"What are we going to do if my dad shows up?" a nervous Mazzy asks, fidgeting with her hands as she watches Steve and Bucky prepare for the fight they're about to engage in with the fake psychiatrist.

Steve slides his shield into its slot on his back. "He doesn't know where we are, Maz."

"But what if he finds out?" Mazzy asks in a voice that sounds a bit more whiny than questioning. She doesn't like feeling or acting like a baby, but she's not trying to. She's just scared. She's usually awfully good at putting on that snarky Stark persona, but the longer she hides from her own dad, the harder it gets to keep pretending she's okay. "Or what if the government finds us? Am I gonna go to jail or something?"

It's honestly ridiculous that she even has to worry about that, but Steve tries not to let the anger he feels about it show. "No one's gonna let that happen," he says quite reassuringly.

Mazzy nods in understanding, though she is not 100% sure how exactly they can make sure that doesn't happen. Steve and Bucky are incredibly strong individuals, sure, but the government has power in numbers. And weapons. They have so many weapons.

Bucky grabs a gun from the hidden compartment in the wall of the jet and Mazzy stares at the red star on his arm. Stars have always been something that gave her a weird feeling. They were incredibly familiar, she always thought, but she usually would pay it no mind because of course stars are familiar. They're stars. But it wasn't just the familiar feeling you get when you hear a distant train whistle deep into the night or the hoots of a mourning dove in early summer mornings.

It was a different feeling of familiarity. Sort of like that weird, alienating feeling that makes you feel like you're floating outside of your body. The one that makes her heart feel like someone is squeezing it like a stress ball and your head feels heavy. When your body heats up and you're not sure if you can breathe. Like when you're there, in the moment, and suddenly you realize that the weird thing you dreamt about four months ago is about to happen.

Familiarity but comfortless.

When he turns around, Bucky catches Mazzy's empty-eyed stare and shoots her a concerned glance. He understands that this whole situation is hard for her in the first place, but he knows the look on her face all too well. He has several vague, yet still-existing memories of her staring at him in the same way each time Hydra tore him away and put him back into cryogenic freeze.

"Mazzy?" he says gently, making her eyes tear from his metal arm to look at his face.

Truthfully, memories haven't stopped rushing into Mazzy's brain since they left that abandoned factory. She keeps trying to ignore them, trying to save her questions for another time because she knows there are more pressing issues right now, but as her fear grows, so does her impatience.

"You couldn't remember things," she murmurs somewhat unsurely. Bucky looks sad, but he gives her a nod. "You were James. And they would take you away, and when you finally came back, you couldn't remember. I had to keep reminding you."

"Yeah." Bucky confirms it.

"So do you remember now?"

Again, Bucky nods. "Memories come back to me over time." Mostly in nightmares.

Mazzy runs her teeth over her lip. "So I'm gonna keep remembering things? More and more?"

Her voice sounds desperate for him to say no, but he can't lie. "Probably," he answers, his voice hoarse.

"Oh," Mazzy whispers as her gaze drops to the ground.

Steve gives Mazzy's shoulder a comforting squeeze, flashing a soft smile that he hopes will make her a bit less afraid. "We'll be back as soon as we can. Stay in the jet," he says, and Mazzy nods, though her gaze is still stuck to the floor. The back of the jet whirs open, slowly but surely, and Steve looks over at Bucky, who stands beside him. "Ready?"

Bucky nods. Ready as he can be.

The silence of the jet, aside from the opening door, is heavy. Steve can't stand it. "You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of a freezer truck?"

"Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?" A just barely noticeable smile graces Bucky's face, and Steve suddenly feels warm.

"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for a redhead," Steve reminds him.

The just barely noticeable smile cracks open into a real one. "What was her name again?" he asks.

"Dolores. You called her Dot."

Mazzy thinks this conversation is dumb and a waste of time. She can't imagine Bucky and Steve being young. Or having crushes on girls. Especially redheads named Dolores. Sounds like the name of someone who kidnaps you and bakes you into a pie or something.

"She's gotta be a hundred years old right now," Bucky realizes, shaking his head to himself.

