•{Condemned}• 2

{13}•Responsible•

Side note: so I forgot to mention JB's whereabouts while all of this is happening.... Oops. I've updated the previous chapters to mention it, but if you don't want to re-read them, basically they left him in the apartment after the funeral and during the airport scene El asked Nat to find him and get him to safety.  :)

                            [13] •Responsible•

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THE QUINJET is silent as they fly. They won.

But at what cost?

Guilt isn't a foreign feeling for the teen, but it's one she thought had eased, one that she had learned to live with. She doesn't welcome another burden.

"What's going to happen to your friends?" Bucky brings her out of her thoughts. His brown hair frames his face, tilted downwards to his lap.

She chews at the corner of her bottom lip. Her arms are wrapped around herself in a hope of comfort. Her injured shoulder throbs, but her mind isn't on her physical pain. She doesn't want to think about the answer to his question. But life has taught her she rarely gets what she wants.

Steve releases a heavy sigh, his broad shoulders rising and falling with it. "Whatever it is... I'll deal with it."

Her jaw clenches, her thoughts wandering to Wanda who would most likely be restrained with the same device she was a few days prior. Her stomach twists at the thought. She closes her eyes for a moment, blinking away her tears.

"They'll be fine, El, it was their decision, I'll deal with it," Steve reassures from his seat.

She replies with a quiet hum, disbelieving. Bucky, understanding her thoughts, reaches over and squeezes her hand gently. "We should have gone by ourselves," she states solemnly. "You should be with them, Steve."

"I didn't sign the accords. I wasn't on their side before anything happened with you two."

"It wouldn't have ended like this, though."

Steve doesn't answer her, instead, turning his conflicted expression to the approaching strip of land in front of them.

"We're here."

                            >>^^<<^^>>

El smiles slightly as the older men reminisce about a woman named Dot. She doesn't interrupt their light conversation, she's glad they're reunited, although she knows it isn't the same Bucky that Steve knew. At least right now.

The bunker is eerily quiet, it's only sound being the soft treading of their footsteps echoing against the bare walls. The place puts her on edge and judging by Bucky's tense posture, he holds the same feeling. The harsh lighting, the cold walls, it's familiar.

A screech from behind them spins them all around. Steve pushes in front of her, dropping to a crouched position, covering them both with his shield. The other soldier stands behind, his gun trained on the elevator doors. El stands bent over slightly beside him, squeezing her fists as the buzz returns to her.

She narrows her eyes as the doors open, exposing a familiar red and gold metal suit. She drops her stance, the others don't.

"You seem a little defensive," Tony remarks.

"It's been a long day," Steve responds slowly, carefully.

"At ease, Soldier. I'm not currently after you."

"Then why are you here?"

"Could be your story's not so crazy. Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here, I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself."

"That sounds like a lot of paper work." Steve lowers his shield, straightening. "It's good to see you too, Tony."

"You too, Cap," he glances to Bucky. "Hey, Manchuria Candidate, you're killing me, there's a truce here. You can drop..."

El places a hand on her friend's arm and he lowers his gun slowly. The pair fall behind the two Avengers as they lead them down the corridor. The reunion isn't bringing any comfort to the girl, as she had expected. "I got heat signatures," the Iron Man glances up.

"How many?"

"Uh, one."

Steve pushes open large metal doors into a vast chamber. A familiar chamber. Bucky's step falters, El's jaw clenches. Despite the rising nausea within them, they move forward. Opposite to Steve and Tony, El averts her gaze from the sleeping Winter Soldiers. She can't get side tracked now.

"If it's any comfort they died in their sleep."

The voice over the speaker whirls her around, her hands raised defensively. Her eyes land on a man standing casually behind the thick glass above them. Her gut twists, her brows furrowing.

"Did you really think I wanted more of you?" He continues. "I'm grateful to them, though. They brought you here."

Steve hurls his shield at the glass but it rebounds uselessly.

"Please Captain; The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."

"I'm betting I could beat that," Tony calls, stepping forward.

"Oh I'm sure you could, Stark, given time. But then, you'd never know why you came."

El shares an unsure glance with Bucky. Steve raises his chin. "You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?"

"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized . . . there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw."

"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?"

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."

"You lost someone," the Captain observes after a long pause.

The man hesitates, his gaze flickering away momentarily. El almost feels sympathy for the man. Then she remembers the people he killed. "I lost everyone. And so will you."

The cracked screen in front of them lights up, a date appearing on the side of the screen. A camera footage.

The man speaks again, more confident this time. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumpled from within? That's dead forever."

"I know that road, what is this?" Tony's eyes don't leave the screen.

El glances at the super soldiers, both are stiffened, a grave expression carved onto their features. She recognises the emotion clouding over Bucky's eyes. Guilt.

No.

She watches the footage silently, her gut wrenching with every movement the Winter Soldier in the footage makes.

Howard Stark.

She risks a glimpse at Tony. His eyes are glassy and his frown deep.

An empire crumpled from within.