35. C.A. Civil War (5)

        Surveillance footage appeared on a screen that was near me, Dad, and Uncle Tony. We walked over to it as the man spoke,

"An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead... forever."

The three of us looked at the road, and Uncle Tony recognized it,

"I know that road. What is this?" Uncle Tony focused on the screen again, and the video played. A car crashed into a tree as someone pulled up on a motorcycle. Even with the blurry footage, I could see the metal arm and knew it was Bucky. I glanced over at him, and he looked at me with sad and guilty eyes. The driver was lying on the ground beside the car, and I knew it was Howard Stark.

"Help my wife. Please. Help," Uncle Tony's dad pleaded. Bucky, the Winter Soldier, grabbed Howard by his hair. "Sergeant Barnes?"

Maria Stark then called out to her husband before the Winter Soldier pounded Howard in the face with his metal fist. I jumped and grabbed Dad's arm as tightly as I could, watching Uncle Tony's reaction.

"Howard!" Mrs Stark called again as the Winter Soldier placed Howard in the driver's seat. The Winter Soldier then walked around the car and strangled Mrs Stark. I couldn't watch and turned away with tears in my eyes. I knew Uncle Tony must have been in pain, but he didn't move or look away. I glanced up at Bucky again, and he silently apologized with his expression. When it was over, Uncle Tony lunged toward Bucky, but Dad and I grabbed him.

"Tony. Tony," Dad repeated, trying to make him think clearly. Uncle Tony looked at me but quickly moved his gaze to Dad with grief and tears in his eyes.

"Did you know?" Uncle Tony asked Dad.

"I didn't know it was him."

"Don't bullshit me, Rogers! Did you know?"

"Yes."

I looked up at Dad with shock and hurt written on my face. It was then that I pieced it together. Zola had said, "accidents will happen", in 2014 when HYDRA was trying to get rid of us. How could I not have realized that the Winter Soldier was their way of causing "accidents"? I felt so stupid and hurt and confused. Uncle Tony stepped back, reengaged his Iron Man helmet, and then punched Dad. I gasped but couldn't move because I was too overwhelmed with fear, shock, and sadness. Bucky and Uncle Tony started fighting and ended up on the other side of the room. I ran to Dad to help him up. Once he was standing, he threw his shield and ran to help Bucky. I didn't want to fight my uncle, so I didn't know what to do. Uncle Tony had tied Dad's legs together, and I stepped up to put a force field between Uncle Tony and Bucky. I yelled,

"Stop!"

Uncle Tony tied my hands and legs together, and I fell. Once I got out, I saw that Uncle Tony had shot a rocket out of his arm, causing an explosion to go off and sending part of the chamber's equipment falling down. I had tried to run over to Bucky and Uncle Tony, but I ended up tripping and curling into a ball with a force field covering me. Bucky was nearby and helped me up when Dad yelled,

"Get out of here! Katie, go with him!"

I hesitated for a moment but followed Bucky. He hit a control panel, and the silo-styled door started to open. Bucky and I leapt from platform to platform to get up. I jumped onto the next platform, and Bucky was about to pull himself up, but Uncle Tony kicked him. They landed a few platforms down, and Uncle Tony was about to blast Bucky. I jumped down and put up a shield.

"Katie, move," Uncle Tony ordered as he aimed again.

"No," I stated firmly and pleadingly. I didn't move and kept my shield up, and he took another shot. Before the blast could hit my shield, Dad landed in front of us with his shield, and the blast rebounded. Uncle Tony landed on a lower platform, and I felt guilty.

"He's not going to stop," Dad said to me and Bucky. "Go."

Bucky and I climbed, and we were almost at the top until a blast hit the giant hinge of the open hatch. The door slammed closed, and we both fell. Bucky grabbed a hold of me as we were falling, and he landed on his back with me on top of him, preventing me from getting too hurt. We both groaned and got up. Uncle Tony flew up to us, and even though Uncle Tony wouldn't ever hurt me, Bucky pushed me behind him and fought. I tried to stop Uncle Tony from putting Bucky in a chokehold, but he tied my legs again.

"Stay out of it, Katie!" Uncle Tony ordered. I was focused on untying my legs when the two of them fell, and I looked down to see Dad fall with them. I jumped down to the platform Bucky landed on and helped him up as Dad spoke to Uncle Tony,

"This isn't going to change what happened."

"I don't care. He killed my mom."

The two started fighting, and I jumped down to stop them despite Bucky's protests. I got in between them and stopped them from hitting each other again, but Uncle Tony clicked a button on his suit, which sent pieces of a dome to trap me against the wall. It had a small window, and I yelled,

"Stop it!"

"I said stay out of it, Katie!" Uncle Tony yelled before Dad attacked him. When Uncle Tony got the upper hand on Dad, and Bucky jumped down with his shield. They all started fighting. I screamed pleas for them to stop and constantly tried to get out of the dome Uncle Tony must have improved after the last time he tried to stop me from joining a team fight. I eventually gave up trying to get out and just screamed pleas over and over again as tears streamed down my face,

"Please! Enough! Please stop!"

At one point, Bucky was able to push Uncle Tony against the wall and tried to destroy the arc-reacter powering his suit. But Uncle Tony shot a blast, and Bucky's metal arm was blown off. Bucky was hit again and knocked out on the floor while Dad and Uncle Tony went at each other. I had tears pouring from my eyes as I watched Uncle Tony knock Dad to the ground. Dad was on his knees and looked over at me while I repeated screams of the word 'please' over and over again. He looked back at Uncle Tony and pleaded,

"He's my friend."

