Captain America: Civil War (Charlotte Stark)

Ch. 10 Siberia

The Quinjet streaked low over the Siberian tundra, closer to the base Bucky remembered. Zemo was going there. Both of them knew it... and both of them knew that no matter what, he could not be allowed to get control over the rest of the Winter Soldiers.

We hadn't spoken much on the flight. Eventually, Bucky asked, "What's gonna happen to your friends?"

"Whatever it is, we'll deal with it," Steve said.

"I don't know if I'm worth all this, guys."

"You are Bucky." I try to reassure him.

"What you did all those years... it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice." Steve added.

Bucky didn't answer for a while. Then he said, "I know. But I did it."

"You saved me, countless times. It's about time I returned the favor." I tell him.

"Look, Charlotte, there's something I have to tell you." Bucky says, "when Hydra has control of my mind, I did something. Something that you might not forgive me for." Steve looked to him, like he knew what he was about to say.

"What do you mean?" I turn to Bucky, with a raised eyebrow.

"I was ordered to kill your parents. That was me." I stayed silent, and looked out the window of the quinjet. Slowly, I unbuckle my seatbelt and walk over to Barnes.

"Char, He didn't know what he was doing." Steve tells me, hoping it will stop me from hurting him. Bucky stands up as I get closer to him.

I walk over to him and slap him across the face. Both men stare at me as a single tear runs down my face. Then I grab a hold of his shoulder and bring him into a hug. "I forgive you."

"You do?" Bucky asks.

"You do?" Steve repeats.

"Sorry, about the slap, I just needed to get that out. But I do forgive you."

"Why?" He asks, releasing me from our hug.

"Because, you have more than made it up to me." I look him in the eyes. "And you weren't in the right mind set. You had no idea what you were doing. I've been there, I know how that feels." I move to sit back down next to Steve. 

"Are you okay?" He asks me.

I turn my head towards him, my smile fading. "So, you knew all this time?"

"I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how."

"Literally, anytime, you could've just blurted it out for god sakes. What if I knew something about you that you didn't know? Would you have wanted me to keep it to myself?" I glare at him.

"No, but-"

"No. No buts." I get up and move over to him, punching him in the face.

"Feel better?" He asks me.

"Yes." I respond and sit back down with a grin on my face. And we continue on to our destination.

We eventually saw the Sno-Cat parked outside the base and knew our quarry was already there. It couldn't be anybody else. So this was going to be the final showdown. Steve landed the Quinjet and got his shield. Bucky pulled an assault rifle from the Quinjet's weapons locker. I finished charging up my suit and grabbed an electric staff from the back, along with a few pistols and knives from the back.

We stood at the top of the ramp, snow blowing around our feet. Time to go.

Bucky had a thought, the kind of random thought people got sometimes when they were about to face great danger. "You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?"

Cap nodded. "Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs? You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for a redhead."

"What was her name again?"

"Dolores," Cap said. "You called her Dot."

"She's got to be a hundred years old by now," Bucky mused.

Cap clapped Bucky on the shoulder. "So are we, pal."

"You, you two are old as shit." I say and they roll their eyes at me and stifle their laughs.

Together, we went down the ramp and approached the open base door. "He can't have been here more than a few hours," Captain America said.

Bucky nodded. "Long enough to wake them up."

That was the problem. We moved in shoulder-to-shoulder. Just like old times. We walked as quietly as possible down an elevator and followed narrow steel corridors farther into the base. After a few minutes, we heard something behind them. We turned and the noises got louder. A large steel blast door was opening
.
"You guys ready?" I said. Five Winter Soldiers, I thought. It wouldn't be easy.

Bucky was thinking the same thing. "Yeah."

The doors groaned open—revealing Iron Man. He walked toward us down the narrow hall. Cap and I stayed on our toes. Bucky kept his gun aimed right at Iron Man's arc reactor, center of mass.

Iron Man opened his faceplate and kept approaching. "You seem a little defensive," he said.

"It's been a long day," Cap said.

"At ease, soldier. I'm not currently after you."

Hard to believe, I thought. "Then why are you here?"

"Maybe your story isn't so crazy," Iron Man said. Cap couldn't hide his relief. "Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I have to arrest myself."

"Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork." Steve loosened up a little. "It's good to see you, Tony."

"Me too, Cap." He saw Barnes pointing an assault rifle at him. "Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop it."

Bucky lowered his gun, but he still looked uneasy. Even so, the four of us advanced together.

"I got heat signatures," Iron Man said, his mask back in place as they got close to a larger darkened chamber.

"How many?" I asked.

"Uh, one."

Lights came on around us as we entered, and an eerie quiet filled the musky room.

Something was wrong.