'1991' appears on the screen. A man walks into a bunker and takes out a red leather book with a star on the front.
Bucky tensed. "That thing." He practically growled.
The Winter Soldier is being awakened from cryo. Two men help him stand. He is now sitting in a chair, screaming.
Everyone flinched at the sound of Bucky's screams.
Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away from the screen.
Karpov, in Russian, says the words Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace, Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One and Freight car.
"What is he saying?" Steve asked, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.
"My... trigger words." Bucky said, voice light.
Karpov, in Russian, says goodmorning.
The Winter Soldier, in Russian, says he's ready to comply.
Karpov, in Russian, says he has a mission for him. He says it's sanction and extraction and there should be no witnesses.
Bucky's eyes widened as he remembered what his past self was about to do.
A car drives down an empty road. The winter soldier follows it on his motorcycle. He drives up next to the car and pops the tire. The car crashes.
Tony started at the screen, recognition plain as ever on his face. He knows that road and he knows that car. The Winter Soldier killed his parents.
The winter soldier drives up to the car, opens the trunk, and takes out a case.
He and Karpov look at what's inside the case.
"Is that what I think it is?" Peggy asked, worried. Bucky only nodded in response.
'Lagos' appears on the screen. Wanda drinks some tea. Steve asks what she sees.
Wanda says that there's standard beat cops and it's a small station on a quiet street.
Steve says there's an ATM in the south corner.
Wanda says there'll be cameras.
"That's right."
Steve says that both streets are one way.
Wanda says they're compromised escape routes.
Steve says that there guy doesn't care about being seen and he isn't afraid to make a mess on his way out. Newspaper clippings are shown.
"Is that Rumlow?" Sam asked, after taking a closer look at the pictures.
"How is he still alive?" Natasha asked, remembering watching what went down in DC, there was no way Rumlow should have survived that.
Steve asks if she sees the Range Rover halfway up the block.
Wanda asks if he means the red and says it's cute. "You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"
"Yeah, the red one? It's cute."
Natasha is sitting near Wanda. Natasha says that it's bulletproof which means that there's private security and more guns and that leads to more headaches for them.
"Amen." Everyone said.
Wanda asks if they know that she can move things with her mind.
Natasha says that looking over her soldier needs to be second nature.
Sam asks Natasha if anyone's ever told her that she's paranoid.
"I'm not paranoid. I just like to be aware of my surroundings at all times." Natasha said.
Natasha says that they haven't said it to her face and asks Sam if he heard something.
Steve tells them to keep eyes on Rumlow because this is the first lead they've had in 6 months and he doesn't want to lose him.
Sam says it won't be a problem when he sees them because he hates them.
"Well, you did sort of drop a building on the guy." Rocket said.
Steve tells Sam to tag the garbage truck. Redwing flies up from Sam's suit and attaches itself to the garbage can.
"That's cool." Peter said, it reminded him of his spider drone.
Sam tells Redwing to give him x-ray. '13825kgs max capacity' appears on the screen. Sam says that the truck is loaded for max weight and the driver is armed.
"That's not good." Clint said.
Natasha says it's a battering ram.
Steve tells them to go now because the driver isn't hitting police. Sam dives off the roof.
"Solid dive. 10 out of 10." Ned said.
The garbage truck drives up to a building. The driver jumps out, the truck crashes and flips.
"Whoa!"
Two more trucks drive in. Armed men get out, they shoot gas canisters into the building.
Steve jumps down and kicks a car into one of the men and throws his shield at another. He kicks another into the building.
"Ooh." Everyone winced.
Steve says that the men have body armor and AR-15's and says that he makes 7 hostiles.
Sam flies up to the roof and takes out two men. He shoots another, and says he makes 5. Wanda lands and throws a man up to Sam who throws him to the ground.
"Teamwork."
Redwing scans the building. Sam says that Rumlow is on the 3rd floor.
Steve tells Wanda that this is like the practiced.
Wanda asks about the gas.