Steve raises his eyebrows, placing a hand on Bucky's shoulder. "So are we, pal," he says. Bucky smiles back at him, his hand meeting Steve's own shoulder, and Steve tears his eyes away. "Alright," he huffs out.

"Good luck, grandpas," Mazzy teases just before Steve and Bucky leave the Quinjet.

The moment the door closes, Mazzy's somewhat amused smile fades away. She is now officially and totally alone with her thoughts. That isn't always the best thing for anyone, but it especially isn't the best thing for Mazzy because she just can't stop remembering things. The memories are a poison and the silence is a catalyst.

She's been in this situation before. The first time the Avengers all fought together, back in New York. She was told to stay in the Quinjet, but she just couldn't stand to stay in the Quinjet, so she didn't. Things worked out that time around, didn't they? They can work again.

No, Mazzy mentally scolds herself, you're mature and old now. You're supposed to listen to what they say.

She gets up off of her seat and begins to wander around the lonely jet. Maybe that will distract her from the Remembering. Distractions are always good. So she opens up any compartment she lays her eyes on, kicks lightly at the walls, and studies the control board for future reference or something. The distraction works for a little while, but not for long. The more bored she gets, the louder the noise in her head gets, and the louder the noise in her head gets, the more real it all feels.

As her chest begins to feel tight, Mazzy stops in the center of the Quinjet, presses her hand against her chest, closes her eyes, and takes slow and deep breaths.

Sometimes, a little while after the events that happened in New York, Mazzy would see her dad getting these sudden waves of wide-eyed breathlessness. She has never been sure what exactly was happening to him when these waves would hit him, but they scared her sometimes. He would hold his chest, and he would take coordinated breaths, and sometimes he would splash his face with cold water.

Right now, for Mazzy, the careful breathing isn't doing the trick. She scrunches her nose up.

Maybe cold would help.

Mazzy's eyes open again and she is met with the back door of the Quinjet. She can hear the whistling of the cool, snowy breeze outside. She imagines the cool sensation of snow hitting her cheeks, craving the sting.

It would be fine if she just went outside to feel the snow, wouldn't it? It's not like she's planning on going inside. It'll be fine.

So, Mazzy rushes towards the door, presses the button she now knows to be the door-opening button and not the light-turning-on button, and steps out into the brisk, wintry weather. When her feet hit the snow, it seeps through her canvas-made shoes, soaking her socks and cooling her toes first. She turns towards the wind and snowflakes bite at her cheeks. Crouching down, she scoops up a handful of snow and presses it against the back of her neck. A shiver runs down her spine.

As the cold freezes the most fragile parts of her, Mazzy closes her eyes and counts to ten. When she opens them back up again, she sees the dark silhouette of a man.

Mazzy rushes back into the Quinjet, peeking out through the door with her body hidden behind the wall. It's that cat man from the airport. T'Challa. The Black Panther. Mazzy watches as he slips inside the same doors Bucky and Steve had disappeared into only ten or so minutes ago.

Oh, gosh. They're not going to see or hear him coming. He still thinks that the Winter Soldier killed his father. He's going to kill Bucky.

Really, Mazzy has no choice but to take one of the guns she had found while digging through the Quinjet and rush after the silhouette.

Mazzy isn't an idiot, luckily, so she makes sure not to make her presence obvious to the man she's following. When T'Challa gets to the doors, Mazzy makes sure she's out of sight, just in case he happens to look behind him before going in. The entrance is hidden, surrounded by rocks, so Mazzy sinks down behind one of the rocks and listens as carefully as she can for the sound of the doors shutting or for any other sign that T'Challa has gone inside.

What she hears instead, though, is not at all pleasing.

Sitting there in the snow, hidden behind a bunch of rocks, Mazzy hears the faint sound of thrusters. Her dad's thrusters. On the Iron Man suit. And it is getting louder and louder every second until she hears him land. Mazzy sinks lower behind the rocks, holding her hand against her mouth.

The snow crunches, crunches, crunches with every step Tony takes, and if Mazzy focuses hard enough, she's able to make out the fact that he's walking toward the Quinjet.

