Chapter 62 - Lie and Leverage
The hallway that led to the underground cells was damp and dark. All the light Tony dared to use for navigational purposes came from his wristwatch. There was nobody down there, even the guy that had agreed to let him in wouldn't decent to that basement level, not daring to risk his job. It was only Tony and the soft echo of his steps reflected off the naked concrete walls. That and the beat of his heart, fast but steady. Determined.
It was a shock to his system when he opened the door that shut off Rogers' cell from the hallway. In there, the lights were turned up all the way, blinding after his dark journey through the bowels of the NYPD's headquarter.
"How did you get in here?" The Captain's jaw hung a little open, eyes wide in surprise.
The cell was centered in the middle of the room. Four walls made out of glass, no privacy, nowhere to hide. The camera's installed in every top corner of the cage made sure the detainee would feel watched 24/7.
Tony shrugged and stepped a little closer to the barrier. "I know my way around. I'm sneaky like that."
The Captain sniffed out an almost amused breath. "How mysterious." Rogers turned his eyes away, suddenly acting like he didn't even see him. "Cameras," he muttered under his breath.
"I know, Cap. Took care of those. We have a few minutes."
The man looked up at him. That little frown on his face might have been anything from shame to disapproval. No matter how many years Tony had schooled his own face not to give his thoughts away, for some reason with Rogers it took more effort than with anyone else to keep his cool. Even now, even after years of, well, dare he call it collaboration.
"Clint might have cashed in a favor or two."
"I see." Rogers shifted from one foot to the other, looking away again. Was it shame after all then? "They aren't happy with me. Clint. Nat."
"They really are not." Tony kept his voice as neutral as possible. It wasn't that he didn't have every reason to stick it to Rogers after everything, it was that all of that was second now to what was really important. He had known that even without Natasha's lecture. "But I don't give a shit, Steve. I was never into that popularity contest."
Rogers just shook his head, clearly irritated. "How's your boy?"
It was Tony's turn to look away, his eyes glued to the ground. He couldn't really find it in himself to look Rogers in the eye. After everything that had happened in the last few years, after everything that had happened just in the last couple of months, Tony wanted to do both, punch him in his perfect teeth as well as thank him on his hands and knees for coming to his boy's aid. Twice now. His teeth cut sharply into his lip. "He's at the Tower. He's safe."
"Good. I... I told him you'd get him out." He nodded to himself. "I didn't know, Tony. I swear, I... We've been working to get all the triggers out. If I'd known anything, I would have never..." Rogers paced a couple of steps back and forth. "I don't know how this could have happened. He was fine. He was fine."
"The kid would be dead without you, Steve." Tony had to take a couple of breaths, had to ground himself before he looked up at the Captain. "Thank you."
Rogers didn't quite meet his eyes. "I'd probably be dead without him. If he hadn't come after us..." He bit his lip, the silence thick between them. "He was... he was truly scared and still, he went to help. That was brave."
Brave. It had been reckless and suicidal, but that wasn't why Tony was here. There was not enough time for him to bite Rogers' head off as he projected his ridiculous savior mentality onto his 13-year-old kid. His teenage boy who already carried all that sense of responsibility around like he was 30 years older. It was obvious how the wheels in the Captain's head were turning, how he was looking for the right words while forcefully biting his tongue. His breathing was labored and there was a part of Tony that really appreciated that the first question out of his mouth hadn't been about how the man's buddy was. Nevertheless, the question on Rogers' mind was written all over his face.
Tony cleared his throat. "Nat's still at the hospital. She's keeping an eye on Barnes for now, but they'll move him soon enough." He suppressed the urge to pick at his suit sleeve just to keep his hands occupied with something. "I don't know what they'll do. They'll angle for the Raft. I assume that's where they'll want to put you, too."
He looked up and the Super Soldier's eyes were positively burning. "It's not his fault, Tony. He's not in control. I tried to—"
"I know that." Tony snarled. "You think I don't know that? I offered to help him months ago, Steve, but you had to have things your way!"
Rogers' hand crashed against the glass barrier. "There is no helping him with Ross in charge. He's a monster! And what do you think he'll do when he finds out about your son's little secret, huh?"
Tony narrowed his eyes. "Are you threatening me, Rogers?"
