❨ 𝑽𝑰𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶                . . .                   𝑏𝘰𝘰𝑘 𝑖𝑖 ❩
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
━━━ 𝙱. 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙴𝚂 / ❛ i will 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡,
𝙨𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡 of 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 ❜

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ∘༄⋅°
𝐒𝐈𝐗,                                             𝒎𝒊/𝒏𝒅

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚂𝙸𝚇 !

IN A SECURE chamber in Berlin, Zemo sits in a prison pod, ankles chained to the seat. Ross walks into the bare room, the only light coming from the pod. Ross sits into a weak metal chair in front of the table; the same chair Zemo sat in before turning Bucky into the Winter Soldier. "Meals at eight and five. Toilet privileges twice a day. Raise your voice, zap. Touch the glass, zap. You step out of line, you deal with me. Please, step out of line. Hm?" Zemo just stares at Ross as he lists the things. "So how does it feel? To spend all that time, all that effort... and, to see it fail so spectacularly?"

Zemo lifts his head, meeting Ross's blue eyes. "Did it?"

TONY AND RHODES walk through the Avengers HQ, a metal contraption strapped to Rhodes' legs, helping him walk. Tony was close, keeping a hand on Rhodes' shoulder to let him know he was there to help him if he needed it. He uses the help of parallel bars on either side of him to keep him upright. "It's only the first pass," Tony says.

"Yeah," Rhodes nods, taking a deep breath as he continuous to walk.

"Give me some feedback. Anything you can think of. Shock absorption. Lateral movement. Cup holder?"

"Might need A/C down..." Rhodes trips and falls, Tony kneeling quickly to help him up.

 "Here," he holds his hand out, but Rhodes waved him away, Tony standing up again. His pride was hurting, he didn't need it to hurt more. 

"No, no," he gets on one knee. He manages to sit down beside Tony, sweat collecting on his hairline and forehead. He shakes his head in disbelief, "138. 138 combat missions. That's how many I've flown, Tony. Every one of them could've been my last, but I flew 'em. Because the fight needed to be fought. It's the same with these Accords. I signed because it was the right thing to do. And, yeah, this sucks. This is... This is a bad beat. But it hasn't changed my mind. I don't think."

He gives Tony a crooked smile and holds up his hand. Tony takes it and helps his friend to his feet. "You okay?" 

"Yeah," Rhodes nods. A Fed-Ex driver knocks on the glass, getting the attention of the two war heroes. He squints at the white box in his hands, reading the address and receiver. "Are... are you Tony Stank?"

Rhodes bursts out laughing, clapping Tony on the shoulder multiple times. " Yes, this is- this is Tony "Stank". You're in the right place. Thank you for that! I'm never dropping that, by the way. Table for one, Mr. "Stank". Please, by the bathroom." He wobbles unsteadily on both feet as he walks away, Tony going over to sign for the box. He grabs it from the white-haired man and walks to his pristine desk. He sits on his chair as he opens the package, shaking the contents out onto the flat surface. It held a letter and an old phone, a flip phone to be precise.

The letter held Steve's signature on it.

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. The Avengers are yours, maybe more so than mine. I've been on my own since I was 18. 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...

SAM HEARS A loud commotion outside his cell, the sounds of men fighting and groans of hurt men. He stands up and looks out his glass, seeing Steve's form step closer to the glass. He smirks at him, Steve punching the glass open and breaking the bars blocking the escape.

"PRIORITY CALL FROM Secretary Ross. There's been a breach at the Raft prison," FRIDAY informs Tony, who was reading the letter. "Yeah," he looks at the phone, "put him through." He drops the letter and places his head on his forefinger and thumb, looking at the phone as if it were really amusing.

"Tony, we have a problem," Ross's voice comes from the machine, Tony holding up his finger. "Ah, hold on."

"No, Tony, don't..." Ross' voice gets cut off as Tony clicks the 'hold' button on the machine, going back to reading Steve's letter.

So, no matter what. I promise you, if you need us, if you need me, I'll be there.

"ARE YOU SURE about this?" Steve asks Bucky, who was wearing pristine white clothes, a sleeve on the broken metal arm. It was just a nub, but it broke Diana's heart that it was taken away from him. Yes, it did cost a lot of lives, but it was the second arm he had. He had lost two arms and she was sad that he lost them both fighting. "I can't even trust my own mind," Bucky's reply makes Steve's heart drop a little. Bucky's voice cracked a little in the middle of his sentence. He was scared to go back under. "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."

"So that means no stories for a while?" Diana walks up to the two men, wearing a burgundy wrap dress with a cape-like back and black heeled boots. "Yeah, maybe," Bucky nods. This was the first time he saw Diana in civilian clothes and he was about to go under. It might be the last time he might see her for a long time. "When you wake up, I'm not going to be here," she shifts uncomfortably on her feet, looking a little bit like she was ashamed of something.

"Why?" Steve shakes his head.

"I have a flight to Paris today," she answers, "as soon as I get there I'm going to start working at my new job. It pays really well, about maybe $140,000 a year. So, if you need me for anything, I'll be working at the Louvre Museum as the Ancient Greek artefacts curator."

Steve looks at her in confusion, "I thought you said you didn't want to go back to civilian life."

"Well, people change," as Diana said this she looked at Bucky, his nose having a scab growing on the bridge. "And anyway," she checks her watch, "I need to get ready to go to the airport." She walks away, leaving Bucky heartbroken. It was probably going to be years before he saw her again. She stopped suddenly, rethinking her departure. She smiles softly and runs back to Bucky, her heels clacking alarming him of her arrival. He looks up to see Diana sprinting towards him, dress billowing behind her like she was stuck in a windstorm, and then felt her lips smash against his. She kissed him with all her heart, pouring every ounce of love she could into it. Bucky was glad about it. Hell, he was more than excited about the kiss. It felt amazing, like they were meant for each other, two opposites attracting each other. One good, one misunderstood, both still honourable.

They kiss for a while, Bucky pulling back to breathe, opening his steel-blue eyes. Diana is smiling at him, her white teeth gleaming back at him. "For the years to come," she says as she tucks a strand of hair behind his ear. She walks away, grabbing a suitcase Bucky didn't see along with her. He feels a few corners cut into his fleshy palm, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "What was it?

He opens his hand to see a piece of paper. He carefully opens it, seeing feminine handwriting on it. Diana's.

What if we go to the Eiffel Tower when you wake up...if there isn't a fight? When you wake up, contact me at (832)-910-1937 or at [email protected].

Love, Diana Prince.

His eyes scanned the paper once more before seeing a sentence at the bottom he didn't see before.

Two lost souls don't find each other by a simple accident.

"Sir? Are you ready?" A doctor asks him, eyeing his tearful expression. "Yeah," he nods. The bed leans back into the tank, a glass protrudes from the bottom of the tube and Bucky sees another paper taped to it.

I like you.
Love, Diana.

"Dork," he shakes his head, chuckling, and the ice overtakes him, freezing him with a big smile and him thinking of Diana.