Thank God she's not inside.

Tony seems to linger around the jet. Or maybe he's stepped inside, taking a quick look around to make sure Mazzy isn't there. Mazzy can't really tell. All she can tell is that she hasn't heard the snow crunch anymore. At least, not until the steps start again, getting closer and closer. For a few seconds, Mazzy is positive she's been caught, but relief washes over her when the steps pass her place and continue toward the entrance.

As soon as the crunching of the snow stops and the door creaks closed, Mazzy starts to count to sixty in her head, and when she's finished, she stands up, gathers up her courage, and heads inside.

The doors are really far more heavy than necessary. Well, maybe it is necessary, considering several super soldiers are being housed in ice on the inside. The point is, though, that the door is heavier than Mazzy would like it to be. And louder, too. Still, she uses all the strength she can muster up and she makes her way inside.

Inside, Mazzy is met with a dark and gloomy hallway. She has absolutely no idea where Steve and Bucky are initially, but as soon as she sees that the only thing the hallway leads to is an old, creeky elevator, she thinks it's safe to assume that they took the elevator down.

But her dad has just taken the elevator down, too, which means that, one, the elevator hasn't yet returned to its original position, and two, her dad could still be lingering around the door at the bottom.

So Mazzy counts to sixty again.

It feels like the longest sixty seconds of her whole entire life, to be honest, but she waits them out. When the minute is over, Mazzy hesitantly steps inside the elevator. She gets to the bottom and steps out with the gun held tightly in her left hand, grateful to see that nobody, especially none of the super soldiers that fake psychiatrist is supposedly here to wake up, is waiting for her at the bottom.

The hallways down here are even more creepy than the one up above. Mazzy creeps through them carefully and quietly. She has done a lot of sneaking around in her life, so this isn't anything new. She makes sure to check around corners and doorways before passing them and she makes sure to check behind her every now and then. She does this until she finds who she's looking for.

Steve and Bucky are in a big, dimly lit room. Surrounding them are the soldiers they thought the psychiatrist was there to wake up, but they aren't awake. They have bullet holes in their heads instead. Mazzy's stomach twists.

That's not the most surprising bit, though. The most surprising bit is that her dad stands with them. They're not fighting or arguing or anything. They're standing together, looking up at a small window of a chamber. If Mazzy squints her eyes, she's able to make out the psychiatrist's face.

How is Mazzy supposed to warn Bucky and Steve that the Black Panther is there without being caught by her father?

Mazzy can hear the very faint voice of the psychiatrist speaking to Steve and the others. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within?" A screen lights up near Tony. "That's dead. Forever."

Tony steps closer to the screen, looking between it and the psychiatrist. Mazzy wishes she could see what's on the screen, but all she can see is a fragile look on her father's face as he murmurs, "I know that road."

Bucky seems to be shrinking in on himself, like he knows something the others don't.

"What is this?" Tony shouts up at the man in the chamber. No answer is given, but there isn't really any other answer but the one Tony already knows. It's the road his mother and father died on.

Still peeking out from a doorway, Mazzy watches as her dad's face drops while Steve and Bucky stare at him, seemingly waiting for some kind of reaction.

Bucky's eyes dart to the floor, his face twitching into a guilty frown, and then he looks around the room. Anywhere but on the computer screen. And as his gaze wanders shakily around the room, it eventually lands on Mazzy, who stares back at him with a confused and scared look that only makes him feel worse.

Audio plays from the speaker.

A man's voice asking, "Sergeant Barnes?"

A woman crying, "Howard!"

Howard. That's Mazzy's grandfather's name. She never got to meet him, only knowing him from the stories her dad sometimes tells. Her grandmother was named Maria. The stories about her are always much fonder than those about Howard.

Slamming sounds come from the speaker, followed by another desperate, "Howard!" Then, choked whimpering. And silence.

Mazzy watches as her father's face morphs from brokenheartedness into pure rage.

Bucky's eyes are rimmed with tears and he flinches in fear when Tony turns toward him.

"No, Tony!" Steve says, catching the man's arm.