Steve tells her to get it out. Wanda lifts Steve into the building. Steve rips a gas mask off of one of the men. Rumlow walks up to a case that says 'Biohazard.'
"Shit."
Steve takes out another one of the men, then trips one and throws him into the wall.
"Brutal."
Wanda starts removing the gas. Sam shoots two of the men with missiles. Rumlow leaves the building. Steve notices the missing vial and says that Rumlow has a biological weapon.
"Lord only knows what he's gonna do with it." Sam said.
Natasha says she's on it and jumps off her motorcycle. She quickly takes out a group of men.
Rumlow grabs her by her throat. She tries to electrocute him. Rumlow says he doesn't work like that anymore. He throws her into the truck and drops a bomb in.
"Oh no."
She starts fighting the two men in there with her, the bomb explodes, she gets sent through the doors.
"Oh my god." Hope said.
Rumlow shoots at Steve, sending him flying back. Rumlow shoots two more times, Steve falls out of the building and onto the ground.
Everyone cringed. That had to hurt.
Steve tells Sam that Rumlow is in an AFV headed north.
Rumlow hands the vial to someone. He tells him to take it to the airstrip and says that they can't outrun them then tells the driver to lose the truck.
The truck crashes into some stands. A man asks Rumlow where he'll meet them.
Rumlow says he isn't going to.
A few people looked slightly confused.
Sam lands on the roof of one of the stands. Sam says that he has 4 and they're splitting up.
Natasha chases two of them and says she has the 2 on the left.
Steve finds the van and says they ditched their gear.
"Why would they do that?" Drax asked.
"It makes them harder to find." Clint answered.
Steve says it's a shell game and one of them has the payload. A bomb gets throws at his shield, he throws it up before it detonates.
"Quick thinking." Maria said.
Rumlow punches Steve and tells him that he's been waiting for this.
"I'm sure you have." Steve said.
Sam throws one of the men down, kicks another into a building and searches him. Sam says that the man doesn't have it and he's empty handed.
"Damn."
Natasha runs through a crowd, she finds one of the men and starts fighting him, the other arrives, she trips him and starts fighting both of them.
"Here's Natasha Romanoff in all of her Russian badassery." Clint said.
She kicks one of the men down and picks up his discarded gun. A man tells her to drop the gun or he'll drop the vial.
The other man tells her that he'll do it.
"And in doing so, you'll kill all three of us." Natasha said.
Sam's drone shoots the man, Natasha shoots the other and quickly grabs the vial just before it hits the ground.
"You have very fast reflexes." Gamora said.
Natasha says the payload is secure and then she
Sam tells her not to think him.
Natasha says she isn't thanking Redwing.
Sam says his name is Redwing.
"You named it." Natasha said. "Actually, no I'm not surprised. That is something I think you would do.
Natasha says she still isn't thanking it.
Sam says he's cute and tells her to pet him.
Everyone giggled a bit.
Steve and Rumlow are still fighting. Rumlow yells and punches Steve into a wall, they continue fighting. Rumlow pins him to the wall and tells him that this is for dropping a building on his face.
"He's still on that?" Sam asked.
"I can't imagine that it's something one would get over quickly." Natasha said.
A knife extends from his gauntlet, Steve elbows him in the face and rips it off. A knife extends from Rumlow's other gauntlet, Steve kicks him away, Rumlow takes the mask off, Steve walks up to him.
Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of Rumlow's face.
Rumlow says he thinks he looks good all things considered.
"Well, he doesn't look as bad as I expected him too, that's for sure." Sam said.
Steve asks him who his buyer is.
Rumlow tells Steve that Bucky knew him.
Steve asks him what he just said.
Rumlow says Bucky remembered him and he got weepy about it until they put his brain back in the blender.
Everyone cringed at the euphemism.
Rumlow tells Steve that Bucky wanted him to know something. He tells Steve that Bucky told him to tell Steve that when you gotta go, you gotta go.
"Steve, he's stalling." Bucky said,
Rumlow says Steve is coming with him. He activates a bomb, Wanda quickly contains him.
