It was December 16th 1991 and the Soldier was bored.
Retrieval missions were intensely dull. Go to point a, capture point b and return to point c. Bore, bore, bore. However, he didn't think to pass on this information to his doctor. Harriet had introduced herself in a friendly manner but her eyes sometimes became severe if he was 'too human'.
Whatever the hell that meant. And it was nice to stretch his legs.
The car crash was steaming with the contact on the midnight snow. The woman was sobbing, calling someone's name. "Howard! Howard!" He guessed it was the man he had just murdered. He slumped the body over the steering wheel and the woman, upon seeing the smashed in face of her husband, began to cry.
He hated it when they did that.
He calmly walked around the car and closed his hands around the woman's throat. Such a small, fragile bone, crushed beneath his metal fingers almost instantly. She grabbed at him, eyes bulging but he looked away. Simple. Clean. Dead.
Now it was time for clean-up. Bore, bore, bore. He'd done a thousand of these retrieval missions. He clocked the area for cameras and spotted one stationed right above him, giving whoever was watching a clean view of the site. He grabbed the suitcase containing the cargo and reached out an arm, hands closed around the gun, calculating that the measurement of his suit was just a quarter of an inch too tight and…. and ended up watching himself again on that night, almost three decades later.
James recalled how casual he had been. Bore, bore, bore. God, killing two perfectly innocent people to retrieve something for a horrific mission was so boring. He felt sick to his stomach. How could he be so cold? Thinking only of his jacket measurements as he cleaned up a crime scene.
Beside him, Mallory was shaking. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, her hand across his mouth. She knew he was watching her but unlike anything other time he had ever stared at her, she couldn't look back. Disgusted by him as he knew she would be eventually. There was no chance of happiness now.
And Tony… Tony was breathing heavily. His armour was trembling. His eyes were fixed on the screen, watching his mother and father endlessly being murdered on a maddening loop, his eyes misting with tears.
Tony turned and aggressively stepped towards James, going for him. James instinctively raised the gun, noting how Mallory had leapt backwards in fear but was still sobbing.
Steve was stupidly holding Tony back. "Tony!"
Tony looked back to Steve, blandly asking, "Did anyone know?"
He was looking at Steve but addressing it everyone.
Mallory immediately, tearfully, truthfully replied. "I had no idea. I am so sorry."
Tony looked back and seemed satisfied. Mallory covered her face with her hands, muffling the quiet sobbing. Tony turned his attention fully onto Steve asking again, "Did you know?"
"I didn't know it was him."
"Don't fucking lie to me. Did you know?"
There was a pause. Too long. Just tell the truth. "Yes."
Tony pushed him away. There was a moment, as Tony processed what had happened. He swayed uneasily on his feet. Nobody made a move to approach him. James was standing still. Mallory had her back turned, sobbing into her hands. Steve was standing, calculating and trying to get upset himself.
The uneasy pause ended as Tony backhanded Steve as hard as he could, sending him off his feet and halfway across the room.
James raised his gun and shot at Tony, who blocked each shot successively. James dropped the gun and swung for Tony, but the two men and their metal arms clashed, Tony's metal hand crushing down on James's forearm. Tony swung his hand away eventually, but then grabbed James by the throat, using his other hand to blast off into the air with him, slamming him down on the concrete ground.
James's ears were ringing. The pain was immense. In the distance, he could hear Mallory screaming. There was little he could do as Tony had his hand pined to the ground.
CLUNK! The shield smacked against Tony's armour. The man was distracted, lifting off James's form to run for Steve who was coming at him. James scrambled upwards and saw Mallory, gun raised, shielded behind a pillar. Good girl. He rushed to her side.
"Get out of here!"
She looked at him. Her eyes were still red, still wet with tears and still laced with fear. The look made his own eyes sting, even worse than having his head slammed against concrete. Her skin still bore his mark of strangulation.
James heard an unusual noise and both of them turned to look at Tony; he'd fired an electrical bracelet, tying Steve's legs together and rendering him unable to move.
"GO!"
He left Mallory's side reluctantly and drove his fist up Tony's face. Again, Tony grabbed him and flew him straight into one of the septic tanks the dead soldiers were held in, the glass cracking under their weight. The weight of Tony's hand against his throat was fear inducing; good God, he was scared. It was the first time he remembered truly being frightened for his life. It was a crackle of electricity down his spine.
The fear strengthened him. Sharpened him, like a whetstone to a sword and James reached out and crushed one of Tony's hands in his own. The light of Tony's palms were blinding him. Tony, panicking, brought his wrist up and fired off a missile directly into James's face. James redirected the current and flew it into the opposite direction. His mind calculated the trajectory before it hit and the electricity was back, stronger, shocking his vocal cords to scream.
"STEVE!"
Steve looked and knew immediately what was wrong. He'd already broken the cuff and was on his feet. His friend became a blur, rolling to tackle Mallory out of the way. She had rolled herself – that self-protective streak kicking in – but she was too slow and even if she'd made it out time some metal would hit her. The explosion was deafening and the metal clanged and broke as it shattered to the ground. It swept downwards and Tony was too focused on strangling him to realize both were about to be killed. Steve saved him again, throwing the shield to loosen Tony's grip and they both fell to the ground.
