Bruce paced around the common area, trying to keep his heart rate down while Rhodey cursed out the busy phone lines. The news broadcast was still out, and they had no idea what had happened to Tony and Natasha.

After the Battle of Sokovia and Tony's retirement as Iron Man, Bruce thought he would never have to feel this terrified again. Eventually, Rhodey got through to his government contacts, and Bruce stopped pacing to listen.

"Hello, yes…okay, uh huh…alright, yes, sir."

Rhodey ended the call and grabbed Bruce's shoulder to calm him down.

"Tony and Natasha are fine, but a lot of other people are dead or seriously injured, and they think it was a terrorist attack. Ross wants us all in Berlin."

Bruce nodded and allowed himself to take a breath, but his anxiety wouldn't let him fully relax until he saw that Tony was okay with his own eyes. Rhodey finished making arrangements with Ross and assured him they would be at the CIA's Joint Task Force building in Berlin as soon as possible.

Bruce followed Rhodey to the quinjet, so relieved to be seeing Tony he didn't even stop to worry about why Ross had summoned them.

Bruce had assumed "us all" included the Avengers who had not signed the Accords, but Vision was the only one who joined him and Rhodey on the trip to Berlin.

When they got off the quinjet, a group of CIA agents ushered them into a car and drove them to the Joint Task Force building. Bruce tried to make himself as small as possible; the CIA was one of the organizations that had been tracking him all across the globe for years.

The agents led them through the highly secured compound to a meeting room where Ross, Tony, and Natasha were sitting around a table covered in papers and laptops. Tony was swirling around in his seat and flicking a pen back and forth between his fingers. He looked up when Bruce entered and smiled at him, but Bruce noticed the burn marks on his hands and neck.

When the CIA agents had left them, Ross stood up and addressed Rhodey.

"After the attack we got word that Captain Rogers is communicating with the suspect, James Barnes, and they are currently evading capture. We need you to bring them in."

All the color drained from Bruce's face; after long missions, the Avengers would lounge around the compound, and Steve would reminisce about his friend who had died in the war, Bucky Barnes. Bruce had watched the news from the quinjet, but all they had mentioned was that the suspect was a Hydra agent called the Winter Soldier.

If Rhodey was also surprised by the revelation, he didn't show it but nodded and left the room with Ross and Natasha following behind. As soon as the door closed, Bruce pulled Tony out of his chair and hugged him.

"Are you okay?"

Tony grinned as they pulled apart.

"Of course, I am. It'll take a lot more than an ordinary terrorist attack to get rid of me."

Bruce was glad Tony was in good spirits, but he couldn't stop thinking about Bucky.

"It wasn't ordinary though, was it? The guy who did, the Winter Solder, he was Steve's friend."

Tony groaned at the mention of Steve and collapsed back into his chair.

"What was he even doing here? It's only been hours after the Accords were signed and he's already gone and broken them."

Bruce didn't have any answers, but he was saved from giving a response by Ross stepping back into the room. He looked agitated, and Bruce slowly walked back to stand behind Tony's chair as he spoke.

"This isn't a good look, Stark. If you want the international community to think the Avengers can be trusted, we need to make an example out of Rogers. I want him and all of his accomplices prosecuted."

Tony paused for a moment before answering, even though it wasn't like him to consider his words carefully.

"Let us talk to them. If they all sign the Accords, we can make everything they've done today legal."

Bruce thought Tony was a bit too optimistic about Ross's penchant for leniency, and apparently, Ross did too.

"Rogers is aiding a terrorist who has already killed another nation's head of state. Anyone else in his position would already be in prison."

Ross paused for a moment before continuing.

"And believe me, if I could manage it, he wouldn't be the only one of you locked up."

Bruce looked up to see Ross's cold eyes piercing into his for the first time in years. He was so petrified he almost didn't react when Tony slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and snarled at Ross.

"You're going to regret that."

For a moment, Bruce was worried that Tony would attack Ross and face a lot more consequences than when he had hit Clint. He reached out to hold Tony's arm back, but Tony pulled it free and pointed his finger in Ross's face.

"You should think very carefully about this, Mr. Secretary. You know you need the Accords to succeed as much as we do."

Ross looked from Tony to Bruce with pure disdain in his eyes, but eventually, he acquiesced.

"If he signs, I'll convince the Germans to forgo prosecution. But this will be my only warning."

Ross turned around and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

A few hours later, Bruce walked into the surveillance room to see Steve, who was standing with his arms crossed and staring up at the video feed of Bucky strapped to a chair. Steve hadn't been very receptive to Tony berating him for breaking the Accords as soon as he was brought in, but Tony and Natasha had decided that Bruce should try his hand.

Bruce wasn't too sure how convincing he could be, but he understood why Steve had gone after Bucky. He would probably have done the same thing for someone he cared about.

