The container was loaded with the others without consideration for any potential living material inside, which gave Steve and Sam a few bruises. Cap cradled Bucky's head protectively as they were jostled roughly like the freight they were. Finally, they heard the floor clips lock into the anchor brackets and then the hydraulics of the tail door lifting into its closed position.
"Hope everyone went to the bathroom." Sam quipped in the dark. There was no real need for the flashlight to be on every moment.
"How are we going to get out of this in Nebraska?" Steve asked Falcon who was risking as much as he was for a friend.
"I hadn't thought that far. You're usually the man with the plans." Wilson replied.
Steve sighed resignedly. He tapped his watch to make the face glow: 5:00 am, Eastern time. They'd be in Omaha by nine AM local time. "Where is this pal of yours?"
"San Francisco." Sam responded. Steve could hear the tiredness in his voice. They'd been up all night.
The plane began to move from the hangar and the men felt it shift on its immense wheels. Boxes creaked around them and harnesses clanked on the walls of the cargo hold. As far as they knew, only the piloting crew was in the cockpit. There would be no troops aboard this flight.
"Get some rest. I'll set an alarm so we're not caught off guard." Cap said to Falcon adjusting the buttons on his watch face.
"You sure?" Sam replied.
"Yeah. Sleep."
"Make sure you take your own advice." Cap could hear Sam trying to get comfortable in the cramped space with Bucky still crumpled on the floor of the container.
"Ok… "Rogers said trailing off thinking of how Bucky would do the same; always watching out for him.
Drifting in the dark, the motion of the plane taxiing and taking off was soothing in the warm darkness. Soon, even Steve let his thoughts and consciousness waver. Events of the past week rolled through his mind like waves breaking on the shore.
Tropical air filtered through his nose with the smell of exotic cooking and smoke from the market. The heat and humidity make sweat cut trickling paths through the dust on his skin. Crossbones stood defiant before Steve with a low chuckle. "You know we got him.", he sneered from behind the mask that concealed his horrible face, "You know… your Bucky."
With a roar of fury, Steve launched himself at the mercenary. The laugh became an evil cackle.
They took his shield. Sam had to give up his wings. His eyes met Agent 13's as the two soldiers were escorted by armed guards down the concrete hallway of the Avengers HQ. If she felt fear or animosity or anything towards Steve, she kept it to herself. Tony met them with no comment as they rode the elevator to the conference room.
"If we can't accept limitations, we're no better than the bad guys." Stark's voice reasoned. He stood proudly in his three-piece suit, face resolute.
"That's not the way I see it." Steve answered him locking eyes, temper on a short leash.
"Well, I think it's time you should." Tony commented neutrally, trying to be civil, "Especially after what happened last time."
" 'Last time' someone told me to 'get with the program', he wound up dead." Cap returned stonily.
"If you mean Fury, that was apparently a 'temporary' setback." Stark sniffed, "I'm talking about… "
"Sokovia? Is your conscience not letting you sleep at night?" Rogers said in a low voice, "Because I believe Banner called you out on that one in the creation of a murder-bot"
Tony looked away, jaw muscles working furiously to keep his calm, then back to Steve, "And if he were here, I'm sure he'd agree with me. We … the Avengers…are just too dangerous."
"I think you're trying to wash your sins away by making all of us pay for them." Steve commented.
"Like you're going to wash away Barnes's? Seventy years of bloodshed? He didn't just blow up a building this time. He blew up the United Nations." Tony's eyes glinted hard with pain. It was no secret that Bucky might have assassinated Stark's parents as the Winter Soldier.
Steve inhaled a breath, held it while his heart hammered like Thor's Moljinr on rock, then replied in a firm tone, "He doesn't do that anymore. None of that was his fault when he was a brainwashed POW. Bucky served his country better than you ever will. For you to stand there like some prima donna with no blood on your hands and say some regulation or registration makes all this, "he put his finger on the copy of the Sokovia Accords, "go away and absolve you of your faults, makes you no Avenger but some sanctimonious son of a bitch."
"You know, sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect, white teeth." Stark replied darkly and then left the room. Steve gazed out the glass wall at his back.
"There are some who see you as a hero. But to some, they prefer the word vigilante. "General Ross paused for emphasis, "You have operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That is something the world can no longer tolerate." The long table stretched out before him like a sacrificial altar and he was the offering to some god of bureaucracy. "There will be… consequences."
Steve felt his blood pressure tick higher as thoughts whizzed through his brain. This was not the American way. How could they blame Bucky for something he didn't do? Who was behind all this?
Steve woke to a hand on his throat. Bucky was awake.