HAPPY VERY BELATED HALLOWEEN! We had a record number of forty-six kids coming to our house this year, including an Iron Man, a Deadpool, and two Batmans (Batmen?). One little Batman was very … 'enthusiastic', to put it nicely, marching right into the house and trying to grab at least twice as much candy as we were handing out per child – did nobody ever teach him 'Please', 'Thank you', or 'Stranger Danger'?!
SO sorry this is so late! I had a really hard time with this, and wound up changing the whole thing and completely starting over on the eighth. And the last half of the final scene literally took me weeks – some days, I was only moving forward by one sentence. I'm not entirely sure if it fits the prompt, but in my own defence, 'showdown' is a pretty broad concept.
This takes place in the same continuity as Chapter 26 ('Broken Ribs'). Also in this continuity is a collection of WinterShock ficlets that I've been working on since this past summer, and an accompanying story of how Bucky joined the Avengers in this series (part of which has since been made into Chapter 26, so the rest will be the follow-up I promised). This takes place after Chapter 14, at least, of said WinterShock ficlet collection (that chapter may be expanded into multiple chapters).
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Marvel Cinematic Universe or any of the characters contained therein.
DEDICATION: This chapter is dedicated to the great Stan Lee. None of this would have been possible without you. EXCELSIOR!
WORD COUNT: 2900
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 41709 (Average: 1345 per chapter)
He both sees it coming a mile away and never sees it coming. Short-term, the sound of the gym doors slamming open as Tony Stark charges through them is a complete surprise, making him jump and reach for one of his ever-present knives. In the long-term, however, he's been expecting this for weeks, now.
He'd remembered killing Howard and Maria Stark, and that he'd known the man in question, just days before he was nearly killed in a HYDRA ambush and rescued by Steve and his friends. Just a week before he came to live on the Avengers Initiative Compound after spending a few days in Stark Tower's infirmary with broken ribs. But he hadn't remembered Howard's name, and made the connection to the man who was basically giving him a place to live, rent-free, until he'd been there for about a month. Once he'd remembered…
Steve had sworn to keep it a secret, even though Bucky hadn't asked him to – quite the opposite, actually. He wanted to come clean, to walk up to Tony Stark, confess to killing the man's parents, and let him take out the revenge he deserved. But he never told Steve that.
And now he won't need to, because when Stark's furious eyes lock onto Bucky, he knows the other man has found out. He doesn't know how; it doesn't really matter.
So after he gets over the initial fight-or-flight instinct, Bucky stands down and allows Stark to slam him into the back wall.
"You killed them," Stark growls, just confirming what Bucky already knows, "You fucking killed them, you sonofabitch!"
"STARK!"
And of course, there's Steve, already moving to pull Stark away.
"Stark, let him go!"
It takes the combined efforts of Steve and Wilson to separate Bucky and Stark, partly because Bucky makes no effort of his own to fight the billionaire inventor off. He deserves whatever the hell Stark wants to do to him.
"He killed my parents!" Stark yells, shocking everyone, "Those HYDRA files we got on our last raid?! There's a surveillance video of him doing it!" He's stopped trying to lunge at Bucky, but his eyes never move from his target. "Did you know?!" he demands, "Did you remember killing them when you moved in under my roof?!"
Bucky closes his eyes. Swallow. "Started remembering a day or two before Steve found me," he admits, feeling exhausted even though he was into his workout when Stark barged in, "Didn't remember a name… didn't know who he was to me or you until 'bout a month after." He swallowed again. "It's nowhere near enough, but I'm sorry."
"You're right," Stark growls, "It's not enough. I wanna know why."
"Tony-"
"Shut it, Rogers! I know why he did it, HYDRA told him, and he had no choice but to obey. I know that part already. I want to know why those bastards sent him after them in the first place, why they made it look like an accident, and why he waited so fucking long to say anything!"
Steve, who's been restraining one of Stark's arms, now moves in between the two. "Look, I told him not to, okay? Not yet. I wanted to figure out how to break-"
"YOU KNEW?!"
Letting go of Stark's arm was a mistake, because that free fist suddenly slams into Steve's face, and Wilson has a hell of a fight on his hands keeping the other arm restrained.
"Get off, Wilson! I'm not done! You knew it was him?! You knew it wasn't an accident?!"
