Tony, and Steve fall quickly, the force of Steve's contact causing their bodies to ricochet against the wall, sending Bucky flying to a platform a few floors beneath them. Groaning, Kiara rolled onto her stomach, pushing herself to all fours as she looked down at Bucky, breathing with a sigh of relief as she saw him moving.He makes eye contact with her, as she nods, reassuring him that you are alright.
Caroline rose hurriedly, dropping down each platform, silently working her way towards the fighting, and towards Kiara.
"This isn't going to change what happened." Steve's soft voice reverberates up the shaft, echoing in the cavern.
"I don't care." Tony says firmly, standing in opposition to Steve. "He killed my mom." Caroline gasped audibly as Stark flies forward at Steve, Bucky's eyes connecting with Caroline's as she dropped to the platform next to him, taking a large jump onto the one he was standing on.
"Protect Kiara." Caroline advised Bucky as he steadied her, while she figured out how to get to Steve. She moved to the adjacent platform, retrieving Steve's shield as making her way towards him.
"No," Bucky says firmly, pulling the shield out of Caroline's hands as they both scramble downwards, "You Kingsleys are hard to kill. Please stay out of harm's way. I'll protect him... Old habits die hard, I guess."
He shrugs sheepishly as he turns from Caroline. Before she could argue, Bucky jumps the last few feet to the battle below, raising the shield high above his head as he brings the edge crashing down into Stark's back. Stark responds immediately sending a blast that reflects off the shield and comes flying up towards Caroline as she narrowly dodge it.
Watching from a safe distance as Bucky throws the shield back to Steve, knowing full well that she would be more of a nuisance at this time, with her weakened state and the ineffectiveness of her weapons against Stark's iron shield. Kiara scrambled towards her sister, and saw the battle going on and leaped forward to take action before being pulled back by Caroline. She eyed her younger sister, knowing that she too had taken a bunch of blows to her body, and she didn't want to lose Kiara again.
They watch helplessly as the two super soldiers took on their friend, working seamlessly to double team him and drop him quickly to his knees.As elated as she wanted to feel at them grabbing the upper hand, the constant twinge of heartbreak still tears through her body as she remembers who is in the suit.
A man who truly took her in when she had nobody left. Someone who became family when she didn't have. A person she could count on. That's who was in the suit, and who she was hurting.
Then suddenly the hand shifts, Steve catches a blast to the stomach and is thrown backwards, leaving Bucky to take on Stark alone. Kiara couldn't stand idly by as he takes hit after hit, moving quickly descending to the main area as Bucky regains the upper hand, ferociously slamming Stark against the wall, his metal hand digging into the core of Tony's suit.
Caroline moved quickly but is stopped in her hurried movements, frozen as she rush forward, watching the animalistic tendency taking over Bucky. The hardened heart of the beaten and broken assassin burning through.
"Bucky! Bucky stop!" Kiara cried, but he couldn't hear her, his own savage scream drowning out her plea.
With a sudden blast of light, he is thrown backwards, coming to land harshly on his knee, his eyes wide with shock as his gaze falls on the smoking exposed wires where his metal arm just was.
Caroline speeds quickly, stepping between Stark and him as Stark raises his hand once again.
"Move!" Tony yells, but remained standing firmly blocking his path to Bucky as he tries to aim around her. Caroline rushing forward and her hands reaching for the blaster on his palm as she tried to deflect him.
"Tony! Tony, stop! Please! Stop!" The pleas kept ringing out, as she try to block him.
"Move!" He screams once more trying to push Caroline aside, but she held on tighter, refusing to step aside.
With one quick motion, Stark's arm sweeps against her waist, catching her painfully right along the ribs as the strength of his blow sends her flying back against the ramp. Hitting the concreate painfully, her head smacking forcefully to the ground as she rolled down to lie at the base of the ramp.
Her vision became blurry as she saw Kiara fly forward once more, Stark's blast coming into contact with her. She fought against the sensation in her brain, and tried helplessly to rise to her knees once more, as Steve rushes forward, his shield deflecting the oncoming blasts from Tony, protecting Bucky once again, sending light deflecting throughout the enclosure. Her vision blurs again as Steve engages Tony in combat, her eyes scan roughly along the ground, spotting Kiara, seemingly unconscious, a few feet from you.
