The Viper || BUCKY BARNES [2]

11 ― The Accords

2016 ― Upstate New York

After Ross left, a thick silence settled over the room like smoke after a battlefield. The Avengers remained gathered, but none of them looked at each other. The tension hadn't left with Ross—it had only grown heavier in his absence.

Holland sat rigid in her chair, arms crossed tightly over her chest. Her jaw clenched, her leg bouncing beneath the table. She wasn't just frustrated—she was furious. And afraid. She knew where this kind of oversight led. She had lived it. Helped build it. She'd helped create S.H.I.E.L.D. once, with the best of intentions, believing it could protect the world better than anyone else. But the parasite that had been HYDRA had slithered in through the cracks, unseen and insidious, corrupting everything from within. And now they were being asked to hand over the reins again, to trust another system that would inevitably have its own agenda, its own lies, its own secrets.

She wasn't going through that again. She refused to stand by and let someone else put chains around them under the guise of structure.

Steve sat at the table, silently flipping through the Accords with an expression that teetered between disapproval and dread. Across from him, Sam and Rhodey were already mid-argument, voices rising just enough to reflect the mounting pressure.

"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor... which is one more than you have," Rhodey said. Holland's eyes narrowed. She rolled her eyes hard enough that it could've echoed. Seriously? Of all the things to use as leverage—medals? As if those shiny tokens meant anything in the face of what they'd lived through. People like Ross collected medals and gave orders. People like them fought. Bled. Lost.

"So, let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?" Sam asked, his tone laced with justified suspicion.

"He's right," Holland added, her voice sharp and unwavering. She didn't need to elaborate. Anyone paying attention to history should've known where her fear came from.

"117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like, no, that's cool, we got it," Rhodes said, his frustration mounting.

"How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam shot back, narrowing his eyes at Rhodey. Holland couldn't help but glance between them. Sam had a point—either you were for this or you weren't. There was no middle when it came to being shackled or free.

The room quieted as Vision finally spoke, his calm voice cutting through the tension. "I have an equation."

"Oh, this will clear it up," Sam muttered under his breath, sarcastic but tired. Everyone looked to Vision, waiting to see what logic he was about to drop into the emotional chaos of the room.

"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man... the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during the same period... the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate," Vision stated, his voice calm and even as his hands folded behind his back.

Steve glanced up from the thick stack of papers, the Accords open in front of him. "Are you saying it's our fault?" he asked, wary.

"I'm saying, there may be a casualty," Vision replied. "Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict, and conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight... Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Boom," Rhodey muttered from his corner, almost smug.

Holland's hands clenched around her armrests as her jaw tightened. "That's still not our fault," she snapped. "A lot of us were not asked to be made this way. I didn't personally go ask HYDRA to run experiments on me. Nat didn't ask to go through what she went through. We didn't ask for this strength, and we don't ask for these people to come after us." Her voice wavered with something deeper—raw memory, wounds still healing. "You think oversight should be taken into consideration? None of you knows what it feels like to be underneath someone else's control, having to bend to someone else's will, your choices not being your own... But please, by all means, if that's the future you want, go ahead and sign yourselves over."