After awkwardly standing next to Steve for a moment, Bruce decided to get right to the point.

"We talked to Ross. If you sign, everything goes away. Bucky gets psychiatric help instead life in prison."

Steve looked at Bruce like he had just realized he was there. Bruce thought he was considering it, but then he shook his head.

"I can't do it. The safest hands are still our own, and I can't give that up."

"I know you're doing what you think is right, but sometimes you have to cut your losses. The Sokovia Accords are a compromise, with the other option being disbanding the Avengers entirely."

But before Steve could come up with a response, they were interrupted by the psychiatrist's presence in Bucky's interrogation room.

The man was clean-shaven with glasses and spoke with an accent Bruce didn't recognize. He began by asking Bucky about his background when suddenly, all the lights in the room went off and the video feed cut out.

Steve furrowed his brows as the agents in front of the computers scrambled to get the audio and visual back. Steve and Bruce looked at each other and simultaneously ran out of the room. Steve seemed to know where he was going, so Bruce followed behind him until they reached a locked door that said, "Sub Level – 5, East Wing."

Steve busted through the door, and Bruce was about to follow him, but he could feel the Hulk itching to come out after a year of being kept at bay. Instead, Bruce went back out into the main corridor to look for the other Avengers.

When Bruce finally found Tony, he was sitting in the meeting room with Ross, Natasha, and Vision, holding an icepack to his eye. Ross was in the middle of lecturing the others but stopped when Bruce opened the door.

"What happened?"

No one answered, and Tony didn't look at him, so Bruce assumed the worst. Ross continued talking as if there hadn't been any interruption.

"That's it, I'm turning this over to the German police. They're going to send in a squad of J-SOC guys who aren't known for taking prisoners."

Natasha shook her head, and Bruce was surprised; it was the first time he had seen her oppose Ross.

"You really think regular cops are going to be able to take down two super soldiers? You need us."

Ross glared at her, and Bruce could tell he was fed up with the Avengers holding their power over his head. They had already failed him once after his 'only warning,' and there was no guarantee they would succeed this time. But Natasha was right, and Ross knew it.

"I'll give you 36 hours. Rogers doesn't escape no matter what, or it will be on your heads."

After Ross left, Tony pulled the icepack away from his face, revealing a painful-looking black eye.

"How many people do we have?"

Bruce almost objected; this was the second time that day Tony had nearly been killed, and now he was planning another fight. But Bruce had known Tony long enough to realize he wasn't going to back down from this, so he did a quick count.

"You, Natasha, Rhodey, and Vision. That should be enough to take Steve, Sam, and Bucky on."

"It might not just be them. Have either of you seen Clint or Wanda?"

Neither Bruce nor Natasha answered in the affirmative, but Natasha was busy looking at something on her phone. Then, she looked up at Bruce and Tony.

"I have someone I can call in."

Tony nodded and got out his phone, too.

"So do I."

Before Natasha and Tony left to recruit their backup, Bruce gave Tony a quick kiss and made him promise to be careful. He was well aware that Natasha and Vision were in the room, but that was low on his list of things to care about at the moment.

When they left, Bruce began going through all the information he had about Bucky. Steve had believed he was killed in the war, but he showed up 70 years later with a metal arm. However, even though Bucky had been brainwashed by Hydra, he was calm when he was brought in. It was only after the power went out that he attacked. After a while of being alone in the room with Vision, Bruce had an idea.

"Hey, Vision?"

Vision had been silently staring at the wall, but then he looked over at Bruce.

"Yes, Dr. Banner?"

Bruce looked around and lowered his voice. He didn't know whether Ross was monitoring them or not, but he would have to take that chance.

"Can you connect to the surveillance cameras in this building?"

Vision was unphased by the request.

"I can. Any room in particular?"

"The feed in the interrogation room went out, but it's possible the monitors were just disconnected, and the recording still exists on the camera."

While Vision connected to the network, Bruce nervously tapped his fingers on the table and kept his eyes on the door. They were already in hot water with Ross, and getting caught breaking into the CIA's surveillance wouldn't improve their situation.

"I have obtained the video. I will display it on this screen."

Vision pointed to one of the laptops sitting on the conference table, and it began to play the footage from Bucky's interrogation. Bruce gasped as he watched the psychiatrist activate the Winter Soldier programming inside Bucky's head. They spoke in Russian for a moment before the man gave Bucky a command in English.

"Mission Report: December 16, 1991."

The date sounded oddly familiar to Bruce, and then it hit him. December 16 was the day Tony always spent in his workshop, drinking and refusing to speak to anyone.

"That's the day Tony's parents died."

Bruce said it mainly to himself, by Vision nodded in confirmation. His mind was racing, trying to understand how that date could mean anything to a CIA psychiatrist.

"There's no way that's just a coincidence. You know the Hydra files Natasha released online a couple years ago? I need you to go through those and look for that date."