By this point, nearly the entire team has assembled in the gym, stopping dead at the sight. Some look reluctant to get involved, but Rhodes hustles over to help break it up.
Steve sighs, defeated. "I'm sorry, Tony," he says sadly, "He's my friend."
"So was I," Tony snarls.
After that last, pain-filled comment, Tony storms out of the room, with a concerned Rhodey trailing behind him. An awkward silence hangs over the room until Steve reaches out to try and comfort his best friend, only to find himself being brushed off, instead.
Bucky goes straight to his and Steve's shared apartment, locks his bedroom door behind him, and stands in one place, swaying slightly, before dropping to his knees. A choked sob echoes throughout the room, followed by several more.
Ever since realising that he'd killed Tony Stark's parents, he's been unable to look at the man without thinking of them. Of the crunching sound Howard's nose had made as Bucky's fist shattered it. Of the feeling of Maria's pulse under his fingers as he strangled her to death. Those memories would swirl around in his head, threatening to overwhelm him. He's held them back, kept them contained, until he's alone.
It's strangely… relieving, though. The fact that Stark finally knows the truth. Because every time he looked at the man, he was overwhelmed not only by the guilt, but also by the urge to just blurt it out, to confess. Whatever punishment Stark comes up with, he'll take it. He won't fight it. He deserves it all, and worse.
"Bucky?"
Convincing Steve of that will be the real challenge, however.
"Babe, it's me."
Wait, that isn't Steve's voice on the other side of his door. It's Darcy's.
Shakily, Bucky rises to his feet, and it actually takes him a few tries to unlock his door, his hands are trembling so badly. His girlfriend stands there, her posture deliberately open and non-threatening. "Hey," she says softly, "I heard about what happened. Figured you could use someone to talk to, or just… be there."
She holds out her arms, opening herself up for a hug. Bucky freezes, unsure if he should really do this. It's quite often that he feels like he didn't deserve her love, or anyone else's, for that matter. He's spent the past seventy years killing in the service of the very same people who'd tortured him and killed many of his friends. He feels like he's all but literally drenched in blood; anyone he becomes close with would be tainted by association. And while most of these people already have some sort of taint on them, Darcy is innocent. Even more than he doesn't deserve her love and acceptance, she doesn't deserve the danger that comes from being with an utter wreck like him.
Bucky stands stock still for several seconds in hesitation, and Darcy still doesn't move. She doesn't lower her arms or walk away, but neither does she step forward and hug him. She's waiting until he's ready.
He doesn't deserve the comfort she's offering. But he feels like if he stands there much longer, he's going to fall apart completely. So he takes one hesitant step, then another, until his chest bumps up against hers, and then her arms are wrapped tightly around him.
The tears come again. "He was my friend," he whispers brokenly, "He was my friend. Why didn't I stop? Why didn't I recognise him?"
Darcy runs one hand up and down his back. "You had no chance to recognise him, Babe. I saw the footage… Tony insisted on showing it to me before I came down here, or he was going to have Friday block my access to your apartment. You only interacted with him for a few seconds before you- before he… uh…"
"Before I murdered him," Bucky fills in hollowly, "You can say it."
"Before he died. And you didn't know him for as long as you knew Steve, plus he'd gotten really old, so he didn't even look like the Howard Stark you knew. If it took you a full fight against Steve to realise you knew him, then Howard didn't stand a chance of triggering the same reaction. And none of that is on you."
A shudder runs through him. "You don't know-" He has to take a breath. "I remember killing them. Every second of it. I can't get it out of my head."
"C'mon." Darcy gently steers him over to the bed, sits him down, and continues rubbing his back as he tries to get his breathing back under control.
"I shouldn't be here," he eventually gasps, "I should leave. I shouldn't be living in Stark's place after killing his parents. It's not right. I- I shouldn't be alive. They should. Not me." He licks his dry lips. "Stark could have killed me out there. And I… I would have let him."
Darcy's hand stills on his back. "Bucky… I-" Her words seem to get caught in her throat. Bucky doesn't blame her. He knows that she worries about him, about his often-fragile state of mind. The news that he's willing to die to give Stark some form of revenge or closure can't be something she likes hearing.
And she doesn't even know the worst of it. After making the connection between Howard and his son, Bucky had retreated to his room and, after a brief breakdown like the one he'd been having when Darcy came in, had picked up a gun and stuck the barrel in his mouth. He'd spent hours trying to work up the guts to pull the trigger, until Steve came back from a mission and found him. That was how his best friend found out.