Slowly, Tony looks back at him. "Did you know?" he whispers.

"I didn't know it was him."

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

It takes longer for Steve to answer this time, but when he does, it's a stiff, "Yes."

Tony breaks away from Steve, staring angrily at the ground as he fights back against the tears in his eyes. Mazzy's heart screams at her to comfort him, but her brain reminds her that she can't. Guilt floods her insides until she's nearly crying, too.

Seeing her dad cry is one of the scariest things Mazzy has ever experienced.

There is nothing quite like it. Watching the strongest person you know, the person who holds you together and keeps your world spinning, break down into nothing more than a hollowed-out version of themself. Thinking about all the times they've wiped tears from your cheeks as the same salty, liquid pain floods their own eyes.

Mazzy presses her teeth against her lip, wondering what could possibly be the right thing to do. Maybe, after all she's done, she should just give it all up. After all the effort she's gone to to keep away from her dad, all she wants to do right now is hug him.

Tony's tense voice breaks the heavy silence. "Where's my daughter?"

Steve sighs, well aware that Tony isn't going to like his next words, but knowing that he still has to say them for Mazzy's sake. "I can't tell you that," he whispers.

"Why? Your buddy kill her, too?"

"What?"

"Where is she?"

When the only thing Tony is met with is silence, he lets the rage take control of him. His arm lashes out, hitting Steve and sending him falling to the ground. Bucky instinctively raises his weapon to defend him, but Tony blasts his gun before he gets the chance to use it. Mazzy remains hidden, watching with her eyes wide and her hand pressed over her mouth. Then, Tony picks Bucky up and slams him against the ground, pinning his arms down. Steve has recovered now, though, and is quick to come to Bucky's defense.

Mazzy has no idea what to do. She doesn't understand where her father stands on any of this. And, besides, dads can be scary in a way no one else can, even if they have never been violent towards you in the past.

It's just that fathers are the protectors. When someone is threatening to harm you or you are afraid, your dad is there to keep you safe and comfort you like no one else is. So when your dad gets angry, when he loses control, your protector is who you feel you need protection from, but there is no one there to provide it anymore. It's just you, the violence, and the fear.

The fight doesn't take long to turn to disaster. Soon, Mazzy hears the sound of destruction; structures creaking and crashing into the ground. Before she gets the chance to be brave and round the corner to see what has happened, she is met with Bucky grabbing onto her arms.

"You need to get out of here. It's not safe," Bucky tells her, fighting to catch his breath.

A thousand words whirl through Mazzy's mind but she can't get herself to say any of them. All she can manage to do is shake her head. Her dad is trying to kill him. She has to try and stop this.

"It's not safe, Maz. This place is crumbling. Come on." Bucky doesn't leave her any choice. He grabs tightly onto her hand and begins to run.

They run through a hallway and up a short flight of stairs until they are met with a tall, cylindrical exit that they can only guess was used for aerial vehicles. No matter what it was used for, it doesn't have stairs, only metal ledges poking out from each floor. Bucky starts climbing up, helping Mazzy along with him, but Tony isn't far behind them. When he reaches the room, he sends a blast up in Bucky's direction.

Mazzy's throat feels like she's swallowed dry grass clippings, but no matter how hoarse her voice sounds, she manages to shout down at her dad. "Stop it! Please, Dad, stop it!"

From the next jump over, Bucky reaches out for Mazzy. Before she can jump after him, Tony shoots at his arm. Despite the hindrance, Bucky reaches out one more time, and this time, Tony's shot is blocked by Steve's shield, repulsing the blast right back at him.

"He's not gonna stop. Go," Steve says to Bucky.

"Mazzy," Bucky says, turning to her.

She shakes her head. "Go. Faster without me," she tells him. "Be careful. The Black Panther. I saw him. He's here." And she is scared. She doesn't want to face her father and she doesn't want to go back home, but more than anything, she wants Bucky to make it out of this place alive. So she has to be brave. There is no other choice. "Go now!" Mazzy shouts, signing the words alongside them.

And he does.

Mazzy turns to Steve for instructions. She doesn't know what to do. "Steve!"