She fought to get to her knees again, but her consciousness kept swimming in and out. She closed her eyes as her bloodied cheek presses to the cool concrete.
"He's my friend." Caroline heard Steve's plea, drifting to her deafening ears as if in a distant room.
"So was I." Tony responds, his voice becoming clearer as she forced her eyes open again, seeing Tony slam hit after hit into Steve's face as Bucky stirs slowly behind him.
Caroline raised her head as Stark grabs Steve by his straps, throwing him roughly against a pillar, "Stay down. Final warning." Stark snarls, standing threatening in front of Steve.
She watched Steve struggling to his feet, falling roughly back into fighting stance. His perseverance inspiring her once more as she pressed her palms firmly to the ground and push back onto her knees, yelping quietly when a sharp pain stings her side as she breathed.
"I could do this all day." Steve breathes heavily, raising his fists once more as her vision swims again, her hands gripping harshly at the floor as the world seems to move.
Stark prepared another blast for Steve, but Bucky moves instinctively, grabbing at Tony's ankle and subsequently receiving a sharp kick to the face as he falls backwards to the ground.
Caroline moved quickly, ignoring the intense pain in her side with every breath or movement.
She grit her teeth as she moved. In the moment that Tony was distracted by her and Bucky's sudden movements, Steve is able to step forward and gain the upper hand, raising the iron man high above his head before throwing him forcefully against a pillar.
Steve moves on top of Tony trapping him down, as she hurried over to Kiara, touching her face softly as her eyes try to focus on Care. "Come on, I can't lose you again!"
Kiara fumbled back, "I'm not going anywhere."
Caroline looked around frantically seeing Bucky a couple of feet away, also seeming unconscious.
Turning to see Steve, as he had retained the upper hand, but with each hit the ferocity of his movements were mimicking Bucky's lack of control, with each contact he was chipping away at what had always made him Captain America.
"Cap," She call out, Steve continuing in his abusive, repetitive action, ramming the shield with malice into Starks mask, exposing Tony's fearful face as he raises the shield once more.
"Steve!" She yelled, her hand coming in contact with his shoulder as he looks up at her, his eyes black and wild with desperation. With a final growl, he crashes the shield into Tony's chest, falling sideways off him as they all remained still for a moment, shocked by the deterioration of what was once a team.
"Tony... I..." Caroline whispered regretfully as she extend a hand to Steve, pulling him roughly to his feet as he staggered on his own.
Tony closes his eyes and turns away from Care, small tears seeping from the corners of his eyes. He rolls onto his side as Steve steps beside her retrieving his shield and wrapping an arm around Caroline's waist to steady her, before he moves past her to pull Bucky to his.
"Tony... I'm so sorry." She whispered as she kneeled beside him, reaching for his shoulder and helping to pull him into a more upright position. His eyes connect with hers, his expression softening slightly as he looks at the vampire's tear stained cheeks. Tear tracks having carved pathways in the fresh blood painted along the side of her face, as bruises quickly formed beneath your skin.
"I never wanted you to get hurt." He whispers, his gaze falling from Caroline once again as he falls back on his arm. "I..."
"Caroline." Steve speaks firmly. Stark's gaze rises to Steve once more, as he stands there looking coldly down at him, supporting Bucky by his side and Kiara leaning on him for support.
"That shield doesn't belong to you." Stark spits, as Caroline rises hesitantly to her feet, retreating over to Steve, Kiara, and Bucky as she looped her arm around Bucky's waist to help him.
"You don't deserve it. My father made that shield!" Steve stops, causing Bucky to stumble beside her. She glanced to Steve seeing that the clear blue of his eyes had returned as he looks ahead in sadness.
He glanced over his shoulder at her for just a second and with a deep sigh, he drops the shield beside him, the clatter of the metal providing a end of an era, as if a door had sealed shut. With barely a thought to what it would mean for him, for Caroline, or even for the team. Never once looking back as he walked away from it and everything that it meant.
[•]
I'm so sad this is coming to an end :'( and that it'll be all until Infinity War which comes out next year. But there is an epilogue, so bear with my bad writing at the beginning because I wrote it at like 2am