Finding the Winter Soldier was proving to be more time consuming than he had expected. Tony was beginning to believe that the man wasn't dead after all.
He had sent as many drones out as he could, but try as he might he was unable to find a body in Siberia anywhere near the base. Aside from the super soldiers that Zemo had killed. Certainly none matching the DNA of one James Buchanan Barnes, which was a bit of a puzzle.
How could the man have been well enough to slip out of there on his own? Tony wasn't sure, but he was almost positive that Zemo wouldn't have taken him. Whatever purpose that he had for him was fulfilled the minute he showed Tony the tape of his parents murder.
Leaning forward, Tony rubbed his eyes. As of late his nightmares had been growing worse, so he slept less than usual. He could tell everyone was beginning to notice and become concerned. Even people that were still on Rogers side seemed worried about him.
His nightmares varied from night to night. Some nights he would dream about the kid, then he would lay awake for hours regretting his decision to enlist Spider-Man at all. Especially since the boy was beginning to come across problems that were outside of what Tony considered to be a 'safe' range.
The Vulture, for example. At the start, Tony had believed that the boy was blowing everything out of proportion, but had looked into it out of caution anyway. As it turned out the kid was right, the weapons dealer was dangerous. And now instead of listening to him and staying out of the way, Peter was throwing himself into harm's way at every turn.
No matter how many times Tony warned him to stay away, it seemed the kid was dead set on getting himself killed. So he added that to his list of problems, on top of dealing with Ross, mending shattered friendships, and fixing a broken American Icon.
Which thus far he had had no success with, not that he had tried very hard and Rogers avoided him now. If he walked into the same room that Captain America was in, the man would turn around and walk out. Or in the least, he would walk to the other side of the room and busy himself with looking busy, but Tony could tell it was fake.
Even when he made an attempt to communicate with the man, Steve shut him down. He would nod silently, shrug, shake his head. Any type of non-verbal conversation he could use to get the inventor out of his face he would try.
Which was a huge step back from where they had been, and Tony knew in the recesses of his mind that he was to blame. Steve had reached out tentatively, and Tony had brashly, like a fool, slammed the door in the shattered soldiers face. He thought after everything else they had been through Steve would be able to take it, but he should have known better.
Tony regretted it now. As he watched the others around him, he knew that he had come the closest to drawing the man out of his shell. It was possible that it was because of their history, Steve knew that Tony shared some of his experiences in a way. It could have also been because Tony was some thin link to the past he could never return to, or maybe it was because he knew they were both broken.
Whatever the reason, he couldn't deny that Steve had reached out to him in a way that he refused to do with the others. Now the man closed himself off from everyone all together.
Not even Natasha could reach him, though it seemed she came the closest out of the other Avengers. Steve would smile at the former SHIELD agent, have polite conversations with her, but every time Natasha walked away defeated.
To some degree, Tony wondered if Steve shared his distrust of the double agent. He couldn't blame him if that were the case. But at this point, Tony could only guess what the man was feeling or thinking and guessing could be a dangerous game.
"Tony," Clint's alarmed tone sounded from the doorway, and Tony's head shot up to look over at the man.
"What is it, Legolas?"
"Steve is gone."
The serious tone with which Clint spoke demanded Tony's full attention, even before the words registered in his mind at all.
"Steve is what?" Tony responded gobsmacked.
"He's gone, we can't find him, we've looked everywhere, all over the compound." The almost breathless words came. "He isn't anywhere, and some of his things are missing."
Tony went stone still for a moment, processing what Clint said, before swearing loudly and leaping to his feet.
"How can he be gone?!" He all but yelled. "Where could he be? Is he trying to get himself caught again? What in the world is he thinking!"
"You think if I knew we'd be having this conversation?" Clint shot.
Tony swore again, rubbing his forehead as he tried to push his panic down and think logically.
"Alright, well, we have to find the idiot," Tony groused, "we can't let him wander off into the great wide yonder. Get the team together for me, will you?"
