Joint Terrorism Task Force HQ, Berlin, Germany [Tuesday Afternoon, NFB]

[heroic_jawline]

The flight from Romania was as tense and silent as Steve had feared. Bucky was avoiding eye contact any time Steve glanced over and he'd caught Tony's tense, disappointed face a couple times before he'd stopped looking in that direction as well.

They arrived at a loading dock--Tony was staying back by the plane to avoid questions about two Tonys in he same place--and Steve got out of his SUV just as Bucky's pod was taken away via forklift. Steve's jaw clenched to see it.

"What's going to happen to him?" he demanded with his most righteous, Captain America is Disappointed in Your Choices frown aimed at the shorter, gray haired man clearly waiting for them.

"Same thing that ought to happen to you," the man replied, unaffected by the look. "Psychological evaluation and extradition."

Sharon came up beside them. "This is Everett Ross, Deputy Task Force Commander."

Steve pursed his lips in silent acknowledgement before asking, "What about our lawyer?"

"Lawyer. That's funny," Ross said, spinning on a shiny loafer and heading into the office, assuming everyone would just follow along. "See their weapons are placed in lockup." At Sam's glare, he added, "Oh, we'll write you a receipt."

"I better not look out the window and see anybody flying around in it," Sam retorted.

Steve glanced back one more time to finally meet Bucky's resigned, slightly defeated eyes.

"You'll be provided with an office instead of a cell," Ross was saying as he sped-walked through the facility. "Now do me a favor and stay in it?"

"I don't intend on going anywhere," T'Challa replied with a tiny nod before disappearing down a different corridor, a tall woman with a serious expression emerging from the shadows to follow him.

"For the record," Natasha said, appearing on Steve's left, "this is what making things worse looks like."

"He's alive," Steve said as they turned into a room and almost smacked into the other Tony in a three piece suit with his phone up by his ear. "No. Romania was not Accords-sanctioned. And Colonel Rhodes is supervising cleanup," Tony said, barely making eye contact with Steve before turning away.

"Try not to break anything while we fix this," Natasha said, all but physically stuffing Steve into an uncomfortable wheeled chair in front of a wooden conference table. At least, Steve thought, a little desperate for good news, the conference room had a good view of the command center monitors.

"Consequences?" Tony said into the phone, arching his eyebrows at Steve as he did so. "You bet there'll be consequences. Obviously you can quote me on that 'cause I just said it. Anything else? Thank you, sir."

He hung up.

"Consequences?" Steve repeated.

"Secretary Ross wants you both prosecuted. Had to give him something," Tony replied.

"I'm not getting that shield back, am I?" Steve asked.

"Technically, it's the government's property," Natasha said, not sounding the least bit regretful. "Wings, too."

"That's cold," Sam said, sitting down next to Steve at the conference table.

"Warmer than jail," Tony retorted as he and Natasha left Steve and Sam cooling their heels in that room.