"Quick thinking."
Wanda loses control of him and sends him flying into a nearby building.
Everyone gasped.
Wanda covers her mouth in shock.
Off-screen, Wanda had the same expression.
Steve tells Sam that they need fire and rescue on the south side of the building.
"Oh my god."
'What have I done?' Wanda thought.
Maria Stark is playing piano and singing.
Tony looked at the screen with a saddened expression.
Howard walks into the room. Maria tells Tony to wake up and say goodbye to Howard.
Howard asks who the homeless person on the couch is.
"That was rude." Peggy said to Howard.
Tony stands up and says that this is why he likes coming home for Christmas before they leave town.
"I never thought I'd see you without facial hair." Clint said to Tony.
Maria tells Howard to be nice and says that Tony has been studying abroad.
Howard asks Tony what they broads name is and he takes Tony's Santa hat off.
Tony says her name is Candice.
Everyone rolled their eyes.
Howard tells Tony to try not to burn down the house before Monday.
Tony says it's good to know when they'll come back and says he'll plan his toga party accordingly.
"Really?" Rhodey asked.
Tony asks where they're going.
Maria says Howard is flying them to the Bahamas.
"That's nice."
Howard says they might need to make a quick stop.
Tony says they'll be stopping at the Pentagon and tells them not to worry because they'll love the Christmas menu at the commissary.
A few people stifled their chuckles.
Howard says people say that sarcasm is a metric for potential and if it's true, Tony will be a great man someday and says he'll go get the bags.
"I mean... he's not exactly wrong." Rhodey said.
Maria stands up and tells Tony that Howard does miss him when he isn't home and then says that he'll miss them. She says he knows what's going to happen and tells him to say something because he'll regret it if he doesn't.
Tony now looked confused, this wasn't how he remembered this day happening.
Howard walks back in with the bags. Tony tells Howard that he loves him and says he knows he did the best that he could. Maria kisses his cheek, she and Howard leave.
Older Tony is standing in the background. He says that that's how he wishes it happened.
Tony looked down, sadly.
He says that it's Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing also called BARF.
"That is a very... unfortunate acronym." T'Challa said.
Tony says he needs to work on the acronym.
"Yeah, you probably do." Happy said.
Tony says it's costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to clear traumatic memories. He blows out a candle and the scene around him fades.
"That's very... interesting technology." Shuri said. "It also has its risks. Like someone could essentially lose their grip on reality or... someone could use it for the wrong reasons..."
He says it doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport or what he did to avoid processing his grief. He takes his glasses off and says that it was 611 million dollars for the experiment and says that no one would've funded it.
"Well... you're not wrong." Strange said.
He asks what the MIT mission statement is. Then says it's t generate, disseminate and preserve knowledge and work with others to bring to bear on the world's greatest challenges. He says that they are the others and they're facing the greatest challenge mankind has ever known. Then says that most of them are borke.
"Well, they are college students." Scott said.
Tony apologizes and says that they were and says that as of that moment every student is an equal recipient of the Inaugural September Foundation grant. Then says that all of their projects have been approved and funded. The audience starts cheering.
"That's amazing."
He says that there's no strings ot taxes and tells them to reframe the future. The teleprompter reads 'Now I would like to introduce the head of the foundation: Pepper Potts.' Tony pauses before telling them to go break some eggs and then walks off stage.
Tony and Pepper looked at each other, confused. Why didn't Pepper come onstage?
A teacher tells Tony that he's so generous and says that that was a lot of money then asks if any of it would be available to faculty and says that he has an idea for a self-cooking hot dog.
"A-a self cooking hot-dog?" Peter asked.
"That sounds... gross." Shuri said.
He says that there would be a chemical detonator embedded-
Tony asks where the restroom is.
"You're not listening to a word he's saying are you?" Sam asked.
He says that the detonator would be embedded into the meat shaft.
"A chemical detonator inside of the meat shaft of a hot dog... so that it will cook itself." Brue said, unsure if he was hearing this correctly.