"They already are, we're waiting for you. Come on, boss."
"I really hate being the boss," Tony murmured as the two of them darted out the door to meet up with the team.
They wasted no time spreading out and looking everywhere they could, but it became clear within half an hour that Steve Rogers had no desire to be found by his comrades.
Tony couldn't imagine what was running through Steve's mind to make him run off, yet he couldn't help but feel if they had worked things out sooner this would never have happened.
It was hard to imagine where he might go, and Tony had a mind to implant a tracker under his skin once they did find him. He would do it, too, if he wasn't certain that the man would punch him in the face for even thinking such a thing.
Yet he wasn't without options, so he used the technology he had at his disposal. While the others checked the surrounding forest areas for any evidence, Tony took to the city and hoped that the DNA tracker F.R.I.D.A.Y had installed might do him some good.
When it finally picked up a signal, Tony breathed out a heaved sigh of relief. Steve was in the city, and Tony finally had a location.
He drove on, actually abiding by the speed limits for once and doing his best to not draw attention to himself. The last thing any of them needed was Ross finding out that they had Captain America stashed away out at the Compound. Or worse, that he had left the Compound of his own free will and was now up for grabs.
Tony wasn't sure what he was going to say to the super soldier once he found him, but as the shock ebbed away, he felt anger and annoyance spring up to replace it.
If Captain America was alright, Tony was going to throttle him.
He watched the blip on the screen of his watch get closer and found a good place to pull over. As he exited his car and began walking, scouring the area for any sign of the super soldier, a frown pulled at his face. Had the man ran away to a city park? It seemed like a strange location.
The dot got closer and Tony looked up, ready to breathe a sigh of relief when Steve finally came into view.
What he wasn't expecting was a hand aggressively slamming into his skull, causing stars to explode in front of his eyes.
Tony hit the ground with so much force he was afraid he might black out. Lifting his head, blinking, he cringed as he shifted and turned, trying to get a look at who or what had hit him.
His bleary eyes locked on the unfamiliar man who towered over him. The insane man's eyes were full of venom and rage, enough to almost glue him in his place. The man swung at him again and he rolled out of the way with as much speed as he could muster, watching as the man punched a small hole into the ground.
The realization bled into his mind that this must be one of the super soldiers as he hobbled to his feet. He tried in desperation to keep himself standing upward, despite the dizziness and nausea that washed over him. His head throbbed with pain. The man turned to square off with him again, and he couldn't help but grimace as he stepped back.
The super soldier looked ready to try striking him again when someone caught the soldiers hand and aggressively shoved him aside.
Tony watched as Steve's eyes swept over him and widened with concern for a brief moment before turning away. Steve turned towards the soldier, knowing better than to keep his back to him, and the man lunged forward, swinging for Steve's face.
He dodged out of the way with a measure of skill. Determination twisted onto his face as he grabbed the other mans arm and thrust his weight into him, hoping it would force the other soldier into the ground.
Instead Tony saw Steve's own legs as they were swept out from under him. His once teammate wound up tumbling to the ground with the man, grimacing in pain as the soldier jerked around and nailed him in the chest.
Tony watched the fight for a moment, his vision blurred and clouded. All at once he remembered they weren't alone in the city, and glancing around he noticed a small crowd gathering. He winced, the last thing they needed was to draw attention to themselves.
Shifting his attention to his wrist he pressed a button to alert the rest of his team and pulled himself to his feet. The super soldier threw Steve across the ground roughly, never leaving him long enough for a breath as he ran forward to re-engage him. Tony's mind spun as he tried to think of a way to stop the situation without incident.
He almost didn't hear Steve yell at him before he realized that the rogue super soldier was heading right for him again, and the man was ready to strike. Tony had only enough time to throw up his arms before the blow came down and struck him with such force he felt sure that it would have cracked his skull.
He howled in pain as his arms smacked against his forehead from the force, feeling sure that bone had broken as he dropped them to his sides. Pain shot through them in a sudden burst.
