𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝗜 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗧𝗼 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗲 (𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘈𝘜) ❶

Chapter 7

Pepper put Tony in his car. Natasha put Clint in Jane's car along with Bruce. The three of them needed immediate medical care. Steve had beaten them up brutally. Their faces were covered with blood and bruises.

Tony told Pepper that she mustn't let the medical staff tell the police about this. He gave her his stack of money necessary in bribing everyone.

Doctors checked up their wounds. Tony and Bruce had been ordered to stay in the hospital for the rest of the week and would be let out by next Monday. Clint had been released immediately but had to come back for a checkup the next day.

Natasha took everyone back to their dorm whilst Pepper decided stay at the hospital to take care of Bruce and Tony. Natasha said she would stop by the next day to bring them some fresh clothes and food.

"Why are you doing this? You don't need to protect him." Pepper said as she sat down next to his bed. "Someone like him should be arrested and locked up behind bars. He's even more dangerous than ever." The two geniuses had been put in the same room. Bruce was already asleep.

"I knew him, Pep. I knew the Steve Rogers before this."

"He cannot control his rage, his anger, Tony. He should be sent to a therapist or to rehab."

"Just trust me on this, Pepper."

"What happened exactly? What was the process of saving his life?"

"You don't want to know…"

"Tony, if it is to the point that you and Bruce get beat up like this, I think I need to know." Tony inhaled deeply and sighed,

"Fine."

Tony began from the start. Bruce noticed that Steve was sick and getting weaker every day. He told Tony about this and Tony told his dad. Howard consulted with Bruce's dad and Dr. Erskine. They told him the only way to save Steve's life was to get through this painful process.

"It was so painful that they knew he might not be able to take it. His parents did everything in their power to save their only son, they put Steve through the process because they knew that if they didn't do anything, Steve would die anyway."

"How painful was the process?"

"The worst you can imagine, Pep. They injected him with a lot of serum and not to mention some strange chemical treatment that most adults didn't survive. At some point Steve asked—no, he begged them to stop and let him die."

"And they didn't stop…"

"No… they didn't. They continued and Steve knew the only way to make it all stop was to survive or die. He fought to the end of the process and he survived. He had to recover for three months and after the doctors released him, he began changing and built up his muscle."

"And he transformed into this a-hole." Tony nodded. "Why didn't they tell him the truth about the whole thing?"

"I asked my father not to tell him that Bruce and I were the ones who noticed that he was ill. He didn't want to be treated as a helpless person. He always thought that he was capable of doing anything and everything by himself."

"But that doesn't explain why he turned into a bully, Tony. Did you ever wonder why?"

"A little but he won't tell anyone anything." Tony said, "Maybe he was still angry that they put him through all those painful procedures and didn't let him die. Bruce's the only one he could get his hands on without any fear."

"That's really complicated."

"He tried really hard to forget who he once was and build up his new persona. I think he just wanted to maintain his power. You saw his friends. They're all thugs and your friends reflex who you are." Tony said "But that's just my wild guess."