Darcy's phone suddenly chimes, breaking the silence. She jumps, and digs the device out of her pocket to read the text message. "Nat wants to talk to you," she says softly, "But you can take whatever time you need, first."
He does need to take some more time. A lot. It's not until the next morning that he works up the courage to walk out the door of the apartment. Steve's waiting in the living room, with big, wide puppy dog eyes. He tries to apologise, but Bucky waves him off. He does, however, allow Steve to follow him and Darcy out to the briefing room Natalia wanted him to meet her in.
When they get there, Bucky stops dead in the doorway, because Natalia isn't alone. Clint Barton's presence is a surprise, but only because he's recently retired from the Avengers and has been living on a farm somewhere in Iowa. Tony Stark's, on the other hand, is a complete shock, given how he was trying to pummel Bucky yesterday.
Stark clearly is not expecting them, either. He shoots up from his chair. "What the hell?!" he growls, "What the fuck do you want, Barnes?"
"I asked him to come here," Natalia tells him bluntly, "I've got something you both need to hear." She slaps two things on the table: a flash drive and a good, old-fashioned hardcopy file folder. The former is shoved in Stark's direction, the latter in Bucky's.
Bucky takes the folder with hesitation while Stark plugs the drive into something on the side of the table, pulling up a holographic display of several items, including a picture that Bucky recognises as being of Howard and Maria Stark's crashed car. He shudders, and repeated the action when he opens his folder and sees the same photograph looking back at him.
"What the hell is this, Romanoff?" Stark growls again, even as he spreads out the various files in the air in front of him.
Natalia tips her head in Barton's direction, and he begins explaining: "Nat and I found this shortly after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. We weren't sure what to make of it at first, but combined with the intel from your last raid, I'd say it's a full report on the Stark assassination. The stuff you got centers on the actual event, but this information has more of the behind the scenes stuff. Such as which HYDRA agents came up with the plan, and why they chose to carry it out at that time, rather than decades earlier."
Natalia takes over. "We'll let you look over the details later, but after yesterday's blowup, I reached out to an old contact and managed to get files on every agent involved. Some are dead, but this…" She holds up another flash drive. "…is everything I have on the three who are still alive."
Silence falls over the briefing room as the pieces begin to fit together.
Darcy's the first one to voice what they're all coming to realise. "You want these two to team up and take down the rest of the douchebags involved."
Natalia nods. "I know you want revenge, Stark, and no one wants to deny you that, but I think I speak for all of us here when I say that we'd prefer it if you directed that revenge elsewhere."
Bucky shifts uncomfortably, and he's aware that Darcy has noticed. Natalia and Barton, too (damn spies). Maybe Steve. He's not sure about Stark.
"These three HYDRA agents are just as guilty in your parents' murder – even more so, really, because they were fully aware of what they were doing and making their own decisions. And I'll be perfectly honest, here: none of us here in this facility wants to have to deal with the two of you at odds over this." She shrugs. "I figure the best way to avoid that was to give you a common goal."
Barton throws in his own two cents' worth: "I'm with Tash. I'm not even living here anymore, but I sure as hell don't want to get caught up in some Avengers civil war over this."
Bucky keeps his eyes glued to the folder in his hands, even though he can see Darcy looking back and forth between him and Stark. "It sounds like a good idea to me," she says, "Well? Can you two work together on this and not try and kill each other?" She's definitely looking directly at Stark as she says this.
There's a small part of Bucky that wants to say screw it, just let Stark kill him. But here in his hands are the names of the HYDRA scum who made Howard's death possible. If he was the deadly weapon, they were the ones who aimed him and pulled the trigger. And they deserve just as much punishment as he does. If he helps bring that punishment about, then at least he'll balance the scales a little before his own time comes to die.
But none of this will work out if Stark decides he can't work with Bucky. There's a long, tense silence, as everyone waits for Stark's answer.
Finally, Stark, who's been distracting himself from all their stares by flicking through the second set of files, gives his response. "Fine. Yeah, I can hold off if it means getting these bastards. We'll see about not killing him when this is all over."
It's not exactly the answer the others are looking for, but it'll do for Bucky, and the rest of them will have to settle, for now. Closing the folder, he hesitates for a few seconds, then slowly offers his hand to Stark.
