Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel Cinematic Universe, Death Note or anything else you may recognize
So this is a little sequel to 'Kira v. Sokovia Accords', though you don't need to read that one for this. The Cliffnotes version is that Light in the previous fic killed a lot of pro-Accords people (including Ross, both of them!) and that's it.
This fic will show the other side of the coin- L!
Consider this my New Year Special.
Joint Counter Terrorist Center
The UN office at Vienna had been bombed recently, and security footage had caught Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier at the scene, so a Task Force had been sent to bring him in.
Sharon Carter was the head of the center for now after Everett's death by Kira's hand, and had given instructions to not kill him, since he was Steve's friend, and even she had a feeling he hadn't done it.
As all of them were monitoring the team's progress on their computers, suddenly the screens all went black, before an 'L' appeared on them with a white background.
L's theme plays
"Greetings, Sharon Carter, head of Joint Counter Terrorism Center", L's computer modulated voice said.
"L, look, I don't care why you're here, we're in the middle of a mission", Sharon said.
"To apprehend Sergeant Barnes, right? The Winter Soldier? For supposedly bombing the UN office in Vienna", L said.
"Yeah, you here about that?" Sharon asked as two agents stood by her side, watching with her, and the tech experts tried to track him down, not that they were succeeding.
"I looked into it, and I found something interesting- The Winter Soldier is an assassin, a very stealthy one, has been like that for decades. There was almost little evidence that he even existed. So tell me, why would someone like him let himself be seen by a security camera?" L pointed out, and Sharon's eyes widened, as did that of the other agents.
"Shut up!" One of the agents next to Sharon said. "You're not this paragon of virtue yourself, so for all we know, you are just trying to protect a terrorist!"
"He has a point, Agent!" Sharon said to him, giving him a look as he backed down.
"So as I was saying, someone like the Winter Soldier would not be so clumsy to be caught by a security camera", L said. "Someone is framing him to get to him."
"How can you be so sure?" Sharon asked.
"There's a lot of things a huge number of people would want from someone like Sergeant Barnes", L pointed out. "Now I did a little investigating of my own about this case you're working on regarding him, and I found something interesting."
"What?" Sharon asked, not liking that he had somehow managed to investigate her whole organization and its cases, with her and the others being none the wiser.
"You are going to apprehend him, and have him undergo psychic evaluation here, and so, during all of this, the only time Sergeant Barnes will be alone is when the psychiatrist sits with him", L pointed out. "At other times, he would be under constant scrutiny so no one can get to him."
"You're saying the psychiatrist we hired wants something to do with him?" Sharon asked.
"You remember the Hydra agent who was found dead a month ago?" L asked.
"Yes", Sharon nodded.
"He used to be Sergeant Barnes' handler. And now someone framed him for a bombing just a month after that person was killed", L pointed out as Sharon started putting the pieces together. "And now, when you capture him, only the psychiatrist would have a chance to be alone with him. The psychiatrist is behind all of this. I used that information to deduce this much."
Sharon nodded. "Thank you."
"So long, Agent Carter", L said as the screen went back to normal.
"Are we really supposed to believe L, Agent Carter?" The other agent with her asked.
"He is the world's greatest detective, none of his deductions have been wrong so far. Remember the time he proved Kira existed and even needed a name and a face to kill?" Sharon pointed out, and the agent conceded.
"So, what do we do?" The other one asked her.
"Sergeant Barnes still has to be brought in, but non lethally, and we're going to get the psychiatrist Theo Broussard too, send a small team, and apprehend him in absolute secrecy", Sharon ordered him and he nodded.
"Yes ma'am", he said, walking off to get prepared on the mission.
Eventually, Bucky was brought in non-lethally, with Steve and Sam too, since they had tried to protect him. Sharon was understanding but was a bit angry at Steve for putting her in a difficult position.
Theo Broussard was arrested too, but turned out he wasn't Broussard, as the real one's body was found out in the tub of the hotel room he was in, and he was revealed to be Helmut Zemo, whose family had been killed at Sokovia so he had been trying to manipulate events to divide the Avengers and make them fight.
He had been responsible for the bombing as well, he had revealed, and when Steve, Natasha and Tony had tried to talk to him alongside Sharon, he had ranted that Bucky had killed Tony's parents.
Tony had been angry about that, but Steve and Natasha had revealed they only knew Hydra was involved because of something Zola had told them once to distract them, and that's all they had known, and not looked further, so Tony had managed to calm down ,seeing their reasons, though his and Steve's relationship got a little strained after this, but at least they didn't come to blows.
Barnes was allowed to stay at the Avengers Tower, and was required to go to a therapy session daily, while Steve and Sam were pardoned for their little stunt in Romania too, due to Sharon pulling strings, and nothing bad came of it since they had apprehended the true mastermind that was Zemo. Steve and Sharon eventually started dating too.
Since so many Accords supporters had died recently, another meeting was held to revise them alongside the Avengers now, and this time a better version was decided upon wherein the Avengers were required to answer for all of their actions to a panel, but they didn't have to wait for permission to go, though they were still required to inform when they were going to go on missions.
This was acceptable to everyone, and so, the Avengers weren't divided, and a better version of the Sokovia Accords which was actually an agreement and not a contract for slavery, was drafted, all due to two sides of the same coin- Kira and L.
L sat in his base, drinking some tea. "Well Kira, I do not approve of what you do, but this one thing you did had a positive effect. Regardless, you are wrong. And I will hunt you down and eliminate you. I am…..justice!"
And we're done. Zemo, to be blunt, is an overrated villain whose plots mostly succeeded because of sheer dumb luck and plot armor. Like, how did no one at the Task Force run any checks on him? And how did he figure out that Tony would find out the truth about his charade at a certain time, then go to meet the imprisoned Avengers, and Sam would trust him enough to tell him where Steve and Bucky are headed, and that he would arrive with them? And just saying, even the footage of Bucky killing the Stark parents doesn't make sense. Like, why is there conveniently a camera in the middle of nowhere? And why is an assassin who is supposed to mask his existence looking directly into it? Also, why is Hydra even keeping that footage as evidence?
Back when Civil War came out, I loved it, but looking back, it's the MCU's most overrated film. Not its worst, but the most overrated for sure. Most people have The Incredible Hulk in their Bottom 5 and Civil War in the Top 10 or Top 5, but for me Civil War is in the bottom 5 and The Incredible Hulk in the Top 10. One is overrated, the other underrated.
The Russos did amazing work with The Winter Soldier (MCU's best film, full 10/10), Infinity War and Endgame (they did have a few issues, but not so bad that I was taken out of the movies), so it's shocking they screwed up this film so much, since the other 3 films are my Top 3 MCU films.
So now L helped the Task Force catch Zemo, and since Light killed the pro-Accords people, the Accords got revised into something actually decent. No Civil War. YAY!
Now of course the meeting in Vienna that was going to happen in canon wouldn't have taken place here, but bombing a UN office would still get many important heads to turn.
So this was my last piece of work for this year, and hope all enjoyed it.
So I wish each and every one of my lovely readers a very Happy New Year, and in 2021, I hope, to quote Loki- "The sun will shine on us again."
Stay safe from the coronavirus ya all!