Bruce waited apprehensively while Vision combed through the database.

"I have found documents and a video from December 16, 1991."

Vision displayed the video on the computer but paused before he could play it.

"Mr. Stark is summoning me. It seems he has located Captain Rogers at an airport."

Bruce nodded; perhaps it was better he watch the video alone, anyway.

"Okay, thank you, Vision. Be careful."

After Vision left, Bruce turned his attention back to the video. The thumbnail showed a rural, winding road, the type that a car could easily slide off of.

Nervous about what he was going to see, Bruce finally brought himself to press play. He saw Bucky running the Starks' car off the road, Howard recognizing his old friend before he bashed his face in, and Bucky tightening his fist around Maria's neck.

When the video was over, Bruce shut the laptop and laid his head down on the table. He'd never met Tony's parents, and by all accounts, his father wasn't a nice man, but he felt sick seeing them murdered so gruesomely. He could only imagine what Tony's reaction would be when he found out what Steve's best friend had done.

Tony stepped out of the hospital room and leaned against the windowsill, looking out at the Berlin skyline. Rhodey had been shot down by friendly fire from Vision during the airport battle, and Tony couldn't help but feel responsible. After all, it had been his decision to intercept Steve at Leipzig, and they hadn't even been able to accomplish that. Although, that part had been Natasha's fault for letting Steve and Bucky escape at the last minute.

Tony's phone rang, and despite his situation, he felt relief at seeing Bruce's name. When he answered, Bruce began speaking immediately.

"How are you? I saw on the news…."

"Yeah, I'm fine, but Rhodey….He got hit."

"Oh my god, is he okay?"

Tony took a deep breath. He wanted to say that Rhodey would be fine, he had already begun working on designs for an exoskeleton, but he couldn't be sure.

"The doctors say he'll be paralyzed from the waist down."

Bruce didn't say anything, and for a moment, Tony wondered if he was still there, but then he spoke hesitantly.

"Tony, when you get back, there's something I need to tell you."

The mysterious way Bruce spoke made Tony worry, but then he heard footsteps coming his way. He turned around to see Natasha walking towards him.

"Okay, I – I gotta go, I'll see you soon."

"Okay, I love you."

"I love you, too."

Tony put away his phone and looked sharply at Natasha. She had a lot of nerve showing up here after what she had done.

"What are you doing here?"

"How's Rhodey?"

Tony looked back at the window, pointedly ignoring her.

"Fine. No thanks to you."

Natasha let that slide and gently put her hand on the windowsill.

"We went about this the wrong way."

Tony gave up pretending to focus on the view and glared at her. He was irritated by how calm she could be after having just betrayed him, an act that led directly to his friend being paralyzed.

"Did we? Because you seemed to be on board right up until you turned on us."

"Steve was never going to stop."

Tony scoffed; he doubted that was the entire reason she had let him go. Natasha had always been partial to Steve, and he should have known it was too good to be true when she had taken his side.

"And you think that I will?"

"Yes, because now it's your only option."

Natasha walked away, leaving Tony seething behind her.

Tony's run-in with Natasha had made him all the more sure he needed to find Steve, so he checked in with Rhodey one more time and then flew to the raft where Clint, Sam, Wanda, and "Ant-Man" were being held. Tony hadn't spoken with most of them since the Accords briefing that felt like ages ago, and he had never even met the ant guy.

He hoped it could all be water under the bridge, but that hope was dashed when Clint was the first person who saw him walk in.

"Ugh, of course you would come to gloat, Stark."

Tony rolled his eyes and gave up on his planned pretense of politeness.

"Cry me a river, Barton. Maybe if you hadn't followed Rogers around like a dog on a leash you wouldn't be here."

Sam, who was in the cell next to Clint, came to Steve's defense.

"Maybe if you had listened to Steve, you would know that what we did was necessary."

The man on Sam's other side nodded vigorously.

"Hank Pym always said you never can trust a Stark."

Tony ignored him and focused on Sam, who seemed to be the most rational one in the group.

"Look, if it was really necessary then tell me where Steve went. Maybe I can help."

Before Sam could consider Tony's offer, Clint cut in.

"Not a chance, you've already done enough. You'll just hand him over to Ross the second you've 'helped.'"

Tony rolled his eyes, but at least this time, Clint was on to something.

"You're right, because if I don't Ross will send people to hunt them down who won't be as nice as me. Then, he'll come after the rest of us, too."

Clint scoffed and got up from his cell bed.

"You mean he'll come after your boyfriend? Maybe you should have thought about that before you chose the wrong side."

Tony walked over to Clint's cell and tried to hit him, but he had already moved away from the bars where Tony couldn't reach.

"Maybe you should think about how much it will hurt when I bash your teeth in!"

Tony could deal with the other's remarks because their conflicts were primarily political, but Clint's jab hurt because it was personal.

