Rogue (An Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 47: December 16 1991

*WARNING: Contains 'Captain America: Civil War' Spoilers

Stark pushed the door open and gestured for me to go first. Armed with a gun as well as my powers in case we ran into any unexpected danger, I walked into the darkened room, hoping to catch a glimpse of either a vibranium shield or a metal arm. After a while, we began to hear muffled footsteps.

"They're through here," Stark said, wrenching open yet another door. As I walked in, Steve and Bucky crouched on a staircase, weapons poised to attack.

"It's me!" I said quickly, scared of being shot. They immediately lowered their weapons and began to walk towards me, but when they saw who was with me, their stance became defensive once again.

"At ease soldiers, I'm not currently after you," Stark said. Steve lowered the shield immediately, but Bucky kept his gun held high.

"Then what are you doing here?" Steve asked, looking from Stark to me and back.

"Stark found out that the man who was supposed to interrogate Bucky was killed. I told him where you guys were and he helped me escape."

"Ross has no idea we're here," Stark interjected. "I'd like to keep it that way, otherwise I've gotta arrest myself, and Rogue."

"Sounds like a lot of paperwork," Steve said. Although his tone was still wary, a small smile played on his lips and I knew that these two would be able to work everything out eventually.

I walked over to Bucky and he lowered the gun slightly.

"You trust him?" he asked me softly, nodding to Stark.

"I didn't earlier today," I admitted. "But one thing about Stark is that he always tries to do the right thing."

"And are you guys... getting back together?" he asked, avoiding eye contact and trying to appear nonchalant.

"How did you know we dated?" I asked. He looked over at Steve and I rolled my eyes. Trust the world's first superhero to find time in his busy schedule to gossip about my love life!

"I was curious."

"You were jealous," I countered, smiling. Jealousy looked cute on him. "Well no, Stark and I aren't getting back together. I actually have my eye on someone else." I smiled. He lowered his gun fully, softly kissing my lips.

"Guys, this way!" Steve said, walking down a corridor, his shield up again for protection. Stark followed and Bucky walked ahead of me.

"I'm detecting heat signatures," Stark said as we walked into a huge room.

"How many?" Steve asked.

"Six," Stark answered quickly, his pace quickening. Suddenly, five glass domes lit up, and we could see 5 people inside. They were upright, with their eyes closed. I guessed it wouldn't take much to wake them up.

"If it's any comfort, I would never have released the soldiers," a voice said. I recognised it immediately. "But I'm grateful to them. They got you here."

A box lit up and his face was visible. The evaluator from Germany, the one who was able to turn Bucky into the Winter Soldier in mere minutes. I walked up to him, leaning so that I was at his eye level.

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" I asked in a whisper.

"I've thought about nothing else for over a year," he informed me.

"Why?" I asked angrily. "What did we ever..." I trailed off, understanding immediately why he was doing all of this, why he hated us so much. "You're Sokovian?"

"Well done," he praised me. "I thought it would have taken you a long time to figure that out."

"But that can't be it. Sokovia was... a mess, a failed state, why would you care about us blowing it up?" I wondered aloud.

"You lost someone?" Steve asked from behind me.

"I lost everyone," he clarified, looking from me to Steve and back again. "And so will you." Strangely, I got the feeling that he was speaking directly to me.

A computer screen turned on of its own accord and we all subconsciously huddled around it to watch the footage.

"An empire that crumbles from within... that's dead. Forever," the guy said, a sinister tone to his voice. The computer footage showed an empty road. The date stamp read 'December 16 1991'. I tried to figure out why that date seemed familiar to me, when all of a sudden, it hit me. Mission report: December 16 1991. The evaluator had mentioned this date to Bucky before he turned into his sadistic alter ego. This couldn't be good.

"I know that road," Stark said. I looked at Bucky, trying to work out if he could see where this was going, but he kept his eyes fixed on the screen, making me worried that this would not end well.

A car came into view, crashing, and a motorbike came after it, stopping beside the car. A man got off the bike and pulled another man out of the car.

"Sergeant Barnes," the man said, telling me what I already knew, we were watching the Winter Soldier in action.

"Howard," a woman called from inside the car, sounding as if she was in intense pain. That was when I realised who was involved – Stark's parents.

Bucky used his metal arm to punch Howard Stark multiple times. Even through the grainy footage, it was clear that he was dead. He then walked to the other side of the car and used his non-metal hand to strangle Stark's mother.

"The serum," I said under my breath. When Bucky told me about the experiments, he said that he was sent out to find the serum – the serum that was created by Howard Stark. The serum that they wanted to use on me.

He shot at the camera and the screen went black, it was over. Bucky had killed Stark's parents.

Stark moved quickly towards Bucky, Steve holding him back. My heart pounded in my chest as I realised what would happen. When I found out that Stark killed my father, I had wanted to kill him, and I hadn't even known the man. The death of Stark's parents had impacted him in a million different ways, it had changed him forever. No one could expect Stark to not want revenge. And no one could blame him if he got it.

"Did you know?" Stark asked, looking directly at me, betrayal filling his eyes.

"No," I said honestly. "I'm so sorry, Tony," I added, wanting him to know that this was true. If I'd known, no matter how much I hated him, I wouldn't have been able to keep this from him. He deserved to know.

"You?" he asked, turning to Steve.

"I didn't know it was him," Steve said.

"Don't bullshit me, Rogers, did you know?" he asked again.

Steve took a deep breath, looking at Bucky. "Yes."

Everyone was silent, taking in what had just happened. In that moment, I realised that nothing up until now had been real, nothing meant anything. The accords would always be a point to disagree on, but we were still a team. If the Super Soldiers got out, we'd deal with that as a team, and anything else that came our way. But this, right now, was different. This was the start of a war.

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Thanks for reading. Come back next Saturday for the double-length ending of Civil War!

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