MCU!Tony	When Tony returned he was far from shocked to find Steve had moved as close as possible to the control room where the entire operation with Barnes was being overseen. Because he was nothing if not predictable on certain things. "Hey, you wanna see something cool?" he asked, pushing on in for another bid to fix this.
Steve	What Steve wanted was to be in the room with Bucky instead of staring at him on a camera through a glass wall while separated by multiple stories. He could also use a big glass of water and a snack, but no one had asked him about those things, so he just nodded at Tony and trailed after him instead.
MCU!Tony	"I pulled something from Dad's archives. Felt timely," Tony said, taking this as Steve at least being willing to listen when he produced a box with a pair of pens. "FDR signed the Lend-Lease bill with these in 1941. Provided support to the Allies when they needed it most."
Steve	Steve reached out to trail his finger over the pens. "Some would say it brought our nation closer to war," he murmured.
MCU!Tony	"See? If not for these, you wouldn't be here." Because that war--and this one--was coming no matter what. "I'm trying to...to...what do you call it? That's an olive branch. Is that what you call it?"
Steve	Steve's forehead furrowed as he stared down at the pens. "I remember listening to FDR," he said finally. "He signed Lend-Lease when England was the only thing left standing against Hitler's onslaught in Europe. We were going to be an arsenal for democracy. Take a stand, revoke our neutrality." But how was that like the Accords?
MCU!Tony	"And we waited. And waited. And waited," Tony replied with a shaky little sigh. He clenched his left hand in a little spasm as the stress headache from all this started back up. "Until there wasn't an option to do that anymore."
Steve	Ah. "This is back to Nat's argument that if we have one hand on the wheel we can still steer," Steve said softly.
MCU!Tony	"Because it's the truth of the matter," Tony replied. "You can pretend this isn't happening, but it is. And shoving your head in the sand and expecting things to change because of it...that's not going to fly here, Steve."
Steve	Steve chewed on his lower lip, gaze drifting back to the wall of monitors he could still see, even in this room. He stood up and started pacing, one of Tony's pens in his hand. He could see toothmarks imprinted in the soft gold and had a brief moment of sympathy for the crushing pressure FDR had been under as well. "I don't mean to make things difficult."
MCU!Tony	"None of us mean to," Tony replied with sigh that was more stressed than the sympathetic tone he'd meant there.
Steve	Steve pressed his mouth together, his attention drawn back to the monitors. "When I see a situation pointing south...I can't ignore it," he said. And he'd reacted before T'Challa had been involved. And now that he knew who the Black Panther was, he still wouldn't back away. "Sometimes I wish I could," he added.
MCU!Tony	"No you don't," Tony replied, mouth pulling into a thin, unhappy smile.
Steve	"No, I don't," Steve agreed with that same insincere smile. "Sometimes--"
MCU!Tony	Sometimes, what, Steve? "Sometimes I wanna punch you in your perfect teeth," Tony admitted in the face of that. "But I don't want see you gone. We need you, Cap. And, so far, nothing's happened that can't be undone...if you sign. We can make the last 24 hours legit. Barnes gets transferred to an American psych-center instead of a Wakandan prison." But Steve had to play ball.
Steve	Steve crossed his arms over his chest and turned to face Tony again. "I'm not saying it's impossible," he said finally. Facing two disappointed Tonys was apparently a little too much for him. "But there would have to be safeguards." The no lawyers thing from Ross would have to stop pretty much immediately, for instance.
MCU!Tony	"Sure," Tony said, letting out a relieved sighed. "Once we put out the PR fire, those documents can be amended. I'd file a motion to have both you and Wanda reinstated--"
Steve	"Wanda?" Steve repeated, eyebrows already arching up. "What about Wanda?" And not, say, Clint? Or Sam?
MCU!Tony	Clint retired, Steve. "She's fine. She's confined to the compound, currently. Pending a review on the mission in Lagos." You know. Like should happen when shit hit the fan. "Vision's keeping her company."
Steve	Steve whipped his hands towards Bucky's sad little box. "How confined?" he demanded.
MCU!Tony	"It's the compound, Steve," Tony replied incredulously. "It's a 100 acres with a lap pool. It's got a screening room. There are...worse ways to protect people." Yes, he was looking at where Barnes was with a tight expression.
Steve	"Did she know she was going to be protected?" Steve asked, crossing his arms and this close to using sarcastic air quotes. "Or was this surprise house arrest?"
MCU!Tony	Okay. Okay, so maybe Steve had him there. "Everything happened very quickly!" Yes. The UN had something happen both quickly and almost unanimously. Nothing strange about that.
Steve	"Tony!" Steve yelled, throwing his hands up.