Tony gave up on getting to Clint, stepped back, and looked around at the others. Wanda was glaring at him, Hank Pym's toady was looking thoroughly frightened by Tony's outburst, and Sam still hadn't given him an answer. This was getting him nowhere, so he walked out while speaking over his shoulder.

"I'll find him myself."

When Tony got back to the Joint Task Force building, the first thing he did was look for Bruce. He admittedly had no idea where Steve was, and all he really wanted was for Bruce to hold him and tell him everything would be okay. But when he found Bruce in the meeting room, he had his glasses off and was rubbing his eyes. Bruce looked up at him with worry lines along his forehead, and Tony remembered their last conversation.

"What was it you needed to tell me?"

Bruce motioned for Tony to take a seat next to him which only made him feel most nervous. Whatever it was, he wished Bruce would just say it, but Bruce made a few false starts before finally getting it out.

"After you left, Vision found a recording of the psychiatrist's interrogation of Barnes. He was asking him about a mission on December 16, 1991."

Tony recognized the date immediately, and his mind began racing.

"December 16, but that's…."

Bruce took a deep breath and continued.

"Barnes' mission – the Winter Solder's mission – was to kill your parents. I'm sorry, Tony, but I thought you should know."

Tony just stared at Bruce, not understanding how what he had just said could be possible.

"But they died in a car crash. The ground was slippery and…."

Tony felt himself beginning to hyperventilate. Everything with Steve, and Rhodey, and Clint had gone wrong, and now he was realizing the event that had shaped his entire adult life had been a lie.

Tony thought back to the last conversation with his mother; he had been a moody 21-year-old, so of course, he hadn't properly said goodbye to either of his parents before they left for their trip. The next day, he had woken up to find out he was all alone.

Bruce held Tony in his arms, and Tony let his tears fall onto Bruce's shoulder. After a couple minutes, Tony felt his sadness begin to turn to rage. The Winter Soldier had taken everything from him, and he had gotten away with it. Tony picked his head up and looked at Bruce.

"I'm going to kill him."

"Tony –"

"He killed my mom!"

Bruce held Tony's face in his hands and brushed his fingers through his hair. Tony's heart was palpitating, and he still felt homicidal, but he leaned into Bruce's touch.

"I know, I know it's awful, Tony. You have every right to be angry and upset, but Barnes didn't know what he was doing. Just like I never did."

Tony looked down, and he felt the tears begin to well up in his eyes again. He knew it wasn't Barnes' fault, even though that didn't stop the pain and the thoughts about the life he could have had if his mom was by his side.

Then another thought dawned on him, and his anger shifted away from Barnes.

"Steve must have known, that's probably why he never told us he was looking for Barnes the past two years even though we could have helped find him."

Bruce didn't add anything, and Tony knew he had been thinking the same thing. But despite Steve hiding his parents' deaths from him and everything else he had done the past few days, Tony couldn't bring himself to want him dead. They had been friends for years, despite their conflicting personalities, and deep-down, Tony still hoped they could reconcile.

"Why would a psychiatrist know about my parents?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Friday answered it.

"Mr. Stark, I think you should take a look at this."

Friday displayed pictures on Tony's phone of a man found dead in a hotel bathroom, a facemask in the shape of Bucky Barnes, and the "psychiatrist," Helmut Zemo, wearing a Soviet-style military uniform. Bruce gasped when he saw the insignia on the arm.

"Sokovian intelligence. So, it was personal."

Tony sighed; Zemo had probably lost someone during Ultron's attack on Sokovia. So, all of this destruction really came down to his decision to create Ultron, and once again, his mistakes had come back to haunt him.

"If he wanted to cause conflict between me and Steve, we already did his job for him."

Tony leaned back onto Bruce and pulled Bruce's arm around himself. He knew he should be asking Friday to run more analysis, trying to find out where Zemo could have lured Steve to spring his trap, but he was just so tired. After a couple minutes, Bruce began speaking hesitantly.

"Tony, I think we should go home. Even if we were able to get them all back, we'd never convince them to sign the Accords. We need to cut our loses and salvage what we can of the Avengers."

What Bruce said made sense to Tony. Their relationships with Steve and the others had been irreparably damaged to the point where they probably wouldn't have better luck bring them in than whatever military squad Ross sent out. Tony sat up and wrapped his arms around Bruce's neck.

"Okay, let's go home."

He smiled at Bruce, but the threats Ross had made and the knowledge of what he could do to Bruce still made him nauseous. Tony looked into Bruce's eyes as he pulled at his curls.

"You know I'd never let anyone hurt you."

Bruce got out of his seat to sit on Tony's lap and kissed him passionately. Tony pulled Bruce closer to him; he never wanted to let go. When they came up for air, Bruce smiled and whispered in Tony's ear.

"I know."