A woman walks up to them and apologizes for the teleprompter and says she didn't know Pepper cancelled.
Tony says it's fine and says he'll be right back.
The teacher says they can catch up later.
"I-I don't I don't think you will..." Quill said.
Tony walks up to an elevator, a woman is standing there she says that what he did for the students was nice.
"It really was."
Tony says they deserve it and says it also helps ease his conscience.
The woman says that people say there's a correlation between generosity and guilt but if he has the money he can break as many eggs as he likes.
"I don't think I like where this is headed." Maria said.
"Me either." Pepper said.
Tony asks her if she's going up.
The Woman says she's right where she wants to be.
She reaches into her bag, Tony grabs her wrist then apologizes and says it's an occupational hazard.
"That's paranoia." Natasha said to Sam, correcting his statement from earlier.
The woman says she works for the State Department and she's in Human resources she says she knows it's boring but it helped her raise a son. She says she's proud of what her son grew up to be. She shoves a photo at Tony and says her son's name was Charles Spencer and tells Tony that he murdered him in Sokovia.
The avengers all looked down, guiltily.
She says that it doesn't matter to him. She says that Tony thinks he fights for them but he only fights for himself.
Tony and Steve were both reminded of their argument in the Helicarrier.
'I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself.'
The woman asks who'll avenge her son. She says he's dead and tells Tony that she blames him.
"Tony... you know it's not your fault, right. You did the best you could." Steve said.
"But she's right. If future me hadn't created Ultron, none of this would've happened." Tony said.
"You can't blame yourself Tony, it's not going to get you anywhere." Bruce said.
"Easier said than done, right?" Tony asked.
Steve is watching the news. The reporter says that 11 Wakandans were killed during the confrontation between the Avengers and a group of mercenaries in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Wakandans all looked saddened by this.
She says that the Wakandans were on an outreach mission when the attack occurred.
King T'Chaka says that their people's blood was spilled on foreign soil.
T'Challa and Shuri both looked at their father with expressions of pain and sadness.
King T'Chaka says that it was because of the actions of criminals and the indifference of the people pledged to stop them.
"We're not indifferent to things like this." Steve said.
King T'Chaka says that victory at the expense of the innocent is not a victory at all.
Everyone paused for a moment to let those words sink in, after all, the Wakandan king was right. Can it really be considered a victory if innocent people died because of it.
Steve turns the news off.
Wanda, Sam, Steve and Natasha all had guilty expressions on their faces.
Wanda is watching the news in her bedroom. The reporter says that the Avengers are operating above and outside of the international law asks what authority an enhanced individual like Wanda has to operate in Nigeria. Steve turns it off.
"Why aren't they also focusing on what Rumlow was doing?" Sam asked.
Wanda says it's her fault.
Steve says that isn't true.
Wanda tells him to turn the TV back o because they're being very specific.
Steve says he should've clocked the bomb before she even had to deal with it.
"You can focus on what you 'should' have done all day long, it's not gonna change anything. What matters is how are you going to do better in the future. Dwelling on the past will fix nothing." Coulson said.
Steve sits down and says that when Rumlow said 'Bucky' it felt like he was a 16 year old kid in Brooklyn again. He says that people died and it's on him.
Wanda says that it's on both of them.
"That's a... better way to put it." Thor said.
Steve says that they try to save as many people as they can and that doesn't always mean everyone but if they can't find a way to live with it then the next time maybe no one will get saved.
"If you're too busy focusing on what went wrong last time, you won't focus on what you need to do the next time." Sam said.
Vision walks through the wall, startling them. Wanda says that they've talked about that.
"You can't just walk through walls without knocking, dude." Clint said
Vision says that the door was open so he assumed that he could.
"Or... hear me out, you could've used the door." Tony said.
Vision says that Steve requested to know when Tony would arrive.
Steve says they'll be right down.
Vision says he'll use the door this time
"Good."
Vision says Tony brought a guest.
Steve asks who it is.
Vision says it's the secretary of state.