MCU!Tony	"Give me a break!" Tony all but shouted. "I'm doing what has to be done...to stave off something much worse."
Steve	Steve jabbed his thumb at Bucky on the screen. "We're into lawyerless justice and pre-emptive house arrests, Tony. How much worse are you thinking it's going to get?!"
MCU!Tony	"They're scared of us," Tony said, getting in his face. "And you going rogue is not helping us fix this."
Steve	"Being scared isn't an excuse for any of this," Steve snarled. "Some people are scared. Some are using it as a power grab." And he had his thoughts on where Ross and Ross landed.
MCU!Tony	"Being scared makes rational people do dumb things," Tony snapped. "Trust me." Ultron and all that. "But if you think you can just be stubborn and get your way, you're wrong. We need a united front."
Steve	"I didn't think we needed a united front to remind people that this kind of internment isn't okay!" Steve said.
MCU!Tony	"Then what's your solution here? Because I'd love to hear it," Tony replied, raising his voice.
Steve	Steve let out a long, frustrated breath. "I don't have one yet," he admitted. "We're on quicksand."
MCU!Tony	"Which is why we need to stick together." See, he got back around to that point again!
Steve	Steve pressed his lips together. "Don't ground our own people without their permission, then."
MCU!Tony	"Fine! Fine. Mea culpa and all that," Tony replied, starting to see the light at the end of this stubborn tunnel. If Steve wanted to play at babysitter, more power to him.
Steve	He'd call and have Clint help! Surely Wanda was taking this well, right? Steve carefully set the priceless pen back on the table before Tony noticed he'd bent it just a tiny bit. "So what do we do about Bucky?" he asked softly.
MCU!Tony	He'd just...pretend it was part of the original bite damage. "That's going to take a little more finessing," Tony admitted. "If he was triggered somehow...that's going to take some time to prove. That T'Challa is a force to be reckoned with."
Sam	Now that the yelling seemed to be over, Sam came into the room as well, shadowed by Sharon. She dropped the promised receipt for their gear in front of him. "Bird costume?" he read, looking cranky. "Come on." "I didn't write it," she said.
Friendly Neighborhood UN Therapist	But she did shoot Steve a glance as she overrode the controls to be able to hear what was happening in Barnes' cell now that a therapist had been sent in to check on him. Nothing suspicious about him. Just, you know, maybe don't share his name with that other Tony running around. "--not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions. Do you know where you are, James?" When no response came, he tried again. "I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."
Bucky	"My name is Bucky," he said with a heavy sigh.
Steve	Steve felt tears pricking at his eyes to hear that and he leaned against the table to listen harder. He still hated that there wasn't a lawyer present for this and wasn't entirely sure why the UN was starting with a therapist...guy. Something didn't fit. "Why did the task force release the photo immediately?" he asked. "They were telling you about it as it hit CNN."
Sharon	"Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?" Sharon said, not quite understanding what he was getting at here.
Steve	Steve tapped his fingers against the table. "I've been looking for him for years," he said. With FRIDAY's help, even, and he'd gotten very close to nowhere. "But if you blow up the United Nations and then pop his picture up, you get 7 billion people looking." He narrowed his eyes at the screen. "You've closed off his escape vectors." But why?
Sharon	"You're saying someone framed him to find him," Sharon replied, frowning at that implication. That sounded like a HYDRA play, after all.
Steve	Steve was too polite to say "no fucking kidding" out loud, but his face kind of did it for him. "And to bring him here," Steve added.
Sam	"You mean have us bring him here," Sam muttered, looking at the continued conversation in that cell.
Steve	This was feeling more and more like a trap. Steve leaned in, watching Bucky--still in his little bullet-proof pod--trying to dodge questions from the interrogator. Therapist. Whatever.
Super Safe UN Therapist For Real	"Tell me, Bucky. You've seen a great deal, haven't you?" Just normal questions here.
Bucky	"I don't want to talk about it." He didn't want to talk about a great deal of things that came and went as he remembered.
Still SUPER Normal UN Therapist Zemo	" You fear that... if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop. Don't worry," Zemo assured him as a message popped up on his little tablet screen. "We only have to talk about one."
Steve	Yes, Steve didn't like that tone at all and was about to say so when the entire building plunged into darkness. "Sharon?" he asked, already halfway to the door. "Sublevel 5, East Wing," she replied. Steve sprinted for the stairs.
Wait This Isn't Normal	"Why don't we discuss your home? Not Romania. Certainly not Brooklyn, no. I mean, your real home." Look, you all had to know it was time for some villainous shit to go down here. "Желание."
