Chapter 13 – Friend and Enemy

'Clear,' Steve steps into the room, continuing to cast his gaze around as he heads towards the desk covered in equipment on the far side. 'Nat you might want to make your way in here?'

'You mean you're in a relationship with one of the technological geniuses of our time and you still need me to do the computer stuff?' she teases through the comms.

'Aww, Natasha said something nice about me!' Tony's voice comes through from where he's sat back at the Wakandan Embassy in Vienna.

'I say nice things about you all the time.'

'Not to my face.'

'Your ego doesn't need the boost.'

'Nat, sometime today would be nice,' Steve sighs. 'Clint, we got any movement out there?'

'Nothing I can see, Cap. And considering there's a whole lot of open farmland here, that means there's nothing to see.'

Steve lets out a small sigh of relief. So far things are going smoothly. Natasha appears in the doorway, slipping her gun away she swiftly glides over to the bank of computers and slips a pen drive into one of the slots. 'You ready Tony?'

'Just waiting on you, Widow,' he replies, and Steve can't help the warm feeling of pride as the computers come to life in front of him, Natasha simply helping Tony speed along the hacking process. 'This would have been quicker if you'd let me come along you know.'

'No, it wouldn't,' Peter chimes in, 'you'd get distracted by something.'

'You're supposed to be on my side,' the inventor grumbles. 'And you say I get distracted but I find all the secret passageways. Have you checked for secret passageways yet, Cap?'

'Why would I check for secret passageways?' Steve sighs.

'Check the wall to your right, Cap,' Peter cuts in, 'according to the scans from your suit it looks like there's a space behind it.'

Steve goes to the wall in question and presses against it, watching as the wall slides away to reveal a hidden space containing a small pile of notebooks. He groans and leans against the wall. 'Tony's grinning isn't he Peter?'

'I take it you don't really want me to answer that do you?' the teenager asks.

'Stop sniggering, Natasha,' Steve tells her, reaching for the books and slipping them into the pouch on his suit. 'How we doing?'

'Nearly there,' she reassures him.

'Shit! Cap we got incoming!' Clint says. 'One vehicle heading this way at speed. We need to go now if we're going to get away without a fight.'

'Nat?'

'We need a couple more minutes.'

'Clint can you buy us some time?' he asks.

'Not much, but I'll do what I can,' he replies, and Steve can hear the sound of the archer's bow being drawn through the comms. A few moments later there's the sound of an explosion and, looking out of the window, he can see the vehicle has overturned and figures are climbing out of the wreckage.

'Nat, Tony we need to speed it up,' he tells them.

'Ten seconds,' she tells him, 'eight…seven…'

'Guys? We need to leave. NOW!' Clint shouts. 'Get the hell out of there!'

Natasha pulls the flash drive out and slides it into her suit. 'Clint? What's happening?'

Steve sees it. A figure holding up a rocket launcher, a split second before it fires. 'Get down!' he grabs her round the waist and pulls them both down under the desk, his shield blocking the gap.

Around them the building thunders and cracks. It feels like it lasts for eternity and for a split second all at once, and Steve has a horrible flash back to being in the bunker with what was left of Zola.

'Steve?' her voice is quiet.

'You alright, Romanov?'

'Guys?' Clint's worried voice comes through. 'Please tell me you're alright.'

'We're fine, where are you?' Steve reassures him.

'Outside, I got clear. But…Cap we need to leave,' there's a strange tone to Clint's voice that Steve can't place.

Together he and Natasha push against the shield, freeing themselves from their shelter and scramble out. Natasha definitely more graceful than him.

'You alright?' Tony asks.

'We're fine. Let's get to the jet,' Steve says, turning to look in the direction of the car just in time to see a fist coming for his face and ducking out of the way. He backs off and straightens up, shield in place to defend himself and comes to face to face with his attacker.

Immediately the fight goes out of him.

'Bucky?' he says in disbelief.

With a horrible sense of déjà vu Steve looks into his friend's blank gaze and hears the words. 'Who the hell is Bucky?'

'Steve, get the hell out of there!' Tony's worried voice breaks through the fog in his brain. Fortunately for him otherwise he'd have had the full force of a vibranium fist to his nose. On the defensive in a way he hasn't been for a long time, all Steve can do is duck and weave and dodge; he's lost track of Natasha and Clint, and all he can think about is the last thing his friend had asked him.

Could he keep his promise? Made when he didn't think there was the faintest chance that his friend could become the mindless instrument in front of him once again.

Steve's foot slips on some rubble and he falls to his knees.

'Stop!' a voice commands, as Bucky raises his metal fist. The dark-haired man pauses, stepping back and lowering his arm. Taking the opportunity to check on his teammates Steve looks around and sees both Natasha and Clint in similar positions to him. The appearance of the Winter Soldier had thrown them all off kilter.

Steve turns to face the newcomer and bites back on his anger.

'Nice to see you again, Captain,' Zemo says, climbing over the rubble behind Bucky. 'I see you found my father's old farmhouse. It served its purpose. Much like your friend here.'

'What do you want?' Steve growls.

Zemo's smile melts from his face to be replaced by something that Steve can only describe as a fanatical hatred. 'All of you destroyed. Preferably by each other, whilst I have a front row seat. Why don't we start with the most poetic of all, hmm? The Winter Soldier taking out Captain America. You, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye; three of the original six turning on the other Avengers. Then no one will ever trust the team again. Not only will we turn you and your teammates against each other, Captain, we'll turn the world against you.'

'You'll never turn us against each other,' Steve spits at him, 'not again.'

'We already have,' Zemo chuckles, then turns to Bucky. 'Knock them all out and bring them in.'

A burst of bright light sends Bucky and Zemo flying backwards. Steve barely has time to register what has happened before Strange is standing in front of him, pulling him to his feet.

'I need you to move, Captain,' he tells him, turning Steve around to face the portal behind him. Sam is already dragging a limping Clint through, and Peter is half carrying Natasha.

'Bucky-'

'Not now, Steve,' Strange's voice is gentle. 'Not yet.'

'Babe, please,' Tony's voice is quiet through the comms, and Steve knows he's set it to a private channel.

He can't say anything as he turns his back on his best friend and stumbles through the portal, hearing it close behind them as they step through into the Wakandan Embassy. Everyone else fades away as Tony appears in front of him, pulling him into a tight embrace. Steve isn't sure if they're shaking more from his supressed sobs or Tony's.

'Tony-'

'Shh, I know,' the inventor's fingers are carding through his hair. 'We'll get him back. We'll get them both back.'

'How?' Steve asks, feeling so lost and not being able to show it to anyone other than Tony. Tony who always had the answers, Tony who could help him stand strong when his body felt more broken than it ever had before the serum.

They pull apart enough for Steve to look into Tony's eyes and see everything he is feeling reflected back at him. 'I don't know,' the genius admits. 'I don't know yet. But what I do know, Steve? We'll figure it out together.'


A/N: Hi everyone, hope you enjoy this chapter. I apologise profusely.

Love always,

L x

As always here's your sneak peek:

'We heading back to the facility?' Clint asks him.

'No, I'm taking us somewhere else.'

'Where?' the archer raises an eyebrow at him.

'Safehouse,' Tony grins at him, relieved to see the echo of one back as he parrots the archer's words to him from when they faced Ultron. 'One I haven't thought about in years, so even Wanda wouldn't know of it.'