Helmut Zemo revealed himself to us from the plate glass window of a sealed off room. Protected by the nearly indestructible structure. 

He seemed confident, and composed, his plan unraveling before him. 

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" The Captain convicted as we drew closer to the transparent square pane. 

"I've thought about nothing else for over a year." Zemo divulged. 

"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?" Steve brought up, but once I got a good look at the man behind the window I saw how ordinary he looked. 

He was a simple Sokovian man who had been driven to the brink. He was not a fighter, he was normal with normal human desires. Desires I could tell had been taken away from him. 

He looked perpetually in mourning, like a widow never taking off their black funeral clothes. The blackness itself becoming apart of them. 

"You lost someone." I spoke up, having known the look in his eyes well. 

"You can tell, Mrs. Barnes?" Zemo affirmed. "Except I didn't just lose someone. I lost everyone." 

A boxy old computer flipped on near us. A pixelated date appearing. 

"December 16, 1991."

We huddled around the screen together, a playback of a timeworn surveillance footage revealing a road in black and white. 

"I know that road," Tony piped up. "What the hell is this?!" 

With that the tape started up, and we all watched just stricken with silence. The film spinning within the cassette. 

A car was smashed into the trunk of a tree, it's entire hood bending inward from the sudden impact as a fire began to brew from the damaged engine. 

Pulling up beside the car was a man on a motorcycle, his silver metal arm glinting in the light of a lamppost. 

It was the Winter Soldier, and we all watched as Howard Stark, Tony's father, fell out of the drivers seat, and was groveling at Bucky's feet. 

The Winter Soldier picked Howard up by the tendrils of his grey hair, and bashed his face in with his metal fist. 

In the footage we could hear Maria screaming out her husbands name as the Winter Soldier made his way over to the passenger side to take care of her as well. 

He then strangled her, Tony's mother, easily before taking a shot at the surveillance lens with his gun, ending the film. The computer screen going back to black.

Tony just stared at the screen for what felt like forever, his jaw clenched, his brown iris's brimming with tears. The footage feeling like a bullet ripping straight through his heart. 

I grabbed hold of Bucky's hand again, holding on for dear life, and I could feel him tremble. 

Steve looked like he was on edge, like he was walking on pins and needles while he stood beside the other Avenger. An angered, emotionally unhinged Tony not a pretty sight. Like a ticking time bomb. 

Abruptly, Tony lunged at Bucky, and I was quick to step in front of him just as Steve went to hold Tony back. 

"I'm sorry, Tony..." I repented, knowing how much pain he must be in. 

"HYDRA had control of his mind..." Steve justified as if that would work in the midst of Tony's rage. 

Tony just shoved Steve away before he pointed his iron clad hand straight at me as I continued to stand protectively in front of Bucky. 

"Move, Rebecca. Last warning." Tony barked, his Repulsors glowing, ready to fire. 

"But, Tony-" I denied, but then I felt Bucky push me forcefully aside anyway before taking the hit so I wouldn't have to. 

While their Civil War like fight began I noticed that Helmut Zemo was fleeing, satisfied at the chaos he had created. 

A bit reluctantly, I went out back into the blizzard to follow him, putting my trust in Steve to protect Bucky. 

The galling white storm was commencing, the sub-zero gusts of wintry winds biting at my cheeks. 

Snowflakes swirled in the air, and the frosted Siberian tundra made it hard to breathe. Each breath I took stinging in my nose, and hurting my lungs. 

Sitting indifferently on the rocks was Zemo, overlooking the mountainous landscape. The tips of his ears red from the frigid temperature, and as I walked over to him, the snow crunching beneath my feet, I heard a recording of a woman's voice. 

"He asked me again if you were going to be there. I said I wasn't sure. You should of seen his little face. Just try, okay? I'm going to bed. I love you."  

I listened in on his wife's last message to him, and noticed the pad of his thumb hovering over the delete button, a handgun in his clutches. A bullet set in the chamber. A bullet, I figured, meant for himself. 

Zemo glanced over at me, noticing my presence, and he sniffed, pushing away his tears. 

"When the dust cleared, and the screaming stopped... It took me two days to find their bodies. And, the Avengers? They went home." Helmut disclosed above the arctic wisps, almost like he was defending his actions. 

I sat beside him as we overlooked the cliffs blanketed in white. 

"I understand, Zemo." I confessed, about to reveal some of my own story as well. 

"It was long ago. A simple ambush of a HYDRA train I thought. But, then I had to watch my husband fall from that very train into the abyss of the Swiss Alps. My fingers just barely touching his before he was lost within the icy, unforgiving ravine below. For what felt like an eternity I searched for his body in the snow. My tears freezing to my face as I cried, my body slowing down because of hypothermia," 

Zemo listened to me as I talked, empathy strung across his features. 

"You know, James eventually told me that he could hear me screaming out for him on that day, and even though it doesn't matter now, what's done has been done, I still think about that sometimes. How if only I would of looked harder back then I could of found him before HYDRA did." 

"I'm sorry I had to bring your husband into this," Helmut atoned. "I knew I could never win against them, so I needed a reason to pin them against each other." 

And, with that Zemo cocked his gun, the barrel now against his throat, about to shoot. 

But, I intervened. 

Knocking the silver pistol out of his hands I pinned him down, his face against the snow, and I handcuffed his wrists together. 

"I know you're in a lot of pain, and I've been there, in that bad place too, but... I'm sorry. I'm not going to let you kill yourself." 

I un-clipped the cartridge, emptying the handgun, and threw the weapon aside. 

Then I picked up his phone, which had been buried in the snow, and turned the screen off, choosing not to delete the last recording he had of his wife. 

"You should keep that message. Hold onto every last thing you have left of your loved ones." I told him, slipping the cellphone back into his coats pocket.