Bucky	Bucky inhaled sharply at that word, eyes shut tight. "No," he managed, trying to fight this. He couldn't go back under, he couldn't.
Oh No He's Evil	Oh no, no, no. He had plans. "Ржавый."
Steve	Do you know how many flights of stairs it was to get to the fifth level sub-basement? It's a long damn way. Steve had left Sam in the dust about four stories ago and was now slowing down as he got closer to where Bucky was being held, assuming this was even the east side of the building. Nothing had been labeled to be read in the dark and the strobing alarm lights weren't helping anything.
Sam	Of course it wasn't, but those things had helped Sam catch up to him. "Steve!" he said, pointing to a number of agents on the ground outside of what must have been the room they'd had Bucky in, door wide open. Which was, you know, not ominous at all.
Steve	Wonderful. This was just exactly what Steve needed. Fortunately, there was a dazed therapist...interrogator...whatever laying on the floor. "Help me," the doctor said, closing his eyes. Steve was having none of it. "Get up," he said, pulling him off the ground by his collar and pressing him into the nearby wall none too gently. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What do you want?"
Eeeeevil Zemo	"To see an empire fall." Oh yeah, that was some normal UN stuff there, right?
Steve	This guy earned the eyeroll Steve shot at him, at least until he heard Sam's surprised shout and the sounds of punching. And Bucky had definitely been pulling his punches in Bucharest because he was flat-eyed and murderous now. Bucky tossed Sam--by the jaw--into his now empty, broken pod and rounded on Steve. Steve squared his shoulders and waded in, landing a punch that Bucky seemed to barely feel before getting a kick to the chest that drove him out of the room, into the hallway, and up against the elevator doors. A punch aimed at Steve's head broke a hole through the metal instead and Steve barely had time to react to block the next one before the power behind it knocked him through the elevator wall and down into the shaft. He thought there wouldn't be very fall to fall from sublevel five. He was wrong.
Sam	By the time Sam had recovered from being thrown and crawled his way out of the pod, that slimy therapist guy was already pulling a runner and Barnes was nowhere in sight. "Hey!" Sam called into the elevator shaft, wincing as the echo of his yell hurt his head. "Steve?" And that was when an announcement went over the comms of the facility in German. "Der Ostflügel ist kompromittiert. Ich wiederhole: Der Ostflügel ist kompromittiert."
Natasha	No kidding the East Wing was kompromittiert. Natasha glanced over at the two Tonys, one carefully standing in a shadowy part of the hall. "Please tell me at least one of you brought a suit."
MCU!Tony	"Sure did," the one who liked to think of himself as Tony Prime replied, hurrying to join Natasha through the flow of evacuating people. "It's a lovely Tom Ford, three-piece, two-button. I'm an active-duty non-combatant."
FH!Tony	"Wrong universe." Which was a mistake this Tony would quickly be correcting after this.
Natasha	"Thanks, fellas," Natasha replied, bone dry, as she neatly intercepted Sharon before she could notice two Tonys and headed in the opposite direction of the fleeing. The sound of Bucky punching his way through guards and agents who had clearly been sleeping through the mandatory 'in case of Winter Soldier' briefing was easy enough to follow.
Sharon	"Ready for this?" Sharon asked, looking very much like she was trying to psych herself up for this terrible idea.
Natasha	"I've done it before," Natasha said, and if Sharon assumed that only meant in DC, well, that was fine with Natasha.
MCU!Tony	Ladies, ladies... Tony pressed forward, making an intricate series of motions to pull a repulsor gauntlet from his very normal-looking watch to stun Barnes before he could kill the poor guard who just happened to be with them in the food court. But since the guy was a goddamn super soldier, that move didn't work a second time and Tony had a gun--and an assassin--in his face in a flash. Which, you know, time to really put the mobile gauntlet to the test by putting his hand over the barrel of that gun. Barnes shot immediately, and Tony looked shocked that he wasn't dead--while also hitting the disassembly lever to strip off the gun's barrel. Sorry not sorry, Barnes.
The Winter Soldier	Well, enjoy a backhand from a metal hand for that, Tony. The Winter Soldier was not pleased to have his escape route blocked. He didn't even stop to see where Tony landed before he was stalking towards the staircase, shrugging off the best efforts of Sharon and Natasha as they flung themselves onto him like heavily armed howler monkeys. T'Challa, dropping from the story above them, was going to be slightly more difficult to get past.
FH!Tony	"Where is Steve?" Tony asked, pulling the other Tony behind cover as T'Challa went to town on Barnes there. Well, as much as he could. It must have been before--not important now.
