delicate | tony stark's daughter (II) ✓

SIXTEEN

chapter sixteen;
december 16, 1991

LUCY TELEPORTED HERSELF AND TONY TO THE HYDRA BASE. As soon as she arrived, she felt the piercing cold feeling through her skin. "God, it's freezing out here" she said. "FRIDAY activate the heater" she said.

"Activating heater installment" FRIDAY said. Lucy nodded as she felt the warmth through her suit.

"You're welcome" Tony said. Lucy turned to him and smiled. "Come on, let's go" he said. Lucy followed him inside the base. It gave her flashbacks of her days in a HYDRA base. All of their bases seemed to have the same cold, hauntingly dark walls. It gave her shivers just thinking about it. "I found two heat signatures" he said.

"Where?" she asked. Tony stopped at an elevator in front of them.

"Down there" he pointed at it. Lucy nodded and took his hand. "What are you doing?" he asked, pulling his hand away. Lucy furrowed her eyebrows.

"Teleporting us down there...?" she said. Tony shook his head.

"No. I'm making an entrance" he said. Lucy groaned.

"You're seriously thinking about entrance right now?" she asked. Tony nodded.

"Of course! It's the most important part of every fight!" he said. Lucy shook her head.

"Whatever. I'm getting out of here" she said before she closed her eyes and disappeared from Tony's view. She teleported down the elevator and she could see Steve and Barnes in front of her. "HI!" she yelled, startling the two of them.

The two soldiers turned to her with their weapon. She sniffled a laugh as she noticed their shocked faces. "Lucy?! What the hell are you doing here?" Steve asked, lowering his shield.

"To get to you" she stated.

"Alone?" Steve asked. She shook her head.

"Dad's behind that door, he said he wanted to make an entrance" she said, rolling her eyes. She could hear the sound of the door creaking behind her. As she heard the elevator stopped, she saw Tony opening the elevator door with his hand. Lucy rolled her eyes at him.

Steve walked closer to the two Starks with his shield in his hand. "You seem a little defensive" he said. Steve nodded.

"It's been a long day" he replied.

"Don't worry, we're not after you" Lucy stated.

"Then why are you here?" he asked.

"Could be your story's not so crazy. Ross has no idea we're here, I'd like to keep it that way" Tony stated. "Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself" he said.

"That sounds like a lot of paperwork" Steve said. Tony scoffed and Steve lowered his shield. "It's good to see you, Tony" he said. Tony nodded.

"You too, Cap" he replied. Lucy smiled at the two. Maybe she's not losing her family after all.

"Aweee" she whispered. Both Tony and Steve turned to her, rolling their eyes. "Ruined the moment. Right. Sorry" she said, holding a thumbs up. Tony turned to Barnes who's still holding his gun up.

"Hey. Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop it" he said. Steve gestured him to lower his weapon, and he did as follows. Lucy followed them through the halls of the base. It was until Tony found a heat signature and they all stopped at a dark big area.

As soon as they stepped in, some of the lights went on, revealing large tanks with smoke coming out of it. Lucy soon realized that inside of each tank were people. "What the hell?" she whispered.

"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep" a voice boomed through the speakers. Lucy had a pretty good feeling it was Helmut Zemo. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?" the voice asked. Her footsteps echoed throughout the room. White orbs started to form in her palm. "I'm grateful for them, though. They brought you here" he said.

A light in front of them turned on, revealing Zemo sitting inside of the chamber. Tony pointed his palm at it, Lucy doing the same. Steve threw his shield towards him just for it to swing right back. "Please, Captain" he scoffed. "The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets"

"I'm betting I can beat that" Tony said.

"Oh, I'm sure you can Mr. Stark" Zemo replied. "But then you'll never know why you're here"

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here" Lucy stated, stepping forward. Steve was already walking way ahead of her. "Why? You're acting like phones and emails don't exist" she added.

Zemo turned to her, she glared at him as he shifted his eyes to Steve who's standing in front of him. "I've thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you, I followed you" he said. Lucy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "But, now that you're standing here I just realized... there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes" he said. Zemo chuckled. "How nice to find a flaw"

"You're a Sokovian. Is that what this is about?" Steve asked. Zemo shook his head.

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

Steve nodded. "You lost someone" he said. Zemo nodded and clicked his tongue.

"I lost everyone" he said. "And so will you" he said. The small screen in front of him lit up, showing a text written in Russian. Lucy furrowed her eyebrows and peeked to see it curiously, Tony following next to her. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But, one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever" he said.

A recording of a road was shown on the screen. Lucy furrowed her eyebrows. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, turning to Zemo. He smirked in reply and Lucy turned back to the screen in front of her. In the left bottom corner showed a date; December 16, 1991.

She knew that date. It's her grandparents' death day. She has never known her grandparents. All she knows of them is by pictures and the occasional days where Tony would take her to their cemetery. "I know that road" Tony said.

"I know that date" she whispered. She knew her grandparents died in a car crash, and if Tony knows the road shown on the screen along with the date, she had a feeling she knew what's coming.

"What's this?" Tony asked. Zemo didn't respond. Lucy's eyes were glued on the screen. She knew what was coming, but as she saw the car driving at a high speed towards the tree, causing it to crash, a gasp still manages to escape her lips. Tony pulled her into a hug, but her eyes were still focused on the screen.

She could see a man in a motorcycle turning back to the car, and Howard was already crawling out of his car. "Help my wife" he whimpered. Tears started to form in Lucy's eyes. The man got off of his motorcycle and walked over to Howard, grabbing him by his head. "Sergeant Barnes" he said. Lucy's eyes widened.

She turned to Barnes who had lowered his weapon, avoiding her gaze. Lucy's eyes shifted back to the screen where Barnes was already beating Howard up with Maria's scream in the background. Tony pulled Lucy in, turning her head away from the screen. "Don't look" he whispered.

But, Lucy could hear everything. Starting from her grandmother's scream for help to her last breath when Barnes choked her to death. The clip ended by the gunshot that was fired by Barnes towards the camera. Lucy pulled away from Tony and turned to Barnes. She shot glares at him before sending a surge of energy, knocking him down. "Lucy" Steve stopped as he grabbed her hand.

She turned to him, teary-eyed, but anger was boiling in her eyes. "Did you know?" she asked, her voice breaking.

"I didn't know it was him" Steve said. She knew he's lying.

"Don't bullshit me, Rogers! Did you know?!" Tony demanded. Steve sighed.

"Yes" he said. Lucy's breath hitched, her throat felt dry. It felt like the world around her crumbled. Steve has been a big part in her life. He was her family. Getting stabbed in the back is one thing, but getting stabbed in the back by someone you care about is another thing.

Lucy nodded, her eyes filled with tears. She turned to Steve, the feeling of hurt painted on her face. "I can't believe I even considered you as my family"