Edge of Night

10

Steve flew the Quinjet toward mountains. Bucky and Irina sat behind him.

"What's gonna happen to your friends?" Bucky asked.

Steve stared ahead, heavyhearted. He sighed and shook his head before saying, "Whatever it is... I'll deal with it."

Bucky looked thoughtful before saying, "I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."

Irina shook her head. "Me neither, Steve. I'm not sure I'm worth it all."

Steve glanced around at Bucky and Irina. "What you two did all those years... it wasn't either of you. You two didn't have a choice."

"But I did it," Bucky and Irina said.

Bucky glanced at Irina and took her hand, the two seeking solace in each other and both reassuring the other that what they'd done wasn't who they were deep inside.

Callie looked between her parents and Steve and cuddled deeper into her mother's arms.

HOSPITAL

Rhodey laid inside an CT-scanner. He was in a blue gown covering his body. Tony paced up to Vision who watched Rhodey grave-faced.

"How did this happen?" Tony asked.

"I became distracted," Vision replied.

"I didn't think that was possible."

"Neither did I. "

Tony left Vision looking in on Rhodey. Along the corridor, Tony spotted an equally concerned Natasha.

Tony and Natasha stood on a balcony looking towards a row of trees.

"The doctors say he shattered L4 through S1," Tony said. "Extreme laceration in the spinal cord. Probably looking at some form of paralysis."

"Steve isn't gonna stop," Natasha told him. "If you don't either, Rhodey's gonna be the best case scenario."

"You let them go, Nat."

"We played this wrong."

"'We'? Boy, it must be hard to shake the whole double agent thing, huh? It sticks in the DNA."

"Are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one goddamn second?"

"T'Challa told Ross what you did, so... they're coming for you."

"I'm not the one that needs to watch their back." She walked away.

Tony activated holographic images appearing on his wrist device and asked, "What am I looking at, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Priority upload from Berlin police," F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied.

"Fire up the chopper." Tony flew over a stormy sea in the chopper. He looked surveillance images on a tablet computer.

"The Task Force called for a psychiatrist as soon as Barnes and Barnes were captured. The UN dispatched Dr. Theo Broussard from Geneva within the hour. He was met by this man."

"Did you run facial recognition yet?"

"What do I look like?"

"Uh, I don't know. I've been picturing a redhead."

"You must be thinking of someone else."

"Must be."

"The fake doctor is actually Colonel Helmut Zemo, Sokovian Intelligence." Tony projected the image. "Zemo ran Echo Skorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad."