Inside the Helicarrier, Steve was confronted by Bucky and Connie.
"People are gonna die, Buck, Connie," Steve said. "I can't let that happen." Bucky and Connie stared at him coldly. "Please, don't make me do this." Seeing Bucky and Connie wouldn't back down, Steve threw his shield at them and they started battling each other. As they fought, Steve managed to bring up the targeting blade system, but as Bucky and Connie attacked him, the chip fell from Steve's hand.
The three continued fighting, dropping down levels. Bucky and Connie stabbed Steve in the right shoulder and right arm and he pulled out the knives with a yell.
"Drop it! Drop it!" Steve yelled as Bucky continued to hold the chip, Steve broke his arm and held onto his throat until he passed out and let go of the chip. Connie reached for the chip, but Steve kicked her back. Steve then grabbed the chip and rushed off.
Bucky and Connie shot, shooting Steve in the left leg as he climbed up.
"Thirty seconds, Cap," Hill warned.
"Stand by," Steve said as he got the chip out. "Charlie..." Connie and Bucky shot Steve in the stomach and he fell.
HELICARRIER BRIDGE
Charlie Weapons Tech said, "Target saturation reached. All targets assigned."
Charlie XO instructed, "Fire when ready."
"Firing in, three, two, one." At that moment, Steve managed to get up and place the chip in the Helicarrier's targeting blade overriding the system and locked it down.
"Charlie locked," Steve said as he watched the targets go offline.
"Where are the targets?" Charlie XO asked. "Where are the targets?"
"Okay, Cap, get out of there," Maria instructed as she got the Helicarriers weapon targets to open fire upon each other.
"Fire now," Steve ordered.
"But, Steve..."
"Do it! Do it now!"
Reluctantly, Hill made the Helicarriers open fire on each other. Steve, still inside the Helicarrier, looked at Bucky and Connie below him. Back at the Triskelion, Pierce watched the Helicarriers as they were firing at each other.
Just then, one Helicarrier crashed into a dam beneath the Triskelion.
As the Helicarrier continued to fall with Steve, the Impossible Girl and the Winter Soldier inside, at the Triskelion, Sam and Rumlow continued to fight each other.
Steve helped Bucky and Connie out from being trapped under some fallen rubble.
"You two know me," Steve said.
Bucky and Connie lashed out at Steve in anger and yelled, "No, I don't!"
"Bucky, you've known me your whole life. Connie, you've known me since the night of the Stark Expo," Steve told them. Bucky and Connie hit Steve, but Steve chose not to fight back. "Your name is James Buchanan Barnes." He turned to Rosie. "Your name is Connie May Donovan." Bucky and Connie hit Steve again.
"Shut up!" Steve took off his mask and dropped his shield out of the Helicarrier.
"I'm not gonna fight you two. You're my friends." Bucky and Connie pushed Steve to the ground.
"You're my mission," Bucky and Connie told him as they mercilessly punched Steve repeatedly across the face. "You're my mission!"
"Then finish it," Steve told him. Bucky and Connie hesitated, holding their fists up. "'Cause I'm with you to the end of the line." He focused on Connie. "Friends always help each other."
Bucky and Connie looked at Steve as if they were starting to remember. The bottom of the Helicarrier fell, sending Steve down into the river below. Bucky and Connie watched from the Helicarrier, then an unconscious Steve was being pulled out of the water and dragged onto the shore by Bucky. When they saw he was still breathing, he and Connie turned and walked away.
HOSPITAL ROOM
In a room guarded by two armed agents, Steve woke up in a bed to hear Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man playing with Sam sitting next to his bed.
"On your left," Steve said and Sam looked at him and smiled.
---
Fury was wearing sunglasses and a hoodie. He met Steve and Sam at a cemetery at his own grave before saying, "So, you've experienced this sort of thing before?"
"You get used to it," Steve replied.
Fury's gravestone bore the epitaph 'The path of the righteous man. Ezekiel 25:17'.
"We've been data-mining HYDRA's files," Fury informed. "Looks like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship. I'm headed to Europe tonight, wanted to ask if you'd come."
"There's something I gotta do first," Steve said.
"How about you, Wilson? Could use a man with your abilities."
"I'm more of a soldier than a spy," Sam answered.
"All right then." Sam and Steve shook Fury's hand. "Anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me right here." Fury looked at his gravestone and walked away. Natasha joined Steve and Sam.
"You should be honored, that's about as close as he gets to saying thank you," Natasha said.
"Not going with him?" Steve asked.
"No."
"Not staying here?"
"I blew all my covers, I gotta go figure out a new one."
"That might take a while."
"I'm counting on it. Those things you asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev." She handed Steve two files titled 'дело No. 17' (file No. 17) and 'дело No. 20' (file No. 20) Will you do me a favor? Call that nurse."
"She's not a nurse."
"And you're not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."
"What was her name again?"
"Sharon. She's nice." She kissed Steve on the cheek and turned to walk away. "Be careful, Steve. You might not want to pull on those threads." She nodded to the files. As Natasha walked away, Steve opened the files, which were about Bucky and Connie and the information regarding his Winter Soldier and her Impossible Girl transformation.
Sam walked over to Steve and asked, "You're going after them?"
"You don't have to come with me," Steve told him.
"I know. When do we start?"
SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM - CAPTAIN AMERICA EXHIBIT
Bucky and Connie, in civilian clothes, stared pensively at the displays about themselves.
YOU ARE READING
Time Will Tell
ActionOne night in 1943 changed her life. Her life had always been a simple one. But a dashing Sergeant asked her to be his date and to take her friend along for his friend. She supposed the day after the Expo was where it all went wrong. Time is a forc...