"I..." The man let his hands fall down and took a step back from the barrier. "No, Tony. I... I just need you to understand that we're on the same side. Ross... Ross is—"
"Ross is a corrupt, power-hungry asshole. You think I don't know that? I've told you they'll try to pit us against each other." He had a hard time keeping his voice down. A screaming match with Rogers would do nothing but draw attention to them and get him in trouble. "I've been working to get rid of him for months, which is a little hard when you and your merry band of righteous crusaders validate every single piece of anti-enhanced propaganda bullshit Ross and his cronies put out there."
Rogers didn't look at him, just shook his head. "Working with them makes you no better than they are."
"I'm not working with them," Tony spat out. "I'm working to bring them down, but without pissing of 100 plus countries and getting myself thrown in jail in the process."
Rogers had turned his back on him but Tony's pulse was skyrocketing nonetheless. Rogers just knew how to press his buttons and to Tony's shame, he could just never resist engaging. Too deep-seated was his agitation with the Captain. They had always clashed, even when Rogers had still been in the ice, he had made Tony's life difficult. Had monopolized his father's attention for years. It didn't even matter if Rogers had been a symptom much more than the cause for his father's absence. Maybe Howard would have found something else to obsess about if it hadn't been for America's Golden Boy. His father, killed by the man's best friend and he didn't even have the decency to share that secret.
"You should have just told me, Steve. You should have just fucking told me."
Rogers turned back to him, face almost pressed against the glass cage. "Like all the things you never told me?"
His eyes narrowed, Tony shook his head. "I never kept things from you on purpose!"
"Oh yeah? When did you start hanging out with Spider-Man again?"
Like he had been hit by an electric surge, he took a step back from the glass ."That's different. You and Wilson, you were irrational!"
"Right, of course, it's different when it's you. Cause your reaction when you found out about Bucky was so measured."
"You went mental because the kid bruised your ego. Barnes killed my parents!" He bit his lip hard, anger rolling over him like a heat stroke. He wasn't entirely in control and he couldn't afford to lose it in front of Rogers so close to a cell that he wouldn't so easily get out of if discovered and arrested. "Fine. You know what. You're right. I lied to you. For a couple of months, I kept a secret from you because I thought I knew better. Because I thought once you guys got over the whole Manhattan debacle and things would calm down, that we could talk this through like adults. Gain an ally if we played things right. If he trusted us."
"A 13-year-old ally."
"I didn't know that," Tony snarled.
"How old did you think he was?" The smug expression on Rogers' face made his blood boil.
"What does it even matter? You..." Tony stepped back closer to the glass, finger pointed directly at the Captain. "You lied to me. For years. You never intended for me to find out about it, did you."
"They were gone, Tony. We were already fighting HYDRA. In the end, what would it have—"
"It's my family, Steve." He fought so hard to keep his voice down, it cracked with the strain. "I deserved to know! They were my parents!"
"And Bucky is my family! The only family I have left. He's my brother. He—"
"He killed my parents. He almost killed my son. Twice!" Tony just about stopped himself from banging his fist against the glass to underline his point.
"That wasn't him! I couldn't. I couldn't risk it... I couldn't—"
"Couldn't risk to tell me the truth about my own family?"
"You really blame me? For not telling you? Really? After what happened in Siberia?"
Tony turned away from him, hands balled into fists. "We're going around in circles. I'm not having the same useless argument with you again and again."
Rogers stayed quiet, only shuffled from one foot to the other while Tony tried to get his temper in check. There was no point to this. There was no point in fighting with that Star-Spangled meathead. He'd never admit that he was wrong, would probably never even see Tony's side. It didn't matter. The trust they once had was gone, irreversibly destroyed.
The Captain gave an undetermined shake with his head, eyes on the floor. "What will happen now?"
His arms crossed in front of himself, Tony blew out a long breath. "Like I said, we think they'll try to transfer you straight to the Raft, indefinite detention under the NDAA. Not just for what happened yesterday. They'll pull out every incident over the last couple of months. Germany. Bucharest." He cleared his throat. "We're trying to fight that. New York might focus on what happened here first and we'll try to classify that... that incident in Queens as a targeted attack on a specific private citizen rather than an act of terror."
"An act of terror?!" Rogers' face was changing color, glowing bright red. "Bucky's not a terrorist!"
"No, he's a highly trained weapon of a terrorist organization. We are—"
"He's been used and abused!" Rogers' voice rang loudly in the dark basement. "None of this is his fault!"
"I— Would you shut up already!" He held up a hand to stop the Captain, ears strained to listen for any sound that would indicate movement beyond the door. Satisfied when there was only silence he turned back to Rogers, determined to keep his voice level. "We're pressing for a trial. If we can convince a jury that—"
"A jury of his peers?" Rogers scoffed. "Who would sit on that? All the other enhanced soldiers from the 40s. Cool, I guess that's just me then."