Sam	Well, good question, Tony. But it was not going to be answered right away. Sam, having confirmed that Steve was still alive, took off after the creep who must have triggered Bucky, chasing him through the stairways since the elevator was down for the count and getting to the courtyard outside of the facility: just a swarm of panicked people. The doctor, aside from the jacket on the ground where he'd ditched it, was nowhere to be seen. "Damn it."
Steve	Steve had no idea where Bucky--or anyone else--was, but they certainly weren't down this elevator shaft. Since no one had kicked the power back on yet, the only way up was going to suuuuuuuuuuuuck--hand over hand up the cables. "Now would not be a swell time to turn these back on," he muttered to himself. Between this and the ambush at the Triskelion, he was going to end up with an elevator phobia.
T'Challa	Get a move on, Rogers. T'Challa was finding James Barnes to be a stronger opponent than he'd previously determined. Or, at the very least, the metal arm was going to take a little more work to put out of commission than the time provided would allow for. Their fight tossed Barnes over a very convenient balcony and down an architecturally handy hole. Even though T'Challa leapt after the man, it was too late to continue the pursuit without knowing which way he went. Even without the Black Panther mask, T'Challa hid his frustration. Justice would not be denied.
FH!Tony	Tony took an annoyed breath and closed his eyes to work his way into the downed security systems of the place and reboot the cameras at the very least. He didn't completely enjoy using Extremis here after the whole Ultron thing, but in this case... "Got him," he said, eyes fluttering as he processed the data. A text was sent off to Steve of just: Rooftop.
Steve	Steve had been heading up (and up and up and up and seriously, how many floors were in this stupid building) when the phone buzzed. He braced his feet against the wall of the elevator shaft to check it and grunted. "Always makin' it easy, Buck," he muttered, moving faster until he burst out into the blazing sun and the sound of helicopter blades whirring into life. Screw absolutely everything about today. He sprinted towards the pad and made a flying leap for the landing gear, then tried to brace himself (against the pull of a helicopter and by God, James Barnes...) against the concrete to yank the helicopter back down to earth. A voice inside his head that sounded a lot like Tony was asking what the hell he was doing. He'd gotten very good at ignoring it. He was dragged off the edge of the roof and grabbed onto the metal piping with his arm. And now he was preventing a helicopter from leaving with the power of his stubbornness and the muscles in his biceps. This was probably not sustainable.
The Winter Soldier	The power of friendship only worked on brainwashing sometimes and against a helicopter never, Steven. The Winter Soldier gritted his teeth as he made eye contact with Steve. And then he stopped fighting against Steve's arms and juked the entire helicopter the other direction, crashing back into the side of the platform and trying to rip the blades into the irritating obstacle to his escape.
Steve	Fucking fucking fuck. Steve ducked as the tail of the helicopter, blades rotating way too fast for even a super soldier to survive, whipped just over his head as the entire craft crashed into the pad, then slid into the protective mesh around the roof. The protective mesh immediately started to strain under the weight because that was the kind of day Steve was having. He peeked into the canopy, upside, right by his face, to see if Bucky was still conscious after the crash.
The Winter Soldier	Oh, he was conscious and pissed. His metal arm came shooting through the glass separating them, shattering it as he got his hand on Steve's throat while the protective mesh gave way. Luckily there was a very random river there. You know. For the catching of helicopters.
Steve	Well, both of them falling to their squishy deaths would be a huge bummer for everyone. Falling to their watery deaths was...slightly better? Maybe? And death by falling just seemed pre-destined for the pair of them... Oxygen deprivation, Steve realized, led to some serious internal babbling. He'd pushed off the platform as the helicopter plummeted and had an oxygen-deprived bet with himself about whether Bucky's grip would still hold on his neck when they hit the water in three, two, one...
The Winter Soldier	Bucky, well, The Soldier, did their level best to try choking Steve out before that could happen, but it didn't take long for the impact to jar him loose and knock him out cold. You got lucky, Rogers. You got real lucky.
Steve	Super lucky here, trying not to drown and also trying to rescue Bucky's slightly less murderous self. Steve yanked Bucky from the helicopter as it plunged to the bottom of the surprisingly deep water feature...plot device...thing and gasped his first true breath of air in far too long as he broke the surface. Right. And now there were sirens. Time to find a place to hide before they arrived.

[OOC: Continued from here! Canon, again, beaten, folded and multilated to fit my vision. #noregrets]