"You were supposed to stay in the jet," Steve says through heavy breaths.

"I had to warn you. King T'Challa's here to kill Bucky. I saw him," she explains, pushing her curls away from her face.

Steve nods in understanding. "Just keep going. Get to safety," he says.

Mazzy gives a firm nod and keeps on climbing. Bucky is far ahead of her now, and that's a good thing. The further he is from Tony the better. Mazzy just keeps climbing, trying to ignore the sounds of Steve and her dad fighting below. It doesn't work out well, though, because just as Bucky is about to reach the top and make his escape, a small missile hits the hinge of the door and it slams shut, locking them all inside.

"No!" Mazzy heaves out, tearing brimming at her eyes. She gives up on climbing when she sees her dad flying up to Bucky. "Stop it! Dad! Stop it!" she screams as loudly as she can manage.

Tony doesn't listen. He fights with Bucky and Steve until all three of them go falling down to the cold, cement floors.

If she listens very carefully, Mazzy can hear the sounds of their voices below, though she can't make out what they're saying. And, of course, it's all followed by the fighting. The anger, and the violence, and the fighting, and it never ends. Mazzy can scream all she wants for them to stop, for her dad to listen, but it doesn't stop.

She's scared. Not just scared, but terrified. Her hands can't stop shaking and she can't get herself to stop crying. All she can think to do is to climb back down from her spot on the platform, so that's what she does. Maybe when she gets to the bottom, she can stop them. Maybe she can get her dad to listen to her. Maybe she can do something if she gets down to them.

So down, down, down Mazzy climbs, her ears ringing and her muscles burning with exhaustion she forces herself to ignore.

When Mazzy finally gets to the bottom, her tears nipping at her cheeks from the cold, she sees Bucky lying on the ground, his metal arm blasted clean off. Then, she sees a bloody Steve, looming over her father, sending punch after punch at his face. Steve picks up his shield and bashes it against the Iron Man mask, knocking it off of Tony's face.

"Dad!" Mazzy cries out when she sees the blood splattered across his face.

Steve lifts his shield high in the air, his teeth clenched and his chest heaving, and Tony hides his face with his arms, unsure if this is the moment his friend is going to kill him.

"Get off of him!" Mazzy shrieks in fear as she rushes towards the two men. "Steve! You're gonna kill him!"

Steve doesn't listen. But he doesn't kill Tony either. His shield smashes straight into the arc reactor in Tony's chest and the Iron Man suit powers down.

Mazzy slams against Steve in an attempt to shove him off of her dad, but it doesn't do much. Tony stares up at Steve with furious, yet horrified eyes, and Steve just breathes and breathes, his eyes squeezed shut. He can't fully hear the sound of Mazzy's crying over the screaming in his mind and the numbness in his body blocks out the hits she's landing on his arm.

"You were supposed to help me!" Mazzy screams at him. She never wanted this. She only wanted safety. Not her father lying bloody and beaten in the cold.

Steve stands up, tears his shield from the arc reactor, helps Bucky up, and begins to leave.

"That shield doesn't belong to you. You don't deserve it," Tony spits.

Steve doesn't listen.

"My father made that shield!"

Steve stops. He lets his shield drop to the ground with a loud bang. And then he's gone.

Tony leans back against the cement and Mazzy desperately wipes the blood from his face.

The girl turns back to see Bucky and Steve walking away. "I hate you, Steve! I hate you!" she cries.

She was supposed to be able to trust them. She was supposed to be with them, getting her and Bucky to safety, the cruelty of the world. But instead, Steve had come inches from killing her father. And now they are leaving without her.

Mazzy turns back to her dad and lays against his chest, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she whispers. Sorry for all the killing she's done, sorry for running away, sorry for fighting against him, sorry for not trusting him, sorry for everything she's ever done wrong, and more.

There are a thousand things Tony wants to say, but he can't bring himself to say any of them. He just holds her and breathes.

💫⭐️💫⭐️

I have reworked the fighting in this chapter like fifty times and I still don't like it but I am posting it anyway because if I don't now then I will be stuck on this chapter forever and ever.