The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 34

Berlin, Germany

Spring 2016

Without a word and only a barely perceptible nod, Steve acknowledged Sam's next set of directions, guiding the old model Beetle off the main street and onto a side one that would cut them across one of Berlin's outer neighbourhoods and bring them closer still to the rendezvous point. None of them said much. Likely because there wasn't a whole lot to say. Steve knew he, at least, had a great deal on his mind.

More Winter Soldiers? In addition to the conviction that they needed to be confronted and the doctor stopped, there was an undeniable thread of dismay and even anxiety surging through his veins like cold adrenaline over the prospect. This was not at all what he wanted to be doing.

This was something the Team should be doing. All of them. Together.

But that wasn't to be and Steve pushed the thought aside. There was no point dwelling. Especially since there was every chance they were going to have to go through the rest of their former Team to do this.

Steve was very much not looking forward to that possibility. Nat was as good as his best friend from this time, and he trusted her implicitly as he knew she trusted him; a hard won trust that he could recognize the immeasurable value of, given her past. And Tony? While he wasn't nearly as close to the billionaire as he had been to Howard, Steve still didn't hesitate to call Tony a friend. Heck, there were even times he felt a sort of kinship toward the man, like how he'd always imagined he might feel for a nephew. It was a bizarre feeling to be sure, especially considering how, if discounting the years Steve had spent frozen, Tony was arguably the older of them when going by years lived. But that didn't change how Steve felt. Tony was his good friend's son. And he was his friend in his own right.

He didn't want to fight Tony or Nat or Rhodes. Likely Vision too, if he knew Tony.

They were his Team. His friends.

But the Accords had made them adversaries.

And it made him feel viscerally ill.

It was that threat that made his reservations about what they were about to do all the more potent.

Especially since he was pulling others in with him. He spared a covert glance to Sam. Sam, whose loyalty was without equal. Who was willing to jump into the fight without hesitation even though he could easily walk away. It was made all the worse by his suspicions about his friend and Nat. He was fairly certain the two of them had something, and now Sam was about to be standing across the field from the redheaded operative. Not to mention the friendship the former paratrooper had struck up with Rhodes since they'd both joined the team, no matter that they'd been bickering almost constantly about the Accords in recent days.

And then there was Clint and Nat, the near epitome of best friends, standing on either side of the divide. And the Twins—especially Wanda—against Vision, who'd grown close...

Steve's gut clenched. If it came down to a fight between the Avengers, he wasn't going to be the only one facing a fight against friends.

Because of Steve.

No, not because of him, Steve forcibly reminded himself. He hadn't orchestrated this—the bombing, the Accords, Siberia—he was just stepping up because no one else seemed willing to see what was happening. Sam had chosen to come. So had Bucky. And Clint, and the Twins.

They all knew they would likely have to get past friends in order to deal with the doctor and his machinations.

But still. Guilt and unease swirled and twisted in his gut as Steve guided the Beetle off the main road and onto the service road Sam had pointed out. He spared Sam another brief look, taking in the faint trace of tension in the other man's features. Tension similarly echoed on Bucky's face as his oldest friend met his eye in the rear view mirror.