Tony bit the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from lashing out. "We need to fight them inside the system. We need to oust them starting at the top. None of this will matter if Ross stays in charge."
"Yeah, easy for you to say sitting pretty in your Tower with your happy little family."
Tony swallowed the biting comeback that was on his lips but apparently it shone brightly enough in his eyes for Rogers turned his back, breathing heavily through his anger.
"I need you to trust me, Cap. This time, I just need you to fucking trust me."
"He's everything I have left, Tony."
"He's not. He's not all you have left and you know that."
"There is nobody that—"
"Steve. Just... just stop. I'm doing everything I can. Nat and Clint, the team at the Compound, we're doing everything we can to end this for good." He swallowed hard, pushing away everything he had ever wanted to hurl at the Captain's face.
This wasn't just about Rogers. His fate, Barnes' fate, the fate of that mission. All of it would affect his boy. Tony could take off that suit but even without a suit, Aiden... Peter. His son would always be in jeopardy unless they brought down Ross, Clarke, all these assholes.
Head held high he looked straight at Rogers. "I need everything you have on him."
Rogers stared at him, lips pressed together tightly.
"Come on, Cap..."
"Everything I have on him?"
"Yes."
"On Ross."
Tony gave a small nod. "Obviously."
"What makes you think I have anything on him?"
Tony collected himself for a beat. That wasn't possible. After all this time, he had to know something. "You've been running around the globe for weeks now, what the fuck else have you been doing if not collect shit on Ross?"
The Captain crossed his arms in front of himself. "You mean other than thwart attacks and save civilians?"
"You... you can't be serious right now..."
"We left because we wanted to do the work the Accords were going to ban us from." Rogers shook his head. "We left because we had enough of the political circus."
His eyes narrowed on him, Tony made sure not to pace, to stay steady. "You left because you're a stubborn old bastard. I'm not an idiot, Steve. I need him gone and fast!"
The other man stayed quiet for another moment, then shook his head. "We only got the odd intel. Nothing specific. He's good at keeping these things bottled up."
Tony tried to breathe through the panic that was slowly rising in his throat. That... no... there had to be something!
Rogers huffed out a breath and let his arms fall to his sides. "Nat... Nat knows most of this. You didn't have to come here for that."
"Nat told me what she knew. But... but that... that can't have been everything. Steve, please, you need to give me something."
The look on Rogers' face made Tony's own fall. He really didn't have anything, nothing they could use. After weeks, months of them working in the dark, there was nothing. With a sharp turn, Tony pulled away from the glass cage, one hand clasped over his mouth. He was shaking. He hadn't realized how much until just then.
"Tony..."
He shook his head. What was he supposed to do now? How was he supposed to keep his kid safe?
"What about your intel." Rogers' feet shuffled back and forth behind him. "What about Vision? We know you had him in D.C. for a reason. There has to be something."
He took a moment to breathe, just a minute to grasp for something like control. "Circumstantial, all of it." Slowly, Tony turned to face Rogers again. "I know he ordered all of it, but I can't prove it. If I come out with all that, try to use it against him, all he needs to do is throw a couple of his people under the bus."
They stayed quiet, both of them. He didn't really know where to go from here. He had thought that Rogers would be his way out. That he knew something that could make all that intel from D.C. valuable. But it turned out, no.
Rogers cleared his throat. "So, I guess you're not gonna let me out, are you."
Tony huffed out a shallow breath. "Let you out? How am I gonna do that?"
The Captain shrugged. "Disable the electronics on the door. Or something."
"Yeah?" Tony faced him again and gave a little shrug. "And then what? You just gonna box your way out of here?"
"I'm no help for you in here."
He hadn't been much help out on the streets either, but Tony knew better than to voice that biting thought. "I... I gotta go."
"Wait, Tony—"
He shook his head. "They can't find me here." One more time, Tony's eyes locked with Rogers through the high-security glass of the cage that held the man captive. "You just have to trust me, Steve."
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[author's note: Alright, guys. This was a super short one (and I kind of regret not sticking it at the end of the last chapter, but here we are).br /
I will put out the next one in the next 24h, probably some time tonight even (which is only a few more hours on my side of the globe), but they this and the next part just wouldn't go together.
Thank you as always for your feedback and for reading! It brightens my day :)]