Somehow through vision blurred with pain, he noticed Steve's quick strides and was grateful when the man landed a blow to the soldiers head. Mentally he made a note to see to it that Steve got his shield back.
"We have to get out of here!" Tony growled through hitching breaths.
Steve nodded, helping Tony to his feet and watching the soldier, waiting for his next move while Tony made a staggering run towards his car.
Guilt stirred in Tony's chest as he ran away from a threat to the population. He felt guilty for leaving an area where people were bound to get hurt, but he knew he had no choice. If he called the Iron Man suit out, that would draw more cameras than the ones that were bound to already be recording the situation. More cameras, more eyes on Steve, more likely that Ross would find out everything that had happened.
Tony turned to find that Steve Rogers had not followed him at all. He could only stare in shock and horror as the Star Spangled Man with a Plan continued to engage the super soldier. Determined to do what Tony felt he couldn't do and stop the maniac in his tracks.
"Come on!" He screamed back at Steve, hoping that the man would listen to him for once.
The super soldier tore into Steve with more aggression than before, swinging blindingly fast punches at his head and stomach. Steve ducked, dodged, and returned with as much ferocity that he could, but Tony was afraid it wasn't going to be enough.
The super soldier's fight pattern was wild and unpredictable. It was clear that the original super soldier himself was having a hard time keeping up with this insane failure that Ross had created in his labs.
The soldier managed to get a firm punch on Steve's jaw. Tony cringed at the resounding crack that followed. Steve staggered back, winded for a moment, but a fire lit up his eyes and he pressed forward, determined not to lose this fight.
Unable to take sitting on the sidelines a moment longer, Tony engaged the device in his watch and smirked as his hand became metal wrapped in mere seconds. After engaging the Winter Soldier he had made some mild upgrades, this was the perfect chance to test it.
He leaped out of his car, running as fast as his dizziness would allow back into the fray. Hoping to draw the attention of the soldier, he yelled at the top of his lungs, and to his delight, the man looked back at him.
As Tony had hoped, this gave Steve the opportunity to strike, landing a blow to the back of the man's head.
Tony rushed forward, lifting his hand and firing a repulsor blast into the soldier's midsection, and within half a second, another to his face.
The man fell to the ground, unconscious, and Tony whooped in exhilaration. The pleasure at being part of taking the man down radiated in his chest. But before he knew it the adrenaline drained from his body, pain screamed in his head and in his arms, leaving him barely able to stand, and pleasure faded as he swayed.
"Tony!" Steve looked up at the man and took two steps in a single bound to reach Tony's side and catch him by the shoulders.
"Let's get out of here Cap, now," Tony demanded, his tone allowing no room for argument. "Get us in the car."
Stoically, Steve nodded and lead Tony to the car. Tony insisted in sitting on the driver's side with stubborn zealous, but Steve refused. He took the keys from the man as if he were drunk and sat him in the passengers' side, before crawling into the driver's seat.
Tony's eyes drooped as he stared forward, glancing over at the man now driving his car. Annoyance clawed its way into his chest and he huffed.
"You have some explaining to do, Cap."
If Steve didn't realize that leaving the Compound had been a mistake, Tony was going to make sure he knew that it was before this conversation was over. And he had the entire drive home stuck in the car with this man to do it.
Authors Note:
I am SO SORRY for the delay in this chapter. I have quite a few excuses, laziness, writers block, zero inspiration and some other things that have been going on in my life, but I won't bore anyone with the details and will just apologize for taking so long. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take nearly as long to get put out!
I also want to thank all my new followers/fav/commenters! They've definitely been an inspiration to keep me going with this tale, and I'm super excited you guys are enjoying it as much as I do! I get super excited with each new email I get telling me I've gotten any one of these things. Seriously, it means a lot!
I have a few ideas of where the story is headed next, and hopefully, it'll be quite the ride. ;) Until next time!