James slammed into the metal hard. A rib cracked. A gasp of pain broke free of his mouth but he rolled all the same. Where was Steve? Where was Mallory? He saw her pulling hair from her face and standing shakily, some distance from the battle.
Steve was standing opposite him, separated by a wide berth of metal. "Go! Get her out of here!"
James didn't need to be told twice. He leapt over the barrier and sprinted straight towards her. She had no time to protest as he grabbed her hand and hauled ass around the corner, the echoing blast of one of Tony's missiles standing behind them.
They were in the corridor that lead to the elevator. There was another room some distance away, that opened the base's helicopter pad. That's where he was heading. He stopped sprinting and pushed Mallory in the direction of the elevator.
"Get out of here!"
"James-"
"I'm not arguing with you!" He was shouting now. The sound echoed. It wouldn't be long before Tony would come sweeping around the corner to finish them both off. "I am not having your death on my hands. I won't do it. Don't make this about you and me."
She was desperate, her eyes flicking between his face and the ground and her hands grabbing at him. But ultimately, she nodded.
"Okay." Her voice was broken, two hands pushing into his abdomen, as if to lift herself off him reluctantly, "Okay."
He wanted to say it. The words were on his tongue but when he opened his mouth he couldn't. Not now. If he said it, he might take her hand and run off with her. He couldn't leave Steve and if he did, he would never be able to look her in the eye again. So instead he squeezed her hands briefly, tightly, willing he'd had it written on his hands so his unsaid words could leave a lasting impression on her skin.
And then turned and didn't look and pushed her out of his mind, ducking through the next door and slamming on the control to open the helipad.
Mallory watched the man she loved duck back through the hallway and not look back. The pressure of his hands was still on her skin. She took a step forward and heard the words don't make this about you and me rattle through her skull. She stopped moving. This was so not the time. She swallowed once then turned on her heel and ran towards the elevator.
James was already a quarter of the way up the helipad when he heard the flight system of Tony enter the room. The sound echoed but was strange; stuttering, like it was coughing. James looked down, stupidly, and saw Tony landed shakily on a mesh-ring just below him. The head of the armour swivelled, clocked him and took a running jump off to fly up towards him.
James panicked and leapt across to reach the next pad. Stupid. He heard his own yelp of pain before he felt the boot crack into his gut, sending him crashing into the opposite wall. His back smacked and he fell onto the nearest mesh ring.
Tony's missiles charged and fired. James took a breath. Steve leapt in front of him and he raised the shield. The missile rebounded and sent Tony crashing to the opposite mesh ring. Steve hauled James to his feet.
"He's not gonna stop."
Do you blame him? James almost said it but instead nodded towards the distance and said, "Come on."
Steve went down, to lasso Tony by the neck and send him crashing to the ground. James went into the opposite direction, going up and up, ignoring the throbbing pain in his gut and the aches in his back.
James heard the whistle of air and heard the contact of the missile onto metal. He'd aimed for the giant joint that was swinging the helipad, opening the place and flooding it with light. Smart move. The same smart move sent ten tonnes of metal crashing down onto James's head.
Even a super soldier couldn't survive that. James let go of the metal and fell, hurting his back even more as he slammed against the mesh ring. He stood and found a broken metal rod, swinging it up like a baseball player as Tony flew up. The two fought, metal on metal, James groaning as Tony twisted his flesh arm and had him helplessly locked in a metal vice.
He was walking him towards the edge, James resisting him every step as he knew what would happen if they fell.
His voice was low, a hard whisper, "Do you even remember them?"
James spoke the truth when he answered, "I remember all of them."
Tony reached the last step. James tried to plant his feet but Tony jumped, and let go, sending both falling to their deaths.
Steve tackled both and took some momentum. All three were falling now. James miraculously managed to fall onto the bottom rung of the mesh ring, his upper back taking a beating from the metal. His groan echoed.
Echoed? James rolled to his side and saw the crash had opened the foundations of the building, a rounded exited with holes cut into the concrete, filling the small place with light and the cold wind of the outside wild. Tony and Steve had rolled, Tony slamming against the concrete and Steve managing to land somewhat straight. In the cold light of the day, the two looked battered, broken toys with broken limbs tangled in a heap.
Captain America raised his head and spat blood, standing to his feet where Tony was watching, unable to fly now, parts of his suit dangling off him almost comically.
"This isn't gonna change what happened." Steve was breathless. It was the first time James had seen him so winded from a fight since they had been young, when he'd fought with every bully on the block. "It wasn't him. HYDRA was controlling his mind."
James appreciated the defensive. He rolled closer, wondering if Mallory had made it to the top now and if, in the slim chance they both ended up dead, Tony would go after her.
"I don't care. He killed my mom."
Tony flew into Steve.
A/N: Hey guys! Quick update! The next chapter will probably be live either sometime today or tommorow since I wrote them both at the same time! Please, review, fave follow! You're all awesome and I love you