Broken Glass (Book 4)

2.6

I flew the quinjet towards the mountains, Bucky and Steve behind me. I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn back a little, seeing Bucky. I kiss his hand before turning back to the front. "What's gonna happen to your friends?" Bucky asks us. I don't turn around, but Bucky feels me tense up.

"Whatever it is... I'll deal with it." Steve answered, sighing.

"I don't know if I'm worth all this." I turn around, shaking my head.

"Yes you are. You're worth all of it." I squeeze his hand, before turning back to the sky.

"What you did all those years... it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice." Steve says and I nod, agreeing with him.

"I know. But I did it." I sigh, as we fly past the mountains.

I land the quinjet next to a truck, and I assume it's the guy we're chasing after. The ground below us is an icy mountain top. The jet's wings fold up. Bucky pulls out a rack of guns labeled 'Romanoff'. He picks us a light machine gun. I smile, grabbing two handguns. We stand together, waiting for the exit ramp to descend. "You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?" Steve asked. I turned to him, smiling.

"Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?" I asked the boys. They both nodded, smiling.

"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for Clara." Bucky wrapped his arm around me kissing my temple.

"Best thing that ever happened to me." I looked back up at Bucky and kissed him. Steve clamps his hand on Bucky's shoulder as we pull apart.

Steve had put his helmet on as we walked up to the already opened entrance. "He can't have been here more than a few hours." Steve tells us, looking around.

"Long enough to wake them up." Bucky comments as we walk into the hidden bunker. Steve was in front of us, his shield being the main protection. Bucky and I stood behind him,, our guns out, ready to shoot. We travel down into the depths inside a caged elevator. It stops in the deepest part of the bunker, and the doors slide open. Steve nods to us and heaves up the cage door. Bucky and I ready our guns as we walk along a corridor, keeping close to a wall. Bucky looks into an alcove full of junk then we move on up some stairs. At the sound of a loud thud we spin around, aiming down the corridor. "You ready?"

"Yeah." The double doors open by force and Tony, in his Iron Man suit, walks in, staring at us. He walks towards us and his helmet retracts so we can see his face. My gun is still raised, but I know it can't do anything.

"You seem a little defensive." Tony says, as Steve stands up, walking towards him, his shield still up. Bucky keeps his gun risen, but I put mine away.

"It's been a long day." Steve comments, none of us trusting Tony yet.

"At ease, Soldier. I'm not currently after you." Tony says to Bucky, but Bucky keeps his gun raised.

"Then why are you here?" I ask Tony, stepping forward a little.

"Could be your story's not so crazy. Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself."

"Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork." Steve lowers his shield. "It's good to see you, Tony."

"You too, Cap." He turns to Bucky. "Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop..." Steve signs Bucky to lower his weapon and he does.

The four of us walk along the corridor together. With his helmet and face plate reengaged Tony leads us towards the enormous chamber with the capsules standing in it. "I got heat signatures." Tony tells us.

"How many?" Steve asks qs I look around.

"Uh, one." My eyebrows furrow as we enter the chamber, the lights coming on. Hazy, yellow mist descends within the capsules. All of them contain a super-soldier. They are all dead.

"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep." Someone says, through the speakers. All of the soldiers had been shot in the head. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

"What the hell?" Bucky mumbles.

"I'm grateful to them, though. They brought you here." The evil doctor said as he appeared, behind a door. Steve throws his shield at him but it just comes right back. "Please, Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."

"I'm betting I could beat that." Tony said as he raised his hand blasters.

"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came." I looked at him, moving forward.

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here. Why?" I ask him.

"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized... there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw." I look back at Steve, confused.

"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?" Steve asks.

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise." He said, shaking his head.

"You lost someone?" I ask him.

He clicks his tongue, shaking his head. "I lost everyone. And so will you." To the side, a surveillance video starts. December 16th 1991. We all move over to the scene. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumples from within? That's dead... forever." I gulped staring back at the date. I know this date.

"I know that road. What is this?" Tony asks. I feel my anxiety start to rise.

"I know this date... I know." I look back from the doctor, looking at Tony. "Tony..." I warn, not knowing what we're going to see.

The video starts to play.

That car that the Winter Soldier forced off the road crashes into a tree. I watch intently as the Winter Soldier rides up and gets off his motorbike. Howard Stark lies on the ground beside the car. "Help my wife. Please. Help." I hear Howard say. The Winter Soldier walks over and hoists him up by his hair. He stares at Howard's bloody face. Howard stares back pleadingly. "Sergeant Barnes?" In the video, the Winter Soldier pounds Howard hard in the face with his metal fist. I gulp, tightly holding onto the video stand. On the screen Howard slumps dead. The Winter Soldier puts him in the driver's seat with his face against the steering wheel. Maria's in the passenger seat. I know she's in the passenger seat. She had blood streaked down her face. The Winter Soldier walks around and grips her throat. Expressionless, he strangles Maria. The Winter Soldier walks up and aims a gun at the surveillance camera.

Bucky killed Maria...