The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 53

Siberia

Spring 2016

Steve still couldn't quite believe who was walking ahead of him.

Well, actually he could.

This was why he'd hoped Tony and his assembled team wouldn't catch up to Steve and his own team until they're reached this very base. Because as soon as Tony had been presented with hard evidence that there was something far more ominous going on?

He hadn't hesitated to defy the Accords in favour of doing what needed to be done.

To do what was right.

As they'd pushed further into the bowels of the base, Tony had admitted in terse, hushed tones how he'd seen the indisputable evidence pointing to the fake doctor—a Helmut Zemo, formerly of Sokovian Special Operations, much to Steve's dismay—as having masterminded everything, including the Vienna bombing.

And how, as soon as he'd realized the implications, Tony had gotten the location of the base from Sam and raced after Steve, Bucky and Nadine as fast as he could.

Despite Ross shutting him down when he tried to apprise him of the real situation.

It was thanks to that simple fact that Tony had shown up alone.

Steve spared a quick glance to Tony from his careful assessment of their surroundings as the three of them moved deeper into the heart of the former Soviet missile silo.

That Tony was torn over everything that had gone down the last couple days was indisputable. It was evident in every line of his frame; how he held himself, how he'd looked—or avoided looking, depending on what was being said—Steve in the eye, the tone of his voice. All of it. He still believed he had the right of it, that the Accords were still the best of a bad situation, but that belief was shaken. Especially after having been confronted by just how badly they were already being twisted thanks to Ross.

But he nevertheless had the feeling that, despite the way Tony's faith in the viability of the Accords cracking, he wasn't about to denounce them. He was too proud for that. Too stubborn. Steve had some suspicions of the insecurities Tony fought alongside his personal ghosts. Insecurities that would prevent him from simply abandoning the commitment he'd made. The same sort of insecurities that often had him digging in his heels when he was uncertain, much as he had in Leipzig when Steve had started him doubting what was really going on by insisting that there was a wider conspiracy at play. No, Tony wasn't about to go rogue any more than Steve was about to suddenly throw in with The Accords. No matter that it seemed pretty clear to Steve that Tony had finally realized he'd made the wrong choice.

He had too much to lose, now. Too many people counting on him. To say his friend was in a tough position was putting it mildly.

Not that his noble streak would exactly let him back out at this point, either. Steve couldn't fight the idea that Tony was far more likely to try and fix his mistake—of blindly throwing his lot in with The Accords the way he had—by staying the course and doing as he'd suggested to Steve back in Berlin; by working from within to make the Accords what they should be. By doing whatever he could to fix his mistake. It was just who he was. His conviction for making things right was what had seen him to shutting down the weapons division of Stark Industries the moment he'd realized they were being sold to the wrong people. And it was that same drive that had pushed him to throw in with The Accords in the first place. The same drive that had seen his hand in the creation of both Ultron and Vision.

As Tony had professed in his own roundabout way more than once in the time Steve had known him: Tony was a fixer.

Not a soldier.