This silence is even longer and tenser. Bucky figures he maybe should have said something, first, but now it feels like if he so much as breathes wrong, Stark will take back his decision.
Stark is even slower in accepting the hand than Bucky was in offering it, and he lets go after barely a second. "Fine. Now, how about we get started, before I change my mind?"
With that statement, the whole room seems to breathe a sigh of relief.
It's not perfect, and it's not going to be easy. Someone's probably going to insist that he and Stark are supervised to make sure no one kills or maims anybody (well, anybody they aren't supposed to be killing or maiming). And it's going to be a tense partnership, no question about it. But for the first time since coming to the Avengers' Initiative, Bucky feels like he's actually giving something back, instead of doing nothing but living there and eating their food. Oh, he's been helping train the newer members (and some of the older ones, for that matter), and he's provided what little HYDRA intel he can, but it still felt rather one-sided.
Now, however, he's going to hunt down some of the scum who personally contributed to the hell that was the past seventy years of his life, and – more importantly – hopefully help one of the Avengers get some closure for his parents' murder, and further the team's overall goal of eradicating HYDRA.
Those sons of bitches have no fucking clue what's about to hit them.
THE END
This has been one hell of a month and a bit (almost 2 months). I think this is the most I've ever written and posted over a single month. I'm thinking I'll try and get an earlier start with the actual writing next year. Like, August, if that's at all possible.
Well, now that this is done, I'm off to work on my other 3 WIPs. Unfortunately, this means that you probably won't be seeing anything MCU-related from me until all three are done (allowing for random plot bunnies that bite me and can be written up quickly). If you like 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow', 'Kamen Rider Drive', or 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', however, keep an eye out for updates on 'Reawakening', 'Two For The Price Of One', and 'The Cold Factor', in that order.
That said, I will be continuing the AU that this chapter and Chapter 26 are part of, as well as the Squib!Darcy AU and a follow-up of Chapter 18. I actually have some scenes written out for all three of them, so here is a small preview of each:
For the still-unnamed AU:
The first time James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes meets Darcy Victoria Lewis, he's getting a tour of the new Avengers facility from Steve and the guy with the wings (Wilson, his name is Sam Wilson), and she's rushing down the hallway with a stack of papers – topped by four cups of coffee in a cardboard takeout tray – with a whole bagel stuffed in her mouth. How she manages to move at that speed without spilling a drop is pretty impressive… until she doesn't, and the tray slips off its precarious perch.
For the 'Hostage' follow-up, titled 'Why Christine Everhart is going DOWN':
But Vanity Fair was going down. They had been late to the game in reporting on the matter, but the following morning, they become the most-read coverage of the story by publishing uncensored copies of the photo along with Rebecca's full name and her school picture. Darcy's identity was also made public, despite the lengths the Avengers had gone to in order to keep her and Bucky's marriage a secret from anyone who wasn't a member of the Initiative or a close relative.
The worst part, however, was the article. Christine Everhart had probably been waiting on this for years, ever since she'd been explicitly banned from getting a personal interview with any Avenger or their associates. In a move worthy of Rita Skeeter, she wrote a scathing piece about how dangerous it was to be around a target of such ruthless terrorist organisations as HYDRA, and made it very clear that the Winter Soldier's daughter was such a target. She called the Avengers reckless for allowing such a potential danger to mingle with vulnerable, defenceless children and putting the entire school in peril, citing the previous day's hostage crisis as an example.
The fact that said hostage-taker had actually been targeting a different child altogether went completely unmentioned.
For 'Dahlia Parkinson is Dead':
She was balancing her load in her arms while walking back to the Tower when someone stepped into her path. Darcy swore and had to side-step like mad to avoid the person, only for them to block her way again. "Excuse me, I'm trying to-"
Her words died in her throat. She knew this woman. It had been a long time; this woman was no longer the teenager who'd turned her back on her, but there was no mistaking her. Her long, brown hair was swept up into a bun, and those cold, green eyes were narrowed dangerously, looking right at Darcy.
"Hello, Dahlia. Are you trying to tell me you can't spend five minutes of your precious time to say hello?"
Darcy swallowed. She knew, she knew this wasn't over! "Hello, Pansy. What are you doing here?"
That's all she wrote for now! Spectre out!