"So was I." Uncle Tony punched Dad and then threw him back toward the gaps in the wall. "Stay down. Final warning."

Dad didn't listen and struggled to his feet while raising his fists,

"I can do this all day."

I let the tears continue to fall as they started fighting again. It wasn't until Dad began hitting Uncle Tony with his shield that I was truly terrified. Instead of hitting Uncle Tony in the face, Dad hit the suit's core which caused the dome I was in to lose power and drop me to the floor. I crawled over to Bucky, and Dad got up and helped Bucky stand. We started to walk away, the tears still falling from my face.

"That shield doesn't belong to you," Uncle Tony shouted, causing Dad to stop walking. "You don't deserve it. My father made that shield!"

Dad dropped the shield and started walking away again while helping Bucky. I turned to look at my uncle with sadness and sorry in my eyes before forcing myself to follow Dad. The tears stopped once we reached the jet, and we met up with T'Challa outside. He and Dad had a conversation while Bucky and I boarded the jet. The first thing we did on the Quinjet was clean ourselves up. Dad flew the jet, following T'Challa, while I helped Bucky with his wounds. Once I had bandaged his arm up the best I could, I started cleaning my cuts. There was one on the back of my left shoulder that I couldn't reach, no matter how hard I tried. I was going to wait until Dad could help me, but Bucky offered,

"Let me."

I gave him a small, sad smile and turned so he could dab it and place a bandaid over the cut.

"Thank you, Uncle Bucky," I said with a shaky and hoarse voice from screaming. He looked shocked, then turned away.

"I don't think I should have that title."

I placed my hand on his and reassured him,

"You saved me today, even when you didn't need to. You are also my dad's best friend and have saved his butt more times than either of you can count. You earned that title before I was even born."

Bucky smiled at me, and we sat down to wait until we arrived in Wakanda. In Wakanda, we met Shuri, T'Challa's sister.

"It's lovely to meet you," I said with a smile.

"You as well, Miss Rogers."

"Please, call me Katie."

guided me to where I could change into my clean clothes. I changed into a pair of black leggings, a blue shirt, and a jean jacket. Shuri then took me to the medical facility where the doctors were preparing to send Bucky into cryo.

"You sure about this?" I asked gently, holding Dad's hand.

"I can't trust my own mind," Bucky answered, "So until they figure out how to get this stuff out of my head, I think going back under is the best thing... for everybody." Bucky gave Dad a hug and pat my shoulder before getting into the machine and going back into cryo. Dad and I left to go look out one of the windows at the amazing view. After a few minutes of silence, Dad spoke,

"Katie, I'm sorry about what happened. I know it must have hurt you to watch that, and I am truly sorry, Baby." Dad put a hand on my cheek, and a single tear fell while I thought about the fight.

"It's ok, Dad. Nobody got seriously injured or killed, and I'm thankful for that."

then came up beside Dad on his left.

"Thank you for this," Dad said to the Wakandan king.

"Your friend and my father. They were both victims. If I can help one of them find peace..."

"You know, If they find out he's here... they'll come for him."

"Let them try."

The three of us then looked out the view before Dad went to go write a letter to Uncle Tony. I hung out with Shuri while waiting for Dad, and we had a great time. It was like having another sister. Later, Dad and I left to break Uncle Sam, Uncle Clint, Scott, and Wanda out of the security prison.

TONY'S POV

I opened the FedEx box and found a letter from Steve. Before I read it, I started thinking of little Katie's face and how broken she looked as she walked away. Trying not to worry about my niece too much, I started reading:

Tony, I'm glad you're back at the compound. I don't like the idea of you rattling around a mansion by yourself. We all need family. That's why I'm thankful for Katie. She misses you and hopes you are doing well. The Avengers are yours, maybe more so than mine. I've been on my own since I was eighteen. I never really fit in anywhere, even in the army. My faith's in people, I guess. Individuals. And I'm happy to say that, for the most part, they haven't let me down. Which is why I can't let them down either. Locks can be replaced, but maybe they shouldn't. I know I hurt you, Tony. I guess I thought by not telling you about your parents, I was sparing you, but I can see now that I was really sparing myself, and I'm sorry. Hopefully, one day you can understand. I wish we agreed on the Accords, I really do. I know you're doing what you believe in, and that's all any of us can do. That's all any of us should. So, no matter what. Katie and I promise you: If you need us- If you need me- I'll be there.

I emptied the box completely and found a black flip phone with Steve's number on it. FRIDAY then informed me,

"Priority call from Secretary Ross. There's been a breach at the Raft prison."

"Yeah, put him through," I instructed, then heard Ross' voice,

"Tony, we have a problem."

"Ah, please hold."

"No. Don't-"

I cut him off by pressing the hold button and then looked back at the flip phone. If I ever really needed them, I could call, and they'd be there.

Dad and I arrived at the Raft Prison. We got through, knocking out anyone in our way and soon arrived in the control room. Everyone tried to stop us, but we knocked them out. I mainly used my force fields and apologized in advance before hitting anyone. Dad and I were dressed in casual attire that was easy to fight in since we didn't want to wear our suits. Once everyone was knocked out, we walked into the cell area. Sam turned around and saw us first, smiling. Dad and I smirked at each other before breaking the four of them out.

We took Uncle Clint and Scott home to their families, knowing the government would deal with them somehow and hoping Uncle Tony would help out. Wanda and Uncle Sam came with us, and Aunt Nat soon joined. Our plan was to move from city to city, staying in the shadows until Uncle Tony needed us.