The White Phoenix 11: A Falcon and the Winter Soldier Fanfiction

Chapter 27: Mission Accomplished

Sokovia. Eastern Europe. 

Zemo stood just in front of us, looking at the memorial dedicated to the fallen of Sokovia. Bucky held a gun in his hand and I did the same. Zemo must have noticed that we were there, because he didn't turn, only spoke while still looking at the memorial. 

'I thought you'd be here sooner. Don't worry. I've decided I'm not going to kill you.' 

'Imagine my relief,' Bucky replied with heavy sarcasm in his voice. He turned fully as we both took the safety off of our guns. 

'The girl has been radicalised beyond salvation. I warned Sam, but he didn't listen to me. He's as stubborn as Steve Rogers before him. But you two... They literally programmed you to kill. James, Adelaide, do what needs to be done. Karli has people everywhere, and there's only one way to make sure she cannot continue her mission.'

'We appreciate the advice,' I finally spoke up, 'but we're gonna do it our own way.' 

'Yeah. I was afraid you would say that.' Bucky and I raised our guns, aiming them at his head. He stared at us, showing no fear - only a strange calm that I thought maniacal. We aimed to fire, and when we pressed the triggers, the guns clicked, signalling they were empty. James pulled his hand out, a fist, and let the bullets fall to the cobbled ground in front of Zemo's face. The tapping of the spears of the Dora Milaje sounded as they surrounded Zemo, wearing stern faces. 'Ladies,' he said, not at all fazed by the situation. 'I took the liberty of crossing off my name in your book,' he said, nodding to Bucky. 'I hold no grudges for what you two thought you had to do. Goodbye, James, Adelaide.' The Dora led him to the sleek black Wakandan jet at the end of the clearing as Ayo walked up to us. 

'We will take him to the Raft... where he will live out his days. It would be prudent to make yourself scarce in Wakanda for the time being, White Wolf, White Phoenix.' 

'Fair enough.' I nodded at the Wakandan warrior. She walked to the jet, but Bucky called out to her. 'Hey!' She turned. 'I may have another favor to ask of you.' 

Baltimore. Maryland. 

Sam walked around to the back of Isaiah Bradley's house, where the boy Eli had directed him to. He was watering plants silently. He turned, seeing Sam with the shield in its leather cover. 

'Is that what I think it is?' the older man asked. Sam went to open it, but he stopped him before he could get his hand on the zipper. 'Leave it covered. Them stars and stripes don't mean nothing good to me.' 

'I need to understand,' Sam replied. 

'You understand. Every black man does. Whether you wanna deny it or not...' 

'Don't do that bitter old man thing with me.' 

'If you ain't bitter, you're blind.' 

'I don't get it, okay? What went wrong?'

'I used to be like you,' the older man snapped with a broken tone, coming towards Sam, 'until I opened my eyes, until I saw men in the Red Tails, the famous 332 fight for this country, only to come home to find crosses burned on their lawn.' 

'I'm from the south, I get that. But you were a super soldier like Steve. You could have been the next -'

'The next? What? Huh? Blonde hair, blue eyes, stars and stripes? The entire world's been chasing that great white hope since he first got dosed with that serum.' 

'Steve did not put you in jail.' 

Isaiah led Sam into the house and the two sat down on opposite sides of the room, the older man pulling out a box and opening it to show Sam. 

'She died while I was in jail,' he said brokenheartedly, gesturing to the woman in the photo. 'They, uh, never let a single one of her letters get to me. They locked 'em in this box. They told her I was dead. Yeah, and after a while she was gone, and... sorry. You wanted to know what went wrong? A handful of us got shot up with different versions of that serum, but they don't tell us what it is. They tell us it's tetanus. They sent us on missions, even though the others weren't stable. Some of us started dying off. Then a couple of the boys get captured on a mission. I heard the brass talkin' about blowing the POW camp to hell to hide the evidence. But those were my men. My brothers. Not evidence. So I bust out of the facility one night and I brought them boys back. Not that it made a damn bit of difference. It wasn't long before it was only me left. And what did I get for saving their lives? For the next 30 years, they experimented on me, trying to figure out why the serum worked.' He pulled up his shirt, showing Sam a nasty scar on his side, burned in, it seemed. 'There was a nurse. She took pity on me. Wrote up some fake reports, something. She had me declared dead. That's who gave me this. My God! Sam, I loved her so much.' His breath and voice wavered for a moment with pained tears. 

'Mr. Bradley, um... we gotta do something. We gotta tell somebody.'

'No, leave me dead. My name is buried.'

'But the world's different now. I know people.' 

'Man, that's why you're here? You think things are different? You think times are different? You think I wouldn't be dead in a day if you brought me out? You wanna believe jail was my fault 'cause you got that white man's shield. They were worried my story might get out. So, they erased me. My history. But they've been doing that for 500 years.' He chuckled wryly. 'Pledge allegiance to that, my brother. They will never let a black man be Captain America. And even if they did, no self-respecting black man would ever wanna be.'